Murmurs on Heartstrings

a sequel to

Things Left Unsaid

Chapter 4: Choices

By: Thessaly Corgin

o

The ladies wept as they filed off the boat, waving to him, confessing their love and promising they'd be back. He replied with kisses on the hand and sweet words and batted eye lashes, no doubt making a place in their hearts forever. He always had to wonder why the younger women never gave him a second look, only their grandmothers.

While other crew members gossiped and took pictures of the broken New York City, Loki only felt sick to his stomach. From afar the city was a broken landscape of crumbling buildings and boatless moors, up close he knew it would be a ghost town. The cruise company hadn't taken it off the sailing list because they couldn't possibly make it from port to port without a stop in Manhattan, and people were still happy to exit at the city and quickly flee to the suburbs. That being said, they always had less customers on any route that landed there. With time the city would surely heal and flourish, re-establishing itself as a capital of the world - Loki had no doubt Stark was already deeply involved in making that happen - but in the mean time it had been attacked by the Hulk, Abomination and his own army in more recent times.

The head steward come by to all of the staff standing on the upper decks.

"Guess what everyone… one night in the disaster capital of the world! We're back to London tomorrow at 5pm, the guests get here at noon so I expect everyone to be over their hangovers by then to greet them."

Loki elbowed the employee next to him, "I heard that rogue aliens that didn't get caught in the blast have taken to stalking throughout the transportation tunnels in the city… and late in the night they patrol the streets and devour innocent cruise ship workers."

The guy laughed, "Well that means they'll eat you too, genius."

Loki turned to leave, grinning malevolently at his colleague, "I said that they devour the innocent. Do I look one inch innocent to you?"

"Hear that everyone? First rounds on Lochlyn!"

Loki shook his head, "Not tonight my friend. I'd rather admired this port at a distance - we have quite the past."

"So you pissed off some girl?"

"Basically."

"All good man, we'll all drink to you."

o

"I don't wanna go."

"Yes you do."

"I don't wanna go."

"Shut up and put on a dress."

"I want to sit on my couch and cry while I watch When Harry Met Sally. I'm not putting on a dress and I'm not going outside because it's a Saturday night and miserable people do not go out on Saturday nights."

"Come on, I left Thor behind and everything. It's just you and me and let's face it - we're pretty good looking. We used to have tons of fun when we lived in Albuquerque. At least there will be men around town that we can lead on."

Darcy, who was draped across the couch, leaned her head back to look at over the arm of the couch.

"You don't look so hot upside down."

Jane dropped her handbag and stomped over, picking up the empty ice cream containers and bags of half eaten chips.

"Woman you've been in mourning for months, it's time to just get over it. It's a nice night out - it snowed today and since there's no one around it looks like Christmas."

Darcy stopped breathing. Christmas. Last Christmas she had…

"And now you're thinking about Christmas."

"Yes I am."

"And L-"

"Don't say his name."

"Loserface."

"Yeah, Loserface. I'm thinking about him. I'm always thinking about him and he's always in my head."

"Couldn't he read minds or something?"

"Do you ever shut up? I'll get up just so you stop talking."

Jane cheered and pulled Darcy off the couch, dragging her into Darcy's bedroom. She's already pulled dresses out of the closet, displaying them on the bed.

Darcy had always kept a strange relationship with Jane. At first she was absolutely terrified of the woman, worrying that if she made one wrong move she'd get a bad reference from her internship. The Thor incident seemed to bring them closer because Darcy was the only one who really acknowledged that Thor existed, therefore being the only one who Jane could talk to about her feelings surrounding the subject. Once they were both employed at S.H.I.E.L.D. and working at the Albuquerque headquarters their friendship finally broke the final barrier. They fought, they laughed, they cried. They lived together, worked together, did everything together. There were absolutely no secrets between them because honestly, there was no room to keep any. Even with the arrival of Loki, Jane knew absolutely everything that was going on… and was sure to mock Darcy for it.

However…

Darcy also knew drunk Jane, and drunk Jane was a different story. Drunk Jane has no verbal filter, stumbles (especially when wearing heels), is quick to yell secrets out to the general public, spends obscene amounts of money, falls asleep, cries, and worst of all… makes phone calls. Darcy had many fond memories of wrestling a cell phone out of Jane's hand as she tried to call Agent Coulston and tell him what a great time they were having…

Coulston…

In a perfect world, Coulston would probably be assigned to them as a chaperone to make sure Jane wasn't yelling S.H.I.E.L.D.'s greatest secrets. Instead they were left alone to their own devices. Darcy couldn't help but snicker lightly - Thor would be meeting drunk Jane soon enough, probably at about 4am when she called S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.

Sober Jane, though, was a wonderful and caring woman who was a lot of fun and only wanted to get Darcy out of the house to have some fun. Darcy reckoned she had another four hours of that before drunk Jane arrived.

"Okay," Jane started, holding up a black dress, "We've got this one. It's kind of frilly, so it might make you look like a fourteen year."

"I'll wear it."

"No you won't, we've also got these ones," She held up two dresses, one red and one green, "Now together they'd make you look like a Christmas tree. But we're not going to put you in two dresses."

"I see why you're an astrophysicist."

"Shush. I reckon the red one's trashy. The green one's kind of sexy, you're wearing that one."

"I thought I was choosing my dress?"

"Not anymore."

She threw the dress to Darcy, running to raid her jewelry box next.

"Go paint your face on, I'm going to find you some stuff in here."

Darcy rolled her eyes and stomped to the bathroom, pulling out her make up bag. A part of her missed the days when Jane spoke to her in an articulate, professional manor. Another part thought it was hilarious to watch an astrophysicist talk about dresses.

She'd bought the green dress for a birthday party the year before. She knew that it looked good, but at the time she'd bought it because it matched Loki's green. He'd already left by that point but she always had some distant hope that one day she'd be at a a party having a good time and he'd just walk in the door. Every time she pictured it she knew exactly how she'd feel - her heart would stop, she'd gasp, she'd stand up and run to him, he'd take her in his arms and kiss her and everything in the world would get it's color back. Everything would be beautiful again.

"Is this gold? These look unreal."

Darcy peeked her head out of the bathroom, her make up half done.

"Oh.. those. They're Asgardian, no idea what they're made of. I think they're crown jewels."

Jane looked at them again.

"You're wearing them."

"I'd really rather not."

"You're wearing them then at the end of the night we're going down to the water and seeing how close to the statue of liberty we can possible throw them."

"You want me to throw them into the ocean?"

"Yes, yes I do."

Darcy thought for a moment, imagining the green gems sinking to the bottom ocean.

"Yup, chuck 'em here.

Jane threw them to Darcy, who put them in her ears before finishing her make up.

"This night is going to rock."

o

Jane had no talent for locating classy establishments, so they always found themselves in the dingiest Irish bar on the most remote street corner of the city. For a change, they ended up in a Scottish one. For some unknown reason it was absolutely packed with people, which was much more exciting than being empty with a few stragglers.

"Jane.. can't we find somewhere a little less gross?"

"Don't be a wimp, come on. I'll call Thor down for backup, he loves Scottish people."

"Has he ever even met a Scottish person?"

"… I actually don't know."

They made their way up to the bar and sat down on the stools, Darcy taking inventory of everyone around them. No matter how hard she tried and how much she convinced herself that she was over everything, she still always found herself scanning crowds for his face. Sometimes she'd catch sight of a dark head of hair or the flash of daring green eyes, but after a second her skipped heartbeat would turn to disappointment. It was never him.

Darcy wondered what would happen if he did come back - obviously she couldn't just drag him around SHIELD headquarters, there was bound to be a bit of animosity there. She imagined she'd just have to run away with him and disappear… could people even disappear?

"Hey there tiger, can I buy you a drink?"

Darcy snapped out of her daydream to find a rather attractive Scottish man in front of her.

"Do Scottish people always hang out in Scottish bars?"

She replied absently, completely forgetting how to properly talk to men. He responded with a boyish smile and a laugh, "Aye, they certainly attract us. Had to bring my crew somewhere, and I know you can always find a friendly face at these places."

"Your crew? Are you a sailor?"

"How about I grab us some drinks then I'll tell you all about it. You want some kind of cocktail?"

"Gin. Gin and tonic."

"Gin and tonic? What are you, forty? You'd like our piano player, old man is always drinking gin."

Darcy smiled to herself as the man shuffled forward to get a drink. She'd never been much of a gin person beforehand, but when she cleared out Loki's empty room in the old SHIELD headquarters she'd found her weight in the stuff. For months the bottles had sat in a dark cupboard, but once she worked up the courage to try it she actually found that she rather enjoyed the stuff.

"There you are love, a gin and tonic."

He slid the gin and tonic across the bar to and sat down, taking a swig of his beer.

"Now, as you were asking - I work as a bartender on a cruise ship. We're all just here for the evening until we sail away tomorrow."

"A cruise ship? That's crazy! Do you just spend your life sailing around the world?"

"Of course. Sailing around the world, doing as I please, never having many consequences. As long as you pass a basic background check nobody asks any questions and you're all just family."

"So you sail in circles and leave some path of destruction?"

"That's pretty much the concept. Our piano player I mentioned - Lochlyn - wouldn't come out tonight because he apparently made some big mess back here with a girl. If we leave something behind we usually just sit out the next time the port comes around."

"Honestly, that sounds like a pretty good life to me."

"Ever been on a cruise ship?"

Darcy thought for a moment. She was sure that she'd gone on some Disney Cruise or another as a child, but couldn't quite pull up any distinct memories of it.

"I think I have. Not as an adult, though, I imagine it would be much more fun."

"Dancing, drinking, dining. All of the best!"

"But aren't cruise ships totally an old person thing?"

"Yeah, they do tend to fall into that category. We've had more folks than usual because they're all flocking to our musicians. Old ladies die for 'em."

"I'll have to give it a go sometime."

"Well, we start boarding at noon tomorrow and tickets are cheap because no one likes New York anymore."

"That's… silly."

"It's impulsive and exciting."

"GREETINGS FRIENDS."

Darcy's conversation with her handsome Scottsman was interrupted by a booming voice. The two of them whipped around to see a familiar blonde at the door, making his way down the staircase into the bar. Darcy was bored by Thor - she saw him on a fairly regular basis - but then rest of the bar wasn't. To them he was basically a world saving celebrity. Things were probably going to get fairly out of hand quickly. She pushed through the crowed over to Jane, who was watching people flock around Thor with great amusement.

"Jane what are you thinking bringing him here?"

Jane shrugged and laughed, "He'll keep all of the riffraff out and he's good fun. Come on, you know he's a good drinker. And I want to ask him why he's never given me any Asgard crown jewels."

Darcy sighed, thinking about how it was probably going to be another night where she walked home and felt the ever pressing weight of loneliness.

"Jane," she said, "I'm going to throw those earrings into the ocean."

"Oh? Good, want to go down to the water and do it now?"

"No, I have bigger plans."

"Bigger plans?"

"I'm going to throw them into the middle of the ocean whilst on a cruise ship, surrounded by beautiful men and good music."