The Blip Bae

Please Don't Damage My Sam

It had been a while since the party. Zoe now had multiple unexpected contacts who reached out to her for various reasons.

She and Steve still chatted regularly and he continued to text her his questions about pop culture and anything else the others teased him about.

Pepper had invited Zoe into her virtual book club, where she and a bunch of other extremely unlikely friends chatted weekly and sometimes remembered to actually read the books.

Zoe changed Nat's name to "Gnat" in her phone for how often the lethal redhead called her when she was bored. And then there was Tony.

To say that Tony Stark and Zoe Jacobs were cut from the same cloth was a colossal understatement. They were both too smart for their own good, sarcastic as fuck, loved good movies and even better music, and lived to screw with their friends. Tony had come to think of Zoe as something of a kid sister, and harassed her as such.

The infamously paranoid man trusted her so completely, when he was having trouble with panic attacks and insomnia, she was one of the few people on earth he went to for help, knowing she had no interest in airing his dirty laundry. He even trusted her enough to know about the "special project" in Queens he was currently cultivating. He tried numerous times to get her to move into the tower and work with the team on a permanent basis. She vehemently refused, but continued to drop everything and come running whenever he asked for extra medical help for missions.

When he built the compound in Upstate New York, he offered her an entire wing. When she started thinking about moving to California, he tried to buy her a place near his in Malibu. But just like him, she was stubborn and proud, refusing to even let him know where she was house hunting, for fear that he'd just buy whatever place she was looking at. She adored him, but had no problem telling him to back the fuck off. Which, of course, only endeared her to him more.

As she was walking through a small park near her new place in LA, her phone rang the special override ring she had for emergencies. Stepping out of the way of others, she anxiously entered her code and awaited whoever was on the other end.

"Z, are you near an airport?" Sam sounded breathless. "Can you get to the compound without raising alarm?"

"Sam? What's wrong? Where are you?" Zoe tried not to panic. "What's happening?"

"I'm in Lagos. It's not good." He conceded. "Hang on..." she could hear sirens in the background. "Okay, be at the Burbank Airport in 3 hours. Someone will meet you there."

"What is going on, Sam? Are you okay?" Zoe was definitely starting to freak out. "Please tell me you're okay..."

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Sam reassured her. "Everyone is physically okay, but I think there's gonna be some serious fallout from this one."

"Shit. Are you sure you're alright?" Zoe asked cautiously. "You'd tell me if you lost an arm or something, yeah?"

"All body parts present and accounted for, Z." Sam was too tired to laugh. "Gotta go. See you as soon as it's safe to evac."

"Please don't damage my Sam." Zoe was not sure what had happened, but if she was being called in, it was serious. "You know the rule, Wilson..."

"Yeah yeah yeah, come back in one piece or you'll kill me yourself." Sam finally chuckled. "See you in a bit, old lady."

He hung up before she could yell at him.

There was a car waiting for her outside her house when she got back from the park.

"Give me a minute to grab a few things and we can go." Zoe called out to the driver as she pulled out her key to unlock her door. She screamed when the door opened on its own. "Jesus fuck! You nearly gave heart attack, Tony!"