First Flame. ~Book One~

Chapter Five: Captain America.

Before she even knew it, they were flying over enemy lines in Howard's private plane. Red was still a mess, her thoughts were not only on Bucky, but now the possibility of losing Steve as well. Was he just going to go down there and expect her not to follow? If there was anything in the whole wide world that he shouldn't do alone, it would be this.
"The HYDRA camp is in Krasberg, tucked between these two mountain ranges." Peggy was explaining as she pointed to two different points on the map they were able to steal before they left. "It's a factory of some kind." 
"We should be able to drop you right on their doorstep." Howard called over his shoulder. 
"Just get me as close as you can." Steve said as he looked a Red, then Peggy, and lastly, to Howard. "You know, you guys are gonna be in a lot of trouble at the lab, right?" 
Peggy almost smiled. "And you won't?" 
"Where I'm going, if anybody yelled at me, I can just shoot them." Steve said with a small grin, and that didn't wonders to ease Red's worried. If anything, it made them worse.
"They will undoubtedly shoot back." 
"Well." Steve knocked on the shield. "Let's hope that this is good for something." 
"And you won't be going in alone." Red said, her voice cracking as she finally spoke up. "I'm coming with you." 
"I don't think that's a good idea." Peggy said with some hesitation in her voice. 
"I don't care," Red said defiantly as her worry started to be replaced with anger. "James is in there, I have to go." 
"Red..." Steve said, his voice trailing off as he also hesitated. "I think Peggy is right." 
Red looked between them and there was no doubt that betrayal was clear on her face. It was definitely a clear emotion coursing through her body. "But-" 
"I know." And it really did sound like Steve genuinely knew, and understood, her thought process on the matter. "But you need to stay here for when I need you. I can't get Bucky and everyone out if I also have to make sure you don't get killed or captured. And you know he'd say the same." 
"Fine." She said with a sigh as she crawled into the cockpit beside Howard and crossed her arms over her chest as she slouched down in her seat.
Howard glanced over his shoulder and at Peggy. "Agents Carter, if we're not in too much of a hurry, I thought we could stop off in Lucerne for a late night for late night fondue." 
The plane fell into an awkward silence as Steve got into the only parachute they had on board. Even Red turned in her seat to give Howard a questioning look that silently asked him why he had to lump her into it, unless he planned to drop her off somewhere. 
Peggy, thankfully, decided to ignore him. "Stark is the best civilian pilot I've ever seen. He's mad enough to brave this airspace. We're lucky to have him." 
"Oh yeah... lucky is the word for it." Red said, now trying to figure out if she can convince Howard to drop of her off. 
Steve, not even questioning either of those statements, said. "So are you two...? Do you..? Fondue?" 
Red put her forehead into the palm of her hand as she slouched further down in her seat. "Oh my God." 
Howard smirked as he glanced at her. "Which one?" 
"Any of them." Red muttered. "All of them." 
Still ignoring them, Peggy continued to talk to Steve. "This is your transporter. Activate it when you're ready and the signal will lead us straight to you." 
"Are you sure this thing works?" Steve asked as he shoved it onto his belt.
"It's been tested more than you, Pal." Howard said seconds before the plane started to take fire. Red reached down and held her seat as the plane shook, closing her eyes as she did. She silently prayed to her father that everything would turn out just fine. 
Steve opened the door and got ready to jump, but Peggy stopped him. "Get back here! We're taking you all the way in." 
Steve shook his head. "As soon as I'm free, you turn this thing around and get the Hell out of here!" 
"You can't give me orders!" Peggy called over the wind. 
"The Hell I can't!" He gave her another grin. "I'm a captain!" And with that, he threw himself off of the plane and Peggy pulled the door closed. 
Howard turned the plane around and the three of them looked at each other as they headed toward wherever they were headed to next. 
Red sat up straighter in her seat and shrugged at him and Peggy. "Well... he's not wrong." 
"You think he'll be alright?" Peggy asked, looking at Red before they both looked out of one of the windows.
"Yeah, he'll be okay." 
Or at least that was the hope. And the farther away from the facility, the more Red wished that he had decided to take with him.
+++
 Steve quickly ran through the woods and, before he even knew it, he had found the main road that HYDRA had been using. There were maybe a dozen trucks driving down the road and into the weapon's facilities. He sighed as he climbed into the back of the last truck and found himself face to face with two HYDRA guards.  "Fellas." He said moments before he threw them, screaming, out of the truck. 
Soon, he was sneaking through the factory and found himself in a room that was being used to make all sorts of odd looking weapons. He took one of the strange, glowing devices and shoved it into his belt with the transponder and continued on his way through the factory until he found the place where the soldiers were being held. 
After throwing another one of the guards down into the cells and taking his keys, Steve jumped down and in between the cages. "Who are you supposed to be?" One of the soldiers asked as he suddenly appeared before them. 
"I'm..." Sensing that he was about to sound as ridiculous as he felt, he sighed. "I'm Captain America." 
Another tilted his head. "I beg your pardon?" 
As Steve went around to free them from the cages, he learned some of their names, at least the ones that would be leading the charge out of the factory. Dum Dum Dugan, Gabe Jones, James Mantgomery Falsworth and Jim Martia.
"What?" Dum Dum said as he looked down at Jim. "Are we taking everybody?" 
Rolling his eyes, Jim flashed his tags. "I'm from Fresno, Ace." 
Steve would have laughed if he wasn't so stressed out. "Is there anybody else? I'm looking for Sergeant James Barnes." 
Falsworth gave Steve an oddly knowing look, did he know how important it was for Bucky to come home? "There's an isolation ward in the factory, but no one ever comes back from it." 
"Alright." Steve said as he turned his gaze to the rest of the soldiers. "The tree line is Northwest, eighty yards past the gate. Get out fast and give 'em Hell, I'll meet you guys in the clearing with anybody else I find." After he gave the instructions of how to get to the one safe place near this godforsaken facility, he started to jog away. 
"Wait!" Jones called after him. "You know what you're doing?" 
"Yeah!" Steve yelled back. "I've knocked out Adolf Hitler over two hundred times." 
And then he turned the corner and was onto the next part of his rescue mission. To get Bucky back, so that the world made sense again. 
+++
Bucky struggled to keep his eyes open as he stared up at the ceiling. "Sergeant..." He mumbled. God, he thought, I'm so tired. "32557..." He started to close his eyes when Red filled his thoughts, suddenly appearing like a light in the darkness. He couldn't let go now, not when Red needed him and he promised he'd always come home to her, not while Steve was off, probably getting beaten up in some back alley somewhere. 
Suddenly, as if he materialized from his thoughts, Steve started speaking. "Bucky? Oh my God." And then, there he was, standing over him as he started getting Bucky unstrapped from the chair. 
"Is that-?" 
Steve smiled. "It's me, it's Steve." 
He squinted, thinking that his mind was playing tricks on him again. How many times had he imagined this happening? Sometimes it was Red, sometimes it was Steve, but every time he thought one of was coming for him, to bring him back to safety, it had been a hideous trick that he played on himself. "Steve?" 
"Come on." Steve said as he hauled him to his feet. 
"Steve." Bucky repeated, this time feeling relieved as he slumped against his friend. 
"I thought you were dead." 
"I thought you were smaller." He said slowly as he blinked heavily. God, his body even felt heavy. 
"Come on." Steve said as they slowly, and, at least on Bucky's part, sluggishly started walking down the hallway. 
"What happened to you?" 
"Joined the army." 
"Did it hurt?" 
"A little." 
"Is it permanent?" 
"So far." 
When he was sure he got all of his answers about Steve, he moved on to Red. Bucky hoped that she wasn't here too. Knowing her, she'd have fought tooth and nail to be here too, but if she wasn't with Steve, where was she? Was she lost somewhere in the compound? 
No, he told himself, he'd know if she was there. He'd know. "Is Red okay? Is she safe?" 
"She's worried sick about you, she even wanted to be here." Steve said with a faint and fond smile. "But she's back at the base and she's safe." 
"Good." The thought of getting back to Red seemed to fill him with new found strength and he was able to start walking on his own. 
Together, they ran through the now exploding and burning factory, only pausing when they ran into Schmidt and Zola. Bucky felt the blood drain out of his face, for once being scared, petrified even, but he still stood as tall as he could in front of the men who had tortured and experimented on him, and countless others. 
"Captain America! How exciting!" Schmidt said smugly. "I am a great fan of your films." Still smiling, he looked Steve over. "So, Doctor Erskine managed it after all. Not exactly an improvement, but still impressive." 
In what Bucky thought was an amazing show of bravery, Steve punched him across the face. "You got no idea." 
"Haven't I?" 
As the two of them fought back and forth, Bucky watched Zola pull a lever down and the catwalk that they were standing on separated. Thankfully, Steve was still standing on the side that was closest to him. 
"No matter what lies Erskine told you, you see, I was his greatest success." To both Bucky's shock and horror, Schmidt peeled the skin off of his face to reveal a red skull underneath. 
Bucky braced himself against the railing as his stomach lurched. "Umm... Steve, you don't have one of those, do you?" 
"I really hope not." 
"You are deluded Captain. You pretend to be a simple soldier, but in reality you are just afraid to admit that we have left humanity behind." Schmidt almost grinned. "Unlike you, I embrace it proudly, without fear." 
"Then how come you're running?" Steve yelled back as the Red Skull and Zola continued their escape. "Come on, let's go up." 
As they climbed up to the next catwalk, they choked on ash and smoke as it filled their lungs. They stayed in the burning building any longer, all of this would have been for nothing. Let's go." Steve said, coughing as they stood before a thing gantry. "One at a time." Bucky had gone first, only slipping once as it shook, but he quickly made it to the other side. As Steve was about to follow suit, the gantry collapsed. 
"I gotta get a rope or something!" Bucky said as he started to frantically look around. 
Steve shook his head. "Just go!" He yelled. "Get outta here, Red needs you!" 
"No!" Bucky roared as fear finally took hold of him. "Not without you! She needs both of us." 
Steve then took a few steps back and ran forward before he jumped. 
+++
Red paced around the outside of Philip's tent as she held onto the only piece of Bucky she had, silently praying to anyone in Asgard, and even Valhalla, who would listen that he and Steve would be back any second now, that they'd walked through the gates and her world would have sense again. She had been praying for that to happen for three days, and they had been three of the longest days of her life. 
From inside the tent, she could hear Philips having another condolence letter written. "Senator Brant," he said. "I regret to report that Captain Steven G. Rogers went missing behind enemy lines on the third. Aerial reconnaissance had proven unfruitful. As a result, I must pronounce Captain Rogers, killed in action..." He sighed as he paused. "Period." 
Red sniffled but said nothing. Peggy, on the other hand, sighed. "The last surveillance flight is back... no sign of activity." 
"Go get a coffee, Corporal." Philips said to the soldier who just wrote the letter. He quickly left the tent and once he was sure the soldier was out of earshot, he spoke again. "I can't touch Stark He's rich and he's the army's number one weapon's contractor." He looked between Peggy and Red. "You two are neither one." 
"With respect, Sir, I don't regret my actions, and I don't think Captain Rogers did either." Peggy said. 
Red, who had been wishing and praying and crying non stop since Bucky was captured, let the tags fall back down against her chest. "And with no respect, you can bite me." 
But Philips only kept his eyes on Peggy. "What makes you think I give a damn about your opinion? I took a chance with you, Agent Carter, and how America's golden boy, and a lot of great men, are dead 'cause you had a crush." 
"It's not that." Peggy said, keeping her chin held high. "I had faith." Red was silently glad that at least one of them was keeping their shit together. 
"Well, I hope that's a big comfort to you when they shut this division down." 
Not being able to take any more of their bickering, Red walked away from the tent with her hands buried in her pockets as she made her way toward her and Peggy's tent. Only, she paused as she saw that some of the surrounding soldiers were talking excitedly and running toward the gates. 
Flying over the crowd, she felt her heart skip a beat when she saw Bucky with Steve right next to him. As soon as she locked eyes with Bucky, she felt her world finally flip right side up, with the sun rising over it and it felt like nothing had ever gone wrong in the first place. 
The moment she landed in front of him, he took her into his arms and held her as close to him as he possibly could. "James." She whispered breathlessly as one of his hands found its way to the back of her head and he tangled his fingers into her hair. "You-" she started as she wrapped her arms around his middle. "You can't do that to me anymore." 
He chuckled, and she felt euphoria fill her body as she heard the sound rumble in his chest and against her ear. "I'll try not to." 
And then he was kissing her like he had never kissed her before. It was like the world had falling away and it was just them as they passed unspoken words between them. She barely managed to whisper that she loved him as his tongue feverishly entered her mouth, and she had forgotten that they were surrounded by so many people who were also celebrating the grand return of the lost soldiers. 
The kiss only lasted seconds, but to Red it felt like minutes. He regretfully pulled away from her lips after he gave her one last kiss and leaned his forehead against hers as they both panted for breath.
"You should kiss me like that more often." Red said with a soft laugh as the tips of her fingers traced over his jaw.
"You better get used to it then." He kissed the top of her head before he lifted his head and raised his voice. "Hey! Let's hear it for Captain America." 
And as the surrounding crowd cheered louder, she took this opportunity to grasp Bucky's hand and sneak him into her and Peggy's tent. He squeezed her hand as she sat him down on her bed and she stood between his legs. 
James is alive, James is here. Her heart sang as he pulled her into his lap. "I love you too." He said as he kissed her cheeks and the corners of her mouth. He held her waist as she settled in against his lap. "We should talk about how you were all too willing to jump out of a plane to rescue my sorry ass with Steve." 
But her mind was already too clouded from his touch to even try to think about the serious talk they would have to have. But she pushed through it. "Having you gone..." She trailed off as his lips trailed down her jaw and throat. "It was driving me crazy... I-I didn't know where you were, if you were alive." She sighed in relief when he didn't take his lips off of her as she spoke. "I didn't want our last goodbye to be rushed like that." 
"Hey..." He said in a gentle voice as he looked up at her and cupped her cheeks in both of his hands. "There won't be a last good-bye, I promise." 
"Don't." She whispered, her voice starting to shake with unshed tears. "Don't promise things like that. Not while we live in the world we do." 
"Alright." He said, understanding exactly where she was coming from on the matter. "Then I promise to keep you as safe and happy as I possibly can." 
"That's a better promise." Red said as she captured his lips with hers and they laid down against her bed.