Always and Forever

Chapter 18

I didn't get much sleep that night. I tossed and turned and threw up until both Steve and Thor came rushing into my room at around seven in the morning. "Allie, what's wrong?" Thor asked. "You've been throwing up all night."

"I'm fine, guys," I said, getting out of bed and going to grab my pot to empty it.

"I got that," Steve said, taking the pot from me. "You go brush your teeth and take a shower. We're having a debriefing in the living room in an hour."

"Alright. Thank you both," I said. Thor and Steve both nodded and walked away. I grabbed the spare toothbrush I found in the top drawer of the nightstand, and once Steve was done in the bathroom emptying my bucket, I brushed my teeth, took a shower, and got dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt using magic. Once I was done brushing my hair, I went out to the living room, where I found Steve, Thor, Banner, Tony, Nebula, Natasha, Rhodey, Carol, and some kind of weird hybrid raccoon. I walked up to the raccoon. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Allie."

The raccoon looked at me. "Rocket. Nice to meet you," he said.

"Likewise." I walked over to Thor, who was sitting staring at nothing. "Hey, can you do me a favor and not tell Tony about me being sick? I don't want him to worry."

"I won't," Thor said.

As I walked over to Tony, a huge hologram popped up from the table. It started reporting the names and faces of the people who were snapped away. "It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth," Rhodey said.

"World governments are in pieces," Natasha said. "The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did... he did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures."

I felt a pang of guilt when Strange and Peter's faces popped up one after the other. "Where is he now?" I asked. "Where?"

"We don't know," Steve said. "He just opened a portal and walked through."

Tony pointed to Thor, who was back to staring at air and looking depressed. "What's wrong with him?" Tony asked.

"Oh, he's pissed," Rocket said. "He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but you know, there's a lot of that going around, ain't there?"

"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear," Tony said.

"Maybe I am," Rocket said.

"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now," Steve said. "Deep space scans, satellites, and we got nothing. Tony, you fought him."

"Who told you that?" Tony said, annoyed. "I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street magician gave away the stone. That's what happened. There was no fight."

"Okay," Steve said, trying to subtly calm Tony down.

"He's unbeatable."

"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?"

Tony scoffed. "I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it, thought I was dreaming."

"Tony, so did I, but that's not the point," I said.

"I'm gonna need you to focus," Steve told Tony.

"And I needed you," Tony said, starting to get angry. "As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need?"

"Tony," I said as he tried to stand, wiping out everything on the table.

"I need to shave," Tony said. "And I remember telling all youse-"