Nancy shivered as she stood atop one of the apartment buildings near the park. The snow of the previous weeks had long since passed, but the cold wind still rose up against her, like a living symbol of the day. Sunshine and peace for all the others. A time of rebirth and restarting. But not for her. For her, she only felt the chilling wind. The ice that still clung in the air. Today was the day Loki returned to Asgard. Today was the day they took him away.
With every ounce of rationale left in her body, she'd decided she needed to be there, no matter the consequences. She needed to watch his departure. Needed to be there for him. Needed him to know. One last goodbye, in case she never saw him again.
She crouched low, bracing herself against the edge of the building, and peered over the edge, waiting for the cars to arrive. Roger's bike pulled up first. Then Stark's red sports-car. Romanoff's blue SUV pulled up last. One by one, they all piled out. Thor, Selvig, and Tony out of the red one. Barton, Banner, and Romanoff out of hers. Nancy ducked low as the agents glanced around. She knew Barton would see her without fail, even from this distance, and she needed to be careful lest he give her position away. Timidly, she glanced over the railing again. Thor was heading for Romanoff's car, where he opened one final door.
Nancy gasped and fumbled for her binoculars. She needed to see this up close. Needed to see the look on his face. In his eyes. She steadied the device against her and adjusted the focus. There, there he was. She watched as Loki stepped out.
He looked so hurt, so broken. A bruise was beginning on the left side of his forehead, the telltale sign that he'd put up a fight. He was muzzled again… that was probably why. Nancy's tears stung her cheeks in the blistering wind, but she couldn't look away.
Loki knew fighting was futile, as he had tried it more than once. He was strong, but there were six of them, and together they would always have more strength than he ever could. He stepped into the cool afternoon air with his usual confident stride, which only faltered in a brief moment when he felt someone watching. It was her. It had to be. She was the only one who would watch him so intently that he felt her eyes on him.
Loki tilted his head ever so slightly to look over the rooftops. She would only have a clear line of sight from a rooftop. There were too many trees otherwise. And he found her, her position given away by the glint of sun against her binoculars. She hadn't been trained for stealth, had she? Beneath his muzzle, he smiled ever so slightly. She didn't realize it now, but he would return for her. There was nothing that would stop his plan from moving forward.
He would miss her in his absence, yes, but he would more than make up for it when he had all he ever desired. She would be his, then. His perfect obsession. And there was nothing she could do to convince him to end it now. Here. In this park. This was only the beginning. He focused forward again.
Slowly, the group led him to the center of the garden square. Such peace went on around them. Busy pedestrians passed by, hurrying on their way to work. A few stopped to stare, but mainly life went on as usual. Birds sung in the trees, ducks sailed across the pond, flowers peeked their heads above the soil, trying to sneak their own view of the scene. Everything, every peaceful moment, only stood to mock and berate him, teasing him for his failed attempt at enslavement. Life went on, despite his pain. Despite his destruction. Life went on. In a hurt rage, Loki shrugged away from his brother, upset at his betrayal.
A sob escaped Nancy's lips. She was there for him. If no one else was, she was there for him. "Please, please don't take him away." Her words flowed unconsciously, bearing a will of their own.
The heroes all gathered around the two Asgardians as Selvig reached to pull the Tesseract device from the trunk of Romanoff's car. Thor took it from him and held it out to Loki, ready to lead him to his fate.
"No, don't do it. Fight them. Fight them!"
But it was too late. Loki grabbed the other end and Thor turned it on.
"No!" Nancy's scream rang out through the towers around her as a blue light engulfed the man she loved. Before the agents could see her, she ducked down again, curling into herself. The other agents hadn't even heard her.
Nancy sniffled and held her hands to her heart. He was gone. He was gone. But he'd be back. He'd promised… he'd promised.
/
"Congratulations, McAllister."
Nancy looked up from the endless waves of emails on her screen to see Agent Samuel Dubois, her supervising officer, standing over her, his arms folded over the walls of her cubicle. "You've been reassigned."
"Reassigned?" Nancy leaned back in her chair, confused. Was she finally getting out of this dungeon of desk work? "Where to?"
"The Hub."
Nancy's mouth gaped open. The Hub. She'd only been there a couple times, on other missions. Only important matters were processed in The Hub.
Agent Dubois laughed and slapped a folder down in front of her. "Your Level 6 privileges have been reinstated, by the director himself. And he assigned you this detail. Three new recruits for you to train, fresh out of the Academy... Linguistics Division."
As she opened the folder, three young, smiling faces looked back at her. Three photos on copies of three S.H.I.E.L.D. IDs. Two girls, one guy. Three profiles of new agents, in one debriefing packet. Oh, how she'd missed this. With a smile, Nancy glanced back up at Dubois.
"Effective immediately, McAllister."
Nancy sprang from her chair and grabbed her jacket, a renewed hope in her eyes. She'd been reinstated. She would get field work again.
Agent Dubois laughed again and shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Good work, McAllister."
/
"Whatever you do, don't mention you-know-who."
Three new S.H.I.E.L.D agents clustered in a hallway of the Hub, preparing themselves for their new Supervising Officer, Agent Nancy McAllister. They'd heard all about her back at the academy. Of how she was the leading linguist over all things Asgardian. Norse mythology was her specialty, after all. Of how she defied orders to meet Loki face-to-face. Of how Loki had kidnapped her. No one knew why she did what she did. Some said Loki was her secret lover. Others said she'd simply gone insane with her work. Then there were the few dreamy-eyed rookies who believed Agent Nancy McAllister was "simply a rebel and that's how she rolls".
Agent Nathan Harper, a tall young man with frizzy, brown hair rolled his eyes. "Oh, whatever, Susan. She's a professional. I'm sure she wouldn't mind a darn thing we said."
"Still, we shouldn't mention it. We're here to learn, not patronize her."
Agent Susan Lancaster shifted her large satchel to her other shoulder. It was almost larger than she was, with all her books and papers peeking out over the brim.
"I don't care what either of you think." Agent Martha Rose stated matter-of-factly, "I'm just here to get this over with so we can start working on some real cases."
Susan checked her watch. "Well, anyway... it's time. And neither of you had better say anything."
Nathan scoffed. "Or what?"
"Or... or I'll refuse to work with you." With a nod, Susan marched off toward Computer Lab B108. Martha shrugged and started after her, nonchalantly sticking her hands in her pockets as she walked. With a heavy sigh, Nathan followed, wishing he could be assigned anywhere else in the world.
/
Nancy paced back and forth across the empty lab. They would be here any minute. Dimmed computer screens buzzed softly as she passed. She shouldn't be nervous. Why was she nervous? This was an assignment. The first real assignment she'd had since the Battle. Well, maybe it was because she wouldn't be training just one new agent, as was the norm. No, her higher-ups had seen fit to give her three to mentor at once. Maybe this was punishment. Punishment for disobeying orders. Had they found out? Did they know she'd been sneaking into Stark Tower? No. They couldn't have known. They would've fired her… or worse. No, this was just punishment for disobeying orders, back during the Battle. It had to be. Or they really thought she could handle it. Yeah… this was punishment.
The glass door behind her hissed as it slid open, jolting her from her thoughts. Three new S.H.I.E.L.D. agents stepped inside, their own satchels and bags slung over their shoulders.
Nancy took a deep breath to compose herself, braced herself for whatever might happen, and spun on her heel, suddenly finding herself the center of attention in the cluster of young agents.
"I'm Agent Nancy McAllister," she began, skipping the formalities, "Level five agent and one of the highest ranking agents of the Linguistics Division. Over the next six months, I will be your Supervising Officer." She paced menacingly back and forth in front of them, looking each one over in turn, "You will eat, sleep, and breathe linguistics. Your time at the academy is over. This is the real deal. Here, we don't just analyze patterns and study people. We don't make inferences about populations or speculations based on statistics. We don't care about class or race or whatever else you studied at the academy. Here, the patterns we study save lives. One mistake and the universe could collapse. Here, language is more than conversing. Agent Lancaster, tell me... what is language?"
"Um... you mean, if it's not just conversing?" She finally let her satchel drop with a loud thud, "Well, it's interacting. It's people responding to people. I guess, in the case of S.H.I.E.L.D, it's power struggles and identities and backgrounds and such. Right?"
Nancy hid her proud smile. These kids really did know their stuff. "Good." She waved a hand and motioned the agents over to a long, metal table poised at the back of the room. Five rectangular cases of glass sat evenly apart from one another, an old, worn parchment encased inside. "Have any of you ever heard of the Red Skull?"
The agents all exchanged nervous glances. Was this a trick question?
"Of course we have." Nathan stated, "The leader of HYDRA and former nemesis of Captain America. What about him?" He stepped closer, examining the preserved parchment. Wrinkled and water-damaged pages were flattened out, revealing images of a portal and strange words written in a foreign language. "What is this?"
"These are documents that were recovered when Captain America was brought out of the ice." Nancy explained, "Red Skull used these documents himself to study the Tesseract. He read them, studied them, and gleaned what information he could. As linguists for S.H.I.E.L.D, sometimes all you have to go on are bits and pieces of information. An old, half-destroyed document, a scrap of recorded voice, half of an old myth. Red Skull used these stories to harness the strongest power this world has ever seen.
"And I want you to tell me how. What do these documents say? What would they have shown him? All you have are these documents and whatever else you have access to on the S.H.I.E.L.D system. You have one hour. Oh, and that hour started... let's see... fifteen minutes ago." Nancy turned away, grinning, as the agents began to scramble around each other. It had been too long since she'd had a team. Too long since she'd been a mentor for young agents. Too long since she'd been in charge of anything. It felt good to finally get back to normal. To be home.
As Nancy glanced out the large, glass windows into the hall, her blood suddenly ran cold. A short, balding man in a signature black suit strode past her lab, talking with Agent Victoria Hand, the lead agent over every inner-working of the Hub. The man turned and glanced in the lab, hardly paying much attention to the goings-on inside. He made eye-contact with Nancy and gave a half-smile, then turned his attention back to Agent Hand.
"Coulson?!" Nancy quickly wove her way through the computer desks, nearly tripping over the scattered bags as she went. She stumbled up the stairs into the hall and nearly fell through the glass doors as she tugged them open.
How could Coulson be alive? He was dead! She saw his body herself. Saw the card Agent Hill had placed on his body. Attended his memorial and lit a candle in his honor. He'd been sliced through the heart with Loki's scepter. He was dead! So how was he still alive?
"Coulson!" Nancy's feet couldn't carry her fast enough. The man and Agent Hand had already tuned a corner and were heading for the elevators. Nancy turned the corner, not far behind, but was soon confronted by a pass-gate. She growled softly and fumbled for her ID. On the other side of the door, the two agents were already boarding the lift.
With a swipe of her ID and a glance to the retinal scanner, Nancy was through the door. But the elevator doors were already closing. "Coulson!"
Agent Phil Coulson looked up and smiled at Nancy as the elevator doors slid closed.
/
Nancy sighed and wiped at the dripping sweat on her brow. As much as she loved field work, she didn't mean that literally. Not in a literal field. Well, mountainous terrain area outside of a cave. But, still.
She leaned back against the metal table and sipped at her bottle of water. Behind her, Viking artifacts lay sprawled out over the table, comparison texts strewn about and held down by rocks of various sizes. As much as she hated having to hike over rocks and boulders and wallow around in the dirt and mud, she had to admit, it gave her a rush that she loved. She was surrounded by histories, cultures, people. Language itself, frozen in time. Everything she went into linguistics for. Her team scrambled around behind her, dusting old artifacts and preparing them for transport.
But this dig was different. Any team could go and dig up clay pots and hieroglyphs. Archaeology at its finest. This dig was special. She'd been called in because her areas of expertise were Old English and Norse. The same reason she'd been called in to the Bifrost site.
She'd been a part of S.H.I.E.L.D. for far too long for them to pull the wool over her eyes. She knew she wasn't on Thor's Mountain looking for Norse engravings. She was looking for Asgardian relics. Something had happened. Something big. And she guessed it had something to do with the alien invasion of London. She'd seen images of Thor on the news. Images of the fight. By the time she was able to grab a flight out there, the battle was over and he was gone again. He was her one connection to Loki, but he'd left too soon.
But, then she'd been given this detail. She and her team were sent to dig on this island, while a new threat terrorized the world. Something about crazed, raging teenagers with superhuman strength. But a different department with a different team would deal with that. For now, she'd remain here with her little linguists swarming around her.
She prayed silently that she'd find something, some relic, to bring Loki back to her again.
/
"Are you alright?"
Nancy opened her eyes see Nathan sitting across from her, studying her intently. She'd been sitting with her eyes closed and an ice-pack on her head. Their dig complete, the team was flying back to the Hub for some much needed R&R. After a few more days of study, Nancy would be free to return home. Good. She thought she deserved it.
"Just a headache." Nancy forced a smile, "No big deal."
"Okay. Just checking. Hey, what do you think we were looking for, anyway?"
Susan popped her head up over the back of Nathan's seat. "You aren't supposed to ask, Nate. You'll get us in trouble. Just do as you're told."
Nancy chuckled sleepily. "Is that what they taught you? They taught me that, too. Does anyone ever really listen to that rule? Well, sometimes. But, not really. 'Trust the system'. The system has flaws. Every system does. Just go with your gut, kid, and you'll be fine."
"Is that what you did with Loki?" Martha piped over Nathan's other shoulder, "Sorry to pry, McAllister."
Nancy sighed heavily. "Yeah. That's what I did. I broke procedure and paid dearly for it."
The two girls leaned closer, nearly toppling into Nathan's lap.
"Girls! Watch it!" he complained, shooing them away. They both shushed him.
"I still don't know why I did it. I was brought on the case during the New Mexico project and stayed on, but... I was only supposed to study him. Analyze his speech patterns. Come up with a psychoanalysis, nothing more. Just a profile. I didn't even have clearance to be down there. I..." Nancy gave a sigh, "When I was watching him, I... saw something. In the way he looked at the camera. In his mannerisms and carriage."
"What did you see?" Martha moved to sit next to her S.O., "Was it awful?"
"No..." Nancy admitted, remembering the moment she first saw Loki for herself, "It was... sad. Have you ever looked into the eyes of a caged tiger? It looked kinda like that. He looked so... hurt. So... alone."
The three agents blinked at her.
"I'm not making sense, am I?"
"Sure you are." Susan commented, "He was alone, on a foreign planet, trapped in a cage, and surrounded by his enemies. You just wanted to be... a friend."
It was Nancy's turn to blink in surprise. "Well, yeah."
"Do you women even hear yourself?" Nathan grumbled, "He was a monster! A murderer! He wiped out half of Manhattan in less than an hour!" He stood and headed for the back of the cabin, "And I hope he rots, wherever he is."
Nancy turned in her seat to study the young agent.
"Nate's brother is an agent." Martha explained, "He was hurt before the Battle. Loki shot him with his scepter. He spent six months in the hospital because of it. They thought he wouldn't survive."
Nancy's eyes widened. She knew she'd heard that surname before. Harper. James Harper. Nathan was James' little brother. "Oh, Nathan. I'm sorry. Is he okay?"
"What do you care? I bet you didn't even know him. He was just a soldier." he turned for the private area at the back of the plane, "Wake me when we get there."
/
The sun shone brightly through the leafy trees, creating a scattered pattern of shadows on the road. Cozy, little houses were dotted here and there as Nancy made her way home.
Endless hours of translating had left her feeling drained and exhausted. All that work and she was no closer to seeing Loki again. There weren't any magic portals in the heap of artifacts. No secret instructions on how to transcend space and time. They weren't even Asgardian! She appreciated the old relics, but their splendor was lost in the wake of her dying hope.
Everything rested on that one note. One phrase, one promise scrawled on a piece of scratch paper. I will be back for you. How could he return if he was captive on Asgard? Worse, what if they'd killed him?! He was good at escaping, but that was only from the cage of mere mortals. Surely it would be harder for him to escape from his own kind... right?
As she made her way into the city, Nancy reflected back on her last conversation with him. What do you think I would do with you? She had no idea. She still had no idea why he'd kidnapped her in the first place. Convenience? Did he just take her because she was there when he woke... and somehow kept running into him? Or was it more than that? Was he as interested in her as she was in him? Did thoughts of her plague him at night, as her own thoughts plagued her? Why would he return? She had no idea. All she could do was be patient and wait to find out.
Half an hour later, Nancy pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex and trudged up the stairs. Her legs felt as if they would fall off. All she wanted to do was sleep.
When she opened her door, her rottweiler, Brutus, nearly toppled her over. Her sister, Anita, had been watching him for her.
"Down, Brutus! Go to your house!"
But Brutus's plush dog-bed was scattered in fluffy, white pieces all around the living room. Nancy gaped at the scene. Just when she thought she was going to get a break. Brutus whimpered and dropped a piece of white fluff at her feet. Nancy groaned and sank into a nearby kitchen chair.
It was going to be another long day.