Maisy hastily sent Linn's friends home and asked them not to mention what they'd heard to anyone else. They promised that they wouldn't and once they left Linn gave Maisy a fierce hug that did very little to make her feel better.

"I'm going to bed," she whispered.

"You sure? You okay?" Linn studied her face and Maisy looked away.

"I'm fine," she snapped, harsher than she meant to, "I just want to be alone."

"Dat's fine. Lemme know if you wants something, yeah?"

"Yeah, sure," Maisy grabbed her phone from the kitchen counter and went to her bedroom. She angrily kicked over Loki's laundry basket and growled in frustration.

Her mind was racing with things she should have yelled at Loki before he left, but when she sat down on the bed, she realized that it was just a slew of more hurtful things. But once she'd latched onto angry thoughts it was incredibly difficult to let them go. Whenever she would try to calm down she would think of something else that she was mad about. Everywhere she looked around their room she saw things to be pissed about.

Loki hadn't washed his clothes in two weeks.

Loki took up too much closet space.

Loki always left the ceiling fan on even though Maisy got cold.

Loki took up too much space in their small bed.

Loki did this.

Loki did that.

She was so mad that she had to plug in her headphones, close her eyes, and pull her covers over her head. Cranking the music on her phone up so loud that she probably wouldn't have heard it if a tank crashed through the wall, Maisy let the hot, furious tears flow.

Thoughts filled her head that were so ugly that she started being mad at herself for being so mad at Loki. But then she'd hear him saying "it was for your own good" again and she'd return to thinking dark thoughts about him.

Eventually, her tears and rage wore her out and she fell into a tense sleep. Once the dreams came she almost wished she had stayed awake with her thoughts.

She was wearing a wedding dress again. Not the same as the one she'd actually worn, this one was tighter, lower cut, and made of silky gold fabric. It was beautiful, but not something Maisy would have ever picked for her wedding day. Her veil was a deep red and matched the accents of the gown. It was certainly not a traditional wedding dress.

When she looked up from her gown, through her veil, she could make out the outline of Loki standing across from her, but the veil was so thick that the image wasn't clear. She reached out to him to hold his hand, but her wrist felt heavy with the weight of a bronze cuff.

"No," she whispered to herself, looking at the cuff. Her eyes followed the chain connected to the cuff all the way to Loki's hand and she raised her voice, "No!"

He chuckled and lifted the veil, revealing that he was not himself, but Egil. Which, admittedly, made more sense. He jerked the chain and pulled her to him.

"Aren't you excited, love?"

"Get away!" She shoved him, but he held her fast.

"Just one kiss and then it's finished," he smiled and claimed her mouth.

Screaming and hitting him, Maisy finally was allowed a step back. She put her whole weight and all of her strength into pulling the chain and she eventually wrenched it out of his hands. The surprise of actually getting away from him caused her to fall and spin. When she steadied herself she was in Egil's apartment on earth.

"What am I doing here?"

"Uh, Maisy, you live here," Egil came up behind her and laughed against her ear, "What's the matter? Don't recognize our home?"

"I don't live here! I live with Loki!"

"Who?"

"My husband, you jerk! The prince of Asgard! Where is he?"

"Oh, him," Egil laughed again and wrapped his arms around her waist, "Remember, love, I killed him so that we could be together. You should have seen the maggot squirm."

"You didn't kill him!"

"I did," Egil said and then went over to the fridge. He opened it and Maisy screamed in horror, "See? Dead. He won't be bothering us any time soon."

Sitting on the fridge shelf next to a head of cabbage was Loki's head. The sight was so horrific that Maisy felt vomit bubble up to her mouth. She puked and Egil patted her on the back comfortingly.

"I know, I'm glad that he's dead too."

"No! No, no, no, no!"

"Yes, my love. I climbed out of Muspelheim and crept into your room. He was sleeping and it was so easy to take his head from him. He'll never interfere with my love for you again. I have you all to myself now."

"Was he going to hurt me?" Maisy rasped.

"I don't know," Egil shrugged, "I just didn't want him to touch you. You're mine."

"I'm not!"

"Yes you are," he laughed and kissed her cheek. He kissed her jaw and her chin and then her lips and all Maisy could do was cry.

"I want to go home."

"You are home. You are in my arms and you will never leave me again. Never."

BING!

Maisy woke up in the middle of the night and thrashed about under her blankets until she'd rolled onto the floor. She sat there for a moment, panting.

The cord of her earphones was wrapped around her and once she'd caught her breath she looked at her phone to see that she had a text message. It was from her boss, asking if she could work that Saturday. Maisy ignored it, though she was glad the text alert pulled her out of her dream.

She got back in bed, shaking, and realized that music was still playing in her ears. Sighing, she went to turn it off, but then realized what song it was.

"Human" by Rag'n'Bone Man played and Maisy winced at the words that she heard.

"Don't ask my opinion, don't ask me to lie, then beg for forgiveness for making you cry… making you cry. Cos I'm only human after all, I'm only human after all, don't put your blame on me. Don't put your blame on me."

Well, Loki wasn't human, exactly, but Maisy felt the same idea applied. Asgardians made mistakes too. They just made… more violent mistakes.

"I'm only human, I do what I can, I'm just a man, I do what I can, don't put the blame on me, don't put your blame on me."

As the final note played Maisy felt herself crying again and she tossed the phone off the bed and stuffed her face in her pillow.

Loki might have made mistakes like everyone else, but killing someone on purpose was an awfully big thing to let go. And she would blame him for it because he'd done it. And she'd blame him for trying to manipulate her because he'd done that too. But… that didn't mean she was still mad at every little thing he'd done. And it didn't mean that she didn't still love him.

Remembering her dream and feeling queasy, she realized that if it really came down to it, she'd much rather have Loki kill Egil than the other way around.

A note from the author: It's a short one, I know, but I'm going to post another chapter tomorrow. You might be saying: "you always say that you'll probably post two days in a row, SGQ, but you never do!" But I usually say that I'll probably do it. Now I'm saying that I am going to do it. So if I don't do it then I'll be a liar and I ain't a liar. So check back tomorrow! When I will definitely be posting another chapter unless Wi-Fi for my whole state goes out.

Thank you for being patient with me everyone! And for reading/reviewing/following/favoriting!

Special thanks, as always, to my reviewers:

Cheetah Lover: You know I love my drama!

xlokiswolfx: I'm probably banned from the PFoD for the moment, but I'm sending y'all a box of sweets to apologize for my bad behavior. ;)

Ninja Squirrel: Thanks for the suggestion about the video game stuff. I will keep that in mind! I probably won't start playing video games any time soon because I have so much going on, but if I do then I know how to do it! Never apologize for nerdiness! Nerdiness is awesome and we are on one of the biggest nerd sites lol. ;) We're all nerds here.

Dragoncat: I feel like I say this all the time, but once again: we shall have to wait and see!

You guys are, as always, wonderful, and super encouraging!