The time passes in silence, the team too tired to badger me, until SHIELD paramedics rush out of the elevator. The agents don't protest as I follow them into the quinjet. I am interviewed about Loki's physical state as they fuss over him. After I tell them anything I can think of that would be helpful, I am left out of the way to wait out the ride in silence. I am carefully watched by a single agent as I anxiously watch the doctors work.

My shoulder is shaken harshly and I awake to find my guard agent in front of me. Silently, he pulls me to my feet and leads me out of the plane. We are back on the helicarrier. I turn my head to watch the paramedics leave as we take a turn, the agent leading me down a different hall. After dizzying twists and turns, we stop in front of a simple door. The agent opens it and gently pushes me in.

Sitting at one of the small tables in the break room is Nick Fury, idly stirring his coffee. It's a strange sight, him all alone in a peaceful break room. He's still in his intimidating uniform and looks beyond worn out. I can't imagine what the helicarrier must have been like today after the attack.

I grab a banana off the counter and fill a glass with water before I sit across from him. "Long day, huh," I say to break the silence while I peel my fruit.

"We lost thirty-seven agents today," he says deadpan. I stare at my hands, trying to see my snack and not the face of the dead agent in the detainment room. "It will be days before we have a final count, but the attack on Manhattan has a casualty count in the hundreds." My breath hitches. My throat is closing up, and there's an uncomfortable weight in my chest.

I set the banana down. "I'm not going to feel guilty for something that's not my fault." It's a wish, or perhaps a promise to myself. But at the moment, my statement simply isn't true.

"You knew his plan," Fury growls.

"I knew you could beat it," I whisper. His face softens slightly when he sees the tears welling in my eyes. "Announcing I knew it was a mistake, an impulse in my desperation to help my family. But if the plan had changed, we might not have made it. It was too close as it was."

"You tricked him."

I look away. "I had to. All those people . . . . The best I could do for them was to keep everyone else safe."

"But how did you know his plan?"

I turn back to him. "I, um, I think I'm from a different dimension or something. Because for me, this was the plot of a movie."

He furrows his brows. "Pardon?"

"Where I'm from, there aren't any superheroes. This is a movie."

He leans in. "How did you get here?"

"I don't know. And I don't know how to get back. If anyone would know what is going on, it would be . . . ," I bite my lip while I think. "It would be Loki or Frigga."

"So we'll just have to wait until Loki wakes up."

I shrug. "I guess so. . . . I hope he can recover," I add, glancing toward the door.

"The movie didn't cover this?"

I sigh. "Things have . . . strayed."

Director Fury settles back into his seat. "Tell me everything about this film."

—

I am escorted to a small room that I will be staying in and left alone to contemplate my discussion with Fury. I went over the first Avengers film in detail and explained Loki's situation. I'm mostly sure I didn't give any information that could be used by Hydra.

I sigh and collapse onto the bed. Eventually, the same agent returns with a small dinner and some spare clothes. After eating, I clean up and change, then fall gratefully into blissful oblivion.

—

I roll over. The clock says 6:07. What the fudge am I doing up? Oh well, I'm awake now. I get up and stretch, frowning as I find that I'm dizzy. Ugh, I hate being without my meds.

I peek outside the door to find Agent Silent (I hadn't caught his name yet) waving some other agent off. They must be swapping shifts? I ask. He hums in confirmation, but I finally get a good angle of his badge: Agent Graves. Suiting. He hands me a few pill bottles. I smile and thank him, then hurry and take them. Going off these is bad. I return to find Agent Graves lounging in a chair outside my room.

"Can you show me to the cafeteria . . . or galley please?" He raises an eyebrow at me quizzically. "I'm sorry, I don't know ship lingo. But for whatever reason I'm awake now and I'm hypoglycemic." He shrugs and gets up, lazily heading down the corridor.

I pause for a second before rushing to catch up. "So, you're on babysitting duty, huh?" After a beat, he nods curtly. "I'm sorry; I'm pretty boring. I'm sure you'd rather be somewhere helpful." He doesn't respond. "My name is Paige, by the way."

"Uh huh."

"So, you're probably also supposed to glean more info from me, right?" He stops to study my face for a second before nodding again. "You should take Fury's approach and be friendlier with me, then. If you took advantage of my isolation and acted as a friend, I'd tell you all kinds of things," I muse. He looks over and frowns at me, but says no more.

Once we are seated in the galley, both with breakfast, I try to get him to talk. "I can't believe you didn't eat breakfast," I lightly reprimand. "It's the most important meal of the day!" I recite passionately. Graves just shakes his head and picks up a piece of bacon. I say a silent prayer, then follow suit. After a few more attempts at conversation, I give up, and we finish our meal in silence.

"I want to visit Loki," I say as I return my tray. I turn to look at Graves. "Is that allowed?" I know I'm not allowed to go anywhere without Graves — I'd get lost, anyway — but I don't know what other rules I have.

My guard just nods and leads me to the medical bay. As we walk, the halls grow increasingly busier and the agents more distracted with important tasks. I walk directly behind Graves to keep out of the way. Finally, we reach a door flanked by two agents on either side. Graves leads me inside.

We meet a doctor — I think she's one of the paramedics from before — examining the wounds on Loki's torso. Her hands are shaking slightly and her ponytail is ragged.

"Um, have you gotten any sleep?" I ask, concerned.

"When she turns, I see bags under her eyes. "Not since he arrived on Earth," she says tiredly, jamming a thumb toward her patient. I catch her name: Agent Parker.

"That's so long! Can I help?"

"You were with him when we picked him up, right?" I nod. She hesitates, then waves me over with a shrug. "We just need to change the dressings." Her breath smells of coffee. Her trembling hands show me how to apply the ointment on Loki's back and chest. I try not to wince at the wounds. Doctor Parker then walks me through proper bandaging. After we're done, Loki's whole torso covered in gauze, we lower him back down.

She removes her gloves. "We're severely understaffed right now. Do you think you can do this every morning and night, replacing the bandages every morning?" I nod. "Have you ever removed stitches before?" I nod again and point to my eyebrow. We both look to Graves. He kind of shrugs. Doctor Parker takes that as permission, thanking me and rushing out.

I look back at Graves. "I guess I'm on Loki-duty now?" He shrugs and takes a seat in one of the chairs against the wall, pulling a pencil and intermediate-level sudoku book out of his pocket. I pull the other chair over by Loki's bed and try to think of what to do until he wakes up.

I've mentally squared every number from zero to thirty when I hear the door open. I turn around to find Graves sitting a little straighter as Steve Rogers enters the room.

I wave. "Hello, Captain."

He nods. "Good morning, Miss Bauer."

I try to cover a laugh. "I'm nineteen. Call me Paige."

He smiles. "In that case, I'm Steve." The smile doesn't reach his eyes.

"How was shwarma?"

"It was fine." He hands me a satchel. I look inside to find two tablet computers with Stark logos and a few sets of earbuds. "A present from Stark. One for you and one for him." He nods toward Loki.

"I'll have to thank him! Thanks for delivering them!" I beam up at him, but he avoids my gaze. "Please tell me what's bothering you."

He looks up, a sheepish expression on his face. "Fury briefed the team on what you told him."

"I understand if you don't trust me. I wouldn't. I mean, I know stuff I shouldn't and there's no record of me."

"And you're defending the man that tried to take over Earth."

"Yeah, that too." I sigh and look over at then unconscious man.

"He seemed invincible when we were fighting him." Steve's voice softens. "What they must've done for him to be like this . . . ."

I frown. "I just hope he'll recover, physically and mentally."

"Do you really trust this man?" I look up to find Steve staring at me intently.

"I know he can't be blamed for recent events."

"But do you trust him?"

I don't actually know Loki. But I possibly have a grasp on his character. And I don't expect any ill from him. I choose my words carefully and meet Steve's gaze. "As much as I trust you." Which is as much as one can possibly trust a stranger.

Steve mulls it over before nodding solemnly and exiting the room. I sigh again before pulling out one of the Stark tablets and firing it up. I spend to next few hours fiddling with settings, customizing, and downloading some apps on both tablets. Graves never says a word, just works on his sudoku.

—

Someone slides up next to me and grabs the clementine I was about to put on my tray. Graves and I had decided (okay, the agent didn't actually speak, just hummed) that it was time for a lunch break, so we had returned to the galley. The figure lounges against the counter and plays with the clementine.

"How do you like the tablet?" Stark asks casually, jamming his thumbnail into the peel.

"It's awesome! Thanks so much!" I beam up at him before grabbing a new clementine and turning to survey the cafeteria for a seat.

Stark grabs a handful of clementines before simply telling me, "Come on," and walking over to a table near the window. I follow, and Graves sits at the table next to us, pulling his sudoku back out to work on while he eats. I'm starting to wonder if he's actually expected to learn anything from me or if he was just the only agent available to watch me. "Your babysitter seems pretty boring."

I finish my prayer before answering. "He doesn't say much."

Stark pops a clementine segment into his mouth. "So, what's the deal with you and Loki, huh?" I take a bite of my pizza, waiting for him to supply a better question. "First we see you, you're trembling at his feet, then later you're balling your eyes out over him."

I swallow and answer simply, "It was a long day."

"You gotta give me more than that, kid." He pops another piece into his mouth.

"Mind-controlled Loki was an intimidating threat to myself and all of Earth. Loki himself . . . isn't." I shrug.

"Do you feel you can relate to him or something?"

I take a minute to answer, partially to mull it over, but mostly to actually eat. "I suppose I do a bit. What's important is that he's someone I can help."

Stark frowns. "So you're one of those do-gooders."

"I try to be."

"And you have absolutely no clue how you got here?"

"Nope."

He scoots his chair back, the metal grating against the floor. "Boring." He then scoops up his remaining clementines and saunters off. I shake my head at the two shredded peels left on the table. And he calls me a kid.

—

Agent Romanoff enters as I am rewrapping Loki's bandages in the evening. She doesn't respond to my greeting. "A little tighter," she chips in after a minute.

"Thanks."

"Why are you doing a medic's job?"

"They're overworked right now and I'm not." I finish and turn to face her. From the corner of my eye I can see that Graves is a bit tense in the presence of the intimidating agent. "How are you doing? That battle was pretty rough."

"I've had worse," she answers evenly.

"How's Barton?"

"Not bad, considering he was a human puppet for a while there." She lets some vehemence color her tone. I examine my borrowed shoes, avoiding her hot gaze. "I'm holding you personally responsible for Loki's actions after he wakes up."

"That's not unfair," I say coolly as she spins on her heel and leaves. I give her a few minutes' head start before having Graves guide me back to my room.