Chapter 52

We appeared on Sebastian's Earth and the light from the bifrost died down around us. I inhaled hard as I came face to face with the destruction here. The city was almost leveled and groups of people were shuffling through it, looking for anything to help them survive.

"Jesus." I sighed.

"Home sweet home." Sebastian joked as he looked over to the city. He looked down and clenched his jaw as he closed his eyes.

"Hey, don't worry." I said as I put my hand on his shoulder.

"We're gonna help you rebuild." I promised.

"I know. It's just.. it's going to be hard to spark hope back in these people since we don't have heroes here." He nodded as he looked over at me.

"Heroes from other universes will make themselves present. Your people will feel hope soon enough." Loki assured him.

"Thanks guys, for everything." Sebastian said as a little smile appeared on his lips. I dropped my hand and took a step back from him as Loki took my hand in his. We waved bye and the bifrost overcame us, fading out the terrible image around us. I clung to Loki and closed my eyes as we traveled back home.

-----

*4 Months Later*

I wabbled down the hall of the Hellicarrier with a bowl of chocolate cereal in my hands and a spoon in my mouth. I phased through the door to the conference room and quietly made my way to my seat, careful not to disturb the meeting. No one payed attention to me apart from Agent Pinkerton, who sent me a dirty glare.

Agent Frank Pinkerton was new to S.H.I.E.L.D and was assigned to work on Operation Multiverse with us. I don't really like him, he joined a few months ago and, while he's been getting along with everyone else, he seems to have a problem with me. He's always glaring at me or rolling his eyes when I make jokes or laugh, like I'm just super annoying to him or something.

"You're late." Frank sternly said as he flipped the top paper off of the stack and set it to the side.

"Yeah, sorry, I got sick on the way here and then got hungry an-" 

"I don't care." Frank interrupted me with a cold tone. I blinked a few times as I stared at him with slight disgust on my face.

"Okay." I replied as I raised my brows and looked down to my bowl. I dipped my spoon in and Frank loudly cleared his throat, drawing my attention back to him.

"No food in the conference room." He said as he raised an annoyed brow.

"Um, that's not a rule." I half laughed as I spooned a giant hill of cereal up and into my mouth. I chewed slowly and the silence of the room caused it to be super loud.

"It is when I have the room reserved under me." He argued.

"Oh please, let the pregnant lady have her cereal." Nat lightly argued with him as I continued eating, completely unbothered.

"She's been sick for weeks, I think that's the first thing she's been able to keep down." Steve added.

"It's true, it is." I nodded while chewing.

"Why are you even here?" Frank asked me as he crossed his arms.

"Because my biological father couldn't keep it in his pants." I replied as I dipped my spoon into the bowl again. Frank let out a heavy sigh and I laughed a little as I lifted a spoonful of cereal up to my mouth.

"You're 8 months pregnant, you don't go on any missions, why do you need to be here? You're interrupting my meeting." Frank harshly said. I slowly stopped chewing and everyone stared at Frank with surprised eyes and raised brows.

"That was uncalled for." Bruce said while shaking his head.

"Am I wrong? She doesn't contribute to anything here." Frank scoffed as he crossed his arms.

"Um, what?" Peter asked him.

"You're lucky Loki isn't here to hear you talking to Alex like this." Tony said as he inhaled and leaned back in his chair.

"I'm not scared of Loki and I'm not being mean to her." Frank harshly argued.

"I beg to differ." Loki's voice sternly said as he suddenly appeared next to Frank. The startled Agent reached for his gun as he jumped back away from Loki, his skin pale from the jump scare.

"Look, I'm not trying to start anything with you guys, I get it, you're all super close and whatever." Frank said as he dropped his hand and looked back at the table of Avengers.

"But Alex, you're pregnant and not in active duty. Someone else could take your place and you could go rest or whatever you do." Frank sighed as he crossed his arms.

"Not active field duty, right, but I still go to meetings and travel around the other Universes." I argued as I scooped up more cereal.

"And as for her contribution to this whole thing, she's the only one most of the heroes from other universes will deal with. She's our speaker, or did you forget that?" Clint asked as he crossed his arms too.

"No, I didn't. She's just a distraction." Frank said as he shrugged.

"Then we'll have you removed and put somewhere else where she can't be so distracting." Loki harshly said. 

"No." Frank quickly replied before clenching his jaw tightly.

"I..." Frank closed his eyes and let out a soft sigh before opening them back up and looking over at me.

"I'm sorry, okay? I just, I'm so excited to be on this project and I don't want anything messing it up. I know you do a lot for S.H.I.E.L.D, I'll forever be grateful that you stopped Evil Loki, but I'm not sure your head is in the right place right now." He explained as he put one finger on the large desk in front of him and gently tapped it.

"I don't think that's for you to decide." I shrugged as I set my spoon down on the table beside my bowl. I picked up the bowl and began drinking the chocolate milk as Frank and the others watched me.

"You were late to the meeting and brought cereal, distracting me and yourself from what's going on." Frank argued as he crossed his arms again. I set the bowl down and swallowed the rest of the milk as I raised a brow at him.

"I'm not distracted." 

"If you can't handle someone eating cereal while you talk, you definitely won't survive being around us during battle." Clint laughed.

"I just don't want anything messing this up, okay? By some miracle, Fury agreed to let you guys hear my idea about better resource management and-" Loki suddenly interrupted Frank's complaining with a loud impression of a buzzer, which caught him off guard.

"Jesus Christ." Frank exhaled as he touched his chest.

"Wrong. Alex approved of your plan being heard today." Loki informed him.

"What?" Frank asked as he furrowed his brows and looked over at me.

"Yep." I answered, popping the P at the end.

"Fury was gonna trash the proposal with the rest of the rejects but I caught a glimpse of the first paragraph and snagged it from his desk. I went over it a few times and told him to push it on down the line." I nodded.

"We've all already read it over." Nat shrugged.

"We just wanted to give you a chance to be involved and stand with you idea." Peter added.

"And then I got hungry." I nodded to my empty bowl and shrugged.

"We aren't professionals here, Frank, we're a bunch of misfits just trying to do good in this world." Steve said while he leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. Frank sighed and nodded as he stared down at his proposal.

"I'm sorry. I'm not used to this relaxed atmosphere. I worked in an office where you'd get fired for even looking away from your screen during work hours." Frank said as he looked back up as the group.

"And now you work with us, and we don't have work hours. Just kinda...show up whenever the world needs us." Tony smiled.

"No hard feelings, Frank." I smiled as well.

"Speak for yourself." Loki harshly argued as he glared at the Agent. He was so protective of me.

"Loki." I playfully warned. He rolled his eyes but I saw him crack a smile at me before disappeared from the room.

"Alright, do you wanna go ahead with the presentation or did this ruin the meeting?" Clint asked as he raised a brow.

"I'll go ahead with it." Frank nodded as he looked down at the papers and read over one of them.

-----

After Frank read his presentation and everyone gave their input, we all let the conference room and went out separate ways to put the plan in motion. His idea wasn't ground breaking or anything, that's probably why Fury was trashing it, but I think it's better than nothing at this point. My job in this whole thing was to travel to a few different universes and talk to a few key people that would be involved in this too. 

"I'm not looking forward to leaving again." I said to Nat as we rode the elevator up to the teleportation room. It was easier to dedicate a whole room to the Multiverse, giving each Universe their own "doorway" here.

"Too pregnant for this?" She asked as she smiled down at my stomach.

"No...My emotions have been pretty out there these past few weeks, Doc says it's because I'm nesting or whatever and want to have everything a certain way." I explained.

"And if even one person's vibe is off it throws the whole thing in a spiral?" She asked as she looked back up at me.

"Yes!" I loudly answered, finally happy to have someone understand me.

"Yeah, Clint had to deal with that too,and being Aunty Nat, so did I. Laura was nuts when she started nesting. If Clint even looked at her wrong she would go ballistic and accuse him of hating the kids." She laughed.

"I pushed Tony off of the balcony last night because he moved the vase off of the dresser in his own room." I sighed. The doors opened and we walked out of the elevator and down the long hallway.

"I wish I had seen that." Nat laughed again.

"And with Loki being away in Asgard most of the time, it's hard." I shrugged a little as we stopped at the teleportation room.

"He's helping with aiding the other Universe's Asgards." Nat replied as she swiped her I.D badge in front of the scanner.

"I know, and I'm proud of him for doing as much as he does. But..."

"But you want your boyfriend to be there for you too." She softly finished my sentence as the door unlocked and opened up.

"Yeah." I nodded.

"Just tell him. Sit him down tonight and talk it out." She shrugged as she walked over to the doorway to Universe 184.

"Not that easy. You know Loki. Since when is he the talking type?" I joked as I walked over to the doorway to Universe 100.

"Since he fell in love with you." She winked as she walked into the empty doorway and pressed the button inside, bringing the bifrost down on her and taking her away.

I smiled at her comment and pressed the button in my doorway, sending me to Universe 100. I walked away from the door, through their teleportation room, and into the new Avenger's building they had built as their new base. Kamala was the first to spot me and she greeted me with a huge smile.

"Hey Alex!" The 16 year old giggled as she rushed over to me in one giant leap. 

"Hey little Marvel." I smiled back as I opened my arms, welcoming her into a hug. She wrapped her arms around me, careful not to push on my stomach, and gently squeezed.

"Did you find her??" She excitedly asked as she pulled away from me. Kamala was a teenage girl who was given powers during a huge attack almost 6 years ago, this universe dubbed it A Day. It was a mess, AIM took over and all "inhumans" were captured and then tortured and experimented on. Kamala set everything in motion to save the world from the evil that came upon it. When we met, she asked me to locate the Kamalas in the other universes because she was curious what they were doing since AIM hadn't taken them over. This was the only universe where that happened in.

"I did." I nodded as I rested my hands on my stomach.

"But..."

"But?" She asked while furrowing her brows.

"But, you're the only Kamala with powers, A Day gave you powers, A Day only happened here." I softly shrugged. She sighed in disappointment and nodded, understanding my words.

"The other Kamalas are thriving though. Doing great in school, still writing fanfic for some app, hanging out with friends, even a few boyfriends, they're all happy." I happily smiled, trying to make her feel better.

"Well, at least the other mes have a normal life." She shrugged as she smiled a little.

"Ew, who wants a normal life?" I asked before winking and smiling at her. We parted ways and I walked into the conference room, finding this universes Steve and Tony there.

"Hey boys." I smiled.

"Hey preggo, what's the news?" Tony asked as he tapped the table in front of the empty seat, telling me to sit down. I declined his offer and smiled again as I rested my hands on my stomach.

"Fury approved my idea and he's got people working on setting it up now. It's gonna take a few months or so to get it up and running and a few years to fully get it going, but it's in motion and that's all that matters." I proudly informed him.

"That's great kiddo." Steve said as he nodded and smiled.

"Your Together Program is gonna help so many people." Tony nodded in agreement as he leaned back in his chair.

"Hey, without you I wouldn't have even had the idea." I chuckled.

"Wow, that's so true." Tony said as he nodded again. When I met the Avengers of this universe, Tony had made a comment that seeing me was like having his Alex back. Hearing him say that started up a crazy idea in my head that we named the Together Program. Basically, people can register from any Universe and, after a waiting period and a few background checks and what not, they can visit the loved ones that they lost in their universe in other universes. We've started doing it already with the Avengers, letting Steves and Buckys see one another again or Clints and Nats and it's worked wonderfully. It really inspires hope and helps them grieve for their lost loved ones. There's still a lot of kinks to work out but I have high hopes for the project.

"And I take it I get to be heavily involved?" Tony asked as he raised a brow.

"Of course, Fury wants you in his office in an hour to discuss some things."  I informed him.

"Alright, I'll pop by later on then." He smiled.

"Hey stranger." Bucky's voice called out from behind me. I turned and smiled when I saw my Bucky standing in the doorway. It was easy for me to tell which hero belonged to my universe and which didn't, they all had slight differences like different shades of hair color or lighter or darker eye colors. 

"What's up?" I asked as he walked in.

"Fury wanted me to travel around, get used to being out of New York and all that. I've been going Universe to Universe and spending a few hours there to really take it all in." He chuckled.

"And how has it been?" I asked as I raised a brow.

"Not bad." He smiled.

"Heading back now, you wrapping up?" He asked as he twirled his finger around in the air.

"Yep, all done here." I shrugged. We said out goodbyes to the others and walked back down to the Multiverse room and headed back to our own Universe. 

"Haven't seen much of Loki lately." Bucky pointed out as we walked down the hall to the elevator.

"Yeah.." I nodded.

"He's busy with Asgard stuff, ya know, being Co-King and all." I shrugged.

"Right. I just..." Bucky sighed as he looked down and put his hands in his pockets.

"I've been noticing your mood lately, you've been pretty down and I can't help but wonder if it's because of Loki not being around." He said as he looked back up at me.

"I'm down because I'm pregnant as hell and tired." I laughed his comment off but he was right. Loki not being around a lot was really getting to me and it sucked that everyone was noticing. I didn't want to come off as needy and annoying to Loki, especially since he's got go many things to worry about already, but I really need him.

"Plus, this whole Multi universe thing is pretty stressful." I added as the doors to the elevator opened up. We got on and Bucky pressed the button for the main deck.

"Take a break." He shrugged.

"A week before my due date I will, until then, no thanks. I have 1 week before that and there's work to be done." I smiled. The elevator stopped half way up and the doors opened, revealing a smiling Thor.

"Lady Alex, Bucky, how are we today?" He asked as he stepped on.

"Hungry." I replied.

"Tired." Bucky answered.

"Hey, where's Loki?" I asked as the doors closed and we began to move again.

"He said something about having some very important business on Asgard in Universe 130." Thor nodded as he intertwined his hands in front of him.

"I hate that Universe. Everyone there was so mean." Bucky scoffed a little.

"Yeah. When I went there they were pretty mean to me too." I nodded in agreement.

"I will admit, I do not even like going there. They seemed so...vindictive towards me." Thor added. The elevator stopped and the doors opened up to the main deck. We all walked out and Thor said his goodbyes as he called his hammer to him. He flew off and I walked with Bucky over to the small helicopter he used to get here.

"Want me to take you home?" He asked as he opened the door.

"Nah, I think I'm gonna go visit Loki, see if he needs any help." I shrugged. Bucky waved as he took off and I walked back to the elevator, feeling out of breath from all the weight I gained while being pregnant.

I made my way back to the Multiverse room and was about to go through the doorway to Universe 130, but Kamala fell from her Universe doorway and coughed as she rolled over on her back.

"Oh my god, Kamala!" I yelled as I squatted down to help her. She sat up and continued coughing as she leaned her head back to gather herself.

"A-AIM is attacking the base." She said as her eyes landed on me. Just then, Scott and Eddie walked into the Multiverse room and froze when they saw the situation.

"Get the others. Tell them AIM is attacking Universe 100 an-" Before I could even finish my orders, Kamala jumped to her feet and ran back through the door.

"Kamala, no!" I shouted. The doorway took her back to her universe and I cursed under my breath as I looked back at the guys.

"Go, Eddie. Scott, with me." I said as I turned and walked through the doorway, Scott quickly following me while his helmet closed on his face.  When we landed in Universe 100, dust covered the doorway room and I coughed as some of it got into my lungs. I pushed the dust away and we were able to see that the room was completely destroyed, most of the doorways broken and on the floor.

"Oh god." I said as I slowly walked around, checking the room. We could hear fighting and shouting coming from the hallway and I gripped my fists as Scott walked over to the door. He grabbed the handle but I suddenly felt the elements that make up plasma bullets coming straight towards him. I threw my hand out and pushed him to the side as the bullets came busting through the main doors, hitting right where he was standing. 

"Jesus." He gasped as he quickly got to his feet. The ceiling above us began to shake and dust and small concrete pieces fell around us, the building was collapsing. I threw my hands up and caught the large debris that suddenly fell above us.

"Thank god Evil Loki unlocked those powers of yours." Scott laughed as he stared up at the fallen ceiling. I hated to admit it, but he was right, thank god Evil Loki did do that. I was able to control everything now.

I clenched my jaw as the weight began to get to me. Being 8 months and 2 weeks pregnant meant my strength was extremely low. I wasn't able to do half of the things I normally could and I hated that. It made me feel useless.

"Uh, Scott?" I asked, my voice strained. Scott quickly enlarged himself and grabbed the debris from above us and tossed it to the side. Tony, Bucky, Bruce, Steve, Sam, Strange, and Wanda rushed through the doorway from our universe and Scott came back down to normal size as he greeted them.

"What do we know?" Tony asked as he suited up.

"Not much. They have plasma guns and, uh, that's all we know." Scott answered as his helmet opened on his face.

"Get her back to our universe and come back." Steven ordered Scott. I was about to argue but a sharp pain erupted in my stomach and I clenched my jaw as I held my scream in. It was probably the most painful thing I've ever felt. I awkwardly shifted and turned away from the group as I held my breath, trying to get through the pain. 

"Alex?" Strange asked me as he raised a brow. The pain subsided and I casually nodded as I looked over at him and the others.

"Yeah, right, okay I'm going." I said. Scott narrowed his eyes at me and helped me back through the portal, where another sharp pain hit me. We landed in our universe as Rhodey and T'Challa walked through the doors, both in costume. I inhaled hard as they both past me and walked into the doorway themselves. Once they were gone, I exhaled just as hard and groaned as I grabbed my stomach.

"Ohhhh....shit." Scott said as he stared at me with wide eyes.

"Shut up." I snapped.

"You're having contractions, aren't you??" He asked as he put his hands on his head in shock.

"No." I firmly said as I stood up and shook the pain off. I felt another tight pain and hunched over as I grabbed his hand, squeezing it.

"Maybe." I groaned.

"Alex! We have to get you to the infirmary!" He said as he pulled me towards the door.

"No. I-It's too soon. I still have 2 more weeks until my due date." I said as I released his hand. He quickly pulled away from me and I tried to catch my breath, preparing for the next one.

"Apparently the baby disagrees. I-we-you, you gotta get to the infirmary. I gotta call someone!" His panicking was stressing me out.

"It's too soon." I argued.

"Alex, it's coming now." Scott argued.

"I'm not ready!" I shouted.

"I'm not ready for this." I whispered as I looked down and clenched my jaw, trying to stop the tears from coming. It was no use thought, they poured down my face. I didn't want to admit it and I thought I had more time to get used to the idea of being a mom, but...I'm not ready for this. I'm terrified and worried and stressed.

-----