"There's fish, cheese or chicken." A sultry voice suddenly jolted him out of his reverie somewhere from behind him, before a tray filled with various dishes and a goblet of ice-cold water appeared at his elbow. "Don't know what you like so I got a bit of everything."

Stephen looked up in surprise.

The Valkyrie's nose flared slightly and as if an afterthought, she added hastily, "King's Orders."

Stephen looked at the offering, feeling strangely dissociated. For the life of him, he could not muster the tiniest sliver of appetite, despite the hours that must have passed. He could not even remember what his last meal was.

She shrugged. "You haven't had anything to eat in almost a day. Can't have the good doctor collapsing on us now, can we."

"Thanks." Stephen muttered.

He ignored her and continued to watch Loki as he slept.

The Valkyrie walked over to the opposite side of the bed and stood behind the chair Thor had previously sat in. She looked tired and haggard. It showed in her voice.

"I'm still pissed off at you, you know."

"Duly noted, Madam." Stephen too, was too exhausted beyond measure to argue. "I don't know what I can possibly say to endear you to me, and frankly, I don't care." He inhaled deeply as if bracing himself, "Just so long as you look after him and my baby in my stead when I'm not here."

"Thinking of going somewhere?"

Stephen did not answer. He could not stop thinking of Mordo's body, fast losing heat in the mortuary. But he also knew there was no way he was going to leave Loki, not when he needed him most. "You ever wish you could be in two places at one time?"

"Oh yes. Last time I wished that was two days ago when your rogue sorcerer was fighting me one second and abducted the Prince of Asgard the next and nearly magicked His Highness dead." Valkyrie said flatly, "That's why I hate magic."

"Look, Lady," Stephen sighed. "I'm sorry, alright? I don't know if it makes any difference one way or another but yeah. There you have it."

The frosty silence was interrupted by a soft, mechanical beeping sound.

Valkyrie watched as Stephen leaned over Loki's sleeping form to tinker with the intravenous drug infusion system close to her side of the bed; the tubing had gotten caught and snagged against the bedrail.

Valkyrie stared at Loki's hand, now exposed. She pulled the cover back over it where it had slipped off, having been pulled by the tubing.

"Hey, Fancy Man."

Stephen looked at her out of the corner of his eyes.

"Don't hurt him." She stared at him with eyes as hard and unbending as the spirit Stephen knew she possessed. "And don't let anything hurt him."

It was a veiled warning and an unspoken blessing at the same time.

Stephen handed over the Staff of the Living Tribunal and the pouch containing Mordo's sling ring. "I trust you know what to do with these?"

"The Guardians of the Sanctums will convene to discuss matters concerning the reinstatement of the relics. The Staff and the Vaulting Boots of Valtorr will find a new home, and perhaps a new owner in the future." Wong said quietly. "We will also work together with the Masters at Kamar-Taj and see what we can do about restoring the lost powers and healing those who have relapsed."

He noted the worried look on Stephen's face. "Only a handful of us know of what really happened here, Strange."

Stephen nodded, his eyes heavy and downcast. "For all that's happened…he was one of us."

"I will oversee the funerary ceremonies myself. You do not need to worry." Wong hesitated. In the end he decided on a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Will you be alright, my friend?"

Stephen felt touched by the concern the usually taciturn Wong was demonstrating. The Sorcerer Supreme placed his own hand atop his friend's and tried to appear as reassuring as possible. "It is you I'm worried about, Wong. I should be with you, taking care of things. It is my responsibility."

Wong stared at him. "What you have done for me, I will never be able to repay."

Stephen drew back in sheer surprise. He had been the one to bring him back from the dead, but he was always careful to never let Wong know what had happened. It was never the right time to bring it up. Who could have told him? "Wong, I-"

"Thank you," Stephen whispered, mostly to himself. It was he who would never be able to repay Wong for all he had done.

Wong had saved Loki's life, and that of their unborn child after all.

"You are needed here, Strange." Wong lifted his jovial chin, gesturing toward behind him where New Asgard loomed in the distance. "Besides you're always a phone call and a portal away." As if on cue, a portal appeared behind him and Stephen caught a glimpse of a familiar alleyway, colourful and gay and bright – Kamar-Taj.

Wong's bellow resounded through the air as he stepped through, his ample behind barely fitting through the gateway, "But for God's sake, turn your roaming on!"

Bruce studied the observation charts on the mounted glass panel, flicking through the history going back the past few days. Seemingly satisfied, he slid his finger across the screen and closed it. "Vital signs have been looking good for the past twenty-four hours. No more dips in the blood pressure and the heart rate not as erratic. Foetal heart rate and movement chart is satisfactory too."

Stephen lifted one of Loki's hands and felt for the pulse, counting the steady beats against the pad of his fingers. Strong, he noted. He reached up and pulled Loki's lower eyelid downward gently. "Conjunctival pallor not as prominent as yesterday. Your recombinant erythropoietin is working wonders, Dr Banner."

Bruce beamed. He ran a sheepish hand through his hair. "I could have worked faster had I been back at Tony's lab but it didn't feel right to leave, not until Loki's fully stabilised."

"Oh, I think he's recovering faster than expected," Stephen could not help the excitement creeping into his voice as he watched the tracing of Loki's heart rhythm on the cardiac monitor for a few seconds.

"Well he is not exactly your average human. Not exactly your average superhuman either."

Stephen stole a curious glance. Banner shrugged, his eyes looking a bit guilty – "The Hulk near pulverised him and he was back on his feet hours later like it was nothing." Then Banner stiffened as if he had just thought of something, suddenly looking a lot guiltier. "Come to think of it he was probably wearing a glamour and made himself look pretty for the cameras."

Stephen placed Loki's hand back down carefully. "Nothing is ever as it seems with him, Dr Banner."

"I suppose not."

"So. Any plan on reversing the coma anytime soon?" Bruce walked over to the bed. "It has been three days and any longer we will have to think of parenteral nutrition. So far, his weight has not dropped but I'm not sure how long we can keep him sedated without feeding him."

Stephen gestured for Bruce to pull the curtain around him. He lifted Loki's gown slightly to expose the abdominal area and began his gentle palpation. "Abdomen is soft, fundal height has gone down from twenty weeks back to sixteen, I think I'm happy enough to taper down and wean him off sedation completely by this evening, depending on the response."

"Clinically he looks okay, but we can't really assess the pain score objectively so…if he starts appearing restless or his heart rate shoots up again, then we know he's not ready to come out of it yet."

Bruce nodded. "Sounds like a good plan." After a beat, "Boy am I glad it's you."

Stephen levelled him with a look somewhere between offended and cautiously flattered. "Thanks...I suppose?"

"Hey."

"Hi."

"How are you feeling?" Stephen's little finger traced Loki's hairline. He caught a stray wisp of raven hair between his fingers and swept it off Loki's high forehead, surreptitiously feeling for temperature. Loki felt warm, but comfortably so.

Loki's eyes were his usual piercing, clear sea-green and when he smiled, it was his trademark sly grin. "Better than you look. Has someone been keeping you up?"

"You have no idea." Stephen broke into a smile of relief of his own.

Loki's eyes wandered around, taking in his surroundings. As if only realising where he was, his face changed with the full return of recollection and his eyes widened.

"Hey, maybe you shouldn't-" Stephen started when he saw Loki struggle to raise his upper body to a sitting position before stopping himself short–

Loki gasped before gingerly easing himself onto his back once more, a hand pressed against the curve of his belly, "Ow, ow, ow…"

"I think I've woken you up too soon," Stephen's forehead furrowed in concern.

"No!" Loki protested, now clasping both hands to his abdomen; raising his voice was not a good idea. Stephen's frown deepened.

"Loki…"

"No, I do not wish to be put to sleep again." Loki breathed deeply, riding out the tail ends of pain, "I've slept enough, I really don't mind a bit of discomfort, if only to remind me that I am still alive."

"And yet you say you're not a masochist."

"Yes, well." Loki tried to muster a grin, "I thought I made that pretty clear the day we hooked up. Having to sit next to you was almost physically painful. And the awful, awful food, yuck."

"Was that why you bailed and left your double to sit through the worst of it?"

Loki smirked. "You mean to tell me you hadn't noticed right from the beginning?"

"I didn't mind carrying my half of a one-sided conversation. Made you look like the asshole for once. Well, a bigger one than you already were."

"Anthony Stark must have really disliked us."

"He liked me well enough. I only dissed his B&J's namesake ice cream flavour and traded the Time Stone for his life. You threw him out of his penthouse window." Loki only raised his eyebrows coolly.

Stephen waved an apologetic hand in a gesture of truce. "He also did imply I was only good for blowing up balloons at children's parties…"

"He did not?" Loki gasped in mock horror.

Stephen gazed at him thoughtfully. "Maybe he saw something there neither of us didn't at the time."

Loki's eyes shifted and landed on the hands Stephen had clasped on the bed covers as if offering a prayer. Stephen followed his gaze.

"I knew it was the real you when you started making fun of my hands."

"They were shaking so much the noises from your cutlery were distracting me from the book I was reading up in my room," Loki said softly.

"Oh my. We couldn't have that, could we?" Stephen's grey eyes narrowed slightly at the memory. "Although I did find the silencing spell you cast quite intrusive and insulting. Almost as insulting as your off-handed comment about my inability to heal my own hands."

"You should know by now I very seldom mean what I say and very often mean what I do not say, Strange." Loki turned his head to face the other way.

Stephen was silent. "I never did thank you for trying, though." He could remember the look of frustration on the trickster god's face when his attempt at undoing the irreversible damage to his nerves did not come to fruition.

"Don't flatter yourself, Strange. It was less out of the kindness of my heart and more of a shameless attempt at one-upmanship."

"An unexpected gesture of tenderness nonetheless. Quite unbefitting of a royal prince." Stephen laid a hand on Loki's blanket-clad thigh. "And quite possibly the moment I realised I needed to have you."

And Loki slowly turned his head to finally look at him again.

"I always mean what I say, Loki. At least I try to," Stephen said seriously.

Then his voice softened, "And I know damn well I meant it when I said I love you."

"It wasn't a…dream?" Loki murmured. "A hallucination my mind created to ease my passage unto death?"

"It didn't feel like a dream when I held your face like this and felt your tears." Half-rising from his chair, Stephen propped his elbows the bed and cradled both sides of Loki's face gently. "It didn't feel like a dream when you finally kissed me."

Loki's lips were soft and dry, but they yielded entirely upon meeting Stephen's yearning lips. When they parted, Loki did not immediately break his gaze, and searched Stephen's face instead.

"I don't mean to pry, but you look upset."

"I'm not upset, Loki." Stephen sighed. "Not really. Just slightly disappointed. Well. More than slightly disappointed, I mean, I'm really, really disappointed-"

Loki tried really hard not to roll his eyes; it would ruin the moment. "Which is it? What is it?"

Stephen bit the inside of his lip. He could feel the heat rise to his face.

"Well, ah…you see…I've restrained myself from waking you up before you're fully recovered because I was wanting to look you in the eyes and tell you I love you all over again, and now that I have, all I can think of is taking you right here, right now." Stephen could feel the overpowering burn of lust roil in his gut, "But I can't and it's killing me."

Okay. Loki was definitely not expecting that.

"Surely we're not...abstaining…forever?" Loki fidgeted with the hem of the covers, valiantly trying to avoid Stephen's eyes but he felt himself wilt under the intensity of his gaze, and Loki's face burned. "I mean, yeah, right now I can't take a deep breath without feeling like a hot poker stabbing me in the stomach, but soon I'll be able to, surely?"

Stephen's crestfallen look was something to behold. "I can't risk it."

"I promise I'll be really, really still?"

Stephen laughed out loud and gave him a peck on the forehead. "That's really sweet of you, Loki, but no."

Loki groaned and flung an arm over his eyes. "You've got me really worked up and now you're hanging me out to dry."

"I'm sorry, Darling."

"Not as sorry as I." Loki's voice was muffled. "I knew carrying was going to be hard on me, but on you too?"

"Hey, we're in this together. Remember?"

Loki stilled. Still hiding his face, he nodded. "Yes. So why don't you tell me what's really bothering you?"

Stephen faltered.

Loki lifted his arm off his face and slowly turned his head to look at him expectantly. "I can tell when you're deflecting. There's something you are not telling me."

The internal conflict must have shown on Stephen's face, for Loki suddenly reached out his hand, but not quite touching. His voice was commanding but soft. "Tell me."

"Mordo is dead."

Loki visibly reared back, his thin lips slowly thinning even more until they were a tight, white line across his equally white face. He retrieved his hand and it shook slightly as it unconsciously clutched the covers to his chest.

"Did you try to bring him back? Like you did Wong?" He could not seem to process the information as calmly as he wanted.

Stephen stared, and snapped without meaning to. "How on earth did you know that?"

"Mordo told me things," Loki said quietly, finally.

"What did he say to you?" Stephen's heart began to beat faster; he did not like the haunted look that had suddenly shadowed across Loki's eyes.

"Loki, what else did he say?"

"That our baby is wrong." The memory ripped itself from that dark corner in his mind like the uncoiling of a curse. Loki's chest hurt and he felt the child squirm as if feeling his pain. He closed his eyes; he did not want to look at Stephen's face, did not want to know the expression he must be wearing.

The room had gone ice-cold. But Stephen's voice was harsh and bitter and burning with anger.

"If our baby is wrong, then you and I are wrong." Loki felt Stephen grip his fingers hard, "And there isn't a thing about us that feels wrong to me at all."

Loki's eyes filled with tears. He did not understand why he was feeling quite so upset, but he was. " 'The bill comes due.' Always."

"Then let it come." Stephen's grey eyes flashed fiercely. He was getting tired of hearing about the damn bill. "I am not letting you go." He cupped his other hand protectively over Loki's abdomen. "Either of you."

"Heavens," Loki murmured, voice thick with emotions. "You are just as bad as Thor."

"Well, I kinda know now where he's coming from. I hated seeing you die." Stephen balled Loki's hand into a fist and pressed his forehead down onto the tight, white knuckles. "Once is enough, Loki."