It took Tony less than fifteen minutes to convince or confuse Thor into bringing Loki back to the mansion. Thor said the hard part would be convincing their mother. Which wasn't nearly as hard as they originally thought. Frigga gave Tony her blessing, since the healers were making no progress on their end. She insisted Thor tell her immediately if there was any news.

It was true that Loki's eyes had opened however there was no cognitive connection behind them. He stared straight ahead. Blinking was the only movement he unconsciously made. Though it thrilled Tony to no end to have Loki home, it unnerved him to see the vibrant god reduced to that of a breathing vegetable.

Thor sat Loki on the couch; Tony watched as he tried to make his brother comfortable. Though it wouldn't have mattered if he wasn't, there was no response either way. He was a living doll. Thor had walked past him and into the kitchen giving him a sad smile.

Tony pushed himself off the counter, setting his coffee mug down. Making his way towards Loki, throwing over his shoulder, "Does he eat?"

"No, that is all he is capable of." Thor said sadly.

"Don't worry big guy, we're gonna fix that." He crotched down in front of his god, speaking softly. "Hey babe. Let's see what we have to work with here, huh?" Loki stared straight ahead, his hands overlapping each other in his lap. "Jarvis, run a scan on our little string bean."

"Scan commencing."

Tony looked Loki over. He was thinner and had horrible shadows that rimmed his now hollow muted green eyes. It wasn't right. His hair was longer. Tony reached up to push a piece back into place. No reaction. He took one of Loki's hands in his and rubbed his thumb along the backside. Looking at them, his brows pulled together. His skin was never this warm. Maybe a side effect of the healers or being on Asgard.

"Scan complete."

"Results." He felt Loki's forehead; still warm.

"Mr. Laufeyson's vital organs are all functioning normally. His body temperature is at 101.3 degrees suggesting that he may have a fever. Brain activity is normal; however, there seems to be some sort of blockage preventing the commands that are given from reaching the rest of the body."

Tony turned to the thunder god, "How long has he had the fever?"

"I was unaware he had one." He came to stand near the engineer.

Standing, he grabbed Thor's hand. "What's the big guys temp?"

"101.5"

Releasing his hand, "Must be an Asgard thing then. You wouldn't happen to know Loki's normal body temperature, would ya, J?"

"It ranges between 67.2-89.6 degrees."

Nodding, "Keep an eye on that, I don't want to start experimenting until it returns to normal."

"Yes, sir."

"Thor lay him down for me." Tony disappeared into the kitchen and returned moments later with a blue gel ice pack. He laid it across Loki's forehead and the god closed his eyes. Hmm, maybe nap time? "Hopefully this will help. Any idea when Rogers will get here?"

"Within the hour. What do you need of me, Anthony?" Thor felt a little lost.

"Well, until he wakes up, don't call me Anthony. It doesn't feel right." Tony waved his hands around absently. "And change your clothes, stay a while. You look too battle ready. It's making me twitchy. Relax a little, Thor."

Thor's lip quirked slightly as he turned to go change. He knew what happened when Stark got 'twitchy'. He either got drunk or something exploded. Or, he got drunk and something exploded. For Loki's sake he needed Stark calm. Well, as calm as he could be in this situation. He returned moments later in jeans and a fitted t-shirt. He even pulled his hair back. "It this more acceptable, Tony?" He held his arms out for approval.

Tony looked him over and chuckled. "Yeah, Point Break, you're good. All you're missing is a surf board."

"What is a surf board?" He asked confused.

"I know what that is." Steve Rogers piped up. "I'll have to take you surfing sometime. It's a lot of fun." He looked at Tony who was sitting on the couch next to Loki. "Sorry I'm late. Jarvis let me in."

"No worries Cap. You didn't miss anything." He stood and walked to the liquor cabinet pouring a glass. Coffee was out, he needed something stronger. Pulling out a Stark pad, he began going over some schematics.

Steve put his things down, glancing at the sleeping god on the couch. "What are you working on?"

Tony had to give Steve credit for trying to understand technology. Although anything above the basic microwave went right over his head. And trying to explain what he was working on to these two knuckle heads; well, he would have to use small words. "It's something similar to how I pull power from the arc reactor to work the repulsers in the suit. Loki's magic has taken up residence in the core, so all I have to do is separate the energy and send it back to him. Easy, right?" Tony looked between them expectantly. "You guys follow?"

Both beefy super heroes had serious expressions on their faces like they were trying really hard. They nodded in unison.

"Here's the kicker, Loki's magic is still under the impression that I need protecting. So—"He concentrates so that they could see the magic flows down to his fingertips. "—this is as far as I can get." He held his hand out in Loki's direction and the magic disappeared traveling back to reactor, he took a deep breath at the surge of power, "So hopefully with some modification I can transfer his magic back to him."

The blond duo nodded again, trying to grasp just exactly how this was going to work. Thor and Steve were not stupid by any means, technology just wasn't their thing. "You two don't hurt yourselves. Just let me know when he wakes up."

They watched Tony's back as he retreated down to his work shop. Steve was use to giving and following orders but, right now he felt kind of useless. "What do we do now?"

Thor let out a long suffering sigh. This is what he had been doing for the better part of eight months. "Now we wait."

"Tony."

"Tony!"

"Stark!"

The music blared through the speakers of the shop as Tony busied himself with the sensors on his gloves. ""Jarvis, cut the sound." Not looking up from the tiny electromagnetic pad he was working on, "What's up, Cap?"

There were all kinds of floating graphs and screens Steve tried not to bump into as he came further into the shop. "Loki's awake. Did you want to take a break?"

"Jarvis, what's his temperature?"

"91.4"

"Not yet. When he gets below 87 degrees let me know. Thanks, Fancy Pants."

"Tony, how are you doing? Do you want to talk about any of this?" Steve said awkwardly. "Last time I heard from you, you weren't doing so well." He hated to see anyone in pain and knew Tony was doing his damnedest to cover it up.

God Bless Steve Rogers. He just didn't know how to let sleeping dogs lie. He didn't want to voice how much it hurt to see Loki like this. Yeah, it was a vast improvement from the last time he saw him, but still; this was not his Loki and it scared him to death to think that he couldn't bring him back from this, that he might lose him completely.

Setting down his tools he turned on his stool. Sighing heavily he rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. He wasn't going to get anything else done unless he talked to Rogers; appease him a little, throw him a bone and he'd be on his way. "I hate this. All of this. The situation, the emotional upheaval, the uncertainty of it all, the non-responsiveness, the—"he choked back angrily. Damn it, he was done with the tears! Shaking his head, he turned back to the work bench and began tinkering again.

Steve frowned; this wasn't his intention when he came downstairs. "Tony—"

"What if this doesn't work and I can't fix him? He's alive and breathing. That should count for something. I can't talk my way out of this. He has to be 100% completely revived or she'll take him." He turned back to face the all American golden boy. "Steve, if this fails I got nothing. There is no backup plan. This is it. For all the genius I've been given, this is all I can come up with. The magic variable is too unknown and I am running out of time."

Steve placed his hand on his friends shoulder. Tony glanced up at him; there was so much desperation and determination behind those eyes. He clapped his shoulder a couple of times. "Then I will leave you to it. If anyone can do this, it's you Tony Stark."

Tony smirked and snorted. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Cap."

Steve headed for the stairs. "I'll keep an eye on him."

Tony had worked until early morning when he decided to finally take a break. The mansion was eerily quiet for having four grown men living there. Passing through the living room on his way to the bar he noticed Steve had fallen asleep in one of the arm chairs, book still in hand. He quietly woke the super soldier and ushered him off to bed. Collecting his thoughts he stood outside on the patio listening to the waves crashing. He had always been more partial to the ocean view, whereas Loki enjoyed the tranquil repetitive sound of the waves. He supposed it reminded him of home. He had heard Asgard had an abundance of water. Yawning, Tony walked back inside, locking the door behind him. "Jarvis, where is Thor?" He asked in a hushed tone.

"Mr. Odenson is in his room. Shall I wake him?" The AI responded just as softly.

"That won't be necessary."

He opened the door to his room and sighed. Loki lay neatly tucked in on his side of the bed. Tony had insisted he stay in their room. It was theirs and that's the way it would stay. Looking at the god now; it was all wrong. Loki was such a wild sleeper; he always had the sheets twisted around him. Unless he made contact with Tony then the god would become still and gravitate towards his lover's side. It use to amuse him to no end when they first started their relationship.

He let the memory fade as he changed clothes. Sitting on the edge of the bed next to the god he watched him for a few moments before being brought out of his reverie.

"Sir, Mr. Laufeyson's body temperature is now 87.5 and holding."

"Thanks, J." He leaned forward and kissed Loki's cool forehead. Before calling for the lights and crawling into bed. Rolling on his side to gaze at the god's silhouette, he let his mind drift thinking about the days they had ahead of them. He gradually closed his eyes letting the gentle sound of Loki breathing lull him to sleep.