[1] Take the Shot | Leo Fitz

1

Death doesn't discriminate, it comes for everyone and everything. Death was the one constant in her life and in all 23 years of breathing, it was yet to leave her alone. Everywhere Nina went, death followed like a disease claiming mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, brothers and sisters... everybody but her.

And she was getting real sick of attending funerals.

It was dark and cold, too damn cold for the outfit she had decided to throw on; a black tank top, tight fitted pants and combat boots. But shivering in a random bus stop, surrounded by junkies and would be drug dealers, had become part of the job Nina had signed up for. So who was she to complain?

Nina had arrived an hour ago, surveilling her target without raising too much suspicion. It was a simple recon mission before she would be ordered to make contact so she watched unseen and unheard as the brown hair of her target came into view, along with a cherry red 62 Chevy Corvette and a man in a suit that Nina could have done without.

"Agent Ramos, it's nice to see you again," the female gritted her teeth as he openly announced that she was an agent and watched as the seemingly innocent man beside her, rushed towards the very building she had been surveilling.

"I wish I could say the same," Nina growled and climbed into the car, Phil Coulson looked at her and smiled at the action, clearly misreading what it meant.

"Does this mean that you've rethought the offer to join my team?" the older man asked her with a soft smile. Everything about him was odd to Nina, he was genuinely friendly and didn't seem anything like the other people she had interacted with that had teams of their own.

"No, it means you just blew my cover," Nina responded pulling on the seatbelt as the moonlight caught the shine of a rifle in the hands of a man exiting the building, "now drive before he starts shooting at us."

"Good idea."

Coulson pulled away from the dirty bus stop and drove down the road before the man had any time to pull the trigger, he was driving away from the city and towards what Nina knew to be an airfield.

"So have you changed your mind yet?" Coulson was persistent, Nina gave him that. She had declined his offer at least 20 times, but each time he turned up and asked, his enthusiasm was the same.

"I work alone, Agent Coulson, for a reason. I don't need any more blood on my hands than the job requires," she looked away from him, pushing down a painful memory before it could resurface, "it's best for you and your team if I stay away."

The response was expected and met with a deep sigh when a second later Nina's phone rang. Her undercover phone... which no one had the number.

"I was really hoping this would be your choice, Ramos," Coulson told her focusing his attention on the road. Nina sceptically picked up the phone, answering it and pressing the device to her ear.

"Agent Ramos."

"Director! I wasn't expecting a call," the shock in hearing Fury's voice was obvious as she responded. The director never made personal contact, everything she was told came through other agents.

"Let me make this really clear. You are one of our best agents. You get the job done without endless questions and without ever being caught, and if you so choose, being an Avenger is fully within your grasp."

"Thank you, sir," it's not every day the director of SHIELD compliments you so Nina took it with a grateful smile.

"It would be in your best interest to accept Coulson's offer, and even if you disagree with me I don't care. Get on that Bus, this is an order."