CHAPTER NINE

"This seems like a good place to stop for the night."

Loki glanced around. He nodded. "As good a place as any. I haven't seen a tree or a cave for miles. We'll have to make do without cover." He immediately busied himself setting up camp: putting the firewood in its proper place, setting out the food for ease of preparation, finding a smooth patch to lay the bedrolls upon...but he found that someone else was already running her hands across the ground, seeking out a rock-free space. "Jane," he said, "Darcy and I can set up camp. You should sit down before you hurt your back."

"I'm fine," she said, panting slightly.

Loki crossed his arms. "Jane, I've been on the receiving end of Thor's hammer once already, and it's an experience I'd prefer not to repeat. He'll be furious if he finds out I let you exert yourself this much while you're pregnant."

"He can be furious at me then," she said, straightening up sharply. "Just because I'm carrying a baby doesn't mean I'm made of glass."

Darcy snorted. Loki raised an eyebrow at her.

"What are you chuckling about?"

"I was just..." Darcy suppressed a snicker. "I was just thinking it would be really funny if Jane turned into glass when she said that." Loki stared at her blankly. She gestured. "You know...'I'm not made of glass...LOL, JK.' And then she, like, shatters all over the place..." Darcy bit her lip. "It was funnier when it played out in my head."

"Apparently," muttered Jane.

"I heard that."

"Nobody is questioning your hearing, Darcy," said Loki. He sighed. "Alright, I'm not going to stop you from helping, Jane. But I knew nothing about it."

"Obviously," Jane said coolly, arranging the firewood into a campfire-appropriate shape.


The shape of the campfire was a moot point, however, as the night proved to be so warm and humid that the addition of a fire would have made the entire party miserably uncomfortable. Even without the fire, Jane was sweltering.

"Do either of you feel hot?" she said weakly, thirty minutes later as she lay sprawled out on her bedroll.

"Ugh, God no. I look awful. I'm not wearing any makeup."

"I mean thermally," Jane said exasperatedly. "Does either of you feel warm?"

"No," replied Loki. "But I may not be the best basis for comparison, given my nature."

"I don't feel anything either," Darcy said. Her eyes lit up. "Wait, I think that's one of those pregnancy things..."

"Pregnancy things?" Jane repeated.

"Yeah, you know, like morning sickness and craving prime rib at 3 in the morning and stuff. You feel warm all the time."

Jane pursed her lips. "Huh. Donald never mentioned anything like that, but then again he wasn't an ob/gyn and we were never considering having kids." Her brow furrowed. "Speaking of ob/gyns...what am I going to do when I need to deliver? Do either of you know how to deliver a baby?"

Darcy shook her head. "No baby training." Her smile brightened. "I can give mean CPR, though."

"Yeah, you've said that. A lot, actually."

"I have no experience delivering babies," Loki said slowly, "however, if it were necessary I expect I could figure it out." He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "Or I could pay a visit to someone who did know about childbirth. Depending on the circumstances," he added quickly. "It could very well be too risky to travel; it all depends upon who our allies are and where we are when you go into labor."

The lines in Jane's forehead deepened. "If there's any danger at all, I can manage. I don't want you or Darcy putting yourselves in danger for my sake."

"Jane," Loki said seriously. "It would be an insult if I didn't help you in any way that I could. You are Thor's wife, and I am Thor's brother. My conscience dictates that I should help you, unless doing so would endanger you."

Jane gave a little smile. "Thank you, Loki."

"No need to thank me for common decency." He grimaced and cast his eyes about the cliff-top as if hoping to change the subject. "It's nearly midnight. You both ought to sleep; we traveled a great distance today."

"I'll stay up," Darcy said promptly. "You stood watch all of last night instead of waking me up for a shift, and Jane needs to sleep. Tonight's my turn."

He closed his eyes with a sigh. "Darcy, it's quite alright..."

"Loki, please don't do this 'manlier-than-thou' thing."

"That's not...I'm not tired."

She snorted, her gaze lingering on the dark circles beneath his eyes. "Yeah, and I'm the Queen of England." Darcy lowered her voice and glanced at Jane; she was already preparing a space to sleep. She looked back at Loki. "Loki, what's really going on?" she asked quietly. "What aren't you telling me?"

"I've told you everything," he snapped, his voice sharpening into a snarl. He pressed his lips together, immediately regretting his lapse in calm. "I won't be able to sleep knowing that nobody is taking care of you," he said softly.

"Loki, I'm not a china doll. I think I can take care of myself for a few hours. I've gotten better at magic, and I can wake you up if anything really dangerous shows up." She squinted at him. "What's with you lately? You've been acting really...weird. Which is saying something about your level of bizarre-osity, because I married you, so you were pretty weird to begin with."

"I don't know what's wrong," he said in a low voice. He sighed. "I'll go to sleep. But you must promise that you will awake me if anything serious happens."

"Pinky swear." She kissed him on the cheek. "Night."

"Night," he replied absently. He wandered over to the space where his bedroll was laid out with a dazed expression upon his face. His heart and stomach knotted; he couldn't help but feel that something was coming. It was fortuitous that Darcy had simply said "night." He wasn't sure if he could bring himself to call it "good."


"Thor, we've been wandering for hours with no sign of them. We have to stop and sleep soon. I think Stark is already sleeping with his suit walking on autopilot."

"I resent that assumption," Stark's computer-modulated voice grumbled blearily.

"I will not rest until I find my beloved Jane," Thor said staunchly.

"Thor, you might be able to stay up all night after a long day of work without sleep, but we can't. Stark without his suit is just a normal guy..."

"Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist!" Stark interjected.

"...and I still need basic human necessities to function," Rogers continued as though he had not been interrupted. "I can go without sleep for a while, and I can be hungry, but both...could be a problem. Especially for extended periods of time, if we were to keep walking like this for days."

"There will be no rest until Jane is found."

"Could we at least choose a direction and walk that way?" Stark slurred. "We've been walking in circles."

"Er...alright." Thor stared at the two men. "Which direction should we go?"

"Any direction," Stark snapped. "Spin the hammer and go the direction it points for all I care. Just-"

"Spin Mjolnir?" Thor repeated. "Man of Iron, you are a genius."

Before Stark or Rogers could protest, Thor set the hammer down on a pointed rock nearby and set it spinning. It quickly broke from its even spinning motion and rolled awkwardly onto the grass, its handle pointing directly at the corner of the sky that was slowly lightening.

"We march North!" Thor bellowed. He picked up his hammer and strode through the tall grass into the sunrise.

"North?" Rogers said.

"Different planet," Stark muttered. "Come on. Let's find Jane before I really do start snoring."