Temper in Red *Editing*

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

"Any news on Lance yet?" I asked Coulson as I walked into his office.

"Only that he's still in custody of the U.S. government." He shook his head. "May said that the accident wasn't pretty, Hartley dead. Right now all we can hope for is that Hunter doesn't talk to Talbot and his men."

"I can go in and get him." I offered.

"Too dangerous." He shook his head again. "Right now it's best for us all to sit tight. May has a tail on Creel. We should be able to figure out who his HYDRA contact is before too long."

"With all due respect, I think we should focus on Lance right now." I spoke honestly with him. "As much as I don't like Lance, he is a part of this team. We owe it to him to help him get away from Talbot."

"You want to help? Why don't you go and help Skye pack up Hartley's things?" He suggested, his voice having a finalizing quality to it, almost daring me to try and argue my point any further. "We need to return them to her family sooner rather than later."

"Sure thing, sir." I rolled my eyes as I said the last. I headed out of his office and towards our rooms, Izzy's being just down the hall from my own. When I walked inside the room I saw Skye already inside, looking around the room as if she were an intruder or something. I guess, in a way, we both were. "Weird, isn't it?"

"What?" She jumped slightly as she looked back at me, clearly not having noticed my presence.

"Losing a teammate. Knowing that no matter what you think they're not going to come walking back through that door." I walked over to the bedside table and looked at the picture there. It was of Izzy and another woman, both of them were smiling and seemed to not have a care in the world.

"You've been through this before?" She asked.

"Coulson," I enlightened her. "And I'm guessing this is something like how my team felt. After New York."

"Right, when Fury faked your death to the other Avengers." She nodded in understanding.

"He didn't fake it." I corrected her. "I really did die, I just came back to life."

"Do you think-" Before she could finish her question an alarm started to blare, setting us both even more on edge than we already were. "What is that?"

"I think I have an idea." I muttered as I hurried out of Izzy's room and headed towards the main doors, just in time to catch up with Antoine. "Lance?"

"Just drove up." He confirmed as we walked outside. There we saw the bruised up agent stepping out of a nice car, looking at his punctured tires with a frown in place.

"Nice ride." Antoine spoke up causing Lance to look over at us, not seeming to be surprised. "Some rich guy loan it to you?

"Yeah, something like that." Lance nodded. "Shame about the rims, though, eh?"

"Yeah." Antoine shook his head as he looked down at the tires. "Probably cost a grand each."

"At least." Lance agreed before he looked at us again. "This isn't a friendly stop, is it?"

"Nope." I shook my head.

"Hands on the car." Antoine told him.

〰〰〰

"How the hell did you lose him?! Why haven't you got every agent out there looking for Creel right now?!" I watched as Lance yelled at Coulson as the three of us stood around inside Coulson's office.

"You think you're entitled to answers?" Coulson looked at him as though he were insane.

"He killed my friend!" Lance reminded him. "I think that's entitlement enough."