Author's Note: Hey guys! So I decided to rewrite this story because I have so many things I want to change. It will basically be the same general plot. Charlie and Steve will still be a pairing, but here's a list of what will change:
Charlie's powers
More accurate timeline
Character interactions
Title
Movies included in the story
And such. So I hope you enjoy this rewrite! (I don't own Marvel)
"Like a river flows, surely to the sea, darling so it goes, some things were meant to be."
I Can't Help Falling In Love With You by Elvis Presley
"Charlie, can you get that?" My uncle, Erik Selvig, calls from his laboratory. I put my doodling notebook down and pause my music. Then I sit straight up and go to grab the landline from across the room. "Thank you!" he calls once the ringing stops.
"Dr. Erik Selvig's office," I say, by way of greeting. "How may I help you?"
"Charlie? It's Jane!" I hear the voice at the other end say.
"Hey, Jane," I reply, trying to contain my excitement. Honestly, this is the most exciting thing that has happened ever since I agreed to intern for my uncle. He's wonderful, but not terribly entertaining. "What's up?"
"Can you put Erik on the phone? I really need to talk to him," she says urgently.
"Yeah, sure," I say, somewhat disappointed that she doesn't need to talk to me. I mean, I'm only her best friend. We've been friends ever since elementary school. Her father worked with my uncle and my father. We grew up together here in Virginia. We were together all through high school and college, until I graduated with only a bachelor's degree. She continued on to get a masters and a PhD in astrophysics. She's a genius just like her father and my father and my uncle. I'm not a genius like they are. I'm more mediocre, intelligence wise. However, I did graduate with a degree in atmospheric science, so it's not like I'm stupid. "Erik!" I shout. "It's Jane!"
Erik comes quickly to the phone. He takes it from me and I go to sit down and pick up my drawing again. I'm not really good at drawing, per say, but it's a hobby I picked up from my mother before she died. She liked to draw in her free time, when she wasn't busy being a mother and a police officer. Both my parents died when I was sixteen, leaving me in the care of my uncle. Like I said, he's wonderful and I love him to death, but it gets a little boring here without someone my age. I have no siblings. Erik has no children and he's unmarried. My mother's brother had one kid, my cousin, Clint. Clint had an interesting childhood. My parents knew that his parents were abusive. They fought for custody of him for years but they never won because they had no proof. No court would convict his parents without absolute proof. Especially since my aunt and uncle were quite the charmers and really good at covering up their mistakes. Clint was only freed from them when they died in a car crash when he was sixteen. I was only two years old at that point, so I recall very little about his early life. My earliest memory of Clint is him pushing me on a swing set when I was about three years old. After that, he ran away to the circus. He still kept in touch, but he didn't stay in town. We've kept in touch a lot better after my parents were killed when I was sixteen. He came and comforted me, gave me his number and told me to keep in touch often. We text occasionally and he even calls me on my birthday. He's a very secretive person; refusing to tell me about his job which keeps him so occupied. He has introduced me to his wife, Laura, and his two children, Lila and Cooper. I've also met one of his coworkers, Natasha, who seems pretty hard core. I often think that my cousin works for the FBI or something like that. My point is, there's not a lot of people my age that I associate with; Jane being the only one. I miss her a lot.
I tune out Erik's voice as he talks on the phone and continue my little drawing. I'm drawing a little man with a hammer and lightning coming out of his fingertips. His name is Thor, named after the ancient Norse god of thunder. My father and my uncle were born in Sweden, and grew up there for most of their lives. They moved here for college, where my father met my mother. They grew up with stories about Thor and Loki and Odin, and they passed the stories down to me when I was a child. Ever since I was little, I wanted to be a Valkyrie and meet Thor and all those other gods. However, I settled for being a meteorologist, because Thor could control lightning, and he was my favorite god from the stories.
"Charlie!" I'm snapped out of my thoughts and back to the present. Erik has put the phone down and is trying to get my attention. I turn off my iPod and look up at him.
"Sorry," I say sheepishly. "What is it?"
"Jane has something big down in New Mexico," he tells me. "She wants both of us to come down and investigate it with her. It involves the weather, so she really wants you to come down as well."
"Really?" I say excitedly. "Good. When do we leave?"
"I'll look up the soonest flight and if we can get on it, we'll go right away," he tells me. "Pack your things. We're going to New Mexico."
We arrive in New Mexico late the next evening. Jane is there to pick us up. I give her a tight hug as soon as I see her. "How have you been?" I ask right away.
"Good, good," she tells me distractedly. "You?"
"Fine," I reply. "A little bored. Thinking about going back to college and getting a PhD like you smart people so I don't feel so stupid whenever you talk."
She gives me a reproachful look. "Stop that. You know we don't mean to make you feel stupid," she says.
"I'm kidding, Jane," I reply. "I'd have to be some kind of nut job to go back to grad school willingly." It is true. I have no intention of going back to school. I'm perfectly happy being a meteorologist who studies astrophysics with her uncle for fun. I'm only interning with Eric because he gives me free room and food, and he really needed an assistant of some kind. Jane was too busy in New Mexico and there were no applicants, so I stepped up. I'll be done by the end of the year and then I'll go back to being a full time meteorologist.
"The car is outside," Jane says, shaking her head at me. We pick up our luggage and follow her out to the car where someone I don't recognize is sitting in the driver's seat. She's got long dark hair like Jane, but that's about all I can tell through the window. We throw our bags in the trunk and climb in the back seat. Jane gets in the passenger's seat. "Guys this is my intern, Darcy. Darcy this is Erik Selvig and his niece, Charlie."
"Hey," she greets, giving us a peace sign. Erik and I wave hesitantly at her. "Can we stop for coffee before we head out there?"
Jane sighs and looks at her watch. "Fine, but make it quick. It should happen again in three hours, and it takes an hour and a half to get out there."
"Gotcha," Darcy replies. She starts up the car and drives out of the parking lot. We flew into Roswell, which is where Jane is staying. During the drive, we listen to Darcy's iPod on shuffle. She has surprisingly good taste. We listen to some alternative bands from today like Arctic Monkeys, Imagine Dragons, and the Cranberries, as well as some older bands from back in the day, like Queen, Wham!, and Fleetwood Mac. Jane and Erik fall asleep after a several minutes of being in the car, so Darcy starts to talk to me.
"So, I hear your a meteorologist," she begins.
"That's right," I say. "And you're aspiring to be an astrophysicist?"
Darcy shook her head. "Nah, I'm actually a political scientist. But I was Jane's only applicant."
I nod. "So, which of these bands is your favorite?"
"Probably Fleetwood Mac," she tells me. "They've been my favorite band since I was in high school. What's your favorite band?"
"My favorite band is and always has been Queen, but I'm into a lot of seventies and eighties rock bands. It's what I grew up with. Y'know, Guns N' Roses, AC-DC, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, that sort of thing. My mom used to love listening to those bands. My dad didn't listen to a lot of music. He was more science oriented."
Darcy nods, though I doubt she cares too much. I'm just really passionate about my taste in music. Besides, I will always be grateful to my mother for introducing me to some of the greatest bands of all time. My dad wasn't into music, but he did like to tell me stories. He often told me stories about Thor and Loki and the Valkyries, but that was about as far as his creativity stretched.
Darcy and I talk about music and movies for the rest of the drive until we arrive at the location. Darcy shakes Jane awake. "Jane. We're here."
Jane is up with a snap. She climbs out of her seat and crawls into the back of the van. "Erik, wake up," she says as she begins to set up her equipment. "Charlie, climb up front. Make note of the cloud formations. I want to know everything you've got on this." I nod and unbuckle my seatbelt. I climb into Jane's old spot. I open up my notebook and stare at the (so far) empty sky.
Jane sets up everything in the back with Erik's help. They exchange the occasional word, none of which I understand. "Are you as lost as I am?" Darcy mutters to me at one point.
I nod exasperatedly. "Welcome to my world," I tell her. "Everything they say sounds like nonsense. I can't keep up with them."
Then, there's silence as Jane and my uncle stick their heads out of the van's roof. The only sound is the occasional beep of their equipment. This lasts for a while until Darcy finally speaks up.
"Can I turn on the radio?" she whines to Jane.
"No," Jane says right away, still focusing on the sky. I try to focus on the sky as well, but I start to doodle in the corner of my page after a while.
"Jane, you can't keep doing this," I hear Erik say as they duck back into the van. Well this is news to me. Has she been chasing this weather anomaly for a long time? Why didn't I know about this? No one tells me anything around here.
"The last seventeen occurrences have been predictable to the second," Jane protests as she flips through her notes.
"Jane. You're an astrophysicist, not some storm chaser," Erik tells her.
"Then it's a good thing I'm here," I speak up. "You've got me now. Charlie Selvig: Storm Chaser."
"You're a meteorologist," Erik protests. "You sit behind a camera and report the weather. You're not a storm chaser."
"Tell that to the tornadoes I've chased," I retort, slightly offended. I have chased a couple tornados, back when I worked in Oklahoma. I've also reported in a hurricane in Florida, when I lived in Miami. My work has taken me all over. I've lived in five different states. Virginia, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Given that I've lived in the South for all of my life, I've got a bit of a Southern accent.
"I'm telling you," Jane insists, "there's a connection between these atmospheric disturbances and my research. Erik, I wouldn't have called you or Charlie out here if I wasn't absolutely sure."
Darcy is tapping on my shoulder. I look over at her and she's pointing at the horizon. I squint and catch a glimpse of what she's looking at. It looks like some really bright lights. Almost like the northern lights or something. "Are you seeing this?" she asks me.
I nod. "Yeah. Is this what you've been searching for?"
"I think so," she replies. "Jane? You might want to take a look at this." Jane looks away from her research and through the window. Then, both her and Erik stick their heads out of the roof again.
"I thought you said it had a subtler aura!" Erik gasps as the lights and clouds grow bigger. I too gasp at what I'm seeing. This is like nothing I've ever seen before. I immediately start to record stuff in my notes.
"GO!" Jane shouts at Darcy. Darcy scrambles to turn the car back on and starts to speed towards the clouds. Jane drops a camera on top of my notes and drawings. "Film this," she instructs me. I nod and turn the thing on as quick as I can, pressing the record button. Jane laughs happily. This is it. She's probably been waiting for this moment ever since she began her research. I'm excited for her.
Right up until the big crash in the middle of the collection of clouds. I stare at the shadow in amazement. Then it crashes to the ground with a boom that shakes the very ground, sending dust flying everywhere. I'm almost in a trance, looking at this thing, until Darcy jerks the car and starts to steer away from it.
"What are you doing?" Jane shouts at her in anger.
"I am not dying for six college credits!" Darcy protests. Jane reaches over and starts to pull at the wheel. The van jerks around some more and I hold onto the door for dear life. Then, as we enter the storm cloud, I see the shadow of a man.
"Look out!" I scream at Darcy. She and Jane scream as well and swerve, but not in time. We still hit him before we spin to a stop. By then, the storm clouds have disappeared, leaving us with a clear view of the desert. We sit in our seats for a while, breathing heavily, before we clambered to get out of the car.
"I think that was legally your fault," Darcy tells Jane as we sprint over to his side. I'm the first to reach him, putting my fingers to his neck to try and find a pulse, while also leaning over him to see if I can hear him breathing. I'm relieved to hear steady but slow breathing.
Jane doesn't bother turning around. "Shut up and get the first aid kit," she yells at Darcy. Then she swiftly knelt down beside me. "Do me a favor and don't be dead," she murmurs to the guy. I sit up straight to get a better look at him. The first thing that comes to my head is that he's a man. And when I say man, I mean like a man man. He's solidly built, with muscles practically protruding out of his shirt. He's tall with dark blonde hair that reaches his shoulders. His facial features are finely cut. He may be one of the best looking guys I've ever seen, and that's including guys like Will Smith, Mario Lopez, and Heath Ledger. Jane's voice snaps me back to the present. "Where did he come from?" she asks softly.
I barely have time to think about her question before Mr. Muscles inhales sharply and opens his eyes. He looks over all of us curiously, but particularly Jane, who is leaning right over him.
"Whoa, does he need CPR? 'Cause I totally know CPR," Darcy pipes in. I snort a little. I don't blame her. He's pretty good looking. Now that his eyes are open, we can see that he has dark blue eyes. He's like an angel. An angel who is very large in stature and looks like he was chiseled from hardwood.
Jane ignores Darcy. "Are you alright?" she asks the guy. He ignores her question and shoots to his feet, stumbling around a little.
"Hammer?" he asks us, his voice somewhere between a shout and a growl. "Hammer?"
"Yeah, we know you're hammered. It's pretty obvious," Darcy muttered.
"Erik, look at this!" Jane cries, looking at the ground. "We have to get this all down before it moves."
My attention remains on the muscles out wack job. I walk over to him and try to talk with him. "Are you alright, dude?" I ask him. "Do you need a lift somewhere? What are you even doing out here?"
"Father!" he shouts up at the sky. Is he praying? I think to myself. Seriously, what is this guy's deal? How did he end up here, in the middle of nowhere, clearly drunk, and without any help? It makes no sense.
"I think we should take him to a hospital," I suggest to Jane as I watch him stumble around a bit more.
"He's fine, look at him," Jane denies, focusing on the pattern on the ground.
"I am looking at him," I reply. "And he seems a little unstable. I really think we should take him to a hospital or something."
"Heimdall! I know you can hear me! Open the Bifrost!" he shouts up at the sky. Heimdall, Bifrost? I know those words. He's referring to the very same stories that Erik and my father told me as a child. Does he actually think they're real? Or is he really that drunk? I have no idea.
"Hospital," Jane agrees. "You take him."
"You," he says, pointing at Erik. "What realm is this? Alfheim? Nornheim?"
"New Mexico," Darcy says, pulling out her taser and pointing it at him. I'm torn between telling her to put it down and letting her taser this guy. On the one hand, he seems kinda dangerous, but on the other, it's not gonna look great if we bring a tasered guy that we also hit with our car into the hospital.
The man merely scoffs at her. "You dare threaten me, Thor, with so puny a weapon?" He takes a step towards Darcy, who then proceeds to taser him. Jane, Erik, and I all give her a look. "What? He was freaking me out!" Darcy protests.
I sigh heavily. "Let's just get the God of Thunder to a hospital already," I say, rubbing my eyes tiredly. This has been enough excitement for today, and I still haven't recovered from the jet lag I got on the plane. Although I really can't complain. Wasn't I just complaining about how bored I was?
"The God of Thunder?" Darcy says, snickering a little. "What kind of a nickname is that?"
"One that he gave himself," I reply. "He said his name was Thor. Thor is the God of Thunder in the old myths." Darcy then nodded. I grabbed his feet and tried to drag him towards the van. I grunted from the effort and he didn't budge. I tried again but he still wouldn't move. I mean, I'm no Hercules, but I'm not super weak either. I'd like to think I could move this guy, but he is really heavy. "Help me move him," I gasp to Darcy and Erik. Together, we lifted him up after several tries. Then, we dragged him over to the van, only dropping him once. Once we finally got him into the van, we were all huffing and puffing.
"Next time you decide to taser someone, make sure they're in the van," Erik tells Darcy and I nod in agreement. Then, Erik and I climb in the back with Thor or whoever he is and close the door. Darcy climbs in the driver's seat and Jane hops on the passenger's seat.
"Hospital," Darcy mutters. She starts the car and pulls out onto the road. I grab my cup of coffee and take a sip to force myself to stay awake. Erik is already dozing off and somebody needs to keep an eye on this Thor guy. Who knows how long he'll stay knocked out?
The drive is about an hour and Darcy and I pass the time by discussing our favorite TV shows, Friends and The Walking Dead. Jane falls asleep after a while, but she participated in our discussion about Friends for the first bit, where we discuss which character we would be. Jane is a Monica or a Ross, Darcy is a Phoebe or a Chandler, and I'm a Chandler as well. Or possibly a Ross. Erik is Mr. Heckles. Thor is somewhere between Joey and Rachel's foreign boyfriend whose name none of us can remember.
When we get to the hospital, we have some nurses help us get him on to a gurney. Then, we are forced to answer some questions. "Last name?" the nurse at the front desk asks us.
"He never said," I supply.
The nurse types something in on her computer. "First name?"
"He said it was Thor," Jane told her.
"T-H-O-R," the nurse spells out. "And your relationship to him?"
"I've never met him," Jane tells her.
"Until she hit him with her car," Darcy piped in and I tried to cover my smile.
"I grazed him," Jane corrected. "But she tasered him." She jerked her head at Darcy, who looked proud of herself.
"Yes, I did," she confirmed with a nod.
"And you found him in the desert?" the nurse asked, bewildered.
"Yup," I say, popping the p. "Smack dab in the middle of nowhere. No cars nearby, no sign of anyone else out there. Just this guy."
The nurse nods, shaking her head a little before putting the info into her computer. "Can I put you down as his emergency contact?"
Jane nods. "Sure. Name: Jane Foster…" Jane gives the nurse her information and after that, we are free to go.
Jane drives us to her lab, which is an old, abandoned gas station surrounded by four trailers. "This is my trailer here," Jane says, pointing to hers. "That one is Darcy's. Your's are those two over there." We grab our luggage, bid each other goodnight, and go our separate ways.
The trailer isn't terribly big. It's got a bed, a small kitchen, a bathroom, and a little eating area. It's cozy though, and I'm so exhausted that I don't care about how small it is. I place my luggage on the table, pull out my pajamas, change into them, and crawl into bed without anymore thought.
Flashback
Tears wet my cheeks as I look over the large landscape covered with headstones. I just buried both my parents at the age of sixteen. I'm an orphan now, left in the care of my Uncle Erik.
I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn around sharply. But it's only my cousin, Clint Barton. The cousin I haven't seen since I was fourteen. However, he's one of two family members that I have left, and I don't hesitate to throw myself into his arms. He rubs my back in a soothing way, whispering comforting words into my ears. "I miss them so much," I tell him through my sobs. "It's all my fault."
Clint shakes his head. "It is not your fault. Your parents were killed by a madman. You're only sixteen. It's not your fault."
I nod but I am not convinced. I cowered in a corner while they were shot to death by some crazy man. I should've protected them. I should've been the one who was shot. Not them. However, I force myself to stand up straight and dry my tears. "Thank you for coming," I tell Clint. "I miss having you around."
He smiles at me and ruffles my hair a little. "I miss you too kid," he says.
"How's the circus treating you?" I ask him curiously. Clint ran away to join the circus when he was seventeen. Last I had heard, he was still a part of that, shooting his bows around like nobody's business.
He shakes his head. "Oh, I left the circus a long time ago," he tells me. "I got recruited by a secret government agency. I probably shouldn't have told you that, but I trust you to keep it a secret, right?" I nod fervently, wanting to ask him a million questions, but knowing that they won't be answered. "Come with me for a minute. There's someone I want you to meet." I follow him over to a small group of people in the distance. There's been a lot of people here today that I've had to meet. My father touched a lot of lives through his work. The list includes Jane and her parents, Betty Ross and her father, Thaddeus Ross, Bruce Banner (though he quickly disappeared when he saw the Ross family), Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Stephen Hawking, Alain Aspect, Michael Foale, Alexei Filippenko, a ton of students from Culver University, and a couple other family members and community members. My mother had quite a few guests from the police station where she worked. Just about everyone had come up to me at one point to give their condolences. However, I hadn't met this person before. There was a woman there, one with dark brown hair who looked slightly pregnant.
Clint put his arm around the woman. "Charlie, this is my fiancé, Laura. Laura, this is my cousin, Charlie."
Fiancé? I thought. Since when did Clint have a fiancé? And a pregnant one at that. However, I was excited for my cousin. "Hi," Laura said to me, smiling. "Clint's told me so much about you."
"Nice to meet you," I replied, shaking her hand. "So, fiancé, huh? When's the wedding?"
"That's what I came to tell you," Clint said. "The wedding is set for June 15th. Three weeks from now. It's going to be a quiet affair. Only a couple people are invited. Do you think you can make it?"
I nod fervently. "I wouldn't miss it," I tell him. "Where's it going to be?"
"We've got a farm house in Georgia. It'll be held there. I've talked to your uncle and he's agreed to let you stay the weekend with me at our house in Georgia. I'll come pick you up a couple days before. Ok?"
I nod, feeling a bit of happiness in the midst of my sadness. "Sounds good. Thank you, Clint."
I awake from my dream with a mix of sadness and happiness. I haven't seen Clint for about six months now. I stayed over at his place for Christmas last year and watched his two children, Lila and Cooper, open their presents. Lila and Cooper are Clint and Laura's pride and joy, as well as mine. They're the sweetest kids I know and I dote on them shamelessly. Cooper, who reminds me so much of Clint, and I have a special relationship, just like Lila and Natasha, my cousin's coworker. They call us their aunties, which I love. Natasha is a bit harder to figure out. She's very mysterious. Clint introduced us about two years ago. We're the same age. She's both talkative and silent, strong, kind and mean. She's another reason I think Clint works as a spy for the FBI. My guess is they are partners and they go on assignments to other countries which is why Clint is gone for long stretches of time.
I pick up my phone and shoot Clint a quick text:
Charlie: Hey. I was just thinking about last Christmas and was wondering how you're doing. Tell Laura and the kids I said hi, as well as Nat. Love ya.
With that covered, I pull back the covers and start to get ready for the day. I shower quickly and pull on the first outfit I pull out of my suitcase. A long sleeved black shirt that I got when I was on the swim team in high school (I haven't grown a whole lot since then), a pair of blue jeans, and some sneakers. I look at myself in the mirror. I've got dark brown hair that falls to about my shoulders. My face is round and I have a few freckles from my mother's side of the family. My eyes are a hazel color. I'm only about five foot six inches. I'm neither tall nor short, neither fat nor skinny. I'm mostly just somewhere in the middle. That about describes me looks wise. I'm not pretty or ugly. I'm just in the middle. Just average.
I run a brush through my hair and pull it back into a ponytail. Then, I head outside. Everyone except Darcy is already up, making breakfast and looking over notes. "Morning," I say as I walk into the small gas station that serves as our lab.
"Morning," Jane and Erik reply. I stand on tiptoe to look in the cupboards. I find a couple boxes of Poptarts, a loaf of bread, some granola bars, some Ramen and other pasta mixes, and a couple other meals. I pull out a Poptart, not in the mood to cook something, and grab a mug. I make myself a cup of hot chocolate and join Erik and Jane at the table, which is covered in notes and pictures. Darcy joins us once I finish making my breakfast and bids us good morning. I sip at my hot chocolate while I read over what little notes I was able to jot down about the clouds in the desert that night. I also look over the readings from Jane's equipment. Only one thing is certain. This is not a normal storm.
"This is insane," I mutter to myself. "Look at these readings." I point them out to Erik and Jane. Jane nods along, looking very excited. "Is that electromagnetic?" I ask, pointing to the lensing around the edges of the picture.
Jane nods again. "Yes. It is."
"But you don't think this is just some electromagnetic storm, do you?" Erik asks her.
Jane shakes her head. "The lensing here is characteristic of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge."
"An Einstein what now?" Darcy asks.
"I thought you were a scientist," Erik says, looking confused.
"A political scientist," she tells him.
"She was the only applicant," Jane explains.
Erik nods then starts to explain to us. "An Einstein-Rosen Bridge is a theoretical connection between space and time," he begins.
"It's a wormhole," Jane supplies as she reaches around us to grab some of the photos. Darcy and I both nod in understanding before turning back to the notes.
I pick up the photos of the clouds and take them to go up on the cork board we have. There's hardly enough room for any new information, but I squeeze it up there anyway. Darcy helps me while Erik and Jane discuss the theory of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. At one point, Darcy taps my shoulder and points to something on one of the pictures. "Is that what I think it is?" she asks me, tracing the outline with her finger.
I trace it too and nod. "It's that guy," I say. "Thor, or whatever his real name is. He was actually in that cloud." I shake my head. Who is this guy? And how did he get inside the cloud?
"Guys, come check this out," Darcy calls to Jane and Erik. They come over quickly and Darcy traces the outline for them again.
"No way," I breathe.
"I think I left something at the hospital," Jane says, grabbing her coat and quickly pulling it on.
This just got interesting.