Disclaimer: I own nothing except characters you may not recognize.

A/N: Hey I'm so happy for all the responses for this story! Thanks for reading everyone! S/O to new readers: SaChan22, Stars in her Pocket, writingNoob, act-not-think, DarkstarPrime, sociallyawkwardscot, TheHungryRainbow, jaaaaawwwnnn, zenstarrflower, Random-Dreaming, Ashleywithleyx, , Katerina-Walker, Idon'twritelleak, Nessie2000, killthepain62, CrazyCountryGirl12, CrazyCountryGirl12, alexmariewinchester and Michellekstr. You guys are amazing!


Something was up.

Steve didn't know what it was, but since they had gotten Loki back, Olive had been become withdrawn, sullen. She wouldn't even look at him when he had tried to get her attention and stayed as far away from him as she could. Right now, she sat on the opposite side of the table, feet up, arms folded across her stomach, her hood up, something she only did when they went out. . . .

What had happened on that mountain side? When he had gotten to her, she had looked shaken. The whole time Loki had been on screen talking to Fury, she had kept her eyes adverted, worried. What had Loki said to her? What had he done to her?

"It's a stabilizing agent." Steve turned as Tony walked into the briefing room, followed by Agent Coulson. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at S.H.E.I.L.D. No hard feelings, Point Break," Tony said to Thor. "You've got a mean swing. Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants. Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing Galaga! Thought he wouldn't notice, but we did."

Steve looked to Olive with a slight smile, knowing that she was probably thinking what he was thinking, but she was ignoring him like she had been the whole time.

Tony put a hand over his eye, turning around. "How does Fury do this?"

"He turns," Agent Marie Hill answered.

"Well, that sounds exhausting." Tony leaned up against a control panel. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading? Speaking of reading, I finally read your file," Tony continued in quick talk of his, looking over to Olive.

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "You mean you didn't before you got here?"

"No. To be honest, I thought you were just the coffee girl or something. That's some neat trick you got there, Tinkerbell. How'd you come by that?"

Olive let her feet drop to the floor, placing her hands on the table as she leaned towards him. "'Coffee g - What did you just call me?"

"Angry little pixie, flits around the guys. How do you do that, anyway?"

The Traveler glared at Tony. "Oh, I don't think I like you very much."

"You wouldn't be the first to get that first impression."

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve interrupted before Glitch thought it necessary actually show Tony just how much she didn't like him.

"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce answered.

"Unless," Tony responded, "Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet."

"Finally! Someone who speaks English." Tony made to cross the room towards the Doctor.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked, shaking his head.

The two scientists shook hands. Tony spoke up first. "It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

Bruce didn't look as flattered as Tony was perhaps hoping he would be. He looked away. "Thanks."

Fury came in then, shaking his head and staring down Tony. "Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him."

"Let's start with that stick of his," Steve suggested. "It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon."

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor asked. "I do not understand."

"I do!" Steve called out, not being able to help himself; it wasn't often that he understood things from movies nowadays. "I understood that reference."

Across from him, Olive let out a snort of a laugh, only to look away from him again when he looked up at her.

"Shall we play, doctor?" Tony asked.

"Let's play some." The two scientists left the room. Everyone else started to disperse as well, to get some rest. Olive scooted her chair out and hurried after the room. Steve waited a few seconds before following after her.

"Glitch," he called out. She didn't stop at first but then he noticed her slow down before she turned into a separate hallway and finally came to a stop. He supposed that was a good sign but when she turned to face him, she hadn't put down her hood and from what he could see of her face, there was no emotion there. "Can – what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she responded evasively, choosing not to look at him.

"Obviously it's not nothing." He reached up to touch her hood and she jerked away from him.

"Hey!" she yelled, glaring up at him. "Don't do that!"

"Okay." Steve held up his hands. This was not an Olive he was used to dealing with, Olive who smiled and made jokes. This Olive was irrational and seemed almost scared. He wondered if this is how she had been before S.H.E.I.L.D found her, when she was on the run all the time. "Look, I'm just trying to help –"

"I don't need your help! I don't need you - you worrying about me all the time!"

"Can you blame me? You've been acting weird since we got back, you won't tell me what's wrong, this isn't like you. . . . What else do you expect me to do?"

Olive looked away from him. "I can take care of myself. I have been for a long time."

"I know you can, Liv. I know that. But something happened, something you're not telling me. Why won't you just –"

"Why do you care so much?" She shot him a glare. "Other people can see it too, you know. We've barely known each other more than a few months. I'm not – I don't understand."

Why did he care so much? What kind of question was that? He cared because she took the time to care for him, when he was lost and alone. He cared because, when he needed one, she became his friend. He cared because he liked seeing her smile, liked it when she laughed. He cared because she was Olive May Warren and that was a name only he and a few others knew, something she trusted him with. But of course he didn't say all that, he couldn't because it would make it all too real. He hadn't thought about any one like that since Peggy, which, for him, was honestly not that long ago, and it was hard not to feel as if he were maybe doing something wrong, even if Peggy had grown old and moved on with her life. But then there was Olive, making him think that maybe this time period wasn't so bad after all. . . .

He reached for her again, stopping short because he didn't want her to jerk away from him like she had before. "Olive . . . ."

Her fierce gaze changed, as if she had maybe heard all of what he had been thinking in the way he had said her name. But the moment was gone in a blink. She looked away from him and pressed herself against the wall on the other side of the hallway, her arms crossed protectively across her stomach. "I want to be alone."

Steve watched her for a moment, not quite sure what else to do but let her go. "Okay."

As if he had just given her permission, Olive vanished. Steve stood there a moment, replaying the brief conversation and trying to figure out just what had happened. That had been a lot calmer then their first argument but had somehow felt a lot worse. Maybe if he gave her the time she needed, the space, she'd eventually tell him what was happening.

Running a hand over his face, he figured he'd go and get some rest, clear his head a bit. Then he go down to the labs and check on Tony and Bruce. He didn't trust the billionaire as far as he could throw him.


Olive appeared in her room, grabbed the nearest thing, which happened to be a book off her desk, and threw it into the wall.

She leaned against her door, sliding down it until she was crouched down, tugging down on her hood as she pressed her face against her knees. God why was this so hard! She spent years of her life alone, independent, able to cast off people without any extra thought.

Now. . . .

The wall behind her seemed to shiver, but Olive knew it wasn't turbulence. She pulled down on her hood, harder, focusing everything into where she was now. She closed her eyes when the area around her started to flicker. She should have figured that this would happen eventually, but she hadn't thought that Steve would be the one to trigger it, though technically she supposed this was all her fault. If she hadn't tried to push him away. . . .

It was always an odd feeling when she Traveled normally, the feeling of herself disappearing, her moloclues and cells shifting and displacing her. When it happened like this, her body trying to take her out a dangerous situation, as it sensed the pumping of her heart and her racing adrenaline, it was painful and distressing. She couldn't afford to disappear now and not knowing how she was going to get back or not be able to. Carefully, she peeled her hood back and let herself sink onto her bottom, crossing her legs and putting her hands face up on her knees.

One of the things she had done during training when she first joined S.H.E.I.L.D was focus on calming herself down whenever this happened. Natasha had led her through active meditation techniques, so she could calm herself while moving but she had also practice regular meditation. It helped when she hummed to herself. Her mom had done it often while Olive had been in the hospital, stroking her hair and singing.

"You are my sunshine," Olive sang quietly, taking deep breaths between each phrase, "my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are grey. You'll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away."

Olive could feel the room becoming still again, could feel herself becoming solid. She opened her eyes and pulled her knees to her chest, frowning.

This shouldn't be so hard. Having always been on the run, she had never allowed herself to form close attachments. Even in S.H.E.I.L.D, she had managed to create relationships without actually letting people in. Now there was Steve, kind, handsome, funny Steve who had an incredible way of saying her name. . . .

This was her fault, she knew, for letting him get so close, for letting him know her and now she was trying to push him away as if he were just another random person she had met, when he was oh so much more than that.

"This is for the best," Olive murmured to herself, as she stood back up. She swayed a little, emotionally and physically exhausted. Plopping herself on the bed, she pulled a pillow close. "This is for the best."

Before she knew it, she was asleep.


A/N: It has been ages, I know! I am so sorry J Hopefully this makes up for my absence. Next chapter, we get some action! Yayay! Thanks everyone!