"Good evening, Agent Darmer," Agent Hill smirked as Christie waltzed into the S.H.I.E.L.D's brand new communications room. She shot Hill a knowing smile back and continued to walk into the 'Health & Stats' subsection, where she knew a certain someone was staying.
Well, a certain two people - and as she slid open the correct door, she saw exactly who she was hoping to bump into.
"CHRISTIE!" Renesme squealed, causing Delilah's head to snap up from where she was working next to her. She released a sharp gasp before the two of them rushed across the polished floor to meet Christie at the door for the biggest and warmest hug ever. Christie let out a small excitable squeal of her own, opening her arms wide to receive them. Delilah's black hair was now shoulder length and slightly wavier than it was before but her sharp features had remained the same, whilst Renesme's wild copper locks were now swinging behind her in a neat ponytail and her cheeks were rosier than they had ever been before.
They both looked so happy.
"Hello pretty ladies!" Christie laughed, feeling extremely loved in that moment. It was the first time that she'd laughed in ages - a real laugh, one from the heart instead of blandly from her chest.
"Says you - you are just beautiful! Look at your hair! Where's the white gone? Goodness, you look like Delilah!" Renesme gasped once she let go of her. She was now holding Christie by her shoulders, like a grandmother who hadn't seen her grandkids in weeks and was making sure they looked okay.
"I had to get rid of the white for a mission…but don't worry, she'll be back eventually," Christie assured them with a smirk before jokingly flicking her newly coal coloured locks behind her shoulders.
"Either way you look so good!" Renesme clapped her hands excitedly, those dark eyes of hers sparkling with genuine excitement.
"How are you?" Delilah asked Christie with a toothy grin. "We didn't think you were ever coming back from Asgard, so this is amazing!"
"Well, I wasn't planning to come back originally," Christie mused. "But then after Loki…you know….I assumed there wasn't any point in staying if Thor was-"
"I'm sorry - after Loki did what?" Delilah spluttered with wide eyes, as Renesme gasped and dramatically placed her hand onto her chest. Christie fell silent and stared at them both in utter bewilderment.
"You mean…wait, nobody told you?" she muttered in surprise. Delilah shook her head and frowned, watching Christie's bubbly mood deflate in front of their very eyes.
"He didn't die…again…did he?" Renesme winced as she nibbled on her bottom lip anxiously.
"Not only that, but he literally died in my arms - properly this time. In fact, he died whilst attempting to save Thor of all people. Bizarre, I know," Christie informed them, doing a good job to swallow her tears so far. It was working so well in fact, that she had begun to suspect that her mind was already getting used to his death.
"Oh my dear Christie, that's terrible," Delilah breathed sadly, giving her another sympathetic hug. "I am ever so sorry. May his soul rest well."
"Yes, I'm sorry Christie," Renesme pouted from behind her, "that sucks. Did you manage to sort out your differences before it happened, at least? I remember that he was a little…strange before you all went back up." Christie smirked to herself at the unintentional irony of such a question.
"More or less I guess…he told me he loved me, and I definitely think I needed to hear that one last time," she ended up telling them truthfully, not wanting to beat around the bush. But then she remembered something that they still had no idea had taken place. "But you guys should know…Frigga…she was murdered." Delilah gasped so sharply that she felt it deep within her chest, whilst Renesme's large doe eyes immediately began to well up with tears. Christie felt dreadful, which was alien to say the least. All the news she had ever broken regarding death in her life was either due to reporting the completion of an assassination, or it was Loki's death which only seemed to badly affect her.
But announcing Frigga's was different - she was adored by these girls and had been for hundreds of years. The devastation on their faces just made it all the more difficult.
"Oh my….oh my. How did she….how did she…?" Delilah trailed off, struggling to get the words out without breaking down.
"This monster…thing…stabbed her - it was the same thing that k-killed Loki," Christie answered, barely managing to meet their tearful gazes. Loki's words regarding Frigga's death being Christie's fault were still bouncing about in her head, the sharp tone and harsh expressions echoing endlessly in her thoughts, no matter how hard she tried to block them out. They just wouldn't stop. "I…I believe they were called Dark Elves…?"
"Of course it had to be them, it was only a matter of time before they made their return. They're the ones responsible for the death of my mother," Delilah grunted to herself, staring at her hands as she thought.
"Oh my poor, darling Queen," Renesme breathed, wiping the tears away with her sleeves and giving a quick shudder to try and regain her composure. "How did Thor take it? And Loki for that matter? Or did this happen after he…"
"No, sadly he was still alive at that point, and both himself and Thor took it as badly as the rest of us. Loki was a mess in fact, he smashed all the furniture in his cell and I just remember that his feet were sliced open and bleeding and his hair was all matted and…" Christie's jaw clenched and she stopped talking about it.
Now the memory was starting to hurt.
"She did have the most beautiful send off, though. I'm grateful for that at least."
"Well, it's what she deserved," Renesme gave Christie a watery smile of understanding.
"Wait, who fired the farewell arrow at her funeral?" Delilah suddenly asked, starting to softly nibble on her thumb as it dawned on her that it would've been her responsibility - being Frigga's female head of weaponry. Christie reached out to slowly move her thumb away from her mouth, recognising her nervous disposition all too well.
"I did it, Del - don't worry," she assured her with comforting eyes. Delilah shakily breathed out through her nose in relief, squeezing Christie's hand in a silent thank you. "Odin wouldn't let it be anyone else, he was adamant."
"So wait, did they promote you, then?" Renesme blinked.
"Yeah, they took me out of the kitchens and made me a throne advisor as soon as we landed."
"Ooh our beloved Jennie must've absolutely hated that," Delilah gave the smallest of laughs, shooting Renesme a knowing look which she returned immediately.
"Speak of the devil," Renesme quizzed, "is she still up there?"
"Of course she bloody is. We had a fight and I left before we could resolve it…the girl had just become so bitter. It made it even worse when she had started to develop feelings for Thor out of nowhere," Christie filled them in, wincing at the memory of how she and Jennie had left their friendship in ruins.
"Feelings for Thor?" Renesme repeated in disgust, "has the girl gone completely mad?" Christie frowned at her words and stared at the girls, awaiting an explanation. She didn't think it was so out of the blue for someone to have feelings for the tall handsome blonde haired blue eyed majestic hammer wielding prince - she guessed that half of Asgard must've felt the same way too.
"Look, Christie - in the year and a bit that you've been gone, Ren and I have come up with our own theory about Jennie," Delilah broke it down for her, taking her hand and walking her towards the lounge section of the room away from all the high tech stat equipment, with Renesme following suit. There was a collection of three hard backed sofas clustered around a coffee table with multiple tea and coffee machines surrounding them. Renesme sat on one sofa, Delilah sat on the one opposite it and sat Christie next to her.
"Theories like what?" she frowned at them again. Renesme shot Delilah an uncertain look before deciding to open the conversation.
"So we noticed that Jen's attitude towards you was becoming incredibly odd once we had landed in Midgard for the first time," she started hesitantly. Christie raised an eyebrow; she couldn't deny that.
"Yeah but all four of us started to get weird to each other to be fair," she then pointed out, remembering the hellish arguments that took place on that Helicarrier before things got bad. "Our arguments turned super spiteful and strange. When Jen and I thought about it afterwards, we realised that the presence of the mind stone must've been doing something to us all." Delilah paused for a second and gave a fair nod.
"Right, good point. But there was certainly a type of venom Jen had towards you and Loki in particular. It was strange, one day she'd be consoling you and the next day she'd be shouting at you to get the hell over it. At least Ren and I picked a side and stuck to it for the most part!" she pressed on adamantly.
"Right, fair enough - but what's your point?" Christie hurried them up, unsure of where this was going.
"Our point is that we think Jen wanted the life you had! Think about it, she also came from Midgard and was put in the palace to be a server like you - in fact, she was the main server. This beautiful foreign young dark haired girl, pretty face and all…but that was it. That's where it stopped for her," Renesme explained quietly, leaning forward a little closer.
"Yes, alright…" Christie muttered back, still baffled. "But what has that got to do with her attitude towards me?"
"Well, then you came," Delilah gave a light laugh as she playfully prodded Christie's thigh. "You came from Midgard, landed on Asgard, a brand new beautiful girl and was placed as a serving girl too - only difference is Frigga loved you immediately, Loki the PRINCE loved you, Odin respected you, Thor the next in line for the throne saw you as family - then you came down to Midgard and we could see you were loved here as well…it's jealousy, Christie. She didn't have it at first but she definitely grew by the end of your time up there, particularly if you're telling us that you got promoted when you went back!"
"Oh," Christie breathed. She had never thought of it that way - most of the time she just brushed Jennie's bitter tones and sly words under the rug, never paying much attention to it because she simply didn't have the mental capacity to overthink it. But it did make sense. "So you're suggesting that she didn't ever like Thor and she was just trying to get the happy ending…that I never had?"
"Absolutely!" Renesme clicked her fingers with a smile. "There's literally no way she was living in that palace all that time and felt nothing for years, then suddenly realised she had feelings for him after you fell in love with his brother?"
"Particularly if down here she was all over Barton like a rash," Delilah gave a dramatic shudder at the memory of it. Christie couldn't help but giggle at her friends, realising that they had clearly had it up to there with Jennie's antics.
"You guys are hilarious," she smirked, "if Jen really wanted my life all that time, she's more of a nutter than I originally thought. You know, not at one point did my life look desirable."
"Ah see now you're getting it," Delilah chuckled next to her, shaking her head. Renesme leant back in her chair again, relaxing once more before she suddenly remembered something important.
"Oh! Christie, I almost forgot - I got kidnapped by some…bad people the other day," she gasped, clicking her fingers. Christie's jaw hung open in shock and she leapt to her feet.
"I'm sorry? Oh my god Ren, are you alright? Who took you? Where did they take you? Why the hell didn't anyone tell me?" she yelped, bending down in front of her to make sure she looked fine.
"It doesn't even matter because I'm fine now, but guess who saved me?" Renesme giggled in pure excitement.
"Who?"
"YOUR SISTER! And honestly Christie's she's the nicest girl ever, prettiest face, incredible physique and the whole air out of her fingertips thing was just magical-" Renesme rambled on and on, totally enamoured. Delilah rolled her eyes and threw her head back tiredly, having heard all this before more than once already.
"Wait, Ashley saved you?! Fury got Ashley to save you?" Christie repeated hollowly. Her closest friend went missing and Fury got in her sister? And didn't even tell her?
Was this a joke?
"Yes! I guess so, she's honestly an utter darling," Renesme continued to gush. "You two are completely different but also the same-" Delilah stole a quick glance at Christie and saw annoyance cloud over her facial features. This was clearly rubbing her the wrong way and Renesme was completely oblivious to it all - so it was up to Delilah to change the subject.
"SO! What are you doing now Lady Annerledes? What's the current mission?" she asked brightly.
"Ah…I really can't get into it now - it's a bit complicated," Christie began, lowering her steely grey eyes onto the floor beneath her.
Well, she couldn't risk telling anyone, could she?