Chapter 12

Jane sat up, her knees drawn and a blanket thrown over as she slowly turned the pages of the notebook in her hand. She couldn't sleep and she didn't have Thor to blame it on this time. He had left hours ago. She couldn't stop thinking that what if they were right and she couldn't remember? It was very unsettling to think that there was something missing. She wanted to know. Something to do with "magic" involved. She snorted at that. Someone must have really had it out for her.

Sometimes she went through old journals, just to study bits and pieces of information that she may have missed before, anything to get her closer to her goals. Sometimes she was just bored and reading these astrophysical filled notebooks was better than any romance novel. Depending on her mood.

Her fingers skimmed over the next page, tracing the unfamiliar image that she was sure she hadn't drawn. Because it was definitely a rough sketch of...a tree? But a tree without the leaves. Was it even a tree? And she certainly didn't draw. She knew what was on the page, vague scramblings and pin points as stars as the universe itself. Now they'd just been separated into sections.

"Maybe I have lost my mind." She said to herself and kicked the blanket off. She picked up a carelessly tossed checkered blue button down shirt and pulled it on over the tank top she wore, but left it unbuttoned. It wasn't exactly cold outside, but it wasn't warm, either. The screen door made a small hissing sound when she opened it and then popping back shut. She walked around to the ladder on the back of the RV and having to use both hands to climb up, she jabbed the edge of the notebook into her mouth and climbed up the five short steps.

Clearing the top, she gasped and dropped the notebook when she caught sight of a very non-absent Thor. He lay there on one of the two cots that she and Darcy usually used, his hands folded beneath his head and one knee drawn up. He turned his head at her gasp and frowned, leaning up on one side. "What is it?"

She'd managed to catch the notebook with one hand and brought it back up as she climbed fully onto the top. She'd alarmed him, she saw. She cleared her throat. "Ugh, nothing. I just, I thought you'd gone, you know?" Obviously, he hadn't. His "I bid you goodnight, Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis" and a kiss to her knuckles hadn't meant he was flying back to New York. No, he'd only went up top.

"Are you alright?"

She nodded. Well, this was a little awkward. "I'll go back inside..."

"No, please, stay." Thor said. He hadn't been asleep and he wasn't the least bit tired. Strangely, he wasn't surprised that Jane wasn't asleep. She was known to miss a nights sleep. He held his hand out to her and she took it, stepping over the cot and then taking a step back to drop down onto the one across from him.

"I couldn't sleep because I can't stop working." Jane said with a smile and a shrug. Reading any of these was work because it was informational.

"What is it?"

"It's a book. A journal of sorts, I'd guess. I have a lot of them, actually. Sometimes I go back when I forget something. Sometimes I just read for the hell of it." She heard the scrape of his cot moving closer and then felt the heat of his leg almost touching hers.

"May I see?"

"Yea, but I don't think you'll understand any of it...Darcy certainly doesn't." She flipped the book open to where her thumb had made a book mark. Her fingers slid over the page that had dumb founded her.

He didn't take the book from her, but he held the other part of the book in his hand so they were both holding it. "Do you remember this, Jane?"

"Should I?" And there it was. Something else she was missing. If he was right, something else that had occurred only between the two of them.

She missed his smile when he shifted so that they were actually touching, shoulder to thigh, side by side. He held the book in his hand and motioned with his other. "Your ancestors called it magic..." He followed her movement, tracing the image. "...but you call it science. I come from a land where they are one and the same. These are galaxies, from one to another. And you are here..."

Was it really possible? Was it really so beautiful?

She spoke again, but this time, Thor saw no recognition in her eyes, no hint that she remembered the last time they'd spoken of this. He felt a moments defeat at that but reminded himself, he could not win every battle. She was still here.

"Is your world much like Earth?"

"In a way, yes." He told her of his world of gold and glory, of floating realms and great feasts. He told her of the God's that resided. "We are many, but few compared to the humans here. I used to think we were a dominating race, much more powerful and above humans." But that had changed.

"You are."

"No, Jane. We are not. My time here as a mortal taught me much. I did not know the meaning of humility until I met you." What he spoke was true, he knew, because even in her presence now, he was still learning and he was still confessing.

She laughed softly, a little shyly, and squeezed her hands between her thighs. "It's nice to know that I can make a difference on someone like that." She said, not really believing it.

"Do not sell yourself short, Jane Foster. You've done more than even a great God could accomplish."

She fell back onto the cot and Thor followed, staring up at the star filled sky. "So beyond those stars, everything we see, there is another world?"

"Many."

"God, I hope you're not crazy." Jane said and he laughed. She looked over at him. "What?"

"You've said that to me once, as well."

"Maybe we're both crazy...look, a shooting star. Make a wish."

Thor did not understand the concept of making a wish on a fallen star, but he was silent, watching when she closed her eyes and what he was assuming, making a silent wish. When she opened her eyes, he spoke. "You wish upon fallen stars?"

She smiled. "You don't?" When he shook his head, she shrugged. "It's something we do here...you see a shooting star and you make a wish. It's supposed to come true."

"And what did you wish for?"

Her gaze drifted back to the starlit sky. "If you tell, it won't come true."

And she made the wish again, silently. 'If there is anything between us, anything at all, any memories that he says I have...I wish I could remember.' And she waited silently and in vain, because she remembered nothing. Nothing other than what she remembered now. She opened her eyes to find him staring at her. "What is it?"

"If I kissed you, would you let me?" He said, his lips curving.

He wasn't forceful, he was teasing. And oh man, did he keep trying to place those kisses on her. She knew his unspoken 'this time' was there. "Probably not?" She offered.

He gave that same soft laugh again before falling onto his back, one arm sliding beneath his head. "I thought so." He was so close that they could have been sharing the same bed. He turned those eyes on her again. Before she could stop him he leaned in close again but instead of stealing a kiss, he placed one on her forehead and then kissed the rim of her ear. There was nothing untoward in the movement, it was just a gentle gesture. "If I did not know better, Jane Foster, I would say you were a prude." He murmured teasingly.

"Wha—" She whispered and sat up, knocking into his chin with her shoulder. "I am not a-a...a prude." It wasn't like she was a virgin or anything. Maybe by a couple of years or so, but she certainly wasn't innocent.

"I jest." Thor said with clear amusement to sooth her.

"It's not like I'm a virgin." Jane said and then snapped her mouth shut in mortification. Oh my God. Had she really just said that in front of him? Her mind raced and her pulse pounded; had they? He was on his side again, her hand in his again. He had a thing with kissing her, any part of her apparently, because he was kissing each fingertip again.

She had to admit...that was kind of romantic. And nice.

She was about to ask him horrifyingly when he spoke, putting those fears to rest. "And who must I kill?"

So they hadn't...otherwise he wouldn't have asked that question, but now she was set on something else. She curled her fingers in his hand and his lips followed the movement. "Would you, really?" She asked in a shocked whisper.

"Perhaps I would."

"Why?"

"Because I would not have been the first to give you pleasure." He said with absolutely no shame, his eyes meeting hers.

Oh. My. God. She groaned and yanked her hand back, her face flaring bright red in the night. He burst out laughing and then reached out, jerking her into his arms. He did nothing more than hug her, his laughter vibrating against his chest. "You are an amazing woman, Jane Foster."

"And you are absolutely crazy." She said, almost wishing she actually meant it. She was in way over her head and she knew it and she wasn't sure she wanted to do anything about it. They spent the rest of the night side by side on the cots, him going over tales of his world and her explaining the wonders of ice cream, chocolate and onion rings.