Line of Fire

2x07; the writing on the wall

This was the very thing Mara had been dreading since the team made it back from Bruges. The rest of the briefing had gone fairly easily. It hadn't started out a particularly complicated mission after all. However, there was a moment where May had explained Mara's sudden appearance in Okinawa...Coulson had given her a look that promised they would have a talk about it later. But her real worry began when Bobbi brought up the one thing that had been on her mind on repeat.

Crossfire.

"They have Agent Salomon," Bobbi said, her voice even, though still betraying some level of concern.

"They said they have Crossfire," Mara cut in before she could stop herself. All eyes turned to her.

"Well, you're the one who fought him, aren't you?" Hunter raised an eyebrow and Coulson shot her another look.

"I only went after him because I saw him headed for the safe house and had to warn the team," Mara explained. "I didn't intend to engage him in combat. But then Aiden recognized me and-"

"You're on a first name basis with that guy?" Lance practically cried.

Mara heaved a sigh. This conversation was looking bad for her. "His name is Aiden Park, we worked several missions together back when I was a field agent," She tried, adding a quick, "Apparently, he's begun working for Hydra and taken the name Crossfire, which I hadn't realized until yesterday."

"You didn't know Agent Park was..." Coulson hesitated. "Crossfire, before now?"

"I promise you," Mara shook her head, not missing the way May was looking her over for any stumble.

"If Hydra has Crossfire, shouldn't we be more worried?" Bobbi asked, glancing between Coulson and May. "He was one of our most dangerous agents, after all. What are we planning on doing about this?"

"Yes, if Hydra has Crossfire..." Coulson trailed off. "Leave that to me. For now, I need the rest of the details of your mission. How many agents did we lose at that safe house?"

~x~

For the last seven minutes, Mack had been staring at her. Mara was counting. This was nearly exactly the same as the time he'd spent staring at her after they'd stopped the Bus from blowing up several weeks ago.

Mara was quickly learning to recognize the look of distrust in Mack's eyes. Every time she thought they were reaching better terms, something would happen to completely set them back. Honestly, Mara was surprised that the one member of the team who had never met her before her supposed death was the one who trusted her the least. It seemed that machines weren't the only things he understood intuitively.

"What is it?" Mara asked with a sigh. She crossed her arms over her chest, leaning back against the wall.

The question hadn't exactly been directed at Mack, but they were the only two in the room, so it was safe to assume that it was meant for him. "How did you do it?" He returned, causing Mara to finally look his way.

"Do what?" Mara narrowed her eyebrows.

"When Coulson was thrashing around in the machine, I could barely hold onto him," Mack answered and then Mara understood where this was going. How had she not realized sooner - much less while it was happening? "You're tiny under those suits of yours. How were you able to pin him down so easily?"

"Adrenaline rush?" Mara guessed. She gave the engineer a casual shrug of her shoulders. "Besides, the director was probably much more worn out by the time I made it over to him. Why, what did you think it was?"

"Not really sure," Mack said with a face that told Mara he still didn't believe a single word from her mouth. However, a moment later, his lips had curled into something almost resembling a smile. "But at least I know you're not some kind of alien."

Was that...was that a joke? Did Mack just try to joke with her? Oh, he definitely had. "Are you so sure about that?" Mara grinned. "I could easily be an extraterrestrial with all kinds of scary space powers and you wouldn't even know."

"Nah," Mack shook his head. "You're too weird to be an alien."

"Ouch," Mara said, placing a hand over her heart as she walked from the room. "You wound me."

Well, at least he got one thing right; Mara definitely wasn't an alien.