The Pentagon

Washington DC, Capitol of the United States of America

Gibbs pulled into the Pentagon’s parking lot with Borin in the next seat. Right next to him, Tony and Ziva pulled in with their car.

"I hope we’re not overdoing this," Borin grumbled for about the twentieth time on the ride over.

Gibbs looked over at his CGIS counterpart and grinned. "We will be if you say that again."

Borin glared at him. "I just hope that Maria’s OK, wherever she is."

"She’ll be fine."

"If you’re not right, I will kill you."

Gibbs chuckled as he got out of the car. "I bid you good luck with that."

Borin snorted as she got out as well. "Thanks. I wonder if I need it."

Tony and Ziva followed on their flanks, and they approached the Pentagon, ready to enter.

The problem was that someone was already waiting for them.

The man standing at the doors was dressed in a black long-sleeved shirt and black jeans, combat boots rounding out the entire outfit. The black leather jacket he was wearing matched the entire thing, and from the badge on his belt, he was clearly FBI.

An FBI agent that Gibbs could probably guess. "You’re the AWOL FBI agent Fornell’s been asking about, I bet."

The man smirked. "That would be me."

"So what’re you doing here?" Tony piped up.

The doors to the Pentagon opened again, and with it came a familiar voice: "He’s been helping me with some people."

Tony and Ziva’s jaws dropped as Abby stepped up to the FBI agent’s side, looking perfectly under control. "Abby?" Tony gasped.

"What?" Abby asked. "McGee’s here, did you not expect to see me?"

"Didn’t expect you to be with the FBI," Gibbs countered.

"Clint isn’t just the FBI, Gibbs," Abby retorted.

"You had to mention that," Clint grumbled.

Abby lightly punched him in the arm. "Yes, I did, if you didn’t want them to kill you."

"Alright, I’ll bite," Gibbs interrupted them. "Who are you?"

Clint looked Gibbs right in the eye with a ton of intensity. "My name is　Clint Barton. I wasn’t lying to Fornell about that. But I’m not truly with the FBI. I work for SHIELD. The FBI was my cover." He nodded to Abby. "Until Abby here brought me out of it."

"Why?" Ziva asked.

Clint and Abby exchanged glances. "You might want to come upstairs for that," Abby replied.

"Is it really that　bad?" Borin asked.

Abby nodded. "Yep. It’s that　bad."

***

Steve had begun to wonder when Clint and Abby would be back when he heard voices coming from the hallway.

Stark had realized it, too. "Look sharp, everyone," he ordered as his Iron Man suit unfolded and became a suitcase at his feet. "Here comes the party."

"Hopefully it’s an easier one than New York’s," Maria commented as she sat down by Jane close to the wall, putting the Avengers between them and the door.

The door to the office opened, and Abby was the first one to come through. "Hey guys," she said with way too much cheerfulness.

"What went wrong?" Stark instantly asked in a joking manner.

"Very funny, Stark," Clint growled as he entered in behind Abby. "Nothing went wrong."

"Yet," Stark replied in the same tone, pointing to Clint.

Steve narrowed his eyes at Stark. "What the hell are you playing at?"

"The usual. Trying to lighten up the atmosphere," Stark replied.

"And a wonderful job you’re doing."

Stark instantly stiffened as two other men and two women entered in behind Clint. McGee looked up from the computer and grimaced when the gray-haired man looked right at him. "Hey, boss," he muttered.

"Do not ‘hey’ me, McGee," the man snapped. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"He was helping me!" Abby protested.

"And somehow he hacked my system," Stark added, raising his hand.

The man’s eyes flickered over to Stark with disapproval in his eyes, then narrowed. "I’ve seen you before."

"Probably at a press conference somewhere," Bruce muttered.

The other man – considerably younger – snapped his fingers. "I got it!" he declared gleefully. "Tony Stark!"

"Well, how about that?" Stark wondered, grinning. "Someone finally knows me."

Clint rolled his eyes. "Tony Stark, Tony DiNozzo, if I’ve got my NCIS agents straight."

"Great, two Tonys?" Maria asked, groaning and doing a face palm. "Someone kill me already."

"Gladly," the readheaded woman that had followed Clint in told her coldly. "Once you explain why you snuck out of the building."

"Catfight!" Stark declared, leaning against the filing cabinet.

"She works for SHIELD, too," Clint interrupted, glaring at Stark. "CGIS was her cover."

"Next you’re going to tell us someone from this SHIELD is working at NCIS under cover," the other woman – Israeli, Steve thought – commented a little sarcastically.

At that, Abby winced, Clint swallowed, Maria stood to look out the window, and Jane shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

The Israeli woman frowned. "There is, isn’t there."

Steve looked from one agent to the other, then settled his eyes on Abby. She was pale in the face, looking as if she was about to fall.

***

Abby bit her lip, trying hard not to feel light-headed. But when she heard Steve’s voice ask from what sounded like a very far away place "Abby?", she knew that she was failing.

However, barely a millisecond later, she felt a hand clasp around her arm and help her into one of the chairs. She looked off to the side to see Clint take his hand off and pull up a chair right next to her. He looked back up at Ziva and stated, "Yes. One of SHIELD’s agents has been at NCIS."

"Although I wouldn’t say under cover," Maria commented.

Clint threw her a glare. "You’re not helping."

Maria rolled her eyes, and Jane held up her hands in a gesture that said "leave me out of this."

"Out of the bag," Gibbs snapped. "Which of your agents was at NCIS?"

Abby looked at Clint. "Should I?" she asked softly.

Clint looked back at her. "If you think you should," he whispered back.

Abby nodded, then dug through her bag. "And I assume she trusts you more than us?" she heard Borin ask from above her.

Abby poked her head back up and glared at Borin. "Considering he saved me from getting beat up by some crazy Starbucks employee, yes, I would say that I trust him," she snapped, and Borin jerked back.

Stark grinned and pointed at her. "I’m starting to like this girl."

"Stark," Steve grumbled warningly.

"Oh, can it," Bruce sighed, putting his face in his hand. "When can you guys not start a fight?"

Abby withdrew what she was looking for and flashed it up so that Gibbs, DiNozzo, Ziva, and Borin could see it, then laid it down on the table. "There. That is what brought me here to the Pentagon."

Gibbs picked it up, then his eyes narrowed, and he looked up over the photo to Clint. "You’re kidding."

Clint stared right back at him. "None of us would be here if it wasn’t this serious, Agent . . . "

"Gibbs," Abby and McGee supplied for him.

Gibbs sighed and laid the photo of Natasha, Clint, Maria, and Jane back down on the table. "All right. We’re listening."

Abby breathed a sigh of relief. "It started with the supposed ‘illusion’ on the USS Blackhawk."

"Which we decided was not　an illusion," Gibbs added, looking at DiNozzo as if it was his fault.

Abby smiled despite herself. "Well, that’s not even part of it."

***

By the time Abby was done explaining what had happened between Natasha and Loki, Gibbs’s head was reeling. "So she realized what was going on, and she never told us about it?"

Abby nodded. "She swore me to secrecy."

"She still should’ve mentioned it," DiNozzo grumbled.

Stark snorted. "You don’t trust her enough to take care of herself?"

"She’s lying in a coma in a hospital right now," DiNozzo snapped, standing up and facing Stark. "I think that’s enough for us to worry, don’t you think?"

Stark’s eyes widened, and across the room, the brunette woman put her hands to her mouth. The dark-haired man narrowed his eyes and looked down at Abby. "Nat’s in a coma?"

"I didn’t mention that?" Abby asked.

"I might’ve forgotten to mention that to Bruce," Clint admitted, looking up at the man. "Sorry."

The dark-haired man – Bruce – shook his head, looking across the room at Stark. "I assume you didn’t know that either?"

"No, I only know as much as what happened with the NCIS guy hacked JARVIS," Stark replied, looking at Abby. "All right, so now I know the ‘how’ we all got here. What’s the ‘why?’"

Abby shrugged. "She said that all of you guys could help her."

"All of us?" Steve remarked, looking around. "There’s still one of us missing."

Clint nodded. "Thor."

"That’s what she meant, then," Abby commented. "All of the Avengers."

There was silence for a few minutes, then Bruce stirred and looked over at Gibbs. "Would there be any way that the information being gathered at the hospital could be sent back here?"

Gibbs managed to nod. "Yes, we could convince the hospital to do that."

"If there’s anything that I can do to try and help, I will do what I can," Bruce promised, stepping over to Steve’s computer.

"Thanks," Gibbs told him.

Bruce looked up and looked Gibbs in the eye. "Anything for the Black Widow."

"Black Widow?" Ziva asked, confused.

"Natasha," Clint piped up. "At SHIELD, she’s known as the Black Widow."

"And an Avenger," Stark added.

DiNozzo groaned and leaned his head back. "This news about a friend just keeps getting better and better."

Steve looked up at him. "Trust me, sir. With this group, you will have to get used to it."

"Oorah," Gibbs and Borin muttered in unison under their breath.

***

Washington DC, Capitol of the United States of America

Thor looked down on Washington D.C. as he tried to locate the one person he was trying to find.

Within a few seconds, he had found her.

Smiling tightly, he landed lightly on the roof of a hospital building in the middle of the downtown area.

He had work to do, and he had to do it before Loki started his own work.

And after that, he had to find the rest of the Avengers.

***

WOOT! OK, guys, so do not freak out: ASSEMBLE IS ALMOST OVER!

Next up is either going to be the epilogue, or the chapter leading in to the epilogue. OK? OK. See you all!