Around one in the morning, the Avengers decided it was time to retire for the night.
"Someone needs 'a find 'liza," Stark slurred, decidedly drunk.
"She left earlier, I think," Steve told them, supporting Tony so the billionaire remained upright.
"Hey Steve! Where'd you come from?"
The others rolled their eyes.
"Come on, let's get him back before he starts doing anything stupid," Natasha insisted, pushing them forward.
"Me? Stupid?"
"Yes, you. Stupid."
When they finally got Tony back to their chambers they were surprised to find Eliza's room had the light on but the door closed.
"Hey Liz, we're staying one more day, I think, so you can sleep in," Bruce knocked on her door and said to her.
When there was no answer, he looked at the others. Steve was dropping Tony in his bed, Natasha was relaxing on the couch next to Clint. The two agents looked up at him.
"Eliza?"
Still no answer.
Clint got up and walked over, "Liz, are you in there?"
When there was no answer yet again, Steve came over. They decided he should break the door in. After several tries, he and Clint together managed to knock it down and break in.
They found the room a mess. Glass shards were all over the floor, some stained scarlet from blood. Daggers were sticking out of the far wall, each in down to the hilt. A broken mirror hung above a table on the wall and a second one sat beside the girl. Eliza was on the floor in the middle of a pool of blood, shards of glass all around, some sticking out of her.
Immediately Steve swooped in and lifted her up. Natasha rang the bell to call the servants. After all, no one knew where the doctors were in this place.
A servant came and entered.
"Where are your doctors?"
The servant looked at them in confusion, "What is a doctor."
"He means your healers," Natasha clarified.
"Ah, right this way."
The four sober humans followed the servant boy through the castle until they reached a large room. Opening the doors, the Avengers found a long hall lined with comfortable beds.
They left her in the care of a healer, leaving Doctor Banner with them to supervise and help if needed. The other three returned to the guest chambers, lost in thought. What had happened? Had Eliza trashed her room on purpose? If so, why?
They spent an hour cleaning Eliza's room up as much as they could, leaving only the ugly red stain on the floor from where her blood had been. Steve said goodnight and went to bed, leaving just Clint and Natasha awake. They both sat down on the couch, silent, until Natasha broke the silence.
"Clint. Clint this is getting out of hand. What is this, twice in one day that she's reacted like this?"
"I know, I know it is."
"She's getting worse. I don't like it."
"I think it's just because she's here. When we get back home she'll be better."
"What home," Natasha pointed out, "She doesn't have a home. She lives on a Helicarrier. That's not exactly conducive to growing up."
"Well what do you suggest? We dump her in some foster program," Clint said, exasperated.
"I don't know. Maybe."
Clint looked at Natasha in shock, "You can't be serious. She'd think we'd abandoned her. It could send her over the edge!"
"She's already over the edge, Clint," Natasha pointed out, "I don't like the idea any more than you do, but we need to consider it."
He knew she was right. He'd been a fool, trying to train this girl. She just had too many things stacked against her. Maybe it would be best to let her go, to send her to some place she could live in comfort, not a SHIELD Helicarrier. But he couldn't shake the feeling that that would be a horrible mistake.
"We'll let her explain herself in the morning," he sighed, avoiding the obvious question as to whether or not he would indeed consider it.
Natasha nodded, and they both decided to head to bed. They couldn't do anything tonight, and there was no use in worrying about it.
The morning started simply enough. Steve was the first one up, slipping into some clothes he found at his door. They looked like ordinary earth clothes, and he smiled as he realized Queen Frigga had probably had them made for them. Taking them inside, he slipped into the soft cloth pants and put the button down shirt over a white undershirt.
Brushing his hair in front of the mirror, he whistled a little whimsical tune and then he walked out. Glancing around to see if anyone was up, his eyes landed on the open door of Eliza's room and last night came flooding back to him.
It had taken Steve nearly half an hour to get the blood out of his clothes. The girl had been completely limp when he'd found her, but her breathing had been fine. The only issue was the blood-loss. None of them knew how long she had been there, bleeding out on the floor. It could have been ten minutes, could have been an hour.
As he was standing at the door, Natasha emerged from her chambers, dressed in white, form fitting pants and a long sleeved shirt. She seemed lost in thought as she wandered over to the open space in the common room and sat down to do her exercises. Steve decided to join her.
"Mind if I join?"
"No, not at all. Please," she gestured for him to sit down.
They stretched in silence for a few minutes before Steve breached the void.
"Nat, what happened to Eliza before SHIELD?"
Nat was caught off guard, but hid it well beneath her cool exterior.
"I really don't know if it's my place," she murmured.
Steve sighed, "After last night, I think I have a right to know."
"Very well," Nat nodded, but she didn't continue, "I'll give you what SHIELD knows. Other than that, what she chooses to share with you is up to her."
He nodded.
"Between the ages of 1 and 13, Eliza lived at an orphanage in London. All SHIELD knows is that she didn't have a very good time. Some kind of accident when she was 13 led to her running away from the orphanage and ending up wandering the streets of London. She became a petty thief. It was a hard life. Then when she was 14, Eliza met another kid on the streets and they formed what became a sizable children's gang. They lived in a warehouse on the outskirts of the city. That was when SHIELD finally managed to track her down, and they sent in Barton to scout her out. They sparred for a bit before a gang found the hideout and came in, trying to take the children. Eliza was prepared to sacrifice herself for them but Barton shot the first of the three, and before long the two of them managed to kill the others. But Eliza was left injured, and so Barton took her and the other children with him back to the Helicarrier."
"What you should be asking, Spangles, is what happened to her AFTER she joined SHIELD," Tony added, coming over from where he stood in his doorway.
"What would you know about that, Stark?"
"Not much, but enough to know it wasn't all fun and games. She tried to kill herself four times."
Steve stared at Natasha, gaping. Four times?
She glared at Stark but nodded to Steve, "The first time was about two months after she joined us. She'd injured a crewmember accidently in anger and tried to overdose."
"Then there was the time when she slit her wrists," Tony added, joining them on the floor, "And a second overdose."
"The fourth, was that when we met her," Rogers asked Natasha, who was staring at Stark, wondering how he'd gotten the information.
"Did you hack into the SHIELD database, Stark? You shouldn't get classified information on teammates," she frowned in disappointment. She really didn't mind his hacking into SHIELD's classified information because she'd grown used to it, but this was something different, using his computer skills to gain information about a team member just wasn't right.
Clint came out from his room then, and wandered over to where the couches were. His mind was elsewhere, a painful expression on his usually black face. He fingered an arrow he held, running his hand up and down its plastic shaft. The others were curious as to what he was thinking about but decided it best not to disturb him.
All of a sudden Bruce came in, yawning, followed by Thor, Sif, and Fandral. The three friends on the floor and Clint on the couch quickly stood, coming over to greet them.
"Lady Eliza will be fine," Thor assured them, "The healers think she should awaken not long from now."
Everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
"We had two ideas for today," Thor continued, "Lady Sif and Fandral will take whoever wants to go with them training, while I show the others the lower town so they can see more of Asgard."
In the end, only Clint decided to go with Fandral and Sif for some exercise. He hoped it would clear his head and help him think. Tony, Steve, and Natasha all wished to see more of Asgard, while Bruce wanted to sleep; he'd been up most of the night with Eliza.
"Come, Son of Barton," Fandral said happily, he and Sif glad that at least one of the Midgardian heroes had wished to train with them. They let Clint slip on his suit and grab his weapons before leading the way out to the training grounds for the palace.
"Please, call me Clint."
"Then I insist you call me Sif, leave out the title," the woman smiled, "Fandral, he's still Fandral."
"If you guys are half of the fighter Thor is, we're lucky to have Asgard as an ally," Clint commented.
Sif grinned, "We try our best to match Thor, but he wields Mjolnir. That is unfair!"
"Where'd he get the hammer?"
"It was made by the dwarves long ago," Fandral explained.
"Dwarves?"
"Ah yes, another race that Midgard has not yet met. There are many," he explained.
"They inhabit Nidavellir, and they are great craftsmen. King Odin's spear, Gungnir, was also crafted by them," Sif told Clint, "And I think, also, that the necklace Lady Freyja gave to Lady Eliza last night was made by them as well."
They exited the indoors and Clint found himself on a green lawn, stretching at least two soccer fields long. There were a few people mulling about, sparing in pairs or groups, but Clint brightened up when he saw some trees with targets on them. Sif and Fandral followed the eager Midgardian, curious as to how good he was at his bow. They'd seen him only once in combat, and the magic had made it difficult for his arrows to make much of an affect.
Fitting an arrow on the string, Clint decided to show off his basic skills, without using any of his specialty arrow heads. Sif and Fandral watched for a few minutes before they themselves turned to sparring with swords. Clint soon lost himself in his work, doing the practice out of habit and without thinking. Instead he thought over what to do about Eliza.
Eliza. It seemed no matter how hard he or Natasha tried, she just kept sinking deeper into despair. Maybe Fury had been right those two years ago when he suggested letting her off. After all, no matter his personal feelings, SHIELD needed capable, emotionally stable agents, not ones susceptible to emotion. But again, she was such a capable fighter and really she was a genius. Given more time, Barton was sure she would be an amazing asset to SHIELD. He didn't regret convincing Fury to put Eliza on the Avengers. She was getting good practice, and she was learning how to work within a group.
In the end, he knew it would come down to her own decision. If she wanted to stay in SHIELD, he'd support her, but if she wanted to leave, he'd back her up there as well. But something was still nagging at him. He knew Eliza. She didn't usually go all hysterical unless something set her off. And if the state of her room last night was anything to go by, something BIG set her off. But what in Asgard could possibly have triggered her break-down? According to Nat, she had been cordial enough around Freyja, so she was able to hold herself together around that sensitive topic. Something strange was going on.
He, Sif, and Fandral exercised for the next several hours, before heading back to inside for lunch. He bid them goodbye and made his way back to his chambers for a shower and a change out of his sweaty clothes. He ran into Natasha, Steve, and Tony about half way there, their little group on its way back as well. Thor had gone to dine with his mother and father.
When they reached the chambers, they opened it up and were surprised to find that Eliza was in her room, sitting at her window on the windowsill. Bruce was in the main common area, reading his new Asgardian book. He gestured to the food all around them.
"Dig in, guys."
They all nodded, avoiding asking about the girl while they ate.
"Has she eaten," Steve asked finally, once they were done.
Bruce nodded, "I got her to eat while you lot were out. She's just been sitting there, staring out the window. She hasn't said a word to me in the hours we've been here."