Chapter Text
And there he was, sitting in an examination room, waiting to either be confirmed or denied for the army, or maybe Steve was about to be arrested for lying on his paperwork, either way, this was the furthest he'd ever gotten when he had tried all of those other times before.
Still, he started to get nervous when a nurse came into the room and whispered into the doctor's ear. "Wait here." Said the doctor, now looking to be in a hurry to get out of the room.
Steve raised an eyebrow. "Is there a problem?"
"Just wait here." The doctor repeated before he rushed out of the examination room.
Instead of doing as he was told, he quickly got to his feet and spotted a sign that warned against lying on the enlistment forms. Deciding that Bucky was right after all, he started to hurriedly put his shirt back on.
As he struggled to get it buttoned up with his shaking hands, another doctor came into the room with an officer beside him. This is the end, Steve thought before the officer left.
The new doctor seemed friendly enough, he even gave a warm smile as he looked down at Steve. "So, you want to go overseas?" He had an accent that Steve couldn't quite place, but he did feel safe and comfortable with this man. "Kill some Nazis?"
"Excuse me?"
Instead of repeating the question, he decided to introduce himself. "Doctor Abraham Erskine," he said as he sat down on the chair across from him. "I'm a friend of Miss North's, and I represent the Strategic Scientific Reserve."
Steve was struck confused by him mentioning Red when she had only ever talked about working with Howard Stark. "Red's never mentioned you."
Erskine chuckled. "She wouldn't have been allowed to." He started to look Steve over as he opened up a file in his hands. "Name?"
"Steve Rogers." He said as he watched the doctor read what he assumed to be his file. "Where are you from?"
"Queens, 73rd Street and Utopia Parkway. Before that, Germany." Oh, so that's where the accent came from. "This troubles you?"
"No." Steve said honestly as he shook his head.
Erskine flipped through the pages. "Where are you from, Mister Rogers? Hmm? New York? Paramus? Five exams in five different cities."
Steve cleared his throat as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "That might not be the right file." He mumbled.
"No, it's not the exams I'm interested in." He said, still with an ever present kind smile. "It's the five tries, but you didn't answer my question. Do you want to kill the Nazis?"
"Is this a test?"
"Yes."
Steve took a deep breath and slowly let it out as he shook his head. "I don't want to kill anyone. I don't like bullies, I don't care where they're from."
Erskine gave a brighter smile. "Well, there are so many big men fighting this war," he leaned back in his seat as he looked at Steve. "Maybe what we need now is the little guy, huh? I can offer you a chance." He got to his feet and led Steve out of the room. "Only one chance."
"I'll take it."
"Good. So, where is the little guy from actually?"
"Brooklyn."
Erskine put an approval stamp at the top of the file before he gave it back to Steve. "Congratulations, Soldier."
Steve gave a bright smile as he looked down at the approved stamp, this was only the start of the beginning, and trying at the fair for a sixth time was a good call. He rode this happy high for as long as possible until he realized that, if the Nazis didn't kill him first, Red and Bucky would when they found out.
+++
As Red got set up in her office that resided inside the base in New Jersey, the phone on her desk started to ring. With a sigh, she answered it with a quick, "hello?
"Red, it's Abraham."
She felt a sudden jolt of fear run through her. The doctor sounded rushed and out of breath, had something happened? "What's wrong? Did something happen?"
"No, nothing's wrong, I chose the person I wanted for the serum."
She then realized that she misinterpreted his excitement for fear. He sounded too energetic for anything to be truly wrong.
All of the worry and paranoia she was feeling was quickly replaced by disappointment at the possibility of being right about him choosing Steve. "Mhm." Red muttered as she leaned against her desk. "I saw you eyeing Steve earlier, James isn't going to be all too pleased when he finds out."
"Do you think I need to choose someone else?"
Red shook her head for a few seconds before she remembered that he couldn't see her. "I think that there is no one better suited for the serum." She then hung up the phone and sat in silence as she collected her thoughts.
At least she'd have Steve there, it'll be nice to have a small piece of home with her again.
+++
A month later, Red yawned as she and Peggy stood in front of two rows of troops, already she could spot Steve standing among them. It would be kind of hard to miss him, especially since he was up front and shorter than the others.
"Recruits, attention!" Peggy called as she adjusted her jacket. "Gentlemen, I'm Agent Carter. I supervise all operations for this division."
Red smiled as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her trousers. "And I am Agent North, I do everything Carter doesn't do."
"Does this include wearing the pants in the relationship?"
This was her least favorite part of assisting in training the soldiers, the sexist remarks. "Among other things, Soldier. Get back in line."
But instead, he turned his gaze to Peggy. "And what's with the accents, Queen Victoria? Thought I was joining the US Army."
Red rolled her eyes, but stayed silent as she turned her gaze to Peggy, who gave the man a petty smile. "What's your name, Soldier?"
"Gilmore Hodge, your Majesty."
"Step forward, Hodge." The moment Hodge stepped forward with a smirk, Peggy pointed toward the ground, still giving a sweet as honey smile. "Put your right foot forward."
"Mmm... we gonna wrassle?" He asked with a chuckle. "'Cause I've got a few moves I know you'll like."
Red made a noise of disgust. "Oh, you'll be wishing that it was that pleasant."
"What-" Hodge started as Peggy punched him across the face and he fell to the ground.
Red cleared her throat as she raised her voice so that each and every one of them would be able to hear her. "I will say this once, so do well to remember. Stay in line, we are authorized to carry out disciplinary actions. So, unless you wanna end up on the ground like Hodge here," she nodded toward Hodge, who was still on the ground. "Behave yourselves."
"What can you do, North?" Asked a solider in the back of the group.
Red glanced at Peggy with a smirk of her own starting to grow over her lips. "Think I should show them?"
Peggy shrugged, feigning indifference. "They'll find out eventually."
Red set her jaw as she concentrated on the ground in front of Hodge's face and set it on fire. From the corner of her eye, she saw Steve smirking as Hodge scrambled away from the flicker of flame that appeared inches from his face. She blinked as the fire put itself out and looked back up to the troops. "We all on the same page now?"
The soldiers quickly agreed as Philips arrived on scene. Red didn't even make an effort to try and hide how smug she felt as she turned to face the Colonel. "Agent Carter," he said before he turned his gaze toward Red. "Agent North."
"Colonel Philips." They said.
"I see you're breaking in the candidates." He said as he looked down at the scorch mark on the ground. "That's good!"
Red crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against a truck. "One of them needed a lesson in politeness."
"And I'm assuming that was you." He looked down at Hodge as if he had just noticed him sitting in the dirt. "Get your ass up out of that dirt and stand in that line, at attention, 'til someone comes and tells you what to do."
Hodge quickly got back to his feet and got back in line. "Yes, Sir." He stood straight with his hands behind his back.
Red dropped a wink in Steve's direction as he held back a smile.
Silently, both she and Peggy stood back and watched the newest recruits and Philips do their thing. While she stood there, she idly wondered what they all would have for that that day.
Philips, as he turned to face the recruits, started to give a speech that Red suspected he had been practicing since he found out they had been given the go to find someone who would become the first super-soldier.
"General Patton has said that wars are fought with weapons, but they are won by men. We are going to win because we have the best men..." He trailed off as he spotted Steve and sighed as he glanced at Red, who gave him an encouraging thumbs up. "And because they're gonna get better. Much better. The Strategic Scientific Reserve is an allied effort made up of the best minds in the free world. Our goal is to create the best army in history, but every army started with one man," he explained. "At the end of this month, we will choose that man, he will be the first in a new breed of super-soldiers." He have the recruits one last measured look, "and they will personally escort Adolf Hitler to the Gates of Hell."
During the next few weeks, they watched the troops getting trained and ready for joining the army and, with one lucky person, hopefully getting the chance to become the first super-soldier.
There were multiple times when either Peggy or Erskine had to hold Red back from going and beating the men that would bully Steve, especially when one of them-Hodge-had kicked out the post that held up the barbed wire obstacle course, causing him to get stuck in the mud.
"Come on!" She protested as Erskine kept a tight around her middle as she tried to fly forward. "He's being a bitch!" She yelled when Hodge raised his head to look at her. "You're a whiny, skeezy, slimy, no good, little-" her mouth was covered, stopping her from speaking her slew of curse words.
One morning, the day before they would be choosing the person who would be taking the serum, Peggy and Red were over seeing a jog as they sat in a truck, watching as the group ran toward the flagpole.
"Pick up the pace, Ladies!" Duff was yelling. "Let's go! Double time! Come on! Faster! Move, move!" He stopped the group when they reached the pole. "Squad, halt! That flag means we've reached the halfway point! First man to bring it to me gets a ride back with Agents Carter and North. Move, move! Come on, get up there!"
Red leaned forward with her elbows on her knees and smirked as she watched them. She honestly hoped that one of them would have an idea that wasn't trying to cimb up the flagpole. "If that's all you got, this army's in trouble! Get up there, Hodge." Duff was yelling as they watched a disaster unfold before them. "Come on! Get up there! Nobody's gotten that flag in seventeen years! Now, fall back into formation... Rogers! I said 'all in'!"
Steve glanced at Red as he bent down and pulled the pin out of the flagpole, watched at it fell over and he was able to easily get the flag and gave it to Sergeant Duff.
"Thank you, Sir." Steve said before he climbed up into the truck and they drove away.
"Good job, Steve." Red said with a small smile.
"Thanks." He glanced at her with a sigh. "I hope you know that we're having words later."
"I am well aware."
"Good."
After lunch, which consisted of chicken and mashed potatoes, Red sat in the bed of her truck as she played with cards and spoke with Erskine and Philips while Peggy trained the troops.
"You're not really thinking about picking Rogers, are you?" Philips asked Erskine.
"I am more than thinking about it." He said as they watched Steve and the rest of the soldiers train. "He is the clear choice."
"I can't help but agree." Red said as she held the now fanned out cards toward the doctor.
"When you two brought a ninety-pound asthmatic into my army base, I thought 'what the hell?' maybe he'll be useful to you, like a gerbil." He glanced at Erskine. "I never thought you'd pick him."
"Steve's got a lot of the characteristics that we're looking for, Chester." Red said as Erskine took a card, looked at it and placed it into the deck before she shuffled it.
"You stick a needle in that kid's arm and it's gonna go right through him." He almost cringed as he watched Steve struggle to do push ups with the others. "Look at that, he's going to make me cry."
Red took a card out of the deck and showed it to the doctor. "He's not that bad. He's actually quite clever."
"You honestly expect me to think you have an unbiased opinion, North?"
"No, I'm just giving you my opinion." She said as Erskine looked over the card she pulled and shook his head. She didn't pick his card.
"I am looking for qualities beyond the physical." He said as she shuffled the deck again.
"Do either of you know how long it took to set up this project?"
"Yeah, we know." They both said with a sigh.
Philips gave an exaggerated sigh of his own before he continued complaining. "All the groveling I had to do in front of Senator What's-His-Name's committee?" Red struggled to keep her eyes from rolling.
"Brant. We know, we're well aware of your efforts." Erskine said, shaking his head again as Red showed him another card.
"Then throw me a bone," Philips begged. "Hodge passed every test we gave him. He's big, he's fast, he obeys orders. He's a soldier."
"He's also a bully."
"And a jackass." Red added as she showed him one last card and smiled as she finally got the right one. "I'd sooner introduce him to a bonfire than let him be a super-soldier."
"You don't win war with niceness, people." Philips said as he reached into one of the boxes beside Red and took a grenade out of it. "You win war with guts." He pulled the pin and threw it into the middle of the group that was training in front of them. "Grenade!"
The soldiers, including precious Hodge, jumped out of the way and took cover behind cars or just got out of the way. The only one who hadn't, was Steve, who threw himself on top of it and curled up into a ball over it. He was all too willing to get blown up to save everyone in the camp.
"Get away!" He yelled as he stayed curled up around the bomb. "Get back!"
When nothing happened, an officer sighed, relieved. "It was a dummy. All clear, get back into formation."
Slowly, Steve raised his head to look up at the three of them by the truck. "Is this a test?"
Together, Red and Erskine turned to give Philips a very smug look, since their point about Steve had just been proven. "He's still skinny." Philips said before he turned on a heel and stalked into one of the surrounding buildings.
That night, after dinner, Red walked around the camp with Steve beside her. She kept her hands in her pockets as they talked. "So, this is what you've been doing when you snuck off to see Stark?"
"Yup." Red said with a sigh. "I'm sorry I kept it from you, I couldn't tell anyone."
"I understand, Red... but super-soldiers? Why are they making super-soldiers?"
"Because we needed something strong and something unexpected-something even the Nazis won't see coming." She explained as she titled her head up to look at the sky. She was relieved to be able to explain all of the work she'd been doing since she came to Midgard, now if only she could tell Bucky all of this too.
"And why me?"
She almost chuckled. "You'll have to ask Abraham that."
Steve took a deep breath and slowly let it out before he asked his next question. "The night of the expo, did you know he was going to choose me?"
Red stayed silent for a long moment before she slowly nodded. "I had my suspicions... I'm glad he chose you though. There's no one out there that is better suited for this."
"And Bucky had no idea about any of this?"
"No, he doesn't. I've had strict orders to not talk about any of this," Red gave a halfhearted shrug. "I'm not happy about it, I hate keeping things from both of you."
"But especially Bucky." Steve said, voicing her unspoken thoughts.
"Yeah."
Steve offered her a small, but genuine, smile. "For what it's worth, I'm not upset with you, and I doubt he'd be either."
"Well, that does give me some hope." Red said with a faint smile as she reached up to touch her dog tags. When Bucky was first getting ready to ship off, and Red's work with the government was starting to really kick off, they gave each other one of their tags, so that they'd always have one another with them wherever they went.
Steve sighed as he glanced around them. "Are you gonna tell him that I got in?"
Red laughed as she reached out to pat his shoulders. "Hell no, you're gonna tell him yourself. I'll send off your better with mine tomorrow."
"I am in so much trouble."
"Oh yeah," Red agreed. "But if it helps, I am too. I'm the one that didn't stop it from happening."
When they got back to the building that they were having Steve say in before he took the serum, Red slowly turned to face him. She was only an inch taller than him, and she thought that it was funny that, by this time tomorrow, all of that would change and she'd finally be the shortest one in the group.
"Tomorrow, you're gonna be taller than me, Little Man."
He rolled his eyes at her with a chuckle. "You think so?"
"I know so." She said, patting his shoulder again with a smile. "I'll see you tomorrow, and make sure you give me that letter, okay?"
"Will do. See you later, Red."
"See you." she said before she flew off and toward the building she'd been staying in. Once she was sitting down at her desk, she started to write her letter to Bucky. But as she wrote, she had a bad feeling about what might happen tomorrow. Would everything really go as smoothly as they planned? Or were they making a mistake by making a show of it?
+++
Steve sat in his room as he struggled to write Bucky a letter, trying to put everything that had happened since the Expo into words. But no matter how hard she tried, he couldn't find them. As if saving him from the struggle, Erskine came into the room.
"May I?"
"Yeah."
Erskine walked across the room and sat down across from Steve. "Can't sleep?"
He set the pen down with a shrug. "I got the jitters, I guess."
Erskine laughed. "Me too."
Steve sighed and slumped back in his seat before he remembered what Red had told him on their walk. "Can I ask you a question? I tried to ask Red, but she said to ask you."
"And you have just one?"
"Why me?"
"I suppose that is the only question that matters..." Erskine said as he set a bottle of Schnapps down between then and then he started to explain.
"This is from Augsburg, my city. So many people forget that the first country that the Nazis invaded was their own. You know, after the last war... my people struggled. They... they felt weak. They felt small. And then Hitler comes along with the marching and the big show and the flags and the... and then... he hears of me, my work and he finds me. And he says, 'You will make me strong', well, I am not interested. So, he sends the head of HYDRA, his research division, a brilliant scientist by the name of Johann Schmidt.
Now, Schmidt is a member of the inner circle and he's ambitious. He and Hitler share a passion for occult power and Teutonic myth. Hitler uses his fantasies to inspire his followers, but for Schmidt, it is not a fantasy. For him, it is real. He has become convinced that there is great power hidden in the Earth, left by the Gods, waiting to be seized by superior men. So when he hears about my formula and what it can do, he cannot resist. Schmidt must become that superior men."
Steve could picture all of this in his head, thought he knew that some of the old stories were true. Red was a being from Asgard, and while he didn't believe that she was a God, he believed enough to know that all the stories were true.
"Did it work?" Steve asked.
"Yeah, but there were other effects." He said before he explained further. "The serum was not ready, but more importantly, the man. The serum amplifies everything that is inside. So good becomes great, bad becomes worse. This is why you were chosen." Erskine gave him a gentle smile. "Because a strong man, who had known power all his life, will lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value in strength, and knows compassion."
Steve returned the smile, even though he did feel a bit confused. Should he be happy that he'd been beaten up in all of those alleyways? "Thanks... I think?"
Erskine chuckled as he poured them both a drink. "Whatever happens tomorrow, just promise me one thing." He handed Steve a glass. "That you stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man."
Steve held up his glass he gave a toast. "To the little guys." As he began to toss it back, Erskine stopped him.
"No, no. Wait. What am I doing? No!" Erskine said, annoyed with himself. "You have a procedure tomorrow. No fluids." He took the glass from Steve and poured its contents into his own.
Steve shrugged with a smile. "Alright, we'll drink it later."
"No, I don't have procedure tomorrow. Drink it after? Drink it now."
Steve chuckled, and when they had said goodnight, and Erskine left, he finished the letter to Bucky and went to bed.
+++
When Red had finished her letter to Bucky, she left her room to find Philips, luckily she was still in his office. "Sir," she said after she cleared her throat. "I have a bad feeling about tomorrow."
"And you want me to cancel the operation tomorrow?" He said as he set down his pen and turned to face her as he gave Red an annoyed look.
She sighed. "No, don't be ridiculous. You need to uninvite some of the people who are supposed to be there."
"All on a feeling?"
"Yes."
"No."
"But-"
"I said no, and that is final." Philips said curtly. "Now, go to bed. We have an early day tomorrow."
Red sighed before she flew out of the room and back to hers. That night, she slept uneasily, but she as happy that she still dreamt of Bucky.