Oh my God. Quarantine is so damn annoying. How typical is it that Britain has such shit weather all year long, but the moment we're forbidden from leaving our houses, the sun decides to show it's face? Literally a couple months ago it was constant rain and like twelve different awful storms that caused horrible flooding to some parts of the country, and now it's all sunshine and daisies outside but we aren't allowed out except for to go to work or to the shop.

Anyway. Despite my ongoing struggle with anxiety and my growing low mood about this whole awful global situation, I managed to smash out another chapter. I hope it's up to standard and that you all enjoy it. Thank you, as always, for your support.


Hydrangeas Say Our Family Will Flourish

Chapter Nine: Little Bump in the Road

Twenty weeks marked the half-way point of Amelia's pregnancy, and with it came the ultrasound scan that would determine the genders of her's and Loki's children. Bruce called in a sixty-something year old female doctor by the name of Harrison to perform the scan, and Amelia quickly found herself laying upon the infirmary bed wiggling her toes in excitement to see her growing babies.

"What are you hoping they'll be?"

Amelia looked up from where the obstetrician was in the process of spreading gel over her belly, but before she could think about the innocuous question posed by the doctor, Loki - who was sitting on Amelia's other side - spoke up in a very monotonous tone.

"Preferably humanoid."

The doctor shot Loki a puzzled glance and Amelia rolled her eyes, giving her husband a pointed look, "He's just kidding around," she sighed. The thing was, Loki more than likely wasn't kidding around at all. Amelia knew he was concerned about whether his children would come out blue, and that he often covered up his nerves with dry humour, but for the sake of the doctor that Bruce had personally called in, Amelia wanted to try and keep things light for the precious moment.

They were about to discover something that would probably shape their future, after all.

"I don't have a preference. Boys or girls, or one of each, I already love them both," Amelia admitted, and to that, the doctor's eyes lit up.

"That's something I love to hear," Doctor Harrison stated, "honestly, you wouldn't believe the amount of times I've performed an ultrasound on an expecting mum that's burst into tears when the child wasn't the gender she was hoping for."

It was Loki's time to roll his eyes, "what is it with you humans and your obsession with gender?"

Harrison gave Loki a weary look, and before Amelia could once again sputter out that Loki was just joking around, the doctor instead retorted, "Gender is an intrinsic part of most human's identities, I'm sure an alien like you wouldn't understand."

Loki immediately went tense.

Amelia's jaw hung open.

Up until that point, Amelia and Loki had both been under the assumption that the specialised doctor that Bruce had called in had not known about Loki's true identity, and that Banner had called her in due to the fact she was clueless about who she was performing the ultrasound on.

Clearly that wasn't the case.

The fact that Doctor Harrison knew Loki was an alien meant that she must have known… most other things about him.

Bruce could've warned them that Harrison was one-hundred percent aware, but Amelia supposed it was just another wrong assumption on their part.

Loki peered over at the doctor with a narrow gaze, an expression he typically reserved for those he was choosing to intimidate, but the doctor appeared to simply brush it off.

"If you tell a single soul-"

Harrison swiftly cut him off, "Don't worry, I admire and trust Doctor Banner, and as he asked me not to relay any of this encounter to anybody, you can trust that I will remain silent. In other words, your secret is safe with me," she explained, pinning Loki with a brief sarcastic smile, before turning her attention back to Amelia, her expression turning more genuine and sweet, "now, shall we get started?"

Loki appeared to almost sputter with indignation at being brushed off so assuredly, Amelia fought the urge to laugh and enthusiastically nodded her head. The older doctor pulled the equipment up to the bed and lifted the probe, pressing it to Amelia's stomach; the screen was pinned with intense stares from everybody in the room.

When the image appeared, although grainy and unclear, it was evident that the rounded shapes were the heads of the babies, and that was enough for Amelia to have to blink back tears. Seeing them more clearly than ever made everything about her pregnancy so much more real, reminding her that, yes, this was going to happen very soon.

"There they are," Amelia whispered, biting her lip gently, before looking to Loki, searching his expression for a reaction. He remained tense from the interaction with the obstetrician, but his eyes were wide as he gazed as the screen, lips tightly pursed. He was trying to hide his emotions, but Amelia could see that they were like a whirlwind behind his eyes.

"Yes! These two seem pretty lax for the moment, apart from subtle movements - you probably can't feel them yet?" Doctor Harrison asked, and Amelia nodded in affirmation, "It'll start out like flutters, and as the pregnancy progresses, it'll feel far more noticeable," the doctor continued to explain.

Amelia felt her excited smile widen, "I can't wait for that to happen."

"Are they normal?" Loki enquired.

"Normal?" Doctor Harrison raised an eyebrow before turning back to the screen, "Well, their positioning is good, vertical and head down, which lessens the chances of complications during birth. But if you're concerned, I can monitor their breathing and heart rate?"

It hadn't been what Loki meant, but he nodded nonetheless.

"We'll get to that in a moment, but if you're ready to hear, I can tell you what genders they are?"

"Yes!" Amelia squeaked, "Please! Oh, I'm so excited!" She put her hands to her face, flushing with elation.

Doctor Harrison chuckled, pointing to the screen, "This one here, the baby on your left-hand side, is a boy. The baby on your right is a girl."

A wave of delight rushed through Amelia and she squealed, covering her mouth to hide the embarrassment of her very vocal joy. Her cheeks went pink almost immediately and Loki took her hands in his own when she reached out to him.

"We're having a boy and a girl! This is so amazing!" Amelia felt so energised by the news that she was sure she would have difficulty sleeping that night, from the simple reason that she would be thinking about what would soon be. What her children would look like, how they would act, their personalities - it felt so close and yet so far away.

Loki smiled at her glee, nodding his head in agreement, but was otherwise quiet.

His reaction caused Amelia to deflate somewhat - she knew that he wasn't the type to be so flagrant with his emotions, especially not in front of company he was not accustomed to, but Amelia had envisioned him being a little more lively at the news. It opened up so many possibilities for the future, they would have the best of both worlds, as it were.

It wasn't until after they were leaving the infirmary that Loki realised Amelia was upset about something. She had wanted to head straight to the communal lounge to relay the news to everybody about the newly discovered genders of their soon to be born children, but instead she headed straight for the elevator, intent on returning to their room. She was also very quiet, which was rather uncharacteristic of her.

"What's wrong, Amelia?" Loki asked her outright, there was no point in trying to get the reason for her actions out in any sort of subtle way because he'd never get the truth out of her.

Amelia shook her head at first, but after a few moments she crossed her arms and sighed, "Were you happy with the results of the ultrasound?"

Loki tilted his head, "Yes, of course."

"You didn't seem it." Amelia's response was curt and dry, and Loki grabbed her arm and stopped her in the middle of the hallway, pinning her with a purposeful look.

"You really think I'm not happy that our children are healthy?" He suppressed the need to show the irritation in his voice at Amelia's outrageous assumption, to think that he may not have been over the moon to discover that the pregnancy was progressing as it perfectly should be.

"Well you didn't show it," Amelia groused, retracting her arm from his grip, "you looked distracted. I'm sorry, were there more important things on your mind?"

Loki pursed his lips, giving Amelia the benefit of the doubt - perhaps her snap of anger was a result of her hormones being all over the place, but her attempt at guilt-tripping still vexed him to no end.

"You were really rude to that doctor, you know," Amelia continued with reproach, "you didn't have to be such an asshole to her."

Loki rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to respond and explain himself, but Amelia didn't give him the chance.

"You were going to threaten her! At the possibility of telling people about us!"

"Yes," Loki affirmed, "because I don't want people to know about us!"

Loki knew immediately that Amelia had taken his exclamation the complete wrong way because the anger in her face turned quickly to dejection, and she took a few steps away from him, lip quivering as she did so.

"Are you ashamed of me?" Amelia's quiet query was heartbreaking, she followed it up with miserable babbling, and Loki rushed to clarify his words.

"No, no, of course I'm not ashamed of you!" His sharp, incredulous tone caused Amelia to flinch, so he resumed more gently, "I am not ashamed of you. I love you, Amelia. And if I could, I would show you off to the world, but that is not a possibility. It is different in New Asgard, you are safer there, but here... no other Midgardians can know that you are tied to me, because it paints a target on your head."

Amelia blinked back the tears that had welled up and made a barely coherent noise of puzzlement, carefully wiping the moisture away from her eyes.

"The Avengers have many enemies," Loki enlightened, though the fact itself was pretty common knowledge, "there are people out there who will do unspeakable things if it means taking revenge on any of us… and there are a lot of people who still despise me for who I once was. Do you understand what I'm telling you, Amelia?"

The cogs appeared to be turning behind Amelia's eyes, but she remained addled, perhaps only partially understanding the implications behind what he was telling her.

Loki sighed. "Amelia, if your identity as my wife became known to all of Midgard, those select people - bad people - would hunt you down to get back at me. They would not hesitate to hurt our children if it meant taking revenge on me. I know this for a fact, because I have been one of those people."

Amelia understood now. Loki saw the change in her face, the way her eyes grew wide, pupils dilating under the stress of the new information, her silence as she digested it.

"Now you know why I cannot simply trust people like Doctor Harrison so blindly. I do not know them, I do not know if they can be trusted. All I want is to protect you, Amelia," his eyes lowered and his features softened, "and our children."

Amelia sank against him, wordlessly asking for the comfort of his embrace - which he gave her - and pressed the side of her head to his chest. "I'm… sorry I got mad," she quietly admitted. "I misunderstood your emotions. I'm sorry."

"I forgive you," Loki responded, a small smile playing at his lips, "please understand that I am happy and excited about our children."

Amelia nodded against him, content to bask in the soothing presence of his arms.

"I suppose we ought to go and share the news with everybody, then?"

Amelia pulled her head back and smiled warmly, nodding in assent. She gazed at her husband with admiration for a few moments, and then tilted her head as confusion once again washed over her face, "Wait, if you don't trust people you don't know, why are you okay with Dawn and Rob knowing about us?"

Loki looked sheepish, "Well, I… I may have talked to them while you were not present in the room."

"What? What did you tell them?"

"I merely informed them that they were not to reveal anything about us to anybody - it was to stay between them, and that failing to abide that simple rule could result in you falling into harm's way."

Amelia eyed him for a suspiciously long time, "Did you threaten Dawn and Rob?"

"No!" Loki shook his head, "No, I just told them sternly not to tell anybody."

Silence.

"You did threaten them, didn't you?"

Loki swallowed, "Maybe perhaps only a tiny bit. But it was for your protection!"

Amelia ran her hand down over her face out of exasperation, "I can't believe you sometimes."


Loki is a big ball of anxious. Just when you think something has settled in his mind, three more anxieties rear their ugly heads. Will Loki EVER be able to relax? How will the other Avengers react upon the news of the babies genders? Find out on the next episode of Dragon Ball Z... wait, that's the wrong fandom.

Joking aside, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Your kind words always keep my spirits high, so I hope that if you liked this chapter, you will leave a comment and let me know :) Thank you so much 3