"What do you mean he's gone!" I demanded and leapt up from the couch. "Where did he go?"

"We don't know, Sammee..." Steve told me. The look he gave me was heartbroken.

"He's- he's coming back, right?" I asked, my voice breaking at the end. Steve bit his bottom lip and shook his head at me.

"I don't think so." He told me. I was silent for a minute as I processed. I looked down to my feet and tried to think clearly.

"Ok, Uhm- when- Uh- when did he leave?" I asked.

"A few hours after you fell asleep." Steve said.

"I didn't fall asleep." I corrected. "I was drugged." I continued and sent a glare to Loki who actually did manage to look guilty. "How long was I out for?"

"Sixteen hours." Tony chimed in.

"Ok, so... how far," I stoped and thought. "How far could he get in sixteen hours..."

"Sammee," Steve started. "He could be anywhere."

"So you're just going to give up?" I asked and snapped my gaze back to him.

"No, that's not what I'm saying." He sighed. "I've already called Sam. He's going to help me find him. No ones giving up." Steve told me. I relaxed a little at that, but not much.

"He left you a letter." Loki said from behind me. I turned to look at him. He was still sitting in the same position on the couch as before. "He left it in our room for you." Loki said and held out his hand.

A second later, the letter was pulled into existence. I immediately reached for it, but Loki pulled his hand back a bit. I glanced at him to see he was staring at me with a strange look. He looked worried, and concerned, and... sad. I furrowed my brows at him as I reached for the letter again. This time, he let me grab it.

I stared at Loki for another few seconds as I ripped the envelope open and pulled the letter out.

Sammee,

Sorry I'm leaving without saying goodbye, but I know you'd kick my ass if you knew.

That was it. That was the whole letter. I flipped the page over to make sure I didn't miss anything. When I realized that I didn't, I scoffed.

"What's it say?" Steve asked. I shook my head and held out the letter to him. "Well, he's right about one thing." Steve said. "You're definitely going to kick his ass."

"Did he say anything to you about why he might have left?" I asked.

"He... said something about the hearing." Steve said. "He had it in his head that if he was there the court would focus too much on the fact that you had free will. He, um, he also thought that he was hurting you by staying here. You were so focused on helping him that you stopped taking care of yourself."

"Fucking idiot..." I murmured as tears started down my face again. I felt defeated. Everything I did in the past year didn't matter anymore. It was all for nothing. The end result was still the same. Only now I was a criminal.

Bucky still ran. Time still wanted to happen.

"Kitten..." Loki said hesitantly and stood up. I knew that I was supposed to be mad at him, but I needed him right now. I could go back to being mad at him later. I turned and stepped into his chest as I covered my mouth with my hand to muffle my sobs. Loki immediately wrapped his arms around me and rubbed soothing patterns into my back.

"I failed." I sniffled. "What if I can't actually change anything? What if I can't save you? I can't lose you. I can't-"

"You didn't fail." Loki told me and held me tighter. "Yes, Barnes still left, but it wasn't because his memories were too overwhelming. He left to help you." He continued. "And you're not going to lose me. I have complete faith in you."

"This was simple compared to what will happen with Thanos." I said. "Child's play." I continued. "If I can't change the outcome of this, then how am I going to change that?"

"You're not looking at the whole picture, my love." Loki told me and kissed the crown of my head. "Barnes is not the same person he was fated to be before he met you. This will inevitably change things. The outcome overall is still different."

"I'm still mad at you." I said as I calmed down and wiped my eyes. I refused to let Loki die by the hands of a purple fucking grape.

"I know." He scoffed with a smile and kissed the top of my head again. I heard Tony gag from behind me and I turned to glare at him.

"Really, Tony?" Bruce asked before I could.

"Sorry," Tony started. "Continue your sickeningly sweet relationship talk like you weren't pissed off at him a second ago." He added sarcastically.

"I'm pissed off at more than just him." I told Tony who rolled his eyes at me. "You three drugged me." I continued and stepped out of Loki's arms, towards Tony. "You forced me into something I didn't want to do, after," I emphasized. "I told you no."

"It was for your own well-being." Tony countered.

"I don't give a shit what it was for!" I said and stepped toward him. He, subconsciously, or not, took a step back from me. "You three better have something significant to show for it, otherwise, I'm kicking all of your asses." I told them.

"That's not smart- cause of the-the green guy..." Bruce said softly.

"I'm sure I can talk Hulk into letting me kick your ass for a few minutes." I smiled sweetly at him. Bruce's eyes opened a bit wider as he glanced at the others.

"You can't-" he laughed nervously. "You can't do that." He said and looked back to me. "Right?" He asked before dropping his nervous smile. "Right?" He asked again more scared.

"Fuck around and find out." I threatened.

"Ok," Steve interrupted my glare at Bruce. "What did your tests find out?"

"Uh-Uhm," Bruce stuttered as he glanced nervously from the computer screen back to me. "We found that, while asleep, you have small seizures about every hour." He told me. "They last only a few seconds each time. You seemed to have developed a type of nocturnal epilepsy. Probably from a brain injury while you were at HYDRA." Bruce explained. "It's easily treated with medication. The medication might help with the night terrors as well." He finished.

"Great." I nodded. "So you three traumatized me for sixteen hours for something that is 'easily treatable'." I repeated what Bruce said. "Cool."

"Well, we didn't know it was easily treatable then, did we?" Tony countered. "Stop getting your panties in a twist and just accept the fact that we did what we had to to keep you alive."

"Rest assured, Tony. You have never had an affect on my panties." I snapped. I could hear Loki's amused chuckle behind me and I turned my head to glare at him.

"What?" Loki asked with a smirk. "I know you can't say the same about me."

"Yes, but I can do something to you that I can't do to them." I told him.

"Which is?" He asked, still amused.

"Withhold sex." I told him seriously. Loki licked over his bottom lip and smiled at me.

"We'll see." He said with a cocky grin.