Title: The Set-Up
Author: SLynn

Summary: Three months after Clint Barton's death and what remains of the Avengers is still struggling to make sense of it all as the threat to SHIELD, and to them all, looms larger.

Notes: Nearing the end (of this one at least)... thank you readers, reviewers, commenters, everyone! Especially Tripp3235 who puts up with me! Thank you!

By nine o'clock the next morning practically everyone was ready to get to work.

Darcy had gotten up early, having taken a subtle hint from Pepper, and ordered a fairly large breakfast buffet, complete with good coffee, and set it up in the back of the conference room. Soon after she'd finished, Director Fury arrived with Agents Morse and Sitwell in tow. As if sensing Director Fury's presence, Agent Hill showed up next and set about helping Agent Sitwell situate himself into the Tower. After that it was a free-for-all, with Tony and Pepper arriving simultaneously, followed shortly thereafter by Steve who looked as if he'd spent the night in the gym. Bruce popped in for a moment, but left almost immediately. Natasha, and Darcy only knew she was there because of something Tony had said, didn't show at all. And, as Darcy had expected, Thor and Jane, the disgusting lovebirds, were the last to arrive and were thoroughly unrepentant.

Fury had a brief conference with his three agents present before pulling Tony and Steve aside and having a few words with them in private as well.

Then without really looking at anyone else, he left.

Darcy, having not been asked to leave, and having already been filled in on the juicy parts by Jane in private, hung out in the back of the room as everyone began talking and comparing notes. She soon realized Pepper was by her side, and giving the woman a friendly smile, turned to check the status of the coffee pot in an effort to at least appear busy.

"You're allowed to listen in, Darcy," Pepper said with a grin.

"My clearance came through already?"

"Yes, actually," Pepper answered, despite the fact that Darcy had been telling an obvious joke.

When Darcy stared at Pepper, and Pepper only stared back, completely serious, Darcy knew it was the absolute truth.

Preferring not to think about it, about the things that they had to know about her now that she'd been checked into, Darcy poured herself a cup of coffee and sauntered over to the conference table to eavesdrop more effectively now that she was officially sanctioned to do so.

She joined them just as they'd finished filling in Sitwell on all the latest information, including Tony's theory about not-dead Agent Coulson. Which led him to naturally continue on with possibly not-dead Clint.

"That's..." Sitwell said, shaking his head and leaning further back in his chair. "I get it," he assured Tony. "I do. I get why you'd go there but... but this is probably a doppelganger," he finished, motioning to the picture. "Or a really good photo shop."

"Already checked," Tony cut in, sitting on the table and eager for the other man's opinion.

"But... why?" Sitwell questioned. "I'm not saying Phil wouldn't have valuable information to any organization looking to bring down SHIELD. He would. But they couldn't have known about Loki. They couldn't have planned his fake-murder-abduction in the first place."

"Well," Morse conceded, albeit reluctantly, "Barton brought together a lot of factions prior to the assault on the Helicarrier. If one of those groups already had someone in place, they could been forewarned and seized the opportunity when Agent Coulson was wounded."

"It was more than a wound," Thor assured her. "I was witness. For him to have been of use after this abduction, they would had to have had the power to heal the Son of Coul."

"Let's move past Agent Coulson for a moment and talk about Barton," Tony pushed.

"This is pointless speculation," Maria insisted firmly. "I was there, Tony."

"So was I," Pepper added solemnly, her eyes downcast.

"There are drugs that can simulate..." Tony said, waving a hand and all but refusing to say the word 'death'. "Dr. Foster, am I right? Tell them I'm right."

"He is," she agreed, but without sounding convinced.

"They only let the two of you back in for a few minutes," Tony continued having obviously given the whole thing a lot of thought. "And then they packed up the body and cremated it."

"Him," Maria corrected through nearly clenched teeth.

"His death was obviously set-up and planned by someone," Morse said with a reluctant nod, "but it could have just been -"

"Hold on," Steve interrupted. "Sorry. We know it was a set-up, but it wasn't the first time. His brother said something in those messages about it not going as planned, right?"

"Yes," Tony agreed enthusiastically, pulling up the texts and putting them onto the main screen. Everyone read through them, some for the second or third time. "It obviously didn't go how he'd thought it would but..."

"He only wanted him wounded but someone wanted him poisoned with that gas," Steve mused.

"If we'd have triggered that arrow outside of the lab, the whole Tower would have had to have been cleared," Tony said with a nod. "Or quarantined."

"If that arrow had been triggered inside of SHIELD..." Maria said with a far off look, knowing the situation would have been completely different.

"So," Sitwell said, trying to help put it all together, "if it had gone strictly by protocol, Clint would have waited until he was back at SHIELD to have that shoulder looked at. Medical would have gone into lockdown and it would potentially have been Clint and a few doctors and nurses locked up. The wound wasn't deadly though so..."

"They really pushed hard for surgery after the fact," Steve said with unease. "Is that normal?"

"Depends on the doctor," Sitwell shrugged.

"If they'd have gotten him under the knife that night," Tony began, "who would have been doing the cutting?"

"I can look into that," Morse said with a nod. "While I'm at it, I'll cross check the staff on call that night with the other. I can't promise much and it could very well be the entire staff was the same. The Helicarrier doesn't have a large medical unit."

"Worth a shot," Tony shrugged.

"Do you have the names of the other potential victims?" Sitwell asked Morse directly. "I can start looking into them. Seeing if any of them could be valuable to a potential enemy. Compare how they died and when and why. Check medical around them, that sort of thing."

"Here," she said, adding a new file to the system and opening up the contents. The main screen changed to show the seventeen profiles starting with Captain Danvers and ending with Clint Barton. Each showed the basic information, including where, when and why they'd died and been cremated. Out of the group, Phil Coulson was the highest ranking; the only level seven amongst them.

"Okay, well," Sitwell said, taking control of the files, "that's one-seven level; three-five levels; and a shitload of three-levels; plus Danvers who didn't have a SHIELD level clearance. Twelve from our division, well, what was my division," he continued to talk as he marked the profiles, "Special Operations, but it is the biggest division in SHIELD so... not sure what that says. Three from Legal and two people from Training. And again, Danvers. She was the first, right?"

"What do we know of this woman?" Thor asked thoughtfully.

"Oldest of three, born and raised in Boston," Morse answered, rattling off the information from memory. "She graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2004 and by all accounts had an exemplary career as a fighter pilot. Seven months prior to her 'accident' her brother, also an Air Force pilot, was killed in Afghanistan. She had no foreign ties and we had no reason to suspect her of, well, of anything."

"She had family," Steve questioned, still concerned and angry by that fact. "Why was she cremated?"

"The records are..." Morse started to say, but Sitwell held up a hand briefly before typing furiously and in another instant a whole new set of files appeared on screen. "How did you do that?"

"He lives to circumvent the system," Maria answered with a hint of a smile.

"I simply know where the access points are... well, weakest," Sitwell admitted with a grin.

"You would," Maria muttered, almost fondly.

"Bruce needs to see this," Tony said quietly as he briefly scanned the information. "What happened to this woman?"

"What happened is neither here nor there," Maria insisted despite her own curiosity. "We need to know why. If it all started here, we have to know why."

"The two are related," Tony argued, but not at all heated. "If we know what actually happened here we will probably learn why she was either disposed of or -"

"How?" Darcy blurted out.

Everyone turned and looked in Darcy's direction.

"She was cremated," Morse said flatly, because it was obvious and exactly what they'd been discussing.

"I know..." Darcy said, averting her eyes and brushing it off, a little embarrassed but trying hard to not let it show. She hadn't meant to shout out her question, it just kind of happened that way. "It's just... It's nothing. Forget it."

"Hey," Tony said, sweeping his arms through the room, "we can use all the help we can get here, Lewis. If you've got something to say we're all ears."

Darcy knew he was serious. She knew he'd listen, because Tony really did listen, even when it seemed like he wasn't. And as she looked around the room Darcy realized that the only person who looked even slightly annoyed or put-off by her outburst was Agent Morse. Everyone else was waiting and wanting her to finish.

"Okay," she sighed, "it's just... Look at the report," Darcy said, motioning towards the screen. "This woman was in a three-way mid-air collision with the Iron Giant and survived without a scratch. That's pretty extreme."

"We know," Morse said and Darcy got it; she hated rehashing this information that she'd likely gone over a thousand times before in her own head.

"Yeah, you do know, but I don't," Darcy returned, finding her courage. "Because... how?"

"How what?" Maria asked, clearly puzzled.

"How did they cremate a woman who seems pretty damn impervious to fire?"

Tony smiled at her before turning to face both Agent Morse and Agent Hill.

"Who else do you know that could look at these records?" Morse asked after half a beat, her whole countenance having changed from annoyed to enlightened in the blink of an eye.

Before he could answer, Maria's communicator beeped and she muttered something under her breath as she took it off her hip and checked it, catching both Steve and Jasper's attention.

"Boss calling already?" Jasper asked as Tony and Morse continued their conversation about possibly assistance outside of the group already assembled.

"I think it's fried," Maria confessed. "It keeps going off and texting random numbers."

Jasper held out his hand and she passed it off to him without complaint.

"How long now?" he asked, scrolling through the information on the screen with a frown.

"Awhile," she shrugged. "Feels like forever but I haven't kept track."

"Let me take a look at it. At the very least, if I can't fix it, I can block the transmissions."

"Thanks."

"Anything for Maria," he finished with a smile.

Maria smiled back but it faded fast. She could feel Steve's eyes on her; could sense when he'd looked away again.

Things between them felt strange.

They'd managed to remain civil to one another but Maria couldn't help but be a little bitter. True, she hadn't wanted a relationship, not with anyone and especially not with Steve, but to be told that whatever it was that had been there was mostly in her head was galling. To have imagined he'd cared for her as something more than a co-worker, something more than a friend, and to have been corrected on that assumption was embarrassing.

She didn't know how to act around him now.

Apparently, he didn't know how to act around her either because, rather abruptly, Steve stood up and crossed the room.

"Hill," Morse called out, having just read a message on her own communicator. "Let's go. We're needed on the Helicarrier."

"Is that a good idea?" Tony asked with a slight frown.

"Why?" Steve asked at the same time.

"Debrief," Morse answered for the both of them. "Standard procedure. Agent Hill needs to give an official account of last night. Can't be avoided. Don't worry," she added, seeing the looks of concern, "Director Fury will be there. She'll be coming back."

Maria smiled cynically at that; she knew it was really about fifty-fifty if she'd be allowed to return. She had considered not going, but ultimately it would be worse if she didn't appear to comply. Maria had to trust that someone would come for her if it went poorly.

"Good luck," Pepper said earnestly and Maria's smile softened into something a little more real before she followed Morse out of the room.

Steve watched her leave, wishing once more he'd said something, and not at all surprised at the beeline Pepper made for him a moment later.

"You look tired," she said as she refilled her cup of coffee.

"I didn't get much sleep last night," he said, justifying the small lie with the fact that he didn't really need a lot of sleep any more. If Pepper knew he hadn't slept at all, she'd be worried and she already looked worried.

"I don't think anyone did," she sighed, her eyes drifting over to where Tony was talking with Jasper at the table. "I'm just glad my next conference call won't have video," she continued with a slight laugh. "You should take a break while you can. I have a bad feeling..."

"That this is just the beginning?" he finished for her. When Pepper nodded solemnly, he found himself mimicking her movement.

"I realize we don't really know a lot about them," she said, her eyes darting towards Jasper and Steve picking up her real meaning. They didn't know a lot about SHIELD. "Maybe this kind of thing happens. Maybe it's all just an.. an anomaly. Maybe..."

"No offense, but I don't agree," he interjected. "Director Fury knows something is happening. Mar- Agent Hill," he corrected, dropping his eyes for a moment before looking back at Pepper directly, "has said there is something different about this and we have to trust that the two of them would know better than we would."

"Do you think they could be alive?" Pepper asked quietly and Steve knew she hadn't dared questioned Tony. And he understood. Tony was entirely too optimistic. He had accepted Agent Coulson's death, but somehow Clint's had never quite sunk in for him. Tony wanted it to be true so badly he was willfully overlooking everything that contradicted his theory.

Steve, while not entirely dismissing Tony's thoughts, had a different outlook.

"I think that it's possible," he admitted, "but not likely."

"But -"

"It's not that I don't agree with Tony," he said quickly. "I think that it's suspicious, all these deaths. The timing of them. I think it's possible they were even kept alive for some time for questioning or... or..." he trailed off, not wanting to say 'torture' but she heard it all the same. "But, Pepper, whoever did this went out of their way to ensure that everyone else thought that all these people were dead. That has to mean that they weren't meant to be released. They're not bargaining with them; there's no random or demands being made. I think they're getting whatever it is they need and then..."

Pepper sighed and dropped her head for a moment, shutting her eyes and finally nodding in agreement. It wasn't what she wanted to hear, but she was grateful he'd said it. For awhile she'd begun to set her hopes too high. Pepper had to resign herself back to reality and it shown clearly on her face the moment she had.

Steve knew exactly how that felt.