Chapter 7
There is no manual, but there are new safety protocols with very spesific details, so apparently Sam and Steve compromised. Darcy reads them over, decides that the Winter Soldier isn’t going to come anywhere near the labs after his experience with Hydra, and moves on.
She is down in Finance, trying to get Melanie to give her the permission she needs to order some more supplies for the lab. This is a regular occurrence by now. All the fancy lab equipment comes via Stark Industries, but there are tons of little components that are specific to the crazy machines Jane builds. And they need to be specially ordered, sometimes from the weirdest places. Last week Darcy ordered knitting needles, a box of glass beads and some reeds. Like clarinet reeds. The invoice looked insane, but what Jane needed, Jane got. But it also meant that Darcy spent a lot of time down at Finance, since she didn’t have the authority (on paper) to just order seemingly random things.
Melanie was complaining about all the paper work involved, and the time wasted because Darcy wasn’t head of the department. There wasn’t really a department either, just Jane and sometimes Bruce. On her way back, permission papers tightly clutched to her chest, Darcy thinks about the department issue. She is so lost in thought that she doesn’t see where she’s going until she bumps into something hard.
Muttering a curse and dropping to the floor to gather up her papers, she looks up to find Barnes staring down at her. His face is a blank mask, and after a few seconds Darcy just gives him a shrug and a sorry before scooping up her papers and continuing on her way. The curses are still flowing from her mouth under her breath, and it’s only later that she remembers that with his super hearing he could totally hear her.
Well, great. So much for making a good first impression.
James is still standing in the hallway, looking after her. He doesn’t know who she is, only that she is the first civilian in this place to not run from him in poorly disguised fear. And the curse words were really inventive.
He shakes it off and continues on his way. Sam had suggested that he familiarised himself with the rest of the facility, which led to a long argument with Steve. That punk was the king of all the mother hens. It was driving James crazy, but he owed Steve everything, so he put up with it. Sam was good, if annoying. He kept pushing Steve to let James do things on his own, like scooping out the whole facility.
He wasn’t stupid, he knows that they are watching him on the monitors, but he ignores it in favour of mapping out all the hallways, exits and weak spots. It calms him, gives him a small feeling of control. He huffs, Sam really knows his stuff. If Steve is a punk then Sam is a bastard. But, he needs help. Anything to get Hydra out of his head for good. So he listens and follows the advice he’s given and ignores every civilian who stare at him or run and hide.
Everyone except the cursing brunette.