"My Scientist"

It was a dream come true to work in the labs at Stark Industries. They were shiny, and the equipment was so much better. Better working order, capable of much more than Jemma could accomplish back at base. Tony Stark had somehow discovered that Director Coulson was still alive, and kindly insisted that they all stay at Stark Tower for a few weeks while everything was sorted out between them. Bruce Banner – my God, Bruce Banner! – had offered to share his lab with Jemma. They'd started working on a project together, which he was now running by Tony. (Yes, he'd asked them to call him Tony. And Bruce was Bruce. Jemma tried not to fangirl over them.)

"Good morning, JARVIS," she said, checking her watch. "Goodness, we were up all night, weren't we?"

"You and Dr. Banner were deeply involved in your research and theorising. Others have come and gone. At least once you were provided with sustenance by members of your team."

"Oh, that's nice of them," Jemma said. She began to close down the programs and turn off the holographs. "Will Dr. Banner take a rest soon?"

"Mr. Stark will see him to his room. I will take you directly to your floor once you have finished packing up."

"Thank you."

She gathered together the few papers she had and dumped the samples in the waste disposal unit.

"Hey, I'm looking for my scientist, have you seen her?"

Jemma nearly dropped her things, and stood stock still. Of all the places…

She turned slowly, and saw a woman with long brown hair standing by one of the tables.

"Miss Lewis, you haven't been introduced to Dr. Simmons," JARVIS said.

"Oh, hey!" Darcy Lewis – it had to be her – waved to Jemma. "How you doing?" Jemma smiled weakly. "Okay, well, I'm still looking for my scientist, so I'm gonna—"

She couldn't lose her chance! Quick, something clever to say…

"It would be lovely if you were referring to me," she said. Darcy's mouth fell open.

"Holy shit!" she said. "You're my soulmate?"

"It appears so," Jemma said, trying to contain the happiness which just wanted to pour out of her. "I'm Jemma, though most people call me Simmons."

"Nearly everyone calls me Darcy. Unless you're Thor, in which case it's Lady Darcy, because he's cute like that." She pulled Jemma forward by the hand she was shaking. "And you're cute, too. Wow. A doctor, huh? I've heard of you. You're on Agent iPod Thief's team, right?"

"Director… uh, iPod Thief. Yes, he's my boss."

"Well." Darcy put her hands on Jemma's hips; the scientist's heart started to pound erratically. "Mind if I take you out for drinks?"

"Oh, I'd love t—"

"Dr. Simmons, may I remind you that you were about to go to bed?" JARVIS interjected. "You have been awake for approximately thirty hours, and you have worked for most of that time without interruption."

"Jeez, you scientists are all the same," Darcy said, steering Jemma to the lift. "Go get some sleep. I bet you'll need coffee when you wake up. We can get some later."

"But I want to talk to you," Jemma whined. Darcy laughed. It was such a pretty sound. Jemma sighed, and leaned against her as the lift began to ascend.

"We're talking now."

"Not what I'd like to talk about."

"Aw." Darcy kissed the top of her head. "I wanna get to know you, too, baby. But you need to sleep first."

"Darcy…"

"I love an English accent. Living in London taught me that."

"Mmm." Jemma rubbed her nose in Darcy's hair. "Would you like me to talk dirty to you?"

"Oh yeah. I'd love that. When you're awake."

She helped Jemma through to her bedroom. Jemma curled up on top of the sheets, now feeling her tiredness. There was no way she intended to attempt getting changed.

"G'night," she said through a yawn.

"Good morning," Darcy said, grinning. She kissed Jemma's cheek, and left her to fall asleep. The last thing she heard was, "Oh, she's so cute…"

After a very light, very late lunch, Jemma sought out her soulmate. She could hardly believe that she'd finally found her. And for it to be Jane Foster's famous intern? Jemma couldn't have possibly felt more lucky. The woman was witty, beautiful, and shared Jemma's habit of knocking people out with handheld electrical devices. As far as she was aware, Darcy's knowledge of bio-science was limited, but that didn't matter. Jemma knew nothing about political science.

Honestly? She could use some of Darcy's light to beat away the demons of HYDRA.

Oh dear. HYDRA. What if they went after her?

"Hey, sleepyhead," Darcy said when Jemma entered the lab. She was with Dr. Foster, who looked up and smiled when Darcy nudged her.

"You're Darcy's soulmate?" she said.

"Yes. It's a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Foster. I'm afraid I haven't really followed your work all that much, but we have used your readings before, and the team was in Greenwich following your… debacle there."

"Dude, you were in London at the same time as us?" Darcy said, wide-eyed. "Why couldn't we have met there? So much wasted time."

"I'm afraid it was a bit of a fly-in-fly-out visit. It's just as well. We don't always deal well with alien technology."

Jumping out of a plane to save her team… Ward being taken over by the Berserker staff… Trip dying underground…

"You okay?" Jemma had spaced out, and Darcy was holding her by the elbows. "Jem, are you alright? You kinda left us there for a minute."

"Bad experiences, that's all," she murmured.

"Well, not to worry! I know a doughnut place around the corner. Wanna come with? We can have coffee, get to know each other, arrange more dates. We've gotta set up a custody schedule as well, so I can see you more." Darcy bumped her nose against Jemma's, keeping her attention. "You don't have to tell me about these bad experiences, although it makes me wanna go after them with my taser."

"We know it works on aliens," Jane piped up. "Go on, Dr. Simmons. Darcy's gonna complain to me if she has to wait any longer to be alone with you."

"You ready to go?" Darcy said. "My treat." She held out her hand, and Jemma took it with a smile.

"I'd love to go with you," she said.

She would never know what possessed her, but she raised Darcy's hand and placed a kiss on the back of it. Almost immediately, she realised what she had done, and gaped in horror.

"I'm so sorry, I don't know what made me do that," she said. Darcy laughed.

"Looks like gallantry crosses gender," she said. "Hey, Jane. I think my soulmate's just as chivalrous as yours."

"Looks like," Jane said. Jemma clapped her free hand to her cheek.

"How embarrassing," she said. Skye would never let her live it down if she found out.

"Does that make you the guy in the relationship?" Darcy asked. "Because I'm cool with either role."

"Oh my God…"

"You're the one paying for coffee," Jane said.

"True, but I'm trying to determine who wears the strap-on."

Jemma's face flooded with red. "Can we please just go now?"

"Sure thing, sweetie," Darcy said. "See you later, Jane. Don't forget to keep up your liquids. Sports drinks are in the fridge."

"Got it," Jane replied.

"Come on," Darcy continued, leading Jemma back to the lift. "We've gotta go before Coulson notices that I've stolen you for the day."

"O-okay," Jemma said, flummoxed. Was she still asleep? Because her dreams were far less confusing than this.

However, the kiss Darcy coaxed out of her in the lift was real enough.

I wanted happy fic for Darcy. Happy chapter between the angst.

So I'm sorry for not posting anything yesterday. I've been working on the next chapter, and it's proving more difficult than I anticipated. It's kind of grown out of control, and I'm not sure whether or not there's going to be a dominant pairing. There was supposed to be! Then stuff happened, and there was crying, and now I'm confused!

Please review. Shorter chapter, but still happy. It's the longer chapters which have the angst.