A/N. Hi guys! So here's the 33rd chapter of SCWCR. Just so you guys know, I went ahead and finished the story. It's complete. I just haven't posted all of it yet. I will post the rest of the chapters between now and Labour Day. It has become painfully obvious that this story will never reach 300 reviews like I had hoped, but rather past one hundred, which is still pretty awesome :) To all those who are reading this, YOU GUYS ROCK! I LUV YOU! I have been thinking about making a fourth story. You'll see why after reading the last chapter/epilogue/bonus scene thing. But even if I do, it won't be for a little while. I'm going to take a break from writing for a while (multi-chapter novels at least, I will continue with my prompt fic Our Children) and when I do come back, I'm going to try and finish the original novel I started writing last November and then stopped halfway through. Once I'm done that, I'll come back to writing full-fledged fanfiction novels (at least, that's the plan. But plans can change). So yeah. Even if the future story potentially has even less interested, I would still be writing it because *I* want to. But just out of curiousity, how many of you would read the fourth book? Okay, I'm done my rant now. Enjoy :D

CHAPTER XXXIII

Betty had stayed with Graham all of last night, holding his hand and talking to him in hushed tones. At one point, she'd said, "You know, you keep teasing your sister about being a trouble magnet, when really it's the both of you. I mean, look at where you ended up," and his lips had twitched as if in silent laughter. But he didn't wake up.

He was awake now, at eleven o'clock in the morning, in his bed at the Tower with Betty sleeping at his bedside in a bean bag chair shaped like a football he'd brought in from his dorm. He remembered what happened but it was like looking through a foggy mirror. He knew what had happened, he just couldn't see it very well.

He had been awake for the past half hour, just trying to get his bearings. All he knew was that he didn't want to wake up Betty, who looked like she could really use the rest, but he was STARVING.

"Hey Jarvis?" he whispered, knowing the AI could hear him.

"Yes, Mr. Banks?"

"Can you get someone to bring me food please? I'm soooooooo hungry."

"Of course."

"Thanks J. You're the best."

"Thank you."

Graham's head lolled to the side and he debated going back to sleep but his rumbling stomach made him stay awake. He had just decided to close his eyes when he heard the door open and he blinked them furiously. He turned his head to see who had entered and something started beeping really fast when he saw Darcy enter the room.

"What the-?" He yanked the EKG from his finger and the beeping stopped. He watched as the heart monitor flat-lined silently. Okay, that was way creepy. He turned back to the poly-sci intern in his room with a platter of delicious food in her hands. "Wha- what are you doing here?"

She strode forward and set the platter next to him on the bed before taking the seat on the other side of his bed, opposite the sleeping Betty. "What does it look like? I'm bringing you food, dummy."

"Hey, the only dummy here is a robot and he's… somewhere in the Tower I don't know of. Probably one of the labs."

She rolled her eyes and kicked her feet up onto his bed, her socked toes brushing against his blanketed calves and sending tingles up his spine. "Nice come back." She stole one of the omelet croissant sandwiches and took a bite out of it.

"Hey! My food!" he reached forward to grab one but cried out when his ribs protested and he fell back down on the bed, clutching at his torso.

"Are you okay?!" Darcy removed her feet and slid closer, reaching out as if to touch him but not knowing what to do. She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and bit her lip instead.

When Graham opened his eyes again, that was the first thing he saw. He had to admit, he liked the view. He cleared his throat. "When did you get here?"

She shrugged and took another bite of her croissant, leaning back in the plastic chair that hadn't been in his room yesterday… "About ten this morning? The first flight to NYC was really early in the morning. I had to wake up at like, three. And considering I went to bed at two, I didn't get much sleep."

Graham snorted. "Okay, so that's how and when you got here. But why are you here? And would you pass me a sandwich? I'm starving."

"Jane told Pepper, Betty, and Happy that we'd take the first flight here after the Hammeroid attack to see if we could help you guys out with repairs and to help track down your sister and shit," she answered without fulfilling his request. If she was being honest with herself, she just wanted to see him squirm.

"So the three of you guys are here? Does Thor know? And hello? Sandwich?"

She shook her head. "Nah, the big guy's a little busy right now to be bothered with phone calls from us. He doesn't even know how to use a damn phone after all this time. It's pathetic, when you think about it."

"Where is everybody else?" he asked while straining his fingers to reach the sandwiches.

Darcy pretended not to notice and had a hard time not laughing. "In the lab going through World War Two veterans. Their list is actually pretty long now and they've split up into two teams. Happy, Jane and Selvig are the ones who compile the list while Pepper and Betty are the ones who actually contact those people about information on HYDRA. And then there's Happy's brother Royce, who's the doctor that's supposed to be watching over you. We're letting him sleep in. B-T-dubs, he sleeps in the room over."

He nodded in understanding. It made sense to have the doctor so close to the patient. "And you? What do you do?"

She shrugged. "Mostly bring them coffee and doughnuts. Not much different than interning for Jane – or any place, really."

"If Betty has a job, what's she doing here?" His fingers were just inches away from the food. He was so close he was practically salivating.

"I think she somehow thinks you're her baby cub or something. Hasn't left your side all night or morning."

"That was sweet of her," he said, pausing in his harrowing quest to glorious food to look at the sleeping Betty to his left. He resumed his stretch to victory – was climbing Mount Doom this hard?

Darcy nodded in agreement, taking another bite of croissant while Graham was forced to watch. He pouted. She couldn't help but think that was probably the most adorable thing she had ever seen. And she'd had a puppy at one point. That was saying something.

"You know, you look a lot more beautiful in person than on a screen," he complimented, turning on the charm seemingly at random.

Darcy bit her lip again (damn, he should not be turned on this easily) and crossed her legs. "Smooth."

"You know what would make you even more beautiful to me?"

She leaned a little closer. "What?"

"If you would hand me a sandwich."

She snorted and burst out laughing, leaning back in her chair while Graham smirked. She reached over to the platter and pushed it closer to his torso while she helped prop him up into a sitting position. "Well played, Casa Blanca. Well played."

As soon as he was settled, he devoured the food like a ravenous beast. There had been at least six sandwiches on that plate. Now there were none. It had only been about five minutes.

"Damn. Boy can eat!" she whistled.

He grinned at her. "I'm a good kisser too." WHY DID HE JUST SAY THAT? GOSH, he was such an idiot.

"Ooh, double threat."

"Triple, actually, if you count how badass I am for knowing Karate and being able to use nunchucks and kicking some robot butt."

"I do."

"Then I'm a triple threat."

"Someone's quite the catch."

"That's what they say."

"So now that I've handed you a sandwich, is it true that I look more beautiful?" she asked, fluttering her eyelashes at him shamelessly. It was teasing and playful but at the same time there was an undertone of seriousness in it that made her heart pound.

"Come closer and let me see," he told her, staring unabashedly at her lips.

She obeyed and moved her head closer to his, inhaling his breakfast breath. Her own breath probably smelled like coffee and doughnuts. She briefly wondered what combining the two would taste like before all thoughts left her and her eyes fluttered closed.

A groan blew them both back as if an explosion had gone off in the room and they whipped around to see Betty rubbing her eyes tiredly. Both Graham and Darcy blushed but tried desperately to hide it.

"I'll just- I'll take this back to the kitchen." Darcy grabbed the platter and stood up, hurriedly making her way out of the room. "See you later S'mores!" she called over her shoulder just before leaving.

Graham smiled. It was a sign that he and Darcy were cool. Things weren't going to be awkward between them. He didn't know how he knew that but apparently he could read her body language as easily as if it were a children's book. He wondered what that would look like…

"Graham?" Betty mumbled, yawning and sitting upright. "Oh, Graham! You're awake!" She beamed and grabbed his hand, kneeling beside his bed.

He smiled back at her. "Yup. Ring the alarm bell! Get the parade ready. Where's the surprise party?"

Betty laughed. "Do you remember what happened?"

He nodded. "Yeah. It's kind of fuzzy but I know what I did and how it ended."

"You were so incredibly brave, Graham."

His blush deepened. He didn't blush often, but when he did, everyone said it reminded them of his sister. He didn't need to think about her right now… stop it! "Thanks. You too."

"Oh, I didn't do anything. I just-"

"Stopped Hammer from killing Pepper? Warned me about being killed several times? Told me about Happy and the police so that I could better their efforts to win? You were so totally kick ass."

"Thanks. I'd better get back to the lab. I have a bunch of phone calls to make." She pushed herself to her feet.

"Wait! I'm coming with you!" He grunted and slowly inched his legs over the side of the bed, holding his breath.

"Graham, no! What are you doing?" She rushed over to him. "Get back in bed!"

"You can't tell me what to do just because you're older." He grunted and stood up. "OW! Fuck! I'm twenty-three years old! Why does everyone seem to think I'm a kid?"

He gripped his ribcage with his left hand and hobbled forward. "Maybe because you act like one," she snapped back before grabbing his arm and wrapping around her shoulders. "Come on. I'll help you to the second elevator."

"We have a second elevator?!"

"Apparently. I didn't know about it either and I've been living here a month longer than you have."

"Well that sucks. I ran like, a hundred flights of stairs yesterday!"

"Me too. It sucked big time."

"Oh yeah."

The two of them continued to limp down the hallway. "Um…" Betty started, "Was I… interrupting something, back there?"

Heat rushed to Graham's face. "No, not really. We were just talking."

"You mean flirting?"

"That too."

She laughed quietly. "Is this a conversation you don't want to have?"

"Pretty much."

"Okay, I get it. I'll drop the subject."

"Thank you."

Five minutes of silence later…

"So what did you have for breakfast?"

Another agonizing fifteen minutes later…

"Finally! I thought we'd never make it!" Graham exclaimed as the elevator doors opened into the lab on which everyone was working.

"Graham!" Pepper cried and ran over to him. "Oh I'm so glad you're alright! Are you feeling okay? Does anything hurt?"

He laughed and swatted her away like a fly as he removed his arm from Betty's shoulders and stood up on his own while not removing his hand from his torso, despite it being the hand with the wrist he'd sprained. "I'm fine, Pepper, honest. I'm all patched up and healing already."

"You shouldn't be walking around for at least two weeks!"

He shrugged. "What are you gonna do?"

Darcy chuckled from her spot in a chair on wheels, spinning herself around for amusement. Erik and Jane were standing behind the counter with a bunch of holograms in front of their faces and Happy was munching on leftover breakfast sandwiches in a corner, sitting on the counter.

Pepper "tsk"-ed him before returning back to her post and grabbing her phone to talk make the next call. Betty followed suit and they were all hard at work again. Graham walked over to the other side of the counter from Jane and Erik.

"Sup guys?"

"Hi Graham," Jane waved. "Glad you're okay."

He waved it off. "Pshaw! That was nothing. I could totally survive a lot worse."

"I can imagine."

"Hey Erik, how's it going? Long-time no see." The two men shook hands in greeting.

"Fine, thank you for asking."

Graham got to work on searching through the veterans for anyone who might know anything about HYDRA, opening up a totally knew screen on the opposite side of the two astrophysicists. He only used his right hand to move screens around, seeing as his left still clutched his side. He felt Darcy's presence behind him immediately but pretended not to notice and continued Googling stuff. Her breathing near his ear was driving his insane though. He had to do something. "Hey Darce?" he called without looking.

He didn't see her jump in fright. "Yeah?"

"Would you mind getting me my pills from my room please? The pain is starting to come back."

"Um, yeah. Sure."

And just like that she was gone. He breathed an inaudible sigh of relief. Now he could concentrate. Tony's dad had worked with Steve against HYDRA or something, right? Maybe there would be something in his file. He pulled it up and began scanning it.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when a finger tapped his shoulder and he whirled around. There was Darcy with his pills and a coffee with several creams, milks, sugars, and sweeteners in a bowl. His eyes widened as he took them from her. "Oh my God you're a life saver!" He quickly dumped three sugars one creamer in his coffee before he threw back his pills and washed it down with his drink. He sighed in relief afterward and wiped his mouth with his- nonexistent sleeve. Wait what? He looked down. He had been shirtless the whole time. Of course, there were enough bandages to completely cover his torso from top to bottom and he was still wearing his jeans, but his arms, shoulders, and throat were almost completely bare (except for more bandages). He supposed he wouldn't have been able to put on a shirt by himself anyway, though.

Pepper laughed a little while dialing another number. "He's as religious with his coffee as his sister."

"Hey!" He pointed his index finger at her defensively. "Coffee works wonders for University students."

"I know right?" Darcy exclaimed, "Now do you believe me, Erik?" She turned to face the doctor in question. "Coffee solves all the world's problems for a Uni student."

Graham nodded in agreement. "It's true. It gets you through the day in the morning and keeps you up late enough to finish assignments at night. When you're in school, coffee is a student's best friend."

"Oh my God, where have you been all my life?" Darcy turned to him.

"Looking for you," he said back, raising an eyebrow.

"Well you found me. Now what?"

"Speaking of find…" Happy interrupted, pointing at the screens.

Graham's face fell and he nodded, turning back to his work. Darcy sighed. She supposed she understood. If a member of her family was missing, she'd be fighting tooth and nail to get them back. There would be no time for relationships- WOAH! Hold the phone! Relationships? Where did that come from? They're just flirting. It's harmless. Playful. Meaningless.

… Right?