It had become one of the biggest SHIELD recovery efforts since the aftermath of the Battle of New York. Coulson stared down into the gaping hole that had once been the massive headquarters of Centipede as oversized cranes grabbed huge piles of wreckage and brought it to ground level, where half a dozen techs would converge on each pile, carefully sorting through that pile looking for one thing: human remains. Specifically, the remains of one man.

A junior agent approached him nervously. "The list of the casualties identified so far, as you requested, sir."

Coulson started flipping through the pages. "Have the DNA tests confirmed Quinn's remains?"

"Not yet, sir," the agent replied.

Coulson kept flipping through the pages, studying them carefully. "Let me know as soon as Quinn's remains are ident..." his voice trailed off as he found the names he had hoped and prayed he wouldn't see on the list he was holding.

The junior agent saw the pained look on his superior's face and found himself unsure of how to proceed. "Sir?"

Coulson pulled himself together quickly, but briefly. "Please let me know when Quinn's remains are identified," he ordered, the grief in his voice becoming more and more obvious.

The junior agent found himself grateful to be leaving rather than trying to find something comforting to say. "Yes...yes, sir."

Coulson ignored the younger agent's last remarks. He was far too busy staring at the last page of the casualty list. Specifically, the last group of names. His mind wandered to Richard Castle, the 'celebrity' best selling author...and one of the last remaining living Guardians. Castle's fiancée, daughter, and best friends were in the building when it exploded. What am I going to tell him? *How* am I going to tell him? Coulson gasped as another face came to the forefront of his mind. Skye...she had just come into her powers, and the one living man who could truly be a mentor to her was now gone. What am I going to tell *her*? Finally, Coulson sighed, resigned to just getting the terrible job over and done with. He then pulled out his cell phone.

#

Skye didn't know when she had felt so relieved. She sat beside Mike Peterson's 'hospital' bed, holding his hand and watching him while he slept. His hand felt soft and warm...gentle, like the man she knew Mike truly was. Skye just hoped that, when Mike finally woke up, he would be able to *be* that man once again.

A comforting hand came to rest on Skye's shoulder. "How are you doing?" Lanie asked Skye.

Skye looked up at Lanie with a gentle, reassuring smile. "How's *he* doing?" she countered, revealing the only thing she cared about at that moment.

"It was touch-and-go there for a bit," Lanie admitted. "First time I've ever had to perform healings during actual surgery. But I'm sure we got out all of the tech. *Especially* that chip in his brain." Lanie's face fell as she though about the one thing that she hadn't been able to do for Mike. "I'm sorry we weren't able to do anything about his leg."

Skye blew off Lanie's apology. "You did more for him than I could have thought possible. Thank. You." Lanie squeezed Skye's shoulder, then turned and left the room as Skye's cell phone rang. The name that came up on her screen sent a pang of worry through Skye's system. "Sir?" she asked, the concern evident in her voice. "What is it? Have you found Quinn's remains?"

"No," Coulson replied, his voice choking and thick with emotion. "No, we haven't identified his remains yet..."

The way her mentor's voice was breaking made Skye sit up in her chair. "Phil?" she asked, her own voice filled with deep urgency and concern. "What is it?"

"They...they identified the remains of six other people from where we had confronted Quinn," Coulson told her. "Including Agents Ryan and Beckett."

Skye turned her head to greet the person standing in the entrance to Mike's 'hospital' suite...and didn't know what to think. "Are you sure they didn't make a mistake?"

"There's no mistake," Coulson insisted. "DNA tests confirmed it...out of curiosity, why do you ask?"

Skye couldn't take her eyes off of the man standing in the doorframe. "Because Agent Ryan is staring right at me."

#

Coulson was furious. He was in a blinding, grief-filled rage that he was having trouble getting away from. They were all dead, or so he had thought. Their bodies had been crushed and burned in the explosion that destroyed Centipede and killed Simon Quinn. He had the DNA evidence to prove it.

And yet, here they all were. Fallon and his wife, Kate Beckett, Alexis Castle, Javier Esposito and Kevin Ryan. All leaning against his beloved car. "Would someone please tell me what the *hell* is going on here?!" he exclaimed. "You're all supposed to be *dead*."

"So are you," Fallon argued.

"Yeah, but as far as I know SHIELD doesn't have another copy of my body lying around someplace. I have DNA evidence that proves all of you died in that explosion."

"You know that evidence will disappear by the morning, right?" asked Beckett.

Coulson was quickly adding frustration to his growing list of mixed emotions. "That's not the point! How the *hell* did you get out of there?"

"We didn't," Ryan replied. "Obviously."

Ryan's calm attitude about his death was getting on Coulson's last remaining nerve...until he remembered the orange 'spirit'. "You *are* all alive, right? Skye and I aren't just seeing your ghosts or something?"

Fallon chuckled, which seemed to help release some of the tension from the conversation. "Yeah, Phil, we're all alive."

Coulson's mind demanded tangible proof. He cross the field, stood in front of his spirit-brother, and grabbed his shoulders. When Coulson felt muscle, bone and warmth beneath his touch, relief flooded his emotions. The two men embraced...and Phil came out of the hug much more relaxed, but no less curious. "Okay. I'm hoping you guys are at least here to explain to me what happened back there?"

Fallon looked to the others to see if anyone else wanted to explain, then, seeing no takers, took on the job himself. "None of us really understand the 'how' of what happened back there, to be honest. All we know is that if we don't want to die at the moment of our 'deaths'...we don't."

Coulson looked like the wind had gotten knocked out of him. "So you guys are *immortal*!?" he exclaimed. His mind flashed on Skye's unconscious form lying next to Beckett's. "So did Skye's father choose to die? Is this some sort of Guardian thing?" He shook his head, answering his own question when he remembered who he was talking to. "It can't be, Mark, you and Kat aren't Guardians..." Coulson swallowed hard as his train of thought led him to the one thing he and Fallon *did* have in common. The one thing they *all* had in common. "Is this...is this a tiger spirit thing? Am I immortal, now, too?"

Fallon shook his head. "No, this has nothing to do with the tiger spirit. We were given this blessing as an apology of sorts from the Mayan creator god for having to deal with his children."

"The battle where you also got the tiger spirit?" Coulson asked, his mind slowly connecting the dots.

Fallon nodded...and stuck a hand in his pocket. "As to whether or not you're going to be immortal...that's up to you."

Coulson's breath caught in his throat. "What?"

Fallon pulled his hand out of his pocket, revealing a small, ugly looking antique chain dangling from a chain. "After another one of our missions, the Guardians were given a small collection of these coins. Whoever has this coin on them when they die...won't."

"Effectively making them immortal..." Coulson choked out in a gasp.

Fallon nodded again. "Castle created the chain to be indestructible, so it can't break in the course of combat. And after we discussed your...unique situation, we all agreed that it didn't seem fair that you were killed *and* resurrected against your will. We all think that the next time you face death, the choice to take his offer should be yours. If you would like it to be."

Coulson took the coin in his hands, flipping it back and forth to study the medallion from all sides. "The same way you guys have that choice..." he mused. When his hands started to tremble, Coulson decided it was better to not drop something so valuable, so he slipped the chain over his head and dropped the medallion down his shirt, hiding it from view as the cold metal slowly started to warm against his chest. "Who else has a medallion like this?"

"Just my wife," Ryan replied. "No one else that we know of."

Coulson thought about the powerful and unique gift he had just been given. To live as long as he chose. To be a witness and participant in so much of history...his thoughts wandered to Captain America. A man who had out-lived all of his friends and family, and yet was starting to become such a vital part of history for a second time.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, a flash of red hair reminded Coulson that he was in the company of Steve Rogers' girlfriend. His *immortal* girlfriend. "Does Cap know about all this?"

Alexis nodded. "I've offered him one of the coins, but so far he's refused to take it. Something about how Erskine's formula might make it unnecessary, so it should be available for someone else to have. I keep telling him he should have one just in case, but..."

The growing frustration on Alexis' face made it clear that this had to be something of a long-standing argument between the couple. "He's got a different perspective on all of this than we do," Coulson reassured Alexis. "I'm sure he'll come around."

The mention of 'perspective' wiped the smile from Fallon's face. "Phil...there's only a small handful of people who even *know* about this. I'm sure you of all people know what SHIELD would want to do if they knew about our immortality. Or about the coin you now wear."

Coulson winced as his memories flew back to the agonizing procedure that had been used to resurrect him. "I understand," he nodded grimly. "No one will ever hear about this from me." The entire group seemed to relax into full relief until Coulson's cell phone started to buzz in his pocket. The name on the front of the phone reminded Coulson that he couldn't stay in this conversation forever. "It's the team at Pioneer. They've positively identified Quinn's remains and they're wondering where I am."

The group stepped back as Coulson opened the door to the car they had all been sitting on. "I can drop you at the site if you want," Alexis suggested.

"Believe it or not, a flying car would be less conspicuous," Coulson declared with a chuckle. "But if you could send Skye to the dig site that would be one less stop I'd have to make on the way."

The group shared in the chuckle, enjoying the absurdity of the life they all led. Fallon then took the opportunity to embrace Coulson a second time. "Don't be a stranger, Phil. You have family here now, after all."

Coulson smiled, grateful that Fallon apparently shared in the emotions he was feeling about the extraordinary group he had fought alongside. "Don't worry, Mark," he teased, "after all, it just might take me a couple of centuries around you guys to figure out how not to get beaten up by a girl."

Katya blushed before following up her husband's embrace of the SHIELD agent with a hug of her own. "Perhaps I will not be so easy on you next time," she teased.

"Oh, great!" Coulson exclaimed with another chuckle. "That is *not* what I needed to hear...maybe it will be a while before I make it back to the warehouse..."

Bringing the conversation back to the warehouse reminded Fallon of something. "Hey, we thought of a codename for you," he told Coulson as he closed the door of the older man's car behind him.

"What?" asked Phil.

"Cerberus," Katya replied.

"The three-headed guard dog..." Coulson mused. "I'm going try not to take that too personally..."

Katya was unfazed. "The heads are supposed to represent the past, present and the future. And with the uniqueness of your past, your present, and now your future..."

Coulson immediately understood the analogy. "Cerberus it is, then," he agreed with a smile. Coulson shook his head, though, and started chuckling as another thought about his codename came to mind.

Fallon seemed curious as to what was going though the mind of his spirit-brother. "What is it, Phil?"

"Skye," Coulson replied as he started up the car's powerful engines. His voice grew louder to call out one last comment before he flew away. "It looks like I'm never going to get her to stop calling me AC..."