Steel Meets Iron

Chapter 18

He heard the Stark girl was in the hospital, well, he caught wind of it. They all thought that he would actually harm her, and in fear of this was trying to shield her from him. They really hadn't learned anything since their last battle. Their technology was child's play to him, so easily to maneuver around, and they themselves were so easy to infiltrate. A simple spell and they all slumbered.

Save for her.

Did they really think he would harm a child? It was true he held no affection for Midgard or it's inhabitants, he didn't see any problem in spilling their blood. As long as it served a greater purpose. This child's death would bring him nothing. He could aggravate the Avengers in more interesting ways. Thor no doubt told them about his escape, did he also believe he would murder a child? His new found wisdom did nothing for his overall intellect.

Loki watched Raven as she slept with a toy resembling an animal in her grip. Tony Stark and his woman were sleeping on opposite sides of the bed, cradled in curved chairs wrapped in blankets. In the bed where the child's bed was a book, no doubt a fable they had read to her before she had fallen asleep. He had been utterly silent but somehow she sensed him. She rubbed her eyes and saw him. Strangely she was fascinated by him but not afraid.

"How did you get here?" She yawned.

"Oh, I just came in." Aloofly he sat on the bed. "I heard you were unwell, so came to see what's wrong with you."

It was remotely true. He wondered what had been so important that it distracted them all from their search for him.

"My heart's not working anymore," she explained. "I have to get a new one."

"A new heart?" Midgardians were so barbaric in their methods. "They're going to take out your heart and put in a new one?"

It was hard to picture someone cutting open her chest, removing a defective organ and putting in another person's heart.

She nodded, "I'm just waiting for somebody to die so I can get my surgery."

At least she wasn't ignorant about her procedure. Ignorance was so unattractive.

"Aren't you afraid?" He asked. "Quite a serious situation."

"A little," she admitted. "But everyone says it's harder to get a kidney or a liver. And the doctors say that it's a very easy operation." She yawned, "I just feel very tired all the time."

"Do you know why you need a new heart?"

He found this somewhat fascinating. Reusing a dead man's organs to keep another alive. It was quite morbid, taking a man's remains to soothe the living. Any knowledge was always appreciated however.

"I was born with a hole in her heart," she explained. "My other daddy, told me I was born early, and that's why my heart wasn't made right. Now the hole's getting bigger and because of that my heart isn't working right. If I don't get a new heart I'll die."

He took it all in. "Interesting. You were born too small." A fact however stood out to him. "Your other daddy? You have two fathers?"

"Three."

"How can a girl have three fathers?"

His first thought was that her mother had been a whore of some sort and had narrowed the identity of the girl's father by three men. It happened.

"My mommy met Tony first but she didn't tell him I was in her tummy. She had a boyfriend that I thought was my daddy." She held up one finger. "I found out he wasn't my daddy when they died. So I went to live with my Auntie Irene and I called her boyfriend daddy, but I knew he wasn't my real daddy." Another finger went up. "And now that he's in jail, everyone told me that I have to live with my real daddy now. But I don't call him daddy," she added reverently.