"The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth."

Lao Tzu

The silence was strained as Lizzie and Jane sipped on their caffeinated beverages at the Starbucks near the Tower. Their journey to the get coffee was done in near silence and consequently, the cacophony of New York City was a welcome respite. The only positive outcome of the past half hour was that Lizzie at least got a decent cup of coffee. She desperately needed it to deal with the impending conversation in addition to her hangover. She desperately wished to put off talking to Jane, but Lizzie was never one to back down from a difficult situation, even one of her own making.

Taking a deep breath, she opened her mouth to begin, but Jane beat her to it.

"I'm sorry."

The statement startled her into speech. "Wait. Why are you sorry? Shouldn't I be the one to apologize for behaving like a jerk the other day? Oh God, did thesis finally crack my brain? Or was it the alco-"

Laughing, Jane interrupted. "I can assure you that you have not finally succumbed to mad-scientist disease."

"Oh. Well, good. I was worried for a second. But what do you have to apologize for?"

Jane stared at Lizzie guiltily.

"For everything after you came and visited me in New Mexico. There was a reason why I put distance between our family and me."

"And that reason was…?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D."

"You mean the organization overtaken by Hydra that apparently was going to murder most of the population? Yeah, I saw the files Black Widow put out on the internet."

"Yes, but my first encounter with them didn't go smoothly. They took all of my research then eventually gave it back only to restrict me with a bunch of non-disclosure agreements. So I ended up having to work for them because they wanted to limit how many people were 'in the know'."

"So you didn't tell your family anything because of a bunch of NDAs? But, weren't those void after the whole Avengers fiasco?"

"Partly, yet after what happened with Erik-"

Lizzie cut in abruptly, "Hold your horses. Our Erik? Erik Selvig?"

Lizzie knew it wasn't physically possible for someone to morph into inanimate objects, however Jane seemed to be giving it the good old college try.

"Yes," gave Jane in meek reply.

Her response was to ensure her head made contact with the gritty table top. Repeatedly. After her attempt to smash her head through the table failed, Jane continued her story.

"Erik had told me when we first encountered S.H.I.E.L.D how one of his colleagues simply vanished. I didn't believe him at first. After New Mexico I was doing research on the Einstein-Rosen Bridge based on the data from the first alien contact. S.H.I.E.L.D asked me to participate on some classified project they were working on in regards to alien technology and energy. I refused. They coerced Erik instead, and…"

For a moment she appeared to struggle to find words so Lizzie put her hands on top of Jane's spasming fingers, resulting in Jane's lips twitching into a self-deprecating smile. Lizzie knew the facts now thanks to the S.H.I.E.L.D file dump behind what happened in Manhattan when the world learned extraterrestrial life was no longer myth. The files and the media never specified how exactly aliens were able to invade Earth, but from Jane's confession she could make an educated guess.

"Loki used a form of mind control to coerce him into building the portal to allow the alien invasion to occur. Erik was never the same after the Battle of Manhattan. After I saw what happened to him, I knew I couldn't risk my family being caught up in this. I was terrified about you guys getting hurt or worse, so it was easier to distance myself from everyone. Then London and the dark elves happened, and I had a near death experience which changed my perspective among other things."

"Wait, you were there?! You almost died!?"

Wincing as if bracing herself for a blow, Jane told her hesitantly, "…yes?"

Lizzie nearly spilled her coffee all over the table. "Jane!"

"What?"

"You need to tell me these things!"

"That's why I'm telling you now!"

"Yeah a little over six months later!"

"Still!"

The sounds of caffeine deprived New Yorkers swelled around them, filling the sudden silence after their somewhat loud discussion. It was probably a good thing they had stopped their raised conversation since people were starting to stare at them. Lord, her life would make for excellent reality TV.

Taking a calming breath, Lizzie ventured, "So what happened in London?"

Lizzie spent the next hour listening to Jane talk about Thor, Asgard, the Aether, the Convergence, the Dark Elves, Malekith, and Loki's death. She wanted to grip Jane by the shoulders and shake her until common sense took a firm hold of Jane's mind. Alas, Lizzie knew nothing would stop Jane from chasing after answers to the questions of the world even if there were people or aliens akin to Malekith in the way. She was curious about Thor after hearing Jane speak so highly of him.

Wait a minute.

Praying that her cousin wasn't as suicidal as she thought, she dared to ask her final question.

"Is Donald actually Thor?"

Jane gave her the answer by turning scarlet, a nearly perfect match for the seasonal Starbucks cups, and then attempting to look busy by taking a sip of coffee.

Lizzie's completely logical response was to bang her head against the table again.

Rubbing her aching forehead, she marshaled her thoughts into some semblance of order. Swallowing, Lizzie lifted her eyes to study her cousin. It was easy to see the changes after a year and a half of absence, now that she knew where to look. The fidgeting, the looking over her shoulder every few minutes, the flush in Jane's face when she thought about Don – uh, Thor…

"So am I going to have alien nieces and nephews? And would alien DNA necessarily screw with your kids? Or would they just be super attractive? Because, I have to say…Donald is majorly hot."

At this, Jane emitted a strange spluttering denial, and coffee dribbled out of her mouth.

"Hot," she said.

Lizzie wasn't sure if this was referring to her previous comment or Donald's abs. Nevertheless, it made her giggle, and soon enough Jane was joining in, a napkin pressed daintily to her face.

And then they were full-out laughing, attracting the attention of the New York caffeine crowd and not even caring.

Ah, how she had missed this.

After their laughter subsided, Lizzie gave Jane a look of mock seriousness before demanding, "Tell me everything."

So Jane did.