Not Into That. by voracity

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Darcy came in to work the next day, smiling at her boss. "If you have to fire me, so be it," she said before Shelly could do more than stare at her.

"You still have a tazer?"

"Yeah. I believe in non-lethal means first when possible."

"That's a nice ideal. Would you have shot him?"

"Yes. That was my safety at risk." Her desk phone rang so she frowned at it then smiled at her boss. "I'm betting that's a nagging someone."

"I'm sure it is and it went to voicemail," she said dryly. "I honestly should make a statement of some sort."

"One of the kids I tutor called up last night to tell me to shoot first and then mouth off. It was safer and he couldn't hurt me that way."

"Yeah," she agreed. "I can agree with that in many ways. It's going to cause a huge stink, Darcy," she sighed.

"Actually I have a restraining order against him because he mentioned he wanted to bang me during a speech. His oh-so-classy words."

"Eww!"

"Yeah, my feelings exactly. All I knew is someone grabbed my ass and used their finger to try to push into my ass."

"Wow. Yeah, that you deck someone for and he escalated it. Make a statement."

Darcy smiled. "I can do that." She went to her desk to write something up. She dialed into her voicemail, inputing her code and putting it on speaker.

"Eww," Scott's voice said. "That man is disgusting, I'm glad you hurt him, you should've hurt him more, Darcy. Next time, just shoot the asshole then taze him. Barton's all but livid and wanting to come out there to guard you again. Even Romanoff walked off swearing, in English this time! About his greasy, tiny hands and gross being. Are you all right? You'd better call within minutes, young lady. Before more than just Barton comes out there." He hung up.

She dialed him, smiling as she kicked back. "If he had tried one more thing I would've shot him, Scott. He was threatening me and you know I don't whimper and cry when I'm threatened." She laughed, listening to him rant. And Clint in the background. "I'm fine. Shelly hasn't had to fire me yet to save the group's donations. It's all good and I'm okay. Yeah, I heard his complaining about me at his speech that night. About pretty girls who feel entitled to put admiring men down. I already made a press statement to that on my twitter.

"No, I'm okay, Scott. I had enough layers on I barely felt his tiny, shriveled finger try to breach my ass. No, Clint's not allowed to snipe him, Scott. We have to play nicely sometimes. Though ask Clint who sent the SHIELD agent?" He did that. "Huh. That's just coinkydink then, huh? Yeah, one showed up. Thank him for me for the offer but if I want him sniped, I'll go do it myself. That'd at least free his latest trophy toy he's sucking the life from. You hadn't noticed all his wives come out of their marriages looking older?

"He's a dementor, he sucks the life from them, Scott. I promise, it's okay and I'm fine. Calm Clint down. I made fudge I mailed on the way in this morning. It's coming to you since Clint's mail is being kept again. No, I'm fine. I promise I'm fine. One of the kids I tutor, Julio, remember him? He called me up last night and told me to shoot him instead of taze him, it'd be safer. So yeah, I'm okay. Tell everyone I said hi. Talk to Cassie about self defense stuff too. She's at the age where skanky pervs start to come out of the woodwork. Or the fire escape in our case, but I had him arrested the other day.

"No, he had barely legal kiddy porn out there with him. I ran him off the damn fire escape and ranted at a cop. They said it was barely legal so not kiddy porn but they did arrest him for lewd behavior in public. I warned them to take the magazine since we're a children's charity or else I'd have to burn it and his stash upstairs. They went up there and found his mail order teenage hostage bride, who was pregnant, and his kiddy porn stash. So he's in jail." She smiled. "Thanks, man. Yup, see you at that convention. Have fun." She hung up and got back to work on that statement.

"I remember Scott being here but who is he really?" Shelly called from her desk.

"Um, the guy in the other suit that shrinks," she said with a grin at the paper she was working out the wording on.

"Oh, god, he's an Avenger."

Darcy leaned over to look in there. "He's a really nice guy. He didn't even hit on me when I got hit with that aphrodisiac stuff." She sat back up to go back to work. "You have a dental appointment at two."

"I rescheduled due to the flu and you, dear," she said dryly.

"My mother would've complained I used the word ass instead of buttocks."

Shelly burst out laughing, shaking her head.

***

Stark came out of the lab after two days of tinkering, glaring at everyone. "What is going on with Darcy?" he demanded. Thor scowled at him. "Shut up, Thor. Anyone? She's been trending on twitter for three days and that's almost unheard of unless you're a music star that died."

"A presidential candidate tried to get handsy so she trounced his ass," Bruce said with a tiny wave and a grin. "Nearly shot him."

"Excuse me?" Stark demanded. They found the film for him, it was all over the internet in edited and non-edited format. He stared, glaring at what was happening. "That man has to go." He stomped off. "PEPPER!" he bellowed. "We have to ruin someone! Put on the mean shoes!"

"Too late," she called from the kitchen. "We've already publically expressed great displeasure with how he tried to treat that young woman and said if he was like that with women no wonder he had to buy a wife or three." She smiled when Stark stomped in there, kissing him on the cheek. "I've already checked on her. She's grumbling about the attention issue and someone asking her to run for public office, but she's happy she could fight him off." She stared at him. "She's okay. She even told Barton he couldn't go shoot the slimy asshole." She pulled up Darcy's statement to the press about it, letting him read it. He burst out laughing. "I agree, her mother probably would've liked her to use more lady-like language but the guy probably wouldn't have understood that either. So can you calm down?"

"I guess." He handed her back her phone. "Is that dinner?" he asked, frowning some.

"Only if you go shower and all that good stuff. You stink, Tony." He huffed but went to shower and change clothes. She smiled at the others, who all tried not to smile back. Pepper carefully had Tony wrapped around her fist and she used the power well.

***

Darcy flinched when someone jumped out at her. "What're you gonna do now, lady?" the male voice sneered. She struggled and stabbed him. He screamed and went down.

Darcy pushed back her pony tail. "Not put up with it. No woman should put up with it. Women have rights. Including the right not to be touched."

"Cut!" the director yelled. "Great take, Miss Lewis."

She smiled. "Thank you. I never saw this from this side of the camera." The director looked at her. "Oh, sorry, Donald DeCriths was my dad." He moaned, smiling at her. She grinned. "I'm often compared to Mom, yeah." He laughed but nodded. "Thank you for letting me help film that PSA. I think it's really important." She helped the actor up. "I didn't hurt you, right?"

"The padding made sure," he said with a smile.

"Cool. Thanks, guys." She walked off, going to go home. She had a dinner date tonight. Hopefully this one wouldn't stare at her like she was about to kill him like her one last week.

The director smiled. "I never noticed it but she does look a lot like her mother. She was a sweet lady that did charity work too." He got things wrapped up and called Stark to tell Miss Potts that the commercial was done so she could view it in two days when it was stitched together. Everyone else got to go home too. It was nice Darcy had gotten it in two takes. She took instruction well. Must've gotten some training from her dad.

***

Darcy looked up from her typing as someone walked into their office. "Yes?" she asked the guy. He looked like an agent. He was in a medium-poor suit in navy blue and had sunglasses in his pocket. "Can we help you?"

"Miss DeCriths, we'd like to talk to you," he said.

She smiled. "Go ahead. My boss isn't here at the moment. She's downstairs for the next twenty minutes."

He stared at her. "Are you aware that our agents should have arrested you?"

"If he touches me and I hit him, that's self defense," she said. "If your *agents* are that strong to stop me from defending myself, then that's a problem that should be addressed." She stood up. "I'm not the average little girl, Agent.... whoever." He sneered. "If your job is to protect the rapist instead of keeping him from raping, then that's a problem of priorities. I'll be sure to let others know that."

"Miss, it's not nice to threaten us."

"I haven't threatened you yet." She smiled slightly. "You'll know if I threaten you. By the way, I also don't believe you're an agent. Real agents show their ID's before they talk. I've met plenty. Should I call one?" He stepped back, looking pissed off. She stared at him. "You have a great day," she said with a smile. "And please, next time send a real agent who does things properly." She sat down, smoothing out her skirt. "Have a good day and thank you for visiting us." He stomped off. She reached up to grab down the camera to download the footage. It was a bit blurry. "I have to find out how to set that up better." She downloaded it and sent it out to her progressive media friends and social circle. One of them reported it wasn't an agent. She smiled and sent back a 'thank you'. That was very interesting. She was putting the camera back when Shelly came back. "We had a fake agent show up."

Shelly stared at her. "You sure he was fake?"

"Someone identified who he was." She smiled. "I can ask for a favor to identify his agency." She tapped her fingers on her keyboard and then typed in an email to someone. She got back one almost immediately about having seen that video on the progressive media site she blogged at. "No, he's not an agent. He's a privately paid bodyguard." She smiled. "So he's in trouble for pretending to be an agent." Shelly walked off shaking her head. "You know, people like that might just make me run for an office so I can decry their type." She made sure the camera was plugged back in properly and was doing a good video capture. It was much clearer now so he had a jammer of some sort. Charming!

Someone stomped in, staring at her. "Lewis."

"Clint." She smiled. "What's up?" She leaned back.

"You got a death threat."

"Oh, wonderful." She smiled. "From the same little troll? Or someone else who sent someone to threaten me?"

He blinked. "Excuse me?" She turned her monitor so he could see it. Shelly came out to watch too. Shelly got to moan about what she saw. Clint stared at her. "How do you attract that sort?"

"I don't know. How did I attract Ian?"

"We thought he was targeted to get closer to Jane but we're not sure." He smiled. "Someone tried to snipe the wannabe rapist."

"Woohoo! Means I don't have to," she said sarcastically.

He snorted, smirking at her. "He's blaming you and threatened he'd be seeing you not only in court but dead at his feet."

She waved a hand, picking up her coffee at the end to sip. "I didn't hire anyone. If I wanted him to die, I would've killed him myself."

Clint smirked. "You're not that good."

"I can pretend."

"Point." He stared at her. "You're still under death threat. He can hire people and probably isn't against it."

She smiled. "Are you suggesting I call an ex-boyfriend?"

"Or move," he said.

"I doubt they could find my apartment."

"Me too. I popped in to talk to the security team about that. The head guy, Carlos, he just groaned." She grinned but nodded. "I'm sure he's seen worse. Can you make note of it?"

"Yeah, I can do that." She dialed the phone and put it on speaker.

"Daily Mail, how can I direct your call?" a female voice said.

"Rachel Devorin's desk please?" Darcy asked politely.

"Just a moment." Hold music came on then a voicemail message.

Darcy rolled her eyes. "Rachel, it's Darcy Lewis. I've just been told I'm being accused of hiring someone to kill the tasteless moron who tried to molest me. I did not hire anyone. If I wanted him dead, I'd do it myself. Can you call me back later about that if you think there's a story there? Thanks." She hung up and looked at Clint then turned to her computer to make a new blog entry. She let Clint and Shelly read it, making Shelly snicker as she walked off. Clint nodded and she sent it in. She sent out a statement on her facebook and twitter account too. That way someone could find it. Her cellphone rang so she answered it and walked off talking to that reporter.

Clint sat in her seat, shaking his head. Darcy was still real full of life, and full of pissing people off when it was needed. Clint looked into the office. "Darcy's superpower is irritating people until they give in and do what she wants them to do," he quipped, cracking Shelly up.

"I heard that," Darcy called from the hallway. "I'm not making you fudge again this month."

"Sorry," he called back, looking at the remarks coming in. "Wow, some hateful cunts on here. Hey, Darcy, you should see some of these comments."

She came in to look then snorted and answered. She read a few and noted what she replied as she walked off. She and the reporter were both appalled and horrified but oh well.

Clint shook his head, sending a text message to Natasha and Stark. They could handle it if this came back on them.

***

Steve got tossed the phone from Natasha, reading the text message. "How mean can they be?"

"Very stupid," Natasha said. "But they're the same sort that would vote for that odious creep."

Steve looked up that site, frowning at what he read. "He did what?"

"That's not that unusual," she said, coming back with a bottle of water. She handed that over and held out a hand but he kept the phone to keep reading. He scowled at her when she cleared her throat. "Can we help?"

"I can easily go point out that real women do protect ourselves and others when possible. Such threats prove he's not a true man."

"Let me help you do that." He stared at her.

She smiled slightly. "We may be able to do that."

Thor stomped in. "Why are they talking about Darcy now?" he demanded.

"The creep that tried to grope her so she nearly killed him is now threatening her life," Steve said bluntly. Thor growled. "Apparently he doesn't think he should be stopped in anything."

"If we had a way he'd make an interesting infant. He moans like a toddler," Natasha said as she walked off. "Let me make a statement on our team twitter."

"I'll post one after you," Steve said, looking at Thor. "Did you not see how she had to defend herself?"

"I did. It was worthy of her to do," Thor agreed. "I still do not like that she snubbed my family."

Steve sighed. "Thor, what you were thinking was a bodyguard for the baby, right?" He nodded once. "That's not what a nanny is. A nanny is the caretaker. The one who changes diapers and does all the mom things instead of the parents." Thor frowned. "That's a servant. Darcy's also had a point that they end up with problems. The kids end up with problems because they're being raised and taught to respect someone their parents hired to do that for them. The nannies can be removed after years of taking care of the kids. That causes a lot of pain. Would you really want someone to do that?"

"No." He frowned. "I know not how to handle this. What of our current nurse?"

"The current nanny's good. She takes good care of your daughter." He stared at him. "A lot more than you do. Dads on Midgard, they're there for kids. They play with them, they teach them, they change and feed them, all that stuff. You're letting her be raised like Stark was because his parents were always busy," he finished more quietly. "Will she be worthy of your mother's legacy?"

Thor considered it, frowning. "I would hope so. I can make sure of it however."

"Please do. Your nanny's got a cold right now and could probably use a day off to rest."

"Jane...."

"Hasn't come out of the lab in days, Thor. Her current assistant is allowing it and encouraging that because it means more science coming out." He patted him on the arm. "Do what your mom would want you to do. That's what I do when I'm trying to figure out the right thing. Our moms raised us to be good men. We have to raise any kids to be just as good as they'd want us to be." He walked around him.

Thor nodded. "My mother would be upset at all this," he agreed with a sigh. He went to gather his precious little spawn. The nurse jumped up and grabbed a weapon when he walked into the baby's room. "I come to play with her so you can rest. Steven said you were ill and need to rest."

"It's just a cold, Lord Thor," she said quietly.

He stared at her. "Which can turn worse if you do not rest," he said, smiling some. "You go rest and I'll handle her needs unless we have a battle. I'm not doing much today."

"She's actually napping."

"That's even nicer. She is like her mother, they never sleep." The nanny tried not to smile. "Go rest. I'll bring her to the living room to rest and play with me." He carried her bag and crib out there, putting it next to the couch so he could watch over her. He thought about how he had expected Darcy to want to do that same job. It wasn't fair to her. Darcy needed children of her own and his would suffer if she had to do the nurse's job. No, this was better for them all. Even if Jane's mind had been taken by science again. Someday soon he was going to have to stop that. Stark walked past reading. "Stark, tell me of these nannies you grew up with?" he asked quietly.

He looked over then at the baby then at him. "She was the greatest almost-mom in my life. I really hated when my parents sent her away and I wrote her an apology letter because I didn't realize what a shit I was to her sometimes, and how hard it was to guard me." He flopped down to stare at him. "My dad was a lot like Jane. He was lucky to see me once a week or so. My mom was there more often but she found things to take her attention since my father wasn't." Thor nodded with a grimace, looking at his daughter.

"She did good with me. She taught me a lot about how to be a man. I wasn't getting it any other way." He shrugged some. "She was a great woman. I adored her once I grew up enough to realize that she had taken good care of me. I was lucky that she was so good. I've seen some kids have some seriously damaged women as nannies. There's still problems with being raised with one.

"I had a lot of problems learning to respect and admire a person my parents hired to keep me out of their way, like I was a burden. That's probably why I'll never have kids of my own." Thor nodded at that. "She gave me the love I needed but it wasn't the same as others got. I knew some kids who had mothers who did mom things. It seemed...it seemed nicer and more normal to me than going to ask the lady in the kitchen to do it."

"So it was good for you but not as good."

"In a lot of ways, yeah. It was. Your nanny's a good one. We made sure she's a good woman and she'll treat your daughter like her own. We made sure she understood about Jane and science and our battles, all that stuff around here. We like the little sprout. Sometimes she reminds us of your brother, but we like the little one." He grinned. "She's done great with her."

"She has. I worry that this will take most of her life from her."

"That's her choice, Thor. I know she was married, recently divorced. No kids of their own."

"What if she wants one?"

"Then she's an adult so she can come tell you. We'll work on how to get the little sprout there to like the new one if she feels she has to leave. Really, she should be around kids more often. It's not as safe but she needs to learn about people. Isolating her will cause later problems."

"I..." He nodded once. "I can see that. Have you looked at her focusing issue?"

"Most of that was the drugs the last lady was feeding her but she's like her mom. She'll focus on things and if you interrupt her she'll be annoyed and ignore it." He grinned. "She's very much like her mom."

Thor nodded, smiling at her since she was awake and staring at him. "Good afternoon, Emma." He pulled her out to cuddle. She patted his nose, letting him kiss her fingers. "Would you like to spend time with me today?" She bounced a few times, grinning at him. "Do you have toys?"

"She has a ton of toys," Stark said, getting up. "I'll send some up from the room near the gym she hangs out in most days. It's got a lot of windows so she can watch things," he said at Thor's odd look. He sent the robots to do that and went back to finding lunch. Thor got onto the floor with her to play with the toys. She liked that. Her father was being wrapped around her fingers, finally. It was good to see. Stark got an alert from his twitter and looked at the followed person's comment. He snorted, making one back that if she couldn't kill him, others would've helped her, but she didn't usually need it. Pepper blocked that one and put up something nicer. He rolled his eyes but Pepper was fussy sometimes.

***

Darcy walked out of the office, finding a few reporters standing there. "What's up, guys?" She put on her beanie and buttoned up her jacket. "Problems? Waiting on Shelly? Or one of the others in the other offices?" She walked off.

"Miss Lewis, who are you?" one of the reporters shouted, chasing after her. "Who are you?"

She looked back, shrugging some. "Who do you think I am? Not like I've changed since I was eighteen." She kept walking, shrugging some to get her purse into place. "I'm not anything hugely special, guys; just a lady who gives enough of a damn to make a difference."

"You threatened agents!"

"That guy that showed up to threaten me in the office wasn't an agent." She stopped, turning to look at them, seeing the sneer. "Little boy, that guy wasn't an agent. I asked an actual agent. He's a hired bodyguard playing dress up. I had two agents there helping me get away from that slime. I can tell agents from fake ones usually." She stared at him, he was still sneering. "Beyond that, I doubt that agents are mad at me for defending myself. If they are, they're not doing their job. Because their job isn't to let people they're guarding assault others."

"He only groped you," the reporter sneered.

"Did you think he was going to stop there? Because he probably wasn't. Men don't grope you in public, which is beyond this point, but they also don't try to stick their fingers up your asshole if they're just groping." He glared. She stared at him. "Now, is there anything else?"

"Someone said you're an heiress. Do those kids you work with know that?"

"Yeah. One asked. They know my dad used to be a tv producer. My mom came from a banking family. I grew up practical and knew it was my job to help people who didn't have what I have. I was tutoring the scholarship kids back in high school, people. It's a small part of what I do to help others." She turned and walked off. "Have a better night, people. I don't do anything that interesting right now." She waved. "Have fun."

She heard an explosion and ducked, pulling her gun. Someone was running toward her with a gun out, making her stare at them. "Back the fuck down!" she ordered. He pointed the gun at her so she shot him in the leg. "No! Not allowed!" She grabbed her phone but police were pulling up. "Guys, there was an explosion then he was running toward me with a gun," she called. "I got him in the thigh."

"Ma'am, we need your gun," an officer said. Darcy handed it over. They pulled her out to handcuff her. "Any other weapons?"

"Knife and my legal, allowed tazer on my back." She looked at him. "Can you confiscate their cameras?"

"No. That's a violation of the press."

An agent came jogging over. "Let her go!" he ordered. "She was the damn victim! He was hired to kill her." An officer stopped him but he got around the officer. "FBI, boys. Back the fuck away from the victim."

"She shot someone," that officer sneered.

Darcy looked up at him. "Yay. He was threatening me." She shifted her wrists and he grabbed them harder. She stared at him. "You're not an officer. You're higher than fuck." The officer smirked but tapped his badge. She looked at the agent, who shrugged. Then someone shot at him, grazing him on the arm. The officers laughed. The reporters were still filming. Darcy shifted to hit her emergency button on her belt with her forearm. The officer dragged her toward a car. She saw a kid. "Brad, no! Go, they're not officers!" she called. The kid she tutored ran off. The officer punched her.

She stared at him. "I've had worse than that." He tried to hit her again so she kicked him in the nuts. Then there was help. She sighed and shifted her stance, kicking that guy back toward them. "He's not an officer." The other two gang kids hauled him onto the ground, holding him there. More agents showed up and Darcy moved her jaw, making sure it was all right. She nodded at one of the agents she knew. "The agent tried to get me from them because I shot the guy running at me with a gun in the thigh. That one hit me. They're helping. Please don't touch those kids."

"I don't care about those kids, Lewis. They're good to help a young woman." He checked her jaw. "You'll be fine with some ice."

"I realize that. Can I be let go of?" They let her go, letting her rub her wrist. She sat on the stairs, after hugging one of the kids. "Thanks."

"Welcome, Lewis. You're too nice to fall to that slime."

She smiled. "I've seen worse but the last one was a senator's son." They snorted but walked off. She looked at the agent staring at her. "I came out to reporters and walked off. They quipped something stupid so I stopped to correct them. Then I walked off again, there was an explosion, I ducked behind the trash can for cover and looked while pulling out my phone. The guy with the thigh shot was running at me with a gun."

She looked and pointed. "His. I called out a warning and he pulled up the gun so I got him in the thigh. I started to call that in but cop cars showed up so I let them handle it." She wiped her nose off, glancing around then at him. "I wasn't going to fight being arrested for it but I did suggest they get the tapes from the cameras. The guy sneered and that's when I realized he was high as fuck by how dilated his eyes are."

"You let him get close?"

"He was handcuffing me and until that point I thought he was PD," she said blandly. "Are you an agent?" He glared. She stared back. "Call me paranoid but yeah, I am." He pulled out his ID so she could see it. She handed it back. "Thank you." She stared at him. "The fake cop took my tazer and my gun." An agent found them, holding them up. "And the pretty knife was a present too."

"That's not a usual design," the agent who found it said. "Where did you get it?"

"It was a present from Thor." He stared at her. She shrugged but grinned slightly. "It was." She accepted them in a bag, tucking them into her lap. "So, now what, agent guys?"

"Now, miss, we take a formal statement in the office."

"Sure." She looked down and hit the button on her belt again, calling in. "It's me, agents showed up to handle the fake cops." She listened. "Yeah, I'm there. Okay. Thank you." She hung up, taking a deep breath. "Can we do it somewhere more neutral?"

"No, ma'am. We have special cameras in the office."

Darcy looked at him then sighed and pulled out her phone, taking his picture, sending it on. "According to an agent I'm meeting later to talk about the death threat, you're not FBI." She looked at him. "Do those cameras even have film?"

"No," he said with a smile. "And we unloaded the gun and tazer." That agent held up the batteries and clip.

Darcy pointed. "And that guy has a camera on all the time. There's at least ten cameras on right now." She put her hand down. "Do you really want to do this?"

He laughed. "Your psychology training isn't going to work here, Miss Lewis."

She smirked. "That's not actually my last name." The agent stared. "It's DeCriths." He smirked harder. "Oh, you're not here about that latest death threat. Cute. So which one are you here about?"

"You have uses," he sneered.

"Oh, you're HYDRA," she said with a sigh at the end. "So trite. Really, really overdone."

"No one's coming to save you. We blocked your emergency signal. We're better than you are."

She stared then shrugged. "If you're sure, dude." She stood up, tucking the bag into her bag. "If you're that sure you have me, take me." They grabbed her. And an arrow hit the guy in the brain. "Thanks," she called. She sat back down. "Need me further away?"

"No," Clint called. "Stay, Lewis."

"Yup. Not moving a bit until ordered to." The other agent was scanning around. Darcy threw her knife, hitting him in the stomach. It didn't go real deep but it distracted him from looking for Clint. The building's security team showed up to help evacuate her. "Thanks, guys." She grabbed her knife, following them to the SUV. "How bad is it?"

"Very," they agreed.

"We can clean it up. We'll take you to a neutral location in case the PD or someone wants a statement," the driving agent said. "Barton can follow you."

"Okay. Can I have coffee and maybe a valium?"

"If we can," the driver agreed.

The one next to Darcy patted her on the hands. "Medical?"

She rubbed the spot on her jaw. "Ice pack?"

"We can do that," he promised quietly. She nodded, leaning against the door. They drove her to an office they rented for such needs. Clint walked in and they let him have her for now.

"You good?" He tipped her cheek up to look at. "Ice?" She held it up then put it back. "You okay?" he asked more quietly. She shook her head. He settled behind her on the desk, patting her on the shoulder. "We're not sure why they were after you."

"If they were HYDRA, would it be the usual reason?"

"Not sure," he admitted. He patted her again. She leaned into his hand. "We'll figure it out."

"I'm going to pretend to be a Stark tonight and drink like the world's ending," she said quietly. "While I'm locked in my super safe apartment."

"I'll be in the living room on the couch. I'll make sure you got something for the hangover."

"Thanks. That's a great friend."

"I know I am."

She looked up at him. "Do you have funny feelings?"

"Not yet," he admitted. "Then again I'm usually more paranoid." He stroked over her hair. "Rest for a few. Cops were only pulled up to talk to the security team."

"Should I hire a bodyguard?" she asked.

"Probably won't fully solve anything." She grimaced. "At least those idiots on the social media sites won't get too much complaining about all this. They can't doubt you'd protect yourself even from a death threat."

"I should edit my earlier one," she complained, frowning at her phone. Clint handed it to her. She got into it to add on to the earlier diary she wrote about how the new death threat was now getting stupid. Clint looked at it, then snorted and edited her complaining, handing it back. She fixed a few word choices then added more to it about waiting on the police to come question her. She sighed and looked at her now broken nail, turning on her speak-to-type program to get back to it. Clint was trying not to grin at what she was complaining about. Someone knocked so she put down the phone. "Come in. We're calmer now."

An officer walked in, nodding at them. "Ma'am."

"Darcy Lewis," she said, holding out a hand. Then switched the hand to look at the bruise on it. "Sorry." She put the ice pack on it.

"That's fine. We expect bruises from days like today, Miss Lewis." He pulled out his tape recorder. "All right, let's go over what happened this afternoon."

She nodded, telling him what happened. About the 'agents' and the 'officers' and the death threat she was warned of earlier. The officer nodded as she talked, making notes on his notebook. Clint waved. "I got there in time to save her from one of them," he noted. "And her building's security team showed up then to help evacuate her."

"All right. Who're you, sir?"

He smirked. "Clint Barton."

"Oh. All right. Are you an agent?"

Clint nodded. "Used to be SHIELD."

"That's good. Are you retired?"

Clint shook his head, pulling off his sunglasses. "No. Now I'm an Avenger."

"All right." He made that note. "What are you going to be doing now, Miss Lewis?"

"I'm contemplating getting shitfaced drunk tonight while I consider hiring a full time bodyguard," she said. "Because right now I'm not sure if I want to break out crying or just have a fit."

"Crying is often useful after very stressful situations."

"I didn't cry after London got invaded," she said dryly. "I just found a margarita special and took advantage of it. I think this is a bit worse than an invasion by idiot evil elves."

"Probably, yes. It's more personal," the officer said. "Crying is still a normal response."

"That's good to know. Now what happens?"

"We're arresting most of them," he said. "A few of the reporters are claiming they weren't involved. They actually had cameras with film."

"I hope they get to release it in the unedited form," Clint said dryly. "That way no one can twist it."

The officer shrugged. "Not my department, sir." He looked at her. "Are you safe?"

"Unless my building's owned by HYDRA, yeah. I hope so. I live in a security conscious building, Detective...."

"Almonds. Please no jokes about candy," he said with a small smile.

"I'd never do that. It'd devalue the holy Almond Joy," she said blandly, making him laugh. "Am I under arrest?"

"No. You are not at this time. People are throwing up fits."

"That's one good reason to release the tape without editing," Clint said. "Can she get a copy?"

"We can arrange that. I think. Let me check." He got back to his notes. "The PD people, were they in official cars?"

"They looked like the ones you see on the tv shows about the CPD, not the actual ones," Clint said. "Close enough but not perfect."

"I wasn't watching the car. The uniform the guys were wearing looked right," Darcy said. "I thought they were real because they looked real. Though thinking back they were better built than a lot of officers I've seen are. Not a lot of CPD guys I've seen are gym rats."

"Some of us do have some padding," he agreed. "Not all of us though." She smiled slightly. "Let me turn this in then I'll be right back." She nodded, putting the ice pack on her wrists.

Clint noticed the phone was still running. He petted over Darcy's hair. She relaxed until people came in with guns. "Let's go," the thug said. "Now."

Darcy looked at him. "Are you CPD?" she demanded. "Let's see some ID please."

"Not necessary," he sneered. "They'll never miss you. You're nothing."

"Not hardly. People will miss me."

"No one that matters." He pointed the rifle at them. "Let's. Go." Darcy picked up her phone, sending that diary into the site. Clint gave her a sideways look. She shook her head. He grinned slightly. That was a bit sneaky. They were being dragged out until someone stepped in. An actual currently employed agent.

Agent May was standing in their way, hands on her hips, one right over her gun. "I believe we at SHIELD want them first," she said bluntly. The guy threatened her with the gun. Clint hit him on the neck, making the guy groan and fall down. "Thank you, Barton. Lewis?"

"Bit pissed off. I need tequila."

"Tequila is a good thing sometimes," May said, escorting them out. They were put into an SUV and taken off. May looked back from the front seat. "We've checked, the building's publically noted owner isn't HYDRA but a few of their guards might be. We've talked to the heads of security."

"That's good," Darcy said, nodding some. "That's really good. Am I going there?"

"Yes you are," May said calmly. "We can have someone bring you some tequila." Darcy just nodded. Clint shifted to pet her, keeping her calm until she could break down. May and he shared a look. The driving agent sped up at her poke. Another agent met them there with the requested bottle of decent, but not great, tequila. Darcy wouldn't want the really good stuff, just the really strong stuff tonight.

Clint escorted her up to her apartment and helped her settle in. He kept the bottle until she threw a fit in the bathroom, throwing things around and screaming. By the time she got quiet, he was pouring her a drink. May was waiting for them on the couch. Darcy took the glass, the bottle, and walked back into the bedroom.

Clint sat down, staring at her. "I have no idea," he admitted.

"We got the film. Unedited. Skye decided to release it unedited onto the same sites Darcy likes to lurk on."

"She was editing her earlier diary on one of them. Including with the speech typing app going."

"Oh, dear."

"Oh, yeah." He grinned. "Some nice stuff."

She called that in. "It's May. Lewis was editing her earlier complaint and it caught some of the earlier talk." She hung up. "Skye said that she's already linked that video onto it and she's made sure it's copied a few places as well. Coulson was scowling verbally in the background."

"He never had to scowl at us like that." Someone pounded then walked in, stomping past them. "She's got tequila, Nat," he said dryly.

"She needs a guard," Natasha said blandly as she walked into the bedroom. She yelped and Darcy rushed over to help her since she had tazed her. "Nice," she said, patting her on the arm. "That is an excellent reaction time while drunk and what I'd like you to do whenever you are troubled." She sat up, wincing a bit.

"I'm sorry."

"It's a good thing," Natasha said, taking the bottle of tequila. "We need vodka."

"Vodka is for happy drinking. Tequila is for when you want to forget." She took the bottle back, pouring more into her glass then handing it back. She sat on her bed, getting cuddly with her pillow. Natasha sat next to her, patting her on the arm. "I know it's not my fault."

"Good."

"It's his fault for not respecting women."

"Yes it is."

"I'm going to kill him."

"Perhaps we can talk about how to do that." Darcy glared at her. She smirked slightly. "I'm much better than you would ever be at that, Darcy."

"I have anger. That's better than sneaky spysassin stuff."

"Not always."

Clint came in and took the bottle to pour himself a drink then went back out to the living room.

Darcy grinned. "If you're going to hit on Melinda, close the door so you have privacy."

"It's not the night for that," Clint said dryly.

"I don't date agents," Melinda said.

Clint gave her a smug look. "I'm a retired agent, May."

"Uh-huh," she said dryly. "I don't date Avengers either. They tend to have clingy friends I don't want to meet in the kitchen after sex."

"You'd probably only run into Bruce," he admitted. "The rest of us sleep and Stark doesn't remember to eat that often. Thor won't wake up without the act of another god." She snorted but looked pleased. Clint drank some of his liquor. It was a good night for it.

***

Coulson was the reason everyone woke up the next morning. He knocked and didn't get let in so he picked the lock and went in to make coffee. Clint glared at him from the couch. Coulson waved a cup, getting a shrug back. Melinda woke up next, glaring at him. He pulled out a cup for her too. Clint held up two more fingers. Coulson made two more cups. He blinked when Natasha opened the bedroom door. He poured sugar into her cup and handed it over. She poured her own coffee and one for Darcy, going back to the bedroom.

Clint sat up, taking his cup from Coulson. May took hers to sip slowly. "Tequila. It solved the nerves."

"That's a good reason," Coulson agreed. He sat down. "Her speech-to-text program is very good. It took down all that information." He took a sip of his own coffee. "We have routed out the HYDRA people on the local staff with their help. One of them was watching over Darcy but he wasn't sure why he was supposed to." Darcy came to the door, glaring at him. "You're safer now."

"I should move," she said.

"Perhaps but they've cleaned out most of their staff's problems," Coulson said. "So you should be safe enough here. Not like they didn't already know you're here."

"Great." She sipped her coffee, coming out to sit on the couch with Clint. "Now what?"

"The person who put up the hit on you is now arrested," Coulson said. "It was officially their butler that put the contract out." She grimaced, but sipped some of her coffee. Natasha came out to take the last seat. "We should upgrade your tazer."

"Probably," she agreed. "I've got a stronger one but I don't tend to carry it when I've got tutoring that night. The kids have seen it, they asked to see it, and they liked how it worked when they tested it against a wall. By the next week, the girls in the class all had one, and one was even legally bought." She took another drink. "So now what?"

"Now, we've talked to Shelly, who was panicking. She caught your story and panicked, calling me. Then the edit came in while she was on the phone with me."

"Melinda and Clint were my heros. They deserve huge rewards for that."

"They should," Coulson agreed. "We have a new bow for Clint to test. It was confiscated but has a weird pull so we wanted his opinion on it." Clint nodded while he gulped coffee.

"Melinda just got in their way, even without her gun in hand, and made the guy frantic," Darcy said. "I want to be scary like her some day."

Melinda smiled some. "Thank you, Darcy. You're scary enough in your own way though." She looked at Natasha. "You did good with how you trained her."

"I cannot take credit for that," Natasha admitted. "I thought her a simple intern. She proved me wrong."

Coulson nodded, smiling at her. "That's fine, Natasha. You were busy handling everything else and having sense. It's something lacking in Stark tower since JARVIS was lost." Natasha smiled into her coffee.

"I do miss having JARVIS just a question away," Darcy admitted. "It made it easier to avoid problems. Or grumpy people." She finished her coffee, getting up to make more. Clint got given some first, then the pot got offered around. Darcy took the last and made a third pot before sitting down again. "So now what? Beyond work?"

"The kids heard you nearly got killed last night by the boys that helped you," Coulson said. "They were huffy you were missing without warning before they got told. Then one of them threw a desk and they all told him you were fine, just hiding. So you can go on your next usual night." She nodded, putting her cup down to stare at him. "Shelly was a bit frantic but calmed herself down by talking to Skye. She's most happy to talk to Skye about how things were going." Two phones beeped, making Coulson and Natasha look at their phones. "Stark just heard. He's pissed."

Natasha sent back a report. "I've told him you're fine, Lewis." She got a new text and she answered it. "He's now complaining about them. How many of them were HYDRA?" she asked without looking up.

"The supposed agents and the one that came to get her out of that room," Coulson said. She nodded once, typing that in. "The rest were about that contract. Thankfully that's been ended."

"Formally ended?" Darcy asked. "Or just the guy's arrested so he can't pay for it? Because I'm guessing the idiot has fanatics who like him." She looked at Clint.

"I don't think a bodyguard would help that much, Darcy. He'd probably be waiting in the car real often when you're tutoring or delivering things," Clint said.

"Pity." She grimaced.

"You could switch jobs," Coulson said. "Switch cities."

"All this attention would probably count against me," she said. "And I still don't want to run for office. Though I might like that platform to stop some stupid things."

"You'd have to go along to get along," Coulson said. "At least at first."

"Which sucks," Darcy agreed. "Nothing ever gets changed that way."

"True," Coulson agreed, staring at her. "Do you want to switch cities?"

"I...I like working with Shelly and the kids?" She looked unsure. "I'm worried I'll have to move because all this attention on the building."

"They haven't said anything about that," Coulson said. "You could ask."

"Yeah, later. When people are in." She picked up her cup to take another drink. "So now what am I doing? How long am I hiding for?" she asked at Melinda's odd look. "Any new precautions?"

"Driver," Coulson suggested. "Two days of hiding to make sure it's safe."

"Okay." She sent that message to Shelly. She looked at her twitter, wincing at what she saw. "Oh, great, I'm being called a coward... and other pretty names. Aww, it's the obligatory male jackass rape threat too. I'm so honored," she said sarcastically, answering them. Then she put up a new tweet that slammed them all for it. "If they really wanted to traumatize me more, they have to work harder than to threaten to have me raped by *real* men."

Clint snatched the phone to look over, grimacing. "Gross."

Natasha nodded. "Many women are threatened with that for exposing the fact that men aren't all that virtuous."

"Or that human," Darcy agreed. "I'm still getting sniveling from the group at my former college about pointing out women being able to defend themselves has been happening since the beginning of history because men weren't there and it doesn't make men less macho to not be forced to defend us. Frankly, most of us needed to know how to defend ourselves from those sort of men."

"The idiot has tape of that talk," Melinda warned. "He laughed about it."

"I heard," Darcy said dryly, looking at her. "I also noted he was pathetic for believing that women were too fragile to protect themselves. After all, someone had to defend the family and lands when guys were out being macho hunter sorts." She rolled her eyes as she shook her head.

Melinda smirked a tiny bit, watching Darcy be outraged. "We should share those videos."

"Yes we should," Clint agreed. "Because real men know that their women can protect themselves but should never have to do it against them."

Natasha smiled slightly. "True. We hope she'll never have that sort of man."

"Had one as a teenager and he ran from the house crying when I grabbed his dick and twisted it for being a jackass." Darcy looked at her. "He wanted to go all the way and I wasn't about that with him. It was only our second date. It was a study date with three other people staring at him and he still tried to get into my panties. They all clapped and made sure *everyone* knew so he couldn't try it again."

Coulson looked at her. "Is he still around?"

"Not that I've ever checked," Darcy quipped. "He was the guy on the lacrosse team."

Coulson looked at her school's yearbook for her junior year, finding him. "He was pretty."

"But he was a stupid fuck," Darcy said dryly. "Really too stupid." She looked at him, then pointed at the other one. "Him."

"Not as pretty," Coulson said. "Did you break his nose?"

"No, his dad hit him with the car one year. Supposedly by accident."

Coulson looked him up. "Hmm, he sells cars." Darcy broke out giggling. "High end ones. Oh, he married into the dealership."

"Stacy?" Darcy guessed.

He looked. "Stacy's sister if they're Morrats."

"Yup. That's the one that I was thinking of. Stacy was there when I nearly ruined his tiny dick. So he knocked up her little sister? Who was probably....six years behind us?"

"Yes, it appears so. Her sophomore year."

"Awww, technically juvie rape," Clint said dryly.

Coulson nodded, closing it out. "He's on the site that does the yearbooks waiting on others to connect."

Darcy shook her head. "I looked but there's almost none on there I'd want to talk to. Those I'm on facebook."

"That is a good way to weed out people you don't want to remember," Melinda said.

"I have many of those I ask 'who the crap are you' and have to look them up," Darcy agreed. "Half of them I work with on various charities." They all tried not to smile at that. "Oooh, the idiot hasn't figured out who I actually am yet. He still thinks I'm not the one that sent him that restraining order letter. Awww. Tiny little mind."

"I'll talk to his guard agents," Coulson said, shaking his head and taking a sip of his cold coffee.

She pointed. "Microwave, Coulson?" He went to warm his coffee up after refilling the cup. She got back to her statements on her various medias then put her phone down. "Before I throw it. Some people are cranky that I survived. We may be progressive but there's still plenty of bitches with bad ideas." She looked at Coulson. "Want me to put a final edit on that diary and point out SHIELD agents saved me?"

"Go ahead," he agreed. "No naming them. She's got a following from teenage boys." Melinda glared at him but didn't move to stab him this time.

Natasha looked at Clint. "Don't even mention them," she warned before he opened his mouth to tell her about Natasha's fan club.

"The only ones I know in your fanclub are women who needed a strong role model to look up to," Darcy quipped as she typed in that edit. "Here we go. The next morning's edition and explanation. Last night, SHIELD agents saw the diary and managed to save myself and the agent with me in time before we got taken by another idiot who was wanting to kidnap us. I really heart all the SHIELD agents I know of, but I don't know them all, and they were really helpful last night. They even got me tequila after all that was done with so I could recover in peace and quiet without screaming too long. But seriously, thanks to the people who alerted people I was being kidnaped and the SHIELD agents who protected us. It was really sweet of them. Now we're making plans to make sure I don't have to go through that again. We *think* it's ended, but you know how some fanatics are. So peace, people, and at least we all survived it. And if you're my kids I tutor, I'll be in at my normal time on Saturday."

"Put this weekend," Clint said. "For safety." She corrected that with a nod. "And you can put that on your facebook too."

"I put it on my twitter. Most of them consider facebook lame white people things." She shrugged a bit as she shifted position to put her feet up. "I've already gotten one response that they're glad I'm okay and a slight blush over being noted as saving me last night during the first thing." She let Coulson see it, getting a nod so she posted it. Then she answered the new comments.

They settled in to talk about how to handle things. Darcy was cool with that. As long as someone kept making coffee. Bringing social justice took a lot of coffee.

***

Stark showed up at Darcy's apartment that night, staring at Melinda when she opened the door. "There's still two people who think it's a great idea," he said, walking around him. "Lewis?" he called. "There's still idiots."

"Of course there are," she agreed, coming out of the bedroom putting in earrings. She turned. "Zip me up please?" He grimaced but did that. "Thank you." She went back into the bedroom, coming out to put on her shoes. She stared at him. "How did you find me?"

"I hacked Coulson." He smirked, handing over the sheet of paper. "The idiot at your college is wanted in connection with four attempted rapes and for encouraging guys like that guy in Santa Barbara." She grimaced. "He's taken up the call to have you killed. There's another one that's out of LA." She flipped to those, grimacing. "Yeah." He sat down. "So what're you doing tonight?"

"Dinner with a few people and Shelly." She stared at him. "Have they come near Pepper?"

"No. Thankfully not. Someone tried really hard last month but she got him back for it." Darcy grinned. "Anyway, are we sure it's safe?"

"Pre-arranged by months, Tony. I can't get out of it."

"I can go."

"Then you'd be expected to donate a lot. We're all tiny groups with low budgets."

He waved a hand, grimacing back. "I know you do."

"I know I do too." She smirked. "You can come if you want but we'll be talking about a rollout of a new collaborative project."

He sighed, shaking his head. "No. I'll donate but I don't know anything about putting things into place if they're not electronic."

"That's fine." She pinched him on the arm. "If you're looking for Clint, he's already scouting the area. When Shelly called to remind me, Coulson went back into scowling man persona."

"He made expressions?" Stark asked.

"Yeah, whole ones instead of small ones. He was not pleased."

"Well, hopefully nothing will happen tonight." He held out something with a smirk. "Stronger. Needs to charge for a bit but much higher stream of electricity and tougher to break if they step on it." She smiled, taking it to look over then plug in. "You going soon?"

"About twenty minutes so I'll bring both. That one can go on my thigh." She grinned. "The advantages of a purse."

"Yeah, that's a good thing."

"So how's people?"

"People are...usual," he admitted. "Bruce is having a good week. No code greens, no big dramas. Only the kid scared him this week. She was wandering when she should've been sleeping on dad so she went to find Mom but found Brucie to squeal at from the doorway. He yelped, which we heard. She squealed back at the odd sound, and ran in to cuddle him. We're starting to think the kid is actually Loki's." She burst out giggling, shaking her head. "Yeah. It's been that sort of week. I had to make sure she couldn't wander into my lab area. Her nanny has a bad case of the flu, again. She got the shot."

"Was it sent at her? There were stories of a few people getting weaponized flu recently thanks to a runaway experiment at NYU's labs."

"I saw that," he admitted. "I don't think so. We typed the strain and it looks different so I'm hoping not. Thankfully the kid hasn't gotten it yet."

"Kids are stronger than adults. They bounce back from a lot of stuff."

"Yeah, they do. Including walls in her case. She keeps running into the elevator."

"Shiny surface, Tony. Jane did the same thing because her brain didn't process that the shiny hallway was a mirror."

"Yeah, that could be," he admitted. "I can put stickers up or something. Jane walked into the other day again and nearly broke her nose. Then her foot kicking it."

"She is her mommy's daughter."

"Yes she is. With her daddy's hair." He stood up. "You should finish doing your hair."

She looked at it in the mirror across from them, patting down a few pieces. "It was mostly done." She looked at him. "Thanks. Be safe?"

"Of course."

"Did you pass this intel on to anyone?"

"Not yet."

"I'll make sure Clint sees it. Thank you." She hugged him. "Go be safe, Tony."

"Yeah, you too. You keep getting this shit piled on you."

"It's the boobs. Men don't respect strong women. Apparently I'm threatening because I stand up for myself and others. They consider it *dangerous*." He snorted, shaking his head. "I know, and so do you, that they're whiny babymen who have mommy issues. The world could use some more therapists."

"You could get a degree for that."

"Yeah but I'd rather help in other ways." He nodded, leaving her alone. She tucked those papers into her purse with her original tazer and hid her knife and new tazer on her. She made sure she had everything, grabbing her good jacket to put on as she walked out. Maybe she'd have to do something like move. The security people she ran into gave her strange looks. "Work, guys." They all groaned. "It's been scanned." She let one of them see those pages of information, getting a grunt but he called it in. She took it back with a grin and left. A cab wasn't too hard to get. So she got there about five minutes late. She spotted Clint, patting her purse. He nodded once. She walked inside, taking off her jacket to put over her arm. "I'm with Shelly," she said with a smile. The maitre'd escorted her over.

"Darcy, I didn't think you'd make it tonight," Shelly said, standing up with a smile to hug her.

"I nearly didn't but this is too important to miss." The nice guy pulled out her seat for her. "Thank you," she said with a smile. Her jacket went onto the back and she settled in. "So, how is everyone?"

"We're good," one of them said, staring at her. "Are you?"

"I calmed down last night. Had a small fit, had some tequila, talked to some friends this morning." She nodded a bit. "I'll be okay. Just a bit more paranoid."

"It sucks that you have to be," Shelly said. "Or respond to those haters." Darcy smiled and nodded. "Are you sure you're up to this?"

"Yeah. I've been the one doing all the planning so I need to be here. If they show up here, there's at least six bodyguards in this place right now. We're two blocks from a PD station. We'll get help really fast." They all nodded. "Unless you think it's too dangerous to have me here? I can go sit on my couch in my jammies and phone it in."

"No, it should be fine," the others decided. They got to work over salads about how to roll out the new program and how to get kids into it. Darcy did a lot of work with the kids so that'd help get the news out. They all paid attention to the windows and the people around them but they could handle it. Darcy could hide a bit better after this.

***

Darcy walked into her tutoring room, taking off her scarf and jacket, smiling at the staring kids. "I told you I'd be here tonight. The weather's crappy." They all nodded. "It's okay, guys. They won't come here." One of them pointed at a corner. Darcy looked then smiled and waved. "Hi. Who're you?"

"I'm the principal where these children go. Are you sure it's safe for you to be around them, Miss Lewis?"

"It has been so far. Actually I'm really thankful that a few of them helped save me that day." He glared. She stared back. "They've been arrested."

"I'm sure but there's people who might still try to take you out. They could get these students hurt."

Darcy shook her head. "No, they won't come here. Why would HYDRA want to come up on students? They hold no tactical advantage for them. They can't look any worse to humanity so coming here won't make any bit of sense. They're more kidnaping you off the street sorts." She looked over as someone walked in. "Scott." She smiled and shook his hand. "Can you get the kids started?"

"Of course. I've missed you guys. My daughter's giving me bad looks for not helping you guys most of the time from New York." They smiled and let him come over. One of the kids in the room squealed loudly and ran for him to hug him. "Oooh, so strong!" he cooed, cuddling her. "You're so strong and you're going to be very smart some day, sweetie."

"That's Bethie," Darcy said with a smile at the mom, who grinned back but got her daughter back.

Scott winked and shifted so they noticed his holster. They all relaxed and nodded. "I have a Stark tazer," he hissed to one, getting a moan back.

"Did you just suggest something filthy to her!" the principal complained, stomping over there.

"I seriously doubt Scott is going to do that," she said dryly.

"We don't know who this man is!" he thundered.

"Hi, I'm Scott, better known as Ant Man," he said with a smile and a held out hand for a shake. "I've worked with Darcy a few times because the program like this in New York is a bit less set up." The principal was glaring at him. He smirked a tiny bit. "I've also grown up around kids just like these. Not all of us were rich princes. I grew up hard and learned how to handle myself outside a gang but on the streets. I've been plenty of bad places and I'm hoping I can help these kids and others not follow me."

"You were in prison."

"Well, yes," Scott agreed dryly. "And so have three of the kids in here. I doubt they want to go back so we're working on that." Darcy nodded, staring at the guy coming in. He grinned at him. "Hey."

"Steve," Darcy said. "Hi. Long time no see." She held out a hand.

He pulled her over to hug. "We miss you around the labs. You had sense and got people to handle their own things." He let her go with a grin for the kids. "We got really upset with the people who tried to take Darcy out."

"Well, one was HYDRA," one of the girls in the corner said dryly, trying to get her kid to quiet down. She stared at her. "Must you? You're making a bad impression in front of important people." Her daughter was still fussy.

Scott took her to look at. "I'll cuddle if you want, precious, but you don't have to whine. We're good boys, we like you for being a smart little one. Okay?" She settled down, smiling at him. He grinned back. "You're a good girl." He cuddled her. "My daughter used to be your age. She was adorable too. A lot more drooly than you are though."

Steve smiled. "She'd be horrified if you told her that." He smiled and waved. "We're here to make sure Darcy's okay and share information about the people who tried all that stupid stuff. We can do that after we do some helpful things here." Darcy pulled out cookies, tossing the bag to someone. "Oooh, you're baking," Steve sighed. "I've had to steal Clint's cookies a few times."

"Mine too," Scott quipped. He looked at the baby. "You're too young for cookies but you need a teething biscuit."

"That I don't have," Darcy admitted. "I have dried fruit leathers if that'll help." She dug one out. "That's my midnight snack but I made them myself."

The mother took it to look at and nodded. "She can suck and drool on that until she can swallow it." She let her daughter have it. The baby grinned and stuck it into her nose then her mouth. "That's better. You need better aim."

"That happens later," Darcy quipped. The principal was still glaring. She stared back. "Babies get good hand-eye coordination around the age of two." He stomped off. She waved at his back. "It's great you're worried about these kids too, sir, and I hope you have a better night." She pulled out the books and they settled in to work on things. The other two kids in the room came over to play with them and get some attention while their parents learned. Shelly walked in and paused, staring at Scott and Steve. Darcy grinned at her. "You guys remember my boss Shelly, right?" They all nodded and a few waved. "You can come in, Shelly. We're working on the GED english portion tonight."

"That's cool." Shelly came over, looking at Scott. "You pissed him off."

"I didn't say a thing to him," Scott said with a shrug. The baby flinched, looking at him. He patted her on the back. "It's okay. Go back to your nap. I've got a comfy shoulder, kiddo." She yawned and fell back asleep. Steve grinned at him. "I do."

"He's good during movie nights too," Darcy quipped, grinning at the kids. A few blushed. "Nothing like that. He's a taken guy. I don't touch taken. My mother would've been ashamed if I became a mistress. She'll come back and beat my ass."

Steve smiled. "My mom would if I became someone's mistress too." The kids laughed. "She was a great lady. She was a nurse. She handled a lot of hard things back in the day."

"Did you work when you were a kid?" Scott asked him.

"When I could. I was sick an awful lot. That drove my mom nuts. During the summers I always did because it easier not to have asthma or tuberculosis during the summers."

"You were that sorta sick?" one of the girls asked.

"Yeah. I had TB, I had severe asthma, I had a heart problem, I had yellow fever one year. My mom had me given last rites six times one winter." He shrugged a bit. "She was stubborn enough to get me through it, her and Bucky's help with his family. My mom went without a lot of stuff to make sure I made it."

"Back in those days, Brooklyn was where the poor immigrant families lived," Scott said. "Even back then Manhattan was for people with money."

Steve nodded. "Yup. We only saw Manhattan when we took a train or hiked across a bridge."

"Wow," one said. "I know things cost less then."

Steve nodded. "It was relative. You could eat pretty decent on fifteen bucks a week, maybe a bit less depending on sales, but she only made about thirty a week as a nurse. So that, plus housing, plus my medicines and anything I needed for school."

"Wow." She looked at the others then at him. "How did you work?"

"Back then there were more jobs for kids. Newspaper kids, if you could get onto their gangs. Helping on the docks if you were old enough or looked old enough. Maybe running errands for stores if you knew one of them that was good people. I did a lot of doing small things for the neighbors when I could. I worked at one of the local stores and sometimes got the stuff that was just about to go bad but you could cut it up for a soup or stew."

"Back then refrigerators were rarer, right?" Darcy asked.

"They were getting popular but it was real expensive so it was for middle class and up at that time. We had an ice box, the old style were you bought ice for it every so often."

"What happened to your dad?" one of the boys asked. "Most of us have a missing persons case father."

"My dad died in during a mustard gas attack in the army. I was about seven. Mom nearly followed him but she held on and she told me it was because of me. Moms who have to do it on their own are some of the strongest moms ever. My mom didn't take any shit. She took a belt to Bucky once for his mouthiness." A few grinned, including Darcy. "My mom didn't take it from patients, from us, for anyone. A few of the old biddies in the neighborhood kept nagging her to get remarried so I'd have a dad. She told them off about how she still loved him and if they were that interested in how I was raised they could give her advice. They still gossiped but it was less in front of us. Bucky's mom told us what they were saying."

That kid shook his head. "At least yours had a good reason."

Steve nodded. "There were deadbeat dads back then too. Ones who knocked up girls and then didn't ever see them again. Ones who just walked off after their marriage was falling apart. There wasn't really divorce so a lot of people just went to live with others somewhere else. I know of a guy who walked off from his wife in Brooklyn and she found out about his other two he had before her in the midwest and his next one in Florida a few years later. Without divorce he kept just marrying and having kids he didn't want to deal with. If you were lucky, your Ma had family or you landed in a decent orphanage."

"That's like group homes only run by nuns or another religious group," Darcy said quietly.

"Your mom?"

"Died when I was fourteen from cancer. My dad when I was twenty-two from mental deterioration thanks to being poisoned by my whore of a stepmother. She's still in jail for it and still has a death threat against me."

"Wow." He blinked at her then at Scott.

He shook his head. "I didn't grow up good but my parents were together, mostly. It was hard enough but not to the point where gangs or drugs were my only hope of making it out of there. I was the step up above that. That's why I learned to steal things. Which is why I did time."

They all nodded at that. Darcy patted one of the girls on the wrist. "I ran from home right after my mom died, guys. I spent two weeks in the worst parts of Hollywood. Which is not the pretty part of LA no matter what the news says. I barely got saved from hooking up with a pimp. He tried to hook me on drugs and I ran when being high was so damn wrong feeling. I still hid for the next few days. The only reason I went home is because someone dragged me there. I was seriously mad at my father. He needed something to take his grief and focus so he was dating not six months after my mom died."

A few nodded at that. "I can't say I wasn't lucky. Kids like me get hooked and killed every day. I nearly got stabbed, which is why the cops picked me up. The hooker trying to bring me in to get a reward got hit with a thing I picked up so she tried to stab me. I was pretty, innocent, and didn't realize what sort of fish food I was. I had a few parties that I got invited to but I managed to just eat and hide from being passed as a party favor. Even if you grow up a Stark, you can still end up in the trash real easy. It's as easy as one choice that went wrong."

"We've seen a few of those," one of the boys said. "My sister nearly was. I went after her."

"I didn't have someone to come after me. My dad was wrapped up in all that stuff he didn't want to feel. My friends were worried sick and reported me missing. They told my dad I had left because he was out of town for a weekend." A few shuddered. "Yeah, it was bad. He was being totally wrapped up in his own grief and I had no outlet of my own. Thankfully I managed to escape. I probably wouldn't have lasted another week. The other homeless kids sneered that I was a runaway from a good home. I heard plenty from them and I helped a few of them get help for their problems.

"A few of them were right, the streets were harder but better than their homes. That sucks since one was seven." One of the boys shrank in on himself. "I knew kids got hurt. My mom worked with some of the earliest abuse shelters. I went with her and saw some kids that I was horrified that no one stepped in to help them. My mom always told me it was my duty to help people who need it. Even if it's giving some drunk guy on the street a few cents or a card for a shelter. If it's helping you guys make sure you don't end up in the trap your parents did, then that's even better. I have plenty of time to give these days and it's a lot harder than just giving money."

"So you actually volunteered?" one of the girls asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. You guys need me. I can do that. I'm good with helping people and taking care of people."

"She did at the tower all the time," Steve agreed. "She took care of most of the science team sometimes. Jane Foster all the time."

"Jane's addicted to her science," Darcy said. "She's chasing that high from a new find or a new principle. She'll do anything to get it. It's her addiction. The only thing that stops that was Thor's abs."

"You know Thor?" one asked, gaping at her.

Darcy smiled and nodded. "Yeah. I was there when he landed on earth. Jane hit him with a car, I tazed him. We introduced him to poptarts and coffee."

They looked at each other then at her. "So you're kinda a normal woman's hero?"

"No. I'm not a hero. I'm a lady that jumps in when I have to." She smiled, shrugging some. "It's a choice you make. The same as I'm hoping some of you become teachers because no one else is truly going to understand your siblings and what they're going through. Some of us will try," she said with a point at herself. "Some of you know though. It's important that you guys someday step in and help some kids get better."

"Some day I'd like to turn over my job to some of you," Shelly agreed. "It'd be great if we could."

"It takes a degree to be a teacher," one of the girls complained.

Darcy nodded. "You can start at a community college with a GED and transfer if you want to do something that takes a degree. You're more than eligible for financial aid, and the form to fill that out is free. Just need employment and tax records. You may come out in debt but you'll come out of it with a future."

"One of the best docs I've ever worked with in New York came out of the projects," Steve said. "He's still doing a lot of good work with the kids. Nearly got shot by a gang member last year for encouraging the kids to leave that area and do something with themselves. Nearly ruined his career from it." He leaned on the table. "He's still doing it and he's a great man. He's the guy that gives a lot of time to charity docs and did a years as a doc overseas after he graduated. He's a high priced surgeon now but he does a lot of work with kids who can't afford his reconstruction services. He's an orthopedist, a bone doc. He helped set some of my ribs recently so they'd heal."

"That's an anomaly," Shelly said. "Being a doc is an anomaly. Being a teacher isn't. Being a business person isn't. A lot of kids start their own business because they know what people will buy. What they need. Some of them end up doing secretarial stuff."

"I know one who went art history," Darcy said with a grin. "She stares at art all day for a job."

"I thought about that," Steve admitted. "There wasn't financial aid in my day but I was good at art and I could've apprenticed somewhere maybe. I just had to be a bit older."

The kids looked at each other then at them and nodded as a group. "That's so weird."

"Art stuff can be therapeutic," Darcy said. "Art therapy is real popular. A lot of artists are using it to get emotions out. Including some of the graffiti artists. Find something you want to be and work towards it," she said with a smile and a pat on one girls' arm. "Find a reason to go on, to move on, and to do what you can so you're not the kid killed by a cop, or shot by a gang member, or even the baby daddy that disappeared. Sometimes that's a choice. Not always because there's been plenty of bystanders shot, but some of it's a choice.

"You made one already that may not have been the most reasonable but it worked for you at that time. Now it's time to reevaluate that choice and maybe, just maybe, there's an off ramp to a new site. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised at all if you guys started up a farm. There's all sorts of city farms that could use help and people who can just take care of plants. They go to farmer's markets in poorer areas so the kids can eat better veggies. None of you are against plants, right?" They shook their heads.

"I've seen the one in New York that's a huge barge," Steve said. "It sounds neat and they have an art deck on it too. They're looking for volunteers."

Scott smiled. "I donated. I'm allergic to some fertilizers. I helped with the farmer's market part instead with Bruce."

"Bruce gets a bit sea sick," Steve said. "I don't think he wanted to be on a barge to throw up in the compost pile." Darcy giggled, shaking her head. "Pepper brought Stark out to work on some of the community farms that are popping up on bare lots. It's helping a lot. Plus makes things prettier."

"We have a few of those," Shelly admitted. "I give to them because I don't have time to donate. I do buy from them near the end of the day so the residents near there get the best stuff first."

Darcy nodded. "I shop at one shop that does export to the richer areas but they use those funds to funnel back into the program so I don't mind spending so much for carrots. I still can't stand kale but I will eat other veggies. I've also donated recipes to their cooking project."

Steve nodded. "I shared some of my mom's recipes. They're good, strong food that lasts and is hearty. I can't stand stew most of the time anymore because we spent six months eating nothing but stew but her recipe is great."

Scott smiled. "I'd do that but I don't have any. My ex-wife doesn't really cook a lot at home. My daughter's learning how to cook though."

"I sent her a brownie recipe," Darcy quipped with a grin. "Healthy brownies so she could binge during test times."

"I'm sure she adored that. She's at that age where chocolate is almost holy." Scott smiled at the kids. "Everyone has it tough. Some kids have it tougher. Some kids don't."

"Stark doesn't."

Steve shook his head. "He had money, but not a bit of people who gave a damn. His mother never did much with him. His nanny gave him more affection than anyone, kids. He loved his butler more than his father because he was there."

"Kids like that grow up rich in things and nothing else," Darcy said. "It's nice in some ways, not having to worry about where things come from, but it's also soul destroying. My parents raised me as a practical person. We didn't worry about much but I also didn't have a nanny. I think they're a huge problem with a lot of kids. It'd be like your cousins hiring your mom to raise their kids and them having to try to respect her for that. You can't do that."

"That would suck. At least most of us have an aunt or a mom or someone," one of the girls said, looking at the others.

Darcy nodded. "Yeah. That's why I hate nannies. My mom had me babysat a few times but otherwise she was the hands-on mom of the group I knew about. She was the mom that the kids came to when they needed advice. She walked up to a few parents to suggest that they talk to their kids about how they needed to learn respect. You don't learn a lot of love when it's the help doing it. You don't love the waitress that brings you food. Or the person who cleans up the building's hallways."

"I didn't think about that," one of the boys said quietly.

Darcy nodded. "I hate nannies. If your parents are having problems, they're traveling a lot, they're in the middle of a divorce, they're handy. It's good to have a stable person there. The rest of the time? No. I've looked oddly at a few friends who do nothing all day and complain that they had to hire a nanny. I've told one she could take the baby to the gym with her and she could actually spend all that time doing her nails helping the baby. Hell, I left Jane because she wanted me to be a nanny for her kid."

"Caused a huge problem," Steve said. "But solved some. It took a few but Jane's new one is a lot safer, steadier, and happier."

"What about hiring on as a nanny?" one of the girls asked.

Darcy pointed at the kid. "Don't expect to have one of those. Your job is to raise their kid, not yours. You're always with the kid. They become like yours but you can be kicked out at any time. So you have to try to get close but if you do, it's like your kid being taken from you. If you want to do domestic stuff, clean houses. It's safer, easier, and less soul destroying. Nannies get shot in divorces so they can take out the kids. No one really ever goes after the housekeeper."

A few of the girls nodded. "It's low paying," Scott told them. "But sometimes it's a safe choice. My mom did that a few times when my dad was out of work."

"There's all sorts of temp agencies," Darcy said. "You can start at them easily, get a good rep, trade up, get more of a good rep, trade up again. If I had a place where I was allowed to have cleaning help, because I throw things everywhere in my bedroom and hate to do dishes, I'd be using one of the start ups that young women just like you started up after working for a few years. One even shares my name."

"I know her," one of the boys said with a snap. "They all drive blue cars with aprons on them."

"Yup." Darcy grinned. "She started with a temp agency then moved up until she started her own with a few of her family. She's bonded, got insurance, and all that. I really appreciate what she's been able to build and hold onto." The kids shook their heads but were smiling. "Now, get a cookie, get a piece of fruit, and let's work on english." They got down to work, the little kids in with them being cuddly with people.

Darcy poked one boy that was giving the baby trying to cuddle him a funny look. "Sometimes you can be a role model even if you're not a daddy," she said quietly. "Some day she'll date just like the guys in her mom's life."

"Yeah, she needs better than I am."

"Maybe but maybe you're gonna be the guy that teaches her what shitbags some guys are. I keep running into those sort," she said dryly. "Way too often. I didn't realize guys weren't honorable and kept their words until high school. I was naive."

He picked up the kid to cuddle, letting her nap on his chest. "Yeah, boys need to be better."

"Lead by example, like Steve does," she said with a wink. "He even makes Stark behave."

"That's a chore," he said.

Steve looked over, nodding quickly. "Often." The boy grinned and got back to his studying.

***

On her way home that night, Darcy stopped in the security office. "Carlos." He smiled at her. "A lot of people know where I live."

He nodded. "Unfortunately but it's not been your fault outside your Avenger friends." He stared at her, judging if she had made up her mind yet. "There's a waiting list for apartments, Lewis."

"That's good. Is there anywhere that has the level of security I'd need?"

"It's possible that regular security would work for you but not totally likely. You'd have to do background checks and the like." He shifted in his seat. "Let me consider it."

"Thanks. I'm looking at a budget of about what I'll sell this one for. I can go higher if I must but I don't want to."

"Which should be enough unless you're going very high end."

She grimaced, shaking her head. "I don't need a golden mile penthouse. It'd look wrong to the kids I mentor. Oh, the principal came in to complain about us tutoring."

"Of course." She smiled, leaving to go home. He called the head of the building complex. "Lewis is thinking about moving because too many people know where she lives." He listened. "Exactly. Well we did have HYDRA here. She got dosed with an aphrodisiac in her apartment because they sent it here. SHIELD knows about us too." He listened, nodding some. "I can arrange for someone to buy her out. She's okay with that. She was wondering if we knew of somewhere safe from HYDRA." He listened, grimacing. His boss was sure nowhere was safe from HYDRA. That was setting off bad thoughts in his head. So maybe he'd help Lewis find somewhere safer. And maybe bigger so she could have guests. Right after he did a background check to make sure of who he worked for.

***

The next day, Carlos showed up at the end of his shift, handing her a simple piece of torn notepad that had a name and email on it. "You need to talk to them," he said quietly. "And they'll help you get safer. Because I just found out who owns here," he muttered. She hugged him. He patted her on the shoulder. "You be safe, all right?"

She nodded. "You too. There's not enough good guys out there."

"Thanks, Lewis." He winked and walked off. He had to talk to his security teams. They had probably left at least one HYDRA leak in the security team.

She sat down behind her tablet to write an email to that address. She'd ask Clint later after she found out who that email belonged to.

***

Darcy stared at the guy she was meeting at the donut shop, frowning some. It had been a week of talking to him to make sure he was actually safe for her to talk to, but he understood that because he was making sure she wasn't going to drag him into something bigger. She sat down across from him once she had some coffee. "When you said you looked like someone I'd recognize, that's kinda freaky," she said then sipped her coffee while pulling off some of her donut to nibble. He was even wearing a ballcap and fake glasses like Steve did when he went out and hoped not to be recognized.

He grinned. "It's been noted a lot recently," he said dryly.

She smiled. "That's cool. I have a huge problem. I'm not sure if you've seen it...."

He waved his cup, nodding some. "Yup, and I cheered for you, sister."

"Thanks." She smiled, nibbling on a bite of donut. "There's another problem. For some reason I have a huge threat over my head from a huge problem that your look-alike is fighting hard with his best friend."

He stared at her. "Why?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "There's a few ideas floating around but no real, solid clue. My problem is that they know where I live, which is in a secured compound complex." She took another sip of her coffee.

"I've heard about that place."

"They had some there that were guards," she said quietly. "I got drugged while I was there. Thankfully I had a friend in."

He grimaced. "That totally sucks and I know why you went looking for better help. I'm not sure what we can do about it. We can't handle a huge problem that way. Already got one to handle."

"Who's mixed up in the problem you guys are having."

He grimaced. "Doesn't surprise me any but how do you know?"

She pulled something out of her purse and handed the picture over. "That one?"

He looked, nodding. "Yeah, that's him." He looked at her. "Why do you know?"

"I asked someone I know if they had anything on him. They looked and got mad at him too, and he works with someone you look like." She smiled slightly. "Apparently there were some links in common at one time."

"Damn it. It figures though." He turned the picture over. "What sort of help do you need?"

"I have three formal things I have to go to. One's in DC with that idiot attending but it's for work," she said quietly. "We have another testifying in front of Congress about that incident two days later so I've got to be in DC for a week. I also need help finding an actually safe place. I don't have a huge budget but I have a decent one."

"We can work on that. There's some quieter places. Your current one can't move you?"

"We could but I'm not sure if that'll still be safe."

He nodded at that. "That's a good point. If they know about it... Yeah, that's a very good worry." She handed over another paper, letting him read it. "Oh, hey, I know that name...and he's probably messed up."

"The head of the security team mentioned that," she said quietly. He winced, nodding once. "I like the guys. They're good guys, they're helpful guys. They taught me a lot about being paranoid. The only complaint I had was minor because I couldn't order in groceries or food when I was sick. Which is whiny of me." He grinned, sipping his coffee. "But I think I need to be safe. Especially since they keep trying to drug me with an anti-inhibitant."

He paused while drinking then groaned. "Fuck, they think you're a wife sort."

"Yup, we think so. We think it's related to a few ideas that escaped too." She stared at him. "I like my job. I love my job. I love the kids I work with. I even put up with their principal who was sneering that I'm a white lady. I don't want to give that up."

"I know that feeling. I used to love my job too." He put the cup down. "I can help with some things. Are you okay? You look shaky."

"I spent most of last night listening to people trying to raid the building," she said quietly. "And not finding me at least."

"Crap."

"I'm told I can sell my place within hours of informing them."

"Good."

"But that means I have to have somewhere to move."

"Point. Yeah, we can work on that. Can you make it home?"

"Probably. I'm calling off work today and I told my boss why. She's been *real* understanding since I can do a lot of working from home. Especially after the fake agents the other day." He stared then looked it up on his phone, groaning and looking at her. She nodded. "Yeah." She sipped some of her coffee. "Just...yeah. It's a frantic point right now that I find somewhere safer. Though I'm thinking a Motel 6 might be safer."

"It might be," he agreed, typing out a message. His boss sent one back agreeing she needed the help. "So we think we can help you. We can find you somewhere today and someone to help you move quickly." She smiled, wiggling some. "There's a few places that meet up to paranoid standards. You'll have to set up a few things."

"The present place has special routers that go through don't-see-you sites."

"That's a great thing," he agreed with a grin. "We can handle that too. We will have to charge you." She tossed over a card. He looked at it then called in the balance, nodding. "More than reasonable."

"My safety's something I'm really paranoid about anymore," she said. "It's been a huge problem. There's people online who have threatened me for daring to stand up for myself. Apparently I should've let him rape me."

He shook his head. "We thought you should've shot him."

She smiled. "Me too. It would've stopped some of this. Four attempts on my life now, all from him. With some others jumping in for their own attempts once." He winced. "Which is why I'm rightly paranoid." She glanced outside. "And that's a security guy from my building," she muttered, finishing her donut and coffee. "Shall we walk?"

"We should," he agreed, tucking things into his jacket and walking out the back door with her. They ran into another security team person out there. "Hi, guys." He smirked.

"Jensen," one of them said with a nod. "Stand down, kid. We have three suggestions for Lewis. None too tiny though."

"I'm not against having a home office," she said, looking at Jensen. Then at them. "You guys realize I'm super paranoid woman now?" The security guy nodded. "Did you catch whoever was breaking in last night?"

"Yup, sure did. CPD is still real mad at us. And they were HYDRA."

"Great," she muttered. "So now what?"

"Now, we go look at apartments," Jensen said. "So we can get you moved." She nodded. They went with the security team, who were all nice former commandos. Jensen called that in and why. Clay was having a fit but understood why after having looked them up. Jensen looked at her. "Why is HYDRA after you?"

"Well, not totally sure. The current suggestion is something to do with Barnes. For a while they were kidnaping brunette actresses." He winced. "They broke into my gyn's records. We think it may be a 'give us future soldiers' thing but no one's sure." She looked at him. "Apparently I could pass for a forties' lady."

"You probably could," he agreed. "Wow." He rubbed his forehead, thinking about it. Clay was muttering something in his ear. "Is Barnes in the wind?"

"No one's sure. He went for a walk and disappeared. He's done that before. They managed to get him for two weeks then but he had been gone for six months."

"So maybe." She nodded. "Do they try harder when they have him?"

"Not necessarily," she said. "From what we know about what he went through it could take months to prep me for the brainwashing machine."

"Huh." He nodded once. "Okay. We can look into that and pass on what we find. Is there anyone who's allowed to come visit you?"

"Barton, Lang. I've been visited by a few SHIELD agents too. Coulson was really helpful when I got drugged that time and some others."

"I doubt the three of them are security risks," he decided, frowning some. He rolled his eyes. "My colonel doesn't like them that much. Thinks being heros is a bit dumb."

"Someone's got to stop the guys like Loki. Is your colonel going to do that?" she asked.

"No."

"Does he expect normal people to do it? We helped some in London but Thor still did the majority of the fighting." She looked at him.

"He just laughed, he knew he recognized you from somewhere." Jensen smirked a tiny bit. "He thinks the military should."

"Yeah but they're not. All they want are test subjects." She shrugged. "Which isn't good for anyone. You do that to your enemies and they get worse."

"True." He patted her on the shoulder. "We'll handle it and then talk about the week in DC you have to pull." She nodded. "Anything good with what you're doing?"

"One of my kids told me I should've shot him. Another few helped during the last death threat situation the other night." She smiled. "I adore the kids I tutor. They're good kids, they deserve to get out of the hellhole. I really hope they make it out of there." He smiled but nodded. "But if their principal is huffy about people helping them learn stuff it's because someone's putting pressure on him. Why would he care who helps the kids learn anything."

"We can look into that tonight. Your next tutoring time?"

"Saturdays and Thursdays."

"Okay."

"I need to be back at work day after tomorrow because we have a meeting."

"We can handle that too," he promised. "The douchebag's team is out of the area right now."

"I was hoping it was stopped since the SHIELD guys said it was."

"He has a few fanatics who'd help."

"I thought there probably was," she agreed. "I got told I was paranoid."

"They're out to get you so it's a good thing to be," he quipped back. She relaxed again. "Will you have any problem letting someone pack you so it goes faster?"

"I have clothes in the dryer."

"We can note that," he promised. She nodded, looking around. "How far is this one from her job?" he asked the driver.

"Few blocks. We're riding around because we had a tail." He went through an alley then onto a less crowded street then around a sudden corner. "That helps." He headed back to the first apartment.

It was nice but had almost no windows. The second one was nice but out of the way for her usual traveling needs. The third was a richer place and a penthouse. It had huge windows. She walked around moaning in pleasure at all the light. It had four bedrooms so she had an office and room for a guest. They had a good security team in the building and passcards for entrance to even see the doorman. It was a bit more than she wanted to spend but she had it.

She listed her other apartment while doing the paperwork for her new one. The realtor pushed it through faster. The building's board turned her down because she had so much attention on her. Thankfully there was another one they could go look at immediately. The realtor knew of one with the same benefits. It was a small duplex inside a planned community. They had gate guards and all sorts of amenities, including all bills included. Jensen pointed at one room. "That can easily be a safe room. It's easy enough to reach from most everywhere in the house."

The realtor smiled and wiggled a finger, showing him the actual safe room. "This group specializes in places for government workers."

"Will they mind me?" Darcy asked.

"Not like they have gatherings and their security team was alerted I was bringing you specifically. I got a small groan but an agreement they were safe here." Darcy nodded, looking around again. "It's not as cute as the last one."

"No," Darcy agreed. "It's not." She looked up and then at her. "It's sterile. It's got no character. No light. As a method of last resort it's okay but I liked the last two much better. This is third out of the four."

She nodded. "Four?"

"We saw one that had no windows," Jensen said. He nodded at the guy that came in. He knew he was a SEAL but nothing else about him. "Hey."

"Hey." He looked at Darcy. "Getting both those requirements together would cost you probably eight hundred thousand. I know of a place."

"Her last place just sold for closer to a mil," their security guy said.

"That'll work then." He handed the realtor the address.

"We were just there, they didn't like she had to defend herself," the realtor said.

The security guard smiled. "Let me call, Miss Lewis."

"Thank you. Even if it was halfway between this one and that one in the same sort of building is great."

"That's a good thing." He walked off calling someone. "It's Herat," he said in greeting. He listened. "I am. Yes, that's her. The one who had to defend herself."

"And four attempts on my life since then," Darcy said dryly.

The guy nodded, repeating that. He smiled. "I can send them there. You sure they won't fuss? Oh, that's good. Yeah, I can do that." He hung up. "There's one he knows of that's almost as nice but it's owned by someone who used to be mafia." Darcy's phone chose to ring. "That's convenient."

"I'm going to smite me an agent if they're hacking me," she said. She pulled it out to look at, holding it up to him.

"The building with the penthouse is owned by HYDRA," he read. "Scott Simmons is a regional procurer." He sighed. "That's bad. Who is that?"

She looked then at him. "SHIELD."

Jensen snickered, taking the phone to text back. They sent two addresses. "Here, try those," he told the realtor.

She looked at them. "They're both in a not really good neighborhood," she said with a grimace.

"I don't have many problems with that," Darcy said. "My last one wasn't in a great neighborhood, it was just really safe."

"We can go look. Thank you, Herat. I'll bring the other one by later. He's a judge."

"That's a good thing," he agreed. "We have a few living here. I hope you find something, Miss Lewis."

"Thank you for helping." He smiled and let them go, locking up behind them. They went to the next apartment. It was in need of some renovation on the outside but the inside was decent enough if she could paint it. The other one was better and in a slightly better neighborhood. Though one of the other apartments had police tape on the door. That one was a corner apartment. Almost no windows that opened but they were bulletproof. There were plenty of them. The kitchen wasn't big enough but she could have that fixed if she had to. The bedroom was tiny but the closet was huge. The master bedroom was huge and had almost no closet. "So that other room will be my dressing room," she decided. Jensen nodded. "Two other bedrooms in case of guests. What sort of security?"

"Electronic with a team backing it up," the realtor said.

Darcy looked around then nodded. "I can handle this if it's safe enough." She looked at Jensen then at her security guy friend. "Is it?"

"Mostly," Jensen said. "We can put a film on the window to make sure they can't take pictures or see inside but you can see out. We can put the same sort of router in for you." She nodded, hugging his arm. "Go ahead and do the paperwork."

Darcy took it to look over. "Is that high for this place? Not that I don't understand why," she said, looking up at the realtor.

"A few thousand high. You could probably offer ten thousand less."

Darcy nodded, filling that in. They finished everything and she took it to offer for it. Darcy took Jensen back to her place to let him see what they'd have to pack. She didn't have a lot of stuff to pack, and the few things in her storage area were mostly still in plastic tubs. She looked around. "The only thing I want to keep is the bed and the couch," she said quietly. "The washer and dryer were already here. The table was already here. So was the dresser set." He nodded, making that note. "Then I need to find more I guess."

"We can do that or you can look at second hand stores," he offered with a grin. "People like these would never think you'd be there since you're an heiress."

She nodded. "They know I work with the kids."

"Still probably won't expect it." She nodded, looking up things. Craig's list had a few too. Jensen smiled when she arranged to have things dropped at a storage building with the story she was moving to the area that weekend. She paid using paypal and that was good. The moving team could pick things up from the storage area for her. That simplified her disappearing into the city again. At least until she got visitors.

***

Darcy looked at her current guard, who was shrugging some but silent and deadly. He was cute too. She got a text from Scott and wrote back, telling him she was okay but in the process of moving. Her guard looked. "Scott. He's not as well known so he shows up now and then to check on me." She smiled. "He's a really nice guy and he does the tutoring stuff really good too."

"That's good," he agreed. He looked around then at her. "You need to pick up things, don't you?"

She nodded. "But I can lie and say I'm mid moving to the area."

He shook his head. "Too known."

"Crap." She considered it. "Well, I'm going to impose on a student." She sent out a twitter and got some help from the kids. She smiled at him. "Two of the kids want to go with me. I'm paying them a bit but not that much."

"That's fine," he agreed. "They're protective."

"And have taste, which Shelly does but she really likes modern stuff that's uncomfortable." She grimaced. "I spent the night on her couch after a late meeting. So uncomfortable." She went to grab what she needed, including her debit cards. One was locked up for some reason she'd find later, and the other one still worked so she withdrew some money from inside the bank. They were happy to help her. They went to meet up with the kids, Cougar watching as she hugged them. "Hi, guys. Thanks for the help."

The boy with them shook his head. "Why do you have to shop?"

"I have two bare bedrooms and one's going to be my office." He moaned. "I need to do shelves. I don't need clothes help, I need someone with taste to help me pick out stuff."

The kids nodded and the girl patted her on the arm. "With some of the scarves and beanies you wear, you certainly do need some help, Darcy. Let's go somewhere fun." She let Darcy drive while she navigated and the two guys got into the backseat of the sedan.

The kid looked at Cougar. "How do you become a bodyguard?"

He grimaced. "I'm former Army. We're protective."

"The usual bodyguards I get, when things aren't quite as serious as they are now, generally have wanted to be officers and couldn't do the full academy or they're former officers," Darcy said, glancing back at him with a grin. "Or they're former agents."

"Oh." He grimaced. "I'll never make that."

"You never know."

"They won't accept people with a record, Darcy. Be realistic."

She grinned at him at a stoplight. "Juvie records can be sealed and they will accept those." She went on at the honking, turning the corner since the light was still red and she was in that lane. The girl pointed so she pulled in and they went inside. The salesman gave them an odd look. "My kids are going to prove that they have great sense," she said. "I need a home office and a spare bedroom plus maybe some little things like a coat tree and shelves."

"We don't really do credit," he said.

Darcy smiled and held up the money she had taken out. "That's fine." He swallowed and nodded, taking them to look at some semi-nice things. The kids proved they had a lot of taste.

"What's a coat tree?" she asked.

Darcy pointed. "That. It's for when you don't have a front closet."

"Oh. Huh. You need some hooks or something for your scarf and beanie habit." She looked and picked out a few things. "What color's your couch?"

"Blue plaid with a thin thread of green." The kids stared at her. She smiled. "It's really comfy. I can always cover it later."

They nodded and picked out a few cuter things. Darcy paid and they delivered to one of their addresses so she could have it picked up by that moving company; Cougar called them for it. They went to pick out sheets and the curtains she needed too. Thinner curtains for the living room. Blackout ones for the bedroom. She even took them grocery shopping. They stared at a few choices but she told them how she used them and promised to bring in samples the next class time. They nodded, took their fees, and went home to watch the quiet moving company pick up their stuff to bring to Darcy's house.

Carlos looked at Darcy once everything was in, shaking his head. "At least it wasn't multiple places."

She pinched his cheek with a grin. "Most real women don't shop like that." She went to the kitchen. "Anything you won't eat?"

"No," he said, shaking his head slowly. He was honest, she was a good cook. Jolene would be proud he was eating so well with this client. And Jensen couldn't pout he didn't save him anything since he was tracking someone for another client. They needed to raise the money so they could go back to chasing Max. Darcy handed him a plate with silverware before going to check the safe room they had helped her set up.

One of the bedrooms now had a sealing door with an independent air circulating system. No matter what someone did, she'd be safe in there until help could get to her. The building's security team was off-site but not that bad in their team's estimation. Darcy had stocked the safe room with bottled water, snack food, and things that might be necessary in case of a long assault.

She was nearly fully set up so it was safer.

***

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