Routine set in upon their arrival at the Stark mansion in upstate New York. The place might have looked like a blue-blood haven of brick and stone on the outside, but, with the exception of a few richly decorated rooms, the interior was as modern as Tony's mansion in Malibu. The basement was more of an underground complex of concrete and stone. The largest room, of course, held Tony's suits and cars. It was also where he spent most of his time since Steve showed up with a rusty, yet still tricked-out, '41 Indian motorcycle.
Jane set up shop in a more traditional space. She had control over her own SHIELD telescope, and when she wasn't studying star charts or making calculations, she and Thor were smiling awkwardly at one another and making Darcy roll her eyes.
Natasha went into the City everyday to maintain her cover at Stark Industries. When Pepper could drag Tony away, he also went with them, but only if it was absolutely necessary. A media circus had ensued in the wake of the announcement of Tony and Pepper's engagement. Both of them were sort of okay with hiding from the frenzy for the time being.
Bruce had emptied a room in the basement of all equipment and furniture and set about reinforcing the walls, floor, and ceiling.
"Is he doing what I think he's doing?" Pepper asked as she and Tony walked past the space Bruce was transforming.
"Yeah, probably," Tony replied, paying far more attention to the 3-D motorcycle designs on the tablet in his hands.
"That's right under the dining room."
"Then you might want to move my grandmother's fine china," Tony suggested.
Hawkeye had taken it upon himself to train Steve on modern weaponry. Darcy found this highly amusing, as Hawkeye's weapon of choice had been around since the Dark Ages.
Darcy found herself extremely bored one day while Thor and Jane ate lunch and compared notes on Idrasil and the rest of the known universe. She decided to wander the halls of Tony's 150-year-old mansion in an attempt to discover the hidden passageways she was sure existed somewhere.
"Hey, Darcy, I was hoping to catch you alone."
Darcy cautiously turned around to face Pepper and said, "Am I in trouble?"
"No, why would you say that?" Pepper asked, shaking her head.
"It's usually what's happening when someone wants to talk to me alone," Darcy explained. "What's up?"
"Well, I wanted to ask you to be a bridesmaid, and I didn't want Jane to be offended that I wasn't asking her."
Darcy's eyebrows shot up in utter surprise. "Um, wow. Jane doesn't really get all girly about that sort of thing, and why would you want me to be a bridesmaid?"
"Well," Pepper began, nervously tucking a strand of ginger hair behind her ear, "I don't have that many female friends. Tony's pretty much all I have in the world. I asked Natalie to be my maid of honor because she'll be helping me plan the wedding anyway, and she, I suppose, does qualify as my closest female friend."
"That still doesn't answer the 'why me' portion of the question."
"Oh, it was sort of Tony's idea," Pepper replied, grinning, "and I thought it was a great one. I'm fairly sure Tony would adopt you if he could."
"Aww…that's so sweet! Of course I'll do it," Darcy said, throwing her arms around the taller woman. "Now I have to go harass Tony for being an old softy."
Pepper laughed as Darcy skipped toward the basement. A few minutes later, she approached Tony's vast workspace. The sound of raised voices greeted her as soon as she opened the door.
"You couldn't even give me a phone call?"
"You were busy killing terrorists, or whatever the hell you do."
"A text message, Tony. Anything, so I don't have to hear about it from a buck private with an iPhone."
Colonel Rhodes looked stern and annoyed in his blue Air Force uniform, but Tony was far more interested in the motorcycle on which he was working.
"You didn't tell him you were getting married, did you?" Darcy asked, grinning as she skipped into the room.
"Must've slipped my mind," Tony replied through gritted teeth as he attempted to loosen a rusty bolt. "Rhodey, this is Li'l D. You don't know her, but she knows you."
"Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes," Rhodey clarified, offering his right hand.
"Darcy Lewis, intern," she replied, shaking his hand.
"Hah!" Tony exclaimed in triumph as the rusty bolt finally came loose. "So…tux or dress uniform?"
"What?"
"The wedding. You're the best man, so, tux or dress uniform?"
"Tony, you have not asked me to be your best man."
"I have to ask? Why do I have to keep asking people these things?" Tony complained, looking at Darcy as he stood up.
"It's what normal people do; like how when Pepper asked me to be a bridesmaid at your suggestion. Which reminds me," she said, standing on her tiptoes and planting a kiss on Tony's cheek, "thank you."
"Don't get all mushy on me," he muttered.
"I'm not mushy. You are."
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Wow. I see why you two get along," Rhodey said, motioning between them.
Darcy grinned while Tony rolled his eyes and went back to working on the motorcycle.
"So, is this Steve's bike?" Darcy asked, walking around the workstation.
"Yeah," Tony replied, already distracted. "I don't think it's been out of that storage unit in over twenty years. Fortunately, I can get original Indian parts. Steve has designs he drew around here somewhere."
Darcy started looking around the room as Rhodey raised his hand and said, "Who is Steve?"
"You'll love him. He's the white, ninety-four-year-old you," Tony said as a piece of rusty metal broke apart in his hands.
"He's the white what?" Rhodey asked, brow furrowed in confusion.
"Long story. JARVIS, bring up Steve's SHIELD file."
"Sir, I should remind you that Colonel Rhodes does not possess appropriate clearance—"
"Screw the clearance. Bring up the file."
"On your own head be it, Sir."
Rhodey shook his head before looking at the computer screen while Darcy continued to search for Steve's sketchbook.
"So…Captain America is real?"
"Yes, and he's a very nice young man," Pepper said as she walked into the room with a leather folder under one arm. "When did you get here, Rhodey?"
He smiled and gave her peck on the cheek and replied, "Only about twenty minutes ago. You know, you could have told me you were marrying this joker."
"Sorry, it's been a hectic couple of weeks," Pepper explained. "Did he ask you?"
"No, he just assumed I'd be willing."
"What? You're not going to be my best man?" Tony asked with a suspicious eyebrow.
"Of course I'm going to be your best man," Rhodey replied, irritated.
"Sweet. I'm planning the bachelor party, though."
"You are not having a bachelor party," Pepper told him sternly.
"Why not?"
"Probably because your entire life was a bachelor party until about a year ago," Darcy piped up, grinning.
"She's got you there," Rhodey agreed with a laugh.
"Exactly," Pepper added. "Natalie sent this over. It needs your imprint."
"Fine," Tony said, holding out his right thumb.
"Not with those hands," Pepper said, jerking the tablet away from him.
"When did you become my mother?"
"Wash your hands, Tony."
While Tony rolled his eyes and washed his hands, Darcy opened a book she found on a metal workstation. "Oh my God, these are really amazing. Have you seen these?"
"He wouldn't scan them into the computer," Tony said, drying off his hands. "What am I approving?"
"Do you actually care?"
"No," he told his fiancée before placing his imprint on the tablet.
"Regardless of whether or not he scanned them into the computer, these are still really great," Darcy continued. "Pepper, you're the art expert. What do you think?"
As Pepper moved to the other side of the room, Tony went back to the motorcycle and Rhodey went back to the screen with Steve's file. Pepper looked at the pages full of bright and brilliant motorcycle designs with a bright smile.
"Tony, have you really not looked at these?" she asked in disbelief.
"Of course I have. The kid is talented."
"You do realize that 'kid' used to hang out with your dad," Rhodey said, looking up from the computer screen.
"Yeah, but he's only actually lived for about twenty-odd years, which puts him on par with L'il D over there," Tony explained.
Darcy rolled her eyes as Pepper turned to a page full of doodles that seemed to be reminiscent of Steve's old uniform. "He could have easily had a career as a graphic artist," Pepper commented.
"The war changed everyone's plans," Darcy said quietly, quoting Steve.
"I'm not saying it's a bad weapon, I'm just saying I don't like it," an irritated voice said as the door opened and Steven marched in followed closely by Hawkeye.
"What's happening?" Tony asked.
"Cap doesn't like the M-16," Hawkeye explained with a slight grin.
"I just like to keep things simple," Steve replied before turning to the only person in the room he didn't recognize. "We haven't met, sir, I'm Steven Rogers."
Rhodey blinked in surprise before shaking Steve's hand. "Colonel James Rhodes. It's nice to meet you, Captain."
Steve glanced over at Darcy and Pepper. "What are you doing?" he asked with a biting edge to his voice.
"We were just looking," Pepper replied with a placating smile.
"My fault," Darcy explained. "I'm nosy."
"Maybe you should be less nosy, Li'l D," Steve muttered, closing the sketchbook and pulling it away from them.
Darcy flinched slightly. "I'm Li'l D now to everyone," she said under her breath. "Jane probably needs me,"
Everyone watched her leave. Rhodey looked at Tony and said, "Was that weird?"
"Yeah, that was weird," Tony replied.
Pepper rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly. "Steve, there's something I've been meaning to show you for a few days. Would you walk with me, please?"
Steve nodded silently and followed her with his sketchbook in hand. Hawkeye looked at the other two men and said, "Are you confused? I'm confused."
Darcy found Jane in her lab, deeply engrossed in whatever was on her computer screen. "Where's your boy-toy?" she asked, slumping into a chair across from her boss.
"Huh?" Jane asked, finally noticing Darcy's presence. "Oh, he, um, he wanted to get out for a while.
Darcy took a closer look at Jane and noticed her hair was fairly askew, she was more flushed than the room temperature could explain, and her shirt was buttoned up wrong.
"Were you having sex?"
"What? No!"
"You were thinking about it, though."
"No, we were just—"
"Is Thor cooling off in the North Atlantic?"
"Maybe," Jane muttered, sheepishly re-buttoning her shirt.
Darcy shook her head. "You two shouldn't be carrying on like that."
"Carrying on? What are you; eighty?"
"I wish I was eighty," Darcy muttered, pouting.
"What's up with you?"
"Nothing."
"No, not nothing," Jane said, leaning back into her chair. "What happened?"
"It's not—it's just…Steve called me Li'l D, like I was a kid, or something."
Jane considered her intern for a long minute before realization dawned and her eyes widened. "Oh, Darcy, I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it," Jane assured her. "He probably just picked it up from the rest of the guys. It doesn't mean he thinks you're a child."
"But I am, aren't I? He's, like, ninety-four-years-old."
"That depends on how you look at it," Jane argued. "Sure, he was born in 1917, but he's been frozen for nearly seventy years. He's only lived for twenty-five years. He's not really that much older than you, and right now he's the babe in the woods. He doesn't know this world at all. He needs someone like you. We all do."
Darcy cocked an eyebrow and said, "What am I like, exactly?"
Jane smiled and replied, "Real. That's what you are, Darcy: real."
"I probably lost my temper back there. I'm sorry," Steve said quietly as he followed slightly behind Pepper.
"Wow. You thought that was losing your temper? I guess it's probably a good thing you're so even-tempered what with Tony, a Norse god, and...Bruce hanging around," Pepper said before walking into an office with a rich, espresso desk and high bookcases. The bookcases did not contain books, however. They were filled with half completed devices and trinkets, most of them covered in a significant layer of dust.
"This was Howard Stark's office," Pepper replied to Steve's unasked question. "Tony thought it was too small, so he's never used it. It's mostly just been sitting here for the last twenty years. But I realized where I'd seen you before when I was in here looking for something the other day."
She passed him a photo in a silver frame. Steve looked at it and smiled. It was a picture of him and Howard laughing so hard, they were almost doubled over. Pepper smiled at the nostalgic look on the man's face and said, "I took me a minute to recognize you from the photo. You're such a serious person."
"The photographer was trying to get us to pose like we were discussing the design of the shield, even though it was already finished. It all seemed so stupid, we just started laughing," Steve explained. "I've never actually seen this picture before."
She smiled kindly as she replaced the frame on the desk. "You know, Howard sent expeditions to the North Atlantic every summer until he died. He always hoped he'd find you."
Steve shook his head somberly. "I wish I could have known all of them better."
"Most of them are gone now," Pepper said quietly, replacing the frame on the desk. "But we're all here, and you can get to know us, and we can get to know you."
Steve raised an eyebrow and said, "You're trying to get something out of me."
Pepper smiled and replied, "Not really, but I did want to tell you something about Darcy."
"What?"
"Don't call her Li'l D."
Steve's head tilted slightly in surprise. "Everyone calls her Li'l D."
"You are not everyone," Pepper told him authoritatively. "It's a little thing, but it's the little things that count."
"Count for what?"
"You'll figure it out someday, I'm sure."
A/N: I changed my mind on what to do in this chapter so many times that I'm frankly amazed it got written at all. And because I changed it so many times, I'm totally sure how I feel about it. How do you feel about it?