A/N:

1.The Glow of the Lights, a Christmas fic that I posted in December, takes place in this universe some time after the end of this fic.

2. Inspired in part by Defiance, a fic from thegreytigress (on FFN and AO3). Honestly, I'm not sure I should mention it - I'm actually not completely sure I should have read it, though it was definitely a good story. Let's just say that there is some very disturbing material in there and it is rated M for a reason. Also, I just wanted to bash my characters around a lot, so basically the following popped into my head:
"Let's do a Captain America fic where I screw up James - because he just hasn't had enough hardship in his life - and Natasha. By getting captured, of course. But by who? Their former masters. It will cause a great amount of psychological damage, after all."
No, seriously, that was my thought process. I'm a total sadist when it comes to my characters.

3. Okay, you Captasha shippers have converted me. Not that I don't still believe in Clintasha, but it's currently the more prominent pairing in my mind.

4. Please tell me if how to improve the Russian if you speak it. I just used Google translate (albeit with extreme back-and-forth translation to try to get it as correct as possible) and American/Canadian phrasing.

5. This is just a teaser. The shortest of the other chapters I have written is almost 1150 words. The next chapters will also, most likely have shorter A/Ns.

6. I have an absurd amount of footnotes in my Google Docs version of this, so instead I'm listing at here everything you can find explanations for at the end of the chapter:
a. Why they're packing bags
b. The time range and names

7. I will hopefully post every week, two weeks maximum.

8. Trigger warnings at the bottom, since this is already long enough.

Now on to the story!


Chapter 1:

The hospital has to call him.

No matter how bad it is, if Natasha is conscious, she always calls him.

The hospital has to call him.

They tell him that sees is crying and blind to the world. Tell him that she needs help; that she is bleeding and broken. Tell him that the arm of the nurse that had attempted to sedate her is snapped in two places.

Steve hangs up and stares. Stands still until Sam comes to him and asks where they are. Stands still until he answers and Sam rushes him to the car, going as fast as he can with his injured leg. He sits in his seat, in shock.


It finally hits him as they run into the hospital room and find Natasha curled in a corner, silent tears running down her face, with unseeing eyes and a feral expression. He and Sam both still then, confronted by her bleeding body and disfiguring aggression. Sam leaves. Whether he can't stand to see Natasha this way or he's decided to go find Bucky, Steve doesn't know. He never looked away to figure it out.

Oh God.

He drops his bag at his feet.

"Natasha?" He steps toward her.

She makes a broken, threatening sound.

"Natasha, it's me. They're gone. Dead, even, some of them."

Steve steps closer and crouches reaching out to touch her. In an instant, she is on him, pulling his arm forward and pushing her foot into his back, groaning in pain as she does. She gets no farther, however, as he pulls sharply on her other leg and she falls to the floor, giving a cut-off scream. He kneels over her, holding her down with a hand on her shoulder and her hip. She knows that he is stronger than she, and suddenly the fight goes out of her. She stares up at him in agony, terrified.

She doesn't know me.

He lifts his hands from her, repeating himself. "Natasha, it's me," he tells her tenderly, sadly.

"Natasha. It's me." Holding her hand.

"Nat?" He's scared now.

I can't reach her.

"Please, Natasha. Please."

She recognizes him now, he can see it dawning in her eyes.

"It's me, Tasha," he reiterates, brushing a hand down her face to land on her neck.

"Steve?"

She's still frightened. He is too.

"Steve." Her voice is ragged but relieved.

Suddenly she's clinging to him to him desperately, suddenly she's sobbing into his shoulder. He is holding Natasha Romanoff, and she is sobbing.

Suddenly, she faints.


A man jogs up to the desk, favoring his left leg.

"Have you registered them yet?"

Johanna looks up from her desk, startled.

"Have you registered them yet?

"Who?"

"You know who I mean."

Yes. Natasha Romanoff and James Barnes -
The Black Widow… The Winter Soldier.

"No. I haven't."

"Don't." He's tense and agitated, and she can tell that he doesn't have the time for this.

What it could do… but … " I have to."

"Then register them as Does."

Johanna still hesitates, and the man leans over the desk. Her fingers move to the keyboard.

"If you value your life, and that of the patients, don't register them under their real names. You know what will happen if you do."

It hits her, unavoidable. "... HYDRA…"

"Or worse."

The man sweeps away from the desk, leaving Johanna to watch him go.

Johanna looks down and to her computer and starts typing frantically.


Steve lays Natasha down on the gurney. He can see her clearly for the first time now. Her hair is wild, dirt and blood tangled in her curls. There's a large bruise on her right cheek, with a half-healed cut in the middle. Her shoulder looks strange. Both of her thumbs have been dislocated - probably in an attempt to escape. He's sure that there are other injuries, but at the moment he's distracted by the blood flowing from her abdomen and leg.

He looks behind him to find a doctor leaning in the doorway, face hard. "She didn't even make it to surgery. She woke up when they were wheeling her in. They hardly even managed to push her into this room."


Josh had seen her, coming in. Seen them both, one after another. The man had been unrecognizable. It was only once he saw her that he'd had his suspicions. And he'd been right. The Black Widow and the Winter Soldier, in his hospital.

Bestial beings. Murderers.

And they were supposed to treat them.

No.

He'd refused, and he wasn't the only one.

Josh knows the man he's watched is Steve Rogers, and he knows who Steve Rogers is. He doesn't understand how Rogers could care for them - "former friend" and "coworker" should mean nothing in the wake of the blood in which they swim.

They're filthy animals. His naiveté is contemptible.

"Will you help her?"

Help her?

"No." Josh watches Roger's face as it tightens in disappointment and distress. "I know who she is, and I'm not having anything to do with her. I'm just here to notify the ones who are willing to do so when she regains some measure of sanity."

Josh looks at the bed. It's stained red.

"Or faints from blood loss."

Shame he noticed I was here so soon. If he stared at her long enough there may have been complications.

"There's not many willing to help her, much less him. I hear they've only managed to find one so far - a nurse with an associates."


Sam swings through the doorway to Bucky's room, and stops dead in horror.


Trigger warnings:
Brief dissociative behavior

Serious injury due to torture

Mention of capture, resulting in the deaths of some of the antagonists

Explanations:
a. They didn't know which hospital she was at, and were at home, cleaning up, packing bags, and waiting.

b. This is based some time post-TWS - less than eight months afterwards. I'm assuming that Bucky's identity has gotten out somehow - as seems likely, given the mess that happened after SHIELD's collapse.

I hope you enjoyed it. Have a good day!

~ Caity :)