Chapter Text
The doorbell interrupted Grandpa mid-rant. He glared, but took a swig of beer. Darcy flinched and went back to poking at her meatloaf with her fork as her father got up to answer the door. She heard a short, muffled conversation, then Dad walked back in with a slightly shocked look on his face.
“Darcy, it’s someone from the government,” he said, almost a question. “He gave his name as Coulson.”
Darcy dropped her fork and practically leaped for the entry hall. Her socks slipped on the hardwood floor, sending her almost completely off balance. She managed to stop her forward momentum just before sliding into Coulson. Darcy mock-glared at him. She knew his face well enough to tell when he was hiding a smirk behind that calm expression.
“Miss Lewis, is there anywhere private we can talk?”
She glanced over her shoulder at the dining room, where Grandpa had started on about visitors interrupting dinner and Mom not bothering to hide her interest in what was happening in the hall instead of eating. Darcy grimaced.
“The garden might be best,” she said. “Sound kinda carries in this house.”
Coulson nodded, understanding quite implicitly that ‘sound carrying’ meant her mother snooping at doors. She grabbed her shoes and led him through the kitchen (and the mess of dishes that was her current chore. So what if she couldn’t cook that well? A few burned pasta casseroles shouldn’t have meant her forever delegated to cleanup while she lived at home.) and out the back door into her mother’s pride and joy of a garden.
The early summer Virginia heat swamped them, even though it was six-thirty in the evening and early May. The spring had been a hot one so far. Darcy scowled at the mugginess and led Coulson down a path through blooming foliage to a small bench next to a cherub-bearing fountain. The giant oak tree behind it shaded them from the sun. Coulson sat down beside her. Darcy looked at him askance; he almost looked sad.
“One of our research labs was destroyed last night,” he said softly. “I’m sorry, Miss Lewis. SHIELD has no choice given the circumstances but to take you into protective custody.”
Darcy raised her eyebrows. Seriously? She’d done nothing for the past two years since leaving New Mexico but study. Occasionally talk with Thor. Talk with Jane at least once a week. And make damn sure she wasn’t breaking the nondisclosure agreements she’d signed with regards to SHIELD and, oddly enough, with Asgard. At least she’d had her last exam that morning.
“Coulson, my graduation-,” Darcy said.
He frowned as he interrupted. “I know. Miss Lewis, a threat has come to our attention that has a definitive connection to you-”
”What about my family?” she interrupted with no qualms. If SHIELD had to take her, fine. But her family had better not be touched. She had her taser, dammit. She’d use it if she had to.
“We’re sending routine patrols out,” Coulson said. He sighed. “Pack an overnight bag. And bring whatever items you possess relating to Asgard.”
Darcy’s eyes widened. She glanced at the house, noting the presence of her mother in the kitchen and the open window above the sink. Then up to her bedroom. Anything relating to Asgard? What happened that warranted information on Asgard? She clenched her hands. Had bilgesnipe invaded? She sure hoped not. Thor’s stories about them were crazy.
She took a half-hour to pack everything. Bras, underwear, iPod. Honestly, the important stuff. Her toothbrush. She had no idea what Coulson was telling her family about why she had to leave. It didn’t much matter; she was going regardless of any protests. Darcy glanced at the portrait hanging on her wall and paused. She dug out her phone and took a picture of it. That should satisfy Coulson. It wasn’t going to leave her bedroom. She paused, then held out her right hand and took a picture of the ring. That wasn’t leaving her hand. Everything else Loki had ever given her went into a box. She swung the duffel bag over her shoulder, picked up the box, and went downstairs.
Her mom cried as Darcy shut the front door. An agent grabbed the box from her hands before she could open her mouth to protest. Coulson nodded after the man. Darcy sighed and followed him to the black SUV parked in the street. God, her neighbors would be gossiping about this for weeks. Taken away by the Men In Black. She shoved her duffel bag next to the box and climbed into the rear seat. Coulson settled beside her. The other agent started the vehicle and drove away.
Darcy stared out the window as they drove onto General Ross’ army base outside of town. Trees, cars, buildings, helicopter. Oh boy. She looked at Coulson as they left the car. “Where are we going?”
”New York City,” he said as they settled into the copter. Darcy shoved her bag under the seat and pulled on the headphones he handed her. She clicked to the passenger channel Coulson indicated. The door slammed shut. Darcy clenched her armrests as the chopper lifted off the ground and turned northward. A lot louder than an airplane and quite a bit scarier.
Coulson tapped her shoulder. She turned to him and raised an eyebrow. He pulled a tablet out from the bag at his feet. He paused before handing it to her, then secured the bag again.
“I’m sorry,” he said softy over the radio. “This isn’t going to be easy to watch. But it’s why we had to bring you in. You need to know.”
She took the tablet (of course it was Stark Industries) and tapped the icon on the screen Coulson pointed to. A video began to play, somehow connected to her headphones.
It looked like a gigantic warehouse filled with monitoring devices and what looked like a lit pathway leading towards a wall. Two banners filled the wall, depicting both the NASA and SHIELD logos. Director Fury walked into the room, accompanied by Erik Selvig. Darcy’s stomach swooped and she paused the video.
“Wait,” she said. “Do I even have the clearance to see this?”
“As of now you do.” Coulson sounded grim. She eyed him. That wasn’t normal. She unpaused the recording.
The video was silent, but there was a transcription from some hidden microphones running next to the display. Darcy raised an eyebrow as the machine Erik and the director were examining sent a stream of blue to the opposite end of the room and opened a portal. It resembled a blue Bifrost. She almost dropped the tablet when the kneeling man stood. The editing of the different security feeds coupled with motion of the helicopter sent her stomach swooping. Even more so, the camera focusing on the man’s face and his crazed grin. On Loki’s crazed grin. Darcy swallowed and watched as Loki proceeded to kill several SHIELD agents, use his spear-thing to mind-control several others, and walk out of the room with his agents and the blue box from the machine.
“How did you get the footage?” Darcy asked. “You said the base is gone.”
“All security feeds are backed up on a remote server,” Coulson said. “Do you understand now why we’re bringing you in?”
She nodded. Kinda obvious. “But what about my internship? And more importantly, what was that blue thing?”
”We call it the Tesseract,” Coulson said. “We’ve been investigating it as a clean energy source.”
Darcy just looked at him. Really? Were Stark’s arc reactors not good enough? “Where are we going?” she asked, not willing to get into a pissing contest she wasn’t going to win.
Coulson smiled. “We’re heading to New York to talk with Stark.” His expression turned serious. “You are not leaving my sight until we have reached the helicarrier.”
Oh. He was her keeper. Lovely. Darcy rewound the feed and paused it on a close-up of Loki grinning at Fury. She ran a finger down one virtual cheek and looked up at Coulson.
“Loki’s alive,” she said.
“And as of now, you are SHIELD’s foremost expert on him,” Phil said. “We have been unable to raise Asgard.” He frowned. “We’re moving Doctor Foster as we speak, just to be safe.”
Darcy grimaced and looked back down at the tablet at Loki and his glittering blue eyes. “So what’s the helicarrier?”
”Our mobile base,” Phil said. “It’s probably the safest place in the world right now.” He held out a hand for the tablet. She didn’t give it back.
”Then there’s one thing you need to know, right now,” Darcy said, her voice quite firm. (Yay! She wasn’t giving into her panic yet. Oh, she was so going to need her iPod after this. Whenever they got to the helicarrier, whatever and wherever that was.) Coulson raised an eyebrow. She tapped the screen and took a deep breath. “I don’t think - Loki mentioned something about being given new purpose. I think whoever did that did something to him.”
“Why?”
Darcy wanted to cry and she was not going to. “Loki’s eyes are green.”
The journey to New York stayed quiet after that. Coulson worked silently beside Darcy. She’d glanced over once, bored with the scenery flying by underneath, but he looked like he was in the middle of reading some report on the tablet she’d given back. His brow was furrowed and Darcy sighed and turned back to the buzz of rotors and the window.
She usually liked traveling. She and Charday and Antonio were planning on a car trip after graduation. She had two weeks before starting her internship. They were going up to New York after a long meandering drive up the coast. She had a room in Antonio’s apartment (that her mom had thrown a fit over, her precious daughter living with three boys, gay or not) and a job and a future. It was all Loki’s fault. She couldn’t ever hate him, but it certainly seemed like it for the moment. He’d come back to Earth after disappearing for two years, took out a SHIELD base, and without knowing it, completely fucked up her life.
Fucked up lives. What the hell had happened to him? Loki’s eyes weren’t blue and she shuddered to think of what his ‘new purpose’ was. Darcy shivered and ran her hands up and down her arms. Nothing could successfully distract her now. She glanced at Coulson; he was still reading whatever was on the StarkPad. He had a crisis on his hands. She was just the woman he had to baby-sit. Even if he didn’t seem to mind the responsibility. They’d gotten along fine in New Mexico, she thought. He’d given her an awesome job recommendation. Darcy sighed and resisted the urge to bug him. He had more important things to do than alleviate her boredom.
Darcy thought they were all a bit relieved when they arrived in New York. The sun was just setting and touched the skyscrapers with fire. Coulson ushered her out. Her luggage remained in the helicopter. A black SUV was waiting for them. Coulson slid into the back seat and Darcy sighed and settled beside him.
The traffic was hell. The sun set by the time the SUV arrived at Stark Tower. Darcy gave a low whistle at the sight of it all lit up against the night sky. The arc reactor was working. Holy crap, if she could actually get her internship started in two weeks like she was supposed to, she’d be doing nothing but answering e-mails for weeks. The agent driving shut the SUV down, but remained inside as Coulson and Darcy slid out. Coulson straightened his suit before pulling out his phone. He made a single call. Darcy tagged along after him when he hung up and started walking, carrying a briefcase in one hand. To her surprise, he started talking to the thin air when they went into the elevator. It responded. Coulson introduced her to the voice, calling it JARVIS, and she said hello almost shyly. It wasn’t every day she met an AI controlling a skyscraper. Then Coulson got back on the phone.
When they arrived at the penthouse suite, Stark and Potts were playfully bickering about percentages. Then Stark made a motion with his hands after Potts handed him the screen she’d taken from Coulson. Images flickered to life in holographic displays across the room. Darcy’s jaw dropped. That tech was freaking awesome. She wanted it.
Stark and Potts talked softly for a moment before his attention was caught something on one of the screens. He touched Potts’ shoulder; she stopped talking. Stark rotated the display with his hand. “Hey,” he said. “This is you.”
Darcy blinked. It was a weird angle from Puente Antiguo, from a very shaky camera. Almost like it was on someone. She glanced at Coulson. Button camera? But she nodded, watching as she watched Luke turn into Loki and proceed to rescue Jane.
“And who is that?” Stark pointed at Loki.
“Everything is in the briefing packet, Mister Stark,” Coulson said.
Stark waved his hand. “I wasn’t asking you.”
Darcy flushed. “Loki. My boyfriend.”
“Huh.” Stark blinked as he and Potts exchanged a few more soft words and a slow kiss. Coulson looked away. Darcy stared at the ground and blinked away tears. She and Loki had been that comfortable with each other once. She couldn’t begrudge either Stark or Potts, but she missed it and watching hurt.
Potts and Coulson chatted amicably in the elevator ride back down. She introduced herself to Darcy. Darcy made an effort, but seeing everything laid out like that on screens across a room just turned everything that much more real. It wasn’t just Loki and some cosmic cube involved. This was so much bigger than that. She smiled at something Potts said and forced herself to pay attention to the conversation and not make a fool out of herself.
Darcy blinked and stared out the SUV window as Potts made her way into the airport after thanking Coulson for the ride. She’d just met and talked with Potts. Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries. And she was completely bad ass and awesome and nice. Darcy hoped she made a decent impression with her. Darcy, she told herself. Stop. You can worry about your job later. Loki’s more important right now. The SUV left the curb and drove away.
It took maybe half an hour to arrive back at the helicopter. Darcy hesitated before getting out of the SUV. That was the director of SHIELD standing there with a cross expression. Oh god, he was going to eat her alive. So she lifted her chin and marched over regardless of the butterflies in her stomach.
“Director Fury,” Coulson said. “Darcy Lewis.”
Fury looked at her. Okay, he was terrifying. That eye patch and his no-nonsense stare made Darcy feel like she was five years old again and had just dropped the cookie jar on the kitchen floor during an effort to sneak one last cookie in before bed.
He also totally needed a theme song, something with drums and overheated strings and the brass section blaring. Like the Imperial March, only ten times more badass. And it needed to play any time he walked into a room. Or stared someone down. Or, you know, just plain existed.
“Thank you for coming, Miss Lewis.” He sounded almost kind.
“You kinda didn’t give me a choice,” Darcy said. She slammed her mouth shut. Where was her filter? Fury just looked at her for a moment. She hunched her shoulders and shuffled her feet.
“Agent Coulson,” Fury said, turning his attention away from her. “I will take Miss Lewis back to the helicarrier tonight. You’ll bring the captain tomorrow.”
”Yes, sir,” Coulson said. He touched Darcy’s shoulder as Fury climbed into the helicopter. “I trust Fury with my life. He is one of three other people I can trust to guard you until I arrive tomorrow.”
Darcy nodded. She took a deep breath and went to the helicopter. She buckled herself in and slid on the headphones Fury dropped in her lap. She stared out the window at the night sky as the helicopter flew away from the coast. And somehow, probably because of how long and stressful her day was, fell asleep.
Fury shook her awake when they landed. Darcy yawned and stretched before leaving the helicopter. A woman with her hair pulled back in a no-nonsense bun greeted him with a smile. She turned to Darcy, introduced herself, and motioned with a hand. A black woman in a tac uniform stepped forward.
“This is Agent Smith,” Hill said. “She will be your personal guard for your stay here.”
Darcy nodded. What could she say? Even of she protested, it wouldn’t change anything. So she fell into step with Agent Smith as they went inside.
“You will be bunking with me,” Smith said as they walked down the passageway. “I know it’s not ideal, but we cannot have you on the helicarrier without proper escort or without protection.”
Great. Darcy yawned. As long as Smith didn’t snore. At this point, that was all Darcy cared about. A shower and a bed. Heck, she might even skip the shower if it meant she could fall asleep faster.
She pointed Darcy to her bed after showing her the bathrooms. Darcy gladly slid into it as the agent settled in the upper bunk with an e-reader. The showers had sucked (there was a reason besides going to her local college that she never lived in dorms. Communal showers gave her the heebie jeebies.) and were cold. Smith hadn’t sounded sympathetic afterward and then brought her to this small, two-person cabin.
Darcy huddled under the blankets and curled into a ball. She wanted her comfortable, broken-in mattress and her mom to make her a cup of hot cocoa. She wanted the teddy bear that stayed on her bed even though she was way too old for stuffed animals and the familiar hum of the air conditioner. Not this tiny cabin on this huge ship. The noises were all off. And out there somewhere was Loki, plotting who knew what, and Darcy really hated being awake this late at night because all she thought about was how everything was going wrong. It wouldn’t. She had to convince herself of that. Everything would be okay. It had to be.