Chapter 4
BERN, SWITZERLAND
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14TH 1943
1558 (3:58PM)
Athena wondered how something as simple as making a stop at the US Embassy in Bern, Switzerland could have gone so wrong but here they were in a car chase with automatic fire being exchanged with German agents as their two cars sped back towards the airport. At least they didn’t open fire first that was the two German agents that had been in position to execute a Lieutenant Eric Koenig of the Nazi Luffwafta that had been turned as a spy by the allies but his cover had been blown somehow just before they had arrived.
When Athena and their small group of five had arrived at the US Embassy it was just as the two operatives that the Colonel wanted to pull were trying to figure a way of getting Koenig out of the embassy and the country with the intelligence he had risked his life to bring them. It had taken a few minutes but they soon had devised a plan to get the three men to the airport and out of Switzerland using Stark’s plane.
The plan had been simple enough Stark called ahead to his contact at the airport to have the plane refueled and engines ready to go in twenty minutes while also passing a message to Dum Dum Dugan, one of the volunteers Steve had gotten to join them. The message was two words ‘Rule 29’ which had been told to those being left behind that it meant they were heading back with trouble dogging their ass and to be ready for a fight.
Borrowing another car from the embassy carpool and apologizing beforehand for the potential damage to them to the Ambassador they had split up into two teams. First team had Athena, Steve, Bucky and one of the operatives Fury driving the first car to exit the embassy like a bat out of hell, hopefully drawing those that were looking for the German Lieutenant to follow them. A few minutes later the second car with Peggy driving and the Colonel, Howard, the German Lieutenant and the other operative Howlett would head straight to the airport.
The plan had worked beautifully with Fury leading the German agents after them on a merry little chase through the city before coming up behind the car Peggy was driving on the last straight stretch of road before the airport. Gun fire was still being exchanged between Athena’s car and the last vehicle of German agents that were still chasing them. Glass from the back window littered the back seat and covered both Bucky and herself as they kept popping up and either shooting out the back or door windows randomly. Steve’s job was to cover Fury with his shield making sure the man didn’t get hit by any bullets as he drove.
Athena dropped down and pulled another ammo clip for her Thompson and watched as Bucky did the same for his Thompson. Putting the Thompson’s safety on she put it down on the seat before grabbing a Colt 1911 and a commando knife from the bag that held the ammo they had borrowed from the embassy to use.
“Do I even want to know?” Bucky yelled, raising an eyebrow at her as Athena stabbed upwards into the metal roof of the car with the commando knife and left it there.
“Think you can fire two of those bad boys at the same time?” Athena asked Bucky, causing him to grin. “Nevermind that grin of yours answered my question. I want you to fire both of those out the back window making them think we both are firing at them. While you do that I’ll use the Colt and try to kill the driver. Fury, can you keep it steady on my command?”
“Sure thing” Fury answered from the front just as it seemed like it was time for the German’s to reload.
“Hey Stevie it looks like I found someone just as crazy as you are!” Bucky drawled in what Athena learned was a Brooklyn New York accent before smirking as he popped up in the back window using both Thompson’s.
“Now Fury” Athena ordered as she grabbed the knife and used it as a handle to keep her steady as she sat on the door and took quick aim.
Pulling the trigger she let off three shots in quick succession as she struck the driver at least once but not quite fast enough. Athena grunted as she was hit in her right shoulder with a bullet as the German car swerved into a tree. Hands quickly grabbed onto her waist before she lost her grip on the knife and roughly pulled her back into the back seat of the car instead of almost falling out the window of the car.
“Damn it! Step on it Athena is hit” Bucky ordered Fury as he pulled off his shirt and used it to keep pressure on her shoulder. While using his belt to tie it down in place so they could move her once they arrived.
“I’ll be fine” Athena said trying to ignore the pain that was radiating down the arm.
“Oh shut up. I’m carrying you to the plane” Bucky ordered and though Athena wanted to argue with him but could tell if she did he would still do it unless she decked him.
“Three minutes!” Fury yelled back as he honked one long and one short honk to let the car in front that they had wounded. Athena watched as Bucky quickly tossed Steve the ammo bag after placing a fresh ammo clip in the Colt before placing it in Athena’s good hand.
“Just in case” Bucky smirked at her just as Fury slammed on the brakes to their busted up car right next to Howard’s plane. A moment later Bucky was out and pulled her out of the car into his arms taking the stairs up into the plane hot on Howard’s tail. Howard and the German Lieutenant went towards the cockpit while everyone else quickly followed up pulling the door shut as the plane began to taxi to the runway.
“Of course it would be you,” Peggy said, with worry evident in her voice as Bucky laid her down on the floor in the back of the plane. “Steve, get over here I need you to hold her down.”
“Hold on everyone!” Howard yelled back as the plane began to move faster and soon was lifting higher into the air. Steve knelt down over Athena’s legs and took a flashlight from Fury to hold above Peggy and Bucky’s heads to give them enough light. Athena grunted as Bucky unfastened the belt.
“Lift her up I need to see if the bullet is still inside or if it went through” Peggy ordered Bucky and Athena felt woozy as he sat her up. Super healing or not Athena guessed it might take a bit to heal a gunshot wound.
“Okay it’s still inside, put her down. I need someone to heat up two knives, while someone else gets some gauze ready for me to use” Peggy ordered as she used her finger inside Athena’s shoulder to find the bullet. Athena couldn’t see them but she heard a flurry of activity as the guys moved to do as she asked.
“Fuck that hurts” Athena grunted as she squeezed Bucky’s hand with her good hand tight.
“Found it! Alright give me the knife” Peggy ordered and took the knife quickly putting it inside Athena and using it to pull the bullet out.
“Damn it that stung '' Athena screamed then grunted as their plane began evasive maneuvers.
“Peggy we got a pair of fighters on our ass!” Howard yelled back into the main part of the plane.
“I figured out that much by your flying!” Peggy snarked back pushing gauze down onto Athena’s shoulder trying to see if an artery was hit. “Whoever is the smallest go towards the back door there is a switch that will drop a ball turret from the cargo hold. You’ll need to take care of those fighters! And make sure you put on the headset; it will link you to Stark.”
“On it” Morita yelled and quickly made his way past them.
“Give me the other knife” Peggy ordered and then before Athena could tense she placed the hot blade against Athena’s wound, cauterizing the bleeding.
The smell of burning flesh made Athena flash back to the hell she had been in the last year.
Peggy cursed under her breath knowing it was the smell of burning flesh that had probably triggered her sister’s flashback and hating herself for the need to cauterize the wound to stop the bleeding. “Athena, stay with me, you’re on Howard’s plane. We are flying to England” Peggy whispered into Athena’s ear over and over again as Bucky and Steve held her down from thrashing. It took a few minutes but slowly Peggy’s voice pulled her sister out of the flashback.
It wasn’t the first time Peggy had witnessed a flashback, the first time had been her Father after a nightmare triggered by the anniversary of his own Father’s death. After that their Mother had insisted that all of them knew how to help during a flashback episode as well as how to spot one that was happening. A small whimper and the cessation of Athena fighting them holding her down was the only answer but it was enough to let Peggy know that Athena wasn’t in the grips of the flashback anymore even if her sister was not opening her eyes to look at her.
“Peggy?” Steve questioned but Peggy just shook her head not going to be the one to break her sister’s trust. They had spent the night before in Peggy’s tent packing and talking while Steve, Bucky and Howard spent time with the men Steve had chosen to get to know each other better. It was then that Peggy had seen all the scars that covered her sister's body and by the type of scars she had a map to the hell her sister had endured for almost a year and never broke during.
“Help me sit her up, I need to get this bandaged” Peggy said instead as Bucky and Steve held her sister in a seated position as Peggy made quick work of bandaging up the wound.
“Peggy I need your help up here when you’re done!’ Howard yelled back towards her and she felt it as he was forced to take even more drastic maneuvers. Peggy must have shown something in her face because Bucky reached over and squeezed her shoulder.
“Go on, I’ll stay with her” Bucky said before he gently lifted Athena into his lap and held her against his chest. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes for a moment, Peggy let her mind drop her emotions into the metaphorical lockbox in her mind so she could do what was needed.
“Coming!” Peggy yelled as Steve helped her to stand and made her way up the aisle of seats to the cockpit.
“Koenig, switch places with Peggy since she is the only one crazy enough to have pulled off the maneuver with me before in this type of plane. Instead there is a panel on the floor, open it up and drop down to man the front guns. Colonel! Morita needs a reload” Stark ordered and Peggy quickly switched places with the former Nazi airman. While she heard the Colonel grab Rogers to help him with the ammo cans.
“Howard, we only tried that once when we weren’t under fire,” Peggy said, taking the headset from Koenig and quickly glanced at all the instruments.
“Well glad we tried this at least once successfully” Howard said before they could feel the guns underneath them manned by Koenig open up.
“Reloaded” Morita let them know over the headset.
“Alright listen up. Morita I’m about to cut the engines and go into a controlled dive when I do. Those fighters are going to follow us because I’m going to make us a very tempting target. Take them out as much as you can. Koenig when the engines cut back on we are going to cut up to the right and back towards them and we need you to finish them off” Howard said calmly over the headset and Peggy began to get ready to cut the engines.
“Hold on everyone!” Stark yelled back to the rest of the plane before reaching over and grasping Peggy’s hand briefly and Peggy squeezed his hand back. Both brought their hands back where they were needed and Peggy watched Howard take a deep steadying breath before he ordered “Now!”
Peggy hit the switches cutting all four engines of the plane off at once and then helped Howard with the copilot stick in her hands to keep the plane in a controlled dive and from going into an uncontrolled tailspin. “10,000” Peggy grunted as she fought the controls with Howard, knowing she was the one to call out the instruments while Howard kept an eye on the descent without the instruments.
“9,000.” And Peggy could hear Morita yell that the fighters were following them like planned and as he opened back up from the ball turret.
“8,000” Peggy grunted, feeling it as the muscle in her right shoulder screamed at her like it did the last time they had done this maneuver during a test flight of the new engines. It was an old gunshot wound from the mission where Athena and herself had rescued Dr. Erskine.
“7,000” As they dove towards the ground Peggy started praying that they’d pull this maneuver off and promised herself that she would sit down both Howard and Steve and have a discussion about what was going on between them because it had been since Steve stepped out of the machine changed that Peggy and Howard felt drawn to him. If all three of them hadn’t been blanks she would have sworn they were soulmates by the almost magnetic pull they had to each other.
“6,000” Peggy yelled as she briefly flashed back to when they had all been sitting in Dr. Erskine’s partially bombed out laboratory Peggy and Howard shared a bottle of whiskey, Steve had drunk a double strength bottle of moonshine that Howard had somehow gotten a hold of to celebrate and to mourn their late friend Dr. Erskine. Peggy honestly didn’t want to know why Howard had the moonshine already in his office in the laboratory because he had only been gone long enough to go there and back.
Peggy guessed it was because of a hypothesis of Erskine that whoever was chosen for the project might never be able to get drunk regularly but Howard being the functioning alcoholic he already was, took Erskine’s hypothesis and tested it that night with a double strength bottle of moonshine. Howard’s experiment that night had been proven correct; the three of them had drank to the memory of Erskine and gotten blind drunk at the loss of their friend and mentor.
Most of the night after their initial toasts were a bit fuzzy but there was no denying the three of them had woken up the next morning in Howard’s mansion clearly naked, clearly all three of them had sex and hungover to all bloody hell. It was still a mystery how the hell they had made it from the partially bombed out laboratory to Howard’s uptown mansion and it probably would remain a mystery forever.
The heroes though of that morning were Edwin and Ana Jarvis. The married couple had found them that morning and made sure the three of them were woken up, fed, caffeinated and clothed in fresh clothes in time to meet with Colonel Phillips later on that morning.
Apparently he had called the mansion that morning looking for Howard and Jarvis had told him that all three had crashed at the mansion overnight and would be back in, in a few hours. Mr. Jarvis had gotten them back to the facility an hour before Colonel Phillips had come in demanding answers on the submarine that had been fished out of the Hudson sometimes overnight.
Which reminded Peggy that she owed Mr. Jarvis and his wife a big thank you for covering for their dumbasses from being caught. They hadn’t been caught but Howard and Peggy were off to Italy and Steve went touring with the U.S.O. all three of them not having a moment before they left to discuss what had happened or anything else for that matter other than to keep it to themselves.
“5,000” Peggy exclaimed and kept one hand the controls as she brought the other under the four switches to turn back on the engines. “4,000!”
“Now!” Howard ordered and Peggy flipped the switches turning the engines back on without barely a sputter as Howard began to pull up on the controls. Peggy grabbed the controls and felt as her arms were about to be yanked off as both her and Howard grunted from the physical effort it was to pull the plane from the controlled dive back into an almost near vertical climb with a right twist that brought them back flying back into the last fighter. Koenig opened up and shot it down before the enemy fighter could even react to their sudden change of course.
“7,000….8,000….9,000” Peggy counted back up as her and Howard finally began to level out the plane and bring it back onto their original heading towards England and trying to stay low and fast as they rushed above the French countryside red lining the engines.
“Alright, maybe another forty five minutes till we are over the channel. Morita and Koenig keep an eye out for any more fighters” Howard said, first rolling one of his shoulders and then switching his hand on the controls he rolled the other one. Peggy watched as she could see that their latest adventure had taken its toll again on Howard and knew that once they were back her and Steve would have to pull him to the side and make sure he was okay.
Peggy let out a sigh as she could see the English Channel just ahead of them and began dropping their radio into allied frequencies and beginning to try to make contact. It took a few tries before she finally found the frequency for the coastal station they were nearest to.
“SWORD13 this is BRIGHT3 confirm challenge.”
“BRIGHT3 this is SWORD13 challenge Avalon” Peggy responded using her SWORD identity and challenge word to confirm her identity.
“SWORD13 this is BRIGHT3 Avalon confirmed. Destination?”
“BRIGHT3 this is SWORD13 Glastonbury field.” Peggy answered, waiting for a response for a few minutes before she heard the radio operator again.
“SWORD13 this is BRIGHT3 continue, north by northeast. SWORD escorts have been alerted and will meet you. Welcome home”
“SWORD13 acknowledges SWORD escorts inbound. Thank you BRIGHT3 good to be home.” Peggy answered as she watched Howard’s shoulders lose more of the tension in them.
She felt it as Steve moved into the cockpit and rested a hand on both her and Howard’s shoulders lightly gripping them. Peggy shared a look with Howard before they both looked back towards Steve and saw the uncertainty of their response to his touch slowly disappear as he gave them a small smile.
“Once we land and we get a moment the three of us are talking” Peggy said in a tone that meant she wasn’t going to take a no for an answer. Howard patted Steve’s hand on his shoulder before smuggly smirking at Peggy causing her to sigh with a roll of her eyes. “By talking, I mean talking Howard.”
“I didn’t say anything!” Howard whined.
“Howard you didn’t need to say it, your face said it all” Steve smirked down at the inventor then blushed when he caught the look Peggy was giving him.
“Don’t encourage him Steve,'' Peggy said with another roll of her eyes at the two men that she found herself weirdly connected with since Erskine’s experiment.
“Yes Peggy” Steve said before moving behind Peggy’s co-pilot seat and began to rub her right shoulder that had been bothering her just moments before. Peggy enjoyed the shoulder massage as she made another mental note of their strange connection.
“Thanks” Athena said letting Bucky help her into a new shirt since hers had been cut off while Peggy had worked to stop the bleeding from her shoulder wound.
“No problem. I guessed you didn’t want to flash anyone that might be meeting us once we land” Bucky said as they sat in the back cargo area of the plane against the wall with the small amount of gear they had brought. Everyone else was upfront in seats but Athena didn’t feel like moving so much just yet, trying to save her energy for once they landed because she’d bet all her back pay that her father and mother would be waiting for them when they landed if not more of their family if it could be swung.
“You would be correct since it’s almost guaranteed that Mother and Father will be there when we land. Last thing I want is to flash my Father though it wouldn’t be the first time since he’s had to patch me up a few times when I was a kid when Mother wasn’t around” Athena said dryly leaning back into Bucky’s chest and felt it as he chuckled at the thought.
“Something tells me you were quite the wild child” Bucky chuckled as he handed her a canteen of water to drink.
“Not the only one. Peggy was just as bad as I was and Michael always cheered us on” Athena said before taking a drink and handing it back towards Bucky. She heard him take a drink before capping it and placing it back into his pack.
“Somehow I’m not surprised.” Bucky chuckled as he pulled a blanket over them to keep Athena from going into shock from the blood loss she had already suffered from. Athena took a deep breath and knew that Bucky holding her was purely platonic, something to bring comfort from all that they had gone through already together. Especially since Bucky told her he saw her as one of the guys since she didn’t hide it that she enjoyed the fairer sex when they had been drinking.
“Alright we are about to land. Morita and Koenig get out of the turrets and bring them up then find a seat” Howard said over the plane’s intercom letting everyone know that they were almost home. Jim Morita came out of the far back of the plane and gave them a brief questioning look before shaking his head at them and moving towards the seats.
“I would like to thank you for choosing and flying Stark Air, please bring your chairs and trays to their upright positions. Our Stewardess Steve will come around and make sure you all are buckled up as we are about to land. And once again thank you for flying Stark Air!” Howard’s voice came over the plane's intercom system causing Athena to groan at her best friend's antics as she felt the plane begin its descent.