Wakanda - The Villa
After Breakfast

Sitting back outside on the patio, T'Challa saw Teagan hesitantly heading for him. He did not believe that she was actually scared of him but more wary of anyone she considered a threat to her freedom. There was no mistaking the guarded bearing she still had around him and Steve, as if a single word from either of them would have her put back into a cell. He felt that no matter how much he might try, that only time would alleviate her fear that it was not going to happen.

Seeing Steve and Sam still indoors, as well as a few other eyes from their group, watching her as she took up the seat across from him, he decided to give her an offer of some company. Okoye had taken it upon herself to be as close as he would allow, not liking the fact that he would be what she considered 'vulnerable' being so close to Teagan. He was not as worried hoping that as long as she felt safe then they all would be free from any episode from her.

"Teagan, what I would like to discuss with you, Steve and Sam already know about," he informed her. "I brought it to their attention first. Would you like either or both of them to join us?"

She looked back over at the glass doors where the two men were talking to each other inside.

"Yes, both please," she nervously told him.

Waving to the both of them, they headed out to join the talk. Once they were seated, he decided to be very blunt with her.

"Teagan, my doctors came to me after compiling your medical reports taken from your scans. There is a detailed listing of what they found concerning previous injuries and scars left from the medical procedures done to you over the years. I'm sure that you know exactly what they found."

Her eyes darted over from him to the others, as if trying to tell if they really knew and from the sadness that they saw from them it was obvious that they did.

"Yeah, it's kind of hard to forget," she told him.

"I noticed at breakfast that you have a hard time holding objects in your hands," he offered and she quickly her hands clasp onto each other before she hid them between her legs. Was she truly worried of a repeat of what Hydra had done to her? "You have nothing to be worried about. Our medical experience here in Wakanda is far more advanced than anywhere else in the world. And I would like to offer you some help."

"Help?" she asked him not understanding where he was going.

"If you will agree to the simple procedure, my medical staff can easily repair the damage done to your hands and arms so that you are once again able to use them without trouble," he told her.

"You can do that?" Steve then asked for them.

"Yes. It would mean a couple of simple injections into each of your hands," his eyes never strayed from hers, "and after the solution has a couple of hours to work repairing the bones, muscles, and tendons, it would be as if your hands had never been injured."

He could see that she was hopeful but a bit hesitant as she bit at her lower lip and T'Challa was sure he knew why.

"Teagan, we will not be experimenting on you. This is a medical procedure which has been around for many years, at least for us, and has worked successfully on many people before you, mostly our elders with severe arthritis," he told her. "You do not have to accept this offer if it frightens you. But I know of the pain that you must be constantly feeling in your hands from the damage that was done to them."

That got her attention.

"The shots would make the pain would go away?" there was enthusiasm in her voice and she looked the happiest she had since arriving.

He also saw a bit of shock from the others as they heard that, probably not having considered that it was a possibility. His doctors had informed him that with how much damage her hands had suffered that there was a high probability that she felt an arthritic-type of throbbing constantly.

"Yes," he simply told her. "And if you would like, they can also give your shoulders and elbows the injections too. Are they also in constant pain?"

Looking a bit shy at having been found out, Teagan carefully nodded her head.

"May I ask…why they felt it was necessary to do such damage to your hands?"

Teagan now really seemed to draw into herself and he feared that she would not tell that part of her story. His curiosity as to why they did such an act, except as a punishment, was beyond him and he hoped to learn more.

"It was my training," she told them.

He, Steve, and Sam all looked at each other not understanding the connection.

"Training?" Steve responded. "How is breaking bones training?"

Taking a deep breath, she told them, "I couldn't always control a person, only make them tell the truth. Hydra figured if I could command someone one way then I might be able to do it another. So they would have one of their men put a finger into a vice. He would keep turning it to snap my finger, and if I wanted it to stop, I had to touch him and command him to do so."

"They used torture to try to manipulate and amplify your powers?" Steve asked, to which she nodded.

"But they had no way to know if you could really command people like that, did they?" Sam asked her.

"No. They were only guessing, and hoping. But after experimenting with torture techniques, and breaking all my fingers multiple times, it worked."

There was a foul feeling from all of them as they each imagined what she had been put through. He could even hear Okoye fidgeting nearby. She had also been given a copy of Teagan's medical report so she knew why this talk was necessary, as well as his offer of their help.

"What about the overall damage to your arms?" Sam then asked. "Your shoulders and elbows show marks that they were stressed. Was that part of training too?"

Teagan began to shake her head.

"That was just from how he preferred to keep me secured," she told them, sounding much too casual about the topic. "He liked to make sure that I couldn't touch anyone so he kept my arms bound behind my back, my hands close to my neck."

T'Challa's mind began to race with a picture of the painful position her arms would have been in. Bent upwards and secured like that, it would indeed stress her joints and her muscles would begin to deteriorate from not being used. Too much pressure would have caused the dislocation of her shoulders as her file indicated. Even with his own training, he would never be able to have his arms in that position.

"He?" Sam asked her, bringing him back to the conversation.

There was no mistaking the fear in her eyes at just thinking of the individual.

"I…uh, the guy…in charge of…my project," she finally managed to say, hesitating every few words while not being able to make eye contact.

"Were there others in this project?" Steve then asked.

Teagan bit her lower lip very hard, and her entire body was now fidgeting. Why was she so nervous?

"No," she softly started off. "I was the entire project."

"What project?" he asked, knowing that there was very good chance that the information about it might have been leaked onto the internet thanks to Natasha.

"Project Cherry Tree."

Steve gave a slight chuckle at the name for some reason.

"What's funny about that name?" Sam asked him.

"Didn't you pay attention in history class?" Steve taunted him. "George Washington. 'I cannot tell a lie, I chopped down the cherry tree.'"

Sam groaned at the recognition, then he stated, "I had no idea that Hydra was into bad puns."

T'Challa knew with that piece of information that if Teagan's project file was on the internet that it could be easily found.

"Teagan, did Ross know that name? Project Cherry Tree?" he asked.

"No, I never told him, and I don't think that the guards captured with me knew that name. They only had instruction on where to deliver me but I don't think they ever told Ross where that was. He asked about it for a long time which made him madder that I never gave him an answer."

"So there's a chance that there is a Hydra base that you know of that might not have been captured after their fall?" Steve asked.

"I don't know," she told him, "but I don't know where any of the bases are that I went to. It was a rule."

"You've mentioned these rules before," Sam got her attention and she began to fidget again. "Would you tell us some of them?"

As she spoke, Teagan's voice sounded as if she were reading off a grocery list, very plain and unemotional.

"Nobody was supposed to talk to me except for giving orders. And never use the word friend. I was to always be restrained in two ways, if not three, so that I couldn't escape. No letting me know where I was or where I was going. Never tell me what day, month, or year it was. Never let me see outside, the sky."

T'Challa could not imagine why it would be necessary to impose such strict rules on her except to help break her spirit.

"Who made these rules?" Steve then asked.

"The project head," she simply said.

"Who was?" Steve asked trying to get an actual name from her.

Teagan seemed very disturbed by this part of their talk. Her expression was a mixture of fright and anger as she considered speaking his name.

"Marcus Keeling."

Steve and Sam looked over at each other with no recognition of the man at all it seemed. There was no mistaking the hated tone as she spoke his name.

"Well, we are going to see if he was one of the Hydra agents captured after their fall. That way you'll know that you're now safe from him," Steve informed her and he could see a bit of a smile at hearing that.

"Teagan," he said getting her attention back to him, "Would you be willing to accept my offer of the injections? We can have them done in only a matter of minutes and by this afternoon, you would be feeling much better."

There was no mistaking the nervousness on her face as she considered his offer. Her hands were wringing each other and she was still biting her lower lip. She then timidly looked over towards Sam.

"Would…would ya' come with me?" she asked him.

"Of course," Sam offered with a warm smile.

He was glad to see that she was at least trusting of one person so far.

Turning back to him, "Yes. I would really like for the pain to stop."

"Then I will have medical informed to get the necessary shots ready. Is there any other problems that you are having that we did not discover?"

"No, it's just my hands and shoulders. They needed to be able to move me easily so they never hurt my legs."

That was much harder to actually hear even though he had suspected it.

"Then someone will come and retrieve you and Sam when they are ready," he said standing. "I have some things to take care of today but I will be back later and join everyone for dinner tonight."

As he began to walk away, Steve made his way over to him and he could tell that he wanted to say something.

"T'Challa, thank you so much for doing that for her. I had no idea that her injuries would be hurting her like that, only that her grip would be weakened."

"The doctors had to inform me of such. They said that with as many breaks as her fingers had suffered that it was almost a guarantee that she was in some kind of pain. Seeing her at breakfast only helped me to confirmed their suspicions."

Steve glanced towards the den, seeing Barnes and the others talking and laughing on the couch.

"He will be fine," he tried to voice comfort to Steve.

"It just feels like I'm losing him all over again after just finding him."

"But when he awakes, the friend you knew will still be there but without some of the harm done to his mind by Hydra," he pointed out and Steve's shoulders eased a bit of tension. "Are you still planning on leaving tomorrow?"

"Yes. We need to leave before anyone becomes suspicious since the last place we were seen in was a location you were at. Nat and Clint told me they are working on putting out a couple of false reports in different countries to help confuse the authorities."

"Then take the day to spend with your friend and we will wait until tomorrow morning for him to go to sleep," T'Challa offered.

"I can't tell you how much your help means to the both of us," Steve said before turning back to look at Teagan. "Actually, all three of us."

"Well, I hope that all of you find a resolution to the problems that you will soon be facing, as well as healing the ones behind you."

Steve understood his meaning as he began to shake his head, "I don't think that right now there is anything to help with the rift between me and Tony."

"It cannot hurt to at least extend an olive branch."

Unknown Hydra Base
A Little While Later

Walking towards the security center for the Hydra base, Marcus Keeling listened to the tapping of his walking cane echoing off the concrete walls. Over the past two years, the muscles around the burn and shrapnel wound in his right thigh and hip had begun to weaken, causing him not only pain but to have a more pronounced limp. He hated that it had forced him to need the support of the cane to ease the pressure of just moving around, worried that others would take it as a sign of weakness. He would.

Holding onto the handle, his fingers stroked alone the tentacles of the custom made titanium hydra pommel. If he had to use it, he wanted no doubts as to his faithfulness. Especially considering his now lowered status among the remaining ranks.

After the loss of his prized possession, Project Cherry Tree was no more. Which meant that he was now just another middle ranked Hydra agent thanks to his previous years of service as a strike team leader. His bitterness and lashing out at first learning that his tool had been taken by mere police then turned over to the U.S. government had caused quite a scene. But thanks to the fall of Hydra only hours later, he had not been able to convince his home base's Commander Henry Bradshaw to compile a strike team to retrieve her. With so many of their ranks exposed and being taken out, he was not taking the chance of anyone learning of this location.

And so they waited for an attack that never came.

After two full months of the base being on lock-down for protection, he'd finally learned that Teagan had been quietly whisked away to the Raft prison. It was only luck that he knew where she was to begin with, thanks to a single agent still in Secretary Ross' circle that had not been exposed. There was no way for him to get her out of there. According to the prison records, she was not actually there…no official prisoners were.

But he knew for a fact that she was thanks to their agent. And why else would the Raft's medical staff put in constant requests for feeding tubes and liquid protein meals just like he had fed her? It seemed that blowhard Thaddeus Ross had taken his technique of keeping her a prisoner as his own. Had she been as much trouble for Ross as she'd been for him at times over the years?

Reaching his destination, Marcus entered his door code, allowing him access to the security room. The tech agent which compiled the secretly passed-on reports that covered events to be reviewed by the U.N. special councils was at his deadline. Thanks to the leak from Shield about most of Hydra's activities, Henry Bradshaw had demanded that all of the base computers be on a closed server and internal reports to be discussed in weekly meetings to be printed on paper. The numerous techs could use computers to gather the information but he was not risking them being hacked and anything they were currently working on getting out. Henry had also banned laptops from being brought into the meeting room.

He was gathering the reports before today's meeting with Henry and a few other higher ranked agents who had managed to flee here over the years.

"Sir," the agent straightened up in his chair and nodded his head in acknowledgement. He liked that he managed to instill a bit of fear of the lower ranks. Offering up a small stack of papers to him, "Here are the copies of the report. It also includes all that we could gather about the escape of the Raft initiated by Captain America and Black Widow. It seems that they were able to get their entire team out without a single fatality, guard or prisoner beyond minor injuries."

Opening the report, he gave a quick read over the summary at the top of the page. It seemed that even as a fugitive that Rogers was not will to take that final step to do whatever was necessary. Numerous black eyes, sprained limbs, contusions...but not a single gun wound or death.

"Do you have my weekly supply request from the Raft compiled?" he asked dully while skimming over the rest of the report.

For roughly two years, it had been the same until the arrival of the former Avengers. Then new staples for the prisoners' meals began to appear.

Turning around, the agent began to scramble through the remaining papers, finally pulling out a single sheet. Taking it from him, Keeling started to walk away as he glanced at it. His steps began to slow as his mind began to realize what the paper stated this time.

Where were the normal requests for feeding tubes and liquid meals? Had Ross for some reason decided to put Teagan into a normal cell and feed her the standard prisoner meals?

Reading every line item requested since the breakout, Keeling began to smile. There was only one reason that there were no medical items to be used on her and for all prisoner meal supplies had been zeroed out: Teagan was no longer on the Raft!

Ross had not put her into a cell. If he had, he would still need to feed her, but now the Raft no longer had any prisoner!

Going back over the other report in his hand about the breakout, Keeling saw that there was no mention of Teagan being among the escapees. But why should she be? Ross had never informed the U.N. to her existence.

He sauntered out of the security room much happier than when he'd entered as his mind began to race.

This had to mean that Teagan was now with Captain America.

But where would he keep her prisoner at?

He could no longer take her to either the Avengers upstate compound or the Tower. He was on the run…with the Black Widow. She was the type that might have a confidential location that could hold a prisoner. But he doubted that they would ever be able to learn of it considering how well she was trained.

So what did that leave as an alternative?

Heading into the meeting with Henry Bradshaw, he couldn't wait to see his face as he informed him of his findings and requested that they begin their own search for Captain America. Keeling hoped they had better luck finding him than Ross so far had.

It would be so nice to have Teagan…no, to have his tool back again.

Author's Note: That ending should give you some indication as to where this story is going to head eventually...and it will be a shocker that should have you screaming. But that's a bit off in the future. For now, you'll have a chance to see Sam and Teagan get to know each other better, as well as some of the others.
Thanks for the positive reviews, and I hope that I'm able to keep you happy. For the immediate future, I should be able to continue posting on Mondays and Fridays.