The entire place was too loud, too full and busy. I admit, resorting to hiding in the air vents was childish, but it did work – it was quieter and so much more calm up in there. I sat and waited, taking my time to bother moving again. But eventually I did and made my way along the vent, pausing a moment at each opening to listen for a second or two. I crawled further until I stopped at the vent in Fury's office, I was about to continue on when I heard movement.

"Sir," an agent came into the room below me. Out of curiosity (noisiness) I waited a moment longer.

"Yes?"

"It's Coulson Sir, he's been captured." What? Since when had another 'Coulson' joined SHIELD?

"Contact his team, make sure they're prepared to get him back. We're not losing him again after all we went through to bring him back" No, surely it couldn't be...?

"Yes Sir." The agent left.

Fury shook his head, "Damn it Phil"

I made my way out from the air vents hastily and immediately logged in to the nearest computer. I ran a search of the database. It couldn't be, I would have known, I would have been told! There was no 'Phil Coulson' in the system. I had to talk to Fury.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Sir"

"Yes, West?"

"I overheard a conversation Sir." I stood in front of his desk, arms crossed behind my back. I tried to keep my voice even but my words came out in a rush.

"Ah," Fury stood, "I had a feeling I was being watched"

My eyes fell to the floor, "Sorry Sir, it wasn't intentional."

"Trying to get some alone time up there?" I nodded. Fury paused a moment, straightening some files on his desk, "I suppose you understand then?"

"That Phil Coulson is alive? And has been abducted?"

"Yes"

"Where?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Melinda May?" The woman spun round on the spot, the safety came off her gun quicker than I could have blinked. "Stand down agent, I'm here to help."

"Amanda West. You're here... because of Coulson? But he said..."

"I didn't know. No, he was correct – I found out a few hours ago. Fury gave me permission to come... I hope you understand, Coulson and I, we're very close. I need to get him back."

She nodded, "I understand completely. He spoke about you a lot"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Phil? Phil? Wake up! Phil!" My heart was racing. I'd turned the machine off, he wasn't stuck in there any more. "Phil, come on"

May stepped forward "Amanda, just let-"

"Back off!"

I leant across him and shook his shoulders, "Phil, come on" His eyes snapped open and he shot up. I jumped back, raising my arms, showing I wasn't armed, I wasn't a threat. "Phil?"

He gasped for breath, his hard pounding as he stared ahead of him, taking a moment to come back round. His eyes locked on mine, "Amanda..."

"I'm here, I'm here. I've got you"

"Amanda"

"It's okay, it's okay. We're here, you're safe"

"Amanda," he gripped my shoulders, staring at me, "Amanda, you- you shouldn't be here"

"Yeah, and we'll talk about that later, now come on, we need to get you back, now"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

We walked back to the bus, my hand on Phil's back to steady him as he leant against me with his arm around my shoulders. May walked in front of us, the ramp lowering to let us in. Agents Fits and Simmons stood inside, waiting worriedly for Coulson to return. Their eye followed May for a second, then turned to Coulson and I. Wide eyes, parted lips and thoughts I could practically hear.

"Sir, do you need anything?" Jenna Simmons, scientist.

"No, I just need a rest, thanks"

She nodded, smiling as we walked past. I walked Phil to his office and told him to have a rest, and that I'd talk to him later. I shut the door behind me, seeing May walk down the corridor. "How is he?" she asked.

"Tired, I've told him to take a nap. I don't know what he saw in there but it wasn't good."

"Did Fury tell you?"

"About how they brought him back? Yeah"

She nodded. "I'll call you when he wakes up."

"Thanks"

I made my way around the Bus, checking out the place that had become Phil's home. I returned to the hanger and the small lab at the top, I'd met the rest of the team, now to actually make a formal introduction to Agents Fitz and Simmons.

I knocked gently on the open glass door, "Mind if I join you?"

"No, not at all" Fitz answered keenly.

"Thanks." I wandered in, examining the lay out in curiosity.

"Are you really Amanda West?" Simmons blurted out.

"Yeah, I am"

"Coulson talks about you all the time. It's an honour to meet you, you were at the Academy once but we never had the chance to meet you."

"Sorry about that, I should really stop in more often – apparently they use me as an anecdote constantly over there"

"They really do." Simmons said, smiling. "Can I- I mean, would it be okay if- well, could we ask you some questions?"

I grinned, still amused by my supposed 'fame'. Despite being up to my shoulder in worry over Phil, I couldn't let their first impression of me be a negitive one, "Yeah, sure – what do you want to know?"

"What are the Avengers like?" Fitz blurted.

I laughed, "Which one?"

"Captain America!" "Thor!" they said at once.

"Steve's pretty cool, he's still getting used to things though, he's got a little book of things he doesn't understand so he can look them up later, aw it's funny, he's actually really funny, for a guy from the 40s. He still jumps to attention if you use military phrases – Tony will just yell 'Attention!' from time to time just to see him jump to, and, oh that's funny; he's cool with it though, he likes a laugh. And Thor, man, he's... he's very different, he, um, he doesn't quite get a lot of things and he's always telling us stories about Asgard and he talks about all these weird creatures and places and he never actually explains what he's talking about, so it's just like 'yes, and we fought this hideous bilgshniep and it was glorious and we drank and danced until dawn before Heimdale returned us home'" I laughed, badly imitating Thor's voice "He's just so big though, really, he walks into a room and the space to move halves, seriously."

The two scientists laughed excitedly, "Okay, but you grew up with Romanoff and Barton, what was that like?" Simmons asked.

I smiled, biting my lip for a second, "There are... many things... that I should not talk about, at risk of my life. I don't believe there is a place on Earth I can go that both of them couldn't somehow find me, or find out what I've been saying, or... Nah, I can't talk about Romanoff, really, I can't; she's brilliant, but I can't. Barton on the other hand, he's a menace, but he's great, he's still like a teenager though, he's really sarcastic and stupid, not that he's thick, but he's just a bit... he's a total dweeb."

They looked at each other, a shared question in mind, "You ask" Fitz told Simmons quietly.

She looked at me, "Um, is it true... that... you and Barton...? Did you two...?"

I nodded, laughing, "There was a thing there for a long time, I don't know how much of what you've heard is true, but, yeah... We weren't ever 'together' but, yeah"

"But not anymore?" Fitz asked.

"Nah, not anymore. We've both got other things going on now, but I'm so not going into that"

The conversation lasted hours, until May came to tell me Coulson had slept and was awake again, asking for me. I excused myself and quickly made my way to his office.

I knocked, opening the door as I said, "Phil?"

"Amanda" He looked tired, a little beaten up, but I could tell how happy he was to see me.

I sighed with a little smile on my face, "You" I shook my head, coming across the room to him, sitting on his desk, "I should be really pissed at you"

"You probably should, yeah"

"You know why? It's not just because you didn't tell me you were alive, it's because you didn't tell me you were alive then you got yourself abducted when I wasn't there to stop it – what would have happened if I hadn't found out? May was damn near killed getting you out, she would have died if I wasn't there." I sighed shortly, "I'm not angry at you – I'm angry at Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D."

Phil stood, and pulled me into a hug, "I'm sorry – Fury refused to let you know, but I should have ignored him. I knew you'd find out eventually, you're not stupid, you'd always have found out"

"You're damn right I would" I mumbled into his shoulder.

We exchanged a quiet, soft spoken conversation, both our voices low and calm. Phil said, "I'm sorry"

"It's okay" I took a deep breath and slumped forward against him, my head against his chest. "I'm happy you're alive, and that you're safe now" I mumbled.

"Thank you, I'm happy you're here now"

"Thanks" I wrapped my arms more tightly around him, holding him close. I squeezed my eyes shut, breathing calmly for a while in silence. After a while Phil rubbed my back a few times, before saying, "Let's get come coffee"