The Call [Loki x Siren Fanfiction]

Chapter 44

**A/N: we're all gonna work off the only correct assumption, that Frigga never died, K?**

"You're sure he's fine?" I ask the alien healer, Lo. She sighs and nods for the millionth time. I feel bad for her, I know I'm being annoying. It's just that this is not the first time that I've knocked my boyfriend unconscious.

Washing her hands in the sink stuffed into the corner of the tiny med room, Lo leaves to attend to other agents. That, or she's done dealing with me. Both are possibilities.

I sink back into the uncomfortable chair by Loki's bed. I know everyone says he's fine, but it has to be bad for them to take the first class 5 criminal to ever grace the Helicarrier with their presence out of lockup. They barely take out the class 2s being transported! Although... Maybe he's here for the safety of the other criminals. That wasn't the first time he went insane since we dumped him there. It wasn't even the third. Maybe everyone is willing to try their luck with putting him in here and getting a 24 hour security detail on him.

I run my fingers down Loki's arm, feeling his cold skin through his shirt. My hand trails down to his wrist before catching on his cuffs. One of them to keep the magic part of him restrained, the other to keep the Other part of him restrained. So here we are, with Loki tied, unconscious, to a bed.

He's supposedly going to wake up in the next couple hours or so, based on the known recovery times of Asgardians, and the intensity of the concussion.

I take Loki's hand and imagine that he's just sleeping. He's just taking a nap because he went three days straight reading, and he finally agreed to sleep. Not because I gave him a concussion while he was possessed while in lockup because he is being mind-controlled by someone from a glowy stick. No sir. Not at all.

A knock sounds on the door, shaking me out of my thoughts.

"Enter," I call out. It's probably just another nurse. They've been in and out of the room all afternoon.

"How is he?" Comes a voice behind me. My heart skips a beat and I fly out of the chair.

"Oh, director," I say, shocked. "Well, Lo says that he should be awake soon, but we don't know for certain. It's umm, just a guess based on what she knows," I say, rambling. Why is Fury here? He wouldn't come to medbay unless he was dead on a gurney, and even then he'd wake up just to leave.

"Sit down, Miss Dipity," He says gently. Well, gently for Fury. This is concerning. Something's wrong. I sink back into the chair, looking to him for some indication of what's happening.

"What's wrong, sir?" I ask after a moment, trying to keep my voice from quivering. I'm not about to cry, at least not from sadness or anything. It's been one heck of a day. If anything I'm gonna cry about how much I want to go back to my apartment.

"You remember what the agreement was on Loki's treatment?" He asks me.

"Yes, sir," I respond. "I'm to continue trying to fix him until he's better, there's nothing more I can do, or..." I trail off, wracking my brain for the last one.

It hits me. My heart falls to the pit of my stomach. I fly out of the chair again.

"No," I whisper. "You can't! We're making progress!" I plead with Fury, now I might cry. He's here to tell me that it has been decided that Loki is too much of a danger to be kept on-ship. And this is about the securest prison you can get. If he's too much of a danger to be kept here, than he's too much of a danger to be kept on the planet.

They're sending him back to Asgard. When he gets there, knowing what I know about Odin, he won't get anyone to help him sort himself out. If he goes back to Asgard, then that's it. I won't get him back after that. I likely won't be able to see him again if that happens.

That can't happen. I will sneak him off the ship if I have to. He is not going back to Asgard until either he is better, or I am dead.

"I'm sorry, Miss Dipity," Fury says. "The council has made a decision," He says, sounding the closest to caring as I've ever heard from him. My heart crumbles and I collapse into the chair.

"You can't send him back! Please!" I cry, my eyes welling up. "We're almost there, I can feel it, I can," I whimper as I start to sob. My shoulders shake silently.

I'm never going to get him back. He's gone now. We were so close! I can feel it, he's almost back. The council this, the council that, none of their decisions are good for everyone. Their decisions are good for the majority. The majority of humans. Not the majority of anyone else. They were going to nuke Manhattan, I recently found out, to save the majority. Now they're sentencing Loki to a tortured experience of eternity, because it's good for the majority of humans.

Fury crouches down to my eye level as I silently cry.

"Can you promise me that he'd be better in a week?" He asks me. "Can you promise me that?"

I can't. I shake my head, ashamed and upset. I can't promise him a timetable. I can't give him a date. There isn't a schedule. As I've told so many others, kicking an uninvited personality from your brain isn't an exact science. No one knows what we're doing. It's uncharted territory, not only to Earth, but to most of the galaxy. Even the Asgardians don't know. That's why he's here.

Odin agreed to the terms that if he was too dangerous, he could be returned to Asgard. If they knew what to do, he'd be there right now. But they don't. So he was left to me. And I've been trying to fix this, but no one knows what to do. If he gets shipped back, Odin will likely bury him and his name in the pits of their palace, another royal disgrace to be erased. Frigga loves him, but she can't do anything significant. When he was taken back, after the first incident with the staff, all she could do was visit him and bring him books, which, while appreciated, isn't enough now.

"I'm sorry, but I have a job to do." Fury says, standing up. I close my eyes and bury all the emotions, just like I've done a million times before. I breathe deeply, in, and out. In, and out.

Then I straighten up, standing again, to face Fury.

"Is that what you said when the council said to nuke Manhattan?" I ask his back, the tears still streaming down my face. He stops in his tracks. I hit a nerve.

"Nuking Manhattan, Miss Dipity, is much bigger than sending your boyfriend home." He says, about as angry as he can get with me.

"It was bigger to the people who would have died. This," I say, gesturing to the unconscious Loki, tied to a hospital bed. "Is bigger to me, and it's bigger to him, and it's bigger to Thor and Frigga and anyone else who cares about him!" I tell Fury, my voice level and lethal.

"You want to go to his mother," I say, emphasizing the word. "And tell her that her son is a lost cause?"

A thing about Fury, he hates getting inform-the-parents-of-a-death-duty. It's just about the only thing he won't do.

"What do you want me to do?" He hisses at me, near silent. "Ask me for something, Miss Dipity!" He says, sounding about as desperate as me. My anger drops in shock. He wants to be on my side here. I glance at Loki, thinking.

I turn back to Fury.

"I want you to leave, and to tell the nurses to stay out of the room for a little while. Tell them that I'm calling a family member or something, just keep them out." I tell him, dealing out orders. Fury nods and leaves without another word. I hear him shout something to Lo from one end of the hall.

He will be going back to Asgard of his free will, or my dead body.

Time to see which comes first.