fic: the salt skin 2/10 [thor, r]
The dumplings were indeed delicious and the red dipping sauce that Darcy had insisted she try with them had Sif making appreciative sounds as they sat around the makeshift living area Darcy and Jane had constructed in the middle of their lab.
Across from her Jane sat on the floor, a carton of something called Chow-Mein cupped in one hand as she gestured with the other.
Darcy had suggested that they fill Sif in over dinner, but Sif also suspected it was partly so she could be sure Jane ate tonight.
As Jane spoke, Sif wished she had spent more time paying attention when Loki had spoken of his studies. She felt utterly unbalanced and lost the more Jane went on.
"To open a wormhole, uh, what you call the Bifrost,” Jane started, “you need an amazing amount of concentrated energy stabilizing what is by nature an unstable vacuum. You ideally also need the coordinates of your destination spot to open it. I had those, thanks to Thor’s trip here before. Then he didn’t come back and I figured something had gone wrong.
“At first, I thought I would have to find a way to build a device that could theoretically sustain an artificial wormhole in order to open the bridge again, but then I remembered how Thor drew it." Jane reached behind her to retrieve her black notebook and setting down her food, flipped through the pages to where there was a very rough sketch something Sif recognised.
"That is Yggdrasil," Sif said.
"World tree," Darcy added from a mouth full of eggrolls. “I’ve been reading up on you guys.”
Jane looked up at them from where she had been staring at the drawing, "Yes, that's what Thor called it too and the way he drew it was... well, like the worlds are connected by branches."
"They are."
Jane grinned at her.
"Well, yes, but when talking about astrophysics it gets a little more complicated. Still after seeing Thor's drawing it got me thinking. As much as it looked like a tree, it also looked a road. A highway that veered off in different paths and at the end of each path, there's a world. A destination. Earth, Asgard, whatever. All connected to the centre path. All the wormholes or bridges being shown connected to a much bigger one.
“So I started thinking: maybe I didn't have to open a new bridge or even build one, but just reopen the two ends. Restart it, you could say. I don't think your bridge is broken, I think it’s closed off.”
Jane broke off to take a messy bite of her food, but with her free hand pointed to the page at one of the branches connecting Asgard to the centre of Yggdrasil.
“There are natural wormholes connecting these places together, we’ve just lost the way of accessing them. Whatever happened that day it broke the connection you had to the other realms. Simply put, it broke the end of your branch that connected Asgard to Yggdrasil. It used to have a door and now that door is gone. It's a matter of rebuilding the doors again."
Jane and Darcy shared a look Sif couldn't read and then Darcy leaned forward and patted Sif's knee, "We're going to fix your street. Think of us as Yggdrasil's road crew."
Sif blinked. "Is that even possible? I've never heard of such a feat done before.”
Jane glanced down, "Someone had to have built your Bifrost once before, someone can do it again."
"And you feel you are one to do it?"
From the way Jane's shoulders stiffened and her fingers clenched Sif realized that her words insulted the other woman. Before she could say anything to appease Jane spoke up, cutting of any response Sif had.
"Yes. I am and I will." Her eyes were hard and she met Sif's gaze head on. "This is my life's work. Before Thor, which I know everyone thinks this is all about," she shot a glare at Darcy who slouched and pointedly looked at her food, “This was my work. My life. Proving the existence, not to mention finding, a traversable wormhole is possibly the most significant scientific find of the century and I am not going see it lost. As much as I care about Thor and want to see him again, it’s more than just-- I already opened it once already. I'll do it again."
"Jane." Sif reached over and covered her shoulder.
Jane gave her a cold sideways glance, tense under Sif's hand.
“And I believe you. It was not my intention to offend, but what you're attempting to do has never been done by mortals." Sif sat back and frowned, "I do not know much about the mechanics of these things but it will not be easy."
"Hey, hey, hey, don't forget we already did it." Darcy spoke up, leaning forward, "We totally opened your rainbow bridge today and it kicked ass. Okay, so it was more getting our asses kicked, but we jimmied that lock.”
Sif remembered the event well as it only had been hours before and her back was still tender. "Yes, you did." She turned to Jane again. “You still have not told me how.”
Jane sighed. "Ah, yeah. Okay. First, I had to build a device that for the lack of a better word would act as a key, with enough power to draw enough vacuum energy so it could eventually twist that ‘lock’ open. That's what we were testing today. The energy outputs.
“There’s a new substance-a new element that Tony Stark constructed and its properties are were unlike any I’ve ever seen. Powerful though, and I thought it could power this enough to create a stable energy field, but it wasn’t. It's too volatile with the device. The bonds don't hold the energy field together long enough for what I'm trying do, and while it opened the bridge for a few seconds, from what I gathered from your account, it's not a stable opening. You fell through time and space but there was no stability to the connection. It could have dropped off at any moment and left you stranded in the middle of space. It could have completely deteriorated on the other side and, frankly, I'm a little surprised it happened at all."
Darcy nodded along, "Yeah, it was a wild ride here too, the ground got shaky and the flash of light knocked us both on our ass before we saw you hit the ground."
"Yes, that was unfortunate."
"But now you're here and not dead, so I say mission accomplished,” Darcy said.
Sif shared a glance with Jane over Darcy's brand of optimism. "What will you plan to do next?"
Jane picked up her food again and poked at it with the slim wooden sticks she and Darcy were using as utensils.
"Find a better way to do it."
-
Later that evening when Darcy headed into the shower, Sif walked up to Jane who was still hunched over her notes.
Jane looked up and blinked. “Yeah?”
“It was Thor and Loki. They broke the Bifrost in an attempt to save Asgard and another realm - Jotunheim - from destruction,” Sif divulged, feeling it was important for Jane to know.
She eyed Jane’s notes. Her short hand script was neat, so different from Sif’s own messy scrawl.
“Thor,” Sif drew her eyes away from Jane’s paper and met the woman’s frank gaze. She covered the tips of Jane’s fingers with her hand. “Thor did not have another choice.”
Jane’s swallowed hard and her fingers twitched under Sif’s hand. “Oh. Tha-thank you for telling me.” She smiled up at Sif, her eyes bright. “Really, thank you. That’s. It’s good to know.”
Sif nodded and took her hand back. Curled it at her side.
“It was right for you to know.”
-
That night Sif slept restlessly on the sofa that Jane and Darcy had cleared off for her.
She padded quietly through the lab, carefully avoiding the back area where Darcy slept and stood by the large windows. They should not have reminded her of the palace’s windows, for these were dirty and grey and covered in glass, but there was something familiar in how they let her look up to the sky.
She did not recognise any of the stars.
Making her way back to the sofa, she laid flat on her back, one arm resting over her head and released a deep breath; for the first time in a long time she missed her parents.
-
It was a strange shrill sound that woke her. She almost rolled off the thin sofa at the sound. Groggy and disgruntled she pushed herself off the cushions and squinted through the harsh morning light that filtered through the windows, to see if she could pinpoint the ear-piercing sound so she could stop it. Kill it if need be.
And it seemed she was not the only one who felt the same. From the back of the building Darcy stumbled through the room, glasses slipping down her nose, hair in a messy tail and wearing what seemed to be purple sleep trousers and a thin top.
“Where is that fucking devil phone?” Darcy grumbled, side-stepping random bits of equipment like it was second nature.
“What is that horrible sound?” Sif said, voice rough with sleep and sharp with annoyance.
Darcy blinked at her and grumbled again. “Phone, evil phone. Evil mean phone.”
Sif did not know what Darcy meant but she watched the young woman rifle through the desk and tables before she closed her hand over a small black device. Darcy touched something on it and spoke into it.
Ah, a communication device. Sif yawned and leaned on the back of the couch watching as Darcy spoke to whoever contacted them.
“Hello, Jane Foster’s office. Her assistant Darcy Lewis speaking,” Darcy said sounding much more professional and awake than her appearance suggested.
Sif watched the other woman’s body language as she tensed, relaxed, and tensed again. “Oh, hello, Agent Coulson.” She grimaced, looking over to Sif and pointing to Jane’s trailer. She mouthed, get Jane, please, before turning her attention back to the person on the other end of the device.
Nodding, Sif turned and headed out to where Jane had retired to the night before. As she left the building she could hear Darcy still speaking.
“Yeah, it’s been going swell. Indian summer, though I don’t know if you call it that or that’s just the weather for most of the year. Lots of work, lot of heat.” Voice light and careful, Sif understood a stalling tactic when she heard one.
It took her five steps to cross to Jane’s door and she knocked.
Then knocked again.
Jane opened the door, hair in her face, eyes blurry, and wrapped in a thick wool robe. “Sif?” she blinked, “Is something wrong?”
Sif honestly did not know. “It seems you have received a communication from an Agent Coulson. Darcy is speaking to him right now.”
“Coulson?” Jane frowned and then her face cleared. “Oh. Oh! Crap! They must have picked up on what happened yesterday. Shit.”
Suddenly Jane seemed a whirlwind, pushing her hair from her face and she half stumbled, half rushed from her perch at the door into the building.
Sif followed.
“Shit.” Jane repeated before she reached Darcy and snatched the device. The two friends shared a look Sif recognised.
Problems. Trouble.
She was all too familiar with both.
Jane waved Darcy toward their small cooking area. Without a word Darcy nodded and headed over and began pulling things out of the cupboards. Sif went to help.
She could hear Jane behind them.
“Ah, hello, Agent Coulson. How are you?… Yes, I’m fine. Oh, that. We had some excitement yesterday but no trouble. Hyd-what? No.” Jane trailed off, frowning, and Sif turned to Darcy.
“Who is this Son of Coul? Has my arrival caused you two some difficulty?” Sif asked as she took the mugs Darcy handed her.
Darcy shook her head and pushed her glasses up her nose. “Son of-Ah! No it’s just Agent Coulson, like Jane is Doctor Foster or um, I dunno, you’re Lady Warrior Sif? It’s like a rank.” Darcy spoke through a yawn, as she moved around the kitchen pouring some brown grounded powder into a small device. “But we’re probably not in trouble. SHIELD tends to get their panties in a bunch when we forget to tell them about alien deities.”
She didn’t sound worried only tired, but Sif persisted. “Are you sure?”
Darcy handed her a plate that held two rectangular pastries. “Yeah, totally. Though they’ll probably drop by later to make sure you’re not going to send some killer super metal man to town.” She pointed to the pastries. “You’re gonna want to heat them up in the blue thing behind you. Just stick them in and press the handle down.”
Sif smiled at Darcy’s flippant attitude and turned to the blue device. “I can reassure you that I don’t plan any such thing.”
“I didn’t think so.” Darcy smiled, just as Jane walked back towards them. “So, we fired?”
Jane rolled her eyes and settled at the small table. “No, we’re not, but Coulson and company are coming for a little visit this week. They sound a little worried.”
“Told ya so.” Darcy winked at Sif and began pouring a dark brown liquid from the same device she poured the brown powder in into two mugs. “Here, energy juice.” She handed one to Sif and one to Jane.
Sif took a sip. Her eyes widened. Then she gulped it down.
“This is an excellent beverage!”
“Don’t smash the mug!” Jane and Darcy said in unison, making Sif quirk her eyebrow at them.
-
If she expected SHIELD agents to come barrelling down the dusty streets and slamming the doors to Jane's home open Sif would have been wrong. What they did was have this Agent Coulson call Jane several more times throughout the morning, resulting in Jane getting more and more frustrated with each call.
Sif was frustrated in turn for she knew the calls were about her.
Yes, I understand Agent Coulson. Yes, the element worked, but it's bonds broke down too fast and couldn't handle the energy required to keep the bridge open. No, we shouldn't chance it again. Right, thank you. We're fine. Our visitor? Fine too. Right, right. We’re expecting you.
Different versions of the same conversation happened roughly five more times during the day.
"If this Agent Coul’s Son” - “Coulson” - “would like Jane to keep working wouldn't it be better for him to stop bothering her?" Sif, seated cross-legged on the couch, while Darcy who was looking through several pages of data Jane had handed her when Coulson called, again.
Midgard was an extremely tedious realm. Sif's fingers kept drumming against her knee.
Darcy sighed and looked at Sif over the rim of her glasses, "That's SHIELD for you. Constant updates. They kinda left us alone for a while there, more when Erik was hauled up to D.C. a couple weeks ago, but Sif, you're kinda a big deal."
"Wonderful," Sif rolled her eyes.
Near one of the large boards, Jane paced talking on the phone, as Darcy told her the device was called, and pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose. Sif levered herself over the back of the couch and made her way over. She heard Darcy hiss something at her but Sif dismissed it.
Plucking the phone out of Jane's hand, she turned her back on Jane's suddenly very wide, shocked eyes. "Sif!"
"Greetings, Agent Coul's Son. I am not here to cause trouble to you and your people. I was brought here due to circumstances outside my control and Jane's control. I am sure you are calling for good reasons but Jane cannot work properly with all these distractions and I'd like to find me a way home."
She could hear his muffled answer as she handed the phone back to Jane and walked out of the building.
Voices followed her but she paid them no mind. How had Thor stood it on this realm! With all these questions, all its limitations, and this heat and stickiness in air. It was a realm to make Hel proud. No wonder it was so low on Yggdrasil's branches.
She had switched out of her armour the day before but the clothes she wore now were unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Wearing one of Darcy's 't-shirt's' with wide printed words across the front of it and these trousers called 'jeans' that were too short on her legs. They tucked into her boots, the only part of her attire that was her own, in which she also had concealed the throwing knives - her only comfort.
Did they really expect her to just wait quietly?
She wanted to yell. Scream at the sky, curse Thor and Loki, or more accurately, punch one of them. Either would do, it was both their faults, idiots, both of them, they--
No, not they anymore.
The thought caught her off balance and she fumbled in her stride.
No, not they. He. Thor. Only Thor because Loki fell and now she had fallen too.
In a way hadn't they all fallen?
A hand touched her elbow and Sif whipped around. She was confronted with Jane and Darcy's tight, worried faces. Worry for her.
It was only then that she tempered the irritation she felt raging inside her.
Jane's hands fluttered in front of her while Darcy had her lips pressed together, her head tilted in sympathy.
Sif exhaled. Even the the air she was forcing out of her body felt angry.
"I apologise. That was not my best moment."
"But it was awesome," Darcy said, teeth pulling at her bottom lip. "So take-charge-badass, and then there was a quality storm out. Like, I'd never be able to pull it off." She cuffed Sif on her shoulder.
It reminded Sif of her friends so far away.
Jane stepped up to her and laid her palm flat on Sif's arm. "It's fine, Sif. This is stressful for all of us."
"I still should not have been so ill-mannered to your Agent Coul’s Son."
"Coulson," Darcy muttered.
"Yes. It was disrespectful and I am a guest in your realm."
Jane smiled warmly, "If it makes you feel better, Thor kicked a bunch of his guy's asses. In comparison you’re a model guest.”
"It does," she said gamely.
"Good, go back or walk?" Jane asked, glancing over her shoulder back at the building.
Sif didn't want to be rude -- again -- but. "If you need to head back, it's fine, but I feel a walk would do me good."
Darcy looked at Jane and Sif could see the silent conversation happening between the two women in the slight shift of eyebrows and twist of their lips. It hit her in the chest like a bolt.
SIf could always tell Thor's moods from his smiles and had always been able to tell Loki's from his eyes. Except in those last days. They had been so shaded, so far from her.
But he had stayed away from her those last few days too. From the minute they arrived back from Jotenhiem he'd pulled away and while she had always taken his mercurial moods with ease, it had been that argument in the healing chambers that had snapped something between them. It vexed her that she could still not tell what had changed.
"I think we'd all benefit from a walk," Darcy said, moving to Jane's side and slipping her arm through Jane's.
Sif’s attention was drawn back to the two mortals at her side. She left her thoughts behind on Asgard behind, where they were far from her.
"You do not have to."
"No, it'd be good! Get out of the lab, get some air, pick up some food." Darcy pulled Jane and Sif forward towards the town.
Jane still glanced over her shoulder, but she patted the hand Darcy tucked in the crook of her elbow. "We need some more coffee."
"It is indeed a very good beverage."
-
They showed her the small town that was Puente Antiguo. They took her to the diner where she met a woman named Roz who seemed to be their main provider of food, they showed her the book store, another food store that they called the supermarket, where they picked up some sundries, and a few other small businesses.
The town was no bigger than the smallest village in Svartalfheim, but its occupants seemed much friendlier than the dwarves.
As they circled back towards Jane's lab, Sif had to admit that while the walk did her some good, she still felt restless. Her bones were jumping under her skin charged and itching.
Declining an offer of chips from the bag Darcy presented to her, Sif eyed the town. "Is there any arena in this town where I could spar?"
Jane looked up at Sif, "Spar?"
Sif nodded, "Yes, for sport."
"Like a gym?"
"What is that?"
"A place for fitness where people work out."
Jane nudged Darcy who rolled her eyes, "I dunno how to explain what a gym is, I don't even go to one, but, yeah Sif, it's like a place where ideally you work up a sweat, if you choose to torture yourself that way." As if making a point, Darcy grabbed a handful of chips and stuffed them in her mouth.
Place to sweat?
Well, it sounded ideal.
"I see. Does your town have one?"
To Sif's disappointment Jane said no. "Sorry, most people here have personal equipment or run. Roz's son is a runner."
"I see." Sif shifted the bags in her arms and opened the door to Jane's home. Well, she could run. It'd been a while since she ran for training purposes outside races with Thor or Fandral, but she felt too stagnant. Jane and Darcy would surely be headed back to their work and just sitting, watching, waiting was so incredibly dull.
Setting the bags down, Sif asked. "Jane, do you have any running attire?"
She did not think they’d want her to run in her bindings and armour.
Jane's eyes flicked quickly from the bags she was organising to Sif's clothes and shoes and back to her face. Jane had such an expressive countenance, Sif had to admit, all her thoughts were so clearly displayed in her charming face. It was no wonder Thor took to the woman, she thought fondly, he being very much the same.
"Running attire." Jane repeated, "Ah, yeah, sure. You can see if you fit into mine or Darcy's sneakers and I'm sure we can dig up some sweats. I take it you're going for a run?"
Sif shrugged.
Jane's face softened. "Yeah, no problem and tomorrow we'll go get you some clothes and shoes too."
Looking over Sif's shoulder to where Darcy sat at her desk, feet propped up, eating her chips, Jane called out. "Darce, grab a pair of sneakers and sweats, Sif needs to borrow them."
Darcy tilted her head back completely in her chair, hair draping over the back of it, and gave both of them a look. "Seriously?"
-
In the end Sif was grateful her boots were made to fight, ride, and run in because both Jane and Darcy’s feet were too small and the sneakers they showed her - a lightweight canvas shoe with a gummy sole that Sif had to recognise was rather ingenious - were too tight on her feet. Jane’s barely had fitted her.
She had, however, changed from her jeans and into a pair of cotton breeches they called ‘shorts’. Sif had not bound her chest this morning, but when she had started going for the bindings that rested with her armour Darcy had cut her off and tossed her something called a ‘sport’s bra’. She said Jane had bought it ages ago but never actually used it, which Sif was considering keeping, for it made the job of her bindings much neater.
The nice thing about Jane and Darcy’s lab was that it was near the edge of the town and it opened up in the back to the desert.
Space. Free, open space.
Sif inhaled deeply as she ran.
Midgard’s air was staler than Asgard but sweeter than some of the realms she’d known.
It was welcoming though. The soft wind kept her company and she pumped her legs powerfully across the sand.
She made sure not to run too far from the town, made sure to keep Jane’s building in her sights, but Sif had good eyes. She ran far and circled the town and then did it again and again and again. It felt… empty. It was amazing how empty Midgard felt now in comparison to her last day on the realm.
Stopping, not out of breath but out of curiosity, she looked out to the horizon. To her left was the town; behind her, in front of her and to her right were mountains far off in the distance and beyond that she did not know. Maybe she could see Thor’s interest in the realm outside of Jane. It was wide and unfamiliar. An adventure.
She laughed into the wind. She laughed and felt her eyes mist over.
There was not a corner of Asgard that was unfamiliar to her.
She missed home.
-
Sif ran until night fell before she turned back.
-
She spent the next day in similar fashion.
She woke, this time to the sun’s harsh glare through the windows, drank half of one of the Tropicana No Pulp juices they bought yesterday, and ate almost a full box of the pastries that Darcy had introduced her to before either Jane or Darcy padded into the main area.
Then she broke fast once more with them-this time with coffee, which really was a wondrous drink, eggs and toast-and helped with what she could regarding Jane’s research. Answered what she could about the Bifrost, the other realms, and mostly kept Darcy company while pausing to smile for the pictures she kept taking with her phone. Some of Midgard’s devices were truly ingenious. She tried not to think on Loki and how he would have enjoyed learning them, but it was hard not to.
Darcy also showed her images of Thor that she had taken.
She and Jane gave Sif quick lessons when Sif would ask what something did, but the day was mostly lost to work.
They walked into the town again and purchased Sif some clothes that actually covered her long limbs correctly then ate a late lunch at Roz’s.
-
When Darcy and Jane settled down in the late afternoon, Sif took to the desert.
She liked the expanse of it, how the night came upon it softly.
He came into her room like a shadow, quiet and light, in the dusk. His fingers trailed the inside of her forearm and his thumbs rested at the corner of her elbow. “Your hair is like the night, have I ever told you that? Thick and dark… it is easy to get lost in.”
The memory came unbidden and unwanted but yet she welcomed it nonetheless. It was a good one. She treasured it, even if it snatched her breath away from her.
But she did not dwell on it and pushed her legs harder, pushed herself farther leaving it in the desert, where it felt safe.
-
She walked in to see Jane on her telephone and Darcy on the sofa watching something on her personal laptop.
“Yes, we’ll see you soon. There’s a lot to talk about. Your headaches better?” She heard Jane say as she walked to the restroom - and while she sorely missed her own personal bathing chambers with its deep tub and familiar smells, these bathrooms were truly clever - to wash up, and figured she must be talking to her Agent Coul Son’s-Coulson.
Just before she closed her door Darcy called out, “Sif we’re treating you to pizza tonight. Be prepare to have you mind blown.”
She laughed, slipping into the small room. “I am so warned.”
On the phone Jane said something to an Erik.
-
Pizza was. Brilliant.
Ice-cream even more so.
Darcy laughed as Sif polished off half the serving and most of the pot by herself while Jane peppered her with questions on her Aesir metabolism.
-
Yes, she could see so much more clearly why Thor felt such affection to these mortals; Darcy and Jane in particular.
[ part three]