Work was boring her absolutely to tears, and there seemed to be no end to it. Jane kept bringing her more and more ridiculous amounts of data, and Darcy was ready to scream. And it wasn't even noon yet! Pushing back her chair, she rubbed her tired eyes and got to her feet. She padded down the hall in search of coffee, relishing the chance to stretch her legs and momentarily break the monotony of the day. As she reached for a cup, she overheard two familiar voices in the corridor. ''Have you noticed,'' Steve Rogers was saying, and without even turning around Darcy could sense his facial expression, stoic and serious, ''that he's been...a little different today? Almost...helpful. And he actually smiled, I think.'' The Captain's tone was both disbelieving and perhaps mildly horrified.
She heard Tony Stark chuckle. ''Maybe he got laid,'' the billionaire lazily suggested.
Darcy could practically hear Captain America shudder. ''I'd rather not think about that,'' he replied with disgust, then added, ''And I don't think so. What woman would possibly...'' he trailed off, at a loss.
''Well, there's all kinds of women out there, Cap,'' Stark sounded amused. ''A lot has changed since you've been thawed. Even serial killers get groupies.''
Darcy quietly stirred some powdered creamer into her coffee and continued to eavesdrop, wondering who they were talking about. He sounded pretty awful, whoever he was.
The Captain was quiet for a moment. ''Well, regardless, I don't like or trust this behavior from him. He's up to something.''
Stark snorted dismissively. ''There's nothing he can do to us, and he knows it. That's part of the deal. He works for us now. He is, for all intents and purposes, our bitch. He agreed to the terms, and knows full well what happens if he violates them. Let's just be grateful that he's acting a little more pleasant today.''
Then the conversation grew more muffled and she heard their footsteps moving away and further down the hall, out of earshot. Darcy grabbed her coffee and headed back down the hall to her desk. Jane darted over as soon as she returned, looking tired. ''There you are. Hey, do you have those charts from yesterday?'' She shifted back and forth nervously.
''Yeah, give me a sec and I'll get them,'' Darcy answered slowly, taking in her friend's jittery demeanor. ''How many cups of coffee have you had this morning?''
''Not enough,'' Jane moaned, gazing longingly at the steaming cup in Darcy's hand. ''I'm just frazzled. I have this meeting in less than an hour with all the bigwigs; you know, Captain America, Stark, Clint, that scary woman with the red hair...even Nick Fury.'' Jane clutched her chest in terror. ''I'm supposed to present some of my findings...and I think I might have a heart attack before I even get one word out of my mouth.''
Darcy rolled her eyes. ''Jane. Please. This should not freak you out at all. Thor will be there. And besides, you've gone toe to toe with SHIELD before. I mean, when that creepy little dude in the suit came to take all your equipment back in New Mexico, you totally gave him the business.''
Jane's face fell, and she suddenly looked pained.
''Wait, whoa, what did I say? What's wrong?'' Darcy was startled by the grimness of the expression on the other woman's face.
''Well, you didn't know, I mean...you didn't have any reason to know, so...but...that man, Agent Coulson, the one who took our equipment that day...well...he's dead. He was killed during the...um, incident last year.''
Oh, geez. Now she really felt awful. Darcy wanted to kick herself for being insensitive, but then she reminded herself, Jane was right about her not having any reason to know. She barely knew more than the general public about the details of the attack that had maimed the city so many months before. This place was all about lock and key secrets, information control, all that. SHIELD made the CIA look like the local library. And she was, Darcy reminded herself, the low man on the totem pole. She wasn't allowed to know anything important.
''Well...um...regardless. You'll do fine. Here,'' Darcy thrust her cup of coffee into Jane's hands. ''Liquid courage. Your kind, not mine. Break a leg.'' The scientist's eyes lit up as she grasped the offering, taking a quick sip and then finally cracking a small smile. ''Thanks, Darcy.''
Quickly collecting the folder full of charts that was sitting on her desk with a Post-It note saying ''Jane's Very Important Crap'' and handed it to her her friend. ''You're welcome. Here. Charts. Get going.''
Jane nodded vigorously, grabbed the folder, took another sip of coffee then darted out of the room. Darcy sighed, then sank wearily into her chair. Not wanting to think about the hours of data entry that were ahead of her, she let her mind wander. And it wandered to smutty daydreams about her mysterious hottie of a neighbor. God, his eyes. That positively wicked little smile that sometimes played at the corners of his mouth. She couldn't help but hope they would continue the game that they'd inadvertently seemed to have begun playing. Hmmmm, but what should be her next move? Her face grew warm and she got tingles in some very naughty places just thinking about the possibilities. She'd never done anything like this before, and it was, she had to admit, tremendously exciting. Deciding to give data entry a break for just a moment, and damning office decorum, Darcy opened a web browser and Googled 'sexy lingerie' for research purposes. She was going shopping later, and needed to have at least a rough idea about what she wanted to get.
Darcy had become so engrossed in her ''research'' that she jumped a mile when a deadly soft female voice right by her ear said ''That would be a great color on you.'' Whipping her head around, she nearly had a stroke when she saw none other than the Black Widow herself positioned less than an inch away, an amused look on her full lips.
''Oh my God!'' Quickly, Darcy clicked off of the site and pulled her spreadsheet back up. ''I was just...um...on my break. But now I'm not. Now I'm getting back to work. Entering data. And having a damn good time doing it!'' She pounded furiously at the keyboard for emphasis. The amusement never leaving her face, Natasha looked at her for a long moment, then said slowly, ''If he's worth it, you're going to need to do better. Here.'' Seemingly out of nowhere, she materialized a small business card and handed it to Darcy. ''This is the shop where I get most everything I need for just such an occasion. Very exclusive. The owner is an old friend of mine. If you want, I can call ahead and tell her you'll be coming in.''
Darcy's hand was practically shaking as she accepted the card. ''Yes. I mean, thank you!'' she stammered. ''I'd...I'd really appreciate that. But—''
''No buts.'' The Black Widow held up a hand. ''You seem like...a very nice young lady. I've seen your spreadsheets. You do good work,'' she added, without a trace of irony or sarcasm. ''Now, I've got to run, I have a meeting. But yes, definitely that color.''
Darcy turned back to her computer screen for half a second, recalling the picture she'd been looking at, flimsy lace and silk in bright green. By the time she turned back around, Natasha was gone, and the card was still in her sweaty palm. ''I guess I'm going shopping later,'' she muttered.
The rest of the day passed in a blur, and though Darcy wanted to stick around to ask Jane how the meeting had gone, she figured that she could text her later, and bolted out the front doors as quickly as possible. She'd Google-mapped the address on the business card, luckily it wasn't too far and so she decided to walk. It was a small shop, it seemed, hidden unless you were looking for it. It was situated in a kind of small street corner nook. There didn't seem to be any signs on the door at all, just a buzzer. It was all very hidden and mysterious, it reminded her a little of Harry Potter. Like maybe it was the sort of place that Hermione Granger went to buy her lingerie, Darcy thought, then laughed hysterically, in a delirium of nervous excitement.
She rang the buzzer, and a few seconds later, the door swung open, revealing an older, statuesque blonde woman dressed in tight, bright clothing who demanded, ''Come in!'' and practically dragged her into the store.
After what seemed like hours, Darcy had tried on many beautiful, ridiculously expensive pieces of lingerie, and was attempting to make a selection, but it was rather difficult. Other than the few lacy thongs from Victoria's Secret that she'd worn in college, she had no experience with buying sexy underwear, typically favoring comfort over style. However, the woman who owned the store seemed to know exactly what she was doing and voiced her opinion loudly and often. ''No, no,'' she would shout when Darcy pulled something off the rack that she didn't approve of. ''Silly girl!'' the shopkeeper yelled, at one point literally grabbing Darcy's boobs and hollering in a thick Eastern European accent, ''Why you hide these? Women pay good money for a chest like this, you show them off!'' Darcy wasn't sure whether to be grateful or terrified. As it turned out though, she was grateful, because after she had made her final decision and stood at the counter with her eyes squeezed shut and her Visa in hand, the shopkeeper waved the credit card away and cheerfully handed her a bag containing her purchase, saying ''here you go!'' in a sing-song voice.
''Um'' Darcy said hesitantly. ''I didn't pay you yet. How much is it?''
The huge blonde shopkeeper laughed so loudly that Darcy wondered if she wasn't maybe a little insane. ''Oh, she told me you were funny!'' she chortled. After taking a moment to calm herself, the woman added, after noticing Darcy's confused expression, ''My friend is paying for whatever you buy today. It's a deal that we have. She took care of some messy business for me, and I help her with whatever she needs. She told me to take care of you. So here. You can go now.''
Mouth agape, Darcy could do little more than nod, clutch the bag and dart out the door, calling ''thank you!'' behind her and wondering what the hell she had done to earn the Black Widow's generosity, but then concluding that she'd rather not know. The Avengers lived in a world that was so far removed from anything resembling normalcy that Darcy concluded that she'd rather not understand their logic. But she definitely owed Natasha, because the purchase in her bag was very, very costly, very lacy and silky. And green.
