In the Shadows of Legends - A Winter Widow Story

Chapter Eight

"Dasha? Dasha wake up please, please wake up! We've got to go common. We don't have much time."

Was that James' voice? I struggled to pull myself out of the darkness. Heavy drugs made it much harder to do so, and even harder to focus. Everything felt so groggy. My vision was fuzzy as I tried to open my eyes. A silhouette hovered over my bed, lights glowing from behind their head. blinking a few times I was able to clear a little bit more of the fuzz. Enough to know for certain that it was James hovering over me.

"Dasha please. We gotta go."

I let out a soft groan and forced myself to focus on his voice. I  tried to sit up but my body felt heavy and the movements were sluggish. I heard the rattle of chains and knew even if I wasn't drugged that sitting up would be impossible. I let myself fall back into the bed,

"Hey, take it slow." James grabbed the chains and ripped them from the bed on both sides before he took my elbow and helped me sit up. "I thought you were gone, we lost you and your monitor wasn't picking up anything. I'm so sorry. It wasn't supposed to go like that."

"It's fine." I gave him a small smile as I struggled to clear the fog from my mind. Sitting up had caused my head to spin and I felt dizzy. To keep myself steady I placed my hand on the bed behind me and leaned my weight on it. "Where am I?"

"Hydra. Near Atlanta. The mission went way off course. We were ambushed. Morgan saw the signs too late, she and Torrun tried to help but you must have gotten hurt pretty bad. It damaged your monitor. We didn't realize until it was too late. I turned back and you... You weren't there. Francis couldn't see you either. I don't know if it was blood loss or what but you were gone. With the fire growing we didn't have time to search, by the time it calmed down all traces were gone or led to dead ends."

"How-how long?"

"Five days." James met my eyes apologetically, his face was filled with remorse and regret. He blamed himself. It was clear, even when it wasn't his fault. 

"Five days?" I shook my head confused. No that wasn't possible. The last thing I could remember was fighting off Hydra, and then passing out in the field. It was possible it had been five days. It just wasn't.

"We tired to get here sooner. I swear, but they covered a lot of tracks. I got lucky and found a good lead. S.H.I.E.L.D.-"

He dropped his gaze to his feet, almost as if he was ashamed to continue on, but I knew the answer. 

 "They told you no."

I didn't need him to explain. I was expendable. They weren't going to risk him or another needed agent for me. It was exactly why my parents warned me against trusting them completely. They always had something up their sleeves. Turns out sending teenagers on missions was no different for them. What I didn't understand was if it had truly been five days as James claimed, why my parents hadn't come. I knew them, the minute they knew they would have been here. They never would have let James come in their place. Maybe that was it, they didn't know. It must have been kept from them.

I rubbed my eyes and shook my head. My blonde hair was tangled around my head. I wore an old hospital gown that I wasn't sure had ever seen the inside of a washing machine. An IV was attached to my inner elbow on my right arm. Monitors surrounded the bed I was sitting on. Bloody tools lay across a rolling tray on the left side.

James stood next to the tray of tools, his dirty blonde hair disheveled. His dark jacket sat open exposing a torn and bloody shirt. His shield was in its usual place on his back, covered in dirt. What had he been through to come back for me?

"Let me help you. We've got to go, we set up a distraction but it's not going to last long. We've got to get moving before they come back."

I nodded and pulled at the IV. I knew Doctor Banner would tell me it was the wrong thing to do, but James was right we needed to get out and being tied down wouldn't help us get out any faster. Tossing the IV to the side I moved my feet off the bed, as I do so the gown slipped and exposed my hip. I grabbed the edge and pulled it back around and James quickly turned around.