The Side Quests

Winter pt1

And I remember the truth
A warm December with you

The medical wing of the Avengers Compound was, as always, buzzing with activity. You were the head of emergency medicine and were on hand to patch up an Avenger or SHIELD agent who became injured in the line of duty. You were well aquatinted with the Avengers, especially Clint who always seemed to get into some kind of trouble in the field. Over the past few years you had developed a close friendship with the team and for the past year you had been, officially, with Loki. A coupling that confused many but they couldn't deny how happy you had made each other. The change in Loki and his happiness was undoubtedly due to your love and patience with him.

The medical wing was especially busy today. Thanos had attacked earth as promised to retrieve the last of the infinity stones. It was an all hands on deck kind of situation. He brought with him a terrible and fearsome army of aliens. The Avengers stood their ground and pushed back with the help of SHIELD. The victory didn't come without its share of wounded and fatalities. You had worked solidly for days to attend to all those who need your help and now you were doing your daily rounds checking up on your patients.

You read print outs from machines and took the vitals of a young SHIELD agent. Agent Dorian had suffered some severe head injuries and was now in a coma. You had done everything you could for him. It was just a waiting game now to see if he would wake up.

"What's the prognosis Doctor?" You heard Loki's cool voice drift through the room. You looked up from your clip board to see him sitting in the arm chair in the corner of agent Dorian's room. Loki held a rectangular object in his hands. You recognised it as an old polaroid camera.

"It's all up to him now. The next few days will be crucial." You explained in your serious Doctors tone. "What's with the camera?" You asked curiously.

Loki flashed you his most mischievous grin as he passed the camera from one hand to another and examined the object. "You wished you had more pictures, more memories of us." Loki quickly snapped a picture of you. "Say cheese." You laughed at his playfulness as he took a snap of you.

"Doctor Y/L/N" the voice of one of the nurse grabbed your attention. You turned around to see her standing in the doorway. She looked at you with a sympathetic smile. "Carla, what's up?" You greeted her.

"Request for upping the dosage of pain medication has been made. Room 5." Carla told you.

"No problem, I'll be right there." You told her. Carla gave you that sympathetic look again as she left. People seemed to be doing that a lot lately. They must have felt bad for the long hours you had been working recently. You don't think you had left the medical wing since Thanos had attacked. You turned your attention back to Loki only to find him gone.

"Silly trickster. Somethings never change Dorian." You spoke to the unconscious agent before heading to your next patient.

The rest of your afternoon was filled with more rounds and a ton of paperwork. You were sat at your office desk working on some medical notes when a flash of light and the familiar sound of the Polaroid camera startled you. Loki chuckled "Sorry darling, didn't mean to startle you."

You glowered at Loki "Mmhmm" Was all you could muster. He laughed a deep belly laugh at your displeasure. "It is after six and you have skipped dinner...again my love." Loki's voice was full of concern. He walked over to you at your desk and gently stroked your cheek as he pulled your face upwards to look at him. "You are working yourself too hard my sweet." Loki purred. "Please, you need to take care of yourself." Loki's ocean blue eyes sparkled as they looked upon you. An overwhelming sadness overcame you when you looked up to him. "I will, Lokes. I will." You choked out as a stray tear fell from your eye.