A/N - Wow! Hundreds of views but only a couple reviews... Now, readers, I'd really like to know what you're thinking here... I'm writing this for you as much as I am for myself. And I'm tossing this chapter out in hopes that I'll get a bite or two...or ten... Please? I hate to beg...

Anna shook her head over and over even as she heard Coulson's suggestion. Pepper and Happy didn't even have to try to discourage Anna from the crazy idea that Coulson had presented to her. Anna looked over at Daniel as he prepared for the mission that was suddenly thrust upon him. It appeared that a similar discussion was going on within his own small family unit.

"Daniel, this isn't your fight," Steve argued. "Besides we don't even know if this thing works let alone if the portal will even open in the right place in history."

"This is my fight," Daniel stated. "I'm not letting Anna go alone."

"From what I've heard, Anna isn't too keen about this," Natasha told him. "She may not even be going."

"Then I'm going on my own. The original agents assigned to this mission are dead and it's only a matter of time before the Chitauri get down to this level. Either way I look at it, there isn't another option."

"We can fight back," Natasha stated.

Daniel sighed. "Mom, you've seen what they can do. As much as I'd like to believe that humanity has a chance..." he paused and shook his head. "It's over."

As though the Chitauri heard Daniel's words, another explosion rocked the large room. This time, it was louder and harder than any previous ones. The lights flickered and dust dropped from the high ceiling.

"We have to hurry!" Coulson exclaimed as he ran over to the machine, no larger than a car engine.

Once again, Anna shook her head. This time, Pepper grabbed her by the shoulders with tears in her eyes.

"Maybe this is what you should be doing," she said. "I need you to survive and staying here, I know that you won't."

"Your Mom is right," Happy said. "As hard as it is for me to say it, you should do it. Your Dad put this project together and if there is anyone who could make this work, it would be him."

"But I can't do this," Anna exclaimed. "I'm not a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. I'm not qualified."

"But you do know technology better than anyone here," Coulson stated, as he reached into his pocket and pulled out another USB drive. "That, and the fact that you'd be less noticeable in the time frame that you'd be going to. It's important that no one knows who you are. Your job is to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D and upload this to their server."

Daniel took it from Coulson. "What is it?"

"It's information that S.H.I.E.L.D needs in order to modify their scanners to better identify anomalies in space. A first warning system of sorts. It is quite possible that it would prevent this attack and any others from ever happening again. Unfortunately, we discovered it too late. In the time that I'm sending you to, S.H.I.E.L.D is already monitoring radiation spikes since the attack on New York City, so it is possible that any residual radiation from the portal opening may put you on their radar. Try to blend in as much as possible."

Coulson paused as another explosion rocked the room.

"And how are we supposed to get back?" Anna asked softly.

"That's something we never thought through," Coulson stated, solemnly. "If you change history in the past, theoretically, you're also changing the future. If you do return, chances are you may return to a time when you don't even exist. Time travel is a tricky thing. It's a dangerous and new territory for us."

"But theoretically, it has to be better than living in a world that has been dominated by the Chitauri," Happy stated from where he stood beside Anna with Pepper holding his hand tightly.

Another moment passed and Coulson turned on the machine. It hummed to life, and brightened the room as it began to work. A sudden beam of light exploded across the room towards the wall and there it remained, unchanged. Coulson turned to Anna who merely shrugged.

"I could really use your input," Coulson called out over the machine. After a moment hesitation, Anna walked over to him and took a look at the calculations she had made earlier. A smile came to her face as she instantly erased an entire code. Coulson had no clue what she had done but it was enough to increase the power of the machine.

"It's working," Coulson stated. He turned to Thor. "We could use a little more power now."

Thor simply nodded as he raised the hammer over his head.

"Brace yourselves!" he exclaimed as lightning exploded from the hammer. He directed it towards the machine.

Anna had to cover her eyes as the light was so bright. It wasn't until she heard her name being called that she finally reopened them. The room was coloured in a brilliant light, so bright that it was though the sun was shining in the room with them.

"It's time!" Coulson called from where he stood beside Daniel and his parents.

Anna turned back to Pepper and Happy beside her. Pepper smiled, seeming to understand exactly what Anna was thinking.

"We'll be fine," Pepper told her with tears in her eyes as she put her hands on Anna's face. "Go save the world."

Anna chuckled at the corny statement. She turned to Happy who simply pulled her in for a hug and kissed her head as he held her close.

"Take care of her for me," Happy said, as he looked past Anna. It was then that she noticed that Daniel was beside her. He held out his hand towards her and instead she simply walked past him.

"Let's get this done, Rogers," she stated, as they walked towards the beam of light. She stopped just as they approached it and put out her hand, allowing her fingers to just touch it. Anna gasped as she felt a strong tug.

She looked back at where Thor was holding the hammer, allowing the portal to remain open. Hearing another explosion above them was enough to kick her in the butt and get not only Anna moving but Daniel as well. He grabbed ahold of her wrist and pushed her in with himself.

His lungs burned.

They ached for a breath that he knew that he was holding. He had to hold it and Daniel didn't know why until he felt the cool wetness surrounding him. Instinct took over and he found himself moving towards the light until he broke the surface.

Daniel gasped, taking in deep breaths of air while he leaned back in the water, feeling the warmth of the sun on his face as he floated in the ocean.

As though he suddenly remembered what had just happened, he looked around himself frantically. In one direction was open ocean and the beach was only one hundred yards in the opposite direction. Daniel panicked as he looked alone the coastline, hoping to see that familiar head.

"Anna!?" he exclaimed.

A sudden sound of sputtering and coughing to his left, caught his attention. It was then that he saw her, gasping just as he had only moments ago. Daniel began to swim towards her.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Fine!" she exclaimed. "Considering what we just went through, I'm fine."

It was then that she finally looked around them. For a moment she thought that they were in the middle of the ocean until she turned back around and saw the beach. As Daniel began to swim for the land, she followed.

"Either than the obvious, where do you think we are?"

"My guess? Santa Monica," Daniel stated.

"You sound awfully sure of yourself."

"It helps when the pier is about a half mile down the beach," he said, glancing past her. Anna turned in the water and saw the iconic Santa Monica pier in the water. She had gone there a handful of times while she was in school in California. It looked the same as it had been then. For a moment, she wondered if they really did get as far into the past as they were intending.

After a second, she began swimming again and together they silently made the rest of the trip to shore.

Once they had made their way out of the water, Anna sat down in the sand and proceeded to pull off her water-soaked shoes. Daniel stood beside her, and pulled his t-shirt over his head and squeezed out the water from it.

"I suggest we walk back towards the pier and verify our time in history and then possibly get a cab," he said, putting his wet shirt over his shoulder before reaching into his pockets. "I have some change that we can use to pay our way to get to Stark Industries..."

Anna looked up at him incredulously. "Was I the only one who just went on the time travel trip from hell? The lives we once had are over. Over Daniel! We don't exist here and according to Coulson, we're stuck. Our parents are most likely fighting for their lives or they are already dead in our time. And here you are, acting as though nothing even happened!"

Daniel ran his hand over his face, hearing her frustration as his own boiled up.

"No, I know exactly what just happened and what we left behind. I'm not blind to that matter, Anna. But I am also aware of our current mission and that it has to be completed or everything we just went through was in vain."

Anna stood up and squeezed the water out from her tank top as best as she could. "It's your mission! It was never mine. I was forced to come on this god-forsaken trip because I'm related to Tony Stark and somehow everyone thinks that I will be able to help. Either way you look at it, our future is gone."

"My mission never changed," Daniel told her, as he walked up to her.

"Which is?"

Anna put her hands on her hips and Daniel swallowed. He gestured towards her.

"It's you."

"Me?"

"I was assigned years ago to protect you," Daniel explained. "I just never knew why until yesterday. Maybe it was all for this moment in time."

Anna paused and took a step back, as she ran her hand through her wet hair, feeling the tangles but pushed them aside.

"You're telling me that you've been watching me all these years, following me?"

Daniel nodded. He knew that he wasn't supposed to be telling her all this, but he figured that their current situation, it didn't matter that it was a secret anymore. She knew that he was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. The least he could do is tell her that she was his original assignment. They were in this situation together and would most likely have to work together to get it done.

He could see Anna process what he was telling her and imagined that she was now doubting everything he had ever told her.

"When I was at Caltech and I thought you were in central America, you were not there."

Daniel nodded knowingly.

"I was living down the street from you," he told her. "I followed you to school each morning and waited by the bus stop for you to pass by before following you home. On occasion, I'd sit in some of your larger classes and try to keep myself awake."

Anna shook her head. "Why don't I remember seeing you?"

Daniel smirked. "You were usually in your own world; reading or listening to something on your iPod. That and the fact that you assumed me to be in central America. I just did my job which was to ensure that you were always safe."

She paused as a memory came to mind. Her eyes widened and she pointed at him as she took a step back.

"Oh no, you didn't!" she suddenly exclaimed. In an instant, she turned and picked up her shoes before storming away from him. Anna could hear him running up behind her, calling her name. "I can't believe you! You did it, didn't you!?"

"Did what?!"

Anna stopped and turned, as Daniel nearly bumped into her, his over 6 foot tall stature looking down at all of 5 foot 6 inches of anger.

Happy had been right when it came to red heads. Athough Anna had brown hair, she did have natural red highlights and Daniel had realized in the past that it didn't matter that she wasn't a full ginger. When they were angry, they were angry.

"Tell me that you didn't threaten Malcolm Keets three years ago," Anna stated as calmly as she could, hoping that he would defend himself.

When Daniel didn't respond, she quickly turned back around and kept walking. "You little...! He wouldn't even look at me, not even talk to me. One day he was asking me out and the next day, he was acting like I carried the frickin' plague!"

"He was bad news," Daniel stated as he walked up beside her.

"According to you."

"According to his background check," Daniel corrected.

Anna wasn't even going to ask. She was appalled already to know that Daniel had been watching her all these years that she wasn't even surprised to find that he would do a background check on every person she met.

"And I suppose you put a sub-dermal GPS tracker on me," she stated, intending to make it sound incredulous. When Daniel merely shrugged as he walked beside her, she turned to look at him.

"Seriously?" she exclaimed, running her hands over her arms up to her neck. "Where the hell is it?"

Daniel laughed for the first time since they arrived and it felt good to relax a bit. He shook his head.

"No, there isn't a sub dermal tracker."

He decided he'd keep the secret of the tracker actually being within her medical bracelet to himself.

"Well, at least that's a bit of good news," Anna said, squaring her shoulders as they walked along the beach.

As they neared the pier, there were more and more people about. They passed a few sunbathers, and the odd family with children playing in the sand. Anna suddenly stopped walking and bent over causing Daniel to pause.

"What are you doing?" he asked, watching as she rolled up her still wet pyjama pants up her legs.

"What does it look like? I'm trying to look a bit more like I fit in," she told him as she stood up straight again. She dropped her shoes to the sand and slipped her feet into them before she raked her hands through her hair, trying to make it look a bit less frazzled. "You, on the other hand appear like you live at the beach. You've got that genetic muscle beach thing happening and people are starting to stare. Could you tone it down? Just a bit?"

Anna laughed aloud and continued down the beach when Daniel realized that he was catching the eye of more than a few women as he walked by. Anna couldn't believe that Daniel was that oblivious to it. She began to wonder why he thought the Mom's and older sisters of the kids he was teaching swimming lessons to would always stick around during the classes. He had certainly caught Anna's eye more than once when she was younger. Now she was almost impervious to him...almost.

When they made it to the pier and were about to walk up the steps, Daniel looked towards the parking lot. A dozen black cars and SUV's had pulled into the lot. It wouldn't have looked unusual except for the occupants who stepped out of them. Daniel could tell they were agents from the moment that he saw them. He ran up the steps and caught up with Anna on the pier.

He came up close beside her and leaned in.

"We've been spotted," he said softly.

"What? By whom?"

She was about to turn to look behind them when Daniel grabbed her arm and pulled her alongside a vendor's tent, pretending to look at some clothing that was for sale. He pulled his shirt back over his head and strained to get his arms through the wet arm holes.

"S.H.I.E.L.D is here," he told her. "Remember what Coulson said about S.H.I.E.L.D monitoring radiation. They must have triangulated the position to the beach."

The sound of a helicopter flying overhead towards the beach caught their attention and they glanced out of the tent. Daniel knew it to be S.H.I.E.L.D as well.

"We're no where near where we arrived so theoretically, we should be fine," Daniel told her.

"Theoretically, according to you. Except that some radiation isotopes can possibly be carried, especially if exposed to large quantities, which we undoubtedly were. They're probably carrying some sort of geiger counter to measure."

Daniel trusted Anna's knowledge and listened to her as he casually looked out of the tent to see the agents walking up onto the pier and towards them, effectively blocking their path back off. Daniel stood beside the edge of the pier and pulled Anna towards him.

"Just act normal," he said softly, just as he kissed her.

He felt her resist for a moment until she seemed to understand what he was doing. It was only for a fleeting few seconds but it was enough and the S.H.I.E.L.D agents had moved past them, searching the crowd for any apparent unusual disturbance. It was obvious that they were not carrying any device to detect radiation but were mainly searching the premises.

Anna glanced at them for a moment before Daniel casually swung his hand around Anna's shoulders as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Together, they made their way back down the pier in the direction they had originally came.

"That was the furthest from normal," Anna commented.

Daniel shrugged. "I improvised. It's widely known that people are uncomfortable with public displays of affection."

"Who told you that?"

A smile errupted on Daniels face. "It's something my Mom once told my Dad before she kissed him for the first time. They were undercover at the time but it was still the first time."

The smile disappeared when Daniel noticed that the group of S.H.I.E.L.D agents appeared ahead of them, walking towards them. Quickly, they shifted directions and made their way between vendors and across an open area of the pier.

"They're on both sides of us," Daniel said.

"Do you think they're on to us?"

"Possibly."

"What's the plan?"

"Run."

And Anna did just that. She could feel Daniel's hand on her back, urging her to move faster and turn at certain places. Behind them, they could hear shouts and commotion. Daniel didn't need to look back to know that they were being chased. That helicopter was once again right above them. It was only a matter of time before they were trapped, and he knew it. His mission was already over before it even had a chance to begin.

They rounded a corner and darted between buildings until Daniel quickly stopped when he saw a man, one whom he should recognize anywhere but to see him now, it was surreal.

Anna nearly bumped into Daniel until she realized who was in front of them, blocking their path.

Captain America