Usual disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or anything.

After the flight from hell, arriving back at headquarters Phil wanted nothing more than to return to his flat, and sleep. But no. The moment they'd landed he'd had a call from Fury, informing him that the next week he was going to Canada on another mission. As usual, he provided no further details. And as usual, the hideous lure of paperwork was beckoning, and Phil had no choice but to follow. Both he and John needed to get their mission reports written up for the events of the past week as soon as possible, preferably before they spoke with Fury the next morning, and the two agreed it would make the task much easier and a lot more bearable if they wrote them up together.

Phil's office was the largest, and had two desks, so that was where they went.

As Phil put the key into the door and turned the handle however, nothing happened. He frowned and rejigged the key. Again, nothing.

"Maybe it's just stuck" John suggested with a shrug. "Give it a kick?"

Phil decided to push on the door instead of booting it, but it wouldn't budge. He was getting a bad feeling this was not accidental lock-out. With a grunt, he threw his weight into the door, and it crashed open, leaving him struggling not to fall over and end up on the worn carpet below. He almost sighed with relief when he kept his balance.

"Okay, you really do need to get them back now."

Phil turned to look at John, a question in his eyes. He found his friend examining the inside of the door frame curiously, a smirk on his face.

"What?" Phil asked cautiously, although with a sinking feeling he knew already what his response was going to be.

"Well, it looks like somebody decided it would be fun to superglue your door shut."

"Superglue? On the door?"

"Yup. Did a damn good job of it as well, must have used a few tubes of the stuff."

"Shit."

"Gotta hand it to them Phil, they're good. Not quite as good as I was, but good."

Phil remembered all too well what kind of things Garrett had gotten up to during their first years training together. He also had a feeling that these two might actually be better, despite what he thought.

He shook his head in annoyance as he looked at the mess of splintered wood around where the lock had been. He was going to need a new door. And explaining this to Fury was less than likely to be fun.

"Right, well, regardless of the fact the office no longer has a door, I need to get this report written up before I see Fury tomorrow."

With that he headed off round the side of his desk, and plonked himself down tiredly into his chair. He really wasn't in the mood to spend the next few hours writing up on what he was only going to tell Fury face-to-face the next morning. But, it was all part of being a SHIELD agent, and, with a sigh, he reached out to open the draw with his paper in.

It wouldn't open.

He groaned, and tried the draw underneath that one. And then the one below that.

Every single draw on his desk was also superglued shut.

"Damn it" he muttered, dropping his head into his hands in exasperation.

"You see" John said, leaning against the doorframe and watching him with a glint in his eye. "This is exactly why you need to get them back."

"It might not have been those two?" As soon as he said the words Phil knew they were a lie. Of course it had been his rookies, either Barton or May or both together. More likely both together; he'd seen the mischievous looks the two shared when he was around.

"Bullshit, you know full well it was."

"Yeah."

"So? How you like the idea of shaving them now?"

"You know what? You're on." Garrett might have been joking, but right now Phil wanted nothing more than to get his revenge. "In fact," he added, a small smile on his face despite his ever plummeting mood, "I think I have an idea of what to do…"

"Welcome to flight training 101."

Melinda sat cross legged on a desk as her and around ten other agents were welcomed into their first flying lesson. She hadn't been able to sleep for the past two nights with a mixture of both excitement and nerves – which was not like her. Melinda May did not get nervous. She didn't. Never really had. Except that now, apparently she did.

The rest of their little social group had put in their requests to join the class alongside her, but whilst Fury had agreed it would be beneficial for them all to learn, he had put his foot down at them training together. So, for now, Melinda and Maria were together, and Natasha and Clint – who had been given a strict warning not to do anything stupid – were in a different class on another evening. Whether Barton and Romanoff in the same class would be a good decision however remained to be seen. Melinda knew how close they were, and she could only guess that studying together as well as well as socialising together would just bring them closer.

But it was none of her business.

"Usually," the instructor, an agent by the name of Jack Weaver, continued, "you would not actually embark upon your first flight for several weeks. However," he fixed each member of the class with a penetrating stare. "You are agents, and you have a job to do. The faster you learn these skills the better. So, you will spend the next fortnight reading from your textbooks, watching the demonstrations we shall provide, and learning the basics on paper. You will each take your first flight test two weeks today."

There were muffled gasps from around the room, Melinda and Maria included. Flying a plane in fourteen days, when they currently had zero knowledge? It was a terrifying prospect. But they could do it couldn't they?

In fairness, they had little choice…

"Coulson, you look exhausted."

It wasn't the best greeting Fury had ever given him, but Phil was pretty sure it was one of the more accurate. He was genuinely shattered. Going on a mission was tiring in itself, but adding that to the flight from hell, an evening trying to fill in mission reports with blurred vision, and throwing in an office full of superglue for good measure, had resulted one very tired and rather grumpy agent.

"I'm fine, Sir."

Fury just looked at him, raising an eyebrow in disbelief, but said nothing.

"You have your report?"

Phil nodded, handing over both his and John's reports from the previous week's assignment. It had taken them till gone midnight to get them written up, but they'd done it. And then he'd had to find some way of closing his office door without it looking like someone had broken in.

That failed.

He really needed a new door.

Phil sat in silence as Fury placed Garrett's report onto the desk in front of him, and picked up Phil's, beginning to read the overall summary of what he'd found. Phil knew somebody would go over the entire thing before it got filed away, but Fury only had time to get the details.

"He gave you a name?" he asked, jumping Phil out of his thoughts. "Lackwell? You said he gave a name?"

"Yes, Sir, not the leader by any means, but somebody else possibly involved. I was planning to run a check later and see where he's based, if he's on the system etc."

"Don't bother" Fury replied, closing the report and adding it on top of Garrett's. "I'll get another agent to run through it later. Right now, I need to talk to you about your rookies."

Phil swallowed. What the hell had they done this time.

"Don't look so worried Coulson" Fury said, watching him carefully. Phil had to remind himself that Nick had no idea about the glue incident.

"As I informed you the other day" he continued, "Agent May recently put in a request to take flying lessons. She was accepted into the flight school, and yesterday attended her first class."

"Is Barton there too?"

"He is training, but in a different class. There were not enough spaces to have their entire little group together, and it would more than likely have been a distraction for them anyway. He trains on another evening."

"Right."

"Whilst the rest of them will be taking an introduction to avionics only, agent May will be taking the complete course, hopefully resulting in a full pilot's license. She'll be an excellent asset to the organisation."

Phil found himself feeling a strange sense of pride. It wasn't as though he'd been training her for long, but hearing that made him strangely happy for her. He had to mentally remind himself that the same person however had just glued his office together.

Phil nodded in response, not sure where the conversation was leading.

"I mentioned yesterday evening to you I wanted you to head out to Canada? There is somebody that needs monitoring; I want you to do it. And I want you to take Barton with you."

"Barton?"

"Yes. He needs more experience on surveillance operations if he is to pass that course. I would've liked agent May to attend as well, however she will be taking her first flight exam the week after so cannot attend as she must remain here to study."

Phil couldn't deny the slight drop he felt at Fury's words. He would have liked it if May had come with them – solely for professional reasons of course. But it wasn't like Fury to actually permit agents to miss these assignments. Usually, he said that experience was worth more than grades, but if he wanted May to remain behind he obviously thought her learning to pilot was big.

"Yes Sir. I'll let him know."

"Good. You leave in three days."

Phil nodded once more and stood, stifling a yawn as he turned away.

"And Coulson?" Fury called out, just as he reached the door. Phil turned to look back at him, but Fury was focused on a file he was now reading. "Take the rest of the day off. Get some sleep."

"Thank you Sir, I will."