Phil Coulson woke to cold temperatures and lingering soreness in his chest. Not surprising, being run through with a large pointy object was never his idea of fun, and he had woken up in the morgue which explained why it was so cold. He grunted and sat up with a quiet groan. Being dead for a short while was always hell on the joints. Not as bad as trying to explain to Nick Fury why he was alive in the first place, he assumed, as he had the temerity to die in front of the boss who had just ordered him not to. A small, mirthless smile ghosted across his face. It was worth it, for the push it would have given the Avengers and he knew damned well Fury would have used his death, hammered it home to them, to make them come together. Coulson knew it would have worked. He knew how the minds of all the Avengers worked. Then he winced again, recalling that two of the Avengers were his own agents and both of them were likely to want to kill him again for the scare he had given them. Neither Romanoff nor Barton were particularly sentimental with anyone other than themselves, but Phil knew they liked and respected him.

It would be a moot point if they did not survive whatever Loki had in store for earth though. With that thought Coulson got up and moved with quiet efficiency out of the morgue – the doctors too busy with the injured to notice – and down to his quarters where he could have a quick shower and get a fresh suit.

Fury took him to one of the soundproof meeting rooms to 'discuss' his resurrection when he was sure Stark had averted the nuclear disaster that had nearly been unleashed on Manhattan.

"Just what the hell is going on here Agent?" Fury demanded in a tone that was about as close to a shout as the Director got outside of a battlefield.

With a slight grimace Coulson admitted to himself that he was not going to be able to pull the wool over Fury's eyes. The man had seen him die, and now here he was, perfectly fine and definitely alive, so no amount of obfuscation was going to get around this conversation. "I'm very hard to kill boss. Anything other than decapitation wont keep me dead for very long."

Fury just looked at him in silence for several moments before very calmly saying "You're not joking, are you?"

"No sir."

"Just how long, exactly, have you known about this?"

Coulson thought back to the first time, six years ago, when he had been in a firefight and a bullet had passed through his heart, and it was only in that second that he had remembered he was not wearing armour. He had gone down, sure he was dead… only to wake again minutes later, not bleeding, pain fading… he had just got up and done his job, hiding the small wound easily. Nobody questioned Coulson, and few cared enough to really look at him. Two years later, on one of his rare periods of leave, some nutcase with a sword had come after his head. Coulson knew nothing about sword fighting, but a bullet through the spine slowed the whackjob long enough for Coulson to take the sword and decapitate him instead. The electrical discharge had blown a city block, and there had been no body to clean up. He had not bothered reporting it after discreet investigation had indicated that the guy had not existed on official record.

"About six years sir."

"And it didn't occur to you that I might need to know?" Fury's voice was laced with sarcasm and disbelief.

Coulson sighed, letting the stoic mask he usually wore slip a bit. "Honestly Nick, would you have believed me? Hell, I could barely believe it."

Fury grimaced himself and sat down wearily. "That long ago? Probably not," he admitted.

"I'm sorry I put you through that."

The expression Fury gave him was one of exasperation and affection. "Just try not to do it again. Things ain't easy without you around Phil."

Coulson smiled slightly. "I'll certainly try sir. The pain isn't much fun."

"Yeah. I can bet it's not."

For a moment a comfortable silence settled between them, then Coulson pulled himself upright again and said "What's the situation Sir?"

"They came together as you thought they would," Fury said after a second to get his thoughts together. "Though I have to say that I didn't quite expect what came through the wormhole. And those idiots in the Security Council deciding to nuke the goddamned island, though Stark found a nice neat solution for that. We've won, for what it's worth. Civilian casualties are high but not as high as they could have been. The Avengers are still on the ground… every single one of them."

Coulson blinked. "Agents Barton and Romanoff?"

"Both of them are there, helping with the clean up. Romanoff did some 'cognitive reprogramming' with Barton and from preliminary reports both handled themselves well during the fight. Loki is in custody you will be happy to note – after the Hulk used him to break pretty much every very expensive slate tile in Stark's loungeroom."

Letting a smile light his face Coulson chuckled. "Pity I missed it."

"You may not have. Stark's got that AI of his that probably got it all on camera."

The smile widened. "I might learn to like Stark after all."