Clara Lewis: S.H.I.E.L.D agent, New Yorker, accidental time traveller- wait what?!
Clara thought being a S.H.I.E.L.D agent made her life as crazy as it would get. Ever since her accident in the field, she'd become a desk agent but working as Phil C...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Here's your cuppa." Holly announced as she walked across the encampment in Italy where they had been sent. She was struggling along in her stiff, blistering shoes, clasping three cups of tea.
"Thanks, Holly. You're an angel." Clara said, mimicking the phrase all of the soldiers said to them whenever the nurses attended them. The two other girls giggled as Clara put on a gruff voice with a hint of delirium, a highly accurate portrayal of those men. Clara took her cup of tea from Holly's shaky hands and Maggie, a nurse they had befriended during their time in Italy, took another one.
"Any post today, Holly?" Maggie asked as she sipped her tea.
"Only a couple. The amount of letters arriving are getting fewer by the day."
"Still no reply from Harry?" Clara asked somberly. Holly had received letters almost everyday from her dear fiance but ever since last week, she hadn't received a single one. She'd put on a brave face though. The last nurse who had been crying at losing a loved one had terrified a poor soldier into thinking he was going to die. He only had a cut on his knee.
"Not yet." Holly said hiding behind her cup of tea. Clara herself had yet to receive a letter from Bucky. Every day that went by she grew more and more paranoid. To keep herself sane she would tell herself she had no time for relationships, or, more accurately, she had too much time before she would get back 70 years in the future.
The girls were sheltering from the rain in the medical tent, the rest of the men, those who had come back, were milling around on the mud. No one really knew what to do. The nurses had arrived when an entire army division had been sent out to fight. The few soldiers who returned were all injured but there had been so few of them that they'd all been patched up in a matter of hours.
All that was left to do was mill around talking, drink tea or catch up on some well needed sleep. The colonel in charge of the encampment, Colonel Phillips, had told the nurses to 'stand down' and relax. Later on they would be allowed to see the show: Captain America!
Clara was very much looking forward to it. Maggie had been sent a camera from her parents in the post a couple of days ago and she had quickly got to work documenting her time during the war. Clara had begged her to let her use it for the show, she planned on printing them off when she got back to her own time and making a sort of shrine to put by Phil's grave stone. He would have loved it.
The three girls walked arm in arm to the Captain America show, gossiping about nothing much just to keep their spirits up. The great Captain America had gathered quite a crowd of bored army men. They milled around in their congregation as they waited for the show to begin. They'd set up a makeshift platform to act as a stage. There was no red curtain, no fancy lights but the girls in skimpy clothing certainly entertained the soldiers. Maggie shot them both a glance- "At least they'll drop their flirting for a while."
They giggled as the girls began their parade and sing song.
It wasn't long before Captain America was thrust on stage and interrupted the orchestra of wolf whistles. He held up a cardboard shield to hide his face from the now silent crowd. Clara smirked and hid her face behind her hand to mask her second hand embarrassment.
"I thought he'd be taller." Holly mused as the poor man flustered on stage.
"I thought he'd be smaller..." Clara mumbled to herself. How could this be skinny little Steve Rogers. She knew he'd turn out like this but it still came as shock. He'd shot up by at least a foot!
"I'll catch up with you later." Clara announced over her shoulder to Holly and Maggie as she saw Steve back off stage. She raced off backstage to catch up with her dear friend Steve Rogers. She found him sat on the steps to the stage, half covered from the rain by a tarpaulin sheet. An open sketchbook lay on his lap with an unflattering self portrait of a dancing monkey on a unicycle.
"You artistic talent is wasted here, Steve." She teased. His head snapped up, his eyes widening in recognition.
"Clara! What are you doing here?"
"I'm nursing. I thought the blue smock and white apron, plus this silly little hat, were a dead give away." She joked, "But why on earth are you a comic book character? There are literally doodles of you in the newspaper!"
"It's the only job I could get. At least I'm helping."
"Any news from Bucky?" She asked, changing the subject but Steve didn't seem to notice the eagerness in her voice.
"Not yet. Not sure where the 107th ended up."
"107th?" Clara asked. That division sounded familiar. The nurses hadn't had time to ask which division they were nursing, they just got on with it.
"Steve," a woman's voice rang out from behind them. She was wearing army uniform and had a soft yet stern face. Clara smiled at her as she approached them.
"Peggy." Steve greeted formally, tucking on the cuffs of his sleeves as he always did when he was nervous. She came to perch on the steps alongside Steve and Clara. She couldn't help but notice Steve's doodles.
"A dancing monkey?" She queried, "You were meant for more than this, you know, Steve."
"The crowd certainly thought so." He mumbled, avoiding Peggy's eye.
"Well, they have more of a reason than the others. Only half the 107th returned."
"They're the 107th?" Clara interjected. Peggy nodded at both Clara and Steve, who had jumped to their feet to stare her in the face.
Steve and Clara looked at each other, the same idea in their minds. Steve was just about to run off when Clara grabbed him by the arm.
"Steve," she stated cautiously, "I attended all these men. All the men who came back needed nursing. He's not here."
"I can't give up on him, Clara. You might have missed him."
"Steve." Clara whispered, her voice hitching in her throat.
"He could still be out there somewhere. I'm not giving up without a fight."
"She's right, Steve." Peggy confirmed, "The odds of you making all the way to Austria on foot and alone aren't most certainly not in your favour. You're going to need help. We should talk to Colonel Phillips."
"What?" Clara whispered, unable to stop herself from voicing her concerns, "You're on board with him single handedly taking on and entire Nazi base?"
"Yes." Peggy put simply.
Clara stood still, astounded. The only thing she could do now was run after them as they made their way to Colonel Phillips' tent.
