Checked Out
An Avengers/MCU pre-Civil War OC fic

Chapter 10: A cab whenever I wanted

Thor's feet actually went up in the air a bit when he went down. Sheriff Mills yelled, "Snow! What the hell!" She jumped in front of Snow with her arms spread.

Snow covered her mouth with her hands and said, "Oh shit!" She went to go help Thor up, but Sheriff Mills was still standing in front of her. The sheriff's eyes were really wide, but she didn't get out of the way. Snow held her hands up in front of her chest and said, "I'm okay, I'm not gonna, I won't hit him again. I just, I'm really sorry, man!"

Thor got up okay on his own. He rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. He said, "Well struck, young warrior. I believe the sheriff called you Snow?"

"Yeah, I'm Snow, I'm really sorry," Snow said. "Are you okay? I mean, you're okay right?" She knotted her fingers in her hair. "Jesus man, I'm really sorry." She didn't look at Sheriff Mills.

"I may yet pull through," Thor said. "Though for a moment, my life did flash before my eyes. But truly, Snow. That blow was well struck." Snow didn't say anything. He said, "I don't wish to pry into private affairs. But if we are to be siblings on the battlefield...?"

"I don't." Snow rubbed the back of her neck. "I don't really want to be on any battlefields, man."

"You have a wise heart, then," Thor said. Snow looked at him. He laughed. "It is not a heart I share," he said. "But there is wisdom in it. Do you intend to leave this place and its troubles?"

"No," Snow said. She stopped and thought about that. She really should leave. A shed wasn't worth all this. Neither was a couch, or wherever Sheriff Mills had planned to put Snow up.

Snow didn't say anything else. Thor said, "Then it seems, young warrior, that you may find yourself on battlefields yet. Because there are fields of battle to be found in this valley. And probably there will be for some time."

"You think there's more vargar?" Sheriff Mills asked. The sheriff had put her hands down, and she wasn't physically putting herself between Snow and Thor. She kept looking at Snow, though.

"Mayhap," Thor said. "The greater problem is how they arrived here to begin with. To cross the realms is no small thing."

Sheriff Mills thought about that. She asked, "Somebody brought them here?"

Thor turned his palm up. "I find it unwise to try to tell the tale before the tale is told. How the vargar came to travel the path to Midgard remains to be seen. But they did not forge the path themselves. When it is discovered whose hands did forge that path..." He looked at Snow. "There, we will find our battlefield."

He watched Snow. He didn't look impatient. He had the same kind of look Snow's therapist back in DC used to get. Jeanine would look at Snow and just wait. Not like she was waiting for Snow to talk. Waiting to see what Snow would say when she did talk.

Sheriff Mills looked at Snow, and looked at Thor. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something. She did that twice. But she didn't say anything.

"I can, like, fly," Snow blurted. "Like maybe as fast as a car. I don't have a speedometer or anything. I've never tried to see how fast I can go." She turned around and faced the wall. It was easier to talk that way. She said, "I can move heavy stuff. Like your truck." She glanced in Sheriff Mills's direction without actually looking at the sheriff. "I could have like, flipped it into the air. Maybe thrown it across the street. I don't know how much I can pick up or whatever." Snow shrugged at the wall.

Thor didn't say anything. Neither did Sheriff Mills. Snow snuck a quick peek. Thor still had on the therapist expression. Sheriff Mill was rubbing her chin with a knuckle. She didn't look scared. Part of Snow wished Sheriff Mills would have the common sense to be afraid.

"And stuff doesn't hurt me," Snow said. "Bullets don't. That vargr had me pretty good, but I don't know if it could have. Done anything to me." Snow went quiet. She'd been pretty sure One Eye was going to eventually get through her skull. Maybe not, though.

She heard Thor shift a little. He said, "How did you acquire these gifts, if I may ask?" Snow heard Sheriff Mills shift a little, too.

Snow laughed. She'd laughed a few times earlier today, with Camila. It had been her first laugh in a long while. She'd smiled a little, with Sean, a few minutes ago. It had felt good. This laugh felt like it was cutting her up inside. Like it was ripping out stitches.

"What fuckin' gifts, man?" Snow asked. "If I could like, heal people or something. That would be a gift. Or if I could like, like, talk in a bunch of different languages all of the sudden. Shit man, if I could like find a cab whenever I wanted. That would be a gift. When the fuck would I want to pick up a truck? Do I like getting shot so much, I wanna be able to do it over and over? Why do I need to fly somewhere, when I can." She took a breath. She'd gotten a little shouty at the end, there. "I mean. I guess flying's okay."

Sheriff Mills looked like she had something to say, but Thor talked first. He said, "Fairly spoken, Snow. For one such as I, violence is ever close at hand. So I see the advantages your new abilities grant you, and I think it good. But you," he said, "do not have your heart set on battle. So we will speak no more of gifts. Instead, let me ask this: when did the number of trucks you are able to lift... rise above zero?"

Snow snorted. She felt a little better, though. She said, "I dunno, man." She looked at her feet. The flannel pants were too big, so she could only see the toes of her borrowed slippers. "I mean I know when it happened, I guess. But I don't know, like, what really happened or anything." Snow kept staring at her toes. She chewed her lip.

Finally, she said, "There was a bridge that collapsed on me. Like a big overpass. I woke up inside all the rubble. I couldn't move. I guess I panicked for a while in there." Snow remembered the sound of her own voice. It hadn't sounded human. She hadn't realized it was her making those noises, at first.

Thor asked, "Where was this?" His voice was quiet. Snow stared at her toes some more.

"Seoul. Last year."

Thor paused. "Just before the... events in Novi Grad."

"I guess." Snow shrugged. "It definitely wasn't before then. I only found out about that stuff after I woke up. There was one of those Ultron guys, though. It, um. It. Brought the bridge down. And. It." Snow breathed. Her breaths were shuddery. She said, "It killed my. She, uh. Her name was. Nadine. It, um."

Snow felt a hand on her shoulder. She breathed some more.

"After I. Woke up in the rubble. I guess I, like. Passed out again. For a long time, like a couple days. Or weeks. I woke up, I was in this bodybag. I didn't know what it was until I ripped a hole in it to get out." Snow looked at her hands. Her fists were clenched. She stretched her fingers. "It was in New York. I guess they bagged me up and shipped me back. There was a guy with a gun who came in. He was, you know, a little freaked out. He shot me right in the forehead." Snow rubbed her head at the memory. "Like I was a zombie or something. I ran outside and just. Like, I was over the Hudson. So I jumped off the roof and, like." She shrugged. "I didn't fall."

The room was quiet. Snow thought about walking out the door. Or just flying through the wall. She thought about the ocean again. Crossing it. Or sinking in it. If she remembered her geography right, New York was roughly even with the top of South Korea. A bit higher latitude. But Snow had moved a bit south, while she travelled east. If she followed the same line, she'd end up pretty close to Seoul.

Thor said, "You are... a uniquely strong young warrior, Snow. Regardless of how many trucks you are able to lift."

Snow kind of wanted to laugh at that. It would have been another stitches-ripper. But she couldn't summon it up. Instead, she focused on Sheriff Mills's hand. She suddenly wondered she'd last gotten a hug from anybody. She used to be a big hugger.

"Before you, uh. Go making any big plans?" Sheriff Mills wrapped her arm around Snow's shoulders, but she was talking to Thor. "Snow's abilities, they've got a downside." She looked at Snow. Snow had been debating whether to bring it up. She nodded.

"Snow can't eat right," Sheriff Mills said. "When she fell out, at the medical center?" Thor nodded. "We think it was a drop in blood sugar. We think she all but ran out of blood sugar, because she can't keep a meal down. Or get it down in the first place, really. I think the only reason she's upright now is, we managed to jam half a turkey sandwich into her." She looked at Snow and quirked a grin. "Damn near took a crowbar."

"Hm," Thor said. "This makes sense. You have become something more than simply Midgardian, so you require something more than simply Midgardian fare on your dinnerplate. Some might view this state of affairs as a problem that thwarts us. How I choose to see it is this: young Snow held off three vargar even while her body was ravaged by privation. And she refused privation its due until her friends were safe." He nodded at Snow. "Any Asgardian would be proud to stand beside such a warrior."

"Damn straight," Sheriff Mills said. She squeezed Snow's shoulder. Snow smiled a little. She'd gotten her hug, and a Norse god had just told her she was a badass. Snow thought almost getting eaten by wolves might have been worth it.

"In truth," Thor said, "Perhaps we should give a careful thought to what might happen if we do discover what Snow's dinnerplate is now lacking." He did one of his big cloud-scattering smiles. "A well-fed Snow might flatten this entire village with one thoughtless stomp of her mighty foot!"

Sheriff Mills laughed. Snow froze.

"I guess you ought to head out for those beers," Sheriff Mills said. "Speaking of danger to the whole damn town." Her smile soured.

"Yes," Thor said. "Thank you for your warning. I shall be keeping close watch of master Russell. Captain Russell, I suppose I should call him. What I will be interested to discover is, what is it that Captain Russell believes he can learn from me? I hardly think the man is truly interested in vargr dens."

"I wanna know what jerked his chain, after that first day. That man was fit to order cold-blooded murder, and put hands on Snow besides. Now he's playing all nice-nice?" Sheriff Mills shook her head.

Snow said, "I would never knock down a building." She said it a little loud. Thor and Sheriff Mills both looked at her.

Thor hesitated. He said, "Ah—"

"I have to go," Snow said. She turned and walked out of the room. She remembered to use the door handle. The door banged against the wall, though. She made herself walk down the stairs instead of flying. If she flew, she wouldn't stop to open the front doors.

She opened the front doors and took off into the sky. The sun had set. The stars over Westcliffe were really bright. Or over Silver Cliff, whatever. Snow had never seen stars like that, before coming here. She'd noticed them on other nights, since she arrived. But now she really looked at them.

There were billions of them. She knew a few constellations. One of the dippers was over there. She found the three stars of Orion's belt. She found the Pleiades. There were supposed to be seven of them, but she could see more than that.

Snow could knock a building down. It would be easy. Any of the buildings below her, she wouldn't even have to try. She'd have to try not to. If she'd picked up one of those wolves, she could have thrown it straight through Sheriff Mills's house. Just a big, vargr-shaped hole all the way through it. Like something out of Bugs Bunny.

If she could do that, she could probably knock down a big apartment tower. Crack its major supports. Let the thing collapse with everybody inside. All that dust and cement and blood mixing together. People trying to crawl out, or dig in further for the people who couldn't crawl out.

Snow said, "Fuck." Floating in the air, maybe a mile up, she curled her knees up to her chest. The wind was really damn cold up here. The hoodie didn't cut it the way her leather jacket had.

Snow said, "Fuck, fuck, fuck." She buried her face against her knees and thought about trying to cry.

The conversation with Thor ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would be. When I sat down to write this, I thought I'd have three-quarters of a chapter left by the time Thor ticked off Snow, and I still hadn't decided what to do with that space. Good thing!

I've got some ideas churning for the next chapter. I'm hoping to get it started before the weekend is over. I'd really like to start building up a buffer of chapters, to give myself breathing room. Right now the plan is to keep updating every Monday. I've got a heck of a lot of story to tell.

Thanks for reading! See you next week!