Broken Minds

The following morning I woke to the sound of someone pounding on my door waking me from my restless nights sleep. After my session with Loki I immediately left Agent Coulson and turned in for the night not wanting to see anyone. I filled in my notes adding the fact that family was a sore subject for him and maybe I needed to push a little further. Clearly this was the reasoning behind his anger, or more to the point Thor was. I opened the door seeing someone I hadn't expected, "hello Steve." I couldn't help but smile at seeing him.

"Good morning." He looked down and then returned his eyes suddenly to my face while a light tinge of pink crossed his cheeks. I looked down at myself realizing I had only slept in a sports bra and booty shorts.

"What brings you to my door so early?"

"It's actually the afternoon."

"That explains the amount of light in the room." I laughed feeling foolish looking back at the sunlit window. When I looked back Steve was looking at my neck with a scowl.

"He hurt you." His gentle hands touched the sore skin tenderly making me gasp lightly from the contact. "Sorry."

"You didn't do this so don't apologize." I took his hand and squeezed it before letting it go where it fell to his side.

"We were watching though and the director prevented us form leaving. Tony was the most upset, he nearly knocked Fury out to get past him." I chuckled imagine the scene in my head.

"I told Fury not to let anyone interfere Steve. I need his trust and hopefully I have at least a small shred of it now. Hopefully." The last part I muttered more to myself than to him.

"It shouldn't cost you your life."

"Like this isn't endangering your life also?" I saluted him in mockery but he took it lightly as he returned the gesture. "Was there a reason to this wake up call?"

"We were starting to worry, but mostly Director Fury wanted to speak with you whenever you're ready."

"I guess that means I have to put on something a bit more appropriate." His cheeks reddened again but he kept his eyes linked with mine proving he was the only gentleman left in the world. "Thank you Steve."

"Anytime." He smiled before walking away from the door and I made a mental note that he turned left down the hallway. I showered quickly not knowing the urgency of Director Fury's attention but I felt odd. Never had I generally allowed myself to sleep past ten nor had my body. Everyone had those days I guess.

Turning left at the hallway Steve went down an hour earlier i was vaguely developing a sense of the aircraft's layout. I passed several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that nodded in my direction but none said a word. Making my way past a familiar set of windows I saw Doctor Banner and peeped my head inside, "hello Doctor."

"Hello Doctor." He smiled ushering me to come inside. "You know you can just call me Bruce right, no need for the formalities."

"Any luck on finding the tesseract?" I sat in one of the only chairs present in the room as he moved the screen he was looking at upwards.

"Yes because you're psychology doesn't appear to be working."

"You know Banner she may not turn green and destroy things when she gets angry but I still wouldn't advise it." His voice dripped with amusement as he strode across the room setting his hands on my shoulders.

"The only person who ever seems to make me mad is currently standing behind me." I looked up seeing Tony's face glaring down at me.

"That shirt's awfully revealing don't you think?"

"No one is supposed to be standing behind me looking down." I crossed my arms covering my chest. "Especially not my brother you sicko."

"Sicko is that a technical term?" He pulled another chair beside me and sat down.

"Is now." I smiled and Bruce shook his head at our sibling squabble as he worked on a table set monitor. "You guys have so many computers in here." I looked around noticing something I hadn't spotted somehow. Perched on a table glowing a light blue was Loki's scepter. It felt strange having it be so open in case anything were to happen.

"How is your neck?" Tony surprised me by asking, not that he didn't care but it wasn't like him.

"Fine. I just don't know if I'm making any progress with him."

"Clearly you made him angry yesterday. Isn't that usually a good thing for you?"

"Sometimes but with him I would say yes. It means I broke something inside of him and perhaps now he'll begin to talk to me. I don't expect him to pour his heart to me or reveal where the tesseract is but I'm hoping I'll get at least something to work with."

"Are patients usually difficult?" Again I was surprised at Tony's interest.

"Depends on the severity of their condition. Loki is not a human, there are perhaps hundreds of years worth of damage done to his self esteem."

"Which means?"

"His hatred for Thor and as it seems all of Asgard has had an abundance of time for these feelings of worthiness and indignation to grow inside him."

"So?"

"So it always take more time to undo one's thoughts of life to get him to release the source of his anger."

"So he's permanently damaged?" Tony pushed himself away from the table still in the chair as he went to monitor that began flashing red.

"He is not damaged Tony. He's unlike any case I've had. Most people have something erroneous with them mentally, in most cases they were born with it. He is completely competent though and knows that his actions are wrong. He only wants to be admired, through fear and obedience."

"Too bad he picked the wrong race to fuck with."

"This is much more difficult than I anticipated I won't lie." I shook my head starting to think I should really be talking to Loki right now, "I've been more into clinical studies lately. I was actually in the middle of working on a case study at Carnegie Mellon University on visual perception systems and if they unconsciously affects our preferences."

"Impressive." Tony sarcastically made a face behind the monitor.

"Well with that I remembered I needed to see Director Fury." I nodded to Tony while I pushed myself up from the chair, "I'll see you around Bruce."

"You'll get him." He smiled returning his attention to the monitor.

"I hope so." Rubbing my temples I walked down the hallway heading for the headquarters room that was straight ahead. I wondered if these people ever changed shifts as the same faces stared at the screens observing the status of the plane. One man however was playing Galaga and I laughed silently to myself. Director Fury was speaking to someone on the monitors surrounding him so I waited patiently for a few minutes.

"We have everything under control." He barked rather loudly causing him to get several more people's attention outside of myself. The screens went see through signaling his conversation was done and he looked irritated. "Miss Stark."

"You wanted to see me sir?" I was startled by him knowing my presence when I was standing behind him.

"Come." His appearance and authority intimidated me so I obeyed quickly. We sat at the table and he slid another small stack of papers across the black surface. "How is your progress?"

"Good, but I don't know if the timeline is as fast as you would like."

"These are the locations we have discovered Loki's agents in the past three days." I flipped through the pages seeing the doctor Loki took control of holding a briefcase. "The tesseract is inside that case."

"Have you developed a pattern to these locations?" I went to the next seeing another young looking man, not much older than myself wearing a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform. "A rogue agent?"

"No he is one of the best I have. Agent Barton, another one of Loki's slaves."

"Sorry."

"I just need you to get that information so we can get them back."

"I'm doing what I can sir." I felt more uneasy under his gaze than Loki's as his one dark brown eye stared me down.