Since Alice 's bleeding was going to lead her to end up in hospital, a place that she most definitely insisted to Loki that she did not want to be, they started to drive home. The drive was strangely quiet, and it intrigued Loki. Alice had been so concerned about what she might say to the police when they arrived, and yet at the thought of a trip to the hospital, she had completely changed her mind about remaining at the scene.

Strange, he thought, but he did not question the woman. He would wait until they reached her house and hold her to the promise she'd made before querying her about it. For her part, Alice didn't say a word for the entire journey. And when they arrived home she was adamant about putting away all of the groceries before she explained herself.

This left Loki even more confused. Alice was either incredibly determined about keeping her groceries fresh, which he highly doubted, or something was more than unusual about this situation. She didn't even look like she was feeling the pain of her injuries.

It wasn't until she sat down on her couch with a cup of tea in her hand that she was ready to explain herself. Loki stared at her intently, she was acting incredibly strangely.

"Well?" he asked.

She tapped her foot repeatedly as if she was nervous. In truth, she was.

"Okay... First of all, I'm okay. I mean, I'll be okay."

He raised a brow.

"I'm not exactly what you would call... normal."

"Neither am I," he observed. "Now an explanation, if you please."

She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. This wasn't a story that she often had cause to tell.

Alice sat in a café that she'd never once set foot inside before. It was too... empty for her liking. And it had a darkness to it that didn't exactly welcome new customers. She almost got the feeling that it might be where the gangsters met up- of course, that was ridiculous. She hoped.

Alice sipped at her tea, carefully watching the door for signs of the man in the black suit that had asked her to meet him here. Her fingers drummed on the top of the table. He was two minutes late.

She was here for a job meeting; the least this man could do was turn up on time. I know we're in the middle of a war, but, come on; isn't punctuality supposed to be everything? she thought to herself. It was another two minutes before the black-suited representative walked into the café.

"I'm sorry I'm late," the man apologised.

Alice nodded and stood to shake his hand, then they both sat.

"Interesting café choice," Alice noted when the man said nothing.

He smiled a little.

"We tend to find that there are less interruptions here; and also, less chance of being overheard."

She nodded again. They were silent for a moment, then the man gave his explanation for their meeting. Alice listened carefully before replying.

"So I just... I just come in, and do what you want then?" she asked.

"It's really like any other scientific experiment," he answered. "We'll need to keep you in for observation."

"Right; I get it."

"And there's no guarantee of the side effects. This might not be entirely safe," he warned.

"I can't say that I really care. And please don't ask me why-"

"Ah, but you see, the problem is I have to ask you that because it's a detail that you conveniently left blank on the form."

He pulled out the form that Alice had half-completed and sent back to them. She ran a hand through her hair; this was what she had hoped to avoid.

"Really? You're that bothered?" she asked.

"It's just one of those things that we have to know, Alice."

He clicked a pen, a gesture that Alice found irritating. Eventually though, she sighed knowing that she'd have to give in to get the job.

"Okay, well... just write down... my family abandoned me after I..."

She frowned. This was hard.

"I met a guy and got conned. Is that enough information for you?"

The man finished scribbling down his notes and nodded. He stood up quickly, holding out his hand for her to shake again.

"Welcome to the project."

With nothing left to lose, Alice had signed up to a research programme. She was chosen as a prototype tester for one of Abraham Erskine's formulas- a precursor to the one used on Captain America. Howard Stark was there, and she had befriended him somewhat. Or he'd given her a cup of tea, which had endeared her to him more than the other scientists.

"Commencing Test Subject Twenty-four," someone said after she had been hooked up to a number of strange-looking machines.

"Good luck," Stark said.

"Right, yeah. Hopefully I'll turn out just fine."

"Well it's either that or you're brain'll be fried and you won't feel a thing," he said, giving her a half-smile.

"Oh yeah, 'cus that makes me feel so much better. I'm not nervous at all now."

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Don't stress her. She should be calm," Erskine put in.

Then he injected her with something and she passed out quickly. She woke up with an intense regenerative system. Her memories were gone, save for what others could tell her- and since she had refused to say much, she had only a small amount to discover about her old self.

She didn't seem to age past 22, the age she was when she had the treatment, so Howard Stark took her in to his house, virtually adopting her. She barely ever left Stark's mansion. It was the only way that she could really be safe and keep her secret to herself.

So she dedicated her time to learning to fight properly, to shoot. And coming up with pseudonyms so that she might travel the world unnoticed whenever she did leave.

Alice opened her eyes and looked at Loki, who had been waiting patiently even though she could see the intrigue glistening in his eyes.

"I'm... I guess the only way I can say it is that I'm a genetic experiment."

Loki raised his eyebrows at her.

"Like I said, I'm not like normal humans. My body's been enhanced so that it regenerates at an alarming rate... In a couple of minutes this'll be gone," she said, gesturing to the wound the knife had made.

"How interesting that I should have landed on this planet and bumped into you," he noted, but Alice didn't appear to hear him.

Alice continued, "After losing my family, I volunteered for an experiment that altered my DNA. It was chancy, but it worked for all intensive purposes. It affected me, stopped me from aging and increased my healing capabilities."

She paused.

"I was a test subject for the formula used on the world's first superhero, Captain America."

He vaguely recalled her having spoken about him at one point, but had never thought that there might be a connection between them.

Howard Stark took me in when he realised that I wasn't aging and I grew up with his family. I watched Howard die, and my adopted brother Tony grow up and end up looking older than me. That was why I left to live here. I couldn't deal with everyone I had learnt to love aging and dying on her. Losing one family's enough. It's better to be alone."

She sighed.

"Excuse me," Alice said as she stood up.

She left Loki for a while after that revelation, and he couldn't help but find the woman suddenly more interesting. That was a piece of information that he certainly had enjoyed hearing. And he couldn't help but wonder about how useful she might be in helping him to get a hold of the Tesseract. Of course she probably wouldn't help willingly though; some trickery might be needed.

Author's Note: Hi guys, sooooo Alice's secrets are revealed! And so is the interestingnessness that I was talking about before. :) Thoughts?

Also, I gave blood for the first time yesterday even though I'm horribly afraid of needles. So woo. :D

Anyway, hope you all liked it and will let me know what you thought! :)

Kit xx