Darcy's dad was sitting on the bed next to her when she woke up.

His face crinkled into a smile when he saw she was awake. "Hey Darcy-girl."

Darcy squinted up at him, her mind too fuzzy from too much sleep to fully process what was going on. "Dad? Why're you here?" she mumbled, not quite believing her eyes.

"Your mother called. She was very concerned because you said something about doing magic," her dad said.

Darcy waited for the disapproval to come.

"I know you were disappointed when you never got any magic as a teenager, but there's no need to be making up stories now," he lectured.

Darcy tried not to roll her eyes, she really did. "I turned sand into glass with my bare hands and then turned myself blue. Last time I checked, normal people couldn't do that."

Her dad narrowed his eyes. "Explain."

Darcy sighed and seriously considered pulling her blanket over her head and hiding from the conversation. Talking about feelings was hard. She knew he would be upset and disappointed if he learned that she'd told Jane about magic, so she was definitely going to leave that part out of her story. Darcy took a deep breath and began.

"Jane is my friend now, Dad, and I was really angry about having to spy on her for you," she said haltingly.

Her dad rubbed a hand over his face. "I knew you wouldn't be ready for this sort of mission. I knew I shouldn't have asked you."

"Dad," she snapped. Darcy could feel her hurt and anger resurfacing. "Let me finish."

He fell silent.

"As I was saying, I got mad, so I went for a walk in the desert to release my anger into the Force or whatever."

He frowned. "Was that a Star Trek reference?"

"Star Wars. Anyways, the sand turned to glass, and then I got a little freaked because, hello, I shouldn't be able to do magic, and then I turned blue. After a little while I got myself under control, but I was still a little freaked out so I called mom. Only, I think the shady government agency put bugs in the RV because one of their creepy guys in suits showed up before I crashed," Darcy explained, waving her hands as she spoke.

"Which government agency sent an agent to speak with you?" her dad asked, still frowning.

"Shield. They're the ones who stole Jane's research too, although they gave it back once Thor asked nicely," Darcy said.

His expression darkened even further. "They seek to open Ways themselves, and will likely destroy themselves with their foolishness. Don't worry, Darcy-girl," he said, his voice softening as he rested a hand on her shoulder. "I will speak to this agent of Shield for you."

Darcy smiled, some of the tension rolling off of her shoulders. "Thanks, Dad."

"Of course," he said, as if scaring off a government agency that could make people disappear was a simple thing. It probably was, for him, considering he wasn't just any old wizard. "Now, on the subject of your magic, it is strange that it would manifest itself at this time. Would you allow me to Look at you?"

Darcy could hear the capital letter on the word 'look' and realized that her dad wanted to use the Sight, to see everything that she was and could be, in order to figure out what was going on with her magic. It would be very invasive, and so she hesitated, loath to let him invade her privacy, especially after so many years apart. Except, she knew her dad wouldn't use whatever he Saw against her, that he just wanted to help, and she really wanted to know why she could suddenly use magic after all this time without it.

She swallowed tightly, her throat constricted by nerves, and clenched her hands around her blanket. Then she nodded, granting him permission to Look at her.

Her dad's forehead creased with wrinkles as he closed his eyes. There was something off about them when he opened them again, a certain shine that hadn't been there before.

He stared at her for a tense moment, unblinking. Darcy was careful not to meet his eyes directly when he Looked at her - he had taught her the dangers of a soulgaze a long time ago but she didn't know if it was still possible when he was using the Sight.

As quickly as it had appeared, the shine around his eyes vanished.

"Oh, Darcy-girl," he said in a soft tone before he did something shocking: he hugged her. Her dad had never been much for showing physical affection, so whatever he had Seen must have been bad.

"What's the verdict, Doc?" Darcy asked. "Is it terminal?"

Her dad ignored her lame attempt at a joke, tightening his hold on her for a second before letting go. "I left because I did not want any Red Court vampires to track down you and your mother, because of the war, not because you didn't have magic. You are my daughter and your safety is important to me. I love you no matter what."

Darcy sniffled. She couldn't help it. Her dad was rarely so frank about his feelings around her. "Thanks Dad. Love you too."

He smiled tightly then cleared his throat. "Yes, good. Now, what do you know about how your mother and I met?"

"Not much," Darcy admitted. "She never wanted to talk about it."

"There was a spell on her, a bloodline based curse, and because those can be quite dangerous, I was tasked with investigating it. No matter how hard I looked, I could determine neither the purpose nor the caster. You were born with the same spell on you," he said.

"What," Darcy said, hardly able to believe her ears. "Do you mean to tell me that I've been under a curse my whole life, and you never told me?"

Her dad frowned, as if he couldn't see why she was angry. "It wasn't doing you any harm, and your mother asked me not to tell you about it."

A book suddenly fell off the headboard, and the empty glass began to rattle.

Darcy slowly pulled in a lungful of air, trying to remain calm so that her magic didn't cause any accidents, and the glass stopped shaking. "Why are you telling me about it now, then?"

"It's gone," he said. "It is my belief that the curse was what kept you from accessing your magic initially, although the reason behind it is still unclear."

Darcy was stunned. Someone had put a curse on her mom, a curse that had been designed specifically to suppress magic, a curse that would be passed on through their family. She didn't know what to feel other than upset.

Before she could say anything, though, Jane stuck her head into the tiny room. "Sorry to interrupt, but Agent Coulson is here and he wants to talk to you, Darcy."

She could practically see the indignant fury radiating off of Jane and was willing to bet that Jane had already chucked something at the agent.

Her dad pushed himself off the bed. He was almost tall enough to hit his head on the ceiling.

"I shall deal with this agent, Doctor Foster," he growled.

Jane blinked, then smirked. "Oh, okay. You do that."

He stalked out of the tiny room, and Darcy scrambled off the bed to follow him. She could sort out her feelings later; she did not want to miss her dad's confrontation with Agent Coulson.

0o0o0

A/N: Well, it's been awhile. Sorry about that. Really really sorry. The next update will not take that long, although updates will probably be slow because I'm rereading the Dresden Files and am currently only on Fool Moon. But I didn't completely ignore this fic this past year - the plot is now 110 times better and has a lot more DF characters in it. The old plot was really horrible guys. Really really horrible.