Among the Asgardians: The Goddess of Love

Another Baby?

Kathryn's POV

I walked hand in hand with Jacob down to breakfast. I just couldn't get what had happened this morning out of my head. Was I sick? I certainly didn't feel sick at the moment. Just ravenous and tired. I hadn't had a good night because I didn't get a lot of sleep. I kept thinking about Loki. I missed him something horrible. It was very hard to give myself to my dreams so that I might rest. In fact, that was the only way I'd been able to fall asleep last night. I had pretended the arms that wrapped themselves around my body were Loki's arms, and in that fashion drifted off at last, though I awoke several times.

"What are you thinking about?" Jacob asked. "You're quiet this morning."

"Nothing," I replied. "I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night, and I had a really weird dream."

"What happened in your dream?" he asked.

"Nothing. Just... colors. Shapes and colors," I replied. "I don't know. And voices. There were voices."

"What did the voices want?" he asked.

"Nothing," I replied. "Just a chance to speak."

Jacob nodded. "Why are you so hungry this morning? You hardly ever eat breakfast. Whenever I go down in the mornings, I never see you there. You're always still in your room with..."

I was glad he'd decided not to say Loki's name. "How are we going to tell them?" I asked. "About our engagement?"

"The meeting where we were supposed to announce it last night was cancelled after the Alcatraz incident. My guess? It probably got rescheduled to this morning. But I don't expect everyone to be here today. We've been getting scattered more and more apart as each event happens. It takes me out of my comfort zone and it scares me a bit."

"Me too," I admitted. "I'm just afraid of what Tony will think. Or my father when he hears."

"What do you mean? Your father's dead, isn't he?"

"No," I replied. "Skye told me he wasn't dead. Agent May confirmed that they both work for him. He knows I'm here, but I'm not allowed to meet him. Don't tell the rest of the team. They can't know, or things will happen. Cap and Tony will start arguing again, Nat will argue with Bruce, and I'll hate them all. Oh, Jacob! What are we going to do? I want to see him so badly."

"And perhaps someday you will," he replied, stopping outside the breakfast hall and taking me into his arms. "I promise I'll get you at least one conversation with your father. Consider it an early wedding present."

I chuckled. "I'm already getting presents, and I don't even have a ring yet," I laughed.

"Ring?" Jacob asked.

I smacked my head. It was so easy to forget that Jacob had never really experienced life outside of his prison in Germany or this helicarrier. I forgot that he wasn't even a naturally born human, but a clone. A shell with no experience in the outside world. "When a man and a woman get engaged," I explained, "he gives her a diamond ring to symbolize their engagement. Later, at the wedding, he gives her another ring and she gives him one as well to symbolize their marriage."

"Oh," Jacob said, looking at his feet. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"It's okay," I laughed, giving him a peck on the cheek. "Rings aren't important to me. It's just tradition. Asgardians don't even wear rings."

"So... Do you want to have a Norse wedding or a Christian one?" he asked.

"Can we not discuss this right now, Jacob? I really am hungry," I said.