Babysitting Darcy Lewis

Disclaimer: I absolutely nothing.

Chapter Seven

Dark Thoughts

Anyone who wasn't an idiot knew that you didn't piss off Darcy Lewis. Clint Barton had clearly not gotten that particular memo otherwise he wouldn't have a) knocked her out on their first ever date b) left her to go chase off some mysterious evil villain dude c) left her in the hands of a female assassin she was pretty sure he'd dated or at the very least had sex with.

As Agent Asshat explained what had happened in very vague terms while in the New Mexico SHIELD office, Darcy nursed the killer headache she'd gotten courtesy of Barton she tried to avoid the Black Widows stare. But Natasha Romanoff must not have been human because she looked at her without even blinking once. And that made Darcy nervous.

Clint had talked a little about the woman he considered his best friend but he had used words like "lethal" and "red in her ledger" to describe her. That didn't comfort Darcy considering she was sort of dating her best friend.

That was if she still wanted to speak to Clint after he got back from saving the world or whatever. Because they'd been going somewhere and it had been good for about five seconds then he'd run.

Not to mention knocked her out beforehand.

"Miss Lewis," said Agent Coulson, "Are you listening to me?"

Darcy blinked. "Do you have any aspirin?"

"Miss Lewis are you joking? Because I'm afraid you don't understand the gravity of the situation. You have been targeted-"

"If I don't understand the gravity of the situation it's because you're not telling me the truth. So far you've basically said that I'm in danger but you haven't told me from what. Furthermore agent asshat, I just got knocked out by one of your top assassins and my head hurts. So can I get some freaking aspirin or what?"

Phil looked stunned. "Agent asshat?"

There was a sound that Darcy thought was chuckling but she wasn't sure because it was coming from Natasha Romanoff. The Black Widow had liked her joke. Well, at least she might stand a better chance of not being killed by her if she thought she was funny.

"Here," said the other woman pulling a bottle of aspirin from somewhere on her person that Darcy didn't even see. "Rule number 1 of being an agent-always be prepared. Villain's like to talk. That leads to a lot of headaches."

Darcy stared at her in surprise. "Uh…thanks." She took two because Clint packed a punch. Then she looked back at Coulson. "Just tell me this. Is Clint still alive?"

"Agent Barton checked in at 1600. He's fine and looking up some old contacts. Agent Romanoff will be taking over your protection detail."

"I still don't understand why I'm being protected in the first place. It isn't as if I've been blabbing how I spent my summer vacation chasing aliens."

"No but there was that one photo of Thor on Facebook."

Darcy scowled. "It was one picture and anyway your minions took it down after you stole Jane's lab equipment. Not to mention the photos of my graduation party."

"There was underage drinking involved."

"And that's your business how?"

Agent Coulson huffed. "It was illegal."

"I had a picture of me doing a headstand with a beer bottle in my mouth. It was awesomesauce and you deleted it."

"You called me Agent Asshat."

Darcy groaned. "I got knocked out by one of your agents."

"She wins," said Natasha, smiling.

She grinned. "Thanks."

Natasha smiled. "Not a problem, Miss Lewis."

Coulson shook his head. "Agent Romanoff please escort Miss Lewis home. And Miss Lewis?"

"Huh?"

"Give me that aspirin."

"Why?"

"You're giving me a headache," said Coulson, grabbing the pills from her.

Darcy smiled. "I feel much better now."

"C'mon Lewis. I'll give you a ride home," said Natasha. Darcy got up and gladly let the Black Widow get her out of there.

The drive back to her town was a long one and she immediately regretted her decision to let Natasha drive her. The female assassin was somehow managing to not hit anything while looking at her.

"Coulson planned this spectacularly," said Natasha, making Darcy raise an eyebrow.

"Planned what spectacularly?"

"Clint needed a purpose. You're giving him one."

"Huh?"

For the first time during the whole drive Natasha looked away from her. "The thing about being an assassin is that your whole job is taking life away from people. Sometimes you start to think that you don't deserve a life. If you let it then it will get the best of you. He was at that point."

Darcy blinked. "What the f does that have to do with me? Coulson just made Clint watch me so I wouldn't go blabbing to the world that I'd seen aliens. Although I notice they didn't give Jane the security detail but I figured that's just because she's dating a Norse god who could summon lightening to fry anyone that hurts her."

Natasha just smiled. "Coulson is really, really, good."

Still confused Darcy frowned and muttered that he was an asshat. Then she asked the question that she'd been dying to but hadn't been able to bring herself to with Phil there. "Miss Romanoff…"

"Call me Tasha."

"Is he gonna be okay?"

"A month ago if he'd found out his archenemy was still alive he would have let him kill him. Now he's determined to off the son of a bitch."

"Um…"

"Yeah Darcy, he's going to be okay."

Despite the fact that she still wasn't totally sure if Clint chasing after someone he intended to kill was a good thing she still felt a bit better. And with the knowledge that there was a good possibility he'd actually come home she used her arm as a pillow and slept for the rest of the ride.

Maria Hill sat on a park bench with Clint Barton trying to understand just exactly what he said. "You can't be serious Barton."

"Hill would I lie about something like this?"

She couldn't help but be skeptical. "You do have a history with PTSD. Are you sure this isn't one of those times?"

"I'm positive." He looked so sure but she knew Barton's history. He had only recently been let back into the field after his incident with Cross. He'd just found out about the existence of aliens. That was enough to make anyone start seeing things.

"Cross was dead. You saw him die. It's in the report."

"Hill we live in a world that just discovered the existence of aliens. Do you really think it's that crazy someone could come back from the dead?"

"That doesn't mean you have to go after him. Why don't you let SHIELD handle it?"

Barton narrowed his eyes in a way that made Hill clench the arm rest next to her. She wasn't scared of many things but a person would have to be stupid not to be scared of an angry Clint Barton.

"He was sitting behind Darcy," said Clint, "right behind her. I let him take away everything once. I'm not going to let him take away everything like he did last time. So are you going to help me or not Hill?"

Maria knew that she was going to regret this decision but she didn't want to know what would happen if she didn't. "I'll help."

"Thank you," he said, looking relieved.

"But I'm only helping because Fury would be pissed if you ended up killed and I don't think all of the aspirin in the world could get rid of that headache."

He chuckled and Maria realized it was the first time Barton had ever laughed in her presence. It had to have been the girl he was protecting. It was always a girl.

She'd seen it happen a lot with agents charged with protecting someone. She'd been through it herself not that she ever had a shot in hell of being on the receiving end of it. But happiness was a rare thing when you worked at SHIELD and if anyone had it for even the smallest of moments that was worth fighting for.

So Maria would help Clint track down William Cross even if she didn't believe him.

After Natasha dropped Darcy off at home she went up to her apartment. She needed to study so inside she sat down at her desk and tried to get some work done. But it was hard as her mind kept on drifting off to Clint.

She liked him and yet she wasn't sure it was such a good idea now. She had watched him sleep the one time he had fallen asleep at the library and it had been troubled. Troubled was putting it lightly.

Would it always be like that if she were with him? Everything intense, broody, and dark?

Darcy wasn't sure if she could handle that. She wasn't a serious kind of girl. She was the comic relief. She had never had a real relationship.

She just sort of had flings.

But she knew that anything with Barton couldn't be a fling. For all of his toughness he was probably just as easy to break as she was.

Then there was the issue that he was chasing off after a mad man to keep her safe. What happened if he didn't come back? She wasn't sure she could handle that.

Her books sat forgotten on her desk. Knowing that she probably wouldn't get any work done she got up and went to get something from the fridge. She grabbed a piece of left over pizza, a soda, then took a seat on her couch and turned on the television. She needed to clear her head a bit. Hopefully watching something stupid would help.

She settled on some reality show whose name she didn't even know then ate her pizza. As she watched she noticed something was wrong with the screen.

There was a red light in the reflection.

Darcy got up to stare closer at it. She couldn't even tell where the light was coming from. Curious, she looked behind her to see if it could have been coming from something else in the living room.

There was nothing that she could find but she noticed that her window was open. A slight chill went through the room as a breeze had started up outside. She couldn't remember having left it open but that was the only explanation for it.

She closed the window and then, deciding that she was tired, she went to bed. But the red light still bothered her. There was no reason for it.

Clint sat in the hotel room he'd gotten in Washington waiting for Maria to come back with answers. Considering all of the SHIELD resources she had it shouldn't have taken that long. But he kept on seeing Cross sitting behind Darcy as he waited so it seemed longer than it really was.

There were eight knocks on the door which was the signal that he and Hill had agreed on. He jumped up from his bed and ran to the door.

When he opened it he was met with Maria's grave face. "Well?" he said.

"You were right. Cross isn't dead."

"But how?"

"It was his twin brother you killed. Cross survived."

"So he's alive?"

"Yeah he's alive. And Barton?"

"What?"

"He's been following you."

Clint felt as though his entire world had been kicked out from underneath him. William Cross had been following him which meant he knew about Darcy.

And Clint was busy chasing after him instead of being with her. "Damn it all to hell." He ignored Maria Hill's shouts as he ran out of the room.

A/N: Oh wow you guys. I'm so happy you all are liking this story. Thank you for all of the follows, reviews, and favorites.