Ada gets one more visitor in this chapter.

I deleted the scroll bar off my laptop for a minute there. Not sure how that happened but it's back now lol. Just thought you guys would like to know that. Oh, you don't care? That's understandable.

(I think I'm going crazy)

Thanks for reading!

Words: 1,757

Ada isn't sure what wakes her. She supposes she hasn't always been the heaviest sleeper but now it seems the smallest thing snaps her back into consciousness. An easy thing to do in a hospital. The door does a good job at blocking out most noises, the nurses don't check on her at night as much as they used to.

But it was something else that has the young teenager blinking open her eyes lazily. A shadow by the window, illuminated by the lights outside, catches her attention.

Sighing, Ada rubs her temple in an attempt to soothe her oncoming headache. "T-That's..." She clears her throat when her voice comes out hoarse and more slurred than usual. "Creepy."

The shadow turns it's head towards her but Ada closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She still feels a little stuffy from crying. When she opens her eyes again, he's sitting in the chair beside her bed. She wants to ask him to teach her to sneak like that, you know, when she can walk again, but her mind is still clouded with sleep and just the thought feels like too much effort.

"W-why are you..." She trails off into a whisper, squeezing her eyes shut and shaking her head against her pillow. "Here?"

Shrugging even though she can't see, Loki sits back in the chair, crossing one leg over the other. "I guess I don't hate you." He speaks clearly but quietly into the dark room.

Lips twitching, Ada squints her eyes open. "I'm f-flattered."

"You should be," Loki responds quickly, seemingly unbothered by her slurred, broken speech.

Taking a deep breath, Ada focuses intently on her words. "I'm a-afr-afraid I don't...make g-good com-company...these days."

"Better than most."

"W-what ab-about..." Ada pauses, squeezing her eyes shut and willing the name to come to her. Loki's brother. Blonde. Carries around hammer she kind of wants to try and pick up. "Thor?"

"Anyone makes better company than that oaf." Loki smirks when he hears an amused sound come from the teenager. She confuses him. Not that he'd admit to it. When he first saw and that boy, he hadn't paid either of them much mind. Then she appeared that night when he'd traveled to the roof. This tiny human walked right up to him without an ounce of fear, looked him in the eye without the disgust or terror he'd seen in so many others. He couldn't describe the odd way it made him feel.

A yawn breaks out over Ada's face. The girl lazily lifts her hand to hide behind on instinct but is soon falls back to her side. "Rest, child." Loki whispers, watching the teenager give the smallest of nods before falling back into slumber.

Sighing, Loki turns to the window, watching the lights peeking in through the cracked blinds. It was early but he should be getting back soon. Wouldn't want his brother noticing his absence.

Standing, he hesitates by the bed. He reaches out tentatively, his fingers brushing over the hem of the blanket. Even he could tell it was cold in the room. Quickly lifting the clothe, Loki lets it fall over the girl's shoulders before he's gone from the building. The only evidence that he was ever there is alone, nearly glowing green flower resting on the bedside table.

Hours later, Ada wakes with a quiet gasp. She doesn't remember her dream, only the feeling of falling. It takes a minute for her take in her surroundings and remember where she is. It takes her another to remember her father. Remember that she'll never see him again. That just when she got him back, when things started being good. When she'd finally found her family again, it was ripped away from her. How is that fair?

A noise to her right has Ada's head snapping over to see a woman exiting the bathroom. She blinks a few times before the lady notices she's awake and a small smile pulls her lips upwards.

"Good morning, sweetie, I didn't wake you did I?" The woman asks and Ada furrows her eyebrows. "Ada, what's wrong?" She asks, rushing to the girl's side but she only continues to stare at her. "It's Pepper. Ms. Potts."

Recognition flashes through Ada's blue eyes. She lowers her head and bites her lip. She hadn't just forgotten her name, she'd forgotten who Pepper was for a minute. "Sorry."

"No, it's okay," Pepper assures the girl, her voice not giving away the worry she truly feels. "You're still waking up, it's alright."

But it's not, Ada wants to say. She wants to scream and yell that nothing is okay or alright because her dad is dead. Her brain doesn't feel like her own. People's faces aren't familiar, words don't make sense, her tongue doesn't work like it should. Her vision is constantly blurry and she's dizzy all the time. But she doesn't say any of these things. She only nods, forcing a smile to ease the woman's worries.

Mr. Stark enters the room only a few minutes later, having stepped out to get breakfast. Ada recognized him but can't find his name for three minutes. She counted. And on top of it all, she can't eat any food that's not disgusting other than Jell-O but she's had so much of it, she never wants to see the stuff again.

When Dr. Anderson stops by later, helpfully reintroducing himself to the teenager, he explains once again that some of her confusion can be blamed on the seizure meds. They decide to cut back on them but not to stop them completely. They want to wean her off of them.

She almost asks Pepper to tell the others not to come today. She knows some of them want to visit, the ones who haven't seen her since she woke most of all, but doesn't. Instead, she puts on her best smile, gritting her teeth and clenching her good fist when she can't remember someone's name. Those around her only smile those annoying smiles and patiently tell her their names. It's so nice of them, she doesn't know why it makes her so mad.

After her normal nap, which is also annoying somehow, Ada pulls out her sketchbook. Her right hand is her dominant, which is unfortunate in this situation, but her fingers are okay enough to grip a pencil.

She tries a simple sketch, using the flowers across from her as a reference. Her hands shake slightly. The lines don't go the way she wants them too. It just doesn't look right. By the fourth time she's erased the same leaf, Ada slams the book shut and throws it onto the floor. She's glad no one was in the room with her. Pepper has gone home for the day and Mr. Stark stepped out to take a phone call.

Harsher than necessary, Ada shoves a lock of her hair behind her ear and stares coldly at the wall across from her. She doesn't blink when the door opens, or when Tony walks across her vision to the other side of the bed.

"Drop something?" His voice pulls her from her self-deprecating thoughts and the teenager turns to see him holding her sketchbook.

Humming, Ada turns back to the blank wall. Maybe that's why she felt she was going mad. The walls in here were so blank yet it felt as if they held so much.

Pursing his lips, Tony suppresses a sigh and sets the book down on the couch beside him. Dr. Anderson had mentioned attitude, personality changes were possible with this kind of head injury. But Ada was also a teenager who'd just lost her father and was sitting in a hospital bed, unable to get up on her own with a new speech impediment. She was bound to become emotional. Frustrated. And she had the right to do all of those things.

Chewing the inside of his cheek, Tony struggles to find the right thing to say. It's not until he sees Ada pushing her hair behind her ear for the third time does he move. He stands from his seat and steps up to her side, gently gathering her hair into his hands.

"W-what are d-d-doing?" The teenager questions with furrowed brows but doesn't try to stop him. She wouldn't deny it felt good, she's always loved it when people played with her hair.

"Getting it out of your way." Tony shrugs casually while splitting the top section of the girl's hair into three parts. Ada doesn't question him any further but instead relaxes into her pillows as the billionaire twists the strands together, collecting more as he goes down.

"I-I d-didn't know...y-y-you kn-knew h-how to...b-braid."

"I'm a genius, of course, I do." Tony says without breaking his concentration, pulling a small rubber band to tie off the end of her hair.

Ada thinks for a moment as Mr. Stark moves the chair to sit closer to her side. "I-I w-want...t-to c-cut it."

Tilting his head to the side, Tony asks. "Your hair." When she nods, so does he. "Alright, we can do that. Not sure when, Pepper can probably figure something out." Ada nods again and Tony pushes his lips to the side before hesitantly continuing. "You know your speech therapist is stopping by tomorrow."

Ada hums and looks down at her nails. She wants to get better, find her way back to talking like she used to. But she wasn't excited about therapy. "I met her, I think you'll like her. She's spunky, like you."

Ada yawns, nodding along to his words but not really listening. "T-ti-tired." She mumbles and lies back. She just wanted to shut her brain off for a while. Maybe she could sleep all through the next day, that sounds nice.

"Okay, kid, get some sleep." Tony says softly, lifting her blanket over the already sleeping girl.

Yeah, I don't know what's up with that title...

Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Love seeing Loki.

Teaser: "We need to do this as quickly as we can."