A/N: Hi again everyone! Thank you to all of the newcomers for following or adding my story to your favorites, it's appreciated! Also, I kind of messed up my wrist while I was working around the farm so my typing is really slow so sorry about the long wait for a relatively short chapter. Disclaimer: I have a plan in the works to obtain the rights to Marvel, but as of yet…they aren't mine. So yeah.

Yawning, Sam got up and stretched. After she had woken up last night, she got a good amount of sleep. She felt more rested than usual. It was even better when she realized she would be going to SHIELD headquarters today to go see the physicians. She was determined to get back in the field. The sooner things were back to normal, the better.

After a quick shower and changing clothes, Sam got ready to hit the gym for a little practice. Opening the door, she soon discovered that her plans would have to change a bit. A tower of cups filled to the brim with water took up her entire doorway. She could see more in the hallway just outside of her room. Unfortunately for Steve this meant he was also blocked in. In war, no one was spared. Sighing, Sam started the long process of grabbing cups and carefully carrying them to her bathroom sink to dump out. A bucket would really have come in handy right about now.

Steve found her still demolishing the tower in her doorway twenty minutes later, not even halfway done. He started trying to clear a path to her, but she stopped him. It was more important for him to get out so he could go grab some buckets. That would speed up the process much quicker.

About an hour later a dry Sam and slightly damp Steve headed up for some well earned breakfast. Sam had decided to forego the gym session and change into normal clothes, seeing as there wasn't much time now.

"Hey Sammie-pie, ready for your big day," Tony asked as he walked in.

"I would be more prepared, but someone happened to make a tower of water blocking me in this morning," Sam replied as she took a bite of her cereal. She wasn't terribly mad, because she knew it was fair game.

"I just thought maybe you might need a glass of water if you woke up in the middle of the night," he said as he grabbed himself a doughnut.

Sam just stuck her tongue out and took another bite, not wanted to continue their bickering. Not only was she focused on the task at hand, but there was that subtle reminder of her waking up last night.

"Oh that's mature," Tony said while grabbing a seat at the table. Bruce lowered his newspaper, gave Tony a pointed look, and then raised it back up to continue reading.

"So, when exactly are you going to see Amber," Steve asked her.

"Tomorrow night. We're supposed to watch The Dark Knight. She's in love with Batman," Sam replied. She absolutely hated the Batman movies. If she wanted to see some action, she'd just hang around the tower on a Saturday. It was kind of pointless to sit through the movie.

"I'm sorry, you're watching Batman," Tony asked. "That is the biggest waste of time. Completely fake and unrealistic."

"Oh yeah," Sam said as she rolled her eyes. "Millionaire gets bored and becomes a hero. Just a hero, not super." She tacked that part on at the end for emphasis.

"Hey now," Tony said. "He's got all of these weird enemies and he keeps some secret identity. Who does that?" That was a jab at Sam, who refused to go public at all.

"Obviously not you," Sam stated. She remembered when she first watched the fuck-you-I'm-Iron-Man moment, as they referred to it in the tower.

Clint had told her, "all he had to do is read off a card, but no. He did his little "fuck you, I'm Iron Man" and SHIELD's had to babysit him ever since." At the time, Sam had felt the need to defend Stark and his illiteracy.

"So you think you'll get a green light today," Clint asked.

"I better, but if not I can just make a right on red," Sam replied without missing a beat. She just hoped that if she kept this up no one would call her out on how she actually felt.

The ride to SHIELD was tense, but Sam couldn't tell if it was imagined or if everyone was on edge. She did get the distinct feeling that Steve wasn't exactly ready for her to rejoin the group. That might have been natural, but then why did everyone else seem to share that feeling? Even Bruce seemed a little hesitant for her to jump back in. Odd, because no one seemed aware of the fact she was still having nightmares. She was sure no one knew. It wasn't exactly like she was handicapped either. Sure, she had a few issues, but that didn't mean she was incapable. Did they view her as a liability, or was there something else going on?

Sam was sure it was just paranoia. Tony still seemed as sarcastic and impossible as ever, teasing Sam the whole way there. She wasn't sure if that helped or hurt her paranoia theory. Either way she was sure there was nothing she could do. She would go in there as confident as possible and ace whatever they threw at her. She would jump through every hoop if that's what it took.

A few hours later, Sam sat anxiously awaiting her results. She felt like she aced everything. Her medical tests seemed normal. The wounds she had sustained were healing nicely- she was almost fully healed, which was more than most people could say. Her physical test was a bit of a toss up, but she didn't think it went too bad. She held her own in hand to hand despite her injured leg and abdomen, and all of her weapons hit the bull's-eye, whether it was a knife or a bullet.

"Miss Harper," the physician called as she reentered the room. "Based off of your results, I'm afraid you simply aren't ready to return to the field."

Sam let a dead silence fall in the room as she stared at the woman. This was a level of bull she was not yet acquainted with. This was a level of stupidity she had only heard of, but had yet to experience in life.

"I'm sorry, what," Sam said in an outraged tone.

"In my opinion, I don't think you're capable-"

"Let me explain something to you," Sam said with a very dangerous smile. "I gave up actually going to college with my friends to move here. I jumped through all of the hoops, did everything I had to, and now you're telling me that because of some injury I have to sit around all day and take online classes? Because that's not how this is going to work. I'm an extremely pissed off teenage girl and I will gladly shadow you around SHIELD every day until you decide that I've 'finished recovering' and if you don't feel like that's enough motivation then how about I make us some matching bracelets because you and I are gonna be BFF's. There will not be a single moment that you're here, where I won't be less than three feet from you. I won't have anything better to do. Will you complain to Fury? It's not like I can be sent away; I'm stuck around here for the rest of this injury, cause I'm tired of sitting around the tower. So tell me, do you think purple bracelets, or would a blue work better for you?"

The woman raised her eyebrows at her. "Are you trying to blackmail or intimidate me?"

"What could possibly be intimidating about bracelets," Sam asked innocently. The woman continued to stare at her. "I would just like to know why this establishment is so keen on suppressing me. I feel repressed!"

Sam was basically just yelling nonsense. It was a tactic she had used many times before. Normally, if you were having an argument, such as the time she got in a fight with a store cashier, yelling generalized sentences with randomly emphasized words did wonders. People go out of their way to stop you from making a scene.

What Sam did not count on was the woman narrowing her eyes just a fraction before leaving the room. It left her with an odd feeling. It was like the time when Amber had used a "your mom" joke on someone who's parents were divorced. It seemed like her words made more of a mark than she had thought.

Sam was starting to feel like her paranoia was a serious issue here. Maybe she shouldn't have lied to the psychologist. It's not like everyone could be out to get her.

The door once again opened and Sam saw the woman reenter the room. "Well, Miss Harper, after careful reconsideration you are free to enter the field again, on the stipulation that you keep minimum stress levels and don't over exert yourself."

Sam blinked. Did that really just happen? She was sure it was going to be easier to get a British guard to crack a smile than get this woman to change her mind. A root canal was more pleasant than her personality.

"I'm sorry, what," Sam repeated from the first time the verdict was given, but the physician simply left the room. That left Sam to collect her things in silence and head out.

That evening they celebrated Tony-style. Of course he had to whip out a few bottles of champagne, which actually wasn't that bad. Compared to normal Tony-style celebrations, this could be called "Tony Lite: same great flavor, but with half the calories". Sam was in a much better mood now that she knew the issue was resolved.

"So, Sammie-pie, are you ready to jump back in tomorrow," Tony said as he handed her a glass.

"Jump, skip, hop; anything to get out of the tower," Sam replied.

"I'm hurt, why are you so keen to get out of the tower," he asked. "Don't you like it?"

"Actually, it's not that bad here; some of the other occupants could be less annoying, but other than that."

"Don't talk about Bruce like that, he's sitting right there," Tony said. Sam gave Bruce a meaningful look.

"Sorry Bruce, she said in a flat tone.

"Yeah, I know how annoying I am," Bruce said sarcastically. "You know, with all of the jokes and pranks I'm always pulling. When will I ever change my ways?"

"Well said, Bruce. Well said," Sam replied.

The night continued with more teasing between Sam and Tony. Many jokes were said throughout, but Sam remembered all of those cups stacked outside her door.

"Where are you going," Steve asked her.

"I think I saw some apples in the kitchen. I really want to make some caramel apples right now," Sam replied.

"Sweet, I'm hungry," Tony said while messing with his phone.

Sam leveled her gaze at him. "Tin Man says what now? If you wanted something sweet you shouldn't have stacked a thousand cups outside my room."

"Aw come on," Tony called after her when she went into the kitchen.

An hour later Sam had just about wrapped up her project. She had over a dozen apples dipped in caramel and then sprinkled with mini chocolate chips. They looked fantastic.

"Uh, what are you doing," Steve questioned as she got a familiar look in her eye. She didn't answer immediately, but pulled an onion out of the fridge and stuck it on a skewer.

"I think I was a little harsh; if Stark wants something sweet, why not," Sam replied with a grin as she coated the onion in caramel and then rolled it in chocolate chips.

She left them to harden a little and went to take a break in the living room, noticing that Tony was missing.

"He said something about a breakthrough and ran down to his lab," Natasha said as she noticed Sam glancing over to where Tony had been sitting. "So much for his 'team night'."

"I think I'll go get him to reconsider," Sam said.

Steve adapted a blank expression, resigned to letting her shenanigans ensue. She was really thankful that after a month or two she had gotten him accustomed to her pranks. Certain little signs from the team told her they were happy about it too; it appeared Steve had been a tad too serious. Still, he preferred to sit in the living room while she went about creating her mischief. She went back into the kitchen, whistling a cheery tune as she went.

About twenty minutes later Tony reappeared in the living room, tears streaming down his face. Steve instantly regretted his choice to stay there; anything that made Stark cry didn't seem good for the team.

"Someone pumped tear gas into my lab," Tony announced as the team gave him a range of looks from questioning to amused.

"Calm down," Sam said as she leaned in the doorway, holding a plateful of caramel apples. "This isn't chemical warfare."

"Excuse you," Tony replied. "You pumped some sort of gas into my lab. That could have caused serious damage: nausea, vomiting, irritated lungs-"

"Yeah, those onions are real dangerous," Sam said in a flat tone. "I cut a few up and stuck them in your air vent."

Tony took a moment to absorb this new information as Natasha and Clint snickered while shuffling some cards. "I see," he said after a very long moment.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Now we're even," Sam said as she started to pass around some caramel apples. "But you told everyone it was a team bonding night and then disappeared."

There was a continued silence from Tony's general direction. "Fine," Sam sighed, "here's a caramel apple."

Tony accepted the caramel apple Sam handed him, took a bite, paused, and then ran into the kitchen to spit it out. He reentered the room carrying the caramel covered onion.

"Alright, I admit," he said, "that was pretty good. I wasn't expecting that."

Sam smiled and stretched. "Ready to give up yet?"

"Never," Tony replied with a grin.