Chapter 14

"Well?" Jane arched a sceptical eyebrow, arms folded across her chest demandingly. Her eyes twinkled. "Spill. What happened to you and Thor?"

Maria smirked at her friend. "Nothing."

She knew Jane would find out sooner or later what had happened but that didn't mean Maria was going to make it easy for her. It was too much fun to miss. Maria busied herself with the babies in the room, all sleeping soundly in their incubators, while Jane hovered by the door, grinning eagerly to hear all the gory details.

"You left the club, right?"

"We left the club." Maria nodded affirmatively, bending over to check the temperature of one of the cases.

Her eyes flickered to the clock. 11:53 pm - not long until her shift finished. Then she and Thor could go home and be free of Jane's interrogation.

Well, Maria would be free. Thor wasn't even here to endure it in the first place! Having seen how much he'd suffered that first day, she'd tried to make it easier for him somehow, so he wasn't stuck spending hours around no one other than pregnant and birthing women. Instead, she'd managed to organise some other work around the hospital for him to keep him busy. Porting work had suited him fine, she recalled with a smile. Young, fit, strong and hansom - what sort of person was better for wheeling patients around the hospital? Plus, no one could deny that Thor was interesting. They'd never be bored. Maria was more glad than ever that she'd sent him off; Jane's questioning would have broken him. She wanted to deal with this privately.

Jane seemed to fill in some gaps herself and skipped to the things she really wanted to know. "So..." she grinned mischievously. "Are you two together, or what?"

Maria hesitated, hand hovering on the glass over a tiny premature baby. "I don't know what we are." She confessed quietly. Sure she didn't like him as just a friend anymore, but officially nothing had changed. There had been no grand declarations or confessions of love, so... what did that leave her with?

"Bull." Jane dismissed instantly, moving clear of the incubators to lean by the door. No escape. "You like him, right?"

Maris blushed profusely. "Yes."

"And he likes you, right?"

"Well... I don't know."

"He kissed you, made you breakfast in bed, and gave you his shirt, right?"

Maria's blush flamed deeper. "Yes."

"Then he likes you!"

A small smile flickered over Maria's face, and she too wondered to the front of the room, free of the rows of lined incubators. "I don't know..." And she didn't. "That's just what he does." she said dreamily, trailing her hand over the paper strewn desktop, "That's just Thor..."

"Maria." Jane whined, slumping her shoulders. Maria glanced up to her friend. "You aren't half stupid sometimes."

Maria sighed a chuckle and lowered her gaze again, filled with such uncertainty. She didn't know what to feel. She didn't know what she dared to feel. Caring was a risk. She'd loved and lost before, and it hurt. By God it hurt! Did she really want to risk that again? With someone like Thor? Someone who wasn't really hers to lose in the first place...

"You go." she finally said, moving back amongst the infants as one stirred and let out a cry. She angled a less than convincing smile at her friend. "I'll just get Aaron to sleep."

XXX

Thor was grinning as midnight struck and he waltzed back up the maternity unit in search of Maria. He'd had a most invigorating day. Well - night. When Maria had told him she was to be working the night shift, he hadn't been happy, but she'd cheered him up when she'd revealed it was the last shift she would have to do for her training.

After this night, Thor would have Maria all to himself.

He walked through the familiar corridors, glancing through the windows to see if Maria was inside one of the rooms as he passed, more than eager to see her again. His fists clenched and unclenched, growing more and more anxious the longer he went without seeing Maria's face. By the time he'd reached the last room, he was getting quite desperate. He breathed a sigh of relief when he caught Maria's form sat daintily inside.

The smile the blossomed on his face was colossal, but his hand paused as it reached for the door handle. Something stopped him. Something made him look.

His eyes were glued to Maria as he watched her though the glass: she was sat at the front of a room in a chair, a small baby cradled softly in her arms and she rocked it delicately from side to side. Thor's heart damn near stopped in his chest at the sight. She looks so perfect, he thought. Her face held a sense of softness, so blissful it made Thor fall for her all over again, longing for her to lift her eyes and fix that expression on him - for him! He ached for her to feel that from him. The breath hitched in his throat, and he couldn't help but glimpse, guessing about the future. Before, Maria had been his bride. Now he took it a step further; he saw her as she was, baby in arms, only it wasn't just any baby anymore. He dreamed of his child in her arms, his own bright blue eyes staring up from the tiny creature Maria might one day bless him with. What if, he thought, heart hammering so hard in his chest it hurt. His wife, and his child, forever...

Then Maria's voice ghosted to him through the door, and he breathed a sigh of blissful content he hadn't realised he'd been holding. Her words, her voice, easing his heart as she sang softly to the near asleep infant:

"What day is it
And in what month?
This clock never seemed so alive
I can't keep up, and I can't back down
I've been losing so much time."

A flicker of a smile crossed Maria's lips, and Thor's heart leapt.

"'Cause it's you and me
And all of the people with nothing to do
Nothing to lose
And it's you and me
And all the other people
And I don't know why
I can't keep my eyes off of you..."

The last line rang painfully true for him as he watched the wondrous woman glance down at the sleeping child she held, and eased herself up, gently replacing the baby back in its crib: Thor couldn't take his eyes off her. Not for a second. She was like a Goddess, perfect in every way as her eyes finally lifted and caught his gaze through the glass. The smile she shot him melted his heart in his chest.

Finally, his will shattered and he wrenched the door open to join her, inwardly growling in satisfaction as Maria half trotted towards him to close the gap sooner.

"Hi." she beamed breathlessly, brushing her hair back from her cheek.

Thor covered her hand with his and held it firmly to her cheek, his other snaking around her waist to draw her in. A flustered look flashed through Maria's smile briefly, but she recovered fast, quickly adjusting to Thor's alluring impatience. Her eyes fluttered up at him through her thick eyelashes as he leaned down, hand gently angling her head to the side.

He could feel her breath tantalizingly on his lips, just millimetres away from hers as he braced himself to close the gap, to seal her as his there and then -

"Maria Sorin."

The interrupting voice at the door, tore a snarl from Thor's throat as he reluctantly peeled away from Maria and angled his body between her and the intruder. He could see instantly that he'd been right to.

Whereas at first his reaction had been nothing more than his emotions going wild at being denied the intimate moment with Maria that he'd planned, his instincts soon sharpened to something else. The man - tall, dark-skinned, an eye patch over one eye and a cold look in the one it did not cover - stood in the doorway in dark ominous leather, was most definitely not here for innocent means.

His thoughts were confirmed when Maria gasped sharply, and moved further behind the god's protecting body.

Thor's fists clenched. "Who are you?" he growled, clinging to his self control, trying to remember where he was. Maria's tentative hand clinging to the back of his shirt tested him though, "And what do you want?"

The man didn't flinch. "I'm Director Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D." he said calmly, wisely keeping his distance. "I need to talk to Maria Sorin about her father's research."

"You have it." Maria said bitterly from behind Thor before he could respond. "You stole it already. Murderers."

So these were the people, Thor thought angrily in his head. These were the people Maria had mistaken him for when they'd first met. These were the people that had taken her father from her, the reason his body now lay in the cemetery was them. Thor's jaw gritted even more: these were the people that had robbed a little girl of that wondrous smile in the photographs...

"Leave now." he warned in a dark and dangerous voice, dripping with violent intent. "Stay away from us."

Thor wasn't to know about the way Maria's heart abruptly thudded in her chest at his words. Us... not her, us. He was with her. Her hand relaxed slightly at his shirt, leaning into his skin comfortingly.

Fury wasn't backing down though. "That's not a possibility." he said bluntly. "We have your brother, Loki, in captivity and need Miss Sorin to come with us immediately."

Thor tried to resist the urge to call Mjolnir to him. Ripping a hammer through the hospital at the dead of night would not be a good idea. His hand twitched with his weapons' absence though. He satisfied it by reaching behind and flattening it down Maria's back protectively, reminding him of his purpose. "Leave." he repeated. "I will not ask again."

Thor couldn't deny he was impressed with the director - not so much as a blink! He shifted his stance so he was side on to the pair and jerked his head out to the corridor. "Let's take this outside."

As much as he resented it, Thor had to agree. A confrontation - fight or no fight - should not be fulfilled in a room of infants. Arm still firmly at Maria's side, glad to still feel her hand clenching his shirt at his waist, he slowly followed the director through the hospital, leaving the maternal ward and down into the Accident and Emergency floor. The doors were in sight, where there would be air, open space and fewer witnesses to involve in whatever would follow against the stranger. Thor's body raged in preparation. He'd defend Maria to the death if he had to, though he was sure it wouldn't come to that. Not his death at least...

The exit was halfway across the room, nearing quickly. Thor's eyes were fixed on it intently as they strode purposely across the floor.

They stopped in their tracks though, as a familiar figure stepped through the door, all eyes widening in a combination of surprise, shock and disbelief.

Jason raised the gun from the doorway and fired.

Thor didn't have time to think. The director rolled clear to the side while Thor threw himself ahead of Maria, shielding her body with his as the shots rang out one after the other. Screams echoed thunderously around the department, but Thor could still hear his breath hitch in his throat as he tried to gather his scattered thoughts. He paused a second too long: Jason's wild shots suddenly honed in on the couple, Maria's sharp cry of pain quickly following the blasts.

That kicked Thor back into focus.

Instincts kicked in as he pulled himself - and Maria - to the floor, feeling his rage slowly burn through his veins furiously. Maria had been hit. That was the only thought that flowed through his head as he threw his body up against the assault, the shots now wild and uncontrolled with panic, most of the bullets flying harmlessly into the walls.

But not all. Thor didn't stop running as the bullets bit into his arm and shoulder, hand calling for Mjolnir despite his earlier reservations. The hammer crashed through the wall and found its master effortlessly.

Thor let go of his control as he slammed the hammer forward, armour still melting over his body. Mjolnir collided with Jason's outstretched hand, spinning the firearm from his grasp and crushing the mortals hand instantly. The brute didn't even have time to cry out as Thor turned in a spin and slammed his spare arm across Jason's head with a force that smashed him halfway across the hospital floor. He smacked into the ground with a sickening crack that echoed over the lingering screams, where his body stilled.

Not dead, Thor thought, blood boiling as he gasped. Not from exertion thought - from holding back. He'd be breaking his word after all: he wouldn't kill Jason.

Not yet.

He was too preoccupied, casting Mjolnir aside as he turned and threw himself down at Maria's trembling side. The red of her blood had him whimpering helplessly. "Oh Gods..."