"I don't think Shield will like you submitting your work to a magazine." Darcy said as she peered over Jane's shoulder as the woman typed.

"Okay," Jane spun around in her chair and moved Darcy out of her space," first, Cosmo is a magazine; I submit work to scholarly journals. Second, this isn't an article. Shield wants a report before we run the first trial."

"You're actually going to make real people read that!" she whistled. "Still feeling miffed about them taking your stuff, huh?"

Jane frowned and looked at her report. "There's nothing wrong with this. They wanted a comprehensive report."

"There's nothing wrong with it if you have a PhD in physics. I'm not sure that's even English. I think it might be demonic, actually. It makes my brain want to crawl out my ears."

Now Jane was glaring. "If you're so concerned about the mental health of Shield lackeys, feel free to make this readable." She stood up and pushed Darcy into her chair. "All the information is there, I'll review it when you're done." She then stalked off to the far side of the lab to stare at the pictures of the bifrost imprint.

Darcy stared at the computer in shock for a moment before looking at Eric. "So..."

He shook his head. "You're on your own. This will be a good experience for you. It's time you learned some of the science."

"Only thing I'm gonna learn is to keep my mouth shut," she grumped. Then she paused, considered her words, and shared a skeptical look with the older man. "Yeah, that's not likely. Science it is."

She struggled through about a quarter of the document before leaning back in her chair and rubbing her head. She had about fifteen browser windows open to various physics sites. She kept having to reference between them just to have a basic understanding of what Jane had written. The only problem was that much of what Jane was working on was new and Darcy could not find references for everything. She needed help but knew that Jane and Eric were out. She looked at the other two people in the lab. Tony and Dr. Banner had worked all day on setting up a platform for the trial run. She had greeted them when she came in and tried to engage them in conversation but gave up after receiving nothing but terse replies.

She should have known better than to try to joke with Jane today. All the science peeps had been tense. Tony was downright snarly and Dr. Banner was avoiding everyone. Eric kept tossing haunted looks at the platform and growing increasingly uncomfortable. Jane worried about him and had finally dragged him off for a long lunch. The other two showed no signs of stopping even though it was getting late for lunch. She spun her chair side to side as she looked at the two men. She needed help and they needed a break, there was obviously a compromise to be had. She spun the chair around and pushed off the desk as hard as she could. She rolled almost halfway across the lab before she needed to start pushing again. She rolled her chair over to where Tony was laying half under the platform and slid off the chair to her knees. She laid her top half on the seat and propped her head on her crossed arms. She used her new vantage point to peer under the platform and watch Tony work.

He ignored her for several minutes before dropping his arms and returning her stare "What?"

She shrugged, "Nothing, just checking out the progress."

"Well, be useful and hand me a wire stripper."

"Sorry, I don't see a stripper. How about a hyperspanner?" He gave her an unimpressed look. "Iso-modulator?" Still unimpressed. She sighed and handed him the requested tool.

He returned to work. "So, is the progress all you're checking out?"

Success! She grinned at the first break in the cloud of anger. "Well, I do have a proposition for you and Dr. B."

"You hear that Bruce? She wants to proposition us."

"Is that so?" The other man replied, obviously still distracted by his console.

She waggled her eyebrows at him. "It'll be fun."

He peered at her over his glasses. "I'm more fun than the two of you could handle together."

Her jaw dropped and Tony cackled as he crawled out from under the platform. He sat up and looked at her. "I think that's a challenge. What did you have in mind."

"I was thinking it's been awhile since you've gotten a taste of m'goods. How about we all go down to the apartment and I give you boys something to eat."

Tony snorted when Dr. Banner blushed and rubbed his brows. "What do you get out of it?"

Her saucy grin turned a little sheepish, "A tutoring session."

Two hours later she strolled back into the lab with a completed report and two well fed and happy scientists. She presented it to Jane who reviewed it and nodded.

"And all the confusing mathy stuff and graphs are here on another page. Anyone who wants to reference them, can, but it doesn't get in the way for us normies." Darcy pointed out.

"Not what I would have done but it works."

"If I promise to work on my smarting off, will you promise to never make me do that again?" She begged.

Jane smiled, "Deal."

Later that day Darcy was startled from her work by Jane laughing uncontrollably. When questioned, she replied, "That was an e-mail from Shield. They wanted me to tell you that writing the reports is now an official part of your duties."

"Aw, nuts."

Darcy flowed from one stretch to the next while watching Clint and Steve attempting to pulverize a pair of punching bags. They were so focused, they hadn't even acknowledged her when she walked in. It looked like Tony was going to have to do some more reinforcing on Steve's bag. He was really getting into it and the creaking sounds were getting worse. She worried about what had everyone so upset. Yesterday the science twins had their little temper tantrums and now these two were looking like the gym equipment had insulted their mothers.

"Them too, huh?" She jumped a bit. She had been so focused on the two men, she missed the newly dubbed head of security coming in.

"Hey, Mr. Hogan. The whole wonder team has been on edge the lately. You know anything about it?"

"Nothing specific. They went out a few days ago, something official for Shield. As soon as Tony got back, he promoted me. Told me to go nuts. Sent Pepper back to Malibu, too."

"Bet that made her happy."

"Yeah. If they were living in the same building, he'd be on the couch. He wanted me to go with her but she asked me to keep an eye on him."

"He does seem to need a lot of adult supervision."

He snorted. "You have no idea. He sprained his wrist last night. IUI.

"IUI?"

"Inventing under the influence."

"Nice," she giggled. "Gratz on the job, by the way."

He grinned, "Thanks, I've got so many plans. There are some pretty glaring holes in security around here."

"We all feel safer already. Don't we Bruce?" Tony said as he swaggered into the room with the other scientist at his side. "You get those extra bodyguards for Pep, yet?"

"Looking at a couple of guys I know. Just waiting for background checks to go through." Hogan replied.

"Give their names to Jarvis. He'll do a more thorough job and be quicker, too."

"That's illegal." Bruce pointed out.

"When it comes to her safety I don't really care."

"Damn straight." Hogan agreed. "Jarvis, you can pull their information from my files. They're in the file labeled p-sec."

"Very good, Mr. Hogan. I will begin searching right away."

"Thank, Jarvis." Tony said, while ushering them all over to the boxing ring. "Ready to get to work Happy?"

"Always, sir." He replied as he began to pull on some gloves. "Though I don't know what you plan to do with a bum wrist."

"I'm not playing. Bruce is." Tony said as he tried to get the other man into gloves.

Hogan looked nervous. "Um, what?"

"Apparently he's an excellent ass kicker. Since I'm on the injured list, he's going to demonstrate on you."

"Martial arts, Tony. Not boxing. We don't use gloves." Bruce said.

"Oh." The genius tossed the gloves on the ground and held the ropes so Bruce could climb into the ring. "Nix the gloves, Hap. You call this dirty boxing."

"I'm not so sure about this." Hogan said.

"Don't be a wuss." Tony told him.

"It's okay, Tony. We can hold off until your wrist is better." He played it off well but she could tell that he was a little hurt by the other man's reluctance.

She blew a raspberry and climbed into the ring. "Never send a man to do a woman's job. Come on Dr. B. Let's show off our mad kung fu skills." She whipped through a few showy moves before landing in a crouch with her arm extended. She crooked her fingers in the classic 'bring it' gesture.

Bruce hid his smile behind his hand. "That's not kung fu."

"Mad krav maga does not sound as impressive."

"I suppose not." he admitted.

"What's going on?" Steve asked. She turned around to see both Steve and Clint standing next to the ring, frowning.

"I'm about to school Dr. B."

"I don't think this is such a good idea." Clint said.

"Shush. Don't distract me." She turned back to Banner. "Ready?"

He merely pressed a fist to his palm and bowed. She returned his bow and they began circling each other. She dodged a kick and returned with a strike while moving to the other side. He blocked easily and resumed circling her.

"I thought you were going to school me." he said.

"Assessments, Doc." She returned as she darted in with a series of blows.

He backed up while blocking. "That's kind of sloppy. How long has it been since you practiced? Do we need to put you in remedial?" Suddenly he had a hold on her arm and she was spinning into the ropes.

"Holy cow!" She stared at him in shock. "I might be a little out of my league."

"Wrong metaphor." he said and then he was coming at her again.

"Is it too late to go back to kindergarten?" She blocked, barely. "Nap time sounds good." He had a hold of her again and she lashed out instinctively. Her fist connected with his face. He staggered back holding his nose. "I am so sorry! Are you ok?"

"Darcy get out of the ring." Steve ordered.

She turned to look at him and burst out laughing. Both Steve and Clint were up against the ropes, tense and completely focused on Dr. Banner "Oh my god, you should see your faces! Seriously, Dr. B are you ok?"

"Yeah," he responded. "That smarted."

"And you said I was sloppy."

"That was sloppy. Though I suppose I should be thankful." He felt along the bridge of his nose and winced. "If you had done that right, you would have broken my nose."

"This was irresponsible. A lot of people could have gotten hurt." Steve said.

She whipped around and glared at him. "Back off! He knows the risks better than you do and if he thought this was okay, then it was."

Banner interrupted, "He's not wrong. This was supposed to be a controlled exchange. I should have called it off as soon as I realized you were out of practice. "

"Zip it, you!" She replied. "I punched you in the face and you didn't even flash green. You can obviously handle a bit of sparring." The vulnerability on his face made her heart clinch. She would have hugged him except he also looked unconvinced, so she settled for rolling her eyes. "I trust you not to push it but if you all are so worried about it, Steve can get his ass up here and you can be as controlled as you want. My lesson is overdue anyway." She stalked over to where Tony and Happy were holding the ropes for her and climbed out. Tony grabbed her arm as she started to move past him.

"Hey kid. You did good." He gestured to where Steve and Banner were talking. They exchanged a handshake and squared off in the ring. "He needs people that believe in him."

"I didn't say anything that wasn't true."

"I know. I've told him the same things but it sounds more believable coming from someone less... outrageous than I am."

She shrugged, "He's a good guy. You all are. I would stick up for any of you."

"Now you're just being sappy. Go hydrate and get your ass kicked some more."

"So much for that moment." She drawled as she left him at the side of the ring. She leaned against the wall as she sipped her bottle of water and watched the others. Steve and Dr. Banner were exchanging carefully controlled blows. Tony was leaning against the ring alternating between talking to Happy and cheering on Dr. Banner. Clint was staring at... Tony's ass? "Oh, my God!" She flushed as everyone turned to stare at her. "Sorry, muscle cramp. M'good."

Clint kept watching her as everyone else turned back, obviously not buying her excuse. She stared back at him with wide eyes. When her gaze flicked between him and Tony, he tensed, finally realizing the reason for her outburst. He shook his head and nodded to the elevator. She grabbed her stuff and followed him. She managed to contain her squealing until the doors closed but then she turned to face him, practically bouncing in excitement. He grabbed her by the shoulders and held her in place. "Calm down! It's not that exciting."

"Yes it is! You're gay!"

"Yeah, and I would appreciate it if you didn't go spreading it around."

She frowned. "If you're trying to hide it, you're not doing a very good job. That was distinctly unsneaky ogling."

"Everyone was focused on Steve and Banner and I didn't think you...uh, hm."

"You didn't credit me with basic observational skills." She glared at him as he shrugged sheepishly.

"You seem to have a certain... lack of focus."

"Stop talking now."

"Gladly." He leaned against the wall and stared at the doors.

She met his gaze in the reflection off the glossy metal. "You're not in the closet are you?"

He shook his head. "I'm not hiding it, I just don't advertise it. Straight men don't usually like being around me after they find out. It makes working difficult."

"I hardly think Tony would care about you checking him out. Actually, I'm pretty sure he'd crow about it and it's not like you work that closely with him anyway." Clint broke eye contact with her. Understanding filled her as she examined his face and the tenseness in his shoulders. " But it's not Tony you're worried about is it. It's Steve."

He glared at her. "You're annoyingly perceptive."

"I really don't think he would care."

"You do realize that, in his time, people went to jail for being gay."

"Yeah, I do and I still don't think you're giving him enough credit."

"If he does care, it will split the team. I'm not willing to test it when it might actually mean the end of the world."

She sighed. "That's fair. Sucky, but fair."

"So, you'll keep it to yourself?"

She chewed on her lip for a moment before giving him her widest grin. "Will you be my gay BFF."

"You realize I have other ways of keeping you quiet, right?"

"Not scared of you!" She sang.

"You're such a pain in the ass." He grumped but there was a crinkle around his eyes that gave him away.

"I am so hooking you up with my brother."

This is a work of fanfiction. No profit is being made.

Darcy Lewis, Steve Rogers, Jane Foster, Eric Selvig, Bruce Banner, Tony Stark, Clint Barton, Happy Hogan, JARVIS (c) Marvel