The Sunflower

Periwinkles

Warning (sorta, just in case): a joke about a white van. You'll be able to tell when it's coming.

"Director Fury faked your death, to motivate the avengers." Agent Ward, Agent Hill, the apparently alive and well Agent Coulson, and I walked down a bright hall to get briefed on a new assignment. I was still trying to process the idea of faking a death. It seemed so extreme, something that only happened in fiction, but I supposed there were many things I would never dream about SHIELD.

"Well, the death of a common ally is a particularly effective team builder," I couldn't help but grimace at Agent Hill's words as we stopped in front of a pair of glass doors. We each took turns looking into a small camera, my eyes squinting at the bright flash, before walking through the automatically opened doors.

" Plus, it wasn't that much of a stretch. I stopped breathing for about 40 seconds,"

"Eight. It gets longer every time you tell it,"

"Yeah, well you get shanked by the Asgardian Mussolini, you can tell it your way," I got shanked at a prison in an enemy country once. I refrained from sharing.

"I was looking at the big white light and it felt like a lot longer than 8 seconds," We stopped to grab our badges. I looked down and cringed.

"Do they know? The Avengers, that Fury played them?" I heard Agent Ward ask.

"They're not level 7," Agent Hill respond.

"Do you ever plan on telling them their friend is actually alive?" Perhaps I sounded a bit too hostile as I finally looked up from the less than flattering photo on my SHIELD badge. The long flight had left my appearance with much to desire. I quickly regretted speaking as I caught Agent Hill's pointed glare. I looked back down at my fiddling hands and decided I would go back to being as silent as possible for the remainder of the meeting.

Agent Coulson cleared his throat before speaking "I got out of the I.C.U., Fury stuck me in a grass shack in Tahiti. Rough gig. Mai tais, Travis McGee novels and a physical therapist whose command of English was...irrelevant," I tried not to judge him for sounding nonchalant about lying to all the people who cared about him, I of all people knew it was easier to detach from emotions than constantly be reminded of them. Besides, it wasn't Coulson who chose to lie, it was SHIELD, and how could I disagree with that. Following orders. I'd be a hypocrite.

"But something put you back in the game," Agent Ward not so subtly inquired. Still more subtle than I was.

We entered a large room, one wall completely obscured in monitors. Their lights reflected off one another, faintly mirroring their images onto the screen across from them, but that didn't matter because almost all of them displayed the same footage.

"What's that?"

"It's an explosion that happened this morning in New York, cause was supposed to be bad pipes. Everyone's saying that man saving a person is a "super hero,"' Seeing Agents Hill and Coulson's stares I continued quickly, "The footage was circulating all around the internet earlier today. Agent Jaimie showed it to me, but it's missing the-" Before I could finish a woman's voice began playing.

"Your secret is out. For decades your organization..." before being drowned out by the same words in a multitude of languages. A script.

"That man's an unregistered gifted. Identity unknown" Agent Hill turned from the screens to face Agent Ward and I.

"And those clips are another little present from the Rising Tide," Agent Coulson continued after Agent Hill.

"How are they getting this stuff before us?"