Rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't been easy. In fact it was very hard. S.H.I.E.L.D. had millions of employees and it had about 5. It actually had about 23 people at that point if you counted Koenig, Fitz when he was stable, Maria Hill, Sam Wilson, and Steve Rogers when they could, and Diamond, Stiller, Felix, and Jameson's teams who were constantly being sent out on missions.
But they were managing, hunting down escaped prisoners from the fridge and dealing with them, investigating new 0-8-4s and strange occurrences, and disposing of loose H.Y.D.R.A. ends.
They were other teams out there, people that had banded together after S.H.I.E.L.D. was destroyed who were doing the same thing. Director Coulson had managed to catch up with 4 of them, offering them a place to stay in the Playground.
So slowly S.H.I.E.L.D. was growing again.
Hill sent agents that she had tracked down and weren't H.Y.D.R.A. on occasion and every so often teams picked up new recruits that would be trained by Skye, Simmons, and Trip. By the time November 2015 rolled around S.H.I.E.L.D. had about 40 members, or 7 teams and then Director Coulson's team.
Fitz and Simmons taught interested agents about their fields and leant out their knowledge in special cases with strange objects. Trip ran training sessions with the occasional help from May. Skye helped Koenig with searching for cases, which wasn't too hard and did her own thing, getting Intel on whatever was needed. May was Deputy Director, disagreeing with Coulson at almost every turn but providing useful insight in every situation.
And of course Coulson was Director, a real one who didn't keep secrets from everyone.
S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't under the World Security Council, so it didn't have the amount of paperwork or the funding it did previously but that didn't seem like a problem to Skye who found delight in hacking into scams, cons, or horrible person's bank account and accidently stealing half of it.
Everything was running as smooth as it could until they got a visitor.
"Ummm sir? Ma'am? It appears we have a visitor?" Lisa Drew, one of Deidre Diamond's team members said timidly as she entered the doorway to May's office. She was interrupting one of their arguments again.
May's head snapped up, starting to pull one of her knives out of her belt she wore around her neck and Coulson stood up with a worried look on his face. Drew's eyes widened and she shook her nervously.
"Oh no Director. Its agent- I mean Ms. Hill" Drew said, awaiting orders. "Sorry sir" she said fiddling with the end of her blond braid.
A smile spread across Coulson's face.
"Agent Drew, would you please escort Ms. Hill into my office. Agent May and I will be there shortly" he said and Drew scuttled off, her blond braid swinging against her black jacket with a smile on her face that the Director knew her name.
May hopped off her desk gracefully, almost like a cat and walked to the door, turning with one hand on the doorway to look at Coulson.
"Please try not to ask her about Captain Rogers" May said with a smirk and slunk out of her office. Coulson rolled his eyes and walked out of the office after her.
When they got to Coulson's office Maria Hill was there, picking up frames and trinkets from the shelves behind his desk.
"That's personal property" Coulson said with a grin. She spun around to face the pair on her left heel.
"Says the wanted fugitive" she retorted with an equal grin. He held his arms open and she walked towards him, hugging each other.
"So what brings you to our humble base?" Coulson asked sitting down at his desk giving May a look that said "sit down".
"Stark gave me some information about some disturbing happenings in the idle East and South Africa. He claims it's the work of a Dark Kochma" Maria said with a serious face. May's stance faltered and her skin paled ever so slightly and Hill noticed but Coulson didn't.
"What happened?" Coulson asked, taking the memory stick Maria was extending to him.
"A whole village disappeared. The adults were gone, the buildings were levelled, and all the animals had drowned in the nearby river" she took a deep breath "All the children were found strangled, propped up in a circle. The words "I will find all of you" were written in the ground. That was in South Asia. Then in Egypt the school in a small village was burned, the words "you can't run from me" carved into the ashes. There have been 3 other cases with similar words in each situation"
"How come this hasn't popped up on our radar?" Coulson asked, concerned.
"No reports or articles have been written. It's been kept hush hush. Stark only just managed to find it" Maria explained.
She glanced over to May quickly and saw that the older woman was visibly pale.
"I understand that you don't like keeping secrets from your agents but I would like if just your team could handle this one. I can send the Captain and Wilson over to handle things during your absence" a small smile crept its way onto Coulson's face. "Stark doesn't think he can take this one. Romanoff and Barton are in hiding, Banner is helping Stark but with just them and Steve he doesn't think they'll be able to handle the situation appropriately. Actually Pepper thought that" She added as an afterthought.
Maria's phone rang and she checked the message.
"Sorry that was Pepper. She's waiting on the jet. Call me when you're ready to leave and I'll send Steve and Wilson over" she said, hugging him again.
"I'll walk her out" May said, losing her stance and walking out of his office after Hill.
When they were a couple hallways over Maria turned to May.
"He doesn't know does he?" Maria asked her successor.
"No. And you won't tell him. He can't know. I can leave personal feelings out of problems. He can't. If he does I'll lose him forever" May said, vulnerability flickering on her face.
"Melinda, I know you don't want to tell him but I did the same with Steve and we had to work really hard to get back to this point. I don't what you to have to go through what I did. I know you're working really hard with Phil to earn his trust and keeping this from him will-"
"I can't tell him, not yet" she growled and glared at her best friend.
"Okay. But are you okay? I know you haven't seen-" Maria asked but May cut her off again.
"Quiet. No one knows about her okay? And I'm doing just fine" May said solemnly.
"Sorry. It's just this is Dark Kochma and, well-"
"I have to go" May said and Maria realized they were at the exit. She rolled her eyes at the older agent's abruptness.
"Yeah, yeah I'm sure you do. Call me when it's all over, or just drop in, or arrange a visit with your mother and Qinna Xue. I haven't seen them in ages" Maria said and stepped out into the sun. "You have to tell him"
And then the door shut, trapping May underground again.
May was standing at a wide screen, watching the black dots move back and forth. Skye stood beside her, also yelling commands into her earpiece. It was another mission they had to complete before the Captain and the Falcon got there. It had only been 3 days since the former Deputy Director had come but the whole station was buzzing with the news.
No one but Coulson and May knew why the heroes were coming though.
The mission was simple, get in, take the object, and get out but like always soldiers were in the way.
There should be an exit to your left. Take that and we have Agents Lisperent and Forneil waiting with a jet" Skye said into her comm.
"I need to have a word" Coulson said to the two ladies as he slid into the mission command room.
May turned around and glared at him and Skye didn't turn around at all.
"In a minute" she hissed and turned back around. Coulson smiled to himself.
Finally the team of 3 had boarded the plane and the mission was over. Coulson had left, telling them to meet him in his office when it was over.
When the two women got there Simmons and Trip were already seated, chatting away about their students. Coulson was tying on his laptop, probably a mission file.
Skye plopped down next to her friends and joined in their conversation.
May swiftly walked over to Coulson, standing to his right, a little behind him.
Coulson cleared his throat.
The team turned around to look at him.
"We have a new mission"