Unknown Hydra Base
Early Spring - 2017

Marcus Keeling found himself once again walking through the abandoned halls of his project's level at the Hydra base. Ever since Teagan had been taken from him, this small level had no reason for being used. With the fall of Hydra, their numbers had significantly dwindled so it had remained unused over the past three years.

It was the smallest floor in the underground complex with only a few necessary rooms on this side…cells to hold prisoners, an interrogation room for those being questioned, a training room for doing obedience procedures, a guard room, and his office along with another smaller one for a single staff member to compile reports. Back when he was in demand from Hydra command, he had been assigned to occupy this entire level for Project Cherry Tree.

And now, it gathered dust.

On the far side of it was a larger residence suite where he had lived quite comfortably. For always being at the ready to work or travel at a moment's notice, Hydra had compensated him well. His personal space was nicely decorated with a large sitting den, bedroom, bathroom, and private kitchen. He never needed to leave if he didn't want to. But after losing his tool, no longer gave him a reason to be here and he'd been moved up to the standard barracks. He'd heard others whisper that his accommodations had been better than the base commanders.

At the end of the hallway where he was heading was the small, black room where he kept his favorite tool…Teagan.

Her cell was specially designed in the exact opposite of his own private spaces, nothing less than harsh and cruel. He had made sure that it was devoid of all stimulus so that she would look forward to her time working for him just to get out of there. Even being levels below the surface, he had made sure to keep her restrained at all times to prevent any type of escape attempt. Never was she even allowed to glimpse the outdoors to give her a spark of hope of freedom. Preventing her from knowing where she was did similar. She had traveled the globe and never even knew it, even heading back to Ireland twice. Marcus figured that if Teagan knew she was close to her home, then she might make the effort to at least try.

When not located up in medical, the interrogation room, or the training room, Teagan was securely bound in the cell for countless hours on end. The only real rest periods she had were the times when he allowed her to sleep on the hard bed. To keep her disoriented when she was not needed, he made sure to feed her meals at irregular intervals during the day and night. Sometime she would have twelve hours between feedings, others four. He made sure there was no pattern to her captivity so that she could not plan an escape.

Sleeping times were handled the same way to help keep her pliant. After a year, he had a speaker installed near the security monitor that was set to beep at random intervals through the entire day. After long constant stretches, past any time she would have tried to keep up with counting out seconds, the timing would change to be less than a minute and then up to four. For her, time would have no meaning in the cell.

Only when she worked and obeyed him would she find any semblance of structure. And it had worked wonderfully for eleven years.

The only change he'd ever had to make was rotating the guards on this level every month after one of the younger male guards, Julian Miller, had started to question the overly harsh conditions Teagan was enduring. Marcus had suspected something was going on by the extra hours he found Teagan allowed to use the raised concrete platform with a thin mattress to sit or sleep and the larger meal quantities when she'd been fed solid meals. His suspicions had been confirmed as he watched young Miller talking with her as he fed her a meal instead of making her eat like a dog, as he had been instructed to do. Teagan was not to receive any type of humane treatment.

After being on this assignment for a few months and caring for his charge, Miller had taken his grievances to Commander Henry Bradshaw. He'd argued that if Hydra treated Teagan as more of a friend than a prisoner, then she might be turned to work for them willingly. The fool had wanted to move her to an upper level where agent boarding was, stating she'd be grateful for the chance at some freedom and help Hydra in exchange for better treatment.

Unfortunately for Miller, Henry was more inclined to agree with him that Teagan was too stubborn to be even given the chance.

So with Henry's approval, Marcus had the naive agent brought into interrogation with her already waiting anxiously, secured to her seat at the table like normal. They'd then had the reasoning for them both being there explained, that Miller wanted her cared for better. There was no denying the hopeful look in her eyes at someone, even a Hydra agent, trying to help her.

It had been a great satisfaction to see her become so distraught after he'd then personally shot Miller in the stomach.

It had taken a short time for him to bleed out, all the while Teagan was chained to the table so that she could only watch. By the time he was almost gone, Miller was cursing at her for being the reason behind his death.

After leaving her with the corpse for an hour, he'd informed her that this would be what she should expect if she tried to have any more friends. He knew how she weighed others' deaths' on her conscious and after that, he found it amusing how she'd then distanced herself from the other guards on purpose. To push her even further, he'd told them to have her beaten for even making bodily contact of any kind with them, isolating her even more.

Now, reaching her cell, his hand-print permitted the metal door to unbolt, allowing him to pull it open. A smile crept over his face as he looked at the unused item waiting for Teagan to come back. The metal arm-binder which he was so fond of still hung from the chain on the ceiling. It too was a special design of his own creation. Once on and the bolts tightened down, there was zero chance of her getting free of it and escaping.

He'd had all of her restraints specially made with pain in mind, to help break away her willpower. She had been so headstrong when she had come into his possession that he'd made sure she understood that he was the one in charge, the one to obey. It had taken a lot of threats and beatings but he was sure that it was his ability to keep her secured that finally made Teagan realize that she was never getting free from them…him.

That is, until the day that damn drunk driver had helped to steal her away.

Lifting up the leather object in his hand to stare at it, Marcus smiled at the new sensory deprivation hood that he'd acquired to use on Teagan once Hydra had decided to give him the authority to recapture her. Even with it being close to a year already, he knew that it was only a matter of time before they found proof of her release from the Raft. Then, she would be returned to him. She had been gone for too long. She'd been given a taste of freedom and he was sure she would be just as stubborn as when she first arrived…if not worse.

Her time on the Raft had been easy compared to how he was going to have to break her a second time.

Starting by introducing her to the new item.

Since the original headgear had been lost with her, and he had no idea if Captain America would still be using it on her, he needed something to replace the missing item. He'd also been intrigued by the usefulness of this one. He'd considered this change might be useful once she was back. Teagan would be more under his control now. He wanted her cell and restrains all ready to go for when she was eventually found.

The metal headgear she had worn before had worked fine to prevent her from seeing and talking during transport, but he'd always hated that it secured as one piece. If he wanted to see the fear in her eyes, the gag would no longer be locked in the back. This new hood was even more restrictive, tightly fitting over her entire head while having a separate blindfold, gag, and even ear padding to stop sound from penetrating it. The feeding tube would fit through one of the two nose air holes, leaving the other for breathing.

Knowing how much she hated the darkness, Marcus figured that she would be hysterical quite often at first until she figured out how to calm herself...by obeying him.

As long as she was calm, her air flow would only be partially restricted. If she panicked, there was a chance she'd fall unconscious from air loss.

And he would make damn sure that she did panic.

Sitting it down on the cot, running his hands over the leather straps and stays, he wondered how long it would be until Teagan was brought back to her rightful home, here inside Hydra…with him. He couldn't wait to see how well the new device worked to help bring her back under his thumb.

He had missed his tool so much for the past three years.

Somewhere over Europe
Late Spring

Teagan found herself on the jet again as the group was in the back checking their weapons and putting on their suits. The same contact from the mission months ago that had taken from South Dakota had called Natasha again last night about an even bigger problem than before, which is why they were heading out...this time with her tagging along once again.

Days after finding her waiting in the kitchen with a knife, Natasha had gotten another lead. Having them tell her that there was another mission that they needed to take care of that would keep them away for many hours...it was devastating. Teagan knew she couldn't go through the same paranoia like she had that last time.

Once Steve and Natasha had gone to discuss the mission details in another room, Sam had taken a seat next to her on the couch. Having him ask her what was wrong, knowing that at least he had noticed the change in her posture, she didn't even try to hide her emotions. It had been so hard to admit that she didn't think that she could be left alone for too long, breaking down and crying for her loss of security and self-reliance. She had thought that she had been doing so well up until then. Sam had wrapped his arms around her and said that he would figure something out and that she would never, hopefully, have to feel that way again.

So after talking with the others, explaining her fears, they agreed that since they would be gone for longer than a few hours, that she would at least join them on the Quinjet for the trip. And for a handful of missions, that is what had happened.

So now as they headed to deal with this new situation, she was once again to remain inside the jet with the stealth mode on and wait for their return. On the first mission, Sam had shown her how to work the computer screen which would link the system to their earcoms so that she knew what was happening. He had also linked his visor so that she could see from his point of view.

Just sitting idly by worked to keep her from being worried about them being injured, captured, or killed. She knew the moment something happened.

"This is what ya used to do for a living? Just go from place ta place solving problems?" Teagan asked as she watched the mountains off to the side of the jet pass by. They were flying at an incredible speed but yet she didn't feel any force at all. Natasha tried to explain something about Tony and Shield having figured out inertial dampers but it sounded like she didn't even fully understand her explanation.

"Pretty much," Sam told her coming over to place a hand in the small of her back. She bit her lip to hide the smile that threatened to appear.

Even if it was just her imagination, the idea of him actually liking her always helped to raise her spirits.

Some nights, they would sit on the rooftop patio of a small cantina, listening to music coming from a nearby concert hall. Sam had asked if she wanted to give it a try, but after considering how many people would surround her, she told him that she didn't think she could handle it just yet. Instead, they opted for a starry sky to accompany the musical sounds.

And almost every night, Sam would walk her to her bedroom door, stand there for just a few moments too long, before telling her goodnight and walking to his own bedroom next door. Once she was alone, Teagan wondered if Sam was thinking about the same thing that she was…a kiss. Her fear of Keeling would eventually emerge, but lately it was not as strong it had been that day so long ago in the bathroom back in South Dakota.

Could she really consider having any type of relationship? Is that what Sam wanted, or was he just being nice to her? That would be a question for later…

Right now, they were heading towards a larger Mediterranean town which was a major tourist destination but that's what made this trip worse. A small group of terrorist had managed to get their hands on some type of Chitauri bomb. Natasha had tried to explain the devastation it could cause, but it was the casualty count in the triple-digit thousands that made the point for her. It was scary to her that the world needed people like Sam, Steve, and Nat, but had decided that maybe the possible property harm the small team might produce was somehow worse than the number of human lives lost. Natasha had explained what had happened in Lagos, but Teagan knew it could have been a lot worse if the terrorist had gotten away with the virus, or manage to exploded this bomb.

"We're here," she heard Natasha's voice pull her from her thoughts. "Sam, one minute."

Teagan walked back over to where Sam was standing with his pack already on. Seeing her approach, a smile appeared that showed her the cute, small gap between his front teeth. How could something so silly be so adorable?

"You going to be alright?" he asked her.

"Isn't that what I'm supposed to ask you?"

"Just like last time...stay in the jet, and don't open the door for anyone who knocks," he told her as the ramp began to lower.

Giving an overly dramatic sigh, "You sound like a parent," she joked with him.

"Trust me," he then smiled, "I definitely don't want you to see me as a parent."

As her mind was trying to register the possible meaning of his statement, Sam walked to the end of the ramp, turned to look at her with a grin plastered on his face, spread his arms wide…and fell backwards out of the jet.

A quick panic filled her, and Teagan moved as if she would be able to grab him before he fell to his death.

Strong hands grabbed her upper arms to stop her from getting close to the ramp.

"He's fine," Steve told her. "He was just showing off for you."

"Showing off?" she asked as a gray and red streak shot back past the open ramp.

Moving to the front of the jet where Natasha was piloting, she watched as Sam spun away heading towards the tall, abandoned apartment building so that he could cover the outside. She had not paid too much attention as they planned, but it looked to be over ten stories tall, maybe a few more.

"Looks like someone has a bit of motivation today," Nat's voice sounded more than slightly amused.

"I wonder why?" Steve was now next to her, and she saw the look pass between the two of them.

"Ready to head out?" Natasha then asked Steve.

"Always ready."

"I'll put you onto the roof and then land at the construction site next door. It's Sunday and it should be empty," she told him as Steve began to move towards the ramp. Teagan noticed that his uniform was looking a bit more ragged since the first time she had seen it. Now, after their missions, there was nobody to do any repairs to it and it was starting to show. He stood there for only a few seconds before Natasha yelled out, "Now!"

That was when Steve jumped out, also without a parachute. The jet was still moving forward and she was able to look out the back to see him do a rolling landing before standing upright.

"There is no way that anyone should be able to do that," she commented to nobody in particular.

"And he wasn't even the one trying to show off," Natasha then mumbled. A few seconds later, they landed on the ground not far away from the building which Steve was atop of. "Alright, Teagan. I'm heading out. Cloaking is on and I've left the comms open so that you can hear all of us. If something happens, press this button to talk with us. Otherwise, just stay inside until we get back."

Considering the new black fighting suit with green vest that Natasha was securing her weapons on, Teagan considered the comment a bit funny since she wasn't even dressed for any type of fight. She had gone the exact opposite of the others by wearing a pair of jeans, sneakers, and a short-sleeved, green t-shirt with 'póg mo thóin' written on it. Sam had found it somewhere and given it to her as a Christmas present. When Steve had asked what it said, the two of them had burst out laughing seeing his expression when he learned that it meant 'kiss my ass' in Gaelic, then chastising Sam for getting her something so vulgar. But it had quickly become her favorite shirt.

"I can do that," Teagan told her as Natasha nodded her head before leaving and closing the ramp behind her.

Taking up a seat at the security console, she watched the small screen which was the feed of Sam's visor. He was still flying overhead and she could see him watching Steve as he disappeared into a door, before moving on to find Natasha approaching from the ground level. The next few minutes were a bit surreal, like watching an action movie unedited.

Steve and Natasha called out positions of enemies as they moved towards each other through the building, Steve from up high, and Natasha from the ground. Sam's visor showed him examining rooms through the windows. As a lorry began to emerge from an underground garage, he took a couple of shots in the engine, stopping it so that it rolled dead, crashing into a pile of stone from the job-site she was at.

From over the comm, gunfire continued to almost drown out the others, but they never sounded worried or afraid. Eventually, Teagan noticed that the loud, popping sounds of gunfire were almost completely gone. Sam was continuing to circle the building, giving aerial support by firing through the windows whenever a teammate was pinned down.

"Steve, I found it," she heard Natasha say as three more shots followed. Next came the sounds of punches, grunts, and heavy items falling to the floor. "Looks like they don't want to give up the package."

"I'm a floor above you. Give me thirty seconds," Steve told her as Sam then focused in on him using heat-vision, watching him make his way down the staircase. There were a few stragglers that he knocked out along the way.

"I might have the party cleaned up by then," she told him with a final shot. "Yep, looks like you miss it."

"Is it secure?" he then asked her, but Natasha did not give an immediate answer. "Nat, is the package secure? Are you there?"

Before they could worry, Natasha's cold voice sounded filled with worry, ""We might have a bit of a problem. Steve, Sam, get here now!"

Teagan watched through the visor as Sam used the heat-sensor to locate her on the opposite side of the building. Circling it, he shot through the window past the small balcony, shattering it so he could fly inside. He landed in the small room right next her as Steve came barreling in through the shattered door frame. Teagan could see Natasha looking at a large, glowing, tubular object, which she suspected was the bomb they were there for. It was a mixture of alien and human technology.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked looking down to examine the object. Even she could then see the countdown numbers as they slowly began to descend. "Never mind. I'm sorry I asked."

"Nat, can you disarm it?" Steve asked her as Sam looked back down at the counter.

173 seconds until it would explode, taking out not only Sam and the others, but her and the surrounding occupied town.

Natasha began to examine the item for a few seconds. But Sam must have been a bit more impatient as he instead grabbed the closest conscious terrorist from the floor.

"What's the code to disarm it?" he demanded, lift him up so he was on his knees.

The man gave an evil grin, his nose bleeding from a previous punch and blood running over his mouth and teeth.

"I'll never tell you," he sneered. "I'll go down in history as the man who killed Captain America and the infamous Black Widow."

"Dude, we don't even know your name, so nobody is going to remember you," Sam pointed out as Steve came over and lifted him off the ground with one hand by the collar, his head almost touching the ceiling.

"The code! Now!" Steve tried to demand.

"Fuck you!" he then spit some of the blood onto Steve's uniform, hitting the white star on his chest. "I'll never tell and there's no way you can make me. You're all dead!"

Sam's head jerked up to stare at Steve, whose face showed that he might just have had an epiphany. Steve then nodded his approval at the silent idea they both had shared.

"Sam…" Steve started to say, but was cut off by…

"We'll be right back," Sam was now running back towards the window, leaping off the small balcony without hesitation. She could see him heading right for the jet. "Teagan, open the ramp!"

Standing up from the console, she hit the button so that the ramp and Sam touched the ground at the same time.

"Come on," he told her, coming over to where she was. "You get to be a superhero today."

"What?" not sure if she had understood correctly with what he was suggesting.

"You can get the code from him," Sam pointed out as he took her hand and led her a few feet away from the jet. "Will you do it?"

"I would but I can't get up that many steps in time," she told him, looking up at the tall building.

"Do you trust me?" Sam then asked her, making eye contact with her through the red-tinted goggles.

"Yes," she sincerely told him.

Sam then wrapped both of his arms around her torso, just under her arms, making her latch her arms behind his head. A second later, they were launched straight up into the air, Teagan giving a quick scream as her stomach dropped from the g-force. Closing her eyes, they were only in the air for a few seconds before she felt them start to drop. Worried something had gone wrong, she opened her eyes to find them already landing on the balcony close to Steve and Nat.

"Come on, Erin," he called her by the old romantic Gaelic name associated with Ireland.

After asking about her arm tattoos one night, they'd ended up talking about her home and he must have recalled the name. She was surprised that he had remembered such a little detail about that night. It made a warm feeling suddenly appear in her chest.

Holding her hand, Sam led her closer to where Steve was still holding the terrorist. His hands had been secured behind his back and he was staring at her, probably wondering why she was there, not realizing their improvised plan.

"We only have 92 seconds left," Natasha called out to them as Sam led her forward towards the man.

Looking up at Steve to make sure that he was alright with this use of her powers, he gave her a single nod.

Teagan reached out to hold the man's head still by his cheeks. Locking her glaze with him, Teagan asked the simple question…

"What is the disarming code?"

A second later, the man began to rattle off, "85X423LW75," as his eyes grew wide knowing what he had just done but not understanding why.

Glancing over at Nat, she was already in the process of imputing the code as he answered, and she was able to hear the sound of something electrical dissipating moments later as the bomb disarmed.

"What that hell was that? What did you do to me, you red-headed bitch!?" the terrorist began to yell at her, lunging for her suddenly, freeing himself from a surprised Steve with the move. His body slammed into her right side, but Sam was standing behind her, catching her in one arm as he pushed the man back towards Steve with the other.

Angry that he had attacked her, Teagan quickly thought of one of Natasha's moves she'd been taught. Gripping onto his shoulders and gave him a hard, swift knee to the groin. His screech of pain as he fell to his knees made her smile.

"Níl tada níos measa na bód ina seasamh!" she sneered down at him as strong hands began to move her back and away from him.

"Are you alright?" Sam asked, looking over her body as if she'd been wounded somehow.

"I'm fine," she was only slightly stunned. Never before had anyone she'd questioned been able to retaliate. Keeling had always prevented it, more to cover his own ass than to protect her.

"What did you say to him?" Natasha then asked her as she was securing other unconscious prisoners.

Steve began to drag the man over to the wall with the others.

"There's nothing worse than a standing prick," she smiled over at her, getting a smile out of Steve.

Sam then firmly latched onto her hand and began to pull her further into the building, stopping just a room away once they were out of sight of the others. There was something in his eyes, a strange fear that she'd never seen from him. Instead of saying anything, it looked to her like he was building up his confidence for something.

Not sure what was going on, Teagan was about to ask what was wrong...when she suddenly found her lips trapped by Sam's.

It had been so long since anyone had kissed her, she had forgotten what it felt like. But then, this kiss was nothing like the ones she'd had before.

With his body still on an adrenaline high from the mission, Sam's kiss was eager and full of anticipation.

Falling with his back against the wall, he leaned her onto him, wrapping his hands over her very warm, blushing cheeks. Understanding that this was really happening, she let herself respond. Her own hands then grabbed onto the straps that held his wing-pack on him, pulling him into her even tighter. Their chests rested against each others while their lips roamed for the other's.

This was what she had been dreaming about for the past year.

The excitement of flying with him, and then facing off the terrorist, had made her body slightly tense. But now Teagan felt that she was being protectively held against him where nobody could get to her, while not feeling trapped since he was against the wall. Her muscles began to relax as a most enjoyable foreign heat quickly spread through her body.

Feeling his mouth slightly open for needed oxygen, Teagan used the opportunity to slip her tongue inside. Running it over his, she then let herself lick the backside of his cute tooth gap, drawing a pleasurable moan from Sam.

A hand of his began to wrap around her neck, sliding over the shaved part of her head, his fingers making little circles over the tattoo at the base of her neck before moving up to bury themselves in her longer hair. Knowing that he was not about to move away from her if she let go, Teagan ran her hands down his chest until she found his belt. Linking her fingers around it, she pulled him hard against her waist. Sam took the hint and began to press and grind his hips, earning him a moan from her at the gesture.

Hearing the clearing of a throat, the two of them managed to pause their frenzied kisses to see a grinning Natasha watching them from the doorway to the room.

"About damn time, I almost lost the bet," Natasha first stated, making her face flush even more with actually being caught. "If the two of you have a few minutes to spare, care to get out of here since the authorities who were contacted about the gunfire are on the way?"

Natasha turned to walk back into the room, giving them a moment to compose themselves.

"I hope I didn't scare you," Sam then told her, going back to looking over her side where the man had hit her.

"Did that feel like I was scared?" she joked with him, giving him a smile.

"I can't say out loud here what that did feel like," he smirked at her, taking her hand to lead her back into the room.

"Why the name Erin?" she asked, seeing Natasha and Steve heading outside on the patio.

Nodding his head toward the men lined up against the wall, "Shouldn't use your real name in public."

All of the terrorists were now bound and secured so they couldn't escape. They were also awake and watching the group make their way over to the balcony. She could hear the sounds of sirens approaching. Natasha shot a line from her arm to a higher balcony's ledge before jumping over the side. Teagan, holding Sam's hand still a bit dizzy by the height, went to the railing and watched as she was lowered to the ground.

"You got Erin?" Steve then asked, also using the code name she seemed to have adopted.

"Absolutely," Sam told him, making Steve grin before his hopped over the side. A few floors down, he grabbed a balcony to control his fall, before releasing and doing the same maneuver until he reached the ground.

Turning her smiling face to Sam, she commented as they took hold of each other again, "No wonder you hang out with Steve and Nat. That looks like fun."

"More fun than flying?" he asked wrapping his arms around her a bit nicer.

"I don't know," she told him looking over the edge. "Maybe you'll have to help me make up my mind."

Pulling her in tight, just before taking off, Sam whispered into her ear, "I can do that."

A second later, they were once again airborne, heading for the Quinjet that was already up and off of the ground, with Steve standing at the open ramp waiting for them.

Author's Note: I'm glad to hear from everyone that they are liking the story. I hope that this chapter met your expectations for the two of them finally getting over their worry about revealing their feelings. By now, they will have been around each other for just under a year. I know it didn't take many chapters to get here, but as I've said before, there's a lot of just hanging out that has been happening. Now we'll get to see them progressing forward. And yes, eventual 'naughty time' will follow.

Update Info: With December being so hectic for me, Christmas and traveling, I'm going to slow down with the twice-a-week postings. Today, and for the next four weeks, I will only be posting on Mondays. Once my schedule calms back down in January, I'll resume the Monday & Friday uploads then. The story will not be abandoned, I just will not have time for editing the already written chapters.