Jane glanced at the fuel gauge as she steered the van along the dusty road west of town. "Uh-oh," she muttered.

Thor's eyes followed her gaze and a fair chunk of his torso leaned heavily into her personal space as he tried to look at the dashboard. "What's the matter, Jane?"

She shot a nervous look in Thor's direction, not that Jane needed to look far to see his confused expression. "Uh, we're running low on gas." At Thor's blank look, she elaborated. "You know, fuel. I need to find a gas station and fill up."

"Ah," he said, leaning gingerly back into the passenger seat. "A gas station. Seeking this will not delay us for long, I hope."

Jane glanced around at the desolation of the New Mexico landscape, wincing as the van bounced heavily over a wash-out in the dirt road. "Probably not. We'll have to go north a ways, get to the highway, but we shouldn't be far from Allsup's." With a smiling glance at Thor's confused look, she added, "A gas station where we can fill up."

"Good," Thor exclaimed, thumping a hand on his knee. In the silence that followed, the rumbling of his stomach was unmistakable.

Jane stared at her passenger, open-mouthed. "Seriously, you can't be hungry. You just ate most of four breakfasts at the diner."

Thor smirked at that, but ducked his head in seeming embarrassment at her intent, disapproving regard. "Sadly, yes, I am hungered again. That was a very good meal but it was some time ago."

"Not even two hours ago, you weirdo," Jane chided. The van lurched awkwardly over a rise and she struggled with the steering wheel. The wheels bit onto pavement. They were coming to one of the better-maintained roads.

"Look," she exclaimed, hitting the brakes and wrenching the wheel to the right, "this'll take us right up to the highway." The van tilted awkwardly and Jane prayed it wouldn't flip onto its side as they turned abruptly onto the northbound road. It didn't and she grinned in triumph. Flush with success, she couldn't sustain her momentary annoyance with Thor.

His stomach growling louder, Thor appeared pained as he relaxed his braced arm against the dashboard. Jane spared a glance for her passenger, laughed, then accelerated. "I'll put the pedal to the metal and we'll be there shortly!"

When they got to the gas station, Thor seemed happy to stretch his legs while Jane managed the pump. The sound of rushing gas made Jane think of something that had her glancing nervously at her companion. If he didn't know what a gas station was, would he know how to find a bathroom or even what one was?

"Um, I just thought you might need, well, um. You know, what goes in must come out and the toilets are over there," she said, pointing to the doorways just inside the convenience store entrance. "You use the one labeled men's," Jane hurriedly added as Thor nodded and headed off toward the building.

More slowly, she screwed the gas cap back on, then set off for the women's washroom. When Jane was done, there was no sight of Thor, but another driver was paying for motor oil and chatting with the clerk. "Darnedest thing. It was almost like a rodeo until the Secret Service guys came driving in with their fancy black cars and trucks. Showed us their I.D. and, polite as you please, had the crater empty in about a minute. When I left, they were already laying down some kind of fence and had about a hundred men on the ground with their equipment."

"Damn," muttered the teenager ringing up the sale, "I was gonna go see the satellite after I got done, here."

The older man chuckled. "Ain't no point, now. I bet you can't get within a quarter mile without getting seen and sent off. At least during the daytime. Those city slickers don't know nothing about the desert hereabouts."

Jane gave off following their converation when she saw Thor emerging from the men's room, his gaze shifting restlessly until it lighted on her. "Jane! We can get some more food, now? Maybe some of that delicious coffee?"

"Yeah, sure," Jane said, a little too brightly as the clerk and the other driver stared at them. She hurried over to where Thor was eyeing the shelves of plastic-wrapped baked-goods. "Let's see if we can find you something better," Jane murmured. "Nobody deserves Twinkies."

One box of Krispy Kremes, two large coffees, a bag of chips, another bag of pork rinds, a package of beef jerky, a six pack of pop, a couple of sad-looking bananas and a burrito with all the fixings later, Jane paid the bill and started stacking the purchases in Thor's outstretched arms.

"Have a nice day," the clerk offered half-heartedly, then turned his attention back to his smartphone screen while Jane and Thor returned to the van.

Buckling in, Jane turned to her passenger. "We're going to have to take it slow."

"Is the vehicle damaged?" Thor asked with some concern, extending one coffee cup to her as he sipped from the other.

"No, but you heard the guys. The feds are all over this site. If we go there in broad daylight, we'll be escorted out."

Thor rolled his eyes. "Not so easily as all that, my lady-"

"Look, wise guy," Jane interjected. "Those feds seized my life's work. I don't want them to throw me into jail, too. We'll wait until dark, then I can get you close enough for whatever it is you're going to do, okay?"

Thor spared a considering glance to the sun's lowering light on the horizons. "A few hours will not make much of a difference. We are in agreement, then, Jane Foster. Let us pass the time."

"Good," Jane responded, firing up the engine and jerking the van back out onto the dusty roadway. "We'll get away from the gas station, find a quiet place to park and wait until dark. This'll be fine. Just fine."

There was a lot of quiet to be found in the New Mexico desert through the long, slow sunset hour. Jane stopped the van alongside a small bluff she'd stumbled upon when she was first hunting the aurora two months back. They'd pulled off the dirt track which led to the crater some miles back and Jane had slowed their pace to a crawl for the last portion of the drive. "I don't want to attract their attention," she explained as she turned off the engine. "We should be about a mile north of the crater. We can take this track there after dark and you can get my stuff back."

She popped off her seat belt and exited through the back of the van, pushing aside the loose housing that had once secured her research equipment before popping open the back door to let a breeze run through the stuffy, echoing cabin. "Might as well get out and make yourself comfy," Jane advised Thor, who was eating his third doughnut with obvious pleasure.

"As you wish," Thor mumbled around the last mouthful as he opened the passenger door and stepped out, luxuriating in a couple of good stretches as he made his way to the van's cargo area where Jane perched, legs dangling. Noticing her appalled stare at his crumb-festooned lips and mouth, Thor wiped one hand across his face and blushed.

"I apologize. That was rude. My mother would have boxed my ears," Thor said wistfully as he sat beside her on the tailgate.

Jane laid one hand in comfort on his arm: who wouldn't feel sorry for a guy who missed his mother. His sweetly grateful smile caused her to giggle a little - when did I become a giggler?, she thought with some irritation - but that wasn't nearly as disconcerting as the realization that she was totally attracted to this weird space oddity that had somehow fallen from the sky or a wormhole and wreaked havoc with her work as well as her life. What kind of scientist was she?

"What is the matter, Jane?" Thor asked, watching the frown forming on her face.

"Oh," Jane muttered, "nothing." She belatedly realized that her words and expression were totally at odds, and tried to break the tension by hopping off of the van's tailgate and pulling away from Thor. He'd already brought his own free hand up to cover hers, barring her easy escape.

"You have been kind to me, Jane Foster," Thor said with a formal, direct intonation. "Kinder than I deserve."

As he spoke, he tugged her hand gently but insistently toward his lips. Jane couldn't help but gasp as he kissed the back of her hand: his breath was warm against her skin, his whiskers a surprisingly soft sweep alongside the firm touch of his lips.

"You're a really old-fashioned guy," Jane joked as she tried not to yank her impossibly sensitized hand away from Thor's grasp.

He arched an eyebrow questioningly but only straightened slightly, forcing Jane to stumble a little closer to him as her hand remained closed in his. "Old-fashioned? You mean that the men that you meet do not grant you such simple courtesies? This realm truly is barbarous!"

Jane chuckled. "I don't know about that. Darcy might agree with you that it's hard to find a decent guy these days."

"And you?" Thor asked with a keen gaze, holding her own regard.

Jane found her free hand fumbling with her floppy scarf as she tried not to let her unease show. "Oh, I don't think this is all that barbarous. New Mexico is lovely!"

Thor smiled slightly as his eyes roved over her head, across the landscape painted with brilliant shades of orange and gold in the setting sun. "Certainly, the land is lovely but are the people always the same? Your Donald Blake, you said that he was not so concerned with your needs, did you not?"

"Not precisely like that," Jane stammered, fighting against a blush. A faint breeze whipped strands of hair into her face and she struggled to regain her composure. Jane knew that she had to look a mess with tangled hair and rumpled clothes, but somehow Thor's attention made her feel as if that didn't matter.

"Let's just say that Donald always had better things to do with his time than waste it on me," Jane explained. "And, anyway, I wasn't much better, I guess. I spent more time with my research than I did with him!"

"No man of worth would begrudge you your studies, Jane. Your work will change the world as you know it," Thor intoned with a deep intensity. He reached out with his free hand and brushed her hair out of her eyes.

Jane bit her lip in frustration as she leaned lightly into his touch. "It won't if I never get my work back from Agent Coulson and his gang of thugs. I can't believe they took everything I had worked on for so long!"

At her obvious distress, Thor pulled her close to him and wrapped her in a hug that was meant to comfort, but did so much more.

"You materials, all of your equipment taken from you, I will recover it for you, Jane Foster, this I promise." His words resonated in the barrel chest Jane found herself cradled against, much too aware of his legs extended on either side of hers. She felt a warmth kindle at his pervasive presence.

Jane tried to focus on the plan and her outrage at the way those SHIELD agents had confiscated her work. But she was distracted by the here and now of the two of them, alone in this corner of the New Mexico desert.

If she raised her head a little bit more, her lips would be in a line with his, balanced lightly as he was on the rear of her van and - "Damnit," Jane muttered, turned on past all endurance. She straight-armed Thor flat on his back inside the van with herself hurtled on top of him.

"Ow!" Thor winced, eyes screwed shut against the painful results of a head slammed onto the unpadded metal floor of the van.

"Ohmygod," Jane gasped, "I'm so sorry!" Holding herself up with one arm, she carefully slipped her free hand beneath his head, lifting it slightly for signs of injury, though she wouldn't know precisely what that would be. Her dark hair fell in torrents on either side of Thor's face as she peered closely at his screwed-shut eyes - was he unconscious? Omigod. Jane feared she'd done some serious damage with this, the third injury she'd inflicted on him in less than twenty four hours.

One blue eye opened below her, warily scanning the space above and around them, though Thor's attempts to see much beyond her small form were foiled by the boxy walls and roof of the van's cargo bay.

He made as if to lever himself up with his forearms. "What's the matter, Jane? Why did you knock me down? Are we under attack?"

Jane blushed fiercely, hating the feel of the heat pouring up over the scarf at her neck but knowing she had to respond even if she felt like dying of embarrassment. "Um, no. We're perfectly safe. Don't worry!"

"Then why did you push me into the vehicle?"

"Because, well, you see, I wanted, I mean-" Jane shook her head against the flood of useless words tumbling out and impulsively leant forward, pressing her lips against his.

"Umfh," was all the response Thor managed as she pressed the point with a deepening kiss, not that he objected in the least by the enthusiasm with which he met her advances. Large warm hands came up to cradle her hips, pulling Jane closer.

Jane slid out of the half-kneeling position she'd awkwardly maintained to rest fully on top of Thor, moving her hands up to his chest to wrench open his borrowed jacket. Then her palms slid to his shoulders, moving the heavy cloth with them. Without breaking the enthusiastic kiss, Thor cooperated, moving one arm after another to shed the jacket.

"Your turn," he suggested merrily, when Jane broke off the kiss with a breathless gasp. His hands were busy at the neck of her jacket, unwrapping the scarf and casting it aside, while Jane fumbled herself with her own heavy jacket and vest. At least her boots were easier dealt with, she thought, as she kicked them off, one after another.

"Unfair," Thor remarked. "You have the advantage of me."

Jane grinned. "Catch up," she challenged.

She shrieked in laughter as he scooped her up lightly, crouching in the confined space of the cargo bay to deposit her on one side of the narrow . With a deft twist of his hands, Thor pulled his shirt off while Jane did the same with her own, shivering slightly in the coolness of the desert twilight.

Thor pulled the van's back door closed with a deafening clang. Jane winced a little at the tortured sound of metal. "Thanks," Jane said drily, "for not breaking the van."

"I didn't want you to catch a chill," Thor said after he shucked off his own shoes, reaching for her easily before pausing to examine her expression carefully. "Unless you have had second thoughts, perhaps?"

Jane wet her lips as she made her way back across the small space on her hands and knees. His chivalric impulse was sweet but unnecessary. "Hardly," she said as she stretched up with one hand, wrapping her fingers at the back of his head - gently! - to pull his face towards her. "Is that okay?"

"That is good," Thor replied and let his hands rest momentarily at Jane's waist before lifting her effortlessly. Jane shimmied her legs around his hips, shrieking again in laughter as he maneuvered the two of them between the bolted-in racks. The van rocked as he fell back on the floor with her above him.

"Careful!" Jane warned, but Thor only smiled, lifting his fingers to skim along her bra, tugging at the strap to no avail until she slipped one hand over his and undid the clasp. In a moment, the wisp of fabric was discarded and his fingers had moved to trace the curves of her breasts.

Jane leaned forward, trapping his hands between them as they kissed anew. She felt her lips curve into a contented smile as his lips moved from hers, down along the curve of her cheek and towards his chin while her fingers tangled in his blond hair.

After a while, they rolled sideways, Jane's hands busying themselves at the waistband of Thor's pants. "Oh god," she suddenly muttered, and shoved away.

"What is it?" Thor asked muzzily, but Jane had leapt up between the front seats, fumbling with the glove compartment.

"Please be there, please be there, please be there," she repeated as she shoved past maps, a flashlight and some plastic toys from a fast food kid's meal. "Yes!"

Jane turned around in the dim confines of the van, raising two small foil packets. Thor leaned back on one elbow, still with a befuddled expression.

"Condoms," Jane explained as she made her way past the seats and crouched over Thor. "We're good to go!"

Whatever else Thor might have said was lost as she shimmied off her jeans and helped him with his own. He gave a wary look at the condom, but Jane's enthusiastic assistance stifled any objections.

With a cautious gauging of available space, Thor maneuvered himself backward and Jane climbed on top of him, lowering herself slowly down his length. Jane gasped and arched into the contact, while Thor's hands slid up from her hips to her her ribs and back again, with each fervent thrust.

Jane leaned forward into a kiss and tumbled against him as they rocked together in a building tempo. "Oh god, oh god, oh god yes," Jane whispered against Thor's lips as he twisted them into a semi-upright position. She braced her hands on the metal framework looming to either side of them as her orgasm crested, then shook anew as his soon followed.

Panting, exhausted, Jane collapsed on top of Thor as he slowly relaxed, his head cushioned against the discarded fabric of her vest. They rested happily for a while until the sky outside darkened enough that they could no longer pretend this was a necessary delay. It took only a few minutes before the engine roared to life and they pulled back out on the empty dirt trail.

"You know, they took my iPod," Darcy grumbled as they waited for the colour printer to finish printing the fake driver's license for "Donald Blake". Jane had borrowed an old laptop from the librarian who lived down the street and was philosophically outraged at the invasion of their civil liberties. The little machine's fan whirred noisily as it fed its data to the printer: one of the few remnants of the SHIELD raid.

Erik was searching for a few more of Donald's discarded clothes, since Jane was sure the desert downpour had left Thor soaked to the skin as well as in SHIELD's unkind custody. The old Swede grumbled at the request but agreed that there was no point in rescuing a man from the goverment buffoons only to lose him to hypothermia.

Jane pulled out the laminating machine they usually used for star charts and slipped the license replicas inside. Plugging in the power, she chewed on her fingernails as the machine gave some plastic weight to the fraudulent image.

"Done," she said triumphantly as the finished product slid out the far end of the device.

Erik was re-entering the main building with a wool plaid jacket and some other clothes over his arm. "You got a map?"

"In the glove compartment," Darcy offered, bouncing off her chair toward the van outside as Erik and Jane followed.

Before Jane could say anything, her intern had the passenger door open and was rooting around in the glove compartment. "That's funny," she said as she pulled out a map, handing it to Erik who had clambered in the driver's side. "We had some other stuff in here and now it's gone."

With the last words, Darcy pulled back out of the van and gave a significant look at Jane who smiled, shrugged and handed the fake license to Erik. "Hurry up, Erik. We need to get him out of there!"

The older physicist frowned. "I wouldn't have to do this if you'd stayed safe, Jane!" But he gave off his lecture, turning over the engine and spinning the wheel to send the sturdy vehicle back out on the road westward.

"I don't know, Jane," Darcy said, after they'd given off watching the red tail lights peel away from town. "Did you stay safe?"

Jane turned to stare at Darcy. "What do you mean? I almost got caught by those agents and I know Thor did."

Darcy raised one eyebrow as she stared right back at Jane. "You know what I mean, Jane."

Jane pursed her lips and shrugged her shoulders helplessly as her hands fisted in the pockets of her jacket.

"Don't play dumb, Jane," Darcy advised. "I looked in the glove compartment just now. I saw what was missing." The arch of her eyebrow elevated further.

Jane feigned confusion. "Did the SHIELD guys take our flashlight?"

Darcy sighed. "No, and they didn't take the My Little Ponies either. But the condoms I stuck in there, 'in case someone ever got lucky'? Those are surprisingly gone now."

"Those government lackeys! They have no shame," Jane said with a forced laugh, then headed back into the building, Darcy one step behind her. "Or maybe Erik found them and thought they were inappropriate. Or maybe you just didn't see them since we were kind of in a rush. It could have been a lot of things!"

"Yeah, sure," Darcy replied as they returned the building and began to shut down the last bits of electronic gear they had left in the research lab. "But did you know that your vest is on inside out?"

Jane's deep flush of mortification was all that Darcy could have hoped for, short of getting her iPod back or having her own hot, homeless guy pop up in the desert in front of them.