Once the team reached S.H.I.E.L.D's mainland base, they all hopped out of the helicopter. And by 'hop', more specifically, Christie, Coulson and the accompanying guards hopped out - whilst the Asgardian girls staggered out whilst clinging onto to each other dramatically. "Welcome home," Coulson hummed over to Christie, who had been silently nibbling her bottom lip throughout the entire journey. In fact, she'd done it so much that she was now bleeding - although it didn't hurt.
Her heart was hurting enough.
"Good to be back," Christie sighed blandly as she followed Coulson inside. The girls quickly scurried after them, not wanting to be left alone by accident.
"Wow. It is truly marvellous in here," Delilah breathed in wonder, observing the control room's different gadgets, and holograms.
"Incredible and expensive. Try not to touch anything before you accidentally blow the place up," came a deep voice from the balcony that lined the top of the room. They all glanced up to see Director Fury, eyepatch and all, strutting down the spiral metal staircase with that expensive black leather jacket flowing behind him, until he finally met with them on their level.
"Sir," Coulson nodded briskly as he reached out to shake his hand.
"Welcome back Agent Coulson," Fury acknowledged respectfully. He turned to face Christie and gave her the once over before speaking again. "Agent Darmer. Welcome back."
"Cheers," Christie muttered. She and Fury didn't get along at the best of times - she was stubborn, he was equally as stubborn, and their clashes never ended well unless Coulson was there to diffuse it.
"And who, may I ask, are these women?" Fury asked, chucking his thumb back to the Asgardians who were still roaming the control room in awe. Christie looked over at them, only then realising how out of place they looked. They were still in their dirty white maid dresses, they were all barefoot, their hair all over the place and they had bruises and bloody cuts plastered across their skin from landing. Renesme even had a twig caught in her curly red hair - not like she had noticed because if she had, she would've died right then and there at the sight of it.
"They are….just a few of my memorabilia from Asgard. Yes I already ran it by Coulson, so please don't fight me about it. You can run all the safety checks after they settle in. They've been through hell," Christie finally answered Fury as she turned her attention back to him. He wasn't even in the mood to disagree. Arguing with her would be wasting time and he had much more valuable information to get out of her.
"Huh. I wasn't aware they made you Director. And why such an early return? I assumed you'd be gone a little longer than half a year."
"You mean you hoped I'd be gone a little longer than half a year," Christie corrected him with an arched eyebrow raised.
"No - I said what I said. Answer the question."
"What question, Fury?"
"Why are you back?"
"Mission's completed."
A simple answer for a complicated situation.
"I hope that means that Loki or any surrounding mystical others are no longer a threat," Fury said lowly. Christie's breath hitched in her throat as the girls quickly shuffled closer to where the tensed conversation was taking place. They still had no idea what had happened before Christie fell, and perhaps now they'd finally get their answer.
Fury noticed Christie's silence - and took this as his time to carry on talking. "Thor pretty much confirmed that he was never the problem when he protected a small town from being obliterated. His evil ass brother, however - not so much."
"Yeah. I…I assume the threat has been neutralised by now," Christie coughed slightly. Jennie and Delilah's eyes grew wide whilst Renesme bit back the gasp threatening to escape her lips. Coulson silently prayed that Fury would get the hint and stop there. He knew that whatever Christie was suppressing must've been bad, as he had never seen Christie cry the way she did when he last asked her about it.
But of course, Fury just powered on like a bull in a china shop.
"You assume he was neutralised? Did you not see it? You're meant to witness the damn takedown, Darmer - you know this," he inquired, now folding his arms. Christie bit down on her jaw as she shook her head in defiance.
"I don't need to tell you everything-" she began - but she felt that awful choking lump rise in her throat again, preventing her from arguing.
"Actually you do - it was in the briefing. Always read the smallprint, Darmer," Fury said simply. It was all building up now. Christie felt like she was about to break and breathing techniques made it any easier.
"Sir, if I may-" Coulson quickly interjected with a hand risen in the air.
"Sir Fury?" Jennie tried at the exact same time, their voices clashing.
"I am asking Agent Darmer," Fury calmly cut them off before Delilah and Renesme could pipe in as well.
"Oh Fury give me a BREAK! I observed Loki's madness up close and I'm pretty certain he's d-dead, I doubt he'd be able to survive that fall. I'm losing my damn mind at the image of him clinging onto that damn bridge….listen, I did as you said and the mission is done. I didn't see the body afterwards and I may not have seen him drop but I'm sure it happened. Now, you're getting NOTHING more out of me - so f*cking leave me be!" Christie hissed thickly, before running off and up the stairs to her old cabin so that she wouldn't have a proper breakdown in front of them. Fury stood there in shock, totally bewildered, before he turned to Coulson, who shook his head to imply he knew nothing further. He even turned to the girls, who couldn't do anything but drop their gazes awkwardly.
Nobody said anything - even the guards that were close by shuffled around uncomfortably, unsure of what to do in the awkward deafening silence Christie left behind.
"Coulson, find out what the hell happened and report back later," Fury finally muttered before sweeping back out of the control room. Coulson turned to the girls and bit the inside of his cheek.
"Soooo…what DID happen?" he asked them quietly, as the surrounding S.H.I.E.L.D agents slowly resumed their work whilst gossiping amongst themselves with hushed voices. Jennie took a deep breath.
"Anner- um, Chris..tie…fell in love with Prince Loki rather quickly, and he obviously also fell in love with her, as bizarre as it was. After Thor was declared worthy and Loki was not, Loki became…different. A lot stranger, and there was barely any time to stop it. He started to become the source of many things going wrong, then eventually, he switched completely. We found out something could be within him…and I'm guessing he fell from the Bifrost? That…we did not know till just a moment ago."
Coulson's face was almost comical. His mouth twisted itself into an 'O' shape and his eyebrows knitted together in sudden realisation. So not only had Christie fallen in love, but she had also lost a loved one all in the space of a few months.
"I'm also guessing that whatever happened, Christie wasn't able to stop it. She was probably sent back down as soon as Loki let go or even beforehand. Frigga - our queen - was always trying to prevent us from involving ourselves in dangerous situations, both physically and emotionally," Delilah added in softly as Renesme nodded behind her.
"Damn. And there we are probing her for details…not even a full day later," Coulson muttered to himself, totally ashamed of the handling of the situation.
"I…I actually don't think that it's hit Christie yet," Renesme added in. "She always seemed so strong, but now it's as if every time I look at her…she's on the edge. She's not allowing herself to feel. So when it does finally hit her..."
"...it's not gonna be a pretty sight," Coulson finished off with a sigh. The girls all glanced at each other and nodded. "Well, uh, welcome aboard. Thanks for filling me in. I guess…I'll show you to your new room."
…
"Here it is. This is the biggest room we could give all of you," Coulson told them once they reached the steel door. He used his fingerprint so that it slid open and passed them their own activation keycards. "See you at…um…well, at some point we have to do all the official S.H.I.E.L.D protocol stuff…but that can be done when you're ready, I guess. For now, I'll leave you to it." And with that, he left the room and made sure to close the door behind him.
The room the girls were assigned to was pretty decently sized, a lot like Christie's one in Asgard - there was just a lot less stone and marble and a lot more metal and steel with a considerably darker colour palette. There was a white sofa bed, a wardrobe, a cupboard, two singular beds in either corner of the room and a small shower cubicle with a glass panel surrounding it inside the small ensuite bathroom. There was also small kitchen area with a hob, a small black fridge and a deep sink. And who could forget the obligatory sleek hologram panel and number of different devices embedded into the walls that provided any relevant information? All S.H.I.E.L.D approved, of course.
"Not the prettiest of places but…I'm sure we'll make it work," Renesme trilled positively, settling herself onto the sofa. Suddenly, the bathroom door clicked open. Out strode Christie in a tight black tank top and black denim shorts, with nothing but darkness in her face. She had trimmed her hair, so that it was no longer waist length but more to her bra strap - similarly to when she had first landed on Asgard. She still looked stunning, just…extremely emotionally delicate.
Her eyes were shimmering - as if she was on the verge of tears at any given moment.
"Hey guys," she hummed as casually as she could muster, although her voice was quivering. "Settled in yet?"
"Christie, do talk to us. Are you alright?" Jennie asked anxiously as she leant up against the wall.
"I'm fine," Christie responded, as if there was nothing wrong in the slightest.
"Christie it's obvious that you're headed for a breakdown, you've been on edge ever since we landed," Delilah sighed, sitting down on the sofa beside Renesme. "I know that Loki…I know that what happened is still fresh but it's fine to admit how you feel." Christie sucked in a sharp breath of air and dropped her gaze to the floor.
"I…I need help," she admitted without looking up.
"Yes well we guessed that much," Renesme frowned obviously. "But I must say, I was trained in physical healing, not emotional healing so-"
"No, I mean I need help to reconnect my mind." Delilah's face went as white as a sheet whilst Renesme's head snapped up in shock.
"WHAT?!" Delilah yelped.
"Christie, that's not a good idea. You're just going to upset yourself when there's no reply, because a dead man's mind cannot connect," Jennie reminded her gently as she reached out for her arm.
"Well, actually-" Renesme began - but as usual, no one listened.
"I don't care," Christie sniffed instead, snatching her arm from Jennie's grip irritably, "I have to at least try."
"No, Christie please don't do this. This is bizarre - he's gone, so let him GO," Delilah told her firmly.
Christie didn't listen though, because when did she ever?
Instead, she refocussed all of her energy and attempted connect to Loki's mind, just as she did before - but it appeared that this time in particular, all she could hear was white noise. In fact, the ringing in her head was so painful that she let out an unexpected screech and clamped her hands over her ears.
The girls sprung to action.
"Ohhhh, we tried to warn you, you silly girl," Renesme mumbled sympathetically, rushing into the bathroom to run a flannel under cold water before running back to place it on Christie's burning forehead. Eventually, her screaming subsided and morphed into tears of silent bitter disappointment and extremely deferred mourning.
But as the girls continued to console her, the bunker door suddenly burst open, causing them all to jump and stare over at who was standing there.
"Is everything okay?" came the panting of a built male.
"Oh…my…" Jennie breathed in admiration, her chocolate doe eyes going wide.
Standing there was none other than Clint Barton with a bow and arrow poised in his hands, his eyes darting around for any apparent signs of danger.