So it goes with saying that only things I own with any connection to MARVEL I bought on Ebay or Etsy. MARVEL COMICS & MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE are their own creatures and I have nothing to do with either of them aside from the fact I enjoy reading or watching them, and am grateful for the ability to play in their world. I claim nothing, and I receive nothing for this, expect the pleasure of putting something out into the world.

You can also find this story on ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN under the same title and pen name along with a place to post suggestions.

Don't forget to check out the Photobucket album listed on my profile page too.

DAY TWO

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

WEDNESDAY, MAY 2ND 2012

2048 HOURS

SUBTERRANEAN BUNKER

LOCATION UNKNOWN

NORA ELAINE

They didn't make a sound, but, when that door close my knees touched the floor. I did it. Oh my god I did it. My eyes are so full of tears there barely able to hold them, but the breathless smile I'm wearing counters the concept that I'm sad. I'm kneeling here, my face turned to the pipes of the ceiling is I lets myself quietly sob out my joy. I did it. I was strong and I did it.

Duncan told me to lie, and I told him I didn't think I could do it, so he told he told me to tell the truth instead. He told me to treat him just like I thought of him, which in his words was ' a piece of shit excuse of a man who put his own hide first well he watched me suffer'. I thought about it, and then I told him I could probably handle that, because I did feel that way.

He's been an ally the whole time, but even when I screamed and begged he didn't say anything, not until I wanted to die. The logical part of me knows he couldn't break his cover in front of Loki, not if he valued his life and the life's of his men but it still hurt.

He told me his team was working as the muscle on a mission with MI-6, which wasn't surprising given that STRIKE actually started is part of British intelligence before it became an international task-force. They were deep cover in a weapon smuggling ring connected to the ten rings, when the next thing they knew the piece of shit war profiteer they were working for got a call and he and his men were suddenly working for somebody else.

He was torn between pissed because they spent more then a year in deep cover to get that far up the ladder, and concerned that their cover had been blown. He stayed that way until he realized he just landed in something much bigger then a gun running ring.

He was Councilman Pierces son, how would he not know what the Tesseract was, or who Clint was after all? He didn't tell me how, but he said he was able to communicate with the outside, and he just needed more time to get the plan together. He said it would all be okay is long is I did my part and not act like I liked him to much.

I did that, but I didn't do it for him. I don't want this man to get hurt or killed, but is much is value peoples lives, I only met this man once before I met him again here. I did it for someone I value much more.

I did it for my first friend. I did it for my best friend. I did it for my my brother. I did it for my hero. The tears crest and stain my cheeks with that title. I did it for my Clint. Not Erik, though it pains me to admit I might value him less even though I care so much for him too but I did it for the man that has always been at my side.

My eyes don't give a damn about the pipes above me anymore. They turn to my the sight of my hands pushing into the ground is I curve my spine the other way and drag my knees of the dirt to let the soles of my feet touch it instead. I am my brothers little sister, and I will not kneel in the dirt in front of him and cry.

I will be strong for my brother, and for once I'm going to be the one who does what need to be done.

The curtain had long since sway back into place and stilled is it hung there, and well I hate it a little for blocking me from my family, I do take advantage of the second it gives me to prepare myself. I'm not going to like the sight I saw before anymore then I did then. Probably less actually given all I saw before was a glimpse.

The curtain rings scream in there path across the metal bar before they switch to clicking in the violent momentum of a flung back curtain, held in knuckles white enough to match. I want to tear the the cloth to pieces, I know I could to because once I ripped apart material much like this in a moment of frightening and confusing rage. S.H.I.E.L.D ended up paying the shop keeping for the ruins of that dress. I want to, but I know that aggression wont do anything except decorate the floor in broken threads.

I wonder if this is what I looked like to him when I was still kept in that room. The first time 'I' saw Clint, I was in a hospital bed too, it was much more modern then this one, but it was still a hospital bed and they had me tied to it just they have done to him.

I let my fingers trace the seam of the leather restraints on his arms, testing but not quite daring to go the extra inch and tr for skin. I wore a pair like these, because in their attempt to restrain me I got someones arm in my hand, and I snapped it halfway through his skin!

I want to take these things off him more than anything but fear and my word to Loki that I wouldn't remove any of it still my trembling fingers form following through with that desire. He didn't want me to put myself in harms way if somehow Clint was able to wake up and neither do I. I don't know which Clint I would get and my leg hurts with phantom pains just standing here.

The tubes are the next thing I want to take out, and for sake of my determination to not cry I refuse to touch those. Loki told me without hesitation when I asked what flowed through them. He said with the energy from the Tesseract still coursing through there flesh that the only way they could sleep was with the assistance of powerful sedatives. Then beyond that they were also receiving vitamins and nutrients to replenish what they had lost.

That was why there was so many IV's in them, and I accepted that it made sense but it didn't make in any easier to see them following the path of there vein from wrist to elbow.

I make my eyes turn away, because if I continue looking at that I'm going to loose my fight not to cry. Instead what my eyes notice makes me chuckle a little. There are two beds for two men, and in between them they have left me a doctors stool to sit on. That was almost sweet of him.

A part of me wants to take that chair in my hands and beat evidence of my rage into the walls with it. I don't though because the truth is I'm not angry, I'm just over come with to many feelings and I'm not sure what I should do with them all even while I know what I will do with them.

There's a utility sink with three faucets and I turn that handle so hard it continues to spin for a second after my hand leaves it to snatch up a shallow medical tray with a short stack of thin handle towels in it already. It doesn't take me very long to fill it with water, and I only waste another moment to spin the handle the other way, not even bothering to tighten it to stop the metronome of drips.

The wheels scream a little is I pull the stool closer to his side and finally make use of it for the purpose it exists, letting the tray rest in my lap is I sit down and wring out the cloth. He looks terrible, and what kind of little sister would I be if I didn't do something about that.

He does look terrible, which is made all the more distressing by the fact that he actually looks better. The red irritation around his eyelids is less now despite the light diffused glow still shining through his skin. I try not to think about that, and focus instead on the stubble shadowing his chin from not being able to shave, and the why his sink looks dull from being unwashed for days.

I can take care of one of those problems with what I have in my lap, and a part of me wonders if perhaps I can find something to give him a shave with is well before I think better of it. Even if it was just an electric trimmer I wouldn't want it because I am afraid of what 'Clint' would do with it, and what I might too.

I'm so afraid of the memory of that doppelganger of my brother, that I might try to hurt him just to keep it from coming back out, and the last thing in the world I ever want to do is hurt Clint. When I told Loki I didn't know what love was like that was the truth, and because I didn't know, once I thought I might be in love with Clint, once when he was the only person I ever saw because I couldn't handle any more then one.

It turns out I am, but not in the way I thought back then. My view of love was rather limited then, and I didn't know all the different forms it could take. I actually love so many people when you stop limiting it to romantically.

"Hey..." There's a tremor in my fingers that I crush with a fist before I continue."..Clint." I will not touch my brother with shaking hands. He is in there somewhere, and he deserves better then that. I moment let one moment of fear ruin three years of friendship. He's unconscious Nora, Loki wouldn't leave you alone with him if if wasn't safe. "its me Nora, I'm just going to clean you up a little okay?"

I know he wont answer me, and even if his silence sting a little because I kind of want to here that half joking tone in his voice again, I really don't want him to at the same time because I don't know 'who' would be speaking. I'm just talking to him because he cant open his eyes and I want to know whats going on so I don't surprise him.

He doesn't move at all when I trace that damp cloth over his skin, and that tears my heart so hard in two different directions it almost feels like its going to make me bleed, but I just wet it and do it again. And again. Starting from his forehead and carefully working down the column of his throat. "there, now you look better."

Part of me wants to keep going, just so I can stop time from moving forward and stay in this moment with him, but the other part of me knows I'm pushing my limits already and I want less for him to see me cross that line and crack.

I can feel the water soaking into my bandages around the side of my hands and my knuckles is I lower that cloth back to my lap and squeeze it so hand the weave leaves its imprint in my palms. "I'm so glad to see you Clint. I've missed you so much."

"I was worried about you, but..." The cloth is thirsty for the first drop against my skin. "its all going to be okay now. You are going to be okay know. You and Erik."

Saying his name I let my eyes turn to my other friend, looking past the damnable plastic and focusing on the pulsing fog forming in his face mask that confirms he is alive. My old friend. I will miss you too. My eyes don't linger there long because he isn't the one capable of what I'm hoping for. " I made sure of it. I trust you, I know you can do it."

Three more drops land on the back of my hand, a tiny oasis of wet trying to join with the climbing moisture from the pool. "Do you remember when you use to call me Alice?"

My voice is steady and the wet circle grows. "you thought you couldn't name a woman, that it was silly. But I loved that name." the pause is filled with a small chuckle. "even if it came from a book cover, especially because it came from a book cover."

When I woke up they told me because I was listed is dead, and there were still men out there responsible for the explosion that killed my parents and put me in my coma, that I couldn't go back to using my old name. So Clint had to pick a new one for me because I didn't remember any. He saw someone reading Alice and wonderland.

I fell in love with the Lewis Carroll books because of that, and the references stuck. I feel down my own rabbit whole to a strange and wondrous world too in a way. "your code was the red knight back then, do you remember that?" I let out another chuckle is I muse at the appropriateness of my next thought, which I didn't understand at the time. "Natasha was the red queen." its followed by more of a laugh. "and Steve, I heard you wanted him codenamed the white knight."

Silence comes next, before the quiet admission. "its not happening like a childrens book at all." and not a tear follows it this time. "I'm not Alice in this story, I'm..." this character doesn't exist in the books, but I cant think of a more appropriate title for what I'm choosing to become. "I'm the black queen, and I finally found my king Clint, and you need to leave me here with him."

This strength doesn't feel like mine and I'm not sure I like it, it feels like the kind of strength born out of so much pain but I'm embracing it all the same because its letting me do what I need to do with a steady voice. "I'm sorry, but it has to be this way. Loki has answers I need, and I want them more then I want you to stay here."

The last part is a whisper because I am suspicious of my seclusion, and with Loki's ability to do magick I doubt I should trust something just because I cant see it. "i know your fighting for me in there, but I want you to run away when you wake up, and take Erik with you, you cant take us both. Tell Steve I'm sorry please."

And now I'm at my limit, so standing up quickly I do one other thing before I walk out, forcing my lips to forget the feel of his forehead under them. I tried to keep them for myself, and I was sure I almost got them killed because of that, so now I'm going to do what I have to to insure they live. I'm going kill myself a little and let them go.

NOTES FOR THE READERS:

So this chapter officially wraps up DAY TWO of FIVE on the timeline I have set out for this story. What do you think?

Have you liked the evolution of Nora's character over the course of the last 28 chapters?

Have you found that evolution well paced and believable? Have you liked the glimpses and hints into her past and her connection with Loki?

Have you enjoyed the twists, surprises, connecting POV sections to tie the movie storyline happening outside of Nora's storyline, and references I've pulled from the TV shows?

Do you like that I'm including other character who haven't shown up yet in the movie chronology but clearly exist in it already (such is Robert Redfords Alexander Pierce, the STRIKE team, and of course the Winter Soldier)?

Was there anything you didn't like, such is details or situations you expected to be more developed than they were, or opportunities you though I should have taken more advantage of?

Let me know what you think, and I hope you find the chapters in DAY THREE just is enjoyable is the ones from DAY ONE and TWO.