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Chapter 13

Thor had hoped the promised breakthrough would happen before he needed to leave in preparation for the Odinsleep, but as the next few weeks passed it became less and less likely.

(Then again, Dr. Strange's prediction meant it could easily happen after he got back - no great help in Loki's care, but maybe Thor would be there to help him when the time came.)

Which meant having to get a still-amnesiac Loki prepared for his extended absence, which could easily be a week or more depending on when their father requested him and how long he needed to stay afterward.

Between helping with the set-up for meals, keeping Pepper company in the evenings as she read out loud on the off-chance language exposure might help trigger something, and carrying inert parts and supplies down to the ever more secretive Lab Of Secrets (as the sign Tony and Bruce made for the door with a piece of scrap metal and an optical etching tool named an 'industrial laser' by the Midgardians called it), by the time the message came from Asgard requesting Thor's arrival in a few days Loki seemed to find nothing odd with him disappearing for an entire day with Jane.

Merely as a test, of course, and for his own good on top of that, but the upstate property did have some fine spots for private picnics. And it made a good trial to see if Loki could even tolerate someone else feeding him.

Luckily for everyone, he could. He had his favorites and preferred Thor to anyone, but he certainly was not going to starve or die of thirst in Thor's absence.

Jane spent her fair share of time with Loki on some of her visits, too. She spent hours reading basic Midgardian science texts to him because according to her those were more likely to be of interest to him than the novels Pepper preferred. Something about depending on Earth cultural norms. Thor didn't quite understand it, but he trusted her judgment.

It was more likely a fellow mind of science would understand what would help Loki regain that part of himself, after all.

Bruce started doing the same once the friendship overtures he made every time Loki ran something to the lab 'took' and Loki began trusting him at a closer distance than 'the far side of the dinner table'.

Thor stayed as long as he could. They had managed to make a good landing and pick-up site for the Bifrost out of a clearing in the upstate property with Jane's help in selecting it, so he could leave the tower within hours of Heimdall's planned pick-up time.

The day he got the word via a letter dropped when he and Jane were picnicking, he and Steve switched rooms for the night. Loki was confused, but accepted it well enough that Thor thought he could handle being watched over by someone else for a while.

And besides, there was no other option.

Frigga was waiting on Thor when he arrived.

She came forward and hugged him the first moment it was safe. "Oh, I missed you."

"I missed you too." It was the longest he had ever been away from her, he realized, and every day suddenly weighed on him. "And Father. And everybody, really."

She held him at arm's length. "And Loki?"

"He is... doing better. He doesn't remember any more than he did, but he is doing better. And a human sorcerer of no little skill with minds claims he is close to a breakthrough - I was hoping it would occur before I had to leave, but that was not to be."

"But he is happy?"

"I would say yes."

"Good." She led him outside to where two horses were waiting after he nodded acknowledgment to Heimdall. "It's good to have at least one of you home, even if it is only for a little while. It's almost hard to believe it's been so long. Loki's birthday is nearly here again, and it seemed so far away when you two left."

They mounted and set off.

"Mother, what of the plotting against him?" Thor finally asked.

"A few of your father's warriors from the war knew. They had been sworn to secrecy, but they acted sometimes based on what they knew."

A girl Loki liked, and her father staring him away from her despite his rank as prince. The realization that either he had known or someone else had whispered to him that there was something 'off' about Loki burned through Thor.

But then, of course, when the revelation came she might have rejected him even if she had returned interest in him.

"Apparently the royal house of Asgard spending so much time caring for someone who was still to them a Jotun runt meant to... well, it set those most prejudiced against him off. They whispered the news in the ears of those most likely to be offended, and the secret was out."

"Damn it. Does Father have it under control?"

"Mainly. But Heimdall cannot read minds. At this point, when he cannot comprehend the danger..."

"It's not safe for Loki."

"No."

"I presume those caught have had their titles and possessions stripped, as is the law?"

"Indeed, but in some cases handed directly to the children who opposed their actions. In recognition of loyalty. With clear reminders that it was done out of your father's sense of justice, and need not be repeated in the future."

"Easy to be loyal when you know the alternative brings you down with the disloyal," Thor bit out.

"This was different. One turned in her parents, who we believe were the start of this mess. Another..." she sighed. "Sif needs your support more than ever before."

"Sif's parents?" Thor asked, confused. "I know her father believed her worthless in her womanhood, but..."

"Just so. She'd expressed her condemnation of everything in private to us shortly after you left with Loki, and a week later the guards found a meeting and..."

"Imprisoned?"

"Dead. Resisting arrest. Both of them."

"What?" he said with almost no voice behind it.

This was unthinkable, how could all this have happened, he hadn't even been gone for three Earth months!

Sif was waiting on them when they finally reached the stables.

Thor practically fell off the horse, he was so out of practice and desperate to get down. "Sif..."

"Prince Thor."

"Oh don't start that," he begged as he hugged her. "I... I'm so sorry..."

"Don't you start that yourself," she told him. "Their choice to be disloyal, their choice to defy the guard."

She was shaking in his arms anyway, and still was when she pushed away lightly enough for him to take the hint and let her go.

"How is Loki?"

"Better than he was when we left. I think having more people around him helped."

"I'm sorry I didn't try to help but... well, Father ordering me to 'leave royal business be for once' makes a lot more sense now, doesn't it?"

He had to agree.

"Shall I leave you two to catch up in private?" Frigga offered.

"No, Mother. Given everything... I think the privacy of the royal quarters would be better for this. Fewer potential unfriendly ears." A thought struck him. "The Three..."

"Hogun saw a Jotun grab Loki without burning him. According to the Allfather that appears to have been what made Loki suspect something was wr... different about him."

She is finally learning tact, Thor realized with no small amount of surprise.

"According to what all three of them told me after they told your parents, Hogun let them know after Loki's memorial feast, when we thought he'd must have died after going over the Bifrost. They kept secret about knowing it until the word got out and they felt the need to let the Allfather know they weren't involved."

"As far as I know, that's correct," Frigga confirmed. "Now come, let's get you two someplace you can talk."

Thor felt distinctly uncomfortable at the way Sif shivered when he finished describing Loki's current condition. "I..." She shook her head. "For someone like Loki to be in such a state..."

"The sorcerer says that for the moment he remembers little. This is the calm before he understands what he has lost and remembers the dignity he once knew."

"Dignity." She snorted. "I hope he remembers Volstagg's comment about his silver tongue turning to lead last of all."

"I hope he remembers it not at all, if that be an option."

An uncomfortable silence.

"I know about her. You're seeing her again, aren't you?"

"Yes." He felt no shame in the answer. There had been an understanding of sorts that he and Sif might one day be more than just friends, but nothing that would have been binding on any man, much less the firstborn prince.

"I'm having to do a lot of thinking now," she told him. "About everything they told me, about the things I learned from them that I hadn't bothered defying..."

"I understand. It would be a shock for anyone."

"Thor, what I'm saying is, I need time to find out who Lady Sif who stands without her father judging her is. A lot of time. And I really want to know who that person my father wasn't letting me be is before I even think of a formal courtship with anyone."

Aching in his brain. As if Loki's condition hadn't changed his life enough. "You're dissolving the understanding between us."

"No. Not dissolving. Pausing." She reached for his hand. "Thor, I need my friends to be my friends now. All right? And since it's going to take a Midgardian lifetime or more for me to sort myself out now, you might as well be free of entanglements while you wait. I may not even be ready until decades after she's gone."

He blinked at her. "Sif..."

"Thor, it's really all right. And besides, she's a scientist. If she gets you interested in such things beyond what's required for simple utility, it'll be good for the realm. Deities know Loki's never had much luck with it." She flinched. "Thor, I..."

"It's all right. She's been reading science books to Loki when she visits. Just in case it might help him recover his language skills."

Sif thought for a moment. "You said he's going to regain memories and abilities in chunks and that you're both staying in the home of a human scientist-inventor, complete with his personal labs close at hand."

"Yes. Your point?"

"He's going to be all kinds of dangerous depending on what he remembers when."

"That has been discussed..." Thor told her with a laugh at the thought of the look on Tony's face when he'd realized he needed to secure his labs in his own home after they let Loki know where they were so he could run safe errands.

It was good to be home, even if only for this little while.