"You sure about this?" Anna whispers. Which is kind of pointless, because the elevator she's in with Phil also contains his team. She's pretty sure spies consider eavesdropping to be normal behavior. Said rapidly moving elevator has the destination of the top floor of the Avengers Tower. It's a building she still feels awkward calling her home.

"Little late to turn around," Phil answers, his face in work-non-chalant mode, but Anna can see the thinnest hint of nerves in his eyes. "Besides, I'm pretty sure JARVIS has already announced I'm on my way."

"Indeed, Agent Coulson," a warm voice says from the ceiling. "And might I say that I am thrilled to see you are alive and well."

"Oh my god," Skye breathes. "It's JARVIS. It's actually JARVIS."

Triplett shoots her a look that makes it obvious he's questioning her sanity. "You gonna need a minute?"

"Maybe later," Skye admits.

There's a soft ding, and then the elevators open. Melinda and Triplett exit first, a tactic devised on the way to the Tower in case there's some sort of a threat. Phil'd said that if Tony was in the suit for fear of this being a ploy, none of them stood a chance in matching his power. But Anna has a sneaking suspicion that Phil's equally terrified of one Pepper Potts. As he should be.

"Nobody moves," Tony orders as soon as they've all stepped out of the elevator. He's standing in the middle of the living room floor, thankfully not in his suit, but the look on his face tells everyone that he is not in the mood to be trifled with. They all obey, and Anna hears Phil sigh quietly next to her. "JARVIS, run a full scan. Make sure it's really him."

"Of course, sir."

"Tony, I already told you—"

It's not until Tony spins around to glare at the woman who spoke that Anna realizes Maria is in the room. She looks bored and has a sidearm in her hand.

"What are your orders?" Tony snaps.

Maria sends him an unimpressed look and points the gun at Phil with the most limp-wristed grip Anna's ever seen.

"Stark," Phil starts, "I swear—"

"That you tricked us all?" Tony shouts, the muscles in his neck growing taut. "Didn't think we'd been through enough morale building, ropes course bullshit to work as a team?" He pauses to nearly snarl, but Phil doesn't interrupt him. "I saw the pool of blood you left behind. I helped arrange your funeral. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I heard it was a lovely service. So thank you."

Tony snorts and shakes his head. "I'm just going to stand here and play nice. Your punishment is going to step off that elevator in about three hours, and she hasn't slept in two days. Good luck with that. Why are you even here?"

"I heard you took my Avengers. I want them back," Phil answers.

"Your Avengers?"

Anna looks around at the others. They all have their game faces on—except maybe for Skye and Jemma because they're both too excited to be in the presence of the legendary Tony Stark. Anna's serious business expression has nothing on the S.H.I.E.L.D. field agents'. All she really wants to do is sneak off and finally get to play her cello for the first time in weeks and avoid another confrontation in her life, but she doesn't want to disrupt Phil's badass vibe.

"The Avengers are a S.H.I.E.L.D. initiative," Phil argues.

"An organization that doesn't exist anymore, in case they don't have CNN in purgatory," Tony snipes back.

"It does exist," Phil counters. "And I'm its director."

That shuts Tony up for a good three seconds, which Anna assumes is probably an eternity. "Excuse me?" he asks, surprise evident in his voice.

"I was named Director," Phil repeats. "Do I need to draw you a flowchart?"

"And who named you Director?" Tony asked, eyes squinting slightly.

"My predecessor."

Tony lets out a whoop of glee before spinning around to do a victory dance in front of Maria. "I told you Fury wasn't dead. None of you ever die. You're like cockroaches."

"Phil," Maria sighs. "What are you doing?"

"My job. Sorry you were so quick to give up yours."

Her face settles into something hard, and she looks away.

"Let's go have a chat," Tony says. "I'll bring my top aide," he adds as he points to Maria. "You pick one of yours." He starts to head towards somewhere deeper into the penthouse before he spins on his heel and stares Anna down. "You knew about this?" he asks while jerking his head in Phil's direction.

"Yes," she answers.

"And you didn't bother telling me about it?" Tony questions.

"You didn't bother asking me about it," Anna replies, and she catches the briefest of smirks cross Phil's face.

"May, you'll come with me," Phil orders before turning to Anna. "Take everyone else back to your quarters. I'll meet you there when we're done."

Anna nods and kisses him on the corner of the mouth. "Play nice," she warns.

"Of course I will," he tells her, a small smile creasing his face. "I'll let May be bad cop."

She leads the rest of them back to the elevator and keys in the code for her quarters. She gives everyone a quick tour before locking herself away in her designated practice room, the one with egg crate foam all over the walls and ceiling. As she shuts the door, she can hear Skye babble excitedly about the chance to meet the one and only Tony Stark.

"We may have to sit on her in order to keep her from going back upstairs," Jemma half-kids to Triplett.

But then Anna shuts the door and her world shrinks down to just her and her cello. It's an environment she's been deprived of for weeks, and her soul feels empty without. It may sound dramatic, but it's true.

The first pull of the bow across the string isn't as eloquent as she normally plays, but she'll take it. She's well aware that it will take weeks if not months to regain her musical prowess, yet at the moment she can't be bothered to care. She has a cello in her grip, and Phil is safe and sound only a few floors away. All is right in her world.