"Not that I've got anywhere else to be, but is this guy going to be much longer?"

So far, Alex had been waiting for an hour and a half for Jake's mystery- friend? Boss? Partner? – He hadn't given much away about this guy's identity, it could've been anybody.

"Your arrival was unexpected. He needs a little time to…prepare." Jake said, as his eyes watched her carefully as though at any minute she might up and run. But something in the word 'prepare' made Alex's blood run cold.

They sat in silence for a little while longer before the sound of heavy metallic thudding echoed down the hall. Jake stood walking to the door, "He's here," his face lit up with a sinister smile. "Alex, may I present to you the new head of Hydra, the man in charge of getting you here – Crossbones." He pulled open the door and Alex's sniggering was silenced when she got a good look at this 'Crossbones' guy. Not nearly as piratey as his name would suggest, she thought.

Standing at what she guessed was well over six foot, he was a formidable sight. Face fully covered by a mask printed with a skull, there were no distinguishable features to be seen. He looked like he was wearing the same gear that SHIELD's teams were kitted out with, but his arms were cocooned in what looked like metal. With not one piece of skin on display Alex found herself wondering why that would be – was it a conscious decision or a necessity?

"This is her?" Crossbones' voice was quiet but authoritative – he was clearly the kind of man who didn't need to shout to be heard. Jake nodded, his eyes on Alex as she sat silently staring at the stranger before her. "And she just walked up to the base?"

"Yes," Jake's voice was almost a whisper.

Even though you couldn't see any kind of expression on this man's face, it was clear that he wasn't happy about that. "And none of you thought to check if any of her SHIELD teammates came with her?"

This seemed to panic Jake, "Well…no, we just—"

"Just – what? Thought you could think for yourselves?"

"…I'm sorry, sir." His eyes went to the floor quickly, as though he was a child being scolded by his parents.

"No one came with me," She spoke up, hoping to relieve some of the tension in the room.

The skull faced Alex once again, "Move her to the lab – she's no use to us here."

That was the last she saw of 'Crossbones' for the day. Two agents moved her to a lab – dingy and dirty, though the equipment, at least, looked clean. Alex's arms were strapped to a chair by the wrist, palms up – no doubt to make it easier for them to get to a vein.

After they'd strapped her in she was left alone for a while and all she could do was think. Maybe this is going to be over faster than we thought. If they had brought her down to the lab already, surely they would be injecting her with the serum sooner rather than later. Or that was what she was hoping.

Leaving Bucky had been harder than Alex had imagined and sitting here now, everything was happening and the possibility of her meeting the same end as her father was suddenly very real.

"Alex, yes?" A small man had entered the room unnoticed by her. He was reading through some notes.

"Yeah."

He looked up, "Good. Well, we've been waiting a long time for you."

"And I'm thoroughly pleased to be here," Alex said, deadpan.

The man snickered, placing his notes on the table next to her chair before pulling a stool out to sit in front of her. "Now, this process will go relatively easily if you let it." She couldn't understand whether he was concerned about her or threatening her. "I will give you one dose today. But, it will take three weeks for you to have received the necessary amount of the serum."

"Three weeks?" Her eyes widened.

"You better than anyone know that this serum can be…temperamental." He chose the word carefully, but it still cut deeply as Alex thought about how it had affected her own father. "So, what we plan on doing is giving you a dose at the beginning of each week and monitoring you for any changes or side effects and if, by the end of that week, we are happy with the progress, we will give another dose the following week. For three weeks we will do this and at the end of week three you will have had the full amount of the serum." He reiterated his earlier point.

Three weeks was a long time to be gone without being able to get any sort of message to SHIELD. To Bucky. She knew that her being gone for this length of time would make him worry, but she only hoped that he would trust her judgement enough to wait until she sent the signal instead of storming the Hydra base before they'd finished.

But, as much as Alex worried about Bucky's reaction, she had to worry about herself right now. If Hydra were only giving her the serum a dose at a time, they clearly weren't satisfied with it or they were concerned about the exact affects it would have on her. After all, she was the only person they could test it on, they couldn't afford for it to kill her.

While she was thinking, the man that she only hoped was a scientist had filled a syringe with the serum, "Are you ready?"

No, she thought, but instead nodded as she rolled up her sleeve. He smiled like a kid at Christmas as he wrapped a band around her upper arm. Alex could feel her arm being starved of the blood it desperately needed and the veins began to show, like little blue roads mapping out her own body. The man smiled brightly at Alex though she had little cause to do so in return and he moved the needle above her skin. Looking away quickly, she had no desire to see the needle that was currently pressing down and puncturing her flesh, digging deep into her vein.

Suddenly Alex could feel the uncomfortable release of the serum into her blood, the cold liquid was alien to her and she became very aware of how it moved through her bloodstream. She felt sick as the man looked down at her, "There, that wasn't so bad was it?" he smiled again as he pressed a cotton swab to the puncture.

"You are going to have to be kept in here overnight so that we can monitor any initial changes. Tomorrow, all being well, we'll move you to your own room."

Alex knew that the 'room' he was talking about wasn't going to be like the Four Seasons so much as a cell. But as he walked out, leaving her in her in the dingy lab, she had to wonder whether this was the kind of place where they had kept Bucky. If it was, perhaps having his memories wiped was actually a good thing. No one would want to remember a place like this.

Looking down at the band aid on her arm however, one thought passed through Alex's head. There was no going back now.

A/N - Sorry it's been so long guys, I've been writing essays and so I just managed to get this done in between - hope you all enjoy! Favourites, follows and reviews are always appreciated so thanks for them all! :)