A/N – We're starting off with a different perspective this chapter but I promise you, there'll be more Samantha a little later on.

Oh, I should also mention that the timeline is now a pretty standard linear timeline, no more going back and forward – I hope that isn't too confusing for people.

Soundtrack: Oh My by Gin Wigmore

Wanda sat up in bed, staring at her phone. She wasn't looking forward to what had to happen later on this evening. The other side of the bed was colder than normal, and the body that normally sat beside beside her was missing. A light crept in from the window where a man looked out at the Scottish skyline, a pained expression on his face.

"Vis? Is it the stone again?" she asked, looking up from her phone at him, this impossible man. He turned toward her, the yellow mind stone glowing.

"It's as if it's speaking to me," he said softly.

She clambered out of the bed, walking towards him. "What does it say?" she asked.

"I don't… I don't know, but something…" he trailed off, the stone glowing more now.

She touched her hands to his face. "Oh my," she managed before he started to kiss her hand, gently and lovingly before moving it to where the stone was embedded in his forehead.

"Tell me what you feel," he asked and she tried, a red line connecting to the stone from her hand.

She tried for a couple of seconds, but there's nothing. "I just feel you," she said. Sometimes, she's wondered if the mind stone is a part of him or if it's all of him. They both have.

He placed his hand on her chin and bend down slightly to kiss her in that way of his, the way that made her feel like she was the only woman in the world. It was attentive and intuitive.

A few hours later, they wandered the cobbled streets of Edinburgh, hand in hand. "So, there's a ten am to Glasgow to give us more time together before you went back," she suggested.

In the few moments they spent together, it always felt like they were running out of time, like they were always clinging to each other because at some point Vision would have to turn the transponder back on and she'd have to go back to life on the run. It was all just stolen moments in a secret apartment in Scotland.

So far, she'd been lucky. They hadn't been caught. Outside of the group of people she'd broken the law with, there were only two other people she'd trusted. One was holding her hand right now and the other understood the situation well enough that she wouldn't give her up.

"What if I missed that train?" he asked as they approached a store window.

"There's an 11?" she said, confused. Was he really saying what she thought he was saying?

"What if I missed all the trains?" he said with a hopeful grin. "What if this time I don't go back?" No matter how much she wanted to say how great that would be, she couldn't bring herself to let him do that. They were managing not to get caught by the skin of their teeth. The only reason they had this little meeting place, this little home, was because Samantha was renting it for them. The only reason they even got two weeks together was because it was the maximum length of time Vision could turn off the transponder before Tony came looking. As much as she wanted a life with him, a life like the characters had in the sitcoms she watched as a kid, she knew they couldn't do it.

"But you gave Stark your word," she reminded him. She didn't want Tony to come round looking for her. She knew what would happen if Vision didn't go back.

"But I'd rather give it to you."

"Well there are people that are expecting me too, you know, we both made promises," she told him, thinking of Steve and Natasha. She'd promised them that this would only be short stints. She knew Steve understood. If Samantha had wanted him, wanted to be with him, she knew he would have come to a similar arrangement – something based out of her London flat, the one Wanda had once shared with her. Natasha was different. Natasha was the one who forced her to keep her word.

"Not to each other. Wanda, for two years, we've stolen these moment, trying to see if this could work and I don't know, I but… you know what? I'm just going to speak for myself, I I think I think it," he stammered.

"It works, it works," she said, because it did. She knew it did.

"Stay, stay with me," he urged, and she really did consider it, she wanted to so badly. But then she was distracted by what she saw on the TV screen in the window behind him. "Or not if I'm overstepping…" he trailed off as she wandered towards the window, trying to get a better look.

New York had been attacked, again. She could see the ruins of the city. "What are they?" she said, looking at the aliens that seemed to be guarding something.

"What the stone was warning me about," Vision answered gravely.

Then, there was an additional headline: Tony Stark Missing. Vision kissed her hand "I have to go," he said.

She didn't want him to leave, not like this, not to go off and save the world and potentially not come back. "No, Vision. Vision if that's true, then maybe going isn't the best idea," she pleaded.

"Wanda I-" he started but was stopped as a blade went through his abdomen and she heard his blood-curdling scream as he turned from the human version of himself into his normal self. She tried to defend him further, her red light taking a form between her hands.

Then she was thrown forward, through a window.

XX

Samantha watched them from afar, she was just keeping an eye on things, making sure they were okay. They looked happy, in spite of everything. She knew how much these stolen moments meant to Wanda. She was ready to turn around and leave them be when she saw someone out of the corner of her eye.

She couldn't tell what it was until it started to run up behind Vision – another of Thanos's minions, she was almost certain of it. She ran out into the street just in time to see Wanda thrown through a window. She had to think fast. Something was trying to remove the mind stone from Vision's head. She ran at it, jumping and landing a kick that pushed it to the floor, giving Wanda enough time to float Vision's body up into the air and off to safety, Samantha hoped.

Meanwhile, she was left with another two aliens, one on either side of her. They were running at her and she didn't have much time to think, she was working on instinct. So she stretched out her arms in the direction of the two aliens, allowing the white hot light to shoot out of her hands and at them. Then, she focused a bit more, raising her arms, noting that the beams of light were lifting the two aliens into the air, and then she slammed her palms down towards the floor hard.

Then, to make absolutely certain they weren't going to be a problem she closed her eyes for a moment, focusing on forcing them down and down until they were in a 20 foot hole in the cobbled street.

After that she took off, running through the streets on the hunt for her friend. She ended up with a pretty good idea of where Wanda and Vision would be because of the giant light shining sending beams out, but then it disappeared. She didn't know where to go next, so she started running through the city, looking up at the night sky in case something flew somewhere. It took a minute for her to realise that she'd ended up wandering towards the train station.

The sound of shattering glass indicated that that was where she needed to be and she continued running through the building until she found the source of the noise. It looked like Sam Wilson had forced an alien through a café window, she guessed that was what had happened as he flew around above her head. She ignored him, she knew that where Sam went, Steve Rogers wouldn't be far behind.

Instead, she found Vision and Wanda and stood in front of them as one of the aliens came at them with a spear. She grabbed onto it, pushing against the alien – they looked male – and using as leverage for a somersault that had her kicking him in the face. He didn't seem too pleased with that and started to point the spear at her. She grabbed onto the handle, ducking from side to side as she turned them around and away from Wanda and Vision.

While she was trying to figure out what to do next, a blonde Natasha Romanoff came out of seemingly nowhere and pierced another spear through the alien's abdomen. That was when Samantha took the spear out of his hand, and had to block an attack from another alien, this one seemed like a woman but she wasn't exactly wasting time figuring out their gender. Where were these things coming from?

At this point, Steve came from somewhere – where? She didn't know. It was all becoming a little difficult to keep a track of. He had another spear in his hand and started attacking the alien that had just come at her, and, hold on, had he grown a beard? Damn, he looked good, Samantha thought before reminding herself that now was not the time to focus on how good her ex looked with a beard.

As the alien swung from side to side, each time hitting the spear, Samantha felt she had to say something, just to, you know, break the ice. Of course, all she could focus on was the beard. "You look good," she said to Steve "The beard suits you."

"Probably not the time," he responded. Fair enough, he was right. The comment had been wildly inappropriate.

She didn't really have time to focus as Sam came through, kicking the female alien out of the way, over towards her male counterpart who lay, prone, on the floor. Then, he pointed a gun at her.

"Get up," she said to the other alien who immediately said he couldn't which seemed accurate given the gaping wound in his abdomen.

"We don't want to kill you, but we will," Natasha said.

"You'll never get the chance again," the female alien said before a blue beam picked them up off the floor and brought them up into the air, taking the spear that Steve had just been holding with them.

Samantha dug her nails into the palms of her hands. She needed to kick something or punch something, do anything to rid the anger currently residing in her system. Then, she turned around and saw Vision, slumped against a railing with Wanda trying to help him. All anger dissipated pretty quickly.

"Can you stand?" Sam asked Vision, offering him his hand to pull him up. As he stood, held up by Sam and Wanda, he looked at Steve.

"Thank you Captain," Vision said.

Steve nodded. "Let's get you on the jet," he said and off they went to a waiting quinjet.