Chapter Seven:

"Stark, grab your keys for your metal horse. Loki needs to you to take him to this address. Ms. Potts handed it to us, it is one of the midwives. She was unfortunately called away. I can not find Steve and Loki does not trust me to attempt to control the car," Thor said, walking into his garage, dressed as civilian as Thor would ever get.

"Did you forget we decided it was best for me not to draw attention by coming along? Loki can't drive?" The address written out on the scrap of paper was at least five hours away. Thor and Loki had already vetoed all the women in the surrounding area, so Pepper had expanded her search.

"Just get the keys Tony. I have no idea where the hell I'm going," Loki snapped at him as she followed Thor into the garage. She barely looked like she should be up and walking right now, let alone going on a five hour trip somewhere. Her curls were tossed back into a half assed ponytail and she was wearing sweatpants. He didn't think Loki would normally be caught dead in those. "You can stay in the car. Most of them are tinted anyway." She sat down in a chair looking exhausted as she waited for Tony to get his ass of his own chair and find his keys, arms wrapped around her stomach. Tony felt like he was walking on eggshells when he finally found his keys and helped her out of the chair and to the car.

Thor slide into the shotgun after they made Loki comfortable in the back and he turned on the GPS, typing in the address Pepper had written out and studied Loki through the mirror. Her head was tipped back against the seat and her eyes were closed. She looked ill. He handed Thor a bottle of water to give to her.

"Loki, drink this," Thor said, reaching back to hand the water to his sibling. His big forearm hit Tony in the shoulder as he twisted. Tony couldn't see what was happening now through the mirror, Thor's body blocking the view. He felt Thor move forward abruptly and he jerked the steering wheel out of shock, swerving onto the shoulder, and Loki uttered what sounded like a curse. Crap. What the fuck was happening? They were out in the country, miles from their destination. The car slammed into the telephone pole before he could stop it.

"Tony, how much farther are we?" The question made him panic and he tried to keep it out of his voice.

"Why?" He knew before they even said anything what was happening. They were still four hours away. He had driven away from any sign of life and there were no cars passing by. The hood of the car was smashed in and it would take time to fix. They were alone, with a now in labor goddess who was as helpless as a mortal at the moment and clueless as to what the hell to do. He really wished they'd stayed home.

Forty minutes later they had the seats pulled back so that there was room in the backseat and Thor was standing to the outside of the car, the door was open. Tony had so far been able to hold in his panic because he was arguing with Loki about calling someone, anyone. She was refusing, saying that she'd done this before all by herself, the first time. Thor had quietly reminded her that she'd been in the shape of a horse at the time, that she'd been lucky she hadn't died, and she'd lashed out with all her strength to kick at her brother.

"None of us have any idea what the hell we are doing here!" She shot him a poisonous look, hair plastered to her forehead and breathing heavy. And he refused to look at the mess in his car but there was something a lot like blood there. Was there usually blood in the pre-birth? He cursed that he hadn't bothered to read about that while reading the how to parent books.

"Fuck just...just help me sit up. Thor! Don't you dare, I know what you are thinking. Promise me! Don't you dare!" Her angry words let off into a silent scream as a contraction hit her and Tony grabbed her hand, which promptly almost crushed his own fingers.

"Loki I do not like this. You refuse to let Stark call a helicopter, something must be done," Thor argued. Loki had stated that she didn't trust that his helicopters couldn't be replaced and hijacked in the space of three seconds and that he wasn't to call 911 because of tracking devices on his phone. How the hell had S.H.I.E.L.D done that without his knowledge was something Tony would worry about later, but he was getting to the point where he didn't care. How had no cars at all passed them by within forty minutes. He knew because he'd been glancing out the window every minute hoping to flag someone down.

"Don't do what? What do you want to do," he asked Thor and he felt Loki deliberately squeeze his fingers harder at the question. Her lips were bitten through and he could see spots of blood there and he saw her shudder.

"Don't you dare. I mean it," she hissed out through the contraction, "Don't. I swear I will really kill you this time."

"Do what," Tony heard himself snap out, voice raised. Thor looked torn between worry and guilt.

"Too many in childbirth die without help Loki," Thor said, "Do you want that to happen? Magic won't help you right now."

"That's a risk I'll take! Tony...just...look for me, see how far apart I am," she breathed out. Tony's eyebrows shot up and he felt his heart start to race, "Do..do what? No. I don't...I can't. Weapons makers aren't designed for this. I'm not...no, not if this is going to end up killing you."

"For fuck's sake, I won't die. And if I do just make sure she survives," Loki complained, eyes holding a pained, manic gleam to them. Tony felt himself go numb at the thought. Her voice was barely coming out, even through the contractions, and her head collapsed onto the back of the seat. He shot a panicked stricken look at Thor, who was wrestling with himself.

Loki uttered a cry at the same time that a loud, thunderous sound seemed to shake apart the ground beneath them. He could see Thor's look of shock but he didn't look away from where Loki was now trying to scramble, feebly, past him to get at something. He felt like the world was in a daze as he was suddenly pushed away by a blonde woman, voice low and commanded as she told Loki to push.

He looked out the window and saw a...pirate. Or a guy with an eyepatch. He was blonde and large and Thor was arguing with him, an arm out in a gesture that looked like he was keeping him back. He looked at the woman helping Loki, who was making Loki desperate because she was shaking her head and muttering no. Fuck.

Tony had never felt more helpless in his life. Which was saying something considering the months he'd spent as a prisoner of war. He'd built the Iron Man suit in that situation and in this one, well, he hadn't thought to bring it. He cursed his lack of foresight and shot anxious glances between both situations. The two arguing blonde gods and his own god currently in a lot of pain and giving birth to their daughter.

It was a surreal situation. The kind of stuff you expect to happen in a comedy movie or an episode of Friends, not in real life. Course anyone would tell you this would be Tony Stark's luck. All his careful planning and it goes down the drain because his royal brat of a mother to be hadn't picked a damn midwife before the baby decided it was tired of being inside mommy. It was like having an out of body experience and one in which he could hope was a nightmare, but knew wasn't. He tried to think of a what to do. Anything to do.

"You need to push, just one more time," he could hear Loki's mother telling the tired woman, voice sounding far away. He looked at her face, strained and panicked. Frigga hadn't bothered to look at him, focused on birthing the baby and he wondered if there was some way he'd be able to grab at her or something if they had to find a quick way out of this situation. She'd probably be able to kick his ass, she'd raised Thor and Loki after all, but anything was worth a try.

Loki let out one last shuddering gasp and then Tony heard the most beautiful sound in the world. His daughter. Crying. He looked at her. She was perfect. Skin just as pale as her mother's, tufts of dark hair on top of her head...no tail, though at this point Tony doubted he'd have cared. He wanted to reach out and grab her out of Frigga's arms. He didn't need to. The woman placed her in his own arms, her small weight feeling like the world. Loki had tears on her face and Frigga was muttering some other things. The afterbirth. He was going to have to get rid of this car, no way it was ever going to be clean again. Already making mischief, this little one.

He chanced to look away from his little girl's bloody face and saw Odin had overpowered Thor and was moving towards the car. Fuck. The one time Thor didn't have his damn hammer. No...wait he had the hammer, it was just being carried by Odin. Had there been a brawl when he wasn't looking? Loki looked tired and was scowling, a glare fixed on Odin like Tony's never seen on his face before. Yeah his. It seemed that his body had abruptly shifted back as soon as it could when the labor was over, his energy and magic still drained, but no longer needing to hold on to the female form.

"Loki," the man boomed...well it sounded like booming. Asgardians had clearly never learned the value of inside voices. Loki abruptly wrenched himself away from his mother, who'd been trying to wipe the sweat off his face or something, Tony wasn't quite sure. Numbly he handed the baby to Loki, who held her with a death grip and stepped in front of the door to the car, blocking them from view. He was keenly aware of the fact that he was outmatched. He'd have been outmatched even if Odin wasn't carrying that hammer, but he didn't care.

"Back away, now."

"Move boy, this is nothing that should concern you," the man said. Tony stood his ground.

"I'm that girl's father, this concerns me more then it does anyone but your son," he replied with an edge to his voice that normally would have sent people who knew him to be far away.

Frigga let out a tiny gasp from behind him and he heard Loki's low, male voice speak next, "Tony move out of the way, now." He looked back over his shoulder and felt himself start in shock. He saw Thor move forward to get at his mother and drag her away.

Loki was pointing a gun at Odin. A gun. Which he had apparently hidden in his car at some point. He moved to the side and Loki shakily got out of the car to stand.

"Loki, son, what are you doing?" It was Frigga who asked the question. Odin's face was unchanged from the same blank as steel expression he'd had when Tony had stood in front of the car door. Loki's on the other hand was angry and fierce and brought to mind wolves protecting their young.

"I will not let you take her from me. I could do nothing before but I will use this. It's no mortal gun, I've altered it. Take one step near me and you will take no more," he said, gun straight and aimed at his adoptive father.

Thor and Frigga shifted, Thor clearly wrestling with himself about what to do, his brother was after all threatening his dad but for a good reason. Tony was all on board with the plan to blow Odin to hell.

"You have it wrong Loki. We are not here to take her from you," Frigga said. Loki kept his eyes on Odin, but Tony looked at her. She seemed desperate, he wondered if she was lying. Would she lie?

"Tell that to every other child I've had. If you can find them," Loki spat out bitterly. Tony could hear his daughter crying.

"You never understood," Odin spoke, "You never understood that what I did, I did to protect you. Fenrir and Jörmungandr were killing you, they needed to much from you. Your magical energy would not have lasted, so I took them where they could grow without harm."

Loki let out a shuddering half mad laugh, "And Hel? What was so wrong with her? What did I need protecting from with her?"

"I made a mistake. It is hard to admit to. I believed the child dead as she was born and I took her away before you could see. Your mother and I wanted to spare you the pain of a dead child. It was only after that I learned she had lived, been found and taken in by a family in Niflheim."

"And yet never brought her home. You left her there. Was I so unfit to be her parent?" Loki sneered. He hadn't put down the gun. His grip on it had tightened but his hand was shaking. Whether from nerves or from exhaustion Tony wasn't sure.

"She loved her adoptive parents. I did not want to rip apart their lives. It was why I never told you the secrets of your own birth, I felt it better you did not know. What did it gain you?"

"Liar! You never cared about me."

"Loki, we love you." It was Frigga's voice that said it and Thor let go of her as she moved forward. She obviously wasn't too worried about being shot with the gun because she didn't hesitate to envelop her son in a hug. Loki made a move as if to pull away, looking over the top of her head at Odin.

"All of us." Tony caught the gun as it fell from Loki's hand. Thor was taking the hammer back from his father, apologizing for trying to hit him with it. The baby was still crying, and still naked. Tony shrugged out of his jacket to wrap it around her.

He opened his mouth to speak, "So...does that mean I don't need to get killed while I give them the chance to run away? Cause I'm fully prepared to do that." He wondered if putting his foot in his mouth was a talent that would endear his daughter's grandparents to him. Thor laughed.

"Killed? For what? Doing what any father would do?"

Tony shrugged, "Well...you know, situation kind of makes it sound like you're the big bad wolf who eats children walking through the woods. So yeah, prepared to die." And he had been. Not even when he'd been dying a slow death by poisoning those months with the palladium had he been so prepared to die for something. His daughter's tiny fist waved out of the jacket. She had red eyes. They were beautiful actually.

"You wouldn't have died," Frigga said. "You are no longer a mortal man Tony Stark."

He didn't miss the look of genuine surprise that Loki shot his mother before his brain froze.