45. Darcy takes it upon herself to make sure each of the Avengers has some harmless, silly fun every week (supervillian attacks excluded).

If ever there were a group of people who needed to chill the fuck out and laugh, it was the Avengers…well, most of them. Thor was pretty good about relaxing when he was actively doing battle, but the demi-God could brood with the best of them if inspired by Loki shenanigans.

So, as part of Darcy's duties as the self-appointed morale officer at Avengers tower (her official title was Special Assistant to the Supervisory Agent Assigned to the Avengers Initiative aka Phil Coulson…which actually meant he was their badass, ninja babysitter), she made it her business to make sure everyone had a little lighthearted fun each week.

Movie nights were easy enough to arrange (though she had to deploy Steve, Natasha and Thor to assure the attendance of Tony, Bruce and Jane respectively). Mostly, they stuck with Disney, sci-fi and classic movies (Steve and Thor didn't really do well with pop culture references that littered most comedies, Thor got way too invested in dramas and war movies…yeah, Saving Private Ryan had been a bad, bad idea. For day use, Steve and wandered around looking like he was one clap of thunder away from a major PTSD episode).

If someone needed a quick pick me up, Darcy enlisted the help of Dot, Steve 3 pound teacup Yorkshire Terrier. It was impossible to remain in a funk with the little powder puff dancing around her ankles (Darcy found it helpful to tuck treats into the folded over cuffs of Bruce and Tony's jeans), especially if Darcy dressed the puppy in one of the tiny Avengers costumes she had made specially.

Of course, occasionally, one of her plans went awry. There were still baby agents who turned and fled when they saw her after the 'wolverine (the animal, not the big hairy guy who 'taught art' at Xavier's school upstate) in the drawer' incident.

In her defense, she had meant for them to get involved, but sometimes things just happened.

Still, the whole thing made Clint and Tony snicker, Thor laugh loudly, Natasha smirk and Steve roll his eyes in clear amusement.

Sometimes you had to break a few eggs to make an omelette.

11. Natasha is the one who gets the call that leads to the discovery that Sgt. James Barnes is alive and kicking in Siberia.

It started when Natasha picked up Steve's sketchbook. She was curious, as he usually kept it in hand or tucked away in his room, so finding it lying around was too good an opportunity to pass up.

The first several pages were filled with drawing exercises, vases, views from the tower windows, random shapes, the Brooklyn Bridge. People, or rather, parts of people, came next. Natasha recognized Thor's broad smile and jaw line. Clint's forearms and hands, slight grooves from his guards visible in the skin. The line of Bruce's shoulders, tired but not as worn down as they once were. Phil's forehead and brows, creased with exasperation. The column of her own throat and the delicate sweep of her collarbones. Darcy's ribs, nipping into the waist before curving to full hips. Jane's toes peeking out from the pooling of her too long jeans. Tony's eyes, framed by his thick, black lashes.

Each sketch was detailed and lovely and Natasha was surprised by the skill displayed. She knew Steve had been something of an artist before the war, but this indicated a substantial gift.

After the practice pages came real portraits, pictures of people doing everyday activities around the tower or at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ . Thor hovering by the toaster eagerly. Clint attempting to reason with Tony's unnecessarily complex espresso machine. Tony, Bruce and Jane, all slightly singed as they gathered around the exploded remains of something well Darcy and Dum-E observed, fire extinguishers at the ready. Natasha herself sitting on the terrace, enjoying a cup of tea as she watched the sunset. Phil, sleeves rolled up and tie loose, reading reports on the couch. Fury and Hill scowling over a battle plan. Pepper, amused and annoyed, mid phone call.

There were others, random people on the streets and agents, before Natasha reached faces that gave her pause. She knew the Howling Commandos from their service records and the young Howard Stark from old S.H.I.E.L.D. (then the SSR) photos. Everyone in the know would recognize Agent Peggy Carter, Steve's long-lost love, captured on paper as the beautiful, fiery woman Cap had known.

Records didn't have many photos of Sgt. James "Bucky" Barnes on file and those that existed were not the best quality. Still, Natasha knew who the handsome young man carefully rendered on the page was and had a chilling realization. The old photos were grainy enough that she hadn't made the connection, but she couldn't ignore what she saw in the neat pencil sketch.

She knew Bucky Barnes, though he hadn't answered to that name at the time. He hadn't smiled and his eyes, somehow bright and alive on the page, had been cold and ruthless.

The man she had known as Winter Soldier was somehow Steve's long dead friend… Though lately the definition of dead seemed to have become somewhat subjective.

Immediately, she went about making necessary calls to her contacts. Department X had supposedly been shut down when the KGB was disbanded, but it didn't actually happen until years later, and, to this day, stores of records, sometimes whole labs were still being recovered.

Three days later, Niko Thermopolis, a shield scientist on loan to the Отдел Oоенных наук (Russia's version of shield), who were in charge of ferreting out all those old Department X labs.

"We found the lab where the Winter Soldier program was based out of a couple of weeks ago," Thermopolis rumbled from the other side of the world. "The subject was pulled from a river at an undisclosed location, frozen solid and missing an arm. World War II era clothing and weapons. When he proved to be alive, they used intensive reeducation methods to create a perfect assassin and replaced his arm with a cybernetic limb. According to the notes it seems he had a habit of throwing off his conditioning if left aware for long periods of time, so between missions he was put in cryogenic suspension."

"ебать," Natasha Kirst. She'd seen Winter Soldier perhaps a decade earlier, still controlled by the remains of Department X who had hoped to use his skills to take back their power base. She wondered if it would be best not to mention this to Steve, as it would hurt him to realize his friend had been alive that recently. "When was he terminated?"

It was morbid, but she had to know.

There was a pause before Thermopolis said, "Actually, he's alive. Frozen in a cryo-tube, but all the indicators are green. The only reason we haven't tried to wake him is…well, he might not react well and unlike some people are team is not composed of bad ass ninjas."

"Leave him as he is until we get there," she said, snapping her phone shut as she asked, "JARVIS, where's Steve?"

"Capt. Rogers is in the kitchen with Mr. Stark and Agent Barton."

She entered the kitchen to find Clint snickering as Steve repeatedly pushed half a grapefruit at Tony, who was huddled over a mug of coffee. Cap seemed happy, at ease and she was loath to destroy his peace, but she knew he'd want to know what she knew so they could tagteam Fury and get their asses to Siberia ASAP.

"Cap," she said, tone drawing every eye in the room. "We have a situation…."

30 min. later they were on one of Tony's private jets, streaking toward Russian airspace at a stupidly fast, not yet commercially available pace. Phil was talking with Maria Hill over the comm, arranging things so there would be no diplomatic incident when the Avengers landed in Siberia.

One thing Natasha always said about her people was that they were realists. When faced with the reality that a war hero from World War II had been held captive on Russian soil from God only knew how long, they knew this was bad. The fact that he was the best friend of Captain America (who was loved in a lot of nations, not just the US), well they just threw up their hands and gave the team carte blanche to retrieve Barnes.

In the end, they were successful and loaded Barnes, confused, more than a little twitchy and lightly sedated, back onto the plane. There had been quite a fight before he came back to at least some of his senses and recognized Steve, so Natasha was sporting a dislocated shoulder, Clint had several busted ribs, the Ironman suit was severely dented and Steve himself was bleeding from a number of small contusions.

But they succeeded and really that was all they could hope for sometimes.