Disclaimer: I don't own any characters or anything else Marvel.
Warning: Mentions of depression
Everyone in the Avengers Tower knew Darcy Lewis. They knew the fun, bubbly, scientist wrangling, and possibly crazy Darcy Lewis who had on occasion attacked Bruce Banner, who transformed into a giant mean green fighting machine when angry, with hugs. Everyone knew Darcy Lewis who had once threatened to use her Thor proof taser on Agent Phil Coulson if he didn't return her much loved iPod which had 30 new songs on it. Everyone knew Darcy Lewis who was not afraid to approach geniuses and scientists alike, physically take their equipment from them (which can be a serious health and safety risk in the case of Tony Stark) and force them to eat.
Everyone knew Darcy Lewis who often made crude, dirty minded jokes. It seemed that she would make a suggestive comment at least once per day. These would usually earn a laugh or smirk from Tony, Clint and Steve (he is not nearly as innocent as everyone seems to believe); a small smile and possibly a blush from Bruce; a look of confusion and sometimes a question from Thor; a shake of the head from Jane; frowns from Coulson and Fury; and a quirk upwards in the corner of the lips from Natasha. However, not one of these geniuses, intelligence agency operatives, expert strategists, heroes could work out the purpose of these comments. No one realised that Darcy made those jokes to draw the people around her out of themselves and into the present. No one knew she made those comments to distract everyone from the shit that was going on around them. No one thought that perhaps she didn't make these comments to amuse herself but to force the others to stop thinking about their equally shitty pasts focus on their futures.
Everyone thought they knew Darcy Lewis. They all thought they knew everything about the arguably crazy girl because she never seemed to hide anything. They thought they knew that Darcy Lewis was a confident, carefree girl. No one knew Darcy Lewis.
Darcy Lewis had her own set of demons that no one knew about. She hid the monster inside under bright layers of fake confidence and humour. No one knew that she spent hours lying awake wondering if anyone would care or even notice if she disappeared. The only reason she was even at Avengers Tower was dumb luck. If she hadn't been the only applicant as Jane's intern then she would have never gone to New Mexico, met SHIELD and get caught up in this whole mess. Of course she could have told the Avengers about her demons but why would she? They were heroes who saved the world on a semi regular basis and had their own demons to deal with. Why bother them and add her problems, which were pathetically small compared to theirs, on top of everything else they had to deal with? So Darcy didn't tell them or Jane who was also busy trying to recreate the Bifrost and spend time with Thor.
Darcy didn't tell anyone about the monster inside of her. Instead she forced herself out of bed, brushed her hair, painted her lips, hid the black marks under her eyes, faked a smile, did whatever it took to hide what lay under the surface. Every day she would put on her mask and confront the world. Every day the Avengers would see the mask, the girl they thought they knew. However, no matter what she did, every time she looked in the mirror Darcy Lewis would only see the demons inside.
Thanks for reading! These is now a sequel up called Voices.
xoxo H