Part 3
Disclaimer: all of the characters here belong to Marvel™; no, really.
Silence came back with a vengeance, as the four young adults stared expectantly at Fury, with none of them willing to break the silence. "Well," Fury asked everyone, clearly not very pleased with the silence. "Are you in?"
Skye raised an eyebrow. Normally, she was not silent, but-
"Fine, let's start with you," Fury glared at her. "No, you're not an S.H.I.E.L.D. agent or in our registry," – Skye gave him a look of innocence that Fury didn't buy for a moment, - "but do you want to be?"
Skye made some generic mumbling noises that could be interpreted either way, (for she was that sort of a young woman, after all).
"That's what I thought," Fury nodded. "So you help us out, and we're even, okay?"
Skye looked away first. It wasn't that she was against S.H.I.E.L.D. – she wasn't a bad person, after all, but…neither was she exactly pro S.H.I.E.L.D. too: she would rather stay away from S.H.I.E.L.D. at all, but… you got to play the hand you've been dealt, sometimes, like now… so there was that.
"Glad to see that we're on the same page," Fury nodded, apparently reaching some internal conclusion of his own. "Agent Ward?"
The younger man looked at him, and there was no arrogance or superiority that was usually associated with him; if there'd been, then Fury would've followed Maria's advice and interrogated Ward promptly and directly as Maria had advised him: he hated arrogance in general, especially in the current generation of S.H.I.E.L.D. cadets, assets, and agents at the like – all too often it hid something else, something worse. But this time – there was none of that: Ward's gaze was truly bland, but Fury could see the misery behind this blandness, and that was something else. Fury did not like misery either and tended to do anything to make it go away. Again, perhaps a direct interrogation would be the best here, but Fury wanted to do it his way first – not because he was the director, (and Maria Hill was not), but… just because.
As the younger generation waited for his next statement, (or remark, or whatever), Fury's gaze shifted onto Skye: if Ward was miserable, (for whatever reason – Fury hoped it was because the younger man had a clue about what was going on in S.H.I.E.L.D. lately and didn't like it), then Skye was worried, if not scared: Fury didn't like this either: S.H.I.E.L.D. was supposed to helpful, not scary – where did it all go wrong?
"Sir?" the FitzSimmons spoke together, as they were known to do, (whenever they were not in their alter egos, that is). "Technically, we're only cadets ourselves-"
"Yes, and who else?" Fury shot them a look – a very stern one. "You two?" he pointed at the other couple. "Who are Cookie and Caramel, apparently?"
"Um, intrepid sloth heroes?"
"Some sort of rainforest goodwill ambassadors?"
"Yes, that," Fury nodded, his face inscrutable. "You two want to continue to do that?"
"Yes!" The FitzSimmons nodded immediately. "We are doing something important, after all! And it's not because of the free goat milk that we get to drink either!"
"…I'm sure that it washes away the taste of haggis," Fury said grouchily, causing Fitz to look up at the ceiling, red from embarrassment, while Simmons found something endlessly fascinating at the end of her shoe. "Does it mean that you're all on board?" The other four emphatically nodded. "Good, then we can get to the mission: I want you to help agent Coulson."
There was a natural pause as the others digested just what they have heard. "Why us?" the FitzSimmons asked quietly. "Agent Coulson… he's the director…well, the field director, he's, like, one of the most important agents in S.H.I.E.L.D. Why us? I thought that you two were friends?" A pause. "We thought, not I!"
"I know," Fury nodded solemnly, "and Hill and I have helped Phil already, but now he needs some other people in his life."
"I heard that he had a significant other – a new significant other, but she was apparently 'the one'," Ward frowned. "Can't she help?"
"This is an S.H.I.E.L.D. matter, not a civilian matter – let's leave her out of it," Fury said grouchily – for personal reasons. "For now, anyhow."
"…There's a rumor that agent Coulson might have a child with her-"
"Let me and agent Hill worry about that either," Fury looked away. "The truth is, people, agent Hill and I have helped agent Coulson after his misadventure, but that is not enough. That is not the right sort of help. We need your help-"
"Okay, we're sold! Right, people?" Skye turned to the others. She was not sure as to why she had blurted it out, she just did.
Surprisingly, the others just nodded in agreement. However… "My S.O.-" Ward began.
"I know him, I was his mentor," Fury said curtly, "but John Garrett isn't going to be involved either-"
"Then it is just the four of us and agent Coulson?" Surprisingly, Ward still didn't back down…and judging from the facial expressions of the others, at least the FitzSimmons were interested in Fury's answer for practical reasons themselves…
"No," Fury made his decision. "Not only we'll be in touch – let me and Hill worry about this – I'm assigning a senior agent to your field team as well."
"Who is it?" the FitzSimmons leaned, excited – their first adult agent mission was proving to be a dozy already.
"Agent Melinda May…"
TBC…
