Chapter 12

Darcy's POV

In a lot of ways, I wasn't exactly your typical omega. I was loud, opinionated, and willful. I did whatever the fuck I wanted when I wanted and there wasn't much you could do about it if you disapproved. When I'd met Jane, interviewing for the internship position that had changed my life, it was that shared quality that had drawn us together. Jane was an omega making waves in the science community and demanding that things were true no matter how many alphas and betas yelled at her that she was crazy or stupid and didn't know what she was talking about. I liked to think our kindred spirits are why she hired me, but the fact that I was the only applicant probably also helped.

Then Thor had shown up on Earth, and although he was definitely an alpha (and how convenient was it that Asgard had the same dynamics as Midgard making them compatible with us earthlings?), he encouraged Jane in her work. And he encouraged me in my… everything… offering me support and protection without trying to control me. His acceptance was later adopted and reinforced by the various Avengers as we met them and moved into the Tower.

Thor had been apprehensive about the move for my sake. He knew that there were unbonded people who were very powerful and also lived in the tower, and he didn't want me to feel uncomfortable. Thankfully Avengers Tower had been designed by an omega with support from a beta. That meant that there were all kinds of safety precautions for heats. Heat rooms with state of the art air filtration systems, scent-blocking doors, and under JARVIS's control on the most robust servers available anywhere in SI other than those that ran JARVIS and Tony's suits.

Meeting Steve and Bucky had been a nerve wracking idea, and I'd been wildly intimidated until it actually happened. From the second they walked in and I smelled them, I knew we were fine. They didn't smell bad, but they also didn't smell particularly compelling. With a sigh of relief from all three of us, they neatly slid into the roles of protective big brothers.

There was a small part of me that was predictably omega though, and that part was in the kitchen frantically cooking up a storm in preparation for a "family" meal with Steph as a special guest. Sam had walked in and wordlessly started assisting by chopping up things I handed to him.

"You know she hasn't had anything other than, from what I hear, some chicken broth, in her stomach for a week. She won't be able to eat any of this."

"Not true, she can eat the plain rice, probably. And I've got some apples going for some homemade applesauce as well. And that, over there," pointing to the bowl in the corner, "is going to be some bread that I'll use to make her some toast if she wants some. It's just dough right now..."

"It isn't about you, Darcy. I hope you know that."

"I do, I know that, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't do everything in my power to fix it." When Sam just sighed, I said, "I want her for them. The three of them are so right. If my presence is hindering her ability to feel comfortable, through no fault of either of ours, then I'm going to make sure to break that wall down for all three them."

Bruce walked into the kitchen and started filling the electric kettle, not even pretending he hadn't been listening as he added his opinion. "I think you're right, Darcy. If you go out of your way to make her feel welcome, not that you've been doing anything wrong to make her feel unwelcome, I think you'll be able to help her get over her reservations quickly. You're impossible to resist."

The last was said in a grumbly manner, but I knew he didn't mean it that way. Bruce had tried so hard to stay to the fringes of the family, but I'd led the charge, dragging him in kicking and screaming. He'd been so spooked with fear of hurting the people he cared about that he'd tried to not care about anyone. Once I'd managed to prove that he already did care about us all, he'd reluctantly dropped his guard and let us all in. The fact that he was actively supporting adding another person to our crazy family,and thus the list of people he cared about, showed just how far he had come.

In silence the three of us worked together on the meal, and it wasn't lost on me that we were the only unbonded holdouts. At least, once Steve and Bucky stopped being overly cautious and gentlemanly and got around to actually bonding Steph. When the prep work was finished, the two men left me alone to do the actual cooking, as was my preference. I had JARVIS crank up some tunes and got to work, dancing around the kitchen while I cooked.

I had just finished slicing the loaves of bread with a celebratory shake of my hips when I turned and saw the new triad in question sitting at the breakfast bar together watching me. Steph was snuggled into Bucky's lap with Steve's hand on her thigh from the seat next to them.

"Hey, Steph!" I said with a big, one hundred percent genuine, smile. "How are you feeling? It's so good to see you up and about!"

She offered me a meager smile, but it was progress, so I took that to heart. Quietly she responded, "I'm doing okay. Completely wiped out, but I'm fine otherwise."

"Well, I'm glad you're joining us." I didn't specify for dinner because I hoped it would be for more than just dinner. "The others should be filtering in shortly."

They sat in silence for a few beats until Steph gestured at everything I had going in the kitchen. "I'm impressed; I've always been hopeless in the kitchen."

I shrugged and said, "it's something my great grandma and I used to do together. When she passed, I just kept going. It was a fun way to remember her."

"That's nice," Steph said with an open smile. It clouded over a little as she added, "pretty much any time I tried as a kid, it ended with my mom telling me that I was hopeless and I'd wind up alone because I was useless as an omega."

Steve and Bucky both had devastated looks on their faces, but I just shrugged and made eye contact as I said, "that's just stupid of her. Being able to cook or not doesn't make someone an omega. And lucky for you, you've found yourself an alpha who is quite handy in the kitchen. We don't hold much stock here to those kinds of expectations, which is good because pretty much everyone will tell you that cooking and making sure people eat is about the only omega thing I do. I'm hell at housekeeping, and I couldn't keep my mouth shut and do what some alpha told me, unless it also happened to be what I wanted, if my life depended on it."

I'd been watching the others filter in, and it was Thor who spoke next, causing Steph to jump and dig her nails into Bucky's arms around her waist in reflex before relaxing. "It is true, Darcy is an omega full of spirit. The first time I met her, she felled me with her handheld lightning gun!"

The entire last sentence was said by everyone who had gathered in attendance in unison because Thor said that all the time. Generally every time he was there when I was being introduced to someone for the first time. Thor took a large step toward Steph like a big, lovable dog who wanted everyone to be his best friend, and she shrank into Bucky reflexively. At the same time, Jane's hand whipped out and latched onto his arm, pulling him back.

Thor looked confused but allowed himself to be brought to heel by the tiny woman. That reaction alone seemed to cause Steph to relax almost instantly. She offered a hesitant smile and started to get to her feet, accepting help from Steve and Bucky as she did so. I watched a little of the brightness dim from Thor's eyes, as he took in her mannerism. Gently he drew Jane in front of him and shoved her forward. "You must be Stephanie; I am sorry if I startled you. I was merely excited to meet the one who means so much to my friends. I am Thor, and this is my lady Jane. I regret that we were unable to meet you until now, but we were required on Asgard for a ceremony."

"Their bond was being officially recognized by Thor's dad, Odin," I whispered enthusiastically. "They've been bonded for a year, but he refused to acknowledge that fact until recently. None of us were allowed to go with them, but I'm still hoping one day!"

My fingers were crossed and Steph looked over and giggled. Realizing that everyone was now present, I shooed them over to the big dining room table. Once they had Steph seated, Steve and Bucky came in to help me carry in dishes. Bucky nudged at me with his elbow and whispered, "thanks, Darcy." I was pretty sure it was thanks not just for preparing dinner, but for beginning my work on setting Steph at ease.

Bruce came in to grab mugs of ginger tea for himself and Steph while Natasha made sure everyone else had drinks. Steph seemed to spend most of the meal trying to gauge how everyone interacted instead of just behaving naturally. A few times I noticed her open her mouth during some silences as though she was going to say something, only to turn back to her plate and carefully study its contents.

"What's on your mind, Steph? Is the rice not cooked all the way?" I asked.

"No! The rice is good, and it seems to be settling nicely in my stomach. Thanks."

"Sure, try the applesauce and the toast. Ooooh! Or a banana. We have bananas."

"Maybe in a few minutes," she said with a small smile.

"Anything else?" Sam asked, clearly having observed the same behavior I had.

"I.. uh… it's." Steph flushed and then said, "no, it's fine. It can wait. I'm getting the impression that you don't talk business at the table." The last bit was muttered so quietly that I barely heard her.

"Actually, Steph." Pepper said casually, "usually no one can shut up about business at the table. Yours is just the only interesting business they have at the moment, and Steve asked us all to try not to talk about it until you brought it up. Trust me, not talking about it is killing them all, and you certainly won't offend anyone by doing so."

"Oh," Steph said in surprise. She turned and looked at Steve with wide eyes and said, "can I?"

Steve heaved a sigh and said, "remember? You can do whatever you want, Steph."

Steph's smile was radiant in that moment before she turned serious again and said, "what exactly happened?"

"What do you remember?" Sam asked carefully.

"I remember realizing Hector, Woody, and I were about to get ambushed and Hector telling me to run if anyone made it into the van. I remember someone cutting a hole into the van and starting to run. Then just… really embarrassing and horrifying bits and pieces that I hope to God Natasha and Tony take with them to the grave."

Both omegas just nodded in solidarity, something that normally Tony wouldn't agree to without at least a little teasing first which clued me in on how bad it must have been. I mean, I'd known it was bad, but if Tony wasn't willing to joke about something, it was SERIOUSLY messed up. I mean, he joked about the Hulk all the time.

"You were given a drug, most likely by inhalation. From what we've been able to find out, the drug they gave your skip the day we met you that turned him into an alpha was called 'Hercules.' And the drug was given to you was its counterpart. They called it 'Hebe'," Clint explained.

I snorted out a laugh and muttered "figures, the dumb shits." Everyone looked at me in surprise, and I shrugged. "Hercules is the Roman name for the god the Greeks called Heracles. But the stories and mythology differ. Hebe was Heracles's wife, not Hercules's. Figures they couldn't keep that straight."

"Alright, well, that's probably the least offensive thing they've done, at any rate," Tony said and I stuck my tongue out at him.

Clint continued, unfazed, "I was able to do some preliminary work finding some sources, and it seems the group is calling themselves 'Anicetus' after one of Hebe's sons with the god. The name Anicetus means 'unconquerable one'. They're an off-shoot of HYDRA. Given the names they've chosen, for themselves and the drugs, and the fact that they tried to trigger your heat and kidnap you, we have some speculations about what they want to accomplish."

Steph had gone even whiter in the face and she stuttered out, "they wanted to force me to breed with someone who was on that other drug, didn't they?"

"Most likely," Bruce said calmly. "But you kept them from doing that."

Steph was looking more than a little green around the gills, so I tilted my head and said, "more questions later?"

She blew out a steadying breath and said, "One more: the men who attacked me are in prison, but are any of them rolling on anyone higher up? I can only assume they're going to keep trying to experiment on people."

"Not yet," Natasha said smoothly, "but we'll keep working on it."

With that conversation kind of steered itself back to less intense territory, and no one blamed Steph for quieting down for a bit as she contemplated that new information. We'd finished eating but were sitting around socializing when JARVIS cut in on the conversation, "Pardon me, but there is a woman downstairs claiming to be Stephanie's mother and demanding to see her daughter."

"Has she used the phrase 'why me?' at all?" Stephanie asked.

"Several times, in fact," came the reply.

"Well, then, that'd be her. JARVIS, tell her I'm on my way. Sorry everyone, I'm just going to go downstairs for a moment if you don't mind," Steph said with a sigh that made it very clear that she would rather not do so.

Flashing back on what she'd said about her mother earlier, I stood with a hand gesture to Steve and Bucky to stay down. I walked around the table and hooked my arm with Steph's and said, "why don't I keep you company?"

We'd already made it onto the elevator before Steph could respond, and I was only mildly surprised to see that Natasha had snuck in with us. "Really, you don't have to come with me, I'll be fine."

"We nontraditional omegas have to stick together!" I replied a tad forcefully, but I really wanted Steph to know she wasn't alone.

Natasha was nodding in agreement while Steph said, "really, it isn't going to be pretty. She's going to yell and cause a scene. I promise to get her out of here as quickly as I can, but there's no reason you should have to subject yourselves to that. Especially you, Natasha. People know who you are; I'm sure you don't want the bad publicity."

Natasha actually laughed out loud before responding, "trust me, Steph. I was an assassin and the whole world knows it. I've had much worse things said about me publicly and in the media than could possibly be said about me as a result of anything that happens in that lobby. And even if that somehow doesn't end up being true, I won't hold it against you because you did warn me. Like Darcy said, we've gotta stick together."

The elevator doors opened into the lobby and we were almost immediately greeted by a shrill, "Stephanie Michelle Plum! What is the matter with you?"

"I don't know, Ma, why don't you tell me?" Stephanie said in exasperation.

"You throw ridiculous accusations around at an upstanding citizen, an alpha no less. Then you leave town without any warning, shun your familial responsibilities, and run off to live with a bunch of men! As if there weren't already too many of them, I find you here with even more men after having your picture flashed all over the news! Did you see the pictures? Why, you're practically nude! And you're filthy! I know I didn't raise my daughter that way! Why me? Why did I have to get the daughter who just doesn't know her place?"

I could feel my own brows raised in disbelief and when I looked over at Natasha, her face was unusually expressive. The expression definitely was not approval, but what I found more interesting and set alarm bells off in my head was the way Natasha's gaze was fixed on the phone in Mrs. Plum's hand. Natasha almost always carried a communicator on her wrist, usually disguised as a bracelet. When she put her wrist up to her mouth and muttered something, I stepped closer and behind her much as she'd told me to do if ever there was "trouble."

Steph's mom continued to rail on her, and you could tell it was getting to her by the way her shoulders were drooping. She looked about to finally defend herself when the doors to the Tower opened and a man who looked to be about six feet tall and absolutely wreaked of alpha strode in.

"Mom, what did you do?" Steph asked doing a decent job of hiding the fear I was sure she felt if the man was who I thought he was. He was lean hipped, muscular, with a scar over one eye, and ever-so-slightly wavy black hair. In a way, he looked like he could be a cast member of The Sopranos.

"Cupcake, I've come to bring you home," the man said more softly than I was expecting.

Steph just started backing up and shaking your head, so I shadowed Natasha as she moved closer, unwilling to move outside her protective range with an unfamiliar and likely unstable Alpha around.

"What have you been doing? You smell like… another alpha," he spat out furiously.

"Where I live and what I do are not of your concern, Morelli." Steph spoke shakily, and I could tell she was quickly running out of the very little energy she had in the first place.

"Who's your friend? She's unbonded and kinda cute. She can come with us," his chocolate eyes fixed on mine and I managed to keep from gagging. Apparently my lack of response was boring for him, so he turned back to Steph and frowned. She'd made no move in his direction, and he clearly took fault with that. That was when he brought out his Alpha Voice to try to subdue her. "Stephanie, get over here right now. You're coming with me."

The Stark Industries guards started shifting forward at that, apparently very unhappy with the fact that he was blatantly attempting to coerce her into complying. Steph whined in the back of her throat and looked like it was taking everything in her to disobey. I couldn't really blame her on that, I wasn't even the one he was commanding and I was uncomfortable with the fact that he wasn't being obeyed.

Hearing the ding of the elevator behind us, I turned just enough to see the door out of the corner of my eye, but not enough to put my back to the man. When I realized who it was, I relaxed just a little. Steve and Clint strode out first, bringing with them equally protective and aggressive scents. This time it was Mrs. Plum who shrank back, and I couldn't stop the smirk of satisfaction. Bucky was trailing behind the two alphas and while they went up and got right in the other alpha's face, Bucky quickly moved to Steph and put a supportive arm around her waist. He was murmuring in her ear, and I watched her loosen up just a little. A couple more words and she actually giggled.

"Cupcake, now!" the man yelled.

Bucky just picked her up gently and moved toward the elevator with Natasha and I scrambling in behind him. As the door closed, I heard the satisfying sound of fist hitting flesh and Steve growling at the man that he would never speak to Steph that way again.

Steph had her face buried in Bucky's neck and no one said anything as the elevator rose and the doors opened on Bucky and Steve's floor. He strode out with Steph in his arms and the doors shut taking Natasha and I back to where everyone else was waiting. Jane had a concerned look on her face, so I settled in next to her and Thor on the couch. The TV in front of us was lit up with security footage of the lobby. Popcorn was being passed around as Cap repeatedly hit the guy only to pick him up and threaten him again.

Tony let out a low whistle, "he wasn't lying when he said he hates bullies."

"No he was not," Sam replied before turning and looking at me appraisingly. "You okay?"

I smiled at him gratefully and nodded my head. Contemplatively, I thought out loud, "I wonder what she ever saw in that guy."

"I have a feeling it has more to do with what her family, or at least her mother, saw in him," Natasha said angrily.

"Kind of makes you wonder how she ended up so… nice," I mused.

"Certainly puts a tally in the nature column of the nature versus nurture debate," Bruce agreed.

I felt Natasha's hand settle gently on my shoulder and she praised, "thank you for moving to where I could protect you when he came in."

"I wanted you to know where I was so you didn't have to split your attention if he went on the attack."

The hand patted me softly and she said, "exactly right."

We watched as Steve finally threw Morelli out of the building. And by that I mean he actually picked him up and threw him back out the front door with a clearly upset Mrs. Plum scampering after him.

Clint and Steve both got in the elevator, but a minute later it was only Clint who stepped off the elevator into the common room. "Steve says they'll see us tomorrow," he announced. No one made any further comment as we all settled in and JARVIS flipped the TV over to the next movie on our to-watch list.