Maisy took a surprised step away from who she'd thought was Odin. She now doubted that assumption but she could not allow herself to believe what every cell of her body wanted to believe. If she went down that road she wouldn't be able to pull herself together after finding out it wasn't true.

"What are you talking about?" She said, taking another step away from him.

"It's me," he smiled brightly and the old man's face shimmered and was replaced by one much paler. Green eyes shone at her and an all too familiar smirk stretched across his lips. Odin was no more, replaced by the face of her dead husband.

"No," she shook her head, "It's not. It can't be."

"Maisy, I know I've put you through a terrible ordeal-"

"You're just another nightmare!" She yelled at him, closing her eyes so that she couldn't see the inevitable death blow. It came in every one of her dreams of him. Every time she saw his face she would see his death a few seconds later.

"I am not," he pursued her as she paced circles around the room, "It's really me, I swear!"

"Go back to being yourself, Odin," she snapped, "I'm not going to watch Loki die. I've had just about enough of that."

"Is that what your nightmares have been about?" He asked, snatching her hand and pulling her closer.

"No!" She screamed at him, "I'm not watching you die!"

"Hush, someone will hear you," Loki covered her mouth with his hand, but the damage was done. Thor burst into the room and that was all it took for the illusion of Loki to shift back into Odin.

"What is going on in here?!" Thor demanded.

"She has become over excited," Odin rubbed his forehead tiredly and backed away from her, "She was hallucinating."

He was admitting to it. That meant that it had been her imagination fooling her again. Just like all of the night and day mares about Muspelheim and Egil and Loki dying. She was beginning to wonder if these wretched dreams would drive her to complete insanity. If she was beginning to think Odin, of all people, could possibly be Loki in disguise she must really be losing it. She was glad she had refused to believe that the vision was real or else she might have ended up doing something embarrassing. She'd been too close to throwing herself into his arms.

"The nightmares?" Thor asked her gently.

"Loki said that it was a spell," she whispered, "Or a curse or whatever. That someone created the nightmares and put them in my head. He was going to figure out how to get rid of them… as soon as he got back."

"Surely one of our healers or another sorcerer can-" Thor started.

"I will take care of the matter personally," Odin said decidedly.

"No," Maisy glared at him, "I'd rather live with it then let you mess around in my head."

"Be reasonable," Thor put a comforting hand on her shoulder, "You cannot go on like this."

"That's not important right now," she shrugged off his hand, "What's important is convincing your father that I cannot stay in Asgard."

"I see all the more reason to keep you here now," Odin clasped his hands behind his back, "It would be irresponsible of me to send someone in your condition back to Midgard to be prodded by their scientists under the pretense of aid."

"I can get it under control," Maisy said, "I'll get some sort of anti-psychosis med or something!"

"And risk harming the baby with drugs?"

"I-" Maisy hadn't thought of that, "Ugh."

"Thor, I know that you see it as your duty to protect her, but surely you can see that keeping her here is the best way to do that. With Tyr dead there is no reason she would not be completely safe in Asgard."

"He said he had a helper!" Maisy blurted quickly, "Someone who put those exploding blood packets in our bed to frame Loki for my murder! There is still someone else here who might-"

"Surely he meant one of his henchmen."

"That's not what it sounded like to me," Maisy replied, "If you keep me here then his helper will probably try to kill me."

"Then I will increase the guard around your room," Odin waved his hand dismissively, "You will stay here."

"Thor," Maisy turned to her brother-in-law imploringly, "Thor you don't agree with him, right?"

"You would be safer here," Thor responded quietly, "Loki would want you to be safe."

"He would," Odin agreed quickly, "You want to honor his wishes, don't you?"

Maisy could feel her rage beginning to boil. She'd thought that the time of idiot men trying to protect her was behind her, but it would seem that every male in her life was obsessed with keeping her delicate little self safe. Her father, Egil, Thor, Odin (though he'd certainly changed his tune over the past year), and, though he'd gotten better about it, even Loki had repeatedly argued with her over issues of her safety. Enough was enough.

"He would have never forced me to stay against my will," she seethed, taking a menacing step toward Odin, "And even if he would want me to stay, I will not be trapped on Asgard like some helpless pet who can't look after itself!"

Odin and Thor exchanged a look.

"Maisy-"

"No. I am going to Midgard and that's final."

She turned to go, but was stopped by Odin's hand on her shoulder. Spinning to face him and possibly cuss him out, she stopped when she saw the gentle expression on the old man's face.

"Very well," he said quietly, "You may leave."

"I… I may?"

"But please," his eyes shone genuinely, "Give me one more chance to convince you that staying would be best. Tomorrow evening, have dinner with me and we will talk. If you still wish to leave Asgard by the end of our discussion then you are free to go."

Maisy considered it and decided that she could give the old man one more chance, though she was prepared to run at the first sign of him forcing her to stay. She would not be caged again.

"Fine," she offered her hand and he shook it, "But I want to do breakfast instead of dinner."

He scowled briefly.

"I have matters to attend to in the morning."

"Then I guess I'm going back to earth."

"Alright! Alright," he grumbled, "Breakfast it is. At… eleven?"

"Eight."

"Oh come now," he chuckled lightly, "At least ten o'clock."

"Nine. Not a minute later, Odin."

"Very well. I shall be there."

Maisy and Thor left the study and began walking back toward her room. On the way they were greeted by the Warriors Three and Sif. Hogun didn't look even slightly apologetic for capturing her.

"Oh Maisy!" Sif exclaimed, wrapped her in a stiff hug. It wasn't that the lady warrior meant to be stiff, she was just terrible at giving hugs, though she tried her best. Plus, her armor and various weapons made for an uncomfortable embrace.

"Hey Sif," Maisy said, forcing a smile, "Haven't seen you in a while."

"I was at the funeral," Sif said, "I am so sorry for what you've been through."

"Thank you."

"We all knew he'd break your heart," Volstagg sniffled, "I just hoped it would be in a way that allowed for us to punch him in the face afterward! I am going to miss that trickster terribly!"

"Now, now," Fandral patted his friend's shoulder, "Just remember the time he gave you a cake made of cleaning sponges and you'll feel better."

"Ah, you are right," Volstagg shook his head and then wiped his eyes, "But at least the frosting was delicious!"

And then he was crying again and Maisy couldn't help a chuckle even if she still felt miserable. She enjoyed the warriors' company as they escorted her. They all had many tales of Loki that warmed her heart, stories she knew he would have never told her himself because they weren't always the most dignified.

"...and then, try as he might, he could not get his foot unstuck from the bucket," Fandral recalled, "He had to hobble around with it all day until his mother could get it off!"

"Oh Norns, Frigga had to put up with so much from him. And the rest of us for that matter," Sif said, "Remember the time he drank a truth potion meant for a criminal?"

Thor laughed heartily at this point, though he'd been silent through most of the walk.

"He was a teenager at the time," the prince explained to Maisy, "And he thought himself in love with Sif back then. He didn't realize that he'd had the potion until he'd confessed how he felt and told her - tell Maisy what he said, Sif!"

"He told me that he was distressed because he feared that Thor and I would marry one day and he said that he planned to do his best to prevent that from happening," Sif rolled her eyes, "Frigga was furious when she found out he'd been in her potions. At that time, if I recall correctly, he and she had been arguing rather a lot. But with the truth potion…"

"My brother has always been - was always partial to our mother. Even when he was mad at her," Thor grinned, "He told her how much she meant to him because of the potion and that softened her heart."

"But she still made him work with the healer's for two months as punishment," Sif snickered, "He would not stop complaining about how many potion bottles he had to wash every day. I think he complained so that he wouldn't have to talk about the things he'd said while under the influence of the truth potion."

"Probably," Maisy snorted, "He was really good at changing the subject to avoid conflict."

"I don't know how you put up with him for as long as you did," Fandral shook his head, "Even more shocking is that you convinced him to live domestically on Midgard!"

"Did he get into as much trouble there as he did here?" Volstagg asked.

"He didn't do anything too crazy," Maisy grinned, "Unless Linn was around. They once brought home a puppy that they found in a dumpster. It didn't go well."

"What happened?"

"Well… they thought it was just a really, really dirty puppy and that once they gave it a bath then it would be cute and fluffy," she pinched the bridge of her nose, "So they hosed it down in the shower and used a full container of dish soap to wash all the grime off."

"How sweet!" Frandral exclaimed.

"Except once they got it all clean we had a very fluffy and very large rat, but no puppy to be seen," she shuddered, "I told them that the squeaks it made were not just 'shy barks'."

"What did you do with the rat?"

"Linn wanted to keep it, but it bit Loki so he put it in a box and delivered the box to Mr. Stark."

"The chaos that ensued..." Thor chuckled, "Steve thought that we ought to kill it when it escaped its box, but Tony would not let him. He bought a fine cage for it and took it to an animal doctor. Once it had been given all of it's vaccinations Tony gave it to one of his employees as a pet. She loved it. Named it after Loki."

"Ah! A happy ending!"

"Except non-rat-Loki had to get a tetanus shot because of the bite and he was a big baby about it," Maisy said, "He kept saying that he didn't need a shot because he was an Asgardian and all that crap, but I wasn't taking any chances."

They laughed and recounted more stories about Loki even though it didn't take them long to walk Maisy back to her room. They stood outside the door and told tale after amusing tale. Loki had done a lot of embarrassing things in his youth that Maisy was glad to hear about. It kept her from worrying over what she was going to do if she kept having her horrid nightmares.

She knew she'd have to come up with a solution for them eventually. Maybe she could talk with a doctor on earth about it. However, Odin might be right. If the doctors knew that the root of her dreams was a magic spell they would want to study her. That would be a nightmare in itself.

Perhaps she ought to agree to let Odin take the curse away. She had her doubts that he could do it, though. Powerful as he was, he'd never seemed to her to be particularly tactful. And if she was going to have him poking around in her head, she did not want him trying to rip the spell out by force and causing the flaming hallucination again. It had been bad enough when someone she trusted was trying to do it, she didn't want one of her least favorite people on Asgard to touch her. But… she couldn't exactly go on like this either.

So, she resolved to talk to Odin about it during their breakfast the next day. In the meantime, she would enjoy more stories about the ridiculous amount of times Loki had stabbed his friends while growing up and try not to miss him too much.

A note from the author: Hopefully this chapter made sense. When I wrote it and read over it before it made sense to me, but when I read over it just now I was kind of confused. That could be because I'm practically falling asleep, but if anything doesn't make sense to you be sure to let me know and I will be happy to try and clear it up. :)

Thank you so much to everyone for reading!

Special thanks to my reviewers:

MetallicarBaby: She and Thor will team up and murder Loki with affection and annoyance. XD

QueenBookDragon: He's a sneaky sly guy! You have to get up pretty early morning to out think this guy... well, maybe not because Loki isn't much of a morning person lol.

Ninja Squirrel: I hope your studying is going well and I'm happy to provide a little break for you! :) I too love it when couples find out they're pregnant. I love watching videos where the moms tell their partners that they are going to have a baby and then the dads get all excited about it! It's so fun to watch! And a lot of fun to write too!

Guest: Hopefully this chapter didn't bring it back to the sad taco vine... lol. All moments in life and fiction can be ranked on a scale of happy taco vine to sad taco vine.

Dragoncat: I know what you mean. I don't think I'll be able to finish my draft in November, but that's okay. As long as I get my word count goal then I'm happy. :)

You guys, as always, are the best! Thank you so much for the encouragement and I will see you in the next chapter!