Working Title : Loki & Annie

Chapter Fifteen

Tony stared down at Loki who was sleeping, Thor's red cape pulled up all around and over the sleeping kid. He wondered for a second if Loki was still alive under there then figured if he'd suffocated that J.A.R.V.I.S. would have said something.

They'd slipped a heavy dose of sedatives into the IV and Loki hadn't come out from under the cloak once. No one had lifted it up to check on him either. Now it was after four in the morning and Tony was alone in the cell, the lights were still bright as ever and he was wondering what the hell he was doing in here.

J.A.R.V.I.S. had been told to alert him during the night if Loki woke up, there hadn't been an alert but Tony wasn't sleeping anyway and Bruce needed to keep to some type of semi-normal sleep pattern to function. Tony had lost that ability before he'd been of legal age to, well, legal age to do pretty much anything. Now he stood here with a wrench in his hands and several other tools sticking out of various of his jean pockets.

His hand slowly reached out for the cloak, to pull it back but before he could touch it he jerked it back. Now it was just morbid curiosity to see how far the injuries had healed that made him want to look. He took a deep shuddering breath and started aimlessly moving around the room. He picked random things up then set them back in other random places as he moved around, his eyes always going back to the small hidden figure.

Finally he shook his head while giving a weak huff of what was almost a laugh. "You've got me all tied up in knots, you know that, kid?" He tapped the wrench into his palm. "I don't know what to do about you."

Tony walked over to the sink, turning the water on by stepping on the floor pedal a couple times. He spun around and leaned against the counter. "Your big brother doesn't have the slightest chance of keeping you from S.H.I.E.L.D." He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, rolling it on his neck trying to relax the tension. Opening his eyes he started walking again.

He kept looking over at the bump on the bed. "Does that make it my job to keep you away from them?" He shrugged one shoulder. "But, you're not really my responsibility, are you?" Tony opened a jar and peered inside then put the lid back on. "Of course, I don't really like S.H.I.E.L.D. too much, secret government organization trying to tell me what to do and all that. So, keeping you out of their hands would give me the thrill of sticking it to The Man, you know?" He stood still staring at Loki. "No, you probably don't."

Tony walked over to the bed, looking down at the little lump. He was tapping the wrench on his palm when the elevator doors opened and Bruce was there looking out at him.

Bruce stared at Tony and the two men locked eyes. Bruce's eyes widened as he took in the wrench in Tony's hand that was being hit against his palm. He just stood there.

Tony frowned at Bruce then glanced down at what seemed to have caught his attention. He rolled his eyes and shoved the wrench head first into his jeans back pocket. He held out his arms, hands with the palms up and gave Bruce a disapointed look.

Bruce stepped out of the elevator and came into the medical cell, giving Tony a sheepish shrug. "Sorry. You looked a little intense."

Tony gave him A Look that was clearly meant to convey that he thought Bruce had lost part of his genius mind. "Yeah, I'm not gonna damage one of my favorite tools just to kill someone."

Bruce stared at Tony while slowly nodding, finally saying, "Duly noted."

Both men looked down at Loki, the silence wasn't uncomfortable, it just was full of things that needed to be said. Bruce moved to the head of the bed and took down the empty IV bag and tossed it to be incinerated. He hung another one then began gathering vials that he would be injecting into the line.