Chapter Twenty Nine
New York traffic had always been draining. Just being surrounded by the frenetic atmosphere of people buzzing about their daily lives exhausted Jane, so she was looking forward to a hot bubble bath and then a quiet night with Thor upon returning to Avengers Tower from visiting Agent Barton. Clint looked much stronger than when she'd initially seen him not long after his rescue, and he'd been bored enough to truly appreciate the stack of archery magazines and a copy of Tolkien's Unfinished Tales she'd brought along as presents.
Pressing her thumb against the lock allowed the door to swish open. She deposited her worn, leather satchel on the foyer table and padded toward the bathroom. And then she ran smack dab into a solid, damp, naked body coming out of said bathroom. She shouted and scrambled backward to put distance between herself and the intruder.
"Careful, Jane," Thor intoned in a voice that was deep and silky. An arm slid around her back to prevent her from backpedaling too far.
Saved from backing into his pile of armor, which naturally would have tripped her up and placed her solidly on her ass in the middle of the floor, by the god of thunder's naked forearm. That wasn't the most notable part. His naked forearm was gorgeous, naturally, but it was the naked chest, torso, and everything else that peaked her pulse as though she'd just run a marathon.
A tack popping out of the wall and hitting the floor could have been heard in the loaded silence that followed. Her mouth went dry as stale bread, and no matter how much she told herself not to look, she looked, eyes roaming over the sculpted body in front of her and dipping down in the direction of his crotch. Even a nun would look, she shrieked to herself, face hot.
The spell was broken when Thor cleared his throat and untangled his arm from around her waist. "Did you need something?" He seemed a little flustered himself and clarified, "Do not mistake my meaning. Your company is always most pleasing, but did you come to my chambers for a purpose beyond wishing to spend time together?"
"Your chambers?" Confusion could be found in the dictionary as a synonym for Jane. "These are my chambers. Why else would my thumb print be stored in the registry?"
"Anthony instructed me the fifty-fifth floor, apartment C were my guest chambers during my stay. This is the fifty-fifth floor, and we are standing inside apartment C."
She found her eyes dropping south of his chin again and made a conscious effort to drag her glance back to safer territory. "No, he specifically gave me an information packet… Could you put on a towel or something? That is distracting." She waved her hand in his general direction, because her eyes were roaming again.
The massive, muscle-bound god of thunder in all his golden glory, honed physique, and silky, unblemished skin smirked. He actually smirked. And one of his pectoral muscles flexed.
"Clothes!" Jane reminded him. "Or I won't accountable for where my eyes wander."
"Would such be a bad thing?"
"Yes. We have to spend more than a week and a half in each other's presence before any ravishing of Jane's reproductive organs takes place!" Oh God, she was going to die of mortification. How was she ever going to stick to her one month rule, wherein she wouldn't have sex with a man she hadn't dated for at least a month?
The smirk broadened into a full-fledged smile before he responded, "As you wish."
"And don't stay that!" Because it reminded her of Wesley in The Princess Bride, and she had spent the entirety of her teenage years absolutely butt-crazy in love with Wesley.
"Your wish is my command?"
"Or that." He made it sound like a caress!
"I am yours to command. Speak your will, and I will see it done." The giant smile on his face made it evident he was enjoying seeing her so flustered.
Desperate to stop her rioting hormones-her eggs were banding together and screeching with one voice that they desperately wanted to make babies with Thor Odinson-from destroying every shred of her willpower, she reached up and plastered her hand over his mouth to somehow make him stop spouting such amazingly delicious things. And if he bit or licked the center of her palm like in one of Darcy's bodice rippers, she was going to combust. Poof! Buh-bye Jane Foster, level-headed astrophysicist on the verge of harnessing wormholes for interplanetary travel.
A chuckle rumbled in Thor's barrel-like chest.
After a full minute of silence, she eased her palm away from his mouth. "Could you please put some clothes on?"
"Of course, Dear Heart." But he was still grinning like a loon when he padded over to retrieve the track pants neatly folded on the bed and slipped them on. "By the by, what is the purpose of these? I found them beneath the pillow."
Instant combustion. Heat licked at her cheeks and caused her face to turn red as a beet upon glancing over to see Thor holding a row of condom packets aloft. Face was introduced to palms. A tiny groan was forthcoming. "Those are condoms," she croaked. "It's a sleeve that goes over your…masculine…thingie…and traps your… They protect against a man getting a woman pregnant. Tony, I'm going to kill you!"
"A sleeve that goes over my…" Understanding dawned, his brows arching and eyes widening when he fully grasped her meaning. "Then that explains the confusion over whose chambers these are. Anthony did promise a locked door and sturdy bed when we arrived at Avengers Tower, so he clearly means for us to share these chambers."
"And those condoms," she squeaked.
"We have nothing like this on Asgard. Asgardian reproduction is delicate. It is nothing for a couple to go hundreds of years without being able to reproduce living offspring, so stopping that miniscule chance of pregnancy is unwise when every offspring is valuable."
Really? They were going to have to a serious conversation while Thor was standing there half naked next to a bed holding onto condoms? Color didn't leave her cheeks just yet. "Nature's way of making up for your long lives, I suppose."
"Pardon?"
"If you were able to breed as efficiently as humans, you would overpopulate and decimate your resources far too quickly. So nature balanced your long lives with the inability to breed efficiently."
"Jane, there is no need for embarrassment." Thor placed the packets on the nightstand and returned to cup her cheeks and prevent her from hiding her face again. "What I feel for you goes beyond the physical. Nothing untoward will happen between us until you are ready and willing. I will not pressure you for nor expect anything physical."
She grasped his wrists and finally settled herself enough to meet his glance. "I want to be physical with you. Just not yet. We need to get to know each other without sex clouding the issues. We need to make sure this works, that we work on a level beyond physical attraction."
"I agree. There are many obstacles facing what we can be together. They must be acknowledged before deepening our relationship else we risk hurting each other. I would rather deny myself the treasure of your femininity for a thousand years than risk hurting you."
Moisture pricked her eyes for a moment. He said some of the most beautiful things. She would probably walk around with Warm Fuzzies the rest of her life after having been exposed to Thor's brand of chivalry.
Eventually, she broke the comfortable silence, time in which Thor finally hid the glory of his chest beneath a t-shirt advertising the movie 300, to say, "Can you stay here on Earth for a while, or do you have to rush back to Asgard?"
"Loki and I must escort Amora back to Asgard where she will be tried for her crimes."
"You must be relieved to see him doing so well."
His expression soured slightly. "There was a time when I feared killing my own brother an inevitability and the only way to protect the realm I've grown to love and the people I've come to respect. A part of me will always love Loki and hope only for the best where he's concerned, but there is the very real possibility he will betray me again. And then I will have no other course of action but to choose the safety of the universe over my brother."
She tried to show him with her expression the sympathy she felt for his position. "I can't imagine how terrible that must feel."
"Do you have siblings?"
"I have Darcy. She's come to be like a sister to me. I have an older sister in Maine, but we haven't spoken since my father's death."
"What quarrel lies between you that would prevent you from speaking?"
"She kept all our father's research notes and diplomas. Since I spent so much time with him while he was alive, she claimed she was entitled to all the physical mementoes."
"Try, Jane. Family is important. Try to reconcile before it's too late."
"I have tried."
"Then try again. And again. And again until there's no more time left to try."
She nodded her understanding and pulled him forward into her embrace to settle her cheek against his chest and feel the solid thud of his heart against the inside of his breast. "I will. Will you be able to come back from Asgard?"
Tension tightened his frame, and his arms wrapped firmly around her. "I know not. Father thinks it unwise to use the tesseract to repair the Bifrost. The Chitauri were drawn to Earth because your scientists activated it. They were able to read its energy signature even from their great distance. The possibility exists they will be drawn to Asgard were we to activate it."
"And you can't risk another war with the Chitauri while the dark elves are making pests of themselves."
"Correct. There are limits to what even Asgard can face."
A terrible ache clenched her heart. Maybe he would come back a day later. Maybe a year later. Maybe she would never see him again, and memories of him would fade into silent longing and unrequited love. Maybe she would complete technology that would allow her to establish contact with Asgard from her end. But that was a whole lot of maybes for her to rest her entire future on. Could she live without Thor? Sure. She'd lived for thirty years without him and could go the rest of her life if he were denied her. Did she want to live the rest of her life without him if she had a choice in the matter? That was the real question.
Jane pulled in a shuddering breath when the answer crystallized sharp and bright into the forefront of her thoughts. There was no consideration given. She didn't plan things out in her mind. Words just rushed from her in a jumble when she exclaimed, "Then take me with you."
"You would go with me to Asgard?" Hope bloomed on his visage.
"If you'll have me."
"Asgard will have you if for no other reason than for my sake. You are here, Jane Foster." Thor clasped her hand and flattened it over his heart. "The intensity of my feelings for you is illogical. We have spent painfully little time together, but that doesn't stop how I feel. Are you certain this is what you want?"
"This is crazy," she breathed upon pulling her head back far enough to gaze up into his handsome face. Despite her words, there was a giddy smile on her lips, her eyes wide with wonder. "I'm only certain about one thing. You are worth the risk. If we don't work out, I'll figure out a place for myself among your people."
"I don't understand your phrase. If we don't work out?"
"If something happens and our emotions eventually cool toward one another. If your father doesn't allow us to be together. You're a prince of Asgard. He may object to you being with a lowly human."
"My father will undoubtedly object. If I cared about his objections, I wouldn't be here. I will have you with or without his blessings. But it's not possible for my affection for you to cool, Dear Heart. Selfishly, I won't even try to talk you out of your decision."
Jane's fingers laced with his, and her gaze was unwavering. Certainly, her decision was the textbook definition of rash. Things could become extremely uncomfortable if Thor and she eventually separated. It was possible despite his protests. But the idea of being stuck on Earth while he was on Asgard was just shy of miserable. Take a leap, Darcy would say. Well, she was ready to make a massive leap.
"No, wait!" she suddenly exclaimed when something dawned on her.
Thor stiffened. A deep wariness tightened his features.
"There are two things I'm certain of," she went on to explain. "You and Asgard's scientific possibilities are worth the risk. Oh my God, I can't believe hormones momentarily clouded me to what's really important. Because…science!"
Tasha felt all kinds of queasy when she stopped by her locker at HQ to get her gym bag full of stinky clothes that needed to hit the laundry. The nausea seemed to come and go randomly, but she hadn't had time to make an appointment with SHIELD doctors, certain that her enhanced healing would take care of the problem on its own. She was just having a hard time shaking the bug.
She inclined her head to Maria Hill, who strolled down the row of lockers to her own, and acknowledged the woman by saying, "Agent Hill."
"Agent Romanoff," the other woman responded.
Whatever was wrong with her stomach needed to go away by tomorrow. Clint was finally being released from the hospital and was stubbornly refusing to set foot inside Avengers Tower while Loki was present. He couldn't even stand the thought of being under the same roof with the Asgardian. She understood the sentiment. Loki had hurt Clint more than any of the rest of them. It was one thing to be attacked and forced to defend oneself against an aggressor. It was a whole different game to be used to kill the very people one was sworn to defend.
A scowl of discomfort twisted her features when she finally reached her locker. Her stomach twisted dangerously, but she snatched up the envelope tucked in the crack of her locker door rather than immediately rushing for a trash can or sink. The queasiness subsided enough to make dashing madly toward the bathroom unnecessary.
She tore open the envelope and unfolded the letter to scan its contents.
From: SHIELD Medical Department
13029 Rollings Boulevard
Suite 3B
Queens, New York 11374
To: Natasha Romanoff
Field Agent
Locker 195
RE: Contraceptive Implant Recall For Implants With Serial Number 45493B-523
Dear Agent Romanoff,
We are writing to inform you of a recent recall on contraceptive implants. Our records show you were the recipient of one such device…..
That was as far as she got before Natasha sat where she stood, because it was either sit down or hit the floor in a dead faint.
A/N: Is Natasha preggers with a little feathered baby? Stay tuned to Christian Grey Vs. Rogue to find out.
Next Chapter: A troubling occurrence at the Vault installation in Colorado and the honeymoon is short lived in the Clintasha apartment.
