Chapter 1: She Isn't...Is She?
for usedkarma
"Who is that?"
Jane looked up briefly from her latest set of calculations just in time to watch a blonde agent round the corner into the pseudo-kitchen that was, theoretically, there for the use of all the scientists on this floor of R&D. Not many of them actually used it themselves, although Jane was fairly certain Darcy kept it well-stocked. Whenever she brought in frozen grapes, they were still frozen, so Jane assumed there was a freezer in there of some sort. She was far too busy to bother with details like that, however.
"Oh," she said, once Darcy had successfully picked her jaw back up off the floor, "that's Agent Carter."
Darcy glared at her, like she was being purposely perverse. "Nuh-uh, Janey," she retorted, scoffing. "Agent Carter founded SHIELD like forever ago? Pretty sure she's not still around the place."
Jane didn't even crack an edge of a smile, though she desperately wanted to. "No, that's Agent Sharon Carter. Definitely not the founder of SHIELD."
"Oh," Darcy said, deflated. "No relation, right?"
Jane's lip twitched but she kept on working steadily, refusing to look her intern-come-wrangler in the eye. "I didn't say that," she replied, dryly. Maybe she was being perverse.
Darcy wasn't just staring daggers now, but a fully-stocked armory. "You are messing with me, Jane Foster," she accused, jabbing her finger straight at Jane's collar bone. "She isn't related, it's just a common name, right? RIGHT?"
Jane's eyes flicked past Darcy, noting the tall blonde woman was now returning to the doorway of the pseudo-kitchen. "I don't know," she said, as blandly as possible, "why don't you go ask her, before she leaves?"
For a split second, Darcy spluttered in protest, but then she caught sight of the agent moving down the hall towards them again. She jabbed a finger at Jane again, growing "You! I'm on to you!" before hurrying out of the lab awkwardly, trying to hurry but also not look like she was hurrying.
Jane worked a while longer, half-overhearing the conversation outside (half on-purpose), picking up on words like "grapes" and "favorite", followed by Darcy falling over her words for rather longer than usual, before finally ending on the word "coffee", which was a question.
Jane allowed herself the smile that she'd been stifling all this time as Darcy came bounding back into the room, all irritation completely evaporated.
"So," she nudged, "what did she tell you?"
Darcy's face split into a grin to envy Thor's. "Her number," she declared, flopping with elated relief into a chair.
A/N: This ficlet was a birthday gift for usedkarma on Tumblr. Many happy returns!