Maisy kept her chin up as she and Loki walked through the entrance of the Tower and to the elevator. She didn't make a sound as they rode the lift all the way to the Avenger's common floor and she'd hardly said anything besides "oh" and "can we stop at home first" since Loki had picked her up from work. The silence gnawed at him and he wondered if, perhaps, it would have been better to send Pearl on her way and never mention it to Maisy.

When the elevator doors opened, Maisy strode out and looked around with a calm gaze. She spotted Pearl sitting in the living room area with Captain America and Thor nearby and then Maisy marched over to the group. Loki quietly and curiously followed behind.

As she walked, Maisy pulled something out of her backpack. Going down the few stairs to the sunken in living room, she walked up to her mother and threw a book from her backpack at her and then turned around and started walking back out. She grabbed Loki's hand as she went and dragged him back into the elevator.

"Wait! Maisy!" Pearl jumped up and started to run after her.

"I have nothing to say to you," Maisy said as she jammed the close door button. Even in Stark's marvelous Tower the close door button on the elevator did nothing so the doors remained open.

"Maisy, please! At least tell me why you've given me your sketchbook!"

"My…? Oh," Maisy, cheeks reddening, leaned out of the elevator, interrupting the doors as they finally started to close and grabbed the book from her mother and pulled another one out of her backpack and handed it over, "Here. Goodbye."

Loki caught a glimpse of the book that had been handed over and saw that it was the same sketchbook Mr. Sichore had given Maisy at Christmas time. The one Pearl had filled with illustrations of birds. He raised a brow, but did not have time to ask questions before the doors shut again and Maisy hit the lobby button. After that he chose to wait until Maisy was ready to speak to him about what had just occurred and he did not have to wait long.

"Hey Jarvis?" Maisy asked the ceiling.

"Yes?"

"You ever seen NCIS?"

"Hold on a moment," Jarvis paused and there was silence for a moment, "I have just watched every available episode."

"You know how Gibbs always shuts down the elevator to talk to people in private?"

"On it," Jarvis replied and the elevator came to a sudden stop halfway to the lobby, "The camera has also been turned off should you like to display any emotions."

"Thank you Jarvis," Maisy said and then turned to Loki, who was rather baffled by the exchange that had just passed.

"So," he said, "Your mother."

"My mother," Maisy crossed her arms and fell into a lean against the elevator wall, "My mother."

"I don't mean to pry…"

"You're obligated to pry as my husband," Maisy huffed, "Pry away."

"I don't think that's one of the duties of a husband, but regardless," he leaned on the wall with her, "I thought you would be pleased to see your long lost mother after nearly thirteen years."

"I thought I would be too."

"Then, may I ask why you did not seem happy back there?"

"When Melantha told me that Mom was in Ontario, I was really happy," Maisy said, "Part of me was really relieved too, because even though I know my dad would never do this, I always wondered if he'd killed her and just told me she left."

"What would make you think that?" Loki asked. He'd never heard of this worry before and he was quite curious to see where Maisy had gotten the idea that Joshua Sichore would murder his ex wife.

"Just so we are totally clear, my dad would never hurt me," Maisy turned and looked Loki in the eye, "He never touched me so I don't want you to go push him around because you're worried about that. Got it?"

"Got it."

"But you know that he used to be a drunk. It was really bad. You've heard that sob story," she looked at her feet, "When my mom left… it was because my dad was drunk. I could hear them from my room. He got home and, I dunno, Mom did something or said something that made him really mad. I remember being proud of her for standing up to him for once instead of just tucking his drunk ass into bed and accepting all of the horrible names he called her."

Maisy sniffled and Loki wrapped his arm around her shoulders. They both sank to the floor of the elevator and she looked at her hands as if they were the most interesting things in the world.

"But then I heard her scream. I don't know what he did and he'll never tell me even if I wanted to know. Mom yelled at Dad and he yelled back and then she screamed again and my dad apologized. He sounded even more upset with himself for hurting her than he'd been for whatever she'd done in the first place," Maisy's fists clenched, "And then they both went out into the yard to talk so that they wouldn't keep me awake. I fell asleep before they came back in and in the morning Mom was gone."

"You thought he'd killed her while they were outside," Loki clarified, "And just told you that she'd left?"

"She left me a note, but they always had pretty similar handwriting so I was never convinced that it was hers," Maisy leaned against his side, "But Dad got better with the help of Ima and I tried to put the thought out of my head. I guess it's always kind of been at the back of my mind though, so I was really happy when Melantha said that my mom was in Ontario."

"Then why the sudden anger toward her now?"

"Because she's been alive and in Ontario this whole time! She's never once reached out to me in the past thirteen years and she didn't seem to care that I existed! No phone calls or birthday cards or letters at Christmas! Not a peep!"

"I see."

"You think I'm being too harsh on her?" Maisy asked.

"No," Loki said and stroked her hair, "But as someone who has lived to regret many, many things, I fear you may change your mind later and she will have vanished once more."

"What would you do in my situation?"

"You mean, if my mother disappeared for years on end and randomly showed up one day expecting all to be forgiven?" Loki laughed quietly, "I do not know."

"You'd forgive her," Maisy said, "You're such a mama's boy."

"You never even met my mother, how would you know?"

"I can tell," she elbowed him playfully, "You talk about her with such… what's the word? Reverence. Or maybe 'awe'. I can tell you looked up to her a lot."

"I did."

"I used to look up to my mom too. She's an artist. She taught me how to draw," Maisy took his hand and placed hers inside it, twining their fingers together, "But what kind of mom just leaves her daughter and forgets all about her for thirteen years?"

"I am trying to remain a neutral party," Loki said, "But perhaps that would be information we could gather if we actually went to speak with her. Allow her a chance to explain."

"You're right," she lifted their tangled fingers and kissed the back of his hand, "But I'm going to look like a total idiot going back in there."

"Not if you do it with dignity."

A note from the author: Get yourselves ready for some draaaaaamaaaa in the next chapter! It's gonna be good.

Thank you to everyone for reading/following/favoriting. :)

Special thanks to my reviewers:

Ninja Squirrel: I think you could have written an amazing application essay for one of the college's I applied to a few years ago. The subject was about stereotyping people and basing your thoughts on a whole people group based off of your views toward one person. If you'd written this review back when I was applying I totally would have plagiarized it lol. ;)

xlokiswolfx: I get the feeling you don't trust Maisy's mom. We shall have to wait and see... mwahaha!

Ceres Friggadottir: Whaaaat? You don't trust the woman who just showed up after being missing for thirteen years? Whaaaat? lol

Dragoncat: Next chapter! Next chapter we shall see what Maisy's mother says! I pinky promise! :)

Thank you all so much for keeping me motivated to keep posting chapters! You guys are awesome!