AN: This chapter is a bit long, more fun. Thanks to those that followed/faved. I really appreciate it! Rate/review and all that good stuff.

Warning: Mild language

Meet The Bogey

The flight back to the Helicarrier was going to be long. And by long, Leah knew that meant a painstakingly silent cockpit, an annoyed series of glances from Romanoff, and snarky comments from Stark. She realized that indulging in Loki's question she had basically opened herself up for emotional warfare; but at this point, especially after everything she had been through, she figured it would be nothing more than a relatively unpleasant walk in the park.

It was only a couple hours into flight when the weather unleashed its wrath upon her craft. And certainly, no one was expecting this.

"Ugh, can't get good visual in this Goo*." Leah muttered and Romanoff seemed just as surprised about the nasty turn the clouds had taken.

"Where is this coming from?" Romanoff sniffed.

"No clue, satellite said it was supposed to be clear all above Angel one*, we're almost reaching Angels two*." Leah responded.

Lightning and a strong headwind had the occasional jolt throwing Leah against her seatbelt, crushing her chest rather painfully in her suit. It was bad enough that visual was bad up in the air, now she had to deal with lightning and thunder. Romanoff and she were busy trying to keep the craft flying smoothly when a loud bang and more lightning lit up the sky. The Quinjet rocked quickly and Leah had to right it quickly before they tilted dangerously to the side.

"What the hell was that?" Romanoff called behind them.

"Let's check it out." Oh hell no.

Stark slapped the button to open up the rear hatch and Leah was already screaming at him to stop messing with her craft before another figure landed in the opening. She shrieked at the loss of what cabin pressure they had before Romanoff handed her a mask. Leah had to turn her attention back to the screaming of her dials and oxygen levels in the cockpit as she heard a series of shouts and a loud crash behind her.

Both her and Romanoff hurriedly tried to not only maintain altitude from a sudden added weight just before it left again and the craft swung up from Leah's efforts to keep the craft airborne.

"What is going on back there?" She yelled over the howling wind.

"Another Asgardian?" Romanoff shouted.

Starks voice was the one that finally provided blessed answers.

"Doesn't matter, if he takes Loki or kills him, the Tesseract is lost."

"Who took Loki? Stark, shut that hatch!" Leah shouted, but her demands fell on deaf ears and flew out the open ended aircraft.

"Stark! We need a plan of attack!" The Captain shouted.

"I have a plan. Attack."

All protests were left in the open air as Stark blasted out of the Quinjet to pursue whatever had taken Loki. For all that was going on, Leah couldn't help but feel supremely in over her head. Not only was she tasked to assist the Avengers in whatever way necessary, but also she was tasked with transporting a prince turned terrorist. And of course, there were the Avengers themselves. A team being thrown together in the hopes that they can pull a victory out of their ass when they weren't even all together yet.

Leah growled into her mask as she heard the Captain saying something about God not dressing like Loki.

It was another four hours of search and flight before they made visual contact with the Helicarrier. And Leah was in a foul mood. Landing the craft was fine and they were met by a heavily armed escort on the landing pad. Leah had asked Romanoff to do the cool off on her craft before she stormed out of the cockpit to face Stark, blatantly ignoring the three other male stares in her craft.

"Stark, Sir, I'd like a word if you don't mind."

Stark turned to look down at her, being a good head shorter than him of course, he tried the billion dollar smile on her.

"Sure thing, hotshot."

With hands
on her hips and a scowl of rage on her face, Leah let it out.

"I understand you operate on your own agenda, but listen to me now. While you are on my craft you are not to ever take initiative regarding the transport of precious cargo again. His Highness may be a criminal to you, but on my aircraft, he is my responsibility. Not only that, but you blatantly put this operation at risk by going off opening the hatch during flight! Does it not occur to you that we lost cabin pressure at nearly two thousand feet in the air?"

Leah was almost screaming at the last sentence and no one seemed to dare to interrupt her. Even Stark seemed to also have a bit of a surprised gawk on his face.

"Not everyone is an egotistical prat with millions of dollars, okay? Don't you ever put me, my crew, or my job at risk like that again. Are we understood?"

Stark seemed to want to calculate the situation and come up with a witty comment, but Leah didn't let him.

"Good." She snapped at him before brushing past and opening the hatch so the escort team to get to Loki.

Leah exited the craft, still in a raging fit, and left behind several open stares and curious glances as she stalked over to where Hill stood. After giving Hill a complete rundown on what happened, leaving out her lecture at Stark, she accompanied the escort to the chamber where Loki would be held

She was ahead of all the armed men as she led them to the room Hill identified. It took time, but Leah was finally starting to calm down. What she didn't know, was how her outburst on the Quinjet had both amused and impressed the dark god that now walked behind her. And from his current position, he was free to analyze her all he liked.

She was short, perhaps five foot three, with long blonde hair pulled into a braid over one shoulder. Her stance and walk were both military-borne but didn't negate from the healthy swing in her hips. He also noticed he wasn't the only male taking notice of her fine curves. From what he saw on the aircraft, he also knew she was well endowed in the chest. Her eyes were a furious blue and her high cheekbones certainly made her look like her brother. Oh, and her response to his question in Stuttgart, it gave him a great satisfaction to know that he wasn't the only one who held a disdain for a sibling.

Once the company had reached the holding cell and Loki was locked away inside, Leah walked to Fury's side to hand him her quick mission report.

"What were you doing with the escort?" Fury asked with his brow cocked as he took the report.

"Securing my cargo, Sir." Leah responded simply.

With a nod Fury said, "Alright, well you're free to go. Take some rest, you've been up for nearly twenty four hours." A grateful smile nearly took over her features before another voice echoed in the great chamber.

"Oh, don't say you're sending the dear away?" His voice ran chills down Leah's spine and she shivered openly.

"We've barely begun to know each other, Darling girl."

Never in her life had she ever been called something like that. The blatantly shocked look on her face seemed to support such a claim. Not only that, but Leah had also never had a boyfriend; a friendly crush perhaps, but never someone she actually opened herself up to. With such inexperience, she couldn't figure out just how to feel about Loki saying such things. Surely he was doing it to piss off Director Fury. Knowing that, Leah saw the look on Fury's face and gave him a quick nod to signal her ascent to her leaving the room. To make it quick, she turned to Loki and looked him straight in the eye and said, "I'll take my leave. Please excuse me, Your Highness."

And for lack of a better means of escape, she simply scurried from the chamber. Loki's chuckle echoing in the great open space that went running over her skin was proving to be detrimental for her stoic façade.

Going down the halls, she reflected upon her tirade on the Quinjet. It wasn't going to do her any good making enemies on the Avengers team. She slowed to a standstill on the side of the hallway and let out a breath.

I was so out of line, she thought to herself. A worried look crinkled her brow before she turned and when in search of Stark. And to her luck she saw him walking down the hall with Agent Coulson. Leah knew Coulson vaguely but certainly respected him more than most due to his familiarity with Fury, and now Stark.

"Oh look!" Stark clapped his hands as he saw Leah approach. "Agent, this is the fine young lady that gave me a piece of her mind."

Leah's face reddened and she sheepishly stood at attention. Coulson threw her a curious look while Stark just looked downright pleased with himself.

"It's not often that women can make me feel bad, but it seems like you got a knack for it, Blondie."

"I wanted to apologize, Sir. I was out of line with regards to the manner of how I spoke to you. I'm afraid I'm not used to people not following with my flight habits."

"Your aircraft, your rules, right? I totally get that, unfortunately I don't do well with rules." Stark sniggered.

"He really doesn't." Coulson added.

"So who are you exactly? You look a little familiar."

Stark's bluntness shouldn't have been a total surprise, but she still wasn't sure she'd ever get used anyone being that straightforward.

"Combat Airman Leah Barton." She responded with a curt nod.

"She's the best Special Operations Combat Airman that the United States has ever seen, especially considering her age." Coulson added.

"So you're a genius in your area of expertise! Wonderful. And you're that Hawkeye man's sister right? You look just like him. I still have yet to meet the little archer."

Leah coughed before saying, "I am." Stark was beginning to make connections much faster than Leah would have liked.

"Well, good news for you, you're much easier on the eyes than that guy. I read his file, totally not impressed. His face just isn't as zen as yours, sweety."

Again, Leah's face went tomato red and she struggled to find words. Words never came to her unfortunately. Coulson cut in to crush the growing awkward silence in the conversation saying they had to go the debriefing and shot her a sympathetic look. With a nod and a quick salute, Leah continued down the hall. She groaned inwardly and went to find her bunk, badly wanting that rest she had been ordered to take.

Angels (number): Means 1000 feet in the air (Angels 3 = 3000ft)

Cherubs (number): Means 100 feet in the air (6 Cherubs = 600ft)