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Phil Coulson and Melinda May prided themselves on the fact that they could stay calm in stressful situations. They had worked thousands of operations, and not once did they think they would lose their minds.
That was before they found out they were secretly working for HYDRA.
It was the moment that their lives took a downturn as they not only had to do the normal work of a SHIELD agent but also gather intel on their own colleagues and secret bases in their own systems. It almost tripled their workload, which was pretty packed already.
Coulson had Daisy on top of that as well 17 nearly 18 and wanting to save the world. When she developed powers suddenly out of nowhere, though it freaked her out since the house fell on top of her. Phil spent a long time trying to calm her down telling her he wasn’t going to send her away or let HYDRA get her even if he was anxious of what SHIELDRA would do when he had to log her as they would have inevitably found out either way.
Lucky Fury and his branch of SHIELD were mostly on their side at this point, with Coulson’s involvement, even if he got twitchy whenever White Wolf was mentioned, suspecting something off about the man even if their was nothing pointed him out at all other than his powers (having a valid bank account, drivers licence, and national security number from 1950 with stories and pictures in peoples albums from people that were in the know) questioning how SHIELD never knew The Wolverine had a missing ward, even if it was explainable by simply stating they only picked up Logan after the Vietnam War, Logan couldn’t even remember as he was also captured at some point losing his memories and that Wolf’s mother was a prostitute that Logan found out his half-brother, who wasn’t the nicest person, had got pregnant and took the baby off her hands when she stated she couldn’t take care of him, promising to look after him. Still Fury, didn’t trust the man or want him leading the Avengers Initiative but various world leaders were pushing for his involvement even the WSC wanted him, but Fury put his foot down, not wanting to share space in the sandbox with the man.
Even so Daisy, Eli and Jarvis had already become a tightknit unit with every intention of joining SHIELD much to their guardians’ ire and worry. Worry that was eating away at the man sanity even more so, but with a month-long holiday coming up which he was going to be spending as much time with Daisy as possible, he thought he’d have been able to avoid blowing a gasket.
May was much the same, she had a holiday planned and ready. She hadn’t really had a proper one since she started at the New York SHIELD base and it was much deserved at this point. She practically lived and breathed files and thanks to Castle’s outburst she had extra paperwork for the fallout.
‘That was probably when the first domino fell. Castle’s outburst.’, the pair bitterly thought from the chairs they sat in looking back on the week they had just lived through.
Because of the little outburst she had to handle all of the paperwork for that then all the paperwork for the LMD for one Tony Carbonell due to Pierce asking him out on a date. Nobody wanted to risk the biggest ace up their sleeve getting captured, so LMD it was.
She even had everything planned so that the Carbonell’s and co., AKA the Avengers could handle the fort until both herself and Coulson came back. They had even planned for the Final Stark Expo to go on for a year so all the agents had a chance to get a break - and they got in for free – planning to announce the company’s name change to Phoenix Industries or P.I. for short at the end of the Expo an announcement eagerly anticipated by the public since Tony revealed his name change.
‘That was the next one.’ They late out groans of pain.
She even had updated Clints files as he had found a protégé in a 17-year-old runaway known as Kate Bishop and took her in. She was cautious but sweet and fit right into the dynamic Daisy, Eli and Jarvis formed.
‘That… that had no relevance, but we should have seen it as the sign it was that the end was near.’, Coulson closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Then the event that will only ever be known as ‘The Week’ happened.
Monday
Monday started out like any other.
For Coulson: Wake up; wait a bit then actually get up; get Daisy up; make breakfast; half run out the door, after having to help Daisy start up that hellish death-trap of a van she insisted on getting for passing her driving test so she can get to school; get in Lola, still half eating his breakfast and fly to work.
For May: Wake up; wait a bit then actually get up; get the other agents living at the Compound up; get breakfast at the cafeteria, since it was a Monday and she wasn’t in any mood to make breakfast herself; go to the labs to tell the scientists that had been up for over 24 hours to go to bed, drag some out in the worst cases; get the HYDRA and Fury’s SHIELD operations up as well as their own to see what was happening where and to prepare for the start of the work day.
It was all going well, normal even, well as normal for them when they dealt with the things they did.
Then they got the phone call. The last of the Howling Commandos had died. (“Buck, promise me. Promise me, you’ll burn them to the ground.” “Dum Dum don’t you worry. I’ll make sure to give them hell.” “Ha, I have no doubt of that now you’re a Devil Dog. I’ll tell Steve your still alive and still fighting for you. I bet you he’ll come back like - .” “Don’t even remind me, Dugan. I’m never dealing with Jersey on Halloween again.” “He probably will come back just for you.” “When he does, I’ll tell him he’s an idiot. Becca told me Firebird switched out the bombs and regardless he could have jumped out of the plane or got walked through gliding it down.” “Nothing’s ever good enough for you, is it?” “I just get annoyed by idiots.” “Love them too though, right?” “I love you, don’t I?”)
The whole of SHIELD mourned the loss of a hero and founding member of SHIELD.
Then in the wake of that sadness Fury phoned Coulson.
Captain America had been found by Fury’s SHIELD.
Now this would have been a momentous occasion of both sadness and triumph… if the man had been found dead. (“This is Dum Dum’s fault.” “I’m pretty sure it’s not.” “No, no, it is Coulson. He jinxed it. Not that I’m not happy did, but he did.”) Coulson never thought there would have been a day he thought life would be have been easier, even if not better, if Captain America was found dead rather than alive.
But hey, that’s life. He was still going to fanboy over him. Which slightly pissed off Barnes but screw him, he was making Coulson deal with Jersey over Halloween this year.
And while he got to go deal with that, May had to deal with the Banner situation, not the most fun start to a week when you had The Hulk smashing up Rio de Janeiro. She slightly hated Coulson then for being one of Fury’s favourites and getting nice assignment on his side of things.
Tuesday
May and Coulson had to deal with Scott Lang, Hope Van Dyne and Hank Pym causing havoc in San Francisco. At least at the end of it they got Janet Van Dyne back from the Quantum Realm with data that will revolutionise have we perceive the universe.
She was a returning victorious hero after all who, much like Barnes, was missing in action and finally found.
Janet took great interest in the fact that HYDRA was inside SHIELD, hitting Hank as she told him again SHIELD was dodgy but insisted with working with them, claiming to have never liked Peggy herself. A fact that highly endeared her to Becca who promptly asked her out to bunch for a bitch-fest.
It was also when Monaco happened. The Carbonells' and the Vankos' had an ongoing friendly rivalry since Tony very publicly claimed that he’d have been dead without the research of one Anton Vanko, who had been wrongfully extradited back to the Soviet Union during the Cold War with his family.
Ivan Vanko had been helped to start a new tech business in the US as repayment and Anton was set up in a retirement home with the best medical facilities money could buy. Tony and Ivan had been close since Tony explained a few things about his own experience with his father and mother and had passed the LAIR test, therefore was considered in the know and highly fascinated with how they could engineer things to filter magic energy into products people could use as well. They even insulted Hammer Industries together. (Justin came over to greet Toni and Ivan talking in Russian before the race, unaware of who Toni was, “Hi, you’re his assistant, right? Can you translate for me? Gee thanks, honey. Hi, Mr Vanko. It’s so good to have new competition this year. I was actually wondering if Ivan, can I call you Ivan? I was wondering if you’d like to collaborate with Hammer Industries on a project we’re trying do. Get our hand in to shaping the world. Haha.” Ivan smiled at Justin, “Then if I'm killed, don't wake me. It is better to die than to live in your world.” Toni nodded, smiled and laughed sweetly along. Justin looked confused. “What is he saying?” Toni sipped her drink as she held Vanko’s arm turning away from a camera wanting to keep a low profile for the event. “He said, you’re a very good-man but he’s just interested in working on his own company at the moment.” Justin looked a little frustrated at the response but covered it up as he handed over his number to Ivan. “Right, well, tell your boss that he can call me anytime if he changes his mind or he can come by me. Tell him I’m by my friend The White Wolf.” Toni nodded and watched as he left. Vanko watched him go as he handed Toni the card to burn with her powers in a flash of gold. “He’s a sexist prick.” “I know. I’ll rub it in his face later. Let the pettiness simmer for a bit. Bucky can introduce me later after he’s done fanboying over Elon Musk. Plus ‘my cousin’ is here with Pierce. I don’t want to mess up their ‘date’ by kicking his ass.”)
However, The Grand Prix was crashed by a floating head and a few drones, wanting to prove himself a match against Iron-Man. Thankfully Mystique was able to get the LMD she was controlling inside the armour and let Jarvis take over the controls for the actual fight, Bucky already taking out some of the drones. Toni however couldn’t not help, therefore she materialized a mask to hide her face before flying over to help destroy the drones and protected the civilians, much to Bucky ire since she didn’t have any protective gear on - not that he was any better.
That was when the world was introduced to a new faceless superhero. The Golden Witch!
… Yeah, it wasn’t the papers’ best work.
Anyway, Coulson was in charge of setting up an investigation into where big head came from and if they had a body hiding somewhere too. It didn’t help the big head escaped custody.
Wednesday
Wednesday… now that was a nightmare.
Hulk was attacked in a University and they found out that versions of the super soldier serum was still out there even after what happened to Banner and what happened to Norman Osborn for his version of the stuff.
The White Wolf went on the hunt and heads had rolled.
He’d been keyed up since he had been asked to help carry Dugan’s casket at the funeral. He’d also recently made Colonel and had been told he had to go on at least a half-tour and wanted to make sure the stuff got destroyed properly before he was to be sent out at the end of the week. He practically screamed at the President, the 5 stars, General Ross and Blonsky that took the damn thing. Ross and Blonsky may have not been in the know but they should have known better than to continue work on or take something that reacted badly to almost everyone it came into contact with, disfiguring them. Adding Gamma radiation into the mix, couldn’t have helped any.
May and Coulson had to been tasked on clean up duty, destroying whatever was left and told to fix the University.
Ross was told the Hulk had the mindset of a young child and that if he wanted to bring him in, he should try a puppy.
Thursday
Thursday was Dugan’s funeral.
And when a Hammer landed in the desert in New Mexico along with a demi-god of thunder and war, which they were notified by Loki beforehand in the form of a horse and note.
Coulson left to deal with that as May continued to handle the serum matter. She also had to deal with an interdimensional squid matter that came up, that no one will speak of.
(“Is that a suc-”, the agent cut himself off at the vicious glare that came from May still in funeral clothes and covered in mucus.)
No one.
Friday
If Wednesday was a nightmare then on Friday the world died and went straight to hell as Ross had the brilliant idea to juice Blonsky up yet again and go after the Hulk.
In Harlem.
Where Luke’s pub was.
When Bucky was going out to meet up with his friends one more time before he was sent off, trying out a new arm that to be put into production soon for the general public.
An arm that couldn’t withstand a car being thrown at it through a window.
Specifically throwing Bucky’s car at it, through the window of Luke’s pub, trashing the place.
That was when unholy gates opened as no one, no one messed with Luke’s pub or Bucky’s car.
Bucky took off the remainder of his left arm and tied his shirt up so it covered his attachment socket before grabbing the group's leaving gift of an adamantium knife (Made from some of the metal that came off Logan’s bones so he wasn’t dying very, very slowly of heavy metal poisoning, replacing it with some of nanites that fused themselves together onto his claws and skull so his claws hurt him less when they cut through his skin and to protect his brain in case he forgot he couldn’t take a bullet to the head anymore without ending up a vegetable.) and going to confront the big, green, fish-face monster Blonsky turned into followed by a flood of agents wanting to get their vengeance in as well. When Banner fell from the sky and turned into Hulk to fight Blonsky... Bucky may have traumatised the big guy along with Luke, Frank, Misty, Logan and Bradley – who had originally came to calm Bucky and the rest down when Eli told him he was on the news full Super-saiyan mode just to go super-saiyan himself when he found out the pub was gone. Because, “How can the pub just Be Gone?”. The group strategically broke his joints and severed the main tendons that allowed him to move while they tried to keep him still with a chain around his throat.
Thank God for Tony who took the Hulk to calm down and play with Fenrir, some glass figurines and the Hulk-buster armour and reminded them all that Blonsky wasn’t the one to blame.
Ross was.
Blonsky was taken in to get medical treatment to assess if what Ross gave him affected his mental judgement, Ross was on every SHIELD agents’ that worked in the Compound’s shit list and the America people found out about the US military’s version of the Tuskegee Experiment and the treatment of around 300 black men during the Korean War and what the US was going to do to cover it up when they were captured and were rightly horrified. Even more so when they found out Bradley was wrongfully imprisoned for over 30 years for doing the same thing Steve Rogers did, his family even being told he was dead.
The only good things that came out of that was that Bradley got the recognition he deserved from the American people, Luke’s pub was going to get refurbished and re-vamped all on the US’s bill and Bucky no longer had to hide his metal arm in public, getting to gush over it like the tech-lover he was even if he still had to leave on Monday for his tour since they wanted to make him a General which Bucky thought was because none of them wanted to deal with the backlash of the HYDRA being exposed after the Bradley Situation was already exposed as then questions would be asked over how long the U.S. had been 'manipulated' and compromised. Bucky could handled it.
Coulson and May nearly had heart-palpitations though when they found out. Coulson was mostly on the phone during the entirely of his time in New Mexico with May trying to re-work plans and see how HYDRA were reacting. But thankfully HYDRA must have been dense enough to just believe Bucky wasn’t able to grow back limbs like Logan could, just re-attach them and the arm was burned to a crisp when the gas tank exploded.
And to top everything else off Hulk ran off after a while, telling Tony Puny Banner said he couldn't stay. Tony asked if he was sure and told him he'd make sure no one came after him - unless it was really really super duper important and told to keep the glass figurines as a gift.
Saturday
Was calm.
Too calm.
Like the calm before the storm almost.
May and Coulson had Sunday afternoon off as it was the start of their holiday and didn’t dare pray for nothing else to go wrong just in case someone heard, jinxing it.
Sunday
Sunday was the kicker.
The Destroyer came sent by a brainwashed Loki and WSC lost their minds over the potential of being pulled into a galactic war with Asgard and no knowledge of if Loki Laufeyson had succeeded in whatever plan he had against Odin.
Coulson and May had to help Fury calm them down, but they still wanted Project Pegasus to be accelerated and to hurry up in making Phase Two weapons, bringing Dr Selvig onto the project, much to Coulson’s and May’s dismay. It meant HYDRA could recreated tesseract weapons for Project Insight which was set to launch in just about 2 years, even if they had every intention of sabotaging it, they could go wrong somewhere.
Fury was mostly pleased though as he thought he had his new leader of the Avengers on defrost and he was going to get some weapons of mass destruction to deal with bigger threats.
That was supposed to be the end of the week.
They were supposed to be done and on holiday.
They were supposed to relax.
But life just knew how to kick you when you were down.
Because then Big Head, who was calling themselves MODOK, attacked the Stark Expo after Justin Hammer helped him escape custody to make drones for the Expo.
It was the final straw on the camel’s back, something in the pair of them snapped when the first line of drones came off the stage and they went in like rabid dogs and ripped them apart, shooting their joints out and ripping off their heads.
Daisy stared in horror-filled awe as she helped get people to safety, there to work for one of the vending stands until her official training for SHIELD started.
MODOK too was a little awed by the sight. So much so that it distracted him long enough for the heavy hitters (Toni, Bucky, Rhodey in War Machine armour and Becca in the Iron Man armour this time) to formulate and execute a plan to take him down and then take him in.
They were exhausted when they found out the drones were set to detonate and just casually limped out as explosions went off around them.
They were so used fire going off around them at this point, it never even phased them.
Fury apparently was going to give them a raise and extra time off as was Toni who healed them then gently told them she had paid for them to stay at a 5-star resort in Tahiti together for a week. Daisy encouraged them to go, saying she’d be good and stay with the Carbonells’ until they get back in the softest tone of voice she could muster.
They just nodded as they held onto each other for emotional support through the debrief.
Coulson and May sat on the sun-bed’s next to each other but couldn’t relax at all.
“Phil, I’m scared to go back. What if they’re doing something stupid right at this moment?”
“There’s no if about it. I know they are. I don’t know how that man hasn’t been figured out yet. He’s either even more well trained than I thought or just very, very, lucky. Or both.” Coulson took a large sipped his mojito as did May.
“It used to be easier. Before. But since everyone’s got more active, I can’t even imagine doing any of this without you now.”, May said as she reached for his hand.
Coulson brought it to his hand and gave it a small kiss. “I can’t imagine what it was like not knowing if I could trust you. Do you think we tell Daisy now? It’s been a few months now.”
May sipped her drink. “No, if she wants to be a spy, she should be able to tell. Let it be a little test for her.”
Coulson groaned, “The calendar has hearts all over May. I’m pretty sure she knows or at least suspects.”
May laughed a little before she tiredly sighed a final time before letting herself sag into the seat. “Still don’t want to go back.”
“Once it’s over though, it’ll be much easier. Even easier in fact. Just think about that.” Coulson sighed. “Plus, in about 10 more years, we retire. Then we can pass this nightmare to Daisy, Eli and Jarvis as payback for the headaches they’ve caused and have yet to cause.”
May got a text and both whipped their heads around in caution. May reach for it and sighed. “We just got Medals of Valour. No emergencies. And I second that. Lets just hope Tony can hold the fort alone while we're gone.”
"And not have the place in ruins."