On the Run (An Avengers Fanfiction) ✔️Completed (under editing)

Helping Hand

Norman's p.o.v.

As I sat in the back of the pickup I continued to worry about Amy, if any thing had happened to her I wasn't sure that I could contain my rage and would find it hard not to blame Astrid and Loki. The old man took us back to his house in the forest and when we had cleaned ourselves up he gave us some soup and bread for which we were all very grateful. We soon learned that his name was Brian Howard. He had us all sit by the fire after we had washed our hair using the sink in the kitchen. Astrid sat shivering with a towel around her shoulders. We still had Loki's leather over coat so he insisted that she put it on.

"I'm sorry the water is so cold and I can't give you better clothes" Brian said as he brought us a mug of coco each.

"It's fine, we are very grateful for your kindness" I said taking a drink from the mug which was helping to warm my hands up.

Loki eyed the coco suspiciously and I noticed Astrid glare at him. He decided to drink it thankfully. I wondered if Brian had any idea who he was.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what brings you out here?" he asked sitting down on a box nearby.

I looked nervously at Astrid and Loki, we didn't know what to say and I didn't feel confident letting Loki lie for us...

"You're runaways?"

"You could say that I guess." Astrid answered, "have you heard of S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"Yeah, my son, he used to work as a level three agent there."

"Oh. How is he?" I asked.

"He's most likely dead. He was killed during the battle at New York, well they never actually found his body but there were a lot of those in the streets so..." he said looking at Loki.

There was a terrible silence as I glanced at Astrid briefly.

"So what did you do, why'd you run?" he asked turning back towards us.

"I, uh, I killed someone." Astrid coughed.

"In the field?" he asked.

"Nope, I, it was an accident. I didn't even think about it but it happened..." She looked down at her boots.

"But of course no-one believes her and those who aren't guilty don't tend to run..." I added.

"They were trying to kill her before she could tell them anything... So we came with her. There were five of us." Loki stated, defending her.

"We stole jet but were shot down so we bailed out with parachutes but then we were shot down again and got separated" muttered Astrid, "and I only have myself to blame."

"You're trying to find your friends now?"

"Yeah, if they were in as bad shape as we were before you found us they might not live much longer" she answered.

"Let's hope you get what you want for Christmas then, we can't go looking in the dark and first I can take you shopping for supplies; there's one place I know that stays open late even on Christmas Eve..."

"You don't have to do this for us, I feel as though you've already done more for us than you had to. Thank you." Astrid said.

"I wanna help you kids... and him though I probably shouldn't. I know who he is, I'm helping you and I want you to accept my help." he pointed at Loki as he said these things.

"But your son, , I brought that army here, I may as well have caused his death..." Loki said in disbelief.

"I know. All the aliens died too but no-one seems to mind too much about them. Plus I saw that nuclear missile heading for Manhattan, Tony Stark sent it flying through that portal causing them all to drop dead for whatever reason; the point is that the aliens, and you too, didn't launch that missile. So who did? It seems pretty likely that it was S.H.I.E.L.D. So, if I help you, you help me. You get your friends back with my help and in return you try to find anything information at all on what happened to my son, and maybe even for yourself. S.H.I.E.L.D. protect too many secrets... If you want to find out anything from them you'll have to do it incognito."