Bear with me. Read and enjoy!

They sent Jane away to a safe place for a "consultation"; it was sudden- a single phone call, and then Jane was googling some remote location which neither women had ever heard of. In a moment Jane rearranged her very busy schedule to be free for a month- they hadn't specified how long they required her services, but their fees were quite lucrative and Jane always needed funding for her work.

Then there was a flurry to pack the necessary clothing and research supplies- they had to go to Walmart at 1 AM for emergency clean clothes- and then Jane made her write a series of to-do lists; tasks that absolutely had to be completed during the indefinite period of Jane's absence- and then at 5 AM she watched as an unmarked black SUV picked her up, taking her to God knows where.

She was okay, the first day. She took the time to eat a real breakfast for once; eggs and bacon, with fresh coffee, while checking her mail. After that though she went to Jane's lab and began to do her real work; proving and disproving theorem after theorem- her boss had left quite the list. After more than a year of listening to Jane and Erik discuss astrophysics in regard to the Einstein-Rosenbridge theory, she'd become quite well versed on the subject. She was actually capable of performing research for Jane. After Dr. Selvig had left six months ago to work full-time on a SHIELD facility, Jane's work load had doubled, and she had had to pick up Erik's slack.

It wasn't until she returned home that evening, eating cereal for dinner, watching Keeping up with the Kardashians, that she felt something wrong. A ticker tape at the bottom of the Trash Television read on an "attack at Stuttgart" of an "unknown nature"- she felt a chill run down her spine as she turned off the television to read more on the attack online.

And then when the news proved to be vague and unhelpful, she checked her phone for any texts- not that she had any friends- and changed for bed. It was already 1 AM, because she had worked long hours doing Jane's work and her own.

The next morning was too quiet. The normally serene sunrise seemed eerie, and the town wasn't buzzing as normal.

Still, she went to the lab and plunged into another list of things to do.

The morning turned to afternoon and then something happened at 2.

It made her pause; slowing her typing on her laptop- she stopped highlighting figures from a blueprint of a portal stabilizer and carefully listened.

The ground began to shake, and as suddenly it began it stopped.

Her heart was pounding as she reached for the taser in her pocket; her mouth was dry as she searched in a closet for a locked box. She struggled with the combination, remembering 3-4-1 and gingerly pulling out the unloaded handgun inside.

Erik had showed her how to use it once; she'd paid little mind, scoffing at the idea of ever needing it in their lab for research no one understood.

The small relief which filled her faded quickly as another noise permeated the research lab- it came from outside; a roaring of some sort.

Despite her immense fear, she cocked the gun as she remembered from an episode of Law and Order: SVU, and looked out the window.

It was an inferno- across the street the strip was in flames- the diner, the coffee shop, the book store- all ablaze.

Things whizzed through the sky- flying at breakneck speeds, and she almost didn't notice the object zooming towards her until it crashed through the lab wall, narrowly missing her head.

Quickly she rose from the ground, attempting to plan some way to get out with her laptop before all of Jane's research was lost, but the thing shot some kind of rifle at the desk and effectively destroyed 9 months of constant work.

She aimed and took fire at it, aiming for anything that looked remotely vulnerable. The thing didn't even flinch, and approached her swiftly, grabbing her and pinning her to the control panel of its hover device with its weapon.

In a matter of minutes, she was entering some kind of swirling blue portal, not unlike the one she had seen year ago when Thor and the Asgardian Destroyer had both respectively arrived.

It hit her then that this was the second form of alien life she had encountered, and then she realized that she was being taken hostage probably because she had met Thor.

The portal seemed to end and she found herself soaring above the tops of New York's Empire State building, in the midst of an overpoweringly huge cacophony- a battle for Earth.

The thing set her down atop an unknown building where she was faced with a laser-like device, powered by a glimmering blue cube. There beside it stood two men, backs to her.

She recognized one back- it was covered in faded gray plaid: Erik.

The other back was tall and angular and covered in black and gold gleaming armor- horns curved back towards her on the man's helmet, and as he turned Darcy realized that this was no man, but another Asgardian god, except this time he wasn't nearly as benign or benevolent as Thor.

The god sneered at her in a sort of smile, and Darcy felt a shudder of horror run through her. The being strode towards her, and in a bizarrely belated moment of clarity Darcy understood that Jane's sudden consulting opportunity in literally the middle of nowhere, was really her being evacuated from a potential warzone by SHIELD.

Like a backhanded slap, she also understood that she, Darcy Lewis, political science major and the Earth's 3rd greatest unofficial expert on the Einstein-Rosenbridge theorem, was not considered important enough to be saved from whatever the battle being waged about her was.

She was wrenched from her thoughts as the god lifted her off her feet by the throat. Her vision clouded and she barely heard him cry out, "Those fools mistook my brother's whore for another! I have no use for her-"and then she felt the air whistling about her as she was thrown from the skyscraper.

Time seemed to slow as she hurtled to the ground, and Darcy took a moment to appreciate her life, all 22 years of it.

She'd had a good family, fun times in high school. She wasn't a drug addict or an alcoholic, nor had she ruined any lives she knew of. She had become part of an organization bigger than anything she could imagine in the world, even if was barely a fringe role as an accidental witness to an extra-terrestrial of godly proportions.

Her final thoughts were interrupted by a crash landing to an oncoming hovercraft with another of those things on it.

It was a fortunate thing, really. Darcy may have broken her collarbone and both her legs, as well as multiple ribs when the hovercraft plummeted to the street, destroying the cars in its path, but she had survived what would have been a fatal, spinal cord crushing drop to the ground.

Darcy wasn't a superhero of course, so she, like any other mere mortal, blacked out upon making contact on the ground. She had no thoughts then, only spinning and nausea and pain and fear, so much fear that it permeated every inch of her being.

And then there was nothing.

She awoke to white.

It was blindingly so, with Spartan décor- only a bed with the necessary medical equipment surrounding it like a fortress. It was with a hazy mind that Darcy took stock of her location. Clearly it was no ordinary hospital; guards stood outside the door, as she could see from her small window, and the things she was attached didn't at all resemble what she had seen on House MD.

In fact, she could hardly recognize herself from what she could see at her vantage point- she was in a cast from both knees down, and her arms were in slings. Her hands also were immobile, in some kind of mesh bandage keeping her from wiggling her fingers.

Darcy didn't have a mirror, but she could tell that her face was highly swollen and bruised- she tried to move her mouth and nearly screamed from the shock- pain ran through her like a shock wave.

Leaning back on the pillow to rest, Darcy realized that she was broken. Broken down, broken up.

She was stuck in some strange room in an unknown facility alone. Thoughts of Jane flitted through her mind; was she safe?
With a sardonic internal snort Darcy knew she was- they had taken care of Jane Foster, girlfriend of Thor of Asgard.

What was she to expect? Darcy, awkward acquaintance of Thor?

Rescued?

A sudden wave of fury coursed through her. Darcy looked around for a telltale button, calling a nurse for aide. Almost instantly, a woman ran in to check her.

"Ma'am, are you alright?!"

Darcy took no time for niceties; she wanted answers now.

"Where am I? What's wrong with me, and who found me?"
The woman clearly had anticipated these questions, and she was also quite obviously prepared by someone else to answer them.

"Ms. Lewis, this is a government hospital, and you were found by the authorities injured after the incident in Manhattan."

Darcy was incensed- that was bullshit. "I asked where I am as in specifics, like a name of a hospital? You know and I know that this is SHIELD- you practically scream agent in disguise- and I know that the incident was an ALIEN attack, as in outer space, and that highly classified individuals were involved in the battle. I was caught in the crossfire because I knew one of those certain individuals, and I refuse to be almost-collateral! I want to see whoever's in charge, right away!"

The woman knew that there was no fooling Darcy with stories and placations at that point, and walked out of the room promising to "speak with someone" immediately.

Darcy remembered that the lady hadn't answered her questions about the nature of her injuries, and began to worry.

She lost herself in thought, mindlessly worrying about everything until someone else entered the room. He was a SHIELD suit- he actually looked like Agent Coulson with less hair and a slightly less kind appearance.

"Ms. Lewis. I'm glad you're finally conscious." His tone was dry and Darcy figured that whoever the man was, he was like Coulson- someone who wouldn't tell her a damn thing even if you held a gun to his head.

"How long was I out?"

"3 days. You were pretty beat up when the cleaning crew found you."
Disbelief flooded her- "The cleaning crew? As in debris and wreckage janitors?"

He nodded and grinned ever-so slightly, which was enough for Darcy to lose any sense of humor- the guy was an asshole. She had hated the quiet Coulson but at least he had proven to be a compassionate, if subtle man. He had humanity, and this jerk was laughing at her broken self in a hospital bed.

"What's so funny, asshole? Never seen a girl who got thrown off a building by a demi-God?"

"No Ms. Lewis, of course not. And by the way, next week I'll be debriefing you before we send you home to New Mexico. Ms. Foster is quite anxious to hear about you-"

She cut him off with a furious head shake.

"No! No, you don't get to send me away like a bastard child, I was abducted by ALIENS and teleported here, and then I got hit by an alien motor thingy, effectively shattering me! I want to talk to someone higher up than you! Where's Coulson? I know Phil, we go back!"

The older man shifted his feet, and cleared his throat. "Agent Coulson was compromised, in the course of this mission. Fatally so, I'm afraid. I'm his replacement for the time being."

Darcy was stopped there, stock still.
"Dead? How?"

The man looked more human then, replying, "He was defending SHIELD and earth even in his dying moments. He was a hero, always."

Darcy wanted to cry, but then realized that she could not let her issue slip through the cracks of bureaucracy- what had happened to her was not okay and she wasn't going to stand for it.

She pulled out her one card- "I want to talk to the top. I mean the head, the president or King of SHIELD. You may have read that I was involved with Loki's attack back in New Mexico- I saw everything. The metal Destroyer, the Warriors Three. I might get a bit wordy on the street, talk to a reporter. They'll believe me now, even if they wouldn't have before. Earth's survived its first alien attack and now we're gonna hear about it for the next decade- and I plan on talking to every fucking news station I can unless you SHIELD tools let me talk to your leader. I was disregarded as irrelevant- and I almost died- despite my supposed lifelong status of a person interest! I almost died 3 days ago!"

Darcy was out of breath, still catching her breath and feeling pangs of discomfort with each intake of air.

The agent stepped out of the room in that moment to speak on some sort of Bluetooth comm-link. She supposed that she was getting tattled on for her threats, but didn't care.

He re-entered nearly five minutes later, clearly displeased.

"You'll meet Director Fury shortly. I am sorry you are dissatisfied with SHIELD at this moment but do not ever try to bargain with this organization or myself ever again- blackmail is illegal, and any breach of intelligence is considered a matter of international security. Be warned."

Like some kind of vampire the agent stalked out of the room, leaving a physically exhausted Darcy gasping slightly for air as she leaned back against her pillows. It took a minute for her to comprehend that she had succeeded in getting an audience with the SHIELD leader, but then she was overtaken by another thought; what did she want to say to him? She was sad they didn't think she was popular enough to be invited to their supergenius party?

Darcy pondered her growing panic until the door opened, and a tall black man with an eyepatch (!) strode in, with a dramatic leather jacket flowing about him like a cape.
She waited for him to introduce himself.

"I'm Director Fury, and I'm a very busy man on a normal day. Today is day 3 of the aftermath of what we're calling Battle New York, so it's a little bit of a special occasion. What do you want from SHIELD Ms. Lewis?"

The condescending tone banished Darcy's panicked nervousness and her words flew to her mouth immediately.

"It's a little late for what I want, isn't it Director? I'm broken up in a bed, barely surviving and crippled for an indeterminate amount of time, all because SHIELD overlooked my very existence as a person of interest! I was left behind in a line of fire- and we both know that Puente Antiguo was a potential target after last year's incident with Thor- because you didn't consider me valuable enough! Because my lack of knowledge made me collateral damage instead of a human being- you took Jane but not me? Because Thor and she are almost fuck buddies? That's cold hearted political regime shit, which is strange for an organization like yours!"

Fury looked, well, furious, but bored at the same time. "I understand your concern Ms. Lewis but I don't understand what you want from me."

Inner-feminist bitch made an entrance in Darcy's tone, and she could almost feel the burn of anger inside of her body. She was screaming before she realized it; "I ALMOST DIED! I WAS KIDNAPPE D BY THAT ASSHOLE LOKI'S GREMLINS FROM SPACE, TELEPORTED IN A PORTAL, WHILE MY TOWN BURNED DOWN AND THEN SAID ASSHOLE THREW ME OFF A BUILDING BECAUSE I WAS NOT JANE! I fell hundreds of feet in the air and I am no god, so I can't just fly to safety! I, a civilian your shady-ass organization swore to protect due to my knowledge, was taken in by your enemy as a potential hostage! You can't expect me to take that lying down!" He quirked his eyebrows at her position in bed, lying down.

"Are you laughing? Is my problem funny to you? I know I'm just a small fry to y'all but I'm a human and if I took this story anywhere, they'd swallow it in a heartbeat! The media would love to bash you guys! I bet they already blamed you for this maelstrom, didn't they?!"

Fury merely shook his head and rubbed his face. "Once again Ms. Lewis, what can I do? Do you want money? A car, an apology? Frankly, and sadly, I do not have time for this problem. I'm not going to be blackmailed unless there's a stake for you and right now, you're just yelling at me. What do you want?"

Darcy thought quickly, examining her options. "I want a research facility, here in New York. I expect protection for myself as a person of interest in two SHIELD related attacks. I want a new apartment, and if Dr. Foster wants to be with me, a place for her too. I will never, ever be in that situation again, Director Fury. In fact, I'd prefer to work for SHIELD and get insurance too, if it means I get to hide in YOUR basement next time the Martians attack."

Fury looked a little less grim- "I can do that. You want a place as a researcher for SHIELD, you got it- so long as you stay quiet. I cannot have anyone on this team ever speak to anyone about our organization's activities or nature. Ever."

Darcy nodded- this was easier than she'd thought.

"Dr. Foster has had a long standing job offer with SHIELD for a year now; she's refused on basis of relocating you up till now. I believe she'll take that offer, with you. Can I go now, or do I need to sign your cast too?"
Darcy turned away, and the man left, slamming the door shut.

She looked at her toes then, and tried to wiggle them. Once, twice. The third time, she nearly began to sweat from the effort, but her toes would not move.

Crippled.

Maybe these casts were permanent.

Could she move her arms? With a tiny sigh she could tell they were mobile, albeit bone tired. She'd gotten some of what she wanted, but as usual she had managed to walk away, scarred.

Broken.

Jane came a day later; she seemed thinner from the last time they'd said goodbye, and her eyes were red from crying.

"I can't believe they took me and not you, it's insanity! If I had known for a minute, Darce, I swear on my life I'd have made them come get you! I promise, we'll get this fixed-"
"I can't fix my legs though, Jane. It's their fault so calm down, but what do we do with my paralyzed legs? They said I might regain their use in a few years if they finish a certain technology they only have access too, but still. I'm a burden."
Jane shook her head and the tears fell once more; "Darcy, no. Just, no. You're my helper, my best friend- my only friend. I love you and need you more than anyone could know; you can't think you're my burden. You're a gift to me!"

They hugged, sort of, and some of the bitterness Darcy had harbored towards Jane dissipated.

At least she had wanted her to be safe and by her side.

And so Darcy moved on. After a month of recovery, she was able to wheel herself around in a chair pretty well; as a research assistant for Jane, she was able to do pretty much whatever she wanted. Despire things working out "okay" she was still furious at SHIELD for abandoning her.

Things managed to get better when she got permission to go back to school on SHIELD's dime- she became a psychology major and within 5 years (she already had some of her credits) she was a qualified psychologist employed at SHIELD.

Her work was hard, and she had to cope with leaving Jane for the first time but she loved it. Darcy could almost forget the wheelchair, but then she'd see it by her bed each morning and remember- she was left to die.

Soon someone would enter her life who felt exactly that way, and she wouldn't be prepared to face the full brunt of her emotions, at all.

I have a whole other fic to finish but I was rewatching the Avengers and I saw the scene where Coulson tells Thor Jane's ssafe. I was like, "What about Darcy?" So I filled that in a bit.