The dim lights shone through her closed eyelids, telling her groggy brain that it must actually be awake. She blinked her eyes, trying to make sense of the blurred grey filling her vision. The more she woke the more aware she was of how horrible she felt. Her body was stiff and achy like she'd run 5 miles without stretching and then slept all night in a bad position on a pile of rocks, her mouth was dry and her throat was scratchy, her vision was blurred and she couldn't focus. If she hadn't known better she would say she felt hungover but at the same time still very very drunk.
'Well that's new' she thought to herself as her vision swam and finally focused enough to make out the drab grey of the cell she was laying on the floor of. She swallowed a few times, trying to get rid of the dry scratchy feeling in her throat.
"Darcy? Darcy!" a face came into focus in front of her face, the voice getting louder and sharper the harder she tried to focus. It took her a few moments to place the face in front of her. It was her date, John.
"Well that's new too" she mumbled out loud. Her stomach rolled violently as John pulled her into a sitting position on the floor, her muscles screaming at the strain. She pulled in a few ragged breaths, trying desperately to quell the sickness waiting to spill out of her.
"What the mother fuck?" she whispered to herself as the wave of nausea passed "He fucking drugged me? Not cool man." Her date was talking to her, she could hear him, his voice low and panicked, but she couldn't concentrate on the words he was saying, could barely get her head to move so she could look over to him, her eyes glassy and unfocused.
She didn't know how long it had been since they had been walking out of the restaurant that they had had a nice dinner at or how long it had been since she had even woken up. It could have been hours or even days for all she knew, but whatever they had drugged her with was strong and was taking its time working from her system. A loud knock from the reinforced metal door at the front of their tiny cell had both of them jerking up looking toward it. The plate covering the bars toward the top middle part of the door was pulled back and Darcy smiled unintentionally at the familiar face.
"Hey Darcy girl, how are you feeling?" his face was drawn in a concerned frown, his words just barely above a whisper, like he knew her head was pounding.
"Hey Joey, I've been better. Probably doing about as good as I can be considering I was fucking drugged." She bit out with a little more venom than she had intended. Joey just nodded his head in understanding.
"I've got some water and saltines here for you, figured your stomach might not be up to real food yet. Got some tacos on the way in an hour or so if you're still here and feeling up for it" his voice was still low but was cheerful now. Darcy nodded her head and mumbled her thanks as a panel on the bottom of the door was opened and a tray with multiple bottles of water and an entire box of crackers was pushed through. Joey turned his eyes to the man sitting next to her.
"Sorry I didn't bring you anything other than crackers, but I figured the smell of food might not agree with Darce's stomach yet, but as soon as she's ready I'll get ya something." he was apologetic but at the same time almost dismissive toward the man.
"How long have we been here Joey?" Darcy practically slurred, after John pulled the tray toward them with his foot, not moving from his spot next to her.
"About 10 hours now. You've been out of it, but awake, for maybe an hour now." His eyebrows were drawn in concern again, frown fully back on his face as he tilted his head toward the tray "get something in your stomach, Darce, you wanna be ready for when your boys get here." Darcy scoffed at his wiggled eyebrows.
"How's Kat? Did she get into MIT like she wanted to?" Darcy asked, screwing up her face as she tried to piece together a coherent sentence. Sipping her water and effectively changing the subject from the superheroes she lived with and didn't want to talk about in front of her shell shocked date, who she just realized she had not yet actually spoken to since she woke up.
Joey's whole demeanor changed when she brought up his daughter, his back straightened, his chest puffed out and the proudest dad look she'd ever seen bloomed across his face.
"Yes she did!" he exclaimed with excited joy "got that scholarship with Stark Industries she'd been going after too!"
"No way! That's amazing!" she smiled at Joey and gave him a weak double thumbs up, trying to convey her enthusiasm properly through her still drugged state. A staticky voice over Joey's radio halted their conversation and Joey beamed at them through the bars on the door. The voice was too broken up and far away for Darcy to understand, but the look on Joey's face and the way he quickly said his goodbye's before darting down the corridor clued Darcy into what was going on. Their rescue wagon was here.
Darcy quickly finished off her bottle of water and shoved a few crackers in her mouth before swinging her head toward John, who was staring at her with a look of almost horror on his face.
"Um... Sorry, I got you kidnapped, dude" she shrugged, trying to find a way to explain. "My ex is psycho? But you know, I never thought he'd kidnap my date too, so like, yeah, sorry?"
He gapped at her like a fish for a few moments before opening his mouth to say something, then shutting it again with a quick snap and looking away.
"I think this goes way beyond psycho," he muttered, probably more to himself than to her but she nodded and made a quick grunt of agreement anyway. She never got a chance to reply though as the door in front of them clanked open and the most terrifyingly intimidating man she'd ever laid eyes on stood in the doorway, taking up almost the entirety of the space. Even though she and John were not close enough to touch, she could feel him stiffen in fear next to her as the dark, leather-clad man with the murder face took a slow step into the room. His dark hair fell partially in front of his face, a gun clutched firmly in his right hand as the light in the hallway gleamed off the metal of his left arm, both hanging stiffly at his sides.
"10 hours? Losing your touch Bucky Babe" Darcy sassed at the man in front of her and grinned as she watched some of the tension bleed out of his shoulders, his expression morphing from cold murder bot to a charming smile.
"Maybe I was trying to teach you a lesson Darcy Doll" he drawled, throwing her a wink. Darcy rolled her eyes at him and lifted her arms up and made grabby hands toward him.
"I was drugged and can't get up. I also don't think I can handle charming Bucky right now, that grin makes me want to pinch your cheeks and tell you how adorable you are. So, give me my murder bot back." Bucky sighed heavily and rolled his eyes before grabbing her arms and hauling her up into his arms.
"you gonna be able to walk outta here?" he directed the question to John, looking at him for the first time since he came in. He was still on the floor, curling in on himself in fear. He nodded slowly at Bucky's question and got up off the floor even more slowly.
"So why were you drugged? He's never done that before" Bucky thought out loud as they made their way out of the Hydra base, bucky casually strolling over bodies that had been left in his wake.
"Mad at me for going on a date I guess. I don't know, though. I mean, kidnapping me right in front of him would have chased him off perfectly fine. Right John?" the man in question gave a shrug and a nod, though he didn't look like he was even paying attention, he was too busy staring at the blood and the felled bodies they were passing.
"They aren't all dead" Bucky threw the words over his shoulder, making the man behind him jump, "Darcy Doll plays favorites. So we let them live." He sighed again, sounding exasperated and fond all at the same time.
"You have favorite Hydra agents?" he sounded horrified and Darcy's still drug-addled brain made her giggle.
"Private security. This might be a Hydra base, but most of them are private security now. And to be honest, really only Joey is my favorite, but I'm working on getting him a job at the facility. Better working conditions, better pay, better benefits, plus he won't have to worry about the Avengers forgetting he's my favorite and kicking his ass." Darcy giggled again.
"Wait. Avengers?" John questioned, just as the door in front of them was blown right off its hinges, causing Bucky to turn his back swiftly and throw them all to the floor.
"Jesus fucking Christ Stevie, you could have fucking warned me. or not blown up the god damned door."Bucky growled out at the man in the doorway who was giving them a sheepishly apologetic look, his shield clutched in front of him to stop the debris from hitting him.
"Sorry, I got a little carried away" he mumbled. Darcy was full on laughing now, clutching on to Bucky's shoulders where he still laid on top of her to shield them from the blast, with John sprawled underneath her.
"Sorry?? Don't be sorry, Stevie! I love it when you blow shit up. It's super hot" she cackled, trying to wiggle her way out from under one man and off of the other while her head spun from the drugs. Bucky sighed again and started standing up, pulling Darcy back into his arms and using one hand to support her while he used the other to pull up her, now near catatonic, date. He pushed the man unceremoniously toward Steve, grinning as Steve rushed to put away his shield to help the man stumbling into him.
"Captain America?" he whispered, his eyes wide and going glassy. Darcy giggled into Bucky's shoulder as she watched her date fangirl over the captain who was trying to help him walk.
"Oh my god, he is going to need so much therapy after this." Darcy cackled.