Heartbreak
New York
December 2010
Darcy had to admit that she wasn’t a huge fan of Jane’s extraterrestrial boyfriend.
Sure, he was cut, but she just could not get past the condescension. Oh, little mortals, let me protect you! I love Midgard! My brother sucks!
Blech.
So while she enjoyed checking out his shoulders and his butt, she couldn’t exactly say she was sad to see him go.
Mostly she was just sad that Jane was sad, and that only made her want to exact a little revenge from the realm-ditching boyfriend.
“Jane. Hey. Hey. Enough working, come on, we’re going out for sushi.”
“No, I… this data… needs… process…” Jane said absently, and pinned another paper to a corkboard already covered with them.
“Jane. It’s nine o’clock on a Friday night. The data will still be there tomorrow morning. We are going out for sushi or so help me God I am going to hack your computer and start closing windows.”
Jane looked horrified. “No!”
Darcy looked at her phone. “I want it turned off in thirty seconds.”
Jane’s fingers flew with increased desperation, her keyboard rattling.
“Ten… nine… eight… seven…” Darcy tapped her own keyboard menacingly.
“Okay! Okay, I’m done!” Jane closed the laptop and powered off the network of computers that ringed her lab.
Darcy smirked. “Excellent.”
She considered it a victory when Jane only shot one longing glance back at the lab before they climbed into the elevators.
Truth be told, Darcy was glad of the excuse to get out as well. They both had rooms in the brand-new energy-neutral Stark Tower; after Puente Antiguo, SHIELD had put Jane in contact with Tony Stark. He’d brought Jane on at Stark Industries since he was a SHIELD consultant as well, and boom, now Darcy, one-time political science major, was now an assistant to one of the world’s most brilliant astrophysicists at one of the world’s most valuable and successful tech companies in the world. She still couldn’t figure out exactly how that had happened, but she liked it. The pay was good, the health benefits were better, and she got hazard pay whenever she had to drive Jane into a storm zone, which definitely hadn’t happened in the internship days. Not to mention Tony Stark himself. The dude was old enough to be her father, but he snarked right back at Darcy on a regular basis, which was a nice change after a year working for a woman who definitely did not appreciate the nuances of sarcasm and witty comebacks.
So yeah, life was good. Darcy was getting off an elevator from the eighty-ninth floor of Stark Tower, she had an awesome flat in New York, and she was going out for sushi with her best (only) friend.
Which meant, of course, that the universe just had to throw a wrench at her face.
With her history, she really should’ve expected it.
This wrench (it was just the latest of a veritable pile of them that littered Darcy’s whole life story) came in the form of a certain cocky-ass alien with a god complex who landed on the Stark Tower landing pad with a clap of thunder and dramatic swirling storm clouds.
Jane shrieked when she heard it, bolted right back into the elevator, and slammed the button for 94.
“Fuck it all,” Darcy hissed, and jumped in right before the doors closed.
New York
December 2010
Jane’s heart was in her throat as she hurtled out of the elevator.
Stark was across the room. It was his top floor, which a few people had access to, although the unspoken rule was that you left Stark’s space to Tony Stark and Pepper Potts unless invited. It was also the level with access to the balcony and Stark’s landing pad, which was why Jane was breaking all the rules and running as fast as she could across the common room, ignoring Stark as she did so. Darcy was behind her. Darcy would handle the egocentric billionaire. That was-
Thor.
Jane paused on the balcony, heart full to bursting. He was right there. Tall and blond and cloak snapping in the wind, Mjolnir in his hand. Exactly as she remembered.
She strode toward him and he toward her.
Crack.
Thor raised a hand to his cheek and stared at her.
“Where have you been?” she shouted, and slapped him again. “It’s been a year and a half, Thor! And you couldn’t be bothered to, I don’t know, drop in and leave a message? “Hey, Jane, I’m alive”?”
“Jane, I am sorry,” Thor said, seizing both of her wrists and staring beseechingly at her. “It is just that…” He sighed. “Loki’s actions have caused chaos throughout the Nine Realms. Many have seen it as a sign of Asgardian weakness and rebelled against peaceful civilizations; I have been struggling for much of this time to restore peace and order.”
“Oh,” she said, and found her anger somewhat deflated. “Well. As far as excuses go, it’s… not terrible…”
Thor smiled, but there was something off about it.
“Is something wrong?” Jane asked, reaching for him, this time wanting nothing but the comfort of touching him, knowing that he was real and here. But he resisted, and she let her hand drop. He released the gentle hold he’d taken of her wrists. They fell limply to her sides.
That was when Jane knew something was very, very wrong.
She was a scientist. She processed data for a living. Everything about this encounter was screaming wrong, wrong, wrong to her mind.
“Jane?”
Darcy’s voice came from behind her. Jane was suddenly very grateful for her friend, because she could tell from that one word that Darcy was ready to go toe-to-toe with a god (kind of) for her.
“It’s fine,” Jane said without turning. “Um… just… give us a moment, okay?”
“Yeah, sure,” Darcy said, and Jane heard the balcony door hiss closed a few seconds later.
Thor took a breath. “Jane-”
“Spit it out,” she said. She hated when people danced around truth. “Just - say it.”
“My father has ordered us apart,” Thor said.
Jane blinked. “What?”
Thor held up his free hand in surrender. “I am the Crown Prince; there is little I can do in this instance. The order has been given. You are Midgardian; I am Aesir. It would never work.”
“So Aesir cannot marry with humans?” Jane snapped. “What are we, livestock?”
“Aesir can marry those of Midgard,” Thor said slowly. “The Apples of Idunn make it possible. But I am the Crown Prince. It would not be… seemly.”
Jane gritted her teeth. White-hot anger dripped down her spine, turning it to steel. She glared at Thor. “So because I’m a human, I’m inferior, is that it? Not worthy of your love?”
Thor’s brows furrowed. “We spoke no vows of love.”
“Oh, you bastard,” Jane breathed. She wanted to slap him again, but she knew he’d catch her wrist this time, the element of surprise gone. So she lashed at him with her words instead. “You bigoted idiotic arrogant rot-brained coward!”
Thor drew himself up, blue eyes flashing. She couldn’t believe she’d once found them kind. “I am not a coward.”
“Yes you are,” she snarled, poking him in the chest. It probably hurt her finger more than it did him. “You’re a coward, Thor Odinson, rolling over like a dog because your father commands it! You’re just following orders, is that it? Such a good and noble little soldier!”
“I cannot disobey my king,” Thor said tightly. “It would be high treason.”
“This is why monarchies suck ass.”
Jane twisted around and saw Darcy, who’d emerged once again, and stood fifteen feet away, scowling. She’d never been more glad to hear her friend’s sarcastic voice.
“Lady Darcy,” Thor greeted, always polite.
“Asshole,” Darcy said pleasantly. “I think it’s time for you to go.”
“I-” Thor paused. “Have you any of those pastries… pip-tarts?”
“Oh for God’s sake,” Darcy snapped, and Tasered him.
The Aesir convulsed and collapsed, Mjolnir falling with a boom to the balcony.
“You okay?” Darcy asked, stepping closely to Jane’s side. Jane saw Stark, for once exercising tact and waiting just inside the glass.
“Yeah,” she said, and then looked down. “Wait. No. No, I am not okay.”
Thor moaned, opened his eyes, and slowly climbed to his feet. “Huh,” Darcy said, “guess this little guy is less effective when you’ve got your shocky hammer back. It’s time for you to leave now, big guy.”
“Jane,” Thor said. “I am sorry.”
“I don’t want your apology,” Jane said angrily. “Go back to your palace, Prince.” She could see that her words were hurting him and couldn’t help enjoying it, even though she knew she’d probably regret it later, when the anger drained away. “Go home and drink ale. Maybe Sif will make you a seemly wife.”
She turned away.
She and Darcy were almost inside when the roar of the Bifrost sounded. Jane whipped around and saw the Einstein-Rosen Bridge disappear into the sky.
“Did I leave the instruments on?” she asked.
Darcy choked. “Only you, Janey. Let’s get inside.”
The doors hissed open, and the two young women stepped out of the chill evening air.
“Everything good?” Stark said, and now Jane knew where his tact had come from; Ms Potts was standing behind him. “What did Point Break want this time? And did you ask about his psychotic baby brother?”
“No,” Darcy snapped, “we were too busy dealing with him dumping Jane after a year of no contact.”
Jane closed her eyes. She could feel herself tearing up.
Stark opened his mouth. Ms Potts promptly covered it with her slim hand and looked at the scientist and the assistant. “You are both excused from work today,” she said.
“Thanks, ginger,” Darcy said. Any other time, Jane would’ve reprimanded her, but right now…
She just walked silently to the elevator. Darcy followed.
Jane forced herself to wait until they found their guest rooms before she let the tears fall.