It has been 6 months since the battle of New York, the tower has been fixed and named avenger tower. The group of heroes were all staying at the tower now, each with their own floor except Natasha and Clint who shared one instead.

It was a Monday afternoon, and the entire group was in the common room on the main floor. Steve, Nat, and Clint were watching a show while Tony was working on his tablet tinkering with projects. Bruce was splitting his attention between the TV and his work on his tablet. Thor was not with them, as he had not returned from Asgard yet after taking his brother back home.

Halfway through the movie, the ding of the elevator could be heard, making everyone look up at the sound just in time to see Fury stepping out. Steve paused the movie and stood up to meet the man, while Tony put his tablet down muttering about intrusions. Everyone else gave Fury their attention as well. "What can we do for you, sir?" Steve asked. "Don't tell me aliens are invading again" Tony remarked. Fury rolled his eyes walking into the large living space. He was dressed in his usual attire, black clothing with a coat and eye patch. The room was large, a step leading into it. It was filled with a light brown living room set. A 3 seated couch stood at one end, it was where Nat and Clint usually sat. Next to it was a 3 seated couch that was not usually used by anyone, but Steve, who would always sit in the middle of the thing. There were 2 single-seat couches on the opposite side, one was Tony's the other was used by whoever was usually visiting. A circular coffee table stood in the middle, and a large TV occupied the wall, facing all of the couches. The room was tiled, but a large, beautiful rug, with patterns covered the entire living area. Fury sat in one of the single-seat couches that gave him gave him a view of everyone else. He looked so exhausted.

Everyone else sat down as well, wanting to know what the hell was going on. Fury sighed and looked at each one of the people present in the eye. "I am going to tell you a story..." he was interrupted by Tony saying "Great now spy here tells stories." Fury fixed him with a glare before continuing, "And while I tell this story I would appreciate it if there were no interruptions." He looked at Tony and Clint again. "Now about 8 years ago..." Fury continued. "A baby girl was born in the Hunan province of China, where her family was residing. 3 months later an 084 was..." Fury saw the confused looks on almost everyone's faces so he explained, "an 084 is an object of unknown origin. Anyways one was discovered in the village in China. A S.H.I.E.L.D team was sent to investigate and retrieve the object, but about 2 days after they arrived all contact with the team was lost. The head of operations determined that the team most likely encountered hostiles and went dark to getaway. 24 hours later when no contact was made by the team, a rescue team was sent to investigate. When they got to the village they discovered that it had been massacred along with the entire S.H.I.E.L.D team that was sent to retrieve the 084. While investigating the area they found a 3-month-old baby girl in one of the dead Agent's arms. At first, they thought she was dead too but she was actually sleeping and the blood she was covered in belonged to the Agent holding her. She was the only survivor in a village with a population of 679 and a S.H.I.E.L.D team of 16. The Agent in charge of the rescue team decided to bring the girl back to the US where they could search for next of kin. When they returned, the girl was left in temporary care at the Triskelion while the search for a family was done. 8 days after arriving in the US the members of the rescue team started dying. Their bodies were found in their homes and it appeared that they had been tortured before being shot twice, once in the head once in the chest. A month later when only 2 members of the 10 man team remained and no next of kin had been found yet, info was found suggesting that the people killing the Agents were after the girl. It was determined that it would be safer for her if she was put into the foster system..." he was cut off by Clint mumbling "safer for whom."

The thing is Clint had experience in the system and knew what it was like. He was a foster kid to and ran away with the circus when it became too much for him. He just hoped that the girl was ok. Fury cleared his throat and continued the story, "an Agent dropped her at an orphanage without any papers or letter, knowing babies without info were given names and paperwork. An invisible protocol was also set so she never stayed more than 3 months in a single foster family or orphanage. A group of Agents was assigned to keep an eye on the situation at all times."

"2 months after that the head Agent's body was found and the other one just disappeared. We still haven't found him to this day. The girl then spent the next 7 years of her life in the foster system."

"8 months ago there was an attempted kidnapping and the Agents found that whoever was after her, had found her. She was brought to the HUB where I was made aware of the situation. They decided it is best if she were placed with an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, one who could raise her while providing security. I agreed." Fury sighed at sat back in the couch rubbing a hand over his face. "She stayed at the HUB for about a week because we were struggling to find an Agent. Specialists were the only ones with the required skill sets, but..." Nat and Clint both fixed Fury with a glare. "BUT" he emphasized the word, "they did not have the time nor the stability a kid would need, plus they are trained to show no emotion. We needed someone who cared, had a high clearance level, and had the training of a specialist. These types of agents were rare."

"It was the day after the last Agent fell through that Agent Phil Coulson burst into my office saying 'I'll do it'." Everyone looked at him confused. "My reaction was quite similar" Fury stated. "Anyway, Agent Coulson volunteered to raise the girl himself and at first I did not agree but turns out he was the only Agent that fit the bill at the time. So that afternoon he left with her, took her to his home."

All kinds of emotions were flooding the avengers' and Pepper's, who had joined them, faces, shock, and sadness the key ones. "She stayed with him and they actually got really close. 6 months ago he gave me papers to sign giving him permission to adopt her. It was going to be her birthday gift. 3 days later he died in the battle of New York." Fury closed his eye sighing. No one was looking at anything or listening at the moment so he gave them a minute to digest.

Clint and Natasha's minds were racing. Their mentor and father figure was raising a girl and she lost him too. This made Clint feel even more guilty as he still blamed himself for Coulson's death. Both Bruce and Tony were stunned into silence which is saying something when it comes to Tony. Steve did not know what to think. Their attention was snapped back to Fury as he cleared his throat indicating he was continuing the story, "She was taken back to the HUB where Agents determined it save enough to put her back in foster care, but just in a different state. 2 days after the battle she was placed at an orphanage with Agents checking in on her from time to time. 4 months ago she was placed with the Brody family, and then on Monday morning when an Agent went to check on her, the family was found dead in the living room. The 3 other foster kids were shot once through the head while Mr. and Ms. Brody showed signs of torture before being shot twice, once in the chest once in the head just like the others. While doing a sweep of the house, the girl was found sleeping in her bed. We don't know why they did not take her. Either they were interrupted or they could not find her as for some reason she was sleeping on a mattress in the basement behind some boxes." Fury shook his head remembering how he found her. The small and fragile girl lying on an old dirty mattress on the floor, boxes full of dust surrounding her, a copper smell in the air from the blood just above their heads. He stood up and walked to the floor to ceiling windows, watching the city down below. "Never seen something like that before" he stated turning around to look at the group, before continuing, "I picked her up got her out of there making sure she didn't see anything." He walked back to the couch and sat back down looking at the group of people, all kinds of emotions showing, surprise, sadness, and disgust the main ones. "Any questions?" he asked them. They sat in silence watching Fury instead.

Nat broke the silence after a moment, "You checked in on her and found her?" Fury nodded. "Yes, I did. I'm actually quite fond of her ever since I met her when she was signed over to Coulson." Clint was next, "Does she know about what happened to Coulson?" Clint knew the kid would struggle with abandonment issues, especially if she never stayed anywhere for more than 3 months, so it was important she knew Coulson didn't leave her by choice. Fury nodded his head again. "She does. She found the footage from the hellicarrier and saw what happened before anyone could tell her." "Wait what. She saw him die?" Steve asked. Fury looked at the ground, "Unfortunately yes." "Poor kid," Nat said. "How and why did she get access?" Tony asked speaking for the first time. "Well..." Fury began saying, "It appears she got access, no doubt through Coulson..." he whispered the last part but was heard anyways, "She wanted to see the avengers when they got on the hellicarrier and I believe she liked watching Coulson work." Tony smirked. "Kids a fan of us huh?" Fury shook his head, "no she wanted to see her work." "Tony was dumb smacked but Nat was furious, "you have an 8-year-old working for S.H.I.E.L.D?" "No we don't" Fury replied calmly, not bothered by the anger Nat is showing. "Coulson was tasked with the Avengers Initiative..." he started explaining, "and well the girl got involved. She was doing research, reading files, and so forth without anyone knowing. When Coulson found out he asked her about it and she said and I quote 'can't have a bunch of pretenders protecting the world. We need to make sure they're solid.'" Fury chuckled at the memory of Coulson telling him the story one afternoon when he was checking in. Tony looked like a goldfish and Steve just looked troubled. "So our background checks were done by an 8-year-old?" Clint asked while smiling. He liked the kid already. "Well yes but..." Fury replied, "Checks were done, lists were narrowed down long before she got a hold of the shortlist. Besides Coulson had already picked, she was just, Uhm..." Fury looked thoughtful while searching for the right words, "proofing his work. Double-checking you know." Fury looked at Tony and smiled, "come to think of it Tony you have to thank her when you meet her." Tony looked confused. "Yeah, why's that?" He asked. Fury smirked at him, "she was the one to convince Coulson to put you on the team. You weren't part of the original one so she told Coulson to add you..." Fury put air quotes around his next words, "...as no team is complete without at least one person who can hack and at least one person who can create. Tony fits the bill for both those jobs." Fury smirked again. Clint and Steve were laughing while Bruce and Nat had small smiles. Pepper looked at Tony with her own smile while Tony opened and closed his mouth having nothing to say.

"I really want to meet this kid," Clint said finally getting control over his laughter. "Glad to hear you say that" Fury stated, clapping his hands, his spy mask back in place with not even a hint that he had shown emotion. "Back to storytelling so no interruptions" he stated before continuing, "as I previously said, I met the girl before and she had a lot of life. She was always making jokes, talking about anything and everything. She's a genius too, good with computers and so forth. She never let go of that laptop. But since Coulson's death her behavior changed, she's withdrawn, not talking to anyone and she's never on her computer which was the giveaway that she changed. His death hit her hard. She used to hack everything she could but not anymore. She lost her hope." "Why are you telling us all of this?" Tony interrupted not caring about the warning. Fury sighed, "Well considering everything she's been through and the fact that she is in so much danger I decided she needs a safe environment to stay at. One with people who will care and people she might already be familiar with. She needs more than a foster family or some Agent babysitting her. So I decided to bring her to the tower. Tony, you and Bruce have the brains to help her, teach her. Coulson might have told her about you and Nat..." he said looking at Clint. "Steve is trustworthy and she needs someone to trust. I think this would be the best and safest place for her." Fury finished standing and walking to the window once more. "Wait, you want us, the avengers to raise an 8-year-old genius who was fostered by Coulson and is responsible for me being on this team. One who likes computers and can hack?" Tony asked. Fury only nodded. "Done! When can I meet her?" Tony asked his happy self back once more. "I agree with Tony. The kid needs us, besides I owe Coulson." Clint stated. Everyone was shocked to hear Clint saying he agreed with Tony but he was right after all. "I agree" Steve stated. Nat and Bruce nodded. "Okay, it's agreed then," Steve said.