When the van returned, Loki conjured a tent behind the Winnebago where Jane and Erik couldn't see the magic at work, then went out to greet them.

"Fruitful night?" he enquired.

"Lots of data," Jane confirmed. "Fascinating events... and apparently your brother showed up?" she added in query.

"Darcy did call me about that," Loki confirmed with a nod, and moved around to the back of the van, where Darcy was waving to him from. Judging from the tugging she was doing, he'd guess that was where she'd stashed the great fool.

"He, uh, he doesn't really... well, look like you at all," Jane said tentatively.

"That's what happens when one of you is adopted," Loki answered with as much neutrality and as little feeling as he could. He had just recently had that wound re-opened rather violently, after all.

Jane clearly caught that it was a sensitive topic, as she winced. "Sorry," she murmured.

Loki waved her off. "No offence taken," he assured her. "Go. Either get some sleep or get started processing your data. Just remember to eat something if you go for the second option."

Jane grinned, grabbed some of her equipment from the back of the van, and ran into her lab.

"I'm not sure if you're a terrible influence or a great one," Erik informed Loki plainly.

"A little of both, I think," Loki admitted freely with a smile and a shrug.

Erik grunted. "Well, I'm going to get some sleep. I'll see you when it's light out," he said, and with a wave, he turned to head to where his own bed had been set up for the length of his visit.

Loki finally reached his wife.

"Hey," she greeted softly, a smile on her face and her arms up and around his torso without a hint of hesitation.

"Hey," he answered just as softly, and he melted into her embrace. Darcy was the shorter, but her hugs were magic. A balm to his soul that he would gladly lose himself in. The way her nose rubbed against his sternum and sometimes was swept up to nuzzle against the dip at the base of his throat. The way her hair smelled when he bent and buried his face in her neck. The way she always hugged him with her whole body, not just her arms. "I love you," he breathed into her ear.

"I love you too," Darcy answered easily. "Now, help me evict Thor from amongst the delicate, home-made equipment. The sooner he's out of the way, the sooner we can get to the good stuff."

Loki chuckled, peeked over Darcy's shoulder to where his brother lay unconscious, and with a wave of his hand he transported Thor into the tent he'd conjured moments before.

"Done," he whispered lowly into Darcy's ear. And just to be sure, he also sent an enchantment after him to make him sleep longer. Loki didn't want to deal with Thor before coffee had been consumed, at the very earliest.

She smiled in answer. "Good. Now, I think a hammock and a large serving of hot chocolate are what we need right now. We can sit under the stars and talk it all out, then when the hot chocolate is gone, I'll make sure you remember how much I really do love you," she suggested.

Loki smiled a helpless smile.

"I am constantly reminded of so many reasons why I love you," he countered, and conjured the requested items. They stayed out until the grey light before dawn, alternating between talking, crying, cooing, cuddling, short naps, and slow, tender love-making. Darcy even got Loki to show her what he looked like blue, and after confirming that he did not automatically burn her black with the cold of his altered form, and that he could actively control his body temperature, made love to him that way as well.

Just to make sure he completely understood that Darcy loved him, whatever he looked like, and she wasn't going to leave him.

"I truly am constantly reminded of the many, many reasons why I love you, and am completely unworthy of you," Loki whispered into her hair as he held her close and they finally fell asleep.

"Unconditional love," Darcy answered in a sleepy murmur. "Married you with the expectation of never leaving your side. Was in the vows. Take my promises seriously."

~oOo~

Morning proper began with Louise jumping onto her parents with a cheer. They'd eventually fallen asleep on the couch, which left them completely open to her attack.

"Daddy's back!" Louise cheered, and from the expression on her face, she had not forgotten the promise made to her. Loki wasn't going anywhere for two weeks, no matter what, and he was going to teach his daughter to ride a pony.

"Good morning Princess," Loki managed to grunt out.

"Uncle and Gampa's mess is all cleaned up? You're staying now?" she checked, insistent and hopeful. She really didn't want to hear 'no'.

"It's cleaned up enough," Loki agreed. "Gampa has fallen into the Odinsleep, Uncle is currently sleeping in a tent outside, and Gramma is in charge of everything back in Asgard. I've done my share of cleaning up after other people's messes, now it's her turn, and I get to spend two weeks with you and your mother."

"Yay! Wait, Uncle is here?" Louise asked, surprised.

"He is," Darcy confirmed. "He showed up last night while you were asleep."

"Gampa kicked him out of Asgard for being monumentally stupid," Loki explained softly. "He wasn't very nice about it either. Not to Thor, and not to himself. He actually went so far as to kick Thor out of the family, not just out of Asgard."

Louise wrapped her arms around her father's neck, gave him a squeeze, and kissed his cheek.

Loki melted under the attentions of his daughter, the last of his shattered pieces coming back together again. Darcy had done an excellent job at putting him back together the night before, but there were some things that needed his daughter's special touch. Gratefully and lovingly, Loki returned his daughter's hug and kiss.

"I love you," he whispered into her hair and he held her tight to him. "You and your mother. So much."

"Love you too Daddy."

~oOo~

"You don't think this was just a magnetic storm, do you?" Erik was saying to Jane as Darcy led her family into the lab once they'd all had their breakfast.

"Look, the lensing around the edges? It's characteristic of an -"

"Einstein-Rosen Bridge!" Darcy, Loki, and Louise all chorused with the two astrophysicists.

Jane grinned to see the family. "Good morning," she greeted. "Welcome back, Loki, if I didn't say that last night."

"Hello Ms Foster," he replied. "I do apologise for my brother dropping in like he has. I'll do my best to keep him out of your way, though I'm afraid he'll be up and raging any minute now."

Jane waved it off. "No worries," she assured him. "Just so long as he doesn't break anything that can't be easily fixed. You know how he got out there? From nowhere?"

"Blame his father," Loki answered easily, not giving anything away with his answer. "For his appearance here, at least. Everything else is his own fault. But you were talking about lensing?"

"Oh, yeah!" Jane recalled, and passed a folder of pictures to Louise. "Would you be a dear and go with your Ma and pin these up on the board for me?" she asked. "I haven't looked at them yet, so you let me know if there's anything really cool, okay?"

Louise nodded, a bright grin on her face as she took the folder and scurried over to the pin-board.

Darcy picked up the little box of thumb-tacks and joined her little girl as Louise climbed up on a stool so that she could reach the higher parts of the pin-board.

Jane, meanwhile, pulled out a different couple of A3-sized photographs.

"What do you see?" she asked Loki and Erik as she presented them with one of the pictures.

"Stars," Erik answered at once.

"Yes, but not our stars," Jane persisted, and held up the other. "This is what the stars should look like in this quadrant at this time of year. Unless Ursa-minor decided to take a night off, then these are someone else's stars," she declared firmly.

"They're Asgard's," Loki supplied softly.

"What was that?" Jane asked almost sharply.

"Daddy, look!" Louise called out then, drawing everybody's attention to the little girl. She was bouncing on the stool as she pointed to one particular picture.

A picture which had a distinctly human shape spiralling downwards among the rest of the stormy swirls.

"No, it can't be," Erik breathed as he approached and narrowed his eyes at the image.

Jane's jaw worked up and down a moment in silent shock before she turned on the two elder Lewises.

"Something to say?" the scientist demanded, arms crossed over her chest.

"Busted?" Darcy suggested with a grimace.

Loki nodded in agreement. "Definitely busted," he confirmed. "Yes, Ms Foster, that blur in the picture most likely is my brother. Yes, I know what he's doing in there. Indeed, I perfectly understand all of the science that you are struggling your way towards. I have not been laughing at your efforts behind your back. I have been enjoying being a witness to your journey."

"You know how to make an Einstein-Rosen Bridge work," Jane said, just to make that particular point perfectly clear.

"Yes," Loki confirmed. "But it means so much to you to figure it out for yourself, simply handing you the answers you're looking for would have been a disservice."

Jane nodded slowly, accepting and understanding, if not wholly satisfied. There was a light in her eyes though. One that Loki knew meant that she had questions, and that she wanted answers.

As he had just spotted Thor groggily stepping out of the tent Loki had set him in, and Loki knew that Jane would need a moment to line up her thoughts so that she could ask the right questions – she did have two months experience with him, after all. So he excused himself and went to confront his brother.

Darcy settled Louise on her hip and followed him out. She wasn't going to let him face the idiot alone right now, and the astrophysicists needed to wrap their heads around Loki's revelations – as well as decide if they actually believed him.

~oOo~

"Loki," Thor greeted in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Right now? I am seeing to you," Loki answered dryly as he set a plate of eggs and sausages down on a conjured table before his brother. "As I always seem to be doing, as though I were your keeper."

"Has something happened? How long have I slept?" Thor asked, confused as he looked up to see how high the sun was in the sky – even while he sat down and began shovelling in the presented food.

The sleeping spell Loki had hit him with the previous evening was quite strong. It was almost lunch time – on of the many benefits of working with astrophysicists was that 'breakfast' happened later in the day, and so Darcy wasn't expected to be in for work until later, which meant that the Lewis family had more time during the day with one another.

"Quite long enough for many things to have happened," Loki answered neutrally when Thor had finished eating. He knew Thor could easily eat more, but it was nearing lunch time, and Jane looked like she'd been dodging efforts to get her to eat since Erik had arrived, now three days previous.

"Is it Jotunheim?" Thor demanded, setting his utensils down.

"Jotunheim is the least of your worries," Loki replied firmly, "and presently all the worries of our mother."

Thor frowned in confusion. "I- I don't understand," he said. "Father -"

"The Odinsleep came suddenly," Loki offered by way of explanation. "Mother rules Asgard until he wakes – and no, Thor, I will not speak to her on your behalf to have you restored to Asgard prematurely."

"Prematurely?" Thor repeated, incredulous. Then rage took him. "Prematurely?!" he roared, and he would have up-ended the table before him, just as he had the one in Asgard the night before, save that Loki bound him with a spell.

"You will not behave so here as you did in Odin's palace," Loki warned with a hiss as he wrapped a fist up in the front of Thor's shirt. "You will not presume the same arrogance and bullying, haughty airs as you did before Odin stripped you of your power and name. You will not behave so shamefully before my wife and daughter."

Thor looked as though he had been struck.

"You are a vain, greedy, cruel boy," Loki said calmly, repeating Odin's words to Thor. But he said them quietly, calmly, and directly into Thor's ear. "I am neither blind, nor foolish. Through your arrogance and stupidity, you opened Asgard and all of its people to war. Not just the guards and soldiers and warriors, but the peaceful. The spinners and weavers, the blacksmiths and the carpenters, the children, Thor, you have put at risk. Civilians, women and children. Like my wife and daughter," Loki reiterated firmly, and stepped back from Thor.

"If you do anything while on Midgard to endanger myself, my daughter, my husband, or even the people I work with, I will not hesitate to electrocute you a second time," Darcy said firmly. "And I think I proved last night just how effective that was."

Thor frowned at Darcy, but he could see the warning in Loki's eyes, the possessive hand on her shoulder, the way the child was held between both parents. He could see how Loki had one hand still free to cast spells with, and the weapon he had mocked the night before was hanging loosely, but ready, in the woman's hand.

"You swore to guard the Nine Realms. You swore to preserve the peace. You swore to cast aside all selfish ambition, and pledged yourself only to the good of the Realm. You were not made king, but these oaths you gave. You broke those oaths, Thor," Loki said plainly. "You broke them all too quickly."

Thor looked down to his feet. Shamed a little. Not enough, and there was still too much anger in him, but it was a beginning.

~oOo~

Louise worked her charm on Jane and got her out of the lab and into the diner for lunch – and everybody else attached to the woman's research in any way. Which meant that tables had to be pushed together to accommodate two astrophysicists, two extra-terrestrials, and two Lewis women.

"We'll all have the all-day breakfast please," Loki ordered politely at the counter while Darcy organised the seating arrangements with one of the staff. "As well as a pot of coffee and a jug of orange juice."

"Sure thing Mr Lewis," Izzy, the woman who owned and ran the diner, answered.

"Oh, and... make sure the blonde with the beard gets a plastic cup? He's been known to throw cups yelling 'another'," Loki added quietly.

"You know the stranger, Mr Lewis?" Izzy asked curiously.

"He's my brother," Loki admitted, and then grimaced at Izzy's confused look. He knew that she could see, clear as day, that they looked nothing alike. She was polite enough to not point it out at the top of her lungs, but the question was clearly on her lips. "I'm adopted," he admitted, his voice even lower. "He, self-absorbed fool that he is, doesn't know that. He didn't even know I was married and had a daughter until he showed up last night."

Izzy nodded her understanding. She had a sister up in Michigan she never talked to, though they did do the Christmas Card bit, with full, comprehensive letters detailing what had happened over the past year. It was fifty-fifty if those letters ever got read, on both sides.

"And I see him nearly every day," Loki finished.

Izzy was floored, but it really drove home how much of a painful customer the guy could potentially be. "Plastic for the blonde," she confirmed. "What about Louise? You think she's up for glass yet?"

Loki considered his little princess as she climbed up onto the booster seat that was atop one of the chairs.

"Not yet," he decided, then turned a smile on Izzy. "Your glasses are large and heavy for a child."

"We got straws," Izzy pointed out.

"She likes to pick up the cups," Loki countered. "We'll stick with plastic for now."

Izzy nodded in acceptance, and wrote up the order.

Predictably, Thor did throw his cup to the floor once he'd drained it, yelling for another.

"You can have more when you've picked up the cup and said 'please'," Darcy informed him pertly, a perfect imitation of her own mother. "Like a polite member of modern society."

"Rather than a brutish thug who was raised in a cave," Louise added, her cute little nose in the air as the three-year-old did her level best to mimic Darcy's tone.

Jane nodded her agreement, a distinctly unimpressed look directed at Thor. She knew manners weren't a foreign concept where he was from, since she knew Loki. The complete dichotomy between the two brothers was annoying her scientific mind. They were raised in the same household. How could their manners be so polarised? She added that to the list of questions she intended to ask.

~oOo~

"The usual please Izzy," called local number one as he strolled into the diner.

"You missed all the excitement out at the crater," added local number two.

"Crater?" Izzy asked as she wrote up the order and passed it back to the kitchen.

"Seems some kind of satellite landed out in the desert," the first explained.

"Yeah, we were havin' a good time with it, until the Feds showed up," the second added.

Jane, unable to resit anything that related to space in any way, turned in her seat.

"Excuse me," she called over. "Did you say there was a satellite crash?"

"Yeah," the second of the two locals confirmed easily.

"What did it look like, the satellite?" Erik asked, similarly unable to hold back his curiosity over the matter.

"Well, I dunno anything about satellites," the more vocal local admitted, "but it was heavy. I mean, nobody could lift it."

"Did it look like a hammer?" Loki suggested, keeping a cautious eye on Thor as the blonde set his cutlery down and wiped his mouth. "Leather-wrapped handle with Celtic-looking engravings?"

"Yeah," the locals agreed.

Thor stood.

"They said it was radio-active," the second local continued. "I had my hands all over it."

"Which way?" Thor asked.

"Uh, 'bout fifty miles west of here," was the surprised, slightly hesitant answer.

Without a word of thanks, Thor proceeded out of the diner.

Loki sighed. "I'll go after him," he volunteered. "You all finish eating. I'll see you back at the lab. Gentlemen, Izzy, I do apologise for him. He wasn't spanked enough when it was still possible to put him over a knee. Darcy?"

"I got the cash for the bill," she promised. "I felt you slip it into my wallet as soon as Thor stood up."

Loki smiled, kissed her quickly, and went after him.

Louise pouted. "I thought Daddy was staying," she complained.

"He didn't really factor in Thor showing up here, Baby," Darcy said explained, "and you know your daddy would rather be here with you, but Thor is stupid enough that he'd probably just walk down the middle of the road without a care for traffic. If he actually got himself killed, then your Gramma would be sad."

Louise pouted, but relented. She didn't want Gramma sad. Especially not because of her stupid uncle.

That Loki was actually back at the table in five minutes improved her mood greatly.

"That was fast," Darcy commented.

Loki rolled his eyes. "The idiot is determined. I told him I wouldn't help him any more while he was on Midgard, and conjured a horse for him."

Louise's eyes lit up.

"Yes, speaking of horses," Darcy drawled knowingly.

Loki chuckled. "What colour would you like your pony to be, my little Princess?"

"A pretty white one!"

"Ahem," Darcy coughed pointedly, an expectant eyebrow raised at her daughter.

"Please Daddy?"

~oOo~

They were walking back to the lab, Louise happily swinging from her parent's arms while Jane asked Loki questions, carefully recording her answers in her notebook, when a truck was forced to stop in front of them – it sounded its horn loudly in protest for the car blocking its way, and continued on. But Jane was yelling after it. It had her stuff in the back, and she definitely didn't give anybody permission to take it.

The lab wasn't too far away. Jane immediately booked it, took off at her absolute top speed, forcing the rest of the group to keep pace with her.

Loki swung Louise onto his shoulders and lengthened his stride. Darcy similarly stayed right next to her husband. Frantic as Jane was, they were both able to move faster than her, but knew that reaching the lab before her wouldn't do much good.

"What is going on here?" Jane demanded. She would have demanded to know what the hell was going on, but even out of her mind and depth, she was still aware that Louise was near by and would hear such language.

"Ms Foster, I'm Agent Coulson with SHIELD," a man in a suit answered.

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?!" she demanded, irate. "You can't just do this!"

Erik was quick to try and pull his protege aside, a worried look on his face as he tried to make her calm down. His actions set Coulson smiling.

"Agent Coulson," Loki greeted. "It is nice to finally be able to put a face to the name. I've heard good things about you."

That threw... just about everybody in the room. Including the agents who were packing up just about everything Jane's lab. A six-foot-tall man with an English accent in the middle of New Mexico, a civilian, had heard things about Agent Coulson. Like he was higher up the pecking order or something.

"Let it go?!" Jane demanded sharply in answer to Selvig's advice. "This is my life!"

"Jane," Darcy waylaid her temporary boss. "You're a great astrophysicist, but these are suits from a covert agency. Let the intergalactic prince and the poli-sci major with a husband and a daughter handle this," she advised softly.

Jane pressed her lips together unhappily, huffed, but relented and let Erik put an arm around her shoulders.

"Agent Coulson," Darcy said as she stepped up to stand beside her husband, a hand extended for the agent to shake. "I'm Darcy Lewis, pleased to meet you."

"Miss Lewis," Coulson answered.

"Mrs, actually," Darcy corrected. "My husband, Loki, and our daughter up on his shoulders," she presented with a gesture. "Agent Coulson, may I enquire as to why SHIELD is illicitly absconding with Ms Foster's property?"

"We're investigating a security threat," he answered. "We need to appropriate all of Ms Foster's records and atmospheric data."

"Ah," Loki said. "You have just admitted to theft, Agent Coulson," he scolded. "As that is the definition of the word 'appropriate' in the context you have used. You might want to rethink that."

"To take for your own use without permission from the rightful owner," Louise recited from atop her father's shoulders. She really was terribly smart for an almost-four-year-old.

"Any and all agencies are required to have a warrant if they wish to appropriate property belonging to civilians," Darcy said firmly. "They are also require to provide an itemised receipt. Because eventually, Agent Coulson, you will be required to return Ms Foster's property, and you will be required to return it in exactly the same condition as it was when you and your subordinates took it."

"And no, a cheque won't do as a substitute, Agent Coulson," Loki cut off when Coulson reached into the breast pocket of his jacket. "You're very good, but your usual methods will not be..." he smiled, "... appropriate in this instance."

"A lot of the equipment was built by Ms Foster," Darcy added. "Your boys won't have any idea how to use it without breaking it along the way to learning. The method we've been using here for collating the data may be fairly standard within the scientific community, but the short-hand we've been using the last couple of months definitely isn't."

Coulson gave the couple – and their daughter – a carefully bland look.

"What exactly are you aiming for here?" he asked carefully.

"How about, rather than offending a truly brilliant astrophysicist who is a couple of data reviews away from making the greatest discovery in human history to date, you work with her?" Loki suggested.

"What?!" Jane yelped, offended by the idea of working with people who were still actively packing up her equipment into padded suitcases.

"Jane, SHIELD is a security agency that answers to the UN, not just to America," Loki stated calmly, not taking his eyes off Agent Coulson. "I would sooner you never had anything to do with them, that you could keep your research strictly within the scientific community, but that is clearly no longer an option, and SHIELD aren't... all that bad, as far as paranoid security agencies go," he allowed.

"Definitely better than Homeland Security, the FBI, or the CIA," Darcy agreed. "They'd just stuff everything in a box and you'd never see it again."

"And these guys aren't doing that now?" Jane demanded.

"Ms Foster, we're the good guys," Agent Coulson answered her sincerely, then he turned back to Loki and Darcy. "I'll need to talk with my superiors about bringing in a civilian."

"Of course, procedure and all," Darcy agreed. "But in the mean time, still waiting for that itemised receipt."

~oOo~

Thor was taken into custody by SHIELD when he broke into the base they'd set up around Mjolnir, and as he'd failed to raise the hammer, failed to make it shift even the slightest bit, he was passive and subdued when they put the handcuffs on him. Loki made no efforts to retrieve him, and he made sure that neither Jane or Erik would make any motions in that direction either. Darcy, he knew wouldn't, and Louise couldn't.

Besides, she was much more interested in learning how to ride the pony he would conjure for her every day. It was only an illusion, but so well reinforced with his magic as to be solid.

Agent Coulson's superiors had agreed that it was more efficient to take advantage of the brain that had built the equipment and already understood the data, so Jane's equipment was quickly returned to her. While that was being done, Loki had quietly taken Agent Coulson aside and advised a padded cell for the blonde idiot.

"You know him?" Coulson demanded at once. "We're having a surprising amount of trouble getting any information on him."

"You might be surprised, but I'm not," Loki quipped. "His name is Thor Odinson. He's from Asgard, the 'realm eternal'. Quite a long way from this planet, indeed this solar system."

"You're telling me I've got an E.T. in my holding cells?" Coulson demanded.

Loki nodded. "He was banished for inciting a war," he offered. "The hammer is technically his, and yes, it is a weapon. It is forged from the heart of a dying star, if you're wondering what it's made of."

Coulson's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Agent Coulson, as far as most of Asgard is aware, this planet is still as it was when the Vikings, Celts and Wodes were forces to be reckoned with," Loki said with a sigh. "Odin sent Thor here because of his mistaken assumption that this world is still so primitive. A place where Thor would have no luxuries and would have to expend a great deal of time and effort to simply survive. A sort of penal colony. It isn't, and because he was raised to the feeling of entitlement, Thor is just charming enough and shameless enough that he would be able to live quite happily off the charity of others."

"Mr Lewis, if that actually is your name, and I'm beginning to have my suspicions that it isn't -"

"It is," Darcy assured Coulson immediately from just behind him. She'd had to go on a grocery run, and was blessed with fortunate timing. "Loki took my name when we got married. He's a Lewis. Legally."

"Fine," Coulson agreed. "Mr Lewis, what exactly can you tell me about this man who waltzed into our base and made my highly trained men look like a bunch of civilian mall-cops?"

"That, Agent Coulson, is a conversation that will need coffee," Loki assured the man. "Can I have your assurance that Thor will be moved to a padded cell with very thick walls? He is violent, and extremely well-trained, as you can attest to."

"Padded cells are generally reserved for those who are dangers to themselves due to insanity," Coulson countered carefully. "And they run the risk that we might not see something. We've got a few alternatives though."

Thor was drugged and transferred to a much more secure prison while Loki shared coffee with Agent Coulson and explained... nearly everything. Since that coffee was shared in the lab, and within hearing range of Jane and Erik, Coulson was also given a crash course on certain sciences that he wasn't even approaching being able to understand. The man took notes though. SHIELD had some very clever people working in it, after all, and he could pass on to them the stuff he didn't understand.

~oOo~

A new distraction from the cultivated normality of Foster's lab (because with SHIELD around, it wasn't the true normality that it had been) arrived a week later. It came in the form of Sif and the Warriors Three appearing just outside the town while Loki was supervising one of Louise's riding lessons.

It being daylight, the rainbow effect of the Bifrost wasn't quite as immediately obvious as it had been when Odin had so violently sent Thor down. The stormy effect was also lessened, as the quartet must have been willing travellers guided by Heimdall, rather than forcefully banished by… someone who had less experience in commanding the Bifrost.

"Agent Barton?" Loki called up to the roof when they came in sight of the lab.

"I see 'em," the archer who had been posted as head of security around the lab – at least, when Coulson wasn't there in person – answered. "Xena, Robin Hood, Jackie Chan, and uh, Big Reg," he settled on. Volstagg was apparently a little harder to pick a quick code-name for than the others.

Loki bit back a laugh at the names the agent had come up with for Sif and the Warriors Three, but his grin was unrestrained. Darcy, who was also in hearing range of that comment, did nothing to stifle her amused snort.

"All from Asgard," Loki supplied. "The Lady Sif, and the Warriors Three. Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg, respectively to your code names."

"Friendly?" Barton checked.

"They're not bad people," Loki allowed. "Thor's friends and followers, but asking questions before shooting would be preferable, as I am certain they will have news of what is happening in Asgard."

"I'll take your word for it, but I'm calling it in anyway, just in case," Barton replied frankly.

"I would expect no less. Louise, Princess, I'm afraid today's riding lesson is over."

"Loki!" Volstagg called out.

"Volstagg," Loki answered with a nod to her as he watched his baby girl dismount, before he vanished her beast and urged her to go inside to her mother. "Fandral, Hogun. Lady Sif. What brings you to Midgard?"

"We were hoping to find Thor," Fandral answered, the question hanging between them without being asked plainly.

"He's in prison," Loki answered frankly, and privately relished in their shocked, scandalised expressions. "He assaulted those who govern and guard this realm. He proved himself as arrogant, reckless and dangerous as he has ever been," he said reasonably. He had already spoken to them of these characteristics of Thor's that they so wilfully blinded themselves to. "And as he maintained to the questioning authorities that he was who he is, the mortals – who have long relegated us to myth – have concluded that he is also insane. Particularly as he is unable to prove any of his claims, nor prove himself otherwise through any of the forms of identification that are becoming standard in this realm."

"Why did you not speak for him!?" Sif demanded.

"Why should I?" Loki countered, quick as a whip. "Odin cast Thor out. Stripped him of his right to claim the name Odinson. Thor is, therefore, nothing to me."

"He is your brother," Fandral insisted.

"Yes," Loki agreed, almost sneering. "And when I came to Midgard and found him, I provided him with quarters and succour. By noon he had demanded a horse of me, and gone his own way."

"And you did not go with him?" Volstagg asked, brow furrowed in confusion.

"Unlike you, I did not come to Midgard for Thor's sake," Loki answered with a derisive scoff. "Of course I did not follow him."

"Then why did you come to Midgard?" Hogun demanded softly.

"To be with my family," Loki answered.

"But you just said -!" Fandral began.

"I know what I said," Loki cut him off. "I come to Midgard to be with my wife and daughter, whom I had promised two uninterrupted weeks of my time after Thor's coronation ceremony. It was interrupted a little at the beginning, yes, but that in no way negates my promise to the two of the three most important people in my life. My mother being the third, in case you were wondering."

At that moment, a pair of arms slid around his waist, and the familiar scent of Darcy's shampoo reached his nose.

"Talking about me?" she asked teasingly, and stretched up onto her toes so that she could kiss his cheek.

"Darcy, love, these are the Lady Sif, and the warriors Hogun, Volstagg, and Fandral," Loki presented, indicating which name went with which person as he spoke. "And only insofar as telling them what I was doing on Midgard, since I hadn't come to be Thor's keeper."

"Mm, someone else's job now," Darcy said with a smile. "Just as well, really. I don't want a brutish, rude, bullying thug like him around our Louise."

The party of four from Asgard were completely gobsmacked. Eyes wide and jaws dropped as they gaped indelicately.

~Epilogue~

Loki sat, completely content, as he watched Clint Barton (he was off-duty, and therefore not to be referred to as 'Agent') awe Louise with his ability to juggle. Darcy was in his arms, and they were contemplating sneaking off to have some alone time together while Clint bedazzled their little girl with the skills he'd collected from his misspent youth.

It had been two years since Thor had been banished from Asgard by Odin. Clint had become a surrogate uncle to Louise since then, while her actual uncle had been released from SHIELD's cells and was currently working for them. Mostly for lack of anything more constructive to do, since he was still barred from Asgard, and SHIELD infrastructure wasn't really designed with the long-term holding of prisoners in mind – and Thor would only cause so, so much trouble if they sent him to either a proper loony bin or high-security prison. SHIELD occasionally asked Loki to consult, but he knew better than to completely shackle himself to such an organisation, especially when he had slightly more than casual plans for world domination.

Darcy's quest for normative work – because as much as Jane appreciated her filing system and having access to Loki's brain, Darcy's interests had only led her to astrophysics for the laughs and the science credits she needed to graduate – led the Lewis family to New York. This suited Loki very well, since New York was where the UN building was (the one in America anyway), and he was still working on slowly, subtly, taking over the world.

Mostly for the fun of it.

Not that he was sticking to politics exclusively to build up a power base. Only a fool would think politics was the be-all and end-all as regards avenues for such ambitions. To ignore the potential of economics for becoming powerful would be foolishness. Likewise, to dabble in anything that would tarnish reputation in search of greater power than was ethically available would be a downfall to any such plan. Loki was not a fool (well, unless he was doing it on purpose, or there was chocolate fondue and his delectable Darcy involved). In any event, Loki's family was based in New York, and it was there that Louise had recently started school.

She only went for half a day three times a week at the moment, but it was her very first year of standardised education. It was also her first year as a big sister.

Something which the youngest Lewis felt like reminding his parents of that very moment, as the baby monitor gave a wail.

"Sounds like Danny's hungry," Darcy said with a sigh.

Loki eased himself out from behind her, kissed her forehead, and went to check on his son. So much for an opportunity to sneak off. Darcy's doctor had cleared her to safely resume her usual 'adult activities' just the day before. It seemed their son wasn't so inclined to give them the go-ahead.

Loki checked, then changed, his son's nappy before he grabbed the V-shaped pillow that Darcy used to rest Danny on while he fed. As well as a light blanket that would allow Darcy her modesty while their son claimed his fill. Barton wouldn't mean to look, but Louise would, then she'd draw her Uncle Clint's attention to the act, and the man would get all red around the neck and Loki would begin to feel vaguely homicidal. The only male personage apart from himself that was allowed to see Darcy's breasts in all their glory was his currently infant son.

And young Daniel would be loosing his privileges in a year or so when he was weaned.

The chime of the doorbell echoed out to the courtyard. Yes, it was almost heinously expensive to get a house with a proper-sized garden in New York City. That didn't mean it was completely impossible though, and when the one hunting for this perfect home for his family is Loki? As Darcy had previously noted, he wore more material wealth on a daily basis in Asgard than most people on Midgard were able to accumulate in a decade.

"I'll go see who it is," Loki said as he passed his son and the other accoutrement to Darcy.

She stole another kiss before he went.

"Sorry to disturb you at home, Mr Lewis."

"You know you're always welcome here Natasha," Loki countered with an easy smile. Clint had introduced his partner to them when they were moving out of Puente Antiguo. Louise had loved her on sight for her red hair, and upon further association had found other reasons to hold the woman up as a hero.

"I'm afraid it's not a social call," the once-Russian apologised.

"I'd guessed, from the way you called me Mr Lewis, rather than Loki," the trickster replied with an easy smile. "You've come to steal Clint away?"

Agent Romanov nodded shortly.

"Local? Foreign? Alien? Or can you not tell me anything?" Loki enquired politely as he led the Red-Room victim into his home.

"Actually, it's scare the newbies time again," Natasha corrected with a small smirk. "Once that's done though, we'll be leaving for an option four."

"Ah," he said, and pulled a face. "Can I offer you anything to make the job, the option four job, rather than the scare the newbies job, easier? I know SHIELD's own R and D generally kit you both out very well, but they don't know how to apply protection spells."

"Appreciated."

~The End~