1943

"Y/n, he'll be fine. Have faith that Doctor Erskine and Stark know exactly what they're doing." Peggy said from behind Y/n, sitting on the edge of her bed.

"Yeah... I know Peg." Y/n sighed, pacing around the small room that her and Peggy shared at the base. "God I just... I just want to make sure Steve knows what he's doing."

Y/n turned to Peggy and was thrown that same look she'd been giving her all week. She stood up and placed her hands on Y/n's shoulders. "You Darling, need to focus on getting ready. I'm sure Steve will want you by his side through the whole thing."

Y/n chuckled softly and nodded. "You're right. Gosh I guess it's sorta exciting, getting to witness Howard Stark make history."

Peggy hummed in agreement as she fixed her lipstick with a small pocket mirror. "He's quite brilliant."

Peggy gestured Y/n outside. "Let's go. We're off to Brooklyn today."

"I'll be out in a sec." Y/n nodded. She turned to the small box sitting idle on the nightstand. She opened it delicately and traced her finger gently on the bracelet.

For my best girl

She let out a shaky breath before clipping it on her wrist, tucking it under her sleeve. "We miss you Buck."

The more she stared at the bracelet, the more she felt more at ease for today's event.

"Y/n let's go!" Peggy called once again from outside.

"Yeah, yeah I'm coming!" Y/n said with a chuckle.

Later

"I know this neighborhood." Steve told Peggy, peering out the window as they drove. He pointed "I got beat up in that alley."

"Steve." Y/n frowned.

"And that parking lot."

Peggy stayed silent, giving Y/n a look.

"And behind that diner."

Peggy spoke before Y/n could scold him for his negativity. "Did you have something against running away?"

He shook his head. "You start running, they'll never let you stop. You stand up, push back. They can't say no forever, right?"

Peggy chuckled softly. "I know a little of what that's like, to have every door shut in your face."

Y/n raised her eyebrows in curiosity. Peggy was an extraordinary woman, and it was easy to forget that she most likely had to undergo many steps to be where she was now.

Steve paused for a second. "I guess I just don't know why you'd want to join the Army, if you were a beautiful dame. Or a... a woman."

Peggy turned and have him a look as he rambled on.

"No one asked me that when I joined the army." Y/n muttered quietly to herself.

"An agent. Not a dame. You are beautiful, but..."

Y/n buried her face in her hands. "S-Steve just stop."

"You have no idea how to talk to a woman, do you?" Peggy grinned.

Steve smirked to himself. "I think this is the longest conversation I've had with one. Women aren't exactly lining up to dance with a guy they might step on."

"You must have danced."

"Well, asking a woman to dance always seemed so terrifying. And the last few years, it just didn't seem to matter that much. I figured I'd wait."

"For what?"

He sighed. "The right partner."

Peggy smiled softly and turned to Y/n. She was busy staring out the window, feeling the heavy sense of being the third wheel.

"What does your bracelet say?"

Y/n's eyes jerked to her wrist to see her golden bracelet hadn't been hidden as well as she intended. "Oh! I-it's nothing, just a gift from somebody."

Peggy let out a laugh. "And who's "best girl" are you exactly?"

Y/n's cheeks blazed a crimson red. "It's not like that! It's just something my best friend gifted to me before he was drafted."

"Our best friend." Steve said from beside Peggy.

"Right, of course." Y/n nodded.

The car eventually pulled up in front of an antique shop. Y/n and Steve exchanged a confused look. "What are we doing here?" Y/n questioned.

"Follow me." Peggy led them into the back of the small shop. An elderly lady appeared from the room behind. "Wonderful weather this morning, isn't it?"

Peggy responded quickly. "Yes, but I always carry an umbrella."

Steve and Y/n watched as the lady walked to the back of the register counter and switched something on.

Peggy continued to walk past the curtain in the back to the other room, with a giant bookshelf. As if on cue, the bookshelves swung open, revealing to be secret doors to a hallway.

"Woah." Was all Y/n managed to breathe out.

Soldiers surrounded the rims of the hall as they proceeded through, some giving Peggy an acknowledging nod.

At the end of the hall, there was another set of doors. Y/n gaped as soon as they opened, as a ginormous lab was disclosed on the other side.

Everybody had stopped what they were working on to catch a glimpse of Steve, or in their eyes, the experiment. He ignored the stares however, as his gaze fell onto the machine in the middle. The machine that would change his life forever.

Y/n gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "I'm here. Don't worry."

He was taken down the steps into the lab and greeted by Doctor Erskine. "Good morning." He waved off the photographers and reporters all buzzing around the lab with eagerness.

He watched as Steve eyed the machine. "Are you ready?"

Steve gave a small nod.

"Good."

Y/n watched anxiously from one of the chairs above as he was placed into the machine. Part of her wished Steve could change his mind right then and there. What would she do with herself if she were to lose her other best friend.

Her family.

Of course, Bucky wasn't dead, but the paranoia lingered with her every day that something might have happened to him. If only he were here to see where her and Steve had ended up. He'd probably say something along the lines of, "Idiots, what the hell have ya gotten yourselves into."

Her attention snapped back to the present when she heard a familiar name being called.

"Mr. Stark, how are your levels?"

The famous scientist, engineer appeared from the back of the room. "Levels at 100%. We may dim half the lights in Brooklyn, but we are ready... as we'll ever be." He chuckled nervously, flashing a smile Steve's way.

Y/n watched as Peggy anxiously glanced behind her as she made her way up to the booth where Y/n was sitting.

"Who's the nervous one now?" Y/n bumped her side playfully.

"I was waiting for you to say that." She sighed. "I trust Stark, Doctor Erskine as well. Steve will pull through just fine." Y/n nodded, twirling her bracelet around in her fingers.

"Ladies and gentlemen." Doctor Erskine spoke over the PA. "Today, we take not another step towards annihilation, but the first step on the path to peace."

Y/n's eyes widened as the large metal case in the center slid open, revealing seven different tubes filled with a blue liquid.

"We begin with a series of microinjections into the subject's major muscle groups. The serum infusion will cause immediate cellular change. And then, to stimulate growth, the subject will be saturated with Vita-Rays." Doctor Erskine explained.

"Damn." Y/n breathed out.

Steve grimaced as the small needle pierced his skin. Y/n recognized the drug to be penicillin from her time as a nurse.

"That wasn't so bad." Steve exhaled.

Y/n snorted as Doctor Erskine informed him that it was just a measly penicillin injection, causing Steve's face to drain color.

"Serum infusion beginning in five..."

"Four..."

"Three..."

"Two..."

"One..."

The tubes drained of the blue serum into Steve's small body. He squeezed his eyes shut at the sudden sensation.

"Now Mr. Stark." Erskine ordered.

Stark flipped the small switch and raised the machine with Steve upwards. The doors surrounding it enclosed him inside, with a tiny window that was too high to see Steve through. Y/n felt her nails dig into the armrests of her seat. 

Doctor Erskine knocked on the machine. "Steven? Can you hear me?"

"It's probably too late to go to the bathroom, right?" Steve said from inside.

Y/n let out a small laugh. "Idiot." She thought to herself.

Doctor Erskine ordered Stark and the rest of the scientists to proceed. Stark turned a few knobs and began to push the electricity through the machine.

"That's ten percent." He informed.

"Twenty."

A blinding light beamed though the little window as Stark powered more and more electricity.

"Sixty."

"Seventy!"

Everyone gaped when Steve could be heard screaming from inside the machine. Peggy stood up and descended down the booth.

"STEVE!" Y/n cried out.

"Shut it down!" Peggy instructed.

Doctor Erskine repeatedly banged on the window "Steven!"

"Shut it down!" Peggy begged once more.

"Y/n hurried down the stairs. "Get him the hell out of there, now!"

Erskine frantically waved to Stark. "Kill the reactor Mr. Stark! Turn it off! Kill it! Kill the reactor!"

"NO!" Steve called out. "DON'T! I CAN DO THIS!"

Stark looked to the doctor before hesitantly turning the wheel to maximum power, with Steve's cries drowned out.

Sparks suddenly erupted from the surrounding technology from the amount of power being used, causing everyone to duck down. Y/n kept her hand above her eyes to shield the light.

Suddenly, the machine slowly powered down, with the light dying away. Everyone stopped and stared, waiting for the outcome to be revealed.

"Mr. Stark!" Erskine turned to Stark, who flipped the switch to open the doors to the machine.

Everyone's jaw dropped as a muscular, tall figure was presented on the other side instead of that five-foot-four Steve Rogers who they saw just a minute ago.

"S-Steve?" Y/n hastily followed Peggy down the stairs.

Her best friend gasped exhaustingly as Doctor Erskine and Stark helped him down to the ground. Reporters, soldiers and scientists all spectating around him.

"I did it." He panted.

"I think we did it." The doctor beamed.

"You actually did it." Stark marveled.

Peggy weaved through the crowd of people to reach him among the excitement. She stood, speechless, that he was the same man that went in.

"How do you feel?" She managed to get out.

"...taller." He said as he looked down at himself.

She shook off her staring and handed him a T-shirt. "You look taller."

Y/n smirked to herself at their interaction. He looked up and smiled her way. "You did it." She mouthed.

"Yeah." He replied weakly.

"Bucky will flip the next time he sees Steve." She sniggered.

Y/n's gaze shifted to Doctor Erskine, who had a look of pure terror plastered on his face. She turned in the direction he was looking, and as if time had slowed down, she saw it. The switch in the suspicious man's hand.

The explosion sounded from above in one of the observatories. The glass shattered and sent everyone plunging to the ground.

And then the shots were fired.

Y/n looked up, her ears ringing and the noise of everyone's panic deafened. Doctor Erskine was laying limp on the floor. Her and Steve both fell to his side. With the last of his strength, he pointed to both of their hearts, a weak smile evident on his lips.

Steve's eyes darkened as his head rose in the assailant's direction. Y/n bit her lip, holding back the tears that threatened to appear.

"The one man that believed in us." She choked.

It wasn't until she opened her eyes, that Steve was gone.