Changes | Marvel

TWENTY FOUR. Phil Coulson: Breaking Laws 101

We arrived at said Janice Robbins' apartment, and it had already been blocked off by CSI and we simply just ripped it off. Phil opened the door, shining his torchlight into the dark premises and walked in. I followed behind him, with Skye going in right behind me whilst closing the door.

"You know we're breaking about 14 laws right now." She mentions, looking around the place.

"One of the perks of being outlaws." He replies, walking into one of the side rooms. I carry on straight ahead, going down a hallway that had 2 other doors.

"This had to happen on my shift? You couldn't wait till May got back?"

"May's got her hands full with Ward. And we're the only ones who know what we're looking for."

"Really? I thought we were just checking out if she was SHIELD." I say aloud, opening the left door and shining the torch light in. I seemed to be her bedroom, with a queen-sized bed and a wardrobe shoved inside the apartment sized room.

"Yeah." Skye agrees. "What are we looking for?" She asks him.

"Answers." Is all that he says. Walking out, I catch sight of a picture of Janice and a man. They were embracing, mid-laughing and fresh faced in a park. I frown, knowing that this man was probably never going to see her again. I didn't understand how so many people lost their loved one's every day. This job was exposing every single one of them to me, and I didn't like it. I head back, also walking into the main room where both Skye and Phil were walking around in. Phil shined the light on the floor, where a puddle of blood was sitting, and I grimaced as I looked away.

"You're right. This place just screams SHIELD agent." She says again, looking at a statue. Phil begins to walk out of the room as I pull open a draw, going through the poor woman's things. Hey, she can't tell me to bugger off, so why not? "You two don't have a single thing in common, unless you have some Enya albums you've been hiding."

"No." Phil's voice comes from the other room. "Nothing in common at all." Skye and I look at each other before walking into the next room. The wall was covered from floor to roof in multiple paintings of the same thing that Phil had been carving into his wall back on base. The lines and bubbles all connecting and joining up with others, nothing was isolated.

"I take that back." Skye gapes, looking at the many different images and paintings. For the next couple of hours, we all spent time on putting each piece together, trying to put them in the right places. By 8am, Skye and I had already given up and were sitting on the couch, watching Phil do all the work.

"There's a lot of overlap." Phil sighs, kneeling down in front of the large layout. It had covered most of the living room floor so both Skye and I had our feet up. "We were definitely working on the same design, but she has some pieces I was missing."

"How are you guys drawing the same design, but somehow adding onto it at the same time?" I ask him, wondering.

"I'm trying to answer that myself, but I honestly have no idea." He whispers to me.

"How does the carving we found in Miami fit into this?" Skye questions, checking on the scan she was running. She had started it about an hour and a half ago, mainly just trying to find SHIELD files on the woman.

"Whoever did it was on our wavelength. There's just a few pieces missing. It's almost there." Phil shakes his head.

"And how are we supposed to get the last bits of it?" I ask him. "It's not like you can command yourself to make them up."

"I'm hoping that if she was a SHIELD agent, there can be a possibility that there are more people out there like this." He replies. A beeping sound comes from behind me, so I turn and look at Skye patiently.

"You were right. She's a SHIELD agent." She gasps, showing us the file now up on her laptop. "Agent Rebecca Stevens, level 6. Stationed at the Triskelion."

"That's probably where I saw her." Phil says absently.

"Not recently, you didn't. According to this, she died five years ago from cancer."

"Well this changes everything." I murmur. "Is she on a mission, or what. Why is she hiding out here?" I ask.

"I don't know." Phil tells me. "Maybe this was all connected. We won't know until we perform an autopsy."

"Don't you need a body for that?" Skye asks, closing the laptop. Phil hums lowly and walks out of the apartment, typing away at his phone. I get up and roll my eyes.

"I wonder how this is going to go down." I ask her, closing the door behind us and resealing the tape.

"He's going to do something. It may break another couple of laws, but he's not going to care." She utters.

"What can we do. He's the boss of an underground government organisation. He can literally do anything he wants." I shrug, seeing Phil already in the car, waiting for us.

"Back to base?" Skye asks, whilst getting in.

"Yeah, I've sorted things out. No need to go to the morgue." He says, driving off.

"Phil." I scold. "What did you do." I ask.

"Nothing. So how are we going about with this whole 'Avery conspiracy' thing?" he asks. I grunt at the change of topic and he shoots me a weak smile.

"May has one of those masks that changes the way you look. Whenever we go out in public, I'll wear one." I tell him.

"Wait, for the rest of your career?" Skye asks, gaping.

"No, No." I laugh. "Just until this whole thing dies down. Or I get to be Avery Stark again. Fury promised, I just don't know when." Skye gave me a look of pity and I turned to look out of the window. The ride back to base was unusually quiet but not awkward, more of a 'I'm scared to upset you' quiet which didn't really help with the anxiety I was feeling. I jumped out of the car and headed straight to my room, so I could change clothes and shower as I was feeling icky from the long ride.

Standing in front of the mirror with only a sports bra on, I could see the scar on my chest in full glory. It was still a very raw pink colour, but it didn't hurt to touch anymore. I knew it would soon grow to match my original skin colour, but it still brought memories back from the original event.

The pain.

The blood.

The fear.

The sadness.

Loki.

I put on a shirt and some pants, skipping the lab and gym where everyone seemed to be gathered and entered my own personal lab. The familiar metallic shine shimmered under the light and I smiled.