"Ok, let's try that again." The man sneered, his fingers tapping impatiently against the arm of his chair. "Who do you work for?"

"I work for the LAPD, man." Brian replied with a shrug that said it didn't matter to him if the guy knew it.

"SHIELD", Hunter replied at almost the same time, his voice thick like he was getting intoxicated. Brian could feel it too, that heavy feeling settling into his limbs and the fuzziness in his brain.

"Truth serum? Are you fucking kidding me?" Brian barked out with laughter as he realized what was going on.

Hunter turned to stare at him, his eyes wide. "Of course, mate. This guy's got no imagination." He drawled slowly, a smirk curling up the corners of his lips.

"You're right. He's probably watched too many shitty spy movies." Brian agreed with a nod. Both of them let out a laugh.

The man watched them, his eyes moving from one to the other, trying to decide which one to question. "So, tell me what SHIELD's plan is." He demanded from Brian.

Brian eyed the man for a moment. "The plan is to kick your ass."

"That's not really correct." Hunter interjected. "The plan is to kill you and everyone that works for you."

"Ok, if you want to be all pedantic about it." Brian gave as much of a shrug as he could, hampered by the way he was tied to the chair.

The man gave a snicker of amusement. "Oh really? And how do they plan to do that?"

"Send in a distraction to keep you busy while they infiltrate the place." Hunter managed to sound bored.

"He's too stupid to get that." Brian chuckled, trying to point at the guy.

The explosion rocked the building, the force of it knocking both of them backwards in their chairs. When May burst through the hole in the wall she found them both giggling hysterically on their backs on the floor.

"Truth serum?" She asked with an eyebrow raised as she stood over them. When they couldn't do more than nod she sighed and rolled her eyes. "What an amateur. He used way too much."

"You ready for this weekend, mate?" Hunter asked as he pulled open the door to the cafe and made a gesture that Brian should go in first.

"I'm so ready." Brian sighed with longing, giving a nod and walking inside.

"You Americans sure know how to drink." Hunter grinned, waving at Annie as the pair walked back towards the kitchen. "Four whole hours of unlimited samples?"

"And over fifty craft breweries in attendance, pouring two or three of their best brews." There was a note of reverence in Brian's voice as he pushed open the door to the kitchen.

Brian stopped short in the doorway, causing Hunter to almost walk into his back. "Wow." He breathed, surveying the scene.

"What's with all these pretzels?" Hunter questioned, peering over Brian's shoulder at the display.

"I was telling Cory about how everyone had those pretzel necklaces last year." Tabby smiled in greeting, her hands still sprinkling salt on a tray of dough. "And how they were all just those cheap store bought pretzels. I thought we could do better."

"Very nice plan, babe." Brian grinned, raising his hand and receiving a salty high five in return.

"I don't think we need quite that many pretzels for four necklaces." Hunter looked dubiously at the racks full of cooling bread.

"We were having so much fun, we got a little carried away." Corinne giggled, twisting a strand of dough into a pretzel shape on a tray in front of her.  There was an answering giggle from Tabby on the other side of the kitchen.

It was then that Brian really took the time to look over their work. There were pretzels of just about every size, and some in shapes he'd never seen before. There were hearts and plain circles, and even a few sticks (a few that had small round pretzels placed at the bottom which was obviously Tabby's work), and even little pretzel people. He picked up a person and took a bite, humming happily.

"Let me guess, pretzels are going to be on special tomorrow?" Hunter made his way over to Corinne's workstation to give her a proper greeting.

"Nope, we're going to sell them for twice as much as those other guys do." Tabby replied with a grin. "Maybe pay for our tickets." She and Corinne exchanged proud glances.

"So stop eating our profits." Corinne cautioned as Brian finished off his pretzel.

He grabbed one of the penis shaped pretzels and held it up, “You’re not going to sell these.”

“No, you guys are going to wear them.” Tabby giggled, sending Corinne into a fit of laughter.

Hunter shook his head, “See, I told you we can’t leave them alone all day.”

A holiday Monday - at least it was for everyone except Corinne, who'd found that people still want their Monday morning coffee, even when they're not being forced from their beds.

She was slowly making her way through a line of customers when Tabby came in. "The boys are NetFlixing in the kitchen. And I saved you this." Corinne called out as Tabby approached the counter, handing her a large frozen coffee drink.  

"Aw, thanks." Tabby beamed, taking the coffee and sipping at it as she made her way back to the kitchen. A few moments later though, she was back, standing at Corinne's side.

"Was it too sweet?" Corinne asked, before glancing back to see that her friend has a hand over her mouth and was silently giggling. "Oh God, what are they doing now?"

Tabby just motioned towards the kitchen door and moved quickly off in that direction.  Corinne finished an order and then followed.  Tabby was standing outside the kitchen door, peering in through the little window and shaking with laughter.

Corinne crept up beside her, sharing the viewing space. As she looked in, she saw Brian and Hunter facing off in the middle of the kitchen, faces screwed up in concentration as they battled with- "Are those baguettes?" She snickered, watching the mighty sword fight.

Tabby nodded, wiping a tear of laughter from her face. "I guess these chocolate espresso milkshakes were a little too much for them to handle."

"And I probably shouldn't have let them watch King Arthur." Corinne added, cackling with laughter as Brian landed a crusty blow against Hunter's shoulder that sent shards of crumbs towards the door.

At the sound of the women laughing, both boys looked up in their direction and chorused, "It's HIS fault!", pointing their wheaty weapons at each other.

The story had been told so many times over now.  The rescue of the girls - that was the only part they talked about. No one dared mention the kidnapping, the conditions they’d been kept in, or the reasons behind it all. That part brought too many clouded emotions.

There was a subtle shift in the interactions of the group all the same. A silent doubting look that crossed Tabby’s face whenever Hunter was around. Brian thought he felt a slight bit of resentment or anger from Corinne at times, especially when his work as a liaison with SHIELD was brought up.  Maybe because she hadn’t known? Of course, they couldn’t talk about it now.  Things were still just too raw.

Tabby’s nightmares grew worse after the event. Brian would wake to her screams some nights - the screams of a wounded animal - pulling her into his arms, shaking her awake and calming her down.  Other times she was angry, kicking in her sleep at someone she called the widow, yelling about classified information and people finding her.

She asked him to stop working for SHIELD one day, her eyes brimming with tears. She didn’t trust them - both the organization as a whole and the people in it. She feared for both of their safety, stopping just short of saying “look what’s already happened”. She didn’t have to say it, he already knew exactly why she and Corinne had been taken.

He promised, he’d go back to the SWAT team. He just needed to finish out a few months, get enough money saved away so they could be free to do whatever they wanted. They’d leave all of this mess behind them and find a nice quiet beach somewhere.

It sounded like a good plan.  But honestly, he didn’t know if he’d be allowed to go. He’d already seen things at SHIELD that had him concerned. It didn’t look like a place that let people walk away.

Summer adventures with some of my favorite people.

The perfect chest of drawers to fit in the perfect spot. It had taken forever for her to find it. Now there was just one problem.

She was crouched on the floor over the box when Hunter and Brian walked in. "Whatcha got there?" Brian asked curiously.

"It's a sideboard." Corinne answered, pulling a bag of screws and nails out of the box and setting it aside.

"Never seen one that small before." Hunter teased.

"I have to put it together." She drawled, shaking her head at them both.

"Oooh, arts and crafts." Brian cooed.

"It's a good thing we came in when we did." Hunter replied.

"That's right. This is a man's job." Brian chimed in.

"Two man job really." Hunter nodded at him.

"Oh brother." Corinne sighed.

"How about you go take a break and we'll get this put together for you." Brian offered.

"Yeah." Hunter agreed. "You take a break, love. Maybe you could make us a coffee?"

Brian nodded vigorously, "Yeah, and a muffin? Thanks babe."

Both men bent down over the box as Corinne backed out of the room, rolling her eyes at the two of them. "Sure. Anything else?"

Brian tossed the sheaf of directions out of the box over his shoulder as Hunter started pulling out planks of wood. Both too absorbed in the task to hear her.

"Uh, what happened to your perfect sideboard?" Tabby asked, tilting her head so that it was about as level as the piece of furniture she was looking at.

Corinne paused a moment before she replied, "It was a two man job."

"Ah." Tabby sighed knowingly, sipping her coffee.