"Some days she felt like she was swimming in lies, treading water in a sea of deception. One day, surely, she would drown in her own secrets."
*~*~*~*
Venetia Sarafian was never like other women. Rather than sitting back and thinking of how she coul...
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Venetia felt numb as she sat in the corner of one of the rooms at the SSR compound the next afternoon. After Steve had captured the man that had shot Abraham he had returned to the remains of the lab, informing everyone that it had been a Hydra agent that had been sent to get the serum and had committed suicide upon capture. Howard had had the man's submarine brought in and was currently looking at it while Venetia and Peggy oversaw Steve's examination.
"Think that's enough?" Steve muttered as a nurse took yet another sample of his blood.
"Any hope of reproducing a program is locked in your genetic code," Peggy glanced towards Venetia before she continued speaking. "But without Dr. Erskine, it could take years."
"He deserved more than this," Steve frowned at the thought of the doctor. He couldn't keep his gaze from drifting towards the Sarafian woman who hadn't spoken a word since her breakdown in Howard's arms. It was clear to him that she had been close to the doctor, though he couldn't begin to imagine what was going through her mind.
"If it could only work once, he'd be proud it was you," Peggy tried to offer Steve some form of comfort. Venetia rose to her feet, quickly making her way out of the room and towards the tech lab where Howard was examining the submarine. It only took her a matter of minutes to find her friend sitting in the submarine's seat, taking a look at all of the technology and features the machine had.
"Hey, buttercup," Howard greeted the woman, a worried look hidden beneath his glasses. "How are you holding up?"
"Don't bother asking," she shook her head.
"Colonel Phillips, my committee is demanding answers," Senator Brandt hurried behind the Colonel as they made their way into the lab.
"Great. Why don't we start with how a German spy got a ride to my secret installation in your car?" Phillips countered as he made his way over to Howard and Venetia. "What do we do here?"
"Well, speaking modestly, I'm the best mechanical engineer in this country," Howard reminded the Colonel, only earning an eye roll from Venetia in the process. "But I don't know what's inside this thing or how it works. We're not even close to this technology."
"Then who is?" Brandt questioned.
"Hydra," Venetia narrowed her eyes at the Senator, still very much aware of the fact that he was the one that had brought the spy that had killed Abraham to the lab.
"I'm sure you've been reading our briefings," Phillips raised a brow at the man.
"I'm on a number of committees, Colonel," Brandt shook his head.
