you & me. legal. forever.

4. The Dirt

As the three friends sat down to breakfast, Sam was all questions for Zoe. He had obviously talked to Wanda the night before and gotten all the information she had out of her, but he was still so confused and conflicted about the fact that Steve, Bucky, and especially Zoe had kept this secret from him.

"Okay, lay it out for me. He chased you for years, Z, what made you finally give in?" Sam asked between bites of food. "I was there the first time he tried to ask you out and you laughed in the man's face..."

"That I did, but he totally fucking deserved to be laughed at, Sam. Even you can't deny that." Zoe smirked. "That idiot had the complete lack of sense to try and ask me to dinner while I was suturing his leg, covered in his blood, trying not to get grossed out watching his inner tissues visibly trying to knit back together before my eyes. Seriously?! Maybe try not to distract the person putting you back together while they're working! So fucking awkward! You'd think after being the big guy that long and having women literally throw themselves at him, he'd have a little more game..."

"Yeah, but seriously? OG Captain fucking America asks you out, and you're just like 'Nah, I'm good'..." Sam laughed. "Not gonna lie, my respect for you almost doubled when you did that, Z. It was hilarious to watch."

"He was the absolute worst with women, no matter what." Bucky snickered. "The fact that he was able to form complete sentences around you at that point was a minor miracle."

"For the record, I never dated Captain fucking America, I had a relationship with an extremely mortal Steve Rogers. And obviously, nothing happened until after Nat had worked her magic years later." Zoe took a breath. "The blip changed everything...things were so different. Nat called me to come help out at the compound, and it was a no-brainer. Take care of whoever we had left. What I found when I got there...they were devastated."

"I know a little about what happened after, but not much." Sam grabbed Zoe's hand. "You went to cover the med bay, right?"

"Technically, yes. But really, I was there to make sure Nat and Steve didn't go completely off the rails. They were a mess, but because I didn't have the crushing sense of failure they did, I was slightly less of a mess, so I could help take care of them. It was fucking surreal...they barely spoke when I first got there. Completely shattered, blamed themselves, plus, all us survivors felt so damn guilty. Then, with a lot of work and a little tough love, they slowly started to claw their way out of the abyss, and we settled into a weird little routine." Zoe sighed. "It worked for a while. They started functioning again. Nat was able to handle some of the outreach and communications, Steve took on some support programs that we set up in your honor, and we kind of drifted along for a while."

"You set up those support groups for me?" Sam asked, clearly touched.

"Of course. You're the most gifted grief counselor I've ever seen, even if you won't admit it." Zoe smiled at him. "You saved my ass more times than I care to admit. I thought you knew about those?"

"I knew Steve got involved in survivor services, but I didn't know that you were behind it, or that you did it because of me." Sam was getting misty. "Thank you for that..."

"Always. You saved me, I was paying it forward." She took another deep breath, knowing what Sam really was interested in hearing. "So once we had settled into our dysfunctional family, Steve and I got closer. Nat was the self-proclaimed 'captain of the ship' and pushed him to make a move...so he did. And this time, after years of being friends, I gave in. Steve Rogers, Mr. Nice Guy and mother fucking Captain America, was asking me out, who was I to say no? And it was lovely for a while. Nat teased us constantly, Tony heartily disapproved, and we laughed about the whole thing. It was pretty routine, really. We lived together at the compound already, so it wasn't much of a change in the day to day, just kicking Nat out sometimes for alone time..."