So, there was a change I made in this chapter because of the recently released Captain America movie (Yes, I said I wasn't doing this anymore, it's just minor tough). All that happened was the removal of the reference to Hydra. With the new movie, I realized in the Cinematic universe, Hydra was destroyed in WWII, unlike in the comics where the organized survived as it's own entity into modern times. So, that's the change, nothing drastic. However, I did not want anyone to back-read and become confused by what is coming.

Illusinia

"Hello dear."

Rowen would have jumped if she weren't so used to the voice's owner popping in at random. Sighing, she turned to face the person standing behind her. "Hello Athair."

Loki offered her a smile as he crossed the break room, pausing to drop a kiss on Rowen's forehead. "How are you, sweetheart?"

"Same as always," replied Rowen wearily. "What are you doing here?"

"It's Thor's birthday today," replied Loki, smile still in place. "I was just dropping off his present."

Nodding, Rowen turned back to the tea she was making. "Where did you leave it so I can make sure no innocents are caught in the cross fire?"

"Oh I wouldn't leave it lying around, that would be irresponsible," admonished Loki calmly, stepping next to Rowen to make his own cup of tea. "I asked a young lady to deliver it for me. She seemed all too happy to comply. Agent...Kaswaski I believe. Sweet young lady, but gullible. She bought my line about wanting to reconcile with my brother."

The sip of tea Rowen had been taking that exact moment stuck in her throat briefly before she spit it at the wall directly in front of her. "Kaswaski?! Father! She's one of my agents!"

"Oh relax dear, it's just a little sticky treat for Thor," assured Loki calmly, shaking his head. "Completely harmless to all mortals, I swear."

"By Mother's spear," muttered Rowen, turning on her toe and bolting towards the door. "That isn't my concern!"

Racing down the hallway, she headed towards the labs where most of the Avengers tended to amass. Namely because two of the five practically lived there and Tony was always messing with everyone else's weapons. Or, as he said, 'improving' them. Usually, he just used it as an excuse to blow things up. Unfortunately, today any explosions would probably be curtsey of her father.

It wasn't that she was actually afraid someone was going to get hurt by her father's prank; if he said it was harmless, then it was harmless. He was a master of knowing what was actually "harmless" and what wasn't. Her concern was with his conviction that no one would get caught in the cross fire. That was less of a certainty and well no one may be hurt, having people going after her father, again, wasn't appealing. Not that she really expected that to never happen again, but a girl can , there was the concern of punishment towards her Agent for delivering the "present" to begin with. At SHIELD, the messengers did, occasionally, get shot.

Slowing as she approached the labs, Rowen carefully checked each one for any sign of her missing agent but found no indication either Angelia or Thor were anywhere in the labs. Which left the gym. If they weren't there, she had no hope of finding them.

Thankfully, the labs were empty right at this particular moment, mostly because everyone had been herded out for lunch. Finding a corner that wasn't covered by video cameras was tricky, but not impossible and as soon as she had stepped into one, she disappeared only to reappear in the woman's locker room beside the gym. A mercifully empty locker room. Not that she hadn't dismissed her sudden appearances as people not noticing her before, but it was nice when she didn't have to explain it away.

Dashing out of the locker room, she burst into the gym just as Thor was pulling at the ribbon on the box.

"Thor, stop!" shouted Rowen, trying to reach the man in time.

Thor looked up at her shout, as did Barton, Natasha, Angelia, and Steven. However, it was too late. The ribbon slipped from the box, causing the lid to pop open. A loud bang cut through the room, causing everyone to jump as the box in Thor's hand's exploded upwards like the time Barton had tried to use a pressure cooker and screwed up.

For a moment, Rowen blinked. Then had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at the sight in front of her. Her father had been right, no innocents were at risk. The box, and the bubble-gum bomb inside, had been constructed to blow upwards at Thor, rather than out. Which left Thor's head covered in the gooy, pink substance which both father and daughter had found so entertaining when they'd discovered it's existence.

Blinking rapidly, Thor stared down at the bubblegum now coating his beard. "What is this strange substance?"

"It's gum, Thor," replied Steven, shaking his head as Barton burst into laughter beside him. Even Natasha looked like she was struggling to contain her laughter.

Angelia, on the other hand, looked like she was struggling between horrified and laughing manically at the now sticky alien god. "Thor, oh my god, are you okay?"

"He's fine, Agent Kaswaski," assured Rowen as she managed to choke back her amusement. She just had to keep from picturing Thor without hair until she could get somewhere safe. "It's just gum. I think."

"Agent Kaswaski, where did you procure that package?" asked Steven, his eyes narrowing slightly in disapproval.

Angelia gulped, shuffling her feet slightly and looking down in shame. "I- um, well...Loki asked me to give it to Thor!"

"Loki?!" repeated Steven. Barton winced, which almost made Rowen wince in sympathy. Loki might be her father, and she might love him dearly, but even she was pissed over the whole mind control thing. Even if he was insane when it happened.

"Why would you deliver anything from Loki to Thor?!" exclaimed Steven, his voice going higher than Rowen had thought possible. He also looked exceedingly pissed, which made Rowen move just a touch closer to Angelia. It wouldn't do for Angelia to get hurt. Plus, well, she found the way Steven had said her father's name a touch insulting. It wasn't as if her father was still insane after all...well, no more than he always had been at least.

"He- he said he wanted to make amends!" shouted Angelia, her voice becoming panicked and fearful. "He just wanted to reconnect! He said he was sorry and he wanted his brother back! Plus, he was in a suit like all the rest of us! I thought maybe he'd joined us..."

Natasha glanced at Rowen, raising an eyebrow at her in concern. It almost made Rowen shiver. No one knew her father was Loki. Hell, no one knew she wasn't human, and she'd like it to remain that way, thank you very much. Especially Coulson, Romanoff, and Barton. Explaining to someone that your father really isn't a bad guy and he just stabbed and brainwashed you or your partner/handler because he'd undergone a temporary bout of insanity didn't usually workout well.

Thor broke all the tension in the room though simply by laughing. In fact, he laughed so hard that he nearly fell over. "Ah, Loki! Indeed, this is a wonderful trick and a sign my brother doth wish to make amends! A good joke, my brother!"

One of Rowen's eyebrows rose in surprise, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she opted to squeeze Angelia's shoulder reassuringly and turn to Steven. "We know Loki's a charismatic being and that he can talk his way out of a paper bag with his silver tongue. Angelia didn't know, as she's stated. Plus, if Thor's right, Loki really does just want to make amends."

Steven sighed, nodding. "We'll need to do a security check and send out a memo immediately to all agents, but it looks like there was no harm done this time. This is a serious breach in security, though."

"Steven, the man brought a Chatari army down on the city of New York," pointed out Rowen mildly. "I'm relatively sure sneaking into SHIELD is nothing to him."

"It's still disconcerting," growled Steven, his eyes narrowing slightly. "This should be more concerning to you, Agent Le Fay."

"I am concerned," confirmed Rowen with a roll of her eyes. Well, no, she wasn't. She knew her father's magic better than anyone; she damn well knew he could walk into SHIELD if he cared to. The fact that he didn't meant that he had no wish to screw with the organization. "But what are we really gonna do until Stark invents that anti-magic stuff he keeps talking about?"

"Improve the awareness of everyone, for starters," countered Steven, his stance shifting. "You should have warned your agents about him already."

"Warn my agents about an alien god we didn't even know was on the loose again," growled Rowen, her eyes narrowing. "Right. I'll get right on that now that I know it's a concern. However, I've been more concerned with introducing them to threat's we're likely to actually see rather than ones we aren't. There are only so many hours in a day, after all. I like to prioritize my list of super villains for review."

"Well add Loki to the top," growled back Steven. "Because clearly, your agent's aren't well enough trained to know not to accept packages from him."

"Then why don't you bloody well teach them," shot back Rowen with a scowl of her own. "Clearly, you think you know which threats they need to be more aware of than I do."

"Because you clearly aren't informing your agents well enough to keep them from causing trouble!" shouted Steven, his patience finally snapping. "If you make a damn mistake, than take responsibility for it and don't try to pass it off as some kind of protocol or agency-based threat assessment analysis!"

Growling, Rowen grabbed Angelia's shoulder and turned her towards the door of the gym. "Go fuck yourself, Steven. If you have a problem with how I'm teaching my team, take it up with Fury or Hill." She turned completely away from Steve then, nearly dragging Angelia out of the gym.

For several moments after Rowen left with Angelia, the gym was silent. Mostly because everyone was having trouble believing someone had just told Steve off. It wasn't like it happened every day. Even Steve could count the number of times someone had truly told him off on one hand.

"Nice going, Captain Foot-in-Mouth," congratulated Clint with a shake of his head. "You've managed to piss off a high-level agent who is probably almost as dangerous as Tasha and who will, at minimum, make your life hell for a month."

Steve opened his mouth to say something, but a loud smack cut him off as Natasha whacked Clint on the back of the head. "You aren't helping, Clint."

"Ow! C'mon Tasha!" exclaimed Clint, glaring halfheartedly at his partner. "Remember what she did to me that one time I pissed her off? I was shedding glitter for weeks."

"I remember," assured Natasha. "I was the one who gave her the location of your nest because, yes, that time you deserved it. Every time you've deserved it. Just as Steve will deserve it this time."

"What did I do?" asked Steve, his voice filled with confusion as the anger and adrenaline from earlier faded away. Mostly because Thor was happily chewing on his beard in an attempt to remove the gum and it was a little disturbing/entertaining.

"You yelled at Agent Le Fay for no reason," explained Natasha, her arms crossing calmly in front of her chest. "She's right: there are easily several hundred enemies she's expected to expose her team to and she can only do so many at a time and expect them to remember what was said. Loki hadn't appeared for months, Thor never said anything about him being free, so she made the same assumption we all did: that he wasn't a high-level threat anymore. We know otherwise now, but that doesn't mean she should have introduced him before now. Not with people like Dr. Doom and agencies like the Ten Rings and AIM to worry about."

"Besides," added Clint, his look uneasy and clearly portraying his shock he was even saying anything, "Loki pranked Thor; that's it. We'll put up a security alert, but it doesn't seem likely he did anything other than blow bubblegum in Thor's face. So relax, leave it, and make sure you apologize to Rowen tomorrow. Otherwise, you'll regret it."

"Agreed," confirmed Natasha. "She's very creative and you don't want to be on the receiving end of one of her pranks."

Steve glared at them halfheartedly. "I'll consider it after I have a talk with Fury about this. Clint, help Thor get that junk out of his hair."

"You got it, Cap," assured Clint with a grin. "C'mon Thor, I've got some scissors and a razor back in my quarters."

The next morning, Gent stumbled into the room they used as a meeting room followed closely by Corvin. Both men blinked and paused, however, when they spotted the steaming cup sitting on the desk. There was a sticky note attached, claiming the cup for Rowen. An intricate design had been drawn on the sleeve of the paper cup and there was a mark for a local bakery, Backalley's Bakery, on the front.

"What the heck?" asked Gent, his eyes narrowed on the cup.

Corvin shook his head, pulling Gent inside. "Someone brought Agent Le Fay coffee. So what?"

Gent opened his mouth to say something, but snapped it shut almost immediately as Rowen walked in, pushing past both men and dropping a folder on the table forcefully. She paused, looking at the cup as she turned before a faint smile spread over her lips and she picked it up to take a sip.

"Well, someone likes you, Agent Le Fay," remarked Gent, dropping into his chair.

She snorted slightly and shook her head, writing something out on the board as the others stumbled in shortly after. When she stepped away a moment later, it read as follows:

"Tip #7: Loki is not an agent of SHIELD, no matter what he says. Do not accept any packages from him and do not do anything he says, no matter how funny the results may be."

Below that, she stuck a photo of bald, beardless Thor to the board with the note: "And sometimes, the results will be VERY funny."