Come Back With Me

I Hope I Get To Meet Her

Steve knew from Bucky that Boot Camp was going to be hard, he just didn't expect it to be this hard.

It was a lot of running and jumping and crawling. Some days he didn't know if he could continue but then he would tell himself he had to.

One day they were on a run and the drill sergeant has them stop.

"That flag means we're only at the hallway point. First man to bring it to me gets a ride back with Agent Carter," he says.

The soldiers all run to the flag pole and attempt to climb it but they soon realize that they won't be able to make it up.

If they can't climb it, Steve knows he won't be able to climb it.

But as he stares at the flag he hears a voice in his head that suspiciously sounds like Lizzie telling him to think smarter.

The Sergeant demands that all of them fall back in line but Steve doesn't.

He continues to stare at the flag and notices the pin holding it up.

"Rogers! I said fall in!" He yells.

Steve reaches down and pulls out the pin and the flag falls to the ground. He picks it up and hands it to the Sergeant.

"Thank you, sir," Steve says.

He gets in the jeep and can't help but think of when Lizzie told him he was smarter than he thought he was. He knows that Lizzie would be proud of him.

A few days later, they are out in the yard doing more push ups.

Dr. Erskine and Colonel Phillips are talking nearby when suddenly a grenade is thrown into the middle of the group.

Steve doesn't even think, he just throws himself on top of the grenade. He keeps expecting the explosion but it doesn't come.

Steve looks up at the pair of them.

"Is this a test?" Steve asks.

Colonel Phillips looks disgruntled as he looks between Steve and Erskine.

"He's still skinny," he says.

Now that the adrenaline was wearing down, he realizes that he botched his promise to Lizzie. He promised no unnecessary risks. If he would've thought about it, there was no way the colonel would throw a live grenade into a group of recruits. Unfortunately, you can't always stop knee jerk reactions and his is always to save others over himself.

He is sitting in his bed a few days later reading a book that Lizzie gave him when he hears a knock on the door.

He looks over and sees it's Erskine. Yesterday, Erskine had told him he was chosen for the experiment and it was scheduled to happen tomorrow.

"May I?" Erskine says.

"Yeah," Steve says.

Erskine comes in and sits on the bed across from Steve.

"Can't sleep?" He asks.

"Got the jitters I guess," Steve admits

"Me too," Erskine concurs.

Steve has been wondering something for awhile and now he felt like he had the opportunity to ask.

"Can I ask you a question?" Steve asks

"Just one?" Erskine asks.

Erskine waits a beat for Steve to continue.

"Why me?" Steve asks seriously.