Captain America: Professional Best Friend

The Tesseract

A few days later, Emma is on her way to a facility in Nevada where work is being done on a celestial object called the Tesseract that has been taken into SHIELD custody. While she drives, her work phone begins ringing. Emma looks at the contact and sees that it's Maria calling. She holds the phone between her shoulder and ear, saying, "Hey Maria, do you have more intel for me before I get there?"

"No, I'm calling you to tell you to turn back," she replies with a tone of seriousness indicating that this wasn't a leisurely phone call at all.

"Turn back? Why?" Emma asks, curiosity and worry filling her mind.

"This thing is emitting tons of energy so we've called an evac. We don't know when or if it'll blow but if it does we also don't know if there's a safe distance to be away from it. I need you to turn around right now."

"Oh wow," Emma whispers, "and I can't help with the evac? I'm almost there."

"No. It isn't safe here right now. You have intel on too many missions to get hurt or compromised tonight Emma," Maria tells her.

Emma slows her rental car down as she sees a fleet of SHIELD trucks passing her quickly. "Okay, but you all stay safe in there, got it?"

"Got it," Maria replies. "I'll call you after with updates. Fury will probably have you interview those present afterward for an article so be ready for that."

"I'll be all over it," Emma tells her as she turns the car around. Emma tries to make light of the situation by saying, "Well since we already flew out to Nevada, how's a trip to Vegas afterward sound?"

On the other end of the call, Maria laughs a bit before saying, "I'm gonna try and survive this situation first. If I'm lucky enough to make it out then sure, I'll try my luck in Vegas."

"Sounds like a plan, stay safe," Emma says.

"Always am," Maria replies before hanging up the phone.

Emma begins driving in the opposite direction of the facility as the ground begins to rumble. She takes the road she came on and after a couple of miles, in her rearview mirror, she sees an explosion in the air. A bad feeling fills her stomach and Emma decides to whip the car around to see what was the cause of the explosion.

While speeding back, she sees one of the facility trucks making its way through the sand and then a lone figure in the dark. She cautiously makes her way over to the figure and hits the brakes when she sees that it's Director Fury.

Emma rolls down the window, "What the hell just happened? Are you okay Director?"

Fury runs to the other side of the car and jumps in, "Did you see a truck heading that direction?"

"Yes sir," Emma replies.

"Floor it," he says, buckling in.

"On it." Emma slams her foot on the pedal and turns in the direction of where she saw the truck driving. "Is Hill okay?"

"Hill's fine," Fury nods while looking out the window. "She's stuck in the rubble right now but she's alive which is what matters."

"Of course sir," Emma nods as they speed along the road.

After a few minutes of not seeing anything in the sand, Fury shakes his head, "We aren't gonna find them this way..."

"Do you not have a chopper, sir?"

"Agent, that's what exploded back there," he tells her. "That lunatic blasted me out of the air."

"I see," Emma replies quietly. Emma's mind is filled with questions about who shot him out of the sky, of what exactly was going on, and wanting to know how she could help, but before she can ask any of them, Fury is already on his walkie with Agent Coulson setting up a meeting point. They quickly meet up at the set location and Fury tells Emma to head out to her hotel for the night.