Clint looked at Tony with mixture of amusement and scorn. He would have seen Fury's ninja move from miles away. He had seen it, actually, but hadn't felt like warning Stark. He figured this was much better. He only wished Nat had been there to see it. But no, she was off on some mission with Captain America and he was here, watching the real life cartoon show that was Tony Stark.

"Tony," Pepper was saying, "are you okay? How many fingers am I holding up?" She held her hand in front of his face and he stood up shakily, grinning like an idiot. He leaned in for a kiss and stared at her like she was naked.

"Trick question, you aren't holding up any fingers, you're waving hello."

"Boy, he's out of it," Darcy muttered to Bruce. Tony turned towards her and blinked slowly.

"Do I know you? You seem familiar."

"I met you like five minutes ago," she deadpanned and Bruce hid a smirk behind his hand, pretending to cough. Jane spoke up, holding her invitation in front of the dazed man.

"Mr. Stark, Darcy and I came because you sent this invitation," she explained. He nodded and then frowned.

"I don't remember inviting your friend," he said to the scientist, who blushed, but before she could answer, Darcy was talking again.

"Well, do you remember the big guy doing a Vulcan nerve pinch on your sorry ass?" Darcy asked, flopping down on a nearby sofa. Bruce sat next to her and after a moment's hesitation, Clint took the seat on her other side.

"He did not - I have low blood sugar. It's a common medical issue. Ask anyone," Tony said quickly. All eyes turned to Pepper, who shook her head.

"What he has is a low tolerance for maturity," the redhead explained. Jane nodded sympathetically.

"Darcy has the same issue."

"What I have," Darcy said lightly, "is a low tolerance for bull-"

"Darcy!" Jane yelled, embarrassed. Darcy shrugged. Tony shot a look towards Darcy, amused.

"I like you, you remind me of someone," he said. Pepper rolled her eyes and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Tony, we have to leave soon," she reminded him. His eyes seemed to clear at that and he punched the air like he'd just won the lottery.

"Right, secret meeting at seven." He rubbed his hands together, looking at Bruce and Clint.

"You guys are now my away team - to the ready room for debriefing." He ran out of the room and Pepper smirked.

"Is he channeling Star Trek, now? I would have taken him for a Star Wars fan," Clint grinned. "More explosions."

Pepper smiled and turned to Jane. "I know you were hoping to see Thor, but we didn't have a way to invite him. Tony thought, well, if you were here, Thor would figure it out and visit." She shrugged. "But we're still glad to see you, and your assistant." She tilted her head and regarded Darcy.

"I'm glad you came, Thor has spoken quite highly of you. Did you really taze him?" Darcy's eyes lit up.

"Yeah, I really did." Bruce and Clint stared at her, respect in their gaze.

"Sweet," said Clint. He looked at Bruce, "Thor still sending you advice letters?" Jane froze and swallowed down the excitement to keep from screaming.

"What?" Jane was floored. She walked over to Bruce, just staring. Bruce looked decidedly uncomfortable and glared at Clint briefly before looking up at Jane.

"He was oddly impressed by my - medical condition, and every few months I get a parchment scroll delivered to wherever I'm staying. I have no idea how he finds me, but he likes to write."

"He's never written me," Jane said softly. Pepper hugged her quickly.

"I think he's nervous. I mean, he didn't see you when he was in New York last year and then he sent you that letter," she trailed off as Jane's face grew still. "You never got it, did you?" Pepper was beginning to see how Fury's reach exceeded expectation. Damn the man.

"No." The one word spoke more than an entire rant could have done. Jane was beginning to understand S.H.I.E.L.D. a bit better as well. Pepper coughed lightly to break the tension.

"JARVIS will show you two to your suite, I'm really sorry, but we have to leave soon," Pepper said, her eyes misting over slightly. Jane noticed, but didn't mention it.

"Of course, and don't worry about us, we'll be fine," the scientist assured Pepper.

Pepper nodded and walked out of the room with the two Avengers. Darcy's mouth twisted in a half grin and her eyes narrowed.

"Secret meetings right as we get here? The possibilities astound even me."

"Darcy, stay out of this stuff - you know how you can get." JARVIS broke into the conversation and suggested the two would be more comfortable in their suite. Jane had to agree and they went upstairs. After squealing with delight at the state of the art sound system, Darcy was happy when Jane found some new electronic stuff to amuse her and was soon absorbed in some new research. Darcy was now free to go find the others and find out what was going on.

Secret meeting without her? Unacceptable.

"Miss Lewis," JARVIS said, concerned. "Is there anything you need?" The voice followed her as she made her way to the elevator. Damn, she'd forgotten the spooky robot guy.

"Yes, um, I needed to ask Miss Potts about getting my own room. Where is she?"

"She's in meeting room A, but they are discussing a classified matter."

"Well, I'm classified - I know about Thor and everything. And they just said I couldn't go to the super secret meeting. No one said I couldn't go to meeting room A, now did they?"

"Well, no." Darcy had him, she knew it. However, the elevator door did not open. "But they did not say you could leave your suite, either."

"I'm being held prisoner? Dude, that's getting old."

"Not a prisoner, Miss Lewis. But surely you are tired from your journey."

"Listen, I need to speak with Miss Potts. I um, need some girly things, you know, monthly girly things." JARVIS was silent and the elevator doors slid open.

"Third floor, second door on the right. Please knock before entering or someone may accidentally stun or shoot you. Depending on who is closest to the door."

"I'll keep that in mind, JARVIS."

PDPD

"He's dead. I saw him dead," Clint said, eyes unblinking. How does he do that, Tony wondered, then shook his head.

"According to your boss, he isn't. And we need to get that Tesseract fragment out of his head before it explodes or something. Usually I like a good explosion, but cleaning up Agent's brain matter goes above and beyond my little wants and needs."

"What Tony is trying to say," Pepper interrupted, "is that Agent Coulson means a lot to all of us and we need to help him."

"Is this why you invited us here?" Bruce asked, confused.

"I just found out five minutes before you got here. So no. I invited you because we're still a team, even if I totally am fine without you and besides the fact that I built you your own lab here with the latest gamma radiation research constantly uploaded into your state of the art computer system. That I wasn't gonna tell you about till later, but for some reason, my brains a bit foggy."

"Fury checked your ass, Stark," Clint reminded him, almost happily and Stark frowned.

"Low. Blood. Sugar."

"I think we are getting off topic," Pepper broke in again. "We need to help Phil, we can't lose him again." Her voice broke and the men stopped bickering long enough to realize that she was very upset. Tony threw an arm over her and kissed her head.

"We'll help Agent get his mind back in one piece. Promise. Now that we know Coulson's alive, we're gonna keep him that way."

They walked out of the meeting room as the elevator doors opened. Darcy only heard Tony's last sentence, but it was enough to get her feeling confused, happy, furious and a bit excited. Agent iPod Thief lived? He'd been such a jerk to her in New Mexico, but - he'd gotten her out of her boredom with his raised eyebrow and calm voice and - well, Darcy had a bit of a crush, not that she'd ever admit it.

"So," she jumped out in front of the stunned Avengers and Pepper. "When do we go see Secret Agent Man?"