CHAPTER 7

/+/+/+/+/+/

One of the distinct benefits of working in a place like SHIELD was that Darcy Lewis felt safe, all of the time.

A bit too safe. Stifled, even.

There were guards at every corner, cameras and motion sensors covering practically every inch of the base, and an armory she didn't even want to think about buried somewhere in the basement.

And that wasn't even mentioning the army of supernatural heroes Nick Fury had gathered under his roof. Or Tony Stark's ever-growing collection of robots, gadgets, and armored suits that he added to daily.

Some of it was impressive, some a little quirky, and some downright crazy, but Darcy had managed to more or less get used to it.

Still, switching from her long hours at the SHIELD base to her solitary trek back to her apartment on the outer edge of the city was an adjustment. She'd gone home and changed before heading to the grocery and stocking up on the essentials. Jane had wanted an early night so they'd called it a day earlier than normal. The sun was still setting as Darcy pulled her cart towards her car.

She'd been midway into thinking how she was going to break to her mom that she wasn't taking time off to go spend with her father, when she froze in front of her car.

Someone had bashed in her windshield.

A hundred thoughts flew through her head as she glanced around the parking lot.

SHIELD had taught her to be paranoid. Had someone followed her since she'd left the base? Was someone after her because of her connections with the Avengers? Or something even more sinister?

The car park was half full of cars spread out on the asphalt, but other than that, the parking lot was empty.

It was too early for the floodlights to switch on, but just dark enough that everything felt covered with a haze. Dusk.

Cautious, Darcy glanced inside the car and searched for anything out of the ordinary. Surely, if someone had been following her, or planned to extract information from her somehow, they would have been a little more discreet.

Tiny shards of glass littered the driver's seat, and as Darcy pulled the cart to a stop next to the car, she pulled open the door and began brushing the glass off the seat in frustration. She'd had her purse with her, so that was fine, but… she glanced up at the cup holder next to the driver's seat. She'd left her phone there.

It was gone.

Past fear, Darcy stood in a huff and glanced around the parking lot once more. Now she was angry. There was nothing truly confidential on her phone, but it had been a recent purchase and she'd stored all her favorite songs on there since her ipod had broken down.

She flinched when as a fleck of glass cut her finger. Removing the tiny shard, she brought the cut to her mouth as she tried to contain the rage.

After everything she had to deal with, her music was her solace. How could anyone dare to steal that from her? With the day she'd had, this was the last thing she needed.

A faint shuffle turned her focus to a car one row across from hers. She glanced up carefully, free hand on the taser she kept inside her purse.

She could hear whispering, but from her vantage point, she couldn't see anything. The shuffling continued again, then mere seconds later, she heard the sound of glass shattering.

The thieves were right across from her.

It was definitely not the brightest plan she'd ever had. But she'd had a bad day, she was needing a victory and losing her music and all her contacts was the last straw.

She crossed between the row of cars quietly to see two young kids, barely adolescents, huddled around the window. One of them had leaned in to the car, no doubt grabbing any valuables within arms' reach, while the other stood back and glanced around nervously.

"Stop or I'm calling the police."

Darcy gripped the taser in front of her and shouted to the two boys, hoping they wouldn't see through her empty threat. They had her phone after all.

Panicked, they glanced at her and the one on the lookout started running. The one halfway through the car window was slower.

He was reaching for a purse when she stopped him with a warning.

"I would put that back if I were you. And the laptop bag."

The kid glanced at her with hatred but replaced the items he'd been midway through lifting from the car. When the kid stood, he was taller than she was, probably around 17 or so. He glanced down at the taser cautiously and took a step back.

"And my phone."

She held her other hand out, brows raised. She couldn't be sure whether this one or the one that had run had her phone, but decided to give it a shot.

The kid glanced behind him, then back at her, weighing his chance at getting free.

If Darcy had to be honest, he had a pretty good chance. She wasn't up to chasing him that far, and she wasn't even sure if it was him or his companion that had lifted her phone.

He saved her from having to figure it out when he pulled the little purple phone from his pocket.

Without a word, she held her free hand out. He took a step forward, and she raised the taser. "Slowly."

Taking a very slow step, he brought himself level with her, standing mere inches away, and carefully placed her phone in her open palm.

When her fingers curled around it, his elbow went right for her cheek.

She hadn't even seen him move until it was too late.

Before she could right herself and hit him with her taser, he yanked the phone back out of her hands and threw her against the car beside him.

She would have picked herself up and gone after him, but the car behind her had a metal railing all along the outer edge. The world blurred when her head hit the side railing of the car. Distantly, she could see him running away and disappearing around the corner, but her head pounded as she struggled to keep herself standing. She gripped the car beside her, clenching her eyes shut against the ringing in her head, but it wouldn't stop.

The world darkened as she fought to even out her breathing. She struggled against the throbbing in her head, but all too soon, she grew too tired for that. A moment later, she passed out in a heap on the asphalt, her taser beside her outstretched hand.

/+/+/+/+/+/

"This is exactly why I told her she should move in here. With us."

Jane's voice pulled Darcy from the sweetest dream. She'd been reliving a moment from her childhood, an early Christmas when she hadn't yet lost faith in her father, and the three of them had been gathered around the table sharing a lovely meal.

"You are right, but we can't force her. We can only do our best to protect her."

"She needs a bodyguard then. Someone to make sure she's safe when she isn't here. I don't trust her neighborhood. It's not the best place…"

"I will see to it that it is done. Do not worry, my dear Jane." Thor's big, rumbling voice pulled the last cobwebs of sleep from Darcy's brain as she finally began to pick up the details of her surroundings.

She was back at SHIELD, in the medical wing she'd only visited once during the tour she'd had on her first day.

Dismayed, she groaned and reached a hand up to her head. She felt mostly fine, except for a painful throbbing on her right temple.

"Darcy."

Jane's voice grew louder as she approached and sat beside the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"How did I get here?"

"Someone from the grocery called the police. They found me as your emergency contact, and I told SHIELD, so…"

Darcy groaned at what was implied in the rest of her statement. They'd have been set on high alert, so everyone in the base most likely knew what had happened by now, and was examining the incident for any possible security breach.

"It was nothing. Just some stupid kids…"

"Why did they attack you?"

Darcy sighed, the movement making her wince as her head ached even worse from the strain. She suspected a concussion.

"They were robbing cars. I tried to stop them."

"Darcy…" Jane's tone was gently reprimanding, but she left it at that. Darcy was grateful.

"Can you tell them… just make sure that... it's really nothing. I shouldn't have gone after them."

"So why did you?"

Darcy's sigh this time was heavy and long. She felt tired. "I just got annoyed, and I couldn't leave them. They took my phone."

"Mmhmm." Jane smiled faintly, clearly trying to make light of the situation and failing. She was too much of a worrier.

"Well before you get any more ideas about heroics, you have a concussion, so you've been officially ordered to stay here until further notice."

Darcy pulled herself to sitting, pulling back the covers and moving carefully to standing. Jane didn't try to stop her.

"I can't stay here. I have to get back to my place. I need my space."

"Nothing I can do about it. Nick Fury's orders."

"So I'm a prisoner here?" Cue thoughts of the dark-haired man she wasn't thinking about more often than was good for her. The words tasted like ash in her mouth. Her penchant for hyperbole had gotten hold of her, yet again. Her situation was nothing like his, and she felt stupid for thinking it even for a second.

Jane's voice became flustered at the very idea. "Of course not. You're here for your own safety. They just want to make sure everything's okay."

"Everything is fine. They were a couple of stupid kids I let get the drop on me. End of story. Nothing more to it."

"Are you sure?"

Jane studied her carefully, letting Darcy see the clear worry in her light eyes. Jane's work here was very valuable, she knew that, and there was no way she would put it at risk.

"I'm absolutely positive."

Darcy took a tentative step, and when she managed just fine, headed toward the door.

"Darcy, it's only a couple of days. You can take it easy for a little while, and then head back to your place afterwards."

Too tired to argue, Darcy left the room. Since her first day, she'd never come to this end of the complex. It was located at the end of the living quarters, right on the edge of where they ended and the training rooms began on the ground floor.

Jane moved in front of her and gently guided her down the hallway toward the elevator. Darcy still felt a bit dizzy on her feet, and let Jane load her up into the elevator. When it started, she nearly tumbled back and had to reach out and grip onto the railing for support.

Maybe she would be better here just for the night.

"I'll show you to the room they have set up for you. It's really nice. I tried to get the one right next to ours, but that was taken. Still, you're really close by, so if you need anything, you can just page or call us..."

Like she needed Jane and Thor worrying on her and checking on her every 5 minutes. They had enough to deal with without worrying about her weak little incident.

When they reached the resident wing, Jane led her to a room down and across the hallway from hers. She handed Darcy a plastic keycard then pulled a second from her pocket and swiped the door open.

"Just in case you need anything."

They stepped inside to a cozy, nicely furnished apartment slightly smaller than Jane's, currently being occupied by Tony Stark and a man in a suit Darcy didn't recognize.

"Hey. Took you long enough."

Darcy rolled her eyes as the tech genius approached her. Before she could offer a snarky comment in return, he shoved a little glass screen into her hands.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

"It's a little something I played around with when Pepper was temporarily incapacitated. She thought it might come in handy for you. Sortof my new tablet prototype. Keep it under wraps, it's not ready for market yet."

He touched the glass which lit up under his fingers and after a few swipes, pulled up a browser with all the music she'd thought she'd lost.

She glanced up at him in amazement.

"How did you—?" Out of the blue last week her ipod had crashed and she'd had techies at SHIELD look at it. They'd declared it unsalvageable.

"What can I say? Technology loves me. Enjoy."

He headed to the door, pausing before leaving and glancing back at her with a grin. "Oh by the way, I loaded a few extras into there too for when you get bored. Have fun."

And with that he was gone.

Darcy simply stared in amazement at her new favorite device as Jane moved to the suit and introduced herself.

Pulling herself away from her gift was hard, but Darcy managed, barely.

"Who are you?"

So she wasn't her best self at the moment. But give a girl a break, with the concussion and the stress of the past week, she figured she deserved to be cut a little slack.

The man didn't seem to take it to heart. His stone exterior cracked into a smile as he introduced himself. "Lars Greystone. I'm your new bodyguard."

The pounding in her head was getting stronger. Darcy glared at Jane as she rubbed her temple. Jane had the good sense to look apologetic, but that was as far as she would go.

"Thanks but no thanks. I don't need a bodyguard."

"Darcy—"

"Jane. No. Lars, look. I'm sure you're a great bodyguard, and you do… what you do, very well. But I'm perfectly fine, and perfectly safe, and right now I would appreciate more than anything if you just left me alone."

She moved to the door, fighting to disguise her dizziness as she swiped the door open and motioned for both of them to leave.

All she felt like doing at that moment was collapsing on the couch for the rest of the night.

Sadly, though, it didn't look as though that would happen.

"Sorry." And curse the man, he actually did look sorry. "Can't do that. I'll just be out here. You can head back to your room, and I won't disturb you in the slightest."

Darcy's glare returned to Jane. She shrugged her shoulders and smiled sympathetically at her. "It's just until you feel better. And we make sure you're safe."

"Jane, if I find out this is your fault…"

"Hey. If it was, there's good reason for it. But it's not. As much as I would like to take credit for it," she met Darcy's angry glare head on as she continued in her stern all-business-Jane voice, "SHIELD takes an assault on one of its employees very seriously. If it was really nothing, then everything will go back to normal in no time. For now though, just get some sleep."

Darcy sighed, too tired to argue, and collapsed on the couch at the center of the room. "Fine."

As Darcy's ire deflated, Jane came over and hugged her before stepping back.

"If it makes you feel any better…" Jane left her spare key on the table beside the door, then stepped in front of it to open it. "If you need anything, you know what to do."

"Thanks." She really was grateful, she just wasn't feeling well enough to appreciate it. Jane understood.

"I'll check on you later."

When the door slid closed, Darcy was left with Lars in the suit. He didn't say anything, or move from his position standing in front of the hallway.

Darcy glanced around the room, which was plenty big enough for two, and back to the couch.

"I guess this is where you'll be sleeping."

"If that's alright with you."

"Hmm.." Darcy stood and shuffled across the room to the doorway beyond, opening it to discover a plush, queen sized bed piled high with pillows. Suddenly, all she felt like doing was sleeping.

"Goodnight."

She barely heard Lars' response before she closed the door, threw herself on the sheets and passed out.

/+/+/+/+/+/

After a few more hours' worth of sleep, Darcy felt much better. She picked up the magic tablet from the bedside table where she'd tossed it hours before and tapped it awake with her finger to discover it was sometime past midnight.

Her nap had thrown her off schedule. Sitting up tentatively, she was pleasantly surprised to discover that her head didn't ache nearly as much. A beep brought her back to the little tablet, where several missed calls from her mother flashed on the semi-transparent screen.

Apparently, Tony had also somehow managed to import her phone number and restore all her contacts.

Not in the mood to face the conversation she knew she had to have with her mother, she got out of bed and explored the room.

The room was a generous size and sparsely decorated, but with undeniably good taste. Expensive taste. A spacious bathroom opened up to her left, and a walk-in closet to her right was complete with floor to ceiling mirrors at the back. It was the kind of room a girl dreamed of.

Yet she still couldn't imagine herself living here, boxed up inside SHIELD's headquarters.

It felt suffocating somehow.

Again, she thought of Loki and felt foolish for the turn to her thoughts. The reality of his situation sunk in even more deeply than before as she looked around the living space she now shared with Lars the bodyguard. She'd barely been stuck in this place for a few hours, and she was already getting antsy.

He was stuck in a completely unfamiliar world, stripped of all powers and locked up in a literal glass box under constant surveillance, watched by people who were trying to plan his demise.

Really, it seemed like a miracle in itself that he hadn't snapped and gone crazy already.

Wanting to get out of her room, she tentatively opened the door and glanced down the hallway, half expecting Lars to be standing exactly where she'd left him hours ago.

The hallway was empty.

She took a couple steps into the hall, and when she couldn't hear anything in the living area, headed back to the front room.

A click sounded behind her and nearly made her jump out of her skin. A couple seconds later, a half-naked Lars stepped out of another bathroom at the end of the hall and smiled when he saw her.

"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you. Just needed a shower."

The man was a wall of muscle. Too stunned for words, Darcy stared up and down his chest at the prime view she was being gifted with. Every inch of him was thickly corded muscle, a scar here and there reminding her of his line of work and giving an edge to what could otherwise easily be a model from a Calvin Klein catalogue.

When she moved her eyes up to his face, she saw that he was embarrassed. Feeling like a horrible voyeur, Darcy apologized and backed away toward the door.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize... I didn't mean to interrupt... I'm just going to say hi to Jane…"

"I can come. Just give me a minute."

"NO! I mean… no, that's fine. I'll just be a few minutes. She's literally right across the hall. You can stay here. Relax." Get dressed.

He frowned at her words, but before he could protest, she lifted the keycard from the table and stepped out of the door with a rushed "Be back soon!"

When she stood in the hallway, finally alone, she took a deep breath.

She was really out of sorts today. The knock on her head had definitely done funny things to her brain. She had never been one to ogle men like that. Appreciate them from afar, definitely, but she had her dignity. And a sense of propriety.

A silly laugh bubbled up from inside of her.

Poor Lars. The big, tough bodyguard had gotten shy when he'd caught her staring at him.

She seemed to have a way of doing that to people. Setting them on edge, making them uncomfortable.

Shrugging her shoulders, she turned down the hall and took the elevator down towards the lower levels.

She wasn't sure why she'd decided to go, but her feet were carrying her straight to Loki's cage and she didn't feel like arguing with them.

She tried to be quiet and stealthy but had a feeling she was sucking terribly at it. Luckily, at this hour the hallways were empty and she didn't run into anyone as she stepped down the short steel hallway and onto the little balcony that was fast becoming her new hangout.

She wasn't sure what she would find. Loki, asleep. Loki, awake and pacing.

She found neither.

Instead, he seemed to be reading, his shoulders folded over his knees as he sat cross-legged with a book in his lap.

The position looked so innocent it made her want to smile.

If anyone saw him like this, who could think such a man was evil?

She took her time studying him, inadvertently comparing him to Lars and most of the men of her acquaintance. He was tall, probably taller than Lars, though having never stood next to him face to face she couldn't be sure. And there was a kind of cold beauty to his features that was still very masculine. He was handsome and beautiful wrapped up together in a prickly, brooding package.

He took her breath away.

"You have come late."

His words broke the silence and those deep green eyes of his locked with hers. The large, barred-over windows behind him were dark with the night, making the space feel smaller and more intimate than it did during her daytime visits. He felt closer to her, and his voice sounded louder.

He looked upset, leveling a puzzled look at her. Too late, she remembered she still had the bandage on the right side of her head.

"What happened?"

His voice was deep and sharp, sending a shiver through her. The dizziness seemed to be coming back to her, and the power and emotion in his words seemed to hit her harder than usual.

"Nothing. Just a bump on the head." She yanked the bandage off only to reveal the growing bruise across her right temple. Loki's nostrils flared but his expression didn't change, his face carved from stone.

Dary sighed, wanting all of a sudden to be closer to him.

She couldn't say why. Couldn't imagine asking him of all people for comfort. But somehow, the space in between them felt wrong. The walls of his glass cage felt wrong.

"Why have you come?"

"I missed you."

He looked taken aback by her words, and that more than anything else bolstered her courage to stay. If he'd been cocky, if he'd mocked her or claimed that such an emotion was foolish, she would have most likely stormed off in a huff back to her room.

Instead, he looked like she'd uttered the last words he'd ever expected from her.

And oddly enough, they were true.