Hey all my lovely ones- guess who's back, back, back?! I finally got my ass into gear, I have been having a hard time since starting school in February and honestly I forgot how much I missed my fanfictions. I have a new account for a new batch of works based in the Batman: Dark Knight Trilogy fandom and are JOKER centric fics. My first story up is Dawn of the Triad and my penname is queenofthecards so go check it out and let me know! The first two chapters are rough and missing a few bits and pieces as I have finally grounded my idea but without a beta I sort have to go back and really work on them.
Music listened to while writing lately: Emphatic's What Are You Afraid Of, Pride, Do I. Five Finger Death Punch's Far From Home, Coming Down, The Bleeding, Remember Everything and My Darkest Days' Perfect and Every Lie. I encourage you to check those three bands out if you've never heard of them.
I also am still working on Unconditionally the main story of Sigyn's Temptation for Loki/Sigyn and Bittersweet Fandral/OC.
Anyway my lovelies, I hope you enjoy this new and very late chapter. I humbly beg for forgiveness. Reviews are welcomed with much love and virtual cookies. The support for this fic has surprisingly not dwindled and you have no idea how much I love all my readers, reviewers, favouriters, etc. You are my rock.
Enough with my rambling, on with the chapter!
Chapter Five
When she stepped through her apartment door and kicked her shoes off, Rachel's mind was still half side-tracked by the memory of Loki. The distraction caused her to almost run into the hallway table. Just a few hours past from parting ways with him at the hospital and she was still wondering if it had been the best idea leaving him there on his own.
All she could think about was what had happened to him. Though he didn't seem to recall even the most basic of details aside from his name, Loki looked like he'd had everything shattered about him. He'd resembled a lost puppy looking for a home or somewhere to fit in.
If only I could've taken such a handsome stray in, she mused, before telling herself she sounded like a complete fool.
What if he was a killer on the run? No, she scratched that idea quickly for the simple fact being no one in the hospital had recognised him. It wouldn't seem logical that anyone on the run for murder would go unnoticed-
"Ahh!" she whined, smacking her cheek lightly as she collapsed onto the couch in the living room. An arm covered her eyes as her body sunk into the cool cushions.
"What's wrong with you?" Andrew grunted as he nudged the door shut with his foot, arms filled with their bags.
Huffing, she raised herself up and leaned against the back of the couch. "I can't stop thinking that maybe I should have helped him more. You know, like found out if he had any family that he could've gone and stayed with. I just-"
"Stop fretting girl, he'll be fine I'm sure of it," Andrew interrupted as he dumped the bags down behind the couch. He playfully fell over the back of it, landing in her lap.
She giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck as they sat there in silence for a few moments. As soon as she became content cuddling her friend from behind, Loki popped into her head.
Rachel sighed, letting go of Andrew as she spoke, "I can't. I feel terrible. Terrible as in I just saw the most adorable puppy with the saddest eyes in the pet shop window and didn't bring him home."
Andrew chuckled. "Oh so he is an adorable puppy with sad eyes?"
Realising just how she had described Loki, Rachel felt her cheeks turn bright red in embarrassment. "Well, sort of," she mumbled and saw Andrew grin broadly, prompting her to hit him across the shoulder. "Well he did!"
She thought back to those wide, haunting pale-green eyes and wished she had brought him with her, just so she could stare into those beautiful eyes whenever she liked.
"Look, Rach, don't feel bad in the least, alright? I am sure he will be more than fine," Andrew remarked.
Exhausted by the events of last night and earlier that morning, she was in no mood for weak reassurances. "You know he kissed my hand-twice!" she squeaked. "It was like it was so natural to him. I couldn't believe it."
"Are you for real?" She nodded. "Damn!"
"I know," she remarked. "It was so strange and yet so, I don't know, attractive in a classic Jane Austen or Alexandre Dumas type of way. He didn't even need to do it."
Andrew laughed and shook his head. "How 'bout some tea, darlin'?" he inquired in a very fake British accent which made her giggle.
"Tea would be wonderful, my love," she replied, in just as fake of an accent and watched as he got up and headed for the kitchen.
She wriggled back down onto the couch and sighed, hands clenching together as she tried to think of something to take her mind off her guilt of just leaving Loki on his own.
Loki felt his head spin for the umpteenth time and he fought hard to keep himself conscious. His powers were so weak that even the smallest amount of use left him drenched from head to toe in sweat and beyond exhausted. His body was aching in places he didn't know existed, that he felt like he had no bones to support himself.
With his head lulled to the side against the back of the seat, Loki was barely awake enough to watch the mortal world passing by him.
"How much further?" he inquired of the driver.
Finding such a mode of transport hadn't been too difficult once he had seen the mortals' way of obtaining it. With a simple whistle, he had achieved a way of getting around until he could regain the full extent of powers.
"Not very far sir, about ten minutes."
He grimaced. Such slow form of transportation irritated him with great disdain. It was no wonder the race of men were so slow in their advancements over the ages.
Loki was only looking forward to one thing at the end of this long, arduous trip: seeing the mortal woman Rachel Dawlish. He had not been intrigued by mortals and their ways for centuries, but Rachel…she was another story.
Andrew left after making her some tea due to his phone ringing non-stop. His partner was a very impatient person and did not exactly like that Rachel got all of Andrew's time, should she need it.
She now sat on the floor before her numerous DVD cabinets, ready to curl up and watch a movie before she collapsed into bed and had to face work tomorrow.
The storm from last night had returned but with must less force than it had previously held, thankfully that meant the power would stay on. It made noon feel like it was almost midnight. It was absolutely beautiful in her opinion.
Sitting with her feet crossed under her, Rachel scanned her mass array of films. Each section of her DVD cabinet was organized by genre or a certain studio that produced it. For example all her Disney films were in a cabinet together and alphabetized while her television series' were in another cabinet and as she looked over them, she decided on what she wanted to watch.
Xena: Warrior Princess.
Smiling at the memories that brought back of her trying to do flips and kicks around her home as a girl, Rachel opened up the cabinet and pulled out the first season's case.
As she stood up and opened her DVD player, she heard the buzzer go off for downstairs. Frowning, she figured Andrew much have forgotten something and headed into the hallway to the intercom.
Pressing the button, she answered.
"Hey Andy, did you leave something behind?" she snickered, unable to pass up an opportunity to tease him. "Or are you on the lamb from your boy toy and wanna hide out here for the day as was planned?"
Silence met her and she frowned, pressing the intercom again. "Helloooooo," she called. "Andrew, are you there?"
After a few more seconds, a voice came through the intercom. Only it wasn't Andrew's. "Is this Rachel Dawlish?" The voice was weak and low.
Her heart almost stopped in her chest. "No, it couldn't be," she said aloud, not realising until two seconds after that she had her finger still on the intercom button, making her smack her head into the wall beside the contraption.
"Couldn't be what?"
Oh there was that ever so nice accent.
With a sigh, she glanced back to the intercom.
"Is that you, Loki?" she inquired, quite slowly so she knew that she was most definitely speaking the words.
There was a pregnant silence. "Yes."
She almost squeaked. How in the hell did he get her address? How did he even get from Boston to New York when he had no money on him?
"How- how did you find me?" she asked, stuttering out the question as she thought of the spooky possibilities that suddenly popped into her overactive imagination.
"The man at the hospital was quite nice in handing your location over when I asked him to."
She was startled. They gave him her address? Since when did they give out people's personal details? "He just handed it over because you asked? They normally don't give things like that to people just because they ask."
"I might have told one little white lie."
She leaned her head against the wall near the intercom and shut her eyes. That voice. No matter whether it was hoarse and croaky or smooth or filled with the vibe of childlike mischief, it was simply divine to listen to even through an intercom. She honestly would even equate it to the sound of pure sex. Oh god... with that one simple thought her mind conjured up a whole slew of images of the impossibly handsome stranger describing all the naughty things he wanted to do to her in that low, erotic accent and those long, slender fingers tracing the curve of her spine.
Cracking an eye open, she sighed and glanced out the window at the other end of the hall.
"Damn."
It was pouring outside. She knew, from personal experience, that where the intercoms were on the building there was no shelter. The poor man was probably standing out in the rain. "Loki, why did you come to New York?"
There was no answer and she wondered if he had disappeared to seek out some shelter from the bad weather.
Oh how wrong she was. "I came because I require your help. More to the point, you are the only person who I believe I can trust until I regain my memories of who I truly am."
She looked at the intercom and felt her heart sink. He sounded so lost and lonely. Rachel had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that this whole situation was weird, even for her.
Her mind was telling her to send him to a hotel but somehow she had trouble believing they would accommodate him without any identification or cash.
Sighing, she pressed the button again. "Loki I don't know what I can do to help you," she told him.
Her mind was telling her that she could let him stay with her but imagine what all her neighbours would do and say.
"Allow me to stay with you, please."
Biting her lip, she glanced between the intercom and the window. "Loki-" she started but he cut her off.
"Please Rachel. I really don't wish to stand out in this rain any longer than necessary and I have already spoken to the quite unfriendly occupants of this building leading me to believe that you are the only decent person I am able to find help in."
Rachel sighed heavily and even though her mind was telling her that this idea was beyond stupid and she would regret it sooner rather than later, she pressed the intercom button. "I'll come down and get you, give me a minute."
Loki stood before the living quarters that were presumably Rachel Dawlish's. The taxi driver had already left, his mind completely wiped of his meeting with Loki. The building before him was tall and bland and as he inspected the list of numbers that lined the right side of the building near the door, Loki wondered how mortals could live in such ugly and stale abodes.
He had discovered that he was not able to merely open the door and walk in but had to apparently press a button and gain a person's permission to be let in as he had watched a mere child walk up and do only moments ago. He cursed his weakened abilities. If he was at full strength he'd have no problem in simply waving his hand and have the door to the building unlocked without any hassle.
He wished he could use his powers in that moment to simply gain access but after the mass amount of energy it had taken him to just hold power over the taxi driver, Loki did not want to risk completely draining himself and collapsing out in the open.
Which button though would give him access to speak with Rachel?
He ducked his head into the collar of the clothing he wore and pressed what he gathered was the fifth button and held his finger on it. After a moment or two, a disgruntled voice came from the other end and he startled. Mortal technology was extremely intriguing.
"What do you want?"
Loki frowned at the tone of the man's voice but replied nonetheless knowing this would be the only way he would find out which domain was Rachel's. "I'm looking for a Rachel Dawlish."
"Yeah, well yer got the wrong apartment buddy." There was that term buddy again. Did mortals just throw the term around so casually all the time? Despite the fact that he clearly was not anyone's buddy.
He sneered at the contraption. Mortal people were rude.
"Would you know which apartment I require then?"
"Try number seven, I think that's her." The intercom cut off suddenly and Loki frowned at the crude and disgruntled man that he had clearly just been conversing with. He had no doubt that if he knew just exactly who it was he was dealing with then he never would have spoken in such a manner. But Loki couldn't linger on such trivial little things at the moment.
He shrugged it off, they would learn soon enough. Pressing the seventh button, he waited for someone to answer.
Her voice was even silkier through the strange contraption than it was in person. Loki drew up the nerve and the words in his mind before he responded to her query with one of his own. "Is this Rachel Dawlish?" If only by her voice, Loki already knew it was her, but he wished to appeal to this mortal's kindness to the fullest extent.
"No, it couldn't be."
He frowned. "Couldn't be what?" He was confused then. Did she not remember him? Was this mortal lacking in short term memory?
"Is that you, Loki?"
Loki wanted to nod and then realised with some irritation that this contraption could not allow people to see one another and then spoke back into it: "Yes."
"How- how did you find me?"
He wanted to chuckle at her question and simply say that he was a god with mind control capabilities over the weak but bit his silver tongue, staying off the sarcastic response for a more suitable one. "The man at the hospital was quite nice in handing your location over when I asked him to."
"He just handed it over because you asked? They normally don't give things like that to people just because they ask."
Loki realised then what his mistake was. Yes, of course. He quickly covered himself. "I might have told one little white lie."
He was the silver tongue after all and a very wet one at the moment. He sent a silent curse to Thor in that moment as lightning pierced the sky followed by a crack of thunder.
"Loki, why did you come to New York?"
He paused. Why had he come to this city? He had come because she was the only mortal he deemed helpful at the present time and whether Loki liked his situation or not, he had no other option but to seek refugee with her.
"I came because I require your help. More to the point, you are the only person who I believe I can trust until I regain my memories of who I truly am," he remarked in earnest, seeping a hand through his now soaked hair and pushing it back from his forehead.
"Loki I don't know what I can do to help you."
Such a stubborn little mortal he thought with some amusement.
"Allow me to stay with you, please."
"Loki-"
"Please Rachel. I really don't wish to stand out in this rain any longer than necessary and I have already spoken to the quite unfriendly occupants of this building leading me to believe that you are the only decent person I am able to find help in."
The plus side to staying with the mortal woman was, he could always use the disgruntled occupants of the surrounding mini-homes as targets when his powers began to come back to him.
There was only silence and Loki began to wonder if his silver tongue had just failed him in his greatest moment of need.
"I'll come down and get you, give me a minute."
Obviously not he thought with a wicked smile.
