Ruth woke up in her room, on her bed, laying on her back. She tried to prop herself up, but the pain that hit her ribs made her collapse back down and rethink the decision. Slowly, Ruth moved her hand up and felt beneath her right eye where it still stung and throbbed. There was a small spot of dried blood and a welt that surrounded it. Ruth rolled to her side, and carefully pushed herself up to sit. When she stood, she knew her ribs weren't broken, but the bruises still made breathing deeply send a stabbing pain through her body. Ruth took a few painful steps to her bathroom, her eye looked worse than it felt. Looking closely at the welt, she could see the indentation of the ring the Woman was wearing. She grabbed a washcloth and soaked it with warm water from the sink, and began to wipe away the blood.
Ryker walked into the bathroom and looked at Ruth's face. Seeing the bruising and bloody lip, his expression changed from inquisitive to shock,
"What...what did she do to you?" He asked, looking closely at the damage on her face.
Ruth smacked his hand away, "What did you do?" She countered, her voice tense and raised.
"I don't--"
"You know exactly what I'm talking about."
Ryker sunk back, feeling small. "Is this because of me?" his voice cracked.
Ruth just stared into his eyes. "I won't do this for you again, do you understand?" she told him. It was hard to imagine him being so foolish.
He looked down at the floor, avoiding eye contact.
Ruth took off her long sleeve shirt, the tank top that she had underneath revealed the bruising from the shocks that ran down her arms.
"She shocked you? They can't do this!" Ryker exclaimed.
"Why can't they, Ryker? They own us! I was sold to them!" Ruth snapped back.
Ryker's heart sunk. A pause amplified the silence in the room.
"Are you hurt anywhere else?" Ryker asked, his voice back to being level and calm.
"My ribs. They're bruised."
Ryker lifted up the side of her shirt to look at Ruth's ribs, they were already changing color. He swore under his breath, "Go sit down."
Ruth glanced up at Ryker's stern expression, then walked over to her bed and sat. Ryker carefully wrapped her ribs to keep them steady, and gave her ice to help with the bruising and swelling.
"While we were in Russia," Ryker started, speaking low, "I made copies of the intel you downloaded onto the USB, and kept them hidden with me. When I was out, I contacted an agent named Rumlow and we met up and I gave him the file." Ryker paused and looked down at his hands, talking quietly, "Maybe what SHIELD is doing is right, and what we're doing is wrong. I think the difference between the agents being in SHIELD because they volunteered, and us being brought here against our will, is a difference that we need to be aware of. Does that make sense?"
Ruth didn't know what to think, his words only stirred up more questions in her mind.
"What are we doing here, Ruth?"
She could hear the sadness in his voice, but she couldn't believe it. "What are you going to do about it? Just walk away? We can't live alone out there. The moment we step away from this facility with no intention of coming back, we will be killed. If we aren't killed by Her, then we'll be killed by SHIELD."
"Maybe SHIELD will help us."
"Are you kidding?" Ruth retorted. "We've killed some of their agents, we've gone against them. They'll torture us much worse than what She can do to us here." Ruth anxiously wrung her hands, glancing at the door, she knew the Woman could be listening. The thought of that made her heart race.
"What was my mother's name?" Ryker asked.
"Why are you changing the subject?"
"Just... what was my mother's name?"
"Helene."
Ryker stood up slowly and walked towards his room. He stopped and turned to face her just before closing the door,
"I'm sorry. For everything," he said solemnly.
When he closed the door, Ruth didn't know if she should have said anything more.