The sun had just peaked over the horizon when Steve Rogers and Phil Coulson boarded the Quinjet to go to the base. It was a relatively quiet flight, with the Captain reading the file, and Coulson being too bashful to talk to the Captain. After all Rogers was his childhood hero. The silence was broken by the sudden buzzing of Coulson's phone, which he quickly answered after checking who was calling.
"Hello Director." Coulson answered the phone, and listened intently as Director Fury spoke to him, "Are you sure, Sir?" He paused momentarily. "Yes Sir." The call ended and he looked to Steve with a sigh. "I hope you don't mind taking a short detour." He said shyly under his breath.
"Not at all." Steve shook his head. Coulson gave a command to the pilot through his headset and moments later the aircraft veered to the side, changing its course towards the Northeast. "Where are we going, if you don't mind me asking?"
"New Hampshire. Director Fury called in a retired SHIELD agent to assist in this situation, but she did protest quite a bit.
"Did she refuse?"
"Director Fury believes that she put her phone in a blender." Coulson replied half a smile on his lips, "She has issues with authority."
"Why is an agent with issues with authority so important." Steve questioned. From what he'd seen so far, SHIELD had many able bodied men and women working for them. All of whom did not have issues authority. What could be so important about one girl?
"She was one of our best agents. Trained from childhood with a number of successful missions." Coulson sat down, "Though she retired so she could pursue other things."
"What other things."
"Day drinking. Or at least that's what she last said she was doing." Coulson furrowed his brow and shrugged his shoulder, "Though admittedly she did not have the best of childhoods."
"Is a day drinker really what we need right now?"
"I mean, we got Mr. Stark and she's more sober and competent than he is." The aircraft began to descend through the clouds, lowering into a sea of trees. Before Steve could even question it though, they had landed in a field, empty of everything but a large house surrounded by a brick and wrought iron fence. The helicarrier shuddered to a halt and the engines powered down with a soft wine Coulson signaled for Steve to stay put as he walked down the ramp.
Agent Coulson strode to the gate with an air of confidence about him. Deciding to stay put, though no orders were given to him, Rogers chose to observe his surroundings. The house was an old Victorian house, with multiple levels and what he would interpret as a tower. Three large oak trees grew in the corners of the well manicured yard, while a well maintained garden lay in front of the building's porch. It seemed to be newly refurbished, the porch burned a bright white as did the details of the buildings. The whole of the building was painted a pale yellow making it stand out in the green field. Spying up to the high tower he saw movement in the windows, focusing in he saw that it was a young woman looking down on Coulson. The agent stopped and looked up to the woman, before Coulson's gaze could reach her the woman had moved away. So the man marched on straight onto the porch, and through the door.
"Agent!" Coulson called out the air in the house smelled thickly of fresh paint, "Marian! Where are you?"
"I am not an agent anymore, agent." swing himself around to face the woman whom had come down the stairs silently. There was a book in her hands and paint on her fingers, " And I'm your daughter so can't you Just call me Marian."
"You are an agent, Director Fury himself has called you in." He looked to the back of the house and saw that she had been remodeling the house. There was plastic on the floor, as well as plaster in a room that was further off.
"Oh yes I got the call, I actually didn't think that big boss man actually remembered me."
"He's given specific orders to have you trained since you were a child, I feel like he would remember you quite well." Coulson followed her through the house to the kitchen where the potent smell of coffee permeated the house. "Where is your phone?"
"I used it to create a new form of golf, where the phone was the ball and the weed wacker the putter. So half of it is in my garbage, the other half is somewhere out beyond the fence. Why?" She had taken large travel mug, and the pot of coffee she had brewed pouring the dark liquid into the empty container. From the refrigerator she pulled out a large bottle of creamer, then lightened the dark coffee with the cream.
"Just curious." There was a large duffle bag set on the floor near the fridge. After having a moment to himself he took the cat that had jumped up on the counter near him, and slid the creature into the crate. "It is nice to see that you have decided to come."
"I felt that I didn't have a choice, besides, I live here so what kind of idiot would I be to not help save it?" She reasoned, "But this is not me following the orders of a man who took my childhood away, so...yeah."
"Why did you destroy your phone if you were going to come along?"
"Because I knew Fury would think that meant no, and that he would send daddy dearest to convince me."
"You wanted to see me?"
"I know you are Fury's right hand man, you have all the information on this case and could give me a heads up." All through the sentence she had been taking gulps of her coffee, moving about the house collecting things that she could need. Deodorant, toothbrush and paste, dental floss, all the things the she would need all stuffed in a bag, "So are you just going to follow me around, or are you going to give me the details of this case?"
"There is a file for you in our ride to the base."
"What's base this time?"
"A helicarrier in the Atlantic Ocean."
With a large duffle bag she strode out the front door , holding it open to allow Coulson out before she locked the door behind them. Two deadbolts clicked in the solid wooden door. Then they walked through the gate, at which Marian removed a brick to reveal a panel an pressing a few buttons activated an electric field around the house.
"Secure enough?"
"Never secure enough, every system can be hacked."
"I see that you have not lost your edge." Without an answer Marian walked away to the Quinjet, and up it's ramp. There she saw a familiar face, one that halfway convinced her that this was not real. So she stopped and pointed, dropping her duffle bag to the ground.
"America…." her voice wobbly and confused, Coulson pushed his way past her telling her that it was rude to point. "Has SHIELD been dabbling in cloning, and if so where did they get Captain America's DNA?"
"I'm not a clone." the muscular man laughed offering his hand to shake, there was a look of recognition in his eyes for a moment but it faded as soon as Marian took the man's hand and shook it silver eyes still wide, "I'm Steve Rogers."
"I don't understand, what? Are you, you?"
"Yes." her father said to her slamming a file to her chest, "This is the real Captain America. We found him in the ice about a week after you left. Everything will be in the report."
"It is an honor to meet you sir. Im Marian Coulson." awkwardly spoke then securing herself in a seat. All the while thinking about what this could be, and how Captain America could be here. Coulson had said that they had found him frozen in ice. Though she decided to put this from her mind an focus on the file that she had been provided with. Putting in earbuds pretending to listen to music while really listening to her surroundings, the sound of the engines being engaged, the small groan of the ship as they lifted off, and the nonsensical chattering of the pilots.
"So she was one of your top agents?" Rogers stated not looking at her, "She doesn't look like much."
"That was the point originally." Coulson stated, "She was trained from a young age, and having a young agent can be of a great advantage. And having an SHIELD agent as a father was a way to make this training more simple."
"She said her last name was Coulson, so you're her father or is that a common surname nowadays."
"Yes." Coulson stated while sitting down as the Quinjet took off, Rogers began to read the file that he was supplied with before a question came to mind.
"It can't be protocol to have a relative under your command."
"It's not, but I've never been soft on her." The listening Marian agreed with this as she listed, he had never been easy on her, and he had never been much of a father to her. There were moments of paternal love, but they rarely lasted a day.
An hour had passed since Marian had left her holmley little place, she had preoccupied herself by listening to her music. The vibrations of the quinjet lulling her into a trance, her silver eyes staring off into oblivion thinking about her last mission. She kept searching for the memories that had been lost to her, but they would not come to her now.
"The pilot just informed me that we're about 20 minutes out from the base." Coulson informed, while Rogers was still turning the pages of the file. Pausing on a page, reading about Dr. Bruce Banner, a man who thought that he could replicate the serum that was used to make him a super soldier.
"So this Dr. Banner, he was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?"
"A lot of people were, you were the world's first superhero, everybody wanted a shot at the same fame you acquired for yourself. Dr. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula." Over her music Marian found herself listening to the men, the bass of the music concealing the quieter parts of their speech.
"Didn't really go his way, did it?"
"Not so much. When he's not that thing though, the guy is on par with the likes of Stephen Hawking." he said in an admiring tone before he realized that Rogers did not get the reference then tried to elaborate, "He's very smart. I gotta say it's an honor to meet you officially. I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping. I mean, I was… I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know it's really, it's just a. . . just a huge honor to have you on board."
The way her father stumbled through his words was rather amusing to Marian who found herself having to muster the effort to keep herself from laughing at his fanboy-like attitude. After all Captain America was his hero, so she could not blame him for being excited while meeting his hero.
"Well, I hope I'm the man for the job." Steve replied bashfully.
"Oh, you are." Coulson reassured him, "Absolutely. We've made some modifications to the uniform; I had a little design input." he boasted.
"The uniform?" Steve questioned, "Aren't the stars and stripes a little. . . old fashioned?"
"With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned." The Helicarrier came into sight, and not wishing to be anymore awkward Coulson walked away to his daughter.
"What are you listening to?"
"Elton John." she said, removing her earbuds sitting straighter.
"I didn't know you like Elton John."
"I also like Billy Joel."
"I didn't know that either."
"For a spy you're not the observant." half joking half serious she said this, but her father took it too seriously and frowned. It was a great convenience that the Quinjet landed and the ramp fell open. Quickly grabbing her duffle bag, then dashing away going to her old quarters that she expected to be reserved just for her.