The Tower: Happily Ever After

The Council Meeting

As the weeks passed I began feeling more and more myself. The dark cloud that had been following me started to lift thanks to a mixture of my hormones balancing out, taking time for myself, and seeing the seidr who helped me with a mixture of incantations, potions, and something that resembled the therapy I was in back on Earth.

I was up and about as normal, even when I was feeling a little low. I was starting to enjoy being with the babies and was getting excited to see their little smiles and how they had started to make longer eye contact and grabbed at us. I loved seeing how they reacted with the other kids too. They adored their nieces and nephews. Especially Zak who liked to try and get them to smile and Piper who doted on them and was always asking to hold them.

One thing I had missed while I was lost in the fog of depression was how good Marya was with them. Marya had been spending a lot of time between her new classes and hanging out with Loki. In the handful of months that we'd been on Asgard and she'd made a small group of friends that she took classes with. They had accepted her readily as one of them and had started coming back to our rooms to study or just spend time together.

When she was just home alone with us, she'd offer to help a lot. It was interesting to see. We'd never used our older kids as babysitters for the younger ones in any sense unless they'd asked to do it. There were a few who seemed to offer more than others. Rose had always been a little mother hen who liked gathering up the kids who were younger than her. When Marya was born Rose had been 14 and she loved taking care of her baby sister when she wasn't crying. In fact, there were times when she was crying and Rose had been the only one who could get her to settle. Sarah and Eddie would often offer to do it for extra pocket money, and Billy had loved hearing Marya laugh as an infant so he'd try and get her to do it a lot.

Now it was Marya's turn to be the older sister, and she seemed to love it. Not just looking after the twins, but it was like she appreciated that we trusted her with them. So she'd offer to help bathe them or take them for a little walk around the halls if they were fussing. It was really lovely to see.

Everyone had been taking turns to go to council meetings and meet with citizens who had petitioned to speak with the king. Due to my depression, I had not gone yet, so I wasn't surprised when Thor came to speak to me.

"The people wish to see their queen and the new prince and princess," Thor said, as he sat beside me, cradling Nova. We were all there, which was a rarity in the middle of the day. Bruce and Tony were still working hard at getting a good communication system up between Asgard and Earth, and Thor was usually off ruling. I figured that Thor had asked everyone to stay behind while the kids were being tutored so he could talk to us alone. "Do you feel well enough to attend to our people yet?"

I gave a nod. "I think so. I'm not sure what I'm doing though."

"You attended meetings with me when I last had the throne," Thor said.

"Yeah, but I just sat there and kept quiet," I said.

"It's a lot like that now, to be honest," Natasha said. "I assume we will figure things out as we go."

"That is why I wanted you all here, not just Elise," Thor said. "I have been able to sense your discomfort with participating. Your input is always welcome, even if the other members of the council disagree with your suggestions - I want to know how you all feel. I know the idea of a monarchy is not something that is easy for you all to deal with."

"I did spend a lot of my life fighting for democracy," Steve agreed.

"That you did, beloved," Thor said, affectionately squeezing Steve's thigh. "Perhaps that is something we can introduce to my people. However, they have been living under a monarchy since the dawn of time. They do not take to change readily. I am, after all, only the fourth ruler since Asgard burst forth from nothing."