A/N: I told myself that I could take a little break from writing, since I finished a whole book and got the sequel out like that, but I couldn't do it. I just had to keep writing, since this chapter is the first time we see a bit of the plot. It's just the beginning, but it was fun to write. Anyways, here's the third chapter!

! #$%^

I stared at the wall as the elevator rode down to the labs, where Tony and Bruce spent a lot of their time. I had gone down there a couple of times to see Tony, and once to check up on Bruce, and it had always cheered me up. I guess Clint and I didn't really have a fight, at least nothing like the fights we used to have, when I'd tell him I hated him and storm off to my room to cry.

Yeah, I was a little bit of a brat back then.

But ever since Loki took him away from me, and I found out what it was like to fully lose him, I learned to love him even more. That meant that we never really fought anymore, which was something I was grateful for. Our old fights could get pretty ugly.

The elevator doors opened, and I walked into the laboratories, punching in the code that Tony gave me. The doors slide open, and I strode over to where Tony was staring at something intently. I sat down beside him, sighing and placing my head in my hands.

"What's up, Sunshine?" Tony asked, sparing a glance over at me, before looking back to whatever he was doing. I groaned, and smacked my head on the table.

"That bad? Well, get a cat or something." He waved me off, focusing on something in front of him. I popped back up, grinning.

"Can I? Oh my gosh, I know exactly what I would name it!" I squealed, already thinking of the possibilities. Tony snorted, and smiled softly at my reaction.

"Yeah, no. I'm not exactly what you would call a cat person…" He muttered, and I frowned.

"But, Tony! There are like ten million floors in this place, you wouldn't even see the cat!" I whined. Tony rolled his eyes.

"Well, at least I cheered you up," He smiled over at me, but I just groaned, hitting my head once again on the table. Tony sighed, and swiveled his chair around to face me.

"So, sunshine, why are you here? Let me guess…" He stared at me, studying my expression. "A fight with Legolas?" He finally decided, and I furrowed my brows.

"How do you do that?" I asked. Tony could always guess everything about me. Like, how I was feeling, and why I was feeling that way. He was like… psychic or something. Tony smirked.

"I'm a sexy billionaire who flies around New York in a metal suit. What can't I do?" He asked, turning back to his work. I rolled my eyes, and tugged on his arm.

"But seriously, how can you always tell?" I asked, and he shrugged.

"You just make this… face, whenever it's about your brother. When it's about Loki, it's a different face. I don't know how to explain it. I just know." He said.

I nodded.

"Well, at least someone gets me," I said, sighing. Then I cocked my head at him. "Tony?" I asked.

"Hmm?"

"What are you doing down here? It's six in the morning," I pointed out, noticing the fact that he was up pretty early today. Usually he gets up at around nine, but never this early. Tony pointed towards the screen of his computer, the thing that he was focusing on.

"I picked up some strange readings last night," He said, mentioning his flight last night. Tony would go out every night in his suit to make sure everything was as it should be in the city. Since Loki, everything had been normal. Until now, I suppose.

"What is it?" I asked, staring at the chart in front of me. I may be an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and a fantastic fighter, but that didn't mean I was anywhere near as smart as Tony. As much as I hated to admit it, Tony was sheer genius.

"It's a strange energy reading from a few miles north of here. There's a hotspot where my sensors went haywire," He said, pointing out something on the chart. I nodded, just now making sense of the graph in front of me.

"Why didn't you check it out?" I asked. The Tony that I knew would have been down there in seconds, trying to figure out what the heck was wrong.

"I tried, but almost the second I noticed it, it disappeared. That's the weird part." He said, and I nodded.

"Energy like that can't just go poof," I agreed, and Tony smirked.

"'Poof'?" He asked, questioning my word choice. I shrugged, standing up and heading towards the door.

"I like the word poof. In fact, I'm going to demonstrate a good 'poof' for you right now," I said, opening the door. I paused, and looked back over my shoulder.

"Bye Tony. Good luck with your, um, poof-ing energy thing," I said. Tony chuckled.

"Goodbye, sunshine." He said, and I walked out of the room and to the elevator. I called the elevator down to me, and got in, shaking my head.

When it got to the living room area, I walked out, but stopped when I heard low voices.

"…it worried me. And I told Thor about it, that Sam was depressed ever since, well, you know. And then he said that Loki was-"

"What?!" I screeched, storming out of my hiding spot, finding Clint leaning against the kitchen counter, talking to Steve. Clint had been the one to speak, but at this point I didn't really care.

"Shit." Clint cursed, running a hand through his brown hair. I marched over to where they stood, my hands finding a place on my hips.

"What the hell did you just say?" I hissed, and glared with all of my might. My heart beat erratically in my ears, but I didn't care.

I needed to know if I heard right.

"Um…" Clint mumbled, and I grabbed his shirt collar, pulling him down to my height.

"You talk to Thor? When?" I spat out.

If Clint had talked to Thor since the attack, he would know what had happened to Loki. He would know what happened to him!

"A few nights ago…" He reluctantly admitted, and I completely lost it.

I released my hold on his shirt, pulled back my fist, and punched him right across the face.

"You bastard!" I screamed, and launched myself at him. I was about to hit him again when an arm wrapped around my waist and lifted me up. Steve effortlessly held me up off of the ground, and I thrashed around, trying to get loose.

How could Clint do this to me? He knows how I feel about Loki, and yet he kept something like this from me. Why? Why would he do this to me?

"Cap'." Clint shook his head at Steve, and he reluctantly placed me back on my feet.

Except, the second I tried to stand on my own, my knees buckled, and I crumbled to the floor. I hid my face in my knees, too tired to muster up tears.

"Sammie?" Clint dropped to his knees beside me, and placed a hand on my back. I looked up at him, a weary look on my face.

I was too tired to be mad at him, as well.

"Just go… both of you. It's the least you can do," I said, hiding my face once again. I heard one pair of footsteps leave the room, but Clint's hand remained firmly on my back.

"I'm not leaving, Sammie," He said, and I sighed.

"Of course you're not…" I said, wanting to just crawl into bed and sleep until all this pain went away.

"But can you at least tell me what happened to him?" I asked, not really expecting an answer from him. But to my surprise, and immediate dismay, he did.

"Loki's been sentenced to a century in an Asgardian prison, Sammie." He said slowly, waiting for me to burst into tears, and I couldn't help but to wait for me to start crying as well.

But I didn't.

I stared at Clint for a long time, my mind going blank.

So Loki was in prison for a century? That… that meant… it meant that I was never going to see him again. I was still waiting for the news to fully sink in, but it never did. I couldn't believe it. I mean, I knew that it was true, but at the same time I couldn't accept it.

Wouldn't.

"You okay?" Clint asked me.

I shook my head.

"Nope," I said, giving him a weary smile. "But I'll make it through." I assured him.

And I would.

I got up and pulled on Clint's arm, giving him a peck on the cheek.

"Thank you," I said, and left for my room.

! #$%^

The rest of the day passed by relatively quickly, and I spent most of the day in my room. Tony visited me once, and that helped a little bit. I was surprised at my reaction, but I knew that it was going to sink in sooner or later.

The second I tried to sleep, however, I was wide awake. I tried every trick I knew to fall asleep, but nothing worked. I was awake, so I decided to get up and showered, getting ready for the day ahead of me.

I threw on my uniform, which was tucked gently in the back of my drawer, and took my gun out of its place on my nightstand. I slept better at night if I knew that my gun was only an arm's length away. With loving hands, I placed the gun in my leg holster, and nodded as it clicked into place.

Sighing, I walked out of my room and out to the kitchen. I was tempted to get my strawberry poptarts, but I knew that if I was going to go back to S.H.I.E.L.D. then I had to start eating healthy foods.

I hated healthy things.

Exercise, food, and almost anything that health freaks loved, I despised. So instead of something too healthy, I settled on an apple. Apples were healthy, right?

"Hey," I heard someone say, and turned around, swallowing my bite of food. It was Natasha, so I just smiled sheepishly.

We hadn't had a chance to talk since I got wasted a few nights ago, and I didn't know how Nat felt about it. Did she think that I was a complete idiot? I mean, she listened to me about Clint, so she can't be too disappointed in me, right?

"We need to go out more often,"

That was not the response I had been expecting. I just grinned at her, and nodded in agreement. She smiled, tucking a strand of her red hair behind her ear.

"I wanted to thank you," She started, and I raised an eyebrow.

"For the Clint thing?" I asked, and she nodded. She hesitated for a moment, before speaking.

"You were right. I had love right in front of my face, and I was too much of a coward to go out and get it. You had love and then had it taken from you. I didn't want to... well, I didn't want to end up in your position. To have come so close, yet be so far away." She said.

I smiled.

"Yeah. Part of it is my fault, though. I was the one who fell in love with the one person I shouldn't have," I said.

Nat shrugged.

"Well, relationships between Agents are usually frowned upon, but I guess I can see your point," She spoke with a smile.

"I'm sorry, by the way. I heard about last night, how you found out about Loki." She said, and I tensed.

"Yeah, well, I guess I'm glad that I found out. I suppose I needed some closure for the whole thing. Did you hear about how my brother wants me to get with Steve?" I asked, a smirk on my face. Tasha smiled, and smiled.

"That he did," She said. She walked closer to me, sitting down in a chair next to me. "It's not so much about Steve, I suppose, than about you being with someone in the first place,"

I grimaced.

"Yeah, I don't think I'm ready for that," I said. "Not yet, anyways."

Tasha nodded.

"I understand."

And somehow, with those two words, I felt instantly lighter. To have someone I cared about tell me that they understood me, well, it felt awesome. I was about to say something, but stopped when somebody walked into the room.

"Hey Steve," I called out, and he looked up from the ground, holding up a hand.

"Samantha. Natasha," He nodded at both of us, before moving to make a batch of coffee. I smiled at the smell, and then sighed.

I had a long day ahead of me, so I took a deep breath and shook out my body.

Maybe everything would be okay in the end, just maybe.

! #$%^

A/N: Hey there, so that was a pretty short chapter, but I wanted to get something out. Please review, and let me know what you think. I promise that Loki will be back really soon, maybe in the chapter after the next. Let me know what you think about the love triangle, how you would feel about having one. It wouldn't be like in Twilight, or anything, where she falls in love with both of them. Maybe a shared kiss or two, just enough to make Loki jealous, but in reality there would be no competition at all. It'll always be Loki for Sam, I promise :D Review away!

P.S.

I saw the Avengers for the fifth time in theaters last night, a special showing for Labor Day weekend! Anyone else go see it? Let me know!