A/N: Holy sugarplums. Remember when I said it usually takes me about a week to get a single review? Well, this story is rather different. The stats so far: 65 story alerts, 15 reviews, and 35 favorite story's. WHAAAT? You are all the best, seriously. I love you all. I'm not sure when I'll be able to update next, most likely Saturday, unless I can squeeze one in tomorrow night. Don't worry—every free second I get, I'll be typing away! And just a warning, I'm going to stick to the framework of the Avengers movie, but I'll be tweaking the scenes, as you'll see throughout the story. It just helps everything run a little smoother.

The next morning after I woke up, I went into the bathroom and stared in the mirror. My sleepy green eyes looked back at me and I noticed the utter mess my brunette hair was. Why was I worried about my appearance? I was just going to work. To my job for a top-secret government agency where an exceedingly attractive Captain America happened to work…

Wait, what? Who said that? Not me.

I got a shower and tamed the beast that was my hair as I quickly threw on a black jumper, just remembering to grab my shoes before I ran out the door. I didn't notice the man leaning against a sleek black car in front of my apartment building until I hit the unlock button on my car key.

"Dr. Andrews?" He addressed, and I jumped, startled.

"Yes?" I answered, feeling like I was about to be interrogated for the third time this week.

"Mr. Fury sent me to collect you."

"Ah," I said, nodding my head. "Already thinks I'm incapable of getting to work myself." I stepped into the backseat of the car but didn't full relax, seeing as the building was only around the corner. However, when we came to the intersection, the driver drove on. "Um, excuse me? I think you missed the turn."

"Mr. Fury asked that I take you to the landing base," the driver informed me.

My eyebrows furrowed together. "Oh." What on earth was I needed for at a landing base?

After an hour drive, we pulled up to a long airstrip along the coast surrounded by the tallest barbed-wire fence I had ever seen. After proceeding through security, we drove up next to a small helicopter with Agent Coulson standing alongside it. "Dr. Andrews," he began, opening my car door for me and leading me over to the helicopter. "Due to the current circumstances, we're transporting you to our helicarrier." I simply nodded and sat down inside the chopper, Coulson following behind me.

We drove out over the Atlantic Ocean for nearly a half hour, with nothing but water in sight, until a huge metal landing strip came into view. The helicopter landed in the middle of runway and I was escorted out and inside a small room off to the side. Agent Coulson silently led me through a series of narrow hallways until we came upon a door labeled "Andrews."

"This will be your room during your time here," he said. "If you need anything, just let JARVIS know."

I turned around to question who the hell JARVIS was, but Agent Coulson was already out of sight. I hesitantly pushed open the door to my room, to find a small, but accommodating, set up. It was nothing like my deluxe apartment in New York City, but it had a bed, a sitting area, a small kitchen, and a bathroom. The walls, as I had come accustomed to, were stark white (A/N: "stark" white. that was punny, and I hadn't even planned it!) with a steel gray carpet. I noticed an overnight bag on the bed, and as I opened it, I realized that someone had packed me multiple sets of all my clothes. Next to the bag were a black leather bodysuit and a white lab coat. The note on top read:

Dr. Andrews-

After you get settled in, please change into this and come to the lab on level three, where you will be debriefed.

-N.F.

I unfolded the suit and tried it on. Looking in the mirror, I laughed at myself. It was skintight and came all the way up to the base of my neck. I slid my feet into the matching black combat boots and threw on the lab coat with "Dr. Andrews, Medical Director" sewn over my heart.

I walked out the door and tried to remember the way I had come in. Finally making it back to the front room where the elevator was, I took it down to level three and found the whole crew: Fury, Stark, Banner, Thor, Romanoff, Barton…and Steve, who was giving me the shyest of smiles, which I immediately returned. "Morning, everyone," I said, getting everyone's attention.

"Ah, Dr. Andrews, sorry to bring you here on such short notice, but we needed to get moving. There's been some developments that we wish to share with you," Fury said, looking around at the rest of the people assembled. "You see, Thor's brother, a god named Loki, has come to Earth and stolen an energy source called the Tesseract from us. It's powerful enough to supply enough clean energy to the entire planet, but in the wrong hands, can be extremely dangerous. Last night, we were able to locate Loki and bring him into custody here. So, for the time being, we'll all be staying aboard the helicarrier."

You know, after finding out that superheroes still existed, you would have thought that this news wouldn't have surprised me—but once you throw in an evil god trying to overthrow the planet, and said god being held just below my feet…I was starting to feel uncomfortable. "Oh," was all I managed out in my shock.

"You'll be completely safe—he can't hurt you," Steve reassured me.

"No, it's not that," I answered, trying to clear my head. "Just shocked, I guess. But thank you all for telling me."

Fury nodded. "Of course. You're all dismissed then."

The room began to slowly clear out, and I made my way back over to the elevator. Just as I was about to hit the button, a hand reached out and beat me to it. "You okay?" I looked up and found Steve looking at me worriedly.

"Me? Yeah, I'm fine. It's…I don't know how to exactly react to someone telling me a god is trying to take over the world," I said, with a humorless chuckle. Steve's face didn't relax in the slightest.

"Everything's going to be ok. The good guys always win, right?"

Steve and I walked onto the elevator and I sighed. "I hope so." I took a deep breath and shook my head. "So, anyway. How'd they capture this Loco guy anyway?"

Steve chuckled. "Loki. Stark, Thor, and I went after him last night."

My jaw dropped. "You went after a god? Do you know how ridiculous that is? You could've been killed!"

Steve laughed and shook his head. "It's what I'm made for, ma'am. It's my job. I'm fine, aren't I?"

I looked him over, checking for signs of damage, when my eyes settled upon a purple mark peeking out over the top of his shirt. "Are you?" I said, glaring at him. He noticed where I was looking, and nervously tugged at his collar.

"It's nothing, I'm fine," he answered quickly.

I shook my head, not looking away from the bruise. "No, you're not." I reached up and moved his hand out of the way. I pulled his shirt down just the slightest and saw a long gash stretching across his chest. "Oh my god, Steve…" I whispered.

"It's nothing, ma'am, seriously," he insisted, trying to push me away. I brought my other hand up and just barely touched the gash, making him flinch, but in an instant, his skin was healed. His brow furrowed. "Dr. Andrews, how did you…"

"You know you can call me Rebecca, right?" I answered, finally looking up at him, and just realizing how close we were. Our faces were mere inches apart, our noses almost touching. What the hell was happening? Why was I doing this? I don't even know him! What-

"Rebecca," he whispered, like he was testing how it would sound. Those blue eyes were staring into mine, I was losing all trains of thought, and I—

The ping of the elevator sent us flying apart as Tony Stark stepped out and noticed the two of us nervously shuffling. "What, did I interrupt your make-out session? Do you know how gross that is? He's older than your grandfather, for God's sake." Tony walked out of the room, shuffling the papers in his hand.

I gulped. "I, uh, should probably be finding the hospital wing, or something…"

Steve nodded, his face hot pink. "Yeah, right, I probably should be—"

Steve and I were both thrown across the room as an explosion ripped through the wall beside us. I landed hard on my left hip and screamed out in pain. My head hit the ground hard, and my vision blacked out. I could faintly here someone shouting my name, but was too disoriented to place it. Steve! Was he hurt? Where was he? Just as my head was starting to clear for a second, he came running out of nowhere and knelt down beside me. "Rebecca," he shouted, trying to be heard over the alarms and fire roaring around us. I tried to get my eyes to focus on him, but the blinding orange and yellow of the fire eating everything in sight around us caused me to get dizzy. As another explosion took out the wall across the room, he leaned over me, shielding me from the flying debris. "Rebecca, I need you to stay with me, talk to me!"

I tried to stay alert, even though I'd hit my head pretty hard. Was he ok? Had he been hurt? I tried to lift my arm up to let my hand brush against his skin, cure anything that I could while being so weak, but my fingers just twitched as my hand lay limp at my side. "Steve….i-it hurts…"

Steve's hand was cupping my cheek, begging my eyes to look at him. I silently prayed that maybe, by him touching me, I could heal him. I couldn't tell if anything had changed. "Rebecca, please, look at me, you're going to be ok, everything's going to be fine," he pleaded.

I forced myself to sit up, even though Steve was trying to push me back down. My head spun and I nearly blacked out, but I forced myself to stay conscious. "I-I'm ok…my head hurts, but I'll b-be ok. Steve, you need to go," I paused, groaning as another wave of pain clouded my vision, "go help everyone."

Without even saying anything, Steve scooped me up in his arms. I was disoriented for a second, but then laid my head on his shoulder as he was running through the corridors of the helicarrier. I was able to reach up and press the palm of my hand against his neck, and I noticed immediately that he was running straighter and easier. Healing him had drained what little energy I had left, though, and I could feel myself fading away. My vision blocked out from time to time and my head spun. The last thing I remember was Steve laying me down on my bed, and whispering, "God, Rebecca, please, just hold on," as he kissed my forehead.

A/N: Well, what did you think? Good? You liking it? This explosion scene is far from over; I'm going to continue it in the next chapter. I don't think I'll be able to post until Saturday, got a busy next couple of days! Love you all!