So, this story was inspired by a drabble that audreyii-fic wrote. I have included it in italics in the first part of this chapter. I have changed a couple things from the original piece to suit the story, but it does pick up after the drabble so that is why I included it. I would like to extend a very big thank you to audreyii-fic for giving me the go ahead to expand this into a full story.

Chapter One

Loki touches the frame on the mantle. "My brother?" he says uncertainly.

"Yes. Thor. He's on a business trip, but he'll be here soon." The hospital tried him first and got no answer, so it's Jane who had to collect Loki, bruised and bandaged, from the ER.

The next picture. "My parents?"

"Yes. Frigga died last year."

He nods without emotion, which eradicates the last of Jane's doubts. "Is my father dead, too?"

"Um, no."

"Is he coming?"

"No."

"I see." He clearly doesn't.

God, this is bizarre. The last time Loki stood in this room he and Thor came to blows. There's still indentations in the plaster.

"And you're my sister."

"Sister-in-law. Soon, anyway — wedding's next month."

"But we're friends."

Whenever you show up you make everyone miserable. You hurt Thor and you call me names. I hate you. "Not really," Jane hedges. "You, uh… don't like me very much."

Loki just blinks at her, green eyes completely guileless. Then, after a long moment— "No. I know that's not true."

She doesn't know how to respond, so Jane glances at the clock. Twelve more hours until Thor's flight lands. "Come on," she says. "Let's look for something you'll remember."

XXXXXXXX

Jane drove him to his apartment across the city of Boston. Loki spent the time in the car watching the scenery going by and hoping that something would jog his memory along the route.

Nothing did.

He looked over at Jane as she drove and thought again how beautiful she was. When he'd seen her at the hospital he had thought he'd died and she was an angel come to take him away. He was told he'd gotten into a car accident. He didn't remember it, but his body ached all over and he had bruises and scratches on his arms and chest. Apparently he'd been in a coma for a week.

"You said I don't like you?" he asked.

She glanced at him and then nodded and looked back at the road. "You hate me."

That felt wrong. Very wrong. He didn't know how or why since he remembered nothing at all, but hating this woman who had wheeled him out of the hospital, then taken him to his brother's home, and was now taking him to his own, did not make sense. There was something in him that felt drawn to her…tugged in her direction. He felt as though she held all the answers to every question he had.

"And I'm assuming that means I haven't been very nice to you."

She snorted. "The last time I saw you, you told me I was a mousey waif that didn't even study a real science and shouldn't bother because I would never do anything of importance."

Loki sucked in a breath. "Jesus."

"You and Thor got into a fistfight…"

"Jane, I'm sorry. I have no recollection of this obviously, but I'm sorry." Her brows furrowed and she gripped the steering wheel so tight Loki could see the whites of her knuckles. "What is it?" he asked with a frown.

"I suppose I had some lingering doubts about the amnesia….but you just apologized. You never apologize for anything." She made a face. "Unless this is just some elaborate scheme, but not even you can think that quickly on your feet and they called me as soon as you awoke…"

"Bloody hell. What kind of person was I that you'd think I was faking amnesia?"

She pursed her lips together and Loki braced himself. From the look on her face alone, he could tell that he was decidedly not good. At all.

"Well, you and your brother went into the family business together. Your father handed it over to both of you to take over when your Mother got sick. You almost managed to get Thor thrown out of the company and you would have too, had your father not intervened. Then you left the company and went to another one and tried to sabotage your father and brother that way. When Thor went on a business trip and I joined him, you were supposed to call and let us know if your mother took a turn for the worse while your father was taking care of her in hospice, but you never did. We made it back just in time to say good-bye to her. Then there was the newspaper article you—"

"Stop, please," Loki choked out. He rubbed his forehead. "So my mother? She died of…?"

"Cancer."

"Christ. And no doubt my father despises me which is why he's not coming."

"Yes."

"With all I've done why did I bother to wake up?"

That seemed to startle Jane. She glanced at him and then looked back at the road, brows furrowed. "Loki, I'm not what you'd call a fan of yours but death is…I wouldn't have wished that on you. I don't think even your brother and father would either."

"Right, but my father doesn't even want to see me after I've been in a coma so I would say that I've been deplorable enough to make my own father loathe me enough to not want to see me."

"I'm sorry," she said softly.

"Why are you sorry? I'm the one that did all those things. I was awful enough to make you doubt my having amnesia."

"I'm still sorry."

"Why?"

"I shouldn't have told you all that so quickly. It could set you back or something due to stress and—"

"Jane, I'd rather know what I'm dealing with than wonder why no one gives a fuck about me after I nearly died."

"Thor was worried about you," Jane said softly.

"After all I've done to him? And said to you?"

"Someone you love almost dying has a way of making people see things differently."

"Is there anyone in my life? A girlfriend I've cheated on multiple times or beat up? Do I kick puppies, too?"

"No girlfriend I know of, but then it's not like you to share things like that." She bit her lip and Loki could see her mouth twitch with amusement. "As for puppies? I think you probably did kick them. And drown kittens, too." A laugh escaped and she tried to hold it back until Loki started to laugh though.

He instantly regretted it. "My ribs," he moaned.

"Yeah, you need to not laugh."

"You need to not make me."

She smiled wistfully and then furrowed her brow again.

Loki sat back and shut his eyes. He felt a wee bit dizzy. His stomach growled loudly.

"So, we'll go through a drive-thru and get some food," Jane said as she turned down a street. "And I don't want to hear any complaints."

"You won't. I'm starving." He looked over at her. "I'm assuming I never ate fast food?"

"No freakin' way."

"Well then. You can be a love and order every single thing I would never have eaten before."

Jane pulled into the drive-thru of a McDonald's and got in line behind a red car. She looked over at him and studied him, her head resting back against the headrest.

"You look unsure about me," he murmured.

"I suppose I am still. There is no way old Loki would be able to keep this ruse up for so long, especially not in the drive-thru of a McDonald's. Not without some comment about how my thighs are going to be full of cellulite by the time I'm forty and Thor would have to trade me in for a new model."

Loki felt as though she'd slapped him. "I actually said that to you?"

"More than once."

He shook his head in bewilderment. "I cannot fathom why. You're breathtakingly gorgeous! Your eyes, the curve of your mouth—"

"Okay, stop. Now you're really freaking me out."

"Sorry. But it's true, Jane."

"Forget it. So, what do you want?"

Loki looked past her to the menu, but didn't see anything. All he could think was how in the bloody hell he could have been so cruel to Jane. And not just her, but his brother and his father, too. What had made him so awful to the people he was supposed to love?

He almost feared getting his memories back. With those, would he turn into the person Jane had just told him about? Or would he remain as he was now: a blank slate? Had the universe intervened and decided that he needed to put an end to his evil ways and given him a second chance by wiping him clean?

His head pounded, thinking of what was ahead of him as this clean slate he now was.