The Winter Soldier and the Waitress

Chapter 6

Colin Tate

Thirty two years old.

COO of Tate Technologies, but on the road to CEO once his father retires.

Bucky stood reading over the information while the team gathered around the monitor watching the kidnapping video. Bucky swiped to an image of the man. It looked to be some picture from a magazine.  He stopped and looked at the man, like really looked at him. He was a young guy, hair perfectly combed, teeth perfectly white, with a suit that looked like it cost more than his rent. Bucky didn't know the guy, but he hated everything about him.

"So am I the only one who didn't know that Grace got knocked up by a billionaire?" Clint asked and Bucky turned a glare to him and the man just rose his hands. "Sorry, just-this seems like something that would've came out sooner."

"She didn't list him on Trey's birth certificate." Natasha said her eyes on the video and focusing on the men inside of the van. "This video-that park across the street."

"He's was standing in front of our apartment building." Bucky said turning back to the holo-screen in front of him.

"He was looking for Grace." Steve said looking over to Bucky. He noticed the man seemed tense since informing them of the kidnapping. "I thought she said he was out of the picture."

"Yeah, well that's what I thought too." Bucky muttered, still looking at the picture of the man wanting to just punch him in his perfect face. "After seeing the video, she told me that a few years back he tracked them down. He hadn't seen Trey, but he would call to check in, but she says the calls were sporadic and that he hadn't called for months before the shooting."

"I knew there was something about this guy I didn't like." Tony said with a smack of his teeth. "He was always a little boy scout." he glanced over to Steve. "Kind of reminded me of you, with all his moral preaching, and talk of the responsibility we have to the people of the world." Tony gestured to the video. "And the whole time he was a dead beat who left his pregnant girlfriend, and has let her kill herself working in that diner to take care of his son."

"No," they turned to see Grace who'd walked into the room catching the tail end of their conversation. "No, he offered me money. He offered me a ridiculous amount of money actually, but I refused. He just seemed like he had a guilty conscious and I wasn't going to help him get over it." she looked over to Tony. "I didn't need him or his money. I could take care of my son myself." Grace walked forward, her eyes looking down to the video. "So, is this them? The people that are behind the shooting at the diner?"

"We don't know that yet." Steve said and Grace looked over to him. "You didn't list him on Trey's birth certificate, so the people who did this wouldn't have any idea of the link between you two."

"He's filthy rich." Bruce sighed looking over to Grace. "Rich people make enemies. It's not beyond the realm of disbelief that this has nothing to do with you." Grace dropped her eyes back to the video. "I mean Tony was kidnapped."

Grace looked over to him and then over to Tony. She'd heard the story like many others.  He'd been kidnapped in Afghanistan. She remembered watching the press conference, after his return, in the diner.

"True story. And behind the whole thing was a man I thought of as a second father." Tony looked back to the video. "So there's a chance this has nothing to do with you-or there's a chance this has everything to do with you and this is all a ploy to get to you." he looked over to Grace who visibly deflated. "Don't worry, either way, we're going to find him. I have FRIDAY tracing the IP address of where the video was sent from." Grace gave a nod before turning to Bucky  who was staring up to a picture of Colin. She let out a sigh. She can't help but feel that their growingly complicated relationship was only getting more complicated.