Darcy felt like she had had a bucket of ice water thrown over her. One minute she felt indignant and purposeful and wanting to tell Bruce the deal, the next she was kissing him and forgetting why she was upset and just wanting more... and then Betty Ross comes along. Again.

Fuck.

Still leaning back on Bruce, she could feel the muscles in his legs tense up under her hands. Her head was thrown back, so she could see the swirling pattern in the ceiling above her. Darcy closed her eyes and silently counted to five then sat up. She looked down at Bruce and the look of guilt on his face tore her up inside.

He remained quiet as she quickly scrambled off of him and began putting herself back together. He moved off the bed, quietly buttoned his shirt back up and avoided looking at her. The fact that he wouldn't even look at her was confirmation enough for Darcy that she needed to get as far away from the whole situation as she could before she started crying. She may be willing to try subtle (or not so subtle) seduction, but she was not about to manipulate him, or any man for that matter, with tears.

"So... that got a little out of hand." Darcy attempted to sound casual about the whole thing, even as she could feel the prickle of tears at the corners of her eyes. She mentally cursed herself for being weak, and turned away from Bruce.

Bruce cleared his throat. "Darcy, I do like you." She couldn't see him, but she imagined he still looked guilty.

"Yeah, right. Obviously." That may have sounded more bitter than she meant.

Bruce sighed and she could feel him put his hands on her shoulders. Darcy felt the sudden urge to wrench out of his grasp, but when he pushed slightly on her to turn her, she moved willingly. Staring resolutely at the buttons on his shirt, she watched his hand out of the corner of her eye move to her cheek. Darcy forced herself not to lean into his touch as he tilted her head back to look at him.

"Darcy, I like you. And not just for the uniform." He smiled at that and she couldn't help but smile back at him. "You're smart and funny and beautiful. You make me feel good about myself. The only thing I regret about what just happened is the timing."

"Yeah, probably not a good idea to give into a year of sexual tension right after seeing you kiss your ex-girlfriend." Darcy felt like a bitch at that moment, but the thought that she'd allowed herself to get carried away with Bruce less than an hour after seeing him kiss someone else, made her feel cheap. And the fact that she'd worn something she couldn't even use the bathroom in without getting almost completely undressed, just for a man, made her feel like she'd set feminism back fifty years.

Darcy was glad to note that the new look of guilt on Bruce's face seemed to stem from his behavior with Betty this time. And before he could respond to her statement, a knock sounded at her door.

"Yeah hey, it's probably better if we talk about this later." Darcy glanced at her door. "You should go see what Betty wants. It might be important." Bruce seemed like he was about to argue, but another knock cut him off and Darcy moved quickly away from him and went to answer the door.

Betty stood before Darcy in all her elfish glory. Dark shiny hair in waves down her back. Large blue eyes full of warmth. Full pink lips turned up in a smile at the sight of Bruce standing somewhere behind Darcy.

Darcy hated her.

"Oh hey!" Betty directed her smile at Darcy. "We haven't been properly introduced. I'm Betty Ross. I'll be working in the labs here." Betty held out her hand.

Darcy channeled the sorority girls she hated so much in college, and smiled widely. "Yeah, nice to formally meet you." She took Betty's hand in a firm handshake. "Darcy Lewis. I'm a liaison for SHIELD and the Avengers. You must be looking for Dr. Banner."

"Oh yes. He sort of stammered something about paperwork and ran out of the lab with an experiment still running." She looked past Darcy to Bruce and smirked. "I was looking for him, so we could avoid an explosion in the lab, and one of the security guards in the lobby said he was with you."

"Oh... the experiment... paperwork..." Bruce mumbled, and Darcy rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure you know Bruce well enough to know how he can be with words sometimes." Darcy smiled sincerely this time at Bruce's fumbling.

"Of course," Betty laughed. "Unless it's science related, Bruce tends to lose his ability to form coherent sentences sometimes." Her laughter was as warm as her eyes and Darcy couldn't help but laugh along with her.

Damn Betty Ross and her effervescent personality.

"Well Bruce and I are done here." Darcy turned to Bruce and lifted an eyebrow meaningfully at him. "And I should really be getting back to work."

Bruce seemed to snap out of his stupor and moved to the door. As he brushed past Darcy, he looked down at her, but she had turned back to Betty.

"Well again, it was nice to meet you." Darcy held out her hand this time and Betty shook it.

"Yes it was so nice to meet you too. We should go out to eat sometime and really get to know each other. I haven't really met a whole lot of people yet, and it would be nice if we could be friends. Especially since it seems like you'll be in the labs a lot."

"Of course, that would be great. I'll set up a dinner this weekend." Darcy wanted to kick herself, but the pull of Betty's niceness was too strong. Might as well go for broke, she figured. "You can also meet Natasha. I'm sure you've met Pepper since she secured your lab space, and of course you've met Jane. We'll make it a welcome dinner and a girl's night out."

"That sounds great!" Betty looked genuinely excited. "I'll make sure to leave my weekend open."

"Yeah, great," Bruce chimed in, his smile seemed forced and Darcy relished in what was sure to be his internal freak out.

"I'll let you know which night." Darcy moved back slowly into her room, physically ending the conversation.

"Sure thing," Betty replied back, and turned with Bruce to walk back to the elevators that would take them to the lab.

Bruce threw a slightly worried glance over his shoulder as he followed after Betty, but Darcy was already closing her door.

For the second time that day, Darcy slid down her closed door till she was sitting on the floor.

"Betty fucking Ross."