Loki froze in the doorway.
His emotions seemed to rage around him, clouds of stormy black pulling at him from all sides. All he could see was them. Just them. In that moment, he felt he could raze an entire city to the ground and watch it burn, taking an insane pleasure in it. It has been a long time since he had felt quite that way.
Before he even knew what exactly he was doing, he was at the couch in a flash, ripping that man off of Darcy violently, even with his depleted strength. In the next instant, Loki had him shoved up against the nearest wall, his hand clamped down hard on his throat. The man struggled in desperation, his feet, held inches off the ground, kicking back and forth as his face slowly began to turn red.
The force of impact on the wall had caused several hanging photoframes to fall to the ground, shattered, sending the glass pieces flying. Loki ignored Darcy's initial screams, his eyes focused on his own fingers, pressing into the man's jugular. Oh, he wanted nothing more than to snap his sorry little neck right now. And it would be oh so easy too. Just a little twitch of his hand. His fingers tightened.
"STOP, LOKI, NO!" He heard her screech behind him but he chose to ignore her again. He could deal with her later. Suddenly, he felt something hard shove against his chest. Darcy had run in front of him, between Loki and that man, and her palms were pushing against his chest. Even with his powers gone, she couldn't move him unless he wanted to move. But she still struggled, then attempted to pry Loki's arm off of his neck. The man was still fighting, his face almost completely red.
"STOP IT, STOP IT NOW!" She screamed at him again, tears openly streaming down her face. That stopped him for a moment. His jaw clamped, eyes going from hellfire to very ice in an instant. His fingers loosened as the man dropped to the floor, coughing heavily, his hand rubbing around his neck. Loki's hand remained as a red imprint on his throat. Darcy sank to the floor, still sobbing.
Loki stared down at her, his look sending a chill through the air. She seemed to pull herself together slightly, wiping away her tears with her wrists and then wincing suddenly. Loki's icy glare turned to one of horror as dark blood was smeared across one of her cheekbones. Her own eyes widened as she noticed for the first time, the haphazard cut across her left wrist. Glass pieces had flown when Loki had pushed Jason up against the wall and broken pictures...
She was bleeding, and that too heavily. Just seeing the cut made Darcy feel light-headed. The room was going grey around the edges, fading out of focus. It felt like she was spinning, spinning, spinning, before it all went black...
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Jason finally managed to sputter.
Loki paid him no attention, staring at Darcy lying on the floor. Her eyes were closed, her thick, dark hair panned out all around her head. He focused on her wrist, still bleeding. Loki seemed frozen. He could not move, even if he wanted to. He could not think. He could not function. Just like that, all the rage in his eyes, all that emotion, all the fire and ice were extinguished.
He simply watched, unmoving, as Jason fumbled with her wrist, wrapping it up with the edge of his shirt. He pulled out his cell phone, about to dial 911 for an ambulance, when Loki finally felt himself able to move again.
He knocked the cell phone out of Jason's hand. He couldn't have the good-for-nothing police over here...
"Are you CRAZY?! She's going to DIE!" Jason yelled at him.
"No she won't." Not while I'm here. No she won't. Loki pulled out his own pager-like device SHIELD had given him and hesitated for barely an instant before dialing. The line rang for what seemed like forever before a familar voice picked up.
Loki practically growled into it, "Thor."
Darcy's eyes fluttered open slowly. The black faded out into shapes. A figure.
"Jane..." She whispered hoarsely.
"Shhh. Don't exert yourself." Jane smiled at her, tinged a little with sadness. She reached over, taking Darcy's right hand in both of hers.
Breathing in deeply, Darcy slowled turned her head, looking around. She was in a raised white and blue bed. Her left wrist felt heavy, and she discovered it was bandaged tightly with copious amounts of white gauze. She was hooked up to an IV drip machine, and a monitor beeped behind her, displaying her vitals.
"You're at the SHIELD ward," Jane explained. "We couldn't reall have a normal hospital involved... They would ask too many questions."
"H-How long... Have I been o-out?" Darcy whispered, her brows furrowing into a frown.
Jane shrugged, "Couple days."
"Loki. Jason." Darcy tried to sit up, only to be pushed back down by Jane's gentle yet firm hands.
"Shhh... Your heart rate's rising. Calm down. Jason is fine. SHIELD even wiped his recent memory for security reasons."
"W-what about Loki?" Darcy mumbled, her eyes beginning to drift.
Jane frowned, as if confused for a second. "He's confined to headquarters."
"He's in this building?!" Darcy tried to sit up again, her eyes widening.
"Yes... Darcy, he shouldn't- I mean, he- Do you want to see him?" Jane stuttered, stumbling over her words, something that usually didn't happen all that often.
"No. No, I don't want to see him. I never want to see him again..." Darcy closed her eyes at the end of that sentence, giving herself over to the black once again as she began to doze off.
Loki leaned back against the open door to Darcy's ward. He closed his eyes for a minute, staying completely still, before turning promptly on his heels, and striding away into one of SHIELD's maze-like corridors.