The emotional roller-coaster Steve found himself trapped on sent him reeling as the events before him began to take place.

He felt his heart drop to his boots when Peggy began to say that Evangeline hadn't checked in. Even though he'd done his best to keep her safe, to get her out of the hell she'd been put through and brought back to somewhere she could rest without having to constantly worry about being attacked, it hadn't been enough. The image of the burning truck thirty miles away crawled into his mind like an angry predator, ready to bring him to his knees and finish the job that those hundreds of Hydra soldiers couldn't.

Then a wave of joy washed over himself at the sound of Evangeline's strained voice. Maybe they hadn't given her time to check in, maybe she'd needed medical help and they decided to rush her to Stark's tent before they could get all of her identification papers filed. After all, she'd been in an almost insane state when he found her in that metal box, curled up in the corner like a scared dog with its tail tucked between its legs. It was miracle she could even walk and talk, let alone shout Bucky's name and sprint for the sergeant like he was the last lifeboat on the Titanic.

Everything went downhill from that point on. 

It was painfully obvious just how close Evangeline and Bucky had gotten within the few months he wasn't with them. How they hugged each other, how they cried together and smiled relieved smiles together, the way she wiped Bucky's tears away and he instinctively nuzzled into her touch. Steve's friends weren't just friends anymore.

And then Bucky got on one knee.

And said the words that Evangeline had waited to hear her entire life, the words that she and Steve would talk about on the roof when they were alone, dreaming of what their futures would be like and who they'd end up being with. Not once had Steve said anything about his affection towards her and she never showed any indication that she reciprocated the feelings he felt throughout those talks of future marriages, future children and grandchildren.

It was his own fault for not speaking up earlier, for not speaking up the night before they left New York. He'd had all the right chances and yet something had kept him from speaking up. Whether it be from the fear of rejection or his lack of confidence when he was nothing but a shrimp, Steve had wasted his opportunity to tell her how he felt before Bucky could beat him to the punch. Though he did try to shout out his feelings just as their boat was leaving the dock, it wasn't enough. 

Steve stood there, dumbfounded, just like the rest of the crowd spectating this scene. 

"No."

At first, Steve didn't know who had spoken- Angie, himself, or someone else in the crowd. It was random, completely unexpected and it caused everyone to look around for the culprit of the refusal. That was when Colonel Phillips and Howard Stark decided to join the party.

"Corporal Harris," The title caught Steve off guard considering the last time he saw Evangeline, she was just a nurse. But it didn't seem too much stranger compared to the rest of the events that had happened in the last five minutes. "Carter, Rogers, Barnes, my tent. Now." Though the colonel had every reason to be over-joyed with Steve's rescue (despite Steve taking action against Phillips's wishes), there was something in the air that didn't feel right. Especially after the old man answered Bucky's question to Evangeline himself, which Steve knew was going to piss Bucky off 'til the day he died. Way to kill the moment, colonel.

Mr.Stark grabbed onto Evangeline's wrist and began to lead the group after the colonel, while the eyes of their fellow soldiers watched in complete silence.

**********

The group of six all made their way into the colonel's tent, where Phillips briskly told the other soldiers inside to go get themselves some coffee, which was code for 'get the hell out'. The colonel stood behind his desk, Peggy stood off to his right while Stark sat in a chair to his left, Steve folded his arms and leaned against one of the tent posts, Angie slid her hands into the large pockets of Steve's coat while standing a foot away from him.

"What the hell are you thinking?"

"What the- what do you mean 'what the hell am I thinking?" Bucky questioned with his hands on his hips, his eyes narrowed and locked on the old man standing on the opposite side of the big wooden desk. "We were tortured for three days straight with no hope of you guys rescuing us, I think we earned a happy moment."

"I don't think that's what the colonel was getting at-"

"I can speak for myself, Mr.Stark," Colonel Phillips monotonously interrupted, then turned his wrinkled old face back to the sergeant. "And I meant exactly what I said. That is the stupidest thing you could've done at a time like this, I don't give a damn how head-over-heels you two are for each other. You've just opened a door full of problems, boy."

"Mind naming them?" Buck sassed back.

"Gladly," Colonel Phillips was not one to back down when it came to stubbornness and being an ass. "You two get married and Harris ends up pregnant, what the hell are you going to do with a baby, if it even survives being carried by one of Hydra's experiments? What if it kills her? What if it kills us? We know nothing about the danger she could pose to the camp, no one gave us a hand-book when Harris arrived at camp looking like she was just birthed out of a radioactive pumpkin."

"She didn't ask for this," Steve spoke up, his arms folded over his chest and his back leaning against one of the tent support beams. "It's not her fault she's..." Evangeline looked up from the ground as she stood beside him, her face as stoic and blank as a sheet of paper. "...different. We're lucky that she even got out in the first place."

"Thanks to Captain Rogers, I might add," Peggy chimed in.

"I realize he's an American hero now, Carter," Phillips stated. "But that has nothing to do with the situation at hand. Stark," Everyone turned their heads to the man in the corner, sitting on a wooden chair and waiting patiently for when he was needed. "You're the scientist here, you'd have an idea of how dangerous this could be. Throw me a bone." Howard straightened his tie and got to his feet, though his expression was anything other than happy to oblige to the colonel's needs.

"Honestly, I think the colonel has a point," Howard started. "When I asked Angie for a sample of the chemicals she can produce from her hands, all I could get was a dot the size of my fingertip because any more than that had the potential to put a crater where my tent was. I don't even want to think of how much damage she could do if she accidentally gets shot. As much help as she's been the last few months," He sighed and scratched the back of his neck, his eyes aimed at the ground. "I think she's turned into more of a liability than an asset."

"Are you kidding me?" Evangeline scoffed. "How many concentration camps have I helped infiltrate? How many lives have I saved from bleeding out or dying of infection? Were you not there when I blew up an entire squadron of Hydra soldiers headed back for Azzano as reinforcements? Or how I dragged Henry thirty miles so that he wouldn't be left to die in a ditch? Oh, wait, you weren't."

"We commend you for your help, Corporal," the Colonel was picking up on her point and knew that there was only one way this conversation was going to go. "But until we know for certain that you're safe enough to be on the front lines, we have no choice but to get you out of here."

"You can't do that," Bucky growled. "We need her-"

"No, we don't," Phillips growled right back. "You need her. Which is why you're leaving, too."

"Woah, woah, woah," Steve stood up from his casual position and walked up to Buck and Colonel Phillips. "No, that's not going to happen. Neither one of them are going anywhere-"

"You don't give me orders, son, I run the show here."

"And your show is about to go down in flames if Captain America decides to abandon ship." Phillips raised an eyebrow at the sound of that. Peggy stiffened and Howard rubbed his chin nervously. They all knew now that Steve wasn't just a dancing monkey, he was an icon, a legend in the making. He had a little more pull, a little more influence than he did before, whether the colonel liked it or not.

"You're bluffing."

"Wanna take the risk?" Steve clamped a supportive hand on Bucky's shoulder and interlocked Evangeline's fingers with his own, knowing that he hadn't come all the way across the Atlantic ocean to just fight a war- Steve came to join his friends, wherever they were going to end up regardless of the consequences. 

Because no matter what, they were with each other 'til the end of the line.