"It was an accident!" Jane protests, though she too has a little smile on her lips, more out of embarrassment than deep amusement. It is funny in hindsight, a little bit. "Darcy tasing him wasn't though. But we did take him to the hospital and he was fine, though he did kind of, uh, escape." Which... might have been for the best, given the government's intense interest once they'd realized he was there. Or maybe that's too many scifi stories about hiding aliens on Earth influencing her, but Jane wouldn't put it past SHIELD to have been a Problem.
Her focus changes as she realizes they're arriving at an actual destination, her gaze sweeping over the little house. It's no golden palace, a humble home set apart from the more closely-crowded village houses elsewhere on the island, but large enough for a man Thor's size - and a small family too. Flowers bloom alongside the house's outer walls, a wild thicket that seems at once overgrown and well in check, defying the rocky soil at their foundation. The doorposts are painted red and silver, and Jane's hand momentarily lingers on the knotwork as she steps into the house. Inside feels even more strongly of Thor's presence: a lingering smell of coffee hanging in the air hours after it's gone cold, a large red knit sweater tossed over the back of an armchair, empty brackets for an absent weapon above the mantel, and - she's surprised to note - Hubble photographs framed and hung on the walls.
It's at once nothing like she expected and also incredibly him.
Alongside the ghosts of his presence are Amelia's, as well - the way she moves around the kitchen with purpose, her familiarity with the home making it clear that this is her home as well, her own belongings and decor leaving signs of herself all throughout the house. Jane is quiet while she takes a seat at the small kitchen table, just looking around at everything before Amelia prompts her.
She takes a breath and lets it out. "Okay, so. I was already studying the Convergence before Thor showed up, though I didn't know what it was yet. My team, that is - my intern Darcy Lewis, and a scientist friend of mine, Erik Selvig. I said before that there were portals opening up everywhere? I accidentally went through one and found an Infinity Stone that Thor's granddad had buried five thousand years before, this... reality-warping goop called the Aether. I didn't know what it was, but it... went into me," she says, waving at herself. "Like it possessed me, kind of. I was still me, but it was killing me, so Thor took me to Asgard to try to get it out of me. And it turns out it used to be owned by the dark elves, and Thor's grandpa was wrong about wiping them all out, and they attacked Asgard to get it back." Her gaze drops to her hands, and though it's been years, this part of the story still stings with guilt. "Thor's mom died to protect me from Malekith, their leader."
She takes in another breath, a little shakier, but still more than steady enough to tell the rest of the tale. "You know Loki attacked Earth, years back? He was in the dungeons on Asgard because of it, but Thor and his friends staged a jailbreak so he could smuggle me off Asgard and trick Malekith into getting the Aether out of me so they could destroy it. The first part worked, but not the second, and there was a big fight. Loki died to protect me too." That's something she has more complicated feelings on, because he was a smug jerk and he killed dozens of innocent people - but she also watched Thor hold his little brother in his arms while the light left his eyes, and she knows how deeply that drove a metaphorical knife into his heart. And in the end, Loki had died to save her life. That's worth something.
She shakes her head a little, picking at the crumbs of her sandwich with her fingers. "We got back in Earth in time for the Convergence to really be in full swing, and we managed to stop Malekith from using the Aether before it was too late."
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Her focus changes as she realizes they're arriving at an actual destination, her gaze sweeping over the little house. It's no golden palace, a humble home set apart from the more closely-crowded village houses elsewhere on the island, but large enough for a man Thor's size - and a small family too. Flowers bloom alongside the house's outer walls, a wild thicket that seems at once overgrown and well in check, defying the rocky soil at their foundation. The doorposts are painted red and silver, and Jane's hand momentarily lingers on the knotwork as she steps into the house. Inside feels even more strongly of Thor's presence: a lingering smell of coffee hanging in the air hours after it's gone cold, a large red knit sweater tossed over the back of an armchair, empty brackets for an absent weapon above the mantel, and - she's surprised to note - Hubble photographs framed and hung on the walls.
It's at once nothing like she expected and also incredibly him.
Alongside the ghosts of his presence are Amelia's, as well - the way she moves around the kitchen with purpose, her familiarity with the home making it clear that this is her home as well, her own belongings and decor leaving signs of herself all throughout the house. Jane is quiet while she takes a seat at the small kitchen table, just looking around at everything before Amelia prompts her.
She takes a breath and lets it out. "Okay, so. I was already studying the Convergence before Thor showed up, though I didn't know what it was yet. My team, that is - my intern Darcy Lewis, and a scientist friend of mine, Erik Selvig. I said before that there were portals opening up everywhere? I accidentally went through one and found an Infinity Stone that Thor's granddad had buried five thousand years before, this... reality-warping goop called the Aether. I didn't know what it was, but it... went into me," she says, waving at herself. "Like it possessed me, kind of. I was still me, but it was killing me, so Thor took me to Asgard to try to get it out of me. And it turns out it used to be owned by the dark elves, and Thor's grandpa was wrong about wiping them all out, and they attacked Asgard to get it back." Her gaze drops to her hands, and though it's been years, this part of the story still stings with guilt. "Thor's mom died to protect me from Malekith, their leader."
She takes in another breath, a little shakier, but still more than steady enough to tell the rest of the tale. "You know Loki attacked Earth, years back? He was in the dungeons on Asgard because of it, but Thor and his friends staged a jailbreak so he could smuggle me off Asgard and trick Malekith into getting the Aether out of me so they could destroy it. The first part worked, but not the second, and there was a big fight. Loki died to protect me too." That's something she has more complicated feelings on, because he was a smug jerk and he killed dozens of innocent people - but she also watched Thor hold his little brother in his arms while the light left his eyes, and she knows how deeply that drove a metaphorical knife into his heart. And in the end, Loki had died to save her life. That's worth something.
She shakes her head a little, picking at the crumbs of her sandwich with her fingers. "We got back in Earth in time for the Convergence to really be in full swing, and we managed to stop Malekith from using the Aether before it was too late."