Just Begun

Chapter 4

One month later...

"Move it!" I jog a long course we made around camp, my arms pump as my lungs burn just as my chest feels like it wants to cave in any moment. I've been picking up pace since I could handle the distance at a normal jog. To make it harder,I keep going faster and against my brain which keeps protesting myself to slow down and stop.

"I hate you." I murmur to Barnes as he watches with a smug grin. I'm gonna wipe that grin off him if it's the last thing I do! He didn't do as much as I did with his troops which is going to be a reason they may be hanging to the ditches on the battlefield. It's definitely getting on my nerves. I pick up my pace, my hair blowing behind me slightly annoying my troops behind me. They say my long locks are mocking them. The camp has been setting up and we only needed the new troops. Of course they're going to stay behind when we storm the new base, get some extra training in before another raid.

I slow down as I come to my tent. Yes, I did get a tent because it would've been scandalous to have been sleeping in Sergeant Barnes tent still. And because some of my men need me in the middle of the night to help them with fears, nightmares or just in general to talk. It would be disrupting Sergeant Barnes sleep.

I wall in, wiping off myself with a towel and I spray perfume to cover the smell of sweat. I don't layer on the perfume, just a spray and that's it. I don't want to smell like I just rolled in a patch of daisies, just something to cover up.

Walking from the tent, I pat my guys on the back, giving them encouragement and then dismiss them. I walk over to the main tent, where all the sergeants are supposed to be gathering for a meeting. I sit down in the chair that's mine, always has been and it was my father's before. Everybody knows that.

"We're storming a hydra base in a few days. It's the biggest one we know of so far." He pauses and nods to me. I stand from my chair and take a deep breath. How the heck do office women do this when giving information?

"The base is thirty miles behind enemy lines. Through the most heavily fortified territory." I sigh. "That's why, we're sending someone in first, to scower the buildings, and if we're on time, they'll have information for us and we can have an advantage." Bucky looks around the table, as the other sergeants look at each other and then asks the question they've been dying to ask.

"Who's going in?"

"I am." In record timing his fists clench and his face turns red with anger.

"No!" He bursts out, standing up. I look around the rest of the sergeants in the room and they seem to agree with him.

"I'm more than capable to do this job." I stand up for myself. Why wouldn't I? Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean I can't take care of myself out there. I'm not just going to pull the just-because-i'm-women card, it wouldn't be fair.

"You had second degree burns a little more than a month ago." Why is he so against me? Why are they thinking that I can't do this? They've been watching myself and my troop train for the past month!

"So? I've been running, training my troops. I'm very skilled at getting into places! I basically grew up here, I can and will do the job I've been assigned." My voice holds finality to the conversation and hopefully it effectively shut them down. I turn to the colonel and he nods, making me nod back. "I'll be moving tonight." I sit back down at my chair, thinking of the best way to go about sneaking in.

"Dismissed." That word breaks through my thoughts and I stand up from my chair, gathering my papers. Passing past Bucky, who makes a grab for my arm, I exit the room. I spotted walk through the gaps in the tents and enter my own tent, ripping my clothes off and sliding a flexible black suit that the army had requested Howard Stark to make. I had been given it a few days ago and when my troop asked,I explained what was happening. They looked uncertain about the situation, but trusted me.