New Chances

Trouble in the City of Love

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.