Prologue
The first time Darcy Lewis meets the Black Widow is actually the second. For bragging purposes Darcy totally counted that ceremonial re-opening party of the new Avengers facility as the first time she met 'The Avengers'. Discounting her alien prince BFF Thor, of course.
Following the mayhem in London she and Jane, fueled by a flooding of grants and Thor's global popularity, had bounced around the world. They went south for a while, spending brief stints in Argentina, New Zealand, and South Africa. Eventually however the time Thor was able to spend with them began to lessen as he jumped back and forth from Asguard to Earth in the search of Loki's evil glow stick. After several fruitless expeditions south Jane turned her ambitions northward. They were freezing their asses off in Qaanaaq Greenland when news of an evil robot army hit the air waves. Thor disappeared again and then Sokovia happened.
Suddenly people's good will wasn't quite what it once was and the grant money began to stretch thin. It was all kinds of shitty. So Jane had finally caved and accepted the offered position with the Avengers that had been standing since the Battle of New York. (Although truth be told it was a little difficult for Darcy to tell whether they really worked directly for the Avengers or for Stark Industries). And because Jane was a badass, one for her many conditions of acceptance was the inclusion if her 'intern' and Darcy had gotten to hitch a ride along.
They had both been guests of honor (Jane more so then Darcy) at the grand re-opening of the Avengers Facility following the disaster in Sokovia.
It had been a marvelous day. In an effort to generate good press, the opening had been turned into something of a gala and a good portion of the guests had been journalists. The night had had more speeches then a college graduation but the tons of good food and music evened the deal in Darcy's mind.
The group of heroes had had a table all to themselves right by the front of the stage for maximum exposure. She and Jane had been seated only a few tables back, right in-between the general science pawns and the actually important people. From her seat Darcy could see the back of Black Widows head.
Darcy, like the rest of the world, had seen the crazy footage of The Battle of New York. It would have been impossible not to -even for someone without her interest in political science. Unlike the rest of the world however Darcy was aware of a certain secret government agency that really liked to record and take stuff that didn't belong to them. And a little prime hacking had gotten her access to extra footage that hadn't been released to the general public. A lot of that classified stuff had been footage of the two supposed super spies. The two the media had dubbed the 'Black Widow' and 'Hawkeye'.
She remembered distinctly sitting at her laptop in New Mexico, the poor ac buzzing in a strenuous effort to keep the room cool, and watching the grainy footage of a tiny blood red haired woman tasering the crap out of aliens. Darcy had been suitably beguiled.
Being literal feet away from the woman was mindboggling. If Thor had been there she totally would have used him to get an autograph. As he was back in Asguard for the moment, the traitor, she had had to think of another way to get close to the table.
In a spur of pure genius, Darcy had weaved between tables in a complicated pattern that took her right by their table, which had given her the chance to give a head-nod of acknowledgement in the team's general direction as she made her way to the buffet for a second helping. And that totally counted as a greeting in her book. Completely.
So for bragging purposes was concerned Darcy always said that she has met all of the Avengers before.
After moving in to the compound however, she had been surprised to actually have real run-ins with members of the team. She'd given The Vision a cup of jasmine tea once, delivered a piece of mixed up mail to War Machine. Captain America nodded at her when they pass in the halls so she was pretty sure he knew she worked there and The Scarlet Witch had once complimented her double chocolate chip cookies. And one time she dragged a half-dead with sleep deprivation Tony Stark to the couch when she found him looking sad and lost and swaying on his feet in the common room. She didn't think he remembered that though.
The 'murder twins' as she sometimes referred to the spies in her head, had been curiously absent through it all. Darcy wasn't sure if it was because they weren't actually in the building or if the two were simply avoiding everyone (Darcy).
It was not until 2 months past moving in and renewing her contract with Jane that Darcy Lewis met the Black Widow for the second (first) time.
It basically happened like this-