A/N. Hi again :) Let's check up Stania, shall we? Enjoy :D

CHAPTER XXII

Tania didn't remember much about the past eighteen hours or so. She was in and out of consciousness and when she was in, everything was blurry the ringing would come back, blocking her from hearing anything important. These little bouts of consciousness were met with more drugs and she was put back to sleep.

When she awoke this time, she did not immediately fall back asleep. Everything was blurry and dark her blood pumped in her ears and her heart thumped against her ribs. She blinked, dazed. Was she moving? Oh, wait, no. Her head was just lolling from side to side. She stopped and lifted it with more effort than should be strictly necessary.

The colours began to separate and the blurriness started to fade. About a full minute later, Tania could see again. Her head felt like it was stuffed with cotton and the ringing wasn't going away. She had nothing better to do than wait it out.

So she did. It took quite a while but she eventually became alert and the annoying ringing stopped. She looked around. She was in a rather large room with bare walls, ceiling, and floor that was cold and appeared to be made of some sort of metal. It was high-ceilinged and perfectly square shaped, like she was in the middle of a cube. It was really dark inside but there was light coming from somewhere – at least enough to be able to see the shapes of things.

The only thing inside of the room was herself and the chair she appeared to be tied to. She tugged at her wrists a little; yup, too tight to break free. Her wrists were the only parts of her that were restrained and she could feel the handle of Peggy's knife pressing into her ankle as well as her cell phone attached to the other. How had her captors not seen that? She felt blessed with good luck as she began to stretch her leg back, reaching for it.

She was still in her black dress, although she had two long slits up both sides now from ripping it and it was wrinkled and filthy, much like she was. She wondered if her disguise was still on.

Her leg strained to get close enough to her hand to grab the knife and she craned her neck to see how far away it was. It was pretty close. But close wasn't good enough. She eventually stopped and took a break before trying the other leg to try and reach her cell phone. Her right leg was a little more flexible than her left, so she managed to press the emergency button on her phone. No sooner did she do it did a voice in her ear nearly startle her to death.

"There is no reception in this vicinity."

Tania jumped violently, taking the chair up with her before struggling to stand and slamming it back down onto the ground, echoing painfully throughout the room.

"I would not speak if I were you," JARVIS informed her from her comm, "there are security cameras in each corner and listening devices along the walls."

The brunette pretended not to have heard him, but wanted so badly to communicate with him. She needed to ask him to contact the others. She needed to know if Steve was okay. Her stomach was in knots and her heart began racing all over again. If Steve was… if he was… she couldn't even think it. It was too painful.

As if reading her mind, the AI spoke once again. "I have tried contacting the others while you were unconscious. It seems that the HYDRA soldiers carry around signal scramblers with certain dimensions. I cannot reach the others because of these devices, however I can connect with Captain Rogers' comm.

"The devices the soldiers carry around have been put together into one big scrambler which forms a barrier. The more power it has, the bigger the barrier. This invisible force field is not tangible and is the cause of difficulty with communication to the other Avengers. Seeing as both you and the Captain are both under the 'dome' so to speak, you are able to communicate freely."

So he's alive. She breathed a sigh of relief, but this feeling didn't last long. Last she had seen him, he'd been shot. Even though she knew that he healed incredibly fast, the nagging doubt that he might be dying was fresh in her mind. He was in the same barrier as her. He was close. But how big was the barrier? She needed to figure out a way to find him. Even if she managed to cut herself loose, she wouldn't dare leave without him.

If he was alive, why wasn't JARVIS letting her talk to him right now? How could she get this message across to the AI? Sign language? Nope, her hands were literally tied. Morse code? She didn't even know Morse code… Mind reading? Yeah right. Maybe she could talk… but make it look like she was just begging for mercy from the camera's point of view. Who's to say anyone was actually watching her, anyway?

She faked sniffling. "Steve…" she whispered.

JARVIS seemed to understand. "My apologies Miss Banks, but Captain Rogers is currently unconscious."

"Help me…" she mumbled.

"In your comm, I only have so many functions. I can help you connect with other comms. I can detect any other electrical devices within a certain area. I can conduct body scans of anyone wearing a comm. And I can track your movements within a certain area, giving you directions on where to go."

Bingo. "Where…? Where am I?"

"Unfortunately, the scrambler doesn't just nix communication devices. It also renders wireless signals of any kind null and void."

Damn. "Steve? Where are you?" she called out to the empty room, trying to sound desperate. It wasn't all that hard. Maybe she should have considered trying an acting career back in high school.

"He is in a room similar to yours halfway to the other side of the base. If you were to escape, I could give you directions."

Hallelujah! If she could cut herself loose, she could use JARVIS to help her get out of there. She began reaching for the knife again, this time, much more determined. After quite a while of straining and stretching, she grasping the hilt and pulled it from her ankle. She flipped it open and began sawing her ropes. They were really thick so it took a long time but she eventually cut herself loose and stood up. She reattached the knife to her ankle and ran forward, her dress swishing behind her. She yanked the wig from her head, letting hair fall loosely around her shoulders and ripped her fake nose off her face, tossing it to the side without a care in the world.

She just made it to the door when it opened. She panicked when a HYDRA soldier entered, just a foot in front of her. "HEY-!" she slammed her palm into his throat, cutting off his shout before swinging her left leg as high as she could and into the man's temple directly. He fell to the floor in a heap.

Without thinking, she ran out the door and into the brightly lit hallways. "Jarvis, where to?" she asked, trying to adjust to the light.

"Down the corridor to your right."

She followed his instructions, blinking hazily, before turning a left corner into two more guards. On instinct, she spun around, delivering two good kicks to their chests. They stumbled back and she grabbed one of their guns before shooting his leg. While that guy screamed in pain, she turned around and shot the other one in the arm. Despite how much noise they were making and how much attention they bringing upon themselves, she couldn't shoot them anywhere else. That would surely kill them.

With a heavy heart and stomach, she kept running, despite the lump in her throat. "Through that door."

She obeyed and shoved the door open pointed the gun around. There were two more guards patrolling the hallway and that's when she saw that they were wearing bullet proof vests. It took several tries (she still wasn't that great with her aim) but she managed to shoot them down before leaping over their unconscious forms and sprinting.

"Turn here."

Sirens started and there was yelling in German that she didn't understand and suddenly she was swarmed by guards. "He is just in that room at the end of the hall," JARVIS informed her before all she could see was the black of men's uniforms.

"STEVE!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, hoping he would awaken, or at least know that she was alive. "STEVE!"

There were hands everywhere and she couldn't push them all back. She couldn't kill them. She wouldn't. She just couldn't come to terms with taking away someone's life, with the evil power that came with wielding a gun.

So she dropped it and tried to fight with her hands and feet and any body part available. She smashed the back of her head against someone's jaw and kicked someone else in between the legs and she bit down on another person's hand. She stomped on someone's foot and she elbowed someone else in the gut. But none of it was enough. She found herself being drugged – again. She was beginning to really hate that feeling.

Steve jerked awake. Tania? He whipped his head back forth as memories came rushing back to him and the pain in his abdomen was noticed.

"STEVE!" There it was again!

"TANIA!" He shouted back, struggling to get up. There were handcuffs around his wrists held together by some sort of sizzling wire and he was stuck on this chair by his ankles. He yanked and he pulled and he yelled but he could not free his hands. It was extremely dark in his room, pitch black almost. But with his super senses, he could see pretty well. That unfortunately did not do much, seeing as the only thing to see was a wall and a door.

The sirens that had been going off since before he had awoken suddenly became noticeable. He came to the conclusion that Tania must have escaped or done something to make them mad. He prayed for the first one.

He kept tugging at his restraints despite the metal digging into his skin and the strain on his muscles. He had to get to Tania. He had to keep her safe. He had to. He loved her.

His door was suddenly thrown open and the room was flooded with bright light. Steve squinted and turned his head away slightly, trying to see what was happening. The silhouette flipped a switch and the room was illuminated perfectly. His eyes adjusted rapidly and his entire body tensed at what stood before him.

Arnold Austerlitz held Tania's limp form by her arm and was dragging her inside with a frown on his face. He tossed her a few feet in front of Steve, who was yanking and pulling as hard as he could while glaring at this monster of a man who had dared a hand on his Darling Tania.

"Wake her," the man ordered in a heavy German accent. He closed the door behind him.

Steve eyed him warily.

"Would you rather I did it?" he asked, cocking his gun.

The super soldier reluctantly leaned forward, inspecting her while he did so. She didn't seem hurt. There was no blood and there were hardly any bruises – she was just dirty. "Tania," he whispered. "Tania, can you hear me?"

Her voice had served to wake him when the sirens didn't, maybe his voice had the power to do the same?

On the ground, she groaned and rolled onto her back. She didn't wake. She thought she heard his voice but she needed to be sure. "Tania… wake up please."

There had always been something about his voice that just did things to her. When he was in Captain America mode, his voice turned her on. When he was jealous, his voice made her feel attracted to him (more so than usual). When he murmured to her softly, she felt protected and safe. When he was fighting with her, she felt small. When he was sad, his voice broke her heart. When he was excited, something about the way he said things made her feel excited too. Right now, his voice lacked emotion of any kind. That was what had set her off.

She blinked her eyed open and looked up at Steve's face. The glasses from his disguise had long seen been removed or destroyed but he still wore the wig, probably not having had the change to take it off yet. He was just as filthy as she was and still wore his fancy suit from the theatre. He looked at her worriedly.

She sent him a reassuring smile which he returned before a gunshot went off. Tania screamed and Steve threw his head back in pain, crying out before he caught himself and gnashed his teeth together. Blood seeped through his already soiled shirt in the exact same place as before and Steve's muscles jerked, aching to move, but he remained in the chair.

Tania whirled on Austerlitz and pushed herself to her feet. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?"

"Doctor's orders," he answered before whipping a first aid kit at her head. She managed to catch it just in time. "Take the bullet out. Unless you want it to close over top of it." His English wasn't very good.

He opened the door before slamming it closed behind him, echoing for an extra few seconds in the large metal room. The lights were still on though.

Tania didn't understand. Why shoot Steve only to patch him back up again? She looked down at the kit in her hands and paled. She had no idea how to do this. She inhaled deeply before kneeling on the ground and opening the case.

Inside was a variety of tools and supplies, the majority of which she didn't even know by name or purpose. She gulped.

"Grab… the tweezers," Steve wheezed, taking deep breaths and trying to mask the pain.

Tania did as she was told. "Do I just…?"

"Find the bullet… and take it out."

She stared at his bloody stomach warily. "Steve, I… I can't… No, I have to. Okay, I'm…" she swallowed nervously, "I'm going to try."

With shaking hands, she reached forward and lightly pulled at the fabric of Steve's shirt. She pushed away the lapels of his suit jacket before slowly unbuttoning his shirt all the way. When she peeled it from where it was stuck to his skin by blood, he hissed through his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut.

"I'm sorry!" she squeaked.

"It hasn't even started yet. Keep going."

She took a deep breath and nodded. The after effects of the drug she'd just been given were making her head feel woozy but she knew she had to do this. Her hands quaked as she grabbed the tweezers and slowly approached the hole from which the blood was still seeping. She couldn't take her time on this. He might bleed out and die.

With that in mind, Tania dove right in and began feeling around for the bullet. Steve was extremely tense but otherwise didn't make a sound. Every single muscle in his body was clenched tightly and his face was a little scrunched up.

"Got it!" she gently (at least she hoped) pulled out the tiny pellet and dropped it into a bag that had been provided in the kit.

"Burn it," he ordered immediately, his body relaxing slightly.

"Why?"

"My blood. We can't… let them have the… serum."

"Steve, if they wanted your blood they would have taken it by now."

"Precaution."

"Alright." She set it aside to burn later. "But first, we have to wrap you up. Although, I'm not sure how…"

Steve instructed her perfectly on how to wind the gauze around his torso while he bit down on another roll to prevent from screaming. When she was finally done and satisfied with her job, she took the baggie and the lighter and set it on fire before throwing it across the room. The floor was metal – it would not spread.

"Is there anything in there we can use to escape?" Steve asked, calming his breathing.

She shook her head. "No. I could use the lighter to burn the ropes off your ankles though, although your hands would still be restrained…"

"Do it."

"Okay…" She hesitantly held the lighter to the ropes. She watched as it caught fire and the flames spread, turning the rope to charred bits of yarn. As soon as it fell away from his ankle, he snuffed it out with his shoe. She repeated the process for the other leg.

"Thanks," he told her after she was done.

She didn't answer, instead choosing to pack up the medical kit.

"Tania?"

She slammed the case shut. "Why?" Her voice was broken and raw and Steve wished more than anything that he could wrap his arms around her – but he couldn't.

"Why what?" he whispered.

"Why did he do that?"

"You mean shoot me?"

She nodded.

"It's simple. Pain. Their form of torture, I guess."

Her breathing became erratic as she turned away from him. "Those heartless bastards."

"Tania-"

"I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I'm sorry." When she turned back to him, her face was streaked with tears. "I started that whole fight at the theatre. It's my fault we're here. And now two of our own might be dead and we're trapped here and they're torturing you and I just-"She sobbed and covered her mouth. "I'm so sorry!" She buried her face in her hands and cried.

Steve watched with a heavy heart. He felt the same amount of guilt she did. It was because she was his girlfriend that she had been caught up in this mess in the first place. Not only that, but he should never have let her come. He knew how risky and dangerous it was and yet he had been convinced to have her tag along. How naïve he'd been.

He nudged his knee gently with his foot and she looked up at him. "Come here," he whispered. She obliged and scooted closer. He jerked his head in the direction of his lap and she eyed him warily. "You won't hurt me," he promised.

Reluctantly, she pulled herself to her feet before settling herself in his lap. She wrapped her hands around his neck and cried into it softly, being careful to stay away from his stomach, for which he was grateful.

Hating that his hands were restrained, he simply nuzzled the top of her head and kissed it before closing his eyes. "We'll get through this," he whispered in her ear. "The others will come for us."

He had to give her hope. She needed something to hold onto if she was going to survive this. She tilted her head up to look at him. The sight of her tear-covered face broke his heart and he longed to hold her to him and never let go.

She sniffled and reached up, her hand crawling up the back of his neck and slipping the tips of her fingers beneath the wig he had forgotten he was wearing. She peeled it off to reveal his actual blonde hair and tossed the wig to the side before running her hands through it.

He closed his eyes and sighed in contentment. He always loved it when she did that. There was something immediately calming about it, in the way she caressed his scalp and stroked his hair.

Her index finger brushed his ear and at first he thought it was an accident. Then it brushed it again and he opened one eye to look at her quizzically. Her eyes flicked over to his ear a couple times before he got the message.

The comms. He opened his mouth to ask her about it when she shook her head slightly. 'Cameras' she mouthed.

Oh. He nodded in understanding. She rested her head against his shoulder. "I wonder if Jarvis is helping the others with the search," she said aloud.

"That I am, Miss Banks and Captain Rogers."

Steve almost smiled. He would have too, if he hadn't been on camera at that point in time. It might have given something away. Instead, he rubbed his cheek into her hair and closed his eyes again.

"Might I suggest concocting a plan, Captain?"

Steve bit back the urge to chuckle. The AI was as dry and sarcastic as ever.

He began humming the tune of his old theme song from way back when. He only prayed that Tania knew the title and maybe some of the lyrics so that she could decode his answer to JARVIS' question.

Who'll rise or fall, give his all for America?
Who's here to prove that we can?
The Star Spangled Man with a plan!