𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗢𝗢 - 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗹

𝟭𝟬: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗟𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗧𝗜𝗡 𝗠𝗔𝗡

AEI: i'm still trying to decide whether this chapter is like heartfelt angst or just very very very sad fluff. is there an in between option? who knows. however!! please appreciate the chapter title please please please bc get it? it's the wizard of oz - which is gracie's favourite film - and she's the cowardly lion bc she's brave even if she doesn't know it, and bucky's the tin man bc of his arm and bc he wants his heart back and AHHHHHHH!!!

ok i'm sorry i'll stop lore dumping now.

TW for physical abuse (towards gracie and bucky) and general sadness on everyone's behalf. pierce also behaves in some ways that aren't directly creepy - they can also just be interpreted as him trying to hurt gracie generally - but they have creepy undertones, especially given that he's a HYDRA agent, and HYDRA is connected directly to the red room.

All the way back to the HYDRA base, I'm blindfolded, gagged, and have two soldiers on either side of me, holding onto my arms to stop me from running away.

I just try my very hardest not to cry.

Before they put me in the van, I heard Nat screaming. Banging on the doors of her own truck and shouting for me, going crazy with how angry she was. When they began tying the blindfold around my eyes, she started yelling in Russian; cussing them all out and making all these threats sounded like the worst torture methods ever created, all mushed into one.

Once we started driving, the screaming just faded and faded away.

I'm trying not to think about it.

The drive isn't long. Or maybe it is. I don't know. The blindfold makes time feel strange. When they drag me out of the car and back onto proper, normal floor, it feels cold and tingly like air conditioning, so I know I'm in a building. I don't think that helps me, though.

Nat always told me that if anything ever happened to me, to always try and remember exactly where I was, so she could find me again, and use the description to bring me home.

Right now, though, all I can see is blindfold. And a tiny bit of light, just by where my feet are, but that doesn't count to anyone except me.

One soldier holds onto my wrist and pulls me all the way down the corridors, bumping me into all the corners on the way. When I try and walk by myself, he just holds onto me tighter.

I don't know where we're going. I don't know where I am. I don't want to ask.

Eventually, I get a break. The guy pulling me along just stops right in the middle of the hallway, lets go of my arm and grabs my shoulder instead. Somebody in the corridor with us makes a hissing noise.

"What the fuck happened to her face?"

"There were complications."

"Pierce explicitly told us he didn't want damaged goods! What did you do to her?"

The guy holding onto me shrugs. I can only tell because it makes him squeeze my shoulder tighter.

"It wasn't easy to get her out of there. Tough situation. Rogers put up one hell of a fight, Romanoff too."

"So, what, she got caught in the crossfire?"

The new guy grabs my chin, so quickly that I can't even scream, and twists my head right round so he can look at all the messed-up skin on my cheeks. I don't cry. I can't. Not even if it hurts, not even if the hands on my face are mean and rough and pressing all over the sore parts. 

I have to be brave; now that I'm all by myself. There's nobody to be brave for me. Not Nat, not my dad, not Mr Wilson or Maria or anyone. Just me.