Chapter 4
“Think you got enough?” Steve asked. He rolled his sleeve back down and hopped off the bed.
“Any hope of reproducing the program is locked in your genetic code. But without Dr. Erskine it would take years.” Peggy said.
“He deserved more than this.” Steve said.
“If it could work only once, he’d be proud it was you.” Peggy said. Steve with held a sigh and looked down into the garage bay. I happened to be looking up at that seem moment from my spot atop the Hydra submarine and smiled softly at him.
“Colonel Philips, my committee is demanding answers.” Senator Brandt said.
“Great! Why don’t we start with how a German spy got a ride to my secret installation in your car?” Phillips retorted.
“What have we got here? And what are you doing, Emerson?!” Phillips asked Howard and I.
“It’s a nice view and I’m out of the way Colonel Philips. Mr. Stark doesn’t seem to mind to terribly much.” I answered sweetly. Chester Philips rolled his eyes at me, before turning his attention to Howard.
“Speaking modestly, I’m the best mechanical engineer in this country. But I don’t know what’s inside this thing or how it works. We’re not even close to this technology.” Howard said.
“Then who is?” Senator Brandt demanded.
“Hydra.” I answered simply. Colonel Philips knew that Steve had been the one to catch the agent and everyone knew that I had chased after Steve so my answer didn’t raise any suspicions.
“I’m sure you’ve been reading our briefings.” Col Philips said.
“I’m on a number of committees, Colonel.” Senator Brandt began.
“Then you’d better make time to at least skim these particular briefings, Senator.” I countered.
“Hydra is the Nazi deep-science division. It’s led by Johann Schmidt. But he has much bigger ambitions.” Peggy continued.
“Hydra is practically a cult. They worship Schmidt. They think he’s invincible.” Phillips finished.
“So, what are you going to do about it?” Brandt replied.
“I spoke to the president this morning. As of today, the SSR is being retasked.” Phillips said.
“Colonel?” Peggy asked, confused.
“We are taking the fight to Hydra. Pack your bags, Agent Carter. You, too, Stark. We’re flying to London tonight.” Phillips ordered.
“Sir? If you’re going after Schmidt, I... We want in.” Steve said as I came to stand behind him.
“You’re an experiment. You’re going to Alamogordo.” Col Phillips said.
“The serum worked.” Steve countered.
“I asked for an army and all I got was you.” Phillips said dismissively. “You are not enough.”
Phillips turned away.
“Colonel. You never tell anyone that they aren’t enough. If it weren’t for Steve, you wouldn’t even know the potential the serum had in it.” I snapped. Phillips pushed past me but I grabbed his shirt and yanked it.
“You are daft if you think that Dr. Erskine hasn’t seen his serum do its work before. You are going against the first Super Soldier and he is a pure evil bastard who has no desire for mercy.” I snarled, before letting his shirt go and pushing him slightly.
I looked back at Steve to see Senator Brandt talking to him. I smiled softly. Captain America was about to be born.
“I don’t know if I can do this.” Steve muttered.
“It’s just nerves talking you’ll be fine!” I said, as I headed out on stage.
“Nothing to it. You sell a few bonds. Bonds buy bullets. Bullets kill Nazis. Bing-bang-boom. You’re an American hero.” Steve’s USO manager said.
“It’s just not how I pictured getting there.” Steve said.
“The Senator has got a lot of pull up on the Hill. You play ball with us, you’ll be leading your own platoon in no time. Take the shield. Go!” The man said, and pushed Steve on stage.
I cornered the USO Manager after the performance and told him, “I will kill someone if I am forced to wear this again.”
The man gulped but nodded and at the next performance I had a new outfit. I also, oddly enough, was given a nickname. People began to call me Rosie the Riveter.
“Who the hell is Rosie the Riveter?” I asked Steve.
“She’s the woman on all the home posters” Steve reminded me.
“Oh. Okay.” I said.
The days past into weeks as Steve and I traveled the country to rally the civilians into buying more and more bonds in the support of troops. Now we were on a passenger plane headed over The Atlantic towards the front lines. Steve was asleep beside me, actually it was more like he was asleep on me. I smiled softly at him before leaning back, settling in for the long journey, and thinking on everything we had done since the end of June.
It was just after our first show and a young new mother came up to us. She thanked us for raising support for the troops and that her husband had just recently gone to the frontlines. I had smiled and the two of us talked together for a little while before her baby began to squirm. I had smiled at her and took the child off her so she could get the things she needed. I looked at Steve and realized that he was close to panicking from the amount of people around us.
“Stevie, could you please hold her for a minute?” I had asked. Steve looked so confused as he took the little girl from me and I took over greeting people. Steve had stood there holding the baby, who was beginning to scream, in complete confusion. That was until he smelled the mess that the little girl had made in her diaper. It was at that point that the mother had thanked Steve for holding her daughter, took the child back and left to go change the little girl’s diaper.
Later that night Steve cornered me.
“Why did I have to hold that baby? What should I have done differently? Kandace why are you laughing!?” He had asked one after another. I had started laughing at the confused look on his face.
“Stevie, you were almost panicking with how many people were trying to greet you. Almost everyone knows to leave a person with a fussy baby alone.” I had told him.
“But what should I have done differently?!” He had cried.
“You did exactly what you were supposed to, Steve. There is no magical way to make a child feel better when they have a messy diaper.” I had said. I then had to spend the rest of the night telling Steve everything that I knew about children. Which wasn’t a lot but compared to Steve, I was an expert. That first experience that he had with the fussy baby gave him some confidence in handling little children. It also gave him an out when the meet and greets at the end of each show got to be too much.
I remembered one time when a messy diaper wasn’t the baby’s problem.
Steve had seen that there was a new mother struggling to find something in her bag and had offered to hold her child for her. The mother looked so relieved that Steve had offered his help that she handed him the child. The baby was nearly screaming in discomfort and so Steve did the only thing he knew, bouncy rocking.
“Gahhh!” I had looked over when I heard Steve’s disgusted cry. There was Steve, still holding the child with the front of his uniform covered in spit up milk. The mother was mortified at what her child had done to the captain. She quickly took the child and left. Steve, however, was standing stock-still in discomfort. I tried not to laugh at his discomfort and once I was sure that I would not end up laughing at him, I helped him clean off most of the baby’s spit up. We ended up leaving before the end of the meet and greet to go clean up at the hotel that the USO had provided for us performers. When we got to Steve’s room, I ordered him to strip and go take a hot shower. Steve had started spluttering but I had simply continued to stare at him until he finally began to get out of the Captain uniform. I had turned around once I was sure that he would do as I said. I waited until the bathroom door had shut before I turned around and collected the dirty uniform.
“I’ll be in my room. Come see me when you’re done.” I had called to Steve. He arrived in my room about ten minutes later.
“Heya Steve. I have your costume soaking in my tub. It should be clean by our next performance.” I had said when I looked up from the book I had been reading. Steve had shot me a crooked smile before he collapsed on the other side of my bed.
“Did I do something wrong?” He had asked. I had laughed.
“Nah, the baby hadn’t been burped. I have a feeling that was what the mother was looking for.” I had said.
“Oh. Ok, you’d make a great mom, you know.” Steve had commented. I had flushed crimson and buried my face in my book.
“I’m serious, Kandi. You will be an amazing mother.” Steve had insisted. I had then felt the bed shift and Steve had put his hand under my chin and raised my head. There had been a strange fire in his eyes, like he truly believed that I would be an amazing mum. We had stared at each other for a while before Steve did something that had shocked me to the core. He had leaned forward and sealed his lips over mine. I had frozen with shock and it wasn’t until Steve had broken the kiss that I reacted. I had launched myself at him, and had kissed him fervently. We eventually ended the kiss and Steve had ended up staying the night with me because I had refused to let him go.
One of my favorite memories that happened after Steve and I had become a couple was when we had helped a little boy find his parents. The little boy had come up to us crying and in a panic. The child recognized Steve as Captain America and knew that he would be able to help him.
“Cap’ian America, s-sir. Can you h-help me p-please?” He asked, voice quivering as tears filled his eyes. I had kneeled down in front of the boy and, in an effort to calm him down enough to be able to understand him, gently rubbed his hand.
“What’s wrong darling?” I asked him.
“I cccant fffind mmmy momma!” the boy sobbed. I looked up at Steve, who was towering above us and nearly everyone else.
“Steve. Kneel down for a minute will you.” I told him. Steve looked at me in confusion but knelt down nonetheless.
“I’m going to put you on Steve’s shoulders, okay darling? You should be able to find your momma from up there.” I told the little boy. He nodded and I deposited him upon Steve’s shoulders and nudged Steve into standing up with the little boy on his shoulders. As Steve stood with the boy on his shoulders, I heard a quiet call. His mother must be farther away than the child thought.
“Momma! Momma!” He cried. The little boy could vaguely hear his mother but she was still to far away for him to see her.
“Can you see her, Steve?” I asked, Steve shook his head. I sighed but I go back to greeting people and thanking them for their support of the troops. It took only a few minutes for the mother to eventually get to where Steve and I were, the reunion between mother and child was heartwarming.
Thinking about it now I realize that that reunion reminded me of the reunion that was hopefully soon to take place with Steve and Bucky. I look out of the window to find that it has gone dark and there are no lights in sight so we were still probably over the ocean. I sigh and curl closer to Steve, my head coming to rest on top of his as I drifted off to sleep.