Loyalty, Family, and Madness: [Fury's Stresses 2] In which our dear Director Fury finds out who the person who tipped him off was, Percy is grieving, the rest of the demigods are rallying behind him, and Nico is generally annoyingly chipper.

When Fury stood in front of the door he'd just knocked on, and had it open less than thirty seconds later, he didn't expect the nineteen-year-old to be haggard with adrenaline and tiredness, as well as grief-stricken. His black hair stuck up in every direction, like he'd just run his hand through it about a dozen times, and his green eyes were almost grey. He was slouched just a tad, and leaning against the doorframe unconsciously.

"Mr. Jackson?"

"No," he said flatly, and shut the door in their faces.

Beside Fury, Coulson's lips barely twitched with amusement.

"By all means, you try," Fury said.

"Mr. Jackson, I don't think that you know who we are. My name is Phil Coulson—"

The door opened, and the nineteen-year-old all but snarled into their faces: "I know who you are, Phillip Coulson, Handler and Field Agent of SHIELD. I know who you are too, Director Nicholas Fury. I already bailed your asses out of HYDRA before things got flipped into the fire, and now I'm grieving for my wife. Leave me the fuck alone."

Then he slammed the door into their faces for a second time.

"I would leave."

The two men whirled. Doctor Solace stood there, smiling tightly at the two of them, a first-aid kit in one hand and a stack of hot pizzas in the other.

"Doctor Solace—" Fury started.

"That is my cousin that you are harassing, Director Fury," Solace said with barely contained fury. "Leave."

Coulson opened his mouth to say something, but Fury put a hand on his shoulder, quite a lot of things falling into place.

"No explanation needed, Solace," Fury said. "Thank him for me. Tell him I'll be back in three weeks."

The doctor relaxed minutely. "Thank you, Director. I will."

Coulson looked at him as they walked away in a silent demand for information.

"The tip-off we go about HYDRA," Fury said.

"Solace's…?"

"Perseus Jackson is our tipper," he confirmed. "A cousin of varying degrees to what sometimes feels like half of SHIELD, now that we've eradicated HYDRA."

Coulson just sighed.

Fury lined up the cousins when he got back. Most of them weren't there—presumably either not on their shift or comforting their leader. There were a few important ones that he remembered from the purification of SHIELD a couple of years before: Gardner, the partners La Rue and Rodriguez, Martín. There were a few others, as well, but they were younger, just barely legal adults.

"Sit."

They did.

"This morning I almost tripped over the man that you proclaimed your first loyalty," Fury said plainly.

Gardner covered up her face.

"I proceeded to get the door slammed in my face, then ranted at, sworn at, and then have the door slammed in my face again, before having a very subtle threat of getting my ass kicked by—of all people—Doctor Solace."

"Be grateful you didn't meet his boyfriend," La Rue muttered. Rodriguez bit his lip to contain his snickers next to her.

Gardner's shoulders shook. Fury wasn't sure if she was crying or laughing.

"Myself and Agent Coulson had gone to see if we could recruit him, and since we were unable to at this time, I was going to go back in three weeks and try to recruit him once more."

At once, there was a half-dozen protesting "Um!"s.

La Rue guffawed once, and then said: "Director, you don't want to recruit Prissy. It's doubtful if he would accept in the first place."

"But if he did, you would be after his head in a week," Rodriguez said, smirking. "He doesn't do well with authority figures."

"And if you actually acted upon your wish for Percy to be dead, Percy would probably kill you," Gardner said. "And that's if you actually got past all of his extended family, his traps, his pet hellhound, and his guard."

"If you actually managed to kill him, you would be dead at the hands of about seventeen different people," La Rue finished. "And then one of our friends would screw with your afterlife, too."

One of the others let out a loud laugh.

Never had Fury been so tempted to sit down and laugh himself sick at the irony. "Don't tell me that you're all gods, too," he sighed.

"Oh, gods, no," Gardner said. Everyone else was too busy laughing.

"Handymen, maybe," Rodriguez snickered. "Mercenaries, bait, tools, and accidents, but most definitely not gods."

"No," La Rue said. "We bleed red just like you."

Fury looked at her doubtfully. "Last I checked with our local brother-to-a-megalomaniac, gods bleed red as well."

They shrugged. "He isn't a god, then. Demigod, maybe, perhaps an extremely durable and long-lived mortal, but not a god," La Rue said. "I've seen gods bleed, and their blood is golden ichor."

"And how do you know this?" Fury demanded.

"Because my father is Ares, the Greek god of war," La Rue said challengingly.

"Because my father is Hermes, the Greek god of messengers," Rodriguez said, smirking.

"Because my mother is Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture," Gardner said, waving cheekily.

"Because my father is Mercury, the Roman god of messengers," Bobby Martín said.

"Because my mother is Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and battle," Malcolm Pace said.

And so it continued, with each person having a father or mother being a god. Fury was rubbing his temples as they all finished—because of course immortals several generations apart could have kids within the same generation of each other.

"So who the hell is Perseus Jackson's immortal parent?" Fury demanded.

"Poseidon," they all chorused.

"First one in at least two generations," Leila Walker, daughter of Ceres, said.

Fury sighed heavily and settled in for a long interrogation session.

"That's really not a good idea."

Fury swore and spun around to see the pale young man—possibly a teenager—standing in the corner of his office. "Who the hell are you? Why are you here, and how are you here?"

"My name is Nico di Angelo, I'm here to tell you that recruiting Percy Jackson is a bad idea, and I got in through the shadows because my father is the god of the Underworld and basically all creepy things."

Fury just looked at him.

Nico thought it over. "He's also the god of riches, though I don't have that sphere of power."

"Would you care to clarify about the 'recruiting Perseus Jackson is a bad idea' piece?"

"Certainly," di Angelo said, walking over to a chair and plopping down. "First, Percy prefers to be called Percy. Second, if Percy has essentially flipped off both Zeus and my father, you will look like a bug in comparison. He really doesn't do well with authority figures. Just ask any of the teachers and/or principals of the many schools that he's attended. Third, Percy goes with his gut and no amount of lecturing—from mortals, immortals, the undead, and the truly dead—will change that. If you didn't have a coronary from Percy disregarding every safety protocol, instructions, or training that you may or may not put him through, then someone else—probably multiple someone elses—will. Fourth, Percy does huge amounts of work for the mythological world to keep it running smoothly and everyone relatively safe. Why do you think he knew SHIELD had a leak? It was a danger to many demigods under his—well, I don't want to say rule, but that is the only word that even sort of fits—and he was ready to pull them out if the HYDRA problem got worse. Anyway, he's busy when he isn't grieving for his wife. Shall I continue?"

"He would be a damn good agent," Fury murmured to himself.

"If he followed orders. Which he doesn't. From anyone, except for his mother, and even that is touch and go sometimes," di Angelo said, and then paused. "If you waited a bit, you could see if you could get him to work with you rather than for you."

"He is not becoming co-Director of SHIELD."

Di Angelo waved him off. "He wouldn't be interested. I was thinking of more of an almost ambassadorial position, or even the occasional heads up on a strange situation. Like if another war goes down on the demigod end, or there's another invasion of aliens, you two could let each other know, and, if necessary, help out."

Fury rubbed his forehead. "Another war?"

The demigod in his office nodded. "Sure. There's already been three in the past decade. This is kind of unusual though, so it's doubtful that anything else happens on that scale." He blinked, reviewed his words, and then quickly knocked on Fury's beautiful mahogany desk.

The Director of SHIELD looked at di Angelo consideringly. "Are you crazy?"

It seemed like a perfectly reasonable question to him.

Di Angelo simply flashed him a grin, startlingly white teeth against olive skin. "Welcome to Wonderland, Director Fury.

"We're all mad here."

A/N: Teehee. I couldn't resist that. The next installment of Fury's Stresses is on its way next Friday, depicting Fury and Percy talking civilly to each other. Somewhat. Of course, Fury is busy trying to figure out what's true and what's too-weird-to-be-false, and the demigods kind of like winding the new people up. XD Especially when he's a very easy source of entertainment and distraction during a celebration of Annabeth's life. Also, the Kanes make an appearance, but you don't need to know who exactly they are or how the Egyptian gods operate. Also, Thor.

And I forgot to mention this, which is something that will probably get me yelled at: yeah, Annabeth was Percy's wife. Yeah, Annabeth's dead. No, I'm not any happier about it than you are. Yes, it is part of the plot. Yes, she will appear in the series. But no, the more important thing is the concept of her death and the ramifications it has on Percy and the mythological world, and no, Annabeth herself probably won't appear until the last piece of this series. Got all that?

Toodles!

Ruby