Working Title : Loki & Annie

42 The Storm

By the time Loki had stopped crying Annie felt drained, physically along with emotionally. He had refused to let her go when Thor had tried to take him from her arms Loki's cries had grown and his limbs had tightened their hold. Despite Annie's efforts to tell Loki That Thor wanted to hold him, the boy had shaken his head until his nails had painfully dug into her arms.

Thor had eventually held his hands up in defeat and stepped away. "Keep him, keep him," He had nearly pleaded, "I won't take you, Brother. Stay with Lady Annie." His hands shook with his strong emotions until he dropped them uselessly to his sides. There was nothing he could do. He breathed out a resigned, "Peace, Loki, peace."

Now, sitting in her chair, leaning back so Loki was laying against her chest she was able to feel as his body trembled while his breathing slowed from deep shudders to an occasional spasm of inhalation.

Thor sat across from her, his hands compressed together so tightly that there was white showing where they touched. He stared at Loki with knitted brows, until he seemed to eventually need to vent, "I wish I could go back to Asgard at this very moment to search out those responsible for Loki's affliction. I would bring their end with my very hands about their throats."

Annie worried for just a beat that she was getting used to Thor's statements of murder and mayhem. She totally ignored the fact that she was starting to agree that perhaps his way would be acceptable, just this once. She looked down at Loki who had his head under her chin, the fingers of one hand holding her shirt in a death grip. His eyes were open but not seeing. He was breathing heavily through his mouth, his nose must have been stuffed up because he kept sniffing. Every once in awhile tears would slip from his eyes to run down his cheeks and she would try to catch them before they slipped over his jaw and down his neck.

"There will come a day when we will return and I will make sure no one escapes punishment for what has been done to him." Thor's eyes met Annie's, "No one will escape my anger. No one."

Annie let her skepticism show on her face and in her tone, "Your parents?" She raised a single eyebrow, questioning him just as sharply as her words.

Thor looked uncomfortable though he asserted, "Even them. At least they must answer why they did this to him." His eyes rested on Loki, "All our lives we've been told that our Father does nothing without a purpose." Thor's hands clenched. "I've tried to believe that our Father has a reason for this," he waved a hand at Loki, "However all I can find in my heart is that he did not deserve this level of punishment. Nothing he did was equal to this amount of torment." 

"And what would be an appropriate punishment? For what he did in New York? And Germany?" Annie was honestly curious, what was the punishment for trying to take over an entire planet?

Now Thor looked uncomfortable, his shoulders subconsciously turning away from Annie. At first, he hesitated to answer, and then it was as if he were confiding something awkward and embarrassing, "You have to understand that Midgard is thought of as uncivilized and backward. What happened here does deserve punishment, don't think that it doesn't, however-" Thor's uncomfortableness increased. "Time in a cell and providing wergild to the families of the deceased and to those injured would be considered enough." Thor raised his eyes to meet Annie's.

"Wergeld?"

"The price of a man. Blood money. Compensation for the life lost or the injury caused."

Annie raised an eyebrow, "That would be a lot of money. I don't know the exact number of people killed and injured but it has to be a lot." Annie frowned, "Probably in the thousands. That would be an incredible amount of money."

Thor looked offended, "Loki is a Prince of Asgard. He has more than enough funds to cover any debt that could be assessed upon him. And if for some reason he couldn't our family would pay it." Thor shrugged, "I would pay it in full gladly if it meant Loki were free from this judgment." There was a frown on his face, he was displeased with his thoughts.