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Chapter Twenty Eight: Plus One

I'm awakened by someone slamming a pillow in my face. "Damn it Stark!" I exclaim, warding off his second assault. "What is it?"

"Wake up. Clint's on the phone and wants to talk to you."

Cold fear hits me and I leap out of bed, if you can describe leaping as jumping up still half-asleep and nearly striking the nightstand. Not even bothering to brush my hair or change out of my wrinkled shorts and shirt, I follow Tony out of the room.

As I expected, Natasha is on the computer and barely glances up when we walk towards her. Loki is leaning against the wall, in a dark corner so that I sort of jump when I see him. Both seem perfectly awake.

Natasha is fiddling with some keys on the screen, and without looking at me, hands me a sleek, flat black phone. It feels cool on my cheek.

"Hello?"

"Thea?" Clint's voice is scratchy and distant. "So, I've got good news and bad news and only about five minutes to relay both."

"Shoot." I say, trying not to feel nervous.

"Good news. We invaded the Imeldi camp and-"

"So soon?" I ask, shocked.

Clint goes on, talking over me, "We killed most of them. And rescued Agent Hill. She was...tortured."

Fear hits me like a wave- if Agent Hill were tortured, then chances are, she wasn't the only one. "Where's Jack?"

He sighs. "Agent Hill is in the hospital wing right now, but she said that a few government workers came into the camp, under the influence of the Imeldi, and took him away. We don't know where he is, but we are working on it."

I feel myself tremble, so I lean against the computer counsel. "Do you have any idea?"

"Nope. But we're tracking them right now, literally right in front of me, and I'm sure we'll find him soon." His calm attitude belies the worry I know he must be feeling.

"Oh." I say.

"Listen, I've got to go. I'll let you know about Jack when I can."

"Okay."

I hang up.

Natasha glances at me. "You okay?"

"Yep," I squeak, then run out of the room, locking the door to the bedroom behind me. I slam onto the bed and stare at the ceiling, a better position from which to stop my tears.

Why I have so much affection towards a boy I barely know is not only confusing, but also alarming. As I look up at the ceiling, trying to figure out what I am feeling, I hear a voice.

"Lying there won't help anything."

I jump up as if I had been shocked, "How did you get in here?!"

Loki smiles sneakily. "I have my ways."

"Go away."

"Clever girl, grabbing that book when I was too preoccupied with you." He walks over towards me. "No doubt you planned that."

"I'm often clever," I say, going back to staring at the ceiling. "Yet people are always surprised when I am."

"I wouldn't say often."

I've noticed that Loki has crept towards my nightstand, which has The Fault in Our Stars lying next to the clock radio. "HEY!" I try to grab it, but miss and end up banging my head on the nightstand. Stars flicker in front of me as I groan. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a bruise there; sure enough, I raise a finger to it and feel a small lump. "Ouch." I grumble, trying to stop the tears again.

"Where are you going?"

I glare at him, particularly because The Fault in Our Stars is in his hands. "Out."

By 'out', I actually mean the kitchen, where I grab the ice pack. As I put it to my forehead, I glance at a calendar next to the refrigerator. Nervously, I count the days until the next full moon-the next blue moon at that. I wince. Only twelve.

BANG.

BANG.

Panicking, I run over to where Tony and Natasha are at the computers. The door leading to the old hotel room has just been broken down. I don't have time to move or to think as Tony grabs my arm and pulls me behind him. I drop my ice pack.

The dust clears and I see something that makes me quiver in horror. There are two armed government officials, plus one Imeldi, huge and menacing with sharp teeth. But the most horrific sight is that of Jack, barely conscious, in the hands of the two government agents. There's a gun being held to his head.

"JACK!" I scream; he looks up slightly in recognition. He's bloody and bruised. "JACK! LET GO OF ME!" The last, I scream at Loki, who has reappeared from the bedroom and grabbed me around my waist as I try to run towards Jack. "NO! LOKI LET GO!"

"Silence," he hisses in my ear, covering my mouth with his hand. I try to bite him, but he's smart enough to curve his hand out to make it impossible.

"'Morning gentleman," says Tony stoically, but I notice him surreptitiously putting on two weird, gray bracelets. "And beast," he nods to the Imeldi, who snarls. "What can I do for you?"

"We desire the girl," says the Imeldi, his voice like a winter wind. I tremble against Loki. "Give her to us, and we will let the boy live."

"Jack..." I sob, struggling against Loki, trying to get to Jack, who cannot even seem to support his own weight. "JACK!"

Tony glances at me. "How the hell did you find us?"

"We have our ways," wheezes the Imeldi. "The girl. Now."

Loki tenses up, then throws me to the ground so hard, the breath is knocked out of me. Before I can get up, Tony does it for me, hauling me up. "Give me up," I plead to him. "Just do it, and it will be over."

"Over my dead body." Says Tony in an undertone.

"That can be arranged," breathes the Imeldi, and both Tony and I wince- apparently, he had heard us.

"Jarvis," mutters Tony. "Anytime now."

I have no idea what he's talking about, but my only concern is for Jack. I struggle against Tony, trying to be free so that I can save Jack, but he doesn't let go. As I struggle, that's when I notice the earpiece in his right ear. I frown.

"LOKI NOW!" roars Tony.

Before I can think to take a breath, the doorframe behind the Imeldi and his minions explodes, throwing them forward. "JACK!" I scream, and Tony lets go of me. Loki has thrown something at the Imeldi. I recognize it as the emerald-studded dagger. It strikes the monster in the thigh, causing it to give an unearthly shriek.

Natasha has leapt forward, driving herself at one of the government agents, who is standing up, not looking horribly damaged. She executes a brilliant flip, her heel striking his jaw, sending him reeling.

The next thing I know, a mass of gold and red is flying past me, and Tony, in his Iron Man suit, shoots forward, a beam of light catching the Imeldi and throwing it back.

As Loki pulls the dagger from the Imeldi, I spot Jack. He is crawling forward, out of the wreckage. With nobody to stop me now, I lunge forward at him, pulling him out of the way. After making sure he is settled next to a couch, I run back to Natasha, who is fighting both agents at once.

"Thea, get out of the way!" yells Natasha, her lip bloodied.

I ignore her and kick out at the nearest government agent. He's quicker than I expected, grabbing my arm and twisting it back painfully, causing me to shriek. I recover, head butting his neck, making him go backwards to the floor. Natasha, having dispatched the other agent, gracefully does the same to this one.

As she goes to help Tony and Loki kill the Imeldi, I run back over to Jack. "Jack!" I exclaim, sliding on my knees in front of him. He's coughing hoarsely. "JACK!"

"Hi...Thea..." he says, managing a smile. "What's up?"

I can't help but laugh a little at the casualness of his voice. "You are ne-" I suddenly scream and pitch backwards as pain hits my head, then my body in unimaginable ways. I hear people yelling my name, but I don't know who.

I scream again as the wave of pain hits me. This time, I think I might actually die.

~Nobody's POV~

Loki looks back as soon as he hears Thea scream. Tony and Natasha follow, but he notices it first- the ribbon like shape near her leg, behind where she was sitting next to Jack.

"How many times must I kill that serpent!" he snarls, flinging the dagger and hitting Kafrandi (who now has one less tooth than his first encounter with Thea) in the back of the head. It gives a banshee like howl- very un-snakelike- and quivers, then settles onto the ground, maybe dead, maybe not. Loki conjures the dagger back into his hands and then sends it into the larger Imeldi's collarbone, causing it to shriek.

Knowing that Natasha and Tony are more than capable of killing the weakened Imeldi, Loki walks over to Thea and crouches in front of her. He rolls her over on her back, and she begins coughing, writhing away from his touch. "Thea, Thea, it's me, kitten."

Panting, her eyelids snap open and the two pairs of green eyes look into each other, for the first time without any malice. "Ja-aa-ck." She stammers.

"I'm fine," he says weakly, but Loki doesn't pay attention to the human boy.

"Where does it hurt?"

Limply, Thea nods towards her leg, and Loki spots a large wound at the base of her right ankle, bleeding and knotted. "It's swollen, and the only way to remove the poison from Kafrandi is to put pressure on it. This is going to hurt."

"How much?"

He doesn't answer but then begins to press on the swollen knot, and she shrieks in an agonized pain, twisting incoherently on the ground.

"Thea!" exclaims Jack, reaching out for her.

Loki ignores both of them, putting his other hand on Thea's shoulder to try and keep her still as he keeps applying pressure to the wound. She keeps screaming for a minute or so, and then her screams descend into sobs and then soft whimpers.

"There." Says Loki, taking his hand off her- his fingers are bloody. "It will stop hurting soon."

She doesn't reply, and that's when Loki notices Jack is holding her hand. She had been squeezing his so hard, the tips of his fingers are slightly white. He smirks at both of them before standing up, wiping his bloody hand on his shirt.

An ungodly roar comes from the door, and the Imeldi falls, chokes on its last breath, and then dies. Tony tears off his helmet and then leans against the wall, panting slightly, "Looks like we're going to be moving."

*

Move, they do, and quickly. Natasha, the least beat up of all of them, runs around the condo, grabbing some essentials before leading them all down the fire escape and towards another black car that she assures them is theirs (Thea has her doubts). Tony carries Thea, and Loki, Jack (much to his annoyance), as they make their descent. Thea is getting stronger, but Natasha won't let her risk the climb.

Thea falls asleep almost immediately in the car, leaning against Jack's shoulder. In turn, he leans against the top of her head and follows quickly.

"Aw, look at the little seeds of romance," comments Tony, who is sitting on Jack's other side.

"Yes, very cute," says Natasha, revving the engine so hard, it causes all the passengers to jerk back, and the two kids to wake up briefly before settling back into sleep. "Tony, call Clint and tell him we've got his nephew."

"Yes ma'am," replies Tony, in a relatively sarcastic voice that she pointedly ignores. As he dials, he leans back against the headrest, "So where the hell are we heading anyway?"

"Detroit. It'll take us about four and half hours."

"Whatever, as long as I don't have to drive." He closes his eyes.

~Thea's POV~

When I wake up, I see white. Panicking slightly, I sit up and realize I am in a bed, and that it's pitch black outside. The room is dark too, the only light coming from the slightly cracked door and from the bed next to me, where Jack is reading by aid of a small pen light.

Noticing me, he smiles as if nothing has happened. He's bandaged up, but still looks cheerful. "Hi, Thea."

I yawn. "Hi." Sudden realization hits me. "Wait, where are we?"

"Detroit. It's the weirdest city I've ever been to. Although," he pauses, thinking, "I haven't really seen anything except for the roads and such."

"How are you feeling?" I ask, feeling slightly dizzy myself.

He shrugs. "Tony put me on a bunch of painkillers, so I suppose pretty bad without them. But now, I'm fine."

"What happened to you?"

Jack's eyes draw. "I'd rather not talk about it right now."

"Okay," I amend, not really wanting to hear it anyway.

"Twelve days or so, huh?"

I look at him sideways, "Loki?" I guess.

"Yep, Loki told me. He still gets on my nerves, that one."

"He's annoying" say, yawning again. But that's when my eyes fall on a rectangular shape on Jack's and my shared nightstand. It's The Fault in Our Stars. "Usually," I add, grabbing it and opening to page one hundred seven. "What time is it?"

"Around eleven."

"Eleven?" I groan.

"Yeah, you were knocked out pretty hard. Although," Jack cocks his head as if considering something. "It might have to do with the sleeping pills Tony made you drink."

"I don't remember that."

"I doubt you would, you were half asleep." He stretches. "That reminds me, Natasha briefly heard from Thor. Says they're doing fine and that Leah misses you and says hi."

I smile a little. "Oh. Thanks."

He nods. "Want to watch a movie? There are loads in this DVD case thing. It's bloody amazing."

"Sure," I say, and Jack hops up. "Hey, shouldn't you be lying down?"

"I feel pretty fine now. Tony says I only had surface wounds and will be pretty much A-okay in a couple days. With the painkillers now, I feel perfectly fine." He opens a small drawer underneath the TV in front of my bed.

I get up and join him. Sure enough, there are lots of movies in here, in all sorts of genres. "I'm feeling a little Disney."

"We are not watching a Disney movie, Jack." This is actually because watching Disney movies reminds me too much of Leah, which gives me too much pain.

He pouts, "Not even Pirates of the Caribbean?"

"I've never seen it," I admit.

Shocked, he pulls a DVD case out. "Well, that's what we're watching."

"Who says you get to decide?" I ask as Jack pops open the DVD player and puts the disk in.

"I do."

"You sure you're not Tony's nephew? You have enough sass."

Jack pokes my nose. "Oh, come off it. You're pretty sassy yourself."

"Thank you."

"That's good to you?"

"Perfectly good." I reply, climbing back into my bed as the previews begin to play. "It comes in handy."

He snorts, then hops onto my bed. "Scoot over. Mine isn't close enough to the TV."

"They're the same distance," I point out, trying to hide the fact that I'm growing very nervous with him in such close proximity to me.

"Actually, if you take the diagonals of b-"

"Oh shut up," I say, leaning back against the pillow. "I hate math."

"Well I love math, so you better learn to live with it."

"No."

"Yes."

"Shut up, I'm trying to watch a movie."

"The previews are still on, Jack," I say. "That's not the movie."

Jack grabs the remote controller from the nightstand and clicks a few buttons. The Disney logo flashes on the screen as the actual movie begins. "There, now it is, smart as-ah, smarty pants."

"Were you about to call me-"

"THE MOVIE IS STARTING."

I roll my eyes but let it go, focusing on the film as a foggy ship comes into view and a little girl begins to sing about pirates on the open seas.

~Nobody's POV~ 

Tony and Loki walk inside the room just as the credits are finished rolling. It's nearly two in the morning.

Thea and Jack are lying next to each other, Thea's head resting just barely on Jack's arm, their eyes closed. "Seeds of romance, what did I tell you?" asks Tony, pointing to them and clicking off the television.

Loki rolls his eyes as Tony picks up Jack and places him back on his bed. He unceremoniously throws a blanket on the boy, who stirs but doesn't wake, before walking out of the room, whistling quietly.

A shadow cast from the open door makes its way towards Thea's bed. Loki pushes her over gently so that she is away from the edge and puts his hand on her head briefly. He leans down and kisses her forehead softly, for the quickest of seconds.

As he rises, he whispers in her ear, "I know you're awake."

A small smile plays at the ends of her mouth.

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Blue Moon Fact

It's not a coincidence that Jack and Thea watch Pirates of the Caribbean when Jack's "actor", Robbie Kay played the Cabin Boy in one of the movies. 

Blue Moon Fact

Loki pressing on Thea's wound to get rid of Kafrandi's poison is inspired by my experience with shin splints in track yesterday. My coach had to rub them to try to get the knot out, and let me tell you, it hurt. so. badly. (Although I'm pretty sure Thea's leg hurt worse)