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Sierra

Chapter Twenty Four: Learning to Listen

~Nobody's POV~                

Barton looks down at his nephew, with an expression of barely concealed amusement. "You've taken a real shine to Thea, haven't you?"

Crossing his arms, Jack leans across the bunk and doesn't say anything.

"Although... you were willing to give her up to the Imeldi."

"If it makes it better," Jack says dryly, still not looking at his uncle. "I had planned on knocking her out if I had been forced to the matter."

Barton raises his eyebrows. "You're telling me that the only reason you agreed to help her was to gain her trust... and maybe her affections, but we won't talk about that."

"Basically," says Jack.

Barton regards his nephew, then tosses him something small and square with a few lights and a thin wire protruding from the top.

Jack turns it over in his hands, semi-curiously. "What's this, then?"

"Location device, hidden in Thea's pocket."

"So?"

"So, your dearly beloved apparently planned on knocking you out too. Probably so that you wouldn't come face-to-face with the Imeldi."

Jack, who doesn't look entirely shocked at revealed usage of the location device, says simply, "I never told her I was going to."

"Thea's smart, Jack, and I reckon cleverer than you think she might be. She doesn't need you to tell her that you will be going after those brutes." He smiles slightly. "And neither do I."

"Where is she?" asks Jack, turning away from the question.

"Loki is with her."

"I just saw Loki walk past the room."

Barton frowns. "You sure it was her?"

"He scowled at me like the git he is," says Jack. "It was him."

He shrugs. "Then Thea's probably around here somewhere. Now listen, Jack, be more careful next time, okay bud?" He claps Jack on the shoulder. "See you later."

As soon as Barton has walked down the hall, Jack jumps up and runs out of the room, dashing out of the Nest as night begins to creep along the edges of the sky. He heads out towards the path he had seen Loki and Thea take. There is nobody down there, and he frowns as he peers around the dark corners, slightly on edge at the abandonment of the area.

The first few doors open to reveal storage space, mostly food and canisters of water. He's about to turn back when he hears an anguished sob from the heavily padlocked door at the end of the hall. He runs forward, skidding to a halt in front of it. "Thea?!"

There's a second of silence, and then he hears the unmistakable wail of Thea from the other side of the door. "Thea!" He grasps the handle, but it refuses to budge. "That creep, that git, that lunatic," he mutters. He turns back towards the door. "Hold on one second, Thea! It's okay, I'll get you out!"

He runs back towards the Nest and finds Barton talking to a few other agents- thankfully, Loki isn't around. "Clint!" he gasps. "Clint... you've got to come quickly, that moron locked her up, and she's screaming and Clint, I'm going to kill him and-"

"Hold on," says Barton. "You're talking about Thea, right?"

"Yeah, please please get her out, your ID will probably open the lock, she's crying out of her mind, Clint, she's scared, c'mon please, you've got to-"

"Take it easy, Jack," says Barton. "I'm coming with you."

Ten minutes later, Barton swipes his ID at the panel in front of the card reader. It flashes green and he wrenches open the door. It's just light enough for Jack and Barton to be able to see Thea curled up in the corner- although the space is so small it can hardly be called a corner- of a thin, closet-like space.

Thea's a wreck. She's sobbing, panting, and lying on the floor, and there's a small cut on Thea's forehead, with a tiny trickle of blood coming out from it. When she sees Jack, she screams and tries to cower back even farther in her prison. Jack looks confused. "Why's she scared of me?"

"Bit of a long story," grunts Clint, crouching down in front of Thea. "Thea, look at me." Her sobs just grow louder, and she refuses to look at him. "Thea, seriously." Hesitantly, her body quaking, she turns so that her green eyes meet his brown ones. "Okay, Thea, come with me, you're okay, you're okay, got it? And Jack's with me." He points towards Jack, who smiles happily at Thea. "You remember him, right?"

Thea's eyes focus on Jack, and they begin to relax softly as she nods.

"Okay, let's go. You can lie down and rest before you eat something." Clint reaches and picks the girl up, holding her in his arms. She rests her head against his shoulder as Clint looks at Jack, "Grab my ID card and let's go."

*

"Are you okay?" Jack asks Thea, handing her a cup of water. "You had me scared out of my mind, that's for sure."

Barton had laid Thea down on her bed and then left, standing outside the closed door and letting his nephew alone with her.

Thea doesn't answer at first-she's still shaking and gasping for breath, as if she had swam a long ways without stopping. "I'm...fine..." she stammers.

"I'm gonna kill him." states Jack. "I'm gonna kill him so hard, he's going to die." His lips twitch as Thea gives him a tiny smile. "So. You were gonna knock me out, were you?"

Thea looks surprised, then a little guilty. She shrugs as she continues to try to calm down, although it's in vain.

"Clint told me. That's okay, I know where exactly where you were coming from."

Thea looks up at him. "You... too?" she rasps, her fingers shaking on the glass cup Jack had handed her. The water sloshes over the side slightly.

Jack takes the water glass and puts it on top of a wet washcloth that Clint had grabbed from the nurse, Emma's stock. Neither Jack nor Clint had thought Thea was ready to see the nurse at the moment, so they just raided some supplies. "Well yeah, it wasn't like I was going to let you kill yourself. You're too nice." Jack smiles, then frowns as Thea tightly closes her eyes, her body trembling and crying silent tears. "Maybe after all of this nutty escaping business, we should do something fun. You know, like-"

He's cut off as the door opens. When he sees who it is, he snarls and leaps up as if he were on fire.

 "Get away from here!" Jack spits at Loki, barring Thea, who is lying on the wide bed, her eyes closed and her body shivering.

Loki regards Jack with mild interest. "And I suppose a boy like you is going to stop me." A small gasp comes from the bed, and Loki's eyes dart over to where Thea is panting, small tear drops trickling down her face.

"I will if I have to," says Jack lowly, getting up and shielding Thea behind him. Apparently sensing his movement, her eyes open and they immediately flash towards Loki. She shrieks slightly. "See!" snarls the boy. "She's terrified of you now."

"And she's also alive."

"No thanks to you."

"I'm sorry, but I'm under the impression that you were the person who would have walked her into the Imeldi camp."

"At least I'm nice to her," snaps Jack.

Loki laughs dryly. "You don't know anything, Jack. Now if you'd please excuse the two of us, I would like to be alone with Thea."

Thea's eyes flicker in fear. Jack looks down at her, worried. He turns a furious eye towards Loki, "Absolutely not."

"If I must, I'll get your uncle in here."

"You'll have to do more than that," threatens Jack.

"You're being a fool, boy," says Loki, his patience clearly waning. "Now get out before I throw you out myself."

But the Asgardian's threat does nothing to sway Jack's resoluteness. "No." he says, standing firmly in front of Thea.

"So be it," says Loki, and the doors open behind him, revealing two agents, plus Clint Barton. "This is your last chance to leave, Jack."

Jack hesitates upon seeing his uncle. "But Thea-"

"Thea's fine," says Barton. "C'mon Jack."

The boy's eyes flicker between Loki, Clint, and Thea, weighing his options. Finally, with a resigned sigh, he gets off the bed, patting Thea's shoulder. As he passes Loki, he brushes him roughly in the elbow. "If you hurt her..." he growls.

"I won't."

"You said that last time."

"And I didn't hurt her."

"She's crying and shivering on a bed," snaps Jack. "What do you call that?'

Loki opens his mouth to say something, but then clamps it shut. Jack gives Loki a glowering, 'I-told-you-so' look before turning on his heel and stalking out the door. Barton shrugs at Loki, who remains passive, before following his nephew from the room, as well as the two agents.

Loki walks over to Thea, who cowers away from him, averting her eyes and closing them tightly. "Well that certainly did a number on you, didn't it, kitten?" he says quietly.

She doesn't answer, and a single tear trickles down her cheek. He sits down at the foot of the bed-immediately, she shies away. Reaching forward, he takes her arm and pulls her towards him. She struggles, and he says, "I'm not going to hurt you, Thea."

She begins to cry again, and Loki raises his eyes to the ceiling. Then, he leans her against his shoulder- when she tries to jerk away, he just keeps his arm around her. "Stop it and say something."

Perhaps more out of sheer stubbornness than fright, Thea bites her lips and stares straight ahead, no longer struggling against Loki, but leaning away from him as much as possible. Loki frowns down at her, "Say something, Thea."

She makes a guttural, rippling sound in her throat and tries to pull herself away from him, but he holds her tightly. "Stop it." he says, and when she keeps fighting him, he shakes her slightly, "Stop it, Thea, I'm losing my patience."

Finally, Thea calms down, although the cease in her resistance is clearly from her exhaustion, which is demonstrated by the fact that she actually leans her head on Loki's arm. She is still crying silently, her shoulder shaking slightly.

Loki sighs. "Thea, say something. Anything, and to prove to you that I'm desperate, I would be more than willing to take 'I hate you' at this point."

Stuttering, she manages, "Why...?"

"Why what?" he asks, clearly confused.

"Why...how could you...why did you do that?" she chokes out

"You know why."

She doesn't say anything in response.

"Thea, I realize now that I made a mistake." She looks up at him, but he doesn't seem to notice. "I am sorry."

She wipes her eyes, "I'm writing down that today you actually apologized to me."

He looks at her, annoyed, but amusement flickers in his eyes as he realizes he finally has her talking. "Indeed, you should take it as a rarity."

"I still hate you."

He chuckles. "I have the feeling you'll always hate me." He glances down at her, and then says, "Oh, Thea, you've managed to cut your forehead, you clumsy goose."

"I'm not a-"

"Oh shut up," he says easily, then gets up from the table and takes the wet cloth from the table, where Jack had left it. "Now turn around."

She bats his hand away. "I don't need a nursemaid."

"How many times am I going to have to tell you to shut up in the space of five minutes?" he asks, gently smacking her own hand away. "Now let me see your head."

Reluctantly, she lets him press the cool washcloth on her forehead. When she winces, he says, "Burns, does it? What did you do anyway?"

"I panicked," she says dryly. "And fell against the baseboard."

"I see." Says Loki. "Hold your hand to that cloth." He gets up again, saying, "For someone so coordinated in fighting, you really are a clumsy girl."

"I am not clumsy." Thea snaps. "I was freaking out and panicking, thanks to you, and that closet was so small, I couldn't turn around scarcely."

"Whatever you say," says Loki, returning with a picture frame. Thea's eyes flash as she realizes that it's the frame she had found in the collection Jane had left her. "Your family, I presume?"

"You presume correctly," says Thea, annoyed. "Now put it down before you break something." She squeals when Loki begins to drop it on the hard floor, and then, when his laughing tells her that he was faking, she wails, "Loki!"

"Thea!" he mocks, but then hands her the frame. "How old are you and Leah?"

"I'm ten," she says with a trace of sadness in her quiet voice. "And Leah is almost five."

"Hm." Says Loki, looking down at the picture. "Where are you?"

"At home."

Her tone clearly says that she doesn't want to talk about it anymore, so Loki instead says, "We are moving you and Leah."

"What?" she asks, looking up quickly from the photograph. "When? Why? Is it because of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that are after meeeee..." she trails off when she notices Loki raising his eyebrows dangerously high. "Which I didn't know anything about," she says hastily. "And where?"

"First of all," says Loki. "I assume the knowledge you should know nothing about comes from your new little friend, Jack." When she blushes, he smirks, then says, "And secondly, it will be tomorrow morning. Why, exactly the reason you just provided yourself, and where." He pauses. "We're taking you and Leah to Asgard."

"What?"

"We are only staying for, at the most, a week, but just long enough for the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to get off of your trails- and the Imeldi."

"Wait!" she exclaims. "That means I can see Leah, right?"

"Well, yes." Says Loki as if this were perfectly obvious.

She squeals and for a moment, looks like she's going to throw her arms around him in happiness, but then she seems to realize what she was about to do and wrinkles her nose in disgust. "Who's going?"

"You, me, Thor, Leah, and Jane."

"Oh," says Thea.

Loki reaches forward and removes the cloth from her forehead. "How are you feeling?"

"A little better," she says solemnly, although her eyes are still alive with the news of the Asgard visit. "Will you tell me about Asgard?"

"No." says Loki. When she gives him an annoyed look, he says, "You'll find out tomorrow. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise."

"When are we leaving?"

"Tomorrow, were you not paying attention?"

Thea snorts. "I know, stupid, I meant what time tomorrow."

"Don't call me stupid."

"I can call you whatever I want to call you."

"Then you won't find out the information you wish if you don't learn manners."

She gives him a horrible look.

He sighs. "We're leaving after breakfast."

She smiles triumphantly, then looks up at the ceiling. After regarding the plain wooden pattern for a few minutes in silence, she says quietly, "When will this be over?"

"I do not know."

"And what will happen when it is over?"

"Are you worried?"

"Of course not," she says hastily. When he raises his eyebrows at her, clearly not believing her, she adds, "Not really, anyway." He gives her an impatient look, and she sighs, "Fine. Yes, I'm worried. I don't know where we'll go, and I mean, I'll be fine!"

It's obvious that she is struggling to keep her face passive.

"You're a terrible liar, Thea," says Loki. When she doesn't reply, he says gently, "Tell me."

"There's nothing to tell."

Loki looks at her for a few seconds, then says, "Very well." He stands, and then turns to push her softly onto the bed. "Go to sleep."

"What if I don't want to go to sleep?" she asks interestedly. He merely raises his eyebrows at her. "But I don't want to sleep," she says quietly.

Understanding flickers in Loki's eyes. "I see. Well how about this?" He merely waves his hand in a small, contracted circle, and a book appears in his palm. She gasps. "Here." He says, handing it to her, then, noticing her expression of surprise, says, "You didn't know I could conjure, did you?"

"Not really." She says, turning over the book in her hands and flipping through the pages. It's Gone With the Wild. "I just knew you could make doubles of yourself. How'd you know I liked this book anyway?"

"I heard you telling Leah about it one day," says Loki with a shrug. "And as for the magic, I learned it from my mother, Frigga."

She looks at the book, apparently inspecting it. "Can I do that?"

He laughs. "I doubt it. However, once we are in Asgard, we can try a few things if you'd like."

"Why not now?"

"Because I need to talk to Barton and you need to be at least lying down and getting ready to go to sleep."

The door creaks open, and Natasha enters. She raises her eyebrows at the sight of the two of them. "No murders?"

"What?" asks Thea.

"Oh, nothing, I'm just commenting on the fact that you haven't exactly killed each other yet." She looks at the girl. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay."

"Well I'm bunking down for the night. Tomorrow, Clint and I have a long day of pretending we know where you and Loki are and leading those goons down the wrong track. Turns out those agents after you and your sister aren't from S.H.I.E.L.D. They're government agents."

"I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. was government," says Thea.

"Not in the usual sense," says Natasha, walking into the bathroom.

Loki turns from where he was watching Natasha back to Thea. "Good night."

"Bye." She says offhandedly, sinking down into the pillows with Gone with the Wind grasped tightly in her hands. The door closes softly.

Thea glances up at the door and then closes her eyes, but then gasps and begins to quake again. But the panic spell is not as long as before as she holds Gone with the Wind in her arms and falls asleep, thinking about reuniting with her sister the very next day, although journeying to a distant land.

Thanks for reading, lovelies! I love you all!