Thanks to Maia2, Marvel-Tolkien Fangirl, Bombshell1701, Myth Princess, youmeandlokid, ArainaHaldthin, thestralrider, Tsukiau, Dazja, Evilcupcake696, kakashidiot, Tiana Wulf, livelaughlove, addicted2sasunaru, Smiley, Punish-The-Guilty, Vamp-Fledging, no-MY name's Anonymous, SoulMore, SETO-KAIBA-LIFE, Yaraslava Rada, TimeLady945, SelfishMustache, T. Alana M, and Hiddleslover for their reviews.

...

"Stark's not going to be happy when he sees that wall."

Clint drew back his bowstring and let another arrow fly. It had been a few days since the surgery, and in that time his nightmares had gotten substantially worse. There was nothing he could do, but imagining that he was shooting Loki in the face helped a little bit. "There's a fly over there."

Natasha turned on a treadmill behind him and began to jog. "Not even you can see that good, Barton."

"Sure I can."

Natasha made a noncommittal noise in her throat. "Is your sudden hatred of walls because Banner thinks that it's a safe bet that Loki will survive now?" she asked coolly.

Clint lowered his bow and looked at her. "He does?"

"Yep."

"I didn't know that. Thor must be happy."

"He's relieved. Loki's going to have a long road to recovery, though. And really, anything could happen. Something unexpected, something that Banner missed... it could easily kill him."

Clint studied her for a moment. She stared straight ahead, her red curls bouncing as she jogged in place. He shot another arrow at the imaginary fly on the wall. "Are you suggesting that we kill him, or warning me not to?"

"Jarvis would know if you did anything. Right, Jay?"

-Of course.-

Clint smirked bitterly. The fact that he had figured out how to bypass the virtual butler's safety protocols when it came to Loki did make him feel guilty. But Loki was the one who needed to be stopped, before he could hurt anybody else. "I already promised not to kill him without an excuse, Tasha. And when I do it, I'm going to make sure that Thor can't blame Banner and end up with a giant thunder-vs-Hulk battle levelling New York City."

"When?"

"He'll make a mistake eventually, and I'll be ready when he does."

Natasha stopped the treadmill and looked at him for a moment. "You haven't been talking to me again."

"I went and saw that shrink that Rogers suggested."

"You told me that the man was useless. You could have told me that the reason he was a 'gibbering fool' was because you threatened to render him unable to have children in the future."

Clint winced. "You talked with Fury?"

Natasha shook her head in disappointment. "I thought you were starting to do better, Clint."

Clint fired another arrow. "I'm fine."

"Then why did you lie to me? Why are you avoiding me?"

"When did I lie to you?"

"You told me that your nightmares were getting better."

"I don't want you to worry."

"No, you don't want my help."

Clint looked sharply at her. "What do you mean by that?"

"Every time we talk and you start to let go of that hate that's festering in your heart, you immediately take off and convince yourself that Loki deserves nothing more than-"

"He does." Clint inhaled deeply. "Every time we talk, I go to sleep that night and my nightmares are worse. The things I do to you are worse."

"And so that makes you want to do this to me in real life?"

Clint winced. "I-"

Natasha waited for a moment for him to continue and then shook her head again. "Just talk to me, Clint. That's all I want."

Clint stared at the far wall. If he connected the dots formed by the arrows he put in the wall, he could draw a picture of a face. Whose, he didn't know. He sighed and headed over to retrieve the arrows. "I guess Stark's not going to be happy when he sees this, is he? Maybe I should get a great big poster of him to hide the holes with. It's a sure bet he'll never take it down."

"Pepper might."

"Maybe I'll put a posture of the two of them up then."

-There is no need, Agent Barton. I'll have a repair crew fix it.-

"Thanks, Jarvis."

-You're welcome. Just don't do it again.-

Clint pulled the arrows from the wall and turned to Natasha. He wanted to talk to her as much as he didn't want to talk to her. But not talking was easier. "I'm going to go for a swim to gather my thoughts. We can talk later, I promise," he lied.

Natasha studied him for a moment and then nodded. "But we do have to talk."

"Sure thing," Clint muttered, heading off.

#

Loki was certain that death couldn't hurt this much. The pain was the first thing he became aware of, even before consciousness. Every breath he took sent pain scurrying down his spine, and when he winced because of it, it grew worse. It didn't hurt as much as the Valdkvikindi, but-

Loki's eyes snapped open, remembering the Chitauri, the Other, the Valdkvikindi. He remembered the Avengers holding him down while Banner cut him open. He remembered the agony searing through him and Romanoff blocking off his airways to put him to sleep. He gasped, ignoring the pain. It had worked. The Valdkvikindi was gone; he could feel that it was gone.

Suddenly Loki became aware that something was moving on his back. Instantly images rushed back to him, the Valdkvikindi's probing mouth; the laughter of the Other. He jerked away, crying out in pain and fear when his spine protested. He could feel straps pressing in on him. He was trapped!

"Whoa, I'm just checking the bandages," Banner's voice came, soothingly, and the movement on Loki's back ceased. "It's okay, it's okay."

Loki's breathing calmed somewhat. He grew still and wet his lips but didn't know what to say. As he calmed, he became more aware of his surroundings. He wasn't cold, but nor was he particularly warm. He was lying on his side on an uncomfortable bed of some sort, facing a wall that looked familiar. He realised suddenly that he was in the room that he had lived in before his escape from Stark tower.

Interesting, he thought, but he couldn't quite figure out what was so interesting about it.

"Everything looks okay," Banner sighed after a moment, and Loki felt him pull something –blankets – up over him. He twitched again, and then a large hand patted the back of his head in a soothing manner.

"If it's all the same to you, stop petting my head," Loki said archly.

The hand withdrew. "You're awake?"

"Either that or I have decided to carry on a conversation in my sleep."

Banner chuckled, walking around the bed to sit on a chair. The man looked huge, much bigger than when Loki had seen him before. The doctor looked uncertain. "How do you feel?"

Loki was about to respond sarcastically, but then he stopped. This man had saved his life after all. Saved him from a fate worse than death. "Not good," he replied truthfully, "but not as bad as it was. Might I sit up?"

"I'm not sure that's a great idea. There was a lot of damage to your spine."

Loki felt cold fear slide into the pit of his stomach. "What happened?"

"Well..." Banner trailed off. He then sighed, and reached over to remove the straps holding Loki in place. "I'm going to help you sit up, but you have to be careful. Hold onto my arm."

Loki complied as Banner shifted him into a sitting position, looking in alarm at how thin and small his own arms were compared with Banner's. He looked quickly at the doctor, wincing when his sudden movement sent a shock of pain through him. Banner didn't react, his brown eyes cool he adjusted the pillows around him.

"Well then," Loki said once he was sitting.

He let his breath out slowly to try to ease the pain from moving. Various contraptions were around him, and he was alarmed to see an IV drip inserted into his arm. He grabbed at it, half yanking it from his arm. Banner responded by grabbing his arm to stop him, which jostled him. Pain flashed through him and he let out a short scream.

"Whoa!" Banner exclaimed. "What are you doing? Okay, this was a bad idea."

"Take it out," Loki demanded.

"What?"

"The IV. Take it out."

"It's just-"

"No drugs."

Banner's brows creased. "But-"

"No drugs!" Loki said, louder this time. He made another move to rip the IV from his arm. Blood dribbled down his arm.

"It's just a saline drip. I wasn't sure what sort of effect painkillers would have on your system and I didn't want to risk messing things up more," Banner explained, keeping a firm grip on Loki's arms. "Calm down or you're going to injure yourself even worse."

"A saline drip?"

"We had to keep you hydrated somehow."

Loki searched Banner's face and then nodded slowly. "All right. If that's all it is, then it can stay." He relaxed slightly. "How long have I been unconscious?"

"A few days."

"My face hurts."

"Not surprising, given the state of the inside your cheek. It's like hamburger," Banner muttered, fixing the IV back into Loki's arm and pressing gauze against the spot. "I've had a hard time keeping it from getting infected."

Loki ran his tongue over the raw flesh of his inner cheek, and then looked back at Banner. "You said that there was a lot of damage to my spine."

Banner nodded, and then looked away as if he didn't know how to proceed. "We got the Valdkvikindi out of you, but we... I made a mistake. Its skin got caught on one of your vertebrae and tore."

Loki's stomach dropped. He blanched, eyes widening in fear.

"Thor had to burn out the spores," Banner continued, and stopped to gauge Loki's reaction. "I'm sorry."

Loki's eyes narrowed. Sorry? He had nearly destroyed his man's home and now he was receiving an apology for a mistake that Banner was bound to make... the man wasn't an Asgardian healer, after all! Loki drew in a deep shuddering breath, not knowing how to respond. I'm sorry.

"But it's gone?"

Banner nodded. "It's gone. It took a lot of your magic to keep you alive. Thor gave you what he could-"

"What?"

"Thor transferred his magic to you.

Loki's confusion mounted. "Thor gave me magic? Is that possible?"

It was Banner's turn to look confused. "He said that's what you were trying to tell him to do."

"I did?"

Banner shrugged. "He thought you were trying to say 'magic', after he... put out the fire."

Loki frowned, and cast his mind back to the pain. It made him cringe just thinking of it. Why would he be talking about magic? It had always been his understanding that only highly trained healers could pass their own magic to another individual. As for Thor, Loki sometimes doubted that he had a magical bone in his body. So then why...

"Oh."

"'Oh' what?" Banner asked.

"Nothing," Loki replied quickly. He looked down at his blanket-covered toes. He hadn't been trying to say magic. He had been trying to say Mother.

"Anyway, Thor's magic helped you heal – a lot – but it was touch and go for a while there. We weren't sure that you'd live."

Loki was silent for a long moment. Eventually he looked at Banner, and noticed very suddenly how old and tired he looked. His dark hair was greying and the wrinkles around his eyes were deep. Mortals. They withered so quickly.

Loki adverted his gaze again. "So how old am I now? That much magic... will have taken its toll."

Banner smirked. "Two, maybe. You were shrinking pretty fast after the surgery, but it looks like you've stabilized."

"Two?" Loki looked down at himself and let out a disgruntled sigh. Then he noticed that the area around his lower regions seemed... bulkier than normal. His eyebrows shot up and struggling to contain himself, he looked back at Banner. "Am I wearing a diaper?"

"It was necessary," the doctor replied apologetically.

Loki groaned as he realized what that meant. "I should have died."

"Really?" Banner's voice was soft, and it surprised Loki that there was no mocking tone in it. "Do you really think that you should have died?"

Loki didn't respond. He looked down at his toes again. "Where is Thor?"

"He's on the roof," Banner replied vaguely. "He wouldn't leave your side until he was certain that you'd live, but he seemed to think that you wouldn't want him to be around when you woke up."

Loki didn't respond to that. Truth was, he was glad to hear that Thor had stayed by his side, and also glad that he wasn't there now. He wanted his brother- but Thor wasn't his brother anymore. They may have been raised as brothers, but how could the prince of Asgard be a brother to the son of Jotunhiem's king?

Considering everything that Loki had done, he couldn't understand why Thor hadn't just killed him. It would have been easier for them all. Sentiment? It had to be. Loki pushed aside his confused feelings and concentrated on what he could see before him, the toes under the blankets.

"You said that the Valdkvikindi's spores had to be burned out of me? Will I..." Loki trailed off, struggling to keep his two-year-old voice from trembling. He swallowed. "Will I be able to walk again?"

"Signs have been positive, but I'm no expert in Asgardian physiology-"

"And even if you were, it wouldn't do you much good. I'm not Asgardian. I'm Jötunn."

Banner raised an eyebrow at Loki's bitter correction. "Can you move your toes?"

"I don't know. There's too many blankets; I can't see my toes."

"I am trying to help, you know," Banner replied conversationally. "And I did save your life. You could try not being so angry."

Anger is all I have left, Loki thought, but didn't say it aloud.

Banner lifted the blankets off Loki's toes. Then he looked back to the little demigod with an expectant expression. Loki took a deep breath, staring at his feet. He was almost afraid to try. If he couldn't move them... if his spine had suffered too much damage, and his magic hadn't been able to heal him...

Loki tried to wiggle his toes. The pain in his spine made him gasp with the effort, and he felt tears spring to eyes. He gritted his teeth and kept sending the command. Slowly, as though in delayed reaction, his toes curled over. He couldn't stop the soft cry of relief from escaping his lips. He uncurled his toes and curled them again, ignoring the pain.

"Good," Banner said encouragingly, "but don't push it. I'd better go let the others know that you're awake."

"That may not be the case for much longer," Loki warned. Even though he had just woken up, he felt exhausted again and the pain in his back was getting too much to bear. Banner nodded and began to turn him back over to lay him on his side.

"Does it hurt?" Loki asked suddenly.

"Does what hurt?" Banner asked, positioning the demigod so that he was lying comfortably.

"When you turn into the bea- the hul-" What was the phrase the doctor used? "The 'other guy'?"

"Not as much as it used to," Banner replied eventually, beginning to strap Loki down again.

"Are those really necessary?" Loki complained, disgruntled. "It's not like I'm going to be running away again."

"You were thrashing around quite a bit before. Nightmares, I suppose. It's a precaution for your own safety."

Ah. "Very well."

"I'll be back soon," Banner told him, but Loki didn't acknowledge him or even care. He closed his eyes and breathed, but even that hurt. He was alive. And he didn't know what to think about that.

...

Reviewers get one of Clint's arrows.