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( eight. first meetings )

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Everything happened so fast.

After that gunshot, a man suddenly bolted straight to the door.

Peggy, without question, ran after him.

The next thing she knew she was already on the ground beside the doctor, trying to put pressure on his bullet wound while Becca and the other nurses took out the medical supplies from the cabinet behind them.

Steve, as she had expected, also caught up to them and followed Peggy outside.

Becca took over for her while they tried to revive him. They even contemplated on taking him to a hospital when the defibrillators weren't working, but eventually and unfortunately, he stopped breathing and flat-lined.

Natasha stared at him for a moment in shock. Anger surge through her. She needed to find this man. She needed to.

Before she knew what she was doing, she was heading straight to the door as well.

Howard grabbed her arm before she could take a step further. "Where are you going?" he hissed.

"Where do you think?"

"You are going to blow your cover."

"No, I'm not."

She ripped her arm out of his grip and hurried towards the doors.

"Anne!"

She pushed it open and ran outside, kicking off her heels and throwing away her nurse cap in the process. By the time she got out, only Peggy was there while Steve was nowhere to be found.

"Where did they go?"

Peggy looked stunned to see her out here. "Nurse Klein?"

"Where did they go, Agent Carter?" she repeated.

Despite filled with confusion, she pointed at the direction where they had gone off. "Wait, why am I even telling you this, are you planning to run after them?" Her eyes landed on the pistol in her hand and she grabbed it without explanation. Peggy's confused look turned into shock. "You can't possibly do that!"

She ripped off the bottom part of her skirt.

"Don't even think about it." Peggy warned, now sounding pissed off.

"Never do."

Then she dashed off without another word, ignoring Peggy's calls behind her. It felt like a lifetime since she had felt so active and burning with purpose again. She didn't care if people were giving her strange looks or the way her feet were picking up on the filth on the streets of Brooklyn.

She just ran. And ran. And ran.

Finally, she caught sight of a man on top of a yellow cab and presumed it was Steve. They disappeared when the cab rounded a corner. She followed her instincts and slipped onto one of the alleys until she had finally caught up with them. She hid behind a wall and prepped up her pistol.

The cab toppled over and the man scrambled to get out.

There were two more men waiting there as Steve tried to catch their suspect. He held up the cab's door as a shield while the other men tried to shoot at him and their main guy took a kid as a hostage.

Knowing that Steve was outnumbered, she quickly ran towards the other side of the building and quietly sneaked up on the men from behind. Just when their guy threw the kid down the river, she engaged and leaped at one of his goons. She locked her legs in his neck and swung around to push his body down to the ground and make him slam his head hard. She swung her feet to knock the other man down, earning a grunt of pain.

And when she decided to look up, Steve was staring at her in shock. "I got this! Go!" she yelled out.

That seemed to snap out of his daze as he dove down the river and followed their suspect. When a groan sounded from one of the men, she quickly brought his fist to his face, knocking him out cold.

"Damn, well you guys sure are easier to put to sleep than the ones in my time."

Once she was sure they were out cold, she stood up and went over to the crowd of people to check if the kid was safe. She sighed in relief when she found him hugging his mother, watching them longingly than she intended to.

"Ma'am?"

She whipped around and saw Steve drenched to the bone. His tight shirt was evidently showing his well-defined abs and she tried to stop herself from staring too much. Instead, she brought up her concern when she saw blood seeping through his side.

"Steve."

He froze. As did she.

Damn it. Why was she suddenly being so careless? "Uh... I mean..."

Steve looked at her, perplexed, "I'm sorry, do I know you from somewhere? Or should I know you? I feel like I should."

She heaved in a breath, trying to think of a valid excuse. "Back at the Expo," She tried to keep her face as neutral as possible. "I was with your friend, James." Well, at least this wasn't exactly a lie.

His face seemed to dawn in recognition. "Oh, that's why you sort of... kind of... look familiar somehow."

Natasha decided to steer the conversation into another topic. "That looks bad."

He followed her gaze and looked down at his bleeding side. "Yeah, I got grazed." He sighed, eyes hardening while they looked at the now dead body of their suspect on the ground, "Guess all of this is for nothing."

She crouched down, squinting her eyes at the sight of the blue liquid spilled out on the concrete pavement.

"I won't exactly say nothing."

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Once they were back at the base, both of them got an ear load of lectures from Colonel Phillips for taking off like that.

Howard wasn't making it any better either, giving her a disapproving shake of his head. Yeah, like his brain was actually mature enough to scold her for doing such a thing.

And Peggy, don't even get her started with her. The woman was now watching her like a hawk, evenly suspicious and doubtful of her actions. She guessed it was fair, who on earth would be compliant with a woman who once you thought was a nurse and, in just a few minutes, run across the streets of Brooklyn with a gun in her hand?

She hadn't seen Becca by the time she got back though, but she bet on her money that she was just as pissed off as the rest were.

Once they were cleaned up, she changed into another set of her uniform (after ripping one of it out), and was assigned to take Steve's blood. It probably had something to do with the serum. She was getting her supplies ready when she heard a knock on the door.

It opened and Steve's head peeked in, "Uh... I was told to come here?"

Natasha nodded. "Please, sit down."

He stepped in and shut the door behind him. He went to take a seat by the side while she prepared the needles and vials. It was a good thing they weren't alone with the other nurses in the back or else she would be probably handling this less calm than she is now.

"Lift your sleeves up."

He did as he was told to do.

Then she went over his side and inserted the needle on his arm, waiting until the vials got full and start to fill out the next one. Silence ensued between them. She didn't know what exactly to say so she kept quiet. And Steve just looked as bothered as much and she didn't want to pry further.

"So, you're a nurse?" he suddenly asked.

She let out an amused smile. "Why do you sound so surprised? Was my uniform not enough to give that away?"

He slightly turned red. "Uh, no, sorry—I just, I saw you take down those guys back there and I was sort of... surprised. For a nurse, you seem very well experienced in combat."

She tried not to give anything away even if her heart was starting to keep its pace faster. "I guess I'll take that as a compliment."

"Did you train in the army too?" She tensed up, and he quickly noticed this and looked apologetic, "I'm sorry, that was forward of me. You don't have to answer that."

"It's alright. Something like that." She didn't want him to become suspicious of her when some people already were. "If you're in a time of war it's only ideal for you to be prepared at least right?"

Steve didn't push the subject any further, understanding her need to disclose any personal information about her. "I guess that makes sense, ma'am."

"Anne." She looked at him through her lashes, "Just call me Anne."

He smiled at her warmly. "Okay, Anne. You seemed to know me already, so, I supposed Bucky already told you something about me."

"Not much, really."

Their gazes locked again and neither of them was giving the sign to turn away. The last time she was up close with this to Steve was the time he got mad at her for taking that USB drive. And with their close distance like this again, she couldn't help but feel so driven towards him.

It was like an electric pull was tugging the both of them together. And from the way Steve's eyes flicker from the loose strand of her blonde hair resting on her forehead, down to her nose, to her lips, and back up again to meet her eyes again—she was certain he could feel it too.

"I think that's fairly enough."

They jolted away from each other to find Peggy standing in the doorway with a clipboard in her hand. They didn't even hear her come in. She averted her gaze from her, feeling slightly embarrassed.

Once she was done taking Steve's blood, she put the vials and needles on a tray and stepped out of their way. She stayed on her place by the side while Peggy talked with Steve.

And all she could think about was what could've happened if she hadn't stepped on them earlier.

A knock resonated from the door again.

The door opened to reveal a nurse too. "Excuse me, Agent Carter, but the Senator asks to see Miss Klein and Mr. Rogers."

She was surprised to hear her name.

Apparently, a lot of people witnessed her and Steve's heroic act together, and word quickly spread like wildfire over the base. Steve, however, was an entirely different story as he was all over the headlines of the city's newspaper.

By the time they arrived, she had first noticed Howard inspecting a submarine below.

She didn't even get to utter a word when he was already coming up to her side. "You said your plan was to incognito, huh?" He crossed his arms at her, muttering lowly, "Look how that turned out."

Natasha gave an annoyed sigh, purposely ignoring him as she was not in the mood for this.

"Colonel Phillips, my committee is demanding answers." The senator walked in with the colonel.

"Great. Why don't we start with how a German spy got a ride to my secret installation in your car?" Phillips returned, stopping just in front of Howard, "What have we got here?"

"Speaking modestly, I'm the best mechanical engineer in this country." She fought hard not to snort. "But I don't know what's inside this thing or how it works. We're not even close to this technology."

But from Natasha's years of experience, she considered this submarine as ancient already. Boy, if this looked advanced technology enough for them, what more are the things they have in the future?

No wonder Steve was having a hard time adjusting to her time.

"Then who is?" the senator asked.

Phillips was the one who answered, "HYDRA. I'm sure you've been reading our briefings."

"I'm on a number of committees, Colonel."

Peggy finally took this chance to speak up, "HYDRA is the Nazi deep-science division. It's led by Johann Schmidt, but he has much bigger ambitions."

"HYDRA's practically a cult. They worship Schmidt. They think he's invincible." Phillips added.

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"I spoke to the president this morning. As of today, the SSR is being re-tasked."

Peggy wasn't following. "Colonel?"

"We are taking the fight to HYDRA. Pack your bags, Agent Carter. You too, Stark, we're flying to London tonight, and oh—Nurse Klein I didn't notice you were there."

Clearly.

"Why didn't you tell me you're liable for kicking asses like that out there?"

Uh, because she didn't plan to? All pair of eyes in the room was now on her. "I'm sorry?"

"We need more people like you in the field with Agent Carter. Especially now that HYDRA is digging their way into our skins."

She was still confused, not understanding what he was meaning to say. Howard leaned in closer to her to whisper, "I think you're being promoted."

"What?" she could only say.

Steve seemed to realize what was happening too and had a glimmer of hope in his baby-blue eyes. "Sir?" He stopped the colonel, "If you're going after Schmidt I want in."

"You're an experiment, you're going to Alamogordo."

Her eyebrows furrowed.

Steve's face fell. "But the serum worked."

"I ask for an army and all I got was you. You are not enough."

Ouch.

Natasha's fists curled in absolute irritation. Being a colonel, does he have no respect at all to someone beneath him? Even if it was just a soldier? Pathetic.

"That's not fair." She suddenly bit out. Everyone looked surprised at her outburst, especially Steve, but, no, she was not going to wither under their stares. He didn't deserve this kind of treatment, and she was going to make sure the everyone knew it. Fuck what everyone else would think of her. "I got a chance but he didn't? Because he's an experiment?"

Phillips looked just as annoyed as her, not liking the fact of being answered back in front of an audience. "Nurse Klein, may I remind you yet that you're not in any position to give out your damn opinions. Not that I care about hearing them, but I think you should watch your words carefully."

"Like you do, Colonel?"

That silenced him, and she couldn't hide the satisfied look forming on her face. He didn't say anything after that, simply narrowing his eyes at her and walking away to leave her be.

"First day of promotion and you're already pissing off the colonel?" Howard hissed at her.

She glared back. "He was the asshole."

"The colonel is always like that. You're just really protective when it comes to Rogers."

"I am not."

He let it go, knowing that she wasn't going to give this up. "Whatever you say."

Natasha then observed the Senator come up to Steve. "With all due respect to the colonel, I think we may be missing the point. I've seen you in action, Steve. More importantly, the country's seen it. Paper."

A guy handed him a newspaper and in bright bold letters it read, Nazis in New York, Mystery man saves child.

"The enlistment lines have been around the block since your picture hit the newsstands. You don't take a soldier, a symbol like that, and hide him in a lab."

She could see the hope in Steve's eyes rising back up again.

"Son," the senator clasped his back, "Do you want to serve your country on the most important battlefield of the war?"

"Sir, that's all I want," Steve answered.

"Then congratulations, you just got promoted."

Natasha's eyebrows furrowed. Despite the beaming smile etched on Steve's handsome face, she couldn't help but feel uneasy about this.

He was promoted, okay.

But promoted to what?

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what do you guys think of steve and nat's first meeting?