Nobody's Counting

Nick Fury's first rule of recuperating SHIELD agents is to give them mission work to look over. Their current missions. Other agents' current missions. Old missions, long since completed and hashed over for future note. Current training of new SHIELD agents. Something. Anything.

Some medical personnel might think it unwise to give fragile minds undue preoccuption during physical recovery.

Nick Fury thinks it unwise to give intelligent, dangerous, highly-trained minds nothing to do while their bodies recover.

Unfortunately, SHIELD has full hands right now. The Council is playing politics with Nick, which is nothing new, only now they're not even bothering to conceal their weapons. Sitwell is cleaning up in Europe, trying to root out the nests Loki created while setting up his mercenary army. Hill is trying to manage the New York civil authorities who are screaming about damage and reparations and responsibility for the destruction, while keeping an eye on Tony Stark who's planning…something. Nick can feel it in his bad eye.

Which leaves Phil Coulson recovering in a helicarrier bed with a brand new Chief Medical Officer who doesn't understand that a recuperating SHIELD agent with nothing to occupy him has all the potential to become a Level Eight crisis.

As it turns out, it becomes a Level Nine crisis, but after the fact, nobody's counting.

fin