"Venti white chocolate mocha no foam extra whip, please," Darcy rattled off to the barista, needing – no – aching for that first jolt of caffeine so she could properly start her day. Caffeine...sugar...caffeine. Whatever, right?
The mornings were almost too much to take since her relocation to New York City from their quiet little research lab in the desert. Darcy was used to getting out of bed and being the only one awake...fixing a pot of coffee and listening to podcasts while entering data collected the night before by Dr. Foster. It was quiet...serene...not this honking, yelling, shuffling, noisy hellhole.
"One VentiWhiteChocMochaNoFoamExtraWhip-" the half-sleeved half-shaved head too cool for school flannel wearing but not ironically barista called out in a bored voice.
Pushing her lips out in a semi-pout, Darcy briefly contemplated if she could pull off that look.
Nah...she had the whole broke as shit and definitely not done ironically mismatched multi-layers thing down. Why change it up now?
She stepped forward out of the throng of half-asleep commuters when her phone blaring Jane Says by Jane's Addiction. It had seemed an appropriate ringtone for her boss at the time. It was getting her more than a few annoyed looks.
"Hey Jane," she managed cheerfully as she could at 7 a.m. "I'm heading in right now."
"Hey Darcy. Change of plans. Can you come up here?"
Jane Foster was at their extended research site in the backwoods of the Catskills. Thing about charting those stars she studied...had to be way out in nature to see them. New York was a new development that meant their grant came through and they could play with the big boys now with a shiny HQ and everything. Darcy grabbed her coffee, took a big swig and grimaced. Burned tongue. Smooth, Darce. "Need my savvy 'puter skills to graph some breakthrough?"
"No. I just...how soon could you get here?"
It was a good thing Jane couldn't see Darcy's face, or her raised eyebrow and half raised lip. Good thing her boss was also a decent friend or she'd be cranky.
"Seriously, what am I supposed to do up there? I'm just a paper pusher."
"Best one this side of the Mississippi, don't count yourself short. You know no one else on the planet can read my writing."
"It does suck."
"Darcy!"
She was already out on the street, heading back to her tiny walk up. She'd never been to the Catskills site before but she knew it was a sleek little cottage, it was way the hell far and gone from any cafe, and she definitely needed to pack her wool socks. And charge her phone.
"What! You don't pay me enough to lie to you."
"How soon can you get here?"
There was enough agitation in Jane's voice to make Darcy frown. "What's the rush, boss lady?"
"I...can't really explain over the phone."
"So email me."
"Reception is kind of bogus up here."
"Greaaaaat." Bye-bye, facebook updates.
"Listen here's the thing...I'm not going to be here when you arrive."
Darcy stopped short in the middle of the sidewalk.
"Are you telling me you want me to drive, by myself, to the middle of the woods, to a cabin that I might get lost going to and won't have reception in?"
"Pleeease, Darcy?"
Other pedestrians were now pushing past her, muttering about tourists. Darcy was too busy concentrating on connecting Jane's words to her alternating nervous and cajoling tone. She stared at the morning sun glinting off the windows of an apartment building.
"This isn't about work, is it?"
"Ummm...it is, kind of. I won't be here and that's why I need you here. We're getting daily readings and I really need someone here to record them. Keep everything in order. It's nothing you haven't done before."
"Well..." Darcy was already back at her tiny, cruddy studio and digging for her overnight bag, but that didn't mean she couldn't rub the guilt in just a little bit. It might earn her enough money to afford her very own Kuerig. Oh sweet, sweet Kuerig.
"I swear I will explain everything to you when I see you. I'll only be gone a couple of days, I promise."
A deep mumbling from Jane's end of the call caught her attention and Darcy strained to catch what was going on. That. Sounded like a guy. Excitement grew. Intrigue! Drama! Blackmail!
"Oh and Darce one more thing? If a man named Loki comes around...tell him you're me."
"WHAT? No! Why?!" This day was getting stranger and stranger.
"I told you I'd explain later. Just...do me this favor?"
Of course she was going to do it- Jane Foster was the poster child for playing it safe WHILE having a stick up the butt. Asking Darcy this favor was so far out in left field from what she had known of her boss in the last two years that there was no way she was going to miss out on this little adventure. Usually it was Jane who was picking up Darcy's messes. "I dunno, Dr. Foster," she drawled, "this sounds like personal stuff, not work. My pay grade does not include pretending to be an astrophysicist."
"Would a raise bring your job duties up to impersonation?"
Darcy grinned. Kuerig, here I come. "Yes. Yes it would."
"Done. Thanks Darcy, you're the best."
"I know. So who is this Loki guy? Bizarre name."
"He's tall and British...he'd stand out like a sore thumb. He's a smooth talker; just try to get rid of him if he shows up."
"Does he know what you look like?"
"I doubt it. I don't do the facebook thing, remember? And we've never met. But I just-" Jane cut off and Darcy heard more baritone whispering. "Listen Darce, I gotta go." Jane hesitated again as if debating with herself. "I don't want to tell you too much in case he does show up. Just make sure he believes you're me. Just for a day or two. And keep collecting that data."
"Ja, mein fueress."
"Drive carefully. It's supposed to snow."
She was never, ever going to agree to help Jane out ever again.
In fact, if she lived through this, she was moving to Mexico where it never snowed, where deer never almost impaled themselves on her beat up station wagon, and where she could drink rum out of coconuts and be served by lovely nubile men.
"That's Tahiti, not Mexico," she muttered.
The sublime flatness and heat of the desert was one thing; staying focused long enough to navigate the icy and getting icier by the second twisting back roads was setting Darcy's teeth on edge. Her beat up tape deck was the only thing keeping her sane right now. If she was going to go down, she was going to go down listening to the strains of Take On Me.
Darcy squinted out the snow-flecked windshield and prayed that one: she didn't miss the turn off for the site because if she did, she would be driving around in wilderness until the gas tank ran out and then it would probably wind up in some weird Deliverance meets Saw type scenario...two: no more patches of black ice after that lovely one near Woodstock thank you very much.
She grumbled to herself as she navigated the road.
Her trusty overnight bag wobbled in the passenger seat as the car slipped to and fro. It held a couple days worth of jeans, band shirts, and the only two sweaters she owned. Its not like she had needed them in New Mexico. She had a sneaking suspicion that her sneakers were not going to be up to the task of...you know...protecting her feet if it continued to snow like it was.
"It might snow my ass."
Before she shoved her antiquated mix tape in the tape deck, the spotty radio reception was broadcasting warnings of a blizzard. Considering she had never seen one, Darcy was having a hard time deciding if this was yet another media blitz to scare up business at supply stores, or if it was going to wind up like the Donner party.
Every minute she spent peering through the drifting snow was convincing her it was going to wind up like cannibal city.
"Top o' the world, ma!" she muttered, trying not to let the low-hanging sun make her nervous. If she had to drive in this shit in the dark, she was going to go crazy.
...crazier.
Whatever.
There, on the side of the road, she saw the sign for the Westchester Observatory. Sweet baby Jesus. Praise Buddah. Praise Allah. Thank you Tom Cruise.
Ten minutes of sneaking along at a snail's pace-
-seriously, don't snow plows make a stop out here-
-and Darcy was pulling to a stop in front of the quaintest cabin she had ever seen in her life. Behind it, barely made out through the top of the trees, was the edged dome of the telescope.
"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore."