Cool beads of condensation rolled off the glass onto Jane's fingers as she let it clank onto the wooden counter in front of her. A soccer match was playing on the old television in the corner and she pretended to be interested in it. She was sitting at the bar with her glass of whiskey like she had done most nights the past few months, alone. She heard the bell on the door jingle, announcing a new customer arriving but she paid no mind.

Some day she would get a better routine, she told herself. But today wasn't the day, and she knew tomorrow wouldn't be either. With a sigh shook the glass, making the ice cubes fall back down into the amber liquid.

Silently, a man pulled out the stool beside her and took a seat at the bar. Jane casually glanced up to see the man's face, her head resting in her hand. Upon seeing who it was, she closed her eyes and let out a long sigh.

"Seriously, you've got to be kidding me." She said simply. "Thought you were supposed to be dead." She added, sitting up in her chair.

He let out a small laugh, "Yeah, it wasn't really working out for me. Thought I'd give it another go." After a moment he added, "You don't seem to be too surprised."

Jane tucked her hair behind her ears and said, "Well I'm starting to get used to things not being the way I thought they were." Memories of the HYDRA uprising flashed through her mind and she took a large drink.

"Whiskey, strong choice." He said, noting the glass in her hand. "I didn't peg you as the drinking type."

Jane grimaced, swallowing the harsh liquid. "I'm not. This is terrible." With a small cough she placed the glass back on the counter and slid it away a few inches. He chuckled softly and a grin tugged at her lips. "So," She continued, "what has 'Agent Coulson' been up to besides being 'not dead'? Saving the world, diffusing bombs, getting all the ladies."

Coulson just laughed and said, "Sure, we can go with that. Though it's Director Coulson now."

"Oh really?" Jane said with a smile. "I didn't realize I was in the presence of royalty, you really must excuse my manners."

"Well the job isn't as glamorous as all that. With half of what used to be S.H.I.E.L.D. scattered around the globe in hiding, and the other half being HYDRA, trying to kill us, it's not as much fun as one would expect." Coulson said.

"Who's 'us'?" Jane questioned. "You managed to scrounge a team after S.H.I.E.L.D. fell?"

"In a matter of speaking. Some were with us before the whole HYDRA ordeal, lost a few in the process, but picked up a few others along the way." After a bit he added, "We may be small, but we're growing."

Jane shrugged, considering his words. Without commenting she took another swig of her drink, finishing the glass. "That's why you're here, isn't it." She said quietly, the realization hitting her.

"I'm not going to lie and say it wouldn't be nice to have another ally on our side." Coulson replied, folding his hands on the counter in front of him.

"Coulson, I—" Jane began.

Before she could finish he interrupted, "I understand more than anyone that your experience with S.H.I.E.L.D. has been a rocky one, but you're also one of the few people who I can have confidence in knowing is not loyal to HYDRA."

"No, you don't understand." She quickly replied, her voice growing increasingly tense. "You don't know what it was like when S.H.I.E.L.D. collapsed and I had nowhere to go, no one to tell me what I was supposed to do." She paused to keep her voice calm. "You had the connections, the resources, you could struggle through it and make it to the other side. When I lost S.H.I.E.L.D. I lost everything. I didn't have a family to go back to, S.H.I.E.L.D. was my life. I couldn't call up any of my friends for the fear of them trying to kill me; I couldn't go back to my apartment, and my job was entirely nonexistent."

"You seem to have survived alright until now." He said, not knowing what else to say.

"I suppose, if working at a sub shop in Queens and spending every night in this dive listening to terrible karaoke counts as surviving." She commented.

"So why not do more?" Coulson asked. "You want back in the game, this is how you do it."

"I never said I wanted back in the game." Jane replied. "S.H.I.E.L.D. may have helped me in the past, but lately it's caused me nothing but trouble."

"You're mad, I get that; we all are. But HYDRA is the one who did this and the only way to get back at them is to take them down ourselves." Coulson said. Knowing he wasn't going to convince her without giving her something of interest to intrigue her, he continued, laying a file in front of him. "We've recently acquired a new asset, and your skills would be of tremendous use to the team."

Jane looked at him, her eyebrow raised. "What, because finding a research analyst is so difficult? There are hundreds of people out there more willing to do your paperwork than me."

"Those aren't the skills to which I was referring." Coulson said plainly. "I'm talking about the work you were doing with Jacobs." Jane looked at him, confused, unsure of where he was going with it. "You have an impressive track record with mentally unstable patients, and every peer evaluation you've had has shown high marks."

"I'm sorry," Jane said, her forehead wrinkling, "are you saying you want me to be your team therapist?"

Coulson shrugged his shoulders slightly as though to say, "Why not?"

Jane let out a nervous laugh, wondering if Coulson was being serious. "Coulson, I'm not even certified, do you know how preposterous that idea is!"

"I've seen what you can do. Even in L7 you couldn't help but to be drawn to those who needed to be fixed. It was instinctive, it wasn't something you were going out of your way to do; it was just natural. Credentials or not, you're the best I've ever seen." Coulson said. "And right now, you're exactly what we need." Coulson slid his hand into the file, opening it up.

"I don't know though." Jane interjected. "I mean I've never took on a project like this, I don't know that I can handle an entire team as patients!"

"Well then it's a good thing you'll only be working with one." He said, sliding the open file in front of Jane. "His name is James Barnes, often goes by Bucky, and he's the best lead we've got on flushing out the rest of HYDRA's bases."

Jane glanced over the personnel sheet, taking in the information. "Hang on, it says here, he was also known as the 'Winter Soldier'. Coulson I've read the reports, I know who this is. How is he even alive? And furthermore, if what you're saying is true, that this ghost story is actually true. Why on earth are you working with a HYDRA operative?"

"Ex-HYDRA." Coulson stated. "After their encounter at the Triskelion, Steve Rogers went on a mission to find his friend."

Jane looked up from the file she was flipping through to look Coulson in the eyes. "As in, Star-Spangled-Captain-America Steve Rogers?" She asked in disbelief. "I'm not sure my clearance is high enough for this." She said trailing off.

Coulson continued, ignoring her comment. "He still hasn't given us an explanation of how he found him, but since then Steve's been working on rehabilitating him into normal life, apart from HYDRA."

Jane took a deep breath. "That sounds great Coulson, but why do you need me? It sounds like Mr. American-hero has things pretty well in hand. I mean, if they were best friends back in the day, then he probably knows Bucky better than anyone."

"Barnes possesses priceless intel on the inner workings of HYDRA, but because of the extensive work they've done on his mind, extracting that intel has thus far been largely unsuccessful. Like you, we figured having his friend at his side would be the most beneficial situation, Rogers even believed it himself." Coulson said. "But as time progressed it became evident that the relationship they once had was making the process more difficult rather than easier. Rogers was trying to get back the Bucky he knew before, but I'm sure that Bucky even exists anymore. So far, Bucky has only regained portions of his pre-HYDRA memories, and while he desperately wants to return to that state of mind, the memories from the time he was under HYDRA's control make doing so increasingly difficult."

"So the thing he needs to heal is also ambushing his mind." Jane said, understanding what Coulson was getting at.

"Exactly." He replied. "I'd like to have Barnes with us so we can get the HYDRA information we need as quickly and efficiently as possible, but in order to do so, someone's got to be there to keep an eye on him. Rogers is going to be tied up on a separate assignment, and we've already covered why he isn't the best candidate for the job anyway. That would be where you come in." Jane bit her lip, flipping through the file, and thinking about Coulson's proposition.

"We'll meet at the Washington Square fountain tomorrow at 8." He said simply, rising from his chair.

"And what if you end up deciding you don't want me on this?" Jane asked.

Coulson grinned, "Oh it isn't me you've got to impress; it's him." He said pointing to the picture of Steve in Bucky's file.

Jane opened her mouth to say something, but when she looked up, Coulson was already out the door. "I never said I agreed to do it." She mumbled to herself, seeing that he was already gone.