Acquaintances

Annie had been in deep cover for over a month before she got her real break. And even then, it didn't have anything to do with her.

She came back to the safehouse after yet another fruitless day of tailing her target to find a pile of photographs sitting on the table—photographs of her target, meeting with another man at a diner. Stuck to the top of the photos was a post-it note with the word "Applesauce" written on it.

Annie immediately switched safehouses and destroyed all records of her previous identity, but she ran a search on the man in the photograph and learned he represented a private security company. It was an enormous revelation that opened up all sorts of possibilities in the investigation.

"Applesauce," though, seemed to have no connection whatsoever, until a week later when, during another dead-end period, Annie came home to find a man in a suit sitting in her NEW safehouse.

The man didn't even flinch as she whipped out her gun and pointed it at him. He just smiled "Applesauce." He said.

Annie's gun remained trained on him, but she arched an eyebrow. "So you're the one who broke into my old place."

"It was the best way to get the intel to you." The man extended his palms. "I mean, if I'd just handed them to you in person, you wouldn't have so much as looked at them."

"And who are you, exactly."

"Phil Coulson." The man gave a little wave. "Of SHIELD."

Annie's brow furrowed. "Is that supposed to make me trust you?"

"Given the climate right now? No." The man shrugged. "It's just a fact. Like I said, that's why we left the photos in your apartment instead of meeting. You wouldn't have relied on our intel if you knew the source. I'll be the first to admit that's SHIELD's looking pretty black right now." The smile became a bit more impish. "Not like the CIA, which has never had trouble with corruption or high-ranking traitors or..."

"The CIA isn't full of KGB operatives." Annie countered. "Corruption is one thing, large-scale infiltration by your sworn enemy is another."

"Fair enough." Coulson shrugged again. "But you haven't shot me, so... does that mean you're willing to accept that even though I'm from SHIELD, I might not be a bad guy?"

"Let's say I'm interested in learning how you tracked me down twice, and I think the CIA is likely to be interested too."

"It wasn't easy." Coulson admitted. "You have a very thorough cover set up here, and you avoid surveillance exceptionally well."

"Also, there's that." Annie frowned. "How did you get surveillance photos from a Turkish street cam? Not even the CIA can access those."

"Same answer as the first, actually. We've got a... very thorough I.T. department." Coulson seemed to be enjoying a private joke. "It helped that we were looking particularly for you. If we'd just been searching for a random person in Istanbul, I doubt anything would have come up."

Annie's brow furrowed again. "You were tracking me? Why?"

"Because we were given your name." Coulson paused for a moment, then leaned forward a little. "You're a very... unorthodox agent, aren't you Miss Walker?"

Annie shrugged. "I get the job done."

"I... get the feeling it's more than a job to you." Coulson shook his head. "I mean, let's face it, you're not in the CIA for America. I'm pretty sure you love your country, but that's not why you've gone rogue, put yourself in the dark from your own agency, and fostered relationships with agents from Mossad, KGB, MI6, and more organizations than I can count."

Annie said nothing, but she was very disturbed inside. Coulson was talking about extremely classified ops from several different governments. Exactly what kind of access did he have?

"Here's what I think, Ms. Walker." Coulson's smile was incredibly benign as he leaned forward. "I think you're a spy who cares more about her friends than about the respective agencies they belong to."

"Relationships are what define us." Annie said carefully.

"See, that." Coulson wagged a finger at her. "That's why I think we were given your name. Because so long as you trust the person, you don't care if they're from KGB or SHIELD or whatever."

"...maybe not." Annie admitted. "But you have to admit, that does make trust a bit more complicated. Why exactly should I trust you?"

Coulson shrugged and smiled. "I'm a really nice guy."

Annie stared at him a second. "Yeah. Gonna have to do better than that."

"I'm a really nice guy with reliable intel who didn't kidnap and interrogate you for valuable information." Coulson amended.

"Only so you could turn me. Still not enough."

"How would I turn you?" Coulson frowned. "You don't work for any one agency. You work for your friends. Who... just happen to be the top leadership of the CIA. But still. You'd leak info to Israel, Germany, or England, regardless of how it hurt America's reputation, if you felt it was the right thing to do."

Annie smiled. "That's speculation."

"My point is that I can't turn someone who doesn't care about agencies or divisions." Coulson argued. "No, I'm not asking you to come work for SHIELD."

"Not yet."

"...I'm just asking you to view us as one of the good guys."

"So that I'll leak you intel or eventually work for you once my agency burns me for consorting with a known fugitive," snorted Annie.

A shrug. "Wouldn't be the first time." Coulson started to stand.

"Don't." Annie clicked back the hammer on her pistol.

"Wow." Coulson eyed her. "You must really think I'm some sort of badass. I'm just getting up to leave."

"You're assuming I'm going to let you leave." Annie raised her eyebrows. "Wanted fugitive, remember?"

"Actually, that's... not really much of an assumption." Coulson smiled. "That's more a logical inference drawn from May having a gun to your head."

There was an audible click behind her. "We're not morons, you realize." A dry voice with a slightly asian accent intoned.

"For someone who wants to be friends, you have an odd definition of trust." Annie said, dropping her pistol.

"Well, we haven't had the opportunity to get to know each other yet." Coulson shrugged, standing. "But that'll change. For the moment..." He indicated a black manila folder sitting on the table. "Think of it as a friendly getting-to-know-you present."

Coulson showed up again another week later. This time, Annie didn't draw. "Do you already know where my case is going, or are you just going to feed me bits at a time to make me guess?"

Coulson smiled. "I don't really even know what your mission is." He answered. "I just have access to surveillance feeds that tell me who you're following and what he's doing. As far as feeding you bits goes..." He shrugged. "Baby steps."

"Yeah? Well this baby is done stepping." Annie dropped into a seat across from him. "I'm done taking whatever cryptic hints and points you chose to supply me with. From now on, you supply me with the intel I want, when I want it."

There was a definite twist to Coulson's smile. "Fine by me."

Annie couldn't help but feel a little unbalanced by how easily the man was taking this. "And no more nightly visits." She added. "I'm supposed to be in deep cover."

"Understood."

And Coulson left.

But despite that, Coulson did show up, once more, about a month later. This time, Annie was approaching not so much a dead end as a complete end—her investigation was wrapping up, she'd gotten nearly all the pieces in place. And while she didn't quite like how those pieces fit together, she was already preparing a full report for Langley... there were facts they HAD to know.

And then she walked through the front door and there was Coulson, sitting in the chair like before (not the same chair—Annie had moved several times since his last visit).

Rolling her eyes, Annie dropped her bag onto the table and stripped out of her coat. "I thought I told you to stay out of my mission."

"Really?" Coulson's brow furrowed. "Weird. I thought you told me to give you all the help I could with your mission. How's that worked out, by the way?"

Annie shrugged as she dropped into a chair across from Coulson. "Your 'Raven' handler is a little paranoid, but he's given solid intel. We've made some critical discoveries that the Agency will be very interested in. But then," she cocked her head at Coulson, "I suppose he's told you that."

"He's a consultant, actually. Doesn't report directly to me." Again the smile. "He did mention, though, that you were close to finishing your op and reporting back to your superiors."

"And you're worried about whether I'll tell them I've been working with professed terrorists for the past two months." Annie smirked at Coulson.

But Coulson seemed unaffected. "Well, either you tell them you were working with us and they give you a slap on the wrist, but note us down as a not-quite-evil source of information; or you don't tell them and continue to work with us." He shrugged. "Quite honestly, either outcome works for me."

"Or I tell them and we set a trap for you and yours." Annie countered. "Back-trace 'Raven's' signal and find your hidey-hole."

"Good luck with that." Coulson smiled. "Still. I'm getting the vibe that you're NOT going to kill the goose with the golden eggs."

"I'm the goose. You just happened to provide very good feed." Annie admitted. "THIS time. If I ever get the slightest feeling you're playing me..."

"You're a spy." Coulson nodded. "I get it. Kinda been around the whole cloak-and-dagger thing for a while myself. But I assure you: we just want to help. Not that you'll believe me, because..."

"...I'm a spy." Annie finished, with a wry grin, feeling a slight twinge of conscience for being amused by the man. "Fine, I'll consider it. But why are you really here?"

"Just wanted to say goodbye and give you a few extra goodies to go home with." Coulson seemed to reconsider his words. "Well... the first is a goodie. The second is... really more of a... bad-ie, I guess. A warning."

"Let's hear the good stuff first then." Annie shrugged.

"Fine." Coulson pulled a phone from his coat. On it was a picture of an extremely blonde woman. "New agent in your division. Sharon Carter. Former SHIELD agent."

Annie studied the picture carefully, memorizing the woman's features. "One of yours?"

"Not anymore." Coulson laid the phone on the table between them.

"One of Hydra's?"

"Honestly? No idea. Her aunt was one of the founding members of SHIELD and she was attached to Captain America's private security detail, so it seems unlikely but..." a twinge of pain crossed Coulson's face, "...I've been surprised before. She definitely doesn't work for us, and I doubt she'd appreciate me popping up in her new life just as she's trying to establish credibility in the CIA."

"So... why bring her up?" Annie took the words with a grain of salt; she doubted Coulson would go so far as tell her about any infiltrators he had in the CIA.

Coulson indicated the phone. "All the data SHIELD collected on her is in that phone. Work profiles, psyche assessments, mission histories..."

"All of which has been released on the internet already." Annie pointed out.

"Sure it has." Coulson smiled. "Searching through all that information is such a simple task, too. Not likely to miss anything." Again he gestured at the phone. "Use it, don't use it, double-check the facts—all up to you. Make your own call about whether Sharon's a danger to the CIA."

"Thanks. I will." Annie picked up the phone and pocketed it, inwardly vowing to have Auggie take it apart later. "And the warning?"

Coulson leaned closer. "You've been undercover for a while, so you may not be aware of this—the US, along with the CIA, recently started outsourcing its surveillance feeds to a private security firm."

"I'd heard." Annie nodded; it'd come up during her investigation. "Your point?"

"Having someone who watches the watchmen isn't always such a great idea." Coulson warned. "Especially if they don't like what the watchmen are seeing. Before you go back to Langley... maybe use your time undercover to poke into the facts around that particular corporation."

"Noted." Annie's face betrayed nothing. "You going to give me a file on that too?"

Coulson gave a light chuckle as he stood. "No, Ms. Walker," he said, passing into the darkness, "that's something that you have to see for yourself to believe."

A/N: I wanted to get this section of Recruitment Drive off before the season premiere, as I understand from promos that it shows Annie coming back from a deep cover op that she's very cagey about, so it struck me as being a perfect recruitment opportunity. Doubtless when the new season premieres all this will be rendered invalid, but I tried to make it vague enough to work. Time will tell, I guess.

Unlike the last one, this isn't going to go through different members of the show. Annie is the only one likely to get 'recruited,' and it's going to be a rather gradual process. The next chapter should feature Sharon Carter.