Chapter Text
2012,
After the Battle of New York
“Steve, you may not find what you want in there.” Tony said, passing his new teammate across the manila files from his father’s time in the SSR.
“I gotta know Tony.” Steve replied, spotting the old classified stamps all over the folders as he flicked through to the one he was looking for.
“What was special about her? She was the nurse.” Tony stated, not getting why Steve was going through all this trouble to find out what happened to the Howling Commandoes’ old nurse.
“She wasn’t just a nurse Tony, Ettie was one of HYDRA’s worst nightmares. She had no problems picking up a rifle and shooting them.” Steve explained, tapping his hand reverently on her file.
“That would’ve broken the Florence Nightingale oath.” Tony mused, rolling his eyes. “How’d she get away with that?”
“The modern one yes, but she swore the 1935 one, Tony. They weren’t her patients and that’s how she explained it to SSR command.” Steve replied a half-smile on his face as the younger man sat down across from him.
“She sounds similar to a nurse that’s stitched me up a few times.” He mused. “For a young kid, she has some old timey ideas.”
“That wasn’t Ettie. She was a feminist to the last straw. Her mother used to tell us that she’d had to take Ettie to Suffragette rallies because her father was off fighting the war.” Steve said, “She whacked me and Buck something good a few times too. Especially Buck.” He added with a chuckle, thinking about his old friends. As teenagers, Ethel had usually been on Bucky’s back about his womanising, though that changed when she realised that he was technically chaperoning. Young gay couples. Her tune had changed rapidly when that had been discovered.
In truth, Bucky had been terrified of losing one of his long-time friends and had changed tactics. He had a small reputation and the ladies couldn’t go out together without it being suspicious. It had worked a treat. Sometimes, the lady Bucky would be ‘setting’ Steve up with had been interested in similar things to him, and as a result Steve had a fair few gay friends.
Most of them would be dead or senile by now, he reminded himself.
“Can’t imagine America’s golden boy getting smacked around by a simple nurse.” Tony snorted.
“It happened more than you’d imagine.” Steve replied, an eyebrow half raised as he lent forward in his seat, “Between Ethel and Bucky, they looked out for me when everything started getting rough again, after my mum died and money got tight. We only got the apartment because the two of them had secure jobs.”
“Yeah, a nurse come soldier and then a dock worker sharp shooter.” Tony replied, rolling his eyes, “Real secure.”
“Bucky was strong, and Ethel knew what she was doing. She probably saw more patients afterhours than she did throughout the war.” Steve mused, leaning back in his chair, “Thanks Tony, truly.” He added, tapping the files again, “I’ll get them back to you asap.”
“Take your time with them, we don’t need them for anything.” Tony replied, standing and waving his hand dismissively as he turned and headed back to his lab.
Taking a deep breath, Steve willed himself to open up Ettie’s file, hoping that she had lived a long and happy life and that it would be written out for him to read.
He wasn’t expecting it to be mostly blank and the other parts blacked out.
Ettie was still classified.
Frowning, Steve pulled the paper up and checked to see the stamp on it, hoping that it was official and not Stark playing a prank on him. Unfortunately, it was.
Ethel O’Sullivan, the brown eyed, brown haired nurse/sharpshooter of the 107th was classified, and even holding the paper up to the light didn’t cast any more information on the subject.
Sighing and running a hand across his forehead, Steve resigned himself to not finding anything about his old friend, except the few lines that he was able to read.
“O’Sullivan was instrumental in many covert Cold War era operations, playing key roles in recovering and receiving intel from behind the Berlin Wall.” Steve muttered, as the next half page was blacked out. “The agent currently resides at and you’re blank again.” He added, closing his eyes and setting the page down.
He’d have to get Stark to help him with the little information he had, but he knew that the Cold War lasted a long time. Maybe she’d been pulled out of retirement and sent behind enemy lines one last time and gone down in a blaze of glory, hoping that she’d join him and Bucky on the other side. He’d been one station late, who knows how many stations late Ettie had thought herself.