Author's Note: Behold the final chapter! It's finally here, the one stray that found Darcy! ;) Enjoy!

...And the 1 that found her.

VI. James Buchanan Barnes aka The Winter Soldier

'Stupid HYDRA! Fucking bastards don't know when to fucking quit!' Darcy thought furiously, glaring daggers at the lone guard left in the room with her. Obviously they didn't think she was much of a threat and sadly they were right, what with her being tied to a chair and gagged.

Seriously, couldn't she go one week without something going wrong? All she'd been doing was eating lunch with Jane for crying out loud!

The HYDRA goons had busted down the door of the little bistro that Pepper had told her about and that she'd dragged Jane out to in order to get some real food in her, and before Darcy had had the chance to tase more than one of them she'd been hit in the head. Everything had gone black after that, but she took comfort in the knowledge that her distraction had given Jane time to escape. She'd heard the Head Goon complaining about it before they'd noticed she'd regained consciousness, accompanied by a splitting headache.

What had followed was the standard 'tell us what we want to know and you won't be harmed' pitch, complete with faux-apologetic voice as he apologized for taking such extreme measures. Yeah, right, and she was a ballerina. Like she was seriously going to fall for that; how stupid did they think she was? Apparently pretty dumb, because Head Goon had followed that up with a sleazy smile and reassurances that if she just told them what they wanted to know they would let her go.

Did anyone ever actually fall for that line? Because she sure as hell wasn't.

When all she'd done was give Head Goon a distinctly unimpressed look, his sleazy smile had turned into a scowl and he'd left, saying that he'd give her some time to think about their generous offer. He'd taken most of the other goons with him, leaving her alone with a guy who could give the Buckingham Palace guards a run for their money as far as expressionless faces went.

He was also holding an AK-47 across his chest. That was definitely something to keep in mind while thinking up escape plans.

By the looks of it, the guard knew how to use that damned impressive gun, so for now she focused on getting herself loose and then she'd try to figure out how to disarm the guard. Luckily her arms were tied behind her back so Mr. Expressionless couldn't see what she was doing as she twisted her wrists, gauging how tightly the ropes were tied and if there was any slack she could take advantage of.

No dice, she mentally grumbled, keeping a wary eye on the guard as she took stock of what she had to work with.

Her shoes were gone, having been taken while she'd been unconscious (those jerks! Those sneakers were brand new!), along with her coat, so that just left her with her t-shirt, jeans, and her underwear. None of which were particularly helpful at the moment. She didn't even have a can of mace in her bra like some women carried, which she'd never really thought she'd regret until this very moment. Her bra was one of those old-fashioned underwire ones, which she supposed she could use if she get her hands free, which didn't look to be happening anytime soon, so moot point there, she inwardly sighed.

Whoever had tied her up had known what they were doing, that was for sure; her bonds were tight enough that she couldn't do more than wiggle her fingers around, but not so tight that they cut off circulation in her wrists, which would have definitely been a problem. Her ankles were likewise tied to the front legs of the chair, and she was well and truly stuck. Well, fuck, she thought bleakly, her mind racing as she tried to figure another way out of this mess.

She came up with exactly zilch. Fuck.

And then the metal door to her cell got blown off its hinges and the stunned guard (finally! A change of expression!) was promptly shot by the figure entering the room.

Well, it wasn't like Darcy actually felt bad about that, but now she was concerned about who her rescuer/possible-new-captor was. Just her luck to go from the frying pan straight to the bonfire, she thought with a groan that was muffled by her gag.

She stiffened, however, when she got a good look at the figure walking towards her. She knew who it was. Of course she did, she'd seen the footage from Washington, and she had helped Kitty work almost a week straight to download all the SHIELD/HYDRA data that had been released into the internet that they could get their hands on it. There had been loads of files on her rescuer, hell, she'd been helping Steve try to find him ever since the Triskelion fell!

Not to mention the shiny metal arm was a dead giveaway.

But holy shit, the Winter Soldier had just busted down the doorway and was walking right towards her. This was either very good or very bad.

When the Soldier drew a knife and fluidly cut the ropes off her legs and wrists, she promptly decided that it was really, really good. She pulled the gag out of her mouth and made a face at it. Yuck, her mouth felt like it had been stuffed full of cotton, very stinky, dirty cotton at that. She really didn't want to know where that gag had been, so she promptly threw it across the room and felt very satisfied for doing so.

Looking over at Barnes (calling him "Bucky" felt too informal), Darcy saw he looked faintly amused, or at least his eyes did. And then he spoke.

"Darcy Lewis? I need your help with something."

Barnes told her what he wanted, and hell, who was she to say no? The guy had just saved her life, and Steve would probably forgive her. Eventually.

The favor Barnes wanted was actually rather simple, at least in theory.

He needed a place to lie low, rest, and recover from all the fighting and running (the former against HYDRA, and the latter from Steve) he'd been doing. Avengers Tower was the only safe place he knew of, the only place that HYDRA couldn't get into, and so the only place he felt he could let his guard down enough to get the rest he needed. He'd done his research, she'd give him that; he knew that she had her own entire floor and the least protection compared to someone like Pepper Potts or Jane, but he also knew that she had people staying with her. By his reasoning, since she already had four people living on her floor no one would notice if he accidentally left signs of his presence.

Avengers Tower was also the last place Steve would think to look for him amidst all the false trails that he had created and it had a great deal of security, so he needed her to sneak him into the building and up to her floor.

It was a brilliant plan, the irony was that he had been going to approach her after she'd left the diner with Jane but HYDRA's kidnapping had forced his hand.

In reality where the building you lived in was monitored by an AI that didn't need to sleep it was slightly tougher to pull off. She managed to work something out though, engaging Jarvis' privacy filters so Barnes wouldn't show up on the security tapes as she took him to the private elevator and straight up to her floor.

Unfortunately, she hit a snag in the form of Victor, who did not take kindly to her guest.

Darcy was just glad that it was only the coffee table and three chairs that got broken in the ensuing fight.

Still, she held off on making Victor's favorite food for four days as punishment. He had to learn sometime.

Bucky's plan worked for four months, shockingly enough. He stayed on her floor the entire time, and with the privacy filters engaged didn't have to worry about Jarvis ratting him out to Tony, who would then tell Steve.

Victor and Vanessa weren't happy about Bucky (he had given her permission to call him that in month two) staying there but otherwise didn't say anything. Kitty tried to get him to let her look at the inner workings of his metal arm (he said no, she pouted for a week until Tony unintentionally distracted her with a new program), and Emma winced for a month when she made the mistake of trying to peek into his mind. Apparently the damage had been...bad. The two of them were otherwise amiable, and Bucky had warmed to the blonde even more when Emma mentioned she might be able to help him root out some of HYDRA's programming. Peter just wanted his autograph, bless his fan-boy heart.

Unfortunately on the first day of month five, Steve dropped by to pay an unexpected visit and ask about something just in time to walk in on them playing team scrabble. Victor and Kitty were kicking their asses, but Emma and Vanessa were putting up a strong defense.

The fallout was intense, and Steve didn't talk to Darcy for a week and a half after the yelling was done.

Bucky smacked him in the back of the head for her. With the metal hand. She cooked him a feast in thanks.

Bucky staunchly refused to move to a different floor, no matter how much Steve wanted him on his floor, and Darcy couldn't help but feel smug.

Darcy and Bucky formally announced they were dating at team movie night in month six of Bucky living in the Tower i.e. the second month anyone else knew about him living in the Tower.

No one was surprised.

Kitty sulked and handed Peter and Vanessa twenty dollars each, and Victor passed Emma a ten. Darcy glared at all of them and declared they were having a Disney marathon.

Hearing the chorus of groans, she smirked and Bucky snickered (he liked Disney movies, so no problems there).

Teach them to bet on her dating life.

When they finally slept together, it was honestly nothing short of magical to Darcy, and Bucky too, judging by the look in his eyes. They took things slow and easy, just exploring and figuring out what the other liked, and Darcy discovered that that metal hand was very dexterous. Bucky flashed her an impish grin when she told him so.

Neither one of them left the bed except to use the bathroom and eat for an entire day, a day in which everyone else on her floor made themselves scarce.

She made a mental note to cook them all something special as a thank you.

Then Bucky gently pulled her back to the bed and kissed her, and she stopped thinking altogether.