Chapter Twenty-Four - Filling Boxes and Playing Baseball

Chapter Twenty-Four

Filling Boxes and Playing Baseball

.

.

Thor stared at Althea, his emotions in a tangle. She hadn’t known his brother believed her dead, but she'd lived the last nineteen months believing she would never see Loki again, and all because she had been but a few hours too late. If Coulson had managed to get her to the SHIELD base—and to Loki and Thor—before the crown prince had dragged his wayward brother home, how might things have changed? Loki wouldn’t be the shadowed wreck he was now. There wouldn’t be so much distrust and anger directed at him. But would he have even chosen to return, if Thea awaited him here?

"I can't imagine the physical and mental toll that must have taken on you," Bruce said softly, bringing Thor out of his thoughts. The cadence of his voice had changed, reminding Thor of the healers back in Asgard. Thea simply shrugged and looked at a framed photo on the wall of herself and a little girl that had to be Sophie. Her attention snapped back to Banner when he asked, "But why weren’t the Avengers told about this?"

"That's what I want to know," Tony growled. Dark eyes glared at Nick, who sat unperturbed, watching Thea. "Why weren’t we informed that Coulson was still alive?"

Nick shrugged. "We had to prove it was Coulson, first. Then we had to verify Ms. Valerian's story—"

"Odinson," Thea corrected.

"Odinson," Thor and Víðarr said at the same time. The prince and the former mortal locked eyes and smiled at each other. Thor addressed Nick. "Thea is my brother's wife, a daughter of the royal house, and a princess of Asgard."

The SHIELD director raised an eyebrow. "You know, she warned me you'd be backing her up as soon as you arrived. Looks like she was right."

Thea said, "I know Thor." When the warrior in question glanced at her, she added, "I know a great deal about your life before Loki fell off the Bifröst. He showed me. And my power lets me access unadulterated memory, the kind recorded in the brain, which is different from the memories you can bring to mind yourself. No flaws, no blemishes, no missing pieces. So I know Thor very well…among other Asgardians."

"So you had to verify everything," Tony said, hauling the conversation back on track. "And? What took so long?"

"He didn’t believe me," Thea said coolly. "Didn’t believe what I was telling him about Loki. At first he thought I had some sort of dark agenda. I was evil personified, the whore of Babylon—"

"I never called you the whore of Babylon," Nick protested. "But your judgment had been compromised because of your romantic involvement with the enemy. It was my personal opinion that he'd manipulated you, confused you. At my discretion, we brought in several experts to verify your statements and your psychological well-being. You can't possibly fault me for that."

She smiled, a smile with an edge like a knife. "Yes, I can. After having me psychologically evaluated by Professor Xavier, Doctor Frost, and two SHIELD psychiatrists, I figured you would've bought my story at that point, stopped running all your little alien-baby tests on my daughter, and gotten started on my project."

Thor frowned. "Your project?"

"We're trying to build our own Bifröst," Coulson interjected. "Thea knows how the Bifröst works. Loki explained it to her, in detail. She can't build one herself, but she can tell SHIELD scientists how to do it."

Tony, obviously dazzled, turned to Thea. "You know how the Rainbowland Bridge works?"

Offering an apologetic smile, she shook her head. "Not exactly. Loki showed me the texts about the composition of the Bridge. I can write down what I saw, and show the memories to other people, but I don't know what it means. It would be like opening a book written in ancient Greek and then copying it down. Yeah, I copied it, but I don't know what it says. But there are plenty of scientists, like Dr. Selvig, who can take what I saw and make it work. We're about half done. If we'd started earlier," Thea added with a glare at Nick, "we'd probably be done by now and I could get my adorable butt to Asgard to rescue my husband. He's in prison, isn't he?" She looked at Thor with shadowed eyes. "You threw him in jail."

He winced. Running a hand through his hair, Thor murmured, "Sister…you must understand. We thought him mad. Evil. We had no explanation for what he'd done on Midgard or before his fall from the Bifröst. We couldn’t trust him."

Thea drew her left leg up to her chest so she could rest her chin on her knee. "Do you have your explanations now?" Thor nodded. "Then you're going to let him go, right? Maybe…maybe take me to him? Or bring him here to me. I mean, that's your plan…right?"

Her eyes were so hopeful. Thor wondered just how difficult the last nineteen months had been for her. He sighed. "It is not so simple. We must convince the king of his innocence—"

"Then take me to Asgard!" Thea cried, sitting up straight. "I can tell Odin myself. I mean, it's pretty obvious by now that Loki's telling the truth. He told you about me, didn't he? I knew he would," she added when Thor nodded. "If he thought I was in trouble, he'd ask for your help, no matter what was going on between you two; he told me. Or if…if he thought he had to avenge my death." Thea looked away, misery etched across her features. "He thinks I'm dead. He's…he's not okay, is he?" She looked back at Thor. "How bad is it?"

It should have surprised him that she understood the situation so quickly…but then, she knew Loki better even than Thor himself. "He tried to commit suicide," Thor said gently.

Nick, Coulson, Steve, and Pepper all shot the Asgardian incredulous looks; this was news to them. Tony and Banner merely looked grim. Thea went white, her eyes glassy with tears. She covered her mouth with a shaking hand. A single tear spilled down her cheek. She wiped it away and nodded.

"I've been so…so worried about him. All this time, I knew something was wrong. I knew it. I have to go back with you," she added, shoving wisps of hair out of her face. "Please, Thor. You have to take me back to Asgard. I have to see him. I have to show him I'm okay."

It was Víðarr who shook his head. "We travel by seiðr, Althea. It is difficult enough on a hardy Asgardian warrior like Thor. Those without strong innate magic suffer ill effects from such travel—"

"I don't care! He needs me."

"The journey could kill you," Víðarr said quietly. "It is the difference between the Æsir born to Asgard and those who were once mortal: you have no innate seiðr. Such a journey would make you very ill, if it did not simply kill you outright. And you are no good to Loki dead."

"Then bring him here! Talk to Odin, tell him you met me. Have him released. Bring Loki here. He won't hurt anyone."

Coulson came over and put a hand on her shoulder. "Als, we haven’t finished up the amnesty thing. If he sets foot on Earth before we're done, the German government is within its rights to order us to extradite him. He could be arrested, maybe even killed. And if he's unstable, it's not safe for other people. Something might set him off. He could hurt someone without meaning to."

She pinched the bridge of her nose, as if trying to ward off a headache. Then she dropped her hands in her lap. "So, what? You came here to tell my husband is losing his mind and there's nothing anyone can do? Did you tell him I was alive?"

Thor nodded. "He did not believe me. He became…angry."

Yanking out her ponytail, Thea ran her hands roughly through her hair. Sighed. "If he's as messed up as you're saying, then he's not going to believe you without proof of some kind. And if something doesn't change, he might…" Thea scrubbed her hands over her face before smoothing back her hair. "What's to keep him from trying to kill himself again? If he's that desperate…You haven't felt him like that before," Thea said, locking eyes with Thor. "I have. I remember what he felt when he let himself fall from the Bifröst three years ago. Something has to be done. And our Bifröst isn't due for anything even close to a test-run for several months."

Víðarr pursed his lips. "Progress has been made on the Asgardian Bifröst, especially in light of…certain upcoming events," he supplied when Thor shot him a look. "But ours will not be completed for at least three months. The repairs required are extensive. If Loki were…were in his right mind, his help would greatly speed up the process. But even Amora, the next most powerful of the seiðr users, cannot come close to Loki's skill—"

"Amora?" Thea interrupted, eyes narrowing. "Amora the Enchantress?" Warily, Víðarr nodded. Thor remembered that Loki had told his wife all about what Amora had done to him a few centuries past: allowing him to woo her, pretending to accept his affections, and all to get close to the crown prince. Thea rolled her eyes and growled, "I hate that woman."

"Als," Coulson said, "if we need to convince Loki you're still alive, what about sending Thor back to Asgard with your letters? And the videos we made of Sophie?"

A strange look passed over Thea's face and her eyes widened. She looked up at Coulson. "You think?"

He shrugged. "Worth a shot. I'll go get them, okay?"

She nodded and her stepfather left the room. Thea sighed and dropped her face into her hands. The Avengers looked at each other, uncertain how to proceed. Thor knew they hadn’t been sure what to expect out of the woman that was married—and apparently happily so—to the man who'd wreaked such havoc on New York City. Thea wasn’t the woman Thor had expected, either. In Loki's recountings, she'd been so bright, so cheerful. Now she seemed tired and sad. But then, she'd thought she would see Loki again, after all this time. The disappointment and pain…he couldn’t imagine it.

But Thea's demeanor changed when a shrill cry of protest shattered the awkward silence. Thea jerked upright, brows furrowing, as a plaintive voice from somewhere in the house yelled, "No! Mine!"

"Ashley!" Thea called. "Give Sophie back her teddy bear!"

"I wanna play with it!" A young voice argued.

"No! Mine! Gimme it!"

Two pairs of feet thudded across carpet, and a child maybe four years old with blond hair bolted into the living room, a stuffed black bear held high above her head. She jumped up and down, crying, "Can't get it! Can't get it!"

A toddler with curly black hair and miserable green eyes in a yellow dress stopped at the entrance to the living room. "Gimme!"

Thea glared. "Ashley, give it back now."

"But I took it fairs and squares! It's mine now."

Sophie—it had to be Sophie who stomped forward, glaring, tears leaking from emerald eyes that made Thor's heart skip a beat—let out a cry of despair and yelled, "No! Mine! Mine!" For just a moment, Thor could have sworn her eyes turned vivid crimson.

"Do you want me to tell your mom how you're behaving in front of company?" Thea asked with deadly ice. The four-year-old stared back at her with nervous blue eyes. Thea folded her arms across her chest and said, "I'm going to count to three. One."

Ashley looked at the bear, at the Avengers, then at Sophie, who came closer. Thor was positive now—Sophie's eyes were definitely red, not green. Ashley glared at Thea. "I wanna play with it!"

"Two," Thea said flatly.

Furious at being thwarted, Ashley threw the bear on the floor and stomped on its stomach before storming off past Sophie, who scrambled to the bear, crying. She scooped it up and hugged it. "My bear," she whimpered, petting the stuffed animal's head. "My bear." She turned wet eyes—green once more—to Thea. "Mommy…"

Thea held out her arms. "Come here, baby." Sophie let Thea scoop her up and set her on her mother's lap. "Let me see Bear."

Sophie held up the toy. "Stomp him," she quavered. She stroked the bear's stomach. "Boked."

"No, Bear's not broken," Thea said with a smile. "He's all full of fluff and stuff. He's okay. See, look?" Thea held up the bear, then pretended to have the toy kiss Sophie on the nose. The toddler giggled. "He's fine." Sophie smiled, then realized the Avengers were all watching her, seemingly mesmerized. Her eyes widened and she buried her face in her mother's shoulder with a squeak. Thea put her arms around her as if out of reflex and called, "Joie! Can you come here, please?"

Another woman, blond and blue-eyed in a pair of baggy overalls, poked her head into the room. She had to be Ashley's mother. "I know, I know. I'll take care of it. Sorry. I've told her a million times not to touch Sophie's teddy bear. Which makes her want to touch it even more. Thanks for not doing the mojo on her."

"I'm thinking about it," Thea muttered as her younger sister left to deal with the wayward Ashley.

Thor cleared his throat. "Sophie?" Sophie pressed closer to Thea with a small sound. The prince looked at Thea, who smiled and shrugged, mouthing the word shy. "Sophie…"

"Hey, Frosty McCute-Stuff," Thea said, giving her daughter a little bounce with her knee. Sophie joggled on Thea's knee. "Remember we talked about this before your nap? This is your uncle. This is Daddy's big brother. You wanna look at him, or are you gonna be shy right now?"

Sophie risked a quick peek at Thor before hiding her face in Thea's shirt. Thea gave her child a considering look before getting a good hold on her and transferring both of them from the rocking chair to the floor. Sophie gave a petrified squawk and clutched the black bear even tighter while curling up against Thea like a snail. Unfazed, Thea gestured Thor to take a seat on the floor nearby. Then she looked at the others.

"Could you guys maybe go in the kitchen or something? Or go help Phil? Give me and Thor some time with Sophie? She'll handle him alone a lot easier if it's just him. Phil told me you guys want to…understand her, but she'll open up better if she deals with you all one-on-one at first, and I've shown her images of Thor, so she kinda knows him a little bit already."

Víðarr considered for a moment, then nodded. "As you wish, Sister. Come, then, my friends. We will lend our aid to the son of Coul."

Only when the Avengers—minus Thor—and Víðarr had left the living room, along with Pepper and Nick, did Thea address Thor again. "What do you know about her?"

Thor drew a breath as he considered the best answer. "I know that she was conceived in love, not by force, and that you and Loki both feared for her safety, her survival, because of the Chitauri. I know she is half-Jötunn, half-Asgardian. She has the look of my brother," he added. "Though I have never seen Loki's eyes turn crimson."

She smiled. "I have. He maintains his appearance with an anchored seiðr illusion. He told me all about it when I found out he was a Frost Giant. I actually saw the illusion slip…later." Seeing Thor's bemused look, she sighed. "As we both got weaker, with the bad diet and everything, that one illusion that he was always so desperate to maintain slipped all the time. Especially if he was…otherwise engaged."

"Ah," Thor said. Thea blushed, and he smile. "I see. So you have seen Loki as a Frost Giant?" Thea nodded. "I have not. And Sophie?" His niece made a strange noise, peeked at him from behind her hands, then covered her face and huddled against her mother. He smiled and focused on Thea. "Can she become a Frost Giant as well?"

Thea shrugged. "I have no clue. She hasn’t done it yet. Her eyes turn red when she's ticked off, though," she said. "And she was pale for a baby after she was born. I mean, she was bright red at first when she was shrieking her head off, but after that, she turned all snow-white like her Daddy. Didn't you?" Thea scrabbled tickling fingers along Sophie's sides. The toddler squeaked and laughed, wriggling as her mother tickled her. "You look like Daddy, huh? Don't you? Are you ticklish? You're super-ticklish, yes, you are! Oh, she's trying to get away! Not happening!" Thea wrapped her arms around Sophie and pretended to nibble on her cheeks. Sophie shrieked with laughter. Thea kissed her on the head. "Are you ready to talk to Uncle Thor now?"

Sophie looked up at him. He smiled. She hunched back against her mother and shot Thea a questioning look. Thea touched her fingertips to Sophie's temple.

"Remember Daddy's big brother?" She closed her eyes and Sophie closed hers. A tiny wrinkle formed between Sophie's thin, black eyebrows as she frowned in concentration. Then green eyes opened wide and she looked at Thor. Thea smiled. "See? It's him. Remember Mommy showed you?"

Sophie frowned, as if trying to come to grips with something. Then she pointed at the Asgardian. "Tor."

Something sharp and hot lanced Thor's chest and he looked away. Tor. Loki had called him "Tor" when they were small, because he'd had trouble with thuh-sounds. Just as Thor had called his brother "Loh-ee." Clearing his throat, he nodded. "That's right. I'm your uncle Thor. And you're my niece, Sophie."

She nodded solemnly. "Yeah." Then she frowned and looked around the room. She looked up at her mother. "Daddy?"

Thea's wince was barely perceptible, but Thor noticed it. "No, honey," she said. "Daddy's not here."

Sophie frowned harder. "He no come?"

"Not this time, baby."

"Why?"

Thea swallowed. "He couldn't." She brushed a hand over her daughter's hair and smiled, but Thor could see the sadness in it. He wondered if Sophie saw it as well. "He wanted to, but he couldn’t."

Sophie processed that. Then she asked, "He come soon?"

Her mother nodded. Thor could see it cost her to keep smiling for her daughter. "You bet. We'll see Daddy soon."

The little girl settled against her mother again, petting the teddy bear as if it were a cat. Thea stroked Sophie's hair the same way. Finally, the toddler asked diffidently, "He like me?"

Startled she would even ask the question, Thor interrupted. "Of course he will like you. He will love you."

She blinked at him. "'Kay." She looked at her teddy bear, then at her bare toes, before looking back up at Thor. "You like me?"

Thor nodded. "I do, yes." To see this child—his brother's child—after having mourned her as dead…there were no words to describe the sheer depth of emotion surging through him. He had no idea how his brother would react to learning his daughter lived. Relief, certainly. Overwhelming joy. He hoped Loki believed him when he brought back news of her. There had to be a way to make him believe. Perhaps Thea's letters would do the trick. And Thor would make an oath by the Norns themselves…but Loki still might not believe him. It was impossible to know, with his brother's mind so damaged.

"I like you." Sophie smiled shyly at him. She held out her stuffed toy. "Bear like you. See Bear?"

Thor offered a solemn nod of approval. "A very handsome bear."

"Daddy make it," she said, hugging it to her chest. Thor jolted. This was the stuffed bear from Loki's illusions of Sophie. He'd assumed—as Loki had—that the bear had been lost on the Chitauri home-world…but no. It had been in the bag Thea had had Coulson retrieve for her. "Mine," Sophie added. Then she twined her arms around Thea's neck and tried to squeeze her while still sitting on the floor. "My mommy."

Thea kissed the top of her head. "My Sophie," she replied. "Tell your uncle how old you are."

The little girl held up a single finger. "Dis." She looked at her finger for a moment, then curled it and held it out to Thor. "Dis, too!"

"She's one and a half," Thea translated. To Sophie, she added, "Good job, sweetie. Hey, how 'bout you get one of your books about Daddy so you can show it to Uncle Thor, okay?"

Sophie released her mother and hopped to her feet. "Okay! Okay! Show book! Me show." Dragging the bear by one arm, she went to the bookcase where the pictures sat a couple shelves above her head. She crouched down in front of the bottom-most shelf and started pulling some of the thin books out onto the floor so she could look at the covers. Thea looked back at Thor.

"Be honest with me," she said softly. "If we found a way to get to Asgard, would she be safe there?"

The crown prince nodded. "No one would even think of harming her. Why would they?"

"Is it common knowledge that Loki's a Frost Giant?"

He hesitated. "Yes…but Sophie is also half-Asgardian, and the granddaughter of the king. No one would try to harm her. Even if our people thought of it—and I do not believe they would—I would not allow it, nor would any of my brothers. As for my parents…once I tell them everything about Sophie, they will be happy to have a grandchild."

Thea cast a worried glance at her daughter, who seemed torn between a book with a green cover and another book with a red cover. "Would it be better, though, if Loki and I stayed here after he was freed?"

"I think…I think it would be good for Asgard to see my brother with you, with Sophie," he said softly. "It will show them that he isn't the man they believe him to be. And I will not have my twin brother believe he cannot come home again. I did not spend the last year trying to regain his trust, only to cast him out once more. He is my brother. You are my sister. Sophie is my family. Anyone who wishes either of you harm must contend with me." He leaned forward a little and took her hand. "Do not think you're not welcome in Asgard, Sister. It will always be Loki's home, and your own, for as long as you wish it."

Thea took a deep breath that seemed to pain her, then let it out in a soft sigh. She folded her hands and pressed them to her lips. Closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she looked at Thor. "Do you think it might be a better idea to send Sophie back with you? She's Loki's daughter, born half-Asgardian. She's probably got innate seiðr. If she does, she could make the journey okay, couldn’t she? And then he'd have proof she was alive. Do you think that might be best?"

Thor shook his head. "Loki is in no condition to care for her. She would be left to my mother and her ladies-in-waiting; there is no knowing what Sophie might hear in their company, without you and Loki present to combat any rumors. My mother would never speak ill of Loki, but I can make no promises about the other women of the court." He thought of Angbodr, who'd dared to call Loki ärgr in front of the queen. Frigga had put a stop to it, but…"And if we bring her, and he believes, and then we take her from him again…I do not know what that will do to him. No. I will bring your letters to my brother, and hope that will convince him. The son of Coul mentioned…videos?"

She nodded. "I didn't want Loki to miss anything, you know? Sophie's first steps, her first words, her first haircut." Thea made a face. "She screamed like a banshee, but she made the funniest faces. We have them all on DVD, but…how would you even show them to him?"

"Perhaps Loki could create a spell to display what is recorded," Thor suggested.

"From what it sounds like, he's in no shape to be playing around with something that could singe off his eyebrows. I'm kinda fond of those…and the rest of his face."

"He did that once," Thor said. Thea's brows rose. He nodded. "Indeed. His first foray into fire spells. I have no idea what he was working on, but it exploded in his face. Left soot-streaks that refused to wash off for nearly two days. Drove my mother to distraction. And Loki's face looked terribly lopsided with only one eyebrow."

A smile curved Thea's lips. "He never told me that." Leaning back on her hands, she watched her daughter flip through the two books on the floor in front of her. "She's trying to pick which one has the best pictures," she explained, lifting her chin to indicate Sophie. "I knew you'd stand by him," Thea added.

"How did you know?"

Her smile widened. "Because I know you. I have almost Loki's entire life, knowing you. Not even individual memories, but how much he loves you. How much he trusts you. And I know him. He wouldn’t trust you if you couldn’t be trusted."

Then her smile slipped. Thor said, "Yet you fear for him."

A quick blue-gray glance at the prince before Thea focused on Sophie again. "He's suicidal…and I love him." She squeezed her eyes shut. "I love him so much." She swiped at her cheek, but not before Thor caught a glimpse of a tear escaping from the corner of her eye. "I tried so hard to keep him together when we were stuck in that prison. Sometimes I thought I'd go crazy trying to stay so upbeat, but he needed me to or he would've lost it, and now…of course I'm worried about him. The Chitauri…they're manipulating him still, from what Nick said Mr. Stark told him. I'm not surprised. They feed on pain…like mutant alien ticks. And unfortunately I don't have a can of Raid big enough to take them all out. One day I'll get them, though."

"By turning them into fleas and smashing them with hammers?"

Thea shot him a quick, surprised smile. "Loki told you about that?" Thor nodded. "Yeah, I'll turn them into fleas. Or, to save on postage, I'll just turn them into llamas, knock them unconscious, and drop them off a waterfall in South America."

"South America?"

She nodded. "It's like America, but south. Oh, you found your favorite, Sophie-girl?" Thea straightened up as her daughter came back carrying a red book with a drawing of a dark-haired man leading an eight-legged horse. Sophie held up the book like a talisman. The title was stamped on the cover in elaborate silver script and read, Sleipnir: The Eight-Legged Horse.

"Horsey book!" She plopped down in front of Thea but held the book out to Thor. "See? See horsey?" She opened the book to the first page and shoved it at Thor. The prince looked at Thea.

"She wants you to read to her. She's decided you won't do anything drastic, so you're safe. You can read English, right?"

"I…well, of course, but—"

"Horsey book!" Sophie scooted an inch closer. "Horsey book! Peez?"

The two adults locked gazes and then Thor looked down at Sophie, who smiled winningly at him. Her smile was so much like Loki's, almost like a silent invitation to mischief and fun. Thor sighed and picked up the book. He hadn’t been able to tell his brother no, either. No doubt he was doomed to a life wrapped around his niece's finger.

"All right, then. Hmmm." He picked up the book. Cleared his throat. "'Once upon a time, there was a place called Asgard. In Asgard lived a prince named Loki. Prince Loki was very smart. Whenever Asgard needed help with a difficult problem, they would go to Prince Loki.'"

Thor started to turn the page, but Sophie made a sound of protest. Thor looked to Thea, but it was Sophie who cried, "Pitcher?"

"Show her the pictures," Thea translated.

"Ah. My apologies." Thor turned the book so that his niece could see the illustration of Loki. For the most part the picture was fairly accurate. The Loki in the drawing had his foster brother's pale skin and dark hair. Someone had had to color the eyes green with a pen, however, and the Loki in the book wore blue and brown. Thor couldn't think of a time when his brother had worn blue; he preferred black or gray more than anything, and green.

Sophie touched the picture, then looked at Thor. "Daddy," she said firmly, touching the picture again. Then she looked at her mother. "Daddy?"

Thea smiled. "Good girl. That's a picture of Daddy, yes."

Sophie beamed at her mother before turning that smile on Thor. "Horsey story. Horsey story. Peez."

Thor cleared his throat. "'One day, a mason appeared. He said he would build a big wall around Asgard. It would be made of big stones. It would protect Asgard from angry Frost Giants. But he would only build the wall if the Æsir let him marry the beautiful Lady Freyja. And he wanted to take the Sun and the Moon out of the sky, too. The Æsir agreed, but there was a catch. The mason had to build the whole wall in just one day. He had to build it all by himself, too. The Æsir thought nobody could do that.'"

The book went on to tell how the mason, who was really a Jötunn in disguise, worked together with his otherworldly black draft-horse on the wall. When the Asgardians saw that the mason would be able to complete the entire wall in one day, they turned to Prince Loki for help.

Thor found himself smiling as he read aloud to his niece. This wasn’t quite how it had happened, but this book was one of the more accurate accounts of the building of the wall around Asgard. The mason had been given an entire winter, not one day, and it had been Tyr's idiotic idea to agree to the trade, believing the Jötunn stonemason wouldn’t be able to finish. It had been Loki, however, who had come up with the solution. Using one of his prized mares as bait, the fostered prince had lured the draft-horse away, just as in the story. Because the stallion was a strange Jötunn beast, the colt had been born with eight legs, just as in Sophie's book.

Loki had gifted the colt—with its strange abilities and lightning speed—to Odin. The king had been impressed…but not as impressed as Loki's brothers, who were amazed that Loki had been behind the creation of such a magnificent animal. Thor bit back a sigh. The last time either of them had seen their father ride Sleipnir had been when Odin had come to drag Thor back from Jötunheim by the scruff of his neck like an errant puppy. Loki had been right, the prince thought, to fear Thor becoming king of Asgard then.

"Again, again," Sophie pleaded when the story was over. "Again. Peez?"

Somehow she convinced him to read the book four more times. Sometime during the fifth and final reading, Sophie climbed onto his lap to more easily look at the pictures. When she leaned back against his chest, Thor swallowed. His niece settled herself comfortably and pointed at the page he'd left off with.

"Story?"

"Yes, of course," Thor managed to say around the lump in his throat. Silently, he thought, Loki, you should be here. You should see her.

When the story was over, Thor closed the book, and Sophie said with relish, "Da end!" Movement in the entryway caught her attention. She jumped up and toddled over to Coulson, crying, "Gampa! Gampa!" Then she uttered a string of unintelligible sounds, ending with, "Horsey story."

"Uncle Thor read you the horse story, huh?" Coulson hoisted Sophie into his arms as he came into the room. "Well, that was nice of him. Hey, Als, we got your stuff together. It's…a lot of stuff. You might want to sort it yourself and put together a sample or something. Everyone's in the dining room at the table. Your mom made sandwiches and lemonade. Your stuff's in the den."

Thea nodded and got to her feet, dusting her pants off. "Thanks, Phil. Hey, Sophie-girl, you wanna come help Mommy?"

"Yeah!" Sophie grinned. "Me help!" Coulson traded Sophie to Thea, who gave Thor a nod before walking down the hall. Sophie waved over her mother's shoulder. "Bye-bye! Bye, Unka Tor. Bye!"

Coulson came over as Thor rose to his feet. "So," he said to the Asgardian. "Took her awhile, but she warmed up to you, huh? What do you think of her? Your brother's daughter."

"I adore her," Thor said simply. "She's so much like him."

"Yeah, that's what Thea always says. Look…Thor, you've got to find a way to get Thea back to Asgard as soon as possible. She's not…she's not doing well down here." The Asgardian frowned. Coulson sighed and ran a hand through his thinning hair. "She's been holding herself together for Sophie, but you can see the difference between when Sophie's around and when she's not, can't you?" Thor nodded. Thea wasn’t what Loki had described, except in her daughter's presence. "There has to be a way to get her to Loki."

"She said she knew something was wrong with him. How did she know?"

The SHIELD agent crossed his arms. "She's been having nightmares. A lot. Nothing really tangible, no imagery. Just Loki calling out for her. She says he sounds more and more desperate every time."

Thor frowned. "How often has she been having these dreams?"

"It used to be only once or twice a month when Sophie was first born. In the last six months, it's gone up to once or twice a week. Has he been getting worse?" Coulson asked. Thor nodded, brows knitting. "You know, I don't know how healthy their relationship is right now, but they need each other," the mortal added.

One golden brow quirked. He considered his words before asking, "You think their connection is…unhealthy?"

Coulson shrugged. "I'm no psychiatrist, but they fell in love under incredibly trying circumstances. They weren’t in a healthy place mentally to begin with…but they used each other to cope. It worked for them, but now that they're separated, it's not working anymore. She went practically catatonic for the first few weeks after you went back to Asgard."

Thor stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"She didn’t speak to anyone except Sophie. She would take care of Sophie, sing to her and talk to her, play with her, but she wouldn’t interact with anyone else. Not me, not her mother. Professor Xavier could reach her, but she wouldn’t respond to him." Coulson hesitated, eyeing Thor, before nodding, as if he'd come to some sort of decision. "The only time she reacted to anything," the SHIELD agent added, "was when the boss suggested we take Sophie from her. She didn’t react outwardly, but the professor warned us that if anyone tried it, Thea would attack them…and you can't defend against what she can do to you unless you've got some serious mental power." Coulson shook his head. "I'm worried about her. And Sophie…every day, it seems like, she asks about Loki."

A strange, sharp sadness cut deep into Thor's heart. "What does she ask?"

"When he's coming home, will he like her. Thea's shown her memories of him, so she knows what he looks and sounds like. It's just…it's tough on the kid. On both of them." He turned to the Asgardian prince. "If you can convince him that she's alive, can you get him to help fix the Bifröst? I wouldn’t trust him here, not if he's as messed up as you're saying, but Víðarr said something about the repairs speeding up if Loki took part?"

Thor nodded, considering. "Yes, I think…if Loki helped with the repairs, the Bifröst could be fixed in a couple of weeks at most. Seiðr is his specialty. He understands the workings of the Rainbow Bridge better than anyone else still living in Asgard; he's studied it for centuries. Even Heimdall does not know as much. But convincing him would be difficult. He is…afraid to believe."

Coulson frowned. "Afraid? Why?"

"He is not strong enough to bear the grief of hoping, only to be proven wrong. But perhaps…perhaps he can be convinced to help, nonetheless." Seeing the other man's baffled look, Thor explained, "He wants Thanos and his Other dead for what they did to Thea and Sophie. I have promised him my help—and he will need it. We cannot leave Asgard safely without the Bifröst in working order. I…do not travel well via seiðr, and he will need me at my best. Add to that, there is trouble brewing beyond our borders. I might be able to convince him to help repair the Bridge simply to expedite his vengeance. The trouble will be convincing my father to let him out of prison."

"I think I can help with that," Thea said, coming back into the room. She held a cardboard box tucked under her arm. Thor saw that it had yet to be sealed. Sophie toddled behind her mother, carrying several sheets of paper and a yellow and green box that seemed in constant danger of falling out of her hand. Thea bent down and touched Sophie's hair. "Here, baby, why don't you go color over by Mommy's chair, okay?"

"'Kay," Sophie gurgled happily, moving to the designated area. Thor watched her manage to open the yellow and green box and dump out six fat, white sticks onto the floor. She grabbed the discarded "horsey book." Using it as an impromptu table, she set a large piece of paper down and popped the cap off the white stick.

"Don't worry about it," Thea said, seeing Thor eyeing the child. "They're specialty markers. They only draw on that special paper. See?" She pointed as Sophie accidentally touched the stick's pale green tip to her leg. It didn't leave a mark. When she touched the paper, however, a clear, bright green dot decorated the expanse of white. Thea turned to Coulson. "Phil, can you find that folder of Sophie's finger-paintings Mom's got in her office? I want to put a few in here," hefting the box.

He smiled. "You got it, kiddo." He went off in search of the required paintings.

Thor kept his eyes on Sophie, but he spoke to Thea when she came to stand next to him. "How can you help convince my father?"

"Heimdall," she replied softly, watching her daughter draw a green scribble on the paper. "He can show Odin what he sees, can't he? Kind of like what I can do." Thor nodded. "So, we'll get his attention, play some of my videos so he can see, and then he can show Odin. That should work, right?"

Glancing at her, he grinned. "No wonder my brother loves you. You're clever."

"Not as clever as Jane," Thea replied with a matching smile. Thor stared at her. "Yeah, I know about Jane. Loki told me. He said it was ironic—but fitting—that both of you fell in love with Midgardians. So the video thing is a go. I'll write Odin a letter, too. Explain things to him. And I need to write one more letter to Loki. That means someone's going to have to watch Sophie while I get everything together." She glanced at him, grinned. "I suppose you volunteer, Uncle Thor? Loki said you liked kids."

He laughed softly. "I always wondered why no one seemed to fault me for such an unmanly thing, my way with children, when they faulted Loki for so much else." He glanced at Thea. "Do you hate us?"

She shook her head. "I've experienced too much through the memories of other people to just hate people. I get it. Why they're like that. I still don't like Loki's ex-girlfriends, though. Especially Amora. You don't still talk to her, do you?"

"Only when royal protocol dictates I must. What is she drawing?" Thor asked, gesturing to Sophie, who now scribbled a blue spiral on the paper next to the green one.

Thea laughed. "That's me and Loki." Seeing his look, she added dryly, "She's not even two, Thor. Give her some time before she turns into Picasso."

"Who is Picasso?"

"Never mind," she said, still smiling. "I have a question, though, before I skip off on my merry little way to write a letter to my super-scary father-in-law. Why did you bring the Avengers here? They want to observe her, but why did you bring them?"

He blinked. "So they could know Loki was telling the truth."

"Why do you care what they know? You guys BFFs or something?"

"BFFs…"

"Best friends," she explained. Then she looked at him for a long moment, eyes narrowed, the same small wrinkle he'd seen between Sophie's brows forming between hers. "That's it, isn't it? You like them. And you love Loki. And you want them all to be friends. You don't want them to hate him anymore."

Thor nodded. "Yes. And I needed their help to find you. Which reminds me…how did your sister manage to keep the Man of Iron out of SHIELD's files?"

"Uh, yeah," Tony said from behind them. They turned and Thea grinned a little smugly. "How did your sister manage that? She's fourteen, for crying out loud. I'm a super-genius. What's the deal?"

"She's a mutant," Thea replied. "She can mentally interface with computers. Let me guess, you ran into her Trouble with Tribbles Firewall? Where it multiplies by, like, thirty every time you take one down? Not that sophisticated, really, but pretty tedious, isn't it?"

"Got that right. She for hire?" Tony asked.

Thea shrugged. "Ask my mom. She's not my kid."

"Speaking of your kid…" Tony said. Thor saw his brother's wife tense, but all Tony said was, "Is she really Loki's kid? She's so…normal."

"Actually," a warm, cultured voice interrupted, "she's a bit more advanced intellectually than most children her age." Thor and Tony turned to see an older man in a polished, silver, wheeled chair enter the living room. With a smile for Thea and a polite nod to the two men, the man continued, "Physically, she's on par, but mentally…she's a bit above average. Thea and Sophie's empathic link in utero might have something to do with it. And Thea tells me that Loki is quite the genius—another potential contributing factor. Sophie herself is no genius by any means, but she's a very clever little girl. She and I have very interesting conversations sometimes. Her language skills are approximately six months beyond her physical age, and her comprehension is a bit beyond that."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Comprehension? Like what? She can…read?"

Thea snorted. "Yeah, no. She just puts things together a little better than a lot of kids her age. It's a little easier for her to understand consequences, she remembers things a little easier, she enjoys things that are a bit more complex than most toddlers. That kind of thing."

"Exactly. At any rate, forgive me for not preventing that tussle earlier, or coming down sooner, Thea," the man in the wheelchair added as she bent down and kissed his cheek. "Beast and I were discussing some things with your mother about Sophie's physical development."

A shadow flitted across Thea's face. "Is something wrong, Professor?"

Ah, Thor thought. Then this man must have been Professor Charles Xavier, the headmaster of Thea's school where she'd learned to control her powers. His dark eyes reminded the prince of Odin; they seemed to see everything. Thor remembered what Loki had relayed about Thea's first impression of the man, how he'd simply looked at her, and it had seemed as if he could read her soul.

The professor smiled. "Not at all. We were merely going over the results of her latest check-up. Everything looks normal…for a half-Asgardian, half-Frost Giant child. She's quite the sturdy little thing," Xavier said to Thor. "I understand that your race's skeletal system is three times denser than a Midgardian's. The same with Frost Giants?"

"I…do not know," Thor confessed. "They are hard to kill, I know that much."

Xavier nodded. "Just a few days ago, Sophie fell off the playground in the backyard. A fall like that would have likely broken another child's arm or resulted in a concussion, but she was fine. A little shaken, a few scrapes, but relatively unharmed. She's a very special little girl," he added softly, looking at Tony. "With extraordinary parentage…but she is still only a child."

Tony scowled. "We're not here to kidnap the kid or anything. We just…wanted to see her. I mean…" He glanced at where Sophie was now drawing a small pink squiggle, happily oblivious to the adults. "Loki invaded a planet for her," he murmured. "It takes some getting used to."

Thea eyed Tony warily. "You're blaming my nineteen-month-old daughter for the attack on New York?"

He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "That is not what I'm saying. Did I say that? I would never say that. She's just a kid. It's just…well, I never expected her to be so…"

"Normal?" Thea supplied drily. The professor chuckled and withdrew, wheeling himself back down the hallway into another room.

"Cute," Tony corrected. To Thor's eye, he looked a bit uncomfortable. "And yeah, she's normal, too. I guess. Kids, to me, are not normal. I don't get kids. Like, what is she doing?"

Thea smiled. "She's coloring. Drawing a picture of Loki and me with her. I think she's almost done."

"Yeah, those…those look like squiggles to me. Whoa, okay, what is she doing now?" He actually stepped back as Sophie jumped up, snatched up her picture, and raced over to Thea.

"Mommy! Mommy! Look! Pitcher." She held up the drawing.

To Thor, it looked like a yellow blob in the corner, blue jagged lines at the top, green jagged lines at the bottom, and three circular scribbles in the middle—green on the left, blue on the right, with the small pink one between them. But Thea knelt down and took the picture with an expression of amazement.

"Wow! Look at that! That is radical. You so totally rock! Is that Daddy?" Thea pointed at the green circular thing.

Sophie nodded so rapidly that Tony made an aside comment about her head popping off. "Yeah! Look, look. You." Sophie pointed at the blue blob.

Thea pointed at the pink one. "Is that you?" Sophie nodded and Thea gave her a one-armed hug. "Wow. That's beautiful, baby. You are so awesome. Can I put this on the fridge?"

Her daughter shook her head. "For Daddy." She pointed at the box Thea had set down on the floor.

"You want Daddy to have your picture?" Thea asked. Sophie nodded rapidly. "That's a great idea! You're so smart. Here, can I add something?" After one suspicion look at her mother, the little girl nodded. Thea pulled a black marker out of her pocket. "Want me to draw some faces?"

"Yeah, yeah! Faces!"

Thea carefully drew a few quick black marks on each colored blob-squiggle, curved lines for smiling mouths and dots for eyes. Then she carefully wrote three words above the scribbles. She held the drawing out to Sophie. Sophie pointed at the words.

"What dat?"

"That says, 'Mommy.'"

She pointed at the word over the green squiggle. "What dat?"

"That says, 'Daddy.'"

"What dat?"

"That says 'Sophie,'" Thea said. "That way everybody knows what you drew."

Sophie considered this, then nodded. "Yeah. Ebbudy know."

Thea hugged her again. "I'm going to put this in an envelope with the letter I'm going to write to Daddy, okay? That way I can tell him all about it. Mommy has to go in her office right now. Will you be a good girl and stay with Uncle Thor and Grandpa?"

Sophie seemed uncertain about this. Glancing up at Thor, her tiny brows drew together. Then she looked over at Tony. She pointed at him. Tony leaned back just a little. "Who dat?"

Thor knelt down next to his niece. "This is my friend, Tony."

"Toh-nee?" Sophie dragged the name out, rolling it around in her mouth. She smiled shyly at the Man of Iron. "Tony. Tony. Tony!" She pointed at the adult in question. "Tony."

He nodded. "Yeah. I'm Tony. You got me."

Sophie pointed again. "Tony?"

Stark looked at Thea, who smiled. He looked back at Sophie. "Okay…Me, Tony." He pointed at himself, then at her. "You?" The child blinked at him solemnly. "Come on, this worked in Tarzan. Me, Tony. You?"

Realization dawned in green eyes. "Soapy," Sophie said. She poked Tony in the knee. "Tony." She pointed at her chest. "Soapy." She smiled. "Tony! Tony, Tony, Tony!" Then she laughed as if it were the world's best joke.

"Oh, boy," Thea murmured, smiling.

"What?" Tony demanded, sounding more than a little defensive.

Thea grinned. "She really likes your name for some reason. It's going to end up being her new favorite word. I'm not surprised. I heard you're quite the ladies' man, Mr. Stark. Looks like your charms work on all ages. Plus, she's a generally friendly kid, and you're in her space. Her domain. She feels more confident since the rest of us are treating you all like friends."

Even as Thea spoke, Sophie grabbed Tony's hand and pulled on it. Thor suppressed a surge of what might have been jealousy. His niece had yet to take his hand. Why did she suddenly like the son of Howard? Sophie continued to bounce and pull on Tony's hand, happily chirping his name. Tony shot Thor a look that, in a less confident man, might have been called panicked. The panic turned to terror when Sophie suddenly stopped moving all at once, glanced wildly around, tipped her head back, and started to wail.

"What did I do?" Tony demanded, freeing his hand. He held up both hands as if in surrender. "I swear I didn’t do anything. I didn't touch her. It wasn’t me."

Thea frowned. "I don't…know…" She closed her eyes for a flicker of an instant. They snapped open a second later. Relief spread across her face. "Oh. She forgot Bear. She thinks he's lost."

"She in love with that teddy bear or something?" Tony demanded.

"Whenever Sophie lays down with it, it sings to her in Loki's voice," Thea said softly. "He used seiðr to make it do that, and to make her feel safe whenever she holds it. It helps prevent nightmares, too."

Tony's brows shot up. Even Thor had to take a minute to process what she'd said. To enchant the bear to do such a thing required very little seiðr, but quite a lot of skill. No wonder the child was so attached to the toy. Did it also sing for Thea?

Thea added, "She had it when she followed me into the office, so where…?"

At that moment, Banner poked his head in from the kitchen. "Um…we found this on the counter," he said, holding up the missing bear. "Sounds like someone's missing it."

"Bear!" Sophie cried, racing over to the mortal scientist. "Bear," she wept. Her arms stretched up toward the toy.

Bruce knelt down and handed it to her. "I think Bear got a little lost," he said with a smile. Sophie cuddled the stuffed animal against her chest. "Maybe he was playing Hide-and-Seek."

Sophie, panic over her toy forgotten, echoed, "High-in-seek?"

"Yeah, you know. Hide-and-Seek. You gotta hide somewhere and whoever's Seeking has to find you. It's fun. You don't play?" Bruce asked. Sophie shook her head. "What do you like to play?"

The child grinned. "Bayball!" She jounced her bear up and down, adding, "We—like—bayball!"

"Bayball?" Baffled, Banner looked at Thea, then blinked and focused on Sophie. "Baseball?"

"Yeah!"

Her mother laughed. "Oh, excellent. You guys can play baseball outside with her while I get my stuff done. Phil, show 'em where her stuff is, explain the rules. This isn't regular baseball," Thea added when Bruce opened his mouth. "It's…more like…baseball, bowling, softball, and golf all rolled together. Phil will explain it. Sophie? Honey, why don't you play baseball with Uncle Thor and his friends outside while Mommy writes her letter to Daddy, okay? You can be on Grandpa's team."

"'Kay!"

Cautiously, Thea started backing up toward the hallway. "I'll just…make my quick…getaway…"

Sophie, adopting a comically fierce expression, rushed toward her mother. "Rawr! I gonna getchoo!

Thea widened her eyes, clapped a hand to her face, and squeaked, "Eeep! Run like the wind, Bull's Eye! Heigh-ho, Silver! Away!" And she scrambled down the hall while Sophie giggled and clapped. Then the little girl gazed up at Thor. Looking a bit uncertain, she twined her tiny fingers around his thumb.

"Bayball?"

He smiled at her. If Loki was receptive to hearing about this encounter, if he believed, Thor wanted to have a great deal to tell him. So he would play her game. "As you wish."

Bruce said, "Ya know what? I'm gonna go get Steve. He likes baseball. American pastime and all that."

"I'm not playing," Tony said flatly.

Banner shot him a look. "Yes, you are. You're the one who said you wanted to see what she was like. Baseball's the name of the game today." With that, the scientist went back into the kitchen to fetch the young captain.

Tony stared after him, then glanced at a smiling Sophie in absolute bemusement. "You gotta be kidding me."

"Don't worry, Mr. Stark," Coulson said. "She'll go easy on you."

"What?" Tony demanded in mock outrage as Coulson moved down the hall to fetch the required equipment for the game. "What? She's not even two. I'm Iron Man. I don't need her to go easy on me." He glanced at Sophie again. Almost against his will, it seemed, a smile formed. "You and me, kid? It's on. Your charms have no effect on me. I'm made of steel."

Sophie cocked her head. Lifting up her arms, she gave a little hop. "Karms! Whoosh!"

Tony looked at Thor. "We're dead, Point Break."

.

"Why do we have to run in slow motion?" Tony demanded, mildly outraged as Coulson explained the rules of Thea and Sophie's version of baseball. The Avengers, Pepper, Víðarr, Coulson, and three members of Thea's family were all gathered in the backyard. "Just because you three have such short legs—"

Thea's sister Cleo, age fourteen, folded her arms across her chest. "Um, I'm on the Track Team. And it's just so macho cool for someone your size to outrun someone their size, isn't it?" She gestured to Sophie and four-year-old Ashley. It had to be admitted: both little girls had very short legs.

Tony eyed her. "Losing builds character."

"They're four and one-and-a-half. Losing all the time is just going to make them cranky," Coulson said. "Okay, you slow-pitch the ball underhanded." He toed the brightly colored plastic sphere that Banner had said was called a beach ball. "Roll it on the ground, but make sure it can reach Home Plate. Anyone over five, run in slow-motion. Hit soft when you're up to bat or trying to get someone out. Four strikes—not three—and you're out. First base is the sandbox," Coulson pointed to a green plastic thing that looked a bit like a giant turtle. "Second base is the swing-set. Third base is the pirate flag. Home Plate is the squishy mat. Dr. Banner, you're on first. Captain, you're on second. Tony, you're on third. Thor, you're the catcher. I'm pitching. Ashley, you bat first." He handed her a foam-covered stick.

Steve eyed Sophie as she stood a few feet away from the blue gymnastics mat that served as Home Plate, sucking her thumb, holding her teddy bear against her cheek. "Is she going to bat? Holding that thing?"

Coulson nodded as everyone else got into position. "She's done it before. We just started this a couple months ago, but she loves it. She and Thea play all the time." Coulson picked up the beach ball and moved to the pile of dirt in the middle of the "ball field." Looking around, he made sure everyone was in place before calling, "Play ball. Here you go, Ashley."

Thor watched as the SHIELD agent sent the ball rolling and bouncing along the grass toward the four-year-old. When it was a few feet away, Ashley swung the padded stick and missed.

"Strike one," Coulson called. "Come on, Ash, you can do it."



Grim-faced, Ashley kicked the ball back to her grandfather. He rolled it again. This time, she waited until it was a couple feet away. Swinging the stick, she sent it rolling rapidly along the lawn toward the space between first and second base. Dropping the padded "bat," she ran to the giant green turtle before Banner—running in the required slow-motion—could touch her with the ball.

Ashley whooped and jumped up and down. Cleo, standing with Sophie, clapped and called, "Yeah! Way to go, Ash!" Sophie bounced around, waving Bear over her head. Then it was her turn to bat.

She approached the gym mat cautiously. Wiping her wet thumb on her dress, she tucked Bear under her arm and grabbed the foam-covered stick. Banner tossed the beach ball to Coulson, who smiled at Sophie.

"Ready, Sophie? I'm gonna roll it, okay?" Leaning forward, he rolled the ball toward her. She swung. Missed. Nearly dropped her teddy bear. Thor tossed the ball back to Coulson as the SHIELD agent said, "Strike one, Sophie. Come on, kiddo, you can do it."

"Yay, Sophie!" Ashley called from first base. "You can do it, Sophie! Homerun! Homerun!"

Coulson rolled the ball a second time. Sophie missed. The ball was tossed back to Coulson, who rolled it for the third time. The tip of Sophie's tongue poked out between her lips as she took a step and swung the bat. A blur of pink, blue, orange, and green rolled across the grass. Sophie dropped the bat, grabbed Bear in both hands, and ran as fast as she could—which wasn't very fast, comparatively—toward first base. Ashley ran toward second. Tony grabbed the beach ball and, smiling, fumbled it. Ashley made it to second, Sophie to first. Clutching Bear to her chest, sucking her thumb again, she waited for Cleo to hit the ball.

Cleo, being fourteen, hit the ball with the stick harder and farther than her two nieces. Thanks to her baseball prowess, Ashley made it to Home Plate, Sophie made it to third base, and Cleo herself made it to second before the adults managed to tag anyone out. From her place in the stands, Pepper cheered while Víðarr watched with bemused indulgence.

The game went on until the two little girls got tired. By then, Sophie was as comfortable with Steve, Bruce, and Tony as she was with Thor. She seemed to like Víðarr and had commented that Pepper was "boodaful." She absolutely adored Thor, however. The prince was designated the "official steed" of the tired little girl, who wound her arms trustingly around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder while he carried her toward the house. Ashley, somewhat less tired, rode on Coulson's shoulders.

When everyone went inside, it was to find Nick Fury eating a sandwich at the counter and Thea seated at the kitchen table. The box of letters for Loki sat on the table next to Thea. A silver box with the label Stark Industries in crimson sat next to the cardboard box. Loki's wife was labeling a silvery-white disc with a black marker, which she put in a black case. The black letters spelled, Odin—Watch Me First. Closing the case, she slipped it into the box. Then she put the silver device in the box as well and sealed it with ivory-colored strips. Thor noted the box read For Loki on one side.

"Hey, that was one of my rechargeable DVD players," Tony said as he came in. Seeing Thea's mother enter the kitchen, he added, "It's kinda hot out there. Can I have some more of that great lemonade, Ms. Valerian?"

Thor opened his mouth to correct Tony—Thea's mother was now Coulson's wife—but then he remembered that Coulson had mentioned outside that his wife had kept her surname from before the marriage. As the mortal woman got lemonade for everyone, Thor set Sophie down on the floor and moved to Thea's side. The child went to her grandmother, asking for a snack.

"Is it finished?" He asked, indicating the box with a nod. She nodded. "The…DVD player. It will allow Loki to watch the videos, won't it?"

She nodded again. "And your father. There's a letter in there for him, too. Everything else is for Loki." She looked up at him with pleading eyes. "You'll make sure Loki gets this, won't you, Brother?"

Thor squeezed her shoulder. "You have my word, Sister."

Thea smiled. "Thank you."

Suddenly Sophie was pressing close, trying to clamber into Thea's lap. "Mommy! Mommy! We play bayball! We won!"

"You won?" Thea echoed, grinning. "You and Grandpa?"

"An' Ashy an' Keo!" Sophie cried as Thea lifted the child onto her lap. "We won!"

"Wow! That's amazing. You went easy on Uncle Thor, right? Good girl," she added when Sophie nodded and giggled. "Did you have fun?"

"Yeah! Is fun, huh?" She added to Thor.

To Thor's mild surprise, he realized he'd actually enjoyed himself, romping with his niece. He nodded and laid a gentle hand on her head. "Indeed it was. Very fun."

If only Loki had been there to see it.

Chapter Twenty-Three - A Little Too Late

Chapter Twenty-Three

A Little Too Late

.

.

At the sound of that childish, petrified scream, the Avengers all took a step toward the house. Coulson held up a hand. Over his shoulder, he shouted, "Cleo? Everything okay?"

"Yeah," a girl called from inside the house. "Sophie knocked a bowl off the counter and it freaked her out. It's fine."

Coulson sighed. "I'm not even going to ask why she was on the counter in the first place. Well, come on in, everyone. Thea will be down in a minute." As the Avengers shuffled into the house, Coulson's eyes slid over the group. He frowned when Pepper—the last of them—entered the house. "You didn't bring Loki with you."

Thor frowned. "Bring Loki? The last we knew, he was not welcome on Midgard."

"But you guys were coming to talk to Thea. We thought you would've brought him here with you. I mean…we just thought…crap."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "What, we're not cool enough to talk to on our own?"

"It's not that." A woman wearing faded blue jeans at the end of the entry hall offered them a smile. A few streaks of gray threaded through her short, golden hair. Blue eyes shadowed with worry swept across the group before settling on the crown prince of Asgard. She drew closer. "It's only that Thea…Thea's just going to be disappointed, that's all. You must be Thor. My daughter's told me a lot about you. I'm Sophie Valerian, Thea's mother."

The prince took her hand and kissed the back of it. "Lady Sophie. It is good to finally meet you. Forgive us for not bringing my brother. He…is not well enough to travel."

Sophie Valerian nodded, worry wrinkling her brow. "Thea was afraid of that. But your people…the Asgardians…they haven’t hurt Loki, have they? Phil said they wouldn’t, but Thea's been worried. Specifically about your father and a woman named Sif."

Thor's brows shot toward his hairline. "She's concerned about Sif? Sif wouldn't harm Loki. No one in Asgard would harm him, I swear to you. Certainly not my father."

The Midgardian woman made a noncommittal noise and smiled. "Well, Phil will show you to the front room. I'll go get Thea. You gentlemen won't mind waiting until she comes down to see my granddaughter, will you?" It was phrased as a question, but none of the men present would've dared consider it anything other than an order. Thea's mother walked away.

Coulson heaved another sigh. "Okay. Well, you heard the lady. Director Fury's waiting for us in the front room, anyway. Uh, you must be Thor's other brother." Coulson held out his hand to Víðarr, who shook it before everyone made their way into the well-furnished living room. Nick Fury sat in a comfortable burgundy armchair, inspecting a framed photograph perched on a wooden side-table. A stuffed tiger sat propped up in a little chair next to his feet. Several plush toys lay scattered across the antique-gold carpet. One of them looked suspiciously like Anthony Stark's gold and red armor. Next to it lay one that looked like Banner when his inner demon slipped its leash.

Bruce stared at the toys for a moment in stunned silence. Kneeling, he picked up the green one. Looked at the white tag sticking out of its side. "I don't believe it," he muttered. Thor thought he seemed torn between amusement and embarrassment. "This is a McDonalds toy. They have McDonalds Hulk toys. And look, Tony, there's one of you."

"That's kinda cool. And kind of weird. How did I not know about this? Pepper, did you know about this?"

She nodded, smiling a little. "McDonalds pays us royalties for every Iron Man toy sold. See what happens when you give up running your company to someone else?"

"Okay," Steve said, baffled. "Why are there stuffed toys of the Avengers mixed in with Dalmatians and…what are those things?"

"Those are Muppets," Nick said, eyeing a stuffed pig—at least, Thor thought it was a pig—with curly blond hair in a pink dress. "Sophie can be pretty creative when she's playing. So, gentlemen, looks like you found us our hidey-hole…but you didn’t bring Loki. Why is that?"

Tony scowled. "I don't think we're under any kind of obligation to tell you anything, Nick. You know, seeing as how you lied to us for over a year about Coulson being dead. Nice of you to rejoin the Land of the Living, by the way, Phil. So where've you been? Deep undercover in Latveria? Living it up in the Bahamas? Feeling even a shred of remorse about making your friends think you were dead?"

Coulson sighed and leaned back against the living room wall. "I've been spending the last nineteen months looking after my daughter, who's only managed to hold her life together after being held prisoner and tortured for more than a year by the Chitauri thanks to the presence of my granddaughter. And I got married." A lift of his chin indicated a fairly recent wedding picture hung on the wall. "It was a small, very private ceremony. We weren’t going to go through with it after everything that happened, but Thea insisted. Said someone ought to get a happily ever after. But yeah, I've been a little busy trying to take care of my family and trying to convince SHIELD, the US government, and the German government to grant Loki amnesty."

Thor's eyes widened. "Amnesty?"

Nick nodded. "We figured, after everything we've discovered, it was the least we could do. Especially if he agrees to do what Ms. Valerian claims he will—work with the Avengers to find the guy behind the invasion and take him down. Thea claims the Chitauri aren't done with Earth yet. She'd know. And considering what happened last time, we're going to need all the help we can get. Have a seat, gentlemen."

After a few moments where the five men eyed Nick warily, they all sat, except Thor. He walked over to a bookcase along one wall with a few pictures in silver and gold frames resting one shelf. They were of young Sophie—green-eyed, dark-haired, grinning at the camera as she held up a stuffed bear, or watched a hermit crab scuttle back to its sandy hole, or tried to hop like the little frog on the wet sidewalk next to her.

"She's pretty cute, isn't she?" Thor turned to Coulson, who gazed fondly at the pictures. Thor nodded. Coulson added, "She's the only reason Thea didn’t lose her mind when we got back. When she found out you and Loki had already left…it just wrecked her."

"Their separation nearly destroyed my brother, as well," Thor murmured. His fingers drifted along the thin books on the shelf, obviously meant for a small child. Loki Wins the Race. Loki & Thor Retrieve Mjölnir. Loki & Thor Rescue Iðunn of the Golden Apples. Frigga's Magic Spindle. The Magical Rainbow Bridge. Why Loki Became a Seal. Loki and the Mistletoe. There were dozens of books about his brother, about Asgard, about the Æsir. He wondered how accurate they were. Thor added, "He believes Thea is dead."

"What?"

Thor jerked toward the sharp cry and his heart lurched in his chest. He'd never seen this woman's face in any of Loki's drawings, but the moment his eyes fell on her, he knew her. She wore jeans and a green blouse. Her brown hair was tied back in a loose ponytail to keep it out of her pale, freckled face. A thin, midnight-purple scar marred her left cheek. Spiderlike veins of that same sickly, dead-looking violet crept out from the scar. Two old, parallel white scars ran across her throat. Silver-blue eyes fixed on Thor and filled with a mixture of hope, fear, recognition, and pain.

"What did you say?" Althea whispered, taking a step into the living room. "He thinks I'm dead?" She shook her head. "That doesn't make sense. He sent Phil to get me. Why would he think I was dead?" The silver in her eyes hardened to cold steel as she turned to Nick. "What did you say to him, Nick Fury?" She took a step toward him. To Thor's surprise, the SHIELD director tensed. "I warned you not to lie to me," she said softly. Thor recognized the menacing softness as something his foster brother often used. "Have you been talking to Loki without telling me?"

Nick held up his hands. "Ms. Valerian, I promise you, we've had no contact with Asgard since Thor took Loki back there with the tesseract the day you arrived at our headquarters. You need to trust me."

"Trust you?" Thea scoffed. "After the crud you pulled? Not a chance." She pinned Thor with a heartbroken look. "Why does he think I'm dead? Is he all right?" She bit her lip, but added softly, "Why isn't he here?" Beneath the seemingly calm tone, he heard the worry. Of course there was worry. She'd known Loki's mind was fraying when he'd come to Midgard to head the invasion.

Thor stepped away from the bookcase, toward his brother's wife. He'd expected at least a little hostility from her aimed at him, yet she didn’t seem to mind him. In fact, she tensed up more when she focused on the other Avengers or Nick than when she looked at the two Asgardians. Thor cleared his throat.

"Sister," he said softly. Thea's eyes widened, seemed to gleam wetly for a moment, then she nodded and smiled.

"Loki said you'd be like that," she murmured. "I guess you're my brother now. As if I don't have enough of you hellions," she added, her smile turning rueful. Thor smiled back. Thea nodded to Víðarr. "And you? Do you feel the same way, Víðarr?"

Víðarr, startled to be addressed by name, collected himself enough to nod. "Of course, Sister. You are my brother's wife and the mother of my niece. Our family claims you as kin."

Thea nodded in acknowledgement, and some of the tension faded from her body. She turned back to Thor. "Why does he think I'm dead?"

Thor replied, "Loki told me the Chitauri lieutenant, the Other, came to him after we'd captured him for the second time and told him that you were dead. That the poison in your veins had killed you and Sophie. When he asked for proof, they showed him the room you had shared and a great deal of blood on the floor. He used his magic to test it. He claimed he felt your pain, your fear. That you couldn’t have survived that kind of pain."

She frowned. "But…that doesn't make any sense. What…" She glanced at Coulson, who snapped his fingers.

"When you went into labor," Coulson said. Thea raised an eyebrow. "Kiddo, if you'd been anyone else, you would've been screaming up a storm. And you were terrified."

"Have you ever had a baby while trying to escape from toothy, freaky aliens?" Thea asked, smiling a little still. "And while trying to hold still while your dad defuses a stupid inhibitor collar?" She rubbed her throat, as if she could still feel the weight of the collar that had suppressed her powers for more than a year.

"Okay, quick refresher course." Tony held up a hand. "Let's just clarify. You're Thea." Raising her eyebrow higher, she nodded. "Obviously. So where's Sophie?"

"Hiding out with the professor," Thea said flatly. "She's nineteen months old, she's shy. Plus she nearly fell off a chair and broke a dish, scaring the heck out of herself, after just waking up from her nap. She's not up to being stared at by a bunch of strangers right now."

"If you don't trust Nick—good policy, by the way—why is he here?"

Thea sighed. "He's providing my family and me with round-the-clock government protection. Specifically any anti-mutant jerks who think going after one of us is a good idea, or if someone decides they want to kidnap me or my daughter to use as blackmail against my husband. The world's already seen what he's willing to do to protect us. If anyone ever found out that that was why he helped the Chitauri, how safe do you think we'd be? And I don't have to trust Nick to trust SHIELD. My dad works for SHIELD."

Tony waved that aside. "Okay, next question. Did you seriously have a baby while on the run from the Chitauri? How did you guys even escape if you were nine months pregnant? Weren't you, like, a whale?"

A corner of Thea's mouth twitched. "Moby preggers, that's me. I wasn’t nine months pregnant, though. I was seven months pregnant." She glanced at Coulson.

"You might as well tell 'em, Als," he said gently. "They're gonna need the whole story if they're going to believe you, after the Chitauri attack on New York."

She sighed, nodded. "Okay."

She moved to a rocking chair by the window and sank into. Thor noticed it had been carved out of golden wood with intricate runic designs, including the Orobouros, the World Serpent, and an etching that matched the mark on Thor's vambraces—Loki's helmet.

"I was seven months pregnant when the Chitauri forced Loki to lead the invasion. Sophie came two months early. Probably one of the reasons Loki sensed so much fear," she added with a nod to Thor. "I was freaking completely out. I didn't know what was going on, because it wasn’t time yet. Or wasn’t supposed to be. And Loki had left a couple days before, so I was alone, and couldn’t get help, and the poison in my system made everything hurt worse than it should have…"

.

Thea gripped the back of the chair as another cramp tightened slowly at the base of her spine. She tried to take a deep breath, but the dull pain radiating through her back and spreading across her stomach had her lungs in a tight grip, too. Gritting her teeth, she rubbed her belly with one hand, her back with the other. From inside, she could feel soft pulses of nervousness. Sophie wriggled, trying to get comfortable, and Thea squeezed her eyes shut as the contraction tightened, tightened…then slowly released her.

Braxton Hicks, she thought as her legs trembled. That's all it is, just Braxton Hicks. It's too early. It's too early, it's just false contractions. I'm okay. We're okay.


But after seventeen minutes had gone by, another contraction slowly spread from her lower back across her abdomen, squeezing gradually but mercilessly. Thea caught her breath. Her legs threatened to buckle. This couldn't happen now, it couldn't happen yet!

The nervousness emanating from within started shifting toward fear. Was Sophie picking up Thea's panic?

It only lasted for maybe thirty seconds, but that didn’t make Thea feel any better. Somehow she made it back to the bed. Rubbed soothing circles over her stomach with both hands. "It's okay," she said, to herself and to her baby. "It's okay. We're okay." Blindly she reached out behind her and grabbed Hobbes, clutching the stuffed tiger against her chest. "We're going to be okay." It took a few moments for her to lie on her side and draw her knees up as tight to her body as she could. It helped ease some of the tightness in her lower back and stomach. Still smothering Hobbes, Thea pressed her face against the synthetic fur. "We're okay. We're okay."

She lost track of how much time had passed, but she managed to keep from panicking by counting the seconds—and thus the minutes—between each contraction. Sixteen minutes…fifteen…fourteen…She wouldn’t panic. She wouldn’t scream. She wouldn’t freak out. Fifteen minutes was okay. Even ten minutes was okay. False contractions could run for a while, as long as they stayed that far apart. Once they got past the ten-minute mark, she'd worry. But that wouldn’t happen. Sophie wasn’t due for another two months. They were okay.

Loki, Thea thought, wishing desperately for him. As far as she knew, he'd never delivered a baby, but just having him there would've helped calm her. At least it would have been another pair of hands. Someone to rub her back as the muscles tightened with another contraction. Someone to help her remember how to breathe properly. Someone to tell her how amazing she was. That's what people did with moms-to-be to help them get through the scariness of labor, right?


But Loki wasn’t there. He'd been sent to Earth by the Chitauri two days ago. Thea had no idea when he'd be back. How long did it take to invade a planet? And would he stick to their plan?

In the two weeks since she and Loki had been told by the Other that they'd poisoned her, she and her husband had tried to find a way to escape without letting their daughter die. Loki had tried finding caches of the poison when he was allowed to leave their room; all his searching had turned up squat. In the end, she'd begged him to try and find a way to make people surrender rather than fight. That way fewer people would die in the invasion. And she'd begged him not to use the staff.

He'd promised to try. That was all she could ask of him. But his mind was so frayed, she didn’t know if he'd be able to do it, or if he'd even remember to try. The Chitauri had shredded his memories so badly, and he'd become so…savage. So hateful. He wasn’t the man she'd fallen in love with, but that man was still under all of the shadows. She could see him in Loki's eyes, pleading with her to bring him back, to draw him out of the dark. And they'd been working on it, working together to push down what the Chitauri were trying to make him believe. When they were together, he was Loki again, but when they were apart…


Loki had come back only the week before, and for the first time in her life she'd been afraid of him. Just for a split-second. Seeing him standing in the doorway, eyes no longer that beautiful green but a cruel, icy blue like the jewel in that stupid Evil Glowy-Stick of Death, her heart had leapt into her mouth. His gaze had landed on her. A smile had curved his mouth…a cruel smile. And he'd come into the room, arrowing straight for where she sat at the synthetic window.

Even as another contraction twisted through her body, making Thea wince, she could still remember his fingers twisting in her hair, his other hand at her throat. There had been anger in his eyes when he'd looked down at her, fury and lust—but no tenderness—when he'd kissed her hard enough she'd tasted blood.


She'd started to cry, yelled, "No!"

The blue in his gaze had shattered like glass. The rage in his eyes had faded, leaving only horror and remorse in its wake. Loki had fallen to his knees. Tears had dripped off the edge of Thea's chin to sprinkle Loki's hands when he'd gently cupped her face, swallowed hard, and bowed his head, choking on a sob.

"I'm sorry," he'd whispered. "Forgive me. Forgive me. I'm sorry, älskling. Surtur's blade…what's happening to me?" And she'd held him, pushed through the shadows and the crud the Chitauri were shoving into his mind, and brought him back to her…for a little while.


Now Thea lay, struggling to get her breath back during a lull in the rising pain, remembering how he'd been so skittish around her after that. So afraid to touch her, be close to her. She couldn’t blame him. She'd examined his mind and memories twice to make sure that whatever had twisted him up was gone for the time being, but neither of them had been able to relax until nearly the next morning.

She would’ve given anything for Loki to be back now. Anything. Even if there was still that shadow in his eyes, still that anger in him. If she needed him, Thea knew Loki would help her, nefarious alien mind-control notwithstanding.

Loki, I'm scared, she thought. I'm so scared. Where are you? I need you. I need you here. Loki, I'm scared.

She'd read a book on pregnancy and childbirth in college. What had it said? The more freaked out a woman was, the more pain she felt? Well, Thea was plenty freaked out already. What if she was just left here to have the baby all on her own? What if something went wrong? What was she supposed to do?


The doors to her room whooshed open. Thea struggled to sit up, heart slamming hard against her ribs. It couldn't be…could it? Could he be back already? Could he have come back in time?

But it wasn’t Loki in the doorway. It was a Chitauri soldier. He stepped toward her. Thea looked wildly around, shoved off the bed. Grabbed one of the dishes on the table and held it up. "Get away from me!" She screamed. "Don't come any closer! Get away!" She was not going to let these monsters take her baby. They couldn’t have her baby.


The Chitauri took another step, and another. Thea threw the plate. It bounced of the alien's head and shattered on the floor. She snatched up a glass. Had to fight not to double over as another cramp, stronger than before, snatched the breath from her lungs.

"I'm warning you! Get away from me—"

There was a soft shp-sound and the Chitauri stiffened before toppling to the floor. Thea stared at the person standing behind where the dead alien had been seconds before. She dropped the glass, which shattered on the floor. One hand came up to cover her trembling mouth.


"Phil?" It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be him. She had to sharply quash the urge to cry, "Daddy!" and run into his arms.

Phil's eyes scanned Thea from head to foot before jumping back to her face. "Als?" She jolted. He was the only person who'd ever called her that. The Chitauri couldn’t have known that, which meant…"Holy…you're pregnant. You…you're pregnant." He stepped over the Chitauri corpse and holstered his gun. He yanked her into his arms. "Als! Me and your mom have been worried sick. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" He brushed the hair out of her face and studied her. "You okay, kiddo?"

She tried to say something, tried to ask him how he'd gotten there, how he'd found her, had he seen Loki, was Loki still alive, anything…but all she could do was burst into tears and bury her face in his shoulder. Phil hugged her tightly.


"Hey, it's okay now, kiddo. I'm here, I found you. We're gonna get out of here, okay? It's okay now." He let her cry for maybe a minute, but that was all they could afford. Pulling back, he wiped her eyes with the cuff of his shirt that didn't have blood on it.
Thea realized the front of his shirt had a big rip in it, and blood had soaked the fabric. Some of the blood had gotten on her dark green dress. "What the heck happened?"


"It's okay, it's…I'm not hurt. Okay, we gotta get out of here. Do you know your way around this place?"

She shook her head. "I've been stuck in here the last six or so months. Before that I was in a cell." She swiped at her eyes, trying to force back tears. "Have you…have you seen Loki?"

The fury that swept across his face almost made her recoil. "Did he do this to you?"


"Do what? Trap me? No! He's been trying to protect me. He…we…it's complicated."

Phil stared at her. "Protect you? Als, what are you talking about? The guy's a grade-A maniac, he stabbed me in the chest with that staff—"


"He's using the staff?" Thea whispered. Cold swept through her. "No. No, he can't…it controls him, it twists up his mind. He can't use it. He stabbed you? But you said you weren’t hurt—"

"The wound healed somehow. I can't explain it. Anyway, what do you know about the staff?" Phil asked. "What is going on?"

Risking a gamble, Thea touched her fingertips to Phil's temples. "Hang on. Lemme try this."

Loki had always maintained that if she used her powers enough, she'd be able to get around the collar. Unfortunately, they'd both realized "enough" would take years of building up her mind. They hadn’t had years. But one thing she was pretty sure she could do now—she could use her gift without Loki's seiðr to boost it, as long as she was touching someone and kept it to something small (like a memory download).


Thea managed to cram the highlights of last year into Phil's mind in approximately thirty seconds, leaving her faintly queasy and no doubt leaving the man who was basically her father with a massive headache. But it made him stop asking questions. Instead, he dragged the Chitauri corpse away from the door so it would close. Reaching into his suit pocket, he pulled out a small tool-kit.

"Why do you have a tool-kit in your suit?" Thea asked as Phil had her sit down. She tensed as a contraction squeezed her body, relaxed as it faded. Twelve minutes apart now. They'd been going on for a few hours at this point. If this was false labor, why hadn’t they stopped? Unless this was it. Unless the baby was coming. No, the baby couldn’t come now. She couldn’t.

My water hasn’t broken yet, she reminded herself. Until that happens, I'm fine. And even then, things won't pick up until…Thea thought of the book she'd read, and all the talks about blood. If things were going according to plan, labor wasn't supposed to actually start before she started bleeding. Until that point, the idea had squicked her out. Now it comforted, because it meant Sophie wasn't coming yet. But still…


"Phil, I think I might be in labor."

He shot her a wide-eyed look. "How far apart are your contractions?"

"Twelve minutes," she whispered. "Phil, it's too early. The baby's not due for two months."

"Okay," he said, gripping her hands. "Okay. It's okay. Twelve minutes? We got time. Right now we gotta get this inhibitor collar off of you."

"How are you gonna do that? Loki couldn’t even do it, and he tried a million times."

"You ever tried to manually override any of Tony Stark's defensive software?" Phil asked. Thea shook her head as he knelt next to her and examined the collar around her neck. "I have. Used to be a Boy Scout, remember? 'Always be prepared.' In this case, be prepared with some Stark Industries tech."

He opened the tool kit and pulled out what looked like a mechanical spider the size of her thumbnail. Laying a hand against her belly as it tightened, Thea bit her lip, while Phil set the thing on the inhibitor collar around her neck. A small shudder of distress emanated on an empathic level from the baby inside her. Thea rubbed her stomach. "It's okay. It's okay."

In her own mind, she cried, I want a hospital! Please, please, don't let there be anything wrong, please. I'm scared. I'm scared. Loki! Loki, I need you. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do!


"Boy or a girl?" Phil asked, snapping her out of her panicked thoughts.

"What?"

"Your baby," he said, gesturing to her stomach. "Boy or girl?"
Thea swallowed hard. "A girl. Sophie." If she'd had the time to fully download every memory of the last year, and he'd had time to peruse those memories at leisure, he'd have known the answer…but neither of them had time. She'd given him the bare bones: she was pregnant, Loki was the father, they'd fallen in love while they'd both been imprisoned in the Chitauri dungeons, she'd been poisoned, and most importantly, Loki was being blackmailed.


Phil nodded. "Beautiful name. Good choice. Okay, hang on…this little bug's almost got that thing off. Then we're getting out of here."

She drew a deep breath. "Is Loki still alive?"

Another nod. "Last I checked. He was about to drop Thor from thirty-thousand feet, last thing I remember."

"That height won't kill an Asgardian," she said, relaxing a little. "Thor's there? Good. He won't let them kill Loki. Thor will protect him."

Phil raised an eyebrow. "You act like you know him."

She nodded. "I do." As well as Loki once had. Suddenly there was a sharp click, a hiss, and the collar slid from around her neck to fall to the floor. The wall of icy cold darkness that had been erected between Thea's mind, her powers, and the rest of the world suddenly shattered, crumbling to dust. She sucked in a breath and let it out as relief flooded her veins. Her mind hummed with power. She blinked stinging eyes.

"Better, kiddo?" Phil asked. Thea nodded, wiping a tear away. He smiled. "Okay. Now that you're back online, we're getting out of here, okay? Let's go. I'll grab Hobbes—"

"I need that bag," Thea interrupted. "That little one right there." She pointed at a small, green bag on the floor next to the bed. Phil grabbed it and looked inside. A black teddy bear with green eyes and a tiger—smaller than Hobbes—had been stuffed inside. "Loki made them," she said softly. "For the baby. I want them. And the antidote is in there, too." If Sophie was on her way, she could take the antidote after her daughter was born. If it wasn’t time yet, and they escaped, maybe Dr. McCoy could synthesize an antidote that wouldn’t kill her baby.


Phil shouldered the bag. "Okay. Let's get out of here…Als? Als, you okay?"

Thea gripped the back of the chair and hunched her shoulders, struggling to breathe as another contraction—sharper and stronger than the others—ripped through her. Something warm and wet slid down her thighs. Phil's eyes widened. The contraction tightened and tightened until Thea had to shove her fist in her mouth to keep from screaming.

When it finally eased back, she staggered. Phil grabbed her. "Whoa. Okay, kiddo. Your water just broke. We've gotta go—now."

"What?" She gasped. "No, it can't…Sophie's not due for two months. My water can't break now. I can't have her now. I'm not ready, I can't." She covered her mouth, trying to stifle a sob. Now wasn’t the time to break down. It wasn't. Inside her, she could feel Sophie panicking. And why not? She'd been buoyed up all this time and now Thea's stupid water had freaking broken at the worst possible freaking time and everything was happening too fast—


A contraction slammed into her like a fist and she sucked in air, bit her lip until she tasted salt and copper. She couldn’t scream. She'd attract the Chitauri and get Phil killed, get herself killed after they took her baby. She couldn’t scream.

"You're bleeding, kiddo," Phil said sharply.

Thea glanced down. Nausea surged up in her stomach at the sight of the blood pooled on the floor, but she shook her head. "No, it's…it's okay," she gasped, though it didn’t feel okay. "That's supposed to happen. I don't know if I can walk, Phil. I don't know…"

"You have to. Once you have the baby, we're screwed. We won't be able to run. You've got to move, Thea. For the baby. We can't have the baby here, okay?"


She nodded. "Okay."

She had no idea how they made it out of the room, through the corridors. Only that Phil drew his gun—complete with silencer, which made her wonder vaguely where he'd gotten that from—and shot any aliens they ran into on the way. One time, in a daze of pain and panic, Thea watched Phil aim at a Chitauri, pull the trigger…and heard the hammer click. Empty. The Chitauri snarled, striding toward them. Thea sagged against the wall, almost numb with fear, as Phil cursed. She watched him try to reload as if in a dream. Then she looked at the Chitauri.


From inside her, Sophie's fear welled up and surged outward like a tidal wave. It jolted through Thea, slicing through the haze of pain. Without a thought, Thea lashed out at the Chitauri, shoving the memory of her pain and her daughter's fear into its mind.

The alien dropped in a twitching, writhing heap. Biting her lip, Thea ripped into the creature's mind, scanning for where she and Phil could go in order to get out of there. When she finally let the alien go, Phil had reloaded his gun. She nodded. He shot the Chitauri in the head.

"Which way?" He asked, knowing exactly what she'd done; it was what he'd taught her to do, after all.

With a shaking hand, Thea pointed. "That…way. Hn!" She hunched and sank to the floor, wrapping her body around the taut mass of her stomach. She could feel Sophie's fear. "It's okay," she gasped. "It's okay, Sophie. Phil…"

"Come on, Als," he said, getting an arm around her and helping her to her feet. "Come on. We can make it. Do it for Sophie, okay? You can do it."

She barely managed to gasp out the directions to where the Chitauri kept their smaller craft. This was what Loki had wanted to do before discovering she'd been poisoned—escape their room and get to the hangar where the Chitauri flyers were kept. Steal one. Get away. He would've been able to figure out how the thing worked, but could Phil?


He set her down against the wall around the corner from the hangar. Checked the load on his gun. She remembered as a little girl, Phil saying he always carried extra clips because his father had been shot after running out of ammunition. Still, he had to be nearly out. Phil pressed his back against the wall, weapon ready, and peered around the corner. In a flash his gun was up. He fired twice. Ducked back behind the protection of the wall-corner as a blast of blue energy shot past him. Thea squeezed her eyes shut as Sophie squirmed in agitation. She heard Phil fire three more times. Then he was grabbing her, hauling her up again.

"Can you fly one of these things?" He asked as they made their way laboriously toward one of the scaly, monstrous flyers. Thea stared at it. It wasn't the hulking behemoths Loki had told her were actually alive, and they weren’t the little flying motorcycles her husband had learned to use. It was an actual ship. Almost like an escape pod. It was exactly the thing she and Loki had planned on stealing.


But she had no idea how it worked. And even if she had, Sophie's current panic-stricken womb antics were making it highly unlikely she could've driven an RC car, much less an alien spaceship. Thea shook her head. Phil looked around.

"Oh, good, that one's not dead yet. Maybe he knows how to fly the thing."

Somehow she managed to concentrate long enough to rip the memories of flight control out of the dying Chitauri's head—with no finesse at all, leaving it convulsing on the floor as thick, black ichor oozed from its mouth and nose, and leaving herself with a migraine on top of everything else—and gently pushed the memories into Phil's head as he dragged open the access door and walked her into the ship.


Two Chitauri snarled as they raised their weapons. Without blinking, Phil shot them both in the head. He set Thea down on the floor.

"I'm gonna get us flying, okay?" He grabbed the corpses and managed to drag them to the access door. He rolled them out into the hangar. Shut the door. Hastening to the control panel, he set to work trying to make the thing fly. Thea leaned her head against the wall and focused on trying to not have her baby on an alien spaceship.


The floor underneath her body began rumbling. A high-pitched whining sound made her teeth throb. She rubbed her belly as Sophie twisted and pain spasmed through her back, tightening through her stomach.

Loki, Thea thought as a contraction had her gritting her teeth. Loki, hang on. We're coming. I'm coming. Just hang on. I'll be with you soon, I promise. Just wait.

.

The world started to drift away as each contraction became her entire world. The thing that really scared her was, she knew it was going to get a lot worse. She could feel that. Sophie wasn't yet in place to actually be born. It would take actual pushing for that, and Thea had done everything in her power to fight the urge to push. She couldn’t have the baby yet. Not yet. Squeezing her eyes shut, she fought desperately with her body.


"Als?" Phil called. Her eyes snapped open to see Phil coming over, kneeling next to her. "How ya doing, kiddo?"

A tear rolled down her cheek as she forced herself to breathe through another contraction. "Phil…Phil, I don't know what to do. I'm scared. I don't know if it's safe to do this. Sophie's scared, too. I should be in a hospital, I can't do this here."

"Hey, hey." He put his arms around her, rubbed her shoulder. "You can do this, okay? Whatever happens, I'm right here with you. We'll get through this, all right? It's okay. Here, let's get you settled." He helped her up and walked her to the front of the flyer. She realized there was a padded bench along the wall wide enough to lie down on. Phil shrugged out of his blazer, emptied the pockets, and folded it up to make a pillow. Carefully, Thea settled onto her side. "Shouldn't you be on your back?"

She shook her head. "It hurts when I'm on my back. Are we going home?"

"Yeah. I programmed the thing to take us back to Earth. The coordinates are already in the system," he added sourly, "since they're planning on invading us. Gotta tell you, kiddo, having that alien's memories in my head is pretty strange. Hey." He caught her drifting attention. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"Loki," she whispered as another pain ripped through her. "I have to stop him. I have to show him I'm okay. That me and Sophie are okay. Then he'll stop. We have to get to him. I…he's doing this for me. For our baby." Another tear spilled down her cheek. "Phil…Dad…"

He sat on the floor next to her, squeezed her hand. "You know, you've never called me Dad except when you were worried about monsters in your closet." He wiped the tear away. "Everything's going to be okay, Thea."

"I don't know what I'm doing," she whispered. "Have you ever delivered a baby before?"

Phil sighed. "No, can't say that I have. But I know a few things from when my mom had my kid brother. So don't push yet, okay? You can't push until you're fully dilated."

"How are you gonna know when that is?" She demanded, voice cracking.

He looked slightly embarrassed when he replied, "I'll check." Seeing her scandalized look, he added defensively, "Hey, by the time I'm going to need to, you'll be so out of it, it won't even faze you, I promise."

Thea groaned and covered her face with shaking hands. "I want a hospital. I want my mom. I want…" She sniffled, scrubbed at the fresh tears welling in her eyes. "I want Loki. He should be here."


"We'll get to him soon."

Phil stayed with her through most of the journey back to Terran space, only getting up to check the instruments. He let her squeeze his hands whenever a contraction hit, and helped her to time them. Things had progressed fairly slowly once Thea got horizontal; for several hours, the contractions maintained eleven-minute intervals. When they made it to Earth, after expertly maneuvering the ship through cosmic void and planetary atmosphere, Phil tried to get his bearings.

"I think that's Greenland," he said, peering through what was basically the alien windshield. "Which means New York is—"


"Head for Maine," Thea gasped suddenly, shoving upright. He glanced back at her. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her face flushed, her lips pinched white. "We can't go to New York in this thing. The military will attack us, with the invasion and everything. We have to go to Maine. The professor is there. He's…" She tried to focus on the voice in her head, tried to block out the pain. "He's calling me; I can sense him there. Hang on, I have to focus."

Mutant, she heard softly in her mind. That voice…she knew that voice. The man speaking had been like a father and a brother to her ever since she was five years old. He'd taught her to be proud of her powers, not to be afraid of who she was or what she could do. Mutant, where are you? I can feel you're in pain. Who are you? I'm a friend. Who are you? You're familiar.

Professor! Thea sucked in a breath and tried to make herself heard. She didn’t have any telepathic gifts, so she had to "shout" in order for Professor Xavier to hear her. Professor, it's me! It's Thea! Thea Valerian! Professor!

Thea? She felt his momentary shock, followed swiftly by relief and love. Thea! Are you all right? You're hurt. How badly are you hurt?

I'm not, she replied. I'm in labor. I need help. I'm with Phil, my mom's boyfriend. We're on a Chitauri cruiser. She pulled the image into the forefront of her mind, felt when he noticed it. It's a long story. We can't go to New York, but I need help. You're in Canada, aren't you? Near the border with Maine? That's what I'm getting from you.

Can you make it to where we are? I'm with Ororo, Beast, and Logan. Can you make it, Thea?

I don't know, she thought to him. I'm scared, Professor. I can't have my baby yet. I can't.

What's wrong?

She's early, Thea said, trying not to freak out all over again. It's just me and Phil, and I don't know what to do. I'm freaking out. I don't know if she's okay or not.

We will come to you. You can meet us halfway. Land here. A set of coordinates flitted through her mind. She relayed them to Phil, who nodded and changed course. We will be there in a few hours. Hold on, Thea. We're coming for you.

Hurry. Please.

.

Thea barely managed to bite back a scream as pain dug its claws into her body and tore through her. Her head fell back as the contraction and the pressure on her body eased up and she sagged into Phil and Logan's arms. Gasping for breath, she whispered, "Dad…can I lie down? Please?"

"You're almost done, Als," Phil said, holding her tight, supporting her weight. "Squatting makes it easier. I know it's hard."

She wanted to snarl at him, wanted to demand how he could possibly know, but then the next savage contraction tried to crush her. She gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut. A scream strangled in her throat. Phil was telling her all kinds of nice things about how brave and strong and amazing she was…but she could barely focus on them as another savage contraction tried to crush her.


"You're doing great, Thea," a woman's voice said. Ororo. Ms. Munroe, her former history teacher. Thea blinked and managed to fix her eyes on the chocolate-colored face framed by snow-white hair. "You're almost there."

"Shouldn't we be doing this somewhere else?" She heard someone ask. Phil? Logan? She couldn’t tell.

A soft, cultured voice said, "She can't be moved. We're monitoring the baby's heartbeat, brainwaves, and emotional responses. This is the best we can do under the circumstances."

"Okay, Thea," Ms. Munroe's voice broke through the haze of exhaustion and pain. "It's almost time to push. You can do this. Take a long, deep breath on the next contraction, hold it for a count of ten, and push."

"Dad…" Thea whispered. Phil squeezed her hand. "Dad, I can't…"

Phil snorted. "Bogus. Remember that time I told you that you couldn't eat an entire pizza in one sitting? And you did, didn't you?" Her mouth trembled into a smile. "You can do this, kiddo." She squeezed his hand tight as the next contraction started to build. "Storm, I think we've got the next one."

"Get your breath, Thea. Now hold it, and…push! Come on, push! You can do it! That's a girl! Come on, keep it up, keep it up…good girl. Go ahead and breathe. You're doing great. You're doing wonderful, Thea. Okay, here comes another one. Hold your breath…and…push! Good girl!"

She screamed through her teeth as the world phased out around her, until all she could think about was the breath bursting in her chest, then whooshing out of her lungs, and the vicious pressure bearing down on her. Tears and sweat poured down her face as she tried to picture Loki in her mind, tried to imagine his voice encouraging her like Phil was. That was her focus—Loki's face, the memory of his voice—as each contraction rolled into the next, building and building.

Finally, when she thought she couldn’t bear it any longer, when she knew she was probably going to keel over and die, Ms. Munroe said, "Okay, one more, Thea! One more. Big push. Big, big push. You can do it. One more push and you've got a baby, okay? Come on, take that breath. And…push! Push, Thea!"


"Come on, Als, you can do it! You're almost to the finish. Come on!"

One minute there was pain and pressure, a haze of nothing but Ms. Munroe's orders and Phil's cheers as a massive weight threatened to pulverize her…then the pressure eased up abruptly, and she heard it. The shrill, startled cry of a newborn baby. Thea gasped and just breathed for a second as Phil and Logan helped her lie back, half-propped up in their arms. Dashing the sweat and tears from her eyes, Thea got her first glimpse of Sophie.

Tiny and wrinkled and red with exertion, Sophie's arms flailed and flopped as Dr. McCoy cleaned her up and wrapped her in an emergency blanket. Thea's arms shook as she accepted her daughter; Phil slid his own arms around her, settling them underneath hers to help hold the baby against Thea's heart. Fresh tears rolled down Thea's cheeks as her daughter squalled.

"Hey, there, Sophie," Thea whispered. Slowly, Sophie's cries began to fade. A tear dripped off Thea's chin and splashed the blanket. Silver-blue eyes darted all over the tiny face, the soft cap of dark hair. Sophie blinked, unscrunching her face enough for Thea to see the vibrant emerald of her unfocused eyes. Thea sensed the baby's fading confusion and distress, felt the upsurge of sleepy contentment and peace as Sophie responded to her mother's closeness and the sound of her voice. "Hey. Remember me? Remember Mama? It's me. It's your mommy. Hi, my beautiful baby. Hello, my sweetheart. My älskling."


Then Thea couldn’t stop the tears any longer. They poured out of her as she held her daughter to her chest, as sobs tore through her body. She was crying because Sophie was hers, and because Sophie was safe. Because Sophie was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen in her life and probably the most beautiful thing she ever would see.

But she was also crying because Loki wasn’t there to share the moment with her.

.

The jet-ride from the Maine-Canada border to New York took longer than Thea wanted, but it was faster than going by car. Safely secured in the X-Jet, after being looked over by Dr. McCoy—she was so exhausted at that point she didn't care who checked her out or what they did to her, as long as they gave her drugs for the pain and let her hold onto her baby—and changing into clean clothes, she reclined in her seat and stared out the window with Sophie in her arms as they sped through the sky. The sun had risen a few hours ago, while she'd been too focused on being in labor to notice.


The sun. It had been so long since she'd seen the sun. Had Loki been allowed to look at it, see it, savor it? Or had he been forced to hide from the human authorities while he plotted how to invade her planet? Had the Chitauri given him any chance to experience fresh air, warm sunshine? Had he even been able to appreciate it?

He'd been using the staff. Why had he been using the staff? They'd agreed that once he made it out from under the Other's direct supervision he'd stop using the creepy thing.

Thea had tried touching it once. It had sent her mind hurtling through darkness, jagged black claws scraping and rending at her thoughts, lashing her with baseless and terrible fear until she'd dropped the thing, backing away, screaming until she couldn’t breathe. Loki had run to her, held her. Rocked her like a child and stroked her hair while they cuddled on their bed.

She had never touched the staff again.

Her problem, though, wasn’t the staff—not at the moment. Though the staff needed to be retrieved by someone who wouldn’t be affected by it. Only a couple people who qualified came to mind: the professor and someone Phil had worked with during Loki's initial arrival, a man named Stephen Rogers. Captain America. From all Phil had said, he was a big blue Boy Scout. A real Prince Charming. Maybe he could handle the staff without its dark seiðr affecting him. After all, the professor was stuck in a wheelchair. He could only do so much without the help of his X-Men.

No, Thea's problem was convincing Phil—and Phil's superiors, as well as the rest of the world—that Loki had been blackmailed and brainwashed into doing everything he'd done to the Earth. She had to prove it to everyone. Her powers should've made that easy, except that it was documented in the Federal Mutant Registry that she could manipulate other people's memories. They didn’t have to believe her just because she showed them what had happened.

She would need help. The professor had already given her a full mental check-up to make sure her own memories hadn’t been tampered with—impossible, thanks to her gift, but it never hurt to double-check—and to verify the truth of her story. Phil believed her. He and the professor would help. She just didn’t know if that would be enough.


Sophie stirred. Thea blinked sleepily down at her daughter as she scrunched up her face and began fussing. Touching light fingertips to Sophie's temple, Thea plucked the most recent memory from the baby's mind.

"Hungry again, huh?" She touched her baby's nose, wiggling it. Sophie sneezed. "Come on. It's probably lunch time, anyways." It took a concentrated effort to reach for the bag the professor had given her, which sat on the floor by her seat. She was just so tired…but she wasn’t feeding her baby in front of everyone without a blanket thrown over herself. It felt…weird. Like inviting strangers to eavesdrop on a very private, very precious conversation. Snagging the extra blanket from the bag, Thea covered Sophie, leaned back in her reclining seat, and closed her eyes. No way could she get a nap right now, but resting her eyes felt good, too, and Sophie's small, warm weight against her body relaxed her.

A couple hours later, Phil came back to sit next to her. Sophie was asleep again, curled up in her blanket, tiny hands curled into fists. "Hey, can Grandpa hold her?"

"Sure," Thea murmured, handing Sophie over to him. "Phil…why did you and Mom break up?" It had come out during the long, drawn-out conversation on the Chitauri flyer, but she'd been in so much pain, she hadn’t thought to ask him then.

Looking down at the sleeping baby, Phil sighed. "It just…it didn’t feel right, not being able to be with her all the time when she needed me once you went missing. She was a wreck. We didn’t know what had happened, what those things were that took you, and we couldn’t find you. I had all of SHIELD on the lookout. I mean, you're my daughter, Als. I've watched you grow up from the time you were nine years old. I coached your soccer team, drove you on field trips, went to your parent-teacher meetings, took you to concerts. You're my daughter and I couldn’t find you…and I couldn’t be there for your mother like I should've been when she needed me. She deserved someone who could be there for her."

Thea nodded. Yawned. "Okay…so now that I'm back, when are you two getting married?"

"Als, it's not that simple."

"I just gave you two a granddaughter. I can make it that simple. She's gonna have to move out to New York eventually. You know, since I live there. She always said she would, once one of us had kids. Except Joie went and messed that up by moving to Portland." Thea made a wry face, but smiled. "Whatever. Once Mom's in New York, it shouldn’t be that hard."

Phil smiled wanly. "We'll see. So, what's Sophie's full name?"

"Sophie Frigga Valerian-Odinson, daughter of Loki, son of Odin, son of Bor. Loki said when you do formal introductions in Asgard, it's traditional to go back three generations. We were gonna name her Frigga, but then I remembered that Johnny Cash song about a boy named Sue and decided I didn’t want my daughter trying to kill us when she grew up." With a sigh, Thea reclined her seat enough that she could turn on her side. Sitting upright for too long hurt. "She looks like Loki, you know. Except for those little freckles."
He nodded, but he looked troubled. Finally, he said, "Listen, Thea. I want you to know that whatever happens when we reach SHIELD headquarters, I'm behind you, okay? I believe you when you say Loki's being controlled. He could have killed me, but instead he sent me to you—I'm guessing he wanted me to get you out of there. So I believe you."


She didn't cry, but only because she was so tired. She just didn’t have the energy. "Thanks, Dad." She'd found out from the professor that SHIELD had had Loki in custody since yesterday afternoon. What had they done to him in that time? Was he all right? "Can you, uh…can you hold onto Sophie for a little bit? I need some sleep."

"No problem, kiddo. You just take a nap or something."

She dozed for the rest of the plane ride; took care of Sophie while Phil made arrangements for a car; slept while Sophie snoozed in a quickly-bought car-seat as they drove to SHIELD headquarters. The drone of Phil talking on the car-phone helped lull her until his voice suddenly sharpened.

"Boss, tell me you didn't!"

Thea jerked awake abruptly, scrubbing at her face as the car pulled into an underground parking garage. Sophie made a few fussy noises, subsided. Thea glanced at Phil, who'd lost his affable grandfather look and was one-hundred-percent Special-Agent-trying-to-avert-a-SNAFU again. Her stomach suddenly lurched. Something wasn’t right. Something was definitely, definitely not right.

The car pulled into a parking space and Thea quickly got out. Two agents in uniform stood waiting. One of them said, "Ms. Valerian, Agent Coulson, I'm Special Agent Sitwell and this is Special Agent—"


"Where is he?" Phil demanded. He came around to Thea's side of the car while she unbuckled Sophie from the car-seat and pulled her baby into her arms. "Where's Loki?"

The two agents exchanged uncertain glances. Agent Sitwell replied, "Director Fury and Agent Hill are waiting to debrief you. We'll take you to them."

As their little group—Phil, Thea, Sophie, and Ms. Munroe—followed after Sitwell and his partner, Thea kept trying to suppress the spiking fear that something terrible was about to happen. No. Nothing bad was going to happen. She'd escaped from the Chitauri. She was okay. She'd already taken the antidote for the poison and felt better than she had in a while, even though she was still exhausted and sore from the birth. Sophie was healthy. SHIELD hadn’t killed Loki. Soon she would be with him, they'd be together again, and everything would be fine. Everything would be perfect.


But the agents they passed in the halls kept giving her strange looks. Curving herself protectively around her daughter, she focused on Phil beside her and Ms. Munroe on her other side, and kept walking. With the two of them, she'd be fine. They wouldn’t let anything happen to her or Sophie.

Loki, Thea thought as they came to the end of a very long hallway, Loki, are you okay? Just hold on a little bit longer. I'll be there and you'll see I'm okay. I'm okay, Loki. Me and Sophie are both fine.

A guard in a blue uniform opened the door at the end of the hall, which led to a large room with a massive circular table at its center. Seated on the opposite side of the table was a dark-skinned man with a black eye-patch in a black leather coat and a brunette woman in uniform.


"Boss," Phil said the moment he caught sight of the one-eyed man. "Boss, tell me you still have Loki in custody. Tell me you didn’t send him back to Asgard with Thor."

Thea jerked. All the blood drained from her face as her heart knifed sideways in her chest. "What?" She swayed, staggered. Ms. Munroe went to her, took Sophie, while Phil guided her to a chair. She stared at the man she knew to be Nick Fury with horrified, betrayed eyes. "You…what?"

Flabbergasted, Nick Fury said, "We sent Loki back to Asgard with Thor this morning. About four hours ago. Why? And Coulson, how the hell did you manage to survive that stab to the chest? And who is this?"

"This is my daughter, Thea…the one who went missing over a year ago. She's Loki's wife, and the leverage the Chitauri were using to blackmail him into invading Earth. Her, and Loki's daughter." Phil gestured to Sophie fussing in Ms. Munroe's arms. Nick Fury and the female agent just stared at him, stunned. "You sent him back? Crap. Crap!"

"The Bifröst?" Thea managed to croak. The two SHIELD agents focused on her. "Is the Bifröst fixed? Is that how they went back?" If the Rainbow Bridge had been repaired, she could get to Asgard. She just had to call for Heimdall, had to convince him to open the Gate for her. Then she could tell the Asgardians what had happened, both on Midgard and back in Asgard during Thor's exile.

But Nick shook his head. "They used the tesseract."

"Then…" Phil ran a hand through his thinning hair. "Then there's no way to get back in contact with them. No way to bring him back." He looked at Thea. "Als…Als, I'm so sorry, I…"

Thea didn’t hear him. She simply dropped her head onto her folded arms on the table, sick at heart, and cried.