"If it keeps on rainin' levee's goin' to break..."
- "When the Levee Breaks" by Led Zeppelin
Part Thirteen: Choke
Darcy woke with Steve's jacket draped over her with him gone. She instantly missed him but told herself to keep it together because Steve made a fair point before. There was a time and a place of them and work wasn't it.
She brushed her hair and used her emergency toothbrush she stashed in a little bag in her desk drawer along with her mouthwash, hoping she looked like death than she felt. She walked out into the hallway, looking around to see who'd stayed and who'd gone home or to their hotel.
Cherie bounded up to her, coffee in hand. "Steve went out first," she said with a broad smile, looking extraordinarily chipper. Darcy's eyes were drawn to the mark on Cherie's neck.
"Uh," she said, but she didn't point in case Cherie wasn't aware the hickey was there. She wasn't about to squash her anxiety-prone assistant's good morning. "You got a scarf?"
"Oh!" Cherie gasped, handing Darcy her coffee and running off. She didn't seem mortified, just forgetful.
Darcy watched with amusement, Cherie retrieving a thick scarf that hung on the back of her chair.
The same morning happened more or less every time for a week, and Darcy no longer tried to hit on Steve shamelessly when they were alone. They kissed often enough, often Steve just sticking his head through her doorway while she stood just inside when they had a spare second. Darcy was frustrated but spare seconds became such a rarity that she was content with knowing he didn't want to stop being around her. Sometimes he caught her wrist in one hand to stop her and squeeze, a gentle acknowledgement. Darcy felt his eyes on her when she took off a sweater or bent to retrieve something.
With the flurry of those exciting feelings inside her, there were also real feelings of stress and fear. The next debate might be the last one, and Congresswoman Gunn had stopped being polite when she gave interviews.
"Tony Stark will not be a safe President. I firmly believe in there being a danger for all citizens where an Iron Man militia is concerned."
They were watching her interview on the projector in the conference room. Steve was one of the few people standing, crossing his arms and regarding Gunn shrewdly.
"She's not going to endorse Tony," Darcy mused, and Steve nodded.
"But she has to, doesn't she?" Cherie asked, her eyes wide. "It's her party."
"Maybe she'll quit politics," someone else said.
Darcy shook her head. "Maybe she'll be a thorn in Tony's side."
"How well does he do with thorns?" Steve asked her, and she smiled.
"Pretty well considering those hearings he used to attend about Iron Man."
Steve nodded. "We need every minute revised. Every minute."
"He does well when he improvises," Darcy countered, and Steve shook his head.
"No, he sounds like an arrogant prick when he's improvising," he replied.
He licked his lips, gaze still resting on Darcy.
"Could everyone -?" Darcy started, and she turned her head to see the others filing out, including Cherie who shut the door behind her, leaving Steve and Darcy alone.
"They are very well trained," Darcy said, feeling a sense of pride.
"Darcy, we have to keep Tony in line," Steve said, taking a seat and dragging it over to sit opposite her.
Darcy's foot touched his leg. "You know he'll win if it comes from the heart."
"Yeah," he said, sounding exhausted. "I'm just sure she'll throw him under the bus."
"We've got this."
"Okay," he murmured. He looked at her foot and smiled at Darcy.
"I thought you'd stopped being cheeky," he said, and Darcy smiled, stomach flipping.
"Points for trying?" she said, and he caught her ankle, pulling her toward him.
They spent another ten minutes making out only to have Steve rest his face in her neck, groaning.
"Back to work," he mumbled.
"HEY!" Carol screamed, coming at Darcy with her arms wide. She wore her maroon blazer over her navy dress, her pin shining.
They were standing in the rooms behind the convention hall. Darcy wore her Mob Boss outfit – a fitted blazer with a pencil skirt and big gold clip-on earrings bigger than one of her knuckles. Steve wore a suit and stood by while Carol hugged Darcy tightly.
"Hey, you," Carol said to him, bringing him into a hug. "Where's Tony?"
"Running late, as always," Steve said, sounding only slightly grumpy about it. Darcy supposed Carol helped. "That rally today was amazing."
"Tony makes it easy for me, I'd love to be his running mate," Carol replied, shrugging one shoulder.
"Yeah, can't say I agree with the thirty-five year age requirement," Darcy said, thumbing through some more notes Cherie shoved at her ten minutes ago. "Closing statement is still – what?"
"Perseverance?" Steve asked, and Darcy shook her head. "Strength and honor?"
"Don't encourage him," Darcy said to Carol, who'd started to giggle. "No, it was –"
A familiar brunette came into view and Darcy froze, recognizing Congresswoman Gunn as she walked past, an assistant at her side with a lint roller and a bottle of water at the ready.
Gunn paused, turning mid-step. She waved the girl away, making Darcy dread whatever was about to happen. She glanced up at Steve who'd turned to stone. Carol didn't bother with a fake smile.
"Hello, Miss Lewis," Gunn said, offering her hand.
Darcy took it only because expected her not to. The woman's face looked pinched. She seemed to have aged, or perhaps she'd always looked like that and Darcy was only seeing her clearly for the first time.
"Hello, Miranda," Darcy replied. She felt Steve touch her arm and she remembered not too get too close in case a picture could be taken.
"Steven," Gunn added, giving him a nod.
He didn't say a word to her, his face like stone.
"I think we should talk alone," Gunn said to Darcy. Steve caught her sleeve in warning. It was definitely a bad idea, which was why Darcy nodded and walked off with her to another corner, their heads bent.
Her heart was racing. She turned her head slightly to see Steve and Carol bickering. She pursed her lips at Gunn and looked her up and down.
"You've got less than ten minutes before you go on stage, 'Randa," she said, and she saw Gunn's brows furrow with irritation before they melted back to neutral.
"I want you to know that whatever happens isn't personal," she said, hands together. "It's just politics."
"That's my family you went after," Darcy said, and already her voice was sharp. "Pepper and Morgan were innocent."
"Whatever you think you know about me is not true."
Darcy tilted her head. "Really? Steve is lying about you? Shocker."
"I wouldn't recommend having personal relationships within your own campaign," Gunn added, her dimples making her face more punchable to Darcy than ever. "You say they're your family but you're only there until they no longer want to use you."
"Like Steve was to you?" Darcy said, narrowing her eyes.
"Steve Rogers was fired for not being supportive of a female boss," she said, smile still present.
"You use feminism when it's convenient for you," Darcy said. "Remember how I called you worthless?"
Gunn chuckled, her face changing to something more sinister.
"You will regret not being on my side."
"Says the loser."
Gunn looked over Darcy's shoulder at Steve. Darcy didn't like that at all, and all she wanted to do was find a way to sink her nails into Gunn without it turning into assault charges put against her.
"Did he tell you why he left the Army?"
Darcy glared at her. "It doesn't matter."
Gunn laughed. "Right. So you don't know about him getting another soldier killed? Bucky Barnes."
When Darcy only narrowed her eyes at her, Gunn shrugged a shoulder.
"Well, what do I know? He was only my campaign manager before he met you."
She walked off and Darcy clenched her fists, stalking back to Steve and Carol.
"You okay?" Carol asked, and Darcy grit her teeth.
"I'm fine."
"That's good, because you look like you're about to sucker punch a Congresswoman," Carol said, and all three of them watched Gunn reading notes an aide passed her. Her makeup girl was powdering her face.
"Hey, I'm here!"
They all turned to see Tony and Pepper running in with Morgan being tugged along. Pepper was the only one who looked sheepish.
"Tony," Darcy said, and Tony gave her a big smile.
"Morgan threw up in the car over."
"Oh, Monkey," Darcy whispered, giving Morgan's face a stroke. "Your poor tummy."
Pepper sounded out of breath. "Funny how you don't prep for carsick children, and you prep for literally everything else."
"I'm Carol," Carol said, offering a hand.
"Oh, right, sorry Carol," Pepper said with a laugh. "I'm losing my mind."
Pepper had not been at the rally that day. She was still avoiding a lot of the press but phoning in the debate would send the wrong message. Darcy took a second to tug Tony aside while the makeup girl powdered him. Tony adjusted his tie, winking at Darcy. Steve touched the small of her back to indicate he was there and listening and underneath the anxiety Darcy felt a warm longing to touch him back.
"T-minus however many minutes it is," Darcy began, talking to Tony like a coach before a bout. "We have nothing to lose, and so much to gain."
She knew that was the opposite of the truth but talking in grandiose ways usually helped settle herself.
"Closing statement?" Darcy asked, and Tony paused.
"I thought I had it in the car but then Morgan –" Tony stared blankly. "I lost it."
Steve let out a laugh that sounded incredulous. "We don't have an closing statement."
Darcy blinked. "Okay. Okay. Okay."
"Darcy?"
"Just shut up, both of you," Darcy snapped, flapping her hands.
"Two minutes, people!"
Where the hell did that producer come from? The interruption caused Darcy's stomach to drop and her adrenaline kicked her heartrate up to nearly the same speed as Super Tuesday.
She grabbed Tony's arm. "Wait. Just – humanity. Mention Morgan when it comes to climate change. And your humanity when Gunn goes after you for being Iron Man."
"What does that mean?" Tony asked, and Darcy cleared her throat.
"You made mistakes but you're human and politicians are human."
She glanced at Steve. "Right?"
"That…" he paused to think. "That works. When JFK gave a speech after the Cuban Missile Crisis his approval rating –"
"-skyrocketed," Darcy finished, nodding. "Yeah? It works?"
"Good enough for me, kids," Tony said, giving a short wave. "I've got about ten seconds."
Pepper came over, smiling nervously. "Okay, honey."
"Yep, okay."
"Humanity and Morgan, Tony," Darcy said, and he met her gaze. "You are not your father but you have his wisdom. You might just reach your potential."
Tony nodded. "Short Stack."
She knew then that he was telling her he loved her, and she felt her chest squeeze at his shining eyes. "Tone."
"You kids stay out of trouble until I get back," he added, giving Steve a quick glance.
"I'm thirty-three," Steve said.
"Still," Tony said, and then Wolf Blitzer announced his name.
There was a wave of applause. Darcy felt Carol take her hand in hers and squeeze.
Tony killed it. He absolutely wrecked whatever resolve Congresswoman Gunn had, and eventually she began to dreg up the worst ideas about Tony the nation should have.
Luckily, Tony never lost his cool. He just threw down a wildcard that was his plan for tackling climate change that had Gunn stop in her tracks.
"I will create jobs with my clean energy plan," he said to Wolf, who blinked at him, momentarily thrown.
"I would love it if you could elaborate, Mister Stark."
"Absolutely," Tony replied. "I'm sure the Internet will have a field day with footage of this –"
He flipped his tie over his shoulder and deftly unbuttoned several of his shirt buttons, exposing the arc reactor in his chest.
"What is this?" Gunn blurted, and Tony chuckled.
"I needed a visual aid. This –" the tapped on the glass cover. "-is the key to clean energy. I discovered or, rediscovered a new element my father had found more than forty years ago."
"Elaborate, Mister Stark," Congresswoman Gunn snapped. There was a vein on her forehead that had begun to throb. "And stay on topic as I have."
"The element is more powerful than any other energy source man has," Tony finished. "And I want to give it to everyone in the best way I can, with legislature and employment and economic growth."
Gunn made a sound like a grunt. "I –I – "
Tony turned his head slightly to her, waiting. She shook her head, eyes blazing.
"How are we even meant to afford something like that? You can't just throw money at problems to solve them."
"I mean no disrespect, Congresswoman Gunn," Tony said, buttoning his shirt back up. "But usually when people say that it's because they've never had enough money to solve them."
Carol whooped beside Darcy. Wolf Blitzer was able to redirect the conversation back to closing statement. They'd already managed to chew their way through close to two hours.
"I want to change history forever," Gunn said, and there was a light applause. It was clear that even her most loyal of supporters were beginning to dwindle. "I have the experience and the character to be a worthy candidate for our great party. I have a consistent and trustworthy track record."
Everything she said was a lie. Darcy only clapped because Steve did, and she think he only did that out of respect to the party and not his old boss.
"Mister Stark," Wolf Blitzer said, "your closing statements."
"I've got nothing to lose and everything to gain," Tony said, and there was laughter. "I have the legacy of my family name but I am not my father Howard Stark."
He paused, one finger brushing his brow as he checked his notes. "I'm – I'm sure you know about me. The world saw me grow up. And I made a lot of mistakes."
He looked up from his notes. "I'll only mention Morgan once because she doesn't deserve to be dragged into this, she really doesn't, but – I want to have a world she can live in that isn't on fire. I don't want capitalism to be the only motivation we carry as a superpower. We can't do that anymore."
He swallowed. "Imagine what could happen if I reach my potential. Imagine that."
The entire hall erupted in applause, and Tony only stared blankly for a second before smiling, blinking back tears.
"Yeah, and I want to be President. I should have probably said that, too."
The cheers were so loud Darcy could feel the vibrations in her chest, and soon Tony and the Congresswoman were waving and making their way backstage to their staff.
Tony ran right up to Darcy, the cameras clicking all around them, and to her surprise he lifted her up and twirled them both around.
"Darcy Lewis, you are dynamite and punch me in the face if I ever say otherwise!"
Darcy's eyes widened. "I wanna punch you now, put me down!"
He obliged, and he pressed his lips to Darcy's forehead.
"Your dad is proud of you, Tony," she whispered. He squeezed her arms. "He always was."
He nodded, moving on to Pepper and Morgan. Darcy saw Gunn race past and her face looked pink with anger or embarrassment but Darcy couldn't be sure.
Carol wrapped her arms around her, planting kisses on her face.
"Alright, alright," Darcy muttered, wriggling. "Quit it."
Carol drew back. "You guys."
"Oh, God," Darcy and Steve muttered in unison. Carol was choked up, fanning her face.
Eventually it was just Darcy and the rest of the staff that lagged behind, and Carol said her goodbyes, promising to meet them as soon as she was able.
Steve tugged at Darcy's shirt sleeve again while the other staff collected their things.
"Hey, I'll take you back to your room."
They were staying in Washington that night. It was the state's big vote tomorrow. Darcy didn't know the city that well and Steve was the one to pick a hotel for everyone, his suite opposite hers.
Darcy felt her stomach flip and then she remembered her exchange with Gunn.
Who the hell was Bucky?
"Yeah," she said, and perhaps not smiling at him made him pause.
"We can stay," he said in a low voice, but Darcy shook her head.
"No, let's go. I want to sleep in a bed for once."
In the taxi ride over Steve held her hand while they sat in silence. Darcy knew she should be thinking of finally being alone with him away from work but there was already so much else on her mind. She wasn't that afraid of Gunn but she could not get the thought out of her head:
He was only my campaign manager before he met you.
She hated that that horrible excuse for a woman got her thinking about her too much. She bit her lip when they took the elevator up.
"It's Miranda, isn't it?" Steve said, making Darcy snap out of her reverie. "What did she say to you?"
Darcy swallowed. "A lot of delusional bullshit, mostly."
"Hmm," Steve replied, but he kept looking at her. They reached their floor and exited the elevator, the corridor empty.
Darcy used her key card and they went inside. Her bags were already there from that morning. They only had time to drop everything off before they went to the rally.
Darcy pulled off her coat and tossed it over her chair, moving to kick off her shoes and pull off her earrings, placing them on the desk near the door.
"I was surprised she wanted to be anywhere near me, after Pepper. That day she – leaked that stuff, I went down to the headquarters."
Steve took off his coat with a frown on his face.
"What did you do?"
"Can you guess?" Darcy said, licking her lips. "I lost it. Told her she'd ruined Morgan's innocence. I told her she was a husk of a person. I told her she was evil and worthless."
"That sounds like wrath," Steve said, and Darcy shrugged a shoulder.
"Yeah. And then she said to me something today that I can't stop thinking about, and I know she only said it to drive a wedge between…us."
She let out a sigh, shaking her head. "It's not even something I want to –"
"What was it?" Steve asked, his tone expectant. He knew she knew. He worked his jaw.
"You don't have to tell me," Darcy said, moving toward him and placing her hands on his chest. "I don't want you revisiting trauma because she wanted to make a point."
"Darcy, just ask."
His voice was faint. Darcy bit her lip.
"It's about someone called Bucky Barnes. She said you got him killed."
She had the nerve to look him in the eye as she said it but it hurt anyway. Steve's jaw ticked.
"Right."
"So it happened?" Darcy asked. "He died?"
Steve looked down, reaching for her hands to push them away. "It was poor reconnaissance but I went against better advice. He lost an arm. I grew up with him, we always wanted to serve."
He let out a breath through his lips, shaky. "He bled out and it's –"
"No," Darcy blurted. "I don't care what you think, it's not your fault. I know you well enough and you're intelligent and capable and it's just not your fault. So don't tell me it is."
She closed her mouth, looking up at him.
"You…" Steve looked at her mouth, brows furrowing.
"Did I take it too far? I'm sorry if –"
He cut her off with a kiss, and in no time at all her mouth opened to his tongue as it swept inside to claim her, swallowing her gasps. He backed them up against the bed and Darcy stumbled back, falling on her butt as they broke apart.
So much was happening so fast. Steve took hold of her by the hips, dragging her to the edge of the mattress as he knelt, rough hands sliding up to the waist band of her panties and pulling them down. His eyes were dark, and he was on a mission. Darcy lifted her hips as he tugged them off and threw them aside.
She was exposed to the cool air and shivered, the image of Steve's head between her legs so overwhelming that she held her breath in anticipation.
She moaned as he licked up her slit, and soon his tongue was deep inside her pussy and stroking, causing her eyes to roll back. She propped herself up on elbows and whimpered, legs shaking.
"Oh, my God," she chanted. "Oh, my God."
She hadn't had any kind of touch down there in so long it was like she'd become a giant nerve. He lapped at her, and she huffed.
"You're gonna make me come already. Jesus fucking – oh, my God!"
There was a bolt of white hot pleasure that shot through her and she came with a shudder. She panted, and by the way he was looking at her with his mouth glistening with her arousal, Darcy knew she had little time to recover.
It might be the hottest thing in the world, seeing Steve Rogers unbuckle his belt and undo his fly to pull out his thick cock.
"Holy shit," Darcy murmured, because he was anything but small. He bent his knees, lining them up before dipping inside and pulling the tip back out.
Darcy moaned, a needy kind of sound. She bit her lip in anticipation, and he did the same dipping motion. He did it three more times, rubbing himself along her slit and making her gasp.
When he finally pushed inside to the hilt Darcy's back arched and she groaned, her hips rolling.
He felt so fucking perfect.
Nothing gentle from him. He set a punishing pace, taking off his shirt and pushing his pants down further. Darcy never saw him naked before that night and she knew if she saw herself she'd have a glazed look in her eye, possessed with lust.
"You feel so fucking good," she whispered, their eyes locked. Steve picked up the pace and she whimpered. He found the spot, whatever that spot was, and she was close to home.
Darcy kept whispering 'yes, yes, yes' and other praises, as Steve unbuttoned her shirt, pushing down her bra to see her tits bounce with each beat of his flesh against hers.
She could hear how wet she was and she thought for a second that there might be a threshold they couldn't cross, but then one of Steve's hands went to her throat and she smiled.
"Holy shit," she gasped. He wasn't choking her as such, just applying a pressure to her neck to make her completely lose it.
The whole time Steve didn't say anything, just used her like a toy. Once he pressed his thumb to her swollen clit she screamed.
"That's it, that's it," he said, and she came again, pulsing around him.
He let go of her neck and landed on top of her, wrapping her thighs around his waist and never slowing down. His mouth slanted over hers.
When he began to moan, Darcy knew he was close.
His voice was rough in her ear:
"I fucked my fist that night of the art gallery. I thought of us just like this."
"Fuck," Darcy moaned, and she snaked a hand between them to play with herself but Steve was quicker, bringing her off for the final time.
She came on a sob with her face in his neck.
He thrust as deep inside her as he could and came, fingers digging into the flesh of her ass, gasping for air.