1 | SURVIVE • BUCKY BARNES [COMPLETED]

XXVIII.

"Gideon, get up, " she heard her name uttered above the comforter that covered her head. She knew the feminine voice well and her caring yet firm tone; it was more often than not her only reason for leaving her apartment. "The meeting is in an hour."

"Peggy, what if I can't go," she mumbled from underneath the sheets, "I'm sleeping."

"You can," Peggy emphasized, but her voice held hints of the same exhaustion Gideon felt; she was better at concealing it though. "And I know you haven't been sleeping."

She felt a dip in the bed and the sheets rustled above her, "What are you doing," the doctor wondered, a smile peaking at the corner of her lips.

"Wrinkling this outfit so you owe me, and for payment, you're coming with me to the meeting," Peggy stated as she shifted to face Gideon, the doctor's  face half hidden in the pillows [that still had faint traces of his smell].

"Okay," she agreed unwillingly yet gratefully. It was strange how both Bucky's and Steve's death brought the two women closer together, and they both realized that the pain that came with loss didn't have to be suffered alone.

Pulling at the covers that surrounded her, she lifted her feet to touch the wooden floorboards below. Yet when she stood, a heavy weight settled in her chest once more.

It was a funny feeling, that weight. It felt like a twenty pound ball rattled within her ribs whenever she moved and pressed down on her diaphragm whenever she needed air. It also settled in her mind. And it didn't just cause a bad case of the blues, it brought dark and cloudy storms into her thoughts day and night, never relenting. Thoughts of both Bucky and Steve were it's trigger source that was difficult not to dip into.

Some days were just better than others, and she was still deciding on what day today would be.

She dressing quickly and professionally. Only the most pressedand cleanest collar shirt and skirt would do. Her and Peggy then traveled to the hidden lab that they had both come to know well together.

Stepping inside, she knew what she was signing up for, and it wouldn't be an easy bargain to uphold. Hell, she knew that what she would have to do would go against everything that she believed in, but someone had to do it and she was just the one to.

Howard Stark then met them inside before they descended to a conference room where he and Peggy proposed the idea of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division or cunningly phrased by Howard as SHIELD. Gideon stood alongside of them as they explained the inner workings of the intelligence, waiting for her que to help convince Colonel Phillips and the dozens of the most important government officials sitting before them.

"SHIELD is prepared to take on any threat that HYDRA poses," Howard begins. "With our science division and the hopes of a new technology one, we could take on and put an end to them with the right funds, agents, technology advances-" his voice became more excited as he continued before Peggy cut him off.

"And Dr. Gideon Erskine," Peggy announced, motioning to Gideon beside her. "Not only is she the best medic we have, but she is also one of the Dr. Abraham Erskine's greatest successes of his work and dedication to creating new super soldiers along with Captain America. But I'll let her explain," Agent Carter concluding with a smile growing on her face.

Gideon returned the smile to her friend before sucking in a quick breath.

This is right, this is what I have to do, she would chant to herself over and over. No matter how much she wanted to crawl into bed on the heavy days and cry over the loss of her family, Bucky, and Steve, she couldn't. She couldn't rest until the organization that killed them all was diminished, and she believed that stepping up to stop them was the only way to make them proud.

"HYDRA has killed far too many of our people and caused irrevocable damage to this country. They have taken both my family and two of America's best soldiers that I had the pleasure of knowing," she paused ever so slightly to hide the quiver in her voice as she began to think of everything that she had lost. "And HYDRA will surely take more lives at any given chance. Although Johann Schmidt is MIA and hopefully long gone, it is never safe to assume that no one is taking over his position. HYDRA will return, and this time we need to be prepared. With SHIELD, we will be able to prevent any further advances from HYDRA or other international organizations that attempt to harm us."

"What is it exactly that you can do Dr. Erskine," a congressman sitting next to Colonel Phillips questioned.

"Let me show you," she nodded before shifting. Jaws fell around the table which wasn't unlikely. She hadn't told much people about her acquired abilities, given they didn't want anyone to know incase it was spread to the wrong side. But now was her time to show it; her, Peggy, and Howard needed to be convincing.

Gideon walked around the conference table to stand in between the chairs of the congressman and Colonel Phillips, and when she appeared, she spoke, "Let's just say Sir, that I can easily get into places I'm not suppose to be in and find confidential information any threatening organization might have."

The suited man and multiples of other jumped slightly within their seats as Gideon turned to the Colonel beside her and asked with her best smile, "Colonel Phillips, do we have a deal?"

He sat still for a moment, eyes studying the two doctors and the agent as well as the series of papers Gideon had already set in front of him. They all watched the thoughts whirl in his mind, and it wasn't until he pulled out a pen did he ask, "Will you, Dr. Erskine, be the lead spy of this division?"

"Yes, Sir," she answered without hesitation.

"Then we have a deal."

POSTED: [12/7/16]