"What?" Bucky finally asked with a sigh.

"What?" Lana repeated, suddenly pulled out of her own thoughts.

"You've been staring at your computer for the last ten minutes," Bucky told her, sounding annoyed as he turned off the TV and turned to fully face her.

"I've been working," Lana claimed with a shrug, turning on her desk chair to look at her friend.

"Uhuh. Your computer went to sleep nine minutes ago," Bucky informed her, only half having understood the concept of sleep mode.

"I've been thinking, you should try it," Lana suggested, smiling annoyed. Bucky sent her a strict look making her roll her eyes.

"Stephen Strange," she began slowly. Bucky nodded for her to continue.

"He said he had been warned about Loki, he seemed to know something. You don't think that's weird?" she asked. Bucky didn't reply and Lana bit her lip, considering how to explain it.

"I just don't understand how this guy managed to go about his life and never get anyone's attention. He gave us his full name, full address, he created a portal in the middle of the street for me and he came here wearing a cape, he didn't exactly seem discreet," she told.

"We didn't know about him. That doesn't mean no one did," Bucky pointed out, raising an eyebrow just enough to show that it was almost a suggestion.

"You think SHIELD knew about him already?" Lana asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"I think SHIELD has some pretty extensive records," Bucky just replied. Lana considered what he'd said for a second before replying.

"I want to see his file," she decided, turning to her computer and swiping the touchpad to get it running

"Alright. We'll break into their records room," Bucky decided from behind her.

"It's all online. But I'm a SHIELD agent, I should have access to the records," Lana told frustratedly, logging on and searching the name Stephen Strange, raising her eyebrows slightly as nothing came up.

"There's nothing on him," she told Bucky, turning back to him confused; "That's so weird."

"Very weird," Bucky agreed in a slight hum.

"What?" Lana asked.

"He was here. He was in this tower, Lana. He spoke to the Avengers," Bucky reminded her seriously.

"So even if it's empty, there should at least be a file," Lana realised, suddenly understanding what Bucky was trying to say; "I just don't have access to it."

"Try my password, maybe I have a higher approval," Bucky suggested.

"Alright," Lana muttered, logging off and quickly typing Bucky's user; "What's your password?"

She typed as he listed the seemingly random letters and numbers, logging on and searching Strange's name again.

"Nothing," she told him flatly, spinning around to look at him again.

"Do you think Steve has access?" she asked him.

"We're not stealing Steve's password," Bucky decided quickly.

"Who said anything about stealing, James?" Lana asked dramatically.

Quickly knocking on the open door, Lana made her way into Steve's room and threw herself on the bed next to a wide-eyed Steve, leaning against the headboard and with a sketchpad in his hand. Before he could ask, Bucky entered, knocking Lana's feet away so he could at the end of the bed, ignoring Lana's feet that came crawling onto his lap.

"What's going on?" Steve asked, sensing that they weren't just there to say hi.

"We're here to hang out," Lana told cheerily.

"No, you're here because you want to do something stupid," Steve told her flatly.

"Being stupid is James' thing, I'm just along for the ride," Lana replied, lying her head on the pillow.

"Uhuh. And what stupid thing is James up to?" Steve asked, looking at Bucky, who was looking annoyed, but still running his hand up and down Lana's leg.

"We want your password to the SHIELD database," he told flatly.

"Nice, James. Very subtle," Lana complimented.

"Thanks, doll, I thought so," he agreed, smiling sarcastically at her.

"Why do you want my password?" Steve asked, glancing between them.

"We're doing a paper for school on bridge construction," Lana told him.

"Neither of you go to school and there's nothing about construction in the database," Steve told.

"That was her way of saying you probably don't want to know," Bucky translated, smiling slightly.

"Actually, it was my way of saying 'pretty, please'," Lana corrected, smiling excessively at Steve, who looked at Bucky.

"You better not use it for anything illegal," he warned, standing up from the bed and going to his desk, opening the laptop on it.

"Nothing more illegal than using someone else's password to the SHIELD system," Lana promised with an affirmative nod before rolling off the bed, kissing Steve on the cheek as he handed the computer to her. Quickly, she typed in the name, looking at Bucky when a file appeared. He quickly jumped up and stood next to her, his chest brushing against the back of her shoulder as he watched her click on the name.

The file of Stephen Vincent Strange M.D., Ph.D, revealed itself in front of them, the text loading in seconds. Bucky leaned slightly forward, his face suddenly right next to Lana, who sucked in a sharp breath of air at the sudden closeness between them, blinking her eyes surprised.

"Look," Bucky muttered, his voice almost vibrating through her body as he pointed at the screen. Lana swallowed the lump in her throat and forced herself to concentrate, looking at what Bucky had pointed at.

"Restricted," she read aloud, furrowing her eyebrows; "How can that be?"

"What's restricted?" Steve asked intrigued, not being able to see the screen as he was standing in front of them.

"A file," Lana muttered, quickly scanning the short piece of text they could see that stated the most basic facts about the man before handing the computer to Steve.

"That's weird," he commented, furrowing his eyebrows; "The only files I don't have access to are the avengers and agents."

"He's an agent?" Lana asked, turning her face to look at Bucky, only then remembering how close their faces were.

"Why were you looking into him?" Steve asked the pair, forcing them out of their trance.

"We found it weird. He said he'd been warned about Loki but wouldn't say by who," Bucky explained quickly, pulling away from Lana, leaving a cold feeling on her.

"He had to have been warned by someone who knows about Loki, but somebody who forgot to mention that he's on our side now," Lana agreed.

"Or someone who doesn't believe it," Steve suggested slowly.

"Great, that narrows it down to everybody in this tower but Lana," Bucky stated with a huff as Lana rolled her eyes.

"Wait," she realised suddenly; "It narrows it down to someone who doesn't fully trust Loki, yes, but this whole thing narrows it down to someone who has the authority to override the code and hide his file, too."

"Fury," Bucky spoke as Steve opened his mouth slightly.

"So that shows we can trust him, Fury's covering for him, right?" Steve asked, looking between his friends.

"Or that we can't trust Fury," Bucky turned it, meeting Steve's unsure look.

"We could ask him about it," Lana muttered, already knowing what they'd say.

"The only thing that'll achieve is that he'll have time to delete traces if there's something going on and get him suspicious of us," Bucky said with a sigh, crossing his arms.

"I hate to say this, but there is probably someone who could get us access," Steve mentioned.

"Steve, you are this close to losing your premium membership card of the 'We Hate Tony Stark'-club," Lana warned him quickly, pointing a threatening finger at his chest.

"What are we supposed to do, Lana? We need to find out who we can trust, we need to know what's in that file and why someone would want to hide it," Steve argued.

"There might be someone else," Bucky mentioned quietly, immediately gaining their attention.

"Who?" Steve asked, Lana just waiting for his reply.

"How long do you think it'd take William to break in, doll?" Bucky asked Lana, who opened her mouth to reply before getting interrupted.

"This is supposedly one of the safest systems in the world, Buck," Steve reminded him. Lana looked at her wristwatch.

"He should be home by now," she told the two.

"Lana, I'm a mechanic, not a hacker," William told her seriously.

"Why can't you be both? Don't limit yourself," she motivated.

"William," Bucky interrupted, looking directly at him, shooting a short glance at Lana. William sighed, biting the inside of his cheek while considering.

"Fine," he agreed; "But it'll have to wait, I left my computer at the office."

"That's no problem, we'll go to the tower," Steve told with a shrug.

"I don't work at Stark Industries anymore, but alright. We'll go now, but you owe me, Lana!" he told her annoyed, grabbing his coat.

"After this, I'll come lick as many rocks as you'd like," Lana offered, following him out the door. Steve looked at Bucky, who just shrugged slightly, not bothering to attempt to explain the dynamics of the friendship the two had. The two super soldiers sat quietly in the back of the car Lana drove, listening to her and William have a heated debate about what would happen if two mindreaders read each other's minds at the same time (Lana claiming they'd have some sort of thoughts at the same time, just like how you can think while listening, William claiming it'd be dead silence).

Parking on the side of the street, they continued their disagreement until Lana pulled the keys out of her pockets, easily unlocking the door.

"Uh, guys, where are we?" Steve asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Oh, right, we still don't have a sign," Lana remembered, glancing above the door where it would have been if they'd had it. Instead, she turned to Steve.

"Welcome to Mateo Security Systems. It's William's business," she explained opening the door and gesturing for them to enter.

"It's hardly my business, she's the CEO, I just work here," William commented, immediately heading to his desk and opening his laptop as the lights flickered on.

"I'm sorry, when, exactly, did you start a company?" Steve asked in disbelief, turning around to take in the big space.

"Mh, a few weeks ago," Lana explained, joining William by his desk; "How long will it take?"

"How long it'll take to hack one of the safest systems in the world, you ask?" he replied, his speech turning to a slight matter as he began focusing on his computer.

"That's exactly what I'm asking," Lana agreed, smiling as William shot her an annoyed look.

"Few hours," he finally replied.

"Alright. Anyone want coffee? I finally worked out how to get the coffee machine working," Lana told proudly.

"By far the greatest accomplishment she's managed," Bucky informed Steve before turning to Lana; "Did you come to an agreement with the factory in China?"

"Uh, we came to the agreement that we won't be working together. I'm negotiating with one in Thailand now," she explained.

"Mh. They wouldn't agree to your terms?" Bucky asked, sitting in Lana's desk chair and smacking his feet up on the table.

"Me and my human rights, ammi right?" she replied, smiling sarcastically at him.

"How many employees do you have?" Steve asked, his eyes running over the open room, crowded with desks and tools.

"We just hit 150 last week," Lana told him, putting her hands in the back pockets of her trousers, unsure how to behave.

"150? What do they all do?" he asked, leaning on a desk behind him.

"Uh, lots of stuff. We have some people on customer service, we have some on marketing, some on finances, and we have an associated legal team, but they don't technically work for us. Most of our employees put together the products," she explained, sitting on her desk, meaning right next to Bucky, who absentmindedly grabbed her hand and moved her fingers in small circular movements.

"Oh," he realised, crossing his arms.

"What?" Lana asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"You said you were looking at a factory. That means they're all about to lose their jobs," he mentioned quietly.

"What? No! No, they'll all be offered roles as sales representatives, I'm trying to work out a crash course at a local business school. We'll pay for the course and salary and they'll be sure to have a job once done. We're not just going to fire all of our employees because we have a chance to make more money," Lana explained quickly, squeezing Bucky's hand when he looked at her to make sure she was alright.

"Speaking of, you must make quite a bit here," Steve commented impressed.

"Kidding? We're hardly even at break-even point, we're basically just ramen profitable," Lana explained with a slight laugh. Steve furrowed his eyebrows at the expression.

"They make enough money to support themselves, and generally a b2c company like theirs takes years to turn a profit. She's just being modest. The New York Times even called," Bucky added as a selling point, explaining the expressions and context to Steve, who nodded in understanding.

"How long do you think it'll be, William?" Lana asked, trying not to sound bored.

"Longer for every time I have to pause to answer," he replied, not looking away from his computer. Lana rolled her eyes, even though she was thankful he was helping.

"Not to sound like a hacker in a 90's movie, but I'm in," William said, leaning his head back and rolling away from the computer. Bucky shot a quick look at Steve before stepping in front of the desk. Lana's phone had buzzed not long before, in spite of it being in the middle of the night, and she'd excused herself and stepped outside to answer the call.

"Where's Lana?" William asked, uninterested in the content he'd conjured on his computer and unaffected by the super soldier's fascination with the text.

"Outside, talking to Thailand," Bucky muttered, his eyes running over the lines exposing Stephen Strange.

"Bloody time zones. I'll go check on her," William told, standing from his chair with a sigh. He stretched his stiff body and glanced at the soldiers, who probably hadn't even heard his words. He rolled his eyes before making his way through the landscape of furniture, opening the back door and immediately breathing out in shock when he saw a large almost fiery circle on the ground, his best friend falling through it.

"Lana!" he yelled panicked, rushing after her and jumping into the black pit without consideration. Hearing the loud exclaim, Bucky looked up from the computer just in time to see William running through the heavy door that slammed behind him.

"Lana," he breathed out before jumping to his feet, not caring about the chairs he pushed aside and papers that flew past him as he ran, reaching the door in time to see the last remains of a portal disappear on the sidewalk.

"What happened?!" Steve asked loudly as he reached his friend, standing next to him on the sidewalk and looking around them for whatever threat was there.

"He took her again!" Bucky complained loudly.

"Who? Loki?!" Steve guessed confused, earning an irritated look from Bucky.

"Doctor Strange?" he guessed instead. Bucky looking away solemnly.

"Well, we know where he is. We'll go get her, alright?" Steve assured, patting Bucky's shoulder reassuringly.