The Fast and the Curious

Chapter 001
Back to Life

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It was the middle of the night when her curiosity got the better of her and Darcy found him, alone in a windowless room, completely dark. The only lights came in the little blinks from all the machinery that surrounded him. His breathing was deep and rhythmic, the machine that was hooked up to him made sure of that. A feeling in the pit of her stomach told her she shouldn't be there but she ignored it… like she always did. Darcy hovered by the door for a moment, looking around the room and taking everything in. It was depressing, the feeling she got from this room. Like the patient in the hospital bed was all alone and no one had come to visit him in a long time. With another glance around and a peek back into the hallway to make sure she was alone, Darcy entered the room and closed the door gently behind her.

What was she doing? This guy could be dangerous… oh who was she kidding, he wasn't going to be getting up anytime soon. But what if he had some sort of disease and now she was going to catch it and die and that's why he was alone in a secluded area?

"Don't be silly Darcy… there would be hazmat suits and warning signs and shit," she scolded herself for her idiocy. Tiptoeing across the room, she shook her head at herself. What, was she going to wake him? He was in a coma… not even breathing by himself. C'mon Darcy, get it together. Stopping at the side of his bed, she looked down at his expressionless face.

"Well aren't you cute," she whispered to him. "Or, well, at least I think you are." It was probably a good thing he couldn't hear her because she was making a fool out of herself.

"It's dark in here, I could be wrong." Making a face at him, she took her phone out of her back pocket and held the lighted screen up to his face.

"Yep, definitely a cutie," she mumbled to herself. The light from her phone illuminated the sharp bone structure of his face and a shock of greyish white hair.

"Dude, how old are you?" Darcy asked. He didn't look old enough to have white hair already… not even salt and pepper. Reaching a hand forward to touch his hair, she stopped herself; no touching the strange man. Fumbling her phone, she dropped it onto the unconscious man's face.

"Shit!" she swore as it landed with a slap, snatching the electronic off of him, she backed away from the bed.

"Sorry! Sorry…" she apologized. "And sorry for intruding… I was just exploring." She put her phone back in her pocket. "I have a lot of free time lately." She walked around the bed and tapped one of the monitors. Jane had sort of dumped her off at the new Avengers facility and went with Thor to Asgard. They claimed it was for her own protection but it was mostly so that she had round the clock babysitters. That in itself was odd, because normally she was the one doing the babysitting. She had been given a room in the living quarters and been told to stay there… little did they know. Darcy missed her three musketeers, Jane, Thor and Erik. They were the only people she really knew out of the Avengers. Sure she knew Barton but he'd taken off to God knows where and hadn't been around since the 'Terminator fiasco' as she'd taken to calling it.

"I'd tell you this is a nice place they've got you in but I don't want to lie to you," said Darcy, looking around again. Couldn't they have at least put up some patterned wallpaper or painting or something nice to look at. Not that he'd be doing much looking at it, but, you know, at least make the attempt. Walking to the end of the bed, she flipped open the chart hanging from it.

"Pietro, eh?" She eyed him. "I can see it. I'm Darcy, by the way," she introduced herself. "Holy crap, six bullet wounds? It's a miracle you survived." She placed the chart back in its slot and bounced on the balls of her feet.

"Well this is getting awkward now, so I'm going to run." Darcy paused at the exit to the room. Grasping the door handle, she looked over her shoulder at the prone man.

"Hey Pietro, it's going to be okay, you're going to get through this…" With that being said, she opened the door to the room and slipped out the way she had come. She didn't know why she had said it, or why she even cared, but she had definitely meant it.

#

It wasn't long before Darcy found herself back in Pietro's room. She entered the room at the same time as last, hoping the late hour would mean the room was empty again. Thankfully, she was right.

"Hey bruh," she walked over to his bedside and sat on the edge of it. "Long time no see." She fiddled with the hospital blanket as she watched him breathe. Was it weird, what she was doing? Visiting a coma patient she didn't know… it's just she had no one to talk too and neither did he, so maybe she could keep him company, even if it was for just a little while. Besides, coma patients kept secrets the best.

"So I had the most embarrassing thing happen to me with Captain America, of all people," she said, shaking herself out of her own thoughts. "Let me tell you all about my inconsequential woes." She lightly slapped the ankle closest to her as she launched into her tale.

#

She had gone to him a handful of times. It was becoming a ritual of sorts. Placing her head down next to his, she watched him. She took in his gaunt cheeks and wondered if he was getting enough nutrition. His pale skin made her frown. He needed some sunlight. A thought occurred to her.

"You're not a vampire are you?" she asked him. "Is that why they keep you in the dark?" Reaching out she flicked some hair from his eyes.

"Okay, this is definitely getting weird." She sat up and moved away from him. "Next time I'll bring you a book to read." She said matter-of-factly. "No more of this falling for a coma patient bullshit, this isn't a RomCom." Honestly, what was wrong with her? She was getting too attached to a man that didn't even know she existed. Though, wasn't that always the case? Still what was she going to say if he woke up, 'don't be alarmed, I only watched you while you slept?' Right.

#

It had been a month since Darcy had found Pietro and she had been back multiple times. This time though, something was different. The normal mechanical sound of life giving breath was gone from the room.

"Oh hey, you got your breathing tube out! You're breathing on your own! That's amazing!" She waved her arms ecstatically. Using her phone as a makeshift flashlight, she found a chair and dragged it across the room to her stranger's bedside.

"I downloaded Cheating Death by J.D. Ursini onto my phone to read to you. It's about vampires and banshees and kidnapping and love and shit… and we're going to read it together," she laughed at the description she just gave. "It sounds so bad that it might be good, you know what I mean?" She rolled her eyes and settled into the chair. Taking her phone out of her boob holster she opened the book and began to read.

"Chapter One. Yellow Tape. Looking up at the suburban household, Jeff sighed. The house looked so normal, like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. All it was missing was the white picket fence…" Darcy read the first few chapters too him as best she could, voices and all, before her throat became dry and it was time to stop. Reaching forward she grasped his hand in hers.

"Time to go, for tonight, I think." She paused and gave his hand a squeeze. "I'll see you next time." Standing she gave into a long and well needed stretch.

"Hey, Pietro. You are going to be okay. You will get through this," she said the mantra she had created for him, signalling the end of their time together. Putting the chair back in its place, she left the room as it was and completely missed the twitch of his pinky finger.

#

The dream-like haze Pietro had been floating in began to wane as weight began to return to his limbs. A soft voice drifted through his mind, wrapping itself around any thought he began to have, mixing together like DNA. 'You're going to be okay, you will get through this.' He didn't know who was talking to him but he knew he believed them. Where was Wanda, why wasn't she the one telling him this? His eyelids began to twitch and his heart monitor began to rise, the beeping increasing at an alarming rate. With a jolt and a large inhale, his eyes snapped open and he was blind. The panic set in. It took a moment for him his eyes to adjust to the dark as his heart rate sped up in panic, causing the machine next to go crazy. He was in pain, he was weak and he was alone. Where was his sister?

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A.N: Guys… I couldn't help myself. Not only did Pietro need to be alive but he needed to be with Darcy. QuickTaser for the win. I'm coining that term now. Also if anyone has any plot bunnies laying around they want to throw at me I'd be happy to catch them and see if I can work them into the fic.

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If anyone is interested, I'm conducting a little experiment and writing a novel on Tumblr about depression. You can check it out here, it's in Tumblr/Diary format and is completely free to read.