He watched the young woman with curious eyes. She wasn't formidable, or even slightly intimidating. She sipped a hot drink out of a cheap disposable cup and nibbled slowly on some form of Midgardian nourishment. He thought maybe she could stand to eat more, her form was so slight. She had draped her long white coat over the back of her chair, revealing an orange button up blouse that clashed horribly with her hair and light gray dress slacks cuffed up at the bottoms. Her sense of style was also lacking, he noted.
She glanced over in his direction and he focused on the newspaper he had strategically placed on the table in front of himself. It wasn't very interesting reading; The Midgardians had very little to no imagination. They hadn't connected the recent thefts together, which he was thankful for, but it really wasn't a hard conclusion to come to. Eventually they would figure it out and he would have a bigger problem on his hands than some little girl poking her nose in other people's business. He glanced back in her direction and sure enough, she had returned her attention to her lunch.
As she ate, he noticed she wrote in a yellow office notebook. He couldn't make out the words from where he sat watching, but occasionally her brow would furrow in frustration and her lips would purse as if she were solving some sort of riddle. She crossed out something and tapped the end of the pencil on her face. After only a few minutes her forehead smoothed out and a triumphant smile stretched across her features. She scribbled something onto the yellow page and slapped the notebook shut. The man took that as his cue and stood and pulled on his dark peacoat. He tossed his untouched drink in the trash, walked past the girl and carefully flitted his eyes over her notes. Of course, numbers. She was a research scientist. She would be working out some sort of formula. He left the coffee shop so as not to look suspicious, and waited across the street for the girl to leave.
The electronic watch on Valerie Hannigan's wrist beeped obnoxiously, signaling she had ten minutes until the end of yet another all too short break from research work. "Shit," she wore. She twisted her deep red waves into a knot on the back of her head and stuck a pencil through it to hold it in place. Valerie shoveled the rest of her ham sandwich into her mouth before pulling on her lab coat and jumping up from her spot at the quaint coffee shop where she spent too much of her time. I really hope I'm not late getting back, She thought sadly, Not even three days in and I already get fired.
Valerie walked briskly through the snow covered streets, counting down the minutes until she returned to her station. If she ran, maybe she could make it. At a powerful 5 foot 3, her legs weren't quite long enough for walking to be an acceptable mode of transportation. She huffed, the breath becoming visible as it hit the cold air. Maybe she should get a bike. She pulled her white coat tighter around her thin frame. "You know," She said to no one in particular, "You'd think by now that S.H.I.E.L.D could afford warmer coats." If Valerie had been paying attention, she would have heard the chuckle that came from behind her. As it was, she didn't. And however fortunate or unfortunate that is, we'll have to discover later.
Valerie came to the doors that marked the end of her journey. She swiped her key card and waited for the click, then pulled the handle and rushed to the stair case that led down to the research floor. The stair case was dark, and colder than the air outside had been. However, Valerie guessed that since she was heading underground, the temperature drop was to be expected. Her shoes echoed off the concrete as she stomped through the flights of stairs. Finally, she reached the very bottom. Once again, she swiped her key card at the door, but this time she had to type in a password and wait for the system to scan her retinas. The process took about 45 seconds, but Valerie wasn't sure she had 45 seconds to spare. As soon as the door clicked, she flung herself through it and into the long, low lit hallway. She padded down the linoleum floor and turned into the third room on the right.
As she entered, she checked her watch. She was two minutes early.
"Thank God," She breathed. Bruce Banner smiled up at her from the small blue cube that intrigued Valerie to no end. It was stored in the most high security containment unit available. Six inches of missile proof glass and God only knows what other weird things, on the bottom floor of the most secure building in the world, surrounded by only those with the highest security clearance. She waved the notebook in the air. "I think that maybe I came up with something," She sounded a little out of breath, but other than that nothing gave away how late she almost was.
"Of course you did," Banner chuckled. Valerie frowned at him. "You are the mathematician with the super brain, after all. And you see everything," He continued.
"Not everything," Valerie responded. She flipped through the notebook while she walked over to where Banner stood. She turned the page toward him before stating, "You know better than anyone that things like that can be unpredictable." She winked before crossing to the other side of the glass. Valerie was the only one that joked with Bruce about "The Other Guy," because she was the only one who knew about it down here. Just like Bruce was the only one who knew about her… issues.
Valerie focused on the pulsing blue object floating in front of her. It had started acting funny little over two weeks ago. Valerie had noticed by accident. She was only supposed to be helping the high clearance scientists work out a formula they needed, when she heard the vibration come from the next room. Of course, only she heard it. She always tuned in when she was down this far into the research labs. As soon as she mentioned it, she was rushed into a room where she met Director Nick Fury, who of course questioned her about everything from her mothers' maiden name to the origin of her heightened senses. Everything after that was history. She was assigned to work with Bruce Banner and his team to figure out what was going on. She had been told that Banner's team included Tony Stark, but she had yet to meet him. Bruce informed her that it wasn't really anything to cry about.
The other scientist's voice pulled her from her reverie. "I don't understand how you do it," he said, "I never would have thought of this in a million years. The question is, how do we apply it to the real situation? I know it can be done…" He trailed off. Valerie furrowed her brow. She hadn't thought about how the equation could work, she just knew it did. It had to do with how the Tesseract transported matter across time and space, and it was all there, but Valerie honestly didn't know if having an equation helped at all.
"Well, guess we'll just make that the next step," She responded. Banner grinned at her before setting the notebook on his desk in the corner. He sat down and focused on the yellow paper in front of him. Valerie walked over to help one of the other scientists across the room that looked like she was struggling with the holographic diagram maker.
The man waited in the shadows for almost eight hours. He would have thought he had missed her, had that even been feasible. Finally, at 7:45 in the evening he spotted that horrible crimson color bobbing out of the ever growing crowd. Really, could that be her natural hair color? He supposed it was poetic, in a way. It could have been blood, or a sunset. But to him it just looked horrible with that orange shirt.
He trailed behind her. Close, but far enough away that he could duck into a crevice somewhere should she become suspicious and turn around. Luckily, this woman seemed to have better things to worry about than being followed. Foolish, really. Had the man had less than honorable intentions, it would have been too easy to get the upper hand. She was small, and thin. She looked more like a child than a woman. The freckles dusting across her nose and cheeks and the cuffed up pants certainly did not help.
How could any one be interested in this frail being? What threat did she pose? Why is it so important that he be the one to watch her every move?
Finally, Valerie breathed a sigh of relief as she reached her apartment. She fumbled around for a little bit before finding her keychain in the depths of her bag. Really, she needed a lanyard or something. It would make finding her keys so much easier. She unlocked the door and used her hip to knock it open before gracefully hitting her head on the frame.
"God fucking damnit," She exclaimed, "Ow, ow, ow, shit," She continued to grumble as she entered her kitchen and put her bag on the black counter top.
"Hit your head again?" A male voice behind her asked. Valerie turned to glare at the source of the remark.
"Well if you had fixed the god damn door to where I didn't have to use a battering ram to get it open we wouldn't have this problem," She retorted.
He raised a dark eyebrow and leaned in the doorway to the living room. "So your hips are battering rams now?" He teased.
Valerie's jaw dropped. "You- That's not- Jerk!" She went to brush past him but he grabbed her in an embrace.
"You love me anyway," He joked.
"Whatever."
As he held Valerie in his arms, Loki turned his sharp blue eyes to the window behind her. If he did not take care of this little problem, everything would be ruined. The illusion must be retained. This human was his only ticket to the Tesseract, and he would be damned if anyone was taking that away from him.
AN: Hope you guys liked that introduction to Valerie and Loki! I've had this story swimming around in my head for a while, so we'll see where it ends up going. Please review! I'd love to hear your thoughts!