Archive of Our Own ^beta

Jane had been in the middle of a screaming match with the SHIELD officer who was babysitting her and Darcy, and probably wouldn’t have heard the phone if not for Darcy passing it to her. She pressed it up to her ear, trying to keep the exasperation out of her voice. “Hello?”

"Jane Foster?"

That deep voice forming the three syllables of her name turned her insides into jelly. “Thor…” she gasped, clutching the phone. “Oh, my god, it’s you, it’s really you, we saw you on TV, but I didn’t…” Darcy smirked, a pretty clear indication that Jane was blushing. “Hi.”

"It is so good to hear your voice, Jane." She would practically hear him smiling through the phone line. "Aye, It is really me. I am sorry that I cannot see you in person. Loki has caused much damage and it will take time to fix… I still think of you and my promise. I need you to know that. Jane, I… .”

"You’d think with all SHIELD’s tech, they could’ve set up a video conference so I could actually see you," she babbled, trying to hide the fact that her heart was pounding pretty wildly. She wondered if he could hear it over the phone. She had a ton of questions to ask, and a lot to tell him too, about her work on trying to build a new bridge for him, but she didn’t want to seem like she was nagging him, not after everything he’d just been through.

Her flustered rambling stopped as the hitch in his voice resonated “Thor? What is it? Is everything okay?” Stupid question, really, he’d just had to stop an alien invasion led by his baby brother. Of course things weren’t okay. The pause was getting a little worrying, but she could still hear him breathing, which meant the call hadn't dropped.

“I love you, Jane. And I promise that I will return and I will make certain you know that I do. Will you wait for me?”

Jane nearly dropped the phone, but Darcy stopped that from happening, making her sit down in one of the chairs.

I love you, Jane.

He loved her. He loved her. He loved her. She was grinning from ear to ear, mouthing He loves me at Darcy, who looked back at her as if wondering whether or not Jane was possessed. “I…god, I mean… yes!” she blurted, forcing herself to maintain some level of coherency as she swatted Darcy and Agent Stick-Up-His-Butt away. “Yes, absolutely, I will! And me too… crap! I mean, I love you too… oh, god, I’m ruining the moment, aren’t I?”

"The moment is perfect—" There was a pause, and when he started talking again, it was clear that his voice was on the verge of breaking. "I have to go… … seeing you again will not come soon enough. Know while we are apart that my heart is in your hands, keep it well for me and when my absence is too much to bear, look to the heavens and know I am watching over you."

No, five more minutes, she wanted to yell. This wasn’t fair, he only just got here and they were making her say goodbye. Again. Even through the crappy connection, she could hear him trying to stay strong for her. How could she not do the same for him? "I will. Just…." she whispered, "take care of mine. Deal?" She clutched the phone even tighter to her ear, waiting to hear him confirm it.

“Deal." There it was again, the way she just knew that he was smiling again. “I will think of you every moment we are apart. Your heart is safe with me.” He paused, and swallowed. “Until we meet again, Jane.”

"Bye," she squeaked out, trying not to cry as she heard the line cut out. Even as the tears started to spill over, she still was smiling.

Thor loved her. He was coming back. She could wait. She would wait. "Darcy, get my notebooks from New Mexico. We're going full throttle."

"The Charlie's Angel sequel?"

"Oh, god, no. That movie sucked. I meant we've got a lot of work to do." Jane took the notebook from her intern, turning to the page where Thor had sketched out the structure of Yggdrasil. "We have a cosmic tree to tap into, and an Einstein Rosen bridge to make."