DAY 12: 0138 HOURS

She was awoken by uncontrolled screaming and Sophie yelling for her. She shot out of bed wearing an oversize tee shirt emblazoned with USMC and the bird, ball and chain.

"Mom! Mom! It's Loki!"

Great, the first time Loki had actually slept in over a week instead of connecting the X-Box to the TV and playing Diablo 3 all night, chewing up her bandwidth and making her electricity bill skyrocket, he wakes up screaming. Just her luck . . .

She burst into the spare room, only to see the young man thrashing and shaking uncontrollably, screaming in a language shockingly similar to Old Norse. She put her earpiece in, "Cap, get me the Big Cheese."

She grabbed her shoulders and shook him, not that he noticed. He couldn't wake up. Shit, this was worse than she had thought, and she was going to kill Thor for telling her otherwise, and since he was immortal, she could kill him again.

"Brother! Father! Where are you? Help me!" Sophie translated under her breath.

"Can you hear me, Buddy?" she almost shouted at him.

His eyes shot open, faster than she had suspected, and he hit her square in the jaw, forcing her back for a second. He seemed that though he was awake, he was still stuck in a nightmare. It had happened to her a few times, but never this bad . . .

"Get away from me, foul sub-creature," he demanded. Was it her imagination or through his anger and rage, there was a note of fear? "I will not be hurt again. No more."

She didn't understand, but she forced him to the ground and pinned his legs with hers. Psychotic episodes like this were dangerous, very dangerous. She pressed his arms into the leg of the bed and held him firm, "Soph, there are a pair of handcuffs in my drawer, get them for me."

Sophia's eyes widened, "yes, Gunny," she came back a few seconds later and tossed them to her mother, who caught them with her super strong right hand. She secured the cuffs around his wrists, and around the leg of the bed, holding him solid. He may hurt himself a little, but at least he couldn't hurt anyone else.

"Loki, it's me," she tried her best to make him listen, that was the only way to snap him out of this dreamlike state, "it's Bella, your buddy, remember?"

"Your name does not matter," he sneered at her, pulling at the cuffs, "you are one of them!"

"Who are 'them'?" Bella demanded to know.

"The Chitauri are coming!"

Bella held him fast, "no Honey. They've come. We beat them. Focus on my voice. It's Bella. I want to speak to Loki," she said calmly, "Loki?"

"There is no Loki," he told her.

"Don't be silly, Loki. Come on, talk to me."

"There is no Loki," he repeated, "There is only Thanos."

That was freaky, and she wasn't really sure what was supposed to mean, but she tucked the information into the back of her head in case she had to use it again. The gentle approach wasn't getting her anywhere, and so she reverted back to her Marine instincts and hit him in the face, and his nose erupted in blood. He fell back in pain.

He blinked a couple of times, and he tasted his own blood. That brought him around, "Bella?" he asked. She rolled off him, all his resistance gone. He pulled at the handcuffs and glanced at Sophia who aimed her mother's pistol at him clumsily, "what did I do?" he whispered.

"Nothing much," she shrugged, "you just got a little mouthy."

They sat in front of the fire for a long time after she settled her daughter back into bed and took the pistol from her. The doorbell rang, and she patted him on the shoulder, "I'll be right back," she said, "go fix yourself a sandwich and a hot drink."

"Okay," he said softly and wandered to the kitchen. She went to the front door and answered it. Nick Fury stood before her, his monocular gaze cutting into her. Regardless, she ushered him in.

"This had better be good, Rodriguez."

"To the contrary, Boss," she answered, "your plans to move the prisoner to maximum security have to be put on hold to maintain safety and to comply with the UN bylaws and the Geneva Convention."

"The Rock is complete and ready. Exactly which UN bylaw am I breaking by ordering the transfer?" he kept his face entirely straight. She could never tell when Fury was trying to intimidate her. It seemed that he only had one mode, but she didn't care about being intimidated. She never really took much notice, she was a Marine.

"Boss, mental health is a critical issue here, and it is a basic human right to feel safe, and to be healthy, even as a prisoner. You cannot deny him a basic human right," Bella argued, "the kid's gonna have a mental breakdown."

"He isn't human," Fury interrupted her.

"Either way, he is a prisoner of war, even though it is due to an alliance," she shot back, "and that affords him certain rights."

Fury sighed, giving in slightly, "What mental problems?"

"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," she answered her boss. If asked how she knew, she would simply say that she was a Marine, and as a Marine, she had seen it, "he is very unstable, and I think a move can endanger both his life and yours," she told him.

"So in your opinion, he is not safe to transport?"

"Correct," she confirmed, "with the symptoms he is showing, it would be seriously detrimental to his mental health if you even attempted to move him. The smallest change could send him off the rails. He has depression, panic attacks, sleeplessness, insomnia, night terrors, all textbook symptoms of PTSD," she sighed, "I have seen a lot of that recently."

"I am not asking for a doctoral thesis, Rodriguez, I am asking for your opinion," Fury told her flatly, "is it safe to transport him to the Rock?"

"No," she told him, "he should stay here for now," she rubbed her jaw, "I can handle it."