The Coffee Stop looked like any other independent coffee shop that you'd find on a college campus. It was its own little building that probably had been originally built in the seventies, but had been updated several times since then. I stood across the street from it, watching as people came and went, feeling every part of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent that I practically was.

After Agent Ward and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. had shown up, they'd taken me to the infirmary and stitched up the bullet wound. Agents Barton and Romanoff had successfully extracted the Martins, saving their lives. They hadn't spoken to me since. I didn't think that they were allowed to. I had received a phone call from Laura though. She had said that if there was anything that I wanted to talk about, then I could talk about it with her.

I appreciated the call, but I didn't feel like I could talk about it with anyone...well, almost anyone. I swallowed my nerves and crossed the street, entering The Coffee Stop.

An Asian girl wearing a black dress stood behind the cash register. She smiled. "What can I get you?" she asked.

"A regular black coffee," I said.

"For?"

"Paige," I said, "Paige Martin."

"Alright, that's one regular black coffee for Paige Martin?" she asked. When I nodded, she said, "That'll be three fifty." I handed over the money and went to sit at one of the many tables.

Glancing around, I studied the students at the other tables. Some of them were studying, a few of them were on their laptops, and the rest of them were socializing. It was a scene that was familiar to me, though at SciTech things were done a bit differently.

Fury had been to see me after my family had been rescued. He had told me that they had erased all memory of the past few months from my family's mind, and given me several options. The first was to never talk to my family again and become a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, the second was for S.H.I.E.L.D. to erase my memory and to go live a normal life, the last was to go to one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s academies and to lie to my parents about it. I had chosen the last option and gone to the SciTech academy. My parents had been thrilled when they found out that I, the ever troublesome Lucille Paige Martin, had been offered a full ride to a prestigious college.

I hadn't liked him, but Nice Coat had been right about one thing. I was a very important pawn in somebody else's game of chess. I didn't know who's, but I would find out.

"Paige Martin," a voice cut through my thoughts. I walked up to the counter and smiled.

"Hey," I muttered.

Lexi raised an eyebrow. "I haven't seen you in months and all you can manage is 'hey'?"

I shrugged. "I guess."

Lexi rolled her eyes. "Hey, Ella," she said, turning to the girl behind the counter, "I'm going on break. I'll be back in ten."

"Sure," Ella said.

Lexi handed me my coffee and came out from behind the counter. "So, what are you doing here?"

I sat down at a table. "How's college?"

"Easy," Lexi said. "How's everything with you?"

I looked down at my coffee. "My family doesn't know anything."

"That's a good thing, right?"

"I guess. But now I'm lying to them."

"About?"

"I'm going to one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. academies. They think that I'm just going to college."

Lexi nodded. "And what about the whole kidnapping thing?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. erased their memories."

"They can do that?"

"Yeah," I said, "So you're the only non S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who knows anything about me."

"Wow," Lexi muttered.

"Yeah, and there's something else that you should know."

"What?"

I took a deep breath. "The real reason that those Russians were after me, that S.H.I.E.L.D. wants to keep an eye on me, is because my birth parents are Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton."

"No. Way." Lexi said, and suddenly she was Lexi the superhero fangirl that I had met in ninth grade.

"Yeah."

"Did you get their autographs?"

"No."

"But you met them, right?"

"Yeah."

Lexi grinned. "If I still had my superhero blog, I would totally blog about this."

I shook my head. "You can't tell anyone."

"Relax," Lexi said, "I'm great at keeping secrets."

"You have to promise that you won't say a word."

"I promise, cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye, stew or fry, all the good stuff."

I smiled. "You have no idea how nice it is to be able to tell someone about this."

"You're welcome," Lexi said. She took a sip of the coffee sitting in front of me. "Eww. Since when do you take your coffee black?"

I shrugged. "It's a new thing." A family thing actually. "So, what's new with you?"

"Nothing really," Lexi said, "My dad's out."

My phone vibrated on the table where it was charging. I glanced at the caller ID. "Laura?" I asked, picking it up.

"Hey Paige," Laura said.

"You do realize that it's eleven at night, right?"

"I figured that you would be up."

I smiled. She wasn't wrong about that. She almost never was. "What are you calling about?"

"Clint just got a call from S.H.I.E.L.D.," she said, "I wasn't supposed to be listening, but I was anyways. Paige, Nick Fury's dead."

"What?" I asked, not sure that I heard her right.

"Nick Fury's dead. He was shot in Steve Roger's apartment."

"What? How?" This wasn't right. The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't just be dead. It didn't work that way.

"I don't know, Paige. I just thought that you might want to know."

"Yeah. Thanks for telling me."

"No problem," Laura said, "And if you ever need anything, feel free to stop by or to call me."

"I will," I promised before hanging up. I sat back in my chair. Nick Fury was dead. That didn't sound right. How could the head of one of the world's top agencies just be dead? Who had killed him? Was it Nice Coat's friends?

My thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. "Paige, are you in there?" The RA of the dorm, Kevin, asked.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Can I come in?"

I stood up and went to open the door, checking through the peephole to make sure that it was actually Kevin at my door. Kevin was standing at my door, along with six or seven other people. I locked the door.

"What do you need?" I asked.

"I just want to discuss some things with you," Kevin said, and that's what I noticed that several of the agents with him had guns either in their hands or stuffed in the pockets of their jeans.

"Okay," I said, walking back to my desk and stuffing a gun as well as my phone in to my pants, "just give me a sec. I have to put on clothes." I laced up my sneakers and opened my window. I jumped out. As soon as my feet hit the pavement, I started running.