Loki had not expected anyone to be awake when he had appeared - he had meant to simply check on Aislinn, and then move on to check on Emma, and then on to the others he had not yet visited, but instead he found both mother and baby in the nursery.
"Hello," he responded, tentative and slightly sheepish, offering a small, brief smile. "I apologize, I did not mean to disturb you..."
>"Doing all right?"
That was a bit of a complicated question, wasn't it? Technically, no - he was not 'doing all right' - but at the same time, there was nothing wrong enough that he could do anything about it, or justify saying that he was not doing well. He could not tell her what was wrong. Darcy was, to all appearances, recovering well (he could see moments where she was less than 100%, could see when things bothered her and the surface everything is fine faltered and flickered, but he was there, and it would go away for a while, and he was doing everything he could to make everything better for her). He was uninjured and, for the most part, unharmed. Dark was not even an imminent threat. Or at least, he claimed he was not.
"I am... not sure." It was more honest than he meant it to be, his smile a little more wobbly. For a practiced liar, for someone who had spent a great deal of his very long life learning to craft elaborate lies and seamless 'poker faces', there were times when he found himself being unexpectedly honest. Especially when it was least convenient.
"At present, nothing is urgently wrong," he added quickly. That, at least, was a lie, if only a partial one. The fact that he was unable to speak Dark's name, the fact that he could still feel the control the man had over him, was, in his opinion, a fairly urgent wrong, and one he wished he knew how to remedy. But it was not the sort of wrong that meant Emma needed to be alarmed. Nothing was currently endangering her or her children. Nothing was coming for them. Nor would he allow that to happen.
If you can do anything about it, you mean, he reminded himself, bitterly. If Dark's control was able to keep him from speaking any warnings about his presence, what else would he be unable to do, if Dark wished it? Would he turn docile and simply walk back into captivity, if they returned? Would he stand by and allow those he cared for to be taken, too?
Would he be compelled to personally take them in, lead them to their destruction or captivity?
He did not know. He could not say, and that was more unsettling than he wanted to admit.