A/N: I know this is short and I am sorry, but I've been sick most of the day. If it's terrible, that's my excuse.

Part Ten

When their sons were young Odin had told Frigga she doted too often on them. Especially on Loki. "He'll grow to be weak," the Allfather had said, to which she would only smile and reply, "But he'll know he's loved." There had always been that implication, that quiet accusation, that Odin did not love his second son as much as his first. She never asked him why, if that would be the case, did he choose to bring Loki home with him? There were other good men in his army that would have taken the child and raised him well, but he had chosen to bring him to her and call him son. It didn't matter now, because the actions were in the past and Frigga would not change them for all the Nine Realms if it meant losing her youngest.

As they grew, Frigga had learned to let Thor run and tumble and play like the other boys. She might have let Loki as well, if he hadn't been so small. At first, height was not the problem, as the boy had shot up early to the point that they had thought their secret would be more difficult to keep, but he was thin and fragile looking. Then he had stopped growing and Thor had begun, leaving his baby brother looking not much more than a wispy shadow to tag along behind him. Frigga knew that perhaps she had allowed him to cry against her knee too many times, but she hadn't been able to help it. She needed him to know, above all else - above the need to be brave and strong and stout as the Aesir held so highly - that he was loved.

It had nearly killed Frigga to lose him. She still had nightmares of that night when Loki had fallen. Odin had broken it to her as only he could: stoically and with as little outward care for the death of his adopted son as he could muster. She had known it was a lie, on some level, but the moment he'd spoken of all of Loki's wrongs she had unleashed. "You've killed him," she had told him that night, beating her fists into his unyielding armor. "You've killed our son! You couldn't bare to give him what he needed, could you?" She had not spoken to him again until she'd found him and his green eyes had been hazed in blue and he had not been her son. Not for a long while after that yet.

The Allmother gave a small sniff, one tear escaping and she blinked the others back. She had found him, though, and she had welcomed him home even if the remnants of the Tesseract had left him with more questions than answers. He had even spoken to her, very briefly, of his time during what he called his year of exile and she hated anyone or anything that had tortured him so. If she had her way she would get her hands around the Jotun queen's neck and watch the life leave her eyes.

Loki stirred in the bed and his mother leaned over, fussing his hair back and placing a kiss against his forehead. Green eyes blinked blurrily open and finally came to focus on her. "Mother," he whispered the greeting.

Her face lit as she smiled. "Good morning, my dear," she answered back.

The dark haired prince winced as he tried to move. "How long - ?"

"A full day, though Rowen thought you'd sleep longer." She frowned as he continued to try to sit up and gently laid her hands against his shoulders. "Rest. Do you remember what happened?"

Loki closed his eyes again, his mother's hand moving to hold his. She was the only one he'd allow to fuss. Thor, at times, would get away with it, but Frigga never had to worry about a cross word from him on it. "I... Oh damn," he muttered, feeling the pain creep in. "I hate that bloody Destroyer."

"Your brother feels similarly," Frigga smiled.

A smirk quirked the trickster's lips. "He needn't be such a child about it. He set worse on me when we were younger."

She shook her head with an amused look in her eye. "He's only just stepped out for a few minutes to fetch some food."

"Have they found Gisla?"

A frown tugged at his mother's lips and she glanced toward the door, as if she expected it to burst open with some terrible monster on the other side of it. "No."

"She'd been using a cloaking spell of some kind," Loki murmured. "That's how she was moving through the palace undetected by either Father or Heimdall."

"When you're well enough, your father wishes to speak with you on what happened down in the vaults."

The second prince cringed at the thought. "It was not a well laid plan," he admitted softly. "It's not often that I'm caught in a corner such as that."

"She took what she was after," Frigga murmured. "The Casket of Winters is nowhere to be found."

"Ah," Loki breathed, perking a bit at this news and receiving a very strange look for the action. "She doesn't have it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I said it was a poorly laid out plan, I didn't say that it was not laid out at all," the trickster said with a smile. He lifted his hands and from the air he pulled the box, glowing blue and cold. He didn't let his fingers touch it as it hovered in the air between them, but even the proximity had tinged the very tips of his fingers blue.

Frigga let out a small huff of a laugh. "My clever one," she murmured affectionately, a name she had used for him when he was small. "This does change things."

"They can't stage a full attack without it," Loki agreed, putting it back into the invisible pocket that he'd pulled it from.

"Without what?" Thor asked from the door, his arms full of food from the kitchens. He was beaming at them, obviously thrilled to see his younger brother awake. "Hungry?"

"Not really," the younger prince replied with his nose slightly turned. He hadn't eaten since the few bites that he'd had at breakfast - was that two days ago now? - but whatever it was that Thor had stolen away from the soon to be furious kitchen lady did not look appetizing.

The thunderer shrugged and took a seat on the bed, remembering only after he saw the way his brother cringe and tense to be more gentle. "Sorry," he murmured, easing so his back was against the headboard and passed a small plate of food to their mother. He looked down at his brother, finding green eyes watching him just as intently. The smile had faded from the crown prince's face and he now simply stared, his own plate of food he set carefully in his lap. "You lied to me."

Loki couldn't help the small smile that perked his lips. "One would think you were used to it by now, brother, but to what are you referring?"

"You said you'd come to me when you knew what was happening, but instead you disappear without a word. You went at it on your own."

"I had meant to find proof to back up what Heimdall had seen."

"And you found it on Midgard? Those photographs..."

"Your friend Agent Coulson was surprisingly helpful in it. Gisla and her trail of monsters found me when I returned." He paused, realizing that his brother was still glaring. "Thor, are you truly cross with me? I was on my way when-"

"Leifr has placed the accusation that you have set this up. He's saying that you've had your hands in it the entire time and that the reason that you've helped set up the peace talks was to bring him here, just as you did Laufey."

"That's absurd," Loki managed, a determined look on his face as he pulled himself into the sitting position.

Thor shot him a withering look.

"You don't believe him, do you, brother?" the younger prince asked at last. "I have done many things, but this... I wouldn't risk destroying what I've been fighting so hard to get back." His brother said nothing and Loki could feel the rising panic. "I would not betray you in this way. I-"

"Peace," Thor said at last, a strained smile touching his lips and he reached a hand out to wrap around the back of the smaller god's neck. "I know."

The panic dissipated as quickly as it had come on and Loki thought he might topple over. Perhaps he did need more time to heal.

"We know it," Frigga offered in a soft voice, "and Odin knows it. I believe our allies know it as well, but we are in a delicate situation now, if it hasn't been from the beginning." Neither of her boys missed the glint in her eyes. "Though, I do believe that we have more than we though not an hour ago. Thor, fetch your father and those you trust the most."

"What do we have, Mother?" the blond prince asked, tilting his head to the side in question.

"Your clever brother has what the Frost Giants seek."

Loki's lips stretched widely in a smile. "And if their entire plan hinges on having it..."

Realization seemed to strike Thor suddenly. "You have the Casket of Winters!"

"Leifr thinks Gisla has it and Gisla could not possibly know where it's gone to for certain. This is our chance to find out exactly how honest our guests have been with us."

TBC

A/N: I love Frigga, I really, really do. She doesn't have a huge role in the first Thor movie (I'm worried about what her role is in the second...), but there are some fantastic panels in the two-shot comic that takes place between the movies where she uses her own magic to reach out and find him... just before he steps through the portal to attack Earth. He says something to the extent of "Now just isn't a good time, Mother," and steps through, but the absolute ache you can feel from her... It's beautiful. (And that sounds really twisted...) Anyway, yeah. All that to say that I'm a big fan of Frigga.