Author's Note: I'm glad that the first chapter went over well. I spent the last two days making final changes on this chapter and was able to flush it out enough to create an extra chapter. And hey, there's no Russian in this one.
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters familiar to Marvel.

Chapter 2

Once everything stabilized, the group looked around unsurely. They were still in the…Lighthouse? Their surroundings had changed, but only slightly. The walls were lighter than what they remembered, and the floors were almost in pristine condition compared to what they'd seen, but it was still the same building they'd liberated from the Kree.

"Did it work?" Elena Rodriguez asked, voicing everyone's unspoken question.

"I think so," Melinda May replied unsurely, not seeing the rocks or Flint. That did mean they returned, didn't it?

Mack stepped forward. "We have to be." He peered around the room. It was empty other than them.

"You are."

The group stopped short upon hearing an unfamiliar voice. They spun around towards the direction of it, May, Mack and Elena moving to the front of the group in case a fight ensued.

"I am Noah. Enoch had me wait here to greet you upon your return."

"So, you're…" Mack trailed off not remembering the species Enoch claimed he was.

"A Chronicon, yes," Noah supplied before looking at the man holding the unconscious woman. "Do you need assistance?" He asked, nodding toward Daisy. "Does she need medical attention?"

"No," May replied, "but he might when she wakes up," she added with smirk on her face, despite the seriousness of the situation.

"Perhaps I should look everyone over," Jemma volunteered then as she looked over the group, noticing how warn everyone appeared to look. They'd all had to fight to get to Flint in time.

"Soon," Coulson told her. As far as he could tell, other than the unconscious Inhuman in his arms, everyone appeared mostly unharmed. First, they needed to regroup and get some answers. "Where should I put her?" He asked, turning to look at Noah. While it was the same layout they'd seen for months, the building was relatively new compared to the hellish reality they'd just come from.

"There is a couch through there," Noah replied, pointing towards an archway. "Once she is settled there is something we should discuss."

Coulson nodded as he made his way through the arch. Locating the couch, he gently settled her on it. He knew she would more than likely be furious with him when she discovered they were back in the present time. He could only hope that she'd eventually understand his actions. "I'm sorry," he whispered, though knowing she wouldn't hear it. Straightening up, he made his way towards his team.

"I say we all pitch in, buy a round of burgers, beer and the greasiest pizza we can find," Mack said.

"Noah, what's the date?" Coulson asked, ignoring the hunger pains that Mack's words had triggered.

The Chronicon muttered off the current date. "I realize some time has passed since you were last here-"

Mack didn't bother to hide his snort of amusement. "That's one way of putting it." His brother was probably beyond worried. As soon as he had an opportunity, he'd need to call.

"We've been missing for six months?" Jemma Simmons asked, gobsmacked. She knew they'd spent a substantial amount of time in the future, but wouldn't it have been easier to send them back to the time they were originally taken? When they'd been taken from the diner? Her parents were probably worried sick. She'd never been radio silent for so long, her time on Maveth aside.

"What about any other agents? No one is here?" Phil asked, wondering about those that he hadn't seen since before his fight with Aida. There had to have been survivors… Where were they?

"Until yesterday, I was alone."

May's head swiveled in Noah's direction. Yesterday? "Who's here with you?"

"We are," a new voice piped up.

Coulson spun around towards the voice. "Natasha."

"Hi, Phil," the woman greeted with a smile on her face. She approached him and threw her arms around him. "You realize you have a lot to explain, right?" She asked him quietly.

Coulson returned the embrace and nodded. "I'm sure. I expected you to be more upset," he admitted then.

She drew away from him. "I probably would have been if I'd found out months ago," she admitted. After leaving her former life, she'd stopped taking things for granted. "It's really good to see you," she said before looking at the group gathered around him, recognizing only one. "Hi, Mel."

"Natasha," the Asian woman replied with a nod of acknowledgement and a smile.

Coulson looked behind Natasha and noticed three men, only one familiar to him. "Cap," he greeted.

"Agent Coulson," Steve said, stepped forward and offering his hand.

Coulson accepted the hand. "It's Director Coulson," he corrected him before his attention fell on the other two men.

Steve moved closer to his friends. "Friends and associates of ours, Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes."

Upon hearing the latter's name, Coulson's eyes widened as they fell on the man. "No way!" He exclaimed, forgetting himself. "How did you come across him?" He moved to Bucky. "Can I just say, it's an honor to meet you?"

Bucky politely shook the man's hand. He'd heard about this Coulson and how much he'd admired Steve when he was growing up, but he never expected such a similar greeting. Ever since Steve had proven himself by retrieving the 107th from behind enemy lines, he'd always been at the forefront of things where the general public was concerned. In the time since Steve had helped him start over, he'd learned that it wasn't necessarily a good thing when people knew his name, so he'd been surprised by the man's reaction to him.

"How did this happen?"

"He was under Hydra's control," Natasha replied.

Coulson's expression turned to one of pity. "I'm sorry to hear that," he told the man. "We've dealt with mental reconditioning in the past." He looked to Natasha again. "How'd you break it?" He asked, they'd never been able to find a solution.

"Another associate of ours has been very helpful on that front," Steve answered for her.

The sound of a throat clearing pulled their attention and Coulson remembered he wasn't alone. "I'm sorry. My team. Let me introduce Elena Rodriguez, otherwise known as 'Yo-Yo.' Melinda May, Leo Fitz, Jemma Simmons and that is Agent Mackenzie, but we call him Mack," he said, pointing out each person.

May, seeming to be the most unphased by the guests spoke up. "How did you find out Coulson was alive?"

Natasha pulled a folder piece of paper from her back pocket and handed it to Coulson.

"The US Government is looking for us," Coulson announced after looking over the flyer. "Given what happened at the Playground and Talbot's assassination attempt, I'm not surprised." However, it would make things more difficult for them. It wasn't so much that he hadn't been expecting something in retaliation for the events that occurred at the Playground, but he didn't think they'd be on the watch list for every government organization.

"I'd been seeing wisps of information about SHIELD, then nothing for months," Natasha said, watching as Coulson nodded. "And then I came across this."

"There wasn't anything in the news?" Yo-Yo asked. If there were flyers asking for their capture, wouldn't the media been made aware of it?

"If there was, it must have only been national, which we would have missed." Sam replied. "We've been…we're now considered war criminals."

Phil looked from Natasha to Steve before looking at Sam. "Seriously?" He asked. Captain America was a war criminal? How did something like that even happen? He remembered hearing about potential ramifications where Steve and the others were concerned prior to being replaced with an LMD, but he didn't think the US Government would actually do that to Captain America.

"We refused to sign the Sokovia Accords," Sam replied with a shrug. "We've been abroad ever since."

"What about the rest of the Avengers?" Fitz asked, speaking up.

Natasha gave the man a negative shake of her head instead of explaining anything. She figured that the absence of the other Avengers gave them an idea as to how things were.

"Natasha, how did you find this place?" May asked then.

"When we saw the wanted poster, I started searching for other SHIELD facilities, starting outside the states. I didn't even know that this place existed until I did a really deep dive." It wasn't the first base they'd been to, but the first two places they'd checked out had been abandoned. "When we discovered Noah here, it took a bit of persuasion."

"She threatened me with massive bodily harm," the Chronicon tossed in matter-of-factly.

When her former handler offered her an amused expression in response to the man's words, she shrugged. "What about you?" She asked Coulson. "How did you gather the government's interest? Where have you been the last six months?"

Before he could answer though, the sound of Daisy's frantic cries were heard from another room. "Excuse me," he said without waiting for acknowledgement, walking in the direction he'd left her in. He hesitated underneath the threshold of the door, seeing Daisy hunched in on herself. When he'd chosen to take her with them without her consent, he knew there'd be anger, but he hadn't expected the disappointment.

"We're back aren't we?" She asked, looking at him without bothering to hide the horror on her face. His silence was answer enough for her. "You knew how I felt, and you knocked me out and brought me back anyway," she accused as she stood up and approached him.

"I did," he accepted quietly.

She shook her head at him and walked past him. "We had the perfect solution and you just-"

He turned and trailed after her. "That was not a solution," he denied. "Did you really think I would just accept your decision and come back here without you?" He called out from behind her.

Back in the main room, Steve exchanged a look with Natasha, before tilting his head to the side, as if silently asking her if they should leave and let Coulson's team discuss whatever it was that had this unknown team member so worked up. However, his attention was caught by the brunette that made her way through the threshold. From the corner of his eye he noticed Nat shake her in negative as an answer to his question, but he didn't remove his gaze from the unknown brunette.

Upon entering the next room, Daisy spun around to face Coulson. From her peripheral, she'd noticed a few forms, but she excused them, thinking they were members of their team. "Yes," she hissed. "What is SHIELD for, if not to protect the world from threats?" She shot back before pursing her lips. "And we all know I'm that threat," she reminded him as well as the rest of the team.

Steve looked at the woman appraisingly. She was a threat? To…what? His eyes trailed down her body, her arms appeared to be in good shape and he'd bet the rest of her body was just as fit, however, there was nothing that would suggest trouble. All in all, she seemed…underwhelming.

Coulson immediately shook his head in negative. "We don't know that for certain," he denied passionately.

"Yes, we do, we saw the video coverage of me approaching ground zero before the planet broke in half." Even if all of the team hadn't seen the video, they'd heard about it. "I'm the one responsible for the end of the world and instead of leaving me behind, ensuring there would be no possibility of the world being quaked apart, you brought me back!"

Her words were accusing, and he felt himself growing frustrated. "Leaving you seventy years in the future was not an option!" The words were out before he could help himself. He hadn't anticipated announcing such a thing in front of Natasha and Steve, but he needed Daisy to know that he would have never left her behind.

Steve's eyes widened. Seventy years…in the future? They'd time traveled? He looked at his teammates, noticing similar expressions of disbelief written across their facial features. The world was going to end?

Daisy threw her hands up in frustration. "Not at the expense of the world!"

Pausing for a beat, Coulson calmed himself as he tried to reason with her. "Yes, that video showed you going to ground zero," he allowed, "but there was no footage of what actually occurred there," he finished calmly. "Everyone just assumed that you had something to do with it." He watched her body uncoil slightly. "You still have the inhibitor in. And if Kasius is to be believed, it would be dangerous to remove it ourselves, so we know you won't be quaking apart anything." He watched as she nibbled on her bottom lip. "Besides that, I need you, Daisy. I need you with me, with us."

Had they just witnessed Coulson declaring his love for this woman? Steve scratched at a nonexistent itch behind his ear as he considered the dynamic between Coulson and…Daisy. She seemed a little young for the director, but who was he to judge? Especially if one were to compare the age difference between him and Sharon Carter… Pulling his gaze away from the pair, it fell on the rest of Coulson's team that appeared to have fallen to the wayside as the pair spoke.

"Why?" Daisy wondered. "Why was it so important that I return?" She continued.

"You mean aside from the fact you're my family?" Coulson asked, arching his eyebrows at her expectantly. When she didn't appear ready to accept his response, his body visibly deflated and he spoke the truth. "I'm dying." It was the first time he'd ever uttered the words aloud. And again, it wasn't what he intended to say in front of Natasha.

Upon hearing the revelation, Steve's attention once again fell on Coulson before they trailed over to Daisy. He watched as she digested the words, blanching all the while. His heart went out to her. He imagined it was probably similar to the one he'd worn when he realized that there would be no returning to Peggy.

Of anything he could have said in response, that was the last thing she expected. Her arms dropped to her side. "What?" Her heart figuratively dropped into her stomach and she felt as if a bucket of ice-cold water had been poured over her.

He heard other similar questions from their team. Momentarily, his attention fell on Melinda and he met her expectant gaze. He matched the look with a silent promise that they would have their own discussion soon before he focused solely on Daisy. "In order to gain the help from Ghost Rider, the GH-325 was severed," he divulged. Again, various questions came from the rest of the team, but his attention never wavered from his agent.

"How long have you known?" Daisy asked then, though something told her that she already knew the answer. When he didn't answer, she pursed her lips. "All this time, you knew all this time and didn't think to say something?" A plethora of emotions welled within her.

"To be fair, we were busy dealing with Kasius and the Kree," he excused, watching the tears gather in her eyes.

She angrily wiped the first fallen tear away with the back of her hand. He was dying? No, that couldn't be right. "You should have said something when we were in the future!" She accused. "They had a solution, they managed to bring Tess back from the dead." Of all the stupid things to do…stubborn man! "If you said something then, we could have used whatever it was to fix you too."

He shook his head in negative. "I already defeated death once," he replied softly. "Fury and the doctors ignored my wishes," he recalled, watching as she processed the words.

She was brought back to the time when he'd been abducted. Even years later, she could still clearly recall hearing his pleading for them to let him die when she and May found him hooked up to the machine. She'd addressed it exactly once, and he'd waved it away. In all the years that they'd worked together, it was the one thing they'd never discussed, but she'd never forget the pain and hopelessness in his voice.

Coulson didn't need to ask what she was thinking of as he offered her a sad smile. As far as he was concerned, he had already been living on borrowed time. "I brought you back because I need you to continue on with this," he gestured around the area, implying his reference to the Lighthouse.

"The others would have done that," she reminded him.

He nodded. "I know, but I want you," he said. "I want you to lead when I'm gone."

Her? Become the director? Even before Hydra came out of the shadows and everything went to hell in a handbasket, she would have never considered such a thing. She shook her head in negative with more tears welling up in her eyes. "No." She shook her head in negative. "No, because we're going to fix this." That was all there was to it, they'd find a way to save him. "I can't lose you, Coulson. Not…not like this." As soon as she'd started speaking, she lost control of her emotions. Her words were broken, and tears rolled down her cheeks.

Guilt welled up in his chest and he stepped forward, pulling her into his arms. He tightened his hold on her as she gave in to her emotions and leaned his head against the side of hers. "I don't want that," he told her softly. "I've already lived two lifetimes, one of them stolen. It was bound to catch up with me." He felt her shake her head against his shoulder.

"No," she argued. "You are not going to go off and die on me. I can't…"

"You were ready to stay behind before," he recalled. "What's the difference?"

"Yes, when I thought my staying behind meant that the rest of you got to live long lives," she said pulling away from him far enough to meet his gaze. "I can't stand by and watch you die and not do anything about it," she said. "You're my family, too."

When she began to sob, he pulled her into his embrace once again.

While he heart went out to the young woman in Phil's arms, Natasha couldn't contain her curiosity any longer. "Coulson, what the hell? You're dying? Seventy years in the future? The Kree?"

The questions broke through the fog of her despair and she stopped crying. Daisy opened her eyes against Coulson's shoulder and lifted her head to find the shapes she'd mistakenly assumed were their teammates we actually… "When did the Avengers get here? How long was I out?" Just how hard had he hit her?

Untangling himself from Daisy, Coulson turned and claimed a position next to her, placing an arm around her shoulders. "Daisy, meet Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers."

Daisy attempted to wipe away her tears as she nodded at all of the new acquaintances. When her eyes finally fell on Steve, she watched as he reached into his pocket before extending his hand, a white cloth in his open palm.

"Here you go," he offered, watching her hesitate for a moment.

He was offering a handkerchief? How very chivalrous… Daisy reached for the item that was offered and began dabbing under her eyes. "Thank you," she replied softly.

Coulson turned to look over his team, everyone looking a little worse for wear before looking at the female Avenger's expectant gaze. "We'll talk, but first, we need to get cleaned up," he told her, referring to the status of his team. "It's already been a long day for us and hot showers will do us some good." He turned back to the team. "If anyone feels they need to be looked over, Jemma has already offered…"

"Enoch and I took the liberty of retrieving your personal affects while you were gone and everyone has been issued a room," Noah said. "If you all follow me…"

"That was one crazy conversation. You okay, man?"

The question pulled him from his reflections and Steve looked up at the door to find Sam leaning against the door frame.

"I don't really know," he admitted.

Sam nodded, as if completely understanding him. "I thought that things got weird when you and Nat turned up on my doorstep, but…" he trailed off momentarily. "I mean life model decoys, computer simulated worlds, another nearly unstoppable robot, time travel and aliens? Is this what it was like when you were with SHIELD?"

Steve smiled wryly. "Not usually." He exhaled a long sigh. "I was never close to Coulson the way Nat was." However, that didn't mean his death at Loki's hands hadn't mattered to him. "But this situation he's in… And, thinking he was dead, only to find him alive and now dying…I can't imagine what Nat must be feeling right now."

"She's pissed off, is what she's feeling right now," Natasha said as she stepped past Sam and entered the room with Bucky stopping next to Sam under the frame of the door. She claimed a seat next to Steve on the edge of his bed. "We have to do something," she said, her voice taking on one of sadness.

"You heard him, Nat," Steve reminded her softly. "He doesn't want that."

She shook her head in negative. "I can't help but feel that if we were there for him, he wouldn't be in this situation." Not to say that his team couldn't handle things, they obviously had after no contact from him. But as Avengers, they dealt with things that ordinary people didn't. Maybe they would have been enough to deal with that robot and he would have never had to make that deal in the first place?

"Don't do that to yourself," Sam said. "You didn't even know he was alive. If he wanted the help, he could have reached out to any of you."

Cautiously, Steve placed a hand over one of hers. "Sam's right," he pointed out.

Natasha looked down at his hand. "He's so different from the way he used to be," she mused. Prior to Hydra, most SHIELD agents generally had the same persona. Of course, there were people that differed from the rest, Coulson being one of them. "You spend enough time with other agents, they become extended family, but the way he was with Daisy? I've never seen that side of him before."

Daisy. Despite the fact that she'd been a virtual stranger at the time of the conversation; her tearful reaction to Coulson's news had been like a punch to the gut and he couldn't help but feel for the pretty, young woman.

"Coulson deserves more," Nat said, unaware of his internal musings. "His life was already robbed from him once. He deserves a chance."

"A chance to what?" Steve asked then.

"To have more than just this," she said, gesturing to the room. "He's already got it in his mind that Daisy is going to take over. Maybe when it becomes official, he can step away and have a life?" She asked. "He at least deserves the opportunity."

"I don't think you're alone on this line of thinking," Bucky said, remembering the vehement denials Daisy had spoken earlier on that day. In fact, almost everyone else on her team seemed to be of the same mind.

Natasha looked at him and nodded slowly. "I'm going to offer my help," she said, turning to look at Steve. It was by no means her asking for permission, but he deserved to know in case something should come up.

"What about the part where he said he didn't want to be saved?" Steve returned.

"Right now, he's just resolved to the fact," she argued.

He shook his head in negative. "Do we really have the right to take the choice away from him?" Steve asked.

"What choice?" She countered hotly, before inhaling a calming breath. Grudgingly, she could admit that Steve had a point. "I won't force him to do anything," Natasha sighed. "I just…want to at least give him the option to make a different decision," she amended, watching as he processed the words. "You don't have to help me, but it would be easier if you were with me on this." She knew if she reached out to Clint, he'd be willing but unable to help because of his house arrest. And though Tony had worked side by side with SHIELD on many ventures, she didn't think he'd interfere with anything.

She wanted to drag him into it too? He closed his eyes and a mental picture of Daisy and Coulson's tearful embrace came to mind before his eyes shot open.

"If you'd been given another option instead of crashing that plane into the ice, wouldn't you have at least considered it?" She asked quietly.

Once upon a time, he wouldn't have hesitated if he'd been given another choice, but things had changed. "And you won't force him into anything?" When she verified the words, he found himself nodding. "Fine, I'm in."