All of Me - Agent's of S.H.I.E.L.D

Chapter Thirty Five

The Bus - 22:12 p.m (WA time) - Command Centre

The team minus Clint since he was currently flying the plane and Natasha was sitting in the co-pilot seat - were all gather in the Command Centre. They had been in the air for the last forty minutes, it had taken twenty minutes on top of that to get to the hanger in the two cars - they had sped there unlike when they arrived. Phil was surprised at how quickly his team were sobering up since they had been drinking for the last couple of hours, even though they hadn’t been drinking heavily in the first place. There was a solemn atmosphere in the room.  

Phil was briefing his team on their mission and had been for the last thirty minutes now, only giving them certain details. He informed them of the location and the fact that an agent working on an undercover mission for the last few weeks - needs an extraction along with a package and they were bringing Liam Hart into custody. He left out the fact that Nick Fury had given them this mission personally and that it was off-the-books. HQ didn’t even know about it. Phil couldn’t fight the nagging feeling that something big was about to go down with S.H.I.E.L.D. He just didn’t know what or when to duck for cover.  His team had been surprised that it was Liam Hart that was connected with this mission since they had put a tracker on him a couple of weeks ago.

“There are twenty guards posted around and in the ‘farmhouse’ according to our intel,” he divulged. “Skye-Ward will be partner together, along with Agent Richards and me while Barton takes the targets out from above.” He supplied, earnestly. “FitzSimmons and the Twisted Sisters will run back end -”

“Wait? The Twisted Sisters?” Skye questioned with curiosity, cutting her boss off. “Are you talking about May and Romanoff?”   

Melinda glared at her partner. “It was the codename used whenever Romanoff and myself did missions together before I transferred to admin,” she revealed in a calm tone.

Phil smiled. “Fury came up with it,” he shared with amusement, knowing the codename pissed the two agents off. “He claimed that it matched their badass no-nonsense butt-kicking attitudes,” he said, proudly. “Whenever those two were on a mission together, their targets didn’t stand a chance. And their ‘celebrating sessions’ afterwards have some great stories attached along with certain international laws being broken.”

“Classified stories,” Melinda quickly added. They weren’t really, but the younger agents didn’t need to know about that.  

Skye chuckled, turning her eyes onto the older female agent. “Oh, I bet there are,” she expressed with a smile, folding her arms. “I only aspire to be as badass no-nonsense butt-kicking agent.”

Grant pinched the bridge of his nose.

Melinda felt a smile twitch at her lips at the younger woman’s comment.

Phil couldn’t tear the grin from his lips at the look of admiration between the two women. He liked seeing the bond that was forming between the two women, they were both filling the empty space in their hearts. Phil knew they should get back on topic. He cleared his throat. “Back to the mission … it should be a simple extraction,” he told his team, firmly. “In and out within twenty minutes as long as we don’t come across any complications.”

Grant had been processing all the information of this sudden mission, something about it seemed off. He raised a curious eyebrow. “Are we expecting any complications, Sir?” he inquired, folding his arms.

Phil turned his attention onto the specialist. “We never expect complications but are always prepared for them, Agent Ward … any more questions?”

Grant nodded his head. “Why are we the extraction team, Sir? Wouldn’t the australian base have a closer team with more firepower?” he question. “Why are we being sent in? Isn’t it a conflict of interest since you’re personally connected to Agent Richards and Agent Bridges?”