Author's Note: This fast pace might not continue for long, just so you know. I've just been procrastinating lately, and I tend to get writer-ish when I'm procrastinating on actual work. Anyway, thanks for all the lovely reviews, any constructive criticism or praise is always taken with open arms.
CHAPTER THREE
"He's coming to." The male voice again.
Loki opened his eyes blearily, half expecting another wave of agony to hit him.
Nothing.
He sighed his relief, but frowned nonetheless. Something was off…
"How are you feeling?" Loki glanced at the speaker: the familiar woman. He realized now that she was the one Thor had been seeing. The one who turned him soft, a cold voice in the back of his mind added. She didn't seem much of a softening influence now, though. Her arms were crossed and her expression was severe, right down to her emotionless brown eyes. The question sounded more like a demand, an inquiry, not a voice of concern.
Loki swallowed briefly before speaking. Dry throat. How long have I been asleep? "Conscious," he said stiffly, keeping his eyes squarely on the woman's face.
Pretty. Obviously smart. He could see the appeal…somewhat.
"Capable of answering questions?" she said sharply, interrupting his trail of thought.
Loki licked his chapped lips, considering. "That depends. There are some questions that I would like to ask myself." The corners of his mouth quirked up in a half-smile. "And is your first question, 'who are you?' Because I've grown rather tired of that one."
"We know who you are," the woman said irritably. She met his stare evenly, a victim refusing to stand down from the predator. She relented after a moment. "You may ask us questions. Whether we will answer them—" She shared a private glance with the man in the room. "That is another matter," she finished.
Loki raised an eyebrow, pretending to consider. It's not as if I have a choice. "We have a deal," he said. "Now…" He sat up cautiously, testing the waters of the newfound pain relief. To his surprise, he found himself able to sit up slightly, and did so, before he turned back to the woman. "My first question is: what did you do to make the pain stop?"
The woman turned to give a questioning look to the man in the room. They seemed to be carrying on a conversation of some sort with passing glances. The man nodded. The woman seemed to decide that this was a safe question.
"Morphine. It's an Earth painkiller. We gave you a strong dose to stop the convulsions."
"The mystic dolphins talking to you yet?"
Loki's eyes darted across the room. The other woman, the one who had called for help, he realized with a pang. She was younger, small, with full lips and large blue eyes. She wore something over her eyes—glasses, they were called. Pretty, he decided. Also probably smarter than one would expect; she had a look of mischief in her eyes that seemed to suggest that she was planning something, or coming up with ways to be belligerent.
The girl apparently interpreted his searching look as confusion, or perhaps disdain. She blushed and mumbled something that sounded like 'sorry.'
The woman cleared her throat and, after a lingering second, Loki returned his gaze to her. She seemed mildly annoyed by the young woman's bizarre interruption.
"My turn," she said flatly, staring him down once again, her eyes searching for the first hint of a lie. "How did you get injured so badly?"
"I fell."
The woman gave him a skeptical look.
"You fell?"
They weren't going to let him control this conversation by omission. Damn.
"From Asgard. The…" His voice cracked. "The Bifrost shattered. Thor broke it."
His words hung in the air for a moment. He noticed the whole trio, not just the elder two, exchanging looks.
"What?" the woman said finally, her voice a far cry from the cold tone she had used only a moment ago. She sounded shaky, as if on the verge of tears.
Loki sighed heavily, his eyes darkening. "Thor broke the Bifrost in order to protect the jotun world from an attack." He paused. "My attack. I thought that my people desired war and victory above all else but…apparently when it comes to Thor, they have room in their hearts for diplomacy."
The woman stared at him uncomprehendingly, her eyes shining. "He broke it?" Her voice came out a mere whisper.
"I warned him that he could not return once the bridge was destroyed. But he made his choice. I fell as the bridge collapsed."
Loki glanced at the three of them. He noticed the girl opening her mouth to say something, but the woman interrupted.
"You lie," she said faintly. Her whisper turned into a broken sob. "You lie!"
"I do not," he said in a flat voice. "What motivation could I have to lie about this?"
The woman was inconsolable. She continued sobbing breathlessly as she dove towards Loki furiously. He shrank away from her instinctively, protecting his injuries. "Liar!" she screamed, pounding her fists against his chest. "Liar, liar, liar, liar, liar…"
"Jane!" The man intervened, grabbing the woman by the shoulders to pull her away from Loki. Her refrain of accusations dissolved into incomprehensible wailing. "Come on, Jane," the man persisted, "let's get some fresh air." He steered the woman into his shoulder as she began to verge on hysteria. Her arms draped around his neck for support as she continued crying desperately.
The man gave the girl a mildly frantic look as he slowly backed out of the room.
"Darcy," the man said calmly, "keep an eye on him." And he closed the door.
Loki closed his eyes as the last sounds of the woman's tears faded away behind another closing door. After a brief silence, he turned to the girl and opened his eyes.
"You were going to ask me a question earlier?"
The girl nodded, her eyes fixing on his face as Jane's did. There was something decidedly different about her gaze, however. Jane had seemed accusing, suspicious. She knew who he was.
The girl did not. But she seemed quite intent on finding out, the way she was studying his facial expressions.
"You said you fell from the bridge," she started hesitantly, a far cry from her earlier, jesting tone. "Why…why didn't Thor go after you?"
He was taken aback that the girl had come to understand Thor's impulsive nature so quickly. He fought back a lump in his throat before speaking, his eyes fixing on a point across the room. He couldn't look at the girl. She seemed to be looking right through him. She was entirely too perceptive.
"I chose to fall."
He felt the silence grow heavy in the air. He turned back to look at Darcy, only to find her still staring directly at him, her blue eyes understanding but sad.