Utter Darkness

Bang… bang… bang…

Darcy woke up with a groan, what the crap? Why did she feel like she had a hangover again? The last time she felt like that was… the night she removed his stitches. Hmm… So something about her helping him gave her a hangover magnitude headache. But it wasn’t every time. What was the difference?

She groaned as someone pounded on her door again. “Darcy, come on get up!” Jane shouted.

“I don’t wanna, and you can’t make me!” She shouted back and then groaned again. Noise bad for headache. Must find extra strength Tylenol. She got up put on her glasses and stumbled to the bathroom to raid the medicine cabinet.

Jane pounded on the door again, “If you don’t open this door soon I’m gonna get JARVIS to open it for me!”

“Damn, what’s her problem? It’s fricking Saturday.” She grumbled as she tossed back a few more Tylenol than was strictly necessary. “Gimme a minute!” she shouted back to Jane. She splashed a little cold water on her face to wake herself up. Looking up into the mirror, she would have guessed by her appearance that she’d gone several nights without sleep.

“JARVIS will you please unlock Darcy’s door for me?” Seriously, what the hell?

“I’m sorry Ms. Foster, but Ms. Lewis has overridden my protocols in regards to her room and I am currently unable to assist you with your request.” The AI politely responded. Darcy laughed at Jane’s frustrated groan.

“Darcy if you don’t open this door in less than one minute, I’m going to shout your full name for everyone and I mean everyone, to hear.” Jane threatened.

Darcy mumbled curses on Jane as she practically dragged herself through the apartment to the door. “What the hell, woman? Be using my middle name as blackmail?” she growled as she threw open the door to find Jane grinning at her like a maniac.

“We did it! Tony and I, we did it! We got a message to Asgard! We’re working on a few more pieces of equipment, the last few calculations, and Tony’s gotta create an ARC Reactor for it, but we should theoretically be able to create the Einstein-Rosen Bridge in about four weeks!” Jane pushed past Darcy and was practically vibrating with excitement. “Don’t you see? All of the time, all the research, and work, just four more weeks!”

Darcy looked over at her clock, it was 5 a.m. Jane was nearly dancing around the room. “You pulled another all-nighter, didn’t you?” Jane nodded vigorously. “What time did you guys get the message through?”

“It was about 3:30 this morning.” Jane smiled brightly.

“Well at least you waited till a decent hour to wake me.” She rolled her eyes.

Darcy walked to her kitchen to start the coffee; this could be awhile. “Alright, alright, you look like you’re going to bust at the seams. Go ahead, what was the message?”

“It had to be real simple, we used one of Tony’s old reactors, and we didn’t have the power for a long message. Tony’s pretty sure SHIELD is gonna bust us for it, but you know better to ask forgiveness than permission. Heimdall is the gatekeeper so I said, ‘Hello Heimdall, this is Jane Foster of Earth, we’re working a version of a bi-frost, and we’re sending a test message. Message: The people of Earth send their greetings to Asgard, and all her people. Thank you Heimdall. Oh and by the way, if you could tell Thor I miss him. Okay, that’s all.’ That was the message.” Jane grinned like a mad woman.

“Alright, tell me the rest.” Darcy sighed and Jane gushed about all the science-y details, as Darcy made them both a cup of coffee and joined her at the table. As Jane continued to go on and on about stuff Darcy only half understood she realized how much data entry and other stuff was going to have to be done in the next few weeks and sighed, at least the caffeine and the Tylenol were kicking in. However, there went all her long hours with her hot blue alien criminal. “That’s a lot of stuff to do in just four weeks Jane. It’s gonna mean a lot of late nights, long weekends and we may even have to pull a few all-nighters. Wouldn’t be a better idea not to rush it and maybe try for five or six weeks instead?”

Jane stared at her like she’d just sprouted a second head. “Creating a stable Einstein-Rosen Bridge could be one of man-kind’s greatest achievements. Come on Darcy, we’re on the edge of doing something amazing, and you’re whining about a little lost sleep?”

One look told Darcy that this was not about the science and accolades, but about Jane’s need to see Thor. “Okay, I promise I won’t say another thing about lost sleep, but I just gotta put this out there, my Mom used to tell me when I was little that ‘A hasty job is a botched job.’ I know you’re way excited about this but please promise me no more tests until everything’s been double and triple checked?”

Jane popped out of her chair and began pacing. “Oh my god this is so exciting! Just four more weeks, four more weeks!” She was wringing her hands as she muttered about all the things she had to work on. She abruptly stopped her nervous pacing, and glanced at Darcy with a pleading look. “Oh hey Darcy, I kinda forgot to mention…”

It clicked right before Jane said it, “Shit, you guys pulled an all-nighter, and actually managed to get a message to Asgard. You didn’t really come done here to share your triumph, you came down here because there’s a huge backlog of data and you can’t move on to the next step of the process until I plug all that data into the program I created.” Jane was all about the astrophysics and while Stark could create and do computer programs, he didn’t want to. So all of the computer work fell to her. Jane had the grace to look a little sheepish. “Oh the toils of being the lowly peon,” Darcy sighed melodramatically, Jane rolled her eyes. “Fine, let me eat something real quick and change. I’ll meet you out in the main room in say fifteen/ twenty minutes?”

Jane squealed, “Yeah! Hey don’t worry about eating, Tony was so excited about our success, he’s having breakfast catered in.”

“Wait a minute; he’s having breakfast catered at 5 in the morning? Geez, only Tony Stark could pull off something like that.”

“I know right? Okay, see you in the main room in fifteen.” Jane flitted out of the room, still excited beyond anything Darcy’d ever seen.

An hour later found her, Jane, and Stark buzzing around in the lab. The data entry was a pain, Jane’s chicken scratch, and Stark’s messy scrawl, were even worse than normal because of their haste and lack of sleep. With a very short break for lunch and a few times that she had to get the brainiacs to interpret their own scrawl, Darcy caught up quickly. Jane and Stark had worked on a few adjustments on the equipment while Darcy was busy with the numbers. About seven that evening, Stark ordered pizza and by the time JARVIS informed them it arrived Darcy had finished inputting the final equations. The pizzas were delivered to the main room and they headed down to eat.

They got onto the elevator when Darcy realized that she had left her iPod in the lab. She stopped the doors and stepped out. “Hey guys I forgot my iPod I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Hey I left my notebook in the workroom when I got the soldering iron, could you grab it for me?” Jane asked.

“Yeah sure no prob!” Darcy shouted over her shoulder as she headed back to the lab. “Save me a couple of pieces of supreme!” In the lab, she found her iPod beside the computer she’d been working on. She found Jane’s notebook on a table in the workroom and as she turned to go, she saw a pair of bolt cutters. Jackpot! She grabbed the bolt cutters and peeked out door. There was no one in the lab or the hall beyond. She took the staff elevator instead of the private one so that she would come down on the other side of the building, further away from the main room. She hurried down the hall, into her apartment, and hid the bolt cutters under bed. She sat for a minute, waiting for her racing heart rate to calm. She felt like spy or something sneaking around like that. She stood up, took a calming breath, and headed out to the main room.

Steve and Bruce had joined them in the main room to enjoy the pizza. Pepper was in a meeting in one of the conference rooms and was going to join them later. Darcy grabbed a can of soda, a couple slices of supreme, and sat by Jane on the couch. “Here’s you go.” Jane smiled, laid the notebook on the table, put on a movie and they all settled in. Darcy could care less about the romantic comedy. She looked around. Tony hardly seemed to notice the movie; he was busy messing with something on his tablet. Steve seemed puzzled by the movie and Bruce was dozing already. Jane seemed to be the only one really enjoying it. Darcy didn’t like rom-coms in general; they’re basic formulaic approach to a movie that would appeal to women seemed demeaning somehow. As if modern women couldn’t get past, the pretty girl plus nice guy equals happily ever after routine.

Then again, there was something to be said about the desire for a happily ever after. The two point five kids and a house with a white picket fence would be nice. She looked around the room, but considering her current lack of a dating pool, the groom might be hard to come by. Steve was almost too nice, Stark was taken by Pepper (even if he wasn’t completely aware of it), Bruce was nice but with major anger management issues, and of course his on again off again thing with Betty. Dating outside Stark industries was kinda out of the question. She rarely got out and even if she did, she’d have SHEILD on her back to make sure she didn’t spill any of their secrets. The closest thing she currently had to a guy in her life was the alien she was currently seeing in her dreams. She smiled goofily at the thought of two point five blue kids and a spaceship. She shook her head ruefully, it was silly, she was nursing a serious crush on a guy she was only mostly sure even existed. He was a really old blue alien criminal, of course he didn’t look old and he’d served a seriously disproportionately long sentence. And Thor was a really old alien and he was hot too, so that kinda negated the weirdness on that point. And blue, well Bruce was green when he went Hulk so that one was checked off too. He was good looking too, no matter the blue and scarification. ‘Oh crap!’ she blushed, she had told him that she thought he was hot! Damn her penchant for sticking her foot in her mouth. He seemed to take it well though. Maybe he didn’t hear things like that often. God, he had even been hot when he was raging mad.

When he had calmed down, he had given her a look of such longing, it made her heart ache. He was so lonely, not just from his time in the void, it seemed like he had felt isolated most of his life. Finished with her pizza, she placed her plate on the coffee table and, curled up on the couch, her chin on her knees as she stared through the television. They knew so little about each other but she wanted to overcome that. Would it be safe to set him free? He had some anger issues but he’d also calmed down fairly quickly. The bolt cutters would have to wait awhile. But he had said that her touch helped him and he had mentioned that his shoulders were sore. She bit her lip as a naughty thought crossed her mind. She could give him a massage to help his shoulders. She wasn’t sure about releasing him yet but she could touch him and it would be totally safe, sorta… her thought processes devolved after that to R-rated places that involved her, her alien and a lot less clothing.

About an hour in to the movie, Tony jumped to his feet and told them he had been notified by JARVIS that SHEILD was in the building and headed to the lab. Bruce woke up, took one look at the anxious faces around him, and headed to his apartment.

“Shit, shit shit! They are so not taking this away from me again!” Jane shouted as she, Stark, Darcy, and Steve ran for the lab. They made it to the lab before SHIELD got there and stood in front of the doors, Jane and Darcy panting. Not a minute later, the four of them were confronted by over a dozen fully armed SHIELD agents, led by Agent Hill.

“You cannot have my research and my equipment.” Jane declared.

“Umm our equipment.” Stark corrected. “Agent Hill, overriding my security systems yet again? This is becoming a habit you really should call first. Though I have to say, you guys are slacking I expected you here much sooner.” He gave the agent a false smile.

“We registered extraordinary energy readings coming from your labs at 3:27 a.m. this morning. We want to know precisely what’s going on here.” She said curtly.

“Private research that’s none of your god-damn business.” He answered in kind.

“Cut the bull-shit Stark, I’m not Coulson; I won’t dance around this with you. We know you got a message through to Asgard. We want to know what the message was and how you did it.”

“Damn straight you’re not Coulson.” Pepper came around the corner as Tony bristled. “What goes in my labs none of SHIELD’s business and unless you… oomph” Pepper elbowed him in the ribs.

“Hello, I’m Pepper Pots, and you are?” She asked politely holding out her hand.

The agent looked at Pepper’s outstretched hand and pointedly ignored it. “I am Agent Maria Hill with SHEILD and unless Mr. Stark cooperates, everything in your R&D department is about to be confiscated.”

Pepper’s eyes hardened slightly, but it was Jane who spoke first. “All you want is to know what the message was and how we did it?” Hill nodded briskly. “I can provide you with a transcript of the message but I think the ‘how’ is a little above your education level, Ms. Hill.” It took a great deal of restraint for Darcy not to shout, BURN!

Agent Hill smirked, “Well that’s why I brought someone who would understand. It’s funny but this was exactly how I hoped this would go down. As of now, your project will be under observation. Agent Barton and Dr. Selvig will join you until the project’s completion and will report back to SHIELD everything that goes on here during the mean time.” Erik and an agent Darcy was unfamiliar with stepped forward from the group.

“Et tu Erik?” Darcy scowled. He only ducked his head a bit.

“Are we clear Mr. Stark?” Agent Hill asked.

“Crystal,” he bit out.

“I expect a full report, including transcripts, by 0800.” She nodded to Agent Barton, as she and the rest of the agents turned to leave.

“I’d say it’s nice to see you Robin Hood, but like this, not so much.” Stark grimaced. “Come on, we’ll catch you two up.” Stark led Erik and Agent Barton into the lab. Pepper followed the agents out determined to make certain that they truly left.

Darcy groaned, this was going to take forever. She really wanted to see her alien. She grabbed Jane before she went into the lab. “Jane do you really need me here?” she whined. It was almost nine, if she went down to her room now she might still be able to make a decent list.

“No, I guess not…” Jane sighed. “…but since we’re not going to be able to get anything else done tonight, let’s meet here early. How about 5:30?”

Darcy shook her head. “No way! You got me up way too early today, eight.”

“Six”

“7:30”

“6:30”

“Seven, it’s the earliest you’re going to get me here. I mean gotta get up and get ready so I’m still getting up awful early.” Darcy insisted.

Jane rolled her eyes, “Fine but don’t be late.”

Steve had relaxed after the SHIELD agents had left and was leaning against the wall observing the banter. “I’m headed back down to the rooms I’ll walk with you.”

She smiled at him, “Sure Cap!” They walked to the elevators and most of the way to her apartment in silence.

“Ms. Lewis…”

“Darcy,” she insisted.

He faltered. “Umm yeah, you know if there’s anything you need to talk about I’m always here.”

“I swear my dreams have been normal, nothing crazy.” She sighed; she thought they’d gotten past that.

He gave her an odd look, and then a boyish smile. “I wasn’t talking about your dreams Ms. Lewis. You seemed to be in deep thought during the movie. I know Dr. Foster is busy right now working on the Einstein-Rosen Bridge. I’m just offering to be a friend.”

Awww, he was so sweet, “I think I may just have to take you up on that offer, Steve.” She smiled. “But you gotta remember to call me by my first name; it’d be a little weird trying to be friends with someone who called me by last name all the time.”

“Like the way you always call Tony, Stark?”

“Well, it’s a little different with him. He gets on my nerves so much it’s hard to consider him a friend. Though Jane says he can be a really great guy. I guess I just haven’t had a chance to see that part of him yet.”

“We live in close quarters; it would be a good thing if we all attempted to be a little nicer to one another.” He smiled; damn it would be so much easier if she were attracted to this awesome guy.

“Tell you what; you’re friends with the guy. If you can get him to cool it with the innuendo, and keep his eyes focused north of the border, then I’ll do my best to be friendly.” Steve smiled and Darcy smiled in return. “Goodnight.” He turned to go as she opened her door. “Oh, and Steve…” He turned back. “…thanks, I could use a good friend.”

As she closed the door behind her she sighed, what a crazy freaking day. It was after nine, she still needed a shower, and she hadn’t had a chance to work on a list. Hmm, maybe she’d just call him Jake like the guy from Avatar. Or Tom he kinda looked like a Tom.

Notes