Chapter three:
"Jane have you packed the oscilloscope yet?" Darcy yelled from her bedroom where she was removing her weapons stash from the false back to her wardrobe.
"Yes I packed it with the solar flare monitor an hour ago. Are you nearly ready our flights in two hours?" Jane said popping her head through the door. Her eyes widen at the arrangement of weapons, fake ID's, foreign currency and disguises laid out on the bed. "Wow that's a lot. You do realise we are going to an airport right?" She questioned.
"You say that as if you don't think I've done this before." Darcy laughed whilst packing her things into a duffle bag. "Plus we're going on a Stark Industries plane with a literal god and avenger I don't think they'll question it too much!" She smirked.
"Are you coming straight to the tower with us when we land or are you touring round New York like you did when we came here?" Jane questioned, picking up a collapsed bo staff between her index finger and thumb. "What is this?"
"It's a collapsible bo staff." Darcy replied taking the staff from Jane's fingers and gave it a strong flick with her wrist to expand it to its real length. Jane's eyes widened. "I have a safe house/apartment already set up in Brooklyn for when I get there, but if you want me to come with you and Thor to the tower I'll be more than happy to accompany you." She smiled.
"Great, the car should arrive soon." Jane beamed. She turned around to leave but suddenly launched herself at Darcy capturing her in a hug. Darcy tensed under Jane's arms before slowly relaxing her muscles and patting Jane's Back. "I'm glad you said yes, you didn't have to." Jane whispered.
"I know."
"No I don't just mean now, I'm glad you stayed after New Mexico. You didn't have to, you said yourself it would be more dangerous for me if you stayed. But when I asked, you stayed. You've looked after me for nearly two years. You may be the strangest friend I've had but you're the best friend I've ever had-" Jane's eyes were becoming glassy.
Uncomfortable at the emotional turn this conversation was taking Darcy intervened "getting emotional on me now Foster, how much sleep did you get?" she laughed. It had the desired effect. Jane rolled her eyes and laughed.
"Right, you don't like emotional conversations sorry." She laughed sheepishly, removing her arms from around Darcy. "I just wanted to say thank you for everything." Jane patted her arm and left the room.
Darcy sighed, packing the rest of her things into the duffle bag on her bed. She massaged her temple and took a last look around the room. 'It'll be nice to have my own space again' She mused.
Sharing a living space was taxing on Darcy; being subjected to physical contact, lack of privacy, geniuses that stay up into the early hours of the morning and the underlying worry that someone would find her and hurt Jane to get to her.
But the worst undoubtedly was the nightmares. Darcy tried to control them, only sleeping when necessary and for the shortest amount of time she could. They often turned violent if she slept too long and let the memories play out. She was deathly scared that she would hurt Jane so she took sleeping pills before she slept and set an alarm to wake her when they would lose their effect.
Over the past year she had been staying with Jane she got roughly 6 hours of sleep on a good night. 'At least Jane will be safe from me when I'm sleeping' she thought. She heard the doorbell ring breaking her out of her musings. She heaved her bag onto her shoulder and left her bedroom shutting the door behind her.
"Wow!" Jane giggled.
Darcy tipped her head back to behold the Stark jet that was taxiing down the runway in front of them.
"You can say that again!" Darcy laughed.
Jane, Thor and Darcy stood on the airstrip with their luggage sat around them. Darcy had her duffle bag and laptop bag over her shoulder and her suitcase at her feet. Thor had a large suitcase containing his Asgardian armour next to his feet Mjolnir in one hand and his other hand in Jane's, her bags spread around them.
The plane came to a stop in front of them, the stairs lowering. They stood there staring for what seemed like 10 minutes. A man with cropped dishwater blonde hair stood at the top of the stairs, he was of medium height with seriously muscled arms and a smirk on his face. Darcy surreptitiously patted the knife concealed inside her belt.
"Are you going to get on the plane or not?" He called from the top of the stairs.
Jane snapped out of her daze and picked up her bags flinging them over her shoulder and dragging Thor with her towards the plane. Darcy shook her head and dragged her suitcase behind her, quickening her pace to catch up with Jane and Thor.
"It is good to see you friend the man of Iron did not tell us we would be accompanying you" Thor beamed when they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Well I just finished a mission in Hungary so it's kind of on the way back" he deadpanned.
Jane released Thor's hand so she could carry her bags up the stairs. The man looked down to Jane with her two bags, then to Thor who only had a suitcase and finally Landed on Darcy who had her large suitcase in one hand oversized duffle bag slung over her shoulder and laptop bag strung over her shoulder her glasses skewed.
"Do you need any help with that?" He called smirk still in place. Darcy smirked readjusting her glasses replying "Thanks but I've got it!" before picking her suitcase up by side handle and easily carrying it up the stairs towards the mystery man.
"After you" the mystery man said when she reached the top of the stairs. Ushering them into the plane they put their bags down at the back of the plane and sat down on a plush couch around a table.
"I'm Clint by the way" The mystery man – Clint – said sticking his hand out to Darcy she hesitantly shook his calloused hand. "Darcy the intern" she smiled dropping his hand, her cover of intern slipping back into place. She flicked her eyes over Clint's form discreetly. His muscled arms, calloused hands and direct connection to the avengers led her to believe that he was the infamous archer Hawkeye. The strange tan patterns on his arms that matched the shapes of armguards proved it.
"You must be Jane Foster then" Clint said offering his hand to Jane who was sat next to Thor on the opposite side of the table from him. "Hi" Jane shook his hand and smiled.
Thor soon struck up a conversation between Clint about the gym facilities in Stark tower. Jane downed the cup of coffee that the air steward brought them when they arrived. "Did you bring my notebook with you?" she asked as soon as she finished her drink
Darcy fished it out of her laptop bag along with her iPod. "Of course I brought your notebook, what kind of assistant would I be if I didn't?" she chuckled passing it onto Jane.
Jane smiled "You should probably go to sleep it's a long flight, I can wake you before we get there if you want?"
Darcy shook her head still smiling "nah I'll just listen to my iPod whilst you work." She leant back in her chair watching Jane.
She pressed play on her 'of course you don't need to sleep playlist' which mainly consisted of rock and pop songs that you would never be able to fall asleep to.
As the sounds of ACDC flooded her ears she looked out the window to see the rapidly disappearing sights of London.
"We'll be ready for landing at LaGuardia airport shortly, could you please return to your seats for landing, thank you." The pilot addressed over the intercom.
Darcy snapped her tired eyes open. The intercom was loud enough to be heard over her music which had reached the quiet songs Darcy had put in to mix up the tempo of the playlist. She sat up from her slumped position in her chair. Her body was so tired she had almost fallen asleep right next to Jane.
The landing was smooth onto the LaGuardia runway.
Darcy never thought she would miss America but in the time she had been away in London she found she had missed it deeply. New York was the only home she had ever come to know.
The sight of the New York skyline through the round plane window was a very welcome sight. Darcy sighed in happiness to be back in the place where she felt most at ease. She tried to stifle a yawn her eyes stayed as open as they could.
"Are you sure you won't stay at the tower tonight Darce? You look pretty whacked." Jane queried standing up with Darcy to grab her bags from the back of the plane. Darcy shook her head and rubbed her face. Thor came to join them slinging Jane's bags over his shoulder. He looked no worse for wear after being on a seven hour flight.
"I'm sure the man of iron has a spare bed that you could use tonight." Thor stated a smile plastered onto his face.
Darcy smiled back "it's only four o'clock I'll come with you and help unpack the lab. It's better to stay awake until a decent bedtime then go to sleep, quickest way to get rid of jet lag and I think if I stay still for any longer I'm going to fall asleep."
"Alright but if you look like you're about to face plant in the lab you're going to stay the night got it?" Jane commanded.
"Says the person who usually falls asleep on her work." Darcy smirked walking down the plane steps into the sun of late afternoon New York. A car was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. The driver was stood outside of it talking to Clint. When they got to the bottom of the stairs the driver took their bags and stowed them inside of the boot.
"I just got off the phone with Stark he said you're rooms are ready and we're ordering in Thai for dinner." Clint said getting into the passenger side of the car next to the driver. Thor, Jane and Darcy all squeezed into the back of the car.
The car journey was quiet all the way to the tower. Darcy spent the whole of it looking out of the window at the city she loves.
"Oh my god!" Jane breathed out, her eyes looking out of her window.
"What are you…oh" Darcy's mouth fell open at the sight in front of them. A gargantuan glass skyscraper filled the front windshield; it was one of the most beautiful buildings Darcy had ever seen. All swooping lines and bright light reflected off of the glass panelling, at the top a large A was emblazoned on the side of the building.
"We're here."