Ellison looked around his living room and sighed, setting down on one of the bar stools at the kitchen island and gratefully accepting the cold drink that was being pressed into his hands. When he smelled the alcohol, Ellison raised a surprised eyebrow. "Isn't it a little early for a beer, Sandburg?"

Blair was unapologetic. "I thought it was appropriate, since we're moving today and all..."

"Sandburg, we're only packing one box each! It's not like we're spending the day moving heavy furniture."

"Well, you're not," Sandburg teased...until he sensed the dark cloud that was starting to form over his Sentinel. "Second thoughts?"

Jim shook his head. "We knew this day would come eventually. At least this way we know we're still gonna be making a difference. But are you sure you're ready for this, Blair?" Jim's tone clearly showing how worried he was for his friend. "A sentinel is small potatoes compared to these guys. But a wizard..."

"A wizard," Blair repeated, "not the wizard. I'm definitely not the only one..." His voice trailed off as he thought about the massive change they that their lives were about to undergo. "We're both going to be rookies again. You realize that, right?"

"I know," agreed Jim. He started to scrape his fingernails against the bottle, separating the paper from the glass, then stood up with a decisive confidence. "Ready to do this, chief?"

Blair downed the rest of his beer in one long gulp. "Yeah, man, let's do this." He walked around the kitchen island, crossing half the length of the loft until he got to the couch and the coffee table. The coffee table was covered with crude blueprint-like drawings. Blair sat down on the couch, picked up the first drawing, studied it carefully, closed his eyes, and snapped his fingers. One by one the spaces in the loft emptied: first Jim's bedroom, then the bathrooms, followed by Blair's bedroom and the kitchen. Finally only the living room was left. "Last one," Blair announced.

"So long, Cascade," Jim agreed, finishing off the last of his beer.

Their surroundings changed with one last snap of Blair's fingers. In an instant Jim's view switched from the loft's view of Cascade to the panorama of not-quite-so-distant skyscrapers that they could see from the balcony of their new upper Manhattan loft. The fact that they hadn't gone directly from living room to living room as planned was not lost on Jim. "Sandburg?" he asked quizzically.

Blair winked, his face breaking into the shameless grin that Jim would always associate with his Guide. "Figured it would ease the transition for you a bit."

Jim returned his partner's grin before teasingly pushing him away by his shoulder. Satisfied that Blair had had the move completely under his control the whole time, Jim decided to take the lead in directing them to immediately get on with their new life. "In that case, chief," he declared, "maybe we should head over to the warehouse? Get the whole first day thing over with?"

"Sounds good to me," Blair replied.

The newly occupied loft was emptied a second later.

#

Their next jump was into the center of a beehive of activity...which was the only thing about the enviromental change that Jim and Blair expected. "You guys really fixed this place up," Jim muttered.

"The combination of an on-call wizard on call and a nice chunk of new funding gave us a lot of tools to work with," a voice explained from behind them. Jim and Blair turned around to find Fallon smiling warmly in greeting. "It's good to see you, gentlemen, but I wasn't expecting to see you for another week..."

"Director McPherson surprised us at our going away party," Blair explained. "Once we had a chance to talk it moved up our timetable a bit."

"I thought she had kept you in the loop about us starting earlier?" asked Jim.

Fallon nodded, but his attitude showed his lingering issues with the earlier conversation. "She did..." he began.

Blair had a strong suspicion where this conversation with his new boss was headed. "Um, Director..."

"Something you might want to talk to me about, gentlemen?" Fallon asked, getting straight to the point. "Perhaps about a proverbial cat that you might have let out of the proverbial bag without talking to the rest of us first?"

Blair and Jim turned to look at each other before Blair admitted, "she cornered us at the party. She suspected enough that I was afraid she was going to hold up the transfer..."

"If you didn't tell her the truth," Fallon completed the thought with a sigh, understanding the pair's predicament immediately. "Yeah, that sounds like something she would do..." The director's satisfaction with Blair's explanation showed as his features relaxed. "I guess we all knew it was bound to come up eventually," he agreed.

The matter settled, the Sentinel decided to direct the conversation toward getting up to speed. "So where are the Guardians?" asked Jim. "I heard everybody's working out of here now?"

"They're in the bullpen working on a case," Fallon replied. "I'll take you to them."

"Is Alexis with them?" Blair asked, curious about the status of his friend. "Last time I talked to her she said you guys offered her a full-time job."

"She's on sabbatical," Fallon as they walked the corridors. "Helping her boyfriend with a project..." The conversation got cut off by the ring of a cell phone. After a quick stop to check their devlces, Fallon realized that his phone was the one begging for attention...and instantly recognized who was calling. "Hey Claire," he casually greeted his former assistant, "how'd it go last night? I heard the reviews were spectacular..."

The urgent tone in Stephanie's voice wiped the smile off of Fallon's face in an instant. "Boss, is Cap there?" asked Stephanie. "Or Crusher?"

Jim's hearing tuned in to the conversation as soon as he recognized his boss' heightened level of concern. "They're in Europe at the moment, I think. Why? What's going on?"

Stephanie looked into the eyes of the man who was staring back at her as she spoke to her old boss. "Phoenix, I've got someone here who really wants to talk to Cap," she explained. "And if his thoughts are any indication, I think Cap's going to want to talk to him, too."

#

"Master Xiānzhī?"

Esposito looked up from his desk in the bullpen to find Coulson standing in the doorway, watching him with a growing expression of nervous unease. "AC?" he asked. "What's on your mind?"

Coulson's gaze shifted toward the floor. "Everything in my research about the Guardians told me about your ability to read memories," he explained quietly. "But exactly how deep does that go?"

"As deep as I need to go," Esposito replied, "but I only use what's necessary."

"That's not what I..." Coulson countered, his voice trailing off as he found he was having trouble finding the words he needed. "Maybe I should get the Mùshī..."

"Phil," asked Esposito, his voice radiating a warm, genuine respect and sincerity. "How can I help?"

Coulson finally let his eyes lock with Esposito's. "I need to know if you can read the subconscious."

Esposito raised a curious eyebrow. "Bad dream?"

"No..." Coulson reflexively countered, although the chill that ran down his spine stopped his argument in its tracks. "To be honest, I'm not really sure. I can't remember enough of the dream to make that judgement, but when I think about it..."

"What you remember spooks you?" asked Esposito.

Coulson nodded. "Can you help me?"

"I can," Esposito agreed with a solemn nod. "Have a seat."

Coulson sat down in the chair next to Esposito's desk. Esposito turned away from the older man, closed his eyes to focus on the images he was seeing...and immediately frowned. The expression added to Coulson's unease. "Master..."

Esposito shushed Coulson before he could ask his question. He grabbed a piece of paper and started drawing lines and circles. Inspiration struck as the picture emerged under his hand. "I've seen this before," Esposito declared.

Coulson gawked at the Guardian as Esposito stormed out of the room. "You have?!" he exclaimed in shock. Esposito didn't answer, silently moving through the warehouse corridors until he reached his destination. Coulson repeated his question as soon as he caught up with the Guardian. "You've seen that pattern before? Where?"

"I haven't seen that pattern before," Esposito corrected Coulson. He turned toward the viewing window, his gaze moving past the hallway into the adjoining room...and the three people lost in meditation on the other side of the glass. "He has."

Coulson followed Esposito's line of sight, his mouth dropping open in even greater shock when he recognized who the Guardian was talking about. "Ward? Ward's seen that pattern before?"

Esposito nodded. "It was on a chalkboard in some warehouse when he was on a mission to bail out one of your former protègés. Sound familiar?"

Coulson weakly nodded in agreement. He added that information to what he remembered from that time. "Ward was wearing a device to record information for Centipede on that mission," he explained to Esposito. Coulson's eyes widened as a valuable truth clicked into place. "That diagram was what HYDRA was looking for!"

"Do you have any idea what it means?" asked Esposito.

Coulson shook his head. "SHIELD started working on it after we saw it, but nothing ever came from it that I know of...do you have any idea what that drawing means?"

Esposito shook his head, sighing in frustration. "I'm really starting to wish I had gotten more of a read on those Kree before they left," he muttered under his breath.

Ryan came out of his meditation, turning his head toward the observation 'window' before slowly pulling himself to a standing position and crossing between the rooms. "What's going on, guys?" he asked the pair. "You two are thinking really loud out here."

"Can we talk to him yet?" Esposito countered.

"Not yet," Ryan replied, agitated at being asked the question. "Why?"

"I've got a hunch that Ward may be our key to finding the Kree," Esposito explained. "How long until we can get through to him?"

Ryan shrugged. "Going through half a lifetime of someone's memories is taking longer than I thought it would..." he admitted. Inspiration struck as Ryan remembered who he was talking to. "You guys want to jump in?"

"Both of us?" asked Coulson.

"Ward respects you more than you think," Ryan told Coulson, "and I think if we all combine our abilities..."

"We might be able to get through to him faster?" asked Esposito. Ryan nodded, which was all that Esposito needed to hear. "Then let's go."

#

In case any of you are wondering if I made up the stuff about Ward seeing a diagram similar to what Coulson started drawing in his dreams, re-watch the episode "Eye Spy" from early in S1 of AoS. I added this into the story only when I saw *that* particular bombshell during a re-watch of the season from the beginning with my nephew. Why should I not be surprised that Marvel would tie little details together like this even when a show was supposedly in need of an 'overhaul'...maybe we all just need to have a little more faith. :-)