Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nothing is mine. I get no money, and actually it might be reasonable to say that this whole thing is actually costing my money because I procrastinated applying to jobs on my limited free time to be here. The only thing I own is Casie and any other OC you can spot. Also the bits where I've fully obliterated cannon and left it in the woods alone to die. If you want to use those bits, please ask me first. Please no one sue me.

Cassie does, in fact, end up needing to take a minute. Actually, she takes about ten of them. One for each of the honest to the fucking gods time travelers that steps out of the fucking time machine that's landed in their back yard, and one minute just for the time machine itself. Given the reactions of the rest of the team, she thinks this reaction is well within the parameters of what is justifiable.

Tony is stunned for about forty seconds before he is absorbed by the concrete existence of a time machine. He's walking around the thing thinking out loud and addressing questions to thin air and sometimes Pepper. This seems to be happening despite the fact that Pepper herself is no longer present. She had gone back inside to make sure Katya stayed in bed about ninety seconds after the time traveling team ha disembarked. That ninety seconds had been enough time for Pepper to slap Agent Phil Coulson in the face, hug him tight, and then leave.

Pietro is practically vibrating with pent up energy and a desire to go and talk to one of the team members who had revealed herself to be a fellow speedster seconds after disembarking because Pietro had tried to zip in to the time machine to do recon. Cassie thinks she hears that the woman's name is Elena. She's not sure. As she was saying, she's taking a minute.

Natasha and Clint seem to have taken over most of the liaising and will probably continue as go between talkers given that Phil Coulson actually is present. He and a woman wearing the same kind of SHIELD flight suit Natasha had always favored are talking to Clint and Nat in low and urgent tones in one corner. Cassie guesses the woman had probably been a SHIELD agent as well.

Reyna is standing beside Cassie, probably as a gesture of solidarity alone, and Cassie appreciates that. She leans down to mutter in her ear. "Hey, I get that you've had a shit day and need a second, but why is the guy who looks like a high school history teacher such a big deal to everyone? Other than the time travel part."

Cassie shrugs. "Apparently, he used to be dead."

Reyna's eyebrows shoot up and she casts a pointed look at Luke who is still hovering over Cassie's other shoulder, passive expression fixed in place and the kitchen knife still held ready in his hand, blade angled back along his forearm with the hilt firmly in hand. "There's a lot of that going around lately."

"And right when I was starting to feel special," Luke intones.

"He's not alive," Cassie says, her voice sounding dull and toneless to her own ears.

That gets some eyes on her in a real hurry. Bucky looks at her sharply and Tony stops his inspection of the ship to get to her. "Speak up sunshine," he demands in a clipped voice. "Because that guy," he jerks his chin towards Agent Coulson. "Looks pretty alive to me. And that's coming from someone who saw the body."

Cassie shrugs and curls her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on one of them and wrapping her arms around her legs. "I don't know what to tell you," she says. "But whatever he is, he's not alive in the human sense. There are twenty-two bodies in here and only nineteen heartbeats. One of the ones without is Vision, the other two came on the ship. One is him," she point at Coulson. "He's the other one," with that she points to a bald man standing silently at the end of the ramp.

Wanda frowns and then nods in agreement. "There are twenty-two minds at work here," she acknowledges. "But Cassie is right. Only nineteen of them feel human."

Luke tips his head at her. "You can feel minds?"

The telepath levels her gaze at him. "There are two in yours," she pronounces. "The main one, and then a shadow. It feels very cold. You should not let it grow."

Luke rolls his eyes, but Cassie can see his grip tighten on the hilt of the knife. "Thanks for the tip."

"Not a problem."

Cassie would like to go back to bed now, but she figures this isn't a good time to stop being helpful now that she's started. "At least two of them have artificial limbs," she offers. "You know. If that matters."

Bucky seems to find that interesting. "Yeah? Which ones? Nothing looks manufactured from here."

Cassie pauses and puts a greater focus on what her senses are telling her. It's difficult, her nerves feel scraped raw, but eventually the information crystalizes in to data. "Him," she says, pointing to a man in a blue collared shirt with a visible chest holster complete with hand gun. "Left leg, below the knee. And her," she points to the second speedster. "Both arms. Shoulders down. I don't know what the prosthetic is made out of, but when I'm done having my moment I plan on finding out." She knocks his knee with her elbow. "We might be able to get you a better prosthetic."

"Sure," Bucky says. "Add it to the to-do list. After figuring out why the guy with one leg looks familiar."

Cassie shrugs. "I feel like we can probably figure that out pretty quick once people get over the yelling and muttered side conversations. Want me to give it a shot?"

Bucky frowns and then crouches down to look at her, studying her face. "Steve said we should make sure you got to take a minute."

She sighs. "Took one. Didn't help. Now I just want to speed all this up a little so I can go back to bed."

"That's fair," Bucky concedes, apparently finding what he was looking for in her expression. "Okay," he helps her stand up. "Floor is yours."

Cassie rolls her shoulders, flexes her head from side to side to crack her neck, and takes a deep breath. Then she puts her fingers in the corners of her mouth and whistles. It's a specific calibration of whistle designed to make a sound vibration just barely under the threshold for popping human eardrums. Had she pitched it any differently, she'd have had a room full of Avengers and SHIELD agents bleeding out of their ears.

Fifteen voices confusedly asking for explanations and providing fractured explanations go abruptly quiet as the whole room winces and covers their ears. Barton actually lets out a cry of pain and Cassie winces in sympathy. She remembers too late that Barton's medical files indicated he had more sensitive hearing than baseline humans usually did. "Sorry Clint," she says. "My bad."

He waves her off, but hasn't stopped wincing yet. "Are your ears bleeding?" she asks. "Need me to heal anything?"

Clint shakes his head immediately but she stares him down until he actually checks in with himself first. He checks his fingers to varify the lack of blood and flexes his jaw to let his ears pop and equalize. "No damage," he says. "But christ Cassie. Have you always been able to do that?"

"Oh yeah," she confirms. "For a long time now. Will can actually kill monsters with it."

"I believe it," Clint mutters.

"Great," the man with the leg prosthetic says. "Now was there a point to you deafening everyone?"

"Many," Cassie tells him. "Point one, everybody talking at once is not going to get any of us anywhere. Everyone on board with that?"

She waits for the room at large to acknowledge her and then decides she might need to be higher up if she's plating panel moderator. The only thing available is a deck chair and Cassie decides to Tartarus with it and clambers up to perch. It only gives her about a head above Steve and eye level with the tallest guy in the room, but it's better than nothing.

"So," she says. "I would like to preface this by saying that this is normally Not My Job in all capital letters, but I am making do. That said, since I'm running it, it's my agenda my rules. Issue number one," she points at Agent Coulson. "You have no heartbeat. Neither does that guy," she points at the bald man. "Please tell me this is not somehow news to you."

"It's not," Agent Coulson says plainly. "The Agent Philip J. Coulson known to most of you died."

"But not in 2012 like we were told," Natasha verifies with ice in her voice. "Fury buried that."

"Yes," Not Coulson confirms. "He used several experimental medical procedures and an injection of alien blood. He kept my death secret so he could use it to bring the Avengers together. He later put out the story that I had been on vacation in Tahiti. The lie was perpetuated. The original Agent Coulson died four months ago."

Cassie absorbs that as quickly as possible and then goes back to the issue she feels is most relevant. "Right, okay. Nice explanation. Now, no heartbeat. Let's get to that."

The bald man steps forwards. "I believe I may be able to furnish the most comprehensive explanation. If you would allow me?"

He seems to be deferring to her and Cassie is glad this bid for organization seems to be working. She gives all credit to the chair. "Go for it," she offers. "If we had a talking stick I'd pass it. Consider it metaphorically true."

"I understand the reference to early human cultural practices," the man tells her, words precise and careful. "I thank you for your capacity to keep an open mind. My name is Enoch. I am what my own people call a Chronicom. We are an advanced race of semi-synthetic beings. Agent Coulson's life experience and conscious thought patterns were downloaded in to a chronicom body after his death. The being before you is a result of that endeavor."

"Okay," Cassie nods. "With you so far. Alien android-ish. Advanced technology. We've got Vision so all cool. You still good if we all call you Phil?"

Agent Coulson Android, Phil, nods. "I'd prefer it actually," he confirms. "I know I'm not that man, but I feel like I am." He looks at Clint, Natasha, Tony and Steve. "I missed each and every one of you. I wanted to make contact after everything, but the situation just kept getting more and more complicated. You were dealing with enough with the fate of the world on your shoulders every other month. I didn't want to add to that weight."

There's a moment of quiet for some discrete wiping of tears and manly throat clearing (Cassie won't say who did what) while everyone has a chance to adjust their perspective to fit the new information.

"Nice to meet you Phil," Cassie says eventually. "I've heard good things. We can swap stories later. I know many things about these two now," she flicks her fingers between Steve and Bucky to make her point.

"Um," says blue polo shirt. "Those two who as of nineteen fifty-five were both very dead?"

"Turns out we were only mostly dead," Bucky provides.

"Which," Reyna murmurs. "As we all know, is really slightly alive."

"Sweet Princess Bride reference," says a man probably Cassie's own age with brown hair hinting at a curl. "I caught that movie when it came out in theaters while Mack and I were stuck in the eighties."

"Bringing us helpfully to two questions," Cassie says, trying to get the reins back on this conversation. "Number one, you are who now? And number two, you were stuck in the eighties because..."

She lets it hang and the man rushes to fill the gap. Cassie mentally puts a note near her mental profile of him as a man who is not a fan of silence. "Oh, sure. the name is Deke Shaw. The rest of the team found me when they got stuck in the future where I was part of a colony of humans that survived the destruction of Earth. I think we prevented that now though. I like it here better. Eighties were awesome."

Reyna takes the next question for which Cassie is grateful. "And the Earth was destroyed how?"

"Uh," a woman with long brown hair streaked with the gold that comes from dye being stripped out raises her hand slightly. Both of her wrists are braced in metal and Cassie's medical senses immediately start pinging at her. Whoever this woman is, she's broken pretty much every bone in her hand, and she's done it more than once. Her heart is also running on an unusual rhythm, quick and percussive against her ribcage. "Theoretically, me. But not really. That got a little... tough to confirm."

"Lovely," Cassie says. "And you are?"

The woman gives a little wave. "Daisy. Daisy Johnson. And i gotta just say, way love the work you were doing back in 2015. That program to deliver emergency medicine to low income areas and kids was amazing."

Cassie blinks. She hadn't thought about that program in a while. It had been an off-shoot of the work she had done to alter the formula she used in the protein bars she fed Bucky, Steve, and Pietro to help get famine victims needed nutrients. Stark hadn't given her a budget limit so she'd gone a little overboard with developing a program for emergency medicine and first aid provision.

"That is..." she searches around for the right words. "Not the thing I normally get recognized for. In fact, my name mostly isn't on that work. I mean, thank you for the recognition but how-"

"Hacker," Daisy offers. "At least, was. Still know how, but it's not my main thing anymore."

"The ending the world thing?" Luke guesses. "Should we still be worried about that?"

"Probably not."

"Great."

"Can we get back to how those two are alive," the man in blue interrupts, starting to sound impatient. "I feel like it was a relevant question, given I went to the memorial service SHIELD held in your honor every year and worked with all of your surviving friends."

Steve turns to face the man full on. "Hold on," he says. "I've got it now. Peggy had a photo of you on her bookshelf. You're in the SHIELD historical information they gave me when I first woke up. Daniel Sousa right?"

"Oohhh," Bucky says in realization. "knew he looked familiar." He turns to Reyna and jerks a thumb over his shoulder at the newly identified Daniel Sousa. "HYDRA really really wanted that guy dead."

Sousa shifts his weight and Cassie is seriously going to have to figure out where is prosthetic came from because the movement is damn near seamless and is done apparently without conscious thought. "Well according to history they succeeded in Los Angeles in 1955. This team intervened and pulled me out instead."

"So you just signed up for casual time travel with zero context?" Meg asks. "Bold move dude."

"Didn't really sign up," Sousa contradicts. "More like got drugged, passed out, woke up on a time ship. It's kind of gone up and down a lot since then. Still, I figure it's better than floating face down in a hotel swimming pool."

"Many things are better than ending up face down in a hotel swimming pool," Cassie agrees warmly. "Now to answer the question because you're right and I can see how this'd be super relevant for you if you knew Peggy, Bucky fell off a mountain in the Alps and was taken by HYDRA. He survived because of a variant of the Serum used on Steve and HYDRA used a bunch of seriously fucked up scientific procedures to do some brainwashing and dropped him periodically in and out of Cryo-freeze. Steve did the cryofreezing all on his own when his plane crashed in the Arctic. SHIELD fished him out in 2012. In essence, they both time traveled like you. They just, kind of, took the long way."

"As Leopold Fitz did before completing the technology that powers this ship," Enoch says as though noting a very benign and borderline irrelevant fact.

"Who?" Tony says sharply. "Never heard of him. And if he was a tech kid that could invent a time machine, I should have heard of him."

"My grandad," Deke says at the same moment as a brunette woman with a British accent who hadn't spoken yet says "my husband."

The man identified as Mack pinches the bridge of his nose like he has a sudden and powerful headache and Cassie wonders if she should offer him an Asprin. "You guys really shouldn't spring that on people." He tells his team members. "It freaks people out. Work up to it slower once everyone is adjusted to the time travel thing."

"I actually prefer to hear all of the crazy at one time," Wanda interjects. "it makes what I hear in my head make much more sense when people will simply explain who they are to each other. it eliminates much painful guesswork."

"Then let's cut straight to the point," says the woman who had been standing next to Coulson. "We're SHIELD agents who have time traveled to this point because two years from now, a crazed alien called Thanos will destroy one half of all life in this universe. When he does, this team uses short range time travel to fix it. You succeed, but the cosmic reset leaves trillions of souls across the universe displaced and in conflict. The Chronicoms are left feeling that their only option is to warp the timeline to give them access to planet Earth and all its resources. We are here to stop that from happening. Ready to help?"

The team exchanges a round of speaking glances. Cassie catches Steve's eye and realizes he's waiting for her cue. Like there would ever be any answer apart form the one Cassie knows they will give. She nods at him and hops down from her makeshift platform.

"Sun'll be up soon," she says. "Figure out a way to hide your time machine and lets move this conversation inside," she suggests. "We can do breakfast and coffee with everyone. I have a feeling this'll be a long conversation and we might as well only do it once. And Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"You or Tony should call T'Challa," she suggests. "He and some of the Dora will probably want to be in on this discussion."

Procuring breakfast and coffee for over twenty people is not a thing that you can do instantaneously even with the efficiency of Pepper Potts, the cooking ability of Meg McCaffrey, a fully stocked professional kitchen, and two speedsters on your side. With all those things available, it takes about forty minutes which is more than enough time for things to get awkwardly silent. It's also enough time for King T'Challa to show up escorted by Okoye.

Given that they don't know very much about what's happening, bringing the Wakandan contingent up to speed is a very quick process. To their credit, both of their reactions are minimal. Okoye inhales loudly and slowly and exhales them on a series of Wakanda swear words Cassie can't translate. T'Challa closes his eyes and brings his finger up to rub at his temples. "I should have brought Shuri for this," he murmurs.

Cassie doesn't know the king very well, but she has always liked how much he loves his sister and respects her intelligence. "You could call her?" she suggests. "I think we have another ten minutes or so until breakfast is ready."

T'Challa shakes his head and pulls one of the tech beads from the bracelet on his wrist. He swipes his fingers back and worth across it in a complicated pattern and sets the bead on the coffee table. "It will record what is said," he explains. "I believe we all may want to review this conversation at some point in the future."

"There are a lot of spy types in this conversation," Reyna observes from her spot next to Cassie on one of Tony's living room couches. "That's generally not the kind of person who likes their official intel being a matter of record."

"Their preferences on what information to tell me ceased to be relevant when they crashed a time machine less than five miles from my palace."

Cassie thinks that's a reasonable parameter from the monarch of a very powerful country stuck hosting this little superhero get together so she just nods and doesn't comment further. Five minutes later, Steve appears in front of her with a cup of coffee and a plate of bacon and scrambled eggs.

"Five minutes ahead of schedule," she observes. "Meg and Pietro should open up a restaurant. The whole team could take terms endorsing it. They'd do a roaring trade." So maybe Cassie isn't talking about the most crucial thing going on at the moment, but her brain is still going through the effort of absorbing the events of her morning not to mention the last ninety-six hours of her life. Now is not the time when her commentary is going to be at its most astute.

"Meg was very clear in telling me that the first plate was going to you," Steve explains. "The rest will be up in a few minutes, and I think there's a round of pancakes starting." Cassie has a mouth full of deliciously cheesy scrambled egg, but at those words she gives Steve a very pointed look.

"Which I will go back and get you as soon as they're ready," he promises, correctly interpreting the expression. "I just wanted you to have some food as quickly as possible. Think about it as a two course meal to do a better welcome home."

Cassie swallows and makes Steve take her plate back for a minute so she can lean forward, brace her hands on his shoulders, and kiss him on the cheek. "Thank you," she says. "I feel very welcome. I will even share this bacon."

Steve spends about four seconds looking like he wants to demure on the matter, then takes the proffered bacon from her plate. He also leans down to brush his lips against her temple and whisper a more private, "welcome home" in to her ear. Cassie smiles up at him and pulls him around to kiss her again before releasing him so she can finish her eggs and he can go get her waffles.

When everyone has a plate of food, the man that Nat had called Director Mackenzie steps to the front, apparently prepared to lead the briefing. "Fuck, I can't believe I'm giving this talk to the Avengers," he mutters. Then inhales abruptly. "Okay, so to give the short version of this whole mess, in 2019 a super powered being from outer space manages to collect the items of mass power called the infinity stones. Using them, he destroys half of all life in existence. You all," he gestures at the assembled crowd, "do your own time travel, gather the stones yourselves, and reverse the damage. Unfortunately, the mass return of half the universe is a little rough on resources.

"For the chromicons, the disruption is too big a strain and they find it necessary to move planets. They decide that Earth is the one to shoot for, and start time traveling to destroy SHIELD so they can take over the planet without interference. We," he nods to his team. "Followed them back. Roughly two hours ago in our time, part of our ship malfunctioned landing us in a time loop and about to drop in to a singularity and die. Theoretically, we might have been able to get out of it by removing and repurposing the device functioning as Enoch's heart, but before that could happen we jumped again right as the loop reset and somehow ended up, well, here."

"At which point we thought we'd come see if some of you felt like getting on board to, you know, prevent the death of half the universe," Agent Johnson says. The women has perched on a table instead of try to find a chair and Agent Sousa has apparently decided his post is over her shoulder. His position would probably seem more serious and pointed if he didn't have whipped cream from his waffle on the end of his nose.

Steve and Tony spend about twelve seconds looking at each other and apparently communicating with micro expressions. It takes them about seven more seconds each to filter their same ideas out to Thor and T'Challa. When they're done, Steve looks at Cassie. Cassie shrugs.

"What did you have in mind?" Steve asks.

Forty-five minutes and a surprisingly well thought out power point later, it turns out what these future agents of SHIELD have in mind is quite a bit more time travel and a heavy application of superpowers. They're also going to need to have a long Iris call to Thor to beg him to leave Jane on Asgard and some along. Cassie and Reyna are going to have to make some additional calls to everyone they know with godly powers. It's possible they could leave the others off their list, but if they're about to be going up against a self-proclaimed "mad titan" Cassie wants everyone with a hardline to a god on their side.

"Okay," Tony says. "First thing first, we need to up your tech. I don't want the fate of the world depending on time travel technology that was already breaking down when you got here. And I need to call Banner. I'm fully assembling the Science team. Anyone with more than one PhD report to my lab an hour from now and expect to stay there."

Luke shifts and raises one hand. "I should probably get in on that group," he says. "The titan I shared body space with was the Lord of Time."

"Like Doctor Who?" Agent Simmons pipes in.

Luke raises his eyebrows at her. "No. As in Cronos. I've only been alive again for about a week and I haven't tried since, but when he was in my head I could literally bend time. I nearly froze the entire island of Manhattan." He seems to notice the looks Reyna and Cassie giving him doubting looks because he rolls his eyes. "I'm here anyway" he grumbles. "I might as well contribute or some shit. I am personally against dying for a second time."

Reyna and Cassie exchange a few more glances. "Cassie and I are going to need to make some calls," she says. "And for the sake of a last desperate effort at keeping the list of people in on a major secret to one page only, I think we should probably make them from our own apartments."

"Agreed," Cassie says standing up. "I can take care of calling Thor too if that works for everyone? I stopped by his place on the way home to give Jane a sonogram and he was pretty happy when I left. I think there's a chance an Iris Message will get through okay."

"This keeps on happening," Sousa murmurs. "I hear someone speak and I understand all the words but have actually no idea what they all mean when you out them together."

Wanda pats his hand in commiseration. "You are starting to get used to that feeling though." Given who Wanda is and what her powers are, it's a bit hard to tell if that's a statement or a reassurance.

Regardless, Sousa seems no less confused. Still, he stays polite. "Thanks?"

"You are welcome."

True to form, Steve decides to step in at that point with a plan and marching orders. "We need everyone working as quickly as possible," he states. "Agent Shaw, Agent Simmons, Enoch, Stark, Vision, you get to the lab and start working on the time travel question. Call Shuri and Lang. Ask him to bring along Hope VanDyne. Nat, Barton, I'm sorry to ask but Stark is right that we need Banner."

"Not a problem," Nat says. "Banner keeps up with his regular check in. Getting back in to the U.S with just the two of us shouldn't be too much of a problem."

Steve nods. "Call Carter while you're in the air. She's done a good job of building up connections along the borders. She might be able to help you get in and get back out with Banner quietly. See if you can get Rhodes too. We don't have the time to deal with border problems."

"Wait, hold on, Carter?" Sousa asks taking a half step forward.

"Formerly Agent Thirteen," Agent May says. "Sharon Carter. Peggy Carter's great niece. She and former Agent Triplet were decent about keeping in touch when they had to go dark after HYDRA. Apparently, the Commando Legacies kept track of each other. Set me up with communications. I'll contact them both along with Agents Hunter and Morse."

Agent Johnson raises her hand like a kid in class. "I can handle encrypting the signals if someone gets me more gear. I have some in the Zephyr but hacking hasn't exactly been a priority lately."

T'Challa stands and adjusts his cuffs. "If you and Agent May will follow me I can take you to my sister. She will help you to establish a computer set up before joining Mr. Stark in the laboratory." Their party leaves directly after that with Sousa following to expand any potential list of SSR descendants they might be able to contact for help and verify that non of them were on his potentially HYDRA list from the fifties.

"Maximoff, Agent Rodriguez," Steve continues. "I'm sorry but you'll both be spending the day on your feet. I need you both collecting our other human assets on the ground and getting them back here. You're in charge of their protection. You might need to go cross Atlantic on this."

"I can help there," Meg says. "If I tag along and we pick a centralized point, I can use plants to cut down the travel time."

"Do it," Steve approves. "And you two," he gestures to the speedsters. "Remember to take food and water and take some breaks. It's more important everyone, including the two of you, gets here safely than get here immediately."

"I'm all up for that," Elena says with a shrug. "I hardly ever get enough practice with distance running. One question though."

Pietro grins and jumps to his feet. "I will explain the plant travel idea on our way."

Stark has two phones up at once with one at his ear and the other in his hand to text. "I'm getting the Parker kid on the phone two. Kid's still in school but he's got some chops with science. I'll try to keep him at home but he might want to get involved. If he does I'll give you his location for a pickup."

Steve frowns. "I don't like the idea of bringing in a kid," he says.

"Me neither Captain Sunshine," Stark snaps back. "But we're dealing with freaking time travel so I'm calling anyone I can think of with an active tech brain."

"I'll be going with team tech," Coulson (Coulson's robot? Robo-Coulson?) announces. "I've been able to read code lately on a very high level and I have Chromicon tech inside me. I don't know for sure that I'll be able to help but I think it's best to try."

Steve nods to him. "If anyone thinks they belong on a team I haven't put them on speak up. It's not an autocracy and you've been working together as a team for as long as the rest of us have. I'm working on a limited frame of reference for your skills. If you think you can contribute more doing something else do that. Anyone not going with team science I'll need to stay here and help work up a concrete time line. I don't want to risk time travel without the best possible idea of what kind of ripples we might be causing. I don't care if the tech is perfect. If we're doing this, we are not going in blind."

Cassie stands and steps over to Reyna. "On that note," she says. "The two of us are going to go hole up to make those calls. Also, I think we should all be prepared to acknowledge the fact that we aren't getting Thor here without Jane, and that might be a good thing. She built an Einstein-Rosen Bridge in the desert with basically no support. If we're fucking around with time travel, we probably want her to weigh in."

"Noted," Steve nods. "Miss Lewis?"

"I'm on it," Darcy promises, already on her phone. "If Jane shows up I will be ready to manage. Ordering pop tarts in bulk now along with a stock of pre-natal vitamins."

Cassie makes herself a mental note to check on the condition of her sonogram equipment. Then she turns to Steve. "What exactly are we telling them, by the way? I can deliver the update, but what exactly do you want them to do with the information?"

Steve frowns. "I don't know yet," he admits. "For now, appraise them of the situation and ask them, if they're willing, to be prepared to deploy forces on a large scale. At least among the adults. I don't want any more kids in on this than there have to be. We'll be able to update them with a where and when after we've nailed down a timeline."

Cassie nods and Steve turns to face the others. "That's what I want everyone else doing," he announces. "Anyone not doing Tech or Retrieval needs to be putting together everything they can with as many dates as possible on every where and every when to do with the Infinity Stones. Bucky and I will start at the forties and work forward from there. Hopefully Thor will be able to take us back farther. Everyone else, grab a computer and settle in. I'll take anything from historical documents to personal statements on this."

Then he turns to Agent Mackenzie. "I understand you're the Director now and that your team has been operating under SHIELD structure. We've moved outside of that here and I can acknowledge that you might want to keep your own chain of command. If you've got objections, say so."

Mackenzie shakes his head. "We came to you," he says. "We sought you out hoping you'd have a plan. We knew we'd need to work with you to make one. I'd appreciate the option to reassess when we start making mission teams and getting back out in to the field, but until then, my people have orders to cooperate with any directive you give them unless they feel it runs in exact counter to our objectives."

"Happy to hear it," Steve says. Then he claps his hands together and steps to the side where there's a computer charging on the counter. "Let's get to it."

Reyna's eyes meet Cassie and the two of them excuse themselves from the room. Bucky catches Reyna around the waist before they go and kisses her. It's a rare enough display of public affection for them that Cassie thinks it might be better to leave them to it. Steve has clearly switched in to Captain Mode so Cassie contents herself with altering her path so she can brush her fingers along his forearm before she goes.

She takes herself back to their apartment and shuts the door behind her. After the chaos of having over twenty people in a confined space speaking more or less at once for the past several hours, the silence of being in the apartment alone is damn near deafening. Cassie forces herself to not simply jump in to the next task, to stand in the quiet and breath it in, to center herself and actually feel the insanity of the last several days.

If she can't make it comprehensible to herself, there is no way that she will ever be able to explain it to others. It is impossible to give what you do not have. This she knows, and of this she is certain. She also knows that the time she has to make herself calm is not infinite.

She decides on twenty minutes. For now, twenty minutes will be enough time. Someday, she will have to take more, but as you cannot give what you do not have, it is equally true that you cannot take what is not there.

When twenty minutes are up, Cassie fishes out her prism and a bag of drachma and makes herself comfortable on the couch. She has the feeling that she is in for a very, very, long day ...

...

The first conversation is enough to prove her right.

The experience is made all the more exhausting by the fact that it's more or less one conversation on repeat four or five times. On the second repetition she makes the mistake of assuming that already having done it once will make things easier. What she forgets to factor in to that assumption is the knowledge that each of her demigodly friends and contacts has their own foci of power and interest when it comes to out-of-this-world-insanity, and that tends to generate entirely separate kinds of questions.

In the interests of honesty, it should probably be noted that Cassie cannot and does not answer most of them. She says the words "I don't know" and "I have no idea" quite a lot, and when they get tiring she starts saying them in Latin and Greek instead. The people she's talking to probably don't notice the switch, so a lot of the catharsis in doin it doesn't last long.

She comforts herself with the knowledge that the conversations are not without purpose and not entirely without results. Chiron takes in everything and while he freely admits to never having heard of any sort of practical time travel or its ramifications before, he also agrees to reach out to every contact he has to ask questions. Annabeth and Percy have considerably more questions, all of the "what the fuck" variety, but that conversation also ultimately ends with a promise to fight if need be and research in the meantime.

Getting in touch with Will & Nico is something that she gets to skate on a little because she does it by leaving her brother a voicemail. She'll definitely need to deal with both of them calling her back with questions, but timezones, Shadow travel, and work schedules have probably bought her some time.

Her call to the Kanes takes a little longer, both too process and to have the conversation. Egyptian mythology has no myths about time travel, but does have one or two about literally buying time and that doesn't seem like the worst place to start. However, the Kane siblings do demand slightly more by way of explanation about SHIELD and Chronicoms and there's only so much Cassie herself knows or understands about either of those topics.

She won't lie. The fact that all five of the people she ends up talking to frequently share headspace with gods as opposed to having occasional two minute chats with them when they decide not to smite you does actually make her feel better. They promise their help as well and Amos Kane actually leaves the conversation mid-call so he can get in touch with the rest of the House of Life.

Cassie isn't entirely certain how the hierarchy of that entire Egyptian magic system works, but she does know that Sadie and Carter's uncle, really their entire family (them included) are very high up in whatever hierarchy there is. You kind of have to be to have a cat goddess as a domestic pet.

She's also pretty sure their previously living and relatively present father is Osiris the god of the dead. Percy says the Kanes have made some kind of recording series about how their whole..."thing" works. Maybe she'll manage to get her hands on a copy sometime.

Thor is something of a harder sell, but an excellent listener.

He stays quiet and attentive as Cassie explains the time travel situation and how they are attempting to track the objects apparently known as "Infinity Stones" throughout their entire history on this planet, and possibly others so that they can collect them before a super-powered megalomaniac to prevent universal horror. Jane listens along with a notebook open in her lap. The angle of the Iris Message makes it impossible for Cassie to see what she's writing, and she has a feeling that even if she could read it, she wouldn't understand it.

"I am happy to consult my father and our histories here and deliver any information I unearth," he says solemnly. "And I would never presume so far as to tell Jane wether or not she can render assistance with your scientific efforts. However, I must confess I have my doubts about Jane and our child leaving the safety of Asgard when conditions on Midgard are still so very uncertain."

"There's not very much I can actually do from here though," Jane contradicts. "If we're looking into experimental models and time travel theory I need to be onsite, or at least," she relents. "Hooked in to the main data stream with a computer with high level processing capabilities."

Thor still looks unhappy with the notion and Cassie isn't entirely sure how to help with the situation. Cassie's ability to convincing gods to do things they aren't certain they want to do stretches to about "please do not eradicate me from existence because you're having a bad day and the reality of my being alive annoys you". In those situations, pushing any farther has never seemed exactly what a sane person might call "intelligent".

Lucky for her, this particular god's girlfriend/baby-mama/significant other seems to be on her side for the debate in question and does not share her hangups over godly arguing.

"If I'm out of the loop I can't be helpful," she presses. "I'd only end up presenting ideas that have already been considered and dismissed. Or I might not be able to contribute to a potentially viable idea before it gets dismissed. Either way wastes time and energy and from the sound of things we, not to mention the rest of the world, can't afford either."

Thor sighs like he dearly wants to soften over the argument and give in to the huge brown eyes Jane is leveling at him, but is trying to hold his, admittedly not invalid, position. "I would never interfere with you contributing to your fullest potential," he tells her. "Nor would I place myself in a position which helps to permit the destruction of half of all life in the universe. That does not change my reluctance to send you and our child back to a world in which you might not be safe."

"Um," Cassie pipes in. "I'm pretty sure if Thanos shows up with the Infinity Stones then no world is going to be safe? Asgard probably included."

Thor's jaw tightens. "Your point is not invalid," he concedes like it's costing him something dear to say so. He leans closer to the Iris Message. "Tell me Apollosdaughter, how safe and comfortable can you make your home in Wakanda? Have you been attacked since taking residence there?"

"Not once," Cassie promises immediately. "Reyna, Meg, Katya, and I have been completely safe here since we arrived. We were given assistance in establishing magical borders and Wakanda has long been protected from the outside mortal world. You would, I'm sure, be free to add any other security measures you deemed possible and appropriate. In fact, Reyna and I would welcome it if you did."

"And if you were in my position?" he presses. "If it were your child and the Captain leaving a place you knew to be under your control and relatively protected? Would you think it right to encourage such a thing?"

Cassie opens her mouth to speak and then shuts it to actually weigh her words. "I think," she says carefully. "That it is incredibly unfair for you to ask me to make that comparison. You are a literal god. I am a demigod. I have never been given a choice about what I wanted or what I was willing to do when it came to the world being in danger. It has always and unequivocally been my responsibility to act whenever and however I could." She can feel her words start to trip out of her mouth and bites harshly on her tongue to stop them and slow down.

"For what it's worth," she continues, slower now. "I don't think my mother had much choice when it came to my safety either. She kept us quiet, warned me I could be in danger, told me where I should hide, and that a knife might save me. All she could do in the end when she had to leave me in the world was a safe place to go and a way to defend myself."

There is a long moment of silence and Cassie has a brief and panicked thought that one of the few gods she genuinely considers a friend might be about to electrocute her over Iris Message. What he does instead is just about as shocking.

"Lady Cassandra," he says formally. "On the chance that it has never been said to you by one of my kind. I am deeply and most truly sorry for what your childhood has been. No amends I can offer will ever repair the damage done. It is my dearest hope that mine and Jane's child will have some measure of your strength, and that he will not need it."

"Thank you," Cassie says in to the space that follows those words. "For whatever it may be worth, I hope that for him too."

Jane looks a trifle teary when she smiles at her and says, "it's worth a lot actually."

Thor nods in agreement and sits back, looping an arm around Jane and drawing her closer, turning his head to press a kiss to her rounded stomach. "This will take some time," he declares. "I will consult with Lady Sif and the Warriors Three on what security may be possible and together we will assess what must be done for Lady Jane to travel to you safely. In the meantime, I will investigate the palace records and library to learn about the stones and their power. I will impart information to you as it becomes available."

Cassie thanks them both and ends the call.

Then she curls in to a ball on the couch and tries to figure out if she's about to cry. She probably has a reason to if she examines her thoughts and feelings for more than thirty seconds, so the question really becomes if she wants to cry right now. The answer, she decides, is more or less no. This somehow doesn't seem like the time.

When is the time you might ask?

Great question.

Add it to the list she's been answering with "I don't know" for the last couple hours.

So if this isn't the time to go on a well-deserved crying jag, what is this the time for? What should Cassie be doing right now? Surely there is no shortage of options. She doesn't belong on retrieval or tech, but she's certain she can help with the timelineing project going on in the conference room. She could be prepping the medical labs for Jane's arrival, and she could also probably be figuring out what to do for lunch.

Cassie counts to sixty.

Then she gets up and goes to find Reyna.

They have work to do.

A/N: So... Anybody still out there? As it turns out law school kills both your time and your motivation to write for fun? This story is not dead, over, or abandoned, it's just taking a little time between updates to get things written and posted. I'm mostly narrating in my head and then frantically transcribing when I have a minute free, so I'm also sorry if this is a little disjointed. What did you guys think of the content itself? Love it? Hate it? Let me know and click the nice little button somewhere around here. Next time - Getting in to all of the fun nitty gritty of time travel! Review for me!xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxo