Morning came with a sharp cry from John, as he fell out of the bed hands reaching for his gun.

"Doctor Watson are you alright?" came the concerned voice of Jarvis.

"Oh God," groaned John as he scrambled to his bathroom where he threw-up everything in his stomach.

"John!" Jarvis once again tried to get the Doctors attention.

But John once again ignored the voice as he sat shivering next to the toilet after his last round of heaves. John felt so violated in the space he called his own. This was different from when Natasha did it, Loki was inside his head. He dug into memories and looked at things John had been avoiding for years.

John opened his mouth to tell Jarvis what had happened, but the words would not come out of his mouth. Every time he even though of saying anything about last night after he went to bed a gag seemed to appear in his mind preventing him from speaking. Making John feel powerless.

Suddenly John couldn't stand being in the room, the Tower for a second longer. He needed out, needed to get away. Ignoring Jarvis increasingly concerned voice in the background; he threw on his cloths and tried to get out of the Tower as fast as he could.

He didn't even bother with the elevators, part of his mind knowing Jarvis wouldn't let him out. Subconsciously he reached out to Mjolnir, and the hammer responded.

Thor who was just miles away from the tower in a Quin-jet had enough warning from Mjolnir to open the hatch for her to burst forward.

"Thor? Whats wrong?" Jane asked as the hammer took off. "Do you think it's an attack?"

Thor concentrated on his connection to the hammer, feeling an echo of John's need. The need to escape, the urgency, and that he wasn't actively reaching for her, Mjolnir was just responding to his need.

"No John just has a need of her."

John wasn't expecting the sudden knock on his window is the middle of his panicking. When he saw Mjolnir hovering there, John didn't hesitate. He opened the window and grabbed the handle. It was a rush of speed as he descended to the ground. But he had no fear of crashing as Mjolnir and he communicated. Within ten seconds he was on the ground, and with a brief thanks, the hammer was sent back to Thor.

If John was thinking clearly, he would have worried that he had potentially exposed himself to the whole of New York with that stunt, but John wasn't thinking, his mind to much in a mess.

Memories he had suppressed for years were coming back up. Every time he closed his eyes a violent flash back of painful memories appeared.

He didn't know where he was going, he boarded the subway trying to put as much distance between himself and the tower as possible.

Though in John's state the subway was not the best choice of transportation. The flickering of the lights as the car went through the station triggered more memories best left forgot of bombs exploding in the night. John was struggling to calm himself down, to ground himself in the here and now. If he had been home in London, Mycroft would have already grabbed him and taken him to a safe place. If it had been in the past, Sherlock would have shuffled John to his chair and proceeded to play his violin and make sure there was always a fresh cup of tea at his elbow.

"Hey are you alright?" came a gruff voice beside him.

John looked up to see a man covered in dark clothing with a trench coat on, though it appeared his shirt had a giant white skull on it. He was staring intently at John. They came through another station and the lights flash again, making John shudder.

The man came to sit next to John. "Alright I want you to take a deep breath and listen to the sound of my voice, nothing else. Try to think of good memories."

For the next few minutes John listened and followed the instructions from the gruff voiced man. The man calmly and evenly instructed John to breath. What John didn't see was the man sending glares to the people who were looking at them with disdain on their faces.

Finally John's breaths evened out and the lights no longer caused fresh memories to appear.

He slowly raised his hand and wiped the cool sweat off his face.

"Thank-you," he finally said, his voice cracking a little bit.

"Don't mention it, happens to all of us," the man said. "You a vet?"

John nodded, "Afghanistan."

"Spent a few years over there myself," said the man. "Veterans got to stick together."

John knew that this was the way of the men explaining why he had come and help a visible struggling John when everybody else had been ignoring him. It was like he said veterans stuck together to help a fellow service man when they were in need of help.

The speakers overhead announced the next stop and the man's eyes flickered to the source of the sound. "That's my stop, you going to be okay?"

John nodded, now that he got a handle on it he would be okay. "Thanks again?"

The man was silent for a moment before he answered the implied question. "Frank, Frank Castle," the man offered along with his hand.

"John Watson," John returned shaking the man's hand.

"Take care then John," the man said standing up. John gave him a nod and the man with one last glance behind him got off the train.

John continued to ride the train until the last stop in Queens. John followed the crowd into the streets above. No one noticed the slight shorter man with his fist in his pockets as he walked down the street. John decided to walk until he felt less jittery and then catch the metro back to Manhattan.

He didn't pay any attention to where he was walking, mainly just following the foot traffic. He only paid enough attention to make sure he didn't go down any questionable streets and to watch the traffic light.

He was at an intersection when the crosswalk sign flashed to walk. Out of habit, he looked both ways before following the crowd.

"Out of the way," someone growled, bumping into his bad shoulder as they shoved past him. After the rough morning, John froze at the contact and forced himself to take a deep breath. But the pause was long enough for an impatient driver to blow through the red light.

John looked up to see the sight of the car racing towards him. He knew in a split second that he wasn't going to be able to get out of the way. He tensed his muscle to try to jump so that he would land on the bonnet. He wasn't prepared for the hit that hit his shoulder, thank-fully his good one and suddenly he found himself flying in the air once again.

Except unlike his last flight, he had no control of where he was going.

"I've got you now Sir!" came an extremely young voice. John looked up to see a body covered in blue and red appearing to be swinging from a string and another one was stuck to him. John sent a quick prayer that his jacket zipper didn't bust as he was jerked around like a puppet on a string.

John was swung through the air until he was set down in an alley way. The costumed figure perched on the side of the building like it was nothing.

"Are you alright?" the kid asked, because that was what it sounded like the John.

John took stock of himself, further shaken but otherwise fine. "I fine, ta for that," John said as he whipped the sticky solution off his jacket.

"No problem Sir," said the young man.

"So what are you?" John asked fully taking in his suit. Red and blue with black webbing making a diamond pattern all along his body.

"I'm SpiderMan," the youth said. John raised an eyebrow at the name but chose not to comment on it.

"Well if you could, could you point me to the nearest metro?" John sighed as he looked around, the signs were pointing at him to return to the Tower. Though he really just wanted to go home after today.

The youth just cocked his head, "You're not going to ask any questions?"

John blinked, "About what?"

"Well usually every tries to ask who I am, what am I doing in the suit? You're the first one not to ask about me or start screaming in my face," the kid stated.

"None of my business," John said, "You've obviously got powers, and you're not doing anything evil because I think the Avengers would have picked up on that."

The kid just laughed, "Just your friendly neighborhood Spiderman, I could never be an Avenger."

John couldn't help but chuckle, he thought the same once upon a time.

"Once again ta for your help."

"You're welcome Sir, if you walk down two blocks you will see the nearest subway."

"Thanks kid," John said turning to leave.

"It's SpiderMan," the kid cried. There was a *splat* above his head and with a cry of elation the kid swung above his head and further down the street.

"Yeah, yeah, why aren't you in school," John muttered but following the kids directions he got back on the subway and made his way back to the Tower.

After a long train ride, John walked through the lobby and went straight to the elevator.

"Are you alright Dr. Watson," came Jarvis's concerned voice as soon as the doors closed.

"I've been better," John said feeling mentally and physically exhausted as he leaned his forehead against the cool metal.

"A welcome dinner is scheduled for tonight to for Dr. Foster, Ms. Lewis, and official Ms. Ross to the Tower," Jarvis informed John.

John didn't reply, he was just glad when the elevator opened to his door. He just wanted to sleep even though it was the middle of the day, but couldn't bring himself to lie on the bed. John grabbed his quilt, pillow, and once again ignored Jarvis and went into the bathroom. Wrapping up he laid down in the bathtub. He made a cocoon and tried to rest, praying for no nightmares.

He just tried to doze but he was mentally and physically exhausted, his dozes slipping into deeper sleep. He was foolish to hope for no nightmare, but too much had gone on today. From the flash backs to the shoulder jump. John only had what seemed to be a few minutes of peace before another nightmare came at him with a vengeance.

Vaguely towards the evening he heard someone knock on his door, but he couldn't bring himself to get up to answer it. He wrapped the blankets around his head and tried to block it all out. Eventually it went silent and towards the early twilight of the morning he managed to sleep a few hours before he was shaken awake.

John stumbled into the kitchen, but the thought of food threatened to make his empty stomach heave.

"Dr. Watson?" Jarvis asked hesitantly. He had tried consistently to get the doctor to talk yesterday after his return, but the doctor hadn't answered him. Not even when Boss had come knocking on the door had John responded.

Jarvis had made the excuse the Doctor was having a bad day, and the Avengers had accepted it and not worried too much, but Boss had known better. Jarvis had kept Boss informed of everything that had happened yesterday since John had went through the window.

"Yes Jarvis," John said his voice rough from lack of sleep and raw from the screaming he had done last night.

"Lessons are still canceled Thor is taking the day off to help settle Ms. Jane in."

John nodded, he stumbled back into the bathroom and grabbed his quilt. He draped himself into his arm chair and sat there. A few times he tried to open his mouth to tell Jarvis what happened, but like what happened earlier the words would not come through.

Hours passed without John really noticing as he stared out into New York.

A thought had occurred to him inbetween his nightmares that were also eating John. What if Loki had planted something in his head? What if he attacked one of the Avengers? Before John knew it it was already dark again.

The following few days the pattern continued though John had made trips to the communal kitchen to grab some toast and tea and then go back to his floor avoiding everybody he could. Since he was confronted, John figured that no one really noticed his odd actions.

Tony was seriously debating if he needed to give Mycroft a call because quite frankly John was making him worried. He had been jerked out of Science! by Jarvis freaking out that John had just went out the window with Thor's hammer.

Tony had scrambled to lock down any coverage of John pulling that stunt, which thank-fully hadn't been to obvious, seeing as it took John only 10 seconds to free fall to the sidewalk. Then Jarvis had pulled up the footage of him almost getting hit by a flipping car in Queens and being saved by the kid Tony had been keeping an eye on.

In the past week John had reverted back to original behavior of avoiding everyone except when strictly needed. Tony didn't think that it quite on everybody else's radar. With the addition of Jane and Darcy and Betty now that they had come up from air, the Avengers were getting to know their new additions. Add onto the fact Natasha and Clint were sent on a few local missions and Steve was still leery around John after the dressing down explained why they hadn't been noticing.

Of course there was still a little tension between him and Steve they had put aside the argument for now but they had yet to really have a conversation.

Tony sighed, the conversation with Steve would have to come before his Malibu trip. He was going to visit the plant and the reconstruction of the house. Which reminded him he would have to check up on Harley soon; it had been a few weeks since he talked to the boy. Natasha and Steve were scheduled for that mission in D.C in two weeks and Fury hinted that it could last a month. For convenience Steve was going to get an apartment there while the mission lasted. Clint had hedged he also had some personal business that needed to be checked up on.

Tony knew they would have to get everything straightened out before they all went their separate ways for a while.

And we are heading to the second stage of the story where we begin to build into more of the Marvel movies. I think I've decided that Winter Soldier, and if I do Age of Ultron, still on the fence if I should will be fairly close together time wise. Might have to rewatch them.

Though I need an opinion if I do Ultron, should Laura Barton/kids be Clints wife/kids or his sister with nieces/nephew. I'm still partial to Clint/Natasha so I'm on the fence.

And before anyone asks, Sherlock/John reunion is still far out.

And Frank Castle is just a cameo, he probably won't be making any more appearances. I imagine Thomas Jane's version here.