Chapter Fifty-One: Serious and Secret
Barton grabbed onto the door handle feverishly, trying to open the door in a frenzy. "Move," Tony ordered sternly. He didn't yield and instead began pounding the palm of his other hand against the flat obstruction. "Get him," Tony looked to Steve and sighed impatiently. Steve cooperated and dragged the flailing hawk away from the door.
"You've gotta be FUCKING kidding me-" he wailed, delirious.
Tony raised an arm. "Take cover," he muttered as he blew the door off its hinges with a well-placed blast.
The group filtered into the garage with eyes and ears alert. Natasha was crumpled up on the ground like a thrown rag. Barton ran to her and propped her up in his arms. She was limp. No one spoke. He gently placed two fingers on the pulse point on her neck and prayed for the first time in his life. Thum thump. He could have sang. She curled into him like a baby being held. "He got away," she shivered, "I tried to shoot him, but he..."
Barton stroked her hair. "Shh," he silenced her and addressed the team next. "I'm going to stay here with her, you all search her car and the rest of the lot." No one argued and they dispersed.
"Why do I feel so hazy?" Nat wondered. She couldn't even open her eyes, she had no energy left. All she knew was that Barton's chest was warm and comforting. The memories of everything that had happened stored themselves in the appropriate lock boxes of her brain, to be opened another time.
"We can talk about it later," Barton assured, holding her tighter.
"I feel like...I never want to talk about it..." she stammered along her words and furrowed her brow.
"Then we don't have to," he felt at peace somehow. Despite the hectic aura of the night and the debris from the door behind him still settling, she was alive and that was all he could think about.
Elsewhere
Loki found himself, once again, cradling Sasha in his arms. Jane was distracted by anything and everything and refused to keep moving. After he'd locked the Avengers out, he figured he only had a minute or two. He knew there was no way Barton could convince them to let him go, even if Natasha's life was on the line. So he'd pulled Jane out of the passenger seat, letting go of his hold on Natasha, and teleported himself, his captive and his dog outside the lot. Disguised as Darcy once more, he tried to get Jane as far away as he could. He wasn't able to convince her to run and he needed to save his magic for whatever his brother would try to do. Part of him thought maybe he'd get back to Eve's home and no one would be there. He thought he might execute the fair scientist at his side out of annoyance if that were the case. Eve was his trophy. Proof that he could navigate his way through the Avengers' plans without any consequences. To lose her would be a harsh blow to his ego.
He spotted a pedestrian getting into her car and had an idea. He morphed himself into his brother, a strange but not unfamiliar feeling, and approached her. "Excuse me, miss," he greeted charmingly. She was too taken aback to say anything. She squinted at him through the dark. "Could I possibly borrow your vehicle? I'll bring it right back here in no more than twenty minutes. Have to get my girlfriend somewhere very quickly," he pulled Jane to his hip and she was giddy with him.
"Hi!" Jane shouted at the stranger. "This is my boyfriend!" The girl gave her an odd look.
"Excuse her, she's a bit delirious. Like I said, we have to get her to her medicine as soon as possible," Loki leaned into the mortal and gave her the sincerest eyes he could.
"S-sure," she stuttered and handed him her keys. He helped Jane into the back seat this time, simply because it was faster, and handed her the dog. Then he got in himself.
The stranger moved to the sidewalk and looked on, very confused, almost stunned. Loki started the engine and found the button to roll down the passenger side window to speak to her. "You do know my hammer allows me to fly, right?"
"What?" She blubbered, embarrassed but not sure why yet. "Yes, I know..."
"Then why would I need your car? You're an idiot," he sped off without another glance her way, leaving her alone under a dim street lamp. "Darling," he addressed Jane, "have you got the phone I gave you?"
"Oh, yes," she confirmed cheerfully. She'd unbuckled her seatbelt and was laying down with Sasha resting on her stomach. Loki observed this and pursed his lips. It was a good thing and a bad thing. She'd really sunken into his spell. Her mind wasn't aware that it should be fighting anything off, so it wasn't, it was much easier not to. Plus, she seemed very happy this way. On the other hand, she was woozy and silly and he needed her to look up directions, like he'd seen Eve do before. If he were teleporting, it was more about memory of a place than the exact location. But he had no clue how to navigate the city and being lost didn't suit his plan in the slightest.
"Can you look up directions for me?"
She sat up abruptly, causing Sasha to scramble to the space between her knees. She was sitting right behind him and he couldn't see her without straining. Then, her hands crawled over his shoulders and onto his chest. "I missed you," she pressed her body into the back of the seat to hug him as tightly as she could. Sasha forced her way out of the tight space and curled up into a puffball on the seat next to her.
"Don't touch me," Loki reacted defensively.
"What's the matter, baby?" Jane cooed and squeezed up to the passenger seat. "You didn't miss me too?"
"Not in the slightest," Loki scowled.
Jane laughed this off. "Well I know one thing you missed for sure," she had an odd confidence about her now. She arched her back forward and kissed his cheek.
"Stop," Loki winced, disgusted.
Again, Jane laughed. "Okay, fine, we can skip right to the good stuff," she promised and thrust her hand between his legs.
Loki was not amused. To shock her, he changed to look like Steve and shouted, "Jane! What are you doing?"
She inhaled sharply in shock. "NO STEVE I DIDN'T I THOUGHT YOU NO NO- NOT- I'M SORRY YOU-"
"Pull yourself together and look up directions, okay? Can you do that? Can you stop touching me inappropriately for two seconds to do that?" He pressed.
She searched her purse hectically and got Natasha's phone. "Directions...To where?" She asked, nervous and jarred.
"West Delevan Street," he remembered the name from when they'd driven past it the day they first met Sasha. Jane directed him but was mostly silent apart from random apologies here and there.
Loki drove like a madman, cutting people off carelessly and causing several minor accidents. They arrived at Eve's house and he pulled in the driveway efficiently. He left Sasha and beckoned for Jane to follow him. When he opened the front door, everyone there rushed from the bedroom to meet him.
"Jane!" Thor rejoiced and picked her up for a tight embrace.
"Thor, I'm so sorry," she whimpered.
"Why?" Thor wondered sweetly. The smile he had felt permanent.
"I was confused and I, well, I kind of, um, touched Steve," she confessed through guilt-filled eyes. "I don't know why, but in the car just now, I thought..."
Thor raised an eyebrow at Loki. "Touched in what way?" He asked her. The permanent smile was gone already. Jane burst into tears. Thor looked ready to kill someone. He glared at Loki. "Tell me you didn't...just to spite me?" He growled. Eve looked worried as well.
"Of course not!" Loki groaned. "She's under suavis."
Thor rolled his eyes. "God, I hate suavis."
"It was the only way to get her to come with me," Loki explained. "She did touch me, but only because she thought I was you. When I switched forms she nearly vomited. I'll take it off her when we've left, she'll have memories but they'll feel like dreams."
"Loki," Thor spoke firmly, "how long are you going to run?"
"Never you mind," he grimaced. "Now I've held up my end of the bargain..."
"What am I to tell them, Loki?" Thor was disappointed. Not that he'd expected some dramatic change of heart, but his brother's cavalier attitude toward never seeing his family again felt too cold.
"When I was there, I was almost captured. Tell them that you caught me after and took me back to Asgard."
"But I can't simply go there as I please," Thor reminded him.
"As though any of them really understands how our world works. Tell them your father himself summoned us back. Tell them they can all go back to their mindless surveillance and whatever else it is that they do." He made eye contact with Eve and spoke in her mind. Is that skinny girl going to ruin this? He gave Darla a sideways glance.
I can fix it. Eve grabbed Darla's wrist and pulled her toward the kitchen, out of ear shot. Thor was too entranced by Jane's safety to pay this any mind, plus he was trying to get her to stop crying.
"Darla, I need to tell you something very serious and secret, okay?" Darla was spent from the day she'd had and nodded sleepily in agreement. "Even Thor doesn't know. No one knows but Fury. And you can't even repeat it to him, he'd be, well, furious if he knew I told you." Darla's eyes lit up. Loki watched them inquisitively and extended his hearing to listen in. "I'm on a secret mission here," Eve lied, "I'm going to be feeding Director Fury info every step of the way. He had to keep the others in the dark, they don't trust me. I'm only telling you this because things didn't go as planned. You must know Nick is a very smart man. He could have had Loki captured again ages ago. But he thinks Loki is working with a higher power, someone even stronger. And he wants to know everything he can so we're prepared. You weren't supposed to be here with us today, but you are, so to protect the integrity of the plan, I have to ask you-beg you, rather-to agree with Thor when he lies for Loki."
Darla cringed. "I don't know..."
"Darla, you're not listening!" Eve whispered harshly, urgently. "If Fury thinks you know about his plan, you'll be cut from SHIELD for knowing too much. And if you reveal what you've seen or heard here, you'll ruin his plan. The only way to win is to stay out of it. Go with the flow. In fact, no one even knows you were here, right?"
Darla was petrified. She hardly knew Eve. Could she be trusted? Her mind began to spin in circles. She didn't want to let the director down. Eve held her hands gently to the shy girl's warm, pale cheeks, forcing their eyes to lock. "I've got him right where I want him. This is a long con, okay? Does that make sense to you?" Darla nodded sheepishly, her face pressing into Eve's palms. "Thank you," Eve smiled gently and broke their contact, moving to Loki's side swiftly after.
"Shall we go?" Loki draped his arm around her possessively.
Thor felt a very distinct brand of sadness. He felt a sense of loss, and there was anger mixed in. It was close to anguish, but more hopeless than that. "I hope that with time you will see your own foolishness, Loki," he said, "and come back to repent for what you've done. You are a lost, sad cast of the man I once called brother."
Loki looked him straight in the eye and said, "You are free to never call me brother again."
