AGENTS OF SHIELD/AVENGERS

[BEFORE THE FALL OF SHIELD AND THE RISE OF HYDRA AND THE BATTLE OF NEW YORK AND THE FORMING OF THE AVENGERS]

A NEW PROTOCOL

It was 2001 only 13 years ago before I was recruited to join SHIELD, to work as a computer specialist in one of SHIELD's most prestigious facilities the 'Triskelion' before I was posted there, I trained at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science and Technology. I was able to gain admission due to my PHD in Bioengineering and Doctorate in computer sciences, I was advanced from High school to University a year early down to being in advanced classes for science and computers and was in the advanced classes for each and even designed a few systems and took an computer tower apart and rebuilt it but with more storage space and from there designed programs for robots and even a matrix server that I had at home when I was away from university. But basically, I was young and very gifted Tony Stark in the making and unaware of the adventures that lay ahead.

But there was one night, when I was home from university on a weekend when during the night whilst I was working on some programs and designing and building some gadgets when I saw the headlights and black car pull up and a man and that was when I saw the logo on the car door, he paused for a few moments before making for my front door. This when I began to tidy up and place my robots into their case and close down my matrix server but left it running in the background as the server was always collecting data but I shouldn't of worried when I originally thought that they had come to arrest me and take me away and lock me up, but as I made for the door as I heard it being knocked on I was relieved after he flashed me his badge and learned that his name was Phil Coulson.

He asked "Could he come in and have a chat…" I was at first hesitant which I suspected that he could see but I allowed him in and we sat on the couch and I said "Would you like a drink before we start?" he was courteous and asked for tea which was lucky as I fancied a cupper, so I moved through from the living room to the open plan kitchen and boiled a kettle and grabbed two cups from a cupboard and placed two tea bags in each and checked whether he took sugar or milk which he declined, then poured out the water and made the two cups and took them back to the sitting room and placed them on the table and took a sip from my own.

He took a breath before beginning spiel that he had been sent to tell me and then smiled and simply said to me "I would like to offer a unique opportunity for you to not only use your talents and skills which could be improved tenfold but make a difference and have your horizon broadened in ways that you cannot believe…". he paused for a few moments and then pulled out a data pad and opened it up and showed a holographic display which stunned me for a moment which was being displayed so I quickly placed my cup of tea on the table and put my glasses on and studied the data. I looked at the different screens and then smiled at Coulson which he must have realized that he peaked my interests and said, "So what do you say?" I paused for a few moments in awe of what I was reading and turned back and replied "I will come with you, but it will be under my own terms… I won't be forced to leave, and I take my computer and gadgets with me, and my family are looked after" Coulson could tell that I was serious and motioned to the men that had followed him in to leave and return to the car.

He then stood up and held out a hand for me to shake which I did and smiled and then left the room to pack my things up into cases and then returned to the room, by the time I had returned I noticed that Coulson had moved from the couch to the door. We then left the house, and he sealed the house with a unique gadget and then got into the car after I placed my cases in the boot. I was then taken to the academy and enrolled in and shown to a room and left to get settled before I the next morning where it would be introduction day. I didn't know at the time, but I was placed on the same floor as Gemma Simmons and Leo Fitz who would later join Coulson's team on board the bus. But as I settled in I setup the computer that had my homemade matrix server which took a few moments to reload, to run a diagnostic and then calibrate as it calibrated it found a small hole in the fire wall of the S.H.I.E.L.D servers and tapped in.

But suddenly there was a knock on the door, and I put the matrix in to the background and then moved to answer the door and there was one of the cadets that was on the same floor and heard of a new arrival and had decided to make the move to introduce her "Hi Lauren Jones, I heard people on the floor and the voices" as she introduced herself she held out a hand for me to shake, I returned in kind "Hi I'm Mac Tyler… As you realized I'm new here… Would you like to come in and talk?" She paused for a moment as it was early evening and just after dinner, but accepted the invitation and I opened the door further and moved aside to let her in and she found a seat and made herself comfortable and I moved back into the room and moved some my cases out of the way and sat back on my seat and we began to talk and slowly got to know each other and then began to get into discussions of other subjects before they realized that it was late and Lauren realized that she must go and to return to her room but that they would meet tomorrow after his induction, but before she left she passed him a piece of paper that contained her IM user name and strangely her phone number too.

[Induction Day – 4:55AM]

After getting to bed late, I had managed to get a decent enough sleep before I woke close to 5:00 AM and put on some deodorant before putting on my normal running outfit along with my trainers and strapped my iPod to my arm then plugged in my headphones and left my room and headed outside as I didn't know the lay of the land outside I had decided to stay as close as possible to the academy and ran my usual ten miles and pushed another ten after I found an area of forest and decided to take a small detour and pushed through the forest and round and back to the academy and back into my room and grabbed a shower after removing my iPod and running shoes and tossed my clothes in the wash basket.

Once I dried off, I grabbed the suit that had been left for me during the time that I had been out for a run. After I ensured the fit of the suit I checked my computer and the server that I had been running and the data that it had been collecting, and then I grabbed a small data tablet and placed it in a side pocket and left the room and soon joined the throng of new recruits that were heading for the introduction in the lecture hall for the usual talk of health and safety along with in case of fires and also in the event of emergency before being sent via data tablet the timetables that were too from that day during the introduction assembly even though I had managed to sit a couple of rows behind Lauren whom was sat with a couple of girls and a guys and unknown to me was that she kept looking at me every so often when I wasn't looking.

During time in College, I had been in a couple of relationships with girls but they had crashed and burned but that was down to me and despite that I tried my best to treat her right I occasionally believing that I was superior and my genius intellect sometimes made conversations hard to have but when we ended I made sure it was on the best terms possible and to remain friends, but since those two relationships I have not let myself pursue other women and kept myself to myself and focused on learning and carving a future career.

But no sooner had the lecture ended and everyone filed out to head to their classes. I found myself waiting outside to see Lauren but in the chaos I suspect we missed each other so I headed for my first class which was computing and the classes were different to normal college/primary school lessons where at the academy the lessons were focused on fine tuning each person's' skills and when I entered in the room I moved to the back and used my laptop and logged on began the tasks that I had been set which I had found a tiny bit easy and hadn't noticed across the room was Lauren and in the front row was Fitz but I plugged in my earphones and put my music on shuffle and low volume and as I worked through the tasks which got harder as I worked and got focused I didn't even notice when an IM message popped up on my screen.

Which the message read "Hey, Mac …. Sorry I missed you outside the hall, but we can still meet after this class if you want? But when I saw it, I looked up and saw that everyone was working but Lauren was looking in my direction in the corner of her eye. I returned to my screen and replied to the message "Hey, Lauren …. Sounds great idea – want to get lunch together?" and sent the message back, I took a pause from my work and slipped out my own tablet that I had created which had twice the normal processing power and checked the screen and noticed that during the last hour there had been an unauthorized transfer of data from the main server but had been done under the radar and not raised any alarm bells. I quickly and quietly re-pocketed the tablet and returned to work when I noticed my IM had beeped with another message from Lauren "Sounds great !" As soon as the rest of the class filed out as the session ended, I waited as I put my work away into a side pocket and then slide my laptop inside the case and then closed it and placed the strap on my shoulder and headed out of the door with Lauren just behind me. We headed down to the canteen for lunch and grabbed two sandwiches along with drinks and headed out into the sunshine as we did, we chatted about the work along with our methods.

[As Term flies by & Graduation approached and Assignments handed out]

As I continued to work, and grades got higher, and the end of term exams approached which would deem where Agents would be assigned to and my friendship with Lauren and other agents got tighter as if between was an unspoken bond of trust. I intended to complete the exam to the best that I could and had no preference to where I wanted to be assigned but I think in my heart I wanted to be assigned to either the Triskelion or maybe even the Hub but if anything, he aspired to be assigned to one of the Hell carriers. Even outside of classes I put in a little extra hard work but spent any time that I could inventing small gadgets and even refining some that I had already created, otherwise I spent some of the time being social with other agents even to my own surprise attended some of the parties that were held in the Boiler Room.

I made friends and soon became part of a circle of friends, that included Lauren but I spent time with others but there was one night in the boiler room and there was a big party, and it was late, and people were drunk, and I had spent some time drinking but also talking with people. But it got to the moment during the night where everyone was melancholy and the music had gone from being upbeat to slow and relaxed and people were sitting down with heads against each other and some were slowly dancing, and some were kissing in the corners of the room, and I found myself with Lauren with her head on my shoulder and mine on her head and everyone soon fell asleep. Following graduating from the academy, I was assigned to the Triskelion and was assigned to work under the command of Maria Hill whom I found an ease to work with and quickly learnt that she didn't have time for slackers or time wasters. So, over the following twelve years I worked hard and even pushed myself harder with every task and tactical assignments in the field and worked up through the levels till I reached the level below Romanoff and Barton which was the same level as Simmons and Fitz who were also working at the labs.

During my spare time whilst working at the Triskelion, I put my time to use by refining my tactical skills along with inventing useful gadgets. Then the day came when the Chitahuri invaded Manhattan lead by the formidable Demi-god Loki, which brought the Avengers together to unite after the death of Phil Coulson. They brought the Chitahuri under control but at a major cost of destruction to Manhattan, but they managed to close the portal after Stark flew a nuclear missile through it to the Chitahuri ships and the fell back to Earth at speed but was caught by the Hulk [Edward Banner].

But once the Avengers parted ways and some very far away that the cleanup began and that meant pulling teams from all S.H.I.E.L.D facilities to clean up and get rid of any remaining Chitahuri artefacts and repair buildings along with the police and other departments. As the teams worked through New York clearing away the debris and analyzing what was Chitahuri technology to what was Human technology, and each were sealed in separate crates and loaded onto vans and taken away to various S.H.I.E.L.D classified facilities such as the Fridge. It took a few months to work through the debris and rebuild buildings and families to move on with their lives that it wasn't long before dreams of a normal life were shattered by a new villain 'The Mandarin' who brought terror to the world and brought Manhattan to its knees even nearly killed Ironman.

-All Events Follow the run up and the course of Captain America 2 and Rise of HYDRA-

Then following 'The Mandarin' America was not just brought to its knees but tore the heart out of the nation after the rise of Hydra and the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D and Project Insight. During the months before Project Insight was being constructed that I approached Nick Fury as I had noticed some inconsistencies with the plans and also cracks in different data streams from across the world. Amidst the development of Project Insight – Phil Coulson [At this stage I was unaware he was alive/Resurrected – still believed he was dead before the Battle of New York].

But there was the new wave of 'Centipede' soldiers that were being created through a mixture of different things such as Extremis and one person blew up a building and another came to blowing and killing millions at Grand Central Station, but was stopped by Coulson's team and he joined S.H.I.E.L.D only to be almost killed in an explosion and then taken in by HYDRA and the Clairvoyant [Garrett] along with Ian Quinn of Quinn Worldwide and part of Cybertek and became the new version of the Clairvoyant's [Garrett] pet project that he started back in the 1990s with himself as 'Patient Zero' but even now he is dying. Now Mike Peterson had lost his original identity and become Deathlok and was following orders from 'Clairvoyant' [Garrett] a half human and half robotic killing machine.

During my days at the Triskelion, I would occasionally pass some of the 'Avengers' in the corridors and would smile but they never seemed to notice but once Steve Rogers smiled back and said "Hi" and when I went down to the gym for a workout after shifts I would occasionally catch Natasha improving her hand to hand combat skills and I admired her skill and thought 'I would never want to get on the wrong side of her' and I thought back to the days of combat training and she was the group trainer and put us through our paces and each day pushed us harder and harder she even took the extra time to work with those that weren't pushing as hard as they could and get them up and push hard or even fight back if she felt that they needed to. I left quickly from the gym as I remembered that I had a report to hand into Maria Hill before the end of the day which was fast approaching so I had a quick shower when I returned to my room and then re-dressed and swiped the file and memory stick that I had bound a sticky note on.

Then I quickly made for Maria's office which luckily was two floors up and three corridors to the west of the staff rooms. I reached her office door and ensured that my uniform was straight and then knocked on the door, waited to be called into the office and as I waited during those few moments I slipped the memory stick from my pocket and slipped it into my left sleeve and then I was called in and entered the room and said "Afternoon Ma'am!" she look as though she was in the middle of a bad day, I received a menacing stare and then she said "At ease and please sit down" as I sat down into the chair I slid the memory stick out of my sleeve and then she asked for the report to which I handed over and as I did I slid the memory stick from my sleeve on to her desk covered by the file and she glanced through the report even in sections looked engrossed or turned to her computer to correlate data and then returned her look to me and said "Excellent report Agent Tyler… You may leave" I arose from the seat and saluted and said, "Thank you ma'am and good day to you!" to which she smiled, and I exited the office and returned to my quarters.

After I left the office, Maria placed my file into her cabinet and filed into the folder the bore my name and rank when she returned to her desk she noticed the memory stick with the note attached which read "Please check data and make sure you don't tell or trust anyone but make sure Fury is made aware!" and with that she turned to her computer and turned off the logger and ensured that it was encrypted enough so that no-one could tap into her computer and read the file and then placed the memory stick into the USB drive and watched as the data loaded onto the screen, and her face turned to shock and quickly removed it and closed the screen.

She then placed the memory stick in her pocket and turned away from her computer and turned to towards the window shone a beautiful warm sunlight with the backdrop of Washington and Virginia from the Theodore Roosevelt Island that sat on the Potomac River, she did wonder how that he had come across this information and returned to her computer to review my file. After I left and returned to my room and returned to my computer and checked my data and correlated data from other networks and sources that my server that had found a 'backdoor' into, that was when I had a rather harsh knock at my door and then the door burst almost off its hinges and just as he came through the door. I just managed to lock my computer before I noticed a raised gun with a silencer and the words "Hail HYDRA" then a few nanoseconds later A bullet was fired and came tearing through my uniform and my body and narrowly missed my vital organs which the shot almost felt surgical rather than a kill shot for them not want me dead but injured enough to put me out of action and then I passed out on the floor but still breathing and saw just as the blurred outline of a person walked out of the door and then everything turned to black.

But I was still breathing and with an ounce of my strength I crawled towards the door as blood gushed down my shirt and just as I made the door, my strength escaped me, and I passed out completely with my head just short of the door and my hand with my own blood slid down the side of the door. As my world turned to black, it felt as if time slows down, and everything became blurred, and people became dark shapes and sounds around me become distorted as I fell in slow motion. As I lay there in hope that someone would come along and help or if this were the way that I was to take my curtain call then I would rather I was with someone who cared or even loved me but or if I were to die alone then I go with a smile and the hope the accomplishments that I had done in my time were worthwhile and would I be remembered.

Then I felt the earth move as then I heard my name being called over and over again and it was at first distorted and echoed but I soon became coherent as to be Lauren as we had arranged to meet for dinner, but I never showed and after half an hour she got bored and decided to go back to her room but instead she came looking for me. In pain I leaned up which she strongly recommended I remain lying down on the floor and said in her ear "Tell Hill…HYDRA!" and then kissed her on the lips and sensed that she was more than a little surprised but didn't resist but kissed back it was almost if she had been longing for this moment for some time but I knew at the time she was seeing someone else and I had been a little jealous almost as if I was pining after her but so was I as I thought she wouldn't see me more than a friend and then a few seconds I passed out on the floor as blood trickled from the wound.

After I passed out, Lauren yelled out for help in the vain hope that someone would hear her and come help and then I blacked out completely and the next thing I knew as I hazily saw the rolling white lights of a hospital corridor and the blur and distort noise of doctors, nurses and patients and visiting family and then I returned to the land of nod as I lost consciousness again and I was rolled into an operating theatre, and as part of plan Lazarus was that I was to 'Fake' die in the operation but I was put out of consciousness to let the bad guys think they have an upper-hand. Then once I was pronounced dead and sent to the morgue, Whilst I was laid to rest in the morgue Lauren and my then girlfriend dropped by to say goodbye even whispered something in my ear and kissed my lips, but little did, she know is that she would see me again and that I had left her a present in my room which she took over after my assassination. Shortly after I would be brought back to life and then smuggled to another top-secret S.H.I.E.L.D. base that was off the records.

- Forth to Location XYX [Snowy Mountains] – These Events Follow during Captain America 2 and Rise of HYDRA

Once I awoke from the coma and overcame the jetlag, I found myself on a bed in a medical bay and carefully got up and groaned from the pain and realized that I was wearing a white patient gown and was in a white sterile room with beeping machinery and a Doctor in a white coat talking to a nurse when she noticed that I had come around, and the nurse rushed to my bed and urged "Don't get up too quickly, you will tear your stitches from where the bullet was removed.." She then helped me move from the bed to the wheelchair, and then I wheeled me from the medical bay to another room to where I would find a team awaiting orders and a fully tactical team on standby along with someone who I had hoped to see … Nick Fury.

As I rolled into the room, I was surprised by what I saw even the on the big screen with the map of the world along with the data streams from the different countries and S.H.I.E.L.D. facilities. I came to a stop a few inches from Fury and said "I'm sorry I can't get up, but I would salute…" that's when he was cut off when Fury stepped forward and held a hand in the air to stop where I was going. I paused for a moment, and he said "There's no need for it… I'm glad you found the leak and we hope you can cork it…"

He paused and then shook my hand and then motioned for me to address the staff in the room and across the base and I wheel my wheelchair in behind the microphone and took a breather before pressing the open microphone button "Attention all Agents. This is base commander Tyler – I want it know to all this there is a major leak within S.H.I.E.L.D and it is our job to plug it and clean it up but for all I know there could HYRDRA agents among us and if there are then hear this….". I took a pause and switched off the microphone and before continuing "There is no place that they can hide or run that I won't go to find you and if you're smart that will scare you!" I turned off the microphone and took a breath and looked up at Fury and Hill who had the look of fear and I said, "Scary enough?" with a slight grin and a laugh before turning away as Hill motioned and said, "It was scary!" I turned away and headed from the 'bridge'.

And then into one of the tech labs as the door rolled open the lab techs stood to attention, I waved a hand "Please as you were – there is no need for formalities" I rolled to one of the vacant and opened a toolbox and gadget box and began to adjust. I was fine tuning one of the x-ray circuits that I had installed on a small recon drone when I hit a snag when I attempted a test run of the circuit it overloaded with power and fizzed out during that time.

I had noticed many of the techs had either left the lab to go to another room or returned that was until the door slid open again to reveal two people that I would recognize from my academy days – Fitz and Simmons. I turned the wheelchair to face them when I heard Fitz's voice saying, "Now that was clever!" with a smirk and Simmons giggled at the clever remark "Yeah, but not as clever as your…." I trailed off as I realized who was speaking and spun round to see Leo and Gemma standing there. I smiled and said with slight puzzlement "Hey guys! It's great to see you … Thought you both had been assigned on a classified mission on board the bus?!".

They both looked quite surprised that I knew that, but Simmons suddenly moved forward and gave me a big hug to clear the awkward silence. "Oww!" as I felt the pain of where I had been shot and she quickly stepped back as she did, she was very apologetic for the pain, but I simply dismissed it "So what are you guys doing here?" I smiled as the pain quickly subdued. Gemma stumbled before she replied, "So we're here with the team that's on the bus to help you plug this leak, what can we do to help." I paused for a moment before replying "Well Fitz if you like you can take a look at this and see where I'm going wrong, Ms. Simmons with me if you will…" Fitz smiled and began to take a look at my gadget that I was having trouble with as I left I could see some of the mental difficulties he was having following being ejected out of the bus into the ocean and losing oxygen but was proud that despite this he was still himself and even saw the look as Simmons left the room almost as if he was pining after her. As I left the room Simmons followed me as there was a personal matter that I wanted her to take a look at the bullet wound in order to find some answers, we headed for the medical facility and had my medical files left on the table.

As we entered the corridor, I was surprised to bump into the rest of the team except for May and Coulson as they were attending to another matter elsewhere were standing in the corridor. "Well, hello there!" with a smile as I rolled out into the corridor I turned and asked "Follow me please, why don't I give you a guided tour…" with a smile and a grin. Skye [Daisy Johnson] was about to speak when I cut her off "Welcome to SHIELD, Skye [Daisy Johnson] I hear you worked hard to earn your badge despite being betrayed by someone who you only met … Would love for you to take a look at my server and the network work your 'magic' on digging some more information for us!" She smiled but also wondered how I knew who she was but relished the challenge that I had set for her then she sauntered off down the corridor to where I had indicated that my server was set up along with the 'farm' of internet servers. I smiled as she went then felt an up shot of pain from where I was shot.

Triplett was just left along with Simmons whom he joined to go and look over the medical data, despite looking at the files I could see what made them as a team and how they connected with one and another.

Just a few seconds later, I noticed in the corner of my eye a shadow of a person walking down the corridor I spun round to see that it was just someone with a report. It contained details of a Hydra cell that was operating in Toronto, Canada but the details were sketchy, so I issued the order for a small recon team to sit on the factory but to take no action unless necessary and with support in place.

Afterwards I rolled towards the gym as it was time for some physical exercise so that I could get out of the chair faster rather than let the muscle die. At first, I felt the pain but as I gradually push my strength as I went through a cross regime then later that day, I found that I had a nervous shake in my hand when I held a gun as I took to the shooting range. I began to consider the extent of the trap for the number of HYRDRA agents to even further point that I was willing to sacrifice my life even let it be a part of another plan of one of the Avengers - Captain America (Steve Rogers) that they would burn the SHIELD organization along with all documents leaked then later to be rebuilt from the ground up under the direction of Director Coulson.

Meanwhile back at the Triskelion

Lauren was having a hard time believing that I had died but continued with her duties. That was when things began to change as HYDRA agents were being moved into place, she continued to trudge through the files even occasionally looked to her phone and the picture of us on our last day at the academy and puzzled over the present I left her which she soon worked out was one of my small spy drones which had been converted into a small battle drone which she kept with her every day. Until one day she was on a recon mission in Arizona taking down a HYDRA recruitment/tech lab centre when they were cleaning up and taking much of the data that they could grab before she looked over as she thought she saw someone she recognized for one split second then she turned and looked again, and he was gone. But as they made progress, HYDRA agents were moving themselves into place getting ready to begin taking over S.H.I.E.L.D. only this time from within as 'Project Insight' was heading towards completion but for a different purpose that wouldn't come to light till too late.

She never stopped digging for more information, that was until she stumbled upon a highly classified document that she did not have the clearance to view. But triggered the alert for whoever killed me to come after her. Now she was on the run, which meant she now could not contact any of her family or coworkers or even return home. That was the night that she found out that I was still alive when I sent a trusted friend who I had placed in the field to watch over her and in case of a dire emergency or a threat to her life to bring her in and to safety. They had to dodge the pursuing squads of agents and even the assassins that were attempting to arrest her and bring her in or kill her in order to silence her for good.

It took them awhile but within 48 hours they had managed to escape from their clutches this wasn't without resorting to beating them in order to escape and even a particular nasty encounter with the assassin who took their pot shots even at to kill only this time they managed to wound him by a bullet slicing through his leg. He was fortunate to survive the shot as Lauren ripped a piece fabric from her jacket and strapped round tight in order to staunch the bleeding. He finally arrived at the base after finally getting out of Washington by bartering a jet for their ride on a private airstrip. Now through this entire ordeal, Lauren was looking for answers more specifically who was after them and where they are going but her most key question was what happened to me as there was no record of me being transferred to the morgue or even buried in a cemetery, she was met with the response of that she will find out later or being drip fed information which she really didn't like.

When she finally met me again "Hey you … did you Miss me…?" she realized that it was me and turned to see me roll out of the shadows sat in my wheelchair which I was met with a harsh slap to the face then a passionate kiss on the lips. Which once again I didn't resist, and she replied "Of course. But let's get to work…! But first I want to know what happened" I smiled and kissed her back and smiled. So, before we left for a raid on a HYDRA base, I quipped "what about your boyfriend…?" She smiled and replied, "we split it wasn't working especially when you 'died'." I sat down with Lauren and discussed everything that happened to me, even showed her the scar from where the bullet was removed, I hasten to admit I didn't expect her to believe the entire story, but she did well some parts anyway maybe I did elaborate a little for effect.

Furthermore since going underground, I sent out black-op teams to every S.H.I.E.L.D offshore supertanker to scrub the computers for any information that might lead to any HYDRA agents, which was turned over to Skye [Daisy Johnson] as she began to mine the data for evidence, as she slowly mined through the mountain of evidence she began to find leads that either lead nowhere or to covert HYDRA bases across the globe even in the heart of America. The more she dug through the more information that we could glean and then begin to make moves on the bases that was until HYDRA finally made their move and took over S.H.I.E.L.D which then was the cause for them to burn everything to the ground, further any agents made their choices to either leave or join HYDRA but for some had to go on the run or were arrested. During the uprising of HYDRA, I dispatched many of my teams to different S.H.I.E.L.D bases to help take down the HYDRA agents some weren't fortunate to survive, some were badly injured which made it harder when I had to speak with their loved ones that had died in the attacks. It was quelled following the final showdown at the Triskelion between Fury and Pierce but more importantly Romanoff leaking all the information to the public.

The fallout that followed

After that I went on a highly dangerous mission to destroy as many parts of the HYDRA network across the globe, admits the scrutiny that agents were put under by the enquiry but before I left, I took care of a few loose ends at home and one of them being Lauren. I rolled up in my car to her homestead in Arizona as I finally plucked up the courage to tell her how I felt, so there i was in my rebuilt car [to be named] burning rubber down a dusty gravel road with her home in sight as I pulled up over the hill it was here that I paused for a moment as if steeling myself for the question I was about to ask. As I pulled up to her family's ranch, there was she was with the sun catching her face. I paused at the driveway entrance and snapped the shot before pulling up and stepping onto the porch a few steps from where she stood enjoying the view "Hi…!" I said nervously as I stepped onto the porch with some unease. I enjoyed the sight for a few more milliseconds before she turned around with some surprise "Hey … What are you doing here?!".

I smiled at each other "umm. I was just passing …" a lie that even she could tell by miles as she knew that no one would come this far out just to pass by, but she let it go. We both lingered for a moment as we couldn't think of anything to tell each other, I could tell she was about to turn away and head into the house and I turned to leave but something stopped me in my tracks as I looked to the floor. Pausing as the silence of the Arizona outback swept past "umm. Lauren … I have a question that needs an answer".

In that moment she replied "Yes. Mac what is it?" she felt a nervousness as she had turned away and facing the forest that lay to the northwest of the ranch. Bracing myself I turned around "Ever since we first met… I've been in love with you ... and not been able to stop thinking about you and really I don't want to ... but my question to you is…" By this point she had turned around to face me once more and could feel a tear rolling down her eyes as if she were unburying feelings that she had long since buried. Now I should add here that we have been on a few dates, but it never really worked out even at one point we stopped talking to each other altogether and couldn't even look each other in the eye as it felt awkward. I had asked her before, but she flat out said no, it was during that time that we both saw other people or spent times at home with friends or on our own with our head in the ground listening to love songs and crying with ice cream in hand.

Taking a breath, "Lauren Kelly Jones, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?" there was a silence in the air, by this point I was down on one knee with a box that held the ring. "Mac… I'm sorry but I've met someone else, and I'm engaged…" she was crying, and I felt my heart sink and drop. I stood up and was gonna ask her to reconsider "Well. I hope you have a good life. If he hurts you, he will have to answer to me" she smiled and laughed a little, but she knew I had her best interests at heart, before leaving she kissed my lips one last time, and I could see she wasn't in love with him but me.

I began to leave and returned to my car to drive off. Meanwhile back inside the house, her parents were concerned as she returned inside with tears in her eyes "What happened …?" they asked, as they wanted what was best for, but little did, he know that she had lied to me, but it was her parents that had found her perfect partner she wasn't overly fond of the match. "Nothing...!" she cheered up a little and headed off to her room and flumped into her bean bag, looking at a photo of us we shared from our induction day.

I drove away with the sun behind me as I drove back to New York with the radio playing soul music, I ignored my phone as I drove as I got back, I stopped at my favorite pizza shop and got my usual before getting back to my flat where I crashed on the couch and stuck on a random television channel. My flat mate saw the pain in my face and wasn't going to make things worse and left me to wallow.

She headed out as she due to meet her boyfriend for a date, when she paused and saw me through the window and pulled out her cell phone and dialed her number only to get the voicemail and said "hey, ….". She soon disconnected the call as She couldn't think of what she wanted to say or rather she couldn't bring herself to say the words.

I left the following morning, taking the mission alone rather than waiting on my partner.

I needed time out of the city, as the pain hurt so I buried myself into my persona making my way into HYDRA's network. I got so deep into my persona that I forgot who I was and for a time I was glad to be someone else. Until a few months into the operation, that I began missing check-ins and Lauren was on another assignment when she found out that I was MIA. But the truth was I had gone dark in terms of my cover to find a way into the higher ranks whilst slowly beginning to break down the network.

Then eighteen months later the operation went south and very fast as I was knee deep in trouble whilst in Brazil. They found me as I dug deep into the network, I was captured and held in an underground cell for days. I was found nearly half dead and beaten by the time, a rescue crew found me after days of psychological and physical torture. I spent days in a coma when I was in hospital, I flashed through what had happened to me through all the pain as I held out.

It was a groggy surprise to see her sat next to me in the chair but holding my hand, almost thought I was in a dream.

But in the months to come as I went through physical therapy, to get back on my feet but part way through recovery I broke and not in a good way when a case came up which brought back a cascade of memories that I had managed to bury deep in the back of my brain of the days of torture that I never wanted to remember. But a startling discovery was made as I remembered a certain word