NEW YORK- 1245 HOURS

"I will give you one last chance, Stark," Loki sneered, "you will tell me all you know of the mission." He kept his face completely straight and breathed deeply to calm himself down. This technique had been taught to him by a rather surly colleague as a way to calm himself in the absence of anti-psychotics. It barely worked.

Tony offered him the whiskey one more time and Loki ignored it, "it's an active Avengers mission, I can't tell you even if I wanted to." Agent Hill kept a close eye on him from her post halfway across the room, dangerously close to the Panic button. He kept an eye on her too on the basis that bullets hurt.

"And you don't want," he screwed up his face.

"Bingo."

The snide remark and twisted smirk made Loki seethe, "you will give me answers even if I have to beat them out of you."

"Are you threatening me, Lokes?" Tony slapped his shoulder and walked away back towards the elevator in his lab. Loki took a glance towards the floor to ceiling plate glass window of his lab.

"Threatening is such a vulgar word. I prefer intimidating."

"You don't scare me and you never have," Tony met his icy gaze without so much as flinching, "and you know I can't tell you anything." He took a sip.

He gritted his teeth, choosing to take a slightly different approach, "I have security clearance."

"A SHIELD security clearance," Tony quipped, "SHIELD, you know, that terrorist organization? I don't answer to you."

"Does that mean your pet over there does not have privy to your operations?" Loki sneered, "for I know that she has never stopped being Fury's lapdog."

"Don't push it, Pal."

"How would you like to be beaten to death with your own arms?" Loki grabbed Tony by the collar, and Hill jumped for the security switch. He outstretched his free hand and the security button froze over. "I need answers," Loki sneered, a mad yet dewy look in his eyes, "I have to know why. Tell me!"

"B was my friend too, Loki."

"Friend?" Loki hissed, "Friend?" this time he was louder, "she was hardly your friend, Anthony. She was merely your experiment! To you she was an experiment- and- and a marketing tool for your cybernetics program," tears began to develop in the corners of his eyes, "you call me the monster, the terrorist-," he sniffed, his face reddening, "It's you, Antony," Loki's grip tightened around his neck, "you can no longer count me as a friend, Anthony." he prepared to throw Tony, well aware that Maria Hill had a gun pointed directly at his back, and he didn't care, "prepare to die."

"I can't tell you anything because I don't know," Tony shouted, "nobody knows. International law's forced us out of Latvaria. We don't know what blew up, and we don't know what was being developed in there."

Loki stared at Tony for a moment before placing him back on his feet, "was that so difficult to say?" he backed away a few steps, well aware that the pistol was still trained on him. He disappeared in a haze of green.

"Damn," Tony said, rubbing his neck.

Hill smiled humorlessly, "how would you feel if Pepper was killed because of a decision he made?"

"Fair point."

WASHINGTON DC- 2002 HOURS

The rain fell around him as he sat alone on the park bench. Washington rarely had perfect days, but this day perfectly matched his mood, dark, dank and cold. He had settled Sophia to sleep early; she was both exhausted and trying to avoid Loki's cooking, and he sat outside the townhouse on the bench, watching the cars go past, the hazy streetlamp light shining off the water that splashed upward from the tires of the traffic.

"You're going to catch a cold," somebody came and sat with him. Loki didn't even look up. He knew exactly who it was, and at this point, he was finding difficulty in caring about anything.

"Go away," Loki said simply.

"Hill told me that you tried to kill Stark."

"He deserved it."

"I have no doubt."

"I was upset," Loki said, "and I want answers. I have been lied to all my life, all I want is the truth," he sighed, "I would turn to drink, but there is not enough alcohol on this planet to allow me to forget, even for a little while."

"And so you make threatening to kill people your favorite pastime?"

"I don't like baseball," He sighed, the puff of air turning to steam in the crisp air, his sigh turned into a choked sob, "what do I do, Phil?"

"Sophie needs you," Phil said, "her mom's gone, and her dad's a real ass. You're all she has."

"I know," he said, "I know I have to be strong for her. Weakness is not to be tolerated."

"I'd like to get my hands on whoever beat that into you," Coulson grimaced.

"It would take you the rest of your life," Loki smiled humorlessly, "but I am weak. How can Sophia recover when I am an emotional cripple?"

"Kids are strong," Coulson said simply, "you'd be surprised with what they can deal with."

Loki smiled wryly. He knew exactly what Coulson meant by that, and he didn't pry, instead he changed the subject, "can you find out what that Hydra base was being used for?"

"My team's on it," Coulson said, "but Hydra's system is a virtual Fort Knox. Skye might not be able to get in."

Loki nodded, "Skye can do it."

Coulson smiled kindly, "OK, let's get out of the rain, and I'll make you some coffee."