Chapter 7

"When do you expect her to wake?" An impatient male voice broke through Zaria's subconscious.

"When she wakes." A female answered.

"You've said that before. I want an exact time she is going to wake up. She has questions that she has to answer."

"That's the answer you're going to get because I don't know. Look, you're lucky she even alive in the first place. If it weren't for the fact that she's basically a medical mystery she would have died before she even arrived here. Her body was already trying to reknit itself by the time she got here, Bruce and I were pretty much only here to make sure it did that correctly."

"Care to explain why her body was doing that?"

"Well..." the female's voice started but petered out as if she didn't know where to start.

"It appears that she has something similar to what Steve has in his system; although her's is so mild that I doubt she even knew it was there." A new male voice answered.

"You mean she has Super Soldier DNA?" The gruffer male questioned.

"A variant of it yes."

"So you're telling me that Steve had a kid?"

"What? No, no. What she has in her isn't what Steve has in him."

"But there was only one Super Soldier ever successfully made."

"That you know of..." Zaria croaked as she opened her eyes slowly. Bright white light stabbed into her brain, making her hiss in pain and shut her eyes again.

"Well now." The female said as the lights turned down letting Zaria open her eyes slowly to adjust as the bed moved up to a sitting position. Her eyes took their time focusing but when they did she noticed three people in her room all staring at her with different expressions. The one closest to her was a female, tanned skin, honey colored hair and eyes that looked like the color of Spanish moss, a color somewhere between gray and green; she smiled.

"Welcome back to the living Ms. Barnes. My name is Samantha Davenport. I've been the doctor looking after you with Bruce Banner." She indicated a slightly mousy looking man. He had a messy mop of brown hair that appeared to have some sprinkling of gray in it, medium toned brown eyes. He was nearly the complete opposite of his female counterpart. Where she wore a crisp cream colored blouse with a burgundy sweater he wore a slightly unkempt wore faded button down shirt that was either a blue or a purple but Zaria couldn't be sure and a threadbare, wrinkled brown blazer that looked like he had slept in it a few days. And where Samantha wore a sleek A-line black skirt he work worn brown slacks; they were an interesting pair of doctors.

Behind them, scowling at her was a tall imposing black man clad in a black shirt, black pants, black combat boots and a black leather jacket. He had an eye patch over his left eye and a goatee that helped instead of hindered his 'I'm going to kill you and you won't know it' look he had going on.

Samantha noticed where Zaria was looking and glanced over her shoulder. "Ah yes, that's Nicky Fury. He runs the show here, but don't worry, he always looks like that, he's actually pretty nice."

"Maybe to you..." Zaria murmured quietly as she basically had a staring contest with Nick Fury.

Samantha sighed as she pulled out a clipboard. "Director Fury, my patient has just woken up and needs to go through some tests to make sure everything is okay with her. You are welcome to stay as it is your ship, but if you plan on staying you will refrain from antagonizing my patient as you're doing so now. I would, however, prefer that you were not in here as you are a distraction and are in the way. Bruce, I also give you the same choice to either stay or to go as she is also your patient, but if your emotions are going to get in the way of taking care of her I advise that you leave with Director Fury." She went to the door to the room and held it open, indicating that she would prefer them to leave even if she had just given them the choice.

"I still have questions for her." Nick Fury barked.

"And they will have to wait until after I am certain that she is stable and can handle the intensity of your questioning. Is that clear?" She was clearing not leaving it up for debate.

After a moment of debate about whether he wanted to throw his authority around or not, Nick fury left the room, finally breaking eye contact with Zaria as he turned and exited the open door; she watched his form walk past the opaque windows just to be sure he was leaving.

Bruce hesitated for a moment as he looked indecisive. "I'm not a medical doctor like you are Sam; I think it would be better if I leave."

Samantha nodded to Bruce. "She can answer your medical questions later. I'm sure they will coincide with Fury's interrogation of her."

Bruce agreed then left the room through the still open door, which Samantha shut and locked behind him.

"Well, wasn't that exciting?" She said as she pulled up a stool and perched on it. "I'm going to ask you several basic questions that I would like you to answer truthfully, okay?"

When Zaria didn't respond Samantha looked up to see if she was listening. She took a moment to gauge Zaria's attentiveness then shifted her weight as she settled more into her seat to begin questioning.

"Please state your full name."

"Zaria Bunny Barnes." Zaria answered after a moment of hesitation.

"Your date of birth."

"September 13th nineteen ninety."

"Your father's full name."

"Luka Viktor Barnes."

"Your mother's."

Zaria hesitated. "Ashley."

"Ashley...?" Samantha prompted.

"Hell if I know. She ditched me when I was one and I haven't seen her since. My father never talked about her and I never cared enough to ask. If she didn't want me then why would I want to know about her?" Zaria snapped, pain was starting to throb in her side but instead of saying anything she just gritted her teeth and kept her mouth shut.

Samantha looked at Zaria placidly before she went back to her clipboard. "Alright, just a few more questions. Do you remember what happened to you?"

"I was in a fight, I lost."

"Anything more specific?"

"I got stabbed, right here." She indicated the spot where it happened, which caused more pain.

Samantha noticed the strained lines on Zaria's face from fighting the pain. She sat down her clipboard and went to one of the moving medicine carts. "I'm going to give you something for the pain. Now, I'm not going to give you enough to completely get rid of it, just to dull it down because Director Fury wants to talk to you still. I'm against this I hope you know, so the moment it starts hurting too much I want you to tell me so I can kick them out." She turned to Zaria with a smile and a need in hand. She stuck the needle into one of the machines hooked up to Zaria before she put it back on the rolling cart and picked up her clipboard. She slipped an x-ray from the back of the clipboard and held it up to the light, examining it.

"Good news, there doesn't appear to be any memory loss or brain damage. You have been unconscious for some time so I am going to suggest physical therapy to rehabilitate your body."

"Like I have the money for that or this for that matter. Where am I anyway? How much are you charging me for this set up?"

"Oh, we're not charging you anything." Samantha smiled. "And I'll see about physical therapy here on the carrier instead. How are you feeling now?"

Zaria mulled over the question for a moment and she thought about her body. "Heavy," she said as she thought about it. "Weak, sore, some pain here and there, but I guess whatever you gave me has kicked in."

Samantha nodded as she took notes. She smoothed her bangs from her face in a gesture that seemed more muscle memory than the need to move them. "You were pretty damaged when you came in here. I'm going to suggest another scan to see how things are mending." She looked over as if expecting someone else to be standing next to her listening to her. She sighed when she realized no one was there.

"I forget I'm not in the trauma ward at my hospital. Which, in this case, is a good thing." She walked over to a machine and pushed it to the bed. "This isn't going to hurt and you're not going to have to undress or anything. I'm just going to lay the bed back down and run this par over you so the machine can give me a scan of most of your body. Maybe later after the "interview" I can get you into the other machine for a more accurate scan, but I don't want to move you yet as I'm sure someone will stop me in the hall to try and talk to you."

The bed laid flat and the arm of the machine Samantha was running swung out and over Zaria. Slowly she moved it down Zaria's body, starting at her head and working its way down to her toes before it moved back up to the top again and shut off. Samantha moved the bed back into a sitting position and took a pad from the machine to glance over.

"Well your bones are healing nicely I won't need to put you in a cast for any of them. Possibly a sling for your left arm, but that won't be too long either. Your ribs will take longer to heal, but I'm unsure of how long as your body is healing faster than the average human." She pursed her lips as she looked over the scan again. "I would definitely like to get a full body scan done but it will have to wait. Are you feeling up to talk to the Director?"

"Do I have a choice?"

The look that Samantha gave Zaria almost made her want to fidget under it. "You do not have to do anything you do not want to do. I am your doctor and if you tell me that you do not think you can handle any questions right now then come hell or high water I will keep their sorry asses out of this room."

Zaria was stunned; this woman would stand up to her boss just to make sure Zaria was comfortable first? It surprised her more than she thought it would, it also made some part of her relax; this was someone she could trust to look after her even if she didn't know the woman very well.

"I might as well get it over with." Zaria said finally as she tried to make herself feel more comfortable. "I would prefer to take a shower, or put on real clothing and brush my hair and teeth first."

Samantha smiled. "Well I can't offer you a shower as those are down the hall as well, but let me fill up a bowl for you so that you can use a sponge to wipe yourself down with. Just a second." Samantha went to the door and opened it, sticking her head out to see who was around. "You! Agent! Yes, you. You will go and find me some clothing for my patient to wear. Don't give me that look. You will do as I say or there will be a great many things done to you that you will not enjoy. Make sure they're womens clothing and something not huge and baggy damn it!"

She pulled her head back in and closed the door shut with a responding snap before she made her way over to the sink to fill a bowl with water and snatching a sponge. "This probably isn't going to be a whole lot of fun since I'm going to have to help you with this, but trust me; this isn't as bad as it could be."

Zaria eyed the bowl of water as she realized what Samantha meant and scowled. "I've never had to rely on someone my entire life and here I am about to get a sponge bath by a stranger."

"Who happens to be your doctor." Samantha answered with a smile.

Zaria puffed out a breath as she considered her options. "It's not like I have much of a choice if I want to get clean, huh?"

"I would rather you let me help you than you try it on your own and get injured again." Samantha noted honestly.

"You're right I guess."

Samantha nodded, clearly happy with the answer, and went in search of towels in the drawers by the sink. She grabbed a stack of them and was laying several of them out on the floor when the door handle rattled.

"Sam?" A slightly familiar male voice questioned at the door as the person knocked; Samantha perked up instantly. "Sam why is the door locked and why are you asking for women's clothing when you know I can go get you some from home."

"Clint!" Samantha nearly cried as she all but ran to the door; she looked like a love struck schoolgirl. She gathered herself, taking a deep breath and schooling her features before she unlocked the door and slipped outside, clicking the door shut behind her. "I know you could get me clothing from home but I'm not asking for them for me; they're for my patient."

"Is she awake?" The man known as Clint asked. Zaria wondered what he looked like; she preferred to put names with faces and not just voices.

"Yes, she's awake."

"Doesn't Fury know? He wanted to talk to her the moment she woke up."

Samantha harrumphed. "He will talk to her when I say it is okay to talk to her."

"Have you told him this?'

There was a pause. "In much nicer words..."

Clint chuckled. "I guess he can't really argue with a doctor."

"No, he can't." There was a pause and some rustling outside the door before Zaria heard Samantha start talking again. "If you want to wait here I will tell you when she's ready. She's requested we do the interview sooner rather than later and since she appears to be cognitive I have agreed to okay the meeting."

"Why not right this second."

"Do you really need me to answer that?"

Clint paused. "Oh... Ah... Yeah I'll wait, just let me know when she's ready and I will get the Director."

The door opened and Samantha slipped in with a stack of folded clothing, she shut the door and locked it again when she was through. "Alright, let's make you feel better before you talk to the Director."

With Samantha's help Zaria perched on the stool that now sat on top of the towels that the doctor had put on the floor to catch any errant water. The water was cold and it was Zaria felt awkward to have another person bathe her, but she could hardly hold herself upright on the stool let alone bathe herself. A few times she caught Samantha pausing where there was a scar from a time past or staring at the large tattoo on her side. It was of a large ornate cross with vines interweaving it, the top of which ended just under her armpit. There were three crossbeams, two parallel ones towards the top, a short one that just grazed her breast and a longer one that ended just under her breast, and a short diagonal one towards the bottom of the cross. Next to the cross on each side was a long bar rising diagonally from the bottom of the cross and ending just under the end of the longest bar. The left diagonal bar ended in a triangle and the right one ended in a square.

"You can ask." Zaria finally said after the fourth or fifth time seeing Samantha eye the tattoo as discreetly as she could.

"It's a cross, I can see that much but I don't really understand that third mark on the bottom of it or the two things on the side." Samantha said as she pursed her lips.

"It's the Russian Orthodox cross. The top short crossbeam is where the plate inscribed INRI sat, the longer one is where Christ's arms were to rest and the short diagonal one is supposed to be the footrest. The bar with the triangle is supposed to be the Holy Lance, you know the one that the guards stabbed Jesus with, and the other is supposed to be the cane with the wine soaked sponge."

"Are you religious?"

"Hah, no. I would like to say that it was done for some really important reason and has some deeper meaning to me other than its religious purpose, but it doesn't. I was stupid, young, and wanting to impress people. I think part of me wanted to embrace my babulya's heritage but she hated it."

Samantha was silent after that and Zaria didn't offer up any more information on the subject. Finally the doctor stepped back and turned to snag one of the remaining towels she had set on the bed.

"That's as good as I can get you without making you feel more uncomfortable than you already are. So let's dry you off and put you in the clothing." Samantha was quick with the towel, drying Zaria efficiently before helping the hospitalized girl into a pair of track pants and a tank top; Zaria suddenly felt lucky her chest was small and she could get away without a bra.

"Are you sure you want to talk to them today? I can tell them you need another day before you're ready." Samantha questioned as she helped Zaria back into the bed.

"It's not going to be any different if I do it now or at a later date. In fact it might be worse to put it off."

Samantha pursed her lips; it seemed to be something she did a lot, before she shook her head and went to the door. Popping it open she stuck her head out. "You can go tell Fury he can talk to my patient, but that if I see her under any duress it will stop, whether or not he is finished and satisfied, got it?"

"Good luck telling him that." Client said as the shadowed version of himself disappeared down the hall.

Five minutes later found Nick Fury standing in Zaria's hospital room, legs apart, arms crossed and all but glaring at her. Samantha was perched on the metal stool on the opposite side of the bed from Fury with her clipboard in hand as she monitored Zaria's vital signs on a machine next to her. In the silence that followed the only sounds were the quiet hum of the machines and the scratching of Samantha's pencil.

"As I told Agent Barton, this interview will last until I begin to notice any signs of duress in my patient. Once that happens the interview will stop and there will be no further questions even if you are not satisfied with the answers. Is that clear Director Fury?" Samantha looked up from her clipboard, her face was set in stone and the look in her eyes made it clear that even though Fury's title was higher than he's she was clearly the one in charge in this situation.

Nick Fury turned his icy stare at her. It was clear that he wanted to argue, but whatever he was in Samantha's eyes made him not push the subject. He didn't so much as make a noise, but it almost appeared as if he sighed as he turned his attention back to the girl sitting in the bed. Moments of silence passed again.

"I'm surprised that it's only you in here for this interrogation, Director." Zaria stated when she had had enough of the staring contest.

"They can see and hear you just fine from where they are."

Samantha looked palled as Zaria feverishly tried to stamp out the blush that was creeping up her neck. Had they seen her bathing?

"Surely you're not telling me there has been a camera on this whole time." Samantha snapped. "My patient has the right to privacy Director Fury."

"I am not such a callous man Doctor Davenport; I had the camera feed shut off when there was anything that could be considered indecent exposure. It has been turned back on for this questioning."

"Interrogation." Zaria corrected. "You might as well call it what it really is."

Fury turned his attention back to Zaria with a glare. "If you were being interrogated you would be in a different room right now."

"An interrogation is still an interrogation no matter the location it is in." Zaria answered coolly. "Just say what you're here to say, I clearly have nothing else to hide since I'm sure you've seen my file, whether or not it's a sealed record."

"You're right, I have seen your file along with most people on my team, but that's not where I want to start. There are things that are not in that file that I am very curious about."

"Like...?"

"I'll start with the more pressing incident. Were you in on the kidnapping?"

Zaria gave him an exacerbated look, she knew it was going there but still felt like the question was pointless. "If I was in on that do you honestly think I would have gotten myself kidnapped, thrown into a trunk, beaten to hell, and nearly killed just for two women? What good would have there been for me to have kidnapped both women then kill men that I was supposedly working with just to give those same women a means of escape?"

"Trust." nick Fury answered. "A way in under the radar. We would never have suspected you were a mole if you were just some girl who helped rescue two of our people."

"With my kind of history? Don't bullshit me Director, the moment I was taken was the moment you were suspicious of me. Did you possibly consider that that was the purpose of this whole thing? To make me the target of your suspicions so that others can continue their work. Knowing who Pepper Potts is and how to get to her was child's play. Tony Stark painted a giant bull's-eye on him when he first came out as Iron Man. The girl Jane on the other hand was a harder find. They know who your people are and how to get at them. I still don't even know who Jane is supposed to be close to, but clearly they do. This whole kidnapping thing was a message."

"And what's that message supposed to say?"

"Oh don't play dumb Director; you're not very good at it." Zaria glared at him. "It says they know who you are and how to hurt you. I bet you had no idea what happened when Pepper and Jane were taken. You probably didn't know they were even gone until you received a letter with their picture."

Nick's eyes narrowed and Zaria knew she had said too much. "You seem to know a lot about these people for not being a part of it."

Zaria's hands bunched into fists on the blankets as she struggled to keep her composure. "No. I have never been part of their group. But it's not hard to find out when you know who they are."

"About that. You and their leader seemed pretty friendly from Captain America's account. You can tell me all you want that you weren't part of their group but you can't tell me that you didn't at least know the leader."

Zaria's teeth gritted as her body vibrated with barely controlled anger. She knew the questions would lead them to exactly where they were now, but she hadn't wanted to talk about. Hadn't wanted to reveal the truth. All she wanted was to pretend she was just a normal person and live her life unremarkably, but here she was about to tell all there was to know about secrets she only wanted to bury.

Samantha noticed the signs on the machine had changed as she looked at Zaria before she set her clipboard down and stood up to face the Director. "I'm going to have to stop the interview now Director. I do not need my patient relapsing."

"No," Zaria hissed. "This isn't going to change whether he asks me this now or if he asks me this later."

Samantha looked like she wanted to argue but instead closed her mouth and sat back down. It was clear she didn't approve but she wasn't going to stop her.

Zaria let out a breath slowly as she stared at the covers on her bed. "You asked me if I knew them, knew him precisely. I don't, not personally anyway, but it's hard not to know a person when they're related to you."

Fury scowled. "You don't have any siblings or cousins and your father passed some time ago. Don't try and lie to me."

"I'm not." Zaria lifted her gaze and caught Fury's glare, holding it with her own. "He's my grandfather."