Universal Displacement

The Agents, The Shield, and the Trash Masher

She shouldn't have been carrying so many books. After all, Tony provided more than enough information on the computers they were using; but these were from her own collection and she knew how to navigate through them more fluidly. Maybe the quaintness of that small town in New Mexico had rubbed off on her too much. Sometimes, though, she just enjoyed turning a page made of actual paper. None-the-less, she really shouldn't have decided to collect them all at once. One misplaced step had her books tumbling around her and Jane was bracing herself for an impact with the floor. Before she could finish her magnificent face-plant, someone caught her about the waist and pulled her back up to her feet.

"Whoa, there, Dr. Foster. We need that brain of yours intact."

Jane steadied herself before quickly brushing off the hands at her waist and turning around. Agent Axel Ladino smiled impishly down at her and she fought back an flustered frown.

"Thanks," she didn't make eye contact.

If her attitude bothered Axel at all, he didn't show it. He hadn't shown any irritation at the poor reception to his presence the entire time he'd been in the lab.

"Let me help you with those," he said instead. He began to collect her books off the floor and Jane raced to assist. She sighed as they transferred all her reference material to the destination she'd intended.

"Thanks again," she murmured. Axel grinned.

"Not a problem, Dr. Foster."

He left her alone as she settled down with her books. Tony was out attending a mandatory, as Pepper described it, company meeting and Reed was immersed in some numbers across the room. Every once in awhile she could see him swipe some data irrelevant to their mission onto a personal device, and she rolled her eyes but left him alone. She couldn't blame the kid, really. Besides, she had her own reading to do without disturbing him.

At least Axel knew better than to bother her while she was researching.

Later, Jane Foster glared at the data on the monitor before her. The math just wasn't adding up like it should. Tony was asking them to do the impossible. But, then again, that's what everyone had said about her now confirmed Foster Theory. Her chest still filled with pride at the thought of showing all those other scientists wrong.

So this had to be possible too, right? Right.

It might have been a bit easier if that pesky S.H.I.E.L.D agent wasn't hovering behind them constantly! Despite how polite and courteous he had been acting, Jane couldn't help but still be mistrustful of all government agencies. No doubt he was reporting all he saw and understood to his supervisors. And no doubt if they were actually able to crack this code, S.H.I.E.L.D wouldn't want it publicly known. And up to a certain point, Jane understood. She really did.

But to censure everything there came out of this lab? That was just un-American.

Reed swiped at his screen from his newly adopted seat next to her and transferred new data to her.

"Take a look at this," he said. "I just found this report from the VLA*. Looks like they picked up a large energy burst and have been trying to find out what it was. Only, look there."

Jane's eyes darted over the numbers as she saw what Reed was trying to point out.

"It matches the pulse Tony recorded," she said. "Except-"

"Except it's confusing the teams down in New Mexico because there are no after effects from the burst. No stars missing, nothing to show for such a substantial amount of energy."