A/N: Hi, so sorry it's been a while (understatement of the decade) but I'm back now! Great big thank you to AmalieNico for reviewing, it was the only thing that kept me motivated to write. Thanks to everyone who has faved, followed and reviewed so far, and please continue to do so. Also I really do want criticism, it makes me write better.

Blue light, cruel laughter and a cold, distant voice, 'Run away little girl.'

I awoke to rays of bright light coming in through the windows. Although I briefly wondered why the blinds were open, I soon remembered as I glanced to the imprint next to me in the bed. I wasn't surprised about waking up to an empty bed, in fact I was relieved more than anything else. I hated the one night stand awkwardness that occurred when someone decided to stay, or didn't wake up early enough to sneak out. I sat up, but as soon as I did I was hit with a killer headache. Clutching my head, I groaned quietly and decided that I needed an aspirin. Hoping that there would be painkillers of some sort in the bathroom cupboard, I stumbled across the room and found my way to the bathroom. My eyes were blurry with sleep as I was opening the small white cabinet, so I rubbed them to clear my vision, just in case I accidentally ingested a Plaque Disclosure tablet instead of aspirin. I rummaged around the cabinet until I finally found the box and pulled it out victoriously. Swallowing two pills, I padded over to the boiling water tap, got out a mug, put a teabag in and filled it with water. Once I had infused the tea into the water, I added exactly one and a half teaspoons of sugar. Content, I wandered over to the sofa, where I was expecting to plop down on comfy cushions, but instead sat on something hard and lumpy. The lump squealed and pushed me off the sofa. Setting down my miraculously unspilled tea, I turned to see that the lump was in fact Evelyn, whom, by the look of her, had been fast asleep until I inelegantly sat on her.

"What the hell Evelyn!" I hissed at her, "You know you have a bed right?"

"Get off your fucking high horse Isabelle, where were you last night? You didn't answer any of our calls, what happened to us having dinner together?"

"What happened to telling each other about our lives?" I snapped back in response.

"What?" She cried indignantly, "Are you seriously still mad about yesterday?"

"I'm mad about my friends keeping secrets from me!"

"For God's sakes Isabelle we're SHIELD, keeping secrets is literally in our job description."

"Not from each other!" I yelled back at her, "What on God's green earth could be so desperately important that you have to wait for Fury to tell me! I don't understand why you can't just-"

"It's a case!" She burst out.

"A case?"

"A really serious one, that's why we've been working so much," she sighed, defeated. "I've already said way more than I'm supposed to, but Fury told me to tell you to be in his office at eleven today so he can brief you."

"Eleven? Shit! I've got to get dressed."

Hangover all but forgotten, I charged into my room, pulled on my suit and tied my hair up. I briefly considered putting on makeup, but realised that I didn't have enough time. Satisfied that I looked somewhat acceptable, I ran out to grab my bag off the table where Evelyn was waiting for me.

"Do you want me to go with you?" She asked gently. It was probably a combination of lack of sleep and her patronising tone that made me snap back,

"No, I don't. Stop treating me like a bloody child Evelyn."

"I will when you stop acting like one! Ever since you got here you've been demanding attention, just like the same, attention seeking little brat you've always been!"

"Fuck you Evelyn! Fuck you!" I yelled and stormed out of the apartment.

The journey to SHIELD HQ was a blur as I replayed my fight with Evelyn over and over again in my head. I couldn't understand why we were arguing so much, before the battle of New York we barely ever fought, so I eventually came to the conclusion that being zapped by Loki probably messed with my head and made me more argumentative. Attempting to push all my personal troubles to the back of my mind, I took a deep breath and entered HQ.

One of the things I noticed as I made my way to Fury's office was that the building was surprisingly quiet; I only passed two people on my way up. In fact, the building would have been nearly empty if it weren't for the extra guards posted around the place. Weird. I walked up the stairs painfully slowly so as to avoid my meeting with Director Fury for as long as possible; I had only met him in person once but the man scared the bejesus out of me. I wasn't like he did anything particularly terrifying (except the one eyed glare thing) but he just had this really intimidating presence that commanded obedience. Although, my fear of Fury was intertwined with a deep respect, unlike the sort of fear I had for people like Loki, which was more of a deep crushing terror than anything else.

Despite procrastinating in every way possible, I eventually reached Fury's office, which I had never actually been in. My morbid curiosity about what his office looked like compelled me to knock on the door straight away instead of waiting around at the water cooler across the hall like I had planned. After waiting for what seemed like hours, but was probably only thirty seconds for an answer, I knocked again. And again. And again. Still no answer. Frustrated, I tried the door which was of course locked, forcing me to accept the fact that Fury wasn't there, and I wouldn't be getting a sneak peek into the office of SHIELD's big cheese. It was only after a few minutes of deliberation about what the hell was going on that I noticed the large yellow post-it note stuck to the water cooler. It simply read:

'Change of plans, meet in conference room seven- Director Fury'

Shrugging, I lazily took the elevator up to the next floor and made my way to C7, but did a double take when I saw who was leaning against the wall outside. He looked uncharacteristically serious and held my work mug filled with tea, which made me instantly suspicious. People only made me tea in my favourite mug if they wanted something.

"What do you want Stark?" I said warily as I took the mug from his outstretched arm, "And why have you got a face like a slapped arse?"

"Isabelle," he began carefully, "We need you to do something that you're not going to like, but you need to be the bigger person here."

"Fine, just tell me what it is, because Eve and Tommy have been acting really weird about it, and-"

"It's Loki."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Loki."

"Yes, I heard you the first time, 'what' was short for 'care to elaborate?'" I growled out, trying and failing to remain collected.

"Y'know, just do what you do.'

"Do what I do?"

"Yeah, acclimatisation, safe houses, the works."

"You want me to take Loki, the man who murdered thousands of people," I ground out, "And you want me to acclimatise him." At this point, a good way of explaining my feelings was a bottle of soda. Inside was all the rage, fear and hurt I'd kept inside about Loki and what he did to me, right now this news was shaking it. Really, really hard.

"Look kid I don't like it either but-" And with that, the proverbial soda bottle exploded.

"Oh you don't like it? Well good for you, but with all due respect Tony, you're not the one that's being forced to bloody live with him!"

"Isabelle," He sighed. "Please just cooperate for once in your goddamn life." He looked tired. And not 'I partied too hard' tired, he was the type of tired that you feel in your bones, the type that drags you down and makes your shoulders sag. With everything that had happened, a lot of SHIELD agents and their affiliates looked that way. I knew this feeling all too well, which is what made me soften slightly.

"Let's just go in okay?" I grumbled. Not bothering to hide his relief, he moved to open the door, but I stopped him.

"Wait, is... is he in there?" I said with some hesitation. Tony shot me a pitiful glance before reassuring me,

"He's completely powerless, he can't hurt you."

"I know, it's just…I um…"

"If you really can't do this, we can arrange a different day."

"No it's fine. He hasn't beaten me. He won't. Ever."

Holding my head high, and settling into a determined, somewhat aloof persona (a habit learned from my parents) I marched into the conference room, internally preparing myself for every possible scenario.