"Agent?" For how well I had been taking things, my sudden wish for complete denial was not that surprising. I had been ignoring it for so long to stay 'safe' if it really was all true, that I had little to combat it with now.

"I'm from SHIELD; its a part of the government. Rachel, we think you may have seen something today that we need to know about." Although my non-denial half thought he was lying about the government involvement, I cautiously opened the door getting a good look at Agent Coulson. Then my brain registered his full comment.

"How do you know my name?" He chuckled dryly.

"I'm part of the government; it's what I do." I closed the door behind him. He looked at the door then back to me. "You met someone in Central Park today." No way. No way, no way, no way. It couldn't have been. "He said you did an excellent drawing of a group of people including Iron Man. We were just wondering why you drew it."

Yeah right. Like they had time to chase after every artist who drew Iron Man. However, it was a lot less suspicious then Captain America's name. Surprisingly, my brain came up with a decent lie.

"I recently learned about Captain America at school and wanted to draw him next to our modern hero, a kind of comparison. I threw in some other hero-like figures from my life in too."

"I heard they were playing musical instruments." I shrugged.

"Artistic license and a bored mind."

"Can I see it?" If it really was an innocent picture, it would be no big deal to show it. However, Agent Coulson would most definitely recognize at least Clint and Natasha.

"I would prefer not. It's not that good."

"That's not what I heard." I quickly looked away from his searching eyes, trying to come up with a plausible solution. However, a wave of denial hit me. Standing up, I pulled my cell phone out and speed dialed called my best friend.

"Megan, I really appreciate the gesture, but finding actor look-alikes is more freaky than cool."

"Who is this?"

"First Mr Stars and Stripes on the bench I've been drawing at for the last couple days, and now Agent Coulson. Mr Stars and Stripes was cool and all, but why Coulson? His appearance really threw me off." Even while throwing caution to the wind, a part of my brain still desperately kept me from revealing too much information.

"Excuse me, I think you have the wrong number. This is Megan Smith speaking."

"Sorry, this is Rachel Christenson."

"I'm sorry as well. I don't know a Rachel Christenson. Have a good day."

I kept my phone by my ear for a moment. What had just happened? It had sounded like the Megan I knew, but then again there could be lots of Megan Smiths. But I had her number programmed in my phone! A phone number error was the least of my problems.

I removed the phone from my ear, but avoided looking at Agent Coulson. I was confused, but I still needed proof for myself before I could explain things to the probably extremely anxious and confused agent. "What is a synonym for the name of the director of SHIELD?" A nice question with an answer that wouldn't be giving up too much information for him.

"Santa?" I finally looked at Coulson, confusion probably written all over my face, but it was written on his too. Then my brain processed what he had said. And I laughed. I probably sounded hysterical.

"I meant Director Fury's last name, but that works too." I continued to laugh, pitch rising. "Dear old Nick. Don't let Tony ever hear that..."

'Reality' snapped into me, and I realized that normally I didn't call adults by their first name. However, these fictitious heroes in my brain were called by their first names. The true nature of all that had happened was falling on me. How different were things from in the movies if Agent Coulson was alive and...wait. Stark Tower wasn't demolished. I'm sure the cab driver would have mentioned something about an alien invasion originating from the tower. How soon before the events of the movie was I? Had Tony built the new element yet? Had Thor crash landed? I couldn't just ask for that information though. Agent Coulson didn't trust me, and I didn't want to reveal anything that hadn't happened yet. According to the movies, everyone but Agent Coulson got a happy ending. So it was best to keep it that way. Knowledge of the future would change the future in unknown ways. I had to make SHIELD, or at least Agent Coulson see that way.

"So you know Star Wars?" My train of thought was derailed though, when I had sudden, scary idea entered my head. What if this reality didn't have Star Wars? I would be so, so sad, but that might mean it was reality too! But then the sad reality of Anakin's life would come to pass. Poor Ani. And I couldn't help him being a universe away! My craziness was broken off by Agent Coulson's reply.

"Yes..."

"So imagine..." Wait, the different place thing really didn't factor into my analogy. What was a better comparison? "What about Transformers?" Agent Coulson seemed thrown by my topic change.

"What?"

"The machines that turn into cars or giant robots with conscious minds of their own? Some are good, the autobots, and some are bad, the decepticons- don't you love the name, its so obvious which side they are on. However, their looks are not obvious to distinguish, which probably gives the government a huge headache." Agent Coulson looked at me like I was going mad. Not that I knew if I was or not, but surely there weren't autobots as well as the Avengers here! "Even government agents like you have to be let out sometime. Movie are an essential American pastime!" After a couple blinks, Agent Coulson spoke.

"We are talking about movies?" Of course I was! I mean, he said he know about Star Wars. I had thought we were on the same page...

"When I said Star Wars you thought I meant the defense plan while I meant a fictitious movie!" My laugh was recognized by a sagely nod from Agent Coulson as he finally understood what I was talking about. Then I became quite serious. "Or supposedly fictitious. That's the real point of all this." I looked directly at Agent Coulson, trying to gauge his reaction. "What if you saw a movie, and then a couple months later, you see things happening that happened in the movie. And then, while trying to convince yourself your eyesight is bad, or it was just a publicity or geek stunt, you realize you can't find anything about the movie online. A popular movie that has several parts. And because of those several parts you don't know when in the series you are, only that the movies aren't over yet. But you can't tell anyone cause it could get out to the bad guys, or the good guys would want the information. And the good guys would be suspicious, and they would want answers. But what if those answers could change the future? And what if the future looks really good right now? And what if telling would make bad things happen? And what if she is just making everything up? What if she is just cracking? What if..." My careful answer decayed into rambling, and all my fears seemed to tumble out. I tried to stop speaking, stop thinking. I couldn't think about the what ifs anymore though. They had been circling for several hours now, and my denial had still not been resolved, my future was in jeopardy, and I was just so scared. Tears ran freely down my cheeks and I began sobbing.

Hands gripped each of my shoulders. "And here I thought I had seen the weirdest the world had to offer." I chuckled weakly. "I thought you would appreciate that sentiment." I still couldn't respond though, my brain trying to figure out what I could say more, and what had to be carefully hidden. I was a thoughtful girl, but now my every word had to be attentively planned. Even when I had stopped crying and Agent Coulson had drawn back, I remained silent. I probably had said too much already. I heard him sigh a heavy sigh right next to me. "Knowledge is a terrible burden isn't it?" I nodded. "From what I understand, I agree that knowledge of the future should be kept to a minimum." I looked up into his calculating, gentle eyes. "Why don't you come back to my office, and I can ask you some Santa questions," I cut him off with a quiet giggle, "so I can know for sure that you know what you shouldn't. And then, you can ask me some more Santa questions if you need to. Alright?"

I nodded and hope began to blossom. I had someone on my side! Someone who understood enough, or at least as much I did. And I couldn't have a better person on my side. He knew about all the Avengers and wasn't scary like Director Fury. He seemed kind and made jokes. He seemed like the Director's right hand man, so he had the power to keep my safe from those who would force the information from me. Agent Coulson also seemed like a trustworthy man, though he was part of a secret organization and lied as part of him living. Oh well, no one was perfect.