Kate's POV

I wake up to a bright light in my face and squint, blinking my eyes a few times to adjust. I sit up in the bed and notice that I'm still in the sick bay.

"Bruce?" I shout, looking at the needles and things hooked up to my body.

I hear footsteps approaching and look up to see Bruce staring at me wide-eyed. "You're awake!" He rushes over to me, checking my vitals.

"How long was I asleep?" I ask, confused.

"6 days." He looks at me and my eyes widen. "Listen, Kate, this might be a little hard to hear.. I ran a few tests to make sure that the infection didn't get to your bloodstream but I found some other type of drug in your body instead. Do you remember anything from the month they held you captive in Malibu?"

I take a moment to process what he told me before thinking back on everything that happened.

I sat there in the metal chair, restraints locked around my neck, wrists, waist, and ankles. I thrash around, hoping for any type of escape.

"You're awake!" The woman smiles. "It's about time. We tried the first sample on you, we weren't really sure what to expect since it killed the other subjects." She speaks.

"What did you do to me?" I clench my fists and pull on the restraints.

"Not too much, yet." She smirks. "Bring in phase 2!" She yells to someone out of the room, who then walks in with a big syringe of orange liquid.

They step toward me and I shake in my chair as a few people hold me still. As the liquid is injected into me I feel my eyes starting to close again.

"Yeah." I speak to Bruce, comic out of my flashback. "Only some of it."

"Well It seems that there's no reason to keep you in here anymore. Why don't we go up to see everyone else and you can explain what you remember?" He suggests, I nod.

I follow Bruce into the elevator and fumble with my finger anxiously as we reach the top floor. We step off of the elevator and walk into the living room to find the rest of the team watching a movie.

"Guys.." Bruce speaks up, earning everyone's attention. Their eyes immediately find me and their jaws drop.

"You're awake?!" Nat cheers, she stands to hug me but Tony beats her to it.

I hug him back, taken a bit off-guard by his sudden affection. "I thought I lost you." He whispers into my hair, holding me tight.

I furrow my eyebrows, remembering how he didn't care much about where we stood a few weeks ago.

"Alright don't hog her." Nat pulls Tony away from me and wraps her arms around me next. "How are you feeling?"

"Good? Normal? I'm not really sure." I admit.

Everyone else greets me except for the one person I've been wanting to see. I stare at the side of Steve's face, he didn't even turn to look at me when I walked into the room.

"I think there's some things that Kate wants to tell us." Bruce explains, the rest of them nod and Tony turns off the tv, which Steve blankly stares at.

"I um.. When I was there, I remember being kept in some sort of lab." I begin. "I remember enduring a series of injections followed by days of unconsciousness. They would um, they'd inject me with this orange stuff, a bigger dose each time until they reached the final stage. Once they knew I was okay, they started questioning me about you guys, torturing me in the worst ways they could think of if I didn't cooperate."

Everyone was silent until Bucky spoke up. "If they used the liquid on you to make you their weapon, why would they hurt you?"

"I think that, whatever they did to me, it gave me some sort of special healing?" I assume.

"That would explain how your slashes healed so quickly." Bruce points.

"So what, all they did was make you able to heal quickly?" Sam asks.

"I'm not really sure, that's all I remember." I sigh.

"I have a question." Steve speaks for the first time and my head shoots in his direction. "Why are you listed as an ally in HYDRA's archives?" He asks, the anger in his voice rising.

"W-What?" I ask, my heart dropping to my stomach. I look at the others and they look back at me waiting for an answer. "I.. I'm not-"

"Drop the act." Steve cuts me off. "We've seen it ourselves. Just explain."

"Leave her alone, Rogers." Tony defends me.

"Tony." I sigh and place a hand on his arm. "It's okay." I can't believe how Steve is acting. Just looking at him like this breaks my heart.

"It was a mistake." I look down at my feet. "After college, I moved to D.C. for an internship which eventually led to a job and promotions, before I knew it I was the head of the company. I was offered a deal with another company and decided to take the risk and close the deal. Once I found out that the company was founded by HYDRA and what they were doing, I immediately backed out and cut off any ties to them." I press my lips together. "I guess because of the deal years ago I'm considered an ally, but after I backed out they took no hesitation in punishing me. I was fired from my job, lost my house, and was eventually captured by HYDRA so that they could erase my memory but I got away. After that I had to move back home with my parents and start all over again."

"How did you get away?" Bucky asks curiously.

"I.. Don't remember." I admit. "But eventually, they found where I was working and started sending death threats. Once Tony put the mansion on the market, they knew exactly where I was and made their move."

I feel a hand on my waist and glance up to see Tony giving me a sorry look. I return the small smile and feel his thumb gently rubbing my side.

"I think that's enough for today." Bruce says. "You should still be resting since we're not sure what these injections did to you."

"I'll show you to your room Kitten." Tony says, standing up and leading me to the elevator. We stop on the 15th floor and he leads me down one of the hallways.

"Who else is on this floor?" I ask, seeing no other doors in my hallway.

"Just you, me, Steve, and Bucky. I'm down the other hallway, the other two are down the hall straight from the elevator." He explains, I nod. He kisses the top of my head before leaving me to settle in and heading to his room.