Chapter 10's inspiration comes from Munich by Editors.

Thanks again for the reviews. After seeing Coulson's reaction to the very mention of the Cellist in "The Magical Place", I thought it merited more of an investigation. It seems like there is a real, genuine love and a strong connection there before everything happened in New York that I really wanted to explore. But I agree with you all; there is definitely romantic tension between Coulson and May that most definitely deserves to be expanded upon, too.

Fury jerked as he watched the signal from Coulson's car plow into the earth and violently cut off.

"NO!" Simmons shrieked in front of him.

Fitz was stunned into silence, his eyes watering as they stared at the screen.

Fury turned, his unbridled ferocity focused at Rickard. "You bastard!"

Rickard cocked his head. "You knew the risk. Better send that pick up team in quick. After all, if Coulson really is the James Bond you make him out to be, I wouldn't be surprised if he had ejector seats in that thing." The Councilman turned and stalked out of the room.

Fury reached out to Simmons who ran from the room, tears spilling down her cheeks. Fitz still hadn't moved. He looked numb. Fury put his hand on his shoulder. "It wasn't your fault, Agent. Rickard ordered it."

Fitz trembled and put his hands to his mouth. "I…I…"

"There's still a chance he's not dead. We won't know anything until we get in there." Fury glanced back at the screen for only a second more before he gave the orders for the S.H.I.E.L.D. team to converge on the area.

Coulson struggled in Stark's arms, the wind gusting over him as he stared down at his destroyed car. "Could you put me down?" he shouted.

Iron Man brought the Agent down to the road and let go of him just before landing himself. Coulson barely landed on his feet, leaning forward to catch himself and then straightening. The low groan of the car settling into the ditch left him speechless. He took several steps toward it before hunching his shoulders in defeat.

He heard the clomp, clomp of Stark's footsteps in the suit behind him as he came up behind him. "Sorry about your…"

"Lola," Coulson whimpered.

"Yeah."

Coulson turned back to Stark and crossed his arms. The cut on his arm reminded him of the earlier events of that day and he falteringly let his arms fall to his sides. "What…How are you…Why did you…"

"All excellent questions," Stark answered, removing the faceplate from his suit. "I've got similar ones."

"Did May send you?"

"I don't know who that is. But Agent Stick-Up-His-Butt and Cher showed up at my place to tell me the great news about you being alive. It kind of ruined my plans for a romantic evening with Pepper."

"Sorry," Coulson apologized. "I seem to make a habit of doing that to you."

"Suppose it could have been worse news," Tony answered, shrugging.

"How did you know where to find me?"

"JARVIS picked up a reading from your car's heat signature. He kept needling me to investigate. I was on my way over to your "bus". I wanted to get there before your people got back; figured we could use a little time alone to talk about some things."

"Admit it; you wanted to cold cock me," Coulson said, reading Stark's eyes. While the millionaire was usually skilled at hiding his feelings behind cynicism and humor, he could tell he was having a hard time doing that now.

Tony's eyes brightened. "Oh, yeah, that reminds me…" He disengaged the armor from his right hand and dropped it on the asphalt. Coulson barely had time to blink before Tony was swinging his fist at Coulson's mouth. It connected hard and sent him stumbling back.

He swore, holding his now throbbing jaw. "Shouldn't have said anything," he mumbled to himself. "Feel better?"

"No, not really," Tony admitted, shaking his hand a little. "I'd kick your ass a little more but it looks like someone's already done the job for me."

Coulson stood and rubbed his tongue over his teeth. One of his bottom molars had chipped and he spit the piece of tooth out. "You're paying for my dental bills."

"Somehow, I think it will be a matter of if you can even walk into a dentist's office without S.H.I.E.L.D. knowing about it."

Coulson perked an eyebrow. "You know what's happening?"

"A lucky guess. Pepper always said you were such a careful driver. I figured you might have had some help with that," Stark said, pointing to the ruined convertible. "Which, by the way…what the hell is with the flying car?"

"It was a welcome back present from the agency. A, you know, "thanks for dying to save the world" gift. She was really quite something."

Stark stared off into the sky. "The most I ever got was a free meal at Shawarma's."

"Oh, I love Shawarma's. Best chicken sandwich I've ever had," Coulson agreed.

"What do you say we get out of here and we can talk more back at the Tower?" Stark suggested.

"I can't. I've got to stay under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar. The moment they find out Skye and Ward visited you, they'll know you know."

"So what if I know? Fury knows I'm not the poster child for following agency protocol. The most he'll probably do is stand there and utter mean words under his breath."

"They can't find me." When Stark's gaze was questioning, Coulson added, "There's a lot to explain."

"Then, we'll go somewhere else. What's the closest town?"

"I think it's something like "Milford". I was looking at it in the car before the crash."

"Okay," Stark said, holding out a hand.

Coulson regarded it. "You're serious?"

"Do you want to walk, Phil?"

Coulson took a deep breath. His head was starting to pound from Stark's punch and the last of the pain medication was wearing off. His arm felt like it was on fire. Not to mention that Fury had probably already sent agents to the crash area."

"Okay, sure." He accepted Tony's hand.

"It's the happiest day of my life, Phil," Stark commented sarcastically, putting the armor for his hand back on.

"Just shut up and fly."

Skye peeked around the corner of the building cautiously, her gaze locked on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters. Just as she and Ward had started walking up the block, they'd noticed a number of mobilized units come screaming out of an underground garage and fly down the street past them. Though she wanted to believe that the odds were high that it had nothing to do with their visit to Stark or why May had suddenly left, she had a hard time believing it.

She walked back to Ward who was crouched in the shadows, talking lowly on his phone. He hung up when she got closer. "So what do you think? Should we try and get back to the Bus?"

He shook his head. "Mel said to hang back. She said some big wig from the World Security Council just boarded the Bus demanding to have Coulson either put down or put in custody."

Skye's face went cold. "What? 'Put him down'? As in kill him?"

Ward nodded. "Coulson got out before Director Fury got there and May managed to slip out while they weren't watching. Fitz and Simmons are still on the Bus."

"We've got to get to them."

"May wants us to meet her a couple blocks from here."

"What about Coulson?"

"She says they took Lola out of the sky just before she left. He could be in trouble."

Skye fought to keep breathing. Last night everything had been somewhat normal, a pattern she'd settled into. It was all messed up now and nothing felt as if it could get better. "We'd better get going then." She cleared her throat. "Which way should we go?"

Ward put a hand on her arm. "We're going to find him. We're going to fix this."

His certainty and determination had always assured her before. There was something so stable about Ward. He was the rock in the midst of the storm and wild winds. But she couldn't help but let the panic fold over her. There were so many factors that she didn't know, least of all what had happened to Coulson to make the agency want to hunt him down. Being in the dark wasn't helping at all.

All of a sudden, she snapped upright. "Crap, we sent Stark to the Bus! He's not going to be able to help us."

Ward turned her around and they started across the street toward May's meeting spot. "Stark can look after himself. He's more than capable enough to handle Fury. I've read the reports," he said with a smirk.

Skye felt deflated as she nodded. "But now, we're up a creek without a multi-million dollar computer genius."

"You can get us in. We just have to get that bracelet off. Hopefully May has some kind of answer for that."

"Hopefully she has more than just an answer for that," Skye responded, not entirely convinced that the quiet and stony agent had been completely honest with them from the get go. She planned on finding out no matter what the cost.

Chapter 11 will come tomorrow. I've been sitting in the same place all day and my back is killing me! I need to get up and move around, ha ha. Unless I get up bright and early tomorrow morning...expect an update tomorrow evening.