Summary: As Tony Stark flew towards the Chitauri portal he had only one person on his mind: his son, Blaine Anderson. Blaine was Tony's best kept secret. That is until the aftermath of the Battle of New York causes the Avengers to lie low in Lima. But what Tony didn't know was that he wasn't the only one whose life was going to change. AKA the time that the gleeks met the Avengers and made a crazy weird family in the process.

Pairings: Established Clintasha and Pepperony. Pucktana, Puckleberry, Brittana, Pezberry friendships. And as always, Blamman bromance with The Science Bros and their plus one (Clint).

Warnings: Language, I guess, because I have a potty mouth damn it. Also a strong possibility for crackish behaviors, Sam being a fan girl and Kurt bashing. Spoilers for The Avengers, all of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, and up to season four of Glee.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except typos! Those are definitely all mine. This is set at the end of the season three of Glee and the end of The Avengers.

Author's Note: Hello everyone. I want you all to know that I simply adore you all. That's why I didn't break this monster of a chapter up into the pieces that I should have. There is a lot of information in here. A lot. There also might more than a few typos. I tried to catch them, I really did but it's been a crazy week for me. That being said, I'm taking the weekend off to catch up on the sleep I didn't get writing this massive chapter. I hope you all enjoy!


Ice Ice Baby

It took a lot to get Clint Barton angry. Given the utter and complete train wreck that was his life before Phil and Nick, he knew people were surprised that he wasn't a walking, talking angst bomb waiting to explode in front of whoever was stupid enough to talk to him. Maybe he should be but… he wasn't. He learned that if he let the damage show then people treated him with kid gloves. They treated him like he was fragile and he really wasn't. But that didn't stop people from acting differently around him as soon as they heard the words child abuse and orphan. So he learned to be more emotionally distant. He learned to hide behind nonchalance and sarcasm. He had emotional walls so strong he thought they would never be breached. Then, of course, Nick and Phil showed up and shot that theory to hell.

Those two didn't just give him a job. They gave him a home and a family. If Phil was like a father, mother and brother in one person, then Nick was like the fun uncle that gave him extra cookies for dessert and found loopholes when he was grounded. So yeah, they crashed through his defenses and set up camp. They gave him a reason to get up in the morning. They also gave him something to care about. Something to get angry about. Even still, it was hard to anger him. Nick and Phil were beyond capable of taking care of themselves. They had been doing it since before he was even born. So the few threats that popped up through the years never really registered to him. Even with the whole Loki thing, Clint wasn't really angry (except at himself) but he was now.

"What the hell is TAHITI?!" Clint seethed as he read through the files Tony generously procured for him. He saw the billionaire flinch at the level of venom he heard but Clint was beyond caring. Because from what he was understanding about what he was reading, one of three most important people in his life was lying to him. And he had a sinking feeling that it was more than just the one. God, he hoped Natasha didn't have something to do with this.

"It's a top secret project. It's encrypted to hell. It's even beyond Level 10 clearance," Tony replied, watching Clint with concern in his eyes. "I have JARVIS working on it but it's going to take some time. Whatever this Project TAHITI is, it has something to do with why Agent is walking around today."

"It also has something to do with this Clairvoyant that's harassing Phil and his team," Clint mumbled, staring hard at the screen as if the words would tell him something more. But that was all they could find. Phil's return from the dead had something to do with this Project TAHITI and someone calling themselves the Clairvoyant was interested in whatever the project was as well. Yet no one was telling Clint anything. He had a feeling that if he wasn't actively hacking the files he wouldn't even know this much. He probably wasn't even supposed to know about this at all.

At first he was willing to accept that Phil was alive again and just be happy with that. But over time, the feeling that something wasn't quite right settled in heavily. Phil was still the same. Nothing was wrong with him personality wise. But it was his interactions with Nick and even Melinda that caused Clint to become concerned. Clint was one of the few people that knew just how damaged Melinda May was following her last field mission. He knew the woman before and after that mission. So the fact that she was volunteering to return to the field was suspect. When he had a chance to talk to her following her decision to join Phil's team, she only said that she wanted to keep an eye on Phil following his return from the dead. He knew they were close. If he was a braver man (or a dumber one) he would even start referring to her as his stepmother. But he wasn't and he didn't. Melinda returning to the field to work on Phil's team didn't seem wrong on paper but it sparked something in Clint's gut that he couldn't let go.

"She wanted to keep an eye on him," he murmured. He felt more than saw Tony's gaze focused on him. "Something Melinda told me a few weeks ago. She said that she wanted to keep an eye on him because he was back from the dead. But that's not what she told Phil. She acted like she didn't want to go back when Phil first tapped her. But she told me she was keeping an eye on him. What if that's exactly what she was doing. She's keeping an eye on him."

"Isn't that what Spider Chick does with you?"

Clint snorted faintly. "Yeah, but it's different. Melinda and Phil hardly ever work together despite the fact that they're like me and Nat times twenty. They tend to work apart and collaborate when needed. But Melinda put herself back in the field after her last mission went majorly FUBAR. Not to mention, Fury didn't even consider putting me or Nat on this team."

"Maybe he thought you were better off with the Avengers," Tony pointed out.

"I'm sure that was part of it. But he separated me and Phil. There's something here that I'm not seeing. I feel like I'm right there but there's a piece of the puzzle missing. And it has everything to do with TAHITI."

"Well, give JARVIS a few days and we'll know everything there is to know about TAHITI," Tony assured him, crossing his arms over his chest. "Don't worry, kid. You said it yourself, Agent seems okay. He's not foaming at the mouth or sacrificing babies to a dark lord. So I think he's okay. And he and his team are on this Clairvoyant."

"Forgive me for being concerned about his so called team. Aside from Melinda and I guess Ward, he has a couple of science geeks who have never been out in the field before now and a civilian hacker that was spying on them up until a few weeks ago."

"Clint, you know if you wanted to join Phil's team, none of us would be upset."

Clint nodded. "I do know that and thanks. I'm okay here. I just can't help but think that something big is going to happen. And it has everything to do with Phil." He sighed and slumped back in his seat. "Maybe I'm just catching Blaine's paranoia."

"Oh," Tony chuckled. "He's still on that thing with Brittany?"

"Yeah. He's convinced that Brittany knows some huge secret about them. So maybe I'm just catching his paranoia."

"Maybe," Tony conceded. "Or maybe there is something weird going on and you're right for being concerned. It's SHIELD, kid. Secrets are their specialty. Pretty sure Fury's secrets have secrets that have secrets of their own."

Clint refrained from acknowledging that statement. Mostly because it was so very, very true. Nick did in fact hide a lot of secrets. But as a Level 10 agent, Clint had access to most of those secrets. If he wanted to know, he only had to look it up. But not this. TAHITI was above his clearance level for some reason. If that wasn't a red flag, he didn't want to know what would be. For some reason he was being left out of the loop. He sighed, still looking at the screen.

"What are you hiding, Nick?" he murmured under his breath. Tony patted him on the knee but didn't say anything further.

"Sir, I apologize for the interruption but there is a situation brewing in the lobby."

Tony and Clint exchanged worried looks even as Tony ordered the AI to bring up the security cameras from the lobby. Clint knew he wasn't alone in being concerned about what the AI deemed a situation. JARVIS usually handled things without the Avengers needing to be involved. So if he was contacting Tony, then it was something serious. Or it was just…

"Annette," Tony growled, staring at his ex who was currently in the process of berating the poor receptionist. "JARVIS, please let Rhonda know that she can send Mrs. Anderson and her husband up. I'll meet with them on the common floor. Also please inform Blaine and Cooper that their mother is here."

"They are aware, sir. They are en route to the common floor along with Sam."

Tony raked a hand over his face before turning to Clint with apologies already forming. Clint held up a hand and smiled. "Dude, go handle your family business. I think it's time I handled mine. Nick and Phil are hiding something from me and it's about time that I finally confronted them about it."

"You need backup?"

"I think I'm okay," Clint admitted with a grateful nod. "Besides, pretty sure you're going to have your hands full with Blaine's mom and Step-Stan."

"Ugh," Tony rolled his eyes skyward for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Just when things were finally settling down."

Clint nodded sympathetically. Things actually were pretty settled aside from his conspiracy theories. It was officially eight months since they made the move into the Tower and five since Puck and Santana entered the Academy. After the initial rough patches, both Santana and Puck transitioned into the life of a SHIELD cadet smoothly. Even Sam and Blaine were having an easier time at school. Things were okay. And now Annette and Stan Anderson were here to throw another curveball.

The archer dutifully followed Tony down to the inevitable confrontation. They stepped off the private elevator just as the elevator carrying the intruders arrived on their floor. Cooper and Blaine were standing together glaring daggers at their mother and stepfather. Clint spotted Sam standing on the fringes of the family reunion chewing on his lip anxiously.

"What do you want, Annette? Didn't you get your check this month?" Tony snapped, not even attempting to play nice with his ex this time. Good for him.

"Actually, I didn't," Annette retorted. "I thought we had a deal, Tony!"

"Wait, what deal?" Blaine cut in, looking at his father in confusion.

Tony rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I might have been paying your mother a monthly stipend to leave you alone." Blaine's jaw dropped and Sam and Clint both tensed waiting for the fallout.

"You've been paying mom to stay out of my life?!" Tony gave a small nod. Blaine whirled around to face his mother. "And you accepted the money?! You really don't give a damn about me, do you?"

"Of course I care about you, Blaine. Despite what your father has told you, I love you unconditionally."

"Dad actually hasn't mentioned you at all," Cooper chimed in with a smirk. "We pretty much inferred that you don't care by the fact that you accepted Dad's bribe to stay away. And I wondered why we haven't heard from you in eight months."

"Until you didn't get your check," Blaine said bitterly. "Stay classy, mom."

"I don't understand," Tony murmured, already flicking through his tablet. Clearly he was of the belief that if he just found the missing check his ex would go away. Based on what Clint has seen from the Stark boys' mother, Tony was probably right. "I sent the request through payroll on the first. You should've gotten it by now. I wonder what went wrong."

"I did," a new voice chimed into the escalating madness. All eyes were on Pepper as she strolled into the room with a small smirk on her face. "Hello Annette, Stanley."

"What do you mean? What happened to my check?" Annette asked by way of greeting.

"I mean that it is no longer necessary for Tony to be giving you child support for a child you have never actually supported. I have waited four years to have him living under our roof and no longer see the need to pay for you to fly around the world."

"How dare you?! He's my son!"

"He's not a possession, Annette. He's a kid. A kid you've been paid to neglect for the last time! I'm officially cutting you off."

"You stupid ginger…"

"Hey!" Tony, Cooper and Blaine protested in unison. But Pepper brushed it off with a casual wave of her hand. If anything she seemed almost amused by the fact that she pushed the other woman to insults this quickly.

"This isn't over, Pepper," Annette retorted nastily. "You're not going to turn my family against me. You really think that they'll choose a secretary over me?"

Pepper's eyes narrowed. "I was a personal assistant! And you do remember that part of my job was to take the trash out in the mornings. I seem to recall that I had to escort you out several mornings. Even after you got married."

"You were still sleeping with him?!"

Clint whistled quietly. "So this is the part where we leave."

"Oh, yeah," Sam muttered. With that said, the two scurried onto the elevator and as far away from that awkward scene as humanly possible. "This is probably not going to blow over anytime soon, is it?"

"Nope. You might wanna find somewhere else to crash tonight," Clint suggested. He glanced at the clock in the elevator. "You want a ride over to the Academy?"

"You don't mind?"

"Course not," Clint elbowed the teen, pulling a laugh from the blonde. "I'm going that way anyway. It's time I got to the bottom of this whole my kind of dad was dead and now he's not thing."

"You need backup?"

"Nah, I'm good, kid. Just text Puck and give him a heads up that we're on our way."

"Okay. And thanks Uncle Clint."

"No problem, Fire Bird."

Clint snickered even as Sam sucked his teeth. "Not you too! It's bad enough that Brittany has got Thor calling me that!"

"It's a catchy nickname. Although it is kind of weird that she calls you that and starts giggling about foreshadowing."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Don't start!" he warned. "Blaine is convinced that there is some kind of conspiracy going on. He doesn't need any more encouragement."

"It's Blaine. Pretty sure he actually doesn't need anyone to encourage him. He's good on his own. He is a Stark after all."

"Very true," Sam commented as he followed Clint into the garage. "Which car are we taking?"

Clint paused in the doorway of the garage. That was an excellent question. Tony had a collection of cars. Most of them were safe for use by people that were in fact not Tony Stark. Then there were a precious few that were specifically banned for use by people not named Tony Stark. Clint grinned as he caught sight of the brand new Audi Tony purchased shortly after the move into the Tower. He walked over to the wall where all the car keys were stored.

"He's going to kill you," Sam laughed.

"Serves him right for trying to adopt me. Again."

"He's still on that?"

"He's rich. He's never going to stop until he gets his way. And he will continue despite the fact that it is actually not legally possible to adopt someone as your sibling much less a twenty eight year old man. Eventually he's going to meet someone who will give him his way if only to shut him up. Then I'm going to be Clint Stark."

"You secretly love it, don't you?" Sam asked even as he climbed in the passenger seat. Clint snorted and started up the car.

"Shut up, Fire Bird."

"Stop calling me that!"


Puck would look back on that day and wonder how a day that started off so normally would actually be the harbinger for all the crazy. Truthfully, he was able to see that things were actually in motion before that random Tuesday morning. But the truth remained that everything started coming to a head that morning. And it was such an ordinary day too. He and Donnie woke up, bantered, ate breakfast and went their separate ways to class. They were scheduled to meet up for lunch with Santana and his cousins, but Donnie skipped out saying that something had come up. After several months of living with the guy, Puck was becoming all too familiar with what Donnie really meant when he talked. Something coming up was code for 'I'm working on something and can't be bothered with socializing'. Puck didn't fight him on it. He knew that Donnie struggled with coming out of his shell around other people. The fact that he felt even semi comfortable around Puck (and all the random associated people that seemed to surround Puck) was enough for him. Still he couldn't help but be mildly concerned for his slightly older friend.

Donnie had been in the Academy for a full month prior to Santana and Puck enrolling and was somehow even less settled than them. Puck really thought that being young and smart would've been something that was actively encouraged within the Sciences and Technology division seeing as most of them were barely out of their teen years. But somehow Donnie was too extreme of an outlier for them and he had zero friends to show for it. Well, that wasn't entirely true. There was that kid, Seth Dormer. For some reason, he was incredibly popular (Puck was less than impressed with him) and yet he seemed to enjoy spending time around Donnie. But something seemed off about that relationship. Puck was especially concerned about the amount of time they spent together following Seth's transfer from the Operations Division to the Science and Technology department three months ago.

"Hey, Trip?" Puck waited until the man opposite from him looked up from the file he was reading during their scheduled lunch. He knew from experience it didn't pay to tell Antoine 'Trip' Triplett anything unless you had his full and completely undivided attention. "Do you know anything about Seth Dormer?"

Trip leaned back in his seat, chewing on his lip absently as he thought. It was just the two of them at the moment. Sharon was supervising the Science and Technology cadets in some lecture from someone named Fitzsimmons (he totally tuned out after a while) and Santana was sneaking in some quality mentor time with Natasha, who was finally back from her latest mission. So lunch was just going to be the males of the Carter Trio as most of the gossip hungry cadets had taken to calling them. Puck admitted he was hesitant to accept the obvious olive branch that Sharon extended to him but having Trip around definitely helped. He smoothed the rough edges between both of his step cousins and Puck could safely say that he looked forward to his Tuesday lunches with Sharon nowadays. It was a definite upgrade from the full blown panic attacks and terror he used to experience before these little get-togethers.

"Oh, yeah, Dormer, he's another Legacy cadet," Trip finally replied. "His grandfather was a pretty big deal around here back in the day. Last I heard he was working directly under Secretary Pierce these days. None of his kids joined up. But then his grandkid, Seth, popped up shouting his granddaddy's name from the mountaintops. I haven't met him but everything I've heard tells me that's a good thing."

"You have no idea," Puck agreed, snorting lightly. "Everyone around us loves him but there's something about him that… just doesn't seem right. Even Santana doesn't hate him and she hates everyone. She just looks down on him a little."

"Trust your instincts, kid," Trip said, seriously. "I've heard more than enough stories from my Grandpa and Uncle Dugan to know that your great grandparents had excellent instincts when it came to reading people and situations. So trust them. If you think something is off about Seth, then go with that feeling."

"Thanks," Puck mumbled. He cleared his throat looking for a suitable distraction. Finally, he nodded towards the file Trip was reading. "Work? Personal?"

"A little of both actually," Trip admitted. "Remember when you got kidnapped?" Puck nodded. "Clint, Steve and Natasha were supposed to be checking out the rumors of HYDRA resurfacing but they made the wise choice of rescuing you instead. Garrett and I got called out and we investigated and found nothing. But I'm not sure there really wasn't anything there."

"You think maybe you just missed them?"

"No," Trip frowned. "I think maybe something was actually there for us to find but someone didn't want me to see it."

Puck narrowed his eyes. "Someone like…?"

"I don't even know, kid," Trip shook his head, his fingers tapping on the file. "I just get the feeling that Garrett isn't telling me everything he should be telling me."

Puck arched an eyebrow but refrained from adding anything further to the conversation. He noticed early on that despite the fact that Garrett and Coulson met their respective junior officers at around the same time and at practically the same age, there was a very different dynamic between them. From everything he heard, both Ward and Clint had a huge case of hero worship for their illustrious SOs but the difference was that it seemed to be a mutual connection between Phil and Clint. From everything Trip told Puck about Garrett, he didn't exactly seem like the type that would buy his junior officer books to encourage him to talk or teach him how to cook in order to unwind in a healthy way. Nothing Trip said made John Garrett seem even remotely warm or paternal. That was a vibe Puck picked up from Coulson within a minute of meeting him.

"Trust your instincts, cuz," Puck said after a moment. "And just know that if you ever need an out, you have several. All you need to do is ask."

Trip met his gaze and nodded. He tapped his fingers against the file in front of him once again before finally closing it and pushing it slightly away. "So why were you asking about Dormer anyway?"

"He's been spending a lot of time around Donnie lately. I don't know. Donnie's not the kind of guy that someone like Seth wants to be friends with. Donnie is the kind of guy that someone like Seth wants to use."

"You had this talk with Donnie?"

"No," Puck admitted reluctantly. "I don't want him to think I'm jealous of Seth."

"Are you?"

"No! Okay, well, maybe a little. I don't know," Puck mumbled, slumping against the table. He felt Trip stretch across the table to ruffle his hair and glared upward at his cousin. Trip's blinding white grin was the only response he received. Jerk. "Anyway, the reason I've been thinking about it is because last night there was an incident at the pool."

"The ice machine?" Trip supplied. Puck nodded. "That's right, Dormer was the kid involved. And Donnie was the one that saved him?"

"Yeah. But instead of acknowledging that they were friends, Seth acted like they barely knew each other. And Donnie let him. I have this feeling that something isn't right. And I have no idea what to do about that."

"Don't stress it. Talk to Donnie and let him know how you're feeling. He just needs to know that he has friends that don't want to use him. I'm sure everything will be alright."

Hindsight taught him that those words should be forever banished from their vocabularies. Because they almost always preceded an event where actually nothing was alright. Case in point, no sooner had those words left Trip's mouth was Puck's phone ringing. His brow furrowed seeing that it was Sharon. She was supposed to be in the lecture still. A cold feeling settled in his stomach. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

"Share? What's going on?"

"Noah, get over to the Infirmary. Now."

"What happened?"

"It's Donnie."

She hung up soon after that but Puck didn't care. He was already out of his seat and racing through the halls, ignoring Trip's confused yells in the process. Nothing mattered at that moment except getting to Donnie and making sure the genius was alive. And then he was going to kill him for making him worried in the first place.

When he got there, the whole room was practically buzzing with people. He recognized Sharon standing to the sidelines of the madness and eased his way to her side. She gave him a wan look before pointing at the center of the circus. Donnie was sitting on one of the hospital beds with several blankets covering his pale form. Puck could see that he was still shivering and there was a faint blueness on his lips.

"Donnie?" he asked, pushing through a man wearing a suit and a young woman not that much older than him so that he could stand by his friend's side. His roommate looked up with a grateful smile. "What the hell happened? I leave you alone for five minutes."

"More like thirty," Donnie managed to get out around his chattering teeth. Puck grinned. "I got… go… got frozen."

"Like with the thing with Seth last night?" Donnie nodded. Puck frowned. "You were back at the pool?"

"No, I was at the lecture with Agents Simmons and Fitz."

"Oh yeah, the nerd thing that Sharon dumped me for too," Puck muttered. Donnie shook his head with a small smile forming on his not so blue anymore lips. Puck noticed that the shivering was slowing down as well. Good. "When are you getting out of here? I might need some time to figure out how to get our door to play Ice Ice Baby every time the door opens."

"You wouldn't," Donnie ground out.

"Oh, I think you'll find that I would," Puck nodded with a smug grin. "I totally would. And I would get Clint or Uncle Tony to help me do it if I couldn't do it my own."

"I would have to room with the dude that hangs out with Hawkeye and calls Tony Stark Uncle."

"Tony Stark is your uncle?!" the young woman he pushed past earlier blurted before slapping her hands over her mouth. The man still standing beside her rolled his eyes with the same fond exasperation that Pepper frequently displayed around Tony.

"Yeah, he's really good friends with my grandfather," Puck shrugged. The woman looked like she wanted to say something but her friend seemed to have reached a moment of enlightenment and cut her off.

"You're Puckerman," he said, pointing at Puck with a smirk. "So you're Barton's pet that he won't shut up about."

Puck's initial instinct was to punch him. But then his common sense and logic kicked in and reminded him that hitting a senior officer would be bad. He also realized in that moment exactly who was standing in front of him. A smirk tugged at his lips. So this was the infamous Grant Ward. He took in the chiseled good looks, smug know-it-all demeanor and dark, unreadable eyes and nodded to his own silent conclusion. Yeah, the guy was a douche. His smirk grew wider as he glanced at something just over the man's shoulder.

"Yes, I'm Noah Puckerman, Clint Barton's future junior officer. Have you met my partner? She's been handpicked by the Black Widow."

Ward arched an eyebrow, clearly wondering where this was going when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He whirled around with a wide eyes to face a grinning Santana. She cocked her head to the side and held out her right hand. Ward moved to shake it when he noticed the rather large knife in the palm of her hand. Santana shrugged and moved the knife to her other hand.

"Santana Lopez," she said, voice dripping with sweetness. "You must be Grant Ward. I've heard so much about you."

"So much," Puck added. "So, so much."

"Smooth, Ward," his companion muttered sarcastically, patting him on the shoulder. "Are Fitzsimmons the only science people you can talk to without completely alienating them in five minutes or less?"

"We're not in this division," Puck corrected.

"They're in Operations," Sharon chimed in, stepping up to Puck's free side. "Grant, I know Clint can be, putting it very delicately, a huge pain in the ass, but you would do well to remember that Noah is much more than just Clint's 'pet'. He's also my cousin. And you do remember what happened the last time that you offended one of my cousins, right?"

Ward winced and Puck was reminded (not for the first time) that his cousin was a total badass. He was really starting to enjoy this family thing.

"Well, since he's not going to introduce me, I will. Hi, I'm Skye."

"No last name? How very Madonna of you," Santana grinned.

"She means that in a good way," Puck assured Skye. "We were in a glee club in high school. We sang a lot of Madonna."

"A frightening amount of Madonna," Santana agreed. "So Skye, you're the hacktivist turned new recruit?"

"How did you….?"

"Tony hacks Phil's files," Puck and Santana chorused together. Donnie snickered in the background. "And if Tony doesn't then Clint does."

"I really need to put better security around those files," Skye muttered.

"Good luck with protecting anything from those two," Santana shook her head. "There isn't a system created that JARVIS can't hack. Also never underestimate Clint when it comes to Phil Coulson. I thought Blaine had anxiety when his dad came back from the dead but he has nothing on Clint."

"Wait, Coulson has a kid?"

"No, Coulson does not have a kid," Ward retorted.

"Coulson has a kid," Sharon, Santana and Puck said together.

"Agent Barton may not be Agent Coulson's biological child but that's about the only thing that's keeping them from being father and son," the nurse chimed in. "Any and all medical procedures have to be run by both of them. Agent Barton may come across as a nuisance to many but he's just looking out for Agent Coulson. Now Coulson, he's the real problem. Especially when it comes to Agent Barton. He can be a bit overprotective. And he's not the only one," she added throwing Puck an amused look.

"What? I have to look out for him. He's my future senior officer. I need the idiot to stay alive long enough to actually teach me something!"

"Right, like that's the only reason," the nurse scoffed. She checked Donnie's temperature and vitals one more time. "Well, you're still slightly hypothermic. But I'm not going to keep you. I can see that you've got more than enough people to look after you tonight. If there are any changes, or if you're not feeling any better, you come right back here. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," Donnie mumbled. He tightened his grasp on the blanket and allowed Santana and Puck to ease him off the stretcher. He swayed slightly and Puck wrapped an arm around his waist to steady him. Donnie gave him a grateful nod.

"Wait, where are you going? We weren't done talking," Ward protested.

"You weren't?" Puck asked innocently, continuing to maneuver Donnie towards the door. Santana was on his other side, ready to lend a hand if needed. "It's cool. He'll be in our room. Once you find the asshole that tried to literally ice my roommate, you can let us know."

"But," Ward started but was ignored as they shuffled out the door. Puck could feel his eyes trained on his back as they left but the man wisely stayed shut.

"I don't like that guy," Puck murmured as soon as they were completely out of earshot. That of course meant once they were all the way by their room. He lived with Clint and Natasha. He knew there wasn't much either of them missed. "I'm getting some serious Gaston vibes."

"Gaston?" Donnie questioned even as he shrugged on an extra hoodie. He plopped down on his bed, pulling the comforter up around his legs.

"Deranged egomaniacal jerk hidden by a pretty face," Santana translated even as she was reading something on her phone.

Donnie shook his head. "Your mind is a terrifying place, Puck. And it's really bad knowing that Santana can actually understand you."

Santana glanced up with a smirk. Then she turned to Puck. "Heads up, Sammy said he's crashing here tonight. Apparently Blaine's mom and stepdad are here because Pepper cut off their spending money. He's pretty sure World War III is about to break out. He and Clint split and are on their way here. Apparently Clint has a bone to pick with his dads."

"Oh great, the Blonde Wonder is coming. That's the perfect end to my already crappy day!" Donnie muttered from where he was huddled under even more blankets. Puck only smiled at Donnie's grumbling. He knew that Donnie didn't mean them as insults. "Tell him to bring us the pho from the Vietnamese place down the street from the Tower. If we're providing room, the least he can do is feed us."

Santana sent the desired message and snickered as Sam replied back less than a minute. "Sammy says, 'tell Donnie, he knows exactly where he can shove his pho.'" She paused as her phone chimed. "He then asked, 'chicken or beef?'."

"Chicken," Donnie answered.

Puck shook his head. Donnie and Sam had an amusing relationship. They took one look at one another and developed an instant love/hate friendship. Puck didn't stress it because there was an obvious affection underneath the barrage of insults and good natured taunts. It was probably because they were on opposite sides of the personality spectrum. Donnie came across as cold at first. He often held back, not because he didn't like people but simply because he was isolated as a child that he didn't really know how to fit in or even how to try. Sam, on the other hand, was like a hyperactive puppy. He was all warm hugs and open affection. It was precisely because of those personality differences that they had taken to comparing the two to fire and ice.

Brittany really enjoyed giggling about that for some reason. Puck was determined not to give it too much thought. It was Brittany. He was used to the random and sometimes off the wall comments she made. Although… lately, he got the feeling that maybe she wasn't as random as he thought. Because he was the great grandson of the world's first Avenger. His official residence was also home to all manner of genetically enhanced super people. So when Brittany made comments about waiting for years for them and foreshadowing, he was less inclined to dismiss it these days. Because there was definitely something going on here. But it was anyone's guess as to what the hell that was.


Skye turned up the music in her headphones as she tried to ignore the ongoing bickering behind her. Ward was trying to convince Fitz that he needed to make nice with the latest victim of the insane ice wars going on around the Academy. He was convinced after interviewing some of the other students that Donnie had something to do with the ice that was plaguing the campus. Skye agreed with him as well. Donnie was definitely involved. She just didn't know how. Ward, on the other hand, believed that he knew exactly what was happening.

"Clearly Puckerman is influencing him. He all but yanked Donnie right out of the room while I was interviewing him," Ward's voice cut through her thoughts. She rolled her eyes and focused on the screen in front of her.

Ward very strongly (maybe a little too strongly to be sane) felt that Puck was somehow involved in this. Skye had her doubts about that one. She read through the kid's file, the one that Coulson made because his training file said nothing other than he was a mode agent. He has high scores in pretty much everything. Phil had all the good stuff in his files. Probably because he actually knew the kid. But the point was, she hacked his files. Clint wasn't the only one who could invade Phil's privacy and hack into things people other than Phil really had no business looking into… and that didn't sound right at all. But anyway, going by his life before he joined the SHIELD Academy, she might have been inclined to believe that he was exactly the type to manipulate some poor science geek into building some sort of doomsday weapon. But she was in the room when Puck showed up to help his roommate. There was concern there. He was genuinely worried about Donnie.

Then there was also the fact that he apparently was close enough to refer to Tony Stark as his uncle. His permanent address was the newly minted Avengers Tower. And according to all the gossip Puckerman was the great grandson of Steve Rogers and best friends with the Stark heir apparent. So he definitely didn't need to manipulate anyone into doing anything. All he needed to do was ask and people were likely tripping over themselves to give him what he wanted. So that begged the question of who was really pulling the strings here. Everything she read about Puck led her to believe that it wasn't going to be easy getting anything from him. Neither Puck nor his future partner, Santana, appeared to have a good relationship with authority figures. The irony of them being SHIELD agents would keep her amused for weeks. They needed to figure out a way to get Puck or Donnie to talk. And preferably not together. Donnie might have some kind of connection to whoever made the machine but there was another player in this and it wasn't Puck. But first things first…

"Enough!" she yelled, slamming her hand on the table beside her laptop. The three agents jumped before looking at her in shock. "You're acting like children. Look, Ward has a point. It's kind of obvious that Donnie has something to do with this and he has a serious case of hero worship for you, Fitz. It might help if you were able to talk to him. See if you can figure out why he's being targeted or even if he built the stupid thing." She then looked to Ward. "But you're wrong too. Puckerman has nothing to do with this."

"And you know that how?" Ward asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Instinct," she retorted. "He was genuinely concerned about Donnie. I don't think he could fake that. He wasn't trying to get us away from him because he was scared Donnie was going to spill some terrible secret. Puck was trying to get us away because his roommate was just nearly frozen to death and, as far as he was concerned, some annoying douche in a suit was bothering the guy. Not to mention you were kind of being a jerk to Puck too."

Ward's lips twisted downward but he made no further argument. Even he had to see how bent out of shape he was getting over this. It seemed that anytime someone mentioned Clint Barton around Ward, his inner Mean Girl took over. But it wasn't just Ward. Clint Barton seemed to invoke strong reactions in everyone he met. The majority of the SHIELD agents she's interacted with through the few short months she was involved with the team seemed to believe that he was a loose cannon that didn't deserve his high level clearance within the agency though none of them spoke those concerns aloud for fear of retribution from Nick Fury himself.

That is where Skye got really tripped up. From everything she's heard and read about SHIELD's only archer, he should've been let go years ago. Yet Nick Fury vouched for him. Fury protected him. There was a moment a few weeks ago when the team was enjoying some rare downtime. The secure, only used for missions' phone line started ringing. May answered and Skye was treated with the rare sight of the Calvary smiling. It was almost a laugh. An almost laugh that was echoed by a real laugh from Phil when she handed the phone over to him with a fond eye roll. Skye didn't know why she was so annoyed in that moment. But she had been working with the team for almost a year and she never got May to smile. She never even got Phil to laugh that openly and freely. But SHIELD's resident loose cannon did. That didn't seem fair.

But she was not jealous despite what Jemma believed. She was not at all jealous of Clint Barton and his stupid ability to make May smile and Phil laugh and wind Ward up in ways she couldn't even imagine. Ugh, she really hated the guy and she didn't even know him.

But that was an issue for a later time. For now she was focused on this case. She had so much to prove to the rest of the team. She wanted this now. She wanted to be accepted by these people so badly. Coulson gave her a second chance and she wasn't going to let it go.

"So how do you suppose we should do this?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Skye beamed at him. She counted it as a win when she saw a reluctant smile forming on his lips. "Fitz and I are going to go talk to Donnie and Puck. I'm going to get Puck away from Donnie so Fitz can figure out what's really going on with him. I'm going to talk to Puck to see if he knows anything that we might not know. He's his roommate. He's bound to have noticed something."

"Not to mention he is the great grandchild of Agent Peggy Carter," Simmons chimed in. she frowned. "Bit disappointing that he's not a woman. Or British."

Skye opened her mouth to respond to that but found it was probably best to just let that one go. Instead she closed down her work and headed out with Fitz to try and separate the roommates. It went surprisingly easier than she thought it would.

Just as she was about to knock on the closed door, it opened revealing a slightly confused then annoyed looking Santana Lopez and Noah Puckerman. Puck rolled his eyes while Santana's hand strayed to the pocket Skye last saw her slipping her rather large knife into. That girl was seriously scary.

"What do you want?"

"Uh, I, uh we were hoping that, uh," Fitz stammered. Skye took a deep breath.

"Fitz here was just worried about Donnie. After all, he did help save his life," Skye answered smoothly. "He was hoping that he could spend a little time with him."

Puck narrowed his eyes. "And why are you here?"

Skye forced herself not to wilt under the glare being directed her way. Stand strong. Stand strong. "I'm here because you sized Ward up less than a minute after meeting him. That either means you know him or you know about him. And I would like to know what you know."

"So you want dirt on your boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend! Who said he was my boyfriend? I'm not even interested in him like that," she rambled.

"I stand corrected," Puck said, chewing on his lip to hide a smile. He turned back to his roommate sitting up on the bed furthest from the door. "You up for a visitor while San and I go get Sammy?"

"Yeah, but hurry up. I don't want my soup getting cold."

Puck rolled his eyes muttering something about annoying geeks before stepping aside to let Fitz enter the room. He gave the pair one last look before walking away with Santana by his side. Skye took a deep breath and followed after them. Part one of the plan was on its way. She really hoped Fitz could pull this off because she doubted they were going to get another chance.


Nick still remembered the day that Phil brought Clint 'Hawkeye' Barton into his office for the first time. Even after a week of having a stable roof over his head and steady meals, the kid still looked underfed and like he hadn't slept in months. He was a sharp contrast to Garrett's pick, Ward, who cleaned up pretty much right away. He shed his months in juvie like a second skin and morphed into a model agent straight out the gate. Perhaps that's why Nick never really clicked as well with Grant Ward. Ward always seemed like he was playing a part while Clint was genuine. What you saw was pretty much what you got. Nick saw an annoying brat with more mouth than muscle and that's what he got… at first. But then gradually the brat grew on him. He saw that the mouth was a defense to protect what was left of a very battered heart and soul. The muscles developed slowly over time. Gradually, Clint became the agent that Phil swore he would be from the very beginning.

It was no secret that Nick had a rather obvious soft spot for Clint. Everyone knew about it. But that soft spot didn't mean that he went easy on the kid. No, he was just as hard, if not slightly harder, on Clint as he was on everyone else. But unlike the others, Clint never let it get to him. He accepted whatever task was thrown his way with humility and humbleness. Even the disaster that was the New Mexico assignment. Nick knew that Clint didn't want to be stuck watching the tesseract but he was the only agent that Nick could trust with something that important. He only wished the kid had thought to suggest that the damn thing was a doorway that could open on both sides before Loki came through. Really would've saved them all a lot of problems. The biggest of those problems being TAHITI. Well, TAHITI and the quietly seething archer sitting opposite from him.

"What the hell is TAHITI?" Clint asked. The question wasn't directed at Nick but rather Phil who was seated in the armchair beside Clint's. His handler only shrugged before directing his gaze to Nick. The director hid a wince as blue and green glared at him.

"I don't suppose either of you will just let it go, huh?"

"You suppose correctly," Clint retorted. "What is Project TAHITI and what does it have to do with Phil coming back from the dead? Because I know he was really dead. I read the files. He was pronounced dead at the scene. So how did you bring him back?"

Nick sighed, settling back in his chair. He had a decision to make in that moment. He could keep freezing them both out or tell them the truth. He thought he gave Phil enough to shut this whole line of questioning down but apparently he did not. Or rather he did not take into consideration that someone or something out there knew about Phil's resurrection and had questions. He also didn't take into consideration that Clint was smarter than anyone gave him credit for. Of course he was going to pick up on this and chase it down until he got his answers.

Clint was like a dog with a bone when it came to solving something. He wasn't going to let this go. The primary reason for holding on to the secret was sitting in the room anyway. Phil knew most of the story as it was thanks to the ongoing antics of the Clairvoyant. It was better to just tell them the truth now and deal with the fallout together. He laughed internally at the two men. They really were too damn much alike for his own good.

"Okay, I'll tell you."

"Tell us what?" Clint questioned warily.

"Everything. I'll tell you everything about Project TAHITI."

"Really?"

"Yes, really," Nick replied, only slightly annoyed. He did have a reputation for keeping things from the kid… the archer. He wasn't exactly a kid anymore.

"Okay," Clint said, nodding his head. "But first answer one question for me."

"Yeah?"

"Did Natasha know anything about what you're about to tell me?"

"No, I swear Natasha didn't know about this. If she did, I have no doubt she would've told you at some point. She doesn't keep secrets from you, Clint. I'm not even going to try and tell you to keep it from her either."

Clint glanced at Phil out the corner of his eye. Phil laughed quietly before nodding his head. "Okay, then. Tell us everything. What the hell is TAHITI?"

"TAHITI stands for Terrestrialized Alien Host Integrative Tissue I. Clint, I know you're more than familiar with the device now known as the Diviner. I filled Phil in shortly after you rescued Puck."

"You mean when Puck rescued himself and we gave him a ride?" Clint asked with a ghost of a smile. Nick took that as both apology for his earlier (and justified) attitude as well as acceptance of the peace offering Nick was giving them.

"Yeah, after he rescued himself and you all gave him a ride. Anyway the thing is the Diviner was not the only artifact that was retrieved that day. Agent Carter and the Commandos also retrieved what would ultimately become the basis for Project TAHITI. The desiccated remains of an alien that is rumored to be at least a thousand years old."

"Project TAHITI's source is an actual alien?!" Clint asked, brow furrowing.

"You said that the kids bore similar DNA markers to this source," Phil said slowly. "Are you trying to tell me that Santana, Puck and Sam have alien DNA?"

"Skye as well. She's the baby we discussed, Phil."

Phil looked shaken. "Skye… Puck, Sam and Santana are all…. You brought me back to life using alien DNA?!"

"Okay, I'm lost here. Aliens? We knew about aliens before Thor?" Clint asked, holding his hand up. "Also SHIELD found the Diviner with the alien corpse and that wasn't a neon glowing sign that they might be connected?"

Nick narrowed his eye at Clint. "Agent Carter took lead on trying to identify the artifacts but surprisingly HYDRA wasn't too eager to share their findings. Go figure." Clint shrugged. He really was a total brat.

"Can we please go back to where you brought me back using DNA harvested from an a thousand year alien corpse of unknown origins and species?!" Phil interjected, drawing Nick's attention. "Were there tests done before this? Are their side effects? Am I going to turn into a… whatever species you used?"

Nick frowned wondering just how much he should share. His gaze flickered between Phil and Clint and he got his answer. Everything. He needed to tell them everything.


Leo Fitz was a genius. Not that Donnie was ever in doubt of that fact. No, he knew that just as he knew the sun would rise in the morning. He was after all the youngest agent to come through the SHIELD Academy before Donnie himself enrolled. From the second he started with his classes, Donnie heard about the great Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons. They were the youngest until him. He had big shoes to fill. At first, he didn't let it bother him. He didn't care about trying to live up to someone else's standards. He was just happy to be away from his overprotective and totally smothering parents. But over time, his age and intelligence (yes, even at a place for smart people) made him almost alien. He was about to give up and go back home when life threw Noah Puckerman into his path.

Puck helped him. Puck dragged him out of their room and forced him to have social interactions. For the first time since he arrived at SHIELD, he felt almost happy. He felt like he belonged. But at the same time, he knew it was all fleeting. It all rested on the shoulders of Puck. If something happened and Puck wanted to leave Donnie behind, he didn't believe for a second that any of the people that were in his life now would stay without Puck there. No, he needed Puck. And wasn't that precisely what he wanted to avoid? He traded his almost parasitic relationship with his parents for one with Puck. He didn't want to hear it in the beginning. But the more he thought about it, the clearer it became. When they graduated from the Academy, Puck was likely going back to the Avenger Tower. He would probably be added as full time member. He was going to be a superhero and Donnie was going to be a lab rat. That's why he was doing this. He had to.

"I can't believe you figured that out so quickly," Donnie murmured, slightly out of awe and his own personal frustration at needing someone else to figure out his problem. Fitz smiled faintly blushing at the praise.

"Yeah, well, it's just a suggestion. But it's a good design. You might want to check with the higher ups before you try implementing those designs but it's a solid concept."

Donnie found himself smiling now. "That's high praise coming from the Leo Fitz."

"I'm the Leo Fitz?"

"Yeah, smartest and youngest agent to come through the Academy."

Fitz smiled a little bigger. "Well, in her defense, Simmons may actually be smarter than I am but that's only because she loves homework more than life itself. It's just not natural."

Donnie felt a pang of loneliness. He recognized that tone. That's how Santana and Puck spoke about one another. It's how they talked about Sam, Blaine and Brittany. They all knew each other inside and out. They knew each other's flaws and quirks and were amused by them. He would give anything to have something like that.

"Must be nice. To have someone to talk to like that," Donnie disclosed without thinking. "Or just talk to at all."

"Kind of rough living with someone from Operations?"

"Not at all actually," Donnie admitted. "Puck is… he doesn't always understand what I'm saying but he listens. And sometimes he asks questions. He tries to understand what I'm telling him when I slip into science talk. And he does get it more often than not. He's smarter than he gives himself credit for."

"It's a bit strange, isn't it? An Operations agent being friends with Science and Technology cadet."

"I guess," Donnie shrugged, toying with the edge of the plans still spread out on the table. "But Puck is all about being a bit strange."

He glanced over at his roommate's side of the room. Three months ago it was practically bare. But now there were action figures lining IKEA shelves. The shelves were slightly crooked and the result of entirely too much goofing off from Sam, Puck and Blaine. Donnie smiled remembering how Santana wisely dragged him out of the midst of their chaos. Alongside the shelves were pictures of Puck's friends and family. There were pictures from the glee club they left behind in Ohio. There were also some of the Avengers. There was a group picture of Puck with his cousins and great grandfather. One of him with Santana, Sam, Blaine and Brittany. One of him with Donnie. One of….

Donnie moved across the room to stand in front of the picture. He never noticed it before. It wasn't a recent one either. It was taken that night Donnie first met the Avengers. He didn't even know they took a picture that night much less that Puck kept it and put it up on his wall. Puck really did care about him. He was his friend. He was drawn out of his thoughts by a knock outside. The door pushed open slightly and Seth Dormer's head of shaggy hair appeared. He gave a wide smile of surprise to find Fitz in the room.

"I'm sorry, Donnie. I didn't know you had company. I just wanted to check on you. See how you were feeling. But I can come back later."

"No, it's fine," Fitz said, brushing his hand against his shirt. "You two catch up. I should go meet up with the rest of the team. Donnie, I'll try and meet up with you before we leave."

"I'd like that," Donnie replied. Fitz gave him one last smile before easing past Seth. Donnie didn't need to look to know that the older man was smirking.

"Did it work?" he asked, closing the door behind him. "Did he help you fix it?"

"Yeah," Donnie sighed. "It was just like you figured. He helped me and didn't even really think about me. I'm pretty sure they all think that Puck is like the mastermind behind this."

Seth laughed. "Are you kidding me?! That's awesome! While they're off chasing after Puckerman, we'll sell this baby to Quinn and be billionaires. We'll be richer than Tony Stark."

Donnie closed his eyes at the mention of Tony Stark. Puck's self-appointed uncle. The man that let a total stranger spend the weekend at his home. Donnie opened his eyes to look down at the plans. The plans for the ice machine that would make them both a lot of money. He knew the plan would work to lure Fitzsimmons here. He knew that freezing himself would definitely remove any and all suspicion from himself. But what he didn't count on was the guilt that would gnaw at him now that everything was said and done.

"I don't think I can do this," Donnie admitted. "It's wrong. Puck has nothing to do with this and they're going to blame him."

"I'm sure SHIELD's Golden Boy can take the hit," Seth scoffed. "He'll be fine. Did you forget what we talked about already? Do you really want to be some no name lab tech while guys like Puck get all the recognition and fame? Is that what you really want?"

"No, but I just don't think that this is the way to go about it, that's all."

"So you're going to back out now when we're so close to everything we've both always wanted? You're going to go back to being Donnie No Name living in the shadow of one of the Carter Trio?"

"No," Donnie protested. "I just… don't… I don't think that…."

Seth stepped closer into Donnie's space. "You do not want to cross me, Gill. Remember Puckerman is not the only one with family in high places. And my family goes higher than his. My grandfather works with Secretary Pierce. I can and I will make both your life and the life of that pain in the ass Puck a living hell if you try and back out now. So what's it going to be Donnie? You going to have a change of heart and damn your precious friend? Or are you going to man up and make more money than we can spend in our lifetimes?"

Donnie was spared having to make an answer as the door to his room opened once again. This time it was Puck who was loudly singing Ice Ice Baby while carrying what could only be his requested chicken pho. Puck stopped singing, reading the tension between the two men.

"Is there a problem here?" he asked, eyes darting between Donnie and Seth before finally settling on Donnie.

"No," Donnie replied. "Everything is okay. Seth was just leaving. Right, Seth?"

Seth's lips ticked downward before sighing. "I really didn't want to have to do this, Donnie. I thought we could be civilized. This is the opposite of civilized."

"What the hell are you talking…?" Puck trailed off as Seth whirled around producing what initially looked like a gun. Donnie barely had enough time to even yell Puck's name in warning before Seth pulled the trigger. Four lines emerged and attached themselves to Puck's skin. The younger teen cried out before crashing to the ground in convulsions. His back arched as the electricity coursed through his body. But Seth didn't pull back.

"Seth, stop!"

"You like it? It's my own design," Seth announced like he was talking about a new car or something benign. "It sends 500, 00 volts on initial contact. The voltage increases the longer the leads are in the skin. But that's not the beauty of it. No, the beauty is that I can control the amps on this thing too. And as we all know it's not the volts that kills you, it's the amps! Doesn't mean it doesn't sting like a bitch."

Puck was biting on his lip in an effort not to cry from the pain. Donnie could already see the blood from where his teeth dug in too deep. He couldn't do this. Not to Puck. He couldn't let Puck suffer for his mistakes.

"Okay! Okay, I'll do it. Just stop!"

"You'll do what?" Seth asked innocently.

"I'll fix the battery on the ice machine so we can sell it to Quinn," Donnie ground out. "Now turn that thing off before you kill him!"

Seth glanced down at the suddenly very still form on the ground. "Oops, I think it might be too late for that."

Donnie's eyes widened even as he dropped down beside Puck. Seth turned the gun off just a second before Donnie ripped the leads off of his friend. He placed a shaky hand to Puck's neck and felt bile rising in his throat. There was nothing. There was no pulse. He had no pulse. This couldn't be happening. He heard Seth scoffing in the background.

"Well that was unfortunate," he said clicking his tongue. "Look, we better get out of here. If you think the agency is going to frown upon us selling a potential weapon to the highest bidder, what do you think they're going to do about us killing one of the Carter Trio?"

"We? I didn't kill him. You did!"

"Didn't you?" Seth asked, feigning confusion. "You had one job, Gill. And that was to go along with the plan. You're just as deep in this as I am. You chickened out and I had to use the only leverage I have. Now quit blubbering. He's gone and we're late. You're really going to need that money now, dude. He's related to the Avengers. I hear they're really into that avenging stuff. It's kind of their thing."

Donnie shivered even as he felt Seth grabbing him under his arm and dragging him away from the body of his friend. As he moved, his foot accidentally knocked into the bag that Puck was holding only minutes ago. His soup. He spotted the receipt for the order which asked for extra bean sprouts and bok choy to be added. Sam remembered. He hadn't even thought to ask but Sam did. Sam remembered even though he wasn't Donnie's friend. He cared enough to remember. Donnie dropped the bag and the receipt.

"What have I done?"


Phil blinked in wonder as he watched himself on the screen. It was a video summary of the ongoing tests with TAHITI and the increasingly more horrible outcomes. Catatonia, psychosis, hypergraphia, aphasia… the list seemed to continue on. He sat in horrified silence as he watched himself continue to struggle with these tests. The final video was filmed shortly before the Invasion. In it, the video Phil was clearly uncomfortable with continuing the tests but he sighed and recommended that they carry on with the project. Phil didn't remember making the video or working on the project. He was actually kind of happy about that fact. But he didn't need his memories to know why he would continue with the tests.

"Why would you do that?" Clint asked once the video was over. "Why would you keep the tests going when it was making everyone lose it? On that note, how has Phil not completely lost it?"

"To answer that last question, it's because we wiped his memory of any and everything having to do with TAHITI. We did the same for all the other agents. Except we set the others up with new identities away from SHIELD."

"Why didn't you do that with Phil?" Clint asked. His voice was quiet as if by making the suggestion Nick was going to scoop Phil up and erase him from the archer's life. Phil placed a hand on Clint's shoulder and sighed.

"Same reason I wanted to continue with the tests," Phil said. "Because we were hoping that TAHITI could bring an Avenger back if needed. I suppose I was a bit more limited in my thinking. While I wanted to make sure we could bring back an Avenger, I'm pretty sure I was only thinking of one Avenger in particular." Clint looked confused. "Every person tapped for the Avengers Imitative possessed some sort of superhuman ability either through nature, mechanics or chemicals. All but one. I think the reason I wanted to continue with the testing was because I was worried about something happen to that one in particular. And I couldn't stand the idea of something happening to that particular one."

"I don't get it," Clint mumbled. "Who was the Avenger?"

"Really, Barton? You still don't get it almost twelve years later? What the hell is it going to take for you to understand that you're important to people?" Nick asked, incredulously. Clint's eyes widened.

"Me? You…. I… but that means that… you intended me to be in the Avengers from the beginning? I thought I was in because I happened to be there."

Phil repressed the urge to roll his eyes. He also had to push down on the anger that coursed through his veins every time Clint let his self-loathing slip to the surface. Because it didn't matter how much progress he and Nick made with the archer, there would always be this part of Clint that wondered why anyone thought he was worth it. He took a deep breath and hit Clint on the back of the head. Hard.

"Ouch! What the hell, Phil?"

"Why are you surprised that we wanted you in the Avengers? There are very few SHIELD agents we would've trusted with that responsibility. Besides, you already had a codename. It worked. So stop asking questions because of course you were handpicked for the Avengers Initiative." Clint laughed, ducking his head somewhat.

"Okay. I get it. Thanks." He took another moment to quietly laugh before looking back up. "So where do we go from here? We have to tell the kids that they're aliens. Or at least that they have alien DNA."

"You're right," Nick sighed. That was not going to be a fun conversation .the Avengers were highly attached to the three kids. The attachment was, of course, stronger between Steve and his great grandson. Nick was not looking forward to having to tell them anything about those kids. Especially Steve.

"But first maybe we should have some answers about what kind of alien we're dealing with," Clint said. "We need to talk to our alien expert."

"We have an alien expert?"

The younger man didn't reply. He merely gave them a look that questioned their intelligence and character before dragging Nick's phone across the desk. He turned on the speakerphone before punching in a number too quickly for him to process. It took a few rings and then someone answered. An all too familiar someone.

"Thor's phone, Darcy speaking."

"Hey, Darce. It's me."

"Sup, sexy? You need the big guy?"

"Yeah, is he around?"

"Yup, Jane is trying to convince him that there aren't people trapped in the phone. Again. Did you really have to make his lock screen wallpaper a picture Tony pretending to be locked in a box? You're such a troll, Barton." Phil couldn't help but chuckle at that one. "Oh, hey there, Son of Coul!"

"Hello, Darcy. Director Fury is here too."

"Oh, it's serious then. Hold on a minute," Darcy said. She clearly put her hand over the phone as the sound was somewhat muffled. "Okay, he's coming."

"Clint, Darcy said you have need of me?"

"Yeah, we have a question about aliens. Director Fury is going to describe this one to you. I was hoping you might have an idea about who it could be."

"That sounds reasonable."

Nick cleared his throat and leaned forward. "He appears to have died over a thousand years ago but his body is still decaying. The tissue has great regenerative properties. Our scientists guess that he was around eight feet tall before death. He has blue skin."

"Blue skin," Thor repeated. "I cannot be certain without seeing for myself but it appears that you have a member of the Kree people. But that should be impossible. No member of the Kree has ever visited Earth. Unless…"

"Unless what?"

Thor sighed. "There were rumors of the Kree expanding to worlds in the Nine Realms and beyond. Their goal was to perform experiments on the peoples of these worlds. My father sent me to investigate these rumors. I visited Earth and found no sign of the Kree. Hemidall has watched over human development and he has not noticed any sign of Kree involvement."

"But?" Clint prompted.

Thor laughed grimly. "But Hemidall is not all knowing. He may have missed something. There is a possibility that the Kree did visit Earth and completed their goal without our knowledge."

"If they did somehow mix their DNA with those of the humans at the time, it's feasible to say that it could've been passed down through the years. There could be people today that have alien DNA."

"Yes," Thor agreed. "None of the other experiments we came across worked. It would be strange if the experiments were a success on Earth. But I'm guessing given your line of questioning that you have found individuals who are of Kree descent." There was a pause. "It's the young ones, is it not?"

"Yes," Clint answered without hesitation. Because of course he did. Phil really did need to work with the man on learning when to keep some things quiet. He glared at the archer who ignored him in favor of focusing on the phone. "But you already knew that didn't you, Thor?" Phil and Nick exchanged glances.

"I suspected there was something more than human about them. But I did not suspect that it could be the Kree. If I may, I would like to see this body that you speak of. I would like to confirm our suspicions before I search for answers."

"Very well, I'll send Clint to pick you and I'll take you all to the Guest House where we've been keeping him."

"I will await your arrival," Thor said before disconnecting the call.

Phil sat back in his seat. Idly, his fingers traced a pattern on the arm of his chair. He didn't need to look to know that it was the same pattern he had been drawing a lot of lately. He opened his mouth to say something but he paused for a moment looking at Clint. He looked exhausted and Phil knew that had everything to do with the archer's concern for Phil and now for the kids he considered his family. No, the symbols weren't worth mentioning. He saw the video. He heard all the symptoms. Phil was reasonably sure that he was perfectly fine.


It was a well-known fact that Aaron Puckerman was an abusive asshole. Well, he still could be an abusive asshole but he was no longer around Puck so Santana's interest in his current status was minuscule. The important thing to take away from this was that he was an abusive asshole towards his own damn son who was, back then, the sweetest and kindest kid that anyone could've asked for. But his father didn't appreciate that or him. Instead of hugs and love, he offered up abuse of the physical and verbal variety. Santana knew about it to a certain extent but her own family life left a lot to be desired. She didn't know how to help him other than just be a friend. That is until the day that Aaron beat Puck so badly, the man thought that he actually killed his son. He was certain of the fact that he fled the scene immediately and didn't come back for eight years.

The truth was, Aaron did come dangerously close to kill him. In the end, he broke several of Puck's ribs and one of them pierced his lungs. It wasn't the first broken bone he received at the hands of his father but it was the first one that Santana felt as if someone broke her ribs. Somehow she was feeling his pain. She felt it as if it were her own and she knew that she had to get to him. She never rode her bike so fast before.

Eight years after the fact, Santana still didn't know how or why she knew Puck was hurting that day. She just accepted that for that one brief moment in time, they were connected mentally. Her phantom pain forced her to alert people that Puck was hurting. When she went to visit him in the hospital that afternoon, a doctor told her that it was because she got an ambulance to her friend so quickly that he was still alive. The doctor also slipped her a few lollipops on the sly. She really did love Rachel's dad.

She never experienced anything like that again. Puck had been hurt in various ways over the course of the past eight years through football, fight clubs and his own rampant stupidity but she never felt it again. She honestly was of the belief that she made it up or just had a lucky guess that something was wrong. That is until a Tuesday when she was eighteen years old and her whole chest suddenly felt like it was on fire. Despite having only experienced that one time in her life, she knew what it meant.

"Puck," she gasped out breathlessly. Sam was holding onto her arm in case her trembling limbs decided to give out. Skye was standing by with a wide eyed confused look on her face. "Sammy, we have to get to Puck. He needs us."

"What's going on? He said he'd be right back after he checked on Donnie."

"No," she protested, pushing away from him and swaying a bit. "No, we need to get to him now. Trust me, Sammy. I know it sounds weird. But this happened before when we were ten and he almost died then. I can't let him die."

Sam stared at her for a brief moment before nodding. With that said, he supported her as they raced upstairs to Puck's room. She was dimly aware of Skye following after them but she didn't pay it any attention. Her sole focus was on getting to that room. She prayed that she would get up there and find out that she was panicking for nothing. She would find that he was fine. Everything was….

He was lying on the floor in the center of the room. His limbs sprawled awkwardly. The bag carrying the soup was also on the floor a short distance away from him. The contents spilling out of the bag. The liquid forming in a straight line away from the body. The body… the body.

"Puck?" Sam's choked voice snapped her out of trance state. "He doesn't look like he's breathing. San, he's not breathing."

She wanted to panic with him but she knew better. The first time this happened, he was almost dead but he came back and lived to annoy her and the world for ten more years. There was no way she was going to believe that this connection let her feel him in need and didn't give her the time to save him. She entered the room and dropped to her knees beside him. She pressed her fingers against his neck. Just as she suspected there was no pulse.

"Sammy, get the First Aid kit that Natasha packed us. It should be in his closet." Sam nodded as she ripped Puck's t-shirt and started pumping her hand against his chest. This wasn't going to work. He was too far gone. She didn't know what happened but she knew that he needed something stronger than this. But it would do for now.

"What is going on? You should be calling for an ambulance," Skye protested. Santana rolled her eyes and continued to work, breathing air into his lungs and damn near praying that he would start breathing on his own. She heard Sam fumbling through Puck's closet but kept her focus on keeping count. Finally, she heard Sam let out a cry of triumph. He came rushing over, sliding across the messy soup remains to land beside her. He pulled out the machine she knew was in there and started pressing the pads against Puck's bare skin. "Is that a portable defibrillator?! Why do you just have that in a first aid kit?"

"You've clearly never met Clint Barton," Sam quipped. "Okay, move back, San."

She did as he requested and scooted back as the machine assessed his vitals. It too found no sign of life. She winced as the machine beeped before sending a jolt of electricity through her best friend's too lifeless body. The heart monitor line remained flat. There was another beep and another jolt. Still no response.

"Come on, come on," she whispered. Her hands clenched tightly at her sides. "You can't do this to me, dumb ass. We're supposed to be partners. I can't do this without you." Another beep and another jolt. "You can't do this to Steve, Noah. Losing you will kill him. So come back!" Another beep and another jolt. This time a jagged line formed on the screen. But that was drowned out by loud, gasping breath he took as his body arched upwards. Santana laughed breathlessly in relief. She clasped his hand in hers watching as his heartbeat started to regulate itself slowly.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again," Sam muttered, rocking back to sit down completely. He reached out blindly and let his hand rest on Puck's shoulder.

"Am I missing something? Why are we not calling for an ambulance or something? He should be in a hospital."

"He'll be okay once we get him home," Santana assured her. "We don't really trust the doctors around here. They seem a little too eager when it comes to his blood. The only doctor we trust is Bruce Banner. And before we call him, we need to know what happened here."

"Or it won't be Uncle Bruce that shows up. It'll be his less friendly side, the Hulk," Sam chimed in with a tired laugh. He glanced down at Puck and smiled brightly. Santana looked down in time to see Puck's eyes fluttering open. "Hey, Sleeping Beauty. Welcome back."

"S'mmy?" he murmured. "Your wings are on fire."

Sam frowned. "My what?"

"Wings…. Your wings on… fire."

"Uh, okay. I'll put them out. Thanks for telling me," Sam said slowly.

"S'mmy?"

"Yeah, buddy?"

"Can you tell Skye to stop shaking?" Sam looked over at Skye who was sitting perfectly still on the bed. She sat up straighter and threw them a look. Puck glanced blearily in her direction. "'s better. Thanks."

"Hey, babe," Santana whispered, petting his cheek softly. His unfocused gaze met hers and a silly smile formed on his face. "What are you looking at?"

"Your eyes are purple but they're pretty."

"Purple eyes, huh? Yeah, Uncle Bruce is going to have his work cut out with you tonight, buddy," Santana murmured, shaking her head. "But first things first, what happened? You were coming to get Donnie and then we found you like this. So what happened?"

Puck's brow furrowed as he tried to focus through the pain and fuzziness in his head. She brushed her fingers through his hair. Then she could see the clarity in his eyes. "Donnie…"

"Donnie did this?" Skye asked, surprised.

"No, Seth… but Donnie working with him," Puck replied. "Seth made him."

Santana continued to brush her fingers through his hair as she tried to piece the puzzle together. "This is about the random freezing that's been happening, isn't it?" Puck nodded tightly. "Of course, Donnie made the machine probably because Seth convinced him they were going to make a lot of money off of it. But Donnie is a bigger bleeding heart than you and he probably changed his mind. So Seth used the only leverage he had against Donnie."

"Puck," Sam finished. He pointed to several nasty looking burns on Puck's chest. "He used a Taser on him. From the looks of it, it was a homemade one."

"I'm going to rip that smarmy bastard's head off," Santana promised. She tapped Puck's cheeks as she saw his eyes slipping shut. "Hey, two more questions you need to answer and then we call Uncle Bruce and Uncle Tony and you can get some sleep back at the Tower. When is this sale supposed to happen and who is the buyer?"

"Um, he said today and Quinn?"

"Q is buying weapons of mass destruction?" Santana asked, looking up at an equally confused Sam. Skye inched closer.

"Do you think they meant Ian Quinn?" she suggested. Puck narrowed his eyes in thought before nodding again. "That's really not good. Ian Quinn is a very bad man."

"He's buying an ice death ray off a couple of teenagers. He did not strike me as a very good man," Sam countered. "We have any idea where this meet is supposed to happen?"

There was a loud crash outside. The three more mobile people raced to the window to see a whirlwind of activity coming from the far edge of the campus. Santana rolled her eyes. She had a really good idea what that was about. Her confirmation came a moment later when a huge chunk of ice slammed against the side of the dorm building.

"Son of a bitch," she grumbled. "So much for trying to keep this quiet."

"We have to go," Puck announced. He was sitting up and trying to actually stand. Santana huffed as she stomped back over to the idiot. "San, we have to save Donnie."

"Donnie is a big boy. He got himself into this mess. He can get himself out."

"Would you do it for me?"

Santana clenched her jaw before turning to face Sam. "I hope you feel comfortable running with a grown man on your back."

"You do remember who we live with, right? This will still be the least weird thing I've done this week." Santana nodded.

"Touché."


Clint was really starting to miss the days when they were in Ohio and the most stressful thing he had to worry about was how many cookies Tony would steal before the kids got home from school. Things were decidedly simpler then. His biggest regret was ever opening his mouth to stay that he was bored in the first place. He knew better than most that there was rarely a middle ground in life. You were either bored out of your mind or up to your nose in shit. Right now, Clint really felt like they were up to their eyeballs in it.

He dragged his knees up to his chest as he stared down at the Infirmary on the Bus. Everyone was frantically moving about as the staff worked with Fitz and Simmons (they were separate people, Clint made a mental note of this for later pondering) to help Donnie completely defrost. It didn't look like it was easy or even painless but the alternative was that he could've ended up dead like Seth. Clint felt bad about that. He really wanted to take a crack at the idiot that dared to hurt a member of his family.

Thankfully, Puck was okay. He shifted his gaze until it landed on the teen. He was once again stuck in a hospital bed with an anxious Sharon and Trip hovering on one side while Santana and Sam crowded the other. He wanted to be down there as well but… he spotted the familiar blonde standing behind Sharon offering silent support. Bobbi. His ex-wife showed up with her best friend. He retreated up to the rafters overlooking the open area of the Infirmary. He smiled softly as a pair of hazel eyes met his. He saw Puck's brow furrow. He shook his head in response. There was no use in getting the kid worked up. He mouthed the word 'later' and gradually Puck relaxed. There would be plenty of time for Clint to visit with his protégé when he didn't run the risk of getting into a screaming match with his other visitors.

Puck was facing at least a week of bed rest, possibly more once they got him back to the Tower where Bruce was already preparing to receive them. Bruce seemed convinced that Puck's super soldier blood would be enough to heal any lingering physical and cognitive damage inflicted by his near death experience. Clint knew it wasn't just super soldier blood working in the kid's favor. There was also the DNA he received from the Kree. Thor confirmed it. Clint idly wondered if any of them were going to turn blue or develop some sort of kickass superpower. Sadly, Thor didn't think any of this was cool. He said anything to do with the Kree should be regarded with extreme caution. Clint was pretty good at reading between the lines. He knew it was only Thor's fondness for Puck, Sam and Santana that was keeping him from murdering them all. Clint didn't know anything about the Kree but he did know Puck, Santana and Sam. He trusted them. No alien DNA was going to change that.

He registered her presence a few minutes before she started talking. He took advantage of those few moments to work on how he felt about the hacker known as Skye. If he was a more mature person, he would be able to verbalize that he was jealous of her. But he wasn't and he couldn't. He wasn't jealous of her by a long shot. He just didn't like her. She was all wide eyed innocence that was poorly covered by jokes, deflection and sarcasm. That was his thing. Just like he was the only one that made those fond smiles form on May's lips. Just like Coulson was his mentor. He was not jealous of some nobody hacker named Mary Sue Poots.

Okay, so yeah, he was definitely jealous.

"I wondered why we had all these really high places around here," Skye said as she stood behind him. "I thought at first that Coulson and Fury were just sadists that liked to torture the short people but I get it now. It's for you, isn't it?"

"Wouldn't know," Clint replied, not bothering to look up at her. "This is the first time I've ever been allowed on here."

"Oh," she muttered. A tense silence fell over the pair. "So why are you up here? I thought you would've been down there."

"It's a little crowded."

"So which one of them is your ex?" Clint did look up at that point. She flushed. "I just mean that as much as Puck talked about you, it seemed like you were close. And the only reason you would be avoiding being around him would probably be because you were trying to avoid one of them. So I just assumed that you used to date one of them and I'm just going to shut up now."

Clint felt a smile forming. "Bobbi."

"Bobbi, the impossible gorgeous blonde over there?"

"That would be the one. We parted on less than amicable terms."

"Meaning what exactly?"

"Meaning that her best friend/really, really big dude nicknamed Mack came to kick my ass/serve me our divorce papers while she set fire to my bike."

Skye winced, sitting down beside him. "What did you do to deserve that?"

"According to her version of events, I was cheating on her with my partner."

"Were you?"

Clint shrugged. "Maybe I was on some level. Nat and I, we… there's always been this thing between us. But we never crossed any line while I was married. I would never do that."

"Never thought you would," Skye admitted. "I don't think Coulson would talk about you so fondly if you were the kind that would cheat on his wife."

"Coulson talks about me?"

"Yeah," Skye muttered. "All the time."

"Really?" Clint asked, wincing at the surprise in his voice.

"Oh, yeah," Skye replied, seemingly unaware of how bitter she sounded in that moment. "You're almost all he ever talks about."

"If it's any consolation, I've heard a lot about you too," Clint admitted. "He really likes you, you know? He doesn't even talk about the others as much as he talks about you. I didn't even know that Fitz and Simmons were two separate people until today. That was kind of mind-blowing."

She snickered, looking to the side. "It does help. Thanks, Agent Barton."

"Hey, there will be none of that Agent crap," Clint chided. He nudged her in the side. "You can call me Clint the Great or Magnificent. It's up to you."

"How about Clint the Full of Crap?"

"Nah, that one was taken by the ex."

"That was definitely less than amicable terms," Skye said, laughing softly. Clint found himself smiling as well.

"Skye, can I ask you a question?"

"You just did." Clint glared at her from the corner of his eye. She smiled brightly. "Go ahead."

"Why did you go along with their story?"

"What story?"

Clint arched an eyebrow. "The story they just told Phil that totally and completely removed Donnie from any responsibility for the machine."

"That wasn't a story. That was what happened."

"Uh huh. Look I've seen Dormer. He definitely didn't come up with the ice machine on his own. He also didn't come up with a plan to lure Fitz to the campus. That was Donnie. I get why they protected him. But I was wondering why you did."

Skye shrugged, leaning forward so that her arms were resting against the railing. "I'm sure you read my file. I've been in and out of foster homes. I didn't have friends or family growing up. And I guess, in the span of a few hours, I felt more connected to them than I have to anyone in my life. I felt like they could be really good friends. Even Donnie."

Clint chewed on his lip as he sat next to Coulson's latest stray. He supposed he was lucky. He managed to get a good eleven years in before Coulson found another one to distract his attention away from Clint. He wasn't delusional. He saw the way that Coulson looked at Skye. It was the way he looked at Clint. It was really a matter of time, he supposed. Phil had a big heart and an obvious affection for orphans. He was just happy that he picked a good one. He definitely didn't want to know what would happen if Phil tried to pass off Ward. Then again, he imagined Ward wouldn't really be a fan of that idea either. Now, he kind of wanted it to happen just to see the look of horror and disgust on Ward's face. He laughed, earning a quizzical look from Skye.

"Don't worry about it, kid."

"You do know you're like barely five years old than me, right? The kid thing doesn't work on me."

"Oh no, I have waited years for a little sibling so I could pull the kid card. You will not deprive me of this or ruin it for me. Because it has seriously been a super long time. I really thought Phil and Melinda would've come through a lot sooner but hey, better late than never. And they could've given me worse for a little sister."

"Little sister… you think that, I… me?"

"Yes you, Mary Sue. Now Santana tells me you wanted dirt on Ward. Did you ever hear about the time he insulted Trip, Puck's step cousin or whatever and Sharon, the other blonde down there, ripped him a new one in front of all these visiting Chinese dignitaries?"

Skye chewed on her lip in an obviously failing attempt not to laugh. She finally gave in to the urge pulling a laugh from him as well. He noticed Phil standing not too far away watching the pair getting to know each other. But he figured Phil had a lot on his mind. And if watching his kids was the way that he was going to help clear some of this thoughts, Clint had no problem playing the role he was meant to.

"She ended up tasering him. Although after today Tasers aren't really funny… unless they happen to Ward. It's always funny when it happens to Ward."


Donnie woke slowly and painfully. The last thing he remembered was the machine going haywire. The battery worked… a little too well. He couldn't shut it off. He remembered Seth getting zapped by the machine. He remembered Santana and Sam with a loopy looking Puck on his back arriving along with one of the agents who interrogated him before. He remembered doing everything in his power to redirect the machine from his friends. He felt a burst of cold and then nothing. He opened his eyes slowly, wincing at the bright light overhead. He closed his eyes again and listened to his surroundings.

"Do you have any twos?"

"Nope, go fish."

"How exactly is this working? Britt's not even here. I feel like that there is some serious cheating going on."

"It's only cheating if nosey people point it out."

"That's not at all how cheating works, San."

Despite himself Donnie laughed. He felt more than saw their attention shift to him. He heard one of them cross over to him and then the bright light was turned away. He opened his eyes to smile gratefully up at Sam. With opened eyes he was better able to see what was going on in the room. They were in some sort of hospital room. Puck was in the bed opposite from him wearing his normal pajamas. Santana and Sam were sitting Indian style at the foot of his bed with a pile of cards between them. Brittany's bright smile greeted him from the screen of one of the many Stark tablets that littered the place. Blaine was sitting in a chair between the two beds but in view of the screen. Skye, the agent they met earlier, was dozing off in a chair on Donnie's other side.

"Where are we?"

"Avengers Tower," Blaine replied. "Glad you're okay, by the way. Also thanks for the distraction. I'm pretty sure my mother was never leaving."

"Glad to be of assistance. Wait, why I am in the Tower?" he asked, sitting up straight. "Why am I not under arrest? Or in jail."

"Because San, Sammy and I are awesome," Puck answered with a ghost of his usual bravado. Donnie saw that he was still pale. He could just make out the wads of gauze on his chest that no doubt hid badly burned skin. Donnie frowned remembering how lifeless his roommate looked lying on the floor. Lifeless because he was dead and it was his fault, though Donnie didn't miss the fact that Puck refused to meet his eyes head on. "Hey, we're okay. I'm okay. It's fine."

"Dude, Seth killed you," Donnie hissed. "Seth killed you because I backed out of our deal at the last minute. The deal I shouldn't have made in the first place."

"Well, now you know and you won't do it again," Santana said, before jumping off the bed. "Before we forget, we got you something. Bout time you woke up."

Donnie felt tears welling in his eyes as Santana reached into one of the various machines in the room and pulled out a bowl of soup. He didn't need to look to know it was the earlier requested pho.

"It's not the same one," she said, smiling a little. "Sammy kind of rolled around in that one. Didn't think you wanted it."

"Oh, yeah because me kneeling in it was the problem. Not the fact that it was on the floor in the first place," Sam countered.

"Why are you doing this?" he cut into their argument. "You came after me. You didn't have to do that. You helped me. Why?"

Sam rolled his eyes before hitting Donnie on the back of the head. Hard.

"I thought you were supposed to be a genius. You need us to really spell it out for you? You are our friend. Not because of Puck but because you're one of us."

"Literally," Santana chimed in. "Uncle Bruce ran some DNA tests on you when you were thawing out. You've got alien DNA like the four of us."

"Alien DNA?!"

"Yeah, we'll talk about it later," Sam shook his head. "Pretty sure this chapter has gone on long enough."

"Chapter?"

"I mean, day," Sam tried again. Santana threw him a dirty look.

Donnie picked up the spoon Blaine helpfully slid his way and started in on his soup. He felt the warm broth chasing away the lingering effects of the cold from the inside. The rest of his felt pretty warmed by the bickering and bantering happening around him. These people were his friends. They were his family. That felt pretty awesome.


Puck smiled faintly as his friends surrounded Donnie content on reenacting the final moments of the epic battle against the ice machine. He remembered some of himself but finally he gave into his own body's need to heal. Fourteen hours later, he was starting to feel almost like himself. Almost. The reveal that he wasn't just a super solider… that he was also somehow an alien had him feeling a little off. Well, that and what he saw when he looked at his friends for too long.

"Puck?"

He glanced down at the forgotten tablet to see that Brittany was still there. He picked it up and rested it on his raised knees. Concerned blue eyes stared at him from the screen. She pressed her palm against the monitor and he lifted his own hand to do the same.

"It's going to be okay, Puck. I promise."

"Why did Donnie live and Seth died? They were both frozen but Donnie was already thawing by the time Clint, Phil and Nick got there. So why is he alive and not Seth?"

"That's the real mystery, isn't it?"

"He froze. He should be dead but he's not. He's here and he's okay. I'm happy but…. Something is happening to us, Britt."

"I know."

"I'm kind of scared."

"Don't be," Brittany said, firmly. Her eyes were serious yet reassuring. "This isn't a bad thing. It's just a step towards becoming who you were meant to be."

"You know, don't you? About who and what we are."

"Not the whole picture," she admitted. "I got bits and pieces. I just know that this is what needs to happen to make sure that we all have a future. Everything is going to work out."

Puck took a shaky breath. "Okay."


*the friggin end! Okay, the grand total is 27 pages for this chapter. This is definitely the longest chapter I've written of anything EVER! It was a lot of information dumping and family bonding and I hope you all enjoyed it! LOL. Needless to say, if we didn't already have an idea of where I was going with this, I hope it's clearer in this chapter. That's it for me. I can't even write notes my brain is that fried from writing this chapter. I hope you liked. Until next time…

P.S. I don't hate Ward. There was some slight Ward bashing going on in this chapter but remember it's through certain character's POVs. So it doesn't always paint him in the best of lights. But I do like Ward and I do have plans for him. What those plans are… well, we shall see. Now I'm done.