Thor- Streetwalker No. 10

He looked smaller somehow in the hospital bed. Thinner, too, as if layers upon layers of false skin had been removed to reveal the vulnerable human underneath. Jane thought it was an odd thing to notice first, but stress did strange things to the mind. It caused one to notice all that otherwise wouldn't be a blip on the radar. She had also taken note of his hospital gown; the splotchy periwinkle and the pinprick polka dots that multiple washes had rendered all but invisible. It looked hideous on him. He was going to have a fit when he woke up and saw how they dressed him.

The thought put a tiny smile on her face, and she didn't care how many orderlies glared at her or if Sif threw her another puzzled look. After everything she'd been through, she needed her sense of humor to keep her sanity intact. Knowing Loki, he would agree with her.

The nurse in his room opened the blinds a little wider. She was a tiny woman—smaller even than Jane—with a leathery face and auburn hair in a tidy bun. She nodded at Jane, and then went back to checking Loki's vitals. Without the drab white walls and the IV running from his wrist, he looked no different than that first morning after, when Jane opened her eyes and he was the first thing she saw. How much would things have changed had she been a little less of a coward then? If she had stayed until he woke up, and finished her business with him then and there. She wouldn't have sought him out again if she had, and then he wouldn't be...

'No, stop that, Jane. It doesn't matter what you did. You didn't put Loki in this hospital bed. You didn't get whoever those guys were to shoot him. There's only one person to blame for all this.'

Jane's fingers pressed into the glass. She wished it could be a pasty white neck that she was squeezing instead. Jane had never thought herself a violent person by nature, but it was amazing all that she had learned about herself since she met Loki.

To stave off her homicidal urges, Jane turned to the woman beside her. Loki's mother resembled his father in how this night had aged her. Gone was the self-possessed and gracious woman who thrashed anyone who questioned her son's choice of bride with her sharp tongue. This was a woman on the verge of shattering, not because of weakness, but because everything she had once thought to be true had become a cruel lie, and there was no telling where this family could go from here. In all her life, Jane had never wanted to hug a complete stranger quite so much.

Where Jane found leverage on the window, Frigga clutched the strap of her purse until the color had drained completely from her hands. Purple veins already prominent with age protruded as her body shook. The way she was staring at the glass, Jane thought it would collapse into itself at any second. Not that she could blame Frigga for being anxious. Didn't that doctor say they'd be allowed to see him by now?

He was at the moment being accosted by Thor and Odin, the former much more forcefully than the latter. From what Jane could hear, Thor was uncertain if everything possible had been done for Loki, and he had no qualms about making his opinions known.

"Sir, I can assure you, your brother is in good hands. Now that the bullets have been removed, it's only a matter of when he'll wake up."

"But that is my point, doctor, he hasn't woken up. Forgive me if I find it hard to take your word when it looks like he's been on death's door since we got here."

"Sir, your brother lost a great deal of blood. It'll be a while before his color is normal again, but as the days go by you will see strong improvement and he is going to wake up. Now if you'll please just-"

"I will not 'just' anything, and do not call me 'sir' one more time or I'll-"

"Thor, be silent!"

At his father's cutting tone, Thor slumped. Suddenly, this six foot former wrestler looked like nothing more than a frightened child throwing a tantrum to hide his fear. With a mumbled apology, Thor stepped aside and let Odin speak to the doctor alone.

"You must forgive my son his outburst," said Odin, "and I thank you again for all that you've done for Loki. It has been… some time since our whole family has been together."

"I'm sorry it had to be like this," said the doctor. The nurse stepped out of Loki's room, leaving the door ajar. Frigga raised her head, fully alert. The nurse looked past her and Jane to nod at the doctor, holding a file in hand that bore Loki's name. "It looks like everything is all set for now. I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting, but you can see him now."

"About bloody time," Thor grumbled, starting for the door.

"Just one thing," the doctor continued. "I'm afraid that while he's on this floor, we can only allow two visitors at a time. The rest of you will have to wait in the lobby."

Thor whirled around, his neck going red as his cheeks. Before he could open his mouth, Odin cut him off once more with a look. From behind, Jane had no way of knowing what kind of look it was, but if it was anything like the one her dad used to wear whenever he caught her sneaking out on school nights, she wouldn't blame Thor for being cowed.

"Of course, you and mother should go first," he said softly. He took Sif by the hand and led her out of the aisle into the crowded waiting area where the level of noise seemed to grow rather than shrink as the night wore on.

Jane made to follow them, but her pace was slow, more like a snail than a person. She walked backwards, so that she could keep an eye on Loki for as long as possible. The shades had been drawn up, and the door left wide open as Odin and Frigga stepped inside. Frigga took the lead, Odin a half step behind. He had his hands on her back, as if pushing her along or afraid that he would have to catch her.

He chose the wrong side. At the foot of the bed, Frigga knees gave in and she pitched forward. Her name ripped from Odin's mouth, but she didn't falter. She might have even intended to fall where she did. She threw herself over him from the side, her head landing on his chest, over his heart.

"My boy," she said through powerful sobs that should have mangled her words beyond recognition. "My boy… my beautiful boy…"

The last thing Jane saw was Odin sinking to her level and giving her that hug around the waist. His face he buried in her shoulder, perhaps to hide his own tears.

In the waiting room, Thor didn't look much better. His head was in his hands, fingers raking through yellow hair peppered with flakes of dried blood and viscera. He bent low in his seat, so low that Jane wouldn't have seen him at all were it not for Sif, ever by his side, waving Jane over.

"How does he look?" she asked.

"Still asleep." Jane fell into an empty seat on Thor's right. Exhaustion had set into her blood once more, making her nap half an hour ago feel like it had happened last week, and she hadn't slept ever since.

"What I don't understand—" Thor lifted his head, "—is how Loki could have gotten mixed up with Malekith in the first place. Why would he walk away from his entire life just to work for someone like that?"

"Protection," Jane said. She caught Thor's questioning stare. "Protection for you, I mean, you and your parents. You said it yourself, Malekith was ready to kill you if Loki didn't do as he said. Something happened to make Malekith decide that Loki wasn't under his thumb anymore."

"But it still doesn't make any sense," said Thor. "This was never Loki's cross to bear."

Jane shrugged helplessly. "All I know is that Malekith sent some muscle after Loki once when he was with me, and I heard him say that Malekith would have you all killed unless Loki did as he said."

Thor shook his head, cursing under his breath and leaving Sif to take over.

"It's funny you should mention that, Jane," she said. "Because I have been meaning to ask… how exactly did you and Loki meet?"

And here was where Jane reached a dead end. She had known the moment she dialed Thor's number that this was going to come up, and that no amount of mental prep and psyching up was going to make it any less awkward. That was why she hadn't tried. Now she wished she had. The only consolation was that it was only Thor and Sif she was facing and not all four of them at once. Her imagination was particularly active tonight, and she kept picturing herself dragged away into a dungeon somewhere on Odin's order, for defiling his son's honor.

"Um…" Jane licked her dry lips. "Uh… do you ah- remember back at the rehearsal dinner when I asked you guys about Malekith's business? And you told me all about how he's into drugs and money laundering and all that?"

A beat passed, and then Thor's eyes bugged out of his head, a comical look for someone usually so loose and easy-going.

"Oh my God, Jane," he gasped. "Loki... did he sell drugs to you?"

Jane nearly fell off her seat. She must have been an amusing sight as there were some kids across the room pointing at her and laughing.

"What? No! No, nothing like that!"

"What, then?"

The two pairs of eyes on her, waiting impatiently for some kind of response, seemed to have gained the power of two hundred pairs. Jane—coming from a long background of failed attempts at acting in school plays and almost throwing up in the middle of her valedictorian speech—couldn't speak before more than ten or twenty strangers at once about a subject she cared little for. Here were Thor and Sif, people she considered friends, asking her to divulge what had quickly become the biggest secrets she'd ever had to keep. It would be bad enough if they weren't Loki's long lost family.

"Well… Loki and I met a few months ago. I went out for a drive, and he was… working, so to speak. I picked him up, and that's how we met."

Please let that be good enough. Please let that be good enough.

"But what do you mean he was working?"

Damn it.

"Yes, Jane," said Thor. "Not to pry, but I can't help feeling that you're hiding something from us."

If there was any justice in the world, the ground would swallow her up where she sat and then regurgitate her somewhere far away from here. Like back in Loki's room. She could cry it out with Frigga and not have to worry about explaining why she cared.

"What I mean is…" Jane swallowed back a huge lump in her throat. She could still feel stuck in there. "Loki was out... selling… himself."

It hit Sif before it hit Thor, but only by a fraction of a second. By the time Thor's mouth unhinged, Sif had already dropped her cup of water to the floor and doubled over on the arm rest, which she was liable to break off if she didn't ease up on it. As bad as she looked, it was nothing compared to Thor. The way he looked at Jane was indescribable, other than that Jane would've found it hilarious where she seeing it in any other context. Another thing Loki was bound to agree with.

"You meant to tell me that my brother has been… and you were…"

Jane looked down at her shoes.

"I was very upset after my ex got engaged…"

Thor stood up, quite a feat for how badly his knees were knocking. It looked like they would collapse into themselves if he took one step. He made it to three without trouble, ever the tough guy. A sickly wave of green had settled over his. One could only wonder what kind of things he imagined Loki doing (or having done to him). Jane didn't envy him either way.

"Jane, listen to me." He took her by the hand. "You're my friend and I would never judge you for how you go about your private affairs. I'm happy knowing that in the end, it brought Loki back to us alive, but Jane, I am begging you… please do not tell my mother."

Something dark passed by Jane's peripheral vision, sticking out amid the endless train of white lab coats and pastel scrubs. Jane paid it no mind, and it never would have occurred to her that it could be the black of Odin's overcoat if Thor hadn't abruptly let her go and swerved around her.

"Father, has there been a change?"

Something told Jane there wasn't long before Odin spoke.

"He has yet to awaken, but there are other matters to attend to."

"Don't tell me you are going at a time like this," said Sif.

"I am going to Bedford Hills," said Odin, walking past them like a man on a mission. "I have business there."

He had his cell phone out and he fed an address Jane didn't know to the person on the other end. She heard a ruffling of fabric, and looked to see Thor donning his coat.

"If you're going where I think you're going, then I'm coming, too."

"Thor, you should stay in case Loki wakes up. Your mother will need the support."

"Mother is stronger than you give her credit for. If Loki wakes up while we're gone, all it means is he'll be here when we get back. Until then, I want answers just as much as you."

"Wait, hold on a second." Jane ran to catch up with the group. "Who or what is in Bedford Hills that can tell us anything?"

Thor and Sif looked at each other, together forming a mirror image of Jane's own discomfort moments ago. If they were looking for the most delicate way to explain whatever this was, Odin either did not care or was in too much of a hurry.

"Loki's mother is there," he said bluntly. "She resides in the Correctional Facility. If anyone can explain Loki's connection to Malekith, it's her."

That would've made perfect sense. Of course one's own mother will know pretty much everything you do, be it through some kind of maternal instinct or just because you've followed in their sometimes questionable footsteps and repeated all of their mistakes. Had Frigga not been fifty feet away in this very hospital and not an escaped convict as far as Jane knew, she would've had no further questions to ask. As it was, she had a couple.

"But…" she pointed in the direction of Loki's room, unable to get the right words out. She looked to Thor, pleading with him to make sense of this.

He sighed.

"Jane… I don't believe I ever explained to you the falling out Loki had with our parents, did I?"

**

The gates opened slowly, a buzz blaring through the quiet of early morning. Without it, not even a cricket could be heard, only a few lonely cicadas here and there when the car passed by a cluster of trees. Even that could have been a figment of Jane's imagination; her mind filling in for sounds non-existent. In front of this damp brick building with the electrified fence and the men and women with weapons on their belts, everything good and pleasant in the world was sucked away into the abyss. As far as Jane knew, this held true for a lot of prisons. Not that she'd ever been to one before now to find out. They had only just driven through the blockades, a man in a guard uniform flagging them down and directing them to the parking lot, and Jane was certain she never wanted to again.

"I didn't think they'd take visitors so late," she said.

Thor was watching their progress through the window, his breath creating a dense fog that made shapeless blobs of the people outside.

"When you have the clout my family does, they do."

The driver parked outside a black tinted door. A man and a woman stood in front of it, waiting for them. The woman shook Odin's hand, her words of greeting hushed so that no one else could hear them. The man kept silent. He was big and muscular, with sharp features and a perpetual frown that reminded Jane of Hogun, only without the open air of friendliness that existed behind the stoic exterior. He gave Jane a curt nod, then went back to staring into the distance with his hand near his service weapon like he expected something to jump out of the shadows at any time.

"If you'll all follow me, please."

That was the woman, finally speaking up so Jane could hear her. She looked to be Odin's age with puckered lips, graying hair, and a thick brown mole below her left eyes that Jane couldn't help staring at. It was to her immense relief when the woman turned away to lead them inside. Conversation had come to a halt, and Jane was unsure how to pick it up again, not that she had anything of great importance to say. This relative peace in the action gave her time to examine Thor and Odin, note all the subtle similarities in their faces and their posture, similarities notably lacking in Loki. It went beyond the physical and all the way to things as subtle as their walk. Loki carried himself much the way these two did, but his steps had always looked practiced to Jane, like he was so focused on never making a mistake. These were things that came naturally to Thor, and even more so to Odin. When Thor was telling her the story on the way here-with Odin interjecting at random intervals to fill in details Thor wasn't clear on-Jane's first thought had been how earth-shattering it must have been for Loki to find out the truth about his origins after so many years of not knowing. How did it affect his behavior as Jane knew it?

It can't be bad enough to warrant burning a house down, Jane's common sense raged. And she raged back that he didn't just do it because he was angry, and that her common sense needed to shut up. It hadn't helped her this far, so it had no right rearing it's ugly head now.

They entered a sterile room, with gray painted bricks making up the walls. It was narrow and rectangular, lacking furnishings beyond a dusty, armless chair pushed off to one side. They crowded around a wall that was sheer from top to bottom, a two-way mirror. Behind it was a room much like this one, with a plain white table and an extra chair. A single door led in and out. It opened for two men escorting a woman in a dark green jumpsuit. She walked like a drunk at first, requiring the men to drag her forward. A weave of inky black hair covered her face. She pulled it back behind her ears, revealing a prominent nose, white complexion, and sharp cheek bones. Her withered skin lacked imperfection beyond the tide of years, suggesting that she'd been a great beauty once. If Jane looked closely, she saw everything Loki would be if he'd been born a woman.

"I can only give you ten minutes," the woman with the mole said, eyeing Odin. "I'm pulling a lot of strings letting you see her at all. We're not supposed to allow her visitors."

"I will make this quick. Thank you, Marsha."

Odin stepped up to the window, and the opposite door Jane had just noticed was there thanks to the dim lighting. The woman left them, guarded by her large friend, who took to standing in the corner, his hand still right above that trigger.

Odin addressed them. "You two will wait here while I speak to her, and I will hear no arguments."

The last part was a sharp addition, directed at Thor who had just begun to protest. As in the hospital, Odin shut down every one of his son's complaints before they could be lodged. He shot the guard an appraising look and seemed satisfied that he would not get involved and keep them uninvolved, too. He disappeared through the door, returning moments later behind the mirror. The woman at the table didn't react to his presence, when he came in or when he sat down in front of her. She continued to pick at her nails like nothing had changed, and it took Odin clearing his throat three times for her to stop.

"Farbauti," Odin said.

Her lips curled into a snarl.

"Well, I never thought this day would come." She lifted her head, facing the lamp. She was even more haggard than Jane thought. "How long has it been since they locked me up in here... thirty years?

"Twenty seven."

"Ah, yes. That's right." She flipped her hair. "You'll forgive my mistake. When you're serving two consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole, keeping time loses it's importance. Who would have thought it had been so long since you and your family ruined my life?"

Odin's eyes narrowed. "Farbauti, everything that has happened to you, you brought upon yourself. What you and Laufey did-"

She slammed her hands on the table. Both Thor and the guard took a step forward, their stances those of battle ready warriors.

"Don't you dare speak his name," Farbauti growled. "You have no right. You of all people."

"And how have I ever wronged you?"

She laughed, a hollow sound if Jane had ever heard one.

"That is the question of the hour. How have you wronged me? Let's see." She held up a fist, raising one long finger at a time as she ticked off the reasons. "First, you drive that fool Malekith into our territory. Don't think you aren't to blame for that either, Borson. If you hadn't ousted him from your company and had him exiled from good society, he never would've come to us for help, and he never would've had the opportunity to worm his way in and destroy us from the inside. I would never have ended up in here, my husband wouldn't have died, and you would never have gotten your filthy hands on my son, let alone killed him."

"That was-"

"That was your doing, Borson, don't you deny it. You killed my son! It was your fault!"

The room began to feel cold, like there was ice spreading out from the cracks in the wall and turning the place into a frozen tundra. Jane pulled her coat more tightly around herself. She should have taken something warmer when she left all those hours ago, or at least something that buttoned.

A long pause followed Farbauti's outburst, and it did little to ease tension, which seemed to grow and thicken with each passing second. Farbauti heaved deep breaths through her mouth like she'd just run a marathon, and it seemed the calmer Odin remained, the more aggravated she became.

"That is what I came here to discuss with you," Odin said, joining his hands together. "It appears I owe you an apology. Your grief has been unwarranted, as has mine, and all of ours."

Farbauti furrowed her brow.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that Loki is alive, Farbauti. He faked his death, and I'd like you to help me understand why he did it."

If this was all there was to Odin's plan, Jane didn't know how great the results would be. It seemed to her that Farbauti was little more than a bitter criminal looking for any avenue to justify her crimes or deflect the blame. Of course it was Odin's fault she'd been arrested and her husband murdered. It was his dastardly finger that pointed the killer in their direction, and it was his diabolical plan to take away her son and raise him in a loving environment. Whether or not that really made sense to her was a subject Jane wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. She only had a vague idea of the woman's history based on Thor's hasty description. To her understanding, it involved a lot of drug trafficking, money laundering, and outright murder. They were bad people, Laufey and Farbauti. As far as Jane could tell, the only good they'd ever brought to the world was their son.

She couldn't look at this woman as anything more than an inmate, but as Odin's words sunk in, and the truth of them became evident (because no one could look at someone so serious and think them a liar), there was a quick, fleeting moment where Farbauti became a mother.

"My son lives…" she whispered like it was a prayer. "He lives… if you are lying to me, Borson…"

"You know I'm not."

The coolness returned, but there was something new to it. Jane shivered at the chill going up her spine, but no longer did she ache to run far in the opposite direction as she could. She didn't think she could move if she wanted to.

"Well…" Farbauti tilted her chin upward, display dry yet reddened eyes. "That is… truly excellent news. I'm not sure how much it relates to me since, alive or dead, I will never get to see him. Might I ask how you found him?"

"It's a long story, and time is against us," Odin tapped his wristwatch. "All you need to know is that he's alive, and the reason it relates to you is because it appears he faked his death to go and work for Malekith."

Farbauti's hands curled into fists, her fingers scratching the table and creating a painful sound as they went.

"Is that so?" She spoke so softly that Jane had to strain to hear her. "Then perhaps it's for the best that he never knew the truth. To think he would willingly put himself under the thumb of the man who murdered his father."

"Farbauti, I know my son," Odin said. He seemed unfazed by her venomous glare and the way she seemed to be restraining herself from jumping over the table and clawing his face off. "He is many things. In the weeks before we lost him, he said many things that I will never forget… but this is not like him. He would not have thrown his life away and become pawn to a crime lord all out of spite."

"Are you sure?" Farbauti asked tauntingly. "Maybe you don't know my son as well as you think you do."

"Enough of this. You are wasting my time." Odin leaned in, his single eye sharp. "All I want to know from you is what happened between Malekith and Laufey."

"And what will that tell you?"

"That is none of your concern, I merely need to know."

At that, a sly little smile stretched across Farbauti's face and now Jane knew where Loki got it from.

"None of my concern. Yes, I suppose it isn't." She chuckled. "But I don't know what you think I have to say that can help you. You're not trying to imply that he would avenge a father he never knew was his, are you?"

"Farbauti." Odin adopted a warning tone of voice.

After a long moment, Farbauti sighed, a loud, long, exaggerated thing meant to make Odin sweat for just a little longer.

"Well, if it really means so much to you…" she propped her head up on her elbows, close to his ear like she was about to reveal an elicit secret. "Let me tell you all you need to know. It won't be long before that bitch Marsha returns to have her goons throw me back in my cell. Unless you ask her for an extension, that is."

"Enough stalling. Tell me now."

"Oh, temper, temper. All right, your majesty, here it is: when Laufey and I welcomed Malekith into our ranks, we thought he was just another sniveling little cog trying to feel like less of a pussy and more of a tough guy by getting his hands on a gun and some big money. In a way, we were right. Malekith is and always will be a Grade A pussy. If he wasn't, he would've had the guts to kill Laufey to his face instead of slipping cyanide in his coffee. When Laufey got into the business, he shot his first boss point blank in the face a month in. He was a real man is what I'm saying."

Odin, though outwardly unchanged, was getting a bit of a nervous twitch.

"What are you telling me?"

"Oh, come on, Odin, it's simple. Malekith may be a pussy, but he's a pussy with a brain. He understood the way things worked for us. The hierarchy is based on who has the upper hand, and if an underling gets too powerful and isn't smart enough to hide it, they have to go. The trick is to make yourself weak until you get the opportunity to show your strength, but that's if you're a rat like Malekith, then you sneak your way in."

"So what you're saying," Odin dabbed his forehead with a handkerchief, "is that Malekith took over from Laufey after killing him."

"He took over from Laufey because he killed him. That's how it always goes. Once the old King is dead and the new King takes over, all the little worker bees flock to the new King. They know that the only way to survive in this world is throw their lot in with the strongest."

Someone thumped on the door, and the guard in the corner sprang up to open it. The woman with the mole stepped inside. She walked to the two-way mirror and tapped on the glass.

"Mr. Borson, I have to come in now."

Odin glanced at the mirror. To him it was just a sheet of black. Farbauti grinned, displaying straight yet yellowed teeth that almost blended into her gums. Jane felt bile rush to her throat, backlash from everything she had seen and heard today, to which this one disgusting sight was the cherry on top. She swallowed it back, caring little for the burning sensations that followed. She watched Odin greet Marsha at the inside door and then join her and Thor in the hallway. Father and son shared not a word, and Jane, too, found herself speechless as they left the horrible place for home.

They were on the outskirts of the city when Thor finally spoke.

"I can't believe a woman like that is Loki's birth mother."

"No kidding," Jane mumbled

"If I recall, she was at least more outwardly appealing thirty years ago." Odin looked out at the misty condensation. It was going to rain soon, if it hadn't already. "As it is, at least now we have an idea of how far Malekith's reach extends."

"We do?" Jane asked. Thor and Odin stared at her, making her think she'd just asked a really stupid question and lower her head accordingly.

"You must not be well-versed in the lives of modern day criminals, Ms. Foster," Odin said, not unkindly. "Laufey was a fearsome man in his time, and Malekith holds all the power he once did. That doesn't factor in the connections he must have made since then."

"We may have survived this night," Thor said, his face darkening, "but Malekith will never stop hunting us until we are all dead. He has the resources to keep this going for years."

"But there has to be something you can do." Jane placed her hand on Thor's, wishing that he'd meet her despairing gaze. "What about the police? They're part of the reason you got away from him this time, if we can just gather evidence against Malekith-"

"It is not that simple, Ms. Foster," said Odin. "Believe me, if I could have had him arrested, I would have done it decades ago, but the evidence you speak of just doesn't exist. Farbauti was right when she said Malekith is smart. He knows how to cover his tracks."

"Yes, and what do you mean the police helped us, Jane?" Thor asked. "Sif and I fought off Malekith's man alone. There were never any police."

"But there must have been," Jane said, shaking her head. "I called them after you hung up on me, and the dispatcher told me-"

The tires bumped along on the gravely streets that led back to Manhattan, jostling the car and taking Jane with it. She was no longer able to hold herself down. Her whole body felt like it had shut down, turning to some immovable kind of jelly that made her think she'd fall to pieces if someone tried to touch her.

Her mind rewound itself back to the frantic call she had made, to that monotone woman and her surprising reassurance at the end of the call.

"Okay, Ms. Foster. I'm dispatching squad cars to the scene now. They'll take care of everything."

"My name," Jane whispered.

Thor bent to look at her, worry written across his face.

"Jane, what's wrong?"

Jane blinked once, and then a few more times. Her eyes stung all of a sudden, and felt painful like the sinking in her stomach.

"My name, Thor. The dispatcher said my name. I never told her my name."