August 2014, Manhattan

Natasha was sitting in on the debrief, half-listening to Steve fill in Coulson's team, half-watching their reactions.

May and Hill, usually equally stone-faced, were looking unsettled. Hunter was switching between listening and glaring at Clint, who was perched on the back of a chair beside Natasha (because of course he couldn't just sit like a normal person) and ignoring him entirely. Bobbi, on Clint's other side, and Triplett were taking notes. Campbell and Rodriguez looked vaguely overwhelmed.

When Steve finished, he had JARVIS play the security footage from the HYDRA base, taking a seat to silently open the floor for questions once it had stopped.

"How long has Ward been a mole for the Initiative?" May asked.

Clint cleared his throat. "I believe Peggy recruited him about a year ago; he knew Garrett wasn't loyal to SHIELD but he didn't know about HYDRA. He called her just before everything blew up when he found out; that was when she asked him to go undercover. I don't know exactly what happened, but I do know that Garrett was near the top of her hit list. Either way, she seems to have adopted him."

"Why were HYDRA so intent on getting their hands on Skye?" Hill asked now. "She's an excellent hacker, I know that, but it seems a bit … extreme."

"It's complicated," Steve said. "She's mine and Peggy's daughter."

"How is that even possible?" Bobbi asked. "She was born before you were … Shit."

It didn't surprise Natasha that Bobbi had put two and two together. "Yeah."

"Any others?"

"Not that we're aware of," Natasha said. A quick glance around the room told her that not everyone had caught up. "HYDRA were trying to recreate the serum. When Skye was born, she didn't appear to have the serum, so they abandoned her. At the orphanage, thankfully; we were all under the impression that 'abandoned' had another meaning. Since she was unsuccessful, it doesn't look like they tried again, but they did apparently keep an eye on her though, given that Garrett tried to use that to recruit her."

"That was the conversation before Ward appeared," Clint said gleefully. "She told him to go fuck himself."

"With a gun to her head." May shook her head with a smile. "Now that's the Skye I know. How is Ward?"

"Still unconscious," Steve said. "Every time Dr Simmons tells us he's still alive, she sounds surprised."

"That's because she is," Natasha said flatly. "It was … bad. His heart stopped five times before she stabilised him."

Triplett cursed under his breath. "How's Skye handling it?"

Skye had barely left his side unless she had to, but Natasha wasn't going to tell them that. "She's holding up."

Clint's knee nudged against her shoulder and she automatically leaned into him, reaching up to take his hand.

It wasn't until she met Hill's eyes across the table that she realised that they had never been this open with their affection in front of their SHIELD coworkers, with the exception of Phil's funeral (but no one had been paying attention to them).

They were using the conference room on the same floor as the infirmary, which may not have been the best idea - the sound proofing on this floor was lower than the others for safety's sake, so when someone screamed, it echoed through the room.

Everyone bolted to their feet, but JARVIS lit the room with green light. "Do not be alarmed," he announced. "Miss Maximoff is returning Agent Coulson's memories. I have been asked by Agent Carter to instruct you that this is apparently perfectly normal and that you are to hold your positions."

Clint relaxed and sat down again. "Alright then."

"Are you kidding me?!" Hunter demanded, with the air of a man spoiling for a fight.

Clint rolled his eyes, but didn't quite rise to it. "The guy was dragged back from the dead with unknown alien tech. Speaking as someone who has had their mind looked at, when those memories get pulled to the forefront, you relive it. If he needs us, he would have asked. Peggy's with him. She's got this."

JARVIS cleared his throat. "Clint, would you mind going to the infirmary and speaking to Sir about that?"

"Sure thing, J," Clint said easily. "You need me here, Cap?"

"Go and talk Tony down," Steve said, sounding about fifty years older than he actually was.

When he opened the infirmary door, the screaming got louder, and he turned his hearing aids off with a grimace.

"Stark."

"Good, you're here," Tony said, pacing outside the hospital room. The rest of his words were lost as he turned away, and Clint sighed.

"I turned the aids off. Need you to look at me."

Tony stopped pacing abruptly, turning so Clint could read his lips, although he did sign at the same time. "Good call. Can you get me in?"

"No," Clint said. "Phil wants privacy."

Tony glared at him. "He's screaming."

Clint rolled his eyes again. "I heard. Look, if someone made you forget Afghanistan, and then you remembered it all at once and physically relived it, would you want us hovering afterwards?"

Tony didn't respond immediately, which pretty much told Clint he had won the argument. "No," he said finally. "I'd want Pepper. Maybe Aunt Peggy. And a lot of scotch."

"Peggy's with him," Clint repeated. "You and I both know she's good at this kind of thing. Better than us."

"True," Tony said, fidgeting. "Still sucks, not being able to do anything."

"Yeah, I get that," Clint agreed.

"I need a drink," Tony announced. "You want a drink?"

"Wouldn't say no," Clint said, following him to the elevator.

Tony's lab was fully sound-proofed, so Clint turned the hearing aids back on once they were in the workshop, breathing a sigh of relief when he couldn't hear the screams. "How did you even hear him?"

"I was on that floor," Tony said. "Was gonna stick my head into the debrief, but Cap's probably better off with the interruption." He poured them both a scotch and cleared a space at his workstation, so they could sit down. "You think he'll be okay?"

Clint shrugged. "One of the strongest men I know. Physically, he'll be fine. The betrayal is going to be the hard part."

"Betrayal?" Tony asked.

"Fury did this," Clint said darkly. "He and Phil were best friends. He completely ignored Phil's wishes, tortured him back to life by the sounds of it, and then rewrote his memories so Phil wouldn't figure it out."

Tony nodded slowly. "I guess." He gave Clint an appraising look. "I've been meaning to ask you. That story about the circus - is that all true?"

"Every bit of it," Clint said, amused.

"So you never went to college?" Tony asked.

Clint hesitated. "I never went to high school. I barely went to school before that either. My father didn't like me and Barney going to school. 'Course now I realise that was because he didn't want us to say anything to the teachers about how we were treated at home. I was more or less illiterate when I got to the circus. A couple of the ladies helped me learn to read and write, and some other stuff, and then SHIELD helped me get my GED."

"Then where'd you learn the math?" Tony asked.

"What math?" Clint asked warily.

"The math!" Tony repeated, waving his arms. "When you shoot! Half of those shots should be impossible unless you're doing advanced math in your head."

Clint snorted. "Nope. I use the wind. I know how arrows work. Their habits and quirks. What the wind will do to them. That's how I make the shots. I've been doing it since I was a kid, you know? When you're shooting in the circus, you can't just stand there and hit a target; you need to entertain people, put on a show."

Tony narrowed his eyes. "Humour me," he said. "Let me show you the math I mean."

"You are a genius with several PhDs," Clint said. "I am an ex-carnie with a GED. I am not going to understand what you're talking about."

"Humour me," Tony repeated.

Clint sighed, weighing it up in his head. "What the hell?" He asked aloud. "I've got nothing better to do."

The screaming was the worst part.

Peggy screwed her eyes closed, her hands clenching on the chair beneath her, but there was nothing she could do to avoid hearing it. She could only imagine how awful it was for Phil, reliving it all.

Finally, the screams tapered off, and she risked opening her eyes.

Phil was curled up in a ball, violently shaking, and Wanda released his hand, rising to her feet. "It's done," she said softly. "I would very much appreciate a very quiet room and a cup of tea."

Peggy nodded, taking a moment to confirm that her legs would hold her before getting up. "JARVIS, the door please?"

The lock clicked. She opened the door, gratified to see that the infirmary was still empty, and a second later, Jemma's office door opened as well and she poked her head out, her eyes red with tears.

"Can you take Wanda down to my apartment and get her a cup of tea?" Peggy asked. "JARVIS will let you in and show you to the Quiet Room. I've got this."

Jemma nodded with a weak smile, reaching out to wrap an arm around Wanda's shoulders. "Of course. Come on."

Peggy closed the door once more and returned to Phil's side, gently touching his shoulder. "Phil?"

He was crying, something she hadn't seen in over twenty years of knowing him, outside of a few escaped tears when Melinda ended things.

"Oh honey …" She gently urged him to move over so she could lie down beside him, gathering him into her arms like a child.

He buried his face in the crook of her neck and clung to her as he sobbed, anger, pain, and betrayal seeping from him like pus from a wound.

She stayed there for who knew how long, humming a lullaby and stroking his hair, until he had fallen asleep. Then she waited a little longer until she was sure he was completely out.

Only then did she kiss his temple and slip away, closing the door behind her. "JARVIS, please keep an eye on him?"

"Certainly, Agent Carter."

As had become her habit, she checked in on Ward before she left the infirmary. Skye was curled up in the chair next to the bed, also fast asleep.

Peggy would have been surprised that the screaming hadn't woken her, except she had figured out over the last few weeks that her daughter was a very, very heavy sleeper.

It was something that made her irrationally happy, that she had - at the very least - had a safe enough childhood to feel safe enough to sleep soundly.

Peggy tugged a blanket over her and tucked a pillow behind her neck, resisting the urge to kiss her forehead as well. Then she made her way to the communal floor, where the others had gathered after the debrief.

Aside from Maria and Melinda, Bobbi was the only agent she had actually worked with; the others she knew by reputation, enough to say hello, but not personally.

Except Triplett - he was another matter.

He greeted her with a broad smile and a "Hello Sharon."

Peggy laughed. "Hey, your grandpa knew; if he didn't tell you that's on him."

Tripp laughed, hugging her tightly enough to almost lift her off her feet. "Still."

"Am I missing something?" Steve asked.

Peggy dropped a kiss on Tripp's cheek and pulled away. "You didn't tell him?"

Tripp shrugged. "Hasn't come up yet."

"Does he look familiar?" Peggy asked Steve.

Steve faltered for a second, then grinned, recognition sparking in his eyes. "No way. You're Gabe's grandson?"

Tripp nodded, shaking his offered hand. "That I am. It's really good to meet you. Gramps talked about you all the time."

"I'm sorry," Steve said quietly.

Tripp shook his head. "Don't be. I miss him, of course I do, but at the end of the day, he went quietly in his sleep, with all of us in the house, and he was happy. We've all gotta go at some point; that's a pretty damn good way to go." He looked at Peggy. "Musta been hard on you though. He was the last one, wasn't he?"

Peggy gave a little shrug. "It wasn't fun."

"Wait a second," Tripp said, "does that mean that every time they called you Peggy they weren't actually losing it?"

Peggy sniggered. "Well, once they started getting too old for us to sneak off for the traditional photograph, they used to take it in turns to fake it so they could still get me in the picture too."

"I've never seen those," Steve said.

"That's because it's depressing," Peggy said. "We started with two empty seats, and then everyone slowly aged around me and started disappearing. The last one is literally just me and Gabe." She squeezed his hand. "I have the pictures. I just … can't look at them."

Clint stalked in at that moment, looking very disgruntled. "Your godson," he said to Peggy, "is a dick."

Peggy raised an eyebrow. "What did he do?"

"He was right!"

"That asshole," Steve said dryly.

"Don't you start," Peggy said with a sigh. "Clint, what are you talking about?"

"He went through this whole thing about how I had to be using advanced math or something to make shots, and I told him I wasn't, because I didn't even go to high school, so what do I know, so he went through the math, and he was right!"

Natasha sniggered. "That's what you're worried about?"

Clint gave her a wounded look and Darcy immediately took a picture. "I'm tweeting that."

"You're on Twitter?" May demanded. "What is wrong with you all?"

"So many things," Peggy said with another sigh.

"'When Tony Stark decides you're a math genius and everyone takes his side'," Darcy muttered as she typed.

"I hate you," Clint announced.

"It's part of Avengers PR," Peggy told Melinda - and Maria, who looked just as concerned. "We are not expecting anyone else to do it unless they want to."

"Hello?!" Clint asked. "Can we please go back to my problem?"

"What problem?" Peggy asked. "I've always known you were smarter than you give yourself credit for, and I had realised that you had to be doing some pretty impressive calculations to make those shots."

"Stark wants me to help with calibrations and stuff!"

Pepper chuckled. "Humour him; he'll get bored after a while. Otherwise he won't let it go."

"If you say so," Clint grumbled. "How's Phil?"

The room fell completely silent at that, everyone apparently waiting for someone else to ask.

"Sleeping it off," Peggy said wearily. "That was … not pleasant. Wanda was unable to retrieve the memories prior to the resurrection without retrieving the resurrection itself."

"That's not going to cause a problem is it?" Melinda asked. "Fury seemed to think it would, or did he just not want Phil to know what happened?"

"Latter," Peggy said. "Project TAHITI was apparently meant for any Avenger that died and when Phil found out about it, he threatened to resign if Fury didn't pull it."

"Fury made him forget about that as well?" Steve asked with a scowl.

"That time was with Phil's consent," Peggy said. "This one definitely wasn't. I told Jemma to take Wanda to our apartment," she added to Steve. "She needed a quiet room."

Steve nodded. "Good call. Poor girl."

"I'm going to go and sit with him," Clint said.

"Bring him for dinner when he wakes up," Natasha told him.

Clint bent to kiss the side of her head as he passed. "Will do."

"That reminds me," Bobbi said. "Since when do you two have a daughter?"