"At a special United Nations Conference, 117 countries have come together to ratify the Sokovia Accords."
Bailey's eyes were transfixed on the screen above her head where the news reporter was able to get a few good shots of those walking into the building that was across the street from Bax.
"Excuse me," Her waitress arrived with the order of a beef burger, "You watching this?" she asked, nudging to the screen.
"Yeah," she shook her head after staring at the Golden curls and smiling pearls, "Yeah, I am."
Bax thanked her for the meal and tucked in, trying to ignore the woman standing across the table from her and rather focusing on the screen where she had managed to just see Nat avoiding cameras inside the building.
"Hey, aren't you..." she dragged on the ending of her sentence, not remembering the name.
From behind her sunglasses and cap 'disguise', Bailey raised her eyebrow.
"You know..." the waitress waved at the TV. The Avengers.
"Um," she coughed, hitting her chest as she almost choked from how close the question was hitting to home. She cleared her throat, "Oh, no. No, no." Bailey waved her hand and shook her head in denial.
"Funny," Goldilocks laughed to herself, "Sure look like the picture."
With a wink she cleared the table of Bax's old coffee cup, retreating to the back room.
Bailey made a gulp, looking back over her shoulder to the TV screen as pictures of The Avengers that had decided not to show up to the conference appeared on screen. There she was, wearing flight-goggles in Sokovia, a picture right between Wanda and Steve.
The pictures quickly changed from the disappointment of the absence to a live video happening at that moment, inside a white building one crosswalk away from the table Bax's lunch sat.
"When stolen Wakandan vibranium was used to make a terrible weapon, we in Wakanda were forced to question our legacy," King T'Chaka stood at the front of the auditorium, addressing every person in the room.
Bailey's eyes scanned those around her once again, and her curiosity piqued at a scene unfolding where a Sniffer Dog was pulling its police handler over to an outside broadcaster.
"Those men and women killed in Nigeria were part of a goodwill mission from a country too long in the shadows. We will not, however, let misfortune drive us back. We will fight to improve the world we wish to join."
Two police officers pushed back all broadcasters near the area of the van, threatening anyone inside and probing open the back doors.
"I am grateful to the Avengers for supporting this initiative."
Bailey rose from her seat, just barely listening to what the King had to say and rather turning her attention to what might be an actual threat of the moment.
She pushed passed people and reached the outside doors, right next to the van and was gifted with a peek at what rests inside it. The familiar ticking and red dot of a light forced her eyes to widen in fear.
"Wakanda is proud to extend its hand in peace."
The German Shepard started to frantically bark, which was the only signal Bailey needed.
"Everybody get back!" she screamed, turning around and waving her hands in the air of those near the glass windows of the café she had just abandoned.
She was a split second too late. The heat hit her before the fire got too close, and with the Nano-second decision, Bailey spread her arms out and tightened her eyes close. Using a manipulation she had barely mastered, she felt the pull of strings extend to each soul she could attach herself to, phasing the moment the fire passed the bodies she had managed to get a hold of.
Black smoke lit into the air immediately after, the explosion subsiding as quickly as it had ignited, small candle flames still littered on the scene of rubble that were too familiar for Bailey's liking.
Screams jumped into the air as people had noticed they were left untouched, but the pounding of the pulse in Bax's ear sounded louder at that moment. Her hands shook as she rested them to the side, her left cheek kissed with crisp, black dust.
She looked around at the doubling picture, making sure everyone had been saved by her quick, yet extremely stupid for her health, act of thinking. She had saved those several adults and children alike from the bomb that had been set off.
Then the building caught her eye.
"I need to get S.H.I.E.L.D on the line," she scrambled forward, racing to the other side of the street as she pulled out her phone.
Clicking on the personal contact, she began to ring their number as she frantically entered the building.
"Bailey?" Steve asked.
"Listen, you could potentially get arrested right now if you help, but I really, really couldn't care less at his moment-"
"What do you mean? Help what?" His voice started to raise from how panicked she spoke to him.
"Please, please, please, please tell me you're with Sharon."
"I just dropped her off at her building," he gave her the answer she didn't need.
Looking around for a quick plan, she spotted another news van across the road where she was previously standing.
"Okay, listen. I don't have much time to explain, I need to get in this building fast. Get Sam, get to Sharon. Just turn on the TV, it's gotta be everywhere by now. Tell her to meet me at Vienna, with a team," her orders worried Steve more, and he quickly ran back to Sam as he noticed how serious her tone started.
"I don't know what you're getting at, Baxter."
"You'll find out soon, call me when you can."
Without giving herself time to listen to Steve's protests, she hung up the phone and pushed past the rotating doors at the entrance of the conference building.
Her head snapped to the reception, where the secretaries where being escorted out on stretchers.
"Avengers?" she asked, running to one of the paramedics and turning him to face her, "Sokovia Accords? What floor are they on? Natasha Romanoff, I need to find Natasha Romanoff."
He looked confused as she spoke, and her quick words of panic didn't seem to help the non-English ears.
"Gods," she turned away from him, "Does anybody speak English here?" she cupped her hands in front of her mouth and shouted.
"Yes, I do," a lady finally answered, and Bax ran to her side.
"I need to know where the Avengers conference was taking place. The Sokovia Accords signing? Do you have any idea?" she asked her, eyes widened and heart rate picking up.
"Fifth floor, should be all the way in the middle. Right where the bomb hit," the lady realised what she was getting at now, and warned her whether she would even find survivors or not.
"Thank you, Thank you so much," she pulled the injured secretary in for a hug, kissing her check in celebratory and darting for the stairs.
Bax jumped two at a time, counting each flight until she was positive she had hit the fifth floor.
She ran through the corridor, coming up to a closed off boardroom where there was a small, indistinct chatter.
She threw the door open, frantically searching the room full of Paramedics and smartly dressed press. Her eyes scanned them, passing over a crouched prince of Wakanda sitting neatly next to a covered body. A shock blanket was wrapped tightly around his shoulders as T'Challa watched the burning street below him.
"God, Bailey. You're alright," Bax's heart melted right then and there, her shoulders dropping with her eyes as her mouth shook from the cry that threatened to pour out.
Bax's body twisted around, facing a figure pushing past others around. She threw her body forward, capturing Nat in a hug as she held on, a tear falling past her shut eyelids until her lips tasted the salty touch.
"Nat. Baby, it's okay. Geesh, Tash, you're okay," she laughed into the woman's shoulder, grip just as tight as hers.
"I-I thought that, you know- with the bomb so close to the ground. You were right here, so close. I thought for sure..."
"Hey, hey. Honey, it's okay. Luckily someone informed me that I have this neat talent where I can phase through objects," she laughed, slightly pulling away and touching a hand to The Love of her Life's cheek.
"Thank God for them," Nat laughed, resting her own hand on top of Bailey's and pulling it towards her lips, kissing her fingers.
"My word, Nat. I don't know where I'd be if you were hit."
"I was part of the lucky bunch," Nat's own voice didn't sound right as she said the words, turning to look at where the Prince and King rested on the floor a few feet away.
Bax's fingers turned her chin back to look her in the eyes, dipping Nat's face upwards as she gently pressed her lips to The Widow's.
"I'm glad you were," she smiled when they parted.
Her burnt phone rang when he words fled her mouth, breaking the moment of happiness as she remembered there was about to be major consequences to what had just happened.
She excused herself from her girlfriend's arms, and walked to a corner of the room next to shattered glass.
"Steve?" she asked, blocking her other ear from the commotion and the sirens.
"Nat's fine?" he immediately asked.
"Yes, yes, I've got her. She's peachy. May need a shower after this though," she continued to joke.
"They say it was Bucky," the information took her by surprise.
"What do you mean?" her eyebrows furrowed, and she turned away from the window, locking eyes with Natasha again.
Bailey shrugged at her raised eyebrow and pointed look.
"News channels got footage just before the bomb set off, some guy with a grudge out for The Winter Soldier framed him as the attacker."
"Shit," she cursed, slamming her hand on a wall near her before drawing her hand back to her face as she rubbed in worry, "Steve, is there a possibility Barnes might've actually done this?" she worried, biting her nails.
"Buck wouldn't, he's fine now. I know this, Sam knows this."
"But the world doesn't, and until they do, James is the culprit."
"What the hell do we do?"
"Go after him," she suggested, without a questioning tone, "You before Sharon's team."
"You coming with me?" he asked her now, knowing what he had to do.
After Sam's in depth research of their missing person's report, they'd managed to track Barnes down to his last moves in the past two months.
"You know I can't do that," she bit at a nail, watching Nat from the corner of her eye.
"I know I shouldn't either. The same reason you want to stay, I need to go," he pressed on, waiting for her reply.
"I know," she sighed, "Meet me at the corner café across the road from where the bomb went off. Tell Sam to be at the bar, you need to make a call when you land. Ask Sharon for the report you guys were working on before Ultron, get the details you need and the ones we just found. I'll help you to an extent, Rogers, but the second I'm threatened for jail time is the second I step back, you hear me?"
"Loud and clear, Captain," he teased, grateful for her help and plan.
"You're lucky you've got such a smart chick," she teased back.
"You've seemed to have given this much thought."
"In five seconds, you think of anything to help save your life."
"Thank you, I mean it," he genuinely spoke to her, fearing held never be able to get the message across as much as he wanted to.
"Just be at the café, thank me later." She ordered, and hung up straight after.
Natasha walked along the busy street as CIA agents showed up, as well as hospital services and extra local police cars.
Her eyes were fixed on the mourning figure as she passed benches, reaching the one closest to him and taking a seat. She wanted to provide a sense of comfort for the Prince of Wakanda, she wanted to provide anything that would suffice as reassurance.
He barely noticed her presence, watching the people running around them.
"I'm very sorry," she broke the silence, leaning forward to try capture his attention and clear the awkwardness between them.
Natasha had been one of the last people to speak to the King other than his own son, she had only just met the two who were trying to welcome themselves into the new world.
T'Challa looked to her pursed lips that pled guilty, and then back down to the floor.
"In my culture, death is not the end, Its more of a... 'stepping-off' point," he explained, fiddling with a detailed ring in his fingers, "You reach out with both hands, and Baste and Sekhmet, they lead to into the green veldt where... you can run forever," he spoke of the stories of his home with a longing.
A longing for it to be true.
"That sounds very peaceful," Nat complimented, hoping she was choosing her words wisely.
His jaw locked as he slipped on the ring, "My father thought so... I am not my father," his fist clenched.
"T'Challa," she warned, "Task Force will decide who brings in Barnes."
Her need to comfort him now turned into a need to calm down the fire that was burning inside his heart, seeking revenge as he pleases it to be served.
Not listening, he stood up with a determination brimming his eyes, "Don't bother, Ms Romanoff. I'll kill him myself."
Nat bit at her lip, loss at words for once in her life. She tried not to meet his eye as he stopped right in front of her, dropping his hands after he rusted his ring and staring ahead.
"I saw a blonde from the window. She shouted for the pedestrians to move, and when they didn't, she saved them. She would understand the need to avenge, as my father would. What would she do if she lost you?"
Nat could only sigh as he passed her, fighting with grief would always end up in a lost cause.
Her phone then vibrated as it rung in her blazer pocket. Disconnecting her hand from its clamp on her wrist, she pulled it out to answer the call.
"Yeah?" she asked the Captain.
"You all right?" he questioned back.
"Uh, yeah, thanks..." she reassured, "I-I got lucky."
She looked around, knowing exactly why he called and not needing the CIA on her back seconds after she had just signed her life over o them in service, and Steve had not.
Nat stood up from her seat, continuing her scan of the faces to find the blonde one. He had to be here, he was going for James.
"I know how much Barnes means to you, I really do," she shut her eyes tight, squeezing the phone in her grip before opening them again. She knew how she would feel if something had involved Bailey, T'Challa helped her realise this now.
"Stay home. You'll only make this worse... for all of us," she also managed to realise that Bax was involving herself in some sort of way now, that Woman's head was always ticking with a plan to fix things, "Please."
"Are you saying you'll arrest me?"
"No," she shook her head at the absurdity of the idea of turning in her captain, "No, but someone will. If you interfere that's how it works now," regret was washing over her face when she realised what she had gotten Bax into.
The palm of her hand slammed into her forehead multiple times from her stupidity of not advising the woman to sign with her. It would have been better to have Bax at her side, knowing where she was and what she was doing. The kid would've been more reluctant to defy the government of they were breathing down her back, not when she held the freedom to do as she pleases under the radar.
What had Natasha gotten the couple into?
"If he's this far gone, Nat, I should be the one to bring him in."
That was a lie, she knew he lied straight to her face. Steve was the only person to believe Barnes would never be this far gone, or at least pulled away from this. Steve thought he could save him every time he threw a smile in his direction.
Maybe he could, but the cons outweighed the pros. For example, he wasn't allowed to save anyone anymore.
"Why?" she asked exasperatedly, she wanted to full reason.
"Because I'm the one least likely to die trying," he challenged back, watching her by the bench through the commotion.
She knew he was near, and he knew she was right.
Nat pulled the phone away from her ear, hanging up on the man and what would possibly be their last conversation before he gets arrested.
"Shit..." she mumbled, now needing to find Bax before Steve does.
Turning his phone off, Steve tucked it into his pocket as he walked back to the bar in front of the TV screen still reporting the attack.
"She tell you to stay out of it?" Sam guessed, chuckling when the Soldier stood in line with him.
They both leant against the counter top as another figure walked up to join them, a cap drawn over her blonde locks and blue eyes.
"Might have a point," Bailey mused with Sam, "luckily I'm as blunt as they come."
"He'd do it for me," Steve picked up his glass, looking into it before taking a small sip.
"1945, maybe. I just wanna make sure we consider all our options. The people who shoot at you, usually wind up shooting at me," Sam still teased as he picked at the plate full of food in front of him.
Bailey let it drop as the last man to their mission joined up with them.
"Tips have been pouring in since that fotage went public," Sharon told Bailey, not even bothering to look at her and blow the cover.
Three figures wearing sunglasses and caps standing next to a CIA agent, Bailey didn't know how they could get more suspicious looking.
"Everybody thinks the Winter Soldier goes to their gym. Most of its noise, except for this," she slipped a file over to Bax, who passed it down the line to the Captain on her left.
"My boss expects a briefing pretty much... Now, so that's all the head start you're gonna get," she bid them goodbye, making sure Steve at least looking down to the file in his hands.
"Thank you," he told her.
"And you're gonna have to hurry, we have orders to shoot on sight," she now broke the only rule and looked to Bax with concern that matched her own.
With a small smiled, she nodded her head to Bailey and tapped on the wood bar in front of her as she left their little meeting spot.
"You better hurry," Bailey nodded down to the paper she had just caught a glimpse of, "Bucharest isn't going to wait for you."
Steve's chest filled with a deep breath of air as she closed the file tightly, sliding it back over to Bailey to discard it whilst him and Sam went to find their friend.
It wasn't supposed to be this hard to stay out of a fight.