A BLONDE WIG
OLIVIA SLIDES OUT OF THE BACK SEAT OF A TAXI. In front of her is the mental institution that Dr. Selvig was transferred to. There were only 4 close enough to the police station to make sense, and that makes this the last stop on her trip.
It was a long process figuring out where he’d be taken. She spent pretty much the whole night cross-referencing police car numbers, addresses, and other miscellaneous information, trying to figure out where Selvig could be.
Now, as she steps into the building, she is hit with a blast of freezing cold air. She stuffs her phone into the pocket of her coat, striding up to the desk like she has important business here.
“Hello,” she greets, catching the attention of the man working the desk, “I’m looking for Erik Selvig? I’m his niece.” He glances down at his papers, and then back up at her with slight suspicion.
“Dr. Selvig was checked out about a half an hour ago,” he replies, earning himself a surprised blink from her. Her eyebrows knit together in confusion.
“What? Are you sure? Nobody told me anything,” she hums, bewildered. He nods sharply, and she deflates with an annoyed sigh. “Ugh, nobody ever tells me anything in this family. I already bought his plane ticket and everything— well, do you know who checked him out?”
The man’s expression turns a little more sympathetic, though a glimmer of suspicion remains.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you that. Patient confidentiality,” he explains. She nods, heaving a sigh.
“I get it,” she assures him. “Thanks anyways.” She waves with one hand, turning back towards the door as she pulls out her phone.
Luckily, she reflects as she inputs the name on his name tag, she came prepared.
She steps outside and out of the security camera’s view, pulling off her coat and flipping it inside out. From one of the pockets, modified to be way deeper than it looks, she pulls out a familiar long blonde wig.
She peeks in the window, watching one of the nurses come in to tell him that he’s got a call. As soon as they’re out of sight, she ducks back in, stepping behind his computer and plugging in a USB.
Sometimes, she’s really grateful for her old training; and that they forgot to take a couple of their trinkets from her.
Automatically, the security camera footage is pulled up. She rewinds it until she gets to Selvig’s pickup. The guy who checked him out is too blurry to properly make out— the woman who was with him, on the other hand…
Olivia snaps a picture with her phone, closing the footage and pocketing her USB. Down the hall, footsteps approach.
“—fucking prank call,” the receptionist complains to his coworker, rolling his eyes. “Honestly, I bet it was Dale.” He steps back behind the counter, just barely missing Olivia as she vanishes around the corner outside.
“And Loki says I’m a bad liar,” Olivia scoffs to herself, pulling off her wig and glancing again at the picture on her phone.
***
After spending the last few hours relentlessly combing through all of Dr. Selvig’s known associates, and then their known associates, Olivia finally has an address.
She halfheartedly shifts her jacket, knowing it’ll do nothing for the obvious bags under her eyes. Still, at least her unhealed injuries are all plenty covered.
Then, she knocks. It takes a few seconds, but then a man opens the door. He looks like he’s about 24, if she had to guess.
“This is Jane Foster’s lab, right?” she prompts him. He stares at her for a second, flabbergasted, but her eyebrow raise prompts him to jump into action.
“Oh! Uh, yes— but she’s not actually here right now,” he explains awkwardly. She nods once, pointing over his shoulder.
“I’m not actually looking for her,” she states. “Mind if I come in?” Without waiting for an answer, she brushes past him into the room.
“Wait— uh— I don’t know if— ugh,” he sighs, defeated, opting to dejectedly shut the door behind her.
“Uh, who are you? What are you doing in here?” Darcy questions upon seeing Olivia. She turns to Ian, who has just approached behind her. “What is she doing in here?”
“I’m just here to speak to Dr. Selvig,” Olivia assures her. “I’m looking for Thor.” Darcy scoffs out a laugh.
“Uh, yeah, well then that makes two of us,” she agrees. “He just took Jane and-and disappeared, and all this freaky stuff was happening, and we’ve got enough to deal with right now, so unless you can magically pull Jane back out of the sky, can you please get out!”
Selvig chooses this moment to appear from one of the other rooms.
“Oh!” he exclaims, blinking. “I know you! You’re one of those— um— Avengers!” Now Darcy wheels around with wide eyes.
“Uh… yeah,” Olivia agrees slowly, crinkling up her nose slightly in distaste. “Sure. Good to see you.”
“Oh my God,” Darcy realizes, “I just told one of the Avengers to get out.”
“Hey, you’re that one girl,” Ian realizes. “The one nobody can identify. What did they call you… uh—,” Olivia interrupts him before he can invoke one of the incredibly ridiculous monikers that the media has made up.
“Olivia,” she states, cutting him off. “That’s my name. I don’t answer to Mystery Girl or any of the other stupid names the news made up.”
“Well, what are you doing here? Are you here to help us stop the Convergence?” Selvig wonders. Olivia looks at him in bewilderment.
“What? What’s the—? You know what? I probably don’t wanna know. I need to talk to Thor, and I was hoping you could help,” she explains, brushing right over whatever crisis has come up this time.
“Well, we can’t help you there,” he admits. “We don’t know how to contact him, either.”
“Yeah,” Darcy agrees, “he just kind of showed up last time.” Olivia sighs deeply; of course they don’t know.
“Well,” she considers, “if he really took Jane away like you said earlier, then he’ll probably be back to return her. I can just wait here until then.”
She drops down onto the couch upon lack of protest, sighing deeply.
“Wait… how did you even know Erik was here?” Darcy wonders, turning to look at Olivia. She glances at Darcy, then pulls out her phone.
“I’m ordering Starbucks off Uber Eats, anybody want anything?” she prompts instead of answering, already keying in her order.
***
It’s about 3 hours later when the door opens, and Olivia is in the corner, starting to regret only getting 5 hours of sleep last night. In strides a woman in a strange dress, who Olivia instantly recognizes as Jane Foster.
“Jane!” Darcy exclaims, jumping up at once. “You can’t just leave like that, the whole world is going crazy; all the stuff we saw is spreading.” Thor hangs up his hammer, and Ian stands up as Jane turns. “Did you go to a party?”
“Erik?” Jane wonders, bewildered. He looks up, and then stands, his pencil falling out of his mouth.
“Jane!” he exclaims, coming around his desk to hug her. “Wonderful.” She pats his back, and he pulls away. “You’ve been to Asgard!”
“Where are your pants?” Jane wonders, confused.
“Oh, uh,” Ian pipes in, “he, uh— he says it helps him think.” Olivia takes a quiet sip of her coffee, figuring she can wait until their reunion is over.
“Okay,” Jane states, brushing past it with urgency, “well, I’m gonna need everything you got on this. All the work you’ve been doing on gravimetric anomalies, everything.” Erik nods at once.
“Okay,” he agrees without hesitation. As he turns, Thor decides to speak up.
“Are you well, Erik?” he wonders. Selvig laughs, both with actual humor and nervous energy; but then it drops.
“Your brother’s not coming, is he?” he wonders, with obvious dread. Olivia leans forward at that; if Loki is coming, she can just cut out the middle man. Thor sighs quietly.
“Loki is… dead,” he claims quietly, mournfully. Erik’s face drops in relief, but Olivia interrupts before he can say anything insensitive.
“He’s what?” she cuts in, a little sterner than intended.