Disclaimer: I don't own anything Marvel. Just Anna and her OC's.

Chapter 17

Liaison

To say she was rattled was an understatement. Even though Anna knew she had to let Bucky make his own decision (after all, he wasn't hurting anybody anymore), but that didn't stop her from still frantically searching the area just to get a glimpse of him again. She even spent another few days there. By the next day, Anna knew she wasn't going to find him, but she was now much more torn on what she was going to tell the others.

After all, how would Steve react to finding out that Bucky had been there and she hadn't called the second she knew. He'd want to instantly start a trace. Look through traffic cameras, border crossing surveillance, the works. But she hadn't informed them, and now there was no point because Bucky would've been long gone. Would she tell him she simply didn't see him? But then how would she explain having her wedding rings back? That would lead back to him finding out she'd known Bucky was there days ago.

Rey had told her to just keep her mouth shut about it all. If she had to say something, there were no Bucky sightings for her. That was true. She hadn't actually seen her husband. Rey had. But they weren't asking him. So that was what she eventually settled on doing. If anybody was going to ask her about her rings she'd say she'd found similar looking ones at a pawn shop and got them so she wouldn't miss her own rings as much.

She'd stayed longer in New York to help sort through some other leads Sam and Steve had dug up. There wasn't really much questioning on how the mission went. If she hadn't contected them with anything, they most likely assumed she had nothing to share. She just hoped it would stay that way.

After a few weeks, however, there came a day where Anna couldn't get ahold of Phil, or Agent May back at HQ. She called several times throughout the day. Finally, in the evening, Anna gave up and called Tucker. From the shear amount of rings it took to get him to pick up, she assumed something was up. Tuck usually always had his phone on him. He was a tech guy after all.

"Anna, now is not a goo-"

"What the hell is going on!" Anna demanded. "Nobody is answering."

"There's been a coup," he said. "There were some SHIELD agents out there operating too, and they don't think we've been running things right, so they're taking over."

"Who?" Anna gaped.

"Gonzalez, Weaver, Bobbi, Mac," Tuck said. "There's a whole lot more of them than there was us."

"Is everyone okay?" Anna asked.

"Skye's missing, Coulson just got back with Fitz and Hunter. He's trying to get them to work with him and trust him, but that'll be hard for them to do when they ran off after Skye."

"Okay, I'm coming back," she said.

"No!"

"No?"

"No, you should stay there. They won't trust you either. They'll think you're more loyal to Coulson than you are to SHIELD," Tuck said. "You're probably most useful there with Hill anyway right now. We need more contacts to people we know we can trust."

"Tell Phil I called and make sure this is what he wants. Got it? Text me back later.

"You got it, Anna."

Anna didn't like this at all, but it was a better distraction than what had happened in Paris. For several hours after Anna had spoken to Tuck, she found herself pacing around. Eventually she turned to working out to try and be a bit more productive with the abundance of anxious energy. It wasn't until Hill called her into her office after she'd gotten out of the shower that she finally got some answers she was looking for.

Hill had filled Anna in on the situation as they made their way to her office. What Tuck said had been true. There had been a coup, but now there was more figured out. They were working on creating a new system, but for now, Phil was still Director, but there was also a council under him.

"There's still a lot of trust to build, so right now I think it's best to keep the players that are in the game as is," Phil said. "No adding new ones. So you'll contact me if you need anything in regards to SHIELD, but Anna is going to be acting SHIELD Liaison with the Avengers. I'll send your things up to you tomorrow."

"Wow, I got kicked out fast," Anna joked. "Well, just let me know if you need anything. I'm just a call away."

"Well, that's one of the reasons why I'm calling," Phil said. "We raided a Hydra base and found information pertaining to Loki's sceptre. I'm guessing Hydra doesn't know that Loki's sceptre was the weapon that killed me, but I bet they know it can control minds."

"In their hands, that's catastrophic. Coulson, please tell me you know where it is," Hill joined in.

"Sokovia. I'm pretty sure List is headed there right now. I've just sent you everything I have on Strucker's location."

"Coulson, why didn't you just tell Gonzales why you really wanted to get into the Hydra base?"

"Believe it or not, he puts every decision to a vote." Hill scoffed, and though in theory the thought of a vote was good, it wasn't practical when it was a time sensitive matter. Anna had to agree. "I know. And I was pretty sure if I'd been honest, I'd have lost the swing vote, so I did what I had to do."

"Last thing. Theta Protocol - is it ready?"

"Yes, it is. Time to bring in the Avengers."

"Wait, what's Theta protocol?"

I know this is a very short chapter, but it's a necessary transition that I had to put in. As of writing this note, I have completed through chapter 22 (it's Saturday May 9) but a lot more should be done by the time you guys get this chapter. I do have to go back in and edit some things in them, because I got really carried away with just writing and doing the dialog and whatnot that I forgot Rey totally existed in this story, so I need to go in and add him or account for his whereabouts. Poor creature. Totally forgotten in the vast complexity of my brain.

Thanks to the following for their reviews on the previous chapter(s) -

Jedi Jesla777 - I'm so glad your family is alright. I'm sorry that you're so stressed though. Let me know if there's anything I can do.