Darcia sat in front of the touch screen computer in Tony's lab the next day, flipping through pictures so quickly, it appeared she wasn't even paying attention to what she was doing. She did know exactly what she was doing, though, she just had gotten very good at online shopping and didn't need to wait for each picture to load before she knew she wouldn't like what she saw. At the moment, she was on her personal account for Bloomingdales, her nose scrunching up at almost every item that came up. Really, they knew this wasn't her style. Why insist on trying to make her wear it? With a sigh, she pulled up her personal account for Alice and Olivia, exiting the other site without so much as a 'thank you for your input, but really, I've seen this all on everyone else and I want something fresh.' A smile came to her face when a dress popped up on the screen, everything about the Genevieve style screaming her name. She added it to her cart with a double tap before continuing her search.
"Hey, Darcia."
The heiress looked up from her perch on the stool to see Steve walking carefully through the lab, acting like the whole place could self-destruct at any moment. "Oh, hey, Cap," she said, smiling at him before continuing her search. "What's up?" He came over to the lab table she was at and stood there awkwardly, watching his hands like an archaeologist holding a bone. She glanced up from the screen, eyebrow raised. "I'm not going to attack, Steve. You can sit down." With a roll of her eyes, she went back to the computer and started mumbling to herself. "Seriously, it's like you become a pariah when a family member dies..."
Luckily, he didn't hear that (or if he did, he ignored it with a carefully placed look of ignorance), and took the seat on the other end of the table before speaking. "Uh, so, what are you doing?"
"Mm," she started, most of her attention on the top in front of her. "Online shopping. Don't have anything to wear at the moment so this is kind of necessary for the next few days. Plus, I get overnight shipping which is awesome."
Steve looked at the top Darcia double tapped. "Are you buying that?"
She snapped up, looking at him astounded. "Yes. What's wrong with it?"
He flushed, looking at her with wide eyes. "I, uh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. It's just...how much is that? There's almost nothing there!"
She gave him a weird look before going to her cart to check the price. "Uh, it's three-forty. Not a big deal, Steve-o."
"Three hundred and forty?"
"Yes sir," she responded cooly, going back to her shopping, somewhat irked about his reaction.
"Sorry. It's not really my place..."
"Nope." She popped the 'p,' detaching herself from the conversation. She liked clothes. And she liked spending money on clothes she liked. It was a hobby, one could say.
Steve looked positively uncomfortable, awkward in every sense, and definitely embarrassed. "Sorry," he muttered, face red.
"It's whatever, Steve. I'm not exactly used to people judging what I buy in the first place."
He was quiet for a few minutes, letting Darcia buy her products and switch to another site as he gathered his thoughts. "I wanted to apologize."
"Huh?" she grunted, looking at him confused.
"Your birthday." Darcia's face went blank, turning white as soon as he said that. "Yeah. That," he said, embarrassed about that, too. "I'm sorry. I kind of sprung all of that on you at once and then I, I took advantage of you and you have a boyfriend. Don't get me wrong, Bruce is a great guy, I'm sure. He's nice and smart, but then there's the anger thing-" Steve kept rambling, red in the face and getting more flustered with every passing second. Darcia just stared at him, his words going in one ear and out the other as he started talking about the war and then about this British girl and ohwaitaminute.
"What?"
"What? Huh?" Steve asked, stopping in the middle of his rant, confused.
Darcia peered at him, leaning forward. "You said something about a British girl. Do you mean Hayley? Or was I mistaken?"
"I, uh," he sputtered, blushing once again. "Well, yes, at one point I did mention Miss Atwell, but I was talking about...someone else. From the war."
She squinted her eyes at him once more before shrugging and going back to whatever website she was on now. "What is it about accents? They get everyone all hot and bothered. Oh, me included, don't get me wrong, but sheesh."
"...Anyway..." Steve said, still giving her a confused look. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again. Miss Atwell and I are...uh, well, I don't exactly know what we are right now, but you don't need to worry about me...coming on to you."
She gave him another look. "Oh I'm not worried about that. Never was...no offense. I'm very happy with Bruce."
"Oh...good."
"Mhm," she responded, going back to the computer. She typed something up quickly before she went back to swiping the screen, looking for something that called to her once again. Steve opened his mouth to say something else, but was stopped when Darcia let out a small squeal and said "Oh, cute!" before double-tapping the touch screen.
"Right. Well, I'm going to go consult with Thor about his brother. See what we can plan before anything else happens." Steve got up from the stool, giving her a small smile, of which she returned.
"Okay, see you later!" she grinned at him quickly, then went back to the computer. He nodded, giving her a haphazard look before he left the lab.
The bells of the cathedral rang loudly, echoing throughout the deserted streets, signaling noon, though one couldn't tell otherwise. The sky was dark, ash falling here and there; thunder, smoke and the smell of fire and rain mixing to create a symphony of chaos; destruction. It was deathly quiet, people scarce, vehicles abandoned, like their confidence, their safety, their sanity. Darcia stood off to the side of the National Mall, face pointed to the sky as it rained down dust and debris, hair matted with blood to her head, falling out of the pony tail, her uniform torn and burned in various places, splattered with unknown goos and liquids. Her eyes were closed, her face more grey than pale, smudged with blood and ash and dried tears.
"Darcia?! Darcia!" She spun around, looking for the source of the noise interrupting her diseased tranquility. She saw Clint waving her down, pointing towards the Jefferson Monument just as it exploded, flames leaping into the sky, marble making large crackling sounds before piece by piece, they fell to the ground. Everything rushed back to the present and Darcia was hit with the full impact of what was going around her. Sound came back to her and when she heard the screams of hundreds of civilians, she finally listening to Clint's shouting. "Darcia, come on, we've got to go! It's Bruce!"
"Bruce?" she said to herself before putting on her game face and nodding at her friend. She ran up to him, the only weapon a set of knives strapped to her thighs and a gun in its holster at her hip, and he led the way towards what was left of the Monument, to the scene where she would once again come in handy as a distraction. "This is it!" she shouted at him as they ran. "No more! I'm withdrawing my information from S.H.E.I.L.D. You can tell Fury that the second you see him."
Clint chuckled. "You said that last time. I know you. Give it two years and you'll get bored and need something to liven up your sad little life!"
She rolled her eyes, scoffing at him. "I don't think so. Bruce is thinking about coming back with me to L.A."
He whipped his head to face her. "Seriously? That's...awesome!"
She grinned. "Don't I know it. I'm just worried about how he'll take my Gala. It'll hit him head on without him even realizing it."
"Yeah," the archer nodded, looking back to the scene quickly approaching. "You'll have to be careful with that. Make sure he's extra comfortable." A wicked grin settled across his face and without helping himself, he added on a sentence. "...If you know what I mean."
Darcia burst out laughing. "You're horrible! This is such an inappropriate time for that!"
He laughed, shaking his head until the smile was wiped from his face by the Hulk's deafening roar. Darcia's face went blank, her pace coming to a halt. Clint turned back around a second later, looking at her scared still. "It's fine, Darcia, you'll be fine. I know you're scared, but you can handle this. He needs you!"
"He's not there, Clint." She stared over his head, looking into the distance, wincing when she heard another roar.
"Then save him! Don't back down now." He looked at her desperately, his hand swept toward the scene behind him.
She nodded her head. "I'll save him. He already saved me. I can save him..."
"Yes, you can."
She nodded, narrowing her eyes before she ran ahead of him, towards the Hulk who just appeared, looking for something -anything- to smash. As she got closer to her terrifying boyfriend, she saw him look at the Memorial with some sort of angry confusion before looking back to the water in front of it. Something seemed to click in his mind and he bent down, gathering as much water as he could in his hands, splashing it towards the flames. She stopped in her tracks, watching him curiously. The splashes did almost nothing to the fire and the Hulk got angrier the longer he tried to stop it. "Jump!" she shouted without thinking. Well, she was always going to be the distraction... she squared her shoulders as the Hulk looked at her suddenly. "Jump! Bruce, jump in the water! Or, Hulk, Jump!"
And somehow he understood, humanity clearing his dumbed-down brain, and he jumped into the water so hard it came up and hit the fire, dousing it immediately. Darcia screamed enthusiastically, her face alight. "Well, well, well. It looks like someone's tamed the beast." Her face went white once she recognized the airy, menacing voice behind her. She slowly turned around, meeting the curious gaze of Loki. Clint was nowhere to be found. He smiled at her, making her blood run cold. "I told you I'd come for you..."
Darcia shot up, unaware that she had even fallen asleep in the first place. She looked around, noticing she was still in Tony's lab, the computer screen in front of her dancing around with a screensaver. She was drenched in a cold sweat, trembling slightly. She touched the screen, seeing it come back to life before her, a random designer shopping site up and forgotten. She stared at it blankly as she analyzed her dream over and over again, trying to get as many details down as she could. "JARVIS," she said quietly, then again after clearing her throat. "Where is everyone?"
"Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner are in the lab with Ms. Potts. It would also seem that Captain Rogers and Mr. Odinson are in the gym, and Agents Romanov and Barton are in the former's lavatory, Miss Grace."
Darcia didn't even remark on that last part, instead rushing out of the lab and down to Bruce's, those three being the closest to her. She sprinted down the stairs, skipping up to three steps at once, almost falling towards the end. She fumbled with the passcode to the doors, but finally made it in and screeched to a stop, the shoes she was wearing making a nasty black mark on the linoleum. Bruce, Tony and Pepper looked at her with wide, shocked eyes, most likely questioning her sanity at the moment. "He's coming. Soon. D.C." she gasped out, watching each of their expressions dramatically change at this piece of information.
(A/N: Woooo! I'm so pumped! I've got all the rest of the chapters planned out. I'm not going to tell you how many there will be, but I will give away a little bit of information. There will be...wait for it...two...yes, I said TWO...epilogues! Weeee. Isn't that fun? It will be fun, don't worry about it. I'm really excited about what's happening in the story. You all have been so great to me. So, so great. I love you all. Sooo let me know what you want to see (if you want anything to add) and I'll try to work it in. A reviewer brought up something I haven't addressed yet (but don't worry! because it's coming up in a later chapter) and it made me think that you all might want to see something special. So I am open to suggestions! Yay!)