Colorado Hydra Base
Thirteen Days Later

"I see light."

Nat couldn't believe how much relief she finally felt over her entire body at Steve's few simple words. That meant that all of this work for almost two weeks had not been in vain. Steve had worked so hard to get them out of here, with her making him take three 'brake days' during their trapped time. It might have kept them here a bit longer, but after a few days she could see how physically and mentally exhausted Steve would sometimes get. She had finally won the argument about him needing the breaks every so often.

"Can you tell how much debris is left up in the tunnel?" she stepped closer towards where Steve was standing with a smile on his face. She knew that he was just as anxious to get out of here as she was.

"Since it's still early in the day, maybe by tonight," he grinned at her.

"Then what are you still standing around for?" she grinned back at him.

"So bossy," he told her with mirth in his voice for the first time in so long.

Nat could only hope that once they were up and out of this damn base that they would finally know what had happened to Sam and Teagan.

Please let them be safe, she thought.

Unknown Hydra Base
Unknown Time Later

The panic was starting once again. Her chest was tightening. There was something heavy pressing on her. The stale air in the cell was turning solid, stopping her from being able to breathe through her one nostril. Opening her gagged mouth wide enough that her jaw hurt, she managed to gasp for the remaining air before she suffocated.

If she did not calm down, she was going to pass out again. With the hood and nose feeding tube, her ability to breathe was limited. And that was probably not going to go away any time soon.

The drumming beats of her heart were racing as she willed for them to achieve a steady, calm pace. She tried to think about anything else besides the engulfing darkness that held her.

The silence of death had been swarming around her for…days, weeks, months?

Was she even still alive?

Because Keeling was. And there were so many long spaces that were consumed with nothing but her imaginings of how to change that status of his. Picturing his broken, bloodied body, tortured or maimed, was the only highlights to her own existence now. There was little else to occupy her weakening mind.

She had also been trying to figure out what had happened with her shoulder, but she was no closer to figuring that out. Nobody had ever come to fix it. Had causing the injury been just another dream? In fact, none of her previous injuries from the beatings in the training room hurt. Had she really been taken there? There were so many other questions that swarmed her bored mind. How could she live this long without being fed? What had happened to her hearing? Was this nothing more than a nightmare of being a prisoner? Was any of this real?

Exploring the area around her, Teagan's bare foot once again only met with the openness. Over and over her feet lashed out trying to find anything to tell her that she was not alone. That there was something, anything, by the ground under her feet.

But there was only emptiness.

When she had woken up, it had not been on the mattress where she had fallen asleep. Instead, she found herself standing up with the chain shortened so that she could not move from the spot where she stood. This had happened to her many times now, each just as confusing as the last. How had she become to stand without remembering? Had she only dreamed of falling asleep lying down all those times?

Building up her breath, she vented her frustration the only way she could.

Her desperate screams of not wanting to exist didn't even reach her own ears.

Thrashing her body side to side, she let herself swing as her feet desperately searched the air. The entirety of her body's weight was supported by her strained, bound arms. Forcing her numb fingers to move, she was almost sure that she felt her nails raking against the metal, pulling them bitterly backward. The wetness of blood starting to run down her hands told her this was in fact real. Tears were falling to pool at the tops of her cheeks were the blindfold pressed to her skin. Eventually they would seep through or dry up, doing whatever the others before them had done.

Once the last small amount of her energy was used up, she allowed her body to swing and sway as she began to calm down and let her mind wander back to a better place.

Teagan smiled as she saw Sam waiting to take her for ice cream.

Unknown Hydra Base
Unknown Amount of Time Later

Sam felt that he was once again coming back into the land of the living. His body ached and was stiff all over, and there was no doubt it was from having been in the bed without moving for much longer than he ever should have been. The first thing he did was check to see if he was free, but nothing he tried to move would. He was still strapped down to the damn hospital bed. That damned red Hydra symbol still laughing at him.

Rubbing his right wrist on the bed, he managed to pull the bandage over his wounds away just enough to see solid skin underneath. The cuts looked to have been mostly healed, meaning he'd been unconscious a lot longer than he had first though.

Looking over at the IV bag that he knew was responsible for keeping him unconscious, he saw that it was now gone. Checking his arm, the line that had been there had also been removed. The lights were on but they no longer hurt his vision. Except for the fuzzy feeling of just waking up, there was nothing that he could feel that seemed to be a symptom of the concussion.

Exactly how long had they kept him under?

But then he felt a bit of panic when he noticed that the cast was now gone from his left arm. He had forgotten about it, having only seen it the one time. The only reason it should have been removed was because the bone fracture had healed. Unfortunately, that meant that a few weeks had passed by without him having realized.

What did that mean for Teagan? What had she been put through while he had been asleep?

The door to the room was partially open and every so often somebody would pass by. He kept bending his hands back towards the wrists' restraints to try and see if he could accomplish anything to get free. After a while, the nurse stuck her head in the door to check on him before once again disappearing. They knew he was coherent now so it was only a matter of time before he was moved.

Sam heard the tapping of the cane long before the voices finally reached him.

The female doctor's voice reached him first, stating, "If he is to be restrained in some way, I would suggest keeping the ones he has on right now. The damage he did to his wrists was minor. But depending on his mentality, if he has the metal cuffs on again, he would be able to eventually cut his wrists on them, bleeding out."

"I'll keep the medical ones on him then, doctor," Keeling told her as they appeared at his door. The man barely gave him a glace before tapping away on his phone. "Guards will be up shortly to gather him."

"Call me if you need anything," the doctor turned and walked away.

"How long have you kept me here?" Sam angrily asked.

Keeling shook his head in disappointment.

"I would have thought that Teagan had explained the rules to you after being together for so long," he responded.

"You can't keep us here!" Sam struggled uselessly.

"I have, I can, and I will."

"I'll see you dead by my hands one day if you hurt a single hair on her head!"

Keeling gave a single chortle.

"I've heard that before…from my favorite tool."

"Never call her that!"

"But that's exactly what she was and will be once again, thanks to you and your deceased friends' naivety. Maybe I should thank you for bringing her right to me. Hydra had already refused a mission to get her out of the Raft, stating it was too high risk."

Sam's blood ran cold knowing that he was actually right with that statement. There was so much that he would change now if he had only known, or even had a hint, that the base had been nothing more than a ruse to get Teagan back.

"What? No witty comeback?" Keeling asked getting his attention. "That's probably for the best. I don't take kindly to people talking back to me. Just ask…well, never mind. If she hasn't already told you of the punishments for upsetting me, then you'll have plenty of time to learn about them the hard way."

The pounding sound of multiple heavy footsteps preceded the four guards that filed through the door as they made their way over to the foot of Sam's bed. The last one to enter was pushing a wheelchair with him.

"I'm keeping those restraints on him," Keeling began to instruct them pulling out the magnetic key from his pocket. "Put him in a wheelchair and secure him down for the trip to his new home."

The guard didn't even bother to ask any questions as they removed the restraints from the bed, leaving the wrist and ankle cuff in place. They had rings attached that could be used later on to secure him again somewhere else. Holding him while he weakly struggled, with just a bit of trouble them managed to plop him into a waiting wheelchair. There were Velcro straps bolted to the armrests making him think they had to move prisoners often like this. More were wrapped just above his ankles. They were effective with holding him in place, but if he only had time he could bend over and use his mouth to free himself. Having the four guards surrounding him though it was not possible.

There was nothing that he could do as they started to roll him out of the room. None of the nurses they passed even seem interested in what was going on. Keeling led the way through the hall while the guards followed silently with him in tow. Exiting a large swinging door, they were now in a more common populated area.

"Where the hell are you taking me?" he screamed as he looked around the concrete halls of the Hydra base he was now a prisoner in. There were numerous guards, agents, and others moving through the halls. Some looked at him with curiosity, others didn't pay him a bit of attention. All of them wore Hydra patches on their badges.

"Like the boss man said, your new home," one of the guard spoke in a deep voice, sounding amused.

Reaching a bank of elevators, they rode one down a couple of floors. Sam noticed that none of the ten buttons were labeled in any way, meaning that someone had to know which one they needed. He couldn't even be sure if the top button was the ground floor or roof. He also had no idea what floor they had started on. But as the elevator began to move, there was no mistaking the feeling of going downward.

When the doors opened, Sam felt an uncontrollable cold shudder throughout his entire body. Unfortunately, even if Sam had never seen it before now, this level was familiar to him. Teagan had once spoken of it in detail after one of her worst nightmares.

The entire length of the hallway before him was of dark grey colored walls. Where the wall met the ceiling, someone had taken thick, black paint and over-coated the area so that long black streaks ran down the surface, some almost halfway down the wall.

Due to this, the walls gave the appearance that they were crying black tears.

At the time, he had listened to her explanation of what the level she had been kept on looked like, but seeing it for the first time churned his stomach. There was no way Hydra had two places that looked like this. Sam knew then that he was at the base where Teagan had been held for so long.

To the left of the elevator was a white metal door, but it was to the right that they helplessly pushed him. Reaching a metal door painted black, Keeling placed his hand on a sensor pad and typed in a numerical code before the large door clicked unlocked. It automatically opened for them to pass through and they continued to follow Keeling to whatever destination he had planned for Sam.

They resumed their walk down the hallway ahead of them, the same dripping black paint high along the walls. Glancing to his left down the only other hall he could see, Sam saw a couple of doors before the passage ended in another security door, this one formed of bars just like in a prison. Beyond it were two gray metal doors, but it was the single red door that caught his attention. Teagan had never mentioned the red door. Was that new or had she just not mentioned it?

At the far end of the hall was the door to Teagan's old cell, just as she had described its location. Is that where she was currently being held? Would Keeling have put her right back in there?

"Teagan!" he screamed out, taking the slim chance that he would get a response.

"Shut up!" one of the guards demanded before Sam received a back-swing of his hand across the face.

"That is your one breach," Keeling then told him. "I would suggest that you do not make any more or you'll find yourself paying too high a price for disobedience."

Sam was not sure what Keeling meant by the threat, but after hearing the numerous stories from Teagan, he started to think that he did need to watch his footing around here.

They wheeled him past more plain gray metal doors that lined both sides of the hall. Passing by the first couple of doors, it allowed him to see what Sam would normally consider an office area as well as a small guard security room. With this level not being very big, Sam didn't think that it required too many to be here at once.

A small observation room was positioned next. They then passed by the larger room which had a table with leather straps and metal pieces on the surface. He knew this was the interrogation room which Teagan was brought to so often. Hydra used the two room to watch prisoners being questioned and commanded without fear of Teagan ever having a chance to control them.

Moving down the darker hall, Sam saw the rest of the gray cell doors that matched the walls before they ended up at the last cell of the hallway. Keeling used his hand to open up the door on the right wall showing the interior of a plain cell.

"I'll give you one chance to show me that you can be a good prisoner," Keeling told him as the guards unstrapped him from the wheelchair. Two of them stood off only a foot away with stun batons out to show they meant business. There was no way he could get free with all four of them just waiting for a fight.

"And if I don't cooperate?"

"Then I knock you unconscious and we toss you inside," one of them with a baton told him.

Sam knew that now was not the time to push a limit he was unsure of. His body was still weak from so long of inactivity. Keeling had already stated that he needed him alive, but that didn't mean that he couldn't be hurt until that time came. He also had no idea where Teagan actually was. There had been no response to his cry out for her. He could only hope that she was somewhere nearby since this is where Keeling had kept her before.

Standing up, Sam unsteadily stepped inside the cell and looked around. Instead of a cot, there was a low concrete platform with a thin mattress, pillow, and blanket lying atop of it. Teagan had told him how her cell had the same. The other side of the small area had a sink, toilet, and open shower. Glancing up he noticed there was a single camera located at the front corner of the cell, opposite side of the bed, mounted so high up he could not reach it.

The one thing this cell had that none of the others he'd ever been in or seen was the chain mounted on the back wall that was dangling so that it pooled on the floor. Looking down at the cuffs still secured to his wrists, Sam knew that Keeling would not hesitate to use the item to limit his movements even more if he was angered by his earlier outburst. But the order never came as he was left alone in the cell.

One of the guards slammed the solid metal door shut and he was able to make out footsteps as they began to move away. At eye level, there was a small square for the guards to be able to check on him through. There was a second lower window just barely big enough for a food tray to slide sideways through which had a hinged panel that was closed for now.

"Keeling! Where's Teagan?" he yelled while trying to see into the hall through the small opening.

The tapping sound of the cane on the concrete floor paused for a moment.

"Show me that you can be a good prisoner and I might consider letting you see her in a few weeks. If not, there will be repercussions."

Weeks?

The tapping sound resumed.

What was that bastard planning on doing to them over those weeks?

Sam slammed his fists on the heavy metal door, hating that he had not gotten any type of answer about Teagan or how she might be doing.

Deciding to take a chance, Sam gave a couple of hard pounds onto the door.

"Teagan! Can you hear me?"

He remembered how she had spoken of how this floor was laid out, that her cell was down that other hall. But she had also once been moved to these cells for a short time. Sam pressed his face to the open panel, turning his ear outward in hopes of any type of sign from her that she heard him.

Instead, there was nothing but silence.

Even the tapping cane and guards' footsteps were gone, leaving the hallway empty.

"Teagan! Please answer me!"

Sam waited in silent long minutes for a response that never came.

Hydra Base
In The Dark

Giggling as she knelt on the floor of her cell, Teagan made another mental note as to a good punishment for Keeling. Not that it would be easy to find a large tub of boiling tar pitch anywhere around here. She also hoped that by submersing him up to his neck did not end his life. He needed to suffer, she wanted him to suffer. She would laugh at his suffering.

Another slap of a large hand contacted her cheek, bringing out another bout of the giggles. This was nothing compared to what she had been going through. For what she figured were a couple of days, she had been only allowed to stand or kneel when she was in her cell. Keeling had taken away her ability to sit or lay on her bed, leaving her in a strained stance when she finally managed to get to sleep.

Those times were when her mind conjured up some of her best torture ideas for him. Braking every bone in his hands, just like he had done to her, was still one of her favorites.

And another slap. She had refused to submit to his hold when Keeling had come into her cell a little while ago. Angered, he had pushed on her shoulders to force her to her knees before taking his time slapping her over and over. If he thought that would work, he was a fool.

Teagan had begun mentally counting each strike, finally reaching the number ten. When he had paused, she had eagerly waited for the next one. Not wanting him to think she was weakening, she had begun to scream through the gag at him to hit her again. Cursing and prodding him on, he eventually took the bait, causing the first round of giggles. That had been a few minutes ago. Since then, he had not let up on his assault.

She laughed aloud hoping that he injured his own hand. Another slap.

Safe House In South Dakota
Weeks Later

"Anything?" Steve asked as Nat came back down from the upstairs.

"No," she almost whispered the answer.

They had come back to the safe house in South Dakota with the hopes of finding Sam and Teagan here, hiding from Hydra, safe. She had just dashed that. Even with the downstairs showing no sign of anyone having been here recently, she had gone up to check the bedrooms. He had check the refrigerator hoping to find food inside to indicate that maybe they were just out.

They both silently walked over to the kitchen table and sat down, neither of them in the mood to talk. There was not a lot more for them to do to find their missing friends.

They had spent a few weeks recuperating and making inquiries into possible Hydra base locations back at Clint's safe house in Colorado after getting out that the base finally. The Quinjet had been right where they had left it, but slightly scorched on the outside from the fire that had burned around it. The back ramp had been left open and they could only surmise that Teagan had opened it to escape, fearing the jet burning.

Instead, Nat had surmised from the disturbances of the surrounding vegetation, a small unit of agents had been lying in wait. They both agreed that she had probably not been able to escape them. From where they had last known Sam to be, he would have been too far away.

"What now?"

At her simple question, Steve look up from where he had been staring at the scratch on the table from when Teagan had made such a funny, crude joke that it caused Sam to drop his knife and scratch the surface. It had been the first real time that he suspected that he had seen her trampled-down personality truly emerge. His eyes caught Nat's, slowly shaking his head.

"I don't know."

He hated say that, but it was the truth.

"Then let's plan on staying here for a few weeks," she offered. "I'll send out a few more queries, this time to some of my less reputable contacts to see if they can find out anything."

Steve knew that he was only partially listening to Nat's idea, so he just nodded his head in agreement.

Standing up, he made his way out onto the back porch and sat down in one of the colorful rocking chairs that he and Sam had put a fresh coat of paint on when they had been here. Sam had specifically found a bright green color for one of them, designating it specifically for Teagan's use. And as he sat in it, regarding the grassy patch of yard, Steve couldn't help but recall his missing friends out here for hours playing baseball.

The same two friends that he had failed…just like Bucky.

Slumping down into the chair, elbows resting on his knees, he covered his face with his hands.

Nat didn't know what to say or do to help Steve get out of the foul mood that he was in since she felt exactly the same way.

They had finally talked about how both their actions had led to Sam and Teagan being captured and taken away. Neither one of them blamed the other, only themselves. Her information could have been checked better, but she doubted that she would have discovered the secret Hydra ambush plan. She knew that, it just didn't make her feel any better. Steve was looking at it as a failure similar to when he had lost Bucky all those years ago. She had pointed out that he had eventually found him, and the same would go for Sam and Teagan, they just had to keep looking.

Heading out to her overnight bag, Nat pulled the emergency burner phone out and laid it on the coffee table before turning the TV on to one of the news channels. Maybe a politician abruptly changing his stance on a topic, voting the opposite of his party, a sudden resignation from a high position. If she noticed anything that seemed slightly off during a news story, it might give a clue to their friends' location.

With the news anchor babbling on about the stock market, Nat couldn't pull her eyes away from the device laid out before her, trying to will it to ring.