I Thought You Were Different: Part 5

Tested

Once Steve had his daughter in the trusted hands of Dr. Banner, he excused himself, promising to return to her in a few minutes so that he could run back upstairs and talk to Sam. Wanda had said that he was the one who had sent you out to meet with Wade, and even though he really didn't feel the slightest bit of jealousy or worry, he still needed to know why his friend thought it was so important for you to do.

"Sam, I just want to know why you're sending my wife out to meet with old boyfriends and not telling me. Stop looking like you're scared."

"You just said that you weren't jealous but you have that look on your face that says that you are!"

"I'm not!"

"Then why did you refer to him as her old boyfriend and not as Wade?"

"It wasn't on purpose, okay?" Steve sighed, running a frustrated hand through his hair and getting fed up with the insinuation. "I just want to know why you thought that they needed to talk, seriously. So, tell me what's going on."

Sam paused, looking at Steve for just another moment with a skeptical eye, judging his friend's words before deciding if he were telling the truth. He almost began to judge himself for thinking that Steve would come at him with anything else, because the man was honest to a fault. He pushed the door to his room open and held out a hand, waving Steve inside and waiting for him to sit down before closing it again. "Alright, the reason that I sent her to Wade is because he has this way about him, where he can tell her-"

"To stop whatever she's doing," Steve interrupted with a nod, "yeah, I know. I've called him in before."

"Why am I the last to know things like this?!" Sam erupted, throwing his hands up in defeat. "Do you all realize how many times that I needed that little secret? Dammit, Steve, seriously! What the hell else don't I know?"

"I'm sorry, Sam, I had no idea that this was so important to you."

"Man, I thought we had trust around here."

"Alright," Steve chuckled, "let's drop the dramatics. That's my thing."

All Sam could do was shake his head, still disbelieving that Steve was in on this secret that he thought he had hit the jackpot with. His sense of losing his own power came swiftly, and he realized that somehow there was an entire other life that you had lived that he had no clue about. "But I'm her best friend..." he whispered to himself, dropping into the chair next to Steve.

"And I bet that's why you sent her to him, right?" Steve pushed. "Sam, talk to me."

"I wanted White Wilson to tell her that training the kids was a bad idea, and that she's buying into Tony's anxiety too much so that she'd back off."

"White Wilson?"

"Yeah, it's kind of our thing. I'm the hotter one, though, so don't you dare listen to him if he says that it's him."

"No, of course not, wouldn't dream of it."

"Oh...oh hell yes," Sam smiled widely with a satisfied clap of his hands as everything suddenly clicked in his mind, "I bet that you don't know why he has that power over her, now do ya? I bet that's a secret that I know and you don't."

Steve opened his mouth to retort, only to realize that Sam was completely right. He was going to say that he didn't care, and that it didn't really matter anyway, but dammit if his curiosity was louder than that other voice in his head. He had never questioned it, thinking that it must have been some silly thing from your relationship with Wade long before you were ever with him, and he didn't feel the need to know. But now, he had never wanted to know anything more. "Tell me."