Sol 6 (4)
“What’s going on?” Steve asked. “Tony? Why are we here?”
“Just a sec,” Stark answered distractedly. “We’re waiting for Shortstack to get here - Foster managed to get some food in her, finally.”
“Doesn’t it usually work the other way around?” Sam asked with a smile, which rapidly vanished as he processed Tony’s lack of humour.
“Not today,” Tony just sighed. “Not today. Hey, Lewis!” he jumped off the couch arm he’d been sitting on as Darcy and Foster came in. She looked better, Tony thought. She’d washed off the makeup, and she looked less… distraught. Not more alive, though. If anything, Darcy looked a bit like the walking dead. “Come on, sit here.” He put a hand on the small of her back and guided her to his armchair - the most comfortable seat in the room. As it should be.
“Are you gonna tell them?” she asked dully.
“I - “ Tony said, taken aback by her tone - the apathy. It wasn’t like her. Not that she should be anywhere near normal, right now. “Unless you wanna.”
“No, you do it,” she said, putting her head in her hands. “I’ll let you know if you screw something up.”
“You always do,” Tony replied, trying to restore some of the levity. Darcy glanced up at him, and his heart broke for her, watching her try and smile up at him.
“Here, Darce,” Foster said, bustling over with a Gatorade. “Drink up - you’re still dehydrated.”
Tony could feel the others watching - Sam and Steve on the couch, Barton and Romanov staring from the coffee table and standing against the window, respectively. “Let’s get started,” he said, clapping his hands together. He pulled up a holoscreen, and JARVIS started projecting images in time with his words.
“As you may or may not know,” Tony began with a significant look at Steve, who shot him the bird with a smile, then immediately got back to Serious Mode. “NASA has been sending people to Mars for approximately 13 years now. The latest mission is Ares 3. Commander Lewis, Martinez, Johanssen, Beck, Vogel, and Mark Watney.” Darcy drew in a breath, and Tony put a hand on her shoulder. “Lewis and Martinez are both military, Johanssen’s their tech weenie, Beck’s the doc, and Vogel and Watney are the researchers.” Something in Tony winced at the use of present tense, but he couldn’t bring himself to use the past. “Today was Sol 6 - the sixth day of their mission. Something went wrong.
“There was a storm - stronger than NASA expected, and the MAV - the rocket that takes the astronauts from Mars to the Hermes, began to tip. If it tips too far, it can’t get to orbit anymore, so NASA scrubbed the mission. Winds were strong, stuff was blowing everywhere, and”
“Mark got hit,” Darcy said woodenly. Tony stopped in shock, but Darcy kept going. “They think something in the comms array hit him, and Lewis and the crew couldn’t find him. He’s dead, on Mars. They’ll probably send Ares 4 to look for his body.” A single tear streaked down her cheek.
“What does this have to do with us?” Barton asked. “I mean, yeah, it really sucks for Watney and his family-“ Barton stopped with an oof as Natasha’s shoe landed on his middle.
“Mark is - was - my fiancé,” Darcy said softly. She started twisting something on her left hand, and Tony noticed a ring he’d never seen before on her ring finger. It was a garnet with a diamond on either side, flickering in the light as Darcy twisted it back and forth. “I heard from Venkat Kapoor - he’s part of NASA - today.”
There was a general wordless murmur of denial. Steve was the first up and kneeling in front of Darcy. She looked into his face, then crumpled into his shoulder as he hugged her. Widow was there next, putting her arms around both of them and whispering into Darcy’s ear, who listened, then nodded.
“What else do we know?” Barton asked, coming over to talk to Tony.
“Lewis almost got herself and her crew stranded trying to find Watney,” Tony said softly. “The MAV was tipping - almost 14 degrees - while they were waiting for Lewis and Johanssen to search - Martinez did something with the thrusters to tip it back upright. Not that it helped Watney.”
“Shit.” The archer looked at the pictures JARVIS was still projecting.
Tony nodded. “They’ll be back in just over a year,” he said.
“How’d we not know?” Barton asked.
Tony shrugged. “She doesn’t have to tell us everything. I hadn’t seen the ring until today.”
Barton nodded. “Noticed that.” He looked at Nat, caught her eye, and then proceeded to have the kind of wordless conversation with her that drove Tony nuts. “We’ll be back,” he said. “See what else we can dig up.” He grimaced. “Although I dunno what else we can do.”
Tony nodded. The not being able to do anything to help was starting to drive him nuts too. He gave himself a week before he was trying to design Lewis an Iron Man suit of her very own.
“Good luck.” Barton sketched him a wonky salute, then vanished noiselessly, following Widow.