I was very surprised and pleased by all the feedback I had on my last story, so I decided to start writing another. This one is dark so be warned, but will be worth it in the end.

A Year without rain

It was dark in the room in which he awoke, cold even, with a hint of must in the air. It was unlikely this particular room was used much. Now he was trapped here, like a rat in a barrel and from what he could tell no way out. What his eyes could see gave him no cause for celebration. There were no windows in the room, and only a single door, which was heavy, made of metal and completely locked tight. The only sauce of light was a thin strip which shone through the narrow gap between the metal door and the concrete floor. No way was he even getting his finger through that gap, let alone any kind of appendage that would help him escape.

Steve sat upright, leaning back against the cold smooth wall behind him and try to remember exactly how he had gotten here.

He remembered the frantic phone call from Natasha at some ungodly hour in the middle of the night. Terrorists had called in a bomb threat to the CDC in Atlanta, the consequences of which were far beyond that of loosing a federal building, and the people that worked there. The risk to the public was huge. If the terrorists managed to blow up the building and release the harmful materials within its walls, there would be no predicting the death toll.

Natasha had been unusually worried, and Steve could here it in the tone of her voice as she spoke hurriedly to him on the other end of the phone.

"I will be there to pick you up in five minutes, a Quinjet is already waiting for us at the airport." She sounded like she was out of breath, as though she was running over to his house and not driving. He was surprised when she turned up exactly five minutes later, wearing what he could only assume was her sleep wear. A loose fitting tank top and a small pair of silky shorts covered her lithe frame as she stood on his door step trying to control her shivering.

"What are you doing Nat you must be freezing." Steve said pulling her inside and throwing a jumper at her. She quickly swatted it away and lunged for his hand.

"We can change on the plane. Steve they are saying they are going to detonate the bomb in three hours. We need to go now." With that she dragged him out of the door and out in to the freezing night air.

Steve was amazed that she didn't get a speeding ticket from every police car they saw on their way to the plane. She must have been doing over eighty through the streets of New York and yet they did not stop her. He briefly wondered if they knew just who's car it was, and weren't going to risk personal injury in trying to detain her. Steve had taken several glances sideways at her as she drove, but she did not look at him once. It made Steve's spine tingle, getting the feeling that there was something that she wasn't telling him.

Once on the plane Natasha calmed down a bit. With the rest of the strike force there, she quickly excused herself to change and Steve waited only a few minutes before following her. Knocking quickly he waited for her to bid him entrance before he pushed open the door as she zipped up her black jump suit and adjusted her wrist bands before turning to face him fully. Steve's breath caught momentarily in his throat as he watched her big green eyes look up to meet his own blue ones, as he just for a second forgot how beautiful she was.

"Is there something you're not telling me Nat?" Steve asked as Natasha flipped her hair back slightly out the way of her face as she offered him an all knowing grin.

"Plenty of things, was there anything in particular you wish to know." Natasha said blatantly flirting with him.

It was not that long ago that this little show of sexual tension would have him running for the nearest exit, but now he understood that Natasha used it to avoid answering awkward questions. So far it had worked. So embarrassed Steve had tripped over his words and couldn't look at her for at least an hour after she had batted her eyelashes at him, or touched him in some way that had him preying for some alone time.

This time though Steve had been ready for it, choosing to ignore the way her teeth bit into her lower lip, or the way she stood with one hip pushed out and her hand lightly resting on it. His body responded, as his heart thumped in his chest, and his blood began to rush though his body, but he managed to stay right where he was and held her gaze.

"I need to know everything you know about this mission, you seem worried." Steve said piratically ordering his own body into submission as he visibly saw Natasha give up. She stood up straighter, and allowed her arms to flop to her sides, meeting his eyes only briefly before she looked out of the small window to her left.

"They think HYDRA is behind this, that they want to create some kind of biogenic weapon, after their failure to deploy Zolar's algorithm they maybe trying to come up with something that will selectively kill the population. We have to stop them Steve, before they can create it." Natasha said her eyes now pleading with him not to be angry at her.

Steve was trying to be angry with her, this was important information, and he did need to know it due to the fact they were almost ready to go in there and stop these people. But he couldn't be angry with her for long. He cursed himself and his developing feelings for her as he simply crossed his arms and placed a small frown on his face.

"I could have used this information earlier Nat, now I have to come up with a different plan of attack. I know you were probably under some kind of orders not to tell me, but I can handle stuff like this. I'm not going to break every time HYDRA'S name is mentioned." Steve said as Natasha stepped closer to him, her eyes down cast before she took a deep breath.

"I wasn't under orders not to tell you, I just thought I could spare you the pain." Natasha said, her voice low dripping with apology, and for the first time Steve believed every word she said.

"It's ok." He replied placing his hand on her shoulder. She had lent into his touch, looking up at him and offering him a small smile. It played on her lips for just a moment before the comm line announced that they were close to their destination.

They had gone in to the building just the two of them, the rest of the strike team securing the perimeter and looking for possible escape routes. Steve and Natasha had made it to the lower levels where the bomb was supposed to be hidden. It was a large room, bare in the middle, with freezers lining the walls. Each one containing different pathogens and experiments. All except one. Their intelligence told them that one of the freezers contained liquid explosives.

Opening each freezer in turn they quickly came to the last on at the back of the room, they both should have known something was wrong when they had encountered no resistance. The place was as quite as a tomb, but they had been so focused on getting to the bomb and defusing it, that they had been only grateful that they had not been held up by HYDRA agents on the way. Now as Steve pulled open the freezer and found nothing he turned to Natasha just before a hissing sound came out of the walls. Natasha's eyes had gown large before she started coughing. Steve felt the gas sting his lungs, but the serum he had been given was working to protect him from feelings it's effects so far. Getting on the comm he called for backup but he got no reply. Calling again, and hearing only static he began to panic, before looking over at Natasha who was falling towards the floor. Making a lunge for her, Steve managed to grab her before she hit the solid concrete. Shaking her and calling her name did nothing to rouse her as Steve began to cough. His world spinning as his body fought for control over the substance being pumped into his lungs.

Holding his breath, Steve knew he could stay conscious for longer, if he limited his breathing. Scooping Natasha up he made his way to the door, kicking it open with his foot, a bright light was the last thing he saw.

Now Steve sat in the dark, wondering where Natasha was, preying that whomever had them was not hurting her, but he suspected that neither of them were getting out of this unscathed. That the pain he was feeling now was only the tip of the ice burg of what was to come.

The light in her eyes hurt, but she wasn't about to shy away. She had been on the other side of the light enough times to know that they were looking for any weakness on her part, anything they could use to their advantage. She wasn't about to give them one.

Natasha had no idea where she was, or how long she had been unconscious, what she did know by taking a good look around the room was that she was alone. Steve was nowhere to been seen and the only people in the room with her, were the people who had taken her.

"What do you want with me?" she asked to no one in particular, as one man stepped forward and was back lit by the light shining on her.

"Information." The man stated as he picked up what looked like a very sharp knife and ran his finger along the blade.

"Well if you ask me something, maybe I will tell you." Natasha said not liking the look of that blade but keeping her eyes focused on the man in front of her.

"I know who you are, and what you are capable of, I think maybe a demonstration will be in order before we start asking the questions." He said coming forward and cutting the top of Natasha's jump suit so the arm was hanging open all the way to her arm pit. He did not however cut the skin and for a second Natasha was confused. Then he cut the other arm and allowed both of them to droop before stepping back.

"You know the skin of the under arm is very thin, very susceptible to pain, but I am sure you knew that Natasha." A voice came from behind the light. He was bathed in darkness and Natasha couldn't make him out, but she swore she knew that voice.

"I do know that, maybe you should just get on with it, I mean you haven't got all day now have you." Natasha said fishing for information as the man with the knife returned, this time he did not have a knife, but something that made Natasha inwardly shudder. It was long about a two feet in length. Dark and thin until the end where the stick glowed bright orange. The tip almost red in colour as he took another step forward until he was standing almost at her feet.

"On the contrary I have all the time in the world." The man behind the light said as the red hot poker was pushed into her arm pit. The scream Natasha let fly bounced off the walls, as her brain kicked in and she realised she did know that man's voice, and she knew it well. Pushing the pain aside even as she smelt her own flesh burning, Natasha looked up directly at the light and snarled.

"Rumlow."

At his small chuckle Natasha knew this was not business this was personal, and whist the rest of the team looked for HYDRA they would be here with a man they had almost killed, with someone who had a score to settle, and now was his chance.

The second time the poker went in, Natasha did nothing but pant though her open mouth, her eyes locked on the person behind the light, her mind thinking of Steve, about where he was, and if in fact he was even still alive. She suspected that he was however, for simply killing them was not how Rumlow wanted this to go down, he wanted them to suffer in every way he could possibly imagine. The thought made her blood run cold as her arm pit burned with the exposure to the poker, but pain was nothing, she had been taught that a long time ago, but there was something more to be considered here. Steve was a different matter entirely and brought a whole new meaning to the word weakness, and somehow Natasha knew Rumlow knew this. As he stepped out from behind the light for the first time, and Natasha got a good look at his burnt and disfigured face she felt even more certain that this would not be over quickly, and in the end she didn't know how much of herself would be left.

TBC... All thoughts, suggestions welcomed, thanks for reading XxX