Despite what she'd told Loki, Jak did not end up eating dinner. Her heart was beating so fast after closing the door on him that she felt nauseous and couldn't eat. Instead, she took a nap and ended up sleeping until midnight. When she woke in her room, in the dark, alone, she stiffened and fumbled around for her phone. She turned on the flashlight and felt marginally better as she made her way to the light switch. Before she turned on the lights, she glanced out the large window of her ground floor room.

There was a man standing outside, watching her. She dropped her phone in surprise, the flashlight turning and momentarily blinding her. When she could see again, the man was gone, but she knew she hadn't imagined him. She'd seen him. Tall, long dark hair, dark clothes.

"Loki," she snarled, turning on the lights and throwing open her bedroom door. She stomped down the hallway, not caring how loud she was.

She didn't know where Loki slept, or if he actually ever did sleep, but she knew where Thor's room was and she made her way there and pounded on the door. A groggy blond Asgardian answered a moment later, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he regarded her, hammer in hand.

"Janitor?" He asked.

"Tell your stupid brother that if I see him creeping around my window again, I'm going to forget that I'm on probation and blast his ass back to whatever Asgardian prison he crawled out of!" She yelled before turning away and stomping back toward her room. Thor's heavy footsteps followed her.

"I am sorry, Janitor, I do not understand you," he said, catching her easily. "Where was Loki? What did he do?"

"He was standing outside my window! Just staring at me while I was sleeping!" She shuddered. Maybe she ought to call Mr. Stark again in the morning and tell him and Agent Woo that she changed her mind. A factory job sounded bad, but surely not as bad as waking in the middle of the night and finding a man outside her window. Of course, Loki had told her that he would track her down if she left. Which had sounded somewhat flirtatious at the time, but now sounded horrifying and obsessive.

"When was this?" Thor asked, still sleepy and confused.

"Just now!"

"It could not have been my brother."

"I know what Loki looks like-"

"He is not here. After dinner, he, Jane, and Wanda went to test out the Convergence equipment, in New Mexico."

"What?" Jak blinked in surprise. "They just flew off to New Mexico? After dinner?"

"Yes."

She was briefly hurt that they didn't invite her. After all, she'd spent the afternoon discussing magical theory with Wanda and Loki. They'd talked about the Convergence somewhat. She would have liked to see how the portals worked when she wasn't falling through one.

But then she recalled that she was angry with Loki at the moment and let go of the thought.

"I saw him," she insisted, "He was right outside my window!"

"And then where did he go?"

"He… he disappeared. But I know he was there! I wasn't dreaming!"

"Lady Friday!" Thor bellowed at the ceiling, "Are there any cameras pointing in the direction of this janitor's window? Was my brother there a moment ago?"

"Two of the three cameras pointing toward Ms. Baker's window have been disabled," Friday replied, "I am sending the footage from the third to your phone, Thor."

"Why were the cameras disabled?" Jak asked, fear clutching at her gut. She'd been quietly hoping that there was no footage of Loki outside her room. That she'd been imagining things and no one was watching her. But if someone killed the cameras, that meant someone had to be up to no good.

"The cameras were not disabled by any Avengers Compound personnel," Friday replied, "They stopped working suddenly."

"Here," Thor held up his phone and played footage from outside the Compound. The camera was far away from the actual building, probably stuck to a tree or light post, but it pointed in the direction of Jak's window. It showed nothing for a time, and then a man, a tall, long haired man, strode purposefully from the grounds up to Jak's window.

"Shit," she breathed, glancing at the clock on the video. It was half an hour earlier. The man had been watching her for twenty minutes before she woke up.

"That's not Loki," Thor said, not sounding sure, "It is too far away to make out his face."

"Who else has long dark hair, wears leather, and would creep around my window?" Jak bit her lip anxiously, a habit her mother had tried to break her of nearly all her life.

"Natasha?" Thor suggested.

"That's clearly a man!"

"Don't be sexist, it could be a sturdily built woman!"

"Well it's not Romanoff," Jak waved her hand at the image, "She's much too short."

"Lady Friday, has the security team been alerted?"

"They are searching the grounds now," Friday paused and then spoke again, "It would appear the disabled cameras were shot with a firearm of some sort."

"There, you see, not Loki," Thor said smugly.

"That's worse! That means some other weirdo with a gun is out there!" Jak pressed her hand to her chest and took several deep breaths. "It's fine. It's probably just some supervillain. Someone who wants revenge on Mr. Stark or Black Widow or Captain America."

"Or me," Thor added.

"On earth?"

"It could happen."

"They aren't after me," she replied, mostly trying to convince herself. "He was probably just looking through my window because he was searching for someone else."

"Yours was the only window he looked through," Friday provided, most unhelpfully, "And he watched you sleep for twenty minutes."

"Who the hell would be trying to hurt me?!" Jak exclaimed, louder than she'd meant to, "Who is this guy?"

Steve Rogers came jogging down the corridor at that moment and looked relieved when he spotted her. He came closer.

"Are you alright, Jaklyn?"

"No. Yes. But not really," she wrapped her arms around herself and Thor patted her shoulder unhelpfully.

"The security team hasn't found anyone on the grounds," Steve told her, "Hey, hey, deep, slow breaths, in… out… in… out…"

Jak followed his breathing instructions and was able to calm down slightly. Though not much because Thor still had the video on his phone and the man really did not move from her window the entire time. He paced back and forth, but his face never turned away.

"No one is going to hurt you," Steve looked her in the eye, "We aren't going to let anyone in this building."

"Except, Jane, Wanda, and Loki when they return," Thor piped up.

"We don't even know what he wanted," Steve shot a look at Thor, but refocused on Jak, "He didn't make any attempt to get inside. He clearly had a weapon with him, but didn't try firing on the window. Can you think of anyone in your past who might want to come see you?"

"Steve," she grabbed his forearm, "Everyone in my past is dead. Everyone with resources. Anyone who is still alive, wouldn't care enough to come find me."

"You've been alive a long time. Are you sure-?"

"Hardly any of my father's enemies knew about me," she shook her head, "And they're all dead. Either his friends killed them or I did. No one is left."

"What about your friends? Is there anyone who might check up on you?"

She didn't even have to think about it. Her mother had not let her make real friends. Her father used her as a pawn, introducing her to his friends and their offspring, but she'd never connected with any of them. No one who would care to check on her.

"Okay, so maybe this guy was confused. Maybe he was looking for someone else. Maybe he's not right in the head and he got lost," Steve suggested, "Whatever his deal is, he isn't going to hurt you."

Jak took several more deep breaths, reminding herself that she lived with the Avengers. Earth's Mightiest Heroes. They'd fought the likes of Ultron and Loki. They'd taken on crazed billionaires, evil politicians, dark elves, and Hydra. They could handle one man with a gun. Even if they didn't like her all that much, they weren't going to let some random man kill her.

And she wasn't going to let him either.

She told herself that if worse came to worst, she could get Thor to break the dampening cuff with his hammer and she could obliterate any would-be assassins herself. Her magic may not have been as powerful as Wanda's or Loki's but she was far from helpless.

"I want you to stay in a safe room tonight," Steve told her, "I'm sure Tony already knows what's going on, but I'm going to talk to him. We can get you a security detail-"

"I'm going to call Jimmy Woo," she said.

"You aren't planning on leaving, are you?" Thor asked, "My brother would be downtrodden by your departure."

"I'm not leaving," she replied, wondering what exactly Loki had told Thor about his interactions with her. "I'm going to talk to him about what I'd have to do to get this cuff off."

Steve winced. "Jaklyn… that might not be the best idea right now. Before, your mother could help you keep it under control, but now…"

"Loki has offered to teach me," she sighed and flexed her fingers, "I want to be able to protect myself, so I'm going to let him."

A note from the author: Ooooh scary mystery man. Who could it possibly be? ;)

Thanks for reading and thank you so much to kimmieg1018 for your review!

Hopefully I'll be posting the next chapter fairly soon. Until then!