It's been a while since last I updated, and I'm sorry about that. I've been in and out of a few not-so-great head-spaces over the past few months, but I'm on an upswing right now, and I've really missed writing this story. So. Here we go.
Jane's PoV
"That's no satellite crash! They would have hauled the wreckage away, they wouldn't have built a city around it!" Jane put her binoculars down and frowned, peering out into the darkness at the glowing blue-white of the well-lit nylon tubes that the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents scuttled around like ants inside.
"You're going to need this." Thor shrugged out of his borrowed jacket and draped it around Jane's shoulders mere seconds before the sky split wide and unleashed a heavy rain.
He laughed. "Now stay here. Once I have Mjolnir, I will return the things they have stolen from you. Deal?"
"No." God, he looked like everyone who'd ever looked down their nose at her and sneered, thinking she was incapable. "Do you see what's down there? You think you're just gonna walk in, grab our stuff, and walk out?"
"No," Thor said, face alight with glee. "I'm going to fly out."
Thor's PoV
Thunder boomed overhead, and he could feel it beneath his skin. That was his creation, his baby. He wanted to watch over every strike.
Thunder crashed once more as he took down two black-clad agents and made his way into the white nylon structure, ducking and hiding the way he'd seen Loki do millions of times. He flipped the first agent he encountered inside, beating him into submission, and made his way further in, feeling Mjolnir calling to him louder and louder as he drew nearer.
The next moments passed in a blur of swinging fists and feet, swift and brutal, and at long last, he rose from the mud and grasped the leather-bound handle and gave a mighty pull.
Nothing. She gave not an inch, not a millimeter. Stuck fast in a column of sand, his one hope of delivering on his promise to Jane, of returning home, was no longer a viable option.
Mjolnir didn't want him anymore.
He let out a deep, rough wail, dropped to his knees, lamented. He was nothing now. He had nothing.
The rain beat against his broad back as faceless black-clad agents dragged him inside, cuffed his wrists, and he did not resist, looking only at the triquetra etched into the side of his hammer.
That was new. That was magic. Mjolnir did not want him because she did not recognize him!
He was shoved into a rickety plastic chair, and confronted by a middle-aged man in formal clothes.
"You made my men, some of the most highly-trained professionals in the world, look like a bunch of minimum-wage mall cops. That's hurtful."
Thor's gaze did not lift from the floor. He was preoccupied by the half-baked plans that whizzed through his mind, prompting him to consider all the many ways he could break the spell on Mjolnir.
"In my experience, it takes someone who's received similar training to do what you did to them."
Find the mage who executed the enchantment and beseech them to undo it, or perform some task for them in exchange for the spell's undoing, perhaps?
No. No mage that powerful could find me useful.
"Why don't you tell me where you received your training? Pakistan? Chechnya? Afghanistan? No, you strike me more as the soldier of fortune type."
A low blow indeed. Stranded and helpless as he was, Thor still knew himself to be, primarily, a good man.
"Where was it? South Africa?"
Thor looked away.
"Certain groups pay very well for a good mercenary like you. Who are you?" Son of Coul was done playing.
Thor looked up, ice in his eyes, and let his contempt show.
"One way or another," the man said with a light sigh, "we find out what we need to know. We're good at that." His pocket beeped, and he retrieved a small device, inspecting it briefly before saying, "Don't go anywhere."
The door slid shut behind him, and Loki stood in his place, clad in similar formal wear in a fetching shade of green with a woolen scarf draped around his neck.
"Loki!" Thor breathed, leaning forward, seeking. "What are you doing here?"
"I had to see you."
And didn't that sentence warm Thor's heart, liven up his drenched and weary bones. Mortality fatigued him, but Loki's presence, and the concern softly wrinkling his brow, relieved him of all tiredness. Of course, then the realization hit that Loki wouldn't seek him out for comfort if something hadn't gone horribly wrong.
"What's happened? Tell me. I-Is it Jotunheim? Let me explain to Father."
"Father is dead."
Loki's PoV
Loki watched as Thor's face became a battleground for his emotions - rage, sorrow, disgust, fear. The sorrow and fear, he regretted instantly. Rage could fuel one for centuries; disgust could keep one safe for millennia.
But nothing so awful as sorrow ought ever to dim the smile on Thor's face; nothing so wicked as fear had even a right to touch him.
"What?"
"Your banishment, the threat of a new war, it was too much for him to bear." Loki was thankful for the fluorescent luights disguising his silver tongue. "You mustn't blame yourself. I know that you loved him."
Even Loki, God of Lies, could taste the truth in that. It wasn't Thor's fault. None of it was. As ever, the blame for this situation rested solely on Loki's shoulders.
"I tried to tell him so, but he wouldn't listen. It was so cruel to put the hammer within your reach, knowing you could never lift it."
Thor was silent for a moment, thoughts etched plainly on his face, and Loki ached to embrace him, to soothe his furrowed brow, to wipe away this conversation, that he might live happily on Midgard until Loki's foul deeds had been done and dealt with.
"The burden of the throne has fallen to me now."
"Can I come home?" Thor looked up, hopeful, lips trembling.
"The truce with Jotunheim is conditional upon your exile."
"Yes, but couldn't we find a way - "
"And Mother has forbidden your return. This is goodbye, Brother. I'm so sorry."
Pink-fleshed truth. All Loki felt was remorse.
"No. I am sorry." A single tear trickled down Thor's cheek, and Loki's eyes burned in sympathy. "Thank you for coming here."
Loki turned his back on his brother, hopefully for the last time, and transported himself outside, to Mjolnir. He gently touched her handle and felt her recoil, tugged harder, strained against the mighty force of her.
Let me take you away from him! Let me keep him safe!
Still she resisted him, and he gave up.
I know. I am not the one you want. I will never be good enough. Thank you for protecting him all these years.
With that, he vanished.
Erik's PoV
A man somewhat younger than Erik stood above him on the wet steel steps, questioning the thin alias they'd cobbled together on the way to the site of the crash.
"Doctor Donald Blake."
"You have dangerous coworkers, Doctor Selvig."
"He was distraught when he found out that you'd taken all of our research. That was years of his life, gone! You can understand how a man might go off like that, a big, faceless organization like yours coming in with their jackbooted thugs and - That's how he put it."
"That still doesn't explain how he managed to tear through our security."
"Steroids! He's a bit of a fitness nut!"
A whining alarm blared, and a man behind a desk said, "Sir?"
The man on the steps, Agent Coulson, leaned back and took a look at something on the techie's screen. Erik feared the worst, palms sweating. For Jane's sake. For Jane's sake, let him pass.
Thor, looking every inch a confused beagle,steps up to the doorway at Coulson's request.
Erik gives him a tight hug, taking a little pride in the pop of his vertebrae, and says, "Donny, Donny, Donny! Come on, it's going to be alright, my friend. I'm taking you home."
As Erik ushered Thor out of the nylon sheeting complex, Agent Coulson spoke. "Try and keep him out of the bars."
So, naturally, that's exactly what Erik didn't do.
"Where are we going?" Thor asked at a whisper.
"To get a drink."
Within ten minutes, they were at the local bar, up to their chins in boilermakers, and Thor, bruised and weary, looks so much like Donald fucking Blake M.D. that Erik finishes his boilermaker at a rapid pace, chugging it, showing off.
Of course, Thor downed his twice as fast and grinned like a satisfied child once he was done so, no agenda, no pettiness. He just likes drinking with people he thinks are his friends.
"Darcy's a terrible intern, but a talented hacker," Erik says, licking his lips.
"Thank you for all you've done for me." Thor was so earnest it pained Erik, like a fishhook to the lung. This sweet summer child had no clue what was coming for him.
"I didn't do it for you," Erik said, barely reigning in a hiss. "I did it for Jane."
"Do you love her?" Thor asked, and again, Erik recalled Jane when she barely reached his knee on her tiptoes, curious and wide-eyed. This was a full-grown man, a full-grown man who could take down scads of trained S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with minimal effort.
It was ridiculous to think of him as some small thing to be protected, but something about his honest face and gentle demeanor made it hard to resist the urge to coddle him. Of course, his resemblance to the man who had broken Jane's heart helped matters somewhat, but it was still difficult to withstand the temptation. Gruffness seemed the only viable option, and even that was difficult when the man asked questions like a sweet little boy, guileless and genuine.
"Of course not. Jane's like a daughter to me. Her father and I taught at University together. A good man, but he never listened." Or payed attention. Or much cared. After Janey could tie her own shoes, she was pretty much on her own.
"Neither did I," Thor said, thumbing the handle of his pint glass morosely.
"I don't know if you're really delusional, and I don't really care at this point. I just care about her. I've seen the way she looks at you."
Thor's brow furrowed; had he really not noticed Jane's fixation on him? She looked at him like she wanted to crack him open and take inventory of his organs, like she wanted to learn him and then apply him to her work. It was a dangerous look from anyone, but from Jane - stubborn, stubborn Jane - it was especially so.
"I swear to you, I mean her no harm."
"Good," Erik said. "If that's the case, I'll buy you one more drink, and you'll leave town tonight."
Of course, one drink turned into two, two into four, and Thor bares his soul, looking at Erik with these wide, sad eyes, lamenting his lack of direction, of surety. Erik even headbutts a townie for him; drunk as he is, it doesn't hurt in the moment as much as it will in the morning.
When they finally leave the bar, the moon hangs high overhead, and all pretense of coldness that Erik has been trying to use falls to the wayside, clapping and skipping and singing down the street with Thor, who is far less drunk than he probably should be.
Then, of course, mid-song, everything goes a bit fuzzy, and the next thing Erik knows, he's waking up in the trailer with a murderous headache.
Jane's PoV
Jane rose from her bed, setting her book aside, and makes her way to the door, where, upon opening it, she is confronted with the sight of Erik Selvig's ass.
"Erik!" She looks up, sees a smiling Thor carrying her surrogate father like a sack of potatoes, and asks, "Is he alright?"
"He's fine. Not injured at all."
"Put him on the bed," Jane said, stepping to the side as Thor crouches down and shuffles awkwardly through the camper van, accidentally bonking Erik's head on the storage shelf over the bed as he sets him down. "What happened?"
"We drank. We fought. He made his ancestors proud!"
Erik giggled drunkenly. "I still don't believe you're the god of thunder. But you ought to be!"
Jane suddenly becomes aware of the disgusting conditions of her quarters and ushers Thor outside as fast as is humanly possible.
"I come up here," she said of the roof of Smith Motors, "sometimes when I can't sleep, or when I'm trying to reconcile particle data, or when Darcy's driving me crazy." Jane considered her statement, shaking her head. "I come up here a lot, now that I think about it."
Thor turns his head up and looks at the sky, starlight glinting off of the blue in his eyes, turning them the colour of mercury.
"I'm glad you're safe." I'm glad I get to learn about the stars on your side of the universe.
"You've been very kind," Thor replied, smiling softly, his whole face dimpling.
"Well, I also hit you with my car a couple times, so it kind of evens out," Jane jokes, diffusing the overwhelming honesty in the air.
Thor touches his ribs, where the spare tire made contact, and his smile widens further as he pulls Jane's notebook out of his jacket pocket.
"I don't believe it..."
"It was all I could get back. Not as much as I promised. I'm sorry." Thor's bright smile is obfuscated by clouds of remorse, like he doesn't realize what an incredible boon this is.
"No. This is good. This means I don't have to start from scratch." She smiled, but the corners of her lips soon fell as she realized that S.H.I.E.L.D. would never let her go public with her research. They'd run her down to the ends of the earth, like Erik's missing friend.
"What's wrong?"
Something about his face made her want to soften the blow. "S.H.I.E.L.D., whatever they are, they're never gonna let this research see the light of day."
Thor shook his head. "No. You must do this. You must finish what you've started."
"Why?"
"Because you're right," Thor said, glittering with excitement. "It's taken so many generations for your people to get to this point. You're nearly there. You just need someone to show you how close you really are."
He reaches for her notebook and takes the mechanical pencil hooked onto the front cover, flips to a blank page, starts sketching a crude map of a tree.
"Look - your ancestors called it magic. You call it science. I come from a place where they're one and the same thing."
Jane looked over his shoulder, watching the stars unfold in his lap. "What is it?"
"This is how my father explained it to me:
Your world is one of the Nine Realms of the Cosmos, linked to each other by the branches of Yggdrasil, the Worlds Tree. Now, you see it every day, without realizing. Images glimpsed through - what did you call it?...this Hubble Telescope. So, Nine Realms: Alfheim, Nornheim, Vanaheim..."
Jane listened as he unspooled glowing tales of intergalactic travel that took no more time than walking down the street to buy milk, but eventually, his rich, even voice lulled her, and she dozed on his shoulder, taking comfort in his warmth.
Maybe, just maybe, he'd be worth keeping around after she'd gotten all the information she needed from him.
Maybe, they could be friends.
Thor's PoV
Moonlight dripped down Jane's delicate features, and Thor's chest ached. He draped a blanket around her shoulders and wished that Loki was with him.
He always tells those stories so much better than I do. He knows Yggdrasil so much better than I do, having spent so much of his time striding out along the branches, running and hiding in every nook and cranny.
I will never see my brother again.
Thor sleeps shallowly, troubled by that thought. Never is a strong word, and hearing it wedged so firmly between himself and his Loki disturbs him, hollows him out at his core and leaves him empty.
Come morning, he drops off a mug to replace the one he'd broken the previous morning, helps Jane make eggs for Darcy and a drink-sickened Erik, and is very suddenly surprised by the appearance of Sif, Hogun, Volstagg, and Fandral.
"My friends!" He loped across the room and let them in, embracing them heartily while, behind him, Erik whispers, "I don't believe it."
"Who are they?" Darcy asked, eyes wide, appraising.
After brief introductions, Fandral made their intentions clear, and Thor shrank.
"You know I can't," he said, soft, sad. "My father is dead because of me. I must remain in exile."
"Thor," Sif said, probing, testing, as if unsure how attached he is to reality. "Your father still lives."
Thor made to respond, face suddenly both alight with happiness at the prospect of returning home and grim at the revelation that Loki had lied to him to keep him away, but before he could speak, a booming cloud of grey smoke fills the air outside of town, where the Bifrost spilled them all out onto the skin of the planet.
Someone else had come.
Again, I am so very, deeply, massively sorry that it's taken me so long to get this chapter up. There will be more soon. Very soon. By this weekend. Feel free to bother me if you think I'm taking too long.