The pancakes were perfectly cooked, fluffy and golden brown on both sides. They were smothered in vegan butter, drowning in real maple syrup, and topped with perfectly ripe strawberries and homemade whipped cream. The fact that they looked and smelled good was not as much of an incentive to eating them as I thought it would be when Yelena talked me into ordering them. Yesterday was still weighing heavily on my mind.

I could still hear Mama Limbo's screams, and could still smell the blood. It had been like something had taken ahold of me and I just couldn't stop myself. It hadn't been just about Stephen. I had wanted that woman to pay for those lives she had taken. I had wanted to punish her and I did.

What the hell was I turning into?

I could still feel those blue flames dancing along my form, caressing my flesh like a lover. I had smelled all that blood, all that pain, and then I had felt Stephen's fear...and I completely lost it. It was worse than it had been with Sharon Carter, when I had wanted nothing more than to kill her after I had felt the stab of betrayal from Bucky and Sam, and then especially from Steve.

"You should eat those while they're hot. They are good," Yelena interrupted my thoughts. She was eating the same pancakes with a double side of bacon and eggs. She had also ordered a breakfast steak, cooked rare. I wondered where she put it all. Nat had opted for fruit and yogurt, but she munched on a few pieces of bacon at Yelena's insistence.

I cut off a bite of pancake and made myself chew it. "I'm just distracted today."

"Ah. More wedding stuff?"

I hadn't been thinking about my wedding nightmares, but now I couldn't help but growl. Yelena just had to remind me. "No."

"What else could possibly put that look on your face besides the wedding?" Nat asked.

"I had a rough day yesterday. I'd rather not talk about it." Thankfully the Russian Terrors left it. One of the reasons why I seized the chance to meet them when they texted me inviting me to breakfast this morning was that I knew if I had stuck around, Loki would have wanted me to talk about yesterday. I didn't want to talk about it. Not yet.

So instead of turning down the invitation and sticking around to talk my anxiety over yesterday out with my fiancé, I had fled. I was such a coward.

"What about the wedding? We still need to discuss your bachelorette party." Yelena waggled her eyebrows in an obnoxiously suggestive manor.

"I'm not really fussed about having a bachelorette party," I grumbled. "I'm more fussed about getting through the wedding without running for the hills screaming."

Nat looked concerned. "Is it that bad?"

I sighed and, at more prodding by the Russian Terrors (they really were scary when they were together), spoke about the whole ordeal Loki and I were suffering on our way to the altar.

Yelena shook her head after I was done. "What a mess. I do not blame you for wanting to flee." She tilted her head. "Do you even still want to get married?"

What kind of question was that? "Of course I do. I want to be Loki's wife. The thought of wearing his ring, having him wear mine, making things official like that...it's...I don't have words for how badly I want it." I pushed a strawberry around on my plate. "I already wake up to see his face almost every morning, and we live together so we're practically married already, but being able to say that he's my husband...it just feels different, you know? I want that bond with him, I want eternity."

"Stop, you are giving me cavities!" Yelena exclaimed. I balled up a napkin and threw it at her while she laughed.

"You're just not happy about what the two of you are being put through on the way to getting there," Nat nodded in understanding.

"Exactly. Neither Loki nor I are really being allowed any input on our own wedding, and most of the people who are planning it would rather it not take place at all. I'm not looking forward to standing up there on that day in front of a bunch of people who will be there just to watch me make a fool of myself, or watch Loki change his mind, or any other sort of drama they're anticipating. I want us to enjoy our wedding day, not spend it feeling anxious because most of the people there just want to see if one or both of us will fall flat on our faces."

"Mmm..no, that is no way to get married," Yelena agreed, reaching over to steal my pancakes. She had polished hers off, plus had finished all her bacon, eggs, and steak. I couldn't believe that she was still hungry.

"Do you have a tapeworm or something?" Nat watched her sister cut into my pancakes and start eating with relish.

"Shut up, I burn a lot of calories. And it is good food, should not go to waste. So...the wedding. You want a wedding, just not this wedding, am I right?"

"That about sums it up," I muttered. Then I shook my head. "Enough of this. I need to focus. Tomorrow is Loki's birthday, and I need to think about what I want to surprise him with."

Nat cocked her head. "Loki's birthday is tomorrow? Since when does Asgard go by the Gregorian calendar?"

"They don't. Determining his date of birth involved some complicated calculations. Star charts and fancy math was involved. It isn't even his real birthday, it's the day Odin took him from Jotunheim. His age has always been marked from that day. There's no way of telling when he was actually born, but the date is close enough." A date that I'd had to sweettalk from Thor. Loki hadn't wanted to tell me, but I wanted to do something for him since the tricky bastard had managed to find out when my birthday was and surprised me with a hell of a night. I had actually wound-up walking bow-legged the next day and had to endure a lot of good-natured teasing as a result. "He and Thor usually go out drinking. I've already told Thor that he can have Loki during the day tomorrow, but come evening he's mine. Now I just have to figure out what to do."

"Greet him lying naked in bed with a big ribbon tied around yourself. He'll like that," Yelena suggested through a mouth full of pancake.

"If the two of you have been under so much stress from the wedding, maybe you can take tomorrow night to go off somewhere? Somewhere quiet where you can be alone for a bit," Nat chimed in.

A night away from it all sounded divine. Pack our bags, maybe find an isolated stretch of beach. We'd been spending so much time in New Asgard that I was kind of sick of cold and mountains. A change of scenery would do us both some good.

I wouldn't even try to talk him into it. I would just go up to him with our bags already packed and tell him we're going. He'd probably be so drunk after a day of drinking with his brother that he wouldn't argue. We'd arrive at the spot, I would let him sleep off his drunk, and then we'd go from there.

"Maybe you could elope while you are at it," Yelena piped up.

I shook my head. "Loki would never agree to it. He doesn't want to hurt Thor's feelings. If Thor isn't present, Loki won't do it." It just made the whole situation frustrating.

"That would explain why the two of you haven't run off to Vegas by now," Nat murmured.

Nope. I was not going to be married by an officiant dressed as Elvis. And Loki in Vegas...No. No Vegas.

"I don't get it," Yelena frowned. "Thor isn't getting married. You are. It is your wedding...you and your boygirlfriend. Can you not just tell him to meet the two of you at a time and place and do it anyway?"

"I thought I said I didn't want to think about wedding stuff today." I was getting irritated.

Yelena stuffed her mouth full of pancake, and Nat waved for the check. The two ladies took the hint for once.

I stared at Stephen. "Black Talon? Black Talon? That's seriously what he calls himself?"

I was sitting in the parlor at the Sanctum. Stephen was filling me in on the details of the whole New Orleans affair. "Desmond Drew, Mama Limbo's son. Called himself Black Talon. I wish I were joking. He convinced the Cult that they were kidnapping virgin women as sacrifices for a dark god. The members of the Cult had no idea that they were actually providing his mother with sources of blood for her 'beauty treatments'."

I blew out a breath. "I bet they're unhappy." I couldn't feel sorry for them. They still grabbed innocent women knowing full well that they would die, just not for the reason they thought. I didn't feel bad about them getting duped at all.

Stephen waited a few seconds before informing me of the next detail. "Mama Limbo is still catatonic. Jericho is convinced that she may remain that way permanently."

I winced. "Are you okay? The fire covered you..."

"I'm fine. The flames even managed to take away the pain in my hands for a bit, although they are far from being healed."

I glanced at the hands in question, which were covered by scars and possessed a constant tremor. I never asked how Stephen's hands got that way, and had always tried not to stare although I knew they bothered him and caused him pain. I also knew it was a touchy subject for him, so I never brought it up, figuring that if he wanted to talk about it, he'd do it in his own good time. "But Mama Limbo has to be institutionalized." And I had done that to her.

"My theory, taking into account what those flames did to Steve when you used them on him, is that the angelfire is a bane against evil. It burns away corruption, but for those who are good, it heals them."

"And how does it decide who deserves to be burnt, and who deserves to be healed?" I hoped it wasn't me. I didn't want to be judge, jury, and executioner like that. I didn't want that weight, that responsibility. People were also far too complicated to stick into black and white categories of "good" and "not good". I could see so many issues arising with that. Then there was the fact that I had no control over when those flames appeared. They just seemed to popped up whenever.

"That I do not know. But you need to stop fighting it. You're changing. You're getting stronger. The more you try to suppress the changes, the less you are able to control your abilities. You need to stop living in denial, stop refusing to discuss the changes, and work on embracing them." Stephen paused and sighed. "You aren't human, Tracy. Not anymore. You need to accept that, and achieve a balance within yourself. Else you will lose yourself completely."

I looked away, staring at the steaming cup of tea beside my arm. He was right. I knew he was right. "Do we even know what I am?" I whispered.

"We do. You just need to cease sticking your fingers in your ears whenever the word 'angel' comes up in conversation." He raised an eyebrow. "There. You're doing it again. Stop it. The first step in overcoming your issues is to admit what you now are."

I had flinched. I still didn't want to say it. If I said it out loud, that would make it true. I wasn't ready. I didn't want it. It was too big.

I didn't want to think about this now. Not with Loki's birthday tomorrow. I didn't want to deal with something this big on his birthday.

He had allowed his Pet to run away this morning when Belova and Romanoff had provided her with an escape route, but Loki was determined to get her to talk this evening. He had it all planned. He would tell her to sit down, be stern with her, and if she still refused to talk, he would give her a punishment that would have her eager to bare her soul after he was through.

He was all ready to confront her, so when his Pet walked into their home looking sucker-punched, it took him a few minutes to regain his equilibrium.

"Pet?"

Loki watched her walk from the front door, drop her keys which fell to the floor, and make her slow way towards the living room. She was wobbly on her feet, almost as though she were drunk. Which was impossible, she was completely incapable of getting drunk. Loki knew because he had tried to get her drunk, and had failed spectacularly.

Feeling concerned, he went to her once she landed on the couch, hard. Heimdall immediately hopped onto her lap, wanting pets and mewing in frustration when Tracy just stared ahead, her eyes unseeing.

He knelt before her, taking her hands in one of his, using his other hand to cup her face. "Tracy?" She looked so lost, and her skin felt cold to the touch.

It was several minutes before she finally seemed to see him. "Tracy, what's wrong?" Loki wanted to help. Seeing her anguish was torture. "Talk to me."

Tracy stared at him, blinked. Her lips trembled. "I...I..."

She was having trouble getting it out. "Breathe, my love. It's alright. You can tell me."

She took his advice, taking a deep breath. "I-I'm an angel."

Then she began crying. Loki moved immediately, pulling her against him, getting on the sofa and arranging the two of them so that her face was buried in his chest as she trembled, his arms wrapped around her, his long legs trapping the rest of her body in a triangle.

It was a much-needed cathartic release, and Loki allowed his Pet to indulge in it, feeling relieved that she finally came to accept what she was. It seemed he wouldn't have to force her to talk after all.

"I-it's too much. I don't want this! The fire...it did that to Mama Limbo because I decided s-she was b-bad and it responded...I c-can't do this, I don't want to be some angel of vengeance or whatever the hell...w-why...he did this...h-he made me this, he m-must have known what h-he was doing when..."

"I refuse to believe that your stalker had the foresight to know what he was truly doing to you when he decided to turn you into one of his kind rather than allow you to die," Loki huffed. "Pet, you did not direct that fire to do what it did. It is the nature of angelfire. That is what it does. It burns away evil, leaving a blessing behind. Mama Limbo was evil. She slaughtered innocent women in some bizarre attempt to retain her youth. She had no care for those lives, or the devastation their deaths left behind. As for angel of vengeance, I believe that title has already been taken. Well, spirit in his case, but they amount to the same thing."

"What?"

"Nevermind. You won't be meeting him...at least, I hope you never have to meet him. I know this is hard for you to take...but I am glad you are talking about this at long last. You have been holding onto it for too long. I had been planning on tying you up and tickling your feet until you cracked and began speaking of it this evening."

That got him a watery giggle. Better. "Now that you are talking about it, and have accepted it, it should be much easier to help you gain control of your abilities, along with the more angelic aspects of your nature. The protectiveness. The drive to punish those who commit wrong-doing. The protectiveness."

"You said 'protectiveness' twice," Tracy pointed out.

"I meant to."

She said nothing in response to that but she didn't have to. Loki could almost feel her roll her eyes. That was alright. He preferred exasperation to tears.

The two of them reclined in silence as the sun set, slowly casting the living room in darkness. Loki didn't bother flicking the lights on, simply indulged himself in holding his Pet, savoring the feel of her, her scent, the sound of her breathing and the sensation of her heart beat under his palm as his hand lay flat on her back.

Morning came with a booming knock on the front door. He and Tracy both groaned.

"Wake up, brother! We have much merriment to get to today!"

Merriment? What...Loki had to take a few moments to remember what today was. Oh. Of course. Tracy wriggled her way out of his hold, and he reluctantly let her go. "You'd better answer him before he knocks the door down," she pointed out.

Loki sighed. "I hate to leave you alone, after last night..."

"I'll be fine. Yelena and Nat wanted to hang out again. Go see what your brother wants."

Loki knew what Thor wanted. He sighed, used some magic to make himself more presentable, and then went to answer the door before Thor turned it into kindling.

"Brother!" Thor boomed. "Time is wasting!"

"Remember what I said, Thor," he heard Tracy say. Loki raised an eyebrow.

"Of course, why do you think I'm so early? I'll have him back on time, sister, I promise. Come, Loki!"

And before Loki could say anything, Thor grabbed him by the shirt collar and hauled him away.