Chapter Nine
Darcy is tolerable. Steve steals a tank. Phillips does something unexpected.
Howard was back several days later with bruised knuckles.
"What happened?" Darcy asked, getting the first aid kit off of the wall of her lab. The SSR had deemed it necessary to keep one in there after the nurses got sick of treating her cuts, scrapes, and burns every other day. She was accident prone and occasionally engineered while drunk or overtired, which she supposed made her less qualified to be telling Howard off for doing the same. But she held the firm policy of 'do as I say, not as I do.'
"I punched General McGuiness in the face," Howard said, wincing as she wiped alcohol over a cut.
"Just the once?" She examined his knuckles. "Well, by the state of your hand, must have been a good hit."
"Laid him out," Howard agreed.
"He used it?" Darcy asked. "Did he not listen to you when you listed the side effects?" How could someone be so stupid?
"Oh, he listened alright," Howard said, grimly. "Which is why he dropped the canisters on Soviet troops and sat back while they ripped each other apart."
Darcy sat down and she was glad there was a chair behind her because her legs would have gone from under her either way.
"No…" she whispered.
Howard nodded, looking haunted. "Darce… I did that. We went down after it was done and… I have never seen anything like it in my entire life. That was my fault."
"It was not your fault," Darcy argued.
"I made them," Howard bit back. "I made things that did that…"
"I make guns," Darcy reminded him. "Does that mean that I'm responsible for every single person that one of my weapons kills? No. Because I can't think like that. We're weapons contractors Howard. You once told me that I had to remember that once the design is out of my hands, it is not my problem anymore. That I cannot control what people do with it. We are in a war. People are going to die. Bad people. Good people. Civilians. Military. It doesn't matter. You never intended Midnight Oil for use, Howard. And it was stolen from you, which is also not your fault. Not everything is your fault. We can't afford to think like that, you and me. We'd go mad."
Darcy was trying to make things better, but she was aware that she was rambling. She was doing her best, but she knew that Howard didn't always listen to her.
Howard shook his head, not even listening to her. "Look, Darce…" he began. "I went in to see Phillips before I came to see you. I'm going home."
Darcy froze. "What?"
"Not for good," he quickly assured her. "Just, temporarily. Couple of weeks at most. I just… I need to get out, Darce. Just for a while. It's like you said, thinking like this, I'll go mad. I need to get out so I can sort my thinking out. I'll go, spend time with Jarvis, and I'll be right as rain by the next time you see me."
"But…" Darcy panicked. "You can't leave me here! What if something happens? I can't-"
"You can," he corrected. "Kid, you are as capable as I am. Maybe more capable in some respects, but if you tell anybody I said that, I'll deny it. I'll be gone for two weeks. The Commandos aren't scheduled to go out again for another month. It's all recon and decrypting intel at the moment. You'll be fine. You'll probably get more work done because you're not worrying about whether I'm eating three square meals a day."
Darcy rolled her eyes. "I'll always worry about you, you goon."
He grinned and leaned over, kissing her on the forehead. "Stay safe, kid."
"Just as safe as you," she replied.
Darcy looked over from her work to where Steve was just waking up, having fallen asleep in the chair in her lab over an hour before.
"How can you sleep in here while I'm working?" Darcy asked, amazed at him. "I was using a power drill earlier. How on earth did you sleep through that?"
Steve shrugged, yawning. "I've learned to sleep pretty much anywhere, to be honest. You have to, when you're out there, or you won't be getting any sleep at all. And that isn't really productive in terms of getting the job done."
Darcy laughed and looked over at her work space. "Well, Howard's been gone for two days and I have already gotten a ton of work done. Maybe he should go away more often?"
"You'd miss him," Steve told her.
She pretended to think about that. "Nah," she replied with a grin. "I mean, Howard who?" They both laughed. "Okay," Darcy revised. "Maybe I would. Life probably wouldn't be the same without the random explosions followed by his voice yelling at me not to panic."
"Did that happen a lot back home too?" Steve asked. "I thought that was just due to his work here?"
"Oh no," Darcy laughed. "Howard has been causing explosions for as long as I remember. When he was fourteen he had to repair the wall between our basement and next door's when he blew a hole in it. The neighbors were mad… until he fixed all the wiring in their house. And then it was just dad and Mrs. Stark that were mad. And there was nothing he could do about that." She grinned fondly at the memory.
Just then, Gabe walked into the lab. "Hey, Phillips sent me to get you. We need you both. New intel just came in."
Darcy looked at Steve. "Good thing you had that nap. You might need it."
"HYDRA base in the Danish Straits," Phillips began, indicating the relevant part of the map. "Our intelligence suggests that they've developed some sort of weapon and they're getting ready to ship it out. Details are a bit fuzzy, but it sounds bad. It was highly implied that these weapons should not make it out to the rest of HYDRA. That's where you all come in." He looked around the room at the Howling Commandos, Peggy, Darcy, and a handful of other agents. "Miss Lewis has come up with these new communication devices which will allow her to communicate with you more easily while you are out there. You need to get as close as you can to their systems and get a good look at these weapons and relay that information to Miss Lewis, who will hopefully be able to tell you how to shut the damn things down. Any questions?"
One of the other agents spoke up. "No offense to Miss Lewis, but shouldn't we be waiting for Stark to come back? I mean, he is the expert, after all. And Miss Lewis is only his assistant."
Darcy pursed her lips, biting back a response. She looked up and was shocked to see that all of the Howling Commandos and Peggy looked affronted on her behalf and half looked like they were gearing up to say something. But, to her surprise, it was Phillips that spoke up.
"Agent Richards, over one third of Allied Military personnel, including yourself I might add, carry a firearm that Miss Lewis, herself, personally designed," Phillips said, tersely. "She was an integral part of the team that made Captain Rogers here able to do what he can do. And she is easily a match for Howard Stark even on his most bearable days. Now, if Stark were here, or would be able to get here within the next two hours, I would be happy to let them work together on this. However, that is not going to be possible. So we are left with Miss Lewis, who is the more pleasant and slightly more tolerable of the two and we are grateful to have us here with us. Now do you have a problem with that, or do you need to be excused?"
Darcy blinked as the agent turned red and shook his head, mumbling something incoherently. She looked over to see the rest of the Commandos and Peggy looking at Phillips with something like respect in their features. Phillips was stolidly refusing to meet anybody's gaze.
"Well?" he snarled. "What are you all standing around here for? Get to work!"
Darcy sat by the radio transmitter, even though she knew the team wouldn't get to the location of the HYDRA base for at least another hour, and that was if everything went well.
There was some movement behind her and Darcy didn't even look around when Peggy sat down beside her.
"How are you feeling?" Peggy asked her.
Darcy shrugged. "I don't know. I kind of wish Howard was here, if only to make me feel better. But then I wouldn't have been witness to that scene with Phillips earlier and that is something I hope I never forget as long as I live."
"It was quite remarkable," Peggy agreed, a grin tugging at her lips.
"Tell me about it," Darcy said. "I thought the man hated me."
"He's never hated you," Peggy told her. "He finds you tolerable," she joked.
"No," Darcy corrected, laughing. "He finds me slightly more tolerable than Howard. But hey, that counts as a win in my book. Slightly more tolerable than Howard. I may get that written on my gravestone when I die. It shall be my legacy." The two of them laughed for a while before they were interrupted by the radio giving off some static before a voice floated across.
"Dum Dum to Darcy," the voice said. "Do you read me?"
"Dum Dum?" Darcy asked, grabbing the microphone and turning up the volume on the receiver. "You there already?"
"You'll learn one day to not underestimate us, sweetheart," the sergeant laughed.
"Yeah, yeah," Darcy said, rolling her eyes. "What've we got Dum Dum?"
"Well," he began. "Cap seems to have encountered a slight problem."
"His problem is that he ran in without us," she heard Bucky grumble over the frequency.
"Well yeah," Dum Dum agreed. "But I think Cap found the weapons they've been making. It looks like a guy in a huge robotic suit and his friend the tank that spits out some kind of lightning."
A swear word escaped Darcy's lips before she could stop it and she and Peggy exchanged a glance.
"You know what these things are?" Dum Dum asked, catching onto the subtext of that swear word.
"Yeah," Darcy told him. "Only, the last time I saw it, it had a flamethrower."
Los Angeles, California. 1940.
Darcy was bored. She was accompanying Howard on a demonstration of a new material his researchers had found in the middle of the African country of Wakanda. Most of the audience were Generals. The war in Europe may not have reached over the Atlantic yet, but most of the Military knew which way the wind was blowing, and Howard and Darcy were making their fortunes from it.
She was waiting in the wings for Howard to finish so that they could go back home. She disliked the west coast. She was a New Yorker, born and bred, and she felt uncomfortable when she was too far away from home. It was like an itch. The city got under your skin that way. You cursed it and its inhabitants all the time you were there, but you knew it was yours. And if anybody else were to malign it, you would defend it heartily.
Footsteps approached and Darcy turned around to see a man in a Colonel's uniform approach, a member of the military police a few steps behind him.
"Uh… You're not supposed to be back here," she told the man.
"I need to speak to Mr. Stark," the man insisted.
"You and half the US Military," she told him. "What makes you so special?"
"We have something that he's going to want to see," the man said.
That spiked Darcy's interest. "Oh yeah?" She looked the man up and down. "Darcy Lewis," she introduced herself. "I'm Mr. Stark's assistant."
"Colonel Phillips," the man said, shaking her hand.
"Oh. I think Howard's mentioned you before," Darcy realized.
"Yes, we've worked together before," Phillips said. "Although I'm afraid he made no mention of you." The tone was slightly accusatory, but Darcy had learned to roll with these things.
"I prefer it that way," she told him. "I like to keep my life private."
"Following Mr. Stark around the country must make that pretty difficult," Phillips commented.
"You have no idea," Darcy replied, dryly.
"Colonel Phillips?"
The two of them turned around and saw Howard walk over to them.
"What are you doing, lurking in the shadows back here?" he asked, good-naturedly. "The show's out there."
"Indeed," Phillips said. "But I had a different show in mind."
After the demonstration had ended and the guests were all gone, Phillips's escort set up a movie projector and invited Howard to sit down before turning to Darcy.
"I'm afraid, Miss Lewis, that this is top secret and I do not have authorization to share this with you," Phillips told her.
Darcy was just squaring up to argue with the Colonel when Howard's voice interrupted her.
"She stays."
Phillips looked at Howard, annoyed. "Well, I'm afraid you'll find you don't have the authorization to request that," he growled.
"I'm afraid you'll find I do," Howard replied, placidly. "I'm afraid that if you look into my contracts, you'll find a tiny little loophole that says I'm allowed to share whatever I damn well please with my assistant, who just happens to be Miss Lewis."
"I am not going to let you share secrets with your flavor of the month!" Phillips bit out.
Howard's eyes narrowed and Darcy felt sorry for Phillips, even though he had just maligned her character. "You are going to let me share secrets with my sister or I am walking out of that Goddamn door and the US government will have to find another weapons contractor to do their dirty work," he said coldly.
Phillips was stunned. "Your sister?" he repeated, looking over at Darcy who wiggled her fingers at him. "Why is this the first I'm hearing of this?"
"Like I said, Colonel," Darcy told him. "I like to keep my life private."
Phillips looked like he wanted to continue to argue, but sighed, giving up for the time being. "Fine. The two of you sit your damn asses down so we can watch this thing."
"You investing in movies now, Colonel?" Howard said lightly as Darcy settled in on the other side of him. "Good move, getting into producing. There's good money in it."
"The footage you are about to see," Phillips began, ignoring Howard. "Was smuggled out of Nazi Germany by Agent 13, an undercover operative the Brits have implanted in the heart of HYDRA, Hitler's advanced weapons program."
"Ooh," Howard stage whispered to Darcy. "The competition." Darcy rolled her eyes and put her attention back to Phillips.
The man from the military police had gotten the film reel started and Phillips sat down on Howard's other side, still talking.
"A few years back, a rebel-held town in fascist Spain, Guernica, was destroyed with the help of Gerenalissimo Franco's Nazi allies," he continued. "At the time, it was believed their Air Force – the Luftwaffe – was to blame." He adjusted his posture in the seat. "As you are about to see… we now know better."
"Is there a cartoon beforehand?" Howard asked, jokily. "I'd like to go into the lobby and get myself some treats-"
Darcy was about to yell at Howard to pay attention when the images started on the screen and he trailed off himself. They watched the horrors on the screen for several minutes, their eyes getting wider and their breaths catching in their throats as the images continued.
When the reel ended, Howard and Darcy exchanged a look and turned to Phillips, who was looking at them with a knowing expression.
"That was taken several years ago," Phillips told them. "Who knows what HYDRA are capable of now?"
"Those things decimated a Spanish town nearly ten years ago," Darcy spoke over the radio. "If HYDRA managed to power them with the same thing they've been using with all their other weapons, it'll be nigh unstoppable."
"But not totally unstoppable, right?" Bucky said, once Dum Dum had relayed this information to the rest of the team, being the only one with an earpiece. There was a pleading note in his voice. "Because Steve's down there trying to fight this thing right now. I mean, it's on its ass right now, but it don't look like it's staying that way."
"What?" Darcy screeched. "On his own? Why?"
"Because Cap is too impatient to wait for a plan to pan out," Dum Dum explained. "It's a character flaw. We're working on it."
"Ugh!" Darcy let out a sound of frustration. "Okay. Give me a minute."
"He's fighting with a tank right now. We may not have a minute," Dum Dum told her.
"I said give me a minute," Darcy snapped.
She turned to Peggy and covered her face with her hands, thinking as fast as she could. "I can't do this," she murmured.
"Yes, you can," Peggy insisted, not even missing a beat. "And you must."
"Those things… They're-"
"I know what they are. What they can do," Peggy told her. "I smuggled the damn footage out of Germany, didn't I? I know full well what they did in the past. What you've got to do is make sure that they can't do anything like that again. Do you understand?"
Darcy nodded. She did understand. This was her job. And she was damn good at it.
"Cap's down!" Gabe shouted over the radio.
Darcy dived for the microphone and patched into Steve's frequency. "Cap? Cap? Steve, get up!" she yelled into the thing.
"Unhh…." The whine that came over the radio was a decidedly human one and Darcy sighed in relief. "Mother , is that you?" Steve joked.
"I could count all the reasons that is not the least bit funny," Darcy replied. "But I'll do it later. Right now, I know how to take that thing out."
"You know," Steve grunted, sounding like he was picking himself up. "Of all the eggheads I know, you're my favorite, Darcy."
"Aw," she grinned. "I'll do you a favor and not tell Howard you said that. Okay, here's what you need to do: first, I need you to get inside the tank."
"Oh, is that all?" Steve answered sarcastically. "Maybe I'll just knock. They'll think I've come for a cup of sugar." There was a bang and the wrenching of metal. "Well, that was anti-climactic," Steve complained. "This thing's operated by remote control."
"Okay," Darcy said, closing her eyes and envisioning it. "The control box should be at about ten o'clock as you face the barrel. I'm gonna need you to carefully pry open the casing-" There was a crashing sound as Steve obviously put his shield through the casing and Darcy sighed. "Okay, close enough."
"What now?" Steve asked.
"Now, there should be two cables in there, red and black-" Darcy explained.
"Got 'em," Steve said. "Will this do what I think it will?"
"Well, if you think that I just taught you how to hotwire a tank, you're thinking right," Darcy grinned.
"I am so glad you're on our side," Steve confessed, but Darcy could hear the smile in his voice.
"Okay, your next order of business is using the tank to make sure that armor stays down for good," Darcy insisted. "You don't want to know what these things can do together if the enemy keeps a hold of them."
"On it." There was the sound of explosions, although muffled as they were being picked up from the inside of the tank. "Wahooo!" Steve yelled happily.
"You are having way too much fun," Darcy said, rolling her eyes.
"I think I'm enjoying it just the right amount," Steve replied. Then, he paused. "Hrrm… All good things come to an end."
"Complication?" Darcy asked, concerned.
"'Fraid so," Steve told her. "Unless HYDRA invented a tank that can float, I have to get out and take the stairs."
"If they have, try and swipe the plans for me, would you?" Darcy asked, conversationally.
"Will do," Steve promised. "I'm going silent for now. The Commandos should be coming in right about-"
There was a crash and Dum Dum's voice shouting, "Alright! Now somebody give me a wahoo!"
"…now," Steve finished. "See you later, Darce," Steve said, straining as he sounded like he was engaging someone in a fight.
"See you later," Darcy said, and cut out over the sound of the Commando's yelling "Wahoo!" in reply to Dum Dum.
She turned to Peggy, remembering, finally, that she was also in the room.
"Well, that was exhausting," she admitted.
Peggy laughed. "Do you want me to get you some tea?" she asked.
"Please," Darcy agreed.