You came up slowly from the darkness surrounding you.

It was hard to swim through the fog and haze around you to return to consciousness.

Why were you not conscious?

Your ice cream was going to melt!

No, wait, that wasn't a reason to be unconscious.

It wasn't any less true, but it wasn't a reason to be unconscious.

The fog and darkness around you was hard to think through, but you finally recognized the jostle and sound of highway traffic. You recognized the feel of being in a moving vehicle. It wasn't one of Tony's smooth traveling fancy cars.

You were lying on your side across the backseat of the car, a blanket over you. That wasn't so strange. It wasstrange that your arms were behind you. You tried to move them, but besides that your limbs were too heavy to move, since your eyes were too heavy to move, you realized that your wrists were bound.

That had your adrenaline pumping enough for you to remember what had happened. You'd been attacked in the Tower's garage. And kidnapped.

Loki was going to be pissed

Hell, you were pissed

Pissed, but not stupid. You didn't open your eyes yet. No need to let them know you were awake before you had to. Your left arm was numb from where you were laying on it. You'd been laying on it for too long to be that numb. You wiggled your fingers a little and found you still could, and the pins and needles agony helped clear the fog from your mind.

"A fucking blanket isn't going to fool the cops if we get pulled over. Watch your fucking speed!" a scared youngish male voice said from the front passenger seat. "I told you we should have put her in the fucking trunk!"

"She's Asgardian. There's no way we're getting all the way there without her waking up. We need to drug her again and it would be obvious if we have a bound girl in the trunk that we're topping off with drugs. Boss wants her alive and save, so don't even think of overdosing her just because you're afraid," this voice was older, gruffer, still male and the driver.

"You know what she did to those Hydra agents!" the younger man protested.

A cell phone alarm went off and was shut off just as quickly. "That's the timer. Stick her." You heard velcro open and the distinctive clink of glass syringes as the case they were in opened.

Shit.

You were out of time. You snapped your eyes open, took in the car you were in as the young man in the passenger seat turned to you. He gasped. "Shit! She's awake!" he gasped as you moved, pushing your body to maneuver so you could leverage yourself quickly into a sitting position. It was hard and hurt like hell, but you managed.

"Stick her quick!" the driver shouted.

"Let me go," you snarled at them, using your legs to shift yourself as far away from the passenger, the one with the syringe, as you could. You tugged on your arms, but they were bound tight. You tried reaching for your magic, but you were drained from healing Strange. You didn't even have enough power left to contact Loki.

That left you with stupid ass decision.

Fuck.

You hated stupid ass decisions.

Syringe guy reached back to the backseat to try to get a grip on you to use his syringe. He was going to get you. One of the two of them would. You were outmatched without your magic and with your arms bound and in such a tight space. But you were at least going to make them question the decision to kidnap you. You slid down in the seat, cocked your leg, and drove the ball of your foot as hard at you could into syringe man's nose. He yelled and clutched his nose, which was bleeding profusely. You tried to sit back up again, but syringe man managed to grab your ankle and drove the needle hard into your thigh.

"Go the fuck to sleep, bitch," he snarled at you, blood pouring down his face.

That was the last thing you saw.

*

The second time you started to rise from the darkness, the syringe jabbed into you before you could wake all the way.

*

When you finally woke again the first thing you noticed was that the sun was coming up. Fuck. Your powers were gone. You reached for them anyway. But they were gone. You groaned as you sat up slowly, groggily. Your limbs were heavy from the last of the drugs in your system. You were in a small sparsely decorated room with not much more than the four-poster bed you were now sitting in. You looked down at the clank of metal as you moved to sit against the headboard.

There was a thick heavy rune etched manacle around your ankle. No wonder it had been hard to move. Stupid drugged brain was moving sluggishly. The chain leading from it was crazy long and eventually was locked around one of the bedposts. Bedposts that were too thick for even your Asgardian strength to break. Even if you had been up to strength, which you weren't because you lacked your powers, which was making you feel like death.

If Loki didn't beat you to it, you were going to kill these people, whoever they were and no matter why they had taken you.

You took more inventory. You weren't injured besides your fuzzy drugged brain and that would wear off soon. You hoped. You were still wearing the same clothes you'd been taken in. Comfy old jean, a t-shirt, and Loki's hoodie, though your shoes and socks had vanished. Your engagement ring was still on your finger. You didn't doubt that Loki had put some kind of tracking spell in it, or he could find you by the lovelock he still wore. You just had to bide your time and not end up dead before he got here. Wherever here was. You climbed out of the bed, careful of the chain and made your way to the window. All you could see was a garden covered in snow. You had to be pretty far north for there to be snow this time of year.

The chain gave you enough slack to reach everywhere in the room and the small bathroom next to it. But you couldn't get anywhere near the door out of the room and heading out the window would be stupid. You were on at least the third floor of this mansion, at least it felt like a mansion, and you were chained to the bed. Until that got rectified going anywhere wasn't happening.

There was also nothing that resembled a weapon in the entire room. At least nothing you found before the door swung open. You whirled toward the door, falling automatically into a fighting stance. You were a lady of Asgard. You were perfectly proficient fighting with your bare hands. "Oh good, you're awake," the woman said as she entered. She was carrying a tray of food with her, which she set on the nightstand. She was too kindly, an older grandmotherly type. She wasn't in charge here. "My son will be so happy,"

"What's going on here? Why was I kidnapped from my home?" you demanded of her, but eased your fighting stance slightly. This little old lady wasn't going to hurt you.

"Don't fret, dearie. I know we had to bring you here a little unconventionally, but we will be sending you home safe and sound," she promised. You had more than a slight feeling that she was senile. Damnit, you couldn't hurt a senile old lady to get out of here. Besides, you doubted she had the key to the manacle on your ankle to get out of here.

It probably wasn't the bestthing to have been considering taking out a little old lady if there was a chance she had the key... but you also weren't sure you cared. You'd been kidnapped. Propriety took quite a lot of a backseat in this circumstance.

"When will you be sending me home?" you asked her, gentling your voice some to keep her talking and maybe find out what was going on.

"Quite soon, dearie. Just as soon as you heal my son we'll take you right home."