Thorki

Blue Gloves

The elevator doors open and Thor runs out, but he only gets a couple steps before he stops. Loki lays on a gurney in the middle of the room, his skin dark blue, his clothes with visible rips, and 18 wires attached around his head.

"Thor?" He turns his attention to Dr. Cho, who stands next to the machine that the wires are attached to. "What are you doing in here? I thought you were meeting with the other Avengers?"

"Meeting ran short." Thor blurts out. 'No reason to scare her,' he thinks. "Has your machine told you anything?" He asks, pointing at the machine with Mjolnir as he walks through the room.

"Not much," Dr. Cho admits, "he seems to be doing okay," she looks at the paper being printed out by the machine, "his delta activity is higher than it should be-"

"What does that mean?" He asks as Dr. Cho moves across the room to a set of drawers against the wall. She grabs a syringe from a draw and a bottle of a clear liquid from another one. She proceeds to fill the syringe with the clear liquid, then she puts on blue gloves and grabs the syringe once more before moving over to Loki. "What are you doing?"

"I am giving Loki some morphine, he seems to be in some pain-"

"Pain? Why?"

Dr. Cho inserts the needle into Loki's arm, with surprisingly no resistance against it. "I don't know why he's in pain, Thor, I just know that he is." She takes the needle out of Loki's arm and throws it into a waste bin a couple feet away. Then she takes the gloves off and tosses them towards the end of the gurney by Loki's feet. "Listen, Thor," she heavily sighs, "Loki's body temperature is well below freezing, when I tried to hook up a saline drip earlier the bag froze. Those blue gloves," she motions to the gloves at the end of the gurney, "are the only reason I don't have frostbite on my hands. I don't understand his biology or why his body temperature is so low, but I understand the EEG's readings. It's allowing me to keep track of how he's doing for now and I'm trying to help with what I am able to, but I can't truly help him if the problem is within his mind. I'm sorry." She says in irritation but with sincere eyes.

Thor just nods in response. How is he supposed to respond to that? He doesn't understand the machine that Loki is connected to, she does. She may not have the same powers as Frigga or Loki, but she is helping him with what she does have. Dr. Cho is doing everything that she knows to do, what else can be expected of her?

"I am leaving for the night, I will be back tomorrow to check on him." Dr. Cho says as she walks towards the elevator with her bag and presses the button," Stay as long as you like." She smiles at Thor then enters the elevator.

Thor turns back towards Loki. He knows he cannot do anything for him. He knows that he is helpless here. Thor takes staggering steps towards the gurney, reaching for Loki's hand as he approaches but stop as he feels the air grow colder around Loki. Then he looks at the blue gloves that lay upon Loki's legs. 'Dr. Cho said those kept her from getting frostbite.' Thor thinks as he grabs the gloves.

'Please.' He repeats over and over in his head as he slides the gloves onto his hands. He pulls a stool over so he can sit next to Loki then grabs his hand.

Unlike the piercing pain that's he's felt from Loki's skin before, this was different. Loki's blue icy skin feels like nothing more than a cold chill to Thor now. Thor smiles, bringing his other hand up to hold onto Loki's hand as well. Then he rests his head on one of his hands, making sure not to touch Loki's hand with his face.

"I don't know if you can hear me," Thor whispers, "but I need you to come back."  His grip on Loki's hand tightens. "I need you to wake up," his voice begins to tremble, "and I need you to make sarcastic comments like you always do," a tear slides down Thor's cheek, "and I need you to look at me with your emerald eyes and your mischievous smile." Another tear falls as Thor continues. "I need you, Loki. I always have." A sad laugh escapes his lips. "So, please come back to me."

Loki's hand grips Thor's as one of the machines starts ringing. Thor lifts his hand quickly and moves his left hand to Loki's face. "Loki?" Loki's blue skin starts to lighten and Thor can feel a slight warmth coming from him. Thor can feel himself start to smile, but he stops when the beeping stops and Loki's body turns cold and blue once again.

In irritation Thor stands up from the stool and heads towards the elevator. He pulls the blue gloves off as he walks, throwing them onto a nearby table as he gets closer to the elevator. 'Stupid!' His mind roars at him, 'You thinking pleading with him will magically wake him up?' Thor punches the elevator door just before it opens. 'Might as well shock him lightning.' Thor pressed the button for Tony's workshop.