Being an empath did not make me qualified to give any advice or insight on a serious matter or decision at all. I was an empath, not a therapist. I was not Deanna Troi.

Therefore, my solution to Sam struggling over the indecision over whether or not to accept Steve's offer? Was to stay the fuck out of it.

I avoided going to Bucky's apartment because the first couple of times I tried after the whole Walker mess, I scented Sam in there with him and decided to see what Thor was up to instead, a decision I didn't regret even when he dragged me to a Giants game. Thor at a football game was every bit as terrifying as I had imagined it would be. I still didn't regret my choice.

At work I would suddenly have something important come up if Steve and Sam came into the foyer, and I avoided every room I smelled them in, made detours, even went out the back door, climbed the side of the mansion, and entered a room on the second floor through the window to avoid all three men when they were having a loud discussion in the main room on the first floor.

Cowardly? Maybe. Okay, definitely, and I knew it when it turned out that both Loki and Thor were in the room that the window I climbed through was located, and they just shook their heads as they watched me. I just wanted the whole thing to come to a damn resolution, and the last thing the situation needed was my input. I was not good at giving advice. At all. I was especially not qualified, as a white woman, to give advice to a black man who was feeling the pressure of centuries of racism and cries for justice in his indecision to become the new Captain America. I did what I felt was the smart thing and kept my mouth shut. I didn't even voice that thought about racial issues to Bucky or Steve, deciding to let them figure it out...which they eventually did, especially after meeting the Power Broker's other source for her manufactured serum. Steve was pretty mad at Bucky for not telling him about Isaiah Bradley, the government's attempt at reviving the super soldier program from the 50s, and was absolutely livid when he discovered what happened to Isaiah after the government was done with him.

I actually had said something like that, when Bucky flopped into the chair by my desk while I was working after Steve had chewed him out. "Dude, you really fucked up," I said with no sympathy, which he hadn't been looking for because he left after I gave my opinion. Like I said, I was horrible with advice. Especially when I was feeling cranky from the empathic mess that hung in the atmosphere like a gloomy cloud, and had been ever since the John Walker shitshow.

The asshole had been stripped of the Captain America title as well as his rank, and any retirement benefits that would have come with it. Ouch. The whole debacle had been televised live from the Senate. I had almost felt sorry for the man, but the government wanted badly to save face. The footage of Walker decapitating an unarmed, surrendering man was still one of the top videos on the internet, despite YouTube and others taking it down because it violated terms of services. You could access it plenty though if you could get on the dark web, and a worrying number of people did.

As a result, I had an alarming number of videos I had to take down. When I wasn't doing my usual stuff, I was on the dark web hacking into VPNs and secured sites in order to remove the snuff video. Since that's exactly what it was. Steve had asked me, and it was a task that I didn't hesitate to take up. I never liked hacking onto the dark web, it only served as a reminder how just how sick people could be and it made me irritable. I took down video after video, served some vigilante justice to some child porn and human traffickers while I was at it, and felt a little better afterwards. Loki's neck rubs also helped.

He was giving one to me now as my head lay pillowed in my arms, my keyboard shoved aside and soothing rainstorm sounds streaming out of the speakers. "Have you found anymore?"

"No," I moaned. "Don't you dare stop." Loki had just returned from taking care of the latest ring of child molesters I had found. I didn't ask how he took care of them so that I could claim plausible deniability should Steve or Carol find out and take exception to Loki's activities. Going after the scum after I told him where they were located was proving to be good for Loki, and we weren't going to stop. We might be even less likely to be caught if we weren't doing this at Avengers HQ, but I wasn't going to bring this slime home.

Loki tsked. "Too much time sitting at the computer is not good for your posture. The muscles in your neck and shoulders feel like stones. Why not walk away for a bit and let Stark handle this?"

"It gives me an excuse to avoid talking to Sam, who's still wanting advice about the whole shield thing. Oh, that's it. Right there."

"Mmmhmm, that is a nasty knot," Loki focused on that spot. "And just tell Sam to make his own decisions."

Loki was actually calling Sam and Bucky by their first names instead of referring them by their surnames like he'd been doing. It was major progress. "I could but I feel bad, because he wants input from everyone, and I... just can't."

His cool lips brushed the back of my neck. "You are too nice for your own good. I would have told him to grow up."

"You did," I reminded him. I overheard them that morning.

"Oh, well, yes. Yes, I did." His skilled hands weaved through my hair to work on the back of my head. "You would do well to follow my example, Pet." When I remained silent, I felt his smirk. "As I have said, too nice for your own good."

I bit my tongue so I wouldn't tell him to bite me, since I knew that he would take me up on the "offer".

My nose picked up the distinct notes of citrus and grass, Bazooka Joe bubblegum, and butterscotch, plus Carol's cinnamon bun scent. I wish I were joking, but Carol smelled like cinnamon rolls to me. "Hey, it's almost time for dinner, you hungry?" I tried to move but Loki's hands tightened on my shoulders in warning as he held me down in the chair.

His lips touched my ear as he whispered. "No more climbing the side of the building through windows, Pet."

I bit back a growl that would have earned me an evening featuring one of Loki's signature oh-god-please-can-I-get-a-caning-instead punishments. See, I could be smart every so often.

Steve came into the room first, and headed over to the desk. I sensed that he knew something, and that something had to do with Loki and I. Uh oh.

"So, I got an interesting phone call," Steve began, standing in front of the two of us, Loki standing behind me with his hands on my shoulders keeping me in my chair. "Seems that about half an hour ago, the FBI branches in various cities across the United States suddenly became flood by some very frightened pedophiles who barged in the front doors, begging the agents to arrest them, and all of them very eagerly confessed to their crimes upon being detained."

"That is interesting," Loki replied, sounding completely unconcerned and even a little bored. I kept my mouth shut. I was a horrible liar. It was best to let Loki do all the talking.

"Yes, indeed. Seems all of them were part of a child porn ring that operated on the dark web. Say, Tracy...weren't most of the videos of Walker beheading that man you've been busy taking down uploaded to the dark web?"

I managed not to make a sound, not even a squeak as Loki squeezed my shoulders lightly. "Your point, Steve? There are many things on the dark web, and many people who venture on it in efforts to take down the criminals who utilize it," Loki retorted.

"Maybe...still, the phone call had me wondering..."

"What is there to wonder?"

I couldn't see Loki, but I could see Steve, and knew the two of them were having a stare down. I stayed silent.

"So, neither of you know anything?"

"No," Loki answered for both of us.

Steve shrugged. "Then I don't either."

Phew. And I wouldn't ask Loki what he did to scare those pedophiles so badly either. Plausible deniability.

Loki squeezed my shoulders gently again, as though he knew what I was thinking. I was glad the two of us were on the same page about him not telling me what he did to the people I sent him after, at least not for a few decades.

All thoughts of child molesters fled my mind when Bucky and Carol came into the room, followed by...

The outfit Sam was wearing boasted mostly blue and white, with some splashes of red in some of the detail. It was like someone had taken his old outfit and spray-painted it, but I knew that wasn't the case because my ears could pick up the high frequency soundwaves that vibranium gave off. The Wakandans had even supplied new wings and I wondered if there was a new Redwing as well. It was a blend of the old and the new for him, a uniform that said he was Captain America but it was also distinctly Falcon.

"Looks good on you, Sam," Steve complimented. He was positively beaming with pride. I blinked several times. I couldn't even blame my watery eyes on allergies, since I didn't have those anymore.

Everyone's coms went off at once, and now I had a headache to go with the tight muscles Loki was still massaging. The others began to make their way upstairs to the briefing room. I gazed at my computer screen wistfully, but then realized Steve was waiting for me.

"What?" I asked, but I had a feeling I already knew.

"You're needed, too. Get up."

I started to groan but Loki tugged on my hair. I rose reluctantly, and of course Steve waved for me to go up the stairs first. I started to refuse. Steve moved slower than he had before the coma, and was having trouble navigating stairs, even needed a cane every so often, and I would have preferred being behind him in order to catch him in case he fell. Since Loki was walking alongside Steve, going slow to keep pace with him, I told my burgeoning instincts to hush and made my way to the second floor. Being surrounded by men who were so old-fashioned had its charms at times, but there were moments when it was just a pain in the ass. Then again, these new protective instincts were proving to be a pain in the ass as well. I couldn't win.

I didn't know why I bothered to sit down at the conference table, because there was only one reason I would be needed for this particular meeting, and my suspicion was confirmed when Natasha's face appeared on the com screen. So much for my evening plans of a hot bath, Chinese takeout, some quality time with Loki, and a fluffy Nalini Singh novel to erase the words and images I had seen while in the seediest parts of the internet.

"We have gotten word that Karli Morgenthau is planning on staging an attack at the UN conference being held to discuss solutions to the refugee crisis caused by the Blip," Nat informed us. The Blip was what everyone called the return of three and a half billion people that occurred five years after Thanos had snapped them all out of existence. The result had been chaos. People who had homes five years ago found themselves homeless. Therapists and psychiatrists were overwhelmed by an influx of patients who were suffering problems such as parents whom kids barely remembered suddenly returning and wanting to uproot them from the homes they knew for half a decade, kids who were dealing with once older siblings now being younger than they, people who were dead for five years coming back to find that their spouses had moved on, individuals returning only to discover that loved ones perished during the time they had been nothing more than a scattering of atoms floating on the wind. Homelessness rates had skyrocketed, riots had broken out, and there was once again a food shortage worldwide. "There is every indication that the Power Broker may be there."

Which meant that I and my nose would be there as well. I couldn't hold back a weary sigh. Loki placed his hand on the back of my neck and rubbed, squeezing lightly.

"I'll say here and monitor the situation," Carol told us. Since she could fly at the speed of light, Carol could get to Washington in an instant if things got dicey and we needed her. "What else do you propose, Cap?" She smiled at Sam as she said it.

Sam glanced at Steve, who only shrugged. "Don't look at me. I'm just here to advise."

"Alright," Sam declared. "Bucky, Tracy, you two are with me. Might as well include Loki too since I get the feeling he'd only end up following us anyway."

Loki didn't deny it. Overprotective ass. I felt him tug on a lock of my hair, as if he knew what I was thinking. He very likely actually did.

"The Power Broker, if she is present, won't be near the actual action. She'd most likely be on the ground, blending in with the crowd, watching things unfold. Bucky, you and Tracy will blend in with the crowd too. You'll be another pair of eyes and hands while Tracy focuses on trying to catch the Power Broker's scent. There'll be a lot of people there, and I know it'll take a lot of focus and concentration, so if you get overwhelmed..."

"I'll be fine," I reassured him. I didn't need a babysitter. I may have needed a life raft to keep my head above all the testosterone in the room, but I didn't need a babysitter.

I needed a babysitter.

Bucky and I were separated by a crowd of about a few hundred or so, and in addition to all the smells that I had to sort through, weed out, and try to ignore, I had the epic onslaught of the emotions of several thousand individuals, give or take a million. Car exhaust, the usual pollution smells and mildew, sweaty bodies, perfumes, deodorants, hair products, grease and food from the trucks that had decided to set up shop outside to profit off the conference, alcohol because some people had decided that showing up drunk to the demonstrations going on as the UN was convening was an absolutely fantastic idea, gun oil from the rednecks who were carrying and somehow got lucky not to get caught by security, even pot.

The emotions were not helping. Anger of the self-righteous variety stood out, but there was a blurry, chaotic mix that I didn't bother trying to sort out. It was giving me a pounding headache, which Loki's mental fingers were helping with. Despite my protests, Loki had initiated a mental link for the purpose of taking on some of the burden. While I appreciated the gesture, I really would never wish this mess on my worst enemy, let alone someone I loved.

I let him have his way because I didn't need an argument with him on top of what I was already dealing with. I had to admit that it helped, and it made it easier to navigate all the smells without the distraction of people's feelings battering at my mental barriers. Too bad nothing could be done with the physical battering.

Alright, it wasn't literal battering, but to me it might as well have been. In such a large crowd that was pretty compacted it was impossible not to get touched by strangers. An arm brushing up against mine, a shoulder bumping me. I tried to swallow my racing heart, breathed through the rising panic that threatened to choke me.

I felt Loki's mental fingers, a gentle telepathic caress offering refuge and comfort. His presence stroked down my spine, infusing every cell, warming me up with a languid heat. Feeling a little more balanced, though nowhere near steady, I soldiered on. My concentration stayed on the smells, and I did my best to ignore everyone around me otherwise.

There was shouting and other unpleasant sounds, and I found myself wishing I could put in my earbuds and turn on one of the white noise tracks I had downloaded for the occasions when my sensitive hearing became overwhelming. I had to remain sharp though, so listening to the sounds of calm ocean waves or gentle rain pattering on concrete would have to wait.

Another hour went by. My head was pounding, I had to restrain myself from smacking a few people, and my sinuses were feeling like needles were gauging the cavities and then being swirled around. I resisted the urge to elbow someone who got too close. I was getting frustrated because I hadn't gotten anything useful. There were simply too many people here, too many smells, and I was close to my limit. Loki was ready to pull me out, but I wasn't hurt. I was grumpy and feeling claustrophobic.

Then the explosion occurred. The UN building rocked, and I looked up to see smoking billowing out of the 38th floor. Sam had already flown down, and I knew Loki had charged into the chamber where the UN was meeting to help as well.

I swore under my breath. Damn it, I hated feeling helpless. I wanted to be up there, especially when I found myself having to fight the surge of the crowd as they ran away from the site of the carnage. Which was great, except that the press was pushing me along with them. I charged forward, but was being pushed back by the stampede. And that would not do.

I braced my feet and then jumped onto the top of a news van parked along a curb. I heard gunshots, screaming, glass breaking. I should have been up there helping with that, not down here searching for a single scent among this chaos.

The van rocked. I didn't bother looking at the man who had joined me on the top of the van. When he reached for my hand, I grabbed it convulsively. I realized I was shaking. Being here among all these hundreds of strangers, and being bombarded with the emotions of panic, fear, and shock, combined with having my touch aversion triggered for the past hour, were getting to me. At least Bucky had the good sense to offer me his metal hand. "Anything?" He yelled to be heard over the sounds of screaming and running feet. I shook my head. "We need to get inside in case any of the Power Broker's people try to slip out!"

Oh, I was so in the mood to beat up some renegade super soldiers. "Lead the way."

Bucky didn't protest when I didn't let go of his hand. He wasn't Loki, but his touch served just as well to anchor me. Else I probably would have ended up rocking back and forth on the ground beside the van with my arms covering my head, even with being linked to my Frost Giant.

He was occupied at present. I could tell he was expending energy, using his magic, but not much beyond that. Our connection had become a bit muddy, likely because he had to concentrate on other matters. I was itching to go to his aid, but I froze when I picked up a particular scent.

Bucky noticed my reaction. "What is it?"

"She's here." I switched directions, following my nose. I forgot about the sensory overload issues, forgot about my touch aversion. I had caught my quarry's scent and was on the hunt. I didn't even know if Bucky was following me.

I knocked down a door to the stairs, raced down a few flights, then decided To Hell With It and jumped over the railing and let myself fall the rest of the way down. I landed on my feet, the impact making my entire body vibrate up to and including my jaw. It was definitely jarring and my knees didn't like it. Yeah, Super Hero Landings were definitely only for movies.

I shook it off and chased after the scent, which was getting stronger. I slammed into another door and ran into an underground parking garage. Turned a corner, and the bullet that was meant for my head pinged off the shield that I had called up the moment I had picked up the scent. Ever since a very memorable punishment from Loki after I nearly had my foot bitten off by a cephalopod-like demon, I always made sure to shield before charging into situations like this.

Being shot at made me cranky. I flung a hand out and the assailant flew back towards a concrete pillar, slamming into it, the air knocked out of her.

I ran over, kicked the gun out of her reach, and then heard Bucky race in and shout "SHARON?!"

Sharon tried to get up but glared at me when she found she couldn't move. I was holding her down with telekinesis. I was pissed because I could feel the shock and betrayal coming in waves off Bucky. He knew this woman, and even worse, they had been friends.

Bucky looked at me, a pleading expression in his eyes. I wanted to tell him what he wanted to hear, that I was mistaken. I really wanted to tell him that it wasn't what it seemed. But not only did the scent match, I could feel Sharon's righteous anger. She was bristling with defensive fury, with no remorse or guilt whatsoever.

When I felt the sensation of being punched in the gut coming from Bucky, it took everything I had not to go over and slam the blonde woman's head into the concrete. I was so angry that Loki opened the link back up to check on me. When my rage didn't abate, I felt the air nearby displace when he teleported in.

His hand brushed my own, which was shaking again, and not from anxiety this time. I was furious.

"Why?" Bucky asked the woman who was still starring daggers at us.

"You dare ask me that, after you and your buddies abandoned me?" Sharon practically hissed. "After I helped you and Steve, I became a fugitive. I can't go back home, I'm still wanted by the US government. I had to go underground, work to make a name for myself in order to avoid dying." Her eyes were accusatory as she said, "Steve and Sam managed to get pardoned by the government, but did either of them think of me? No. So, I had to follow a different path."

"That path included almost killing Steve so you could use his blood to manufacture the serum?"

I bared my teeth at the reminder of what this bitch did to Steve, and the heavy cost. Steve's heart and bones were brittle. He almost died and might never recover from what she did. I clenched my fist. Loki grabbed my wrist, forced my fist open, and held onto my hand tightly. He didn't give a shit about Sharon, but he knew that if I killed her, it might send me down a path that I would never return from. He held me back, refusing to let me cross that line.

Even Loki had trouble holding me back when Sharon shrugged and said, "Business is business."

Security had arrived at that point, so Loki picked me up and carried me away before I made the bitch's head implode. I was seeing red and wasn't rational at that point. All I could think about was Steve having to lean on a cane for support as he watched me work out in the gym the other day.

Dust fell from the ceiling as he dragged me away so that I wouldn't rip Sharon Carter apart with my bare hands.

"Jesus," Bucky observed later when we were all in the Quinjet heading home. "I keep forgetting how scary you can be when you lose your temper."

My head was between my knees, Loki's hand rubbing my back in soothing circles. I was taking slow, calming deep breathes. I still wanted to tear Sharon apart, especially after being present when Sam and Bucky called Steve to inform him of what happened. Steve was hundreds of miles away, but I still felt the sickening emotional punch to the solar plexus when they informed him of the identity of the Power Broker. It was as though someone had physically gutted him, the sense of betrayal and anguish was so strong. It had pissed me off all over again, and Loki had taken me to an empty room at the UN building to let me pace, yell, swear, punch holes in the walls, smash the furniture, whatever I had to do to let it out.

"Who was she?" Loki asked, still rubbing my back.

"Sharon Carter. She's the niece of Peggy Carter, one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D. and someone who was really important to Steve. She helped us years ago when the team...fractured."

I knew who Peggy was. I had seen the compass Steve sometimes still carried around with him and the old black and white photo in it.

Bucky cleared his throat. "Sharon and Steve also..."

"No." I cut Bucky off immediately. "I don't want to know."

Bucky hesitated. "Well..."

"Bucky...if you want Sharon to stay alive, I strongly suggest you shut up and not tell me. Help me retain the last vestiges of my sanity."

He shut up. Loki said nothing. He knew that as time went on, I was finding myself growing more and more protective of the people I considered mine. The instincts that had come with my transformation into whatever I now was were growing stronger, and it was getting harder to resist destroying anyone or anything that threatened my friends. I knew Steve was hurting, and all I wanted to do was eliminate the source of that pain.

We simply had to find ways for me to curb those instincts, or I would eventually wind up going insane. Even more insane than I was now.

When I started shaking again, Loki reached over and dragged me onto his lap, wrapping his arms around me and holding me close. We remained that way for the rest of the flight home. The super soldiers at the UN had all been arrested and would eventually be on their way to the Raft. Sharon...I really didn't need to know where she was or where she was going. Not just for her sake either.

I did give in to one need that my instincts were screaming at me to do. We arrived home and I left the others to go find Steve. I discovered him sitting in a little used room in one of the basement sublevels, staring at the wall. I slid into the room quietly, walked to the sofa, and observed the single tear trailing down his cheek.

I placed a hand on Steve's shoulder as I sat next to him. In moments I was holding him as he cried into my shoulder. And the newly awaked beast inside me quieted down as I took care of my friend.