Despite having to walk to the hospital, the wait was still quite long before they got into Fenrir's room, where he sat with Tony Stark by his bedside, the latter listening to his detailed instructions on his amazing Lego creations.

"Fenrir!" Hel exclaimed before she and her brother scrambled to join him on the bed, climbing up the bars beneath to his covers. Darcy remained cool and steady, swallowing the lump in her throat as she walked around the bed, depositing Jor inbetween Fenrir's legs, kissing his forehead before turning to the man, walking a few steps away with him.

"Thank-you."

He shrugged, holding the Iron Man helmet under his arm, "It was nothing. Kids are priceless."

"You should think about having some with Pepper," a smirk curved it's way onto her face, despite his narrowed eyes.

"Before, you said something about SHIELD…"

Her smirk didn't fade at all, "Yeah, I did. Got a problem with that?"

He gave her a distrustful look, "You're an agent?"

"No, Consultant," she motioned to Fenrir, "Where else would he get his smarts? According to an old adversary of his father, said father's brain is a bag full of cats. You can 'smell crazy on him'." Dr Banner was surprisingly good for a scientist – he knew he had to eat and sleep, and was a genius too. Sometimes, he could even get Jane to stop Sciencing! for over forty-eight hours.

"Crazy, eh? What did you do?" Stark suddenly smirked, looking her up and down, glancing at her kids, who were talking rapidly to Fenrir in Russian, "I can just imagine you banging some Russian Mafia boss now." But then, all of a sudden, he stopped, squinting at her. "…Why do you look freakily like Romanoff?"

"Romanoff?" She raised an eyebrow, "You talking about Natasha? Redhead? Super-hot? Want to bang her gorgeous?"

Stark looked uneasy at her words, "Yeah, that one. You sure you're not related?"

Darcy shrugged, Koenig's surprise at her adoption coming to mind, "If she is, she's gotten rid of all the evidence. But yeah, thank-you."

Stark glanced at Fenrir, "Asthma attack. The doc's want to talk to you – they said to me that he'll be here overnight though. I paid for your bill in advanced, and his prescription for the next ten years."

"What if the prescription changes?"

"I'll keep paying." He replied, face blank. Darcy felt her heart warm, feeling a slight sense of relief. Ten years. That's well past Hydra's reappearance.

"What can I do to make my guilt at your paying for it feel better?" Despite her usual selfishness, this wasn't something light on her heart, like an unlimited gift card from iTunes might be.

The billionaire shrugged, "I don't know. I'm not that into reunions, though…" he looked her up and down, making her glare.

"Hey! Not a piece of meat, thank-you. And there has to be something."

"Let me pay for their college tuition?" He offered jokingly. She shook her head, rolling her eyes.

"I will be taking you up on that, because I know you can afford it, but still, Fenrir could have suffocated. He could have died. What can I do?"

Stark shook his head, going to leave, "There's nothing I want from you-"

Darcy put a hand out, stopping him, impatient, "I know that. But I don't like owing favours. It's a debt I don't want on my ledger, thank-you very much. You might be good sometimes, but you can be just as much, if not more of an asshole. There's a reason I'm under SHIELD's protection, and it's not because of my children, though they're in just as much, if not more danger than me."

At that, Stark looked her in the eye, "How are they in danger? Just who exactly is their father?"

Darcy glanced around, before hissing at him, "If you want to know, wait until April of two thousand and twelve. You'll meet him then, if the time-line stays unchanged. Even by accidentally coming back, I've already changed so much you don't even know, Tony." She made a frustrated face, even as his brows knit together, "Look, if you want to go, I won't stop you, but I want either this relationship cut completely now, with the exception of Fenrir's medication and their college tuition, or you somehow make me useful, because I'll be damned if I come out of eight fucking years of isolation from the rest of the world and not get something out of it. SHIELD isn't letting me do anything in this fucking city that doesn't include my children. When I'm not out getting groceries or picking them up, I am on house arrest. You are the only person I know powerful and arrogant enough to go up against SHIELD and get away with it."

There was a stony silence before Stark barked out, "Qualifications that matter. Go."

"Political Science, three languages, basic hacking, Sarcasm, scientist's babysitter," she listed in one breath.

"Scientist's babysitter? And are you a time traveller?" He questioned rapidly.

Her mouth curved bitterly, "In two thousand and eleven I'll be going to be an intern with Dr Jane Foster. Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Trust me when I say aliens exist and that they've perfected it already. She'll become Earth's first creator of intergalactic travel. She also forgets to eat, drink and sleep. At present, she's been hospitalised twice already because she Scienced too much."

"That presumably stopped when you joined her?" She nodded. "You're hired. Make me eat at least two healthy meals in twenty-four hours, and all that other bullshit. You have permission to override JARVIS at any time, provided it's either life or death, or because I'm gone into the Zone. Privileges are as follows. Access to Stark Mansion and other Stark Properties provided I am in them at the time, access to my private jet, access to your own personal bank card, sleepover rights which come with your own suite with room for the kids, and I pay for everything related to these guys here. Downside is that in my terms, the pay is stupid."

"So in my terms, I'm about to become rich?"

He raised a finger, "And you have to tell me at least one truth about the future every month, when I ask. I won't ask about a specific subject, but if I do, you have to answer somehow."

Darcy fell silent, weighing his words.