Family

Phil Coulson was one of SHIELD's best field agents at one point. He had to quit and be a pencil pusher after he suffered a debilitating injury on a mission (he was caught in a rockslide and barely, barely survived). He would later admit that desk work was more of his calling than field work had ever been anyway.

Before he was a SHIELD agent, Clint was one of the most notorious assassins in the world, selling his services to the highest bidder.

Clint was lost; he had no purpose and no reason to live, and was on a downward spiral. But he was on SHIELD's radar in a bad way.

Coulson was sent to take him out. But he saw something in him - something Clint didn't see in himself, something worth saving. So instead, he brought him back to SHIELD. He offered him a job, a purpose and a chance to redeem himself. Clint accepted.

That was why Clint let Natasha live. He could see what he used to be in her - someone without a purpose. Without a reason to live. Waiting to die. Budapest was the first time he disobeyed orders, and it made Coulson damn proud.

Natasha Romanoff had a mission - eliminate one Dean Winchester, psychotic serial killer. But when she got there, she didn't find a madman. She found a broken one. A tired one. Exactly what she had been before SHIELD. So she gave him a choice. He chose SHIELD.

When the Hero League comes to SHIELD for help with the up-and-coming villain, 16-year-old Max Thunderman, SHIELD sends out Dean Winchester to kill him. But Dean doesn't do it. Because he sees Max for what he really is - a kid who got in way over over his head. Max has killed too many people to be let go, but maybe - maybe he can redeem himself. Dean offers him the chance to do so, and he accepts. So Max Thunderman goes from Mayhem's apprentice to SHIELD agent.

Strike Team Delta was, without a doubt, the best, most efficient unit in SHIELD, with the highest mission success rate of any team in the agency. They were the most balanced and well-rounded of the strike teams. The members were all deadly in their own right. But together? They were unstoppable. They were the best of the best.

They were also quite possibly the most dysfunctional little family any of them had ever seen, much less been a part of.

Natasha barely remembered whatever family she had before the Red Room. The only family Clint had was a brother who tried to kill him on a daily basis, Dean's family was all dead save Sam, who had left him without a second thought. And Max had betrayed his real family and gotten his younger siblings killed. And Coulson was a widower despised by his son.

Yeah, Team Delta's general experience of family before SHIELD were unpleasant. But they knew that what had happened to them was not what family was supposed to be like. It was supposed to be something you could always trust to have your back, to tell you the truth, to actually give a damn about you.

That was what they found in Team Delta. Trust. Family. The way it was supposed to be.

A/N

I didn't originally intend to write that last part, but it just kinda happened. Also, I've always had a vision of Dean and Sam finally separating for good at some point in the series and Dean getting involved with some group or team from a different show/franchise.

Anyway, I own nothing, unfortunately.