#callmeroyce

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Recent Mission Update

Courier run NC1701 Locations: November 17 to Charlie 01 Cargo: Data-based. Time: Seven days. Hostile encounters: 9 Ally Casualties: 5 Infirmary time: 3 days Rakoski, 1 day Royce Deaths: 6 hostile, 0 ally Summary: Successful Notes: Both agents are due for extended demolition training.

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Decisions

They've only been in Beijing six months, and yet, packing is still a mess. It doesn't help that they get called out for a short courier run, that Ilona's sleeping patterns are still shot to hell, that Royce has a cracked rib after a training session, and that they're both trying to figure out what comes next.

callmeroyce: He doesn't want to admit that his side actually hurts a lot. Instead he pretends he's fine. That works until he trips over a box and crashes into the desk. Yay for another trip to Medical.

She's glad she's not the one in Med for a change, and (not so) weirdly, the break in the frantic packing-and-organizing is actually kind of useful. They have a plan now, and it's a pretty goddamned good one.

callmeroyce: Find a cabin. Buy a cabin. Furnish a cabin. Run off to the cabin whenever they can. Life is good.

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Recovery

Ilona spends three days in Medical. Her memory loss was very short-term, but was replaced with really, really bad headaches; the same was true for the other agents on board Alpha 2-6. None of them remember exactly what happened.

The helicopter itself was recovered... in very poor condition. All communication devices were half-melted (including phones), as was the engine, the black box, and the data-gathering array.

callmeroyce: He gets a cot brought to her room so he can stay with her. When she wakes up confused? He's there. When she has the headaches? He holds her hand and feels useless. When she asks him what happened? He has no idea what to say.

She's definitely ready to go home to the States, the sooner the better-- they have plans, after all, and lots of them-- but part of her feels... odd. As if the frustration, the bitterness, the pessimism-- all the negative things that've been hanging over her head have less weight.

She feels like she's remembering that the world has more good things than bad; like she's starting to trust herself again.

callmeroyce: He's just glad the headaches finally stop. And unless he's mistaken she seems more like the woman he met in Nevada 2 years ago. And he can't help but smile.

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Headcanon: Mission Status

If Ilona goes missing during a mission, her parents won't be the first to know; they don't know anything about her real job, after all.

Word will officially be sent first to her partner, Royce (assuming he's not already on the scene), and then to Benji Dunn-- since they've been working together for two years, he's been cleared as her only non-SHIELD emergency contact.

Other SHIELD agents would be aware if they check SHIELD's agent status list (something she does a little too often, some days).

In the event of her death during a mission, her parents will be informed... but only after her body has been recovered, or six months after the official KIA declaration.

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Three more weeks, and we're on our way home!  

We had to get new carry-on bags, thanks to the, uh, situation in [REDACTED FOR SECURITY].

Can you guess whose stuff is whose?

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It's official-- our last job in Beijing will be...

...an info gathering op! It's going to be hectic, it's going to be exhausting, it's going to be irritating as hell, and it's going to be a genuinely fascinating professional challenge.

And since we're going airborne, and Royce and I will be on separate helicopters, this'll take two days, three at the outside. Then it's another week's worth of intel analysis training, maybe overlapping with debriefing, and then we're done, done, done! Okay, we still have to pack, but it won't be nearly as awful as packing up the apartment... which we'll still have to unpack.... Okay. Not thinking about that now! One thing at a time.

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Pause

They talk about going back to New York, which will happen in just a few more weeks. Ilona suggests, a little uncertainly, that they might want to reconsider their old plan of buying a cabin together.

(She isn't sure how he feels about that anymore; it's been what feels like a lifetime, and there's been a subtle shift in their relationship. She knows how much he'd rather be independent, but at the same time, she knows she can't walk away from SHIELD. She's starting to wonder if she has any real right to expect him to stay.)

callmeroyce: Finding a place just for the two of them sounds like a better idea than ever. He still isn't thrilled with working for SHIELD for the rest of his life. But then again he's definitely done worse things.