Prompt: Initials carved into a tree. Darcy Lewis/Johnny Storm

Darcy was balancing three coffees and a tea in one hand, and a box of pastries in the other as she danced to the music being pumped directly into her ears with little care for the odd looks she was getting from the other passengers in the elevator.

See, it didn't matter because she had the best job in the world, maybe all nine realms. She got paid a dump truck load of money just to bully make sure three of her friends ate and rested when they should. Yeah there was the transcribing and paper pushing, but she really didn't mind, her PolySci degree and follow up in Physics would never have gotten her a job this good or rewarding, especially when one of those friends was a hero and the other two were hero support staff. That made her the lynch pin of support because no matter how science smart her friends were, they were life stupid and if she weren't there, they'd get nothing done.

So basically, life was almost perfect. Darcy smiled to herself as the elevator stopped on the R&D level where her Scientist Three were already hard at work for the morning. Wandering the corridor, mouthing the words to Heart, she carefully balanced the pastry box on her other arm while she reached into her pocket for her key pass to enter the labs. She'd just been able to wrap the lanyard around her wrist when she bumped into the back of a noticeably warm back. Thinking it was either Thor-bro or one of the resident nonagenarians; Darcy pulled her headphones out and grinned up at the last person she thought she'd ever see again.

"Darcy?"

Blinking up at the equally shocked Johnny Storm, she stared paralysed at her high school sweetheart, the only man she'd ever love, past and future tense included.

The silence stretched painfully between the two, both inanimate in the face of the unanticipated reunion. It wasn't until the coffee cups almost took a tumble from her hands and were caught by a silver arm, did she realise there were other people in the corridor with them. Dazed, she took in the confusion on Steve and Bucky's faces, unable to collect a single thought.

Steve ever ready to save the day decided to break the silence, his voice so sharp in the stale air.

"Hey Darcy, maybe you can help us out; Bucky seems to think Johnny and I look alike and we both don't see it."

Still uncomprehending, she turned to Johnny who was still gaping at her.

Suddenly, like a switch had been flicked, her flight or fight response kicked in. Murmuring something that may have been coherent, she dumped the box and coffees into Bucky's hands and shot back the way she came.

Ignoring the elevator, she took the stairs up to the residential floors two and three at a time and barrelled into her tiny (for Stark Tower) one bedroom apartment opposite Thor and Jane's and slammed the door behind her. Then she shakily ordered FRIDAY to lock down the apartment and deny access to everyone except Jane.

Pulling all her curtains closed, still out of breath, she dug through the kitchen cupboards and pulled out the large bottle of whiskey.

She didn't even bother with a cup as she sipped it direct, trying to push down the agony that she had long thought entirely conquered; or at the very least subdued enough to get by. Locking every door behind her she made her way into her closet, just big enough to sit in, and pulled out the worn shoe box filled with news paper clippings and photographs.

It started with seeing his graduation of NASA's astronaut training; he was the youngest in history. It was bittersweet, knowing that her pain and loss meant that he could go on and focus on his studies was rewarding. She even went so far as to buying the news paper so she could keep a clipping of the article, something she had kept up ever since. She had also kept every news-worthy clipping of his extreme sporting hobby, something he hadn't had any interest in while she had known him. But she was proud of his accomplishments, considering what it had cost her, and kept record of everything.

Sometimes she felt like maybe she was a bit of a freak, but then, in her weakest, loneliest moments, she would have nothing else, so she kept at it.

During his first flight, there wasn't much reported except the launch, and then again later after the 'technical difficulties' were overcome. Darcy had been forced to buy a second news paper that day; the first article had been damaged with her tears.

There was more waterworks when it was discovered that the whole crew had been altered molecularly by what was finally admitted as a 'blast of cosmic rays' that had also interrupted the space stations communications. His pyrokinesis, his sister's invisibility, Dr Richards' weird stretch thing and that other guy with the rock face. That was when they were announced as the Fantastic Four, and were legit super heroes.

By this time, the rumours of his playboy behaviour had already reached the tabloids, and Darcy and Jane were doing their thing in New Mexico. Between the who's who of the model world gracing his bed and the constant risk to his life, Darcy was constantly teetering between scared and depressed.

Obviously, Jane picked up on Darcy's mood swings, and having no one else to talk to, Darcy confessed to breaking up with the love of her life at the end of high school so he didn't throw away his future, something that Jane was in agreement with. Darcy went into detail about finding out he had bought a ring and was planning to propose, but she never clarified who it was, just the name Johnny.

By the time Jane found Darcy later that day, she was still in her closet and she had downed half the bottle of whiskey, was ugly crying and was surrounded by news clippings and old photos of the two of them.

"Oh, Darcy." She sighed.

"No, Jane, not 'Oh Darcy,' I did this on purpose. He was going to ask me to marry me, and I couldn't let him do it. See all this?" Darcy slurred. "This would never have happened if I had let him ask me."

Jane looked at some of the clippings, but paused to pick up a picture of a young smiling Darcy, her arms wrapped around a tall young Johnny Storm. They were standing by a large tree trunk with a very clear carving of their initials at waist height, well Johnny's waist, Darcy's chest.

Darcy leaned over to see which photo Jane was looking at. "That's the tree that Johnny was going to ask you to marry him wasn't it?" Jane asked softly, recognising the tree in Darcy's retelling of their breakup.

"Yeah." Darcy stared at the photo, tears freefalling down her face.

"Why did you never mention it was Johnny Storm, as in the 'Human Torch' Johnny Storm?" Jane asked just as softly.

Darcy's eyes slowly made their way from the photograph depicting a happier time to struggle to focus on her friends face. "He was gone whether he was a celebrity or not, Janey."

Jane's shoulders slumped. She had come to figure out what Darcy had said or did to make Storm freak out in the hallway. He hadn't made much sense to anyone except Sue, who, along with the rest of the scientists, had come running at the commotion he was making. Sue had calmed him enough to gather their things and leave the tower without breaking anything. She understood now. She understood so much of what had happened, today and in the past years.

Smiling a soft smile down at Darcy, who had gone back to petting a photo of Johnny, smiling in the autumn light directly at the camera. She would try to help. Her friend deserved happiness.

And with that thought, Jane helped Darcy to tidy up the clippings and get her ready to go to bed.