She had just clicked 'post' when her mother's sobs cut through her. Katherine stared at her, then pocketed her phone and rushed to her side. "Mum?" A gentle hand lingered on her shoulder, ready to comfort, ready to withdraw. But Shannon's pain ripped through her. Her mother seemed to have a strength and calm, Katherine had always struggled to find.
"And then you might have died too..." Katherine said with a sniffle. Her eyes fell onto her father. "Why do you always have to piss everyone off, Dad?" It wasn't fair. She didn't know what had happened but it wasn't the most ridiculous guess in the world either.
~~~
Voices cut through the haze. He could understand them now... could place their sources. Shannon with her hair made of fire whose touch had made him forget about his past and his anger. Katherine, his little girl, who had looked at him with so much trust and love that it had scared him at times.
He did not know whether they were memories or delusions. Maybe he had dreamt up this world where he had had a chance at being something other than Thor's little brother. And then he felt a touch on his chest. A weight in an otherwise weightless world. There was something out there. He just - needed - to - get - to it.