Eva knocked the door to the HQ labs open with a leather-clad hip and carried the tray of drinks towards the sound of voices. A couple of lab assistants swarmed forwards and claimed theirs as she went, but there were still three left on the tray by the time she reached the heart of the department.

"Morning, doctors," she said with relief, "nice to see Erik's decided to wear pants today."

"Against my better judgement," he mumbled, as a pretty blonde woman with a slight limp moved forwards to take the drinks. "Irene, sweetheart, that isn't your job," he told her as she handed one to him and one to Dr Cho, who took the espresso gratefully and downed it in one. Working with Dr Selvig could be a very exhausting experience.

"My job is to assist you, Erik," Irene replied in a slightly accented voice, "which includes holding your drink for you."

Selvig tutted and sipped at his cup. "Wonderful as always, Miss Kresk."

"Cheers, doctor. How's science?"

"Science is good!" he said triumphantly, "science is excellent, in fact. Irene, where's my pen?"

"Behind your ear, Erik."

"Ah, so it is. I don't know where I'd be without you," he muttered, now checking his pockets for something. Cho and Eva exchanged slightly amused glances as Irene handed Selvig a notepad. "Aha! Thank you."

"You are very welcome, Erik," Irene smiled, finally managing to retrieve her own paper cup of tea. "Thank you."

"No problem, honey," Eva said as she snooped at the holograms contained within the lab. "Watcha sciencing today, then?"

"Thermonuclear and bio-organic energy sources," Cho told her, as if she expected Eva to understand what that meant. "Everything's been pretty quiet on the world-saving front recently, so we're using our resources to actually do some good."

"I like you," said Eva, "we share the same pessimism when it comes to superheroes."

"Makes you wonder how we ended up here, doesn't it?"

"Clearly, Destiny has a terrible sense of humor."

"Ah- ah!" Selvig waved a finger in their direction. "No talk of anything even remotely supernatural in my workspace, please. I have enough of that with Jane."

"Message received," Eva grinned as Irene handed over the money. "Have fun with science, ladies and gentlemen."

"Have fun with your trees, Miss Kresk."

"Thank you, Erik."

A/N if you want to know more about Irene (which you should do, because she's super-cute if I do say so myself) and why she walks with a limp, I'd recommend reading chapters three to six of The Civilian Files. The same goes for if you want to see how dark/grim my writing can get. Short answer: not insignificantly. Also, did you know that Paul Bettany (aka Jarvision himself) named one of his kids after the guy who plays Selvig? HOW CUTE IS THAT.

Also, for all you Evasion shippers, platonic or otherwise, I just found the song Texas by Magic Man and it worked so well for their relationship that I genuinely had to check the release date to make sure that Magic Man isn't some humungous nerd who writes great songs about mediocre fanfiction. Anyway... go listen. It even has her name in it, which is literally the most amazing coincidence I have ever witnessed.