Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore

[captain_rogers]

There was a second - just a second there in the midst of shaking his head in an attempt to lose some of the sand that had been whipped up into his face by the harsh wind of a Kansas summer - where Steve stood entirely unaware of the shift of the world around him. In expecting the change in temperature, the shelter from the wind and the dust, he had not immediately thought that he walked through the door not of the run down diner just west of Ellis but into another world entirely.

Busy with the task of clearing his eyes of that sudden burst of sand and grit, the door slipped from his hand to close heavily behind him.

He did not think immediately of its consequences, not as he allowed the pleasant drag of a long ride to settle into the shrug of his shoulders and the feel of his back and arms as he shifted the helmet he carried under one arm. The long weeks on the road had not so much bred an easiness in him as it allowed him room to breathe, to think, to be able to look at the world as had been built around his sleeping body as being anything other than a discomfort or intrusion. It had not, unfortunately, kept him from understanding, as he gave one last rub of a hand over his eyes to open them and blink at the surroundings he found himself in, that he was not in the diner he'd spotted just off the road.

There were, for one, no green vinyl booths that had looked shabby even through a dusty window. No checkered flooring. No beleaguered heavy-set woman with a red-painted scowl or scuffed from the road customers. All this was obvious for the fact that he stood on the polished wooden floor of a grand lobby that put everything but Stark Towers to shame.

Comments

[legendthatwas]

Martha couldn't help but smile at his smile, because it was one of those bright infectious Harkness type smiles--though far, far less all-knowing (and let's be honest, less smug) than Jack's. She shook her head a little at the apology to indicate it wasn't a problem, filing away the 'out of the world for a while' comment for later consideration. Time traveller? Abductee? Hermit? She no longer was sure what was plausible and what wasn't.

"Well, with less movie references this time," she started, "it seems to be on Earth, but people here are from so many different Earths that it may be one all of its own--stop me if I'm getting confusing, I'm too used to this sort of thing--maybe interdimensional? It's hard to say. I know I've been home and back here five times or so since I first arrived, so you're probably not permanently stuck, if that helps."

[captain_rogers]

He had not had time enough to consider the idea that he might have been trapped, that he might have been ripped from his world again with no way to return, but the promise that that was not the case offered no small relief. "It does, actually," he admitted, "So an interdimensional hotel, huh? I have to say...that's new. New to me, anyway."

"You seem pretty used to this kind of thing, if you don't mind me saying." There was a looseness to the way that she held herself that suggested that interdimensional portals, other worlds, the whole lot, they were nothing she hadn't seen before. He would have expected more panic in her eyes or resignation in the line of her shoulders, but could find none of that in her as far as he could see. And then, realizing only belatedly that he had not actually introduced himself properly, he added, "I'm Steve Rogers, by the way."

[legendthatwas]

"It's not something I'm overly acquainted with either, to be honest. At least, not in a hotel." Martha smiled a little, could feel heat rising in her face, but she persevered. She could talk to cute guys if she wanted to, could hold her own, but lately she'd been far less cool about it than usual. Very weird.

"Shifting through time and space, that I can handle okay, actually. It's universe collisions that are new, but a, uh, friend of mine who's more experienced in it all says this place isn't anything to worry about." She extended a hand, settled her gaze on Steve. "Nice to meet you, I'm Martha. Dr Martha Jones."

[captain_rogers]

Having, if not a mission, then at least a new situation to tackle and no apparent expectations that he live up to a name he had been given and only later earned as he believed he had, allowed Steve the freedom to forget that he was absolutely terrible at speaking to any of the female gender. Impersonal and informative was easy, or at least easier than anything else. It allowed him to be friendly without immediately tripping over his boots, and Martha's behavior set him more at ease than anything else.

The mention of time and space had him curious, as well as the fact that she said she knew someone who was experienced in universe collisions. "He wouldn't happen to be Flash Gordon or something, would he?" As pathetic a stab at a joke as that was, it was the closest reference he could come to to space travel that wasn't pointing to Stark or Thor in recent events. And, truth was, Steve had watched every one of those serials and been there week in and week out to find out what happened to Flash and Dale.

He reached out a hand again to take hers for a shake, "Nice to meet you too, Dr. Jones." He smiled, "Glad I could meet a friendly face in all this."

[legendthatwas]

Martha started laughing, probably because her own knowledge of Flash Gordon involved Brian Blessed and a Queen soundtrack--and to be honest, she would have assumed the same for Steve. "He is definitely not Flash Gordon," she supplied. "He's his own man, I don't think I could come up with a movie reference to work for him."

She shook Steve's hand firmly, long enough to be friendly, though she didn't linger too long at least. "You can call me Martha, we don't really do much formality around here. And thank you. It's not so bad, really--if you go up to the desk, they can get you a room. Did...this is going to sound rude, but did you have any money on you when you left, uh, Kansas?"

[captain_rogers]

He had no idea how long it had been since he had had someone laughing at something he said, but not laughing at him. Probably since the last time he had actually tried for a joke, but he couldn't remember when that last was. That she got it at all made him grin, caught up in the moment.

Still, he nodded in understanding. His hand dropped o his side as he listened attentively, focused as her as he had been on every drill camp instructor and General along the way before he had his say. At her question he reached for his back pocket to withdraw his wallet, the leather still too shiny and unworn to seem real, and opened it to finger at the few bills he had inside. "Not much," he admitted, "I have a couple of those...cards?" He caught his thumbnail along the three cards inside the billfold: ID, and those two cards he'd been told were an ATM and credit card, though the concept of the latter made no sense to a boy who'd grown up in the Depression.

[legendthatwas]

The leather looked remarkably smooth, noticeably so--and it added to Martha's ongoing interest in Steve's oddness. Not bad-odd, just slightly...either otherworldly or old-fashioned. "You'll be all right," she said with a soft smile, "as long as you've got money in your bank account for your debit card. Depending on when you can get home next, you might need to buy, uh, a change of clothes."

She flicked her gaze up and down at the very nice yet very dusty leathers.

((Forgive this lateness, I was on a business trip! If you want to FTB, no worries.))