A Child of Mischief (Loki/Avengers story)

43. Awakening

Slowly, Cora begins to come too. Her head throbs, and her back aches. She remembers all that happened, she opens her eyes and looks around. Natasha sits in the chair next to her bed, and finishes a call with Agent Fury just as she see's Cora wake up.

"Fury, I'll call you back. She woke up." Natasha says and ends the call, sitting forward in the chair, Natasha looks at Cora, who turns her head to look at Natasha.

"Hey, kiddo. How are you feeling?" Natasha asks, Cora tries to push herself up into a sitting position, but feels too weak to do it. Natasha jumps up and places a hand behind Cora's back and grips on to her right arm and helps pull her into a sitting position.

"Thanks." Cora says and rubs her head. Natasha nods her head and sits back down.

"Other than the room spinning headache, I feel fine." Cora answers and continues to rub her head.

"How's the back pain?" Natasha asks as she watches Cora wince as she adjusts herself.

"It'll be gone soon enough, just have to wait it out." Cora says as she looks down at her hands.

"Everyone has been coming to check on you, especially Peter, he'll come at least twice an hour. Then again, no one has gotten much sleep, since we rescued you, yesterday." Natasha says to Cora, looking up from her hands, Cora's eyes go wide with genuine shock.

"I was knocked unconscious for twenty-four hours? It doesn't feel as though it's been that long, it only feels like it's been a few hours." Cora exclaims as she tries to think of what time it was when she had accidentally went to Jotunheim.

"Well, after you turned into a Frost-Giant yourself, we found out since your half that and half Asgardian, it would take double the time for your body to heal and recover. Unlike how quickly you'd been able to heal yourself before triggering that hidden part of yourself." Natasha explains, Cora's eyes get bigger and look as though they will pop out of her head.

"I— I turned into a Frost-Giant?" Cora asks stunned, Natasha only nods to her as they both look up to the sound of the infirmary doors opening.

"That's probably Peter." Natasha says as she gets up from the chair and goes to the entrance from the infirmary back room and to the main part of the infirmary.

"How is she?" Cora hears Thor ask, leaning her head back against the pillow, Cora closes her eyes.

"She woke up about five minutes ago, she still has a headache and the back pain." Natasha says, as she looks at Thor to see he hasn't slept much like everyone else.

"Is she up to having a few visitors?" Thor asks as he looks toward the back room of the infirmary.

"I don't think that is a good idea, she's still relatively weak and needs to rest until she feels better." Natasha says, Thor only nods as he keeps his eyes on the back room door of the infirmary.

"Loki asked that I bring this, with how much it has helped her heal in the past, he figured it could help her with this." Thor says, Cora looks down and feels around her neck and realizes her amulet is gone.

Thor places the amulet in Natasha's hand and turns to walk out of the infirmary. Walking back into the back room of the infirmary, Natasha looks at the amulet, almost as though she is trying to study and understand it.

"Seems this fell off of you yesterday, and Loki went and retrieved it for you." Natasha says as she hands Cora the amulet. Cora slips the amulet over her head and lets it rest against her chest.

"Thank you." Cora says as the amulet starts to lightly glow green. Closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths, Cora lets the amulets powers flow through her, healing her.