Chapter Text
College: The Final Frontier.
Well, not exactly the final frontier but standing outside the main building of the 'college' with all her belongings stuffed into a suitcase, a large gym bag and her messenger, Darcy felt it very frontier-like.
"Are you lost, miss?" A concerned voice asked from behind her. She turned and found a fairly familiar face looking at her, though she couldn't place where she knew him from.
"I'm looking for my building" She glanced around at the many entrances to the main building, and the buildings behind that, all without signs or names stamped across them. "They're not exactly labeled."
"Well, maybe I can help you out" He smiled and held his hand out for the welcome package she was holding. She handed it to him, and he glanced over it with a smile. "Ahh, you're in the Carter building, it's this way. I'll show you."
"Thanks" she smiled gratefully and followed the man, who offered to take one of her bags for her. Darcy politely declined the offer.
"I'm Agent Coulson, there's a young woman people have taken to calling my protégée is in the same building as you, Miss Lewis, I'll introduce you."
"Thank you, Agent Coulson" she smiled gratefully again, and realised that this was Fury's right hand man. The one who'd taken a pretty bad hit in New York, and was off all active duty for the foreseeable future. Darcy knew it had something to do with Loki, so she guessed they had a common enemy. She also realized that this was the guy who'd shipped them off to Tromsø. He couldn't have picked somewhere remote, away from Loki, and warm?
"So you transferred from Communications? I didn't realise people moved into Operations from anywhere else. People tend to drop out rather than in" he chuckled and held open a door for her.
"Well, I was coerced by Jane - I mean Dr Foster" She explained and her grin broadened at the sight of the elevator. At least she didn't have to drag her bags up the stairs. "I'd been working with her; analysing data for her. Her research was done and she was coming back. We had some bumps along the way and she said I had the makings of a field agent...So did Thor, so I transferred."
"Well, Jane is a smart woman, I'm sure she's right. And the God of Thunder himself? Wow, I'll be sure to keep my eye on you" The elevator opened to a corridor with five doors. He motioned towards one at the end, "This is yours, I think. Yes, room twelve." He nodded.
A tall brunette came out of the room next to Darcy's, dressed in tac gear and a grim look on her face.
"AC!" She smiled when she saw him. "Please can you talk to May about my training schedule? I'm fairly sure even Widow didn't have this much!"
"Skye, Agent Romanoff was trained in the Red Room" he glanced at her, disapproving of her complaints. "I'm sure we could book you a plane to Russia, if you'd prefer?"
"No, no, that's alright AC" she hurried to say, and started walking towards the elevator. "I'm Skye, by the way! I'll see you later, new neighbor!" She called to Darcy, who smiled and waved.
"I'm Darcy!"
"Well, Miss Lewis, I'll let you get settled in. That was Skye, the woman I told you about. She's a handful, but between May and I we manage to control her" he chuckled, something that Darcy was sure was a rare occurrence with this man. "I do believe you have a few days before your training starts, but you'll have to report to me tomorrow to get your SO."
"Sure thing, Agent Coulson" she nodded and opened the door with the keycard she'd been given, "You don't have any idea who my SO is, do you?"
"Sorry, no. I haven't had a chance to look at any of your files yet" he smiled and held open her door while she put her bags down, "We'll both find out tomorrow, I'll see you then."
He nodded and left. As soon as the door was closed, Darcy sighed and flopped down onto the bed. She'd just been showed to her room by one of SHIELD's top agents, and would be starting life at The Academy in a few days. She had the weekend, at least, to settle in and hopefully meet some people.
She was grateful that Jane had convinced her to transfer to Operations from Communications, even if it did mean leaving the few friends she'd made behind. She was only with Jane in the first place because no one from Science and Technology would work with her on her project in New Mexico, because the entire science community had written her off as a looney. Someone from Communications who could analyse Jane's data was the next best thing, ergo, Darcy got stuck in the desert. Then, Thor fell into their lives and Jane had disobeyed her direct orders to let Barton's team take care of it and did her own thing. She'd put both herself and Darcy, in danger, for a guy. Director Fury wasn't impressed, but he'd let them both off with a warning due to the fact that they didn't 'cock it up as much as they could have done'. Thor asked why someone training to be a field agent was inputting data for a scientist, and was shocked to discover that she was actually in Communications.
So, three days and a call to some higher-ups later, Darcy was enrolled in the Academy of Operations. (Even if she didn't start until almost a year and a half later because Jane still had to finish in New Mexico and then New York happened and she was forced to freeze her ass off in Tromsø, which proved rather fruitful for research, if not Darcy's sanity.)
Yay for her!
Luckily for Darcy, Agent Coulson's office was easy enough to find.
"Into the big white block, into the elevator, top floor, there you go" were Skye's instructions. Darcy had no trouble finding 'the big white block'. It was where Coulson had found her the day before, the main building in The Academy of Operations, and from the outside, it really did just look like a wide, fifteen storey white slab. Inside was much of the same. The wholly white and chrome interior made Darcy feel like she was in a very sterile, futuristic hospital of sorts.
The elevator took her to the highest floor, and opened onto a large, white (she'd be shocked to see anything darker than ivory) room. She'd expected a corridor, but a quick glance around at the extensive size of the room, and the glass windows that go all the way around three of the four walls told her that the entirety of the top floor was Coulson's office.
He sat behind a glass desk which had nothing but a small stack of yellow papers, three black pens and a silver paperweight the shape of an arrow head.
"Ahh, Miss Lewis" he stood from his desk, where he'd been tapping out something on his phone, and walked around the front to shake her hand, "please, take a seat."
Darcy shook his hand and sat down in one of the white leather chairs in front of his desk. She expected Coulson to sit back behind it, but he simply leant against the desk and held a brown folder that had been under the yellow papers.
"Here's your schedule" he handed her a piece of A4 paper, smirking as her eyes bulged at the amount of areas highlighted red, blue and yellow, "as you're now training to be a field agent, well, obviously you're going to have more of a physical timetable."
"Almost half of my time is in the gym!" She exclaimed, raising her eyebrows at Agent Coulson who chuckled and pointed to the colour code at the top. She balked at the amount of time taken up by things like strategy, firearms and well...exercise. She was incredibly grateful for the plain, white boxes that indicated that she would actually have time to eat, shower and sleep at some point between everything.
"Okay, so a little over half my time is spread between the gym, the shooting range and the training rooms...And I realize now that it's only, like, quarter of my time for each. Okay, sorry, I'm not overreacting anymore." She read her schedule more thoroughly now, noting when she had what and where she should go for them.
"You'll report to Agent Barton for firearms, but Agent Romanoff has requested that she oversee your fitness regime. They couldn't agree on who would take hand to hand combat, so you'll have the two of them for that, although with their current status in the media, it's possible that both of them won't always be present. As it stands, both agents are your SOs."
"What?!"
"Sorry, Miss Lewis, was I not clear? Agent Barton will train you in firearms and most likely his medieval, archaic weapon-"
"No, no" Darcy cut him off, smiling apologetically, "I understand, but, why would The Black Widow request me? And why was I assigned Hawkeye in the first place? Don't they both have, you know, Avenging to do?"
"Agent Romanoff's motives may well never be understood, however you could ask her yourself. And as for being assigned to Agent Barton, well, he too requested you, he simply got to Agent Hill before Agent Romanoff could" Coulson handed her the folder then, and she flipped it open. The first page was an account of what happened in New Mexico, written by Clint Barton himself. "It appears you made quite an impression."
"Wow" she said, more to herself than Coulson, as she read over Clint's words. They really did paint her in an awesome light. She noticed that he did leave something out, like how they actually first met, but she wasn't about to drop him or herself in it to Coulson.
"That file contains your Induction papers. There's nothing to fill in, it's just a brief history of S.H.I.E.L.D, the Academy and some other stuff you'll have to read. If you have any questions before your first session on Monday, I'm sure Skye would help you out, if not, you knew where my office is."
"Thank you, Agent Coulson" she nodded and stood, taking his words as a dismissal.
As the elevator doors were about to close and take her down, she heard Coulson say:
"Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D, Agent Lewis."