Nick Fury had made the one phone call every leader in a combat oriented organization fears but knows they will eventually have to do; having to call her to give her the good news is even more daunting. The frost in Detective Penelope Coulson's voice when he calls her after the visit from the nurse reminds him of how they had found Captain Rogers and he forces back a shiver as he tells her Phil is alive. The woman was just as formidable as her 'brother,' she had the same ability to either stare or take you down, despite the seemingly genial exterior.
He'll never admit to either of them the effect they have on him when they are well and truly angered.
In all of the files that SHIELD has on Coulson, there is no mention of her or the odd relationship the two have. The only one that really knows about her is Fury—a phone number written on a post-it, a request that if he dies she's notified, and a vague description about how they met and their relationship from a night spent drinking together after dealing with Stark. Fury is the only one that knows about her role in Phil's life.
They share a last name and that's the only thing that really ties them together, that shows that they treat each other as siblings. On the surface, they're legal siblings, adopted by a man who never existed anywhere but legally, and most government agencies and any regular-joe looking through the records wouldn't know otherwise. Phil met a hacker; another person just like them, while he was in the Special Forces in the Army that made the 'adoption' official everywhere but SHIELD. They had a paper trail showing their adoption, school records that put them together until they graduated high school legal documents naming each other their medical proxy while Phil was in the Army, everything.
Of course, SHIELD digs deeper and finds more information about their recruits than any other organization out there—that's why she's not included as Phil's family in the dossier SHIELD has collected about him, she's not really his sister just another orphan he's stuck with since their teens, a footnote at the bottom as one of his known associates.
She's asleep, her head pillowed in her arms against Phil's bed when they come in, dark circles under her eyes. The only reason Fury recognizes her is because he checked her out after Coulson gave him the number and who she was; as she is, she looks nothing like her service picture for the NYPD and he knows part of it is the work she's been doing since the Chitari tried to invade and the other is hearing the man she considers her brother dead.
He's not really surprised she beat them there.
The Avengers and Miss Potts are all there, crowding the door way to the private room Coulson was placed in behind him, waiting for their turn to verify the validity of life in the man they'd all fought for. Nick takes in the machines attached to one of his best agents and lets a out sigh, even in front of the others, and grips the hospital gown covered shoulder tightly, feeling the warmth beneath his fingers as a sign that what they were told was true. Moving out of the way, Miss Potts is the first to stride to his side, tears gathered at the corner of her eyes as she reaches out to smooth his hair back.
Her hand is just centimeters away from his head when her wrist is caught in a tight grip and a gasp escapes her throat.
Instead of the blue-green eyes he knows the detective has similar to his agent, her eyes have slitted pupils surrounded by dark copper which is then surround by black. She's silent as she sits up fully, her eyes causing everyone that sees them to shift into a battle ready stance; he himself had moved his hand to the gun that was always kept on his person. Some of the tension dissipates when she lets go of Miss Potts' arm, but only some and she sighs before running her hand through the bangs escaping the bun the rest of her hair is in and closing her eyes.
When she opens them again they're the color Fury knows they're supposed to be, at least according to her records.
When she stands and moves so that her back is to the wall and her hands visible, no one so much as twitches and she sighs again before looking directly at him and gesturing towards the door. It doesn't take him even a second to understand before everyone is in the room and the door closed suspicion in everyone's gaze.
When she looks at Coulson there's an odd twist to her lips before she looks right at him and says that if they touch his bare skin, they'll more than likely die and that's happened enough in Phil's life. There's a toxin that seeps from his skin instead of the oils and sweat like a regular person, she says, he can usually pull it back, even in his sleep now, but that hasn't always been the case. And right now, he and his body are doing so many other important things to keep him alive that pulling back the poison isn't something that's a priority. The poison is incredibly potent; all it takes is a little bit of skin on skin contact to cause severe neurological distress and eventual cardiac arrest. She doesn't explain more than that and everyone is still wary of her.
She doesn't stop Stark from using some of the materials available in the room to swab his skin and with an order from Fury it quickly taken and tested to see if she's telling the truth. When it comes back ten minutes later that his skin is practically seeping with what's called batrachotoxins and a report of how toxic it is they all stop treating her like she's trying to kill the man they're all there for.
She doesn't answer any more of their questions, however.