A/N: This is a one-shot of what might have happened to one of the agents killed in the Chitauri attack on Manhattan. Movie spoilers.

Enjoy,

~Sandy

Avengers

The Man on the Hill

A lone figure stood on a hilltop overlooking the Barton home, a pair of high powered binoculars to his eyes watching the SHIELD operatives, the director, their families and friends enjoying the Fourth of July holiday. There were new faces and the progeny of others, and knowing that they'd moved on with their lives made him happy.

What right did he have to upset their lives by bringing up bad memories and the fact that the last four years had all been a lie? Rubbing the middle of his chest, he still felt the life draining out of him, heard someone telling him to hold on…then nothing. An unknown amount of time later, he'd awakened in a hospital isolation room attended by a highly specialized team of doctors and nurses who never called him by name.

For a long time, he didn't even remember his name. Then one day, it had come to him, just like that. He never told his handler what he remembered and wouldn't. They all knew the score probably, him better than most. If he were to tell them he remembered his former life and that he wanted to return to it, the program he was a part of would be shut down.

For now, he would go along with his superiors and do his job with the precision and meticulousness he'd always shown in the past though his duties now were different as was the agency he worked for. Like SHIELD, it didn't officially exist either.

If he'd had a say in the events that had brought him to this point, he would've said no. But he hadn't been given the choice. And because he was officially dead, the choice had been made for him. No one at SHIELD, not even the director, knew of his continued existence, and it would be best for all if they didn't. Never again could he contact his friends, the only real family he had left.

Returning to his vehicle, the former SHIELD agent and casualty of the Chitauri invasion took out his wallet and examined his new identity, Marty Bragen.

Now it was time for him to die in earnest. What would've surprised and embarrassed him had he known about it was the legacy he'd left behind. He had no idea of the lives he'd touched in so many ways, and that the man he was now would go on touching lives until he was no more.

End