Two Sides of The Same Coin: Grumpy x Sunshine

Breathe

Sam POV

Sam doesn't have anything to say, he doesn't try to stop Bucky as he storms away from him, he just walks back into your room, slumping back down on your desk chair. He's not sure how long he sits there, keeping himself from playing it all back, trying not to think about the moment he'd turned his back on you. But he does think about it, and his heart just keeps breaking, over and over:

After the incident with Wanda:

"Pick and choose your battles, Wilson."

"And if this is the battle I want to choose?" Sam retorts.

"It's not."

"Look at what just happened," Sam says, gesturing around the conference room where he and the rest of the team argued for hours about your place on the team. "I don't want her here. I'm not going to subject her to this. We'll give it a few more months and try again, but she's not safe here."

"She's not safe anywhere but here."

"Why?" Sam counters, eyeing Fury in suspicion. "What aren't you telling me?"

"I found this on the bottom of your car," Nick says, holding up a small tracking device.

Sam sucks in a breath, "Shit."

"My guess is someone's trying to figure out where the two of you live. They may or may not already know that." Sam remains silent, wordlessly weighing each option: continuing with the move or staying put. "The target on her back is only going to get bigger after today. An untrained rookie just took down the Scarlet Witch. That's going to spread like wildfire."

"I'm not going to force her to live in a place that she's clearly not welcome," Sam hisses, gesturing to the empty conference room.

"You don't have to, but SHIELD will."

"I don't give a rat's ass about what SHIELD wants. And let me remind you about that little mole problem SHIELD has, I don't trust half the people on this Compound right now. I can't keep an eye on her if we're here."

"Do you trust your own team?"

"After today's shit show? That's a very reluctant yes."

"They're not happy about this. SHIELD's adamant that you're moving too slowly. So concede on this one: move here, let her put some roots down, let them get attached to her. More eyes means more protection, more people watching that target on her back. More leverage to get her away from SHIELD."

"More people means more danger. You said it yourself, she's calling too much attention to herself."

"It was always going to happen. The question is: are you going to fight it or let it be on your own terms? Because I can tell you one thing, you let SHIELD make that decision for you and it's not going to be pretty."

Sam shakes his head. "Fine."

Or after your kidnapping:

"A kidnapping, Wilson?" Nick hisses from the other end of the line.

"From one of your SHIELD agents!" Sam accuses, speaking loudly enough to attract attention from the agents walking in the Compound. He sighs, dramatically lowering his voice, "I told you about that this mole issue was going to bite us in the ass. Rumlow never would've known about her if we stayed away."

"That's what you assume," Nick refutes.

"That's what I know."

Nick remains quiet for a moment before asking, "Is she alright?"