AN: Hello everyone! Apart from the classic thank you to MegaDiary123, I want to thank all of you who reviewed on the last chapter. I do hope you like this one just as much, and so without further a due...

All rights go to Marvel

Skye's POV

"You are all dismissed", Fury's words brought me out of the trance that I was in.

My eyes moved to the screen on the wall opposite to me, where the director was ready to end the video call that we had for the past few hours. "Sir", I hurried to say before the call was terminated. The other Avengers, who had gotten up to leave stopped momentarily looking at me and the pirate lifted his gaze to meet mine. "May I speak to you?", I asked and saw his eyebrow twitch. "In private?", I quickly added when none of the others made any move to exit the room, silently asking them for permission.

I half expected Natasha or Clint to ask everyone to get out, but it appeared unnecessary as everyone quietly left me alone in the huge conference room in the, quite destroyed, Stark Tower.

"What is it, agent?" He asked when the door behind me was locked. But when I didn't reply for some seconds he prompted again. "Skye…" he softly spoke and the use of my name made me shake my head and concentrate. "What is it that you want?", his facade as the hard front face of S.H.I.E.L.D. had been lifted off him and instead I was gazing at Nick. The man who despite what many said cared for every single one of his agents and viewed us as family.

"In regards to the recent events I was wondering if it would be best to step away from the organisation" I said and I could see disappointment fill the pirate's features. "Let me finish" I hurried to add before he reprimanded me for even thinking in that way. "You know better than anyone that I care for a lot of people who work in S.H.I.E.L.D.. Hell, I am pretty sure that the close relationship that I have with some of them must be against protocol but you never mentioned anything. I would hate for anything to happen to them because of me… because I am not trustworthy. We both know what happened to AC. I am also sure you understand that despite my brain being altered, and despite you not blaming me for it, I do blame myself and I don't want to be a risk to the others, because this is what I am at the moment: a risk.

"I respect you, I do, and this is why I am asking you to consider this option. This is not me running away like last time, it is completely different. What I am asking is that you decrease my Level 7 access to the organisation's archives and that you reposition me. I would love to be at the field and I would love to work to protect the people I care about, but maybe as a consultant? This way, if anything were to happen I wouldn't have access to critical files that could be used against you or anyone else" I finished and took a deep breath, while letting it our just as forcefully.

The man whose facial expressions had turned blank, was looking straight back at me as if he could read into my soul. After what seemed like forever to me his shoulders slumped, if only a tiny bit,and he sighed.

"Skye, look" he started. "The events of the past few days have exhausted a lot of people and have pushed them to the edge. I had the whole damn council demanding me to send a nuke to the city. I had people, good people, die in the line of duty" I flinched at the last part. "I am sure that there are a lot of people who are going to be quite displeased that Maria will be my second after Phil and I am definitely sure that there will be more than a handful of people who will want to go behind my back. There are not a lot of people that I trust, but you are one of them"

"Sir–"

"No" he didn't even let me form a sentence. "You don't get to speak until I have finished my part. Is that understood?", he asked more out of kindness since his tone didn't leave any space for disagreement. So when I nodded he was quick to continue. "Good. Now, you are one of the people I trust Skye. There are hundreds of agents who would kill to have your Clearance Level and yet you are fast to dismiss yours, or any Clearance Level for that matter, because you believe you are endangering your friends and the organisation in general. What this tells me is that you are fully trusted and worthy of how high you are in the ranks. And just because of all of that I am even going to increase your Clearance to match agent Hills.

"No", he continued and shook his finger when I opened my mouth. "I am not finished". I gulped but remained quiet. "When you were under Loki's control, you were not able to access our files as easily because you were considered a compromised agent. So if, which I really doubt will happen, something similar happens, we will follow protocol and your access will disappear.

"Now, you all have a leave of absence and since the council wants to know who you are, your files have been sealed and only a select few know your identity or anything about you. Use this time to relax as much as you can, because when I call you back I expect you to come. Am I making myself clear?"

"Yes" I answered.

"Good. Now go and try not to overthink about what happened" and with that the screen went black and the room was filled with silence.

I didn't know how much time passed since Fury had terminated the call but I was lifted out of my thoughts when someone knocked on the door of the conference room and the door whooshed open. "We are going to Central Park to see the Asgardians off this planet, finally" Bruce said. "I am guessing you are coming as well?", he questioned and I could tell that some of his concern had leaked to his voice.

I took a deep breath and turned around, making a great effort to smile as I walked past him. "The sooner the better, right?" I asked and could hear a light laugh emitting from the doc.

Pepper's POV

I was in my flight back from Washington when a portal opened on top of New York and aliens cursed through. I could do nothing but watch in horror when Tony flew through there, carrying a missile on his back.

I had ordered the pilot to land as soon as possible, only to be informed that we would not be able to touch ground in New York because of the battle and we eventually landed in New Jersey and had to drive back to the Stark Tower. Of course, Happy was on the wheel as I sat on the back as my thoughts ran wild. When we did arrive at the tall building, there was no-one there and when I asked J.A.R.V.I.S. he said that everyone was currently at Central Park.

"Perfect. Just perfect" I found myself speaking to no-one in particular as Happy was looking from the distance in silence. I took a few deep breaths before somehow collecting myself. "Will you let me know when they come back, please?" I asked the A.I. to receive a positive reply. I turned back to Happy who had yet to move. "Please, go and have some rest. I'll wait for the others to come" I smiled at him, but I was quite positive it resembled more of a grimace.

"I'm gonna wait here with you, if that's okay" he said and walked closer, leading me to the only intact sofa in the well-destroyed room.

I let out a sigh. "Thank you" there was no need for more words as we patiently waited for the others to come back.

It must have been a solid hour, 60 whole minutes, or at least this is how long I thought had gone by, before J.A.R.V.I.S.'s voice let me know of a car being pulled in the garage/Tony's workshop. And the moment the elevators reached our floor and there was this characteristic 'Bing!', I rushed and waited for the metal doors to pull apart.

"Hey, sweetie" Tony said with his characteristic playful smile on his face.

I gaped at him, and without even thinking about it I slapped him hard on the cheek. "Hey, sweetie?" I questioned. "Hey, sweetie? Are you freakin' serious right now? You carried a missile on your back, went through a portal to outer space and all you say is 'Hey, sweetie?'. Oh you have some nerve" I yelled at him and he had remained quiet during my whole monologue, still a bit startled by the slap. Then I pulled him hard closer to me our lips connecting, if only for a second, before I pushed him away and hit him in the chest. "You don't get to do that and have me worried sick and then come back and have that stupid smile on your face as if nothing happened" I said and finally let a couple of tears escape my eyes as they were fighting their way to the surface for a few good hours now.

I was left breathing heavily and that was the only sound in the room really, as I looked into those brown eyes and dared him to say something.

There was a sudden burst of laughter which had me tear my gaze off of the billionaire's one. The familiar sound throwing me off a bit. "Really sorry Pepper" a familiar voice echoed from behind the man who I was now pushing aside only to reveal another pair of people, one whom I had no idea who he was and one that I had not seen up-close for over a year now. "I tried to hold it in but I couldn't" Skye said as she kept on laughing and held her stomach from how hard she was enjoying the situation.

"Skye?" I questioned, not expecting to see her here. True I did get a glimpse of her in the fight in New York but I was, definitely, not expecting her to come here.

"Oh, boy" she said and used her finger to take off some of the happy tears that escaped her eyes. "You should have seen my reaction when the idiot over here came back from the port–"

Her words were cut off as I closed the distance between us and enfolded her in a fierce hug. Her arms hugged my back as her head rested on the space between my collarbone and shoulder. My hands were pushing hard on her back, as if I was afraid that this was an illusion and that she would disappear if I didn't hold her firmly enough. I felt her tense under my touch at some point and short of flinch away and was fast to retract and look at her face as she grimaced in pain.

"Shit, Skye I am so sorry! Are you hurt? Of course you're hurt, what am I even talking about" I started mumbling and was interrupted with light touch on my shoulder.

I turned to look at the brunette who was looking back at me with a reassuring look. "It's fine, really" she tried but could see that I was not completely convinced. So she let out a sigh and turned to look at the men in the room who were looking at our interaction. "I am sure you all have questions and I guess I should answer them, right?" Her eyes travelled and met those of the only man whose identity I didn't know. "The sooner, the better?" She asked and he scoffed with a light laughter escaping his lips.