"Where do you even put your gun when you wear a dress like that?"

I smirked at Bucky's question and twirled a strand of the blonde wig around my index finger. "Well, let's hope you don't have to find out." The dress I wore made it difficult to speak and breathe, so I didn't even want to think about how it would feel to have to fight in it.

We were on our way to the hotel's restaurant, where I planned to make contact with Bruce. When I had hacked into the guest log, I found the alias Bruce was under (Martin McCauley) had a reservation for seven thirty with a few other people I didn't care about. After doing some more digging, we discovered that the hotel was hosting a biochemistry convention over the past week, and we assumed that's why he was here.

We exited the elevator, and Bucky wound his arm around my waist tightly. He looked especially attractive tonight, in a suit he had borrowed from Tony and his hair pushed back off his face. As we reached the hostess podium, she lead us to a table in the center of the room, handed us two menus, and rattled off the specials. Neither of us listened, of course, we were too busy scanning the room for Bruce. She finished and looked at us expectantly.

"We'll need a moment, thanks," Bucky told her, and she quickly left us.

My eyes jumped from table to table, and while there were many interesting characters, none of them were Bruce. There were only a handful of empty tables, so when he did arrive, I would know.

"Nothing yet," I murmured into my water glass.

"What do we do if he...you know," he lowered his voice, "hulks?"

I hesitated and fingered the clutch in my lap. "Again, let's hope that doesn't happen. I have a plan, though. I'd rather not use it."

A waiter brought us a complementary bottle of champagne, and asked how we were enjoying married life. We both bullshitted perfect answers, and smirked as he left. Bucky's face suddenly fell, and his expression grew dark.

"What's wrong?" I asked quietly, looking around the room.

He motioned discretely to a table towards the back of the restaurant, where the hostess was seating a few men. "The bald guy is the one that was at our door earlier."

I stared at the tallest of the three men. His eyes were cold and grey, and his nose was large and crooked. I instantly had a bad feeling about him. Bucky and I made eye contact, and I could tell he shared my feeling. My eyes landed on the man's jacket sleeve, and my heart plummeted. His cuff links were in the shape of the sickeningly familiar octopus like animals.

"Oh, fuck."

"Cara," Bucky whispered, "I think Banner just walked in."

I turned my head, and felt even sicker when I saw Bruce, sporting shorter hair and a beard, walking towards the man's table. When he saw Bruce, he reached to his cuff links and pulled them off before stuffing them in his pocket.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuck." My heart started beating faster and my hands shook. "This doesn't make sense. We ran the HYDRA database against everyone that's been in this hotel all weekend. If he exists we should know about him."

"Maybe they've been doing more recruiting and he's new," Bucky suggested.

"No, we would know about that too," I denied. "Hydra is trying to get Bruce, and that'll happen over my dead body. Forget the plan, we've gotta act now." I started to stand up, but he reached out and grabbed my wrist.

"Don't do anything stupid," he hissed.

I grabbed my champagne flute and downed its contents before setting it back down. "I'm gonna do anything it takes to make sure he gets back to New York safely."

Without giving him a chance to respond, I tossed the fake hair over my shoulders and straightened my posture. I walked away from our table and towards the one where Bruce sat, which just so happened to be near the bathrooms. I swung my arms slightly, pretending to be the drunk newlywed that I looked like. As I passed their table, my hand caught a full wine glass, and it spilled all over their table. The bald man flew up as it splashed onto his pants, and Bruce just looked extremely surprised.

"Oh no!" I cried, scrambling for a napkin on their table, "I am literally so so sorry."

"Stop touching everything," the man said sharply.

"Oh come on, I've gotta help," I slurred. "Oh, no, you, sir," I pulled at Bruce's shirt which was now stained red. "Let me help you."

"Um, no, that's okay." He squinted at me and have me a strange look. "Have we...met before?"

I glanced back at Bucky, then back to Bruce. My hand trailed down to my hip and I grinned.

"Let me tell you, Doctor Banner, you're a tough guy to track down."

His eyes widened, and the bald man's head turned slowly, and his eyes met mine. His lips slowly formed into a disgusting smirk and he pulled back the side of his jacket, revealing a massive gun.

"Hail Hydra," he whispered.

Immediately, I grabbed Bruce and threw him to the floor and removed my own gun from underneath my dress. "Buck!" I yelled as the man removed his gun from his waistband. "Everybody get down!"

Before the man could do anything with it, I kicked the gun from his hand and caught it. He punched me suddenly, and I grabbed his wrist and flipped him back over the table. The other men he had been sitting with came at me, and I began doing my very best to fend off four men, each three times my size.

I grunted as one of them grabbed me from behind and I planted my foot in his crotch. He went flying off me as Bucky appeared behind me suddenly and grabbed the man holding me from behind by the collar. Bucky threw him across the room, and he went crashing into an empty table. Other restaurant patrons screamed wildly and ran for the exits, and Bruce scrambled across the floor and out of harm's way.

Another one of the men came barreling towards me, but I easily bent his arm behind his back and kicked him into a wall. I turned to Bucky, my breath slightly ragged.

"Shit, this dress is not made for spies," I panted. I reached down and pulled Bruce off the ground. "We need to go, now."

Bucky pulled his phone out of his pocket as we rushed out of the restaurant and dialed someone's number. "Steve," he barked, "we need an evac jet ASAP. We've got Banner but Hydra was here." He was silent for a moment, then nodded. "If it's not here in ten minutes we might die, just so you know. Goodbye." 

He took my wrist and guided me through the pandemonium that had erupted in the hotel lobby, Bruce trailing behind in my own iron grip.

"Nobody's following," I muttered as we spilled onto the street. "Bruce, nice to see you again."

"Cara, what the hell is going on? How did you find me? Who is that?" Bruce asked quickly.

"We'll explain later."

We turned into an alley and began climbing the fire escape towards the roof. Bucky went first, then Bruce, and I started behind them. There was a noise from the street, and I turned with my hand on the bottom rung. Bucky and Bruce stopped, and Bucky looked down at me.

"Cara, what's wrong?"

"Keep going," I called. "I'll be right there."

He eyed me wearily. "Be careful."

I nodded and he started climbing again. There was another noise, and I turned to find the bald man from the restaurant standing near the sidewalk, holding what looked like a metal pipe.

"A pipe," I rose my eyebrows and sighed, "Really? A pipe?

He came flying at me, and I deflected each of his blows perfectly. After pushing him backwards into the brick wall, I started up the fire escape again. I could hear the quin jet, and Bucky calling my name.

"One second!" I yelled, and felt Baldie grab my foot. I kicked backwards, and my heel hit him square in the nose.

I continue climbing, and quickly made it to the roof. Bucky stood on the jet's ramp, his gun in hand. I ran as fast as I could in the huge heels I wore, and saw his eyes widen suddenly. He rose his gun and fired it suddenly, and at the same time I felt a sharp pain in my neck.

My head suddenly hurt, and my vision grew fuzzy. I kept going, and stumbled onto the jet.

"Bruce, get us going!" Bucky roared, and the jet lifted off the ground instantly.

I collapsed onto one of the jet's seats and struggled to keep myself awake. My vision grew spottier and spottier, and just as Bucky's face came into view, everything became silent and turned black.