As I stood out of the way of the two men, I tried to ignore the static electricity that was abundant in the air around me. Their hair was just fine, but I was sure my own was a different story. After a few moments of their staring contest getting them no closer to reconciliation, I spoke up.

"Loki," the rest of my statement was cut off as I was grabbed out of the way of a coming lightening bolt. After squealing in fright and then gaping at where the light had passed me, I turned angrily at Thor. "What was that for?"

"Best not to anger him right now. His character is bent to never be uncertain, but whenever he is unable to wield his hammer to deal with a situation, he calls his lightening instead. This most often happens when he must participate in social niceties. For example, speaking in complete sentences." When Loki first began smugly speaking from right next to me I realized it was he who had dragged me away from electrocution. As I listened to him speak, I couldn't help but wonder, was he actually listening to what he was saying?

"So he isn't going to use his hammer? He is trying to be social?"

I phrased it as questions because I hoped Loki would be more responsive to my observations. I was rewarded with a guarded face that looked at me and then Thor. The moment was destroyed though, at the sound of running feet and the appearance of Captain America behind Loki and I. In response, Loki repositioned his hand before whipping me around so we both faced Captain with me clamped firmly in front of Loki like a shield. Mentally slapping myself, I let my anger manifest itself my punching my leg. How could I be dumb enough to become Loki's pawn? A fresh wave of guilt about Clint arrived as well. Welcome to the party.

"You missed me," Loki said amused.

"I wasn't aiming for you." Since I couldn't see Loki, I focused on the Captain. He needed to leave so the brothers could have a little heart to heart. "Don't you dare let the Tesseract fall into the wrong hands," I informed him.

"Yes, ma'am." I rolled my eyes to cover my blush. Twenty year olds were not mature enough to be called ma'am! It was a sign of respect and I hadn't done anything yet to deserve it. "Should I leave to guard it then?" I stood there a little stunned. This brilliant man had realized I had not been held hostage until he had arrived, and he thought that I had the authority to give him orders.

"That might be best, Captain Rodgers. Thank you."

The thank you also covered the fact that it probably went against all his training and personal principle to leave a woman in a hostage situation. I suddenly got the urge to quote Meg from Hercules, 'I am a damsel; I'm in distress; I can handle it. Have a nice day!' He even would fit the role of Hercules. Snap out of it Rachel! Thankfully, sometime during my internal insanity, Captain had left and the corridor had sealed itself so Loki had no choice but to turn around and face Thor again.

They didn't say anything for a moment, and then Loki removed his arms from around me. A flash of light reflecting off something caught my eye and I reeled back internally. Did I really think Loki had just wanted to hug me or something? Of course he had had a knife to my...

When I returned to the land of the conscious, I slowly caught the words being passed between Thor and Loki.

"...your brother," Loki hissed.

"I do not care how many times you say that. I am still your brother." Thor spoke calm and steadily.

"No, you are not!" came the bitter retort. Before the discussion disolved into only 'are not' and 'are to's being exchanged, I spoke up.

"Thor is Loki's brother but Loki is not Thor's. It's the state of your relationship, so grow up!" I finally opened my eyes after interrupting their argument to see two rather concerned men kneeling next to me. Loki kneeling? A few giggles erupted but I quickly swallowed them.

"How does that work?" Thor asked confused.

"It's more common in friendships," I explained, "but you can love someone as a sibling while they..." I didn't want to hurt Thor and didn't really know what Loki was doing, so I gave a couple options as to what his reasoning was, "could hate you, love to hate you, or being using the tried and true 'you're going to leave me anyway, so I'm going to push you away on purpose now.'" I really hoped Loki was the third one, I thought as I pushed myself up so I was sit/leaning on the wall.

"Push me away?" Good. Thor was trying very hard to understand where Loki might be coming from.

"Test you. Do things to annoy you. Try to force you to walk away before he gets too attached to you. If you leave him after he's become attached to you it would be so much harder for him."

"That is stupid. You're saying I could be attached to Thor? And you seem to condemn such behavior. It isn't better to be attached." Loki's denial seemed to confirm my theory, but I don't think I had explained it enough for either of them to really understand what I was saying. Perhaps an example was in order.

"When I first met Meagan, I pulled her hair tie out every day during the one class period I had with her. I usually kept the hair tie too because she looked prettier without her hair up all the time. I never had any real friends before I tested her to see if she would walk away." Suddenly, I remembered the phone call and the fact that she didn't know who I was in this world. "We were practically sisters," I sobbed.

The back of my mind noticed that the brothers looked at each other like they had no clue what to do with a sobbing girl, which would have been funny if I hadn't realized how alone I was in this new world. No one knew me. My home was gone. The people would all still be there, but they wouldn't know who I was. I was alone.

"Rachel?" This voice wasn't Thor or Loki. It was...Coulson. When did he get here? "Rachel, come on. Let's put you to bed. You've had a stressful couple of days." I glanced back at the two men who had been arguing so fiercely before give each other careful glances for cues on what to do. They still hadn't spoken, though they were standing much closer together now.

"Just hug you idiots!" I threw back at them as I walked around the corner with a little help from Coulson.

"That was quite impressive," the agent told me.

"I fainted."

"After the knife was gone from you neck."

"I didn't even realize it was there before that."

"I figured that. You did however, speak clearly and with careful thought while being bodily restrained by a man who has killed before." My brain got stuck like a record on the last part.

"How did you know he has killed before?" I had saved everyone, hadn't I? He hadn't killed anyone, right? Maybe Coulson was just guessing...Natasha's unspoken line came to me. 'He's killed eighty people in two days.' I had saved some, but that was far larger number than those who had just been killed on screen. Of course people had died. I could I be stupid enough not to realized people had died?

"Maybe this is a better discussion for later on. You need some sleep. Some time to process."

"How many died? How many died?" I needed an answer. I did. "Tell me!" I begged.

"About fifty. It could have been so much worse. You saved people when he first appeared, in Germany, during the helicarrier attack, and probably hundreds during the attack on New York. I know you have a reason for not telling us to capture Loki when he first appeared. Something else is happening, isn't it? Something big. That army was probably just a part of a bigger one, and having taken out that part will make things easier later on. This whole plan has saved lives far into the future. I don't want to think if we had to fight that army as well as something else." Coulson saw. Coulson saw everything. Was it better this way? He was trying to remove my guilt, so maybe it was better. Fifty lives though. Fifty people who the world would dearly miss. "No guilt. You prevented as much as you could. You didn't even realize people were dead until I said something." If I didn't get to feel guilty, then Coulson certainly didn't.

"There was something that Agent Romanov didn't get to say. She said that eighty people had been killed by Loki, right before the helicarrier crash."

"Then you most definitely saved lives. Doesn't that make you feel better?" I could see the movie playing in my head. Desperate people were fleeing from the aliens. Lasers were blasting overhead. Screaming. Lots of screaming. I dimly realized Coulson was standing right in front of my, looking straight into my eyes. "Stop it. You saved them. You saved them." My tangled mess of a brain shuddered at the information overload, and I openly wept. Strong arms encircled me. "Shhhh...its alright. It's alright."

I didn't have much coherent thought as I wept. It was more a longing for home and the feeling of emptiness in my heart. So much had happened. My poor mind didn't know where to start healing. After a while the tears stopped falling, but thought was still a struggle.

"Shall we return to your room?" A decision? I had to make a decision right now? Coulson must have recognized something in my non-responsiveness. "Ignore the question. Just come with me."

He led me down a couple halls, and when he opened a door, I recognized my things. Leading me to the bed, he spoke softly. "I'll give everyone clear instructions you are not to be disturbed. You don't have to come out right away when you wake. You can take time to think. I'll leave you a note to read when you wake up. You call me if there are any problems, understand? If you just need to talk, I can do that too. I'll always be here to listen." Listening to his calm, reassuring voice sent me back to memories when my daddy would tuck me into to bed and then read to me. Those were treasured memories, and helped me fall asleep despite the chaos in my mind.