After Tony finally left, I sat back down with loki. A frustrated sigh left my lips as I reopened my book to find my place.

"Are you alright, Dearheart?" Loki asked and went back to tracing patterns up and down my legs.

"Ya, I'm good." I let him know. "I have no idea what his problem is lately." I grumbled. "Actually, not just him. The whole teams been weird." I mentioned. Loki paused at my comment and turned to look at me, putting his book down, but not completely closing it.

"What do you mean?" He asked me, slight concern flashed through his expression. I bit my lip and put my book down as well.

"Well, they- I don't know." I sighed. "I told everyone we were engaged and they all had strange reactions."

"Strange, how?" Loki questioned. I shrugged my shoulders.

"Like they were faking their smiles." I explained. "I don't know, it was just- We've been together for years, this couldn't have been a surprise."

Loki took a second to thing before picking his book up again and responding.

"I'm sure they're just being protective of you again, Love." He told me.

"But they're acting like they don't trust you." I said. "Or me." I added. "Either way, they don't trust one of us and-"

Movement by the window made me look up. The windows of the bookstore were tinted, so no one could see in, but we could see out. The figure that walked by the door was one I recognized, but not from this universe.

"Holy shit..." I mumbled and got off the couch as fast as possible.

"Kitten? What's wrong?" Loki asked, standing as well, but I ignored him and teleported to the sidewalk outside of the bookstore.

There was a young woman with her back turned to me. She was walking away from me, not having noticed me.

"Layla?" I called out to her hesitantly. My brain was still skeptical that it was her, until she turned around.

She looked exactly as I remembered her, except her hair had grown out. Medium length, black hair, bright green eyes, and naturally tanned skin. The best part, was that she looked... healthy.

Layla and I grew up together in Chicago. She was my next store neighbor, but she got sick when we were thirteen. The last time I saw her, she was in a hospital bed, all of her hair gone from the chemo infusions. The hospital had exhausted all treatments in trying to save her. In a last ditch effort to keep their daughter alive, her parents had moved to New York to sign her up for a new experimental drug. I found out about three weeks later that she didn't survive long enough for the drug to work. She died just shy of our sixteenth birthdays. Mine being March twenty sixth and hers being April fourth.

"Hello." Layla said cautiously. "I'm sorry, I'm horrible at remembering people. Can you remind me where we know each other from?"

"I-uhm..." I couldn't think of words. She didn't look that much older from the day I lost her.

A hand in my shoulder made me jump before I recognized that it was just Loki checking if I was ok. Problem was, I wasn't. Layla was still looking at me with those innocent doe eyes of hers, waiting for me to say something.

"Chicago." I said suddenly. "I- We met at the hospital." I lied. Layla smiled warmly at me and my eyes started to burn from holding back tears. If it was 2015 here, then she was still a teenager.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She giggled. "The meds did really weird things to my head. I don't remember much." Layla apologized. "What's your name again?"

"Sammee." I tried to smile and held my hand out to her. Layla didn't hesitate to take my hand, she was always a people person.

"It's nice to re-meet you." She laughed before releasing my hand and glancing behind me at Loki.

"O-oh, and this- this is Loki." I told her and gestured to him. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at him.

"Loki..." she repeated slowly. "Wait, you're apart of the Avengers, right?" Layla asked excitedly. I couldn't help smiling at her joy.

"We-ya, that's right." I said with a nod before laughing softly and myself. "Sorry, it's just... you look great." I told her. "Last time I saw you, the odds were kinda stacked against you."

"I'm in full remission, now." Layla assured me before her phone beeped at her. "Oh-" she said and looked down at the device. "I'm sorry, I have to run, but it was nice re-meeting you." Layla chuckled as she waved goodbye and turned to walk away. I stood there, just watching her walk away, for a second before I finally let the tears cloud my vision.

"Kitten," Loki asked softly, "who was that?"

"She-" My throat felt like it was swelling up. It was hard to talk at all. "She was my best friend growing up."

"She- what?" Loki asked and stepped in front of me to get me to look at him. "How?" He questioned.

"I don't know." I said honestly. "But, she's alive." I laughed through my tears. After the shock had worn off, my brain caught up. If she was here, did that mean my parents were, too. Even if it was just an alternate reality version of them, I needed to see my mother again. "We need to get back to the tower." I told him quickly before turning and starting for the tower. I didn't make it three feet before Loki grabbed my arm.

"Whoa, hold on." Loki gently said. "Tell me what's going on."

"I think... I think that was this realities version on Layla, which means that this reality might also have a version of my parents." I explained as quickly and as simply as I could. "I need to see then." I said and pulled my arm from Loki's grip, walking toward the tower. Loki quickly caught up to me with how long his legs were.

"But, Kitten, they won't actually be your parents." Loki tried to say as carefully as possible.

"I don't care." I told him. "I just need to see them."

Loki was quiet for the rest of our speed walk back to the tower. I could feel the worry through the bond, but I ignored it. If my parents were here, actually here, then I'd find them.

Once we were in the tower, I didn't bother walking with Loki anymore. I teleported straight to Tony's lab, Loki would have to catch up. Unfortunately, Tony wasn't in his lab. I spun in a circle, just to make sure, and sighed loudly.

"FRIDAY?" I asked the A.I., "Where's Tony?"

"He's out with Ms. Potts at the moment. Would you like for me to contact him?" FRIDAY asked. I bit my lip and looked around again, thinking. I didn't want to have to wait from him, I was too anxious.

"No, that's ok." I told FRIDAY and moved to stand at Tony's computer. The computer was password protected and I immediately started to guess passwords.

"Uhm, why an I getting alerted that you're trying to break into my computer?" Tony's voice asked over the speakers.

"Traitor..." I grumbled at FRIDAY before answering Tony. "Probably because I am trying to break into your computer." I told Tony. "It's important, I need your password." The seriousness in my voice must have tipped him off that something was off because he stopped joking around.

"Whoa, kid, what's up?" He asked me, but still didn't give me the password.

"Password, Tony." I said and waited, vet impatiently, for it.

"FRIDAY, give her access." Tony told the A.I. Two seconds later, the homepage of the computer flashed onto the screen. "Should I be worried?" Tony questioned. I ignored him for a minute while I opened S.H.I.E.L.D.'s data base up.

"I need your S.H.I.E.L.D. access."

"User is StarkIM, with a capital S, I, and M." He told me, temporarily giving up on questioning me. "Password is 1118264. I'll be there in a few minutes." He said, but kept the line open, just in case.

I signed into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s data base and did a search of my mothers name. I hesitated before hitting the 'enter' key. I didn't know if seeing her picture, or not seeing her picture was worse. If Layla was here, though, It made sense that my parents were, too. With one last deep breath, I hit enter. A profile immediately opened with tons of information and a photo of her.

My mother, AnnMarie Brown.