NOTE: I started this quite some time ago and after I saw a stray comment at Tumblr requesting stories with this premise, I thought I might as well dig it out and post it. There will be more, but not until after New Years, so enjoy this hurt/comfort whump until then.

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RAGDOLL

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Hulk grabbed Loki and slammed him against the floor, again and again.

At first, the floor was the one to give, as the immortal's body was strong. But Tony had built his tower well, and Hulk's strength and rage proved the stronger.

A wood-like snap joined the slamming of god against concrete underfloor, then another crack and another, like twigs, as Loki was thrown from side to side.

Like a child abandoning an unwanted broken toy, Hulk dropped him there in a hollow of shattered tiles and wandered away.

Natasha was the first to find him, creeping near to the hole in the floor warily, a pistol held before her. Her eyes widened in astonishment and she lowered her gun at the lack of threat presented - the lack of threat he would present ever again.

That green and black leather outfit was sodden with red blood, and his limbs splayed wrongly, broken, one bone shining white out of his lower leg.

She touched her communicator bud in her ear to reach one of her companions, whoever was close now that the battle was finished. "Tell Thor – Loki's down. He needs to come here at the top of Stark Tower, ASAP."

"Understood," Steve answered.

She could see from the bubble of blood at Loki's lips that he was still alive, and she was fairly sure – immortal god or no – he wasn't going to stay alive for very long.

Only moments later Thor arrived in a crash of wind that rattled the windows and he hurried in through the sliding door, hammer swinging at his side. "Lady Natasha! The Captain Rogers has given me to understand-"

His voice died away utterly as he glimpsed Loki in the smashed hollow of the floor. "Loki! No, how can this be?" he whispered in horror. "What occurred?" he asked her, not taking his gaze away from Loki.

"I didn't see it, but my guess is Banner," she answered.

Thor threw himself to his knees at Loki's side.

In that instant, Loki's wrongs were immaterial to Thor – everything he'd done to Earth, to Thor himself, didn't matter as his voice went hoarse, "No, little brother, not like this... Please..." He leaned forward, fingers to touch Loki's cheek and push back a bloodied strand of his black hair.

Natasha considered whether to tell him he was mistaken. It was only a matter of time, and if she said nothing, Thor would sit there and grieve until it was true, but she offered, "Thor. He's breathing."

Thor was startled with the information. "Is it so?" But then they both saw Loki's eyelashes flutter.

"Loki." Thor put his hand on Loki's cheek and bent over him. "You must hold on," he urged Loki in a hoarse voice. "Please hold on... I will get you home."

Loki's eyelids cracked open, creasing at the corners with pain, and his lips trembled.

"Yes," Thor urged him. "Loki, I will take you home."

Loki said something unintelligible as the effort to speak pushed a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. Then, he tried again, and the word was perfectly clear, if soft, "No."

Thor shook his head, blue eyes glistening now. "No, Brother, we will get you home, and you will be fine. Everything will be well again, you'll see – Mother will fix it..."

Loki whispered again, "... no..." His eyes shut again, tears slipping free, either of sorrow or pain. Barely audible, he added, "let... go."

"No! No, I will not, and I will not allow you either," Thor implored. "Not again, Loki, please, hold on." He bent closer and slid his hands beneath Loki's shoulders and legs. "Forgive me, I know this will hurt you, but we need to hurry."

He lifted Loki in his arms, carefully bringing him in close to his body. Loki jerked several times, head hanging back, and a terrible whimpering noise came from his throat as if he was trying to scream but couldn't. His shattered legs dangled, as did his arm, hanging oddly, the elbow dislocated.

Thor froze, as if the feel of Loki's body in his arms was too strange, because it bent in the wrong places. He had to close his eyes and gather his strength. Then, tenderly he maneuvered Loki's head to rest against his broad shoulder, as Loki wheezed for shallow breaths.

Natasha bit her lip at the sight of the back of Loki's head – his black hair was wet with blood as well, from a head wound that was bleeding freely down his neck and onto Thor's forearm.

Thor brushed his cheek on the top of Loki's head. "We're going home, Loki, rest easy."

He stood, carrying Loki's body without much visible effort. He told Natasha, "I will return for the tesseract, as soon as I can."

After the funeral, would be her guess. The halting breaths were slowing, and he'd slid into unconsciousness. Blood was dripping from Thor's gauntlets, and there was enough pooled in the hollow where Loki had been to kill a human. Thor might be able to get him back to Asgard before he bled out, but Natasha would not lay money on his survival. Even the myths agreed that the gods could die, and quite plainly his immortality or healing or whatever he had, had been overwhelmed by the Hulk's attack.

It was a chill reminder of what the Hulk could do.

Thor headed outside to the balcony. She felt strangely bad for Loki's arm, hanging down, it had to be hurting him like that and so with careful grip she took his wrist and lifted it to rest on his stomach. He didn't react to the touch, and his skin was chill and lax with shock, keeping the imprint of her fingers.

Thor watched her and nodded once. "Thank you. Keep back," Thor warned then he tipped his head back to bellow. "FATHER! HEIMDALL! If the Bifrost is ready, bring us home!"

It was … amazing. Even after everything she'd seen in the last few days, it shocked her – a bolt of lightning crashed down from the empty sky, and in a flash of rainbow colors that dazzled her eyes and flashed back upward again. Thor and Loki were gone, leaving behind blood and a ten meter circle of ornate burnt design like a great wax seal had been impressed on flooring.

She glanced up at the sky reflexively, but there was nothing up there to see. It was all over.

Frigga ran to the healers the moment she heard that Thor and Loki had returned, and Loki was hurt.

Arriving, it was nothing like she had imagined. In the past, both boys had been injured, battle wounds that had hurt them but healed swiftly, but this was utterly different.

A gasp flew from her throat, seeing the broken form Thor was laying on the transport bed. "Loki! Oh ancestors... Is he still alive?" The words barely made it from her throat, as her fear that it was too late choked her throat.

"Yes, my queen," Eir said, glancing at the diagnostic readout. "We must take him for treatment, now." Her sharp eyes set on Thor. "Do you require treatment?"

Thor looked down and Frigga noticed the blood on his armor. She felt dizzy and cold, fearing that Thor was hurt, too, but he shook his head. "It is none of mine."

She gripped his arm in gratitude that he was well, even though she was horrified to realize all of that reddish stain had to belong to Loki.

"We will do what we can," Eir promised and activated the stasis field as the team pushed the bed toward the treatment bay.

Frigga watched them go, cold with dread. The stasis field was a tool of last resort, to put those on the edge of death outside of the passage of time. The transport disappeared from view, and she blinked, finding her fingers gripping Thor's arm so tightly they refused to let go. She pried them away, and he stirred from his own dark thoughts.

"How?" she asked him. "How could this happen?"

"The one they call Bruce Banner," Thor answered. "He is akin to the Eternals, though I know not what exactly created his alternate form. But in that alternate form, he is … strong. Very strong. And he was in a rage from the attack on his city. I came upon them in the aftermath, but it seemed as if Banner slammed him into the floor, and both floor and Loki shattered in the impact."

His eyes were sad and troubled. "I do not understand, Mother," he whispered. "I implored him again and again to come home, to stop his terrible plan, and he refused. He brought the Chitauri to Midgard, in conquest and death, and many were slain. If we do not lose him to death, I fear we have lost him to his madness, to hate-"

She smoothed his hair. "There is still hope, Thor. He is here, now. He lost his way in anger and despair, but he may yet find a path back to the light."

She hoped so, but she was more worried that Loki would see no path but the one that led to death. He had taken that path once before, and a path once taken was easier to find a second time.

She turned to Thor. "Go change. He will be in treatment for some time yet, and I will look upon you more easily without his blood on your armor."

Thor departed, with a backward glance toward the double doors that led to the healers sector.

That left Frigga alone, to wait.

She had never been so aware of time, as she waited for word from Eir. She sat down, she paced, she embroidered, she read – nothing held her attention more than minutes before she had to do something else, as anxiety held her in clammy fists and would not ease.

Minutes crept past, and Thor finally returned with clean clothes. "Is there word?"

She shook her head. "Nothing yet." She folded her fingers together in her lap, trying to hold to queenly calm. Her concession to worry was to rub one thumb against the other, until Thor laid his hand around hers. She glanced at him, surprised, especially as he gave her a little smile.

"I never realized, Loki does that, too," he murmured. "But there is no need to be anxious. He will be well," he told her, as if he had no doubt.

She nodded, trying to believe. "Then, while we wait, you must tell me of Midgard. The truth," she warned. "I cannot help him if I know only what he tells me."

"It is... difficult to hear," he warned.

"I think we have been ill-served by comforting lies," she murmured, glancing toward the inner door. "Speak." She gestured for him to take the other seat, and sat down on the padded bench that circled the pillar. "Help the time pass, my son."

He told the story, which saddened her but was not a surprise after what she'd sensed of Loki's mind that brief moment she had touched it to learn he was still alive.

The left-side door opened and Frigga's head snapped around to see Eir entering. Frigga was on her feet and halfway to the door, before she had judged Eir's expression. Eir was not grim enough to bring news of death, but nor was she smiling. Frigga's breath caught and she swallow down the lump in her throat. "Eir? How is he?"

Eir glanced at Thor, who was standing at Frigga's side, and met Frigga's eyes, with sympathy. "He is badly hurt, my queen. He suffered numerous bone fractures, something I was not sure was possible for one of the higher races, internal injuries, and immense blood loss. We have spent this time stabilizing him, and I believe he is out of immediate danger."

Thor gripped Frigga's arm. "See, I told you, Mother. He will be well."

But Frigga wasn't fooled by Eir's statement of 'immediate' danger. "And? What more?"

Eir nodded her head. "Indeed. Of his many injuries, my queen, the most serious is a skull fracture. There has been cranial swelling. While it is not worsening it is also not improving with treatment, and he is deeply unconscious and unresponsive. Even if he awakens, I do not know at this point what damage there may be."

Frigga inhaled a shaky breath, hand on her chest to keep calm.

"Damage?" Thor repeated, shocked. "What do you mean "if" he awakens? Why would he not? He should heal."

"He is healing, my prince, but in essence, his gift was overwhelmed and he became mortal. That will take some time to grow strong again. He may not heal completely, as severed limbs or the Allfather's eye do not return. We are tough, my prince, but not invulnerable."

'may not heal completely' - Frigga heard the words and felt that she could not understand them. How could that be that his injuries might not heal fully? But that was not even the worst of what Eir was telling her.

"You believe the coma may persist?" Frigga asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

"I warn you of the possibility. It is not unknown, especially…."

Eir trailed off and wouldn't finish. Frigga prompted. "Especially?"

"Especially in those who believe they have nothing to live for, my queen," Eir finished softly. "He awoke briefly when I released the stasis field, and he said, let go. He was not actively willing himself to death, or he would not have survived from Midgard, yet I do not think he is fighting to live either. I do not know if he will wake again."

Frigga clutched Thor's arm again as the dread news settled on her like a weighted blanket, making the air seem close and hot and unbreathable. "What do we do, Eir?" her voice was barely a whisper.

"We wait, my queen. I have done all I can, but now it is his choice: he will wake, or he will let go of this life and he will die."

Frigga nodded, unable at first to find her voice. "May I visit?"

"Of course."

Eir led the way back and through an open archway, where Loki lay. He was suspended in a glowing energy field, meant to support him gently and keep all his shattered bones in alignment while it monitored his vital signs for the readouts against the far wall.

Frigga saw none of them though, going forward until she stood beside him, close enough to look down. Even through the veil of the brightly orange light, his face looked translucent and gaunt, lashes like jet against the snow-pallid skin. Eir had cut his hair very short and shaved it off the side and back where the injury was hidden beneath a monitor patch. She caught her breath to see it, words like skull fracture and brain damage tumbling through her thoughts again.

"Oh my darling," she whispered. "What happened to you? We can fix it, all of it, please come back. You don't have to be lost."

She didn't expect a response, not with his coma and the induced paralysis of the restrictive field, but it was still disheartening that there was none.

"He will be well, Mother," Thor declared, and she started with surprise, not having realized he'd followed her in. She glanced at him, and Thor forced a smile. "He is stubborn and contrary, and he will awaken just to spite us."

"I hope so," she murmured, her gaze drawn back to Loki's body before her. "Never have I seen either of you hurt so grievously."

"Yet he holds on," Thor pointed out.

She opened her mouth to correct him, but in the end said nothing. Perhaps in some deeper stubbornness he was holding on, despite his conscious desire to let go. Glancing at the display, she amended that - perhaps his injuries made his will utterly irrelevant. His spirit might yet flee from such damage and pain. "We can only wait now, as Eir said. Nor do I wish him to wake yet, when he will know only pain."

Thor nodded his understanding and they stood together in silence, until Thor broke it. "Father has not come."

She glanced toward the monitoring window, though she could sense Odin's absence. "No. Nor will he."

"Even though Loki may lie on his deathbed?" Thor asked, pained.

Frigga felt too frayed to defend Odin from Thor's incomprehension. "The last time he visited Loki during illness or injury was so long ago I cannot remember. He will not come now." Yet she had no doubt that Loki had kept a tally; he had not hidden his hurt from her, though he had stopped commenting on it years ago. "But I will go speak with him, and warn him that Loki may yet pass from us."

"I could speak with him," Thor offered, when her feet refused to stir from Loki's side.

She forced herself to draw a deep breath. "No. I must."

"I will stand watch here, then."

She was grateful for the offer, but it seemed a little absurd. "He will not wake today, my son."

"No matter. I will stay. He may not hear me, but perhaps he will, when I speak to him. Perhaps the truth will finally batter its way inside that he remains my brother, no matter what."

She gripped his arm. "I pray that it does, Thor."'

Wanting desperately to kiss Loki's forehead, she had to take solace in saying to him, "I will return soon, my son."

I will hurry back and pray every step that you do not leave when I have no chance of holding onto you.

... tbc...