Leigh walked into her office and picked up the phone and hit the button for the blinking line. She took a deep breath and answered.

"Leigh Harris."

"Hey Professor." Tony's voice hit her ear and she smiled broadly.

"Mr. Stark." She laughed, "Lovely to hear from you."

"Yeah, well, thought you'd like if we kept in touch."

"Thanks Tony." She smiled and leaned back in her chair, "how are things in New York?"

"Haven't changed much since you left." He sighed, "I think Steve misses you."

She laughed again, "Yeah, I kind of miss him too; there's a kid in my glass reminds me a lot of Steve."

"You're teaching already?"

"Today was my first day, I only have five students but there great kids." Leigh was smiling more than she had in a while. "Tony, I miss you too you know."

She heard Tony clear his throat, "I know."

Leigh had known Tony a long time and she had a feeling if he and Pepper hadn't gotten together that there may have been a spark or two between them.

"When does Pepper get back from London?"

"Tomorrow." Tony said and there was something strange in his voice.

"Tony, don't." she whispered, "Not now."

"Okay." He sighed, "He asked you know."

"Did you tell him?" her heart started pounding, why would he ask about her.

"Only what you told me I could." He sighed, "he got angry."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, it was a short reaction and then well, you told me not to talk about it."

"When has that ever stopped you?" she sighed.

"Never." Tony chuckled.

"So he got angry and then what?"

"He got sad."

Leigh felt like she'd been punched in the gut; Loki was sad? Why would he be sad? He made it clear that he was only using her. She sighed and shook her head.

"Well, that's interesting." She mused and heard Tony sigh.

"Anyway, I just wanted to touch base with you."

"Yeah, I appreciate it Tony." She smiled, "Tell Steve and Bruce I say hi and you'll have to come visit some time."

"We'll work it out."

Leigh hung up the phone and headed to lunch, she decided she didn't care why Loki was all of sudden sad. He was the god of mischief and lies so there was no reason to trust him.

~A~A~A~A~A~A~

Three weeks, she'd been gone three weeks and none of her friends would tell him where she'd gone. Loki paced his rooms and wondered what he was going to do now. He was fully healed, but still mortal. He didn't like relying on Stark but he didn't seem to have much choice. There was a knock on his door and he considered telling whoever it was to go away but he had precious little company unless he sought it out so he called for them to come in.

"Brother." Thor's voice boomed in the small room and Loki felt his shoulders tense.

"Why do you insist on calling me that?" Loki turned his face in a viscous scowl.

"Were we not raised together?" Thor asked, "Regardless of blood that makes us brothers."

Loki sighed and nodded, as much as the Allfather betrayed him, Thor could not have known his true parentage. He sank into a chair and sighed again.

"Why are you here Thor?"

"You are in pain my brother, where else would I be?"

"And what pains me so?" Loki sneered, not wanting to admit that he was in pain.

"Your heart brother, something I thought would never happen."

Thor's voice had been soft but the words cut into him like a razor. Loki nodded, ashamed to bare his pain to his brother.

"I was a fool." He whispered.

"You love her but she will die." Thor whispered, "I share your fear my brother."

Loki and Thor had never talked about Jane Foster, at least not outside of battle and Loki was a bit surprised his brother had brought it up.

"How do you not despair?"

"I do." Thor sighed, "I fear the day she will be gone from my life more greatly than she will ever realize."

Loki was shocked; he had always thought Thor so perfect, the golden boy of Asgard, to know that he had fears was…shocking, there was no other word for it.

"But she is worth it." Thor spoke softly again, a foreign light in his eyes. "I would gladly suffer a thousand years of sadness after she is gone for the joy being with her brings me."

"I do not know if I am strong enough." Loki said, realizing that he was with the only other being in the nine realms that would possibly understand. "I fear that losing her would destroy me."

"How do you feel now my brother?"

"Like I am slowly dying." the god whispered and a tear slid down his cheek. "They will not tell me where she is."

"You hurt her, badly." Thor said, "She is very angry with you."

"You know what happened then?"

"I do." Thor sighed, "Dr. Banner confided in me after she left. I did not understand how she could leave you so easily after everything that had happened."

"I was a great fool." Loki sighed, "Do you think Heimdall would search for her?"

"I can but ask, I do not know what his answer will be."

"Thank you Thor."

~A~A~A~A~A~

"Drake you're still forcing it." Leigh sighed, watching the seventeen-year-old struggling.

The young man sighed and sagged in his chair. Leigh handed him a towel and he wiped his face with it. He looked so disappointed.

"Drake, it's okay." She sat in front of him and waited until he met her eyes. "This didn't come easy for me either."

"It didn't?" his skin was paler than Leigh liked to see in her students.

"Nope." She smiled, "The big stuff, the stuff that didn't require finesse, I could do that till the cows came home, but the fine details, not so much. I still have trouble with it some days, it take more concentration and drains me faster."

Drake smiled at her and Leigh knew what a rarity it was for him to do that. She placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled back at him.

"Why don't you take a bit of a break, have some water and try again in say, fifteen?"

Drake nodded and closed his eyes, taking some slow steady deep breaths. Leigh stood and watched Sarah and Sasha playing catch with a tennis ball.

"Be careful Sarah, you're getting close to the window."

"Yes Ms. Harris." The blonde smiled and shifted her position subtly, forcing her brunette friend to change the course of the ball.

Lanie was sitting with her eyes closed and working on lifting two pencils at the same time, moving them up and down at the same time and then in opposite directions. Leigh turned to see Mark sitting on the floor, his eyes closed and face blissful as he juggled five balls of differing colours and weights without touching them.

Leigh could not believe how far her students had come in just three weeks. A soft knock at the door caught her attention and she opened it without thinking. Storm stood in the door way and laughed.

"Leigh, you have a visitor." She smiled, "he wanted to see you at work."

"Oh." She was surprised but delighted when Bruce walked through the door. "Bruce!" she ran to her friend and the scientist hugged her tightly.

"Hey Leigh." He smiled and saw the students watching him, "Tony said you wanted to see us and I thought one at a time might be a better idea."

"Bruce, yes, this is a wonderful surprise." Leigh led him to the front of the classroom and saw the students watching him. "Everyone, this is my friend Bruce Banner, Bruce these are my students, Mark, Sarah, Sasha, Lanie and Drake."

"Nice to meet you," Bruce smiled, "You guys are really lucky to have Leigh here."

"Yeah, we are." Mark's voice was almost reverent, "She's an amazing teacher."

"Thank you Mark." Leigh smiled but she saw Drake looking sulky. "Sarah and Sasha, why do you show Dr. Banner what we've been working on this week."

The girls were blushing as Bruce walked over and started telling him what they'd been working on. Leigh walked over to Drake and sat in front of him again.

"What's wrong Drake?"

"Nothing." He said, but he was practically pouting.

"Bruce isn't my boyfriend, if that's what you're thinking." She said and watched the pale boy blush. "Drake, is everything okay?"

"I…um…" his face was nearly crimson. "I guess."

"I think you and I need to talk after class, my office before lunch okay?"

"Okay."

"Good, now, how about we work on getting that pencil off the floor?"

~A~A~A~A~A~

Leigh sighed as she closed the door behind Drake, he was a good kid but he was also confused. She'd read his file, his parents had kicked him out at thirteen because he was a mutant. Scott had found him on the street and brought him back to the school and he'd been there ever since. He had no compass, no one to really care for him so he was latching on to her kindness and mistaking it for something else entirely. She sat behind her desk and hung her head. He thought he was falling in love with her, which would have been sweet had he not been seventeen and one of her students. She knew that she'd been spending a lot of time with him in class because he was struggling but now she was wondering if he was struggling to get her to spend time with him. The other students were improving in leaps and bounds and she wasn't giving them as much attention. Her mind drifted to Mark, he had real talent and she wanted to start nurturing it. She started roughing out a plan to see how she could encourage his natural talents and abilities when there was a knock on the door. She opened the door with a thought and smiled at Bruce.

"Come in, I feel I'm being a bad hostess." She kept smiling as he sat down.

"No, it's okay, I know you have to work. I was actually spending some time with Dr. McCoy."

"Hank is a pretty awesome man, you two remind me of each other." She smirked at Bruce's look.

"Yes, I can understand that." He smiled a bit and then sighed, "Leigh, how long are you planning on staying here?"

"I'm really not sure Bruce." She sighed and leaned back in her chair. "I'm actually enjoying myself here, which I didn't think I would. Those kids are great and seeing their talents bloom is amazing." She shook her head, "I do miss you, Tony, and Steve but right now, this is what I need. No crises, no stresses bigger than a student having crush on me, I need time away from the Avengers."

"You mean you need time away from the tower and Loki." Bruce said bluntly and Leigh flinched. "You told me you didn't want to see him again and then you just left, came back here and accepted a teaching position with talking to any of us."

"I don't have to clear my decisions with any of you." Leigh said, getting upset, "This is my life and I wasn't comfortable living off Tony's kindness anymore."

"That's bullshit and you know it." Leigh could tell Bruce was getting upset as well. "You were completely fine being there with us until Loki shoved you away."

Leigh hung her head, "I thought he'd changed, let myself get attached and that was my mistake. Once I saw things clearly I knew I had to make a change, remove the temptation."

"He's miserable Leigh." Bruce said suddenly, "He spends most of the day in room and when he comes out he stares over the city as if he wishes hard enough you'll appear of thin air."

"I highly doubt that." She sighed, "he made it pretty clear that I was a convenience, only to be used until he no longer needed to be cared for."

"And if was lying?"

Leigh's head snapped up and she looked at her friend in shock, "What did you say?"

"What if he was lying?" Bruce sighed, "He is the god of lies after all."

Leigh rested her arms on her desk and looked at her friend; she hadn't even considered that was a possibility. She just took Loki's words at face value.

"Why would he lie?" she asked, "Besides the obvious."

"Fear." A deep voice answered from the door and both Bruce and Leigh jumped in shock.