Wrigtheuse, your English is just fine. It's probably way better than my rusty French.

As always thank your for your reviews, faves and follows! Keep'em coming:)

Chapter 33

After breakfast with Steve and Bucky she left the apartment to get to Hell's Kitchen. She took the subway and wondered on her way to Matt about the things Steve and Bucky would be talking about. What were the topics when you get reunited seventy years later after one was on ice and the other one was a brainwashed assassin? How much has changed? That the Dodgers moved to LA? She knew that Steve pissed that one pretty off.

She checked the house numbers until she found the one Matt texted her.

Nelson and Murdock

Attorneys at law

A woman walked outside the door and she used the chance to get into the building. It wasn't a very fancy one but judging by the cases Matt and his partner took on this was probably all they could afford. It was very admirable that they helped people with little money and she promised herself to write them a generous check for their work so their firm could continue for some time without financial problems.

The door was open and so she just walked in. A blond man was standing with his back to her and Matt was nowhere to be seen.

She coughed. "Excuse me. Is Matt Murdock here? I have an appointment with him."

The man turned around and his eyes widened in surprise. He cleary recognized her."Holy shit! You're the Black Widow! You're an Avenger!"

Another door opened and Matt came out of it. "I think she already knows that, Foggy." He tapped his stick on the floor until he hit her boot. They both knew that he knew exactly where she was standing and she was a bit annoyed that he hit her designer boots with his stick.

"Natasha, how nice to see you." He laughed a little. "Well you know that I mean. I'm sure you look lovely. This is my partner Foggy Nelson."

She offered Nelson her hand. "What an unusual name." She commented. Who the fuck names their kid Foggy?!

He took her hand and she could feel his sweat against her palm. She could tell that he was both excited and afraid to meet her. "It's a nickname. My actual name is Franklin. Not that that's much better." He laughed nervously and shook her hand way too long. He released it with a blush and then turned to Matt. "How come you never told me you know an Avenger?!"

"So you ask me to get you an autograph? No thank you!"

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Nelson." She gave him sly smile and Nelson blushed again.

"Is it okay if Foggy attends our meeting?" Matt asked.

She eyed Foggy carefully. She didn't know him but she also figured that getting Bucky legally cleared was probably a lot of work for one lawyer and Matt could use the help.

Matt must have sensed what was going on through her head. "You can trust him."

She smiled innocently at Nelson. "That better be true or he'll regret it."

Nelson gulped nervously and followed her and Matt to his office.

"So what is this about, Natasha? Your texts were a bit cryptic."

She already talked to Steve and Bucky and they both allowed her to reveal anything she had to to help Bucky. "You remember the fall of SHIELD?"

They both nodded.

"You heard that Director Fury was assassinated and that Captain Rogers was seriously hurt in combat?"

"Yeah." Nelson played with his pen while taking notes. She hoped for him that he knew that no one besides them could ever see them. "Didn't the Frost...no the Winter Soldier do that? Wasn't that his name?"

"Yes the Winter Soldier." She confirmed. "Did you had Captain America in history in school?"

They nodded.

"Do you remember his best friend?"

Matt looked like he was putting the pieces together. "Sergeant Barnes?"

"Yup." Now she was the one who nodded. "They are the same person. The Winter Soldier is Bucky Barnes. And I need you two to help him so he won't get prosecuted."

"What? How's he still alive?""Nelson stared at him. "What? He's a terrorist!"

"No, he's not." She corrected him. Of course a civilian would think that. "He was a puppet of HYDRA. They experimented on him and kept him on cryo when he wasn't needed. They brainwashed him. Everything he did in the last seventy years was not done out of his free will."

"Why do you want to help him, Natasha?" Matt asked and she knew that he was listening to her heartbeat to catch a lie. But he also told her that she was the one person where he couldn't tell if she was lying or not. She was quite proud of that fact. She didn't want to tell them that she was mostly doing it because Bucky was her boyfriend's best friend.

So she told them a half-truth. "I know what's like to be turned into a weapon. To be forced to do things a person would normally never do. I was given a chance a decade ago and now I want to do the same for Barnes."

Matt was quiet but then he nodded. "Okay, we'll help you. Do you currently know where Barnes is?"

Last time I saw him he was on my couch talking to my boyfriend. "Yes, but I rather not tell you for now."

Nelson seemed like he wanted to object but Matt nodded. "Okay."

She opened her purse to get her checkbook out. "I'll send you copies of the files I have on Barnes in the next days." She placed the book on the desk and wrote a number down and signed it. She ripped the check off and handed it to Nelson. "I hope that covers your expenses for now?"

Nelson looked at the check and gulped. "Um, yes. It does, Miss Romanoff."

She smiled and got up. "You have my number, Matt. I can expect that his case will be your priority?"

"Of course."

Now she had to show her last ace. If Nelson was already freaking out about meeting her, how would he react if she let another name drop. "Excellent. Captain America counts on you to help him fix this."

Nelson's jaw basically dropped to the floor and even Matt seemed a bit starstruck. She snickered to herself and wished them a nice day.

She needed to call in another favour. A favour that she was actually saving for herself if she would get into trouble, well more trouble than usual and needed a way out.

She took a cab to midtown and waited outside Maria Hill's spinning class for her. While most people took Sundays off Hill took Wednesday off. God knew why. She did it when she worked at SHIELD and she was still doing it now working for Stark. Even though they all knew that she was still working on the side for Fury. Tony actually asked Natasha if she was still working for Fury as well and was pretty suprised when she said no.

The door opened and women walked out. She looked inside and saw Hill drinking from her water bottle and talking to someone. Maria looked into her direction and spotted her. She waved at her and Maria rolled her eyes, grabbed her bottle and walked towards her.

"Why do I have the feeling I won't like what you're saying next." Maria greeted her.

"Hello to you too." She smirked and handed her a towel. "Didn't think this would be your thing." She looked around the gym. They were both agents, both killers, they didn't need a fancy gym with cucumber water and house music. She liked the old gym that Steve went to before the invasion and now trained in again.

Maria grinned. "Stark pays for it. One of the very few perks of working for him." She walked over to a bar ( was is really a bar though? She doubt they were serving alcohol there) and came back with two shots of something pink. "Here. Try it. It energises you."

The only thing that belonged into shot glasses was alcohol! She eyed the glass supisciouly but gulped it down. "Tastes articificial."

Maria shrugged her shoulders and drank hers. "I like it." She threw the plastic cup into a trash can. "Give me ten minutes and then we can talk about what you want." She looked at her with amusement. "You want something right, Romanoff?"

"You know me so well."

A freshly showered Hill with wet hair in a ponytail appeared exactly nine minutes later and announced that she should buy her coffee. Natasha rolled her eyes and walked with her to the next Starbucks. It was full and people wouldn't listen to their conversation because they were too endulged with themselves. She payed for their order and followed Maria into a corner away from the windows.

The brunette played with the foam of her latte. "So what do you want, Natasha?"

"Straight to business, I like that about you." She pulled a piece of her muffin out. "It's about Barnes."

Maria looked up from her cup and raised an eyebrow. "Then why are you here and not Rogers?"

"He doesn't know I'm talking about him to you."

"Okay." She nodded. "What about Barnes?"

"I need you to find out how much the agencies have on him and what they plan to do with him." She grabbed Maria's hand to emphasize her request. "I know you're still well contacted and I need you to use that without drawing attention to it."

"Why now? Why not right after we found out who the Winter Soldier really is?"

She let go of Maria's hand and lifted her eyebrows.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Rogers must be over the moon."

"He is and I want him to stay that way. But I guess that the number of people who want Barnes behind bars is even higher than the number of people who want me in a cell for eternity."

If Matt's legal actions would be fruitless she had to come up with another plan to keep Bucky out of prison. If she knew what the agencies around the world planned for him she could use that as leverage. Force them to pardon him in exchange for keeping quiet about what they had planned for a beloved WWII war hero who was the best friend of Captain America and got brainwashed and tortured by evil Nazis. That was her plan from the beginning but she knew that Steve would rather go the legal way to clear Bucky's name.

Maria tapped her spoon against the saucer. "I take it that's for Pakistan? Once I get your intel, we're even?"

She nodded and Maria seemed satisfied. "Consider it done. But it could take some time to get everything."

She felt like cooking something for the three of them and made a short trip to the Whole Foods on her way home. Funny how she lived alone for years and now she was living with her boyfriend and his best friend. Maybe she was getting soft but for the first time in her life that thought didn't bother her. Maybe it was a good thing that she was changing.

She bought everything she needed for lasagna and got two pints of ice cream as well as dessert. She was greeted by laughter when she unlocked the front door. She was almost jealous that Bucky already had someone after he deflected. It took her months until she remotely trusted Clint, she kind of expected him to kill her at every given moment because that was what she would have deserved.

She walked by the living room on her way to the kitchen to drop her groceries there and Steve and Bucky were sitting on the floor and playing cards.

"Hi boys."

Bucky gave her a quick nod and Steve got up smiling and walked over to her and kissed her. "Hi, doll."

He took the shopping bags out of her hands and followed her to the kitchen and peaked inside them. "What do you got?"

"I'm making lasagna." She explained and began to unpack her purchase.

"You don't have to cook, Nat." Steve reminded her and grabbed a chocolate bar out of her shopping bag.

"I know but I was in the mood for it." She looked in the cupboard for two baking dishes. She needed to make two lasagnas if she wanted to eat as well. Steve and now Bucky ate a lot to keep their metabolism going. Thank god they had enough money to feed them, they spent a lot on food each week.

"And besides when do you think was the last time Bucky had a home-cooked meal?" She asked Steve who was shoving the chocolate bar into his mouth.

"That was probably over seventy years ago." Bucky said from the door frame. "Thank you, Natasha." He looked at Steve who was still eating his bar. "Are you really eating candy before dinner? Your mother would be pulling your ears by now!"

Steve actually stopped eating and his cheeks turned red. "Sorry, Nat."

She laughed and waved him off. "He could eat a whole box of chocolate bars and would still be hungry." She finished another one out of her bag and gave it to Bucky who seemed hesitant but then took it and ate it.

"How did your appointment with that lawyer go?" Steve asked her.

Should she tell him at some point that she and Matt used to hook up? She probably should or Matt would spill something and Steve would get jealous because she didn't tell him. But she would tell him about her thing with Matt another time without Bucky in the room. "He's taking the case on. I'll have to translate the files into braille and then they can go to work."

"He's blind?" Steve asked while Bucky asked at the same if she knew braille.

She answered both questions with a yes. "He's a very good lawyer and he does this job because he actually believes in the whole justice thing. He's the right one for this job."

"Thank you so much, Natasha." Bucky reached over the kitchen counter to squeeze her hand and they were both surprised by it. "Sorry." He mumbled out to her and Steve.

She gave him a brief smile and Steve shook his head slightly. "Don't worry about it, Buck."

She thought about telling them about her meet up with Maria but she decided against it. Maybe she didn't even have to play that card and they could help Bucky without blackmail.

She began to wash the tomatoes and Bucky offered to help her. She turned to Steve who was putting away the rest of the groceries. "Steve?"

"Yup?"

"Did you tell Sam that he doesn't need to look for Bucky anymore?"

Steve smacked his open hand against his forehead. "Fuck! I completely forgot!"

"Language!"

He rolled his eyes at her and ran out the kitchen to probably call Sam.

They were cutting the vegetables for the sauce when Bucky paused to say something. Who would have thought she would make lasagna with the Winter Soldier one day? But then again who would have thought that Captain America would fall in love with her? "Natasha?"

She blinked her eyes to get the tears from the onion cutting out. "Yeah?"

"I can't thank you enough for helping me with this. I don't know how I could ever repay you."

She wiped the onion tears with the back of her hand away. "How about you don't shoot me and Steve anymore?"

She meant it as a joke but Bucky's face darkened. "I am truly sorry for that."

"It's okay. I've done some pretty bad things myself that I'm not proud of."

"How did you manage to get out of that darkness?" He leaned against the kitchen counter and looked at her.

She sighed and put the knife down. "I just kept going and took on any mission I could when I was cleared to go in the field." She couldn't stop a smile from appearing on her face. "And when Steve tells you again and again that you are a good person and deserve nice things you eventually start to believe him."

He returned her smile. "Yeah, the punk is quite good at that. I'm really glad that he has you in his life. I always tried to find the right girl for him." He grinned at her and she could now see why so many girls back then fell for him. He was quite charming. "How was I supposed to know the perfect girl hadn't been born yet?" He winked at her and she laughed. She had the feeling that they would get along quite well.