"Wow," I breathed after the team had finished their story. "I missed so much. Why did no one tell me anything?"
"Coulson didn't want to worry you. Besides we took care of things on our own, and Coulson wouldn't want you involved unless absolutely necessary," Jemma explained.
"Also Mack was very against taking a kid into battle," laughed Daisy.
"How am I the crazy one in this situation?" said Mack.
"That's fantastic!" exclaimed Hermione as she came into the room with Ron and Harry.
"It's almost as good as magic," said Ron.
"Almost?" said Coulson.
"Coulson," I said. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
"We can talk in your room," said Coulson, who seemed to expect this reaction from me.
"My room?" I asked as I walked out of the room with Coulson.
"Every time we built a new base, I made sure we included a room for you. I knew eventually you would come visit when your school was on break, or if we really needed you."
"But you have really needed me!"
We reached a wooden door, which Coulson pulled open. "How does it look?"
Plain, was the first word that came to mind when I looked at the room. The second was comfort. My room at HQ was always plain. It because I wanted it that way, but because I never had anything to make it mine. Except my books, or my clothes. But my clothes were chosen for efficiency, and my books were chosen for learning. The bareness of the room reminded me of childhood.
The room had a wooden desk in one corner by the window. The bed was up against the far right corner. A big bookshelf was in the other corner. In the corner by my bed, were closet doors, that when I opened them only had a new SHIELD uniform inside it. In between the desk and the bookshelf was a rack with all my favorite weapons. There were throwing knifes, guns, brass knuckles, and shirt blades for up close stabbing. The room was like a blank canvas waiting for me to paint it.
We walked in and I sat down on my bed.
"If you made a room for me, why did you never ask me to come?"
"I asked you to come this weekend?" said Coulson.
"Why didn't you ask me to come for something important?"
"Isn't this important?"
"You know what I mean," I said, getting annoyed.
"If you missed school this Monday, what would you miss?" asked Coulson.
"A Quidditch game," I replied.
Coulson paused for a moment. "A what?"
"A sports game," I said.
"If you missed this sports game, wouldn't you feel bad about it?"
"Yes."
I felt ashamed admitting it.
"Of course you would, and that's normal. Kendra, this school is giving you the closest to normal you could ever get. How can I ask you to give that up?"
"What If I don't want normal?" I said.
"So you wouldn't care if you missed the sports game?"
"Fine, I do want normal. Well I want some normal. Maybe. But I also want SHIELD. I want to be a warrior and an agent. I want to help my family when they need help. I want to protect the world. How can you take that away from me?"
"You had to watch me die once," said Coulson. "I never want you to have to again."
"Neither do I, so you better stay alive and call me if you need help."
Coulson suddenly became very quiet.
"Look," I tried again. "How about if anything happens on the weekends or breaks, you call me, because I know some of that stuff happened this summer and I could have totally helped if you had called me."
"Okay," said Coulson. "But you might be busy with Avengers stuff."
"Not officially," I said with a wink.
"If that's all we needed to take about privately, we should probably get back to your friends."
"Oh God, they're probably nervous wrecks right now."
When we got back into the room, Harry was sitting by himself quietly while everyone else talked and laughed a little too loudly.
"Where are Ron and Hermione?" I asked quietly as I sat down next to Harry.
"They are fighting in the other room," said Harry.
"How?"
"Well, Ron mentioned something about Ginny being a flirt. Hermione defended her. Then Ron called Hermione a hypocrite because she snogged Krum, and then Hermione pulled him into another room."
I jumped up and ran into the other room. They were both screaming at each other incomprehensibly when I barged into the room.
"Shut up! Both of you!" I snapped. "I didn't bring you here to air your dirty laundry."
They quieted, embarrassed.
"Now you are both going to go out there, sit down quietly and be the most pleasant teenagers in existence until we leave."
"Fine," grumbled Ron.
"Sorry," said Hermione.
We went back into the lounge.
"Sorry about that," said Hermione sweetly.
"Yeah," said Ron. They both sat down.
"I really hate to get going so soon after the wedding," I said. "But we need to get heading back before anyone notices we are gone."
"You snuck out of school to get here?" said YoYo.
"It's not as hard as you would think," I said.
"Not for a SHIELD agent," teased Daisy.
"Well, we all want to encourage education," said Jemma. I got up and gave her a hug, then turned to Fitz and gave him one too, even if it didn't feel the same.
"Before we go—" I stopped—"Which one of you proposed first?"
"Well—"
"Actually—"
"They are both convinced that they were the one to propose first," said Mack.
"Well, I'm happy for you guys." I walked over to the doorway where Ron, Harry and Hermione were now waiting. "See ya later."
"I'll walk you out," said Coulson.
We walked through the halls in silence, until we were at the exit.
"I assume I do not need to tell you three that the location of this base is secret," said Coulson.
They nodded.
"And I assume you don't need me to drive you back to the clearing you landed in."
We nodded. We all stood awkwardly for a moment, until Hermione spoke up.
"Harry, Ron, lets go get the brooms from the car."
They left and I turned to Coulson. "I'll see you soon?"
Coulson gave me an affectionate smile. "Yeah."
I gave him a tight hug, burying my face in his shoulder. He patted my shoulder and I pulled away.
"Goodbye, Kendra."
"Bye, Coulson."
I went to the car and grabbed my broom from Harry. We mounted our brooms and took off. As we flew away, I turned and saw Coulson looking at me with astonished pride.
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Hey Everyone, this chapter was so much easier to write than the last one.
Forever and Always,
Me.