"I think we ought to take the next few days off," Tony said, while the seven of us were eating on the other side of the island. Not many places had escaped the wrath of the Chitauri, especially the large serpentine ones. Our penthouse apartment on top of S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters had been knocked off but luckily, the rest of the facility seemed unscathed. Loki was there now, awaiting what would be his punishment. I didn't know what it was either. The Avengers had swooped into a meeting with Maria, Fury, and Phil while my left side was being stitched up by medics.

"We sure as hell have done enough," Clint responded, biting down into his sandwich. I played with my fries. Thor, who was sitting beside me, had looked solemn for the entire meal. I looked at Bruce across the table. He'd come to grips with his other half, so to speak and I was happy for him. But that's where my happiness ended. Sure, the aliens weren't taking over the city and Loki was subdued but now he'd be subjected to a hugely public trial, probably be confined to his own private prison, and potentially never see anyone again. He'd be left alone with all of his thoughts and his thoughts about himself were rarely positive anymore. He always said to Thor, "I'm not your brother," like he was disowning himself rather than trying to get away from his family. Loki didn't belong and didn't think he deserved to.

"So you fell off the balcony twice, Charlotte?" Tony's voice brought me back to the conversation. I dropped the fry I'd been playing with and nodded. I saw Bruce nudge him, trying to get Tony off of my back.

Natasha started sipping on her drink and looking between me and Steve so I stared at my basket of fries again, picking one up and finally eating it. The stitches in my side ached every few minutes and I needed to eat between those intervals. I finally gave in and just rested my head on my hand, eating while I could. Tony and Clint started talking continuously about certain moves they saw or did. I think they even mentioned something about me at one point but my mind was on other things.

"Thor, when are you guys leaving?" Hearing Clint's question, I raised my head in confusion. What the hell was he talking about? I turned to Thor instinctively and he only looked at the four empty meal baskets in front of him.

"Tomorrow," Thor responded.

"I'm sorry, what's going on?" I asked. Steve put his hand on my forearm in reassurance but I kept my gaze on Thor. He returned my look slowly, his blue eyes peeping at me from behind that curtain of blonde hair, and I could swear that he was on the verge of tears. "You're leaving?" I whispered, my voice not wanting to get much louder than that. I heard Tony shoo away our waitress in some misguided attempt to keep our conversation private.

Thor nodded at me slowly. I sank back into my chair and made a noise that might've been a sigh. Of course, I'd always known that Thor couldn't stay on Earth. It would've been stupid for me to assume that. He had an immense amount of duties in Asgard and was set to one day become their king. His father had used a lot of energy to get Thor here while they were building a new Bifrost. It would've been naïve to assume he'd stay. But why wasn't he going to see Jane before he left? Why was he leaving so soon after our victory? Why would he leave Loki behind? Wait…

"Why?" I asked, even though my mind had already figured it out.

"Loki stands to face Asgardian justice," Thor said. "It will be better for him if he is not here." I pressed my lips together sharply.

"And the cube needs to go," said Tony. "We discussed it earlier and we think it would be safer in Odin's treasure room or whatever Thor called it."

"I guess I understand that," I responded. I remembered thinking to myself that the tesseract shouldn't be in human hands and S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't be trusted after that debacle with Phase 2. There genuinely wasn't a secure place to keep it. I understood that. And I did understand that Loki had to go back to Asgard. I'd thought of that at one point too, how that would likely be his punishment. How Thor had said that Loki needed to come home and how I'd tried to encourage him to go home too, to fix things. It didn't add up to me that it was actually happening. "People will come for that cube, Thor. You just remember that." Thor nodded at me and I pushed the rest of my fries away from me. "You're not gone forever, are you?" I asked. Thor clenched his jaw before answering.

"I will return but I cannot pretend to know when," he said. It was my turn to nod and then I pushed away from the table and moved to get up.

"When were ya'll planning on telling me?"

"It's not that we weren't going to," said Natasha.

"We just didn't wanna tell you until fifteen minutes before they left," said Tony. I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms. When I looked at Steve, he didn't say anything. In fact, he hadn't said anything this entire time. I was trying to talk myself down from being angry because I knew this needed to happen but my emotions were running wild.

"I wanna see him," I said. Tony's eyes widened and Clint responded with a shake of his head.

"That's not a good idea," said Clint. "He's being detained… with Asgardian metal." I silently questioned how Thor had conjured that up. "He's gagged, Charlotte. He's a prisoner." Gagged? What the hell did that mean?

"Clint, where at in this conversation did you get a hint that I give a damn about any of that?" My voice was raised now and none of them wanted to interrupt me. "You take me to him and you let me speak to him before they leave."

After a moment of silence, Clint responded. "Alright. But don't listen to a word he says. If there's a time he's going to lie to get out of a situation, it's going to be right now."

The rest of the meal passed in relative quiet aside from everyone discussing where they were going to live now that our apartment had been destroyed. Thor didn't comment as he was returning to Asgard. Tony would immediately start repairing Stark Tower and that would give himself, me, and Bruce a place to stay. I only nodded when he included me in that equation. Tony wants everyone to think he's an asshole but secretly, he's a good guy. And by doing this, he was looking out for me. Clint and Natasha were fine with the barracks that were unused in S.H.I.E.L.D. and Steve would worry about finding a place later. Apparently, he already had a new mission assigned.

I didn't know how I felt about that but it wasn't my place to comment anyway. Maybe that was the reason Steve had been silent most of the night. I expected it wouldn't be long until Natasha and Clint were called out on missions too. But Clint promised me that he would help me train before he did anything else and I trusted him to keep his word. Loki wouldn't be the last threat and since S.H.I.E.L.D. had finally honored me with a bodysuit, I thought it was eminent that they wanted me to become a serious agent. But that would have to happen on my time.

When we left and headed back to the facility, I felt lightheaded and full of nausea, which might've had something to do with my stitches. But I thought it was connected to ambiguity about Thor and Loki leaving. I knew that the both of them had things to settle in Asgard, Thor and his duties and Loki and his daddy issues but I wasn't sure how either of those things was going to go. Loki would be severely punished and I had no clue how they handled prisoners there. Was torture a thing? And how long would they be gone? Gosh, I may never actually see Loki again. I could be forty by the time Thor gets back.

"You're gonna protect him when you get back there, right?" I whispered over at Thor. Steve was behind us and I knew he had heard me because he clearly perked up at the sound of my voice.

"Do not worry for him, Charlotte," Thor responded in a quiet voice. Well, as quiet as Thor could ever be. "But Loki has done grave things to this realm, things he must pay for. He has done grave things to you." I bit my lip. "I will watch out for him but he may not be unscathed." The breath I'd been holding choked out.

"I know he deserves it but I don't want either of you gone. He just told me…"

"I heard him and those feelings will not change, not for my brother. You are the one who needs to figure out feelings." I knew he was right but I couldn't bring myself to respond. I just glanced at Steve and felt guilty.

Once back at headquarters, I followed the six of them into the building. For a second, I lifted my S.H.I.E.L.D. t-shirt to look at my stitches but dropped it just as fast. The sight of my own blood was never not going to disgust me and even though the wound wasn't severe, it sure wasn't pretty. "Are you still sure about this, Charlotte?" Clint asked. I narrowed my eyes.

"Absolutely," I responded, shrugging out of my jacket slowly. I glanced at my now exposed right arm. Bruises that almost spot on resembled finger marks were on my forearm, a result of Loki grabbing me before I fell to my death.

"What are you gonna get out of it?" asked Tony.

"I might never see him again, Tony, and he saved my life. I think I owe him a farewell." Thor looked grim and Steve only nodded. He had yet to say anything to me. "Where is he?"

"We'll take you to him," said Natasha, "but if you try anything, we won't hesitate."

"And here I thought everyone was done assuming that I'm an international terrorist." Tony choked back a laugh. "You can trust me but I really need to speak with him." I found that I couldn't even say Loki's name.

Natasha only nodded, still standing her ground, and I followed them through the underground alleys that made up S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. Things were whirring and whizzing, obviously a result of what had happened when one of the serpentine Chitauri knocked the top part of our building down. Other agents were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, examining cameras and computers, checking miniscule damage to equipment. I even saw one person designing a way to repair the quinjet that had gone down with Steve, Natasha, and Clint inside. But my eyes fixed on the screen Maria Hill was staring at in the middle of the room. She was watching Loki.

We went through several more hallways, each one darker than the last, and I found myself wondering if I'd ever even been in this part of the facility before. Then we arrived in front of a dark metallic door. It resembled the one Steve had twisted off it's hinges so we could break into the storage room but I knew that this door could probably withstand a lot more than that. It was almost comical to look at the three locks that were securing that it was shut. I tilted back when I saw the hall light reflect on a window near the door. When I moved toward it, I recognized that we were in front of a high tech holding room. My breath sucked in when I looked through the glass.

I heard Clint fumbling with some keys but I stayed put. Loki looked terrible. He had always been pale but his skin seemed to be losing color by the minute and it almost looked like he was sweating. His green eyes had taken on some bluish quality that was incredibly unnatural and he was staring all over the room, like he was searching for the hidden cameras. His hands were cuffed with some sort of huge shackles and the chain between them was abnormally long. It was part of the Asgardian metal that Clint had referred to. But it wasn't the weirdest part. Loki was gagged, just like they'd told me, but it wasn't in the conventional way. Some sort of Asgardian metal had been made to completely cover his mouth and maybe secure on the back of his neck. I couldn't tell at this angle. At that moment, he snapped his head and faced the window, his hands flattening on the table in front of him, and I backed away. It was like he knew I was there.

I turned around and found myself facing another high tech holding room but this one held only a table… and the scepter. When my eyes connected with it, I felt like I'd never wanted to touch anything as badly as I wanted that spear. The blue at the end of it echoed the color eking into Loki's green eyes and it pulsed as I kept watching it. "Charlotte." Steve brought me out of my staring contest with the staff when he touched my arm. I turned back.

"Where's the cube?" I asked. Aside from the spear, the tesseract was the most important piece. I didn't doubt that it was secure.

"It's being placed in a container to help transport Loki and Thor back to Asgard," said Bruce. I nodded and crossed my arms to keep my hands from shaking.

"Am I authorized to be doing this?" Maybe that was something I should've thought of earlier but it only became worrisome when I saw that Maria had been watching Loki.

"Nobody's authorized to be doing this which is why it's a bad idea," said Natasha.

"Well, that answers that," I said, more to myself than to the group.

"We'll see if we can buy you some time anyway," said Steve. "He might offer up something we need to know," he said when he noticed the looks he was getting from Tony and Natasha. The fact that Steve was really the only one truly for this made me feel guilty all over again.

"You don't know how much I appreciate this," I said. My voice sounded bland and tired but I was being genuine. If this was the last time I got to see Loki, then at least, I got to speak with him. "Now before I go in, somebody needs to tell me what the hell is going on with him. He looks sick. And why is he gagged?" The metal thing across his mouth reminded of one of the legends about Loki; how he was a silver tongue and tricked people with words so they sewed his mouth up. Maybe I'd answered my own question. But I didn't know how true that legend may be.

"My guess for why he looks sick is because he's scared," said Steve. That was probably true. Loki didn't want to go back to Asgard. He'd made that plain. But scared wasn't a word I'd ever thought of in conjunction with Loki. But even Thor said he was; that Loki was terrified when he woke up on Earth and clung to me because I was kind.

"I'm sure that has something to do with Bruce," said Tony, slyly while he nudged Bruce. It was no secret that the Hulk had done some damage to Loki. There was a cut across the bridge of his nose and a minor one on his bottom lip and when we'd found him, Loki was lying in a crater in the floor.

"He's been away from that scepter a pretty long time too," mentioned Natasha. "Didn't you say it was really related to the tesseract?"

"It was a theory but I guess it was true," I responded. "But that makes me think about that other alien, the one that lent him the army. Thanos, right?"

"God, I had forgotten about that," said Clint.

"Me too," said Steve.

"It is the tesseract he wishes for," said Thor. "It will be secure in Asgard and Loki will be as well."

"That doesn't mean he's not gonna attack us anyway," said Tony. "But whatever. We've never seen the guy and Loki only mentioned him once to get into Charlotte's good graces. How do we even know that he exists?"

"Why would you think he wouldn't?" I asked. "There was no reason for him to lie to me about that."

"There was really no reason for him to lie to you at all but he did it anyway."

"I'm not gonna argue with you. Just let me talk to him, okay?" Clint set to undoing the locks one at a time and I took a deep breath to calm myself down before entering. Loki jolted at the sound by the door and stared at it suspiciously. "Thanks again," I said as Clint gripped the door handle. I made eye contact with Steve before the door opened. Loki slid his chair back in a knee-jerk reaction when he saw what was behind the door, his eyes wide. I turned behind me, knowing it couldn't have been me who caused such a reaction, and saw that Bruce was standing slightly to my left and was the only other person besides myself who was visible. Tony tried to hold back a laugh and failed. It amused Tony to no end that Loki had had his ass handed to him by the Hulk.

I stepped inside the room slowly and heard the heavy door clang behind me. The room was sparse. In fact, the only furniture it had was the office table Loki had been sitting behind when he was looking through the one way mirror and the chair he was sitting on. Loki still had the back of his chair against the wall and seemed to want to scramble away from me. I put my hands up in a joking sort of manner before I finally spoke to him. "I'm not here to hurt you. Neither is Bruce," I said. "I'll be the only person who comes in." He visibly relaxed when I said the word 'only.' Was he scared of the other Avengers too right now? Maybe not, maybe he just wanted to be alone.

I slowly made my way towards him, my hands still slightly raised to show that I didn't mean him any harm. When I lowered my hands, he relaxed further. The fingers of my right hand traced the edge of the office table until I bent in front of him, resting on my knees. The table didn't fully block view of me from the window, I was certain, but that didn't really matter anyway. As I reached to ungag him, Loki jerked away from me. "Hey, calm down," I said quietly when I reached for him again. His eyes flashed dangerously at me, the hint of blue in them unnerving. Usually, it was me who was frightened when Loki was going to touch me, not the other way around.

I leaned forward, grimacing when my stitches stretched a little and his eyes softened. Well, maybe I should leave the mask on. I never realized how expressive his eyes were. I angled myself to make sure that my left side was babied and I leaned forward again while still crouching on my knees. My stomach grazed his legs and my chest rested on his lower abdomen while my hands reached beneath his hair to unfasten the metal gag. Loki stared at me the whole time, like I was doing something worth note, and when I clicked the mask, I saw his eyes widen. I pulled it away from his face slowly and rested back on my heels, throwing the metallic thing on the table beside us.

"Are you alright?" I asked, as he was bringing his hands up to touch his face. I tried to resist leaning forward again when his eyes fixed on me. I pressed my hand to one of his knees. His long fingers were tracing his lips like he'd forgotten they were there and I wondered how long he'd been gagged like that.

"I am… fine," he finally responded. His voice didn't sound as smooth as it normally did and I knew mine didn't either. My voice sounded choked out and tired and even bland; a far cry from the usual Southern charm I had. "Your side, how is it? I apologize for your arm." I looked at the bruises on my right arm again.

"You saved my life so it's fine and they sewed it up. I'll be alright," I said. "Do you feel okay?" I only asked because he looked sick and exhausted. Hell, maybe I did too, I wasn't sure. He slid one of his hands over mine and I felt the shocking cold of him mixed with the cold of that metal. I hadn't felt anything from it, not like I had from the spear or Thor's hammer. It was just staggeringly cold.

"I know I have looked better," Loki said. I wanted to say, 'Oh, that's not what I meant,' but it was. He looked feverish and I couldn't get over that his eyes might be changing color.

"Are you hurt?" I asked, phrasing the question differently a third time. He seemed wont to give me a straight answer. Loki looked toward the window, which appeared like a mirror to us, before he turned back to me. Clearly, the Hulk had really unnerved him.

"I am not in physical pain, no." My lips pressed together and I gripped his leg with my hand.

"I don't have long to be with you right now," I said. I knew it sounded desperate and I obviously must've looked it because Loki's lips parted and his eyes softened again. "Thor said you're leaving tomorrow." Loki nodded and I bent my head, getting choked up. "Will they hurt you there?"

"I do not know." His voice was close to breaking and I knew he was terrified, just like they'd said.

"Thor will make sure they don't. I asked him." I had looked back up and Loki only stared at me. Thor couldn't spare him from punishment. "I'll never see you again, will I?" Loki's eyes glimmered and I forgot about everything he'd done to Earth and done to me and done to Thor. Right here in this holding room, he was the most vulnerable I'd ever seen him and somehow, that eclipsed everything else.

"You may not, I will not lie to you," he said quietly as his hand let go of mine. I gulped before trying to say anything else.

"Well, if it is, then you ought to know that what you said to me on the balcony when you saved me, I feel that way too and I wish I could've stopped you from doing all this." I slid my hand up his leg farther, as he openly stared at me, and I leaned closer.

"Are they watching us?" Loki asked, his eyes moving from me to the window.

"I don't care," I said back desperately. Loki breathed out as he placed his hands to my face and slid to the floor in front of me. The chain linking his cuffs clinked as he engulfed me in a hold, pressing me close to him. I wrapped my arms around him and began to cry, no longer able to hold back all of the emotions of the day. "I'm sorry for everything. I'm so sorry," I muttered. He pushed me back only to put to his hands to my face. He shook his head at me, his eyes wet.

"It is I who should apologize to you. You took me in and you took care of me when I needed it most. I do not deserve what you have given me and I am genuinely sorry that I repaid your kindness with cruelty."

"No, I forgive you," I responded. Loki's expression changed before he responded.

"You said you do not have much time. I want to warn you of Thanos. Charlotte, do not take me lightly. You need to be safe. I did not conquer Earth as I wished and I do not have the tesseract. I promise you that he will come because he promised pain, he promised to hunt me down should I run. He will come here and he may come for you. You need to protect yourself. You need to stay with someone you trust. There is no hope for me concerning him."

"Why are you scared of him?" I asked.

"He is incredibly powerful. You would do well to be as scared of him as I am."

"What did he do to you?" Loki didn't make a face for me, nor did he seem to show any emotion.

"You have to trust me." I heard the door open behind us and I clutched Loki again and he buried his head in my neck. He pressed his lips to my skin once and pulled away from me. I left the room while Clint went to gag Loki once more.

My hands were shaking by the time I saw that only Steve was left along with Phil and Fury but I didn't show it. I raised my hands playfully and muttered, "If you're here to arrest me, then get it the hell over with." Fury only shook his head at me. "Then can we talk about this later? 'Cause I really don't wanna see anyone right now." Clint started locking the door after I heard it clang shut and pretended not to be listening.

"Kent, you need to start taking me and my orders seriously," said Director Fury. "You'll never be a good field agent with this attitude. This has to happen, as I'm sure you understand."

"I'm sorry; did you say a field agent?" Steve finally moved from the wall he'd been leaning against and he looked as confused as I felt.

"Agent Barton told us about your curiosity for training," said Phil, "and we know you have excelled in the field work thus far." I forced a laugh.

"That's different and you know it. It's a dream for someone like me to become a field agent. Why would you offer me that?" I found it curious that after all of their predispositions about me since the earlier incidents with Loki, they now considered me on par with Natasha and Clint. What had I done to earn that? Before meeting Loki and losing the important parts of my job, I'd really been a glorified secretary. With Steve, I'd been nothing more than some sort of an elementary school teacher. Sure, I'd been really trusted and I knew everything about the agents there but I'd never dreamed they'd want me to do field work.

"After the training, Agent Kent, you'll be more than qualified for it," said Fury. I glanced at Steve in disbelief. Could the two of us work together? Could we be a team?

"I, uh, I'll certainly take it seriously," I said. At any rate, training would distract me from Thor and Loki not being around and Steve being on random assignments.

"But I'll need to have a serious talk-through with you later. There are clearly some ground rules that need to be set and there are some things you probably ought to know." I nodded at Fury savagely. I wouldn't do anything to sabotage this. I'd never actually had my sights set on being a field agent but the fact that they trusted me enough to become one was phenomenal. "The only thing I'll tell you now is that you need to learn to not trust people who are in desperate situations." My lips parted a bit and I'm certain my eyes narrowed but Fury and Phil walked off before anything else could be said.

"He has some sort of audacity to tell me who I need to be trusting," I said.

"He's right, Charlotte," said Steve. Clint nodded as well.

"I told you not to listen to a word Loki said," said Clint. My mouth formed an 'o' in disbelief.

"So you're not even slightly worried that we could have another alien invasion on our hands?" I asked.

"He was desperate, Charlotte."

"He was probably trying to say anything he could to get out of returning to Asgard," said Steve. I had to admit that that could be a possibility but it was a severely slim one. The way he'd told me hadn't been him saying that we needed him on Earth to stop this. He just told me to protect myself.

"Whatever, it's seriously whatever," I responded, sounding almost bored with the conversation. "Can we just go to the barracks? I just need to go to bed." Steve only nodded and the three of us walked back the way we came, away from Loki and away from the glowing staff.

Everyone was staying at the barracks at least for the next couple of nights. Tony estimated that we'd be able to move into his building within the week because Pepper had immediately gotten people to start repairs and decorate guest rooms. I could only imagine what life would be like living with the science bros, as I liked to call Bruce and Tony. Bruce had really taken to Tony because Tony would joke with him. Everyone else seemed to walk on eggshells around him.

I collapsed onto the hard twin bed that was the bottom bunk to Natasha's top one. I shrugged openly. She and Clint would basically be living here when they weren't out on missions. How incredibly uncomfortable. I heard Thor moving in the bunk next door. No doubt, he was having trouble fitting onto the bed. It's not like he would sleep anyway. I knew I wouldn't be able to.

Laying down in the dark almost immediately made me succumb to crying again. I hated crying. I thought it was a sign of weakness but lately, I'd done it a lot. Staring at the bed above me, I silently vowed that I would give myself tonight to cry about it. From then on, I'd focus on anything else to keep my mind away from it. Easier said than done. Luckily, Steve would probably only be gone two weeks at the most. Assignments didn't take longer than that, did they?

I covered my face with my hands and smothered a groan before it escaped. Tomorrow morning the Avengers were escorting Thor and Loki to Central Park with the cube so that they could travel back to Asgard. I'd been invited along out of some sort of courtesy. I tossed in bed after remembering that and tried not to sob. Loki did deserve punishment. I wasn't denying that. But I was seriously hoping that he might be redeemed, that he could repair his damaged relationship with Thor. Maybe going to Asgard for punishment would bring him closer to Thor. That had to be what Thor was hoping for. I guess what my only problem with it was that Loki and Thor wouldn't be around and may not return for years, in Thor's case. Maybe never in Loki's.

After tossing around for what felt like hours, I fell into some semblance of sleep. It was after 9am when Steve roused me and handed me one of my favorite granola bars for breakfast. I had to give him a smile for that. Steve was nothing if not attentive to detail. I slowly got dressed in jeans and another S.H.I.E.L.D. shirt after rubbing some salve over my stitches. I fastened the watch Tony had given me to my wrist and arrived at the door out around the same time everyone else did. Loki and Thor were evidently already in their own vehicle and on the way so I rode with Steve on the back of his motorcycle while Clint and Natasha got their own car and Tony drove himself and Bruce in a convertible. I had grown to really adore motorcycles since my time driving one. Tony had even begun to kid me about getting one for myself.

Once there, Steve and I waited on the others to arrive. I pulled my cargo jacket tighter around me when Bruce and Tony pulled up. Steve said nothing even when Clint and Natasha were standing with us. I knew he was going to miss Thor and he left on his job in less than two days. I openly gulped when I saw Thor trudging up, Loki on his left side. Loki's hands were still cuffed with that long chain in between them and his mouth was again gagged with metal. Thor was carrying a glass container with turns on either end and the cube securely in the middle. It was glowing brightly, ready to be used.

Once we sort of gathered around them, Thor moved to say goodbye to each of us. I pretended not to notice how Loki's eyes dangerously flashed between all of us, all evidence of the fear he had yesterday gone. He wasn't someone who was about to go into submission. He almost looked like he still had something planned.

I moved forward after Thor had clapped Steve on the back and then embraced him as though they'd been friends for years. I hugged Thor close and felt myself come close to tears again. When Thor moved back, he touched our foreheads together like he had during the battle. With a surly hand on my neck, he said, "I cannot thank you enough for everything. You will always have a friend in myself, Charlotte Kent. And to be sure, Heimdall will always keep one eye on you." I grinned at him.

"I guess that's incentive for me to behave," I responded.

"Perhaps the next time I return, you will teach me to drive." I remembered when he'd asked me to teach him back when we went shopping downtown.

"Absolutely," I said over Tony's raucous disapproval. Thor nudged my head playfully before kissing my forehead.

"Take care of Jane."

"You can count on it." With that he finally moved away and I saw that Loki had been staring at us the whole time, probably grimacing if we could see beneath the mask. When I stood back beside Steve, I found myself wanting to cry again. I'd grown incredibly close to Thor in a short amount of time; not to mention the way things had happened with Loki. Between both of them being gone and Steve set to leave in a couple of days, I might have a mental breakdown.

Thor gripped the edge of the container with the tesseract inside and held the other end toward Loki. His green eyes seemed to lose their edge for a second, as he took in a last view of Central Park and then looked in my direction. My fingers were tracing my chin anxiously while my other arm crossed my abdomen. My lips quivered fast and I gave Loki a solid nod. He nodded back then took his end of the container and twisted. A blue light consumed the two of them and then it shot up toward the sky, leaving no trace that they'd ever even been there.

My fingers covered my full lips while they quivered again. "We'll, uh, we'll meet you back at the facility," said Clint. He and Natasha left and after Bruce prodded Tony for a second, the both of them started going back to the car. I turned to Steve immediately.

"We can go, I'm sorry," I said. "I was just sorta letting it sink in."

"No, I, uh, I was doing the same thing," he responded. When I looked up at him, I realized that maybe there was something else going on. "And I'm leaving tomorrow so it might very well be my last look at Central Park for a while."

"Oh, of course," I said. "Where are you going? When will you be back?"

"I'm not sure, to be honest. I was under the impression it would be something quick though, since they're not sending Clint or Natasha with me."

"Or they know you can handle it on your own." His expression softened then and I turned away. Tomorrow was way too soon. He'd barely relaxed from the Chitauri and now he was being sent off to do God knows what. "I don't want you to leave, not so soon after all this. Who's gonna help me with the press conferences?" I meagerly laughed.

"You do well enough on your own, as I see it." I gulped again.

"Well, if I don't get a chance with you alone again before you go, I just want you to know that I'm really, really sorry and I can't apologize enough for… for everything. I'm so confused and I know I had to have confused you." Steve grabbed my forearm and made me face him.

"We can talk about that when I get back. We'll have the time for it then and you need proper time to get over everything with him. I know I did." He had needed tons of time after waking up in this century. He needed to get over Peggy and all of the friends he'd lost. He'd been bitter and harrowed. Was that the way I was going to be now? "I got through it because I had you and you never gave me a full moment alone for months. I needed that." That was true but it had been my job.

"Yeah but you're not gonna be here to do that favor for me." He shook his head at me and some of his blonde hair fell loose from its hold.

"You don't need me to do that for you, Charlotte. Besides, Thor is right. Maybe being by yourself is what you need right now, to figure everything out." I nodded at him again, my eyes welling with tears.

"God, I'm sorry. I just don't want you to go on top of everything else. I knew all of this had to happen but it's still awful." Steve pulled me into an embrace and placed of his hand on the back of my head. I felt the tears begin to fall and I felt like I might be sick.

"You'll be fine," he said quietly. "You will be fine." When he kissed the top of my head, I barely felt it.

When we arrived back at S.H.I.E.L.D., I grabbed Steve before we went our separate ways when I had my meeting with Fury and Phil. "Hey, just promise me you'll be careful," I said, my voice sounding tired. He gave me a half smile.

"I promise I'll be careful." He sounded almost playful about it.

"I'm serious, Steve."

"So am I. You better be too. If Clint lets you shoot yourself with an arrow again…"

"That wasn't my fault," I said, somewhat laughing. "And you better not leave that vibranium shield here for any misguided reasons like you did that once." It was his turn to laugh.

"As I recall, it saved your life."

"You're right, it did and I never thanked you properly for it."

"You didn't have to." I heard someone behind me and I closed my eyes. "Seems like you're late for your meeting."

"I guess so. Good luck." I hugged him again and I tried to suck some of the warmth he always had into my skin. I felt like I wanted to say something else but I didn't know what that might be. As I watched him walk away, I felt my heart sink. When I turned back, Maria was there to escort me to the meeting room.

I rubbed my eyes as if I needed to stop being tired and I followed Maria silently. When I walked in and sat at the table, I leaned my head on my hand and waited for some imminent lecture. "Agent Kent," began Fury. I raised my eyebrows in anticipation, "I need to know if you would take training as seriously as you would have me believe. I'm not wasting the time and effort on you if you're just going to give up in two weeks."

"Well, Director Fury," I responded, "I'd be more than willing to give it a shot and yes, I am being incredibly serious. I was in over my head the last two times I was in the field and I was almost killed more times than I can count. The Asgardians aren't the only people out there, I'm sure you know that by now." He made a face, probably remembering when the Avengers had confronted him about Phase 2.

"I'm glad to see you're onboard with it. Agents Barton and Romanov should be able to help you in their own time and you're to get started on it immediately. That's an order, Kent, and one that I don't mean for you to take lightly. It's going to be exhausting and hard and more than likely, you'll come back with more injuries than you've had before. The stitches on your abdomen won't be the worst wounds you attain while being a field agent."

"Agent Barton will assess your strengths and weaknesses over time," said Phil. "You're never going to be a physical powerhouse so don't get your hopes up there but you are a phenomenal shot and that's what's got us interested in training you."

"A lot of people are good shots," I responded. "It still doesn't make sense that you would want me to go out on missions. Last I heard, you don't trust me. Why would you want someone like me being an agent for S.H.I.E.L.D.? I know you didn't swipe my record. I guess what I want is for you to clear that up." I shrugged back into my chair and waited for a response.

"You've more than proved yourself, Kent," said Fury, "and possibly, we were a little too harsh on you once you'd shown whose side you were on. You didn't have to go out in the field either time. You didn't have to interrogate Loki. But you did all that and more and that shows me that you're a worthy agent. If you want your old desk job back, you're more than welcome to it. We just thought you might want to do something more." I nodded, taking it all in. It was rare that Fury had ever given me a compliment before, especially not one that really flattered me like that.

"And I'm sorry to say it, Charlotte, but we're not swiping your record," said Phil.

"Well, I can live with that as long as neither you nor anybody else is taking me to jail," I said. "But I more than appreciate the comments, Director. When do I start?"

"As soon as you're well enough not to tear the stitches," said Fury. "Your medical bills have taken just about all of our funds." He gruffly laughed and I found myself smiling too. "There's just one thing that you need to understand about this, Kent. Your emotions cannot get in the way of your job. The people we send you up against will not hesitate to hunt down someone you care for and even if you think they're more than capable to handle it, you never really know for sure. Some of our other agents have learned that the hard way, as I'm sure you read in their files. Your emotions can be used against you in incredibly crafty ways. You don't need to be going up against an alien to be sabotaged that way."

"So what's the lesson here, sir?" I asked.

"One line will serve you the way it's served Romanov and Barton over the years. 'Love is for children.'"

Gosh, I cannot believe this fic is over. I've been writing it since November of last year and so many of you have stuck with it since that time. I really appreciate every bit of support I've gotten. I am going to write a sequel so keep your eyes out for that because I think it'll be sooner rather than later that I publish it (I've already got some stuff in my mind). So let me know what you would think about that and just let me know what you think in general! I know the ending's ambiguous but I wanted it to be cos of the sequel. I just really hope that you've enjoyed this story as much as I've loved writing it.

Edit: The sequel is up! So if you haven't seen it yet, it's Right Partner and you can just go right on my page to find it! I hope it gets the support that this fic has continued to get.