"Sitwell?" Autumn asked, looking at him. "What did Sitwell have to do with this?" She paused. "Oh don't tell me he's Hydra..."

Ward nodded. "He's not here," he pointed out. "And he's been involved in some very iffy things. We're pretty sure he's Hydra."

"I can't imagine how Coulson is taking that," Autumn murmured. "He and Sitwell were friends." And even though she didn't want to admit it aloud, she was mildly frightened at the thought of such a high-level agent as Sitwell being corrupt.

"Not well." Ward was quiet for a moment. "Not that any of us are really taking this particularly well."

"True," Autumn agreed. She sighed. "And nobody has any idea what's going to happen next. I doubt even Fury quite knows what to do now."

Ward shrugged. "I doubt anyone knows what we're going to do next," he said, frowning a bit. "But we need to take whatever advantages we can get, pull everyone together."

"Alexis and I will do what we can," Autumn said. "But the assets come first. I can't ask Charles to drop everything he's working on to keep an eye out for us, not with the Registration Act coming down hard again on the mutant population." She sighed. She was supposed to be there to put herself between the government and the X-Men, and that was going to be a million times harder now that the reputation she depended on from SHIELD was ruined.

"The assets are going to be part of this too," Ward pointed out. "The Registration Act will be pushed harder now, maybe even expanded to cover other heroes. We'll need to figure out how to get everyone to cooperate and keep everyone safe."

"And in the meantime, I need to help Charles look after everyone," Autumn replied. "They'll need an agent with them more than ever, now, if only to help defend against anything else Hydra might try."

Ward nodded. "I'd be surprised if we didn't end up putting people in two or three different spots at least temporarily while things get figured out.

"Yeah," Autumn agreed, nodding. She went quiet for a moment, just thinking a bit and watching FitzSimmons work. The science pair were really kind of fun to watch.

"You know, if you two are going to talk about me, you should really do it in a more secure location," Alexis quipped as she made her way down the stairs.

Ward just snorted.

"If I were going to talk about you, I'd do it where Barton would hear me," Autumn retorted habitually, grinning. "But he's still off following Coulson around."

"He's stalking Coulson through the vents. I have no idea how he fits in the vents here, planes do not have big vents." She shook her head. "But that's Clint for you."

Autumn grinned.

"How do you even deal with that?" she asked her friend. "Just pray he doesn't get stuck somewhere?"

"Most of the time," Alexis agreed with a grin. "I don't worry about him in the Tower anymore, but any new locations, yeah, it's just hope he doesn't get himself stuck."

Autumn snickered.

"Glad I don't have to worry about that," she said. "I only have to worry about one of the younger kids burning the mansion down by accident."

Alexis snorted. "Yeah, I have to worry about Clint getting stuck, Natasha gets testy if there's no vodka or if she can't take a bath, Steve still gets confused by some technology, Bruce is working with one of the most volatile people on the planet and somehow they manage to Science together, and Thor is like a giant blonde puppy who will smite you if you piss him off."

Autumn snickered.

"Corralling Logan is kind of like that," she said.

"Yeah, I'm not surprised." Alexis shook her head. "Well, looks like we're getting some time away from paperwork, at least."

"I would hope so," Autumn said, making a face. "Who would we even submit it to anymore if we had any?"

"One good thing," Alexis quipped. "No more mountain of paperwork." She even managed to grin.

"Seriously," Autumn agreed, grinning a little as well. Her grin faded, though, as it led back to thoughts of what had happened. "Ward just told me about Sitwell."

Alexis paused, thought that over, and swore. And then swore again, more violently this time.

"He was the main interim between Coulson leaving and me taking over my team," she said, her voice low and not quite hurt.

"A lot of the changes amongst the handlers went through Sitwell first," Autumn said, nodding a bit. "He probably knew more about us as a whole than we did about each other."