Once Gage got Quinn to calm down enough and relax she crashed back to sleep. He got her watching cartoons with a glass of chocolate milk. (they were out of bananas for her favorite comfort food.) but she didn't seem to mind as she dozed off to spongebob, head on Gage's lap, sound asleep. He felt relived. Some nights she didn't get back to sleep at all, causing a "stay awake" spree that could go 50 hours. But now that she was asleep and spongebob was turned down automatically from JARVIS he could think and he wanted to bolt. To tell Clint whats going on, what she saw. Wanted to move her away from here, somewhere far away where the media won't find them, to protect her from him. But he can't. He can only sit here helplessly, petting her hair gently. Once his legs started getting that tingly sensation, he gently lifted her up, holding her close like a bride and carrying her back to her room.
Once he had her tucked in and kissed her head. He left her lamp on and left the room quietly and went on patrolling best he could with the information she gave him eating away at him. He wanted to go to the gym, pound a punching bag, shoot off a few magazines to ebb off the nervous energy but it was 4 AM and Clint didn't wake til at least 8. This was gonna be a rough night. He let out a breath, going to the kitchen to make the strongest pot of coffee he could.
8AM couldn't get there faster as Clint walked in at 8:15, going to the coffee maker like a zombie. Tony and Kim slept in. TJ would sleep until noon if you let him and they haven't figured out Loki's morning hour preface. Gage was in the kitchen, greeting him with a fresh cup of coffee. Clint let out a breath, "Your a god right now." he took the coffee, sipping it. Gage smiled weakly before remembering why he buttered his brother up with coffee. "Quinn had a vision. She saw my dad." Clint stopped drinking his coffee, placing the mug down. "What?" Even in the bleariness of early morning, Clint could talk important, serious stuff. A trait learned from S.H.I.E.L.D and missions in general. Gage could feel his anxiety in his hands, making them shake just the slightest. He leaned on the table, putting his weight on his hands on the table to stabilize them. "She dreamed of general black. He took her and I went after her, obviously."
Clint narrowed his eyes. "Theres more your not telling me." Gage swallowed. "He killed me. Stabbed me thru. Look you know how accurate her visions are." "And you know how we always find a way around them. We'l figure this out, escort her to and from school. We'l do what we have to to keep you both safe." Gage let out a shuddering breath. "And if they get the wool over our eyes?" Clint didn't like thinking about that. "we'l cross that bridge if we get to it. For now, lets just go about this like we never heard of it. Just keep an extra eye on things." Gage shook his head. "I don't like this. Keeping things from tony and Kim. About there daughter. They have a right to know."
"They also would probably take her out of school and put her into a bullet proof bubble. You know how Tony is. We love her, we all do and we all wants whats best for her but being smothered by protection isn't going to help her. She'd go crazy. She'd have no Independence or freedom." Gage ran a hand thru his hair. Clint was right. "Fine. Lets just hope this one vision was wrong."
TJ groaned sleepily, holding Loki closer to himself. They had there first date and it was amazing. He decided to change into lady Loki for the evening. Not wanting TJ's name slandered and ruined and just brought more attention to. Loki was tired of attention. Thou one thing kept popping up in his mind.: when was he going to leave? When was TJ going to realize he could do so much better and break things off, find someone better, more deserving of his was the whole family going to realize that they shouldn't house a monster and leave him? Loki couldn't help the whimper, crying in his sleep. (he transformed back when they got home from the date) TJ tensed, sitting up and looking down at him. he gently shook Loki's shoulders. "Loki, hey, wake up. It's ok." Loki woke, eyes opening, a few tears falling. "wha-?" TJ blushed, holding him closer while also wiping a few tears off his face. "Sorry. You were crying in your sleep. I had to wake you." Loki sniffled. "I'm sorry to disturb you." "Why were you crying? Was it something I did?" Loki shook his head. "No. It could never be anything you did. Just..." His green eyes began to fill with tears again. "I keep thinking when your going to realize that you could do so much better, deserve so much better." TJ cupped the side of his face.
"I could never do any better then you. I'm not leaving you for anything." Loki's lip trembled. Thinking of the innocent blood he put on TJ's hands. "I've made you kill. I've made you kill innocent people. I've tainted your hands." TJ sighed, showing Loki his hands which were clean if not callused from training. "Do these look tainted or stained? No. Plus Clint said it wasn't that many people. Only a few.-" Loki pushed TJ away, sitting up with a straggled sob in his throat. He knew the high number TJ killed. "They lie to you. It was much more then a few." He looked in TJ's eyes, feeling calmed, lighter with the truth but he saw the trouble brewing in TJ's dark eyes. "Loki...how much more then a few?" Loki swallowed the lump in his throat. "How about an entire school?" TJ felt his heart drop and body tense. This couldn't be true. Coulson and Clint wouldn't lie to him would they? He got out of bed, getting dressed and leaving the room without another word to Loki. Loki just bowed his head, accepting his fate, that he will be left again.
He found Clint in the training room, punching a punching bag. "How many?" Clint stopped, looking at him. "What are you talking about?" TJ glared, walking closer. "How many did I kill when I was under the tesseract's spell?" Clint tensed, looking at him. "Who told you?" TJ's face softened. "Loki's guilty conscious and I don't blame him at all for that. He's kinda going thru some shit right now but his guilt got to him, had a break down, told me it was much more then "a few." like an entire school. Is this true? Clint?" Clint let out a breath, holding on to the punching bag. "Yes. Quinn knows more then I do. She took you on, got you back to us." TJ swallowed the lump growing in his throat.
"Whats the number?" Clint frowned. I don't know the exact number. But it was around 200." TJ thought he was going to be sick. He sat down on the bench, letting it sink in. Clint sat next to him, putting his hand on his shoulder before TJ pushed it away with a watery glare. "You kept this information from me?" "We knew the guilt would eat you up. When he used the tesseract on me, Coulson, Fury and Natasha all agreed it would be best I didn't know the number. It became protocol for situations like these, to keep unnecessary guilt from eating away at a person." TJ felt a tear go down his cheek. "You know your right. The guilt would have eaten me. But I have you, Gage, mom, dad, Quinn to lean on, to talk to. I wouldn't have been happy but I would have been ok. Now I'm just disgusted you could lie about something like this to family." Clint went to say something else but TJ didn't want to hear anything of it, walking out of the room in a huff.
He made his way to the lab, finding Quinn working on her Iron Man amour. She looked up, putting her goggles on her head with a frown. "whoa, what happened?" TJ whipped his face. "At the school, what did I do?" She raised an eyebrow. "School?" "Clint said you would know more. About what I did." Then she suddenly knew. Seeing a flash back of her brother slitting a woman's throat with a smile. She swallowed, standing. "I don't think it's something you want to know." TJ let out a shuddering breath. "It is now. I know how many. Clint said it's somewhere around 200 hundred but I even think thats being generous. What did I do?" She felt her eyes water but stayed strong. "Jay, do you still have the video from the recent battle with Loki?" "of corse mam." "Play the school." He watched on screen from her point of view what he looked like. What he did. The blood all over the walls, bodies of children scattered along with adults alike. There was a scream as she ran down to it. He felt bile rise up when he saw himself slit the woman's throat, talking to his sister like she never meant anything
Once the fight started he was already at the nearest waste bin which was a bucket for unused/broken parts. She ran over, rubbing his back. He coughed, kneeling. "sorry..." "There's nothing to apologize for. I'm sorry I couldn't help you sooner." TJ felt his lip trembling, struggling to hold it all inside. Quinn wrapped her arms around him, trying to comfort him best she could. Before he could help it a sob escaped then another then he was hiding in Quinns shoulder like a 3 year old, clinging to her like a life line. She held him tightly, feeding him good energy, trying to sooth him. Feeling his guilt and anguish radiating off of him in waves, engulfing her. It felt like black, sticky tar sticking to her, coming off of him. Cleaning him. She wanted to cry with him to but knew she had to be strong. This was something he should have never known about. Eventually the soothing energies worked as he calmed enough to fall asleep in her lap. She gently pet his hair back, letting her own tears fall for him, remembering the monster in the video. Remembering that wasn't her brother. Her brother was asleep in her lap from exhausting himself of emotions and her calm wasn't a monster but she knew he and Loki now had a shared of feeling of feeling like monsters when in fact they were so far from it.
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