Dr. Erik Selvig

[Earlier on]

A return e-mail comes reasonably rapidly, certainly more rapid than he had expected. So he locks his computer and heads to the entrance of the wing.

She's there, waiting for him to let her in. But before he invites her in to a room where, potentially, they could be recorded, he wants a conversation out in the air.

Wait, why the hell is he being paranoid? He's done nothing wrong. Maybe it's just the idea of being able to wander across certain pieces of evidence, and then bring them up naturally. Yes. That's it. Nothing paranoid going on here.

Whatever, he walks past her, simply giving her a significant look, before he heads out into the open air.

"Erik? What is it?" Betty's voice is clear in the air behind him. He turns to face her.

"Walk with me, would you?" he says, waiting for her to catch up, before continuing away.

She steps round in front of him, blocking his path. "What's this about, Erik?"

He thinks he knows what she's expecting him to say. She's expecting him to say Bruce. Maybe. It's the only thing they really have in common. Yet, it doesn't feel right, not yet.

"What happened here?"

"You mean you haven't heard?"

"I've been in New Mexico for a month. I've seen the damage," he gestures around to a where there used to be a nice copse of trees, that's now mostly gone. "I've seen a few videos. That's it. So, what happened? You were there, so I'm asking you." It's a pre-emptive statement to the 'why me' question.

"Okay. Why are you so bothered?"

Ah, there's the crunch question. He looks around carefully. They're alone, for the moment.

He lowers his voice, to ensure it doesn't carry. "Bruce. I've... had contact with him. Recently. He wanted to know you were okay. And then I got here, and saw, well this."

"I'm fine."

"It didn't look that way when the 'Hulk' was being battered around."

"I'm in one of those videos?" There's more than a hint of shock in her voice.

"Half a second in the background. I had to dig to find that one as well."

She raises her eyebrows, in a 'really' manner.

"I'll show you the video when we get back to my office." It's not getting information that's a problem, these days. It's wording the search to only find what you're looking for, without unnecessarily constricting it.

"I'd appreciate that."

"Have you seen Bruce recently? Because it seemed like he'd seen you, but left before he knew you were safe." Which isn't really a very Bruce like thing to do. Particularly around Betty.

"You can contact him?" She sounds hopeful at the idea.

"I think so." Certainly, at the very least, he can leave a note with Bar.

"Okay. It's time someone knows the truth. And, if you're in contact..." She tails off.

Erik just leads on to a bench in the middle of some of the open space on campus, letting her gather her thoughts.

"You know what he was doing? In his experiments?"

"I know he was working with gamma rays, and with you in cellular biology. I also know his experiments were DoD funded." Which is nothing like the SHIELD backing that's been given to Jane's experiment. "Which means he was working either on a way to make gamma rays into a targeted weapon, or on defence against damage from such radiation." Nothing.

Betty gives a small smile as she sits down. "Officially, we were working on serums to assist radiation resilience. So, say, soldiers could take some, and then go working without NBC suits in radioactive areas."

"And unofficially?"

"More to the point, without our knowing, we were actually working on some kind of super serum. Like the old Captain America comics from the war."

Oh. Shit.

"We were seriously getting somewhere. Bruce was so confident. He gave it a trial on himself."

Oh Shit. He doesn't need to ask the question.

"We strapped him into this chair we had in a secure chamber, and flooded the chamber with gamma rays, in accordance with our procedures. I. I don't remember what happened next. There was something green. The next I knew I was in hospital and Bruce was gone."

"And then we had that silence."

"Yes. I got a backup of the data out before whoever it was that came in, did so."

"Impressive. What did you do with it?"

"Do with it? I did nothing with it. It wasn't worth it. Not then. I just kept it safe, in the hopes it had some clue, and Bruce would come for it one day."

"Do you still have it?" he asks, innocuous as possible.

"No." It's not much, but it's the confirmation he needed. Bruce came back. There's a connection. Not that that wasn't already confirmed by the story she's just told.

"He came back. and this is, related."

"Yes. He came back. He got Stanley to take him in for a couple of days. This must have been, oh, just after you left for New Mexico. I understand he looked for the data, but, of course, it wasn't on the system."

Erik smiles. Stanley's a good man. And a better pizza chef. His used to be their default go-to for late night pizza. Best place in town, no contest. "What happened next?"

"My dad, who'd been behind the initial project funding, found out where he was, and sent in troops to catch him like he was some kind of fugitive."

A simple statement of facts. He'd been funding that project, but she'd not been near it at the applications stage, so why suggest it had influenced things? Erik doesn't bother to ask any questions aloud, he just lets her continue.

"I'm not sure what happened. They trapped him in the skybridge. Put some gas that filled it with smoke in there, and I presume, left it. Then He jumped out."

"This, Hulk? Bruce."

She closes her eyes and bows her head in admission. "You said you've seen the footage. I've seen some of it too. It doesn't do the other guy justice."

"The other guy?" Erik asks.

"The, the green guy. That's his name for him."

In some ways, it makes sense. What he's seen of the green guy is very much someone other than the Bruce Banner they all knew. This is also explaining some of Bruce's, um, odder moments when they met.

"So, the military engaged, and the amateur video is on the net. What happened next?" Never mind how the hell Harlem happened, the two events are much too similar to dismiss, though they don't bear quite the same hallmarks, but not yet.

"He beat them. The other guy might not be one for vocalising, but he's still got Bruce's mind. And a huge will to survive," she looks at Erik, with a 'please understand this' look in her eyes. He looks back, a small gesture saying 'go on'. "I went to him. I'm not quite sure what happened. I think there was still a helicopter around. Next thing I can remember, I was laid out under a rock ledge, surrounded by a thunderstorm."

There's half a moment where he thinks 'that was pretty stupid of you' but he stops himself, and manages to keep it off his face. "And, the other guy?"

"He was screaming at the storm. I think I managed to calm him down. Regardless, next morning, Bruce was there."

"Where did you go from there?" Erik asks. He thinks he knows the answer, but it's best to get it from a primary source.

"He had someone he'd been talking to over the internet, at ESU."

Erik nods, that makes sense. At the very least, it explains why New York, rather than any other city. "What happened to cause, well, the Harlem incident?"

"Harlem? Err well, we went to ESU, met Samuel Sterns. Have you heard of him? He's known for doing quite a lot of work rather similar to what we'd initially been doing, before the serum sidetracked us. Anyway, we had a meeting with him. He thought he might be able to produce an antidote to keep the other guy at bay." Betty closes her eyes. "We tried it. I'm not sure whether it actually worked, or whether whatever happened out in the rain happened again. Dr Sterns seemed to think it had, anyway. Then we found out he'd been replicating the samples Bruce had sent him."

Ah. Right. Not the best news. Especially given how hard Bruce seems to be working to keep this quiet.

"Then the army turned up again. I have no idea how they found us. Bruce was sedated from range, so I went quietly."

Erik nods. That is perfectly reasonable.

"I'm not sure what happened next. Something happened. I presume something went wrong at the lab, with the samples. Given the security they were under, I'm not particularly surprised... Whatever happened, there was some parody of the other guy rampaging and causing damage. I think he wanted a fight with the actual other guy. He got more than he bargained for. Though, there was a lot of property damage done before they resolved the issue."

The details don't matter, not really. Not to Erik. Bruce was there. That's what he really needed confirming, from this part of the conversation. "Where did he go after that?"

"I don't know. I doubt he went back to Brazil, though."

Erik stands up. "I have a couple of things I need to pick up from my office." He can show her the videos online as well. "You want a pizza?"

"Yeah, go on."

Erik left Milliways, to find not a moment had passed, just as he'd been told it would (not). The Asgardians come over and, once Erik has opened the door for them, clamber in. There is a moment's worry as the van refuses to start, but then they're away, driving out to the Bifrost site, where they had first met Thor, rather than the SHIELD base where Mjolnir lay until mere minutes ago.

The first thing they notice, is the destroyed SHIELD cars, charred wrecks now, scattered casually across the landscape. Apparently, any dead have already been removed from the scene. Because, Erik doesn't believe that SHIELD could have confronted that thing without losing a single man, but the lack of bodies is almost noticeable as they drive up to those curious markings laid bare for all to see, out on the New Mexico sands. Thor stands in the heart of the circle and as they get out, he calls out to Heimdall, requesting that the bifrost be opened.

"He doesn't answer." Thor says, clearly this is not expected.

"Then we are stranded here," replies one of the Warriors Three. Erik has no idea which, Volstagg or Hogun probably.

Thor calls for Heimdall repeatedly. He persists, alone in this vein until the clouds that mark the opening of the bifrost begin to swirl and gather, directly overhead.

Erik stands there, watching the clouds gather, and the lights inside them swirl, with a critical eye, desperately trying to see the structure in this event they may never get to see again. He barely even notices that Thor only just gets onto the bifrost ere it takes the five Asgardians back to Asgard.

The clouds continue to swirl for some time, and Jane insists that Thor said he would come back. (What else, he said, Erik isn't bothered by, not now). So the three of them stand there, ignoring the activities of the SHIELD agents around them, watching the skies.

Erik takes a moment to find Agent Coulson, in order to confirm that their equipment will be returned tomorrow morning.

Eventually, as the sun sets, the clouds fade away, they (more specifically, Jane) finally admit that Thor is not going to be returning. Not today, at any rate.

So, first Darcy, then Erik, walk to the van. Jane follows behind, visibly saddened by Thor's failure to return.

When Erik wakes up, the last thing he remembers, is taking Thor for a drink. He glances around him. He's in Jane's caravan. He's still fully clothed. And he has a thumping great headache.

He heads across to the main building. Jane and Thor are both up and look like they've already eaten, as he grabs his wash bag, some fresh clothes and heads for the washrooms, to wash and change.

Once he comes back out, Jane is frying up something that smells excellent, and there's a fresh pot of coffee on the side, so he pours himself a cup, before getting a beaker of water and adding one of those water soluble aspirin tablets to it (he never could get the hang of swallowing tablets whole). It makes it taste foul, but that's why you chase it with coffee.

Thor brings over breakfast (brunch? or is it even lunch? at this time, Erik's not sure, all he knows is, he's breaking his overnight fast), and after remembering his manners with a hoarse "Thank you," he tucks in.

Just as he's finishing up, Jane comes over, glowing. He knows that look. It's the 'I've got an idea and I think it's amazing' look. He gives her a look. It's a look she's seen from him several times before, in a different context. Usually, it's seen over the head/shoulder of another student, and says, 'let me finish with this one first'. This time, though, it says 'give me twenty minutes before you throw this one on me'. That should be enough time for the Aspirin to kick in, and then he'll be able to think straight.


You know what's surprising? How long twenty minutes can be when there's nothing to do.

In any case, eventually, his head clears enough, and Jane begins to explain her theory.

It's a good theory, but there's no way he's going to admit that to her, not yet. Instead, he plays devil's advocate all through the afternoon. He gets her to bring it down to a level Darcy understands. Thor stays in the background through all of this. Erik's actually quite impressed at the man, now. He seems to require nothing but his thoughts, and some small jobs to do.

Finally, as the afternoon begins to draw to a close, he steps off the attack.

"It's a beautiful theory, Jane. But you won't be able to convince the scientific community of any of it. Not without hard evidence."

Which is precisely the moment that some 'Hard evidence' decides to walk up the street and wrap on the glass doors to their lab. He and Darcy both drop their (thankfully empty) mugs on the floor in shock.

"I don't believe it." Erik finds himself muttering as a large fellow with an Axe and a beard to rival a dwarf's introduces the group as 'The lady Sif and the Warriors Three.'

There's a discussion going on, but Erik isn't really paying attention, at least, not until Thor mentions the fact that his father is dead, because of him, and he has to remain in Exile. Then the lady Sif drops a bombshell. "Thor. Your Father still lives."

They stand there in silence for a few moments, before Darcy notices the spiralling cloud formations in the distance. They gather in the doorways to stare as the spiralling column sinks to the ground, before landing with a thud and a dustcloud, eerily reminiscent of the sequence of events on the night they found Thor. Again, Darcy is the one to voice what the three (four, maybe?) of them are thinking.
"Was somebody else coming?"

Evidently not according to the plans of the Warriors, given the concerned looks on their faces, and as fire balls appear in the area around the touchdown site, while the clouds fade to nothingness.

Thor and Jane have an argument about who's doing what. All Erik knows, is he'll go where Jane is. At this point, that means staying, and getting everyone except the Warriors Three and Lady Sif, out of the town. What's coming, Erik doesn't know. But if it's getting four Asgardians worried about facing it, then it's pretty bad indeed.

Okay, so, S.H.I.E.L.D. just swept in and took all their data. All their data. Data which Erik is now willing to accept is potentially viable and interesting. On the other hand, there was a literal blank check in return, but, even so, last nights data, the images etc, based on what they'd got before that, won't be replicated for a long time. That was literally priceless to the scientific community. And S.H.I.E.L.D. just walked in here and took it.

So, with nothing else to do, the three of them find themselves on the roof of the laboratory, looking out over the town.

"Years of research, gone." Jane states.

"They even took my iPod," complains Darcy. Which, in Erik's opinion is the least of their worries at the moment.

Erik thinks for a moment, before inquiring, "What about the backups?" It's not his lab, he doesn't know what their backup procedures were.

"They took our backups. They took the backups of our backups, they were, extremely thorough," is Jane's dejected reply. Oh, okay.

"Just downloaded, like, thirty songs onto there," says Darcy.

"Could you please stop with your iPod?" Jane nearly explodes at Darcy, before asking, "Who are these people?"

Erik considers his reply, "I knew this scientist. A pioneer in gamma radiation. S.H.I.E.L.D. showed up and um, he wasn't heard from again." Not the nicest statement to hear, given their situation.

"They're not gonna do that to us." Jane insists. "I'm gonna get everything back."

"um er please," Erik stutters. "Let me contact one of my colleagues, he's had some dealings with these people before. I'll email him and, maybe he can help."

"They took your laptop too." says Darcy.

A despairing look is shared between the three of them, before they realise, hang on, the Library has computers and an internet connection. It's at the other end of town, so Erik and Jane jump in the van and head down there, while Darcy gathers something for lunch for the lot of them.

It takes Erik a little while to get the wording of the e-mail right, but finally, he's happy that it will be accepted at face value as being true, without giving away just how dangerous a position they could be in.

As he walks back out, he passes a trolley with recently returned stock, that hasn't been placed back on the shelves. He notices The Giant Slayer on there, and picks it up, memories of a childhood playing games in these worlds bringing a smile to his face. Then he notices another, Myths and Legends from Around the World. He flips it open, and finds the section on the Norse myths. Glancing through it, produces pages on the Bifrost, and Thor, from who's name Thursday is derived.

It's ridiculous, it's children's stories, but that's exactly the point, this is the same story the Thor guy is talking about. He decides to take it out, to prove the point to Jane.

Except, she's not there. What the hell? I specifically told her to wait there and not leave the van are his first thoughts when he sees it gone. He takes a good look round, to check it's not parked up some way down the road, although why Jane would do that is beyond him anyway. With no other options open to him, he sets off to walk back to the lab, where Darcy should have been getting some lunch stuff ready, if she wasn't doing something impulsive and stupid as well.

Fortunately for Erik, she was being sensible, and had lunch laid out for three when he walked back in, late.

"Where've you two been?" she demands when he walks in.

"Did you hear the van? It's just me," he replies, placing the book on the table before continuing, "I'm hoping she's gone off to get some supplies to start rebuilding her equipment, but..." he tails off.

They dig in to lunch without Jane, in the end. After lunch, they flick through the book, but don't really notice what they are looking at.

As night comes in, vast thunderstorm gathers overhead. It destroys any and all cell phone signal they had, which was minimal in the first place. When it eases up, and phone signal returns, Erik finds a message from Jane waiting for him.

"Hi Erik, it's me, don't worry, I'm fine, but um, just in case you don't hear from me in the next hour, just, come by the crater site and, try and find me, okay? I did exactly what you told me not to. I'm sorry, so sorry, bye." She doesn't sound fine, despite what she says, and the rain will surely have soaked her to the skin, so Erik and Darcy head out to persuade someone to loan them a car to drive to the crater.

They pick up Jane and the van and head back to the lab. Due to them being separated, Darcy having to drive the car back, while Erik drives the van, Jane waits to tell them what happened until they are back at the lab.

One recap later. Jane wants them to go and get Thor.

Erik, though, is having none of it. "He committed a crime. He's in jail!"

"I can't just leave him there." Jane continues to insist.

"Why?" comes Erik's sharp reply. Darcy, bored by the continuing argument, is looking through the Myths and Legends book again.

"You didn't see what I saw."

Maybe he didn't, but he's heard her tell it several times over now, just to make sure he's got all the details correct in his head.

Darcy gasps, "Look, it's Mjolnir." She still mangles the pronunciation, but it's better than last time. Jane, frustrated by the interruption, moves around to look, she saw The Hammer at the crater, even if it was through the plastic sheeting and rain.

When she sees what Darcy's been looking through, she's quiet for a moment, before asking Erik (because it's obviously a Library book, and he'd been the one to enter the Library) "Where'd you find this?"

"The children's section," Erik concedes. It's not technically true, but it would have been had the book not just been returned. "I just wanted to show you how silly his story was."

Jane gets rather animated at that. "But you're the one who's always pushing me to chase down every possibility, every alternative."

Erik hadn't quite expected her to pull that one out of the bag. "I'm talking about science, not magic."

Darcy, realising she's not going to get any more reading done for the moment, with these two arguing, removes her glasses.

Again, Jane ripostes. "Well, magic's just science we don't understand yet. Arthur C. Clarke."

Arthur C. Clarke, the author. That quote is used in so many contexts, often where it's not relevant. Here though? "Who wrote science fiction." are all the words Erik can gather to defend his position.

"A precursor to science fact!" Jane yells back at him.

"In some cases, yes." Erik concedes. Although it's clear he doesn't think that's the case here.

Jane continues to attack, "Well, if there is an Einstein-rosen bridge, then there's something on the other side. And advanced beings could have crossed it." A perfectly well reasoned argument.

"Oh, Jane!" Erik exclaims. With the exception of the evidence they have collected, which is by no means conclusive in any way, the evidence appears to favour the concept that such things are not possible, or only so on a microscopic scale.

Darcy chooses this moment to weigh in with her thoughts. "A primitive culture like the Vikings might have worshipped them as deities." Well, isn't that political science study useful! No one would have thought of that!

Jane takes a small moment to realise Darcy's agreeing with her, before saying, "Yes, yes, exactly!" Half a second later, she adds a "Thank you," to Darcy.

"mm hmm" Darcy finishes.

Erik, double teamed upon and beaten, sighs and says no more.

"So, Jane, you really think you've got something?"
'Despite all the previous false starts?' is the unspoken question.

"Yes," comes the voice from the other end of the phone.

"Ok, I'll be there in a week." Erik replies. He needed to check up on her soon, anyway, so it makes sense to do it now, out of term time, when there are no undergrad students to lecture.


*************


The flight from Richmond to Albuquerque had taken most of the day, and then Jane showed up in, well, it can only really be described as a tooled up camper van. That was when Erik started to have some concerns about what she was studying out here. It took them the rest of the day to get back to Puente Antiguo, where Jane had based herself for this field study. When she said that there was another event expected tonight, well, that's exactly what they were there to study. So into the desert, away from the town lights they headed.

So, out in the desert, waiting for a seemingly ridiculous event to occur. Standing through the sunroof of a camper van packed to bursting with high-tech equipment. The anticipated time comes, and passes, seemingly without incident.

"Wait for it." Jane tells them. Except, the predicted moment has been and gone, so they're waiting for nothing, now.

Indeed, when Darcy asks to turn on the radio, the moment seems to be gone, despite Jane's insistence that it's not.

But, Erik's job is to see that funding money is being well spent, which, a failed event doesn't really help, so, maybe it's time to bring her down slightly. "Jane, you can't keep doing this."

"The last seventeen have been predictable to the second," insists Jane, dropping back to check her notebook.

"Jane, you're an astrophysicist, not some storm chaser." Even as Jane calls up the images of the previous events on her computer, that they've already been over on the phone, the reason Erik's out here in the first place.

"I'm telling you, there's a connection between these atmospheric disturbances and my research. Erik, I wouldn't have asked you to fly out here, if I wasn't absolutely sure." says Jane, sighing.

"Jane, I think you want to see this." Ok, what's Darcy seen? Time to look in the mirrors.

You know, "What's that?" is probably exactly the right question to be asking at the moment, Jane. Back up through the sunroof to get a better look.

"I thought you said it was a subtle aurora?" Erik murmured.