Gold to Airy Thinness Beat

Chapter Forty-Four

Stephanie woke up.

For a few seconds, she felt disoriented and convinced she was back home in her small, drafty apartment in Brooklyn. A burst of panic shot through her at the fear she'd overslept and would be late for work, only to realize Bucky would have shown up already to check on her.

Bucky.

Memory crashed back in and, with a gasp, she lunged from the bed and stood up. This proved to be a mistake as black spots appeared before her eyes, multiplying rapidly, and a wave of dizziness had her staggering back to sit heavily on the bed again.

She propped her elbows on her knees and put her head in her hands, waiting for her body to catch up with the fact that she was no longer flat on her back. An odd sensation registered and she pulled away to frown at her left hand.

She could feel it. She stretched the arm out, studying the metal. Carefully she used her right hand to press lightly on it, rotating and twisting it as she did.

She could feel all of it. The doctor, the one who'd put the arm on her, had said something about pressure plates and her nerves being wired in but he'd said it would take time for them to grow down and give her full sensation. She ran her right hand slowly along the bicep of the arm, up to her shoulder, and felt her eyes widen at the sight of the smooth, unbroken skin surrounding the metal. There was some mild soreness but, strangely, it was at the joint where the arm attached to the metal plate set into her body and not where the metal attached to her flesh.

Now that she thought about it Stephanie realized that, aside from that soreness, she felt no pain at all. No aching in her legs and arms, no burning pain in her side. Nothing.

Cold raced through her. Just how long had she been asleep? She knew the serum would have sped up her recovery but her entire body had been falling apart in one way or another. It would have taken time to heal, serum or no serum.

She took a breath and assessed her surroundings. She was sitting on a standard military style cot, weak metal frame and a thin mattress. There was no pillow or blanket and she felt her stomach clench, removing them could be a sign the people who'd put her there were worried she'd use one or the other as a weapon.

The fact that they thought she might go for a weapon was a bad sign.

With a deep sense of foreboding, she examined the room. It was small, and empty aside from the cot, small sink and a strange metal contraption she assumed was supposed to be a toilet. It, and the bed and sink upon inspection, were all bolted to the floor and the bad feeling increased. There was a metal door set into the wall on the other side of the room, not nearly thick enough to hold her from the look of it but a good effort.

She swallowed past a rock in her throat and felt fear settle in her gut.

She was in a cell, again.

It couldn't be Hydra, she told herself. Schmidt was gone, his plane destroyed and the SSR had been swarming the final base the last time she'd seen them.

She swallowed past the giant rock suddenly lodged in her throat. It wasn't Hydra, she'd destroyed them, but that didn't mean it couldn't be someone just as bad, or worse.

"If one head is cut off, two more shall take its place. Hail Hydra."

Schmidt's words ran through her head, the memory faded but there, and she tensed, crossing her arms and shaking her head to try and dispel the image. She could remember everything, but really wished she couldn't.

She tried standing up again, slower this time, and was able to hold her ground. She was barefoot, the concrete floor cold under her feet. Another method to help control a potentially unruly prisoner and still another bad sign about the intentions of whoever had her. She was no longer wearing the mock Lady Liberty field costume, she noted, but was instead dressed in brown trousers and a black t-shirt with straps instead of sleeves that revealed her shoulders and had a scooped neck. It resembled the top of a tank suit that one might use for swimming but the fabric was different. The thought of someone having undressed her and put her in new clothing brought a flash of embarrassment and irritation.