Temper in Red *Editing*

Chapter One

Chapter One

*~*~*~*

"How are you here?" Coulson asked me after he'd led me away from the computer room and into a small office. He was now pacing as I leaned against the desk in the center of the office, watching him trying to piece things together. Trying to make sense of everything that was going on.

"I told you, Fury thought that you could use my help." I repeated myself for what seemed to be the fiftieth time.

"That's not possible though, Fury's dead." He shook his head. "You're supposed to be dead."

"So are you." I pointed out. "As for Fury, he sent me before he died. I just got caught up along the way with Steve and Natasha. Brining down Sitwell is harder than it looks, by the way. Who knew an old man could put up such a fight?"

"You were in D.C.?" He spun around to look at me, his eyes wide.

"Yes," I sighed. "Now, back to the reason I'm here. Fury knew something was wrong so he asked for me to come here and help you, he wanted you to have someone that you knew you could trust. It's all a bit too mushy, if you ask me."

"Why wouldn't Fury tell me that you were alive?" He didn't show any sign of hearing a single word of what I'd just said, still focused on the fact that I was alive and not in the ground rotting somewhere.

"He was just keeping your promise to me." I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear as I spoke. "After New York I was placed in that school you told me about and no one knew, except for Fury and Hill. To the rest of the world I was dead and it stayed that way up until several days ago."

"Sir, I made a list of SHIELD bases we believe are secure." The young woman from before said as she made her way into the office, not bothering to knock first.

"How many so far? Seven?" Coulson asked her, looking slightly hopeful.

"Three." She told him.

"Plus the Hub." He assumed though, by the look on the woman's face I knew the answer wasn't going to be what he wanted.

"Including the Hub." She shook her head. I watched as Coulson closed his eyes in frustration, a look that resembled defeat filling his face. The woman seemed to notice it, too, as she quickly tried to backpedal. "It's a preliminary list. I'm sure more will turn up."

Coulson just shook his head as he hit some buttons on the desk, causing one wall to light up and fill with news reports. I saw videos of what happened in D.C. streaming as reporters spoke, talking about SHIELD.

"You were right all along," the woman spoke up again, causing us to look at her. "Having all this out there in the world makes it too dangerous, and now there's no one left to protect it."

"There's us." Couslon reminded her. "We were lucky enough to make it through. The Triskelion, the Hub those battles are just the beginning of this war. Hydra's out there now, but at least our team's still intact. We can fight them, and we will. And, now, we have someone else to help us. Skye this is-"

"Veronica Falconeri." I cut Coulson off and introduced myself. I held my hand out for her and she hesitated for a moment before shaking it.

"Veronica was a key factor with the victory in New York, we likely wouldn't have won without her." Coulson told Skye.

"How would you know?" I scoffed at his words. "You weren't even there when it all went down."

"Just because I wasn't there doesn't mean I didn't hear things." Coulson clarified. He hit another few buttons on the desk before the current news reports were replaced with clips from the battle of New York. More than one showing me fighting alongside the others as we all worked to try and stop Loki. I couldn't help but glance at Skye as the videos showed me using my powers to stop the aliens, I could see her eyes widening.