Sam moved to National City with Winn and now they need to navigate their new life there. This story will have a lot more drama than the last one and a good deal of angst.

Please see end notes for a brief summary of For the Winn.

"Are you nervous?" Winn asked her.

"No." Sam said, but her voice cracked.

He took his right hand off the steering wheel and grabbed her left one. "It's fine. You're gonna do great at the DEO."

They were on their way to work, his first day back after being shot in New York, her first day ever at the DEO.

"It's just that I've never worked anywhere but CPC. And the DEO is a little intimidating."

"Yeah, but you'll only be in Data Management. That's not very intimidating. And by the way, I still don't get why you're there."

"I told you, I don't want special treatment. I want to start where anyone would start."

"I didn't start there."

"You're best friends with Supergirl. And you saved her and Superman's lives."

"So did you!"

"No, I just helped you. Winn, I'll feel more comfortable starting this way. I can move to another area later."

He sighed. "I know. I just want everyone to see how terrific you are."

She smiled, knowing he was trying to boost her confidence as always. She'd come a long way from the insecure girl he'd met when he'd gone to New York. It was his falling in love with her and trusting her to help with DEO projects that had given her the strength to leave New York with him and go to work for the DEO. But she wasn't ready to go full force. This would be easier to adjust to.

Data Management processed all the information that was obtained by field agents. After a mission, they analyzed, filed and cross referenced it to be used at a later date if something similar occurred. It was still important work, even if not as exciting as working with agents on the missions.

Even though she wouldn't be in the field, she was still nervous. Despite the help she'd given them – twice – she still knew that she was hired largely on Winn's recommendation. She didn't want to disappoint him.

He pulled into his regular parking space in the DEO's underground garage and they got out of his car. She put her hand on his arm.

"I don't want to walk into work with you. I don't want to flaunt my relationship with you and have people think that I only got this job because of you."

"You didn't! And since when do you care what people think?"

"This is a new job and a new city. I want to start off right." She kissed him. "So I'll kiss you goodbye now."

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. "Okay, goodbye. I love you."

She broke away, smiled and said, "I love you too."

Then she walked into the elevator. He watched her go, hoping her old insecurities weren't coming back. He loved her so much and was so happy she'd decided to come to National City with him. He knew the DEO was daunting. He'd been a tad overwhelmed when he'd started, though he'd hid it well. It had helped that Kara was already there. Having your best friend who also happened to be Supergirl made it much easier to adjust.

But Sam needed to realize that she had that too. He was there and he loved her. Kara also liked her, a lot. J'onn had been impressed with her work. Brad would soon be working there too. If she'd trust in herself, she'd be great.

Following the directions Winn had given her, she found her department. There was a pleasant faced woman sitting at a desk.

Sam approached her. "Hi, I'm Samantha Nolan. I'm starting here today."

"Oh, yeah, we heard about you. Hello, Samantha, I'm Beth."

"Call me Sam. Are you the department head?"

"No that's Jillian. She's not in yet. The assistant head is Paul. He's not here yet either. But you can sit over there. They said that would be your desk." She indicated a desk in the corner.

"Thanks." Sam went to the desk and sat down. She powered up the computer, but she didn't have a sign-on yet. It probably wasn't a good idea to hack into your employer's system on your first day, even though Winn had shown her how.

She thought about the first day she'd met him when he started working at her company in New York. He was the most beautiful man she'd ever seen. She hadn't wanted to admit it then, but now she knew that she'd started to fall in love with him on that first day.

Her phone dinged, indicating a text. She looked at it.

Marni: Good luck on your first day.

Sam: Thanks! A little nervous.

Marni: You'll do great

Sam: Hope so.

She looked up from the phone to see a woman frowning at her.

"Wow, first day and you're already wasting time on your phone."

"I. uh, I didn't, I don't have a sign-on. And I don't know what I'm supposed to do yet."

"Excuses don't cut it at the DEO."

Sam didn't know why this woman was being so nasty.

"Are you Jillian?" Sam asked.

"Who else would I be?"

As it was her first day and she wasn't sure if her new boss was having a bad day or was normally nasty, she held her tongue.

"Sorry, I wasn't sure. Hi, I'm Sam Nolan and I …"

"I know who you are. I was told you were coming."

"Good, well, it's nice to meet you. I'm ready to get started. Do you have my sign-on?"

"God, you're already useless. Didn't your boyfriend tell you how to sign in?"

"Well, no, I…"

"Here's the thing, Nolan. I hate nepotism. You may have been hired because of your relationship with the DEO's golden boy, but that doesn't mean a thing to me."

Sam wasn't sure how to respond to that, so she said nothing.

"You're going to be as stupid as I thought." She turned to the woman Sam had met earlier. "Beth, get her signed in, then give her files to input."

"But…"

"I didn't ask for a discussion." She went to her office.

Beth hurried over and helped Sam get signed in to the system. Then she accessed some files and showed Sam how to enter the data.

"What do I do with it after I enter it?" Sam asked.

"She just said to enter it. Maybe she wants you to get familiar with the files."

"That makes sense."

On the way home that day, Winn asked her, "So, how was your first day?"

"Well, I'm still learning the job, so I just entered the data to files."

"You did?"

"Yes. I think she wanted me to get comfortable before doing anything else with them."

"Yeah, but the data is uploaded automatically from video and audio feeds. No one inputs it. Your department's job is to sort through it and cross reference. For instance, if on a mission agents encounter a Galerian, you would add that to other instances when Galerians were encountered, so that if we encounter one again, I could look back and find all the other times."

She shrugged. "As I said, maybe she just wants me to learn about the files."

"Maybe." He agreed. "But how do you feel about what you're doing?"

"Fine. I'm just tired. I want to get home, take a bath and fool around with you."

He smiled. "I can go along with that."

But as the days and weeks went on and Sam was not given any other work to do, she began to doubt her own words.

I made up the department that Sam will be working in. I assume there are other areas besides the command center where J'onn, Winn and the others are all the time.

Here is a brief summary of For the Winn (which you really should read first!): James was killed on a Guardian mission and Winn ran away to New York City where he met another computer geek, Samantha (Sam). They became friends, then platonic roommates, then lovers. But visits from his friends in National City convinced him that he needed to go back. Sam was unsure about that, so he went without her, but came back when she needed his help. Almost losing him convinced her that she had to be with him and she agreed to move to National City with him.