Who: Bobbi Morse & Phil Coulson When: Immediately after her arrival Where: Medbay Rating: Medium - There's one cuss word and light discussion of torture, character death, and a few AoS spoilers here and there.
Consciousness, when it returned, was fairly quick in coming, for which she would later look back on and be grateful for. For now, her attention was focused on the fact that as her eyes opened, Bobbi didn’t recognize where she was. There were people in lab coats and the room was definitely not a SHIELD medical bay, and Bobbi was on the verge of sitting up when one of the doctors turned and spotted her. Just as she tensed, ready to throw a punch, they started to spout off a pretty unbelievable story - but it was one that made her hesitate, just for a minute. Eventually, she did sit up, but rather than attack the doctors, she only eyed them distrustfully. She’d given them only one name - Coulson - and had been promised he’d be down to talk to her. Until his arrival, she refused to let them come near her, wanting to hear it straight from Coulson just what the hell was going on.
The good thing about working in medical admin was that he was pretty easy to find when one of his came through. It hadn't happened in awhile, and he dropped the files he was updating to follow the doctor to the room where a blond woman was apparently asking for him. He pushed the door open and took in the woman on the bed.
"Bobbi!" A smile spread over his face as he shooed the doctors out of the room, knowing Bobbi wouldn't hurt him. He dragged a chair over to the side of her bed. "Don't even think of getting out of that bed until I hear from medical that you're okay."
She didn’t relax until his familiar face came in the door, and once they were alone, Bobbi sat up the rest of the way, swinging her legs around so at least she was facing him. She’d come to really hate doctors and medical labs thanks to spending so much time in there a few months earlier, and honestly - she was ready to go.
“I’m fine, sir. No injuries to speak of. But what the hell happened and where are we?”
"You don't get to make that decision, Morse." Phil gave her one of his director looks that meant no arguing as he pulled out his tablet and checked her file. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, it was just that he knew his agents.
"Stay. If I see you out of bed, I will personally change your chart." Coulson got up and stuck his head out the door, checking with the doctor to see if Morse did actually have a clean bill of health. He returned shortly and took a seat again. "Your story checks out," he said with a smile. "But they'll still have to do intake."
He took a deep breath. "Virginia. More or less. 2152. Mount Weather - converted military base. Nuclear war happened here about 100 years ago. Somehow people from all sorts of universes come through here and arrive via pod. I have to ask - what's the last thing you remember?"
Bobbi rolled her eyes, but she stayed silent as he checked his tablet and went to the door. When he returned, she gave him a “Really?” kind of look, then started to pull wires and nodes off of herself. “I told you so,” she replied pointedly, then arched a brow. “Intake?”
As he continued, she blinked, staring at him. “...Wait, what? The same thing you do. Or the same thing you should remember.” She hesitated a moment, then went on. “We managed to get you and Fitz out of that portal world and we were flying away.”
Coulson nodded. "Did I brief you on what happened on the planet?"
She shook her head. “Not yet. Everyone was in a very much ‘let’s all catch our breath for at least a second’ kind of mood.”
"Okay, I remember that." Remember was such a strange word for waking up with new memories that felt foreign. He sighed, not sure exactly where to begin. There was no need to recount everything that happened. Not yet, at least. Best to deal with the present. "Intake. They'll ask for general info, assign you to a room and a job - tell them your background or else they'll stick you on sanitation or something. Unless you want sanitation. Maybe you have a hidden calling."
She eyed him for a moment, then directed her attention to what he was actually saying, and shook her head slowly. “I’m still not fully sure I’m following, sir. How did we end up here? This is seriously a...different universe?”
"Yes, it's a different universe, or a very messed up version of our future. I'm not sure how the portal , coming here works - Simmons can explain that better, but it's a different version of Earth. And.. well, it draws people from various universes.. Including fictional.. so you have Captain America running around with the boys from the barricade in Les Mis, to Disney Characters to Captain Kirk and Luke Skywalker.."
“...Maybe you’re the one who should be checked out here,” she told him lightly, though the seriousness of his expression was starting to unnerve her just a bit. Often, it was difficult to tell when Coulson was joking, and now was no exception. Finally, though, she shook her head, figuring one of them would be proven right sooner or later.
“Let’s say, for the sake of argument, I believe you. So what are we doing here? Trying to get back, I’m guessing, right?”
"I wish." Coulson's face fell slightly. He wanted to get home. To his team, to SHIELD. To make some sense of everything and not to be stuck here. "So far, we've had no luck in trying to understand how we got here or how to get back. In the meantime, we fight dragons, werewolves, whatever else this place throws at us. Some people disappear. May and Tripp were here but got taken back. Can't explain it. One minute they're here, the next they disappear before our eyes."
Bobbi slowly shook her head, then raised a hand to her temple to rub it for a moment, trying to make sense of everything. Eventually, she refocused on Coulson. “I honestly have no idea what to say here. Out of all the scenarios I’ve ever thought of...this is pretty low on the list of possibles.” Letting out a sigh, she studied him for a minute.
“You seem to be okay. And sane. But how do you really expect me to believe this?”
"The same way you believe that Fitz and I just came back from an alternate dimension. That we had Asgardians show up on Earth. That Daisy and inhumans exist. That I was brought back from the dead. We deal with weird, Bobbi. It's what we do."
He gave her a smile. "As sane as I ever am, at least."
She sighed and bit back a small laugh, then shook her head a bit. “Okay - fair point, I guess. Weird is the new normal, lately.” Running a hand across her face, she pushed herself off the bed to stand and stretch. “And I’m glad to hear that, sir. So what should I expect from this intake process, and how much are we telling them?”
"Standard questions. Background, skills, abilities. They know about SHIELD. People know who we are here. We're stories to them," Phil ran a hand over his hair. "Before we do that, there's something you need to know. And I need you to promise to trust me and do what I say. Can you do that Morse?"
She’d been about to shake her head at the comment about them being stories, but something in his voice in what he said next made her pause and stare at him for a hard minute. This was something of a tough call to make, though not as hard as it’d been initially, when she had been under Gonzales’ orders. After a few minutes of silence, she finally sat back on the edge of the bed and nodded.
“Yes, sir.”
He hadn't been sure how she would take it. After all, the stuff with Gonzales was still fresh in his mind. "Ward's here. As is Palamas. They're both from before they captured you. What happened before, doesn't matter here. Law enforcement here won't care. You touch either of them, they'll bring you to trial and there's not a damn thing I can do about it. So what I need- what I'm asking, is for you to not engage. Give them a wide berth."
When he said Ward and Palamas were there, in the complex, Bobbi tensed immediately. “Palamas is dead.” Not by her own hand, of course, but she’d heard about it. She’d read May’s AAR about her rescue. She knew the basics, at least, and had put it together with her own memories, which at the moment were threatening to overwhelm her. As a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, she’d undergone training for torture, and she’d undergone torture, of course. She’d even managed to break free from the restraints Ward had put on her as he’d forced the needles beneath her fingernails. But that didn’t mean that there weren’t still psychological scars there - she’d just buried them in recovery and work. She’d never even tried to go after him for revenge; that had been all Lance and May.
Her eyes, when they refocused on Coulson, were dark and narrowed as she fought her anger. “And just what is their status? It doesn’t matter when they’re from. She was brainwashed, and he’s a known traitor and H.Y.D.R.A. sympathizer. Don’t tell me they’re running around free.” After what had happened to Rosalind - to everyone - she couldn’t believe Coulson would permit it.
"Technically none of that matters here. None of it - HYDRA, SHIELD, who betrayed who, who killed who, that's all in the bast. Here they're both alive and they've been given a chance." Phil kept his gaze on Bobbi. He knew he wouldn't be able to stop her if she really wanted to go after them. Same with Daisy and Lincoln. Perhaps, that's why he was trying to keep a tenuous grasp on whatever authority remained at his disposal.
"I know I'm not Director anymore, and I know you've had your doubts about me and my.. shall we say loyalty and sanity in the past, so this is a request, not an order. I've been here for eight months already, and the rules here are basically that the past doesn't matter, at least in terms of conduct here. We can't arrest Grant for what he did to you and Rosalind and I can't be arrested for what I did to him or for kidnapping his brother. But anything that happens here is fair game. So I'm asking you to stay away. You don't have to like him - I don't expect you too - but going after him would end badly."
None of that matters here. The words themselves caused her eyes to narrow further, and a muscle in her cheek twitched slightly as a result of how hard she was clenching her jaw. She stayed silent as he continued, letting all of what he was saying to sink in. When he eventually said it would end “badly”, her expression turned incredulous.
“With all due respect? This is bullshit.” Her fists had clenched, then relaxed again. She shook her head slowly, finally pulling her eyes away because she needed to take a few seconds to get herself back under control, or she would possibly punch him. Finally, she let out a slow breath, then spoke again. “Whether or not I like him - which will never happen - has nothing to do with any of this. Arresting Grant Ward wouldn’t do any good - he’d escape. Again. He needs to be put down, Coulson, and you know that. You may have crossed a line with the kidnapping, yeah, but Ward hit that line and tossed it out the window several miles back on the crazy train. What ‘doesn’t matter’ is that he shouldn’t be allowed to just be walking around where he can have any sort of interaction with anyone.”
Lifting her head, Bobbi stared at him. “So let me ask you this - are you seriously asking me to just do nothing until he kills someone we care about? Because clearly that’s going to happen. It’s his M.O. Is that what you’re saying?”
"I'm saying the Grant here is different than the Grant back home. And that I've come to an understanding with him." Which Phil knew wasn't going to go over well. He raised his eyebrow at Bobbi, knowing he was asking the unthinkable and that she'd probably think he was losing his mind again.
"I'm asking you to do nothing and to stay away from you and I'll tell him the same. I don't want you provoking him. It's what I asked of May when she was here."
Her eyebrows shot up at that. “An ‘understanding’? One you actually believe?” Bobbi shook her head slowly, then gave a short, mirthless laugh. “Oh - I won’t provoke him. I won’t even speak to him. I can shoot someone in complete silence. That really isn’t a problem for me.”
"Yes." There was no humour in Phil's tone. It might have been expected before.. He and Grant had been working on things before May and Kara, but now… Well, he understood why people would think him crazy. But this made just as much sense to him as the memories from home.
"I know. And I'm well aware of what he did to you, and I'm asking you not to. Not to punch, not to shoot, not to touch him. Because if you do, law enforcement will come down on you and I won't be able to protect you."
And the last thing Phil wanted was to lose another member of his team. "Not everyone here knows what happened back home - with Rosalind and after. I came through right after Mack chopped my arm off." Phil raised the left arm in question, outfitted with Tony's most recent prosthetic. "So this is Stark's work, not FitzSimmons. And then one day last month I woke with a killer headache and memories of everything since then up to coming back through the portal and debriefing the team."
“What he did to me doesn’t bother me.” She was a SHIELD agent, she’d fallen into a trap, and she’d been tortured. She hadn’t had a problem getting past that, even if deep down the thought of Ward walking around filled her with revulsion. “But you’re asking a lot, Coulson. And I don’t really need to be protected from something like that. Unlike him, I can face those kinds of consequences.”
Bobbi’s eyes flickered to the arm, then back to his face. “Well that’s nice, but everything is still pretty fresh in my head at the moment.” Dozens of thoughts were running through her mind as she shifted her gaze to stare past him, then peripherally began to notice the camera high in the corner. While she really didn’t think this conversation was through, he didn’t seem likely to be interested in changing his mind anytime soon, particularly if he’d been there for eight months, supposedly. Making her decision to play along - for now, at least - she finally shook her head.
“Fine. I won’t approach him. I won’t touch him, unless or until he gives me a reason. Same goes for Palamas. And that’s the best I can do right now, Phil.”
He wasn't sure she grasped exactly what he was saying, what it was like to wake up with months of memories - more of a shock than actually coming here. And she was still part of his team, even after what had happened with Gonzalez. And he protected his team. At least as much as he was able to. Which here didn't feel like much at all.
"That's enough. Thank you." His face was a mask again, like it had been through so much of his SHIELD career. There was only the briefest twitch of a muscle before he changed subjects. "Simmons is here. Daisy and Lincoln too. As well as most of the Avengers."
The change in subject didn’t do anything to ease her mind, but she shifted a bit, refocusing on him. “Part of the team is better than no team at all.” She tilted her head at the last part, making an effort to try and ease back into some semblance of normalcy. “...Is Thor here? Or Rogers?” They were definitely the most interesting, for her - at the moment at least. Romanoff might be a close second, but Bobbi had worked with her on occasion, and had always wondered about the other Avengers.
"Thor, Rogers, Romanoff, Banner, Stark.." Phil rattled off a list of names. He wished Barton was here more now than ever because they'd worked well before and he wanted more of his family from before. "Lady Sif is here as well, so there's no shortage of training partners."
She gave a short nod at the names, and while she felt a little bit of trepidation, Bobbi decided to keep her thoughts to herself. “It’ll be good to see Sif again,” she admitted, though hopefully she wouldn’t still be intent on Daisy - and Lincoln, now, she supposed. Lifting a hand, she ran it through her hair as she relaxed herself somewhat, but moved back to her feet, no longer willing to simply sit.
“So what kind of situation are we looking at here? Major threats,” aside from the obvious, she thought to herself, “major players. Who should I be keeping an eye on?”
"So far, whatever this universe - or others - decide to throw at us. We've had a dragon, werewolves, just about anything you can imagine - and things you haven't. Standard post-apocalyptic scenario, living in a converted military base, so parts of that will be familiar. There's some tech, but not the resources we're used to with SHIELD."
"There's files on the network that'll tell you the history of this place or I can give you a briefing later. Speaking of.. you'll see fictional people here. And there's apparently a tv show of our lives, well, of parts of SHIELD, on the network as well. From after the incident in New York."
Bobbi squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then shook her head and opened them. At this point, she honestly wasn’t sure whether or not she could really believe all that, but she’d take it with a grain of salt for now. “A briefing would be good, but I’ll take a look at the files first.” The next bit floored her briefly.
“A...TV show. About us?” That didn’t make sense. “You mean the Chitauri?”
"Focuses on my team, mostly, and it's just that first year after Fury gave me the team so far," Coulson explained as he studied Bobbi and got to his feet. "You know what, go through your intake, get settled in your room and I can brief you fully later. I can see you're on information overload a bit already."
She caught the “my” in his words, and bit back a frown. By not using “the team,” he’d essentially shut her out, and it made her reconsider what he’d said about his memories. Clearly, there were still some issues they should probably work out - but that wasn’t going to happen right now.
As he stood, she gave a nod. “Okay, yeah - I’ll talk to you later, after I get through the rest of this.” Because more than just an overload, he’d given her a lot to think about.
Coulson nodded. "I know this place is … an adjustment, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but it's nice to see you."
He smiled. "And this goes without saying, but whatever you need, my door is always open. 506J with FitzSimmons."
She hesitated, then returned the smile. “Thank you, sir. Coulson. I’ll keep that in mind.”