Hello!

Today is the one year anniversary of this fic being published, so I've persevered to get an update out to commemorate! Life's hectic currently with exams and writers block, but following all that I should have more time to write so hopefully more updates soon!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters aside from my own OC. The rights of the other characters belong to Marvel and its affiliates.

Enjoy!

Steve stared unashamedly at the historian on the deck below him. She looked well, not half awake in a hospital bed somewhere as he had assumed. Instead, in the tight skirt and heels that made up the S.H.I.E.L.D uniform, she looked like she belonged. The thought made his gut twist.

He was down the steps and in front of her before he fully recognised what he was doing. Her heels clattered on the floor as she rushed forwards. Her eyes were concerned as they met his, and up close she looked less acclimated. Her hair was pulled up messily and the uniform was ill fitting making the historian look like a younger child who inherited their sibling's clothes.

"Are you OK?" Coraline skidded to a stop in front of Steve, one hand extended as if to touch his arm. As Steve looked at her, she returned her arm to its previous position hugging her waist.

"What are you doing here?" Steve asked instead. With all the different theories his mind was throwing at him on why Coraline was working in a S.H.I.E.L.D facility dressed like a hand-me-down agent, he couldn't define himself as OK just yet.

"I…uh…" Coraline faltered.

She felt like she was wading deeper and deeper into a lake. She couldn't read Steve's expression, didn't know if he was angry or relieved, or how he would take the news that she had recovered and then accepted a contract with S.H.I.E.L.D that would send her to whichever base needed things filing. So she faltered instead and breathed a sigh of relief when Director Fury interrupted from the upper level.

"Dr. Quinn has been assigned to assist in the search for the Tesseract."

Steve was quick to see the confusion flash across Coraline's face, as she stuttered a 'Wha-" before Fury cut her off with a glare.

"She was just going to aid Dr. Banner in finding his laboratory, weren't you Dr. Quinn."

Coraline looked up at Fury and the slightly uncomfortable looking man in glasses hovering behind him. Then she looked back at Steve, whose expression was a subtle mix between confusion and perhaps a hint of anger.

She repeated her split second glances, trying to work out what to do, what to say, where to run.

"Oh screw it," She muttered to herself, and with a swift click clack of her heels on the bridge flooring, she closed the gap between herself and the Captain and drew him into a hug.

It wasn't a good hug. Her arms were in the wrong place, the leather of Steve's jacket was clammy against her fingers, and all the time she was screaming at herself:

'What are you doing? Stop it; you'll ruin everything you haven't already!'

But still she squeezed her arms tighter, trying to convey in that split second whatever it was her mind couldn't' articulate with words.

Steve stood rigid, his arms hovering over Coraline's back, not daring to touch, or perhaps being too surprised to.

As quickly as she had begun, Coraline darted backwards.

"Sorry," She directed her whisper-choked apology at the stunned man in front of her, before walking as fast as possible up the stairs and to the man in the purple shirt who seemed just as nervous as she now was.

"Dr. Banner?" She queried.

When the man nodded, she tried her best to offer a friendly smile, and when that turned into a grimace, she gestured towards the nearest door.

Natasha Romanoff watched the historian skitter off down the hall with the scientist in tow. Sighing, she kicked off from the desk she had been leaning on and caught up with the duo.

"The laboratories here are very… um…high tech, I think," Coraline's voice was shaky as she tried to make conversation with the doctor giving her confused side-eyed glances.

"Yeah," Natasha chipped in – startling them both in the process, "You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys."

aAa

Coraline had left Agent Romanov and Dr. Banner at his lab, under the pretence of going to find drinks. In reality she was three decks down with a vending machine and an empty corridor, trying to work out what it was she was doing.

When Coulson had entered her room two days previously, he had smiled and seemed sincere in a way Coraline almost didn't recognise for someone working for S.H.I.E.L.D. He had apologised for all that had happened to her, explained the situation that had caused the agents outside her door to be such a flurry of movement, and then offered her a proposition.

She couldn't go home. Not yet. The Tesseract being stolen had panicked the organisation, and all available agents were working on its recapture. There was no way to debrief her, send her home and make up a convincing enough story for where she had been for the past month – not with the potential threat to the world being so imminent.

So instead, Coulson had offered a compromise. She could sign a contract, as did any other employee of S.H.I.E.L.D, and would officially work for the agency – with pay check and all – just until the Tesseract situation had been dealt with. After that, she was free to go back home to her old job and old life, no strings attached.

Coraline had signed. She hadn't really needed to think about it. She needed the confirmation that she could leave, and she would be lying if she didn't think for a split second that she might bump into Steve again before she did.

After signing, Coulson had shown her the mess hall, the gym, and given her access to one of many supply closets in order to get a uniform and any other 'home comforts' she needed (aka towels, bed linen and an alarm clock pre-set to 5.00am much to her horror).

He had also explained that she was currently in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on an aircraft carrier/flying boat.

That one had taken some getting used too, as had the constant maze of decks and compartments that stood between her and anywhere she wanted to go.

Fast forward back to the present though and Coraline was doing ok. She was managing the constant twinge of doubt in her gut. She was managing the sea/air sickness combination (thanks to some anti-nausea tablets whipped up in the medical suites). She was managing wearing the emblem of the agency she had mixed and mostly negative feelings about. She was managing.

A small beeping noise bought her back from her thoughts. She looked at her wrist in confusion before remembering the standard issue watch was a part of her uniform. And apparently it was telling her it was 4 hours since her last tablet, and so time for another.

The utility belt that was obligatory to the uniform was meant to hold munitions, probably some kind of grenade Cora had never heard of, and various other bits of tactical kit.

Her utility belt held some tissues, a roughly sketched map of the routes she needed to follow to get between decks, a packet of those crumbly, kind of bland tasting biscuits like you get with free hotel coffee that she had snaffled from the mess hall, and in the tiniest pouch, the small white pills that took away the churning feeling in her stomach.

Coraline reached for one of those pills with one hand, while the other pressed a button and then picked a water bottle from the vending machine's maw. The pill was swallowed in one smooth motion, but when a voice spoke from behind her, the historian choked on her drink.

"You're sick?"

Steve Rogers stood in the corridor behind her.

He didn't apologise as Cora continued to splutter, instead waiting stoically till she straightened and looked up at him.

"I'm fine," She said quietly. "Have they found the Tesseract yet?"

"You're 'assisting in the search' aren't you? Surely you should know?"

Steve knew he was being bitter, but Coraline owed him at least a semblance of an explanation as to why she was on the Helicarrier and taking orders like a good little agent, all without a word to him about the apparent career change.

Coraline pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh.

"I'm not helping anybody. I'm just here until the Tesseract is found."

"And then?" Steve knows the answer already – after all wasn't this what they were arguing about two weeks before?

"Back home," Coraline chose her words carefully, wishing she didn't have to have this conversation. "My replacement must be better than me, huh?"

Her small smile was met with a confused stare.

"What replacement?" Steve couldn't keep the bark out of his voice.

"Uh…I…I thought…" Coraline faltered. Now she was the one that was confused.

"Cora, you haven't been replaced. You went missing for 11 days, and when you turned up again you were rushed off in an ambulance before I could even say hello. I've heard nothing since then, and I sure as hell haven't' been getting any more lessons."

"I…I assumed you had found a better teacher, someone more qualified or something and that's why I was…why I could…"

Steve stepped closer to the historian, searching her face as he asked:

"What is going on, Coraline?"

Coraline paused in her thoughts as she looked up at the man. The anger was gone from his eyes, or at least wasn't directed at her. Instead his eyes were gentle, kind.

She could have explained everything. Could have regurgitated what she had been told when she had woken up with functioning legs and one hell of a headache: that she had had a reaction to one of the experimental drugs she'd taken. That it had caused her nervous system to short circuit momentarily but that it was all fixed now. And she could have expressed her doubts about this, backed up by glances between doctors she had caught from the corner of her eye; by blue prints lying on the table of the medical room that were swept up before she could read them; by the itching, prickling feeling between her shoulder blades and on her ankles that had gone away pretty quickly, but had still caused worried looks between the nurses when she had mentioned it.

She could have said all of that, but when she looked into his eyes, she didn't want to. Because even with her mind constantly thinking and worrying about what it all meant, she still didn't know. And nothing was worse than not knowing alone.

Coraline broke.

"I don't know," She said softly. "I really don't know."

Steve inhaled sharply as he saw the historian's eyes get damp. He wasn't expecting that response. He had thought she would remain as closed off as she had been previously. Her behaviour on the bridge had been so out of character, so unlike anything he had seen from the historian, he had assumed she wasn't who she said she was and so wouldn't act as the Coraline he had known when confronted.

But instead he got this: a shaken, confused historian who looked near identical to the woman he had met a month ago in a boardroom of the Triquetra.

Coraline bowed her head and sniffed back the tears as Steve remained motionless. Her hands were shaking in their fists, and the water bottle was being scrunched up in the process.

She flinched when her hand touched her shoulder. She met Steve's eye, and of course it was his hand resting there, and saw he was about to say something.

"Cora, I-" Steve's hand went to his ear as his expression changed. His hand dropped from her shoulder and clenched into fists at his side. He nodded to himself and his gaze became steely, focussed.

"The Quinjet has its wheels up in five. I've gotta go."

"What? Where?" Coraline stepped backwards as Steve started off down the corridor.

"Germany. They found Loki, he should have the Tesseract with him."

So they had found it, that was something at least, Cora thought.

"The Quinjet deck isn't that way," She called after him as he turned left at the end of the corridor.

"I know," Steve called out behind him. Without seeing him, Cora could imagine his expression switching to one of complete seriousness, his jaw being set and his eyes being focussed. "First, I've got to put on a suit."

As always please do let me know your comments, thoughts or feelings, as well as pointing out any mistakes *shakes fist* there's always one!

Now for (finally) responding to the guest reviewers:

CJ/OddBall: Thanks so much for your review. I love reviews with questions, even if I can't answer them all yet! Hopefully the nightmares are a bit clearer now, though that will be delved into more in coming chapters. Thanks for reading!

Anonymouscsifa: I'm really glad you enjoy this and have the feelings about Clarke and Coraline and Steve as I intended writing it. Your comment about Clarke being a dickhead made me laugh – he certainly isn't an agreeable character, though his intentions may not be entirely evil. .. The period of time Coraline spends missing is beginning to be explored here, and will be explained in the next few chapters. Your review was really supportive so thank you!

Shy: Thank you! I hope the update hasn't left you waiting too long, I appreciate anybody who sticks around despite my erratic posting schedule!

I will reply to all other reviews via PM, so look out for that at some point in your inbox!