find me

50. soldiers

"I'm sorry."

If she had heard the words, she didn't show it. Steve wished there was something he could say to make this better. He knew there wasn't. 

There was something he could do. 

But he was painfully aware of how anything he might do would realistically bring Bucky and Natalie very close to being captured. 

At this point Steve was pretty sure that SHIELD either knew exactly where Bucky and Natalie were, or had a pretty effective way of finding out. And they either didn't want to or couldn't neutralise them out in the field, so their solution was to lure them into a trap. Steve suspected that the fact they had resorted to tricks had something to do with Bucky being a fucking legend, and making it impossible to kidnap them. That was why they needed something personal from him to convince Bucky that he was being detained. Steve was the perfect bait. Everyone who knew them knew that Bucky would have never left Steve to rot in a prison, potentially being tortured or killed. Even if it meant going on a suicide mission, walking directly into the lion's den. 

They also knew Steve was highly trained and unlikely to give up any information or secret in the face of torture. That's why they needed Sofia for, not to find them but to coerce Steve. He could survive being tortured, beaten and starved to death; what he couldn't survive was hearing someone being punished for his silence. They were using her to get him to comply.

And unfortunately for everyone involved, they were right. Steve was physically incapable of letting someone sacrifice themselves for him. He just couldn't. He couldn't sacrifice Bucky either, but he knew Bucky at least had a chance of surviving an ambush, however slim. Whereas he wasn't sure how long this woman could survive what they were doing to her. He also knew if Bucky and Natalie knew her mother was being tortured, they would give themselves up immediately to save her; and as much as that infuriated him, he understood it and respected it.

Of course that part, Sofia's safety, relied on Rumlow keeping his word. Steve could cave in and give Rumlow what he asked for to save her, but nothing prevented them from doing whatever they wanted to her anyway.

There was also still the question of wether she truly was Natalie's mom; although the more he looked her over the less he cared about who she was. Wether this woman was who she said she was, or wether she was someone random, she was being seriously hurt because of him.

He had the instinct to ask how she was but it seemed like the stupidest question considering the state of her. She had blood on her t-shirt, on the side of her torso, above her ribs. She had two more cuts on her face, over her cheek and her brow. He could tell the skin had broke open by impact and not a blade, so they were literally beating her up. She had dark circles under her eyes, deeper than the last time he saw her, and her hands had a constant tremor to them. He marvelled at the way her eyes were still impenetrable, strong as steel.

"What did they ask you?" He murmured, his voice low and quiet but it still felt so loud in the silence of their cell.

There was no answer from her for a while. Eventually she took a deep breath and it sounded laboured. Steve gritted his teeth, he wouldn't be surprised if they had bruised her lungs or something with the way she struggled to draw one full breath in.

Steve's choice was pretty much made right then. He had no intention of letting this go any further.

"They asked if I knew why they ran away." She finally murmured.