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It occurs to Maria Hill as she watches Thor exit Loki’s cell that if they could bottle that facial expression, it would usher in a new age of psychological warfare. She doesn’t like Loki. He tried to take over her planet, killed civilians as well as her co-workers…as well as her friends, she thinks, doing her best to ignore the stab of pain as she remembers Phil. She tries not to hate Loki because hatred makes you blind and irrational and can lead to mistakes. But it’s hard when she remembers the pain he has caused.
However, when she looks at the naked pain and hurt on Thor’s face, she can’t help but feel a stab of sympathy as well. It reminds her that while to her Loki is a terrorist and war criminal, he is a brother and son to someone else.
Phil had told her that Thor was strangely compelling. Even so, she did not expect to feel sympathy for an immortal alien.
He sinks to the floor and leans his head against his knees, not caring that people are looking. Surprisingly, she finds it refreshing that he makes no effort to hide his emotions.
After a few minutes, he drags a hand roughly over his eyes and looks up at her. “Maria of the Hill,” he says in acknowledgement.
“I’d prefer if you just called me Agent Hill,” she replies.
He nods in acceptance. It’s something she read in the very limited file on him; apparently he accepts corrections easily.
“Fury wanted me to see if there’s anything you needed?” she says.
Thor’s lips quirk up. “He sends you, his most trusted subordinate, to inquire after my needs? He must be eager indeed to encourage good relations with Asgard.”
He’s more perceptive than she’d expected, but she doesn’t let that show on her face. Instead she answers that faint smile with a calculated one of her own. “The fact that we’re letting you leave with both Loki and the Tesseract wasn’t enough proof of that?”
Thor shrugs and gets to his feet. He’s not that tall, she tells herself, but his sheer presence crowds the corridor and makes him seem even more massive.
“He had little choice,” Thor says. “I could not have left without either.”
She quirks an eyebrow at him. “Is that a threat?”
“Need it be?” Thor counters. “It is beneficial for you. You could not have held Loki without executing him, and no matter his misdeeds, he is still a member of the Asgard royal family. It…would have vexed us. It would also have meant that we had no means for learning who was behind him and the Chitauri, or of what happened to him after he fell, so potential threats might have gone undiscovered. Meanwhile, the Tesseract will continue to attract attention you have no need for. I cannot guarantee that your future will be entirely devoid of unwanted contact with the Tesseract gone, but at least it can no longer be used against you.” He smiles suddenly, broadly and brilliantly, and okay, it’s not just his sad face that could be turned into a weapon. Maria finds herself smiling in return as he continues, “Besides, cultivating a friendly relationship with other realms when they are open for it is never not beneficiary.”
Maria surprises herself by chuckling. “So, what are you guys doing now? Do we need to prepare an embassy for you here?”
Thor smiles again, but he looks more tired than he just did. “First, we will secure the Tesseract and Loki. Preparations have been made for both. We have some affairs to see to first, but we will contact you again. If nothing else, we owe you a debt of weregild.”
Maria blinks. All the upper brass at SHIELD read up on Norse mythology and ancient Scandinavian customs after Thor’s first visit, but they have been unsure of how much of it applies to the Asgardians. This is apparently one of the customs they’ve shared with the old Norse. “You’re going to pay for the damage done?”
“We cannot bring back those dead,” Thor says, and there’s genuine regret in his voice. “We could help heal the injured, but it will be some time before we can make contact again, and by then you will surely already have brought them back to health.”
Maria refrains from commenting that she doesn’t think humans heal as fast as Thor’s people do.
“However,” Thor continues, “we can help see to it that your buildings again stand tall, and if not, cover the expenses of re-erecting them. We would not encourage you to seek a blood feud.”
“Indeed not,” Maria mutters, cynically thinking that Earth would probably be on the losing side there. She saw the devastation Thor wrecked on the alien ships with his lightning. And unlike Asgard, Earth has no way of getting to other realms. The war would be fought on Earth.
“So there’s nothing I can do for you?” she asks.
Thor hesitates. “There…is one thing,” he says. “I will speak to Erik Selvig when he awakes, but I made other…acquaintances when I was last here. Philip Coulson told me that you had moved Dr. Jane Foster to a safe location. I wondered if you might pass her a message from me?”
Maria allows herself a mental congratulatory pat on the back. Called it. “I can do one better,” she says and pulls out a cell phone and a scrap of paper. “Here’s a phone and her number. You just dial and hold it to your ear.”
Thor takes the phone and looks at it dubiously. “I…enter these symbols and then speak to her?”
Maria nods. “She’s in Norway, so the area code is zero-zero-four-seven,” she says, and at his blank look adds, “you do have numbers in Asgard, don’t you?”
“Yes, but they look different,” Thor replies.
She shows him which numbers they are, and nods affirmatively when he correctly guesses what the other numbers are. “And then you just dial the number there,” she says, indicating the scrap of paper.
Thor casts a quick glance on it. “Zero-zero-four-seven, and then ninety-seven million, eight hundred and fifty-two thousand, three hundred and forty-two,” he says, and Maria is suddenly reminded of just how alien he is.
“Uh, yeah,” she says, trying to hide how startled she just was. “And then press the button with a green symbol and wait for her to pick up and talk normally. When you’re done, press the button with the red symbol.”
He nods gravely at her. “You are most graciously kind,” he says, and she almost feels guilty about not telling him that the phone is bugged.
She feels even guiltier when Doctor Foster apparently picks up at the other end, and she sees something achingly soft and vulnerable enter Thor’s eyes as he breathes, “Jane.”
She leaves him alone with his phone call, but not before registering that she suddenly can’t understand him anymore – she remembers Romanoff mentioning that Thor, during shawarma, told them about the Allspeak, which apparently works so that they “understand anyone they choose to listen to, and will be understood by anyone they choose to let listen”.
She only realizes the full implications of this when the linguistic department tell her that they can’t decipher the recording of the phone call, and what’s more, they can’t understand Doctor Foster either.
Maria shakes her head in resigned amusement and goes back to work.