A/N: Written for aenigmaticday's prompt over on tumblr: "I'd love to read a human, contemporary AU. (my obsession!) Loki and Jane meet, quite literally in an accident and things get worse before they get better. Potential for light-hearted romantic-comedy too." This fic is also half inspired by sci-fi author Connie Willis' short story "At the Rialto".
The suitcase handle dug into her palm. There was only one more person ahead of her before she could address the incident that had been embarrassing for both her and the hotel. The girl at the desk jabbed at the keyboard with a single finger, glancing up to look at whoever she was talking to.
Jane sighed and adjusted her grip on the suitcase once again. The beginning of the astrophysics conference had begun on such a high note with keynote speakers that she had been waiting to hear from, and she was particularly looking forward to a lecture on dark matter. And here she was wasting the time she wanted to spend resting because the hotel had given her a key-card to the wrong room. The offending card dug into her opposite palm as she opened and closed her hand, shifting from foot to foot.
Jane had walked in on a woman clipping her toe nails who looked very surprised judging by both her verbal and bodily language. It could have been worse, Jane supposed. It could have been someone getting dressed. Finally, the person in line ahead of her moved, wandering down to the end of the lobby to flop into an overstuffed chair.
Jane stepped to the front of the counter and forced a smile. The girl at the desk looked up, finger still on the computer mouse. "Yes, how may I help you?" Her voice was sugary. Jane tried not to frown.
"I'm afraid that I was given the key card to the wrong room." She held the card out to the girl.
The girl's eyebrows frowned, but her mouth still managed to smile. "Oh dear, I'm so sorry. Let's try to fix this as quickly as we can, shall we?"
The next several minutes were devoted to the woman scrambling to find the correct key card, mouth split in a smile the entire time. By the time Jane finally made it to her room, she did not care that the large window looked out onto the glimmering city skyline, nor did she care that the crisp sheets sighed as she sat down to remove her shoes. As she sank into the bed, her first thought was that she hoped no one else was given the wrong key card and came into her room.
—-
Jane awoke an hour later to the sound of her phone vibrating against the nightstand. She slipped off the bed and grabbed it. Darcy's face smiled up from the touchscreen.Pushing down a sigh, Jane answered the call.
"Hello?"
"Hey! How's your weekend going?" Jane frowned. She knew that couldn't have been the only reason Darcy called.
"Not very well. Yours?"
A nervous laugh at the other end of the line. "Same here! Actually, that's why I'm calling. So, you know those data print outs you wanted me to catalog?"
Jane ran a hand through her hair. "Yes, what about them?"
"Well, I can't seem to find them. I looked in the file you said they were in, but all I could find were the old ones."
She began to pace the room, clutching her phone to her cheek. "Did you check the bottom drawer?"
"Yep. Not there." There was the sound of rustling papers in the background.
"Desk?"
"Nope."
Jane stood in front of the window, and breathed out between her lips. The print outs were nothing vital; there was no use in getting worked up over something that was beyond her control for the weekend. Still, stress tightened in her chest. "Okay, well…are you sure you didn't misplace them?"
Darcy huffed. "No! I haven't touched them since you put them in the file before you left."
"All right, just call me back if you find them."
"Will do."
Jane stabbed the end of call button and sank to a chair in the corner.
-—
Her legs were stiff after sitting in an hour and a half lecture about gamma ray bursts. It was given by Dr. Abram, who was prone to gesturing wildly with his hands and using metaphors that did not clearly illustrate his points. Jane hadn't been particularly interested in the talk, but there were two theoretical astrophysicists that were attending that she wanted to get a chance to talk to. But they rushed out, mumbling to each other before Jane could even get a chance to look at them.
She gripped the conference program as she walked down the hall, a small stream of people leading her to the lecture on dark matter. It was going to discuss how the Higgs could have played a role in the asymmetrical amount of matter, anti-matter, and dark matter in the universe. But the stream she was following abruptly stopped, clumping around the large wooden doors that appeared to be firmly locked. The group started to wander away, murmuring under their breath.
With a sinking heart, Jane walked up read a paper taped to the doors.
Due to an unforeseen medical emergency, today's lecture "Dark Matter and the Higgs: Higgsogenesis" has been canceled. We apologize and hope you understand, it read.
The program in her hand had become a crumpled wad. Swallowing another sigh—an act which seemed to have become common this weekend—she turned around and started the walk back to her room.
At very least there was a mixer in an hour.
At the very, very least, there would be doughnuts and coffee.
-—
Polite chatter about offices and peer reviewed papers hummed through the air. People sat on chairs, nibbling at various finger foods that cost more than they were worth. Jane leaned back in a plush chair that seemed to be standard to the hotel's decorating. She sat with a small plate in her lap that held a half-eaten dough-nut. The mixer had proved beneficial to discussing outreach, but beyond that, it had been dull.
All Dr. Haden wanted to talk about was the gamma ray lecture, and Dr. Lawrence kept worrying over whether she could make it to the lecture on black holes. Jane made a whirlpool in her coffee with a spoon and glanced around the room. People were beginning to leave, and she saw no reason for her to stay any longer. She pushed up from her chair just as a man walked in front of her.
She stumbled back, her coffee flying out of her cup, glittering in the air before splashing on the front of the man's shirt. As she looked up at him, she saw a large brown—still spreading—stain marring the man's crisp white shirt. His pale, narrow face was impassive, but the corner of his lip twitched as he fixed his bright eyes on hers.
"I'm so so sorry," she babbled, searching desperately for some napkins. Jane fumbled for the wad of them sitting on her fallen plate. "Here, let me—"
The man gave her a pinched smile and took the napkins from her. "Think nothing of it," he said, but heard him swallowing back the anger that tried to press forth. He dabbed at the stain, hardly any of it coming off onto the napkins.
His eyes flicked the corner of her shirt, reading the name tag she forgot that she was wearing until now.
"So, you're Dr. Foster," he said.
Jane raised an eyebrow, unsure why he wanted to make an embarrassing situation worse. "Yes, I am. What about it—" she glanced at the man's name tag. "Dr. Laufeyson?"
"I read your most recent paper on wormholes. It was interesting, if flawed, and at times it stretches the bounds of believability."
"Are you just telling me this because I spilled coffee on you? I can take some criticism, it doesn't bother me," she said, crossing her arms.
"No, I'm telling you this merely in the interest of an academic debate," he said between dabbing the napkin on his shirt. The stain still wouldn't come off. "I did not think you needed to bring time travel into your paper's discussion, it's—"
"What, lowbrow?"
"It simply seemed unnecessary to your point."
Jane knelt down and gathered up her plate and cup—at least it hadn't stained the floor too—and tipped them into the nearby waste basket. "Listen, I'm sorry, but I don't have time to debate. I really need to be going."
"All right, then. Until next time." Dr. Laufeyson inclined his head to her as she turned on heel and headed towards the doors that lead into the hall. There wouldn't be a next time.
-—
Jane found that the stiff hotel pillows became comfortable when combating an encroaching headache. But they were not so comfortable that they eased gently eased sleep in. And it seemed that her phone was not going to help with the process either, as it began blaring on her nightstand once again.
With a groan, Jane turned the phone over to the front.
Darcy.
She hoped that Darcy was calling with good news about the print outs and not wondering whether Jane had had a lurid encounter with a fellow scientist. Her thumb slid across the answer button.
"Is it good news?" she asked, knowing there was no point in dancing around the issue.
"Yes. Well, sort of."
Jane pressed her hand against the mattress, pushing herself up to sit. "Sort of?"
"I found half of the print outs, they were under your bed. I'm still looking for the other half, maybe I'll find them under the sink or something."
Jane snorted. "Maybe. Is that all?"
"Yeah, I think so. Oh! I forgot to ask—any drunk make outs with a colleague?" Jane could almost hear Darcy waggling her eye brows at the other end of the line.
"No. I did spill some coffee on a guy at a mixer, though." She pressed a hand to her temple. Why was she telling Darcy this? She was going to have a field day with it. Jane would blame it on the stress, she decided.
"Ooh, that's pretty hot."
"Darcy, that was a terrible pun."
"I know, but when else was I going to have a chance to use it? Anyway, I'll call you back if I find the other half! Enjoy your weekend, and don't do anything I wouldn't do." Something crackled in the background before Jane ended the call.
—-
The Saturday morning light stabbed her eyes. At least she had made it through the night without any phone calls from anyone, or any other disastrous incidents that the hotel decided to cook up. There wasn't enough time before the lecture on wormholes to order room service, and besides, there would be snacks after the lecture. Jane made a mental note not to get any more coffee. She quickly brushed her hair back and picked up her limp program. Jane never knew card stock could be crumpled so badly.
She made it to the lecture with ten minutes to spare, but it looked as if it would start a little late. The speaker, Dr. Gabler, was leaned over, mumbling something to a technician, and frowning at his laptop screen. She smoothed out the program. It just sadly crinkled as she did and still bent at the corner. A long shadow fell over the green of the program, and was accompanied by a clipped English accent.
"Is this seat taken?"
Gnawing the inside of her mouth, Jane looked up. Dr. Laufeyson pointed at the seat beside her.
"No, it isn't," she said, finger tapping on the edge of her leg.
He folded himself down into the seat beside her and silently watched Dr. Gabler struggle with the technology. "I can tell it is going to be an informative lecture already," he said.
Jane just shrugged. The lights began to dim, and the opening slide of Dr. Gabler's presentation spread across the screen. "I apologize for the technical difficulties, everyone. Things seem to have been acting up all around this weekend!"
Muted laughter rose from the crowd. Jane's lip twitched. That was an understatement. To her great relief, Dr. Laufeyson remained strangely quiet for the beginning of the lecture in which Dr. Gabler started discussing exotic matter's possible role in keeping a wormhole open long enough to travel through it.
He went on to make several pop culture references about time travel. Dr. Laufeyson made a disapproving noise in his throat. "At least you didn't talk about DeLoreans in your paper."
"I thought you didn't like my paper," she muttered, leaning over to him.
"Not as such."
"We're not bringing this up again, are we?" Jane hissed.
"You were the one that pressed the issue, not I." He just smiled back at her.
Jane opened and closed her mouth, turning back to the screen. She wouldn't rise to the bait. Dr. Gabler ran his hand through his sparse hair as he punched to the next slide.
Jane's eyes flicked back to Dr. Laufeyson. He raised his eyebrows and smiled, pleased that his words from moments ago niggled at her. "What do you think I should have done to improve my paper?"
He shifted in his seat, closing his eyes before answering. "I thought you didn't want to discuss it."
"I seem to have changed my mind."
"Well, so have I. Dr. Gabler seems to have his feet firmly back on the ground, and is now sounding somewhat competent, and so I wish to hear the rest of this," Dr. Laufeyson said, tilting his head back towards the screen. The blue light from presentation's diagram played across the planes of his face.
The man was insufferable. What kind of game was he playing? Had he merely come to the conference to annoy people he sat by in lectures? But she had helped him along by complying to play the game, she reminded herself. Jane set the program in her lap, crossed her arms, and fixed her eyes to the screen. She would not let it bother her. She was going to enjoy this weekend, come hell or high water.
Dr. Gabler continued for thirty more minutes, jabbing a pointer at long equations and theoretical diagrams involving exotic matter. He was passionate, but not in the eccentrically metaphorical way Dr. Abram had been. The crowd filtered out once it ended, happily whispering to each other, debating what sort of space ship could be sent through a wormhole.
"You said you wanted to talk about the flaws of your paper."
Jane nearly stumbled back again, thankful the only thing she had in her hand was a pretzel. "I don't understand your game, but tell me whether you want to talk about it or no."
"Yes, I would. But shall discuss it over coffee, perhaps?"
She coughed a laugh. "You're joking, right? Doesn't coffee still have some bad connotations considering what happened yesterday?"
Dr. Laufeyson shrugged, adopting a mask of passivity once again, but she saw a smile trying to split through. "We'll never know if you don't agree, will we?"
Jane didn't know why, but the word yes was balanced on her tongue. By all accounts, this could only make a regrettable weekend worse, and she would never hear the end of it from Darcy. She would probably also never see Dr. Laufeyson again after this conference, but she found herself speaking the words a small part of herself was horrified at. "All right, let's go."