Two hours later, the on-duty doctor let Rogers go. He still had nothing to do. They were stress testing him daily, seeing how long his heart rate took to top 140 running at a fixed speed. His results weren't good. When they'd first tested him when he'd woken up, thawed, they'd given up after over an hour. Now it was taking twenty minutes or less, but at least he didn't seem to be getting worse. It did put him off trying to train though. He remembered too well how it had felt not to be able to breathe. He didn't want to repeat it. He couldn't remember a time he'd been afraid to train. It had kept him sane right after he'd woken up, he didn't need to interact with anyone or deal with any technology to do it. He just needed space to run, and preferably a punchbag. At least he didn't seem to be getting worse, so maybe Ryman had been lying. But he wasn't well. He was weak, he was sick, and nobody knew why, except those three doctors. Would knowing what it was make any difference, would they even be able to fix it? It was out of his hands, there was no point in worrying about it, but it was hard not to. He'd wandered back to his quarters. He closed the door behind himself and looked around. He had nothing to do in here either. It was already tidy, his uniform was clean, ready to be used again as soon as he was fit to use it. What would happen to it if he was never fit to use it again? Stark would probably try to get his hands on the shield, to make it in to something else. Would SHIELD try to pass the mantel on? He'd become a bit of a symbol; Patriotism was useful even when you weren't at war. It might be in America's interests to keep the idea alive. Even if he was never fit enough to fight again himself, he might be able to train his successor, or advise on how he should be trained failing that. He knelt down and leant against his bed.

"God, thank you that I can see, thank you that Romanoff found me, thank you that I don't seem to be getting worse. You know what actually happened to me, if you want us to find out the truth, we will. I pray that whatever happens, I'd still find a way to be useful." He shifted his weight. "God, you told us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. I know that what Fury is doing is wrong. I know he's not doing it for fun, but it's still wrong. You also tell us to submit to those in authority over us and to work as though we're working for you. I don't want to be involved with any of it; I don't want to pretend it's OK. Just… show me how to behave with it. I don't like being Fury's pawn like this, I don't like being used as part of a torture plan, but I guess it's better to be used as the good cop than being asked to actually… Show me what I can do to make this better, show me how I can protect the innocent. Amen." He hadn't specifically meant Grogan when he'd started that sentence, but he didn't really believe any of the others was innocent. Ryman had definitely known exactly what he was doing, and Rogers couldn't see how he'd have been able to keep it from the doctors who were helping him. He got up. He had nothing better to do and he was really restless. He might as well go and check on Grogan again.

She wasn't pacing this time. He couldn't see her at once, she was sitting curled up against the front wall, hidden from sight. When he opened the door, she jumped like she'd been shot at and backed away, eyes wide with fright. She was crying. She stopped when she realised who he was, took three paces forward and almost fell against him. Without thinking, he caught her. She was shaking. He shushed her quietly. Someone had done something to her. She was a civilian. She'd probably known nothing about any of it and someone had hurt her enough to make her like this. He led her over to the bed and sat her down.

"What happened?" She wasn't looking at him. She was curled over, staring at he hands, knees clamped together.

"N-nothing I guess."

"Something. You wouldn't be like this if you'd been left alone. Who was it?"

"A guy was in here. I don't know his name." That only really ruled out Romanoff. There were only a dozen women on this base.

"What did he do?" Grogan took a deep breath, as though to steady herself.

"He came in, first of all he just stared at me, but it was… how he stared. He didn't really look at my face, he was looking at…" She glanced down herself. "and he was really staring, like... He closed the door and came in towards me, still really staring at… When he got close, I backed up, he followed me. He never touched me then, but it felt like he was shoving me back in to that corner." She pointed to where she'd been when he came in. "He came up really close to me and just stood there. It felt like ages, I was so scared, I thought… Anyway, when he'd had enough, he was like 'there's no hurry, it's not like you're going anywhere' shoved me hard against the wall and walked out." Rogers sighed.

"I'm sorry."

"It was to try and make me talk, wasn't it, rather than him just… doing that for the sake of it." He nodded.

"I think so."

"What do they want?"

"They're trying to figure out what they did to me, to try and undo it."

"And Ryman won't talk?"

"No." She shook her head.

"I don't know, Captain. I wish I did, I wish I could help you, but I can't tell you what I don't know. They were careful what I heard, I didn't see anything – wait, no. Show me your left arm." He held it out to her. She turned it over. "You heal really fast. There's no mark left, but when I first saw you, I noticed you had two stitches here." She pointed. "They took them out two days after you woke up, obviously you never saw them. They did something to you there. And there was the soma early on, propfol to put you out, some sort of local anaesthetic in your eyes at least some of the time, that's all I can remember."

"Doesn't matter right now. The guy who was in here, who was he?"

"I said, I don't know his name."

"What did he look like?"

"White man, light brown hair, blue eyes, shorter than you."

"How much shorter?"
"Maybe up to your nose?" The list of men this could be was getting shorter.

"How old would you say?"

"Forty maybe? He's thickset, he's probably as muscled as you are in the shoulders, but his right shoulder was bigger than his left." Barton. Archery works one arm more than the other. He was just about the only man on the base who was obviously lop-sided. Barton had done that to her.

"Right." He got up.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"To find this guy and get him to leave you alone."

"He wouldn't do it if you were here."

"Maybe." She got up to follow him.

"I don't want you to leave."

"I am going to find this guy and make sure he doesn't do it again."

It took him maybe half an hour to find Barton, he wasn't in his quarters, the training range or the canteen. He was leaving an arms locker, bow on his back, when Rogers caught up with him.

"Hey, Barton." He turned.

"Captain."

"What you did to Grogan, we don't do that. Don't do it again." He stopped, close enough to Barton that most men would have backed away. Barton stood his ground.

"I had orders, Captain. Romanoff said she was touchy about that, Fury sent me to rattle her cage."

"I don't care how much it scares her. We say we're the good guys, we don't do that. We don't even pretend to. Part of the deal is being better than the people we fight."

"You have an issue, take it up with Fury. I never asked to do that, I'm not one of those nutjobs that thinks its fun. I do what I'm told. That's why Fury pays me."

"He's right, Captain." Another voice behind him. He turned. Fury was standing in the doorway. "If you have a problem with a man following an order, you take it up with the man who gave the order, not the man who followed it."

"OK then. We should not be doing that."

"Captain, we are expediting this interrogation to get you back on form as soon as possible, and compared to what I could be authorising, it's nothing. We can and will go further if we have to."

"Ends shouldn't justify means. There are things we should never do, that's one of them."

"I did not order Agent Barton to assault her. I ordered him to make her think she was at risk of assault. That's no different to what Romanoff and I have been doing to the three men so far."

"Yes it is. If you'd sent Romanoff in to menace her, that would have been the same. Sending Barton in like that isn't. If we have an advantage over women as men, it's wrong to use it that way. We're stronger, so we use our strength to protect women, not to overpower them or threaten them." Fury sighed.

"Rogers, maybe in 1940, women didn't get involved. This isn't 1940. Women get involved. They're just as capable of being our enemies as men, look at Romanoff. I will do whatever I have to to make a man talk, I'll do the same to a woman."

"Would you have sent Romanoff to stare at the men like Barton stared at Grogan?"

"You think it would have worked?"

"That's my point."

"A strategy doesn't work on everyone so we shouldn't use it?"

"We should never do that. Whatever the stakes are, whoever the woman is, it is never acceptable to do that."

"But it worked." Fury said.

"What?"

"She said nothing to Barton, but she told you half a dozen drugs that had been used on you, and a potential surgical site. I've informed the infirmary. Go and get those checked out." Rogers didn't move.

"We're not done here."

"That wasn't a request, Rogers."

It was evening. Rogers was heading up to quarters, though he doubted he'd sleep for ages yet. He had stuff he could read. Footsteps behind him. Romanoff. She was barefoot and carrying her shoes, leaving wet footprints on the floor.

"What happened to you?"

"Waterboarding." She shook her head. "We were at it half an hour, you always get soaked. Fury's getting desperate. He feels it's an insult to his manhood if someone won't break. He's very worried about Ryman, but someone's trained him well. Rounds are long with him, he's obviously fitter than he looks. I'm out for a few hours, Barton's down there now."

"Barton's down there?"

"Yeah." Romanoff froze, mid stride. "I wasn't meant to tell you that." Barton was down with the I group prisoners and he wasn't supposed to know about it. Grogan. He was going to go for Grogan. He could stop this. He had to stop this.

He took off, past Romanoff, the way she'd come. She didn't try to stop him. What was the quickest way from here? Quarters were on the third floor of the personnel block. Would he do better to go through the armoury or round it? Probably round. There would be fewer people in his way. He launched himself off the last flight of stairs from half way up, people scrambled out of his way. Grogan and the others were being held on the other side of the base, but this base wasn't huge. He kept on at a sprint, as fast as he could move. He could feel his body gearing up to cope with his pace, breathing faster and harder. Too fast? He didn't care right now. He was not going to let Barton do that. Not while he could stand up. He could overpower Barton, he knew that, hopefully Barton would back down before it came to that. Rogers hurtled round the last corner, skidded to a halt and punched the code in to the door. First right, then 279341 on that door. He opened it. Fury was standing directly in front of him.

"Rogers-"

"Where's Barton?"

"Rogers, listen to me. Everything happening right now is a set up. Barton is right behind you." Rogers glanced round. He was, his bow and quiver lying on a table beside him. "He's not going to touch the girl because you're not going to let him. Grogan and Michaels are showing remorse for what they've done to what they see as a good man, so we're going to provide them with more evidence. Barton will go in ahead of you, he will approach the girl, you will follow him and intervene. Barton will resist you and antagonise you. You will both posture and threaten, trying to make the other back down, in sight of Grogan and Michaels, for some minutes. The argument will escalate to physical violence. I will enter with a group of guards, they're well armoured, and attempt to separate you. Rogers, you will then feign an episode of… whatever it is that's happened to you, the breathing thing. You will then be removed to the infirmary. I will remain, alone and see if anyone volunteers anything." Rogers shook his head. What? So even Romanoff running in to him had been a set-up.

"Say all that again, slowly."

"You carry on as though this was real, then collapse. Anything you and Barton say to each other until this is over is assumed to be lies. You may hold nothing against each other. Barton," Barton passed him and walked on to the corridor. Rogers went to follow. Fury caught his arm. "Give him a minute. You still look like you've run, which is good." It wasn't really. He should have recovered by now. Fury pointed to a CCTV screen, split four ways, showing each cell. Grogan jumped up from where she'd been sitting and backed away from the door. "She's seen him, you want to get to him as he opens the door." Grogan hit the wall, then shrank back further. "Now, go." Rogers shouldered the door after Barton.