So, is everyone properly intrigued? :D

Okay, okay, don't kill the writer. I wrote you another chapter, see? (Whoever just threw that knife at me...that's not nice. Or safe!)

Back at the Tower...

"Do we need more energy?" asked Tony, leaning over a fresh batch of shiny gunk.

"You do not need more electricity Tony!" Bruce called from across the room. He glanced over to the table where "gunk flambé" had just occurred minutes ago, leaving a smoky, charred mess in the bowl it had been stored in. "That would just create more smoke."

"Then maybe we need more gunk." Tony muttered thoughtfully.

"Ugh." said Jane, placing her hand in her head in slight exasperation. "Where is Darcy with that food?"

Bruce glanced at the clock, and realized that she had left about an hour ago. "She's probably taking her time."

"That's annoying." said Tony. "I want California Rolls."

"Of course you do." Bruce muttered. It was strange. Some days he felt like the most emotionally stable person in the lab, and that, considering his own 'condition', was saying something.

"Where was she going for it?" asked Jane.

"Probably our usual place." said Bruce, finally giving the astrophysicist his full attention. "Why? Are you worried?"

"I don't know." Jane mused. "It's just not like her to take so long."

"She does have a life outside of you and I now." Tony said, glancing at Jane. "As sad as it is, she could've gotten distracted."

Bruce wasn't sure why, but their sudden concern was starting to make him a little bit concerned. And that just led to the Other Guy getting jumpy. So he stood up and grabbed his coat off of the hook beside the door. "You know what? I'll just go and meet her on her way back."

"Yeah, you do that Romeo." said Tony. "And for the record, that suite I promised is ready for the two of you to move in to, so, you know..."

"Thanks Tony." Bruce said, clapping him on the shoulder.

Within a few minutes he found himself on the streets of New York. It wasn't entirely normal for him to venture out of the Tower on his own (Partly because he didn't want to break Harlem again), but since Darcy had walked into his life, normal had sort of evaporated on him.

He still wasn't quite sure what she saw in him, and he still worried for her safety. But she wasn't really interested in hearing his misplaced insecurities, and Bruce wasn't entirely sure if that should make him feel relieved or exasperated.

He began to work his way through the streets, keeping his eyes out for a curvy, saucy brunette with her arms full of takeout food. He started walking towards the sushi place that Darcy usually went to. He'd been there exactly three times. Once with Darcy to pick up food, and twice because she had forgotten the sauce for the California rolls. It took him a couple wrong turns, but he finally made his way to the correct restaurant.

He walked into the little sushi restaurant, and was immediately greeted by a little Japanese woman.

"Ah, Darcy Lewis' boyfriend, yes?" she asked. "Did Darcy forget the sauce again?"

"No ma'am," he said, smiling slightly at being referred to as Darcy's boyfriend. Yep, he was sunk. "I'm just looking for Darcy."

The woman looked puzzled. "Darcy left with her food an hour ago."

It had been an hour and a half since she'd left the Tower. Something wasn't adding up.

Alarm bells immediately began to go off in Bruce's head, especially because he hadn't come across her in his walk here. He tried to remind himself that this was New York, that Darcy could have easily passed him without his noticing. And she could've stopped for something else, taken a different route.

None of this helped Bruce shake the feeling that something was very, very wrong.

He retraced his steps back to Stark Tower, and ducked in to ask Jarvis if Darcy had returned. When he found out that she hadn't, he felt like he was going to be sick.

He rubbed his hands through his hair, feeling like he was nearing full out panic. Calm down, Banner. he mentally chided himself. She probably just got sidetracked. She's going to bounce through that door any minute, and you're going to look like an idiot for being so worried.

He wasn't convincing himself. Or the Other Guy. So Bruce opted to bring in some backup.

"Clint." he said sharply, entering the gym. Clint and Natasha stopped sparring as soon as they saw him.

"What's up, Bruce?" asked Clint, immediately noticing his disheveled state.

"Something's wrong with Darcy."

That immediately got both of their attention.

"What do you mean, something's wrong?" asked Natasha, her tone even.

Bruce shook his head. "She went out to get take out-" he glanced at the clock. "Two hours ago? She's not back yet. I went there and back and didn't see her. The woman at the take out place said she'd left with the food about an hour and a half ago. There is no way, I don't care you are, that the walk back to the Tower takes an hour and a half."

"Maybe she got sidetracked?" Clint suggested carefully. His tone did nothing to hide the fact that he didn't believe his own excuse.

"We'll go walk it with you." said Natasha. "Maybe we'll come across her."

The Other Guy was clawing at Bruce's control now, trying to take over. Get Darcy. Get Darcy. Find Darcy. He was chanting.

Shut up. Bruce answered back. I'll find Darcy.

The Other Guy quieted down, although it seemed to be grudgingly. Bruce had never considered the fact that the Other Guy might be fond of Darcy. It was possibly more alarming than the idea that he didn't like Darcy. He'd probably spend way too much time thinking about it later.

Right now, he needed to find Darcy, for his own mental sanity at the very least.

They started by making their way back to the take out place, looking for Darcy as they went. They passed a couple of hot dog venders, a saxophone player, several business men, and a couple of mothers with strollers. This time, Bruce was confident that she had definitely not walked past them and escaped their notice.

They stood in front of the sushi shop, and that was when Bruce finally had to acknowledge that something was very, very wrong.

Why did you ever let her go alone? Bruce asked himself.

Stupid Banner. The Hulk agreed.

Not helping. Bruce mentally hissed. Would you shut up so that I can think?

Banner stupid.

I agree. He told himself. But calling me stupid won't find Darcy any faster.

He realized that Clint and Natasha were staring at him cautiously, looking as if they were waiting for him to lose his cool.

"She's not here." he said, with a calmer tone than he felt.

"No." said Natasha carefully. "And I think we all have a pretty good idea of what that means."

Bruce knew exactly what that meant. He kept trying to deny it, kept trying to imagine Darcy sitting back at the Tower, safe and content, the way she had been lately.

She had come so far. He had watched her come so far. It was what terrified him more than anything, was that he was going to lose her. The person she had become, the one who wasn't afraid to sass him or goof off with Clint or venture out of the Tower alone.

"What do we do next?" he heard himself asking.

"We'll get Stark to hack some security cameras, see if we can't get a visual on whoever did this." said Clint.

"But we need a starting point." murmured Natasha. "Bruce!" she said, drawing his attention back to the matter at hand. "I need you to focus. We're looking for anything, absolutely anything, that might have belonged to Darcy. Her purse, the sushi, a piece of ID, even jewelry, okay?"

"Cause sushi and a purse lying on the sidewalk is definitely going to stay there?" said Clint. "In New York, Tasha?"

"Just look." Bruce could hear her sigh, sounding as frustrated as he felt.

He began scanning the sidewalk, looking for anything, anything that screamed Darcy. I'm so sorry... He thought.

And then he saw it, lying on top of a street drain, having somehow not slipped through the cracks.

"You."

Bruce shifted not uncomfortably, feeling Darcy laying across his chest. He blinked his eyes open slowly, cursing the bright New York sunlight.

"You." he said, smiling softly. He reached up and traced his hand over her shoulder as she snuggled in closer.

"You need to get up, Moppy." she said. She tried to sit up, when he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back into the bed.

"Nope." he said, determined to see her smile again.

She snorted. "After last night, you're seriously trying to tell me you're good for another round? I've seen your stamina, old man."

God, she was so sassy. Once in awhile, when things were intimate, or she had felt like she was pushing to far, he could see those familiar shadows creep back into her eyes, and then he would have to pull her out of them again. But she was becoming more and more fearless, the more she was pushed out of her comfort zone and allowed to thrive.

One day he would tell her how being with her had healed him, in ways she'd probably never imagined. But that wasn't today.

"If we were going for another round, Darcy, we'd have stopped talking by now."

She giggled, and he traced his hand over the curve of her hip. She tensed against him slightly, the same way she always did whenever he did that.

"Good morning." he said, kissing the top of her head, feeling the tension begin to slowly drain out of her.

"You need-" she said, elbowing her way out of his arms. "To get up. Tony's having enough fun with this as it is, we don't need to be late to the labs. Again."

She rolled off of the bed, and made her way over to the mirror that he had set up in his bedroom, just for when she wanted to put on her make up. She glanced back and caught him staring at her.

"Shower! Now!" she said, pointing to him and the bathroom.

Bruce sighed and began to ease himself out of the bed. He watched as she reached for a braided bracelet she'd left on the side table last night. "Where'd you get that?" he asked.

Darcy glanced down at her wrist. "This? Clint was teaching me how to make them yesterday. Why?"

"Clint was teaching you how to make friendship bracelets? As in, Hawkeye Clint? As in, bad boy assassin Clint?"

"The one and only." she said, smirking slightly. Then she stared at her reflection in the mirror for a moment. "How is it that this is the most normal my life has ever been?"

"It's not normal." Bruce offered. "Normal is boring. This is the most awesome your life has ever been."

Darcy stared at him. "I'm sorry, did Mr. I-have-PHD's-and-diplomas-and-masters-and-college-shit-you-couldn't-imagine just use the word "awesome"?"

"I'm going to go shower." said Bruce, getting off the bed at last.

He picked up the yellow and purple bracelet and rubbed his fingers over the intricately braided thread. "Natasha, Clint." he said.

"What is it?" asked Natasha, appearing at his side immediately.

"This." he said, hesitating to hand it over to her.

"Is it hers?" asked Natasha.

"We made them yesterday." said Clint, a hint of fondness in his voice. "It's hers, Tasha."

"Okay." she said. "Then we have a starting point." She placed her hand on Bruce's shoulder, pulling him out of the thoughts about where Darcy was and what horrible things were happening to her at that moment. "We need to get back to the Tower, Bruce. We're going to find her, okay?"

"I should've protected her." he murmured.

"Guilt yourself later." she snapped. "When she's safe at home, and whoever did this to her is Слева лежал на улице с их внутренностями высыпали для собак."

Bruce considered asking for a translation as they began to half walk, half run back to the Tower. But Natasha was already on the phone with Stark, telling him that it was Code Polka Dots, and the look on Clint's face as she had been muttering in Russian was enough to tell him that Natasha had some creative plans for what to do to Darcy's kidnappers.

She'd have to fucking well get in line.

When Darcy woke up, the first thing she did was panic.

She'd gotten used to being in high stress situations, and she's gotten pretty good at handling her emotions in them. She knew that Claire, and all her lessons about how Darcy had full control of how she handled herself in a bad moment, were to thank for that.

But this...this was fucking insane.

Darcy could feel herself panicking as she realized that her wrists were shackled above her, leaving the rest of her body dangling uselessly in the air. It was all to reminiscent of...she cut her train of thought off before it ran away on her. She didn't need to be fighting through memories along with every else going on right now.

She began the Clint and Natasha taught method of what to do when you were kidnapped.

"You seriously think that I could ever be kidnapped? With my security team?" asked Darcy, smirking slightly.

"We're not going to be around every second, Darce." Clint explained patiently. "And you're not going to want to spend every second of the rest of your life being tailed by a security team. When you do decide to go out on your own, we can at least have the piece of mind that we've taught you what to do. Okay?"

And taught her they had. Darcy's eyes immediately began scanning the room, trying to evaluate if she knew where she was.

It didn't take much to come to the conclusion that she was apparently being kept in what appeared to be an old warehouse. How fucking original.

The second rule was to evaluate herself. She wiggled her toes and her fingers, coming to the conclusion that they were all still there. Her head hurt, and her whole body felt sort of heavy, but other than that, she seemed to be in full possession of her senses.

Her purse was gone, which meant that she didn't have her taser. (Shit) She didn't have sushi either. Which meant that her scientists were going hungry. She briefly wondered whether or not they had noticed her absence yet.

She seriously hoped this wasn't the day they made some sort of break through in their madness and completely forgot about the fact that she had left to bring them lunch.

It was at that moment that she noticed something else. There was a man sitting in the corner of the room, watching her intently. He smiled when her eyes met his.

He was older, with a neatly groomed mustache and greying hair. Dressed in green khaki pants and a matching jacket, he emitted some sort of military figure.

"Who the fuck are you?" asked Darcy, starting to feel borderline hysterical. She just wanted to go home and take a bubble bath. And cuddle with Bruce. And watch reruns of Glee. And play with Bruce's hair.

"To tell you would be to endanger you." he offered. Great, an eloquent nutcase. Just what she fucking well needed.

"Because I'm so safe right now, right?"

He smiled again. "You're a feisty little one, aren't you? An interesting choice, Banner. An interesting choice indeed."

That peaked her interest. "You know Bruce?" she asked.

"We are old acquaintances." the man conceded. "I apologize for the inconvenience of the situation, my dear. I understand that this may be rather...unnerving for you, but rest assured, this is nothing personal. All I ask for is your cooperation in my endeavor."

"You could have fucking well asked me out for coffee." Darcy spat. "This...this is crazy."

"Indeed." Eloquent Khaki agreed. "But I assure you, we will release you as soon as we get what we need from you."

"And what the fuck is that?" asked Darcy.

"I need you to scream."