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Peggy was tired of the rain.
Well, not really.
She was tired of the mud that came with it. But she wasn't going to complain aloud since she was treading on thin ice with Colonel Phillips just by being out here in the field.
Out here in the field with the 107th tactical team, led by Captain Steve Rogers.
So she pulled on her trousers and fastened on her boots like any good soldier and went where the Captain said to go. At the moment, that was at the ridge at the south side of the HYDRA base they were taking down today. Peggy had been with them for the last two and she still sometimes felt shocked at how efficient these seven men could be.
The ground was thick with sticky mud but Peggy had found a wide piece of lumber from a nearby partially built but abandoned farmhouse. The board had been discarded for a twist in the wood so strong that even on the gluey mud it wobbled precariously if there was only weight on one end. As she intended to lay her torso on it to try and keep from sinking into the mud, she felt it would work for her purpose.
From her viewpoint and with binoculars, Peggy could just make out the men slipping around the far side of the facility. A quick habitual count told her there were six men about to do the infiltration. Where was Bucky?
A single twig breaking downwind and down the hill from her position was answer enough. She held her breath while she watched and waited for him to appear. When he was in sight, she turned back to her surveillance.
Bucky laid down on the other end of her board. The warped board followed his heavier weight and tilted up, digging into her right hip uncomfortably. Peggy let out a soft grunt which he ignored as he set about getting his rifle stabilized.
The silence between them, while they waited for the raid to begin, was comfortable. They had worked together like this before along with trading off watches during the early hours of the morning. Neither of them slept very well.
The violent report of Bucky's first shot was horribly loud but after the first one, Peggy didn't jump. She was used to gunfire and, she was remarkable with a gun. If she weren't barred from fighting by her sex she could have joined Bucky as a marksman.
Peggy glanced down at her watch and counted the seconds until Dernier's first explosion. She tapped her finger in time with the second hand, ten, nine, eight... at two she looked at Bucky so the brilliance of the enormous fireball wouldn't momentarily blind her. He glanced at her, and when the detonation when off, he gave her a tiny grin.
It took a while for the dust to settle. The two of them continued to monitor the situation, Bucky always at the ready to protect the men. He took a shot, swore under his breath, and started to stand up. Their shared board wobbled.
"What's wrong?" Peggy asked, watching as he collected his shell casings.
"Sometimes I can tell that he didn't go through basic like the rest of us. Idiot waved at me."
Peggy started to stand as well. Although the destruction of the HYRDA base was mostly complete, it would be bad to linger where any stragglers may have seen Steve give away their position.
The board they'd been using wobbled again and before Peggy could step completely off of it, Bucky did, which sent her end tipping back the other direction. It threw her balance off. Her arms pinwheeled comically as she began to tip backward. Barnes's eyes widened in shock as he realized she was about to fall. He reached for her but didn't quite catch her in time. Instead, he threw his own balance off.
Peggy tumbled backward and would have shouted if the first landing hadn't knocked the air out of her lungs. She crossed her arms over her chest and tucked her chin and waited for the inertia to end. When she finally came to an end, it was with a splat. A second splat happened to her left immediately after, followed by a masculine groan.
She opened her eyes to see Bucky covered in mud and frowning at her. "You okay?" he asked.
Peggy took a moment to check for broken bones, abrasions, or stab wounds from tree roots. Besides the thick coating of mud and the overall aching from the tumble, she felt fine. She nodded. "You?"
"Yeah."
Unfortunately, it took much longer to get out of the boggish mud than it did to get in. Every step Peggy took caused her to sink up to her knees in a vacuum of mud, and she slipped and fell backward twice trying to leverage herself out. Barnes fared better, as he was taller, but he too struggled.
By the time they got themselves onto firmer ground, it had been at least an hour. The soft crunch of leaves and twigs underfoot announced someone's arrival. Barnes lifted his rifle to his shoulder only to look down on it in disgust. With so much mud coating it, Peggy didn't think it would function at all. She reached for her pistol, which was still thankfully tucked away in the case on her belt but before she could draw it, she heard Steve calling their names.
"Peggy? Bucky?" Steve said, just as he came into view. "Where have you been? You missed the rendezvous." He stopped a few feet from them and looked them up and down. "If you'd wanted a mud bath, you could have at least waited for me."
Peggy looked at Bucky as he looked back at her. Without hesitation, they both bent and grabbed handfuls of mud and slung it at Steve.
Peggy expected the jokes to be relentless when they regrouped with the team but after the first comment, nothing else was said. Dugan was the one to say it. He gave them a look—Bucky and Peggy coated from head to toe, and Steve with mud caked in his thick hair, and on his face, arms, and chest and said, "I think you got a smudge of dirt on your forehead, Cap."
Monty was good enough to find them a stream to camp next to that night.