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Coulson had his best kept secret hidden for so long.
Darcy Lewis lived by a code and SHIELD understood it. They still called her in to do the "wet work". That was a nicer way of saying that she killed the people who straddled the line. The agents who were working for Hydra while they worked under Nick Fury.
Darcy, like the Black Widow knew that there was a distinct grey area. A murky underworld where men and women wore masks while they plotted for the enemy.
And Darcy knew that these traitors needed to vanish off the face of the earth without any trace. She also had to make the kills look clean so that it could never be linked with Coulson or SHIELD. Not now, when they were still trying to gain the world's support against Hydra.
So on a muggy Friday night, Darcy Lewis dressed in a red dress that had been selected for her and she went to kill a man.
He was feeding intel to Hydra and he had to be silenced. Her resolve was firm because Hydra were still after Bucky.
Darcy would do anything to protect him. He had suffered enough.
She went to the fundraiser and it should have all gone to plan. But the mark had security and after she had broken his neck on the patio, she had been chased.
The mark had been soft, easy to dispose but his people had hurt her.
She opened the door to her apartment carefully, knowing that Bucky would be fast asleep.
Darcy had told him that it was a simple recon mission and he had believed her. Now, tears tracked down her bruised face as she walked in the darkness of her home.
She ached and she was hurt. The last guy who had attacked her had managed to get a few good shots in.
She took off her high heels and dropped them on the way to the bathroom.
Her knees had rubble ground into them and it burned. She wobbled and she had to use the walls to aid her passage.
Darcy needed to get cleaned up. Bucky could not see her like this. She was not weak and she was not a victim.
She listened carefully as she passed her bedroom. Bucky slept like the dead. She hoped that he hadn't heard her.
She opened her bathroom door and switched on the light.
Darcy had never been one to cry or give into emotion but she had been hurt. Her red dress was filthy from rolling around on the ground. The neckline was ripped and there was blood on the skirt of the dress. The rusty copper smell lingered on her body.
Some of it was hers.
Her hair was a mess. The bad guys had tried to beat her as if she was a man. Hydra saw no distinction between the sexes. They hurt everyone.
She leaned on the wash basin. Her head swam from been knocked against a pillar. She opened the medicine cabinet and took out a pill bottle. She tossed two painkillers in her mouth and used the cup on the basin. She filled it with cold water and washed the pills down.
Oh, how her throat hurt. She swallowed with some difficulty. It felt like her throat had been filled with razor blades. She closed the cabinet and tilted her head back.
There were finger marks around her throat. She didn't even remember that. Someone had tried to strangle her before she had killed them all.
Darcy grimaced. Her friends at Stark tower still had no idea of what she did. Only a select few had been told of her secret identity. She would have to call Jane and take a few sick days.
She gingerly touched her throat and she hissed at the pain. They had strangled her, but no bones were broken thankfully.
Darcy took the pins out of her hair and let her dark curls tumble down over her shoulders. She could leave her hair unbound to cover the marks perhaps. She didn't want Bucky seeing her like this. He had his own nightmares to deal with.
It wasn't often that she was hurt in the field but she was just a human girl. It was harder now that Bucky was living with her and she had to share her secrets with him.
She opened the taps and filled the bathtub up with steaming hot water. As the room filled with steam, she let the tears come. Tears of anger and pain. No one had hurt her like this. She had taken blows to the head and the ribs. She felt her side and she didn't even bother to look at her body.
Darcy hoped that the running water would cover up the sound of her sobs. With great difficulty, she took the dress off. Her underwear was harder because her back and her hands hurt.
She looked down when her hand burned under the hot water, her knuckles were busted. She had gone in with a gun and that alone had been hard to smuggle in but one girl against four huge guys? She had been lucky to kill them all and get out of there.
Coulson trusted her but sometimes she questioned her path. No one knew who she really was.
Her entire body protested as she sunk into the water but she needed to get cleaned up. Bucky shouldn't have to see her like this. He deserved better. He had seen enough destruction in his life and now, he had fallen in love with someone who could only be described as Lady Death.
"Darcy? Is that you?" His voice was rough on the other side of the closed door.
She sunk lower in the water and tried to clear her throat. "Yes its me, I'm just having a soak." She tried for levity, hoping that he would go away.
But he knew her better than she knew herself.
"Darcy, are you okay sweetheart?"
"I'm fine," she hardened her voice.
Without hesitation, he opened the door. They had no boundaries between them, not when their souls had been stripped bare.
Bucky stormed in, his long hair wild and his eyes dark. He froze as he saw her. "What happened?"
She found that she couldn't speak. She didn't want to admit the truth.
"No, sweetheart." His knees seemed to give out as he lowered himself against the side of the tub to look at her. His fingers brushed her wet hair off her face.
His eyes glistened with unshed tears as he saw the bruises on her cheekbone and he actually growled when he saw her throat. Bucky dropped his head and he saw the dress, utterly destroyed.
"Who did this?" The Winter Soldier came to the surface.
Darcy sat up as best as she could. "They are all dead Bucky. I made sure of it." Her eyes were wide as she stared into the depths of his haunted mind.
"I would kill them all." He swore in Russian as his metal hand brushed against her fragile throat. "Your face, Darcy. They hurt you."
She started sobbing in earnest then. "It'll get better." She promised.
Bucky stood up and easily lifted her out of the tub. Even though she was soaking wet, he cradled her in his strong arms.
They sat on the cool tile of the floor and Bucky rested against the side of the tub as he rocked her in his arms.
Darcy tucked her head in his shoulder and cried. "I'm fine Bucky." She kept repeating it. To reassure him and herself perhaps.
Bucky pulled away and he gingerly took stock of her bruises.
"I took them all out." Her voice was hard but she needed him to understand. She was still a fighter.
"Good," he breathed as he kissed her cheek.
Darcy pulled away. "You don't mind the fact that you're in love with a monster?" She was prepared for him to leave her, turn his back on their relationship and her.
His face was grim. "You are no monster Darcy Lewis." He placed a gentle kiss on her dry lips.
"But I am," she tried to pull away. She had the blood of so many on her hands.
"When I look at you," he whispered as if he was confiding a great secret, "I see myself. You are the other half of me that I never knew was missing. We are both damaged but we'll do the best that we can to protect those we love."
"Even if our hands are covered in blood," she replied.
"I love you doll," he sighed. "If you ever doubt yourself, then that's what I'm here for."
"I love you too," she tucked her head back against him.
"I will always love you." Bucky took her bruised hand and placed it on his chest. "This heart beats for you."
Darcy held her breath, "I don't know what I would do without you."
Bucky picked her up and placed her on the edge of the tub. He got a clean towel and started drying her off. "You will never be without me."
Darcy held his face between her hands, "You will never be without me either. I would destroy this world to protect you. You are all that matters. Coulson gave me this chance and Steve has offered you a second chance so maybe we can find some redemption."
"I just want to be good enough for you." Bucky's voice was raw.
"You're perfect Bucky Barnes," she kissed him then. Her adrenaline kicking in finally. "I'm glad to be alive." She admitted with a shaky grin.
"You better stay that way, doll." He laughed as he grabbed her robe from behind the door.
"Let's go to bed," Darcy actually yawned. The soft fabric of her robe smelt like home and Bucky.
"I like that idea." He helped her to their room and she wanted to protest when he tucked her in.
Darcy felt Bucky's weight on the bed as he settled in beside her.
She tucked her too cold feet against him and her eyes seemed to close rather quickly. Her body needed rest.
But even as she followed the dream that tugged at her mind, she felt safe because she knew that Bucky was watching over her.
Darcy Lewis finally had something to live for and if the need ever arose, then she would gladly die for him.
Harry would be proud of her.