Working Title : Loki & Annie

chapter four

Annie walked firmly out to the living room and back to the couch. She saw Thor was still kneeling on the floor, a huge hand on his brothers head gently stroking over the long matted mess of hair. She stopped suddenly as she saw Loki again. Her stomach clenched. She hadn't forgotten what he looked like. But she had somehow forgotten what he looked like. Forgotten what the the reality was. She squeezed her eyes shut while she again covered her mouth but only for a moment before moving to kneel beside Thor.

The two adults stared down at the face of the child. The sound of the rain and rumbles of thunder filled the silence. Loki took little breaths through his nose though he seemed to struggle, his chest never seeming to fully rise beneath the cloth.

Annie stared at Loki's lips, they were red and swollen. The thread was black but it was impossible to know if that was its original color or simply the color it had become. The wounds where it entered his flesh were in various stages of healing. Those in the center were weeping blood, those at the corners of his mouth were nearly healed around the thread. Each stitch had been looped through the skin and tied off, nothing a woman familiar with a needle and thread would do.

Annie found herself chanting under her breath. "Oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god OHGOD."

Thor turned his head to look into her face. He saw too much disbelief. "My  lady. We should go. This is too much to ask you to see."

Annie shook her head and looked at Thor. "What? No. No, you can't go." She swallowed. "I'm okay. I'm okay." She ran both hands over her head, her hair still dripping wet. "I'm fine." She nodded, her words trying to convince herself. She brought up her first aid kit. "But I don't think this is going to help at all. He needs, he needs." Her voice trailed off while her free hand helplessly waved in the air.

"I know." Thor spoke understandingly. He hadn't had much time to process what he had seen but he knew more than what Annie did.

"I'm guessing you can't just take him to the hospital." Annie set the first aid kit on the couch next to Loki.

"No. No I can not. However, I have friends that I'm hoping will be willing to help us." Thor ran a tender thumb over Loki's forehead. "I will have to ask them."

Annie's head snapped up to look at Thor. "What'd you mean you're hoping they'd be willing to help? If they're your friends then there's no question about it. You show up and they help."

Thor gave another of those faded smiles. "It is, complicated, Lady Annie."

She shook her head. Her voice was surprisingly angry though Thor wondered if the anger came from something he knew nothing about. "No. That's thing about friends, Thor. It's not complicated at all. Especially if it involves a kid. Why wouldn't they help your brother? He's a little kid." She waved at him. "Just look at him." Annie's eyes had been gathering tears the more she had been talking, now she swiped them away.

Thor stared at her. She was crying. Over Loki. He didn't know of any woman who had ever cried over his brother except their mother. This stranger didn't even know him and she spared tears for him. Though she probably wouldn't if she knew who exactly he was and what terrible things he had done. If she knew there would be no tears.

He looked back at his brother. He spoke more confidently than he felt. "They will help him. I just need to, prepare them. The last time they met, he was much different. And the, consequences of that meeting are still being felt."

"How different could he have been?" She motioned to Loki. Who could hold a grudge against a little kid? What did he do? Pee on their rug? Paint the walls? Maybe hit their kid? What could be so bad to turn away a kid in need of help?