Finding Love in France (Alternate Version)

Part 9: Truth

He just stood there holding her while she spoke. Trying to process what she was saying. All the rumors about what was happening "somewhere else", the unthinkable things that were too awful to ask about, were true.

"My family had fled to Poland while I finished medical school under an assumed name. They were forced into the ghetto by the reich, then sent to Auschwitz. Less than a year later, someone recognized me and I was sent to Bergen-Belsen." She was trying to make him understand. "The only reason I am here is because I have something Hydra wants."

"Because you worked with Erskine, right?" He got it now. "Because they're trying to make their own version of the serum?"

"Yes and no..." she figured he would find out eventually. "You might want to sit down for this..." Though she was oddly comfortable being held by this massive man, she was concerned about how he might react to what she was about to tell him, and thought having a table between them a wise decision.

"I'm listening." He sat down and tried to prepare himself.

"Um, well, you see..." this was harder than she thought. "...some of your abilities...are based on my own." She physically braced herself just in case.

"What?! What are you talking about?" He was not expecting anything like this. "With all due respect, Doctor Abrams, I highly doubt it."

"Really? Why is that?" She couldn't tell whether to be offended or amused. "Because you are almost twice my size? Because you are the super soldier? Because you are a man?" She stood up. "Do you remember how you got here, Captain Rogers? We are over 20 kilometers from where you were attacked. Do you think you walked here?"

"I don't really remember, but I assume you and your unit brought me here..." he was puzzled.

"Half right, Captain. I brought you here. The others were trying to sort out the casualties." She was leaning more towards offended now. "I had to carry you here, like a damn pack mule. Then I had the honor of trying to keep the great Captain America in the bathtub, so I could scrub the filth off you, before digging bullets out of your body, stitching up your wounds, and then heaving you downstairs into the only bed in this place!" She was pissed. "And do you know what you were doing, while I was trying to save your life? Hmm? You were fighting with me like a petulant child!" She didn't care at this point. She walked over to his side of the table and threw him over her shoulder. "Still doubting me, Captain?!"

He was speechless.

She sensed the sudden motion was uncomfortable on his wounds and set him back down. His eyes were popping out of his head, as she could practically see the gears turning in his brain to comprehend what just happened.

He couldn't move. He never imagined anyone else being like him. He had so many questions, but all he could muster was "What else can you do?"