Semper Fi Ch. 20 (Captain America: TWS)

Rumlow clears his throat, but the two ignore us. I knew about Schmidt, so I ignore him for now, choosing to size up the woman, and deem her a threat or not. She's small, maybe five foot two or so, and blonde. She's attractive, blonde hair and red-painted lips, and her uniform hugs an hourglass shaped body. A body I wished I had. I don't compare her to myself now, however. She has a gleam in her eye that I can't place, but it's familiar, dangerous. She and Schmidt whisper in German, then points to me and Rumlow. Schmidt turns, and smiles at as as best he can with a face that looks like it had been burned off. He orders us to sit.
 "I almost forgot about our meeting." Says Schmidt, turning his chair entirely so we can see him. He grabs the woman's arm, whispers something to her, and she nods, departing quickly.
 "You were occupied." I say smoothly, "I can understand that."
 "I called you down because of her. Do you know who she is?" Schmidt asks. I run through my list of short blonde women and then shake my head. Rumlow's gone pale. "Your Brock Rumlow knows."
 "She's Marie Siegfried." He says quietly, hands gripping the armrests a little tighter. He sounds shocked, awed and worried all at once. Schmidt nods.
 "She was the woman in the cryo-tube yesterday. HYDRA has been working on a way to thaw her out, and the experiment worked, her vitals evened out under the ice, so they let her out soon after, acclimating her slowly. But this is not important. What is, is that she will be joining the Skeleton Crew." Brock and I both stare at him.
 "Sir," I say, "With all due respect, I think that might be a bad idea."
 "And why is that?" Schmidt questions, hands folded, but his jaw tense.
 "Sir," I know the name now that Rumlow's said it, "Half of my men are American Military. They barely want to take orders from me that come from you. What makes you think they'd work with her? She's a-,"
 "Nazi. I know about your long-standing hatred for the party, but-,"
 "Sir," Rumlow interjects, "Diana is right. You give the orders, but we're the ones in the field. A Nazi woman among American Marines would be asking for trouble."
 "She aligned with the Nazis to get their resources, as did I. And then she pledged her loyalty to me, and, I in turn, saved her life. Now, you two will escort Miss Siegfried to her new quarters, and you will introduce her to the rest of the team. Am I clear?" His voice is threatening. I know when to pick my battles, so I incline my head.
 "Yes sir." I manage, "But if she causes a row, I will have to follow protocol."
 "She won't, and neither will you, Miss Calhoun." I set my jaw to keep in the nasty things I wanted to say to Schmidt.
 "You can call me Sergeant Major." I snarl, "I earned that title."
 "Then you can call me Führer. Because I earned that title." Schmidt snaps, "Return tonight at 20h30 and tell me how she is adjusting to the team." He dismisses us, and Rumlow leads me out of the room before I decide that HYDRA isn't worth it and kill Schmidt with my bare hands.

 I call a private meeting with Rollins, Lester, Batroc and the Braddock boys. They all assemble in the training center. We stand in a loose circle. My arms are crossed, as are my thoughts. Rumlow is standing to my right, Clay to my left. The rest of them are in front of me, Jack and Batroc side by side, Jack with his arms crossed, Batroc with his uncrossed but he's fidgeting. Lester looks to the ceiling, seemingly bored, and the other two Braddocks strike similar poses, one hand worrying the hair, the other loose at the side.
 "I have some news from our handler." I say grimly. Jack Rollins looks up, eyes hard, "We have a new member on our team. Her name is Marie Siegfried." Jack's eyes widen, Lester gains interest, and Batroc still fidgets. "She's a HYDRA-aligned Ex-Nazi assassin, the 1940's answer to the Black Widow." I look at each man, gauging reactions, and press on, "We're to welcome her to the team. If that makes any of you uncomfortable, you can take it up with Schmidt." As I finish up, the door to the gym opens, then closes, and a small silhouette appears in my peripheral vision. The blonde woman steps up, introductions are made, uncomfortable glances pass between the first eight members of the Crew, and especially between the Marines. She has a quiet voice, maybe due to the tongue she speaks in, or maybe because of the ice, and she's shorter than everyone around her. She holds herself high though, as if to compensate for her height. She is eager to get to work, wanting to join the Crew, but we all pass glances among ourselves. We know who the Crew was going to be, and we knew damn well that she would only get in our way. I'd read her file. She took high-risk jobs and flew solo. She was a lone wolf, but she needed to be able to work with the pack if she intended to stay. Despite Schmidt's favoritism, she would have to earn her place. Schmidt put me in charge, and maybe he should have thought harder about that before he did, but the fact remained that he had, indeed, made me the leader. At the end of the day, her actions would speak for themselves, and that, in my mind, would decide her fate as a member of the Crew.
 "Schmidt told me to come train up. We have a mission briefing in the morning." She informs me. Her eyes wander to Rumlow, and her eyes are indiscriminate. They pass over every inch of him, and I catch every bit. The group moves off to various parts of the gym to train, Rumlow to the punching bags, tailed by Rollins. Lester, Batroc and the Braddocks go to the gun range to sharpen their skills, which leaves only me and Siegfried to train together. We were expected to train in pairs so we could learn more about each other's styles, and habits. I took this as a prime opportunity to test Siegfried. I sized her to be able to take on Batroc, but not Rumlow or even Rollins. She was too small to pose a real threat to Lester, who could see her coming from a mile away, and my Braddock boys were outmatched in every way with the team, and were still training up to the level of STRIKE.
 "Train with me." I say, gesturing for her to follow me to the boxing ring. She raises an eyebrow, but doesn't question me. She and I wear the same fingerless gloves, padded over the knuckles. I back to one corner, she to the other, and we face off.

 We went three rounds, but I was barely trying. She would throw punches, I would avoid. I was baiting her, trying to get her angry, off balance, and then go in for my take down. She follows up, her stamina is impressive for an un-enhanced, but she's tiring, I can tell. I have weight, height, reach on her. And she can't keep up with my Super Soldier abilities. I'm more playing with her than actually fighting. I'd in fact, yet to throw a punch. She's frustrated, sweat pouring down her brow, and yet I am dry, a smirk plastered to my face. Like my first night on the Hellicarrier, I duke it out so to speak, probably only to get in trouble for it, but not really giving a flying shit about it.
 "Are you going to hit me or not?" Marie asks, sparing a moment to wipe her brow. As she does, I strike, punching her arm and sending it back to whack her in the face, making her own body do damage upon itself. She shakes it off.
 "You told me to hit you. I didn't want to. I compromised." I jest. The men have gathered around now. Rumlow is grinning, hooting when I'd hit her, and the others are heckling. I knew there was a reason I liked them. In less than twenty-four hours, the Eight of us had become tight, already sharing jokes and laughing at each other, just like my old Platoon. Marie is bouncing on the balls of her feet, but I am still. She expends a lot of energy doing that.
 "You're afraid to truly duke it out with me, aren't you?" She goads. I decide, what the hell? And take the bait, tossing off my gloves and loosing my tank top. This leaves me in my fatigues and a black sports bra, and my heavy-tread combat boots. She tosses her gloves, but keeps her shirt. Rumlow cat-calls me, and Marie, the stupid bitch, turns to him and smirks. He rolls his eyes at her, averting his eyes, and I grin as she frowns at the rejection. I'd bet she was used to men fawning over her, being classically pretty with that blonde-hair-blue-eye thing she had going on. I won't forget how her eyes raked over Rumlow. Of all the men she could possibly choose to look at, why the man who was clearly taken? I move forward, tapping knuckles with her.
 "I'm not afraid of anything, Siegfried. You should be the worried one. I put Captain America on his ass when I was three inches shorter and twenty pounds lighter." I allow myself the small boast, only because it's true and applicable. She narrows her eyes at me.
 "Schmidt allowed an accomplice of Captain America to join HYDRA?" She asks. I snort at her and block her first blow, which she'd delivered as she spoke, hoping to catch me with my guard down.
 "I worked with the Captain, but that's all the more reason to have me on the Crew. I know his habits. I could take him down." I try not to wince at my own words; Steve was a friend, despite the consequences of my departure, which included the likely loss of Steve as as friend, and having to leave Bucky behind. I kick her legs out from underneath her and leap up when she tries to take out my legs. She flips to her feet and immediately goes for a kick to my face, but I grab her leg, twist it, and throw her over my shoulder. Rollins winces theatrically when she hits the floor. "Welcome to the Crew." I tell her, going over to her where she lays on the floor. She sits up and I offer a hand, which she takes. I pull Marie up easily, dragging her in so I can snarl in her ear. "Stay away from Rumlow. He's my piece of ass." With that, I give her a light shove backwards and hop out of the ring. Rumlow grabs me by the waist and presses his lips to mine.
 "I guess you caught her staring?" Rumlow chuckles. I nod, biting down on his lower lip gently.
 "Nobody stares at my piece of ass and gets away with it." I reply, earning a chuckle from Rumlow.
 "Your piece of ass, huh?" He asks, "And here I thought we'd agreed on 'daddy'." Rolling my eyes, I turn away from him.
 "Keep up with that and I'll put you on restriction." I tease, walking away with a slight skip in my step. I can feel Rumlow's eyes on me, raking over my form as inappropriately as Marie had stared at him. Marie, dazed, jumps out of the ring and heads for the showers. She's not crying, which I'm glad to see, but our spar solidified one major thing. She was outclassed by the Skeleton Crew. She usually got to work with surprise on her side, as a spy and an Assassin, so true hand-to-hand was likely her weakest suit. Lester is standing beside the door to the gun range, and when he sees me, he gestures to me to come over.

Marie

 I have never been more humiliated in my life. Diana wiped the floor with me without even trying. I clearly underestimated her, something I rarely do. I hadn't expected to lose so easily to her, I expected a challenge, but I thought I'd be able to win. I'd tried brute force, but I'd known starting that route that she would beat me, because she was stronger than me. Her speed was what I hadn't anticipated. I felt very much like the outcast. None of the men seemed to want me around, really kind of foreign to me, and Diana was one of the men, blending with them so easily, without seeming awkward. Schmidt told me I would find a home in the Skeleton Crew, because it was a newly formed team that was still establishing itself. I could see it though, the web of connections within the team. There was Diana of course, the clear and obvious leader, who commanded respect from her men without verbalizing a thing. Rumlow and Rollins were her lapdogs, I assume she'd worked with them before. The Braddocks were strange, keeping to themselves, but I got the feeling that the eldest brother and Diana were close. And the younger brother and cousin were loyal to him, so they in turn, were loyal to Diana. Lester and Batroc were wild cards. Neither spoke much, nor did they associate with one another. Lester listened intently when Diana spoke, heckled with the others when she threw a good punch, and cheered when she'd taken me down.

 Schmidt calls me to his office and I make my way there. He's sitting in his chair and I go to him. He's not happy.
 "You pick the one person in that room you couldn't beat to spar with." Says Schmidt, shaking his head, "You need to get in their heads. They will never let you be a part of the team until you prove yourself to them." He says.
 "Make me an officer then." I suggest, touching his cheek. He thinks about this for a moment.
 "Convince me." Is all he says. I go to his chair, straddling him, and press a kiss into his thin, hard lips.
 "Make me an officer, Mr. Schmidt."

Lester

 Diana comes over to me, a small smile on her lips. Rumlow watches me, eyes boring a hole in me, but I simply incline my head to him. I'm not interested in his woman, if that's what he's thinking. I look to Diana, who now stands in front of me.
 "Do you know how to shoot a bow?" I ask her. She shakes her head no, and glances to the range.
 "Care to teach me?" She asks in return. I nod. Diana impressed me today, proving again that she was meant to lead us. I express this to her.
 "Siegfried never stood a chance." I say, grabbing a bow for Diana and one for myself, along with a few quivers of arrows. She takes two, resting one on the table and one on the floor. I stand beside her, instructing her on how to hold the bow, how to anchor the string on her lip, how to aim and how to load, how to release the string so it won't slap her arm. She gets the hang of it pretty quickly, not that I expected less. She was a marksman, and each weapon she picked up became another tool in her arsenal.
 "She's not cut out to work with a team. She'll be alright on Support, but she's not strike force material." Diana states coldly, taking a moment to aim her arrow at the target. She takes a breath, fires the arrow, and then looks back to me as it makes a dull thunk! when it hits the target. She's hit it dead center. "I don't know why Schmidt wants her on the team so bad. The roster was complete when we picked up Brian Braddock. She's an add on that we were told about, but that we never expected."
 "She has good experience with the infiltration and assassination side of our work, but she's outdated." I reply, nodding in agreement with her. "Marie was good in the forties, but it's the twenty-first century." Diana sets down the bow, looking at me.
 "I'm glad we're on the same page. I told Schmidt he was crazy for even considering putting her on the team. Clay and James were hard-pressed to work on anything with Schmidt involved, because he was Nazi-aligned. Marie's a full on Nazi, you think a group of Ex-Marines are going to cooperate with her?"
 "I couldn't agree more." I snort, "Did you really tell Schmidt that he was crazy?"
 "More or less." Says Diana, "I think he's got a boner over her."
 "I know he does. Did you read her file?" I ask. She shakes her head and I try not to laugh.
 "Schmidt got her from the Third Reich because she was about to be killed for getting too close to Hitler. Schmidt and Siegfried were romantically involved back in the forties."
 "What the fuck!?" Diana laughs then, slamming her hand down on the weapons table. "What the actual fuck!?"
 "I know."
 "She and Schmidt..." Diana lets out a breath, trying hard not to laugh again, "Then why was she staring at Rumlow like she was imagining his clothes coming off?"
 "I would too if my other options were Marines who hated her inherently for being a Nazi and the Red Skull." I chortle. Diana puts her bow back where I got it from and places a hand on my shoulder.
 "I think we're going to get along just fine, Mr. Lester." She says. I nod.
 "I'll work for you, Sergeant Major." I say honestly, "Even after my contract with HYDRA is up."
 "Good to hear." She says, smiling, "I'd better go find Rumlow. We have another meeting later today with Schmidt. He wants a briefing on how Marie is getting along with the Crew."
 "What are you going to say?" I ask out of true curiosity. Diana simply smirks.
 "I'm going to give him a piece of my mind."