Hela came home to a dark apartment. The only light came from the city skyline out the window and the light over the kitchen sink. The woman in the window seat had gotten up twice on the three-hour flight and hacked into her own open hand, and all the work emails in the world couldn't distract Hela from everything happening in a hermetically-sealed germ tube. How on earth did she feel more disgusting after one flight than she had after three days in a second-hand van?

Hela flicked on the light over the dining table and leaned against the door frame to peel off her shoes while Fenris bounced in place, waiting to run laps around the apartment. He'd been cooped up all day. She'd have to take him to the dog park some night to make up for it. Then his ears went back, and he growled.

"What's wrong, boy?"

He stared intently at the still dark living room.

"Amanda?"

Hackles raised, Fenris growled at the living room, and Hela leaned over the kitchen counter. She grabbed a knife out of the knife block but kept a firm grip on Fenris' leash in case Amanda was back with a friend. Though her roommate usually texted a heads up about these things.

This was supposed to be a secure building, damn it. She didn't want to fight off some freak while she was only wearing one shoe.

The couch creaked, and a bearded old man sat up, blinking.

"Shit!" Hela hurled the knife, and then it was quivering in the wall beside the TV.

"Helen! What the hell?" Odin hauled himself to his feet.

Dad? Standing in her apartment? How on earth-"How the hell did you get in my house?"

Not waiting for the answer, Hela grabbed Fenris' collar and hauled him to the balcony and nudged him outside. "Stay here. Good boy."

He whined but didn't try to push back inside. She shut the sliding door, and he stood close to the glass, glowering at Odin. Hela whirled on the old man who had invaded her home. He was entirely grey now, short grey beard, grey hair, grey suit. He glanced at the steak carver in the wall. "Is this how you greet guests, by throwing cutlery at them?"

"You're lucky I missed." If she felt bad, he didn't need to see it. She crossed her arms and shifted all her weight to one foot. "How did you get in here?"

"Your delightful roommate let me in."

Amanda.

"When I told her I was your father, she did a little Facebook searching and was more than happy to oblige."

Hela grunted. At least there'd been some thought. Had she not expressed She turned her back on him and went to the kitchen to get herself a drink. "I suppose it's not worth asking how you know where I live in the first place."

"You think I'd let my daughter move halfway across the country without knowing if she's all right?"

"Oh, right, because you're so concerned about your kids." She threw open the fridge and grabbed one of Amanda's fruit smoothie drinks. Something to keep her hands occupied.

"I really don't think—"

"Yeah, no shit." She slammed the fridge closed. "If you cared about those kids, you'd let them stay with Frigga."

"Helen…" The warning tone that she was pushing too far.

Hela flinched, hard. Then she gritted her teeth. "No, you know what? You act like you always know what's best for everybody, but that's fine. I've made a good life for myself without your help. But those kids? They love you, which is insane, but they do. A lot. But you're doing a bang-up job of that too."

"What I do with my children is none of your business."

"You made it my business when you abandoned those boys in Phoenix! You think you can come in here and yell at me, after what I did for your kids? Why are you even here? What do you want?"

"I've come to set things right." Odin dug around inside his jacket produced a checkbook from inside his jacket. "How much do I owe you?"

"You really are the worst." She curled her lips back in disdain. "I don't want your money."

"Then what do you want, Helen?"

"What do I want? I want you to treat those kids like they're more important than some pawns in a business deal. I want you out of my house. I want you to get my damned name right!"

He looked at her solemnly, the same cold, stoic look he had right before their fights. "You haven't changed, I see. You never listened to anyone."

Hela barked a laugh. "Really? Wonder where I learned that."

"You are a stubborn, selfish, destructive child."

"And you are an old man and fool!"

He swayed on his feet, and Hela paused in her tirade. Odin sat down hard, and the way the light from the living room hit his bowed head made him look like he'd aged ten years. He was, what, sixty-five?

"You're right."

Shit. Shit, she'd finally killed him.

Hela blinked and set her bottle down on the counter. Should she call an ambulance? Should she all Frigga? But Odin gestured to the seat beside him, cutting off her thoughts. "Sit down. I'm tired of this fighting."

She glanced at Fenris, who was staring intently at the old man. She grabbed her drink then sat down on the far end of the couch. Wary.

"I didn't come here to slog through the past. There have been enough battles."

Hela twisted the smoothie cap off without breaking eye contact. Maybe rage wasn't the right way to approach this, but she had to work to keep the suspicion out of her face. She didn't want to sit and listen to him, but she had thrown a knife at him, so maybe she owed him a few minutes.

"I spoke with the boys this afternoon. Loki expressed some… concerns about the proposed custody arrangement."

Her eyes narrowed. Odin leaned back, and she knew he was surprised even if his face didn't show it. "You really do care about them."

"I'm not a monster." Hela took a swig of the smoothie and grimaced at the sweetness.

"I always imagined that you resented them." When she just stared at him, Odin continued. "After more consideration, I've decided to give custody over to Frigga. You were… not entirely wrong about the situation. It's been hard on us all."

Hela blinked. This had gone… differently than she expected.

"They seem very fond of you for having known you so little."

"They're good kids."

"Yes." With a distant look on his face, Odin rubbed his right knee. Wherever he had gone in his memories, Hela wasn't about to follow him. But then he stood. "I should leave you. Goodbye, Hela."

With that, Odin left for his hotel. Hela shut the door behind him and leaned against it, staring into space until Fenris whined outside. Shaken from her reverie, she rubbed her face and opened the sliding door. Fenris combed over the living room with his nose, sniffing every inch of where Odin had sat before running room to room to check for him. Satisfied, he followed Hela to the bathroom where she rinsed off the travel reek and changed into her pajamas. Then she fell face first onto her bed.

"Uuuggghhh."

A weird knot rested behind her sternum. It had been there a lot lately, and she wasn't sure she had the words to describe everything churning around in it. She should have been angry—would have. Even a month ago, she would have been all rage and pain and sharp edges. Those boys had done something to her. Maybe she was tired of being angry.

Bzz Bzz

She groaned louder and slapped at the nightstand a few times before finding her phone and holding it to her face, blinking against the brightness setting. Loki. It was two in the morning in Minnesota, why was he calling her?

She answered. "Hey, kid."

"Hi, Hela." She could hear him breathing loudly into the phone like there was something over his head. Was he under a blanket?

When he didn't say anything else, she prompted him. "Isn't it a little late for you to be making phone calls?"

"I miss you."

"I miss you too." She rolled onto her back and rubbed her eyes. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah. Is Fenris okay?"

"Oh yeah. He did all right on the plane." She snapped a quick picture of the dog lying belly up on the rug, tongue flopped out of his head, and sent it to Loki. "Thanks for taking care of him while I was in Chicago."

Loki fell quiet again, but his breathing came loudly through the phone.

"I think you need to go to bed, kid. I'll talk—"

"Dad called today. While you were on the plane."

Hela groaned and sat upright, and Fenris bolted to his feet, ears raised. Waving a hand to calm him, she took a deep breath before replying: "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Should she tell him that he had stopped by her apartment? No, that didn't seem right. Should she tell him what Odin said about the custody battle? Did he already know? "Did you talk to your mom about it?"

Frigga would know what to say. Hell, she had probably been there and already eviscerated her ex-husband for what he put the boys through. Odin's main strategy for dealing with problems had always been to cover them up. For a man who'd built an empire on aggressive business deals, she was surprised he'd conceded at all. But then she remembered him on the couch—old, thinning at the edges, entirely grey. Maybe he was tired too.

Loki's voice cut into her thoughts. "Yeah, Mom talked to him too. It was on speakerphone."

If he had talked to Frigga, why was he calling her? "Do you want to talk to me about it?"

More breathing and some rustling came over the phone. He was definitely hiding under something and getting tangled in it. "He said he was sorry," Loki whispered.

Loki whispered.

Hela inhaled. "That's good."

"I told him I want to stay with Mom."

Hela passed a hand over her eyes. Had she misjudged the old man after all? Maybe he wasn't completely made of self-interested stone. "I suppose you think you're brave now."

"Thor cried after. He thinks I didn't see."

That made the hideous knot in her chest worse. Shit. "Thor's... been through a lot. You both have."

On the Minnesota end of the call, a door creaked. "Loki?"

He gasped. Sounds of the phone tumbling came through the line. Frigga must have heard him talking because she said, "Honey? Are you still awake?"

"I can't sleep."

"You've had a big couple days, but try for me?"

"Okay."

Creaking hardwood, the sound of a kiss. "Good night, sweetheart."

"Night, Mom."

The door creaked again followed by more shuffling and Loki's breathing. They sat in silence for a long time before the door creaked again and a muffled psst came through the phone. More shuffling.

"Thor?"

"I can hear you talking through the wall."

"Oh."

"Is it Hela?"

"Hey, Thor," she said.

A mattress creaked over quiet arguing, and Hela sat patiently while they sorted themselves out.

"I wanna talk to her too."

"I'm sitting here."

"Then move over, stupid."

"You're stupid. You shoulda brought your own pillow."

"You have, like, seven pillows."

But eventually they figured it out, and Loki was breathing into the phone from a little further away. "Thanks for not ratting me out," he whispered.

Hela realized she'd been clenching her jaw and let it relax.

"When are you gonna come see us?" Thor asked.

"Yeah, I miss you," said Loki.

Hela smiled. "It's gonna be a little while, guys." She'd scramble to catch up with work for a while, but she still had a lot of vacation she hadn't touched, even with their cross-country drive. "But I'll see you again soon."

Loki huffed. "Like five minutes soon? Or soon you'll be grown up soon?"

"Not quite that long."

"If we come see you, can we get In-N-Out again?"

"Hmm." Hela rubbed at one eye. "Assuming your mother ever lets you leave the state again, I think we can swing that."

"And Disneyland?"

"Don't push your luck." The boys laughed, and a small smile played at Hela's lips. "You kids should get some sleep."

"Okay. G'night, Hela," they chorused.

"Good night, boys."

The call ended, and Hela eased back onto her pillow. Fenris whined and set his heavy head on her bed, nose against her thigh. Sighing, she patted the covers. "Oh, all right. As long as I'm being a pushover."

He hopped up onto the bed and curled into her side, a hairy hot water bottle that took up half the mattress. She curled up on her side and ran her hands down his flank. "Don't get used to it."

Fenris snorted.

"No. No, I think we're all gonna be okay after all."

The End