A/N: Hello everyone! I'm back home in Australia after my holiday. I had a wonderful time exploring New York City and even wandered over to Brooklyn for a while to check it out. It was so amazing to see the place I've been writing about in person, even seventy years after I set my story. I'm back now and posting can resume regularly. Thank you all for your patience and thank you all for your follows, favourites and kind words of encouragement! I hope you enjoy this chapter :)

38.

London, United Kingdom

March 11th, 1944

The morning after the birthday celebrations for Bucky, he and the other Commandos make their way down to the mess hall for breakfast at their usual time. The hall is empty, being later in the morning, and the other SSR Agents have already eaten to start their day. A few minutes after they get settled in with their trays, Steve and Isabel appear after being in the labs with Stark for an early hour appointment. They both look a little tired and hungover, considering they all left the Stork Club only three hours before their meeting time was scheduled, but they're functioning nonetheless with a little help from caffeine and a serum.

Steve piles up his tray with food-like substances while Isabel chooses a bowl of cereal and milk. They take their usual seats, Bucky opposite them.

"You look like you slept in the gutter, Buck," Steve tells Bucky, eyeing his messy hair and the dark circles under his eyes. "I swear I put you to bed."

"Well, thanks. Like you look much better," Bucky says sarcastically, taking a bite of his watery eggs. "Not everyone can look like the sun shines out of their ass like you do, Stevie."

"Especially not after how much Serge put down last night," Jones adds. "Drank the entire bar clean."

"Besides, I didn't come here for judgement. I'm here for the food, and food doesn't care what I look like," Bucky finishes while he chews a mouthful of half-chewed eggs and toast

"Bucky, don't talk with your mouth full," Isabel berates, watching in disgust. "I swear, you all need your mothers."

"Yeah, Barnes, listen to your sister and eat your baby food," Dugan mocks, indicating to Bucky's own bowl of cereal waiting for him.

Bucky replies with a very undignified middle finger, but otherwise ignores them in favour of eating away his headache.

Steve watches Bucky carefully, but the man seems to have no recollection of their talk last night. Steve had spent the rest of the night and morning wondering whether any of it was actually true or if Bucky was simply making assumptions on what happened to him based on what he knows of Steve's transformation. But Isabel had confirmed it when Steve had asked her earlier that morning on their way to Howard's laboratories.

"He told you?" She'd asked incredulously, her eyes widening. "But he was so persistent making sure I didn't tell anyone!"

"So, it is true?"

"Yeah, it's true, Stevie," she'd admitted with a loud sigh. "I've been monitoring him, and he has the signs you do, although not at quite the same intensity. His metabolism is quickened, his overall health and strength increased. His healing factor is also much faster than the average human's, not that he's had many major injuries to test it. Whatever Zola gave him, it was a form of a super-soldier serum. Zola said Bucky had been the only survivor of the initial injection at that point."

"He was so scared last night," Steve had told her. "He was so terrified to tell me about what happened to him…"

"He was scared to tell anyone, Steve. He only really told me because I was the only person he trusted to be near him with any sort of medical equipment and he was too terrified to let it all go unchecked." She'd looked at Steve for a long while before putting a hand on his arm. "Don't take it to heart. Buck's seen things you and I can't even comprehend. It was just his way of dealing with what happened to him."

With that she'd walked into Howard's laboratories, leaving Steve to follow her inside for their meeting.

Steve ponders their conversation while he eats. He's glad Bucky told him because he would never want his friend to suffer with that sort of information alone and maybe them being similar now will put Bucky's mind at rest. It also explains why Bucky had such a rough time in the weeks following his liberation from the Hydra factory – the event was darker and much worse than simply Bucky being taken to the isolation room due to his illnesses. He'd been experimented on, tortured, injected, starved, and a whole other host of things Steve can't begin to consider. It makes it all seem worse, and it fuels both Steve's fears and his thirst for vengeance.

And now, Steve's got another thing to worry about. He really can't help how much he worries. If something happened to any of the Commandos he'd be a wreck and he doesn't sleep at night coming up with plans that will keep them out of trouble. But this is one thing about Bucky that Steve doesn't have any say in, and neither does Bucky. His friend's body has been permanently changed, and like Steve, they'll probably never know to what extent, especially since they don't know what Zola injected Bucky with. It's one thing Steve can't protect Bucky from, and it terrifies him.

Steve sighs. He decides he'll talk to Bucky about it later when they're alone and Bucky hopefully isn't drunk again. He hopes Bucky will be open to talking about it, especially since Steve knows almost everything anyway.

The Commandos eat silently in the mess hall, picking away at their food trays, staying away from the gloop of runny scrambled eggs which are an odd grey colour; all except for Steve and Bucky, who wolf down their meals without hesitation and without really chewing.

"Hungry boys?" Falsworth asks, eyeing Bucky in distaste as Bucky takes the eggs off of Dugan's plate and eats them too. Both Steve and Bucky nod at Falsworth's question, their mouths stuffed with food.

Isabel ponders this as she picks at a piece of toast. Ever since Bucky and Steve were given the super soldier serums, they've had the appetites of horses. Neither are ever full, always asking for seconds and thirds and even fourths of every meal, and always stealing the leftovers off other's plates. Neither seems to put on any weight either, no matter how much they eat. Steve is understandable – his body is constantly repairing his cells and self-healing, meaning he needs more calories. He also runs much hotter than the average person and does an awful lot of physical work. Bucky is much harder to assume for, since he isn't even sure how much he's been affected by the experiments in the Hydra labs. He has a healing factor, it's clear, though he hasn't really gotten injured enough to prove anything other than what he says Zola tested on him in his isolation. His temperature is slightly raised when compared to the other Commandos. He also seems to be getting musclier, his chest and arms seemingly growing every day, even when he's been mainly resting with little physical work apart from their missions, and on missions, food is often limited, so they all lose weight anyway. Still, much to Bucky's disappointment, he still looks quite small beside Steve, who's literally built like a house.

Peggy appears in the doorway after a few minutes, requesting Isabel's assistance in the laboratories with Stark. Isabel gets up quickly, excusing herself and leaving her half-full tray for Steve and Bucky to fight over, disappearing with Peggy down the hall.

The Commandos finish up their morning meals, poking fun at each other and laughing, when suddenly from outside the mess hall, there's a whole lot of screaming and yelling, the echo of running footsteps and of things being toppled onto the floor. Everyone looks up in alarm, jumping when gunshots fire outside. The Commandos jump up without hesitation and follow Steve outside the hall, their pistols raised.

Steve spots Isabel sprinting down the hallway toward them, her face filled with terror.

"Isabel, what's happening?" Steve asks, catching Isabel when she practically slams into him at full speed.

"It's Hydra, they've infiltrated the base. They're somewhere in the building," she replies hastily, her words tumbling over each other. She's breathing hard. "They knocked out Howard, stole all the blueprints, then they took Peggy hostage! She told me to run!"

"Split up," Steve immediately commands. Jones and Dernier take the hallway to the left, Dugan, Morita and Falsworth heading to the right toward the elevator, leaving Bucky to follow Steve. "Stay with me," Steve tells Isabel and she doesn't argue, following behind Steve next to Bucky.

At the end of the hallway, Jones and Dernier enter Howard's lab. Jones scopes the area with his gun raised, communicating with Dernier in rapid French. The lab is trashed, with boxes of equipment and various notes scattered all over the floor. The blueprints to the machinery and weaponry Howard was working on and improving are missing, the table they'd been laid out on empty apart from a few pencils and rulers, some fallen to the floor. Isabel and Doctor Erskine's work books are also missing, all the progress Isabel had gained trying to decipher Erskine's formula vanished.

Jones and Dernier find Howard lying on the ground in the middle of the lab, a cut on his forehead and a large bruise forming around it. One of the prototype guns has clattered to the ground beside him, Howard having been knocked out with the butt of the handle by the infiltrating attackers. Jones shakes Stark awake, carefully helping him sit up. The scientist groans loudly in pain and clutches his throbbing head.

"What'd they take?" He murmurs, getting up to look around the lab.

"A few blueprints, we think," Jones tells him.

Howard pauses, rushing to the table where the blueprints had been and throwing things around searching for something. "Oh no," he mutters, running a hand over his hair. "Get onto Cap. We need those workbooks back for the serum, but he needs to get those blueprints back or we and our boys out in the trenches will be in for a hell of a lot of trouble."

Isabel, Bucky, and Steve emerge into the main operations room, finding most of the agents and soldiers cowering underneath desks or being tended to for bullet wounds. Some of them were shot in the event trying to stop the invaders from taking the blue prints, now paying for their bravery by bleeding out underneath the nurse and doctor's hands.

"Where have they gone?" Steve demands, glaring at the other cowardly agents under the desks.

One braver man points them in the right direction, back toward the elevator. "They got lost, came barging in here demanding to know how to get out. Shot those of us who tried to stop them."

Steve immediately takes off down the hallway in the direction he's shown, not listening to the last of the man's explanation. As they get closer to the elevator, they hear the sounds of a scuffle. A male voice echoes down the hall, as well as Peggy's more feminine curses. They follow the noise, the man's voice becoming more distinct as they get closer.

"You let us go safe and I won't hurt her," they hear the man yell warningly.

"Let go, you son of a b–," Peggy grunts, struggling against her attacker.

"The elevators open," Dugan says. "Go ahead, escape. But give us the girl."

Steve and the Barnes' round the corner just in time to see Peggy glare at Dugan for referring to her as "the girl". In any other situation, they would have laughed. Instead, what they're confronted with makes all of their stomachs turn.

A blonde Hydra agent, masquerading in a stolen SSR uniform disguise, has Peggy in a death grip, clutching her against him with a gun to the delicate skin of her throat. His other hand holds a bundle of blueprints and note pages from the lab. Isabel and Erskine's books must be with another man.

Peggy looks furious, struggling against the Hydra agents hold, throwing various curses at the man.

"Shut up, you insipid thing," the German hisses, earning a growl from Peggy. He looks up then, seeing Steve standing in the entrance way, deciding on an angle to attack from. "Ah, Captain America. I was wondering how long it would be before you came to the rescue."

"Let her go, now," Steve growls, his fists clenching.

Bucky moves around to stand at Steve's right, his pistol aimed right at the head of the Kraut. Bucky glares at the man, challenging him.

"You shoot me, I'll shoot her," the German warns Bucky.

Bucky's eyes flick to Steve, and then to Peggy, who nods carefully. At Peggy's nod, Bucky slowly lowers his gun to his side, but discreetly keeps his fingers on the trigger in preparation. He knows he could shoot the man easily without harming Peggy, but the man presses the gun further into Peggy's neck as a warning, and Bucky backs off.

"Ah, who's the girl?" The Kraut asks, looking around Steve to Isabel, who cowers behind Steve's back, peeking over at the scene in front of her. Steve's arm protectively moves behind him, gripping Isabel's back.

"That's not anything for you to worry about," Steve hisses, his vision going red at the thought of Hydra knowing anything about Isabel.

"Fine, fine. Be that way. I'm sure I can find out from Red Skull, or maybe even Madame Hydra. She mentioned something about running into you. I'm surprised you made it out alive at all." The Kraut, looks unfazed, smirking at the American Captain.

"Cut to the chase," Steve demands. "You got your blueprints, now what do you want? Why are you stalling?"

"Well, this mission didn't quite go to plan. We weren't supposed to be caught when we were recovering the intel, but things happen. Now, I have to bargain with you to ensure my mission is successful. You let me go without pursuing me and I'll let the dame go. I'll leave her upstairs for you," he offers, making Peggy grunt again in warning.

He takes a step backward into the elevator, and then another, dragging Peggy along with him. Peggy goes willingly, wary of the gun pressing against her throat. Steve lets him go, holding up his empty hands in surrender, instead looking at the stairwell to the right. If he runs fast enough, he'll easily be able to beat the elevator to the ground floor and intercept the man's escape.

The elevator doors seem to close in slow motion, Peggy and the Kraut disappearing, leaving only a sliver of them visible between the two doors. Just as Steve makes to move toward the stairs, the Kraut inside the elevator randomly fires his gun between the remaining gap in the doors, sending rogue bullets out into the hallway as the doors close fully, concealing them. The Commandos hit the ground instantly, Steve dragging Isabel down with him. Except, Isabel notices, he hasn't dragged her down. Rather, Steve's fallen backward on top of her and squashed her underneath him.

Steve feels the burning of his chest, the intense pain before he looks down, two holes ripped through his clothes from two bullets now lodged neatly in his chest. The doors close with a small thud, and everyone uncovers their heads, safe for now from the barrage.

Steve splutters from the pain, watching as blood begins to soak his dress uniform. But he has to climb the stairs, he has to stop them from getting away and hurting Peggy.

"Steve?" Isabel asks from below him, rather breathless and winded from having a super soldier land on top of her. She squirms out from under him, freeing her legs, and gasps when she sees the two bullet holes. "Steve!"

"I-I'm fine," Steve assures, pushing himself to his feet with a grunt. "It doesn't hurt."

"What? Of course it does," she argues, standing to follow him. "You can't–"

"I have to go," Steve breathes, the pain making his eyes water.

He takes off up the stairs in a stumble, slightly off balance, his feet feeling too heavy to lift. Jones comes sprinting down the corridor and passes Isabel and the other Commandos in a blur with the Captain's shield held in his hands. He follows Steve up the stairs and out of sight.

Steve emerges on the ground floor. The elevator doors are already wide open, the main door to the building also open, allowing entry to the cold morning air. Peggy lays face down on the floor beside the elevator, knocked out and thrown down by her attacker. Steve runs to her and flips her over gently, tapping her face lightly, wary of the blossoming bruise on her own forehead from the butt of a gun.

"Peggy. Peg, wake up. It's Steve."

Peggy coughs awake looking up at Steve with a frown. "Steve? What are you doing here, go get them!"

"Right," Steve says. "I think Isabel is coming," he reassures, leaving Peggy lying on the stone floor of the lobby.

As he passes the stairwell again on his way toward the exit, Bucky and Isabel emerge, looking around wildly for Steve and Peggy. Steve points them to Peggy, and only has time to see Isabel hurry to her fallen friend before he and Jones burst out the doors of the building.

Steve spots the blonde Kraut, blueprints in hand, clambering into a subtle black car two blocks down. The car roars to life and speeds off of the curb, the screeching tyres leaving black rubber marks on the asphalt. The car races toward Steve, mounting the curb and attempting to run him down. It roars along the footpath and Steve stands in front of it, pistol raised, shooting toward the driver. He misses the driver but the scare of the bullets hitting the windshield causes the car to swerve just a little too much. Steve pushes Jones out the way just in time, the man dodging the speeding car by millimetres. Steve jumps into the air, clearing the car before it hits him. He just manages to grab hold of the roof of the car, riding it down the street.

The car swerves violently to shake him off of the roof, and Steve's grip isn't quite enough to hang on as he's flung around. He falls from the back of the car, just managing to land on his feet, but they're going fast and he falls forward at the momentum and force, tucking into a roll and managing to get to his feet again in one smooth movement, scuffing up the material on the shoulder of his dress uniform.

Steve keeps chasing after the car, running as fast as his dress shoes and the bullet wounds in his chest allow, managing to somewhat keep up. The car speeds down the busy street, dodging cars and causing others to divert out of the way, crashing into buildings and poles and other cars, and screeching to halts. Steve jumps over a car in his way, clearing it, landing steadily on his feet.

Steve looks backward over his shoulder and sees Jones and Dugan trying to follow, having to run around crashed cars rather than jumping them. Bucky easily gains on them further back from his late start, eventually passing the others. His face is set in a determined scowl, most likely due to the fact that one of these men injured his girl. Dugan and Jones look puffed, but Bucky strides out even longer, faster, trying to catch up to the Captain and offer his assistance. Steve glances back again just as Bucky himself clears a car by jumping over the bonnet, and Steve wonders how he never realised before that Bucky had enhancements of his own.

Steve looks back to the road ahead of him, surveying the area. On a whim, he throws his shield ahead of him, smashing it into the bottom of a light post ahead of the car. The shield slices through the metal pole and embeds itself there. Steve says a silent prayer it falls the right way and luckily it does. The light post totters and falls to the ground over the road, about to block the car's escape. However, the car doesn't slow or even hesitate, instead flooring the gas and racing fast enough that it flies underneath the falling post, the pole only clipping the end of the boot and causing the car to swerve slightly from its straight route.

"Dammit," Steve hisses under his breathe. He stops to dislodge the shield from the metal post, taking off again, now even further back than before.

The buildings pass in a blur as Steve pursues but no matter how fast he runs, he slowly falls further and further behind as the car continues to pick up speed when it gets a clear space.

Suddenly, the back-passenger window rolls down, and another agent with long dark hair leans out, a handheld machine gun clasped in his hands. His face lifts in a devilish smile as he pulls the trigger, bullets flying toward Steve. The super soldier runs in a slight zig zag to avoid them, holding the shield up. He hears the Commandos behind him yelling at pedestrians to get inside and avoid the flying bullets.

Steve's chest is burning, feeling as though its tearing with every movement, and his blood feels warm as it spews down his chest and clothes. The pain is almost getting too much, and he knows he needs medical attention. He wants to stop, to lie down on the ground and just try to breathe, but he knows he can't stop fighting now. He ignores the pain and discomfort for one last ditch effort, chucking the shield low to the ground toward the wheels of the car and temporarily putting him at risk of being shot. The shield makes a metallic noise as it hits the rubber tyre, slicing through the tyre and into the car's chasse.

The car spins out wildly without a back wheel, veering straight into the wall of a nearby building at a deadly pace. There's an almighty crash, the building concaving on the side, the bricks separating to allow for the car that has driven partially through the wall. Then, all falls silent, except for the steaming noise coming from the crumpled engine.

Steve jogs up to the car, doubled over a little and clutching his chest tightly. He reaches into the smashed back window, roughly pulling out the closest agent through the hole. The agent isn't breathing, his forehead soaked from a terrible wound hidden in his hairline, most likely from colliding with the headrest of the seat in front. Steve lets the body drop to the ground outside, peering back into the car. Two other men are inside, sitting in the driver's seat and front passenger's seat – or at least, they were. Both of them have flown forward through the glass windscreen, laying sprawled across the bonnet of the car. A pool of blood trails down the bonnet, dripping down onto the footpath below. They stare silently ahead, blue eyes wide. Steve gulps at the sight of them.

"Jeez, Steve. Talk about taking them out," a sarcastic voice says from behind Steve. Bucky stops next to Steve, not even one bit puffed from the chase. He looks down thoughtfully at the deceased Hydra agents. "Not bad."

Bucky reaches carefully into the car, avoiding the broken glass, and takes the blueprints and notebooks out from where they sit on the backseat. He tucks them safely into his jacket and nods to Steve.

"The SSR are coming, they said they'll look after this," Jones tells them through laboured breathing, finally catching up to the pair. Behind him, a few dozen agents are reporting to the scene, seemingly recovered from the shock of the infiltration.

"Let's get out of here, you need medical attention, Captain," Dugan says authoritatively, leaving no room for argument from Steve.

The Captain nods in agreement, taking Bucky's offer to put his arm over his shoulder. He puts more weight on Bucky than he would have anyone else, but he knows now his friend can handle it.

A crowd of Londoners have begun to gather around the car, pointing in awe at Captain America standing before them in the flesh, albeit without his star-spangled costume. The Commandos turn away from the crashed car and hurriedly make their way back to the SSR base, ignoring the calls and shouts from the bystanders. Steve doesn't even have the energy left in him to smile and wave at his loyal British fans, just like Brandt told him to.

Isabel forces Steve into a hospital bed, his dress shirt and jacket soaked with blood.

"Take them off," she tells him.

It takes a while to get the jacket off and Isabel has to help him thread his arms out as he winces and cries out in pain. He's too tired and pained to hold it in any longer. He can't be bothered unbuttoning his dress shirt and so rips it off, throwing it on the floor and leaving him bare chested.

Steve lays down in exhaustion, looking up at the bright fluorescent light above him. He feels like a heavy weight is sitting on his chest and every breath is a struggle, the air not seeming to be coming in. He feels quite lightheaded, and somewhat like he's drowning. It reminds him of all of his bouts of pneumonia and asthma before the serum, and the idea of being sick like that again makes him cringe.

Isabel's face appears over his after a second, and she looks frustrated. "I can't believe you fought like that with these wounds," she clicks her tongue, examining the three bullet wounds.

"It's really not that bad. I had to get the blueprints and the notes," Steve says, though his breathing is laboured from the pain. "I think it hurts more because my body is trying to push them out, not because of the actual wound."

Isabel pokes and prods at the bullet wounds, cleaning them with an antiseptic wipe that makes Steve's flinch. She wipes away a lot of the blood, revealing the three deep bullet holes, one near Steve's heart and the other two further down between his lungs.

"This one's very close to your heart," Isabel mutters. "You got lucky."

"Dunno if that's what I'd call it," Steve grumbles.

"I think one may have pierced your lung," she continues, looking closer. "That's why you can't breathe."

At that, Steve coughs, bringing up a handful of dark blood that Isabel just manages to catch in the cloth she holds in her hands, stopping the blood from spewing all over Steve. He coughs it all up, struggling to breathe as Isabel pats his back. It's like all those times Isabel or Bucky beat the phlegm from his lungs in his Ma's shabby little apartment.

When he's finished, Steve frowns down in disgust at the black blood in the white cloth and the thick blood clots, but Isabel seems unfazed, chucking it in the small bin beside her and grabbing another cloth to clean his wounds.

The coughing and blood confirms Isabel's suspicions. "Dammit, I hope that can heal on its own. I'm hardly a surgeon. I'll give you some morphine and try to numb the area, but I highly doubt pain medication will work. Your body with synthesize it too quickly for it to take effect," Isabel tells him.

She prepares the syringe of clear liquid, squeezing a small amount out the top to get rid of any air bubbles. She does as promised, inserting the needle into the crook of Steve's elbow. Steve feels the liquid enter his system, and only registers the hit of the morphine for a minute before it fades away again.

"Did it work?" She asks after a minute, preparing the medical equipment and a small kidney tub.

"No, it's worn off. Do it anyway," Steve tells her, bracing himself.

Isabel looks at him wide-eyed. Steve nods again and gives her a pained smile. She frowns before nodding, slowly digging in and pulling out the lodged bullets and all of its shrapnel in swift motions as though she'd done it a thousand times. She drops the pieces into the kidney tub with a metallic thunk. Steve grits his teeth and looks up at the ceiling, feeling the discomfort of having the cold metal tweezers inside his body like that. There's quite a bit of shrapnel, the bullets disintegrating with the force. Isabel digs around for a very long time removing every piece of shrapnel she possibly can. She jolts when she realises that Steve's body is actually helping her, pushing the deepest pieces of shrapnel out of his body so she can easily remove them. It makes her job very easy, and she quickly completes it, deeming the wounds clean.

The pain subsides after a good half-hour and Steve can feel a fuzzy sensation in his chest as the muscle reconnects, sewing itself back together. He can also feel something crawling over his lungs, and he assumes it's the tissue repairing the damage. He holds up a hand and then points to the wounds with a painful frown. He waits and waits, for nearly another half an hour, feeling the wounds sew themselves together. Isabel watches too, a notepad in her hands as she documents it all. After nearly an hour all up, Steve's breath seems to be coming easier, his lungs filling entirely with sweet, sweet oxygen.

Over another good hour, Isabel cleans the wounds completely and swabs the area with more disinfectant, though she doesn't even know if Steve can get an infection. She watches as the skin is already healing itself as she works, the wounds getting less deep with every minute that passes.

"Your healing factor is incredible," she tells him truthfully, getting out a roll of bandages.

"Comes in handy," Steve admits, feeling much less pain now that the intruding bullets have been removed and the bleeding is stopping.

"Sit up, please," Isabel tells him, and Steve obeys. Isabel quickly works the bandage around Steve's torso, over and under his arms, until the wounds are tightly wrapped with the gauze and his shoulders are also restricted to keep his torso upright and straight. "It'll be a little tight for a while, but you can probably take these bandages off in a day or two. I'll check on you tomorrow, change the bandages. You're lucky, any other fella would have to be bandaged up for weeks if they even made it after the stunts you pulled."

"Okay," Steve agrees, his voice still a little breathless. He lies back again, exhausted, watching dopily as she starts putting away the equipment. "Thank you."

Isabel turns to smile at him. "You're welcome," she says, coming closer to peck his lips lightly.

When she pulls away and turns back to the equipment laying on the tray, Steve speaks up. "Want to tell me why those blueprints were so important?" He asks, swallowing hard against the dryness of his throat. The healing has really taken a toll on him.

Isabel notices and goes to the sink, pouring him a glass of water and helping him sip from it. "What makes you think I know?" Isabel asks.

"You spend a lot of time in Howard's lab. He didn't tell you about it?"

Isabel sighs, putting the now empty glass on the bedside table. "I promised not to tell. It's confidential."

"I won't say anything to Stark. If he asks, I'll say I read the blueprints myself when I found them. It doesn't have to come from you," Steve promises, sitting up a little more to be at eye level with Isabel.

She sighs and sits on the bed beside him, taking his hand in hers.

"Most of the notes they stole were about the super soldier serum. My notes, actually. You already know that Howard and I have been trying to decode the formula from Erskine's notes. Obviously, Hydra is trying to recreate it as well, and getting the notes from our progress would help them immensely. They want an army of soldiers to fight against you, to win the war for them. Doctor Zola is working on that, and it would be much easier for them to synthesize one if they have the information Howard and I have found from Erskine's notes. They would've been saved an awful lot of trouble. But the blueprints… They're different entirely. I have no idea how Hydra would have found out about that."

"What were they for?"

"Howard didn't tell me a lot about them since he abandoned the program long ago. It's all classified anyway, so he probably wasn't supposed to tell me," she ponders thoughtfully. "They are for planes that are intended to release a gas over the allied soldiers, but not to kill them or anything," she reassures hurriedly. "The gas is supposed to keep the soldiers awake for days so that they don't need sleep and therefore have less chance of being attacked and more time for actually fighting the enemy. Howard hasn't been able to get the formula right, though. He doesn't think it will ever work. He designed the plane to spread the gas and everything but the gas itself isn't ready. Hydra must want a piece of the pie."

"Why would Stark make that?"

"He was asked to. The project is called Midnight Oil. It was commissioned by some of the officers of the Army, but don't ask me who because I don't know. That's all I know about it. Stark had the blueprints out because he was modifying them. He abandoned Midnight Oil long ago, but he thought the design for the plane could be useful for something else."

"And we can guess why Hydra would want the plans for a gas that keeps their soldiers awake. If their soldiers don't have to sleep, they'll have an entire functioning army at every second. But you said it doesn't work. Why would they want a gas that doesn't work?" Steve wonders aloud.

"Maybe they don't know that Stark couldn't do it," Isabel shrugs. "I don't know. But if they do know that it hasn't been a success, knowing Hydra, something tells me it isn't good."