It was only a few minutes after Bucky left when their small friend stepped out of the clinic, hands in the pockets of his slacks and eyes looking through the mess of busy people. Searching, obviously, for the girl he'd left outside as he made yet another attempt at joining the military. Angie raised her hand in the air and waved him over, the smile on her face never faltering.

Even though his shoulders sagged and his walk didn't exactly show a skip in his step, the little flutter of his heart when he saw that smile of hers was unpreventable. Evangeline just had that effect on him, though he doubted he was the only guy who had fallen victim to her charm and friendly wit.

She knew from his body language that he'd been denied. He saw her smile fall and become replaced with a gentle look of sympathy and understanding before he'd even said a word.

"I'm sorry, Steve." Before he could say anything to stop her, she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a strong, supportive hug. It was a strange feeling for Steve to receive a hug from Evangeline. On one hand, her hugs were strong, showing him that she didn't think he was too frail or too weak to take it. On the other hand, there was always that whisper of sympathy, that last second before she let him go where the pressure on his body eased up too quickly. He loved them and disliked them all at the same time.

"It's alright, I'll keep trying." Though his phrase should've sounded hopeful, he sighed and would've looked down at the ground in defeat, but was stopped short by Evangeline as she placed her hand beneath his chin so he'd look up at her. 

Yes, up at her.

He hated being short.

"Hey, don't go all 'sad puppy' on me, Rogers." Her words were playfully strict and her eyes were soft. "Don't give up just yet. You can still do this. Just go to another recruiting center, there are plenty of them all around here."

"But I've already been to all of them." He gently grabbed her wrist and brought her hand away from his face. Another beaten sigh escaped his lips. "Well, at least you don't have to worry about me anymore. I can't be killed if I'm not on the front lines." He chuckled sadly. 

As he locked arms with her and began to walk down the sidewalk away from the hospital, he caught something from the corner of his vision. An expression on her face, a quiver of her lips, the faint glimmer of a tear slowly surfacing in her eye.

He'd seen her face every single day of his life, Steve hadn't gone more than twelve hours without it. He'd memorized that face since he was potty-trained, since he could speak, since the beginning of their friendship. The color of her eyes, the way her words flowed from her lips, the gleam of her blonde hair in the sunlight. It was all engraved into his very soul.

Simply stated, it wasn't very hard for him to tell that something was wrong.

They walked silently for a few minutes then, him waiting for her to bring up the new dilemma in her life and her trying her hardest to hide the sad weight on her shoulders that just wouldn't go away. Steve knew she'd mention it sooner or later, she always came to him with her problems. He was a good listener, especially when it came to his best friends.

That was one of the big differences between him and Buck, besides the obvious. Steve was more of a listener, the kind of guy you could vent out your frustrations to and wouldn't take it personally. He'd nod occasionally to let Evangeline know he was on the same page as she spoke and wouldn't hesitate to give her his opinion if she asked for it, though he'd try to spare her feelings as much as possible in the process. Because if she was angry or hurting, he didn't want to add to her burdens. 

While Bucky on the other hand did indeed like to listen, but never really gave his piece on the matter if asked. If Evangeline was sad or mad while telling him about her problems, he liked to go to the gym and beat up as many punching bags as the eye could see. A sort of brutish move, some people might say.  But, regardless, he'd always return to her an hour or two later, dripping in sweat with his boxing gloves in one hand and a fresh cluster of flowers from the market in the other.

"Y'know what will help?" Evangeline's unease was erased and replaced by excitement as the local cinema's flashing sign appeared in their line of sight. "Let's go see a movie. That always cheers you up, right?" Steve did his best to look as happy as she was trying to be. Though he couldn't decide if he was more depressed that he'd been rejected again or that Angie wasn't saying anything about what was on her mind, the small man swallowed his melancholy frown and followed the young woman into the theater.

**********

They didn't get to see the show.

The two had been seated in the theater for ten minutes when the black and white propaganda advertising the war effort began to play. Evangeline felt her heart constrict when she glanced to her right at Steve and saw how he stared longingly, hopelessly at the cinema screen. Though she wanted to take his hand to try and cheer him up, she knew it would've only made things worse. He didn't want her protection, her didn't want to feel any weaker than he knew he was. So instead, she kept her hands in her lap and followed his gaze to the images of battle and violence shuffling across the screen.

"War continues to plague Europe, but help is on the way when every able-bodied young man is signing up to serve their country."

Evangeline closed her eyes and swallowed her guilt when a young boy appeared, scavenging through piles of scrap metal that would turn into guns, bullets, car parts, or plane equipment to aid their side of the fight.

"Even little Timmy is doing his part to help the war effort. Great work, Timmy!"

"Who cares?"

She was caught off-guard when a snobbish voice interrupted the propaganda, puncturing the audience's silence like a needle popping a balloon. The voice and the words being said made her clench her fists and grit her teeth. Of all the times they could've seen a movie, they just happened to end up watching the same one as the biggest pig in Brooklyn. Evangeline wanted to yell at him, to walk straight down the aisle and slap the man across the face as hard as she possibly could. But then she remembered Steve and knew just how much he was hurting. The last thing she needed to do was start a scene and embarrass him.

"Play the movie already!"

"Hey, why don't you show some respect?"

It was Steve who'd spoken up, which made her feel much better about the situation. If he was getting involved, then so could she.

"Yeah, shut up already."

The source of the annoyance got to his feet after that, a man with dark hair and slightly bigger than the average American male, and turned to glare at the duo behind him. At first he appeared to be angry, but as his eyes found Evangeline, his scowl turned into a revolting smirk and he put his hands on his hips.

"Make me, bitch."

"Hey!" Steve jumped to his feet and stood protectively between his friend and the buff idiot a few rows away. "That is no way to speak to a woman. Apologize." Steve demanded the man to do it, but the punk just squinted and turned his head to look past him at Evangeline as she sat there, not speaking for fear of making the situation any worse.

"That's funny, she doesn't look like a woman to me."

That's when Steve decided to take things outside.

Minutes later, he was getting his butt kicked in an alley beside the cinema. Steve was the first to throw a punch, but that didn't do him any favors. The pompous jerk just side-stepped his blow and countered with a jab to Steve's gut, sending him stumbling back against a group of tin garbage cans. Steve fell to the ground, taking the garbage cans with him and causing his opponent to burst out laughing.

Angie wanted to step in, she wanted to break this guy's neck with her bare hands. But she knew if she intervened, Steve would be furious. Yes, he would've been upset over the fact that she could kick that guy's ass and he couldn't, but he'd be even more angry that she'd put herself in harm's way to protect him. That wasn't how it worked in Steve's book; he wanted to be the protector, not the protected.

"You just don't know when to give up, do you?" The bully laughed again as Steve stumbled to his feet, the side of his mouth dripping with blood and his knuckles bruised. Though he was definitely the underdog in this battle, he wasn't ready to go down yet.

"I could do this all da-" Steve was cut short by his opponent's fist knocking him to the pavement, where he lay there for a moment, breathing heavily. Angie put her hand over her mouth to muffle her panicked gasp. She wanted to help, she wanted to help him so badly. Her instincts were telling her to move, to save her friend from this dangerous, humiliating situation, but her mind was telling her to stay put. To stay out of Steve's way, since he thought he was the one who should be rescuing her instead of the other way around. Her heart stopped when the pompous brute turned his attention from Steve, who still lay on the ground, shakily trying to get back on his feet, to Evangeline. 

The smile on his face made her skin crawl.

"Well, now in this light..." He took a step towards her and Angie's hand dropped to her side. "You actually look kind of pretty. What's a girl like you doing hanging around a loser like him?"

"He's my friend," She snarled and balled her fists. "Back off."

"Or you'll do what? Throw your shoe at me?"

"I was actually planning on shoving it up your ass."

"Ooo, kitty's got claws," He took another menacing step towards her, and this time she didn't show any fear. She glanced past the man at Steve, who was leaning up against the wall now, his breath ragged and eyes wide with fear. It was that moment that he realized he couldn't protect her, no matter how much he wanted to in his heart. He wanted to tell her to run, but his asthma was getting the best of him and all he could do was wheeze.

This was going to be interesting.