Sorry for the wait, I had the flu and I was taking care of others with the flu. Also this chapter is SO VERY FLUFFY. Sorry.
Again Darcy woke screaming, nightmares of killing men and being thrown back into the hold until she'd been as broken and hopeless as the rest of the girls. In her nightmares the burns weren't an accident they were done to her on purpose for trying to escape. Jane hugged her and comforted her trying to get Darcy to go back to sleep but by six Darcy gave up going back to sleep.
It was disgustingly early on yet another Monday (only the fourth since she'd started working at the Tower) and Darcy found herself alone for the first time. She'd insisted Jane leave her to get some new clothes some decent food, not to mention check up on her abandoned lab assistants.
"It was a June Wednesday, during the first week of summer, beautiful in New York, the early afternoon a balmy eighty degrees," said the news anchor, "when Stark Tower was attacked by Magneto, Pyro and various unnamed attackers some call the Brotherhood of Mutants. We had reports of Hulk sightings down by the docks around the Hudson and it looked like the big green guy had gotten startled by a series of car accidents. Now we are starting to piece together what may have happened."
They went on to show snapshots and shaky videos of the Bentley in the air being controlled by Magneto and the Hulk chasing after it. "Reports of the Hulk chasing after a car are corroborated with eyewitness accounts and cellphone video of the Hulk in the water returning from a ship with three men. We have yet to positively identify them but soon after the Hulk was accompanied by Black Widow and Hawkeye at Stark Tower where Magneto was attacking. Two new allies were at the scene, a woman who calls herself the Scarlet Witch and another who calls himself Quicksilver. They battled Magneto alongside the reduced Avengers team. Our audience will remember that Thor the god of Thunder has not been seen since the events in Manhattan almost two months ago. Captain America arrived on the scene about an hour after the Hulk and they were finally joined by Iron Man who arrived for the clean up."
"Yes Charlie, it took two hours before Iron Man emerged on the scene and it is generally believed that he was one of those rescued from a ship where the Bentley had been deposited by Magneto. We have tried to contact Tony Stark about the events and he can confirm that he was indeed incapacitated but there have been no further details nor confirmation from his camp as to whether or not the other two men the Hulk rescued were indeed Happy Hogan his chauffeur and Captain America in his civilian clothes."
"Indeed it has been very difficult to pin down the elusive Captain America. Some say it really is Captain Steven Rogers from the old WWII propaganda films who was credited with taking down the head of Hydra Johann Schmidt."
Darcy was trying valiantly to stay awake to finish the news piece. Her tablet on the bed forgotten along with the emails that numbered into the hundreds but sleep pulled her down.
She was awakened by nurses who insisted she was strong enough to have a sponge bath and have her hair shampooed. By nine in the morning she was clean, sore and lonely. Which was convenient because her first visitor of the new week was Steve in his old man pants (really someone needed to dress him). He was trying valiantly not to look down past her eyes and it amused her to no end the way he blushed. Then Darcy noticed how her gown had fallen open to reveal her gauze wrapped chest, curse the nurses they forgot to double up her gowns! She would have blushed if she'd had enough blood.
They chatted for awhile Steve telling her Tony and Bruce were worried sick during the surgery and after when they were waiting for Darcy to wake up. That the recovered girls were being taken care of, they spoke highly of her. Natasha had pitched in to interrogate the men that survived, and helped acclimate the women. The men talked about Darcy like she was a ghost above them unseen raining down bullets. "Clint was pretty impressed, Natasha too."
"Oh that, well I didn't get to see the big fight with Magneto." she grinned weakly. "It looked serious, I guess he was mad about the Maximoff twins defecting huh?"
Steve had this adorable little frown, "Oh so you saw the news. I thought we weren't... I guess no one told you. Magneto came after us because he'd lost two of his best." He paused, "I'm sorry it took us so long to get to you."
"Oh come on Cap, you had a much bigger problem on your hands. 'Sides I handled myself right? I was good, a little too good ." Darcy was trying her neutral expression at the end as she thought of all the killing she'd done, but her tone betrayed her, "Do you know how many I killed?"
"They were bad guys Lewis." that he used her last name meant he was pulling rank. She appreciated that he thought he knew better but still, annoying.
"Please tell me." she asked politely. Steve studied her face, took in her white knuckled hands fisted on the covers.
"Eight, most died from bleeding out though. I know you tried not to kill them." He'd stepped closer but Darcy couldn't meet his eyes. Maybe he did know better, she thought, he'd fought in WWII after all. Then Steve said firmly, "You had no choice."
"There were ten. The two women, I didn't- I could have put my weapon down." she was resolutely looking out the window to her left, Steve stood on the right side of her bed.
"Agent Lewis, have you ever been in war or battle?"
"No."
"Well here's the thing about war, there are tactical options. Thats a cool way of saying, kill a few to save the many. If you had put down your weapon they might have killed you, hell you almost died." He took another step closer, and a deep breath. "They could have killed the rest of the women. There were forty women in that hold. Only two died. You got rid of the bad guys, those women are free now because of you, what more could you have done?"
Darcy looked up at Steve, but he was looking at her like a commanding officer now. Still she shook her head. "There had to be another way, I just, didn't see it."
"You saved thirty-eight women Agent Lewis. You did it single-handedly with no battlefield experience whatsoever. You are a hero." his kind blue eyes were so sincere and brave, but they'd seen things too. Darcy couldn't help but hold on to that like a drowning woman clinging to a lifesaver. "I was there Agent Lewis, to see you fall after the cannister was thrown. You tried saving us even though we're all bigger and stronger than you. And for your trouble you were packed into a slave ship. The Hulk saved us got us out of there while we were knocked out. I saw them drag you away unconscious but you made it back and not just anyone can do that." Darcy was grateful for the words but then he kept going, "You've got heart kid, it hurts and thats a good thing."
There was a long moment when Darcy felt the tears threatening and asked without meaning to, "Will it stop? Hurting?" Steve looked away quickly then.
"I don't know."
There was a knock on the door and a nurse came in with Natasha and Clint. "We've gotten clearance to do your debrief here, if you're up to it."
Darcy wiped at her eyes, the nurse glared at the two agents and at Steve, she was unhappy but all she said was, "You get tired you press this little button and I'll throw them out."
"That's ok, I can do it now. Might as well get this out of the way." she tried sitting up straighter, the nurse fixing her pillow and Darcy holding back the whimpers of pain. Natasha and Clint set down a tiny digital recorder, a camera on a tripod and Steve bowed out.
They asked her to tell the whole tale from the beginning starting with the car accident and the ambush. Then they asked her to repeat certain parts. Clint did most of the questions his usual jovial manner exchanged for a easy precision that would have made Agent Coulson proud. They let Jane come in and help Darcy drink some juice. Natasha wrote down some things, asked things a different way. Darcy held off on the morphine the entire time. The nurse came back after two hours and asked her why she wasn't using the morphine.
"I'm busy." was all she answered, the nurse glared at the readings on the machine. "I'm fine thank you."
It took another hour before they packed up. Natasha turned around, wearing an apologetic smile, "next time will be a proper visit not just a debriefing ok?" at the time Darcy had no way of knowing that this was the equivalent of a hug and tears from Natasha.
Darcy smiled, "I'm just glad it wasn't Fury." Clint shuddered as if to say yeah no kidding.
"Well rest up, Agent Lewis."
Jane came back in complaining about everyone bugging poor Darcy with work stuff. Darcy let her fuss while she ate the most delicious pudding known to humankind, after all it was her first solid(ish) food in five days and it was CHOCOLATE. That evening Pepper came by, Darcy was glad that Jane had asked the nurse to put her through the painful sponge bath and shampoo. She arrived just after the pudding, and of course Pepper came in looking like a supermodel in heels and tasteful jewelry, her pantsuit still showing off her mile long legs and high heels.
"I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to come visit!" She was sweet and concerned asking questions about how the staff was treating her, and did she want better gowns? It was really an opening for Pepper to wave Happy in with a few bags of the most beautiful robes Darcy had ever seen. A terry cloth one, a gray cashmere one that probably cost more than Darcy's first car and three silky satiny affairs that came in different prints. Plus five cotton shifts that looked like they were mostly for layering under the others.
"That's too much! I can't possibly-"
Pepper gave her a stern look, silencing Darcy then softened, "I won't hear of it. They say you're going to be on bedrest for a long time. And you can't believe how Steve blushed when he talked about visiting you."
Darcy tried rolling her eyes but she was pretty sure she felt her blush flare up as strong as it could possibly be in her state.
Pepper kept talking about Tony and how he was driving his assistants insane, Fury had conceded that they bring her to a private hospital so Jane could stay with her as much as possible. Darcy's eyes went round and she tried not to think about whether or not her insurance would cover this stay.
"Listen Tony, Bruce and Happy, they said you saved them from the full blast of the tear gas. He felt really bad that they couldn't get to you in time," her eyes were moist but she was at the door and opening it. Then Tony came in with the biggest Stitch Darcy had ever seen, he was like three feet tall and plush.
"I didn't know Agents were allowed to squeal." he remarked, Darcy had been too happy to stop herself.
"I'll have to quit then." Darcy was grinning like a fool. "Besides I don't think I'm supposed to accept gifts... and I want them all! I may be a little high on morphine right now don't hold it against me." They laughed while Darcy hugged the massive Stitch on her good side even though it pulled at the injury she didn't stop hugging it.
Pepper and Tony left an hour later when Jane shooed them out insisting it was late and Darcy needed her rest. The next few days were filled with movies, and visits from the whole team. They had a habit of bringing food to eat with Jane or coming just when Jane was getting stir crazy, Darcy suspected Pepper or Bruce had set up a rotation. But the nightmares were easier to ignore when someone was there when she woke up or right after. Wednesday they took her back into surgery for the skin grafts on her leg. Darcy lost another two days to a sedative and morphine haze, the doctor told Jane at some point that Darcy really shouldn't have had the skin grafts done because she was too weak but Darcy had insisted.
They had a pizza night on Saturday in her suite but Darcy pouted because she wasn't allowed pizza yet. Though Darcy did have all the gelato she could want once Jane let Happy deliver the gelato Pepper had ordered. Even though they were watching the Dark Knight (and no Darcy was NOT being meta, watching a mythic superhero while hanging out with superheroes because she'd been in the middle of a superhero squabble) pizza denial was like torture. She was really very high on sugar most of the time. It occurred to Darcy that at some point before waking up from surgery and after getting rescued all their defenses and barriers had fallen.
She was falling asleep, sugar crash of course, before the end of the movie so they left, Jane and Bruce being the last ones, talking into the wee hours of the night quietly. Darcy would have liked to believe that they were cuddling because Bruce and Jane needed people in their lives. Anyways she woke up screaming from a nightmare where she was back on the ship and the lackeys turned into zombies when she killed them. Jane held Darcy again and Bruce checked with the nurses to make sure they gave her some sedatives.
Sunday Jane and Darcy were left to alone because the team was off Avenging shit. Darcy finally got around to catching up on her inbox. And she was supposed to have her evaluations at the end of next week.
The team would eventually be on a total of two missions during the twenty-two days she was in the hospital. On the days Bruce, Tony and Jane were all in the lab emails were in the low dozens. During the first mission day (when Jane was also out of the lab because Darcy had been in surgery; how very convenient that the team was Avenging shit when she was having surgery, so nice of the villains to attack when they couldn't hang out) the number of emails dried up. Darcy let it pass thinking that of course they were going to goof off a little no one was there to supervise besides JARVIS and he couldn't do much because when he interacted with them they tended to get paranoid and it drove morale down. There were statistics JARVIS sent her and Darcy suffered through reading them all. Finally she formulated a plan. She spent half a day observing the lab assistants, had JARVIS put her up on every screen and every holo display, and discreetly lock down the lab and came at them like a Big Brother. Except she was benevolent. Maybe.
It took about an hour to get everyone to conference properly, quiet down and stop treating it like it was more than an annoyance. Clearly they weren't used to conferencing and they were really distracted by her hospital bed, she couldn't get them to focus on the agenda she'd written out. Lots of dumb questions too.
"Are you ok?"
"When are you coming back?"
"Why don't you know when you're coming back?"
"Drs. Banner, Foster and Stark are really mean and grumpy all the time no one is feeding them!"
"Is JARVIS clairvoyant?" Darcy was stumped by that question trying to figure out if she really had time deal with that. And then she realized the normally deadly serious Jen was screwing with her.
When the conference was over they were all back on schedule and agreed to write reports to keep Darcy updated.
When the team came back from their mission, a painful one day battle providing much needed back up to the Fantastic Four. They'd deliberately left the twins behind when they went because well apparently they needed some more training and bonding but that had backfired and they ended up needed Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch after all. Which made Darcy wonder if who was responsible for their training now, because Coulson wasn't around. She had lots of questions sometimes the team had answers for her and other times they changed the subject. She decided to ask for more clearance.
Anyways the main team ended up spending the majority of the next three days in the hospital with her because supposedly they were injured and needed to be in the hospital. (Ok most of them were definitely injured and were sporting their own bandages but Steve's bruised ribs didn't show and Bruce was literally just fine after he got some sleep). They would take turns in the room because at some point the nurses tried to kick them out for lights out. It was a bit like a clubhouse accused one doctor who kept sneaking back into the room because she seemed to have a crush on half the Avengers And everyone wants to be in a club once it's formed. Though Darcy was very sure they were all paired up except for Bruce and the twins, Steve it was rumored (by the demure Pepper) had found himself a nice waitress though when he saw her Darcy didn't know because... well he was here or at SHIELD training Wanda and Quicksilver all the time.
Darcy wondered if that swoony doctor wasn't just a SHIELD operative, and really maybe the whole floor was filled with SHIELD personnel because damn the team was ALWAYS HERE.
Wanda and Pietro looked so normal except for his silver hair (not hotter than Anderson Cooper though) and Wanda's amazing intensity out of their costumes (her costume was definitely sexier than Nat's though, she basically wore sheer nylons, a corset and a cape all in red). Also their accents were getting softer every day and they liked hanging out in Darcy's room.
When Tony, Jane and Bruce finally showed up at the lab after the mission days (and hanging out at hospital) they'd all been gone for about four days total. Darcy was rudely woken up by armfuls of gifts sent by the lab assistants (all eight assistants had sent gifts). It was stuff like petri dishes with colorful cultures on them spelling out messages on them, strings of binary code on metal scraps artfully arranged into flower type sculptures (Tony said the code spelled out "Flowers"), even some fractal art.
Tony was stunned that they liked her so much, "you were there less than thirteen days!"
Bruce was touched by the way the lab assistants would approach him now to ask after her health.
Jane arranged it all, the gifts, the flowers real and metal and reprimanded Tony for not realizing how brilliant Darcy was as a lab assistant-turned-agent so of course he was surprised but Jane wasn't at all. Jane said this all with a proud parent smugness, Darcy rolled her eyes and thanked Coulson silently for the endless hours spent learning protocols and what she had suspected was some hodge-podge of organizational theory and human resource exercises. Apparently the training for assistant-to-the-Liaison ran deeper than she'd realized and Liaison to the Avengers meant "wrangler of superheroes." Because how else could she have established herself as a manager to the labs in less than three weeks? At least she was no longer bored at the hospital.
A/N: The bulk of this was written two weeks ago but now that I've spent some extra time with the last third of the story I'm feeling better about it. Please let me know what you think!
Also I've got some ideas for a sequel and I may have started writing it :)
