The Helicarrier flew somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, heading back to the States. Agent Coulson entered into an interrogation room, carrying a plastic cup of hot chocolate and a pile of cheese sandwiches on a plate that he placed on the table in front of Emma.

"Go ahead. You missed you breakfast and lunch," he said to Emma and gave a nod to the guard, who had been watching over her, to leave them. When the door closed after the guard, Coulson sat at the other side of the table and opened a dark-blue file he had been carrying under his arm.

Emma glowered at him and lifted her cuffed hands on the table. "Thanks," she murmured, hesitating, but dug in because she was starving. If they were going to kill her they wouldn't do it by poisoning her food, she reasoned. She took a big gulp from the cup. The cocoa wasn't very warm and she glanced at the agent. "You call this a hot chocolate? This isn't hot! This isn't even warm. Babies wouldn't take a bath in this!"

"It's a precaution," agent Coulson informed. He had no desire of getting hot drinks thrown at him.

Emma took a bite from a sandwich, glaring at the agent under her eye brows. She didn't like this. The unawareness of the things to come was making her more than nervous. She was wearing a dark, long sleeve jumpsuit they had given her and a pair of sneakers, it felt like a prison outfit, but was a bit nicer than the little black dress that she had been wearing while arriving there.

Phil Coulson watched at her calmly, nearly compassionately, his arms on the table and fingers crossed over his opened file. "At first, would you like to tell me what happened with Loki from the beginning?"

Emma shook her head. "No, not really."

"Would you prefer to talk with a female agent?"

"Like that psycho bitch who nearly blew up my knee? No thanks!" Emma sneered, getting uncomfortable talking with him already. She was thinking that she might have gotten more sympathies if she would have given the impression that Loki had treated her like a cruel monster. But that wouldn't have been fair for him. "He didn't rape me, if that's what worries you," she explained, embarrassed.

Coulson nodded and took a while going through her file before he lifted his eyes at her. "You have a colorful history, Ms. Morgan. Or, should I call you Ms. Morrison?"

"I'd like to keep my past in the past, if you don't mind, Mr. Agentman."

"You have gone through a lot. I assume the troubles started when your special powers broke the surface."

Emma looked at the agent bleakly. "No, troubles started when men in black suits came and took me away. Men like you. I was a kid back then. Do you have any idea what it feels like been caged like an animal, not seeing the sun in two months? To be constantly tortured without a reason?"

"I'm sorry for what they've done to you, but I assure our organization had nothing to do with that. We are the S.H.I.E.L.D."

Emma snorted and lifted her hands that were still chained in handcuffs, chewing her mouth empty. "Great! Then maybe you can remove these and we can start talking like civilized people."

"Sorry, can't do that." Coulson glanced at his papers. "So, Minneapolis, Detroit, Philadelphia, Newark, Houston and wilderness of Greenland. You don't stay too long in one place. We have been following you for almost 7 years. Ever since we discovered and exterminated the Hydra's research facilities where they held you and many other mutants for their experiments. You seemed to be the only one who ever managed to escape from there."

Frowning Emma stared at the agent, fighting back those unwanted memories. Hydra! That's what it had been. She would have so wanted to forget about it all. That word sent chills through her spine with the images from her past, the cruel tests and the faces of the people who treated her like she'd been an animal.

She said nothing, just took another bite from her sandwich, knowing that soon she wouldn't have any appetite left, if he would continued with that subject. Was this S.H.I.E.L.D. the new Hydra now?

Coulson could tell by her expression that he had reminded her about some bad things of her past, and he realized that she had met some really bad people back then. It might have been very hard to gain her trust. "Are you alright, Ms. Morgan? Let me assure you that those people who hurt you then are long gone or locked away for good."

Emma shook her head. "You don't get it, do you? You don't simply exterminate Hydra or anything that has their stamp on it," she said in a quiet voice, dropping her gaze down. "Cut off one head and two more shall take its place…" she murmured, recalling that devilish mantra those people had been repeating to her.

Coulson gave her a moment to gather herself. It seemed she needed that. "How was Greenland?"

Emma frowned. "Peachy."

"Yes, we took note that the harsh environment didn't bother you. Your social skills have much improved. And you are well adapting to your situations, and I'm not talking about your mutation. You are a fast learner." Coulson glanced at her and she looked confused and a bit angry. "The Greenland's NASA research center was one of our own test units, designed to see how our possible candidates works under pressure. You were constantly evaluated, and you did pretty well, until Loki showed up."

"Candidates for what?"

"We need specialists from all fields of expertise, from scientist to field agents, from nerds to guards. Some individuals are harder to approach than others. That's why we have more subtle approach for individuals like you."

Emma took a breath, held it and let out slowly, controlling her rising anger. Finally everything was becoming clear to her. She put down the scraps of the sandwich and tossed the plate further away. "So, everything was just a big lie? Was anything real in there? Peter? Hans? Our job?" She looked at him grimly. "Loki?"

"Agent Davis was one of our oldest field agents. And agent Lawson is our specialist of psychology; she gave us your monthly evaluations. The others were candidates like you. Your work there was all real, providing us and NASA real useful information. And what comes to Loki, I assure he is very much real. A real threat to international security. We don't know why he ended up there in the middle of Greenland's glaciers or what he's planning, but we do all we can to stop him."

"Everything is making perfect sense now. I thought that I was lucky to been recruited into a NASA project out from the streets. But you already knew who I was. And, no wonder why the girl talks with Catherine were so weird." Emma let out a dry laugh. She had spent another four months of her life happily unaware that she had been locked up in another cage the whole time. "The funny part of this is that, I actually liked being there, away from people. I thought I was hiding from people like you."

"Ms. Morgan, we are the good guys here."

She showed him her chained hands again. "Still doesn't feel like that!" She swallowed, feeling uneasy. She was not going to help them catching Loki. "Why am I here?"

"You have a gift and we would hate to see it go waste. We are offering you a chance to become a part of something significant, something that matters in a bigger picture."

Emma snorted, bemused. "You want me to work for you? No way in hell!"

"I'm trying to help you out here. Your mutant abilities are unique as they are. Your mutation is… it is like a virus, helping you adapting to your environments. I believe that's why the Hydra was also interested in you." Coulson glanced down at his papers turning a sheet. "However the tests that we took from your blood you left on the ice, after you were shot, showed that you exposed to minor doze of gamma-radiation and some other unknown substances in your encounter with Loki. And since you spent a quite lot time with him… in your case we don't know how things will work out for you."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"What I'm trying to say is that with your current state and your close connection to Loki makes you a threat, in which we are forced to react," Coulson said watching at her with a serious face. "You worked well in Greenland and impressed our recruiters. You managed to get along with an alien on a glacier. You aided two of my men back there which I'm more than grateful. The archer and the pilot are still alive thanks to you. You fooled us to go creating a major international conflict with the crown of England. I admit not one of my finest moments." Coulson frowned a bit to that. "And you piloted a Quinjet without training better than some of my colleagues. Needless to say but you impressed some of us. Now, I really would like to see you joining us, Ms. Morgan. That's what Greenland was all about."

Emma had listened to him in silence. It sounded like they knew more about her than she did. And if she wouldn't join them, would they kill her? She felt a cold wave going through her hands all they way from forearms to her knuckles and she clenched her fists a couple of times to get the blood running. It was an odd, painful sensation as though she would have shoved her arms into a freezer and it seemed to get worst the more she worried. What the hell was happening to her? Was it because of the handcuffs? Had she spent too much time in the glacier of Greenland that it was starting to take its toll retroactively? She just wanted Loki. She just wanted to be in his safe arms once more no matter what that Trickster said. She could have punched him in the face later.

"I'm not going to help you catching Loki if that's what this is about," she informed bleakly and leaned back, rubbing her aching knuckles and her forearms.

Coulson glanced through the windows to the long corridor alongside by the interrogation and research rooms. He noticed the soldiers marching through the hallway with their new prisoner. "That's alright. We just caught him," the agent said calmly as if just letting her know.

"What?" Emma turned at the windows, puzzled, and saw the group of soldiers and in the middle of them walked Loki much taller than any of them.

She stood up to see him better. It was really him in his Asgardian clothing, and she felt her chest tightening with concern. He gazed at her through the windows, giving her a small smile as he walked by like he would have been glad to been caught or then he was just glad to see her. She melted in his gaze and a tear fell down on her cheek. They held an eye contact as long as he walked out of her sight been escorted by the soldiers and Thor.

Emma slumped back on her seat and sat in silence a long while, fearing for both of their sake. It felt like it was all over, like everything would have been coming to an end. She refused to believe that he would have been that stupid to been caught so soon. Did he have a trick in his sleeve?

"Excuse me. I'll be right back," agent Coulson said and left, but she heard none of it being immersed deep into her troubled thoughts.

... ...

Loki stepped inside a round glass structure that apparently served as his prison cell, glancing around him curiously, as the soldiers that had escorted him there left and the massive door of the cell closed. The captured trickster god stared at his brother through the strong glass wall, not smiling this time. No, there were sad and betrayed looking in his green eyes and yet he was exuding cool defiance in a silent manner.

"Are you happy now, Thor?" Loki asked in a voice as cold as ice. "Are you enjoying of seeing me caged?"

"It was your own doings that brought you here!"

A sardonic smile twisted his thin lips. "My doings? Indeed, I asked your help as a brother, which I evidently am not, and you betrayed me. And for what? With the Bifrost gone, how were you planning to get us back home?" Loki asked scoffing, turning his gaze at the black-skinned man with an eye-patch who walked next to Thor.

"So, you finally caught him?" the man took note dryly, giving a short look at Loki. "I'm director Fury. I run this place. It is you I should to thank, Thor, for catching him."

"I am still here," Loki said with a smug tone, giving them a small smile. The man was talking like Loki wouldn't have been there at all. The trickster god took a few careless steps backwards, checking his new quarters like he was planning to settle in there. "It is an impressive cage. Not build, I think, for me?"

Without showing any emotions, Nick Fury beheld his prisoner. "No, it was build for someone more stronger than you."

Loki lifted his brows, glancing at his brother questioningly. "For him, perhaps?"

"No, a lot stronger than either of you."

Thor snorted and would have wanted to see such creature who was suppose to be stronger than him. "You are Fury?" Thor asked and shook hands with the man. "I'm Thor, son of Odin, prince of Asgard…"

"I know who you are. Agent Coulson told me everything about you."

"So, then you also must know that I will take my brother back home."

"I'm afraid he won't be going anywhere. If it's up to me, as it pretty much is, he can spend the rest of his days in his cell."

Loki let out a laugh, knocking on the wall lightly as though testing the hard material. "Oh, your prisons will fall before my last day would come."

Thor nodded. "Well, that is true. Asgardians lives about 5000 years."

Nick Fury glanced at Thor with his one eye like asking are you fucking kidding me. "Then we either keep building new prisons as long as it takes or figure out how to get rid off him, for good."

"Charming! Thor, where is your cage?"

Thor glowered at his brother, who crossed his arms giving him that what did I tell you –look. "We know that you have an artifact called Tesseract. It belongs to Asgard. We want it back," the god of thunder said to Fury.

An interested gleam filled Loki's eyes, and he stepped closer to the wall, looking at the director Fury, already scheming up new plans. "You have the Tesseract?" he asked curiously in a quiet voice like tasting that word in his mouth for the first time. But he knew very well what it was. He had heard all Odin's stories about the Infinity Stones.

Fury frowned, shaking his head. "I don't know what you're talking about," he tried to lie.

"Of course you do. It is a glowing, blue cube, about this big," Thor said and showed it with his hands. "Odin, Allfather left it on Earth over millennia ago. It seems that it had brought you nothing but misfortune. Heimdall, our gatekeeper, has seen it in your possession. I will require it back and use it to take us to our own realm."

Nick Fury stared at the deities for a moment without blinking, thinking who they hell they thought they were coming there giving orders. "No!" That was all he said before he turned and walked at the stairs.

"No?" Thor asked, bemused.

Loki snorted with a hollow smile. "Were you truly expecting them to hand the Tesseract to you, if you would ask nicely? When have humans ever voluntarily given up any scraps of power they have gained?"

Agent Coulson stepped in to the peculiar prison room that included Loki's glass cell. The agent made his way to Thor and Fury. Before he got the chance to say anything, Thor approached him angrily like a child who had not gotten what he had wanted. "Son of Coul, Fury is not giving me the Tesseract as I demanded. Nor he let me take my brother to Asgard," Thor explained staring down at the agent.

Coulson glanced at Fury and then Thor. "I never promised you any of that. But perhaps we could come into some sort of an arrangement?" he suggested turning at Fury. The director shook his head.

Nick Fury had just gotten an order from the world security council for commencing new project in order to develop new kinds of weapons using the advanced alien technology. They were not going to give that into the hands of some Asgardians.

"What sort of an arrangement?" Thor asked.

"We'll think of something," Coulson said and watched then at their prisoner behind the strong glass wall, meeting with Fury. He had expected the god of mischief looking more threatening than that. No wonder Ms. Morgan had fallen under his charm. And for a moment Coulson thought that Loki looked a bit too comfortable for one being locked up.

"So, you have imprisoned me. Assumingly you will let Emma Morgan go free now?" Loki spoke with a dark tone to the men, hoping that his imprisonment brought at least something good. His video message had had no influence of things what so ever. They still had her in captivity.

"I agree. You have no need for her," Thor said.

Coulson shook his head. "Actually, we can't do that. Not until we have run a few tests on her anyway."

Loki's well composed and cold appearance crumbled down as he thought about the horrible tests Emma had been once gone through. He narrowed his eyes and furiously slammed his hand against the wall, casting a mean glare down at the men of S.H.I.E.L.D. "If your people will harm her, I will find a way to break out from this cage, and I will not rest until I will stand knee deep in your blood!" he growled, his eyes sparkling in wrathful anger, his breathing steaming on the glass.

"Loki, that is not helping," Thor said, but was beginning to regret he had helped them capturing Loki, getting nothing in return. He was strongly getting the impression that Loki did care for that woman after all, in his own unique way.

Fury took a step closer to the cell, thinking that maybe it was in order to remind the alien creature who were in charge. He pressed a few buttons on the control panel that opened the floor under the glass cell, revealing a long tube-alike hole that led all the way out form the flying vessel, the hole big enough for the whole cage to drop off.

"What are you doing?" Thor asked a bit worried moving closer to Fury, keeping his eyes at Loki's cage that hanged above a void. He wasn't going to let them harm Loki.

A huge draught filled the whole room around them, the wind howling through the hole, and Loki glanced down from the hole seeing a dark sea somewhere very, very far down below them. And it just then occurred to him that he wasn't really that immortal he would had like to be. That fall would have been fatal even to him.

"Thirty thousand feet straight down in a steel cage. You get it? Just say if there's some place you'd like us to drop you off," Nick Fury said to his prisoner in an ominously manner and Loki answered that with a silent scowl. "I didn't think so!" Fury stated and pressed the button again, closing the hatch, ending his little demonstration of having the upper hand. "We've got your girl, Loki. So, you be good in there!" he said carelessly and walked away.

Agent Coulson went with Fury and Thor followed them, giving one more lingering, deploring glance at his brother. Thor was truly hoping he was doing the right thing.

Loki watched them leave, lifting his hands against the wall, falling into a foul mood. It burned him that his so called brother would have rather helped those deceitful mortals than him. That righteous fool was only playing into their hands!

Loki had seen Emma in that interrogation room with the agent, and wished that she was alright. He couldn't bear the thought that they would hurt her because of him. He cursed his feelings. It would have been a lot easier not to feel a thing. Why did he care for her this much? He had even let himself been deliberately caught because of her as though he had become obsessed of her. At least they were now closer to each other again.

To scheme up a perfect plan, he knew too little of this S.H.I.E.L.D and these people, but he was working on something. His spent a while studying his cage that seemed to be tougher made that he had expected it to be. Damn! Breaking free from them was going to be very tricky.

… …

Sourly Thor walked out from the prison section with director Fury and agent Coulson. He had thought that the son of Coul was a man of honor but he knew nothing of Fury or their organization. Loki had already questioned about their agendas and sowed a seed of doubt into Thor's mind. It was not that he would have trusted more of his brother than Coulson at the moment but he had his doubts.

"Has Ms. Morgan been anymore collaborative yet?" Fury asked as they moved to a long corridor.

Coulson shook his head, walking side by side with his boss. "I am afraid not. But we haven't really gotten started yet."

"Loki is captured. Whatever this young woman has done I am sure she has done it under my brother's influence. I know he can be very persuasive. You are going to set her free now, aren't you?" Thor asked, getting a bit worried. He wished no harm for the woman.

Fury stopped in front of the interrogation room and gave Thor an upset glance. "Do not let her looks fool you, Thor. She might appear harmless to you, but she killed nine people in cold blood when she was sixteen. I wouldn't describe her as a people person."

Coulson's expression told that he didn't quite agree with that, watching at Ms. Morgan through the partly closed window blinds. She sat at the table where he had left her, her palms over her face. "Well, it may not be all that black and white, sir. She has changed from those times. It has been eight years."

"May I speak with her?" Thor asked.

Coulson shrugged, seeing no reason why not. "Go ahead," he said and opened the locked door for him.

"Thor knows about the Tesseract. He is becoming a risk," Fury said to Coulson with a gravely serious face after Thor was out of their hearing distance. "If he would get that object into his hands..."

"With all due respect, sir. If Thor would want to cause harm, he wouldn't need the Tesseract to do it. He would be unstoppable against all our weapons all by himself. He's on our side. It is Loki, we should be worried about."

"But you said it yourself that they are brothers. Ever heard that blood is thicker than water?"

Agent Coulson smiled. "Adopted. And what comes to that quote, it originally meant that blood shed on the battle bonds soldiers stronger to each other than sharing the same womb."

"Well, if you'll ever give up your day job you could make it as a history teacher," Fury stated sarcastically and left.

A young male agent rushed to Coulson with a file in his hand. "Sir, we just got back the results from the full DNA profile test you ordered," he said, handing the file to agent Coulson, looking eager with an uneasy grin. "You're never going to guess who her daddy is."

Coulson knitted his brows with curiosity and flipped the file open, checking the results. "Oh, hell! You've got to be kidding me!" he sighed, glancing at Ms. Morgan, knowing only the reputation of her newly discovered father.

… …

When Emma heard the door opening and noticed Thor stepping in, she stood up, alarmed, taking a defending stand. If a gaze could have killed, Thor would have been a dead deity already. "What do you want?" she shouted at him angrily, moving backwards behind the other side of the table. She kept clenching and opening her fists because another wave of freezing pain seized her hands as though someone had been thrusting thick needles into her forearms and the back of her palms.

The door closed and Thor stepped closer to her slowly. "Do not be afraid. I only wanted to speak with you."

"I have nothing to say to you. Except that you just won 'the worse brother in the whole universe' -award!"

"Me?" the god of thunder asked, bemused. "Loki has done unthinkable things, but you must believe me, I wish no harm to him. Even we may not share the same blood, we grew up together. I would never hurt him."

"Yeah? You really fooled me. All he has ever wanted is to be your equal. You are his family, and you and all of you have treated him like shit…"

"Not true. He was raised as a prince of Asgard just like me." Thor stared at the woman with a serious and a bit sad face. Was that truly what Loki had felt like all these years? "No matter what he claims, I did not toss him into the abyss. Yes, we fought, but not because I would have wanted to fight him, but because I tried to stop him destroying Jotunheim. Loki chose to plunge down from the Rainbow Bridge into the eternity of cosmos all by himself."

"A damn liar! You are lying!" Emma shouted furiously.

"No, that is more of Loki's specialty. I tried to help him… but he let go…"

"Yeah, I bet! How long did you have to keep stomping on his fingers before that happened?"

"Enough! How dare you to speak to me like that?" Thor cried out in a rough but pained voice and it startled Emma. He tamed his voice and his expression. "I am sorry… I love my brother more dearly than anyone. When he let go I was forced to watch him fall… unable to help him. I would have given anything to keep him safe."

After a small startlement by his raised voice Emma let down her guard, listening to him, the sensation of pins and needles easing on her hands. "Loki chose to let go?"

"Yes… We all thought we lost him for forever. We mourned for him. Thankfully he ended up on Earth…"

A tear glimmered in the corner of her eye as Emma lowered her head and let out a long sad sigh. That's why he was so lost and angry the first time she encountered him in Greenland. He had been ready to die. There still was a lot she didn't understand but maybe the queen Frigga wasn't the only one who truly had loved Loki. All her anger was gone as she thought of him.

"He must have been so lonely and scared and desperate to give up. Can you even beginning to imagine how he must have felt like, when he discovered that his whole life had been nothing but a lie? That his family had lied to him from the very beginning? That his is a monster everybody hates?" she asked in a silence, sympathetic voice.

It was Thor who was quiet now. It sounded like she knew a side of his brother Thor had never met in his life. "Sounds like you two are close?"

She shrugged. "I guess you can say that."

"Do you love him?"

Emma swallowed considering hard. She would have so wanted to say yes. At least that's what she had felt with him last night. "I don't know. Love might be a bit too strong word to use. I've just met him. But I care a whole lot about him. In fact more than I have cared for anyone in a very long time." She looked straight into Thor eyes with a great concern. "Is he alright? Have they hurt him?"

"Only his pride has taken damage, otherwise he is fine. Well, except being caged and waiting for his judgment."

Emma took a step back and leaned her back against the wall, feeling hopeless. "Then it's all over. We're doomed. At least it was fun as long as it lasted."

"Fun?" Thor pondered the choice of her words. It seemed that Loki had perhaps found just the right girl for him. "Perhaps he was not just lucky to make into Midgard alive. I think he was lucky to meet you," Thor said and watched at the small woman who lifted her confused eyes at him. "I know my brother better than anyone, I know his true nature. And I can see that you have a good heart. I would not want to see you getting hurt being tangled up in his lies."

Emma gave him a small, pained smile like that had been a cruel joke. "You mean he's a trickster, huh? Oh, trust me I've met that side of him. But I fear that he's not the one who would hurt me," she told and glanced at the agents behind the windows. It sounded that maybe Thor wasn't that bad as she had first thought and what Loki had let her to believe. "No matter what they say, those people will kill us both. I've met their kind when I was younger. They locked me away, hurt me, treated me like I'd been a monster because I've abilities that others don't. I had to fight my way out... I'm not proud of it." She sounded ready to cry. She wasn't sure if she had it in her to do it again. "If you love Loki like you told me then take him away from these people, please. You have no idea what they'll do someone like him. In fact, if I'd be you, I wouldn't turn my back at them at all."

Thor glanced at Coulson and the other agent over his shoulder too. "I trust that Coulson in a man of honor. And I assure you I will do all in my powers to make sure both of you and Loki will stay unharmed. You have my word," he said assuringly and walked back at the door, giving it a knock. He was beginning to truly fear he had chosen a wrong side. He turned at her to continue: "It strongly seems that Loki cares for you too. What he said in his message about you; it was not true."

That was all she had wanted to hear. "If you will take him to Asgard, can you promise he will be safe in there?" Emma asked with genuine worry in her voice.

Thor hadn't really thought about that yet. "It is up to our father to decide his fate."

"Then what do you think he will decide?"

Thor stared at her then lowering his gaze, not saying a word. He wasn't sure about it either.

So, the situation was that bad. Emma was speechless, watching Thor leaving and Coulson entering the room. She took a moment to gather herself and then faced the agent with newfound fighting spirit. "I want to see Loki!" she told, not asked.

Coulson sat behind the table again with his files. "I'm afraid that's not possible right now. Please, sit down. We have much to discuss."

Emma remained standing in a corner of the room like a petulant kid, refusing to obey. He was going to have to force her and she was going to beat the crap out of him if he would lay his hands on her. "Not until I have seen Loki!"

Phil Coulson didn't get so easily upset. "When was the last time you saw your mother?" he asked calmly, looking down at his papers.

Emma had sworn to herself she wouldn't open her mouth, but that question made her letting out an annoyed snort. "If you're going to blackmail me through her, then go ahead, please! I haven't seen that cow in eight years after she abandoned me to be tortured. I wouldn't care if she'd be dead."

"Aileen Morrison is alive, living a quite nicely in Florida..."

"I don't want to know!" Emma screamed, getting angry, the pain returning into her hands.

"... with her husband and two young daughters and a dog, a dalmatian. I can give you her address if you like."

Emma stared at the agent with fury eyes, swallowing the stubborn tears down. That man was pure evil telling her this! She didn't want to know if her mom was living a nice family-live in Florida with her half-sisters like Emma would have never existed. Less could have broken her apart.

"I don't want to know! She is dead to me." She took a few nervous steps and would have wanted to throw something hard and spiky at the agent. They were like two totally opposites. She felt like raging at him and he was a Mr. Freaking Serenity. "Oh wait, I take that back. Do give me her address so I can go and kill her myself!"

"Then how about your father? You might want to see him."

Emma shook her head, her heated expression turning into a dry smile. "Never knew him, neither did mom really. So, good luck with finding him!"

"Well, actually we have found him. We ran a full DNA profiling test from your blood, and found your father from our own database. Since you two share the mutation the test result is more than 99 percent accurate," Coulson told and noticed that Emma turned at him hesitating. She said nothing, only stared at him taken aback, so he continued. "As I told you we follow and keep an eye on individuals that are considered dangerous. He is a mutant with unique powers like yours. In certain circles he's known as Wolverine and he has been a member of a group of called the X-men..."

Until the X-men part Emma had listened to Coulson in slowly growing interest, but then she burst out laughing hysterically, not believing the things he was telling. "Really? I didn't know my mom's exes had a club of their own. Do they have matching t-shirts with a text like 'I banged Aileen!'? Oh, Jesus Christ! What a load of crap!"

Coulson waited as long as she had calmed down. She leaned against the wall sideways not bothering to even look at him. "The X-men are an organized group of mutants that have a connection to our government. Usually we don't go stepping on each others toes. Occasionally we have some small collaboration with them but they do not make a fuss of themselves and we have no interest of their affairs." He placed one of his papers on the other side of the table for her to see. "We don't know much about Wolverine's history but he goes by the name Logan."

That name was the only thing she knew of her father. "Logan?" Emma whispered, standing still, not turning at the agent. Damn, he was good messing up her head! Like she wouldn't have been enough messed up already.

"You cooperate with us and we can arrange a meeting for you two."

"Why? Why would I want to see a man who has given me nothing more than this curse?"

"I don't believe it is a curse. And meeting with your father might help you understand your gifts," Phil Coulson said and stood up, taking his files, leaving only the one paper with Logan's picture and a few lines of information on the table. "Give it a thought. We'll continue this later," he continued before he left her alone.

Emma kept standing a long time leaning against the wall, failing to ignore what she had just discovered. She hated everything what that agent had told her, about her mother, about the man who was suppose to be her father, and especially that she couldn't see Loki. She turned at the table where laid the paper with a picture of her father. She couldn't tell how long she had stood in front of the picture without looking down at it, fighting against the storm of feelings whirling inside of her, her fists tinkling with that freezing pain, until she finally let her gaze drop down. She wondered how old the picture might have been because the man in it looked about thirty. And he had hair, a quite a lot actually and some massive sideburns issues. Now she knew where her bad hair days originated from. "Logan," she read the name above the picture. So, that was her dad. She looked nothing like him.

She sat down at the table and closed her eyes, returning her thoughts to Loki. Maybe he was a bit of a prick, but she wasn't going to abandon him no matter what they were bargaining for.

… …

Thank you truly SenSen-Chan for your lovely reviews. They always makes me happy and encourages to continue. You are a lovely person.

The next week I'll be super busy. My best friend is getting married on Saturday and there a lot of stuff I'll have to do, all those taking time from my writing.