Don't You Worry Child

Any Moment

Chapter  Summary: The press finds out about Samantha and Steve's getting back together; Volkov reveals something about what happened to Samantha during her time with the Red Room.

Soundtrack: Any Moment by Chris Pine and Emily Blunt

She watched on, a gentle smile on her face, as Rebecca Ross was reunited with her father. He seemed so overcome with joy that Samantha was almost able to forget that he was the senator for the state of Virginia, her boss in one sense. He seemed like every other father who had ever seen their daughter after far too long of worrying about them. In a sense, he reminded her of her own father. It was sweet really, the idea that one person could put all professional demeanour aside for the sake of their ten-year-old daughter. She couldn't quite remember when he had come over to her, but she could remember his words of gratitude. She shook them off, not wanting them to go to her head, it was all a part of the job after all. Still, he thanked her, multiple times over. He even offered her a free ride next time there were suspicions raised about her that would require a senate hearing but she refused them saying that she had just been doing her job, that she would have done it for any parent looking for their missing child because that was what her job entailed. And, as it turned out she had unwittingly done exactly that. It was a team effort. Anyway, she knew – to some extent anyway – what it was like to be that missing child, even if she didn't remember any of it.

She looked behind her for a moment and saw Steve. She flashed him a sweet, loving smile and he flashed one back to her. She knew that she'd have to get used to seeing him give her that smile again but for the moment it still gave her butterflies. A part of her wanted to wrap her arms around him there and then and never let go but they had things to deal to first before she could even get close to being able to do that.

Eventually, she headed back to the room she shared with Wanda only to be greeted by one Louise Taylor-Hall "So, you and Steve then? Can't say I'm surprised really," she said casually, well as casually as a diamond heiress with an English accent straight out of Kensington can manage to say something.

Samantha squinted for a moment, trying to figure out what to say next. Should she be defensive? Or should she be just as casual as her British counterpart had tried to be? Casual, she should be casual, that was her decision "It's nothing really," she replied, sounding almost coy as she said it.

"Honey, I know nothing and that was not nothing. You really love him, don't you?" That scared Samantha. Sure, she'd always been honest about her emotions before. In fact, she'd always been pretty open and honest about most things – well, things that wouldn't set her father off on a murderous rampage of vengeance anyway. But this was odd, how could Louise have her figured out so quickly, without really even knowing her "Fury gave me access to your file. I know about your disappearance and I know that you didn't know you'd been gone for three years," she explained and that scared Samantha even more. Why was Fury giving out her file so freely? Surely, that broke some kind of code of conduct didn't it? "How did I persuade him to let me read your file? The Foreign Secretary's daughter, the one we rescued today, I've been on her case for three months and I wasn't willing to work with anyone else on it until I knew everything I needed to know about them. I was still unsure of you until you got me out of that cell. I suppose I should thank you for that. When I heard that I was going to be working on this with Tony Stark's daughter, I was expecting someone similar to him: Sarcastic, doesn't play well with others, narcissistic tendencies but I was wrong. Then, when I heard who your mother was I was ten times more cautious. You're still sarcastic but you're also good at your job and loyal, far better suited to this job than I could ever hope to be,"

Samantha smiled at Louise, the woman who only a couple of hours before had been a huge annoyance to her "How much longer are you in town?" she asked, a smirk on her face.