Sarah walked into the bedroom for the third time and shook Loki again.

"Come on, your brother and sister in law are up, Fen is awake, I fed the baby and I now have to get her dressed, we've got to load what's left into the car and if you don't get up, I'm going to pour ice cold water over your head." She walked into the bathroom and turned the faucet on for emphasis unaware of the fact that he'd jumped up and was right behind her, so as soon as she turned, he was staring her in the face,

"Loki! You little shit." He grabbed her in a bear hug and kissed her,

"Good morning to you, too"

Sarah poked him in the ribs and he let go of her. "Come on, it's getting late. I'm going to get Madison dressed."

Loki stretched and turned to get dressed in the clothes he put out last night. He was in the kitchen five minutes later, grabbing the bags sitting by the kitchen door and carrying them out to the cars, passing Thor who was heading back inside, on the way out.

"It is a mystery to me, brother, why the womenfolk insist in bringing half the things we own on the trip with them." Thor said glancing back at Loki who shrugged and smiled,

"Don't ask, just do what they say, isn't it easier that way?"

Loki came back into the kitchen at the same time as Sarah and Jane. Sarah handed Madison to Loki,

"You can take her out and put her in the car seat, we're almost ready….Fen?" She called into the living room where Fen was laying on the couch half asleep, "Come on, the L train is leaving the station, kiddo."

Fen rose like one of the undead, eyes still closed, and padded into the kitchen, only stopping when he met Sarah's knees, wrapping his arms around them. She reached down and picked him up.

"You can sleep on the way, little prince." She whispered in his ear as he hugged her neck tighter. She was walking gingerly down the steps from the kitchen porch when she felt Fen lifted out of her hands as Loki took him.

"You're going to break a leg like that. Do we have everything now?"

Sarah looked back at the house and then to Jane who nodded,

"Anything we really need we can get there, I think. We've got the kids, got the husbands, the clothes..oh." Sarah walked back up the stairs into the house and came back out with a green and gold backpack, closed the door behind her and locked it.

"Five hours in the car with a busy boy with nothing to do, I don't think so, can't forget his activity backpack. Now I think we're ready."

Traffic was beginning to pick up a bit when they finally reached I-95 and she tried to keep her mind on the driving but Loki had brought up an old subject again,

"I don't see why you wouldn't want me to try finding work. There must be something I could do, teach self-defense, sword fighting."

Sarah shook her head, "Not much call for sword fighting, I'm afraid you're about five hundred years too late. Besides I make very good money at S.H.I.E.L.D." She had been transferred back to S.H.I.E.L.D. shortly after they had arrived back on Earth, she was of a mind to believe that it was Fury's way of keeping closer dibs on the family but if it paid the bills, so be it, and Lily was still there as well.

"Besides, if you were out in the public and anyone, retired agent, police, security guard recognized you, would you really want an angry mob of New Yorkers coming at you?" She paused and peeked at him, "Then again unless they had face to face contact with you, I think you'd be hard to recognize," The song they'd danced to in the kitchen the night before came on the radio and Loki said,

"Hey buddy, here's our song." Upon receiving no answer, he turned his head to look in the back seat.

"Asleep?" Sarah asked, and Loki nodded.

"You know, you've become pretty well adapted to Midgardian life." Sarah said, watching Loki pull down the mirror above the visor on his side. "You probably could blend in as long as you weren't in your court dress. Maybe we need a trip to Asgard." Loki grinned and patted her shoulder,

"You just want to see me in uniform." Sarah grinned back at him,

"You know you look good in it, don't be such a tease." She looked over at Loki who winked at her and put his head back against the headrest, watching the scenery roll by.

They pulled into a rest area off I-90 near Auburn, Massachusetts at around nine in the morning, Jane pulling up beside them.

"We all need a rest stop, Fen especially." She said as Loki got out and started to unhook Fen from his car seat. Thor came around the car to Loki, "I'll go with you, the ride so far has been far too long." Sarah and Jane had also exited the cars and were unhooking the girls, Sarah chancing to look up at Thor, Fen and Loki as they walked into the building,

"Hey," She said to Jane, "Watch this one." Sarah had spied two teenagers walking out of the building who had spotted the boys and were now rubber-knecking them and squealing, as if on cue, Sarah watched one of them, a blond girl with a mini sundress on and pink sandals, walk straight into the concrete barriers at the end of the walkway while her friend erupted into peals of shrieking laughter.

"It happens everywhere we go, I'm beginning to get a complex." Sarah sighed as they headed into the rest area with diapers and a box of wipes. "They get stared at all the time."

Jane laughed and elbowed Sarah, "Um, we stare at them all the time too."

"Yes but we can, they're ours to stare at." Sarah replied as she and Jane walked into the ladies room and took the changing tables beside each other. Sarah heard Fen's voice outside the bathroom, then Loki's.

"No, mommy is changing Maddy in the girls room, understand, not the boys room." Sarah giggled,

"You can send him in, honey. He's only two and a half." She heard Fen's sandals slap the tile floor and he was hanging onto the changing table that jutted out from the wall, peering at Madison's dark hair, and petting her head,

"Hi Maddy."

Sarah slipped Madison's bottoms back on just as Jane was picking Olivia back up. "She's all arms and legs like daddy isn't she?" Jane said as she watched Madison kick the air happily. Sarah picked her up and they headed back out to the main lobby, "So is Fen." She handed Madison to Loki and grabbed Fen's hand as he passed her.

"We're going to get some juice and we'll be out if you want to head out. Do you guys need anything?" Loki held up a water bottle he'd already gotten and Thor shook his head. "Come brother, let's get the brood settled back in."

Fen climbed into his car seat and sat down, Sarah hooking him in,

"Do you want to color for a while? Or maybe play with your dinosaurs?" Sarah asked him, as she rooted through the backpack,

"Dinosuars!" Fen cried, and roared as Madison swiveled her head around and stared at him.

Sarah handed him a couple of dinosaurs and closed the door on his subsequent growls, got into the driver's seat and with a honk to Jane, they headed back out onto the highway.

"Did you see those girls eyeing you as you guys went inside," She asked as they sped down the highway,

"Yes we did," he said, "I heard them afterwards too, what did they do?"

Sarah smirked, "They ran into a concrete barrier." She felt Loki stroke the back of her neck,

"Don't get jealous, dearest heart. I am yours alone." Sarah glanced at him,

"But they were young girls, something I'm not.." Sarah felt Loki's fingers against her lips.

"I've told you that it doesn't matter, I want to hear no more on the subject."

Sarah sighed. They had discussed the subject one night in Asgard soon after the wedding. They had lain in their bed talking, her head resting on his chest when he said to her,

"What if there was a way to make you as one of the Aesir? To slow down your aging so that it would almost seem to stop? Sarah had raised her head off his chest and looked up at him,

"You couldn't ask me this when I was twenty-four?" Loki had pulled her up to him and kissed her,

"What's wrong with you now?"

Sarah had pulled her gaze away from his, "I'm old now. I'm forty-one." Loki had begun to kiss her hand, turning it over to nuzzle the sensitive skin at the pulse point of her wrist,

"It does not matter how old you are, love is timeless, ageless. Now be still, my love, for I wish to be the one to make you restless."

Sarah finally realized Loki was speaking to her,

"The turn you told me to warn you about is coming up, where were you just then?" Sarah put her blinker on, looking behind her to make sure Jane had seen her do so,

"I was back on Asgard with you." She could see Loki smile as he turned his head to watch out his window,

"Someday we will be there again." A strange chill went through her as he said it but she kept it to herself, chalking it up as the result of the strain of driving so long and she was happy when they finally saw the sign to the Yorks one mile ahead on I-91.

Ten minutes later, they were standing in front of Garnsey brother's rentals on Webhannet drive, in Wells. Sarah and Jane walked up the stairs to the front door,

"You boys stay with the kids, we'll get the keys and directions." Sarah said as they entered the office, a small room with brochures, boxes of envelopes and a long counter just inside the door.

"Hi, we're here to pick up the keys to our rental." Sarah said to a middle aged woman sitting behind the counter, "It' s under the name Laufeyson…L..a..u.."

"I have it," The lady said, "Right here," she handed her the envelope with a small map for directions. "Just down the road a bit, you have access to the beach as well. Enjoy your stay, rules and check out times are on the back of the map."

She handed the envelope and papers to Loki and got in, then took the map from him and studied it.

"Looks like we're just up on the right a ways right on this road. "

They pulled into the drive of the tall beach house and got out, Fen struggling to help Loki undo the straps of his seat as Sarah headed up the steps to the front door with Jane. The door opened up into the kitchen area, gleaming white with dark blue accents, the dining area beyond that featured a large glass topped table and six chairs with a view out onto the ocean beyond from a large deck with steps leading down to the beach. There was a large sitting area with a tv and dvd player, two red sofas and an easy chair to the right of the dining area.

"Too much white, I'd be paranoid if Thor got the least speck of dirt on him with a house like this. Let's go upstairs to see the bedrooms." Jane said as Sarah started up the stairs. At the top, there were two doors side by side and they went each one into the other. Both bedrooms had large sliding glass doors that slid open to an adjoining balcony which the girls walked out onto and stood watching as the guys, carrying Madison and Olivia, trying to keep up with Fen, walked out onto the beach towards the water.

"Don't let Fen get soaked!" Sarah shouted but her words were taken with the wind. "Come on." She said to Jane. They went back inside across the hall from their bedrooms to a smaller bedroom with two beds.

"We'll have to get the boys to bring the pack and plays up here." Sarah said, she peeked into the master bathroom which had a roomy tub, a separate shower and a wall length mirror in front of the sink counter, all done in shades of blue.

Sarah and Jane were back out to the car when Loki and Thor came back up the path directed by Fen. "Help mommy, daddy."

Loki handed over Madison and grabbed the first of the bags, Thor following suit as they trudged up the steps into the house.

"Wait a minute," Sarah said to Fen, handing him his backpack from the back seat, "You can help too."

Fen snatched his backpack from her hand and ran for the stairs, Sarah racing after him to steady him, Jane behind her with Olivia.

They were upstairs in the children's bedroom with the kids when Thor and Loki finally came upstairs, sweaty and panting,

"Is that all we have to bring in?" Thor asked Jane who looked around the room,

"The pack and plays on the roof? The girls need to sleep somewhere." Thor and Loki groaned pitifully and trudged back downstairs, Sarah and Jane trying to suppress their laughter until they were out of earshot.

"We're going somewhere to eat tonight right? We can make a simple lunch out of the meat and cheese we brought, then we can go to the store and grab some more groceries after we eat tonight." Jane asked Sarah as they walked into the kitchen and opened the cooler that Thor had left in the middle of the kitchen floor. Sarah pulled a loaf of bread and the deli meat out and sat them on the table in the dining room.

"Yeah that sounds good to me…only I don't know if they're going to feel much like eating," Sarah looked out the large glass windows at the boys fooling around down by the ocean. "Might as well feed the girls."

"It reminds me of home, brother." Thor sighed as they watched the waves rush the shoreline, Fen kneeling in the sand between them, digging with his hands, trying to pile the wet sand into a tower.

"Sarah says I'm beginning to look like I belong here on Earth, how horrible." Loki cast a glance back at the house as Thor appraised him,

"It is how they dress here on Midgard, always casual unless someone has gone to Valhalla or is to be wed, and not a chance of battle in sight either. It is not you, it is here." Loki held up a hand,

"We can pretend in the very least, at the store yesterday, I slipped a toy or two into the basket for Fen. They are soft swords, called Nerf or some other name. We can teach him to parry and thrust in the very least. I'll show you later." Thor grinned at Loki,

"Trickster."

Loki lay beside Sarah, panting, listening to her slow even breathing. He hadn't awakened her. He sat up on the edge of the bed and pulled on his pajama pants, stood up and walked to the glass doors on the other side of the bed. The full moon was out and it cast a bright white light across the water to the beach. He could see a couple walking down the sand, holding hands and he tried hard to recall the dream he had. He knew that he had been back in the realm of the Chitari, standing on the stone steps leading up to the dais where Thanos stood. He had looked down the steps into a black void, up the steps into eyes blazing with anger, he had stumbled back then when he heard the voice,

"You have grown weak, Asgardian.."

The voice had shaken him from sleep, but the voice from the bed brought him back to reality and safety.

"Loki, what's wrong?" He turned towards the bed to see Sarah, up on one elbow, pushing her hair from her face. "Nightmare?" She threw the covers off and stood up, a bit wobbly with sleep, walked over to him and put her arms around his neck.

"Come back to bed, my prince." She mumbled into his chest, nuzzling the light hair there. He rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head.

"Yes my lady, maybe tomorrow evening we can take a moonlight walk?" She glanced out the window at the moon,

"Okay, if you come to bed we will. Been a long day."

She walked back to the bed and flopped back down with a groan. Loki lay back down beside her and gathered her into his arms, she putting her arm over his waist, a contented sigh signaling her descent back into sleep, a path which Loki soon followed.