Dark Secret

Fallible

Sometime during the night between being in extreme pain, and being drained emotionally, physically, and mentally, I fell asleep.

I felt somebody nudging my shoulder, terrified that it was Steve, I jerked awake, almost screaming my head off.

A large hand came down and covered my mouth, Hughie kneeled next to my cot as he held up his index finger to his lips to not scream.

I slowly nodded my head, he pulled his hand away and gave me a sad smile.

"Let me see your hand."

Looking down at my hand, still cradling it was my other hand, holding it close to my chest. I slowly offered it to him, tears stinging at my eyes from the unbearable pain going through me.

Hughie sat down next to me on the bed as he placed my mangled hand on his lap. He placed a first aid kit on the cot, opening it up and pulling tools out of it.

He first cleaned my hand up and gave me an antibiotic shot, he said so I wouldn't get an infection. He then wrapped it with gauze and stints as best as he could.

"If I bring a doctor in here, Steve will know."

"Aren't you scared of him?" I asked in a quiet voice, my eyes never leaving my hand.

"I'm terrified of him. We all are. But it doesn't make what he's doing to you right."

I looked up and starred into Hughies eyes, all the questions I wanted answered began to seep out of me.

"Why are you helping me?"

"Because if it were me, I'd want someone to help me."

"Why don't you help me escape?"

A pained look flashed across Hughies face as he shook his head.

"I want to help as much as I can, but if I help you escape, they'll kill everyone I've ever loved. Escaping here is nearly impossible, we're in the basement level, there's almost 8 floors above us."

"Do you know my name?"

Hughie seemed stunned by the question.

"You don't remember your name?" He asked.

A beeper went off on Hughies wrist watch, he jumped off the bed as he made his way towards the door.

"I have to go. The others will be back from their smoke break, they can't know I was ever in here."

Before I could say anything else, he was already out the door.

I rolled out of the bed as I walked towards the vent, hopefully my roomie was awake.

"James?"

Silence.

"James are you up?"

"Yes. "

"Are you okay?"

Silence, I heard him take in a shaky breath.

"How can you ask me if I'm okay, after what Steve did to you?"

"I'll be okay, He only crushed my hand, not my spirit. "

I heard him scoff.

"We're going to die in this place, Sarah. "

" We haven't yet, for good reason they're keeping us alive. "

Silence followed, I bit my lip as I asked the question burning in the back of my mind.

"How do you know Steve, James?"

" We were best friends. I met him in 1930, he was actually a decent guy, small and gangly. But he had a lot of heart. In 1941 we both enlisted for the army, but were soon captured by Hydra. They began to experiment on us, but they froze me. Hydra ran experiments on Steve to the point where he wasn't Steve anymore. Only you and I know that he's being controlled by Hydra. His much bigger goal is to destroy the Avengers, one by one."