So here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy. And thanks for everyone who had reviewed it definitly makes me want to upload faster.

Thor's Gift

Chapter Four

It took two weeks before the doctors released Valerie for active duty. Natasha, however, believed that it was because Valerie was driving them nuts with being so restless. And Barton just smiled and never said a word when he visited her throughout the day. Nevertheless, Valerie was happy when she found Barton at the shooting range with his bow after being released. Knowing that sneaking up on someone when practicing with their weapon was never a good idea, she walked loudly. Stomping her feet, louder than necessary, as she walked from the door to stop a few feet behind him. When he released his arrow, he glanced behind him, only to find Valerie with a beaming smile standing there. Lowering his bow, he looked her up and down, "I see that your healthy enough to be let out of the infirmary."

"Healthy enough for active duty," she told him with a smile as she stepped closer. "Besides I think I annoyed them enough to be considered healthy." She told him fingering his bow with interest.

"That being said, I think you not being annoy means that your not well," he told her as he moved behind her and put the bow in her left hand.

"Hey!"

With a chuckle, he stood behind her, his back pressed against her. Raising her arm that held his bow, he leveled her out. Taking an arrow from his quiver he snapped it in place, before raising her right hand and gripped the string. "Take deep breaths," he whispered into her ear. He could feel her shoulders raise and then fall with each breath, and he moved matching his breathing with hers. Placing his hand over both of hers he fixed her position but didn't let go. "Pull back nice and smooth…as if caressing the back of your lover." He again whispered into her ear. His breath upon her neck and ear sent shivers down her back.

When his thumb was at her jaw bone closest to her ear, he held her there, "Take a deep breath and hold. Aim and then release." The string slipped from their fingers, and flew through the air and embedded itself into the target. Standing straight they stared at the target. "Was that where you were aiming?"

"Nope! Let try again," A smile played at her lips, at the thought of him wrapped around her even if it was only to show her how to shot.

"So where are we going," Valerie asked as Barton drove down the road following two other cars.

"Somewhere in New Mexico. Coulson wants us there specifically."

"Oww fun. All sun." Her tone completely dry.

"I know you don't like the heat and the sun, but at least it's dry and not humid."

"It's the heat I don't like. That's what happens when you grow up in the Northwest. It rains 300 days out the year, and if it does get sunny, there's so much moisture in the air it becomes suffocating." Valerie explained with a sigh before she leaned her head against the window and looked out at the scenery that flashed by since Barton was going well over the speed limit.

"Well hopefully we won't be here for very long." He told and then concentrated on the road in front of them. Looking over at him, she found him with a furled brow and pressed lips making them into a thin. "You know if you want to ask something you can, I'll tell you if I don't want to answer."

Silence followed her for a few minutes and she wondered if she had read him wrong. It was hard to read him in the first place since he always kept his face blank of emotion, but she could usually tell by his eyes when something was bothering him. She figured that only Natasha and her were the only ones who were able to decipher what he was feeling and thinking.

"Since the shower incident, I was wondering how…well…how do you, you know…take a shower?" His words stumbled out, completely showing how uncomfortable he was asking but also how curious he was as well.

She looked at him hard for a few seconds; let what he asked settle down before she told him. "Sponge bath," he gulped, and she continued, "Everyday right before I go to bed." She watched him gulp again, and a small smile played at her lips. Looking back out the window, she became more interested in where they were when they pulled onto a dirt road. "Growing up was hard. I couldn't really shower because I would short out in the shower. So my mom would always have to take a shower with me. But now that I'm older and my powers are stronger, that won't even work. As you said before 'the shower incident' is what happens now."

"So what do you do if it rains?" He asked as he glanced over at her and found her staring out the window with a far off look on her face. He had noticed that every time she talked about her mother, she would look like that, and he took it as that she missed her mother. The woman that had been there for her even when she had these powers. The woman that protected her for twenty four years. "Val?" His much used nickname for her, grabbed her attention.

"Sorry. Rain is like the sponge bath. There are still a current but not enough to hurt me or anyone else. Now if I were to lie on saturated ground then we would have a problem." She paused and tried to figure out of she should tell him the rest. If she should tell him the one weakness that would give Fury a way of controlling her. She trusted him with her life and to have her back, even more than Natasha. But did she trust him enough with that secret?

"Was your father like you?" He asked and for the first time asking about him.

"I never knew my father," she told him truthfully. "My mom told me that he was beautiful, and that we have the same personality traits. But she never told me if he was like me. Growing up, I always wished that if he did then it would be the same because then I would have some sort of connection with him. But I don't know, she died before she could tell me exactly who my father was."

"I sorry to have brought him up," he told with an apologetic smile.

"No, it's alright. It was nice to talk about him with someone for once." She told him trying to reassure him that having to talk about her father wasn't a bad thing.

The car slowed, and when she looked back out the window she found that the area already had been set up. That a temporary plastic tarp building was up and surrounding whatever was there. When a car stopped, she stepped out and followed Barton to the command center. A man in a dark suit with short dark hair stood behind some people looking at the screens. When he turned around his face was calm and didn't show a single surprise when he saw the two of them walking towards him.

"Good you two are here."

"What do we have?" Barton asked as he became a solider again. Walking away from them and towards what appeared to be a viewing around, she found herself looking down at what appeared to be a hammer sticking out of the ground. As she took in the appearance she found herself thinking back to the Norse Mythology book she was reading before. Mjӧlnir. Thor's hammer, that's what it reminded her of. And as she watched the hammer she noticed that a triquetra symbol was on the side of the head. And as she watched, it slowly disappeared.

"I've never seen anything like this," someone said beside her. Looking over she found Coulson standing there beside her. "Agent Phil Coulson by the way."

"Valerie Dwayne, it's nice to finally meet you."

"It's a pleasure as well. Have you seen anything like this before?"

"In a book, yes." When he looked at her in surprise, she continued, "It was in a Norse Mythology book that I was reading. It showed a picture of a hammer that only one man could use. The hammer was called Mjӧlnir."

"Who was the man?"

"Thor." Silence filled the area around them before she spoke up again, "I better go find Barton to see if he needs me to do anything. Excuse me?" With a nod, she left and walked around the area, looking at each person that she passed, memorizing their faces.

Without even knowing where she was going, she found Barton. He was looking at their weapon supply. She watched as he found a bow, and then tested it out. Fingering the string and checking the arrow heads. With a chuckle, she stepped forward, and said in a teasing tone, "Seems like you found a new friend."

He looked at her with mock hurt playing across his face, before it disappeared and was replaced with a genuine smile. "It's not as good as my own but it'll do if I have to use it."

"Are you kidding, nothing is as good as your bow. Your bow is just pure awesome." She told him with a look of glee written across her face, which caused him to laugh again, and throw his arm around her shoulders as he continued laughing.

"Well if you love my bow so much, when we get back I'll let you hold it." He told as he let her go and put the bow back on the rack.

But what he didn't notice was the small smirk on her lips, "It's not just the bow that I want." She told him as she turned and was walking away before he could ever reply back.

Please review! It helps, really.