We arrived in front of Mandy's store a little while later. I had made Natasha park legally since she'd wanted to just hop the curb out in front. I didn't want us to get a ticket. She said it's Tony's car, Tony's problem. I tried to reason with her and somehow, I actually won.

"You gonna be ok?" Natasha asked, smirking. She caught my gaze as I looked uncomfortably at the sign in front of Mandy's shop.

I nodded. "Yeah."

Mandy waved at us and hugged Natasha as we approached.

"Thanks for coming," she said, glancing nervously between me and Nat. "Um, let's go inside to talk."

We walked inside and Mandy flipped on the lights. Instantly, I could see what the problem was.

"When did this happen?" I asked, assessing the damage. Racks of clothes—er, lingerie, were strewn about. Some of the headless mannequins were also now missing other extremities. Someone had definitely been here and I hoped for Mandy's sake they hadn't taken anything of value.

I looked over at Natasha who had gone full-on spy. She walked through the store, checking the windows—one of which was broken—and the back door before heading to Mandy's office with me following behind.

"What do you keep back here?" Natasha asked.

"Files. Nothing crazy, honestly. But it's also where I keep client information."

I didn't think that was too big of a deal. Who exactly would be looking to steal information about someone's...sizes? Is that even what she kept on file here?

"Has anything been taken?" I asked.

Mandy shook her head. "I can't tell, honestly. But I also haven't looked too much yet. I called Natasha as soon as I saw what had happened." She pulled open the file drawer. "Shit."

Natasha and I exchanged worried glances.

"What is it?"

"Your file is missing, Nat."

I froze. "Wait, what do you mean her file?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Now is not the time to be questioning my pastimes, Steve." She turned to Mandy. "Wait, which file? My actual file or the one for the impersonator?"

Mandy rifled through the drawer again. "Both. Someone is obviously after you."

"What else is new," Natasha muttered under her breath. "It can't be Kristina. She's in custody. And Alexei wouldn't be caught dead in a place like this. No offense."

"None taken. Plus, you said he's in custody, too." Mandy said. She walked out of the office and toward the storage room, letting out a small yelp before falling.

I ran to her side but froze when I saw the source of her fall. "Natasha, you might wanna see this."

Nat joined me and cursed in Russian. "Well, I guess that just leaves one in custody."

Lying on the floor in front of us was Alexei.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"So tell me again, when was the last time you checked the cells?" Natasha asked Fury who'd shown up on the scene after she'd called to let him know our only lead had slipped out of custody.

"Agent Romanoff, I told you. He was in the cell all day. I don't know how he could've escaped."

"Yeah well, if you'd let me talk to him..."

One of the agents on the scene came over to Fury and whispered something in his ear. He excused himself, leaving Nat alone with me.

I lightly touched Natasha's arm. "Nat. Babe, it's gonna be ok. Take a deep breath."

Natasha flared her nostrils at me. "I can't. Steve, do you know what this even means?"

"It means we can relax? Alexei is dead, Nat. We've been after him since the beginning of this whole thing and now it's over."

Nat shook her head. "It's far from over."

"Natasha, you might want to see this," Fury called over to her.

She groaned and we walked over to him.

"It's not Alexei," he told us. He pulled at not-Alexei's face and the image disintegrated, leaving that of someone I didn't recognize. 

"Who is that?" I asked.

"It's unclear at this point. And for the record, my agents have checked the cells back at headquarters. Alexei is still in his cell." Fury looked pointedly at Natasha who shrugged.

"I had reasonable suspicions. I stand by what I said," she told him.

I pulled Natasha to the side as SHIELD agents loaded not-Alexei into a vehicle.

"Nat, I don't like this," I said.

"I know. The situation itself isn't ideal. But we already know that Kristina had access to my face scan. Who knows what other scans she had. So either someone thought they killed Alexei, or they knew what they were doing. We need to figure out who this guy is."

"Well, I think all we can do right now is wait until Fury gets us those test results," I replied.

Just then, someone else appeared on the scene, looking almost as out of place as I felt.

"Bucky, what the hell are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the Barton's with the team." Nat furrowed her brows.

"Um, Fury called me," he said, scratching the back of his head. "I'm not sure why."

"You might wanna ask him." She pointed in Fury's direction.

Before he could walk away, Mandy joined us. She smiled, her gaze landing on Bucky.

"Hi. I don't believe we've met," she said. "I'm Mandy."

Bucky smiled. "I'm Bucky." He shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you."

Mandy giggled. "You as well."

"Listen, I gotta run. But it was great meeting you, Mandy."

"You too," Mandy said, smiling.

Bucky winked at her in a way I'd seen him do millions of times when we were young. It was a signature of his, that wink. I wondered if Natasha had fallen for it...No, you can't think about that. You have to let it go. Nat and Bucky are in the past. She's marrying you. She loves you.

"Steve, are you ok?" Nat asked, breaking me away from my thoughts.

I nodded. "Yeah. Sorry, I was just thinking."

Nat smirked. "That can be dangerous."

I laughed. "Well, you're not wrong."

"So, what's the story with Bucky?" Mandy asked. She tugged on her hair and cocked her head to the side, looking after him.

Nat and I exchanged glances, unsure of how much to tell her.

"He's a good guy," I said and Natasha nodded in agreement.

"Is he a good guy who's single?"

Oh, that's what she's getting at, I thought to myself.

"He's single," I told her. "But you'd have to talk to him more. I don't know if he's looking. Ow."

Nat gave me a look as I rubbed my arm where she'd just hit me.

"C'mon, Mandy. We need to see what else we can find. You're coming back to the compound with us, right?" Natasha steered Mandy away from the conversation to go back to investigating.

I watched as the girls walked away. Bucky came back over, smirking.

"What?" I asked him.

"So...Mandy."

"Come on, Buck. Seriously? She's our case right now," I said.

"She's cute."

"She's friends with Natasha."

"I dated Emery. I don't think being friends with Natasha is a problem."

I looked over at the two of them. "I wouldn't push it. Nat is protective of her friends. You know that from dating Emery."

"True. But maybe I could at least give her my number."

I shook my head and laughed. "Good luck with that. Seriously. If you want Natasha to not kill you, I'd advise not mentioning wanting to go out with Mandy. Especially not right now. It's not the best time for us to be playing matchmaker."

Bucky nodded. "Duly noted."

---

A/N: next part will be the lead-up to Mandy calling Natasha and fill in some gaps...all from Mandy's POV! I am also working on some other bonus chapters from Emery and Sam's POV so stay tuned for those coming soon!!

Hope you enjoyed :)

~Han