Don't You Worry Child

I'll Be Home For Christmas

Okay, so the original plan was that this story was going to be over by Christmas with a sequel beginning in the New Year. However, I am a rather bad procrastinator and only got the first of the final three chapters completed and it's Christmas Eve – New Zealand time anyway – so, I'll give you guys a deal: I will have Don't You Worry Child finished by the end of January and in the final chapter I will provide you with a sneak peak of the new story Warrior.

Soundtrack: I'll Be Home For Christmas by Kelly Clarkson

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Steve watched as Emma slept, she was the only thing that kept him tethered to Samantha and she didn't even know what had happened. His one and only link.

He knew that Samantha hadn't done what they were claiming she'd done. It wasn't the type of thing she would do, it just wasn't in her nature. Despite what S.H.I.E.L.D. and the F.B.I. had claimed, Samantha was not the type of person to put out an image of being someone she wasn't.

It all felt too familiar. If he could trade places with her, he would. Still, she'd run away from S.H.I.E.L.D. and that didn't seem like her. The agent they'd sent to question him not one hour earlier had asked where she would go and the truth was... he didn't know, he had hunches but nothing concrete. So, he lied, sending them off to the one place he knew for certain she wouldn't go: Her mother's apartment in L.A. He presumed that she'd gone somewhere else entirely.

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Samantha stepped out of the car, stretching out her limbs. The car ride had been long and sleeping on the backseat hadn't been too healthy on her muscles. At least they'd spent enough time in one of the gas stations for her to use a bathroom to change out of her long, red, form-fitting dress and into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. She glanced around, carefully examining her surroundings – rural farmland, possibly in Iowa or Ohio (she'd stopped paying attention to road signs after the third car swap).

Her light pink wig blew about in the wind as she took note of Wanda. The Scarlet Witch hadn't said a word since they'd left New York. It was odd because normally the Sokovian always had something to say.

A large farmhouse loomed over them and she saw a brunette, tanned woman wave to them. It was then that Samantha realised exactly where she was: Clint and Laura's farm. "I can't let you guys let us stay here," Samantha uttered, her facial expression echoing all of her worry.

"Do you have a better idea?" Wanda asked, arms folded across her chest. Samantha wracked her brain for ideas. Steve had probably told whichever agents who'd questioned him about Audrey's apartment and her bank records probably said enough about the place in Brooklyn. She had a key to Steve's place in D.C. but if S.H.I.E.L.D. were smart, and let's face it that's exactly what they are, they'd be keeping an eye on it. Plus, any potential safe houses her father might have given her the keys to were probably being monitored as well. Samantha shook her head "Well, we'll stay here, at least for a few days," Wanda announced and Samantha nodded uncertainly.

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Samantha played with her food, her fork pushing peas around the plate. Everyone else had left the table – at her insistence – and now Wanda, Clint, Lyla, Cooper and Nathaniel were all watching Doctor Who, a picture of domesticity. Laura sat down across from Samantha at the dining table "You miss him, don't you?"