Author's Note: I've been terrible at responding to comments, so I'm very sorry and I have to catch up!
FernieRee: Thank you for sticking with me while I've been MIA! Sarah is so precious, and she's so, so important to the story. I'm glad you love her! She's got her dad's good heart and her mother's devotion. James on the other hand is a little shit- he got his father's stubbornness and his mother's recklessness lol
zikashigaku: Oh Kayla's very over Hydra and the toll they've taken on her family. Luckily, somebody very important to her is still on her side to protect her kids.
Kayla's head lulled to the side as she began to feel her wits coming back to her. She tried to place where she was. She wasn't safe in her hotel bed and she sure as hell wasn't safe in Steve's arms. There was a dull ache in the back of her head, and she started to remember Contini's voice taunting her before bashing her skull in.
Could have been worse. She could have been shot.
She crunched her eyes closed, afraid to open them and see the situation she found herself in. She took deep breaths, trying to steady her racing heart so she could assess the situation. She was alive, and she had to see if anyone else was. Kayla slowly pried open her left eye, squishing her face as she slowly looked around. After a moment she opened her eyes fully and looked around, finding herself in a warehouse. She looked to her left and right, realizing Steve was hanging beside her, moments before she acknowledged she was also dangling from the ceiling.
"Steve!" She hissed loudly, looking around to see if anyone would come at the sound of her voice. She waited with bated breath for several minutes until she was sure nobody was coming yet. She looked back to her husband, finding his limp body beaten. His lip was busted and his cheek had a deep bruise forming. His boots were tied together in a vain attempt to stop him from moving on the off chance he was able to escape.
Kayla tried to move her leg to tap him, but found her two legs tied together with chains. They were expecting her to wake up. Steve? Not so much. "Steve! Honey, can you hear me? You gotta wake up!" Kayla begged quietly, looking toward the door again. When nobody arrived, she swung her legs, using all her core strength to reach Steve, if even just a little.
She managed to tap him with her chained feet and he winced, startling the super soldier to life. "Kay?"
"Steve! You okay?" Kayla hissed as he lifted his head enough to see her under his lashes. She tilted her head and her hair fell over her shoulder, revealing her weak smile. "Look at us. In trouble again."
"I don't know who the hell is going to save us this time." Steve's voice cracked as he grumbled. "Buck went to do surveillance. I set the trap. I was captured. I didn't even realize you were there yet."
"Contini whacked me in the head with a gun." Kayla sighed, rolling her eyes as she leaned against the chains toward Steve. "Izetta got you?"
"She punctured me with the red serum. Nothing happened, which explains why I took such a beating after. She pelted me over the head with a metal chair. That's all I remember."
Kayla bit the side of her lip as she stared off into the distance, "That's kind of badass. Nat would have been proud."
"Don't try to make this seem like an admirable thing. I don't know what happened to Bucky. I don't know what happened to Tessa and the kids."
"Contini said they were going to die." Kayla cracked, letting her body fall slack against her shackles, "Hopefully Bucky got away in time to warn them."
"We have to get out of here." Steve mumbled, looking up at the ceiling where they hung from. Kayla followed his line of sight, not seeing much in terms of help. She looked at Steve's shackles, seeing a lock holding his hands together as opposed to the rough metal chain that simply kept her hanging.
Kayla wiggled her slim wrist, trying to break free, and eventually snapped the bone in her thumb so her right hand could slip out. Steve winced at the sound, but Kayla's determination fought off the pain. Hanging from one hand, she reached up and grabbed the chain, allowing her to wiggle her other hand free easily before dropping to the ground.
Steve looked impressed as Kayla reached her non-broken hand up into her hair and fished out a bobby pin from the depths of her hair. She jumped onto Steve, causing him to grunt as he held her weight along with his own from the metal shackles. Kayla wrapped her damaged hand around his neck to steady himself as he bit his lip and reached up to pick at the lock determinedly. She slipped a bit, pulling hard against Steve's shackled wrists, and he whimpered in pain. Kayla looked down at her husband sadly, "I'm sorry, I'm almost done." She shoved the pin deeper into the lock and twisted, listening closely until the clamp broke open and Steve fell to his feet.
He landed easily and allowed Kayla to slip from his side onto the ground. Both free, Kayla took the moment to study Steve, seeing him looking worse than she ever had before. She watched Steve battle the Mad Titan Thanos, but somehow he looked worse here. Kayla reached up and cradled his jaw with both hands, "What's happened to us?"
"We're getting too old for this." Steve answered quietly with a weak smile. "I thought I could do one more fight. I'm not sure if I can now."
Kayla shrugged a little, raking her fingers through her hair, "We're in the thick of it now. We have to finish what we started. The Avengers can take care of the rest." Steve grabbed his wife's hand and pressed a kiss to her fingers, careful not to hurt her broken thumb. Suddenly, a creaking sound was heard, and they darted into the shadows.
The Medranos came charging into the warehouse with Contini right behind them. He held a blaster gun from Wakanda while Izetta carried the empty vial and a syringe. The woman stopped and the syringe dropped to the ground and shattered, "Where the hell are they?" She sneered loudly, turning to look at the two men. "Where are they?"
Kayla and Steve shared a glance as they hid behind a metal table, watching their captors argue. Contini looked to Izetta's shorter husband, but Osvaldo held up his hands defensively, "I infected the girl. I didn't realize the Americans would interfere with the children."
"We have no children and now we have no test subject. I wanted to run the virus on the woman. This is a disaster." Izetta muttered, her voice dropping nervously as she looked toward the security camera above the door, "We need to see if somebody broke them out. Perhaps the other man. Either way, she won't be happy about us losing them. She wanted them incapacitated, but alive. After the disaster in Rome she won't give anymore chances."
"I lost my son to them. I don't care what the Enchantress wants. I want them dead." Contini snarled, but Osvaldo shivered and moved to stand beside his wife. Contini snorted and smiled deviously, "You two are weak. You have no place among Hydra. It's falling quickly without the Red Skull. Let it go and salvage any chance of life you have left. I'll be spending my time hunting those two assassins."
Contini stormed out to check the security footage, leaving the Medranos alone to study the scene of the escape. Osvaldo looked up at the chains, touching them gently, "Powerful people are protecting the children. We'll never see them again, Iz. Perhaps we too should run while we have the chance?"
"No." She answered shortly with a wobbling jaw, "There's nowhere in the world she can't find us. We live as Hydra or we die as Hydra. There's no escape for us now. Contini will realize that soon enough. I have to prepare, the hospital called. They need my expertise to help with the girl."
"Give us another chance to get the kids." Osvaldo suggested, smiling as he considered it, "They'll come back for their children."
"Assuming their are no more... interferences." Izetta grumbled, looking around their empty lab.
Izetta looked at the chains, then around the room until her eyes fell on a metal table. She slowly walked over to it and her husband followed nervously, watching her carefully as she looked at the table. "What's wrong?"
"This table used to be over there." Izetta admitted, looking around it and finding a loose brick that had been discarded, "They're gone."
"Somebody help! Please!" James screamed into the United Nations Office, trying to get someone's attention. A young woman in her twenties knelt down and felt Tessa's neck before yelling for an ambulance.
Sarah clenched Tessa's arm and a tear slid down her cheek as she shook the woman. "Please, please don't die. Please, you promised to protect us."
Suddenly an older blonde woman was kneeling beside them, staring at James with terrified eyes, "What's your name?"
Sarah let go of Tessa to grab her brother's arm and he pushed her gently behind him, staring down the older stranger defiantly, "James."
The blonde woman quivered from head to toe as she studied the young boy, especially enraptured by his green eyes, "James? How old are you? Are you from Geneva?"
"Mom says not to talk to strangers." Sarah yelped as the paramedics appeared to take Tessa away. "James, what are we going to do?"
"I'm from New York." James answered firmly, ignoring his sister. "And I'm nine."
The blonde woman smiled weakly, watching as the paramedics loaded up the brunette woman the kids had come with, "Who is she?"
"She's our aunt. We have to go with her." Sarah answered as James narrowed his eyes, raising his chin defiantly at the curious stranger. James noticed she looked familiar though, and made the decision to trust her.
"We'll stay with Aunt Tess. Use her phone to call Mom and Dad." James lowered his head to stare down the older woman as a man in his early seventies came up beside her, looking the two children up and down before pulling the blonde woman away.
"Mom?" The woman whimpered, looking to the man, but he just shook his head as one of the paramedics came up to the children.
"You're with her, correct? Is there another adult we can contact?"
"She has our Mom's number in her phone. Our parents are at a conference, she's supposed to watch us." James explained as Sarah's lip quivered when they hoisted Tessa into the ambulance.
The older woman surged forward, raising her hand to get the worker's attention, "I'll accompany them!"
"Ma'am? Do you know-"
"Yes. Please, I know their parents, let me come with them." James and Sarah looked between the paramedic and the stranger, unsure of what to think or believe.
The paramedic looked to the children and Sarah shook her head, but James studied the woman curiously, "I think maybe we do know you. I remember you, kinda. You can get a hold of Mom and Dad?"
A tall man in a suit came to stand between the children and the woman who tried to help them, "Ma'am, I have to insist you don't involve yourself. I know what you think, but the boy is dead. Your daughter is dead. With all the chaos in the city and the convention tomorrow, I have to insist you and your husband stay here."
"We have to go now, I've already got a chemicals specialist on the way to the hospital to check her out. Make up your mind, Mrs. Ellis, but either way, the children are coming with us." The paramedic informed as she ushered the two kids toward the ambulance. James hopped up easily and reached down to grab Sarah's hand to pull her up with him. The paramedic stormed away from the older woman and her husband, leaving her with a quivering lip as they slammed the doors closed and drove to the hospital.
"Sandra, it can't be. Don't... don't hope its them." Mathew Ellis pleaded with his wife, but she'd already made up her mind, and turned to their aide determinedly.
"Get the car, I'm going to the hospital. I need to talk to the girl. It'll ease my mind. Please."
Mathew lowered his head with a heavy sigh, knowing his wife would chase those kids until she had a DNA test proving they weren't her grandchildren. "You sure you want to do this Sandra. They said they had a mother. You want to see him remarried?"
Sandra stopped and looked over her shoulder, feeling her chest deflate a bit at her husband's observation, "If those kids are my only grandchildren, I want to spend what little time I'm able to with them, before they slip away again forever." She quickly darted out the massive doors behind their aid, allowing her mind to fall into hopeful memories.