BEING ON THE RECEIVING END OF NICK FURY'S WRATH WAS A SPECIAL CIRCLE OF HELL. Terran tried not to show fear as he stood as still as he could, barely blinking as he allowed the man to get his rage out of his system, tuning out the screaming as he looked at Natasha out of his peripheral vision, the tiny woman seemingly doing the same thing he was, as stock still as he was.

"What were you thinking? Honestly, what were you thinking?" the director demanded, glaring up at Terran who tried not to raise his chin and glance down at him out of his respect, but he would have loved to see his face if he had.

"We had a lead, so we followed the lead, would you rather have us just skipped out on it?" Terran asked, grateful that he not only had the elementary school teacher training needed to stay calm, but the general inclination towards feeling nothing at all that made him insufferably calm.

"Romanoff said that you got jealous and everything nearly blew up in your face," Fury deadpanned, and Terran scowled, glaring down at Natasha who smirked up at him.

"I was trying to be supportive, and I get that she doesn't need it, but there's no harm in being supportive of your teammates," he said, crossing his arms, growing defensive and, essentially, giving all the power to the man who was meant to hold the power.

"Also," he added, realizing he hadn't defended himself properly, "I know that I cut our little reconnaissance short, but I learned a lot, and she did too, so instead of yelling at us, why don't you listen to what we have to say?"

Fury stared at him for a moment, unblinking, and Terran took that time to ponder whether he could even call it blinking if it was only one eye, or if he was default winking, but his musings were short lived as the man spoke, completely unblinking.

"Agent Romanoff was wearing a wire on her at this time, and I have a complete recording of your entire conversation with your target," he sighed, and Terran whirled around to stare down at Natasha.

"You were wearing a wire the entire time?" he demanded, and she turned her body to face him, raising her chin to look up at him, and despite their height difference, he felt much smaller.

"Why do you think I didn't want to sleep with him?" she asked, and he opened his mouth to tell her exactly what he saw-what he knew-but then he remembered that they were most likely being recorded and were standing in front of the Director of S.H.I.E.LD. and he couldn't do that to her.

So he simply sighed, holding her gaze for a few moments longer, before turning to Fury, clasping his hands out in front of him. "How did you get a recording of me?"

Fury sighed, pressing the comm that he wore over his right ear, drawling into it, "Come in, Milo."

A moment later, the door opened to reveal the same man he had met at the bar, the young one that he had first spoken to. His stubble was now gone and his hair was slicked back, and he looked a lot more attractive in his S.H.I.E.L.D. get-up, but it was hard to focus on that due to the feeling of pure betrayal he felt in his heart.

"What the hell, man?" Terran demanded, and Natasha sighed, rolling his eyes next to him.

"Shwartz," Natasha greeted, nodding towards the man, and he nodded back, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips, and Terran just stared between the both of them.

Fury took pity on him, motioning towards the man. "This is Agent Milo Shwartz, son of two of the founding families of S.H.I.E.L.D. He was sent to do reconnaissance for you, but I guess you two didn't need him help."

"We're involving a lot more people than you said we were," Terran pointed out, and Milo smiled at him, and it was small, but it was a lot more than he was expecting.

"He practically raised me and my brother," Milo explained, and Fury gave him a sharp look, and, to the pure shock of the older blond, the man rolled his eyes, "I get you like Leo more, Uncle Nick, but I'd appreciate equal treatment."

"This is equal treatment," Fury said immediately, but Terran could see the way his eyes were tilted, and it was clear he had a soft spot for the man, even if it was rather unethical of him to.

"We've worked together at times. Clint has him on his 'if I needed more allies than Nat in the event of an emergency' list," Natasha explained, and Terran could see that everyone in the room was at least partly mocking him.

He sighed, crossing his arms. "How sweet," he drawled, words dripping with poison, "If we're done asserting our dominance over me, can we keep moving?"

Milo let out a short, muffled laugh and Terran couldn't even enjoy it, because he knew it was slightly at his expense, and despite his thick skin, he didn't like being laughed at; he might not feel much, but he could feel discomfort.

Milo stepped forward, pulling out a tablet from seemingly nowhere, placing it onto the table before pressing a button, and Terran watched as multiple holographic screens spread out in front of them, and he vaguely realized it was Stark tech, and he looked over towards Natasha who quirked an eyebrow at him, turning her attention to the screens.

"You two found yourself in contact with Nikita Popov and Ovdei Petrov. Very Russian sounding names, I want to say they're fake," Milo said, pointing towards the man that Terran was with, then the man that Natasha was with, "We're still analyzing their speech patterns, and I really appreciate the both of you using your natural accents, it's helpful when comparing."

"Are you telling me that these guys could be from Jersey and are just faking their accents?" Terran asked, and Milo shifted, rubbing the back of his neck, and Terran guessed he was most likely from Jersey.

"Essentially. Of course, this is a theory we're running with, but we do know that Constantin is the real deal. Not that I have to tell you..." he trailed off, swiping his finger across the screen to show pictures of the rest of the group that were sitting at the table where Nikita had come from.

"These are all of his known associates, we sent some agents to stake out their previous location, and it turns out that Constantin shifts between two locations. We haven't been able to track the second, since I lost them when they were heading back, but we do know, from the number at the table and their conversations, that there are six staying in the warehouse, but more staying in the other location," he continued, pointing towards the eleven that were sitting at the tables, and Terran shuddered as he realized there were more in cahoots than he had been expecting.

"I'm so glad you didn't go back with that creep," Terran mumbled, and Natasha rolled her eyes and scoffed at him, but he caught the soft sigh she let out, forcing her entire body to relax.

She wasn't a machine, no matter what everyone else thought of her.

"So he told me they were building some kind of a weapon to take control of all major centers in the world until all their power was able to spread through the rest of the world, taken over by their organization..." he took a deep breath, struggling to spit out the name, his knees buckling and forcing him down, his forehead resting on the cool wood of the table.

"The Wolf Spider. That's what they call themselves, The Wolf Spiders. The flag...I didn't get it at first, it's not the communist flag, the symbol isn't just in the corner, but the star is at the bottom, not the top, and the symbol is a spider, but it's legs have their own spiders, and it's meant to branch out..."

Natasha watched as the large man was reduced into a shaking, terrified child. She could see the quiver of his hands from where his arms were draped over each other, his head hidden and body ready to fall from where it was precariously held up by shaking knees.

"Sweets," she said, moving to hover her hands over his shoulders, "Sweets."

She pressed lightly on his shoulders, and even though he knew it was her, he still jerked violently, Natasha immediately jumping back to keep from being caught in the accidental crossfire.

"Sweets, you need some time?" Fury asked, because he wasn't his agent, and there were certain things he had to do to make sure he didn't cross any boundaries.

"Just lay everything out, Milo, then I want a break," the blond mumbled, and Milo couldn't help but reach out and squeeze his shoulder, Terran bracing himself for the touch.

"There's nothing else, other than the background of some of these people who are genuinely Russian and are actually from Russia, but you can read that on your own," he said softly, and Terran sighed.

This was why he didn't like telling anyone how he felt, because then they tried to accommodate for him and jeopardized everything he had worked so hard to cultivate; his feelings didn't matter, his body was killing him from the inside out for months before the serum was neutralized, this was nothing.

But he would be lying if he said a little part of him-the selfish part of him-wasn't grateful.

He turned to look at Natasha and Fury who were silently communicating from behind him. When they caught him looking, Fury cleared his throat, shifting in place. "Just take a break, Sweets. You did good."

Terran sighed as he rose to his feet, towering over everyone else, making his way towards the door. "Don't patronize me, Fury. I don't need your pity."

It was like he was told during training: emotions are irrelevant, it's the mission or nothing at all.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 09.14.18 )

For those who are wondering, Milo Shwartz is the brother of Leo Oberholt, the OC in my Pietro Maximoff fic, and he's gonna play a major role in my Sharon Carter fic that's coming out sometime soon, so let's get hyped about that.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!