This chapter is fixed now. I had to type a couple of letters into the text box, save it, then open it and paste the actual chapter in then to have the correct formatting show up.

Sorry if the earlier version gave anybody a headache.

Laurie

X X X

Whoever was knocking on Phil's door, with two sharp, hard raps, wasn't asking for permission to enter; they were giving him one small moment to gather himself before they entered his room here on the medical floor of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Wasn't Stark. When Stark visited him, he announced he was there by doing a song pattern when he knocked. Phil had failed to recognize In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida and none of the other AC/DC or other rock tunes that Stark adored, so Stark had switched to Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits, after bemoaning Phil's lack of interest in classic rock tunes.

If it had been Barton, he'd have knocked as he was entering the room, the door half open before the first and only knock would have reached Phil's ears. It was the same way Barton would come into Phil's office, and Phil had never been able to train him out of so casually barging in on him, no matter what Phil was working on or who else might be talking to him, in person or on the phone.

No, this was Nick Fury. And it wasn't a coincidence that he was coming early this morning, before the doctors discharged him. He would want to talk about the Avengers.

The door opened in a decisive manner, and Fury strode over to the bed. Phil adjusted it so he was comfortable sitting up.

"Hi, Boss."

Fury smiled at him, a rare private smile that he hardly ever let other people see. Phil knew that it amused Fury when Phil called him Boss, but he was careful to only do it when it was the two of them. In front of other agents or civilians, it was always a respectful,"Director."

"Agent Coulson. I hear you're leaving Medical today. Got a few things to cover with you. Are you up to that?"

"You know I am, or you wouldn't bring it up."

Fury nodded and moved a chair closer to the bed and sat down. Phil had been doing some research on his laptop, and he turned the screen so that Fury could see it.

The top NY1 headline story was about the Avengers stopping the Serpent Society from robbing the Garden last night. Phil scrolled past it and clicked on a different link.

Bruce Banner's face filled half of the screen, looking tired and haunted, and so very human.

The Hulk's expression almost mirrored it, on the other side of the screen.

"That footage from Culver, when Ross trapped him on campus?" Fury slid down in his chair a little, relaxing.

"Yes," Phil affirmed. "Stark's been engineering human interest stories on Banner, keeping his name out there in the public's eye, all designed to let people see the man behind the monster, that sort of thing."

Phil closed the laptop. "Boss, I've been doing a lot of thinking while I've been stuck here. The Avengers Initiative is up and functioning now; the first stage is over. Making Banner a focus point did help them transition into a team. They're each doing their part to help the guy."

Fury looked disgusted. "I was banking on Stark's lawyers helping Banner to negotiate a contract with S.H.I.E.L.D. that he could live with, but he cut his ties with Stark instead."

Giving Fury an even look, Phil said, "So he was one step ahead of us and Ross. You want him with us because he's brilliant. Not to mention the advantages the Hulk brings."

Fury steepled his hands. "Banner's more stubborn than I thought, going back to running. I don't want him being a loose end. We gave him a long leash before, but it's different now. He's not really flying under the radar, not since Harlem. And he knows we'd be watching him, if we just put him back on that long leash. Too much chance that he'd ditch us this time."

Phil reached for a glass of water and drank a few sips. He said, "We'd find him again. If the other parties weren't after him, maybe it would be better to go back to just watching him being a handyman or a dishwasher. He's got the Hulk under control."

Fury made a so-so gesture with his hands."Mostly. I can believe he can control his anger, but pain? If he's caught by those other parties, they're going to go that route to bring out the Hulk."

"Only if they have some way to control him."

"Our intelligence suggests that the Army's made a breakthrough on Stern's research. They feel they can control the transformations. Coulson, Ross got his way last night. Banner is officially the Army's problem again."

Coulson said mildly, "That's not good. Did he reinstate-"

"Yeah. Banner's considered a domestic terrorist again." Fury narrowed his eye. "This is going to set us back even further."

"Maybe if Banner finds out then he'll come in voluntarily now, for protection against Ross and his Hulkbuster units." Phil finished his water and Fury took the glass from him and placed it back on the table.

Scowling, Fury said, "Who knows? I thought that after the psychological isolation he'd been under for so many years, that being in a team with people who wanted him would be too much for him to resist. Surprise. He resisted just fine."

Phil shrugged. "He's going to be caught eventually. The world's just too small now. And Hydra's got contacts that we don't and they're looking hard for him. The guy's days are numbered, we know that."

Fury said, a note of irritation in his voice, "We're going to keep searching for his big green ass and I'm going to put as much pressure as it takes to get control shifted back to S.H.I.E.L.D."

Coulson raised his eyebrows. "We need to bring him in before he falls into the wrong hands, but if Banner can't be persuaded to come in from the cold, either by S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Army, then taking him in hard, sedated, caged, is not going to sit well with the Avengers. They'll try to free him, and they don't need to be fighting on the wrong side of the street."

"Lesser of two evils, Phil. We won't hurt him." Fury gave him a knowing look. "You know what our profilers are projecting what Ross will do, if Banner's helpless and in his control."

"I've read their reports," Phil said, agreed. He'd demanded and gotten the highest level of clearance regarding any information they had that concerned the Avengers. "And we know how Hydra works."

"Got any suggestions?" Fury rolled his shoulders, shifting a little. Phil suspected the hospital chairs were designed to ensure only short visits to the patient.

Phil arched his back, stretching a little in the bed; watching Fury had made his own muscles feel cramped. "I've seen his farewell video. Read his file. You want leverage on Banner, you make it about the things he cares about. Protecting kids. Protecting his friends. Helping people."

"If Banner was a different kind of man, he'd change that. It gives us and Hydra a starting point on finding him. Just look for where a doctor is needed for people who can't pay for it, in a third world country," Fury said, with a touch of exasperation.

"Boss, if he was a different kind of man, he wouldn't be an Avenger," Phil said, with a small smile.

"If Hydra finds him first, he'll end up a science experiment again. He'll be in agony," Fury said grimly. "And we don't want to find out what they'll do with the Hulk's blood."

"Agreed, sir." Phil massaged his forehead, where one of his headaches was building up. "Once you could have used the carrot of getting rid of the Hulk to get him to sign up with S.H.I.E.L.D., but he's not interested in figuring out a cure anymore. He's not quite to the point of embracing the Hulk, but he's learned to accept that part of himself, mostly. He's learned to control when to let the Hulk come out. He just doesn't want to deal with the fallout becoming the Hulk entails."

"Could have used you, you know, to help bring him around," Nick grumbled.

"Sorry, Boss," Phil said blandly. "I'll try not to get skewered by any more arrogant gods in the future."

"See that you don't." Fury grinned. "That AI of Stark's filmed the Hulk smashing Loki. It's a favorite among the agents to play."

"You letting them get by with that?" Phil wasn't surprised, though.

"It's good for morale. I've turned a blind eye to it." Fury grinned, amused at his own joke. Stark would be surprised, Phil decided, to know that Fury made more jokes about his blind eye than even Stark managed to do, and Stark made plenty of them.

"So is the court order making you and Hill his guardians tossed for good?" Phil stopped rubbing his forehead. This headache wasn't going to go away so easily. "Or do you and Ross go toe to toe in court in a custody battle?"

"The Council wants S.H.I.E.L.D. to drop it for now," Fury shrugged. "If the Army grabs him and keeps him, then we'll reconsider."

So, since the discussion about Banner was over, Phil broached another subject. "Boss, there's something else I need to run by you. It's personal."

"Hawkeye?"

Phil nodded.

"Yes," Fury said, absolutely deadpan.

"Yes?" Phil mirrored the same expression.

"Yes, I'll consider myself informed that you and Barton are in a relationship," Fury said, sounding almost bored.

"We aren't," Phil cleared his throat. "Not yet. But if things work out, would you have any problem with it?"

Phil wasn't surprised that Nick was aware of the flirtation Barton had been engaging in for years.

"I've got one good eye, Coulson, and I trust him to not let personal relationships get in the way of clear eyesight. If you think it won't be an issue, then I don't have a problem with it. Been a long time coming. You've had a change of heart." Fury's mouth turned up a little in understated approval.

"Yes, sir. I have." Phil's answering smile was hopeful.

Fury pointed a finger at him, dismissing Phil's potential relationship with Hawkeye. "The Avengers. They need to keep in contact with S.H.I.E.L.D, and I don't mean whatever information Stark steals from our files. I want you to be their handler. Liaison with S.H.I.E.L.D. through you."

Phil frowned. "Sir, there could be a problem with that. If I do take on that assignment, my priority is going to be them, not S.H.I.E.L.D. You still want me for the job?"

"I do, Agent Coulson. I do." Fury got up and headed to the door, giving Phil a nod before disappearing into the hall.

x x x

His doctor had threatened to keep him in Medical if he didn't stay with someone for the next week when Phil had made noises about going back to his apartment, or worse, grabbing quarters in the mid-town office or the helicarrier. Clint had come by on one of his frequent visits, and had been loitering in a chair; He'd immediately offered his quarters. Phil had allowed himself to be talked into staying at Stark Tower, and the doctor had stopped scowling. She laid down the law as to what he could and couldn't do for the next few days, and Clint took notes and asked questions, putting himself in charge of keeping Phil well.

A plan coming together satisfied him.

For now, the second bedroom in Clint's suite of rooms had been designated as his, but he expected that to change fairly soon.

Stark had done a nice job with setting up quarters for his teammates. While he hadn't had the tour of the tower yet, Clint's rooms were spacious, the kitchen well furnished, and the bed he was lying down on in the spare bedroom was comfortable. He intended to find out if the couch was as well.

Really, there was more privacy between the quarters of the different team members than there would be in more conventional apartment buildings. Stark was a generous man. Difficult, brilliant, and more vulnerable than most people realized, deflected away by Stark's brand of cutting wit and arrogance. Phil wasn't most people, though, and he'd grown genuinely fond of Tony Stark.

Clint was an excellent asset, cool-headed, bright, and talented at making quick character judgments about people. Phil had never found him to be wrong when he said someone could be trusted. Phil was careful to keep that knack of Clint's out of his files.

Phil wasn't sure Clint had an equal when it came to archery. But he was also an excellent sniper, and deft with knives. Natasha was the better martial artist, but they were about equal when it came to acrobatic maneuvers. They were, frankly, his best team. S.H.I.E.L.D. had given the Avengers their very best people.

There was a sweetness to Clint that Phil liked very much. It was in his smile and his eyes, and the way that he'd just made himself comfortable in Phil's life. Clint called him sir, but Phil had been able to hear the subtext in those three small letters almost immediately after he'd recruited Clint. It was shorthand for respect and trust and safety and comfort.

Clint had the ability to shrug off his S.H.I.E.L.D. agent persona as easily as he unzipped his uniform. Off duty, he wasn't particularly closemouthed or locked down. Not like Romanoff.

Clint's sense of humor was mostly juvenile, but his jokes weren't malicious. He liked the role of class clown, and Phil knew that he needed to indulge himself with his silly antics as much as he needed to let his arrows fly in the practice range. If Clint had to be reined in, Phil could do it easily.

Of course he'd known Clint had a crush on him. Phil hadn't said anything to Clint, waiting for it to run its course. Except the crush hadn't died. It should have. Phil had kept Clint a small distance away, maintained the handler/agent relationship. He'd followed protocol.

Every rule had its exception. Phil remembered waking up after Loki had almost killed him and finding Clint asleep in a chair by his bed. He'd felt a flood of warmth, looking at Clint's face. That was when he realized maybe he'd been fooling himself about his feelings. He wasn't going to censor himself anymore, didn't intend to remind himself that Hawkeye was out of bounds. Clint wasn't a standard S.H.I.E.L.D. agent anymore, and Phil wanted him.

Clint had worked with him for a very long time, and he'd seen Phil screwing up, seen him being just Phil Coulson. And still, Clint's face would light up when he saw Phil, if they were off duty. On duty, Clint's expressions were stoic, buttoned down. Phil didn't think anybody except Fury and Romanoff could hear the trust in Clint's tone of voice while they communicated during missions.

But even if Phil had known for years that Barton was attracted to him, Barton hadn't figured it out. A talk between them was long overdue, and dying tended to reset a man's priorities. Barton was offering and Phil was going to take him up on it. Now he just needed to fill Barton in on the mission.

Phil levered himself up from the bed and walked slowly into the living room. He settled himself on the comfortable couch and closed his eyes. It would be a while before he was recovered enough for active duty, but he had a couple of agendas to work on. First: Inform Barton that a change in their handler/agent relationship was on the table. Second: Review this campaign to get Banner back with the Avengers.

"Agent, Clint is in the hallway, unlocking the door to this suite," JARVIS announced.

"Agent?"

"I do apologize, Agent. Sir insisted that was how you were to be addressed."

Clint walked into the room and grinned at Coulson. "Hey, you're up. How are you feeling, want anything?"

Phil patted the couch. "Sit down, Clint. I think it's time we had a talk."

x x x

"Code Blue!" Sometimes Tony even heard that phrase in his sleep. He'd lost track of how many times the team had been called out to deal with enemies, sometimes superpowered themselves, sometimes just very smart and heavily armed. They'd co-ordinated with S.H.I.E.L.D., with law enforcement, the National Guard, the Army, the Coast Guard, and on one memorable occasion, with a local troop of Girl Scouts.

So this was his life now, taking down bad guys, hopping from the lab to his workshop, handling the R and D department at Stark Industries, and attending charity events for funding the rebuilding of Manhattan.

He'd gotten used to letting Steve, Natasha, and Clint pummel him in the name of training. Coulson and Pepper had formed an unholy alliance, resulting in all manner of things being signed and documented by him. He'd had food fights with Clint, team dinners, and movie nights sprawled out on a couch and lazily arguing Star Trek trivia with Coulson or howling at Clint for picking another incredibly bad movie involving killer tomatoes or sentient slime creatures. More than once he'd fallen asleep against someone's shoulder as his exhaustion had caught up with him.

The nightmares still plagued him, but at least he wasn't alone in his PTSD. Even Coulson sometimes had horrible dreams, he'd learned. He could thank Clint's big mouth for that knowledge. Also, courtesy of Birdbrain, that Coulson gave awesome blowjobs, which there was no amount of brain bleach that could possibly scrub that image out of his poor, poor head.

He'd gone to the Met with the rest of the team and Pepper and Coulson when Steve had been the featured artist in a free special closing event for the exhibit that had showcased his work.

People could donate to the Manhattan Rebuilding Fund, but it wasn't required. Anyway, besides honoring Steve as an artist, it was an opportunity to get the message out about Bruce.

It was open to the public, but only the first thousand people would be allowed to enter the Great Hall. A ton of people had showed up to see Captain America and the rest of the Avengers.

Steve gave a short but heartfelt speech about the Howling Commandos and Peggy Carter, and that drawing his teammates had helped make being on the front lines of WWII bearable. How honored he felt to be an Avenger. He talked about what it meant to the team when Bruce decided to fight with them during the Battle of Manhattan.

Steve said, sincerity just pouring from him, "Bruce Banner had a choice. He could have walked away. He became an Avenger because he was needed. He's still needed. You've all seen the footage of how the Hulk fought with us." Steve pointed at Tony. "Iron Man is alive because of the Hulk."

Tony waved a hand and stepped up next to Steve on the platform and grabbed the microphone. "And can I just point out that Bruce is one of the smartest guys on this planet, and it's a criminal waste of his talent that he's out there washing dishes or digging ditches for a living." Steve gripped Tony's elbow with fingers of steel and Tony replayed what he'd just said. He decided he'd better add a disclaimer. "Not that there's anything wrong with washing dishes or digging ditches, I'm not saying that. I've washed dishes myself. Well, actually Bruce kind of made me, but anyway, we'd all benefit if Bruce could be turned loose in a lab. Seriously, guy's a fu- a genius."

Tony could hear Barton behind him snort at Tony's near miss with cursing.

Steve smoothly took the microphone away from Tony. "Thank you, Iron Man." He looked back out over the crowd. "Bruce Banner is not a terrorist, although the Army and the American government have falsely accused him of being one. It's a ploy, so Bruce can be taken into custody. Why? It's not to keep the public safe from him, as General Ross and his Bio-tech Division would have you believe. It's to take Bruce apart, to unlock the secrets of how he transforms into the Hulk. Bruce is afraid to let that happen, and not because it probably would involve him being tortured and experimented on without his consent. He's afraid of what horrors that research will unleash upon the world. That's the reason Bruce Banner went back into hiding and isn't standing here with his team today, but if you," Steve did that thing he did so well, where you felt like he was talking directly to you, despite the huge crowd present, "feel as we do, that an injustice has been done, then please sign the petition to the President asking for amnesty and a pardon for any past charges against Bruce Banner."

The crowd was turned loose to see the exhibit and hopefully sign the amnesty petition. Free posters of Steve's drawing of Bruce as himself and as the Hulk facing down the leviathan were given away and Tony and the rest of the team spend the rest of the evening scrawling their names over and over on them.

Maybe what they were doing was helping Bruce. JARVIS crunched the numbers for them, as he had done for Bruce before he had taken off, and gave them a status report on every team night. The numbers were... better. Not great, but better. For a while, anyway.

After Cap had called out General Ross during his speech at the Met, Ross had begun a smear campaign about Bruce. He didn't pull any punches, and the numbers started sliding down.

When the documentary on Bruce was aired, with the interviews with Betty and Stan and Eric Selvig, plus some of the people Bruce had helped over the years, Ross had responded by airing footage of the Hulk destroying buildings and tanks. He edited out the footage from Harlem and Culver that showed the Hulk protecting Betty and defeating the Abomination. He got news channels to run stories about the scientists who'd been killed during the lab accident and the soldiers and policemen who'd died trying to capture the Hulk. The grieving families were heartbreaking. Tony knew that Bruce would have given his own life to avoid those deaths. Of course, during each incident that had resulted in a death, Bruce had been attacked first. Cap had extended the Avengers' sympathies to the families, but he'd also found ways to point that out to the news reporters. Tony didn't think it had done much good, though. JARVIS' numbers agreed.

Bruce was painted as an unbalanced, severely troubled man, unethical in his decision to experiment on himself, unwilling to face the consequences of his actions, but more than willing to put innocent people in danger by living in hiding. A man with no morals, a known prostitute and lawbreaker.

Pepper remained ambivalent. It discouraged Tony to talk to her about Bruce, so he found himself avoiding bringing him up. She must have felt the same, because she kept the topic of Bruce Banner out of conversations with all of her considerable communication skills.

Some of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents they worked with felt the same as Ross. Tony had overheard two of them after a mission debriefing at the Manhattan S.H.I.E.L.D. office and he'd seen red. Natasha had intercepted him before he could break their noses, and had dragged him into another room, her strong hands keeping him still.

"You won't do Bruce any good by indulging yourself, Stark," she'd said, her eyes stern.

Tony fisted his hands. "Did you hear what they said? Fuck! They're-"

"Idiots. Yes. But we'll let Coulson deal with them."

Sometimes, Tony would think about Bruce's first night at Stark Tower.

He'd known Bruce was not going to make it back on his own steam to the tower after they'd all gone out to eat together. The guy had been falling asleep standing up at the shawarma place, so Tony'd had a quiet word with Steve and asked him to give him a hand with Bruce. He could have asked Happy, but Bruce didn't know Happy. It seemed important that Bruce, vulnerable if he fell asleep, be helped by one of the team.

Steve had come back with them and carried Bruce up to bed. Tony couldn't carry him because he was limping from tripping over debris from Loki being smashed into the concrete – and how was it that Tony fell from space, was grabbed by the Hulk, landed without a scratch, but he fell over rubble and twisted his ankle? Not badly, he was fine the next day, but he'd been worried he might trip or something and drop Bruce if he tried to pick him up.

He and Steve had agreed to not wake Bruce once Happy had parked the car in the tower's underground parking garage. It had seemed kind of cruel to even try, Bruce was so deeply asleep and limp. And it was a long way up to the top of the tower for somebody who was probably too tired to even lift his feet.

Surprisingly, Bruce had started to come to when they were in the elevator. Tony expected him to startle awake and fight against being held. The skimpy file Coulson had given Tony had listed times when Bruce had woken out of sleep just in time to avoid being captured, leaving everything he owned behind in whatever slum room Bruce had rented. The guy had lived on the edge so long that running had to be in his blood by now.

That wasn't what had happened.

When Tony had told Bruce that Steve had him, Bruce had closed those dazed, half-lidded eyes and had just gone boneless again against Steve's broad chest.

Subconsciously, Tony thought, Bruce had decided he could trust Tony and Steve; he bet the list of people Bruce Banner trusted was a damn short one, but he'd added the Avengers to it.

Tony didn't want to fail that trust.

x x x