Chapter Twenty-Eight

A/N: If I don't specifically say something or there aren't large parts of text in bold, assume it's Samantha, not Grant. Also, this chapter crosses over with Avengers in the timeline, so there are some Avengers spoilers in this chapter if for some reason you haven't seen it yet.

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A few hours later, we landed safely back at the Triskelion. No surprise, Grant woke me up with an earthquake.

We marched Tess and Marco off the plane, handing them off to a few SHIELD agents who met us just outside the hanger. Grant seemed calmer, but I worried that he was faking. He had been irrationally angry earlier, and I didn't buy for a second that it was because of our covers.

Before I could start probing to see if he was still upset, Coulson speed-walked up to us.

"Agent Slater. Agent Ward. You're being reassigned immediately," he said, looking happy.

I glanced at Grant. "Where are we going?"

"The helicarrier."

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"I can't believe it, I can't believe it, I can't believe it!" I squealed as Grant maneuvered our Quinjet to a reserved spot on the deck of the helicarrier.

"Calm down Samantha."

"I can't! We're being posted to the Helicarrier! And Coulson's going to be flying in with Captain America any minute!"

"Speaking of which, can you think of any good reasons why he asked you to stay on deck and wait for them to land?" asked Grant.

"Um, maybe because he know's I'm as much of a fangirl as he is?"

"Of course," said Grant, sounding a bit on edge.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Fine."

Clearly a lie, but I didn't think it was anything urgent. It could probably wait until after I met Captain Freaking America.

"See you later then, I guess," said Grant, giving a slight wave before he headed below deck.

"See you!" I called, giving a much more exaggerated wave.

I looked around at the people on deck, rushing about from place to place. I felt lame just standing there, but I didn't know what else to do.

Finally, Coulson's Quinjet came in for a landing. The back ramp came down and I looked over to see him and Captain America coming out.

I walked up to them, trying my hardest to remain calm and professional.

"Hey Phil," I said, giving him a smile.

"Samantha. Good to see you. Captain Rodgers, meet Agent Slater."

"Nice to meet you," he said, reaching out to shake my hand, "Call me Steve."

"Likewise. And call me Samantha." It took all I had not to scream.

Before I could say anything else, we were joined by none other than SHIELD legend, the Black Widow. I was literally surrounded by my idols.

"Agent Romanoff, Captain Rodgers and Agent Slater," said Phil as a way of introduction.

"Ma'm," greeted Steve.

"Nice to meet you," I said, positively beaming at this point.

"Hi," she said, then to Coulson, "They need you on the bridge, they're starting the phase trace."

"See you there," replied Phil, grabbing my arm and pulling him with me as we walked away.

"What? Phil!" I complained, "I got to say like two sentences to them!"

"I know, but we have work to do. You can freak out later and I can get my cards signed."

I rolled my eyes, still unhappy as we headed belowdeck.

"Am I coming to the bridge with you?"

"Nope. You're on security functions. Unless you're an amazing computer genius?"

"Ugh. I told Grant that would come up. No, I'm not an amazing computer genius."

"Then meet up with Ward and make sure the ship is in top shape."

"Fine," I sighed, splitting off from Phil. It didn't take me long to find Grant. He was running a check of all the on-board security measures.

"What happened to Captain America?" asked Grant.

"Coulson needs me here. I literally said like, a sentence to him before Coulson made me go below decks."

"Hm. Well, if we're supposed to be checking the whole ship, we'd better get to it. It's a lot of work."

"Fine. At least I still get to hang with you."

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"What's all the excitement?" I asked. Grant and I were about halfway through our systems checks and the Helicarrier was suddenly buzzing with activity.

"They found the guy who took the Tesseract," answered an agent running down the hallway, "Captain Rogers and Agent Romanov are going to get him."

I looked at Grant. "So cool!"

"Focus Slater, we're only halfway through our systems checks."

"Ugh. I wish I could watch. This is going to be an epic takedown."

"Doesn't matter. We're still agents and we still have a job to do."

"You know what we should do? We should form our own superhero team."

"What?"

"Yeah. Like you and me should train like crazy, like Romanoff and Barton crazy, and become superheroes. And then we'll run around kicking ass with these guys."

Grant shook his head, but he was smiling. "Keep dreaming Slater. Maybe if we get some superserum or are involved in a lab accident, then I'll consider it."

"I'll see if I can arrange something."

Grant laughed, but to my dismay, turned back to working on security systems. I could only distract him for so long.

A few hours later, Phil came rushing up to us.

"Hey, are your checks done?" he asked.

"Yeah, we just finished."

"Good. We found out who took the Tesseract. An Asguardian named Loki. Brother of Thor. Both of them are now onboard, and Loki has already proved to be a massive threat. We need everybody on high alert. Check and double check everything for signs of trouble."

"Yes sir," said Ward, saluting before turning around, "I guess that means we go back through."

"Wonderful," I groaned.

Grant and I spent the next hour walking laps of the Helicarrier, making sure nothing was amiss. I was starting to get seriously bored when an agent I didn't recognize approached us.

"Agent Ward?" he asked. I was immediately disappointed when he didn't ask for me, too.

"That's me."

"We need your help on the bridge."

"Alright... Slater too?"

"No, level six and up only."

Grant turned to me with the most infuriating smirk on his stupid face.

"Sorry five," he said, not looking even a little bit sorry as he followed the other agent towards the bridge, "Keep sweeping the ship though, make sure nothing goes wrong while I'm on the bridge."

I took a deep breath in an attempt to keep from attacking him as he walked away, settling for a scowl instead. Once he was out of sight I reluctantly resumed pacing the ship, on the lookout for some threat that probably didn't even exist. We were on a cloaked Helicarrier for goodness' sakes!

As I rounded the corner towards the storage decks, I saw something weird ahead of me. Captain America was forcing open one of the secure storage doors.

I glanced around, but the hallway was deserted except for us.

"Um... Captain Rodgers? Steve?" I asked, approaching cautiously.

He jumped up and spun around to face me, looking like a kid who'd been caught doing something they weren't supposed to. He was definitely more of a soldier than a spy.

"Oh. Agent Slater. Uh, Samantha," he said, seeming more relaxed once he recognized me, "Think you could give me a hand with this door?"

I blinked. "Um... can I ask why?"

He looked me up and down, like he was trying to get a read on me, then said, "I think Fury is hiding something important. I'm trying to find out what, exactly."

I sighed. Crap. Fury is my boss. But then again, Captain America needs my help. I walked forward.

"Fine," I sighed, "Just don't rat me out."

To my relief, my level 5 security badge was enough to open the door without Steve having to force it.

"Thank you," he said, moving forward into the room.

"Can I help find whatever you're looking for? My partner got called to the bridge and I'm bored out of my mind."

Steve hesitated. "I don't want you to get in trouble."

"I'm a spy, I'll be fine," I said, following him into the room and hoping he'd just go with it. To my relief, he did.

We slowly made our way past rows of metal SHIELD crates. Steve leapt up onto the catwalk running over the first level, and I followed. The super strength certainly gave him an edge, but thanks to training with Ward every day, I was able to keep up.

We stalked along a little farther, and I was starting to doubt that Steve had any idea what he was looking for.

"Steve, what are we-" I stopped mid-sentence because Steve had stopped, and was instead staring down at a crate.

"Can you open this?" he asked, "I don't want to make too much noise by forcing it open.

I stared at the lock and got a nice surprise. For whatever reason, it was an old-school lock, not an electronic lock.

"Two seconds," I said, pulling out a bobby pin. I knelt down and started working the tumblers. I had gotten much faster at this over the last two years.

After a few seconds, the lock popped open.

"All done," I said, stepping back.

"Wow. Nice work," said Steve, looking genuinely impressed. I was positively glowing at his words.

He leaned in to look at the box's contents, and his look turned to one of horror.

"What?" I asked, "What's wrong?"

I leaned in to look for myself, and came face to face with gear marked with the distinct Hydra octopus staring back at me.

"Why is this here?" asked Steve, immediately turning to me.

"I don't know!" I exclaimed, looking back at him.

"How could you be on his ship and work for SHIELD and not know?"

I couldn't help it. I looked at him like he was crazy. "This ship is huge! SHIELD is huge! I just got assigned to this ship today, and even if I'd been here a year, I doubt I would've heard about this. Steve, we're a spy agency. Secrets are our business, and compartmentalization of information usually keeps people safe. Apparently not this time, though."

I looked back at the Hydra weapons and started to feel sick. Why were they here?

"I believe you," said Steve after a minute, "And I'm taking one of these to show the others. Fury's not going to be able to keep this secret anymore."

"Wait! Why do you think he has these?" I asked, only half wanting to know the answer.

Steve looked around, then sighed. "You heard about the Tesseract?"

I nodded.

"He wants to use its power to make weapons."

My jaw hit the floor. "But... I thought the idea was clean energy."

"That's a front. Stark mentioned it first, and now this proves it. I need to go find Fury now."

"Right. Right, ok. Do you need me to do anything? Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Keep SHIELD honest. Keep them from succeeding in anything like this."

I nodded, now feeling more grim than shocked. "Will do."

Steve nodded, then gave me a pat on the shoulder before jumping back over the railing with one of the guns in tow. It was another several minutes before I got my head cleared enough to move again.

I wandered out of the storage hold, determined to find Grant. I wasn't sure if any of the other agents were involved in this, but no matter what, I knew I could trust Grant.