Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own anything


It has been a little over a day since Melinda woke up in medical and to her great relief Dr Cho is letting her leave medical.

"Remember Agent May, take things easy." Dr Cho informs Melinda, who is sitting on the edge of the bed, "Come back if you feel any pulling or severe pain, don't push yourself too hard."

"I won't." Melinda says.

"And by that I mean a regular person's definition of too hard, not yours or anyone else here." Dr Cho tells Melinda as she spent enough time around the people at the Facility to know that.

"I got that." Melinda responds.

"Good, you can go." Dr Cho says.

"Thank you." Melinda says gratefully.

"You're very welcome, Agent May." Dr Cho says, "I'll see you later." Dr Cho says and Melinda nods.

"Let's get out of here." Melinda tells Steve who is standing off to the side.

"Let's." Steve says as Melinda stands. When Melinda stands her legs shake, "Do you need help?" Steve asks, it being clear that he is worried about her.

"No, I'm okay." Melinda says, bracing herself on the bed before standing up straight.

"Okay." Steve says walking over, knowing enough about Melinda to know that she won't admit that she needs help until she really needs it, "Where do you want to go?" Steve asks curious.

"Somewhere where people are." Melinda requests as she doesn't want to sit in a room alone.

"So, living room?" Steve suggests.

"Yeah, that would be good." Melinda says and she starts walking. As Melinda starts walking Steve is right next to her, walking at her speed so that he can help if she needs.

"So, how are you feeling, really?" Steve asks as they walk.

"Better." Melinda admits, "This is always the worse part of an injury, the aftermath." Melinda tells Steve.

"I get that." Steve realises, "The pain of being hurt doesn't last long, the feeling of weakness afterwards does." Steve says and Melinda gives him a surprised look, "I wasn't always Captain America. I used to be an asthmatic who lost every fight I got into, I know how it feels to not be able to do what you want." Steve tells Melinda.

"Yeah, I guess you would." Melinda realises, "I just wish the getting back to doing what I want didn't take so long."

"You'll be back soon, just a couple of weeks of rest and then we'll be sparing in the gym to the early hours of the morning once more." Steve tells Melinda, as he's realised that for Melinda the worse part of being hurt is that she feels weak and she feels like she can't do what she usually does.

"I'm going to hold you to that, Captain." Melinda says with a smirk.

"Well I guess it's a good thing that I fully intend to keep my word." Steve says with a smile.

"Yeah, it is." Melinda says as they continue to walk.


It has been a few minutes since Melinda and Steve left the medical area they aren't even close to the living area. Out of the corner of his eye Steve notices that Melinda is struggling more with every step she takes.

"You know, Agent May, everyone needs help sometimes." Steve says, it being the best way he can think to offer help without making it seem like he thinks Melinda needs it, "There is no shame in that."

"I know." Melinda says as she leans against the wall for support, "I just….." Melinda starts to say but then she almost falls, but thanks to Steve's reflexes he manages to catch her before she can fall.

"Let me help you, Melinda." Steve requests, "It's okay." he says and in response Melinda just gives a defeated nod, "Lean on me." Steve says as he puts his arm around Melinda, knowing that giving Melinda as much independence as he can would be what she would prefer. As Steve puts his arm around Melinda she puts hers around him to and she starts to lean on him, using him almost like a support post while she walks.


A few minutes later Melinda and Steve, Melinda still leaning on Steve, arrive in the lounge room to Melinda's relief no one is in there and once they walk in Steve helps Melinda over to the couch.

"Thank you, Steve." Melinda says as Steve helps Melinda onto the couch.

"You don't have to thank me."

"I feel like I do, I don't find it easy to let people help me." Melinda admits.

"I know." Steve says sitting down next to Melinda, "I don't want you to change, being independent is who you are, but if you need help I'm here, no matter what you need."

"Thank you." Melinda says gratefully and the two of them exchange smiles.

"Is it safe to come in?" Clint's voice says as he walks in with Natasha, Maria and Tony.

"Really Clint, you don't ask when you're already walking in." Maria tells him as Natasha slaps Clint on the back of the head.

"In polite society you knock." Melinda tells her friends.

"It's a public area." Tony says as he throws himself down on one of the couches, "No knocking required."

"He's right there." Natasha says as she sits down on one of the other couches with Clint.

"For once." Maria adds.

"How you feeling, Mel?" Clint asks.

"Okay." Melinda answers.

"A normal person's definition or yours?" Maria asks curious.

"That's not the same thing?" Tony ask confused.

"No." Clint, Natasha and Maria say together.

"Mel would give an okay to what a normal person who give a eight or nine on pain scale." Clint explains.

"So would you." Melinda tells him.

"We're not talking about me."

"You brought that on yourself." Maria informs them.

"I know." Clint says with a smirk, "It's not the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last."

"So true." Melinda, Natasha and Maria confirm.

"Ohh, story time." Tony says with a grin, as he puts his legs over the arm rest of the chair, "I'm all ears." He says as he puts his hands behind his head.

"Don't you have things to do, Stark? Places to be?" Natasha asks curious.

"No, I really don't." Tony says, "I want to hear stories." He informs them.

"You couldn't handle our stories." Maria says with a smirk.

"And telling some of them will be breaking federal law." Clint adds, not even lying.

"Okay, start with those please." Tony requests and he gets four looks in response, all of them saying 'that's not going to happen.' "Come on Steve wants to hear too, don't you Captain?"

"Only if they want to share." Steve answers.

"Wow, diplomatic answer much." Natasha says amused.

"That's a yes." Tony says, "Come on, just one story." Tony requests, giving Natasha, Melinda, Maria and Clint a charming look.

"Does that look work on anyone?" Melinda asks curious.

"It's works on everyone, men and woman, old and young." Tony says, "Except former S.H.I.E.L.D agent's apparently." He adds as an afterthought.

"It doesn't work on me." Steve comments.

"You're basically a former S.H.I.E.L.D Agent." Tony comments, "I'm just asking for one story, please." Tony says to the former agents and Natasha, Clint, Melinda and Maria exchange a look, all realising that there is no other way to get Tony to stop questioning them.

"What kind of story do you want to hear?" Melinda asks, "I've got thirty years of them, Clint has twenty three, Nat has eighteen and Maria has seventeen."

"Do you know how Fury lost his eye?" Tony asks curious as that is something he's can't help but wonder about.

"I was there." Melinda says, and honestly no one is surprised by that "But you're not going to hear that story."

"Oh, come on! Please." Tony requests.

"Nope." Melinda says as she promised Fury a long time ago that she wouldn't tell that story, "Pick another." Melinda says, there being no room for questioning in her voice.

"How about something not mission related?" Steve suggests, as Melinda has told him plenty of mission stories but not that many out of mission stories so he would like to hear more.

"Sounds good to me." Tony says, nodding approving and Melinda, Natasha, Clint and Maria exchange looks, all trying to think of the right story to tell.

"How about New Year's, 1999." Clint suggests.

"That sounds great." Tony says, "How did S.H.I.E.L.D celebrate the New Millennium?" Tony asks curious.

"In Style." Natasha says with a grin.

"Why you do I think you four had something to do with that?" Steve asks, as from what he knows he would believe that.

"Five." Clint corrects, "Phil was with us, he and Maria were on distract Fury duty."

"Did you succeed?" Tony asks Maria curious.

"Yeah, partly because we didn't know exactly what was going on." Maria admits.

"Why not?" Steve asks curious.

"Because they needed deniability, just in case." Melinda explains.

"What did you do?" Tony asks, being even more eager to hear.

"So we're in DC, at the Triskelion." Natasha explains, "And we had been planning this for weeks, so with a little help from some Sci-Ops agents."

"Willing, informed, help?" Tony asks, as he doesn't think that is likely.

"Let's just say it helps when playing pranks to have a senior S.H.I.E.L.D agent with you, and leave it at that..." Clint says grinning at Melinda.

"You used your standing within S.H.I.E.L.D, to pull pranks?" Steve asks Melinda, looking surprised.

"Probably more than I should have." Melinda admits, feeling a small amount of guilt about that.

"So, what did you do?" Tony ask, wanting to hear the story.

"Well like I said we had Phil and Maria on distracting Fury duty so no one would question why the lobby was closed off for a day." Clint explains.

"Most S.H.I.E.L.D agents were working, we needed all hands on deck, because there were a lot of threats that everyone was worried about, and so basically everyone was at the Triskelion." Natasha explains, "And so at ten to midnight we put an alarm through the building's system telling everyone to report to the lobby."

"And they found what when they arrived?" Tony asks, becoming even more excited as he has to guess that it must be good

"The lobby had been turned into an ice skating ring, surrounded by lights, with beer, tequila, and wine fountains scatted throughout." Melinda explains, "And then at exactly midnight we let the toys that Sci-Ops made for us go."

"Which were what exactly?"

"Fireworks, inside, safe, yet very elaborate ones." Maria explains.

"Wow, you certainly have style, I'll give you that." Tony admits, being pretty impressed with that story.

"How much trouble did you get in?" Steve asks Melinda curious.

"No much, turned out Fury really liked the fountains." Melinda explains.

"Plus we didn't do anything that left long term damage, so he didn't have anything to complain about, especially after a few drinks." Clint explains.

"Turning the entire lobby of S.H.I.E.L.D's HQ into an ice ring, impressive. Very impressive." Tony says with a smirk, wanting to see if he can find pictures online.

"That's nothing." Natasha says with a smirk but before anyone can ask Pietro runs into the room.

"What's going on?" Steve asks, seeing him.

"Fury says everyone to the action centre." Pietro says before running out once more.

"Guess story time is over." Tony says standing up.

"Yep." Clint says and he, Maria, Tony, and Natasha get up and leave, and Melinda and Steve both stand.

"You should go, I'll just hold you up." Melinda tells Steve.

"Mel….." Steve starts to say, but Melinda cuts him off.

"Steve, it's okay." Melinda tells him, "You should get to work. Nick wouldn't have sent Pietro if it wasn't important, you know that." Melinda says, "I'll make my way and observe." Melinda say and Steve still looks hesitant, "I'll be okay, Captain, don't worry."

"I care about you, of course I'm going to worry." Steve says, knowing that for a fact, "But you're right, I'll see you late, Agent May."

"I'll see you later, Captain." Melinda says and Steve leans down and places a gentle kiss on Melinda's cheek before he leaves.

After Steve leaves Melinda spends a few seconds getting her baring before she starts to walk, planning on heading to the Action centre as while she can't go on a mission she is going to observe.


It takes her almost twenty minutes, twenty incredibly difficult minutes, but Melinda arrives in the action centre where she finds just Fury, everyone else is gone.

"Really Melinda? One of these days your stubbornness is going to kill you." Fury says to Melinda says as she walks in.

"Hello to you too, Nick." Melinda says as she lowers herself onto a chair, "And we both know that my stubbornness has saved my life, and yours, more than once."

"True." Nick admits, being able to think about ten times off the top of her head where that happened, "How you feeling, Melinda?" Fury asks, there being genuine concern in his voice.

"Better, but I wish people would stop asking me that." Melinda admits, "What's the mission?"

"Arms dealers, just pass the border. They seem to have some old S.H.I.E.L.D weapons." Nick explains.

"How bad?" Melinda asks.

"Pretty concerning. That's why Maria went, she knows the weapons specs, Tony can help disable them." Fury explains.

"Okay." Melinda says with a nods, "Is there anything I can do from here?" Melinda asks.

"Yes, can you get into the systems Phil has set up from here?" Fury asks.

"Yeah, I should be able to." Melinda says after thinking a minute.

"Then do it. I want to know anything he knows that could help our people." Fury says as he hands Melinda a tablet.

"Our people?" Melinda asks.

"When I first came up with the idea of the Avengers Initiative you were one of the first people I thought of recruiting. You've always been an Avenger to me, May, and the last week proves that." Fury says, meaning that completely as he always knew that Phil would ask Melinda to help him with the initiative which is why he didn't bring it up with her before talking to Phil.

"Thanks, Nick." Melinda says, his words meaning a lot, before she starts to touch different things on the tablet.


"Okay. I might have something." Melinda say after about five minutes and Fury turns to look at her, "Gonzales's S.H.I.E.L.D was tracking weapons, locations either side of the border have been hot spots." Melinda explains, reading off the tablet.

"Any idea who is collecting?" Nick asks.

"Not for sure, former S.H.I.E.L.D agents were their best guess." Melinda says, "This could be useful. Are they on coms?" Melinda asks.

"Yeah." Nick says, handing Melinda an inner ear com.

"Thanks." Melinda says as she puts the coms in her ears, "Maria, Captain." Melinda says.

"Mel? What's going on?" Maria's voice ask.

"S.H.I.E.L.D's got some information that could give you some insight into what you're facing." Melinda says, "I can send it straight through."

"Do it, Agent May." Steve says and Melinda does.

"The information came from the fraction of S.H.I.E.L.D that Gonzales led and it seems like they found that the border, and the area surrounding the border was a hot spot for them. They didn't know for sure who was stop piling, but their best guess was former S.H.I.E.L.D. On the plus side the places holding the weapons were set up in a hurry and pretty uniform in set up. There are blue prints of these set ups so they should help." Melinda explains.

"Yeah, they should. Thank you, Agent May." Steve says.

"You're welcome, Captain." Melinda says in response, "I'll keep looking, let you know if I find anything else." Melinda says.

"Good, good work." Steve says and Melinda cuts the coms.

"Let's see, where else can I look?" Melinda asks herself.

"Won't someone realise what you're doing if you keep looking?" Fury asks curious.

"No. Not when I'm using the Avengers system to access it." Melinda says, "I'm hidden, even from Skye." Melinda explains as she got an alert about that as soon as she accessed the system.

"That's good." Fury says, "You're not going back, are you?"

"I don't know yet." Melinda says, "I'll see how things go." She tells Fury, though in honesty she is leaning towards not going back.

"Okay. For what it's worth I think you belong here." Fury tells Melinda.

"Thanks, Nick."


For the next few hours Melinda and Nick sit in the Action centre and monitor things while trying to find any other information that might help.

"Have you seen this, May?" Nick asks but when he looks over he sees that Melinda has fallen asleep, something that isn't all that surprising considering her injuries and how much she has pushed herself today.

Being as careful as possible, because he doesn't want to risk waking Melinda up, Nick gently takes the tablet out of Melinda's hands and being even more careful he takes the coms out of her ear so that she isn't woken by anything.

Even though he knows that Melinda can sleep in complete light if needed Nick gets up and turns down the light, leaving only enough for him to work in, before returning back to where he was sitting and continuing with his own work.


Hours after Nick noticed that Melinda was asleep the door to the action centre opens and Steve, Natasha and Rhodey walk in.

"That can't be comfortable." Rhodey comments when he sees how Melinda is sleeping.

"Mel's slept in worse places." Natasha says, "But still. Considering her injuries it's probably not the best way for her to sleep." Natasha comments, "Mel should be in bed, but if she wakes then she won't willingly go back to sleep." Natasha says, knowing that without a doubt.

"Well she definitely needs sleep." Rhodey says, realising that.

"Yeah, she does." Natasha says, giving Steve a look, trying to get him to realise what she is thinking.

"I'll carry her to bed." Steve says, realising that it is what is best for Melinda and that that's what Natasha has been trying to get him to realise.

"Good idea." Natasha says and Steve nods.

Walking over to Melinda Steve gently picks her up and carries her out of the room.


When Steve walks into Melinda and Natasha's room he gently places Melinda on the bed, removes May's shoes and puts the blanket over her. Once he does that Steve heads back into the living area of the rooms and sits down, planning on staying until Melinda wakes up.


About an hour after Steve placed Melinda in bed, she wakes up. When Melinda first wakes she is confused about what happened as the last thing she remembers is being in the action centre.

Wanting some answers about what happened Melinda removes the blanket and forces herself to stand up and head out into the living area.


When Melinda walks out into the living area, leaning on the wall for support, Melinda isn't overly surprised to see Steve sitting on the couch with a book.

"Have long have I been asleep for?" Melinda asks as she makes her way over to the couch.

"A few hours. Only about an hour in bed." Steve explains as Melinda sits down.

"Did you carry me?" Melinda ask as that is the only way she can think for how she got in bed.

"Yes, you had fallen asleep in a chair in the action centre." Steve explains.

"Thanks, my neck always hates me after I fell asleep sitting up." Melinda admits.

"You're welcome." Steve responds, "Are you hungry?" Steve asks curious, "I can go get us something if you want."

"Yeah, I am hungry." Melinda admits, "But I want to eat in the cafeteria."

"Okay. Do you want to go now?" Steve asks and Melinda nods, "Okay." Steve says with a nod.

Forcing herself, with a little amount of difficultly, Melinda stands up and so does Steve.

"Let's go." Melinda says and they begin to walk, Steve making sure that he is right by Melinda just in case she needs help. They have walked a few steps when Melinda reaches out and takes Steve's hand and together, hand in hand, Melinda and Steve walk out of the room and down the hallway.