"Am I in trouble?" Max wondered, looking down at her plate and anxiously shuffling her food around with her fork, "I mean...I never meant any harm by it and Wong said...I'm sorry."

"You're not in trouble," he reassured her gently, "I'm not even sure why you would think that. I just think we should talk about it. That's all."

"I should've told you," she continued her apology regardless, "I should have just told you. I hated keeping something from you and I don't want to do it again."

"Hey," he stopped her, reaching across the table and taking her hand gently, "It's alright. You told Wong and thus didn't cause any major problems...this time."

"I was just curious. I won't bother any of your stuff again, if-"

"Oh, no. You can keep reading whatever Wong agrees to let you. He's in charge of the collection and he knows what he's doing."

"You're really okay with it?"

"Yes. Under one condition," he stipulated, "Please, trust my judgement and Wong's. It's easiest to take what we say as truth. If we're saying don't read it, just trust me. I've made the mistake before."

"Of course!" she replied in full agreement, as though it weren't an issue in the slightest, "I'm not dumb enough to assume I know better than you about this stuff."

"Just be careful. This stuff is old and dangerous. Even I'm not sure what half of it does yet," he sighed, "But...let's not talk about that all right now. Why don't we get out of the house tomorrow and talk?"

"I'd like that," she smiled, still holding his hand over the table.

"For now, my full attention is on you and this fantastic pasta."

Her small laugh was enough to drown out some of the worry on his mind, even momentarily. The rest of their dinner went on without further mention of magical studies or practices.

Max cradled the small, hot cup of coffee in her gloved hands as she walked along happily next to Stephen. She took long moments to simply look around, as they walked, and enjoy the beautiful, crisp morning. Her coat and scarf were wrapped snugly against her, blocking out the chilled wind. After a while of tense silence radiating from Stephen, she took it upon herself to keep the walk pleasant.

"It's a really pretty morning, isn't it?"

"Hmm? Oh, pretty. Sure."

"You're about a million miles away again, Strange," she huffed.

This seemed to resonate with him as he stopped walking and turned to her.

"Maggie, I'm sorry," he sighed, "I don't mean to be. I'll...I'll do better."

"Hey, don't be hard on yourself either. Just enjoy the morning with me, 'kay?"

They resumed walking, but he couldn't shake the constant question at the back on his mind. Should he teach her? He'd weighed the good and bad things about the idea and, at the end of that, come no closer to knowing for sure what would happen.

"Sweetheart, can we talk about the library?"

"What about it? Is it about me reading all of the old, magic books, because I was only curious and-...and there's something else, isn't there?"

"Do you understand it all?"

"I can figure out most if it, yeah. Is...is that bad?"

"Bad, no. Remarkable maybe," he noted, "There haven't been many students that can learn that much in such a short time. It's...impressive. Wong thinks you have a real knack for the study."

"I wouldn't say that. It's not like I'm going to learn any of the specific things attached to the book. I just wanted to see what the sorcerers' view of energy was. I know that magical energy is channelled from another dimension and...I'm rambling, aren't I?"

"You're sure curiosity is the only reason?"

"Well...it's the main one."

"Tell me."

"Okay, so...I want to know more. I mean, come on! You don't see the super crazy stuff that I see without wanting to know more! This - what you have and know - is incredible."

"Just...how curious are you?"

She paused for a moment, processing the question.

"I'm not planning on using any magical knowledge that I don't know anything about for any nefarious reasons, if that's what you mean."

"No, no. Of course not," he laughed, wrapping an arm around her waist as they walked along, "I'm asking because, if you really wanted to know more, you should have asked me. I would have helped you."

"I can do that? Like...there are no rules against that?"

"Surprisingly, none that I know of. There are warnings that this stuff can be dangerous, but you'd have a teacher that knew what he was doing for the most part."

"A teacher? You mean you'll teach me how this stuff all works?"

"If that's something you'd want. It's not easy and-"

"Yes!"

"You'd have to really trust me, as I said."

"That's easy," she agreed, looking up at him with a smile, "I already do."

"And you know your father would hate me for getting you involved in something that he hates as much as magic. He refuses to see and understand it as you do."

"Then I have even more good news for you," she sighed, "Even if he knew, I doubt he'd care anymore. I...I think I may have really burned that bridge."

"There's always time, Sweetheart. I'm sure he'll come around, if he's as smart as everyone claims. It just takes time."

"I hope you're right."

"I usually am."

She playfully rolled her eyes at him and smiled.

"So," he wondered, "When would you like to begin?"

"Can we go home and start now?"

"Why not?"

He wasn't sure which part stood out to him the most: her eagerness to learn or her reference to the Sanctum, his home, as "home." It was likely the latter of the two, since the word echoed in his head. It meant that, at least in part, she saw this temporary life with him as normal, as home. He immediately decided that he liked that idea. He liked being part of her home.

Time seemed to slip away from them, flying faster than Max could keep up with. Now, she divided her time between the Sanctum and her apartment, returning home to do things such as take care of the apartment and wash and cycle out fresh clothes. After all, she couldn't go around stealing Stephen's every day. The more time she studied with Stephen, the less time she spent away from the Sanctum, she realized. It got to a point where she wasn't even sure how long she'd been there. It had been a few weeks of reading and working in the house and learning everything she could. Although, she never put anything to practice, not realizing the extent of her knowledge.

"So," she clarified, sitting at the desk across from Stephen, "This is the beginning of understanding the channels of dimensional energy?"

"You've already started from the beginning," Stephen explained, "This is just the next step. This is, if you will, technical specifications for how this otherwise hypothetical energy can be actually used. Learning and knowing this allows the right person to be able to start using that energy, within the natural law…which neither of us are allowed to break, by the way."

"You sound like you know."

"A story for another time. Now, you understand what it says. Why don't you try it?"

"Try-...what? Oh, no!" she shook her head and pushed her seat back away from the book, "That's...no."

"Why not?" he wondered.

"That's actually controlling dimensional energy. As cool and helpful as that sounds, I can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"Because I don't have superpowers or magic or anything!" she explained, "I just read and understand the stuff. I can't do any of...that!"

"Wong and I have reason to believe that you might be right for it," he commented casually, "But we can't know if you don't even try."

"I'm just going to look like an idiot waving my hands around. I can't do all of the cool stuff you do."

"Not all of it, no. Some of what I know has taken a long time and I don't plan to stop learning now. What makes this different from when I started?"

"You're about a thousand times smarter than me and-"

"And you understood these concepts in half the time that most sorcerers do."

"Concept and action are very different."

"If you make them different, yes."

"If I try, will you see that I'm right."

"When you succeed, you'll see that I'm right."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Have I been wrong about these things before?"

She couldn't answer that. They both knew the answer. If he was so sure that this would work, she'd just have to trust him on this. He stood up and she did the same. When he lifted his hands, he waited, only continuing when she mirrored him. Upon following the basic movements of the text, nothing changed. Max assumed that he was only echoing the idea of the skill so she could see it and not to actually use it. With intent concentration, she watched his hands and mentally guided her own. This is just how energy can be channeled, she thought to herself. As the thought occurred to her, a small spark of orange sizzled in the air in front of her, fading when she shrieked a bit and jumped back.

"What was that?! What did you do?"

"I didn't do a thing."

"Yes, you did! There was a thing."

"Try it again."

"Oh-ho…..nonono!" she protested, "You're not saying that I-"

"You did."

She backed away further with a confused and unnerved expression on her face.

"Maggie," he reached a hand out toward her, "What's stopping you? I know you.

You're far too curious to stop now, so what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry, Stephen," she sighed, "I can't. I was curious, but I can't do this. I'm not like you. I'm-"

"What? What excuse do you want to use? Too proud? Too selfish? Too scared? Believe me, I'll understand it. I'm not telling you what to do, only how to do it."

"I don't know what you and Wong see in me, but I'm not meant for thi-"

"You're afraid. You want us to be together, but you're so afraid to lose it that you almost did. You want to learn, I'm offering to teach you. You want to help people, then we can. You just need to stop being afraid and trust me!"

"I do trust you. I just-"

"Then trust what I see in you."

Max reached over and took his hand with a small nod.

"Whatever happened to make you afraid of who you are will stop you, if you let it," he noted, knowing that there was some part of her that she wasn't ready to share yet, "Don't let it."

"How can you be so sure that something happened to me?" she asked, a bit skeptically.

"Because you keep telling me that you aren't enough, when you clearly are."

She sat silently for a moment, processing everything that he had said to her. He was right. Something had caused her to always doubt herself, but she didn't understand how he could know that. She wanted to be the brave and amazing person that he seemed to see in her, but she wasn't. She was a selfish coward for putting him through all of her problems like this. She knew that he likely had an infinite number of more important things that he could do with his time, yet here he was. He at least deserved to know what was bothering her.

"When I was younger.." she explained shyly, "My birth mom gave me up. I was a college accident, so she didn't want me. I went into the foster system and bounced from family to family. I was a weird kid with a big mouth who people didn't like much, so everyone sent me back after awhile. It started to get to me. I got scared. Since who I was chased people away, I was afraid that being that person would mean that no one would want me. I wasn't good enough. After a while, Tony found out about me and came to get me. At the time, it was just a publicity thing. He didn't really care all that much. But, if he could send me to school and look like he cared, it would be good press."

"What changed?"

"He ended up in a cave on the other side of the world," she replied, "When he came back, Iron Man sort of came with him. He changed. He wanted to do better and be better. He actually wanted to be my father. I went to college and then straight into working with him and, by that time, the Avengers. I wanted to be myself, but I was still scared."

"Now, you don't have reason to be."

"It's hard standing in the shadow of giants. If I made one wrong step, they wouldn't want me anymore either. I didn't say anything, because I was still a coward. I even drug you through all of that."

He stepped around the desk toward her and tilted her face up.

"Sweetheart, why didn't you tell me?"

"Why do you think?" she huffed, irritated with herself, "I was scared."

He pulled her toward him gently and brushed the side of her face gently with his thumb.

"You don't have to be. Not anymore."