Author's Note: If we're reading this as if it were a movie, which it should be because we're talking about FanFiction, then I'd like us to imagine Bill Skarsgård as Jo. Feels right. Let's carry on with the story.

Never Again

Jane tilted her head to the side as she furrowed her eyebrows.

"I- um..." she struggled to find words for skinny Thor.

"You're confused," Jo answered back uninvited. He wore a smirk that made her think he was enjoying this acquaintance.

"Halfway- What kind of doctor are you?"

"The best kind!"

Jane blinks at him.

"You're unamused. I'm a shrink." Jo chuckles nervously.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"That second bit wasn't a joke."

"What, what were you doing out there? Doing donuts?"

"I could ask you the same thing, you walked straight into my car. This could've turned out way worse."

"I can't imagine how."

"Sarcasm's your thing."

"You think?"

"Yikes."

"I'm sorry."

"No need, I understand."

"Do you really?"

"About getting hit with a car? No. About how confusing a near death experience feels like? Most definitely."

Jane furrows her eyebrows.

Jo taps the mug in his hands with his finger and smiles cheerfully. "Drink?"

Jane shakes her head and attempts to stand.

"I have to see a doctor- why aren't I at the hospital?"

Jo sets the drink aside and rushes to help her stand. Jane declines with a raised hand.

"I was about to call them actually," Jo chuckles nervously. "Why don't you wait here until arrive?"

"I'd rather go by myself."

Jane marches forward awkwardly, her right leg shaking as she leans forward.

"My car is right outside," Jo stammers as he shows her his keys.

Jane reaches the door and turns to force a smile at him.

"Doctor Jóhann, thank you for helping me," Jane winces at the pain throbbing in her head.

"Doctor Foster, please-" Jo steps forward to assist in any way he can.

Jane shakes her head.

"I'm fine, really. I hope your car is fine."

"Forget the car-" Jo laughs nervously.

"Don't interrupt me." Jane snaps in a controlled but respectful tone. "For a shrink you're not great at reading me right now."

"My apologies." Jo's voice softens.

"I was trying to say," Jane's chest begins to heave painfully, "that I would like for us to brush this aside, as if it never happened."

"But it did. You walked right into my car."

"No, I didn't!" Jane snaps.

"Ok. You didn't."

Jo pulls out a wallet from his back pocket.

"I don't need money."

"Here."

Jo hands her a business card.

"I don't need a shrink."

"It's not for a consult. Keep it in case you need to see me again, for insurance purposes."

"Right, insurance."

Jane slips it into her back pocket without looking at it. "Sure."

"Good-bye Jane."

Jane takes a final moment to look at Jo before exiting his apartment. Jo, now alone, pulls a flask out of his back pocket and downs it in one gulp.

"I've searched for you. You were right here."

He wipes his mouth before tossing the flask aside.

"Right here."

The vinyl tiles of the hospital floor mesmerized Jane. They were arranged in a checkered grey and white pattern but it was the intensity of the grey that drew her brown eyes. Her gaze was fixed, almost by force.

Strangely, she felt comfortable imagining Thor standing with her in the hospital room. Jane lifted her eyes away from the tile floor to Thor's bare feet. Then to his ankles, also bare. Up to his knees, his thighs and then…

"What are you doing in that?" Jane smirked, eyes half-drooped.

Thor smiled as he stepped forward, nearly naked. A blue hospital gown was wrapped around him.

"The only thing you'd let me wear." Thor smile stretched from ear to ear.

Jane wanted to graze her fingers across the stubble on his face, to see if he was real.

"I'm a woman of class, mind you."

"It will suffice." Thor stepped forward, cheesing.

Jane lifted her hand. She felt the magnetic pull towards his chest.

"I wish you were real."

Thor was inches from her face now. He leaned forward, she lifted her head up. All she had to do now was press her lips forward.

"We can be real together, tonight," he whispered.

"Tonight?" She whispered back, barely audible.

"You have my word."

"Your word." Jane's eyes closed as she bit her lower lip.

"-is pretty reliable," a strange voice answered.

Jane's eyes snapped open. A man in a white doctor's coat was standing on the other side of the room. Thor had disappeared.

"I'm sorry, I dozed for a bit, what kind of medication did you put me on?" Jane half-stammered, half chuckled.

The doctor shook his head. "None."

"Are you sure? I'm a bit light-headed." More chuckling.

"Well that's strange because that's what I wanted to talk to you about," the doctor leaned against the sink. "You're fine."

"Sorry?"

"No need to be, I said you're fine. One hundo. Cleared for duty."

"But the accident-"

"Your results came out fine. Nothing broken or fractured, no hemorrhaging, nada."

"That's impossible."

"It seems like it, yeah. You sure you a car hit you?"

"Dead on."

"It wasn't a dream."

"The car's hood felt pretty real."

"Uh-huh. Okay, well as a licensed medical practitioner I've got nothing for you Doctor Foster."

"Stan, I told you to call me Jane."

"Can't do. Professional courtesy."

Jane rolls her eyes. "OKAY."

"If it makes you feel better you can reach out to me on my personal cell in case something else comes up."

"I'll let you know, thanks Stan." Jane furrowed her eyebrows, equally confused and irritated. She made her way towards the door.

"Oh and Donnie's in town."

Jane stopped short of exiting the room.

"Doctor Blake?"

Stan the Doctor scribbled something on his clipboard and answered without looking at her. "Yep."

"He's in town?"

"Yep again."

"Oh. Thanks." Jane finally exits without another word.

Stan looks up from the clipboard and smiles.

"Thor," a woman whispers, "finally."

"Did you doubt me?"

"Never."

Jane's thin fingers part a sheer curtain leading into Thor's chambers. She stops short of entering as she sees Thor lying on his bed with Lady Sif. They are both lying comfortably beneath silk-like sheets. Thor, one arm resting behind his head and the other caressing Sif's dark brown hair, is smiling at the woman next to him. Lady Sif is beaming, happily content. All is right and just in their world.

Jane lets the curtain fall again and hides behind its translucent fabric. She sees their bodies as vague shapes, without detail but just as sharp. She can make out movement and speed. Jane retreats into the darkness behind her. The life behind her eyes vanishes as the two bodies become one.

Never again, Jane lets the words slip from her lips.

She becomes darkness.

Jane opens her eyes, softly and without hurry. The night sky welcomes her with brilliant moonlight. She sits up in her bed and slides the sheets off of her as she moves towards her vanity. Tucked in the top corner is a business card. Jane removes it and scrambles to find her phone.

"Never again," she muttered once more.

Jane dials the number and puts the call on speaker.

"Never, never, never…"

A tear rolls down her cheek.

"Um… hello?" A groggy voice answers on the other line.

"Jo."

"Jane."

"Is it too late?"

"No, I was actually going to get up for work in a bit," he lied.

"No, for a consult." Jane's hands began to tremble.

"Oh… Never."

Jane kept her gaze on her empty bed. The rolls in the fabric hid a truth she was not ready for. The sweat on her pillow reminded her of her ignorance. For a reason she understood perfectly well, Jane was afraid of touching those sheets again.