Eagle (A Loki love story)

Chapter 159

Sitting through that lunch was an incredibly awkward affair. Nobody knew what to talk about, and even Dreyma and Morgan could sense that there was something off. Tony had made his decision, true, but I also had made mine. As they got up to leave, I pulled Pepper aside.

"I'm going to go with them, but I know Dreyma was looking forward to this weekend–"

"I don't mind, and I'm sure Tony won't either."

"I'll come back for her Sunday evening."

"Sounds good. I hope you guys can work out....whatever it is."

"Thank you." I looked back to the great room where Dreyma was hugging Steve and Natasha goodbye. I signalled for them to wait outside, and got Dreyma's attention before she could get sucked into playing with Morgan again.

"Hey, sweetheart. Would you be ok if I went with Uncle Steve and Auntie Nat this weekend? I'll come back on Sunday night to get you, but I won't go unless you say it's ok." Her reply was completely unexpected.

"Can I come too?"

"You wouldn't have much fun, Dreyma. We'll be doing a lot of talking and not much playing."

"Oh." She seemed to think for a second, "If you go can I have a juice pop now?" I laughed.

"Yes, you can have a juice pop." I gave her a hug, "I'll see you Sunday. I love you."

"Are you going to bring Mom back?" My breath caught in my throat.

"I heard Auntie Nat say–" I pressed a finger over her lips and shook my head.

"You can't tell anyone you heard that."

"But are you?" Why did this have to be so hard!? I could already feel the tears building up. I couldn't lie, but I didn't want to give her false hope.

"We're going to try, sweetie. We're going to try."

"Ok!" She gave me her brightest smile and this time it broke my heart, because she was undoubtedly going to disappointed. She threw her arms around me, "I love you, dad." It took all my strength to not cry.

"I love you too." I kissed the top of her head. "Now run along, Morgan has been waiting very patiently." Without another thought, she bounded off. I gave her shrinking form one last look, sent Tony one final glare, and slipped out the door.

"Well, he's scared." Natasha reasoned as we descended the steps to the car.

"He's not wrong."

"Yeah, but what are we gonna do? We need him! What, are we gonna stop?"

"No, I wanna do it right." He stared off into the distance for a moment, "We're gonna need a really big brain."

"Bigger than his?"

"In this case, literally."

"Who?" Then it came to me.

"Bruce."

It took the rest of the day just to get in contact with him. After we got back to the Compound, we straightened up a bit, having already agreed in the car to get everyone else back here to work on this too. And they really meant everyone.

"No."

"Loki–"

"We haven't seen him in years now, we barely hear about him from Valkyrie, and all that we do hear is negative!"

"If he doesn't want to come, that's his choice, but if we're going to attempt this, then we need him. No matter what kind of state he's in. You're the only person who could convince him to come." I scoffed.