Starting Over - Loki (COMPLETE)

7) Friends

Loki would say that his time as a doctor was possibly the most enjoyable of his life. He was well liked, with good friends, and he was a favourite among the patients, especially those in long-term care. For the first time ever, he was doing what he liked and was good at - helping people, rather than being expected to have a trick up his sleeve. He had plenty of friends among the other doctors but Loki would say he had four really close friends - Daniel, Uriel, Alejandro and Libby.

Daniel was Loki's closest friend at the hospital, a joker but also an all-round nice guy. In fact, the only thing that really annoyed Loki about him was his floppy blonde hair or that he could go from a carefree soul to a Mother Hen in a matter of seconds.

In addition to Daniel, Uriel was a brown-haired narcissist who could be found more often in the canteen chatting up anyone he bumped into or napping than doing any actual work. However, when you got to know him, Uriel revealed himself to be fiercely loyal and actually fairly diligent at his job as a pathologist.

Alejandro was a pessimist with black hair sticking up in gelled spikes. When he wasn't moping, he gave relentless advice to anyone who would listen and then drank multiple cups of coffee to begin the process all over again. He was the only anaesthetist at the hospital and was constantly on his feet.

Elizabeth, or Libby, was Canadian with long ginger hair. She was a hard-working nurse with aspirations of becoming a trauma surgeon and ran the hospital food trolley in her free time. When night shifts left her grumpy and worn out, it took nothing more than a smile from Loki to rejuvenate her perpetual happiness.

As well as his hospital work, Loki still communicated with Jane and occasionally met up with her. Jane was working on a theory that could comprehensively explain Einstein-Rosen bridges and, although Loki wouldn't bring it up, most of her research was from theories of his own and papers he'd published. The theory that Jane wanted to call her own was a conclusion Loki had already jumped to years ago in Asgard, although of course his theory wouldn't have been explained in scientific terms but in magical terminology and runic symbols understood only by Loki and a few very talented Asgardian academics. As such, Loki had then published several academic papers on astronomy during his university years which Jane had perused to publish her own thoughts on the matter.

"How did you reach all these conclusions?" She asked one day.

They sat at a café with mugs of coffee between them. Jane had piles of papers before her and had decided to bring up the fact that she was pretty much plagiarising Loki's hard work. Loki, however, couldn't find it in himself to be too bothered by it. He and Jane were known to be friendly among astronomy circles and Jane was, after all, trying to go deeper than he had done.

"I used ancient papers," Loki replied. "Ancient Norwegian papers."

The papers were, in actual fact, papers Loki had written in Asgard which Odin had then presented to Midgard as part of a peace offering. The humans had then worshipped the Tesseract, an idol of Odin which Odin himself had created and Loki's papers about the appearance of the Bifrost in their skies. The papers had been deliberately simplified so that the humans couldn't attempt to replicate the bridge at that early stage in their existence but Loki could realistically have inferred scientific fact from these papers.

"You translated Norwegian papers?" Asked Jane, gobsmacked.

"I am a man of many talents," Loki smirked.

"Don't I know it," Jane muttered.

Hoping the handsome man opposite her wouldn't have heard, although his easy, widening smile indicated otherwise, Jane forged on.

"I don't know why people haven't researched it before," Jane said, shaking her head. "It's so interesting!"

Loki smiled more widely, endeared by her enthusiasm. Very few on Asgard had ever shared his excitement for astronomy. It had been Frigga and not Odin who had encouraged his wider reading and her who had approved his trips to the other realms to gather knowledge.

"I agree," he replied. "Why aren't humans interested in what surrounds them in the atmosphere? The answers could be fantastic, maybe even fantastical."

"I doubt we'll ever discover the answers to our astronomical questions, Alden," she said despondently. "These things take centuries. And the idea of other intelligent life is the stuff of films and TV shows."

If only she knew, Loki thought. He resolved, then and there, to fill Jane in on the answers she so desperately sought if his identity was never revealed or if she never reached any conclusions herself.

"We must have hope," he said instead. "Astronomers may yet have breakthroughs."

"Not this astronomer," Jane laughed, cheering up again at her own joke. "Selvig wonders why I bother. Darcy, too."

"Darcy has no interest in astronomy," Loki pointed out. "And Selvig only wants what's best for you. Tracking down the secrets of the universe isn't the most lucrative career."

"But it will be the most rewarding," Jane said confidently, taking no offense.

"Indeed we hope so," Loki smiled again.

Suddenly his pager beeped. He checked it.

"Sorry," he said, already beginning to rise. "There's an emergency surgery. You know I wouldn't abandon you otherwise."

It had been drawing near to the end of Loki's lunch break anyway. He worked seven days a week and random hours each day so his lunch break, ever fixed in stone, was the only time he could wrangle to meet with Jane. Despite being fixed in stone, however, Loki's lunch break could still be interrupted but only if it was urgent.

"It's fine," Jane replied. "Go and save a life Alden."

He smiled for the third time.

"I'll do my best."

*****

A.N. Jane is slowly worming her way into Loki's heart and Loki is worming his way into the hearts of all his friends - how will it turn out? Thank you for reading!