After Thor left, I started walking. The time difference between the two states would make it around 3 am in New York. It occurred to me that Central Park was probably not the safest of places to be in the wee hours of the morning, so I made my way to the nearest exit.

Just as the western exit came into view, a tall, imposing figure stepped onto the path ten feet in front of me. I stopped walking, startled, then made a run for the exit. The figure caught me and spun me around to face it.

"And what," a British accent asked, " would a young woman like yourself be doing out here at such a dangerous time of night?"

It was really dark, and I couldn't see the man's face, but I got a weird feeling in my gut that I was in danger. I answered his question with an elbow into his solar plexus. He grunted, letting go and doubling over. As his head went down, I brought my knee up and hit him in the face. He snapped back up and fell backwards onto his arse.

I didn't stop to think. I grabbed the bag I had dropped when he had stopped me and ran for it, sprinting faster than I ever had before. I got out of the park, and quickly hailed a cab. I didn't look back until I was safely seated in the back of the cab. As the car drove away, I turned and looked over my shoulder at the park entrance. A tall man, with dark hair and a pale face, was standing almost exactly where I had been. A trail of blood ran from his nose. I whirled back around, realizing what I had just done.

Thor's powers certainly were something to be happy about. There was no way I could have run as fast as I had or hit as hard if I was at normal strength. Needless to say, I was feeling good about myself. It was easy to see now why Thor had been so arrogant in the beginning. Anyone with that amount of strength would be.

The taxi took me to the apartment building I had spent my high school days in. When I moved out to New Mexico, my parents had remained in it until their untimely deaths in a car accident. Unable to cope with the grief, I returned to New York, briefly, to attend their funeral. Then, I plunged into my research, hoping to ease the pain of loss with the numbing calculations of astrophysics. Jane had been there for me all the way, and so had Darcy. That was when we had become close.

Pulling out of my reverie, I grabbed the cash I had stowed in my backpack and paid the driver. I got out of the cab, and hurried up to the top floor of the apartment building. I slid my hand along the top of the door frame until my fingers grazed a metal key. I grabbed it and unlocked the door.

I went inside and turned on the light. The apartment was far nicer and more spacious than the dung hole I had been in back in New Mexico. I made my way into the kitchen and opened the stainless steel refrigerator. To my surprise, there were a few cans of beer. Wow. I hadn't expected that.

I grabbed a can and opened it. I turned back around and went down the hall that led to the bedrooms. I entered my old bedroom, rolling my eyes at the NSYNC posters I had pretty much worshiped as a teenager. Oh well.

I went straight to bed, peeling off my jeans and slipping under the covers. In the morning I would have to find a job, but I didn't let that bother me. I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

I was running -faster than I ever had- down a long corridor. Something was chasing me. What? I wasn't sure. Steady footsteps sounded behind me. It felt like no matter how hard I ran, they got closer, never breaking their pace. The end of the hallway approached and my heart felt like it was going to leap from my chest. I sprinted for the end, but my legs gave out just as I reached the entrance. I fell down, hard. I looked behind me, searching for my pursuer.

A tall, pale man with dark hair walked steadily towards me. I automatically recognized him as the man I had seen standing on the side of the road. He reached for me, and I struggled, moving myself away from him by using my elbows to pull me forward, military style.

"Why are you running?" I heard his voice ask me. It wasn't concerned, but chillingly evil. I kept going, scared to death to look back at him. "Are you afraid, little girl?"

Little girl? I was twenty-five. Why on earth was he calling me that?

I felt him sharply grab me by the ankle, and pull me back towards him. When he pulled me from my feet to face him, I barely had time to see his face. My crystal blue eyes met dark blue ones.

I woke with a start. I lay in bed for a time before looking at my watch. It read eleven a.m. I got out of bed, got dressed with the clothes from my backpack, and made my way down the hall. I had a little bit of cereal in my bag still, as well as a granola bar. I poured myself a glass of water, then chowed down on my breakfast. I looked across the room and out the sliding glass door that led to the balcony.

I needed a job. I wasn't sure what I could do. I had majored in Physics in college, but I didn't think I could find anyone hiring in that arena in New York City. I cupped my chin in my right hand, propping my elbow on the table. I would just have to buckle down and take what I could get.

I went downstairs and bought a newspaper. I sat down and looked through it, scanning the employment opportunities section. There was a waitress opening, which I automatically disregarded. I had heard too many stories about the harassment of waitresses in lower class food industry. Plus there just wasn't something right about an astrophysicist working as a waitress.

I kept searching. Nanny, accountant, secretary, journalist for the National Enquirer, and radio talk show host. Out of all of the options, secretary and accountant sounded the most tolerable. The secretary position was located in an upper class part of town at a law firm, and the accountant position was at some dentist office.

I showered and pulled part of my hair back. I took a deep breath as I entered my parents' room. I needed a business suit. I knew my mother had had several, and I hoped that the clothing would still be there. Sure enough, I opened the closet to find a row of clothing. I walked to the end to find four suit sets. I selected a navy blue one with a white collared shirt to go underneath. It was just my size. Damn. I was one lucky girl.

I got dressed, and made my way to the street below. I got a cab and gave it directions to the law firm. After sitting in twenty minutes of traffic, I made it to the law office. It was a towering skyscraper that jutted into the sky.

I walked into the front lobby and checked in at the front desk. The security guard directed me to the top level of the building, saying that I would interview up there.

I walked into the elevator, and selected floor 25. I nearly jumped out of my skin when the mirror-like door closed and a man appeared in the reflection beside me. The elevator had been empty when I had entered, and no one had followed me in. I looked to my right to face the dark haired man from my dream.

He was dressed in a black business suit, and he was leaning against his side of the elevator with his arms crossed and an interested look in his eye. I looked back to the buttons on my side of the elevator. We were only on floor five. "I see I'm not the only one with special powers," he said quietly. "I was quite taken aback by our little meeting in the park last night." I recognized the chilling voice automatically. My heart beat faster. What was I going to do? He acted like he wanted to continue, but the doors opened and three men in business suits entered the elevator, separating him from me. I breathed out a sigh of relief. No one would dare hurt me in an elevator full of people.

My floor approached just as the elevator stopped at floor 23. The doors opened and the men filed out. The dark-haired man stayed. The doors closed again.

"You may want to watch it around me, though. I can be dangerous, or so I'm told." He cut his eyes over to me. "Tell me, what is your name?"

I cut my eyes back at him. "What business of it is yours?"

He laughed at this. "None at all really, but I will find out eventually." At that, the doors opened at floor twenty five and I walked out. "Be careful, Love," he muttered under his breath. I didn't turn back.

That was the first time I realized that I had caught the attention –I wasn't sure if it was good or bad- of Loki.