Darcy came to the content realization that there was nothing better than a comforting hug from an Asgardian god and a nice, big, blueberry muffin. Well, that and a healthy dose of whatever pain medication the kind nurse had pumped into her veins.
She was feeling rather amazing, back resting against a conglomeration of clouds and the prettiest little angels sitting by her bedside.
Though, the one looked rather big and burly for an angel even if he did have the right golden hair for the part. After squinting for a moment, Darcy felt a tingle of recognition at the back of her brain. Okay, so maybe the guy wasn't an angel after all. Angels were delicate little things and didn't carry around hammers.
No, angels carried bows and arrows. Like that Cupid guy she had talked to earlier!
Cupid? Clark? Whatever. Darcy just knew his name had started with the letter C.
And although the woman with the brown hair, sitting beside the buff blonde dude, physically looked more like an angel with her small stature and dainty hands, angels didn't frown and talk at you loudly when you didn't respond to their badgering questions.
It wasn't Darcy's fault that she couldn't understand half of what the brunette was saying. It was like she was speaking in Spanish or something. Most likely the latter.
Suddenly, a door opened to the left and a stream of bright lights announced that another angel had joined the group. Darcy swiveled her head in what felt like slow motion to see who it was.
Immediately, though, she knew she had been wrong in her assumption. "You're not an angel!" she shouted at the newcomer. She didn't know how she knew that for sure, but something in her murky brain was telling her that the dark-haired guy in the suit and tinted glasses was more menace than saintly being.
The guy frowned at her reaction, and the next words out of his mouth just further confirmed her suspicions of his non-angel designation. "And you're not the pizza guy. We can't always get what we want, kid."
Turning, the man eyed the other two in the room with raised eyebrows, "Is she high?" He didn't bother to lower his voice, if anything raising it even more and Darcy thought, nope, definitely not an angel.
Darn. Charlie's angels came in a group of three and she'd always wanted to be the mysterious Charlie. Charlie was rich and constantly surrounded by beautiful people. She'd have to see if Cupid/Clark was currently employed.
The brunette woman, whom Darcy suddenly remembered to be named Jane, gave a firm "No" while Darcy simultaneously declared "Yes! High on clouds - the medicine of the gods!"
The man's eyebrows went back down to their normal elevation level and a wide, annoying grin split across his face. Darcy didn't know how someone's smile could annoy her, it just did. "Wow. Should have used that excuse back in college."
The blonde dude shook his head. "I swear to you son of Howard that I did not cause Darcy's current state. I know not what this cloud medicine is that the woman in scrubs gave her, but I doubt it came from Asgard."
Jane looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and adoration. "Thor, no one thinks you caused this." Then she turned to the bespectacled man and gave a very strong look of disapproval. "Tony, you were a kid when you went to college!"
Tony/Son of Howard rolled his eyes. "This is entirely new information!" he exclaimed; however, the way he said it made Darcy think that it was not new information. Not at all. "And really Jane, are you telling me that you didn't do any experimentation with 'clouds' when you were in school?" Tony wiggled his eyebrows at Jane, whose cheeks were suddenly starting to get a little pink.
Darcy laughed and jabbed a thumb at Tony. "I like this one, Jane. He's a keeper, too. Add him to your list!"
Tony walked over to the liquid bag attached to Darcy's arm, mumbling with wonder, "I need to get me some of this stuff..."
"Look don't touch," Darcy commanded, swatting at him.
Tony yanked his hands away, turning his attention back to Darcy with a predatory eye. "Now what's this about a list, Miss Lewis? I don't know how Bruce will feel when he finds out he's not the only one in your heart."
"Bruce?" Darcy mumbled. This guy, Tony, was making Darcy's head hurt. The name seemed so familiar and it was like trudging through sludge to focus enough to remember why.
Meanwhile, Jane was berating Tony for "keeping secrets" and saying she "deserved to know when her best friend was dating the Hulk."
"Just friends," Darcy and Tony said simultaneously, but it was Tony who continued, "And not for lack of trying on my part, the dense idiots." He looked at Jane and Thor with something akin to happiness. "Now that it's out in the open you can join operation T."
"T? Like the letter T?" Darcy asked in confusion.
Rolling his eyes like the answer should be obvious, he said, "No... TEA. T-E-A."
"Oh, I see," she replied because that really did make a lot more sense. Suddenly, a lot of things were making more sense in her brain. It was kind of like a cloud had lifted. There was a beat of silence, then, "Tony, did you come with something about Bruce?"
Tony seemed pleased by her question as if she were a monkey in a lab experiment. "Knew mentioning tea would trigger you Lewis... and yes, I have a plan!"
"I'm sorry if those words don't exactly inspire confidence in me," Jane deadpanned. "And whatever it is, Darcy is not going to be a part of it."
Darcy didn't really appreciate being told what she could and could not do. Maybe it was a leftover from her weird childhood with incompetent parents, or perhaps it was just the modern feminist in her coming out to play. Either way, when Tony revealed that he was planning to wake up Bruce and Jane declared that Darcy was "under no circumstances allowed to be in the same room as the big rage monster," she about blew a gasket.
"But it was my idea!" Darcy argued for the millionth time, even though Jane was no longer in the room to be persuaded.
"Actually," Tony said, flipping through her medical charts casually, "It was my idea, you were just the catalyst."
Darcy muttered something very impolite under her breath.
She said aloud, "Whatever" in a resigned manner that would fool no one into thinking she was done. Darcy wasn't one to give up that easily. She pushed on to the actual details of Tony's plan, which he had been decidedly vague about with Jane and Thor. "How are you going to convince the doctors and nurses to let you take Bruce out?"
Tony laughed and slipped her charts back into the pocket at the end of her bed. He held up his index finger, saying, "First off, never underestimate me." Then he paused his counting to glance over his shoulder, and quickly motioned for Darcy to lie back. For whatever reason, she complied without a word. "Second, what hospital do you think we're in exactly? It's not the public health clinic, for starters." He gently pressed on her ribs and she winced. "Scale 1 to 10."
"What, you own this hospital?" Darcy asked, getting his unspoken meaning, then remembering his question answered, "5."
Tony nodded. "Good. Good." With one more glance behind him, Tony quickly rolled over Darcy's wheelchair.
"Uh-oh," Darcy muttered as she got up from the bed.
"What? What?" Tony exclaimed with concern, "Are you okay? Did you hurt something else?" He paused, then took a step back. "Or are you remembering our earlier conversation earlier?" Tony looked slightly alarmed at that thought.
Darcy rattled her brain for a moment, then shook her head. "Nope on both accounts," she replied, sitting down in the wheelchair and lifting the IV bag off its hooks to hold in her lap. If they were going on a trip, she needed her meds. "Uh-oh as in now I understand why you sent Jane over to arrange Bruce's transport instead of doing it yourself."
As she began to move forward, Tony Stark pushing her chair with a huff, Darcy really pondered with renewed appreciation the term "distraction."
Meanwhile, Tony waved at a passing nurse and gave his million dollar, charming smile. He leaned down next to Darcy's ear and lowered his voice. "Admittedly, at first I was worried that the god of thunder wouldn't follow."
Darcy snorted.
"You're right," Tony said in response, as if he now realized the stupidity of his own statement. "Thor would follow Jane anywhere."
"But emphasizing that Dr. Banner had a dangerous alter ego was a nice touch to bring out Thor's protective side," Darcy said appreciatively.
Reaching a set of elevators that Darcy hadn't noticed before, Tony slid up to the doors, a smug smile in place as he jabbed at the down button.
"But the existence of his alter ego doesn't seem to bug you..." Tony prodded because, well, because he was Tony Stark and prodding was what he did for fun. Darcy shrugged. "Like at all," he added pointedly.
"I've dealt with worse," Darcy said, not feeling the need to rehash her sordid history of failed romantic relationships, especially with Tony Stark.
Tony eyed her critically then frowned. "Sadly, I think you're actually telling the truth that you've had worse boyfriends than a big, green rage monster." He whistled and moved to push Darcy through the opening doors.
"Neither Bruce nor his alter ego has ever been a danger to me. Just the opposite really."
"We're going to have a talk about your encounters with the Hulk later."
With an eye roll, Darcy sighed. "Get in line behind Jane. Or better yet, schedule a meeting together so I can get it all over at once. Bring lots of tea."
When the elevator dinged and the doors slid back open, it didn't look like a parking garage nor the lobby of any hospital that Darcy had ever seen. She had been too stressed about the idea of having an intervention-sounding conversation with two scientists that she hadn't paid any attention to what floor they were going to.
Her jaw dropped open when she saw the floor number. SUB 5. "Uh, Tony?"
"Don't tell me you're backing out now Darce," Tony snarked, as they moved forward through a bright, white hallway with a pristine, black tile floor.
Registering his words, Darcy twisted around in her chair, immediately regretting the decision when her body protested. "Wait, are you going to let me be there when Bruce wakes up? What about what you said to Jane about my safety?" In the hospital room, Tony had appeared to be on Jane's side with Darcy staying in the hospital until a doctor cleared her, and staying far away until Bruce was fully conscious. She should have realized something was up when Tony had snuck her out of her hospital room, but she supposed her meds were still affecting her cognitive abilities.
They paused at a stainless steel door and Tony swiped a card over a scanner that flashed blue before beeping and unlocking. "The word 'safety' is so... subjective. Besides, you're going to be on the other side of a reinforced, practically indestructible wall. Watching only. What's the harm in that?"
Darcy would have preferred to be inside the walls, but she wasn't going to hit a gift horse in the mouth, even if that horse happened to have a face just asking to be slapped like Tony's. "No harm at all," Darcy said sweetly. "And what Jane doesn't know can't hurt..."
As they rounded a corner, Tony froze in pushing Darcy's chair, and Darcy froze in said chair at the sight of two women, one brunette and one redhead, both looking incredibly angry even at a distance. A much less angry-looking bulky blonde god stood with them at the end of the hall in front of a large, glass window.
The redhead crossed her arms over chest, but it was the brunette who spoke. "What about Jane not knowing?"
Thanks for everyone's comments on the last chapter! I'll get to those soon.
AND I since I actually combined two chapters into one instead of posting a short-ish update again, it will be a few days until you get a new one. We're getting closer to Bruce waking up, though! I know a lot of you are here for Bruce/Darcy, but I hope you are enjoying the fun with the other Avengers in the meantime. I always feel like the best fics are those that utilize a bunch of them. They're such a great group of characters.
Let me know what you think!