InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "It is I, Van Helsing"

vαи dyиє (punches) wrote in avengers_logs,
@ 2019-09-21 09:48:00

Entry tags:

-complete, darcy lewis, hope van dyne

Who: Hope & Darcy
What: Extra coffee is always appreciated, and making plans for a ladies night
When: Last Wednesday
Where: SHIELD HQ
Rating: Green
Status: Complete

Like her and Tony talked about, it was better to be a workaholic than an alcoholic, right?

Hope thought so, anyway. Otherwise she’d just think about her wedding and how perfect it was. She’d think about how beautiful it had been on the beach by her parents' home in San Francisco, the glittering stars and the breeze stroking her face and the lapping of the waves, the tick of a more leisurely clock. One she definitely hadn’t felt hurried by. The smell of salt rushing through her nose and being full of food and just really damn happy. Or she’d think about her dress, a rich ivory with floral-detailed lace and chiffon that had short sleeves (and pockets) and fell to right about at her knees. Perfect for a beach wedding.

Then Scott disappeared, and her dress was now in a crumpled heap in the back of her closet. One she’d been cleaning out in prep for the move to the Avengers tower.

During the day, she worked. SHIELD was always hopping, it seemed, and as part of the R&D team she was simultaneously continuing long-term projects and also at the ready to be called in for a mission that required bug-sized stealth. On this particular Wednesday, she’d just gotten back from a coffee run because it was either that or go cross-eyed.

So she had her venti iced coffee with a pump of raspberry flavoring, and also an iced caramel macchiato because the barista made two by mistake and she’d somehow ended up with it. “Hey, do you like the caramel ones?” she asked Darcy as she approached the front desk. “This was a happy accident but if I drink this I’ll have a caffeine-induced heart attack, probably.”

Darcy was ready to greet Hope with a smile and a kind word when the other woman beat her to the punch, asking if she liked caramel-flavored coffees. “I haven’t met a coffee I didn’t like,” she said. “Thanks.”

It really sucked that Scott ended up leaving this weird ass dimension just as suddenly as any of them arrived here, especially since they’d just gotten married. The whole coming and going thing was unsettling and Darcy wished that some of the smart people here could figure out what was causing it. To be fair, she didn’t mind being here and she was happy that Jane was happy, but what if Thor was the next one to leave? Or worse, what if Jane was?

“Want to hang out for a few minutes?” she asked. Darcy wasn’t going to do the trite ‘how are you’ questions, but she would be happy to provide some fun distractions.

Hope was grateful for the question, she’d allow it. She was also grateful for the lack of ‘so, how are things?’ because, well, how do you think. They weren’t catastrophic (after all, Scott had disappeared once before) but they weren’t great either.

“I do, yeah,” she nodded, giving Darcy the iced coffee and pulling up a seat behind the desk so she could enjoy her own caffeine-fueled beverage. “It seems...relatively stable now.” Besides the various disappearances, but apparently according to Dr. Strange, those were just a thing that happened. “In terms of work, I mean. You keeping busy?” she asked, taking a pull from her drink (which was a fun pink-red color, thanks to her choice of flavoring).

Relatively stable was always a moment to moment thing with SHIELD. Already, Darcy had learned to appreciate the rare quiet moments and not tempt fate by mentioning them. “Oh, you know, there’s never a dull moment,” she said. “Even when you all aren’t out there fighting crazy shit. There’s plenty of paperwork that needs to be done.” And she was pretty sure Fury was trying to keep her busy and out of trouble.

She took a drink of her unexpected coffee treat. “How about you? Anything exciting going on that’s above my security clearance?”

Hope chuckled at what was obviously a trick question. “Not so far, but I guess that could change - though probably the really juicy stuff is beyond even my security clearance,” she mused. She was simply a lowly Agent on the totem pole, woe.

“My research is mainly the many uses of quantum particles - healing, mostly,” she tacked on there. “We have a whole bunch of them from when Ava was around but she and SHIELD don’t get along so I did most of the work at Stark Industries. Now, I’ve been toiling here. I figure if I can manage a disease-curing breakthrough, I’ll have accomplished something.” Next time, say, a friend was diagnosed with cancer (though let’s hope it didn’t actually happen) she wouldn’t be so helpless to contribute.

“Oh, I met her,” Darcy said. She hadn’t seen the other woman around in a while, but hadn’t realized she wasn’t here anymore. “It would be amazing if you could figure out a way to use the particles for healing.”

She was grateful for all the scientific whatever that Bruce and Tony had done to get Jane back in good health. Everyone deserved that sort of dedication and opportunity.

“You know, I’m not even sure if I have a security clearance,” Darcy realized. That would be a question for Fury. “I like working here though.” It was usually interesting and she was seldom bored.

“Good, I’m glad. You were a big help at headquarters during the flood situation,” Hope said. It was true. They had a whole mix of employees at SHIELD, from all walks of life and possessing different skill sets, and Darcy had her own that was considered valuable. “I like it too. I mean, yeah, my father had his bad experiences and there’s lots of bad blood - but he’s not me, and overall I think the work he did was important. I don’t want to squirrel it away from the world like he did.”

It was simply a matter of making sure it didn’t fall into the wrong hands - but she’d already taken on Darren Cross, and there were always men like him. She’d protect her father’s work, her work, from those types of people but also would do good things with it for the rest of the world. She hoped.

“But anyway - “ She poked her straw around in her coffee. “I think...we are all in need of another ladies night soon?” Her and Natasha had spoken about it briefly. Hope was all on board.

Darcy would never say no to a ladies night. “Most definitely,” she said. “Something without alcohol this time maybe, so Wanda can still enjoy it.” Surely they could find a way to have a good time without booze in a way that could include their pregnant friend.

“I’m tempted to suggest something like axe throwing, but I know you’d all crush me.” Though it could be amusing to see how some of the dude bros who no doubt frequented those places reacted to the lady Avengers kicking ass.

Axe-throwing? Now that was a plan. “I don’t know if I’d crush you,” Hope laughed. “For one thing, I’ve never laid a hand on an axe in my life. For another, I may be good at martial arts but I doubt this is in the same realm.” It’d give her a good arm muscle workout, though.

Some of the ladies just had extra strength - like Sif? She’d never dream she could be better than a warrior goddess at anything related to throwing something heavy and sharp.

“But I agree about accommodating the pregnant lady. I’m sure she’d appreciate that,” Hope concurred. “If you know a good spot to do some axe-throwing, why not?”

Off the top of her head, she didn’t, but Darcy wasn’t afraid of doing a little research. “I can look it up,” she said. “I’ll see what I can find and send out a message to see when everyone is free.” She liked being part of the group even though she wasn’t an agent or a superhero.

“You need to schedule time with Fury or anything?” she asked, realizing that it was entirely possible Hope had a professional reason for stopping by.

“Sounds great,” Hope grinned, pleased that there was another girl’s day in the works. She liked being a part of the lady gang as well - not only did she enjoy the idea of women supporting other women, she reveled in the idea of not being alone in the face of what was basically an annulment of her marriage.

It had lasted about a week, though. And what a great week it had been.

The question about Fury had her jolting back to the present, however. “Schedule - “ Oh, right, she worked here. It was easy to forget when she was floating away on a blissful caffeinated cloud. “No, no, I’m good,” she assured Darcy.

“I just wanted to say hi. And give you a little pep to your step for the afternoon.”

“Oh, good,” Darcy said with a grin. “I definitely appreciate that.” She took another sip of the caramel coffee, grateful that Hope thought of her when she ended up with an extra drink. “I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t shirking my duty or anything.”

She did not want to cross her boss. Even though she was starting to realize that Fury wasn’t nearly as mean or scary as he portrayed himself, she did prefer to be on his good side. Failing to actually do her job would probably not keep her there.

Hope also wanted to stay on Fury’s good side. She wanted to keep her job at SHIELD for awhile - there was already enough bad blood in the mix between her family and the organization, not like she needed to add to it.

So she wouldn’t linger here for long. “Nah, you’re fine,” she assured, with a wave of her hand, getting up from her chair and pushing it over toward where she originally found it. “I better get back to work though. And Google ‘best axe-throwing techniques for our next outing.”

Darcy waved. “Yeah, same. I’ll figure out a date that works for everyone too.” It would be a good time, even if some of them had special advantages.