It took a moment for Jane to respond, her smile turning to confusion. "I'm sorry, what?"
"He said, that is Thor said, that without knowing the location of, um, Loki, he had to go back to," the agent said and swallowed, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, clearly bewildered by what he was having to talk about (definitely new, thought Darcy), "...Asgard."
"What?" Jane repeated in a strained voice, and Darcy put a hopefully comforting hand on the older woman's shoulder.
The agent paused, apparently lost for words, and then perked up. He patted his jacket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "He did leave a note! A message, I mean, I wrote it down for him. Would you like to hear it?"
Darcy nodded vigorously behind Jane, who was staring morosely at the sky and unresponsive.
The agent cleared his throat. "Right."
The note went:
My dearest lady Jane, I am so sorry I could not stay. My brother is lost and I must find him, for he must answer to our father for his crimes. I do not know when I shall return, for the Bifrost yet lies sundered. I regret not seeing you again.
When the agent finished, Jane took a deep, shuddering breath. "Is-is that all?" The agent nodded quickly and Darcy let go of Jane's shoulder and backed up a couple of steps, hands up.
"I have waited a year! I have worked on building a bridge, ignoring new occurrences in favor of machinery for a year! And he comes back to Earth and I don't even know because of you!" Jane stormed up to the agent, jabbing her finger at his chest.
"Dr. Foster-"
"Shut up! Give me that!" She snatched the scrap of paper from the agent's hand and threw it on the ground. She also stomped on it, which was pretty dramatic even for one of Jane's rants. "He leaves me a note he didn't even write himself! He didn't say goodbye!" Jane drew a breath and let out a ragged sob instead of continuing her tirade, and Darcy came forward and put her arm around Jane's thin shoulders.
Jane sighed and leaned slightly against Darcy. "Please take us to our hotel."
"After you take us to a liquor store," added Darcy.
"I don't think I'm permitted-" said the agent, and Jane skewered him with a glare. "Right. If you'll follow me, ladies?"
It was a long night, although not as long as it could have been in the hotel S.H.I.E.L.D. originally tried to put them in. Between Darcy's 'How dare you!' voice and some beautifully timed tears from Jane, they managed a room in a place with actual room service, a first for either of them. Halfway through the second bottle of wine, Jane finally spoke:
"Am I being pathetic?"
Darcy's heart broke a little at how tired Jane sounded. Jane never sounded tired, even when she hadn't slept for 36 hours. She just got more and more wound up, like a clock on the verge of breaking, until she got so bad that once Darcy had had to lock her into the trailer. It might have been freaky, if it weren't one of the things Darcy (who could sleep more than a drunk koala) admired about her. "Nah. You got swept off your feet a little. Pretty sure even science can't compete with all that muscle."
Jane smiled slightly. "Yeah, you're right. But it's time to get back to our lives, I think."
Darcy sighed. "Jane..."
They were sitting on each end of the couch, leaning against their respective armrests with their legs tangled over the middle. Jane extricated herself, pulling her knees up to her chest and hugging her legs. "You kept telling me he'd come back. Well, he did. And then he left again. I can't publish anything on trying to build an Einstein-Rosen bridge generator. But If I can understand the structure, I can share that. That's my real work. You got your credits six months ago. Erik got hurt. It's time for all of us to go home."
"Fine. But if you give your Bifrost-thing to the suits, you know Tony Stark'll get his hands on it, one way or another," said Darcy, swirling the last of the wine in her cup absentmindedly. Jane was right, Darcy had put her education on hold long enough. Plus, going home might serve as a distraction from the gnawing guilt she felt. If she'd outed Loki somehow, Thor probably wouldn't have left. Or at least he'd have seen Jane first, probably.
Jane snorted. "No, don't worry, I'm keeping it. I'll be damned if I let Tony Stark get his hands on my work. He'd probably end up gate-crashing Valhalla or something."
Dracy grinned and reached over to clink her glass against Jane's. "Definitely. And I have dibs."
They'd gotten through four bottles of wine, and Jane regretted letting Darcy talk her into it. Or rather, letting Darcy keep refilling her glass while listening at her. From someone normally so chatty that her running commentary normally turned to a helpful buzz at the back of Jane's mind, it was unfair. Although that might have been Jane's hangover talking. Darcy, as usual, had been the first one to wake up, and waking Jane up with a cup of coffee at the ready might have been enough to earn Jane's forgiveness if it hadn't turned out they'd missed the start of visiting hours at the hospital by two.
Jane was restless getting ready, she always was, and the headache made it worse. It was only when they were on their way (taking a rather convoluted route, since the damage had caused things like gridlock far beyond the bounds of the 'Battle of New York', as they were calling it) that she managed to still herself. Calm. For Erik. Darcy, however, seemed to take up the mantle of fidgeting, tapping her hands on her knees and staring out the S.H.I.E.L.D. car's window with a level of concentration that discomfited even Jane. "Are you all right?"
Darcy jumped slightly and hunched her shoulders, still resolutely watching the streets. "I'm fine!" She glanced at Jane and smiled, relaxing her posture. "Just, um...worried about Erik, you know?"
Jane nodded uncertainly. She'd never known Darcy to worry much, even after all their equipment had been seized, being more apparently annoyed by the inconvenience of it all than concerned they were going to be black-bagged (Jane had a tendency towards wild conspiracy theories, one she'd felt fully justified in after New Mexico). It wasn't like her. But Erik, hopefully, was more important than an iPod, and Jane let the thought pass. "I'm worried too."
Erik was awake when they got to his room, thankfully, and seemed relieved to see them. There was a bandage on his forehead, and he looked tired, but otherwise fine. He didn't even have an IV, although there did seem to be an unusual amount of machines crowding the small room, from what Jane recalled of the soaps Darcy was so fond of watching. At least he didn't seem to be strapped to the bed, like Thor had been.
He raised both arms in greeting as they walked in, beaming. "Jane! Darcy! I thought you..." He trailed off, his brow wrinkling in confusion.
Jane smiled reassuringly and pulled a chair up to the bedside. "Norway, Erik. We were in Norway. We're fine." He smiled slightly, and Jane looked up to see Darcy still standing in the doorway. Odd. She waved Darcy to come in, and the girl took the other chair.
"Hey...Erik. Heard you got brain-scrambled."
"Darcy!" said Jane automatically, before the tone of her voice registered. Off, again. It took Jane a moment to qualify the sound. Nervous, not like the usual casually affectionate rudeness that she treated everyone with. Darcy wouldn't meet Jane's eyes.
"There were...stars." Erik's voice was quiet, distant. Jane and Darcy both nearly jumped out of their skins and turned back to stare at him. "I knew how to build the right machines, the portal...Oh, Jane. It's gone. I'm so sorry." He almost sobbed, and Jane leaned down to hug him.
"Shh, it's okay. We can figure it out, Erik. Do it right this time."
Darcy got up quietly, and Jane watched her over Erik's shoulder as she awkwardly patted him on the back. Jane wanted to call her back (Darcy was the one who was better at reassuring people, after all, and if anyone needed some irrelevant joke it was Erik) but the girl waved, mouthed the word 'technobabble', and left before Jane could say anything.
Darcy's heart was pounding and she had to take a minute to catch her breath before she could smile back at the questioning glance their S.H.I.E.L.D. escort gave her. "Hey, they're gonna be all 'science!' in there, it cool if I head to the cafeteria? Scout's honor I just want some coffee and junk." She waved three fingers vaguely and he nodded, a smile flashing briefly before going back into Stern Bodyguard mode.
The steam from the coffee against her face helped steady her nerves, and she went about adding an embarrassing number of creamer packets to her cup. The way Erik had sounded...like he was remembering something from one of those super intense dreams, and Darcy felt wide awake. Besides, she didn't think she knew anything she hadn't known already. Would I even know if it was new? She took a sip. Probably, right? Probably not mind control. They'd been told a little bit about what had happened before they'd been allowed to see Erik, and as far as Darcy could tell after a surreptitious check in her compact's mirror, her eyes hadn't turned into glowy blue raspberry.
She wondered when he'd turn up again. If he turned up again.
It was a couple hours before Jane tracked her down to the cafeteria, and by then Darcy had spent most of her money on stupid-tiny creamer packets and broken her own rules about drinking too much coffee. She'd run down the battery in her phone and had been reduced to pacing around the table, trying to work off the nervous energy of waiting. For him.
"Seriously, Darcy, are you okay? You're not acting like...you."
She closed her eyes, thinking. Best lies were ones that were mostly truth, right? "I'm upset, okay? This was Puente Antiguo all over again except this time it wasn't just one huge-ass robot, it was an army of alien monsters. And the bad guy didn't get sucked up into the sky, he got away!" He got to me. He could have gotten to you, Jane. "Is this going to be a regular thing now? Like, we weren't screwed up enough all ready, we have to deal with other planets coming and messing with us out in the open now, instead of just kidnapping some cows? So yeah, I'm a little upset!"
Darcy realized she was shouting, and sat down abruptly with her stomach in an over-caffeinated knot and her legs turned to jelly. It hadn't really hit her until she'd seen Erik. Was she going to end up looking that...lost?
Jane sat down next to her and took one of her hands, sighing quietly. "It's been a lot to process."
There was silence for a while. Finally, Darcy spoke: "You're right. We should go back to our lives. We all need some...normal." And if I'm being a normal student, maybe he won't bother me. She looked at Jane and cracked a lopsided smile. "If you need another assistant again, though, don't find some new person. They won't keep an eye on you like I will."
"But I'll get so much work done!"
It was a month before Darcy could return to Culver proper, six credits in the bag. She'd taken on only a few classes and found a job as a waitress, determined not to return to the dorms. She was allowed, now, and after a year out of the swing of things it was difficult to go back to being one of many students, as opposed to being the person babysitting a couple of scientists.
Her apartment was minuscule, but it was safe. Safe for other people, at least. She didn't like the idea of Loki dropping in somewhere and a roommate getting caught in the crossfire. Darcy knew he would turn up eventually. He had to. She couldn't face the sensation of waiting for the other shoe to drop for the rest of her life. Better to get it over with as fast as possible.
By the end of the second month, she was having nightmares almost nightly, and still there was no sign. Jane's emails slowly petered off as the older woman got more and more absorbed into her old work, and Darcy let them. It was easier to just have to keep track of herself, and she was too tired to fake her normal chattiness, even in writing.
The end of the third month and the dread had settled slightly. The nightmares still happened, but they were quieter and she'd gotten so used to them that she didn't even wake up anymore. She'd stopped feeling sick all the time, and her GPA stopped its slow creep downward.
The fourth month, and Darcy had resigned herself. He'd come back, or he wouldn't, and there wasn't much she could do about it except keep people away from her apartment. She wasn't sure how he'd found the hotel last time, but he'd gotten the wrong room and she didn't want there to be mistakes this time that could cause even more collateral damage. So she went on a social media blast like any future campaign manager should, Instagramming all her food and nails , tweeting in all her classes, and even trying her hand at writing a blog (which failed). All of it linked back, of course, to her Facebook. All of it linked back to her address. It was almost like being her old self again.
One way or another, six months in all went past and she never quite managed to forget the sensation of waiting for the bottom to drop out. She never quite managed to have a night's sleep without the dread of waking up to a hand on her throat, even when her dreams turned towards the painfully mundane.