I do not own Thor.

Author's Note: Jarvis in my story follows more closely with the comic book version - him being Stark's human butler, though we'll just say Stark lovingly named his A.I program after him too. And, as I haven't read the comics, I'm calling free game with him (in my mind at least). Anyway, I hope you all take this fic with a grain of salt. It's meant to be fun after all! I'm not trying to go for anything too serious so I do hope you guys will enjoy this chapter though this chapter might seem like a filler.

Oh, and these little definition things do not mean that I think people don't know what these words mean. They are just my super lame attempt at stylized chapter titles.

impending

adjective.

about to happen; imminent

synonyms

threatening, forthcoming, looming, approaching, upcoming

Let's Not Panic

Man, oh, man did Banner need a shower. True she wasn't the cleanliest person of the lot - another reward for Jane there - but Darcy was pretty good with showering on the regular. She usually took showers once a day as prescribed by her mother when she was little, but Darcy wasn't at all ashamed to admit sometimes she was lazy, depressed, or an odd mixture of the two and just plain didn't shower. Still, unless Banner was in the pits of some mind-crushing depression there was no need for him to stick as he did.

Darcy sighed looking around the infirmary waiting room and decided to have a little mercy for the rage-arriffic professor. He did after all just come back from an epic with Loki, or so she had been told by Stark as they rolled him into a infirmary room with a painful-looking smirk on his face.

What series of bad choices did she make in her life to end up right here and now? Thor sullenly sitting on the far side of the room, both disquieted and mad as hell, his bulk stressing out the cheap hospital chair under him. Jane quietly sitting by his side whispering while clutching his hands. Nick Fury was calmly and evenly addressing numerous agents sweeping through the place; Coulson, not a cool cumber like the director, visibly appeared pissed while speaking on his cell. Rogers stared blankly out the window onto the bustling streets of New York below. Barton and Romanoff were talking to each other and occasionally answered questions directed from Coulson or Fury.

Darcy closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. She was no one but yet here she was mixing with the Avengers, their friend and lame lackey of sorts, and all thanks to Jane and her often misguided feelings for the Thor-ster. (Misguided because, come on, the dude had some crazy family problems, and if you were married to someone, or were with them in some fashion, you were basically shaking up with their fam too.)

"It's loud, huh?" Darcy said settling her back against the window and crossing her arms.

Steve's profile was white and drawn as he gave her a weak smile. "I've been in louder situations."

Darcy felt herself relax marginally; talking to Steve made her feel productive and she needed to feel like she was doing something. Standing around doing nothing was awkward as hell, especially with Shield people running, ahem, walking with purpose, this way and that.

Loki was back. Their respite was over. The shit hit the fan. It was time to get cracking. Damn. This wasn't good for her state of mind. Darcy prided herself on rarely ever freaking out, but knowing Loki was back and knowing that their well being wasn't a top priority for him...well, the smile she sent back to the Cap was pretty much weak as his own.

"Yeah, I bet."

She didn't have any super powers. She didn't have to go through training against terrorists or be dropped from planes behind enemy lines. Her job description was easy - take notes, help Jane, and be a data entry specialist. It was great.

Sometimes.

Other times Darcy wished she wasn't so...normal. She might have pretended not to give a fuck, but deep down she was involved with these people, deeper than she would have ever dreamed, and more than that Earth was her planet too. It might have been ff-ed up and totally dismal at times, but it was hers and that alone made it totally cool; so when someone tried to mess with it...yeah, she was with the Avengers.

They were quiet for a while, both stuck in their own thoughts, when Steve broke the silence.

"He really came from out of nowhere." Darcy noticed his hands shaking as he gripped the railing in front of the window. It shouldn't have affected her as much as it did, but as she watched Steve's hands something akin to the sick feeling of impending doom settled into the pit of her consciousness.

Loki had mad power, of that she was certain.

"At least you got the other bad guys before he popped up," Darcy offered as a condolence pushing aside her own feelings. She didn't want her own anxiety to show in front of these people, not when they were the ones who actually had to do the fighting. "I bet they had their asses handed to them."

She knew they had been on another mission trying to stop some terrorists in Russia, but her information after that was sketchy at best. What she did know was that this group had been after the Cosmic Cube, something which Selvig had been working on with Jane's and Tony's help, and had somewhat succeed in obtaining some valuable information. They, according to Selvig, had entertained hopes of creating a similar type of power source, if they couldn't have the Cube itself.

That was all she knew. Honest.

Selvig, despite being super trustworthy, sometimes forgot she was sitting around quietly somewhere and tended to blab a bit here and there when Fury or some other agent came around. Or they just might have found her trustworthy or something, but Darcy suspected it was mostly because she was often stuck away in shadowy corners by herself. And if she learned anything from her time in high school playing the role of invisible girl it was that by staying quiet one tended to hear a lot. Besides, it didn't really matter. She was like some sort of assistant/secretary for Fury and Coulson when Jane decided to loan her out. Loads of info came with that territory.

"A small piece of good news, but good news nevertheless." Steve brought her back out of her musings with the movement of his muscled arms crossing. The big, magical steroid-infused guy still looked rather pathetic though, like a kicked puppy.

Darcy slapped his arm feeling the beginnings her social butterfly self coming out play and it was all Steve's fault. The poor man was basically screaming for a pick me up and since he wasn't getting any sexy times... "That's the spirit, Cap. Now do you mind not looking at my tits?"

The man turned as red as the American flag he wore in three seconds flat. "I-" he began flustered. "I wouldn't...Miss Lewis, I am very sorry that you would think I would degrade you in such a manner. I-"

"So you weren't looking at my boobs? Are they not good enough for you?"

"No! They are very n-nice." He flushed redder if possible and began stuttering out apologies. Darcy cracked a smile and patted him on the chest.

"No worries, Cap. You weren't looking at them at all, but you looked just so damn troubled." Darcy winked at his confusion, the blood bleeding out of his face. She looked down at her own breast. "They are pretty nice, though."

"Indeed." Fury's voice came from somewhere close behind her. Darcy felt a small strain of annoyance pressure her neck, but managed to ignore it. "If you don't mind, Miss Lewis, I need to speak with Steve and the Avengers in the conference room. Now." Fury gave a pointed looked towards Steve before making his way out followed by Coulson and the other non-maimed Avengers.

Steve managed to give Darcy a polite nod before he joined the others in leaving. That left her and Jane stupidly staring at one another.

Fun.

Darcy couldn't wrap her head around the whole adoption equals Loki so pissed that he wants to destroy everything. There was also the troubling fact that he was a different race altogether so the adoption secret naturally came with another double whammy, and Thor did mention he hadn't been the greatest bro ever - he had been a d-bag prince, but that didn't necessarily equate to a being a horrible brother in action. Maybe in inaction as he was a bit lazy sometimes. Either way there were some missing parts of the story that Thor didn't know about or didn't talk about with her or Shield at least. Jane probably knew, but if she did she wasn't talking.

"Why do you think Loki just decided to pop up again now?" Darcy hazarded to ask. It had been an hour and the Avengers et al. still hadn't returned. That left only her, Jane, and the sudden appearance of Jarvis for a hot sec (and rapid disappearance as he went to check on Stark) in the Shield hospital waiting room.

Jane blinked at the sound of her voice. "It was only a matter of time before he did, Darcy. Who really knows why Loki does anything. If I had to guess I would assume he must've been taking advantage of the Avenger's weaken state and attention being elsewhere," Jane sighed tiredly pulling her hair out of its braid. "I really need to finish my research trying to track his movements. Battles like this shouldn't happen."

"Soo...with you on that, but, you know, he isn't the so called trickster god for nothing."

"Hmm?"

"His namesake," Darcy explained seeing Jane's confusion. "He's some sort of magical trickster pseudo-god, right? And if tricksters are anything they are clever. He wouldn't fight a so called fair fight especially since he's out numbered in sheer man power. If he fought it would be on his terms only. That's what I would do anyway."

Jane leaned back and the wall and closed her eyes. "He does have his own army."

"Yeah, but from what Stark tells me most of them kind of suck. They're just, like, a multitude of bodies to plough through."

"I've heard the same thing from Thor," Jane rubbed her eyes. "I do see your point about Loki and it does make sense."

Darcy nodded noticing Jane's stressed out fatigue. "It makes a lot more sense then Selvig's crazy ramblings about Ragnarok coming with the damn rainbow bridge being broken by Loki, the bringer of-"

"The end of the world." Jane finished trying not to smile. "It's weird, I know and on a personal level I don't agree, but even I have to admit it's scarily accurate. I don't think he actually believes it anyway."

"Bull! He so does, Jane. Who knows what type of crazy things they ate up in his isolated town in Norway. You know what they ate probably: fish. And you know what fish have? Mercury, and you don't play with Mercury, Jane."

The older woman finally cracked a smile looking up from her head in her hands. "Thanks, Darce. I needed that."

"All in a day's work, boss-lady. Someone's got to be the cynical yet optimistic person around here. It's good to play both sides as my aunt always says though my mother doesn't agree. Pretty sure it's because she was talking about sexual attraction, but who really pays attention these days."

The two women looked up at the sound of footsteps headed towards them.

"The doctors say he's in stable position now." Jarvis' clipped accent informed them as he sat down, his tall body folding gracefully into his chair. He straightened his tie.

"That's good to know, Chief. Knew he'd be alright." Jarvis raised an impeccable brow her way. "He had that stupid smirk on his face as they wheeled his dead weight in."

"Ah. On his way to recovery even before being tended to by professionals." He returned smoothly turning his attention to Jane. "Are you finding everything in your labs to your liking, Ms. Foster? I do hope everything is running smoothly."

Jarvis, butler/caretaker extraordinaire, was also basically the Chief of Staff for the Avengers, a role hoisted upon him by Stark and rolled with by Shield. Jane, being kind of a side arm of the group, thus fell under his ever watchful, fatherly eye. (It also helped that they had a good amount of equipment loaned to them by Stark Industries.)

"It's more than I could have ever hoped for," Jane enthused her previous smile widening. "With Stark Industries and Shield's help, my success rates for experiments has never been so high."

Jarvis bowed his head slightly. "I'm pleased to hear as such."

"Where's Potts?" Darcy asked finally noticing the blonde's absence. Usually Pepper showed up in a flash whenever something happed to Stark. It wouldn't have been a surprise if she showed up to give a Band-Aid to her boss/man she was in love with because he had a paper cut. OK, that was overkill but it got the point across.

Jarvis held up his phone. "Miss Potts is unfortunately out of country right now, but I have informed her of Master Stark's condition and am keeping her up to date."

Darcy sat back and shot a smile to no one in particular. "Cool. Love technology. How we survived before Twitter and Facebook eludes me big time."

"You didn't have them when you were younger, Darcy." Jane said logically.

"Yeah, and it sucked all the time when I was little. Don't remind me," Darcy answered back rolling her eyes Jane's way and looking at the door where the Avenger's left. "What do you think they're talking about?"

"The Cube, Loki, and what they're going to do now probably." Jane glanced at her watch. "Selvig's is probably almost back from Russia right now. We should probably head out, Darce."

"Where are we meeting him?" Darcy asked as she stood up, grabbing her messenger bag and slinging it over her shoulder.

"He contacted me earlier this morning and told me he was going to be at the Avenger's Mansion in the early evening." Jane flashed a pretty smile at Jarvis. "Would it be a terrible inconvenience for you if, as a favor, you could provide us with transportation to the mansion? My truck is back in New Mexico."

"It would be a pleasure, Miss Foster." Jarvis answered already on his phone.

Darcy smiled at the man. Having rich, influential people as colleagues totally rocked.

It would also prove to be disastrous. Too bad Darcy didn't realize that until much later.