Working Title : Loki & Annie

117 We Interrupt This Moment

In the silence of Loki's ICU room, both men could hear that something had been quietly spoken from the other side of the door but not the exact words. Which did nothing to stop both Strange and Tony from having a pretty good idea of what Annie could have been saying.

Turning to stab a finger in Strange's direction Tony accused, "See what you did?" He waved towards the bathroom, "That's all on you, buddy."

"Me?" Strange sounded offended.

"Yes, you. You can't just drop saving the universe of a civilian. She's an appliance repair person, for crying out loud!"

Strange jerked in surprise while looking at the closed door. "Well, damn." Defensively he added, "How was I supposed to know?"

"Well, Mister All-Knowing Wizard, apparently you saw the future so didn't you see her fixing fridges and washers and," Tony waved a hand in the air, "Other things?"

"No, I did not and besides," Strange narrowed his eyes, "It doesn't work like that."

"Of course," Tony scoffed, "Of course, it doesn't." He ran his hands through his hair before giving himself a shake and walking over to the door where he took a deep breath and knocked.

"Occupied!"

Tony smirked, "You gonna be much longer?"

"Yes! Yes, I am!"

He hummed and turned to look at Strange, he gave his head a jerk towards the closed door as an invitation.

Strange's eyes got big and he emphatically shook his head as he raised his hands while whispering, "No!"

Tony jerked his head sharper while frowning.

Strange gave Tony a questioning look while he asked mockingly, "Do you really want me to be the one trying to make her feel better?"

About to say something Tony stopped as he gave serious thought to Strange's bedside manner. He huffed out an annoyed breath, "Well, I'm not much better."

"Okay, that's true but everyone expects you to say the wrong thing."

"Oh, really?" Now it was Tony's turn to look peeved, "Out of both of us, which one speaks to millions of people every time he stands in front of a camera?"

"You do. Which means you are the best one to talk to her." He smirked at Tony's expression, "Seriously, Stark. Talk to her, you and I need to discuss some rather important details."

"Like who this big bad is that's going to destroy the universe." Before Strange could say anything Tony self-corrected, "Half the universe."

Strange had always intended to give the threat a name so he pretended to think about it and then conceded, "Fine."

Tony kept his scowl on his face, "Yeah, fine."

Inside the bathroom, Annie had moved her hands from pressing into her eyes to resting over her ears. She could still feel her heart pounding but it was slowly getting back to normal which she was relieved about. She was too young to have some kind of heart issue. She was taking deep breaths in, holding it then trying to blow it all out. A couple of times she choked but got into a rhythm that made her feel a little light-headed but still better than before.

Lowering her hands she leaned her head back and looked at the ceiling. "What have you gotten yourself into?" Closing her eyes she gave her head a little shake, "This is way over your pay grade, girl, you are in so much over your head." She opened her eyes and looked at her fingers while rubbing and twisting them together. After a few more breaths she decided to sort everything out. "How in the world are you supposed to teach an alien kid about the entire planet? The whole world. Ugh, does that mean, all the different people? All the animals? How do you even do that? By continents?" She ended up staring into nothing, "Oh man, what about history? How far back? Which people? Oh, why me? I am so not the right person for this." She went back to pressing the heel of her palms into her eyes while taking more deep breaths, "Be calm, just be calm, you can be calm. Sure you can. You've been calm before, you can do it. I have faith in you." She snorted in sad laughter then coughed from choking on her own spit.