A/N: Sorry for the change into present tense, it seems to work better for me, and I hope you are all OK with it.
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After another hour of motorcycle lessons, by which time Thor is doing well on his own, they go to her house and eat a dinner that this time she prepares on the grill.
It is only when she sees his eyes locked on the photograph above her fireplace that she feels she should tell him the answers to the obvious questions that arise, and getting to her feet to bring it over, she says, gesturing to the happy couple – an albino-blonde woman and her redhead husband - that held between them a young dark-haired girl who was smiling so openly it is hard to believe that was Aella as a child:
"They were my family…. in case you're wondering, I was adopted…. It did not matter, they were family in every way that mattered."
Thor does not ask, but he'd realized from what she said earlier that her parents were dead, and the sorrow in his gaze tells her more clearly than any question that he's wondering what happened.
Aella paces to the window, looking out at the setting sun, trying to figure out how to speak of a truth she had kept buried for years, finally settling on:
"I was seventeen, about to graduate from high school and on my way with a scholarship to MIT to major in robotics 'cause I was good at it… My parents were so proud…and then I made the mistake of sharing a secret I probably should have never known with a person I though I could trust….I was wrong – and my parents paid with their lives."
For a few moments Thor is so silent that Aella figures he must think her truly twisted – twisted because while earlier her voice was breaking over a horse, now that she tells him this her voice is flat and icy as space, and she does not think that unlike the other people she has known, he will realize it's a defense mechanism.
But she is proven wrong when apparently he has, because he is suddenly standing behind her, giving her shoulder a comforting squeeze, and she can tell he wants to comfort her, tell her it's not her fault…. and she wants to hear it more than ever before, except that she knows it's not true, and before he can get the chance to say anything, she turns around and says in a voice that is burning with bitterness:
"It is my fault… my mistake, and nothing's ever going to change that."
It is a bittersweet relief that Thor does not argue with her, and drawing strength from his silent presence, from the fact that he has not judged her, she pulls herself back together, and says in her normal tone:
"Come on, let's get ready to steal back your uh… Hammer."
Part of her preparations is calling up an old acquaintance of hers , presently going by the alias Brian Dobson– a man who owed her one in his words, sending him over a secure network a photo of a smiling Thor. Thor is curious as always, and his curiosity only grows when she tells Thor that she is preparing for the worst-case scenario, and her contact is a master forger.
The confused question: "A master forger, which means he makes weapons?" is so hilarious even though well founded considering his background that Aella has to choke out between laughs:
"No, fake ID's…. like mine. You don't exist to this world, and if we get caught it's just going to make things a lot more complicated…. I just hope that he comes through for me…. I'm asking him to take a big risk he's not going to like."
Thor asks her if she always prepares for the worst-case scenario, and she tells him that life has taught her she has to, pointedly omitting that the reason for her insistence that Thor learn to ride her motorcycle without her: Should she be killed, and he not get to fly out, she wants him to have a chance to escape – even if it's a pathetically slim one..
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