Working Title : Loki & Annie

108 Mistakes Were Made

When the portal closed it was as if it took all the air with it. For what seemed like an impossibly long moment in time the only sound was Bruce doing CPR. Several long moments after the last spark vanished air rushed back into the room and everyone's attention snapped back to the tragedy that was happening in front of them.

Tony moved quickly to kneel next to Loki, one hand sliding onto Bruce's shoulder, "Tell me what you need."

Bruce's voice came out in huffs between compressions, "Med bay. Oxygen. De-fib."

"Got all that, J?"

"Yes, Sir. Medical has been informed and is already on their way with these items."

In a nearly hidden corner of the floor were the doors to a freight elevator, Tony had gotten tired of using his suit to bring up furniture and appliances, and now in perfect timing, the elevator doors opened. Spilling out were three people from the medical section, one of whom was pushing a gurney as the others carried bags of supplies.

Annie was standing while clenching her hands into fists and staring down at the scene in front of her. She was aware of all the efforts going on, Loki being hooked to machines, conversations with terse words, and professional language. Watching it all was a little surreal, it was painfully familiar yet completely different from the last time she had watched CPR done on a child. With a detached part of her mind, she wondered how much time had gone by since Loki had fallen to the floor, it must not have been long despite feeling like time was stretching out forever. The length of time was important to Loki's chances, right? That seemed important. Everything was important.

Steve stood next to the woman Annie but he didn't touch her, he just stood guard. While taking in everything happening he still had a part of his mind that was working through what Stark had said. Fury was involved in kidnapping? He wanted to find this hard to believe but he couldn't. He was going to have to make a choice. He would have to make it soon. 

"Heartbeat!" One of the nurses yelled out and in well-practiced moves, Loki was lifted up enough to be placed on the gurney. They were wheeling him out of the room in seconds.

Tony followed close behind absently listening while Bruce was talking about medical histories. A glance over his shoulder showed Annie standing with an expression he recognized, that blank look that said the wearer was somewhere else. Turning around he walked over to her, when Bruce called out to him he waved him on while keeping Annie as his focus. She had folded her arms around herself while staring blankly at the vanishing group of people fighting to save the kid.

When something blocked her view Annie jumped and found herself looking into the worried eyes of Tony Stark. She sucked in a ragged breath, trying to get her muscles to move. She needed to move.

"Hey, easy." Tony had his hand stretched out but didn't touch her, his voice was concerned but also had an energy humming in the back of it. What had just happened made him feel like he was buzzing with adrenaline. "He's gonna be fine. Trust me."

Annie shook her head as she snapped, "You don't know that. You can't know that. I was supposed to keep him safe." She closed her eyes as if blocking out the world while her voice dropped in volume. "I promised him, I promised Thor."

Tony was never good at other people's pain and trauma, hell, he wasn't even good at his own. "Let's go, come on." He strengthened his voice, he needed to get her to someone who could comfort her, Bruce. Yeah, Bruce was perfect for this. Why hadn't Bruce stayed with her? Carefully taking her by the arm he tried to sound like he thought Bruce would sound, "Come on, Loki is gonna want you there when he wakes up."

As if snapped from sleep Annie looked sharply at Tony, his words had done something to her. She didn't know what, she'd have to think about them later, but for now, she agreed. "Right. Okay."