I watched the end of his leather coat flutter around the corner before my eyes were drawn back to the screens showing Loki's cell. The last thing on earth I wanted to do was go anywhere near that man again but if Fury thought it could help, then I had to push my feelings aside and do it. What was I going to say? What was he going to say? What if he didn't say anything and just did his creepy staring thing. Fury had been right when he'd said Loki had shown some interest in me. He wasn't doing this to Natasha, to dad or to anyone else. Was it because of what Fury had said, he thinks because I'm the youngest I'm the most manipulable? Or is it something else? Maybe this is all just a game to get me overthinking everything and distracted.

I rose from the table but as I went to leave something on the screen caught my attention. Loki had suddenly stopped pacing, standing perfectly still in the centre of his circular cell. His head rose slowly so he could stare up into the security camera positioned outside of his cell. His eyes bore into it, and into me. There was no way he could know I was watching him. His mouth tugged up in a smile.

I had to get out of there. If I watched him any longer I would change my mind about going in there with him.

I still had a few minutes before I had to meet Fury so I quickly rushed back to my room. I needed to call Daniel before I went in and talked to a bloodthirsty alien. I needed to be reminded of what I was going home to when this was all over. I needed to remember his kind eyes and soft smile before I go see the exact opposite.

All of the stress and worry poured out of me the moment his face popped up on my phone.

"Hey," I said with an enormous smile upon my face.

"Hey babe. Is everything okay?" I could hear doctors being paged over a loudspeaker in the background, telling me he was at the hospital.

"Yeah, I just needed to see your face." I smiled into the camera, and hoped the worry and concern in my eyes couldn't be seen on his screen.

"How's everything going?" he questioned.

"We're still looking for the object. This guy isn't talking." I decided not to mention the part about me going to interrogate Loki in just a few minutes. He worried enough about me already, I didn't want to pile onto that worry by telling him I was about to go be in the same room as a murderous, psychopathic alien.

"You guys will find it. I know you will," he said reassuringly.

"I'm glad someone has faith in us," I said with a laugh. I glanced up at the clock on the wall to see I had only a few minutes left until I had to go meet Fury. I didn't want to say goodbye, not yet. "Are you leaving for the medical conference soon?"

"No, they're short staffed at the hospital this week so I've had to cancel it."

"I'm so sorry. I know how much you were looking forward to it." Every year there was a huge medical conference in New York. Daniel had been asked to attend for the first time this year and he had been looking forward to it for months.

"It's alright, there's always next year," he said sincerely. That right there was what I loved about him so much. While most people would be bitching and moaning about missing out on something they wanted so badly, Daniel didn't mind because his job, helping people, was more important than anything else. He was a hero in my eyes for that, just as much a hero as any Avenger.

"I gotta go," I told him as watched the clock on the wall keep ticking away.

"Hold on," he stated. "There's something I need to ask you." I noticed small beads of sweat starting to form on his forehead as he bit the inside of his cheek. It was a nervous habit of his. I started to worry just what exactly he was going to ask me. "I wanted to do this before you left but it wasn't ready in time. I know I could just wait until you get home but since we don't know when that will be, and because life is too short, I want to ask you now." I watched him go digging for something in his doctors coat pocket.

My heart stopped when he pulled out a small red jewellery box.

"Morgan, I know we're young, and we haven't been in each other's lives for very long, but I know everything I need to know about you to realize that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. You mean more to me than you could ever realize. You're my everything and I want you to know that I'm going to spend every day for the rest of my life showing just how much you mean to me. Yours is the last face I want to see at night and the first I see in the morning. I want everything with you. Will you marry me?" He fumbled with the box, trying to open it one handed as he shakily held his phone with his other hand. He finally got it open to reveal a delicate, white gold band nested in the box. Set into the band were a few small diamonds surrounding a larger round diamond. It was simple, but stunning.

The tears that had formed in my eyes as I listened to his speech finally spilled over onto my cheeks as I looked at the beautiful engagement ring he was holding up to the camera. His face showed a hopeful but nervous expression as he waited for my answer.

A million thoughts ran through my mind as I processed what had just happened. Were we too young? We had only been dating for less than a year, was it too soon? He said he knew everything he needed to know to marry me, but what if he found out something eventually that would put him off? What would dad say?

All of these thoughts melted away as I stared into his gorgeous blue eyes and I knew right then that there was only one answer I could give him.

"Yes."

His face burst into a smile. "I love you."

"I love you more," I stated.

"We'll debate that when you get home, which is when you'll get this," he said, gesturing to the ring. I couldn't wait for the moment when he would slip it onto my finger. I knew it would be a moment I would never forget, something I would tell my grandchildren about in 60 years' time.

"I can't wait." I could suddenly hear his name being paged over the loudspeaker behind him.

"Now I have to go too. I'll talk to you later."

"Bye," I said as I blew a kiss towards the camera.

I walked out of the room in a daze. I knew I had a silly, dopey smile on my face but I didn't care. The man I loved had just asked me to marry him. For a second that was all that mattered in the world.

Then my wristband beeped and I looked to see I was being paged by Fury. In my excitement and exhilaration I had completely forgotten about my task requested by Fury. He was probably thinking I'd backed out on him.

I quickened my step and hurried towards Loki's cell. Then dad appeared from around the corner. His eyes narrowed as he took in my huge smile.

"He asked you didn't he?"

My smiled dropped as I furrowed my brow in confusion. "You knew he was going to ask me?"

"He came and asked for my permission two weeks ago."

"And you said yes?" I asked in astonishment.

"Yes."

I stood there in shock, my mouth hanging agape. My dad not only knew about my pending engagement, but had actually approved it? I wanted to ask him where the hell was my father but that seemed too cliché. Instead I simply continued to stare at him in amazement. Dad had given Daniel the stamp of approval when we had started dating but I didn't realized he'd liked him enough to allow him to propose to his only daughter after only 9 months of dating.

Dad seemed to be enjoying taking in the shocked look on my face. "Morgan, I knew I loved your mother after our second date. And I knew I wanted to marry her after our third. But I waited too long to ask, and then it was too late." I could see the sadness in his eyes. "I don't want you repeating my mistakes. I can tell Daniel loves you because he looks at you the way I looked at your mom. And that's all she ever wanted for you. So I gave him permission to ask you to marry him."

I processed his words before surging forward to envelop him in a hug. "Thank you daddy," I murmured into his chest. While it wouldn't have changed my answer to Daniel, having dad's approval meant the world to me.

"On one condition though," Dad said as we broke apart. "You have to have a long engagement. I'm talking minimum of 5 years."

I let out a laugh, mostly out of relief. "No problem." I was in no rush to actually get married. The commitment Daniel and I had just made to each other was enough for me for a long time.

My wristband beeped at me again. "Crap. I gotta go." I left before he could ask me what it was I was doing. I highly doubted that Fury would have informed dad that he requested I talk to Loki so I sure as hell wasn't going to mention it now.

Fury was standing outside the doors that led into Loki's cell. The high from the proposal was slowly wearing off and nerves took its place. The doubts starting crawling back into my mind. What if talking to Loki only made things worse? What if I somehow gave something away about what he were doing? I didn't want to be the one responsible for giving Loki more knowledge. Once again I wanted to back out, tell Fury he'd chosen the wrong person but I kept my mouth shut. If Fury really believed I could do this, I at least had to try.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"Yes," I lied.

He could obviously sense my nerves as he placed a hand reassuringly on my shoulder. "Don't overthink it. Just talk."

I nodded. I took a deep breath, hoping to get my hands to stop shaking, but I was starting to think maybe nerves were a good thing. Maybe it would help play into Loki's idea that I was a weak, easily manipulated child who he could control. Only one way to find out.

I tried to clear all thoughts from my mind, just leaving Fury's advice. Don't overthink it. Don't overthink it.

Fury punched in a code into the security panel and the doors in front of me slid open. The moment I stepped inside they slid shut behind me. Loki's eyes were trained on me the moment I stepped inside. He was standing in the centre of his circular glass cell, his hands poised behind his back. I avoided looking at him as I walked up the steps and across the small catwalk to the front of his cell. I finally locked eyes with him as I stopped a few feet in front of the glass.

I tried to keep my expression neutral, just as Natasha had taught me. But as I took in his pale features, slicked back hair and remembered all of the horrible things he'd already done, all I wanted to do was scowl.

"Is it time to do it the hard way?" he asked.

Don't let him get a rise out of you. It's exactly what he wants. He's been trying to put us all on edge since he got here and I refused to let him get to me.

"That's up to you," I said evenly. "Just tell me where the Tesseract is and this can all be over."

"But why would I want this to be over when I've just started having fun?"

"This is fun to you?" I asked scornfully. "You're ruining people's lives and treating it like a game."

"Oh well that's all fun too but I meant I'm just starting to have fun now, with you." His slimy voice sent a shiver down my spine. I wanted to ask outright what the hell he wanted with me, but I was too afraid of the answer. I knew Fury would be watching the surveillance feeds of us, I just hoped dad wasn't with them. He'd already blown up at Loki once over him just looking at me. I didn't want to see what he'd do when he saw him actually talking to me.

"Where is the Tesseract?" I refused to acknowledge his little fascination with me. It was just a trick, designed to get me riled up and emotional.

"Why on Earth did S.H.I.E.L.D hire an 18 year old girl with no skills?" He took a few steps closer to the glass. I stopped myself from stepping back. "You have nothing to offer them."

"Where is Agent Barton and Selvig?"

"They used you little girl. All they wanted was another suit. Now that you've delivered it, you mean nothing to them," he hissed. He took another step forward until there was only 2 feet and a panel of glass separating us. I stared straight into his cold eyes, unable to look away. "Why did they send you in here to talk to someone who could kill you in a second? Do they really have that much faith in their little prison? No. It's because you're expendable to them now. Just like Barton and Selvig. They don't care about getting them back safely, all they want is the Tesseract. Everyone and everything else is just collateral damage."

My face remained neutral but I could tell he'd seen the flicker of doubt in my eyes. The smirk on his face turned into a grin. I don't know how, but it was like he was able to get inside of your mind and expose every single little doubt you'd ever had about yourself. It was true I sometimes doubted if I had any value to S.H.I.E.L.D anymore. Rationally I knew it wasn't true but I still had the thought creep into my mind on occasion. And now he knew it.

Neutral wasn't getting me anywhere so I decided to play into his game. I looked down to the ground, trying to 'hide' the tears filling my eyes. He, of course, saw them instantly and laughed.

"What did they expect, sending a child in here. Did they honestly expect you to get all my little secrets out of me? How could you do that when you can't even get a secret out of your father."

I glanced up in confusion. "What do you mean?" I asked. A tear rolled off my cheek. Loki followed the movement with his eyes. As it dripped off my chin and landed on the floor, he looked back up to me.

"Dear old daddy has been keeping secrets from you, just like you had been keeping secrets from him." I shook my head in confusion. What the hell was he talking about? He took a moment to savour the confused look on my face before he spoke again. "It seems like the car accident that killed poor mommy wasn't an accident after all."

I stared at him, not really taking in his words. After a full minute of silence, I finally said, "You're lying."

"Oh no dear, I'm not. Go ask your father if you don't believe me," he chuckled. "His old pal Obadiah orchestrated the accident that killed your mother."

I looked away, still shaking my head. He was lying. He had to be. After the palladium poisoning, dad had promised he would never keep a huge secret like that again. If he'd found something out about moms death, he would have said something. Even if it was true, how did Loki know this? How could he know about Obadiah? And mom? How did he know any of it?

"No, no." The tears fell again and my lip quivered.

"Go ahead little girl, cry," he snickered. "If you think I'm ruining people's lives now, this is just the beginning. Before all of this is over I'm going to have you under my control. And I'll make you kill every single person on your team, starting with your father. I'll have you wrap your hands around his throat and watch as the light fades from his eyes."

My eyes widened in horror as I listen to him speak. My mouth dropped in shock and my lip continued to quiver.

"I want you to listen as your father begs you for his life. And then once you've killed everyone else, I'm not going to kill you, I'm going to keep you. I'll make you do every despicable thing I want. And every now and then, I'll let you come to the surface so you can see what you've done. Feel the blood on your hands."

I spun around so he couldn't see the tears flowing down my face but he could still hear the sobs coming from my chest. How could a man be so horrible and do that to someone? "You're a monster," I whispered.

Loki laughed, clearly enjoying my pain. "No, you bought the monster."

My tears instantly stopped as I lifted my head. It wasn't the Tesseract's location, but it was enough. "So Banner, that's your play," I said as I turned back around to face him.

The glee on his face instantly dropped as he took in my now dry eyes and triumphant expression. "What?"

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk," I said as I pressed the communicator into my ear that would connect to Natasha and Fury. "Keep Banner in the lab." I wiped away a few stray tears from my cheek as I rushed across the catwalk and down the stairs. I stopped in front of the doors and spun around. "This little girl thanks you for your cooperation." I was now the one with the smirk as he stood with a disbelieving look on his face as he realized he just got played.

The smirk was still on my face as I rushed out of the room towards to lab. Fury had been right. Loki had only seen me as a weak girl he thought he could control. Well now I'd shown him just how wrong he was. The smile slipped from my face as I thought about his words. I knew I should let it rest until all of this was over, but I couldn't. I needed to know if it was true.

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