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

Saying the Wrong Things

At five o'clock not having heard from Jess Tony decides to go down and see if she is ready to go to the gym with him.  After knocking on her door and getting no reply he decides she must be with Loki so goes to his room and knocks on that door "hello Tony and what can I do for you?"

"Can I see Jess please?"

Loki raises an eyebrow at him "but she is not here".

"Where is she then?"

Loki shrugs "I'm afraid I have no idea where she is at the moment.  I haven't seen her for about an hour, we were talking about our respective projects and then she just got up and rushed off excusing herself saying she needed to go to the gym".

"Okay I'll go there then" and he turns to walk away but then stops feeling uneasy and turns back to Loki "did anything else happen earlier? You say she rushed off, was she okay when she left?"

"I'm not sure, we seemed to be getting on okay however when I mentioned having to help her she seemed to get upset and that's when she rushed off to the gym".

"Oh shit" Tony spits out and rushes towards the lift.

"Wait" Loki shouts "I'll come with you it seems I may have said something to upset her and I have no idea what?" he joins Tony as they wait for the lift.  Loki notices how agitated Tony is as he hits the button "you seem worried about Jessica, why is that?"

Tony looks over at Loki "I guess you haven't had chance to read her full file yet."

"No, Fury told me some things but Thor only gave her file to me just before he left to collect Jane and so as yet I haven't looked at it, after we arrived I was busy introducing myself to Jessica and then sorting my things".

"I think you need to read up on Jessica's history fast Loki, it's all in her file and it doesn't all make pleasant reading" he hands Loki a pad with a remote link to Jarvis pulling up Jess's file.  "What you have to understand is that Jess came to New York to get away from and to forget her past.  Something happened during the alien attack that changed her she had decided to resign from working at Stark Industries.  However before she could Fury met with her about you and joining the Avengers Initiative, I think that she is struggling to cope with their interest in her abilities, she did however agree to this one month trial period.  After that she will make her decision to either stay or leave".  The door of the lift opens and they step out with Loki still reading Jess's file, as they walk forward they hear her before they actually see her.

Jess had been in the gym for half an hour or so and in all that time she has tried skipping, biking and running on the treadmill nothing has helped.  So finally she gave up and started to pummel the punch bag in the hope of releasing her tension and anger.  After 20 minutes the tears had started to flow in earnest and now some 30 minutes down the line she was starting to feel completely drained her face red her eyes sore from all the tears.  Still she pushed herself on and on not caring how she looked just wanting to rid herself of the thoughts in her mind. 

Suddenly she heard Tony's voice "Jess honey maybe you should take a break now" he was worried she looked ready to keel over.

"I'm fine" she continues punching the bag.  "I just want to be alone" another strong punch "I'm not very good company at the moment."

"Okay honey but not too much longer please making yourself ill isn't going to help anything".

Jess continues to throw punches "okay ten minutes tops I promise".

Tony turns to Loki "let's go she isn't going to stop any time yet".

As they walk back towards the lift Loki slows to a stop "I think I'm going to wait here, now that I've read her file something tells me that she will not just do ten minutes more" Tony looks at Loki who hasn't taken his eyes from the file he was reading.