Here we are, the final chapter. Episode tag, of course, to 2x05 A Hen in the Wolf House.

But first: season premiere rant! If you haven't seen it, you may want to skip right to the chapter. But really, not many spoilers to be found here. Just going to shout a couple names in (wonderful-ish) agony.

FITZ!

Okay, well, apparently just one name. But there was some pretty good Huntingbird in that ep too, so if you haven't seen it you should DEFINITELY as soon as humanly (or Inhumanly; do you take fish oil?) as possible. If anyone wants to discuss it more in depth with me, just ask! I need someone—or more than one someone—with whom after that rollercoaster ride of epicness...

Chapter 33
Operation M.O.C.K.I.N.G.B.I.R.D.
"I'll Let You Know When It's Over"

Out of all the ways her stint at HYDRA could have ended, this was by far one of her least favorite possibilities. Then again, it had been one of the more likely scenarios.

"Southwest corner! Repeat, Southwest corner!" she shouted into her radio as she hurtled across the roof after the female scientist. "Get down!" Bobbi shoved Simmons to the side behind the ventilation cylinder, feeling the concrete bite into her knees and palms. It was amazing how much she wished she had her tac suit at this moment—or Clint and Natasha. They would work too.

Gunshots rang out behind them, peppering the concrete. The sound further fueled the fire in her veins, and she fought the base instinct to survive. With a practiced mind, she extended her definition of the word to include the agent taking cover next to her: we will survive. Bobbi turned, firing back a few wild shots of her own. "Run!" she ordered, hurrying Simmons along.

"There's no one there!" the scientist protested as they reached the edge of the roof, but Bobbi didn't stop—just pulled the scientist over the edge with her. Simmons's scream pierced the night , momentarily drowning out the gunshots, and then was silenced with a thud as they hit the roof of the Quinjet. Again pain lanced up through her joints but she ignored it. The engines rumbled below them as Bobbi struggled to find her footing, to pull her fellow agent back up as she started to slide down the slick surface. In a perfect world, they both would have had flat landing sites, but this wasn't a perfect world and they'd been more than a foot off center. The Quinjet was decloaking underneath them, and as soon as it appeared Bobbi pulled open the top hatch, helping Simmons into the plane before climbing down herself.

"Welcome back, Agent Simmons," said the pilot.

"Trip, it's so good to see you," Simmons breathed shakily. A quick check-over of the younger woman assured her that she had successfully completed her mission: Jemma Simmons was unharmed. Well, Coulson's mission anyway—Gonzales was going to have to figure his own way out for their people, because her cover was most definitely not going to hold. "You certainly know how to make a first impression, Agent Morse."

"Please, it's just 'Bobbi,'" she corrected as the fiery surge of adrenaline began to recede within her body. It had been a good fight, but a little too close for comfort with their only backup being a cloaked Quinjet whose weapons system would probably have end up obliterating half the roof had they needed to use it. Simmons's picture being broadcast onto every HYDRA computer screen had been a bit of a curveball.

"Forgive me for asking," Simmons began in an accent that sounded much like—no, she wasn't going to think about him, not until she had to, "but if you were able to infiltrate HYDRA, why even bother having me go in?"

"My cover gave me access to HYDRA security, but none of its high-level projects," she explained simply.

"Then I'm afraid I came up empty-handed," Simmons replied regretfully.

"Not entirely," Bobbi grinned, removing a rectangular piece of metal and plastic from her pocket.

"My hard drive," Simmons returned the smile.

"I took it after our conversation in the bathroom. Seemed like it might provide some useful intel."

"Oh," Simmons nodded, still obviously reeling from this turn of events. "I like you."

"You didn't do too bad yourself, lasting as long as you did," Bobbi told her. "Heard from Kenneth while he was squealing like a pig in interrogation that Whitehall even knew your name. Respect."

"Thanks," Simmons said shyly.

After a short flight, they were arriving back at the Playground, Coulson's new S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. "Welcome home, Agent Simmons," the man himself said as he greeted them in the hallway. May stood by his side, and she and Bobbi exchanged friendly nods before the specialist focused fully on the scientist. In truth, Bobbi was a bit surprised about the caring look in May's eyes as she gazed at Agent Simmons—last she'd heard of May, she was still as cold and aloof as when she'd stepped off the tarmac from Bahrain. Obviously something had changed.

In an even deeper truth, her heart was pounding in anticipation of the encounter to come. Of course, she knew vaguely how things were going with Hunter. She always did. After their split, he'd gone on full-time with Idaho and kept with Izzy and Mack, and she'd asked the latter more than once how he was doing.

"He's come up with some more names," Mack had told her the second time. "Hellbeast and the like." Some months later, the next time she'd asked, he'd given a similar answer, but asked, "Who're you asking for, Bobbi? You or him?" It was a question she couldn't answer at the time, and she wasn't sure she could even answer now. Things would always be complicated between her and Hunter, and that was just the way things were.

Of course, she'd seen him from time to time in the interim. Sometimes they'd scream at each other, other times end up in bed. Once or twice they'd found themselves marginally close to thinking about rekindling something akin to a relationship, but they had quickly self-destructed again—once with actual flames.

The last time she'd spoken with him... The last time she'd spoken with him was at night, a month or so ago. Hartley. He'd called, upset and alone, and it was like all the anger had simply drained out of her at his first words. "Bob, I don't know what to do." Despite the heated accusations that they'd hurled at each other over the years—which truthfully in retrospect they could really have condensed into a single five-minute yelling match if they hadn't kept repeating themselves so much; their relationship was such a spiral—there were still things with him that could give her pause, even after all they'd been through. The lies and mistrust… In all honesty she thought they'd lied more in the ensuing blame-game fights after the divorce than in the two years they'd been married, right up to the moment they'd signed the papers. It was the kind of stupid thing only she and Hunter could do, and it was what kept them apart as well as drove them insane, only serving to prove the true depth to which they both still cared for each other.

No, no, no. She was not admitting to still caring for him, even to herself. That was a bad rabbit hole to go down. She didn't care. She didn't.

"Director Coulson," Simmons sighed happily as Bobbi zoned back in to the reunion unfolding in front of her.

He chuckled. "I'm glad to have you back." Bobbi was going to have to get used to this whole 'Director Coulson' thing. He was still just an agent and a friend in her mind.

"I'm just glad to be alive," Simmons confessed. "If it hadn't have been for Agent Morse, I—"

"Bobbi," she gently corrected her.

"Bobbi, right. If it hadn't have been for Bobbi, I would never have made it out. Probably be brainwashed, happy to comply to who knows what." Bobbi barely kept herself from flinching as Simmons mentioned brainwashing and compliance. Kara. She must have been able to keep her gut reaction to herself, however, because none of the four agents standing there noticed it. Simmons merely leaned closer to Coulson and whispered, "She's amazing." Bobbi gave her as much of a smile as she could muster. Amazing would have chosen a safehouse to give to Bakshi that was actually empty. Amazing would—no, another rabbit hole. She had a lot of those, Bobbi was discovering.

"That's why I've asked her to join the team," Coulson said with a warm glance in her direction. Perhaps he hadn't missed her lapse after all. In reality that offer was a few months stale, but there was nothing she wanted more than to have some semblance of normality in her life again, to not be constantly holding up a deception. Except, maybe, to not have to face her ex-husband again.

Simmons stared past May through the glass into some sort of laboratory, and Bobbi wondered if she'd even heard what the Director had just said. His gaze softened, and he said gently, "Go ahead."

She nodded absently, still staring like she'd seen a ghost. Now Bobbi recognized the glazed look—it was the one she herself felt inside.

"Agents Triplett, Morse," Coulson gestured them forward, down the hallway. "The rest of the team is waiting to meet you, and we'll have to fill you in, Morse, on everything that's been going on. Our communiqués within HYDRA could only be so long, so there's a lot you don't know."

"Sounds good," Bobbi nodded. She deposited her coat on a chair just inside the conference room. "Would you excuse me for a moment? I have to make a call." Coulson nodded and she ducked away into a nearby room, pulling out her phone and dialing. It was picked up on the fifth ring.

"Romanoff."

"Hey, Tasha," Bobbi said after a moment of confusion. "Can I talk to Clint?" There was the sound of glass shattering on the other end.

"You're going to have to hold for a minute; I didn't hear a thing you just said," Natasha replied after a small stretch of silence. Bobbi waited, listening to the sounds of gunfire, a minor explosion, and what she thought was a man's wrist cracking. Or, based on the high-pitched yowl that followed, perhaps his fingers. "Okay, now, what's up?" Romanoff asked.

"I wanted to talk to Clint," Bobbi told her. "Why do you have his phone?"

"Mine got a bullet through it; he let me borrow his. Clint, phone for you!" she called. There was a pause. "He'll be over in a sec after he dispatches the last of these HYDRA goons. How have you been? This isn't a help-get-me-out-of-HYDRA call, is it?"

"No, the extraction with the new S.H.I.E.L.D. went fine," Bobbi told her. "I'm back with them now."

"Good to hear," Romanoff said. "Wait, here's Clint."

"Hey, Bobbi," he greeted her as the phone changed hands. "Is this the call I've been hoping for?"

"It is," she confirmed. "I'm out. You can stop worrying. Though you shouldn't have been, anyway. I can handle myself."

"I'll worry about you whenever I'm not there watching your back, Mockingbird," Barton replied in a teasing yet sincere voice. "You'd worry about me, too, if I didn't have Nat with me."

"True," Bobbi smiled. "I trust her to bail you out of any sticky situations you're liable to get yourself into."

"So, what about you? Who can I count on to watch your back in this new S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"The Cavalry, for one," Bobbi answered.

"You know May," Clint said. "Why are you calling her that?"

"I haven't seen her since Bahrain...only heard the stories," she admitted. "She didn't want to see me, and with everything that was happening with Hunter...at the time, I didn't push. I don't know who she is anymore. Only the rumors."

"Fair enough," he agreed. "Who else?"

"Mack. And…"

"Hunter," Clint finished. "Damn, with all the bureaucracy and HYDRA problems we've been dealing with, I completely forgot… How're you holding up? Have you seen him yet?"

"Not yet. Soon."

"Are you okay?"

Bobbi laughed humorlessly. "Not really allowed to be anything else."

"Of course you are. With me and Nat, at least. He gives you too much trouble, just send us the location of your new top-secret base and we'll come kick his ass for you." As far as she could tell, Clint was serious. "We're not affiliated with S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore, so we are regulation-free."

Bobbi smiled. "He'll be the one that needs Avenging if he pisses me off too much."

"That's the Mockingbird I know and love," Clint joked. "Listen, we have to go, but call me later today, okay? Like around noon?"

"...Clint, it's nine o'clock PM here."

"I hate time zones," he swore. "Around midnight, then. Stay safe."

"You too." She stuffed her phone back in her pocket and took a deep breath before heading out of the room. She could do this. She could.

"Hey," said a deep, familiar voice. Mack stepped down from the stairs, greeting her with open arms. "Long time, no see, Barbara." They embraced and she momentarily forgot about her ex-husband in the warm glow of seeing an old friend. She hadn't seen him since she'd left the Iliad.

Bobbi laughed. "Don't start with that again." She inhaled deeply, relaxing in his presence.

"What you been up to?" he asked.

"Oh, you know, working undercover at HYDRA, acting all uptight and evil," she quipped, falling into their old patterns easily. "You know what I could really go for right now? Three-olive martini—"

"—hold the olives," they said together, and she grinned again at how well he knew her.

"Bobbi?" Her heart stopped dead in her chest, the smile melting off her face. In the split second before she turned, Mack met her alarmed eyes with something akin to sympathy.

"Hey, Hunter," she said, keeping her voice sharp. She looked him up and down. "Nice suit." It was as close as it would get to 'You look good,' because he did. And for some reason that she couldn't fathom, it gladdened her when in a perfect world she should have been wishing he died in a hole. Ah, right. She'd already established this wasn't a perfect world.

"'Nice suit'? Really? That's what you're leading with?" Hunter asked, still staring at her with a mixture of shock and indignation. "What did you do to your hair?"

The question rubbed her the wrong way, as if he still had any say in what she did even though they were no longer married. "Ever heard of undercover?"

"I prefer you blonde," Hunter said with that dumb look still plastered across his face.

"Well, I didn't do it for you," she shot back. "Two seconds in, there's already a tone."

"This isn't a tone! This is my speaking voice when I'm upset with an unreasonable person!"

"Oh, yes, I'm the unreasonable one," Bobbi scoffed.

"Anyone mind telling me what the bloody hell she's doing here?" he demanded of the rest of them. May and Triplett were just watching their interaction with a mix of amusement and concern while Mack looked positively unimpressed.

"Bobbi's one of our best agents," Coulson came up behind her.

"Oh, that's rich! Then mind telling me what I'm doing here?"

"It's easy," Bobbi cut in. "I vouched for you."

"Why the hell would you do that?!" Hunter exploded.

"Play nice," Coulson admonished, and Bobbi turned away, rolling her eyes at his antics. But his words stuck with her, echoing in her mind. Why had she vouched for him? Their relationship was toxic and she hated his guts, but she had felt relieved that he was all right after hearing about Izzy's death. Had felt relieved that he called her. Their divorce had crushed her for a long time; she knew that—she knew going in that with marriage she was a one-and-done type of girl. But she'd gotten over it, thrown herself into her work, punched a lot of faces and broken a lot of bones, and she'd made it out of that pit. Why, then, did seeing him again—arguing with him again, just like old times—make her heart flutter in her chest, dig up all those old repressed, tumultuous emotions? She chose to hate him because hating Hunter was easier than loving him. She wanted not to care about him. She shouldn't.

But she did. And it was time to face the fact that that was probably never going to change.

THE END

Truthfully, I'm sad this story is over. I've loved working on it since January, and Bobbi, Hunter, Barton, Romanoff, Hartley, Mack, Coulson, May, Hill, Fury—they're all amazing characters to get to play with. But the one thing that I love about this fic is that the story doesn't end—if you want to know what happens to these two, all you need to do is watch the newest Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode and there they'll be, having new adventures that none of us have even imagined yet.

But beyond the characters and the entire MCU world, there's all of you. This story started out with a small but tight-knit community around it and it's only since gotten a bit bigger, but no less tight. Bonding with you over this fic, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., comics, and the movies has been the best part of it all, and that's what I truly think fanfiction is about: bringing us fans closer together and closer to the characters and universes we love.

Thank you all so much for sticking on this ride with me. It had its ups and downs, I know—but we made it.

To VanillaAshes: You are an amazing beta, and an even more amazing friend. I'll admit I don't remember exactly how we met, but I know this story had a lot to do with us getting to know each other so well. Thank you so much for your initial interest in this story, because as you know this fic would be a shadow of what it's become without your endless enthusiasm, ideas, and support. Also, you RP an excellent Lance Hunter.

To daisiesinajar: I'm so glad to have gotten to know you over this fic and many others. Here's to hoping this new season provides a crapload of new Huntingbird moments to inspire both of us into new stories! I look forward to reading yours, because I know they'll be spectacular.

To all of my other reviewers - weepingangelofnewnewyork, eponineoswinoswald221b, beverlie4055, LilacLilyFlower, SwifteForeverAndAlways, Guest, quinnovative, grossly-sweet, alexis1612, Spitfire303, lovinxoxo, fanficwriter17, soniakk, WriteWithFeeling, Jeph17, cokeerr, phwaa, Guest who wrote the strongly worded review I requested way back when, lostinmyownlittleuniverse, TeenageAvengerSurvivingSchool, huntingbirdfan, Ana, Emilie, Backward-In-Heels, wendykw, and Sasha: I couldn't ask for a better group of reviewers. You are all wonderful, special people.

And for those of you asking for a sequel - I'm grateful. Flattered. Amazed by the response to this story and wishing I could hug each and every one of you. So I will say this: if heaven forbid the show is canceled (I know, I don't want to even consider the possibility either) and both Bobbi and Hunter are still alive, I will do a sequel that encompasses the future we otherwise would never get to see. In other words, one way or another THEY SHALL LIVE ON!

In the meantime, you'll have the settle for my other Huntingbird fic 'Secrets and Lies,' which is ongoing. Bobbi and Hunter have a daughter. Whom she didn't tell him about for four years. You get the idea.

Much love,
Sanctuaria