TITLE: Escaping Paradise
Summary: Darcy knew what it was to truly love someone... She also knew what it was to lose them. Two years after she buried the man she promised to marry an ominous package arrives. A package that makes her question everything she thought she knew. Finding the truth propels her back into a world she had left behind years ago and changes everything she thought she wanted in life.
A/N Okay, so this is my first time writing a Steve and Darcy fic. I never even shipped them until about a month ago when I read an amazing fic by SarcasticFina over on Live Journal and now they are one of my favorites.
This story will be 10 chapters long and is mostly written already so I will be updating every 2-3 days.
I hope everyone enjoys!
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June 2012
"You could stay you know? Just keep being the World's Best Personal Assistant," Jane suggested as she hugged Darcy tightly. "What about a raise?" She offered, "I could give you an awesome raise."
She chuckled kindly as she stepped back from her friend, "I'm an intern, Jane. An unpaid intern," she reminded.
"Then it'd be really easy to give you more money, wouldn't it?" She smiled mischievously. "A lot more money."
Darcy walked over to her desk laughing loudly. She lifted her satchel bag from the back of her chair and flung it over her shoulder before picking up a neatly packed cardboard box of her personal items from around the lab. "You'll be fine Jane, I promise." She took a step back toward the door then stopped and jerked her head toward the kitchen. "I left you a survival basket. Everything you could possibly need including an obscene amount of Pop Tarts, delicious imported coffees, and a battery operated alarm clock already set for meal times."
"You're too good to me," she declared crossing the distance between them and pulling the younger woman into another quick hug, even though Darcy couldn't hug her back with her hands full. "How will I manage to find anyone half as good as you?"
"It won't be easy," Darcy admitted with a small yet proud grin. "Speaking of my replacement though, I left something else for you beside the basket."
"Darcy, no. I already told you that I don't want anyone else. At least not right away." She crossed her arms over her chest and Darcy almost laughed at how young her friend looked as she pouted, "I need time to focus on my work. I can't waste it training someone who won't be nearly as good as you were."
"Just take a look at the files." She ordered as she moved toward the lab door. "I met with each applicant myself and found you three really amazing options. You'll like them," she promised. "Just don't wait too long, you never know what kind of under qualified wise ass you'll end up with if you do."
"It worked out well enough for me last time."
Darcy snorted and gave her one firm nod, "It did, didn't it?" Before she passed through the door she turned back, "Hey Jane?"
"Yeah?"
"It's been..." She couldn't find the words. How could she sum up all they had been through with a single word or even a single sentence? Hell, she doubted an entire book could cover it.
"Unforgettable?" Jane offered.
She guessed that would have to do. "Unforgettable," Darcy repeated happily as she mulled the word over internally, "I like that." She agreed with a single definitive nod and sent her boss, now more a dear friend then her employer, a final wave and finally walked out the lab door.
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One year later...
Darcy stared in up in disbelief at the New York City skyline. Large otherworldly beasts were currently on a rampage and destroying her favorite city in the world. Aliens... again... seriously?!
She ran as fast as her feet would carry her toward somewhere she hoped would still be open. The deli she went to several times a week to pick up her bosses lunch. She reached the door and sighed in relief when it opened. It was after she was inside that she noticed that it was empty. Not wanting to go back into the chaos outside and not knowing where else to go she bolted to the tiny bathroom in the back and locked the door behind her. Not that locks would keep out any super powered extraterrestrials, but hey, why not?
She couldn't believe this shit was happening again.
After leaving Jane's employ a year ago she had found another job quicker then she thought she would. It not only paid well but it was actually in her preferred field. It was finally something she could put her well earned degree in Political Science to good use for.
She was able to spend nearly eight months working as the underling to an underling of an underling for the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. It had been a dream come true, especially as far as first time real world jobs go. Part of her knew that she'd only found such an amazing job so easily because of her involvement with a well known Norse God and his connection to a certain super secret government agency. The opportunity was way to good to pass up though, and she couldn't deny that she appreciated the help, at least to an extent. After getting a leg up on her first job she wanted to earn her next one on her own. That was how she had ended up in New York. After two months of looking for opportunities in DC she had decided to move ahead elsewhere.
It was there that she finally found a job working for another woman. This one was still a member of the democratic party, but instead of working for the Secretary of State she was working in the office of a Junior Senator. It felt just as good as getting her last job, because she knew she had earned this one herself.
Yet, as she found herself hiding in the bathroom of the Junior Senators favorite sandwich shop she was silently kicking herself for coming to New York at all.
After twenty minutes of cowering like someone who'd never seen anything like this before her curiosity finally got the better of her. Stepping up to the door she slowly cracked it open and peeked through the tiny opening. The building was still completely empty, of course. The only difference was that now the entire front wall of the building was nothing more than a pile of crumpled concrete and broken glass.
Darcy stumbled as she crawled over the pile of rubble and started to fall face first. She managed to catch herself with only inflicting a few small cuts to her hands from the pieces of scattered glass. Rolling her eyes at herself she used the uninjured sides of her palms to carefully push herself up, and after several minutes of maneuvering her way through the destruction she was finally out of the deli and making her way down the demolished remains of the street.
She glanced up just in time to see Iron Man fly through the large hole in earth's atmosphere. She was so focused on him that she missed the sound of footsteps behind her and was startled by the feeling of something hard pressed firmly into the small of her back.
"Don't move." A deep voice grunted.
"You have got to be kidding me?"
"Don't move." He repeated. Digging what she now realized must be the barrel of a gun further into her. "Give me your purse."
"Are you seriously mugging me during an alien invasion? Who does that? Idiot..." she mumbled as her eyes darted around her to check for the best route to escape.
"What the hell did you just say to me you little bitch?"
"I said schmidiot?"
"You think that's funny?" He demanded, clicking back the trigger.
"Actually, under normal circumstances I've been known to have quite the sense of humor... Some have called me hilarious even."
"Look, just give me the purse lady."
"I don't have a purse," she pointed out. "Kinda lost it during the whole aliens trying to take over New York thing. Surely you can see that?" She pointed at herself and her lack of anything other than the clothes on her back.
Before he could respond she heard a loud thud, felt the gun fall away and watched it land down between her feet. Without thinking she picked it up and whipped around pointing the gun at another man than the one on the ground.
"I surrender," he joked holding his hands up. Darcy studied him closely. He was young, but older than her. Maybe only by a year or two. He wore a very expensive, at least by the looks of it, camera around his neck.
She had no idea why but as soon as he held his hand out to her she just knew she was safe with him. He helped her step over the collapsed man at their feet and led her farther away from the carnage of the Avengers showdown.
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Three months later found her on yet another date with her camera man. His name turned out to be Andrew Miller. He was a photojournalist for a small locally run internet newspaper, hence the nice camera he had worn around his neck the day they met.
After he had saved her from the mugger things between them had developed quickly. It was definitely in a good way, though. She really liked him. He was smart and charming, funny and kind. It also didn't hurt that he was really nice to look at. So when coffee dates had turned into lunches, and lunches to dinners she was ecstatic. The only thing that hadn't been fast between them was their physical relationship.
In the past she would have spent hours trying to figure out why he didn't want to sleep with her, but with him she understood and agreed. They were taking that part of their relationship slow, getting to know each other on a deeper level, and honestly she was enjoying it more then she ever thought she could.
She was ready now though, and she hoped that he felt the same way. She listened as he spoke of his most recent assignment. This would be the first time that the paper he worked for would be sending him out of the city, and she was so happy for him.
He pushed his thick black framed glasses up his nose and smiled brightly at her. He really was so handsome and it was in that slightly nerdy way that she had always been a sucker for.
She couldn't fight the grin that erupted. She didn't know how it had happened so quickly but she was certain she was already falling in love with him. She just hoped he felt the same way about her.
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She and Drew hadn't slept together that night. It just hadn't felt right. They didn't want something that should be amazing to be saturated with the sadness of him leaving. He was going to be gone for at least a month, possibly even two, and it just hadn't felt right.
It was the night he came back that they finally slept together for the first time. It had been amazing, but he had barely been back for a month before another assignment came in, this one sending him even farther than the last. Then there was another one, and another, and another. It had reached the point where he was gone far more then he was in New York. The time apart was unbearable for both of them, but they tried to make sure that when they were together they made up for it.
It was amazing but harder for her than she was willing to let on. She would never make him compromise his goals for her.
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They were out celebrating their two year anniversary. They were actually celebrating a week late since he was out of town yet again on the actual day. Their night out was ending with them sitting in the deli she had once taken up refuge in during the New York attack.
She smiled at him as they sat across from each other their fingers linked. "How was your trip?"
"Lonely."
"It better have been."
"Come on Darce, you know you're the only girl for me."
"I do."
"In fact I've been thinking?" he tugged a small box from his pocket and placed it on the table between them, "open it," he instructed when she stared at it like it may explode. "Please?"
She didn't look at him as he slid the box toward her slowly and flipped it open.
"Wow."
"Yeah."
"You know I'm completely crazy right?"
"I do."
"That you're basically asking to tie yourself to my particular brand of crazy," she lifted her hands and drew circles with her fingers next to both temples. "forever."
"Yep." He pulled the box back from her and pulled it from the soft black velvet surrounding it, "and for the record I love everything about your particular brand of crazy." He placed his hand palm up on the table top and looked toward her left hand pointedly.
"I love you too."
"Is that a yes?"
Smiling brightly she placed her hand in his. "Yes."
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"As we gather to commend our brother Andrew to God our Father and to commit his body to the earth let us express in Prayer our common faith in..."
Darcy tuned out the minister. He was there for Drew's mother more then anything else. While her fiance had his beliefs he didn't need all the pomp and circumstance of a formal burial. He would have been just as happy with those he loved most standing around and telling stories about why they had loved him.
Her fiance.
Darcy's eyes drifted down to the small and delicate diamond that rested on her left hand. They were only a few days from their wedding when the private jet he had been traveling on from Cairo to the U.S. had crashed.
They would already be husband and wife if things had been different. Holding back a sob she turned to look at Drew's mother.
She gripped Darcy's hand and pulled the younger woman closer to her. Though it didn't provide her any comfort. She'd always found it funny that she had never even met his mother until they were engaged and even more bizarre that this was the first time she had seen her since their first introduction.
The minister finished his prayer and looked to Darcy, "and now Andrew's fiancee would like to say a few words." Darcy's eyes snapped to him and she swallowed heavily. The ache in her chest grew stronger with each step she took. When she stepped next to the minister he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Um... I'm sure most people who do this take some time before hand to plan out the perfect eulogy, and I wish I could say that's what I did but..." she shook her head started again. "Andrew loved what he did, he was..."
She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths.
She saw him beside her.
His hand when he held it out to her the first time they met.
Their first date.
Their first night together.
The night he proposed.
Her eyes fluttered open and she wiped the tears from her cheeks. "Drew was a great man. He was good and kind to everyone he met, and I loved him more then I ever thought it was possible to love another person. The only thing that breaks my heart more than losing my chance to spend the rest of my life with him is that he'll never have the chance to do all the things he wanted to." She couldn't stop the tears from streaming down her face. "One night after he came back from a pretty awful assignment we talked about bucket lists, talked about all the things we were going to do together... Things that are never going to happen..." clearing her throat she stepped forward and placed her hand to the top of his casket. "I love you Andrew and you deserved better."
The people around her and the minister started moving to his casket each placing a yellow rose on it and saying a goodbye. It was after everyone was gone that she felt a tiny arm wrap around her. She turned her head and smiled weakly at her friend, "Jane." She wrapped her arms around her and finally let the sobs take over her body.