A/N – I'm back! Look to end for an extended bit of rambling but for now all I will say is I own nothing, as always.

From his position, crouched behind a stack of books, Loki listened intently to the sounds of the Keeper and his assistant leaving the library. He heard the bolt rumble into place across the doors and let out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding.

He straightened, brushing down his clothes and began to search the shelves for the information he required. It took him the best part of six hours to find it. He slid to the ground where he stood, worrying his lip in an uncharacteristic fashion.

He needed to understand what had happened. His planning had been perfect, down to the last letter, and his execution had been as prescribed. Why had it not worked? Why did he feel such confusion within himself?

He reached the page he needed, reading through the text. His eyes grew wider as the information sank in. He slammed the book shut, the sound echoed eerily around the vast room.

He had not realised what he was doing. As so often seemed to happen, he had taken an idea he thought he understood fully and used it, only for it to backfire on him. His confusion and unsettled state became understandable. He knew what he should do but in the contrary way of emotional attachment he realised he could not do it, despite the fact that it was the only answer to the problem at hand.

He came to a decision. Less final than it's alternative, but more palatable to him.

He would distance himself from her, he would avoid her at all costs and in time the attachment would fade and he could forget he had ever acquired such a disgustingly co-dependent link to a mortal. He was not Thor, he did not understand love in the same way that simpleton did, and he would cut out his own tongue rather than find himself making puppy-dog eyes at a mortal, whoever it was.

She would never see him again and he would never look for her. That was the way it had to be and that was the way it would stay.

Hannah took a deep breath and steeled herself. What was that expression her grandmother used to use? Oh, yes. Gird your loins. She had never really understood what that meant but she was pretty sure that's what she was doing.

Things just kept getting worse. It had been six weeks since Loki kidnapped her and released her again. Director Fury didn't trust her, no matter how many agents told him she was worthy of his trust. Almost everyone at SHIELD treated Hannah like she was some kind of pariah now.

She looked down at the resignation letter in her hand. It was short and to the point. There was no reason to go into details. Fury didn't want her here; she didn't want to be here.

"Are you sure this is what you want to do?" Clint asked gently.

"I don't know what else I can do."

He simply nodded.

Hannah looked at him gratefully. He wouldn't argue. He'd help her no matter what she decided to do. He'd become a good friend over the past six weeks, closer than Darcy.

He'd been assigned as her guard until SHIELD could be certain Loki wasn't going to take her again. She wasn't an idiot, she knew he was there to check she wasn't reporting to Loki as his spy. When she'd said as much Clint had simply smiled at her, regardless of why he was there it was comforting to know that she could count on him. Even when he'd been reassigned elsewhere he was still 'around'. He did have a strange tendency to show up at her apartment at odd hours, only staying long enough to check she was alright before he left, but if she could accept that she'd once been bedded by a God she could easily accept that Clint liked to check up on her. It was a far simpler quirk to handle.

"I might as well get this over with," Hannah said, climbing up from her seat and heading for Director Fury's office. She could see Thor and Steve were there but it didn't matter. They'd know soon enough.

Clint followed her in and stood by the door as Hannah walked over to Fury and handed him the letter.

"What's this?" he asked.

"My resignation."

Thor and Steve gave her startled looks.

Fury narrowed his eyes. "Why?" he asked.

Hannah looked at him and shook her head. "You'll never trust me. No one here does. And I really don't want to live like this anymore. You're using more personnel to double check my work than it would take to replace me twice over, I think it'd be better all round if I simply found myself another job."

"I'm not sure that's the best choice, Hannah."

"That as it may be, it's my choice."

He looked at her without speaking, then nodded. "If that's what you want."

Damn, that had been too easy. Hannah shook her head again and turned to leave the office. Clint's eyes met hers as she passed him and she smiled sadly at him. He nodded and she knew he'd be by to check on her later.

She went to her desk and picked up her purse. She'd taken her personal items home over the past week. No one had noticed. She looked around once more, then walked out of the office, out of the building and out of SHEILD.

Clint knocked on Hannah's apartment door. It opened under his hand. He opened the door carefully. He couldn't hear anyone in the apartment. He glided into the main room of the apartment and looked around, his bow ready to draw. Little things stood out. The lamp was at the wrong end of the side table. The pillows on the couch were loose. Hannah's shoes were strewn across the floor; she always put them away in the hall closet.

Hannah was gone. Someone had taken her.

He clenched his jaw against the anger. Loki. He must not have been able to let her go after all.

Clint went to the phone and dialled Natasha's number. "There's something I have to take care of," he told her. "I might not be back for a while."

She questioned him, protested that Fury wouldn't understand. He listened until she was done.

"I'll be back in several days."

Then he hung up and headed out the door. He had to find Thor; they had a God of Mischief to hunt down.

Hannah opened her eyes slowly. Her head felt three times it's normal size and her mouth tasted stale. She tried to focus, but couldn't. She closed her eyes again and took a deep breath.

"She's awake."

Hannah recognized that voice. Fury. She opened her eyes and forced herself to focus on the ceiling, then turned her head. "Where am I?"

Fury leaned close and she could see pity in his eyes. "You're on one of our bases, Miss James."

She blinked, still trying to focus properly. His use of her surname was a distancing tool on his part, he was trying to compartmentalise this whole thing. That could not mean good things for her. "Why?"

Fury sighed. "It would have been better if you hadn't resigned. I tried to tell you it wasn't the best choice."

Hannah blinked, this time to keep from crying.

Fury straightened up and looked away. "The Council was not comfortable allowing you to simply leave. We had to make certain that you didn't take anything to give to Loki."

Hannah considered that. "You searched my apartment?"

"Yes. We found nothing there."

"That's because I didn't take anything." Hannah said with asperity.

Fury's eyes narrowed.

Hannah closed her eyes and tried to sit up. Fury reached out to press her back but she shook her arm away from him as she swung her legs off the cot and leaned forward. Her head was pounding.

"What did you do to me?" she whimpered, cradling her aching head in her hands.

"The drug will wear off in a few more minutes," Fury told her. "A member of the Council would like to speak with you."

"Why wait?" she mumbled.

"Because I want you to be lucid."

Hannah didn't recognize that voice. It was a woman, though. She looked up and saw an older woman through bleary eyes. Hannah had seen her before, but never heard her speak or been told her name.

"Why?" Hannah asked.

The woman moved closer to the cot and took a seat beside Director Fury. He unconsciously leaned away from the woman.

"I want to know what happened to you when you were gone for those days. I want to know what Loki did to you."

Hannah felt absurd as a blush tried to creep up her washed out cheeks. "I already told you."

"No, you didn't. I don't know whether you're keeping it back because you're working for him, or simply because you're embarrassed. Either way we need to know."

The woman tilted her head and studied Hannah for a moment. "I'm leaning toward embarrassment. If that's the case, we'll let you go and no harm done. Either way, I have to know."

Hannah tasted bile in the back of her mouth. "You're as bad as he is." She hissed.

The woman gave a delicate shrug. "This is a war. Loki brings with him the threat of lethal force; the power of God only knows how many other worlds." She stood up. "The drugs will be completely out of your system in about five hours. Rest until then. If you want food, it will be brought to you."

"Then what?" Hannah asked.

"Then, Hannah, we will find out what happened while Loki held you."

They all filed out of the room, leaving her alone once again. She couldn't believe this was happening. She had a feeling she was going to like this woman's technique a lot less than Loki's.

Hannah drifted in a void with no control over her body or her voice. Questions were asked and she answered them. She knew there was a reason she shouldn't, but she had lost her self control. Sometimes, she began to regain a measure of it. She would almost be able to hold back a reply, then she would feel a prick and coldness flooding through her veins and she would answer whatever was asked of her again.

There were periods when there were no questions asked, when she began to feel like herself. She heard voices and tried to focus, to understand what they were saying.

"...system can't handle it. She needs to rest. We're in no hurry."

"You're in no hurry. I am."

She recognized that voice, a woman's voice, but she couldn't remember who it was. A man spoke next, a voice she'd once trusted.

"We've waited this long, what's a few more hours? I've let this happen because you gave me no other choice but if you damage her permanently there will be a price to pay, for you and for me."

She couldn't stay to hear the rest of the conversation. She drifted away into some other plane of existence.

It took Clint and Thor only twenty four hours to locate Loki. Obviously he was not trying too hard to hide, he didn't mind being found. At least, not by them.

Clint and Thor walked up the steps to an old abandoned mansion, Clint's eyes peeled for any movement or sign of hostile threats. Thor walked as if there was nothing around him, with a singular focus of someone not restrained by the mortal concept of death. He was a man on a mission. Clint slipped in the door behind him.

Loki was seated on a tall wing-back chair, his posture that of a lounging king. He was laying it on thick for Thor's benefit.

"Where is she?" Thor demanded, his voice a boom in the large room.

Loki looked up with an amused expression, "Which SHIELD agent have you lost now? You should really take better care of your pets, Thor."

"Hannah, Loki! Where is she?" Thor practically crackled with rage and Clint took a step to the side, away from him.

Loki's face became a mask of control but his fingers curled into fists.

"Hannah James?"

"Do not play the fool with me! Where is she?"

Clint could not read a thing from Loki's expression. He was shut down with a tight hold on his reactions.

"She's missing?"

Clint nodded, drawing Loki's attention. "Where is she?"

Loki studied him. "How do you know she's missing?"

Thor growled, a deep rumbling sound of pure anger and Loki's attention was drawn back to his brother for a moment.

"I went to her apartment," Clint said. "Someone else had been there and taken her."

A muscle in Loki's cheek twitched, as though he were supressing a smile. "And you think it was me?"

Both Thor and Clint nodded in agreement.

"I have no use for her. Why would I take her?"

Thor studied his brother, searching for a sign that he was bluffing but found none. "She resigned from SHIELD."

Loki's jaw clenched and the smile vanished from his face. "Then perhaps you should speak to your leader, Director Fury."

Loki's voice was smooth and deadly. Clint knew then that he did not have Hannah. More than that, Loki was angry that she had been taken.

Clint eyed Loki, "You took all the trouble to take her. Why didn't you keep her?"

Loki's eyes narrowed at him and Clint held himself straight, refusing to bow under that look. "Would Fury have taken her?"

Clint shook his head. "No, he wouldn't. One of the Council might have ordered it. Fury wouldn't go against them for the sake of one girl."

Loki remained still, his voice as sharp as any blade. "Would they harm her?"

Clint felt both Thor and Loki's eyes on him like a rain of arrows falling; he nodded his head a fraction.

Loki stood, his armour materialising on his form as he walked towards them. He came to a stop, looking at them each in turn.

"I did not take her." Loki said firmly. "But I will find her."

Clint held his bow up. "Wewill find her."

Loki looked at him, his gaze measuring how useful he would be in this instance. Slowly he nodded his head before turning to Thor, "Fine, the archer is acceptable. You, on the other hand, are like a battering ram, you will do nothing but hinder us on this quest."

Thor gave his brother a hard look. "You will partake in this quest with honour Loki or I will hold you personally responsible for every single mortal being you bring to harm. Do you understand?"

Loki inclined his head in a minute bow before sweeping past them both towards the doorway. "Come, archer, time is not on our side."

Clint nodded to Thor before taking off after the God of Mischief. Loki would help him find Hannah. For now, they had a truce. Afterwards, they would be enemies again, but for now, they shared a mutual goal.

Hannah woke feeling even worse than she had the last time. She opened her eyes and tried to focus again.

"She's awake," someone said.

She blinked, trying to come out of haze she was in.

"Miss James. How are you feeling?"

She turned her head. An unknown man was holding her wrist, checking her pulse. It frightened her to realize that she couldn't even feel him touching her.

His head turned and he spoke to someone behind her. "Her pulse is strong. I would say we can proceed."

Another man came and lifted her, placing her on a gurney. She tried to keep her eyes open, but the lights flashing by overhead made her dizzy and nauseous. A tear trickled out of her eye as she remembered where she was. Fury and someone from the Council had brought her here. They were interrogating her.

She wished for the first time that she was back with Loki in that bedroom. His torture was less painful, less degrading. At least he'd let her keep her sense of self.

The motion finally stopped and the gurney she was on lowered. She looked sideways and saw Fury and the strange woman seated there. Fury looked extremely uncomfortable, like he didn't want to be there at all. That made two of them. The man who'd checked her pulse blocked her view and she felt a prick in her arm again. Truth serum, she realised. Sodium pentothal.

She closed her eyes as the cold spread up her arm, through her body. The void claimed her again and her body and voice were no longer her own.

Clint wasn't particularly happy about the fact that Loki seemed able to locate any of them at a moments notice. One moment they'd been walking out of the mansion and then next they were stood outside one of SHEILDS bases.

Clint glanced up at Loki and found his eyes were far away. "Where is she?"

"She's held in a lab, she's weak. They've used some sort of mortal drug on her."

Clint nodded, "Sodium pentothal, standard procedure for interrogation of a civilian."

Loki turned to him, his lips twitching as though he wanted to say something until he compressed his lips and looked away again.

"You're just as pissed about this as I am, aren't you?"

"I do not take kindly to people interfering with things I consider off-limits to them." Loki breathed, his breath becoming a mist in the air. He had confirmed every suspicion Clint had had about his view of Hannah in one sentence. "I should kill them all for what they have done."

"Not what you agreed to," Clint reminded him. "Where do you get off acting like you own her? Did you slap a big 'MINE' sticker on the girl?"

"No," Loki smirked at him in the dark, "I didn't need to."

Clint was unsure of how to take that. Did he mean that Hannah considered herself to be his? Or was it a direct challenge, was he saying that no one else stood a chance because he was a God and they were all mortals who could not compare?

"Are we gonna do this thing?" Clint asked, readying his bow for action.

"There will be no need for that." Loki said with an arched eyebrow. "You are as bad as Thor. You say you do not wish harm to be caused and yet your barrel in, weapons drawn like Neanderthals brandishing pointed sticks."

Clint had barely twitched his arm to stow it again when he felt the whole world shift around him once more.

He looked around their new surroundings seeing Hannah lying on a cot. She was wearing a hospital gown and she looked deathly pale. Clint ran to her, gripping her wrist to check her pulse. It was strong, she was alive.

"Your people did this to her." Loki's voice was dangerous and Clint turned to look at him, his body shielding Hannah's.

"We have our good points; we just make stupid-ass decisions sometimes."

Loki stared down at him, his eyes hard. "She will not be a victim of their decisions again. That, I can promise."

Clint heard the sounds of multiple boots hitting the ground somewhere nearby and realised they'd been noticed. As quickly as he could he pulled Hannah up into his arms, "Come on, do your poofy thing and let's get the hell out of here."

Loki raised an eyebrow at the terminology but reached out and touched Clint's arm, transporting them away from the base and the oncoming soldiers.

Clint held Hannah close to him as they teleported, refusing to risk Loki simply dumping him somewhere and taking off with her unconscious form. If Hannah wanted to be with Loki then that was her choice and he'd respect it, or at least he would refrain from having her sectioned for possible mental health issues.

The world stood still once more and he found himself back in the mansion.

Clint gently laid Hannah down on the leather sofa adjacent to Loki's chair. "We should call someone, a doctor maybe."

"Can we not simply take her to the hospital?" Thor asked as he approached them.

"Not if we want her to stay off SHIELD's radar."

Loki chuckled, the sound dismissing the SHIELD in its entirety. Clint clenched his fists and took a deep breath.

"She needs medical attention." Clint ground out.

"Fine."

Clint watched astounded as Loki vanished from where he was stood. He'd left. Where the hell had he gone? He looked down at Hannah, noting her breathing had remained slow and even. She would be out of it for a long time.

"Does he do that a lot? The whole 'disappearing without a word of what he's doing' thing?" Clint asked.

"You get used to it." Thor replied, dropping into Loki's seat with a flourish. No one spoke for a few minutes.

The silence of the hall was abruptly broken when Loki reappeared gripping a scared looking nurse by the arm.

"Will this one do?" He asked, holding out the nurse as if he were asking if he'd chosen the right milk at the grocery shop.

"You can't just…" Clint trailed off staring at the ceiling as he huffed out a breath. He really did not have the energy to be arguing about propriety with the God of Mischief.

"I took her from one of your medical facilities." Loki said, as though that made it perfectly alright.

Clint looked at the nurse. "You're SHIELD?"

The nurse mutely nodded.

"Alright." Clint gestured her over and explained the circumstances. She seemed to regain some of her composure at the sight of Hannah. After a few hushed questions and responses she came to a conclusion.

"As long as you keep her hydrated, give her plenty of electrolytes and simple foods she should be fine in a couple of days." She said, checking Hannah's pupils one last time. "They really pushed her to the limit. Are you sure it was one of ours?"

"Is that everything?" Loki asked, his tone ending their exchange.

"That's really all you can do. Her body will need to clear out the drugs on its own."

Loki nodded, climbing to his feet. "Come, come, little nurse." He said, waving his hand for her to move. "I have to pay a little visit to your boss."

"Wait-" but by the time Clint had climbed to his feet to try and stop them leaving, they were gone.

Clint looked at Thor. "Go!" Clint urged, pointing for the door and Thor ran out of it like a man possessed.

Clint looked down at Hannah, sighing in exhaustion. "Better get you to a bed, little lady."

He reached down and pulled her up once more, feeling his back strain against the repeated exertion. He was getting too old for this damsel in distress business. He found a suitable bedroom, kicking the door open with his foot and staggering to the bed. He placed her down, careful not the jolt her and pulled the covers up over her body.

Her hand moved, seemingly of its own accord to grasp him by the wrist. Her grip was weak and he could have broken it easily but he didn't. He kicked off his boots and climbed up to sit against the headboard beside her.

Looking down at her now he couldn't imagine why they thought she was any kind of threat. She was so open, easy to read for anyone who knew how, there was no way she could pull of any real espionage. She wasn't the same breed as him or any of the other field agents for that matter.

He rested his head back against the headboard and closed his eyes, silently praying that Loki hadn't just started world war three.

A/N – I hope you guys enjoyed it. I'm out of my comfort zone as my OC is unconscious for a lot of this and I'm used to living inside her head as opposed to flitting around other characters. Please tell me what you're thinking because I'm feeling very insecure about this sequel and my ego could use a little stroking. Hands up who immediately thought dirty things at the word 'stroking' *looks around* thought so…