Summary: Faking your own death is harder than it looks. Not to mention that scepter to the chest? Hurt like a motherfucker.

Authors Note: Not another Fandom! So, I'm extremely rusty at writing fanfiction. I've been mostly writing papers for school. I'm not even sure if I'm going to continue this story or leave it as is. I guess that depends on the reaction it gets. Also, if anyone would like to become a beta, hit me up!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you see here. Also, mistakes are mine so if you see any let me know.

Faking It

Agent Philip Coulson is nothing if not a professional, and he'd do anything for the sake of S.H.I.E.L.D and the safety of his country. So pretending to die? It's happened in the past and it will surely happen in the future. As an added bonus, it's always fun waking up in a body bag in the morgue and scaring the shit out of the low level techs. The looks on their faces is always priceless.

Waking up after a six hour surgery to repair the damage after Loki's scepter to the chest? Not as fun, but at least he's waking up. His blurry vision slowly settled on the dark figure in the corner. Nick Fury came into view and Coulson smiled weakly, "How'd we do?"

"The Avengers saved the world. You were right; you were the thing they needed to move into action," Fury said as he gave Coulson a once over, "How's the chest?"

Coulson touched the bandage on his chest lightly, knowing that a scar will be there forever. He also knows that he will receive another purple heart, except this one he'll probably receive posthumously. Which is fine, he hates ceremonies anyway. "It feels like someone stabbed me, but I feel that will go away. I'll heal."

"We are going to have a funeral for you in a couple of days," Fury responds, ignoring the attempt at humor but glad it's there all the same. "This will be a first, isn't it? Actually having a funeral?"

"Normally when we fake my death it's using a serum and I'm back on my feet twelve hours later. No time to plan a funeral," Coulson responds with a shrug and then quick wince as the shrug pulls on his stiches.

Fury looked at Coulson, "I want you to lay low for a while, until the dust settles. Then when the time is right we will let the other agents know you are alive." Fury said as he starts to head to the door. Coulson moves to argue, but is stopped by Fury, "That's an order, Agent Coulson. You did well out there too. Now get better, we need you back at S.H.I.E.L.D."

Coulson nodded, not pleased but too weak to argue, "Yes sir." The door closes before sir leaves his mouth to enter the room, leaving Coulson alone to rest.

Two months after the "Incident" rumors of Agent Coulson's fake death start surfacing at S.H.I.E.L.D, and Agent Barton and Romanov think nothing of it. They've seen Coulson fake his death before, and knew that this was different. They were at the funeral; they know that Coulson is dead.

Its two weeks later before Clint Barton begins to feel like he is going crazy. Especially during one of his training sessions when he turns around to refill his quiver only to see Agent Coulson smiling at him from behind the glass. He does a double take only to see nothing but the glass. He shakes his head and continues his training session.

When Natasha Romanov sees Coulson staring back at her while she's catching up on her field reports, she catches on that the rumors aren't rumors and she goes straight to Director Fury.

"Sir I want to know why I was lied to." She says as she's looking at the glass behind Fury rather than directly at him. She is standing tall with her feet together like a soldier, ignoring the itch to throw her knives at Fury over her anguish.

"Agent Romanov, I don't know what you are talking about," Fury says casually as he looks at Romanov from behind his desk.

"Agent Coulson is alive sir. I saw him today while working on field reports."

"Maybe you were reliving the past?"

"Negative sir; I was writing about Bangladesh," at Fury's look of confusion she explained further, "The trip made after Coulson's 'death.'"

"Ah. Agent-"Fury stopped himself at the look Romanov was giving him. Knowing what he knew about her, he decided to come clean. "Okay, so you know Agent Coulson is alive. He did indeed get injured on the Quinjet, but he didn't die."

"Obviously, Director Fury," she replied snidely.

"Director Fury, if I may?" Coulson said from behind Romanov. Romanov turned to look at Coulson, and Coulson smiles, "Agent Romanov, Director Fury did what he had to do. The Avengers needed a reason to come together. I was merely that reason."

"Then why not let us know after we won?" Romanov asked as her eyes travel back and forth between Coulson and Fury, "Why wait until almost three months later?"

"We wanted the dust to settle, so to speak. I wanted Coulson to heal and I needed you and the rest of the team working on the task at hand."

"But sir-"

"Natasha, it's okay. I'd be pissed to, but we did what we had to do," Coulson said as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

Romanov nodded as her tense body slowly sagged, "How will we tell the others?"

"Leave that to me," Coulson replied with a smile.