Well, my computer fizzled for good and took a lot of my writings with it. Which made me very sad and I had to go away for a while and I was stuck in a proper mourning period. I had written a great deal of this chapter and then it *poof* disappeared. So I'm working from memory and I hope this is as good as what I had because I was quite happy with what I had.

Anyway, thank you all for sticking with me this whole time. There will be one more chapter after this and I am playing around with a short epilogue in my head.

Chapter 20

Typical

"Do you ever wonder bout the stars?"

"About the stars, Elizabeth. Do you ever wonder about the stars."

Elizabeth Crane, not a day over five years old, touched her finger to her bottom lip, her dark eyes trained on the sky. It was a rare night for the Crane sisters. Their workaholic parents had decided that the family would take a vacation. Only two days were allowed for such a break, but Elizabeth and Catherine made the most of their limited time by the sea.

For five year old Elizabeth and thirteen year old Catherine, the trip was an unprecedented event. Neither had ever been outside of the city before. Catherine was quite taken with the feeling of damp sand in between her toes. Elizabeth had been watching the stars in the sky, never able to look away.

"Catherine!" She whined, tugging on her sisters dress. "Answer me, answer me!"

The elder girl sighed, running a hand through her mess of sparrow gold hair. For a young teenager, Catherine exuded a surprising stature of grace and seemed to possess knowledge far beyond her years.

"They're just stars Elizabeth. Too far away to bother with…"

Elizabeth pouted, as she always did when she was rejected.

"They are not to far away!" She said in a huff. "And they're beautiful."

Catherine glanced upwards to appease her baby sister. "They sparkle. So what?"

With that Catherine shuffled through the sand, back towards the house that the Crane family had rented out.

Elizabeth didn't watch her sister go. Even though her neck was beginning to hurt, she kept up her staring contest with the navy sky.

"I wish I could go live in the stars." She mumbled, her speech mussed up by her finger.

It was the first wish she had ever dared to make. As wishing, she had been told, was a foolish waste of good words. Elizabeth shut her eyes tightly and muttered the words again.

Hoping against every hope that just this once…she wasn't acting a fool.

These days there seemed to be a record for everything. The longest nails, the most people to flash mob, the shortest marriage…

Ellie wondered is she was setting one of her own records.

The longest time hesitating at someone's doorstep.

How long had been standing there anyway?

She stood at her sister's doorstep. Her finger hovering before the buzzer that would ring her sister.

When Catherine was Ellie's age, she had already acquired enough success and money to afford her very own park side apartment. After much fretting and searching, Catherine had picked a very stylish, story book New York City townhouse, just off the edge of the Park. Catherine's home was situated on the third floor, had three bedrooms, a sliver of a kitchen, four bright and tall windows with blooming flowers, and a long entry hall. The floor was covered in aging wood and black and white tiling. Catherine had decorated the place in all of her favorite conservative chic and nestled into the space almost immediately.

When Ellie had been college bound and at the worst of odds with her parents, She occupied one of the bedrooms, the other two reserved for Catherine and her office. Ellie was rather fond of the apartment and felt rather grown up whenever Catherine was away on business and Ellie had the place to herself.

Now, however, the thought of the apartment and her room, haunted her like a ghost.

I can't even remember how long I have been gone. When was the last time I spoke to Catherine? When was the last time I ignored her call? God, she probably gave up on me. She probably wants nothing to do with me.

As Ellie fluttered from one terrible thought to the next, she rocked on her feet. And, without realizing it, pressed her finger into the button. The noise that jumped into her ear drums nearly caused her death by shock. She jumped out of her skin and had to scramble to compose herself.

Oh no! I didn't…what do I say? Hey sis? How's life. I'm just you know. Shit, dammit all, Fu-

A springy, yet altogether quiet voice fizzled over the intercom: "I'll be straight down!"

This, along with all her panicking, caught Ellie off guard. Catherine wasn't the type to skip down the stairs and greet some unknown, unexpected guest. She recognized her sisters voice in an instant, but the airy quality of it was not bathed in her usual high strung, business mannered way.

She glanced at her own reflection in the windows that centered the door. Her image was a bit marred by the frosty glass, but it served it purpose. She fiddled with her hair, making sure that it looked presentable, pressed the fold of her collar down and straightened her posture.

As nerves began to bubble more furiously in her stomach, she tangled her fingers in the folds of Loki's scarf. Looking around and peering into the window to make sure her sister was still far enough away, Ellie brought the soft fabric up to her face.

Just as she had hoped, the scarf was bathed in Loki's cool scent. Her eyes flittered shut as she lost herself to her sense of smell. There was something oddly forgien about Loki's scent, of course now she understood why this was. It was fresh and icy, like spearmint. But them it was like nothing else.

Her ears picked up the sound of heels smacking against tile and she hurriedly fixed up her scarf. Still, she clutched like a child would a treasured blanket.

The door was pulled open and a fresh-faced young woman peeked her head around the towering white door.

Catherine looked both changed and exactly the same. It made Ellie uneasy.

While both of the Crane sisters had inherited their mother's sweet heart face and thin nose, it was Catherine who lay claim to the wide blue eyes and sparrow gold hair. Now, however, the hair Ellie had always known to be long and somewhat stringy was cut to just above her shoulders and was combed more neatly.

As per usual, she wore a slim fitting, tailored suit. From the time Ellie had been young, Catherine had actively opposed wearing bright or dark colors. Her palette was painfully dull, limited to tans, browns, beiges, understated yellows, pale pinks, greys, whites, and peaches. This suit was no different. Just a shade or two darker than her skin, it hugged her curveless body, but the flowery blouse and mary-janes she wore counteracted any attempts at masculinity. A long rust colored trench coat was hung over her arm and a pair of tan sunglasses sat a top her head.

Catherine had always been a bit of a waif and she did everything she could to seem as mature as her mind.

When Catherine saw just who her mystery caller was, her mask of politeness fell away. A wide grin donned on her face and her blue eyes sparkled uncharacteristically.

"Elizabeth," she breathed. She wrapped her stick-thin arms around Elizabeth's shoulders, burrowing her head in Ellie's shoulder.

Ellie stood stock still, even more confused by her sisters unlikely embrace.

"I have missed you." Catherine whispered. Ellie, spurred by her sisters words, tenderly wrapped her arms around her sister. Words once again eluded her and she stood by her sister.

Catherine soon retreated, wrapping her arms around her own thin frame. "It's a bit chilly. More so than I thought…"

Ellie still stared at her sister, thrown completely off guard by her strange behavior. Catherine, never one to recognize any sort of awkwardness (what she always referred to as weakness) walked down the stairs, around Ellie.

"I was about to pop out to the store and pick up a perscription. Do you mind?"

Was that all? Ellie had been absent for her sisters life for months, possibly over a year, and that was it?

Ellie nodded and lumbered down the stairs to catch her sister, who was already well on her way.

They walked down the street in a cozy silence. It was their way. As children they had been taught to use their words wisely and never blabber on. It was a lesson Ellie had a great deal of difficulty learning and one that Catherine aced right away.

Ellie bit her lip to stop the motorcade of questions that threatened to spill out of her. They had walked an entire block and turned a corner before Catherine deemed conversation appropriate.

"There is something I have to tell you." She trailed off, her voice as tender and quiet as always. If a roaring winter wind were to fly between them her words would've never reached Ellie.

Ellie just nodded, afraid that if she started to speak, she would not be able to stop.

She wanted to tell Catherine about Loki. She had wrestled with the thought on her walk over to the apartment. It wasn't that she wanted to tell Catherine specifically, but she felt the need to speak to someone, anyone about this man well, god. Could she even call him a man?

Catherine led the way to a tiny drug store just another block down. It was a quiet narrow street, one of the very few in New York that was empty more than it was crowded.

Ellie was just discovering how different the city seemed to her. It wasn't as if she was returning home. She had been brought here by Loki. He had only bee in her life for so long, and he was already turning her world inside-out and upside-down.

As Catherine conversed with the staff, Ellie watched her older sister. She was a very pretty girl. Ellie always thought she was the prettier sister. Fair skinned and freckle free Catherine had the look of a dove, light and filled to the brim with grace.

Still, Ellie knew better than anyone that a lion lived and breathed inside of Catherine. She could frightfully cold and biting. It were those characteristics that brought her success and respect in a field made up of mostly misogynistic men in designer suits. It was Catherine's no nonsense way that made her the boss of these men and had them following her around like lost little puppies, looking for approval instead of at a romp in the sheets.

It was the one thing about her sister that Ellie tried to imitate. Catherine was a woman of great power, and that was a rare thing, even today.

"How are you, Elizabeth?" Catherine asked as they left the store.

Ellie's hands went straight to the scarf, tugging and teasing it, relaying her discomfort.

"I'm…well." She finished lamely.

"As am I." Catherine said, never one to ask questions of other people. "Very well."

The silence flooded back and Ellie felt as though it were choking her. If only she could have stayed in bed all day long, pressed up against Loki listening to him spin tales and lies. Yes, of course she knew he was lying at times. But she didn't care.

They arrived back at the apartment in no time and Catherine sprung up the stairs a sudden spring in her step.

"Oh, Elizabeth, I'm so glad…I mean, I've wanted to call you and tell you but, Mother and Father said…"

Ellie could not suppress her glare. A grown woman, much more so than herself, and she still listened to mummy and daddies every last whim.

Catherine's moth shut on the sentence, knowing very well that Ellie would want to hear nothing about heir parents.

"Oh, just come up," Catherine said, opening the door and ushering Ellie in. The sisters climbed up the staircase, until they came to the third floor. Across from them stood a narrow red door with the name Crane painted in delicate, black letters.

Catherine raised one small fist to the door and rapped it three times.

Why is knocking at her own door?

Ellie's stomach sank, assuming that her parents must be there. Catherine did not have friends and it was a Sunday. Catherine would always find time to work of Saturday's, but Sunday's were entirely out of the question.

Ellie felt the urge to run. Run far away. She didn't want to even look upon her mother and father, let alone give them the chance to look back. She could just feel their stares of disapproval sawing her to bits.

"Elizabeth." Catherine said. "This is Simon. My fiancé."

It was all coming together. Quite seamlessly even.

Loki stalked about the park and sneer forming on his face. All of the pieces were poised to be sewn together. All he needed was the string.

He was glad that Ellie didn't patter around him, whining about being stuck inside. He had been hesitant to let her roam about, but it wasn't as though she was stranger to these parts.

These parts…

Ellie's words from the morning had been stewing about in his head. The more he thought on them, the more he could see it around him.

This city was of the desolate.

It stirred his heart, thinking of Ellie walked around these streets by herself. To imagine men, mortal men, preying on her brought a new rage to him.

This world is rotten. He thought. There are demons here that outclass the Frost Giants.

Yes, the Frost Giants were strong and horrific creatures. But the lacked any form of strategy or class. They had raw power and that served them well for some time. Still, they lacked cleverness, they lacked intelligence, they lacked the skill necessary to hone their own magic. They were pathetic. And no longer worth his time.

To dwell on his past was no longer an option. Loki had once thought, as he fell from the bridge and from Asgard, that his future had been ripped from him. As a lowly animalistic creature he had assumed his life as worthless as dust.

Until, Ellie had shown him a chance at a future. Without her, he would be gone. And he would repay her for what she had done for him.

I shall take this rotting world and create one of glory. One worthy of the few like her.

Yes, once everything was in place…

Midgard will be mine.

"Elizabeth. Catherine talks about you..all the time."

My fiancé? Ellie thought, the words ringing in her head. Catherine's fiancé?

The words would not string together properly in Ellie's head. They just didn't mesh. It was like slamming to Barbie doll together. As hard as young girls will try, those dolls will never connect in a satisfactory way.

"Elizabeth?" Catherine called, "You can come in."

Simon. Simon Hicox, Catherine had said.

He was English, Ellie's mind was able to note. He was only a hair taller than Catherine. His long face topped by a mop of blonde curls. A pair of thin rimmed glasses rested on the bridge of his nose. He wore a maroon sweater, over a collared shirt and dark trousers.

All in all, he was a handsome man. Nothing about him seemed special, but any lady passing him on the street would note that he was good looking. But that was just it. They would note it and move on.

Ellie stumbled into the apartment, staring at Simon as if he had dropped out of the moon and landed into her life with a *poof*.

She realized his hand was floating to her.

He wants to shake, Ellie. You idiot shake.

Ellie plunged her hand out and met Simon's courtesy with a vice grip.

"Hi." she said, too loudly.

Simon seemed taken aback, but managed a sweet smile.

"Hello."

Catherine was watching the exchange with eager eyes.

"I'm getting married!" She said, in a girlish squeal.

Ellie turned her attention to her sister, all but pushing Simon's hand away.

This is odd, bizarre. What…am I dreaming? Is this a joke? But Catherine doesn't joke. She hates jokes. And weddings. And relationships that are not strictly business.

Catherine seemed keen to spill her heart out right there in the entry hall.

"Would you like some tea? Simon makes the best cup of tea. Simon? Tea?"

Simon just nodded and slipped down the hall into the kitchen.

"We met two months ago."

Two months? Ellie's mind couldn't manage all this information It was all so wrong, terribly wrong. Not right.

Catherine was a planner. She booked all her flights months in advance. She had file of pictures of her laptop, hundreds of them, each with a different outfit assembled. She planned out what she would wear every day for a month in advance.

"He is everything I could ever want in a man?"

Want? Whose to say you ever wanted anything in a man! Ellie's mind spat.

Catherine was wringing her hands together now, talking with more energy Ellie had ever seen her admit at one time.

"Oh Elizabeth, darling, say something. Aren't you happy for me?"

Ellie looked into her sisters eyes. The icy pools of blue Ellie always remembered and cherished weren't the same anymore. They were bright and pretty, not cold and commanding.

Ellie had admired her sister and her convictions since before she could remember. She wanted to be as poised and as hard as Catherine, but she could never measure up. So it was that Catherine had received the brunt of their parents admiration and praise. And now…this?

Ellie raised her head and walked out of the apartment.

She just had to get away. Her stomach was spinning and her mind reeling and she had to get away.

"Elizabeth?" she heard Catherine call. Ellie managed to stomp down one flight of stairs before catching Catherine's eye above her at the balcony.

"You're getting married!" She choked. "You? Catherine Crane!"

Catherine just shrugged her shoulders.

Ellie's hand flew in the air. She was flabbergasted, frustrated, disgusted. Ellie never wanted to get married. Marriage was some beast of tradition, some flighty fantasy. And here was Catherine submitting to the notion. The notion!

"Elizabeth, I don't understand."

And there it was. The stab to the chest. The straw that broke. Catherine always understood. Even if she didn't she feigned understanding for Ellie.

Ellie glared up at her sister, a weird sense of hurt and betrayal brewing in her chest.

"It's like I don't know you anymore." Ellie spat.

With that she stormed down the stairs as a bevy of emotions attacking her ability to think properly. Why was she so upset? Because the one constant in her life had given her the preverbal middle finger? Because her sister was so changed?

I don't know…what's wrong with me! Why did I snap? Why do I care? Why?

The body of Eric Selvig was growing weaker. Loki could not use the aging vessel as a sturdy cover for very much longer. He didn't need for much longer.

He walked through SHEILD's offices his intentions well in his mind. The soldier needed to be disposed of. Once he had his target's location in hand, her could leave the bumbling Eric Selvig behind.

With a twitch of his wrist Loki magicked a SHEILD monkey away from it's desk. A stakc of papers, the ones he had been searching for lay at his fingertips. Dragging his palm over the stacks, he spread each one out before him, analyzing them.

In no time he found the page. A picture, a medical record, everything and more. With pressed his palm into the paper and it disappeared. Now it was tucked safely away in her breast pocket.

He turned the body of Selvig to leave, when another picture caught his eyes.

Loki felt his cold blood turned even colder. He bared down on the desk, his eyes drilling into the piece of paper in front of him.

Spelled out clearly, no mistaking…

Elizabeth Crane.

Clearance: n/a

Status: Suspicious person.

To be monitored until further notice.

I apologize for the shortness of this chapter. Please review and thank you so very much for reading!