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Terrestrial Constellations	By : Nightowl360 Category: Marvel Verse Movies > Thor Views: 2799 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Thor, nor the characters from it. I make no money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Terrestrial Constellations
- 2-Sometimes it really is the best policy
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Chapter 2: Sometimes it really is the best policy.

There was a lot of commotion as Darcy left to get cleaned up and one of the S.H.I.E.L.D agents came in to make a report. Jane was grateful to know that the Portal really was intact, but greatly disappointed to learn that its power stabilizer had fried and would need to be rebuilt from scratch. The cause of the explosion was unclear, as was the computer malfunction.
            Stark arrived just as she was redressing from a lukewarm and rather awkward shower in which Darcy had to help her with things she’d been managing for herself since age five. He had, much to Jane’s aggravation, banned both of them from the hangar and all forms of research for seventy-two hours.
            Agent Coulson had cemented himself permanently in her bad graces by vowing to post agents outside her own research base in town for that same length of time.
            She knew they were right, just as they knew she would never take the time off to rest willingly. She hadn’t taken a real day off in two years, actually. If she wasn’t working on the portal then she was at her research area in town, or she worked from home. More often than not she fell asleep sitting up with charts and notes and photographs surrounding her. A few days without work would probably be beneficial.
            But she didn’t have to like it.
            So she had sulked in the car on the way into town, and she had pouted though the grocery store, and by the time Darcy pulled the van into Jane’s dusty driveway she was steeping in self-pity. She wanted to be back at the base; going over calculations or studying the data from the test. Something that was useful.
            She allowed her assistant to help her out of the car only because falling on her face would just add insult to injury. This, of course, was why she been forced onto sick leave. It was extremely aggravating to Jane, who had always been tenaciously self-sufficient, to be unable to do something as simple as opening her car door.
            She wouldn’t be able to write, type, or drive for the foreseeable future. And, while she was feeling miserable and inadequate, she didn’t even know for certain if Thor wanted to come back. The possibility that he had never meant to return, that he would refuse to enter the portal when it was ready, was a doubt that played like a dirge in her mind whenever she felt vulnerable.
            Dejectedly, Jane followed her assistant around the van in hopes that she could at least carry something into the house. They’d only just begun to bicker about it when the shiny silver mustang purred its way to a stop on the shoulder of the dirt road opposite her driveway. Jane watched the man step from the vehicle; short dark hair, suntanned, clean shaven. Medium height and build, from what she could see, with a purposeful stride and a stiff set to his shoulders.
She had thought that he must be an agent checking on her, as they periodically would whenever something gave Coulson cause to have her followed (which, she suspected, he did to annoy her). Except that she’d never seen any of the agents that she worked around regularly dress down into a black tee-shirt and dark gray slacks. She’d never seen any of them dress down at all, actually, and sometimes wondered if they weren’t spawned into those suits.
“Jane? My God, what happened to you?”
            Recognition sparked bright, leaving her to wonder just how hard she’d hit her head.
            “Donald... what are you doing here?” she asked in return, marveling at why she hadn’t recognized him immediately. It had only been three years, possibly a bit less than that, since their relationship had ended and he really hadn’t changed much in that time. Minus the fact, she considered as she studied him, that he seemed somewhat bland.
            When she had first met him, Jane had thought Dr. Donald Blake to be tall, dark and extremely sexy. Looking at him now, she saw nothing that wasn’t ordinary.
            The shoulders that had looked so broad seemed narrow and frail. The muscular, toned body he’d been so proud of, that she had admired, looked flaccid and weak to her view. The eyes that she had regarded as deep and mysterious now appeared flat, empty, and unremarkable. The cleft jaw, once strong and masculine, was fragile and awkward.
            There was nothing striking about the man before her, and Jane was left to wonder if there ever had been. Perhaps Thor had altered her perception, or perhaps she now saw things as they were instead of how she wanted them to be. Either way, she felt nothing for the man that had once been such an important part of her life.
Well, nothing but a mild irritation. He’d always had an astonishing talent for showing up precisely when she really didn’t want him to.
            “That’s all you have to say?” annoyance moved under the expression of attentive concern, though his voice retained its usual placid tone, “I drive all the way out to this godforsaken town to see you, and that’s all you have to say? Never mind that for now, what happened, how did you hurt yourself?”
            “She fell off a ladder.” Darcy supplied quickly and despite the fact that the abrasions on her own face told a different story. Jane hoped that Donald didn’t notice because, while the excuse wasn’t original (or particularly convincing), it did not contain the words; lab, accident, or explosion. He’d never understood her work. He’d mocked it, and her, so often in their relationship that she had come to dread talking to him.
            You’re clever. Far more clever than anyone else in this realm.
            Thor couldn’t know just how much those words had meant to her, even though she’d half believed him to be insane at the time he’d spoken them.
            “A ladder, really?” He stared at her, brows raised and a blatant disbelief on his face that made Jane want to laugh. What had he expected, or, more accurately, what had he wanted to hear? Surely people fell off ladders. It couldn’t be that rare, certainly more frequent than, say, an injury due to a malfunction in a trans-dimensional gateway.
            Then again, maybe honesty really would be the best policy in this situation.
Well it’s the funniest thing. See I was helping to open a trans-dimensional portal to Asgard in order to bring Thor, god of thunder, back to earth…
Okay, maybe not.
“Why are you here… and how did you find out where I live? I moved. Twice.”
“I went by that shabby little diner you like so much. The woman who owns it, can’t remember her name now, she remembered me and told me where you’d moved. I’m sorry, I know I should have called first but-“ He grinned at her, a look that had lost its power to charm her, “I just wanted to see you, to talk to you.”
“About?” Already he had forgotten that her arm was in a sling and part of her face was black and blue. That wasn’t important to him, or not as important to him, as whatever it was he so suddenly needed to discuss with her. Her attitude was throwing him off, as she knew it would, and he was struggling to regain his imagined control of the situation.
“About us.” About what happened between us.” He reached for her, cupping her jaw in one hand and letting the other rest on her uninjured shoulder. His fingers felt strange on her skin; cold, unnaturally soft and almost feminine.
            Her mind traced back to that first morning with Thor when she had refused to take him to Mjolnir. She remembered the rough calluses on his fingers, his thumb brushing lightly over her knuckles before he had pressed a soft kiss to her fingers. She remembered the amusement sparkling in his blue eyes, and the warmth of his breath against her skin.
            “We had something amazing, Jane.” Donald’s eyes were dark brown, and as cool and distant as they’d always been, “We were amazing together. We could be amazing again.”
            She realized his intention a moment too late as he stepped forward and pressed his mouth to hers. Shock snapped into fury and she struggled violently away from him, stumbling back into the open van door hard enough to send pain shooting through her arm. Too outraged to speak, Jane could only stare.
            She saw confusion in his eyes, and it only increased her ire.
            “Uh… Jane’s, like, seeing someone already.” Quiet and forgotten, Darcy stood with her arms folded and her back leaning against the side of the van. She cocked her head when Donald looked at her, the first time since he had arrived, and one of her dark brows rose in challenge. Her expression alone sent a clear message; Argue with me. I dare you.
            Darcy’s loyalty to Thor was as resolute as Jane’s own. More than once had her assistant intercepted and discouraged the unwanted advances of her coworkers at the portal site. Usually Jane wished that she could perform this task with more subtlety, however, just now, she was enormously grateful for Darcy’s frankness.
            “You’re not!” Donald laughed, eyes flicking between the two women and finally settling on Jane, “Don’t tell me you’ve picked out some local hick to idle away your nights with. I mean I figured you’d be starved for decent company in this backwater little town, but that’s… just pathetic.”
            “You’re the one that’s pathetic, dude.” Darcy muttered, earning a sneer from him.
“It doesn’t matter if he’s local or… or from another planet! I am seeing someone,” or she hoped to be, if he wanted her, “that should be enough for you to understand that we are over.”
            “Now, Jane, I don’t think you-“
            “No. This subject is not open for discussion. You know the reasons why I left you. I’ve moved on, you need to do the same.”
            He looked, Jane thought, exactly as he had the day she had told him she was leaving permanently. His hands were stuffed into his pockets and his face was set with mild disbelief and mild frustration. Always mild, everything had always been mild, cool, or composed. There had been no heat in him, no passion or ardor. Even when they had argued he’d been so calm and reasonable, no matter what she did to try and rouse his temper.
            But he had hated not getting his way, and always it would force him to argue in that infuriatingly calm and perfectly reasonable tone, keeping the argument going until Jane was exhausted and emotionally depleted. She saw the argument in him now, saw it brewing in his dark eyes, and braced for it.
            Then he hesitated, eyes darting to her shoulder and the bright blue sling keeping her arm immobile, and he stepped back.
            “I’m very serious about this, Jane, I don’t think you can realize how serious. I think that we need to sit down and talk about this, in private.” He shot a glance at Darcy, “However, I do understand why this may not be the best time, so I will wait and we can talk when you’re better. If you need anything, you know my number.”
            His eyes tracked back to Darcy, annoyance brimming and a barely contained sneer brimming in them. It was likely that he blamed her for Jane’s lack of cooperation, or possibly her injury. Oblivious to this, Darcy smiled brightly and offered her hand,
            “Nice meeting you.”
            His lip curled in distaste and it seemed like he was going to walk away, but Darcy was unwavering and Donald’s ivy-league manners eventually won out and he took the proffered limb. But instead of shaking, Darcy pulled his hand closer to her body, clasping it tightly and locking her gaze with his.
“He’s bigger than you. Way bigger. Might want to think about that. Bye now.” She smirked at him as he tore his hand from hers and spun away, stalking to his car without a word.
            Darcy had gotten under his skin, Jane thought as she watched Donald peel out and shoot down the road like large silver bullet. Nothing Jane had ever done (accidentally or otherwise) had ever seemed to pierce that armor. He had been remote, always, even in their intimacy. It had been one of the things that had, eventually, driven her away.
            But she remembered now that there had been times, though few and far between, that the reticent mask had been cracked and Jane would glimpse something beneath the charm and polish that she could only perceive as dark and bitter. It had been like a single wrong note in a song, always catching her off guard as soon as she thought she knew the melody.
            Darcy had fractured Donald’s reserved, indifferent mask, and she had done it with ease. More than that, Jane thought with disquiet, she had done it intentionally.
            She had never thought of Donald as a dangerous man, not like Thor who had practically oozed with it, but all the same… she was suddenly anxious. What would Donald do if Darcy kept pushing him, as she was clearly capable of doing, what was he capable of? She didn’t think she wanted to know.
            So she turned, intending to caution and instruct, but hesitated.
            Darcy was staring at the rapidly disappearing mustang with a troubled expression that Jane had never seen on her before. It was an intense, apprehensive look that was at odds with the young woman that Jane had come to know. She felt, though she didn’t know quite why, that there was something happening that ought to be obvious, but was anything but.
            “Darcy, you okay?”
            “I’m fine,” replied she, lowering her hand and very deliberately wiping her palm on the front of her dark jeans, “I just really wish Thor were here right now. That’s all.”
            She turned, gathered the grocery bags and moved contemplatively toward the front door, keys in hand. Jane started to follow and then looked back to where the silver car had disappeared from view. Why, she wondered, had Donald had decided to find her three years after she had broken their engagement?
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Terrestrial Constellations