"Died? What does that even mean? She's not dead - a little blue and with some questionable extra tattoos - but she's not dead."

Steve Rogers continued to stare at the closed door of Cedars Sinai surgical theatre, heaving back a tired sigh - it had been three long, painful hours since his rescue of the systems analyst. The hard plastic of the hospital chair was uncomfortable, his suit seemed to pinch at his tired form, and the fluorescent lighting dazzled his sight for less than a second. He turned to face the iron-clad speaker, watching as he paced the corridor again.

"Honestly? I don't know. I found her using the coordinates you sent me. She was... blue. She told me," at this Steve lowered his voice as two hospital staff neared, "she told me that she had died. Repeated it. And she collapsed, just seconds before you got there."

Tony Stark's lips pursed and he ran a hand through his tousled hair, eyeing the hospital door with unease. Jarvis defected a heartbeat. Vital signs good.

"The lines," began Steve, fixing his teammate with an unwavering stare, "did you find anything? I always asked but Anna's answers were short and vague at best."

"Did we find anything?" parroted Stark, stalking forward to sit next to the hero. He tapped at his wrist, spinning the glass face of the watch: the golden hands stopped ticking and instead began to spin, projecting a gleaming blue hologram of Stark and Anna's prior conversations. Now, Steve watched as the brunette, eyes glittering cobalt, laughed with her boss.

"I touched him, Tony. He grabbed my wrist, and when he touched these," Steve watched as Anna displayed her lines, "it burnt. I woke up on the other side of town - alive. I'm his ticket back to Earth. Loki's magic is protecting me."

The hologram then faded, hiding itself back inside Stark's watch. The two men sat silently for a few short seconds before Stark murmured. "I trust her. If she says it's protecting her, that's what it is. But dying? That doesn't make sense."

Steve lowered his head in agreement. "The world's a funny place," he said, continuing to stare across the hallway at the white-washed walls. "Anna is the only thing that does make sense to me."

—-

"Dr. Wellington, I need you to stop moving. I assure you that no harm will come to you. We're here to help-"

"Help?" repeated Anna, eyeing the doctor warily as she sat in the hospital seat, six of the world's best surgeons surrounding her. "I'm not a lab rat-"

"Mr. Stark has asked us to try and identify what has happened to you. Please," said the doctor to her left, "let us help you."

Anna stared, remaining silent as the pieces began to fit together. She'd been here before, just days ago, she realised, waiting for Happy. But she'd seen this woman before, not here, but on a glass monitor in Stark Industries when she'd interrupted the meeting between Stark, Fury and them team. This woman had been there when Coulson had made his reappearance all those week ago.

"Helen Cho?"

The doctor smiled and nodded shortly. "Hello, Dr. Wellington. It's wonderful to meet you in person."

"I don't need a doctor. I don't need to be looked at like I'm some... some experiment. I just need to go home."

"Dr. Wellington-"

As the doctor neared, arm stretched to take a better look at the new lines displayed on her skin, Anna froze. "Don't -" Her warning died in her throat for the figure moving towards her had stopped, skin blue, encased in ice, eyes widening and scanning the room in alarm.

Anna's eyes widened in undisguised horror, leaping from the hospital seat and out into the corridor where she found them sitting by the door.

"We have to go," she pleaded, grabbing Stark's arm and heaving him up and out of his seat, Steve not far behind. "Now. Tony, please-"

"What's going on? Anna -" but Stark's words fell silent as he stared down at the analyst's arm only to find it was made of ice. "Anna?"