Ave Maria

Six

Chapter 6

The next morning Thor expected to find Maria still sleeping on the couch, the same way he'd left her last night. If anything, he was looking forward to it; to seeing the blissful look that blessed her beautiful features, before she woke up and it was lost to worry and fear.

He did not find what he expected.

He came downstairs to find Maria darting back and forth across the living room frantically. He frowned at her from the stairs. "Maria, is there something wrong?"

She didn't stop. "I'm just late that's all. I'm supposed to be at the hospital in five minutes. I'll never make it."

"The hospital? Are you ill?"

"No," she hadn't even looked at him yet, too engrossed in her task. "It's part of my uni course. I'm training to be a midwife."

Thor stepped down from the stairs and crossed to the kitchen table to where his hammer lay. The skies would be blue again today; regardless of what Maria had said last night, he'd calmed the storms for her anyway – not that he'd let her know, of course. He picked Mjolnir up. Repressing his armour was becoming a thoughtless task now. "Then let us go."

Maria stopped in her tracks. She stared at him from across the room. "You can't come." She said bluntly.

"I must. To protect you I must be with you at all times."

"Nothing's going to happen in the hospital." Maria threw a bag over her shoulder, finally standing still.

For the first time that morning, Thor took in her appearance. She was dressed in strange clothes, not her usual dresses, but in a matching pale blue shirt and trousers and her luscious brown waves were pinned back from her face, so they cascaded sweetly down her back. It was a look very different to the feminine style Thor was used to seeing in Maria.

"You agreed." was all he remarked.

That had been the deal: Thor was to stay with her. That had been his only condition to her numerous demands. Although, consent or not, Thor wasn't leaving her side for the world, whatever she said or agreed to, and moreover, whatever she didn't.

A small sound, crossed between a gasp and a chuckle escaped Maria's lips, seconds before she made a bee line for the door. "No, seriously, you can't. It's not your scene, and you can't waltz around with that hammer in the hospital. That was part of the deal, remember?"

"As was the fact that I am to stay with you at all times." Thor followed her out the front door without hesitation. Yes, he thought proudly to himself with a satisfied smirk, bright blue skies. Something nagged on his mind though. "What do you mean by 'not my scene'?"

Maria let out a sharp bark of laughter. "You look like sort of guy who puts people in the hospital!" she held the door open slightly, with every intention of having Thor and his insanely huge hammer walk straight back through it.

Thor braced the hammer in his hand, playing his final card.

"I can get you there on time."

Maria froze.

Thor watched as her head rolled back and she whined through her teeth, battling with her indecision. He couldn't help but grin, sensing his victory. It was sealed with the lock of the door.

"Okay, you win." She said, turning to him, tucking the key the pocket of her strange blue shirt. "How can you get me there on time?"

"Like this."

He barely gave her time to blink before his large hand clamped around her waist and drew her to him, while he raised Mjolnir to the sky and lifted them up. He felt Maria's hands claw around him in an instant, clinging to him like a child as he soared them through the air. His grin widened as he imagined her face.