M is for Margins
"But who is she?"
"One of Stark's women, maybe."
"He's engaged to the Potts woman though, so she wouldn't be this blatant, would she?"
"I've seen her picture in the tabloids."
"She's that woman who shows up as Potts' assistant or stand-in."
"Isn't she the one who was rescued from Dr. Doom by the Avengers when the Fantastic Four were out of the country?"
Darcy ignored the commentary as she strode through the huge atrium of the Tower. Tourists, salespeople, and jobseekers stood in line waiting to talk to one of the receptionists about their particular concern. All of them stared at her easy passage through the security guards with open curiosity, wild speculation, and restrained annoyance. Normally she bypassed all of the rigmarole by coming in through the private garage, but two accidents led to her having the car drop her off at the front door. The murmuring rose even higher as she boarded the private elevator reserved for Tony's personal usage.
"See! I told you she was one of Stark's women."
She rolled her eyes. "JARVIS," she sighed.
"Immediately, Miss Lewis," came the calm reply, and the elevator started moving immediately.
During the ride, Darcy leaned against the side of the elevator and closed her eyes. It wasn't so much that she minded all of the gossip and innuendo, though she could do without it – she just hated how so many people seemed to make it their business to poke and pry into her life. She wasn't a hero or a genius or an agent. She lived in the margins around the agents and geniuses and heroes, and she was happy there. Being part of that space allowed her to help shield and buffer the main protagonists of the story from the stupid stuff life and the public liked to throw around.
There was just one problem.
People in general seem to hate blank spaces. Heaven forbid there should be this open white space hanging out there. They would grasp at any straw, no matter how wild or speculative, to fill it in. She'd been called everything from a home wrecker out to break up the epic romance of the billionaire and his assistant to an Iron Man groupie to Tony's secret illegitimate daughter by the tabloids. Baby agents at SHIELD, who should know better than to gossip over their coffee, figured she was sleeping with one and/or all of the Avengers, and even possibly either Coulson or Fury. (That one had actually caused her to burst out laughing and made the baby agent stutter in embarrassment when they realized she'd overheard the comment. Fury hadn't been quite so amused, and last she heard, that agent was working down in McMurdo.)
The villains tended to focus on her as a potential target, but she actually understood that one. As one of the few actual average civilians working with the assorted heroes, agents, and geniuses, she was a prime hostage. It generally led to unhappy Avengers and a really, really bad day for said villain who managed to snatch her, but she did get it. For some reason, villains always managed to figure out she was important to somebody. They might not get the whole picture, but they'd see her talking to Tasha, working with Steve, joking with Tony, and so on. Really, SHIELD needed to pin down those avenues of information – maybe then she'd get abducted less often.
The team and the agency needed the secrecy and hush-hush business to keep them safe, no question, but it became a pain and a half for people like her who walked the line between the secret world and the rest of the world. People were stuck with all these blanks and they tried to fill them in. There were entire blogs dedicated to the sex lives of the Avengers and their surrounding 'people', and honestly if the team were having that much sex? The world would have ended months ago because the team would be dead from exhaustion.
Not that sex hadn't crossed her mind. She wasn't a prude…she was just picky. Starting a relationship with an Avenger or an agent was a tricky thing. Agents were actually less likely to get killed (unless you picked one of the elite), but they also tended to be in the field for months or even years at a time. Avengers usually risked death and injury a lot more often, but they were usually home five nights out of seven. It might be worth the risk though.
Well, it would be, if they ever looked at her as a potential romantic interest.
The problem? None of them did…at least not that she saw. None of the ones she was interested in anyway.
All of them had their own appeal, but three in particular held her attention – a prank-loving sniper with a dark side, a no-nonsense ninja of an agent, and a displaced soldier looking for redemption - any one of which could probably send her tripping right into a full-blown crush with just a crumb or two of encouragement. She rolled her eyes. Why couldn't she just fall for the dude down in requisitions? No, she has to be drawn to Avengers and elite agents who never gave one sign or signal that her attraction might be welcome.
See, that was the thing about margins…the outside world tried to fill them in while the inside world was happy to remain at status quo.