Part 11

Jane drove home slowly, watching in her rearview mirror as she left the SHIELD compound, and Thor. She hated driving away from him; she understood why he had to stay where he was, and why she had to go home, but it didn't make it easier to bear. A second night wrapped in his arms had been glorious, but she still wanted more. It was selfish, her rational mind prodded her, his duty was to protect the entire planet, but the deep down instinctual part of her wanted him for herself, wanted to take him to bed, remembered his words, and dreamed about how he would make love to her. It was not so distracting that she drove her car off the road, but enough that she felt even more miserable as she pulled into her driveway and shut it off.

A shower helped focus her, and a cup of coffee, and clean pair of comfortable jeans and tee shirt. Having Erik arrive at her door also helped, because work was an obsession above almost everything else in her life, (a week prior there would have been no qualification) and she knew she would dive into it with her whole heart. Erik settled in beside her, with his own cup of coffee and they began where they had left off the night previous, Erik bringing her the myths and his experiences; Jane trying to squeeze something empirical out of the nothingness. She knew, she assumed, that she was never going to be able to get near the Casket, and if it was, as Thor had said, genetically activated, it might never work on earth at all. But it didn't stop her curiosity, and Erik had spent the night going through some of his own books to find even more myths about how it had been used. What he discovered about its rumored powers sent a chill down Jane's spine. If Loki was to get his hands on it, the world as she knew it would change drastically, and not for the better.

She asked Erik questions as they came to her, in no particular order. Was the thing exothermic, endothermic? Did it have an EM field? Could it be opened? She scribbled all his answers into her moleskin first then into her personal laptop, the one she never linked to SHIELD, or checked email on, or anything identifying. She knew that one trip onto the net to check a known email or social network account could, and would be traced back to that system. She had programmed it herself, to run her data, and was extremely careful, and had password protected everything, just in case Darcy got the idea to 'borrow' it. Her roommate had been gone when she had returned home, not that that was unusual. She had likely made herself scarce, assuming that she and Thor would have wanted the privacy. Perhaps she had gone back to chasing Lawrence. She had talked about him a few times, about how he was built like a racer, and could really dance. It wouldn't have surprised Jane if Darcy had gone back to the bar to try to see him again. Either that, or she was staying with another friend. Whatever the case, Jane appreciated not having to explain everything to her. Erik was more at Jane's level and their ability to communicate with few, if any words, was comforting, and appreciated.

They took a break for lunch, and for both to stretch their backs from leaning over the table for so long, trying to find some kind of thread in the masses of papers. A knock at the door distracted them as they were about to get back into the mess and Jane went to see whom it was. She opened the door to a grinning Lawrence, standing solidly, hands held behind his back. She felt immediately uncomfortable and stepped back, away from him.

"Hello Jane." The voice sounded to her just as menacing as his appearance. Her gut rolled uncomfortably.

"Can I help you?" She asked with some hesitation.

"I sincerely hope so." And he brought both his hands into plain view as he stepped into her home, pointing the Sig Sauer directly at her chest.

"What are you doing?" She put both hands up in front of herself, her voice obviously strained, which prompted Erik to turn from the table, understanding that there was suddenly a problem.

"Who?" He began to ask before he was cut off by the visitor.

"Hello Erik. Headache today?" Loki didn't take his eyes off Jane even as he addressed Selvig.

"What do you want?" Jane repeated, feeling her heart beginning to pound in her chest. Not only did the man know her, but it seemed he knew Erik as well.

"It's time to put an end to all this nonsense. I need my property back, and you are going to help me." He motioned with the barrel of the gun for Jane to move over beside Erik and he followed, keeping his eyes on both of them.

"Your property?" Jane asked, but Erik already seemed to understand the man. The look in her old friend's eyes did nothing to calm her.

"My property." Loki replied slowly, shaking himself a little as he did.

"Loki." Erik whispered, provoking a sinister grin from the man Jane had known as Lawrence, and then a transparent shimmering as that mortal form disappeared, replaced by the raven-haired god himself, in his black and green leathers, gun still trained.

"You're Loki?" She asked, the smile softened a little.

"I am Miss Foster; God of Mischief, and other things, not quite at your service, perhaps the other way around. I hope you'll forgive me for the subterfuge. But I'm going to need your help now, to retrieve the Casket."

"You know SHIELD isn't just going to let you walk in there and take the thing? And you know your brother is there, waiting for you?"

"Of course, that is why you are going to go in there and get it for me." His tone of voice betrayed the superiority he obviously felt.

"They won't let me have it."

"Oh, I think they will. Especially with my brother there." The smugness would have been insulting, but for the weapon he still pointed at her.

"Why do you have a gun?"

"Well, it's not actually for me, it's for Erik here." And he walked to the man's side, placing a hand on his shoulder, clutching it with his long fingers so that Jane could see the fabric of Erik's suit jacket crinkle and indent at the pressure.

"I won't help you anymore Loki." More fear rose in Jane's heart to hear the stress in her friend's voice. She wondered if Loki's momentary distraction was enough for her to try to reach for the gun. But she didn't dare take the risk with Erik's life.

"Ah, but dear Erik, you really have no choice." Loki whispered into his ear, the ever-present grin making his face look so cruel.

It seemed like slow motion to Jane as she watched Loki, she had no idea if it was his magic, or the fear, or her scientific mind trying to take over, trying to understand what she was witnessing.

She watched as Loki stepped behind Erik, who seemed to freeze and stiffen as the long fingers embedded themselves into his shoulder. Loki's right hand, still holding the gun, slid down Erik's right arm, somehow forcing the gun into the older man's grip, and for just a moment Jane thought that Erik could simply throw it away then, and they could both run. But Erik didn't. In fact he gripped it tightly, his knuckles whitening around it, his arm rising to put Jane in the line of fire once again.

"Erik, no." She pleaded, seeing the man's face. His eyes were wide, his lips turned down, a horrible look of pure misery as he stared right at her, his control nearly lost.

"Jane." He tried to whisper, she could see the effort he put into moving his lips around the simple word. She felt the tears rising in her eyes, their stinging threatening the flow down her cheeks. Then Erik's eyes closed and she watched his body contort in a wholly unnatural fashion as the grinning figure that had been holding him up began to mesh into him. The fingers that had dug into his shoulder, and the ones at his wrist began to sink into the flesh they held, and Erik's mouth dropped open in a silent scream that still said everything as loud as if he had audibly cried out. Loki's entire body seemed to force itself into Erik's, her old friend suddenly taking on the countenance of the god, including the sinister smile that made her blood run even colder.

"Now we are going to go and get my property." He spoke with Erik's voice, but with none of the man she had known her entire life.

"They won't give it to you, no matter who you look like Loki." Jane found her hands trembling, and she crossed them over her chest, trying to steady herself.

"They will when I threaten to shoot you. Thor will see to that. Now move."

He waved the gun again towards the door and Jane did as he indicated.

"Just please don't hurt him."

ooOOoo

The sun had felt hot for those moments when Thor allowed himself to think of such mundane things. His mind had been more occupied with Nick Fury's words, and his plans to move the object offsite. Thor knew Loki had been nearby, knew he had to have heard the plans, and he feared for what his brother might do: because he couldn't get into his brother's head any longer. When they had been children Loki had always thought his evasive behavior was fooling everyone. But Thor had always understood what had motivated the boy, and he had always hoped that by including him in everything he did, that Loki would understand, and move past the jealousy he felt. But of course, back then neither of them had known that Loki was a child of the Joten. That knowledge had pushed Loki over the edge, literally and figuratively, and Thor didn't know if he could bring him back, not like when he was a child, when a ride and swim and a night under the stars could cure most anything.

The man who called himself Hawkeye had come back to talk, realizing finally that Thor wasn't a threat. Likely he'd been instructed to come to him as a peer, to see if he would reveal more information. He'd also been given a few tidbits of his own to drop, the source of the adamantium, who else used it, and the party line about how SHIELD simply wanted to understand the device so that they could defend against it. Thor did not begrudge him the task or the deception. Barton was good soldier, one Thor might have chosen for his own had the situation been different. One Thor feared he would likely have to work with sooner, rather than later, and one who would not be able to stand up to the power Loki could wield.

He had gone away empty handed for those who gave him orders. And Thor had turned back to watch the desert, to open himself up to feeling Loki's presence again. Now that Jane was safe he could reveal and confront his brother, and do what was necessary to stop him. So seeing the familiar rover coming towards the compound again made Thor uncomfortable, as much as it brought him the lightness of heart at seeing Jane again. But when it stopped, and she stepped out, Erik coming out the same door, she looking to the ground, he looking directly at Thor, any happy thoughts were washed away in agony and anger. Especially as the gun Erik was carrying was pressed to Jane's temple.

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