Chapter Twenty-Five (In the End)

(About Two Days Later)

Ward hobbled down the Playground's hallway towards the common room on crutches. They hadn't fitted his leg with a prosthetic yet, so he was still on crutches. He had been in a normal room that Coulson had assigned him since yesterday.

But just an hour ago Coulson had told him to meet him and the rest of the team in the common room of the secret base for reasons unknown. Ward had asked why but Coulson didn't reply, he just had said to meet the rest of the team there.

A few minutes later, he came into the room to see the rest of the team in there waiting for him.

"And there's Patchy the Pirate." Skye said, smiling.

Ward shook his head as he sat down, placing his crutches aside, "I told you not to call me that." he said. "No names that involve pirates or cyborgs. Nothing."

"Still going to get you a pegleg." Skye stated. "Even Fitz has agreed to help out with that."

Fitz smiled and shook his head in reply.

"I swear, one of these days." Ward grumbled.

Coulson cleared his throat, "Now to why I wanted you here."

Ward frowned, "You're sending me back to jail, aren't you?" he asked.

"No, we're not doing that." Coulson said. "Actually the opposite really."

Ward raised an eyebrow, "Wait, what are you saying?" he asked.

"I'm saying that you can stay here with us." Coulson replied.

"Really?"

"Yes. After thinking a lot about this and talking with the rest of the team, despite a little disagreement, we've decided that you can stay here. But under some conditions."

Ward sighed, "What are the conditions?"

"One, your first major goof-up means you're back to jail. Two, you're on close surveillance. Three, you can't leave this facility unless you're with someone really trustful."

Ward looked at Skye with a raised eyebrow. Coulson was most likely meaning don't leave with just Skye.

"And four." Coulson walked over and locked something onto Ward's wrist that looked awfully familiar.

"You're tagging me?" Ward asked. "With Skye's bracelet?"

"Not hers exactly." Fitz said. "It has some differences. This one does track you and makes sure that you're not sending secret messages to Hydra or anything like that. And it's black."

Ward rolled his eyes.

Coulson smiled, "Welcome back, conditionally. Now, if this is over I have a big job to do."

"Job? What job?" Ward asked.

Triplett laughed, "He didn't tell you?" he asked.

"No."

"You might want to tell him, Coulson." May said.

"Coulson, what's going on? What did I miss?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. I'm SHIELD's new director." Coulson said with a slight smile.

Ward's mouth dropped open, "Wait, what? Since when? There's no SHIELD. What?"

"Fury wants me to rebuild SHIELD from the ground." Coulson went out the room, but you could hear him still mumbling to himself. "Should I get the Avengers to help? I haven't seen them in a long while."

"What just happened?" Ward asked.

"Coulson." Simmons said. "Coulson happened."

"Well ok then." Ward got up from the chair, steadying himself on his one leg. May came over and handed him his crutches.

"I'm still watching you." she said and walked off.

Skye came over, "Shall we watch a movie?" she asked. "Doesn't matter what it is."

"I guess it won't hurt, I can't do much of anything else right now." Ward replied, following Skye to the couch in front of the massive flat screen.

Simmons stood up, "Come on Fitz, let's go check your cast." she said.

"But I want to watch this movie." Fitz pouted, trying to cross his arms in reply.

"Now, Fitz." Simmons stated, grabbing him by the arm and practically drug him out of the room.

Fitz's voice echoed into the room, "But you've already checked it twice today!"

Ward looked at Skye and only shook his head in response. Hopefully everything would return to normal, eventually.

(Sometime Later Elsewhere.)

"Mr. Stark, a Maria Hill is here to see you."

"Well, JARVIS, open the door and let her in even though I don't want to see her right now."

"Alright, sir, this does seem rather important."

Tony Stark turned from his bar to look at the elevator doors as soon as they opened to reveal Maria Hill.

She walked in, holding a folder, "Stark."

"Hill." Tony replied. "What brings you here?" he asked.

"My resignation from Stark Industries." Hill replied.

"Then why bring it to me?" Tony asked.

"I'm needed elsewhere."

"Tony, who's here?"

Hill and Tony turned to see Bruce Banner walk into the massive common room.

"Banner." Hill stated.

"Oh, Hill, hi." Bruce replied. "What brings you here?"

Hill then handed Tony the folder, "This. It seems that somebody now really important wants you. That's hard to believe."

Tony rolled his eyes and opened the folder, revealing a letter.

It read as followed,

'Dear Mr. Stark, I can't believe I am writing to you to ask for your cooperation in something this big, but I am. I am asking you, and the other Avengers, to help me in rebuilding SHIELD…'

Tony looked up, "Why is Fury writing a letter?" he asked. "That doesn't seem like him."

"Keep reading, you'll see." Hill stated.

'You can either accept or decline this offer, but I feel that if all of the Avengers, especially you, are in this, SHIELD can be rebuilt to its former glory in no time. I already have Hill in this, she's probably the one that handed you this letter, and I'm searching the country for former loyal SHIELD agents that are willing to come back. But there are it's limits, do not call me 'Agent' because that is not my name, but you can call me Director since that's my official title now and I will officially have priority over you. I hope that you can help with this effort. Sincerely Director Phillip Coulson.'

Tony looked up from the letter, face frozen, "Wait, C-Coulson? Hill, this has to be a joke. This says this is from 'Director Phillip Coulson'. Coulson's dead."

Bruce blinked, "Hill, I'm sorry, but Tony is right. Loki killed Coulson during the Helicarrier attack over a year ago. He's dead."

Hill smiled, "Don't believe everything that Fury tells you."

"So, Coulson is alive?" Tony asked. "Coulson is alive?"

"Yes, he's now just dealing with the after effects of the whole Hydra situation, but he's alive."

"And you're telling us that he's Director?" Bruce asked.

"Yes. And believe it or not, he wants all of the Avengers help on this." Hill replied.

Tony turned to Bruce, "What do you say Bruce? Shall we pay our old friend Agent a visit for old time's sake?"

END

Author's Note: I don't own AoS, Stark, or Banner, Marvel does. End of this story! Hoped you enjoyed! Threw that last past in for a little fun and for a lead in to the sequel I'm thinking of writing called 'From the Ashes of Destruction' eventually. It's basically a few years in the future after this and SHIELD is back up and the Avengers are involved, but Hydra comes back to haunt them. Please respond if you would like to see this sequel! But it will be a while, later this week to next week since I'm going on brief hiatus due to review this story! ~AwakeAndAliveSpartan.