Relieved beyond words, Skye tackled Coulson and enveloped him in as big a bear hug as she could muster. "I'm so glad you're not dead," she exclaimed into his shoulder.

"Me too," Coulson agreed with a smile.

May crossed the room. Her face was flush with a mixture of shock, confusion and rage as she started poking Coulson in the chest. "Why aren't you dead?! Your head almost snapped clean off from the force of that blast!" She backed up and studied the stoic faces of the rest of the group that had been in the room with her when it exploded. "I checked your pulse - all your pulses! There's no possible way that you should be standing here, any of you..." It was then that she picked up on the odd demeanor of the other members of the team. "You guys don't seem surprised by this..."

Coulson also noticed who in the group was surprised by their 'resurrection' - and who wasn't. "You guys know?" Coulson asked Jim and Blair. When Jim and Blair hesitated with their answer, Coulson's eyes went wide. "Wait a minute, you too?" Coulson shook his head in amazement when both men nodded. "How many of you guys are there? Total?"

"Ten," Blair replied.

"No," Steve mused, working his thoughts out loud, "you didn't know them back then either..." When the Avenger compared his mental count of immortals with the number Blair had just given the group, Steve finally connected the hidden dots. "You got one too, didn't you?" he asked Coulson.

Coulson smiled. "So you finally gave in, huh?"

"After the Triskelion I couldn't say no to her anymore," Steve agreed with a chuckle, not surprised that the younger man knew the circumstances surrounding his coin.

May looked about ready to explode. "What in God's name are you people talking about?! Coulson, you still haven't explained to me how you aren't..."

Coulson gently turned May around and escorted her out of the room before punches could be thrown. "Why don't we talk in private?" He suggested.

Blair watched, confused, as Coulson and May walked down the hallway. "He's going to tell her, isn't he?" Fallon nodded. "And that's okay because...?"

"You guys weren't wrong the other day," Fallon replied. "Some people will need to know. And Coulson thinks she can be trusted."

"Probably because he's in love with her," added Ryan. When the off-hand comment seemed to catch the entire group by surprise, Ryan was unapologetic. "Well, he is!"

#

"This has been an...interesting day, sir."

"Indeed, Mr. Bakshi," agreed Whitehall. "Indeed." He took the offered snifter of brandy out of the hands of his loyal assistant before directing the man to take the upholstered chair opposite his own. "Has the package been secured?"

Bakshi nodded. "As per the contingency plan. The package is en route to Sokovia as we speak." He studied the expression of his mentor and friend as the man stared into the fireplace in front of them, lost in thought. "Penny for your thoughts, sir?"

Whitehall sighed, his eyes never leaving their study of the dancing flames as he sipped his drink. "We have seen the face of our enemy today, my friend," he declared. "And it was not the face that we thought it would be."

"The Winter Soldier was with them," added Bakshi, his voice tinged with disappointment.

Whitehall's lips curved upward in a gentle smile at the name. "Don't think so small, Bakshi," he chastised the younger man. "Think of the bigger picture!"

"I don't follow, sir," frowned Bakshi, confused.

Whitehall set his empty snifter on a nearby table. "How long has it been since Mister Barnes' tracking system was considered to be irreparably lost?"

"Less than a day, sir?" Bakshi replied, unsure of where his boss was leading him.

"Think, man, think!" Whitehall pushed. "How long did it take to break the 'average' SHIELD agent?"

Bakshi considered the question carefully. "Days, sir. At best. Weeks for the most loyal."

"So for that group, in less than a day, to have turned a man who had been HYDRA's weapon for over sixty years..."

Bakshi's eyes widened as the realization sank in. "The girl, Skye! The Clairvoyant's obsession..."

"Evidently Simon Quinn was not the dottering old fool we thought him to be," agreed Whitehall.

"But..." Bakshi countered, "She is surrounded by Captain America and some of SHIELD's most loyal 'true believers'..."

Whitehall shook his head, clearly disappointed by Bakshi's lack of faith. "Don't think about the obstacles, my friend. Think about the rewards once we turn Skye."

"Oh, Skye, Skye, Skye! Why does everyone seem to be so interested in her?"

The two men stood up and wheeled around to face the woman who had given voice to that comment. Bakshi pulled out his weapon and trained it on the woman. "Who are you?" he demanded. "How did you..."

Whitehall shushed his assistant with a raised hand, knowing that he could answer at least one of the younger man's questions. "I'm surprised to see you here, Raina." he greeted the woman.

Raina moved forward into the light, causing the two men to gasp when they saw the odd condition of her eyes. "I have a proposition for you, gentlemen. One that will give you the 'new world' that both of you seek."

Bakshi swallowed hard, unable to get over the darkness he saw when he looked at the woman in front of him. He clicked off his weapon's safety. "Sir, are you sure I shouldn't just..."

With a wave of Raina's hand, the gun disintegrated in a puff of black smoke. "Tell your lackey to treat me like a lady," Raina warned Whitehall, "or he just might be next."

"Mister Bakshi," Whitehall instructed the younger man while never taking his eyes off of Raina, "would you be so kind as to pour us another round of drinks?"

Reluctantly, Bakshi nodded. "Yes, sir," he agreed.

Whitehall smiled as Bakshi moved away from the scene. "Things have obviously changed in your life," he remarked, inviting Raina to take Bakshi's chair in front of the fireplace. "What exactly do you have in mind?"

Raina matched Whitehall's smile. "Are you familiar with an alien race called the Kree, Mister Whitehall?"

#

Coulson turned away from May only as long as it took him to close the conference room door with a soft click. He sighed with relief only when he realized that May was not looking to stab him in the back when he wasn't looking. If looks could kill, however... "Melinda..."

"You asked me to have faith in you," May insisted, cutting Coulson off before he could begin. "And I've been trying, I really have. But this? What is this? Some part of the whole tiger thing?"

Coulson shook his head, frowning as he rolled her words around in his mind. "This doesn't have anything to do with the tiger...I don't think..."

"Then what?" May countered, cutting off her friend. "What is going on here?"

Coulson loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt as he crossed the room to get within arm's length. "I need to show you something," he told May, speaking sternly and quietly. "And I need you to promise me that what I tell you will never leave this room. Even Skye can't know. I made a promise and I'm already breaking it by telling you..."

The hesitance in Coulson's voice sucked the energy out of May's tirade. "I-I promise," she agreed solemnly. "What's going on here?"

"What's going on," Coulson began, "is this." He pulled out the medallion from underneath his shirt, holding out the coin without taking the chain off his neck.

May cautiously closed the gap between them, taking the offered coin and flipping it back and forth in her fingers. "This symbol looks familiar," she commented, matching the volume and tone of her voice to that of her boss.

"Why doesn't that surprise me," Coulson muttered before quickly turning his attention back to May. "It's a talisman," he explained, "of a Haitian God called Baron Samedi. He's the Vodun God of the underworld."

May raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You're telling me some voodoo God saved all of you from that explosion today?"

"Not all of us," Coulson agreed. "Just me."

May's eyes widened. She took a step back, her face paling as she let the coin drop from her fingers. "Go on."

"From what I had been told," continued Coulson, his eyes never leaving the coin in his hand, "when someone is given this coin and they accept it, then that person's spirit can no longer be taken to the underworld without their consent. As long as they want to stay in the land of the living..."

"They won't die?" May exclaimed with a gasp.

"Apparently so," Coulson replied with a nervous shrug. "The Guardians gave this coin to me after they discovered how I died the first time. They said it didn't seem fair that I had been killed and resurrected without my consent. Under the circumstances, they thought that my final death should be my choice instead of someone else's."

May's gaze drifted to the floor as she fought the process the ongoing shift in her reality. "So you're immortal now?"

Coulson nodded. "So it would seem."

May finally noticed the edge of shock and amazement in Coulson's voice that was echoing her own emotional state. "You seem almost as surprised by this as I am."

Coulson allowed himself a small smile for the first time in their conversation. "I took most of what the Guardians told me about this coin on faith. This was the first time the coins have ever been put to the test. Kinda nice to know it really does work," he admitted.

"How did the Guardians survive the explosion, then?" asked May. "They were as dead as you were."

"Different blessing from a different god," Coulson explained, not wanting to give away any more than he had to. "Same result, though."

"They won't die unless they make the choice to do so?" Coulson nodded...and May caught on to the one last unexplainable part of the earlier conversation. "Captain Rodgers...he has one of those coins, too?"

Coulson nodded again. "Crusher has been pushing him to take a coin for months, or so I hear. I'm guessing cheating death at the Triskelion finally convinced him he wasn't immortal...on his own, anyway."

May hesitantly returned to Coulson's side before shifting until she was able to touch the coin once again. "So you're never going to die? Ever again?"

Coulson placed his hand on top of May's, gently pushing the metal of the coin and her cold, shaking fingers into his chest. "Not if I have anything to say about it," he declared.

"Which, apparently, you do," May added.

"Yeah," Coulson agreed with a small chuckle. He tried to let May's hand go...only to find her unwilling to break the contact. "Melinda..."

"It almost killed me when you died that first time, Phil," May admitted quietly. "I wasn't just sitting at that desk because of Bahrain. I was there because the shrinks thought I had a death wish." Coulson shook his head, surprised by May's admission. He rubbed his thumb against the side of her hand, trying to be as reassuring as he could as she continued, "I found a reason to live again when you came back. Protecting you gave me the second chance I couldn't give myself. But now..."

Coulson squeezed May's hand, forcing her out of her own musings and bring her attention to focus on him. "I still need you, Melinda."

May frowned, unable to accept what Coulson was trying to tell her. "Even now? With all the powers and the tiger and Guardians and your immortality..."

"I still need you, Melinda," Coulson repeated. His voice radiated determination, sincerity, warmth...and a level of affection that left Melinda May with a nervous knot in her stomach. "I'll always need you." Melinda took both of Coulson's hands in her own, giving them a gentle squeeze. She drew strength from the warmth of the contact, then opened her mouth to respond...but Coulson spoke up again before she had the chance. "I'm sure it's probably a relief to know that you don't have to worry about me anymore, huh? Seeing as I'm so accident prone and all..."

Melinda matched Phil's smile, knowing that Coulson was trying to ease the tension with his usual self-depreciating humor. "Just as long as there aren't any more secrets between us, Phil."

Coulson's face fell as memories of the previous night came to the front of his mind. "Actually," he admitted with great reluctance, "there is something else..."