Wishing He Was More Than A Friend (Loki/Avengers story)

Jessica

Jess sat at the desk in her office on the 21st floor of Avengers looking out of the window over the New York skyline deep in thought. She had worked for Stark Industries for five years and had always enjoyed her job immensely. Her thoughts went to the first few weeks of her employment when she had been hired by Pepper Potts to be her Assistant. Pepper had required an Assistant to be permanently based at Stark Industries Head Office in New York known at Stark. Back then Jess was newly arrived from England and couldn't believe her luck when she landed this particular job. She seemed to have found the perfect boss to work for and sensing Jess's nervousness had helped her as best she could to settle in. The memories brought a smile to her face as she remembered how the other staff in the building had gossiped about Tony Stark the big boss and her boss Miss Potts. The talk had all been about how they were an 'item' Tony Stark himself however was seldom seen around the building even though Jess knew when he was there. She didn't actually meet him in person until she had been there for about eighteen months or more.

Jess thought of how when she decided to leave her job at MI5 in England she had thought the move to New York would mean her life would return to something like normal. She had just started to relax and enjoy life again when the attack on New York took place. The alien invasion of New York had changed the city and her life leaving her unsure of how she felt about everything in her life once more.

~~ Jess was running for her life quite literally, New York was under attack, not from any known enemy though these were aliens. Jess's head was pounding, loud noises screamed in her mind in a confused jumbled up mess, all she knew was that she had to get as far away as possible from Stark Tower and so here she was running through the streets dodging falling masonry from the buildings. She stopped for a second to catch her breath but on looking up she gasped as a gigantic armour plated creature snaked its way between the buildings panicking more she urged her legs to move on again. Jess was running without thinking just trying to put some distance between her and the alien invaders, she turned a corner just as the wall of the building came crashing down. Jess had no time to back track, she was knocked out and buried under a mass of rubble.

Slowly her eyes opened, it was dark and she tried hard to keep her panic down by checking if she could move her body. Cautiously Jess moved first her feet, then her legs, arms and head all were free, so then she tried to move her torso turning successfully on to her side. As her eyes became accustomed to the dark she realised that she had been quite fortunate ending up in a small pocket amongst the rubble. It was hard to breathe as there was so much dust in the air so she took some tissues from her pocket holding them to her mouth to filter the air a bit. She strained her ears to listen for any noise, she had no idea how long it had been since the collapse of the building or how long she had been unconscious for under the debris from the building. Jess could hear sounds, muffled noises but no more explosions it seemed like the battle was over and she wondered who had won she desperately hoped it was the humans.

Surveying the area in which she was trapped Jess gingerly tried to move towards what she hoped was the surface of the rubble. It was a long slow job inching along on her stomach then climbing upwards carefully moving bits of brick and concrete from above to underneath her both clearing her way up and giving her a platform on which to stand to reach higher. After what seemed like an age but was in fact about half an hour Jess rested, her whole body ached. She had managed by her estimation to crawl about 6 feet upwards from the pavement where she had originally been. She lay still listening hard and praying, trying to hear any sound that would tell her there were people searching through the debris. Now that she had stopped she realised how much her head hurt, alongside the physical pain she felt came the mental strain. Whoever the aliens were that had attacked New York they had psychic abilities just like her and their communications had been echoing through her head as she had tried to escape the attack torturing her more than the physical exertion of running.