On the first day of February, Magda meets with her staff once again. The war in Sokovia is still going strong, but there are also many new refugees fleeing the country and they are starting to arrive in New York. They reopen the centre the next day. Their clients flood back, including some of the young people who were part of the fight. Magda updates everyone on the boy who was stabbed- he is stable, but still having a difficult time healing from his many surgeries. She visits him every day.

On the third of February, the cafeteria is full of excited chatter. There is news that Sokovia is calling her far-flung children to return. Magda does not like what she is hearing. Wanda is worried. Their drive home is uncomfortable as they listen to a commentator on the Sokovian AM radio station talk of a major defeat of the democratic socialists and rumours of a compromise reached behind closed doors. They hold hands, wondering what is going to happen next.

Loki has been trying to follow the news out of Sokovia, asking Wanda and Magda questions whenever he can. He does not like to talk to Alexi about it. He seems too angry. Loki is walking home from his bookshop on a cold day in mid February when he gets a text from Alexi.

"We need to talk. Meet under the ash?"

"I am still walking home, but yes. We can."

"See you in an hour."

"That sounds fine. I will see you then."

Loki takes a deep breath. With the war still raging, he has a sinking feeling in his stomach that there is something very wrong that Alexi wants to tell him. Something that is going to hurt. And so when he arrives home, he cannot spend the next half an hour inside. He grabs something to eat, but then puts back on his blue peacoat and goes out to sit on the bench under the ash.

He is cold, but he sits very still as he waits. His mind is spinning, trying to figure out what Alexi wants to talk about. So much has happened under this ash, his very own World Tree. He looks up into its branches and sighs.

He hears footsteps on the snow, "Hey, babe."

"Hello."

"Looking at anything particular up there?"

"No. Only the delicate pattern of her branches. What is it you need to talk about?"

"You know what's going on in Sokovia?"

"Yes."

"Well it has to do with that..."

The black Mercedes pulls up in front of Magda's house, "Magda and Wanda have done their best to explain things to me." They do not see the two men on the bench as they enter the house even though Loki is ready to wave.

"Well today things changed. Sokovia called. She needs her mothers to take on the orphans. And there are a lot of them. And it looks like there's a ceasefire. Some kind of peacetalks."

"Oh."

"Loki, I think I'm going back. I've always said that if this body needed to be used by a child, I'd give it. And they say there are hundreds of Sokovian babies who need moms willing to induce lactation. I'm fine with that. And I feel like this is something I have to do, at least for a little while."

Loki can barely think to respond, "Ah. You feel strongly about this?"

"What would you do if you could help Asgard's kids? If you could make a difference in the life of an orphan?"

"I do not know."

"Well I do know. And I'm so so sorry. I really want 'us' to work. This is one of the hardest decisions I've ever made."

Loki swallows hard, "When...when do you leave?"

"I started packing earlier today. I'm heading out on a red eye flight tomorrow morning."

"Oh. So this is goodbye." He can hardly make eye contact.

"Yeah. I guess. Or at least for now."

"But you do not know if you will ever return. You cannot simply leave a child behind."

"Maybe you could come later? When things have settled down?"

"Perhaps."

"I won't ask that of you, though. You've made a good life here. And this is where your family is. So it wouldn't be right for me to take you from all that. Only come if you want to."

"Oh."

"I know. I've been rehearsing this all day in my head. You're just getting it all dropped on you."

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, Loki." He stands up and turns back to him, lifting his chin and gently kissing him, "I hope you can forgive me some day, because I think this might have been love." And then Alexi walks away.

Loki cannot think. He cannot move. He watches Alexi's car drive away as tears stream down his cheeks.

From inside the warmth of the rowhouse, Magda and Wanda watch the news from Sokovia as it appears on Magda's Twitter feed. Wanda glances out the window as she hears the car crunch down the street.

"I think that was Alexi's car."

Magda freezes, "Oh no..."

"Do you think...?"

"Why else would he be leaving so early? Where is Loki?"

Wanda texts him. No answer. She calls. No answer.

Magda looks out to the ash, "There he is."

Wanda already has her coat on, "He is as still as a statue."

Magda grabs her housekey and tosses on a coat, "Very. This is not good."

They hurry out the door.

Loki still has not moved except to cast his eyes to the ground when Magda sits beside him and Wanda kneels in front of him, "Loki? Please, talk to us."

"He's gone."

Magda wraps her arms around him, "I am so sorry, Loki."

"He's just gone. Sokovia called and he answered."

"I know," Wanda answers, "He is not alone in this. There were many at the centre today talking about returning. The government needs families, they say, both for the children left behind and to stabilize and rebuild the nation. They are playing on our homesickness to call us back."

"Will you go?"

Magda shakes her head and wipes his tears, "No, my darling. No. Our place is here."

"But you miss it."

"And I am suspicious of any government that calls people back from their lives with such overt nationalism. So even if I had nothing here, I would not go. But better reason yet, have too much here that I refuse to ever willingly leave behind."

"And you?" he asks Wanda.

She gently strokes his cheek, "I will not leave you."

"He did."

"I know. And I see plainly how much that hurts you."

"I do not know what to do."

"Come inside with us," Magda urges, "and have some warm soup and hot chocolate. I will serve you food to soothe your soul. And then we can cuddle and you can let yourself feel whatever it is you wish, and we will listen and hold you in our arms and hearts."

He shivers, realizing just how cold he is, "For at least a little while."