Work Text
The only difference being a doctor of astrophysics instead of an intern to a doctor of astrophysics is that Darcy had sadly, unfortunately, regretfully made quite a name for herself.
“Lewis!” She can just about make out someone screaming her name above the sound of heavy gunfire. “
Run.
”
There’s no time to think as
Paulletz dives into her and knocks her to the ground. Sand and dirt spray into her eyes and she coughs, inhaling the dry air from the desert while her lungs scream for air.
She can barely make out Paulletz above her though it’s clear his gun is pulled from the way he stands. She’s quickly dragged to her feet as her brown-haired protector yanks her up by the bicep and starts dragging her along as he hauls ass.
“Keep your head down!” He orders sharply. “We’ve got backup coming in five!”
The trouble with working in the desert is there wasn’t anywhere to hide. Agent Deems had helpfully- logically -brought that exact point up during the initial briefing, but as this was meant to be an intel and observation mission his concern had been noted and then dismissed.
Should’ve backed him up, at least a little.
Darcy thought, watching the SUV she’d been riding in mere hours ago explode into several fiery pieces.
She slams into Paulletz’s chest as he stops, raises, and then fires his gun behind her. There’s another masked agent making a run at him from behind and Darcy thanks the stars that SWORD had insisted on giving her at least
some
form of combat training before they’d hired her because, with a quick dodge and a kick, she has him on the ground.
“Hey!” Someone screams at them through the chaos. From behind another SUV, Agent Monti waves his hands frantically. “Take cover!”
It’s each man for themselves as she and Paulletz dash towards the other agent, and a damn shame that Darcy wore her nice jeans as she slides behind the back of the car, kicking up dirt as she lands.
Something small is lobbed into the space where she’d just been. She barely hears someone yell “
grenade!
” before there’s an ear-splitting
boom
and she’s launched even further back, away from the safety of the truck.
She gets to her feet a few moments later- or tries to, anyway, but it’s as if somebody has embedded an axe into the back of her skull. There’s a ringing in her ears, but as it dies down she can’t hear anything but the
familiar
whoosh
of a quinjet overhead.
There’s a pressure on her back. “Stay down,” a low voice murmurs. It’s Nobara, the field medic. She’d been joking with her over coffee this morning. “You’re concussed. We’ve got reinforcements on the field now.”
Agent Nobara Toyohara had the kind of voice that would put anyone at ease, and she did exactly that to Darcy while the latter felt a sharp pinch on her left arm.
“It’s a fast-acting painkiller,” Nobara explained, pressing down on the syringe. “That HYDRA grenade did a number on both you and Paulletz. Nothing major, but I bet you have one killer headache.”
Darcy means to mumble “yeah”, but what actually comes out is a moan. She can’t feel her arm anymore as the serum spreads, but she guesses that’s a good thing.
“Hey, Torres!” Nobara is speaking over her now, waving her hands in the air. “Over here! Get me a cas evac!”
By the time they’re joined by a tall young man in military attire, Nobara has hoisted to her feet and pulls her tight against her shoulde. She can barely stand, but by god does she try; Torres is kinda cute and she's very aware that she's covered in dirt, sand, and probably blood.
“Ma’am,” Torres nods to her.
“S’
Doctor.
” She corrects blearily.
“Doctor Lewis?” He gives her a once over again, this time more closely. “Nice to finally meet you. The ship is this way.”
“My work-” She bites out, mouth full of cotton.
Nobara squeezes her shoulder. “Don't worry about that right now, Dr Lewis. Your safety is our priority. Agent Barnes and Agent Wilson are just cleaning up any stragglers.”
“
Barnes?
” Darcy moans. Good god, could this day get any worse? First, she’d been shipped out to the Texan desert with literally three hours notice, and now she was getting rescued by Bucky
fucking
Barnes?
Sam, she didn’t mind. She liked Sam; he was fun and easy to talk to. He helped her do the dishes whenever they were in the common room together and his music taste rocked.
But
Barnes?
She was never going to live this down.
*
It hadn’t been on Bucky’s agenda for the day to fight Nazis in the Chihuahuan Desert. It was technically his day off and he would have enjoyed it too. The tower had been empty, heck, even
Lewis
had gone off base for some scientist research thing, so he had planned to kick back and finish watching that weird blue alien movie Sam had been yapping on about.
Except he’d let that idiot wheedle him into spending the day as backup stationed at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, ten klicks east of where Lewis was set up.
“Remind me why we’re needed again?” He’d asked once they’d arrived and been escorted to a private room by some worried-looking scientists. “Aren’t they just analysing rocks?”
But then they’d received the ‘help’ signal, and Bucky was very much reminded of why they were needed when a HYDRA goon tried to hit him in the face as soon as Torres had dropped them off.
It was fine for Sam, he had wings, after all, so Bucky was the one to do the grunt work. The SWORD agents had put up a hell of a fight, but he’d heard on the comms at one point that there were casualties, so he planned to finish up quickly and get the hell home to avoid any more trouble.
“Clear down here,” he’d barked into his earpiece once the last enemy dropped from a swift punch to the solar plexus. “Sam?”
“Nothin’ from up here.”
“We good?” This time he speaks to Torres, who’s monitoring them from the helicopter. “We done here?”
“Seems like it, Sir.” The younger man’s voice crackles through his ear. “Commander Brand is waiting to debrief with you on board.”
“
Excellent.
” He groaned. Beside him, the unconscious HYDRA agent mirrored his sentiment.
He gave them one last kick for good measure.
*
The minute Darcy opens her eyes again, she wishes she hadn’t.
Not because of her killer headache- although that did kill, but because Barnes is staring down at her. When he sees she’s awake, his lips spread into a saccharine, shit-eating smile.
“Hey gorgeous,” he croons, and she'd probably blush if he wasn't being such an idiot, “sleep well? Want me to tuck you in a little more?”
“Go away.” Her voice is croaky from disuse but he hears it loud and clear because his grin widens. “Why are you even here?”
“Good question.” Bucky leans back against the metal ribcage of the quinjet. From what she can see they're in the furthermost section designated as the makeshift medical wing. “I was mindin’ my business at home, when all of a sudden, I get called out cause some scientist and
fifteen
agents can't seem to handle a little field trip in the butt-end of nowhere. Imagine my surprise at that.”
She’s only known Barnes for a few months now, but she knows enough about him to realise this is his secretly pissed-off voice. She knows that because he uses it on her most of the time.
“Too old to work out the annual leave system, huh?” She rasps. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to pick on the injured?”
He rolls his eyes. “You bumped your head, Lewis. You’re not dying.”
“Maybe I am dead. Maybe I’m in hell and that’s why you’re in front of me. Actually, why are you in front of me? Can't you go annoy someone else?”
Bucky shifts, and a datapad suddenly enters her line of sight.
“I’m here for your incident statement and debrief.”
At the change in his voice, she grins, wider and wider until a croaky laugh bubbles out of her throat. “No, you’re not. You’re here 'cause you got into a fight with Commander Brand, aren’t you?”
“...No I’m not.”
“You totally are!” She laughs again, despite the gesture causing her head to knock painfully against the pillows. “Aw, what’s the matter Barnes, can’t play nice with the team?”
“
Okay,
” Barnes declares, swiping around on the datapad. “Patient cannot give a statement at the moment because she is unresponsive. The Patient seems to have lost consciousness as she has been drooling all over herself- not surprising, to be honest. Oh, look at that. Upon closer investigation, the Patient has shit herself-”
“Do
not
write that in my file, James Barnes, or I swear to
god
-”
They’re cut off by the sound of doors sliding open and in walks Sam and Nobara, side by side. The latter makes quick work of heading over to the machines Darcy’s hooked up to, while Sam comes to stand by her bed.
“You two bickering again?”
“No.” They both reply, simultaneously. When Bucky looks at her, she sticks out her tongue.
“
Sure
.” Sam rolls his eyes at their antics. “How you feeling, Lewis?”
“Like someone parked an eighteen-wheeler on my brain.” She replies. “So just peachy, thanks. How did they know we were there?”
“They’ve been following the same astral phenomenon as you guys. Our best guess is they got lucky finding you out in the desert.”
“Did they take anything?”
“Not that we know of. All material, physical and digital, has been recovered.”
“And the other guys?”
“All fine. Just minor scrapes and bruises.”
Darcy lets her head fall back onto the pillows. Finally,
finally
, she can relax.
“Good.” She whispers, all of a sudden feeling like she really
did
have a giant truck parked on her skull.
Nobara seems to sense her discomfort. “Sorry,” she has the decency to look sheepish. “We’re weaning you off the painkillers ready for a full assessment back at base.”
“Oh wonderful.” She sighs, gazing upwards at the bright lights and the metal ceiling of the quinjet. “Just wonderful.”
*
Darcy wouldn’t say she
hates
James Barnes, or Bucky, as his friends call him.
(She doesn’t call him Bucky, and she’s pretty sure Sam and Torres are the only ones that do).
Darcy wouldn’t say she
hates
anyone, really. It’s a strong word. Sure, she despised her third-grade maths teacher for months after telling her she was not, in fact, any good at maths. And she had intensely disliked Ian Boothby for a solid six months after he’d broken up with her.
But hate? Darcy wasn’t sure she was even
capable
of hate. It wasn’t a word in her dictionary. Mama Lewis had raised her to be kind, and if not kind, then indifferent.
So it wasn’t that she hated Barnes, even if he was rude, annoying, a jerk, stupid, unfairly handsome, and overall just a bit of a jackass.
No, it was because, despite of it all, he made be very
not
indifferent towards him.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The quinjet touches down a few hours later onto the rough asphalt of the Stark Tower landing pad. By that point, there was enough cyclizine in Darcy’s system to keep her from hurling after every bit of turbulence they hit, and she’s able to hobble down to the medical wing with minimal assistance from Nobara. Pride still intact? Ab-so-lutely. It was clear someone had called ahead to inform the on-call medical team of her imminent presence because she as soon as she steps through the doors, she’s ushered firmly into a wheelchair and then whisked away for testing. They insist on a CAT scan- standard procedure in the tower -before proking and prodding at both her head and brain. The second one is considerably more painful to endure. “A moderate concussion.” The attending announces, clicking off his flashlight and slipping it back into his white coat pocket. “I want you on bed rest for all of tomorrow at the very least and then after that a gradual return to normal activities. Did you say you work in the labs?” “Unfortunately.” “I’ll have to sign you off then. No computer work or harsh concentration for a while, I’m afraid. Take lots of painkillers and keep hydrated, and for God’s sake, come back here if you’re feeling worse. No one ever does.” “Roger, doc.” He could rest assured, Darcy was very much a crybaby when the circumstances called for it. “Do you have someone to escort you upstairs and to look after you for a while?” “Oh, definitely.” Jane was out of state, but she was not about to tell the doctor that she had no friends. Besides, how hard could it be to just wander on up to her room? “Good.” He gave a firm nod, satisfied with her answers. “Get me the name of your supervisor and I’ll sign you off work for the next week and then restricted duties for the week after.” She left the lab an hour later with a bag full of goodies, mainly painkillers and anti-sickness tables. They had those fancy perscription only labels on each of the boxes which made her feel like a bit of the druggie, especially as most of them had names she could barely pronounce, not for lack of trying. In fact, her effort in trying was one of the main reasons she doesn’t see the person hanging around outside the medical doors once they hiss open. “Watch it!” Someone yelps, but it’s too late. Colliding with a rather firm chest, Darcy feels herself falling. Pride still intact. Ab-so-lutely not . The surveillance team were probaby in hysterics. However, before she can hit the floor and give herself another concussion (do they stack, or is it +1?) she’s scooped up and pressed against a rather firm chest. Arms are wrapped around her middle, crushing the bag to her chest, and she’s surprised at their firmness. She looks down and is greeted by metal. “ Jesus , Lewis.” Barnes lets her go as quickly as he’d caught her once she finds her footing. “Trying to get another headache?” He’s peering at her secret drug stash she she snatches it away from him. They were her drugs. Not for sharing. “I was walking, actually. You were in my way. Why were you in my way, what are you doing down here? Wait a minute- are you stalking me?” Barnes’ nose scrunches up in confusion. “Stalking?” “Oh please, don’t pretend you don’t know.” Darcy scoffs, continuing her hobble to the elevator. As Barnes falls into step alongside her, however, and shows no signs of recognition, it dawns on her: “You didn’t have stalking in the old days?” “Just- tell me what it is.” “It’s what you’re doing right now.” “And what am I doing right now?” “Stalking me.” She calls the elevator, steps in, and can’t help the upturn of her lifts as she doors glide shut. The grin remains on her face as she’s lifted upwards, moving to rest her head against the cool metal of the elevator while she listens to the rhythmic whirrs. Once she reaches the 49th floor, aka home, she’s let out and greeted with an empty common room, not that it’s a surprise. Her floor is reserved for science personnel only and with Jane out of the country, she’s got the whole floor to herself. Shuffling out, Darcy heads towards the kitchenette to stow some of the painkillers away. Wasn’t it just common sense to have multiple stashes? “I am not stalking you.” “ Jesus !” This time she actually does drop the meds. Whirling around, she finds Barnes way too close to her ear and with a smug grin on his face as he stares down at her. “How in the hell did you get up here?” “If I was stalking you, you would know it.” He shrugs past her and over to the fridge. “Okay hobocop, that’s not creepy at all .” “Enough with the nicknames, Lewis. It doesn’t make you cute.” He snatches up a coke- her coke- with his metal arm and raises it to his lips. She tries not to stare. “And also, if I was going to stalk someone, it wouldn’t be you. I’m not interested in spending my Friday nights looking at space rocks.” How dare he? Does he not realise she’s an astrophysicist? That does a whole lot more than look at rocks ? “It’s better than going to bed at seven, grandpa.” She retorts, discarding the mess on the floor in favour of marching up to him and snatching back her drink. When he allows it, she brings the can up to her lips and drains the rest of the beverage before placing it back on the side with an emphatic whack . “Hey, will you let me know if you need any foot cream next time I go down to medical? I know those old man bunions can be a real pain.” She doesn’t wait to see the expression on his face, instead turning and gathering up her medication with relative ease before heading down the corridor, to her room and away from the annoying super-solider who’d infiltrated her floor. Back in the common room, Bucky leans on the side of the counter and watches her go with folded arms. “Not cool” Lewis.” He calls out after her. “Not. Cool.” * The next time she sees Barnes is a few weeks later, just after she’s officially cleared to return to work. Not that she’s strayed much from the labs anyway; Jane had returned a couple of days after Darcy from a conference in Switzerland, absolutely determined to take care of her but unable to resist her natural habitat. Their compromise? She’d babysat her former boss from the comfort in the lab, who in turn removed her computer’s power cable at the wall whenever she suspected Darcy of checking her emails. “Is that screw really meant to go there?” With her newfound free time, Darcy found it more productive to channel her energy into monitoring Jane. Or, as Jane put it, pestering her. “I don’t know, Darcy.” Jane grinds out, swiping at her a few loose strands of hair that have come out of her bun. “It didn’t come with instructions.” “Yeah, I saw. Probably 'cause they’re expecting the recipient to actually know what they’re doing.” “Probably.” Jane agrees in defeat, sitting back on her heels. “Can we not just, I dunno, Google it or something?” “Google it? You’ve bought a military-grade telescope even NASA would be jealous of and you want to ask Google for the blueprints?” Sometimes it surprised her how naive Jane could be. “That’s not gonna work. How about you let me give it a whirl and you can go grab more coffee. Sound good?” “Sure.” Patting her friend’s shoulder, Jane uses it to heave herself up before disappearing out of the glass doors to the break room. It gives Darcy time to focus fully on the object in front of her and to be honest, it’s nice to finally be able to get back to work. Once the seismic isolators are secure (this time with the screws in the right place, plus a little bit of welding), she moves onto the instrument platform by hooking it up to the desktop and attempting to run their program. When a green loading bar appears on the platform’s monitor, she pumps her fists victoriously. “That looks like good news.” Jane waltzes through the door with two steaming mugs in hand. “It is.” Darcy takes hers gratefully, raising it to her lips. “Halfway there, Jane. Think it’s time to take a break?” She’s half-teasing (when does Jane Foster ever take a break) but as if on cue, FRIDAY’s voice echoes throughout the room. “ Forgive me, Doctor Lewis, but your presence has been requested in Briefing Room Delta by Commander Brand. ” “Seriously?” Darcy and Jane exchange a dubious look. “Field work?” The latter asks. Darcy gathers her things, sliding her phone deep into her back pocket and savouring her last gulp of coffee. “It better not be, I’ve only just recovered from last time. FRIDAY. Tell her I’m on my way.” “ Will do, Doctor. ” With a wave, she exits the lab, joining a gaggle of junior scientists at the elevator and heading up to the secure levels. It’s no surprise when the doors open again that she’s met by Agent Hutch, her designated escort for all things top-secret. He leads her quickly to one of the briefing rooms and opens the door. Inside, Commander Brand sits at the head of the table, head bowed as she converses with a familiar face. The Commander’s green eyes find her own. “Doctor Lewis,” smiles, “please come sit down.” She finds a seat opposite Barnes and obliges, thankful that he looks about as pleased as Darcy feels. It means he’s as clueless as she is. “How much do you know of the Perseids, Doctor Lewis?” Brand asks her as soon as her butt touches the chair, barely giving her any time to wrack her memory without leaving an awkward and unprofessional pause. “Not much.” She admits slowly after a second. “Texas was my first time interacting with it in detail. Otherwise, just the basics.” Despite her lacklustre answer, Brand nods, further fuelling Darcy’s unease. The monitor behind the commander then flickers to life as the former rises out of her seat. Darcy glances at Barnes. He just shrugs. “The results from the Swift-Tuttle comet fallout you found in Texas show it has indeed been in contact with foreign matter. Something has come into that comet’s orbit, and fairly recently.” “Are we talking, like, satellite debris, or?” “More like an unknown aircraft. Not of Earth.” “Like aliens?” Barnes interjects. “Possibly.” Darcy sits up a little straighter in her seat. Last time she’d been in contact with aliens they hadn’t exactly been the friendly type. “The Perseids a meteor shower that regularly offshoots from the Swift-Tuttle and grazes the Earth’s atmosphere.” Brand presses on, though she’s looking more at Barnes now. “They’re an annual event in the Northern Hemisphere and our only chance to figure out what’s got so close to Earth.” “SWORD hasn’t picked anything up yet?” “Nothing out of the ordinary. That’s why we’ll be needing you, Doctor Lewis, on the ground with a team to retrieve whatever you can from the shower. I want you shooting it out of the sky if you have to.” Clearly, Commander Brand does not know how meteor showers work. Oh well. Yay. More field work. “Have you got a location in mind?” She asks. “England is our best bet. We’ve got a window of a couple of months, but I’m not one to drag things out. Get the sample, get home.” “Okay,” Darcy draws out her words, mulling the idea over. Aliens and England didn’t have the best track record, but it didn’t seem like a hard gig. But then again, neither had Texas and look how that ended up. “Is there anything else?” Like clockwork, Brand presses a button on her presentation clicker and the screen flickers to show some blurry CCTV footage. It’s from the desert just moments before the attack; with this view, Darcy can see Agents Rodriguez and Franklin stiffen as they walk the perimeter. Rodriguez draws her gun seconds later and begins firing off screen, then the video cuts. “Hydra,” she hears Barnes mutter beside her. “Hydra.” Brand confirms. “It’s no coincidence they met you at the desert. We’re unsure how they know about the comet but we have it on good authority you won’t be the only ones tracking down the debris. It’s why we need you, Sergeant Barnes, to secure and contain the site as well as prioritise the safety of the personnel involved, especially Doctor Lewis.” “Are you serious?!” Darcy cries out at the exact same time Barnes leans back in his seat and replies with a firm “no”. “ Excuse me?” Brand narrows her eyes at him. “Babysitting duty, Brand? Really? ” “It wasn’t a request Barnes. You of all people should know the damage HYDRA can do, even from the shadows.” That seems to shut him up and although Darcy is still kind of fuming from the babysitting comment, she knows there’s no point in arguing with Abigail Brand once her mind is made up. “When do we leave?” She pipes up, breaking whatever staring contest the two super-powered beings have going on between them. Barnes must sense the defeat in her tone because he whips around to face her and fixes her with his classic murder robot stare. She glares back.
What do you want me to do? You’ve got the super serum and metal arm, bud!
“I want you there as soon as possible. Wilson will be briefing you tomorrow morning and you’ll be heading out in the afternoon.” Brilliant. Just brilliant. Her weekend plans could eat their heart out. “And Lewis?” Brand grins at her as she’s rising out of her seat. “Pack for summer. I hear Stonehenge is quite nice this time of year.”