I don't know what happened. I guess my brain wanted two updates today.
Each time that you tried to dial your phone, you knew that the result would be the same and that the line would be dead, but you continued to try anyway, feeling desperate to get a hold of Steve. Tony was only doing what he thought was right, but you couldn't see that now; he was holding you hostage to his own agenda. He believed that he was protecting you, when all he was doing was pushing you farther away.
"Nothing?"
"No," you groaned, tossing the phone aside in a building rage, "he's locked me out completely. He's lost his damn mind."
Wanda sat down next to you at the long conference table, wanting to put her hand over yours in support, but you were wringing them together furiously and she didn't know what to do. "I can get you out. I will if you want me to, (Y/N), you only have to ask."
"No, Wanda, I'm not going to let you get yourself into trouble for me. I'll figure this out." You leaned forward and rested your head on the table over your folded arms, running options through your mind as to how you could get control of FRIDAY to help you. Since the day that you had disabled every one of Tony's suits and hijacked the quinjets to save Steve, he put your access behind safeguards that you had yet to work around.
"What will Steve do?"
"Tony's on his way there," you sighed, raising up to look at her, "he's going to find out. When I don't show up and when he can't get ahold of me, it's gonna hit the fan like never before."
~~~
"This is what making things worse looks like," Natasha huffed, leading Steve into a small conference room at the middle of the command center. "You just can't listen to anyone other than yourself, can you?"
"He's being set up, Nat."
"Then you let the system work how it's supposed to, Steve. I can see the gears turning in your head with all of the ways you can jail break him. Tell me I'm wrong."
Steve sat silently and tapped his fingertips quietly against the glass tabletop as he looked around at the monitors the encircled the room. There were guards stationed at every door, clear outlines of weapons beneath the shirts of anyone sitting at a computer, and cameras every few feet, leaving no room for unsupervised areas.
"Jesus, Rogers, seriously?" she hissed, actually taken aback that she was right. "You can just stop right now. You need to think about what your actions could do to you beyond the next minute. You have something at home that is far more important than you, or have you forgotten that already?"
"I haven't forgotten," he replied angrily now, his eyes darkening as he looked at her, "and don't you dare insinuate that I could." Steve turned his chair fully and looked around the room once more, suddenly realizing that he should have seen or heard from you by now. "Actually, have you talked to (Y/N) recently?"
"No, should I have?"
Steve didn't answer, his senses heightening along with his nerves, with only the worst possible outcomes playing out in his mind. If he asked you to come here to help him with Bucky, and something had happened to you along the way, he would never forgive himself. He would never forgive Tony either.
"Steve? What?" she asked, more cautiously and quietly now. "You're scaring me."
"She should have been here by now." He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed frantically, holding it to his ear only to pull it back in complete confusion. "It won't connect."
Nat took her own phone in hand and tried to call you, only to have the same result. "That's weird."
Steve's attention was drawn to Tony as he entered the room, a look of what could only be called guilt crossing his features; he looked as if he had aged ten years since he had seen him only two days before. "Any idea why (Y/N)'s phone might not be working, Tony?"
"No?"
"You're lying."
"That's bold of you," Tony smirked. "You assume that I'm behind it just because she has a busted phone?"
"Well, it is Stark tech," Steve snapped back.
Tony could only grin as he took a seat across the table, choosing to let the last comment slide no matter how much he wanted to fire back. The two men knew exactly how to push each others' buttons, most of them involving you, but he didn't want to do that right now. He needed to take one last shot at swaying Steve to the Accords for nothing if not for your sake.
"Listen, I'm trying...what do you call it? I'm trying to extend an olive branch, here, is that what you call it?"
Steve sat silently and considered whether or not he could trust what Tony was saying, having had too many times when his better judgment was proven wrong. But the look on his face now was almost pleading, and Steve couldn't help but want to trust him. "I don't mean to make things difficult."
"I know, because you're a very polite person," Tony sighed. "But we need you, Cap. If you'd just...sign. It's the only way that I can fix the last 24 hours and make it legit. I can work on getting Barnes released to our custody, and I can file a motion to have you and (Y/N) reinstated."
"Wait," Steve stood with a hand raised to stop him, "what about (Y/N)?"
"She's confined to the compound with Wanda, Vision is keeping them both company until all of this can blow over-"
"You did shut off her phone, didn't you?" Steve snapped. "Jesus, Tony, every time I think that you see things the right way, you pull a stunt like this! You can't hold them against their will, and you can't keep my own wife away from me. That won't end well for you."
"There are worse ways to protect people, Steve, and I'm not keeping her away from anyone so you can keep your threats to yourself."
"Protection? Is that what you think it is? Protection? It's internment, Tony! With everything that's going on right now, the last thing she needs is you putting her under more stress! It's not healthy."
Tony turned with a sharp snap of his head to Natasha and then to Steve, his eyes widening with worry again, "what do you mean, it's not healthy? What's going on? She told me she had some kind of stomach thing, but that she was doing better?"
"Oh my god, you don't know do you?" Steve gasped, shaking his head and crossing his arms tightly over his chest. "She was going to talk to you after I left."
"I don't know what? I had to leave right after the last time I spoke to her, and it really didn't go so well."
"Wow, I'm actually not even surprised. You know something, Tony? Maybe if you let go of your ego for one goddamn second and had a conversation with her beyond telling her what to do, you'd see things differently."
~~~
Sam carefully made his way along the hallways towards the holding bay, trying his best to act natural and as if she was supposed to be there, but it was hard to do when he wasn't exactly sure where he was going.
"Sir, can I help you find something?"
He turned quickly on his heel to face a woman dressed plainly but professionally, her hair pulled up neatly, holding a stack of tablets in one arm with a gun visible on her hip. Sam squinted slightly to make out the name on her badge, and gave her his best smile.
"Actually...Sarah, is it?"
"Yes, sir," she smiled back.
"Sarah, nice to meet you. Would you be so kind as to point me in the right direction of the detention wing? Secretary Ross called me down there like ten minutes ago, said he has questions for me, and wouldn't ya know, I'm hopelessly lost. If I'm late, my career is as good as over."
"We can't have that, now can we?"
"No ma'am," he winked, holding her gaze. "I would be incredibly grateful if you could help me."
"Sure," she finally relented, much to his relief, "take a left up there, then your first right and your next left. Can't miss it."
Sam took a few steps forward and held out his hand, waiting for her to reach out and take it. When she did, he bowed just slightly and pressed his lips to it, looking back up at her with a softer smile than before. "Thank you, Sarah. You're a life saver."
When they parted ways, he continued on, wiping a few small beads of sweat from his brow and whispering to himself, "yep, still got it." He reached the doors quickly and took out his phone, working furiously to break his way into the security system before anyone could see that he was there. When his efforts finally paid off, the lights went out and the door lock powered down for him to enter.
"Buck, you in here, man?"
"Took you long enough."
"Hey, I could turn around and leave your ass here, if you prefer? Would it kill you to say thanks?"
"You haven't saved me yet, Wilson," Bucky scoffed, taking a gun from his teammate, "let's not call ourselves friends too quickly."
The two men snaked their way through the corridors, working to get to the planned rendezvous point with Steve without being seen and having to fight anyone if they could help it. Sam led them as Bucky sent a message to Steve that they were on the way. "So, how did you get in? They had me pretty well secured in there."
"I do have skills, thank you very much," Sam huffed in a whisper. "And I wooed a pretty lady into telling me where you were."
"Okay, sure. But really, how did you do it?"
Sam stopped short and turned with a look of complete disgust and betrayal as Bucky crashed into him, having not been looking where he was going and texting Steve. He looked Bucky in the eye and raised a finger, pointing at him with a small poke against his chest.
"I hate you."