"Machiavelli's Favorite Son" 6/?
Title: "Machiavelli's Favorite Son" 6/?
Author: Lena
Fandom: Marvel
Warnings: Many political discussions.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Marvel is god, I'm just a lowly worshiper, blah, blah, blah.
Summary: When Thor comes to visit Jane after the events in New York, he has a tag along, and Darcy, the ultimate tag along, ends up befriending him. How CAN this end well. Eventually Darcy/Loki. Rated T for now, but I may adjust it,
depending on where things go.
Beta'd By: By Sietha of FF.net!
Chapter Six: Interrogations
(Author’s Note: As I am entered into two different ficathons, one this month and one next month, I’m taking a brief hiatus for focus on fics for those. Frankly, after Sept. 26, I should be back to writing, but I wanted to let people know what was up. On with the show!)
When Darcy and Jane were both taken to SHIELD headquarters, they were separated and Darcy was put in one of those tiny interrogation rooms that you see on TV all the time but that you don’t realize are entirely more claustrophobic than they seem, and they already give off that air, so they are REALLY claustrophobic in ways that no one can imagine. They left her in the room alone. She figured that Jane was in a similar room. She knew why they had taken her. They had probably figured out that the rooms going silent meant something, even if they couldn’t prove it. Maybe they figured that they could scare her into admitting something.
Obviously, they didn’t know Darcy fucking Lewis.
She sat in the room for three hours alone, with no one even checking on her. Finally, Agent Coulson came in. She had her head on the table, jerking up when she heard the door open.
“Mind telling me why I’m here, agent?” Darcy snapped at him. “And why you’re totally still alive? I really hate it when people tell me that someone’s dead and they pop up at my apartment. You’re not a zombie or anything, are you? I wouldn’t be too shocked if SHIELD could raise people from the dead.”
“There were people that needed to think that I was dead at the time,” Coulson said, as if that actually explained anything. “And you know exactly why you’re here, Ms. Lewis. This isn’t the time for fun and games. What we think you’ve been discussing with Loki is no joking matter.”
She glared at him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she told him. “All I’ve been doing is striking up conversations with a friend of mine that’s stuck having to follow his brother around because someone thought that it was fitting to put a shock collar on his neck.” Darcy may have her issues and concerns about Loki, but the last thing she liked was someone dragging her out of her home forcibly and interrogating her. That’s what this was, an interrogation. She didn’t want to tell them anything simply because she was pissed right now. “Where’s Jane?”
“Oh we let her go,” he said quickly, opening up a folder and flipping through some pages. “She doesn’t really know anything about this, does she? We didn’t even bother to bug her bedroom.”
“Well, you did one thing right today,” Darcy said. Jane had nothing to do with this. “So what is this going to be? You guys keep me here for hours? No food? Only a little sleep, wear me down until I say what you want me to say?” Darcy shook her head. “There’s nothing to say. You guys are way off base.” No one trusted Loki. No wonder he acted the way he did. She’d lash out all the time if people thought that highly of her, too. Then again, he hadn’t exactly proven himself to be trustworthy, either. This was all so confusing.
“Something akin to that,” Coulson said with a small smile. “I really don’t think that you know what you’re getting into, Ms. Lewis. I’m sure that you heard the stories, but do you actually know what he did? Did you see anything?”
“You guys shut most of the footage down on the internet and stuff,” she pointed out to him. “Kinda hard to get the straight story when all you really want to do is hide it from everyone.”
“It’s part of our policy to keep the more sensitive information classified,” Coulson said. He dropped the folder in front of her. Its contents splayed all over the table, showing mostly pictures from the battle in New York six months ago. Buildings blown to pieces, dead people in various stages of torn to bits. She could feel the color drain from her face as she looked them over. “The man that you befriended is the one that caused all of this, Ms. Lewis. Are you sure that you want to get involved with him?”
“And I’m sure that you’ve never killed anyone, either,” Darcy said after looking at the pictures for a few minutes, pushing them back toward Coulson. “See, that’s what I’m really not liking about any of this. During the Cold War, the government sent in all sorts of armies into South America, Africa, and anywhere else that they could stuff them in to help and set up their own agenda, not really caring about who they killed as long as they got the job done, and I’m sure that SHIELD had nothing to do with that.” She rubbed her eyes and looked up at him. “Please tell me how you guys are any better than him? You’ve all done the same things, but he’s the one that was caught and punished for it. It’s not exactly fair that you guys get away with it but he doesn’t.”
Coulson sighed. “You might be too book smart for your own good,” he said, standing up from the chair he was sitting in. “You’re going to be here for a while, Ms. Lewis. I suggest that you get comfortable.” After he said that, he got up and walked out of the room, shutting and locking the door behind him. With a sigh, Darcy bunched the pictures together and shoved them back into the folder, then pushing it to the furthest corner of the desk. This was beyond massive bullshit. Rubbing her eyes, she put her head back down on the table. This was going to be a long day.
OoOoOoOo
It hadn’t been a long day. It had been a long two days. Two long fucking days full of questions and little else. They never actually bothered to feed her, only gave her small cups of water at random, only let her go to the bathroom twice, and barely let her sleep. She was pretty sure that all of this was against the Geneva Convention. This was a big pile of bullshit, and there was nothing that she could do about it. She was stuck here and, while she knew that Jane knew she was gone, she had no idea who else knew. She had sent a message to Loki, but she had no idea if he had gotten it. Not that she exactly expected a rescue. SHIELD getting bored with her and sending her home was far more likely.
It was during the second day that, despite the sound proofed walls, she could hear Thor screaming across the building. She had never felt more relieved to hear his voice, especially when he shouted more than a few times. As he got closer, she could actually make out what he was saying.
“If you do not let Lady Darcy go, I will tear this building apart to find her!” Thor roared. She could imagine him in his full regalia carrying that hammer. SHIELD agents didn’t exactly scare easily, but she was sure that Thor in his godly glory had more than a few of them shaking in their boots.
She got up and started beating on the door. “Thor!” she called out. These rooms were supposed to be sound proofed (for torture purposes, she supposed), but if she could hear him, maybe him and his godly hearing could hear her. “I’m in here! I’m in one of the interrogation rooms!”
She heard a faint popping noise behind her, flying around to see Loki standing behind her, wearing his full Asgardian stuff with the green cloak and the hat with the horns. Despite everything, the first thing that she did was run up to him and threw her arms around him. Damn it, she had been kept hostage for two days! Anyone remotely friendly was a welcome sight right now!
She quickly realized what she was doing and pulled away. She really needed to get out of here already. “Please tell me that you can get this door open,” she said. Before he could answer, she heard Thor yell from the other end, and suddenly the door was being ripped off its hinges. She grinned at Thor through the now open doorway. “Asgardian diplomacy at its finest, huh?” she asked.
“Nothing but the best for you, Darcy,” Loki said from behind her, reaching up and patting her on the shoulder. She had been so tense that, when she felt herself relax at his touch, she just assumed that she was feeling some utter relief at having a friendly face around.
“You can’t just waltz in here and remove someone who’s in the middle of questioning!” She could hear Fury’s angry voice coming down the hall toward the room. Thor had likely run her way as soon as he heard her, with Loki doing the teleporting thing. Damn that stuff was useful.
“You’re done with your interrogation, Director Fury,” Loki said when Fury appeared in the doorway. “I know why you are questioning her, and I can tell you that you are ‘barking up the wrong tree,’ as you Midgardians call it. “There’s absolutely nothing for you to be so concerned over.”
“I’ll be the judge if I should be concerned or not,” Fury said to them. “I haven’t signed her off to leave yet, so you can take yourselves out of the building, thank you.” Darcy could see that Fury was gritting his teeth when he was speaking. He was so pissed that she wouldn’t be surprised if the veins in his forehead bulged out far enough that they made his eye patch pop off.
“We’re not giving you a choice here, Directory Fury,” Thor said to him, moving to stand in front of Darcy. “Either you will allow Darcy to leave here unharmed, or I will permanently remove my support from your group. Jane wanted me to relay that she would also be quitting if you did not let Darcy go. To my understanding, keeping Darcy here without any sort of charge is against the rules of your government.”
Either Jane had told him that or Thor had been doing some reading, Darcy surmised. Either way, she was glad that he was willing to stand up for her like this. She was also admittedly glad that they were trying to talk her out of here rather than simply snatch her out. This was already turning into an interplanetary incident. That would likely have only made it worse.
Fury glared his one good eye at her, and then sighed. She doubted that he wanted to lose Thor and Jane both. She knew that, likely according to them, she didn’t do any real work around here, but as Thor was an Avenger and Jane was a great scientist, he couldn’t really afford to lose them. “Fine, she can go with you,” he finally managed to spit out.
“And get the damn wiretaps out of my apartment!” Darcy snapped, looking around Thor’s body at him. “That’s a serious invasion of my privacy!”
“Technically that apartment is property of SHIELD,” Fury pointed out to her.
“Fine, then consider this my thirty days notice of moving,” she snapped at him, looking back at Loki. “Can you guys please get me out of here now? Where’s Jane?”
“Jane is outside waiting for us,” Loki said, taking Darcy’s arm. He then looked toward Director Fury. “Till we meet again, Director,” he said to him with a smile that totally read sinister to Darcy, then, before she realized what was happening, his grip on her arm tightened and it suddenly felt like all the air was sucked out of her lungs. Before she had a chance to wheeze or cough, the world was spinning and suddenly they were outside of the facility, next to what she recognized as Jane’s car.
Feeling dizzy, she dropped a little sideways against Loki, taking big gasps of breath. “I’m sorry about that,” he said, holding her steady as she regained her bearings. “It’s a bit jarring the first couple of times that you teleport. You get used to it, though.”
“I can’t imagine ever getting used to that,” Darcy said. Even outside she could swear that she could hear Thor shouting and stomping about. She looked around for Jane and barely ended up seeing her before the other woman jumped on her, hugging her tightly.
“Oh God, I thought that they had taken you to Guantanamo Bay or something!” Jane exclaimed as she squeezed Darcy.
“Jane, I’m glad to be out, too, but I kinda need to breathe, here!” Darcy squeaked out, and Jane loosened her hold on her a tad. Darcy then picked her arms up and hugged her friend back. “How were they to you?”
“They weren’t that bad to me,” Jane told her. “I mean, they questioned me for like three hours, but I kind of think that it was really you they wanted, not me. I think they just wanted to see if you had said anything incriminating to me.” Jane studied her for a minute. “What did they want with you?”
Darcy shook her head. “Just because I hang out with Loki, they think that we’re trying to take over the world together or something,” she said with a laugh. “Guys just can’t trust anyone, huh?” She saw the look that Loki gave her over Jane’s shoulder. “Trust me, if something was going on, I totally would have cracked in that hell.”
“And here I thought America was the land of second chances,” Loki said dryly.
Before anyone could answer, Thor finally made his way outside. “I do not suggest that you go back to your apartment, Darcy,” Thor said as he walked up. “I highly doubt that they will remove the listening equipment from it.”
“They have bugs in our apartment?” Jane snapped. Obviously, they hadn’t brought it up in the interview with her. When Darcy nodded, Jane groaned loudly. “Fuck me,” she said, which showed how pissed she was because Jane hardly ever swore. “Not exactly dying to stay there myself right now then.”
“Why don’t we just get a hotel for a day or two and figure things out from there?” said Darcy, rubbing her eyes. Even though it was daylight outside, she was exhausted, as they hadn’t exactly let her sleep like a normal human being in there. Nothing seemed to matter right now except getting some rest and feeling a little bit safer than she had in a while.
OoOoOoOo
Darcy didn’t say much during the ride to a hotel. She was only about half awake. All of the adrenaline from having Thor and Loki show up to rescue her had drained away and now she felt half dead. She leaned against the window, idly staring out of it as the car moved. All she wanted to do was jump in a shower and get some sleep, as she had spent the last few days doing nothing but lying and trying her damnedest to show SHIELD that she wasn’t a threat, even though she kind of technically was. She supposed that SHIELD hadn’t actually bought her lies, but when Norse gods show up, you can’t exactly reason with them.
She hadn’t even realized that she had dozed off until she felt Loki gently shaking her, waking her up. When she opened her eyes, she realized that, while Thor was still in his armor, Loki had somehow changed into a regular gray button up shirt and black slacks. She wished that she could just morph clothing out of nowhere. That would totally be a useful trait, especially right now when she had been wearing the same clothes for several days.
Darcy rubbed her eyes, looking out the window to see that they were at a very nice hotel. “Wow, can we afford this?” she asked. From the look on Jane's face, Darcy could tell that she was wondering the same thing.
“Don’t worry about that,” Loki said as he got out of the car. Darcy was worried, though, but she wasn’t just worried about the hotel’s price range. She was also concerned that agents from SHIELD might have followed them, and she couldn’t help but keep looking around the parking lot in case she saw someone watching them. She slid out of the car along with everyone else, following along mostly in a daze, though, when they all got inside, she did notice Loki pull out a wallet with a wad of cash inside of it. Just where in hell did he get money from? Did she even want to know?
When everyone led her up to the hotel room that they had gotten, it turned out to be less a room and more of a suite. At least they wouldn’t all be trying to share one bed or something.
When they were inside of the living room area, Darcy turned toward all of them. “So, nice digs here,” she said, turning away and looking around. She really had no way to deal with the trauma of being put away in a locked room for two days and starting to think that she’d never get away again.
“Like I would stay in anything less than five star,” Loki remarked, and Darcy couldn’t help but wonder just where he had learned that phrase.
“I hope that it’s not too much trouble for you guys to pay for something like this,” Jane remarked.
Loki shook his head. “Do not concern yourself with it,” he said to her. “Besides, there are bigger problems right now than thinking about whether I spent too much money on a hotel suite.”
Thor nodded. “He is right. Our father has entered into the Odinsleep again,” he said. Darcy saw an odd look flicker across Loki’s face when Thor said ‘our father,’ but at least he didn’t verbally correct him. Small steps. “That leaves me to rule Asgard while he rests.”
“What’s an Odinsleep?” Darcy asked. “Sounds like a weird name for a coma. Who names a coma after themselves?”
“A coma isn’t exactly the wrong thing to call it,” Loki remarked, a smirk playing across his features. “It is how he regains strength and vitality.” Then he frowned. “We do not know how long this will last. He could sleep for days, months, or even years.”
“Because of this,” Thor continued, “the throne has fallen to me, even though I do not consider myself ready to rule yet.”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Darcy observed quickly.
“I do not think of myself as too desperate,” Thor said. “I have a counsel that will help me with any decisions.” His eyes flickered to Loki. “With my brother on it as well.” Darcy noticed that Thor looked utterly ecstatic at the idea. Loki seemed pleased as well, although a bit more subdued. Then again, Thor was always a tumult of crazy emotions. When he was happy, he was very happy. When he was sad, he felt the need to drop to the complete bottom. Was this dude bipolar or what? “I know that my brother the most cunning of all in Asgard. It would be impossible not to have him on my counsel.”
“That is why we had to rush away,” Loki said, looking directly at Darcy. “If we had still been there like we had planned, then we could have possibly stopped SHIELD from taking the both of you away.” He paused briefly. “And keeping you for as long as they did.”
“Or things might have gotten worse,” Jane threw in. “SHIELD doesn’t exactly like being told what to do.” Darcy was a little surprised to hear her friend say that about her employers, but it’s not exactly wrong.
Darcy yawned, and it hit her again just how tired she really was. “OK, guys, thanks for the rescue and everything, but now Darcy is going to head off to bed. She’s only basically been kept awake for two days straight with stupid questions.” With a wave, she walked off into one of the rooms, thankful that it was a bedroom. She stripped down out of her clothes, intending on taking a shower, but instead only ended up flopping down in the bed, curling up with the blanket and dozing off in minutes.
OoOoOoOo
She slept the sleep of the dead for what felt like forever, but, when she opened her eyes and looked at a clock, it had only been about six hours, because it was midnight. The second thing that she noticed in the room was that Loki was sitting in a chair next to her bed. Jolting slightly, she pulled the blanket up to her chest, turning to look at him. Before he realized she had woken up, he had been starring off out the window.
“Dude, watching people sleep didn’t work for Edward Cullen, and it doesn’t work for you,” she said to him. “Well, it only works in movies and on thirteen year-olds who have no experience with actual men and how they should act.”
“I apologize, but I wanted to talk to you when you woke up,” Loki explained to her. The look on his face showed that he likely didn’t know who Edward Cullen was (and wasn’t he lucky), but now wasn’t exactly the time for a pop culture tutorial. “I thought that waiting in here was the best way to make sure of that.”
Darcy made sure that the blanket was tightly wrapped around her chest as she sat up a bit more, making herself comfortable. “OK, cool,” she said to him. They really needed to talk, anyway. “How’d you know that I was there?”
“I got your message,” he said to her. “I only waited a few hours instead of a day or as like you said, only long enough to get Thor away. When we arrived, Jane had just gotten home, and she explained to us what had happened. She suggested that we wait a day to see if they let you go on their own. When they didn’t, we decided to come and get you.”
“Thank you for coming for me,” Darcy said softly. She wasn’t sure what she had expected to happen, really. She just knew that, if she was going to get out of there, she was going to need some outside help.
“I wouldn’t let them keep my advisor now, would I?” Loki asked. Darcy had expected him to say something like that, but she wondered personally if that was the only reason. She was torn between hoping that maybe, just maybe he might actually have been concerned about her, or thinking that he had just wanted to make sure that she didn’t say anything. Then again, he would have gotten her out right away if he was really concerned about that, right? Damn, thinking on the twists and turns that Loki’s brain might take gave her a headache.
“No, of course not,” she said, smirking as she shook her head. Even if that really was the only reason, it had saved her ass, so she didn’t care. She leaned back against the headboard, shutting her eyes for a moment.
“Part of me wishes that you hadn’t gotten involved in this so that wouldn’t have happened to you, Darcy,” he said to her. He still really wasn’t looking at her right now. “They will regret what they have done to you.” She could see him tensing up, and she realized that he was actually digging his fingernails into the palm of his hand.
She reached out and touched his shoulder. “Hey, all they did was lock me in a room and question me,” she said to him. “Sure, it sucked big green monkey dick, and they apparently felt like they didn’t need to feed me or anything, but it wasn’t like they were shoving bamboo shoots underneath my nails or water boarding me or something,” she explained to him. “Chillax, OK?” She moved her hand down, reaching for his clenched fist and slowly making him unclench it. She could see that he had dug his nails in so hard that he had drawn blood. “Look, I’m out now and that’s what counts, right?”
He nodded, and she leaned over the other side of the bed, grabbing her shirt from the floor and pulling it over her head. Thankfully, it was long enough to cover her butt, or she’d be flashing Loki her panties. This really wasn’t her grandest moment. Jumping off the bed, she headed into the bathroom and wet a wash cloth, coming back and starting to clean the blood from his hand. She didn’t have anything to clean the wounds, but this was better than nothing. “Still, don’t blame yourself,” she said to him as she sat back on the bed, then leaning over to clean up the blood. “This is on SHIELD’s head, not yours.” She sighed, trying not to think of her time there and the idea that they might have kept her forever. “So, is Thor really King of Asgard right now?” she asked, trying to make conversation and not think about anything.
Loki nodded, watching her as she dabbed at the cuts. When she was done, he slowly withdrew his hand from hers. “Everything is true. Despite everything, I’m glad that Thor is at least allowing a council now. He might not drive the realm into complete chaos then.” When she looked up from her hand, she saw that he was staring directly at her. “Darcy, you’re shaking.”
“Getting snatched away by a super spy organization isn’t exactly good on the nerves,” Darcy explained. Despite the fact that her voice was steady, she realized that he was right and that she was shaking.
She felt him pull the washcloth out of her hand. She hadn’t even realized that she was still holding it. She watched as his hands slid up her arms, resting just under the sleeves of her shirt. “You’re safe here, Darcy,” he said, his words hypnotic as she felt herself relaxing into his arms. She slumped forward, leaning against his shoulder. Despite the fogginess of her brain, something clicked within her mind.
“Are you like, giving me a magical Xanax?” she asked him.
“I do not know what that is,” he said, and she could actually feel a chuckle reverberate through his chest. “I am simply trying to help you relax.”
Now it was her turn to chuckle. “Not that I don’t appreciate the sentiment, but magically doping me isn’t a good idea,” she told him. “Besides, I gotta learn to deal with the issues on my own.” She forced herself to look up at him. “This stuff is only going to get worse before it gets better.” She meant dealing with SHIELD, and he thankfully seemed to realize what she meant when he nodded. She gave him a grin. “So, now that we’ve had this little talk, if you do it again I’ll totally taser you for it.”
“I have heard about your prowess with the electrical weapon,” Loki said, laughing again. It wasn’t fair that his voice was like butter, especially in her magically inebriated state. “Thor did not appreciate that a weapon so small could fell him so easily.” She could picture him rolling his eyes when he said that.
“The one I got now is even better,” she warned him. SHIELD had given her a suped up one. It wouldn’t kill anyone, but she could likely use it on Thor NOW and stop him in his tracks. “Fair warning; I totally use it whenever I get freaked out by someone.”
“Then I promise to behave and not ‘freak you out,’” Loki said and Darcy laughed at the phrase ‘freak you out’ rolling off his tongue in that accent. “I should let you get back to sleep, Darcy,” he said, helping her lie back down and standing up. She wanted to protest, but he was right. She was still exhausted and still needed to catch up on her sleep a bit.
“Get a girl magically drunk and then run off. Such a gentleman,” she teased. “Where are you going?” she asked. She meant to ask where he was sleeping, but it hadn’t come out right.
He seemed to realize what she meant. “There’s a sofa in the living area that’s large enough,” he told her. She hadn’t realized that they hadn’t gotten enough rooms for all of them, but she didn’t really have it in her to question it.
She nodded. “See you in the morning then, Loki,” she told him, settling in and relaxing on the bed. She was asleep again before he even closed the door on his way out.
Author: Lena
Fandom: Marvel
Warnings: Many political discussions.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Marvel is god, I'm just a lowly worshiper, blah, blah, blah.
Summary: When Thor comes to visit Jane after the events in New York, he has a tag along, and Darcy, the ultimate tag along, ends up befriending him. How CAN this end well. Eventually Darcy/Loki. Rated T for now, but I may adjust it,
depending on where things go.
Beta'd By: By Sietha of FF.net!
Chapter Six: Interrogations
(Author’s Note: As I am entered into two different ficathons, one this month and one next month, I’m taking a brief hiatus for focus on fics for those. Frankly, after Sept. 26, I should be back to writing, but I wanted to let people know what was up. On with the show!)
When Darcy and Jane were both taken to SHIELD headquarters, they were separated and Darcy was put in one of those tiny interrogation rooms that you see on TV all the time but that you don’t realize are entirely more claustrophobic than they seem, and they already give off that air, so they are REALLY claustrophobic in ways that no one can imagine. They left her in the room alone. She figured that Jane was in a similar room. She knew why they had taken her. They had probably figured out that the rooms going silent meant something, even if they couldn’t prove it. Maybe they figured that they could scare her into admitting something.
Obviously, they didn’t know Darcy fucking Lewis.
She sat in the room for three hours alone, with no one even checking on her. Finally, Agent Coulson came in. She had her head on the table, jerking up when she heard the door open.
“Mind telling me why I’m here, agent?” Darcy snapped at him. “And why you’re totally still alive? I really hate it when people tell me that someone’s dead and they pop up at my apartment. You’re not a zombie or anything, are you? I wouldn’t be too shocked if SHIELD could raise people from the dead.”
“There were people that needed to think that I was dead at the time,” Coulson said, as if that actually explained anything. “And you know exactly why you’re here, Ms. Lewis. This isn’t the time for fun and games. What we think you’ve been discussing with Loki is no joking matter.”
She glared at him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she told him. “All I’ve been doing is striking up conversations with a friend of mine that’s stuck having to follow his brother around because someone thought that it was fitting to put a shock collar on his neck.” Darcy may have her issues and concerns about Loki, but the last thing she liked was someone dragging her out of her home forcibly and interrogating her. That’s what this was, an interrogation. She didn’t want to tell them anything simply because she was pissed right now. “Where’s Jane?”
“Oh we let her go,” he said quickly, opening up a folder and flipping through some pages. “She doesn’t really know anything about this, does she? We didn’t even bother to bug her bedroom.”
“Well, you did one thing right today,” Darcy said. Jane had nothing to do with this. “So what is this going to be? You guys keep me here for hours? No food? Only a little sleep, wear me down until I say what you want me to say?” Darcy shook her head. “There’s nothing to say. You guys are way off base.” No one trusted Loki. No wonder he acted the way he did. She’d lash out all the time if people thought that highly of her, too. Then again, he hadn’t exactly proven himself to be trustworthy, either. This was all so confusing.
“Something akin to that,” Coulson said with a small smile. “I really don’t think that you know what you’re getting into, Ms. Lewis. I’m sure that you heard the stories, but do you actually know what he did? Did you see anything?”
“You guys shut most of the footage down on the internet and stuff,” she pointed out to him. “Kinda hard to get the straight story when all you really want to do is hide it from everyone.”
“It’s part of our policy to keep the more sensitive information classified,” Coulson said. He dropped the folder in front of her. Its contents splayed all over the table, showing mostly pictures from the battle in New York six months ago. Buildings blown to pieces, dead people in various stages of torn to bits. She could feel the color drain from her face as she looked them over. “The man that you befriended is the one that caused all of this, Ms. Lewis. Are you sure that you want to get involved with him?”
“And I’m sure that you’ve never killed anyone, either,” Darcy said after looking at the pictures for a few minutes, pushing them back toward Coulson. “See, that’s what I’m really not liking about any of this. During the Cold War, the government sent in all sorts of armies into South America, Africa, and anywhere else that they could stuff them in to help and set up their own agenda, not really caring about who they killed as long as they got the job done, and I’m sure that SHIELD had nothing to do with that.” She rubbed her eyes and looked up at him. “Please tell me how you guys are any better than him? You’ve all done the same things, but he’s the one that was caught and punished for it. It’s not exactly fair that you guys get away with it but he doesn’t.”
Coulson sighed. “You might be too book smart for your own good,” he said, standing up from the chair he was sitting in. “You’re going to be here for a while, Ms. Lewis. I suggest that you get comfortable.” After he said that, he got up and walked out of the room, shutting and locking the door behind him. With a sigh, Darcy bunched the pictures together and shoved them back into the folder, then pushing it to the furthest corner of the desk. This was beyond massive bullshit. Rubbing her eyes, she put her head back down on the table. This was going to be a long day.
OoOoOoOo
It hadn’t been a long day. It had been a long two days. Two long fucking days full of questions and little else. They never actually bothered to feed her, only gave her small cups of water at random, only let her go to the bathroom twice, and barely let her sleep. She was pretty sure that all of this was against the Geneva Convention. This was a big pile of bullshit, and there was nothing that she could do about it. She was stuck here and, while she knew that Jane knew she was gone, she had no idea who else knew. She had sent a message to Loki, but she had no idea if he had gotten it. Not that she exactly expected a rescue. SHIELD getting bored with her and sending her home was far more likely.
It was during the second day that, despite the sound proofed walls, she could hear Thor screaming across the building. She had never felt more relieved to hear his voice, especially when he shouted more than a few times. As he got closer, she could actually make out what he was saying.
“If you do not let Lady Darcy go, I will tear this building apart to find her!” Thor roared. She could imagine him in his full regalia carrying that hammer. SHIELD agents didn’t exactly scare easily, but she was sure that Thor in his godly glory had more than a few of them shaking in their boots.
She got up and started beating on the door. “Thor!” she called out. These rooms were supposed to be sound proofed (for torture purposes, she supposed), but if she could hear him, maybe him and his godly hearing could hear her. “I’m in here! I’m in one of the interrogation rooms!”
She heard a faint popping noise behind her, flying around to see Loki standing behind her, wearing his full Asgardian stuff with the green cloak and the hat with the horns. Despite everything, the first thing that she did was run up to him and threw her arms around him. Damn it, she had been kept hostage for two days! Anyone remotely friendly was a welcome sight right now!
She quickly realized what she was doing and pulled away. She really needed to get out of here already. “Please tell me that you can get this door open,” she said. Before he could answer, she heard Thor yell from the other end, and suddenly the door was being ripped off its hinges. She grinned at Thor through the now open doorway. “Asgardian diplomacy at its finest, huh?” she asked.
“Nothing but the best for you, Darcy,” Loki said from behind her, reaching up and patting her on the shoulder. She had been so tense that, when she felt herself relax at his touch, she just assumed that she was feeling some utter relief at having a friendly face around.
“You can’t just waltz in here and remove someone who’s in the middle of questioning!” She could hear Fury’s angry voice coming down the hall toward the room. Thor had likely run her way as soon as he heard her, with Loki doing the teleporting thing. Damn that stuff was useful.
“You’re done with your interrogation, Director Fury,” Loki said when Fury appeared in the doorway. “I know why you are questioning her, and I can tell you that you are ‘barking up the wrong tree,’ as you Midgardians call it. “There’s absolutely nothing for you to be so concerned over.”
“I’ll be the judge if I should be concerned or not,” Fury said to them. “I haven’t signed her off to leave yet, so you can take yourselves out of the building, thank you.” Darcy could see that Fury was gritting his teeth when he was speaking. He was so pissed that she wouldn’t be surprised if the veins in his forehead bulged out far enough that they made his eye patch pop off.
“We’re not giving you a choice here, Directory Fury,” Thor said to him, moving to stand in front of Darcy. “Either you will allow Darcy to leave here unharmed, or I will permanently remove my support from your group. Jane wanted me to relay that she would also be quitting if you did not let Darcy go. To my understanding, keeping Darcy here without any sort of charge is against the rules of your government.”
Either Jane had told him that or Thor had been doing some reading, Darcy surmised. Either way, she was glad that he was willing to stand up for her like this. She was also admittedly glad that they were trying to talk her out of here rather than simply snatch her out. This was already turning into an interplanetary incident. That would likely have only made it worse.
Fury glared his one good eye at her, and then sighed. She doubted that he wanted to lose Thor and Jane both. She knew that, likely according to them, she didn’t do any real work around here, but as Thor was an Avenger and Jane was a great scientist, he couldn’t really afford to lose them. “Fine, she can go with you,” he finally managed to spit out.
“And get the damn wiretaps out of my apartment!” Darcy snapped, looking around Thor’s body at him. “That’s a serious invasion of my privacy!”
“Technically that apartment is property of SHIELD,” Fury pointed out to her.
“Fine, then consider this my thirty days notice of moving,” she snapped at him, looking back at Loki. “Can you guys please get me out of here now? Where’s Jane?”
“Jane is outside waiting for us,” Loki said, taking Darcy’s arm. He then looked toward Director Fury. “Till we meet again, Director,” he said to him with a smile that totally read sinister to Darcy, then, before she realized what was happening, his grip on her arm tightened and it suddenly felt like all the air was sucked out of her lungs. Before she had a chance to wheeze or cough, the world was spinning and suddenly they were outside of the facility, next to what she recognized as Jane’s car.
Feeling dizzy, she dropped a little sideways against Loki, taking big gasps of breath. “I’m sorry about that,” he said, holding her steady as she regained her bearings. “It’s a bit jarring the first couple of times that you teleport. You get used to it, though.”
“I can’t imagine ever getting used to that,” Darcy said. Even outside she could swear that she could hear Thor shouting and stomping about. She looked around for Jane and barely ended up seeing her before the other woman jumped on her, hugging her tightly.
“Oh God, I thought that they had taken you to Guantanamo Bay or something!” Jane exclaimed as she squeezed Darcy.
“Jane, I’m glad to be out, too, but I kinda need to breathe, here!” Darcy squeaked out, and Jane loosened her hold on her a tad. Darcy then picked her arms up and hugged her friend back. “How were they to you?”
“They weren’t that bad to me,” Jane told her. “I mean, they questioned me for like three hours, but I kind of think that it was really you they wanted, not me. I think they just wanted to see if you had said anything incriminating to me.” Jane studied her for a minute. “What did they want with you?”
Darcy shook her head. “Just because I hang out with Loki, they think that we’re trying to take over the world together or something,” she said with a laugh. “Guys just can’t trust anyone, huh?” She saw the look that Loki gave her over Jane’s shoulder. “Trust me, if something was going on, I totally would have cracked in that hell.”
“And here I thought America was the land of second chances,” Loki said dryly.
Before anyone could answer, Thor finally made his way outside. “I do not suggest that you go back to your apartment, Darcy,” Thor said as he walked up. “I highly doubt that they will remove the listening equipment from it.”
“They have bugs in our apartment?” Jane snapped. Obviously, they hadn’t brought it up in the interview with her. When Darcy nodded, Jane groaned loudly. “Fuck me,” she said, which showed how pissed she was because Jane hardly ever swore. “Not exactly dying to stay there myself right now then.”
“Why don’t we just get a hotel for a day or two and figure things out from there?” said Darcy, rubbing her eyes. Even though it was daylight outside, she was exhausted, as they hadn’t exactly let her sleep like a normal human being in there. Nothing seemed to matter right now except getting some rest and feeling a little bit safer than she had in a while.
OoOoOoOo
Darcy didn’t say much during the ride to a hotel. She was only about half awake. All of the adrenaline from having Thor and Loki show up to rescue her had drained away and now she felt half dead. She leaned against the window, idly staring out of it as the car moved. All she wanted to do was jump in a shower and get some sleep, as she had spent the last few days doing nothing but lying and trying her damnedest to show SHIELD that she wasn’t a threat, even though she kind of technically was. She supposed that SHIELD hadn’t actually bought her lies, but when Norse gods show up, you can’t exactly reason with them.
She hadn’t even realized that she had dozed off until she felt Loki gently shaking her, waking her up. When she opened her eyes, she realized that, while Thor was still in his armor, Loki had somehow changed into a regular gray button up shirt and black slacks. She wished that she could just morph clothing out of nowhere. That would totally be a useful trait, especially right now when she had been wearing the same clothes for several days.
Darcy rubbed her eyes, looking out the window to see that they were at a very nice hotel. “Wow, can we afford this?” she asked. From the look on Jane's face, Darcy could tell that she was wondering the same thing.
“Don’t worry about that,” Loki said as he got out of the car. Darcy was worried, though, but she wasn’t just worried about the hotel’s price range. She was also concerned that agents from SHIELD might have followed them, and she couldn’t help but keep looking around the parking lot in case she saw someone watching them. She slid out of the car along with everyone else, following along mostly in a daze, though, when they all got inside, she did notice Loki pull out a wallet with a wad of cash inside of it. Just where in hell did he get money from? Did she even want to know?
When everyone led her up to the hotel room that they had gotten, it turned out to be less a room and more of a suite. At least they wouldn’t all be trying to share one bed or something.
When they were inside of the living room area, Darcy turned toward all of them. “So, nice digs here,” she said, turning away and looking around. She really had no way to deal with the trauma of being put away in a locked room for two days and starting to think that she’d never get away again.
“Like I would stay in anything less than five star,” Loki remarked, and Darcy couldn’t help but wonder just where he had learned that phrase.
“I hope that it’s not too much trouble for you guys to pay for something like this,” Jane remarked.
Loki shook his head. “Do not concern yourself with it,” he said to her. “Besides, there are bigger problems right now than thinking about whether I spent too much money on a hotel suite.”
Thor nodded. “He is right. Our father has entered into the Odinsleep again,” he said. Darcy saw an odd look flicker across Loki’s face when Thor said ‘our father,’ but at least he didn’t verbally correct him. Small steps. “That leaves me to rule Asgard while he rests.”
“What’s an Odinsleep?” Darcy asked. “Sounds like a weird name for a coma. Who names a coma after themselves?”
“A coma isn’t exactly the wrong thing to call it,” Loki remarked, a smirk playing across his features. “It is how he regains strength and vitality.” Then he frowned. “We do not know how long this will last. He could sleep for days, months, or even years.”
“Because of this,” Thor continued, “the throne has fallen to me, even though I do not consider myself ready to rule yet.”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Darcy observed quickly.
“I do not think of myself as too desperate,” Thor said. “I have a counsel that will help me with any decisions.” His eyes flickered to Loki. “With my brother on it as well.” Darcy noticed that Thor looked utterly ecstatic at the idea. Loki seemed pleased as well, although a bit more subdued. Then again, Thor was always a tumult of crazy emotions. When he was happy, he was very happy. When he was sad, he felt the need to drop to the complete bottom. Was this dude bipolar or what? “I know that my brother the most cunning of all in Asgard. It would be impossible not to have him on my counsel.”
“That is why we had to rush away,” Loki said, looking directly at Darcy. “If we had still been there like we had planned, then we could have possibly stopped SHIELD from taking the both of you away.” He paused briefly. “And keeping you for as long as they did.”
“Or things might have gotten worse,” Jane threw in. “SHIELD doesn’t exactly like being told what to do.” Darcy was a little surprised to hear her friend say that about her employers, but it’s not exactly wrong.
Darcy yawned, and it hit her again just how tired she really was. “OK, guys, thanks for the rescue and everything, but now Darcy is going to head off to bed. She’s only basically been kept awake for two days straight with stupid questions.” With a wave, she walked off into one of the rooms, thankful that it was a bedroom. She stripped down out of her clothes, intending on taking a shower, but instead only ended up flopping down in the bed, curling up with the blanket and dozing off in minutes.
OoOoOoOo
She slept the sleep of the dead for what felt like forever, but, when she opened her eyes and looked at a clock, it had only been about six hours, because it was midnight. The second thing that she noticed in the room was that Loki was sitting in a chair next to her bed. Jolting slightly, she pulled the blanket up to her chest, turning to look at him. Before he realized she had woken up, he had been starring off out the window.
“Dude, watching people sleep didn’t work for Edward Cullen, and it doesn’t work for you,” she said to him. “Well, it only works in movies and on thirteen year-olds who have no experience with actual men and how they should act.”
“I apologize, but I wanted to talk to you when you woke up,” Loki explained to her. The look on his face showed that he likely didn’t know who Edward Cullen was (and wasn’t he lucky), but now wasn’t exactly the time for a pop culture tutorial. “I thought that waiting in here was the best way to make sure of that.”
Darcy made sure that the blanket was tightly wrapped around her chest as she sat up a bit more, making herself comfortable. “OK, cool,” she said to him. They really needed to talk, anyway. “How’d you know that I was there?”
“I got your message,” he said to her. “I only waited a few hours instead of a day or as like you said, only long enough to get Thor away. When we arrived, Jane had just gotten home, and she explained to us what had happened. She suggested that we wait a day to see if they let you go on their own. When they didn’t, we decided to come and get you.”
“Thank you for coming for me,” Darcy said softly. She wasn’t sure what she had expected to happen, really. She just knew that, if she was going to get out of there, she was going to need some outside help.
“I wouldn’t let them keep my advisor now, would I?” Loki asked. Darcy had expected him to say something like that, but she wondered personally if that was the only reason. She was torn between hoping that maybe, just maybe he might actually have been concerned about her, or thinking that he had just wanted to make sure that she didn’t say anything. Then again, he would have gotten her out right away if he was really concerned about that, right? Damn, thinking on the twists and turns that Loki’s brain might take gave her a headache.
“No, of course not,” she said, smirking as she shook her head. Even if that really was the only reason, it had saved her ass, so she didn’t care. She leaned back against the headboard, shutting her eyes for a moment.
“Part of me wishes that you hadn’t gotten involved in this so that wouldn’t have happened to you, Darcy,” he said to her. He still really wasn’t looking at her right now. “They will regret what they have done to you.” She could see him tensing up, and she realized that he was actually digging his fingernails into the palm of his hand.
She reached out and touched his shoulder. “Hey, all they did was lock me in a room and question me,” she said to him. “Sure, it sucked big green monkey dick, and they apparently felt like they didn’t need to feed me or anything, but it wasn’t like they were shoving bamboo shoots underneath my nails or water boarding me or something,” she explained to him. “Chillax, OK?” She moved her hand down, reaching for his clenched fist and slowly making him unclench it. She could see that he had dug his nails in so hard that he had drawn blood. “Look, I’m out now and that’s what counts, right?”
He nodded, and she leaned over the other side of the bed, grabbing her shirt from the floor and pulling it over her head. Thankfully, it was long enough to cover her butt, or she’d be flashing Loki her panties. This really wasn’t her grandest moment. Jumping off the bed, she headed into the bathroom and wet a wash cloth, coming back and starting to clean the blood from his hand. She didn’t have anything to clean the wounds, but this was better than nothing. “Still, don’t blame yourself,” she said to him as she sat back on the bed, then leaning over to clean up the blood. “This is on SHIELD’s head, not yours.” She sighed, trying not to think of her time there and the idea that they might have kept her forever. “So, is Thor really King of Asgard right now?” she asked, trying to make conversation and not think about anything.
Loki nodded, watching her as she dabbed at the cuts. When she was done, he slowly withdrew his hand from hers. “Everything is true. Despite everything, I’m glad that Thor is at least allowing a council now. He might not drive the realm into complete chaos then.” When she looked up from her hand, she saw that he was staring directly at her. “Darcy, you’re shaking.”
“Getting snatched away by a super spy organization isn’t exactly good on the nerves,” Darcy explained. Despite the fact that her voice was steady, she realized that he was right and that she was shaking.
She felt him pull the washcloth out of her hand. She hadn’t even realized that she was still holding it. She watched as his hands slid up her arms, resting just under the sleeves of her shirt. “You’re safe here, Darcy,” he said, his words hypnotic as she felt herself relaxing into his arms. She slumped forward, leaning against his shoulder. Despite the fogginess of her brain, something clicked within her mind.
“Are you like, giving me a magical Xanax?” she asked him.
“I do not know what that is,” he said, and she could actually feel a chuckle reverberate through his chest. “I am simply trying to help you relax.”
Now it was her turn to chuckle. “Not that I don’t appreciate the sentiment, but magically doping me isn’t a good idea,” she told him. “Besides, I gotta learn to deal with the issues on my own.” She forced herself to look up at him. “This stuff is only going to get worse before it gets better.” She meant dealing with SHIELD, and he thankfully seemed to realize what she meant when he nodded. She gave him a grin. “So, now that we’ve had this little talk, if you do it again I’ll totally taser you for it.”
“I have heard about your prowess with the electrical weapon,” Loki said, laughing again. It wasn’t fair that his voice was like butter, especially in her magically inebriated state. “Thor did not appreciate that a weapon so small could fell him so easily.” She could picture him rolling his eyes when he said that.
“The one I got now is even better,” she warned him. SHIELD had given her a suped up one. It wouldn’t kill anyone, but she could likely use it on Thor NOW and stop him in his tracks. “Fair warning; I totally use it whenever I get freaked out by someone.”
“Then I promise to behave and not ‘freak you out,’” Loki said and Darcy laughed at the phrase ‘freak you out’ rolling off his tongue in that accent. “I should let you get back to sleep, Darcy,” he said, helping her lie back down and standing up. She wanted to protest, but he was right. She was still exhausted and still needed to catch up on her sleep a bit.
“Get a girl magically drunk and then run off. Such a gentleman,” she teased. “Where are you going?” she asked. She meant to ask where he was sleeping, but it hadn’t come out right.
He seemed to realize what she meant. “There’s a sofa in the living area that’s large enough,” he told her. She hadn’t realized that they hadn’t gotten enough rooms for all of them, but she didn’t really have it in her to question it.
She nodded. “See you in the morning then, Loki,” she told him, settling in and relaxing on the bed. She was asleep again before he even closed the door on his way out.