Chapter Text
The sun had long since gone down by the time Steve walked into Dr. Foster’s lab in Stark Tower with a cheerful expression and three styrofoam cups filled to the brim with coffee. He looked around the lab before setting the coffee down and clearing his throat loudly.
Jane, who had been staring transfixed at the bright screen of the monitor in front of her turned sharply at the noise, finally realizing that someone had come into the room. She gave a sheepish smile and got up from her chair, though she couldn’t help but look back at the screen once or twice, as if trying to continue to read through the data in small glimpses. “Sorry Steve, I didn’t hear you come in. I was just looking at the new readings from that alien plantlife you guys brought back the other day, they have some pretty incredible properties…” Her voice was eager as she spoke -at length- about her theories on the strange blue flowers’ possible uses with increasing complexity. Steve listened with his best politely interested expression. He wasn’t familiar with half of the terms she was using, but he always found Jane’s explanations to be impressive and amusing, if not a bit confusing now and then.
Once Jane paused to take a breath, Steve smoothly cut in, knowing that the young doctor would quite easily go on for over an hour if he let her. “I brought you some coffee, Dr. Foster, but maybe you’d like something to eat instead…?” The circles under Jane’s eyes suggested that she hadn’t slept in some time, and that meant she most likely hadn’t eaten recently either. Maybe the coffee was a bad idea, he thought, but she was already eagerly grabbing a cup out of its holder, and apparently hadn’t heard his second question.
“Oh my god, thank you. I could definitely use this. And I told you, as much as I appreciate someone who actually acknowledges the fact that I’m a doctor, you can just call me Jane, it’s really not a big deal.”
Steve smiled, taking up his own cup. “Of course, Jane. Where’s Darcy? ‘Seems like she’s always in here.” He had noticed Darcy’s absence as soon as he came into the room. He’d have been lying if he said he hadn’t been looking forward to seeing the quirky intern. Darcy had been one of the first non-SHIELD types he’d met when he moved into Stark’s tower. She’d practically run straight into him after not so gently knocking aside two almost identical SHIELD agents and shouting about how she needed them to get out of her way “in the name of science.” He’d had to chase her through three floors just to give her the file she’d dropped on the way. The two had struck up an easy conversation from there; he’d found Darcy’s sharp wit and straightforward manner of speaking immediately enjoyable, and a welcome change from the indirect monotony that all of SHIELD seemed to be specially trained in.
Jane, who had retreated to her computer, looked up momentarily, still mostly focused on the screen. “What? Oh, Darcy went for a walk in Central Park.”
Steve furrowed his brows, setting his cup down on the table. “She’s walking in Central Park right now? Alone? It’s one in the morning. It’s not exactly the best place for a nighttime stroll either.”
“Darcy can take care of herself pretty well,” she said, unconcerned and busily scribbling down notes in a beat-up notebook.
Steve had heard accounts of Darcy’s prowess with the taser she always had on her from both Thor and Darcy herself, and he had personally seen her dress down more than one SHIELD agent with enough force that they all looked pretty scared by the end of it. That didn’t mean he wasn’t still more than slightly worried for her now.
“It’s still a bit late for that sort of thing, though. Did she just go out?”
“Umm,” Jane said distractedly, paying him and his concern little to no attention. “She’s been gone for…” she paused to glance at the clock on the wall, “a couple of hours, I guess.”
“A couple of hours?” he asked apprehensively. “And that doesn’t worry you at all?”
“Not really,” Jane muttered as she typed away.
Steve looked at her incredulously. He knew Jane tended to get lost in her work, but her assistant and best friend had supposedly been wandering around New York City for hours, alone at night, and she barely even looked up from her data?
“I’m gonna go look for her,” he said decidedly, leaving his coffee forgotten on the table.
“Uh huh,” Jane replied, not turning her head. After a moment she startled, glancing up sharply as the conversation she’d just had finally sank in. “Wait, Steve,” she started, but he was already out the door. She sighed before turning resignedly back to her work. “Darcy is going to be so mad at me,” she muttered.