The following day, Brian was already in the kitchen, placing all his research concerning Mirio’s situation into a special briefcase given to all SHIELD agents when researching a subject.

Actually, Brian was well aware that he wasn’t supposed to even touch Mirio’s case but a major shortage of Agents had led to him being assigned to Mirio for convenience's sake.

Usually, he would take smaller cases or be stuck in a lab for days doing just research.

He was thankful for Mirio’s appearance in his life, not because it made his wife and Jessica more lively, but because Mirio also reminded him of how much fun research used to be.

Brian was planning to leave SHIELD after submitting this last case because he was tired of doing only the grunt work when younger kids would touch the truly marvelous science experiments that he craved.

“What’s up?” Mirio asked, walking into the kitchen and seeing Brian packing a case with many papers and vials.

Something about the case screamed danger to him and noticing that, Brian explained “It’s a special isolation case that is rigged to explode when tampered with… Use to hold SHIELD documents for transportation...”

“Transportation to where?” Mirio inquired curiously.

Brian shrugged “Depends really… could be The Playground or The Fringe… maybe even the Triskelion… depends on the level of danger and your research isn’t that high since it's nearly impossible to replicate…”

“Wouldn’t that make it more dangerous?” Jessica asked, walking out the corridor with her mother “If it’s harder to replicate… it means it’s worth more or someone will just challenge themselves and try harder…”

Finding the logic in Jessica’s views, Brian was no longer interested in keeping the case any longer “Okay… everyone get dressed… we will be taking this to Stark Industries immediately…”

Mirio’s eyes opened wide because he had been trying to meet Ms. Potts for a week and a half “Why Stark Industries?”

“They have a partnership with SHIELD… Agents can’t just take documents to SHIELD safe houses so we leave it at the nearest Stark Outlet… very convenient actually…”

Everyone got dressed and exited the door, but just before they could leave, Brian darted back into the room and retrieved a backpack that he gave to Mirio “Specialized clothing… I noticed how your body works and used your hair fiber to make some common clothing for you just in case…”

Mirio smiled happily and peeked inside the bag, noticing a shirt with a huge ‘1000000’ on it accompanied by basic cargo pants.

It meant a lot to him since it showed that Brian really listened to his stories.

Knowing Mirio’s thinking, Brian shook his head and gestured to a smiling Alisa “The design was her idea… apparently, the publishing company has high hopes for the book…”

Alisa blushed but still raised her head smugly at Jessica when she noticed that Mirio had already fallen in love with the clothing.

Alisa was always trying to push Jessica and Mirio closer so, of course, she would act smug when Mirio liked something she gifted to him because she knew that Jessica disliked Mirio smiling for anyone else.

Little did she know that Jessica was anxious because Christine was taking too long to call Mirio and confess everything.

“I listen to everything…” Alisa bragged as everyone hopped into the elevator and exited through the hotel lobby to get breakfast before heading to Stark Industries.

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Brian, Alisa, Jessica, and Mirio walked towards The Stark Tower until they chanced upon a restaurant at the roadside.

They sat and ate breakfast for a couple of minutes when Mirio got a call from Christine.

Jessica hopped out of her seat drawing all their eyes in her direction but ultimately sat back down when Mirio excused himself to answer the call.

The moment Mirio was gone from the table, Jessica also excused herself and trailed behind him, stopping just outside the male bathroom.

Jessica was daring enough to enter regardless if Mirio was naked inside but if the conversation was anything like what she suspected, it was best that she gave Mirio some space by remaining outside, although eavesdropping.

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Christine woke up in an unfamiliar bed and stared at the chandelier listlessly.

The bed was king-sized and the chandelier was a bit of an overkill but she had come to admire Stephen’s luxury lifestyle.

After all, he made money as fast as he spent it, but that was not an issue since he would just make more after a few surgeries.

Last night, she and Dr. Strange had one too many drinks and one thing led to another, leading her to this inevitable moment.

Christine had no doubt that sleeping with Dr. Strange was inevitable… she had pined over him since medical school after all, but the timing couldn’t have been worse.

She carefully wrapped the white sheet around her exposed body after making sure that Stephen was inside the kitchen.

Actually, it wasn’t her first time sleeping with Stephen.

The first time was in college but given the number of bras she found after the deed was done, she doubts that Stephen could even remember that time… much less her out of all the others.

She had braces in college, a geeky smile, and just faded into the background as naturally as someone could.

Stephen was actually the first person to compliment her the one time she passed his marking on a test, and that was all the validation she needed at the time to find herself in his bed and forgotten the next morning.

Say what you want about Stephen Strange but his arrogance was hard-earned, even if it irritated the hell out of her.

Christine stretched for the bedside table and retrieved her phone from the pocket of her skinny jeans.

She stared at the phone for what felt like forever, smiling giddily sometimes and scrounging her face to fight against the tears the next moment.

Taking a deep breath, Christine selected Mirio’s contact and made the call that she was sure would break her heart, but she knew it would break his heart more than it would break hers.

Sure, she loved Mirio and he made her feel like that teenage girl so insanely in love… he made her want to love so intensely that it was illogical.

But while Mirio made her feel like her teenage self, Stephen was actually there for her as a teenager… There was nowhere she could choose Mirio’s illusion over the reality that Stephen presented.

“Hello…”

“I am sorry I didn’t come home last night but we need to talk…”

“You weren’t there?” Mirio asked, “I stayed at Jessica as well… where did you stay…”

Christine took a deep breath and steeled her heart “I was at Dr. Strange’s place… we slept together…”

There was a long moment of silence before Mirio’s reply came “Did I stand a chance from the beginning?”

Christine bit her lip “The choice was difficult…”

“Goodbye… have a nice life…” Mirio commented, cutting off the call.

“Mirio wait!” Christine wanted to beg for them to at least remain friends, even if she knew that was no longer possible.

She couldn’t just keep Mirio around until the relationship with Stephen didn’t work out, and despite everything, she knew deep down that she and Stephen wouldn’t last very long.

‘It’s just one of those mistakes worth making…’ she thought, covering her eyes with both hands and shedding some silent tears.

------------------------

Finished with the call, Mirio slumped against the bathroom sink and contemplated everything that had gone wrong with his life since coming to this new universe.

It seemed like everything was destined to fight against him – Christine, SHIELD, and even the nightmares of his friends dying that would plague him every night.

Everything was just pushing him further and further down the rabbit hole… and now with Christine's exit from his life, he doubts that Jessica and her parents would stay around much longer.

Amid his depressing thoughts, Jessica entered the bathroom and wrapped her arms around Mirio’s waist, providing him comfort when it was most needed.

Like a trance, Mirio snapped out of his spiral of depressing thoughts and returned to Jessica’s embrace.

They remained like that for a couple of minutes until Mirio’s tears had all but dried up and all that remained was a sense of family that had grown stronger between them both.

“Mirio… it’s time to lea-”

During their unique moment of bonding, Alisa pushed open the door to the bathroom and gawked at Jessica and Mirio embracing like there was no tomorrow.

Both Jessica and Mirio realized their folly and released each other immediately but it was too slow to stop Alisa’s quick fingers that managed to capture a picture of two before ducking her head back through the door.

“You know what kids…” Alisa shouted from behind the door “Take as long as you like… and Jessica… do the tongue trick I taught you… gets them every time…”

Mirio quirked a brow “What tongue trick?”

Jessica punched Mirio in the stomach while blushing fiercely and dashed out the door, intent on finding her mother for some payback.