Day 7

Darcy wakes up, so snuggled in blankets that her body doesn't want to move. She realises her head is on Loki's lap as she looks up. Like any woman waking up in the lap of an attractive guy, she's pissed to see he looks regal and composed even when sleeping. She gets up, shrugging off his arm on her shoulder, and making her way to the bathroom.

As she looks at herself in the mirror, she notices the small cut under her jaw. Was that only yesterday? She sighs heavily, torn between the 'I can't kill you' Loki or the 'handcuff you to a pipe' Loki. She wonders what it'll be today. Consistency was the thing she most missed out of this cabin. Loki was as changeable as the weather, and last night was definitely a thunderstorm followed by a lot of sunshine.

Taking a deep breath, she steps out of the bathroom and prepares for the worst.

Instead, she is greeted with the image of Loki in the small living room, in front of him, two steaming hot coffees.

"How do you even do that?" She grins, forgetting about her fear, and practically bounding over to him.

"Good morning to you, too." His smile is different, she notices. It's the type that reaches his eyes, a genuine one. But being Loki, it still has elements of restraint in it.

"Thanks." Darcy sits on the edge of the table and grabs her cup of coffee, sipping it cautiously.

"So." She starts, cupping the warm paper cup in both hands. "On the homicidal scale today, are you a 10 or more of a 2?"

"10 being very homicidal?" His face is suddenly serious.

"Yup."

"I'd say a 3. Maybe 4."

Darcy laughs. "Sounds acceptable."

She laughs uncomfortably, all of a sudden feeling the unspoken question between them. When will she leave here? She can see from the knotting of Loki's fingers that he is nervous, on edge.

His eyes suddenly widen as if he senses something and he pushes Darcy harshly to the ground, her coffee spilling on the rug beside her.

"Hey-what was that for?!"

A sudden bang masks his reply as he is thrown backwards into the cabin and through the wall. The object barely misses her and she jumps up to grab the closest available chair to defend herself with. She figures it worked last time, right?

Loki crawls back through the hole in the wall and glances at Darcy with panic before another larger, cape-clad projectile makes his way toward him. Unaware, Loki is pushed to the ground, a heavy metal object pushing his chest down, making it impossible to rise and fight.

Darcy, unaware of Loki's paralysis, blindly brings the chair down on the attacker, feeling a sense of déjà vu. She steps back in horror when she realises who the attacker is, her hand over her mouth.

"Thor!? Holy shit, I'm sorry!" Her apology is cut off as she sees another familiar figure walk through the hole where the door used to be. "Jane?"

She launches herself at her friend, pulling her into a rib cracking hug. "Jane!" She repeats, grinning wildly.

The two turn as Loki yells out in pain. Thor lifts Loki by his neck, up into the air as if he weighed absolutely nothing. The fury on his face was something Darcy had never seen before. She was so used to him cracking jokes, being a nerd with Jane. But this was something else entirely.

He slams him to the ground, where Loki crumples into a lanky mess, looking up to his brother with what she thinks is… betrayal? Thor drops Mjolnir, and raises a fist to his brother.

"You dare look for power again!" He brings the fist down on his brother. Loki, surprisingly takes the punch and doesn't move an inch, other than to turn his face back to Thor with a pained grunt.

"You dare go after my friends!" He brings down another punch, leaving Loki with blood streaming down his face, wearing the same expression of shock since the first punch.

"You dare threaten me with their demise!" He slams his fist down again, leaving Loki unconscious, his body limp and lifeless. Thor holds his collar and raises his fist again.

"Stop!" Darcy yells out, unable to help herself. "You're going to kill him!"

Jane's protective hold becomes one of restraint as she stops her rushing over to Thor. She's a tiny woman, but Darcy realises she's goddamn strong, too, as she fights to escape her. She manages to slip Jane's grasp as Thor hits his brother once more, and throws herself in the path of another. She realises she couldn't be more cliché if she tried, but still yells out in desperation.

"Stop!"

Thor's fury turns to realisation as he lets go of his brother, who falls like a rag doll to the floor. Darcy quickly cradles his head in her arms, trying to stop the bleeding. Thor looks down at the blood on his knuckles, and then to his brother with regret and shock.

"It's fine." Jane's voice is soothing as Thor begins to breathe deeply, quickly, realising what he had done. She laces her fingers through his, her calmness a façade as her heart hammers in her chest. "You didn't know. You were angry at him. It's okay."

"Guys?" Darcy calls over, her face drained as Loki begins to seize violently in her arms. "Get help!"

Looking back, Darcy didn't remember how Thor blew a hole in the ceiling and called for Heimdall to transport them to Asgard. However, she does remember the sensation of flying through the Bifrost at lightning speed, only to touch down softly in a golden sphere of a room.

She looks up from the now still and unconscious Loki to glance at the man in golden armour, standing on ceremony in the middle of the room, his eyes glowing.

That moment lasts a second before they are surrounded by guards, who lift Loki out of her grasp and away from her. She looks for something else to hold onto, and finds Jane's arm, holding her hand childishly as she knelt on the floor.

"Get him to the healers!" Thor yells at the guards, then turns to Jane beside him. "I must go with him. Jane- you know your way-we shall reconvene in my mother's quarters."

Jane swallows and nods, a slight frown on her face. She takes Darcy's face in her hands, kneeling down to her.

"Darcy," she begins, her voice soft and calm as it usually was in times like these. "C'mon, we've got to move. Everything's fine. You're safe. Don't panic."

"I didn't even know I was panicking," she stands up sharply and releases her grip on Jane's hand. Through the arching doorway, she sees the shimmering bridge under her feet, and Asgard in the distance, the golden spires glittering under the sun.

"So this is Asgard?" Darcy gapes.

Jane nods, unsure of Darcy's flitting moods. She couldn't shake the feeling something had happened to Darcy, and searches for a reason as to why Darcy had thrown herself in front of Thor's punches. She fails to come to any conclusion that makes sense, and so guides an oddly silent Darcy down the glittering rainbow bridge, toward the castle in the distance.

"How did you find us?" Darcy manages, pacing in a lavishly decorated room designated for the two of them to rest in. Frigga had rushed off to the hospital wing to see her son, but had left her handmaidens in charge of waiting on the two. Jane, bright red in the face at the thought, shooed them off. The girls couldn't have looked happier at the prospect of a day off.

Jane smiles and brings out a calculator-looking item from her bag. Darcy takes it and frowns.

"What is this?"

"We found a way to track the call. I would've been able to find you sooner, but this… this is pretty advanced stuff. It triangulates your location through the use of inter-dimensional fields that-"

"-Yeah, I get it. Science." Darcy spins the thing around in her fingers, until Jane snatches it off her for fear it might break. "Thanks for saving me, I guess."

"What's wrong, Darcy? Anyone would be happy to be saved. You look miserable."

"I'm not miserable." She lies easily, but Jane sees straight through her.

"Yes, you are. Something happened. Something you're not telling us."

"Nope."

"Yes. What is it, Darce? What happened?"

Darcy shrugs, sick of the questioning already, but knows Jane means no harm- she is blunt to the point of rudeness. Jane pushes her in the same way she pushes herself to be the amazing scientist she is today. She takes a deep breath to calm herself, knowing that the tension inside her chest was the ache of Loki's unknown fate. She is determined not to be the one mortal that embarrasses herself by rushing to the bedside of her former captor.

"Look. Maybe I'll tell you later." She offers. She wasn't too sure of what to tell Jane herself, other than there was a lot going on in Loki's batshit mind than what meets the eye. Stockholm Syndrome, Jane would probably offer as her diagnosis. Darcy wonders if having any sort of feelings for her kidnapper was acceptable in any way. She didn't even think twice about running out in front of Thor's punches to stop him, to shield Loki.

And now she is worried for his safety, she realises. Worried for the kidnapper that may or may not have promised to mail her body in tiny bits to Thor and Jane. But then again, she realises, he had healed her wrists when she'd resisted against her handcuffs. She almost keeps a mental score sheet for Loki in her mind, and resents herself for even considering it.

"What if Loki dies?" She blurts out, unable to stop herself. "What if Thor has killed him?"

"It would take a lot more than that to kill my brother," a booming voice says behind her. She recognises Thor, his face still drawn with worry, but a spring in his step tells her it's not all bad news. "He's stable. Conscious."

Darcy tries not to look too relieved at this news, but still relaxes a little.

"What now?" Jane asks curiously.

"He'll face trial. Likely, he will return to his cell. There's an open court held tomorrow."

"Can we go?" Darcy asks quickly.

Thor looks surprised at this question, but nods regardless. "If you desire."