Stark Towerlet, Tuesday Morning

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Don was eating breakfast when his phone rang, and a quick glance revealed an Albany area code, which meant it could be only related to one matter. He sent up a quick prayer that they were calling to tell him his license was all sorted out before he answered.

"Donald Blake?" the man on the other end asked, and he noted the usage of his full name instead of title, and went ahead and assumed he wasn't getting his license back today. Maybe they'd just noticed his 'continuing education' course was a bit leech-heavy?

"Yes, this is Dr. Blake," Don confirmed, careful not to put any additional stress on his title.

"Hi, this is Tom Martin, from the New York state board. We've encountered some...issues...regarding your paperwork for your request to reinstate your license post-resurrection, and we need you to clear that up, um, in person."

"I know it's a bit of an unusual situation, but I already came in a few weeks ago to help clear things up," Don told him, "and as I told Jessica then, I just moved to and am currently resident in Maryland, and I just need to get my status sorted out in New York so I can transfer my license here. She didn't think there would be any more problems."

There was a moment of hesitation, and then Tom Martin said, "Yes, but now we need you to come in on Thursday at eleven." Did he sound nervous? He definitely sounded nervous. Well, this had always been the third option.

"Thursday," Don repeated.

"Yes, that's right."

"I have a commitment on Thursday morning." Granted, his commitment was 'chilling in the void while Thor day drinks,' but it was the principle of the thing, "and again, I'm going to have to make arrangements to get there from Maryland. I could do next Tuesday or Wednesday, if you have an appointment available then? Or I have the week after next free, although there is the holiday, of course."

Another pause, during which Don could faintly make out Martin talking to someone else with his hand over the receiver, but not any of the words. When he came back he said, "No, sir, it really will have to be this Thursday. At eleven." He sounded even more nervous, as well he might, Don thought, with Tony Stark making him lure a potential superhuman into a sting at the State Board of Education during business hours.

Thursday, Thor said, and Don just nodded. The message wasn't subtle. Everyone knew whose day Thursday was.

"I'll figure it out," he said. "See you on Thursday, Tony."

"Sir?! My name is--"

Don hung up on him and looked at Thor, who had manifested sitting at the other end of the sofa. "You pick," he said. "Jane or Steve."

Thor didn't need any explanation, although he didn't pick, either. You would be defenseless.

"If I show up with it...he knows what it is. He'll take it as confirmation. As a threat."

He has to know you have it already. SHIELD was surely monitoring it.

Don remembered the party atmosphere in that field, the lines that felt like they stretched for miles. Remembered thinking SHIELD should really have locked this down, but that it was a good thing for him they hadn't. "Maybe. But without Mjolnir I can't be anything but human, and he knows that. He can go ahead and throw me in whatever black site they're using, but...he'll know what he's doing."

You wish to call his bluff.

"I do." And to prevent any possibility of a superhero battle in the middle of Albany. They weren't as used to it as Manhattan, or, hell, even Queens.

Thor considered that for a long moment, fading back out of visibility before he said, Jane.

"Because she's not married to Tony Stark?" Don guessed. This Tony seemed okay, but Don couldn't blame Thor for his hesitance.

Just so.

Don sighed and scrolled in his contacts to 'Jane (Thor)' and made a quick phone call before he started looking up last minute flights to Albany.

Comments

[needsacatchphrase]

So Jane really been by the tower since, you know, throwing an elephant through the building and causing the whole renovation thing. Which was why she was a little iffy about it as she waited for JARVIS to tell Don she was there.

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Don was blissfully oblivious to that whole situation, although...he was from New York in a Marvelverse, so he probably wouldn't bat an eyelash at it even if he'd just been a civilian.

"Jane! Hi! Thank you so much for stopping by!" He could stand to dial it back a notch, but: nerves.

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It was more just embarrassment, really. Because an elephant.

"Hi, Don," Jane replied with tight smile. Because always kind of weird at least. Even as she did her best to not think about, you now, all that.

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What Don had to ask her was probably not going to help with the weirdness, let's be real. "Long story short, I suddenly have to go to Albany on Thursday, and I was hoping you could look after something for me while I'm gone."

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"Okay," Jane said, letting the word drag out. "What exactly am I looking after?"

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Don wordlessly held up his walking stick. You know. Mjolnir. The walking stick that was Mjolnir. That stick.

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"...are you sure?" That seemed like a bad idea, right?

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Not entirely, but he didn't have a lot of options here. But also he was smart enough not to tell Jane that. "I mean, I probably wouldn't let them, you know, touch?" Because if Ghostbusters had taught us anything it was not to cross the streams.

Also what you said if someone asked if you were a god, but everyone in this conversation already had that covered.

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Yeah, a lot of weird crossovers there!

"You're not really selling this," Jane replied dryly. "How long am I going to be holding onto it?"

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"Hopefully just Thursday," he told her. "I was able to get a red-eye up there and then I should be able to fly back that evening." Unless Tony called his bluff. "It's just some...red tape, allegedly, with the medical licensing board."

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"And your... housemate is okay with this?" Jane asked. Because, well, he wasn't her Thor. Clearly. But some things had to be the same.

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"He's...not thrilled about it, but he understands why I want to handle it this way."

Was it bad that Don was hoping Jane was too confused by the entire situation to notice that he was not explaining at all why he needed to leave his walking stick, which was Mjolnir, behind to go meet with some guy at the Board of Education?

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Confused, annoyed, resigned. Such was life.

"Uh huh," Jane replied with a side-eye.

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He fully deserved that side-eye. Especially with the 'BTW if I'm not back by Monday SHIELD arrested me, please keep the stick safe,' message he would be firing off to her shortly before entering the BoE building on Thursday morning.

"So, yeah," he said. "I just...need you to babysit a stick for a few hours. I realize how that sounds, but, well." The stick was what it was. "I can't just leave it lying around."

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"Will I be getting an explanation for this?" Jane asked, weighing it over in her mind.

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"I worry about how much that might count as crossing the streams," Don said ruefully, or maybe he just didn't want to know how shitty and dangerous his world was right now, hard for even him to say, "but I also figure I'll owe you one."

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Jane looked like she was going to say no for a moment there, but something had her finally going, "Alright."

But she very obviously wasn't happy about any of this.

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Well, that was a weight off his shoulders. "Thank you. I'll owe you one."

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"Answers would be nice," Jane suggested.

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"When I get back," Don promised her. Because if he told her what was going on before he went it was going to be a whole thing. "Hopefully with my medical license." Yeah, he already knew that was not going to happen.

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"I'm holding you to that." Because literally any coherent answers would be nice

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"How about I throw in dinner for good measure? Or would that be too weird?" Because it was all very weird.

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It would be weirder if it was Thor. Don, at least, she could handle.

Mostly.

"Deal," Jane said with a nod, holding out a hand to shake on it.

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Don gave her a firm handshake. "I'll drop it off before I head for the airport. Or, uh. At a reasonable hour before I have to head for the airport." Because these times were yikes. Good thing he was already addicted to caffeine!

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"At least you'll have time to sleep in line?" Look, she was in academics. She knew.