This is it. But hold on to your socks.

Darcy didn't go back to work at Avengers Headquarters. Despite a truce with Stark, very hesitant overtures from Natasha, Thor's continued groveling, and Steve and Bruce's genuine pleasure at her return, it felt like she'd gone too far to the dark side to work that closely with the S.H.I.E.L.D agents. Plenty of them had heard the exchange between herself and Loki, and that had only heightened the bad/crude things they had to say about her. After the first brawl that resulted in a week long suspension for Clint, she decided it wasn't worth it, and found employment elsewhere.

She didn't much like being famous, but after the initial insanity died down, she wasn't bothered too much. There were interviews, and some creepy people who stalked her in a sideways attempt to get in with Clint, but Darcy had a taser and knew how to use it.

Her scars, such an issue to her initially, did not seem very important to the rest of the world. The outpouring of love from the fans when they heard her interview about how she'd almost been killed in Loki's attack on the building was stunning. The fans quickly fell in love with the idea of Hawkeye falling in love with her while he helped nurse her back to health. That wasn't how it had happened, of course, but the fans loved the idea and ran with it. There had even been a TV movie made about it.

Clint asked her if she wanted to be married, but it didn't really matter to Darcy. They were together, and she didn't need a fancy ceremony to make it real for her.

Samuel Jordan Barton came into the world easily, to the relief of his nervous parents. He spent the early formative years of his life surrounded by larger-than-life heroes (which his mother obsessively worried about sometimes), and his many 'uncles' were happy to spoil him. Though vastly outnumbered, Aunt Jane spoiled him even more.

Darcy was proud that they didn't make too many mistakes during the early years.

Little Sam never doubted that he was loved, something his daddy was very insistent about. Clint didn't talk about his early years much, but they hadn't been happy ones, and he would not let his son grow up without that knowledge of unconditional love.

Still, Darcy worried about her son's chances of having a normal kind of life. A kid who got regular piggy back rides from the Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, and the God of Thunder might have trouble fitting in to normal society. He might never have to, since Clint had already started teaching him to shoot, but if he did, she didn't want it to be totally impossible for him.

Sam seemed to take it all in stride, though sometimes he seemed like two different little boys in one body. He had moments of being a typical little boy, laughing and playing and learning. Other times he seemed brooding and old beyond his years as he studied the people around him.

It was Natasha, who still had a very strained relationship with Darcy and mostly remained distant and aloof, who had the balls to say something one day, after dropping Clint off when they'd finished a mission.

She watched as Sam planned out a trick to play on his daddy and went running off on stubby little legs to put it into play. Then she turned to Darcy with a grave expression.

"Sometimes, your son is far older and far more clever than his years."

That was all she said before taking her leave, but it had Darcy thinking. She spent a lot of time after that, watching Sam, and noticing things. During his normal little boy times, he had the open expression of a child and steel blue eyes. At those other times, he wore a cunning expression completely out of place on a child, and his eyes seemed more green than blue. The color change didn't freak her out too much, because Clint's eye color varied quite a bit based on his moods.

It wasn't until the day that she was watching her son plan out a devious little trick for Uncle Thor that was so far beyond his years it was impossible that Darcy had a crazy idea.

"Loki?" she asked softly.

Her son turned, sandy hair flopping over his emerald green eyes, and looked up at her. "Yes Darcy?"

She went a little crazy then, yelling and screaming, demanding to know what he'd done to her son. It was probably a good thing that the Avengers were on a mission in another state currently, because things might have gotten ugly.

When her hysterics had run their course, and Darcy was too exhausted to scream or cry anymore, Loki/Sam approached with a bottle of water and a box of tissues. She was too numb to fight it, and blew her nose and drank some water, watching the little boy/god suspiciously.

"Are you ready to listen?" he asked calmly. It was eerie as hell listening to that calm voice coming from such a young body.

"Do I have a choice?" Darcy asked bitterly.

"There is always choice, Darcy." He looked down at the floor, and then back up at her. "I was broken, insane. You know that. You have talked about it many times with Jane and Thor."

"How do you know that?" she asked shakily.

His serene smile was eerily all Loki, and it looked completely out of place on her son's face. "I have been with you since I healed you. What…what happened to you was enough of a shock to stop the spinning inside of me. I found the balance that I had once had before. I could see where the breaking and fracturing of my very soul had splintered into madness and rage. It is not an easy thing to see into yourself like that. Thor was right about you. You had no quarrel with me and you brought what little peace to me that I could accept, yet my madness and rage had destroyed you. I thought I might be able to save you, but it would require everything I had. I had to try though, in an attempt to make some sort of atonement for my atrocities."

The little boy/god paced, head bowed, eyes staring down at the floor once more. "I will admit to a bit of cowardice and selfishness at this point. I had no desire to return to Asgard and face the disappointment of my father, or the punishment that I deserved. My soul was newly recovered, and I wanted to enjoy that. So as I healed you, and sensed the life that had just begun to grow inside of you but had already been snuffed out, I knew that I could perhaps do yet another thing to atone. And to avoid return to Asgard. I cast free of my body and entered and healed the speck of a child that was just starting to grow. Your womb was a safe haven for me as I had to face all the atrocities I had committed while insane."

Darcy wanted to puke. "You bastard!" she snarled. "I want my son back. What am I supposed to tell Clint?" Her voice was raw pain, and she didn't know if she'd ever felt such razor sharp emotional agony before.

He looked puzzled. "You son is right here, Darcy. He is sleeping right now, which is typically when I become active. I have not supplanted him. I would never do such a thing."

Hope was both a good and bad thing. "But…but you…he was dead?"

"He had not even come into being yet, Darcy. There was only a little speck of life that had been extinguished by the terrible trauma you suffered. I brought that speck back to life, and hid there while the soul that would become your son slowly developed." His smile lacked humor. "If you wish, you may tell the world that life and a life, a soul, are different things. Life begins immediately upon conception, but self awareness does not begin until some time later. I did not interfere with that process. I just needed a place to hide for awhile. Becoming whole of heart again, only to realize what awful things I had done while broken, was almost enough to break me again. I did not wish to go on living for quite some time. The love that I felt from you and Clint, even though not truly directed at me, helped me to recover."

Darcy frowned. "Do you plan to stay inside of Sam forever?"

The cough and uncomfortable look on her son's face was pure Loki, and Darcy experienced a very strange sense of melding as she looked at him. She could see Loki's face in her son's right now. How had she missed it before?

"I was going to stay as long as I could, but since you have figured out who I am in my 'moments,' as you call them, I will depart." He said it in a small voice. "It has been a novel experience for me to go through childhood being the sole center of attention of so many people that love me. Even though it is not really me who is loved, it has eased the pain of my own childhood. I rather selfishly wanted to stay as long as I could, but that is not fair to you and Clint."

"No," Darcy agreed, "Clint would not take this very well, and I can't hide this from him."

"You cannot," the boy/god agreed. The pained expression on his face was also pure Loki. "I am happy for you that you have found such happiness with Clint. He is a good man. I…I am sorry for the way I consumed you while we were together. Your attention, your devotion, was a salve for my fractured psyche. It held my more homicidal tendencies at bay."

Darcy held up a hand. "Stop. You're in my son's body right now, and that's too much of a mind fuck for me to handle."

He ducked his head. "You are right, of course. Again, I am sorry."

She waved her hands around. "How does this work? Do you just float off or what?"

His sigh was heartfelt. "I must be reunited with my body."

Darcy blinked. "Your body is in Asgard, Loki."

"Yes, I am aware of that. It either requires a journey to Asgard, or that my body be brought here. I suggest the latter, since I do not wish to further disrupt young Samuel's life. Waking in Asgard could be very traumatic for him."

"I'll speak to Thor when they get back from their mission."

"That will not be necessary. He is almost here now."

"What?" Darcy cried. But she could see the sky darkening outside, and seconds later, Thor was dropping to the terrace with Clint piggy backing him. Right behind them was Tony, and Hulk crashed down only seconds behind Tony, with Steve piggy backing him.

"Oh shit," Darcy muttered. "Jarvis."

For everyone's protection, Tony had networked all of their personal dwellings into Jarvis's network. The AI was mostly dormant, but certain things could activate him.

"Indeed Ms. Lewis. As soon as you began speaking to Loki, my system activated. I summoned the Avengers."

Clint looked crazy insane as he jumped from Thor's back and came racing into the apartment, arrow knocked and ready to fly.

"Where is he?" he cried, looking around frantically. "Sam – go to Uncle Steve right now. Darce – where is he?"

Darcy frowned. "Couldn't you have sent a follow up message or something, Jarvis?"

Thor, Mjolnir held in a white knuckled fist, stomped inside, head turning from side to side as he scanned the apartment. Steve and Tony were right behind him, and Darcy had enough when she saw Hulk approaching. She jumped to her feet.

"No! Absolutely not! No Hulk in our home! Just stop, all of you. Power down, chill out, there's nothing to be fighting here."

Hulk looked vaguely offended, but stayed where he was.

Clint was still almost out of his mind. "Samuel Jordan! Go with Uncle Steve right now!"

The boy/god folded his arms across his chest and stared calmly up at the frantic heroes. "Samuel is currently asleep, and taking myself out of the apartment would not be wise at this time."

The thunk of Mjolnir hitting the floor (and cracking it, dammit!) was very loud in Darcy's ears. Thor's eyes were impossibly wide and looked like all of hell had broken loose. "Loki," he said flatly. "Oh brother, what have you done?"

Clint's anguished cry almost broke Darcy's heart. She ran to him and reached out to cup his face. "Look at me, Clint. Look at me. It's okay."

He was starting to sink to the floor, staring at their son in horror. His eyes finally met hers, and her calm gave him enough strength to stay upright. The bow lowered and then dropped to the floor with a clatter.

Stark's faceplate flipped up. Tony looked wary. "Darcy? What the hell is going on here?"

Steve knelt by Sam, peering into his eyes. "Shit. They're green They are Loki's eyes." He seemed shaken and stood quickly, moving a few steps back.

Clint was holding Darcy's arms so tightly she would probably bruise, alternating looks between her and their son. He was shaking. "You need to explain this quickly so I don't lose it," he warned in a choked voice. "Because as it stands, I'm about to go apeshit."

She summed it up as best and as quickly as she could. By the end, they had relaxed somewhat, and Hulk had even powered down to Banner. Clint was still very not happy.

"How do we know this isn't some sort of story he's concocted?" he asked pointedly, glaring at the boy/god and then looking guilty about it.

Thankfully, Thor was able to set their minds at ease. "He has done something like this before. Shared space with another's soul. There are no lasting effects after separation has occurred." He squared his shoulders. "I will go, tonight, to Asgard, so that I may bring Loki's body back here."

Clint was still very leery and did not trust the boy/god, despite Darcy's assurances. But when Loki calmly informed them that Sam was waking up, and quite suddenly they were staring at their confused little boy, and not the God of Mischief, he had a quiet change of heart. The change was clear.

Darcy just wanted to wrap it all up. It seemed like the last final thing that had been hanging over their heads – Loki's self sacrifice. This would bring all that to a close, finally. She was happy that he had gotten to experience a different childhood, and that he was no longer the mad insane god, but she wanted to move past it.

Odin's arrival with Thor was unexpected, but the All-Father had been deeply wounded by Loki's actions. First his attempt at suicide, and then everything that had transpired during his time on Earth, followed by a second suicide, or so it had seemed. To learn that he was alive…

Coaxing Sam to sleep when there were such interesting visitors was difficult. Surprisingly, it was Odin himself who was able to do so. The All-Father went down on one knee before Darcy and Clint's son.

"It is very exciting, these strange new people here, yes?" Odin nodded down at Sam. "But if you do not have your sleep, you will become cranky and unhappy."

Same stared up at him with rapt fascination. "Are you related to Pappy Fury?"

Odin blinked, and looked over at Nick Fury. "Why would you think we are related?"

Sam tapped his eye. "You match."

Thor's laughter was amazingly loud inside the building. But finally, Sam was convinced to lie down in a quiet room, and soon drifted off. Odin stared in shock as the little boy/god came strolling back out to them. He even moved like Loki, and the All-Father could see it.

The reunion looked emotionally painful for both Loki and Odin. Darcy kept her distance. She just wanted Loki out of her son's body, so that she could finally put that time of her life to rest, and she could continue with her current life, which was fantastic.

Clint came to her side, edgy and impatient. He slid an arm around her waist, watching with his hawk eyes as the All-Father conversed with their son. Loki was not entirely happy with what was being said, that was clear, but nodded in agreement, and moved to his body.

Everyone seemed to be holding their breath, but the end was rather anticlimactic. The boy/god reached up to place a hand over his body's heart, and the body jumped, sitting up, eyes snapping open. Sam wilted immediately, and sat down hard on the floor. He rubbed his eyes, and stared in confusion. Darcy and Clint stepped forward as a unit, and scooped him off the floor. With a look at Clint, Darcy passed Sam into his arms, and stepped up to gurney Loki's body rested on.

He was coughing lightly, shaking his head and blinking his eyes, trying to acclimate himself to his new/old body. But he looked up at Darcy's approach and smiled. He reached out a little unsteadily, and took her hand, bringing it up to his mouth and pressing a kiss to the back of it.

"Thank you, Darcy."

Darcy pressed her hand very briefly to his cheek, nodded, and then turned away, back toward her family. Behind her she could hear the exuberance of Thor's reunion with his brother, but for her it was over. She slid her arms around Clint and Sam and squeezed them tight, garnering a sleepy protest from their son, who was clinging to Clint's shoulders.

"Let's go home," she whispered.

Wow. I hope you don't hate the ending. This story's Loki would not have flipped so easily to noble self sacrifice, so that's why this ending took place. I know some of you probably won't like it, but it made sense to me.

I tied up as neatly as I could. I know some of you will be wondering what happens with Loki now, but that's not part of this story. This was a great way to get out some of my angst, and the journey was enlightening for me. Please review, and thank you again for all the support. I hope you enjoyed.