The skyscrapers of the city soon gave way to rundown warehouses and factories. Samantha's eyes watched it all but her mind never took any of it in . Her thoughts were too wrapped up at the revelation from the museum - to Gareth…Brandon she corrected herself, to the meaning behind everything which had been happening to her since the car crash.
Part of her was relieved, she wasn't going crazy. There was an acceptance as well, some part of her subconscious deep down taking the information as fact as soon as she heard it, it sounding right. There was another part of her though, in pure denial. The whole idea of being a reincarnated god was too outlandish; too unbelievable for her to accept.
Then again she was sat in the car with an agent from a secret organisation being driven to god knows where, to stop an evil scientist from brainwashing the world's most powerful leaders…not how she expected her week to turn out.
The image of her Dad back at the museum flashed across her mind, the blank look on his face as he stared straight at her. Her hands clenched into fists, and itched to grab Frykte to bring her a somewhat calming presence, which it somehow did. Instead the weapon lay in the backseat of the car, wrapped up in a long black bag so they could smuggle it out of the museum undetected.
They had now been driving for a good 15 minutes and Samantha could feel herself start to fidget with anxiety. Her and Brandon had remained pretty much silent since the museum, there wasn't even any low mumble of a radio to hide the tense silence between them.
When the 20 minute mark passed, Samantha finally decided to speak.
"Where are you taking me?"
"Somewhere safe," Brandon looked over at her for a moment before returning his eyes to the road, hoping to convey some reassurance in his features.
"Really? Because it feels like we're driving someone to kill me," Samantha admitted with a dry tone, her eyes flicking back out to watch the landscape they sped past. With each passing moment, the buildings appeared to becoming more and more run down and abandoned.
"I think it would take more than just me to kill you, plus surely you would hear it coming," Brandon sent her a cheeky smile but it immediately dropped from his face when Samantha merely glanced at him, no amusement on her own features. "Okay poor joke," he mumbled, holding his hands up from the steering wheel in defensive. Another tense moment of silence passed between them. She could see out of the corner of her eye Brandon opening and closing his mouth, working out how best to phrase his next comment before finally deciding. "Yesterday when at the motel, you said I was safe. What did you mean?"
"You just asserted I'm a reincarnated god, what more information does SHIELD want on me?" Samantha sneered, her tone neither kind nor friendly.
"I'm not asking for SHIELD," again he looked towards her and for a moment Samantha wanted to believe him but she knew she couldn't.
"I would have had an easier time believing that 24 hours ago," there was no anger or malice in her voice, only a sadness which seemed to hurt Brandon more.
"Yeah," he muttered, nodding his head in understanding.
Another few minutes passed before one of them spoke again.
"Hughes has my dad," Samantha almost blurted out. She wasn't sure why she had said it, after everything that had transpired between the two of them. Maybe because there was still part of her who saw her best friend Gareth sitting next to her and this was news she needed to share with that person.
Brandon's eyes went wide as he looked over at her in surprise, clearly not knowing the location of her dad's whereabouts until now. She decided to elaborate for him.
"At the museum he was there, Hughes used him to force me to give him all the evidence we had." Samantha admitted, her hand coming up to play with the wedding ring at the base of her neck, the USB no longer there. "He's under the control of the gas."
"Then we get him back and you make an antidote." Brandon stated with such confidence, for a moment it made Samantha almost smile. She didn't though, instead only giving a nod in acknowledgement before her eyes drifted back to the window and the pair returned to silence.
They carried on that way for another 10 minutes before the car finally came to stop outside what Samantha thought was the most rundown building in the area. She hesitated to unbuckle her seatbelt, Brandon sending her a question look at her hesitancy.
"You sure this isn't a 'kill someone' kind of place? Because it definitely looks like one." Samantha commented, her eyes roving over the property again and the deserted surrounding area.
Brandon only laughed at her question as he undid his own seatbelt and started to make his way inside. He paused to look back at her, waiting for her to move.
Samatha took a deep breath in, stealing her nerves before grabbing Frykte from the back and jumping out of the car. Brandon continued to watch her from the doorway which he was now holding open for her. She became away of a muttering in the back of mind, someone else was near by. Her hand gripped the black bag tighter.
"Ladies first," Brandon teased as she approached him.
Samantha stepped over the threshold and halted in shock.
The outside may have looked like a building fallen apart with peeling paint and foreclosure signs dotted around. Inside though was something out of her imagination. It was sleek, futuristic and looked as if it cost more money then she would ever make in her life.
Over to the left she could see an armoury of some kind, multiple guns, knives and weapons she had no idea even existed, were stacked neatly inside. Beside the locked cage was a training area, dummies and targets set up with mats and a boxing ring. She could make out a kitchen to the back in the centre, and rooms off to the side which looked like bedrooms.
Her eyes were drawn to the right and she thought she might just burst from excitement. The area was something out of science fiction movie. The latest lab equipment, computers and technologies she thought was only theoretical, littered the lab. Though Samantha had stayed hidden in the cafe, she still read, kept up to date with the latest science journals. She even sometimes fixed computers on the side over the years, to keep her skills up to scratch plus the extra money had been handy at times. This though, was beyond anything she had ever had access to before.
"Woah, is that-?" Samantha began to walk to the lab, her eyes glued to the centre desk, not believing what she was seeing.
"Projection and holographic computer table? Yeah, courtesy of Stark Industries," Brandon's face was tilted into a one sided smile as he watched Samantha's face light up with delight, the first true smile he had seen on her in days.
"What is this place?" Samantha asked next, her voice still light in her amazement.
"This is an off the books SHIELD safe house/field lab." Brand answered, coming to stand the opposite side of the table to her.
"Why are we here?"
"Because until we know who is compromised, this mission is being kept off the record." A new voice entered the room and Samantha suddenly remembered about the third person she had heard from before. Her head whipped around to see the new comer, his suit impeccable and his brown hair swept to the side. His face remained mostly neutral apart from the slight up tilt of his lips as he approached the table and stopped at the end, facing the pair. "Miss Jennings."
"Agent Coulson," her voice deepened, her momentary joy at the facilities dampened by the new arrival.
"I think we may have got off on the wrong foot last time we met." Coulson looked at her, his hands crossing in front of him to lay his palms over his front.
"I don't think we were ever going to get off the right foot given you've been stalking me for the last 6 months," Samantha gave a tight smile, her hackles clearly raised.
"Given what you're holding in your hand, can you tell me we were wrong to?" Coulson asked simply, his affect remaining light as if they were discussing the weather. His eyes flicked down to the black bag which contained Frykte, Samantha's knuckles white from how hard she now clenched it.
She looked to Brandon for a moment, her jaw tightening as she clenched her teeth before she spoke again. "Keeping what we're doing a secret does make me hesitant to trust you."
"A necessary precaution you have to understand."
"Sam," at his voice, Sam's eyes flicked back to Brandon as he spoke. "Until you and I broke into Hughes International and came across the test data, SHIELD had no idea what Hughes was up to. We had our suspicions it wasn't completely legal but unless you and your dad had uncovered his plan, we would have never realised."
"How does a word leading intelligence agency not know about a plot to basically take over the world?" Samantha questioned, disbelief clear in her voice. A look passed between the two SHIELD agents and the penny dropped. "You think Hughes has someone working for him in SHIELD."
"For something like this to have not reached our attention is by someone working on the inside to keep it that way." She would think Coulson was grimacing at his words if he wasn't so damn difficult to read with his dry tone and impassive features. "Whether by influence of the gas or good old fashioned betrayal, until we know, only the director and the people in this room know about this mission."
"And what is the mission?" Samantha's free hand came up to give air quotes, mocking the pair of seasoned field agents.
Coulson gave a nod to Brandon, whose hands began to work over the touch screen desk they stood around. Soon videos of the incoming G7 leaders filled the screen as well as the schematics for a hotel.
"In 36 hours the most power world leaders will be having a meeting in the Madison room of the Ritz Carlton." Coulson explained, "no security, no aides, only the leaders themselves in the room for 90 minutes."
"It's the prime moment to launch an attack and it to go unnoticed," Brandon added.
"But Hughes won't actually be on site though, the security in the rest of the building will be too tight, surely?" Samantha asked, her eyes flicking between the other two.
"No, do you remember those schematics you found in his files? About the ventilation system?" Brandon reached down and pulled said copy of an identical looking schematic up, a 3D model of the plans projected just above the table.
"We think Hughes will have already laid the bomb to release the gas, no doubt with a man or two on the inside to keep it undetected from the security measures." Coulson's hands came up to point where exactly they thought the bomb was placed. "He'll be stationed somewhere else, where he can detonate the bomb remotely."
"And Hughes's HQ is the perfect spot for it." Brandon moved his hands as if to enlarge the screen and suddenly the schematics of the building zoomed inwards and replaced by a detailed projection of Washington DC area. The Hughes International building and Ritz-Carlton projected in yellow to standout against the rest of the blue buildings.
"So where do I come in?" Samantha's eyes whizzed across the screen, taking all the information in.
"We want you and Agent Davis to infiltrate Hughes HQ, stop him and retrieve the data on Project Bluebird." Coulson stated as if it was a trip to the shops. Brandon's hand came up to turn the projection off.
"Why do I need to retrieve the data?" Samantha queried, her eyebrows furrowed in suspicion.
"SHIELD believes it may have some usefulness in our line of work." Coulson answered, though she could hear the tiniest amount of hesitancy in his voice.
"No…no way," Samantha's head began to shake as she scoffed at what he was suggesting. "We may be helping each other for a common goal here but don't mistake this as me working for you. If I go in there I'll send enough data back to convict Hughes but this gas it too powerful for anyone to have access to it or its formula."
"It would be safe with SHIELD." The senior agent argued.
"Remind me again why we're keeping this mission a secret?" Samantha shot back.
A tense moment followed, a look was shared between Brandon and his superior. An unspoken conversation seemed to happen before Samantha noticed the slightest deflation in Coulson's shoulder.
"Good point," The older man conceded with a mild shrug. "The Director won't be happy but then again, he's not here."
"Never thought I would hear Coulson bad mouth the boss," Brandon said with a hint of cheek and a teasing smirk directed at Samantha.
"That's him bad mouthing?" Samantha questioned with her own teasing tone before her smile fell realising who she was joking with. She pretended not to see the hurt look on Brandon's face when she did so.
"Getting back to the issue at hand," Coulson continued, his eyes clearly taking in the tension between the two. "We need to decide when it would be best to break into Hughes International."
"Tomorrow night," Samantha said immediately. "There's no guarantee when Hughes will be in the building. Except for tomorrow, he'll need to be there to oversee everything. He's too much of a narcissist to let anyone else do it."
"Then you have 36 hours to get yourselves ready to save the world."
The sudden weight of what they were doing hit Samantha, a twisting of her stomach at the expectation and responsibility which had just been given to them.
"This should be fun," the cheeky smirk reappeared on Brandon's face but it was not met with a smile from Samantha. His face instantly fell as he turned back to his boss. "Thank you sir, I'll urm….start looking at the weapons we have here."
He slowly walked away from the table, Samantha's eyes refused to look up though and stayed staring at the black screen in front of her.
"He's a good agent." Coulson said, his voice slightly kinder than before, and when she looked up she could see a sympathetic smile on his face. "A good partner to have."
"What's this? Couples therapy?" Samantha scoffed, unimpressed by the man's interference.
"You should ask him why he was reassigned." Coulson told her before giving one final nod and leaving the pair alone.
"Have you ever spared before?" Brandon asked her.
The two were stood on the mats. The pair had managed to find work out clothes in the bedrooms in the warehouse and Brandon thought it was a good idea to get some fight practice in. Frykte lay off to the side, Samantha could feel the increasingly familiar tingle in her hand, an itch almost for it to be back in her grip. She took to clenching her hands into fists, tightening the wrapping Brandon had showed her how to place to protect her hands.
Samantha responded to his question by simply raising an eyebrow at him.
"I'll take that as a no." Brandon summarised. "Well I guess we'll just have to see what happens."
His body tensed as he assumed an offensive stance. Samantha tried her best to copy but knew she looked woeful doing so.
Suddenly, Brandon brought a leg up towards her and she managed to just duck under it. Next he aimed a punch, but he had slowed down, she could see, and it was almost if he was moving in slow motion. Her mind went into a flurry, trying to remember how she had avoided the punched before but as his fist moved towards her, her body froze. She could do nothing as the punch landed squarely across her jaw and sent her tumbling to the floor
"Jesus, Sam, I'm so sorry," Brandon rushed forward, extending his hand out to her to help her off the floor. "I thought you were suppose to be some bad ass warrior goddess?"
"Clearly I'm still very much Samantha Jennings." She shot back, ignoring his hand and the subsequent hurt look on his face as she stood up on her own. A hand came up to rub her jaw trying to ease some of the throbbing.
"This doesn't make sense, you took down those guys so easily the other day?" Brandon thought aloud, his face furrowed in concentration as he thought over what had changed.
"Maybe it was a fluke," Samantha shrugged, the familiar flush of embarrassment covering her cheeks.
"No," he dismissed the thought straight away with a shake of his head. "It's like you were over thinking it…but that doesn't make sense."
"Actually it makes perfect sense," Samantha gave a sigh as the realisation hit her. "Think about, when I was fighting I was accessing the muscle memory and skills of Ge-her. Maybe one day I'll be able to do it consciously, but we don't have that sort of time so I need to rely on my subconscious….Try and kill me."
"What?"
"Seriously, try and kill me, don't give me time to think, just hit me." Samantha tensed her muscles again, ready to fight.
"Sam I'm not going to -"
Realising he needed a push, she brought her own leg up, hoping it was some kind of offensive manner. It seemed to do the trick as Brandon easily blocked and followed up with his own roundhouse kick. With no time to think, her hands came up to block the kick, stopping his foot centimetres from her face.
The pair froze, staring at each other before knowing smiles spread across both their lips.
Samantha pushed his leg back down, but Brandon followed up with a punch. Again she managed to duck out of the way. And so they went, Brandon pushing aggressively while she countered, with the occasional knee to his gut or kick of her own. They pair quickly found though that what may only be a simple hit by her, could send Brandon flying across the room. On more than one occasion Brandon would have to pick himself up off the far side of the mat, and dust off what he had landed on.
Throughout it, Samantha realised how lethal Brandon was. How had she never seen this side to him before? Of course she had noticed he was muscular, but never did it occur to her his physique was due to his fighting ability.
At one point he had her pinned on her knees, the creep of blackness at the edge of vision as he cut off the blood supply to the brain from behind. As her strength left her, her right hand came up, outstretched, calling for something. Immediately she felt the familiar electricity up her arm, the cool leather and metal in her hand as Frykte answered her call.
Samantha brought it up, whacking Brandon on the face and send him tumbling backwards. She spun around, Frykte held aloft and the sharp point landed a breath away from Brandon's throat. As he lay where he had fallen, he held his hands up in surrender, his eyes fixed on the glistening blade.
She gave an awkward cough as she relaxed her posture, dropping Frykte to her side. Brandon elegantly stood up and without a word walked over to the weapons cache at the side of the training area. Samantha narrowed her eyes in suspicion wondering what he was doing next but she couldn't help the small grin appear when she saw what he had returned with.
Brandon stepped back on to the mat, twirling a sleek metal pole in his hands, his intentions clear. Samatha herself found her hands automatically twirling Frykte with yet another skill she did not know she possessed. The action calming her.
Without warning, Brandon launched himself at her and there was loud clash as metal met metal.
And so the two continued, Samantha performed acrobatic leaps and twirls intermixed with a fighting style Brandon had called almost medieval at points. At the end of it, both were throughly wiped out and sweating more than Samantha thought was possible.
"I think you'll be just fine tomorrow," Brandon remarked when they finally put their weapons down.
"As long as you don't hold me back," Samantha teased, earning an exaggerated scoff of offensive.
"I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure I was the BLACK SHEEP laser tag champion, you held me back."
The mention of their old work place seemed to bring reality back to Samantha. It had been all too easy to fall back into the familiarity with good intentioned teasing and jokes they had grown comfortable with. Then she remembered the lies, the hurt she felt when she realised it had all been a deception. Brandon had never been her friend, she was simply his mission.
Sensing he had said the wrong thing, Brandon's face immediately sobered. He opened his mouth hoping to back track but the moment was lost.
"I'm going to head to the lab." Samantha said, her back now to him as she started to make her way out of the training area, Frykte still gripped in her hand.
"Do you need some help-"
"No." She didn't even bother to look back when she said it.
Brandon's head and shoulders dropped as he stared at the floor. He didn't know Samatha could hear what he thought next.
You only have yourself to blame Davis
The sun was low, adding to the magnificence of the golden city below. She was sat by the window, on a reading crook with a cushioned ledge. She was in more relaxed clothing than she had ever been in before, black leather leggings and a loose dark green tunic over her top half. Her hair was in a loose braid to the side as her eyes roamed over the book in her hands.
She paused her reading for a moment, looking around the grand room she was in. The biggest bed she had ever seen with four posters, was on one side, the other a book shelf from floor to ceiling. She caught site of her reflection in the mirror across the room, and Samantha thought if it weren't for the long hair, she would be looking at herself.
The dark green and rick black and gold theme ran throughout the room and given the colour scheme, she had a good idea of who's room she was sat in. The smell from the top slightly too big for her, caused a comfortable warmth to settle over her as she readjusted herself and settled back into her reading.
A few moments later she was disturbed though by Loki storming into the room. He didn't spare her a glance as he began to pace across the floor, his shoulders tense and his brow furrowed. For a moment, she was taken aback by his beauty, the setting sun shining off his black hair, and she had to admit, her breath was taken from her. His fine black and green leather accentuating the tall, slim yet toned man he had become.
"I can't believe father is doing this," Loki ranted as he wore a hole in his floor. She felt herself give a sigh as her eyes returned to her book.
"Why hello there, Geni, how are you today?" She said out loud, a teasing tone to her words. She listened to him continue to pace but did not lift her eyes from her book.
"How can he make that witless oaf King?"
"I'm very well thank you Loki, this book I'm reading is most fascinating." She continued, bringing her finger to her lips to wet it slightly before turning the page. If Samantha focused hard enough, she could make out some of the words written, it was a language she did not recognise but she seemed to understand it all the same.
"We'll be at war by the end of the month!" She could hear Loki's hands slap against his side as he clearly lifted and dropped them again frustration.
"I think you may even enjoy it yourself, you can borrow it afterwards," she continued, purposefully continuing to ignore his rant.
"What?"
She could feel her mouth tilt upwards in a teasing smirk having finally caught the man's attention.
"Oh have we finished having conversations with ourselves now?" She asked, looking up at him and closing her book. He sent her an incredulous look, clearly not enjoying the teasing in her voice.
"This is serious Geni.," he told her, his hands coming to rest on his hips as he leant to one side.
"So was my book." She countered with as much seriousness as he. She swung her legs from beside her to place them on the floor. The two stared at each other.
"Stop trying to make me smile," he warned but she could see the beginnings of a smile peeking at the corner of his lips. He may have feigned a threatening tone but his eyes showed his warmth to her.
"But you always look so much better when you do," She gave the smallest of pouts but it was enough to break through his thin wall of defiance, and he couldn't help but give out a small laugh at her features. Knowing she had won and seeing some of the tension leave Loki's shoulder brought her own tender smile to her face. She opened her arms wide, gesturing him forward "Come here."
He did not need to be told twice and the young man settled himself quickly, placing his head in her lap, sprawled out on his side while she remained sitting up. Her hand easily floated down to run her fingers through his silk smooth hair, an action that elicit a pleasant hum from Loki's mouth as his eyes closed. They stayed this way for a few moments, she could tell it was a position the pair often placed themselves in.
"What ails you Loki?" She asked once he had truly relaxed, her fingers continuing to sweep through his black locks.
"I imagine you already know." Loki suggested, his eyes remaining closed, his face showing comfort from her touch.
"Know what?" She decided to play stupid, her voice remaining light. At this, he did open his eyes at her, giving his own pointed look. She looked down and continued her facade, forcing him to say it out loud. She heard him give a sigh before he relented.
"My father is stepping down from the throne, Thor is to be crowned king next week." Loki said, his tone hard to read.
"And you are surprised?"
"I thought he may wait a little longer, to see if my brother develops an ounce of maturity." Loki gave a small huff at the end of his sentence, his eyes focused on the ceiling above. She spared him a glance before returning to look at the wall on the far side.
"But Thor is of age and your father is old, why should he not take the throne?" She asked. She knew what she was doing, teasing him and leading him down a path.
"Because he is a fool, too easily drawn into battle." Loki argued, pointing it out as if it were the most obvious statement in the world.
"He is also your brother," she countered, her hand pausing in its trail through his hair.
"Exactly, I know him best. I know he is not ready, that he would drag us into another war with his hot headiness."
"Then who should be king?"
"What?"
At her question, Loki sat back up to face her. She kept her face neutral as she swirled the top half of her body to face him.
"If not Thor, then who should be King?" She repeated herself, and after a moment of his silence, she continued. "You?"
"You know I do not want the throne." Loki said immediately, an almost hurt look across his features at the very idea of it.
"Then what is this really about Loki?" Her voice somehow became even kinder, a gentle hand coming up to cup the side of Loki's face, which he leaned into, consciously or unconsciously, she did not know.
He opened his mouth, a clear argument about to be put forward before she saw the resignation in his eyes.
"When Thor is king, it will only cement that I am inferior to him." Loki admitted, his voice soft and barely above a whisper. "Not worthy of a crown," he almost spat out, his self hatred evident. He then looked up again, and stared directly at her. "I just want to be his equal."
"And you are, anyone who thinks differently is a small minded imbecile." Her insult illicit the faintest of smiles on his lips. "You are equal in the eyes of the people who matter."
"Sometimes I look at father and I see something in his eyes, a distrust he tries to hide but is there." Loki confessed, his eyes dropping to the floor somehow ashamed at what he had revealed. She could only feel herself fall that much deeper for him.
"Your father distrusts everybody, it is why he has been King for so long." She jested but was unsuccessful in obtaining a laugh this time. She gave a sigh before deciding to try another approach. "But what of your mother? Thor himself? Do they view you as inferior?"
"No," he elongated the vowel almost as if he did not want to recognise the truth.
"Then see, the people who matter don't view you as less." She gave him her best smile and by the way his eyes widened slightly as he looked up, she could tell he was as dazzled by her as she was by him when he first entered the room. "And to me, you are by far superior."
If pure adoration could be illustrated, she imagined it would be what was in Loki's eyes as he looked at her. He leaned forward and placed his forehead against hers, his breath fanning across her face.
"I love you."
"And I you."
They stayed close for a few moments more. She could feel herself thinking about what Loki was planing next, as if she could always tell when he was up to something. Sure enough, when he pulled away, there was a glint she knew as mischief in his eyes.
"Geni, I want to spend the rest of my existence with you by my side, will do me-"
"No," She dropped her hand and turned to face away from him, even going as far to open her book in her annoyance at what he was about to ask.
"What?" She could hear the surprise in his voice and had no doubt his face matched his tone. "You don't even know what I was going to ask."
"You were going to ask me to marry you." She told him and she resumed where she had left off in her book, refusing to look up at him.
"No," Loki scoffed at the very idea but when she looked back at him, an eye brow raised, she could see him falter before his shoulders deflated. She gave a satisfied smirk as she returned her eyes to her book. "Okay, yes…..wait you do not want to marry me?"
"I do not want to be a pawn in one of your schemes." She told him, ignoring the pang her heart gave when she heard the momentary hurt in his voice.
"I do not understand."
She slammed her book shut and turned to face him again.
"So you are telling me, your spontaneous proposal has nothing to do with your brother's impending coronation?" She questioned, watching as Loki did his best not squirm under her gaze. "That you know the news of a royal betrothal would take some of the attention away from your brother?"
"I would never do such a thing," His voice went high in fake indignation. She simply raised an eyebrow at him again, and it was all that was needed for him to crack. "Damn, it worries me how well you know me sometimes. You risk my reputation as a master of lies."
"I prefer the name silver tongue," she waggled her eyebrows at him and earned a breathy laugh in return.
She settled back against the crook in the window, Loki retaking his place on his side to lay his head in her lap.
"I do want to marry you, you know?" He said from his lying position, out of the corner of her eye she could see him looking at the ceiling as her own eyes returned to her book. "I've had the ring for months now. I have simply been waiting for the right time to ask."
"Oh I know, though your thoughts are closed off to me, your brother's are not." she informed him, an amused tone to her words. "Thor has been so excited about it, he's practically been shouting it in my head every time he sees me."
"I would expect nothing less." Loki muttered but with clear affection in his voice for his brother.
"May I see it?" She asked, trying to give off an air of indifference as she continued to read her book but inside she could feel the delight and excitement at the prospect of a proposal.
"Certainly not, it's a surprise." Loki scolded her but his tone was light and teasing.
"Then you must ask me again a week after the coronation."
"Why?" Loki sat up again, giving her a questioning look.
"So I can say yes," she said before turning her head to face him again with a one sided smile. "I'll even look surprised for you."
She was met with a breath taking smile from Loki, as he leaned forward and placed her face in his hands, pulling her face to his own. At some point the book either fell or was pulled out of her hands, she wasn't sure as she was too distracted by the way Loki's lips moved against her own. She had never been kissed like this before and she did not want it to stop.
All good things must come to an end though, and suddenly the warmth of Loki's body was replaced by a biting wind.
She opened her eyes and began to fight.
Samantha woke with a jump. She took a moment to reorientate herself. She was in the lab of the safe house, clearly having fallen asleep sprawled across the desk she was working at.
She wasn't sure if now knowing what exactly she was dreaming about made it any easier or not. If these were truly the memories of Geni then her heart gave a pang of its own. She was even jealous for a moment, never did she think she had been loved by anyone as much as Loki had clearly loved Geni. Even the feelings and thoughts of the Goddess were clear in her devotion to the raven haired man. She wondered if he too was still alive like Thor?
Out of the corner of her eye there was a flash of black, and she looked over towards a highly reflective piece of metal. She scrunched her eyes at it, wondering for a moment if she really had seen a shadow watching her, but it was only fleeting and Samantha decided to place the thought as merely a moment of paranoia following her nightmare.
She gave a large stretch, bringing her hands over her head, trying to ease the muscles in her back which had not taken kindly to her having fallen asleep hunched over the table in the lab.
She looked over the circuitry which was scattered across her desk, one of the gauntlets from the armour half modified in front of her, behind her on a mannequin with the rest of the supposedly ancient norse armour lay, items missing and added from her modifications. Hidden amongst the equipment on her desk was the experimental flexible bullet proof fabric she had found in one of the boxes hidden in storage. Frykte leant on the table, close enough for comfort but far enough away it wouldn't be easily knocked over.
Slowly she got back to work, fitting the material into its new design as well as creating her own motherboard. It's where Brandon found her an hour later, hardly haven moved from the spot all night.
Samantha didn't look up when she heard the door slam, she didn't even acknowledge his arrival with a nod, instead she chose to focus intently on her work.
"I brought snacks," Brandon said, holding up his peace offering as he approached her table.
"I'm not hungry," Samantha said, her eyes glued to the wiring she was laying.
"Sam you need to eat." When he got no response, he gave a loud sigh, placing his bag of food onto an empty desk. "Are you going to tell me what you're working on?"
"Just an idea," Samantha muttered, her nose giving a small wrinkle as the smoke from the soldering iron wafted into her nostrils.
"Didn't know you could do all this stuff," Brandon waved his hand over all the equipment dotted around her. Again she continued to focus all her attention on what was in front of her, ignoring the clearly desperate attempts of Brandon trying to speak with her. When she gave no response, he went for a different tactic. Holding up a screwdriver, he took a step towards her. "Need a hand?"
"No!" Her sudden movement to grab the screwdriver from him, halted Brandon. Samantha looked down, slightly ashamed by her actions. When she looked back up, she started to fidget under the intense look Brandon was giving her.
"We can't go on like this," Brandon stated, a depressed sag to his posture. "I need to know we'll have each other's backs later."
"Don't worry Brandon, I'm not planning to stab you in the back, literally or figuratively." Samatha said with a deadpan tone, placing the screwdriver back onto the work top.
"I didn't mean that."
"Well, what did you mean?" Samantha enquired, her arms coming up to cross her chest.
"Sam despite everything, I still see you as a friend."
She couldn't help but give a harsh laugh at his words, no joy evident.
"A friend?" Samantha mocked. "Brandon, how can we be friends when you've been lying to me for the whole time I've known you? I don't even know the first thing about you."
"Well that's a lie," Brandon countered, his own arms coming to cross his chest and match her defensive posture. "Are you seriously going to sit there and tell me haven't hacked into my file on the SHIELD database the first chance you got?" He raised her eyebrow at him and by the way Samantha's gaze fell to the floor, he knew the answer. "Thought so. So what did it say?"
She looked up at him, not sure how to proceeded. He nodded his head though, urging her to say what she read and so she did.
"Brandon Davis, 28 years old. Raised by a single mum in Chicago. Your Uncle was a Captain in the US army and heavily involved in your life growing up. He died when you were 16." Samantha gave a gulp, knowing if what he had said to her in London had any hint of the truth in it, his uncle's death had hit him hard.
"Go on," Brandon urged, forcing her to continue.
"You're bright, had good test scores. You could have gone to college but you wanted to be like your Uncle and so joined the army when you were 18." Samantha persisted in her summarisation of his file. "You rose through the ranks quickly become one of the youngest US rangers before being recruited to Delta Force and being one of their youngest sergeants in history. You left though when you were 25 to look after your mum who had got sick. When she got better, you were recruited by SHIELD."
"See, everything I told you was the truth." Brandon held his hands out to her, a pleading intonation to his words. "My favourite food really is pizza, I do actually believe in those wild and crazy conspiracy theories." He took a breath before continuing. "My Uncle was like a father to me; my mom really does have cancer and it's come back. You know the real Brandon. You know as much about me as I do about you".
"It's not the same."
"How is it not-"
"Because I didn't use that information to get close to you!" Samantha shouted, throwing her hands up in frustration. As soon as her anger came though, it disappeared, replaced by a wave of embarrassment and shame. Her voice was much quieter when she continued. "You knew how lonely I was; how desperate I was to have a friend. And you and SHIELD used that information to get close to me." Her throat began to feel tight but Samantha pushed through, determined Brandon hear how he had wronged her. "I've made a lot of bad choices in my life, hung around with the wrong people. I had never had a real friend…until you. But I guess you were really were too good to be true."
The pair stared at each other, but where she expected indifference, she saw true sadness on Brandon's face. The tightened jaw of someone trying not to cry.
I'm an idiot
"Sam, I can't begin to apologise for the circumstances as to how we met." Brandon's voice was tight, a crack only appeared at the end of his sentence. "I am sorry for the deception and the lies. But you have to believe me when I say though it started like that, by the end it wasn't." He took a step towards her, a pleading look in his eyes. "You are my closest friend…I know you may never forgive me, but I wanted you to know that before tonight, in case anything happened."
I'm sorry
Samantha looked to the floor, unable to hold his gaze any longer. Brandon seemed to take it as his cue to leave, giving a resigned nod before making his way to the door. Only when Samantha spoke again, did he pause.
"Why were you reassigned?" She found the question tumbling past her lips before she could stop herself.
"What?"
"From my case?" Samantha elaborated, her hands clenching and unclenching by her sides. "Why were you reassigned?"
Coulson
His breath filled laugh entered her head but she kept her face passive, not reacting to what she had heard.
"When you gather intelligence on someone, you have to be neutral, you can't care about them," Brandon started off by saying, taking a step back towards her. "But then we started to hang out together. I didn't mean for it to happen but suddenly I started to tell you things about my life, my real life, not the made up one for Gareth. I wanted you know me, not him."
"Coulson began to suspect I was holding information back, my reports were starting to lack details," Brandon confessed, his own hands fidgeting at his side. "As soon as you stop seeing the target as…well a target, you're compromised."
"That's why your visa ran out."
"They never expected you to come to the States. We were alerted only when the Border Force began to search for Gareth Williams. It flagged up on our system." Brandon told her. A genuine smile crossed his face as he spoke again. "I was never meant to see you again, but I'm glad I did."
Again, the pair entered a staring contest, Samantha trying to absorb all the information Brandon had told her. He made to move towards the exit, thinking she had nothing else to say and for a moment she planned to let him go. He had lied to her, spied on her the whole time she had known him.
But he was right, he had told him more about his life as Brandon than the made up falsehoods of Gareth. She had read his thoughts, knew there was no deceit or ulterior motive to the confessions he gave moments ago.
"It's hard when you can hear people's thoughts," she blurted out, causing Brandon to stop his exit yet again, and turn to face her. If he had given her the truth, then he deserved the same back. "There's no hiding what they actually think about you. After the accident people I thought were my friends came to visit me….and I could hear what they really thought about me….turns out I didn't have any real friends. It was easer to push people away after that, because then I could never get hurt."
"But you were different, you were one of the few people I could never hear, even when touching at the beginning." Samantha continued her own confession. "That's obviously changed now but at the time it was amazing. There was someone I could never know if they were lying, I had to believe what they were saying was the truth. That's why you were safe."
Brandon nodded in understanding, a grateful look to his eyes in thanks for her honesty. She wasn't sure what to say next, could she so easily forgive him for everything?
But then she remembered they could both die later, there was no guarantee success for their plan. Did she really want to leave their friendship like this?
"Did you at least get crisps?" Samantha found herself asking, nodding her head towards the plastic bag of food he had left abandoned on a nearby desk.
The smile her gave her, recognising the gesture for what it was, caused an equally relieved smile of her own. He walked back towards her, picking up the bag in the process and sitting himself down at the desk she was working at.
"Sam, you're in America they're called chips and of course I did. Pretty sure we class them as one of our five a day." Brandon jested causing the pair to share a chuckle.
It was the moment she decided to forgive him, because isn't that what friends do?
I know, I know. I'm so sorry I missed last weekend. This chapter as you can see turned out to be a mammoth one and took a lot more out of me than I anticipated.
I hoped you enjoyed it and surprise…..to make up for missing last week, next week will be a double posting. One on Saturday and the other on Sunday!
Until next week
Vex