"Izzy?" Victoria called for her friend as soon as she heard the door of the cell close and the footsteps in the hallway outside fade away. "Izzy?" Worry was clear in her voice as she called for her. Victoria had been caught in an awful place of pain, in too much pain to sleep but not enough to pass out, so she was all too aware of the length of time that Isabelle had been gone. What had they done to her? "Izzy?"

"I'm here." Isabelle forced herself to reply, not wanting to cause Victoria any worry at the moment, even as a wave of terror washed over her. She tried once more, tried to will her damaged arm to move, but there was nothing. She couldn't so much as twitch it. "I'm here." She called to Victoria again even as alarm washed over her. She couldn't move her arm. Even though it was damaged and half of her forearm was missing, limiting her use of it, the fact that now she seemed to have no use of it at all terrified her. Victoria was trusting her and counting on her. Getting them out of there with a damaged arm was one thing, but getting them out of there with a completely useless arm? What were they going to do?

"Izzy, what did they do to you?" Victoria asked her. Something was wrong. She could tell that something was wrong. How much damage had they done to her? She had been gone for so long, probably half a day, although Victoria didn't really trust her sense of time anymore. How much damage had they managed to do? It didn't sound like Isabelle was in agony, but what had they done? "Izzy, I know something's wrong. What did they do?"

"My arm." Isabelle didn't want to tell her. Victoria had somehow made it through months of imprisonment and torture alone. Isabelle didn't want to tell her anything that might take hope away from her, but she needed to know what they might be dealing with. Better to tell her now than to risk endangering her later from not knowing when they had a chance to get out of there. "Don't know what they did, but I can't move my bad arm at all."

"You can't move it? Okay. Okay." Victoria could hear the worry in Isabelle's voice and even though she didn't say anything she knew what she had to be thinking, how would having an immobile arm complicate their getting out of there when they had a shot.

"Vic, I'm sorry." Isabelle told her as she once more tried to force her arm to move and failed. She had promised that she was going to get them out of there and they were going to go home. How would she manage that with a useless arm? She could, she knew, but still, a useless arm was a complication that they didn't need right now.

"Izzy, it's okay. It's going to be okay. Exactly what did they do to your arm this time?"

"Strapped me down and poked and prodded it for what felt like forever." Isabelle told her with a wince. "Nothing they hadn't done before but I can't move it at all now."

"Can you feel it, though?" Victoria asked her. Strapped down. Please let what she was thinking might be wrong be correct.

"Definitely." Isabelle said and then what Victoria had asked hit her. Feeling. She still had feeling in her arm. "You think…."

"It might have been how they had you strapped down. It could have strained it or something. Maybe. Hopefully. Why don't you try to lie down and let it rest a little, see if it gets better?"

"Lying down would be a whole lot more appealing if there were blankets." Isabelle said, but she settled down on the ground anyway, curled next to the wall, her arm pressed protectively against her body. Hopefully Victoria was right and whatever was wrong with her arm would get better and quickly. Something was definitely going on, and they needed to be ready to take advantage of the situation. "I might have a few ideas for places we can hide when Shield gets here." That, she ordered herself to focus on that, to stop thinking about her arm and to stop trying to move it every five seconds. If it was strained or pulled, that wouldn't do any good and could make things worse.

"You definitely think they're coming?" Victoria asked her. She so wanted to believe that help was on the way but it had been so long, it was sometimes hard for her to imagine the torture ending and being able to go home.

"I heard them say something else about Coulson. It sounded like he was making some sort of major move against Hydra." Izzy told her. And again as she talked she silently berated herself. What had she been thinking, going along with Gonzales? At least Coulson was trying to do something against Hydra while Gonzales and company besides her, Bobbi and Mack, hid out on a cloaked helicarrier. Why in the world had she listened to him and gone along with his plan? When Hunter found out about it, he was never going to let her hear the end of it, and really, she knew she deserved it. What had she been thinking?

"How long do you think?"

"I wish I knew. Whatever happened, it sounds like it had to be something major, so hopefully soon." Isabelle was fairly sure that whatever Bobbi had been doing had involved infiltrating Hydra and this seemed like a pretty important location. Hopefully she had been able to gather intelligence and get it back to Coulson so they would come sooner rather than later. "They'll be here. Even with the lack of resources, Coulson was doing a good job as director, getting Shield running again and taking on Hydra. They'll be here."

"Coulson's director?" Victoria asked. "What about Maria Hill?"

"I heard she went to work for Stark."

"She's working for Stark? You know, there was a running bet on when she was going to loose her mind. I wonder who won that?" Maria was with Stark. Felix was injured. How had Coulson ended up as director? Being the highest ranking agent who wasn't a prisoner, in the hospital or insane would put him in charge, but still, she couldn't see himself declaring himself director. "Coulson's really director? He's never been interested in that."

"No, he hasn't, has he? At least from what I heard he wasn't really into climbing the ranks." Isabelle said thoughtfully. All she had ever heard about Coulson had been good, that he was in Shield to help people, not to advance himself. What did she really know about Gonzales anyway? And once again, she wondered, what in the world had she been thinking.

Coulson's really director?" How in the world had that happened? And then something hit Victoria and a new wave of hope washed over her. "Fury's alive."

"Fury's…." Isabelle started to say something about how unlikely that idea was, but then hadn't Coulson been assumed to be dead too? Was it really so unlikely that something similar could have happened with Fury? "What makes you think that?"

"That's the only way I could see Coulson becoming director, if Fury gave it to him. Coulson would take charge of Shield if he was the only ranking agent, but he wouldn't declare himself director." Coulson had been acting strangely and in concerning ways since his return from wherever he had been after his near death, but she couldn't she that part of him having changed. If anything, considering his feelings for his team, his wanting to be in the field and not behind a desk having to make the kind of decisions Fury had been forced too had probably gotten stronger.

"Fury." What Victoria was saying made sense, and she felt foolish for not considering it. She knew how good Fury was. Why hadn't it crossed her mind that he might still be out there? Fury. So there might be a second person out there who could potentially come for them besides, Hunter, Coulson and company. She ordered her arm to move once more and was relieved when she felt the tiniest of twitches from the muscle. Two possible scenarios for a rescue now that she had been reminded of Fury. She had to be ready for either one. "We're going home, Vic. We're getting out of here and going home, I promise."