"I hate this city in the summer," Garret muttered. He, Max, and Loki shuffled out of the way as a mother raced by with a shrieking toddler, aiming for the bathroom behind them. "Everything's hot and it stinks… The people stink. I'm always sweating."

"At least we're inside," Max offered with a slight shrug. "There are ferry terminals outside, you know?"

"Yeah, well… I still hate it."

She could see him twitching, his hands constantly on the move and his eyes darting between the various clocks around the packed Midtown terminal. They had another seven minutes to go until the boats were supposed to start arriving, and ever since the ten minute announcement was made over the PA system, the room's noise level had shot through the roof. Everyone was anxious. Every single person there was waiting for someone they loved to get off a boat, and Max hoped that they'd see Tiffany amongst the new arrivals.

Loki's noisy sigh caught her attention, and she noticed him glaring at a few photographers snapping pictures of him from across the room. It seemed they were standing on benches to get the shots—at least they'd learned to keep their distance. His tantrum outside the Chelsea studio had made it onto TMZ last night, and Darcy had poked fun at him over dinner. Max, meanwhile, had spent the evening in a sullen silence, her mind too muddled with thoughts of Ben to participate in any teasing.

It had disappointed her that she wasn't able to talk to Loki about the pregnancy, but she just hadn't had the energy to do it after the news about Ben broke. When Loki had suggested they put off the discussion for another time, she was grateful, but it made the invisible weight on her chest heavy again. Soon. She couldn't put it off more than another day or two, but she needed to find the right time to take him aside.

Her initial plans for the day were to wallow in bed and think about her dead friend, but Garret had called her at six that morning with news that Tiffany might be coming into Manhattan today. Apparently a coordinator had contacted him even earlier that morning with the news that they thought they had a positive match for his wife. No one could know for sure: most in the prisoner camps had no identification on them. Still, Garret called her with hope in his voice, and asked if she would come with him for support. Now that he was back in her life, Max couldn't refuse. Mourning and moping could be put on hold for the potential of something great.

Not trusting a jittery Garret to drive them anywhere, Max asked for a town care to take them to the Midtown ferry terminal, and their driver was cruising around nearby—the parking lots were packed. Much to her surprise, Loki offered to come with her, and she had been pleased to see the men exchange pleasant greetings when they picked Garret up from his apartment at ten that morning. It seemed their initial friendship from Masonville hadn't wavered much in their time apart.

Everything hurt today. Garret's early morning phone call left her with a headache, her ankles were ridiculously swollen from yesterday's exertion, and her lower back had just given up. Did she want to be standing in a busy, hot ferry terminal? No. Was she annoyed that one family of three took up an entire row of seats with their bags and feet so that everyone around them had to stand? Yes. So much yes. But every time she looked at Garret, when she saw the nervous jiggles and the lip biting, when she listened to his rambling, she knew this was precisely where she needed to be.

Still, a part of her would have liked to climb on Loki's back and just hang there. At least the pressure would be off her aching limbs.

"Just ignore them," Max murmured, slipping her hand around Loki's and squeezing. His eyes narrowed at the men with cameras. "They're just looking to get a rise out of you."

"What if she's not on the boat?" Max turned her attention to Garret, sandwiched between his nervous energy and Loki's irritated one. "I mean… Tiffany's a pretty common name."

"She's somewhere." She nudged him and smiled when he glanced at her. There was a ring of sweat around his neck, and even in the weak air conditioning, there were stains under his armpits and on his lower back. Stress sweats were such a curse. "Why don't you go grab something to drink? She'll probably be thirsty when she gets off…"

"I'm going to say something," Loki growled, tugging away from her a little. "Turn one of them into an insect of some sort—"

"No," she snapped. She then yanked down hard on his hand to get his attention, and she glared when he looked back at her. "Keep your shit together."

"Max—"

"We are here for Garret," she said through gritted teeth, emphasizing each word. "Ignore them."

Jaw set firmly, Loki turned his back on the photographers with another huff. His stare drifted toward the empty docks, though she could tell his mind wasn't entirely focused on the here and now. Rolling her eyes, she reached for Garret and rubbed his back, careful to avoid the sweat marks. He was incredibly warm to the touch—it was like he was wearing a parka, not a pair of shorts and a thin t-shirt.

"Garret," Max said gently. She repeated his name when he continued to look between the trio of clocks around them, her hand going for his arm. "Take a deep breath."

"Sorry." His shoulders slumped a little as he shifted his weight between each foot. "Sorry, I just…"

"You don't have to explain yourself," she insisted, "but just try to relax a little. Tiffany's there. She's going to be on one of the boats."

Three were schedule to arrive in fifteen minute intervals once the clock struck eleven. They'd been informed by the security personnel that once they found their loved ones, they needed to exit the building to make room for all the new arrivals. There was a separate hall and a massive white tent outside for reunions, both of which were equipped with food, water, and a change of clothes if there was a need for it.

"There's one," Loki said a few minutes later, pointing over the crowd. "A ship's docking."

Max stood up on her tip-toes to watch the ferry arrive just as security personnel swept into the room to keep everyone away from the doors. Garret looked like he wanted to charge onto the docks, but there were just too many people in the room to do it. Instead, he started pacing back and forth, two steps each way, rubbing his hands together as he watched the windows.

Tiffany had better be on there. She had to be. Somewhere on the Hudson, Garret's wife and Max's friend was waiting to come home.

"They're coming off!" Garret tried to push through the people in front of them, but the barrier was too thick. Security barked for the crowd to clear a path, and after Max failed at pulling him away, Loki managed to tug at him just sharply enough to catch his attention.

"If you're in the way, she can't get inside," he reasoned, and Garret followed the duo to the back of the room. On an empty bench, he and Max clambered up so that they could see over the heads in the crowd. She placed her hands on Loki's shoulder to steady herself, and he moved so that he was directly in front of her, his hand on hers, stroking it with his thumb.

And then they waited. They watched family reunions, both joyous and tearful. They watched weary travelers trudge through the crowd to the reception hall, their eyes unfocused and their bodies beaten. Men and women alike disembarked, a few children in their clutches, but none of them were Tiffany.

Max couldn't stand to look at Garret when the crowd stopped arriving. His hand fumbled for hers as the boat pulled away and the room around them started to empty, and she tried to stay positive.

"There's still two more boats," she reminded him, smiling. "Two more."

Once the first ferry pulled away from the docks, the second eased in with painful slowness, and she had to wrench her fingers out of his grasp with a wince. The same scenario played out as it did the first time: security personnel read their instructions, and people pushed forward as the new arrivals stepped off the small boat. Nibbling her lower lip, Max stood on her tip toes, a little unnecessarily, to scan the crowd for a familiar face.

"Look!" It was Loki who spoke up first, pointing to the group of women exiting the boat. "Isn't that her?"

Max squinted a little, and then turned to Garret. Sure enough, Tiffany stepped off the boat and onto the dock hesitantly, looking more or less the same as when Max last saw her. Her auburn hair, usually perfectly styled, was a little unkempt. When Garret spotted her, he let out a strangled breath, and Max had to act quickly to keep him from falling off the bench—it seemed like his knees just gave out from under him. Unfortunately, he was too heavy for her to manage on her own, and Loki was forced to hold both of them up.

"See," she whispered as she assisted her unstable friend back to the floor. "See, I told you."

"Jesus Christ," Garret muttered, wiping under his eyes, his cheeks red. "Jesus fucking Christ."

No amount of tear brushing seemed to stem the flow, and as they waited for the woman to make her way into the hall, Garret leaned heavily on her. She could feel him shaking, but through it all, he'd found his smile at last.

Tiffany wasn't in much better shape. Once she spotted Garret from the other side of the security check, her face crumpled. As she handed her slip of paper over to the officer, she used the gate to hold herself up. With a few holes punched in her ticket, she was clear to go, and Max watched the pair fall into each other, fitting perfectly in one another's arms as other arrivals skirted around them.

Loki caught her gently by the arm when she stepped toward the pair, who looked as though they needed a steady hand to keep them up.

"Give them a moment," he told her, catching a few of her happy tears with his knuckles. She sniffed and nodded, seeing his point, but once the moment was up, she was on them, pulling her long lost friend into a hug.

"I saw you on the TV," Tiffany stammered in her ear, and Max held her tighter. "Y-You looked good."

"You look good." She pulled back and noticed that she and Garret were still holding hands. "Where were… I'm so happy you're okay."

"They had me all set up to be… carved out," the woman babbled, fat tears streaming down her cheeks. Garret's head bowed, his face screwed in what could only be described as agony. "But then they saw that I was pregnant and sent me up north."

Garret's head snapped up as Max's jaw dropped. Tiffany nodded, her hand resting on her stomach, and Max barely made it out of the way before Garret dragged his wife back in for another bone crushing embrace.

"How… How long?" he stammered, and Max felt a throb of something uncomfortable in her gut when she saw the unparalleled joy on his features now. He set his hands on Tiffany's somewhat swollen belly, his forehead against hers.

"Four months." Her eyes darted back to Max. "You're going to be an aunt!"

Her lower lip wobbled. "I'm so happy for you."

"Congratulations," Loki chimed in. Max flinched at his arrival, having almost forgotten he was there, and Tiffany stepped away from Garret to plant a kiss on Loki's cheek. He seemed somewhat taken aback by the gesture, but the small smile he gave her was genuine.

Although she was beyond thrilled that Tiffany was home, for some reason or another, she couldn't give the reaction she wanted to at the woman's pregnancy announcement. Somehow, the whole process felt tainted to her, and as a jolt of pain shot through her lower back and down her legs, she almost wanted to take Tiffany aside and spill some news of her own—and warn her that pregnancy wasn't all it was cracked up to be. However, before she could contemplate further, Tiffany grabbed her arm and shook her a little.

"Pat's on the boat too."

She blinked at the woman, whose borrowed clothes made her look bigger than she was. "What?"

"Pat." Pat? Pat who? "Patricia Benet, you dolt. Roommate and best friend—"

"Max!"

Everything was happening so quickly. One moment she was alone, and the next her life was inundated with old friends: normalcy loomed on the horizon at last. Pat pushed through a nearby family exchanging greetings similar to Garret and Tiffany, her arm in a sling, and threw herself at Max. She stumbled under the weight of her friend, her lifelong companion, her almost sister.

"You look like shit," she said in the blonde's ear. Thin, frail even, Pat looked like half of her former self. Those baby blues had lost some of their sparkle. Her usually luscious locks were stringy and sad. Her cheeks were gaunt.

But she smiled just as bright as before.

"You too," Pat mused, poking her side as she stood back to appraise her. "I've been trying to call you, you bitch."

"New number." New life, really. "I'm so sorry—"

She was sick of crying—happy and sad tears almost felt the same these days. Her tears set off Pat's, and after a security guard ushered them toward the reception hall, she wrapped her arm around Pat's shoulder and refused to let her go.

"You have to tell me everything," Pat insisted. She'd greeted Loki with the same laidback air she did when they first met in Masonville, insisting his name was still radical. It warmed her heart to see him return the pleasant persona, and she watched him go with Garret and Tiffany to pick up some of the free supplies at a few of the crowded tables. "Are you guys a thing again?"

"How are you still…" Alive. How was she still alive? Max trailed off, feeling the question was inappropriate. Maybe it was easier to talk gossip. "We are… I guess. Yeah. We definitely are."

Pat looked around the hall, twitching whenever there was a loud noise nearby. "Have you checked on our apartment? Is everything… still there?"

"Not quite," she replied, thinking back to her visit with Peter. "I left you a lipstick message on the mirror… Hope that's still there."

Her friend nudged her, lips curved upward in a tired smile. "You're the cutest."

"Pat…" Max searched the crowd until she found Loki and the others, and then turned back to face her. "I have so much to tell you. So much."

"Well, good." She winced when she readjusted the arm in the sling. "I have a lot to tell you too."

"But I can't do it tonight," Max told her. "I'm going to take you back to our place, but I… I have something that I need to do at the Avengers Tower."

"What?" Pat's eyebrows creased. "What do you mean? I can't… I can't stay there alone—"

"I'll be home soon," she promised, her voice dropping when the others wandered into her peripherals, "but I need to take care of something first. It's so important and I'm so sorry that it's happening today."

Her friend gave her a hard look. "I won't tell you how bullshit this is because I think you know."

"I do." Of course she did. She hated the idea of taking Pat back to their apartment and leaving her there, but she was resolute now: she had to tell Loki today. Watching Garret and Tiffany's emotional reunion, made even better by the baby announcement, gave her a renewed perspective on everything. They were ready to have their baby. They were overjoyed at the prospect. Max wasn't. She wasn't ready—and she didn't want to die. Loki needed to know before she booked the appointment with Doctor Fisher, and she couldn't let it go on for any longer.

But she pushed that out of her mind for now. As she walked out of the terminal, her arm around Pat, Garret and Tiffany leaning on one another in front of her, she felt like a few pieces of her heart were finally starting to heal.

When Max arrived back in her room at the Avengers Tower, Loki in tow, all she wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep the night away. After all, she'd spent the afternoon with Pat in their apartment, and her feet were killing her. It didn't seem fair to leave her friend with all the work of getting settled again, of cleaning up the mess that looters left behind. Plus, Pat was twitchier than usual with loud noises, with the shuffles of the people moving around upstairs, and she didn't feel right leaving her all by herself. With assurances from Garret and Tiffany that they'd be by after she left to spend time with her roommate, Max had left in a black town car, vaguely aware that there were paparazzi taking pictures of Loki as they sped away.

Still full from their late afternoon lunch, she had passed on Johnny's offer to join him and the kids for some pizza. Instead, she took Loki upstairs, her heart hammering the whole way, her stomach in tight knots. On top of the anxiety, everything else was still sore: ankles, feet, back, legs. It would have been easier to get into bed. As Loki shut the door behind them, she thought about what a nice evening they could have curled up together beneath the covers.

The humidity of the day had finally broken, and a storm raged down on the city just as they had returned to the tower. Thor was nowhere to be seen, but as Max watched beautiful streaks of lightning around the nearby towers, she wondered if he had anything to do with it. The city needed the rain. The heat needed to weaken, even if it was only for a few hours.

But she couldn't distract herself with the weather forever. Catching her reflection in the window, she marched toward their shared closet and kicked her shoes into it. They landed in the heap of shoes missing their other halves, and she quickly wondered how they had acquired so much crap over the last few weeks.

"Max."

She saw him seated on the edge of their bed, his hands clasped and resting in his lap.

"You wished to speak," he continued, nodding for her to join him. "So speak."

Taking a deep breath, she strolled toward him, opening and closing her mouth a few times in the process. The words were on the tip of her tongue again, and Loki's imploring gaze was more than enough to set them loose—it was her who was keeping them in. Stopping a few feet from him, she fiddled with the hem of her shirt, toes curling and uncurling on the tile.

"I've… I've wanted to tell you this for a while now," she said finally. Her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat, her hand going to her chest. Loki's eyebrows inched up his forehead.

"Yes?"

For a moment, she tried to think of something less earthshattering to tell him. Were there any other little secrets she could admit to? Something that wouldn't ruin them? However, no matter how hard she thought, nothing came to mind. So, she squared her shoulders and took another deep breath, this time looking him directly in the eye.

"I… I'm pregnant."

She could feel the colour drain from her face. The tips of her fingers had gone numb and cold, and her heart beat so soundly that she could feel it in her ears. It wouldn't surprise her in the least if her knees gave out and ended up with a concussion when she hit the floor. The room had gone excruciatingly silent, so much so that she could actually hear the air trickling out of the vent, powered by the building's turbo air conditioners.

Loki appeared to be studying her, his expression neutral, and her face screwed into a frown when he laughed. The sound was almost one of relief, and she watched the tension ease out of his shoulders as he stood, moving toward her with his arms outstretched.

"I thought you were dying," he breathed, pulling her into his embrace and grinning. "Max… I…"

Arms tightening around her, she stood still, his weight too much. His hands wandered up to her hair, and when he pulled back, he gave her a quick kiss.

"Why would you think I was… dying?" Never once had it occurred to her that anyone around her would think that. Sure, when the tower went down in flames, she figured Loki might jump to conclusions, but that was long over.

"Well, you were always going to the healer," he told her, smoothing her hair away from her face and bringing his forehead to rest against hers. "You are always ill and weak and tired… I… I thought you were diagnosed with some ailment…"

In a way she was. She bit her lower lip hard to keep from saying it. His smile was so genuine, his eyes so warm, and Max wondered briefly why she hadn't done this sooner. However, when his smile started to falter, his brows knitting together, she realized his glee was bound to be short-lived.

"Pregnant." Hearing him say the word made her cringe. "Pregnant? With… With…"

He pulled away, gesturing to himself, and when Max registered the look of hurt on his face, she quickly shook her head.

"It's yours," she told him. She wanted to both slap him and hug him for assuming otherwise. "Obviously it's yours."

Shaking his head, he ran his hands through his hair, and Max watched him pace back and forth for a moment. When he stopped in front of her, she took a small step back, the intensity in his eyes alarming.

"But we can't—"

"Yeah, I thought you were right about that too." She shrugged. "They've done some tests… That's why I was going to the doctor. It's not completely human."

There was still no telling how he was processing any of this yet. Max scrutinized his distracted expression, hoping that there might be a tell somewhere about his thoughts, feelings, emotions. Nothing. He reached for her twice, each time his hand falling back to his side before he could touch her. Finally, he pressed his lips together tightly and sat back down on the bed, moving like he had just been hit in the head.

"How are you feeling?" His hands sat gingerly on his knees, fingers tapping an unclear rhythm. Max swallowed thickly and sighed.

"Pretty shitty, to be honest."

His voice softened when he spoke next. "I wish you had told me sooner."

"I…" Maybe now wasn't the time to blurt out all her feelings at once. He had just been hit by a truck, metaphorically speaking, and her unloading the rest of her brain probably wouldn't do either of them any good. "I wish I had too."

He fell silent for some time after that, and Max didn't have it in her to interrupt his thoughts. Instead, she did a quick bathroom run and changed out of her day clothes, opting for something a little looser fitting. When she glanced back at Loki, she noticed him studying her abdomen. She hastily pulled her sweatpants up to hide the bump.

"Do they know… what it is?"

She shook her head as she dragged her hair back into a ponytail. This was calmer than she expected. This was manageable. "My doctor says there is human DNA, but—"

"No," he said, eyes still on her midsection. "Is it… a boy? A girl?"

"Oh." She swallowed down her emotions again, arms crossed. "Uhm. I don't know... It's too early to know that."

Loki nodded a few times. "Of course."

He sounded so far away. A bolt of lightning caught her attention on the other side of the rain splattered window, and she strolled toward him slowly.

"I had never given much thought to children of my own," he said suddenly, and Max's stomach lurched when she saw the small grin he wore now. "It had always seemed like such an improbability. But now…"

His grin flourished into a full-blown smile, and it was like someone had punched her in the gut. She shook her head as she closed the distance between them, her hands going for his shoulders.

"Please don't…" Smile like that. Please don't smile like that—it hurt too much. "I'm telling you now because I… I'm going to terminate the pregnancy. It seemed unfair to do it without telling you—"

She pulled her hands away when he shot up, his smile gone. "What? Why? Why would you… Max, don't be absurd."

"My doctor says it's an extremely high risk pregnancy for me," she told him, moving out of the way as he started to pace again. "I'm already experiencing a lot of normal symptoms at a much higher frequency, and… She said I could die. I don't want to die—"

"No one wants you to die," he snapped. "What does a human healer know anyway?"

"Nothing!" She planted her hands on her hips, defensiveness trickling into her stance. "That's a sign in itself that this isn't a good idea!"

"No, no, this can work." He stopped and turned on his heel to face her, his features imploring again, almost hopeful. "Come to Asgard with me. The healers there will be far more knowledgeable on the matter… They will keep you safe. They can keep both of you safe."

"I don't want to go to Asgard!" He flinched back at her words, and Max took a breath. There was no reason for either of them to get worked up. There was a mature way to handle this—right? "I… I don't want to go anywhere. I want things to go back to normal. I want my job back and my friends and my family and Sunday afternoons at Central Park, a-and… I'm sorry, but I don't want to go. I just want normal."

Loki pursed his lips at her, then huffed. "Well, I am not a part of your normal, am I?"

"Well, no, but that doesn't mean I want you to go anywhere—"

"Normalcy changes with you," he told her stiffly. "You can't deny that. This is where your life has taken you, and you need to adapt—"

"I don't need to do anything I don't want to!" She raised a trembling hand and picked at her hair, even though there wasn't anything out of place. "Look, I know you've mentioned it a few times, but I don't want to just pack up and move to Asgard with you. I like my life here." His eyes narrowed at her. "And I'm not just going to have a kid up there and bring it back and raise it by myself here. I'm sorry, but I'm not."

"No one said you needed to do that—"

"Well, I know you don't really want to stay here forever, so…" This was getting into areas they hadn't touched on yet, and she could feel that it was dangerous territory as she trailed off. Cheeks flushed, she wandered shakily over to the bed and plopped down. Ankles throbbing, she watched him glower at her.

"You're being ridiculous."

She bristled at his tone. "No, I'm not."

"You are."

"I'm not—"

"I have found a simple solution to this issue," he said, and it was then that she noticed his hands were balled into fists. "We could find more, I'm sure, if you took a moment to consider them."

"No, I've found my solution already." She wanted to grab a pillow and hug it to her, both for support and as a buffer from Loki's gaze. "Right now, termination is what's best for… everyone."

His scoff stabbed at her, and Max crossed her legs. Her whole body shook now, and she tried hard to keep her breathing even.

"You…" He pointed an accusatory finger at her. "You told me you wanted children. You've said it before… Two point five, I remember."

She opened her mouth, but no words came out. His memory was better than she gave him credit for: she couldn't remember saying it, but she was sure she had at some point. That was what she wanted, after all. Two point five kids, a loving husband, a stable career, a nice house. Finally, she nodded.

"I do want kids—"

"But not with me."

It was difficult to look at him without crying. She hadn't expected the pain on his face, the anger in his eyes, or the slight tremble in his voice. There was no telling what she had expected, but she'd played out every possible scenario, and this wasn't the one she would have bet on before.

"I…" There was no getting around it without making things worse, so she opted not to sugar-coat her response. "No, not right now I don't… I'm sorry."

He turned away, hands clasped behind his back now.

"You also said you loved me," he said, peering at her over his shoulder. Her eyes widened, letting a few tears slip free, and she stood.

"I do." And she did. With all her heart, she loved him. "I do… so much."

He moved out of her reach when she came toward him.

"Loki, this doesn't change anything," she argued, hurrying around him and stopping him from walking away. "I love you so much. When I picture the normal that I want, you're always in it… I just… This doesn't change anything—"

"Doesn't it?" He refused to meet her gaze, though he didn't pull away this time when she touched him. She ran her hands along his arms and stepped closer.

"No, it really doesn't—"

He wrinkled his nose, lips thinning as he pulled away from her, like her touch suddenly burned. "I've been a fool."

The words broke her heart. She sniffled and wiped under her eyes for the umpteenth time that day. "No, don't say that."

"But I have."

"This isn't about you," she reasoned. All she wanted to do was hug him, to pull him close. She wished she had just climbed into bed when they got up to their room. They'd be snuggling peacefully, and all these awful feelings could be kept to herself. "This is about me trying to do what's best… It'll be better for both of us."

The look he gave her silenced her. He'd never looked at her like that before, so full of rage and anguish.

"I'm not doing this to hurt you," she said in a small voice. She was pretty sure she was two seconds away from ugly crying now—she could feel it coming. Drawing in a shaky breath, she did her best to meet his eye. "Can't you see that?"

He looked away again. "No. I can't."

Max watched him stalk toward their door, and he threw it open so forcefully that the knob cracked the wall on impact. Once he as gone, her knees finally gave way, and she collapsed in a fit of tears.

She should have just climbed into bed.

"Oh, I think that sushi's sitting funny…" Thor watched Jane place her hand on her stomach while the other kept her steady on the metal bar. The elevator moved as smoothly as ever up the height of the Avengers Tower, and he smiled kindly at her.

"You know I would have been happy to eat anywhere," he insisted, smoothing his hand over her small shoulders, a Steakhouse eatery down the street at the back of his mind. No matter. That wasn't important.

Darcy was probably still eating dinner with Johnny Storm and the children, which meant Jane could have a quiet refuge in their room to lay down for a little while. She shot him a skeptical look, and then smirked.

"Steak every night is not good for you."

"Not good for you, maybe," he teased. She slid across the small square box and wrapped an arm around his waist, her head tucked neatly over his shoulder. "I can enjoy it whenever I choose."

Jane sighed. "I want you to be a little more adventurous with your food choices."

"Did I not try everything set in front of me tonight?" He tugged her toward the door when the elevator eased to a stop. "Hmm?"

"Yes," she groaned, rolling her eyes when he grinned at her. "You did."

The walls rattled as soon as they stepped into the small foyer, and Jane gasped at the sound. Like stone on stone, it echoed through the hall, coming from Loki's side of the floor. In the aftermath, Thor heard weeping, and before he could investigate, keeping Jane firmly behind him, Loki strode toward him.

"What's happened?"

He had seen his brother in the throes of a tantrum before, but this was another beast entirely.

"Brother?"

Loki said nothing as he shoved passed him and went straight for the staircase beside the elevator, yanking the doorknob out of place when he wrenched it open. Frowning, Thor started off after him, and then looked over his shoulder to tell Jane not to follow. She was already gone, however, moving in the direction of the crying, and Thor nodded.

Good. She needn't be subjected to Loki's moods.

"Loki?"

He hurried down the winding staircase after his brother, catching up with him easily. When he caught the man by the arm, Loki wheeled back and took a swing at him. His fist narrowly missed Thor's head, but the blow landed squarely on the wall, denting it. Loki then shoved back against him, and they struggled with one another for a few moments until Thor subdued him. Pressed against the black metallic railing, Loki's breathing was uneven, and Thor had a chance to look at him.

It was only for a few seconds, until Loki twisted free, but he swore he saw a tear roll down his brother's cheek. He saw real pain, and as Loki thundered down the stairwell, it was like watching him drift into the gaping beyond all over again.

This time, Thor could catch him. Face determined, he hurried after his brother, unwilling to let him slip away again.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

HELLO DARLINGS! Sorry this took so long to get out. Basically, my freelance book was due last week, and once I submitted it, I decided to take the week off from all writing. I then went away for the weekend with from friends, and here we are with the update.

Now, I'd like to say something I've been wanting to say for a while. I agree with so many of you that the pregnancy secret storyline dragged on for too long. I get it. When I planned it initially, it didn't feel long. The timeline in my head worked, and I was happy with all the plot stuff littered around pregnancy panic. However, because I've been working on that freelance book, my updates took longer to get out, and this has dragged on since April (ish?). I didn't want people to get bored by it, but I also didn't want to restructure my entire story to shorten it either. So. Live and learn, I guess. I'm sorry that it went on for like ten thousand years, but that's just the way it turned out. My bad. I didn't want to say anything like this in previous updates because I didn't want to give hints at where the story would go, but I know people (based on the reviews, and probably the lower reader stats) were sort of at the end of their rope with it. Again, my bad.

Anyway. This was one of the few original scenes I had thought of for this story, but there wasn't a pregnancy plot at the time. The fight was about other things, but this was always the way it ended up. OH. And fun fact. Tiffany was supposed to be the one who died, not Ben, but then I thought… No. I'm sick of female characters dying for the sake of angst in men, so I kept our gal around and I'm really happy that I did.

When I thought of Loki reacting to pregnancy in this story (not necessarily in comics or the Marvel movieverse, as we've drifted a bit from there character-wise, I think), this was how I imagined it. He's been so keen on starting a life on his own with his lady love, and kids suddenly just clicked into his picture. And then now that he's been stung by a few flames, he walks away like he's been set on fire. I've always seen him as quick to react in emotionally charged situations. He does care deeply for a select few, and when they hurt him, he's wounded. So. There's some work to do here.

Now that my freelance book is done, I'm working on my original Loki/Aphrodite series. The first novella has just been returned to me, and I'm fixing it up before having it proofread. I'll keep you updated as to when it will be released, because it will be FREE, and you guys can enjoy it!

I believe you can expect an update next week! I'm working mostly nights, and I write the most during the day, so that's a bonus. Much love to everyone who stuck it through with the plot, even if it isn't really your thing. It's not quite over yet either. All manner of life gets covered in this series (in this story and the next two, maybe three I have planned), so I hope you'll stick around for more. MUCH LOVE, AND SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!