Demons

RogueWitch

Avengers/Thor

Summary: While Jane is getting settled in her lab with S.H.I.E.L.D, Darcy is being trained as an agent, in order to keep her job as Jane's assistant. She's not the only one who isn't thrilled with this prospect; after the events of the New York Invasion, Hawkeye is taken off of active duty, and reassigned to train Darcy, while he goes through mandatory counseling.

A/N: So I'm currently at home on maternity leave, so my updates are going to be contingent on how my little guy is doing on any particular day. Please bear with me while we settle into a routine and figure out this whole parenting thing.

Darcy sat quietly in Director Fury's office aboard the Helicarrier, trying hard not to say anything while the Director was talking. After the events in New Mexico, and then the invasion of New York, SHIELD had become concerned with Jane's safety, mostly due to her relationship with Thor, but also because of her association with SHIELD, and had been moved into a secure lab in Stark Tower. Darcy was clearly about to be fired. She had no training in astrophysics, or any kind of physics for that matter, she wasn't a scientist, and she hadn't even finished her degree. She was going to be fired, though why they had brought her all the way to the middle of the Atlantic to do it, she couldn't even begin to understand.

The final member of the meeting had escorted her from the helo pad on Stark Tower to the secret base. Hawkeye leaned against the doorframe, clearly not thrilled with being at this meeting. Darcy did her best to ignore his presence, but since he was the friendliest face in the room, it was hard.

"Ms. Lewis," Director Fury began, looking down at the disheveled college student, who was currently clutching the cuffs of her oversized sweatshirt, and chewing on her bottom lip. "As you know, we've upped security around Dr. Foster, for obvious reasons." He waited for the girl to nod her head in understanding. "It's been discussed, that since you have no formal training, that you cannot continue on in your current role as Dr. Foster's assistant."

Darcy jumped in, no longer able to hold her tongue any longer. "I know that I'm not in the least bit qualified to assist Jane, I'm just a college student, but what am I supposed to do, now that I know all this stuff that's going on?" Darcy picked at the cuff of her sleeve. "How am I going to just sit there, not knowing if something's going to happen?"

"Ms. Lewis," Director Fury held up his hands, telling her to stop. "We have discussed this; you aren't qualified, not yet."

"What does that mean?" Darcy threw her hands up, giving up on trying to understand Fury's mind games.

"It means," Hawkeye pushed himself off of the wall and flopped down in the chair next to her. "That we're going to train you."

"Effective immediately, provided you agree, you will be fast tracked through Agent Training," Fury said, pulling out a tablet and handing it to her. "Starting now, Agent Barton will be your personal trainer, you will be moving into Stark Tower with him, and for the next year, you will be his personal shadow."

"What?" Darcy stared at the tablet in front of her, a contract with SHIELD on the screen.

"All you have to do is sign, and we'll be on our way." Hawkeye looked impatient waving at the screen.

"Why him?" Darcy directed the question at Fury.

"You are acquainted, and he's the best person for the job," Fury said cryptically.

"He means I've been benched from active duty, so I'm the only one available." He jumped up, and circled behind her chair. "So sign the contract, so we can get back to the Tower."

"What's your hurry," Darcy said, while she skimmed the document. "I've got like a thousand more questions; okay not actually a thousand, but I've got one." She looked up at the Director again, and he gestured for her to continue. "Once I'm trained, do I get to go back to working with Jane?"

"That will depend on Agent Barton," Fury told her. "He is to be your handler, in so far as once you're officially an Agent, he will be your direct superior, and he will handle your assignments. But the other option is to walk away, go back to school, and have nothing further to do with SHIELD or the Avenger Initiative."

"What happens when he goes back on active duty?"

"I imagine he'll go back to being active before your training is up," Fury clasped his hands in front of his face. "At that time, you will begin to accompany him on missions, along with Agent Romanoff."

"You're going to send me out in the field with Widow?" Darcy skimmed through the document faster. "I'm so getting shot." Darcy signed her loopy signature on the line at the bottom. "Do I at least get a cool nick name?"

"No," Hawkeye grabbed her by her upper arm and pulled her out of the chair. "May we be dismissed, Sir?"

"You're dismissed, Agent." The director turned his chair around, facing out to the ocean view. "Ms. Lewis, please try not to damage my Agent too badly, he's the best sharp shooter we have."

The ride back from the Helicarrier was quiet. Hawkeye stared directly out the windshield, a death grip on the controls of the helicopter, Darcy kept a tight grip on her harness, still not used to traveling by helicopter, and not sure if she ever would be.

"Will I learn to fly one of these?" Darcy asked over the radio headset.

"I didn't learn to fly a helicopter from SHIELD, I learned it from Special Forces," Hawkeye said, not looking away from the horizon line. "You'll be learning self-defense, I'll teach you how to fire and care for a firearm, and you will learn about undercover work from Natasha."

"Why not you?"

"I don't do undercover work," he said, banking the helicopter back towards New York, and the Stark Tower. "I'm the guy standing on a building, looking at you through a scope. You don't even hear the shot when I'm sent to take you out."

"You're a sniper," Darcy said.

"Among other things." Hawkeye went back to being silent, and Darcy couldn't think of anything else she wanted to say after that. She was learning how to be an assassin, from the SHIELD assassins. She needed to process this. How was that supposed to help her with being Jane's assistant, unless there was never any plans for her to be Jane's assistant again. She didn't ask. To be honest, both Hawkeye and Black Widow scared her. Sure she knew Agent Barton from New Mexico, he gave her back her iPod, but then he was Agent Barton, after the Invasion of New York, he was Hawkeye, and after she found out about what had happened while Loki was in his head, and the footage of his part in the ensuing battle, he scared her. And now she'd literally signed her life into his hands. "I share a floor at the Tower with Natasha, you'll be moving into the third bedroom, you'll eat, sleep and learn with us, but mostly it'll just be you and I, Natasha is still on active service."

"Why did they bench you?" Darcy was sure she already knew, because of Loki, but he didn't seem to be too affected by the whole thing.

"They're worried that Loki damaged my brain," Barton said without emotion. "They're not sure I can be as effective as I once was, because I've been compromised."

"Are they right?" Darcy asked, pulling her hands into her sweatshirt. It made it easier to deal with the helicopter ride when she was talking, took her mind off of the situation.

"I don't know," he said, honestly. "I didn't feel any different while I had my bow in my hands, shooting at those aliens. But I haven't been out in the field other than that, you never know how things have changed until you test them."

"So," Darcy didn't know what to say next, but knew she had to say something after he was open with her. If he was going to train her, she was going to have to show him he could lean on her as much as she would be leaning on him. "How is it going to be living with Agent Romanoff knowing you aren't going into the field with your partner?"

"If you're going to be living with us, you're going to need to learn to call her Natasha," Hawkeye told her, completely dodging the question. "She needs off time, too."

"And what do I call you?" Darcy asked, knowing she couldn't call him Hawkeye.

"Clint."

"Seriously?"

"Yes," he glanced over at her, giving her an incredulous look. "It would be silly to call me Steve."

"But your name is 'Clint?'" Darcy snorted. "I mean really?"

"What's wrong with my name?"

"Nothing, nothing. I've just never actually met anyone named Clint; it's not a particularly common name." Darcy picked at her sleeves, again.

"Would you feel more comfortable calling me Barton," he asked. "It's what the guys call me."

"What does Natasha call you?" Darcy tried out the name, and it felt foreign to her tongue, she just couldn't wrap her mind around Black Widow having a normal person name.

"At home? Clint."

"Are you two a thing?" Figuring she should get this out of the way, since she would be living with the two of them.

"Not for a long time." Barton said. "Once upon a time. It was a spectacular disaster."

"And you two are still partners and share an apartment in Stark Tower?"

"We've learned that to affectively work together, its better if we also live in close proximity." He flipped switches, and started the final descent onto the helo pad. "Plus, she can't cook worth shit, and if you don't feed her she starts to live on Power Bars and soda."

"You cook?"

"Better than she does."