Speaking as an endowed woman – this does happen and it does hurt. For the record – remaining silent is just as bad, if not worse, than speaking up.

U is for Ungrateful

Darcy stepped into the central administrative department, a friendly smile sitting on her face. She had never been down here before as Phil usually picked up the reports personally. He was stuck in meetings all day today, so she agreed to drop them off. Her eyes combed the room before stepping up to the central desk. "Here are the reports from the team for the latest mission in California," she told the dark-haired woman sitting there. "This should be the last of the stuff you need to close the file."

The woman lifted one severely tweezed eyebrow. Her gaze looked Darcy up and down before a disdainful look settled on her face. "I shall be the judge of that," she said with a light sneer. "SHIELD's files must be complete in order to be closed and I sincerely doubt you've had much to do with this kind of work."

"Excuse me?" Darcy demanded, surprised at the woman's attitude.

"Thank you for the reports," the woman replied frostily. She turned away to begin scanning the paperwork.

Darcy looked around the room. Only a handful of the others appeared to have overheard the conversation. A couple of them smirked over their work while two others held a quick whispered conversation. The others gave her silent, apologetic looks. A confused frown on her face, Darcy decided it wasn't worth making a scene over and she began to make her way out of the room. She heard the whispered comments just as she reached the door.

"Guess that proves Coulson's a breast man," remarked an unknown woman.

A man snorted, "Hell, it proves Coulson's human."

Taking a deep breath, Darcy forced herself to keep moving. She stalked to the elevator. It took a good deal of effort, but she managed to keep her temper under control all the way out of the building and back to the tower. As she stood in the private elevator, she let her eyes focus on the empty wall. "JARVIS, where is everybody?"

"Miss Potts has been called to a board meeting," the AI answered immediately. "Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner are in the laboratories. Prince Thor, Dr. Foster, Captain Rogers, and Dr. Ross have chosen to go to Prince Thor's favorite restaurant for lunch. Agent Barnes is currently on the roof while Agent Romanoff is in the large gym. Agent Barton is in the secondary kitchen."

Darcy nodded. "I'm going to the small gym. Please don't let anyone disturb me unless there is an emergency."

"Of course, Miss Lewis," JARVIS agreed.

She strode into the small gym and pulled out the various stress balls. They had been specially designed for people to toss around the room whenever they felt the need to really cut loose in some way. Pepper made sure to keep them stocked in order to save the dishes. Darcy simply sat on the floor beside them, picking up a bright blue one. Tossing it from hand to hand, she considered the encounter at SHIELD. It wasn't like this was the first time she had ever faced this kind of attitude. As soon as someone got a look at her, they started subtracting IQ points. For some reason people seemed to think a generous rack took away from brain power – as if the bust and the brain were connected or had to balance in some way. Women were the worst. Men might treat her as brainless and spend too much time talking to her chest, but women tended to get vicious, often being verbally or emotionally cruel. Men like that considered her a potential conquest, but women only saw a potential rival.

Now she was going to have to deal with it at SHIELD.

Coming to her feet, Darcy tossed the ball across the room as hard as she could. "Of all the ungrateful…!" Her voice trailed off as she picked up and threw one ball after another. It infuriated her. All of the work and time and effort she put into making sure the reports were readable and complete in order to prevent trouble at SHIELD and this was the type of attitude she got. There would be gossip and looks and who knew what else being discussed in the break room and over the water coolers at headquarters.

Time passed – she didn't know how long. Suddenly the door opened. "JARVIS," she growled, not even looking around.

"My apologies, Miss Lewis," the AI spoke, a hint of embarrassment in its voice.

"He still has to do what I tell him – no matter what other orders he gets."

She looked around to find Tony walking into the room. A sigh escaped her as most of the household followed him through the door. "Do I even want to know?" she asked in a tired voice. She shook her head. "What happened? What's wrong?"

"I think those are our questions," Steve replied, his gaze scanning the balls littering the room. "JARVIS only told us you were apparently upset over something."

"Maybe you want to tell us about it, Doll?" Bucky commented from where he leaned against the wall.

Darcy's eyes dropped and she shuffled slightly. "It's nothing," she said quietly.

"Don't even start," Jane huffed. Everyone turned towards the scientist as the woman walked straight over to Darcy. She put her hands on Darcy's arms and gave her the tiniest shake. "You were fine when you went to SHIELD. We saw you before you left. You were happy and smiling. Who did or said what?"

Darcy looked at Jane for a long moment before eyeing the others. Everyone had focused on her, waiting for her answer. She shook her head. "Really, it's nothing I haven't gotten before. I've dealt with it since junior high. I guess I should find it halfway comforting that SHIELD's administrative department is just as cliquish as any other big company."

"Cliquish?" Tasha asked, her voice a cool thread in the room.

"Just some bad attitudes," Darcy tried to assure her.

"What bad attitudes?"

The new voice drew everyone's attention. Darcy repressed a wince as she met Phil's eyes. "Oh, boy," she muttered, dropping her gaze to the ball in her hand. She listened as Pepper softly explained.

"Darcy?" Phil's questioning voice had grown closer.

She lifted her head and sighed again as she realized he now stood in front of her. "It's noth-"

"Darcy."

"Really-"

"Darcy." Now his voice, though still calm and steady, demanded an answer.

It was the one tone of voice she could not resist. "I took the reports to headquarters," she told him as the rest of them listened in. "Let's just say I was met with attitude and then got to overhear some commentary on my way out." Her lips pursed. "It…irritated me."

"It hurt you," Clint broke in. She gave him a look, and he shrugged. "If it just irritated you, you might have ranted or raved, but you wouldn't have holed up this way."

Thor spoke before she could reply. "Why did you choose to hide away on your own? Did you not know we would gladly give you our support in this?"

Darcy shook her head, but remained quiet. Betty tilted her head, a sudden understanding entering her face. "She didn't want us involved," the other brunette's quiet voice filling the silence.

"It's not like there's anything that can be done," Darcy replied, her eyes wandering from one face to another. "I know you guys like to jump up and do the heroic thing, but…you can't change attitudes. People are people." Her shoulders rolled in a shrug.

"There was one thing we could do," Bruce pointed out. Darcy's eyebrows went up and he smiled at her. "We can keep you company." He gave a soft chuckle. "It's not as though you lot let me deal with things by myself."

Murmurs and nods of agreement filled the room. She looked from one face to another and could only see expressions of support, love, friendship. A warm feeling of gratitude welled up inside her. Laughter bubbled up and spilled over. It seemed like that was the sign everyone needed. Shoulders relaxed, people smiled, and the group began to break up. As people trickled out of the room, Phil stepped up beside her.

"I can handle the reports from now on," he offered.

"Oh, no," she said, her voice taking on an icy edge. "I'm not letting them run me off just because they're being stupid. I can handle this."

A light of approval entered his eyes. "Then we should probably check on the others to make sure no one is planning to 'handle' things on their own. I believe I heard Stark asking JARVIS to find out the full story."

She blinked and then started walking quickly towards the door. "Oh, for goodness' sake! You have got to be kidding me!"