CHAPTER 2 -
Two Years Later...
Darcy forced herself to focus on the screen in front of her. She was right in the middle of a very important research project for the Junior Senator but her eyes kept drifting to the desk calender beside her monitor. Just a few weeks ago had been the second anniversary of Andrew's death.
Two Years. It hardly seemed possible to that it had been that long, yet to those around her it seemed that the two year mark was supposed to be some kind of turning point. She honestly wished she could get where everyone else seemed to think she should be when it came to moving on. She wasn't there though, at least not yet.
Realizing that focusing on the project at hand wasn't happening right then she slammed her laptop closed and glared blankly at the calender once again. She sometimes wondered if everyone else was right. Was she hanging on too tightly to the past?
Desperate for a distraction from the date she was silently thrilled when her office door swung open and her immediate supervisor Melanie waltzed into her office and flopped down into the chair across from her. Letting out a dramatic sigh as she slumped down.
"Hi Mel, what can I do for you?" Darcy asked amused by her friends display.
"Oh, it's nothing big," she waved a dismissive hand through the air and Darcy rolled her eyes. "I really am fine," she assured her. "Just trying to find someone willing to go out with me tonight." She told Darcy expectantly.
Darcy couldn't help but tense up, she wasn't into the whole bar and club scene anymore. She knew Mel was just doing what she always did, and in her own way just trying to help. To Darcy a loud club surrounded by drunk strangers rubbing up against each other while trying to find a bed buddy for the night was the last thing that could ever make her feel better.
Noticing her face Mel's hopeful expression dropped. "Shit, I did it again didn't I? I'm sorry, sometimes I forget that we don't see a good time the same way. I just want to help you."
"I know, and I also know you think that I'm gonna just break down at any random time, but I'm not." She stared into the older woman's eyes hoping she would see she wasn't lying. "I'm okay," she promised, "not great but I am okay."
"I hope you know how glad I am to hear that." She gave Darcy a small smile and stood from her chair, "Oh by the way, I just wanted to let you know that you can have the rest of the week off. I know you requested some time off a few weeks ago and there was no way to give that to you then, but I found someone to help out with your project. Thought you could use a few days."
"Mel... I promise that I'm..."
"I know you're okay, but take the days. You haven't had any time off in well over a year." She walked through the door and tossed over her shoulder, "We'll see you next week."
She really was annoyed that people still thought she needed to be handled like a broken woman, but in a way she was also actually kind of appreciated it. She liked the idea of taking a few days to herself, and Mel was right it had been awhile since she'd had any time off.
Snatching up her laptop she tossed it into her shoulder bag before heading out the door. When she got outside she hailed a cab and instructed the driver to drop her at the corner near her apartment. She paid him then walked to a small convenient store to quickly grab a bottle of cheap wine for when she got home.
Leaving the store she walked the rest of the way to her apartment.
Once Darcy was home she changed into a comfy pair of pajamas and grabbed a glass. She filled the glass to the brim and snuggled into the couch. She drank down her first glass quickly and a second one not much longer after that as she scrolled through her Netflix queue and started an old episode of one of her favorite scifi shows. It was only a single episode and less than an hour later that she started to feel herself drifting off.
Standing up she shut off the television and made her way to the bedroom. It was barely three minutes after she snuggled into the blankets that she drifted off.
#*#*#*#*#*#*#
"Why do you keep doing this to yourself, Baby."
Darcy glanced around them and realized that they were back on the beach they would have visited on their honeymoon. He stood before her in a comfortable looking set of board shorts, in each hand he held a drink in a coconut shaped cup with a different colored umbrella. He handed her one and she took it excitedly.
"I missed you."
"You missed me so you..." He lifted his empty hand as if he held a bottle in it then brought it to his lips making it seem as if he was chugging from it. "Don't you realize that you're hurting yourself."
She folded her arms around her body as if it would shield her from whatever negative thing he could possibly think of her. Then realized that when it came to this she didn't care what he thought. This small amount of time with him was worth it. "I won't apologize." She stepped toward him and brought a palm up to his cheek, "I would do anything to be here with you... Anything."
"I hate seeing you do this? You drink half a bottle of wine just so you can have a conversation with a dead man."
Her eyes shot to his and she couldn't help but glare. That one hurt, she couldn't deny it. Yet, her instinct was to defend herself. "Then why won't you just come to me all the time, not just when I..." she mimicked his motion from moments before.
"Hey, don't ask me. It's your subconscious behind the wheel here, I'm just along for the ride."
"Are you mad at me?" Darcy asked unable to stop herself.
"If I said yes would you stop?"
"Probably not... It's the only way. I just wanna be here with you. Here in our little paradise."
"Don't you understand Darcy?! This isn't paradise! This is all in here." He reached up and tapped her forehead.
"Well, I'll take what I can get." She stated jutting her chin out in determined defiance, "and you can just forget about me stopping."
He reached for her and pulled her body to his, "I'm not mad at you."
The mixture of his words and him holding her close made all of her anger to fade.
"So what should we do this time," she pulled back and pulled him along behind her. "I think that water skiing was on that bucket list of yours wasn't it?"
"It is, but honestly all I really want right now is to sit here and hold you." He motioned with his thumb behind him and she finally noticed a single lounge chair covered by a sheer canopy.
"That sounds perfect."
Reaching out he grasped her hand in his and she followed closely behind him. When they reached the chair he sat down and leaned back before pulling her into the space between his parted thighs. She grabbed his arms and wrapped them tightly around her.
"I love you," he whispered in her ear.
"I love you," she mumbled against his skin. He was running his fingers through her hair and was lulling her into a peaceful state as he listened to her tell him about what her life had been like since the last time they had seen each other this way.
#*#*#*#*#*#*#
Darcy jerked awake and her eyes darted all around her. He was gone again. She held back a frustrated growl and fell back against her pillows. Try as she might she was only able to fall asleep after several hours and when she finally did Andrew was no where in sight.
#*#*#*#*#*#*#
The next morning Darcy woke up at her normal time but instead of getting ready for work she quickly showered and she dressed for a trip to visit Andrew's grave. She walked to a nearby florist to grab a bouquet of white lilies before hailing a cab and giving the driver the address to the cemetery.
When she finally reached his headstone she placed the flowers in front of it. "Hi Drew," She sat down beside him and began to trace the letters of his name. "I did it again last night, and I know you would yell at me. Hell even there you yelled at me, but I can't help it. Seeing you even if it is just some alcohol fueled vision is what's been keeping me sane."
As she started telling him about everything that had been happening in her life over the last few weeks. She so badly wished she could touch him for real, to hold him and kiss him, "it's not fair, you know?" She pulled her hand back moved her head forward until her forehead rested against the cool marble. "I just miss you so much."
Darcy spent nearly an hour talking to him and finally when she had filled him in a everything she stood up, brushed a kiss to her fingertips and then placed them on the headstone once more.
When she got back home she quickly changed into her comfy clothes once more and settled back on to the couch. She'd been there for less then an hour when she heard a small thud from the direction of her front door. She stood from the couch and walked toward the noise, noting a large manila envelope with her name in bold block letters across the front of it.
Lifting it up she studied it carefully. Her initial instinct was to just throw it away but something told her not to. That she needed to see what was inside.
She walked over to her desk and picked up a pair of scissors. Moving back to the couch she sat down and with a quick snip the package was open. She spilled the contents on to the coffee table. A single flash drive fell out.
Eyeing the small piece of plastic warily Darcy had a sinking feeling form in her gut. Something inside her knew that this tiny drive was her very own Pandora's Box, and that the moment she saw what was on it her life was going to completely change.
Unable to resist for another second she walked back to her desk with the flash drive in hand and popped it into her laptop. It only took a few moments for an icon to appear.
As soon as she clicked it she felt her stomach begin to roll. It was a video of someone in a chair that resembled some kind of archaic dentist's chair. The man was strapped down and had a black hood over his head. She stared open mouthed at the sight before her. She watched as a man dressed all in black walked onto the screen. He ripped the hood from the prisoners head as he yelled at him in German.
Suddenly the little control she had over her stomach fell away. She ran into the kitchen and heaved repeatedly into the sink. Once she was finished and cleaned up she moved back into the living room and looked at the video once again. She was just in time to see the man who was standing begin punching his hostage in the face over and over again. Try as she might she just couldn't look away, because the man being held captive was not just some prisoner. He was also her dead fiance and if the time stamp on the video was right it was only three days before she had received the news that he had died in that plane crash.
She was at a loss and had no idea what to do. What was this? What had really happened to the man she loved. Her mind was racing and she was completely confused about what this video even meant it wasn't until she saw a familiar skull logo take over the screen that she realized that there was only one place to get the answers she needed.
Yanking the drive from her laptop she shoved it in her pocket. Then she slipped on her shoes and headed for the front door her phone already in hand.
"Darcy?"
"Jane, I need you to get me in to see Tony Stark, right now."
#*#*#*#*#*#*#
Darcy stalked her way down the busy sidewalk. It had taken her several minutes and the promise to meet with her first to get Jane to agree to help her get an unscheduled meeting with Tony Stark.
Finally reaching a small cafe just a half a block from Stark Tower she glanced around outside looking for Jane then decided to look and see if the other woman had already arrived.
The small bell jangled above her when she yanked the door open pulling the attention of several patrons to her. She glanced around the crowd at the nameless faces until her eyes landed on Jane sitting on a stool by the counter. Darcy made her way over to her friend and stood beside the counter.
"You wanna sit?" Jane offered gesturing to the stool beside her.
"No, I don't. I want you to talk to someone and get me into that building." Darcy jutted her thumb behind her.
"Just calm down Darcy." She pulled the stool out slightly and motioned toward it a second time. "Please sit with me, have a cup of coffee, and tell me what's going on with you?"
Darcy glanced at all the people around them and then jerked her head to the corner booth. This needed to be discussed in as much privacy as possible. She had no idea if she was being watched by whoever had left her the flash drive, but she wasn't taking any chances. She turned on her heel and made her way over to the booth trusting Jane to follow behind her.
Darcy pulled the thumb drive from her pocket and slammed it to the table as Jane slid in across from her.
"What is it?" she eyed the tiny object nervously.
"It's a video..." She clenched her fists. "a video of what really happened... To Andrew."
Jane's eyes shot to her in disbelief, "Darcy... Andrew died in a plane crash. You know that. "
"I know that's what everyone was told, and I know that if I were in your shoes right now I probably wouldn't know what the hell to think either, but I promise you," she lifted it between two fingers, "this is the truth."
#*#*#*#*#*#*#
Tony Stark strutted into the room, every bit the same confident man she had seen her TV screen time and time again over the years.
"Dr. Foster, how can I help you?" he asked his tone and demeanor showing no signs of the familiarity she knew the pair shared. He seemed completely impersonal and professional.
Darcy watched Tony closely and realized that maybe he wasn't exactly the same after all. She'd always heard that Tony Stark was a quick witted and playful man, yet as he stood before them he seemed unlikely to be the same man from the stories Jane had told her.
He seemed colder and sadder then she'd imagined, and if she'd have to she'd guess it probably had something to do with the obvious rift between him and most of his former team mates. She knew he still had people he was close to, but after such a public disbandment of his team and so many of the Avengers and their allies had siding with Captain America over Iron Man it seemed as though the man before her may never recover. It was also possible that his relationship with Steve Rogers wouldn't either, and that just wouldn't work for her.
She believed that the best way to get justice for Andrew would require the two men working together.
"This is Darcy Lewis," Jane offered gesturing toward her.
"Right, Lewis, I've heard about you."
Darcy arched her eyebrows in disbelief.
"You don't have your taser on you by any chance do you?" There was a teasing twinkle in his eye, and for a second she actually could see that playful guy from those stories. Maybe he wasn't as shut down as she'd originally thought.
"You use completely legal and reasonable force against one Norse God and you never live it down," Darcy grumbled. "No taser today," She promised, "but I did bring this." She tossed the thumb drive to him without warning and Tony caught it easily and immediately pushed it into a USB port she hadn't even noticed that was built into his desk.
Instantly the large monitors all around the room filled with the video she had seen earlier.
Tony stood stoic and silent as the video played out before him. He made it much farther then she had earlier. Darcy refused to watch but she couldn't ignore the sounds, and if it weren't for Jane's comforting hand wrapped tightly around hers she was certain she would pass out from the noises erupting from Andrew as he was tortured on screen.
She could hear every punch.
Every whip.
Worst of all though was the slicing sounds she heard last. She refused to look up but if the way Jane's hand tightened and the cries pouring from the man she loved was any indication she could only imagine what was being done to him.
Sensing her discomfort Tony suddenly switched the video off, "What the fu... What is this?" He demanded.
"His name was Andrew Miller." She took a deep breath and Jane urged her to continue, "he was a photojournalist until he died two years ago in what his family and I were told was a plane crash." She looked up, "but obviously we were misinformed."
"How did you even get this?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "It was delivered to my front door earlier today."
"Who delivered it?"
"I don't know, someone slid it under the door."
"Why you?" He questioned, though she was certain he already knew the answer and just wanted a confirmation from her.
Her finger went instinctively to the ring on her left hand, "We were going to be married."
Clearing his throat Tony stared down at the broken young woman before him, "What do you need from me?"
Steeling herself she met his eyes full on, "not just from you. You saw the red skull, so you know who's involved. That means we're going to need someone who knows a lot about Hydra and how to stop them."
Tony tensed knowing what she was getting at. He swallowed heavily, "well in case you've missed the news lately the two of us aren't exactly on the best of terms right now."
"I'm aware, and honestly if I had any other option I wouldn't be asking this of you, but this is Hydra and it's going to take more then just you to find them and the truth." She looked up at him apologetically, "please don't be offended."
"No offense taken, but is that really all you want, just to find out the truth?"
"No, what I want is for them all to pay. I want all of them gone." She admitted.
"Darcy," Jane gasped at the cold tone in her friend's voice.
"What," Darcy snapped, "Didn't you see it?! What they did to him? What his last moments were like?"
"I understand that you..."
"You can't possibly understand."
"But I do," Tony interrupted, "I watched a video very similar to this and saw my parents death. I saw them murdered by someone who half my old team now protects." His words came out bitter and wounded.
"If you can't help me..."
"I never said I can't help you, I can and I will." He walked around his desk and sat on the edge looking at her meaningfully, "I hope you know that no matter how impossible it seems you can and will get past this."
"I don't think that's ever going to happen."
"I know, but you will."
#*#*#*#*#*#*#
After their meeting Tony had asked Darcy and Jane to stay put and he'd be back. It was nearly an hour later when anyone came back and this time it wasn't him but instead his other half. Pepper walked in and if the look on her face was any indication she already knew all there was to know about why they were there.
"Tony and I have talked and he's currently doing what he can to get a hold of anyone who can help. In the meantime we think it would be best if you stay in the building. We can provide you with a suite to stay in as well as anything else you may need until we can take off?"
"Take off to where?"
"You said you needed more than just Tony," she answered simply, "we agree."