One month later, the day of the engagement party

"I can't believe the engagement party is tonight!" Emery squealed as we walked through town the day of the party.

I smiled. "I know. I still can't believe I'm getting married."

Emery squeezed my arm. "When are we going dress shopping?"

"Soon. I need to clear a few things off of my schedule first." We rounded a corner and I slowed down.

"You see it too?" she asked, lowering her voice and tapping at her watch.

"Yup."

Out of nowhere, the person who'd been following us attacked.

"And here I thought I was off the clock," I muttered to myself as I unsheathed my batons and slammed them into my assailant.

The stranger grunted, attempting to counter my maneuver, but as a trained assassin, I was quicker.

I pushed my arms out in front of me toward the assailant, creating a blast of heat and cold and wind and earth. All at once. It took so much force that Emery and I were thrown backward by the impact, as was our assailant.

"Whatever possessed you to do that should possess you more often," Emery said, coughing.

"Yeah, well. I'm trying not to die here," I replied, breathing heavily. I winced as I put pressure on my left wrist. "Damn it."

"What's wrong?"

"I think I sprained my wrist." I stood up and walked over to the assailant who was now unconscious from the blast. "You have that scanner with you?" We'd all started carrying around tiny facial recognition scanners that could be easily concealed but also used within seconds so that none of us were caught off guard by anyone trying to pretend to be us.

"Yeah." She took it out of her boot and waved it over the stranger's unconscious form. "Huh."

"What now?" I asked, walking over to her side.

She showed me the scanner. "It's not picking up on anything."

I knelt down and took out my own scanner. After whacking it a few times, I still got the same result. "Something is blocking the signal." I showed her the scanner. "You can see it wants to show up, but can't."

"Maybe it was you," Emery said.

I scoffed. "Thanks a lot."

"No, I'm serious. Nat, you literally just summoned all four elements at once. And I don't think that was an accident."

I tensed, thinking about the dream I'd been having consecutively. Phase two. This was phase two. But I didn't even do anything. Was it possible I didn't have to? What if Kristina had been manipulating my dreams? What did this mean for me? What did this mean for me and Steve? He needed to know. I couldn't keep this a secret from him any longer.

"Earth to Nat!" Emery snapped her fingers in front of my face. "You ok?"

I shuddered. "Yeah. Let's go."

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

We arrived back at the compound from our outing after moving the unconscious assailant to an alley. Emery scanned him again and again with no luck. I couldn't believe my powers really would've messed with our technology. Lucky for us, however, this person was an amateuer. He had identification in his pocket that we knew he'd miss once he came-to, but would prove helpful to us.

"How was your day out?" Steve asked, coming over to the front door when we arrived. He stopped when he saw us. "What happened?"

Emery and I exchanged glances.

"We were, um, sort of attacked," she told him.

I winced at Steve's expression—and the shooting pain in my wrist.

"Geez, you could've led with that," Steve said. "Are you ok? What happened?"

"We're fine," I said. "Just shaken up."

Emery bit her lip. "Nat, we have to tell him."

I shook my head as Steve said, "Tell me what?"

"It's fine. We're fine. We took care of the assailant. That's all there is to it, ok?"

"Nat—"

"Em, no."

"Talk to me, Romanoff." Steve crossed his arms over his chest, going full-on Cap the same way I'd gone full-on spy around him so many times.

I sighed. "Fine. We had a tail, but we took care of it."

Steve narrowed his eyes. "Is that all?"

I opened my mouth but Emery beat me to it: "Nat controlled all four elements at once in some sort of supernova blast that knocked us and our assailant over."

"You controlled the elements? I thought your powers were energy manipulation only?"

I put my head in my hands, then remembered my wrist. "Apparently my powers have evolved."

Steve pinched his fingers between his eyebrows. "Emery, can you give us a moment alone?"

She nodded. "Sure thing. I'll just, um, go upstairs."

Steve walked to the kitchen and I followed.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Getting you ice for your wrist." He opened the freezer, took out an ice pack, and laid it gently on my wrist. "Now, tell me what happened. Please." His voice and his gaze softened as his eyes scanned my face.

"Steve, I love you. But I—I can't do this right now. We have to get ready for the engagement party."

"To hell with the party, Natasha!"

I raised my eyebrows.

"Sorry. I'm just—I'm worried about you, Nat. You haven't been sleeping. Don't think I haven't noticed—we sleep in the same bed."

"Steve." I cupped his face in my one good hand.

"Nat, I know that you're dealing with the dream. But can't we deal with it together?"

I sighed. "Ok. It all started the day of the interrogations. Kristina had told me about another initiative through SHIELD called ASSET. I told you about that, right?"

Steve nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, the dream essentially just repeats what she told me but with the added bit about the need for a test subject for phase 2."

"Phase 2 of what?"

"Power creation. And each time in the dream, I volunteer."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that every time I have this dream, I am volunteering to be the test subject for elemental manipulation powers. And today, after a month of the same dream, I have those powers. I never once actually told Kristina I'd partake in her scheme. I don't know how I got these powers, and frankly, I'm scared."

Steve stepped toward me, wrapping his arms around me. I melted into his embrace.

"You're gonna be ok, Nat. We're gonna be ok," he soothed. Or at least tried to.

"What if we're not? What if...what if these powers hurt our chances of having a baby?"

He brushed my hair out of my face. "We'll talk to Dr. Simmons. We'll talk to whoever we need to to figure this out. Maybe Kristina could—"

"No." I shook my head. "No, I'm not letting her get more involved in our lives. She's already destroyed so much. I won't let her take away my chances of being a mother."

"She won't," he tried to assure me. "If I have anything to say about it, she won't touch you. She won't hurt you. I won't let her."

I stood up on my tiptoes and kissed him. "I love you. So damn much."

He kissed me back. "Let's go upstairs."

I smirked. "Steve, I'm not really in the mood for that right now."

Steve laughed. "I know. That's not what I was suggesting. We need to get ready for tonight, yeah?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Let's go." I led him upstairs and locked the door to our room.

"Where's your dress?" he asked.

"In the closet." I pushed a hand against his chest. "No peeking." I pulled my shirt off over my head and stepped out of my cargo pants.

"How's the wrist?"

I winced. "It hurts. But nothing that I can't handle."

Steve laced our fingers together and drew my wrist up to his lips, kissing it. "How about now?"

I smirked. "Mm, still hurts."

He lifted me up, my legs wrapping around his waist. He leaned us onto the bed, letting his fingers trace up my arm before bringing my hand down to his lips.

"How about now?"

"Mm, I think I'm gonna need to re-evalute after you kiss me some more."

"And here I thought you weren't in the mood?"

I kissed him again. "Maybe just five minutes?"

His fingers fumbled with the clasp of my bra as mine worked at the edge of his shirt, tugging at it and lifting it over his head. "Five minutes. Then we have to get ready."

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

Ten minutes later, I rolled off the bed and grabbed my dress from the closet.

"No peeking," I told Steve as I poked my head out from the bathroom.

He smirked, leaning back on the bed.

I quickly changed into the dress before going back to the room and turning around. "Zip me up?"

Steve got off the bed and put his hands on my waist before moving to the zipper. "This seems counterproductive."

I smiled, turning to face him. "Haven't we done this before?"

He laughed. "Yeah. But it's true. Gosh, you're stunning."

I kissed him. "Why thank you. Red really is my color, don't you think?"

"Certainly. Although, every color is your color."

I swatted at him. "Go get your suit." Just as he ducked into the bathroom with his suit for tonight—dark blue because it made his eyes stand out—someone knocked on the door.

"Nat, can we talk?" Emery called through the door.

"Just a second." I walked over to unlock the door. "What's up? Steve is getting ready in the bathroom."

Emery entered the room and started pacing. "Maybe we should wait until he leaves."

"Why? What's going on?" I asked.

"Um, it's about Bucky."

This again. "I thought we'd talked about this. After what happened when you first found out he and Mandy were dating."

Emery sighed. "I know, I know. It's just..." she trailed off as Steve exited the bathroom.

"Oh, hey, Em. I'm gonna uh, just go and see if Tony needs any help," he said. He kissed me once before grabbing his jacket and leaving the two of us alone.

"Emery, you have to let this go. He's been dating Mandy for a month, and you've been completely avoiding both of them."

"That's not exactly true." Emery bit her lip. "Bucky and I have been training together for a while."

I raised my eyebrows. "Actually training or is that a code for something else?"

Emery scoffed. "Do you really think I'd do that to Wanda?"

"Of course not. But the history you have with Bucky..."

"Look who's talking! You're the one who kissed him while you were dating Steve."

I stood up. "I'm not doing this with you. Not tonight. It's my engagement party. With Steve. I don't want to get into an argument about my past with Bucky."

Emery sighed. "I know. I'm sorry. Look, the truth is Wanda and I are in a rough place right now. She wants to sort some things out. And I don't blame her."

"You wanna tell me what's really going on?" I asked.

"Well, Bucky and I have actually been training together. Like, actually training. But because of that, the feelings I had for him have bubbled back to the surface after I worked so hard to force them down."

"You still have feelings for him?"

She paused then nodded. "I've tried not to. But it's really hard. Bucky is..." she let out a breath. "He's really something else."

"Well, I can't deny you have good taste," I teased.

She lightly punched me in the shoulder. "Thanks."

We headed downstairs after our talk and found Mandy in the kitchen.

"Hey, the guys already left in their limo. Something about making sure everything got to the banquet hall on time. Tony said to tell you there's a limo waiting for us," Mandy greeted us.

"Amazing, thank you," I said.

Mandy nodded. "You look gorgeous, by the way. Both of you."

"Thank you," Emery and I said in unison.

We headed out to the limo in silence after that. The tension between my friends was through the roof, so I decided to intervene now before we got to the party.

Mandy beat me to it. "So, um, Em—Emery, I wanted to talk to you about something."

Emery leaned her head back against the headrest. "What's up?"

"I, uh, wanted to ask you about Bucky. I know he's a sensitive topic, but I know you've been spending a lot of time with him lately."

I glanced at Emery, hoping she would keep her cool about this since she hadn't been too fond of Mandy lately.

"What about Bucky?" Emery asked.

Mandy took a breath. "Like I said, I know you two have been spending a lot of time together lately."

Emery nodded. "We've been training together. It's a stress reliever. It's completely innocent."

"I know. I also know you still have feelings for him."

Emery stiffened next to me but didn't react otherwise.

Mandy took that as her cue to continue. "I don't blame you for having feelings for him."

"I'm not acting on those feelings. I wouldn't do that to him. To you. And I have a partner myself, so I would never do that to her," Emery said.

"When was the last time you talked to him? I mean really talked to him?" Mandy asked, shifting the conversation.

Emery considered this. "I'm not sure."

"It might help. It might let you ease your feelings and make things a bit easier so you and Bucky can..." she trailed off.

"Can what? We can't get back together."

"Be friends. At least talk like friends. It'll help make your relationship seem less forced. Trust me."

Emery gave her a small smile. "Thank you, Mandy. I really appreciate that."

"See, what did I tell you, Em?" I said.

The limo pulled up to the banquet hall a minute later.

"You ready to attend your engagement party?" Emery asked.

I laughed. "Those are words I never thought I'd ever hear spoken about me."

---

A/N: What do you think of the Mandy/Bucky/Emery love triangle (kinda) relationship? What do you think is gonna happen with Emery and Wanda? I know I haven't explored it too much but let me know your thoughts?

~Han