[1] Take the Shot | Leo Fitz

21

You know that feeling where you've fucked up.... and you know you've fucked up. That every occurrence from a particular moment is your fault?

Yeah, that's how Nina felt as she stared at the dead body on the floor of the cargo hold. She's seen her fair share of bodies, a name like the Executioner pretty much warrants it but she still took it hard when a person she tried to save didn't make it.

Seth, his name was. Donnie and he had been responsible for the machine that created all that ice and the superstorm that had been raging outside. The boys had been encouraged and funded by Ian Quinn, adding another reason why Nina hated rich 'scientists', Tony was excluded of course.

Logically Nina knew none of it was her fault but she'd spent prolonged time with Donnie. She should have figured it out, she should have at least noticed. She had been given the role of Agent May that day by the agent herself and it was on her watch that a kid had died. The weight of the situation was hers to bear and it felt exceptionally heavier considering Coulson and May had returned shortly after the team figured out they'd been blindsided.

Luckily for the Latina, she didn't have to dwell on her self proclaimed screw up as Coulson's call with Quinn had linked the man to the Clairvoyant so Nina had spent the next few days with unshakable motivation to bring the man in. It helped that Coulson matched her energy as did the team that had become her family.

This morning, like every morning, the team came together in the Command Centre. A picture of Quinn was on the holocom, where it had permanently been for the past days. Fitz had walked in with Simmons but went straight over to Nina and handed her the coffee that was in his hand. He didn't need to ask to know that she'd been up all night as in the limited time he'd known her, he'd learnt Nina wasn't the type to rest in the middle of a mission. She accepted the coffee and thanked him with a kiss on the cheek.

The pair had shared a couple of kisses similar to that of the one back at Sci-Tech but Nina had been adamant in not partaking in such a thing in front of other people. Fitz assumed she had a limit to the of PDA she was comfortable with and kissing in public would cross exceed that limit. Where Fitz wasn't completely mistaken, the real reason was that Nina needed to talk to Coulson first. She would have wanted anyone on her extraction team to let her know if they were in a relationship before making out in front of her and she was going to grant Coulson that same luxury.

"Ian Quinn," Coulson started off the meeting to which May replied with,

"You found him?"

"No, but we think we know how we can, Skye tracked down an invoice from one of his shell companies. He made a big purchase recently,"

"10 million dollars big," Skye said and Nina just nodded. 10 million dollars was a lot of money but after having to talk Tony out of spending just under a billion on a collection of cars and scotch... twice, it lacked the surprise factor to elicit a larger reaction from her.

"Any idea what it is?" Simmons asked the hacker but Skye shook her head.

"No clue. But it was designed and built by Cybertek, Inc. A small firm that deals in advanced technology and research," she told her.

"Which is where this gets interesting," Coulson pressed his hands against the edge of the holotable as he began to explain, "they've hired a private security outfit to transport the purchase, former military, ex-mercs."

"Lot of muscle to move one package," Ward said and Nina gave him a teasing look.

"What, is a couple of mercs too much for you?" she joked and he rolled his eyes before grinning back at her.

"They know SHIELD's got eyes on Quinn," Coulson said ignoring the exchanged between the two friends. If they decided to get competitive he'd entertain it, the two worked best when they were trying to prove they were better than each other.