A/N And now for the special extra chapter of Girls' Night In! I hope you enjoy!
"Special event for tonight, ladies!" Natasha smirked at her gathered friends.
"What's the big secret Nat?" Pepper frowned.
"Yeah, your text message was all over the place," Darcy gestured wildly as though to display Natasha's wording.
"That's because I didn't want Stark intercepting it and stopping me in my mission," Natasha's smile widened, becoming border-line creepy.
"Now you're just being a nuisance. Either tell us what's going on or let me put Fight Club on," Maria insisted.
"Okay, okay. Ladies, I give you the one and, to my knowledge, the only…Mjolnir!" Natasha revealed, pulling the hammer from her purse.
Pepper and Wanda's eyes bugged out in surprise. Maria nodded slowly, not quite believing what she was seeing. Jane was frozen in shock, her glass laying broken on the ground where she had dropped it. Darcy leaped from her seat and ran towards the hammer.
"Mew Mew!" she shouted in delight, wrapping her arms around the handle and hugging the weapon.
"No it's…you know what, never mind," Jane shook her head in defeat. "It's so not worth the effort. Natasha, where did you get this? More importantly, how did you get this?"
"He left it lying around so I picked it up," the former assassin shrugged nonchalantly before smirking wickedly. "He should be panicking in the next ten minutes or so which gives us just enough time to do a little testing of our own."
"Nat…you can't be serious," Maria laughed.
"It'll be just like that night when Ultron appeared, except this time no one is nearly that drunk," Natasha explained. "And hopefully no homicidal robots appear," she added as an aside.
"Oh my," Maria grinned like a Cheshire Cat. "You are being serious!"
"I've already proven that I'm worthy. Who wants to go next?" Nat waved a hand at the hammer sitting on her coffee table.
"I'm good with just this," Darcy said, hugging Mew Mew one more time before returning to her place on the couch. Wanda raised an eyebrow at the young intern, but decided to not comment.
"I refuse to touch that. I've only had Thor back for a few months, I don't want to find out whether or not I'm worthy to even be dating the guy," Jane leaned away from the hammer.
"Don't be so hard on yourself Jane," Pepper frowned as Maria stood up.
"Well I'm definitely giving it a try. Heck, I wanted to that night," Maria admitted with a little grin as she placed her hands around the handle and heaved. The hammer remained still.
"Seriously?" Maria demanded, giving it one more try. Mjolnir remained steady as a rock.
"Eh, whatever. I wouldn't want to rule Asgard anyways. They don't even have coffee there," Maria snorted as she reclaimed her chair.
"Okay, Wanda, Laura, Pepper which of you wants to try next?"
"The hammer only moves for those who are 'worthy'?" Wanda questioned, rising gracefully from the couch and gazing closely at the hammer.
"Supposedly," Jane answered before Natasha could.
"What defines a person as 'worthy'?" Laura wondered, as Wanda circled the hammer.
"Thor's never said. Hey, Wanda, are you picking up a consciousness from Mjolnir?" Jane asked eagerly.
"I am attempting to," Scarlet Witch admitted.
"Noticing anything?" everyone sat forward, eager to find out more about the relic.
"No…as far as I can sense, there is nothing human about it. Oh well, still worth a try," Wanda shrugged. She reached forward and yanked with only one hand on the hammer. When that didn't work she tried both hands before finally calling upon her magic and attempting to use it to move Mjolnir. Once again, no success.
"Since there is no specification of what it means to be worthy, I can live with disappointment," Wanda declared with a shrug of her shoulders.
"You want a drink?" Darcy inquired.
"Absolutely," Wanda smiled at the young political science major.
"Move it along ladies, we're running short on time," Natasha pressed as Wanda and Darcy moved to the kitchen.
"Go for it Pep," Laura encouraged. The CEO stepped forward, eyeing the hammer with apprehension.
"It's not going to bite you boss lady," Darcy called encouragingly when Pepper seemed to be taking too long.
Pepper grinned at the younger woman then returned to regarding the hammer. Suddenly surging forward, she grabbed ahold of the hammer and pulled with all of her might.
"Oh thank goodness," Pepper sighed with relief as the hammer remained still.
" 'Thank goodness'?" Natasha laughed. "Interesting reaction."
"Are you kidding me? Running Stark Industries and keeping Tony out of trouble is all that I can handle. Being put in charge of an entire realm? No thank you," Pepper declared as she took a sip from her glass of wine. Everyone chuckled at the CEO's words then turned their attention to Laura as the last to attempt wielding the hammer. The mother barely had to tug on the handle of the hammer before it was lifting up from the coffee table, aloft in her hand.
"I knew Clint was wrong about it being a trick," she murmured with a small smile. Natasha's grin stretched wide across her face and the rest of the room cheered as Laura held the hammer aloft.
"I swear there's some kind of poetic justice here, but I'm too happy to really care," Maria declared with a laugh.
"This is so going on Facebook," Darcy grinned maniacally, pulling out her trusty cell phone to take the picture.
"Wait, no!" Laura immediately put the hammer back down and stepped away from it, her eyes widening in horror.
"What's wrong?" Jane frowned, the others making noises of concern at Laura Barton's behavior.
"Ladies, I'm like Pepper. I'm honestly happy with my life and I don't want to mess things up for Thor. I don't want anyone knowing that I can lift that thing. Please, please keep this a secret for me," Laura begged.
"I mean if it's that important to you," Darcy frowned lowering her phone dejectedly.
"Of course we won't tell anyone," Pepper reassured her, sincerity in her every word.
It was at that point that Jane's cell phone began to ring urgently.
"Let me get this," Jane apologized to the group before answering.
"Hello? Thor? Thor, honey…hey everything's okay. Nat was just playing a joke. She wanted to show us the hammer. Don't worry, it's still where Natasha set it down. You know what, hold on a second and I'll check with them, okay?" Jane assuaged her boyfriend before raising her eyes to look at the group.
"He says that we either bring Mjolnir to him right now or he'll come here and he makes no promises about not breaking windows or walls," Jane addressed the majority of her words to Natasha.
"Give me that," the Black Widow ordered. Jane quickly tossed the phone over.
"Come to the corner of 22nd Lee Street at Scarlett Avenue in front of the comic store if you ever want to see Mjolnir again. Be there in ten minutes with Swiss chocolate, Asgard's best wine, and Lady Sif. I have an invitation to extend to her," Natasha commanded before ending the call, not giving the god of thunder a chance to reply. She smirked then turned to address the group.
"I'll be back in twenty, ladies. If you're going to start a movie before I get back, don't pick anything with Hugh Jackman in it," Natasha ordered as she exited the apartment, Mjolnir hidden away in a satchel.
The others blinked as she disappeared.
"So basically…only talk about tonight when we're in this apartment?" Darcy queried.
"Yes," the reply came from every corner of the room.
"Yeesh, I was just checking!"