Bishop gazed around Asgard, wonder in her eyes, as she and Tony walked with Thor and his friends. He had introduced the Asgardians to the NCIS agents; Fandrul, Sif, Volstagg, and Hogan had been interested to meet them. And they were very interesting to meet.
Carrying swords and axes openly, they walked and acted like warriors. Thor referred to them as the Warriors Three. Tony frowned at that.
"You have four friends," he pointed out.
Puzzled, the five Asgardians stopped and turned to Tony. "So?" Thor asked.
"You have four friends, yet you call them the Warriors Three," Tony enunciated. "Why don't you just call them the Warriors Four and show the world that the tough Asgardians know how to count?" After a pause, he added, "Or do you?"
Bishop stepped on his instep roughly. "Ow!" Tony muttered, rubbing his foot against the back of his other leg.
Thor, however, laughed, although his friends looked sore at DiNozzo's latest comment. "DiNozzo, you misunderstand me! Fandrul, Hogan, and Volstagg are the Warriors Three."
Tony grinned, seeing a chance to make a joke. Bishop slapped her forehead, hoping the Asgardians wouldn't take offence at whatever the agent was about to say. "So when you guys go fight battles together, what is it? The Warriors Three featuring Thor and Lady Sif?"
Sif looked angry at that last comment and went for her knife, causing Tony to jump back. Thor just shot Tony a strange look before placing his arm in front of Sif. "He meant no offence, Sif. He does not know our ways." He turned to his other friends. "How about a good beer? Anyone?"
The Asgardians and Tony all seconded Thor's motion, and Bishop shook her head in exasperation. But the group headed out for a bar, and Bishop caught up to them, elbowing Tony in the ribs.
"What was that for?" Tony hissed with a wince.
"We're still on the job," Bishop whispered. "You can't drink."
"Gibbs will never know if I have one," Tony protested. "Besides, he told us to find out what we can. What better way than when they're intoxicated?"
"You'll be intoxicated before they will," Bishop insisted. "Stay away from the beer."
Tony glared at Bishop. "Listen, this is kind of an undercover assignment, no?" he pointed out. "We're supposed to find out what we can to help our current case. Basically undercover. Which means we can't afford to draw attention to ourselves by refusing to have a drink."
Bishop rolled her eyes. "You know Gibbs will kill you."
"Not if we find out anything relevant," Tony retorted, and he hurried off to catch up with the Asgardians. Bishop rolled her eyes, a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. But she ran to catch up with the others, determined to keep an eye on DiNozzo.
The group entered a bar and Thor ordered a round of beers to start them off. When Bishop told him she didn't want hers, Volstagg, overhearing her, swiped her mug and drained it. The NCIS agent stared at him in horror as he wiped his beard and reached for his own mug.
"So, Loki's working with you?" Sif asked Bishop.
"Yeah," she responded. "Can you tell me anything about him?"
Sif spread her hands. "What exactly do you want to know? He was the sour apple out of the six of us. What else do you need?"
Bishop and Tony exchanged a glance, brows furrowed. "You mean bad apple," Bishop corrected.
"It's Ziva all over again," Tony muttered, taking a sip from his mug. He recoiled, a strange expression on his face. "What is this?" he asked.
"Asgardian beer," Volstagg answered. "It's about a thousand years old, and you'll be the first mortal man to ever try it."
"Drink slowly," Thor advised, looking a touch worried.
Tony peered at the beer, brow furrowed. "What'll it do to me?"
Fandrul shrugged. "Only one way to find out!"
"Oh, dear," Bishop said, burying her head into her hands.
Tony took Fandrul's advice and, with the egging on of Fandrul and Volstagg, drank the whole mug of ale down. He set the cup down, let out a hearty laugh, said, "Gibbs is gonna kill me," and fell off the chair. He was out cold.
Thor, Sif, Fandrul, Volstagg, and Hogan all looked down at Tony with a distant concern as Bishop crouched down beside her fellow agent. "So that's what it does," Fandrul observed.
"Remind me not to give that to another mortal," Thor said to his friends.
Bishop dragged Tony into a corner, resolved to come back for him later, and then rejoined Thor and his friends. She had to find out something to help the case, otherwise, Tony would be in a heap of trouble with Gibbs.
As Thor explained to his friends what he had been doing on "Midgard," Bishop considered her strategy. She had to retrieve what information she could without making them really aware of it. She didn't want them reporting back to Odin that one of the "mortals" had been fishing for details.
"So," she asked. "Did Loki hang out with you guys?"
Hogan sighed. "Oh, yes."
"Unfortunately," Sif replied. She glanced at Thor. "I'm sorry, Thor, but you can see what he's like now."
Thor nodded absently. "He would hover on the periphery of our group, joining in at times. Not always."
Bishop grinned inwardly as she picked up on the right "interrogation strategy" to use on these warriors. "Well, I can't stand him."
"I noticed," Thor muttered into his drink.
Sif, Hogan, Fandrul, and Volstagg all looked at Bishop intently for a moment, digesting her comment. Then Sif laughed, Fandrul clapped her on the back, Hogan lifted the corner of his mouth, and Volstagg offered to buy her a beer. When Bishop gave him a surprised, disbelieving look, he glanced at the corner where Tony was and seemed to remember what had just happened. He then took back his offer as Fandrul looped his arm around her shoulders.
Bishop pressed her lips together, but didn't pull back from the contact. After all, she was sort of "undercover," as Tony said. Getting them comfortable around her was the first step to getting them to open up to her about Loki and see if they knew anything about the case.
"He's arrogant, for one," she began, rolling her eyes in an exaggerated fashion. "He gets into fights over meaningless things. And he thinks he can be trusted."
"I know, right?" Volstagg groaned. "Like you can ever trust someone like that. He and his silvertongue."
"Silvertongue?" Bishop repeated casually. "What do you call him that?"
"He's rather good at convincing people to do what he wants," Volstagg answered. "But not always."
"He wouldn't let us bring back Thor when he was banished," Sif said, leaning forward. "He forbade us to travel to Midgard. But we went anyway and were able to stop his evil plan."
"He always thinks he can get away with things," Bishop sighed in exasperation. "It's irritating. You know I had to draw a gun on him to get him back under control?"
Hogan snorted. "He's definitely a piece of work."
Thor, meanwhile, was regarding Bishop strangely, like he was trying to figure out her plan. She needed to distract him from finding out what she was up to. "Thor, you should know what we're talking about. After all, he is your brother. And what a pain in the butt he has got to be."
Thor's friends all turned to him expectantly. They were all in on the Loki bashing session now, and Bishop was sure she could get them to egg Thor into joining them.
"Yes, Thor," Fandrul encouraged. "Come on. You know nobody's going to care if you tell us how annoying your brother was."
"My brother will," Thor murmured.
Sif rolled her eyes. "You can't honestly be defending him? He tried to destroy a world, Thor! He froze Heimdall and took over the Bifrost, sending it to Jotunheim to burn up the planet."
Bishop made a mental note to figure out how Loki could freeze people.
"We all know him, Thor," Volstagg pointed out. "We already hate him. Nothing you say can change the way we feel, so why not just tell us?"
Thor sighed. "He is petty. He used to stab me just for the heck of it."
"Stab you?" Bishop couldn't help exclaiming. "What for?"
Thor shrugged. "Anything. Nothing important. He would just strike out with one of those knives of his."
And we gave him two.
"He and his magic nonsense," Hogan muttered. "Instead of learning how to actually fight, he uses his illusions to trick people."
"Illusions?" Bishop repeated. "Like, pretending to be somewhere he's not?"
"Exactly," Hogan said, and took a sip of his beer.
Hmm.
"I wonder how long it'll take for your boss to give up on him," Volstagg commented. "Doesn't he know he'll get nowhere with Loki?"
"He's frost giant," Fandrul added. "That means he's no good. No frost giant ever amounted to anything good."
"They're all evil," Sif agreed, draining her mug.
"Loki lured his father, Laufey, to Asgard just to kill him and make himself appear like a hero," Thor grumbled. "He allowed frost giants to enter Asgard on my coronation day."
Considering Odin's still king of Asgard, I'm going to assume that the coronation was cancelled?
Bishop absorbed all that. So, they didn't think Gibbs could reform Loki? Well. They didn't know Gibbs. Although Bishop couldn't fault them; even she doubted his ability to change Loki sometimes.
Okay, fine. Most times. Saying she didn't think he could do it at all went against everything she knew about Gibbs, so although that's what she thought, she settled for doubting it most of the time, giving Gibbs about one percent of credit.
"Well," Thor said. "He is the god of mischief."
Bishop, settling in her role, smiled warmly as Volstagg caught the attention of the waiter and ordered another round. Her smile slipped, however, as Fandrul, casually, said, "I bet twenty NCIS gives up within another week."
"I'll take that bet," Volstagg laughed. Bishop felt indignation building within her. Although she did not like Loki, she couldn't belief they were just betting against his chances like that. And she knew, if Abby was there, she would have lectured them severely.
But she wasn't Abby. So she kept her mouth shut. "Loki was boasting about some scepter he used to own, and about how powerful it is. Is it Asgardian, or is it related to his frost giant heritage? He wouldn't tell me." Then again, nobody asked.
Thor's friends all looked confused. Thor seemed to be the only one who had any idea what she was talking about.
"We don't know," Thor replied gravely. "Loki never said. I assume it came from whoever sent him chasing after the Tesseract and lent him the Chitauri. No one knows who it's from, or where."
Bishop nodded as the Asgardians started in on this second round. Hopefully, that was enough information to keep Tony from getting killed.
/**/
Thanks for reading! Please, comment and vote!
I know, I know, Loki was kind of absent from that chapter - but I hoped you enjoyed Bishop's narration! What did you think of it? Let me know!
Skylar Wittenborn