A/N: Hello all! So, for anyone who doesn't already know, this story is the sequel to my story Songbirds and Bombshells. If you haven't already read S&B I highly, highly suggest you go check it out before starting in on this story! For those of you familiar with Sadie and her story...can you believe I made to the sequel? Because. I can't. Fair warning - there are a lot of pieces I'm moving on the board early on and I'm still getting comfortable with this new host of characters so please, be kind!

Before I get into it I have to give extra love to Mopargirl1 and Not Enough Answers for walking me off my ledge and to my beta-extraordinaire Stencil Your Heart, who never berates me for my bad comma usage. Oh! And all of the chapter titles will be named after songs, this one coming from the Rolling Stones!

Disclaimer: I don't own the MCU but gosh if I did...

Chapter 1 - Sympathy for the Devil

A series of photographs stood on a spotless white mantle, set above a handsome but modest fireplace. Rays of the morning sun flooded through the gaps in the curtains, throwing the set of frames in sharp relief. The location where each photograph was taken was as varied as the subjects contained within. A portrait of a handsome, middle-aged navy medical officer sat next to a family huddled on an aging sofa in a cramped apartment. The far end showed three young women all on bicycles, dressed in fitted sweaters and high-waisted shorts. Had the picture been in color it would have showed their brunette, red, and blonde hair, respectively. Another picture showed a motley crew of men in mismatched military uniforms, grinning broadly in front of a mostly-crumbled building.

Two photographs in particular stood out from the rest. The first revealed two young men standing in front of Ebbets Field. Dressed casually in slacks and wide ties, both young men grinned broadly for the camera. The shorter of the two men held a foul ball in his hand up for the camera, revealing the end of a perfect day. Next to it, the middle frame depicted a couple standing together, not looking at the camera. Instead the couple stared at each other, beaming and seemingly unaware that they were the camera's subjects. The man had a protective hand at her mid back and he wore his military dress uniform with distinction. But he couldn't take his eyes of the woman next to him, dressed in floor length ivory lace. Her abundant dark hair was styled away from her beautiful face, crowned with a simple juliet cap veil that had once been worn by her mother. One thing was clear from the photograph - the subject couple couldn't have been happier.

The fireplace looked out into a sitting room that had one door leading to a kitchen and the other down a narrow hallway to two bedrooms. Depending on the morning, the small apartment could be bursting with activity. Some mornings the lady of the house came in from an overnight shift at the hospital or her husband was up reviewing intelligence reports while he tried not to burn his toast and make coffee all at the same time. There were mornings where they worked in seamless unison, fixing each other their breakfast and trading snippets of their coming day. Other mornings were lazy, punctuated by soft laughter and refusals to get out of bed for the whole day. Some days she woke him in the early hours to make love and others he practically had to bribe her out of bed with the promise of fresh coffee.

Visitors were a frequent occurrence at the small apartment and on this particular early October morning, company was due to arrive at any minute.

"Sade, what the hell are you doing?" A voice drifted down the hall from the master bedroom and into the kitchen. A woman stood at the kitchen counter with a cold glass of orange juice while she picked through a bowl of fresh fruit, looking for the best apple of the bunch. "Sadie?"

The swinging door opened and she looked up to see a man amble in only to put his hands on his hips and drop his head with an exaggerated sigh of disappointment. He wore a pair of dark grey slacks and a white undershirt that betrayed his broad shoulders and tapered waist. He raked his fingers through his chestnut hair and looked up, raising an eyebrow at his wife.

"I was thirsty," said Sadie Barnes simply, a humorous light dancing in her eyes.

Bucky groaned at her flippant attitude and Sadie's lips drew into a mischievous smile. Drumming his fingers on his hips, he seemed to debate what to say next and how much trouble he might get into for it. "How many times are we going to have this conversation?"

She smiled in earnest now, flashing him as many of her pearly whites as she could. Shifting her weight, she turned away from him and finally found the perfect apple nestled amongst the others in a pewter bowl on the counter, a wedding gift from one of her mother's friends. "Oh, I'd say probably once a day for about the next two weeks?" She drawled, not even remotely concerned by his exasperated sigh.

Instead, Sadie padded to the sink where she rinsed and dried off her apple. Bucky pinched the bridge of his nose and stole another glance at his headstrong wife who waggled her eyebrows humorously. The corners of his mouth turned up though Sadie knew it was against his will and better judgment. She still wore her pale blue housecoat over an ivory nightgown and her hair was in a braid coiled about her head, a style she'd adopted from her time in Europe. This, combined with the way she practically glowed, was too much for Bucky to resist and Sadie knew it. Crossing the kitchen, he took her face in one of his hands and kissed her softly, plucking the apple out of her grasp with the other.

"Hey!" She half-shouted through a shocked laugh as he took an enormous bite, grinning at her as he did. "I was going to eat that."

"People who disobey their doctors don't deserve apples," he said simply, fixing her with a fresh glare as he remembered his ire in the first place.

"I'm not disobeying anyone," she said delicately, though she refused to meet his eyes as she grabbed another apple.

"I'm pretty sure that 'bedrest' means resting in bed. It's not rocket science," reasoned Bucky.

Sadie scowled. "What it means is another day of mind-numbing boredom and discomfort. I don't see why I can't go to work."

At her words Bucky clapped a hand over his face and gestured with his free hand, apple and all, toward her body. "Because you're eight and a half months pregnant, that's why!"

Sadie looked down at her torso, her left hand resting on her now enormous stomach. Her sapphire engagement ring and matching wedding band shone on her ring finger, just barely fitting in light of her recent swelling. "That's ridiculous," she said dismissively. "Women in some countries give birth in fields while they work and just keep on going. Wouldn't it be better if I went into labor while at the hospital? It'd save us a lot of headache."

Bucky stared at the ceiling, muttering the words of what Sadie was sure was a prayer to any god who was listening for more patience. Under any other circumstances, Bucky loved Sadie's stubborn streak and unwillingness to bend to any expectations but her own. This one particular circumstance, however, was a golden exception to the rule. "Yeah, well those women don't have one of the best doctors in the city ordering them on bedrest," he grumbled.

The frustration leaching out of his voice bordered on desperation. Sadie, slightly mollified by his defeated tone, softened and padded across the kitchen back to him. As best as she could, she brought her arms around Bucky, resting against his shoulder. "I'm sorry, I know I'm being difficult. I just hate feeling useless."

Absently he kissed the top of her head, stroking her back. "You're growing a person, Sade. That's not useless."

"You're right," she muttered. "But you know me, I'm not happy unless I'm running around trying to contain ten different kinds of chaos."

"If it makes you feel any better, I think the chaos factor around here is about to go up. My mom keeps telling me that babies are nothing but chaos."

"Yes, and she's a saint for coming here to keep the baby when I go back to work, even though I just know she hates the idea that I'd ever go back to work. Or maybe she just feels sorry for me that I'm carrying something that's half you," she teased, wriggling out of his hold.

Bucky drew his chest up in mock offense but then shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know what she's talking about; I was a perfect child."

"HAH!" Laughed Sadie. "I've heard the stories from Steve. I know better."

Bucky put both of his hands on her shoulders and turned her around, marching her out of the kitchen and down the hall. "It can't be any worse than this baby having your hard head."

"You love my stubbornness," argued Sadie.

"I love everything about you," reasoned Bucky. "But right now I could do with a little less arguing and a lot more listening to your doctor. For my sanity, please."

"Well, when you put it that way," she conceded under her breath and let him lead her back to their bedroom. "So who did you line up to be my company today? Is your mom going to try again to teach me how to knit? Is Dum Dum going to spend his whole day trying to convince me that he actually can cook? Or will I be listening to the world series with your dad today?"

Bucky held on tight to Sadie's hands as he helped her sit down. In the past month she'd lost all sense of her own gravity, a fact which exasperated and amused her in equal turns, especially when simple tasks like getting in and out of bed became increasingly difficult. She paused as she sat down, hand on her swollen stomach. As he helped her lie down, Bucky caught her lips in a deep kiss, bringing himself halfway over her while he did his best to make a mess of her hair. "You know, you could just stay home all day and we can keep doing that."

"I wish," he said between soft kisses. Sadie flopped her head back against her pillow, letting out a pitiable moan of frustration. But instead of letting Bucky go when he tried to stand up, she tugged him back down to her. It took several more minutes before Bucky managed to pull himself away and finish dressing for the day. While he tied his tie he told her about the long day of chasing after fresh leads on a pair of covert HYDRA agents alongside Steve, all part of the post-war dream. He'd just finished the loose knot on his tie when someone knocked on their door.

Bucky disappeared out of the bedroom and Sadie smiled to herself, imagining his shoulders sagging in relief to meet his replacement for the day. "Thank God you're here," she heard him say.

"I'm quite happy to help." Peggy Carter's crisp English accent accompanied the click of her high heels in the entryway. "You're looking a bit overwhelmed."

"She's supposed to be on bedrest until the baby comes. Forget surviving the war, I'm never going to survive this pregnancy."

"I heard that!" Sadie called, smirking when she heard all movement in the entryway halt.

"I'll just put these groceries in the kitchen," said Peggy hesitantly but Sadie didn't imagine the laugh in her voice.

Bucky appeared in the doorway a second later, looking rather sheepish. Pursing her lips together, Sadie folded her hands over her stomach. "It's just a guess, but I don't think you're going to be slain by my uterus."

He drew deeper into their bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed. "No, but I wouldn't survive it if anything happened to you or to our baby."

Bucky placed his palm on her stomach, spreading his fingers wide. The gold ring he wore, her father's wedding ring, caught her breath and she covered his hand. "Alright," she agreed. "No more disobeying the doctor's orders. I'll be your perfect angel."

Shrugging his shoulder, he shot her a playful look and kissed her forehead. "Maybe not too perfect."

"That, I can do. It's just two weeks," she reasoned more for his benefit than hers. "How hard can two weeks be?"

They shared a smile. "Nearly impossible, knowing you. But I'll be back tonight and I'll draw us a warm bath and rub your shoulders ."

Sadie wrapped her fingers around his tie and tugged him closer. "I love you."

"Love you too, Sade."

Sadie felt the ghost of Bucky's lips over hers as though he was trying to kiss her but couldn't quite reach. She moved forward, trying to close the distance and as she did she collapsed over herself. Shrieking, she fell out of bed and grappled her way to her knees. A plain hospital gown covered her thin frame. Patting her body down, she choked out a horrified sob when her hands slid over her flat stomach. No ring adorned her left hand and Bucky was nowhere to be seen.

"Bucky?" The furniture in her bedroom faded away and when she whipped her head in one direction and then the other, she saw nothing but white expanse. "Bucky?" She called into the void. Where was Bucky? Where was her husband?

A blast of cold wind rushed past her, cutting through her thin skin right down to her bones. Shivers wracked her body, causing her to fold in on herself and sink down to lie on the hard floor. Icy air rattled in her lungs. Her breaths came in wheezes as though she'd been submerged in ice water and drawn out at the last possible second. Darkness passed over her eyes, coming in flashes until the light became blinding to her.

"Hey, hey, wake up!" A voice called out to her but it wasn't Bucky's. The accent was thick and the tone was all wrong. Sadie squeezed her eyes shut. This was wrong - it was all wrong. She needed Bucky. She needed her family, and her child. The light hurt now, pulsating against her eyes. Someone touched her, their fingers pressing against her naked skin like pins and needles. Sadie recoiled.

"Quick, get my spare clothes out of my pack; she's freezing."

Zippers and rustling, more pins and needles stabbing her skin. Her joints felt stiff, the rest of her shut down. Any awareness she had left slipped away with the shreds of her dream.

"Hey, hey, can you hear me? Come on, wake up." There was gentle tapping on her cold face. "Someone run to the trailhead and call for help!"

A moan escaped Sadie's lips as she struggled to open her eyes. "Holy shit, she's waking up!"

Sadie's muscles screamed as she tried to move. Her chest shuddered and her heart threatened to stop. Agony mingled into her blood, drops of misery forcing the sluggish liquid to move. Behind closed eyelids her eyes pulsed but she didn't want to open them. If she opened her eyes the dream would dissipate and she wanted to hold onto it, to sink back into oblivion. A pitiable moan rose in her raw throat. If she concentrated hard enough on the darkness, could she fade back into the perfection of her dream?

She hoped so even as she felt hands grasp her limp, naked form and begin wrapping it up. To ignore the pain of movement, Sadie thought about waking in the warmth of Bucky's arms and of lazy Sunday mornings spent trading sections of the newspaper or laughing as he convinced her they shouldn't bother to get dressed. If this was a delusion, she wanted to stay in it forever where she was safe and with her love. Sadie never wanted to feel the burn of loneliness again. Deeper and deeper she sank into her welcome delusion until she felt and sensed no more.

X X X

"Wow, ten voicemails in one day; now that has got to be a record."

"Maybe you should-I don't know-call him back?"

"Well, I would but you know I've got a lot going on here, things to read and-"

"You've got nothing going on. Call the Secretary back."

Tony Stark glanced over his shoulder at James Rhodes, quirking an eyebrow. Rhodey fixed him with a disapproving glare eerily reminiscent of all of his childhood nannies. Jokes of all kinds bubbled up to the forefront of Tony's mind, particularly questions about his friend's mothering tendencies but he bit them back in exchange for the genuine question that sprang to the tip of his tongue.

"Why do you care whether or not I call Ross back?"

Rhodey crossed his arms over his chest. He stood with his hip leaning against one of the support rails he used for physical therapy. "Because when you ignore him he tends to get mad and then tends to call me, or worse, he just shows up like he owns the damn place."

"Yeah, that must be a real inconvenience for you," Tony muttered even while he continued to tinker on the screen in his hands. Laid out before him was a schematic of the framework he'd created to help Rhodey walk. "Now, this is just the second prototype," he explained, messing with the meter for sensitivity, "but it should respond better to your natural movement than the first try."

Rhodey raised a suspicious eyebrow to counter the smirk lifting one corner of Tony's mouth. The first framework was, to put it mildly, a rush job of epic proportions fueled by way too many sleepless nights and no small amount of guilt. Pulled from old suit blueprints, the robotic frame presented a series of unique challenges. It had to be strong enough to bear Rhodey's weight, support his back and keep his legs straight all whilst remaining open enough to give his legs room to breathe. Considering every piece of the Iron Man suits played some integral role in protection, stabilization, movement and thrust, paring down the components to a basic brace-like frame ended up being a bigger challenge than he first imagined. This was especially true when he considered the user interface had to be sensitive to the slightest movements of Rhodey's upper body to stimulate the walking mechanics. Adding in a power source that didn't require constant charging or bulky batteries on top of all of that proved to be one of the most daunting problems. The first prototype managed to work well enough to get Rhodey upright and moving a few steps until the joints locked up and sent him sideways, leaving him grappling for one of the parallel bars for support before he spilled face-first onto the floor. The exasperated look on Rhodey's face coupled with a flash of pain that was enough to send Tony back to the drawing board, taking the first framework apart all the way down to the wiring and starting over with a fresh blueprint, determined to perfect the braces if it was the last thing he did.

The second set included a better back support, molded perfectly to the curvature of Rhodey's spine with sensors that ran all the way around his waist and down the frame to pick up and transmit the signals to walk. If Tony's math, blueprints, and measurements all came together the correct way then any falls would boil down to the learning curve and user error rather than a flaw in the design. Well, that was the hope at least. Tony knew all too well that even the most perfectly designed structures could still crumble.

Satisfied that the calibrations were right on the money, Tony turned back to discover Rhodey adjusting the fit of the harness. He stood between the parallel bars that took up the middle of the newest room to be remodeled at the Avengers compound. A multitude of other equipment took up the rest of the space, medicine balls on racks, free weights, an exercise bike, and a large padded table next to a set of hooks in the wall holding large physical therapy rubber bands. Although Tony wasn't certain what each piece of equipment was used for, he'd gamely paid for everything on the physical therapist's list, trusting that all of it was going to help rehabilitate his best friend. If there was nothing medical science could do to bring Rhodey's legs back, Tony would be damned if he wasn't going to find every other means of helping him available.

"Alright," he said, clapping his hands together. "Don't just stand there, get moving!"

Rhodey shot him a glare of long-suffering but did as Tony instructed. Grasping both of the parallel bars, he shifted his torso and shoulders, reaching out as though he were about to take a step. The frame slid into action, raising Rhodey's right knee up and drawing his leg forward, stepping down just as his left leg followed.

"It's a little jerky," Rhodey stated the obvious as his next step landed too hard.

"Yeah, I can fix that."

Before Tony could even start to mess with the program, Rhodey's right leg came down and slipped. Only his grip on the bars kept him upright, swaying somewhat unnaturally for balance on legs that he couldn't feel and couldn't support him any longer. Tony darted back to help his friend but Rhodey held up a hand warding him away, signalling that he was okay. At the same time, the phone in the room rang again.

"Tony?" Rhodey asked through gritted teeth, putting all of his strength into his upper body while he wrestled with the frame to get his legs properly back beneath him.

"Yeah?"

"Answer the goddamn phone."

Tony supposed that only the sight of Rhodey's irritated face and equally irritated tone were enough to match the annoyance that Ross quite simply wouldn't take the hint. In the end Rhodey was right anyway; the Secretary would continue to badger him until he answered the phone before resorting to more creative measures to get in touch with him. That usually meant an in-person meeting and those were inconveniences that Tony would rather avoid. Thaddeus Ross had an unusual but uncanny knack for giving him a migraine every time they met.

Rolling his eyes and blowing out an exaggerated sigh, he relented. "Fine. But if he wants someone to come down to DC, you're going."

Rhodey waved him off from where he rested against the bars.

Tony snatched the phone from the cradle and held it up to his ear. "It's not for nothing but you're starting to look a little desperate. I hope this isn't how you treat your dates."

"I wouldn't have to call repeatedly if you'd just pick up the phone the first time."

The problem with Secretary Ross was that he liked to think of himself as taking precedence over any other obligation or matter in Tony's life. Self-important men like Ross tended to rub Tony the wrong way already but a disturbing trend had arisen ever since Tony inked his name on the dotted line for the Accords. Regardless of the fact that Tony took Nick Fury's idea for the Avengers and turned it into the real deal and designed and financed the entire operation, Ross now seemed to possess an air of ownership over the remains of the team and that included expecting Tony to be at his beck and call.

"So sorry, I had important things to do plus, you know, the whole light blinking thing and all that-" Tony waved his hand and pointedly ignored Rhodey's rolling eyes.

"Stark," Ross's annoyance was palpable, so present that Tony could read between the lines and he stood up a fraction straighter. He was used to a litany of phone calls about amendments and addendums to the Accords but now he could detect a bite of impatience and even, dare he say it, desperation? "I need you on a plane."

"To?"

"Bucharest. Something's come up and I need your opinion."

Tony's eyebrows flew up. One other thing he knew about self-important men like Ross was that they never asked for help. Ever.

"What exactly has come up?"

"An abandoned HYDRA base was found in Bucegi National Park and there was something in it - more like someone."

Tony's stomach clenched. The word HYDRA brought up a litany of bad memories and faces he didn't care to think about these days. When the initial recoil eased, his brow furrowed. "You might want to check your records again; we wiped out all of HYDRA."

"You wiped out all of active HYDRA. There's no accounting for how many abandoned operations it left behind over the years and this was one of them, only they didn't clean house before they left."

Which begged the most important question of all, the answer to which Tony wasn't certain he wanted. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he could already feel the beginnings of a magnificent headache. "Who'd they forget to toss in a box with packing peanuts on moving day?"

"Sadie Reid."

His hand fell limp to his side and he almost let go of the receiver in his surprise. That was a name he knew, one he recalled from stories his dad told about the war and the years after. Already he was navigating the halls of his childhood home, right into his dad's study and to the picture that sat on one of the bookshelves there. A young woman immortalized in black and white, dressed in a military uniform and standing next to his father along with other hospital staff. Tony knew about Sadie Reid. He knew she'd served in the SSR with his father, that she'd gone on to found one of the largest humanitarian relief organizations in the world, and that she famously disappeared in nineteen forty nine on the way from Hamburg, Germany to Ypres, Belgium.

Her name echoed in his head, dredging up disbelief along with a grim reminder of his recent history with two of the men she was most notoriously associated with.

"You're shitting me."

X X X

If not for the name 'Sadie Reid' now permanently lodged in his brain, Tony might not have gotten on a jet bound for Bucharest. After he got off the phone with Ross and got Rhodey situated, Tony put in a call to have someone go through his father's archived belongings, to have another person pull a copy of Sadie's SSR file along with any surviving hard copy information from her days starting up IHAP, and had FRIDAY start an exhaustive search of every database, library, museum, and academic institution for anything about Sadie Reid. Though she wasn't nearly as famous as her Howling Commandos counterparts, Sadie Reid's name still carried a certain level of recognition. Her name and photograph cropped up in history books that discussed women's contributions to the war effort, she was recognized as one of the big contributors to the feminist movement, and the stamp she'd made on philanthropic efforts to improve human rights wasn't up for debate. Post-grads the world over lined up for the opportunity to do a two-year tour with IHAP and that was nothing to say of the thousands of nurses, doctors, dentists, psychologists, and teachers who selflessly devoted their time to missions over the decades, weathering social unrest, disease, famine, and war to bring care to some of the most impoverished parts of the world. Sadie's picture hung in every IHAP branch office and her once-tiny startup organization now sat on level playing ground with other philanthropic juggernauts including Tony's own Stark Foundation.

Then there was, of course, the three or so months where her name graced national headlines, sparking a mystery that scholars spent whole dissertations trying to solve. On an otherwise unremarkable day in June nineteen forty nine, Sadie Reid disappeared enroute from Hamburg to Ypres, never to be seen again. While Tony read through the files waiting for him on the jet, he had images of the newspaper headlines hovering in front of him bearing sensationalized language, exclamation points and enough half-cracked speculation to make anyone roll their eyes. And although the news media wasted inches of print on bad theories, the newly-formed SHIELD was much better equipped to conduct the search for Sadie, a woman who had been friend to the founding members and many of its first crop of outstanding agents. Tony read through field reports completed by Peggy Carter, Dum Dum Dugan, James Falsworth, even his own father on their dogged though ultimately fruitless attempts at finding their missing friend. When months passed and leads went cold the rest of the world moved on and took them with it, which was why Tony was surprised to find, buried in his father's archive, a file regarding a search for Sadie that Dum Dum conducted for most of his life with the occasional assistance from his father.

Attached to the front page of the file with a paperclip was a photograph of the woman herself, glancing up at the camera from beneath the brim of her peaked cap. Tony took the picture from the file and held it up for inspection. Although every known picture of Sadie was in black and white, he knew from her file that she was a brunette with grey eyes.

"Friday," he muttered, tilting his head to the side, "Colorize this picture, will you?"

He tapped the top corner of his glasses to scan the photograph. With a swipe of his hand he cleared away the newspapers hovering in front of him and brought the picture to the forefront of his attention.

"Here you go, boss," Friday replied and within seconds the picture underwent a series of filters and-

"Voila," he said, now looking at Sadie Reid in living color. Soft dark brunette curls settled over the shoulders of her military jacket and from beneath her dark, manicured brows, piercing grey eyes held the camera's attention in a steely vice grip. Her perfect makeup highlighted her slightly hollowed cheeks, diminished the stubbornness of her chin and the cherry red pout she sported spelled out a serious, determined nature, something that he recalled his father praising Sadie for. She was another figure on a marble pedestal that Tony could never live up to, another paragon of every quality that he lacked, a shining example of the golden era where everyone seemed larger than life. The longer Tony stared at Sadie's colorized picture the more he could believe she was friends with Steve, though this serious portrait was a far cry from the glowing smile her visage held in the picture Steve kept in his room at the compound.

Before Tony could let the bitter taste of anger and regret color his perception of this perfect stranger, he brushed away any thought of Steve Rogers - or worse, of her one-time fiance before he'd gone off and murdered the very man who didn't lightly abandon the effort to find her. Drawing himself up higher in his seat, he flicked Sadie's digital picture away.

"Tell me what happened again?"

Friday's voice filled the cabin. "Three British backpackers were hiking one of the valleys in Bucegi National Park when they discovered the entrance to a bunker believed to be an abandoned HYDRA facility. There they discovered a number of what appear to be failed, catalogued experiments, including a cryostasis tube. When one of the backpackers unsealed the tube it automatically started the thawing process. According to their statements to the police, they opened the lid and discovered Ms. Reid inside."

Tony's brow furrowed, looking at the pictures attached to the police report that Friday pulled up for his review. "How was the bunker getting enough power to keep the chamber running?"

"Investigators have called in members of the US Army Engineering Corps stationed nearby to confirm but it appears that the original builders buried power lines that connected to the park's electrical grid."

"Clever," he muttered with a note of disdain. "What did the backpackers do with her when they found her?"

"They dressed her in their spare clothing and wrapped her in a sleeping bag. Two backpackers stayed with her while the other went for help. Park rangers called in an emergency helicopter to airlift her to Floreasca Hospital in Bucharest."

A figure emerged from the front of the jet. Happy Hogan smoothed his tie over his chest and came around to sit in the empty seat across from Tony's. "Pilot is starting the descent. Learn anything new?"

"Nothing important," Tony replied, lips toying at a frown.

"And they're sure that this is Sadie Reid? Could be someone else," Happy remarked, reaching for the open SSR file resting on the small table where it sat with other paperwork about her.

"Police report says her physical description matches and she was found wearing a necklace commonly associated with her, along with Barnes' dog tags from the Army," Tony summarized, forcing his way through the final, unfortunate detail. "When Reid joined the Army Nursing Corps she would have been required to give her fingerprints. Ross has someone trying to see if her fingerprint card is still being kept on file somewhere to verify her identity."

"But you think it's her," Happy persisted, still looking dubious. "It wouldn't be hard to fake a necklace and dog tags."

"No," Tony agreed, looking out of the window to see Bucharest grow as the jet drew lower and closer to the private airfield. "But I'm finding it hard to believe that someone would go through the trouble of making themselves look like Reid and crawling into a cryostasis chamber on the off chance that maybe they'd be found. Plus, judging from the police photographs it doesn't look like anyone's been in that bunker for a long time."

Happy let out a low whistle. "Talk about a hell of a coincidence," he remarked, flipping a page in the SSR file. When Tony didn't reply, Happy took it as a signal to keep talking. "That Barnes was living in Bucharest less than three hours away from where a group of backpackers found his wartime sweetheart."

Tony scowled. The relative distance between Barnes's apartment and the bunker didn't escape Tony. What little Ross' team of investigators had gleaned from rummaging through his belongings and journals led them to believe that Barnes had been bouncing across Europe for almost two years until finally landing in Bucharest where he'd been for at least three months before his discovery. Nobody had been able to answer the question of why a man on the run lingered there for so long except that it was a crowded metropolitan area in a country where he knew the language and could easily blend into the crowd. But as Tony watched the details of the buildings come into sharper detail, he considered Happy's words and his own suspicions.

"I don't think it's a coincidence at all," he replied and left his thoughts at that.

A private car awaited them at the airfield and Tony drove to the hospital, leaving Happy to park and handle a call with Pepper while he followed the directions Ross gave him to a hospital ward that was ostensibly closed off for maintenance and construction. He waved down two armed soldiers that stood outside of a set of double doors. The soldiers moved aside and allowed him into a dimly lit hospital hallway. A slight shiver ran down his spine; Tony wasn't much for hospitals and it turned out he liked them even less when they appeared abandoned save for armed soldiers standing in front of two doors, one open and the other closed. Passing through the open doorway, he came into a room occupied by one other person.

"Took you long enough," Thaddeus Ross grumbled from where he stood at an observation window looking into the other guarded room.

"Yeah, well, it took a while to get what you asked for. That, and I didn't want to come."

Ross's mustache twitched though he said nothing, keeping his arms crossed over his chest while he continued to stare straight ahead. Recognizing that he wasn't going to get more opportunity to badger the man, Tony joined him at the window. "My guy at the Army got back to me with scans of Sadie Reid's Army fingerprint cards. They're a match."

Through the window Tony's gaze came to rest on a hospital bed shrouded in semi-darkness. Wires and monitors surrounded the head of the bed, flashing numbers that he couldn't read too well from his vantage point. Dwarfed in the bed and covered by thick blankets a woman slept, face tilted slightly toward the window where he could see her features clearly. Even without any sort of extraneous confirmation, even given the shocking thinness of her face, there was no mistaking Sadie Reid in person. Withdrawing her personnel picture from his pocket, he held it up and sure enough the features lined up to identical perfection. Tony shook his head. Of all of the unbelievable things he'd seen over the last eight years, he couldn't quite understand why he was struggling to wrap his head around this new development. To escape the enormity of the situation and all of the potential consequences it carried, Tony looked for any detail he could latch onto. He didn't have to look particularly hard.

"Why is she restrained?"

Fleece cuffs wrapped around her wrists, keeping her trapped in the bed. Ross shifted his weight. "She keeps having seizures. The doctors can't figure out why but they think it's possible being pulled so fast out of cryo caused neurological damage."

"That's not why you're restraining her."

"The woman disappears in '49 and turns up in a HYDRA outpost wearing Barnes' dog tags? I'm surprised you even have to ask," Ross mused.

"She enhanced?"

"We don't know yet. The doctors don't have the kind of equipment here to test for that sort of thing."

"She hasn't woken up yet?"

"Comes in and out, most of the time she's screaming or has a seizure before going back under. We've tried to keep her asleep but everytime someone pushes the drug through her IV she has another seizure."

Tony frowned. "And the personal guard in the hallway?"

"I'm not taking any precautions. Who knows what her deal is and thanks to you Barnes and Rogers are unaccounted for."

Against his will, Tony snorted in laughter. "And you think a handful of guys with guns are going to stop two super soldiers from getting to her if they wanted to? Rogers broke Wilson and the others out of the Raft; I think you're gonna have to do better."

"I am. There's a quinjet on standby. You're going to escort Ms. Reid back to the Avengers Compound where we can hold her for observation, testing, and questioning."

A slippery, nasty feeling slithered its way from Tony's stomach into his intestines. An ominous note buried itself in Ross's directive, like he was putting the cart before the horse or doling out punishment before the crime even occurred. Tony was no fool; he understood the ramifications of Sadie's discovery and every second she wasn't locked down somewhere far safer than a Romanian hospital ran the increased risk of Steve somehow finding out she was alive and coming for her.

"What makes you think the compound is any safer than the Raft?"

"It's not," Ross replied in a grim sort of voice. "But it's the one place I can think of where Rogers might not dare to go. And if he does, all the better; I'd love nothing more than to throw his ass in a cell."

"And Barnes?"

"Well, that's why we have trained snipers on the premises," Ross added and this time Tony didn't mistake the satisfaction he heard. He caught Tony's shift, the small amount of surprise that filtered across his face at the man's open acknowledgement that he'd just as soon kill Barnes as lock him up in the event he came for his old flame. "I thought you of all people wouldn't have a problem with that."

Tony recoiled at the insinuation. Him of all people. Perhaps Ross missed the weeks that Tony had been stewing in a potent combination of guilt and self-loathing. If given the opportunity again Tony knew he would much rather lock Barnes up in a psych ward or prison cell as opposed to killing him.

"You think they'll try and come for her?"

"That's only if they find out she's alive. I've had my men inform the police that it was a case of mistaken identity and to expunge any mention of her name from their records. She was admitted as a Jane Doe and already I've had that wiped out of the database. Outside of you the only other people who know are my people."

"What about the UN? Isn't this the sort of thing you have to report to the Accords council?

"Not until we know what we're dealing with. I intend to keep this a secret until I can figure out what to do with her."

Tony had to wrestle down the part of him that was ready to argue with Ross. He didn't disagree with keeping the UN out of it until they had a better grasp on the situation, until he could test Sadie's DNA, until she was awake and talking, until they could determine whether she was friend or foe. But somehow he got the impression that Ross meant other things when it came to figuring out what to do with her. Suddenly the prospect of having Sadie at the secure compound where Tony could keep an eye on her sounded appealing, not only for the rest of the world's protection but hers as well.

In the other room, Sadie Reid's face twitched in her sleep. Tony wondered how long it would take for her to recover from her impromptu thawing. He could only hope she would stay out cold long enough transfer her back to New York.

X X X

A strange symphony played Sadie into consciousness. Metallic clicks kept a steady, if somewhat slow, beat to accompany the soft tones repeating at even intervals. She heard the whoosh of her pulse in her ears that matched up with the strong thump of her heart, playing the kick drum in her chest. Even the reedy crescendo of her breath mingled in with the other sounds that drew her slowly out of her sleep, filling her ears and reaching into her mind as if to play the reverse of a lullaby. The wakeup call eventually gave way to the dim light pulsing behind her closed eyes, cutting through the darkness of her sleep.

Sadie lay in a comfortable bed, far more comfortable than the bed she'd had in the barracks in Germany. Although she wanted to say she was in Ypres, that didn't feel quite right. For one thing she didn't remember ever reaching Ypres and for another, there was no way the bed awaiting her there would be so welcoming. Flashes of dreams continued to accost her, jumping out from shadowy corners in her mind even as she wrestled with the strangest feeling of deja vu-or not quite deja vu but the feeling that she'd been conscious more than once during her sleep. A jittery feeling continued to course through her, like aftershocks from an earthquake that she couldn't remember happening.

Though a reasonable explanation eluded her, Sadie felt as though she was staring at a wall in her mind, an iron curtain drawn over a part of her memories that she couldn't pull back. Was there something she'd missed? Refusing to open her eyes, she tried to go back to the last thing she remembered. There was the IHAP mission stationed in Hamburg. She'd been treating patients all day before going back with the rest of the team to some old, unused German army barracks. Sadie vaguely remembered eating dinner with everyone though she couldn't remember what she ate. Then she'd sat out late with Ruthie, admiring the night sky and the warm summer air. And then she'd gone to bed and...had she woken up? Was she still in Hamburg?

But that wasn't right either. Sifting through the jumble of thoughts in her head, Sadie recalled that she'd woken the next morning and gone to an airfield just outside of the city. The driver took a strange route, as though he wasn't quite sure of where he was supposed to go before finally reaching the gated airfield. Sadie's lips parted softly as her eyes began to flutter, lashes brushing against her cheeks. Agent Murphy was waiting for her to go over security details but he was different than she remembered - harder, colder. Tiny details jumped out at her now. A blocked exit. The feel of her necklace in her shaking hand. Taunts about her choices. Agent Murphy's narrowed eyes and the rat-like smirk tugging at his thin lips. Light began to filter into Sadie's eyes as she blinked rapidly. He'd betrayed her, setting up a false meeting to get her isolated so he could take her away at the beckoning of-she inhaled sharply.

"Bucky," she whispered, closing her hand in a bid to feel the dog tags that weren't there. The last thing she remembered was running for the door, holding onto Bucky's dog tags in a desperate bid to get away. Alcohol burned her nose and two words cut through the haze of her terror just as the chloroform took effect.

Hail HYDRA.

"Oh my God."

Sadie's eyes flew open and she raised a hand to shield them from the low light that still irritated her. The muscles in her arm screamed from the simple action, stretching and aching as though it had been an age since she last moved her body. A hollow thud resonated between her temples. But all of the strange sensations took a backseat to the bitter taste in her mouth and the cold terror that clenched her stomach.

Agent Murphy was with HYDRA and he'd taken her somewhere but where that was, she didn't know. Were the dog tags really Bucky's? Was it possible, no matter how improbable, that he was still alive? Sadie couldn't even believe she was allowing herself to hope for it but Murphy had been so calm and collected, so assured of himself like he'd actually seen Bucky. Very few people knew that Bucky wore her Saint Christopher's medal with his tags; he didn't have a habit of taking them out the way she often did her necklace. One way or another, Sadie had to find out. She had to figure out where she was, if she was really in HYDRA's clutches and if, somewhere out there, her love was still alive and in need of her.

Groaning, she slid her hands beneath her elbows and pushed herself up, swaying just a little as she did. The light eased on her eyes, allowing her to see the snow white blankets draped over her thin frame. The hospital gown she wore felt strange against her naked skin, light and breathable, not at all like the heavy cotton she remembered from her prior experience in a hospital ward. Bracing herself, she eased her legs over to the edge of the bed and slid forward, placing her bare feet on the cool floor. Without a second for thought or hesitation, she stood up. Her weakened legs gave out from beneath her and she collapsed on the hard floor in a heap, hitting her side with a cry. The back of her hand stung and she turned it over to see a small amount of blood pooling where an IV line had been, torn right out of her skin, the line swaying back and forth a few feet away from her. Sadie wiped the blood off on her hospital gown, staring down at the floor while she tried to catch her breath and her bearings.

Why was she so weak? Only time and lack of substantial use would cause this kind of jarring frailty.

"How long was I asleep?" She asked to herself, voice sounding raw and foreign as it echoed off the walls.

Lifting her chin, she looked up to her hospital bed and frowned. Why did it seem so high off the ground? The construction was unlike anything she'd ever seen before, causing her to blink several times before she brushed it off as something of little consequence. Instead she reached up and grasped the blankets, curling her stiff fingers over the fitted sheet to anchor herself in her struggle to get her feet beneath her long enough to pulled herself up onto the bed. The effort took more energy out of her than she anticipated and she sank back onto the bed, elbows pushing into the mattress as she took yet another minute to collect herself.

As her eyes continued to take in the light and the slowly emerging details of her surroundings, Sadie noticed that everything around her was a varying shade of white or grey, touched with soft blue light that appeared to rise up from the baseboards in the room rather than overhead. Tilting her head to the side, Sadie tried to make heads or tails of her unusual surroundings. Across from the foot of her bed a huge pane of rectangular glass overlooked the room, showing not the other side but her reflection only and that of the room, similar to a mirror. On one side of the mirror sat a chair and on the other a door. Sadie's heart started to leap into her chest when she noticed another door on the wall adjacent to the chair. If she was going to try an escape, which one was she supposed to use?

"Escape?" She echoed to herself. "You can't even walk."

Rolling off her side, she pushed herself back up into a seated position again and drew her fingers through her wild curls of hair. Almost immediately she snatched her hands back out to grasp the strands and give them a sharp tug, running the length of her hair that fell past the inside of her elbow. Dread poured down her throat to fill her stomach, pitching it into a chaotic twist. When she'd last brushed her hair, the morning she was to leave Hamburg, her hair fell only an inch or two past her collarbones. For it to grow several extra inches would take months, maybe even longer than a year.

How could that be? How could Sadie not remember an entire year?

Scrubbing her face with her hands, she tried to clear her mind of the onslaught of questions, desperate to get back to the heart of the matter. She was in a strange place, not of her own will. The last thing she could remember was holding Bucky's dog tags. Bucky might be alive. She might be able to find him if she could just figure out where she was and how long she'd been held captive.

Twisting to one side, she looked for anything that might help her support her weight to walk across the room and try the doors. An IV meant an IV pole and while it wasn't perfect, it would hopefully be enough to keep her upright. Sadie had to squeeze her eyes shut and open them again to make sure she wasn't seeing things. A clear bag of fluid hung from the top loop of an IV pole but bisecting the pole was a-she couldn't think any word except machine. The line from the bag appeared to run through the machine that was flat on the front, with a series of buttons bearing numbers and words she couldn't quite make out. She'd never seen anything like the machine in her life, far more advanced than any sort of medical technology she'd encountered in any hospital. The metallic clicks she'd heard were coming from the machine and, out of sheer curiosity, she scooted along the bed to reach out and grab the pole, dragging it closer to her. Part of the front was taken up by a flat panel, something like a monitor transmitting information, though she couldn't make sense of the numbers. Glancing up she rose just a fraction higher to reach the bag, twisting it so she could read the words on one side, fearing what kind of medicine might be already coursing through her veins.

"Sodium chloride?"

Sadie's brows furrowed. Saline solution was used to treat dehydration among other innocuous things. She had a hard time believing that HYDRA would care so much about her wellbeing that its doctors would try to prevent a mild case of dehydration.

The strange devices in her room and the saline IV only further convinced Sadie that she needed answers and she needed them fast. Grasping the IV pole, she held onto it tightly as she once again tried her legs. They gave when she put her weight on them but between the bed and the IV pole she managed to stay upright, waiting until she had better control of herself before daring to take one shaky step and then another. Moving at a glacial pace, she reached the end of the bed and pulled the IV in front of her, holding on tight with both hands as she plodded toward the door next to the mirror. Though she supposed it was just her motivation helping supply her body with adrenaline, Sadie swore that she felt stronger with each passing step until at last she reached the door. Much to her disappointment and lack of surprise, when she tried the handle it was locked.

"Damn."

Sadie looked to the other door and took a deep breath to go try it but then caught her reflection in the glass.

Every last thought of escape dropped out of her head like a brick crashing through a window. Releasing one trembling hand from the IV pole, she touched her cheekbone just to ensure that the woman staring back at her really was her own reflection. All of her hair hung heavily around her in a limp mess of tangled waves, nothing like the shining coif she fastidiously maintained even in the field. But Sadie's hair was the least of her shock and concern. Stormy grey eyes stared out at her from hollowed eye sockets, set above deep purple crescent-shaped bruises. Her dark eyebrows were overgrown and out of control as they curved just beneath sunken temples that had nothing on her protruding cheekbones. Gone was the healthy coloring of her ivory skin and fullness she'd regained after the war. Instead of her softly defined features Sadie stared at a shell of herself, a half-starved, gaunt creature who seemed to know more about her missing time than she did. At the opening of her hospital gown she could see her collar bones sticking out above the ghostly pale skin that stretched taught over her breastbone. And there, where she expected to see the chain of her necklace, she saw nothing. Her neck was just as naked and terrifying as the rest of her. The sight was nothing short of a total shock to her delicate system.

Sadie's eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she fainted.

X X X

"Nurse Ratched!"

The lone nurse standing inside the observation room glanced up from her tablet, raising her thin eyebrows. Tony's acerbic grin only grew upon the sight of her disapproving frown.

"Mr. Stark, you know how I feel about nicknames," Nurse Gonzales warned.

"Really? I thought it was just part of our playful banter. But if you insist," Tony lamented, moving to peer over Nurse Gonzales's shoulder at the information displayed on the tablet. Gonzales was among the longest-serving supporting staff for the Avengers, working in the medical division at Stark Tower before moving with the team to the compound. A thoroughly competent nurse, she often took the lead on the care of priority patients and kept her staff running with the precision of a swiss watch, a trait which Tony valued far above her total lack of a sense of humor. Though she was one of the few staffers who wasn't afraid to put him in his place, which he found amusing and admirable in equal turns.

"So, how is our patient this morning? Still doing her best Sleeping Beauty impression?"

"See for yourself."

Tony's head snapped up at the dismissive instruction, given even as Nurse Gonzales turned her back on the one-way mirror to retrieve her morning coffee. In the two days since he safely oversaw Sadie's transfer from Bucharest to the compound, Tony had come to check on her progress no less than eight times, itching for some word on her status. A team of doctors were responsible for overseeing her progress along with running an exhaustive battery of tests on blood samples taken when she arrived and every twelve hours since. So far he'd only seen the results of the basic blood panels but the doctors were still studying tissue samples and doing the work to unravel as many secrets about Sadie Reid as they could. But for all of their testing, they hadn't been able to give a clear answer as to when she would wake up and what her condition might be.

It turned out that Tony didn't have to wait for the doctors.

Sadie sat on her hospital bed staring at her hands from between the curtains of her ridiculously long hair. For the most part she sat perfectly still, save for the rise and fall of her shoulders in breath and the twitching of her fingertips. Under the ambient blue glow from the lights she looked like a ghost, all pale skin and bones to the point where Tony half-expected her to phase through the walls like something out of a horror movie. But she just sat, hunched over herself looking small and pitiable, nothing like the woman he'd seen in pictures. Just staring at her, Tony had a hard time imagining her running through the thick of the war. Already Ross was discussing the possibilities of what she'd done under HYDRA's control and had an entire army of his paper-pushing minions sifting through old SHIELD files and historical events since the war, searching for any whiff of her. But, as she turned one painfully thin hand over to examine her fingers, Tony couldn't even begin to imagine what HYDRA would have used her for. Sadie looked like one stiff breeze would knock her over and keep her down.

"Has she said anything?"

Nurse Gonzales glanced up from her coffee. "Not yet."

"Nothing? Not even when you've gone in there to check on her or bring food?"

Tony noticed that Nurse Gonzales wouldn't quite meet his eye. "We're under strict orders from the Secretary not to engage with her while she's awake."

Tony knew that he had no right to be surprised and yet he still was. Snorting in humorless laughter, he shook his head. "So you're supposed to wait until she's asleep and then sneak her soup in?"

He'd meant it as a joke but Nurse Gonzales sighed. "I don't care for it much either, Mr. Stark. When she first woke up she tried the door to this room even though she could barely walk. Took one look at herself in the glass and fainted. The secretary wanted to restrain her but she's gotten sick."

"Well, it's nice he doesn't want her choking on her own vomit," he snapped to nobody in particular. "So she doesn't know where she is or what year it is or that she's not in HYDRA's custody anymore?"

"No, sir. She's been told nothing and has only said a handful of words to herself. I'm not even sure she's aware that we can see her through the one-way glass."

"I doubt she knows she's being recorded either," Tony groused, more than fed up with Secretary Ross's punitive measures.

Nurse Gonzales started in surprise when Tony tapped two fingers on the glass but her surprise had nothing on Sadie's. Her head snapped up in an instant, honing in on the source of the sound immediately. Even Tony had to admit a chill slipped down his spine. Sadie's stormy eyes shone out from her gaunt face, twin beacons that held onto him with astonishing force. Tony had to remind himself that she couldn't actually see through the mirror right to him. Her hands fell to her sides and she sat up a little higher, swallowing hard.

"Hello?" She called out, her voice raspy. "I know someone's there. Please, I think," she paused to drag a hand over her face, brows and nose scrunched up while she struggled to piece her thoughts together, "I think I was taken prisoner by a HYDRA agent."

"Well, that's new," Nurse Gonzales declared. "She hasn't breathed a word of HYDRA since she woke up."

A sneaking suspicion that Sadie Reid was an unwitting victim started to creep up on Tony. Pieces of a puzzle were emerging onto the table - her emaciated visage, Barnes' dog tags Ross confiscated upon her arrival to the compound, her shell-shocked confusion at her surroundings, and even the note of apprehension clinging to her raw voice. Though Tony wasn't sure he liked the picture forming, he knew for certain that, for the moment, Nurse Gonzales was more of a threat to him than Sadie Reid.

"Yeah," he said shortly, mind made up. "I've had enough of this."

Over Nurse Gonzales's protests he strode over to the door adjoining the observation room to Sadie's. Flicking the lock, he grasped the handle and threw the door open. The sudden noise of the door banging open accompanied by Tony's surprise appearance startled Sadie so badly that she lost her balance, falling backward onto the bed, clutching her heart.

"Oh, sorry about that," he mused, looking once over his shoulder at the irate Nurse Gonzales and giving her a wink before shutting the door behind him. Turning back to Sadie, he raised an eyebrow. "Did I scare you?"

A/N: I know it's a bit of a slow-ish start but just be patient! I'll get to the good stuff soon enough. Next chapter features some important first meetings!

Love it, hate it, already miss the 40's (I know I do *sobs*)? I'd love to hear any and all thoughts. Much love - Kappa.