After everyone figured out what was going on, they were especially considerate to Tony for the next five days until the whole ordeal was over.

"I swear, I have got to engineer a way to get rid of all that 'period' stuff!" Tony complained to Pepper over coffee one morning. He was wearing jeans and a black scoop-neck t-shirt today, having taken Pepper's advice about his fashion choices.

Pepper chuckled. "You're smart, Tony, but not smarter than Mother Nature. Besides, your symptoms will probably mellow out after a few times." The sentence was out before she realized what she was implying.

"Pepper…" Tony asked. "How long do you think I'll be like this?"

"I don't know, Tony. I'm sorry. But it's not really that bad, is it?"

"I don't know; I think I'm starting to get how trans people feel. I still feel like a guy, but I'm stuck in… in… this! It's… uncomfortable."

"But as long as Loki's still a mini-god…"

Suddenly, Tony's face brightened as if with an idea. "Hold the phone! Maybe we don't have to solve this with magic!"

Pepper raised one eyebrow. "Tony, you're not thinking what I think you're thinking. I hope you aren't."

"Ohh, yes I am! It's science time!" Tony said as he pulled a cell-phone out of his pocket.

"But Tony, remember the last time you tried to use science to mess with magic?"

"Hey, Clint stopped barking after a while!" Pepper started to say something, but Tony held up a finger and mouthed the words, 'It's ringing!' There was a brief pause. "Hey, Jane! Yeah, yeah, great to hear from you too. Oh, well, yeah there's a reason I sound different. That's why I'm calling. How do you feel about getting over here and science-ing some shit up? Well, no, but it's way more fun to say it that way. Okay! Great! I'll see you in, what, five hours? Awesome! Bye!"

"You're grasping at straws, Tony." Pepper said.

"Maybe so, but I gotta try something." Pepper couldn't argue with that; they couldn't just sit around waiting for a cure to pop its head through the door. But she also couldn't help but think that trying to fix magic with science would get them nowhere.

Four hours and fifty minutes later, (Darcy drives fast) Jane and Thor were having a happy reunion in the lobby, and Darcy was hauling in lab equipment behind them.

"I am overjoyed to see you, Lady Jane!" Thor exclaimed as he picked his girlfriend up about two inches from the ground with his hug.

"It's great to see you too, Thor!" She said, kissing her lumbering god of a boyfriend.

"Great, I'm glad to see you two are so happy together. Here you go." Darcy pushed a suitcase into Thor's hand.

"Darcy!" Jane said. "That's the-"

"Big heavy science thing?" Darcy cut her off.

"Big heavy expensive science thing! Be careful!"

"Oh, it'll be fine. Thor's got huge god biceps, unlike me."

Jane rolled her eyes, and turned back to Thor. "So, where's Tony? We heard he got into a bit of a scrape, but he never actually told us what happened."

"Well…" Thor started.

"Right here, ladies." Tony said from the bottom step on the staircase. "Glad to see you could make it."

Darcy burst out laughing. Jane bit her tongue for a second, and finally managed to say; "So this is what you needed help with?"

Tony nodded. "This and our resident god of mischief."

That stopped Darcy's laughter. "Wait, Loki's here?"

"Yup. Loki? You coming?"

"Yes, ma'am!" At that Loki slid down the railing, landing expertly on the ground in front of them. "Greetings!" He said. "My name is Loki!" His smile widened when his eyes fell on Thor and Jane. "Ah! This must be the lovely lady my brother is courting!" He bowed briefly.

"Oh, no way." Darcy said, stepping over to the little tyke. "You're Loki?"

Loki nodded. "May I ask your name?"

"My name's Darcy. So… do you remember any-" She cut herself off when she saw Thor and Tony shaking their heads urgently.

"Remember any what?"

"Any… fun games to play around here?"

"Of course!" Loki said, beaming. "Follow me! I can show you a magical, amazing game Uncle Tony calls Angry Birds!"

Darcy smiled. "I'd love that! But I've gotta take care of some business with these guys first. Meet up with you later?" Loki nodded. "Alright." Darcy held up a hand for him to high-five, but Loki only cocked his head, confused. "Oh. You're supposed to slap it; it's a Midgardian thing." Loki did, and Darcy rewarded him with a "Good job!" Before he ran back up the stairs.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Jane turned to Tony. "He really doesn't remember anything?"

Tony shook his head. "As far as he's concerned, he was just playing with his friends and suddenly he was in a hospital on Midgard."

"Uncle Tony?" Darcy questioned.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Thor's idea, not mine. Come on; I'll brief you on the situation on the way to the lab."

He did, in fact, manage to fit pretty much the entire situation in the trip to the lab, (that's Bruce's lab, not Tony's; Bruce was always better at biology anyway) with Darcy laughing her head off the entire way there, and Jane trying courteously not to.

"So…" Darcy said, gasping as they approached the door. "So you just woke up? With boobs?"

"Yup." Tony smirked. "And a fine set, if I do say so myself." That just set Darcy off again. "And, here we are!" Tony opened the door, and they were greeted by a vast amount of desks, computers, fancy-looking equipment and microscopes. Bruce was leaning against a desk drinking a mug of coffee, and Loki was sitting on top of said desk playing Angry Birds on a StarkTech Tablet.

"Wow…" Jane marveled. "This is…"

"Shiny?" Tony finished for her.

"Amazing! Shiny too, but… wow!"

Tony smiled. "The perks of being a billionaire."

"Hey!" Darcy said, smiling in Bruce's direction. "It's the big green guy!"

Bruce smiled back. "Yeah, that's me." He took a sip of his coffee.

"Should you be drinking that?" Darcy asked.

"Decaf." He replied simply.

"Oh. Well then. Is it time to, as you say, 'science shit up'?"

Bruce rolled his eyes. "That's Tony's thing, not mine. But yeah, I think everything's ready."

"Alright!" Tony said, clapping his hands together. "Let's get to it!"

Three days and five hours of sleep later, they had nothing. Nothing useful, anyway; Darcy may have accidentally figured the optimal way to randomly place items in a knapsack, but they chalked that up to a sleep-deprived fluke. Other than that, they had basically zero helpful data on Tony and Loki's situation.

"Well… I think that's it." Jane said quietly. Darcy and Loki were both curled up in a corner somewhere napping.

"Nothing? Not a single shred of anything we could use?"

"Well," Bruce said. "We do know that Loki is aging."

"Yes, at the same rate any other seven-year-old would. What are we supposed to do, wait for him to grow up?" Bruce just shrugged. "Great." Tony said. "And in the meantime? What about me?"

"Well, there's always gender reassignment."

"Ohh, no." Tony said. "I am not going through that just because reindeer games over there can't keep his magic contained."

"Hey!" Jane said. "That's not nice, he's just a kid!"

"Yeah! Now he is! He used to be a big, grown up megalomaniac with serious daddy issues and a deadly weapon in his hands!" Bruce coughed pointedly. "What?" Tony said irritatedly. "What do you have to say?"

"It's just that, has anyone thought about what will happen when he has to turn back into that grown megalomaniac?" Everyone fell quiet, and Bruce continued. "For you to be turned back, Loki has to be a grown adult. The two sort of go hand in hand. And even if he was turned back, we're not even sure if he would help."

"Right." Tony said. "That… that's right." He sighed. "So… I guess we're both stuck like this, then?

"Not necessarily." Jane said.

Tony brightened and turned toward her. "Ooh! That sounds like you have an idea! Do you have an idea?"

She nodded. "Yes, well. I didn't want to resort to this, but there's someplace we could go."

Tony's face fell. "Oh no. You don't mean?"

"It's the only way I can see. Loki's going to have to take a trip back home."