stark
Six months after being kidnapped, Louise has learned that she was being held by an organization named “HYDRA.”
She has learned that she is being held somewhere in Russia.
She has slowly begun gaining privileges; having a room that isn’t the size of a queen bed, having a closet with a few pieces of clothing, they let her cook her own food in the kitchen, she can shower.
She has managed to remedy the burns left by the man named Rumlow with a salve she made herself, and though they left behind scars that are not pretty, the wounds are mostly healed.
She has been deemed Hydra’s coffee girl.
As said coffee girl, each Tuesday Louise was taken into the city- about an hour away, but most men got cold drinks and the Russian winter kept them cold- by some Hydra goon, gathered however many drinks were needed on that day, and brought them back for the team’s weekly briefing. If it had been a particularly good Monday for the team, sometimes they’d let Louise get a coffee for herself as well.
Today happens to be one of those days.
The goon had told her before they left the compound to wear an extra layer today, as even for December in Russia, it was cold. So, Lou threw on a tank under her sweater and Hydra-issue parka and met him in the car out front.
At the coffee shop, she reads off the regular orders and then has a small internal debate. Even though she feels like a fucking popcicle, she just can’t bring herself to get a hot drink, so she orders an iced latte that she knows will freeze her fingers once she takes her gloves off in the car.
Though she hasn’t been in Russia for a super long time, and she doesn’t plan to be here much longer, she has started to pick up on common words or phrases that the agents would say. Sometimes, a nicer agent would happen upon her and teach her a phrase or two. Plus, one of the lower-level agents she’d befriended wasn’t natively Russian so she’d snuck her a dictionary because she understood Lou’s struggle.
And Louise has always been a fast learner.
That’s why, as she is walking around the conference table delivering the last few coffees, she hears the name “Stark” and tenses up, immediately eavesdropping harder than she was before.
That’s why, when she hears some of the first words she’d learned; “confirmed,” and “dead,” get announced in quick succession after the name, Louise drops the last drink she’s holding (luckily, it’s her own) and brings a hand to her mouth before backing into the closest wall she can. Soft gasps leave her throat as tears start to form.
All eyes are on her, but she catches one specific pair turned slightly upwards with the smallest smile forming at the bottom of his face.
Rumlow.
Rumlow.
And just like that first day Louise was here, her sadness switches to anger before she can manage it, and she is back to her feet, racing over to him. Hands wrap tightly around his neck, hoping that she can wipe that fucking smirk off his fucking face.
But she’s being pulled off of him before she can even get a good enough grip on his neck, curses and sobs leave her mouth the entire way she’s being dragged back to her room.
She’s sure someone is going to come and punish her for the act, sure that she’ll have more scars to add onto her array from the short time that she’s been here.
But no one comes. She’s left locked in her room for (what she thinks is) three days. Nobody comes to bring her food, nobody comes to torture her, she is utterly alone.
By the end of the third day, she almost wishes she were being tortured instead of sitting here alone with her thoughts. All she can think about is how much she just wants to be home. Home, with her coworkers, with Peggy, with Hannah, god does she miss Hannah. She misses her job, miss feeling like she has a purpose, misses being more than just a fucking coffee girl. Though, that would more than likely be gone now too. She’ll just sit here, on her floor, curled up and clutching her hungry stomach until someone comes to save her.
No. No, Lou, don’t think like that, not that headspace.
She’s not a fucking damsel in distress. Never was, never will be. She’s a badass engineer who is more than capable of holding her own. She has all the skills under her belt that can get her out of this.
She is Louise fucking Anderson, and she will get out of this, even if it means playing a game longer than she hoped.