The next day I was barely walking through life. My brain was past fuzzy and fully into paranoid mode. I kept seeing shadows move or hearing voices around me when no one was moving or talking. I was losing it, and I knew I was, but this was still better than what I saw in my nightmares.

I did have a constant headache though. No matter what I did I couldn't get rid of it. I even asked Loki to try and soothe it with magic, but it didn't work.

I was in the kitchen, taking a break from the lab and getting something to eat, when Bucky walked in.

"You need to sleep." He demanded.

"No, I need coffee." I grumbled as I rummaged through the cabinets. "Where the fuck is all the coffee?"

"You drank it all." Bucky told me. "Stark told you that the last time you came in here looking for coffee."

I froze at that. I didn't remember coming and asking where the coffee was, or Tony telling me we were out. So, instead, I huffed and shut the cabinet door.

"JARVIS, order some more coffee." I called out, too tired to add a please or thank you.

"JARVIS, do not order her coffee!" Bucky called out. I turned to see him right behind me, looking very agitated.

"I'm sorry, Sergeant Barnes. Ms. Sammee outranks you. You cannot override her request." JARVIS informed us.

"Ha!" I said smugly only causing Bucky to glare harder down at me.

"You need to sleep." He told me again.

"I'm fine." I told him. "Worry about yourself." I said as I tried to push past him. He wouldn't budge. "James..." I said warningly.

"I'll fight you for it." Bucky told me. My eyes widened a bit. The Soldier and I only ever had one argument about a target and we solved it by fighting. Whoever won the fight got to plan out the hit. "You win, I'll leave you alone. I win, you sleep." He continued.

"No," I told him after my shock wore off. The fact that he did anything similar to what the Soldier would have done meant that he was desperate.

"Why, because I'll win?" Bucky pressed.

"No, because there is no need for me to accept your dumb challenge." I scoffed. I teleported around him and to the fridge, but miscalculated and stumbled a bit when I landed.

"You can't even teleport correctly. You're too tired." He pointed out.

"I can teleport just fine, thank you." I said between clenched teeth. I already got enough shit from Loki and Tony, and now Bruce, I didn't need it from him too.

"Then prove it, fight me." Bucky said.

"I don't need to fight you because I don't need to 'prove' anything." I told him over my shoulder as I grabbed the milk from the fridge and shut the door. He was starting to really piss me off. I then grabbed a box of 'fruity pebbles' and set it next to the milk on the counter before turning to grab a bowl from the cabinet.

"Except that it is literally impossible for you to win right now with the state you're in. What if we were attacked?"

"We're not getting attacked anytime soon." I said and turned to put the bowl down with the milk and cereal.

"Thank God for that! You would be completely useless to us if we were."

That did it. A cold shock went through my body as I failed to contain my rage. I picked the glass bowl up and threw it at him. Bucky lifted his metal arm to protect his face and the bowl shattered against it. Before he could even lower his arm and make a move, I was on him.

I teleported in front of him and kicked him in the stomach. Bucky grabbed my ankle before I could retract my foot and swung me around his body. I twisted before teleporting to his left. It took him a second too long to realize where I went and I punched him in the jaw.

"You're getting slow, old man." I grunted as he reached for me. I grabbed his wrist and twisted it away from me. It took me too long to realize that that was what he wanted.

Bucky twisted his arm in my grip and grabbed my wrist. He then twisted my arm behind my back and pushed me up against the counter top. It was all too fast to teleport from, but as soon as I could, I teleported behind him and kicked his leg out from under him.

"Careful, James. I think you're letting the Soldier out to play a bit too much." I hissed. It was a low blow and, if I was in my right mind, I would have been horrified that I said that to him.

Bucky fell to one knee and twisted his body to block my next strike. He blocked me as he stood fully before trying to land a hit on me. Neither of us could seriously hit the other. We knew each other too well. That was until I teleported and messed up the steps. I fell into the kitchen island and caught myself on the cold marble. Bucky stopped and scoffed.

"I win, you sleep." He told me.

"You didn't win shit, you fuckin caveman!"

"What's going on here?" A new voice joined in on the conversation. Another person I wasn't too thrilled to see right now.

"Your girlfriend still refuses to sleep, even though I won fair and square." Bucky replied without looking away from me.

"You didn't win shit!" I repeated and stood from my half kneeling position. I was slightly out of breath and that just seemed to piss me off more. Loki tried to help me up, but I just smacked his hand away.

"Here." Loki said and tried to hand me a water bottle.

"I'm fine." I insisted and turned my head away from him.

"I know." Loki told me. "I still want you to drink something, Kitten."

The soft way he said it made me feel guilty for snapping at him, so I sighed and turned back to him. He was watching me carefully. I clicked my tongue and rolled my eyes sarcastically before smiling at him and talking the water bottle.

"Alright, fine." I said as I caved and twisted the cap off. I downed over half of it in just a few gulps. I didn't realize how thirsty I was until the water touched my tongue. When was the last time I had water?

When I was done, I capped the water bottle and turned to get another bowl from the cabinet. I was determined to eat that damn cereal. As soon as I turned back around to set the bowl down, my vision blurred heavily. I shook my head trying to right my vision, but it wasn't working very well.

"What-" I tried to speak, but my words were all slurred and slow. My body got really heavy as I tried to stay standing.

"Sorry, my love." Loki said as he swept me into his arms. I didn't catch on right away to why he was apologizing, but then it clicked.

"You," I got out and looked at the bottle of water. "You drugged me!" I accused weakly. "Bastard!"

"Yell at me all you want later, but you need sleep and Banner needs to run those tests." Loki told me.

Tests... tests... what tests?

The EEG, it occurred to me. Those assholes were in on it. Of course they were. I expected Tony, but Bruce? Really?

I groaned as Loki started moving with me lying limp in his arms.

"Shh, Kitten. You'll be fine." Loki assured me. "Stop fighting unconsciousness. Give in, my love. I'll be here when you wake."

I tried to open my mouth to tell him to go fuck himself, but I didn't have the energy. My whole body felt fuzzy, like it was made of cotton. The lights of the ceiling started swirling in a circle as everything started to warp. Eventually I was too exhausted to care about my nightmares anymore. I just wanted to sleep. So, I finally gave in to the drug and let it pull me into darkness.