"Muh boy." Chris had his right arm around Loki's neck, the left arm, though some use had returned, hung loose at Loki's shoulder. "You shall trow yer back out."

He hefted Chris up on his back from the rear of the wagon, "Nonsense," He grunted, "You concentrate upon holding on to me." and started into the house.

When Loki had proposed that Chris and Sally come to stay with them, Chris had at first been violently opposed to it. "I would not burden you with muh care fer King George's crown and scepter."

However, a couple days later, when he and Fen had just finished doing chores at Chris's cottage and were standing in the common room with mugs of buttermilk, Chris had motioned Loki over to his seat by the fireplace and with tears in his eyes had told him he was ready to take him up on his offer.

"Son, I confess I can no longer watch muh belobed struggle with me ebery day. It pains me, though, to be taking Brenna's room. I would she were home instead."

Loki had reassured him that even were Brenna home, they would add on a room for he and Sally. Chris had wiped his eyes and put his hand on Loki's cheek, "Were we linked by blood, I could not love you more, muh son." Loki had looked away, his hand on Chris's shoulder. "It is settled then, we will make preparations."

It had taken not more than a day before they were ready to leave their home. Loki eased Chris into the rocking chair before the hearth, turned and took the trunk Sally and Helgi were trying to drag inside from the wagon. Eidra, having been relegated to the rocking chair opposite Chris. He caught her watching the others work and leaned forward, patting her knee. "Don't feel wounded, muh pet. Let him treat you like fine china for as long as you can."

Loki returned to the common room, having deposited the trunk in the bedchamber. "Now before I leave to fetch the livestock, do you want me to settle you in bed?"

Chris grimaced, "Tis barely noontime!" He smiled at Fen, "P'haps I'll play Noah to Fen's menagerie."

Loki put his hand on Fen's head before he could bolt for his wooden animals. "He has to come and help me before he may play." Fen's face fell as far as his shoulders but Chris whispered, "Later, lad, your father is right."

Before he left, Loki asked once more whether Chris would like to get into bed but he said he preferred to sit and regale the ladies with stories while they worked, a remark that had Sally rolling her eyes. Loki bent and kissed Eidra, Fen pulling on his sleeve, eager to be off.

Eidra gave a loud sigh as the door closed behind them. "What is it child?" Helgi pulled Eidra's hair back and stroked her cheek.

"Nothing, I am simply restless."

Helgi nodded, "Nesting, you feel like readying the house for the baby."

In truth, she wished desperately to be holed up in her chambers alone with her husband for an entire day. In her present state, intimacy had become a near impossibility and yet she craved it even more despite her discomfort. She wrapped her arms around her. A moon and a half was proving almost unbearable.

The thump on the bridge of her nose startled her awake. She lifted the book she'd been reading from her face. It was about the American Revolution and the writer seemed to have made every effort to make the subject sound excruciatingly dull. Sophie had said some books were good for doing just what this one had done, putting one to sleep. She sat the book down and picked up another one from the short stack beside her. "Irish Folktales" She had leafed through it that morning, finding some names that she recalled hearing her mother speak of in the past. She set it down after a few minutes as well, looking at the clock. It was nearly eleven in the evening. She picked up the next book in the pile. "World Mythology", and opened it at random to Roman Gods.

She started to read but again her eyelids began to droop. She readjusted her position and flipped a bit further back to the section on Greek Gods, glancing at the pictures of broken pottery, elaborate mosaics depicting Ares and Zeus. Then she flipped forward until an image caught her eye. She stared hard at it, recalling the last time she had seen the symbol in the halls of Asgard. Odin's symbol, the Valknut stood out in deep black ink, the words "Norse Gods" in bold gold letters above it. She sat up in the bed, turned the page and began to read.

Chase cracked one eye open and peered at the clock on his nightstand. "One freaking fifteen." he muttered rolling over on his side and pulling the covers closer to his chin. He was just on the edge of sleep when there came a knock on his door and he rose to his elbows as he realized the sound was what had woke him up in the first place. He listened as a voice on the other side whispered, "Chase, oh please wake up."

He nearly fell out of bed pulling on his pajama bottoms. He reached for the door handle, missed and tumbled forward against the door, grabbing for the handle again and flinging the door open. "Bren?"

Without waiting for an invitation, she strode into the room with a large book under her arm and she looked furious. "Uh what's..." She slammed the book on the bed, "Wrong..."

"I cannot believe it." She cried, "I simply cannot!"

Chase picked up the book from the bed, "Believe what?"

She snatched the book from his hands and flipped through it until she found what she had been looking for. She dropped the book back onto the bed and pointed with her finger to the page. Chase leaned over. "Loki." then looked up at Brenna.

"The lies they have written, the outrageous things they have said about my father! Do Midgardians truly believe this tripe?"

Chase took the book and turned it over to read the title on the cover. "Ah Brenna, I'm not too familiar with mythology."

She had started to pace back and forth and as he watched her, Chase thought to himself that in other circumstances, in her pajamas with her hair wild about her face she would have looked incredibly cute but he could see the fire in her eyes.

"Trickster, Liesmith, Silvertongue, and they called him a god, my father, my uncle, my grandfather? Gods?"

He continued to read.

"And it grows worse. They claim he is a frost giant, Jotun, I would know if he were such."

She had balled her hands into fists. "And the most horrible of all, claiming that he had multiple wives, freakish offspring, it makes me sick just to ponder such filth! My father is a prince. My uncle a king, my grandfather king before him."

She sat down hard on the bed, her hands covering her face.

"Uh Bren, I don't think, I mean mythology is ancient. We're talking thousands of years here. This can't be talking about your father really?"

Brenna looked up at him, "My father will only just see forty seasons this year, and they say some accounts have him as the blood brother of Odin. He is the son of Odin."

"Bren, babe," he sat down on the bed beside her hearing her sniffle loudly.

"I should have gone home, perhaps my father was right. How can Midgardians write such horrible things about a prince of the realm? I wish I could leave, travel to another realm, maybe Alfheim, or Vanaheim."

"Brenna, listen don't say that. What would I do without you to brighten my day?"

He put his arm around her and she lay her head on his shoulder, snaking her arm around his stomach as she cried. "I swear you would be the only reason I would stay. Well, for Brian and Sophie too, but that would be it."

"I wouldn't pay any attention, It's a book. Just ignore it."

"But if...everyone else...reads it. This cannot be the...only book on mythology..can it?"

He had only half listened to Brian. He had talked about Loki soon after he had come to see Brenna, but so infatuated with her was Chase, he had ignored him. He had expected, however, she would know everything about her own father. Now he was beginning to believe she only knew of one man and that was the man who had raised her for half of her life. She knew nothing of New York, of what he really was.

She had laid her head in his lap, her sobs slowing, diminishing as he stroked her hair until they finally stopped and Chase realized she had fallen asleep. "Bren?" He whispered, "Baby." but receiving no response, he sighed and lifted her head, pulling her up to the pillow where she shuddered and curled into a ball. He lifted the covers and put them over her, leaned over, kissed her cheek then walked over to the easy chair by the window and draped himself over the arms, staring at the ceiling for a long time until his thoughts finally let him fall asleep.

Brenna stretched as she woke, lay there with her eyes closed for a moment until she heard snoring and she sat up straight in bed. She was still in Chase's room! She could see him in the easy chair sprawled out, mouth open. She swung her legs out over the floor and groaned as she saw the clock. It was almost seven-thirty in the morning. She was supposed to be at the library by eight-fifteen. She would have to miss breakfast and she had no idea how she was going to get from Chase's room to hers in her pajamas without being seen.

She crept up to him and gently shook him by the shoulder receiving no response. She shook him again, harder, "Chase?" and their heads collided as he sat straight up. "Ow, gods!" Brenna cried, holding her head and stepping back.

"Oh baby I'm so sorry!" He twisted around and sat forward in the chair, grabbing her face in his hands.

"Why did you let me sleep here all night?"

Chase patted her cheek, "You were so upset and you fell asleep in my lap so I didn't want to wake you. I figured if you were comfortable enough to relax, I wasn't going to kick you back to your room. It's okay, I was fine in the chair."

"It is not really okay. I am still in my evening wear and I need clothes to wear to class. Can you see me walking into the library dressed like this?"

Chase looked her over. "I don't know, have you seen what some of the students are wearing these days?"

"Chase!"

He stood and held his hands up in the air, "Alright, I'll get dressed, go to your room, get you clothes and bring them back here."

"Will you? Oh I would be forever in your debt!"

Chase took both her hands and kissed them in turn, "Call me a fool for love."

Brenna smiled at him, thinking that just maybe she was beginning to understand the look of devotion that her father and mother always shared when they thought no one else was looking.

"Then we are two of a kind."

Chase peered up and down the hallway, satisfied that it was deserted and slipped into Brenna's room. She had asked him to get her long gray knit dress, her flats and her backpack and all the way to her room, he kept repeating the list to himself. He found the dress and flats in the wardrobe beside the dresser, folded the dress, shoved it into the backpack, opting to carry the flats in his hand, and cracked open the door. He poked his head out, again making sure the hallway was clear, which it appeared to be. He headed back the way he'd come then, unaware of the figure who had just entered the corridor behind him and who now stood, tail twitching as Chase sprinted up the stairs to the boys dormitory floor.

Logan had sprawled on a couch in the library, reading the morning paper as Kurt rambled on. "I mean vat must ve do? Lock der doors each evening? Post hall monitors?"

Logan glanced over the edge of the paper, watching Kurt's tail whip back and forth. "Are you sure you aint' part cat?"

"You haven't heard a vord I have said, have you."

Logan rolled his eyes as he returned to his paper, "I've heard ya, honest I have. I just think that maybe you're getting' too worked up about somethin' you assume has happened."

The front of the paper crumpled before his eyes down to his chest along with Kurt's hand.

"Hey, I'm trying ta read here!"

"Ve are all responsible for der wunderkinder here and das includes all aspects." Kurt dropped into an easy chair, hand across his eyes. "Vich leaves me to question der girl because I have a moral obligation to do so. Ach! Why me?"

Logan had sat up and was trying to refold the paper in his lap. "Look, tell me how old you were when you first did the nasty."

Kurt peeked between his fingers, "I do not recall."

"Bullshit, everyone remembers their first time." Logan put his foot out and kicked at Kurt's leg.

Kurt whipped his tail at Logan's retreating boot and groaned, "I vas fifteen." He put his hand down, "But I am a man. Boys mature differently dan girls."

"Naw they just take more time. Boys are born ready."

Kurt sat up, "But dey are not der ones ve must worry about."

Logan tilted his head, "Ah yeah, they're not the ones who bring home the little bambinos. Well I guess you now have a new subject to teach."

Kurt glared at him, waiting for his remark.

"Sex ed."

"Does der phrase "kiss my ass" mean anything to you?", Kurt growled as the library door opened and Brenna rushed smiled at her as she found a seat at a nearby table and she nodded to him.

"Well I'm off to my self defense class." Logan gestured to Brenna. "When ya gonna sign up kiddo? Ya can't be too careful around the boys these days, gotta be ready to kick some kiester."

Brenna turned bright red, "I shall consider signing up next term, sir."

"I'll look for ya. Kurt, have a nice day." He chuckled as he caught Kurt's golden glare.

Brenna was drawing her books from her backpack when Kurt sat down across the table from her.

"Good morning, Professor Wagner."

"Guten morgen, Brenna. May I see your worksheet on FDR and the New Deal?"

She opened her folder and handed the sheets to him and he leaned back in the chair for a minute, looking them over then leaned forward and put them on the table, taking a pen from his pocket. The silence in the library hung with an air of expectancy as the minutes ticked by. "Very good, Brenna. Vas it hard to grasp?" He slid the paper back to her.

"No, sir."

"Gut."

Brenna was suddenly aware that something was wrong, "Professor, am I in trouble?"

Kurt massaged the bridge of his nose, his eyes closed, "Define trouble."

Brenna thought it an odd request, nevertheless she began, "Trouble, a deviation from the..."

"Ach! No, no, I vas being facetious, Mein Gott!"

Brenna sat back, folding her hands on the table. "I am sorry, I did not ken..."

Kurt put his hand atop hers and his tone softened, "It is not your fault, lieb. I should clarify. I observed Chase leaving your dorm room this morning carrying your backpack and your shoes as he headed upstairs to the boys dorm floor. In der interest of safety, I must ask, did you spend der night in Chase's room?"

Brenna bit her lip, "Yes, sir."

Kurt shook his head, "Brenna, vat can I say. Das is a violation of dorm policy..."

"I know, I did not mean to fall asleep, I..." She had been about to tell him she'd been upset but such was her embarrassment that she choked, "We were talking and I just..."

Kurt patted her hand. "You are much too young for," He paused, sighed, "A physical relationship. Has anyone talked to you about birth control?"

All at once, she knew what he was implying, "Professor Wagner, surely you do not believe I have engaged in carnal relations with Chase?"

"Vell I.."

"Of course you do. I have been so careless. What would it have looked like had I been in your position. I promise you I only visited Chase because I wished to speak to him and fell asleep while doing so! He did not wish to wake me and so slept in his chair. I am so mortified, please.."

"Brenna," Kurt squeezed her hands, "Child, calm yourself. I believe you, I vas only going by vat I saw and I felt it vas my duty to voice my concern."

Brenna nodded, "I ken. I assure you Chase behaved admirably." I would not want to shame my family by acting irresponsibly."

It was a moment before Kurt took in what she was saying.

"Sir?"

Kurt smiled, patted her hand once more and let go. "I must tell you, you are an anomaly as far as teenagers go."

"Is that a good thing?"

Kurt laughed, "Ja, it is, and you may call me Kurt while we are here. Tell no one, hah?"

Brenna smiled.

The rest of the class with Kurt was business as usual but when she had reached Nala's math class, her mind had returned to the subject matter of the night before.

Nala watched Brenna work her fraction problems on the smart board, "You know, I think you might be ready for a math class with students. Would you like that?"

"I suppose."

Nala looked at Brenna, "Are you okay, Bren?"

Brenna had purposely kept her gaze elsewhere for as long as possible when she'd arrived at class. She could not bear to look at Nala, every time she did so. She could only see her father in her mind, blue, the strange tattoos covering his face. She rubbed her eyes as if she could wash away the image in her head.

"Mrs. Harding. I do not feel well." She sat down the chair at her desk. "May I be excused?"

"Do you need to see the nurse?" Nala noted how pale Brenna looked.

"No, ma'am. I did not sleep well last night."

Nala opened the folder before her. "Alright, I suggest you get to bed early tonight. Try to catch up. I'll talk to Ororo about integrating you into the math class next week. I want you to do pages one twenty to one twenty-four in the workbook. Go ahead."

She thanked Nala, gathered her things and headed for her room where she lie face down on the bed trying to clear her mind. In minutes she was asleep.