K is for Key
It was all in the timing.
Darcy reviewed her life fairly often – when she was angry, terrified, surprised, or ecstatic, she would think about where she was in life. Given the people she hung out with? She was guaranteed to be one of those four emotions at least once a week – once a day during a bad one. So her life was reviewed on regular basis. She thought about it long and hard and finally came to a conclusion. Her life had gone from mundane, average, and aimless with bouts of randomness to exciting, extraordinary, and purposeful with bouts of sheer insanity thanks to her timing.
Right now? Watching Widow as played keep-away with this week's monster-of-the-month while Hawkeye dealt with its angry big brother, the Winter Soldier ran interference with its bratty little sister, and the others prepped for the irritated parents sensors placed just off the coast? She could almost curse her timing.
She needed six lousy science credits to graduate and only one scientist was offering an easy and late internship that qualified…Darcy was the only applicant because all of the other students already started their internships two weeks prior. She got Jane – who was fabulous and adorably geeky about stars while being the most absent-minded person Darcy had ever met when it came to regular sleeping and eating. Okay, no big deal – Darcy could work with that and had plenty of time for her online antics.
However Jane was parked in the middle of nowhere New Mexico studying the stars, thus putting Darcy in the right place at the right time – there's that timing thing again – to meet an alien/god person when Thor dropped in unexpectedly. Darcy got to tase him, which was always fun, and Thor loved her for it – because he's just strange like that. This also lead to Darcy meeting Thor's friends while landing on his brother's radar as a potential, if outside, target, as well as introducing her to Phil Coulson of SHIELD.
There was another bit of timing! Coulson, the stoic, super nanny ninja that he is, was impressed by her scientist-wrangling skills and decided to recruit her after the whole battle of New York fiasco. Darcy doesn't mind working with Coulson or the Avengers, but she's heard about Fury's manipulating and wasn't impressed. She also had no desire to become somebody's jack-booted thug. Coulson offered her a compromise, and suddenly she found herself working for Stark Industries, under the terrifyingly organized Pepper Potts, while coordinating with SHIELD through Coulson.
Those two should never have kids – they'd rule the world before they turned five.
Her new job brought her into direct contact with six of the world's premier superheroes – two of whom were also brilliant scientists. She started wrangling within moments of walking through the front door. One day she walked through the mansion trying to talk Jane into staying home since the woman had a temperature of one-hundred and one, when the team came home from their latest battle with Hydra. Every single one of them bore scrapes and bruises while their eyes were layered with shadows.
Oh she hated her timing that day.
Darcy ended up adding hero-herding to her resume as well as reserving the right to chew out the whole of SHIELD's medical and research/development departments. She helped bandage wounds, serve chocolate or alcohol (whichever was most needed), and spent the next few days sitting with various team members as they shook off the ghosts of the civilians they had been unable to save. She earned the right to call them all by name and learned some important points.
Steve dealt with his pain and depression in one of two ways – beating up punching bags or sketching. Darcy modeled whenever she could to keep him from tearing up his hands. Yes he could heal, but it didn't stop the pain.
Tony wanted to lock himself in the lab and try to build faster, stronger, better armor. Darcy worked with JARVIS to make sure the labs locked down into silence mode for six hours every day to force him out.
Bruce would have run if they would have let him, but since they didn't, he hid from everyone instead. Darcy barged in on him whenever she could, bringing food or tea, making sure not to leave him alone.
Thor was the easiest because he would surround himself with Jane. Darcy simply handed her wrangler responsibilities over to him while he needed the extra Jane-time.
Natasha wanted to sit in silence but she hated being isolated from everyone. Darcy thought of reading a book, but found Tasha relaxed more when Darcy herself took a nap. She figured it had something to do with letting Tasha know she trusted her to take care of things.
Clint became extremely overprotective – he double checked Pepper's security, swung by the labs to check on Jane, and followed Darcy through her day – as well as touch-happy. Darcy simply touched him; she would hug him, lean against his shoulder, or just touch his arm when she talked.
She stepped in for every one of them, whether they needed humor, sympathy, or silence. They returned the favor three-fold. Darcy never had to search for support; whether she needed someone to sit with, joke with, or talk to, she always had someone willing and able. The group had found a balance, a comforting togetherness, in each other. The recent additions of Bucky and Betty threw things off a bit, but they could ride that out as well.
Today she was half convinced her timing sucked. Iron Man was covered in scorch marks, Captain America was limping, and Hulk of all people looked tired. Her three assassins were so tired their faces were blank instead of casual. She didn't want to know what had happened, but she had to find out. She had to know in order to help deal with the trauma. She sighed. The very idea of leaving her family to deal with things on their own frightened her. Even more frightening was the thought of leaving them to SHIELD's tender mercies. It kept her cursing to a minimum.
Darcy greeted the team with a little smile on their return. The smile grew as she realized all of the wounds were superficial. She told Bruce about Betty's newest experiment while implying it would knock Tony's stuff out of the running. She asked Thor to convince Jane to eat something since the scientist wasn't listening to her, and informed Steve she wanted him to do a sketch of the whole team for her to hang in the lab. The four men hurried off, the battle being happily pushed aside for other concerns.
She ushered her trio of spies into the quietest study and watched as Clint flopped down on one end of the couch and Bucky took the other. Both men propped their feet on the table and let their heads fall back with a groan. Darcy traded an amused shrug with Tasha before climbing over Clint's legs to sit between them. They glared at her as she turned sideways and lay down, head in Clint's lap, feet in Bucky's.
"Shut it, both of you," she ordered. "I've been stressed out with all the watching and worrying. I'm taking a nap and Tasha's in charge." Bucky smirked, but let his hands rest on her shins as his head leaned back once more. Clint rolled his eyes, but ran his fingers through her hair and she felt her gaze becoming heavy. She exchanged nods with Tasha and then let her mind go drowsy. One last thought entered her mind before she dropped into darkness.
Oh, yes, timing was the key.