Doctoral Research - August 24
Title: Doctoral Research
Author: LadyWinterlight (songs_of_winter)
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Thor/The Avengers/MCU
Rating: PG
Word Count: 566
Notes: In the same 'verse as the rest of my challenge submissions so far.
I still do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Avengers or anything to do with the MCU.
Set sometime between Thor 2 and Avengers: AoU.
“Janey!” Darcy Lewis called into the busy lab. “Your visitor is here!” Darcy had been hired to be a combination of Jane’s PA and Lab Coordinator. She basically considered herself Head Scientist Wrangler, and as she led Jane’s latest guest into the facility she wondered if she’d end up with another one who needed convincing that breaks were a good thing.
Jane rolled her eyes good-naturedly and typed in one last code string before turning away from her computer. “Dr. Summers?” she asked, raking her gaze over the tall, willowy woman with long brown hair and brilliant blue eyes.
“Dawn, please,” Dawn said, holding out her hand. Jane shook it. “Thank you for agreeing to my visit.”
“You’re welcome, of course, as long as you’re not going to try to shut us down,” Jane said, half-teasing and half-wary.
Shaking her head, Dawn smiled. “Not at all. But a… mutual connection… suggested that perhaps I should come by with some of my research materials. We may have some crossover in our theories.”
In fact, she’d gotten a tip from one of their associates at SHIELD about Jane’s research into wormholes and bridges between worlds. Dawn had obtained a Masters in astrophysics as a side project while researching the potential powers she might have as the Key. Her doctorate was in ancient languages, to better help her sister’s research teams. But she’d had big dreams and decided to multitask while she was in college.
Buffy always said Dawn was the smart one and should go prove it to the world. But Buffy always downplayed her own intelligence, particularly because she had little interest in school. Buffy had wound up with a Masters in political science eventually, mostly because she kept getting stuck dealing with the families and governments of the Slayers they found.
“Oh, really?” Jane’s question interrupted Dawn’s straying thoughts. “Your doctorate is in languages, though?”
Dawn smirked. “You’d be surprised what ancient civilizations knew that was lost to us over time. And while my masters degree may not stand up to your doctorate, I’m no slouch on the physics side of things either.”
Jane laughed. “You’ve got me there. Okay, come on over and let’s see what you brought.”
As Jane led Dawn further into the labs, Dawn looked curiously at the homemade equipment and the strings of equations and computer code. “You build all your own devices?”
“We’re breaking new ground a lot of the time,” Jane explained readily. “There simply aren’t tools to do what we need them to do, so we make them.”
“That’s pretty awesome,” Dawn agreed. “If you ever get stuck on your code and want a second set of eyes, you could drop me a line. If I can’t spot the issue, probably Willow can.”
“Willow?” Darcy chimed in curiously.
“Dr. Willow Rosenberg. We work together a lot of the time.”
“Willow Rosenberg is one of the foremost computer experts in the world,” Jane murmured with some awe in her tone.
“She’s also a really nice woman,” Dawn said. “And she always loves a challenge. She’d help, if I asked.”
“The world really needs more kickass ladies in charge of things,” Darcy said with some heat. “I wanna meet her, sometime.”
Dawn laughed. “I’ll see what I can arrange.” Though if these two came to visit the ICWS HQ, they’d be in for a lot more surprises than just Willow.