What Brandt promised Steve was not what he expected. He did shows and movies, and took pictures with little kids. I went to a couple of his shows but I ducked out before he could see me. I went to see all of his movies too. I planned on embarrassing him as soon as I saw him again. I smiled without realizing. I tend to do that everytime I think about him.

"Why do you keep smiling?" Peggy raised one of her eyebrows up in question.
"I'm not, Peg. You're seeing things." I turned away before she could question me further. While Steve was being paraded around like some toy, I got to work closely with Peggy.

"Oh! I forgot to mention, Steve is coming tomorrow to do a show for the soldiers." Peggy casually mentioned, glancing at me to see my reaction.
"Oh. That's great." I replied nonchalantly and continued what I was doing. It was quite late at night so I made some excuse about wanting to read a little bit and went to bed.
I couldn't sleep and I have no idea why.
~
"How many of you are ready to help me sock old Adolf on the jaw?" I heard the familiar voice ring throughout the camp. But I didn't hear any replies. The men are going to embarrass him. I sighed at the thought. Peggy and I were in one of the tents with Colonel. We were doing paperwork, and other boring things. My limbs itched to fight or do something productive.

"Okay..." Steve replied when no one said anything. "Uhh... I need a volunteer!"
"I already volunteered! How do you think I got here?" Some soldier retorted from the audience. The crowd suddenly came to life with laughter at the comment.

"Bring back the girls!" Another man yelled. The other soldiers cheered at his request.
"I think they only know the one song," Steve hesitated. "But, um, I-I'll see what I can do!"
"You do that, sweetheart." These imbeciles seriously need to shut their mouths.
"Nice boots, Tinkerbell!" Everyone else chuckled at his comment.
"Nice manners, you git." I snapped, coming from behind the makeshift stage. Steve shot a surprised but grateful smile at me before turning forward again.

"Come on guys, we're all on the same team here." he tried to reason but they weren't having it.
"Hey, Captain!" A man got up. "Sign this." He turned around and pulled his pants down. I gasped in outrage. The crowd cheered.
"There's a lady here!" Steve said before looking at me apologetically.
"Repulsive!" I shook my head in disgust. Soon they were throwing fruits at him. He ducked and used his shield to cover himself. He walked off the stage and the girls ran onto stage to please them. The soldiers grew wild and cheered. I didn't see Steve for a while after that.

"Hello Steve." Peggy offered when we finally found him. I had told her what the soldiers had done and begged her to help me find him. He looked up from his notebook. His eyes lit up when he looked at us and I gave him a little wave.
"Hi." I caught a glance at his notebook. I was impressed with the drawing skills that he had but the monkey on a unicycle caught my eye. I wondered if he was referring to himself when he drew that.

"Hi." I said.
"What are you doing here?" I placed my jacket on a wooden box and sat down on top of it. Peggy did the same.
"Officially, we're not here at all." I answered for us.

"That was quite a performance." Peggy smiled, cautiously. Steve looked down at his notebook again.
"Yeah. Uhh." Steve said awkwardly. He scratched his nose. "I had to improvise a little bit. The crowds I'm used to are usually more, uh, twelve." I chuckled.

"I understand you're 'America's New Hope'" I grinned.
"Bond sales take a 10% bump in every state I visit." he replied sorrowfully.
"Is that Senator Brandt I hear?" I narrowed my eyes.

"At least he's got me doing this." It was like he was reassuring himself. "Phillips would have had me stuck in a lab." He had a point but it's not fair. If they had asked me to do it too, I would have never agreed.
"And these are your only two options?" I pushed. "A lab rat or a dancing monkey." I furrowed my eyebrows in irritation and gestured toward his illustration. "You were meant for more than this, you know." I encouraged him.

He just looked at me.
"What?" I asked, slightly blushing at his intense gaze.

"You know for the longest time, I dreamed about coming overseas and being on the front lines, and serving my country." he looked off into the rain in a sad trance. "I finally got everything I wanted... and I'm wearing tights." I was deep in thought when my attention was taken by a first aid truck. It's horn beeped loudly as if calling for attention. Men ran to the doors and opened it, bringing out some men in stretchers. Peggy and I looked at each other and sighed. They were here. Steve had also noticed the truck and looked on in pity.

"They look like they've been through hell." he stated.
"These men more than most." Peggy informed. Peggy hesitated and looked at me before continuing. I nodded. "Schmidt sent out a force to Azzano. Two hundred men went up against him and less than 50 returned."

"Your audience contained what was left of the 107th. The rest were killed or captured." Steve's head snapped towards me as I spoke.
"The 107th?!" he asked even though I knew he heard perfectly clearly. I nodded in response.

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