Stark Tower
May 2011
Darcy scowled through the one-way glass. "Why are reporters always like this?"
"It's their job," Steve said mildly at her side.
Darcy raised an eyebrow at him. "To be obnoxious little shits?"
"To be pushy and get answers," he countered. "The media is an effective check against government."
"Not anymore," Darcy muttered. "They're all out for personal gain and scandals and the latest heartstring-puller that will boost their blog hits. It's a celebrity culture where viewers value numbing reality TV over world events and awareness of politics."
Steve frowned. "I had no idea you cared so much."
"I majored in poly sci," Darcy said. "Kinda opens your eyes. That's why I'm on Stark's PR team."
"And why you've been appointed the official Avengers media liaison," Maria said from behind them.
Darcy squeaked and turned around. "What? "
"Just got off the phone with Fury a few minutes ago," Maria said. "We're not exactly keeping a low profile here. It's been two weeks since the battle of New York, as they're calling it, and we've got Captain America, the Hulk, Jane Foster, and Tony Stark all living in the same building, which also happens to have a giant neon "A" on the outside and SHIELD helicopters flying in at odd hours. People notice. We need an official point person, and I talked Fury into letting it be you. The rest of the team agrees."
"Shouldn't it be Tony?" Darcy said, though she desperately wanted to say yes.
Maria raised her eyebrows. "Did you see him this morning?"
"Touche," Darcy said, and looked back at the pack of nine reporters and their photographers waiting for her. It wasn't a proper press conference; it wasn't being filmed, but it was close enough. Her palms tingled. This was so much better than being a science intern. Sorry, Jane.
"I'm worried about him," Steve said. "He falls asleep in the lab and he twitches and cries out in his sleep."
"PTSD," Darcy said. "Seen it before."
The other two stared at her.
"My dad," she said, and didn't offer any more information. "Someone should talk to Tony. Not you," she added to Steve. "He'd just get defensive. You were his hero when he was four and he hated you by the time he was six. It's pretty clear Howard wasn't the best daddy and little Tony clearly got annoyed that you were the Golden Boy he could never outdo in his father's mind. He'll get defensive if you criticize him. Let Bruce handle it."
Steve's mouth was open halfway. Darcy reached out and closed it with a click .
After a moment, the blond supersoldier nodded once, and Darcy beamed back. "Great. Now, unless there's something else…"
"Nope," Maria said.
"Then I will see on the other side," Darcy said dramatically, straightened her jacket, and pushed open the door.
Instantly, the reporters perked up.
"Miss Lewis," the CNN guy said. "Thank you for agreeing to take my questions today."
"I agreed to take questions from all of you," Darcy said, and took a seat at the head of the conference table. There was a scramble as the other reporters fought for seats nearest her and their photographers jockeyed for the best angles. "Let's just go around one by one, shall we?"
The Fox woman dove in immediately. "Miss Lewis, is it true that the Avengers team is secretly funded by Russia?"
"I don't know if you've noticed, but Iron Man happens to be Tony Stark, one of the richest men in the world," Darcy said pleasantly. "We would hardly need Russian funding even if it were offered. Which it has not been."
A light laugh ran around the table. Pleased, Darcy relaxed and began to field questions, playing word games and watching them get more and more frustrated as even their most pointed inquiries got nothing but a smile and a polite response. She told the truth in such a way that they'd never possibly be able to use it against the Avengers.
"Miss Lewis," the CNN man said again. "What do you say to the critics who claim the Avengers are responsible for the deaths in the Battle of New York?"
"You've probably seen the alien army that came pouring through a portal in the sky," Darcy said. "I would lay the blame for the casualties on their shoulders."
"There are those who say the Avengers caused the damage and should pay retribution."
"Ten million dollars has already been donated by Tony Stark, the man called "narcissistic" on a daily basis in the tabloids, to a hospital fund. I assure you that decision was originally from Mr. Stark in its entirety. Captain Rogers, Jane Foster, and Bruce Banner have all participated in fundraising events to repair the damage, fund treatment for the injured, and help families who could otherwise not afford funerals for their loved ones. I'm not sure what other "retribution" you'd like paid." Darcy was starting to get annoyed, but she kept her polite face on even as a slight edge crept into her tone.
CNN leaned forward a little more. Darcy examined him more closely, as she used to her debate opponents in college: mousy hair, crooked nose, freckles. He was taller than Stark but shorter than Steve.
"What can you tell me of the Avengers' involvement with SHIELD?" he asked.
"SHIELD is a clandestine military intelligence and security division of the United States government," Darcy said. "Two of their agents are on temporary leave to work with the Avengers, as the team was assembled in part by SHIELD. We are… consultants, you might say, but not fully under SHIELD jurisdiction."
"What about the rumors that the Avengers are a cover-up for SHIELD's failures?" the man asked.
"I have heard no such rumors," Darcy said. "If I did, I would say they were false."
"And are they false?"
"Are you calling me a liar, Mr… Bord?" Darcy asked, squinting at his nametag.
Several of the other reporters looked uncomfortable, but the majority were eagerly leaning forward, waiting.
Bord smiled. "I'm asking you if the rumors are false."
"If any such rumors exist, yes, they are false. Have you any more questions?" Darcy kept her face bland and her tone smooth, but there was a challenge in the reporter's eyes, and she couldn't resist meeting it.
"Yes. Where are the Avengers now? What are your plans for the future?"
"We are assisting with the cleanup of New York," Darcy said. "We plan to continue doing so and to continue serving the purpose SHIELD created us for: to be a shield for the people of this world." She checked her watch and cut the reporters off. "That's all I have time for."
"One more question," Bord insisted, blocking her path to the door. "Miss Lewis, nobody seems to know what you are to the Avengers. Would you care to clear that up?"
Darcy smiled at him, and this time, she let a hint of a bite creep through the politeness. "I'm the Avengers press liaison," she said. "Now, if you'll excuse me."
She stepped around him as if he were a piece of furniture and left the conference room.
Darcy watched through the glass as the reporters packed up and left. Bord was the slowest, and she noticed for the first time that he didn't seem to have a cameraman.
Odd.
The CNN reporter left with his colleagues, and Darcy watched with narrowed eyes. She'd have to keep an eye on him. Look into what he wrote for the news, his social media - honestly, it was so easy these days.
Darcy smiled and turned around, heading back for the elevators to the upper levels.
It looked like she had a new opponent.
Stark Tower
May 2011
"We need a meeting," Tony announced.
Clint glanced up. "Hey, man. Nice to see you without bags under your eyes."
"Darcy attacked him with a makeup brush," Maria said. "Something about how it's terrible PR for the media to keep slinging these pictures around of him looking like a meth addict."
"I have never looked like a meth addict," Tony said.
Clint silently pulled up a photograph on his phone and showed it to Tony, who winced. "Okay, that's bad. Meeting. Now."
"Are we seriously having a meeting because you had bedhead for two weeks? Is Pepper better? Is that what's going on?" Clint asked. He had training to do this morning before he hopped a copter back to HQ.
"No, we're having a meeting because Tony needs a life raft and he named it the Avengers," Darcy said, walking into the training room. "You seen the scary one?"
"Which scary one?" Clint asked.
Darcy pointed at him. "I like you. The spidery scary one with red hair."
Clint felt his face darken. "On a mission for Fury. He's got her undercover somewhere. She's coming in for a report next week. I'll see her then."
"Okiedoke," Darcy said agreeably. "Come on, old guy, we've got a meeting."
Clint followed after her, shouting, "I am not old!"
Tony's laughter chased Clint down the hallway.
It sounded almost normal - almost like the Tony Stark that Clint had seen on occasion when he was consulting for Fury. But Clint also suspected that Darcy was right. Tony was covering his grief and worry by throwing himself into other things: first his inventing, now this.
Clint walked into the penthouse, which had been sort of an unofficial common room for the lot of them while they helped clean up the aftermath of New York. He wasn't really sure what was going to happen now that that job was winding down. Bruce, Jane, Darcy, and obviously Stark all had reason to stay here, and Steve wasn't precisely a SHIELD agent, but Clint knew he and Maria would be recalled to base within a week at least. And then…
Then he would be back out on field ops, and Maria'd be stuck back at Fury's side again.
Clint found himself wishing this didn't have to end.
"Okay," Steve said, and sat down at the table's head. Tony paused and stared at him for a second before sitting at the table's opposite end. "Now that we're all here…"
Clint sat down next to Maria, who shot him a quicksilver smile. Jane, Darcy, and Bruce were sitting on the other side, Darcy looking nonchalant as always. At least this time she wasn't on her phone.
"...we have a decision to make," Steve said. "About the fact that we were assembled to be a team, and now the threat we faced is gone."
"The world needs this," Tony said. "Us. There are things out there the normal military isn't equipped to face."
"We'll lose three people to SHIELD here soon," Steve countered. "Four, if Fury has more field missions for me."
"That doesn't mean we can't come back together," Tony said. "I'm not going anywhere, and I assume Bruce and Jane haven't got anywhere better to be."
Jane glanced up at her name. "What?"
"We're discussing whether or not this little merry band of men is gonna dis band," Darcy said. "Do you have any gum?"
Tony tossed her a piece. "And we'd be lost without our press liaison."
Darcy shrugged. "You give me hazard pay, so I'm not going anywhere."
"Why would I leave?" Jane asked, still looking confused.
"Exactly," Darcy said with satisfaction.
Jane stared at her for a second, then dismissed it. "Okay. Tony, do you have a laser ablation solid-particle beam apparatus? The one I had shipped up here from Colorado is falling apart."
"JARVIS, order a laser ablation apparatus whatever-she-just-called-it," Tony said. "Send Jane the specs so she can approve the order. Does that work, Foster?"
"Thanks," Jane said.
"Yes, sir," JARVIS said.
Jane asked, "I have the HRTEM running and it's supposed to finish in… three minutes, so is there anything else you need me for?"
"Nope," Darcy said.
Jane patted her friend's shoulder awkwardly and stood up.
"Enjoy your science," Steve said.
"Ask Darcy," Jane said absently, and left the room at a brisk walk.
Clint realized he was smiling. He liked these people.
Too much.
"Okay, so we're the Avengers, we fight evil people, blah blah blah," Darcy said. "We can find each other again next time a genocidal maniac from outer space tries to take over the planet."
Steve shook his head. "I think we could focus on Earth problems, too. There was a militant group in Russia three months ago who raped and pillaged their way for four weeks through the countryside before the UN passed a vote to send in troops and stop them. Even then, it's estimated that less than half of the perpetrators were arrested for human rights violations or killed when they resisted - the others are still out there. We could've gone in and stopped them at the beginning. Saved hundreds of lives."
Darcy blinked at him. "You want to keep doing this. Like, for a while."
"Why not?" Steve asked.
"No oversight?" Tony said.
Bruce glanced around. "I'm not sure who I trust as oversight. Not Fury, not the United Nations, and definitely not the United States government."
"Why not the US?" Clint asked. Distrust of Fury, he'd expected, and he understood where Bruce was coming from on the UN - they were notoriously slow to decide anything, and many crises could only be effectively averted within their early stages. Waiting for a vote would be excruciating. But the U.S. government?
Bruce opened his mouth and paused.
"Bruce's good friend Thaddeus Ross is the Secretary of State," Darcy said. When Clint looked at her, she was smirking. "And we all know how Ross feels about the Hulk."
Bruce blew out a breath. "Yeah, there's that."
"So we work with Fury, but not under him," Steve suggested. "SHIELD can provide good backup. Not to mention legitimacy."
"And that means so much to you, does it?" Tony muttered.
Steve glared at him. "What would you suggest, vigilantism?"
"Sometimes vigilantes get stuff done," Tony said. "Sometimes the law is more of a hindrance than a help. I'm not taking Fury's orders."
"And sometimes laws are laws for a reason," Steve countered. "I'm not saying we follow SHIELD orders, I'm saying we work with them. We get backup, they get a strike team who can do things no one else on Earth can."
Tony rolled his eyes. "Such a good little soldier. Captain America, golden boy-"
"I told you, that's not who I am anymore," Steve snapped.
Clint sat up straight at the sudden increase in tension.
Steve and Tony stared at each other.
Maria stepped in. "Stark, he's not asking you to follow Fury's orders, and he's not planning on doing so himself," she said quietly.
Tony relented. "If that's what it takes."
"So to clarify," Clint said, "you want to stay as a team. Officially "The Avengers." And keep doing… high-profile save-the-world type missions?"
"Well, statistically, events with the potential to literally end the world are quite rare," Bruce said.
Steve rubbed his temple. Clint was noticing that the supersoldier often did that when frustrated, annoyed, or stressed. "I'm saying that we're a team now. You don't go through a battle like the one we fought two weeks ago and not come out as a unit, no matter how… diverse… our abilities might be. Teams should stick together. And I think we have the potential to do a lot of good."
"Some missions will be lower-profile," Tony said. He seemed to have accepted the compromise and moved on. Clint was slightly surprised, but then again, Tony seemed pretty invested in this plan. "Small insertions, limited scope - just a few people, those with the most applicable skill sets."
Clint admitted to himself that it was tempting. To stop running all the time, to have a place to crash and people who knew him? That was a luxury Clint had not been afforded since SHIELD cleared him for field ops. He was a spy and an assassin; he had no illusions about himself, and this kind of life - he couldn't stay tied down for long. It placed those around him at risk. He had had four people on the planet who knew him, who he (more or less) trusted: Maria, Tasha, Fury, and Coulson. That was down to three.
For a second, Clint saw a different life, in which he met someone who taught him to settle down. Who took him on another path, one where he grew into a person who could want domestic life, a settled family.
He wasn't that person, because that had never happened. And the people he considered family would never be that. Clint loved them all the more for it.
Clint found himself wanting this. But he didn't think he could be a SHIELD agent and an Avenger at the same time.
He glanced at Maria. She looked deep in thought as well, although he suspected no one else at the table would be able to tell. Maria had to be feeling just as conflicted here; she was Fury's right hand now with Coulson gone, but this was a chance to do something that promised to be pretty damn interesting.
Not to mention the upcoming meeting with Tasha's contact in Russia. Clint gripped his knees as he realized that Fury would have to send him after Tasha when she went rogue with her Soldier, as Clint knew she planned to do.
So he was done with SHIELD either way.
"Clint?"
Clint looked up and realized everyone at the table was staring at him.
"Sorry, what'd I miss?" he asked.
"What could you possibly have been thinking about more interesting than this conversation?" Tony said.
Clint leaned back. "Sandwiches."
"Must have been one hell of a sandwich."
"It tasted terrible. I think it had your sense of humor on it," Clint fired back.
Steve, Darcy, and Tony laughed. Maria looked like she was repressing a smile and Bruce allowed himself a small chuckle.
"What's your take on this idea?" Steve asked.
Clint glanced at Maria. "I'm in."
" Yes ," Darcy said. "I won't be the only normal person in this group."
"What are Jane and I, your pets?" Tony asked.
"You and Jane both have at least like forty percent of your brain screws loose. I rest my case."
Tony looked offended.
Clint met Maria's eyes and raised his brows.
"I can't just… quit SHIELD," she said quietly. "And neither can you," she added. "Not that easily. It's not like flipping burgers. SHIELD isn't something you just walk away from."
"I'll request a long-term reassignment," Clint said.
"He can keep doing things for His Blindness," Darcy agreed, and Clint snorted.
"Can I please tell Fury about that nickname?"
Darcy grinned. "Be my guest."
"Do we have to decide now?" Maria asked.
Steve shook his head. "It's just something to consider."
Maria nodded, lips tight.
Darcy leaned forward slightly.
Alarm bells went off in Clint's head: she was hiding something. He couldn't have said how he knew that, but he did.
"Glad we cleared that up," Darcy said. "Because I have something I have to tell you."
Clint was clearly not the only one who'd picked up on the caginess. Steve was frowning, Tony was tapping his arc reactor the way he did when tense, and Bruce had sat up straighter, which is about all the reaction he would show. Even Maria had subtly focused in on Darcy.
The press liaison took a deep breath. "Loki didn't kill Coulson. Thor did."
Stark Tower
May 2011
Deafening silence echoed for several seconds.
Darcy kept her chin up, meeting all their incredulous eyes one by one.
"I'm sorry, what?" Tony snapped, leaning forward with his palms flat to the table.
Darcy just nodded.
She glanced around again and gauged their reactions. Maria was mostly expressionless, but there was a tic in her jaw. Clint's shock, anger, and grief were visible in the line of his mouth and the set of his eyebrows. Bruce - Bruce just looked stunned.
And Tony was furious. Predictably.
"How do you know this?" Steve said measuredly.
Darcy took a breath. "I was there," she said, and told them the story: watching Romanoff's conversation with Loki, her own odd interchange with him, hiding in the viewing room, and watching the fight. She was glad Jane wasn't here for this. Guilt twisted Darcy's stomach. Jane hadn't even questioned Darcy's whereabouts during the helicarrier fight, and Darcy had taken advantage of her friend's absentmindedness.
She'd have to tell Jane later.
"I ran out as soon as Loki was gone," she said. "Coulson was still conscious. He told me there was a medical call box and I went and pulled the thing, and… I waited until the medical team showed up. Fury beat them there, but not by much." She swallowed. "Coulson was… beyond saving."
"Let me get this straight," Tony snapped. Darcy was forcefully reminded that he was volatile at the moment, little more than a yawning pit of grief and worry with a precarious safety net of this group holding him up. "You knew this all along and didn't say anything ?"
"I was wondering if Fury would tell you," Darcy said coldly, lifting her eyes to meet Tony's. She didn't regret her decision to keep the secret.
Tony opened his mouth again, but Maria talked over him. "You mean to tell us that Fury knew about this and kept it to himself."
"Presumably so you would continue to work with Thor during the battle," Darcy said. "Or to keep you pissed at Loki. Most likely both."
"And you're sure he knew the truth." Maria's jaw was set and her eyes glittered with either tears or anger. Darcy knew she had worked closely with Coulson - that they'd been friends.
Darcy hid her own grief. It was really all she knew to do with sadness: bury it under flippancy and move on. "Like ninety-six percent. He chased me away. He was the one who heard Coulson's last words - I could see them talking. What are the odds Coulson didn't tell Fury? And then when Fury came and talked to me, he was asking all these pointed questions. I played the dumb bimbo and cried a lot and lied my ass off. I'm not sure he totally believed me but hey, I'm still breathing, so it must have been passable."
Maria shook her head. "I can't believe you lied to Nick Fury of all people and it worked."
"More or less," Darcy muttered.
"And you said Loki didn't finish Coulson off," Steve clarified.
Darcy shrugged. "He reached out like he was about to, but then he twitched and bolted like someone set his clothes on fire." She paused. "That would've been kinda funny, actually…"
"Darcy," Steve said.
"Steve," she mimicked, and smirked when he blew out a sigh.
Tony stepped to the side and into Darcy's direct line of sight, commanding her attention. "You're almost as good at secret-keeping as Fury himself," he accused.
"Wouldn't have pegged you for a passive-aggressive one, Tony," Darcy retorted. "I couldn't contact you before the battle because you were stuck in the communications black hole around the helicarrier and then I was, oh, that's right, drugged in your safe room , and I already explained why I've kept the secret from then until now. So I'd appreciate you not jumping down my throat."
Amazingly, Tony backed down, although he didn't apologize. Darcy didn't mind - she didn't apologize, either, not if she could help it.
"I noticed a lot of weird things, actually," Darcy said. "First of all, the whole invasion plan? It was really fucking stupid. He started in Germany, of all places he could've chosen, and made a huge show as a dictator, which got the attention of the entire world focused on him. I find it hard to accept that he didn't do any research beforehand. And a choke-point invasion with an army on a connected neural network? Not a good plan. Especially since, according to Thor, Loki is a brilliant strategist and battle commander. And then there's the whole thing with the scepter. I've been through the footage, heard all your reports. Did no one else notice that Loki took off after he got Hulk-smashed and left the scepter lying there? The key to the portal and his main weapon through this whole fiasco?"
"Darcy, what are you suggesting?" Bruce asked.
Darcy met his eyes. "I'm not suggesting anything. I'm merely asking if anyone else noticed something a little weird."
"I have."
They all turned to look at Maria.
The dark-haired agent straightened her spine. "Darcy raised several excellent points. I'm reminded of the fact that someone had to order Selvig to build that fail-safe into the portal. I remember what it was like under the scepter's influence. There was no independent thought, no room for me to have taken any action like that." Though she remained stoic, Darcy detected nervousness or tension in her voice, and she definitely noticed how Clint oriented himself slightly toward Maria as she spoke, as if to provide an almost-undetectable support network.
"I agree," Tony said, to Darcy's surprise. His hatred of Loki was so strong, she'd expected him to be the most resilient to accepting any idea other than the one they'd been presented with.
But then again, she realized, a large part of that hatred had come from Coulson's death. If Loki wasn't the perpetrator…
This is great.
"But how do we find out for sure?" Steve asked. "This is all… speculation."
Maria, Tony, and Darcy all swiveled toward him incredulously, and he raised his hands. "I'm not discounting that you make interesting points," he said defensively. "But we have no witnesses other than Darcy, and that was just for the fight in the helicarrier between Loki and Thor - it's not like we can interview Loki."
"Loki also said he wouldn't be permitted to spare me if I interfered with that fight," Darcy remembered. "So whose orders was he taking?"
"Are you suggesting that Loki was working for someone else?" Steve asked.
Darcy shrugged.
"We still face the same problem," Bruce added after a moment. "We have no one to ask."
Darcy held up her StarkPhone, Erik Selvig's contact on the screen. "We can ask him."
The phone rang, and rang, and rang.
Just when Darcy thought Erik wouldn't pick up (she didn't even know where he was in the world, much less the time there, but whatever), there was a click and his voice came over the line, scratchy but understandable. "Darcy?"
"Erik!" she said.
"Darcy, it's the middle of the night here," he complained.
"Pretend you're dreaming or something. I need to ask you a question."
"No."
"You don't even know what I was going to ask!"
"You're calling me with a prank marriage proposal like last year on this date. No."
Darcy checked her watch. "I'm insulted that you think I would try the same thing twice. Also, April Fools' Day was a month and a half ago. It's May."
There was a burst of frantic shuffling from the other end, and then a muffled curse. "May," he grumbled. "When did that happen?"
"Probably while you were under Loki's mind control. Thanks for the segue. Who gave you the order to build a failsafe into the portal machine thing?"
Steve and Maria were staring at her with puzzled looks on their faces. Boy, did these soldier people need to lighten up. At least Clint and Tony were showing appropriate levels of appreciation for Darcy's awesomeness. She grinned back at them.
"I already told you all, I don't remember," Erik said slowly.
"Okay, but could it possibly have been you?" Darcy asked. "Like… your own decision. That you built in secret. Or programmed. However you put commands into a machine that controls an alien space door thingy."
"I don't see how it could've been," Erik replied. "He was… into everything. I was key to the plan, you know; he focused a lot of his… attention… on me. My head. There was - no room for deviation. But then again, there was no one giving orders except Loki."
Darcy glanced up. Erik's words had clearly reached the rest of the team. Steve and Bruce looked deep in thought, Clint troubled; Maria maintained her stony expression.
"Awesome," Darcy said. "Thanks. Go back to sleep. This was just a dream."
"Apparently even my subconscious can't make you less annoying," Erik muttered, and hung up.
Darcy snickered and tucked her phone away. "Well, I think we answered that one fairly well."
"And then there's the eyes," Tony said. "Darcy, you said it was the blue eyes that tipped you off about Loki in the building? His eyes were bright blue when I… ran into him here."
"You mean when he threw you out the window," Darcy said, grinning.
Tony glared at her. "I'm in my forties, Lewis."
"Poor old man. Loki's older and he still kicked your ass."
Steve jumped in. "That's enough. Tony, Darcy… What are you suggesting?"
Darcy met Tony's eyes.
"That Loki was under the influence of the scepter as well," Tony said quietly.
Silence.
"I mean, all the evidence does seem to be pointing that way," Darcy said. "And I know you're not going to want to accept it, but… if someone else was controlling Loki, then maybe our problems aren't over. And we can't just bury our heads in the sand. Not if we want to actually do this Avenging schtick."
"You seem to think that I'm going to just swallow the easy story without pause," Steve said. His voice was measured but there was a challenge in his eyes.
Darcy leaned back. "Are you?"
"No," he snapped.
She beamed. "Then we're fine."
"There's not a lot we can do at the moment, though," Bruce pointed out.
Darcy shrugged. "I can go deal with the guy who's threatening to sue you for his Hulk-smashed building."
"Shouldn't a lawyer handle that?" Steve said.
Darcy smirked. "A lawyer can handle the court case. It's my job to keep that court case from ever happening. Capiche?"
Steve looked confused.
Darcy ignored him. "'Kay, I'm out. Text me if there's any PR disasters I need to head off."
She walked to the elevator with confidence in her step, but the second Darcy got inside it, she leaned against the wall with a long sigh. Her hands trembled slightly and she clenched them into fists.
Coulson was gone. Saying it… made it so much more real.
She missed the man.
And now she had to go talk to Jane about this.
Darcy allowed herself a count of thirty and then clamped down on her emotions. She got her posture and expression under control and left the elevator feeling much more like herself.