Phil Coulson slowly woke up. He smelled salt water, heard waves lapping against sand, felt sunlight warming his face...
What was going on?
Someone was rubbing his back and shoulders. He was... getting a massage? On the beach?
Wait, that didn't make any sense at all. He'd been dying. He HAD died... hadn't he?
He tried to line up what he remembered, what he knew for a fact. He'd been talking to Loki. He'd been stabbed. He'd shot Loki (that had felt good). He was talking to Nick, and then...
And then he woke up here.
He had died. Hadn't he? He remembered the pain, remembered sinking into darkness. But that was all he knew.
No, wait, there was something else he knew as well.
Someone had touched his Captain America trading cards. He could feel it.
