Steve's Diary

January 18, 1944

Dear Diary,

Waking up next to him provides a feeling unlike anything else.

It was just a shame that I told Peggy I would be at the facility this morning to try out the new gear Howard's made for me. Whatever that means. I mean, that could be literally anything, couldn't it?

And, so, I reluctantly made my way out of bed bright and early, trying not to wake Bucky, and made my way out.

—————

The only real difference between this time and last time at the facility was that I didn't need Peggy or Howard to get in. They didn't even bother meeting me at the door. As a matter of fact, they told me that Howard would be waiting for me inside. Okay then.

I made my way through the scientists and agents in lab coats and uniforms, trying to find where, exactly, he was waiting for me.

I stopped as I saw the first person not really doing anything other than reading the paper. She was just sitting there, so I figured I wouldn't be bothering her.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for Mr. Stark," I said to the blonde, curly haired woman.

"He's in with Colonel Philips," she replied nonchalantly, not even looking up from her paper as if she didn't care.

I then proceeded to stand there, awaiting further instruction- or at least, his arrival. Or Peggy's.

"Of course, you're welcome to wait," she added, looking right at me this time, a certain inexplicable look resting upon her face and a lilt to her previously monotonous voice.

I smiled at her and then pointed at the little table that was to my right as I approached it with my head down, afraid she might look at me like that again. I sat on the edge of it and then, well, waited.

"I uh- read about what you did," she said to me in that low voice I recalled from the last time she spoke as she held up the paper she had been reading. She, then, placed it on the desk she had been seated at before she uncrossed her legs.

"Oh the... yeah," I answered with a smile, unsure of what she really even expected me to reply with. "Well, that's- you know... just doing what needed to be done," I added, looking away from her and thinking about the real reason I had went in there to save everyone- more so just him rather than everyone, everyone.

"Sounded like more than that," she responded, her arm placed somewhat awkwardly on the desk behind her. "You saved nearly four hundred men."

I smiled at the compliment, never really thinking of it as more than just saving, well, Bucky. She, then, though, looked at me with this sort of... glint in her eye. It was something no woman before Peggy had ever displayed before. Naturally, I thought it was just her hope for me and my future looming around us that allowed Agent Carter to glow as such but... I barely knew this woman. Hell, she barely knew me.

Her eyes scanned up and down my body and Bucky's face popped into my mind, as if he had been the only other person in my entire existence to ever look at me with that sort of wicked intent.

"Really, it's not a big deal," I downplayed it, hoping to get her to stop whatever the Hell it was she thought she was trying to do to me.

She stood up and walked over to me, swaying her hips like it would make some sort of difference to me or something. "Tell that to their wives," she raised an eyebrow at me.

I crossed my arms and looked up, "I don't think they were all married," I said, trying to distract her. What the Hell was she doing so close to me? She stood between my legs and looked at me with this intent that was clearly written across her face but undecipherable past that point. I knew she was up to something but I couldn't seem to pinpoint it.