Special Agent Loki Laufeyson

Chapter 7

The lab came into blurry focus as Loki opened his eyes. He blinked rapidly and the concerned faces of Abby and Ducky came into view. Tony and Gibbs stood behind them, Tony with a smirk and Gibbs with an opaque expression.

"Wh-what happened?" Loki stammered. He pushed himself up into a sitting position. He was lying on the floor of Abby's lab, in the space between her workbench and the plasma screen on the wall.

"It appears you had a fainting spell, Mr. Laufeyson," Ducky informed him. "Although as to what triggered it, I have no clue. You are as physically fit as Tony here."

"Well," Tony said. "I wouldn't say that."

"Neither would I," Loki shot back, slowly pushing himself to his feet. To his surprise, he was not dizzy or anything. In fact, he felt fine now. But the Other's words still ricocheted inside his mind. "I am clearly in better shape than Tony."

"Hey!" Tony exclaimed, but Abby cut him off.

"What happened, Loki? Why'd you pass out?"

Loki considered telling them, but decided against it. He had no wish to tell them about the Other and Thanos. Not now. Not yet. He didn't want to lose the little companionship he had left because he was some sort of psycho.

He was kind of forgetting the fact that most of the world – NCIS included – already viewed him as some sort of psycho.

"I don't know," he answered. "One second Gibbs was asking me a question, the next I was waking up on the floor of your lab. As to what passed in the intervening moments, or to what triggered my blackout, I haven't the slightest."

"That's hinky," Abby mused. "Why would someone just pass out?"

Tony shrugged. "Who knows, Abby? But he looks fine now. Want me to take him back upstairs, Boss?"

Gibbs nodded. "Yes, Tony, you do that. Go join McGhee and Bishop."

Tony jerked his head towards the exit. "Come on, Loki. Let's go."

Loki glanced at Gibbs, whose expression had not changed, and then followed Tony out of the room.

****

Gibbs sighed. He felt like Loki hadn't told him everything. The god was hiding something, his gut told him.

He sighed again when he remembered that the trickster would be coming home with him tonight. And he didn't trust him not to slit his throat while he was sleeping.

So he fished out his cellphone and made a call to an old friend.

****

"So," McGhee asked Loki curiously as the four agents all sat at their desks, seeking to find Daniel Diaz's whereabouts. "You met the Avengers?"

"'Met' is putting it rather mildly," Loki replied. "But yes, I do know them."

"Then you met Tony Stark," McGhee commented energetically.

Tony put his head in his hands dramatically. "Oh, here we go again," he moaned.

McGhee shot Tony a dark look and then turned back to Loki as the god began to speak. "Yes, I did meet him. He offered me a drink after threatening me, and we had a nice chat...all before I tossed him through a window."

McGhee stared at Loki, horrified, as Tony burst into uncontrollable laughter. Bishop gave him a strange look as he almost fell out of his chair, he was laughing so hard.

Loki wrinkled his brow. "I'm sorry, did something I say qualify as one of your Midgardian jokes?"

Bishop shook her head. "Everything's a joke to Tony."