Chapter Text
After setting the last tub in the classroom, Sammie let out a heavy sigh. Bringing the bins back to the school had been the easy part, now she just had countless bins of everything she needed to decorate her classroom with. She had recently been promoted to the department chair, which meant she had to move classrooms this summer. She hadn't been excited about moving rooms, at first, mostly because her old room had been her first classroom as a teacher. .The reason was that it meant she had to take down all of her decorations, the student projects she displayed and pack up her supplies and all the odds and ends she had collected over the years.
In addition to the new classroom, the added stress of being the department chair had Sammie uneasy about her promotion. She had opened up to Chris and expressed her concerns to the one person she knew would understand everything she was going through. They had come up with some possible solutions and ways to combat the stress and afterward, she had felt better about the whole thing. Even the moving classrooms part. In her new classroom, she would have more space to do activities and game with the kids. There was even room for her to make a ‘student corner,’ where they could study for upcoming tests when they finished with their work.
With the new school year just around the corner, Sammie couldn’t wait for it to start. The first week was her favorite. Besides going over the syllabus, Sammie devoted the first week by getting to know her students through class activities. Of course, all of that required her to have her new classroom put together.
Despite her initial displeasure with having to move rooms, she was excited to get started on preparing her room. That, of course, was her absolute favorite part. Nothing excited her more than decorating and organizing her classroom however she liked. It was the only space she had, besides her own home, where no one told her how to decorate.
*********
With a week full of meetings and very little time in her room to actually get work done, Sammie had decided to come on the Friday before the teacher work week began to get some decorating done. She hadn't come alone, though, she'd dragged Chris along to take part in the fun.
“Are you ready to get started?” Sammie asked Chris rather enthusiastically. She had been waiting all summer to decorate.
“Yeah. Just tell me what to do and I’ll get on it.” Rubbing his hands together, he moved over to a green bin, getting ready to unpack.
“Not the green bin, those ones go by my desk. The blue bins are storage stuff and the stuff in them goes in the cabinets, where I already have the shelves labeled-“
“Wait, you came in and labeled the shelves already? When did you do this? And why do I sound surprised by this? That's who you are!” He just shook his head laughing.
“What? The green bins go by my desk because it’s my stuff and green is my favorite color. The blue bins go by the cabinets since it has the extra school supplies. The orange bins have the fabric bulletin board borders and all of the other decorations. And the red bins have all the rest of the decorations for the classroom.”
Chris shook his head in amusement as he grabbed a blue bin and carried it over to the cabinets.
Sammie took the green bin from in front of Chris and slid it across the carpeted floor to her desk on the other side of the classroom. She quickly began moving some furniture around her desk so she had it just right. Chris had asked if she needed help, but she waved him off before he went back putting the supplies on their designated shelves.
Despite being dragged out of bed earlier than he liked, Chris was actually eager to come along In addition to wanting to see her in her element, he also wanted to spend as much time as possible with her before he had to leave to film the next Avengers movie. Their days were numbered and that worried Chris more than anything. He wanted to be there for Sammie on the good days and the bad days. He wanted to watch her face light up on the good days when she couldn't stop talking about all the cool things she'd done with her students. More importantly, he wanted to be there when she came home from work stressed out and needing to be comforted. It tore him up knowing that he wouldn't be able to be there for her in person on those days.
They worked in silence for awhile and were both startled when they heard a knock on the open classroom door. Afterall, Sammie had assumed she was the only teacher who had decided to come early to get some work done. “So I'm not the only one coming in today to set up my room.” Sammie looked up to see Heather, her co-worker, standing in the doorway.
“You know me! I’m here, begging security to come in or bribing them with breakfast," Sammie said, setting down a stack of folders. "Actually, I’m in the process of moving rooms, which is why I’m here.”
Moving away from her desk, Sammie motioned for her colleague to come into the room. She quickly introduced Chris and Heather and then the two women sat down at a couple of the desks while Chris went back to putting supplies in the cabinets.
Sammie and Heather talked for a bit about the classes they were teaching for the year as well as what they had done over the summer. It was all normal teacher talk until Heather mentioned the fact that they had a new principal, something Sammie hadn't known.
“Really? What happened to Mr. Abbott?” Sammie asked, stunned. She had just had a conversation him as well as the assistant principals regarding the details of her new position.
“No idea. Email just came in this morning about him not coming back here this year due to personal reasons.”
“Huh. I haven’t checked my email all morning. This is... WOW! I don’t even know what to think. Do we have a replacement yet?” Sammie asked, still shocked at the new of her former boss no longer being there.
“They said we are gonna find out on Monday during our ‘Welcome Back’ breakfast. Anyways, I should let you two get back to unpacking. It was nice to see you, Sammie. And it was nice to meet you, Chris.” Heather got up from the desk and made her way to the door of the classroom.
“It was nice to meet you, too, Heather.” Chris waved at her.
*******
After a few hours of working, Sammie's stomach growled, making her realize she was hungry. The loud sound made Chris turn to look at her with an amused look on his face.
“Someone hungry?”
“You could say that. I mean, we’ve only been here for like six hours and we haven’t eaten anything since we got here at eight. So you could say I’m a little hungry.” Sammie blew a puff of air to remove the hair out of her face.
“Well, you wanna go grab a bite to eat real quick?”
*****
It took a bit of discussion, but Chris and Sammie finally decided eat at the sandwich shop just down the street.
While eating, their conversation was mostly focused on Sammie and what she was looking forward to this coming school year. She was enthusiastic about meeting her new students, welcoming the new teachers, and the added responsibility of being department chair.
From there, their discussion moved to Chris and his upcoming departure from Boston to begin filming in Atlanta. It was somewhat of a sad conversation. Neither of them wanted to talk about it, but their lunch break presented a good opportunity to at least begin what was going to be a long and emotional conversation.
Chris cleared this throat before he began speaking. “You care so much about others, I’m worried you’re not gonna take care of yourself while I’m gone filming. It scares me so damn much that something is gonna happen and I won’t be there for you. Babe, you have to promise me that while I’m gone, you’re gonna make sure you’re taking care of yourself. And before you say you will, I know you. Yes, it’s only been a few months since we’ve started dating, but I know.
“This has been causing me a lot of anxiety. You’ve been asking while we’re at your place or mine if I’m okay because I’m quiet. I always tell you, yes, but that’s not true. I have to leave within the next six to eight weeks and leave you here, and it’s hard to not think about that. I wanna be there all the time for you, but I can’t. It’ll help if I know you’re taking care of yourself while worrying about others. Can you do that for me?”
Sammie could see the pain and anxiety in his eyes and facial expressions. How had she landed a guy as sweet and caring as Chris, she wondered.
“I promise I’ll make sure I do all of that and more. Chris, it’s a two-way street you know. I know you worry about my depression and anxiety, but it’s under control right now. I’m still going to therapy. I try to put my emotions into the mix also when I’m trying to help others. I’m working on it. I’ll be okay. But, you have to tell me these things too. How would you like it if I didn’t tell you something that has been bothering me, and it bottles up and then one day I just can’t do it anymore? It wouldn’t end well, I can tell you that. So you please next time you’re anxiety starts to get to you. Can you do that for me?” She threw back the same question at him.
“I’ll do that for you.” Looking at his watch he noticed the time. “Hey we might wanna get back to finishing your room, so we aren’t at the school all night.
*********
Shortly after getting back to the school and back to work, Chris noticed something was slightly off with Sammie by the way she was moving around her classroom. Before lunch, she had been humming quietly to herself and now she was quiet, seemingly distracted by something.
“Hey, you, what’s up?” Chris asked. He stepped down from the chair he was standing on and made his way to Sammie. where she grabbed some border for her bulletin boards.
“Huh? Oh, uh...nothing. I’m just thinking about Mr. Abbott. Why didn’t he tell me he was leaving when I just saw him?” Sammie grabbed the border for her bulletin board and walked over to it.
“I read the email that Heather mentioned earlier and he didn’t even say where he was going or why. There was no warning. Why couldn't he have mentioned something? I just saw him last week. He could have hinted at it then.”
“Maybe he was contractually obligated not to tell anyone, Babe. No one knows what happened but him, Sam. Don’t make yourself worry about something you have no control over.” Chris came over and put his hands on her shoulders massaging them, trying to help her relax.
Sammie relaxed into his touch a little and sighed heavily. He was right. She didn't need to worry about something she didn’t have any control over when she had something she alone had control of :decorating her room.
“Ya know, you’re quite business savvy.”
“Well, I do work in show business, Babe. It’s what I do. I’m pretty good at it.”
Sammie turned around so she was facing Chris.
“You are good at your job. You do a damn good job, too. It’s because your career means a lot to you. I see your eyes light up when you talk about a project that came your way you wanna do. I see how passionate you are with your fans, especially the little ones.”
“I can say the same thing about you too.” He tapped her nose with his finger. “Watching you work today, has shown me how much you care about your job. You want all of these kids to succeed. I’ve seen you take up your entire living room floor to plan the perfect lesson so that all of your students understand, no matter their understanding. You care just as much as I do.”
“Are you trying to get all sappy on me here?”
“Maybe. Is it working?”
“Maybe. But before any funny business, we need to get working.”
******
“Where is he? He said he was going to the bathroom and coming right back?” Sammie muttered to herself as she was stapling letters to the bulletin board.
She had been waiting for over fifteen minutes. He said he’d be right back. Did he get lost?
Leaving her room, she went in search of Chris. She walked up and down the empty hallway and couldn’t find him. Leaving her building, she went to the main building to see if they could make an announcement about someone needing to meet her in her room.
As she was leaving her building she caught sight of her six-foot, blue-eyed boyfriend, surrounded by a group of parents and their students. She couldn’t figure out why there would be parents here until it dawned on her that today new students to the school were getting a tour. Walking closer to the group, she saw that he was signing autographs for little kids and taking some pictures as well.
He seemed to be doing okay with the kids and a number of people. There were some parents in the mix with the kids, but for the most part, they were off to the side watching their kids interact with Captain America.
Even some of the parents were excited too, mostly the dads. She doesn’t think she’s ever seen adult men fanboy over some guy. But to her, Chris was just a guy, not Captain America.
Chris caught sight of her and winked. He finished up the last couple of autographs before he told the kids goodbye and wished them luck on the school year.
“Hey you, I thought you fell into the toilet and I’d lost ya forever.”
“Har har, very funny.” He leaned down to kiss her. “Sorry, I wandered. I wanted to walk around the entire campus and next thing I knew I was in the middle of a group touring and signing a bunch of autographs and-”
“It’s okay.” She pressed a finger to his lips, quieting him. “It was nice to see you interact with your fans. But I think it’s time to head back before you draw more attention to yourself.”
****
After a couple more hours of decorating, lifting, and overall work, and Sammie following Chris around straightening the posters, and other decorations it began to take a toll on them. Sammie stifled a yawn while Chris stretched his arms and shoulders from all the work he’d been doing that day.
“Hey you ready to get going soon?” Sammie asked giving into the yawn.
“Seriously, you're yawning? It’s only four in the afternoon. We’ve only been working maybe a couple hours since lunch.” Chris, still stretching, replied to Sammie.
“Me, yawn, NO! I am getting tired. I was just thinking we'd call it a day? I mean, It looks like you’re looking a little sore there, Captain.”
“Yeah, I am a little sore. To make it up to me, I think we go back to my place and you can give me a massage...a full body massage.” Chris wiggled his eyebrows.
Sammie rolled her eyes but smiled. “Fine. But only because I dragged you here to help me set this up."
“No, for that you have to be naked when you give me the massage. Because you made me get up at 7am when I didn’t have to be!”