Otherwise Known As... | Bucky Barnes

Chapter (4) Four ~ ...the girl with the annoying brother

"So, the soldier, huh?" Howards stepped into his dressing room grabbing a change of clothes and going behind the separation barrier to change.

"I don't know what you are talking about, Howie," I said, not taking my eyes off the blueprint for our military pet project.

"I'm talking about tall dark and handsome out there. Not including yours truly." I rolled my eyes and gagged at his egotism.

"Nothing is going on with me and Sargent Barnes. We are just friends, nothing more." Howard let out a huff of disbelief, coming out from around the divider and rolling up his sleeves, standing in front of me.

"Oliv, I have known you all of your life, and not once have I seen you make friends this fast, let alone even make friends."

"Hey!" I yelled, scrunching my eyebrows and kicking his shin. Howard let out a groan of pain before hopping towards his vanity chair.

"You know I'm right. The girls wouldn't befriend you because you acted like a boy, and the guys wouldn't because you were a gross girl." I went to kick him again, but Howard dodged at the last second.

"Would you stop doing that?!"

"Would you stop being an ass?!" I yelled back.

"I'm not being an ass, I'm being honest. It's nice... to see you making friends so easily with those too. Even if I couldn't get much of a read of the little one."

"Hey, Steve might not be talkative, but he's a good guy. Seem's like he's always standing up for something."

"Well, so are we. What do you think," Howard pulled the blueprints from my hands. "Should you be able to start building tomorrow?"

"Yeah. With the help of my team, we should be able to build it in about a month, maybe less."

"That's great. Hopefully, we'll be able to have our final two candidates by then. The process has already started on who the female candidate should be."

"Oh yeah? Who is it, someone we know? Agent Carter?"

"No no, not Carter. She, actually said no to it, when it was first presented to her by the General. I, however, had a different recommendation."

"Alright so stop tiptoeing and tell me. Who was your pick?" I asked, trying to get Howard to look at me as he was looking anywhere but my eyes.

"Howard-"

"You. I picked you, Olivia." Howard rushed out, finally making eye contact.

"What? Why I'm- I'm just an engineer why would you recommend me for this?"

"Olivia, you were the obvious choice for this. You were my first and only choice, too. You are one of the smartest people I know, you already know how to throw a punch and handle a gun so there was no need to worry about that, and your mind. You have one of the kindest minds I have ever met. You have helped me create some amazing things in the past, and I hope you will help again with this new creation."

"Except this time the creation would be me?"

"Yes. But you would be our greatest yet. You are an incredible person, Olivia Elizabeth. I always knew you would do great things one day, and I think this project will help get you there. Me recommending you wasn't for my benefit. I didn't do it to see my project succeed." Howard stood, moving over to sit beside me on the small bench and grabbing my hands.

"I did it because I know how hard you have worked your whole life to do incredible things, always working in the shadows. With this, it will finally help you get into the light, so everyone can see just how amazing you are."

My eyes teared up listening to my brother's little speech. "I think this is the most emotions you have ever shown since you broke your leg falling out of Pop's apple tree." I chuckled.

"I dont know what you're talking about." Howard dismissed, standing up and going back to his chair.

"Yes, you do." I laughed. "You thought we were going to amputate your leg and were telling me your 'final wishes' before you 'died from blood loss."

"Your remembering that wrong."

"'Oliv, tell mom I'm sorry, and that I love her. Tell pop, well, don't tell him anything he's a prick to me. I hope you live a good life, and I'm sorry you had to see me go like this. I- I love you.'" I dramatically acted out, even going so far as to lay on the gross floor and holding my leg as if I were in pain.

"Yeah and then you laughed in my face and said 'I always knew I would outlive you.'" Howard rolled his eyes, giving me a hand off of the floor.

"I really am a great sister, aren't I" I joked.

"Yeah, that was a real sibling of the year award moment." He joked back. "Now, will you please do it?"

I took a minute to think about it, before giving my answer.

"Well, at least I know what will be going into when I get into this thing." I pointed to the blueprints.

"Yeah, cause our genius minds put it together," Howard smirked.

I was about to make some smart-ass comment back when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Howard yelled.

"Mr. Stark, sir? Doctor Erskine is asking for Miss Stark's presence in the medical recruitment center."

"Did he say what this was about?" I asked.

"All he said was that it was about the other candidate."

I looked toward Howard, who nodded his head. "Yeah, yeah go see who your potential partner in this will be. You'll have to tell me how it goes later."

"Will do." I grabbed my coat, rushing out the door and towards the center.

It took me a minute to get there, and when I did I quickly spotted the man I was there for.

"Ah, Miss Stark! Just the woman I was looking for. I assume you know why I asked you to be here?"

"So that I could meet someone you think has a good chance of being our male candidate?" It came out more of a question than a statement, but I didn't say more.

"Correct. This way." The doctor said, leading the way.

"So, do you know anything about him yet?"

"A bit, yes. It seems that he has attempted to enlist in the army five times now. He has a strong spirit that could be useful for this."

"Five times without getting in? Does he have big medical problems?" I asked.

"Several. Turn here." He led me down another hallway. "His main one being asthma, though he also has or has had scarlet fever, high blood pressure, heart problems, he has been in contact with someone with tuberculosis, he has a family history of diabetes; the list goes on."

"How is he being considered for this again?"

"Well, none of it matters since the serum will hopefully cure him of all of this and make him his best physical self. I am going in now to look at more of his mental state, his heart, if you will. That will show us if he would be a good candidate. I already have a good idea of how this will go. Heard him and a buddy talking in the main building." He stopped outside a set of curtains.

"Do you want me to come in with you?"

"You can just listen outside. I should not be long with him, only a few questions to be asked."

Doctor Erskine signaled for a nurse to grab the candidate's doctor, as he was already in the room from doing a physical.

A second or two later, both the doctor and nurse walked out, and Doctor Erskine walked in. I could hear the muffled conversation from inside the curtained room, and while the voice sounded very familiar, I couldn't quite place it. Name's were exchanged but there was some commotion with the nurses near me so I couldn't hear it. Just my luck, right?

Right as they were finishing up in there, my luck struck again and I was pulled away for something my brother needed.

Guess I'll have to see who it was later.