in case anyone's wondering, loki shows up in the next chapter. exciting.

What?

After that revelation, I swallowed a mouthful of ginger ale too quickly and began coughing to clear my windpipe. "W-why would one of the most brilliant scientists the world has ever seen send a virus into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database?" I wheezed, reaching for a paper towel. "It must be someone messing around. It happens all the time." I hastily wiped my chin.

"Who else knew that Dr. Selvig was on the project besides S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Kat responded skeptically, setting the computer gently on the counter. I searched my mind for an explanation.

"There are spies all over the world. Someone must have known, and sent up the fake email address to impersonate him," I reasoned. The concept that Selvig would do something like that didn't make sense.

"Wrong again," Kat said with a grimace, shaking her head. "Selvig's credit card bills report that he paid a fee to the anonymous email service one week ago. If someone had stolen Selvig's credit card, it would have been reported and taken care of in an instant, because S.H.I.E.L.D. gave it to him as compensation for working on Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. It had no limit, because Selvig needed to order parts for the device that held the Tesseract. No one else had access to it. S.H.I.E.L.D. trusted him entirely with it."

I can't believe this. "So, you're telling me that Dr. Selvig paid an anonymous email service for an email address that was somehow connected to the virus. Why the hell would you connect a virus to an email account?" I walked around the counter, thinking. Curiously, I peered outside the window over the sink and looked down the road. "It's as if the person wanted the virus to be found. They did it entirely on purpose. Is it to sabotage Selvig's reputation? Although, the virus barely did any damage."

Kat sighed loudly. "I don't know, Miss Elle. But it has S.H.I.E.L.D. scratching their heads."

"What plan of action has been taken? And how'd you find out that information?"

"I was released earlier than you and chose to go to command for a while and offered to do some...independent research." A innocent smile graced her face. "Snoopin', if you like. It just seems very fishy to me."

"I haven't known Dr. Selvig for very long, but I don't think he would purposely do that to S.H.I.E.L.D.," I murmured. "And that was some...quality, snooping." I grinned weakly at Kat and she smiled back, clearly proud of her work.

"We'll never know until he's found, I 'spose. But onto another subject. After the two days are up, we'll spend a day in command and then get escorted to the Helicarrier. I don't know what we'll be doing, though. I guess we'll find out later. I don't really like not knowin', though."

We continued chatting for a little while longer. Around 6 p.m., Kat took her leave and I was left to my own thoughts. Later in the evening I sat in my kitchen again with my computer, scrolling through the files Kat had left me. I took a sip of hot green tea, feeling nearly 100% recovered from the gamma exposure.

"It sure cost a lot for that email," I noted quietly, looking at the $500 fee listed on Selvig's credit card bill. In reality, it wasn't that expensive, considering how much he was getting paid. But I come from a middle-class family, so even with my salary, I'll always think of $500 as a lot of money.

The entire thing still didn't make sense. Dr. Selvig paid a hefty fee for an anonymous email address, attached a harmless virus to it, and sent it somehow into the S.H.I.E.L.D. mainframe. I figured he was an expert in computer science as well, but accessing the S.H.I.E.L.D. mainframe requires some expertise. I even have trouble with it.

Regardless of Kat's proof, I still firmly believed that it was a set up. I closed my laptop and went upstairs to my room to sleep, feeling uneasy.

The final day of bed rest passed quickly and without seeing Katie or the family. No one called me, asking where I was-I assumed they had given up. When I went into headquarters the next day, I felt out of it, completely physically and mentally exhausted from the emotional stress. The Tesseract, Dr. Selvig, and Agent Barton were still nowhere to be found. My family assumed that I had disappeared and I never got the chance to explain. The guilt continued to grow, and by the time I had settled into my station, I felt entirely uneasy and a little nauseous from worry.

The new tracing software was fairly easy to grasp and within minutes I was staring at video feeds from every major city on the globe. I had access to satellites hovering the Earth, and face recognition software scanning for Selvig, Barton, or the Asgardian. In addition to that, I was constantly running scans across the database for any new information.

The command center was a buzz as usual, with new reports coming in from other S.H.I.E.L.D. bases. For a moment I was distracted by watching rickshaws being carried through Cambodia.

Carrying on with their lives, unaware of the dangerous situation, I mused, looking at a family of 6 shuffling down a dirt path. Blissfully unaware. For once, I'd like to do that. Be unaware of danger, I mean.

"Pedagia?" a male voice asked in my ear, sounding strictly business.

"Yes?" I mumbled, sitting upright.

"We need you downstairs to help monitor the processors for the system. We think there's a problem and we're not too sure what's going on."

"Can you contact-" I stopped short when I realized that Sullivan was dead. "Sorry, yes...I'm on my way." I stood up, searching for Kat, and she was bent over a man's shoulder, looking at a screen.

"Um...hey," I said awkwardly, approaching them. "I have to go downstairs and monitor the processors. I'll be back in a bit."

"Sure thing, Miss Elle," Kat said absently, nodding her head. I stood there for a few more moments, glancing at the two of them, and then I shuffled out of the command center, grabbing a tablet on the way out.