Working Partners

Finding and digging up Coulson's grave turned out to be more complicated than Annie had envisioned.

"How can you not know where this Phil Coulson's grave is?" Auggie demanded.

"I told you." Carter shot back. "Everything surrounding his death was sketchy, funeral arrangements included. It's not like I personally knew him. Could you tell me where every CIA agent was buried?"

"Is there anything useful you can tell us?" Annie asked.

Carter seemed to hesitate. "I know where Fury is buried." She said at length. "Like I said, Coulson was pretty close to him, it's possible they were buried in the same area."

"The path of the righteous man..." Annie mused. "Ezekiel 25:17"

Auggie paused in mid-step, contemplating. "That's not a real verse." He announced. "Carter, is that some sort of SHIELD pass code or something?"

"Not so far as I know." Carter was picking her way among the gravestones surrounding Fury's. "Fury had it on a plaque in his office... 'you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you' or somesuch. Maybe it unlocks some secret room in a library somewhere, but if so, I never ran across it. Fury liked people to ask about it, I know that much. He'd just smile and say it was an old story."

"Ah." Auggie nodded. "Sounds like an enigmatic bastard."

"Oh, you have NO idea." Carter snorted. "Let's see... Jones, Dugan... here! Here it is. Coulson."

Annie and Auggie went over to where Carter was kneeling beside a plain-looking tombstone. It read simply, "Phillip Coulson," and below that the dates, "1964-2012"

"Nothing else?" Auggie asked, as Annie read off the words on the stone. "No 'in the line of duty,' or 'beloved brother' or anything like that?"

"He probably didn't have any family." Carter was staring at the stone with a curious expression. "SHIELD tends to attract a certain sort of... individual."

Annie glanced at her but said nothing.

"The ground here smells... fresh." Auggie said, sniffing. Carefully, he knelt and felt at the earth.

Annie knelt beside him. "This turf has just been laid down." She noted. "Someone must have dug up this grave recently." She glanced up at Carter. "Is that normal?"

Carter sent her a look. "You're kidding, right?"

"Well, we don't know." Auggie answered drily. 'SHIELD might have had some kind of Frankenstein project pending." He stood to his feet. "Well, if it wasn't SHIELD, we should be able to find a report of whoever it was."

"Thanks." Auggie tapped the side of his headset to end the call. "All right. Turns out the police were called to the cemetery a month or so ago for a grave robbery."

"Grave robbery."

"Yeah, the investigating detective thought it was a real hoot." Auggie nodded. "Apparently some guy found the grave dug up and the casket opened and empty."

"Did SHIELD have a vampire program?" Annie asked.

"Not that Coulson was connected to." Carter sighed. She seemed to be getting sick of all the SHIELD jokes.

"The witness did say he saw someone climbing out of the grave as he approached." Auggie added. "But it wasn't Phil Coulson. It was a woman. He made this sketch for the authorities." A few clicks, and the image came up on the screen.

Annie recognized her instantly. She'd been with Coulson at the safehouse. Glancing over at Carter, she asked, "Anybody you know?"

Carter started. "That's..." She leaned in for a better look. "Melinda May. The Calvary."

Annie glanced over at her. The woman's tone was shocked, with maybe a touch of awe. "Pardon?"

Shaking off whatever nostalgia had seized her, Carter looked up at Annie. "She used to be in operations. Something of a legend. If a team needed rescuing, or if they really wanted to hit a place hard, they'd send in 'the Calvary.'" She gestured at the picture. "I mean, I'm not bad in operations myself, but May... she was up there with Barton and Romanov."

"You say 'used to be?'" Auggie asked.

"She retired to a desk job. Some time after I joined up."

"Hydra? SHIELD?" Annie asked.

"Again, that sort of thing is anyone's guess." Carter shrugged. "But I can't see a Hydra agent giving up an operations role for a menial bureaucratic job like the one she took."

"Neither of which answers what she was doing digging up Coulson's grave and stealing his body."

"Actually that's part of what the detective found so funny." Auggie cut in. "They closed the case because analysis revealed no one had ever been in that coffin. Your girl dug up an empty casket."

"Damn it." Carter shook her head. "I should have known. I really should have known."

Annie was pretty sure she knew what the ex-SHIELD agent was going to say. "Coulson never died at all, did he?"

"Looks like it." Carter had a visibly annoyed expression. "I still don't understand the lousy false cover, but... maybe it was a reverse-psychology thing."

"Guess we have another name to add to the watch list." Auggie smiled ruefully.

Carter gave a reluctant nod. "For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure this means Coulson isn't Hydra." She noted. "All this dodgy stuff with false covers and empty coffins has Fury's fingers all over it. And there's no way Fury would have done this much for someone he didn't absolutely trust."

Annie nodded. "And, for what it's worth, I'm now pretty sure you aren't either." She gave Carter a smile. "You've been more than forthcoming with info and you've helped us nose down every lead in this case."

"Good to be trusted again." Carter smiled back.

"I trust you. Doesn't mean the CIA will." Annie noted. "But for now..." She held out her hand, "...welcome to the team."

A/N: Agh. I don't like this chapter. Lots of exposition and nothing new. But it needed to be done, it's late, and I'm just going to post it up and maybe change some stuff around later. Like the Bible verse. I considered having the team recognize the Pulp Fiction reference, but then I decided I liked it better if Pulp Fiction didn't exist in the MCU, and Nick Fury, instead of referencing a favorite movie or something, was instead making a private joke. Possibly based in "Pulp Fiction" as a real event.

Carter, by the way, should show up eventually in my "Variations on the Death of Coulson" story, which is somewhat connected to the Recruitment Drive series.

Also, again I'd like to promote the survey I'm doing for my Fanfiction Research project. Here's the link: forms/d/10gV3dZPVRXHYCdanvLQ1irptSdcjJBo3F3VwOMI8jvM/viewform?usp=send_form Cut and paste that into your browser (take out the space between " " and "doc") and just take a few quick moments to fill it out. It's really quick, mostly multiple choice, and at the end you can view the results thus far, which have actually been really interesting.