Jim woke up again, feeling much better. His throat didn't hurt and… "Claire?" Jim said. Claire was sitting in a chair she'd moved up next to the bed, and was sprawled halfway out of it, her head against his shoulder. Toby was on the other side, hanging on to his arm.
They were asleep.
"They have been here for hours, Master Jim," Blinky said softly. "Arrrggghhh would be here, but the delicacy of the equipment and the small quarters…"
"I'll have to—"
"Jim?" Claire asked. Her face was bruised, she had an IV (and how had that happened, they were supposed to be safe), her hair was going everywhere without her pins…
She was the most beautiful person Jim had ever seen.
"Claire… What happened?"
"Usurna betrayed us, she was working with Gunmar."
"What?"
"Yeah," Toby said, yawning. "The rest of the Janus order attacked Trollmarket."
"I'll kill her!"
"Um, too late," Claire said. "Toby, Me and Thor kinda already did that."
Toby, Me and Thor? "I… I think I need some story."
"Well, Captain America told us about what happened in the Darklands so…" Claire launched into the story, and soon Jim's head was whirling.
"And you portaled your parents and Enrique to their house?"
"Yeah." Claire giggled. "Just in time for Mary to show up and ask them if they were ever going to unground me. Mom still talks about how weird it was—there were kids playing in the street, and just below…"
"Yeah." Jim gripped Claire's hand. She could have died. You were—no. That's not fair. Claire was just as much a fighter as Jim was and he wasn't going to try to turn her into a child. Like it or not, none of them were.
"So once we got up here, you got whisked off, and you wouldn't believe all the people showing up," Toby said. "Vendel has a chair in Fury's office—Vendel! I didn't think he'd ever leave Trollmarket!"
"Vendel is having to face changes, as are we all, Master Jim," Blinky said. "You did it. You have ended the threat of Gunmar, but that threat defined us for hundreds of years. I doubt any know where the road leads now, save that our Trollhunters will help guide the way."
"They won't suddenly remember I'm a kid?" Jim asked.
"No." Blinky paused. "For good or ill, no. The world is changing, and we must change with it… Though to be fair, many of your duties will likely be less…"
"Life-threatening?" Jim grinned. "I can deal with that."
And then, like a dam breaking the three teens were talking, laughing, randomly bouncing between the desperate battle and mundane school affairs.
Blinky merely leaned back and smiled at the three, letting them, for the first time in far too long, laugh and talk with no undertone of worry surrounding them.
Later that night, Jim found himself struggling with the wheelchair. The doctors had given him his first PT, but they'd been treating him like he was made out of glass. Sure he hurt, but he could keep going and he needed to.
"What's the problem, Jim?"
Jim looked up and saw Captain America leaning on the door frame.
"Oh, Cap—"
"Steve," he corrected.
"Right," Jim said, fighting the are you crazy, I can't call you that, thoughts he was having. "Steve. I was thinking of trying to get some exercise in because well…"
"Well?"
"It's that the Spring Fling is coming up, and Claire promised to dance with me, but…" He took a deep breath. "I really don't want to miss our dance."
Steve say anything for a few minutes, seemingly lost in thought. Then he chuckled. "Well, then let's see what we can do, because you're right. You really shouldn't miss your dance."
A few days later, Jim was standing in front of Nick Fury. Sure, he needed a cane, for now at least, but without Steve and Natasha and Clint, he probably would still be in his wheelchair. Claire and Toby were even better off.
"So, now we talk about what we need to do," Fury said. "You all saved the day—but there's always a tomorrow." Fury looked out the window at the grounds of the California SHIELD base. "And I need a conduit for information with the trolls. They'll stay secret, for now, but that probably won't last forever. Especially since according to both Angor and Vendel, Morgana may still be active. And I need ambassadors to coordinate with the trolls."
"I—" Jim gulped. "Director Fury, I can help, but I'm the Trollhunter. That means I have to work for their interests as well, not just be a…"
"Mouthpiece?" Fury chuckled. "I know that—You're a lot like Steve Rodgers in that regard. But no, I need you to help us talk, so that we can avoid any future fights."
Part of Jim had gone into reset mode at the "you're a lot like Captain America." He shook his head. "Um, yeah, I can help."
"And I'm willing to sweeten the pot."
"A quinjet?" Toby asked.
"Heh, you're already getting Stark's apology-suits for not making you invulnerable." Fury shook his head. "Be satisfied. No, I actually found a former SHIELD agent in your community. He was a translator who worked with us during some issues in Austria. He can work as a go-between and provide support if you need it."
A SHIELD agent here… Then the door opened and Jim blinked.
"Senor Uhl?" Claire said, her eyes wide.
"I am happy to note that your numerous absences were in fact for a good reason," Uhl said. "I have excused them."
Then he did something that had Jim wondering if he was still in a coma. Uhl cracked a faint smile. "And I am proud that students under my care have done so very much to save so many, no matter their outward form. You are a credit to the school, Arcadia, and your families."
"You'll also have direct ways to communicate with SHIELD in the case of an emergency." Fury nodded at the items on his desk. "SHIELD issue phones, IDs… Everything you need."
"I don't think there will be… the trolls…" Jim shook his head. After the joy at being safe again, they'd had to count the butcher's bill of the Battle of Trollmarket. For a slow reproducing and long-lived race like the trolls, it had been a near disaster. Claire had been the one who had prevented the loss of nearly an entire generation of troll whelps. "They're going to be a while getting back on their feet."
"And Angor is handling things for now," Toby said. He'd tried to get him named "Deputy Angor" but one glance from the troll had caused Toby to reconsider.
"We also have a cover story in place for your injuries—a smuggling ring involving Chitauri weapons that you discovered and were attacked by before they were taken into custody." Fury said. "But for now… I believe you have a dance to prepare for."
Yeah. Yeah we do, Jim thought.
The auditorium was a wonderland of color. Claire looked around, at the students dancing, the balloons… And if it was only cheap party stuff, an ordinary school in an ordinary town, right now it was more glorious than flying ships or troll homelands or Asgardian Gods. She was wearing her best dress, because they didn't have to worry about suddenly being attacked out of the blue. They could just… Be themselves.
Because she was here, with Jim and Toby, alive. With Jim and Enrique, back home in his crib, safe, even if Claire sometimes got up in the middle of the night to just watch him, and sometimes, when she wasn't at home so she could check on him, she would have panic attacks. Sometimes nightmares of spindly goblins sneaking back into the house, into Enrique's crib would bring her out of a deep sleep, send her stumbling, heart pounding, to Enrique's room.
The SHIELD psychologist they were all seeing had told her that was normal, that they would work through it, together.
"I can't believe she found us," Mary whined to her newest beau. "It's like Nurse has eyes in the back of her head!" Behind her, Natasha caught Claire's glance but showed no sign she was anything other than a student.
As Claire expected. Right now, she was on the job.
"So." Jim's voice. Claire turned around and there he was, in his best clothes, his cane leaning against a chair. "Can I have this dance?"
"I would love it," Claire said softly. They put their arms around each other and started dancing as Eres tú was played over the auditorium. Claire leaned her head into Jim's shoulder as they danced. She didn't know what would happen tomorrow, but for tonight?
This was all she wanted.
End
Note: There will be an Epilogue, and one more story in this setting.
