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[b][color=#ffffff]The Triskelion, Washington[/color][/b]

[color=#ffffff]The sound of beer bottle opening woke Guy Gardner from his sleep. His tired eyes opened slowly to the familiar sight of Ben Grimm. By Ben’s side was the man that had supported Gardner’s career at every turn: Timothy Aloysius Cadwallader Dugan – or as his friends knew him, Dum Dum. He’d sworn off his trademark hat and traded in his SHIELD uniform for a set of military fatigues, but otherwise he looked the same.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Two years after retiring from SHIELD, the attempt on Nick Fury’s life had brought Dugan in from the cold. Gardner’s heroics against Hammond had earned enough him good-will with Maria Hill to allow Dugan to prize his protege back from babysitting duty – especially now that there [i]was[/i] no Fantastic Four left to babysit. Grimm agreeing to come work for Dugan alongside Gardner had been the cherry on the top.[/color]

[color=#b45f06]“I’m not going to lie to you, kid, you look like week-old shit. But thanks to you Zhang Chin is sat in a holding cell in The Hague awaiting trial.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Gardner took the beer gratefully and knocked back a swig with a moan. It might not help him get out of the infirmary any quicker and his doctors definitely wouldn’t thank him for it, but it sure as hell tasted good. And after taking two bullets in Juba, he figured it was well-deserved.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The injured SHIELD agent set the bottle down on the table beside his infirmary bed.[/color][color=#b6d7a8] “Well, I guess that’s something.”[/color]

[color=#f6b26b]“You should have been there to see his face when I dropped in on him,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Ben chuckled. [/color][color=#f6b26b]“I’ve never seen someone look so relieved in my life.”[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“I was relieved you didn’t land on me, you big lug,”[/color] Gardner smiled.

A look of faux-outraged crossed the superhero-turned-SHIELD agent's face. [color=#f6b26b]“I’ll have you know that my aim is second to none, Carrot Top.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Dum Dum Dugan let out the kind of hearty laughter a father might laugh watching his children squabbling. Guy and Ben joined him in it until the former had to reach for the side of the bed to steady himself a little. SHIELD had pumped him full of painkillers but there was still some pain in the through-and-through to the side of his stomach. It was nothing another mouthful of beer wouldn’t get him through, Guy thought to himself, as he gestured to Ben to pass him it.[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“No blowback on us then?” [/color][color=#ffffff]Guy asked Dugan as he knocked back another mouthful. [/color][color=#b6d7a8]“The South Sudanese couldn’t have been too happy with us for that little firefight in their backyard. We racked up a bit of a body count.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Dugan let out a little laugh. [/color][color=#b45f06]“Are you kidding? South Sudan is one long firefight after another – has been for years. It’ll be a long time before they figure out we were there. Even longer before they figure out [i]why[/i] we were there. So no, no international incidents this time around either.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The first extraction mission in Juarez had gone off without a hitch. Some gun-runner that had fallen foul of the cartels that was willing to turn in his suppliers in exchange for safe passage out of Mexico and a fresh start. They had got in and out without dropping a single body, although Ben had been forced to break some poor kid’s arm. The information the gun-runner had given SHIELD put them onto a company known as Advanced Ideas Mechanics.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Ben's smile announced that the two-man team’s success hadn’t gone completely unnoticed. [/color][color=#f6b26b]“So what you’re saying is we’re two-for-two?”[/color]

[color=#b45f06]“Don’t go getting cocky on me, Grimm. This isn’t the Air Force and you sure as hell aren’t a fighter pilot – [i]or a superhero[/i] – anymore. There’s no room for self-aggrandisement in our line of work. Heck, if you'd arrived a few seconds later, poor Gardner would probably be a dead man.”[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“Or worse,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Guy grinned as he pretended to claw at the side of his face with his nails. [/color][color=#b6d7a8]“I could have ended up with an ugly scar like yours.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Though the comment had been made in good humour it seemed to rattle Ben. A lot had changed in the months since Hector Hammond’s attack on the Baxter Building. The Fantastic Four had lost their only means of returning home, the Surfer had been revealed to be serving Darkseid, and, perhaps most difficult of all for Ben, his face had been badly scarred. Guy at times sought to make light of it in the hope that it might convince Grimm to talk about it, but the tactic had proved unsuccessful to date – as it did on this occasion.[/color]

He offered a curt exhale by way of acknowledgement of his partner's misjudged joke. [color=#f6b26b]“Yeah, yeah, make fun of the ogre again, very funny.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]An orderly in a SHIELD medical uniform entered Guy’s room and the three men fell silent. As if sensing that it was the wrong time, the orderly smiled awkwardly, stopped on a dime, and left the room without saying a word. Dugan took a few short paces to stand by the window and inspect the Washington skyline – his eyes resting on the newly-rebuilt Washington Monument.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Gardner pushed through the pain to stack his pillows in a way that allowed him to sit up more comfortably.[/color][color=#b6d7a8] “Any word on the old warhorse?”[/color]

[color=#b45f06]“The doctors still have him in a medically-induced coma,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Dugan said as he removed a cigar from the pocket of his fatigues and slipped it between his lips. [/color][color=#b45f06]“They say if he wasn’t so damn strong he’d have given up the ghost months ago. Nick always was as tough as old boots.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]To say that Nick Fury’s toughness was the thing of legend was an understatement. The old man had been running SHIELD since the beginning of time – or least it felt like it. Up until recently he’d showed no signs of slowing down. Then one of his own had turned on him. The director had been gunned down by a SHIELD agent gone rogue at one of the organisation’s own black-sites. [/color]

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[color=#b45f06]“I never should have left. Twenty years I’d been promising Mary I’d hang up my badge but there was always another mission, always another threat. By the end, when Nick told me about his little [i]theory[/i], I’d thought maybe all the fighting had finally started going to his head. Heck, I thought maybe it had gone to mine. Turns out the stubborn son of a bitch was right – and I wasn’t there to watch his six when he needed it.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]There was regret in Dugan’s eyes. The kind of deep and unabiding regret that strikes people when they make a mistake they don’t think there’s any coming back from. Perhaps some part of the old deputy director had already accepted that his old friend was not long for this world – or maybe he was just worried that Nick would never be the same when he came back. Either way, there was only one thing that needed to be said, and Ben was quicker off the mark than Guy in saying it.[/color]

[color=#f6b26b]“It wasn’t your fault, Dugan.”[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“I hate to say it but Ben’s right,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Guy nodded as he preempted his mentor’s attempt to disagree. [/color][color=#b6d7a8]“What could you have done? What could [i]anyone [/i]have done in that situation? Nick’s the best in the business. If they got the drop on him, they would have got the drop on you too.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Dugan let out a grunt that made clear he didn’t concur with Guy and Ben and turned back to the Washington Monument. Guy could tell by the way Dugan’s fingers were twitching that he was itching to light the cigar up but he couldn’t – [i]another [/i]promise he’d made his wife. Instead it rested between his lips unlit as a comfort blanket more than anything else. [/color]

[color=#b45f06]“Just make sure you look after one another, alright?"[/color] Dugan sighed. [color=#b45f06]"This game we're in is brutal. One minute you’re here, the next you’re gone just like that. You find someone you trust with your life, you stick with that person until the bitter end. No matter what. You hear me?”[/color]

[color=#f6b26b]“I hear ya,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Ben murmured as he and Guy shared a solemn look.[/color]

Dugan glanced down at his wrist. [color=#b45f06]“Alright, I’d better get going. I’m meeting Director Hill on the hour and that woman is a stickler for time.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]He shoved the unlit cigar back into the top pocket of his fatigues and walked back towards Guy’s bed. With their long, shared history, a supportive hand on the wounded agent’s shoulder was all the goodbye that was needed between them. Dugan offered Grimm a nod as he passed by SHIELD's newest super-agent on his way towards the exit.[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“Hey Dugan,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Gardner called out across the infirmary to his mentor with beer bottle in hand.[/color][color=#b6d7a8] “Make sure you send the Führer my regards.”[/color]

Dugan shook his head wordlessly as he disappeared through the exit. He’d always hated that nickname, Guy remembered. He was worried for Dugan – perhaps more than ought to be given [i]he[/i] was the one who’d been shot twice – but his sympathy was soon interrupted by Ben’s rocky fingers unexpectedly jabbing him in his stitches. Gardner let out a howl of pain that echoed through the halls of the Triskelion's medical unit.

Ben shot Guy a mischevious smirk. [color=#f6b26b]“So, you wanna get some pizza or something? Because I could [i]really [/i]murder a pizza or twelve about now.”[/color]