Chapter Text
Contrary to popular belief, Jack Carter was not an idiot. Now, don’t get it wrong, he certainly didn’t have the highest IQ in Eureka, or even the top ten, or, Y’know, have a higher IQ than anyone in the town, including his own daughter, but it didn’t bother him. Even in his own family, he was used to being overshadowed. Though to be fair, when you’re related to the likes of Tony Stark and Sherlock Holmes, it’s not that difficult to be.
Point is, he was used to it, but that didn’t make it any easier when he was ignored or disregarded by his friends just because of some random number on some stupid test.
“I could talk to them, you know,” Nathan called from across his lab, where he and Jack were chatting.
He tried-and failed-not to laugh as Jack groaned and further buried his head into his arms at Nathan’s currently vacated desk, as said scientist was busy recalibrating something or another that Jack figured was probably important, but couldn’t be bothered to remember the name of. He winced as his left arm brushed against a desk lamp and sent a jolt of electricity up his spine.
He had gotten hit by an electrical pulse that a Section 4 scientist had accidentally disrupted, and Henry had assured him that is was “completely harmless with no adverse effects.” Now every time he so much as breathed near something metal, he got shocked. The first day it had felt like getting struck by lightning, now it was thankfully down to rubbing-rugs-and-balloons. Small mercies included having S.A.R.A.H to control all the tech in the bunker, so that he didn’t have to touch the light switches, but the Jeep had been torture.
“No, if you talk to them, then they’ll start asking…” he grimaced. “Questions.”
Nathan snorted, and threw an old washrag at his head. “What’s so bad about them asking questions?”
Jack temporarily looked up, and gave Nathan a look that quite clearly said are you kidding me?. “It’s not me that they’re going to be asking questions about if our lineage gets revealed.” He said.
Nathan huffed, but relented. Jack was unfortunately right. That was the one thing that they had managed to keep pretty much hidden from the other scientists at GD. Nathan, Jack, and Zane had quite the history together. (Along with Taggart, Jo, and Beverly Barlow, but that was a story for another time.)
Nathan’s father was Howard Stark, and his twin brother was Tony Stark, Maria Stark’s half sister was Zane’s mother, and Jack was the nephew of Peggy Carter. All their ‘fights’, the power plays, all of it was a joke. Jack could still remember playing ‘Howling Commandos’ in the Stark’s gigantic back yard with his siblings and Nathan and Tony and their brother and twin sister when they were kids.
A chirp sounded, alerting them to Allison and Tess’s impending intrusion. Jack immediately jumped from the desk chair, standing stiffly with arms crossed and easily falling into the ‘annoyed and slightly confused sheriff’ persona, as Nathan slid out from under the piece of machinery he had been tinkering on, and stood to lean leisurely against it, instead.
The automatic doors swished open, revealing the two scientists. Jack couldn’t help but smile as Tess sauntered over to him, and placed a quick peck on his lips. What he didn’t notice, was Allison’s small flinch as she observed the reaction. While she had once had a thing for Nathan, at his repeated ignoring of her advances, she had slowly come to realise no fruit would bear from that relationship. She had, however, thought there had been a spark of something between her and Jack, but even that seemed to have fallen out over the past year and a half.
Nathan finally glanced up from where he had dived back into his project as Jack and Tess gotten more passionate, meeting Allison’s eyes. “What’s up?” He asked, as the other two finally broke apart, glancing up in curiosity.