Emma Joan Tallis

chapter twenty-six: Over my Dead Body

"If you win, you need not have to explain...
"If you lose, you should not be there to explain!"

~*~

"We will miss you," Thor said as we stood in Central Park. "It will not be the same without you around on Asgard."

"Nothing will be the same," I said sadly as the SHIELD vehicle drove up with Loki in it. "Besides, I belong here. Asgard may be where I was born, but Midgard, it's become my home."

"It's not the only thing that's here," Thor said as Steve walked up behind Barton and Natasha. "I will freely admit that I am very jealous. However, you spent over fifty years on Asgard, away from someone you cared about."

"Sixty-seven years, but who's counting?" I said with a smile.

"I hope to return sometime soon," Thor said.

"Give it a year or two, I'm sure something will happen," I said wryly.

"With you here, I have no doubt," Thor said fondly as he gave me a tight hug.

"Stay safe," I reminded. "Give my parents my love."

"I expect your mother will be overjoyed," Thor sighed, "you know, she wants grandchildren."

"Shut up," I hissed as Steve walked up.

"Why do I feel like you were talking about something that I'm involved in?" Steve asked.

"They probably were," Natasha said with a smirk.

"I can neither confirm, nor deny," I said.

"Nice answer, I'll need to remember that one," Barton said.

Steve joined my side and leaned over, "were you talking about me?"

"Indirectly."

"Right." We all walked to a blocked-off area, Thor said his professional goodbyes and gave Dr. Selvig a hug. Tony walked up and opened the case the Tesseract was in, and Banner took it out to place in a glass tube.

I took the tube and handed it to Thor, "good luck," I said to Loki, but he just glared at me through his muzzle. "You're going to need it."

"Thank you, Lady Emiliana," Thor said as he took the cube from me and held the other handle out to Loki. Reluctantly, Loki grabbed the other end, they twisted it and were transported to Asgard.

"I thought you were going with them," Tony said.

"Not this time," I said. Stark just shrugged, and then we all were going our separate ways.

"Need a ride?" Steve asked. "I figure SHIELD set you up with a place, but-"

"It would be nice to talk without the threat of death hanging over our heads?" I asked.

"Couldn't have put it better myself," Steve said.

"Where to?" I asked as I got onto the motorcycle behind him.

"Well, we're already in central park, but I think people might recognize us," Steve said.

"Old park where we met?" I asked with a smile.

"Hope it's still there," Steve said. The drive to the park where we first met wasn't very long, but it was very quiet. It was like neither of us knew what to say to the other, we were so close to long ago, but things were different this time.

"Still here," I said smiling when he pulled up. We walked a bit further in, still in silence, I didn't know how to break the ice if I'm being honest.