Author's Notes: After being absent for a little over a month I have posted a new chapter. Thank you for your patience! As always, if you like it or want to offer me some constructive criticism that you think can help me make this story better please feel free to leave a review!
Pamela sat at the dining room table coloring in a book Lawrence had helped her pick out during one of their outings. It was a book full of fairies and flowers. The picture she had been coloring with much care was of a beautiful princess and above her was a label that read in pretty twisty letters, "The Princess of Winter." She had long hair that rested over her shoulders and a long thin magical wand that cast ice over autumn leaves that were falling from the trees. Pamela had wanted to color her for a while, but she preferred coloring each picture in order. She colored each picture with care, however, not wanting to rush through any of them just to get to Princess Winter. She liked all the fairies and flowers in the book and she wanted to be fair with all of them, but she was delighted to finally get to her favorite picture in the book. She gave her black hair and green eyes like her own and chose the "golden rod" crayon to color in the skin. She was about midway through when she heard the doorbell ring. It startled her making her jump slightly in her seat. "Pam, honey," her mother called from the other room, "Can you peek out the window and see who that is?"
Pamela hoped that it was Lawrence. She really wanted to show him all of the pictures she had colored. She imagined the smile on his face when he saw how good she was at it. She got up from her chair and pushed the curtains of the window behind her to peek outside. It wasn't Lawrence. Instead it was a blonde man she had never seen before. There was something different about him that she just couldn't figure out. He was very handsome and he was dressed kind of funny in what looked like a suit of armor and a red cape. He kind of looked like a prince from a fairy tale. Without another thought Pamela left the dining room and headed for the front door. "Who is it?" her mother asked.
"It's a prince, Mommy!" she said excitedly as she twisted the knob.
"Pamela! Wait! Don't ans—"
But Pamela had already pulled open the door. The prince was even more handsome up close and she couldn't help but smile at him. He looked a little surprised to see her. She could tell that even though he looked big and strong that he was a little bit uneasy, but it didn't take long for his face to soften. "Young one," he said gently, "is your mother home?"
Something about the way he looked and spoke to her seemed strange. She knew that she didn't know this man, but it almost seemed like he knew her. The warmth of his smile made her feel like they had met many times before. Her thoughts were soon interrupted by the sounds of her mother's footsteps approaching her. "Pamela," she said in a scolding tone, "What did I tell you about answering the door without—"
Pamela turned to see why her mother stopped talking to see her standing behind her and looking at the prince instead of her. She looked as if the Winter Princess in her book had just tapped her on the head with her wand. She looked frozen in place as she stared at him. For a moment, the three of them stood in silence, and Pamela began to worry if she was in trouble and what kind of trouble she may have been in. She knew she was not supposed to answer the door without her mother telling her it was okay, but she never did until now. She just could not contain her excitement about seeing a prince at their door, but if she knew that her mother would have acted like this she would have happily waited for her to answer the door.
"Pamela, sweetie," her mother said finally breaking the silence, "I need you to go up to your room. This man is an old friend of mine and I need to talk about some important things with him."
"Do I have to?" Pamela said. She really wanted to know who the prince was and where he came from.
"Yes, honey," she said, "I'll explain everything in good time."
Pamela let out a sigh but did as her mother said.
"She resembles him in more ways than I expected," Thor said once Pamela was out of hearing range. Veronica nodded solemnly. "Have they reached a verdict yet in regards to her meeting him?" Veronica asked.
"Everyone is approaching this matter with great care," he explained, "The Asgardians and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents of Earth are in the process of determining what is best for Pamela. They are trying to conclude if it is best for Pamela to visit Loki in Asgard or if it would be better if Loki came back to Earth to visit her under close watch. There are risks associated with both options."
"I understand," Veronica said, but all she could think was that there would be no risk at all if Pamela was simply not required to meet him at all.
"I'm here because I believe it would be just if you, her mother, had a voice in the final decision," he said.
Veronica almost felt as if a large weight of worry had been lifted off of her shoulders. For a while she had been wondering if anyone was going to ask her for her opinion at all. "Thank you," she said before taking a few moments to ponder the best option. She did not want Pamela going to Asgard. She had barely seen the world outside of the base, and she felt like it would be too much for her daughter to be introduced to a completely new world. At the same time, however, she knew she would be risking the safety of everyone if Loki were to return to Earth, but she would do anything to allow her daughter feel at least a little bit of normalcy.
"I would prefer it if he came to us," Veronica said finally, "and I know both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the people of Asgard feel, for whatever reason, that I should have little say in the decision, but could you at least tell them a condition that I would prefer to be met?"
"I will tell them your condition," he said, "but I cannot promise that it will be considered."
"That's fine," Veronica said, "I just want to speak my piece in whatever way I can."
Thor gave her a nod before she continued. "I don't want Loki to tell her that he is her father," she said, "I want to be the one to tell her, and I want to do it when I feel we are both ready for the truth."
Pamela was halfway finished coloring the Winter Princess's face when her mother walked into her room and sat next to her on the bed. "Mommy," Pamela said, "Who was that man?"
Her mother let out a sigh and lifted her daughter into her lap. "He's an old good friend of Mommy's," she explained.
"Is he a prince?" Pamela asked, "Why was he dressed so funny?"
She heard her mother let out a light chuckle before answering her. "He's something like a prince, I guess," she said, "and he was dressed that way because he comes from a far away place."
"Oh…well, where does he come from?"
She felt her mother's warmth as she gently tightened her arms around her. She felt like she could just take a nap right there in her mother's lap. "Honey, I need to tell you something," she said.
Pamela leaned against her mother as if she were a soft pillow. "What is it?"
"You might be meeting someone very soon that I used to call a friend," she explained.
"What do you mean?" Pamela asked, "Is he another prince?"
"Kind of, sweetie."
"When do I get to meet him?"
"Soon," her mother replied, "but when you do I want you to be on your best behavior. Also, I want to tell you that he is a funny friend. He's a bit of a trouble maker, so if he starts to talk about stuff that doesn't seem to make sense I want you to change the subject. Can you do that for me?"
Pamela nodded and she felt her mother's soft warm lips press gently against the top of her head. "That's my girl," she said, "I'll call you when lunch is ready."
Pamela could hardly contain her excitement when her mother left her room. She was so occupied with the fact that she had actually met a prince and that she would soon meet another one that she accidentally picked up a blue crayon that she had used to color the snow around the Winter Princess to finish coloring in her face. She looked sadly at the fairy realizing that she had given her a face that was half made out of snow.
