Author's Note: Again, the first few chapters are a little slow. Remember, italics are flashbacks.

Any questions? I'll answer them right here in the author's note the next time I update, unless they're psychic predictions; then I won't want to give anything away!

This chapter, The Mystery in Her, is just that. It's just a little input of how Kayla thinks, all mysteriously and she likes to know the facts. It's suppose to help give her personality a little, show how she thinks. Although, we won't see much of this until after chapter ten, and in the second book.

Chapter Two - The Mystery in Her

Coulson drove. She hadn't asked where, and frankly, she didn't care, as long as she was moving, being occupied. Kayla was happy to get out, and to get a new uniform, although she hadn't put it on. It was in a briefcase in the trunk. She was happy, up until she had to go and think about Clinton Barton.

Compromised. The word rang through her mind, even as she tried her hardest to not think about it, to think about something else. Kayla shook her head and hit it against the headrest. She turned to look at the agent in the driver's seat. "So, Coulson. What brings us to this side of town?"

"Picking up someone."

"They're sitting in the back, right?" Kayla pointed with her thumb over her shoulder. I called shotgun first, she thought. Although it was childish, there was more leg room in the front, and she seemed particularly slouchy today.

But Coulson shook his head. "Picking up someone for the team. Not literally."

"Oh." Oh. The team. Asking someone to join the team, telling them what had happened at the base, even if she didn't know what happened. They were getting the team ready. Coulson had told her about what he liked to call the Avengers Initiative, where S.H.I.E.L.D. would put a team together that would be there when the world needed it; and it looked like the world needed it. Fury was expecting a war, and he was putting the team together. Kayla felt a wave of anticipation run through her. She had only been on one mission, and all she did was help in being the eyes. All the mission was was picking up a package, although she was pretty sure they stole it. But she was asked to join this new team, with new people she hadn't met yet, and it was exciting. "What are they like?"

Coulson glanced over at her when he had heard how small her voice was, as if he was checking on her. Kayla was surprised herself. She was ready now, more than she ever was before.

"I've meet a few of them. So have you."

"Yeah?" Kayla turned towards him, fully, so her back pressed up against the passenger side door. Even if it was unsafe without a seatbelt, she didn't wear one. She hated how she felt so restrained. The author racked her brain, thinking about who she had met that would be on this team of "superheroes." She tested, "Like who?"

"Barton." Just that one word, that name, made her mood sink down again. She flicked her gaze away to look out the front windshield. "He's supposed to be on the team."

Supposed to be. Meaning, now that he was compromised, there was no way on Earth that S.H.I.E.L.D. would let the archer on the team now. Coulson continued. "His partner, Romanoff. You've met her, if only briefly. A few weeks ago, Barton's mission to Paris. That was Romanoff, who's now on a mission in Russia."

Kayla was surprised that the agent was telling her this. He was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., agents who usually kept all of their missions' top secret, classified, to all civilians. Maybe it was because he knew that Kayla wouldn't tell anyone. Who was there to tell anyways? She didn't have many friends, none that she trusted enough with her owns secrets, let alone a government agency's secrets. She thought about who Coulson was talking about, the archer's partner. "Oh, yeah." She said when the name finally clicked. "Red hair? Shoulder length? Always straight faced? Clint talks about her a lot."

When the author first visited S.H.I.E.L.D., she started working with Clint Barton after they found out she liked to throw things. That was six months ago. She was introduced to the agent before her mission to Russia, where she was going without her partner, which is why Clint was free to help Kayla learn to protect herself. He had been the one who willingly threw sharp objects at her, and let her do the same. He had been the one to urge her to use her powers, even if he was reluctant at first. Who would want to teach a twenty-six year old who acted like a teenager?

Kayla had spent her time the years before traveling, writing, and watching murder mysteries since she was nineteen. She didn't even take the time to go to college, to act like an adult. She hadn't needed to. Her father, Jared Hudson, had written horror – which inspired Kayla to write from a different perspective, falling in love with writing – and was the author of four hit series. As his daughter, the girl obtained so much knowledge in all things writing, had even kept a journal in her teen years with little writing pieces to practice. It helped to strengthen her skills. At nineteen, she published her first book, without the help of her father, which ignited the fire inside her. Novels became her whole world. She wrote and wrote and wrote.

The only thing that pushed her even deeper into the writing world was when her father passed away four days before her second book in her series was published. Kayla needed to write, for herself and for her father, even if he hadn't been that great of a father in the long run. She even changed her pen name so the last name matched her father's pen name. When Jared passed, he left everything to her. She had enough that she didn't need to work, to get a job; so she didn't. Kayla lived in her father's house, his office untouched now for seven years. She traveled instead, writing her books. She didn't have any family, except some distant family across the country.

"Hudson… Kayla!" Coulson's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

She caught his eye and hummed. "What did I miss?"

"We're here." Coulson rested his arm against the steering wheel as Kayla glanced around. They were deep in the city, lights lighting up the night. "I was asking you if you wanted to come in."

"Oh. No." Kayla waved it off, and slunk down in the seat again. She wanted to meet this member of the team. Since she had been with the agency, she slowly started to learn how to be social. She wanted to meet him, or who she assumed was a man, but for now… "I'll stay in the car."

Coulson studied her for a few moments, searching her face. This is turn, made Kayla slouch down even more. Finally, after what felt like minutes of the two staring at each other, but was probably only a few seconds, the agent gave her the satisfaction of just nodding and stepping out of the car. Before he shut the door, he ducked his head to look at her one last time. "I'll only be a few minutes." After a pause and a look he said, smiling, "Don't break anything."

"Funny!" She said as Coulson shut the door. She yelled again, through the metal of the door just so he could hear. "Very funny!"

She found herself rolling her eyes, and she couldn't stop the smile that tugged onto her lips. A memory surfaced; Last week, she had been roaming the campus by herself after a practice session. She entered a room, looking for some privacy so she could change her shirt. She was completely lost, not able to find a bathroom anywhere. After checking to make sure that there was no one there that would see her change, she glanced around the room. It seemed to be some kind of storage room, filled with bins and crates down both sides of the walls. It wasn't a big room, more like a bigger than usual closet.

Kayla ungracefully pulled her shirt off, somehow getting her arm stuck in the hole. She didn't know how, only that her sore muscles could be to blame. She ended up getting frustrated after a few moments, and began to thrash her arms. This caused her to move, taking a step back, and she jerked her elbow out. Bone connected with plastic, making a crate tumble down to the ground. The next thing she knew, more and more crates were falling around her, creating some kind of domino effect. Bins clattered to the floor and items clattered out of the lids, causing the loudest crash that she had heard in the whole building. Her shirt had come off in the commotion, and she quickly slipped on the new one just in time for two agents to slam the door open, guns raised.

Kayla felt her face heat up in embarrassment. "No danger. Just some fallen bins and an ungraceful girl over here." She immediately knelt down and started to pick up the items scattered on the floor. The men stopped her, assuring her that they had in under control and that she could leave. Kayla covered her face with her hands, noticing that they still had their guns in hand. Must think I'm an idiot, was what she thought as she got out of there as fast as she could, her body heating with embarrassment.

The author was brought out of her thoughts a second time, but not by a voice. Kayla stilled as she listened, straining her ears. Some sort of buzzing noise that sounded like static. It could have been easily mistaken as a radio, but she checked the car, and it was off. As she slowly turned in her seat, she realized that it was coming from inside of the car. The mystery writer in her screamed at her to find out what that was.

"No," she was surprised that she spoke out loud, but went with it anyways, having a battle with her own mind. "No. No! This is Coulson's car, and I will not search it. It's nothing."

Kayla sat back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest. She was just going to sit there and wait for Coulson to get back. She wasn't going to do it, no matter how much of a strain it was. "Nope. No, no, no. Hm."

She was telling herself no, but her brain was screaming, wondering what it could be. The silence – minus the buzzing that was just getting louder to her own ears – was killing her. Don't do it, she thought to herself. Just sit still. And she did.

Two seconds passed before she spun around and looked at the back seats, searching. The thought, what if it's a bomb did her in. She didn't want to die. Plus, how could she not? She wrote murder mysteries for a living. It was part of her personality to dig.

Kayla's eyes searched every inch, every centimeter of the back seats, looking. When she found nothing, she let out a frustrated "humpf," and then she was crawling over the center console, limbs hitting the seats on the way. After what felt like an obstacle course to get back there, she finally realized that she could have climbed out of the car and got in through the back door. Of course.

As she listened again for the noise, she ended up tilting her head to the side. Now the sound was coming from the floor, and she didn't hesitate to drop, her body parallel to the floor. Now, the loudest it's ever been, Kayla heard it buzzing coming from directly below where she had been sitting, under the passenger seat. Was it in the floor? She looked for some kind of indication that there was a secret hiding place there, and she found one.

"Ah ha!" She cried out victoriously, grabbing the small handle that was barely noticeable. A loud pop sounded as she pulled on the handle, making her sit up, now on her hands and knees. The floor under the seat lifted, and she cautiously tucked a finger under the cover and slowly lifted up. She was relieved to find that it didn't look like a bomb, just some sort of technology that she couldn't even really explain.

Before she could even investigate properly, the car door opened, and Kayla immediately slammed the cover down and lifted her head up to look between the front seats. Coulson was sliding in the front seat, and then a woman stepping into the passenger side, pulling a small bag with her. Kayla was alarmed that she hadn't heard the two outside.

Coulson was looking at her, a funny unreadable expression on his face. "What are you doing?"

"Uhh, nothing. Nope. What are you doing?" Kayla looked back down at the cover of the secret compartment one last time to check if it was closed, and then sat back in the seat. With a glance at the agent, she saw the knowing look on his face and his eyebrows shot up at her innocent look she sent back. She leaned back, as if to get as far away as possible. Then his eyes flickered, unmistakingly down, as if he looked directly at the machine under the seat before meeting hers again. A few seconds passed before a smile fell on his lips and he looked away.

That was definitely the don't-ever-talk-about-it look.

"Oh, well hello," Kayla turned back to the woman, in the passenger seat, who was looking at her with a smile on her face. And, she was in Kayla's seat. She had red-orange hair, straight and a little past her shoulders. Bangs cut across her forehead, and she had a small amount of freckles across her cheeks, and high cheekbones. "I didn't know there was someone with you."

"Is she…?" Question implied. Coulson shook his head at Kayla, who had her head tilted to the side as she hitched a thumb over to the woman in the passenger seat. She was silently asking if this was a team member, since she thought they weren't actually picking someone up. Plus, she didn't want to give away any secret government secrets that even she wasn't supposed to know about.

Coulson barely shook his head, quick enough that Kayla barely saw him do it. "Pepper, this is my associate, Miss Hudson."

"Kayla," she immediately corrected as she too looked at the woman. "Pepper. That's a pretty name."

"Thank you!" Pepper beamed. She held her hand out as she turned in her seat to shake the younger girl's hand. "It's nice to meet you, Kayla." Kayla nodded.

Pepper turned to the agent with a look that Kayla didn't quite catch. Then Coulson was starting the car and everyone faced forward, staring out the front windshield. It was silent; the only sound was of the engine. It was a pretty awkward silence.

"So…" Kayla threw out there, encouraging conversation. The silence wasn't working for her.

"I hope you don't mind. Phil offered to drive me to the airport, since you're heading that way."

Phil? Kayla covered her mouth with a fist to contain the giggles or anything else that threatened to escape. She couldn't believe that his name was Phil. Too bad Phil had caught her eye in the rearview mirror. Kayla cleared her throat and removed her hand, doing her best to put on a neutral expression. She sat up straight. "No, I don't mind. This is my first time actually doing something that's not business in days."

Well, technically, that wasn't true. She was on some kind of business right then and there. Fury was putting the team together, and Coulson had just driven them to do just that. Hopefully, whoever they "picked up" was in. She looked over at Pepper, wondering if the older woman knew about S.H.I.E.L.D., or was even apart of S.H.I.E.L.D. herself. She kept her mouth shut though, not wanting to reveal anything and get yelled at.

"Well, I'm actually going on a business trip…" Pepper continued talking, but Kayla was sucked into memories at the combination of business trip. Why did she have to say those two words? Why business trip? The rest of the car ride was a blur mixed with thoughts of Norway.

End Note: Review? It's the last time I'll ask, promise.

-OnyxRing