The following morning came much better than the previous few for the occupants of the Tower. As the Avengers sat and ate breakfast, they all realized it had only been a week since the invasion.
For all of them it felt like over a month. Bruce had brought up one more set of trays with food for the pair that evening, and everyone had again gathered in their guest's room to eat dinner. The conversation was kept light, just like the one earlier that afternoon before everyone retired to do their own things for the evening. Natasha pulled James and Thor away to Spar, while Bruce and Tony went to do Science!
Loki and Steve had spent the night, after dinner, in their room much like they had the night before- with little sleep happening, no outward talking (since Tony was convinced they were being telepathic with each other and refused to admit it), or moving of any kind really. They had both stayed on the floor, seemingly claiming spots like a couple of kindergartners, not changing seats at all. Steve had spent the night drawing and Loki had continued playing on the StarkTablet. There were a couple of times where the God fell asleep but would suddenly jerk himself awake. At those times Steve's hand would reach over and tap against Loki's arm until said God relaxed back against the wall.
When Jarvis brought that up at breakfast, Tony having asked about the pair's nighttime activities, Thor became concerned that his brother was having nightmares. However, before they could go further on that topic Jarvis' voice came over the speaker, "Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt but Agent Hill from Shield is on the line. She wants to let you know that the Shield Doctor will be over at ten am to start seeing your guests and they need to be separated for their sessions."
Tony looked like he wanted to argue but Jarvis continued before he could, "I'm sorry Sir, she has already hung up and my attempts to call back are being denied/unanswered."
"Well booger." Said Tony, as he started working out an algorithm to get through Shield's Phone Lines in case they tried this again.
"Perhaps we can ask my Brother to finish the repairs to your House of Pent, that way Steven may have an opportunity to speak with the Shield Doctors alone. Then we can give Loki a break and allow him to speak with the doctor after lunch." Thor's plan was pretty sound, and the others thought it over a moment before agreeing.
When the Avengers brought the food trays up to the pair about ten minutes later, they also shared the news about the Shield Doctor's visit. If either of them was rattled by the news, it didn't show, as Steve quickly worked his way through four shakes, two new flavors and two flavors from the day before, and Loki ate another big plate of eggs, sausage and toast.
"So," said Tony, "when Loki is done eating, we thought he could come finish the Penthouse repairs while Steve speaks to the Shield Shrink. Then you two could switch."
In unison Steve and Loki just shrugged, not seeming to care either way about the visit. They were both acting extremely nonchalant about the idea of Shield's visit, which should've sent warning bells blazing for the Avengers.
Unfortunately, the group missed the vibe the pair was giving off.
Before further comment could be made, Loki put his empty plate on the ground and moved to stand. It was almost ten, so he decided better to get started sooner rather than later. Like yesterday Tony and Thor accompanied him up to the Penthouse, where he took about an hour and a half fixing the God sized hole Hulk had made in the floor. Natasha stayed in the guest suite hall, ready to intercept the Shield Doctor and lead him or her to the pair's room.
Within five minutes of Thor, Tony and Loki leaving the guest suits floor, Jarvis announced that the Shield Doctor was in the lobby, on his way up.
Bruce joined Natasha in the hall just as the elevator dinged and opened. A tall, pale brunette with thick glasses, and a toned body made his way onto the floor, barely glancing at the Avengers in the hall. He was holding a briefcase and Bruce stopped him before he entered the room, "Doctor Bruce Banner, nice to meet you…"
The psychologist glanced at Bruce with a bland look and flat voice, "Doctor Everetts."
"Look, Doctor Everetts, I need to inform you that Captain Rogers doesn't actually speak. He will be typing out his answers on the StarkTabl-." The other doctor cut off Bruce before he could finish his warning.
"If that is really the original Captain America." The amount of disbelief in the Doctor's voice was staggering, "If you will please find another place to be while we have the first session." He then moved into the room before either Bruce or Natasha could say anything else.
The Shield doctor said something similar to James, who stormed out of the room a few minutes later, mouth in a tense line and eyes stormy with anger, "I don't like that guy. Fury better get someone else to do this for any future sessions."
The doctor closed the door behind James, a pointed look at the three of them to find somewhere else to be.
"Let's go up to the common floor," said Natasha, clearly communicating with her eyes that they would actually go across the hall into James' room, but also use that as an excuse to listen in on the session. James seemed to get her meaning and was moving towards his room in a flash.
The Widow almost rolled her eyes but restrained herself and nodded for Bruce to join them. Within minutes the three of them were setting up shop in James' room, having Jarvis cue up the surveillance of Steve and Loki's room. Strangely the A.I was not against the eavesdropping and quickly pulled up the live stream video. He had also dinged the elevator open at the approximate time it would've taken the three of them to get to it from Steve's room and brought it up to the common floor.
After the doctor closed the door, he waited a moment to make sure the Avengers were not sitting outside of it listening in. When he was satisfied, he turned his attention to the room as a whole, taking everything in. There were two chairs set up with a small table between them, a dresser, end table and the bed. There were also two doors, one probably leading to a closet and the other a bathroom.
The doctor did another sweep of the room, finally locating his first patient, who was seated against a wall, sitting on the floor near the windows; knees drawn up like a table for his sketchbook. He was drawing something and didn't seem to be paying attention to the doctor at all.
The actuality of it though, was that Steve was hyper aware of the doctor's presence.
"Good morning." Said Doctor Everetts in the same tone he used earlier. There was no reaction from Steve, who didn't stop his drawing or even acknowledge the man standing near the door. If the Doctor was at all bothered by the lack of response he didn't say, but his face spoke volumes.
Doctor Everett's face became even blander, lips pulling into a fine line after a long minute of silence, "Perhaps it would be good for the two of us to sit in these chairs so we might have a chance to get to know one another."
There was still no change in posture or reaction of any kind from Steve.
The doctor moved to a chair, placing his briefcase next to it on the floor before sitting in the chair and steeping his hands together in front of his chest. "So. You are the original Captain America yes? Steven Grant Rogers, born in the early nineteen hundreds and mysteriously vanishing off the Valkyrie in nineteen forty-three?"
Steve kept drawing, still not looking at the doctor.
There were a few moments of silence before the doctor tried again, "You know, if you refuse to talk to me then you will never get out of this room. You will be stuck here, unable to leave without heavily armed guards and in chains. But that can all be avoided if you just talk to me and explain what happened in the forties. Perhaps explain how you ended up working with the God of Lies himself in a plot to take over the Earth."
Steve was acting like he couldn't even hear the doctor. Even though he clearly could and was purposely ignoring him.
"How did you meet Loki? I mean, that must have been an interesting conversation to have. He surely must've forced you to work with him and the Chitauri. How did he go about doing that?" asked the doctor, in another attempt to get a reaction from Steve, who still didn't even blink.
After another pause the doctor got up from the chair and started walking around the room towards Steve's seated position. He didn't stop walking until he was practically towering over Steve, who was suddenly very tense at the close proximity. In the room across the hall, Bruce was holding back James from going in there and bodily removing the Doctor from the room.
With an exhale of breath, Steve, still not looking up at the doctor at all, gently closed his sketchbook, placing it at the pencil on the floor right next to his side. His left hand began tapping against his leg and he forced himself to completely relax his posture but made no other move. The doctor made an intrigued noise, getting a good look at Steve who was still not acknowledging the man's presence. "These are some interesting injuries you have…Captain. Were they done by Loki or someone else? Perhaps one of his imagined or unimagined allies?"
After a chance to think it over, the doctor decided to take a different route, to see if he could get a response from his new patient.
"What do we have here? Hmm?" He then reached down towards the sketchbook, clearly intent on looking through it without Steve's permission, but at the last second changed direction with his hand and moved in towards Steve's chin, trying to get a hold of it like he could force Steve to look him in the eye.
However, when he was within millimeters of Steve's face, said super soldier grabbed a hold of his collar, pulling with all his might and bashing the Doctor's head into the wall above his seated position, right into a metal support pole that was behind the drywall.
With the same hold, he pushed the doctor away, who somehow landed in one of the chairs across from Steve, toppling it backwards, the back of his head landing with another crack on the floor this time.
If cracking his forehead into a metal pole didn't kill the Doctor, having his brains explode outwards from the second impact with the floor surely did.
Steve didn't even glance at the doctor; just picked up his sketchbook again and continued where he left off like nothing had happened. The only tell that he was in distress over the Doctor's close proximity was his lips pulling into an extremely fine line and the smallest hint of his left hand shaking where it was holding the sketchbook.
In James' room the three Avengers were staring at the screen frozen in shock. Even Natasha, who was a master of her emotions and facial expressions, had her eyebrows up near her hairline at the sudden act of violence. Bruce's jaw was somewhere around his knees.
"…the Fuck?!" Said James finally; who got loose from Bruce and practically ran through the door, which Jarvis barely had open in time. The sprint got Bruce and Natasha moving again, the duo making it across the hall seconds behind James.
James barged into Steve and Loki's room, the door slamming against the wall and almost coming back to smack James in the face, but a hand- Bruce's, stopped it before it got to far.
Steve startled at the noise, dropping the sketchbook and looking up with tension running through his whole posture. James was coming right at him, and Steve started trying to become one with the wall, scrambling into the corner, clearly terrified of his best friend's approach.
"James." Natasha said his name suddenly with more force than she would normally use. It got James to stop moving and get an actual look at his friend, who was shaking in fear, eyes watching James wildly, and hands ready to block imagined blows. Natasha had a gun out and trained on Steve, no tranquilizers this time, and Bruce made his way over to the Shield doctor.
"He's dead." Said Bruce after maneuvering through the blood and brain splatter to double-check his pulse. Bruce stood up and warily turned his attention towards Steve, who still only had eyes for James since he was the closest and seemingly biggest threat.
"The HELL was that Steve?!" James wasn't yelling, but his voice was raised louder than it normally was. Steve didn't move from his curled-up spot.
Tony, Thor and Loki came out of the elevator a moment later.
"What the hell is going on down here?!" said Tony, as the three made their way into the room with the others, "Jarvis filled us in, and we saw the surveillance video… but I still don't get it. I mean, that guy was clearly an asshole, who probably got his degree from a box of cereal, but really?! I hate Shield as much as the next superhero, and I certainly don't trust them, especially not as far as I can throw them- because, let's be honest that's pretty far with the suit… but that seemed a little extreme!"
Loki looked like he wanted to go over and help Steve, but Thor's hand on his arm stopped him. The God of Mischief heeded the warning, and didn't move any closer, but his lips were pushed together in a fine line, and his posture was pretty tense.
The arrival of the others and Tony's running commentary gave James a chance to realize how his stance and tone must look to his friend. With a deliberate breath James forced himself to relax and eased up his tone, "Steve, buddy, that was a doctor from Shield. He was not a threat. He was here to help you… I promise he wasn't going to hurt you. Yes, he should've of made a grab for your sketchbook, but-"
"That wasn't the problem," said Loki softly from next to Thor interrupting James, but not elaborating further.
The Avengers, as one, turned their attention to Loki, who in turn had his attention focused completely on Steve.
"Then what was the problem?" Asked Natasha, a hint of steel in her voice, clearly expecting an answer that would explain Steve's actions.
With James' attention no longer directed at him, Steve brought his hands down away from his face and to right below his knees that were still brought up close to his chest. He began tapping his hand against his leg at an extremely fast pace, the tension not totally leaving his body quite yet.
"The doctor was in Steve's personal space," said Loki, not taking his eyes off his friend, but shrugging Thor's hand off his arm and moving a little closer. Loki's eyebrows drew together in concern before looking between Steve and the Avengers once or twice.
"I'm getting a little tired of these half answers." Said James, who was still having trouble connecting his friend from the forties, who hated killing with a passion, and this person he was today who was killing Shield personnel without a second thought. "What does that have to do with anything? Steve let me and Bruce into his personal space before! Hell, I even cut his hair for him!"
Steve's hand started tapping faster, if that was even possible, against his leg and he gave a little nod that he knew Loki saw.
Loki took a second to collect his thoughts, "He wasn't grabbing for the sketchbook. At the last second, he changed directions and moved his hand towards Steven's chin. Surely you remember what happened at the Ruins Sergeant, when you put your arm around the back of Steven's neck? The only reason he didn't kill you as well is because of your history."
What Loki didn't say was even their shared history almost didn't stop Steve. The God knew it was not the time for that information to be shared and if it was that would be up to Steven to do, not him.
"Yes, about that," started Bruce carefully, "James got a look at the injury when we were outside on the Penthouse deck. It looks… pretty horrible even through the wrapping that Steve has done to it. Is there anything we can do to help heal it?"
James cut in before Loki could answer, "Stevie, what happened?"
All the anger and tension from before bleed out of James as he remembered the look in Steve's eye when he let him go at the Ruins. He shouldn't've rushed in so quickly and terrified his friend like he had. But James felt like he was out of his depth with Steve. He didn't understand much of Steve's situation in space, only that he spent almost seventy years being tortured and had to come up with a desperate escape attempt that he had no hope of knowing would actually work. There were still so many missing pieces and Steve wasn't able to fill them in.
There was another beat of silence before Loki licked his lips and spoke for Steve, "Before I fell, Steven was a prisoner on Thanos' ship. Something happened between him and the Titan. And no- he won't tell me what happened, so don't ask. Thanos got so angry at whatever it was Steven did or said that he grabbed Steven by his hair and pushed him into a wall, using the hold on his hair to keep him immobile."
There was another pause from Loki and James suddenly knew he was NOT going to like whatever the trickster God would have to say.
"With his free hand, Thanos started digging into Steve's neck with just his fingernails… scratching, pinching and scissoring the wound to get deeper. Thanos ended up scratching at his vocal cords and continued to do them damage until Steven couldn't make any noise at all. Steven had attempted to fight back, even through the pain, but he couldn't stop the Titan's hand and the hold on his head was too great. By the time Steven got free, he was missing a large chunk of hair that was now in Thanos' closed fist, and he was bleeding out through his neck wound, having trouble breathing. Thanos stood back and watched him practically bleed out in the cell. He then took Steven's blood-soaked body and chained it up to the outside of his ship next to the docking doors where people boarding would be able to see it when they entered."
All of the Avengers looked more than a little green at the images Loki was creating with his words.
Bruce actually growled in a very Hulk like fashion, drawing everyone's attention towards him and away from their guests. Thor got a hold of Bruce' arm and pulled the doctor from the room before he could transform, Tony following behind to help calm Bruce's anger down.
Natasha had her gun away, one hand covering her mouth, a look of deep sorrow in her eyes, which were glued on Steve, who was watching them all through his lashes. Her breathing was a little shaky, but her eyes were dry.
James, the former Winter Soldier, had actual tears in his eyes. He remembered how mouthy Steve had been before he disappeared. The original Captain was always talking back, fighting for equality, fighting for goodness, and fighting anyone who in his mind was choosing not to do the right thing. He had always joked that Steve's mouth would get him in serious trouble one day.
He just didn't realize that it was an omen for a legitimate threat.
Without warning James was kneeling in front of Steve pulling his friend into a tight hug against his chest. Both of James' arms were locked around Steve's body, one elbow cradling the back of his head, and the metal one locked around the middle of his back. Steve was wound up tighter than Clint's bow's he was so tense at the sudden move. Clearly, he hadn't been expecting it, because his hands were brought up in a defensive position and caught between both their bodies. He was also holding his breath, not sure how to respond to the tight hold James had on him.
Natasha was quick to regain her composure and said to the room in general, "I'm going to get Fury on the line. He needs to know what happened here in the most general terms."
James was torn between going with her and yelling at the Director or staying behind and continuing to hug the stuffing out of his friend.
He settled for staying and punching Fury in the face the next time he saw him. He nodded at Natasha who turned and went into the hall to make her call.
"You stupid punk." Said James, although there was no heat behind his words.
Loki turned away from the pair, giving them a moment of privacy. He summoned a body bag from the medical level of the Tower and used his magic to gather the Doctor's remains, removing all traces of his death from the room.
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Thor debated briefly with taking Bruce down to the gym, but instead decided to take him just down the hall to his own room. His hope was the guest room's general environment would help ease Bruce away from a transformation. And if not, then at least his hammer would be right on hand.
Bruce's breathing was a little on the fast side, and even though Tony was following the pair, he was uncharacteristically quiet, somehow realizing that his running commentary wouldn't help the situation at all. Thor let go of Bruce's arm as soon as the three of them were securely encased in Thor's guest room. Bruce moved away from the pair, working on calming his breathing.
Thor remained a silent but steady anchor. Tony, on the other hand, must've felt it was a good time to add his own thoughts as a distraction. "You know Brucie-Bear, Big Green won't be able to help the situation and getting angry at what Loki said won't change anything." Bruce just gave a growl-huff in response.
Tony was also watching his friend carefully as he spoke to the Hulk, it seemed like He was taking over, "So you know Big Green, I think you're really great and all, but right now is not the best time for you to be making an appearance. I mean everyone is fine right now. And you did save my life a few days ago, what with the portal and all, but you don't need to come out again so soon! In fact, Bruce's doctoring might be a big help at the moment, and –Hey! Idea. How about you let Bruce out now, and in a day or so you can come out and I'll give you a tour of the Tower!"
The Hulk must've heard something he either liked or needed to hear from Tony. Gradually Bruce regained control and managed to even out his breathing.
"A tour? Really Tony?" Bruce said with exasperation when he was firmly back in control of himself again.
"Hey! I meant it! Big Green is just as much a part of this team as you. And he saved my life, so I do sorta owe him." Said Tony defensively.
"Are you better now Doctor?" Spoke Thor, not quite sure if he could fully relax or not. Bruce nodded towards the Asgardian, "Yeah. Good call there Thor, the Other Guy might've made an appearance if we had stayed in that room a minute longer."
"Indeed. Loki's tale was quite troubling."
"Yeah, but can we believe him? What if that was all just a way for Loki to excuse Steve's seventy years of torture crazy? I mean, that's not the first Shield Agent Steve's killed, and if Fury keeps sending them, it probably won't be the last." Said Tony, thinking about the Agents who were supposed to be monitoring Loki and Thor's return to Asgard.
Bruce was already shaking his head, "No. Well, yes Steve clearly has some head issues, but he is way too protective of his neck injury for Loki to have made that up. I'm also pretty sure that had any of us done the whole arm around the shoulder thing that James did back at the Ruins we would've been just as dead as the Shield Agents."
"That guy was being a bit of an ass hole. Who does that anyway? Aren't those psychs supposed to be trained better than your average doctor? Then again this IS SHIELD we are talking about…" Said Tony, not agreeing, but also not disagreeing. He would ask Jarvis to bring up the Penthouse deck surveillance later, see if he could get an idea of what Bruce and James saw.
"Perhaps Steve was testing him, just as much as he was testing Steve." Bruce was thinking over the encounter trying to fit the pieces together. "From the moment he walked in the room Steve was pretty much ignoring him, probably testing to see how long it would take the guy to react like he did. Only, I don't think Steve thought he would try to get physical. That seemed almost like a last second decision on the Doctor's part, which Steve was reacting to."
"Makes sense," said Tony also thinking it over, "We will just have to make sure to set some better ground rules for the next Psych that Fury is gonna send. That is if he doesn't try to get those two imprisoned, which I wouldn't put past the Cyclops."
Both Thor and Bruce nodded with that reasoning, "Speaking of the Director, someone is gonna have to let him know about this little SNAFU-"
"If I may, Sir, Ms. Romanoff is already on the phone with him in the hall." Jarvis interrupted Tony before he could get into a Shield related rant.
"Shall we then?" Tony waved his arm at the door in a grand gesture, he would go talk with Fury while Bruce and Thor went back across the hall. They had a body to dispose of after all.
Fury's "Are you Fucking kidding me?!" was what greeted them as they entered the hallway.
Natasha had the phone held about half an arm's length away from her ear with how loud Fury was yelling. She deemed it better to let him rant than try to interject at this point. "Sitwell recommended the guy himself! He was one of the best psychiatrists SHIELD has! Or HAD at this point. That Fucker better stop fucking killing my agents! Original Captain America or NO that shit is not going to stand!"
"Look Severus-" Tony cut in before Fury could get any louder or angry in his rant, "That guy was an asshole through and through. He was taking liberties that a doctor shouldn't take when interacting with a patient for the first time. He ignored all our warnings and dismissed everything we said straight out. It was his own fault he got himself killed, not Steve's."
Natasha and Tony could actually feel the glare that Fury was sending them through the phone in the silence that followed. The pair shared a look, both clearly not impressed.
"I will send someone more willing to work with you next time." Said Fury finally before cutting off the connection before either of them could say anything in return.
"Is it just me…" started Tony with more than a little suspicion, "or did Cyclops give in a little too easily there?"
Natasha didn't answer, she was too busy glaring at the phone, trying to make it give up it's secrets.
Thor came out of Loki and Steve's room just then holding the body bag with Everett's body in it. "Where shall we bring him Man of Iron?"
"Jarvis, have a car brought around to the garage for us. We will send the good doctor back to Shield and let them handle this." Tony gestured for Thor to follow him and the two of them brought the body bag down to the garage.
Natasha slowly brought the phone back to her pocket. There was something else going on here; something else that they were missing, but both Steve and Loki knew and weren't sharing.
It was time for her to figure out what it was.
-End Chapter 7-