So it goes with saying that only things I own with any connection to MARVEL I bought on Ebay or Etsy. MARVEL COMICS & MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE are their own creatures and I have nothing to do with either of them aside from the fact I enjoy reading or watching them, and am grateful for the ability to play in their world. I claim nothing, and I receive nothing for this, expect the pleasure of putting something out into the world.
You can also find this story on ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN under the same title and pen name along with a place to post suggestions.
Don't forget to check out the Photobucket album listed on my profile page too. (My apologies. I didn't realize FF removed the links. I have corrected the problem in what way I can, so for those who like the visual additions, feel free to check them out.)
DAY THREE
CHAPTER SEVENTY SIX
THURSDAY, MAY 3RD 2012
1259 HOURS
OHIO STATE REFORMATORY
MANSFIELD OHIO, USA
LOKI
She is a distracting sight. Dressed in a simple white chemise that left her tan limbs exposed. Her hand held out for mine as her ankle pushes the limits of that chain and a particular kind of desperation in her eyes as she says my name. Oh, she is very distracting, but not nearly enough.
When we brought her here her clothes were ruined, as was her skin. The clothes were dealt with easily enough. They were discarded and replaced. Her skin however could not be discarded or replaced, so it was tended too.
I bathed her with water and stones, so many stones. Before when I offered her a healing stone I dissolved them in a glass of water for her to drink. But this time I chose to apply them to each wound. I wanted to avoid any chance of her wearing more scars. I succeeded in that, everywhere but her hands.
Slivers, scrapes, bruises and cuts. Teeth. I knew she would come back to me harmed, I knew she had to, but the teeth marks disturbed me. I did not think she would bite into her own flesh like a beast, especially for one of them!
The scars disturbed me more. As a healer with innate abilities it should be almost impossible for her to scar. I remember her and her peers having the ability to leave unblemished skin in the wake of life threatening wounds. The white stars now marring her palms prove she is capable of achieving the impossible, in the worst way.
The guilt that left me with was, is, infuriating. I just wanted to bring her magick back, and she risked so much for them, for him!
With his hands chained behind the pillar like they are, he can't turn to watch my approach even though from the tense set of his shoulders I knew he is aware of it. Not that it matters because I step into his view soon enough.
With their placement there is at least twelve feet between the reach of her finger tips and the soles of his boots. That is where I choose to stand, as I let my eyes travel over her. "Loki." She looks so lovely, with her hand held out seeking mine. It is a pity she has to ruin it with her obvious desperation to protect him.
THURSDAY, MAY 3RD 2012
1300 HOURS
OHIO STATE REFORMATORY
MANSFIELD OHIO, USA
NORA
"Loki please." I can feel my foot growing cold from the way the cuff is cutting off my circulation there, but I don't surrender even an inch to that as I keep holding my hand out to reach him.
The last time I saw him he refused to answer my question, saying "...this is the one truth you must remember for yourself..." and he was right. If he had told me then I was the mother of a child, of his child, I might have slapped him and would have definitely called him a liar. But I remember that now, a daughter with my hair and his eyes. I remembered that right before Clint and ...Duncan... took me. I remembered that and I tried to go back.
But Loki doesn't know that. All Loki knows is they orchestrated an escape, and I went with them. Loki thinks I ran away willingly and almost died. He thinks I betrayed him and he is angry, at me, and at Clint. He wants to punish Clint for it, I can see that, but I learned even more reasons that I can't let him hurt Clint during our escape, and I just need a chance to make him understand. "Please, let me explain."
THURSDAY, MAY 3RD 2012
1301 HOURS
OHIO STATE REFORMATORY
MANSFIELD OHIO, USA
CLINT
Dammit Nora. Watching her beg in fear from this bastard was bad enough, but then she said what might be the worst thing sentence ever in a situation like this. Let me explain. The response to that is almost always 'not going to happen' just like it is right now.
Instead of taking her hand like she was offering, he takes her wrist so violently she almost loses the balance she had on the other one and falls. "Explanations, yes, I think it is time for some of those, do you Agent Barton?"
My 'leave her alone' falls on two sets of deaf ears. His because he doesn't give a shit, and Nora's because she is now balanced carefully on opposite limbs as Loki drops down to a kneel on her left, and wrestles open the clenched fingers of her imprisoned hand. "Let us start with these, shall we?!" And exposed her palm to my vision.
I know Nora's hands. Touch was a rarity for a long time, but she was comfortable enough to leave them uncovered in my presence, so I know those are new. They are knife lines, and some of them are hesitation marks, but all of them are clearly deep, or were before they became scars far too quickly to make me really believe they are real. It's more the way she seems so reluctant to let me see them that convinces me their not illusions.
"Are they lovely?" His voice asks with a mocking sneer. "Do they please you agent Barton, they do exist thanks to your fine work after all." That wasn't a sentence I expected or understand, but he doesn't wait for my reaction, instead he glances over his shoulder at her attempt to hide her face from my sight. "What is a matter my dear, were you not eager to explain?"
THURSDAY, MAY 3RD 2012
1302 HOURS
OHIO STATE REFORMATORY
MANSFIELD OHIO, USA
NORA
The way Loki was holding me, my left arm and right leg were pulled taut, and I couldn't lift my right hand from the floor without falling to it which meant the only way I could struggle was to try and tug my hand free.
That obviously wasn't going to work though. Loki was stronger then me to begin with, but he had one hand around my wrist and the other weaved between my fingers and arching my hand back against my will. The combination of that was uncomfortable, but that wasn't the part that stopped my words. That part was the cold.
I don't think he was doing it intentionally. As angry as he seemed if it was deliberate I think he would have mocked Clint with it. By choice or not it didn't make the pain any less. I bit my cheek and hid my face behind his armored shoulder trying to not cry out from the way the cold seemed to sink into my little bones.
When he suddenly let go it caught me so off guard that I did fall, my weight landing on my side and my instincts taking over for a moment, making me curl around my wrist protectively and cry.
THURSDAY, MAY 3RD 2012
1303 HOURS
OHIO STATE REFORMATORY
MANSFIELD OHIO, USA
CLINT
I want to focus on her sobbing form, but as much as seeing her curl up and cry in a ball bothers me, her distress isn't dangerous. "If she will not explain then I will." What's dangerous is his approach toward me but it also means he is farther from her so I'm not going to do anything to make him turn around.
He hunkers down about a foot away from my knee, taking the time to adjust his coat behind him as he settles down. His nearness bugs me, and inspires the pointless urge in me to kick him in the mouth, and that urge only grows as I watch him wet his lips after sparring her another glance, with a gleam in his eyes that makes my bile rise.
"She bargained for your life, did you know that?" He asks, his eyes turning to search mine half way through that sentence, not satisfied with whatever words I might have for him. "Yes, I think you are aware of that. She really is quite remarkable that way."
The admiration he feels for her evaporates from his eyes with a sneer. "But you and your people already knew how special she was thanks to those butchers you stole her from, that is why you waited so long for her to wake up, so you could continue their work?
"We're not like..." I have to bruise my cheeks with my teeth to keep from saying HYDRA "...them" I swore I would tell Nora the truth, but chained up, and crying is not the time to tell her she was tortured by Nazi's, and I really hope he isn't enough of a bastard to do that to her now. The truth was supposed to come from me, and it was supposed to be delivered gently, not with cutting words.
"No?" There's questioning curiosity right before there's one of the sharpest backhands I ever felt "You think caging her with poison and lies makes you any better?!"
THURSDAY, MAY 3RD 2012
1304 HOURS
OHIO STATE REFORMATORY
MANSFIELD OHIO, USA
NORA
I was paying attention, how could I not. Once I rubbed my wrist back into a lukewarm state I started listening more than just hearing, and my eyes were on both of the men in the room and in my life. So I screamed my protest when Loki hit Clint in the face, his head snapping to the side almost farther than his shoulders would allow before he raised it back in and swallowed back the seam of red coating the inside of his lips.
"Loki! No!" The links rattle against each other before the sound turns to scraping instead, and my skin protests at the digging pressure despite the sock. "No! Please stop, don't hurt hi..." Then the last letter of my words is drown under his. "ENOUGH!"
THURSDAY, MAY 3RD 2012
1304 HOURS
OHIO STATE REFORMATORY
MANSFIELD OHIO, USA
LOKI
If she flinched I didn't see it in the time it took me to turn around on her, but I see the shivers that follow it as her fear makes her wisely silent. "You have so many words..." My own soften for a moment. "but none of them are for me." Then the cold sharpens them again. "You have nothing for me."
Her eyes shimmer but her jaw has still locked in on itself, which is fine because I have not finished listing her transgressions."I have healed you, sacrificing my supply without hesitation for your benefit, and for your happiness when I healed your creature." Her injuries acquired entering my care, during my care, and in her short absence of my care.
"I have fed you and clothed, provided for your needs and wants." The only exception being her release and the sight of the sceptre.
"I have held you in your distress and watched over you." Each time she cried or rallied in frustration, and as she slept, her dreams tormenting her so much she woke with tears she didn't understand.
"I gave you control of HIS life because you valued it so dearly, I gave you that in exchange for you giving me a chance." She tried to buy that with a kiss, and then wept and screamed until her voice was raw thinking she had condemned them instead. She beat her hands against the door so thoroughly she wore skin off in her efforts.
"I exposed the beginnings of their deception AND YOU STILL CHOOSE TO LEAVE WITH HIM!..." even though she remembered glimpses of her life in Asgard and with the Norsemen, fragments that countered everything they convinced her to be truth, she let them take her.
The fact that my plans required her to go with them doesn't do much to soothe my anger, because her willingness to put her own life at risk spoke volumes of her willingness to go with them. "Loki n-no, tha-that wasn't..."
"SO TELL ME WHY SHOULD I HONOR THAT PROMISE OR ANY?!" I continue on, my words laying right over her own in disregard as my fingers busy themselves beneath the metal curve of my vambrace and produce a piece of metal with a far different purpose.
"TELL ME WHY SHOULD I POSSIBLY CARE FOR YOUR FEELINGS WHEN YOU CARE SO LITTLE FOR MINE?" I make the demand with the tip of my dagger peeking idly out of my hand, held casually but effectively in the direction of his throat.
"Loki p-please lis-sten t-to me, j-just..." That evokes a single and hollow chuckle from me. "I am listening, and I am not hearing an answer, so I will give you mine!"
"KENNA! I REMEMBER OUR KENNA!" And of the things I expected her to give me, I never thought it would be the word 'our'.