Hey guys! It's been forever since i've written anything. I've been really busy but I hope I'm able to update more frequently now!

I flew home as steadily as possible. Trip was sitting with me in the cockpit trying to put me at ease. He also knew how to fly so I insisted that he flew instead, but he said that if my mom wanted me to do this, I better do it so I didn't get my ass kicked.

As soon as we got home I ran inside, eager to see my father. I ran down the hall, past the lab -earning myself some strange looks from other agents, through the kitchen, and up the stairs to my dads office.

As soon as I reached the door I stopped, caught my breath, then barged in without knocking. He quickly rose from his desk when I entered, thinking there had been an emergency. But when he saw me he let out a sigh of relief and smiled at me. I smiled back and ran into his arms.

"I missed you." I whispered.

"I missed you too."

Once we pulled apart he asked. "Where's Skye and your mother?"

"Mom went after Hunter and those crazy mercs and Skye should be coming up."

"Good. How are things here?"

"All good. We've missed you."

"Good to be back."

"Guess what! Mom let me fly back here when she went after those mercs!"

"So, you've been practicing?"

"Yup. I'm getting good too."

"I think I've recruited enough, I've missed too much, I think it's time to work with what we've got."

"Really?" I said and smiled.

"Really. No more traveling, no more me being gone, only me with my family."

Then Skye came in the room, said her hellos to our father, and then I took the liberty of telling her the good news.

"Dad's done traveling. No more recruiting missions."

"Really?" Skye said getting excited.

"I wouldn't twist your arm about that, now would I?" I asked playfully.

Skye, being the overly excited person she was, starting jumping up and down and then nearly tackled Dad. Guess there's always some things The Calvary can't take away.

Just then my mother's voice came through the screen.

"I don't know what the hell Hunter was thinking, but now Hartley and Idaho are dead, and he's gonna get kidnapped by the government. Oh, and that absorbing man, Creel, well he has that weapon thing, called The Obelisk."

"May. Calm down. Did you say Idaho and Hartley were-"

"Dead? Yeah."

I took a deep breath, swallowed, and bit back tears. No, I didn't care for the mercs, but it was always hard to loose good soldiers. Skye slowly stepped towards the back of the room so nobody would notice her crying.

"And Creel's gone?"

"Yes."

"And you're absolutely sure?"

"Yeah, Coulson it was bad. The car was flipped, Hunter told me to leave him there, to go after Creel while I still could.

"Two agents down, another captured." I said as quietly as possible.

"We got a hit! 911 just picked up a stolen vehicle up the road from you- older model, red and white pickup." Skye called.

"That's got to be Creel."

"May your approaching a civilian area- without backup. If you see him, do not engage."

From the other end of the line I could hear horns blaring and tires screeching.

"Mom, that doesn't sound covert."

"I've got him. Closing in."

"No, drop back, do not engage."

"He's not looking. I have a shot."

"Drop back!"

"We can't just let him go, Phil!"

"Creel isn't working alone, and I want to know who he answers to. Drop back now!"

"Fine."

With that, she went radio silent and continued to follow Creel from a safe distance.

"Hey, Dad." Skye started.

"Yeah, Skye?"

"You know those symbols you've been having us research?"

"Yup."

"Well, I was able to get a good look at this 'Obelisk' and it had those weird symbols on it."

"The same symbols?" I chimed in.

"Yeah."

"You sure?"

"Positive. They came up out of the object. It reminded me of braille. It was like Hartley triggered something just by touching it."

"What the hell is that thing?" I asked.

"I don't know I'm not an expert! I'm only telling you what I saw!"

"Whatever it is, good work, Skye."

"Good work?" I asked. "How about, 'holy crap, Skye, we've got to get on that!' That thing killed one of our best agents. And after a month of searching and digging we finally find something, and you're just gonna shrug it off?" I immediately felt bad about snapping at my father, but someone had to say something.

"I appreciate your concern, but right now we've got more important problems: a five-alarm otherwise known as Lance Hunter."

"Is he-"

"Captured? Yeah. But if he talks, our whole operation's compromised. We'd have to burn the base and evacuate- and we just retiled the bathrooms."

Apparently that jet I flew in had cloaking hardware, which was just what we needed for our aircraft. I headed up to tell Coulson.

This time I knocked on the door and headed in.

"Hey, um, I just wanted to report that Mack and Trip are working on cloaking, so I'm free if you want me back in the field."

"That won't be necessary, your mom's still out there."

"But, with Hartley and Idaho gone, don't you think she could use the extra help?"

"She's fine."

"I need to get back out there and help her take Creel down."

"No."

"I'm a field agent. I can handle myself."

"That's not what this is about."

"Then what is it about? The object? The symbols? I can't help if I don't know what's going on."

"If you'd like to help, go down to the bunks, pack up Hartley's things."

"Okay."

I started walking out the door but then I stopped.

"Hey, um I wanted to apologize about earlier. How I snapped at you about that 'good work' comment, and for just now."

"Thank you for your apology, you're grounded."

"Very funny." I said walking out the door.

Downstairs in the bunks, I came across a picture of Hartley and another woman while packing her things up.

"Hartley's sister, Jane." came a voice behind me. I recognized the accent.

"Hunter. Glad to see you made it out of prison."

"For the record I wasn't in prison. I was fetched up by our old mate, Talbot."

"Last I checked, Talbot wasn't the nicest person in the world. How'd you bargain your way out?"

"Oh, come now, Amadeus Ravenclaw Hunter never shares his secrets."

"Whatever."

"Anyways as I was saying, that's Jane, Hartley's sister. Her favorite person in the world, after me of course."

"Looks like they got along."

"Yeah, those two, when they got together there was a lot of laughs, and bottles of wine. Izzy was good when it came to family."

"Which is why I'm taking this." he said holding up a necklace. "it belonged to her mum, died of breast cancer a few years back. Jane has it too now."

"That's awful."

"Life can be a mean drunk that way. Never knows when to stop punching."

"How'd you guys meat?"

"Through my psychotic ex-wife."

"Mm-hmm."

"Those two were good friends back in the day."

"I'm really sorry. It's tough to loose people you care about."

"Secret to that. Don't get too attached."

"Tried that. Didn't work. Looks like it didn't for you either?"

"You know, you remind me a bit of Izzy?"

"Do I?"

"Raw, but sharp. You've got skills."

"Mm."

"Type that could earn you some real money in the private sector."

"As a mercenary? Yeah, I don't think so."

"We prefer the term 'private military contractors'."

"Yeah, I'll stick to mercenary."

"Hey, everyone needs an exit strategy eventually."

"Not me. I found what I was looking for. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s my life."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't a life. It's a job, a means to an end, remember that."

"Do you have an opinion about everything?"

"Only things that matter."

"Which is everything?"

"Bye." he turned and walked out of the room.

Coulson still wasn't letting me go in the field. To go catch Creel he sent May, Skye, Hunter, and Trip. The mission was a success however. I mean Raina got away with the Obelisk, but we have Creel. Coulson recruited Hunter, so he's in for good now.

So it's good to be back and writing again. As always reviews are encouraged. Feel free to leave suggestions and criticism! As I said, I hope I can post more frequently!