A/N: Hey guys, thanks for all the reviews! It makes me happy to see that people are enjoying my story! I'll try to get to Loki as quick as I can without damaging the storyline. Then we can start developing Samantha and Loki's relationship, which should be fun :)

!#$%^

After a little more teasing, Tony finally retired to his quarters to do something nerdy, I guess. That guy may be arrogant, cocky, and sometimes a huge jerk, but he sure knew his stuff, and as much as I hated to admit it, the guy really was a genius.

I sat at the table for an hour, waiting for our two guests to get here. After that hour had passed, I gave up and went back to my room. They would send somebody for me when they arrived, so there was no point in me just waiting around. I walked back to my room, and sat in the chair at the computer desk they had given me.

I sat there, in front of the computer, not knowing what to do. I knew that I'd probably be waiting for a while, so I decided to wander around a little bit, and try to get to know this place better. I'd had known the old facility like the back of my hand, but this one was still a mystery to me, and that was something that I had to change.

I started off from my room, and mentally mapped my way to the cafeteria, as I know that I'd spend a lot of my time there. I may be little, but I could eat my weight in food. I'd always been like that, and I remember that I used to have wing eating contests with the Agents back at the old place.

I frowned, and sighed.

Despite all of the bad times I had had at the old S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, I had also had a lot of good times, and was only just realizing it now.

Why did it always have to be like that? You never knew what you had right in front of you until it was taken away. I should have been grateful for what I had had, and instead I mocked the people who had taken me in every chance I got, and was disrespectful to every person I had met, including my own brother.

I didn't even want to get started on my brother. There were so many things that I did that I regret now, so many things that I wish I could take back. And quite honestly, now that I thought about it; I actually agreed with him.

I hadn't been ready for that job. I was brash, reckless, and always ready for a fight. I know now that I would have gotten myself or someone else killed within the first hour of the mission.

That was the thing about me, was that I was so eager for action, that I forgot everything my brother had taught me when I was younger.

I would have disappointed him, and that would have killed me as surely as any bullet would have.

I shook my head, and continued walking through the many hallways. I tried several doors along the way, though most of them were locked. Eh, it was worth a shot. SHIELD had their right to keep secrets, along with the rest of the human population.

After a while of roaming around, I realized that I was supposed to be mapping this in my head while I walked.

Oops.

I scratched at my head, and tried to remember which way was which. I started picking random hallways, and always ended up back in the same spot I was in when I had started trying to find a way out.

I was walking along; trying to figure out which way my room was, when a girl only a little older than myself caught sight of me wandering around. She sighed in relief, and rushed over to where I was standing.

"Agent Barton! Director Fury has been looking for you for over half an hour!" She said, and I raised my eyebrows at her words. I had been wandering around for over an hour? It didn't seem that long while I was walking, but now that I thought about it, I knew that I had been wandering around for much longer than I should have, and I still didn't know where I was.

"Right!" I nodded. She began to walk away, but I called her back. "Umm, could you possibly show me the way to director Fury?" I asked, hoping that someone on this ship knew where they were going. The girl nodded, and started walking in a different direction. I smiled to myself, and started following her.

It took no longer than five minutes to get to the room I had been in before, but when I got there, all eyes were immediately trained on me. Tony was there, as well as director Fury and two other men I recognized only from pictures.

There, actually in front of me, was Captain Steve Rodgers and Dr. Bruce Banner. I stared in awe, but quickly tried to recover.

"Ah, if it isn't SHIELD's own little princess!" Tony smirked, causing me to glare at him. He ignored me, and began talking again, introducing me to the two people sitting down.

"Sammie darling, meet Captain I-Take-My-Job-Too-Seriously and Dr. I-Turn-Into-A-Giant-Green-Monster," He grinned brightly at me.

I rolled my eyes at his words, and walked over to where they were sitting.

"Captain Steve Rogers I presume? My name is Samantha Barton, and it's a pleasure meeting you," I held out a hand to him, and he shook it, looking a little bit shy.

"The pleasure is all mine, ma'am." He said, giving me a nod of the head. Tony frowned, and pointed his pen at Steve accusingly.

"That's my line,"

We both ignored him, and I turned to Dr. Banner, holding out my hand. Tony stood straight up from his seat, glaring at Steve.

"You sneaky... line stealer!"

I rolled my eyes once again, and smiled as Bruce shook my hand.

"It's good meeting you, Dr. Banner," I said, and the Dr. merely nodded, giving me a small smile. I sighed, and turned to Tony, who still look distressed over the fact that Captain Rogers had 'stolen his line'.

"Oh, Tony. Still here? I thought you'd get yourself kicked out by now." I smirked, and sat down in one of the seats beside Steve. He shook his head, smiled at me, and folded his hands behind his back.

"I know, it surprised me too. Ah, well, I suppose they simply love me too much to let me go,"

"More like they don't have anyone else to bring in..."

"Again with ruining my moment!"

I laughed, and leaned back in my seat. If this was how things were going to be from now on, I think that I could get used to it.

If only Clint could be here.

I frowned, but shook my head. This was not the time, nor the place to break down and cry like a little five year old. Don't do it, Samantha. I blinked my eyes rapidly, and held back the tears.

"So, what did I miss?" I asked, trying to change the subject. Tony snapped out of his make-fun-of-everyone phase, and went full out professional. He started pacing, and rubbed at his chin. I held back a laugh; he looked so... serious. It was a weird look for him.

"We were saying that Loki would need something to support his portal the next time he creates one, to keep it from collapsing in on itself, like it did before. He's going to have to get something specific, and if he gets it, he'll be able to open a portal from anywhere with a sufficient power source. Fury has his men using any camera source to try and find Loki or Barton so that if any cellphones, hand held cameras, or security cameras get a peek at either of them, we'll have them. And mark my words, we'll find them. As for locating the cube, we have lots of fancy things searching for any gamma radiation that is close to that of the Tesseract. We have it covered." He finished, looking satisfied with his answer.

I sighed, and nodded.

"Alright then, what do we do now?" I asked, ready to do something to help out. Dr. Banner answered for Tony.

"Nothing, for now. Stark and I have the cube covered, and Fury's computers have Loki and Barton. For now, all we can do is wait." He said.

I slumped back, distressed with his answer. How could this be possible?

"Are you sure?" I asked. Tony nodded.

"Everything's covered, sunshine,"

I stood up from my seat, and held my head in my hands. I was silent for a few seconds, before looking up at the three of them.

"So you're saying that I have to wait for some computer to find my brother?" I asked, not really expecting a different answer. "I don't like this," I said, and walked towards the door. I turned back to them before I left the room, and shook my head.

"Let me know when you have some real work for me..." I pivoted on my feet, and stalked off in the direction I thought my room was. I walked for a long time before I finally found it, and when I did, I sunk into my chair, exhausted out of my mind.

What would Clint think of me now? I was finally supposed to be doing something good, making a difference, and saving the world. But instead I was sitting on my ass while other people were doing all of the work for me. Would he be proud? Or would he be the one telling me I needed to get off my lazy bum and pitch in more? What would he think?

And what was he thinking when he shot me? I know that he was under Loki's control, believe me I know, but he shot Nick Fury in the chest while he only shot me in the arm. I knew from experience that Clint could shoot anything, anywhere, at any distance. If he had wanted to kill me, I would be dead. But I was still alive, and I had no idea why.

I sighed, and got up, knowing that I should go do something useful. I walked around for a little while, before going up to the first person I saw.

"Do you know where Tony Stark is?" I asked. The man nodded, and pointed me in the right direction. I ended up asking a few more people before I finally found the lab that he was working in, and walked through the door, not bothering to knock.

I found Tony deep in discussion with Dr. Banner, and he was so into his conversation that he didn't notice my entrance. I leaned against the door frame while he chatted about the Tesseract and different ways to speed up the process of finding it.

"So, if we change the diameter of the..." He trailed off, and only just then realized that I was standing there. He smiled, and motioned for me to come in.

"Hey there, princess, come in! Bruce and I were just talking about gamma radiation and such. Your little brain probably wouldn't be able to comprehend half of it, so I'll save you the trouble and just skip it,"

I punched his shoulder playfully, but accidentally hit him harder than I had planned, and he winced.

"Calm yourself princess, it was a joke..."

"Oops," I tried to stifle my laugh, but didn't really feel bad about it at all.

He rubbed his arm and rolled his eyes at me, before turning back to his work. I walked over to the wall and leaned up against it, thinking to myself. I had been thinking for a long time, probably at least thirty minutes, before Tony made his way over to me, and stood beside me.

"Hey, sunshine," He said, smiling at me. I smiled back, before sighing and closing my eyes.

"You doing alright?" He asked. I knew that he meant well, and truly wanted to know how I was doing. I opened my eyes, and looked up at him.

"Have you ever done so many things in your life that you thought was right at that particular time, and then suddenly, you're stuck questioning everything you believed in?" I asked.

Tony was silent for a long time, before he answered.

"A while ago, I was the leader in weapons manufacturing. I made weapons, pretty successful ones too, and it was as simple as that. Then I went to Afghanistan to do a presentation of a new weapon; the Jericho. I didn't think anything of it at the time, it was just another weapon that I needed to sell. Then everything changed," He paused, his eyes hardening as he continued telling his story. "I saw the very weapons I had created, used against the people they were meant to protect. I was kidnapped by some pretty bad people, and they tried to force me to make the Jericho for them. I escaped, but nothing was ever the same again. I knew that I couldn't continue to create these weapons of mass destruction, they were what I had tried to stand against," 

Woah. I had forgotten just how much he had been through before he became Iron Man, and now I began resenting myself for wallowing in my own self pity. Tony had been through so much more than me, and here he was, ten times stronger than I could ever be.

"So yes; I know how you feel." He finished, looking down at me with a half hearted smile that I easily returned.

"Okay," I pushed myself off of the wall, and turned to leave.

"But you're still an old geezer."

I heard him chuckle softly as I walked out of the room.

!#$%^

A/N: Hey there! Another short chapter, but I still wanted to get something out there. The next chapter should definitely be more exciting, and we will get to see Loki again, and Sam's first real interaction with him. We also get to see Thor, which should be interesting to write. Oh, and I changed the timeline a little bit for this chapter, so Tony is already a part of the group before they go to Stuttgart. Just in case you were wondering ;) Anyways, please leave your thoughts in a comment! Love you guys!

- Sara