Chapter Text
It took a few days, but in the end Darcy said yes.
She didn’t start right away though. She had to sign multiple employment contracts and even stricter non-disclosure agreements than working in the labs had required. Her security clearance had to be corrected back to what it was before the attack and Hill’s adjustments, and then she had to wait for it to go through the bureaucratic red tape to be set high enough so she could work with multiple levels of agents.
Her patience paid off though. Three weeks after Hill walked into the lab and offered her that packet of papers, she received an email directing her to report for duty the next day for her new position.
Jane sighed when Darcy told her but in the end she just smiled and told her to take the rest of the day to take care of whatever she needed to go and get ready. Darcy gave her a hug in thanks and left the lab to head home and start wrangling together a great first day outfit.
She was almost home when she got a message from Clint. He’d left a few days ago for parts unknown, Darcy not privy to the info because of her clearance level, so she was surprised when his name appeared on her screen. She laughed when she saw the message was a picture of Clint trying to give her a thumbs up, a blur of what looked like Sitwell trying to grab the phone from him, and Natasha in the background holding someone in a headlock. The caption that came with it read “Welcome to the crazy. You’ll do great.”
Darcy smiled at his words of encouragement and spent the rest of the train ride home with a smile on her face.
The next day Darcy arrived at SHIELD early. She’d been spoiled with Jane and her lab schedule of late morning starts and work that ran well into the night, but her years of college before Jane had been full of early morning classes, so it wasn’t that hard of a stretch to have herself at headquarters at eight am sharp.
A cheery looking woman with flame red hair met her at the security desk. “Hi there,” she said, holding out a hand with a smile. “I’m Henrietta.”
Darcy smiled in reply and shook her hand. “I’m guessing you’re my guide for the day?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” Henrietta said, she handed Darcy a badge and a folder. “That’s your new proximity card. You’ll need that to get on and off the floors delegated for the administrative staff. No sharing, no piggybacking.” She turned and began walking briskly down towards the elevators. “Despite what some may think, we are not just secretaries and go fers for the agents. We have work to do, and our work requires the same security precautions as the agent’s floors.”
“Security’s important, got it,” Darcy said.
Henrietta led her onto an elevator full of agents. “Admin, level 5,” she said briskly. The elevator pinged acknowledgement and Darcy felt the tug in her stomach as the elevator began to move upwards. It stopped at the second and third floors to drop of several of the agents and that pinged at them when their reached their destination. Henrietta strode out briskly and Darcy followed in her wake. Henrietta swiped her badge at a pedestal that blinked at her and Darcy followed her example and did the same. As she led Darcy through the floor she continued to speak.
“There are thirty administrative assistants on this floor. Five for each major department of SHIELD. We receive all requests from each department, process what needs to be done to ready it, and have it sent on to the appropriate agent who’s at the clearance level to handle it.”
Darcy stared out at the sea of desks before her on the admin floor. They were blocked in groups of three, and the mix of men and women alike moved among their cluster of desks busy with intent, not a single person without a tablet or set of folders in their hands. Along one wall was a set of five offices. Glass was clear on some of them, but frosted on others. She watched as one of the closed doors opened and the frost on the glass turned clear. The other walls held various screens showing various news feeds, some security feeds, and one showed a map with a blinking dot moving on it from place to place.
“Any questions so far?” Henrietta asked.
“Who uses the offices?” Darcy asked.
Henrietta pointed at each individually as she said, “Agents Sitwell, Hill, Woo, Hand, and formerly Coulson.” She shrugged at Darcy’s curious look. “No one’s willing to take it just yet. Rumor has it we’ll meet the new occupant within a few weeks. For right now, though, Hill is here the most often with the others constantly out in the field or somewhere else in the building, so we never really see them.”
Darcy nodded. “Good to know.”
“I’ll show you your desk,” Henrietta said. She led Darcy down past the first of the desks to the middle of the floor and said, “You’ll be working with Allison and me.” A petite brunette waved at Darcy. “Your login is already set up and you’ll need to do a new password. Allison will take you through the basics of the system for the next few couple hours and later I’ll introduce you to the department you’ll be handling. I was hoping to know it when you got here but they’re still working on some of the paperwork for it. Half of us break for lunch at twelve, and the other a half hour later. You’re free to choose which time.”
“Thanks,” Darcy said.
Henrietta grabbed some files off her desk, said “I’ll be floating around between here and records, lemme know if you need anything.”
Allison gave a little wave and she and Darcy stared awkwardly at each other and Darcy said, “So, what time do you go to lunch?”
“12:30,” Allison said.
“Food better?” Darcy asked.
Allison smirked. “It’s when special ops meets. Better view.”
Darcy grinned. “Nice.” She pulled out the largest drawer on the desk and saw it was empty except for a black lockbox, similar to the ones she knew Clint and other agents probably used for handguns. She ignored it and threw in her purse and slammed the drawer shut. “So!” Darcy chirped. “Show me the ropes!”
SHIELD admin, Darcy soon realized, dealt with a lot of paperwork. Allison took her through at least fifty different forms before lunch came even close. She was actually explaining the different types of requisition forms SHIELD used for bullets when her phone rang. She grabbed it without looking at the caller ID and said, “Darcy Lewis speaking.”
“So professional,” Clint teased over the line.
Darcy rolled her eyes. “Hi, Clint.”
Allison raised her eyebrows in curiosity but Darcy waved her off. “Just wanted to see how the job’s going.”
“I’ve been her three hours so far and most of what I’ve done is learn about requisition forms.”
“Sounds fun,” Clint said.
“Says the man who I know never does paperwork. And I know this because Bruce told me so when I had to help deliver his paperwork for him on the last mission.”
Clint chuckled. “Touché. Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing. Wanna join me for lunch?”
“I thought you were somewhere classified?” Darcy asked.
She could almost hear him shrug through the phone. “Mission finished early. Natasha got a little carried away and they want us to debrief fury in person before we head out again. We’re actually on our way back right now, should be there in a few hours.”
“Sure,” Darcy said. She spun in her chair and smiled at her desk mate. “12:30 okay?” she asked with a smile.
“Sounds good,” Clint said. “Hey, what department are you handling?”
“No idea,” Darcy replied. “I find out after lunch.”
A boom went off in the background and Darcy heard someone yell, “Barton!”
“Was that Sitwell?” Darcy asked. “What did you do?” she asked accusingly.
“Gotta go!” Clint said. “See you at lunch!”
The phone clicked and Darcy stared down as the dial tone sounded off. Darcy rolled her eyes at Clint’s antics and threw her phone back on the desk. Allison eyed her curiously and she grinned. “Wanna have lunch with an Avenger?”
‘Avenger’ turned into Avengers, plural. Clint brought Steve along and Darcy brought Allison and Henrietta. She grinned at Henrietta’s look of brief shock before she turned it into one of polite professionalism as the two blonde men smiled at the women.
“Hi, Steve,” Darcy greeted.
“Hello Ms. Lewis,” Steve said. “How’s your day going?”
“Pretty good,” Darcy said. “Mostly just learning about paperwork right now.”
“Sounds educating,” Steve said.
Darcy shrugged. “I guess. Allison’s helping make it fun.”
The brunette shrugged. “I’m trying. Darcy’s picking it up pretty quick though.”
“Yeah. Hey! Did you know there’s a set of forms you can fill out if your twin has taken over your identity?”
Clint chuckled and Steve looked at him confusedly before he said, “I’ll tell you later.”
“Ooh!” Darcy said excitedly. “Tell us now! Tell us now!”
Clint shook his head. “No, I don’t want to traumatize you.”
Darcy snorted. “I once let you shoot arrows at me while I danced around juggling knives. I’m pretty sure I can handle an evil twin story.”
Clint grinned at that while Steve and Henrietta stared at the two of them in shock. He was opening his mouth to tell the story when his phone went off. He checked it quickly and he sighed. “Gotta go,” he said. “Fury wants us to debrief now.”
Darcy smiled and waved him off. “Have fun! Be careful!”
“Always do!” Clint quipped, grabbing his dessert of his tray before diving out of his seat with Steve following behind him.
Henrietta joined Darcy and Allison in watching him go. As the varied people who jumped out of their way resumed their paths across the cafeteria Henrietta asked curiously. “Was he responding to being careful or having fun?”
Darcy shrugged from where she was stealing Steve’s abandoned desert off his tray. “Having fun. Cause knowing Clint, he’s never careful.”
Later, Darcy regretted that extra dessert when she felt upchucking it at the sight of her desk. Allison patted her on the shoulder and went to sit at her own.
“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” Darcy said, her tone slightly hysterical.
Henrietta joined her in standing before her desk and staring slack jawed at a precariously leaning tower of forms, folders, and other administrative paraphernalia.
“Wow,” Henrietta said. “That’s…intimidating.”
A young agent in a crisp blue suit came up to them carrying two rather full boxes of files, dropped them on the desk, causing a pile of papers to slip to the floor, turned to a staring Darcy and Henrietta, shrugged, and walked away.
“Um, what the fuck?” Darcy asked.
“I think this is the stuff for the department you’re taking care of,” Henrietta said. She skirted around the mess on the floor and went to her monitor. She logged in quickly and scanned through her email quickly before frowning, typing furiously, and then standing straight again. “Well, there’s good news and bad news,” Henrietta said. “Which do you want first?”
Darcy gestures at the pile of paper. “Is it worse than this?”
Henrietta eyed the paper warily. “Maybe?” she said.
Darcy sighed and Allison piped up. “Good news good news!”
“SHIELD trusts your capabilities to the point where they are having you be one of three sole handlers of your department.”
“How’s that good news?” Darcy asked, pulling a box off her chair and dropping it to the floor with a thud.
Alison leaned around the leaning tower of paper. “It’s the equivalent of going from probie-noob to seasoned agent in like, a minute. So it’s a major coup.”
“Allison and I will be helping you with the backlog, but once that's caught up and your handling agent transfers in, you’ll be expected to handle a lot of it with them and another admin,” Henrietta said. “All possible work that needs to be handled in the field will be traded off between you and the other admin.”
“And the bad news?” Darcy asked.
Henrietta sighed. “This is the department no one really wants to handle. There’s a lot of…complications with it.”
Allison gasped realization and Darcy frowned at her. “Complications how?” Darcy asked.
Henrietta eyed Allison and then said, “You’re handling the Avengers administrative organization. A lot of the missions and agents involved with the Avengers are highly classified, so only certain people can handle the paperwork. Due to the limitations of certain security levels and the lack of admin for it, it’s gotten a bit backlogged with the paperwork.”
Darcy looked at her desk. Fearing the answer she asked. “How much of a backlog is this?”
Henrietta eyeballed the paperwork. “You’re looking at about months’ worth right here.”
There was a wary look in her eye so Darcy said, “But…?”
Henrietta sighed. “There’s about another four months’ worth down in the archives, and then another six that’s currently being stored in the triskelion. That will be shipped in at a later date once you and a cleared agent can be sent to retrieve it.”
Darcy’s eyebrows went as high as they could. Her gaze darted back and forth between the two women and the paperwork before she just blew a raspberry and shrugged. “I was bound to get blown up in the labs eventually,” she said. She stretched her back out, cracked her knuckles, and grabbed some paperwork off the desk before getting to work.