Don't You Worry Child

Don't Let Go

Chapter Summary: Memories go through Samantha's brain as she tries to recuperate from the events of the launch party.

Soundtrack: Don't Let Go by Lea Michele

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She saw him from across the room. He'd looked good in the picture her father's files contained but he looked so much better in person, like Adonis. His smile was something she'd thought only movie stars were capable of and that hair, what she wouldn't have done to run her fingers through it. And she couldn't help but notice those eyes, those blue-grey eyes that looked as though they had seen such loss and felt such hurt.

"What do you mean she might not remember us?" Tony shouted at the doctor in front of him.

Steve was pacing across the floor in a panic of sorts – one that had refused to end since Samantha had been knocked unconscious.

Pepper had spent the majority of the previous week in tears, not only had she grown attached to the teenager but – because of Samantha's quick fire texting – also felt as though she owed her life to the girl, and the worst part was that Tony had no idea how to comfort her because he, himself, felt like crying.

Natasha had remained in a corner of the room for the best part of the week, completely silent, blaming herself for not arriving to the scene earlier.

"Mr Stark, I'm afraid that it is a possibility that your daughter won't remember you if she wakes up. I have to tell you that, in my experience, every head injury is different," The doctor who stood in front of him said as gently as possible.

"You said if. What do you mean if?" Tony asked, he had barely given that possibility a thought. It hadn't even crossed his mind that Samantha mightn't wake up.

"I mean that there is a lot of swelling in Samantha's brain due to both the hit to the head and subsequent fall. The brain is a very complex organ and everybody reacts differently to a head injury," he explained.

"Of course Dr Potter, if you could keep us fully up to date on her condition that would be great," Pepper said politely, a small smile on her face, taking a break from her tears to usher the middle-aged doctor out of the room.

"Of course Miss Potts," he replied with a kind smile.

Samantha hadn't been short on visitors during her week long comatose hospital stay. Along with the four staple visitors, Clint had shown up bearing flowers as had Bruce. Agent 13 had arrived with chocolate and information. Even Nick Fury himself had visited, albeit with the partial aim of having Natasha return to work from her vigil, something the redhead refused to do.

The woman sat in her 4x8 cell awaiting her fate. She'd been told that her punishment could be anywhere between life imprisonment and death. She'd done it all in the name of Red Skull, done it to make him proud and that in turn pleased her. Of course Red Skull was alive, Captain America thought otherwise but he was alive. He hadn't really died after touching the Tesseract, it had been a mere illusion, a trick of the light, she didn't know precisely how he had done it, all she needed to know was that it had happened.

She hadn't been allowed to see any of her other team members, S.H.I.E.L.D. had proved themselves fully capable of that, despite their now limited resources. They were now operating out of an old, abandoned warehouse and the cells were less than what she would receive in prison but that made it easier for her to make her escape and that was exactly what she was planning.

What was wrong with S.H.I.E.L.D. anyway? Couldn't they see that she was only fighting for some form of good in this world? That had been their M.O. as well except S.H.I.E.L.D. operated for the wrong kind of good. When would justice be served to such an organisation? First, they'd forced her master into hiding in the foothills of Afghanistan like some common terrorist. Then, they'd foiled HYDRA's plans to hijack S.H.I.E.L.D. Now, they were holding her prisoner while Samantha Montgomery, the traitor, Baby Stark in the flesh, lay up in a hospital bed, comatose.