I shouldn't have turned on the television when I got home. I knew it was a mistake as soon as I did it, but did I turn it off? No, because I'm a glutton for punishment. That's the only explanation for why I subjected myself to the news coverage of John Walker's press conference regarding his discovery of a long dormant Hydra base and his uncovering of evidence that it had recently been occupied.

There had been no clue whatsoever as to who those people staying there were. They might not have been connected to Hydra at all. It could have been simple as a group of hikers stumbling across the abandoned place and camping there to get out of the weather. Walker just wanted to look good, and toss a bone to the public while he was at it. He wanted to appear as a hero to the public, and busting a Hydra base and some sleeper agents was the way to go.

"...working around the clock processing the evidence..."

"What evidence?" I said to the TV. "The only evidence we found were those scents I picked up, which I could have made something of if only you weren't such a putrid fountain of elephant jism."

"...and we continue to work as hard as we can to bring these Hydra agents to justice..."

"You don't know they're Hydra agents! You are so full of shit!" I shouted just as the door to the penthouse opened.

"...and I, Captain America, will work hard..."

"Jesus Christ. You're not Captain America, you're a redneck in a leotard. Five minutes around you and all I wanted to do was take a long shower. You smarmy ass-raping troglo—oh, come on! I'm on a roll here!" That last part was because the television was just flicked off.

"I do love it when you get feisty, Pet, but you were getting just a bit too worked up."

Loki was right, I was getting too worked up. But damn it, I was pissed.

I knew he loved it when I got riled up as well. In fact, I had quickly figured out that Loki liked women who dished it out as well as he could, and he had confessed that was one of the main things that made me attractive to him when he began courting me. I remember then I had tried to scare him off by being as bitchy and difficult as possible, but that had been a mistake. If I had really wanted to drive him away, I should have fluttered my eyelashes and simpered, and fainted in his presence. Of course, I hadn't really wanted to drive him away, although at the time I was in denial about it, and hey, it worked out.

"And..." he stepped over to me, wrapping one arm around my waist while cupping the back of my head with his other hand. "I can think of much better things for you to do with that mouth aside from yelling at the television screen."

He gave me a good idea of what "better things" he had in mind by giving me a kiss that made me melt and my toes curl. I grasped his shirt, gathering the material in my fists as I submitted to his probing tongue, drawing in his unique scent...ice kissed by peppermint. I loved that scent, and I forgot all about what I had been mad about as it filled my lungs.

He slowly pulled away. "Much better," he whispered, pulling me close so I could nuzzle his chest and he could run his hands up and down my back. I could feel tension I hadn't even know I was holding draining away. I hated it when Loki was gone. I knew why he went on those missions with Thor. Loki still carried a lot of guilt for the things he had done in the past. Trying to destroy Jotunheim in an attempt to win the approval from his adopted father he had craved so much. The attack on New York and all the other human lives he had took when he tried to take over Earth. He also blamed himself for the death of his father and the destruction of his home, since it was his spell that caused Odin to weaken and then die, releasing his sister who caused a lot of havoc before he and Thor had no choice but to release Surtur. He was working so hard to atone, and going on those missions was important to him. It was his way of trying to give back, to attempt to silence the ghosts that haunted him.

I wasn't going to ask him to stop doing it, but it was hard on me when he was away for days, sometimes weeks at a time. During those times I was hardly ever at home. It was funny...when I first came to this Earth, I preferred solitude, but now I didn't want to spend time alone in an empty apartment no matter how nice it was. So instead, I divided my time between Avengers Mansion, the Sanctum Sanctorum, and wherever Bucky and Sam decided they wanted to go when they invited me to hang out. I only slept when Loki was home, because he hated sleeping alone. I only ate when he was home for the same reason. I filled my time in other ways, and lately it had been aiding in the hunt for Steve.

"I brought some Italian home," I informed him in a murmur, unnecessarily since the apartment was filled with the aromas of tomato, basil, oregano, and garlic.

"Thank you, Pet, but we'll get to it later...I am hungry for something else," he responded, and kissed me again. His desire flooded me, heating me up from the inside and making my knees buckle as I inhaled the scent of his arousal. The reunions were about the only good thing that came out of him being away, and they were the reason I had thought to put a spell on the food to keep it warm. Loki always returned eager to reconnect. He was a twice or three times a night man when he was home, something that I didn't mind at all, and on top of it he preferred to spin things out as long as humanly, or rather godly, possible, and he loved to play. When he returned from a long trip...it was a good thing I didn't need sleep.

It was hours later, when I was fuzzy brained, noodle-legged, and almost incapable of thinking clearly, when we got to the food. I didn't need to eat either, but I was still fully capable of enjoying food, and as previously observed Loki hated eating alone, and he ate more when I ate with him than he did when by himself. Those food rations on the Benatar were a piss-poor substitute for real nourishment, and God knew what was in the cuisine that existed on the other worlds Loki went to.

When my brain finally started working again, I told him about the other day at the Hydra base Bucky and I discovered, and the encounter with John Walker.

"A bloodhound," Loki stated coldly.

I jabbed my fork in his direction. "Don't even think about it. It's not worth it, and you don't need to get in trouble for attacking the government's pet."

He huffed in indignation. "As if I would get caught!" I took a bite of pasta and stared at him. "Pet, that stare down of yours may work on weak-minded simpletons, but you know very well that I am immune."

"It's a habit. Seriously though, let it go."

"You're still angry about it," he accused.

"Not about that," I corrected. "I'm mad about him taking over the way he did, and ousting me and Bucky like that. You should have heard him, telling me I did a good job and just sending me on my way...the patronizing dick all but patted me on the head and told me what I good girl I was! I wasn't even through sorting through scents yet, and I know they led off to other places. I didn't get Steve's scent, but we were only able to check out that specific area...what if he'd been held in another part of the base?"

It wasn't just Walker's condescending attitude that pissed me off. There might be actual clues there that could lead to us finding Steve. The longer he was missing, the more anxious I felt. Ever since his disappearance there had been a persistent nagging at the back of my mind that was growing more pronounced every day, a feeling of restless anguish. One of my people was somewhere, possibly dead or worse, and I needed to find him. It wasn't just that his possible abduction was hitting way too close to home, triggering a lot of memories and therefore also causing me to imagine all sorts of nightmare scenarios as to what could be happening to him.

It was that I couldn't protect him. I was failing him, the way I had failed my loved ones back in my universe. Rationally I knew that there had been nothing I could have done to prevent their deaths. I still felt guilt no matter how much I tried to tell myself that. And I was experiencing that now with Steve.

"You want to go back," Loki guessed, taking a bite of pasta. His voice was soft, and his hand brushed my arm to comfort me. He was always too good at knowing where my mind went, and he knew how much finding Steve meant to me.

"Can't. The Avengers have been cock-blocked from going near the place again. They threatened to arrest us if we returned." I stabbed my penne, taking my frustration out on the food.

Loki shrugged as he dabbed at his mouth with a napkin. "Can't be arrested if we aren't caught..." I peered at him hopefully, and he smiled. "Ask me nicely."

That's how we came to be at the Hydra base at O'Dark Thirty in the morning several hours later, when most sane government employees would be asleep, and the ones who were forced to work the graveyard shift would be too bleary eyed and saddled with a case of "fuck this, I want to go to bed" that would cause them to be careless in their patrols. Loki helped that along by actually putting some of the guards to sleep and messing with the drones. He also helped by teleporting us to the place. All of it was advanced magic, and I wasn't there yet. It would be a while before I was ready to use any magic that affected people, and even longer before I could even think about transporting myself let alone others.

I squatted in the large room where I had picked up all the scents, my brow furrowed in concentration as I mentally sifted through the different tones and came up with the same number I had earlier, fourteen. I picked one to start with, the one that started down the corridor Walker had come in from. Five other people had joined that individual, and I began to follow with Loki silently following. This was still new to me. Even a year and a half after my change, I was still learning how to separate individual scents and sort them out in my mind. It didn't help that I was essentially training myself, since I knew no one else who had a nose that could rival a canine's. Some of the Avengers told me that they had heard rumors of people who did, and Nat said that she ran into someone in Canada years back whom she swore had very similar senses of smell and hearing to mine, but she didn't know how to find the person again since they had fallen off the grid. The kid with the spider powers had a "sixth sense" but that wasn't the same, and his "sixth sense" wasn't even similar to my empathy...fortunately, Loki had some psychic ability and had been able to help me gain some control there.

The scents led me down the corridor to a sealed door that I was able to deal with as easily as the other one yesterday. It opened into another hall, and I followed the scent trails, which were joined by other scents. "Other people were down here." I inhaled. "At least three." I kept my voice quiet so it wouldn't echo.

The scents split off into different rooms along the hall. The first room I went into was completely empty but I again smelled wool and fleece. The second room must have served as the kitchen. I picked up more rotten food smells, and propane. I looked around but there was nothing here. These people had been thorough in cleaning up after themselves.

We checked out three more rooms, and then on the last one I caught something. I froze, trying to decide whether or not it was wishful thinking. Then I ran towards a corner where an air conditioning outlet was. I jumped up to grab the metal ledge of the ventilator cover and pulled myself up. I breathed in deep. "Son of a bitch," I muttered. Then I began to feel my way around the cover frantically, searching for a way to get it off.

"What is it?" Loki's sharp voice came up behind me.

"Steve's scent." That bubblegum scent was the best thing I had ever smelled in my life at that moment. "It's very faint, and coming from here. I need to get in so I can follow the air duct and see where it's coming from."

The cover vanished and I would have fallen if Loki didn't use a levitation enchantment to hold me up. "Next time, ask, my dear," he almost chuckled, then I felt him struggle with indecision as I crawled into the ventilation shaft. On the one hand, he was very fastidious about cleanliness and he was also a lot taller than I was...going through those shafts would not be at all comfortable for him. On the other hand, he wasn't crazy about me crawling through them by myself.

By the time he made a decision, I had already crawled twenty feet. I knew protectiveness won over his desire to keep himself dirt free when the metal walls vibrated, the banging of his limbs on whatever alloy this shaft was made of echoed down the tube causing my head to ring, and I heard him spit out words that I almost never heard come out of his mouth. Loki was also obsessively careful about manners, and didn't approve of swearing, although he hadn't bothered trying to get me to clean up my language. He actually claimed that he found some of my more creative and colorful phrases amusing, so he left it alone.

The movies always made it seem like crawling through air conditioning ducts was a piece of cake, no big deal at all. The reality was not the case. Ventilation ducts were dusty, often filled with spiders and insects, cramped as hell...and that was when they were well maintained and used regularly. In an old abandoned complex like this? I really had to concentrate to stay on Steve's scent as I crawled and kept my eyes fixed on my hands so I'd be less likely to go into a claustrophobic panic. I was only 5 and a half feet tall and I was having a hard time, so Loki at 6 foot 5 was no doubt miserable.

Fortunately, Steve's trail ended, and I banged on the ceiling cover with my fist and dropped out of the duct. I landed on the floor. The scent was a little stronger in this room but not by much. The floating ball that had been following me illuminated the space, and I ended up by a metal table where the scent was strongest. It stopped abruptly. No trail away from the table or anything. Just stopped. I paced around the table, sniffing and double checking, triple checking. It was about the fifth time that I had to throw in the flag.

Then I noticed the restraints on the table. I looked up and could make out the instruments hanging from the ceiling highlighted by the glow the orb gave off.

Just like that I was no longer in the Hydra complex, no longer looking for Steve, was no longer aware of Loki calling my name in increasing concern...

I couldn't move, couldn't fight. The chamber was dark except for a single blinding light shining directly into my unseeing eyes. I had been dragged so deeply into the labyrinth that I only had a faint awareness of the cuffs on my wrists and ankles holding me to the table, and of the tall fallen angel standing above me.

He grabbed one of the instruments from a nearby table to prod my flesh with painful, violating jabs. Trying to figure out what made me tick, how they could possibly use me. They knew all about my empathic abilities, and they were also curious. What had drawn Raphael to me? What exactly had he seen in this human? She was powerful, yes. But there were others in other universes who were even more powerful, and they lived in universes where such things actually mattered. A receptive empath on a world where very few others had any extraordinary abilities? What was so special? And how could they use me?

They were determined to succeed where Lucifer had failed, and they were willing to use every advantage they could find in order to accomplish it. A sharp blade poked at my nipple, and a barb covered probe went into my...

I retreated further into the labyrinth my mind had created to protect itself from the agony and the horror, that they had managed to twist into another type of torment to keep my mind imprisoned and distracted. Their hatred of mortals knew no limit, and they never passed up an opportunity to mess with one of their Father's beloved creations. As the sharp blade moved from my breasts to my diaphragm, slicing a hole, a cold finger slid in, grabbing a rib and snapping it. Blood filled my throat, choking me as my lung was punctured, then the netting landed on my face...

"Tracy! Tracy!"

The air in the Hydra complex was filled with screaming, and the base creaked and groaned as it quaked. I was trying to reach for the netting covering my face, but someone was preventing me from doing it. I twisted in their hold, fighting them, my lungs and throat burning. The screams filling the air were coming from me, and I kept struggling.

"Look at me, Pet! Open your eyes and look at me!"

Loki. Loki's voice. I latched onto it and obediently opened my eyes to look at him. He'd been the one holding my wrists, and I realized he'd been keeping me from clawing at my face. Tears were pouring down my cheeks in rivers, my throat was sore from screaming. My lungs were on fire, and I couldn't get enough air into them. I was hyperventilating.

"Slow. Slow, deep breaths. Eyes on me. You're alright, you're safe, come back to me," Loki was commanding in his silky, steady voice, serving as my anchor to what I hoped was reality. I always ended up questioning what that was after a flashback, and that had been a doozy.

I didn't look away from his eyes, gulping at the air, trembling. Loki was sweaty with exertion, from keeping the Hydra base from falling down on top of us when my magic slipped out of control. He was still speaking, and my breathing slowed. I was shaking and crying, but I was no longer in danger of killing us. He pulled me close to him, wrapping his arms around me and I sobbed as I buried my face against his chest. He held me tightly as he did what he could to comfort me, reiterating that I was safe, that he wasn't going to let anyone or anything hurt me ever again.

I wasn't sure how long we were like that, kneeling on the dusty floor of the abandoned Hydra base, him holding me while I quieted down and clung to him.

"One day. One day I will find those creatures and I will destroy them all, every single one," Loki vowed, not bothering to hide the venom in his voice. He had seen. He saw what I had flashbacked to, and he was furious. I could feel him thinking No wonder she was so afraid to allow anyone to touch her and getting angrier the more he thought about it.

I didn't have to tell him that it was staying between the two of us. He already knew I would not want anyone else knowing about that.

I coughed and remarked in a trembling, hoarse voice, "Y-you're so r-romantic..."

"Enough. I'm taking you home. Do not argue."

I hadn't been planning to.

"Hold it, you two aren't going anywhere." That was John Walker's voice. Just what we needed to round out this morning.

I felt Loki bristle. "I would love to see you try to prevent us, mortal." He didn't raise his voice. He didn't need to.

"She needs to come with us...I told her and Barnes they would be arrested if they returned here, so I'm here to collect. Was she the source of that seismic activity that brought us here, or were you?"

I caught Lemar's scent as well. I didn't look at them but stayed curled up on the floor while Loki rose to his full height to stare them down. I was in no shape for any type of confrontation whatsoever.

"You know what, never mind. You shouldn't be here either, and I've been itching for an excuse to take you in as well. You're both under arrest. Hands up."

"Oh, please do try to arrest us. I can use the laugh," Loki retorted coldly.

"John," Lemar said. "Look at her. She's distraught about something. Cut her some slack. Earlier she said she wanted to come back and take a second look around because of the smells she picked up. Come on, man, she's shaking!"

I heard his voice drop almost to a whisper as he said to John. "You know as well as I do what it looks like when soldiers are having PTSD flashbacks."

"She's not a soldier. In fact, I tried to find her in our systems. Until a year ago, she didn't exist. I want to know where the hell she came from."

"That," Loki retorted. "Is none of your concern, mortal."

"It damn well is. I'm Captain America, and any possible threat to this country is my concern."

"She determined that the real Captain America has been here. Something which you failed to do. Thanks to her, we are now a little closer to finding Rogers, which is much more than I can say for you."

Silence. I could feel John silently stewing, and something else. I didn't like what I was feeling from John. Didn't like it at all. I still didn't look up though. At that moment I didn't trust myself not to completely lose it.

"I see." Proving that Loki was on the same wavelength as me, I heard him add, "You're in no hurry to find Steve Rogers. Finding him would mean that you would have to return that shield, which is not truly yours, and you don't want to do that because you're enjoying your status so much."

"You shut your mouth!" I heard loud shuffling and Lemar saying "John" in a placating voice.

"You love the power and prestige that comes with the title you haven't earned, a nobody who became lucky enough to be chosen to become the government's lackey. Tell me, what other benefits have come with being the Senate's lapdog? A nice home, women, the adoration of the public...perhaps the money that comes with dancing to the government's tune?"

"Shut the hell up! You might have been pardoned for that mess in New York years back, but you're still skating on thin ice...and if she caused those tremors and is prone to PTSD attacks in the field, then she's unhinged and dangerous, and needs to come in."

"Try it, mortal. Just give me an excuse. Steve Rogers is three times the man you are, and even he could never best a god. You are wasting time. He could be suffering torture as we speak, while you are running around in a costume cosplaying as someone you will never be."

"You son of a-" I felt Loki's tranquil rage at that outburst. The fastest way to get on his bad side was to insult his mother.

"John, stop it! He'll mop the floor with you, and we have no proof that she did anything wrong!"

"She trespassed onto a crime scene!"

"She's trying to find Rogers. Man, back off...we have more important things to worry about than a little trespassing."

"Someone needs to pay, I will not be disrespected!"

"Temper, temper. And you dare to call my lady unhinged? I would stay and chat some more, but I need to get her home." I felt Loki grasp my arm. I refused to be carried out of here in front of John Fucking Walker so I stood up on unsteady legs as Loki called open a portal. We walked through, leaving a seething Walker with Lemar trying to get him to cool down.

"I'm sorry," I said as soon as we were in our living room and the portal closed.

"You have nothing to apologize for," Loki reassured me, kissing my forehead and wrapping an arm around my shoulder. "Come, we both need to wash up. I will handle any fallout that results from being caught tonight."

"But if I hadn't lost control, Walker would've have had any-"

"That's enough, Pet. You will not take the blame for any of this, do you hear me? I will tell Danvers and Rhodes what happened and what you found. You will clean up and tuck into bed. Behave, and perhaps-"

"If you offer me ice cream, I'm going to deck you."

Loki grinned. "There's my feisty Pet. Welcome back."