WHO Jane Foster, Ty Johnson & Elizabet WHAT Oh hello WHEN Saturday morning WHERE Their house WARNINGS morning sickness? STATUS Closed | Completed gdoc
Moving in with Jane was turning out to be one of the best decisions of Ty’s life. There were still a lot of risks, a lot of precautions to be taken, but they were making it work. They had their separate spaces and they’d negotiated sleeping together regularly. Ty had taken to bundling up like he’d done back in the days with Dawn. It was easier, safer, and more comfortable but they’d compromised and it wasn’t all the layers he’d resorted to then. A small heater in their room and an extra blanket separating them made it comfortable enough and as long as Jane’s skin didn’t touch his in the night, everything was fine. It was progress.
With no wards or flatmates, their house was usually quiet,and Ty was roused by the bedroom door opening, and by the pressure of someone crawling up into bed with them. That definitely wasn’t right.
With a confused hum, he turned over, blinking his eyes open at the little girl who was sitting there with a familiar face.
“...Good morning?”
***
Jane was pretty happy lately, or at least as happy as she was allowing herself to get because she still worried about Ty being sent home. She'd been fine with that possibility before, but now she was even less certain about her ability to follow him. Her Bifrost research was at a complete standstill even though she continued to noodle at it in the hopes of finding other ways to deal with the Dome. She just didn't want to lose her boyfriend and everyone mostly understood that so long as she didn't get too lost in her work.
Ty's agreement about sharing a bed and the stipulations required were a great motivator for her to keep normal people hours. She wasn't going to miss out on a chance to sleep next to her boyfriend, even if there were a lot of layers between them. It was still less layers than it would've been if she hadn't negotiated down and she couldn't say that it was uncomfortable sleeping like that. She kind of liked it.
She didn't really like the tossing and turning though, so Jane opened her eyes, about to complain. That complaint died when she caught sight of a small girl who was way familiar.
"Um. Lizbet?" Jane looked at Ty but he was just as confused.
"My bed's not in my room," Elizabet complained as she snuggled in against Jane's side in between her parents. "I'm hungry."
***
It was an unconscious reaction but Ty shifted away from the little girl. He was extremely cautious around children, knew they were even more susceptible to the cold and weren’t going to be as aware of when they needed to be separated from it. As much as he liked the little ones he knew they weren’t a real part of his future and couldn’t be a real part of his life either. He couldn’t touch them. Not in anything more than passing. He wouldn’t risk it.
“Well we can sort out one of those things,” he said with a small smile, the kind that only reflected as sadness in his eyes. “Sorry to say the other’s not going to work out. Do you remember you’ve come back in time before?”
It was more than just back in time. It was across universes to a place she couldn’t exist. Not unless something changed drastically with Jane and the whole powers thing. As it was, Ty wasn’t willing to risk her safety and that meant little things like the condoms stayed firmly in place. He couldn’t completely sacrifice their sex life but measures could be taken.
***
Jane wrapped her arms around Elizabet almost cautiously, like she was afraid the little girl was just some dream again. Except, now that she thought about it, there had been something vague on the network the other day. "I guess you're what they were talking about," she murmured as she pressed a kiss against the top of their little girl's head.
Elizabet, for her part, nodded excitedly. "I'm history!" she declared, her big smile indicating it was clearly the best thing ever. "I can just sleep with you." Obviously. "Like when I was a baby!" As if that hadn't been at least a few years ago.
That nugget was interesting to Jane, though. She put the back of her hand on Elizabet's forehead to see what her temperature was like and looked up at Ty with a bit of surprise. "She's cold?" It was somehow a question even though the little girl's temperature was definitely much lower than Jane's default.
"No I'm not! I'm like you an' Daddy!" And with that, Elizabet wiggled out of Jane's grasp to launch herself at her father, throwing her arms around his neck. She not so quietly whispered, "Did Mommy forget to take her medicine again?"
***
Ty’s eyes went wide as the little girl launched herself at him, scrambled to catch her before she went toppling into hurting herself. He was careful, though, to make sure his hands landed well away from where they might catch her skin, couldn’t stop her from throwing her hands around him but he could quickly and gently pry them off, minimizing the skin to skin contact. He couldn’t live a life without ever touching any mortal but he could always minimize it. He could make sure no chill set into the children.
But then she was asking about the medicine, and Ty actually paused, his hands on Elizabet’s arms.
“What do you mean her medicine?” And more importantly what did she mean like him? There was no way she was going to be a goddess, and even if she was that was a lot of years away still. The twenty-first and there was a ceremony that Ty didn’t even know. No girls in his family.
***
Jane was definitely scared when Elizabet got close to Ty without hesitation and had her hands out to pull the little girl back when she asked about her medicine. She was curious about the answer also, which made their daughter sigh dramatically.
"The medicine Aunt Jemma made for her with Aunt Elsa!" Her tone heavily implied the 'duh' she didn't say. "So we can all be normal together! I'm not exactly like you, Daddy. But I'm cold, too!" She knew that cold was sometimes a bad thing for her dad, but they were such a great family together. Elizabet was happy with her life.
Jane inclined her head slightly, for Ty to look at where his hands were on the toddler's arms. Unaffected even after a few minutes. "Honey, is that too cold for you?" she asked Elizabet.
"Can't we have breakfast now?" she complained, tired of all the questions. "I'm hungry!"
***
She didn’t seem to even notice he was colder than usual, but Ty was cautious. He couldn’t trust it, knew better. He’d hurt people he loved with what he was before, just one but one was enough, and knew what that felt like. He couldn’t do that. Not with Jane and especially not to a child they may or may not ever have.
Carefully he just pried Elizabet away from him, gently guiding her to Jane instead. It didn’t seem like they were going to get a lot of answers out of her, no matter how many questions they might have. And Ty had a lot of questions. The last time she’d been around she hadn’t mentioned anything about the treatments Jane had recently started taking, the ones that had proven less than effective as a long term solution, but now that she was back and mentioning that very particular change, he had so many questions.
Questions they’d apparently have to address later.
“I think breakfast is a good idea,” he agreed slowly. “Why don’t you go on and we'll be right after you, alright?”
***
Elizabet knew she was in the past, but she didn’t fully comprehend it. Her parents didn’t know anything and they usually knew everything. She was at least used to lots of questions, got them constantly from Mommy and sometimes from Daddy, but she knew she was special and that special was sometimes hard for them to understand. Uncle Olaf taught her to distract them when she got tired of all the questions and food was the only method he’d been allowed to tell her about before Mommy made him stop.
“Okay, but no noodling!” she declared as she scampered off the bed and out of their room. Lizabet even left the door open to be helpful as she headed downstairs to start making breakfast.
Jane just sort of stared at the now empty doorway with confusion and so many questions. “What the hell?” she murmured, more to herself than anything. Ty wouldn’t have any answers. “I don’t know if this is better or worse,” she said truthfully as she turned to look at her boyfriend.
***
“Than what?” Ty asked with a laugh that was more tired and confused than actually amused. He didn’t really know what he felt but there was a definite chill in the air as his emotions spiraled. “The last time?”
Because compared to the last time she’d been around, this was worse. It was definitely worse. The last time she hadn’t thrown herself at Ty and scared the shit out of him, she hadn’t touched his skin and not been the least bit phased. She hadn’t talked about things that a little girl shouldn’t know about and things that they weren’t even sure about, things that didn’t even work the way they were meant to.
There was a lot going on that was worse. But their daughter in some reality was waiting for them to feed her breakfast and Ty could at least be comforted by the familiarity of getting up and cooking. He stopped before he did to offer Jane a small smile, to pull her in and to kiss her gently. “It won’t be for too long, at least.”
***
Jane could tell that Ty thought this was worse. She couldn’t be mad at him about that because as much as she was used to being careful now, she still wasn’t as used to it as he probably wanted. Adding Elizabet to the mix was going to make the holidays more complicated, even though Jane couldn’t really bring herself to be upset by it. This was just different.
She returned his kiss and smiled contentedly when she pulled back, though it only lasted for a moment. A familiar wave of nausea hit her and she made a face as she scrambled out of bed to reach their toilet before she emptied the pitiful contents of her stomach.
“I think it might finally be time to visit Bruce,” she groaned as she wiped her lip. “I’m tired of feeling like crap that’s been run over a few thousand times.”
***
“It’s been weeks,” Ty agreed, getting up and going to lean in the bathroom doorway. It had been way too long that she’d been ill and Ty was really starting to worry about her. It wasn’t right and if she’d been anything but nauseous and tired he’d have taken her to a doctor himself. “I think it’s about time we make sure there isn’t something seriously wrong.”
It was long past time.
“Do you want to rest up a little? I can go mind Elizabet.” He was nervous about that, worried she’d try to touch him again and this time it wouldn’t go as well, but Jane was more important right now.
***
“It’s probably just a weird cold or something,” she replied, the same excuse she’d used for those very same weeks. Jane didn’t like being sick, but it didn’t bother her some days and others it was worse. It made no sense to her but as long as it didn’t take her away from her work she didn’t care.
His offer to look after Lizbet was a sweet one but going back to bed without him wouldn’t be any fun. Jane did take a few moments to assess herself though, to see just how poorly she was feeling. “No, that’s okay,” she replied as she got to her feet. “I’m feeling a little better so maybe it was just something weird.”
Jane moved to the sink so she could brush her teeth though because throwing up was seriously gross. “We’ll figure this out together,” she promised. “And I’ll go to the clinic today, too.” Maybe. Probably. So long as she didn’t forget. Although maybe a trip to see Jemma was more apt since then Jemma could look Elizabet over. The wheels were definitely spinning in Jane’s head.
***
“Yes you will,” Ty confirmed. He’d make sure she did. He was worried and if he didn’t know better he’d say it seemed almost like she was pregnant or something. But that couldn’t be it. They were careful. He was always careful. It was a part of making sure she didn’t end up hurt.
“Are you sure you don’t want to rest a little more?” he pressed, concern for her more than clear. “At least until breakfast’s set?”
Regardless he’d me making her a cup of tea to help her stomach.
***
Jane nodded with a soft smile. She was definitely going to the clinic today, but she didn't mind. She needed to. It really had gone on long enough. There were more important things to do right now, which they were reminded of by the sounds of cabinets being opened and closed downstairs.
"Something tells me breakfast is going to be set by the time we get downstairs if we're not careful," she replied. Lizbet was a handful, even though Jane mostly meant that in a good way. Still, she moved closer to her boyfriend and put her hand on his arm. "I've had it worse than this. Some food'll be good for me, or have you been lying to me about that?"
Sometimes it was way too easy to tease him.
***
“I would never.” It was at least mostly playful the way Ty said it. “But you’re right that we’d better get down there. I’m not sure I trust someone her size alone in the kitchen too much longer.”
God forbid she actually try to make something. Ty wasn’t exactly planning on anything too exciting, definitely didn’t think they had that kind of time and was absolutely sure that Elizabet wouldn’t have that kind of patience. Especially if she was already getting into things. Ty took advantage of the excuse to keep Jane’s touch to his arm brief, smiled gently as he pulled away.
“Let’s go save the house from whatever she’s getting up to.”
***
Another smile crept across her face when he replied playfully. He would absolutely lie to her about food, but only to get her to eat or take care of herself. Never the opposite. Lizbet was going to be a handful, that much was abundantly clear. Jane couldn't bring herself to be upset about that, though. The little girl was adorable and all she had to do was smile for everything to be forgiven. She was going to be a total sucker of a mom if this ever came to pass.
"Sounds like a plan to me." It did feel kind of great to have it be her and Ty against the world. Or in this case, a precocious little girl who might some day really be their daughter. Jane did hope that this would be in their future in some way, shape or form in the future.
"And honestly, it sounded like she was only going to be here through the new year, so let's just keep our fingers crossed we've got our one and this'll be it." There was always a silver lining.
***
“Oh well, now you’ve gone and jinxed it for sure,” Ty laughed softly, pausing to put on pants before leading the way downstairs. “You should know better than to hope for anything around here.”
Hoping always wound up hitting them in the face and fucking them right over. He’d learned that quickly enough. It was just like life, but somehow worse. Like this place actually listened somehow and actively did exactly the opposite.
***
Jane just rolled her eyes. "We're always jinxed when it comes to stuff like this," she replied as she headed out of their room. She knew he'd be right behind her because pants were important especially with how Lizbet was probably going to run them ragged while she was here.
"The good news is, once she's back to her time? We'll get to sleep for a week to make up for all the sleep we're going to miss out on." She was going to have to stock up on coffee, maybe even just skip the decaf altogether. She would be over it in a few days but for right now? Jane was definitely looking forward to having some more time with Lizbet.
***
“I don’t think it’s sleep we’re going to miss out on,” Ty pointed out. She was old enough, he thought, that they ought to get enough, though they might have to adjust their hours a touch. As far as he knew, and from his little bit of experience thanks to this place, they tended to get up earlier.
It was definitely the alone time they’d miss more, he was sure.
There was a crash from the kitchen and he just shook his head. “Come on, then.”
***
"Hey, we sleep after we sleep," she pointed out with a teasing grin. The crash was definitely way more important to deal with though.
"Lizbet!" Jane called, partly questioning and partly concerned.
"I'm alright!" came the little girl's reply and it was honestly a no brainer that today was going to be a long day.