Author's Note: Sorry for the erratic updates. My office has been moving and my life has been full of moving boxes. There is either one or two more chapters left in the story, depending on how long it goes for the final scenes to happen. So give me about a week for the next update. I am not about to break my 'finishing a story' steak and stop writing now. See you again soon! P.S. I have Endgame tickets for the 25th, so yeah me!

South Dakota - Safe House
Hours After Leaving Hydra Base

Sam was just leaving the bathroom from taking a decent shower for the first time in months when he finally saw Teagan's body starting to stretch from where she was lying on the bed. For the past few hours, she had been unconscious from the gas that had learned about. She had not woken up for during their flight out of the base or when Steve had carried her to the bedroom so that her wounds could be examined. The first thing he had done once they were alone was remove that horrible gown that Keeling had put on her. He'd told Nat to take it outside and burn it. After he'd cleaned any cuts he found, Sam put her into one of his softest t-shrits to make her comfortable.

Once they left the Hydra base, they had headed for the South Dakota safe house that they had spent some time after first leaving Wakanda. Steve and Nat had told him that they had come back here just a few weeks ago, hoping they had been hiding out here, so they knew that it was hopefully still under the radar. They had talked and decided that somewhere remote, without a lot of activity, would be good to help keep Teagan calm and help with the mental recovery that she would need.

They'd had no idea how long the drug in her system would keep her unconscious, but after what she had endured for the past few weeks, he wanted him to be the first thing that she saw when waking up. Sam carefully sat down on the mattress within arms reach of Teagan. He didn't want her to think that he was scared of her after what she had done, even if he still didn't know the full extent of the vengeance she'd taken on Hydra. Nat was still going through the security footage she'd accessed before they left the base.

On the flight here they had agreed that they would let Ross handle the situation, Natasha had also broken into his computer system so that she could keep track of their discoveries and reports of what had happened after Teagan had gotten him out of there. He was worried about what they would eventually discover, but only because it could send Ross into a frenzied search for her once he found out that his 'Polly' had been the person responsible for taking out the base.

"Hey there, sleepyhead," he calmly said, running his fingers softly over her forearm.

When her eyes finally opened, they began to scan the entire area surrounding her first before settling on his face.

"Sam?"

"In my own version of perfect flesh," he tried to joke with her, hoping to keep the situation light. It seemed to work as a smile formed on her lips before she closed her eyes again.

"I think the beach so we can fly kites again."

Sam's own smile started to falter at hearing her strange statement. Almost as soon as she had said it, he had realized what she must think is going on. Remembering how she used to tell him of stories of how she'd imagine being free, doing things and visiting places from when Keeling had her the first time, it sounded like she was mentally back there. Did she not remember anything from earlier?

"Teagan?" he tried to get her attention. When she didn't open her eyes, he ran his fingertips across her forehead.

"Hmm?" was her only response.

"Can you open your eyes for me?"

She did so then, smiling once again as she saw him sitting there.

"Where do you think you are?"

"Anywhere we want," she told him as her hand began moving over the soft sheet of the bed.

Taking a hold of her hand, he hoped that the tactile touch would help bring her back to reality.

"Not this time," he told her, lifting her hand up so that it touched the side of his face, letting her feel his warm skin. "We are back in South Dakota, in the old farmhouse. We were able to escape the base, thanks to you."

Now her brows pinched up. Had she remembered something?

"Don't lie to me. You are the only one who has never…"

Teagan's voice tailed off as her eyebrows scrunched, crease lines forming on her forehead. But before he could say anything, she continued.

"You did lie to me."

That single sentence made his eyes go wide.

"Keeling…he has me again and he's hurting me."

There was no mistaking the tears starting to well up in her eyes.

"No," he told her. "Keeling is gone now. He'll never hurt you again."

Her face pinched up in anger.

"I've heard that before."

"Teagan..." he faltered for a few long seconds while trying to figure out what to say to her accusations. He knew that over the past two years that he had told her many times that Keeling would never touch or hurt her again. And as it turns out, it had been a lie.

"I did not intentionally lie to you, Teagan. I honestly believed that Steve, Nat, and I would be able to keep you safe. It just turns out that I was wrong. I'm sorry."

"And now they're dead," her voice was almost a whisper. "All of you are."

"No," he told her, touching his finger to her chin so that he lifted her face towards his. "This is not a dream. I'm alive. So are Steve and Natasha. They were able to get out of the mountain after it fell around them, trapping them inside for a while."

He could see that she almost looked like she didn't believe him.

"Would you like to see the two of them? I know they wanted to make sure that you were alright once you woke up."

Teagan seemed reluctant at first, but then she nodded her head.

Standing up, he went to the partially open bedroom door and called out their names to the both of them. Moments later, they both stood in the doorway.

Seeing the three of them standing there, alive and staring down at her, Teagan knew that this was not like the other dreams that she'd had over the past few years. Never before had she imagined Steve and Natasha when she decided to go on an adventure with Sam. She liked it to just be the two of them. It was easier to concentrate only on him.

Running her hand over the bedsheet again, she noticed that it did feel a lot more real than anything else had in a long while. Seeing the state of her hand, she lifted it up to glare at the red, raw tips of her fingers, some of them missing fingernails. She remembered using them to scratch at the metal of the cuffs for so long that they eventually pulled off. But never before had her hands looked like this in one of her dreams.

Sitting up, she reached out and turned on the small lamp that Sam had gotten for her when he had learned that she didn't like sleeping in the dark. The door to the bedroom had the same lock that allowed her to lock it from the inside only. Even the funny picture of cows over the dresser was here. The room was just like she remembered it...

"How are you feeling, Teagan?" Steve asked her. "Is there anything that you think you need to see a doctor about?"

Looking down at her body, she saw what he was curious about. Her arms were nothing but bruises, both old and new. Lifting the hem of a clean oversized t-shirt that looked like one of Sam's, she found matching bruises all over her torso. Throwing off the cover, she saw her legs matched. Her body was always fine in the dreams. What was going on? Pictures of walking through the Hydra base flashed in her mind. That was not something she'd ever seen before. Unless...

"It was real? It wasn't a dream?" she mumbled as recalled some more flashes of what had happened at the base. The fear of knowing that Keeling was going to punish her for kicking him was the first thing that came back. She then remembered being moved to the interrogation room. A prisoner was across the table from her, his face covered. Then that mask had finally been removed and she had seen…

"Sam!"

The instant that she remembered seeing him sitting there across from her, a prisoner of Hydra and Keeling, and not dead where he would have been safe from them, bought on the panic attack. Her body tensed up as her breathing became heavy in an erratic pattern.

"You have to get out of here! You're not safe!" she grabbed at his arm, squeezing tight so that he would understand the severity of the situation.

The entire time she'd been locked away, the single thought that had given her any comfort was that with Sam dead that he would be safe from Keeling. But to see him alive as a prisoner…there was no telling what Keeling had been doing to him. What tortures he might have endured just because of knowing her, being someone close to her. It was not safe for him to be near her.

"Teagan, you need to calm down!" Sam's voice was far away, as if on a phone being held away from her ear. "You are safe, I am safe, Steve and Nat are safe. Steady your breathing."

She had not even realized that she was now gasping for air, as if drowning. Her chest was starting to ache, her head was pounding.

The fear that she was going to wake up from this dream and find out that Sam actually Keeling's prisoner, that he was not safe, formed another pain in her chest. One that was worse than knowing once she was awake that she would be dragged back into the training room for more tortures.

"You have to run! Get away...get out...of here!" her gasps for air hindered her trying to warn him. "I'll stop him...keep you safe...run...safe."

The last thing she saw was Sam's very worried face before she passed out.

"How is she?" Steve asked from the doorway a little while later.

After Teagan had fainted, Sam had sat with her, hoping to try and calm her down when she woke up again. She had screamed out his name just like she had at the interrogation table, giving him a good guess as to what had brought on the panic attack. He had heard them talking while the hood had been over his head, and it had not been until his face had been revealed to Teagan that she had freaked out.

Moments before she had passed out, through her strained breaths, Teagan had been mumbling the words 'not safe' over and over again. He knew that she was talking about him and not herself. Sam guessed that it was knowing that he was also a prisoner that had brought out such a painful emotion.

"Still asleep," he told him standing up to join him at the door. "I think she's going to have a very hard couple of days once she wakes up. It sounded at first like she didn't actually believe that any of us were really here before thinking that I was not safe."

Steve nodded his head in agreement.

"After what it looks like she has been through, that's understandable. Do you think that she had any injuries that need to be taken care of?"

"I don't think so," he told him. "I checked her hands and didn't find any injuries like the ones that I know Keeling had done to her before. But…"

Sam paused, hesitating to admit to the next part.

"But?" Steve asked.

"I know that Keeling had her tortured since we reached the base. I'm just not sure exactly what he did to her."

Steve now sounded hesitant to ask, "How you do know?"

"Because for the past few weeks he made me listen to it," he admitted. "Keeling had a speaker put out of reach just outside of my cell. Any time that she was beaten or had…whatever…done to her, he made sure that the speaker was on so that I could hear it."

"Whatever?" Steve's voice almost cracked, probably thinking the worst.

"I don't think that he raped her," Sam admitted. "The sounds were not right. But that is what started the series of events that led to us getting out of there. She wouldn't break and so I heard him talking to her, telling Teagan that her time was up."

Sam took a moment to explain what had happened with him breaking the guards arm, being moved to the interrogation room, and then being led out of the base.

"Do you know what happened to Keeling?" Steve asked.

Shaking his head, Sam looked back over at her sleeping.

"No, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was dead right now. With how he treated her…"

They both stood there for a long time in silence. Had Teagan somehow killed Keeling? Had she done it herself, or had one of the other guards do it? Or had she just commanded to do it himself? Did the gas take care of the job for her?

"Nat's down in the kitchen making a couple of sandwiches. I'll bring you some up," Steve told him, heading for the stairs.

Sam wondered how Steve would handle it if they found out that she had indeed killed Keeling.

South Dakota
Late That Night

Steve stood up from the kitchen table, made his way out of the back door and had to use the porch post to keep himself on his feet.

There was not a single word being spoken by the other two still sitting at the table.

Nat had found and shown them the footage from the base on the prisoner level where Sam and Teagan had been held. There had not been any audio, so the video only showed Keeling being led into a cell that Sam confirmed used to be Teagan's. At that point, he and a guard didn't exit before the door was shut. Nat ended up having to pull the preliminary report off of Ross' systems to read to the two of them the accounts given by the remaining guard and the security team that had found them.

She had just finished explaining the situation that Keeling had been left in. Bound, hooded, hanging, naked...raped.

Running his hand over his bearded face, Steve was trying to figure out how he felt about Keeling's situation. Both he and Bucky had killed plenty of Hydra army goons back during the war, and some even later. But leaving one of them to be tortured in such a way while also giving a final command to kill themselves if certain circumstances changed...that was a whole new matter.

It would have been so much easier if Teagan had just killed Keeling.

A few minutes later he heard the squeak of the screen door being opened then closed before Sam came to stand only a few feet away from him. He already knew where this conversation would go without a single word yet being spoken.

"You understand where the hatred for him, Keeling, came from," Sam's voice was trying to be calm, but there was an undertone of apprehension. As if he were worried about saying the wrong thing. "He pushed Teagan to her final breaking point. She wasn't thinking clearly down there."

"I understand that, Sam," he cut him off. If he would let him, Sam would probably stand here until sunrise defending Teagan's actions with every breath that he took.

"I don't know if she even really remembers what she did, or if she thinks that it might have been one of her dreams."

Giving a heavy sigh, "That's what I already figured. She didn't seem to believe that were were actually right there in front of her earlier. But those commands...I...I just don't know what to think about them. Not only with what she did to Keeling, but to that entire base."

Sam seemed to consider this a few moments before he pointed out, "You do remember what Bucky did back at that base inside of the bank vault in Washington after he got free from Hydra."

Steve nodded as he recalled what they had found. Every scientist and guard that had been left inside of the bank where that Chair had been had been found dead a couple of days later once the dust at Shield had settled. Bucky had killed all of the Hydra agents he had found there.

"And I know that if I condemn Teagan for her actions then I might as well blame Bucky too, since he was still coming out from under Hydra's control."

They both stood there in silence for a few minutes, collecting their thoughts.

"I think that it's two parts that are upsetting me," he finally admitted. "It's that we were unable to get to the two of you any sooner so that we could prevent Teagan's torture in the first place. It feels like I failed the both of you. And then there is the fact that there is no way to have the final command to Keeling ever safely removed. There is no way that Ross would ever let any of us, especially Teagan, near Keeling without also taking us into custody. And even is the Accords thing finally works itself out so that we could get to him, there is a chance that Teagan wouldn't remove the command."

Sam gave a heavy sigh from next to him, knowing that he was right with the assumptions.

"None of what happened to us was either yours or Nat's fault," Sam told him after a few moments. "Hydra just happened to be one step ahead of us, and we didn't see it. They have been able to hide the extent of their reach and power, and we underestimated them. Going forward, we'll just have to make sure that it doesn't happen again."

That brought about a new wave of worries concerning Teagan.

"Originally, we were only worried about staying ahead of Ross, which was easy enough thanks to Nat and her connection. We never even considered Hydra as a potential threat. We were even actively looking for them. And it looks like the whole time we've been on the run that they have been hunting us, or specifically, Teagan. There is a chance that they will not stop until they find her again."

Sam's head dropped at hearing it spoken aloud.

"We'll need to stay on the move even more now," Steve told him. "And Teagan was fragile enough the last time. There is no telling how she will be able to deal with what's to come next."

"What are you saying?" Sam asked him, worry in his voice.

"I don't know, nothing, maybe," Steve admitted. "But I'm sure that you've already considered that she's going to have an even more difficult time in the near future."

"Yeah, I have."

"Are you going to be able to help her readjust? This is not going to be like the last time. Keeling broke her more than Ross ever could have."

"I know."

They stood there for a long couple of minutes before he heard Sam finally say, "I don't know how to help her right now except to just be there for her."

Steve reached over and placed his hand on Sam's shoulder, telling him, "Then that is what we will all do."

Glancing up, he saw a soft glow coming from the room Teagan was in, the window partially open to let in a fresh breeze.

Teagan lay on the soft mattress for yet another day, ignoring Sam's suggestion that she at least go downstairs for a change of scenery. The past three days, all that she had wanted to do was stay here and hope that she didn't suddenly wake up back in that cell. Ever time that she closed her eyes after being awake for too many hours, that was her consuming thought.

It had not been until the second day of waking up in the same bed that she began to think that maybe this was not one of the waking dreams that she'd begun to have again. Small things would change, like the trays of food waiting on the small table under the window.

Sam was always coming and going, never leaving her alone for very long. Steve and Natasha would also stop by to try and talk to her, but there was not much to say to them. She could tell that they didn't know how to treat her after what she had done.

It had slowly been coming back to her, that final day down in the Hydra base. As she thought of it, she would go from long bouts of crying to hysterical laughter. The expressions on the others' faces told her what they thought of her mental state. Nat was usually the hardest to read, but even her eyes now filled with worry for her.

Teagan had finally started to accept that this was all real. And if it was, then the conversation that she had overheard that first night of being awake had been real too.

Sam and Steve might have thought that she wouldn't have been able to hear them talking on the back porch, but the quiet of this place allowed their low voices to carry all the way to her bed through the open window. Even with them knowing then what she had done, they were still willing to try and hide her from Hydra. They would try to keep her safe...again.

But, they had already failed once.

And even Sam had been taken prisoner.

No matter what they tried, there really was a chance that Hydra would once again catch up with them. It may not be Keeling, but Bradshaw's final words to her just before the gas had overpowered her had come back to her. Hydra still had people even worse than Keeling. And they knew that she was once again out in the world, just waiting to be found.

How hard would it be for Sam, Steve, and Natasha to keep her safe when they were such public figures? She knew now that they had been lucky up to a certain point over the past two years. And look how that had ended.

She would never be safe as long as she remained with them.

And Sam would never be safe as long as he was near her.

Teagan knew she had a decision to make. One that would effect all of them.