New to STRIKE

Ch9

You follow Lauren, Pierce's assistant, as she leads you to the door. She motions for you to go in, and leaves you to stand there alone.

You take a deep breath, and slowly open the door. Pierce is sitting behind his desk looking over various papers. He doesn't look up, but motions for you to take a seat.

You notice there's a second seat today, one is occupied with a middle-aged looking man. You take the other seat, and exchange a slight nod to the other man.

"This is Agent Coulson." Pierce looks up at the two of you and folds his hands on the desk in front of him. "I'm assigning you to him for a few days. Anything he says, you do it." He stares at you for a moment before returning his attention back to the documents on his desk. "That is all, you may both leave."

You both stand and exit, Coulson jogging forward to open the door for you. You smile in appreciation and wait as he walks out behind you.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." He smiles and offers you a hand, you shake it and note that he seems much more energetic outside of Pierce's office. Understandable. "I hear you're on Rumlow's Strike team. That's some badass stuff..like...working with the Captain all the time." His smile widens and he almost seems like a giddy school girl.

You can't help but laugh and smile, his enthusiasm is extremely contagious. "It's definitely exciting, to be honest I was always a huge fan of Steve's. It's almost surreal to know him personally."

Coulson's jaw drops. "You mean...you know know the Captain? You don't just work together, you actually...hangout?"

"Yes?..." You chuckle again at his disbelief. "Maybe I can introduce you to him sometime?"

His eyes go wide. "A-are you s-serious?" He squeals excitedly like a little girl, and you look around to ensure no one is watching.

"Yeah...but you gotta promise not to do that." You laugh, and he nods enthusiastically.

Two days later:

"So I'm sure you're excited to be getting back to normal, I'm sure playing body guard the last few days hasn't exactly been cupcakes and pumpkin lattes." You laugh at Coulson's choice of words, you had gotten rather used to his child-like sense of humor during your time together.

It's kinda nice actually. You frown to yourself as you realize you're going to miss him.

"Oh don't look so sad, Pierce will be glad you passed his little test. Maybe you can go on some real missions now, huh?" He looks excited for a moment, then covers his hand with his mouth as he realizes he said something he shouldn't. "I mean...um...What? Did you hear someone call me?" He turns to flea but you grab his arm.

"Wait...what did you say?" You stand in front of him to block his path.

He fidgets for a moment before glancing around, and waits as someone walks by with a cart of office supplies before pulling you closer to whisper. "I'm not supposed to say anything. Pierce wanted to put you with someone he trusted to sort of test you out, make sure you were really ready. Rumlow vouched for your physical abilities, but he wanted to make sure that in a tough spot you'd be able to think your way out too." He pauses for a moment to glance around again. "But hey, bright side, you passed! So we can forget this conversation ever happened." He stands up straighter and casually fixes his jacket as he changed the subject. "Do you smell donuts? I want donuts. Do you want a donut?" He grabs your arm and tugs you along with him. "Let's go get donuts."

You go to the cafeteria, and as Coulson orders himself donuts you decide on a breakfast burrito.

As you sit, you look up to see Coulson has already devoured two donuts.