I spent most of the night crying. I had no idea what Loki was going to do or why he was so much more mentally unstable. And there was also Steve, a well-manned and interesting who befriended me. I couldn't let Loki hurt the only friend I had at S.H.E.I.L.D.

I had just finished wiping my tears when there was a loud banging on the door. I opened it to find Coulson, who told me to immediately report to the Tesserac Room. I started to sprint, but no sooner had I started than alarms began to go off, filling the once peaceful hallway with annoyingly bright alarms. Forced with the decision to either evacuate or report, I decided that I didn't want to die today, and I changed my course to outside. I hopped in a truck filled to the brim with other agents and took off at full speed. There was a resounding BOOM and I turned to see the prestigious S.H.E.I.L.D. headquarters collapsed into the unforgiving earth. I gasped, realizing my new home was gone.

"Loki took the Tesserac," explained Coulson. "He also magically brainwashed Agent Barton and Erik Selvig to become his 'servants'."

I was currently on a large aircraft which acted as S.H.E.I.L.D.'s new headquarters. Coulson was filling me in on the previous night's events.

"Is everyone okay?" I asked, horrified by what Coulson had told me.

"Luckily, we evacuated soon enough to save everyone," answered Coulson, and I exhaled in relief.

"This is all my fault," I whimpered. "He's jealous because he thinks I'm dating Steve and now he wants to destroy all of S.H.E.I.L.D."

"Steve," repeated Coulson. "You know Steve Rogers?"

"Yeah," I answered. "His office is next to mine."

Coulson laughed half-heartedly.

"What?" I asked, surprised at Coulson's humor given the present situation.

"I'd be jealous too if I was competing for a girl against Captain America."

My eyes widened. The surprise on my face only humored Coulson more.

I could barely form the words. "Captain America works in the office next to me?"

"Well working would imply he was actually doing something," said Coulson. "Right now we're just trying to get him adjusted." He took a sip of his coffee as if what he just said was perfectly normal. "He's been frozen in ice since World War II."

My breath came shallow. Why was I so surprised by this, weird stuff happened a S.H.E.I.L.D. all the time? I mean its not like my Royal alien lover had just stolen a self-sustaining energy source from space. But Steve was definitely not Loki; he was just, well, normal.

Coulson excused me to go and a hospitality agent showed me to my new home. I sat on my bed and began to fiddle around with the new laptop on my desk, hoping to talk to Jane.

There was a knock on my door frame. I looked up and saw Steve leaning up against the frame.

"I'm glad to see you're okay," he said.

I looked away and said nothing, which did not deter him from sitting next to me on the bed.

"When were you going to tell me you were a Superhero?" I asked, not adverting my eyes from my laptop.

He sighed. "When I was sure you were not going to freak out about it."

"I'm in love with a Norse God," I countered. "Not much freaks me out."

Steve looked shocked. "Wait, what?"

"The point is, relationships must be founded on truth to survive."

"So now we're in a relationship?"

"Erg, friendship!" I met his eyes, trying to read his emotions through them. "I do want to be friends."

"You're not making much sense, Halle."

The sting of hearing my real name was too much to bear. "It's just been a long day, and I really need some peace." My lip quivered as I tried to hold back tears. My eyes dashed around the room, hoping to focus on anything besides Steve. I kept waiting for him to get up from my bed and leave, but he didn't.

"Listen," he said, pulling my chin up so my eyes met his. "It's going to be okay."

"You don't understand," I said, forcefully.

The force in my voice unleashed the flood gates within me, and it took me by surprise at first. I had never cried in front of James, or even Loki for that matter. I always assumed it was below me to show emotions in such extreme ways. But somehow Steve was different; I didn't feel romantically tied to him. So I began to cry, slowly at first. Steve wrapped his arms around me and pulled me so close I could hear his heart beating.

"This is all my fault," I sniffled. "Loki's mad at me, so he's going to destroy all the humans."

Steve stroked my hair. "It's not your fault."

"The worst part is," I sobbed, "I'm still love him so much." I cried into Steve's shirt until it was soaked, but he never complained. He hardly even said a word. We just sat in silence as he continued to softly pet my hair. Eventually, my sobbing dulled to low sniffles and Steve let go of me.

"You need to stay away," I said, drying my face with a tissue. "Loki gets more and more jealous every time I'm with you."

Steve's mouth curled into a half smiled. "Not gonna happen."

"Seriously Steve, people could get hurt." I paused. "You could get hurt."

"Rhodie, from what I hear, this man is dangerous. I'm not gonna leave you alone to deal with him." He stood up, took my head in both hands, and kissed my forehead. "I will protect you."