My hearing before the UN was in the morning. I had lost an entire day to prepare when the boys drugged me.

I was nervous, extremely so. It was to the point that I was nauseous constantly. Nothing was working to calm me down.

It wasn't like a normal hearing or court trial, there was no lawyer representing me. It was just the UN board members asking questions and me. No one was allowed to go in with me, so Tony hired someone to prepare me for the types of questions they might ask.

I didn't feel any more prepared after the faux question session. I felt more on edge. It didn't help that Bucky was still missing. All I wanted to do was look for him, or hide away in my room.

By seven AM the next morning, I was dressed and on my way to the UN hearing.

"You'll be ok." Tony assured me. He was sitting with me in the back of the truck. He was coming for support. Actually, everyone was. Tony, Steve, Thor, Loki, they were all here. Except Bruce, but that was because he didn't do well in crowds.

Pepper called from wherever in the world she was this week and was ready to jump on the next plane home, but I told her not to. I missed her a lot, but for her to drop her responsibilities for something she couldn't do anything about was stupid. It was enough to hear her verbally bitch slap Tony. Apparently he didn't tell her I was back.

"You don't know that." I told Tony, responding to him.

"I'm just trying to be supportive." Tony said with a sigh.

"Well, stop. It's creepy."

"Fine, you're fuckin' screwed, better?" Tony asked.

"Tony!" Steve scolded him, but I smiled.

"Ya, actually, much." I laughed and relaxed some.

"Here to help." Tony told me as he leaned his head back against the headrest of the truck and closed his eyes. I don't think anyone got much sleep in the last twenty-four hours, except me, but that was only because they drugged me.

"Will you be alright, Kitten?" Loki whispered into my ear as Tony and Steve started a conversation. Loki was sitting next to me in the truck with his arm protectively around me.

"Fine." I nodded stiffly. I didn't have to look at Loki to know that he knew I was lying. "I'll be fine after this is over." I tried again. I could tell that Loki still didn't buy it, but he didn't say anything. He just sighed heavily and tucked me safely under his arm.

It was a short drive to the UN headquarters. When the truck stopped, it was immediately swarmed by press.

"Loki-" I said to warn him. The public still didn't know he was with us. He kissed the top of my head as a green flash of light ran down his body, changing his features.

"Alright," Tony said to get my attention. "Keep your head down and walk quickly." He told me. "Don't speak to anyone." He waited for me to nod before opening the truck door. "Into the lions den." He called out to everyone.

Tony had taken charge of this because he was most familiar with the press. He decided that the rest of the Avengers would stand in a diamond formation around me. This was for my safety and theirs.

Tony would go first, Thor was to my left, Loki to my right, and Steve at my back. The walk was as quick as Tony could make it. I tried to tune out the loud shouts of questions around me, but I could still make out a few over the noise.

'Where were you this last year?'

'Why did you disappear?'

'Does it have anything to do with HYDRA?'

Luckily, my involvement in HYDRA wasn't made public knowledge. That didn't stop people from suspecting though.

'Did you have anything to do with Zhou Han's murder?'

I froze at the name of the first man I ever killed for HYDRA. Loki gently put his arm on my back to keep me walking.

"Ignore them, Kitten." He whispered into my ear as we walked up the stairs and into the building.

It was cold. I couldn't tell if it was the actual temperature, or the looks people were giving me, but I was freezing.

"Cold?" Loki asked as we followed Tony to the front reception desk.

"I'm fine." I lied and tried to keep my body from shivering. Instead of calling me out on my lie, he shrugged off his suit jacket he was wearing and draped it over my shoulders. I was instantly blanketed in warmth. I moaned softly as I relaxed my muscles into the heat.

"Stop lying to me, Kitten." Loki whispered as he pulled me to him.

"Sorry." I sighed and leaned into him.

"Alright," Tony said and turned around to face me. "We are going up." He told me and pointed to the elevators.

We all walked to the elevator and got on. Luckily, it wasn't one of those small elevators. Tony hit the button for floor thirty-six, but I noticed there were actually thirty-nine floors. It didn't matter though. If something went wrong I could teleport from either floor. I was somewhat thankful that HYDRA more than quadrupled my teleporting abilities, even if it was through extreme training.

The closer we got to the thirty-sixth floor, the more my chest tightened. It got to the point where I could barely take a breath in.

"I- I don't think I can do this." I said as I tried to suck air into my lungs.

"Don't be ridiculous, of course you can!" Thor told me with way more confidence than I have ever had in myself. "You've taken on Odin, this should be easy."

"Odin I knew about, this is unforeseen." I said, still trying to force air into my lungs.

"Unforeseen, listen to you." Tony groaned and rolled his eyes. "I think you've been spending too much time with the space invaders."

"Space invaders?" Thor questioned. "We haven't invaded space."

"It's a video game, Thor. I'll show you later." I explained as I tried to calm myself down. "I really don't think I can do this."

"You don't have to if you don't want to." Loki told me softly.

"Yes, actually, she does." Tony interrupted. "If she doesn't want to be on the worlds most wanted list, that is."

"Most wanted list..." I repeated as I stared at a spot on the floor. "Ok... I can deal with that..."

"What- No, Sammee." Tony started and turned around to look at me. "You have to do this. You can't just say ok and be on the run from every government."

"Steve managed for a couple of years, I can too." I mumbled without really thinking.

"I did what?" Steve asked and turned to look at me.

"Being on the run sounds a lot better than facing them right now. I can handle running and hiding. HYDRA made sure of it." I started to ramble a bit hysterically. "I hear Costa Rica is nice this time of year. Hell, I might just go search for Bucky. I know where he'll be in a few years, but we really should find him before th-"

A loud smack was heard as my head snapped to the side. It wasn't extremely hard, but my cheek did sting a little. The elevator was quiet as I brought my hand to my cheek.

"Shit-" Steve hissed under his breath and turned to protect Tony from Loki.

Loki lurched forward as he summoned a dagger to his left hand. Steve redirected the dagger and held Loki back as I continued to stare at Tony. Unfortunately for Tony, no one was left to hold Thor back. Luckily for Tony, Thor wouldn't immediately kill him. Thor picked Tony up by his throat and held him against the metal doors of the elevator.

"Thor-" Steve started to say before my laugh cut him off. Everyone turned to me as I still rubbed my cheek and laughed.

"Did you just smack me?" I asked Tony who was struggling against Thor's hand.

"Depends," he choked out. "What answer will make you call off your attack aliens?"

That answer only made me laugh harder.

"Thor- Thor, put him down." I said between laughs as I held my stomach from laughing so hard. Thor glanced back and me before lowering Tony to the ground and releasing him.

"Are you alright, Sister?" Thor asked me and checked my cheek.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine." I brushed him off and looked back at Tony. "You bastard." I laughed.

"It worked didn't it?" He shrugged and glanced at Loki nervously. Steve was still holding Loki back from killing him. "Wait, did Point Break just call you Sister?"

"Yes," I chuckled. "He did." I told him as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open.

Tony was quick off the elevator. Thor was next and I grabbed Loki's hand and nodded at Steve to let him know that he could let him go. Steve looked at me skeptically before slowly releasing Loki and stepping back.

Loki stared at Tony and if looks could kill, he'd be dead, but Loki just tightened his grip on my hand and pulled me closer to him before stepping out of the elevator.

"Loki, it's fine. He didn't hurt me." I told him.

"I can see the mark on your cheek." Loki hissed at me without actually looking at me.

"How? You're still glaring at Tony." I said.

Loki turned his glare to me, but it wasn't directed at me. He was looking at my left cheek. His eyes were hard, but they softened some when he looked at me. He raised his other hand up to cup my cheek and run his thumb over my cheekbone. His cold hand cooled down my warm face and I leaned into him.

"See?" I asked. "Fine."

"Hardly." He huffed, but smiled warmly at me.

"Samantha Smith." A tall woman called out.

"That's you, Skydive." Tony told me while keeping his distance from both Loki and Thor. I looked at him strangely.

"Samantha? What the actual fuck, Tony?" I asked. He was doing a bad job at trying not to smile.

"They needed your legal name for records." He told me.

"My legal name is Sammee!" I huffed. "Wait, did you say records? Tell me you did not put my name as Samantha legally!"

"I... can't because I absolutely did." He said and bit his lip to keep from laughing. "In my defense, it was when I was still pissed at you, so..."

"You're so lucky I need you alive, Stark." I smiled eerily sweet at him and saw his expression waver.

"What- what does that mean?" He asked.

"Samantha?" The woman called again.

"It's Sammee, actually." I told her and squeezed Loki's hand before letting him go. I started walking over to the woman before Steve stopped me.

"Wait!" He said and grabbed Loki's jacket I was still wearing. He helped me shrug it off before he smiled. "Ok, now you're ready." He told me.

I smiled at him before looking back at Loki one more time, except he wasn't looking at me. He was glaring at Tony again and, before I could react, he grabbed him and held him against the wall, dagger to his neck. I heard the woman meant to lead me gasp.

"You've got to be kidding me!" I grumbled before teleporting over to them.

"Touch her again, and you'll find yourself without hands, understand?" Loki hissed.

"Loki, let him go!" I whisper shouted, so no one overheard us.

"Yep, got it, understand." Tony said quickly. When Loki still didn't let go, Tony looked to me. "Control your psycho boyfriend."

I rolled my eyes before teleporting Loki's dagger from his hand. Loki huffed but pushed away from Tony. I sighed heavily before turning and handing the blade to Steve.

"Behave." I called behind me. "All of you." I said in a threatening tone before following the woman into the room where the UN would decide my fate.