"Where do babies come from?" Thor asked.

I looked up from the dispatch in my hand. Yes, we were out in the meadow having a picnic, but duty never takes time off and I'd only half been listening to the conversation going on around me. Thor, tall and sturdy and six and a half, and Loki, four and quiet and bright, were both looking at me expectantly.

Frigga, my dear wife and helpmate was giving me her 'you earned this all on your own' expression.

"Babies come from all over." I said, thinking fast. "I found you under a toadstool wrestling an ælf for a piece of charcoal."

That made Thor laugh as I hoped it would, distracting him as I hoped it would distract him for many more years to come.

But there was a moment coming that I knew I couldn't avoid any longer.

Loki put his hands out and tugged on my sleeve.

"Where did you find me?" He asked.

"You?!" I made play to exclaim and gathered him into my lap to give myself time. "Why I found you in the most special place of all…."

*:-)-:-:

Cold and pain and darkness. Rivers of death, mountains of destruction, nothing but loss and burdens and exhaustion. It was a victory but a hard-won victory and I felt the full weight of it on my shoulders and in my spirit.

Then I found the infant. Suffering, dying, alone. Take him with you that voice, that intuition told me. Save his life, he needs you.

So I bundled the child into my cloak and with my army withdrew to Asgard where we were met with orderly chaos. Shouting, tugging, grappling, tears and silence as the wounded were hurried to the healing room and the dead were counted and mourned.

My deputies urged me to the healing room though I barely realized I'd been wounded.

'The Queen - I must go to my wife'

I met her in the hallway as she was hurrying to be with me. Her face bore the shock of my injury and as she reached for me, I passed the limit of my strength and fell to my knees before her. The lurch disturbed my precious bundle and a quiet gurgle and determined squirm moved my cloak.

Frigga parted my cloak and drew the child from me. Too worn to even lift my head, I waited for her response. I had brought a child of our enemy into our home. She had the right to accept or to refuse it.

"My lord," she said at last and I looked up into her smiling, tearful face, and the babe she held safe and close and content. "You have given me a son."

*:-)-:-:

I put my hand under Loki's chin and smiled at him.

"I found you in your mother's arms."

He beamed a smile at me and squirmed with delight, and then he was off my lap and on the ground with his brother, pretending they were hiding under toadstools, wrestling an ælf for his charcoal.

Frigga winked at me and I set the dispatch aside to watch our boys play.

The End

A/N: My final paper is driving me crazy. I had to write something else so I wrote this fast while the Boss was gone.