When you started to wake, the first thing you recognized was Loki's voice. He must've sensed that you were beginning to stir, as that was when he started to speak. "Stay calm, darling. You're safe," he soothed, his voice gentle and calming.

You recognized his voice and forced your eyes open to look at him. Even that was too much effort. You were exhausted. What came after exhausted? That's where you were. Drained, body and soul.

You finally looked around and recognized that you were in the infirmary.

Why were you in the infirmary? Why were you the one in the bed? Why was your head on fire? You felt like someone had dumped acid through your brain. And it was so loud, like everyone was chattering. Except that there was no one around. You felt so raw and bruised. "Loki?" you asked, hoarsely, your voice weak, like you'd been screaming all night from nightmares. Why was every moment so hard? You moved to sit up and he had to come help you and prop you up against the pillows. "What happened? Why are we here?" you managed to get the words out. You knew it was bad, though, for you to feel as awful as you did.

How the hell had you ended up in the infirmary?

You almost never ended up here.

Loki hesitated, but finally answered. "You were drugged at the party last night." His tone was soft, gentle, a healer's gentle croon. "Healer Julia told me that your memories might be affected this morning. They will return soon. It is a side-effect of the drug," he waited for you to nod, to acknowledge and verify for him that you had understood his words. You nodded for him, though it made your head hurt even worse. Gods, how could your head hurt even worse? "How are you feeling?" he was being overly cautious.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong

You couldn't lie to him, especially when you were obviously in such back shape. "Like someone poured acid through my brain," you admitted softly.

He gave you a tiny, wan smile. "That is a fairly apt description,"

"Loki, what happened?" you asked, truly concerned now. He was never like this. Even during the worst things that happened to him, he made jokes and made light of the situation. But whatever had happened to you had him shaken. You felt the stress and worry scraping painfully against the raw nerves in your brain. Items around the bed started floating on their own.

"Darling, I know that it is difficult, but you must remain calm. I will tell you what happened, but know that it was terrible. Before I begin, I have to warn you..." he hesitated. You took his hand for comfort. He gave you a real smile then.

"Tell me," you bid him. All you wanted was to crawl off of this damn hospital bed and into his arms. You couldn't do that. You were here for a reason and needed to stay in the bed.

You then decided you didn't care. You weren't hooked up to any machines or anything. If the infirmary staff didn't like it, they could just get over it. You managed to crawl out of the bed, despite Loki's protests. When he figured out what you wanted, he helped pull you onto his lap and wrapped his arms around you to hold you there safely. You laid your head on his shoulder and felt you could finally relax. "Tell me, Loki," you bid him again now that you were safe in his arms.

"What happened last night...blasted open your powers. That is why you are feeling like your mind was scrubbed with acid. Any small emotion is enough to set them off today. It will take awhile for the part of your mind that handles control of your powers to heal. I cannot help either," he added before you could ask him to fix it. "Today your have to be extra careful. Any use of your powers will be quite painful," he explained gently, keeping his voice that careful healer's croon.

You weren't surprised to find out that you had powers. It had been an expectation of all of the supers that eventually you would become one of them. It also... felt right, felt like part of who you were.

It also wasn't surprising that your powers had appeared now. Whatever happened last night must have been traumatic for you to be in the shape you were in. Trauma could trigger the manifestation of powers. It was such a well known fact that some kids who were desperate to be supers would jump off of buildings to try to force their powers to activate. It worked just often enough that kids kept trying it.

The rest of the results were tragic if one of the fliers weren't circulating that day.

"I understand," you told him finally. "I'll try to stay calm. Will you tell me now?" you asked. You needed to know what had happened.

"You went to Claire's birthday party last night. A couple hours into the party, you sent me a text that only said 'help'. Tony and I came as fast as we could, but it was too late. That moronic football boy who has been troubling you had drugged your drink. He took you upstairs and raped you," Loki didn't mince his words or try to placate you with euphemisms. You were surprised for an instant, until you realized that it was Loki's way. He would tell you exactly what had happened, no more, no less, which you were grateful for.

"Let's see if your freaky alien boyfriend wants you after this. And I'll get Stark's fortune when I put a baby in your belly," you heard the phantom words of memory. A piece of your missing memories from last night.

You clutched tighter onto Loki when you heard them, fighting back a sob. Loki rubbed your back and stroked your hair until you calmed again.

"No matter what that asshole said to you, I am not going to abandon you because someone hurt you," Loki promised.

You looked up at him confused. "How did you know what he said?" you asked, fighting back you horror. Loki was telepathic, but he stayed out unless invited. You knew he wouldn't eavesdrop now, not when you had already been violated.

"You were projecting, love. It appears telepathy is one of your powers." Loki explained gently. You relaxed in his arms, accepting that explanation. You felt him stiffen, before he forced the next words out. "Now that you know what happened, do you wish to move back to the bed? I will not be offended. I only wish for you to feel safe." Now he was hedging around his question, but you understood what he was really asking. He wanted to know if his touch upset you.

If you felt unsafe with him because he was male.

You probably should've felt uncomfortable with him.

But you trusted him, loved him, and while you felt dirty and unclean, you took comfort in the love he offered freely.

You shook your head. "I've trusted you from the day we met. You haven't hurt me in all the time I've known you. You're not going to now," you told him softly. It might be awhile before you felt clean again, before you felt like you weren't violated and broken. You weren't sure you ever wanted sex again, but you didn't have to worry about any of that right that moment.

You sat like that for a long while. You saw some of the nurses come by to check on you, but they seemed pleased with this development and let you be.

Until the memories came flooding back. With a quick hand movement on his part, Loki threw a dark green shield around you. You screamed and sobbed when you had to live through that horror again. It wasn't just remembering.

You had to relive every single moment of it.

The second the rememories had vanished, you scrambled off of Loki's lap with more speed than you thought you could muster that day, and grabbed a nearby bowl, into which you were violently sick. You didn't realize you were kneeling on the cold floor of the infirmary until you realized Loki was holding your hair back while you vomited.

You looked up at him when the feeling of nausea passed. He offered you a hand to help you up from the floor. You stared at it for a moment before you took it and let him pull you to your feet. He settled you back in the bed.

You realized he was looking green too and you wondered why. Had puking really grossed him out that much?

Loki got you a glass of water and finally lowered the shields around the small room you were in. "Thank you," you murmured. You knew he'd helped you a lot, you just didn't understand how much.

"I am so sorry you had to live through that, darling. I'm sorry I wasn't fast enough to save you," he told you, looking haunted and horrified.

"You...saw?" you asked, hoping against hope that you hadn't made him relive it with you.

He nodded. For all that he was the god of lies, he wouldn't lie to you. "Your power rose too fast and you got under my personal shields, which is a very impressive feat, my dear. I only just got the shield up to protect the rest of the compound," he explained gently. He really didn't want to upset you and trigger more powers.

"I'm sorry," you told him, feeling more drained and raw than you had when you woke.

One of the nurses came in then. "I felt a... disturbance. Is everything ok in here, Kat?" she asked you, assuming that Loki had done something to upset you. It was a safe assumption given the circumstances.

"My memories from last night came back," you told her. She nodded and gentled her look. "When can I go home?" you asked her, fighting to control your emotions and keep the emotion out of your voice. You hated hospitals.

"Soon, dear. We just need to run a couple more tests. Your body is healed, but Fury wants Tela to come up and take a look at your mind and power levels," the nurse explained. You remembered that Tela always read the power level and abilities of new recruits. "Fury himself will be up to talk to you too," you nodded again. She left and you let yourself lay back against the pillows.

You looked over at Loki and gave him a pleading look. "Will you read to me?" you asked him softly.

He gave you a real smile then. It was a taste of normalcy. "Of course, darling. Any requests?"

You thought about it for a moment. There was one story you had been dying for him to read aloud. He had the perfect accent for it. "Harry Potter?" you asked hesitantly. He raised an eyebrow, but summoned the book.

"Any book in the world, and you choose this one? It must be quite special indeed," he replied before he opened the book.

"Harry is an old friend," you told him, trying to explain in a way that didn't make you sound like a crazy person. That tended to happen really quickly when you started talking about Harry Potter. "Surely there's a hero whose tales you've read so many times that you can recite them in your sleep, whose tales you keep reading again and again because you miss hearing about them?"

He smiled then, understanding. "The tales of Hiccup the Viking," he replied with a fond smile. "Very well," he turned a couple pages and began: "Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense" His tone and accent was perfect and you listened, enthralled by the tale, no matter how familiar it was. He also had the trick of doing the voices, and could mimic the actor's almost identically, which made his telling even better.

"Kat?" Tony asked from the doorway. You looked up at him, surprised. You hadn't heard him since you had been too busy listening to Loki's telling of one of your favorite books. You waved Tony in. He came over and hugged you tightly. "I'm so sorry, Kat. We should never have left you there alone," he told you, grief and blame in his voice.

Uncle Tony always blamed himself when someone he cared for was hurt.

"I'll be ok, Uncle Tony," you tried to reassure him. "After Tela and Fury come see me, I can even go home," you added, acting stronger and more together than you were feeling.

"The nurses said your powers were blasted open," he said, prying you for information.

"Which makes me feel like death, but it's nothing rest won't heal," you were hoping on that point anyway. You really didn't want to feel like death for the rest of your life.

Tela came up and kicked the boys out so she could do the investigation. She looked in your mind, which was horrible and nearly made both of you puke, and took her reading of your powers. You knew she was going to report to Fury the second she scurried away. Tony and Loki came back in when she left. Loki placed a cold hand on your forehead for a minute, telling you how green you looked. It was soothing, though, so you gave him a smile.

It was only a few minutes later when Fury arrived. "Tony, good, you're here. You need to hear this too. Sit," Fury ordered. "How are you doing, Kat?"

"Better once I can go home," you replied predictably. You really hated hospitals and they all knew it. Tony sat next to you on your bed.

Fury nodded. He was always down to business, and didn't disappoint you on that point now. "I have a confession to make. I hope you will forgive me, but I know that is too much to ask. Don't blame Tony, the decisions weren't his."

You stared at him, confused. What had Fury ever done? He had let you stay here even though you weren't a super and had taken you in and given you a family besides just Tony.

Fury continued. "This is not the first time your powers manifested," he finally admitted, cutting to the chase. "At the time, we thought it was best to block them. You were in no shape to learn control at the time. You were a thirteen year old who had just lost her parents. We were going to unblock them when you turned eighteen, after you graduated and could focus full-time on control. There's no choice now. Tela told me that all the blocks we put in place four years ago have been ripped away in such a way that she can't put them back if she wanted to, which she doesn't, since she didn't agree with the idea in the first place. Apparently, though, when the blocks were blasted away, it ripped away part of what allows a super to control their gifts. Long story short, it's going to be hard, if not impossible for you to ever learn proper control, at least not until you fully heal. I'm sorry, Kat. We should have told you,"

You glared at him, unable to control the anger and betrayal you felt.

"Kat, no!" Loki yelled, sensing your emotion flare. As objects in the room started to float around you.

You tried to reign in the emotions as pain wracked its way through your brain. You clutched your head, sobbing from the pain as all of the objects that had started floating crashed back down. Tony was busy putting out a pillow that had caught fire. Loki wrapped his arms around you gently, trying to calm you, to get your powers back under control.

"You should have told me" you told Fury between sobs.

"I should have," he agreed. "But you didn't see the inferno you created the night your parents died. There was a tornado of fire when we arrived. It took every firestarter, water, and ice super we had to get it under control until you passed out. I'm sorry for the decision that was made, but with that much power, we didn't see the choice at the time. I'm sorry you're hurting now and we will do everything in our power to help you learn to control your powers now."

You knew now that was going to be a lot harder than it sounded. At thirteen, you had enough power to make a fire tornado while half-conscious at best. Powers only grew with age and time. You should have been spending the last four years learning to control your powers. Instead, they were four years stronger and your control was not. "Get better, Kat. We get to work once you're well," Fury told you. That was as much as the stern man was going to give you on the subject. He left without another word.

"Can we go home now?" you asked Loki desperately. "It's so loud in here," you felt like you were whining, but you really hated hospitals. Tony looked at you confused.

"Kat, it's a hospital. It's quiet almost to a fault."

You shook your head. "Everyone's chattering. It hurts," Why couldn't they hear it?

"That would be the telepathy, dear," Loki told you gently. He held out his hand for you. "Here, let me shield you until we get you home," you took his hand and felt the shield enclose around your mind. "I will teach you how to do that for yourself later," he promised you when you gave him a look of such intense relief.

Tony was still confused when you looked over at him. "What?" you asked.

"You were... attacked..." stupid uncle using euphemisms "last night. I didn't think you would be willing to accept the touch of any man for a long time, if ever, but you're still treating him like your boyfriend,"

"He is my boyfriend," you reminded him sourly. Just because Tony barely tolerated Loki didn't make Loki any less your boyfriend.

"He's touching you and you're not freaking out," Tony replied, pushing the subject.

"He's not going to hurt me. He's asked permission. He's careful and a gentleman. He's not going to pressure or push. He's safe because he's my boyfriend and I trust and love him. You're safe because you're my uncle," you explained. It was a hard explanation, you weren't sure you had it right, but Tony seemed to accept it. He still glared at Loki.

"If you do anything to hurt her..."

"You'll...kill me?" Loki asked with a grin. "Evidently, there will be a line,"

"What happened to the...asshole?" you asked Tony, sneaking a grin to Loki who had used such a bad word earlier.

"He's in the hospital. A vegetable. They're not sure if he's ever going to recover. If he does, he's going straight to jail. Officer Patricia will make sure of it. She's the one who's Julia's sister," he added at your confused look.

One of the nurses came in. "Kat, dear, Fury came to talk to us. You're cleared to go back to your rooms whenever you're ready," she told you. You nodded and would have scrambled off of the bed if Loki and Tony hadn't both glared at you. Neither touched you, though, for which you was grateful. You could trust them, but restraining you on a bed would've been too much.

"Kat, I'm supposed to go on patrol. I can get Fury to let me off if you need me..." he hesitated. He hated shirking duty.

You shook your head. "I'll be fine," you reassured him.

He glared at Loki. "I will kill you if you do anything," he hissed in no uncertain terms.

"Uncle Tony..." you really wish he'd stop threatening your boyfriend.

"Fine, just be careful, Kat. Stab him with one of your daggers first, ask questions later," he reminded you. You knew it was logical for him to be more cautious after what happened, but Loki wasn't going to hurt you.

"Go do work," you grumbled at him. He nodded and finally left, still looking worried.

Once he was gone, Loki stood. He offered you his hand. "Shall we, my darling?" he asked. "Or I can carry you if you are not up to walking," he offered. You took his hand and let him pull you to your feet.

"I'll try walking first," you told him. He nodded and didn't look hurt or offended, for which you were grateful. You laid your hand on his arm, using him for support while you walked up to your room. We did at least take the elevator, which helped. He hesitated outside of your room, until you dragged him inside with you. "Can you find Beauty and the Beast?" you asked, pointing to your DVD rack. "I'm going to find some real clothes," hospital clothes sucked. At least the gowns weren't backless. You still wanted pants, though.

"Would you like me to-?" you shook your head at his offer to dress you with magic. You wanted to dress yourself this time. He nodded and went to your DVD rack to begin pulling movies. Not just the one you had asked for, but others you could watch today.

You went into your bedroom, closing the door firmly behind you. You changed into pajamas with long pants and a full shirt, not a tank top like you had been wearing. Maybe you weren't a secure as you were pretending. You knew you were safe, but it still felt better to have full pants, to be more covered.

Loki smiled when he saw you come back. You felt his shield disappear from your mind and you panicked for a moment that the voices were going to return. Though you relaxed when you realized it was quiet in your suite, so you nodded that you were ok. Loki was already waiting for you on the couch. You sat down next to him and curled up against him, laying your head on his chest. "I nearly forgot," he held up your bracelet with a shimmer of magic. "I kept it safe for you while you were in the infirmary." you smiled.

"Thank you for saving it," you told him and held up your wrist so he could put it back on. "And for saving me," you added softly.

"You saved yourself, my wonderful, strong, courageous darling," he reminded you and started the movie before he pulled a blanket up over you. You relaxed with him. He was safe. You were safe with him, and you would work through the rest together. You rested that day in his arms. There were no kisses, but that seemed perfectly ok with both of you.

You were beyond grateful that he was understanding.