One Week Earlier

Samantha couldn't get back to JCTC headquarters fast enough. She was relatively certain that she'd broken at least three traffic laws in the process (she would have been more certain if she were stateside or even in the UK). The place was awash with activity when she got in – half of it with paramedics dealing to the injuries Bucky had inflicted (were it not for Steve, she might have killed the Winter Soldier herself). "What's up?" she asked Natasha after being bumped into by a third, seemingly panicked, agent.

"We think they're headed for Germany. They can fly out from Berlin." The fiery redhead responded. It seemed an almost ironic location really, Germany. Samantha supposed that all roads had to lead back to it at some stage (it was, after all, the location of so many of Steve's battles in World War Two, and the very location of the Avengers' – or at least half of them – first battle with Loki). Maybe it was befitting.

"Have we grounded all aircrafts for the next 72 hours?" Samantha asked, knowing that it would be the order she'd give in that situation. She could almost guarantee that were the decision up to Nat alone, she too would opt for that choice.

"We," she responded, gesticulating to literally everyone in the room "want to. Ross, however, thinks it'll draw attention."

"But given the events at the negotiations and in London, the public would want us to shut down the airports. Heck, they probably expect it." Samantha reasoned but Natasha just shook her head, sending red hair flailing about.

"Explain that to Ross then." She suggested.

And that was what Samantha set off to do but she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. "What?" she snapped, turning around to see Rhodey stood behind her. "Oh, hi Rhodey."

"Bad day?" he asked and she smiled, conflicted somewhere between happy and annoyed. She was somewhat glad that there was another friendly face around the headquarters. At the same time, she didn't want to take sides – bringing her dad's best friend into the mix wasn't exactly helping. She shouldn't have been surprised at his being there, not really anyway, she'd heard that Rhodey had been a part of the apprehending of Bucky, Sam and Steve.

"That's one way of putting it." she bluffed. She looked around her, suddenly suspicious of those who surrounded her. "Look, I don't mean to be rude but I've got to go find Everett Ross, he and I need to have a little conversation about national security." She announced before dashing off, quickly, not even waiting for what Rhodey had to say next.

Samantha stormed into Ross's office, metaphorical guns blazing, not caring that there were two other men in the office. "Close the damn airport!" she shouted, slamming the door behind her.

"Samantha." He stated her name as though he were warning her about something but she wasn't having any of it – she was too angry for that.

She strode past the two other men who were – at that moment – occupying the office, still not noticing them and slammed her palms down onto the desk, leaning over it so that her face was now mere centimetres from that of Everett Ross "I don't want to hear it Everett! They're on their way to Berlin right now – the three of them: Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, and Sam Wilson. If we don't close that airport, they'll get away. That's on you!" she yelled irately. She couldn't begin to comprehend why this had her so riled up. there was a feeling in the pit of her stomach that something was about to go wrong and she couldn't figure out why.

As if predicting her feeling, one of the men cut in. She took in the appearance of the man in question. He had salt and pepper hair, could have been a dead ringer for George Clooney were it not for the wrinkles that lined his face from, what she guessed to be, a permanent (or semi-permanent) scowl on his face "Miss Stark, you can't expect us to close off entire airports on a hunch. Do you realise how much confusion and delay that would cause?" he said in a German accent. If she was stereotyping, she might claim that his nationality was the reason for the permanent scowl.

She shook her head, "With all due respect, this isn't just a hunch. I know Steve Rogers. I'm engaged to him for Christ's sake. I was friends with Sam Wilson. I've interrogated Bucky Barnes. Steve is relatively predictable no matter what the situation is. He'll go to the airport. The other two have been through enough with him that they'll just follow blindly." Samantha explained succinctly.

XX

Samantha's persuasion skills were better than expected and she was quickly packed into a car with Natasha and some Spider kid her dad had managed to pick up in Queens. He'd sat in the back of the car, fanboying and Samantha had noticed that it was infuriating Natasha more and more. Eventually, Samantha had warned him that annoying Natasha Romanoff was not a good idea.

The airport itself looked like a ghost town of planes. "You sure he's here? I mean this place is dead." Spideykid, as Samantha was now calling him (he wasn't quite old enough to be called a man), asked suspiciously.

"Look, kid. You're here for a job, you do the job, you get out. That's how it works. You don't question what everyone tells you." Samantha instructed, even she was getting annoyed by him. She was putting a heck of a lot of faith in a kid she'd only just met.

"Kid? I'm sixteen!" he complained and she rolled her eyes.

"In the eyes of the law, you're still a kid. Look, just… just do as you're told and go and hide somewhere. My dad wants your existence to be some kind of surprise for some reason." She instructed, giving him the look she'd perfected that scared the living daylights out of people. She liked that look.

"You know, you should smile more, you're scary when you give people that look." Spidey stated. Samantha merely raised her eyebrows at him and he dashed off. If he only knew how many men had said that to her over the years, he might have thought twice about saying it.

XX

Steve marched out towards a helicopter in full Captain America garb and Samantha smiled from her own hiding spot: He looked good in that suit. Something stopped him from climbing into the helicopter though and it wasn't until Samantha saw some form of electric charge around the propellers that she realised that it was Stark Tech being used. She clamped her hand over her mouth so that the odd, strangled sound she choked out couldn't be heard. She didn't want to be here. She really didn't. Her father landed in his Iron Man suit, red and gold in colour, and soon after so too did Rhodey. "Wow, it's so weird how you run into people at the airport. Don't you think that's weird?" Tony said and Samantha rolled her eyes, that was the best he could come up with? The old man was getting sloppy.

"Definitely weird." Rhodey agreed.

"Hear me out Tony." Steve begged, his voice steady and Samantha wondered how his voice could stay that steady. This wasn't exactly a good position to be in – about to verse off against a man (well, two men) in a fully weaponised, titanium alloy suit.

Then, of course, T'Challa took it upon himself to land. Where he had come from, Samantha didn't know – all she knew was that the Black Panther thing came from being part of the Wakandan Royal Family, she thought that, maybe, he'd always be an enigma. "Captain." He uttered, almost bitterly – unsurprising considering Steve was protecting a fugitive who was accused of killing his father.

"Your Highness." Steve said with a slight bow of the head – ever the man to give off a sign of respect, even to the apparent enemy.

When had her father's helmet disappeared (was it a helmet or a mask? She still wasn't sure of the mechanics of that damned suit)? She'd been so focussed on the exchange between Steve and T'Challa that she hadn't even noticed the removal of the helmet/mask-thing until her father had started speaking "Anyway, all right, I've run out of patience." And here came the code word that meant enter Spideykid "Underoos."

As the kid's web attached itself to Steve's shield, Samantha noticed that Natasha had walked into the picture (quite literally). That was supposed to be her cue. It was okay, she could stay, hiding behind a plane until things got heated, right? She didn't really want to be involved in the whole thing anyway.

Oh wait! No, the webs were no longer attached to the shield, now they were acting as handcuffs around Steve's wrists. Only Samantha was allowed to handcuff Steve and that kind of behaviour was strictly limited to the bedroom thank you very much. None of this crap in an airport. Now the kid was on top of a bloody helicopter – of course he was. No wonder her dad liked him, he seemed to have no fear. "Nice job kid." Oh really, he got told he did a nice job but if she'd have done something like that she was 'insane' and 'ruining a party'.

"Thanks." And he had good manners too. "I could have stuck the landing a little better, it's just… new suit. It's nothing, Mr Stark. It's perfect. Thank you." The kid got a suit from her dad too. She had never gotten a new super suit from her dad. She'd always gotten what S.H.I.E.L.D. handed her and when something didn't quite go to plan, she got told off for being reckless. She really wasn't sure she liked this kid. Nope, she couldn't get bogged down in misguided jealousy, not now.

"Yeah, we really don't need to start a conversation." Her father said, well at least he could get the kid to shut up for five seconds.

"Okay. Cap. Captain. Big fan. I'm Spiderman." Maybe not.

"Yeah we'll talk about it later, just… good job."

Then, suddenly things turned chaotic. Steve was raising his shield, an arrow was shot (Clint was supposed to be retired!) and all hell broke loose caused by an ant guy. "Mr Stark, what should I do?" she heard Spidey. The kid had really gotten on her nerves and she was pissed at what appeared to be sudden favouritism for him from her father – he hadn't noticed that she hadn't shown up at the right spot on time. So, in her infinite wisdom, she decided to follow him. She watched as he swung from the windows, through the glass and right into the terminal, knocking Sam out of the way and grabbing onto Bucky's metal arm. Samantha took it upon herself to jump through the glass and right in front of Sam, as Spidey obsessed over Bucky's arm. Sam took a running jump and opened his wings so that he could grab a hold of 'Spiderman' and carry him out of the way.

"Hey." Bucky said upon seeing Samantha.

She smiled with a slight laugh "That guy's been pissing me off for the past couple of hours."

"You have the right to remain silent." She heard Spidey said as he tried to punch Sam in the chest.

"Kid, you're a vigilante, you don't say that." Samantha yelled through laughter, perhaps a bit too soon as he started swinging from the rafters.

He looked around for her "Oh hey, Miss Stark, you know, I really think I've got this so… you can go now."

"And miss the show? I should have brought popcorn." She quipped as she watched the boys run off.

"Hey, where'd they go?" Spidey answered, looking around for Bucky and Sam.

She smiled, giggling a little as they ran away. "Oops."

She watched as 'Spiderman' jumped down to face her. "Whose side are you on?"

"Hmm… well I know that Bucky couldn't have killed the Wakandan king, at the same time I'm not exactly a big fan of how my fiancé didn't quite agree to the accords so… no one's." she explained, finally coming to a conclusion on her position in this whole ridiculous fight. She cherry picked which parts she agreed with and which ones she didn't.

"So… how does it work then, are you like a traitor… or…"

She laughed. "I don't actually know." She announced before doing a backflip (just for show really) and then running off to find where the fighting was at. Spidey followed.

When she got to the tarmac, everyone had started to line up and, while Spidey took his place between Rhodey and Vision, Samantha decided to stand on the end, in between the two "Now I want a good clean game… from all of you." She said, jokingly quoting from Harry Potter (she really couldn't help it).

"Samantha! Get on the side." Her father ordered and she rolled her eyes.

"Eh, you've got Spideykid. You'll be fine." She said casually.

"She doesn't have to be involved in this if she doesn't want to." Steve agreed. At least he understood.

"I'm not a kid." Spidey yelled, clearly offended.

"What's your problem with Spidey?" Tony asked, ignoring Steve's comment.

"Let's not talk about this now dad," God. The whole yelling across an airport thing was annoying. "I'm just saying, you have Spidey which means you all have even numbers and I'm not exactly in agreement with either of you so I'll just, like, referee or something."

"There isn't a referee in a fight Samantha." Steve said, okay, even he couldn't let her have this? Really?

"There is in a boxing match and there will be in this one. So, fight or whatever." She said almost angrily. Things turned chaotic almost immediately after that. Natasha and Clint were fighting, then Wanda was throwing Natasha across the airport. She could barely keep a track of everything. It wasn't until the Ant guy (what was it with these superheroes and naming themselves after bugs?) turned huge and was standing in front of a plane that Samantha realised what she could do. She took off at a run, dodging a falling Ant Man and headed towards an aircraft hangar. She kept herself hidden as Natasha confronted Steve and Bucky. "You're not gonna stop." The assassin surmised.

"You know I can't." Steve responded. Samantha didn't quite hear what happened next as she ran to the quin jet she knew the two men were aiming for. She sat down in the pilot's seat, crossing her leg. She turned the chair around and there he was. "Samantha." He breathed.

"Steve, you don't have to do this. Please, I can work this out with everyone, just don't do this." She pleaded. She didn't like the amount of desperation in her voice but, still, there it was.

"Do what Samantha? You want me to just hand Bucky over like it's – it's nothing. He's my best friend!"

"You know that's not what I'm saying. I can get him amnesty, I can make sure that none of you guys are charged with anything more than a parking ticket. I just… I just need you to trust me!" she begged, standing up, getting toe to toe with him. It was a stupid decision really, it was the decision that allowed Bucky into the pilot's seat, the one that allowed take off. She felt the ground beneath her feet moving, the plane door was still open though. She held onto Steve, trying to make him see sense. "Please, Steve, for me."

She wasn't prepared for what he did next. She really wasn't. The words "I can't do that." were barely out of Steve's mouth and registering in her brain when she felt herself being forced back and out of the plane. She looked up at him, there was something akin to sorrow and remorse in his eyes as she fell through the air. How could he do this to her.

"A little help please." She said, pressing on her earpiece as she fell towards concrete. Nobody came, everyone was too busy. Vision was focussed on Wanda. Natasha and T'Challa were fighting it out in the aircraft hangar. Her father was, once again, focussed on the Spiderkid. Samantha tried to think fast. What could she do? This was not good, not good at all. She had to create a landing that wouldn't hurt too terribly much. On a whim, she laid her palms flat and hoped that it would do something.