After a few more minutes of talking, the medical team in charge of Bucky's care steps into the room.
"If you don't mind, Mr. Rogers, we'd like to begin formulating a treatment plan for Mr. Barnes. You'll be able to see him tomorrow, but for now we'd like some privacy." the lead doctor announced. "I'm Dr. Watson. I'll be overseeing all of Mr. Barnes care. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions." he says, shaking Steve's hand.
"See you later, Buck." Steve tells him with a pat on the shoulder.
As Steve leaves the room his mind is already spinning, trying to come up with a plan to handle this newest situation. He starts with a call to a friend. "Hey, Nat" he begins "Do you mind meeting me on my floor in ten minutes?"
Natasha enter's Steve's living room from the elevator. She's still in her uniform. "So what's the news on our Russian friend?"
"Bucky? He seems okay. A little weak and weary, but stable for now."Steve pauses for minute, not sure how to broach his newest problem. "He told me something about another assassin named Shadow. She's been with Hydra about as long as Bucky has."
"You mean since the forties?"
"Seems that way. I guess they had her in cryosleep for a while like they did Buck. He said she less weaponized than he was. They used her more for spying, seducing secrets out of people, and covert assassinations."
Natasha thought for a moment. "Well, a couple years ago there was a string of politicians who resigned because of blackmail. Turned out they were all cheating on their wives. I saw the pictures and videos they were sent: the same woman was in all of them. She had long,curly black hair and spoke Russian. Describe her to Bucky. She might be your girl."
"I know I've already asked so much of you, with looking for Bucky and all, but would you help us find her? No one's better at this kind of thing then you."
"I suppose I'll help you out once more" Nat says with a little smirk. She sits on the large red couch in the middle of Steve's living room. "Pour me a glass of wine and we'll talk strategy."
Steve does exactly as she says, pour her some red wine and himself a glass of whiskey and water.
"I assume she's still in a Hydra base. The in-your-face overthrow of S.H.I.E.L.D we just went through doesn't seem like the most useful place for a woman of her talents." Nat explains while Steve takes a seat next to her and sets their drinks on his coffee table. "Hand me your laptop: we can at least do some preliminary research before we go question Bucky."
They stay up for the majority of the night looking into Hydra's other master assassin.
The next morning Natasha and Steve head down to the lower levels to visit Bucky. Before they enter the room, stops them.
"Rogers, just who I was looking to see. I thought you might like an update on Bucky's condition. My team and I agree that he will recover from this ordeal. He just needs time to adjust to living with free will again. Mentally, he is stable in a calm environment. Stress is what we believe triggers the Winter Soldier to come out. We advise that, for now, Bucky be confined to his room. In a couple of weeks, he can move up to your living quarters. After a few months, he should be stable in the outside world. At that time, the Winter Soldier would probably only be triggered by extreme stress, such as being close to death or a severe emotional blow."
"I appreciate you keeping me up to date."
"No problem. I'll stop keeping you from Mr. Barnes now." Watson says, and continues down the hall.
Steve grabs the cold metal handle and enters the room. "Mornin' Buck. I brought a friend to help us with the, uh, situation."
"Hey,Steve." Buck says with a weary smile. "What's her name?: he asks, pointing to Natasha.
"I'm Natasha Romanoff. I'm going to help you find Shadow. I compiled a file last night of the woman I believe is the one you're talking about, but we need you to confirm it."
Bucky furrow his brows. "You look very familiar. Did I know you?"
"I was at the bridge when we found you yesterday. And I was trained in the Red Room. By you, actually."
"Sorry, I don't remember much. Guess that's a side effect of brainwashing, right?" he responds with a chuckle.
"Glad you're taking this seriously." Nat says under her breath.
"Hey,that's just how Buck handles things" Steve says, defending his best friend. "That just means he's becoming more of himself."
"Okay, enough of your fluffy friendship. Let's get back to business." Natasha takes some of the pictures out of her file and holds them up for Bucky. "These are photos from a string of political blackmails. Is this the woman you're talking about?"
"Yep, that's her." Bucky suddenly looks very introspective. "I think I might have taken those pictures. I remember being sent out as a team with her, but I can't picture the specific missions. I do know that most of them were political targets."
"Okay, we're making some progress. Now that we now this is Shadow, I'm going to dig deeper. I'll give you an update later Cap." Natasha announces and walks out the door.
After she's done, Buck asks Steve "Is she always like that?"
"So straight to the point? Mission oriented?" Steve questions "Yeah, pretty much. I think this hits a little too close to home for her comfort. She was involved with the people you were, so she's just taking this all extra seriously."
"Hmm." Bucky says, then a smirk appears on his lips. "She's pretty. Have you asked her out yet?"
Steve is caught off guard. "Nat? No, I wouldn't...it's not that kind of thing, and she wouldn't want to anyways-"
"Oh." Bucky interrupts. "She just seemed like your type of girl."
"I have a type?"
"Oh yeah. You always go after the strong, do it on their own woman. I mean, I understand the appeal. Confidence is sexy and all that."
A little embarrassed, Steve changes the subject."So, tell me more about Shadow. Anything you tell us will be useful. Were you guys friends?" Bucky gives him a weird look and Steve stops. "I'm sorry, that was insensitive. It's not like Hydra was setting up play dates with you two or anything."
"No, it's fine. Our handlers didn't mind us talking too much. Like I said earlier, we had to work as a team a lot. I guess they figured it might make us work more seamlessly on missions if we knew each other well." Bucky pauses, remembering. "Our cells were across from each other at the base. A few weeks after they brought her in, she called out to me from her cell. She told me her name, where she's from, how she got here, everything. She said 'I know they're gonna try to make me forget. I just want someone to now these things for when I don't.' We got closer after that."
"So you guys were friends?" Steve asks, trying to figure out exactly their relationship. If they were very close, he might be able to use that to his advantage when they locate her and try to bring her in.
"Well, in the beginning, yeah. For the first several years after they captured us both, we were never in cryosleep. It hadn't been invented yet. They kept us in cells when we weren't being used. We talked a lot them."
"They used her a lot to get information out of people they couldn't outright torture or kill, you know , the important people. Most of the time, they had her sleep with them, or do whatever weird kink they liked. People will do a lot of things for sex, or they'll say things they aren't supposed to say in the moment. Sex makes you trust people. She'd gain their trust and they'd spill every secret they had."
"I remember there was this one guy, a high ranking Russian official who wasn't following the agenda our handlers wanted them to. They dug a little and found out he got off on watching people. So, they sent us to preform. We were a little more than friends after that. Like I said, sex gets you attached."
Steve was horrified. This woman (and his friend) were pretty much whored out.
"Of course, that all ended with the cryosleep. They wiped me clean, and took out all of her unnecessary memories. They put us under for a few years and when we were awake, we couldn't do anything. We wouldn't have remembered what we were like anyways, but whatever."
Taking a deep breath, Steve prepared himself to respond. He didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry, you had to do all that."
"Don't be, it's over now. I just want to get her out."
"Don't worry we will." Steve hands a pad of paper and a pen to his friend. "Just write down all the things you know about her and we'll start making a plan to get her back."