A thousand miles away another meeting was taking place. Officially, the meeting place didn't exist, the meeting never happened, and the two people within had never spoken to another.
"Betty," Nick Fury greeted with what was for him, at least, a smile. "You look well. How's your mother doing? I heard your father managed to visit her again."
Betty 'Director' Masters smiled sadly back at her fellow Director. "Yeah, just for a little while. He actually managed to make it a couple days this time, which is nice. You're looking pretty good yourself Nick. New minder?" Betty tilted her head towards the door.
"Couple of kids got hold of a gun that was supposed to have been picked up in our sweep. They went on a little joyride with it. Caused enough damage that the Council felt it necessary for me to have security when I go out it public, now that SHIELD is out in the open."
"Not exactly what I meant." Betty raised an eyebrow. "I heard about Coulson. You have my condolences, he was good man and a better agent."
Fury shook his head. "Should know better than to trust the grapevine Betty, Coulson managed to scrape through. Give it a bit of time and he'll be fine."
"Really?" Betty gave Fury a sidelong glance. "I heard he was in bad shape. The kind of shape you can't fix."
Fury simply offered her a smug grin. "Don't worry about it Betty. SHIELD takes care of its own. Which brings us to why I arranged this," he stated as the humour fell from his face. "What do you have for me?"
"Gemini's moving again. Intel says he's been in meetings almost every week with Orion."
"Damn Leviathan is worse than Hydra at staying dead." Fury grimaced and rubbed his forehead. "I hate to spring this on you, but I'm gonna call in that marker now."
"What do you want Nick?"
"Possible."
Betty sighed. "You know why I refused to let you do that the last time you asked me. Why should I listen now?"
"Because your principal protest doesn't apply to her any more. She's crossed the line that kept her out of the big leagues. Even if she doesn't know it yet."
"Fine," the female Director said after a long silence. She absently rubbed at her eye patch. "I'd have loved to have her, but I suppose she's no longer a perfect fit for Global Justice. I'm not going to be the one to introduce you or your organization to her though, that's something you'll have to do yourself."
Nick simply grunted. He knew better than most why his fellow Director preferred not to deal with his organization and knew not to push her on it. "I'll have Coulson do it once he's feeling better. Where is Possible by the way?"
"Well," Nick Fury's eye widened as Betty Masters, one of few people he truly respected, began to blush and fidget like a rank recruit. "About that, you see, we might have... lost her?"
"You, did, WHAT?"
