Dead Memories

37

Chapter Thirty-Seven

'You!' Thor interrupted, almost angrily, pointing a finger at Leah.

'Me,' she replied calmly.

Steve looked back and forth between the two of them, wondering if he was going to need to intervene here as well.

'You were in Asgard,' Thor said.

'Yes,' Leah said, finally hopping down from the wooden chest, smoothing out her green dress.

'You sent someone to spy on me, brother?' Thor asked, turning back to Loki angrily.

'I was keeping an eye on you,' Leah said as she walked closer to the rest of them. 'It's hardly a deed worth making such a fuss over.'

'I think I am better suited to decide that,' Thor said, but Leah just walked past him to get to Loki, who was still leaning heavily on the wall.

'Things went far worse than I expected,' she said with a sigh. Loki was giving her an odd look, so Steve was probably not the only one who didn't forget about her initial reaction. She did not act any differently now, as far as Steve could tell, but obviously something bothered her about Loki's new appearance.

'Are you well, James?' Leah asked without looking away from Loki.

'Yeah, I'm fine,' Bucky responded. Steve really had enough of hearing that word coming out of his mouth, because he kept repeating it, but it was obviously not the case. Steve wanted to drag him up to his floor and tuck him in his bed, or something. Pull him away from all of this, give him time to breathe and calm down.

'And you, Captain?'

'I'm okay, Leah, thanks,' Steve said. He knew Leah was not just some average girl, but he still found it hard to be anything but polite. She was polite herself, which helped.

Loki huffed and reached out to grab one of Leah's shoulders, trying to communicate without words again, with not much success. Leah followed the gestures with her eyes for a moment or two, then grabbed Loki's furiously flailing hand.

'Calm down,' she said. 'What is it?'

'No voice,' Bucky said plainly. 'Came with the red hair.'

'No, that can't be right,' Leah frowned. 'Let me look at you.'

She grabbed Loki's head with both hands and almost immediately noticed the wound on her neck.

'How did you die?' she asked, tilting Loki's head back a little.

'She was stabbed through the neck,' Steve said. 'With the spear.'

'Is it part of the new shape?' Bucky asked.

'No, it cannot be,' Leah said as she let go of Loki. 'But that spear is a powerful weapon, so it might take some time for you to fully recover.'

Loki nodded at her. Steve wasn't sure if it was relief he saw, or just a calm that settled over Loki, but he would've taken serene over manic any day.

'Where's the spear?' Leah asked then.

'Uh, HELEN?' Steve asked, because he had no idea. Things went fuzzy after he got into the Quintjet, so he didn't really keep track of things.