Helping Ellis

5. Be It Ever So Humble

Loki watched as a whistling Stark knocked on the cell door and walked in breezily. A pair of black braclets swinging off of his fingers.
"Snap these on and your little toy will be in here to chat" Obediently Loki held his arms out and allowed them to be put on his wrists. "They will stop you reading minds and from disappearing." Stark explained. "Just in case you get any ideas" he winked and left.

"Good morning Loki. How are you feeling today?" Ellis had decided to approach the whole thing as if he were a client coming to her for counselling. "Tea?" She had  decided to make tea for the start of each session so that they had a small ritual to introduce themselves to where they needed to be.

"Six weeks of two hours a day and every lead he's come up with we are just behind them." Steve lent against the table his face creased with anger as he complained. Ellis lent next to him and passed him a cup of coffee and waited patiently knowing he needed to express his anger. "you need to get him to start giving us better intel" Ellis nodded at his statement and sighed. "He's jut taking advantage of this whole situation" Gently Ellis laid a hand on his arm and nodded.
"I want to try something. But I'm not sure your going to like it" Tony Stark paused and started to pay attention. "Let's reward him for how far we've come. For all the crap leads he has given us. Let him out of the cells, give him a room and make him socialise with everyone." From the look on Rogers face she knew he was against this idea. "We need to do something to make him up his game" she continued "But I will need everyone to be polite to him and treat him like a normal person. No calling him a criminal all the time Stark" Tony just grinned.

"Ok. But it's the room next to yours" Stark stood up and left rapidly before Rogers could object.

"Are you sure about this? He's going to be in the room next to you." As Steve expressed his concerns Ellis raises an eyebrow and Dennis moved to her side. Another subtle hand signal had him staring at Steve a low growl coming out of him.
"He can't do anything and I've got a trained Alsatian sleeping on my bed." With a snap she sent the dog back to the floor.
"When he's not with Bucky" Steve argued.
"Oh If Loki is in the next room to me Dennis is sleeping in mine I don't want to wake up with a pillow in my face. Because as helpful as he's being, he is a stone cold killer and I'm keeping that in mind" Steve nodded and visibly relaxed. Impressed that Ellis obviously knew what she was talking about. "But you get to tell Bucky he's loosing his snoring bed mate" she added.

Loki waked slowly out of his cell and down the corridor with Ellis. He watched her walking and reading a report at the same time. She was genuinely the most unco-ordinated woman he had ever seen. He'd once commented that her shoes were ridiculously flat and she had howled with laughter explaining she got air sick on anything over an inch high.
He didn't even pretend to understand her joke and had just scowled at her for the rest of the day. Occasionally as they walked she pushed a stray red hair out of her eyes. Pausing by the lift to press the button to take them to another floor. He was slightly puzzled as to why they were wandering around the Tower. They stepped out onto a floor he hadn't visited before that was obviously living quarters. Ellis rummaged in her pockets and found a key card which she used to open the non descript door and walk in.
"Well" She began. "Be it ever so humble this is your new home. I'm going to leave you to settle in. You will be taking your meals with everyone else and that's non negotiable. What you do with your time outside of our sessions is mostly up to you, there's a library, a gym and a lap pool . You cannot leave the tower without an escort and if you wish to know anything just ask Jarvis" Loki looked completely shocked and remained standing as she left. Pausing in the doorway she turned to face him "I'm in the room next door with Dennis" Lokis eyes immediately lit up. Finally he was going to find out about her room mate.
"Dennis?" He asked a slightly dangerous tone in his voice. "Ah the one who keeps you warm at night" ignoring the sneer in his voice she replied.
"Yep. Do you want to meet him?" innocently. Loki smiled a slightly dangerous smile.
"He's asleep at the moment but we can wake him." Loki followed her into the next room. It was similar to his but had more cushions and one or two personal items on display. Plus a large display of sunflowers. "What I like flowers" she shrugged following his stare.
Loki could see a shape on the bed and to his surprise Ellis whistled and the shape exploded from the bed landing in her arms."Meet Dennis" she grinned staggering slightly under his weight as a pair of golden eyes stared knowingly at him. "My advice would be not to disturb him if he's sleeping. Sharp teeth" wordlessly Loki left the room and returned to his new home ignoring the smirk on Elle's face. Laying on his bed he mulled over this new information. He had planned to start dripping poison into Dennis ear but the fact he was a dog meant that was not going to happen.