Disclaimer : Nothing belongs to me. Except Sam.

As days kept passing, Tony knew he had to go back home eventually. A few days ago, Happy had called him and had asked him to bring his ass back to California because he was actually not handling anything. And Tony – not pleasant to have been disturbed during his unjustified vacation – had strongly made Happy understand that he may be amazing behind the wheel of a vehicle but as for running an enterprise he royally sucked and Tony wasn't mincing his words – he never did.

That was why he had decided to leave tomorrow. He wasn't really delighted by the idea but it was necessary for him to leave. He had a life back to California and remained here was anything but helpful.

However, although it was important for him to leave the sooner, he didn't want to leave without saying goodbye to his Trip Girl – Sam whom he hadn't seen for three days. He had stopped by her high school and he even got into the place full of teenagers and spoke to the bald old man – who was incidentally the principal and who affirmed him that Sam hadn't been in classes since two days. Then, Tony had wanted to know where she was living in order to visit her but the bald one had given him one of his most scary glance – which Tony found particularly funny to watch – and had told him that he refused to answer questions concerning his pupils' private life and that Tony must find what he was looking for by himself.

Fucking stupid bald man.

It was what he kept mumbling when he left the school clearly revolted by his speech. Sometimes, he truly hated people.

8:35 pm and still no news from Sam. They usually had dinner together every night and tonight was his last one here. He would have loved to have some more time with the girl before leaving. If he wasn't Tony damn Stark, he could think he was starting to get worried. Nevertheless, he was aware that he couldn't leave if he wasn't sure that Sam was okay.

He sighed and grabbed his phone. He dialed her number, waiting for her to pick up. He didn't know that on the other line, Sam was hesitating between accepting and refusing his call."Hi Tony."

Her voice seemed tired. It was trembling. Just a little bit. But he did notice it.

"Hi Sam," He gently said. "Hum, I haven't heard from you for three days and I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"I'm fine." It was a quick answer. Far too quick.

Something wasn't right. He could tell. Because short answers weren't her thing and it seemed that her mind was somewhere else.

"Sam," His tone was calm but it was getting serious. "Is everything okay? Where are you? Do you want me to pick you up?"

From her bedroom, her phone stuck between her ear and her shoulder, Sam was packing up; a few clothes and some money that was here for this kind of situation. She had verified that every door was closed and if anyone came in, she would immediately know it.

"Sam!"

Completely lost in her thoughts, she had forgotten that Tony was waiting for her answer from the other line. "Yeah, everything is okay. I'm fine. Really. I've just been sick lately. So I didn't want you to get sick so ..." She lied. She wasn't very proud but she had no time to answer all his questions if she was telling him the truth. "We'll catch some time up when I'm better, alright?"

From inside, she cursed herself. She wasn't even sure if she was going to be in town tomorrow. She needed to leave. And the sooner it would be, the better she would be.

"Actually, I'm leaving tomorrow in the morning. Happy sucks at running Stark Industries," Tony said, trying to light the atmosphere because something on his mind was telling him that Sam was quite tensed. "So, I thought we could have dinner together as always but since you are sick…"

He had emphasized the last words and Sam understood that Tony didn't believe her. She always was told that she was a bad liar.

"I'm sorry, Tony. But right now, I can't leave home," She tiptoed up to her window and looked through her window. It has been three days that a black car was parked in front of the house. She has been spying on. She could tell. She could feel it.

I can't leave home. It was a nice choice of words, Tony thought. She said this as if something or someone was keeping her from leaving. As if she was in danger.

"Sam. I'll ask one more time and then, I'll dropt it for now," He paused. "Are you sure everything is okay?"

She bit her lips till she felt some blood on her tongue before responding. "I'm sure. Everything's fine."

"Alright…" He still didn't believe her. But tonight, he wasn't going to get anything from her. He will wait till tomorrow and this time, she won't be able to avoid his questions. "So, I'll see you tomorrow, right?"

At this moment, she noticed that the well-built man who was supposed to be sitting in the car wasn't currently sitting anymore and the fear hit her so violently that she gasped in horror.

"Sam?"

She quickly said. "Hum yeah sure... I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Tony." Before the line went dead.

Tony looked at his phone, shocked that Sam had hung up on him and let it fall down on the table. He run a hand in his hair and sighed heavily.

Sam was hiding something from him.

That night, Tony couldn't catch any sleep. Sam's words kept running in his mind, preventing him from having a pleasant night.

He knew from the moment when he saw her that this girl was trouble. But he didn't care because he was used to dealing with troubles. However, he didn't know what kind of troubles she got herself into and he obviously could not help if he had no information.

He was about to take some sleeping pills when he heard several sirens echoing in the calm night. He got out of the bed and saw through the window that a few fire trucks were fast rolling in the same direction probably to put out some fire.

It was when the sirens were no longer heard that he realized that they went down the street where Sam was supposed to live. He didn't exactly know where she really lived but she usually used this street to come to the Café.

He didn't give a second thought before grabbing his valise under the bed. He opened it and a small red and gold light lighted up the room. The suit was strongly shining, pulling away the shadows on the walls.

He put it on and flew out of the room.

Sam was paralyzed. Although, the whole house was burning, the floor was ready to collapse upon her feet but she couldn't properly think to move and get out of here.

Her fingers were shaking, every part of her body was hurting and she could feel blood running on her small hands.

She dropped the knife next to the lifeless body. He died. That man was dead because of her. She took away his last breath. That man who tracked her down for days, who spied on her; the same man who had wanted her dead. He died and it was all her fault.

Tears were rolling in her eyes as she felt her legs trembling making her lose her balance.

The flames were eating away the house and her as well.

The whole thing was on fire and a bad feeling hurt his stomach.

"What happened?" Tony urgently asked a fire fighter when he landed down. "And why aren't doing anything?" They were all watching the house being engulfed in the flames. In a few minutes, there would be nothing left, if they remained still.

The man – surprised to see Iron Man – blinked a few times and spoke. "Apparently, the neighbors heard shootings and they were surprised since they thought that nobody lived here. By the time we came here, the place was already burning fast. We tried to come inside but it's impossible."

Tony shot him a dangerous glare. "You're telling me you don't even know if there is anybody in there. Are you idiot or what?"

"No – nobody shouted out for help. The neighbors – they- they assured us that nobody lived here." He stammered, suddenly scared by Tony's dark eyes.

I'm nobody in this town. I don't know anybody. Nobody knows me. End of the story.

This was her own words. And they appeared to be very true.

"Shit!" He cursed. "Tell your team to try to minimize the damages. I'm going inside."

He took off without waiting for any answer.

"Sam!" He screamed after breaking a few windows to get into the room. The temperature in here was increasing very quickly and if Sam was really somewhere in here, he definitely needed to get her out of here. "Sam!" He screamed again. "Are you here?"

No response.

"Jarvis! Tell me if there is somebody in here. Try the human blood detection."

His AI's response was almost immediate."Upstairs, Sir. Two people. One of them is definitely dead and the second one – the girl – is alive. Injured but alive."

"Thank you, Jarvis!"

Dead? What the hell was going in here he asked himself as he flew upstairs. His shot almost blew up the door. He scanned the room and found Sam, the knees against her chest, her arms protectively around them. Next to her, there was the dead man. He had no idea why he was actually dead here but Tony was sure that that man didn't belong to the usual decor.

"Sammy..." He slowly moved closer, not wanting to scare her even more as the front of helmet rose up, letting show his worried face. "Come on, sweetheart! We need to get out of here."

She looked up; her shaking voice was very awful to hear. "Tony… you came looking for me."

He knelt down and looked at her face. She had a nasty cut on her forehead, her lips were bleeding, and her right eye and her neck were turning blue. Someone had tried to strangle her. "Of course, I came, Princess. What happened to you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She lied not wanting to worry him.

"Sam…"

"I'm fine." But her voice cracked and she felt new tears forming.

"Cut the crap, Sam!" His tone was hard; and the joking Tony was not here right now. He pointed out the dead man. "He did this to you, right?"

She nodded and then, she gasped. "He wanted to kill me. I didn't mean to – I didn't want to – He – I just…"

"It's okay… shh… it's okay!"

"I'm not an assassin…" She whispered with her eyes full of fears and her trembling hands. "I didn't want to be like her. I didn't want to be her. I'm not an assassin. I'm not her!"

"Who are you talking about, Princess?" Tony asked softly. "Who's that person you don't want to be like?"

She looked away and Jarvis chose this moment to interrupt them. "Sir, the ceiling is about to collapse. You could save the questions for later on and leave the place in the very next minute."

"Alright," He said as he lifted Sam up in his metal arms. He heard a hiss and he guessed it was from her present injuries. "You okay?" She nodded but her face was tearing with pain. "Everything's gonna be okay! I'll take you to the nearest hospital – "

"No!" She snapped and grimaced when the sore increased in her body. "I hate hospitals."

She looked at him with pleading eyes and he sighed. "Jarvis, does she need medical attention?"

"She can wait till you reach home but she will have to bear the pain."

"I will." She said squeezing her teeth harder.

Tony rolled his eyes at this girl's stubbornness. "Okay. I'm bringing you home. And then, we'll have a serious discussion, young girl."

He was trying to ease his mind but the truth was that he was very worried about her. He didn't know that much about her but seeing her in so much pain wasn't something that he expected to see when he got in the house in the first place.

"Tony Stark…having a… serious discussion…" She managed to say through her pant breath. "Humor me!"

He smiled at her remark. "You hurt my feelings!"

"You'll get over it," She whispered back. She was falling asleep and she found rather hard to focus on staying awake and joking with Tony. "My bag… I need it."

His eyes widened.

"I'm saving from a fire and all you're thinking about is your bag." He asked, almost shocked. "You're such a girl, you know that Sam… Sam? Hey Sam... stay with me, will you?"

But her eyes remained closed.

"She lost consciousness Sir," informed Jarvis.

He grabbed her bag laying on her warm floor and then, he held her tighter, making sure not hurt her even more. "Hold on tight, Princess. I've got you."

He took off, flying back to California through the cold night. One question was running on his mind during his whole trip. Who the hell was really Sam?

Meanwhile on the Helicarrier.

"Director Fury, "Phil Coulson said as he rudely came into the room, not caring to knock before his entrance. "One of SHIELD's safe house has been attacked tonight."

Fury completely not used to Coulson's bad manners immediately looked up. "Which one?"

"The one set in Oregon, Sir." Coulson replied, emphasizing each word to underline the seriousness of the situation.

Fury gave a quick sighed as he sunk into his chair, his hand pitching his nose. "I see. I'll take care of it."

"Sir, Agent Romanoff should be informed. After all, we're talking about – " Coulson began but Fury stopped him.

"I'm aware about whom we are talking about, Agent Coulson, " He stated strongly, showing his authority. Though Coulson was one of his most faithful, loyal, and skillful agents. "But right now, Agent Romanoff is on a mission and she doesn't need to be distracted. She'll be informed when she's back."

"She'll be only back in a few weeks. She needs to know that her sis – "

Once again, Fury cut him. "As I said. She'll be informed when she's back."

"Very well. " Coulson said, despite him.

Fury shot him a warning glare. "Don't tell her anything."

"I won't, Sir." He assured his boss before leaving the room.

I'm french so, I'm sorry for any mistakes ! I have no beta.

Thanks for reading and please review :)

-LaChiquita.