"I must say out of everyone in existence and everyone on the Avengers I never would've imagined that we would ever have any sort of conversation, or that you would seek me out."

Those were the words spoken by Pepper Pots, breaking the awkward silence between the God of thunder and herself before one of them could choke on it.

Thor having guessed that speaking with the women within the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization would really get him nowhere, had come to the only normal female that he knew of. Pepper strong willed and amazing for how she was always able to handle Tony and his many quirks was perfect. She was by no means a hardened warrior, and she was completely in touch with her emotions.

"So what brings you to my office today?" She asked attempting to get the conversation going again.

"Has Tony informed you of the latest goings on within S.H.I.E.L.D.?" HE asked.
"Of course." The red head replied, her boyfriend never one to keep secrets from her.

"Saber...the young maiden we found, has been through so much that seems to be waning on her spirits, and I have come hoping for your advice in how to remedy this." Thor explained his heritage showing in his use of grammar.

Pepper was both honored and intrigued by the situation and wanted to give him the best possible answer.

"Well I don't know her or exactly what she's been through, so I can't guarantee my ideas will work." She told him, "but I can try to give you a few good tips."

Thor nodded paying close attention to everything the Earth woman told him to try.


"Do you see what I see?" Bruce asked.
"I do and I don't believe it." Tony murmured for once at a complete loss for words.

The two men were staring in shock at the results from the second test that they'd run on the blood that Saber had given them.

"Didn't he die in a lab explosion twenty-three years ago?" Bruce asked a second question.

"Either he has a really skilled fan, or the explosion was some sort of cover." Tony deduced, "but either way I've seen enough chemical stuff. I'm going to see of she'd be up to allowing me to run some physical tests."

"I'm going to keep working on this lead...maybe I can come up with some more definite answers before Fury asks for another progress report." The doctor continued to work with the blood samples.

XxXxXxXxXxXx

Fury sat in his office going over some documents and reports from agents on other assignments. Or at least that's what it looked like to anyone who happened to enter the room, but to one agent Maria Hill it was clear that the director's mind was elsewhere.

"What are you thinking so hard about that you can't focus on the other field reports?" She asked.

"I'm wondering about what Saber said." Was his reply.

"That whoever is behind all of the kidnappings, human experimentation, and WMD's is probably someone that you know?" She asked. "What have you managed to come up with?"

"The only people I can think of with the resources to pull off something like this, and keep it off of our radar for so long would be one of our own higher ups." Fury sighed. "Is it surprising that I wouldn't put something like that past the members of the council?"

"Sir...they immediately made the decision to bomb New York. I wouldn't put it past either one of them to do something like this." Hill sighed.


Saber came out of her memories confused as to where her attractive government appointed guardian had gone off to.

'I guess I could work on one of my sketches.' She thought trying to come up with a way to keep her mind occupied, and away from her memories of her time spent with her father and in captivity. 'Really I could argue that both were exactly the same thing.'

Her mental attempt at a morbid joke had atlas gotten a chuckle out of her.

"Oh God! I need something to do before I think myself to death!" She groaned.

XxXxXxXxXxXx

Pepper Pots had given him a few valuable tips on how to help and cheer up Saber. The one that he thought would be the easiest and most profitable was to keep her distracted. He didn't think that it would be all that hard to keep her mind from wondering back to her more unpleasant memories especially since she didn't want to remember them in the first place. Another bit of advice he'd been given was to take her out on a date (after he'd spent about an hour and a half telling Pepper about her), Tony had made this suggestion his girlfriend agreeing with him as both had apparently picked up on something in his tone when he talked about his charge.

Thor wasn't sp sure about dating. True he had't been in a relationship since Jane, but he did find Saber attractive in more than just a physical way. The thunder god was just hesitant to approach the subject of forming a relationship with another mortal woman, after witnessing how fleeting their affections could be. Not that he was angry, Thor had always worried that that Jane would waste away waiting for a future with him that was always uncertain, and when her heart had chosen another he'd simply given her his blessing.

'But Saber and I would not be separated by worlds, and because she is no mere mortal Asgard would be more excepting of her.' He thought, 'perhaps I should just take her out a few times to see how things go.'

After all he already liked her and found himself enjoying her company.


Fury was thinking hard again, but not about inner organization conspiracies this time around. No, the director was trying to figure out if and how to tell Saber that her father had been working in tandem with her torturers.

"How could she not have already put the pieces together?" He thought aloud.

"Maybe she has, but only subconsciously." Hill tossed out, "her mind could be trying to protect her."

Fury nodded in agreement and sighed, "still I'll have to bring it up."

"It would be the right thing to do. Plus we need her to describe the man that her father was having meetings with, and give us the names of his other associates."

Fury sighed again, he really hated his job sometimes.


Saber was suspicious of Thor the moment he returned to the apartment mentally recounting his battles formation by formation. While that wasn't what tipped her off to the fact that her guardian was hiding something; though it did support the circumstantial evidence.

Her powers of empathy and deduction(mostly women's intuition) told her that while he would appear to be perfectly fine and to be behaving normally on the outside, he was in fact nervous about something as he sat across from her devouring the hamburger lunch that she'd prepared and mentally reliving the third battle.

"So where did you disappear to for so long?" She asked breaking the silence.

"I went to visit Stark Tower...it is another form of base for the Avengers." He replied telling the truth...right?

"Were you guys having some sort of a meeting?" She was curious if it had been about her at all.

"Not officially. I needed to speak with Pepper and Tony." That bit wasn't a lie as he had gone to see Pepper and had briefly spoken with Tony.

Saber could see bits of his conversations. Pepper it seemed had been surprised that he'd wanted to speak with her. Tony it seemed wanted Saber to come to see him at his personal lab and take a few tests to satisfy his curiosity about her powers.

"I may just have to go and pay Tony a visit." She thought aloud, "it seems fun and I bet it would keep me distracted."

"Then we'll go once things calm down a bit." He agreed.

While she hadn't felt any dishonesty from the blonde; Saber still sensed a bit of nervousness coming from him.

"Is there something else that you want to tell me Thor?" She asked one of her eyebrows rising as she gave him a look that clearly told him that he would not be getting out of answering her.

He was so glad in that moment that he'd thought over Pepper's advice and made a decision before he'd returned, or it would've been very difficult to speak and keep her in the dark about what he wanted.

"Soon will mark the occasion referred to here as the 'weekend'." He began. "I was wondering if you would be opposed to spending an evening out with me?"

"What? You mean like a date?" She asked completely caught off guard by his words.

"Yes I would like to spend the evening courting you." He nodded.

Saber took a few seconds to think over his request. She couldn't think of any reason why she shouldn't agree. She found Thor attractive, he was a good and honorable man(which was really hard to come by these days), his line of work would never be considered a danger to her life, she could be herself around him, and she enjoyed his company far more than she had anyone else.

"Sure!" She smiled sweetly at him when she noticed him finally completely relax. "Sounds like it could be really fun."

"Then let us both look forward to enjoying an evening together under different pretenses." He smiled.


AN: See much more and a nice long chapter as promised.