"Because he's Coulson," Avery replied. "I'm pretty sure there's a rule somewhere about it."

"I would not be the least bit surprised," Kerry agreed. "Alright, I'm going to figure out how to prep these guys. I'll see you in a few hours."

"You're the best," Avery said. "See you then."

"See you." Kerry hung up, shook her head, and went to go prep the team.

So when the Bus landed a few hours later, there was no immediate rain of arrows from the sky and the Avengers were all still inside. So far.

"Well, that's a good sign," Avery murmured as she stepped off the plane. She entered her passcode at the door, letting them into the building. She habitually glanced up at the vent in the ceiling.

Clint wasn't in the vents, for once. He and the others were all corralled in the living room by a rather frazzled-looking Kerry. She was glaring at Clint and Natasha to make them stay currently, though she did glance back when she heard the doors open.

"Awesome, your turn, take over," she said.

"Yeah, okay, you go into the kitchen and get coffee," Avery said, nodding. She glanced at the group warily. "So she told you?" she asked them. "I promise as soon as I got the information, I passed it along. I didn't know before now."

"They won't believe that," Coulson said, moving into the room behind her and smiling a bit when Natasha and Clint both got to their feet. "But it's true. Only a select group knew. That group is still fairly small."

"Sir...?" Clint asked cautiously, watching Coulson very carefully. Natasha watched as well, not speaking.

"If it helps, technically I was dead for eight minutes," Coulson supplied with a little shrug. "Director Fury decided to keep the information to a very limited pool of people."

Natasha stood very still. She looked like she was half-way through planning the assassination of the Director. Clint, however narrowed his eyes a bit.

"How long have you been okay?" he asked.

Coulson shrugged. "A few months. I was recovering in Tahiti for a while."

That made Clint blink.

"You were in Tahiti?" he asked.

"You've been recovered for months and you didn't tell us?" Natasha asked softly.

"I wasn't allowed to," Coulson said. "At first it was my choice. Fury gave me the option." He shook his head a bit. "But you needed more time to cement as a team. And then Fury agreed with me and it was a standing order. No matter how many times I told myself it would be a bad idea to contact you two or wanted to change my mind, it wasn't an option." He shrugged. "Until I called the Director and talked to him last night."

"What changed?" Natasha asked evenly.

Coulson nodded to Avery. "She reported back to me and I had first-hand knowledge rather than a report."

"So she knew," Natasha said. It wasn't a question, because clearly, that must have been what happened. Avery must have known Coulson was alive in order to have reported back.

"She knew when she came to help us with a problem of magical origin yesterday," Coulson said. "Before that, she did not know."

That made Natasha pause. It went a long way towards getting them to trust the new handlers, when one of them was able to convince Coulson to come back and didn't withhold the information.

"So now what?" Clint asked cautiously.

"Now you two stop holding grudges and give those two a chance." Coulson shook his head. "I picked them because they'd work well with you. I didn't expect you to be quite this difficult."

"With all due respect, sir, they're not you," Clint said. And that was the crux of it. The new handlers hadn't earned their respect like Coulson had, and just being told by Fury that they had new handlers wasn't going to work.

"They're not," Coulson agreed. "And you'll never learn to live with them if you don't give them a chance, which you're not doing." He pinned them both with his Look.

They both resolutely withstood the Look. The girls hadn't earned respect or trust yet, and Coulson knew it.

Coulson did know that, but he also knew that the two weren't even giving them a chance. He huffed.

"Alright, if that's how you want to do things. You're both grounded until you learn to accept the idea of new handlers and give them a chance. I'm not saying you should trust them because I said so. I know that won't happen. But you're not going to give them a chance even. And until you do that, I'm telling Fury you're both grounded."

That made them both pause.

"You can't do that," Clint finally ventured. He glanced at Natasha for support, and she looked just as baffled as he did.