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She’s in the gym showers after a workout, washing her hair, not knowing anything about the incursion into the tower, when the water turns off. She spins around to face whoever’s responsible, ignoring the fact that she’s naked and dripping water and soap everywhere.
“Dude!” She snaps.
“You are not safe.” The Winter Soldier says in a quiet voice. “This building is under attack.”
“JARVIS, my man?” She asks and is met with silence. “Oh shit…”
“You are not safe.” The Soldier repeats.
“Fuck being safe.” She snaps. “Who is it and why are they here?”
“AIM and Hammer.” The Soldier replies. “I am uncertain of their intended target. Sources are in conflict as they indicate multiple targets.”
“Targets?”
“One team is here to incapacitate the Avengers. Another is to retrieve data from a science lab. A third is to retrieve information from the building’s security servers.”
“Janey?!”
“Janey?” The Soldier repeats.
“Janey. Jane Foster. My boss-lady.”
“You are Darcy Anne Lewis, Laboratory Assistant to Dr Jane Foster. Her work is the primary target of the second team.” The Soldier states.
“Shit.” She steps out of the shower and stops. She looks down and frowns. “Hmm. Don’t fancy working my way through the tower, naked.”
“Although pleasing to the eye, it is not tactically advised.” The Soldier agrees.
She reaches out and grabs a towel. “Got a small knife I can borrow?”
The Soldier frowns. “A towel is little better than naked.”
“A towel is a lot better than naked, if I can get it to stay up without having to hold it up. Hence, the borrowing of a knife.”
The Soldier nods. His hand disappears behind his back and re-appears holding a tiny knife, less than three inches long.
“Ooh, nice. Thanks, dude.” She wraps the towel around her body and does something with the knife and when her hands fall to her sides, the towel stays where she put it. “Much better. I don’t suppose you know where Janey is? Have Hammer’s douches taken her out of the tower, yet?”
“Negative.” The Soldier replies and she starts to slump. “Dr Jane Foster is current being held in the penthouse, along with Rogers, Wilson, Stark, Romanov, Barton, Odinson and Potts. All are restrained, most have been sedated. Banner is secure on the 82nd floor.”
“Hulk room.” She nods.
“No, restrained and sedated but still in the primary laboratory.”
“Ooh, that’s going to be nasty when he wakes up.” She grimaced.
“Agreed.” The Soldier nods.
“Right. So, Janey is in the penthouse?”
“Yes.”
“Want to help a girl out?” She gives him a savage grin. “Someone's going down. If anyone has laid a hand on my boss-lady, I’m a gonna rip ‘em to shreds.”
“What assistance is required?” The Soldier’s stilted manner of speaking was slowly being eroded, the longer they talked.
“Don’t suppose you’d lend a gun?” She raised a hopeful brow.
“Can you use this?” The Soldier holds out a CZ75.
“Yes, not for too long though, maybe thirty or forty shots. After that, my fingers cramp, the reach is a little too long.”
“I only have one standard magazine for it.” He lets the gun lay flat on his hand.
“Twenty shots I can handle.” She nods and giving him time to pull away, she reached for the gun. He doesn’t hesitate to allow her to take it. She ejects the magazine and checks that its fully loaded, before re-inserting it into the gun.
He looks down towards the floor. “Shoes?”
She looks at her feet. “Shoes.” She nods and shoves her feet into a pair of flimsy loafers. “Good to go, Soldier.” She nods towards the door.
“Do you know a way to the penthouse, that doesn’t use the main trafficked corridors?” The Soldier asks.
“Yep.” She grins. “Following me? Or should I give directions?”
“You take point. I’m not familiar with the building’s layout.” The Soldier frowns. “I can find no sense in it.”
“No, there possibly isn’t any. This is Tony Stark we’re talking about here. Sense doesn’t enter his brain at the best of times.”
“I’ve noticed.” He grunts.
“Let’s get this done, I’ve still got shampoo in my hair and if it dries, it’s going to itch.” She huffs and leaves the gym.
They reach the foyer that leads into the penthouse and carefully, the Soldier extends a mirror around the corner.
“Six hostiles. Eight hostages.” He tells her in a near whisper.
She looks at him. “I got this.” The expression on her face bodes badly for whoever gets in her way. She backs up and starts to make panicked noises as she hurries towards the open penthouse doors, seemingly unaware of either the hostages or intruders. But as soon as she’s got clear of the door, shots ring out.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
All six of the hostiles are on the ground. All of them shot in the right shoulder, causing them to drop their weapons and cry out in shock.
She doesn’t stop until she is in front of a pretty, young brunette woman, who is holding a cuffed hand to her cheek. The Soldier recognises the woman from his observations, as Dr Jane Foster.
“Are you injured anywhere else?” Darcy Lewis asks.
“I tripped on the stairs.” Foster says. “My ankle hurts and my arm was yanked.”
“Your face? Which one?” The towel-wearing woman asks.
Foster points to one guy writhing in the floor, shot in the shoulder and to another resting back against the wall. “Those two.”
“Both of them?”
“Both of them.” Foster nods.
Darcy walks over to the closest man, he’s on the floor, his eyes are wide in shock, blood flowing freely from his shoulder wound. She lifts her gun and without hesitation squeezes the trigger.
Bang.
She ignores his splattered head and spasming body and heads for the other man.
“You can’t kill him.” The Soldier walks into the penthouse, causing all six Avengers to start in alarm.
“Why not?” She asks, in a bland voice.
“You kill him, you won’t find out who sent him.” The Soldier is ignoring the struggling Avengers, switching his focus between Darcy and the penthouse's entry.
“So?”
“Was he sent for Janey or was she just in the wrong place, at the wrong time?”
“Huh.” She grunts in disgust.
“Besides, you only had one magazine, you’ve got no bullets left.”
She snorts. “Sneaky Sneaky McSilent, if you think I need bullets to kill him, you haven’t been paying attention.”
She turns to Foster. “Close your eyes, Janey.” She waits until the woman’s eyes obediently close and jumps on the guy’s leg, snapping it loudly, then talks around behind him and kicks him in the back of the hips, hard.
“That’s your pelvis broken, asshole.” She says brightly.
“Darcy-“ A large blonde man… Steve, the Soldier thinks… starts to talk.
“Shut it.” Darcy doesn’t even look in his direction.
“I would suggest allowing Miss Lewis to control the situation, Captain, she’s been quite efficient in reducing the number of hostile intruders, since leaving the gymnasium.” JARVIS’ voice emerged from nowhere. “My systems are compromised, I can only communicate in the penthouse, all other areas are input only. I am in the process of regaining control but that may take a few more minutes.”
She crouches down beside the invader, ignoring the A.I’s comment and the fact that she’s only wearing a towel. “If I do that here”, she touches a finger to a point higher up his back, “you’ll never walk again. If I do it here,” a point higher again. “you’ll never use your arms again.” A third point, “here and you’re on a respirator for life. So...? You tell my sneaky friend here, everything he wants to know and I might, repeat might, leave it at point number one.”
Soldier asks his questions.
“Who sent you?”
“Who was you target?”
“What was the mission brief?”
“What is your egress plan?”
“Who is your handler?”
After listening to the whimpering invader's answers, Darcy asks JARVIS to hack her phone, which is still in the gym bathroom and to call the number listed as Unca P.
“Certainly, Miss Lewis.” JARVIS replies and those in the penthouse can hear the tone ring three times before it connects, to silence.
“Wanna explain why a team are here, claiming Hammer and AIM sent them to take down the Avengers long enough for teams to grab a copy of JARVIS and Janey’s life’s work? I thought you dealt with Hammer?” She doesn’t bother with greetings.
“Miss Lewis-“ The voice is familiar but the Soldier can’t place it. The Avengers and the two extra women gasp as they recognise the speaker.
“Do I need to go and visit him myself?” She snaps.
“No, Miss Lewis.” The Soldier identifies the voice. Phillip J Coulson, SHIELD handler.
“Then get it done, two of his men hit Janey.” Darcy said coldly.
Coulson draws in a sharp breath. “How many?”
The Soldier doesn't pretent to not understand the question and when Darcy raises and eyebrow at him, he answers for her. “Twenty-four dead. Nineteen shot, four knifed, one snapped neck, one injured. Twenty bullets, no misses.”
“She shot someone twice?” Coulson asks curiously.
“Once in the shoulder, then in the head after hearing that he’d hit Janey.” The soldier replies.
“Hn, that’s fair.” Coulson agrees. “Who are you?”
“Hers.” The Soldier with a single word.
“Excuse me?” Darcy and Coulson both say.
“I am the Winter Soldier and, apparently, I’m also James Buchannan Barnes. I need someone that can deal with pretty much anything, while I get my head back under my control and so far, she’s the only one that I know of that can take down three teams of heavily armed hostiles, wearing a towel and dripping shampoo, armed with only a handgun.” Soldier looked pointedly at the liquid splatting on the floor behind her.
“A towel?” Coulson asks, ingoring the rest of the Soldier's comments.
“I was washing my hair in the gym’s showers when someone…”, she gives the Soldier a half-hearted glare, “turned the water off, before I’d rinsed it out. I’ve got soap everywhere. Oh, and I’m in the penthouse with the team listening in.”
“Of course, you are, Miss Lewis…” The Avengers all heard the resignation in his voice.
“Fix it, Phillip. Or I will.”
“Would you like my shirt?” The Soldier asks.
She looks at him for a moment and nods “Yes, please. Gimme.” Turns to Stark, where he lays cuffed hand and foot and propped against the floor to ceiling windows. “Where’s your bathroom?”
“Through there.” He nods to a door, off to his right, it’s the only movement he can make without risking tipping himself onto his side.
The Soldier, meanwhile, has pulled off his jacket and then his shirt and holding it out to Darcy.
“Thanks, wait here for me?” She takes the shirt and studies the scarring around his left shoulder.
“Yes.” He nods.
“Steve?” Darcy speaks over her shoulder without turning around.
“Darcy?” Steve can’t believe what Darcy’s just done and doesn’t know whether to look at her, the men on the floor or the Soldier, who is clearly not Bucky Barnes, not yet anyway.
“Leave him be, give me a week before you start whining about wanting Bucky back.” Darcy walks into Stark’s bathroom and the Avengers can hear the water start.
“Is she taking a shower?” Stark asks, his brows rising.
“I would assume so, yes. I interrupted her last one.” Soldier answers, keeping a gun in his hand and an eye on the penthouse’s entryway.
“Huh.” Stark grunts. “So… hers, huh?”
“Yes.” The Soldier nods.
“Tell her to call her father, he needs to know.” Coulson said.
“To know what? That I’m hers or what she did?” The Soldier asks, tilting his head and letting his curiosity show.
“Both, but mostly the first.” Coulson answered.
“How’s he going to react?” Stark asked, ever curious.
“Knowing him? Probably, a lot of swearing but he knows her, he knows how important Dr Foster is to her and how far she’ll go to protect those she claims as hers.” Coulson replies.
“She hasn’t claimed me, not yet anyway.” The Soldier objected.
“Yes, I have.” Darcy re-emerges from the bathroom wearing the Soldier’s shirt, it nearly reaches her knees and she’s tied it off with one of Stark’s silk ties.
“Good look, Lewis.” Stark waggled his brows.
“Call your father, Miss Lewis. If you plan on keeping Sargent Barnes, you’ll need him on your side.”
“If my father wants to keep his sanity, he’ll leave me and mine alone.” Darcy snarled, before turning to soldier. “Can you carry Janey for me?”
“Where’re we going?” His voice was considerably more casual than when she first seen him in the gym’s spartan bathroom, fifteen minutes ago. Was it only fifteen minutes? Really?
“Medical, she needs to be looked at.” Darcy looks at the rest of the avengers. “You lot can get yourselves out of this.”
“But Darcy, I-“ Clint started.
“Lady Darcy-‘ Thor began at the same time.
“Zzzt…” Darcy hissed at them and they fell silent. “You know what I did in New Mexico, Thor, I did it to you. And I warned you what I’d do, if you ever let Janey get hurt, didn’t I?”
“Yes, Lady Darcy.” Thor ducked his head.
“And what happened?”
“I let her get hurt.” Thor muttered, looking at the floor.
“You let her get hurt.” Darcy nodded. “I told you… never let Janey get hurt. So? Suck it up.” She tilted her head to the ceiling. “JARVIS connect me to Director Fury.”
The call buzzed twice before a sharp voice answered.
“Fury.”
“Wanna explain how Justin Hammer sent a team after Janey, pops?’ Darcy’s voice was sweet and innocent and all the more dangerous for it.
“Motherfucker…” Fury swore.
“His people hit her.”
“Darcy…” Fury’s voice was suddenly worried.
“Oh and I have a new treasure.” Darcy grinned at the Soldier, who gave her a pleased look in return.
“Oh shit, who now…?”
“Introduce yourself, Tesoro.”
“How?”
“However you like.”
“The Winter Soldier, also known as James Buchannan Barnes.”
“….” There was a short series of clunks and thumps from the other end of the call and the sound of a chair rolling across a hard floor.
“I think he fainted.” The Soldier said, raising an eyebrow with a hint of a smile on his lips.
“Yeah, he’s a wuss.” Darcy shrugged. “Time for us to go.” She gestured towards Janey, who sighed but obediently held up her arms to be picked up.
“Yes, Darcy.” Both the Soldier and Janey said.
She waited while Soldier gathered Janey into his arms before leading him out of the penthouse.
Stark turned to the rest of the avengers “What just happened? Did that really just happen?”
“Did anyone else hear the Intern call Director Fury, pops?” Clint asked.
“I’m a little more concerned about what she said she’d do if Janey got hurt.” Sam looked at each person.
“She’d burn everything we hold dear, down to ashes, and make us watch.” Thor said.
“And the look in her eyes, says that she’ll do it.” Natasha agreed.
“So, what you’re saying is don’t mess with the Intern?” Stark asked.
“Don’t mess with Janey.” Natasha corrected. “The Intern is quite happy to enter a prank war with Clint or Tony, so it’s not about her.”
“It’s about those she considers as more vulnerable.” Thor said.
“She thinks the Winter Soldier is vulnerable?” Natasha blinked.
“Did you not hear him?” Thor replied. “He said that his head was not under his control. That he needed someone strong enough to deal with whatever comes his way. Be-it to take down a team of potential assassins or someone to simply watch his back while he regains that control.”
Over the still connected phoneline, there was the sound of a door opening. “Sir? Sir?” Coulson’s voice was heard again.
“He didn’t take it well, Agent Agent.” Stark said.
“Oh, dear.” Coulson sighed. “Darcy?”
“She’s gone, along with her pets.” Stark said. “Down to medical, she wants Foster looked at. These guys of Hammer’s yanked her about a bit.”
“Perhaps, you would be so kind as to warn the medical staff, that the Winter Soldier is under Darcy’s command, Mr Stark?”
“JARVIS should already have done that, if he’s got control of his systems, back.”
“I have, sir and I have control again.” JARVIS answered.
“Excellent.” Coulson said. “Now I just have to wake the director.”
“Pour a bucket of water over him.” Steve said, his voice hard. “He deserves it for lying to us. He told us you were dead.”
There was silence from the other end of the line that was followed by a splashing sound and someone spluttering and swearing.