All That I Can Say: Chapter 1
M. Greystone
Disclaimer: Nope, still own nothing except original characters. *sigh*
Thanks, by the way, to Lady NeverAfterNon for her extremely insightful review, and to Edelmaier, LustfulMuffinDemon, and reader13lovesbooks for your 'favorite-ing' and alerting. I appreciate the support!
S.H.I.E.L.D. Field Office
Northern Oregon
Present Day
The dusky scent of hazelnut coffee wafted through the computer lab and Danica grinned at the groan of happiness she heard from the doorway as Jane Foster leaned against the doorframe.
"And you added cinnamon to it, too, didn't you?" the petite astrophysicist asked, moving forward like a sleepwalker underwater until she stood beside the coffee station.
"Yes and there are chocolate chip bagels also, if you need a snack," Danica replied, checking the figures on her notepad to the ones in the simulation on her computer.
"You are a goddess," Jane smiled, pouring coffee into her travel mug and stuffing a napkin-wrapped bagel into the pocket of her hooded sweatshirt before making her way to Danica's desk. She frowned, cocking a hip and taking a sip of her drink as she studied the sim while it ran.
Both women winced as the pixelated characters standing beside the CGI dimension gate were obliterated by an explosion, leaving the screen dark.
"Too much power?" Jane guessed, arching an eyebrow and sighing.
Danica tilted her head and shrugged. "Not from our end, no. We have plenty to keep up our side, but we get overwhelmed by the energy coming across from Asgard and it blows our buffer system. Forget being blown to bits after entering the wormhole, that happens way before you ever set foot through the portal." She groaned and scrubbed her fingertips over her face, then reached back and idly re-twisted her hair into its claw clip as she re-evaluated her calculations. "Is Tony coming in today?" she asked, looking up and beside her at Jane. "I need to speak with him about the arc reactor progress."
Foster shook her head. "No, I don't think so. But, a friend of a friend is going to be working with us briefly to help with the portal technology," she said, brightening.
"Who?" Danica asked, pushing up from her desk to walk around the lab for a minute. She'd been sitting at the desk longer than she'd like to admit, and this latest setback had started to pick at her already frayed nerves.
Jane shrugged and took Danica's seat, pulling up a dossier. "Her name's Kitty Pryde. Apparently she's some kind of uberkind who's friends with my friend Hank McCoy."
"He's the geneticist, right?" Danica asked, looking over Jane's shoulder at the picture of the man covered in blue fur and sporting silver spectacles, and her friend nodded.
"Kitty is a math and computer whiz and she works in Britain at the moment with a team of heroes, who have had some dimension-hopping experiences I'm told. Hank thinks she could help," Jane replied, pinching off a piece of bagel from her pocket and chewing.
"We could use the extra set of hands," Haraldsen agreed, propping her palms on the back of her hips and walking over to look at the raised platform that held the gleaming silver archway their team was constructing to open a gateway back to Asgard. Wires trailed off of it, connecting the metal to banks of monitors, and she smiled at the tiny silver Mjolnir charm someone had fused to the side of the gate.
Seeing the small pendant with its intricate scrollwork pushed at something in her heart and she bit her lip and turned away. "I'm going to take a walk for a minute, if that's alright," she told Jane, pasting on a smile when her friend looked over at her in concern.
"You okay?" the other woman asked, frowning and tucking her straight brown hair back over her ears. "No offense, but you look like someone just stomped through your garden."
Danica pasted a smile and even managed a chuckle. "No, it's nothing. 'Girl Week' coming up, I think. I'll take my phone with me, if you need me. I'll be right back," she assured her, already walking towards the door.
She pushed her hands deeper into the long cardigan she wore over her slacks and blouse, her heels tapping on the sterile floors of the corridor as she hurried through the halls, the need to be outside crushing her like a hand clutching her throat. She waved her pass at the reader on the wall by the outer doors, sucking in humid, chilled air when she could finally step out into the gray day wrapping around the building.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had built this field office on an island just off the coast of Northern Oregon, near Astoria. The complex was edged with trees but overlooked a steep cliff face that shot straight down into the foamy crash of ocean below and was a cover for a hangar hidden behind the rocks. The location was close enough to civilization that they could go for supplies or evacuate local population if necessary, though the latter thankfully had never happened, but isolated enough that they could keep a watch out for any tourists or curious government theorists that might be wondering what the massive collection of buildings brooding over the island were.
Danica closed her eyes, turning her face up to let the mist hanging in the air kiss her skin before looking up at the rolling gray clouds that were heavy with rain. Her lips twisted as she stepped off of the concrete walkway surrounding the science building, suddenly not caring that her black suede heels were probably going to get soaked as she walked through the grass. She needed to see the water below, feel the wind tug at her clothes and get lost in her thoughts if only for a few minutes.
She knew cameras were following her every move, security teams were tracking her steps, but she paid them no heed as she walked, the tension she'd built up in her shoulders dropping away as if the winds were pulling it out of her. A rumble of thunder overhead brought a wry smile to her face and she wrapped her arms around herself as she stared down at the churning of Cathlamet Bay. "I miss you, my friend," she murmured, the flicker of lightning overhead skipping around the edges of her vision. "And gods, do I miss home," she added, looking up.
It had been decades since she'd visited Asgard, the last trip over the Bifrost occurring at some point in the 1980's, when fashions on Earth favored pastels with large shoulders and hair was curled and teased into a farce of attractiveness. She'd not stayed long in the White Kingdom, merely a day and night before returning to Earth. Long enough to visit her parents, have dinner with the Royal Family, and a brief meeting with Odin concerning her continued research of the human race. Short enough to return through the portal before anyone else knew she was there. Or so she'd thought. She'd winced, turning back for a brief glance when she'd heard Fandral call her name just as the icy breath of the cosmos had pulled her through the gate, Heimdall watching them stoically as the Warrior had stormed into the gatehouse, his teeth bared in a snarl behind his goatee.
"I'm sure home misses you also," Loki smiled, laughing softly when she jumped and looked beside her at the man in a black suit with a dark emerald shirt beneath, a heavy black wool three-quarter length coat covering the Savile Row creation.
Danica grinned back, reaching out her hand for his and squeezing it. "I haven't seen you in a little while. How are you?"
He shrugged, still smiling, the black leather of his glove warming her skin. "Fairly well. Though I'd rather be off of this cliff and out of this wind."
She laughed and nodded. "Well, then off with you, my friend. Shall we have dinner at my house later, then?"
"I'll bring our usual," the prince replied, inclining his head towards her and disappearing in a brush of wind, scattering like coal dust laced with emeralds.
Danica chuckled to herself, smiling on an exhale and feeling a bit more renewed with the surprise of a guest waiting for her. She looked up again at the growing storm, and the smile turned wistful for a moment, her thoughts touching briefly on Loki's brother. "Wish you were here, also," she murmured, the breeze dancing her words away as she turned and walked back to her lab.
Author's Note: Suspend your disbelief! In this universe, the X-Men are well-established and Kitty Pryde has gone on to work with the British superteam, Excalibur. If you haven't read it, especially the "Cross-Time Caper", I recommend it!