helpless

2

The next morning Ingrid woke and headed straight to the training room but was side blocked by Natasha who insisted she eat something before they began. It took convincing from Nat and Steve and a hard glare from Bucky for her to relent. She sat scowling eating her toaster waffles with all of them. "Girl, how could you eat those things?" Sam said a gross look on his face. She responded by sticking her tongue out at him in a very child like way and went back to her scowl. "You know your face is going to stay like that if you don't change it, you will have a permanent scowl for the rest of your life, also it gives you frown lines" Tony said as he walked into the kitchen. She rolled her eyes at him "You know very well that I stopped aging a decade ago" He faked a look of distress "No not you darling, I meant Captain frowny face over there" she smiled and he winked his eye at her. Steve rolled his eye at him and faked a laugh.They finished and headed to the gym to begin her training. 

Nat was observing only she wanted to get a whole view of how this powered worked and the toll it took on her body, Bucky, Steve and Sam were situated in separate corners of the room and she was trying to go from one to another once her heart rate reached over 200 beats her min. Ingrid was currently running full speed on a treadmill with a heart rate monitor registering her heart rate on the computer screen for everyone to see. Everything was going well until she disappeared and ended up falling from the ceiling. Before she hit the floor Bucky caught her. "Thank you" she said softly. He smiled at her, "Any time, doll" their relationship was strange to the rest of the avengers. There was something there but neither admitted to anything. Labels were beyond them. They barely spoke  in the presence of the others, but were both very protective of each other, what the others didn't' know that Bucky spoke to her in his mind at length and Ingrid listened. He was the only one who knew exactly how she felt. Terrified of being different and not knowing what it to being control of your own body. He filled a small portion of her emptiness and she did the same for him, the only one that had suspicions was Natasha as she had seen Barnes leaving Ingrid's room in the dead of night but she would never question them.

 Soon enough Loki made his way to watch her training. He stood next to Natasha who showed no emotion to seeing him standing next to her."Agent Romanoff" he said She nodded in acknowledgement. She could tell that he was intrigued with Ingrid she just didn't know why. "Why are you interested in her?" she asked turning her whole body to look at the tall God. "She is... interesting..for a mortal" he kept his eyes on Ingrid. Nat rolled her eyes at him "She's not a mortal or human for that matter, according to all the test" his face turned sour "That she consented to" she said in response to his face. "Her DNA is nothing like human DNA, the closest match we could find is Thor, but she is not Asgardian either." he was further intrigued. "Hmm could you cross her biology with mine? I am not Asgardian either I am frost giant." The redhead raised an eyebrow but said nothing to that effect "Meet me in the lab later today I'll have Dr Banner draw some blood from you" Reluctantly he nodded and walked away he wanted to help Ingrid there was something about her that meshed well with him and he wanted to know what that connection was. 

 Hours later Loki was sitting in his room thinking, wondering what and where Ingrid could be from. He was pulled out of his thoughts by a soft electronic voice "Agent Romanoff request your presence in the lab, Mr. Laufeyson." He nodded in response and stood. He reached the lab in record time walking in to meet Natasha and Bruce in the lab. He walked in and the tension in the room increased. "Hello Bruce" he said in a melodic voice. Which gave the scientist chills "Loki, still wanting to kill all of humanity?" he sneered at him "Not today" they stared at each other in silence. Natasha coughed to break the tension and Bruce broke eye contact. "So you are here to get blood drawn so we can cross match with Ingrid?" Bruce changed into lab mode to decrease the tension between the men in the room. "Yes, but I am still unsure how you will be able to achieve this, your instruments will not be able to penetrate my skin." "Well Thor used a dagger from your home world to make an incision, but because you are not asgardian that may not be the same for you" Loki cringed at the statement, he didn't want to be compared to his adoptive brother. "Well lucky for you, I have other talents that could aide in this endevour" Loki raised the sleeve of his shirt and sat down in the chair closest to the doctors equipment. Bruce gathered the necessary items to complete a blood draw. "I can weaken my skin with my magic and you will be able to momentarily get the blood you need." Bruce nodded and proceeded silently. In the end Bruce was able to get all the vials he needed from the Prince of lies. "How long will the results take?" Natasha asked Bruce. "I am going to have Tony help me with this and we will cross match overnight, we should have some news in the morning." Loki stood an nodded to them both. "Should we tell Ingrid?" Bruce asked after the God left the room. "No, lets wait until you and Tony analyze the results" "It's weird right? That he volunteered himself for this? Do you think he has alternative motives?" The red haired spy shrugged "Lets just take it as help and leave it at that. I still don't trust him" She left the doctor to his work.

 Ingrid trained with the boys for a few hours and even after their insistence refused to stop until she collapsed and Natasha had Tony make her stop. She slowly made her way to her rooms but the damage she had inflicted on her body today had weaken her. Bucky jumped into the elevator before the door closed. "I'm ok Buck" she said softly leaning against the elevator wall. "I know" that was always his response when she refused help respecting her space. They rode in silence only the soft ding of floors passing. The arrived at their floor and he walked behind her watching her every move. The common room was full with Steve, Nat, Thor, Sam and Rhodey. They stood at the sight of her to help but she waved them off. Natasha nodded at Bucky, as he followed closely he smiled knowingly at her. Loki watched them as they walked past, Ingrid was fading but Bucky was there to take care of her. He had noticed the bond they shared, it was strong and was made from their mutual trauma and pain. It made the God feel a slow burn, a akward and unknown feeling in him. Ingrid faltered and Bucky caught her. "You're always there to catch me huh?" he picked her up and carried her bridal style. "Always will be" he said to her with a smile. Tony walked off the elevator and followed the two to Ingrid's rooms. Bucky set her down softly on the bed and sat down next to her. She was weak and needed rest. Tony was pacing the room watching her fall in and out of sleep. "She will be aright Stark" Barnes said. There was still residual tension between them but they had chosen to remain cordial. "She is the closest thing to family I have, I should have been there to keep tabs on her" his honesty moved the winter soldier "You wouldn't have been able to stop her Tony" it was the first time he had ever used his first name. He smiled at Bucky as he sat in the chair to the right of her bed. "Thank you for taking care of her the way you do" Bucky looked up at him. "How long have you known?" Tony laughed as he held Ingrids hand. "There are security cameras everywhere, an AI that monitors and reports everything to me immediately and I never sleep." The men looked at each other and laughed. "What's so funny?" Said a soft quiet voice. She smiled at both of them. "I know, I over did it huh?" "You May be non human young lady but you are not vulnerable to harm." She looked sheepishly at Tony "I realize that now. I am just so tired of acquiring new powers and having to retrain my body."

 It has been a decade of this. I was human once and not that the human life I led was any better but I am just fed up. I don't want to do this anymore" she was at her wits end. She had power she had never wanted and she didn't want it now. " thank you for taking care of me, but I think I just want to get some sleep" she smiled at both men as they left the room. What they didn't know is why she wanted to be alone. She was tired of this existence she had she wanted an end. In ten years she was frozen in time. With no end in sight. This is something she shared with Steve and Bucky but they didn't develop random powers that threw her body into chaos. When would it end? When could she just be ok. She stood and went to the window. She was still in her workout gear sweaty and exhausted. She held on to the dresser next to the window as she opened it. The air was cold any normal human would be freezing. She sighed, this is the way out she thought. They would never know. How could they. She thought about Tony and Bucky they would be the most affected by this, but her darkness blanketed her thoughts of them. She was lost in the darkness of despair. No one would stop her she knew that much, she would have peace at last. She looked out the window thirty plus stories up... she wasn't certain this would kill her but chances were high. She closed her eyes and jumped through the open window. The cold air whipped around her but of course she didn't feel it all she felt was relief.