Darcy Bruce

AN I read one story by sarcasticfina and suddenly I had been sucked down a tumblr rabbit hole of Darcy Lewis ships.

I want to going sailing.

When she looked back at her life she supposed there were a few key moments that led her here. Number one would have to be her indecision. Four majors in almost as many years had left her with few options when it came to "easy" credits.

She had burned though basket weaving and pop culture 101 by the end of her first year. By the end of her second she had used up wine tasting and feminism, the later being surprisingly harder than she had anticipated. Seriously. A woman making her way, on her own, at college, should get at least a B just by virtue of who she was.

Sadly professor lady suits didn't see it that way. She thought there was a need to do "research" and write a 10 page paper. Darcy wasn't keen on that and a "discussion" had ensued that earned her an incomplete. Her one blemish.

Okay maybe not her only blemish but certainly the worst.

Not that is mattered anymore.

One foolish last minute sign up sheet for a few credits that would finally allow her to finish had turned her world upside down.

She can remember writing her name on the otherwise blank sheet of paper. Not that she could blame the other students. New Mexico might claim to be the Land of Enchantment but sadly the nightlife was geared more towards bingo ladies and not so much towards college coeds.

But, there was Jane. Who had somehow turned into her best friend. They were such a crazy odd couple that she sometimes though they should have their own sitcom. There were times when it felt like Jane was speaking another language but most of the time they spoke the same language of broken homes and unfulfilled potential.

Even now, with both of them working with freaking superheroes and saving the whole dam world they still had moments of self doubt. Luckily their friendship helped them through. Darcy was always there with some caffeine and sugar when Jane felt she would never solve her latest mystery and Jane was ready with the tequila when Darcy felt like a square peg in a round world.

"Jane!" She called out her friends name as she burst through the door of her lab. "Jane!"

"I'm in the office." Darcy followed her friends voice towards the tiny back room to find Jane with no less than three pencils in her hair sitting on the floor surrounded by more piles of paper than Darcy cared to count. "Do you have a pencil?"

Darcy smiled and leaned down pulling one from Jane's messy hair and offering it to her.

"I'm kind of freaking out." Jane stopped looking around at the papers and stilled herself before gazing up at her friend.

"Okay, I'm all ears." Now that Darcy was here she wasn't sure where to start. In her head were a jumble of moments that she thought might mean something, or it could be just that she was spending too much time in in confined spaces with chemicals she couldn't name. Stupid nerdy scientists. Apparently she had a weakness for them.

"Darcy?" Jane watched at the far away stare vanished from her friends face. "How about we just start with the reason you are freaking out?"

"Bruce." Darcy said his name like a whisper.

Jane smiled knowingly. For weeks she had watched her friend become closer and closer to the reclusive genius. Going from kind lab assistant to his friend and confidant. Some might call it insane. That perhaps Darcy lacked the intelligence for self preservation, but Jane knew it was something much more wonderful. Despite her lack of role models Darcy had turned out to be a caring person with a heart the size of Manhattan.

She had a soft spot for lost causes and an even bigger blind spot when it came to bad boys.

Not that Bruce was bad. Certainly a case for the opposite could be made. But the anger that he kept inside him made him dangerous and not just because he could turn into a giant rage monster with a penchant for smashing but because being that angry didn't leave room for many other emotions.

That was why Jane's smile faltered. She wanted Darcy to be happy. Certainly life with the Avengers wasn't easy but if you tossed on top of that some major control issues and the idea of Bruce and Darcy made Jane worry.

"He told me he doesn't want me to be his lab assistant anymore. He told me Smith hired him a new guy. Someone 'better suited' for the job." Darcy's voice was getting louder now. Her anger clear. "What the hell does that mean? I run that lab with more awesomeness than should be legal."

"Hell yeah you do." Jane agreed with her in a show of solidarity. She even offered a first pump.

"Doesn't need me? Good luck teaching new guy to read your chicken scratch. It's like an advanced form of glyphs and symbols. I could write a whole doctorate thesis on it."

"The man has messy handwriting!" Again Jane enthusiastically agreed with her friend but this time Darcy looked at her sideways.

"Well it's messy but it's only because he had so much on his mind." Jane should have know it was only a matter of time before Darcy's anger faded. She had been fiercely protective of Bruce when it came to the groups teasing. Just last week she had threatened a very impossible anatomical act after Tony had replaced Bruce's favorite tea with seaweed flakes.

"He's just so dam frustrating." Darcy couldn't help but remember all the times she had caught him watching her. How he sometimes seemed to stand too close when they were working on something. How he made a point of always holding the elevator for her. Pulling out her chair.

So many little things that had started to convince her that maybe he felt something more than coworker friendlyness towards her. Something she was pretty sure was causing those stupid butterflies every time their hands brushed each other or the smile that never seemed to leave her face when they were together.

"I thought you were going to talk to him?"

"Yeah well when I tried to bring up the subject he shut me down and now suddenly he doesn't want to work together. Maybe I was wrong. Just completely wrong and he got rid of me because he didn't want to have to crush my foolish feelings?"

"I don't…" Jane tried to offer her opinion.

"Or maybe he's just a big scaredy cat?" Darcy bolted out of her seat. The confusion suddenly melting away. She offered Jane a conspiratoral smile before rushing out the door.

"Glad I could help." Jane spoke the words to herself and tried not to worry too much about Darcy and the 'mad' scientist. Darcy would always do what Darcy wanted. It was one of the things Jane loved about her.

Bruce was staring through a microscope when he caught her scent. Barging through the door she was all fury and red lips. He blue eyes flashed as he looked at her.

It was the same every time. The fine edge of rage would blur with lust.

He wanted her. Every second of every day he wanted her. Since the moment she had walked in and looked at him before calling him Dr Mean Green with a smile so wicked he couldn't help but return it.

Rage was his friend. His coping mechanism. The only reason he could keep the other guy in the cage.

She threatened that. With her every movement, her every touch, her every look. The sight of her made his pulse race.

There was no explanation for it. She was the opposite of everything Bruce had ever wanted. The opposite of Betty. Sweet, quite, soft spoken, serene Betty.

Darcy was brash and abrasive. She was in your face and her laugh was shrill. Everything about her was designed to make a man take notice.

And he noticed. He noticed from the moment she walked in and hadn't been able to think about much else. His experiments where at a stand still. He couldn't seem to solve a freaking sodoku puzzle without thinking about her lips.

Worse still was how he found himself drawn to her. Doing things he knew were wrong. As if he wasn't the poster child for rage issues he was also older than her by a large enough amount to put him into creepy territory.

There were a thousand reasons this was an epically bad idea and yet he found himself pulled towards her. Like her gravity was stronger than his own. Like she was a black hole and there was nothing he could do to escape.

That was why he had asked Agent Smith to replace her. He couldn't be around her anymore. He needed to get back to his work.

Back to the razors edge of rage that kept him able to be a part of the team. Kept him able to move forward in his experiments.

He didn't have time for some hurricane of a woman to come in here and throw him off the tracks.