Disclaimer—I do not own the Avengers, Lie to Me, or any of the characters therein. Nor, sadly, do I make any moneys off the posting of this fanfiction.

Hello! Here we are again with another fanfiction. I made a change of pace, as it were, and Hermione is taking a vacation for this one. I hope you like it!

Please read, enjoy, and review!

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Chapter One

The First Interview

Cal kept watch on the young woman in the glass box that served as interrogation. The United States government wanted several people that dealt with the members of the Avengers to be interviewed to see if they were in any way subversive. It was decided to start with whom they referred to as low persons on the totem pole. Darcy Lewis was a former Political Science major now scientist wrangler. She primarily worked for Dr. Jane Foster. The woman she worked for was considered to be the quintessential absent minded professor and over all mad scientist until the arrival of Thor several years before. Darcy Lewis had been there for it as well, as she had been trying to get her six science credits by interning for the good doctor.

"What do you think of her?" he asked Gillian absently, as he watched as Miss Lewis was listening to her iPhone as she was texting someone named Jarvis.

"From what little interaction I've had with her, she reads honest," his partner told him. "Sarcastic, relies on her humor to get through stressful situations—such as this." She smiled. "Reminds me a bit of you."

Blinking he asked, "How so?"

"She's smart. A lot smarter than she shows to the people around her and she reads people—I wouldn't doubt it in the least if she were a natural."

"Really?" he breathed, watching the woman as she let out a crack of laughter and typed a reply quickly back to Jarvis. "I'm going in."

"Good luck," Gillian said, making him look over to her in confusion. "Shield and the Federal agencies may have thought of her as the weak link, but I don't think so."

"How so?" he asked her.

"Just do the interview and you'll see what I mean." She motioned over to the door. "Go get her, tiger."

…

Darcy had been texting Jarvis in order to keep calm. J could always have her laughing and at ease. Clint had offered to go with her, as did Nat and Jane. Natasha assured her that they would be keeping a close eye on her and Tony had told her that if she didn't get back in time to make them brunch, he'd sue them.

"Sue them over a late brunch? Now that's the definition of an empty lawsuit and the reason why legitimate claims are constantly being torpedoed out of court," she told him before kissing his cheek and telling him to behave while she was out.

"I always behave," he assured her.

To which Pepper told him, "Yes, poorly, but you do behave." She looked over to Darcy. "Are you sure you don't want one of the lawyers to go with you?"

She nodded. "It's a sign of stress and will make them all the more suspicious as to what I may be hiding."

The opening and closing of the door snapped her out of her thoughts, as she looked up to see a averaged height man with brown hair that looked like he ran it through with his fingers more than once that morning as a way to neaten himself up. His sharp blue eyes took her in at the same time that she was looking him over. There was something vaguely familiar about the man, having her wondering if she had a science teacher that looked like him. She absently tugged the ear buds out of her ears, wrapping the cord around her phone.

"See everything you needed to see before coming in?" Darcy asked him, as she put her phone away in her purse.

"You've been interrogated before?" he asked her, as he sat down across from her.

"I cannot confirm or deny that," she replied casually, looking around. "Nice digs."

He frowned at that, as he couldn't seem to get a read on the young woman at all. True, she read honest, but usually he was able to pick up whether or not the person he was speaking to was nervous or not. But no, there wasn't anything to indicate fear.

She let out a quiet laugh. "Uh, you know after the whole dark elves invading London thing, this feels like a cake walk."

He blinked at her. "Dark elves?"

"That alien invasion in England? I was there for that on the front lines," she told him. "There was the giant robot from Asgard in New Mexico business too, but I wasn't actually fighting that time. I was helping with the evacuation."

"That's good to know," he drawled. "Tell me about yourself, Miss Lewis."

"What do you want to know?" she asked him, resting her chin into the cup of her palm as she rested her elbow on the table. "I'm incredible. There's not much about me that isn't awesome."

"And modest too," he said casually, but she heard the dryness in his tone that had her laughing.

"Yeah that too," she murmured. "I'm a big ball of awesome wrapped in crazy and iced in humble." When he blinked at her, she told him, "And I have an incredible bod to boot. If that don't scream winner, I don't know what does."

"Do you mean anything you just said?" he inquired.

"Just the stuff about being awesome and having a killer body. The other stuff is just to keep everyone off balance. Which from what I can see of you is working like a charm."

"Right." He stood up and leaned over her, saying in a hard voice. "I could get you fired if you don't cooperate, Miss Lewis."

She grinned. "You haven't read my file!"

"What do you mean?" he asked, puzzled.

"I don't work for the U.S. Government or Shield, Dr. Lightman. I work for Tony Stark and the only person that can or cannot fire me is the CEO Pepper Potts. And not a single thing you or anyone else can say will get my ass canned," she told him. "And the person that set that up was Tony Stark himself." He sat down at those words.

"You're being honest," he breathed.

She nodded. "Yes."

"But you can lie just as easily?"

She nodded again. "I'm cooperating, Dr. Lightman. Whether or not you like what I have to say that's a whole different ball of wax." She smiled at him. "Now was that everything or did you have some real questions for me to answer?"

"You swear…"

"Every damn day," she interrupted him, gaining her a flat look.

"Do you swear that what you're about to tell me is the truth?"

"No," she answered. "I can't, as a lot of what you could ask me is deep dark secret stuff that could have us both tossed into a cell about the size of this room. But if it means anything, I'll tell you what I can."

His lips pinched at those words, before he muttered, "Tell me about your childhood."

She was silent a moment before telling him, "I didn't have much of one. I went from foster home to foster home. I made some friends along the way. Lost some too. But that's fairly typical growing up."

"Were you ever abused?"

Frowning she asked him, "What does that have to do with anything going on with my work?"

He opened his mouth to say something, but shut it again as he saw how she was closing in on herself in a minor way. Her arms moved to be crossed loosely in front of her chest. Yes, there had been some abuse, but to what level was unknown and she wouldn't be speaking of it anytime soon.

"So do tell," he said. "What's it like to work for a bunch of superheroes?"

She thought it over. "The same as working for just about anyone else, I suppose…" Just then her phone rang, she looked to see who it was. Rolling her eyes, she muttered, "Sorry. I have to take this." She answered it with, "No, I'm not done yet, Tony."

"I want my brunch, Lewis," he told her. "I'm starved."

"I left you two bags of blueberries and a couple of bags of those salted organic nuts on your work bench," she told him.

"I'm at my work bench and there's nothing here."

"First of all, I know you're in Pepper's office. I can hear her in the background speaking with that man from Hong Kong and she's only been doing that at her office. Second of all, I hear you sucking things out from between your teeth, so you must be eating something. What? I don't know, but you're eating. I'll be done here before you know it. Now I'll talk to you later. The man across from me is looking at me funny. Bye!" She hung up on Tony protesting and smiled over to Cal. "Tony Stark. He likes brunch to be on time."

"I'm sure," he murmured. "So you could tell that he was lying?"

"He was breathing, wasn't he?" she asked.

"So he lies all the time?"

"Yes and no," she corrected herself. "In the stuff that matters? No, he's what many would think of as too honest for his and everyone else's good. But if we're talking about getting his brunch when he wants it? Oh yes he will lie like a rug."

"What's being too honest?"

"Like when he told everyone that he was Iron Man? That would be a prime example of Tony being too honest." Relaxing she said, "From what I heard, he was given a perfectly good alibi that he just tossed away because he didn't feel like using it. Agent iPod thief wasn't a happy camper about that, let me tell you."

"Agent iPod thief?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes. "Long story there, but it's sufficient to say he took my damn iPod and right after I downloaded thirty new songs too!" Just then her phone rang again. Frowning she answered it with, "What's up, J?"

"Sorry to interrupt your meeting, but sir has gotten it into his head that if you could cook than surely he could as he is a genius…"

"No!" She stood up, grabbing her bag. "You lock down everything! The last time he thought that, he blew up my kitchen!"

"I'm trying my best, but you best get here as quickly as possible as sir is nearly through all of the block codes you set up to prevent this from happening again," Jarvis informed her.

"I'm going to need a ride!" she told him, as she rushed out of the interrogation room with Cal right on her heels.

"Sargent Barnes is on his way to your location as we speak and should be there within the next ten seconds, Miss Lewis," he told her, as she got to the front of the office building.

"We're not done, Miss Lewis!" Cal called out to her.

"We'll finish this later!" she yelled back at him just as Bucky stopped in front of her. "Bucky Bear!" She rushed over and kissed his cheek before getting on the bike behind him. The former Hydra assassin handed her a helmet to wear, watching Cal rather intensely the entire time. "We'll have to reschedule, Dr. Lightman! Sorry!" And they took off like a shot.

Gillian rushed over and joined Cal on the sidewalk. The question as to why Shield, of all people, should hire The Lightman Group came up all the more in Cal's mind as he had watched them taking off to what he figured must be the nearest airstrip. When he looked over to his business partner, he saw that she looked terrified.

"What?" he asked, looking around trying to see what frightened her.

"Do you know who that was Miss Lewis just drove off with?!" Gillian demanded.

Frowning he said, "Bucky Bear."

"James Buchanan Barnes," she told him. "Otherwise known as the Winter Soldier."

Thinking that over, Cal said, "No wonder he looked familiar." And he strolled back into the building with Gillian rushing quickly behind him.

TBC…

…

And that's the first chapter away! Thank you for reading. Let me know what you think of the story. Take care and have yourselves a sparkly day.