Chapter 7

"She is very... spirited."

Maria laughed at Thor's careful description, as if he were afraid Jane were lurking around somewhere around the house, ready to attack him if he bad mouthed her. She didn't miss the way he glanced over his shoulder beside her.

"Yeah, she's a handful." Maria admitted conceding as she washed the dinner plates in the sink. "But her heart's in the right place. She's a good friend."

"Then that is a good thing. I do not know where I would be were it not for my friends."

Thor waited patiently as Maria cleared up, stood just behind her as they chatted. His eyes scoured over the back of her curiously; his mind was troubled. Jane's mention of Maria's bruises earlier had brought it sharply back to his attention, and he found himself once again pinpointing each injury on her body with frowning eyes. When she turned around obliviously, his gaze flew to the one on her cheek.

"Right..." she sighed, drying her hands on the towel. Finally, she noticed Thor's burning eyes, and the dark look on his face that matched it. "What?"

She leaned back against the sink, casually folding her arms over her chest. Protectively. Defensively. Thor didn't miss that for a heartbeat. He stepped closer and put his hands on the kitchen surface either side of the small woman, ignoring how her eyes flashed alarmingly at his movements and her body tensed. No escape, he thought to himself, eyes locked on Maria as her chest rose and fell with apprehensive breaths. Maybe she knew what was coming as Thor leaned in, the cage of his arms and body impenetrable.

Maria pressed the base of her spine as far into the sink as it would go, nervously unfurling her arms. Her gaze flickered up at Thor's intense blue eyes, transfixed on her.

"What was Jane talking about at the hospital?"

Her heart plummeted with dread.

Thor read the horror written over Maria's face and knew he'd hit it. There was something there he didn't know about, that she was desperately hiding from him. Something that scared her. And that something was responsible for the bruises, he was willing to bet.

"Who hurt you, Maria?" he asked in a powerful voice. One that sent shivers of fear up Maria's spine as she was reminded of the power and the force within the being that trapped her. "I will ensure they never will again."

"No." slipped from her lips before she could help it.

Thor moved closer, till all they could see of each other were their eyes, one set glistening with fear, the other burning with an inner rage, demanding. Still, he could catch the bruise on her cheek. It was like it was calling to him, urging him on. "Tell me. I promised I'd protect you. I didn't mean from just my brother."

He could feel her shrinking before him. "Did Jane say something to you?"

"She didn't need to." It'd been on his mind since he arrived. "She just brought it back to my attention."

Maria's eyes narrowed. "It's none of her business, and it's none of yours. Leave me alone."

She tried to break through Thor's arm but it was solid, and he was pressed too close for her to duck under. It didn't stop her trying though. Thor remained motionless as she struggled, watching the panic and defensiveness growing in her eyes.

"Maria..."

"Let me go." Her voice trembled.

"Before I told you about Loki you were afraid." Thor went on relentlessly. "What were you afraid of? Who hurt you?" he hadn't meant for the words to come out as a growl but they did, dripping with viciousness.

If only she'd tell him. If only she'd give him a name. He dreaded to think of what he would do to the culprit for what he did, for hurting Maria as much as he did, for instilling this fear in her. What on Earth was she protecting them for? His teeth gritted at the merely though, baring in a feral snarl that made Maria whimper.

That brought him back.

His eyes instinctively focussed back on Maria's face, on her eyes, begging, pleading as if - he realised sharply - as if she thought he was going to hurt her. It was the tear the did it though: as the first tear slipped over her cheek, something inside of him broke.

His eyes widened as he took in the woman before him. Really took her in, and what he'd done to her. He leaned back, though kept his hands on the kitchen surface, his eyes scouring over how her body trembled, how frightened squeaks, gasps and whimpers left her lips, how the tears fell one after the other, thick and fast...

"Maria, I'm sorry."

His hands rose from the table top to her back and closed the gap between them, gently crushing the small woman to his chest, feeling her convulsing lightly in his arms. He trailed one hand up till his palm cupped the back of her head, holding him firmly to him as she cried into his shirt.

"I'm so sorry."

XXX

He'd done it again: he'd sent Maria to sleep in tears.

Thor lay in his bed upstairs, staring at the ceiling guiltily. His arms felt strangely empty since Maria had left them and abandoned him numbly for the couch. How could he have done that to her? He'd let his anger get the better of him, his burn for revenge so overpowering he'd forgotten what he was wanting revenge for. He'd wanted revenge for the fear that was so deep set in Maria, that consumed her. The same sort of fear he'd instilled in her earlier.

Groaning, he threw an arm over his eyes and rolled onto his side. His ears were pricked, listening carefully for if he could hear her still crying or not. He'd seen the way her shoulders bobbed when he'd let her be. She'd still wept long after he left. Again.

Everything was quiet now though. Everything was still and peaceful. Even Maria. Thor was sure if he went downstairs now he'd find Maria asleep, her face blank of the earlier anguish as the blissfulness of sleep claimed her. He longed to see that look on her face, rather than settle for the memory.

But he fought the urge to leave the room. He didn't deserve to be comforted in that way - he deserved to wallow in this guilt. He deserved to suffer...

Slam.

The hard sound wrenched him from his thoughts, meriting a frown instantly. The front door was shutting. Why? That could mean either one of two things, he thought, sitting upright slowly: either Maria had left, or someone else had come in. And both were cause for concern.

He had his answer when the scream hit his ears.

Thor flew from the room and down the stairs with impressive speed for someone of his built, moving as fast as he could to get to Maria's side. Especially as her cries became more broken, more whimpering, accompanied with thuds that echoed bluntly around the house. Every sound dug deeper into Thor's heart, spurring him on.

He was downstairs in a second.

The sight that met him made him freeze in shock. He couldn't see Maria - but he could see the drunken man looming over where she lay on the couch, his fist raining down on something too hard to be cushions. Cushions didn't cry out. Nor did their delicate hands hang over the arm of the couch, shaking violently, tensing sharply with every blow as if her fingers were reaching out for help.

Thor's mouth gasped open in shock as the rage boiled in his chest. Still he couldn't move, as if he could hardly believe what was happening before him was real.

Only when the assailant stepped back and reached for an old piece of piping Thor didn't remember being there when he'd left, did he spring into action.

He leapt forward with a thunderous roar, crushing the man against the wall beside the television, one arm pressed into his throat, while his other hand clamped down over the wrist of the hand that held the piping, squeezing until it fell to the floor with a clatter. Thor glared down at the man with disgust. His dark hair was matted to his forehead with sweat, his spotty face, pale and sickly looking. His mouth was fixed in a grimace.

"Maria..." he growled chokingly under Thor's hold.

The god growled viciously. "How dare you touch her."

The man grinned sickeningly. "She's a bitch. She deserves it."

Instinct pulled Thor's hand back to call for Mjolnir, but the moment the man's wrist was released, he ground his fist into Thor's cheek, hard. Caught off guard, Thor slackened his hold long enough for the man to slip free, grabbing the piping and raising it high in the air.

He didn't make a single step. Thor spun round, hand finding the man's throat again and slamming him down to the floor with a brutal thud. Mjolnir found Thor's spare hand, hovering in an arc high above Thor's captive.

Thor was breathing hard, from nothing other than holding back from killing the intruder outright. In that single moment where Thor had turned, he'd glimpsed Maria on the couch, lying frail and beaten. And he'd caught a flash of blood. His teeth bared, gripping Mjolnir in an iron hold, it took all of Thor's strength to hang on to his self-control. Maria's cracking whimpers tested him though.

"You hurt Maria." he growled, tightening his grip on the man's neck, watching his splutter helplessly, his hands clawing at Thor's. His bloodshot eyes flickered to the hammer; Thor was glad to see fear there when he did. At least this guy still had some humanity left..

He didn't have the breath to choke a response though.

Thor was losing the will to let him just walk out of there. The hammer twitched temptingly in his hand.

"Thor!"

He froze in an instant, glancing back to see Maria. She'd rolled on her side, her hand outstretched and protesting, eyes wide. Well, one eye. The other was sealed shut with the blood that crept down from a cut just above her eyebrow.

That, combined with the feebleness of Maria's voice, made Thor want to grind the intruder into the ground and send him to meet his maker.

"Don't." she croaked, "Please, don't."

Then Thor frowned.

He didn't let up his grip though. "What? This man attacked you. He deserves no mercy."

He glanced back down to the pitiful creature beneath him, and his hand tensed around Mjolnir again, ready to plummet the hammer downwards.

"Thor!" Maria shrieked. Thor wouldn't turn back this time. This man didn't deserve Maria's mercy. Thor gritted his teeth, bracing his arm. "He's my brother!"

The blow swerved at the last minute, the hammer slamming into the floor just inches from the man's head.

The man that was Maria's brother.

Thor glanced back at the damaged creature on the couch, perplexed. It wasn't possible. Surely, it wasn't possible? How could someone like this - Thor flickered his gaze disgustedly back to the being beneath him - be related to someone like Maria?

Yet, somehow he knew it was true. He thought back to the picture in Maria's room of her and her father. Thor imagined taking twenty or so years from that picture, and he'd have a similar man to the one on the floor. He could see the same resemblance he shared with his father: the same sort of hair, just a shade or two darker than Maria's, the same sort of eyes, though his were narrowed, strained and bloodshot…

Thor staggered upright, releasing the brother to squirm on the floor, and he fought for his breath again. It was true: he was her brother.

The god glanced back to Maria, stepped closer protectively as the brother rose shakily to his feet with the aid of the wall. Her gaze glistened with tears, pleading him to understand, through her squinting eye. "Jason..." she shrugged stiffly.

Stiffly, Thor translated in his head, tensely, painfully. Because she was hurt. Because he hurt her. His teeth gritted again of their own accord.

He looked back to Jason, his fists clenching with the effort to hold himself back. He could do that to his own sister? He really was a failed excuse for a man.

"Leave." Thor commanded in a low, powerful voice that radiated danger. His eyes glared with such violence it made Jason flinch. "Because you are Maria's brother, you may keep your life. But you will leave this house and Maria, and you shall never come back." He caught how Jason's eyes narrowed and glared deeper, silently daring him to challenge him. "But if you ever hurt Maria again I will not be so kind." The brother stayed silent. "Leave."

The growl was enough to send him scarpering. Thor stayed stock still, not trusting himself to move again until the front door was safely slammed shut again, futilely shielding Jason from his wrath.

He turned round to Maria.

Her face was buried in her hands, her back heaving as she sobbed.