FicWad

Author Note: While sexual/rape interactions will be hinted at or alluded to, there will no explicit scenes.

Chapter I

Steve, Bucky, and Sam stood in the deteriorating lab of an abandoned HYDRA outpost in the country-side of Italy. Dust and grime coated the nearly century-old tile floor and painted brick walls. The building was clearly taken by HYDRA and re-purposed as a laboratory and research facility. Everything was broken and falling down; rot had long since destroyed the integrity of the wooden staircases, and rust had eaten away at pipes and metal fixtures, leaving many with holes. However, in the middle of one lab stood a metal box that looked rather like a tall 1950's refrigerator with a small window in the front. "Oh my…" Steve dashed over to a cryo-chamber The shape of a face could be seen inside, but the frost on the window obscured the features from identification.

"That looks like an older model of the chamber I was kept in." Bucky muttered darkly.

"There's writing on the side, like a label," Steve replied. "My Italian isn't great; how's your's, Buck?"

"Passable." Bucky crossed the room to the chamber. Tilting his head, he tried to make out the old, blurred writing. "Shadow. It says 'The Shadow'."

"Well, there a bunch of file cabinets over here," Sam said, pointing to the rusty, dust-covered shapes across the room. "Maybe there's a file on this guy," Steve and Sam crossed to the cabinets, and each yanked a drawer open to start looking through the files.

"I don't think it's a guy," Bucky muttered.

"Huh?" Sam turned to the ex-assassin.

"This chamber is nearly a foot shorter than me, and I'm not that much taller than average," Bucky answered. "Have to be pretty short for guy, don't you think?"

"I was shorter than that once upon a time, Buck," Steve grinned.

"Not that many fellas are as small as you were." Bucky replied with a ghost of a smile on his lips. "Haven't met another guy yet who is as scrawny and short as you were, Punk."

Steve's eyes never left the files he was scanning as his grin widened. "Jerk."

"Well, when you two are finished with your BFF-thing, I think I've got something." Sam groused. "File for 'The Shadow'." He flipped the think file open. "Ooo, I call dibs."

"What?" Steve shot a confused look in Sam

"Well, Frosty's right," He grinned. "It's a girl, and she's kinda cute." He looked back down at the file and shifted some papers. "Whoa, she really was doll," Sam held up old, black-and-white photograph. "back in you guys' day." The photo showed a small, pale-complexioned girl with fair hair, curled and pinned back. She wore an World War II-era Army nurse's uniform.

Bucky strode over, and grabbed the photo from Sam. Images of the same face, golden hair and blue eyes shining as she smiled and laughed, flickered through his mind. "I know her," he breathed. "Who is she?"

Steve snatched the photo from his hand. He looked like he had seen a ghost. He held the photo reverently, tears welling in his eyes.

"Cap? You know her?" Sam questioned.

"Steve?" Bucky asked. "Did we know her? Who is she?"

"You have no idea, Buck?" Steve looked up at him surprised.

"No," Bucky answered. "But I feel like I should."

"You should," Steve looked back down at the photo, gently caressing the face there with gloved fingers. "She's my little sister, Grace. The three of us grew up together. She was a nurse during the war."

"Great, I have no hope at all, do I, Rogers?" Sam grumbled

'Not a chance, pal."

"Perfect" Sam huffed as he looked back down at the file. 'Norma Grace Rogers'," Sam read as he continued to shift through papers. "Seriously? Norma? Who names their daughter Norma?"

"My parents," Steve deadpanned. "But she went by Grace or Gracie."

"I would too, if I was her." Sam replied "The rest of it is in German and Italian."

"It surprised us when the Army took her as a nurse." Bucky quietly interjected.

Steve grinned softly. "Yeah, that's right.

"Surprised you?"

"Yeah," Steve nodded. "she was not much better off than I was before the serum. She was tiny, even smaller than me, but didn't get sick nearly as often as I did." He shook his head and looked back toward the chamber, eyes misting over again. "You don't….you—you d—don't think….."

"She's alive in there?" Sam finished. "Why not? You guys survived being iced."

"Because of our serums," Steve argued.

"Yeah, well, this file is awfully thick for a girl who got picked up, stuck in a POW camp, then randomly frozen." Sam held up the file. It was at least an inch or so thick.

Bucky closed his eyes and hung head. "He's got a point, Steve."

Steve stiffened. "What are you saying?"

Sam took a deep breath before speaking. "She was a lot more than just a POW for them to have this much on her, Steve—"

"It's most likely that they experimented on her like they did on me," Buck interrupted.

"No…" Steve shook his head in denial. "Those…." He kicked a rusting metal table in frustration. Quickly, he tapped on his ear comm to speak to their pilot. "Get in touch with Stark. We need to get a cryo-chamber back to New York and thaw the person inside." Ten minutes, the pilot had an answer for Steve. "Mr. Stark says he'll have a Stark-jet here in four hours, and that they're prepping the labs for the thawing."

"Thanks." He turned to the chamber, gently touching the window. "Hang on, Gracie," he whispered. "Bucky and I are coming."