(A/N: Did I do better this time? Didn't make you wait too long, I hope. Now, as all of you know by now, I am very attached to this story, I haven't the slightest how long it is going to keep going, but I want to say that I won't be ending it very soon. There is a heck of a lot more for me to cover than I even began to realize when I started writing this puppy. I am now going to state that this is, Thor/Loki, Tony/Bruce, Clint/Natasha, and officially Phil/Steve/Logan because I just couldn't let that thought go. There is, obviously, mpreg, and Loki's children are around. Also, if you find stem cell research to be unappealing, then step off the ride here. With that being said, on with the show!)

Hands in Mine

Part 8

Logan stood leaning in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared at the mess that had consumed the main living area of the tower. There was no way that he was going to be tricked into cleaning up such a mess, no matter how adorable those kids were. Like a family of wolves, Loki and his children were snuggled together, sleeping in a wide patch of sunlight on the carpet. Several throws and pillows had been stolen from the couch and converted into a nest. Each child rested their head on their father, some tucking small hands against Loki's swollen stomach.

Sniffing the air, Logan was able to determine that lunch had been consumed though the dishes were not visible, he was almost certain that they hadn't been returned to the kitchen. There were crayons and colored pencils, markers and pastels strewn about the floor, some ground into the carpet mercilessly. Torn scraps of paper and singed pages of coloring books littered the floor as well, though from the smell of it, none of the carpet itself had been burnt. Four months pregnant with twins, it was shocking that Loki managed the energy to have the rambunctious children all to himself. Though, he considered carefully, some of the god's magic could have been used to put the children to sleep.

"What have they done to my house?" Tony asked, coming up behind Logan, shirtless with a towel draped across his shoulders. He had just gotten the snot beaten out of him in the training room by a very angry, very green version of Bruce Banner, Logan had watched in silent amusement. There wasn't much left of Tony's original plans for armor that could withstand the Hulk, as extensive testing had been conducted, and a number of improvements made.

"What haven't they done to it?" Logan responded, digging his elbow into Tony's ribs slightly in a good-natured way. Tony sighed dramatically but quietly, not wanting to disturb the sleeping family. Thor was gone, out with Steve, Clint, and Natasha dealing with a situation gleaned from listening in on SHIELD frequencies. It hadn't required all of them, but Steve had insisted that certain skill sets were required. Tony didn't even have an idea as to what was going on, but he knew that Iron Man hadn't been needed.

Hela's tiny feet were stretched out, toes touching the boundaries of the sunny patch, one small hand fisted in Fenrir's hair, the other pressing against the warmth of her father's stomach. She was the only one that had managed to lose her blankets and it was Logan that moved in silently to pull them back over the small girl. All of them had a great affection for the children that had made such a mess of their home; some just showed it more easily than others. It was not surprising that they loved the children, just like all of them were entirely unopposed to giving Loki the comfort that he always seemed to need. People as busy dealing with some of the worst violence the super villains of the universe had to offer, needed someone to cuddle.

Tony gestured silently for Logan to follow him, giving up the living room as lost for the time and heading into the kitchen. As they moved Logan caught sight of Bruce, fully human and dressed in athletic cool down clothes, he motioned for the other man to follow and to keep quiet. Bruce was getting better and better at shifting between himself and the Hulk, and as he did so, the toll taken on his body seemed to be less and less. Though, it probably had something to do with the fact that Tony had actually been making Bruce think about ways to help his body cope with the transformations. The other scientist had likely shrugged it off as unnecessary.

"I think that they are definitely Thor's children," Bruce commented, smiling lightly and accepting the bottle of Gatorade that Tony handed him and leaning back against the counter. Logan grinned lopsidedly and tilted his head toward the living room.

"Those two are lucky to have extra hands in the parenting department. I wonder sometimes, if Erik and Charles were able to do what Thor and Loki do, who else but a group of super heroes would be able to deal with the outcome," Logan said and raised an eyebrow at the way Tony's hand pressed against his stomach, a curious prodding motion that ceased once he noticed Wolverine's eyes. The billionaire blushed scarlet, perhaps one of the few times that he had ever done so in his entire life, and he would certainly deny it later if confronted about it.

"I have been working on that, along with Bruce here. We seem to have an awful lot of Avengers and other hero types that are in situation we are, and I figure that needs something done to fix things. Not all of us are ready to be parents, or even want to, but all of us deserve the chance," Tony said calmly and Logan's eyebrows vanished beneath his hairline as they shot up in shock. He shouldn't be surprised that Tony Stark was thinking about fighting God and altering nature, but it was shocking to hear the unselfish reasoning behind the choice. Bruce was smiling between drinks of Gatorade, a distant dreamy look in his eyes.

"That…it would be amazing. How on earth are you planning to accomplish it?" Logan asked, nearly too startled to process the reality of what had been floated before him. Briefly his thoughts drifted to Steve and Phil, he wondered if the news would change how either of them saw him, or their own relationship, which had been almost hesitant by average standards.

"When we are conceived we all have the potential to be male or female. The final decision on gender is genetically unchangeable. But with stem cells, programmed to grow certain organs, we can ignore our own genetic predisposition toward gender. In theory, and it is only a theory, we could give men the capacity to carry a child through artificial insemination, combining genetic material of both partners in a pre-existing egg cell. We can give women the option for one to be the carrier and the other to provide genetic material by converting an egg cell into a sperm cell. Or, the option that we are considering is to convert one ovary into an internal testicular gland and again use artificial insemination. The possibilities are endless, and I have the money to dump into research, so why not?" the inventor said and Logan was slightly slack-jawed at the amount of work that would have to be done while Bruce was starry-eyed with possibilities.

"You considered this from a unique viewpoint, I suppose, having the benefit of seeing Loki's body handle a pregnancy. But, how could you ever make this something that normal people could have?" Logan questioned and Tony smiled softly, his hand once again resting against his abdomen, his undisclosed research test already underway.

"I will not allow drug companies or the feds to ramp up the costs of something to which I own the patent. I have kept the prices of my green energy devices low and competitive, and back when I made weapons, I imposed a steep enough fee on them that it made people consider whether or not to use them. You might forget, I am Tony Stark, and Pepper Potts works with me, not the government, and not the drug companies, so what I say goes," Tony said, a victorious grin on his lips.

The conversation drew to an end however, when a large crash sounded from the living room and Jörmungandr howled in laughter.

(A/N: See? Less of a wait this time around! I hope that you all liked it. Leave me a review if you don't mind. I have the story set up to go two ways, one with Tony's experiment working, and another with it failing. So, for the first time that I can recall, I am taking a vote on my fic. Leave your votes in a review. I will tally them and pick the story line that won. As both are already in the writing process, I don't want anyone to complain that I only listened to my fans. I just can't keep both, you know?)