When Anna met Loki

Chapter 7

Water. Water dripping from the ceiling to a big puddle... „Drip-drop.... drip-drop". The drops turn into rain, raindrops hitting a surface of a river... The river flowing...
„Water..." was all Loki could think of, when he was not thinking of Anna.
He woke up from yet another painful dream feeling thirst, fear and hopelessness. He couldn't tell how many hours or days had passed since Garmador left him here. Loki knew he was not coming back for him. He left him here to die. With some kind of sensors stuck to his temples sending small electric shocks every time Loki tried to use magic, there was no way for him to leave this place on his own.
Of course he did not believe that at first; for the initial few hours actively trying to free himself, not being discouraged by the metal chain that his hands were tied with behind his back. When that did not work, he tried magic and also did not get discouraged by the painful electric shocks. Until the moment he lost consciousness and after waking up totally lost track of time.
Then Loki focused on finding even the slightest trace of water and ended up licking moist of the cave wall. For he was in a cave, a limestone cave and an open one. No rain however came from that hole above his head, only the mean, killer sun beams.
When all of his attempts failed, he turned to the last way of escaping; in his mind. Loki focused his thoughts on Anna. Remembering how they met, how she made him feel and then trying to imagine what she might be doing at that very moment. And during one of such escapes he felt her presence. As if she was scanning the universe in search of him. Loki tried sending his thoughts to her, but he was weak and could not sense Anna for long.
This gave him a little more energy though, so he focused only on connecting with her. "Was it because of the baby that she now had this power?" he wondered. He felt the growing hope for an escape and of maybe seeing Anna once more and the baby... Until that dream, that dream when he finally connected with her, only to see Garmador getting to her.
There was nothing left... no escape, no water, no Anna, no baby... He failed... He pulled her into his universe so sure that he would be able to protect her. How stupid and naïve! Lying on the ground with the cave dust in his hair and mouth, Loki felt nothing but numb.
The sunbeams were playing tricks on him; making him see what was not real. Anna, Thor, Stark, Romanoff... "This must be it..." he thought. "My life flashing in front of me."
He couldn't take his eyes from the vision of Anna. She was walking towards him so confident and powerful. She had a leather coat on which made her look like a warrior. The coattails were fluttering around her pregnant belly.
"Loki...!" she called out to him as if from far away.
" Brother, finally!" he also heard Thor's voice and then footsteps around him. Someone trying to lift him up. But he couldn't stop staring in Anna's eyes. How he had failed her.
"Anna..." he whispered. "Forgive me..." and he fell into the dark abyss of pain again.

The moment they were on board of the jet, Stark gave Loki IV rehydration. When seeing Anna's surprised look he smirked.
"With metal inside my chest, several years ago, knowing how to insert a needle came in handy."
She just nodded and grabbed Loki's hand. She could see his chest moving up and down which calmed her a bit.
When they were already in the air, Stark asked, "Will you now tell us, how you knew where to find him?" Clearly this was the main thing on his mind right now. Anna could very clearly sense that he was worried, hesitant and at moments even scared, scared of her. Well, maybe not of her but of the fact that he did not know what she was capable of.
Well, she couldn't blame him. Anna was not sure herself of what she was capable of. With each passing day it seemed she was discovering more power hidden somewhere inside of her. What she did to that alien in her house... she knew this was just the beginning, she knew one day she could go much further. This was however not her concern right now, similarly as Stark's piece of mind.
"I'm sure before Natasha visited me to reveal all the revelations of my... parentage, she told you all about it. So I assume you know 'how'..." Anna just answered not taking her eyes off Loki. She felt Stark wanted to add something, answer with one of his punch lines, but surprisingly he parked the topic and just gave her a loud sigh moving to the front of the jet.
When they finally reached the base a doctor and two nurses were already waiting for them. They immediately took care of Loki, putting him on a stretcher and rushing him into the infirmary.
Thor followed them instantly. Anna knew he felt guilty for having thought that Loki pulled one of his tricks again, while he was actually left to die in a cave.
Everyone seemed to be in a hurry to take care of their own business, when Natasha noticed Anna stopping in the middle of the hangar.
"Anna, is everything alright?"
"Do you think that now that we've brought back Loki and have the green guy locked up, that we could finally have that baby?" Anna asked calmly with a slight sound of irony in her voice. She really enjoyed the look on everybody's faces; at first not understanding what she meant, then their jaws dropping as the awareness dawned on them.
"Oh!"
"Oh!"
"Oh!" 
Was everybody's reaction at the realization that Anna was actually in labor.
"Now?" Stark asked.
"Well, the cramps started already in the cave," Anna explained lightly. "But obviously back there we had something else on our minds. And anyway, I knew the baby could still wait a moment..."
"Of course you knew!" Stark concluded sarcastically. "I assume the baby can't wait any longer?"
"Nope."