"Let me guess, you're crying about now?"

She couldn't help but smile through the tears that were, in fact, streaming down her face. "Of course I am. It's only heartless people like you who don't."

"Actually, it's only members of Loki's army that do."

"Exactly. We have hearts, if you're not a part of it you don't, boom."

He laughed, and she closed her eyes, just momentarily, and enjoyed the sound. Gosh, how she had missed that sound.

"Yeah, cuz that's how it works," he chuckled. "Girl, you obsessed to unhealthy levels."

She just hummed softly, her attention back on her laptop screen, where Loki was in the process of finding out his true ancestry in "Thor". On Kyran's end of the line, he was watching the exact same thing.

They sat in that comfortable silence that was so normal for them for a few minutes before a knock sounded on Shae's door. "Just a sec, Kye, someone's here."

With the movie still running, since it wasn't like they didn't know what happened, Shae half-closed the laptop and lowered the phone slightly, turning her attention to the door.

"Come in."

The woman, Molly, out of the couple that was fostering her appeared as the door opened, offering Shae one of the sickly-sweet smiles she doled out so often.

"Shae. I just came to see how you were settling in. Doing well?"

She nodded quickly, forcing a smile in the lady's direction. "Yeah, everything's great. Thanks."

"Of course." She glanced at the phone in Shae's handed, raising an eyebrow. "You ya talking to?"

"Um, my best friend." And all she really wanted to do was get back to it, get back to forgetting where she was or what was happening to her life and enter back into her own little world where it was just her and Kyran and the MCU. But she didn't let a hint of what she was thinking show on her face, explaining further, "He, uh... he lives in Georgia, so..."

"Very neat," Molly replied in that way she had of making you feel like you were five years old. "Well, there's no hurry to finish the conversation, but when you're ready, dinner's waiting downstairs."

Inwardly cursing, Shae nodded again. "Okay. I'll be right down. Thanks."

"Of course, Sweetheart."

The pet name made her sick, but at least the woman finally turned and left the room. When she knew she heard her on the stairs, Shae raised the phone again, groaning.

"Kye, I have to go."

"I heard," he replied easily. "Of course you do. I mean, you probably want to spend at least a little time with these people you first day living with them."

"All I want to do is spend time with you," she sighed. "But I should spend time with them."

He laughed. "Well, all I want to do is spend the entirety of all my evenings off with you, but I should probably go workout or something."

"Kye, no one in the world needs a workout less than you do," she scoffed. "You're practically Captain America."

"Whatever you say, General." He hesitated before moving on. "So... let's plan on nine? I text you or you text me to confirm?"

"Sounds good."

"Okay. I'll talk to you in a few hours then."

"Okay."

And, like he wouldn't stop telling her every since they'd been reconnected, "I love you."

Feeling that usual lump form in the back of her throat, she swallowed it down to respond. "I love you too."

And they hung up. She stopped the movie and put her computer to sleep, then reluctantly exited the safety of the room that was apparently hers now, timidly descending the stairs once more.

The family... Molly and her husband Jake, who she put in their late forties, and their twenty-one-year-old daughter, Eloise, who was living at home while going to college, were just sitting down at the table when she appeared, and they greeted her with that sickly-sweetness that not just Molly, but the whole family, possessed.

The sight of the spaghetti that Molly had prepared made Shae sick, but she forced the feeling down and sat anyway, taking an amount that was as small as she thought she could get away with and passing it on around the table.

When everyone had collected their food, she bowed her head and closed her eyes, going through the Lord's Prayer in her head before looking up again. And finding that they were all giving her looks of questioning and even disdain.

"Um... pardon me for asking," Jake said after a long moment, "but were you... praying... just now?"

She felt her eyebrow begin to shoot up and fought to keep it and the rest of her expression neutral as she answered.

"Um... yes. Is... that okay?"

Molly gave her another one of those smiles, and it was somehow even more demeaning than usual. "Well, it's not your fault, Sweety, because you didn't know, but we don't actually... do that kind of thing here. We don't believe in it."

Biting back a scream, she forced a smile of her own. "Yeah, I totally get that. Don't worry, I'll keep it to myself. I won't do it out loud or anything."

It was clear by the looks on all of their faces that they weren't satisfied with that answer, but Molly moved on anyway.

"Well, we'll talk about that later, how about that? Anyway, you said you were talking to your best friend? What's he in Georgia for?"

"He's an Army Ranger," Shae told her quietly, though she felt her usual swell of pride whenever she talked about Kyran.

And suddenly, the expressions that had inhabited their faces when they saw her praying were back again, except with less confusion and more disdain.

Eloise shook her head slowly as she took a bite. "Takes the best of them," she commented when she'd swallowed.

Shae could feel that eyebrow twitching right back up there. "I'm sorry?"

"The Army, I mean," Eloise explained. "Some great people go into that horrible organization."

A million colorful sentences flew to the foremost of Shae's mind, but, with an effort, she held them back from leaving her mouth, taking a deep breath and trying to keep the anger out of her tone.

"Um... what makes you say that? About the Army?"

"Oh, she means the entire concept," Molly cut in helpfully. "The wars. Murdering people like they do. Jumping into battles that aren't ours just for the sake of killing people. Oppressing people all around the world."

Another deep breath on the part of Shae kept her from climbing on top of her chair and beginning to yell at the unpatriotic, uneducated swine she was eating dinner with.

"That's not exactly how it works," she said, her voice getting colder by the second. "I mean, none of those boys enjoy killing people. It's not murder. They don't oppress people... they actually fight on behalf of those being oppressed. They don't run into battles without thinking it through. The United States has been acting as a force who fights for those who can't fight for themselves for so long... it's a legacy, and the world looks to us for help. That's why we send our troops into battles that might not seem to be ours."

"Sweety, I know that's what your best friend must say, and we have nothing against him... he's practically been brain-washed," Jake told her like he was talking to a five-year-old. "It's just that here we believe in a one-nation world. No borders, no labels, no fighting."

Shae's hand was nearly white from gripping her fork so tightly. "I mean... if you like that concept, that's great," she said, forcing herself to laugh a little. "But it would really never work. People think that the standing military force we have is unnecessary, but it only seems that way because it's there. The minute we don't have the best military in the world protecting us, everyone is going to want to take us over. We live in too great a country for it to be any other way."

Molly's smile now not only made her want to throw up, but also run her fork through the woman's neck. "And this is why we love fostering kids like you," she said in that disgusting tone. "The world has completely lied to you, Sweetheart. But it's okay, because you're here now, and you're gonna be shown the truth. The US stands for things that are just horrible. And the military, well, it's the pinnacle of those horrors. Any man or woman who dies in the line of duty has gotten exactly what he deserves."

Shae was on her feet in a split second, quivering from anger and hurt, her eyes burning as she looked at the table around her. "Those men and women," she said quietly. "Deserve to be treated like the superheroes they are. They deserve everything like no one else, because they laid their lives on the line for something greater than themselves."

"Honey, you are just so confused," Eloise cooed, shaking her head slowly. "You need to be here so bad. You—" But Shae cut her off sharply.

"Did you guys even read my packet?"

"Sex trafficking," the older girl replied breezily. "We read enough. You're a lost, confused *****."

"How about the part about my parents?" Shae pressed, her voice menacingly-low and quiet.

"We hadn't gotten to that part yet," Molly told her simply. "But don't worry... we will."

"Gotcha," Shae fired back. "Well, when you get to the part about how my father was an Army Ranger who died in the line of duty, let me know."

They took the news without a single flicker of regret in any of their eyes... just more pity and disdain.

"So that's it... your father was one of them, and he brainwashed you like a new recruit," Jake sighed. "We've got our work cut out for us, but I know we can show you the truth."

"You'll be showing me nothing but the door," the girl told him heatedly. "This was never gonna work and I will be leaving as soon as my social worker can pick me up." Her hand flew to her pocket to get her phone and make the call, but just like that, and Jake was on his feet and across the room, faster than she thought he was capable of moving, and he had her around the wrist.

"Sweety, I don't think you understand how this works." The sickly kindness to his tone made him that much more terrifying. "We opened our home to you so that we could show you the truth. You're not going to reject it."

She was shaking, everything inside of her being poured into an effort not to panic at his touch. But she still forced herself to meet his eyes. "I don't know what kind of truth you think you possess," she said softly, "but what I won't do is sit here and listen to you tell me that my father deserved to die."

"I'm your father now, Sweetheart," he said, a bit of a smirk touching that disgusting smile.

She actually laughed. "I would gladly die before calling you that."

He sighed heavily, shaking his head. "Sweety, we can do this the easy way or the hard way, alright? Here's how it's gonna go. You're gonna submit and open your mind to our truth, or I have a way to take that choice away from you. It's your decision."

"Oh, so you can force me to think a certain way now," she scoffed. "You must be magic."

"The hard way it is then," he resigned, but it seemed like he was smiling as he said it. "While we find all religion, especially the Christianity that you no doubt buy into, disgusting, there are certain beliefs from certain religions that we believe flow from real truth. One of those beliefs is that a certain number of dominated, intimate encounters results in the transfer of the dominator's beliefs to the dominated. You get what I'm saying?"

Shae opened her mouth, but no words came out. A million images from a million jobs, a million nights, flooded her consciousness and she found herself unable to move, unable to speak, able only to look from Jake, to Molly, and back again.

Molly laughed. "Don't look at me, Sweet. We have an open relationship and I am fully in support of what he's talking about."

"So," Jake concluded, "which way would you like to do this? The easy way, or the hard way?"

"If you so much as touch me..." she gasped, finding her voice at last. "I swear..."

"You'll what?" Eloise scoffed. "Sweety, it's not like you have anything to take anymore. You're a basic ***** in every meaning of the word."

"Very true, my dear," Jake agreed. "Maybe she should just let me choose. Because I certainly have a preference. So... shall we?"

He attempted to pull her in the direction of the stairs, but blind, triggered panic took over, and she jerked away with every ounce of strength her tiny frame had in it. The release of his hand was an incomparable feeling, and she didn't waste the opportunity.

She turned, sprinting upstairs to the room that would have been hers and slamming and locking the door behind her. She shoved the few things she'd unpacked back into her backpack, crammed her clothing bag in as well, and turned to the window.

They were beating on the door now, threatening her with all pretense of kindness gone, but there wasn't much they could do... it wasn't like they could call the police.

Shae jerked open the window and found a screen. Immediately, her hand dropped to her boot, to where the knife given to her by her father on her twelfth birthday always was. Somehow, she'd always managed to keep it out of her owners' hands.

It was razor sharp, because she was an Army girl and she knew how to take care of her knives, and it easily sliced through the sturdy screen. Shae replaced the knife where it belonged, used the slice to tear open a larger hole, and threw her backpack through.

The two-story drop would have been daunting, but she was still being fueled by desperate, thoughtless panic, and she didn't hesitate as she fling herself out of it. She'd been running Army-quality obstacle courses since she was seven, and she knew exactly how to land, but the impact still made her feel as if she had bruised if not broken every bone in her body.

Pain was nothing compared to her fear, though, and she struggled to her feet once more and began to run, as hard and as fast as her feet would carry her. Her rigorous conditioning schedule was one thing she hadn't been forced to... or allowed to... neglect for the past nine months, so she ran easily, her adrenaline and fear adding to what was already a seasoned, experienced runner's endurance.

She ran, walked to regain her strength, and ran again until she was in the depths of the city, right back where she'd been selling herself a month ago, and she had finally run into a dead end at the back of what seemed to be the shadiest alley on earth.

She collapsed into the corner, thoughtless to the grime that surrounded her, and, finally, she started to cry. Holding her knees to her chest, her face pressed into them as she hopelessly sobbed for the endless cycle of pain her life had become.

She was still crying when "Infinite" started softly playing from her phone's speaker. It was nine, and Kyran was calling.