Line of Fire

2x06; a fractured house

This was a day Mara thought would never come. Or at least wouldn't be coming for a while. Yet here she was, grabbing her jacket and heading out into the field. She'd missed the feeling of the leather against her skin. It had been custom-made for her when she graduated from the Academy and nearly a decade of wear had fitted it to her perfectly.

Sure, Mara was anxious getting back into the field after so long away, but she was just as anxious to get back to it. There was only one small detail...

"You do realize you're putting me on a mission with Bobbi, right?" Hunter asked, head poking into Coulson's office.

"Relax," Mara told him, clapping him on the shoulder as she passed the Director's office on the way to the quinjet. "May and I will be going too."

"Oh, that's reassuring," Hunter replied. Mara was about halfway down the hallway before she heard Hunter shout, "Wait- What?!"

Fifteen minutes later, Mara was standing in front of the quinjet, a still-confused Hunter staring at her. "You weren't joking earlier?" He asked, jaw slack and eyes wide. Mara rolled her eyes as a way of saying yes, but Hunter went on. "You're seriously going into the field?"

"Former field agent, remember?" Mara gave a bored sigh.

"Yeah, I know you were a field agent," Hunter narrowed his eyebrows. "It's the 'former' bit I keep getting hung up on."

The sound of a whistle cut off any retort Mara might have made. May only needed to poke her head out the quinjet for Hunter and Mara to immediately fall in line. Not enough, however, to stop Hunter from whispering a quick, "But you're actually doing this?" Mara just hit him in the arm.

~x~

Getting to Japan was only about half the nightmare Mara thought it was going to be. Sure, she was still convinced that she was at the top of May's list, but piloting with her in hostile silence was preferable to sitting in the back with Hunter, Bobbi and their unresolved post-marital issues.

Until, of course, Bobbi asked her to swap places and Mara was stuck with Hunter again. Now that was some awkward small talk. Mara could not have been more grateful for the plane landing. They wished Bobbi off before the trio sat themselves in front of the monitors at the back of the jet.

"She knows Japanese," May commented appraisingly after watching Bobby introduce herself flawlessly.

"Yeah, she tends to pick things up quickly," Hunter muttered, a vague note of bitterness in his voice. "Then what the hell are you doing here, Mara? I mean, no offense, but if you're not translating for her, than why did Coulson put you on this mission?"

"I'm not here as Bobbi's translator, I'm here as yours," Mara responded. "All they've really done so far is introductions, but once the meeting gets underway, I'll be relaying the conversation between Bobbi and Toshiro." Just then, the aforementioned pair kissed, leading to several moments of shocked silence in the jet. Then, "You don't need me to translate that one, do you?"

The next ten minutes or so were more or less standard fare for Mara and what she'd been doing recently - the only difference was that she'd been doing it from an office as opposed to actually being in the field. That all changed when they switched into English and Mara was left feeling useless. Suddenly, Toshiro dropped a name Mara hadn't expected to hear for a very long time.

"You see," He said, a certain note of pride in his voice. "Hydra has acquired Agent Salomon."

"Like Crossfire?" Bobbi asked. If she was as shocked as any of her teammates in the jet, she was doing a great job of hiding it. "I thought he disappeared after SHIELD fell?"