"Miss Foster," the silver voice says, "This will be much easier if you cooperate."

Jane keeps stock still, her heart thundering against her throat and brain. The silence continues once more. She knows she can't keep this up any longer.

She hears the shifting of fabric from behind her, where Loki must be. Jane slips her hand under her pillow, feeling for the Swiss army knife she always kept there.

There's a footstep in Jane's direction.

"Jane," the voice says in earnest.

Jane grips the handle of the knife and within the same breath, twists around and hurls the knife in his direction.

There's a grunt. Jane doesn't look to see if she hit him or not, but scrambles from her bed, cursing as the sheets catch on her ankles. Jane falls into the hallway, with a glance backward she can see Loki's shape through the darkness coming after her. She yelps and struggles to her feet, her heart racing in her chest.

"Jane!" Loki calls after her. She runs down the stairs, nearly tripping and completely falling down them. Jane can't breathe. It's still before the sun has risen and the darkness of her living room consumes her. Jane whips around, hearing Loki come down the stairs. She flies into the kitchen, knowing he's just a step or two behind her. He calls her name again. Jane rifles through the darkness, ripping open the drawer she prays hosts her kitchen knives. She hears footsteps thunking on the hard dining room floor, just a breath away from the kitchen. Jane grips the handle of a knife and holds it out against the darkness. She steps back and her spine touches the edge of the counter. Jane knows she's cornered herself. The only way to escape Loki would be through him.

"Fuck," Jane curses under her breath, the house falling to silence once more. Her eyes pan through the blackness, searching for the outlines of shapes and movement. Jane's heartbeat plays thunderously in her ears: tha-thunk, tha-thunk, tha-thunk. Moments like hours pass in utter silence.

Jane grips the knife tighter in her hands to keep it from shaking as she feels through the darkness with the other.

She steps forward with her knees knocking together and a chill running through her body. Jane hadn't noticed how cold it had gotten. She reaches her other hand through the darkness in search for the light switch.

Maybe this is just another nightmare… Her mind rambles.

Jane rounds the corner into her dining room step by wary step with her knife extended and hand searching. She stays close to the wall, edging across through the darkness. Finally, her fingers come to the smooth plastic of the light switch. Jane steels herself and becomes rigid in the hopes of appearing threatening. Jane flips the switch. The small 'flick' noise sounding like a cannon in the silence of the house. Yet, the room stays in darkness.

Jane inwardly curses and waits for the electricity to boot up.

The light hums and flickers.

There, at the dining room table sitting across from Jane, is Loki. But a terrifying version, the real version of what Loki is. A blue man with scar-like etchings across his face and limbs with horns protruding from his forehead that curl back towards the crown of his skull. He is illuminated for just a moment in the flicker of the light. Even though it was a second, Jane knows exactly what she saw. Loki's true form. The monster.

Then blackness. The light hums against then 'clinks' on once more, this time, a very different Loki sits across from her at the table. The façade. His black hair is slick with sweat and his ivory skin looks clammy in the pale light of her dining room. Jane's eyes remain wide and alert, her knife pointed at his chest. He doesn't look at her, but instead sits hunched over with his arm slung across his chest to his right shoulder. Loki releases a dark, throaty chuckle.

"I think one is enough, don't you?" Loki says, removing his hand to reveal the hilt of her army knife plunged into his bicep. Blood from his wound stains his green tunic and dribbles down his arm. Jane stands unmoving, the knife still held in the space between them.

"Are you here to kill me?" Jane shifts on her feet. Loki ignores her and instead, inspects his wound. He wraps his hand around the hilt and with a twisted scowl he pulls the knife from his flesh, a spurt of blood following it. He throws the knife on the table and grips his shoulder with clenched teeth.

"If I were here to kill you: it would be you bleeding and not me." Loki huffs and winces in pain. He straightens into the chair steadily, blood beginning to ooze from between his fingers. Jane eyes him, then his shoulder, then him again. She searches his eyes for any glimmer of a lie. Jane eases her knife to her side with a tight grip.

"If you're not here to kill me, then why the fuck are you here?" Jane growls.

"Oof," Loki grunts, "Coarse language is very unbecoming of you." A shiver of rage runs through Jane.

"I'm not interested in playing games, Loki." She raises the knife, her arm beginning to ache. "Why. Are. You. Here." Loki chuckles and grips his shoulder.

"I would be obliged to answer your questions but can it possible be when I am not bleeding?" Loki raises a brow. Jane can feel the pressure of his gaze move from her face to her body, to her shaking legs, then to the knife pointed at him. His expression softens. "I'm not here to harm you."

"Tell me why and I'll drop the knife."

A frustrated growl rolls like thunder up Loki's throat.

"It's a long story."

"I've got nothing but time." Jane's eyes turn shrewd on Loki.

"I'm here for my own protection." Loki pauses. "And yours."

Jane throws her head back and laughs. Loki's brows knit together, obviously not the reaction he expected. Jane shakes her head.

"Did Thor send you here?"

"And if he did?"

Jane's teeth gnaw at the inside of her cheek to distract herself from tears. She lets the knife drop to her side then stabs the blade into the kitchen table. Jane stares at her knife, then glances to the bloodied one resting on the table across from her.

"If that were the case, you could just tell Thor," Jane pauses, "That he was too late." Jane lets her statement hang in the air. Loki doesn't say a word but she can feel his eyes boring into her. "I'd like you to leave. Now." Jane wipes her eyes and turns to the darkness and walks into the living room as if to go back up the stairs and into bed like nothing had transpired. She's not sure how to feel. Could Loki be lying? Could he have other reasons for being here? Jane's too numbed by pain too think about it.

"Jane, wait." Loki stands and follows after her. Jane stops in the middle of the living room, her body stiff like a corpse.

"I don't want you here." Her voice is barely a whisper. Loki stands behind her, close enough that Jane can smell the metallic scent of his blood.

"Did something happen?"

Jane whips around, tears flowing freely down her cheeks.

"Don't pretend that you fucking care! I don't need your protection. I don't need anyone," Jane feels her face burn with the intensity of her emotions gathering together like a hurricane. Jane stabs a finger into Loki's chest. "I get nothing for a fucking year! And he sends you?"

"Foster-"

"I don't want to hear it!"

"Then what do you want Jane?" Loki's voice rises, not in anger but in some other emotion that Jane can't detect. Concern? Jane's chest feels like its crushing in on itself when she looks at Loki. As if he's just a reminder that Thor has still not come for her. Loki's face is half cast in darkness as he glowers down at her, with sharp shadows curving the angles of his face and his green eyes nearly glowing in the darkness. Like a terrifying Adonis.

"Didn't you hear me? I want you to leave." Jane feel her throat clench tightly around her words, making them sound choked and aching.

"No. You don't." Loki replies. Jane doesn't argue. "You need me as much as I need you."

"What could I possibly need from you?" Jane growls taking a step closer towards Loki. She can feel the iciness of his breath brush against her forehead and cheeks.

"Answers." Loki says, his face stony and grim. Jane examines him, noticing those speckled scars lining Loki's lips.

"And what makes you think I'd trust anything you have to say?" Jane crosses her arms across her chest tightly. Loki chuckles.

"What makes you think you have a choice?" Loki counters, raising his eyebrow with a cool smirk. Jane clenches her teeth. They hold each other at a stand off for a long pause.

"Now, we could bicker until sunrise or you could help me tend to my injury." Loki takes a step away from her towards the light of the dining room, illuminating his blood-soaked tunic. Jane takes a deep breath and massages her temples to attempt to smooth her emotions away.

"Stay here," Jane grunts before disappearing upstairs. She returns a few moments later with a first aid kit and a warm rag. She enters the light of the dining room and points to the kitchen chair. "Sit."

Loki silently obliges and sits with a deep sigh, as if he were exhausted with the whole situation. Jane scowls.

"Take off your shirt." Loki stiffens, making Jane roll her eyes. "I didn't think the God of Mischief was modest," she adds.

Loki's face washes over with a tight expression. Without a word, Loki reaches behind his head with his uninjured arm, then pulls the tunic over his head. Jane opens the kit and stares blankly, knowing she hasn't the vaguest idea of how to do stitches. Jane tentatively grabs at the materials. First she pulls out a roll of bandages and gauze pads, then lastly, the packaged hook with thread. When Jane turns back to Loki, she freezes at the sight of him.

Loki is littered with thick tendrils of scars reaching all over his body. Loki notices her pause.

"Something wrong?" His head is hung low, raven hair hiding his face. Jane turns away and opens her mouth to speak but finds she has no words for him.

She clears her throat, instead, and looks down at the medical supplies.

"I just, I don't know how to do stitches, that's all."

With his good hand, Loki reaches for the gauze, bandages and the hook. Jane turns around, careful not to look at his body. Loki tears open the package with his mouth and holds out the hook and thread to Jane.

"It's easy. Just like sewing." Loki's voice is hollow. Jane takes the hook delicately in her fingers.

"I've never sewn in my life."

Loki rolls his eyes, ignoring her, then goes to dab the blood from his shoulder and arm with the warm rag. Jane stands there silently, pinching the hook tightly between her fingers. Loki finishes and tosses the blood-stained rag to the table.

"Well? Am I going to have to do it myself?" Loki nods to the instrument between Jane's fingers. Jane shakes her head and approaches Loki, pulling a chair behind her and setting it close to Loki's side. He straightens himself in the chair, his face focused forward into empty space. Jane sits and steels herself. When her fingers make contact with his skin, Jane is sure she sees a shiver run through him.

"Afraid of needles?" She asks, lining up the hook with a starting point on his wound. Loki only hums lightly, offering no discernable answer. Jane pauses before making the first stitch in his skin. She stares at the open wound, less than three inches long, but it makes her stomach wind in ropes.

"Go on, Foster." Loki urges. Jane lets out a breath. She uses her fingers to push the edges of the wounds closer together. With shaking fingers, plunges the hook beneath his skin and pulls it through the other side the wound. Jane can see that Loki has clenched his jaw and let his eyes fall shut. She never thought a warrior like him would be queazy about needles. Jane pulls the thread through and begins on the next stitch. Loki lets out a forced breath. Jane glances at his face as she pulls the thread through, then back at the scars littering his body.

"So, are you going to answer me?" Jane begins another stitch. Loki wrinkles his nose at the pain then side glances her with a smirk.

"Since I am at your mercy, it seems that I must." He grunts as she tugs on the thread for good measure.

"Well?" Jane pauses her work. Loki looks back into open space.

"Where should I start, Foster?"

"At the beginning."

Loki sighs and winces as Jane begins another stich.

"As you can surmise: my 'death' on Svartalheim was all a ruse. After your and Thor left, I transformed my body into a Aesir guard and hid in Asgard. This was planned between Thor and I."

"What did you do there?"

"Waited. Until I could not anymore."

"Why?"

"It became too dangerous for me," Loki notices Jane pause, "I have a tendency to create enemies. I'm sure that doesn't surprise you, Foster. I was captured."

"That's where you were? For a year?" Jane glances at Loki's scarred torso.

Loki nods silently. Jane finishes the last stich then grabs a pair of scissors from the kit and snips the thread. Loki physically relaxes, his body becoming less rigid.

"So how'd you get here?" Jane grabs a bandage patch and presses it over the stitched-up wound.

"Thor rescued me, more or less, from my captors and-"

"Why would he do that?" Jane asks with a tone of cynicism.

"It's rude to interrupt." Loki snaps and Jane sits back in her chair with crossed arms.

"You don't make the rules her, Loki. Answer me."

He relaxes back in his chair and crosses his arms, mocking Jane.

"Asgard was, is, in peril. Thor sent me to look after his interests on Midgard."

"So I'm an interest now to Thor?" She laughs and shakes her head. Loki cocks his head.

"I thought that was obvious."

"He sure has a fucked up way of showing his interest. He leaves and doesn't come back for a goddamn year. What makes me so interesting all of a sudden?" Jane stands and grips her hands into fists, glowering down at Loki. "Go back and tell him he was too late."

"I still don't know what you mean by that, Jane." Jane's surprised that Loki's voice lacks its usual smugness.

"It's none of your business. Or his. Just leave." Jane begins to walk past Loki when he grips her wrist, stopping her at his side. The iciness of his grip almost makes Jane jump.

"Let go of me."

"I can't, Jane."

"Can't leave or won't leave." Jane wrenches away from Loki.

"Neither matters. Thor destroyed the Bifrost after I left. I couldn't go back even if I wanted to. And he won't be coming for me, not for a while." Loki says slowly. Jane's face goes blank. She finds herself at a loss for words, too many questions firing inside her mind.

"Wh-Why? Why would…" Jane pulls herself from Loki's grip. Loki stands, his face paler than usual.

"Destroying the Bifrost would, at the very least, slow down our enemies in Asgard from reaching you or I."

"So I'm stuck with you."

"It looks as if that would be the case."

Jane walks away from Loki and into the living room, where the dawning sunlight has reached itself inside, illuminating the small room. Jane rubs her arms, feeling suddenly very cold.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," She says under her breath. She can hear Loki come to stand behind her, unfortunately not close enough for Jane to get a quick punch in if she wanted to.

"I'm afraid not. Jane, you are a part of this now by being connected to Thor. That much is nonnegotiable."

"So I've gathered." Jane turns and glares at Loki, "How long is 'a while'?" Loki shrugs.

"A week? A month? However long it takes until Asgard is secured."

"How can you be sure you weren't followed? That whoever was after you won't still search?"

"Because I'm very clever, Miss Foster. The moment I arrived I cast a shadow over myself, ensuring that anything and anyone close to me would disappear from enemy eyes."

Jane looks down, chewing her bottom lip.

"Let me make this very clear, Loki. You are not a guest, you are an intruder. The only reason I'm not calling SHEILD is because of this magic shadow thing you have. This is my home. So stay out of my way." Jane goes to move past Loki and clean up the mess in the dining room when he steps in her way.

"I've answered many of your questions, Foster. It seems only fair that you would answer me this," Loki says, stretching his arms out to block the threshold.

"I don't have to answer your questions Loki." Jane tries to turn for the way of the front door, to escape Loki when he steps in her way again. Jane steps back and crosses her arms.

"You see, it took as very long time to find you since both Thor and I believed you to be in London with your companions. Tell me why this isn't so." Loki settles himself between Jane and the front door, making it very clear that he wouldn't let her go until she answered. Jane clenches her jaw, her auburn hair falling into her face. She looks down, her body beginning to shake.

"They're dead. My friends. That's why I'm not in London. Because Thor's enemies already got to me. They killed my friends and almost killed me," Jane's voice is low and hollow of emotion. She'd already spent her tears on Eric and Darcy. Jane reaches to the hem of her shirt and pulls it up enough to expose her lower abdomen, where a large scar rips across her skin. Loki looks down at the healed wound, then back to Jane, his eyes boring into hers.

"Jane. I didn't realize…"

Jane takes a threatening step towards Loki.

"When this is done, I want you to leave and tell Thor to never come back." Jane says, emotion beginning to overcome her voice. But before she can break down, Jane pushes past Loki. She throws on her boots as fast as she can, yet Loki doesn't move from his spot. Loki remains motionless like a statue behind Jane as she makes her escape and slams the door behind her.