Alright guys, first off, SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY! I am stuck on a military base, and for any of you who have been on a base before you probably know that the civilian use wifi SUCKS! I have not been able to get online for longer than twenty minutes at a time for the better part of a month. As such, I have been trying to write and post this is spurts. I finally have a stable connection and will hopefully be able to keep it going long enough to get some more regularly scheduled updates out to you. I have tried to make up for the weight with a juicy chapter, but as always I rely on your feedback to let me know. Please, leave me a review so I know what you thought ok? Anyway, big thanks to those that reviewed and favorited:

NoVacancyMind
Lokitober
hmc31400
TorchwoodDoctorWhoFan
brinkofboredom

You guys rock and are what made me go through the relative hell it has been to get this posted lol. Anyway, sorry again for the delay and on with the story!.

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Developments and Destinations

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Riley couldn't sleep. It was their third day on the road and so far all they'd found out was the many ways to irritate each other while trapped in a car all day. The urgent energy that had been pushing her through the last few days was beginning to dissipate bringing on a quiet sense of resignation behind it. It was like her heart had already come to terms with their failure. They had found no sign of the portal, no new way to defeat their enemy and the world was only getting worse.

It was too quiet in her room. Loki had elected to sleep away from her, saying that it would be less disruptive to her training if he kept a discreet distance. She didn't want to say that it was his absence that was causing her troubled sleep, she was still too unsure of her feelings for him, but the warmth around her and the lack of the buzz of his energy near her made her feel too still. Her mind couldn't quiet itself, spinning over all that had happened since James died and leading her down all the dark roads that seemed to be the inevitable future.

She sighed, tossing the blankets off her body and sitting up, her legs dangling off the side of the bed. Her hand groped around on the nightstand for the remote. She usually slept with the TV on, liking the light and subtle sound. It kept her mind from doing exactly what it was doing now and, since she couldn't have Loki there to tire her brain out, she would feed it pop culture and political debates until it gave in.

She felt the hard plastic under her hand and flipped on the set. She surfed through the various shopping networks and infomercials, laughing at all the completely unnecessary products people came up with. There were no less than ten different hair styling machines that all did the same thing, they were just painted different colors. There was a rope LED light that you could install in a bike tire, useful, but far too expensive when you could just go buy the same thing from a home department store and tape it on yourself. But her favorite was probably the quintessential christian programs. She'd passed three of them already and they all appeared to be the same. An older man in a tailored suit in some soft color, like dove gray, hair smoothed back and parted to cover the bald spots, microphone badly concealed behind a cross shaped tie pin, and all of them were talking about the exact same thing.

Finally Riley settled on the west coast feed of CNN. She hated the national news networks, they always seemed to follow the political ties of whoever was in office, passing over stories that should be national news in favor of reports that, in the grand scheme of things, really didn't seem to matter. But all the local networks were either off the air for the night or showing nothing but the weather so she had to pick the best of the worst.

She was expecting maybe a passing blurb or snippet of information in between the fluff pieces and mudslinging, maybe some filler piece about strange debris in some old lady's backyard. But what she saw instead almost made her scream. The whole of the East Coast was experiencing gravitational anomalies. Some cities were so unstable that they'd been evacuated. Every few minutes was an interview with another resident of another town whose car had simply vanished or whose cat had begun to fall through an infinite loop. There were scenes of children throwing shoes and soda cans into thin air and having them rocket out somewhere else, almost always knocking into the shins or arms of an unlucky by stander. But these stories were tame in comparison to the one currently making headlines. The feature piece was a town, her town, completely leveled and cordoned off. There was a list of names beside its picture, constantly scrolling down, at the top was the banner "List of Deceased". The only structure still standing was a tower, tall and black against the sky, Malekith's ship.

She felt her mind begin to spin, looping the images into a horror show of what had once been her happy little life. Before she could even register movement, she was falling back on the bed, her body apparently gone numb with shock and grief. She felt cold surrounding her, creeping out of her body and spreading in a slow creeping wave across the entire room. Soon she could see her breath above her, and she could no longer feel her limbs, or her skin. Somewhere in her mind, her emotionless logic center was screaming at her to sit up and calm down, or go outside where the air was warmer, or simply to move, anything to keep herself from freezing to death, but she found that she lacked the will to follow its command. She knew that if she stayed she would die, there was no one else in the room and Loki was two rooms down, probably already asleep. But all she could think about, all she could see, was her city in ruins and a list of the dead almost One Hundred Thousand names long. It was her fault. It was all her fault. If she hadn't been in the lab that day, if she hadn't taken the job in the first place, James would still be alive, he would probably have never even reached his goal and Malekith would never have come to her home and destroyed everything in her life she'd ever known.

She was so lost to her grief that she didn't hear the door burst open or the resulting shout of alarm as Loki wrenched her body from the bed of ice it had been resting in and ran with her back out into the warmth of the summer night. She felt his hands running over the skin left bare on her arms and legs, felt the warmth slowly seeping back into her body, bringing with it relief from the fog her mind had fallen into.

"Riley! What were you thinking!" Loki shouted, pulling her upright, forcing her to catch his gaze.

"It's gone, it's all gone. The city...Malekith destroyed it all." Her voice cracked as the shock finally broke, giving way to grief that flowed through her like a tsunami. Her body wrapped in on itself as she was wracked with sobs. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as she wept, pouring out her grief onto the cement of the patio on which she rested. For a time, everything was a blur of tears and whispered comforts from the god who held her, but, after what felt like an eternity, the tears began to slow.

"Riley, please, I need you to be cal and focus. Your powers are feeding on your emotional distress." His voice sounded completely calm and without emotion. It sunk through the dismal haze in her mind like a nail and struck the small core of anger that had begun to build.

"How? How can I be calm? My whole life has been destroyed! Everyone I have known is either dead or displaced and I am stranded on the other side of a continent with next to no money and no options to speak of!" She pushed away from his embrace, turning to face him, her face a mask of rage. "What should I focus on? The list of the dead? The images of destruction that used to be my town? How about the death of my friend? The world is going to be ripped inside out by a place that isn't even supposed to exist and there isn't a god damned thing I can do about it!" She slammed her fists into the ground. Ice erupted all around her, forming a cage of sharp, nearly transparent needles that stopped just short of Loki's face.

"There, you see? You lack the control you need to indulge in this kind of outburst. I know this is hard for you. I understand better than most what it is like to suddenly find yourself alone in the world. But you are not alone. Yes, your home has been destroyed. Yes, your friend has passed away. But you are far from alone. I am here with you, and I am not going anywhere." He touched the nearest needle, turning it and all that were connected to it into a soft fall of snow, moving quickly to catch Riley as her body began to fall forward.

He held her for a moment, warring with himself on what course of action to take. His heart all but begged for hi to take her to his room and hold her until she awoke, but his mind demanded he return her to her room. She was not of his world, she was a mortal and she was only going to get in his way when the time came to put his plan into action. She was a risk, a crazy mad wonderful risk, but in the end, she was a loose end. He sighed as he stood, carrying her back into the now ordinary room and laid her out on the bed. He pulled the covers over her body, calming its quiet shivers and turned to leave but couldn't make himself move away. His body felt at war with itself, one half wanted to lay there with her, explore these feelings he had been trying so hard to fight, the other wanted to disappear from the room, from her life, from his brother's watchful eye, from all the complications and simply be free. Sighing once more, he closed his eyes and let his body decide.

The next morning was tense, breakfast was a rushed, silent affair, and before any of them was truly ready, they were back in the car and heading up the coast once more.

"Where are we going?" Jane asked, refolding the map to fit their current position. She was an excellent navigator, Riley had to admit it. She knew her way around a map and was more reliable than any GPA Riley had ever owned. She wasn't such a great passenger though. She was irritating, always switching the radio stations around, fidgeting and humming broken lines of off key melodies that would get stuck in Riley's head for hours. It would eventually get to the point that Riley would put in one of her travel mixes and forbid the tiny brunette to touch the dial again until they stopped for gas or food.

Today however, Jane seemed to be on her best behavior. Perhaps she'd heard about what happened the night before, it had happened right outside the door to her room after all. Perhaps she had finally gotten the message that the others in the car were getting close to throwing her out. Perhaps she was just weary and running out of hope. Riley didn't bother to think on it too much. It didn't matter and she knew, logically, that the only reason she had noticed it was because her brain was searching for something, anything, to distract her from the images that were still swirling around in her mind.

"Hello? Earth to Riley?" Jane snapped her fingers next to Riley's ear, causing the younger woman to jump and swerve slightly.

"What? Don't do that! Do you want us to wreck? Jesus!" Riley looked over at the obviously startled Jane and followed the line of her eyes to the light rim of frost on the steering wheel. "Sorry. I'm sorry. Did you ask me something?" Riley released a breath and drew the frost back into her hands, wincing at the pain of the crystals as they broke through her skin.

"Yeah, I asked where we were going. Do you want me to drive for a bit hun? You seem a bit jumpy." Jane reached a hand out to touch her shoulder but drew it back when Riley flinched away.

"No, I'm fine, I just need to focus on the road. As for where we're going, I was thinking Yosemite. I mean, it's one of the oldest pieces of land on this continent and the super volcano under it has been known to generate small magnetic shifts during earthquakes. Seems like it would be a good place for a portal to form. Feel free to correct me if any of that is wrong, I am by no means a scientist." She tried to force a laugh but it ended up sounding more like she'd just been punched.

"Sounds like a good starting place to me. I think I've got enough starting data to rig up some kind of tracking algorithm. I'll need equipment though. We left in such a hurry that I couldn't grab any of the stuff I'd brought from the lab." Jane started to explain all the different pieces of equipment she would need, going on into detail about what each piece did and eventually into the theory that most fit their specific circumstances. It was the exact kind of background the Riley needed to ground herself in the moment. She didn't actively listen, merely let the sound of Jane's voice fill her mind, smothering all the self doubt and guilt. She sighed softly as they passed a sign for Bakersfield. In just under three hours, they would be getting out of this car for good.

"Hey Jane, grab my phone and reserve us some rooms at one of the park lodges. They don't have any in the actual park, but there are a few within walking distance of the gates. Use the Discover card in my wallet." Riley pulled out said wallet and handed it over to the tiny brunette.

It was getting into the afternoon when they finally found the lodge where Jane had reserved them one full cabin. It was a four bedroom, two bathroom log cabin, rustic but spacious and surprisingly high end. Riley paused to wonder just how much it had cost her. She shrugged, dropping her bag on one of the beds in one of the four bedrooms. She would worry about it after the world didn't come to an end. Who knew, maybe she would get some huge reward or something if she actually managed to solve this thing.

"Knock knock." Jane's voice sounded from behind her, causing her to jump slightly. "Sorry, didn't mean to surprise you, just wanted to say sorry about this place, it was the only thing they had that would accommodate all of us. Thor and Loki are both really itching to get out into the park so we're gonna head out." She hooked a thumb over her shoulder, signaling that Riley was expected to follow as well.

"Yeah, I'm beat, I think I'm just gonna hang out here. Don't worry, I promise not to freeze anything or have a meltdown. I just need some time to refocus ya know?" Riley tried for a smile though she felt more like shoving Jane bodily out of the room. Whether she was convincing or not she couldn't tell, but Jane seemed to get the hint and gave her a small smile in return, backing out of the room and closing the door.

Riley let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding and fell back onto the bed, closing her eyes and feeling the silence press in on her ears. It was a feeling that used to make her feel uncomfortable, like she was waiting for something terrifying to make itself known, but not it was bliss. She had always considered herself to be good with people but three and half days in a car with three of the oddest people she'd ever met had really made her appreciate things like personal space and simple quiet. She heard the door shut, footsteps thumping away from the house in a steady rhythm and felt herself smile for the first time in almost twenty-four hours. She waited a few moments, giving the group time to distance themselves from the cabin and sat up. She dug her phone, portable speaker, shower supplies and a change of clothes out of her travel bag. It was time for a smoke and a shower as well as a little indulgence in the music she wasn't allowed to listen to around the others. She dug around in her purse until she found her cigarettes and headed outside onto the porch.

The view was beautiful, the cabin was secluded, settled in a copse of trees so tall Riley had to squint against the sun to see their tops. She could see the other clusters of cabins down the hill, people milled around, playing outdoor games or cooking on grills and generally enjoying each other. It sent a pang of loneliness through her that was so profoundly sharp that she almost ran down the path after Jane and the others. She took a deep breath, putting a cigarette to her lips and the play button on her phone. A play list of obscure pop techno began to play and the loneliness began to fade. She smoked slowly, savoring the flavor of the tobacco and thought how much she wanted a steak dinner and beer. It had been a tradition of hers for a time. Every time she accomplished something, she would treat herself to a steak dinner, a cold beer and a cigarette. It was one of the many things about her life she had really enjoyed. She sighed, snuffing out the cigarette butt against the heel of her shoe and headed back inside, tossing her cigarettes and lighter onto her bed as she moved to the back of the cabin's main room. There were two glass doors here, frosted for privacy, behind which sat each of the bathrooms.

She grabbed one of the courtesy towels, not wanting to go dig out the ones she had brought with her, and headed into the bathroom, setting her new outfit out of the way so it wouldn't get wet in the spray of the open faced stone shower. It was one of the best showers she'd ever seen. It was set deep into the wall, the whole roof of the thing was a massive window. Light poured into it and set the travertine tile to gleaming. The walls covered 3 sides and wrapped around to the fourth, leaving an opening big enough for two people to stand in. The stone had been patched, like a shower rail had once been hung in it, but now it was open to the air of the bathroom. The rest of the bathroom was equally well appointed, there was a massive soaker tub in one corner, set under another almost full panel of windows that faced the valley behind the lodge complex that allowed light to pour into the bathroom. The whole thing was done in colors of pale white and warm browns of all different shades, giving it a very spa like feeling that seemed to ease her sadness.

She sighed, feeling the tension start to leave her body as she shucked out of her clothing. She set her phone on the countertop, leaving the bottom corner hanging into the empty air so the sound of bounce around and amplify and pressed play. Classic rock filled the room as she stepped into the shower, sitting her small shower caddy in the furthest corner and turning on the shower. The hot water rushed over her in a relaxing torrent. For a moment, she simply stood there, feeling the rush of the water, imagining her troubles were spots of dirt on her skin that the water could simply wash away. She thought it would make her feel better, but all it did was unlock all the sadness and guilt she'd been forcing down. A few minutes later found her sobbing on the floor of the shower, the water streaming over her, washing away the tiny drops of grief that were falling continuously from her eyes.

She knew this feeling well, it was the beginning of a spiral that she had been in before. Only once had she felt this kind of pain, the day her mother and grandmother had died. It had taken her weeks to get the strength to simply smile. For the first few days, though it had felt much longer to her at the time, all she could do was curl into a ball and sob. She missed class, missed work, missed everything that a young woman could want out of life. And now it was happening again. She felt her chest constrict with the thought, panic setting in now that she was remembering just how hard those times had been. Logically she knew that she couldn't do that this time. She had things to do, people to save, the whole world was relying on her small group to save them from a threat they didn't yet fully understand. The pressure of the situation hit her like a ton of bricks and momentarily robbed her of her ability to breathe.

She sat under the water a moment longer, gathering herself and taking a calming breath, feeling her power surge erratically around her. The water turned frigid, numbing her skin with its pounding spray as she felt the power expand outward, roiling around her like a wave. She focused on a spot on the floor, a crack in one of the foot square tiles where it had been damaged, probably during installation, and patched over. She took a breath, focusing all her power at her core, letting it freeze over the pain and sorrow, gathering it like the spring in the trigger mechanism of a gun. The tighter she coiled it, the calmer she felt. She sensed more than felt the frozen ball of grief inside her. She couldn't express it, she would never be able to, but she could use it. And with that thought, she released the spring with a hoarse scream, ramming her hand down into the floor tile, shattering it.

It hurt. There was no other way to say it. The shower returned to normal, the water feeling scalding hot after the icy deluge she'd been sitting under, but it was good to feel it. She felt lighter, all except her hand, which was slowly throbbing. It was probably broken in more than one place, she had just punched a stone after all, but even that pain was sweet to her after the enforced numbness. And she didn't cry, no more tears would come to her eyes. There would be a time to mourn, but until that time came, she would use that sadness and pain as the weapon she now knew it could be. She stood, running through her washing routine with speed, her body bouncing along to the rhythm of the song playing, lost in the simple actions of soaping and rinsing her hair, so much so that she missed the opening and closing of the bathroom door. Without warning she felt a hand grasp hers, holding it up under the light. A laugh rolled smoothly around the room.

"Did the floor anger you in some way?" Loki asked, stepping closer, naked skin pressing against naked skin.

"It looked at me funny." She felt her heart thrum swiftly, taking on the rhythm it seemed to reserve for the trickster god.

"And do you feel better now?" His hand hovered over her already swelling knuckles, a cool sensation cascading over them as they began to knit themselves back together.

"Mostly." She flexed her hand and smiled, it seemed so easy when he was around her. She wondered for a moment if it was because they shared power, or if she was actually starting to fall for the smug bastard. She turned, the water pushing her hair down over her shoulders. "I thought you went out." She tried to act suspicious, but it was near impossible with a naked Loki standing this close to her.

"I did. And I am also here. Surely this doesn't surprise you." He grinned, his hand moving to rest lazily on her hip. It felt natural to have it there, his hand fit the curve perfectly and sent shivers through her skin.

"You sneaky rat. So, what made you come back? Forget your compass?" She smirked, watching the sparks fly behind his eyes. The banter was always the best part.

"There is nothing of interest for me out there. I was momentarily excited by a strange energy pulse, until I discovered that it originated from this cabin. That piqued my interest, so I am here to investigate." He let his eyes roam over her form, watching the drops of water trail down over her stomach, disappearing into the nest of curls at her center. "I seem to have found something of interest." His laugh echoed around them once again.

"Oh really? Is there someone else in here too?" Riley made a show of looking around, going so far as to lean to either side of the god she was teasing, taking the chance to check out his ass both times.

"Now now Riley, you know how I feel about your self deprecation." He pushed her slowly back against the wall, passing them both through the spray and pinning her to the wall behind it. "I much prefer your mouth be engaged in more...pleasurable pursuits." His smile turned positively evil with that comment, turning her insides to liquid hot puddles of desire.

"That is not fair." She found herself laughing softly as she mock glared at him.

"Whoever said I was fair?" He asked, silencing her rejoinder with a searing kiss. It was the kind of kiss that curls toes and drops skirts and Riley was hopelessly weak against it. But she wasn't going to let him have all the control, not this time. She let herself enjoy the kiss for a moment, let the thrill run all the way down to her toes before she pushed him away, moving her foot behind him so that he ended up on the floor. She quickly followed suit, slowly dragging her body over his as she began to pepper his torso with kisses, paying special attention to the strip of skin just below his navel, which was ticklish.

He growled out a threat, something about mortal women not knowing their place before he pulled her bodily onto him and flipped them so that he was atop her. His eyes had taken on a strange gleam. She had an inkling of a thought that she should be a bit more careful with her taunting, but it was nowhere near enough to make her stop now. She just grinned and leaned forward, nipping at his neck. This only served to make his growl louder and press into her further. She could feel him pressing against her hipbone like a steel rod wrapped in satin.

"Riley, be warned, I am not one to be teased." His voice had gotten low and quiet, almost dangerous.

"Well that's too bad, because that's all I ever do." She laughed, sliding her body against his, eliciting the first gasp she'd ever heard from him. It sent lightning bolts through her body and she found that she didn't really want to tease him so much anymore anyway, which was good, because a moment later, she found herself pinned, legs apart, body pressed to the hilt against Loki, a silent scream stretching her lips as sensation ran through her body.

It was so unlike the other times, so...intimate. Before it had always been almost like hate sex, all scratching and furious movement, but this, this was something special. He moved slowly inside her, pressing into her core and sliding free in a maddeningly slow rhythm that had her arching bodily off the tiles. Her body began to thrum slowly, building power as she moved her hips in time with his, her hands grasping at his shoulders for some kind of anchor against the tide of signals rushing from her center to her brain.

She tried to vocalize something, anything, just to be sure she was breathing, but whatever nonsense she had been about to babble was cut off by another toe curling kiss. She could feel almost every inch of his body as he moved against her, his chest pressed to hers, his skin, soft and electric, sliding against her as he began to quicken his pace. It felt like forever as he slowly built the tension between them, gradually speeding up the rhythm of each thrust until at the end he was driving into her with enough force and speed to lift all but her head and shoulders from the floor. She didn't think she could take much more as she began to come apart around him, her muscles tightening, body quivering as her climax rocketed through her, but still he didn't stop. It was like he was possessed, driving toward a goal she could not see. All she knew was that she could die happy, if it meant that this was the way she would go out.

She peaked twice more before he finally followed her in his own climax. She was so boneless that all she could do was gasp as he clutched her to him, riding out the last waves of pleasure. Their bodies shook in unison as they began to come down from the dizzying heights he had driven them to. The water had gone cold and the light was beginning to fail. Her phone had died and, from the sounds of the room outside, the others had returned. Riley looked up at her partner and teacher and blushed, legitimately embarrassed for the first time since they had begun their physical relationship.

"Think they heard us?" She was surprised by how hoarse she sounded, and how sore she was.

"With as loud as you were, I am surprised my brother did not burst through the door." He smirked, drawing out of her and helping her to her feet.

"Is this gonna make things weird with them? I mean, us doing...that, together?" She shut off the water and stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel and wrapping up snugly in it.

"I fail to see why, surely they already knew. I mean, we have been sharing a room for the past several days and my brother is not so blindingly stupid as to miss something as obvious as that." His smirk became a smile as he shimmered into his clothing.

"That is so cheating." Riley grumbled, rubbing herself dry and slipping into the sweats and pajama shirt she had brought in the bathroom with her.

"Using one's own natural talent as an advantage is not cheating, it is merely being intelligent." He nodded to her and exited the bathroom, the level of sound outside dipped for a moment and then a booming laugh echoed back through the still partially opened door. There was a knock, just as Riley was about to exit herself and Jane's flushed face peered around the corner.

"I made spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner...ya know, if you're hungry after your shower." She bit back a laugh as her face disappeared around the door again and Riley groaned. Why did she always have to be the butt of the joke? She sighed as she walked out of the bathroom, putting on a good face and Thor began good naturedly ribbing her. No more secrets then, perhaps things were looking up after all.

Well, what did you think? Enjoyed it? Hated it? Want me to stop this story and devote myself to something that doesn't suck? LET ME KNOW PLEASE!