This is a work of fan fiction. No profit is being made.

Sorry about the angst and the lateness.

"It doesn't matter how good she is with those pistols, if she looses them, she's screwed." Clint argued.

"That's true," Steve agreed, "but I think it will be easier to increase her training in hand-to-hand than it will be to train any of the others to match her situational awareness. It's uncanny and adding that to her skill with firearms makes her a strong candidate."

"I'm not sure she has the mindset for it." Clint said as he leaned his chair even further back on its hind legs. Steve had no idea how he hadn't tipped over yet. "She gets squirrelly every time she has to do something that requires physical contact."

"Squirrelly? That's real descriptive."

Clint rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean."

"Yes, I do." Steve paused a moment to debate the options. "I'll intensify her training. If she doesn't show improvement by the next evaluation period, I'll have her moved to another training program."

"Sounds good. Who's next?"

Steve made notes in the folder and set it in the completed stack. As he reached for the next one, someone knocked at the door. "Come in," He called and one of his trainees entered. "Agent Carver, I'm sorry, the evaluations are not complete yet. I won't discuss them until they're all done."

The agent shook his head. "I'm not here for that. I have something for you."

"Sweet, a bribe. Gimme!" Clint held out his hands and made grasping motions.

The agent looked down at Clint with an expression that made Steve uneasy. The man produced a flash drive and placed it on the corner of the desk. "I don't care about the evaluations. My purpose was to get close enough to you to discover your weaknesses."

There was a loud thud as the front legs of Clint's chair hit the ground. Steve knew without looking that he was ready to move if the agent went for a weapon. However, the man simply stood with his arms at his side. "What is that?" Steve asked.

"Your reason to cooperate with our demands."

"Which are?"

"For you to surrender yourself and all the weapons you stole from us." Then there was an all to familiar crunch and the man fell to the floor. Steve leapt the desk and knelt at the fallen man's side but knew there was nothing he could do. He sneered up at Steve as foam poured from his mouth. "H-hail Hydra."

Steve knew Clint was already in the hall shouting orders and making calls but he couldn't do anything except stare as the man convulsed and went still. He didn't understand. Hydra was defeated in the forties. How could this be happening?

Eventually, agents came to take the body and the flash drive. He moved out of their way and sat in the chair Clint had vacated. Loki used the tesseract to travel to earth. Was it possible that Schmidt survived and returned to rebuild his army? Steve didn't realize how caught up in his thoughts he was until Clint touched his shoulder.

"Hey, Cap?"

"Hmm?"

"The techs are scanning the drive to make sure it's safe to open. Fury and Tash are going to meet us in conference room two."

"Okay, let's go." They traveled quickly down the halls, dodging rushing agents the entire way. As they approached the conference rooms, they heard Fury shouting.

"Someone damn well better tell me how an enemy agent managed to infiltrate my headquarters!" Steve and Clint shared a look before entering the room. Fury and Natasha stood on opposite sides of the room looming over agents working at computers. "About time you two got here!" Sitwell open that thing up."

"Yes, Sir!" The screen on the far side of the room flashed on and displayed a closed file. Sitwell opened the file. "There's a text document and a video."

"Open the text document first," Fury ordered. It was instructions for the drop off.

"I've got the address. Clint and I will start scouting," Natasha said. Fury nodded and the two left the room.

"Now the video," Steve said. Was it a threat or a hostage? Multiple ideas ran through his head but one in particular made his gut clinch in fear. Peggy was still alive and so were a couple of the commandos. How terrifyingly appropriate for them to take someone who was not only dear to him but also participated in Hydra's original defeat. However, when the video started playing, he faced with a possibility he had not considered. "Darcy?"

She was tied to a chair and gagged. A man stood next to her with his hand resting on the back of the chair. Behind them loomed the organization's symbol; a red skull on a white background. She looked so afraid.

"Greetings, Captain America," The man in the video said. "As you can see, we have taken your lover."

At that, Darcy reared back to look at the man and started talking. It was impossible to understand her through the gag but her exasperation and disgust were clear. Steve almost smiled. As scared as she must be, she still held on to her sass. However, any relief he felt at her display of spirit disappeared when the man pulled back his arm and slapped her.

He turned back to the camera and snarled. "You received this video at one. At two, we will give her ten lashes. Every hour you make us wait, she will be punished. I recommend you act quickly, Captain."

Two o'clock passed as strategy was argued and orders were given. Thanks to a traffic jam, it took almost three hours to get a truck loaded with fake crates. Even if the director had been willing, getting the hydra weapons from the helicarrier would have taken a couple of days. Six rolled by as they drove and seven was fast approaching as they sat a couple of miles from the drop point, waiting for the last of the strike teams to get into place.

"I'm half an hour out, Cap. Can you hold on?" Iron Man asked over the coms.

"No, another hour will have passed by then. As soon as the teams are in place, we're moving," Steve replied.

"Fashionably late again," Tony said.

Steve bit back a sharp retort. He knew sarcasm was how Tony handled serious situations, picking a fight wouldn't serve any purpose. He had jumped on people all afternoon, until Fury had taken him aside. He deserved the dressing down, everyone was doing their best. It was just hard to hold on to that when every delay brought them closer to another hour mark.

"Captain!" Sitwell tumbled out of an SUV and ran towards him. "We're receiving reports of an attack five miles west of here. It's robots."

Steve swore and clenched his fists. Bastards planned this to pull away the rest of the team. "Did you catch that Iron Man?"

"Yeah. Kind of wish I had talked Bruce into piggybacking."

"Redirect. Hawkeye, Widow take teams alpha and beta with you. Delta team, your orders stand. You take the back, We'll handle the front. Are you in place?"

"Affirmative, sir."

"Good. Move out, everyone." Steve had one agent with him to drive the semi. The rest would follow in the SUV. The SUV would stop just out of sight of the warehouse while the semi pulled into the loading yard as instructed. Steve hoped they would hand over Darcy before they checked the truck. The driver would escort her to safety and that would leave them free to deal with the Hydra agents.

A dozen heavily armed men exited the warehouse as the semi pulled in. Steve and the driver climbed out and moved around to the front of the vehicle. The two groups stared at each other until the man from the video walked into the yard.

"Captain, we were beginning to worry we had taken the wrong girl."

"Where is she."

"She's inside. We were... prepping her for the next session."

"Bring her out," Steve ordered.

"As soon as I'm certain you've followed instructions." He gestured to one of the guards. The guard walked towards the truck. When the man was within six feet, Steve threw his shield. It connected and flew back just in time for Steve to use it block a barrage of bullets as they retreated for cover.

After the battle, Steve took Darcy directly to medical. He left Sitwell to handle cleaning up the warehouse. Once the doctors had taken her from him, he located an empty break room to hole up in and wait for news. He sat for hours staring out a window and nursing a cup of coffee until Agent Sitwell came looking for him.

"How did it go?" Steve asked.

"Fine. The report from the doctor says she's stable. She should be able to make a complete recovery."

Steve slumped over the table in relief. "Thank God!"

"Captain, I can't imagine how it feels to have someone you love taken and-"

"She is not my girlfriend!" Steve interrupted.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I just-"

"She's my neighbor. She lends me books," Steve snapped. He rubbed his eyes as guilt and relief warred inside him. Both gave way to anger. "She was kidnapped and tortured because SHIELD agents are a bunch of ear hustlers!"

He slammed his fist down on the table. His cup fell over and they both watched as the cold coffee puddled in the large crack that now crossed the top of the plastic table. Steve cursed and went to get a handful of paper towels.

"I was with you when you found her," Sitwell reminded him. "I saw your face. That was not the look of a neighbor."

Steve paused in his cleaning. "It doesn't matter. How could she... it just doesn't matter anymore."