InsaneJournal

Exciting physic-sy news for the girls!
Who: Jane Foster and Sam Carter
When: Monday morning
Where: After Professor Carter’s class at UC:I
What: Jane returns to classes after having the Blue Flu
Rating: PG
Status: Complete!



Jane slowly started to pack her books away after Professor Carter dismissed the class. She was so happy to be back in class and learning, being out of action after the Blue Flu had really knocked her for six and she had been working hard to get on top of her work to be ready for her first day back. As she put her last book in her bag, Jane looked up at the Professor and smiled, “Hey, Professor.”

“Jane, I’m pleased to see you looking so well” Sam told her with a bright smile for her favourite student, “And it’s Sam” she added teasingly, it had almost become an in-joke between them. Sam found it quite endearing that Jane couldn't bring herself to use her given name.

“I know, it’s just...ingrained in me I suppose from school,” Jane smiled, embarrassed by her own ‘conditioning’ from school. “Sorry,” she shrugged a little. “How are you? It’s been a while.”

Sam waved off the apology, it wasn’t something that bothered her really, “I’m fine thank you” Sam replied, “The more important question is how are you? Are you sure you’re ready to be back?” she was very pleased to see Jane but did worry about her pushing herself too hard. She was too much like Sam not to do that.

“I think so,” Jane considered. “I’ve been taking it easy and resting, but working to keep on top of everything here,” she explained, laughing to herself at the memory of being in the library surrounded by all those books the other day. “I still get tired from time to time, but I’m getting there, thanks,” she smiled, turning and leaning against Professor Carter’s desk.

Sam nodded, “Make sure you give yourself as much time as you need” she said kindly, “And don’t worry about things here, you’re already ahead of at least half of the class.”

“Thanks, but I uh...I need to be busy right now,” Jane told her, having found that working almost constantly at least helped her stop thinking about Thor. She shook her head slightly, “Anyway, I had something of a turn up for the books this week that I wanted to share with you.”

Sam wondered what was happening with Jane that made her want to be busy but didn’t ask incase it upset her. “Oh?” she said, intrigued, “Do tell” she smiled.

“I was randomly going to meet Darcy for lunch the other day, so I went to pick her up from Stark Tower and I just...y’know, happened to notice some of his scientists had made a mistake on their interactive touch board things,” she waved a hand vaguely in the air. “And I told them where they’d gone wrong only to look around and see Mr Stark watching me in the hallway,” she took a breath. “Ok, so after a lot of telling him about me and my work, turns out that he’d already heard of me,” Jane told Sam excitedly. “He’s read my papers! Mr Stark, genius, billionaire ex-playboy, philanthropist has read my papers!”

“But that’s not the best bit!” she held out a finger to stay her professor. “Stark has allowed me access to his particle accelerator so I can finish my thesis!”

Sam was about to tell Jane how incredibly proud she was and how she should be extremely excited that Tony was reading her work when Jane stopped her. Sam’s mouth fell open, “Oh my god” she said, sitting down in her chair at her desk, “That’s incredible Jane, I’m really happy for you and slightly jealous” she admitted with a smile.

“Well, you’ve got no need to be jealous,” Jane grinned, excited by her next bit of news. “The best part by far is that Mr Stark has given us both access to his computer mainframe, JARVIS!”

Sam’s jaw really did nearly hit the floor at that piece of news, “Oh wow” she breathed out, “You’re amazing. I mean I knew you were brilliant but wow. Just wow” Apparently her use of words was failing her.

“Well,” Jane blushed, she wasn’t used to accepting compliments, even though she recognised she was smarter than the average bear. “I have to give some credit to the morons doing the math in Stark Tower,” she joked. “Or else I wouldn’t have been able to shine for Mr Stark,” she winked.

That made Sam laugh, “I can’t believe they made a mistake” she said, “I mean if you’re working for Stark you’d double and triple check everything, he’s a complete genius”

“I know, right?” she grinned, realising belatedly how much like a sorority girl she sounded. “I still can’t quite believe it...” Jane said, gazing off into the distance and shaking her head slightly, a little grin tipping the edges of her lips.

Sam smiled as she watched Jane, “Oh, I think I can actually” she told her student, “I knew it wouldn’t be long before your brilliance was discovered by everybody else.” It wasn’t flattery, it was simple truth, Jane understood the subject matter more than any student she had come across before and her enthusiasm for it was unmatched.

“Aww, thanks professor,” she smiled, feeling bashful again. “I’m not sure when I could take up the internship though,” Jane told her. “I’ve got a lot of work to keep on top of for the course, but I might be ready to take on a bit more in a few weeks,” she shrugged. “I mean, if I’m going to be using the accelerator I’ll be there already, so it kind of makes sense. What do you think?”

Sam nodded, “It’s entirely up to you” she advised, “As you say your work with the accelerator will mean you are already there. And I can find another TA, if it’s too much. I don’t want you to push yourself too hard and the chance to work with Stark is naturally a better opportunity for you and your future.”

“God...” Jane shook her head in disbelief again. “My mind’s already whirling just thinking about all the ways I can catalogue and store the data on Stark’s mainframe! I’ve got to start on writing a program to collate the data on the system as the collisions are happening,” she pondered out loud before having a little laugh to herself. “CERN eat your heart out!”

Sam laughed, “They’ll be asking you to help them in no time” she told Jane with a smile. Sam assumed that the response meant she would indeed be looking for a new TA, which was a shame as she would hate to lose Jane. But she couldn’t deny the young woman the opportunity presented to her.

“I think I could do it, yknow,” Jane told her, a rising surety settling over her. It was amazing what confidence she had gained from Mr Stark’s offer, basically a complete stranger to her and she felt a renewed vigour that she had found herself lacking in recent weeks. Although it could be argued that some of that could be put down to the Blue Flu, Jane thought to herself. “I’m close to finishing a few of my other classes early, so I’ll have a bit more free time during the day to help you out,” Jane looked at her tutor with a smile. “I’m not going to let you down.”

“I never imagined you would” she assured her, “I just don’t want you to get overloaded. You must tell me if things get too much. There’s no shame in admitting you need help” she lectured slightly, though if Jane was as much like her as she thought then Sam would still need to keep an eye on her.

Jane nodded in agreement, but somewhere in the back of her mind she recognised the stubborn streak that had pulled her through her Master’s degree early. “I will, thank you,” she smiled. “Speaking of which, how can I help right now?”

“Actually with recent developments I was thinking of changing the first year students astronomy class this week to focus on

“Yep, will do,” Jane smiled, patting the pocket which held her locker key and Professor Carter’s desk key. “I’m sure your contacts are much more extensive than mine,” she laughed. “Actually, I hear there’s some brilliant, slightly radical scientist called Dr McKay out there, think he would be of any help?”

“Oh no, please don’t make me listen to him” Sam begged, “He’s a lovely person, don’t get me wrong but he takes an age to explain anything. He’d only just manage to introduce himself before the class was over” she joked. McKay was lovely but in really really small doses.

Jane chuckled, she had heard vague whispers of stories of him at conferences around the country. “Ok, ok, I won’t inflict him on you if I can help it,” she grinned. “Maybe...Dr Zelenka? I hear he’s been doing some interesting research lately,” she told Sam. “Although, his accent is a bit thick...” she pondered idly.

"It is but he is more amiable" Sam said, "Oh I don't know, there'll be someone suitable I'm sure. I just can't think of them right now."

“Leave it in my hands, Professor,” Jane re-assured her. “I’ll have something for you to check over by tomorrow...wednesday morning at the latest,” she smiled confidently.

"Thank you Jane, wednesday would be great" she replied smilingly.