Case 325 || Loki

T W E N T Y - O N E

Meanwhile Lily curled up in her bed, the covers clutched to her chest in her hands. Goose rubbed his head on her cheek before cuddling up next to her in comfort. Lily gladly accepted the wave of exhaustion, and settled into a deep and uninterrupted sleep.

A little over an hour had passed when her phone buzzed, startling her from her trance. Lily hesitantly picked it up. She read the caller ID and breathed a small sigh of relief when it read Tony Stark. 

Answering the call, she was met with Tony's worried voice. "Lily, how are you feeling? I was supposed to let you rest but I just had to call and make sure you were okay."

"I'm alright, I think it's just food poisoning. Something did taste funny in the meal I had yesterday. I'll be fine by tomorrow." 

"Alright, just let me know if there is anything I can do for you and take another day off tomorrow to rest." Tony hung up, not wanting to keep Lily long on the phone.

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"What did she say? Is she alright?" Steve sat upright, twiddling with his thumbs as Tony paced the living room in the Avengers tower.

"She said it's just food poisoning but something seems off. I've never seen anyone get that ill from food poisoning." Tony rubbed his hand across his face and sighed. He shoved his phone in his back pocket and took a seat opposite Steve.

Natasha looked up, concern evident in her voice. "I've seen her file, she's never missed a day of work. I'll call her tomorrow, It'll give Lily some time to rest and sleep it off."

Tony nodded and clapped his hands together, gaining the attention of all of the avengers. "Now," He started, "who wants to babysit reindeer games?"

"I have training with Steve," Nat answered quickly.

"Yes," Steve replied, catching on, "and I have training with Nat." Natasha face palmed at how bad Steve was at lying.

"I have sciency things to do." Bruce's eyes darting around to try and find a better excuse, "in the science lab." He added.

"I promised Pepper that I would spend the day with her." Tony excused.

All of the avengers then looked to Hawkeye. Clint shook his head quickly, "No, no ,no, absolutely not." He repeated. They continued to look at him with pleading eyes. "No." He said again.

So the team ended up turning to the last person in the room. They knew that if Thor did babysit Loki then they would most likely end up having an argument. A big one at that. "I can't watch Loki." Thor said with wide eyes.

"He is your brother." Tony shrugged.

"Thor, It'll only be for a couple of days." Steve bargained, desperation clear in his voice.

"Fine." Thor sighed heavily, "But Stark, you're buying me pop tarts for the rest of your life."

"Deal." Tony replied without a second of thought.

Thor did hold up his end of the bargain. While everyone else refused, Thor stuck by Loki's side despite all of the insults he threw at him. Let's just say that it ended up with Thor throwing his shoe at the glass - which did nothing. And Loki egging him on in hopes that the glass would break.

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As the sunrise rolled, Natasha was first to wake. She pulled out the phone Tony had given her and dialled Lily's number. Nat couldn't shake the feeling of uneasiness inside of her.

The phone rang and rang and Natasha began to think that she wouldn't answer. Lily picked up on the 6th ring. "Hello?" She asked cautiously through the phone, not knowing whose number it was due to it not being saved on her phone.

"Hey Lily," Natasha greeted with sympathy.

"Natasha, It's so good to hear from you." Lily replied, her mood already lifting when she realised Nat had took the time to check up on her.

"How are you holding up? And no lying, I'm a trained assassin." Nat reminded sternly.

"I'm doing much better thanks, I'm coming in today." She refused to let the avengers down a second time.

"No way, Lily you are staying at home. You need to rest!" Natasha scolded.

"Nat I'm fin-" she started.

"Don't tell me you're fine. Because you're not. I can hear how exhausted you are from just speaking. It was true, Lily had never felt so awful. Her body acted as though it was fighting itself. The scorching headache was the worst, as though her brain was on fire. She was never eating at that restaurant again.  

Lily relented at Nat's persistence, "My head just feels like its on fire, I've tried paracetamol, ibuprofen and aspirin but nothing is soothing it." 

"Lily, are you sure it was food poisoning?" Nat asked suspiciously. 

"My drink didn't taste right, but apart from that there was nothing wrong with meal necessarily. I must have been something I ate there, I can't think of anything else it could be." Lily admitted. 

Natasha sighed, feeling completely and utterly helpless. "Well, I do hope you feel soon Lily. If you're still not well by midday then come back to the tower and I'll get Bruce to give you a check up."

Natasha had her suspicions, Lily hadn't mentioned the date with Grant. But of course Natasha knew about it, she had the highest espionage scores after all.