He stood before one of the large stone pillars at 1407 Greymalkin lane, reading the simple metal sign partially covered by climbing vines, "Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters". It was starting to sprinkle and he was footsore from walking. The driver of the semi that he had hitched a ride from in Bangor had dropped him at a rest area near the Salem Center exit off interstate 684. He had looked at the map enclosed behind a thick pane of plexiglass underneath a small roofed shelter, finding his current location marked by a small red arrow with the words "YOU ARE HERE" beside it, and he had found Salem Center a few miles distant.

He'd had to ask directions once or twice. An elderly gentleman who stood in the front yard of his house with the hose aimed at a line of rose bushes was finally able to point him in the direction of Greymalkin lane though he had cast him a curious look when he mentioned Xavier's school.

He put the small duffel bag on the ground. Roxanne had given it to Sarah for him to use for his clothes, the mere thought of her made him close his eyes, sway unsteadily on his feet. He opened them again, searching for a way past the immense black iron gates before him, finally spying the speaker and the lit green button below it on the pillar opposite the sign.

He walked up to it, took a deep breath and pressed the button, waiting. A voice from the speaker startled him, "May I help you?"

He looked about him, "I was sent here by a friend. I wish to speak to whomever is in charge."

"Do you have a student in residence here?"

"No."

"Please state the nature of your business."

He sighed, "Asylum...sanctuary, call it what you will." There was a long pause and he thought perhaps that the speaker at the other end had simply refused him entry by ending the conversation when he heard the motor inside the pillar start to whine to life and the gates swung open.

As he walked down the long winding path, he would catch occasional glimpses of a grand sprawling mansion through the trees, turreted like a castle, the walls the color of sand. He could hear voices coming to him on the wind, snatches of conversation, a shout of children playing.

A few minutes after he had stepped through the front gate, hearing it creak closed behind him, he was standing on the front steps staring at a set of heavy dark brown oak double doors. He turned around, looked behind him and considered running back down the long drive, they way he'd come. The only thing stopping him was the fact that there was nowhere else to go except back to SHIELD where his brother had been waiting for him at least up until last night when he had crossed into the state of New York and heard Thor's thoughts as he passed overhead at 20,000 feet in one of the jets with Fury on his way to Maine. He had damned his connection to his brother then, hoping that Sarah hadn't lingered in the parking lot of that truck stop waiting for him to return.

Instead, he walked up to the lighted button and pushed it, hearing the muffled sound of a doorbell just inside the door, waited. The door swung inward and a tall stocky man dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with wild dark hair, bushy sideburns and a look of suspicion that seemed permanently fixed to his ruggedly handsome face stood in the doorway.

"Who are you?"

Loki gave him a thin lipped grin, "I believe the correct wording is "How are you?"

The man looked him over, "Naw I got it right, who are you?"

He hesitated unsure what to say, unsure of who he could trust, "My name is Loki."

The man put his hands on his hips, "You're kidding right? Like the guy who busted up Manhattan? I might think about changing my name, mister."

Loki stared at him, "Are you in charge here?"

The man shook his head and chuckled, "Do I look like I'd be in charge here? Ororo is the...headmistress if you will. What do you need to see her for?"

Loki pushed past the man into a vast foyer, "Take me to her."

The man shook his head, "No can do, pal. She's in the middle of teaching class now and unless you got a student who goes here, you gotta have a real good reason to see her."

Loki watched students pass through the foyer, down the halls leading off in opposite directions, his hands tightening on the handle of his duffel bag, he was beginning to feel desperate. What could he tell him except for what Thomas had said.

"I am a mutant." He cringed at the connotations of the word, ashamed and angry all at once.

"That's what they all say, what's your story?" The man crossed his arms, waiting. Someone cleared their throat behind them making Loki jump. A tall young woman stood dressed in black slacks and a short sleeve high collared green blouse, her dark brown hair pulled back from her face with a silver clip, honey brown eyes narrowed at the man, a clipboard in the crook of her arm.

"Logan, we have a visitor."

"It looks that way don't it, Gracie." Logan retreated watching, a smile on his face.

"Don't call me Gracie, I've told you about that, it's Grace, got it? Say it for me...Grace."

Logan laughed, drawled out her name, "Grac...ie."

He dodged her swipe and Loki noticed that she had slim black leather gloves on her hands, so intent was his scrutiny that he didn't hear her speak to him the first time.

"Excuse me, sir?"

Logan shoved Loki, "Hey, keep your head out of your pants and answer the young lady."

"I did not hear the question." He growled at Logan, moved a couple steps away from him.

"I asked you your name, and your business here at the school. I talked to you over the intercom."

He only looked down at her hands again, "Why do you wear gloves when summer is still upon us?"

He heard a barely disguised guffaw from Logan, "That's one way to get black listed, my friend."

Grace turned to Logan and pointed down the hall, "Go away." but Logan merely shook his head,

"I've got a right to be here, I answered the door so he's in my charge until he either leaves or gets handed over to someone."

Grace rubbed her forehead and sighed, "Alright, just please will you shut up? Now," She turned back to Loki, "What is your name?"

He could see Logan, his arms crossed, a wide grin on his face as if to say, "spill it", standing behind Grace who was now holding the clipboard in front of her, a pen clasped in her gloved hand, ready to write.

"My name is Loki,"

"Like the Norse god?"

He closed his eyes, "Yes, like the Norse god."

"Last name?"

He groaned inwardly then, if she knew her mythology, even remotely, it was going to be nearly impossible to convince her he wasn't insane.

"Laufeyson."

She started to write the name, stared at it, looked back up at him, then at the name again, pursed her lips together.

"Lauf.."

"Laufeyson?" Logan chimed in, "What nationality is that?

He narrowed his eyes at Logan first, and was then brought back to Grace as she tapped the pen on the clipboard, still staring at the name before her.

"Um," She glanced up at Loki, "Reason...um."

Logan clapped her on the back, "Spit it out, Gracie."

She pitched forward a bit, rolled her eyes and swung the clipboard behind her, narrowly missing Logan's chin, swung around and shoved it at his chest. "You want to do the interview, fine with me."

He pushed it back at her, "It's your job, not mine."

Loki observed them for a few moments, heard a long toned beep and suddenly the hall was filled with students passing them in a rush, groups huddled together, talking, toting book bags, whispering and staring at him, the newcomer. He saw a pair of young girls watching him as they walked by, barely missing the newel post of the railing at the bottom of a polished wood staircase, giggling, the redheaded girl holding the blond's arm. He took another look at Grace and Logan and slid into the crowd, catching up to the two girls in seconds.

"Perhaps you could help me," He fell in step beside them and they stopped short, the redhead blushing furiously, they couldn't have been more than fourteen. He gave them his most disarming smile, "I am looking for Ororo, I need to speak to her. Can you direct me to where she is?"

"You mean Miss Munroe? Follow us, her office is down this hall at the end. It used to be the Professor's office but she's the headmistress now." The blond waved her hand for Loki to follow them.

They stopped before a tall door made of dark wood matching the paneling in the hallways.

"She might not be there yet, classes just let out and she's one of the teachers, are you going to be a new teacher too?" The redhead knocked on the door for him as she waited for his answer.

"I am not sure what I will be doing here but..." The door before them opened, interrupting him. A woman with short silver gray hair and medium brown skin, dressed in a black pant suit accented with a white v-neck shirt beneath stood in the doorway.

"May I help you?"

Loki was about to speak when he was struck from behind by a pair of hands at his back and he stumbled forward, his hand catching the doorway beside Ororo, the only thing preventing him from sprawling onto the wooden floor beneath him. He whirled around, his other arm outstretched behind him, catching Grace across the abdomen as she kept her forward motion. He grunted with the effort as her full weight bore down on his arm but he managed to keep her upright.

"Miss Archer, are you alright?" Ororo leaned down, her face inches from Grace's face where she'd stopped, leaning over Loki's arm. She reached down, picked up the clipboard that had skidded to a stop at Ororo's feet and pulled herself up, straightening her blouse.

"I'm sorry Miss Munroe, I lost track of our visitor here, I was trying to conduct an interview and Logan was with me, need I say more?"

Ororo smiled as Logan strolled up behind Grace. "That was fun, let's do it again."

"Logan, you're going to give Miss Archer a heart attack one of these days." Ororo turned to Loki, who had by now, been watching them, thinking of a way to calmly bow out of the proceedings.

"Mister?"

"Loki, please." He bowed slightly, "I wish an audience with you."

Ororo nodded, "Grace will you accompany us, Logan you too." She heard Grace groan and stifled a smile behind one hand, putting the other behind the back of the redhead who had stood there watching the whole scene, mouth wide open, "Shayna, you and Marly continue to class, thank you for your help."

Ororo moved from the doorway and waved a hand to usher them inside her office, shutting the door behind them.

"Have a seat, Loki. You too, Grace, Logan." Instead of walking behind her desk as he had expected her to, she hopped up onto it from the front, her legs dangling, ankles crossed. He gazed about the room at the shelves upon shelves of books, tomes, papers, dvds. Two tall multi-paned windows flanked the desk. The walls, what had been left uncovered by the absence of shelving, was done in a flocked red velvet wallpaper. A tiffany lamp and a wingbacked easy chair had been tucked in one corner beside the large windows. There were various pictures hung about the room, men and women alike, their dress older as they rose up the wall. The biggest picture behind Ororo's desk, a painted portrait of a handsome bald man in a strange wheelchair, a placid, all knowing look upon his face.

"Who is the man in the portrait behind you?"

Ororo turned her head as if to refresh her memory but she was smiling as she did so. "That is a portrait of our former professor and headmaster Francis Xavier."

"With the questions again, you are clever." Logan looked at Grace, "He certainly tripped you up with them, doll."

"Logan." Ororo's voice carried a note of warning. "Loki, first things first, why are you here?"

He clasped his hands together in his lap to prevent himself from fidgeting.

"I have come to ask you for sanctuary. It was suggested by a friend that I come here to the school."

Ororo had been leaning forward, hands on her knees, now she straightened up.

"A friend? Who?"

"His name is Thomas Stewart, he hails from the state called Maine."

Ororo nodded, "He visited us here for a week last year, he was considering coming here for help with his ability but his wife was dead set against it. How is he?"

"He is well as is his wife and daughter."

Ororo nodded again, "I hope he'll reconsider in the future, he's more powerful than even he realizes."

"And he's pussy whipped too." Logan added.

"Logan you are crude." Grace shot him a look.

"He said you would be able to help me. I have nowhere else to go, save here." He closed his eyes, put his head against the back of the chair, "I will do what you wish of me. I excel in hand to hand combat, I have trained..." He paused, he had been about to say "my fellow Aesir" "I have trained others as well. I could do so here."

"You aren't serious, you look like you couldn't bust your way out of a bad idea."

Loki glared at Logan, "Do not misjudge me, lest you be made to eat your words."

Instead of taking his words as a challenge, Logan chuckled, "It's a date, Laufeyson."

"Laufeyson, that's your last name?" Ororo watched Grace look at Loki then back at her clipboard with a pensive demeanor on her face, as if trying to remember something.

Loki nodded, "It is."

Ororo stood from the desk, "Logan, Grace, will you please excuse us. I need to talk to Loki alone."

Grace arose from the chair she'd been sitting in a bit slower than Logan who was already at the door.

"Come on, Gracie. The boss has requested our absence."

Grace lifted her clipboard and banged it against her forehead a couple of times, earning a curious stare from Loki,

"Whatever, Logan, you win, I'm Gracie."

"Aww," Logan put his hand at her back as they walked out the door of the office, "Don't give up so easily, it ain't no fun if you don't put up a struggle."

Ororo waited for their conversation to die down before she sat down in the chair beside Loki. "Mister Laufeyson, you've asked for sanctuary. Are you a mutant?"

Loki was suddenly weary to the very bone, "I am as like a mutant as you, Miss Munroe. I am a shape shifter, a telepath, I possess the gift of eloquence and as such can be used as a powerful negotiator, my strength, when I deign to use it, is unparalleled among.."

"Humans?" Ororo finished for him, "Loki, I am glad that you asked for help before I determined who you were. I will not refuse any mutant sanctuary but can you really be classified as such?"

"Do you not believe in my abilities? If need be, I may demonstrate...," her words had finally caught up with his mind and comprehension, "You know of me?"

She reached over and put a hand on his shoulder, "We're a community of mutants, S.H.I.E.L.D. Is an alliance of superhumans, did you not think there'd be any interaction between the two?"

"I abandoned the woman I love to save her from my fate, I believed I had chosen the middle ground by coming here. My thought process in the preceding twenty-four hours has been decidedly flawed." He rose from the chair he'd been sitting in, "I will take my leave of you. I only beg the favor of time so that I might put distance between this place and myself if you are to inform Director Fury of my whereabouts. There is only one other option beyond this."

Ororo held up her hand, "I didn't say you couldn't stay here Loki, but we have to have an understanding. I would like the truth from now on. You will act the model guest. I will speak with Nick so that we can come to some sort of negotiation, and I will consider including you as an assistant instructor in our self defense class."

He could feel his knees giving way and he sought the chair again, sitting down heavily, his head in his hands, ashamed that an affirmative answer to his request should affect him so deeply yet wanting to kiss the hand of this benevolent woman before him.

"I will warn you, however, that these children and my friends here are my primary concern. I will come down on you hard if you reveal that your intentions are anything else but honorable and peaceable and I can guarantee you I would not be alone. I will have Grace show you to the rooms. She's the house mother as well as a former student. We will provide you with what you need and I will talk to you tomorrow. Hopefully I can reach Fury to speak to him. You have the run of the manor house proper until I determine what to do. You may roam the grounds though I'd suggest getting some food and rest."

Ororo opened the door of her office and peered into the shadows in the hallway where she could see Grace leaning on one of the tall chairs lining the hallway. She heard the door open and glanced up to see Ororo wave at her and she walked up to them.

"Grace, take Loki to one of the empty suites on the second floor. See that he has what he needs. Fresh towels, bed linens and then show him to the cafeteria. Supper will be at five, Loki. You may join us at the staff table."

Grace was writing things down on her clipboard, stopped and glanced up at Ororo, "Anything else?"

She shook her head, "That's it for now." She smiled, "You're dismissed."

Grace could feel his eyes at her back as they climbed the large oak staircase that began in the foyer, the effect in the now silent halls so disconcerting that she tried to make conversation just to hear her own voice.

Their steps echoed down the long dark paneled corridor, "Where are you from, Mister Laufeyson?"

She thought perhaps he wasn't going to answer her but after a short pause he did,

"Loki, if you please...I am from..New York at the present time."

"You may call me Grace. I am the house mother here at the mansion. I take care of the daily running of the school. Logan likes to call me the hamster that turns the wheel. I like to call him...oh, never mind, he irritates me just for fun."

"Hamster.." Loki searched his mind, "hamster that turns.."

"The wheel, haven't you ever seen a hamster in a cage, running on those metal wheels like they're going to get somewhere?"

"I have not."

They had stopped before a dark green wooden door towards the end of the corridor. While she fiddled with a large ring of keys, he glanced out of the tall arched window to their left. The September sunlight glittered off a the water of a small lake, the manicured grounds sloping gently to the water's edge. He could see a large swimming pool, a set of tennis courts, farther off in the distance just beyond the far tree line, a baseball diamond. There were a couple groups of children out on the lawn with a few adults, the children were sitting on the grass appearing to listen to them.

"Come on, let me show you your rooms." Grace called to him. He walked through the door behind her. To his right, there was a small sitting area with two tan easy chairs and a darker settee grouped around a small fireplace. A tall window beside the fireplace cast sunlight into the room which was paneled with rich brown slatting from the floor up to the chair rail, from the rail to the ceiling, green flocked wallpaper like the style he'd observed in Ororo's office. To his left, butted against the outer wall, was a full sized bed with a spartan ebony wooden headboard. The mattress was bare. Beyond the bed, he could see the door to the bathroom. He walked around the end of the bed and peered inside. There was an old clawfoot tub, a wash basin with a medicine chest above it, and a toilet, the whole done up in white tile and light blue plain wallpaper.

He turned around to see Grace had left the room and he stood there a moment, unsure of what to do until she sailed back through the door, her arms full of bedsheets and towels, balancing a pillow atop it all. "I'll make your bed for you this time, then you're on your own forever after."

He watched her fit the sheets around the mattress and realized she'd taken her gloves off for the task.

"Where are your gloves?"

She seemed to jump, as if startled. "I can't make the bed with them on."

He started towards the other side of the bed, meaning to grab the sheet she was currently struggling with but before he could reach for it, she was holding up her hands,

"I'll do it. That's what I'm here for. It'll be your responsibility afterward though."

He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans, took them out, clasped them behind his back, finally crossing his arms in front of his chest.

She caught his flurry of movement as she was drawing the blanket up to the pillows, "Are you alright?"

"I am."

She shoved the pillows into cases and as he stood there, he began to let his mind explore, a few thoughts, a list of things she kept repeating to herself but there it stopped, once again he'd met another human whose mind was all but closed to him, though hers was like looking through an opaque pane of glass, he could discern shadows, colors, no thoughts except those on the immediate surface.

"Alright, you've got an hour until supper bell." She took her gloves from the pocket of her slacks and put them back on, picked up the pile of towels from one of the easy chairs and handed them to him.

"You can take a shower if you like. Do you have any clothes in that duffel bag?"

She walked over to where he'd dropped his bag on the floor at the end of the bed and he gripped the towels tighter, "I have only.."

"I'll get you some clothes, we have a rack of extras in the laundry room. Clothes people have left, donated." She pulled a t-shirt from the bag, "You wear large," then a pair of pants.

She wrote something down on the clipboard and stood up.

"I'll be back."

As she reached for the handle, he finally found his tongue, "I do not know where to go."

She looked over her shoulder, "I will come back around four-thirty to take you to the great hall. Miss Munroe said you're eating with the staff."

He swallowed hard, looked down at the towels in his arms. "I wish to eat alone."

"Well you've been asked to join the staff in residence. Etiquette dictates that you should join us if you've been invited to do so." Grace fixed him with a stare, "So I will be back with clothes and then we'll go down to supper."

She shut the door behind her. He set the towels on the bed and sat beside them, glancing about the room then closed his eyes, searching for Sarah, finding her, feeling the anger, the rage and breaking the connection before he could hear any real thoughts. He put the heels of his palms to his eyes, stifled a groan and lay back on the mattress. He was now more unsure of what he'd done than at any time in the past year, even when he'd been the puppet of the Chitauri, when his damnable brother had begged him to stop the attack. There had been no pain then, not like the agony he felt when he'd seen Sarah's mind.

He lay his arm over his eyes to shut out the light and quickly fell into a light doze, his thoughts free from worry if only for a short while.

Grace knocked on his door, got no answer, knocked again. She shrugged then, opened the door slowly, hoping she wasn't going to catch him coming out of the bathroom naked, frowned as she saw him lying across the bed. She jostled the bed hard with her knee, satisfied when he sat up abruptly and rolled to one side.

"Did you have a chance to shower?"

He looked up and behind him, "I fell asleep."watched her drop the clothes she'd had draped over her arm, on the bed beside the towels.

"Get up and get going, it's almost twenty after four."

He stood up from the bed, turned and faced her, "I have said I shall not join anyone for supper. I wish to eat alone."

He was unprepared for her reaction. She walked up to him, grabbing a towel from the pile as she passed it and shoved it into his hands. "I pride myself in keeping a good house. I expect respect from all residents just like I do the students so when I explain to them why they have to do something, they should understand and follow the rules."

He shoved it back into her hands, "Do you not respect the residents as well? Do they not have a say in what they wish to do?"

She took his hand in hers and slapped the towel into it, "When they follow the proper channels and behave as a guest should, they certainly do."

The strain of the last twenty-four hours seemed to collapse in on him and he threw the towel across the room, "I wish to be left alone!" his shout echoed in the high ceiling of the room. "I care not whether I eat, whether I starve, I would doubtless do the world a favor in doing so."

Grace walked over to the towel in a heap on the floor, bent over, picked it up and tossed it on the bed with a sigh. "Then why did you come here?"

She gave him a look of disgust, turned and walked out the door into the hallway. He listened to her steps as they gradually faded away, then he snatched the towel up from the bed and with a grunt, walked into the bathroom and shut the door.