Own Nothing
"I swear to god that if we're late, I'm going to kill you." Darcy muttered under her breath as Owen drove them back into the Park to meet up for lunch.
He snorted and turned off onto the main strip and parked in front of Margarita Ville. "Relax Batman."
Darcy let out a laugh an opened her door to get out. "Don't even start Grady." She slammed the door shut as he walked to her side. "I haven't even had my first cup of coffee yet."
"And I'm going to keep it that way." He replied in a low whispered as they walked into the patio seating together. "You have an addiction."
She rolled her eyes and turned to smile at Taylor who was talking to Skye and Simmons about something. "Sorry we're late." She took the empty seat at the head of the table, Owen to her left. "Coffee please." She smiled at the waitress."
"No." Three voices stated around her. Owen, Taylor and her Dad's. Darcy looked over at them with a glare.
"Yes. You two work for me." She pointed to them. "Batman gets her coffee. Caphe? Dad. My Island, my rules." She glared at her Dad before turning to the waitress. "Biggest cup you have please."
"Do you want your usual mug Miss Darcy?" The girl asked.
Darcy smiled and nodded. "Oh Yeah."
Owen sighed and shook his head. "Water for me. Please."
The girl nodded and walked back to the kitchen to retrieve the drinks. Darcy turned to the table who was watching them in amusement. "My coffee drinking is well known." She stated.
"It's become a problem." Owen stated.
"Threats of decaf have happened." Taylor smirked.
"They better not happen." Darcy stated. "This Island will fall apart."
"Tea is a good alternative. So is Yoga." Ian stated with a smirk.
Darcy just shook her head and turned to the S.H.I.E.L.D group and smiled. "So are you guys having a good time? Are we doing okay on time? You're not needing to rush home or anything are you?"
"No Dr. Lewis, we are doing okay. We're monitoring the airwaves for anything that'll need our immediate attention." Coulson stated. "Skye and I read over the proposal and we are interested in discussing it with you."
Darcy looked over to the young girl talking to Taylor and tilted her head before nodding. "I have time slotted after lunch and the lab tour. I can also take you over to see ER if you would like."
"We would like that." He nodded as the waitress brought out Darcy and Owen's drinks and then took everyone's orders before going to put them in.
"This is the Lab where we are working hard at recreating most of our dinosaur DNA." Taylor stated as she led the group to the lab. "Most of the DNA was taken during the InGen take over during the Indominus and we're still searching for Dr. Wu." She slid her card through the keycard and it opened the doors for them. "We just successfully recreated three new Raptor eggs just recently."
"How fascinating." Simmons beamed as she was the first one in after Taylor and down the stairs, Fitz right after her. "Oh this Lab is beautiful."
"Thank you. Most of it is from back when Mr. Masrani was here. But when Darcy and Mr. Stark took over, we got some pretty sweet upgrades. F.R.I.D.A.Y included." Tyler stated. "I'm Tyler McSmith. Heading up the Raptor research and Taylor's twin."
Simmons turned and smiled at him, she blinked as she stared at him. "Don't I know you?"
He smiled and nodded. "We had a few classes together in university. I almost went into the S.H.I.E.L.D academy myself. But dinosaurs is where my heart is." He blushed a little as everyone stared at him. He cleared his throat as Taylor started to snicker a little. "So let me show you around, introduce some of the other scientists." He led them around.
Owen turned to Darcy. "I'm going to head out to check on Blue, you got this handled?"
She nodded as she watched the group move around the lab with interest. "Check in with Lowery. Tony was supposed to send us new headsets for the field. I think they might be in today." She whispered as she looked over to him. "So we don't have to keep carrying the talkies everywhere."
"Sure thing dear." He winked at her. "Let me know how the meeting goes." He nodded to Coulson who kept glancing back at the two of them. Owen gave him a look before turning back to whisper close to Darcy's ear. "And check up on the girls. Doc hasn't said a word in a while."
She sighed and looked up at him, their noses almost touching. "It's been a week since he's told us Owen. He told us that he would keep us informed and he will."
"You have F.R.I.D.A.Y keeping tabs?" He asked her.
She snorted. "What kind of Mother do you think I am?" She asked him. "Of course I do." She swatted his arm. "Now go. I'll let you know when I'm done."
"Bossy." He winked at her and then walked up the stepped.
She sighed and shook her head as she stepped towards the group and stood next to Coulson. "You and your HOS seem close." He stated.
She gave him a look before turning to look towards the Raptor incubator. "Follow me." She whispered as she looped her arm around his and walked him over to it. "This is the Raptor Incubator."
"Ms. McSmith said you recreated new Raptors." Coulson stated as he stared into the pod.
"They're my girls." She smiled as she tilted her head. "Blue is my eldest. And if you would've told me that coming to this Island that I would be a mother to Raptors. Plausible, but I don't think I would believe you." She looked at Coulson through the corner of her eye to see him doing the same. "Owen Grady is not just my Head of Security, Director Coulson. He's the Head Raptor Trainer, and as the Male Alpha and I'm the Female Alpha. Blue is the Beta."
"Your assistant, Tanner said something to that effect." He looked down at her. "Is he not joining us?"
"Both Tanner and Taylor are my assistants and Taylor wanted to be here today." She smiled up at him. "They both good, but I don't think two can be here at once."
"What's up boss?" Taylor asked as the group walked over to them.
"About Tanner not being here today. I said the two of you were good, but not good enough to be here at once."
Taylor and Tyler bother laughed. "No." Taylor stated. "Just me today I'm afraid. But if you want, Tanner can go with you to ER if you guys decide to go." She smiled up at Coulson as she tucked a hand into her front pocket, the other one hugging her tablet close to her side.
Coulson looked between Taylor and Darcy and knew that he was missing something. He looked over at his team and could tell that they felt the same way. "Yes, I would like that. I would like to meet this Tanner."
Taylor smiled and looked down at her tablet and typed something in. "No problem Sir. Now I can take the rest of the team back to the hotel, or if you guys want to see something more we surely can. While they have the meeting." She smiled up at the team. "We haven't been over to our security team yet. It's not much but you can meet them and hang out."
"Sounds fun love." Lance smiled down at her. "Lead the way."
"Can I see the control room?" Fitz asked.
"I'd like to stay here for a while. I don't know when I'll ever get to see a lab like this again." Simmons stated.
Darcy smiled up them. "No problem. I can take you to see Lowery, Fitz. He'll like having someone other than me in there talking to him." She let go of Coulson and led the ones who wanted to leave out of the lab and took Fitz, Coulson, her Dad and Skye to the control room, Taylor took Mack, Bobbie, Lance and May to meet the security team. "And welcome to my humble bat cave." She smiled as the doors opened.
"We're not calling it that." Lowery stated from his chair. "God no." He flipped through the cameras. "Stark left new headsets, pretty cool. Raptor Husband already picked his up."
Darcy ignored the raised eyebrows from the S.H.I.E.L.D agents as she sighed. "I know. I'll pick mine up later. So save one for me."
"On it boss." Lowery nodded.
"Lowery, this is Fitz." Darcy introduced. "He works with S.H.I.E.L.D and he wanted to hang out here. With you."
Lowery looked up at the skinny young man and nodded. "Okay, I can work with that. Take a seat Fitz. Welcome to the control room. Coffee is over there if you want some. It's really good. Darcy is not allowed to have any."
Darcy sighed and pinched her nose and she heard her Dad snort. "I don't know…" She looked up at the ceiling. "I am the boss here." She looked at her Dad. "You're a bad influence on my staff." She glared at him.
He smirked. "You average 8-9 cups a day Darce."
She shook her head and turned to Coulson. "Shall we?" She led them out of the room and up to her office floor. "Can I get you anything to drink? Water? Coffee?" She asked them.
"We're fine." Coulson stated as he and Skye took a seat at the table. Darcy nodded and handed them each a tablet that had the proposal and editing tools on it before opening her own. She set down across from them.
"First let me explain what ER is." She started. "It is located on an Island near here and on it is a similar layout. A hotel/apartments for employees and staffs and the occasional guests. Labs and clinics for both human and animals alike. We wanted it to self-sufficient. Now the park here already had so much already on it built. We just had to remodel and fix somethings. There we had to build from the ground up. Solar and completely green so it's pretty much off the grid electrical wise. If a storm hits or anything there are backup generators that will keep power for months if need be. Tony has it powered similarly to the Tower. And we were careful to not to disturb the natural habitats so much on the Island already. We built enclosures and paddocks for up two twenty animals at a time that we can house. Some animals can actually be house in the same enclosures based on where they're from or what type they are. When the animals is ready they were will shipped to their country's set sanctuary and protected, they are marked so they can't move past the boundaries of the sanctuary or poached." She took a deep breath. "Pepper has been working with me on this, but I had Taylor get into contact with the former Park Operation Manager, Claire Dearing to help run the animal side. She will deal the coming and going of the animals, the staff and etc. I think she will be the best fit for the job, she has already been vetted by us." She sent over the file to them so they could look at her. "Her nephews were also here during the indominus attack."
Skye took a deep breath as she looked through the file and looked at Coulson who nodded for Darcy to continue.
"What I propose is that, well. Tony had built a secret base underneath the Island when he first bought it. Back when he first made the wager with Simon." She opened the file between their tablets to show them the layout. "I think the idea was to use it for a secret Avenger base just in case. But the idea came to me one day. The gifted, or others like them. They didn't ask for these powers and S.H.I.E.L.D obviously has to put them somewhere, why not here? No one would look for them here. They can be trained to use their powers, they can be safe, and you'll know where they are. They can't leave the Island without getting on a ferry anyway and not without us knowing." Darcy took a deep breath to keep from rushing her words. "They will have a safe haven and I need people to guard and protect my animals, we can train them, give them skills and life experiences. If they have enough control they can come over here to the Park. Work here. The HOS, Alan Martinez, is on board with this, he is willing to have them there. He wants and needs the help and as long as they're not dangerous he'll be completely open minded with them."
"Miss Lewis what you are asking." Coulson started.
"What about young kids?" Skye stated as she continued to stare at the file about Claire Dearing. "Young kids just out of puberty." She looked up at Darcy. "InHuman, is what we call some of these people. People who have alien lineage in their bloodline, Kree Blood."
"Okay. And you have one who's a kid?" Darcy asked her.
Skye nodded. "Most of them are teenagers, going through changes, some are young adults."
"I'll have Tony look into an online school and an online college program. Maybe when you go to interview the families, we can say they won a scholarship. Or they're in a boarding school." She smirked at that. "God Tony's going to have a field day thinking he's the next Charles Xaiver."
Skye smiled at her and turned to Coulson who looked thoughtful but wasn't saying anything. "This Claire Dearing, when will she be here?" She asked.
"I had Taylor set up an interview. But I don't know when it was planned. Do you want to talk to her too?" Darcy asked.
"I think that would be best if we plan on working with her." Coulson stated as he nodded to Skye.
"So you agree?" Darcy asked amazed.
"I think that this is a better option for us all. A safer one. It will benefit us all in the long run and if we can help everyone out, show them that S.H.I.E.L.D is not like HYDRA, that even though they are going to an Island, that at least it's tropical." Coulson smirked amused.
"Silver lining." Darcy smiled. "Well great. I'll get everything finalized with Pepper and we'll talk again later tonight. And if you don't have to rush back, tomorrow we can go to the Island."
"Miss Darcy." F.R.I.D.A.Y. spoke through the speakers. "A Claire Dearing just arrived off the ferry."
Darcy blinked and nodded. "Well, that's convenient." She stood up. "Have security bring her in and up to my conference room."
"Will do."
"I'm going to let you guys get the first crack at her first." Darcy stated as she picked up her tablet. "Let me know if I need to bring the papers in, I'm going to call Pepper."
Two hours later Darcy looked up to see Claire Dearing standing in front of her office door. "Come in." she stated as she took a sip of her coffee. "How was it?"
"That was, something." Claire stated as she looked around her old office. "It looks different in here."
"Good different, or you took my job different?" Darcy asked her. "Because really, Taylor took your job. I just liked your office."
Claire smiled as she looked over at her. "So I will be working with S.H.I.E.L.D and Stark Industries?"
"And a bunch of other governments." Darcy stated. "That's the thing, S.H.I.E.L.D, no one knows about. No one. If someone asks, hey who your security is, you say."
"Hired by SI." Claire replied without missing a beat. "We went over that. I understand that." She sighed. "Skye, Agent Skye, she told me that my both my nephews will be going to ER. Gray because he's an InHuman and Zach because he doesn't want to leave his side again." She stared at Darcy.
Darcy blinked and then nodded slowly as she processed the information and it clicked why Skye was asking about education. "Pepper and Tony was looking into setting up online schooling and getting tutors who will works with gifted people. They will sign NDA's and waivers, they won't tell anyone. But your nephews will still be able to get an education and they will be able to call and skype their parents whenever they want." She reassured her.
"Gray still have nightmares." Claire whispered.
"I imagine they both still do." Darcy replied and took a deep breath. "Maybe so do you. It's very brave of you to come back here, for an interview no less. I remember my Dad and Sister Kelly waking up and screaming in the middle of the night when I came to visit them. I never understood it. It's not something that I can. Aliens, sure. I've been through handful invasions and in the midst of the battle of two of them."
"How do you stop the nightmares?" Claire asked.
Darcy looked down at the coffee and sighed. "I try to find happy moments to think of. I hear that talking to the one you love for an hour before bed helps a lot. But what I tend to do most is work into the late hours of the night then get up really early and then drink 9 cups of coffee to stay awake. It isn't healthy. And I'm struggling, I am." She tapped her coffee cup. "But once I get you all squared away and the testing on the way for ER. I'll take a mini staycation and sleep in a few days. Go running with Blue still." She shrugged and sipped her coffee.
"Blue?" Claire asked shocked.
Darcy nodded. "Now the lawyer's two floors below us should have all your paperwork for you. Your room is ready for tonight in the hotel and when we go over to ER, you can come with us to check it out and get settled in your room before you move in there completely." Darcy barreled on.
Claire stared at her before nodding slowly. "Okay. Is Owen still here?"
"I think he might be out with Blue right now." Darcy looked at the time. "He should be back in time for dinner, but he might have plans. But you might be able to catch him. Just make sure you stay inside the hotel after curfew, which is marked in your welcome packet." She pointed to the packet in Claire's hands. "He takes Blue out for scent drills all over the Island and only authorized persons only are allowed out after that time."
Claire stared at her. "Owen runs drills with Blue open in the park? And she doesn't attack anyone?"
Darcy shook her head. "No, she listens to me and Owen." She shrugged. "Oh and if you get hungry there is a 24/7 cafeteria in the hotel bottom floor, amazing food."
Claire blinked and nodded as she processed the information. "Thanks." She turned and slowly walked out of the office and to the elevator to go down.
Darcy watched her and huffed a laugh. "I think I broke her mind."