Pepper Stark sat in the office of her physician in a chair before his desk. He had not yet arrived for their meeting so she passed the time examining the various certificates and awards that hung framed on the wall. He had also been Tony's physician. Money talks and Tony had paid him a substantial retainer to be available at a moment's notice if the need for his services arose. He had written a well regarded academic paper that had been published in one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world about Stark's injury, recovery, and the effects of the arc reactor on his physiology. He had also been the one who had arranged the specialist that finally allowed Stark to once and for all rid himself of the need for his own personal arc reactor implant in his chest. He was one of the best and knew the best in the various specialties of the medical field. Pepper trusted him completely.

Dr. Logan entered the office, a file folder in his hand, and saw Pepper seated in front of his desk as she turned in the chair to face him. Many years of experience with patients clued him in quickly that she was extremely anxious to hear what he had to tell her. She had arrived an hour early for her appointment despite what he knew to be her busy schedule. Giving Pepper a reassuring smile, he extended his hand as she stood and shook it as she had many times in the past.

"Pepper. Great to see you again. How's that little girl of yours? She built her own time machine yet? Or maybe she's out there creating wormholes as we speak." Dr. Logan joked.

"Not yet but she built one hell of a marble maze the other day." Pepper told him with a smile.

"Gotta start somewhere. I can tell you right now she's a chip off the old block...both of them, I'm sure." Dr. Logan said, moving around his desk and sitting down, placing the folder on the desk in front of him. "Well...let's just cut to the chase, rip that band-aid off quick and get it over with. The biopsy was positive, it was malignant." Dr. Logan said. Pepper gasped, though she had told herself she wouldn't even if the news was bad before she'd arrived, and covered her mouth with her hand. "No reason to get your knickers all in a bunch. It was small, infinitesimal really. Took me ten times looking over the scan to even notice it. We got it, it's all out of ya and it hadn't a chance to spread anywhere else. You're lucky, this cancer is the strong, silent type. Doesn't cause any symptoms until it's already too late to do much usually, but the few times it is caught early, it's easily cured. Your case is probably the earliest I've ever seen it."

"Could it come back?" Pepper asked, seeming less anxious now but still deeply concerned.

"Not likely. We'll just repeat scans every year for five years. If nothing crops up in that time, chances are you're home free. You're a perfectly healthy woman. I gotta ask though, how the hell did you know? Like I said, this doesn't cause symptoms until it's well advanced. When you insisted on the scans I thought maybe you'd gone hypochondriac on me." Dr. Logan said.

"A friend of mine suggested I have them done...had a hunch. He was very adamant about it...but then he always was when he got a bug up his ass about something. Just one of those lucky breaks I guess."

"Well you should have this friend of yours pick you out some lotto numbers too...thinking you probably don't need it though. At least take him out for drinks or something. He saved your life."

Sif trekked towards the entrance to the bar on Seruta with its gaudy lights, drunks staggering around outside its confines. One of them, a man of a magenta hue with silver teeth, noticed her approach and broke away from the others he'd been hanging with. She saw him heading in her direction and prepared herself, though she knew she would have no need to expend much effort.

"Hey there. I know why you're here. I got what you came for." he slurred as he planted himself in front of her.

"I advise you to let me pass." Sif warned him as she scowled at him, irritated.

"Gotta pay the toll." the drunken man said. Sif kicked him in the groin, and as he hunched over, punched him in the face, sending him flying back, sprawling on the ground.

"Keep the change." Sif said, striding past him to the entrance of the bar, opening the door and entering. Looking towards the bar, she saw the same short, pudgy man who had tended the bar when she and Sigyn had first visited. She'd only ever seen one other over the last few months during her visits. Turning her head to the left, she saw Kraglin smile and wave from the same table in the corner he always seemed to be sitting at when they met. Sif made her way through the crowd of patrons and sat down across from him.

"Do you reserve this particular table?" she asked.

"Nah. I just tell anyone sittin' here to clear the hell out." Kraglin said.

"And that works?" Sif said, eyeing Kraglin's lanky and non-threatening appearance.

"I've been working out...but sometimes buying 'em a drink helps." Kraglin admitted. "Speaking of drinks. The usual?" Kraglin asked.

"Yes." Sif replied. Kraglin stood and headed towards the bar. Sif scanned the crowd inside the bar curiously as she did every time she came there now. So far, she had not seen another like Lamia on Seruta or anywhere else she had visited, but was always now vigilant. After a couple of minutes, Kraglin reached the table with two drinks in his hand, one the same red and orange drink, bubbling in the glass that contained it that Loki, in his disguise as "Buddy" had bought her and Sigyn on their first visit. Kraglin returned to his seat.

"Heven has a new prince, as does Asgard and the Jotunheim." Sif informed Kraglin.

"She had the kid, huh? Has it been that long already?"

"I only hope I am not someday called upon to pull his ass out of the fire as I have his father's." Sif said, downing her drink.

"Well, you know what they say...the berry doesn't fall too far from the bush'."

Sigyn sat next to Loki in the royal box of the theater watching the opening performance of Loki's play. As it was about the story of her ascension to the throne, she had felt a bit self conscious and nervous, knowing Loki's tendency to over dramatize, and what Thor had told her of the scene he had witnessed on Asgard of Loki's last production, though of course that had been written under an alias as he had been impersonating Odin at the time. So far, however, she had found his latest effort to be surprisingly thoughtful and well written and acted by those he had been involved in casting. He had been disappointed that Mariel had turned down the opportunity to portray her, claiming she was much too busy. In fact, Mariel was at the moment acting as babysitter to Leiffrid. Sigyn doubted she would have much to do. She had changed and fed him and he had gone down for his afternoon nap right before they had left and would likely remain peacefully sleeping until their return.

Sigyn watched the young angelic actors portraying herself and Loki as children on the stage as they were accosted by adult angels portraying Einherjar. Aside from the scene of her death in New Asgard, Loki had found it the hardest scene to write and not due to a faulty memory of the events, in fact the opposite was true. As the children on stage were torn from each others arms and dragged apart, their convincing cries to each other and screams echoing through the theater, Loki glanced over at Sigyn who sat transfixed by the performance as tears began to course down her cheeks as she recalled the experience on which the scene had been based. He squeezed her hand that he held in his. She was by far not the only one to be thus affected. Looking out over the audience, Loki noticed with satisfaction many similarly moved.

The golden curtain of light that was the Ladder descended upon the island in the field before the house. Loki and Sigyn stepped out of it, Leiffrid held securely in Sigyn's arms, Loki carrying two large bags over each shoulder.

"Oh my..."Sigyn said trailing off as her eyes fell upon the house in which she had lived for so many decades and had spent so many lonely days and nights. Barton had not been exaggerating when he had told her that upon her return it would look like a new place. The house was now covered in a coat of fresh white paint. Flowering bushes had been planted in various places around its perimeter along with other landscaping.

As they reached the front door, Sigyn opened the wooden screen door which had been repainted with new screen installed. Opening the inside door which had also been redone, it moved smoothly on its hinges without a hint of a squeak. In fact, the hinges themselves had been replaced. Inside, the walls had been repainted as well, new carpet lay where the shaggy, worn old carpeting had once covered the floor. Loki looked about the room impressed as well, or as impressed as he ever could be by a simple mortal dwelling after growing up in the palace on Asgard.

Looking over to the kitchen, Sigyn saw sitting on the table a bottle of wine along with two wine glasses and a new corkscrew.

It was still dark when Sigyn awoke in her old bedroom to the sound of Leiffrid fussing in the cradle. She removed her arm from around Loki who was sleeping soundly beside her and rose, walking to the cradle and lifting him from it, carrying him out of the room.

The darkness was just beginning to be swept away by the faint glow of the sun beginning to rise in the distance over the ocean. Sigyn had fed Leiffrid and he rested quietly in her arms. Walking back into the bedroom she retrieved what she was looking for from the dresser and looked to Loki who continued to slumber.

Exiting the house, Leiffrid held in one arm, the music player and small portable speaker in her other hand, Sigyn traversed across the field. She recalled all that had happened there...the attack by the frost giants, how she had lay mortally wounded in Loki's arms. She thought of the angels under Loriel's control that had lost their lives there as they found themselves exiting the Ladder onto enchanted ground. Now nothing but peace and silence lay over that same ground.

Reaching the other side of the island, she sat in the grass a few yards from the cliffs, holding Leiffrid who had now returned to sleep and listening to the sound of the ocean far below. The horizon began to gradually brighten, growing golden, though the sun had not yet made it's way above it. Sigyn plugged the speaker into the music player with her free hand and scrolled through the playlist until she found what she was looking for. Setting the volume low she was about to start the music when a hand fell upon her shoulder. She looked up to see Loki as he sat down beside her. He held his arms out, Sigyn transferring Leiffrid into them.

Loki held Leiffrid in one arm as he put the other around Sigyn and she leaned against him, laying her head on his shoulder as the sun came into view over the horizon, its light reflecting golden on the ocean as the music began to play. ( watch?v=xUNqsfFUwhY )

Here comes the sun

Here comes the sun, and I say

It's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter

Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun

Here comes the sun, and I say

It's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces

Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun

Here comes the sun, and I say

It's all right

The End