The sound of retching pulled me from my sleep. I groaned, rolling out of bed, pulling on some clothes as I went. A quick glance at the clock showed it to be 0201. I rubbed my eyes tiredly as I walked to the bathroom. I was greeted by the sight of Jared awkwardly sprawled out across the floor, throwing up in the toilet. I wearily took in the sight in front of me. It was a rather uncommon occurrence. Despite Jared saying he'd back off his drinking, he hadn't. He'd just gotten sneaker around me about it. But he never drank himself into such a state he was vomiting.

"What do I owe this pleasure?" I asked, no bothering to hold in my snark.

Between being back at work and babysitting Alexi, my days were packed. I was less busy when I was playing PA to Coulson just after Tony Stark announced to the world he was Iron Man.

"Did I wake you?" Jared slurred. I didn't get a chance to answer, he bent over and threw up once again. I waited until he retching died down to a pained groan.

"Of course you woke me," I snapped. My patience was well and truely worn thin. "You promised me you wouldn't do this."

"I know," Jared heaved again. He spat into the toilet bowl, but didn't throw up. "But a fuck buddy invited me over with a bottle or three of red wine. It was fun."

"Which you shouldn't be drinking in the first place," I ground out. "Perhaps you should tell your fuck buddy that you're hitting the vodka bottle too hard as well?"

"Oh hell no," Jared broke into a goofy grin. If I wasn't so cranky with him, it might have even made me smile. "Besides, I kept her too busy for her to complain."

"Gross, I don't need any details of your sex life," I grumbled as I sat down on the floor. I could be here for the rest of the night judging by how green Jared was looking.

"You only don't want detail because…" Jared halted mid sentence, leaning over and throwing up again in the toilet.

I sat there, tapping my fingers against my crossed legs waiting for the rest of the sentence.

"Cuz you need to get laid, like so badly," Jared finished as he slumped against the toilet. "It worked for me."

"I'm vaguely impressed and disgusted at the same time you can even manage sex in your state," I grumped at Jared, ignoring his dig at my lack of sex life. It was a pretty common thing for him to tease me about, especially at the moment.

"I'm very flexible," Jared's goofy grin was back. "You know what I think?"

"That I should go over and fuck Greg and all my problems will be solved?" I said with an eye roll. I'd heard that a few million times over the last few weeks. Greg and I still hadn't caught up for our chilli dogs. He was working weird hours and I was too tired in the evenings to do much else except eat and sleep. My usual line of needing sleep never seemed to upset Greg. He'd always just offer to do it another time.

"That wouldn't hurt," Jared's grin suddenly diminished. He lent back over the toilet and deposited whatever he had for dinner back into the toilet. It felt a little bit sorry for him. It was no fun being so drunk you were throwing up. I got up, went back into the kitchen and grabbed him a bottle of water. By the time I got back into the bathroom, he had finished throwing up. He was just sitting there with his head resting on the toilet seat.

"Should I leave you here and trust you not to choke on your own vomit?" I asked as I set the water bottle down beside him.

"No, no, no, sit down," Jared slurred as he fumbled around for my hand. After a few seconds of groping, I let him grab my hand and pull me down onto the floor. "You know what? I had the most awesome revelation on my second bottle."

"I'm surprised you can remember it," I said dryly as I settled down beside him. It was far too late to be dealing with a drunk and philosophical Jared. But I couldn't leave him this drunk. A little part of my mind was happy to see him so relaxed. He'd been an irritable, snarky pain in the ass over the last few weeks. Our parents had gone back to New York as soon as I started work again. Jared had been tagging along to the office with me, out of sheer boredom no doubt. Coulson didn't say anything about it, besides a mildly surprised look when Jared hobbled in with me. He dumped a heap of data entry jobs on Jared to keep him out of trouble.

"I can remember it because I am so fucking awesome," Jared flashed his mega watt smile that would make most ladies go weak at the knees. Or fling their panties at him. I hated to admit, even I found that smile rather charming. The effect was ruined by him suddenly lurching for the toilet bowl yet again.

I unscrewed the lid off the water bottle and handed it to him after he finished puking. Not much else was coming out of his body now. Jared took the water bottle and drained half of it in a few, long swallows.

"As I was saying," Jared swayed as he lent back against the bath. "I think you should go out and get laid."

"Yes, you've said that a million times," I grumbled. If this conversation was going to go around in circles about my sex life, I was out of here. He could fall on the floor and choke on his vomit. I'd deal with his dead body later on.

"I have this theory," Jared started proudly. I sighed deeply, cutting him off. His lower lip stuck out in a pout. "It's a good one. Don't be cranky. I'll buy you something pretty for disturbing your sleep."

I sighed again, giving Jared a 'hurry the fuck up' look. I really needed to get back to bed if I was going to be functional at work tomorrow. Clint and I were going to try some light sparring first thing before we headed out to the range with Bravo team. I'd been looking forward to hitting the range so much. It was the only thing keeping me sane at the moment.

"My theory has to do with the universe," Jared spread his arms wide. "The big wide universe in which we aren't anything more than microscopic specks of nothing in."

"Mmmm hmm," I murmured, already not interested in this conversation. Jared could ramble for hours about absolutely nothing.

"Nothing in this universe happens just once. Nothing. Infinity goes in both directions. There is no unique event, no singular moment."

Jared's words almost made him sound sober. Almost. But it also vaguely sounded like he was quoting something or someone. We'd watched an awful lot of TV while in hospital.

"Where did you steal that from?" I asked. Drunk Jared usually didn't think of anything that deep.

"I did not steal it," the mock outrage in Jared's voice made me laugh. I couldn't help it. He was such an idiot when he wanted to be.

"Liar," I said through my laughter. "All right, out with your deep and meaningful then. I need to get back to bed. I'm really tired."

"It means that we get a second chance at everything," Jared's voice was serious, even thought he was smiling. "Life, love, hell even work."

I waited patiently for Jared to make his point. I had a feeling it was already leading back to what he'd said earlier about me getting out into the dating, or at least fuck buddy world again.

"Even when we think something has overlooked us, it'll come around again," Jared grinned crookedly at me. "So stop writing yourself off a lost cause in love, lust even. Cuz if you do we're going to have start buying shares in battery companies."

"You're an idiot," I scolded him affectionately. I knew it. Of course Jared's drunken rambling was going to come back to my sex life. Especially if he'd just spent the last few hours in some lucky lady's company.

"I'm serious!" Jared protested, throwing his arms up in the air. "You have no idea how much better I feel after sex."

"That's enough about me and my lack of sex life," I said, pushing myself up off the floor. "And mine don't need batteries. They're rechargeable. Are you going to bed or are you going to sleep in here?"

"You're no fun," Jared pouted. A second later a thoughtful look crossed his face. "What do you mean your sex toys are rechargeable?"

"Good night Jared, I'll yell at you in the morning for getting drunk."

I ignored Jared's protests as I went back to bed. He was such a pain in the ass when he wanted to be. But at the same time, I knew he just wanted me to be happy as well. My big brother always looking out for me, even when I didn't need him to. I fell face first onto the bed with a tired groan. I closed my eyes feeling ready to drift off to sleep almost immediately.

The obnoxious sound of the Imperial Death March blared across the room. I sighed, pulling my pillow over my head hoping it would make the sound go away. It did after another dozen rings. But the phone started again as soon as it hung up. I really shouldn't ignore it. The world was probably ending for Coulson to be ringing me at this hour.

I fumbled for the phone, answering it with something crossed between a grunt and a greeting.

"Sorry to wake you," Coulson sounded sincere in his apology. "But I'm going to need you in at work by 0400."

"Why?" I couldn't stop the whining tone slip into my voice. "Come on Coulson, if the world is imploding surely you have some secret agent power to make it stop until it's a respectable hour?"

My brain to mouth filter must have completely shut off for the night. I couldn't believe the rambling bullshit that just came out of my mouth. Fortunately for me, Coulson had a small chuckle instead of reaming me out.

"Sorry, but trust me, this is something you probably don't want to miss," Coulson's cryptic words perked my interest. "Pack a bag for a few days. Tell Jared he can tag along if he really wants to. Meet me in the hanger."

Before I could ask any questions, Coulson hung up. I pulled the phone away from my ear with a small grumble. Dammit, now I wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep in anticipation of what was about to come. I sighed in defeat. This was going to be a long day. Just as I swung my feet over the edge of the bed, Jared appeared my room right in front of me.

"I heard your phone ring, where are we going?" Jared asked bouncing as much as he could on his crutches. "When do we leave? Do you want me to teleport us there right now? Coffee? Taco Bell? I could so go for some Taco Bell."

"Are you fucking high?" I asked squinting up at Jared. He normally wasn't this bouncy when he was drunk. Then again, I hadn't seen him this drunk for a very long time.

"I don't do drugs, you should know that," Jared made a disgusted face at me. It was quickly gone and replaced by the excited grin on his face instead. "Taco Bell and coffee. I'll be back in 10 minutes. Don't you dare leave without me."

Half a second later he was gone. I stared at the space he'd just been standing in. This was all way too much for my tired brain. I flopped back down on the bed and threw my arm over my eyes. I might just have a quick nap while he went and got breakfast.

I woke up to the smell of coffee wafting under my nose. I blindly reached out for the coffee cup, only to feel nothing in front of me. But I could smell the coffee and Taco Bell despite the empty room. No doubt Jared had teleported in here, waved coffee around and left just as quickly. It took me about a minute of convincing my body that it really did want to get up and have a coffee. Even at 3 in the morning.

It wasn't until Jared started singing 'I ran over the Taco Bell dog' I actually got moving. In no universe was there a need for Jared to sing. Especially while drunk at this stupid hour of the morning. Neither of us were gifted with any sort of musical talent. Jared's voice sounded more like a dying cat than actual singing right now. If he kept it up we might find ourselves kicked out of the apartment.

"Why oh why are you singing Weird Al this early in the morning?" I grumbled as I walked out of my bedroom.

"The fact you know that it's Weird Al that I'm singing makes you my favourite sister," Jared grinned up at me from his seat on the couch. His ankle was free from the moon boot, propped up on the table. The scars on it were still pink and raised. But at least his ankle looked somewhat normal. He still wasn't supposed to be weight bearing on it. But I'd seen him start sneaking in little things, like resting on it while he was standing. The few times we'd been at Clint's place over the last week and a bit, Laura had called him out on it every single time. Her doctor voice lectures on him following orders to stay off it amused me to no end.

"I'm your only sister," I pointed out, flopping down on the couch next to him. Jared only snickered in response, his mouth too full to reply. He'd gotten a ridiculous amount of Taco Bell. I picked up a burrito and bit into it. The burst of cheese and greasy meat was really good. It was gone in a few bites, washed down with my vanilla latte.

Despite being bone tired, I was awake and after packing a bag for each other us, mostly ready to go. Jared was looking a little more sober after food and the tell tale sign of a massive hangover waiting to kick in. It didn't stop him from teleporting everywhere, almost like he was bouncing around. It was hilarious and down right fucking annoying at the same time. The second I said I was ready to go, Jared grabbed my arm teleported us to the hanger. Our sudden appearance right in front of Coulson made him jump. His coffee splashed out over his cup dangerously close to his crisp white shirt. It was only Coulson's good reflexes that stopped him getting a chest full of coffee.

"You need a warning bell when you teleport," Coulson scolded Jared, probably more pissed about losing some of his coffee than our sudden appearance.

"I'll get one and attach it to my choke chain I know I'm going to have when I go back on active duty," Jared said smartly. His words were still a little slurred, though he looked a hell of a lot more sober than before. The minor falter of balance didn't go unnoticed by Coulson.

"Are you drunk?" Coulson asked giving Jared an unamused look.

"To be fair I have thrown up most of it," Jared nodded seriously. "And ate far too much Taco Bell."

"Thats disgusting that you're eating Taco Bell this early," Clint's voice came from behind us. I craned my head around to see him walking across the tarmac. He was carrying a tray of coffee's and a brown paper bag that smelt like bagels. He looked as tired as I felt. Dark circles stood out clearly against his pale skin. Sitting in an office all day hadn't done anything for any of our complexions.

"Gimme," I stretched out my fingers, wriggling them in Clint's direction for the coffee. The bagels could wait for later.

"What do I get for getting you coffee?" Clint stopped just out of reach of my grabbing fingers. I pulled a face and made a whining noise. It had no effect on him. Clint just stood there waiting patiently for my offer.

"I'll let you take off and fly halfway," I quickly conceded. It was always a good bargaining chip with Clint. He mulled the offer over for half a second before pulling out one of the cups and handing it to me.

"Lets go," Coulson's gaze lingered on Clint for a moment longer than normal. I didn't miss the questioning quirk of Coulson's raised eyebrow. Nor the barely there shake of Clint's head. I'd obviously missed something. I could ask Clint about it when we get into the air.

A Quinjet was already powered up and ready to go for us. It only took 5 minutes before we were cleared and in the air to the set of coordinates that looked vaguely familiar. Clint's face was one of pure bliss as he eased the Quinjet into the dim pre-dawn air. As soon as we levelled out, Coulson got up from his seat in the back. He lent on the back of the co-pilot chair, dropping a file into my lap. Even though I was expecting it, the motion made me jump.

"This fell into my lap at midnight," Coulson had a fairly neutral expression on his face. "SHIELD has a demonstration of their prototype F-35's this weekend to a panel of military and government officials. We only have 2 jets at the moment, there was a training incident. One of them is now out of commission, as are both our test pilots."

That didn't sound good for anyone involved. But it also sparked my interest even more than before.

"Who fucked up?" I asked, flicking open the file in my lap. It was a really thick file. It'd probably take me hours to get through it.

"The first was a technical fault and the pilot had to eject. That jet is lying in pieces scattered across the Atlantic. The pilot is going to be ok, but he's a bit shaken up," Coulson explained, making me wince. Ejecting could be like playing Russian Roulette. At least the pilot was alive. "And other test pilot, well, his accident involved a flight of stairs and his leg looks a little like Jared's."

The squawk of protest from Jared got ignored by the rest of us. His rambles at least brought a smile to Clint's face.

"Since the jets are so new, SHIELD hasn't got anyone else trained on them. People with fighter jet experience and SHIELD clearance are in very short supply," Coulson continued, talking over the top of Jared. "So we're flying to Langley Air Force Base where they currently are."

It took me a lot longer than it should have to process what Coulson was saying. I just sat there blinking stupidly at Coulson. Surely he couldn't be suggesting what was going on in my head? Next to me, Clint's focus had turned to Coulson, a look of disbelief on his face.

"So I need you to get your fighter pilot brain back on," Coulson's face finally cracked into a small smile. It was very strained and not looking too genuine. "The demonstration is Saturday. Start reading up because it's a very specific demonstration. Your ass is going to be in a jet as soon as we land."

I was speechless as I opened the file. This was not what I was expecting, not even in my wildest dreams would I think this would be happening. The first thing in the file was a very complicated and extensive flight plan. My brain started to hurt looking at the first few lines.

Then again, I didn't think most of the things that happened in my life over the last year would have ever happened either. This was such a big leap into getting back into the playing field. Grateful didn't begin to describe how I felt towards Coulson right now.

"Thank you," I said quietly as Coulson went to turn away. This was something that Coulson could have very easily said no to. There was no way I was the only ex fighter pilot in the SHIELD ranks.

"Don't thank me yet," Coulson said, the warning in his voice clear. "You aren't going to have time to scratch your ass for the next few days. Get reading."

"Yessir," my reply was instant. I instantly looked down and began reading, just to keep myself in the good books. This was a very good sign that Coulson might be at the end of his being pissed off at us stage. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a tiny smile creep onto Coulson's face before he turned away. Yep, this was a very good sign. As crazy as the next few days might be, this was also going to be a lot of fun.

"Lucky," Clint said quietly. "Any chance I get to come and fly with you?"

"Only if it's a two seater," I chuckled under my breath, not looking up at him. The routine I was doing looked like it was going to be complicated as hell. In the morning I'd be doing a lot of low level manoeuvring and high speed afternoon session would be an aerial fight between the F-35 and 2 Raptors to prove air to air superiority. I muttered curses under my breath at reading that. While I was confident about my air to air combat skills, they were turning into a rather obsolete craft.

"How are you feeling about this?" Clint asked me, keeping his voice quiet still. Jared was talking Coulson's ear off in the back, keeping them both amused.

"Excited, nervous, a bit dumb founded it's actually happening," I replied, my eyes still scanning the file. "Whats going on with you?"

"What do you mean?" Clint looked over at me with a frown. "I'm tired as hell. Its stupid o'clock which my body is not used to."

"I meant that look between you and Coulson earlier," I finally looked up from the file. "You aren't your usual smart ass self this morning. I fully expected you to either punch Jared or tease him mercilessly about being drunk."

Clint was silent for a very long time. So long that I went back to reading, thinking he wasn't going to answer me.

"No matter what I say or do at the moment, I just can't do anything right," Clint's words were so soft I nearly missed them. I peeked up at him. He looked so damn lost and sad right now. It didn't take a genius to figure out he was referring to him and Laura.

"Is she still mad about Pripyat?" I asked tentatively. Clint never discussed what he and Laura argued about when we got back. It wasn't any of my business to ask either. The time I'd spent over there lately made things look fairly normal. The kids latched onto me, as they always did. Laura was her usual happy and sarcastic self. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the Barton household that I could see on the surface.

"A little, more mad that I told her if she didn't like me keeping secrets than she knew where the door was," Clint muttered, his ears starting to turn a brilliant shade of red at his embarrassment. "I didn't mean it. She's never been mad about me keeping secrets before."

"Clint," I drew out the I in his name in an exasperated sigh. I knew I shouldn't be judgemental. There was stupid things to say and a whole new level of stupid in what Clint just said. "I'm terrible at relationships, but even I know that was a really dumb thing to say."

"Someone handed her my go to bag while we were still in hospital and she asked where the hell all the money had come from," the red from Clint's ears started to creep along his neck. He cleared his throat before he spoke again. "That's what started the argument about me keeping secrets. Plus the whole sneaking off without telling her to get Jared. I know, I said the wrong shit and I'm still paying for it. I've been sleeping in the spare room since we got home."

Fuck me. That wasn't good. I could only stare at Clint at he rambled on looking more uncomfortable with every passing second.

"Then she got upset that I was leaving for a few days again," Clint sighed heavily. "I can't even remember what I said this time, but it was wrong. We ended up yelling at each other. Again."

"I'm sorry," I couldn't think of anything else to say.

"You aren't the one who needs to apologise," Clint's eyes briefly flicked back to Jared. "And he has, profusely, so don't stick up for him. He deserves every bit of backlash he gets for that stupid shit he pulled. You weren't the one who told her to leave because things got a bit rough in an argument. This is my fault and I have to try and work it out."

"You could try and find another really rare Pandora charm?" I suggested, cringing as the words left my mouth. That was probably the most unhelpful thing I could have thought of. Even if it did help Jared.

"I think I'm going to need more than a Pandora charm to get myself out of this one," Clint sighed again, slumping down in the chair a little more. He hunched over, looking very small and child like. It was so unlike him to not be the strong one.

My brain fumbled for the right words to say. I was drawing a complete blank. There was only one thing I could think of and it wasn't helpful at all. I reached over and grabbed Clint's hand giving it a tight squeeze.

"This would be so much easier if we were fighting over something normal couples do," Clint grumbled, lacing his fingers through mine. His grip was near crushing, but I wasn't going to complain. "Why can't we fight over Laura being jealous that I work with 2 women? I'd give anything for her to throw the having an affair line at me instead of this."

"Because nothing in our lives is ever normal, or easy," I said ruefully. Both Clint and Natasha had fed me this exact line so many times. It was my turn to remind Clint of it. "Because we're essentially paid to be assassins and crazy comes with the territory."

"Now, now, STRIKE is a clandestine paramilitary unit, we are not assassins," Clint made air quotes with the word assassins. A tiny smile was pulling at his lips. "This isn't a video game."

"Sounds like my instructors telling us during fighter training that we aren't in Top Gun," I smiled, relaxing that I'd said the right thing.

"Its what got drilled into us at the Academy," Clint's iron grip on my hand released a little. I inwardly winced at the feeling of the blood rushing back to my fingers. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to dump it all on you. I'm just frustrated."

"I would be too," I reassured him. "And you're not dumping anything on me. God knows you've helped me out more times than I can count over the last year. This is what friends are for."

"I know," Clint smile relaxed onto his face a little more. "You look mildly pissed every time you look at Jared lately. Care to share whats bothering you?"

Damn him and living up to his code name. Clint really didn't miss anything. There was no point lying, or trying to change to subject back to him. Once Clint was done speaking about something, that was final. I may as well get this out in the open and be done with it.

"Jared's been hitting the vodka bottle a bit too hard lately," I fought back a sigh. There was too much sighing going on today. "He promised he'd back off, but he hasn't. It can't be good for him considering he's still on heavy duty narcotics."

"Not to mention addictive," Clint's face darkened at my words. "I'll deal with this quietly. Don't breath a word of it to anyone."

"Done," that was the last of it to come from my mouth. I warned Jared that I didn't have a problem getting Clint involved. Like everything else he'd done over the last few months, he was about to wear the consequences of his actions.

"Why is he drunk anyway?" Clint asked after a few moments pause.

"Apparently he and a fuck buddy had a few bottles of red wine," I wrinkled my nose in disgust at his choice of drinks. "And I had to sit on the bathroom floor listening to his philosophical bullshit while he vomited for 20 minutes."

"Fun," Clint said dryly, giving me a sympathetic smile. "Did his philosophical bullshit even make any sense?"

"It was basically a very fancy way of telling me I need to go out and get laid," I chuckled, turning my attention back down to the file. "Which I already know, so don't you start or I'm not going to let you fly the entire way to Langley Base."

"Consider my mouth completely shut," Clint's smile stretched into something that looked genuine. It chased away the traces of stress from before. "Even if I do agree."

I lazily reached over and kicked him for his teasing. I really needed to get reading and getting into an argument about my lack of sex life wasn't going to help. Not that Clint could talk at the moment. If he was sleeping in the spare room, no doubt most of his showers were cold ones.

The flight was only short, leaving me barely any time to get stuck into some real reading. It was going to be hell memorising it all. Coulson had a lot of faith with me getting this right in such a short amount of time. The other pilots would have had at least 2-3 months of preparation for something this important.

It was all very real, very quickly. I barely had time to process anything except nerves. As Clint landed and taxied straight to a hanger, a small group of people were already there and waiting for me. I easily recognised my old CO and the Base Commander. The pit of nerves in my stomach got bigger as I saw the pissed off expression on the Base Commanders face. He wasn't my biggest fan, very old school and in the belief that females should stick to gender specific roles. No doubt my current role in SHIELD was going to make him hate me even more. My old CO always seemed rather indifferent towards me. He was always polite and professional, but I always seemed to be invisible to him.

"This isn't going to be fun," I murmured, the pit of nerves in my stomach growing with every second. "I don't think I can do this."

"You can do this," Clint encouraged me. "You've done crazier shit than having to fly around making people ooh and ahh over a display."

"I'm so rusty there might be ooh and ahh with me crashing into the hard deck," I could feel my heart rate increase looking out over the now growing crowd. More people had joined in, looking impatient as Clint manoeuvred the Quinjet into place.

"Kari, I doubt you got flying F-22's straight up if you were a shitty pilot," Clint rolled his eyes. He was in place and started to power down. "In my years at SHIELD I've never seen anyone come close to how well you fly. So put your big girl pants on and get out there. Show those boys how its done."

"Come on guys, lets go," Coulson called from the back. I had no choice now. I was in this whether I thought I could do it or not. Out of habit I made sure the Quinjet was powered down properly, making Clint roll his eyes at me, before grabbing my bag and heading out into the hanger. Coulson and Jared were already out, exchanging pleasantries.

"Agent Barton," Coulson introduced Clint straight away. "And everyone already knows Agent Kari Lyngley. Thank you for accommodating us on such short notice."

"Good to see you again Kari," my old CO, Colonel James Sharpe, stood forward and shook my hand firmly. I was a little taken back at his quick greeting. He didn't give anyone else a chance to say a word to me. "You've got a few big days, so I'll get you started ASAP. First hop at 0830. Lets move."

I was quickly ushered into a car without Coulson, Jared or Clint and speeding away in the early morning towards my old work. It was very surreal being back here, sitting next to my old CO. I felt awkward and incredibly shy all of a sudden, on top of my increasing nerves. The Taco Bell was sitting very uncomfortably in my stomach.

"The plan is to send you up in a Raptor this morning, make sure you haven't forgotten anything," Sharpe broke the silence after a few moments. "Then this afternoon you'll go up in the F-35 with a few of the other guys. How many hours have you been clocking up at SHIELD?"

"Far too many, but I couldn't give you an exact number" I said timidly. "SHIELD don't log my flight hours. I spend more time on the ground these days than flying, since I'm not actually a SHIELD pilot."

"So what is it that you do in SHIELD exactly?" Sharpe looked over at me with a frown. "I thought they snapped you up for this exact reason?"

"I'm STRIKE," I explained, trying not to fidget under his stare. "Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies. Basically SHIELD Special Forces. But I get lumped with supply drops, taxi missions and other stuff as well."

"Frogger's story makes so much more sense now from when he saw you at Camp Cooke." To my surprise Sharpe's face relaxed into a smile. "Its good to see you again Kari. You've been missed around here."

"Really?" I couldn't stop that one word slipping out of my mouth. As much as I loved my previous job, I was very much on the outside of any social circles. I was included out of sheer politeness most of the time.

"Your flying kept a lot of guys on their toes. I'd never seen such a determined young pilot come flying through the ranks like you," Sharpe chuckled quietly. His face quickly turned serious again. "I'm so sorry about what happened. Why didn't you tell anyone those guys were giving you a hard time?"

"Because at the time it seemed insignificant," I shrugged, starting to pick at my nails in my discomfort. "Just 2 guys being arrogant assholes. I knew I could handle whatever they threw at me, it wasn't anything I hadn't heard before. It never occurred to me that they'd try something like they did."

Like the majority of the STRIKE guys, it never seemed to occur to any of the guys from my old Squadron I was actually a girl. Well, not that I knew of. Even walking around in a bikini didn't seem to draw any attention during our summer pool parties.

"It still doesn't lessen the guilt a lot of us feel over it," Sharpe shook his head. "It made it worse when SHIELD wouldn't actually tell us what happened to you. It wasn't until Frogger came back and said he ran into you we knew you were alive. It was a very nice surprise this morning to hear it was you coming for this demo. Its good to see you alive and doing well."

"I was too busy dealing with my drunk brother to get excited," I said dryly, but a small smile started to creep onto my lips. This was an unexpected turn of events. I thought I might spend the next few days hiding in my room and avoiding everyone. "But thank you." I always felt incredibly awkward just saying two simple words, like thank you, when someone had put a lot of thought into apologising for something. It was obvious to see that my situation had been a lot harder to the others than I'd ever realised.

"So, this morning you'll be going up with me," Sharpe's voice turned back to serious. Our little bonding moment was done and dusted, probably never to be spoken of again. "This afternoon will be Frogger, Helix and Stingray."

Fuck, I was in for an ass kicking with those three if my flying skills were really rusty. At least going up with Sharpe this morning would give me one hell of a refresher. He was one of the best pilots you could find in USAF. Tough as nails and unforgiving, but he was a brilliant teacher. I was going to need all the brushing up I could get. Though his style would more be an ass kick than a brush.

Judging by the file I'd been reading, SHIELD's F-35 had near identical controls wise to a F-22. But a whole new level of power. The test pilot who'd been injured last night would give me a brief before I went up anyway. I'm sure SHIELD didn't want another 105 million dollar aircraft in pieces over the Atlantic ocean.

It only felt like seconds before we pulled up to the flight building. At this early hour is was deserted. But give it another hour or two and everyone would start coming to work for the day. The calm before the storm. No doubt I'd have a lot of people gawking over the cockpit cam while I was flying. Damn technology and being able to live stream everything these days.

"We'll go over our mission brief after we're geared up," Sharpe said as we both climbed out of the car. "Since this is last minute, its very much fly by the seat of our pants."

I hid a smile at the disgusted look on his face. Sharpe was a planner. Even for short missions, he'd go over everything in meticulous detail. It usually meant hours in the briefing room. Then after missions, it'd be even longer in the debrief getting your flying pulled apart for everything you did wrong. Having to rush me through so much today was probably making his inner OCD want to go and hang itself.

"I hope we have stuff that still fits you," Sharpe chuckled quietly as his eyes gazed over me. "You looked 15 pounds lighter than when I last saw you."

"Not quite, I have put some muscle on," I lied. I hadn't been brave enough to step on the scales when I left hospital. I'm sure I'd be horrified by the numbers. I hated my body so much. It was times like this I wished I was normal and was the one always whining I had to watch what I ate so I didn't get fat. "I did pack a flight suit if that helps."

"It does, lets go."

It was very surreal to be stepping back into the building and heading to the locker room to get changed. It didn't take me long to go to the toilet, get changed into the flight suit and head into the room that stored all the extra gear needed for a flight. My old locker with my gear was still there, nothing had been touched in it. My name had been taken off the front of it but other than that, it was exactly how I left it. I stood there, staring into the full locker not sure how I was feeling.

"You have no idea the mad scramble it was to pull all of that out of storage," Sharpe commented as he walked in. "Remember how to put it all on?"

"Just like putting my underwear on," I smiled, trying to keep myself calm. The pit of nerves in my stomach from earlier came back in full force. It felt like an entire troupe of butterflies tap dancing in my stomach. To prove my point, I pulled the anti g suit out, wrapping it around my waist. It was the same fiddly pain in the ass garment as before. My LPU, survival vest and flight harness were all the same as before. Uncomfortable and digging in all the wrong places. It was always a joke that you knew your survival vest was in the right position when the handle of the 9mm included was digging in your ribs.

"Ready?" Sharpe asked as he adjusted the last of his own straps.

"Of course."

I was so not ready for this.

Authors Note

Sorry for the short chapter and delay everyone. My new job has me all over the place with working hours and I'm finding it hard to squeeze my writing in. So I broke this down into a shorter chapter so it didn't take another month to get it all out. So sorry if it feels like its not going anywhere. I promise its setting things up to come soon!

Thank you for your support everyone. Reviews just make me so happy and speed up my sometimes very slow creative progress.

I love, love, love the fact people are trying to guess who Kari is going to end up with. It seems the Cap and Kari ship is going very strong.

Until next time everyone!