Did I Disappoint You or Let You Down?
Darcy Lewis grew up thinking she was going to meet her soulmate in the best possible way. As a first grader she thought her soulmate would see her riding her new blue bicycle down her block and teach her a better trick. In fifth grade she dreamed her soulmate would see her playing baseball and step in to correct her slider. As a senior in high school she thought her soulmate would sneak up behind her as she was playing pool in a bar and try to flirt with her.
She didn’t however, ever assume the words would be said with malice.
Maybe she should have.
Of course, Darcy Lewis never thought she’d be stuck in the lobby of Avengers Tower as Hydra agents shot up the place.
Maybe she should have.
Because that was totally her life right now.
She was ducked behind an overturned coffee table that had been in the waiting area of the lobby which was currently the kill zone. Bullets were whizzing back and forth as security and some former SHIELD agents fought back as they waited for the Avengers to get back from the bogus call that had drawn them from the tower. Hydra agents were outside on the street trying to make their way in and were doing a pretty good job of succeeding. The agents and security were dropping fast and it was apparent that Hydra was only minutes from taking over.
Darcy was trying to nonchalantly reach out from behind the table to grab the gun of a dead guard so that she could have something to defend herself with. Maybe she could grab it and make a run for the elevators and hide in one of the safe rooms Stark had installed.
Finally snagging it she pulled it to her and then froze in panic.
How the hell do you work this thing?
Her father had taken her shooting once. When she was young and before her parents had perished in an accident caused by some asshole who decided to drink and drive.
She should know how this thing worked. Make sure the safety was off. Pull back the hammer. Aim. Fire. Right? Maybe?
Seeing a button on the side she pushed it in, her hands shaking, when a gruff voice sounded behind her.
“You’re doing it wrong!”
Before she could turn around, a metal hand reached around her and yanked the gun from her grip. The man handed it back to her moments later with a quick, “Hurry up.”
Then she was being yanked and rushed through the lobby like they were late for a meeting and not in the middle of a shootout.
“Why are you doing this?”
“You’re friends with the man with the shield.”
“How do you know that?” Darcy’s question wasn’t answered as they reached the elevators (the man, the Winter Solder, her mind thought, had taken out several Hydra guards while he rushed them across the room) and he pushed her in.
“Hide. If you need to, point and shoot.”
And with that he was gone.
By the time the fighting ended and Darcy emerged from her hiding space. The Winter Soldier was gone, which sent an uneasy feeling through Darcy’s stomach. Rejection always stung, even if it was by a known assassin who kind of wasn’t to blame because he’d been brainwashed but was still scary and intimidating even as he’d been saving her.
Later on she was cornered by Captain America who looked both hopeful and crushed at Darcy telling him why and how the Winter Soldier had saved her.
She left out the part about him being her soulmate.
When she was alone and able to cry without witnesses, she found the Soldier’s file on the internet. The feeling of rejection wasn’t soothed though, even when she read that his left arm was cut off in an effort to destroy his ties to his soulmate. They replaced the limb his words had been on with a weapon of their own creation and wiped his mind so that he never remembered he had a soulmate in the first place.
Darcy Lewis never imagined she would meet her soulmate only to have him walk away without even knowing her name.
Maybe she should have.