Part One

Each night, it was always the same: a cool rush of air, a rush of breath, and that terrible feeling of weightlessness that carried Jane into oblivion.

She would float for a time, getting used to that vast space, the expanse of nothing that carried her aimlessly forward. She would open her eyes and try to see where she was going, but the only discernible things in sight were stars.

Jane loved stars. She had learned their names as young as she could, when the world was still shiny and new. She would draw their constellations on everything -homework, books, paper mats at restaurants. Her parents were proud of her: such a young age, and already such talent. Now, as an adult - after Thor - she could finally prove that her interest was worth it.

Every night, she floated; she knew she was going somewhere but had no control of the destination. She knew that someone was bringing her there, but had never met them, never seen them. She would often wake up jittery and restless, eyes wide open and heart racing. She always felt so close to whoever it was, as if all she needed to do was reach her hand out and she could touch them. This had been going on for a month, but she uttered none of it to anyone.

But tonight was different - this time she'd been suspended even longer than usual, and she felt something different about the space she was in. Jane could see a green haze - a sort of smoke covering the stars - and she opened her eyes wider, willing to see. And after what felt like ages, she felt it then: a light touch, feather-like, on her cheek.

The touch came from an invisible thing, but it felt human enough. The warmth of what she imagined a hand penetrated her skin; she closed her eyes involuntarily, thinking that nothing else could have ever felt as right as that. Another touch came, lower, on her clavicle, and she opened her eyes again, the touch bringing a different kind of warmth. The touch trailed lower, over her breasts, down her belly, dancing, and suddenly she felt herself drawn in toward a body that she couldn't see but she could feel. It was warm, and lean, and her heart began to race; she felt a finger trail over her lips, parting them, and then her head was brought in to meet a mouth, surprisingly soft and inviting.

The kiss began slowly enough - Jane tasted what she imagined to be gin, and that pine tree scent associated with it filled her nostrils. She parted her lips, inviting them in, the thought never crossing her mind to figure out who they were.

It felt like a long time, that slow kiss. Her hands were frozen to her sides, their hands were gripping her back, rubbing small circles in the fabric of her shirt. Briefly she wondered which shirt she even happened to be wearing - surely not the one with the stain?

And then, suddenly, the kiss changed, turning heated and passionate. The sort of kiss she always imagined she'd have with Thor, the kind that made her head spin and her toes curl. This was that kiss.

Their hands were everywhere now, and before she knew it, her hands were wrapped around whoever they were. She felt the hard expanse of shoulders, and what felt like leather over them. A man, then. She thought she could hear his breath: sharp bursts, panting in between kisses, and his lips were trailing down her neck -

And suddenly, it was over. Jane's eyes popped open and she sat up in bed, hand gripping the sheets. Her heart was racing again, but this time for an entirely different reason. Her entire body was aching, yearning for the dream to come back. She wanted to finish what they started. She laid back in bed, head turning, checking the time. 4:48 AM. She had to be up at six.

Heat was pooling in between her legs, and she clenched her thighs together, closing her eyes as she did so. If Thor were still here, she would reach over and grab him, wake him up, she'd rub him until he was hard, she'd be so ready for him he wouldn't have to do anything at all. She'd make him stay on his back, slide him inside her…

Her hand was trailing lower, caressing her belly like the stranger in the dream. She reached the waistband of her pajamas, pushed them off to her ankles, settling back down on the bed. She reached lower, until she reached her slit, sliding her fingers in - she was so wet that there was no resistance. She bit her lip, unable to stop the small moan escaping her lips. She was close already and hadn't even done anything yet; it wouldn't take much.

Jane's mind was dancing between the two men: the one she knew very well, and the one she didn't know at all, not even what he looked like. Thor wouldn't have her anymore, but it didn't stop her from remembering the feel of him inside her, his hips jerking to reach his pleasure. The stranger she could only imagine: if his kiss made her spin, what else could he do?

She dipped her fingers in and out for a minute, enjoying the feeling of invasion momentarily. She used her own wetness as lubrication on her clit, sensitive from neglect: it only took thirty seconds or so, fingers swirling around and around in a rhythm only she could master. She felt the impending sensation, the arrival of her orgasm past the precipice. Her walls began to clench, and animal instinct drove her other hand down, fingers pumping her cunt, her eyes squeezing shut tight in preparation for her release - and it came, and she cried out, her hips jerking and swirling with her fingers on her clit, riding it, riding herself until she couldn't take the sensation anymore.

Once it was over, she relaxed against the mattress, bone tired. She pulled her pants back up, and laid there for a moment, allowing her breathing to go back to normal.

As she was drifting back to sleep, she thought she felt another ghost of a touch, but didn't stir.

"Jane, there's some asshole agent on the phone for you."

Jane spun around in her chair, leaving her endlessly streaming screen of numbers behind her. Darcy was holding the office phone out to her as if it was something unsavory, not to be touched. Jane raised her eyebrows at Darcy's crassness, but she could no longer be surprised by it.

She took the phone, warm from use, and held it up to her ear.

"Doctor Foster speaking."

The voice on the other end was cold, clipped; the only sort of voice you'd expect to hear when it was attached to SHIELD.

"Yes, Doctor Foster. My name is Agent Wilson. I'm calling because we must inform you that a dangerous captive we held is no longer in our custody as of yesterday evening. I understand you've met him - Loki? Thor's brother."

"Oh," Jane said, unsure of what else to say. Her fingers gripped the phone a little tighter, and she darted a glance at Darcy, who had gone back to her own PC and was typing furiously. She lowered her voice. "I didn't even know you had him."

"Well, Doctor, if you had, we wouldn't be doing our jobs very well," Wilson said, a touch impatience in his voice. Jane heard the sound of rustling papers on the other end. "Listen, we know that Thor has ended romantic involvement with you," he went on, as if talking about the weather, "but we only ask that you keep an eye out, stay alert, that kind of thing. If you see or hear anything suspicious, call me immediately."

Or hear, he said. The hairs on the back of Jane's neck raised slightly; she knew that Loki had abilities - she had seen him die before her, turn blue, and show up months later, infiltrating Thor's life, hers. The last she knew, he was serving time on Asgard for everything he had done the last couple years; New York, particularly, but there was also the bit about throwing his father into a cell so he could pretend to be the Allfather for a few months. But obviously, something else happened that SHIELD didn't see fit to tell her. Or Thor.

Thor. She had been doing so well, nursing the wound he had left her. It had been at least a week since she had really thought about him. And now this - and her dream - was bringing things back, the memories and feelings she had been shrouding with work - numbers and stars - but she knew it was only temporary, that eventually, the curtain would raise.

"Doctor Foster? Are you alright?"

Jane snapped out of her reverie, she spun back toward her computer, eying warily the numbers dancing across her screen. She was close to figuring out one piece of the Einstein-Rosen Bridge she was working on, a futile effort, she knew, but it gave her comfort to know she was reaching toward something.

"Yes, I'm fine. I'll keep an eye out, and I'll call you if I see anything."

She took down his number and hung up the phone, setting it down with slightly more force than necessary. She turned to look at Darcy, who was peering at her with an inquisitive expression on her face, silently asking.

"Well," Jane said, deciding that hiding it would do more harm than good. "Loki escaped SHIELD custody."

Darcy's eyes popped, mouth hanging open.

"Holy shit! The big bad wolf? I thought he was on Asgurt, or whatever?"

"Asgard," Jane snapped. "I've told you this, a hundred times. And yes, it's news to me too. So now SHIELD thinks…well, I don't know exactly what they think, but they asked me to 'keep an eye out'," she used air quotes for emphasis, sighing. "Sometimes I wonder…how easy would my life have been if I hadn't followed Thor back to the hospital? Why couldn't I just have listened to Erik?"

Darcy's face was all sympathy; she got up and walked over to Jane, patting her arm softly.

"You couldn't have known what was happening. All you knew was he had the answers you were searching for."

Jane searched Darcy's face for sarcasm, but found none. It wasn't often Darcy directly tried to comfort Jane about Thor. She was more of a distracting type - let's go see this movie, how 'bout we try this new restaurant, another cup of coffee? - was more her style.

"Thank you for saying that," she said, meaning it.

"No problem," Darcy replied, her face breaking into its usual expression: contentment. She strode back to her desk. "Now I can tell you how effing rude that agent whogivesashit was. I'm composing the worst review of SHIELD's customer service. Not only did he refuse to tell me why he was calling you, but he told me he'd take me off payroll if I didn't give the phone to you."

Jane laughed, the first time all day. "The worst review, eh? And who's going to see it? Not like you can put it on Yelp."

"Ugh! I wish I could! Instead I'm just mass mailing it to everyone within SHIELD, including the Avengers. Eat shit, Agent Fuckass!"

She hit a button on her keyboard; Jane's email pinged.

Jane spun around, laughing. She was ready to go back to work.

That evening, Jane got home from work, placing her keys into the bowl beside her door. She stretched, exhausted after another day of numbers. She felt that she was close to moving onto another stage of her project; but even with a new stage, it would only be more numbers, just different ones.

Darcy had asked if Jane wanted her to stay the night, "you know, to protect you against the crazy brother" but Jane said no. She didn't really believe that Loki had any reason to come here. Thor and she hadn't spoken in over two months; there was no real value in Loki coming here, especially if he wanted information. Her mind circled around and around on this logic for awhile while she prepared herself a ham sandwich for dinner, cracking open a lager. It didn't matter that they were near Site One, the first place Thor had ever landed in New Mexico. It didn't matter that Loki had sent the Destroyer here over two years ago. He wouldn't come here, because the only thing that was here, was her, and why would he want to bother her?

She finished up her dinner and hopped in the shower, ready for bed. She wanted to catch up on some of the sleep she missed out on from the night before. She could feel herself blushing at the thought of just what exactly she had done - she didn't know what had gotten into her. Certainly, it had been a long time; at least six months since she and Thor had broken up. But with her dreams, especially since they were repetitive, she couldn't figure out what they meant. And there was always the thought in the back of her mind that she was missing a major part of them; something always just out of reach, or on the tip of her tongue, that she couldn't name.

After her shower, she dressed into her softest pair of pajamas, climbing into bed. She wondered idly if she would have another dream - part of her hoped she would. She wanted to know who her mind was conjuring up for her in this fashion. Someone she had passed on the street, perhaps? Someone she used to know?

No, probably not someone she used to know. She'd know if it was, wouldn't she? Isn't that how dreams worked?

Shaking her head, she reached over to turn out the lamp, but a noise coming from the living room stopped her hand in its tracks. A shuffling sound, she thought, and warily, she climbed out of bed to check. She had a baseball bat resting against her dresser. Jane grabbed it, gripping it tightly, and made the short distance to the living room.

Flicking the overhead light switch, the room bathed in light, she saw nothing. She went to the kitchenette, nothing. Into the bathroom, in the linen closet.

Nothing.

"Just your imagination, Jane…" she said under her breath, and went back to the living room to shut the light off.

A book on the coffee table stopped her.

She went to it, setting the baseball bat down on the ground. The book was her dog-eared copy of Poetic Edda, which she hadn't touched since Thor left. Which she was quite certain was on her bookshelf, and not on her coffee table.

"I meant to put that back."

The sound of the foreign voice in her space made her whip around, dropping the book. Her eyes widened as she took in the figure, the same figure she told herself wouldn't come here. And there he was: decked out in leather and gold, looking very much out of place in her almost shabby living quarters, hair slicked back and quite longer than she remembered. Their eyes met, her frightened ones locked with his green calm ones.

He was smirking.

"My, do you look ever so surprised to see me."

His voice was smoother than she remembered. But the last time they spoke, he hadn't been able to say much. In the back of her mind, she knew she should be very afraid; yet he didn't look like anything to be afraid of. Sure, he was wearing weird clothes, but so did Thor, so did all the Avengers, at that note. The most prominent thing standing forefront in her mind was that the two brothers couldn't be any more different.

Where Thor was light, Loki was dark. Plainly. Thor was bulky and muscular, and Loki had a sort of thin grace yet she could tell his strength was hidden, not nonexistent. She was certain he could snap her neck with one hand, if he wanted.

And there it was: her fear. At that thought, her heart began to beat faster, and she bent to pick up the baseball bat.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed, with much less firmness than she had hoped.

Loki smiled, showing straight white teeth. Not the sort of teeth of a murderer, she thought dimly.

"Jane, is this how you treat all your guests?"

"Only the ones that break into my house," Jane shot back, brandishing the bat like a pike. "Get. Out."

"Now, now. Let us talk about this. I only wanted to have a little chat. I'm not here to hurt you, you know."

Jane searched his face; the more seemingly open it was, it was increasingly harder to read. His eyes were on hers, his mouth a small smile. There was nothing nefarious that she could see within it, which made her trust him less. Thor had told her that he was a trickster, that he lied too much and denounced his family. And she knew from Thor and from SHIELD that he had attempted to rule the planet, or some such nonsense. New York was still rebuilding.

Families still mourning, she was sure.

"Say what you're here to say," she let out finally, dropping her bat to her side, her grip still tight.

Loki inclined his head slightly, gesturing toward the sofa. "Let us sit, and talk."

"Fine," she replied, taking a seat as far away from him as possible. He looked incongruous against her fading tan sofa, his leather creaking as he settled into place. He folded his hands together, resting them on his knee. He was still smiling.

"I know you're frightened by my presence," he began, his smile fading, leaving his face with an entirely blank expression. She tried to match it: eyebrows relaxed, mouth in place. "I'm here because I have some things to explain to you that you may not like, but before I leave Midgard, I know in my heart that I must."

Jane's eyebrows knitted together, failing her blank expression facade. She felt very nervous, her palms sweating, and wiped them on her pants slowly, in hopes that Loki wouldn't realize what she was doing.

He didn't say anything else right away, instead apparently favoring watching her. His gaze made her feel naked, more vulnerable than she already was.

"First, and bear in mind that it is against my nature to do so, I'd like to…apologize, of sorts, for startling you this evening."

Another dramatic pause; he was obviously waiting for something, acknowledgment, perhaps, but Jane gave him nothing. His mouth twitched, yet he moved on.

"Secondly, I wish to discuss with you a matter of…delicate nature." His hands unfolded, then folded again. "Your dreams, as of late."

At first, Jane was confused, and she was sure her face showed it. Then, in a strong wave of realization, she understood.

Loki was the stranger in her dream.

She wished she could disappear; she wished she could sink right into the couch and that Loki would leave and never come back. She was sure her face was nothing but flames.

Refusing to meet his eye, she said, "You…you've been responsible for my dreams?"

"Er…yes," he said, in a tone of voice that suggested he found her quite lacking of intelligence. "That is what I am saying."

"So the stranger, last night…"

"Not a stranger any longer, I daresay."

Jane burrowed her face in her hands, forgetting her fear, feeling instead an overwhelming sense of shame. Not only was she enjoying the dreams before last night, but last night at all made her feel like she had betrayed Thor somehow; although Thor no longer held a position in her life to betray. She had to remind herself of this fact.

Loki's voice broke through her train of thought, soft and uncertain. "Are you…quite alright?"

Jane spread her fingers slightly to peek at him, who was watching her curiously. She lowered her hands, brushed her hair back off her face.

"What kind of question is that? You…you, projected yourself into my dreams, or something. You…I don't even have words for what you did. You kissed me. You…made me feel…things. No. I'm not alright."

His response was quick, the sort of response that comes only from those that have rehearsed: "I don't expect you to understand. But I did not start this. I may have given you a nudge, yes, but I was simply responding to what you wanted. You called out for change, for inspiration, one night. I wasn't actively searching for you, but I found you regardless. I showed you the place you were seeking for your Rainbow Bridge."

Jane couldn't wrap her head around what he said, so she rounded on him. "I called out for change? For inspiration? When?"

Loki scoffed; it was obvious this conversation was not going as planned.

"Yes, Jane, you did. Your mind was reeling - while admittedly I'm not a mindreader, sometimes thoughts have a force of their own. You were battling between Thor and yourself in your dreams one night, to the extent that your thoughts trailed toward me, mentally, then physically. You found fault in me, perhaps, for splitting you apart. While I wish I could take blame for that, the fault lies entirely with Thor, not I."

It was like slow motion, then: his hands came apart, one reaching over and resting on hers. The touch was warm and surprisingly pleasant, but Jane couldn't bear it. She moved her hand away, understanding suddenly why Loki was here. His eyes stayed on the spot where their hands were for a touch too long, his face unreadable.

"When you…gave me these dreams, were you…with me, physically?"

His mouth twitched again at this, this time a smirk stopped in its tracks.

"If you're asking me if I was somehow inside your mind, then no. But I was in the room with you, yes."

Almost afraid to ask, but knew she must, Jane proceeded, "Then last night…?"

"That is the second half of the conversation for this evening."

Jane inclined her head, mortified beyond belief but knew she must see it to the end.

"In your dreams," he said, "you were always so…content. Not like waking life, where you imprison yourself in front of that box every day, making numbers move -"

"Wait, how would you know that?"

"I've seen it, Jane. I've been imprisoned with your SHIELD for weeks. The least I could do to prevent myself from plucking my own eyes out in boredom was project myself elsewhere. I would, at first, wander. I went to your tallest mountain, went to the bottom of your deepest sea. And then I heard you.

"I don't honestly know what drew me to you. Perhaps it was, at first, knowledge that Thor had you but saw fit to throw you away. You asked for inspiration, so I gave it to you. Your numbers are looking well, aren't they?"

At his prompt, Jane thought. Her numbers did start to really come forward after the last few weeks, but she couldn't be sure that the dreams were the reason.

"They are," she said, and was rewarded with a slight smile.

"Last night was unintentional. But I do not regret it. I did put an untimely stop to it, because I did not wish for our first time together to be within a dream."

Jane hesitated at this, her heart thumping at his implication. Was Loki, Thor's brother, making a pass at her? Implying that they'd…sleep together? She had a sudden sense that perhaps this conversation had taken such a turn that this could no longer be reality. That maybe this was a dream.

She pinched herself. It hurt.

"Our…first time?" she finally said weakly. Barely more than a whisper.

Loki inclined his head, regarding her.

"It was only natural for me to think…well, given your enthusiasm, that you may be interested in satisfying your needs with me."

Not only were his words less forceful and confident than usual, Jane thought she saw something of vulnerability in his face. She was briefly taken aback; but then remembered that this man was a monster. He killed people. He stalked her, apparently, and accosted her in dreams. She wasn't afraid that he'd hurt her, exactly, but she was quite unwary not knowing what exactly he was capable of. The whole situation was too surreal for her to know how to react, so she said the only thing she could.

"Thanks for the offer, but…I'll pass. Please, if that's all you have to say, then leave."

There was a brief hesitation on his part, now. His face, ever unreadable, was closed to her. She knew he was not about to attempt to persuade her, for which she was grateful.

"If you are sure, then I shall take my leave. But just remember…if ever you change your mind, you need only say my name."

Jane blinked.

He was gone.

All characters and other copyrighted items owned by Marvel are not mine and are used for my entertainment only. Thoughts and comments appreciated. Thanks for reading.