Hey ya'll, this is a one shot I wrote featuring Phil Coulson. You guys might remember at the end of "Which Me Do You Like" Phil mentions a barista, who is also a painter, and in a chapter of "Ever Present Past" he calls someone named Heather, well this is Heather and Phil's story. I might do a little more with this character, I'm not sure yet. I hope you like this one shot though, it was a lot of fun to write. Oh, and the apes thing, that's from a West Coast Avengers storyline, they're called the Beasts of Berlin, but I took a few liberties, I thought it was an interesting thought... Also, you don't NEED to read my other stories to get this, but it belongs in the same universe. For those of you who do read my other stories, you're in for a surprise. Oh, and try to see if you can spot the cameo from a character all of you know and love! (Not the obvious one)
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel characters. My characters just exist peacefully among them. Enjoy!
When I was a kid my dad told me about Captain America. About how he sacrificed himself to save the world, and the woman he loved. My mom told me that every girl deserved to have a man love her like that. At the time I thought my parents had the perfect relationship, and that when they talked about soul mates, they were talking about each other.
My parents divorced when I was twelve.
Even though she hadn't exactly given me the best example of true love and all that, my mom still spend a lot of time telling me there was someone out there for everyone. That there was a prince charming, for every girl. To every superhero, there was always the one girl who knew his secret identity. These things were usually said while she got ready to go on a doomed from the start date that would more often than not lead to loud sex just down the hall in our small apartment with walls as thick as paper.
Even though she still didn't give me the best examples, I believed her about the whole soul mate thing. Until I met mine. Robbie, he was perfect, everything I could have wanted in a man. He was also everything David could have wanted in a man. David was my mom's boyfriend, and next thing we knew we were sitting on the couch eating pints of Ben and Jerry's and crying about how our boyfriends had left us for each other. Even through that I still believed there was someone out there for me, a soul mate, if you will. I was eighteen when Robbie left me. It would be another eight years before I met the man that I could honestly call my soul mate.
I don't remember the first time I saw him come into the shop. He just seemed like the kind of guy that was always there. Sometimes he would disappear for a few days or a week or two, but when he was in town, I could set my watch by him. He was an attractive man, in an 'average Joe' sort of way. He was about average height, maybe a little tall, lord knows he was taller than me, but at my 5'4" it wasn't hard to be taller than me. His hair was brown, and his hairline was slightly receding, though I hardly noticed.
It was his eyes that got me, they were the color of steel, and though I could tell he was a serious man, every time I saw him, his eyes seemed to be smiling. He was an average weight, and looked to be in his early forties, though an argument could be made for mid forties if you went by the subtle creases around his eyes and mouth. Frown lines between his eyebrows I had only seen once, though my co-worker Tatiana claimed it was because I was crushing too hard to notice.
Crushing? On a Customer? I had asked with a laugh and she rolled her eyes as she went back to drawing her eyebrows on with a black eyeliner pencil. He was a fun customer though, when he was in town, he and I would talk, he'd ask me about my insane family, and what books I was reading, if he had the way off and it was a slow morning sometimes I'd sit down on one of the overstuffed couches and we'd talk about what was going on in the world or music, movies, anything really. I'd have to say he was my favorite customer, and sometimes, my favorite part of the job.
"Good morning Mr. Coulson." I smiled at him as he came into the shop, dressed in his ever present suit, pressed to perfection.
"Good morning Heather." he replied. I had told him my name once, when I had first started there. My boss didn't even remember my name most of the time, choosing instead to call me by the very original nickname, Blondie, I expect because of my insanely curly mess of hair I kept tied in a bun while I was working.
I liked that this customer remembered my name. Made me feel like my name was worth remembering. Though Charlotte once told me that I had called in sick with the flu and that Mr. Coulson had asked about me, not by name, making her remind him of it. Still, he knew my name when he said it to my face every morning, and that was enough for me.
"The usual?" I asked and he smiled.
"Am I really that predictable?"
"Mr. Coulson, I've been working here for two years and every day for those two years- except the days you're not in town, you come in and order the same thing."
"How do you know I'm not in town?" he asked. "How do you know I'm not getting my coffee elsewhere?"
"That would be impossible sir," I said and he raised an amused eyebrow as I set about making his drink.
"Oh really?"
"You know we have the best coffee in town."
"You sure you're not just saying that because you're the manager?" he asked and I smiled. I had just been promoted to manager the week before.
"Tell you what Mr. Coulson; if you find you prefer Starbucks or Coffee Bean to our coffee, I'll buy you a cup of their coffee, in my uniform." I said. He laughed and I held my hand out. "Deal?"
"Deal." he said, shaking my hand.
"You owe me a cup of coffee." the voice called over the counter two days later. I turned around and smiled at the man.
"I beg your pardon?" I asked.
"You owe me a cup of coffee." he repeated and I raised my eyebrows. "I bought a bag of coffee bean coffee and brewed it at home, I did the same with Starbucks, but I preferred Coffee Bean." he said and I stared at him for a moment.
"That wasn't the bet!" I said and he raised an eyebrow. "You were supposed to get it from one of their stores-"
"I did, I bought the coffee from them." he said and I stared at him for a second, before I crossed my arms. "Deal's a deal." he shrugged with a small smile.
"You liked coffee bean best?" I asked and he nodded. "Fine." I said, before I walked around the counter. "Char, watch the shop for a minute." I said as I pulled my apron over my head, but left my uniform on. I grabbed Mr. Coulson by the hand and pulled him along outside until we got to the edge of the sidewalk; I walked out into the street, pulling him with me before I got to the coffee bean across the street.
"One double shot americano please." I ordered. The barista stared at me for a moment and I raised an eyebrow before she rang it up. I pulled my wallet from my pocket and handed her the cash and she returned my change before going to prepare it.
"I have to say I didn't think you'd actually do it." Mr. Coulson said and I scoffed lightly.
"No offense Mr. Coulson, but you don't exactly know me, I serve you coffee in the mornings." I said and he smiled lightly.
"Oh, ow, that hurts." He covered his heart with his hand and I smiled. "I know you're just about to graduate art school." he said and I must have looked a little startled because he continued to smile. I didn't remember ever mentioning art school to him. "You were on the phone with your mother talking about it the other day." he explained and I nodded.
"Right, right, my mom." I nodded slowly. "Uh, well, that's not fair, I don't know anything about you aside from the fact your name is Phil Coulson."
"I never told you my name."
"You pay with a credit card every day. I looked at the bottom of your credit card slip."
"You looked for my name at the bottom of my credit card slip?" he repeated.
"Well I don't know if you have any coworkers I can ask when you don't show up for coffee in the morning." I said innocently and smiled lightly at him.
"A- uh, double americano." the barista called and I walked over to her and got it before bringing it back to Mr. Coulson.
"Have a good day Mr. Coulson." I said before I walked out of the shop and back to my store. I didn't see Mr. Coulson for about a week after that, in that week however my school had announced for the end of the year they would be having a large art show to display what we had done.
The day of the art show I was scheduled to work. I had to pick up my dress for the show so I asked one of my coworkers to cover for me while I went to pick up my dress. The dry cleaner wasn't too far from the coffee shop and I could easily make it there in ten minutes. I walked quickly among the busy street, wishing I had thought to bring an umbrella with me. The sky was dark and it looked like rain. I picked up my pace and got to the dry cleaners a few minutes later. I waited as the white blonde haired guy in front of me finished his transaction before slipping his hand into the hand of the very attractive Latin looking man I had noticed standing near the door.
'That settles it; all the cute ones are gay.' I thought to myself with a sigh. I watched the two leave and get into a town car before I went to the counter and handed over my pink dry cleaners slip. A few minutes later she returned with my dress.
"Did you manage to fix that seam splitting?" I asked and the woman assured me that it had been taken care of. I paid the fee for the cleaning and the repair and used the coupon my dad's wife had provided me with a week before when I had dropped it off before I took the dress, thankful it was covered in a plastic slip. I walked outside, and started to walk back to the coffee shop when I heard a scream behind me.
I turned around and saw people running, what from, I don't know, but whatever it was, people were getting out of cars and cabs, running in the opposite direction, one cab ran up on the street, slamming into a light pole. I ran over to see if they were okay, but the driver took off down the street. Moving to the back of the car, the passenger was a girl who looked to be about sixteen. I tried opening the door, but it was stuck shut.
"Oh god oh god oh god." she was whimpering looking out the back window. I looked up, and at that moment I wished to god I hadn't. There was a huge silverback gorilla walking right at us. For a fraction of a second I couldn't help but wonder how a gorilla was making this fuss, but then I noticed others. The gorilla looked at me and we made eye contact. Memories of going to the zoo flashed through my mind, but the most being of the sign outside of the gorilla exhibit, stating that making eye contact with a gorilla was considered a threat.
'Oh shit...' I thought, stumbling back. The gorilla moved over, before standing up on his hind legs. 'Oh shit oh shit oh shit.' I scrambled back, trying to get away from the large ape before my back hit the open cab door. The girl inside the cab had gotten out the other door and ran away- not that I blamed her, but still. She left me to the wolves- or in this case, the apes. Just as the large gorilla started to bring his arm down at me, a loud clang sounded from right above me. I looked up to see the Ape fall forward, his face landing right next to my brown boots. I yelped, and looked up, there; in all of his star spangled glory was Captain America. He held his arm out, catching his trusty shield and looked down at me.
"Are you okay?" he asked and I looked from the gorilla to him.
"That's a gorilla." I said lamely and he nodded, before holding his hand out. I took it and he hoisted me up, I clung to my dress with my other hand, but clung to Captain America as he led me to an alleyway and ordered me to go. He turned back, the ape he had knocked out was getting up, and he looked pissed. He roared at Captain America who took a fighting stance.
"Heather!" I heard a familiar voice say. I turned, in a doorway stood Mr. Coulson.
"Mr. Coulson!" I said, relieved to see someone I knew. I ran over to him and threw my arms around him tightly. "What's going on?" I whimpered, knowing he probably knew about as much as I did, however, during these situations people always seemed to ask the first person they saw if they knew what was happening. In my case, he did.
"It's the damn PDF," he said as he pulled me into the building. He took me to a staircase and pulled me along, not letting go of my hand. "They're trying to lure our Henry Pym, but what those idiots don't realize is A) Henry isn't just not fighting, he's gone, and B) the Avengers don't take to this type of thing lightly." he said as he pulled me to an elevator. It was one of those old fashioned ones that you had to close a gate on, which he did when we were inside, and he pulled the lever to the top. I stood there in the corner of the cage elevator lift, breathing heavily before I looked at him.
"Who are you?" I asked finally.
"Agent Phil Coulson of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division." he said and I stared at him blankly. "You can call us SHIELD." he said and I nodded before I looked back at the floors we were moving between. "What were you doing downtown?" he asked and I cleared my throat.
"I had to pick up my dress for the art show tonight." I said holding it up. We both looked at the now soiled and town white dress. I let out an exasperated groan before I threw it down on the ground.
"Is that tonight?" he asked and I looked at him in surprise. How could he just stand there and act so casually while the world was being attacked by those... Apes! He looked at me and I nodded dumbly. We got to the floor he wanted and he took my hand, leading me out of the elevator, to another set of stairs. We went up the stairs and to a metal door. He pushed it open and we walked out onto the roof of the building we were on. The first thing I noticed was a large black helicopter with a symbol I didn't recognize painted on the side, just sitting there. The second thing I noticed was the chaos below us.
"This is like a scene from Rise of the Planet of the Apes." I muttered.
"Well these damn dirty apes got another thing coming." a woman's voice said. I looked over and saw an old woman standing with a large bald black man with an eye patch.
"Director Fury, Agent Bluefox." Mr. Coulson- I guess Agent Coulson- said to the two. He let go of my hand and I swallowed as I looked over the edge of the building. The Avengers were fighting the apes when I noticed Iron Man flying right at me. I yelped and threw myself on the ground as he landed on the roof. His helmet disappeared and I stood there staring at the billionaire Tony Stark.
"Who's this, new intern?" he asked as he became the second Avenger to help me up off the ground.
"I- I'm not an intern." I managed to say and he looked over at Fury.
"There's something up with these apes, when they should be down they're getting back up." he reported. "Now maybe if we could get the big guy in here..."
"Stark you know that's out of the question." Director Fury said. The old woman walked over to me and took my hand.
"Are you alright dear?" she asked and I smiled gratefully at her.
"I don't know what's going on." I said and she nodded.
"Yes, that happens pretty often with these kids." she shook her head.
"I'm not saying they're mutated, I'm just saying there's something controlling them!" Tony Stark shouted and I looked over at the three bickering men.
"Um- Excuse me?" I stepped closer to them. "Excuse me?"
"There is a lady speaking!" Agent Bluefox shouted at the three men and they all grew silent, and looked at me.
"The gorilla that was coming at me, it had this black collar on its neck. I only noticed it because it landed right in front of me, but, it had this light on it, like a blinking green light..." I trailed off noticing none of them looked too impressed.
"Did you get that Cap?" Stark suddenly asked. "Look at the necks, there should be a blinking green light." He grinned. "Well Nat I wouldn't mind putting a collar on you." he said and Agent Coulson rolled his eyes.
"What made you decide to wait before giving us that information?" Director Fury asked darkly and I looked at Agent Coulson who cleared his throat.
"Uh Director, she's a little shaken up, she couldn't have known the information was anything important until this moment and-"
"Who do you work for?" the intimidating man stepped closer to me. I felt my soul start to cry under his dark gaze- jeeze for a man with only one eye, he sure had his glare down good.
"Nicholas Joseph Fury," Agent Bluefox said suddenly and Fury's gaze softened, then turned to one of embarrassment.
"Ida-" he said as she walked over and planted herself between me and him. She pointed her finger down. He tried to stutter an apology, but her hard gaze was even worse than his. He finally knelt down so he was level with her and she smacked him upside the head. He winced and I bit my lip looking at Agent Coulson who was trying really hard not to smirk. He walked over to me and took my hand.
"Agent Bluefox is one of the original founding members of SHIELD." he explained.
"She doesn't look very old." I said and he nodded.
"She's one of the lucky ones. Genetically speaking."
"How so?"
"She can control how she appears. To some people she's a 90 year old woman, to others, she looks like she does now." he shrugged. "That was good thinking to mention the collar; it could have taken them a little while to notice."
"But they're the Avengers." I said and he sighed.
"Yeah." he sighed.
"I don't see the Hulk." I said and he shook his head.
"Yeah you won't." he said. "He's unavailable." He paused, and then put his finger to his ear. "Go ahead. Uh huh. Well track where it's coming from..." he listened for a second, before he looked at me. "Do you know where the zoo is?"
"The one in Central Park?" I asked and he nodded.
"Does it have a gorilla exhibit?" he asked and I shook my head.
"No, no but the one in Bronx does!" I said getting slightly excited.
"Guy, it's got to be the Bronx zoo." he said as I whipped out my cell phone. "What are you doing?" he asked as I dialed a number.
"Finding out where your apes are from." I said as I held the phone to my ear. "Yes hello, I'd like to speak to the director of operations; this is Heather Monroe from the Strategic..." I looked to him for help.
"SHIELD." he whispered, knowing it would go by faster if I just said I was from the government.
"Heather Monroe from SHIELD. We've got a whole mess of apes running around Manhattan, are they yours?" I asked. "Oh they are, great, uh, no. Okay, buh bye." I said and hung up. "They're from the Bronx Zoo, the ape trainers are still at the zoo and have barricaded themselves inside one of the feeding rooms." I explained.
"Great," he said before he relayed that information to the Avengers. "Come on." he said, leading me to the helicopter that was sitting on the roof.
"You want me to go?" I asked and he smiled.
"Well I could leave you here." he offered and I looked around the roof. "Besides, it'll make it easier for me to find you to debrief you." he said and I bit my lip with a smile before I took his hand and followed him to the helicopter.
Agent Bluefox got into the pilot's seat, we hovered over the street, throwing down a ladder, the Avengers who didn't have a flying suit got into the helicopter and Agent Bluefox flew us to the Bronx. The helicopter was landed in the empty parking lot, and we all got out, Agent Coulson took my hand and kept me in the parking lot with him.
"Why aren't we going with the others?" I asked and he smiled lightly.
"We're going to wait for the backup with Agent Bluefox, and Animal control." he explained. "What time is your show tonight?" he asked about five minutes later.
"It starts at seven- Oh my gosh!" I said in realization. "Oh my gosh, I was on break, I should have been back at the shop ages ago!" I panicked. "I am so out of a job, not that I really liked that job, but I mean, at this point, a job's a job!" I said, and groaned. "Oh god, I am so fired."
"Relax." he said putting his hand on my shoulder. "In case you haven't notice, I work for the government, I promise, you won't be out of a job." he said and I smiled. I let out a shiver and he moved clover to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. I looked at him and he looked back at me. He smelled good, I realized. Clean, and like some sort of spicy aftershave. It was nice.
I was about to say something when a few large trucks and vans showed up with the same logo at the helicopter pulled up alongside us. Agent Bluefox was suddenly active, giving them directions, telling them where to go, and what to do when she walked over to us. "Harry!" she said an a man in a suit came over quickly. "Heather, honey, Harry will take you home."
"I still need to debrief her on what she saw." Agent Coulson said and she looked at him. He quickly moved his arm from around me.
"There will be plenty of time for that later Phil." she said and then looked at me. "It was lovely meeting you." she said to me. I smiled lightly and nodded.
"It was lovely meeting you too Agent Bluefox." I said.
"Oh, please, call me Ida." she said and I smiled. I looked back at Agent Coulson who cleared his throat and then smiled at me.
"Good work Heather." he said before he extended his hand. I stared at it, before I fought the urge to throw my arms around him, and I slipped my hand into his, shaking it. He nodded and I let out a small sigh before I walked over to Harry who helped me into a much smaller helicopter, making me smile. This sure was going to be interesting.
That evening I got out of my shower and sighed, what was I going to wear to the show tonight? I decided to borrow something from my mom when her boyfriend walked into the room. "God, Donny, ever heard of knocking?" I asked, holding my towel around myself tighter.
"Oh please, nothing I haven't seen before." he said and I rolled my eyes.
"God don't remind me." I muttered. Donny was only a few years older than me, and when we were in high school... Well let's just say I wasn't too happy when I found out he and my mom had started seeing each other. "What do you want?" I asked and he held up a white box.
"This just came for you." he said and handed it to me. I took it and shooed him out of the room before I opened the box. On top of the tissue paper was a note.
"Heather, to replace the dress from earlier, good luck tonight sweetie, Ida Strong." I smiled at Agent Bluefox's handwriting before I opened the tissue paper and gasped at the dress I pulled out. It was an elegant navy blue silk dress with crystal buttons down the back. It had what my mom called a ballet neckline and was sleeveless. I stared down at it for a long time before my mom knocked on the door.
"Babe, you almost ready?" she asked.
"Yeah!" I called and then ran back into my bathroom. I blow dried my uncontrollable mess of blonde hair, pulling it straight, and then quickly applied some silver eyeliner and shadow around my green eyes.
I had never had a reason to wear this eye shadow before, but I had a feeling that it would look perfect with the dress. I was honestly surprised at how long my hair was when I straightened it. I decided to let it loose, but I did put on the diamond earrings my grandma had left me when she died.
I pulled on a pair of tiny panties, some nude pantyhose and a strapless bra before I got into the dress, and buttoned it up. It felt so perfect against my skin. I put on a pair of silver strappy heels I had bought on sale a few years ago and sighed looking at myself in the mirror. I felt like I was going to some red carpet event, not a silly art opening at my school. I let out a sigh as I ran my nude lip gloss over my lips and grabbed my small black clutch. It had a small rip on the inside, but the only one looking at the inside would be me so it didn't matter. I walked out of my room and to the kitchen where Donny and my mom were.
"Holy shit." Donny said and my mom turned around quickly.
"What? Is it too much?" I asked looking down at myself, suddenly feeling very self conscious. "I should change..." I turned back and my mom smacked Donny's arm audibly.
"Sweetheart, what this Neanderthal meant was, you look amazing!" she said and I turned back to them shyly.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, you look great!" she insisted. "Come on. We're going to be late." she said and shot Donny a look. "Here, take this shawl," she pulled one out of the hall closet. It was a sheer dark blue and looked great next to the dress. "Where did you get this dress?" she asked.
"Oh, I- Borrowed it from a friend." I said as we walked out of the apartment.
"Huh. It looks expensive." she said and I smiled to myself.
At the art show I had to answer a ton of questions about what had happened downtown seeing as I worked downtown, which made me groan. When I called my boss that afternoon, he had not been happy, even though I tried to say the cops had evacuated the area and made me go through the subway in the other direction of the coffee shop. I finally moved away from my friends, telling them I was going to get a glass of wine at the bar. When I got there I saw a crowd of people.
To be perfectly honest, I didn't want to be there too badly, not after that afternoon. I walked over to the back door and slipped outside, walking through the student garden. I wrapped the shawl around myself a little tighter, holding it closed at my chest, thinking about everything that I hadn't told my friends or family. Thinking about the things I couldn't tell them.
"It's always hardest right after your first mission." a familiar voice said and I turned around to see Agent Coulson standing there. He walked over to me and held out a glass of white wine. I smiled as I took it from him. "To your first art show." he said holding out his own glass. I tapped mine against his, the glasses made a satisfying clinking sound before we both took a drink of our wine.
"What are you doing here?" I asked and he cleared his throat.
"Well I do have to debrief you." he said and I smiled. "Rumor has it you saw some interesting stuff happening downtown." he said and I laughed lightly.
"Well, it is New York. If it wasn't interesting it'd just be overpriced, over populated and mean." I shrugged and he laughed lightly.
"I see you found a replacement dress." he said and I looked down at myself.
"Ah- yeah, courtesy of Agent Bluefox." I said and he nodded.
"I figured." he said as he stepped closer to me. "You look beautiful Heather."
"How do you do it Phil?" I asked shaking my head. "How do you tell your family or friends about what you see every day, or not tell them, I mean... I have no idea how I would even bring up everything I saw today, and what I saw was so amazing."
"I don't have a family," he said and shrugged. "And aside from you, my closest friend is Director Fury, so I don't really have to worry about that... What have you been telling people?" he asked and I scoffed.
"That the police evacuated me with everyone else through the subway." I said softly. "What was I going to say? One of my regular customers at the coffee shop pulled me into a glimpse of this secret government agency who works with superheroes like the Avengers and saves the world on a regular basis and let me tag along for a ride?" I asked. "Is that why you don't make friends out of the agency?" I asked, and then thought about what he had said. "You consider me a friend?" I asked and he chuckled lightly.
"You just caught that?" he asked and I nodded. "Look, I don't know what you're going to tell people, but whatever it is, I would prefer if you left SHIELD out of it for safety reasons."
"Sure, I get it, you don't want anyone to know about you guys." I said and he shook his head.
"Actually I don't want them to know about you." he said and I looked at him in surprise. "We have a lot of enemies who would do anything to find a weakness. I don't know what I'd do if they found out about you and harmed you in any way." he said softly as he lightly touched my hand. I looked at his hand and swallowed before I looked up, my eyes resting on his lips, before training up to his kind gray eyes. My heart was racing, and suddenly what Tatiana had said all that time ago about me crushing on a customer didn't seem so inconceivable.
"Are you calling me a weakness to the agency?" I asked with a small laugh.
"I'm calling you a weakness to me." he said, my eyes flickering from his lips to his eyes again before he moved in, his hand moved to the back of my head as he lips pressed against mine.
I instantly kissed his back, wrapping my arms around his neck, I felt the shawl slip off my shoulders. He move his hands down to wrap around my waist, I held onto him the best I could with half a glass of white wine in my hand. We finally broke apart, and I couldn't help but grin, biting my bottom lip.
"So what do you think?" he asked. "I could tell you boss that the US government will attest for your whereabouts and to fire you under any reason that has to do with what happened today would be illegal, or I could tell my boss that we are in dire need of someone who can brew a good cup of coffee."
"A good cup of coffee?" I asked and he smiled lightly.
"Best in New York." he said and I laughed before I leaned in and kissed him again.
I knew that entering his world would be dangerous and full of surprises. I'd never know what to expect, and I'd never know if he'd come home for dinner, but as I stood there kissing him I did know one thing; Phil Coulson would always be my hero, and I would always be his girl.