Y is for Wildcard. Lance Sweets.

One-Shot

Own Nothing

She noticed him from afar, she had been noticing him for two weeks now. He comes in with his girlfriend, he comes in with his friends. And sometimes he comes in alone. She could see that he was sad, anyone could tell when a puppy has been kicked. So she sent a drink over to him, just to cheer him up. She was glancing at her phone when she looked up to see him looking at her. She gave him a smile and held up her glass in a toast and he followed suit. She laughed mostly to herself as she took a sip of her drink. She sent out the text message to Jane and placed her phone back into her purse. She looked up and the man was making his way to her seat. He sat down next to her and smiled. "I don't normally do this." He started, his face flushed.

"Of course you don't." Darcy laughed as she turned to face him. "Darcy Lewis." She held out her hand.

"Lance Sweets." He shook it. "So I'm guessing that you're not a tourist since I've seen you here tons of times."

Darcy looked thoughtful as she nodded. "I split my time between here and New York."

"New York, Interesting, so what do you do?"

She took a deep breath, suddenly aware how many ways this could suddenly go wrong. "I work for Stark Industries."

"Wow, really?" He looked genuinely amazed. "That's so cool."

She felt her cheeks burn. "Thanks, what do you do?" She took a sip of her drink to take a moment for herself.

"I'm a psychologist, I do profiling for the FBI." He replied.

Her eyebrow shot up. "Seriously? That sounds badass. So you help with cases and stuff?"

"Yea, we actually just finished one up, just a homicide." He gave her a small smile.

"Well here is to the heroes." She held her glass for a toast, he clinked his against her glass and laughed.

"Even the small victories." He stated.

…

She danced around her DC apartment as music played and she made dinner for her and Lance. She had been in meeting after meeting all day and the day before, luckily she had the next day off. She checked on the small cake in the oven as the song changed. She closed the oven door and checked on the pasta on the burners and she bobbed to the song. A knock on the door stopped her mid air guitar solo, she huffed in annoyance as she turned the music down and walked over to the door. She opened it to see Lance with a bottle of wine and a case of beer. "Hey." He greeted her as he walked into the apartment. "You're security is crazy here."

She snorted. "I still get stopped when I'm not in business attire, so yea, I agree." She led him the kitchen to put up the beer. She opened up the cabinets and grabbed two glasses and poured the wine. "How was work?"

Lance sighed as he took of his suit jack and hung it over the bar chair back. "Insane, we caught a serial killer and it was bad."

"The one on the news?" She asked as she handed him the glass.

He hummed in agreement as he sipped from the glass. "He is crazy insane."

She gave me a small smile in reassurance. "I'm glad you caught him."

"Me too." He smiled. "To small victories."

"To the heroes." They clinked the glasses. Darcy took a sip out of hers before the timer on the cake went off. She set the glass down and rushed over to get the cake out and set it out to cool. She laughed and gave him a smile. "Small victories."

…..

"You put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up." Lance sang as he worked at the table in his kitchen. His two roommates were out for the night and he had to finish his paper work. There was a pounding on the door and he stopped mid-song and stood up to answer it. He opened it to see Darcy standing there with a crock pot in her hands. "Come in." He opened the door wider to let her in and he noticed the bags at her feet. He grabbed them and closed the door. "I didn't know you were town."

"Because I've been at meetings all damn day." She set the pot on the counter and took the bags for him. She opened the fridge and put the food away before closing it.

"You know, I do have food here." He stared at her.

"I know." She sighed and folded the recyclable bags and set them on top of the fridge. "I was wondering if I could crash here for a day or two."

"Why? What's wrong?" He asked her.

"Oh, nothing." She shrugged. "Someone broke into the apartment, but they caught the guy."

"Are you okay?" He pulled her into a hug.

Darcy melted against him. "Yea, but they have to replace some things in the apartment and Stark wants to upgrade the security around me, which means all of my stuff is being moved to a whole new apartment in his personal building here. So no one could break in and I'm just tired."

"Stark? As in Tony Stark?" He asked her.

Darcy rolled her eyes as she pulled away to locate the wine she brought. "Yea, I told you that I work for SI. Like when we first met, I told you."

"I just didn't know you personally knew him." Lance replied.

Darcy sighed. "Yea, I guess I could've went into further detail to you after I knew that you weren't a creep." She shrugged. "But I'm his executive assistant, like I make sure he's fed, goes to sleep, showers, and gets to places in a reasonable manner."

"That's impressive." Lance handed her a glass from the top shelf. "So they caught the guy? The one who broke in?"

She snorted. "Yea, after I tazered him and knock him on his ass." She filled the glasses and handed him one. "I was in the middle of finishing up dinner." She gestured to the pot.

He walked over and opened the lid. "You're just trying to make me fat."

"Small victories." She smiled as she held up her glass.

"To the heroes." He clinked his against hers.

…

"So you're him." Tony Stark stated from the bottom of the platform. The Jeffersonian group looked up to see him standing there. "The one dating my right hand woman."

"Mr. Stark." Lance stated as he looked around confused. "Um, what are you doing here?"

"I'm checking you out. Making sure that you're good enough boyfriend for Lewis."

"I'm not, we're not." Lance started but her was cut up by a enrage Darcy who stormed passed security guards.

"Anthony Stark." She growled.

"Yea dear." Tony turned to face her with a smile. "Your boyfriend and I were just having a conversation."

Darcy glanced up at Lance who shrugged in confusion and the rest of the scientists on the platform watching them. "You are being unprofessional."

"It is my middle name in case you didn't know." He quipped.

She took a deep breath and quietly counted to eight before looking at him. "I am allowed to have friends outside of work, I can see whoever I want, and I can have common interests with other human beings that are not super heroes." She gave him a stare. "You are my boss, and not my father." She pulled out her phone and clicked on it. "JARVIS, you are to shut down the lad the next three days."

"Don't you dare Lewis." Tony glared at her.

"Pepper gave me the authority to do so and there is nothing you can do about it." She gave him an evil stare. "You crossed a boundary Tony, you have to learn to share. Okay?"

He rolled his eyes and looked away. "Fine, go on dates. Whatever."

"Happy is waiting for you outside."

"I can't wait until you get laid Lewis." Tony winked at her as he walked pass her. "I'm watching you shrink!" He shouted as he crossed the room.

Darcy sighed and looked up at the platform. "I am terribly sorry about that, he is like a dog with a bone sometimes. This will not happen again." She gave them a smile. "I'll make sure of it."

"Hey." Lance bounded down the small set of stairs. "Is he always like this?"

"He hasn't slept in almost a week." She shrugged. "Pepper needed me in England for a thing and my replacement was apparently chased out of the building after the first day. So the lock down was going to happen anyway."

"Oh." Lance glanced back at his friends. "This is awkward."

"Yea." She took a deep breath as her phone dinged. "I have to be on a flight, like, now. I have to go to Tokyo for the kick-off of the international Stark Expo and then we have to go to New Zealand. So it'll be a week before I'll be back."

"Drinks?" He asked her.

"Yea, bring your friends, they'll probably have questions." She shrugged, she pulled out her phone as it went off. "Heroes." She whispered.

"Small victories." He gave her a smile.

…..

Three weeks later Darcy sat on her couch reading Lance's first draft of his new book. "They seem like interesting characters." She stated as he sat down next to her and handed her a glass of wine.

"Booth and Brennan are certainly different." He replied as he settled in next to her and she prompted her legs on top of him. "Oh you painted your toes again."

She snorted. "Tony did them."

"Your boss if weird." Lance set his wine down and picked up her foot to get a closer look. "Isn't that the Iron man symbol?"

"The arc reactor." Darcy stated as she set down the book and sipped her wine. "You can keep doing that." She nodded her head to gesture to her toes.

"You'd like that wouldn't you?" Lance laughed as he massaged her toes and worked his way up her foot.

"God, I could kiss you." Darcy moaned as let her head fall against the couch.

Lance stopped and looked up at her, her hooded eyes and a smile on her face. "Would you?"

Darcy opened her eyes and stared at him. She set her wine down on the coffee table and scooted down to where she was kneeling next to him. "Yes." She breathed as she stared at him. "I would."

"Okay." He relied as they kissed, hands tangled in her hair as she reached to unbutton his shirt. They broke apart. He felt breathless as she smiled down at him.

"I took your breath away. Small victory."

Lance laughed. "To the hero." He pulled her down for another kiss.

….

"Lance! Lance! Are you okay?" Darcy asked as she hovered over him. He could tell that tears were running down her cheeks.

"It hurts." He groaned as he tried to move.

"Don't move. Paramedics are coming. You're bleeding." Darcy put pressure on the wound on his side. She glanced around to see the chaos around them as people hovered and gave them worried glances. She looked back down at him. "You shouldn't have done that." She whispered to him.

"He was going to shoot you." Lance breathed. His breathing was raspy and faltering.

"Where are those damn paramedics?" Darcy asked as she tried to keep pressure on the wound.

"It's okay." He told her.

"No it isn't, damn it we were on a date." She cried, her head lowering as tears racked her back. She tried to stay focus on Lance, trying to keep him alive until he could get help.

The crowds parted as an ambulance pulled up and rushed to help. Darcy held onto Lance's hand as the medics got to work loading him up into the back of the bus. Darcy sat down next to him as they road down the road. "Stay with me." She prayed to him as they rushed to the hospital. "Stay with me."

It was two hours later as she waited in the waiting room with Booth, Brennan and the rest of Lance's team. Her hands still stain with dried blood as she tried to do anything but look at them. "Lance Sweets family?" A doctor walked up to them.

Darcy shot up and ran to the man's side. "How is he?"

"He is in recovery and you can go see him, but just one for tonight." The doctor gave her a reassuring smile. "He should be waking up soon, luckily the bullet didn't hit anything and he just lost a lot of blood."

"Thank you." Darcy felt her tears well up again. She felt strong arms hold her and she knew Booth was right there next to her.

"He's safe, he'll be fine." Booth tried to calm her down. "You did a good job."

Darcy nodded and took a deep breath before stepping away from his hold. "Thanks." She wiped the tears away and tried to smile. "I'll go see him now."

"Let him know we're here for him." Hodgins stated.

"I will, he'd like that." Darcy gave him a smile before she turned and followed the doctor to Lance's room.

Darcy stopped at the doorway and took a deep breath before walking in to see him lying on the bed, his eyes still closed. "Lance." She whispered as she walked up to his bed and set her things on the floor next to the chair by his bedside. She slowly brushed her fingers through his hair, gently to reassure herself he was fine.

"S'nice." Lance mumbled as he slowly opened his eyes. He blinked a few times, adjusting to the light. Darcy quickly turned a few off so it wouldn't hurt his head. "Darcy?"

"Hey, I'm right here." She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "You okay?"

"I was shot." He groaned.

She snorted. "Right, not the best question to ask." She bit her lip and stared at him before she leaned over and kissed his cheek. "That was very brave what you did."

"It hurts." He mumbled as he looked at her.

"We'll try not to make it a habit then." She whispered to him with a smile.

"Okay." He squeezed her hand. "I wanted to save you."

"You did, and it gave me enough time to take down the guy." She replied. "You're my hero."

He looked up at her, eyes dazed but he had a smile on his face. "Small victory."

She shook her head and leaned over the rails and kissed him on the lips. "No, you're alive, that's a big victory. I don't think I could live without you." She pulled away and reached into her bag and pulled out a small box. "That's why this date was so important." She handed him the box, he pulled his hand away from hers' and opened it to see a plain silver ring.

"It's my job." He looked at her. "To ask you."

"If it was up to you Dr. Sweets, then we would have never met. You wouldn't have even thought to send over a drink."

He smiled at her. "Yes."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Yes that's true, or yes to what the ring means?"

"Yes to the ring." He laughed before groaning. "Don't make me laugh."

"That's okay, we have the rest of our lives to laugh together."

"Big victories." He smiled at her.

She smiled back and kissed his lips. "To the heroes."