The Thunder God marched through the hospital doors with a colossal bang, the sound echoing in his wake. Bring on the security guards, he thought, eyes glowering at a passing - more retreating - doctor challengingly. With his armour, hammer, and murderous expression, he doubted anything could stop him.
The woman at the desk had almost had a heart attack when he'd demanded the location of his beloved, earning it seconds. The clerk had leafed through her technology as if her life depended on it.
Someone's may have, but not hers. Thor didn't hit women.
The unmistakable form of Pepper Potts was pacing outside the allotted room, confirming that Thor had the right place. Her eyes were wide when she caught sight of him.
"Thor, I'm so sorry!" she blurted, looking out of her mind with panic. Her usually perfect hair was ruffled on one side, her hands twisting after she'd pulled one down from gnawing at her thumb. She closed the gap between her and Thor as the thunderous god stormed closer. "I don't know what happened. We were just out shopping and-"
"I care not." he said darkly, sweeping her aside with as much delicacy as his raging emotions would allow. It was enough to keep her on her feet at least.
He was suprised his glowering gaze didn't burn holes in the wooden door that sealed his beloved from view as he approached, a logical voice in his head reminding him not to simply break down the structure in his impatience. Something cracked as his fist closed around the door knob. He didn't knock, he didn't wait - he strode straight inside without hesitation.
His scouring blue eyes found Jane in the hospital bed in a heartbeat.
"Jane."
He was at her side in seconds, Mjolnir falling to the floor with a thud that twanged somewhere between metallic and magical.
Thor wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but was relieved that he found her as she was. No blood, no expression of pain - just round, bright eyes, hands twisting nervously in her lap. She looked almost innocent! Her gaze dented hard when she saw him. Thor could practically see her heart sink. Mercifully, she still wore her day clothes and not the ghastly hospital gown she'd been made to wear for the D&C.
Good, Thor thought as his fingers claimed hers, kneeling at her bedside. A fleeting visit. His eyes screened over her face all the same, searching for a trace of illness or ailment that harmed his Jane.
"You can't just walk in here!" a voice on the other side of the bed protested. "Not without the express permission of my patient."
Thor's suddenly deadly glower lifted to the man who challenged his presence. He hadn't even noticed the doctor before then. The young man flinched slightly under the god's viscious glare, staggering back a step and bearing his palms as much as the clipboard he held would allow.
"It's okay." Jane said quickly to the young man. "I'm going anyway." She turned her gaze back to her blazing boyfriend, squeezing his fingers just a tad tighter to reassure him.
Thor's hard gaze didn't ease up.
The god's heart softened slightly at Jane's small - albeit nervous and somewhat embarrassed - smile, but it took a few more moments of glaring to put the young man back in his place. Finally, the sensible voice in Thor's head decided to let the doctor stay.
Thor tore his gaze back to Jane's face, hand lifting to cup her cheek. She leaned into the warm touch instantly, letting Thor's concerned blue orbs flitter over every inch of her. His brow furrowed sligtly: she looked paler than he remembered. Worryingly so.
"Miss Potts said you collapsed." he murmured numbly, thumb brushing stray stands of dark hair from her face.
Jane nodded, her gaze quickly averting as her legs started to squirm.
Thor wasn't in a patient mood: his hand found her thigh and gently pinned it down over the sheet. She wasn't going anywhere. "What happened?"
He didn't miss the way she gulped, moving her hand to thread her fingers with his over her cheek as if to hold him there. That made him more than anxious: what on Earth was she going to tell him?
"It's not that big a deal." she finally said after sucking in a deep breath. Her gaze was calmer than Thor had expected it to be when she lifted it to his. "I called Pepper after you left so I didn't have to be on my own. We went shopping and... " her brow furrowed slightly as if she struggled to remember it. "I just swooned. It was weird..." she mused, more to herself than to him. "I never faint, not for anything."
For a moment, all Thor did was stare, drinking it in. She made it sound so ... harmless. Her eyes lifted timidly up to his and she shrugged. Shrugged. Thor's eye twitched - how could she be so carefree about this?!
Then a low rumble left his chest. "Jane Foster, you fool." he growled, hand easing her face forward to press his mouth hard over hers.
Pulling away was harder than he anticipated.
"You're wife had low blood sugar levels when she came in." the doctor chipped in, drawing the couples attention simultaneously. "Have you been eating properly, Mrs Foster?"
The god's gaze drained along with the colour in his face, jaw falling open numbly.
"Miss Foster." Jane corrected with pinkening cheeks, glancing at the stunned Thor beside her. "We ... um... we're not married."
Yet, Thor sensed belonged on the end of that stammering sentence. He was still too baffled to voice it aloud though. His gaze lowered to hover over Jane and the embarrassed smile that stretched her lips. She was smiling. Jane smiling was such a rare occurance nowadays Thor couldn't help but think it looked strange on her face.
Her eyes were down on her lap, before she finally pressed her lips together and lifted them up to the doctor again. "And I have been eating right. Haven't I, Thor?"
The god merely pulled a face. He wouldn't say right; he'd say better. True, she'd been eating more regularly and more healthily - greatly influenced by Peppers donated reserves - but her eating habits were still not up to a standard he was happy with. He knew she ate at least one solid meal a day, and that in itself was an improvement from a few months ago.
But there were some days, he remembered. Day's when he'd wake up and she'd say she'd already had breakfast while he'd been asleep. Or when he'd come home and she'd said she'd had lunch with Pepper.
Those days worried him. But he was too afraid of her progress reverting in anger to confront her.
In his heart though, he knew she was lying.
A subtle smirk flickered over the doctor's lips. "I'm sorry for the confusion." His twinkling eyes didn't look sorry at all. "Have you been taking part of any strenuous activity, lately then? Any stress?"
The blush on Jane's cheeks flushed scarlet. Thor simply grinned - strenuous activity was one way of describing it, he thought.
Jane's fingers twisted awkwardly in his, but he refused to let them go. "We've ..." her eyes flickered to Thor, but he simply lifted his eyebrows at her suggestively.
He liked this doctor after all, the god decided. He'd managed to get his Jane to smile. And somehow, she wasn't angry! Or irritable. It was heartwarming to see his Jane so relaxed. Well - not relaxed exactly, tensing and squirming out of pure embarrassment as her cheeks flamed. Thor loved it all the same, the adrenaline from his anger melting into unfathomable adoration for the woman in the bed. He felt like he had his Jane back at last, the woman he fell in love with revived.
"We've been trying for a, um..." her head lowered and the word 'baby' was almost inaudible as she murmured.
Thor's hand found it's way back to her cheek and guided her to him for a quick kiss. God, he loved her all over again. He'd missed this softer side of her. And the colour of her cheeks was a stark, comforting difference to her chalk paleness of before.
His lips stilled as ice washed through his veins. What was he doing? Flashes of her earlier appearance shot through his head and his stomach knotted sickeningly with guilt. Jane was in hospital after collapsing, and he was happy? He cursed himself for his carelessness.
His hand slipped from her cheek numbly, his gaze falling to his chest.
Guilt and remorse that he knew should not rightfully belong to him kneaded through his system. "If I had stayed, could this have been avoided?" he asked quietly.
Something else that was his fault. Not only could he not give her a child, he was now putting her in hospital too. He should have been there. He should have stayed with her that morning - he hadn't even wanted to go to Stark Tower in the first place! He'd just been too bored with the sight of the inside of the apartment to bear it anymore. If only he'd gritted his teeth and got on with it. Or just taken Jane with him! Would that have been so hard?
He wasn't sure who'd he'd even asked the question to, but it was the doctor that answered him: "I don't think so." he said softly, trying his best to be reassuring. As reassuring you can be when the comfortee in question is coated in armour and was weilding a hulking great hammer when he walked through the door!
Thor lifted his gaze, eyes bearing hard into those of the doctor. His fist clenched at his side. "Then what caused this?"
The doctor's eyes moved across to Jane. "How have you been sleeping?"
Jane shifted awkwardly in the bed, hand rising to rub the back of her neck guiltily. "Not consistently," she confessed slowly, avoiding the doctor's eye. "But when I do sleep I sleep well."
It was a bad, growing habit. Buzzed with frustration one day and crippled with it the next. She ended up staying awake for days at a time while Thor kept up a sensisble routine, only for her body to crash soon after, sending her into an almost comatose state for the rest of the week. It was becoming too regular to go unnoticed anymore. Thor had warned her.
His dark gaze reminded her of that.
"I should have taken better care of you." he growled to himself, rising to his feet out of Jane's reach.
Her fingers reached for his armour instantly. "Thor..."
He shook his head darkly and peeled her away.
So that was it, the god thought to himself, staggering back a step: her lack of food and sleep had caused her fall. And he'd done nothing to stop it. He felt numb. He'd known Jane was far from perfect when it came to her eating and sleeping... but he never anticipated it would leave her in hospital! When had it gotten so severe? He hated himself for not doing more, for not being more insistent.
Suddenly, petit hands cupped his face and Jane filled his vision. He frowned again - when had she left the bed? His hand hovered at the small of her back, ready to catch her if she faltered. She looked as steady as a rock though.
"Thor, look at me." she demanded softly. Thor reluctantly complied, lifting his wounded blue eyes to her solid brown ones. "It's not your fault, okay." she told him. "It's just something that happened. We know what happened now and we can stop it. I'll eat whatever you tell me to and I'll sleep, I promise."
She leaned up to try and peck a kiss on his lips, but he was too tall and she came no where near close. She wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him in for a hug instead.
"Miss Foster, would you object to further testing?"
Jane peeled her head from Thor's chest and twisted slightly in his arms, frowning. "What sort of testing?" she asked tentatively.
She wasn't the only one suspicious: Thor's hand tightened noticably at her waist, head jerking upright again. His sharp eyes bore into the doctor.
"You're notes say you had a D&C." the young man explained unfazed. "If you're not convinced that your eating habits were responsible for your collapse, then it might be possible some tissue was left behind from the procedure and your body is having a negative reaction to it. It would be simple to check if you'd be willing. And if you have been struggling physically, your body many not have had the strength to expell it naturally."
Jane blinked, eyes roaming round in thought. "I have been getting cramps." she murmured, as if to herself. Then her eyes snapped to the doctor. "Is that what it's been?"
Her eyes flickered worriedly to Thor's, catching his concerned blue orbs. His hand lifted to stroke a thumb over her cheek tenderly. "You never told me this." he murmured.
She shrugged again. Thor wished she wouldn't do that; shrug as if it were nothing. "I didn't want to worry you." Her eyes flickered back over her shoulder at the doctor, questioningly. "I've had them for the last three weeks or so. Is that what it is?"
"Possibly." The doctor said calmly. "If that is the case it would explain why you've been struggling to conceive. It is important that we make sure everything has indeed gone. It might only be a tiny bit left and that might be why it's taken so long to be noticed, but if it's left there it will become toxic." He paused for a moment, letting the information sink in before he continued. "It would take just a quick ultrasound to rule it out."
Jane looked to Thor nervously.
XXX
"It won't hurt." the doctor reassured. "The gel might feel a bit cold though."
Jane tensed as a light chill touched the skin of her abdomen, teeth gritting together in a silent hiss. Her shirt was rolled up to her ribs, the ready and waiting ultrasound machine humming lightly beside the head of her bed. Thor sat in a chair at her side, hand holding hers tightly.
His jaw was stiff.
"Are you mad at me?" Jane asked quietly, her eyes gleaming as they rolled round to him.
The god didn't move, and Jane wondered if he'd even heard her. Finally, a heavy sigh left his lips. "I'm not angry with you Jane." he eventually growled, eyes staying averted. "I am angry with myself."
"It wasn't your fault, Thor. I'm fine." she gasped with a light smile, begging for him to accept it. He stayed blank. "Just a little tired and undernourished. And if there's something missed from the D&C it could be some sort of infection or-"
"Jane." Thor's eyes screwed shut, and Jane shut her mouth with them. His quiet tone wasn't one to be reckoned with.
There was nothing she could say, she realised, letting her eyes roll miserably to the ceiling above her. God, she was stupid, she cursed in her head. Depriving herself of food and sleep wasn't exactly something she was alien to but she never imagined it would go this far! Her mind scoured back to when Thor first left her, all that time back in New Mexico. She hardly ate or slept then for nearly four months and had managed to torturously survive, free of the hospital. And again when Thor had been in New York, refusing to tend to herself while her god was in danger.
But this time was different, she told herself. It had to have something to do with the miscarriage. It was the only thing her logic could pinpoint to. Especially as she'd tried - genuinely tried to eat and sleep properly.
"I'm sorry." she mumbled, heart sinking coldly.
Thor said nothing back, pulling her knuckles to his lips in a chaste kiss. Then he found a spot on the wall and lost himself to thought again: he was starting to wonder if bringing her to Earth had done more harm than good. But if beind home didn't help her heal, he didn't know what else to try. He was at his wits end.
"Right," the doctor sighed, moving the transducer to nudge over Jane's exposed stomach. The gel spread cleanly over her abdomen. "Let's see if there's anything to worry about."
Jane's eyes rolled back to Thor as the doctor roamed the probe over her body, squeezing his fingers. He squeezed back, but didn't turn his head.
Her heart bled.
"Well, there's something in there all right." the doctor finally murmured, eyes glued on the screen that was turned just far enough to be out of comfortable view of the couple. A light frown touched his brow as he probed on, but neither Jane nor Thor looked at him to see it.
The words were enough: Jane groaned, spare hand moving to her face. "Do I have to do the D&C again?"
Thor's heart clenched in his chest and he couldn't help himself squeezing Jane's fingers a little tighter. She returned it firmly. He remembered how much she'd hated the D&C the first time around; he wasn't looking forward to reliving that again, for either of their sakes. He promised himself he'd do better this time though. He'd be there for her and he'd do whatever he needed to to keep her well.
His mind swam with a list of food he intended to buy for her to keep her eating. And flowers, he thought. He'd get her flowers. Films and books to help her pass the time of her recovery, while he'd hold her hand all the while.
The doctor shook his head. "Quite the opposite."
That caught Thor's attention. The frown was already firmly in place as he snapped his gaze to the doctor, still gazing down at the screen. "I thought you said she would need this procedure." his voice was stiff and cold. He may not want to put Jane through the trauma of the experience again, but he was sure it was a damned sight better than the tissue within becoming toxic.
Slowly, the doctor moved the transducer from Jane's body and placed it down beside the monitor. Jane watched him, puzzled.
His eyes found her at last, eyebrows lifted. "You didn't do any tests while trying for a baby, Miss Foster?"
Jane's mouth dropped open for a moment before the words finally came out. "I didn't see the point." she admitted, her heart clenching with anxiety. She could feel Thor's hand tight around hers, his mind too starting to decode the doctor's words. "I thought there was no way I could be pregnant because of the cramps and the fact I wasn't being sick..." she trailed off numbly.
"Dizziness is a common symptom for early pregnancy," the doctor picked up. "Actual fainting isn't. However, these symptoms are often heightened when the mother is carrying multiples."
Thor's heart thudded hard in his chest. "Speak plainly." he demanded, holding Jane's hand so tight he was sure he must be crushing it.
The doctor eased back in his chair from over Jane's body and slowly rolled the monitor screen round, til it was easily in the couples view. "You're pregnant." he said bluntly. Jane and Thor's eyes clapped on the screen. "With twins."
Silence washed through the room, as Jane and Thor's widening eyes scoured over the monitor: amongst the mottled grey background of Jane's womb, were two small but very much distinct black ovals. They were tiny. So small they were almost undetectable, but to Thor and Jane they stood out like stars in the night sky. Thor knew he had limitted knowledge of Earth technology, but if what the doctor was saying was true, he could have a pretty fair guess as to what the screen was showing him.
A smile gasped over his face. They'd done it, he thought, numb with flooding happiness, they'd really done it. All the months of trying and frustration had paid off in double - literally! He made a mental note to emphasise this to Stark when he saw him, recounting his suggestion about Thor's 'problem'; now he had not one, but two babies to prove his capabilities.
He ran a hand over his mouth to hide it, hardly daring to believe his eyes.
Beside him, Jane was similarly gormless: her mouth just gaped at the monitor, drinking in the sight of the black dots as if she couldn't believe they were really there. She couldn't even think coherently.
"It takes a lot of energy to make twins." the doctor smirked in amusement at the couples stunned reaction. Neither could peel their eyes away from the monitor to look at him. "And if you've not been eating and sleeping, and your body was as weak as it was already... it's no wonder you passed out, Miss Foster. You're lucky it even shows on the scan. They're not normally visible until five or six weeks. You must be quite far along already."
Finally, Jane's head started to shake from side to side. "But.. I don't understand." she eventually forced out in a squeaking voice. "Last time I was throwing up like mad and everything."
"Pregnancy changes, Miss Foster. You probably have that to look forward to in the next few weeks actually. The cramps are nothing to be alarmed at either - though it is important you start eating properly, for the sake of you and the babies."
A flittering smile suddenly blossomed over Jane's lips uncontrollably, matching Thor's beside her at last. "Babies..." Plural. Wow, she gasped in her head.