Spoilers because reasons.

[handofshield]

There are about a thousand reasons I should be shutting you down right now. Of course, my anger is currently focusing on a different target, and he's the one who should be shaking in fear in his Captain America sneakers.

For one thing, removing the clearance levels from SHIELD is a rash decision that shouldn't have been executed. It's a bad move on the new director's part. Amateurish.

[Are you sure you're not angry about other things? Like, say... A certain death?]

Comments

Wow feel free to ignore me but I had to say KUDOS.

[hydraated]

It's a brave new world.

[Could just be talking to himself, could just be observing. Could in fact just be standing here, hand on his gun at his hip, watching a lady because he's a terrible creeper.

well okay, that last part's true. Worse then a creeper.]

[handofshield]

[ Oh.

Good.

You're just getting a little glare at that. Though, she had to admit she'd had her misgivings about you when she told you to shoot Garrett.

Still, getting shot was a bit of an overreaction.]

It certainly is. They're certainly taking better care of you then I would.

[hydraated]

[Yes because living in a box in the basement alone with his thoughts is the best response.]

I really can't help but think you're all allowing it to get personal. I was following orders. Doing nothing but what people have been doing in our line of work for centuries. Millennia. and if you want to convince me that all of your hands are clean...

[Tsk tsk]

[handofshield]

[ Trust me when I say the rooms at the fridge were much, much smaller than that room place you have in the basement.]

Personal? You shot me. And you failed the test. I think it's fair to say that perhaps I'm allowed to take it a little personal.

If I had shot that plane out of the sky. My conscience would clear on what I did. Yours, however, isn't and shouldn't be.

[hydraated]

[eyebrows raise, his tone oozing mocking surprise] I'm sorry test?

[his move is 150 percent Garrett as he folds his hands behind him] Oh I was being tested. Sure. I get it. It was all a test. They do that a lot at SHIELD. I wasn't aware I was still in the academy.

[He passed the important test years ago. Even as he ignores the "didn't he?" voice at the back of his head]

[handofshield]

You never know a strength of an agent until they stare down a questionable order. You failed.

[ There's not a hint of a fear in her face as she notes the way the other moves. She's already died once after all.]

Agent Triplett and Simmons got a similar test and past with flying colours. You never gained my trust.

So you failed.

[busdriver]

[Trust the system. Don't ask questions. Accept "It's classified" for an answer, and treat their intel as need-to-know. Maybe the hacktivists and dissidents were right about SHIELD, and those were all the symptoms of corruption. May hasn't really changed her stripes so soon. She'll keep doing things the way she was trained, the way she knows how, but she's open to the idea of running the agency differently. It's almost unavoidable. Coulson and Fury are nothing alike.

Losing Hand was tactically crippling for SHIELD, and seeing her again is a raw reminder of the team's failure to recognize and expose Ward for what he was.]

You're not focusing on the man who killed you? [Less an expression of surprise, more a suggestion.]

[handofshield]

[ The compartmentalize of SHIELD had it's flaws but ripping out the whole system to take out the root of the problem isn't solving it easier. Controlling how far the important information gets is a decent strategy. The only thing that Victoria seemed to agree on was the distance Coulson seemed to putting between him and the rest of the team. Being in charge always required a certain type of person after all.

Coulson isn't that person, it seemed. ]

Oh. I'm well aware of his status, Agent May. [ There's a little press of her lips at that.

She's very pissed about that as well.

He, however, did'nt put Isabelle's life in danger.]

[busdriver]

[Controlling the flow of information matters less, with numbers like theirs. They don't have enough agents to think about a conventional hierarchy. She's not gonna voice the thought. She wouldn't feel right, talking about Coulson's command decisions with anyone but the man himself. A good soldier would say it wasn't their place.

May pauses, considering.] They're leather. Italian, I think.

[She's not too knowledgeable about men's fashion (or women's, for that matter) but she knows snazzy lace-up formal shoes from sneakers.]

[handofshield]

[ Of course, that very control of the information is how Hydra got into their ranks into the first place. It was a little bit of a two sided issue and Hand's more than aware of that. The way her mind works, she's already ten steps ahead of most people. Ward got lucky.

There's just an eyebrow at that.

Not the answer she was expecting.

Or perhaps the very sort of answer she expected of someone loyal to Coulson. After all. she was willing to shoot down May as well.]

Did he claim them on tax?

[ Clearly that's the best answer here.]

And you're deflecting.

[busdriver]

[Good job keeping up with those evasive maneuvers. It can't have been easy to follow her train of thought.]

I'm not aware of the budget, ma'am.

[handofshield]

That's a shame Commander.

[ She's totally going to scream in her car about you later. ]

[busdriver]

[At least it gets a reaction. A bewildered reaction.

If clearance levels are out, if they're dismantling the system, what the hell makes Hand think that there's a need for a Deputy Director? Coulson needs boots on the ground. That, and a friend, is all she's trying to be.]

Agent.

[handofshield]

[ Hey, don't underestimate Hand and her tests. She wanted that reaction. She wanted a reaction at least.

And of course there's need for a Deputy Director. Hell, Hand would have taken that postion - granted, begrudgingly if she was still around. ]

For now.

[busdriver]

[It's short-lived, so enjoy it.]

You're not angry about the levels.

Whee!

[sonofcoul]

Clearance levels as they were did not make nearly as much sense without the manpower that SHIELD used to have at its disposal.

[handofshield]

Well, perhaps getting less of that manpower killed might help your situation. Director.

[sonofcoul]

There have always been necessary risks, and you know that more than most.

And they may have made it out if they had followed orders.

[handofshield]

Orders that were rash to the point of stupidity.

And before you go recounting my past mistakes. I'm aware of the variables when I said my people on missions.

And I know when I make a bad call.

[sonofcoul]

It wasn't a call I made lightly, or without considering the risks.

And yes, the outcome is ultimately on me.

[handofshield]

...She was important to me and you let her die.

Not that I'm trying to add to some death tally Coulson. You were wrong.

[sonofcoul]

I know I let her die.

You didn't add to that tally. I did, when I made the call. But that call was the right one to make.

[handofshield]

And keeping Grant Ward in your basement is another right call?

[sonofcoul]

Keeping an available source of Hydra intel secure is absolutely the right call. Even if it;s just a little, and even if we have to examine it from all angles.

[handofshield]

And don't you think you're a little emotionally compromised when it comes to him? At the very least you're team is.

[sonofcoul]

I never said I didn't think that.

But he is, too.

[handofshield]

Playing double bluff with a Hydra can be paramount to playing Russian roulette. You should have left him in the ground.

[sonofcoul]

That would have left us more blind to what's happening on the ground than we already are.

When your resources are limited, you need every last one you can hold onto.