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The Convention for Advancements in The Manipulation of Space-Time
Somehow, no matter how much money people threw at these things, they always managed to feel like a science fair. A large room full of expectant adults and kids, clutching their coke and mentos volcanoes, waiting for praise. Every now and then there's a stand with an original idea, sometimes it's even genius, but the adults don't understand and so (because they'd rather ignore genius than admit they know less than a kid) they walk on by.
Jane felt exactly like that kid.
It was like she'd regressed into her teenage self, complete with the urge to stamp her feet and scream at the world.
“These people need their heads surgically removed from their asses.” You could always count on Darcy to say what everyone was thinking.
As conventions went, at least this one had free champagne. SHIELD had flown Jane, Darcy and Ian out to Berlin to attend, and she'd taken too much delight in wasting their money to refuse. Another man stopped to stare at her display. His eyes skimmed over the contents of their discreet little table, glazing over slightly in the face of complicated blueprints and intricate, Stark-sleek engineering, and Jane watched as it all condensed down into ‘not weapon’ in his head and he turned away without a word.
Darcy and Ian made identical faces at his back. Darcy was nothing if not a bad influence.
Jane wondered again what she was even doing here. She wouldn't be surprised if she was currently acting as bait to draw out anyone with an interest in alien technology, and with enough money to do something about it. If that was really what SHIELD had brought her here for, then so far they'd been out of luck. No one here seemed to be interested in anything except what could make the biggest bang.
“Excuse me, Doctor?” Jane turned.
“Uh…” What was that phrase? You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar? Jane thought this woman was definitely the honey SHIELD had sent her after. Wait- no, what? Ugh. Why did she always lose her mind when presented with a pretty face?
The woman smiled a small smile, and Jane wasn't sure whether she was being humoured or completely ruining her first impression, or both, but the dark haired and smartly dressed woman definitely knew what had turned Jane’s brain to mush.
“Doctor Foster?” Jane gulped.
“Yes?”
“My name is Hope van Dyne, I’m with Pym Technologies. We were wondering whether you could answer a few questions.” She spoke in the way only the best professionals managed, the ‘This Is What Is Going To Happen’ tone of voice. Jane had a thing about competent people. (Thor had been an outlier.)
After a pause, which lasted more than a few seconds longer than socially acceptable and was caused entirely by Jane staring at Hope’s face and forgetting what words were, Darcy stepped forward.
“I'm sure Doctor Foster will be happy to help.” She threw her a look, and Jane knew she wasn't going to like whatever came next. “With anything. Anything. Anytime. Even during lab time. That's a big thing for Jane, believe me.”
Ian snickered. Darcy snickered. Jane considered killing both of them. Hope raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow.
Jane could feel her blush spreading, and quietly kissed goodbye any chance she had of meeting anyone while maintaining any contact with Darcy. And though she'd probably continue to bemoan the fact, she found she didn't really mind. She and Darcy had been through some weird shit together, after all. Still, the woman was stunning.
“Well,. I'll be sure to take full advantage of that offer, if it's coming from Doctor Foster.”
Jane's head snapped up. Hope was smirking at her, and Jane's body was reacting in all sorts of interesting ways.
“But my question first: Will your machine replicate the lensing around the boundaries of the event as with an Einstein-Rosen Bridge?”
Jane stared at her, sure she could feel herself falling just a little bit hopelessly in love. She did spare a thought to the fact that this probably was the ‘interested and rich’ party that SHIELD was after, and spent a second daring to dream that Hope wasn't involved in anything nefarious. Then she decided she probably had enough clout with SHIELD that it didn't matter what she got mixed up in anyway.
Then she did what she tended to do in these situations, although it wasn't very scientific of her, and jumped in head first.
“Well, it's all based on my hypothesis that…”
(She would later discover that Darcy had snapped a picture of her face while still under the 'Hope Van Dyne Is Talking To Me’ spell, which led to a 20 minute, frantic chase around the lab until Hope hacked Darcy’s iPod, sent the photo to herself and made it her background on everything. Jane would be too embarrassed - and not-so-secretly pleased - to continue her rampage.)