It only took a week for Darcy to realize what an incredible gift she had been given. Actually, it may not have even taken that long for the realization to strike, because on the second day of their agreement, Darcy had practically stormed the other lab, frightening Bruce in the process. Instead of getting annoyed, though, he had offered a smile and a bottle of iced tea, which Darcy had taken with a sort of awe.

Then, when he had pulled out a chair silently beside his station and motioned for her to sit down and "tell him what happened," she'd thought it was possible she had died and gone to heaven. When Bruce wasn't looking she had pinched her skin just to be sure.

After that, she visited the lab much more frequently, and not always in a storm cloud of rage. They had really good tea there, and Bruce (as well as Tony when he happened to show up for work) were surprisingly good listeners.

It wasn't even Jane that was pushing Darcy's buttons most of the time. Jane was her best friend, and Darcy could usually overlook the female scientist's annoying tendencies with an eye roll or exaggerated sigh.

It was the newly hired scientists that were setting Darcy on edge at the moment. Bruce pointed out, in that impossibly kind and non-judgmental tone of his, that disliking someone because they "seemed off" wasn't a very good basis for an argument. And her tendency to call them Wacko 1 and Wacko 2 was not helping matters either.

Bruce had only met them the one time, though, and their exchange had been awkward and brief. Jane's conversation with them was a tad longer, but that was because Jane was a goddess among sciencey men. Tony had yet to meet them and said he had no inclination to ever do so.

Unfortunately for Darcy, she did have to meet them, and communicate with them, on a regular basis. It seemed that whoever was in charge of scheduling at SHIELD had decided that Darcy was the perfect person for tours and fielding questions. If she ever met said scheduler, she was definitely going to give them a piece of her mind.

On the surface they seemed nice enough with their eager smiles and quick compliments. Occasionally, though, Darcy saw things in their behavior that made her uncomfortable. Their eyes were always watching everyone else, almost with a predatory gaze. Bruce said they were probably trying to figure out how to steal his job. Darcy had laughed at that, because it was entirely possible since the two new hires were experimenting on boring rocks while Dr. Banner basically had free reign to conduct whatever experiments he wanted.

It was also the conversations the two had, though, whenever they thought no one else was around. At first, Darcy had pushed away their quiet whispers as crazy scientist banter. She had enough experience in her months as Jane's intern and then her 10+ months of work at SHIELD to know that it was quite normal for science-minded people to talk to themselves, or to each other, with bent heads and quiet whispers.

Whenever she overheard their conversations, however, they were never talking about rocks or anything relevant to their jobs. If they had been arguing about whether metamorphic, sedimentary, or igneous rocks were better, that she could understand. But instead, they were always discussing other SHIELD employees, and not just in a gossiping manner either.

No, they were discussing strengths and weaknesses. Habits. Schedules. It was like they were fanboys memorizing every single detail of their fellow employees' lives, except the hero-inspired awe in their voices was absent and in its place a cold, calculating precision.

Tony pushed off her concerns, saying she was just paranoid. Working with SHIELD could do that to a person - make you think you're seeing bad guys every time you turn the corner. At Darcy's persistence, though, Tony had paused in his work and offered up Jarvis's services. It was more to get her to stop bugging him than anything, but Darcy was appreciative all the same.

After that, whenever she wasn't needed with Jane, Darcy was going over sound bites that Jarvis had pulled from SHIELD's security database. She poured over every word Wacko 1 and 2 said, putting on her pink headphones and listening to the clips Jarvis had loaded onto her phone.

When she was taking her breaks in the other lab, Darcy scanned through video feeds, both past and live, looking for proof that the two scientists were not what they seemed.

One day, when she had reached the bottom of her tea and went to get another from the fridge, she came back to find Bruce looking at the videos on her phone. Without glancing up he said, "You really think there's something wrong, don't you?"

If Tony had asked her the same thing, she would have gotten defensive. Bruce's tone was not one of annoyance though as Tony's would have been, but genuine concern.

Darcy unscrewed the lid from her tea and took a sip. She tilted her head back and sighed, worrying her lip. "I really do."

"Darcy..." he started, and she could hear his voice grow worried. It was the same one he had used when discussing her habit of walking alone to get lunch all those weeks ago.

"I know! I know!" She waved him off, still looking up at the ceiling. "It's crazy talk, but I just have this feeling that..."

Bruce interrupted her, sounding panicked. "No, Darcy, you need to see this..."

Before Bruce could finish, there was an explosion and all of his words were swallowed up by an ear-shattering whoosh.

Darcy was flung backward from her chair, and her head hit a solid object behind her with what was probably a loud thunk. She wouldn't know how loud though because everything had gone silent. The flurry of motion in front of her indicated that she should be hearing something, but there was nothing there.

Then her ears started to ring, and all at once sound came back to her. It was softer than usual, muted almost like she was underwater. Just when her hearing finally returned though, her vision started to go. Dark spots danced at the corners of her eyes and she tried to blink them away; however, they just kept getting larger and larger until everything was dark.

Ahhh! So let me know what you think. I've got the next chapter planned but I have yet to start writing it yet. It will be coming soon though :)

I know... I know... I said this was only going to be three parts. I keep changing! But in better news, now you get more Darcy/Bruce interaction?

See? I knew I could make you feel better.

In all seriousness, my plan really is to end this as a four-parter, but if it changes... *shrugs* what can you do? Darcy just keeps on talking and talking, and I can't very well say no to the queen of sass and tasers, can I?

The correct answer is obviously NO, I CAN'T.

Thanks for continuing to read! I appreciate feedback like Darcy appreciates a good, sweet iced tea.