Chapter 5
"We're just not getting the readings I thought we would." Jane's voice was strange and echoed from the bowels of her machine, "Maybe we should consider going somewhere north again. Just for a little while."
Taking an unhappy sip from her coffee, Darcy drained away the last of her evening cup while she listened with half an ear to Jane's ramblings.
"Jane, I have a problem."
Jane stuck her head out from the bottom of her latest machine, hair disheveled, duct tape clutched in hand. "Why? What happened?" she asked in that 'am-I-concerned-or-am-I-about-to-be-angry' mom voice. Which was adorable because Darcy was definitely the responsible one between the two of them. (At least she didn't go around sticking her hand in glowing crevices after falling through inter-dimensional wormholes.)
"Cool your heels, mama bear. I just…" Darcy sighed.
In a move that looked vaguely like something out of a horror movie, Jane scuttled out from under the metal contraption. "What's wrong?" she demanded. Darcy spun her chair a little side to side.
"There may possibly be someone I'm …interested in." Darcy scowled.
Jane blinked in surprise. "Really?"
Darcy gave her a perfectly deadpan look and the other woman shook her head. "I didn't mean it like that." Jane denied. Brushing off her pants the astrophysicists pulled up a chair beside her. "I'm surprised is all. You've been so adamant about not dating."
Darcy frowned and rolled a highlighter between her hands. Jane sighed and gave her assistant a meaningful look. "I've told you already what I think. That hasn't changed. If they turn out to be a jerk then they weren't worth your time to begin with."
"That's basically the same advice I gave you after Thor left the first time!" Darcy huffed.
Her boss shrugged unrepentantly, "Guess you give good advice then."
Darcy clicked the highlighter lid; on, off, on, off. "It's more complicated for me!" she insisted.
"I'm sure it probably is," Jane agreed gently, "and if you don't want to do anything that's fine. But if it's something that would make you happy then I stand by my previous advice. It doesn't have to be anything serious or intense. Just take it slow, invite them out to do something fun."
"Urg, I hate when you're reasonable. It is so unhelpful!"
Jane laughed a little then stood and began clearing away her tools. "Come on. It's Friday and it's about time for movie night to start anyway."
Feeling unreasonably grumpy, Darcy spun her chair back to her desk, saved her documents, and shut down for the night. She followed Jane over to the elevator. She stood in resolute grumpy silence while Jane bumped her side repeatedly. "Alright, alright, fine." she grouched, feeling a grin trying to sneak its way onto her face.
She really was glad she could talk freely with Jane.
When she had first taken her internship with the astrophysics things had been a little tense. They hadn't work very well together at first; two stubborn bulls butting heads. Jane had been really hoping for someone who understood her field and Darcy was still trying to recover from all the shit that had gone down on campus and hadn't appreciated feeling like she was being talked down to. Then that email had come in. Darcy had been certain those had stopped before she had applied for the internship with Jane, but low one morning there was one sitting in 'the teams' general inbox. Jane had read it in the early morning before Darcy could get a chance to delete it.
Jane's response to it had been the beginnings of the shift in their relationship.
Using all the clout and intimidation afforded her by two PhD's and a doctorate, Jane had written the most professional, scathing, vaguely threatening reply possible and then taken Erik and Darcy out for ice cream in the New Mexican heat. They never received another email after that and Jane had moved from Darcy's 'sort-of-loser-boss' category to 'possible good friend' status. A few life threatening adventures later and they might as well be blood sisters. Ah the magic of shared trauma.
The elevator doors slid open and the two met the rest of the team in what was now the designated movie night room.
"Foster! Lewis! About time you got here." Tony grinned from the couch and tossed them both baggies full of toast, a sheet of paper, and a few other odd assortments.
Darcy took in the room full of superheroes and wondered when this had become so normal. That these crazy amazing people were people she just hung out with like it was nbd.
Her eyes scanned the couch and she blinked in surprise.
For the first time Darcy could remember Natasha was not curled up beside Clint in the overstuffed chair.
Instead she was seated next to Tony on the couch, wrapped tightly in a fleece blanket with an open seat beside her. On Tony's other side sat a cheery looking War Machine; Darcy had recently learned his actual name was Jim 'Rhodey'. (What was up with these super people and their names? Jim? Clinton? Guess there was a reason they used codenames….) Vision was beside Scarlet Witch on the double loveseat. Clint waved from his usual padded arm chair seemingly not bothered by being separated from Natasha.
Miraculously both Falcon and Steve Rogers had managed to join them for the night. The two were seated on cushions on the floor, Falcon going through the little baggy with Steve who was wearing a dubious expression.
Sharply telling herself not to read too much into it, Darcy sat carefully next to Natasha only to have to scooch up beside her to make room for Jane when she joined them with a large plastic bowl of popcorn.
From under her blanket wrap one of Natasha's pale hands emerged and tossed Darcy a little of her blanket slack. Obligingly, Darcy stretched it over herself to tuck into the warmth. She stubbornly ignored the sudden pounding of her heart.
They watch Rocky Horror Picture Show, a movie Clint had fought for for months. And Darcy had to admit it was incredibly amusing to watch Captain America confusedly throwing toast at the screen at completely wrong times. Darcy rolled her eyes as Dr. Frankfurter snuck into bed with Janet. "Boo! Heteronormativity." She jeered.
Everyone looked at her. "What? You guys don't do that one?"
Jane kicked her and pushed her off the couch with demands for a popcorn refill which she figured was only fair since she had stolen a good half of the bowl.
-….-….-…-
Darcy deliberated for days. She'd gotten stuck on a patch of code and was now having to avoid both her laptop and her incredibly inconvenient 'feelings'. Maybe Vulcans had the right idea…Even if she wanted to do something about it, she argued with herself, what could she do? Invite The Black Widow out to eat? Would Natasha even enjoy that kind of thing? She probably didn't even like woman that way...and even if she did, it was exceedingly unlikely Natasha would be interested in dating someone like Darcy.
Feeling pent up and restless, Darcy wandered around the facility at night like the worlds cuddliest pouty-est ghost.
Early one evening her feet led her back to the training floors of the compound that she hadn’t been back to since her quest to find Clint. At the large viewing window she stopped and looked down on the obstacle course. It was alight this time and the full team seemed to be down there.
Training drones swooped all around the padded scaffolding while the Avengers dodged and flew around them. It looked like they were trying to solve some kind of puzzle? Tony and War Machine were working together to 'save' plastic dummy hostages while Natasha, Clint, and Wanda worked to diffuse some fake bomb that needed keys hidden around the arena. Vision floated eerily in the air, relaying everyone's positions while Captain America and Falcon took down the drones. Darcy lost track of time watching them. They were really incredible to see in action (plus she had the bonus now of not having to be simultaneously running for cover.)
The giant countdown clock on the wall froze as the last of the keys was slotted into place. Darcy observed as Natasha rose from her crouched position over the fake bomb to stretch. Clint caught the woman's shoulder and they traded congratulations as the team made their way together.
A beeping from her phone alerted her of a text from Jane. (She had set Jane's alert sound to 'Still Alive' very shortly after meeting her).
J: Girls night still on?
Darcy sent off a quick confirmation and glanced back at the glass. A few of the bots were still flying around and Darcy looked up just in time to see Vision and Captain America both yell warnings to Tony.
Iron Man half spun one way towards Vision then back the other towards Steve, just in time for a bot to ram into his back. War Machine wasted no time in blasting the offending bot to pieces as Tony spun 360 degrees in the air and dropped down to land harshly on his feet. His face plate flew up as Rhodey touched down beside him. He waved his arms around emphatically, gesturing to the slowly descending Vision. Captain America removed his own helmet, whipping an arm crossed his sweaty face. The Scarlet Witch crossed her arms as she joined the group. Natasha's cool eyes bounced from Steve to Tony, the brief smile that had emerged following their victory gone.
Rhodey put an armored hand on Tony's shoulder as Steve looked from Avenger to Avenger, seemingly giving notes on each of their performances. It went on for a few minutes before the team broke apart; Scarlet Witch, Vision, Clint, and Falcon making for the exit as Natasha stepped forward to speak to Steve. Tony clapped Rhodey on the back then shook off his friend to head for a separate exit.
Darcy watched him stomp off in the suit then backed away from the window. She hurried down another corridor and swiftly took the stairs down two flights. Coming out the stair well she caught a flash of Iron Man turning another corner ahead of her. When she reached it herself she turned to find Tony Stark sitting on the ground with his helmet in his hands.
He was staring into the visors empty eyes.
He scowled lowering the helmet when he recognized someone approaching and glared over his shoulder. "Lewis." He said when he recognized her, "What do you want?"
Darcy shrugged and sat down beside him on the cool floor. Tony shook his head in irritation, "Yeah, no. Whatever this is- not in the mood." "Oh come on dude. I'm not going to make you talk about mushy feelings." Darcy assured him.
He shot her an irritated look, "Oh yeah? That's not what this sitting down business isn't a precursor to?"
She let his frustrations run off her like water. "Nah. I just wanted a chance to touch the suit is all. Plus I'm too lazy to stand. Can I?" She asked with her hand poised above the metal arms. With a heaving sigh Tony held out his plated hand and Darcy ran her fingers along the groves in the metal. She took care not to get near the repulsor ports even though they were currently dark.
"What is this? This isn't some weird fetish is it?" Tony demanded meanly. His hair was a dark mess and there were bruised colored circles under his brown eyes.
"I just think it's really cool." Darcy told him honestly as she pulled her hand away.
Neither of them said anything for a few moments.
Iron Man's eyes fell back to those of the helmets. "I used to have someone watching my back." He murmured angrily. It was so soft she was certain she wasn't supposed to hear it.
Darcy almost said 'you still do' before she swallowed the words back. His teammates weren't who he was talking about she knew. "Jarvis" she agreed in realization. Because of course Tony Stark would have had his magical A.I. integrated into his suit. As she had suspected, Jarvis had been more than a security system then. In her mind she saw again that bot slamming into Tony's back.
…someone to watch his back…
Tony's nostrils flared for an instant before he let his head fall back against the wall tiredly. "Yeah…Jarvis. And this is exactly what you said we weren't going to do, beanie baby. Couldn't even last five minutes." He said angrily, clambering to his feet in the armor. Darcy watched him from the floor as he disappeared down the hall.
Shit.
Her phone buzzed again and, trying to shake off the melancholy that was setting in, Darcy sent off another text to tell Jane she was on her way. Locking her phone again, Darcy crawled to her feet and dusted off her jeans. Then she made her way towards the elevators, mind buzzing.
(Around another dark corner Natasha pushed silently off the wall and made for the showers.)