Bygone

Darcy has never seen such fanfare as the Stark Expo. Not even the Stark Expo she’d attended her senior year of high school on a road trip with friends. The thing is, crazy events are all about technology in the future. They’re all streamlined, and light shows appear and fireworks shoot out of nowhere.

Here everything is real, not projected on a screen. They really built eleven pillars of invention. All of the displays actually hold what they’re displaying instead of an interactive screen.

Darcy is annoying Bucky’s date, Clara. But Steve and Bucky are happy to follow her as she moves from one place to the next. She stops at a seven foot tall robot, staring up at it.

It looks nothing like Iron Man or any of Tony Stark’s robots, of course. It’s face is perfectly round and it’s eyes only light-up. It can’t respond to questions. In jerky movements, it smokes a cigarette.

Still, Darcy is captivated by it. She stays until the group next to them decides to have a cigarette with the robot, and the room starts to fill with smoke. Steve quietly clears his throat, trying to hide it.

She waits a couple minutes longer, then demands to be taken to the next exhibit. Bucky and Clara are in the back, his head dipped down close to hers. Steve rolls his eyes as he escorts Darcy out, but she tugs him over to their own dark corner and steals a kiss.

It ends when Steve has to clear his throat again.

Darcy rests her head on his shoulder, tipping it so his bony collar bone isn’t poking her, and he turns away to cough into his kerchief. She didn’t even like Tony Stark's drones, they creep her out. It was stupid for ‘Electro the Moto-Man’ to make her miss home.

“Darce?” Steve’s hands skim up and down her hips. “Alright, sweetheart?”

Darcy breathes in his familiar scent and nods, straightening. She forces a smile that only brings a raised eyebrow from Steve. “Can we grab some popcorn?”

On the steps of the exhibit three men that slur their words obviously look Darcy up and down. Darcy doesn’t miss the way their eyes flick over Steve, then jerk back to Bucky before they keep moving. She pretends not to notice, and Steve’s arm is stiff under hers.

She sits at a table at a ‘floating’ pavilion that extends out over the river with Clara while Steve and Bucky go for the popcorn. Clara checks her lipstick and pats at her hair.

Darcy wishes Rebecca and John were back, but then, John is at the enlistment station. When they come back he’ll have his training assignment.

She sees Steve and Bucky making their way back, each clutching a bag of popcorn. Her eyes catch on Steve’s, lips twitching at the anticipation and excitement there.

“What did you do?” Darcy asks him when he’s near enough.

“I got you a surprise.” Steve says, offering her the bag of popcorn. She notices Bucky is watching them, amused and intrigued. Clara huffs when she fails to get his attention.

“The popcorn?” Darcy asks, looking down at the bag. Had he paid extra for the kettle corn? She grabs a few kernels, then gasps at the little chunk of chocolate with a blue hard shell. “M&Ms?”

The kiss she plants on him is not appropriate for public, dimly lit or not, and the pavilion is not dimly lit at all.

Steve stares down at her with desire darkened eyes and a smile.

“The merchant thought Steve was nuts, buying a bag of candy and then smashing it.” Bucky says, watching them with a smile.

“You remembered.” Darcy whispers, taking another bite. The flavors of her favorite snack do a lot more for her than the blue lightbulb eyed robot.

“Brand new this year.” Steve tells her, resting his chin on her shoulder.

“Try some.” She has to insist to get him to even try one handful, and then he leaves the rest for her.

As she’d predicted, Steve’s mood plummets when John and Rebecca come back. Darcy stares at the mixture of pride and sadness on their faces and can’t make her mind stop bringing up everything she knew about the second world war.

The group is strangely tense as they make their way to the main exhibit, where Howard Stark himself will be talking.

Darcy grips Steve’s hand tightly as they find a place in the crowd, and then feels her stomach twist when Howard Stark takes the stage. He looks like Tony, only not. His mannerisms and movements. Even his voice, though Howard had a real New York accent and Tony didn’t. Steve doesn’t notice the way Darcy’s world spins.

“We’re going to go home.” Rebecca yells over the crowd.

“I’ll go with you.” Darcy turns and grabs her friend’s hand. Now Steve looks at her, a question in his eyes. But Bucky is leaving from the fair, and she wouldn’t take the next few hours from them. “I’m fine. You stay here with Bucky. Have fun.”

“I’ll see her home safe.” John promises. John, who’s leaving for training in only two days.

Darcy ignores Clara’s clinging and hugs Bucky tightly. “Stay safe.”

“Take care of him.” Bucky responds, and she wonders how his hugs could have come to feel so good in a only a week of knowing him.

Darcy shakes her head and kisses his cheek. “It’s gonna take two of us.”

After John and Rebecca say their goodbyes, they’re picking their way through crowds, out of the expo as applause swells, then stutters out at the sound of a small explosion.

“I’m still working out a few kinks.” Howard Stark’s voice echoes, garnering a smattering of adoring laughter.

Darcy rolls her eyes. Scientists.

Rebecca and John are subdued on the subway ride home. Darcy can’t blame them. She can’t imagine Steve leaving her for the battlefront.

He comes home very late. He slides into bed behind her and tells her to go back to sleep. She relishes the feel of his arms sliding around her, too tired to feel guilty about it.

She wakes up to the radio on low and the smell of breakfast cooking. It must be the last of the nicer foods they’d bought to have while Bucky was with them, because they normally have toast.

She takes care of her bathroom business, then walks through the apartment with her hands stretched out for her cup of coffee. “You’re up early after getting in so late. Couldn’t you sleep?”

He hands her the mug of coffee with a gentle, heavy look. Alarm shoots through her. “Steve?”

“Let’s sit.” He dishes up two plates and carries them to the table. Darcy follows him over and sinks into her chair. “Eat something.”

“Tell me what happened. Did someone get hurt?” Darcy scans him for any new bruises.

“I enlisted. I got accepted into a special program.”

Darcy’s hand actually goes to her chest, like in those old movies with the over dramatic actors. Except that it feels like her heart has dropped out of her chest.

“S’okay, doll.” Steve drags his chair over so they’re sitting knee to knee and takes her hands. “They’re sayin’ it’ll all be over by Christmas anyway.”

Yep, and that does it. Darcy is damn close to hyperventilating. She forces herself to focus on the important parts, just like when there’s a fire in the lab. Where are the extinguishers? Where is Jane? Can things be saved, and if so, what is priority? Is there a wormhole nearby?

“Special project?”

Steve nods. “I’ll report on Monday, like John, but I’m headed to a different camp. I won’t be able to write, but I’ll be through training in only six weeks.”

“Why can’t you write? Bucky got to write. What reason could they have to not let you write home?” Darcy asks him, not liking the sound of this at all. “Did you sign anything?”

“Calm down, sweetheart. It’s just a project they’re keeping quiet about for now. No one else gets to write home either, but I might be able to call you at the bank sometime.” Steve rubs his hands up and down her arms. “And I’m already all signed up.”

He reaches over to the kitchen counter, next to the toaster, and hands her a small piece of paper. It declares Steve Rogers, date of birth July 4th, 1918, to have been found acceptable for induction into all active military service.

“I know you’re scared, but I’d like it if you could be proud too.” Steve says softly.

“Oh, Steve. I’m always proud of you.” Darcy says, tears leaking down her face.

That night they have Rebecca and John over for dinner. They talk frankly about Mrs. Barnes, who had returned from her trip even weaker than before. About how Darcy and Rebecca will take care of each other.

They don’t talk about Steve’s special enlistment, other than to mention that he’s going to a different base than John.

Rebecca hugs her tightly at the door and whispers, “We’ll get through this.”

The next night they have dinner just the two of them. Steve had wanted to spend a little extra at the butcher for something nice, but after hosting Bucky and attending the Expo they’re strapped for cash. They have a couple pan fried sausage cakes and boiled rice.

Steve pulls her to her feet to dance in the living room when there’s a knock on the door.

Darcy stands back as Steve gets the door.

“Hey pal, I just wanted to check in on you.” Howard Stark paces into the living room, glancing quickly around, “Erksine says you’re the-“

Stark stops, staring at Darcy.

“Mr. Stark-“

“Howard. My friends call me Howard.”

“Howard,” Steve starts again, “this is my wife, Darcy.”

Darcy wants to punch the man when his eyes widen with incredulity. Steve moves into the kitchen, pulling out the bottle of whiskey they’d shared with Bucky.

“Hi-ya.” Howard says, folding his hands into his pockets to look Darcy over again.

Darcy smiles sweetly. “We’re on his deaf side.”

“Deaf side?” Howard repeats, glancing towards Steve.

“Mmm-hmm. You have any more trouble remembering where my eyes are, I’m going to electrocute you with the toaster. By accident.” Darcy lets her smile grow pointier. “Then, while you’re drooling on the floor, I’m going to tell him why I did it. He’s stronger than he looks.”

“I’m starting to see that.” Howard says.

“I hope this is alright. What did you want to discuss Mis- Howard?” Steve comes back into the living room carrying three small glasses of whiskey.

Howard accepts the whiskey and throws it back. “Well, pal, I was just making sure you weren’t letting the nerves get to you, but I can see you’ve got things well in hand.”

Turning to her again, Howard looks her straight in the eye with a quirk of his lips. “Kid, you need anything, you let me know.”

“How about you make sure he gets a phone call.” Darcy suggests.

“I’ll make it happen.” Howard promises, tipping his head to Steve and putting his hat back on as he walks out the door.

“What in the world are you doing that Howard Stark is involved?” Darcy asks, turning on Steve.

“They’re going to explain it all to me tomorrow. And Howard just promised you a phone call. I promise I’ll call and tell you everything, sweetheart. Alright?”

Darcy lets him pull her into his arms. “Alright.”

She tries to shake off her fears to give him a good last night, like they’d tried to give Bucky. They dance in the living room and Steve kisses her until she feels dizzy with it, with love for him.

He cleans up their glasses and goes to wash them in the sink, and Darcy waits in the living room for him to take her to bed.

She’s so filled with emotion that she’s shaking in the middle of her chest. She loves him so much, and she can’t imagine her life without his steady arm on the way to and from work, his teasing smiles. She grabs her purse to shove his enlistment receipt inside and notices she’d broken a nail.

“Darcy?” Steve turns to face her, holding a dish rag that had seen better days.

She hears the roar in her ears and is confused for only a second, and then she sees the lights.

“Darcy!” Steve drops the dish rag and runs for her.

“Steve!” Darcy reaches out, but she’s yanked away.