Chapter Two: Job Offer

After his phone call, Coulson had joined me in the interrogation room and asked me questions about who I was, my life, where I received my training, who did I work for, how had I managed to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D, how did I get on the base without being noticed, where did I get my S.H.I.E.L.D ID from, how much did I know about Project PEGASUS, what else did I know that I wasn't supposed to. It went on for hours, and I went back and forth from answering truthfully to teasing Coulson and back to being truthful.

Sometime after midnight, according to how dark it was outside, Coulson was rubbing his temple to fend off a headache and muttered something about me being worse than Stark. "Tony Stark?" I laughed, uncrossing my arms to set my hands on the table.

He looked up at that, his eyes narrowing slightly. "You know him?"

I shrugged and brushed a piece of my hair back behind my ear. "Not personally. Everybody knows who he is though, especially with that new tower that has his name conveniently plastered across the front of it." I chuckled, shaking my head. "Seriously, that's going to get him in trouble someday. He should be more wary of people knowing where he lives."

Coulson smiled slightly at that. "So you're not a fan of Mr. Stark?"

I shrugged again, looking back from my hands to Coulson. "I have no real opinion on the guy, other than the fact that his genius is probably wasted on him."

It surprised me that Coulson laughed at that. After a moment, he calmed down and shook his head as if to clear it. "My boss would love you."

"Even though I broke into your systems and onto your property?" I quirked an eyebrow, but he only nodded.

"He'd probably love you even more for that. Nobody except Stark has ever been able to get into our servers. In fact…" he tapped his chin before excusing himself and leaving the room. I raised my other eyebrow at this, wondering where he had run off to now. He didn't seem like a frivolous guy at first, but I was quickly getting the impression that he didn't enjoy sharing his plans with other people before he actually did them.

A few minutes later, Coulson returned. "Ah, my main man Agent. Where did you-" I was cut off by another man entering after Coulson, who leaned back against the wall next to the door and crossed his arms over his chest. The man who came in behind him was none other than Eye Patch Dude. "Ah, Director Fury."

He didn't seem at all surprised that I knew who he was, he only sat in what had been Coulson's seat and watched me for a minute, probably expecting me to collapse under his watchful gaze. I only stared back coolly, waiting for him to speak first. "Charlie?"

"That would be me," I raised a hand and smiled at the man.

"I'm aware." Not a joker, then. How boring. "Agent Coulson here," he gestured behind himself, "has informed me that you were in New Mexico at the site of Project Pegasus last night."

"Mhmm," I nodded. "Yes, Agent and I have been getting along famously these last few hours."

He acted as if I hadn't spoken, simply continuing his little speech. He reminded me somewhat of a super villain with the way he monologued. "Clearly you weren't supposed to be there. Yet, somehow, you found your way on and off the base almost completely undetected. In fact, if you hadn't gotten in that van with Agent Coulson, we would never have known that you were ever there."

"Are you going to ask me how I got into your systems?" I sighed. I was tired of going over this. "Because I really doubt you would understand even if I did try to explain it to you."

"No, I don't care how you got into our systems." I raised my eyebrows slightly at that, surprised to hear him say that. "All I care about is the fact that you did. S.H.I.E.L.D has some of the most secure servers in the world, and the fact that you considered hacking us 'easy', if you were telling Coulson the truth-"

"It's almost sad, really-"

"-then what I'd like to see is how you would do if given access to our servers."

… "Okay, you've lost me, my man." I tilted my head, leaning back in my seat. "You find out I hacked my way into your system, and your reaction is to just give me free reign over what I've already seen?"

He shook his head, a small grin tugging at the edge of his lips. "What I'm offering you is a job, Charlie. What I want from you is to make our servers more secure, so that nobody can hack into them anymore." He stood from the chair, so I had to look up to see his face. "Coulson tells me that he's explained our little problem with Stark." I nodded once, and he smirked. "I'd appreciate if Stark couldn't see what we didn't want him to see anymore. So, I'd like for you to join us in making that much more difficult for him."

I was silent for a moment, tapping my forefinger to my pursed lips before inhaling through my nose. "So, what you're saying…" I stood and walked across the table to stand in front of Fury, not that it helped much. I was still at least a foot shorter than him and had to look up to see him. "…is that because I successfully outsmarted you, you want me to work for you?" It was his turn to nod, and I burst into a fit of laughter.

Coulson sighed, probably used to me at this point, but Fury took a small step back. "Yeah, rad, man!" I chuckled, and held my hand out for him to shake. "Sounds pretty solid to me."

Fury looked to Coulson for a second before turning back to me and taking my offered hand in his with a quick, firm shake. "I'm glad we could come to an agreement. Coulson will take you to be briefed on our current situation. Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D, Charlie."

With that, he was gone off to what I assumed were bigger and better things. Coulson took a step towards the door before motioning for me to follow him, which I did, locking my hands behind my back. "So that's where you ran off to earlier," I smirked, falling into step beside him.

"Yes," he confirmed, nodding and glancing at me from the corner of his eye. "I figured you could help us out with our little Stark problem. It seemed preferable to having you…punished for breaking in."

I chuckled in agreement. "Well, Agent, I daresay this may be the blossoming of a beautiful flower of friendship."

He scoffed, but it didn't offend me. I knew he'd grow to love me eventually. Probably. "Your first mission starts now," he said as we stepped outside into a black SUV- what I assumed was a standard S.H.I.E.L.D vehicle.

"Swanky." I climbed into the backseat next to him. "Where are we off to?"

"Stark Tower."