Dear Mary,

First off, you and Steve did what?! Please tell me you're at least keeping him and yourself out of trouble and/or danger, we both know how danger prone the two of you are.

You're gonna be a nurse huh? I always felt that you had a calling for taking care of people, age never mattered to you. At age 10, you helped a toddler at the play ground the three of us were at. The toddler had fallen and you were the first to help, looking the boy over, checking to see if he was hurt, you were nearly as tall as the little boy but you still picked him up because he wanted to be held. You held him 'til his mother came to check on him and take him home.

At age 14, Steve was 16, he had his first big injury from being his stubborn ass, getting himself picked on at school and bullied, i swear his second address is any alleyway he can find. He had broken his nose from a punch thrown by Gilroy Turner, you don't know this, but i beat him up the following day. You couldn't take Stevie to a hospital because money was very tight, seeing as your mother had fallen ill few weeks prior.

You had stocked up on first aid supplies, just in case something like this ever happened. i still remember Steve's shout of pain as you assessed his nose and reset it. You've been patching him and I up ever since then.

I know you'll be amazing at nursing, just don't go into battle will ya? I don't think my heart can take the stress that would bring me.

I'm proud of you for making a friend, never thought i'd see the day it happened, you were always shy, never one to speak up, only voicing your opinion when it seemed important to you or when Steve or myself were concerned; then you had a million things to say.

I'll keep an eye out for your next letter,
My Petite Nurse.
Your Sarge, Bucky

Camp Lehigh,
Wheaton, New Jersey
June 21, 1943

Mary folds the letter in her hands, smiling to herself, her sarge, she thought to herself. She was happy to see Bucky's letter in the mail when she arrived back to her room.

She sets the letter in the drawer of her nightstand, then stands up, looking at herself in the small mirror she had brought with her when she and Steve left to live in Camp Lehigh. She pulls her hair into a bun, then puts on her shoes. Doctor Erskine had asked to see her and her brother in Steve bunk room.

As she walks towards the recruit bunk room, she remembers what Erskine had told her days prior.

"I plan on choosing Steven for the serum trial." Erskine states as he shows Mary how to stitch up a deep wound on a body. The girl's hazel eyes widen briefly, but she nods, humming in response.

"I had a hunch that would be the case." She mumbles quietly, "The protective sister in me wants to protest against it, but the supportive sister is telling me that he truly is the best choice." She murmurs, looking up at Doctor Erskine.

The doctor looks down at the girl, a small smile on his lips, "I'm glad you see past your protective side, I've seen how difficult that can be for you over the few months." He comments, "You've grown as much as he has, Kleine, if not more."He adds.

Mary continues to look at him, raising an eyebrow, "Kleine?" She asks, puzzled by the word he used to call her, "What does that mean?"

"It means Little One in German." He informs the girl, "You remind me much of my daughter, Sofia, so full of life and spirit, before the Nazi's took her and my beloved wife Ingrid, away from me."

Mary's hazel eyes become clouded by the tears forming, never knowing until now how much the Doctor she's come to deeply care for has lost since the war started, "Thank you.. for telling me." She tells him quietly, finishing up her work, she sits down in a wooden chair, the doctor following suit, "I don't remember much of my father, he passed away when i was six, the influenza got hold of him. So it was just Mother, Steve and I until for some years after Father passed.

"Mother was working double shifts at a garment factory and did laundry for other neighbors, she fell ill, and passed away three weeks later, i was fourteen then." She tells the doctor, tears falling from her hazel eyes, she looks away from Erskine, a little ashamed to be showing emotion when she's talking with her superior.

"Mother called me in days before she passed, making me promise to look after Steve," she chokes out, "I swore to her that i would no matter what." She tells him, "That's why i'm so protective over him, if he died or his asthma gets worse because I didn't do my part, then the promise i made to my mother would be broken." She explains, the tears feel like they'll never stop falling from her hazel eyes.

Erskine nods, standing up from his chair, taking Mary from her seat and wrapping his arms around her tightly, "There now, Kleine." He soothes the girl, smoothing her hair down as she releases what has been built up over the years.

The nurse feels like a dam has been opened, she can't stop the tears falling from her eyes, staining Erskine's lab coat in the process. She's never been able to tell anyone these things because they were private to her. Steve knew some things, but she never wanted to burden him with more, and Bucky, she couldn't burden him either with her troubles, she wouldn't do that to the only two people in her life that meant more to her than her own life.

When Mary's finally able to calm herself, she smiles up at the Doctor, "Thank you, Doctor Erskine." She tells him, he smiles at that.

"Please, Kleine, there's no need to thank me, i'll always be here for you." He tells her, at that moment, the nurse comes to the realization that Doctor Erskine has become like a father to her, and for that, she's grateful. He says one final thing before he sends Mary off to sleep, "The only thing you can do, is be the best you can be, not for Steven, not for that Sergeant you and Steve keep mentioning, but for yourself. The only way you can help others like you've chosen to do, is to be the best version of yourself that you can be." He tells Mary, her heart warming at his words, she nods, taking them immediately to heart.

"I will."

The opening of the door to the recruits bunk room snaps Mary out of her thoughts, seeing Steve already seated on a bed, facing Doctor Erskine, she walks into the room, sitting beside her brother, smiling at the two of them.

"Stevie, Doctor Erskine." She says, receiving smiles from both men, "is there a reason i was asked to be here?" She asks.

"We're having a small toast for your brother as a send off before tomorrow." Erskine explains, Mary notices how he brought a bottle of Schnapps, she nods in response.

Steve looks at Erskine, "Can i ask you a question?" He asks, taking Mary's hand in the process.

Erskine chuckles, "Only one?" He quips.

Steve nods, "Why me?"

Mary looks between the two men, already knowing some of the answer, but she decides to keep quiet at the moment, just happy she's been invited to share this moment with her brother and Doctor Erskine.

"I suppose that is the only question that matters." He gestures down to his bottle of Schnapps, "This is from Augsburg. My city. So many people forget that the first country that the Nazi's invaded was their own. You know, after the last war the... my people struggled. They... they felt weak. They felt small. And then Hitler comes along with the marching and the big show and the flags and the... and the..." Erskine waves his hand dismissively, "And he... he hears of me, my work and he finds me. And he says, "You." He says, "You will make us strong." Well, I am not interested. So he sends the head of HYDRA, his research division. A brilliant scientist by the name of Johann Schmidt.

"Now, Schmidt is a member of the inner circle and he's ambitious. He and Hitler share a passion for occult power and Teutonic myth. Hitler uses his fantasies to inspire his followers. But for Schmidt, it is not fantasy. For him, it is real. He has become convinced that there is a great power hidden in the earth, left here by the Gods, waiting to be seized by a superior man. So when he hears about my formula and what it can do, he cannot resist." Erskine tells his story, the siblings entranced by his words. "Schmidt must become that superior man, he did so, by injecting my serum."

Steve is the first to speak up, "Did it make him stronger?"

Erskine nods solemnly, "Yes. But, there were other effects. The serum was not ready. But more important, the man. The serum amplifies everything that is inside. So, good becomes great. Bad becomes worse. This is why you were chosen. Because a strong man, who has known power all his life, will lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength, and knows compassion." He tells Steve, glancing at Mary, "and why I've decided to share my formula with Mary." He adds.

The girl's hazel eyes widen, "Me? What? Why?" She asks the doctor, but all Steve can do is smile at his little sister, finally carving her own way through the world.

"Because i trust you, Kleine." He states, using the nickname he and the girl both have grown fond of.

Steve nods after the small interaction, "Thanks. I think." He tells Erskine.

Erskine proceeds to pour three glasses of the Schnapps he brought, handing one to Steve and the other to Mary, "Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me and your sister one thing. That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man." He states, Mary nods in agreement, smiling at her brother

Steve holds up his glass, Mary and Erskine following suit, "To the little guys." He states.

"And girls." Mary adds quickly, making both men laugh.

Steve goes to take a sip of the Schnapps, Erskine is quick to stop him, "No! No! Wait! Wait! What I am doing? No! You have a procedure tomorrow. No fluids." He finalizes as he pours Steve's glass into his own.

As Mary laughs, Steve's frowns, "All right. We'll drink it after." He concludes.

Erskine raises an eyebrow, "No! Mary and I don't have procedure tomorrow. Drink it after? Drink it now!" He exclaims.

The nurse laughs more, then clinks her glass against Erskine's, drinking her Schnapps, cringing as it burns down her throat, coughing afterwards, "Oh that is horrid." She murmurs, in turn, making both men laugh.

Mary winces at the slight burn left in her throat, but quickly puts it out of her mind as she laughs with the two men.

As Erskine walks Mary back to her room after they had left Steve to sleep for the big day tomorrow, she turns to look at the Doctor, "You're really giving me the formula of the serum?" She asks quietly

Erskine nods, his hands in his pockets, taking one out to open the door for the nurse, she steps into her room, the doctor stays outside, "I've watched you since you and your brother arrived and i took you on an my assistant and apprentice." He explains, "I can see you have nothing but good intentions, Kleiner, i would rest easy knowing it'd be in your hands as well as mine." He tells Mary.

She's quick to nod, "I wont tell a soul, not even Steve." She replies, knowing the weight of the secret Erskine is telling her.

The doctor smiles briefly, watching as the young girl wraps her arms around him, he tucks a piece of paper with the serum formula into her hand, "This formula is precious to me, Kleiner."

The hazel eyed girl breaks the hug, staring into Erskine's glass covered eyes, nodding, holding onto the paper tightly, "No one will know, I'll memorize it then burn the paper if i have too." She informs him, the doctor chuckles, nodding.

"I know, now get some sleep. Tomorrow is a very big day for all of us." He tells her, Mary hums in response, shutting her door as she watches Erskine walk back to his room.

She quickly opens the paper she was given, committing the formula to memory as she lays in her bed, she looks around, deciding on the lighter Bucky had given her as a gift, she felt it odd to have a lighter, but Bucky teased her saying "All the stress of taking care of Stevie will cause you to start smoking, so i saved you the trouble of finding a good lighter for when the time comes."

She finds a metal bowl, reading over the formula once more to make sure she has it secure in her memory, the steps, the ingredients, the process, she committed everything.

She lights the small paper on fire, dropping it into the metal bowl, "I'll keep it safe, Doctor Erskine, I promise."

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