I certainly don't own any Marvel characters.

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Part 1 - Big Apple

Darcy was in the middle of reading a Walking Dead recap on her laptop, when Clint Barton came up behind her and said in his usual stern manner, "Director Fury wants to have a word with you, Lewis."

She jumped out of her chair and almost spilled coffee all over her lap. "You scared me!"

She turned around to scold further, realized who it was, and promptly froze. For one, she had just been caught surfing the internet while she was supposed to be working, even though she was at a bit of an impasse for the time being. She was waiting for more information before she could continue her weekly report for Agent Coulson.

And for two, she had a wildly inappropriate and devastating crush on Clint, or rather Hawkeye, who happened to be looking absolutely delicious in his black S.H.I.E.L.D. super-assassin-wear that he always donned.

Damn, he looked fine, she thought.

Darcy tried to push her nervousness and libido down somewhere deep and out of the way … she took a breath and looked up at him.

"Sure. Wait … why is Directory Fury sending an assassin to come and get me?" She started to panic a little. "What did I do? I promise, I don't surf the web all day, I'm just waiting for some more information from London before I can continue..."

He held up a hand to signal that she should stop rambling. He was one of the only people that could get her to do that. Get her to stop rambling.

"It's nothing like that, I assure you," he said with the tiniest of smirks on his face. "I just happened to be in a meeting in his office, and he asked if someone could come and get you."

A little thrill of excitement ran up Darcy's spine at the thought of Hawkeye volunteering to come and fetch her. Perhaps he wanted to spend a little time with her, get to know her better, show her what incredible aim and control he had …"

"I was the only one who was available for a few minutes." His words shattered the fantasy.

Oh.

With a flimsy smile, she nodded and stood, picked up her phone and coffee, and followed Barton down the hallway and into the nearest elevator. He pushed the button that would lead up to Fury's floor in S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, which required an authorized hand print for access, something that Darcy definitely didn't have. This was probably another reason that Barton had come to get her … not too many people had the security clearance.

I'm such an idiot, she thought. What could he possibly see in me.

"I really like that show you were reading about," he said as they rode to the top floor.

Was Hawkeye attempting small talk with me? Her sense of hope was renewed for a tiny moment.

"Yeah?" She smiled big at him, excited that he spent at least a little time vegging in front of a TV like her, instead of constantly perched hundreds of feet above the ground, ready to shoot someone. "It's my favorite show right now," she mused. "Well, at least until Game of Thrones and Mad Men come back from hiatus. I never really liked zombie stuff before ... they always scared the hell out of me, but something about the concept of everyone eventually becoming a zombie, since everyone is infected, is just so interesting."

"That's because it's not really about the zombies. It's about the real monsters—us. Humans are the infection." He replied grimly.

Well that's depressing, she thought.

In an attempt to lighten the mood, she added, "Yeah, and there's also Daryl Dixon, hottest guy in the zombie apocalypse. There's just something crazy sexy about a guy with a cross… ."

And with that, the elevator reached its destination and opened. She instinctively walked out, expecting Barton to follow her. She turned around and saw that he remained in the elevator, intending to go back down.

She absentmindedly finished her word … "bow."

Shit, crossbow!

Darcy instantly realized what she had said, but couldn't see the expression on his face as the doors closed swiftly with a ding, and he was swept away to someplace else. Someplace far away from silly hackers—er, web designers—and off to somewhere much more elite and serious and valid. She never felt like a valid person. She usually felt like a ridiculous person.

"Fuck." She muttered under her breath.

"I'm such an idiot."

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AN: The fic starts several weeks after the events of Thor: TDW.

The events of Captain America: TWS and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D will also be reflected in the background.

Thanks for reading!