Yes, yet another HYDRA!Ian fic.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or any of the characters contained therein.

WORD COUNT: 1340

Darcy Lewis liked to think that she was no one's fool. That she was an excellent judge of character. That she could spend five minutes with someone and know, just know, whether or not they were good people.

Ian Boothby changed all that.

Their relationship started as a purely professional one. Or, at least as professional as someone as irreverent as Darcy could get, bossing him around, calling him 'the intern' no matter how many times he reminded her of his name, and 'forgetting' his favourite coffee order when he annoyed her (yes, Darcy still got the coffee – Ian was the science intern, recruited to pick up Jane's slack while she wallowed over Thor's continued absence).

Then the jackass went and saved her damn life. In hindsight, he may have been saving his own skin, since the Dark Elves were liable to kill him as well as her, and she just happened to be saved as a mere side effect. But Darcy didn't think about that. She was all full of adrenaline and 'Oh, my hero!' type thoughts, so she grabbed him and planted one on him, dipping him instead of the other way around because despite those thoughts, Darcy Lewis was no classic damsel, thank you very much!

After the Keebler Elves failed to conquer London, let alone Earth, what followed was a whirlwind of pure lust between Darcy and Ian. Life-threatening events had a side effect of forging bonds of trust between people who went through them together and came out alive because of that trust. She shared so much of herself with him, body and soul. She told him about her family, about her school friends, and all about New Mexico, a topic that was rarely breached before portals started opening all over the city and Thor finally deigned to show his face after a two-year absence.

Then S.H.I.E.L.D. fell.

Darcy, Jane, and Erik were sitting and watching the news reports on the disaster in DC. Captain America and Black Widow's arrest, the Helicarriers, and HYDRA. Especially HYDRA. Thor was in the next room, trying to contact his Avenger friends for answers. Soon, he got a message instructing them to head to the Black Widow's nearest safe-house, because they weren't going to trust any of the official S.H.I.E.L.D. ones. They picked up Ian on the way. Once they were ensconced there, Thor went to pick up Hawkeye, who'd been in France when everything had gone down, and who was planning to hunker down with them until they figured out what the hell was going on.

It was after the God of Thunder left that Ian revealed his true colours.

He'd been a HYDRA spy all along, one of the ones installed inside S.H.I.E.L.D. Sitwell had arranged for him to get close to Jane, Erik, and Darcy, ostensibly for their protection. He'd been absent earlier in the day because those three had been on Project Insight's hit list, and he obviously hadn't wanted to be sitting right next to them when the missiles came, even though his true mission hadn't been completely fulfilled, yet.

He pointed a gun at the three of them, and ordered them to hand over all the flash drives and the folder with Jane's latest notes, the ones that hadn't been transcribed and digitised, yet. Darcy, who, in case you need to be reminded, once shouted "I am not DYING for six college credits!", started gathering up those items. She also would have discreetly fished her taser out of her purse when pulling out her Mew-Mew-shaped flash drive (because she also once tased the God of Thunder), but Ian saw that coming and made her hand it over.

But she also pressed the panic button on her cell phone while fishing out the flash drive and the taser. Hopefully, that would have Thor doing an about-face and coming right back to the safe-house and to the rescue.

Ian had her put it all into a duffel bag that he'd brought with him, holding the gun to Jane's head to get her to cooperate. Darcy bided her time, waiting until he let his guard down to act.

Unfortunately, Thor's return was accompanied by thunder that sounded from miles away. It was enough of a warning for Ian to grab Jane and put her in a headlock, the gun's muzzle pushing against her temple. When Thor entered the safe-house, Mew-Mew brandished angrily, he froze when he saw his lady love being held hostage by one he thought to be a friend.

"Ian," he said cautiously, "What have you done?"

Ian smirked, although it was clearly for show, because while he'd been stupid enough to join HYDRA, he evidently wasn't actually stupid enough to feel confident about his chances against the Thunder God. "You're going to let me leave," he said, "Or your dear 'Lady Jane' is going to get a brand new hole in her head."

"Thor…" Jane gasped.

Darcy sat, frozen, but her mind was whirring. She looked around the room. This was the Black Widow's safe house, after all. She had to have a whole armoury of weapons hidden around the place. There was probably something within arm's reach no matter where you were in here.

And she did find something. It wasn't hidden, lying in plain sight instead. The main room had a lovely brick fireplace, and if you looked closely, you could see that some of the bricks on the mantle and the base had no grout attaching them to the others. It would be easy for her to reach over and pick one up, and when Ian turned his back on her, she did so and quietly slid over so that her butt was covering the gap, hiding the brick behind her back.

Thor slowly lowered his hammer. "If any harm comes to her, I swear-"

But Thor didn't have to swear anything, because Jane – crazy Jane, who would eagerly drive into a tornado for Science! – decided to rescue herself. She grabbed Ian's gun and shoved it away from his head, stomping on his foot for good measure. And once the firearm was no longer aimed at her bestie's head, Darcy stood up and slammed her brick into the back of Ian's skull.

The traitor crumpled to the floor, and Jane hurtled forward and into Thor's arms.

Darcy stood over her now-most-certainly-ex-boyfriend, the brick still in her hand. She had been the one to bring him into their circle. She had been the one to share their secrets with him. Who knew how much information he had passed on to his bosses because of her? And she had been the one to invite him into her bed. He could have killed her, so many times, and she never would have seen it coming. She'd never seen this coming, after all.

"Darcy?"

The sound of Jane's voice drew her out of her head. She was still standing over the unconscious HYDRA agent, still holding the slightly bloodstained brick in a shaking hand. It slipped from her fingers and thunked to the floor, making her jump.

And then the tears started. Hot, fat droplets that spilled from her eyes and rushed down her cheeks and splattered on her heaving chest as she struggled to breathe. She felt a pair of arms around her torso. Jane. Another person joined in from behind her. Erik. Thor came over and pulled them a bit away from Ian before putting his arms around all three of them.

Darcy buried her face in Jane's shoulder, still gasping and shaking. She had trusted Ian, and he'd nearly killed them all.

She would never trust so easily again.

Personally, I never thought I'd write a HYDRA!Ian fic. I didn't particularly like him, but I also didn't hate him, either. And the HYDRA!Ian trope is so common, I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it just because everyone else was. But this prompt just begged me to write it this way.

Next chapter's prompt is 'Kidnapped'. It will also be a humour chapter, and probably shorter (it's not done yet).