#because seriously?

Jane had grieved when Erik was lost to the Snap, but obstacles tended to only make her more determined. With Darcy for emotional support and to remind her to eat and sleep, she put aside her work on the Bifrost and time-space travel between realms and focussed on what little research existed regarding the Infinity Stones. She had Erik’s notes on the Tesseract, and her own experience with the Aether, plus several days in Asgard’s library, when she had been limited in how much she could exert herself. Thor had preferred physical pursuits to academics, but he had been happy to discuss the research she found. Despite her life being at risk, those days had been some of the happiest...

Jane forced herself back to the present.

Most of the world’s experts of Quantum Physics, and the leaders in studies on Infinity Stones, had been lost in The Snap. Jane found that suspicious, at best, but at least it cut down on the amount of time she had to spend fighting for grants. (If it brought them back, Jane would happily go back to living off Ramen and cobbling equipment together out of store-bought parts) Jane knew a lot of hackers and counter-hackers, and employed several, especially after people actually started taking her seriously and wanted their name on her work. She sent out feelers to the survivors, and set them to winnowing through SHIELD’s dumped files, especially the HYDRA experiments, for every scrap of data to do with extra-terrestrial studies. The most trustworthy ones were sent to hack into Stark Industries discarded files about the ULTRON project, and Vision by association. With Tony Stark retired from being Iron Man, or at least focused predominantly on making things for himself, there were fewer safeguards on his old, discarded files.

A few other hackers were sent to chase up potential alien sightings, and make contact in the hopes of getting information from other parts of the galaxy. 

With that taken care of, Jane set her attention to fine-tuning a new scanner for Quantum and time-space travel.

It took five years, but she found one. In San Francisco, in a storage garage, a portal opened, and someone came through.

_____

The time traveller was gone by the time Jane got there, but the residual traces were still there, and she followed them.

Scott Lang was confused and horrified at all he had missed, at what had happened, but he was absolutely down to do something about it. Darcy returned the rental car, Jane and Scott following in his beat-up old van, and they headed to the Avengers Compound.

Scott had a mastery in electrical engineering, a talent for putting MacGyvering and improvisation, and some knowledge of quantum physics thanks to his work with the Pyms. Jane had first-hand knowledge of infinity stones, a lifetime of work on Einstein-Rosen Bridges, and access to extensive research notes. By the time they reached the Compound, they had the basics of a workable plan.

Jane’s access codes, from when she and Thor had been co-habitating, were still in the system, and they got in without issue. Jane found the lab, still functional despite out-dated systems and a lack of use, and fired it up. Darcy started tracking the current location of the remaining Avengers, and Scott waited outside for them to come back.

______

Startling Captain America was probably a rare feat, but they managed it. Darcy’s social media account was probably going to explode with the amount of reactions, but that didn’t matter right now.

They were skeptical at the idea of time travel - understadable - and hesitant about using technology that hadn’t yet been tested. They listened, though, and gathered the others.

Thor had changed drastically in the years since the Snap, and froze when he saw her. They had separated amicably when Thor had left to search for information about the Infinity Stones, unable to say when or if he would be back and not wanting her to feel obligated to wait for him, but a part of Jane had never stopped loving him. “Hi, Thor.”

He shrunk into himself, reinforcing Jane’s suspicion of severe PTSD. Not that she could fault him for it; there was barely a person on the planet who wasn’t grieving or recovering from some kind of trauma, these days. “Jane. I… I didn’t-“

She stepped forward and took his hand. “Life has been unkind to you, hasn’t it?”

The defensive attitude that Thor had aimed at everyone else faded. “One might say that. Or they might say that I lost everything and became a shell.”

Jane had some familiarity with that. Being possessed by the Aether had been a constant battle to stop it from taking her over entirely, making her a passenger in her own body. “If I recall correctly, that’s how we met in the first place. I don’t know what happened, but I believe in you, and I don’t think that you’ve given up yet.”

There was a painful vulnerability in Thor’s voice, that of a man struggling to be confident in himself. “How do you know?”

Jane tried to project nonchalance. “You’re here, aren’t you? You’re alive, and we’re going to change it. Deal?”

Finally, Thor smiled, even if it was a shadow of it’s former brilliance. “Deal.”

Behind them, someone snickered. “Well, at least letting himself go didn’t change everything.”

Jane whirled around, fierce and angry. “One more fat-shaming joke, and the person voicing it gets punted out the nearest window! Thor, can you tell me what you discovered about the stones, and I’ll add it to my database.”

Thor followed her willingly, and submitted to a fierce hug from Darcy. Thor hadn’t found much, but there had been some helpful things useful information from Space Monks who had tried to replicate the effects of the Time Stone. Well, the ruins of what had been their temple, anyway. At least Jane knew a few things to avoid in her tests.

They lapsed into silence, Thor warring with himself over something. Finally, he looked at her, as serious as she had ever seen him. “I - you need to be careful around me. Certain things… I struggle to recognise friend from foe, and see only Thanos, telling me that I have failed.”

Jane nodded. “PTSD, I can’t say I’m surprised. What are your known triggers?”

Thor blinked, and Jane wanted to hit everyone who had treated him like he was broken or worthless. The Avengers, at the very least, should have known better. “Snapping fingers, so far as I know. I isolated myself, after I nearly killed Brunhilda, thinking she was Thanos. I thought, if I lacked my former skill and reflexes…”

Jane had exactly zero objections to the long hair and beard, as much as she had enjoyed the shorter version, too. Besides, she had dealt with enough comments on her appearance from ‘totally not hot enough to have Thor’s babies’ to ‘unprofessional clothing and not bothered with her appearance’ and all the other double standards that male scientists never had to deal with. She wasn’t about to judge him on some extra weight and whatever helped him get through the day. “Honestly, I’m kind of enjoying the Viking look. Besides, weight didn’t stop Volstagg from being a formidible warrior, if I recall correctly.”

He smiled briefly, the shy and almost boyish grin reserved exclusively for her. “Thank you. Seeing you alive gives me hope that this will work.”