"I'll be with you the whole time. I won't let him hurt you." Rumlow reassured Anna as he opened the vault door.

"Don't think for a minute I trust you," Anna muttered as she led the way into the room. The Winter Soldier didn't so much as glance up at them as they approached, not even when the clash of the closing gate reverberated around the room. In all honesty it only made Anna more nervous, though she would never admit that to Rumlow. She had never been in the same room as an assassin before. Perhaps if she thought of him as Steve's best friend, he'd be a little less intimidating.

The room was fairly big, with machines and equipment that Anna had never seen before. Dozens of safety deposit boxes lined the walls, which Anna took as further proof that they were in some kind of old abandoned bank. Shifting her eyes to find something that she recognized, Anna noticed the table along the far wall filled with various medical tools as well as a clipboard with places to record patient information. She made a beeline for the table, picking up the clipboard before moving closer to the soldier who still hadn't deemed her worth a glance.

The Winter Soldier didn't move until she reached for his right arm with her own. Before she could even make contact, he had her wrist in a painful grip with his left hand. The metal digging into her skin had Anna wincing, and made her own pulse start beating sporadically. Grimlow immediately went for his gun, clicking the safety off, only to pause when Anna shook her head at him. If she had learned anything from working at the VA, it was violence rarely helped calm the situation down.

"I'm sorry. That was my fault. I should have asked. May I take your pulse?" She spoke calmly, looking straight into the Cap's supposed best friend's eyes. At least he was acknowledging her presence now. After a moment of deliberation, he released his grip on her. He didn't let his surprise show at her consideration. No one had ever asked him before, they had never given him a choice. "Thank you," Anna replied sincerely, still keeping eye contact with him. She softly massaged her sore wrist in an attempt to lessen the pain and get the blood flowing back to her hand, before moving to take his pulse again.

"My name's Anna, by the way." She murmured as she recorded his pulse on the clipboard she had been given when she entered the room.

"You don't have to talk to him," Rumlow grunted from his spot behind her. He was definitely a hoverer. "He won't answer you."

"I haven't slept in 41 hours, I haven't eaten in 14, and you've just kidnapped me to work for Hydra against my will. Don't tell me how to do my job." She snapped, sending a glare behind her back before returning to checking the soldier's vitals. The Winter Soldier simply stared at her with cold, calculating eyes, as she took his blood pressure and temperature. That time she asked him before performing each new analysis. He never moved, or said anything, but she took his lack of movement as an affirmative, and the rest of the exam passed with no other physical acts of aggression.

"Well, everything seems to check out. Your blood pressure is a little higher than the average for your approximate age group, but that could just be what yours normally runs at. Other than that, you're perfectly healthy, in the physical sense." Anna summed up her findings as she jotted a quick note down about what she had observed during the assessment. "Any questions for me?"

She glanced up at the Winter Soldier, giving him her full attention in case he did ask her something, which he didn't. All he did was continue to stare at her with his piercing blue eyes. For normal people the lack of a response would be awkward, but Anna was accustomed to certain patients not speaking at all during a visit. Anna would never pressure them to answer, realizing it was a defense mechanism for the horrors they had seen, instead she would carry on the conversation as if they had responded.

Before she could say anything else, Pierce was interrupting them. Anna noticed that the Winter Soldier tensed a little when he entered. She couldn't blame him, Pierce made her tense up as well. He wasn't exactly her favorite person at the moment.

"Dr. Stark, is he cleared, can we send him out?" Pierce asked, coming to stand before his soldier. At Anna's affirmation that he was physically healthy, Pierce began barking out orders for people to get the soldier's gear. "You have your assignment. Find him, and this time, you end him at any cost." The way Pierce talked to the Soldier, as though he were a machine Pierce was typing in coordinates to, sent a chill through Anna. No person should ever be spoken to on such an inhumane level. She couldn't see the picture Pierce was showing the soldier, not that she would have wanted to. It was bad enough to know the man she had just cleared for duty was going to kill a SHIELD agent, she didn't want the guilt of knowing who it was.

Anna didn't really pay attention as the Winter Soldier geared up. Her mind was too busy reeling from everything that had happened that day. Had it really been only twelve hours since she was sitting at her kitchen table talking to Steve? Now she was being held hostage by Hydra because they needed a doctor. This would have never happened if it wasn't for Tony. Tony was the reason SHIELD found out about her. And it was because of SHIELD that Hydra knew she existed. She knew she should have fought harder and not caved in to her brother's request.

The sound of Pierce opening the door to lead the Winter Soldier out was what caused Anna to check back into her surroundings. Everyone filed out of the room, with the Winter Soldier being the last to exit. Anna had to admit, even his walk looked lethal. Though, perhaps that had to do with the all black suit and the copious amounts of weapons he had strapped to him. After the Soldier was gone, there was only Anna and Rumlow left. It seemed as if he would be her personal babysitter during her time there.

Rumlow spoke first, telling her to follow him to her quarters. Anna hadn't even thought about what her sleeping situation would be like there. Her expectations weren't very high, as it didn't seem like they were in a hotel, and she was technically a prisoner. To her surprise, the room was better than she anticipated. It didn't have any windows, but there was a small cot with a pillow and a blanket. There would be no sleeping on the floor. Best of all, her backpack was resting at the end of the bed.

Immediately she went to her bag, emptying the contents onto the cot. Spreading everything out, she immediately noticed one thing missing. After doing a double check, in case she had overlooked it, she came up empty handed.

"Where's my phone?" Anna asked, sending Rumlow an icy glare when he pulled her phone out of his pocket.

"Sorry Anna, we can't have you calling in an SOS. I'll let you know if you get any important calls." Before she could even attempt a grab at it, Rumlow was sliding it back in his pocket. "I'll leave you to change. I'm sure you don't want to stay in those scrubs all night."

He left after that, shutting the solid door behind him. Anna wouldn't be surprised if he'd locked her in, though she hadn't heard a lock fall into place. Running her fingers through her hair in frustration at her situation, Anna finally turned towards the mess on her bed. She hadn't packed more than a change of clothes, the ones she had worn to the hospital, which only increased her frustration. There was no toothbrush, no change of underwear, no pajamas; just a pair of jeans, a tee, her jacket and her sneakers.

Slipping back into her street clothes made her feel slightly better, especially after she decided to deal with the lack of clothing options at a later time. There were too many other things to worry about. Like how she was going to survive this whole kidnapping thing. Not to mention, who had she just given the Winter Soldier clearance to kill. That thought weighed the heaviest on her conscious.

Even though her thoughts were jumbled and loud, Anna somehow managed to fall asleep, crashing on the small cot. It hadn't even mattered that she was still fully dressed and the surroundings were unfamiliar, her exhaustion won out over it all. She didn't know how long she had drifted off for before someone was shaking her awake, but it hadn't felt like very long. Disoriented, it took a moment before she could focus on where she was and what was going on.

"What time is it?" Anna yawned, realizing for the first time that not only did the room have no windows, it also didn't have a clock. When you don't own a watch, you count on your phone and daylight to tell you the time. Hydra had taken both away from Anna.

"A little past midnight." The anonymous agent informed her while simultaneously forcing her off the bed. "We need you to check out the soldier."

Too tired to protest, Anna simply nodded and shuffled along with the soldier who was leading her back towards the room with the bars. The first thing Anna noticed was how bright the room seemed. Shielding her eyes, she made her way semi-blindly over to the table to pick up the clipboard from before. Once her eyes acclimated to the lighting, she made her way towards her patient. The Winter Soldier was already out of his suit, left only in cargo pants and a tee. All Anna could think was that it would make taking his blood pressure easier.

"Fair warning, this isn't going to be pleasant, but I'll try to be fast." Anna murmured to the soldier as she raised the pen light up. His vitals had been fine, but seeing as he had just come back from possibly fighting, Anna wanted to check for a concussion. "I'm going to need you to just continue to stare ahead while I shine this in you're eyes, okay?" Anna asked as she clicked the light on, shining it on her hand to illustrate what it was. She didn't want to startle him again. When he didn't respond in any way, Annie went with it and aimed the light at his eyes.

They reacted normally to the light, restricting when it hit, and dilating when it was removed. Checking some boxes on the paper, Anna then asked him to follow her finger with his eyes while she held the light steady. Once again, everything was reacting normally.

"Congratulations, you don't have a concussion," she announced with a small smile. "Which means I can get back to sleep, and you can go do…whatever it is you do when you're not fighting to the death," Anna ended lamely. In her defense, she was sleep deprived and under incredible stress.

Once she gave the soldier the all clear medically, the agent who brought her in began leading her back out of the room, leaving behind the soldier. It wasn't until the bars clanked in place behind her that Anna realized the Winter Soldier wouldn't be leaving the room.

"Wait, you're not going to just leave him in there are you? Where will he sleep?" She inquired, refusing to budge as she gazed back at the Winter Soldier sitting on the same chair she had treated him in. He made no move to show he had heard what she had said, but he had. Her reaction once again confused him. No one had ever questioned what happened to him when he wasn't on a mission.

"It's none of your concern Doctor," the agent beside her snapped as he pulled on her arm to get her moving again. After one last glance, Anna let him lead her back to her bed. Sleep didn't come as easy that time, as Anna kept thinking of the Winter Soldier forced to stay in that horrible excuse for an infirmary all night. Once again the word inhumane popped into her head.

...

Pierce had threatened him. That was the big take away Steve brought from his meeting with the new Director of SHIELD. He had been threatened by someone that was supposedly on his side, and not very subtly at that. Fury was right, he couldn't trust anyone. At least, not anyone at SHIELD. Pierce had made that part crystal clear.

Pushing the elevator call button, Steve pulled out his phone as he waited. There still weren't any missed calls or new messages. He had called Anna several times since Fury's death, and each time it went to voicemail. Even if she had slept through the calls, she would have at least texted him back by now. The fact that he hadn't heard from her left a sick feeling in his gut. Something wasn't right. Dialing her number once more, it only rang once before going straight to voicemail.

"Anna, its Steve. Where are you? Sam said he saw you leaving the VA with some black opp looking dude. Those were his words, obviously, you know I don't understand the word 'dude'. I'm assuming it was a SHIELD agent, which worries me. You haven't returned any of my calls…Anna, Fury's dead. Maybe I'm overreacting, but…just call me when you get this. I want to know you're okay." Rumlow had stopped the doors from closing and slid into the elevator at the tail end of Steve's message. Once Steve hung up, the other agent acknowledged him with a nod and a 'Cap.' Steve responded in turn, but was distracted by a small beep that sounded from the agent's pocket.

Steve knew the beep could mean several different things, but with his trust level running low, especially for SHIELD, his thoughts jumped to the idea of it being Anna's cell phone. It was a leap, he knew that, but he had just ended his message to Anna when Rumlow entered the elevator, then five seconds later a beep that sounds like a missed message signal sounds form the agent's pockets. That was too much of a coincidence for Captain America to accept.

"I think you missed a call, Rumlow," Steve commented, keeping his voice calm. It was hard to prevent an accusatory edge from creeping into his tone.

"I'll get it later," Rumlow grunted, his right hand twitching a little before he turned toward Steve and added, "Evidence response found some fibers on the roof they want us to see. You want me to get the tac team ready?"

"No, let's wait and see what it is first," Steve answered, glancing down as his eye was drawn to one of the agent's that had boarded the elevator with Rumlow. His hand was kept hovering over his stun gun. As more and more agents began filtering into the elevator, it became increasingly obvious to Steve that it was a trap. SHIELD really had been compromised.

"Before we get started, does anybody want to get out?" Steve's words had everybody tensing, but it was the agent in front of him that made the first move. Before he knew it, four of the guys were holding him against the wall, like they were back in middle school and picking on the loner in the playground. They managed to get a magnetic cuff around his wrist, but it didn't get close enough to the metal to stick. Not until Rumlow kicked him back against the wall.

Once the Captain was detained, Rumlow went at him with his own stun gun. Part of the ferocity came from pent up rage and jealousy at the Cap's close relationship with Anna. Although, it also took all his strength just to keep up with the Captain. In the end, all his strength wasn't enough, as Steve tossed him like he was nothing more than a pillow, effectively knocking him out.

When Rumlow came to again, he was royally pissed. They had that plan locked down pat, and Cap still managed to escape. Now he'd lost Captain America. That was, until the idiot was stupid enough to use the hard drive that gave them his exact coordinates. Rumlow headed the second of the fleet of four SUVs towards the mall, determined not to let the Captain slip through his fingers again. Each team took a floor, circling around to find Roger's. When all the floors checked out with no sign for the Captain, Rumlow waited anxiously for word from the team that had gone to the source, but that too checked out with no Roger's. Where the Hell could he had gone? It's not like a 6'2" super soldier blended in that well.

"Snake the upper levels, work down to me," Rumlow ordered as he boarded the escalator, completely missing the fact that Roger's was a mere 3 feet away from him on the opposite escalator.

…

"Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" Natasha spoke for the first time during her and the Captains impromptu road trip. They were just crossing the Jersey State line, and had yet to say anything to one another. Both had been lost inside their thoughts, but now Natasha was growing bored of her own thoughts, she needed to hear someone else's.

"Nazi Germany. And we're borrowing, take your feet off the dash." Steve's authoritative tone made Natasha smirk, though she did place her feet back on the floor. When conversation stalled once more, she decided to take conversation into her own hands. Honestly, if Steve was always this silent around women, it was no wonder he didn't date.

"Alright, I have a question for you. Of which you do not have to answer. I feel like, if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?" She was babbling a little, something she didn't normally do. It was just, after she started asking it, she realized how personal the question really was. Natasha wasn't used to going the truly personal route. Sure, she joked with Roger's about his non-social life, but it never really got…deep.

"What?" Steve insisted, interrupting Natasha before she continued dancing around the question further.

"Was that your first kiss since 1945?" A smile played on Natasha's face when she finally asked the question, because the idea that it might have been truly amused her.

"That bad huh?" There was no smile on Steve's face when he replied, prompting Natasha to try and backtrack and deny that's what she meant.

"I just wondered how much practice you had." If he hadn't gone out on a date yet, then he logically hadn't gotten any practice. Unless he was lying to her about dating, and his social life wasn't as barren as the desert. Natasha highly doubted that though, Steve was a terrible liar.

"You don't need practice." Steve insisted, mostly to deflect the topic of conversation.

"Everybody needs practice," Natasha insisted. She didn't add her belief that some people needed more than others, because Steve would just take that the wrong way as well.

"It was not my first kiss since 1945." Steve insisted. "I'm 95, I'm not dead." The firmness of his answer made it quite clear he wanted the conversation to be over. He expected the conversation to be over. But Natasha wasn't quite done beating it to death.

"Nobody special though?" There was a sliver of hope in her voice at the possibility that Roger's might be holding out on her and getting away with it because it was a half-truth and not a full blown lie. She couldn't say why she was so interested in his love life. Maybe because hers wasn't too hot at the moment. Or maybe, it was because she knew Steve was really, truly, one of the good ones, and he deserved to be happy after the time warp he had to go through.

"I think Rumlow has Anna's phone," Steve blurted out, avoiding Natasha's question entirely.

"See, I think it's interesting that you brought up Anna after that question," Natasha commented with a sly smile. Steve simply sent her a serious look that had her rolling her eyes and playing along with his very interesting sequitur. "Why would he have her phone?"

"I think he's working for hydra. I think he kidnapped Anna to help them." Steve had been thinking it over ever since his run in with Rumlow on the elevator. The pieces didn't exactly fit perfectly, but he still believed the conclusion he had come to.

"Maybe he kidnapped her to get to you," Natasha pointed out another possibility. Steve spent more time with Anna than he did with anybody else, outside of SHIELD missions that was. Natasha couldn't help think that if she had wanted to get to him emotionally and mentally, she would do it through Anna.

"Why would he do that?" Steve asked, sounding defensive as his eyebrows pulled together in confusion.

"Come on Roger's, even the receptionist can tell you care about her." Every time he came back from a mission that required him to receive a medical check-up, Steve would wait for Anna and give her a ride home. Some people might be stupid, but they weren't all blind.

"We're…" Steve started, only to have Natasha interrupt him.

"'friend-zoned'. I know. But you still care about her. Even if it is platonically." Steve entertained the new theory he hadn't even considered before. It might be a possibility, but Steve saw Anna as much more than just a means to play mind games with him. She was brilliant, and resourceful. It would be insulting to her, and very egotistical of him to think her kidnapping had to do solely with him.

"Don't underestimate her. Anna's a genius when it comes to medicine. They didn't just take her for me. They need her for something." Steve just prayed that whatever that 'something' was, it wouldn't kill her.

A/N: Hey everyone. First of all, thank you to TheSorceressCirce and LORDSTARSCREAMRULEZ1999 for reviewing the last chapter and to those who have favorited/followed this story. I'm glad to see some interest :) There was a little taste of The Winter Soldier in this chapter. Hope you enjoyed this update.

Rach

xoxo