"Tony?" Bruce came in by himself and Tony was thankful that Clint wasn't there to make him feel worse about how fucking alone he felt. "Tony... he came in, Loki, I mean." He felt Bruce sit down by him as he closed his eyes. "You were right; he doesn't seem to remember anything."

"Of course I was." He said, trying his best to sound unimpressed but the words came out too soft to carry any real heat. "I figure that telling him things had no effect?" He opened his eyes just to see Bruce shake his head. "Figures." He sighed and closed his eyes again, just wanting this nightmare to melt away and wake up next to Pepper. "Is he still out there?" he asked.

"No" he said "the guards made him go to lunch a few minutes ago. He promised to be back in an hour." Tony opened his eyes to raise an eyebrow. "I know," Bruce said to the confused look on his face "he's… strangely nice and careful with everyone." He sighed "Thor says that it reminds him of the Loki before everything happened, when he used to help the healers tend to the soldiers in Asgard."

Tony's hands came up to his face, pressing the flat of his palm into his eyes. "I don't care about what he used to be or how nice he is." He said, frustrated "I just care that he's our way out of here." He told him and sat up slowly. "We just have to figure out how to bring him out again or get him to let us out." He stood, pulling himself up with the frame of the bed. "Remind him of the psycho murderer he used to be." He muttered and walked back to the others, ignoring the other's offer for help.

He sat down, enjoying the few seconds of peace before one of the other nurses came by to them, forcing pills into their throats. "Be gentle." He purred at one with a defiant smirk, before he grabbed Tony's jaw, forcing it open and pushed two pills into his mouth, pushing them down with his slender fingers. Tony gagged but swallowed it down. "Two?" he coughed. "Why?" he hissed when he got his breath back.

"Shut up, Stark. It's your new meds." The man said as he moved onto Steve, jabbing his leg with a needle. "You'll feel the effects in a bit."

Loki stared at the clock, wanting to force the hands to move quicker, so he could go back to the ward. His food was barely touched but he couldn't eat, his mind running over the things that they had said to him and what he had seen of them. He couldn't get his mind off Stark and Thor. Even if he was delusional, seeing him should not have evoked as much of the raw emotion that Loki saw in the blonde's eyes. He stood the second his lunch was over, tossing his uneaten lunch into the garbage and sprinted back.

Everything was the same at first glance; Thor looked at him with the same sad eyes, Steve holding onto him, Clint and Bruce were still pressed close and Natasha was stretched out on her small couch, but something was off. Loki's eyes went to the mop of brown hair, barely visible from his position at the door, and he walked closer. "Stark, right?" he asked as he got closer but there was no reply and Loki crouched down to look at him, immediately taken by how empty the man's eyes looked. His head hung to the side, not being able to keep it up and he blinked slowly.

"He can't hear you." Bruce said softly and Loki looked at him, noticing a glazed look on his eyes, but still able to function. He looked around at all of them, who had the same look; Clint seemed to have it the worst, his head twitching to stay up as Bruce stroked his hair slowly, occasionally dabbing at the edge of his mouth, as he drooled. "They put him on… new medication, if you can call it that." He said slowly as if he had to pick out every word.

"What do you mean?" Loki asked and began to move Tony so he would at least be more comfortable.

Bruce frowned, the medication making him struggle to put his thoughts together."Uhm… they pump him with enough sedatives… to-to have him like that. It's probably enough to kill him." He said "but they use a variation of a medication that I invented to keep his heart beating." He explained. "Listen to his heart." He said. "It shouldn't be more than a few beats per minute." He looked at Loki expectantly.

Loki looked at him, knowing he shouldn't encourage their delusions but Bruce struggled so hard to say it that Loki's curiosity got the best of him. "You were a scientist?" he asked, remembering that it had mentioned something like that in Bruce's file, and pressed his ear to Tony's chest. He blinked as he felt warm metal whirring softly in Tony's chest.

"And a doctor." Bruce breathed. "...Listen past the buzzing." He said and Loki closed his eyes and heard a hard thump of a heartbeat and waited for the next, he counted almost twenty seconds before it beat again and he looked at Bruce, his eyes wide. "Told you." He smiled a bit sadly, opening his mouth to say something else but the words wouldn't come. "Sorry…" he mumbled, looking down at Clint "…it's starting to…get hard to think."

Loki looked at them all, wanting to understand what was happening, why they were all like this all of a sudden. He tensed as he felt a strong calloused hand wrap around his but didn't look at Tony as he felt the man's thumb run over his palm in the shape of a P. Loki kept looking around at the others, keeping track of the letters that were slowly drawn on his palm.

P-E-P-P-E-R-P-O-T-T-S

He felt Tony's hand drop slowly and he stood to check on Natasha. He had felt her eyes on him and he began to shift her as well and leaned down, his hair covering her face as he moved her pillow around gently. Her voice couldn't even be described as a whisper as he strained to listen. "You're being watched." He finished moving her pillow and he went around to help the others before settling down in a chair by the guards to just watch them, his mind running over Natasha's warning and what Tony had written on his hand.

He wouldn't be back for two days, and he wondered in what situation he would find them in.

Liked it? Hated it? Questions? Leave me a review. Tony won't remain that drugged for too long, I promise. Though the torture for him with continue, sorry.