When I woke up, I turned and crawled off of my couch. My phone said that it was ten minutes until 7. That gave me enough time to try to look presentable and get a coffee for Phil Coulson because I never finished those files last night. Phil wasn't my official boss but he was one of the main reasons I'd gotten my job at all and I figured impressing him was the best way to keep it.
I went to the bathroom and attempted to brush my thick curly hair. I was going to have to put it up, as much as I hated it. I waltzed into my room to find some appropriate work clothes and saw Loki sprawled out in my bed. I had forgotten I might wake him when I came in.
I had thought it many times already but wow, Loki really looked good. I tiptoed to my closet and pulled out a pencil skirt and a blouse. I loved the look of office clothes but they were by no means comfortable. I put the clothes on my dresser while I looked in the mirror to pull my hair back. As I was putting it up, I heard something.
"Leave it down," I heard someone say. I turned, a little startled and saw Loki looking at me from the bed. I dropped my hair. He smiled. "It looks better that way."
"I'm glad someone likes my hair. It's such a mess," I said back, this time trying to apply the little make up I had. "Well, I should be back around 6 tonight, maybe earlier if I can snag it and then we can get you some clothes."
"Thank you for this," he said genuinely. I was a little taken aback at how kind he was being. Originally, he had seemed to really think of me as less than him but hey, that could change. He knows he's stuck here for awhile and I've been nothing but nice.
"You're certainly welcome," I replied. I grabbed the files I hadn't finished and my purse and headed to my Jeep. I needed to get some coffee for Phil. It just so happened that Starbucks was on the way to my building so I breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully, this cup of java would be enough so that I didn't have to make up some excuse as to why I didn't finish those files. Still, maybe coming up with an excuse was a good idea as a back up plan.
I got the coffee and parked my Jeep in front of the tall office building. I walked in and got on the elevator. Then I saw Tony Stark approaching the elevator. I quickly maneuvered myself to hit the "close doors" button. I was not in the mood for him this morning. I hit the button three times but he caught the door anyway. I mentally screamed. He was so irritating.
"I saw that," he said as he moved to stand right beside me, not offering me much personal space. I rolled my eyes a bit. "If I didn't know any better, I would think you don't wanna see me." I faked a smile.
"When don't I want to see you?" I responded quietly.
"What's the coffee for? Coulson? You're being slack again, Charlotte?" I turned and I glared at him. All of the Avengers knew how completely overworked I am but Tony is the only one who ever actually crucified me over not finishing something at home.
"I don't think that's any of your business." I turned and looked at the numbers slowly ticking on the screen above the buttons. The elevator was taking a long time today.
"I bet you… let's say, 20 bucks that you'll trip on something and fall today."
"You mean, that you'll get Clint to trip me as soon as I get off the elevator? Tony, I didn't know you were so desperate for cash." As a matter of fact, I did fall every now and then at work. Office buildings have terribly smooth carpets and none of the heels I owned had much traction. It was maybe a once a week thing.
"Oh, today's gonna be the day." I rolled my eyes and got off the elevator. Today sure as hell wasn't going to be the day because I needed to-
Next thing I knew, I was on the floor, Phil's coffee spilled on the carpet. This fall had hurt me too, I could already tell that my hip was going to act up after this. "Told ya," said Tony. I bit my lower lip and pushed myself up. Luckily, the coffee hadn't spilt on my gorgeous golden pencil skirt. "You do always trip with grace. I guess they taught you that at debutante school."
"They also taught me how to break someone's nose," I responded, now on my feet but still a little shaky. Now I had nothing to bribe Phil with. I also noticed that I tripped where it was possible that everyone saw me. I could see Clint laughing, Natasha pursing her lips, Bruce was pretending not to look, and Steve appeared to be a little concerned. At least someone cared about my well being. "I can't believe this happened today. This is so embarrassing."
"Stop being so shy," said Tony. "You know us all by now."
"You're superheroes and I'm a klutz so tell me how that's not embarrassing." I had to admit, that even though Tony really irritated me, he was one of the few agents at S.H.E.I.L.D. that I felt comfortable around. I could barely speak to Natasha without getting flustered because she's fairly intimidating and I had read her file. Clint and I got on okay, mostly because he and Tony rarely left me alone but he wasn't as annoying as Tony was. I'd never carried on an actual conversation with Bruce or Fury and that didn't really bother me. Steve was easily the Avenger I liked the most but he was as awkward as I was with social interactions. The difference between us on that front being, where I would ramble and talk for unnecessary amounts of time, he wouldn't say much at all. I guess I got on with Steve best because I was the agent assigned to help him acclimate to this time period.
I walked to my cubicle with Tony hot on my heels and for some reason, it just felt like everyone was watching us. Of course, Tony had the cube across from mine and Clint had one beside me. I couldn't escape them. As soon as I sat down and started up my computer, I started rattling my brain for an excuse as to why I hadn't finished working last night. I went out with friends? Oh, he'd never believe that. I don't have any friends. I was feeling sick so I went to bed early? That was a nice choice. Or I could just tell him the truth. I'm letting a potentially dangerous being stay in my house and I took him from the desert last night so that Phil couldn't find him.
That gave me pause. Had anything registered on their charts last night? I stood and looked above my cube. Everyone had gone back to work so no one would notice. I sat back down and logged in, attempting to find in my database whether they had known anything happened in the desert last night or whether they knew it had anything to do with Thor. While I was searching, I heard someone approach me. If it was Tony, he was going to pay for irritating me right now. I was trying to cover my tracks.
I turned, attempting to cover my computer screen in case anything was coming up and I saw Steve. I breathed a sigh of relief and moved away from protecting my computer. He wouldn't even understand what I was searching for.
I looked up at him. He was another person that made me feel like a hobbit. He was so incredibly tall. "I'm sorry but can I get back to you in a few minutes?" I asked, turning back to my computer screen. It was disconcerting to look at him for too long because I honestly felt that out of all of the Avengers, Steve looked the most like an actual superhero on a day-to-day basis. Maybe it was just the way he was built, I wasn't sure.
"I was coming to give you a heads up. Coulson wants those files from yesterday," I froze, "so I figured you needed the extra time to get them sorted," he responded. Bless his heart. Usually he said stuff like this just to have an excuse to move away from his cube and it was rather annoying how many times during the day he would do it but today, I really appreciated it.
"Thank you so much," I said. He smiled and nodded before turning to walk away. "Steve!" I whispered anxiously. He turned back to me, confused. I hadn't originally planned on doing this but clearly, none of the excuses I was coming up with were good ones. "I'd be lying if I said I finished these files last night." I rummaged through my huge purse and pulled them out. They were so unorganized. "I need an excuse for why I didn't get them done."
"Well, why didn't you get them done?" he asked. I knew he was just wondering what reason I could possibly have that wasn't a good one but I just gave him a pained look, one that expressed how horribly overworked I am and he nodded. "I'll just say me and you did something last night." I nodded back, considering it. It went kind of hand-in-hand with my "hanging out with friends" excuse that wasn't at all believable because I had no friends.
"Yeah, yeah, that's a good one! We'll just say that we hung out last night," I replied. All in all, it wasn't completely out of left field. Since I had actually been the agent that was responsible for helping Steve get into the groove of things in 2011, it wasn't too weird that I'd have to be around him to continue explaining stuff. That's what I could claim it was. "Like you had some questions about some things I needed to explain to you? Was that what you were thinking?"
"Sure," he said a little skeptically. We didn't have time to sort out a better plan because at that moment, Phil walked up.
"Fury's asking for those files from yesterday, Charlotte," he said to me quickly. We all answered to Fury in one way or another.
"I need another day, Phil. I didn't have the time to finish them when I got home," I said, practically whispering. He was going to get mad no matter what my excuse was and I didn't want everyone to know that I hadn't done my job fully.
"What exactly were you doing that was so much more important than what was due today?" he asked calmly. I could tell he was angry about it but was trying to keep it contained.
"She was with me," said Steve. I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe he would do the bulk of the talking for once and I could dodge this bullet. "I had some questions about things now and she helped me and it took longer than expected so it was completely my fault." I turned and looked up at him. He didn't need to go the extra mile and take total blame for it, especially when he wasn't involved in what happened last night at all.
"I don't know if I can buy another day," said Phil, looking between me and Steve.
"I can get it done right now, if you really need it within a couple of hours," I said.
"Then you're going to have quite the workload tonight. But yes, I need those files finished as soon as possible. Have Natasha bring them to Fury as soon as you're finished with them." I exhaled strongly.
"Fine," I said. I didn't need the extra work tonight when I needed to get Loki some clothes. He couldn't stay trapped in my house while I was at work. That would be just cruel.
"Your work with Steve does come first," said Phil to me quietly, "but I can't hold off Fury when you aren't finishing files. But I'm glad you're taking explaining things to him, seriously. That's a whole other job in itself." I appreciated the words of encouragement but now I had to do so much more than I thought I would.
Phil left and I ran my fingers through my hair with my face in my hands. "They really do work you too hard," I heard Steve say.
I rolled my head back and looked up at him. "You didn't need to take the whole bullet for me, you know? Saying it was totally your fault… you didn't need to do that."
"It's the least I could do. You've helped me plenty."
"Yeah, but that's my job," I said. It didn't really feel like one but I had been paid extra for taking him under my wing and briefing him on stuff he had missed.
"Like I said, they work you too hard." With that he walked away and I went back to searching on my computer for any evidence of Loki's arrival in the desert. It was looking like they'd blocked that part of the database from me and I almost openly cussed. The scientists must be the only ones who could see things like that. If I had any extra time, however unlikely that may be, I could call Jane and ask her if her monitors had read anything. Actually, I could probably even confess to finding Loki to her and she might not tell.
I went to working on the files when I heard someone come up behind me. "You working on those files you didn't do last night?" Of course, it was Tony.
"You caught me," I said, joking a little but still focusing on the papers in front of me. What the heck were Skrulls? Why didn't I do this yesterday?
"You let poor old innocent Captain America take the blame for you." I turned with my mouth open. You couldn't say anything here without someone overhearing. "Oh, we all saw it. I certainly wouldn't have done that for you."
"That's because you're not a nice person, Iron Man, if we're calling everybody by their superhero names."
"Hmm… what is yours, Charlotte? Oh wait, that's right. You don't have one." I shrugged.
"You really think that that insults me?" Tony raised his eyebrows and went to sit at his cube. I kept an eye on him and Clint as I pulled my cell phone out of my purse. I was going to call my house and check on Loki… if he even knew how to answer a phone. I was using my cell instead of my desk phone mostly because I knew S.H.I.E.L.D. monitored who they called and they might find it suspicious. Wow, having Loki around was making me freaking paranoid.
I dialed the number and as it was ringing, I stood and did a sweep of the cubicles like I had done earlier. Perfect, no one was up. I heard the phone pick up but nothing was said. "Hello?" I whispered.
"Hello," Loki whispered back. I choked back a laugh. He didn't understand that he didn't need to whisper too.
"It's Charlotte, how are you?"
"I'm doing well, exploring your house. How are we speaking to each other?" He was still whispering and I tried not to laugh.
"It's called a phone," I said anxiously. I saw Clint turn and raise his eyebrows. He was probably wondering who in their right mind doesn't know what a phone is? Was I harboring a third world person at my house? "Listen, it's gonna be late tonight so what size are you?"
"Excuse me?" he questioned sassily. I rolled my eyes. Men were all the same no matter where they came from.
"What size of clothes are you? Oh, you probably don't know what that means. I'll figure something out. Don't trash my house!" I whispered and hung up. Clint was still looking at me weirdly and I just smiled at him and went back to work.
