𝐉𝐔𝐋𝐈𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐃 𝐔𝐏 and down the hallway. It was sterile, pristine, and colorless, but above all the hall was maddening. She didn't know how much time had passed, much less how long it had been since the explosion. No one had given her any information and despite belonging to the organization, she was treated like an outsider.

"How are you doing?"

She slowly turned to face the voice that had spoken to her. "How does it look like I'm doing, Phil?"

Phil Coulson knew the extent of her injuries. He'd seen the reports, signed off on them even. So, he understood that she was currently masking the pain that accompanied her pair of cracked ribs and the stitches that ran the length of her body on her left side. The doctors had made it pretty clear that the shrapnel wasn't easy to remove, but created no injuries to any of her vital organs. He nodded to the seat beside him. "You should rest. You could tear open your stitches."

Julie was hesitant at first, but her fatigue forced her to rethink her stubborn outlook. As she sat, she buried her face into her hands. "I need to see them. No one's telling me anything—"

"I'm sure they're just busy," Phil attempted to console her, "You'll hear something soon."

"I hate this," Julie shook her head and muttered, "I hate living this stupid, secret double-life. I could've prevented us from getting into this mess."

"You were ambushed and severely outnumbered," Phil contradicted her, "It's a miracle that you even survived at all."

"What about Tony?" She finally looked up from her hands. Her eyes pleaded for anything he may have heard.

Phil slowly shook his head. "Nothing yet, but if he's out there we'll find him. We've got agents scouring those dunes."

Julie slowly nodded her head and took a deep breath to keep her composure. It was a rare moment to see panic break through her walls, but it was terrifying all the same because if one of their best could break, so could any of the others. A doctor stepped into the room and motioned for Phil. The agent offered Julie a reassuring smile before he approached the doctor and momentarily left the room. The smile on her face immediately vanished and she sank back down in her worries, similarly deflating in the chair.

It had probably only been a minute since she'd been left alone, but she felt as if she were going insane. She stood and started to pace again, ignoring the pain while tricking her mind that the painkillers hadn't worn off yet. All of the worst possible outcomes flooded her brain as she relived the moment over and over again, trying to figure out what she could have done differently. She snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of an alarm going off in the next room. She rushed over, but Phil returned and prevented her from going inside.

"What's going on?" She tried to look beyond him, but he forced her back.

"The doctors need their space."

"Who is it?" she asked again, only growing more erratic. "What the hell is going on, Phil?!"

"I need you to calm down." Phil took a deep breath and gestured for her to copy.

She pulled her arms tight around herself and took a seat back down in the chair. She took a deep breath and looked up at Phil. "Please... I need to know she's alright."

"It's not Hollyn..." Phil confirmed. "...It's Mr. Potts."

"Alex—"

The door opened again, but this time Dr. Lee Cho emerged and approached the two. His face remained stoic, but she could tell by his demeanor that he was present to offer his condolences. Cho hesitated for a moment before explaining, "The original operating team was able to remove the bullets that Mr. Potts had been shot with; however, they overlooked a few remnants of debris. Between the loss of blood and the punctured vital organs, the strain on his heart proved to be too much and he went into cardiac arrest... We've done all that we can at this point. Does he have any other family—"

"No." Julie shook her head and refused to believe what she was hearing. "No, no, no. There is no way in hell that I'm going back to Pepper and explaining that her brother died on my watch!"

"Julie—"

"Don't you dare say this isn't my fault, Phil," Julie interrupted him. A cold look flashed across her face as her tone lowered. "I should've been more alert, should've known—"

"Agent 36."

She looked up at him. His face was stoic, but it softened at the sight of her glistening eyes. Deep down, she knew that it wasn't her fault, that there was literally nothing else she could have done differently in that scenario, but it was so much easier to find someone or something to blame.

"There has to be something else we can try," Julie pleaded. He'd practically become family over the years of working together and she couldn't stand the thought of losing two brothers in one day.

Cho shook his head. "Unless you've got a time machine or know how to raise the dead—"

"Tahiti."

"I'm sorry." Dr. Cho looked at her confusion. "What was that?"

She ignored him and directed her attention toward Phil. "Project T.A.H.I.T.I. I've been through the files; I know it works."

"He's not S.H.I.E.L.D., you know Fury will never—"

"Screw Fury," Julie snapped, "I'm talking about a life here, Phil!"

Phil averted his eyes toward the ground before nodding his head. "Have a room prepped."

"I'm sorry, what's happening right now?" Dr. Cho asked in confusion.

"It's your lucky day, Doc." Julie waved for him to follow. "You've just been upgraded to clearance level seven."

════════ ⋆★⋆ ════════

Alex gasped and shot up from the cot, but immediately regretted that decision as his eyes started to roll back in his head. His neck was quickly supported, and he looked over to see Julie smiling at him.

"Hey."

"Hey..." His voice was hoarse, almost as if he'd been screaming.

"How are you feeling?" She looked nervous.

"Like I was hit by a bus."

"Try a bomb," Ephraim's voice groaned. Alex looked over his shoulder in the other direction to see Ephraim slowly sit up. Hollyn and Lydia had already sat up; their own cots located on the other side of Ephraim.

"How on Earth are we not dead?" Alex asked, incredulous, but relieved. The room immediately went silent. Alex raised an eyebrow and cautiously asked, "Why are you all staring at me like I've grown a third eye?"

"You were declared dead for five minutes," Hollyn bluntly stated.

They all stared at him as if trying to see how he would process the information. At first, he was silent, but then he erupted in a fit of laughter and shook his head. "You're joking, right? Thought, 'Oh, Potts is the last one awake, let's try and pull one over on him'. This is a little out there though even for—Oh my Gosh! I actually died, didn't I?!"

Julie sighed and glared at her younger sister before gently pushing Alex to lie down. "You need to rest... all of you do."

Hollyn muttered a complaint but did as she was instructed like the others. Satisfied, Julie flipped off the lights and left the room. Although lying down, Alex's eyes remained wide open. A deep-seated fear had been created. What if he closed his eyes and never opened them again? A cold chill ran down his spine and he shuddered at the thought of being locked in a box ten feet underground. However, he was more horrified by the sudden realization that he had sacrificed his life for Tony Stark. Something he never thought would happen in a million years. Seeing that the billionaire wasn't in the room with the rest of the recovering injured, it was safe to assume that he had escaped pretty much unscathed, the lucky bastard, or... he hadn't made it. Which would mean he'd failed and sacrificing his life had been pointless—

"Could you deal with your mid-life crisis a bit quieter, please?" Hollyn requested. "Some of us are trying to sleep."

Alex turned his head in confusion before wincing with another realization. "I said all of that out loud... didn't I?"

"Yes," Hollyn agreed with annoyance from the other side of the room, "And as much as I appreciate the gesture of saving my brother's life, even though I'm pretty sure you've just called him the bane of your existence—"

"Is there a point to this?" Alex interrupted.

"Yeah." Lydia nodded, joining the conversation. "She says 'thanks'. Now go to sleep."

"Alright," Alex agreed defensively, but continued to just lie there with his eyes open. He wouldn't sleep, honestly he couldn't at this point. He didn't quite understand it, but he had a gut feeling that something was different... something very wrong.

════════ ⋆★⋆ ════════

"How is he?"

"Vitals are stable," Julie answered the question as the doors slid closed behind her; however, she then answered what Phil's question had actually meant, "He shows no signs of remembering the procedure at all."

"Keep us updated," Phil instructed. Julie nodded her head in agreement.

"Alright," Dr. Cho approached them, clipboard in hand, "It looks as if all vital signs are stable. I'll have someone sedate them and then they'll be ready to transport to a medical facility out in L.A., assuming this place is meant to remain a secret."

"Thank you, Dr. Cho," Julie genuinely expressed her gratitude.

"Give it eight to ten business days," Cho replied lightly before his tone shifted gravely, "He had no brain activity for hours... there's no way to tell what lasting repercussions that could have."

"I'm well aware of the risk, doctor." Her reply was enough for him to recognize that he'd been dismissed. He nodded his head and walked back down the hall to continue his work on other patients.

Phil sighed as he looked down at his watch for the time, then clasped his hands together. "Well, I've got to debrief Fury before he gets wind of this..."

They both knew that somehow Fury would already be aware of what had happened. Julie pulled him into a quick hug. "Thank you, Phil."

"You owe me," he joked.

"More than one," she nodded in agreement.

"Maybe you can introduce me to the kids if I'm ever in town," he suggested, already knowing the answer that would follow.

"Nice try." She chuckled gently. "But you know I keep my home life and my S.H.I.E.L.D. life separated."

Phil shrugged as he walked down the hall. "They've collided once. What's to stop that from happening again?"

She frowned as she realized he was right. The longer she tried, the harder it was to hide her second life. She looked back toward the room where the people she considered family recovered.

How long could she really keep her secrets buried? How long until everything she ever cared about fell apart?

════════ ⋆★⋆ ════════

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞 | And this marks the end of Act One, how are we feeling so far? I'm hoping everything was communicated clearly because the set-up is important for events in the near-future. The next few updates should come some time within the next week, but may be a bit slower than they've previously been over the summer. Thanks for reading and don't forget to vote and comment, any and all support is greatly appreciated!