Phil Coulson stared down in dismay at the pile of folders haphazardly stacked in his arms complete with a cup of coffee on the top of the stack and decided his best option was to close the door to his office with is foot. He gave the door a slight nudge with his left heel and couldn't help but wincing slightly as it slammed closed a little harder than he had intended. Then again, he mused as he made his way over to his desk, his co-workers would hardly blame him for slamming the door after the week he had just had. Recruiting Black Widow and Hawkeye to S.H.E.I.L.D. may have earned him a lot of respect amongst the other handlers but he bet that Sitwell didn't have to do this much paperwork at the end of every mission. Clint and Natasha liked to do things their way, and he was okay with it, he just didn't enjoy the paperwork that came along with all the situations that they seemed to find themselves in. Like the mountain of paperwork currently in his hands.
A few steps later and he had reached his desk and as he tries to place the stack of files down on his desk gently, they still obey the call of gravity and they all fall to the side in a slanting pile one after the other like dominoes. He reaches out and barely manages to save the cup of coffee from sliding to the end of the pile and off of the desk. Breathing a sigh of relief when he doesn't spill any of the hot beverage on his hand he sets the coffee cup down off to the side and begins to straighten up the pile. One of Clint's reports slips out, and Coulson can only sigh in fond exasperation as he sees the entire mission report is covered in cartoon characters of Clint and Natasha fighting off ninjas. Which oddly enough had been the case, but while he and Fury both got amusement out of the antics of his two agents, the rest of the higher-ups actually preferred it if the reports included words and explanations for the actions of their agents. He slips the mission report back into its place with the others and settles in at his desk, and pen in hand he flips open the first file to begin reading over the report and cataloguing any errors or inconsistencies.
Half an hour later he is battling a slight headache, his first two pens have run out of ink, and when he reaches for his coffee cup he finds it empty save for a few drops that have left a brown ring at the bottom of the mug. With a sigh he sets it down and closes the file he was working on, he is preparing to get out of his chair and go in search of more coffee when a knock on his door sounds. He looks at his watch and then up in slight surprise as he bids his visitor enter. It is well after hours all of the junior agents and handlers will have gone home, and Clint is more likely to enter his office through the ceiling than the door, as for Natasha, she would hardly knock, she was more apt to just stroll on in and perch on the chair across from his desk when she needed something. He leans back in his chair with an aggrieved sigh when it's Maria Hill who enters his office, this was probably not going to be good news.
"What did they do now?" He asks only half-joking at the nervous look on her face as she enters his office. Maria Hill never looks nervous and he wracks his brain trying to figure out what could have gone wrong that involves him, sure Natasha had gotten a pretty nasty bruise on her leg in Nepal but considering how his two favorite agents' missions usually went, well that could be considered a success! Maria looked at him in silence for a few moments a slight smile tugging on her lips if you looked closely enough,
"You will never guess what S.H.E.I.L.D. just found." She teased. Coulson responded with a raised eyebrow, he had one of the highest security clearances, and knew most of what S.H.E.I.L.D. had locked away in its secret bases and laboratories, not much was going to surprise him.
"Oh?" he murmurs and casually re-opens the file he had closed, trying to appear non-chalant, Maria huffed a little in irritation,
"I'll give you a hint Coulson-North Atlantic." Coulson barely stopped his head from snapping up in hopeful excitement, and judging by Maria's little smirk he hadn't caught the reaction quite in time. One deep breath later and he was fairly positive he could give her a response that sounded normal,
"If you are referring to one Steve Rogers, I don't know why you-"he began but Maria interrupted him,
"He's alive Phil, Steve Rogers-Captain America, is alive and they have him at the New York Offices and are thawing him out now." She burst out.
They both stared at each other for a few seconds before Maria's eyes wandered over to the vintage Captain America poster that he had framed on his wall. His eyes followed hers and at his slight flush of embarrassment she smirked,
"Just thought you might want to know Coulson before the rumor mill told you." She stated, calm façade once more in place, before turning and exiting his office.
Once he was sure the door was closed and that Maria was truly gone, Phil Coulson turned his chair to the side and looked over to the poster. They had found Captain Rogers, better yet Captain Rogers was alive after over 70 years stuck in the ice. This was officially the best day of his life, he wondered if Fury would let him meet the Captain, better yet if the man would sign his trading cards?