-The Next Morning-

Eddie and Steve made their way down the stairs to the headquarters. A pretty blonde W.A.C. private Lorraine, chews gum while reading a copy of Stars & Stripes: "P.O.W. CAMP LIBERATED, MIRACLE TREK ACROSS ENEMY LINES."

Steve makes his way to the young lady, "Excuse me, I was looking for Mr. Stark?"

Lorraine doesn't look up from her article as she replies, "I think he went to look for a broom." Steve looks at Eddie who shrugs.

Lorraine looks up and gapes at the real-life Captain America standing over her. She slips into a smile, "Of course, you're welcome to wait."

"Thanks." Eddie says starting to stretch. Lorraine barely looks at the young man before going back to Steve who sits, hesitant. Lorraine swivels in her chair. Both men watch as she dramatically slowly crosses her legs.

Lorraine, "I read about what you did."

Steve responds, "Oh, I was just doing what needed to be done."

Eddie interrupts, "Basically he didn't do it alone." Lorraine finally sends Eddie an inquisitive stare and notices his bright blue eyes.

She snaps her fingers in remembrance, "Oh yeah aren't you his blue-eyed sidekick." Eddie groans at the dumb name. 'Damnit Bucky' he thinks.

"I thought you be younger." Teased Lorraine. Eddie wished he kept his mouth shut, but Steve seemed to be pleased by his intervention.

Before Lorraine could continue Peggy Carter came by, "Lorraine, why didn't you call us that Steve and Eddie were here." Lorraine quickly sits straight in her chair, "Sorry ma'am I-I'd got distracted."

Peggy eyes the younger woman before glancing at Steve and his blushing face to Eddie's loss of confidence.

"Sure, next time be more prudent, come on boys." Peggy said as she stalks out the door. Both men quickly follow her out, but Eddie hesitates at the door and turns to the blonde woman.

"Ms. Lorraine." Eddie starts. Lorraine looks up from her magazine.

"Did you need anything sir?" her voice a bit more respectful than a few moments ago.

Eddie's heart began to drum into his fingers, "Since I'm not as young as you thought, would you be interested in…"

"A date?" finishes Lorraine with a snort.

Eddie bit his bottom lip and nods his head. Lorraine looks at the door; Peggy and Steve went through earlier. After a moment, Eddie wondered if she would've preferred Steve; Captain America the hero.

He was about to make up an excuse when Lorraine finally responded, "Yeah sure have nothing else to do tonight."

"Hell yeah." Eddie said a bit too loud, ignoring the last part of her statement.

"W-what." Laughs Lorraine surprised by his language and excitement.

"I-I mean yeah, yes." Eddie said unable to hold back his smile.

Peggy returned to the room clearly annoyed, "Private."

"Yes." Eddie and Lorraine said in unison before casting each other a smile in their eyes.

"I mean Kent." Peggy added.

"Yes ma'am." Eddie replied as he began to follow Peggy out while Lorraine pretended to be working.

-STARK'S LAB-

Eddie and Peggy enter the lab, "Here's private Kent, Stark."

Howard smiles at the young man, "Eddie! Got something special for you." Steve smiles at Peggy who returns it.

Steve lifts a grey metal circle, "What do you think?"

"Is that a metal frisbee?" Eddie interrupted, much to Peggy's amusement while Howard and Steve roll their eyes.

"It's a shield made from the rarest material on earth, Vibranium." Howard explained with an impressed smile.

"Oh." Admires Peggy as she walks over to Steve to get a better look at it. "Why do you use a shield anyways?" she asked.

Steve smiled sheepishly, "Well as Captain America I'm supposed to protect our liberty and what can protect people?" Steve asked rhetorically.

"A wall." Eddie said without much thought like an excited school child.

Peggy glares at the younger man, while Howard guffawed, and Steve looked perplexed.

"A shield." Peggy replied.

"Right." Steve said with a smile, he turned his attention to his friend. "A wall only protects the people on the inside thus making a 'them vs. us mentality', which the Nazis are already doing and is causing people nothing but pain, a shield…a shield protects everyone no matter who wields it."

"Wow." Says Howard and Eddie impressed.

"You put a lot of thought in it, didn't you?" Howard asked.

Steve's eyes sparked, "Speaking of ideas." Steve pulls up a folded-up sketch, "I had some for my costume." Steve tossed Eddie a mischievous look before he added, "and something for my good pal Kent."

"A look of concern crossed Eddie's face, "wait…what!".

"If you're done with Steve, I'm pretty sure Colonel Phillips would want to finalize some details." Peggy said before she took Steve's hand and literally dragged him out of the lab.

Eddie felt a bite of jealousy rise but tried to recall his time with Peggy last night and his upcoming date with Lorraine. Prickly the jealousy fell back.

Howard clears his throat as he pulls a black case toward them, "I heard you were a terrible shot."

Eddie sighs, "Yeah…"

"So I made you this." Howard says as he flips the black case open. Inside looked to be a normal gun except the hilt was some blue plastic and a clear see-through barrel, and some type of instrument sticking out on top.

"Thank you?" Eddie said reaching for the gun.

"It's a gas gun!" Howard said excited trying to get Eddie to be hyped too.

"A gas gun?" Eddie said even more confused.

Howard took the weapon from Eddie and released a clear magazine that had a dozen squishy blue bullets, "these are filled with knock-out gas". Howard slipped the magazine into the gun.

"What's that then?" Eddie asked pointing to the weird instrument on top.

"A gun sight." Howard said as he pointed at a nearby target and a red light lit it up.

"Oh cool." Eddie said finally excited by the device. "Let me try." Eddie tried to take the device, but Howard attempted to pull it away only for a loud pop and white mist surround Eddie's face.

Eddie opened his eyes to see he was in a hospital bed.

"Your awake." notice a young nurse as she walk to Eddie's hospital bed.

"What time is it?" Eddie asked as he rubbed the back of his head.

The nurse looked at her watch, "It's about two thirty."

"So I was out for a few hours."

"No, its Thursday."

"Thursday!" Eddie yelled.

-Stark's Lab-

"Six Days!" Eddie yelled at Howard as he followed him to a table with multiple chemistry equipment and chemicals.

"Sorry there was some recalibrations needed." Howard tried to explain to an irate Eddie.

"I was in a freaking coma!" Eddie yelled.

Howard cringed, "Yes…" He picked up a much sleeker version to the gun Eddie had shot himself with, "We adjusted the dose, so the gas only lasts for one hour."

Eddie nodded his head impress. "Cool can I see it?" Eddie extended his hand for the weapon.

Howard looked at Eddie with concern, "Okay, but be careful because…"

Eddie interrupted, "I'll be careful I just want to look at it, just give it to me for one second." Howard hands the gun over.

Eddie adjusts his grip on the weapon, and points at Howard and fires. White mist explodes around Howard's face and he collapses to the ground. Nearby scientists watch the exchange and quickly turn back to their work.

Eddie puts the gun down on the worktable and walks away, "see you in an hour."

-Colonel Philips's Office-

Colonel Phillips glared at Eddie which only freaked the young man out more. "I swear boy, if I didn't have Howard apologize a thousand times, I'd believe you were trying to get out of being part of your own squad."

Eddie gulped, something he would want to do but something he'd never actually go through with.

"No sir." Eddie said. Eddie tried to straighten in his leather chair. 'Gotta look more professional' he thought.

"Well you're stuck here at headquarters for a while until we can scramble or find a plane to get you to Rogers and the men within the next few days."

"Thank you, sir."

"That doesn't mean the army's paying you to goof about Italy, Kent."

Eddie saluted. 'The only good thing is I can spend more time with Lorraine.'

-Café-

Eddie clears his throat as he takes the seat adjacent from his host, "So the reason I wasn't able to…"

"Everybody knows you were in a coma." Interrupts Lorraine before she took a sip of her tea. Eddie scratched the back of his head; Lorraine didn't have the look of amusement or interest.

"Would you want to see a movie?"

"If you're paying?" Lorraine said, her voice sounding excited, but her face maintained a neutral expression.

Eddie smirked, "I didn't know you'd be so cheap."

"Cheap?" she said perplexed and a bit insulted.

"I thought you be one of those feminists who'd argue to pay for herself on the date."

A glint of humor cracked into her irises, "I consider this a probational date since you missed our last one." Before Eddie could respond Lorraine interrupted him, "Coma or not."

-Outside the Theatre-

Lorraine was a step ahead of Eddie, dancing to the song in loop, "How long can a gal go on dreaming? If there's a chance that you care" She sang.

Eddie caught up to her with the next lyric sung on his lip, "Then, please, say you do, Baby."

Lorraine giggled and did an amateur pirouette away.

"You're pretty good singer," Eddie said as he instinctively reached out for Lorraine's arm when she tripped on a loose brick, "but no triple threat."

"I always wanted to be a singer." Said Lorraine honestly as she leaned on Eddie's shoulder to readjust her shoe.

"How you end up in the army."

Lorraine pressed down the back of her dress before she sat down on the curb, Eddie followed suit, "My mother said I was too terrible of a singer, and not very pretty to make it." Eddie wanted to respond but stopped when Lorraine shrugged the old insult away.

"But I damned near tried, moved to New York and everything." Eddie perked his eyebrow up. She didn't look much older than seventeen, "Really?" He asked skeptical.

"I didn't say I was there long." Lorraine said punching him in the shoulder. "No I was there for a week, not a long time to do anything but most productions were down due to the war, and they were being extremely picky about who they wanted to pursue."

"Will you go back to acting and singing after the war?" Eddie interrupted.

"After the war, if I'm not dead." The image of the dead young soldier and the dusted prisoners of war caused Eddie's heart to flinch to imagine Lorraine experience that.

Eddie looked away, "Wow way to put a bummer on things."

Lorraine roll her eyes, "I'm being realistic." Lorraine stands up suddenly. Anger seeps into her words. "And its very hypocritical of soldiers like you to feel terrified for little ole me ending up in the morgue when its very expectant of you to end up the same way sooner or later." Lorraine begins to walk away.

'She's right.' He thought. "Maybe I don't want to think of us dying right now." Eddie said standing up and grabbing Lorraine's hand. "Can we make tonight like we didn't just join the most dangerous profession during the scariest war ever."

"Okay but first to your original question, I needed a job and after pearl harbor I knew I wanted to help so my uncle informed me of the women's army corps, and then had me as his secretary."

"Wow your uncle seems like a good man." Eddie said.

"Yeah, but between the two of us." Lorraine looked both ways. "He's a total hard ass." This made the two laughs.

"Is your uncle…dare I say Colonel Phillips?" Eddie asked.

"Wow you're not as stupid as my uncle makes you out to be." Eddie chuckled but felt a prick in his heart.

"Did he really call me stupid?" Eddie asked.

"Yep, and was upset that I was on a date with you."

"Seriously."

"No, I didn't tell him a damn thing." Lorraine replied.

"Why?" Eddie said surprised.

"I'm a grown adult woman who can decide who to date and not." Lorraine said taking a stand in the middle of the deserted road as if she was giving a rallying speech.

"Huzzah." Eddie cheered before leaning back into laughter. But the thought of Colonel Philipss thinking he's stupid played on repeat in the back of his head.

"Alright mister, we talked a bit about me, I bet you've got a dozen war stories you want to wow me with." Lorraine said returning to the sidewalk.

"Nope." Eddie said with a faux pride.

"None." Urged Lorraine.

"The only one I have is the one you probably read about a dozen times over the past few weeks."

"Oh yes, how I forget that you…" Lorraine begins wrapping an arm around Eddie's shoulder, "Are the fabulous Blue-eyed sidekick."

"Har Har." Eddie said.

"Speaking of." Lorraine said as she got close to Eddie's face, "Why are they so bright like flashlights?"

"I wish I could tell you, but they were like that since birth." Eddie said honestly.

"No." said Lorraine in disbelief.

"Yes." Eddie said with a small chuckle. Usually he hated to talk about his eyes but with Lorraine, he'd talk about anything.

"Well I'll be darned." Lorraine said as she rested her head on his shoulders.

"Language." Eddie said.

"Like you soldier boys don't say worse." Lorraine tsk.

"No ma'am, I have a clean mouth." Eddie wanted to whack himself in the face.

"Mhmm." Lorraine said huskily.

"Yep." Eddie said as he turned to Lorraine and kissed her. It was a sweet kiss, but it was interrupted by Lorraine taking a step back before she slapped him.

"Ow." Eddie said raising his hand to his cheek though it didn't really hurt but was more surprised by the act.

Lorraine was huffed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think you'd mind." Eddie apologized.

A smile forms on Lorraine, "You didn't ask."

"I thought…we…you might like it." Eddie fumbled with his words trying to configure what had gone through his head.

"I might've if you'd asked." Lorraine explained. Lorraine began to walk down the road but stopped and turned to the still stun Eddie, "You coming?"

Eddie nodded his head and followed Lorraine.