NEXT!

With increasingly limited time and with a slightly more refined plan than before, the small group headed out and onto the streets of New York. The S.H.I.E.L.D base where Korvac's corpse was being held was only two hours away in a building disguised as a bank; Clint and Natasha rode in a classy black and luxurious looking sedan. Whilst Sherlock, John and Amelia took a taxi, switching halfway through the first hour, before calling up a rental car for the last leg. The discomfort of the journey was overridden by the adrenaline running through the three, they were about to effectively commit treason, it was thrilling.

"You don't strike me as the law breaking kind, no offence." John said to Amelia with a questioning glance.

"None taken, this small adorable exterior is merely the vessel for the genius talents of hackery. Is that a word? Hackery?" She replied with a cheeky grin, John sat in the front passenger seat whilst Amelia stretched out on the back seats. John chucked at her reply, looking over to Sherlock he saw a small smile on his lips, as he shook his head in amusement at his friend. There was a pause, "Do you think they'll lock us up if we're caught?" She asked, now serious.

"That, or offer us a job." Sherlock commented.

"Oh god, would I have to wear one of those crazy blue suits? Nobody looks good in those." John suppressed a laugh as he remembered the battle of New York when he and Sherlock had worn the tight blue S.H.I.E.L.D uniforms, but said nothing.

"We're nearly there." Sherlock stated, looking forward to a group of nondescript buildings, the black sedan in front of them slowing down to traverse the narrowing roads. The car grew silent with anticipation as they approached their final destination.

Getting inside the building went off without a hitch, of course it wasn't the getting in that was the problem, it was the getting out.

"Down this way." Amelia and John followed Sherlock who in turn was following the schematics Natasha had send to his phone. She had only supplied the parts that they needed to navigate to Korvac, and even then the details were non-existent, it was agreed this would happen so Natasha and Clint wouldn't be too horrifically punished if caught giving away secrets to three foreigners. They got to the room labelled 'containment three' within ten minutes of entering the secure building using Mycroft's ID. The same ID allowed them to enter the room whose contents were a shock to all. Visually, it seemed like a high tech hospital room, white walls with blinking machinery, a large table in the centre of the room. It was the other senses that were immediately shoved in the deep end of what they could handle. The room was cold, so cold their breath misted into clouds as they walked further into the uninhabited room.

"Cold, to keep the body from decaying too quickly." Sherlock said, moving swiftly forward leaving the other two lingering at the door.

"Oh god." Amelia felt queasy, the smell of the recently deceased body already beginning to fill the air around her, enhanced more by her imagination. "I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't quite this." Her tone quiet as she and John moved closer to the huge form on the silver table in front of them.

"Looks like this may have to be a team job, autopsy and hackery." John said, glancing at Amelia with a reassuring smile, which she reciprocated. Sherlock was busy examining the body, like it was just another day, another case, but for the look of pure enjoyment in his light blue eyes.

"They haven't touched him yet, probably waiting for Fury to come take a look see first." He said, not looking up from a panel over Korvac's ribcage. "Looks like that could be a hard drive under this, what do you think?" Amelia circled the desk, standing next to Sherlock and examining the area in question.

"Wow, they didn't skimp on the whole 'merging flesh and machine' thing did they." Amelia got closer, every component was at least partially visible now Korvac's garments had been removed. "Could be a hard drive, this technology is different to anything I've ever seen. Wait? Is that a? no."

"USB port." John said, also moving closer.

"It is! Well I guess he needed some way to connect to earth technology? Good on you aliens, you just made my job a whole lot easier." Amelia rubbed her hands together and got a laptop out of her shoulder bag in a mess of random cables. By a gift of fate, she had a male to male USB cable and attached her laptop to one end and the other to the port in Korvac. The information that came onto the screen was a jumble of numbers and letters moving in sequence, some symbols recognisable, others far from it. "Well, maybe not a whole lot easier."

"S.H.I.E.L.D has advanced encryption cracking software," Sherlock said, moving over to the only S.H.I.E.L.D computer in the room. "It may be able to help if co-ordinated with translation software."

"You need a hand over there?" Amelia said as he searched the mess around the desk. Sherlock ignored the subtle quip at his computer skills, which were well above the average man's capabilities, even if they weren't as advanced as hers.

"If this computer is hacked it may attract unwanted attention, or set off a silent alarm. But the desk tells us all we need to know." Sherlock moved to the keyboard typing in the allocated space, "Expelliarmus1976, not the most inventive password in the world." John and Amelia smiled at each other.

"He's probably just sad he didn't get his Hogwarts letter." Amelia giggled. They were each getting used to the unusual environment, the cold no longer scratching away at their skin, but settling on the surface like a light fog. The S.H.I.E.L.D computer was a mess of files and software, some elements requiring further passwords to access and others more available. The necessary software was found after a few minutes; it was complex, but advanced enough to start working once the information from Korvac was sent to it.

"This may take a while. There is no way we can just skedaddle with the information and hope to decrypt it all later, we need S.H.I.E.L.D." Amelia said, moving over to the desk and observing the software.

"And S.H.I.E.L.D needs you." They all jumped and turned as this unknown voice came from the door. There stood Nick Fury, he had entered the room in complete silence. No one said anything for at least 60 seconds, Amelia just opened and closed her mouth. "We've been keeping an eye on you Amelia Costello. Your knowledge of advanced computer systems will be a great asset to S.H.I.E.L.D. You will be working with a team of others on intel gathering from Korvac's systems, we're willing to overlook your past digressions if you accept this offer." Fury finished, his one eye demanding an answer from the small woman in front of him. She opened and closed her mouth one more time before answering.

"And hypothetically speaking, if I say no, what happens?"

"You've attempted to hack S.H.I.E.L.D databases on no less than 10 separate occasions, broke numerous laws as well as interfering with a few operations. If you were to say no, you would be held in custody with the other traitors and spy's before potentially being deported back to the UK to face trial." He replied honestly, Amelia stuck out a hand to Fury.

"Then shake the hand of your new employee." He took her hand in his and gave one solid shake.

"Director," John chimed in, Fury looked at him and Sherlock for the first time since entering the room, "Korvac had some information we needed, if Amelia can get it back, it will be invaluable."

"Any information relevant to you will be analysed by our techs and can be sent to you anywhere in the world." Sherlock nodded in thanks.

"Wait how did you know we were here?" Amelia asked.

"S.H.I.E.L.D knows everything."

"My brother called you."

"He did, now I'm going to have to ask you three to leave, Miss Costello we know where to find you."

And that was it, they left, followed closely by an agent who made sure they didn't have a nosey around before departing. They got into the rental car they had parked a couple of blocks from the "Bank" and started the two-hour drive back to Manhattan.

"Wait, what just happened? I think I blanked out." Amelia asked after a moment, breaking the silence.

"You got a job, and we got nothing, except an irritating speech about national security from Mycroft later." Sherlock replied.

"You don't think they'll give us the information about Moriarty's organisation?" John queried.

"John, their whole existence is keeping secrets, not giving them out. No I'm not expecting anything from S.H.I.E.L.D." He replied clenching his jaw. Amelia stuck her head forward, in-between the two front seats and grinned.

"Well then it's a good thing you've got a friend on the inside then."

Back at Avengers tower, the three explained to the group what happened. Clint and Natasha returned an hour or two later, apologising for not being able to keep Fury off their trail for as long as they'd hoped.

John took a moment outside on the balcony, where he'd been not so long ago after the battle of New York. Now there was a railing to lean against, instead of a broken ledge and sheer drop. HE thought about how much his life had changed in the last fortnight. His best friend had dies, in front of his eyes, seeking a distraction he'd followed Tony to New York and got mixed up in more alien madness than he was expecting. Then Sherlock had just fallen back into his life again, like nothing had ever happened.

"You alright?" Steve had silently joined him, also leaning against the railing on the balcony.

"Yeah, actually good. I've just got to recover from the whiplash. Everything happened so fast." He replied. Steve chuckled and slapped a friendly hand on John's shoulder.

"But you got him back, that's the main thing. Even if it'll take a while to get your head around it all." John nodded and smiled at the captain. "What will you do now?"

"We've got to go take down Moriarty's organisation, that's priority." He replied, "Can you do me a favour Steve?"

"Anything."

"Keep an eye on Amelia, I get the impression she's more of a lone wolf and S.H.I.E.L.D is going to be another world to her."

"Of course, everyone needs a friend, we'll keep her out of trouble."

"Thanks."

The flight home was long, and not nearly as comfortable as Stark's personal jet. But Sherlock was there, and while they didn't speak there was this overwhelming feeling of everything falling into place again. John slept, a deep dreamless sleep, the best he'd had in days. He thought he'd never see Sherlock again, turns out there is always a way.

A/N – No plans in writing a third in this series. This is where your imagination takes over, I imagine Amelia going to work for S.H.I.E.L.D, feeding information to Sherlock and John as they seek to destroy Moriarty's criminal empire. Thank you for reading, sorry this took so long for me to remember I'd written this. Life eh?

Characters property of BBC and Marvel.