Bygone

Back in New York, Darcy keeps up a schedule of Sunday brunches with JJ and Andrew. She also is invited to Andrew’s thirty-sixth birthday party, which is a family affair in a swanky restaurant. The restaurant is crowded and filled with people in fancy dress. As Darcy squeezes through the crowd she bumps more than a few boxy pagers clipped to hips.

She’s introduced as JJ’s cousin when she reaches the table. She’s the only member of JJ’s family present. Unlike JJ, Andrew has siblings, and he still has both his parents and one of his grandmothers.

She’s there for moral support. Andrew’s family has just started accepting them as a couple, and therefore they’ve only recently begun seeing them.

Andrew’s mother Elaine is sweet and incredibly nervous. As the dinner progresses, she’s almost desperate to smooth any rough spots, and to include JJ in the conversation. Andrew’s father Gene mops at his forehead with a handkerchief, and watches the people at the tables nearby.

Darcy glares down Andrew’s oldest sister over appetizers, and then again over dessert. She’d once called Andrew a pervert at Christmas and told him not to go near the children. Tonight, she seems content to make snarky remarks, cowed by her mother’s sharp looks. She spends the meal looking like she’s sucking on a lemon.
Darcy shares a cab ride home with Andrew and JJ, and the two of them laugh over it. But when the cab stops at Darcy’s apartment building, JJ climbs out of the cab to give her hug.

“Thanks Aunt Darcy.” He says quietly, giving one of those full body hugs the Barnes were all so good at.
Summer still hasn’t let go on an uncommonly warm September Sunday when JJ and Andrew never show for brunch. She goes home and calls them to no answer and leaves a message. The next day she takes a cab to their apartment and when her knocks aren’t answered, she lets herself in with her key.

The state of their apartment reassures her. All the dishes are put away and everything is neat. Not like they’d just left in the morning and not come back.

Still she calls Howard at work. The secretary is wary of interrupting him. Darcy tries the magic words again. “It’s Darcy Lewis.”

“Kid?” Howard is saying minutes later, sounding only half there. “If this isn’t important-

“JJ and Andrew stood me up for brunch yesterday. I’m at their apartment and they aren’t here.”

Howard says nothing for a few seconds, then when he speaks she can tell she has his attention. “I’ll call down to the marina. Why don’t you head over here? You want me to send a driver?”

“No, I can take a cab. Thanks, Howard.”

JJ and Andrew are declared missing by noon after it’s discovered that they set out on a day cruise on Friday afternoon. The coast guard cooperates with a group ‘performing a military training exercise’ that ‘happened to be in the area’.

After five days they’re declared lost at sea.

Peggy does Darcy’s make up and pins a blonde wig on her head so she can attend the funeral with the extended Prescott family. Darcy doesn’t know what to do with the way Peggy touches her softly, fingers carding through her hair, gently buttoning her dress, and finally squeezing Darcy’s hand tightly.

Howard and Maria go with her, and stand on either side of her. Peggy and the Commandos stand at the back. She’s numb through the entire thing, until the coffin starts to lower, and then breaks down. Her sweet JJ.

After the funeral she doesn’t go to the wake. She’d have to think too much, to hide herself.

Instead Howard and Maria host a Rogers Circle wake at the mansion. There is food, but there’s also a lot to drink. Darcy isn’t sure who carries her up to bed, only that the sun is still high in sky.

It’s dark when she’s woken up by a knock at the door.

“I may have stolen a car. But my dad owns it, so is it really a crime?” Tony says, standing on the other side.

“And Howard doesn’t know yet? Your driver is so fired.”

“I may have locked him in the lab.” Tony shrugs. “So, I hear hugs are a thing in situations like this.”

Darcy hugs him.

“Man, you are short. You make me feel tall.” He mutters, then his arms tighten around her when she starts to cry. “Darcy, I’m really not good with tears or crying or really genuine emotion in general.”

He shuffles her backwards in the room. “Are you drunk? Because I’m slightly better with drunk tears.”

He gets her back in bed, then gets her a glass of water from the bathroom, and two pain pills. Then he nods to himself. “Much better with drunks. Now I’ll sit with you and make sure you don’t choke on your own vomit.”

He sits on the bed with his back to the headboard. After a second he puts a hand on her shoulder. “To make sure you’re still breathing.”

Apparently he can do that better if he’s rubbing her shoulder gently and wiping the tears off her face with the sheet.

A few weeks later Peggy asks Darcy to come to SHIELD and help program some fail safes. Peggy doesn’t say as much, but Darcy figures she’s preparing for her retirement. It’s also part of what seems like everyone’s master plan to keep Darcy too busy to think, and always with someone.

Darcy spends weeks writing code. She might add a few bits and pieces about pirates in leather coats for the hell of it. And maybe also added Son of Coul, I’m telling Thor. It makes her laugh, and it makes her feel closer to Jane and times spent in the New Mexico desert.

She has to consult with Tony several times. Peggy listens in on the conversations. When Darcy hangs up she smirks. “Howard was right. That boy is a genius.”

A lot of what Darcy does is hiding encrypted files. She doesn’t know and she doesn’t ask.

She’s on the phone with Tony, working through a tricky bit, when she feels the prick and tingle. She manages to say goodbye, interrupting a long diatribe about shitty code work.