New Chances

The next morning we decided to question Mason, see if he knew more. As it turned out, he did. He informed us that in three days K.O.P.E. would meet up with a doctor, who was apparently trying to recreate the Super Soldier serum at Le Jules Verne. “Well, they really do seem to go all out to sway that doctor,” I said. “I’ve been there before and the food is sublime.” Steve looked at me, “Uh, where is that restaurant exactly?” “Well, Paris, obviously. It’s in la tour Eiffel.” “The Eiffel tower, huh? Yeah, that sounds expensive.” “Well… we have to go,” I said. Steve nodded, “Do you have any more information, Mason?” Mason nodded, “I do, but you’re not going to like it, apparently that doctor also has a uh… Super Soldier under her control. She claims to have… brainwashed… the Winter Soldier.” Steve’s face went expressionless and when he spoke he sounded even more serious then usual,” We should go. Today.” “So we’re finally taking action because this doctor has your boyfriend?” I asked. Steve glared at me, “Just friends, Romanoff.” “Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood.”

We decided to have breakfast before getting ready to go to Paris. That way we could discuss our strategy. “How quickly can you arrange five fake passports,” Yelena asked Mason after we had decided it would probably be best to take a plane, since that would stand out less. “If you pay me well enough I could have them by tomorrow.” Steve sighed, “I’d rather go today, but… tomorrow should do. It would still be on time for their meeting with that doctor Smith.” “About that doctor Smith,” Yelena brought in, “I did some research on her, apparently she’s well known for… recreating serums, such as the Super Soldier serum, but… usually with a twist.” “What kind of twist?” I asked her. “Usually it’s mixed with a brainwashing component.” “That’s bad,” I stated. “Very bad even, I mean, that way the brainwashing component would spread through the whole body and ingrain itself in the bloodstream, making it hard to… undo it.” Yelena nodded, “Yeah, this woman is dangerous.” “It’s a woman,” Steve said in surprise. Yelena nodded, “Yeah, there’s a picture and everything…” “Wow… where did you find that?” I asked her. “You know, dark side of the internet,” she said as she showed us the picture of Dr Smith on her phone. Steve and I looked at the picture and then at each other, “I don’t think that Dr Smith is going to be much of a problem,” Steve said.

After breakfast Steve decided to make reservations for Le Jules Verne, one for two people, on Alexei’s fake name, and one for three people on his own fake name. “So I guess I’ll be your third wheel huh?” Yelena jokingly said to me as I told her about the reservations. I rolled my eyes, “There’s no third wheeling to people who’re not in a relationship.” She mumbled something that sounded very much like, “Not yet anyway.” “What’s that?” “Nothing. Anyway, since we’re going to a fancy restaurant soon, there’s something we need to do.” “Which is?” “We need to go shopping. We’re going to a fancy restaurant, we need to look the part.” I thought for a while, “Well… you do have a point there, yes. But we can’t just go together.” “No, we can’t, we should bring Melina along.” I nodded, “Indeed we do.”

And so we dragged Melina all the way to Amsterdam, which was Yelena’s idea, to go shopping. Of course we didn’t just shop for that night in Le Jules Verne, we also bought casual clothes, and not just for ourselves either, we also bought clothes, and suits, for the men. Yelena and Melina found their dresses at a Dutch store called “De Bijenkorf”. I found something I liked at Zara, but that I would alter later. Yelena could see in my eyes that I was planning to do something with it. “Is anything ever good enough for you?” she joked. “Or do you just love making it so that everyone will look at you?” She winked at me and mouthed “poser”. I rolled my eyes, “Shut up.” We got a drink and went back to De Bijenkorf, since Melina had seen some suits there. I got a dark blue suit for Steve, because I secretly have always liked that colour on him. Melina got a black suit for Alexei. And after we had everything we needed, the real fun began.

First we went to a bookstore called Waterstones, which was a lot smaller than it’s London counterpart, but it was still well stocked. We got ourselves some books and I even picked up a few “Captain America” comics, knowing I could tease Steve with them. “Sometimes you’re mean, Romanoff,” Yelena said as she saw me pay for my books and comics. “He’ll love it,” I said. “Yeah, right.” “Hey, just let me be funny, will you?” “Fine, fine, go on with it.” After going to the bookstore we had lunch at New York pizza. Yeah, we had pizza for lunch, again, Yelena’s idea, but this one was honestly a better idea than going all the way to Amsterdam for shopping. After lunch we visited a few more stores, then we visited the Van Gogh museum, after which we finally went back to that little village called Werkendam.

“Had some fun?” Steve asked me as I walked into the living room with five bags. “Yes, I did.” “That’s a lot of bags.” “Two are for you,” I told him. “Wow, two whole bags.” “Yep, you should feel lucky.” Steve smiled, “I wonder how much you can stuff into those bags.” “A lot.” I expected that.” “Did you now?” “Yeah, you’re good at stuffing.” I heard Yelena laugh in the kitchen. “What’s she laughing about?” Steve asked. “Don’t worry about it, she’s just weird.” “Hmm, yeah, I figured.” A mischievous twinkle appeared in Steve’s eye. “You gotta be weird to wanna be friends with you.” “You realize we’re friends too, right? So that’s technically a self-burn.” “Hah!” Yelena said from the kitchen. Steve thought for a few seconds, then he sighed with smile on his face, “Well, I guess you got me there, Nat.” I winked at him. “Hmm?” “So, you wanna see the suit I got you?” “Sure.” I handed him the bag with the suit, “Maybe you should try it on.” “Sure. Is this a bowtie?” “It is.” “Huh.” “Don’t like it?” “I do, actually… wait is this suit the same colour as my old stealth suit?” “Yes. Now go try it on.” “Yes, ma’am.”

As Steve was figuring out his bowtie, I was altering my dress. I mean, sure, a short black dress with cut-outs and spaghetti straps was fun, but It could be better. First things first, I took out some fabric that matched the fabric off the dress, flowed from black into red. I used that to make a new skirt, with a split, for the dress. “Thank God they thought us how to sew,” I mumbled to myself. “Black and red? Little on the nose, don’t you think?” Yelena asked me as she saw the finished product. Did you add red lace to the top?” “A little.” “Hmm, fancy, but still, a little on the nose.” “Hey, I like what I like, okay?” “And those cut-outs near the rib area?” “Hey, it might be a chic restaurant, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be sexy.” “Any chance you’re doing that for Rogers?” “No, shut up.” “Is this a sash?” “Yes.” “Sweet.” “Oh, so you can say nice things about my clothing.” “If I feel like it.” I rolled my eyes. “Look, I’m sure you’ll look great in it, but I’m your younger sister, so I have to be annoying from time to time.” “No, you really don’t.” “So, you gonna try it on now?” “Hmm, maybe.” “I’m trying on my dress.”

We both tried on our dresses and went into the bathroom that had a full body length mirror. There we found Melina. In her white and silver dress. “Looking good, mom,” Yelena told her. She looked at us and smiled, “You two look great as well. I like what you did with your dress, Natasha.” “Thank you, you see, Yelena, that’s how you give commentary on someone else’s dress.” Yelena rolled her eyes, a smile playing around her lips, “Yeah, yeah.” We joined Melina in the bathroom, staring at ourselves and each other in the mirror, talking about what we should do with hair and make-up. “Hmm, I got a honey blonde wig in one of my bags,” I said. “Oh, that would look nice on you,” Yelena said. “Thanks, oh, hey, I got a brown wig if you want it?” “Oh, sounds nice, yes.” “I’ll take my chances with just make-up,” Melina said. Then suddenly we hear someone wolf-whistle.

Alexei was standing in the doorway in his black suit with black tie and he was looking at Melina appreciatively. “Well, you sure are looking great,” he said with a wink. Then he looked at us and smiled, “And my two girls, obviously looking beautiful as ever. “Thank you,” all three of us said at the same time, which Alexei seemed to find quite amusing. “You’re welcome.” “It’s just a little sad that these are for a mission,” Yelena said as she pointed at the dresses. “Well, we can always wear them after, right?” I said. “Hmm, yeah, you’re right,” Yelena said. “Now, Nat, there’s one thing you need to do.” “If you say “show the dress to Steve” I will punch you.” “Well in that case,” she said as she ran off, “show the dress to Steve.” “Great, now I have to go after her to punch her,” I said as I went after her. “You’ll never catch me, Romanoff!” “Oh, just wait and see, Belova!”

We never saw if I would have caught her, because after saying that I bumped right into Steve, who had finally managed to tie his bowtie, after watching several YouTube tutorials. “Oh, uh… hey.” I said as I stepped back a bit to look him over. “Looking… looking good, Rogers.” He really did. The blue of his suit complimented his blue eyes and made them stand out. “Thank you,” he said with a smile that for some damned reason made my heart skip a beat. Then he looked me over and his eyes went wide, which made me smile with satisfaction. Oh yeah, I still got it, I thought. “You like what you see, Rogers?” “Uh… well uh… I mean, yeah. You… you look amazing.” I smirked at him and casually leaned against the wall, sticking my leg out a bit so he could see the split, “You don’t think it’s… too much… or too revealing?” “Uh… no… no, I don’t… I uh… It fits you really well.” “Yeah, it’s a little tight.” “And uh… strapless… you uh… you got nice shoulders…” By now it seemed as if he didn’t know what he was saying. “Just wait till you see the full picture,” I said. “Uh… this isn’t the full picture?” “No, I gotta do my hair and make-up… but you’ll see all of that in Paris. Have you booked flights and made reservations at a hotel, yet?” “Uh, yeah.” “Good.”

*

That night as they went to bed, Yelena just had to mention it, “Steve seemed very… pleased with how you looked in that dress of yours.” “Seriously?” “Yeah. And you seemed to… admire the way he looked in that suit of his.” “Yelena… stop.” “Why? I mean, have you seen the way you two look at each other.” I rolled my eyes, “We look at each other like we’re really good friends.” “Right. And Alexei is the tsar of Russia.” “Well I’m gonna have to congratulate him then.” Yelena sighed, “Come on, Nat. You obviously like him. And don’t say you like him as a friend because you obviously like like him.” “You sound like a teenager.” “I’ll take that as a compliment.” “How?” “I’ll just take it as “you have a young soul”.” “You’re impossible.” “Thanks.”

*

The next morning Mason arrived as we were having breakfast. “I got your passports,” he said as he sat down with us at the breakfast table. He handed all of us a fake passport and a fake drivers license. “Not my best picture,” Yelena mumbled as she looked at it. Mason rolled his eyes, “I’ve seen you look worse, Belova.” “Oof, you must have seen me in pretty bad shape then.” Mason decided to ignore her. “Anyone else got any complaints?” I shook my head, “No, I’m fine with the picture… and the name. Rose Evans. I see you have grown up.” “Evans?” Steve asked… “That was the… fake last name I used to book one of the rooms. And for one of the reservations. Wait,” he looked at his own fake passport. “I’m jack Evans?” Yelena seemed very amused by this, “Aaawww, look at that, you guys are a couple.” Mason rolled his eyes at Yelena, “This was your idea, Belova.” “Yelena!” I said. “Damn you, Yelena!” “No thanks.” “You’re so annoying sometimes.” “You’re welcome.” Steve looked at us in confusion, “Uh… what?” “Don’t worry about it,” I told him. “Yelena just thinks that she’s funny.”

*

We put on our disguises, wigs and coloured lenses, before we went to the airport, to match the expertly photoshopped photos on our fake passports. On our way to the airport, Yelena connected to the Bluetooth of the car and played music. Eventually we reached Schiphol airport, where we checked in and eventually, finally, got on the plane to Paris. The flight was long and quite boring, apart from the music on my phone that I played over my headphones. I had a headphone splitter, for which Steve was very grateful. “You got a pretty good taste in music, Romanoff,” Steve told me. “Thanks,” I said. “So, your sister thinks she’s being funny by pairing us up as a couple, huh?” “Yelena has always been weird.” “Well, I already said you need to be weird to want to hang out with you, didn’t I?” “And I already told you that that means you’re weird as well, right?” “Hmm, you might have mentioned that, yes.” “Good. Hey, wanna watch a movie?” “Oh, yeah, that sounds good.” I chuckled, “How about Titanic?” “Oh, haha, because we’re Jack and Rose?” “Yep.” Steve rolled his eyes, “Typical.” “So, Titanic?” “Yes, Titanic.”

The movie ended a few minutes before we landed, so as soon as the credits started to roll we fastened our seatbelts, turned off the movie and waited for the plane to descend. When we had landed we got out, got our thing and got in a cab to the hotel where we would stay the coming days. There we checked in and went to our rooms. “Hmm, not bad,” I said as I dropped myself on the bed. “Not too hard, not too soft.” Steve chuckled, “Enjoying yourself?” “Yeah, this is a pretty good mattress.” “You remember why we’re here, right?” “Yes, but that’s tomorrow night, I can have a bit of fun and enjoyment before that. I’m going to check out the bathroom.” I got up and walked to the bathroom. “Hmm, pretty standard, shower cabin, biiiiig bathtub, oh, hello, there’s a small jacuzzi in here.” “Really now?” “Yep. I am definitely going to try that out.” Steve chuckled, “Have fun with it.” “I will…

*

The morning after I woke up, put my wig back on, put my coloured contacts in my eyes and went to Yelena’s room. There I knocked on the door and was greeted by he loud barking of Fanny. “Silence, Fanny,” Yelena told her before she opened the door, she too was already dressed in gym clothes and wearing her wig. “Wanna go for a run?” I asked her. “Why do you think I’m wearing this?” She asked me. “I dunno, to got to a dance party?” Yelena smiled slightly, “I wish.” She grabbed Fanny’s leash. “Fanny, come on, we’re going on a walk.” Fanny’s ears perked up and she immediately started to jump around Yelena. “Fanny, no, sit,” Yelena said sternly and Fanny obeyed. “That’s a good girl.” Yelena put Fanny on her leash and together the three of us took the elevator down. Then, as we had done every day in the Netherlands, we went on a run together.

“So, the mission’s tonight, huh?” Yelena asked as we ran together. I nodded, “Yeah, that’s gonna be fun.” “Can I be honest with you?” “Sure.” “I have a feeling that… something’s gonna go wrong.” I chuckled, not because t was funny, but because I had that feeling as well, “Yeah, me too. I mean… when do things ever go right for us, huh?” “Good question. Although, I do have my dog.” “Yeah, that’s something that worked out quite well for you.” “Anything that worked out for you?” “Well… I do have two nice families.” “That’s pretty cool.” “Yeah.” “But we both still have a bad feeling about tonight, huh?” “Yeah, I’m afraid we do.” “Well, I guess we’ll see how it goes… tonight.”

*

That night we went to Le Jules Verne. We were earlier than Maria and Bucky, so we saw them as they entered. Maria’s eye fell on the three of us, Steve specifically, for a few seconds. She looked surprised, then she regained herself and sat down. Bucky also seemed surprised to see Steve. Damn the man for being so bloody recognizable. I had tried using make-up, he was wearing a wig that was slightly darker than his own hair and he was wearing green contacts, but he was still so… Captain America. About ten minutes later another familiar face entered the restaurant, accompanied by a lady, who I assumed was another agent. “Is that Sam?” Steve whispered. “Seems like it.” “Who’s Sam?” Yelena asked. “The new Captain America,” Steve told her. “Wait, his name is Sam?” “Yeah.”

Sam and his lady agent sat down at a table near ours. He too looked at Steve like he had seen a ghost. His mouth moved and I assumed he talked with the other agents over comms. “We should have brought comms,” I whispered to Steve, who just nodded almost invisibly in agreement. A waiter came to take Sam and the female agent’s order. They were stumped when he asked them what kind of wine they wanted, so I decided to help them out a little. I might even have teased Sam a bit by winking at him, which earned me an eyeroll from both Steve and Yelena.

Also amusing was how disgusted Sam was by his partner, whom he called Sarah, eating escargot. “Snails, you’re seriously eating snails?” He asked her. “Yeah… do you… have a problem with that?” I decided to listen in on their conversation, just out of curiosity. “I… well, no, it’s just… the thought of eating snails is… kind of disgusting to me.” “Weak,” I mouthed and Yelena nodded. Steve rolled his eyes and mouthed, “Women.” “They’re really not that bad, honey,” the female agent said. “oh God, they’re playing a couple,” I whispered. “Aren’t we doing the same?” Steve asked me. “Not willingly,” I said to him, which caused him to raise an eyebrow. Wait, is he doing this willingly? “How? I mean, they’re snails.” “You wanna try one?” Their conversation continued. Sam was silent for a while, then he went, “Yeah, no, I’m good.” I chuckled, just because Sam being disgusted by snails was fairly amusing to me. “Sssshhh,” Steve told me. “Sorry,” I whispered. “He’s got a point, eating snails is… well kind of a strange thought.” I rolled my eyes. “You’re weak, Jack.” “Shut up, Rose.” Sam’s “girlfriend” chuckled and whispered, “Oh my God, they’re Jack and Rose.” I wondered for a second if they were even focusing on their mission. “Is that funny?” Sam asked her. “Dude, have you ever seen “Titanic”?” “Uh… how bad is it if I haven’t?” “Oh my God Terrance, how can you never have seen that movie?” “I was just never interested in it.” “Okay, we are so watching Titanic together tonight.” “Saraaaaaaah, do we have to?” “Yes, we do. Maybe we can uh… finish the rest of that champagne as well,” she said with a wink. “Hmm… well that sounds quite pleasant.” Yeah, they definitely were not paying attention to the mission.

After they’re talked about the movie, we saw Bucky standing up and walking to the kitchen. Steve almost wanted to go after him, but I grabbed his hand and shook my head, “You’ll ruin their mission,” I whispered. He sighed and nodded, “Right.” Yelena was watching Sam and “Sarah” who were now talking about last night. Quite in detail. And I glanced at Maria, who’s expression had darkened, something her creepy companion, who had joined her quite a while ago, hadn’t seemed to notice. It was clear Maria was listening in on them, and she wasn’t happy that they weren’t paying attention to their mission. I almost wanted to hit them in the head and tell them to focus, but then Sam told “Sarah” he’d had a one night with Maria and I almost choked on my wine. Excuse me, what? Sam and Maria had had sex? “Rose, are you alright?” “Yeah, I’m… I’m fine.” “I think she uh,” Yelena lowered her voice, “heard something… shocking.” Steve looked at me in confusion, he clearly hadn’t heard what Sam had said. “I’ll tell you later,” I told him. Right after that I heard Sam and “Sarah” tell each other that they “liked” each other like a pair of high school kids. After which they both pulled strange faces, wincing as if something hurt them. Steve looked at them, then he glanced at me, his question clear in his eyes, “What’s wrong with them?” I had seen that expression many times before and I glanced at Maria, who was clearly trying very hard to control her expression. I had a feeling she had broken her comm. Steve followed my gaze and only seemed more confused, “What?” “I’ll explain later.”

Sam and “Sarah” took too long to process what had happened. As they realised something was wrong, Bucky had stood up and pointed his gun at Maria. They were afraid he was brainwashed. I looked at Steve, “You think he really can be brainwashed again?” I asked him softly. “Yelena was keeping her eyes on Bucky, reaching for her knife. I grabbed my knife as well. “I hope not,” Steve said. “I really do hope not.” Then the gun went off, but Bucky had not shot Maria, thank God. He had shot that creep that was sitting across from them. However, the man seemed completely fine. “How did that guy survive that?” Yelena asked, not bothering to with the British accent any longer. “I have no idea,” Steve said, dropping his accent as well. Well, if they no longer kept up their accent, there was no use in me doing so, “Bullet proof vest, duh.” Sam looked at us in confusion.

Then the frenzy began. Thirty agents ran into the room and they tried to subdue Bucky. Sam and his female companion grabbed their guns, but they didn’t shoot. I rolled my eyes and threw my knife, Yelena followed suit. Then we both pulled off our wigs, because, well, you don’t want to fight with a wig on, those bitches can fall off and ruin everything. Steve grabbed a hunting knife that he had been hiding in an inside pocket of his jacket, took off his glasses and put them on the table. He couldn’t just drop them, such a Steve move, then he attacked. As Yelena and I were grabbing our guns I turned to Sam and his female companion, “Do something, you idiots!” Sam seemed perplexed, “N-Natasha?” I rolled my eyes, “Jesus Sam, just shoot!” I lead by example. Yelena did so too. Sam seemed to be shaken out of his daze and started to shoot as well, so did the woman that was with him. Soon the room was filled with bullets. Thank God I didn’t get shot this time.

Suddenly I heard Bucky’s voice through the noise after he had popped the creepy guy’s head off. “HE’S AN ANDROID!” “Well that’s just great,” I mumbled. “Exactly what we wanted, robots,” Yelena said sarcastically. “Yeah, lucky for me, this is not the first time I’m fighting robots.” “First time was when you guys dropped that city?” “Shut up, Yelena.” . “THEY’RE ANDROIDS.” Oh, so Bucky had now figured out that the others were androids as well. “YEAH, NO SHIT, BUCK?” “STEVE?” “NO TIME TO EXPLAIN, WE’LL TALK ABOUT THIS LATER!” “Boyfriends,” I whispered. “Hah,” Yelena said softly. Eventually about 25 of the androids were laying broken on the floor. The last five had disappeared… and so had Maria. “Where’s Maria,” Sam asked as he looked around the room. No one answered, no one knew. Alexei and Melina joined us, they had been in the kitchen, where apparently ten more androids had tried to sneak into the restaurant. Alexei was covered in oil, he clearly had been breaking the robots barehandedly.

“How can we have lost Maria?” Sam asked as he looked around the room full of broken androids. “They must have taken her,” I said. “Excuse me, but… who are you guys?” The female agent asked. I rolled my eyes, “Wow, someone who doesn’t know me, how refreshing. I’m Natasha Romanoff. This is Steve Rogers,” I pointed at Steve. “The pretty blonde over there is Yelena.” “Aaaaww, you think I’m pretty?” “She’s also my idiot sister.” “Hey!” “And the other two are our parents.” “Alexei Shostakov and Melina Vostokoff,” Bucky said softly. “Wait, you know them?” Sam asked Bucky. Bucky nodded, “Yeah, it’s a long story.” I turned on the female agent, “Now who are you?” “I… uh… I’m Leah Meyer. I work for Nick Fury.” “Ah, of course he’s still in business. Now let’s get out of here,” I said. “It’s not safe to talk here.”

We went to our hotel, where we met on Steve and my room. We sat around the little round table, on whatever we could sit on. I myself sat on a mini fridge. Steve sighed, “Well, we lost an agent,” he began. We all nodded. “We have to go look for her,” Steve continued. “We can’t leave anyone behind.” “Especially not an agent like Maria,” Sam added. Leah looked at Sam, mild confusion in her eyes. “I mean, she’s a very competent agent and… well, we need her.” Leah nodded, “Of course… she did turn off her comm tonight. That is… quite strange. Maybe she… knew this was going to happen.” I squinted at agent Meyer, “Excuse me? Are you suggesting that her kidnapping is a set-up and that Maria is a mole?” “Well, you have to admit that it’s kinda shady.” “Agent Meyer, with all due respect, but that’s utter bullshit. Maria would never do that.” I was not going to let this stranger accuse one of my friends of fraternizing with the enemy. “And how are you so sure of that?” “Oh, you know, because I know her. Whereas I have a feeling you don’t. And I know there is no one more loyal to Fury and his cause than Maria Hill.” “She’s got a point,” Sam told her, for which she awarded him with an angry glare. “Fine. But still, what she did was quite strange. “Doesn’t matter now though,” Yelena said. “No, what matters is that we need to find her,” Melina said, bringing us back on topic. “And how can we be sure that we can trust you?” Agent Meyer directed her question to my family. “Romanoff trusts them, that’s enough for me,” Sam said. I granted him a smile. “They… are all former KGB agents though,” Bucky brought in. “And you were Hydra,” I reminded him. “Fair enough, Romanoff.”

Steve sighed, “Can you guys please stop accusing each other of being the enemy. We don’t have time for this.” He turned to me, “Nat, I know you got a good eye.” “yeah, that’s what you get from hanging around Clint Barton for years.” “Did you see if Maria’s phone was laying somewhere on the floor in the restaurant, or in the elevator?” “I… don’t think so, no… Wait, that means she probably still has it, or they took it from her and made the mistake of taking it with them. Which means we can track them.” “Amateurs,” Yelena said with a smile. “Amateurs indeed,” Melina said. “Unless… they want to lure us in.” “You think they’re using Maria as bait?” Steve asked. Melina nodded, “It seems like the only logical explanation.” Steve nodded, “Hmm, you have a point. Whoever set up this organization does not seem like an amateur. But… I don’t think she went for Maria specifically. We all could have been kidnapped with the same outcome.” “Well, bait or no,” Sam said. “We need to get her out of there. Who knows what that Power Broker will do to her?”