Very sorry for the delay. Things happened.

Disclaimer: I do not own Carrie White or Loki (MCU), or the Avengers or any other MCU character.

Chapter 3

Carrie's right wrist was hurting, and so was her arm, still rough from the healing burns. It wasn't something she could do much about but try to keep them clean and use the arm as little as possible.

She had tried her best to ignore it the first two days on the island – and it worked surprisingly well, though that was probably because of all the adrenaline in her system and being near the Tesseract.

The deep ache of her injuries was becoming harder to ignore now. Carrie always had to be cautious when she moved and tried not to let her thoughts linger on the very real possibility of infection.

There wasn't anything she could do about it. Carrie kept telling herself that, but it did little to erase the anxiety as two days turned into four.

A silver lining to their wait was that Loki seemed to mellow out as their stay dragged on. Carrie still knew better than to free him, and he knew better than to ask her to, but the indignation and anger was snuffed out. The disgraced prince, by all accounts, accepted that these were his living conditions for the foreseeable future. He also redirected his energy into something more useful than wallowing in self-pity and actively helped her out within the limitations his bindings allowed.

He was a better cook than her and after making sure his chain wouldn't catch on the pot or fire, was able to make tastier meals than Carrie did. Loki would also carry water of his own violation to the cave when she went to grab some, so she didn't have to make another trip. He carved rough spoons, big and small, from spare wood with one of the sharp pieces of metal from the Iron Man suit. She told stories at night before they went to sleep. His overall appearance improved too - the paleness was gone, as was the dark circles under his eyes. The ex-prince's mind felt somewhat calmer.

It was oddly. . . peaceful.

Until it wasn't.

Carrie's burn injuries became infected, and she found it harder and harder to keep going. A fever started to settle in, and she knew her survival depended on whether Loki decided to help her or not. She saw no reason to let them both die and understood he wasn't the most moral of people. In her condition, she couldn't properly protect the Tesseract and he knew it.

The fever eventually consumed her, and Carrie didn't bother getting up from her bed of leaves on the fifth day. She heard Loki walk around the cave, felt the flare of the Tesseract's power and then the teenager couldn't feel his presence anymore.

This wasn't the way Carrie would have wanted to die – she just hoped the fever killed her before hunger did. Her mother had habitually starved her so it might take even longer than usual to die of starvation. Either way, she grimly acknowledged actually dying would take a few days if her teammates didn't find her before then.

The day worn on and the teenager's stomach growled harshly. She managed to nibble on some of the berries nearby, but the desire to eat was nonexistent.

Then Loki came back. Everything was in a hazed and the girl could only sense him nearby, but there was no doubt he returned.

He didn't offer an answer and she didn't ask him for one, but then her fever suddenly broke and she realized she was on something much softer than her leaf bed.

A mattress. He'd brought her a mattress complete with bedframe to sleep in. She wondered if he planned to ransom her for his freedom or would deliver her to his boss. Carrie couldn't think of any other reason on why he didn't just take her to a hospital and leave.

She had been facing the cave wall when she woke up, and turned so she could ask Loki what he was up to –

Only it wasn't him sitting in a simple wooden chair by the bed. It was Steve "Captain America" Rogers.

Older.

There were lines of stress in his face and heartbreak in his eyes, but his posture relaxed when he saw that she was awake.

"Carrie." He said quietly.

"Mr. Rogers." She wasn't sure what else to call him.

He smiled.

"Just Steve is fine Carrie."

She hesitated but ultimately had to ask. "Where is Loki? I felt him here."

Steve, to her surprise, didn't frown. His answer was rather calm.

"Where he needs to be. I'm just watching over you while he makes sure the X-Men get your location now." Seeing her questioning gaze, he elaborated. "Tony, he, uh, called them for help finding you. They're close to locating you on their own but we're speeding things up. You need medical attention."

Carrie didn't miss how he stumbled over Tony's name and thought of Older Tony.

"The older Tony that I met – are you with him?"

The World War II veteran swallowed, the heartbreak stealing his voice for a moment. "Yeah. We had a mission to get the Tesseract and Scepter in this time as part of a plan to save our world. Tony, the one from my time, was unlucky so it took some creativity to solve that problem. I'm here to return everything – the Scepter is already back where it belongs, and the Tesseract will too. You're the only one left. You shouldn't have been sent to this island at all, you should be recovering in Stark Tower. We had to make sure you got back safe."

Oh.

Carrie looked at Steve for a long moment, taking in the signs of grief, and softly said. "He's dead, isn't he?"

Steve took a moment to respond. "We lost a lot of people. He was one of them."

She closed her eyes.

"Carrie, listen to me." She opened them again and Steve continued. "We may have altered your timeline too much. The future that we came back from may not happen – or it will, and you might not be able to undo it. I wasn't sure how much I should tell you, or if I should tell you anything but someone approached me when I returned to this time. They told me there were making sure things happened the way they needed to – so that the loop could be closed."

The loop?

"I'm supposed to give you two warnings."

Carrie shifted as Steve seemed to gather himself, she could see him mentally picking out the words as his expression shifted with thought.

"The first one is that Thanos is coming. Thor will know what that means. The second is that HYDRA isn't gone, they're watching SHIELD's every move and need to be taken care of or you'll be ill equipped for the first danger."

HYDRA? It sounded familiar. Carrie nodded to show she understood. "Who should I tell?"

"I'm not supposed to tell you that." Steve looked regretful. "I wasn't told either way so it's a moot point."

"Okay." Carrie looked at her hands – the right one's wrist and arm was bandaged and bound. "Why did you let Loki go with the Tesseract?"

"Its supposed to happen." Steve shrugged. "The person brought us together and explained why we needed to listen to them. Loki didn't look too bothered about giving up the Tesseract though."

That was. . . odd.

The next hour was quiet, Steve gave her some water and food (oatmeal!) before taking his leave. It was sad and a relief to see him go – the silence had been so awkward, filled with things he couldn't say but clearly wanted to. He assured her that the X-Men would be arriving shortly.

Half an hour after his leave, Carrie heard an aircraft outside. She felt people.

"Hello?" She called out, cautiously.

"Hello." It was a woman's voice, pleasant and comforting. She didn't sound too much older than Carrie though. "Mr. Stark asked us to find you. We're here to take you to the Institute for treatment."

"Okay."

"We're sending someone down to get you. He doesn't look like most people, but he won't hurt you. Promise."

Then Carrie felt someone abruptly appear outside her cave.

What? There hadn't been any Tesseract energy. . .

"Carrietta White?" It was a boy's voice, maybe a bit older than her. There was a notable accent, but she was still able to understand him clearly.

"I'm here!" Carrie felt so sore, worn out, and beaten, but pushed herself up from the bed.

The newcomer entered the cave and Carrie felt her eyes widen. He was blue. Blue from head to toe with fangs, yellow eyes and a tail. An actual tail.

Her mother would be screeching if she were here, armed with a knife and yelling about sinners and demons.

Yet Carrie didn't feel remotely threatened by him. If this had happened back in Chamberlain, his appearance might have made her hesitant, but it wasn't. She had stalled the Hulk, barely escaping that disaster with her life and spoken to him afterwards as a friend. She fought a robot army.

His appearance was a surprise, but nothing that could intimidate her. . . and his smile was friendly, reassuring even. The shade of deep blue was lovely too.

Wait. What?

Carrie pressed her lips together and decided to open her mouth before the silence could get awkward. The X-Men (or was it X-Man?) had kept his distance, apparently waiting for her to give the okay that he could come closer.

"Uh, what's your name?" Carrie asked.

"You can call me Nightcrawler." He approached her, still smiling. "You've caused quite a stir, Ms. White."

"Call me Carrie," She said automatically before blushing. "Wait. I've done what?"

"Ah, beside the Battle of New York there is that psychic call you sent out last month." His expression was one of sympathy as she realized what he was saying. "Many telepaths heard that call."

Carrie could feel her mortification growing, her cheeks flushed red. "I'm sorry?"

"There is nothing to apologize for and it was just that one time." Nightcrawler assured her. "Don't worry, my team will take you to the man who can explain everything to you. Ready to go?"

She nodded, curious to see how he had gotten outside the cave so suddenly.

He took the last step to the bed and scooped her up in his arms. Carrie automatically grabbed the front of his uniform as he turned away from the bed.

"Brace yourself." He warned. "My teleportation can be disorienting the first couple of times."

They left the cave behind.

Hope you enjoyed this!

Sincerely,

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