It'd been very quiet without Clint and Natasha. My roster had settled down leaving me with some spare time during the days. Jared had been home the entire week and a half. Instead of training with Riley, I found myself training with Jared instead. Riley mostly watched from the sidelines when he wasn't busy.

I don't know if Clint had words to him about pushing me to use my powers more. But during sparring, he didn't hold back. He'd teleport out of the way, throw small balls of flames at me and basically do anything to cheat. He pushed me to the point of stooping to his level. I froze his feet in place and then punched him across the face. It left him with a black eye and a very swollen nose. I was so proud of myself that I took a photo of him half on the ground clutching at his face. I sent it to Natasha and Clint, not expecting an answer. I got a message back nearly right away, the first time I'd heard from both of them while they were away. It was another photo back. Clint was on the floor laughing and Natasha had a cat eating canary grin on her face giving me a thumbs up. I'm glad they approved.

It also left the small problem of being torn between spending time with Jared and Riley. I'd felt like I had moved into Riley's apartment without us talking about it. So I decided to stay back in my own bed one night. It'd been very hard to get to sleep after being used to having Riley in bed. When I finally fell asleep, I woke up to Riley curled around me. He admitted in the morning he couldn't sleep without me either but didn't want to disturb me. He decided to come over instead and let himself in. Jared had a bad habit of never locking the front door. He never felt the need to in a secure building. Riley didn't even have to pick the lock, which he smugly informed me he could do easily, to get in. He just opened the door and got into bed with me.

I was startled awake by my phone ringing at 0200 the following Tuesday. I blinked in the darkness fumbling for the offending device currently blaring the Imperial Death March. Coulson ringing could only mean one thing. Natasha and Clint were ready to be picked up. Riley briefly stirred beside me but settled back down straight away.

"What?" I grunted into the phone when I finally managed to answer it.

"We need you in here now." Coulson sounded wide awake and very stressed. The tone of his voice made up wake up instantly.

"Did something happen to Nat and Hawk?" I kicked the covers off already scrambling to find some clothes in the darkness.

"No, but we have a situation," Coulson said. "You have ten minutes."

I didn't get to protest, he'd already hung up. I yanked on a pair of underwear and fumbled through the clean pile of clothes still in the basket for work clothes. Inwardly I sighed. Riley and I really needed to talk about this living situation. I didn't want him to think I was taking advantage of him being here all the time.

"You can turn the light on, I'm awake," Riley's sleepy voice interrupted my fumbling into the dark. Before I could answer he flicked the bedside light on. We both blinked rapidly in the overly bright light. "What's happening?"

"I have no idea." I finally produced a pair of pants with a black tank top. It'd do well enough at this stupid hour. I think my black work jacket was still hanging at the door with my motorbike jacket. "It's not Nat and Hawk so the world is probably blowing up."

"Why can't it blow up at a reasonable hour?" Riley grumbled. He threw his arm over his eyes letting out a jaw cracking yawn. "I'll keep the bed warm for you."

"Thanks," I said dryly. I quickly got dressed, not bothering to do anything else beyond throwing my hair into a messy ponytail. Riley was nearly asleep again when I threw a leg over him and straddled him. I leant down and gave him a small kiss.

"I'll let you know what's happening when I know," I said before sitting up. I went to get off but Riley grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back down for another kiss. I laughed quietly against his lips, wriggling against him. It was so easy to get lost in his kisses. It took a lot of self control to pull away and not continue with pulling the blankets off his naked body.

"Be safe." Riley snuck another kiss in before letting me get up.

"Always."

The streets were deserted as I gunned my Kawasaki towards the Triskelion. It was freezing too. The middle of October now and the weather was promising a bitter winter. I was shivering my ass off by the time I pulled into the garage of the Triskelion. I wasn't the only one called in. There'd been a small line up to actually get in. Coulson was only a few cars ahead of me and he was waiting as I climbed off my Kawasaki. He even had two cups of coffee in his hand.

"What's happening?" I asked straight away as soon as my helmet was off. Coulson handed me the second cup of coffee which I gratefully took. I only had about four hours of sleep.

"You're about the experience your first Level One priority op." Coulson said. "Shit just got serious. Right now you're being given level six clearance on a temporary basis."

"Okay?" I looked at Coulson confused. He walked off leaving me feeling a bit dumbfounded as I fell into step a second after him.

"Right now we're having a debrief with selected Operations personal above level six and STRIKE team leaders," Coulson continued when I caught up with him. "How much sleep have you had?"

"Not a lot," I admitted. "Why?"

"You're going to regret that very soon," Coulson gave me a wry smile. "Did you ever use stimulants in the Air Force."

"Once or twice," I remembered those times very well. Mostly because I'd ended up sitting in the cockpit of a Raptor for 26 hours straight flying crazy long missions. During that time I learnt not only did Dexedrine keep me awake for 36 hours straight. Even on a very small dose. It also made me demolish four cheeseburgers, two large servings of fries and ten McNuggets all to myself afterwards. Those flights also made me realise that the need to pee can make anyone learn to piss in a bottle when you didn't have any other choice.

"Any issues?" Coulson asked as we made to the elevator.

"No, they just make me hungry." What I really wanted to reply with was a lot more of a smart ass answer. Like what the fuck was happening to drag me out of bed at this hour.

"Noted, I'll send you with food." Coulson pulled out his phone looking at something briefly. "Ever been to Bagram Base?"

"Only in passing." The conversation was making me more curious. Bagram Air Force Base was the biggest joint operations base in Afghanistan. The base was nearly its own city with the amount of infrastructure there. It even had its own Burger King and Dairy Queen. The F-22's rarely flew out of there though. I'd only stopped at the base once for refuelling when I had a longer than expected mission. "What's going on Coulson?"

"Stark is missing." Coulson's words stopped me dead in my tracks. He didn't wait for me, he kept walking which forced me to take a few quick steps to catch up again. I didn't have time to process the shocking piece of information just fed to me. I just had to keep moving and find out what my part to play was going to be in this.

"Are you serious?"

"His convoy was attacked," Coulson explained as I caught up. "Surprise attack. Only a handful of survivors. Most of them are in pretty bad shape. This hasn't gotten out to the general public yet so SHIELD needs boots on the ground in a coordinated effort with other agencies to try and find him."

"Any demands?" It was hard to get my head around all of this. Only a week ago Tony was at the gala, flirting with me. Now there was every chance he was dead, or being held hostage. With his substantial wealth, the latter seemed more the possibility.

"None yet, but give it time." Coulson and I reached the elevator. He hit the button the open the door. "I'm pulling Barton and Nat off their mission. You'll be picking them up on the way over there."

"It'd be nice to know where they are." I was having a hard time keeping my sass in check this morning. I'd had far too little sleep for the world to be imploding in front of me right now. We both stepped into the empty elevator.

"South Africa," Coulson supplied. "Operations control. They were hunting down an arms dealer by the name of Ulysses Klawe. They're currently holed up in a safe house just outside of Johannesburg. I'll include them in on the video feed of the briefing that's about to happen."

I was surprised Coulson actually told me straight out. Having the temporary level six clearance was going to come in handy. It'd be nice knowing a little bit more of what really went on behind the scenes.

"So what am I doing besides playing taxi?" The elevator climbed upwards without any noise. I took a long drink of my coffee. I was going to need another few hits of caffeine to get my head around all of this.

"This is going to be a search and rescue mission," Coulson explained. "Right now we have no idea where he is beside where the convoy was attacked. There's going to be air and ground sweeps of the entire country to track him down. I'll need you to do whatever you're asked of."

So nothing different to any other time. Be quiet, do my job and don't ask any questions.

"Right now the plan is the send in a select group of Specialists to see if they can establish anything with contacts in the area," Coulson continued. "STRIKE will be right behind them and the ones doing the searching of any possible leads. Everyone is coming in on this. CIA, DOD, FBI, DIA, NSA. You name it they'll be in on it."

"Why such the big deal over one guy?" I asked. This was crazy. You basically had half the USA intelligence agencies chasing down one person. "I know he's rich enough to own the world. But surely there's a limit on what person is worth?"

"Who was Stark's father?" Coulson didn't answer my question.

"Howard Stark," I filled in.

"Who did what?"

"He helped with the Super Soldier program in World War 2, as well as the Manhattan project." I wasn't following why was I was getting drilled with a history lesson so early in the morning.

Coulson looked at me expectedly. Like he was waiting for me to fill in the blanks. It took a few grinding of the brain gears for it to finally work and piece it all together.

"He founded SHIELD," I was very slow on the uptake this morning. The elevator doors slid open and we stepped out before I continued. "Along with Stark Industries, the biggest weapons manufacturer in the world. So we don't know what Tony knows and doesn't know. He may know far too much and whoever took him will gain a lot of valuable intel on America's weapons developments and secrets."

"He may come across as a drunken playboy." Coulson nodded, looking pleased with my explanation. "But he is a genius. 95% of what comes out of Stark Industries is from his creations. He supplies weapons not only to the military, but all of these organisations that are now hoping to find him before the bad guys know some dirty secrets. There's a lot more experimental tech that isn't known about yet. We really don't want people finding out about it."

"You really think Stark would sell out his own country?"

"People do strange things under torture." Coulson didn't need to elaborate too much on that. "We don't know who took him. So we don't have what they're capable of. In here."

Coulson motioned towards the door on our left. Stepping into the room the loud buzzing of multiples conversations invaded my ears. The room looked like a massive auditorium minus the stage. Chairs were set out in long rows. A projector screen was already down at the front of the room ready to go. It was nothing out of the ordinary at all. Besides the fact it was now 0220 and it was filled with people.

"Find a seat, it won't be long," Coulson instructed me before walking to the front of the room.

I hung back scanning the room for a familiar face. Despite the room being filled with people, there was nobody I knew. Well, knew enough to say hello. My eyes fell on Agent May, who was speaking with two other women. One tall with blonde hair and the other with her back to me and all I could see was brown hair. I chewed my lips, standing there debating whether I should actually go mingle or not. Jared should be here. But knowing him he'd show up only seconds before everything started.

Jared walked in the door just as that thought ran through my head. So much for him getting here seconds before it started. Like everyone else in the room, he had coffee with him. But his way balancing a tray full of cups. His face lit up when he saw me standing there.

"I was wondering if Coulson would bring you in on this on.," Jared grinned. He was far too awake for this stupid hour of the morning. "Come and meet some people."

Apparently I was going to socialise whether I wanted to or not. Jared walked over to the group that I'd seen earlier with May.

"Ladies, who loves me?" Jared announced loudly. He looked so proud of himself presenting the coffee tray to the three of them. "One of the left with the black mark on the lid is for you May."

May gave Jared a dead panned expression as she took the offered cup.

"I don't love you but I'll tolerate you when you bring coffee." The tall blonde snatched one of the cups up. She shot me a quick smile and an introduction. "I'm Bobbi, you must be Kari."

"Hi." I suddenly felt very awkward standing there in a group of people I didn't know.

"Izzy." The dark haired woman who I couldn't see earlier offered her name. She took a cup off Jared as well only leaving one left in the tray. "So do we know what's going on?"

"Nope," Jared shrugged. He took the last cup and dropped the tray on an empty chair. "Any ideas?"

I looked around the group feeling surprised. Coulson had filled me in on what was happening. So why weren't they filled in by whoever their superior was?

"Kari?" Noting my silence and probably the surprised look on my face, Jared turned to me. "Come on spill it."

"No idea what you're talking about." I shrugged trying to make myself look as innocent as possible. "I only just got given a temporary level six clearance for this. What makes you think Coulson would tell me?"

Jared watched me carefully with a frown on his face. I was never a very good lair.

"Natasha is rubbing off on you in more ways than one," Jared finally said sounding annoyed. "I can't tell if you're lying or not anymore. Are they back yet?"

"Nope." I sipped on my coffee.

May watched us interact with a smirk on her face. Bobbi and Izzy weren't bothering to cover their amusement either.

"When are they getting back?" Jared asked, looking more frustrated by the second.

"When they're finished." I loved getting Jared riled up over nothing. It wasn't often I got to do it. He was usually the one that stirred me up by being evasive.

"Thanks for the coffee," Rumlow's voice came from behind me. He went to snatch the cup over my shoulder and I quickly moved it out of the way. I don't know if it was reflex or what, but I quickly brought my booted foot down onto Rumlow's toes. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't dressed for work yet. He was still in sneakers. My boot made a loud crunch as it connected with his unprotected toes.

"Fucking son of a c….." Rumlow said loud enough to draw everyone's attention to him. I turned around to see him hopping on one foot, clutching the offending sore foot. He was glowering at me heavily. He wasn't saved anything from anyone in the room. Muted laughter ripped across the large space. The loudest of all was Jared. At least the ladies standing there with me managed to cover their laughter.

"Tsk tsk that's not a nice word," I smirked at Rumlow knowing full well the word he was about to drop before he cut himself off. "Even I don't use that word."

"No, you're appropriate response would have been, got one not one." Rumlow was still scowling at me. He put his foot down on the ground gingerly testing some weight on it. "Fuck me woman, what have you been eating? I feel like an elephant stomped on my foot."

"Are you calling me fat Rumlow?" I laughed at him.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Jared and his group of ladies discreetly stepped away a few paces. It nearly made me roll my eyes. STRIKE and Specialists were like cats and dogs. It was rare either of them got along. It hadn't gone unnoticed by me that Jared didn't exactly like Rumlow either. While outgoing and charming, Jared was a lot like Clint and Natasha. He only liked a handful of people enough to socialise with them.

"Yeah, you're definitely fat." Rumlow took a step forward. He was able to put his full weight back on the foot. Idiot. I didn't stomp on him that hard. "What are you doing here?"

"Coulson asked me to come in." I didn't offer any more to the explanation. "It's too fucking early for this shit."

"Yes, it is," Rumlow couldn't keep the grumble out of his voice. "You going to come and sit with the cool STRIKE kids? Or be a loser and sit with the Specialists."

See, cats and dogs. Though I'd hate to put a label on which one was actually a cat or dog. I had a terrible feeling it would be the cause of a war within SHIELD.

"I'm going to sit in the back corner pulling faces and making rude jokes." I deflected with a joke. I actually wanted to go and sit with Jared. But I hadn't seen Rumlow a lot over the last few weeks. I'd see him long enough to say hello and that was it. He'd been one of the first people in SHIELD to actually talk to me. I'd dare say I could even call him a friend now.

"Cool, me too." Rumlow wasn't giving me much of an option. "You know, you've never come out for drinks at JoJo's yet."

"I've been working my ass off." Despite me saying I was going to sit up the back, I found the first available chair and sat down. "I had another mission last weekend as well as clocking up some major flying hours. I never knew my life could get so busy."

"From the snippets I've heard of what's happening it's about the get busier." Rumlow sat down next to me, stretching his legs out in front of him. "Have you been told what's going on?"

"Have you?"

"I'm a STRIKE leader, of course I have." The look Rumlow gave me told me it was a stupid question to ask. "Barton and Romanoff back yet?"

"I'm picking them up on the way." I tucked one leg up underneath me. I took another drink of coffee which Rumlow seemed to have a hard time taking his eyes off. Wordlessly I handed the cup to him. It was like giving a kid a block of chocolate. His entire face lit up and he took a long drink from it.

"You know there is a million and ones coffee places on the way here." I shook my head at him. I had no idea where Rumlow lived but I knew DC well enough now to know there were plenty of places open at this time of the morning to get coffee.

"Which would have been fantastic if I didn't leave my wallet at home." Rumlow handed the cup back to me. "Not even the change in my ashtray could save me this morning."

"Dumbass," I teased him, but secretly pitied him. If Coulson hadn't brought me a coffee I think I would have felt like I was doing to die by now. I took another sip and handed him the cup again. "I'll at least I'll be nice and share."

"I won't rag on you for having such a girly drink," Rumlow teased me back. "Never picked you for a vanilla latte kinda girl. Always thought it'd be something like a long black."

The dirty joke I was about to make died in my throat as Director Fury himself came in through the side door at the front of the room. The buzz of chatter around the room died down instantly seeing him standing there. Talk about making an entrance. He didn't need to speak or do anything. He stood at the front of the room looking intimidating as hell. Chairs scraped along the floor and people quickly scrambled to sit down. The whole room was silent in less than a minute.

"Right people lets get this show on the road," Fury's voice rang out clearly across the silent room. The room darkened and the projector beside him came to life. A zoomed in map with a large circle around in displayed on it first.

"Approximately four hours ago in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan, Tony Stark gave a presentation on his latest weapon, the Jericho Missile in front of the US and Afghan military leaders. 45 minutes after the presentation he left with an escort of five vehicles being escorted by USAF personnel in Humvees."

The projector changed to cutting to pictures of the destroyed humvees. The scene was pure carnage. There wasn't much left except for twisted metal skeletons of what was once armoured vehicles. The bodies had been taken out of the photos but you could mistake the darkened patches on the ground. My stomach clenched uncomfortably at how much blood there really was. Those poor soldiers. This should have just been a routine drive out in the desert. Nothing out of the ordinary for them. But there will be a lot of grieving families today.

"So far we have nothing," Fury's voice was flat of emotion. "No trace of Stark. No ransom offers. We aren't even sure what group took him or who they play for. We have a very small window here people. A team of Specialists will hit the ground first to see if we can track any information by any means necessary. STRIKE Teams Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta will follow and act as ground control."

"Who's in that first team of Specialists?" Someone asked.

"Jared no doubt," I muttered under my breath. Next to me, Rumlow snickered quietly.

"I need six volunteers," Fury said in a way of explanation. "Wheels will be up in an hour. Whoever goes will be meeting STRIKE Team Delta on the way."

A few hands shot up immediately. Not as many as I thought there would be though. Fury had only gotten his six volunteers. I guess not all Specialists shared Jared's excitement for getting themselves buried neck deep in shit all the time. Or a lot of people didn't want to be stuck with Clint and Natasha on a Quinjet for a few hours.

Jared was sitting a few rows ahead of me. Of course his hand was up. I had no doubt he'd be ready to teleport out in the next few seconds if he was allowed.

"Thank you. Agent Coulson will be running this Op on the ground. Agent Sitwell and Agent Hand will be his back up stateside. I want those who just volunteered to be ready and in a Quinjet by 0400. STRIKE Leaders, 0600. Questions?"

The way Fury asked if there were questions made it sound more like a death threat if someone actually did have the balls to ask anything.

"We have a lot of government organisations working with us on this one." Fury looked around the room sternly. "That means we all share information. And we play nice. That goes for everyone."

Was it my imagination or did Fury's one good eye land exactly where Jared was sitting? The squirm in Jared's posture told me it definitely wasn't my imagination. Jared never played nice. This will be a challenge for him. Next to me, Rumlow wiped a hand over his face trying to cover the strangled laughter coming from him. I guess I wasn't the only one who knew exactly what Fury was talking about.

"Those who volunteered, see Agent Coulson before you go. Dismissed." At those words, everyone jumped to their feet.

Expect for me. I stayed in my seat waiting for Coulson. Obviously, I was flying the Specialists there but I needed to know what else I would need to do for the next hour and a half.

"See you in Afghanistan." Rumlow pulled a face as he got to his feet. "I might even replace half the coffee I just drank."

I shook the cup, finding it empty. We'd been passing it back and forth without me noticing during the briefing.

"You know what to get me now," I chuckled. "See you on the other side."

Rumlow gave me a ridiculous mock salute and sauntered off. Coulson stood up the front with a tablet in his hand, talking to the group of Specialists. Now the room had emptied I could hear him clearly enough.

"Pack for at least two weeks, this one could take a while." Coulson looked around the group. "Jared I don't want you teleporting there. You'll have to fly like everyone else. As a matter of fa,ct I don't want you teleporting at all for this one. There's too much a stake when we don't know who the players are."

"If Kari wasn't flying I'd be freaking out right now." Jared crossed his arms looking annoyed. "Fine, I'll try and be a boring, normal person."

Jared couldn't be a normal, boring person if his life depended on it. We were both young when we got our powers. Young enough that I don't remember not having them.

My phone vibrated in my pocket dragging my attention away from the conversation. As I was pulling it out of my pocket it vibrated again. There was one message from Riley and the other was from Natasha. I opened the one from Riley first.

I've just been told we're flying to Afghanistan, not my favourite place in the world. Do you want me to pack you a bag?

I smiled at my phone. He was so thoughtful. I had enough clothes at his house that packing something for the next few weeks shouldn't be a problem. I loved how he just said pack a bag. He didn't even have to ask what to pack me. I trusted him more than enough to know he was thoughtful enough to throw everything in that I'd need. He wouldn't even be a typical guy and throw nothing but skimpy underwear in there. He'd pack practical clothes.

Have I ever told you that you're the best? I'm leaving before you so I'll see you when we you get there.

I couldn't keep the ridiculous smile off my face as my fingers tapped away at the screen of my phone. I sent the message and flicked back to find the one from Natasha.

Theres a red bag in my locker, can you bring it please? And some cheeseburgers and chocolate?

Red bag I could do. Having enough time to run to McDonalds and buy cheeseburgers might not be on the cards though. I sent her back a quick text.

Yes to the bag and chocolate. Cheeseburgers might be a bit harder but I'll see what I can do.

I could just imagine the pout on Natasha's face as she read that. Fuck it, I'll send Jared to get cheeseburgers on his way to get whatever he needed while he was away. I'd be dying for a cheeseburger as well if I'd just spent the last week and a bit chasing an arms dealer around South Africa.

A clearing throat made me look up. Coulson was standing over me, holding an iPad in his hand.

"What do you need to me do Sir?" I said quickly before I could get into trouble.

"Grab whatever you need for a long flight and trip." Coulson didn't look angry, more amused at my total lack of concentration on what was going on around me. "You've got an hour."

I scrambled out of the chair. I didn't need to be told twice. An hour was more than enough time for cheeseburgers.

It was a very long flight to Bagram base. The stop over to pick up Natasha and Clint made a long flight even longer. They were both so tired they'd passed out as soon as they got into the Quinjet. I barely got more than a mumbled hello from either of them. I couldn't even tease Clint about the patchy blonde beard he was sporting. The bag of cheeseburgers Jared had so kindly teleported to go and get sat untouched. It wasn't until we actually landed in Bagram that either of them stirred.

At least the flight had been mildly entertaining. Jared had brought his laptop and external hard drive full of movies to keep us amused. While the other Specialists, all guys and none of them bothered to introduce themselves to me, had sat in the back either on their own laptops or tablets mostly typing. With the Quinjet on auto pilot most the way Jared and I enjoyed being a Pixar splurge. I couldn't believe he hadn't seen Finding Nemo, where Jared was dumbstruck that I'd hadn't seen Wall-E yet. Being nice for once Jared even let me watch The Incredibles, even though I knew it off by heart. Coulson joined us when Jared decided to put Toy Story on.

As soon as the Quinjet touched down on the tarmac, a group of soldiers in uniform were there to instantly greet us. Headed by Colonial Rhodes himself. Rhodes looked like he'd aged ten years since I saw him at the gala last weekend. His arm was in a sling and he limped heavily to Coulson as soon as he walked down the ramp.

"Agent Coulson I'm Colonial James Rhodes." Rhodes offered his hand which Coulson shook. "You're the first ones here. Follow me please."

I was the last one off the Quinjet. Jared was right beside Coulson listening intently to the conversation between the two men. I didn't miss the stare from Rhodes that lingered on me a lot longer than necessary. Natasha was still yawning when I caught up to her. I handed her the promised red duffel bag from her locker.

"You're a life saver." Natasha quickly slipped her arm around my waist in a one armed hug. "The cheeseburger was awesome too."

She must have scoffed it down while I was still shutting everything off in the Quinjet. Clint fell in to step next to me, giving me the same hug Natasha had. One arm slipped around the waist and a brief squeeze.

"You look funny with a beard." I couldn't hold it in any longer. Clint was always clean shaven at work. I hadn't ever seen him miss a day. Now he looked like a scruffy teenager trying to grow his first lot of facial hair.

"If you can call it that," Clint chuckled tiredly rubbing his face. "I'm dying for a shower and shave."

I was dying for some sleep but I didn't voice that to either of them. Neither of them looked like they'd had a decent night sleep since they left. Natasha's face was paler than normal, looking pinched and drawn. Clint looked marginally better, but not much. It must have been a very rough week and a half.

We'd ended up lagging behind the group a few steps. Even though it was halfway through October it was still hot. Who was I kidding, it was the Middle East. It was always hot. The weather could change in a heartbeat though. We could be sweltering one second and the next a snow storm could blow in. A fierce wind was blowing making my eyes sting even more than they already were from tiredness. I wished I'd had the good sense to throw my sunglasses on my head this morning. Then again I had no idea I'd be flying halfway across the world either.

After we exited the runway, cars were waiting for us. Jared, Coulson and Rhodes got in the first one. The other Specialists went in the second and third, leaving the last car for us. Natasha was asleep on my shoulder the second the car pulled away from the curb. The young Airmen driving the car couldn't help but shoot us curious looks as he drove.

"Rough trip?" I asked quietly. Being the skinniest I got squashed into the middle. As always. Clint was leaning against his door, head resting on the window.

"The fucking worst," Clint's voice was strained and tired. "We lost sight of him on the second day. Nat got food poisoning and I got some weird jungle virus that landed me on my back for two days. It was pretty fucking miserable. I've never been so glad to be pulled off a mission."

"I can't say I was sad to be picking you guys up either," I admitted. "It's been quiet without both of you."

"Aww, did you miss us?" Clint raised his head off the window. He looked over to me with a smirk. "We missed you. It would have been good having another set of eyes for this."

"Yes, I did miss you, you big idiot," I chuckled quietly so I didn't disturb Natasha. She was completely passed out. There was the occasional light snore escaping from her lips. Her curls were sticking out wildly, one would occasionally bounce up and tickle my nose. "I wish I'd been allowed to tag along. I felt like I did nothing but fly, eat and sleep."

"Loved your work with Jared by the way." Clint wriggled down on the chair until he was sprawled out leaning his head back against the chair. "It's not often I get to laugh at him getting his ass kicked."

"I did cheat a little bit." I started to fiddle with Natasha's curls to give me something to do. Sitting down was making me very sleepy after that flight.

"Not cheating when he was doing it to you," Clint yawned. It was very contagious. As soon as his mouth closed my body did the exact same thing. "God, I need some sleep in a decent bed."

"Heres hoping we get some decent accommodation and not just a sleeping bag and a tent." I was only teasing. From what I'd googled before we left, Bagram Base was well set up in regard to modern comforts. It housed nearly 40,000 military and civilian personnel. I had no doubt we'd be at least comfortable and well fed during our stay here. However long it might be.

Clint didn't get to reply. Our car stopped and the doors opened by more military personnel before any of us could react.

"Nat," I gave her a gentle shake. She mumbled in her sleep, wrapping an arm around me tightly. I sighed trying again, this time I shook her harder. I still didn't get a response.

"Lick her face," Clint suggested with a daring smirk. "Go on, it'll be funny."

The young looking airmen who'd been our driver coughed discreetly to cover his own amusement. I sent Clint a glare to let him know I was definitely not amused. Or so stupid to do something like that. Instead, I let some ice form over my hand, being very careful to keep it out of view. Natasha's shirt had ridden up slightly leaving a thin strip of bare skin on her stomach showing. I touched my iced over hand on her skin. The reaction was instant. Natasha shot up off my shoulder, spitting at me in Russian. It was so garbled I barely understood a word of it. It took her a second to get any kind of bearings before she focused on my grinning face. Clint was laughing at her, though it was muffled behind his hands. He had the good sense to get out of the car just as I did it. No doubt expecting fireworks.

"I just wanted to sleep." Natasha buried her head into her hands. "That was fucking mean. I hate the cold."

"Come on." I couldn't wipe the grin off my face. "We're here. You might get a bed now."

"Eh." Natasha grabbed her bag which was sitting at her feet. I quickly slid out of the car before she started to climb over me. No doubt I needed to watch my back. She'd get revenge on me somehow. The group was waiting for us. Coulson had his arms crossed as he tapped his foot impatiently.

"I'm sorry, are we disturbing you three?" Coulson sounded genuinely annoyed. I suppose a 14 hour flight with no sleep would make me cranky too. We were standing outside what looked to be the barracks. Rows and rows of huts lined the large space. I spied an ablutions block off to our left. A shower would go down pretty well right now. Then again so would sleep. Maybe I could fall asleep while having a shower? It'd be efficient at least.

"Sorry Sir," Clint said instantly. Natasha and I followed with identical mumbled apologises as well. Jared shot me an amused look. I scowled at him, wishing I could throw something to wipe that look off his face.

"As I was saying," Rhodes cleared his throat. He was staring right at me making me feel increasingly more uncomfortable with every passing second. "With all the people we are expecting on site, it's going to be a tight squeeze."

Shit. There goes my thinking that we'd at least have a comfortable bed.

"We've had to double up a lot of room space." Rhodes finally tore his gaze away from me. "I'll leave it up to your people to decide how they want to use it. This block is mostly yours, but you will have some Special Forces sharing it as well. We expect everyone on base by 0900 today. The briefing will be at 1030."

I discreetly checked my phone, pulling it out of my pocket just enough to see what the time local time was. The sun was up, but other than that I had no idea what time it really was. It was only 0730 local time. We'd have a few hours to sleep, or at least get something to eat before we had to be there.

Rhodes went on to speak about something else but I got completely distracted by the sound of two F-18 Hornets flying overhead. They were flying low and fast, a lot faster than they probably should have in this airspace. The both peeled off to the left, making sharp turns just as another two screamed overhead. The noise was incredible. It sent a very familiar thrumming through my body. There were few things more incredible than the sound of a fighter jet roaring overhead. The only thing that could come close was actually sitting in the cockpit and being the one flying it. My eyes followed the jets and it wasn't until Natasha snapped her fingers in front of my eyes I brought my attention back down to the ground.

"Come on fly girl," Natasha spoke through her yawn. "Let's get settled. Wheres your bag?"

Apparently, I had missed an entire piece of conversation. Rhodes and the Airmen with him were already leaving. Not before Rhodes threw another look at me over his shoulder before he got back in the car. I wasn't sure if he was remembering me from the gala or the Air Force.

"Riley is bringing it," I explained. Clint and Jared walked into the room straight in front of us. Natasha climbed the single step into the same room. I was right behind her. Clint and Jared had both already fallen on the single beds. Clint was already sprawled out on one of them, face first. If he wasn't already asleep, he wouldn't be far from it. Jared was sitting on his bed, crossed legged typing on his laptop. He'd picked the bed closest to a wall, so he could lean against it. The frowning look of concentration told me not to disturb him in whatever he was doing.

The room was only really meant for one person. But somehow they'd managed to squeeze four beds in here. There wasn't a lot of space to move around. Whoever had arranged the space had left just enough gap to walk between the beds. Still, it was a bed and the air conditioner was running. Life could be a lot worse.

Natasha picked the bed next to Jared, leaving me with the last one against the opposite wall next to Clint. I yawned sitting down on the bed that was going to be mine for the next few weeks. With Clint passed out, Natasha barely keeping her eyes open as she checked her emails and Jared busy I didn't see the harm in closing my eyes for a few minutes. After all, it could be weeks before I got a chance to have a decent sleep. I curled up on my side, tucking the pillow under my head. Five minutes is all I needed.

I was woken up by a large amount of cold water splashing on me. I shrieked in surprise and came up spluttering like I was being drowned. When I finally managed to drag my wet hair out of my eyes I found a grinning Natasha standing over me.

"Paybacks a bitch," Natasha said smugly. "Get up, everyone is here. We have that briefing."

Two hours couldn't have passed by already. Could it? I swear I had just fallen asleep a minute ago. The nap had done nothing for me. If anything I felt sluggish and heavy. My body took a few goes to actually cooperate with what I wanted it to do. I staggered as I finally got to my feet, still wiping water off my face.

"Any chance Riley dropped off my bag?" My shirt was soaked through. There was no way I could get away with wearing this to the briefing. Natasha just pointed to the end of my bed where a black sports bag was sitting. I grabbed it, pulling out the first available shirt I could find. It was just a black t-shirt with a SHIELD logo on it. But it was good enough. I stripped off my wet top and quickly pulled the t-shirt on, just as Clint barged in the door.

"Seriously how long does it take you to get up?" Clint looked a lot better after the small amount of sleep we'd had. So did Natasha actually.

"I had to get changed," I scowled at Natasha as I tucked my shirt into my pants. "Let's go."

"You knew she'd get you back," Clint laughed at me. "I told you to lick her. She might have liked it too."

He received a punch from both of us for his smart ass comment. Clint was rubbing both his arms as we walked out of the accommodation block.

Unlike before where the area we were in seemed quiet, it was now teaming with activity. I'd never seen so many government agencies all in the one place. As the three of us walked out of our room and down the street. There were so many people in different uniforms. Walking ahead of us were three CIA agents, a little further up I'm sure it was DOD and Homeland Security. They were too far ahead to actually see. Plenty of uniformed military were mixed in with the plainclothes Agents. A sea of different coloured berets signalled a lot of special forces teams mixing in with everyone else.

"Fuck me everyone is here." Clint glanced around. "I think I've seen Rangers, SEAL's, more government than I ever want to see in one place."

"All this for one guy." Natasha looked less than impressed. "I get that he's important but there are bigger things going on in the world."

"Let's hope it was just some idiot group that took him a couple of miles down the road and we find him before Thanksgiving," Clint said optimistically. "I'd really like to spend at least Thanksgiving or Christmas at home this year. One or the other. I won't be fussy."

I felt bad for Clint seeing the dejected look on his face right now. He'd just spent a week and a half away from his family. Now it was going to be an indefinite amount of time away. I don't know how he and Laura did it. It'd be hard enough on a relationship, let alone throwing kids into the mix. Riley and I hadn't even brought up going to his Mom's place for Thanksgiving again.

The rest of the walk was silent between the three of us. I had no idea where we were actually going but at least there was a big enough crowd to follow. We ended up in a massive auditorium which was already packed. A lot of people were still standing around, but over half of the seats were taken already. With just a glance at each other, all three of us made a beeline for some empty seats about halfway down. Just as we sat down a few Marines squeezed in next to us. A few of them openly eyeing off Natasha. I was about to open my mouth and say something smart when I felt a tug on my ponytail. I craned my head around to see a grinning Riley settling in behind me.

"Hey there, stranger, how was the warm bed?" I couldn't wipe the smile off my face if I tried. I was getting so sappy. I'd missed him in the half a day we'd been separated.

"It didn't stay warm for long," Riley said, returning the smile. "How was your flight here? Our pilot sucked."

The lights dimmed before I could reply. As soon as they did the noise of people scrambling to find a chair was deafening. Those not already sitting didn't have time to settle in just Rhodes stood out the front of the hall at a podium.

"Right people lets get this started." Rhodes wasn't wasting any time. "You all know why we're here."

My attention was pulled to the side by a tall figure slipping into the row I was sitting in. Jared hurriedly squeezed between people's legs and the seats in front of him until he found the empty chair next to me.

"This no teleporting anywhere is bullshit," Jared grumbled to me. "Walking sucks."

On the other side of me, Clint couldn't hold his laugh in. A few heads turned towards us, giving Clint nasty looks. One CIA agent even dared to hold his finger to his lips in an obvious shushing motion. Clint just flipped him off before turning his attention back to the front of the room. The CIA agent threw a murderous look at Clint before he turned to face the front as well.

"We don't like CIA," Jared murmured under his breath. "And they don't like SHIELD. Feel free to continue with the old honoured tradition of giving them hell and showing them up every step of the way."

This was going to be a crazy few weeks.

Authors Note

Edited 5th of November 2018