Cut It Out and Restart *Daredevil*Damned*Agents of SHIELD*

9) Everything We See, Everything We Hear

"You've been staring at these for hours. Stop obsessing over it, Nica. Whoever they were... they knew what they were doing and didn't want to be caught," Coulson bargained.

He had stopped by her cubicle, seeing the door opened ajar, and found her crumpled over her laptop, headphones in, replaying the surveillance records from their latest mission.

Nica sighed, pulling out one headphone to hear him better, and paused the video, only to meet with his eyes tired and worried, eyebrows drawn together in concern as he leaned onto the doorframe and watched her being completely engrossed in the footage.

Consumed by her work.

It had ben several weeks since Coulson told her about Barry Allen's mission for justice and deep down, Nica knew that she dived into kicking ass and taking names even further, as if it hadn't already become the sole purpose of her life. It wasn't healthy, she knew that too.

She just didn't care.

On top of that, this was truly, truly bugging her.

"It just doesn't make any sense!" she complained and gestured towards footage from the security camera they – Skye – had hacked into before taking it down entirely. "Whoever they were, they must have known the moment the surveillance was down – possibly waiting until we did it for them, avoiding the cameras until we turned them off. But, they left the artifact and the bomb, pointing us their directions. It's like... it's like they wanted to help, but wanted to do it from the shadows."

The team had been assigned a mission to retrieve another artifact from Asgard – one that no one had a clue what was for, but certainly was of interest of several dangerous people while in possession of a private collector who turned out to be even worse and hence had to be retrieved.

The thing was, half of the security guards slash bad guys, were down before the team even entered the building, Nica had barely had to fight off like three of them and Ward discovered a path of clothes leading him to a previously hidden bomb, the locked closet broken through with a metal bar.

And yet, the artifact was still in place, untouched. And it was driving Nica up the wall, because what the hell.

"Why? Why hide? If they were friends, they could show their faces. If they were enemies, they wouldn't have helped... unless they were trying to earn our trust and betray us later– in which case they would want to reveal themselves as well. And why leave the bomb? If they wanted to help, why not disarm it? What are we missing? Was there something else? Was there something valuable to them that they got their hands on and we didn't know about? It looks like nothing is missing from the vault! It's just.... ugh. It's driving me crazy."

"I noticed," Coulson mumbled as he crossed his arms on his chest, eyeing Nica carefully, as if she was about to snap at him. It was not a good feeling, to be looked at like that. Like she was... unstable. To be fair, Coulson of all people knew the best that she had a lot going on under the surface. "And I understand, I don't think we should just leave it either. But give it time. Look at it later, distance yourself a little. Now you're just staring at the same things over and over again with no chance of finding something new. If there is something to see. Or... hear," he sighed and gestured towards the headphone in her hand. He smiled at her then, kind, causing her frantic heart to settle for a bit. "Go to sleep, Nica."

And with that, she smiled at him back as he retreated from the space of her cubicle, sliding her door shut.

The thing was, while she felt slightly calmer, her visceral reaction subduing, her mind could not rest. How could it? They could be missing something essential, something that had the potential to blow into their face later.