The next two days passed in relative peace, despite that you kept cursing about being without your powers. The palace was cleaned and repaired from the attack, Loki's duties went on as usual, though he would scarcely let you out of his sight. You caught a few naps in his lap on the throne. He loved it when you did, loved that you were safe, even without your powers. You fretted over his wound and kept cursing your lack of powers.

Loki chuckled when you'd fretted too much. "Fear not, love. It's just fine. I'm fine. I'm not a weakling who can't live with a little cut for a couple of days," he reminded you warmly after you'd fretted once too often.

"But-" you protested, hating seeing him injured, even with such a small injury.

"You'll heal it tomorrow," he reminded you warmly. "Stop fretting, Sig. That is an order from your king," he added, teasing. You rolled your eyes at him.

"You didn't think that would actually work, did you?" you tease and kiss him.

"Not at all, but a smile and a kiss from you was well worth it," he grinned in reply.

*

The second you got your powers back, you healed the cut on Loki's arm. He kissed you when you had. "See? I told you I could survive a few days with a small cut," he told you warmly. "We've gotten quite spoiled having a healer around," he added.

"I'm sure the team realizes that by now. I haven't been there to heal them in a month. Poor Clint is probably full of bullets by now..." you mused, but with a touch of real concern.

"Darling, they'd contact us if they need our help. I left one of the ravens with Thor just for that purpose," he reminded you.

You sighed. "I know. I can still worry about our friends. They're helpless without us," you reminded him, trying to joke and reassure both of you that the team would be ok without you. They'd survived without you just fine until you'd moved into the tower. They could survive however long you were ruling Asgard.

Or so you thought until a couple weeks later when a raven flew into the healing wing. You didn't think anything of it at first. Ravens flew around the palace like owls at Hogwarts, and served much the same purpose most of the time. You even got messages as head healer occasionally, so it really wasn't that strange. Except that you noted the air of magic around the raven, stronger than the others who had come to see you. This one was one of Odin's. You went to it and removed the note from its leg. The team was in trouble.

You donned your battle armor with magic and turned to the healers. "Healer Ingris, an emergency has come up. You're in charge until I get back," you told her firmly.

"Yes, my lady," she replied, extra polite when you were barking out orders, when you were in battle gear. Everyone in Asgard knew to fear the healers when they went into battle. It was best to do what the healers said.

You nodded and teleported directly to the throne, propriety the least of your concern. Loki jumped to his feet when he saw you appear in your armor. "Sig?"

"Midgard is in trouble. The team- Thor-" you told him. You saw the hesitation in his eyes. He couldn't leave Asgard. He had to stay on the throne and rule here. You saw the hesitation, saw the heartbreak in his eyes that he couldn't come. "I'll return to Midgard, help your brother and the team," you told him quickly. He started to open his mouth to protest that he should come. "There must always be a member of the House of Odin upon the throne of Asgard," you reminded him firmly.

/There must always be a Stark in Winterfell?/ he teased telepathically. You gave him a small smile.

He nodded. "Take the Tesseract from the vault so you don't have to rely on the Bifrost. If Thor-" his words cut off. "Come get me if-"

You nodded. The Tesseract would allow you to come and go as you pleased without waiting for Heimdall. "I'll kick his ass myself for scaring you, my king," you told him firmly, determined to reassure him that the team would be ok. He gave you the barest hint of a smile.

"Be safe, darling," he bid you. "If you are injured I shall be quite cross with you," he reminded you with love in his voice.

"I love you too," you told him and teleported down to the vault, not bothering with walking when time could very well be of the essence. The guards looked like they wanted to stop you, until they realized who you were. They still didn't look convinced, though, even though Loki had been down here with you to show you how to use the Tesseract in the first place. "The King has ordered me to use the Tesseract to return to Midgard and aid Thor," you informed him as you strode over to the Tesseract and picked it up. A little focus, a touch of power to activate the power of the Tesseract, and you were in the common room of the tower. You vanished the Tesseract to a dimensional pocket to keep it safe.

"Jarvis, where's the team?" you asked after you'd appeared and no one was here. You summoned your comm device to put into your ear, while Jarvis rattled off a location. "Guys, I'm here!" you called into the comm.

"Y/N! Thank god!" Came a chorus from the team.

"Get your ass over here. We need all the help we can get!" Stark called over the comms.

"Incoming. Don't shoot me," you reminded them and teleported to where they were. The battle ranging around you was huge. There were aliens... seriously... aliens? and monsters, maybe monster aliens. It was hard to tell.

"Thor's down!" Cap called when you appeared. Thor was easy to spot and you knew it had to be bad for him to be down. He could withstand nearly anything. You ran to his side, your hands already glowing blue by the time you reached him.

"Thor!" you called. He was bleeding from so many words. "If you die, I will be bringing your ass back from Valhalla so Loki can kill you again himself," you told him as you knelt beside him to begin the healing.

"I expect nothing less," he told you weakly. "There was just too many of them. All ganged up on me at the same time,"

"So we'll kick their asses once you're back on your feet. Don't make me go get your brother. He's already worried," you told him as you dumped more power into healing him faster.

"He said no such thing,"

You rolled your eyes. "Of course he didn't. But it killed him to stay behind, though duty demands it,"

"The House of Odin must be on the throne,"

"And so he is," you told him. "He's been such a good king, Thor. You'll be proud of him." It took longer than you'd have liked, but you got him healed and back on his feet. He grabbed your hand and hauled you back to your feet too.

"On your feet, Sig. No time to rest in this battle," he bid you. You nodded, shook off the haze of power drain and dove into battle. The battle was long and brutal. You had to save teammates from the brink of death more than once until you finally found the hole between the worlds that the aliens were using to cross to Earth from their world. You managed to magic the portal shut. Clint tried to cover you while you did, but you still ended up with a spear in your side.

You turned to the offending alien. "That was just plain rude," you informed it and set it on fire, glaring in anger that it had harmed you. It flailed behind you, shrieking while you turned your attention back to the portal, forcing it shut again while most of the team blasted the aliens on the other side, keeping them from coming through. "Thor, a little help!" you called as he landed.

"What do you need?" he asked, looking at the spear in your side.

"Pull the spear," you told him through gritted teeth.

"But-" that was usually a stupid thing to do.

"I'm a healer, do it," you growled at him. He gripped the spear and yanked it out of your side. Before it could start bleeding worse, you used shields to emergency bandage it.

The rest of the team was taking down the remaining aliens. You were breathing heavily, drained. "Cover Nat and Clint," Thor told you firmly, giving you a safer position to finish the fight from. You nodded and accepted his order, accepted the safer assignment. You had done enough already, especially injured. You covered Nat and Clint while they fought the aliens long distance with guns and Clint's bow. It wasn't long at all before the remaining aliens were defeated.

The team gathered around you, glad to see you, and worried over your injury until you reassured them that you were ok. It would be a quick heal when you got back to Asgard. Thor touched your shoulder. "How's he doing? Really?" he asked, concerned for his baby brother and the responsibility he put on his shoulders.

"He's doing spectacularly, Thor. He was nervous at first, of course, but he makes a wonderful king. The people love him and trust in his decisions for the realm. They even seem to care for me at his side. I've actually taken over as head healer in Mother's absence," you add that last part a little proudly. Thor raised an eyebrow at your use of the word 'mother'. You flushed, but he smiled warmly, approving of the change of address for Frigga.

"I'm glad to hear it," Thor told you warmly. "I knew he'd be a good king,"

"He really, truly is. But I should get back to him before he worries even more. He was so distraught when the raven arrived. Especially since he couldn't come help himself,"

"He did his duty as king and remained behind," Thor reminded you. You nodded.

"I know, but he still worries, enough that he sent me with this," you pulled the Tesseract out of the dimensional pocket.

"He really was worried to send you with that," Thor commented while the rest of the team gasped and protested at the cube being out of Asgard's vault.

"If he asks, I kicked your ass for worrying him," you told Thor with a smirk. You said goodbye to the others, promised you'd come home as soon as you could, and used the Tesseract to teleport back to the throne in Asgard.