Don't You Worry Child

The Story

Chapter Summary: Fury's resignation sends everyone into a spin as they try to figure out what to do next.

Soundtrack: The Story by Brandi Carlile

It wasn't long before Natasha returned to the room with one thing to say "I just got a phone call, Fury
resigned as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D."

A veil of silence fell over the room, only the beeping from Samantha's heart monitor becoming the only thing that could be heard. Everyone was in shock, Fury had seemed such a constant within S.H.I.E.L.D. even when he'd died he hadn't really died and now he was resigning? It didn't add up at all. Who would be the new director, the first thought popping into the minds of both Tony and Steve being the name Maria Hill but Pepper knew otherwise – she would have received notification regarding Hill's resigning if that were the case. Samantha had no clue as to who it would be, for all she knew it could be Tony and wouldn't that be a strange scenario?

"What do you mean? Fury can't have resigned. Where did you hear that?" Samantha asked, her voice hoarse from the recently removed intubation tube.

"Straight from the horse's mouth," Natasha replied bluntly, a frown spreading across her face. The next few questions she was about to be asked were going to be difficult to answer, particularly with a civilian who wouldn't be affected by the news in the room.

"Who's replacing him?" Steve asked, his voice showing a reserved concern unique to only him.

"Coulson," was Natasha's frank response.

Nobody in that room was capable of taking that answer as read, it was impossible "That can't be right," was Tony's response, the first words he'd said since before Samantha had awoken.

"It's impossible," Steve stated, surprisingly Tony and Steve were agreeing on something.

"Are you sure you heard right?" Pepper said, concerned for the redhead who stood at the entrance to the room.

"Isn't he supposed to be... you know... dead?" Samantha probed as tactfully as she thought possible, remembering back to her conversation with Pepper in the boutique changing rooms.

"This is probably a conversation we should have when certain unauthorised civilians can't hear," Natasha stated and Samantha looked to the doctor who was checking her vitals.

"Excuse me Doctor...."

"Potter,"

"Doctor Potter is there any chance that we can do these checks later on? I'm afraid this discussion is rather urgent and unfortunately we don't have the authorisation to allow you to listen," Samantha stated as politely as possible.

"But I need to do these tests in case anything goes wrong," he replied "It's kind of the rules,"

"Haven't you ever wanted to break the rules just once? Come on live a little. If something goes wrong we can always have you paged," she urged batting her eyelashes.

"Fine," he said with an adolescent sounding sigh.

"Thank you," Samantha replied as he left the room. Then she turned to face Natasha "Okay what do you know?"

"Fury had this project, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s science projects, practically no-one knew about it. It was one of his attempts to save our best and brightest. Before I go any further, I need to know that this won't leave this room. I'm only allowed to tell you because you all have the potential to be directly affected by it," Natasha began and everyone nodded in response "Okay then I'll begin properly,"

'Back in 2010, Fury had Coulson head up a project – Project T.A.H.I.T.I – very few people knew about it. It was top secret, more top secret than you could even imagine, Hill didn't even know about it, that's how secret it was. Only the people who worked on it and Fury had any idea as to what it was. Fury wanted to be sure that should one of the Avengers or a top level agent be killed or fatally wounded, he could – essentially – bring them back to life.

While Clint and I were in Budapest we kept hearing rumours from other agents about a location back here called The Guest House, nobody knew what it was or even its exact location. I asked Fury about it but he refused to answer, everything was cryptic I was never told that it didn't exist but never that it did. Eventually, I gave up asking and left it alone.

Then – after New York – the rumours started up again and I got curious, I asked a couple of people and finally I found out. The Guest House was a test facility, they were holding the decaying body of an alien there. They were draining its bodily fluids, all of them, and using them to create serums.

One of those serums was called GH325; that was the one, the one serum that could do the job. Problem was the side effects were too severe. There was a reason Fury had Coulson babysit you Stark. Coulson had quit the project and made the recommendation that it be shut down, Fury wasn't happy. He reduced Coulson's status and made him help you with the arc reactor issue instead. It wasn't until Thor turned up that Coulson was able to head up projects, particularly the ones involving the Tesseract. It kept him as far away from Project T.A.H.I.T.I. as possible, Fury didn't want Coulson to know that the project was continuing despite his recommendation.

After New York, after Coulson's death, Fury made the decision to use GH325 on Coulson to bring him back. Shockingly, it worked, no real side effects but Fury wiped any memories Coulson had of the serum.'

"Oh my God!" Pepper exclaimed once Natasha had finished telling the story, putting a hand to her mouth in shock.

"So Fury lied to us, that's what you're saying?" Steve asked angrily, every feeling he had ever had on the subject was rising up within him, about to erupt like some sort of volcanic lava in Mt Etna, resulting in a very prominent vein pulsing one his neck.

"Technically no, Fury merely worked to change Coulson's status," Tony stated as gently as he knew how.

"And that makes it okay? Fury tried to play God and last person who did that tried to destroy New York,"

"Actually Loki was a literal god. Well, a Demi-god but you know he was still God of Mischief and Evil," Samantha corrected.

"That is completely beside the point. Fury did what we were working to prevent. He played God and he needs to be stopped," Steve argued.

"No Fury did what he thought was right to save one of the best agents S.H.I.E.L.D. has seen in years!" Tony retorted.

"You can't be serious. You can't expect me to believe that Fury was in the right and you want me to just accept that? You're crazy Stark," Steve stated.

Now Samantha was becoming, for lack of better wording, incredibly pissed off "Stop arguing the two of you! You're like children! Honestly. Steve my father may be many things; inappropriate, sarcastic, eccentric, not so great with social cues but he is definitely not crazy and I won't accept you calling him such. Dad, I know you have your own personal beliefs on the subject but you can't honestly expect Steve to agree with them," she reasoned as she tried to calm herself "Now apologise to each other," she ordered with a glare she'd inherited from her mother.

"Fine, Steve I'm sorry for being an asshole who expects you to follow his own beliefs," Tony said with a sigh that belonged to a teenager.

"Now Steve you need to apologise,"

"Or I could just leave," he said before walking out of the room.

"Dammit Steve!" Samantha called after him as she tried not to cry but tears flowed anyway.