Ah, ha. Finally got a new chapter for you all. Crazy week. Lots of stuff going on. Sorry I couldn't have it for you sooner. I'll have chapter 19 up for you tomorrow evening. You're No Longer Just a Human Being by J. Ralph is this chapter's inspiration. Enjoy.

Leo Fitz rubbed his eyes tiredly and continued to stare at the screen before him. Faces blitzed by him in an endless flurry, being checked against Tony Stark's likeness. So far, somehow, the billionaire had managed to stay under cover for the last two days as had Iron Man. Not one person had made mention of them. Perhaps Coulson's trail had indeed gone cold as Rickard had not intended. Nor Hydra.

Fitz didn't dare glance over his shoulder for he knew that Nick Fury was still there, keeping on his tireless search as well. It had been a struggle being under Fury's eye this entire time. The Director had a knack for knowing when things weren't quite right. There again, he knew that as long as he made believe his search for Coulson was just as innocent as the idea of wanting to help his boss, then he could get through this without incident. But the moment Fury suspected anything, he would be in deeper than he could dig himself out of.

Not only was he nervous about Fury, but he hadn't seen Simmons in a long time. He knew Simmons inside and out. They'd been together for so long that, at times, he forgot about his allegiance to Hydra. He forgot that that part of him existed. She was his better half and in those rare circumstances where the world felt like it had stopped spinning, all it took was one look from her to reassure him that it still was.

"Tell you what, Agent Fitz," Fury said suddenly, ripping him out of his train of thought. "We've been at this for over 48 hours. Why don't you take a break, go find Simmons and see how she's coming with that thing in the lab?"

I can't leave the monitor, he thought. If he stepped away just for an instant and Fury found Stark's location and thereby Coulson's, Rickard would be breathing down his neck for a reason to his disappearance in that room. But he also had an act to keep up. He had to play the shy and shaken Leo Fitz that everyone on Coulson's team knew. And he did wonder how Jemma was doing.

So he wiped his brow, gave a little nod to Fury, and stepped away from his console. As he moved out of the room, he ruminated on Pierce's orders for him to join Coulson's team under Rickard's direction. He'd never liked Rickard. The man couldn't control his bloodlust, and at every chance, he looked nothing more than like the hyena trying to prey off the recently slain. He showed no morality and from what Fitz had heard, the Clairvoyant wasn't a fan of how Rickard had handled the situation of Coulson's recapture so far. He'd bungled things up badly.

By the time Fitz reached the lab, he found a sight that confused him. Simmons was standing over a microscope, her hair frazzled and her close rumpled. When she pulled away, he noted the purple circles beneath her eyes from lack of sleep and the redness from tears. A small part of him nearly cracked. He pushed the button and let the glass door slide open.

"Jemma?"

"Not right now, Fitz," she said, turning away and grabbing a test tube from a rack on a table nearby.

"When was the last time you slept?"

She chuckled. "Sleep is for the weak."

"What are you working on?"

"Rickard ordered me to work on a modification for the ICER, something that might be able to get passed Stark's suit…"

Fitz frowned. "How come you didn't get me? I could help you!"

Simmons looked up at him and the gravity of how tired she was finally weighed on him. "Because I don't want to do it. I mean, I want them to find Coulson…get him the help he needs but…not like this."

Fitz put a hand on her arm. "You need to get some rest."

She shook her head. "I have to come up with something. I've been working on it for this so long…I should…" Fitz watched tears well up in Simmons's eyes. "I just can't believe that everyone is so hell-bent on seeing this all turn out horribly. I get what May meant now…about how it was better if we didn't find Coulson straight away. If she knew this was how the agency was going to react to him running off…"

Fitz leveled his gaze with her. "You're right. Rickard is going about this all wrong. But we're here and we can help Director Fury find him before Rickard does."

"Doesn't he have similar designs?" Simmons asked. "Doesn't everyone here just want to cart Coulson off somewhere, lock him up, and throw away the key? He was there for us when we needed him to be, Fitz."

Fitz reflected on Coulson for a moment. It had been easy to get Coulson to trust him. The senior agent had a weakness for trusting what he saw on the outside. Fitz hadn't expected it to go so swimmingly nor had he expected the family-like atmosphere that had developed between the team members on the Bus. In a short amount of time, the Bus had become a home away from home and for small glimmers of time, he had wanted to believe that he wasn't there with ulterior motives. To be looked at with trust and not viewed as a faceless nameless agent for Hydra; it had felt good. But he couldn't ignore what he'd signed up for so long ago. He couldn't ignore the mission that his life had become and the pursuit he'd followed so closely for so long. Otherwise, he'd feel rudderless.

So Fitz pulled Simmons into a hug and told her not to worry, to drink a mug of tea, and keep hope alive that Coulson was as strong as they knew him to be and that he could pull himself out of it, even if he secretly wished he wouldn't. And he began his long walk back to the main control room.

Fitz wasn't out of the room for longer than a couple minutes before Fury's phone went off. He glanced around at Rickard's other agents before he took leave of the room and answered it. "You better have something for me, Hill," he said hardly.

"We've got a location on Agents May, Ward, and Skye," Agent Maria Hill said over the line, her tone even.

"Where?"

"Portland."

Fury nearly hit himself with the realization. It made perfect sense; Coulson wanting to reach out to her as a last ditch effort to save his life. He knew Coulson well, he was practical, he was usually by the book, and treasured the idea of unity, of trust, and honesty above all else. But Fury also forgot that Coulson was a romantic as well. While he didn't show it with other people, when Coulson fell hip-deep for someone, it usually required a cable and tow to yank him out of it. He should have expected that the cellist, Coulson's last connection to a normal life, would have been his intended destination.

"Sir?" Hill asked.

"Has he shown up yet?"

"No."

"You keep your eyes on them and inform me immediately when he does."

"Yes, sir," Hill said just as Fury slapped his phone shut.

As if the universe had just aligned itself, the systems in the main room began beeping erratically. Fitz was just returning from the lab and ran to the closest monitor. Fury rounded the corner into the doorway at the exact moment that Rickard appeared from the opposite side of the room.

"Please, bestow some good news upon me," Rickard rumbled, his voice ominous.

"Several social media accounts about seeing Iron Man just popped up. Most are centered over the Oklahoma panhandle, Northern Texas…"

Fury's hopes deflated. Damn it, Stark.

Rickard went to the nearest agent and said, "I want a team dispatched to that location immediately." Another alarm started beeping just as Rickard finished. He groaned. "What is it now?"

"We have a 79.1 percent match to Stark," Fitz reported, checking the data on the monitor.

"In the same location?"

Fitz tapped a few more buttons. "Looks like…Nebraska? The Sand Hills region."

Fury frowned. What was Stark up to?

"You can't get a better identification than 79 percent?" Rickard quizzed Fitz.

"No. It was a traffic camera. The face is partially in shadow."

"Well, guess we're going to have to divide and conquer," Fury announced. "My team will take the suit. Yours can take the hospital."

Rickard watched him for a moment, his black eyes discerning something in Fury's. "Why don't you take the traffic cam? And I'll take the suit. That's where the money is."

Fury nodded albeit begrudgingly. Had Rickard not been watching him so closely, he would have smiled. The suit's a dead end. Too bad Rickard doesn't know that. He only hoped that when he caught up with Stark he would be able to get him to cooperate. What am I thinking? Stark doesn't cooperate. It isn't in his dictionary.

Chapter 19 tomorrow. Stay tuned...