Hey, guys!

First off, I was absolutely blown away by how many people followed/favorited in the first, like, 20 minutes. Thank you guys so much!

Second off, I don't have anything else to say. I just really like saying 'first off,'.


My flight left the airport at some ungodly early hour, so you'll have to forgive me if I don't remember every single detail about the flight. I just know that the extremely large fellow sat next to me snored like a freight engine and I definitely wasn't okay with that.

I hate it when people snore.

But, I made it through without strangling the man.

We landed in Austin, Texas and I had to wait for what seemed like forever for my connecting flight.

Hours of turbulence later, we landed on what the little folks in Puente Antiguo considered an airfield. I stumbled out of the plane, a little discombobulated, but okay for the most part and started looking for Darcy.

"LISSIE!"

It wasn't hard.

"OH MY GOD LISSIE!"

Not at all. I tugged my suitcase a little closer and opened up my arms as Darcy cannoned into me. We held on tight for what seemed like forever, until Darcy pulled away.

"Oh my god, you're actually here!"

"Yeah, love, I'm actually here."

"How was your flight?"

"Which one, dear?"

"There was more than one?"

"Two, in fact. First one significantly worse than the second. Bloke to the right snored like a bear." Darcy laughed and looped an arm around me, herding me towards the parking lot. A large white van sat with the engine still running. Two people earned against the front end: a small woman with mousy brown hair, brown eyes the color of rich river earth, and the straightest eyebrows I'd ever seen, and an older man with a surprising amount of blonde/brown hair and bright blue eyes.

"Is that a rape van?" My best friend snorted so violently, she started coughing.

"Lissie," Darcy gestured to me and then to the two others when she could finally breathe, "This is my boss, Jane Foster, and her partner-in-science-only, Erik Selvig. Erik, Jane, this is my hilarious best friend, Lissie MacDonall."

"Good to meet you. I'm Jane." I shook her hand and smiled.

"Ailis." She smiled back and the older man came up.

"Erik Selvig. We've heard a lot about you."

"Oh, really?" I grinned at Darcy, one eyebrow raised, "Hopefully nothing bad,"

"Oh, no. Nothing too bad." Erik said amiably. "You're not American, are you?" He asked, referring to my thick brogue.

"Ah, no. I'm Scottish." He grinned.

"That's fascinating! My cousin lived in Scotland for a while. Where about are you from?" I shifted my purse to my other arm.

"I'm from Skara Brae. But, er," I glanced at the truck, "Can I put my things away?"

"Oh! Sure! So sorry," Jane fussed as she opened the door to let me shove in my bags. "Listen, Ailis, we're headed out into the desert to go check out a convergence. Would you like to come?" Automatically, I felt bed for wanting to stay back.

"Oh, mercy, I'd love to, really I would, but flying drains me. Is it too much trouble to let me stay back?" The scientists looked at each other, looked at me, looked back at each other, then looked at me.

"No problem at all." Erik decided. "Hop in." He swung the driver's door open and we all piled in.


A short while later, we pulled up to Jane's laboratory. She spun around in the passenger seat to look at me. "Ailis, I'm sorry, but the only place around here that you can stay is the lab. There's a pullout couch in the back room, a kitchen, and a full bath. You'll be okay, right?"

This woman looked so genuinely sorry that I had to sleep in her office that I had to say yes. Even if I wasn't okay with it, I still would have said yes.

"Jane, where I grew up, we didn't have but a wee café and maybe a pub or two, but those were only for the tourists. Da and I lived so far from the village, people forgot we were out there until we came into town." I gave her a reassuring smile. "I'll be grand. Thank you, Jane."

"Um, sure." She said, a little shocked at my impromptu speech.

I grabbed my stuff, kissed Darcy on the cheek, and waved as they drove off into the wild sandy abyss.


DONT SHOOT ME! I AM SO SORRY IT TOOK ME THIS LONG TO UPDATE!

Love you guys sooooooo much!

~Blue