The second child, when Thor was just beginning to toddle around, was a surprise.

Hope blossomed fearful and sharp in her chest.

Hostilities had gathered and burst forth with Jotunheim some months before. And it was not some little difficulty that could be brushed aside as so many of Bor's confrontations were. The Jotnar bore a deep-set hatred for Asgard and her dominions. The heart of their Realm, The Casket of Eternal Winters, had breathed life into the frozen wastes of their land for time out of mind. But now their young and brash king, Laufey, would use it for a weapon.

Gravely, Odin spoke of a prophecy that told how the Casket's use could spawn Ragnarok itself.

So, kissing her tenderly and ruffling the hair of his bold young son, Odin had ridden out after his father.

Watching him go, she was afraid, and she held tightly to her little son.

Their second child was conceived during a visit he made to her during all the years of war. It seemed the war would go on for all time and she longed for him to be home with her. For him to take the weight of the realm from her shoulders.

Bor was wiser in his old age than he had been, wiser in time of crisis than ever he had been in time of peace. His counsel during wartime was not to be discounted.

The sharp joy she felt ached behind her breast.

But the child did not survive to term and the bringing forth of that one all-but killed her.

The knowledge of the little son who needed his mother and the king who needed his queen was the only thing that brought her through.

Physically weak, she survived, but she'd been broken deep within her and there was no way through the darkness that clouded her thoughts for many long months. Odin knew naught of her plight, of the depth of the night that all but overwhelmed her. She pretended for his sake, for that of their son – Thor, the tiny golden light who gave her her reason to keep on.

She knew she had to pull herself from the grasp of the darkness. Hostilities were far from done with Jotunheim, and her King needed to know he could rely on the strength of his queen. So it was with a grim kind of strength that she'd rallied herself and taken up all of her old duties, those of queen and more. The young King must be free to ride out with his father to defend the Realms without fear for his wife and his son. She would have to be strong.

If she could not overcome this, then she was unworthy of her station and her upbringing.

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It was too long. Years with only vague sightings of her Lord. Bor was slain. The Frost Giants lacked the strength to bring the front to Asgard, but not to Midgard, and the people there were in grave danger. Odin drove the giants back to their Realm, and finally, finally, news had come that he'd broken their spirit and they would surrender.

Her little son needed his father.

And Odin returned to her, lacking an eye, but bearing within his arms a stolen relic.

She'd been warned of his wound, but even that foreknowledge hadn't quite prepared her for it.

"Odin," she said. Her fingertips hovered above his brow and tears stung her eyes.

She was still reeling, when she noticed what it was that he held.

"I know how much you wanted another," he said, showing the child, "He could be of value to us in the time to come."

And she slapped him.

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It started - ALL of this started, to be frank – with me wondering what would have happened if, during 'Thor', they'd kept the post-banishment/pre-vault scene between Odin and Frigga, where Frigga confronted Odin about Thor's punishment. What would have happened if, at the end of the scene, Frigga had asked Odin where he was going, and he stopped, sighed, and told her that he was certain Loki suspected their secret, and that he was going to talk to him. Then Frigga would have gone up to him, put her hand on his arm and said, 'let me do it.'

In my head, when Loki demanded an answer from her, I imagined that she would have sat down on the steps, and told him to come and sit with her. Then she would have told him a story.

That was where I got stumped.

If Frigga and Loki were both the kind of characters I believed them to be, what story a.) would Frigga tell, and b.) would Loki believe?

And that's where this came from.

All this, "I took you because you were helpless," sounds like a lot of shit. No matter how true it might have been, it doesn't sound true. I thought this was more realistic, and, as much as it might be harder to hear, I thought he'd probably appreciate her honesty, and that would probably change the entire course of the movie from that point out.

I may still write that. But I have a lot of other things that want writing, and once I started that, I feel like I'd have to finish it, and then it would be a multi-chapter thing, just to prove that Frigga was better at communications than Odin. And was that even a question?

More on the morrow.