Title: Uncle Sam Wants YOU
Characters: Sam Winchester, Phil Coulson
Summary: Sam Winchester, sophomore at Stanford, is approached by Agent Phil Coulson and asked to join a shadowy government organization with a name that's far too long. They're working on that.
A/N: This is Part 1 of the series Sam Winchester, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. I'll have part 2 up tomorrow, and part 3 is currently in the works!
Sam was grinning to himself when he walked up the stairs to his dorm room and found an official-looking man in a suit waiting outside his door. He slowed down, considering his options. The man looked like he was probably a fed, but this could honestly be about Brady; Brady might be Sam’s best friend, but he had seriously changed over the summer. He wasn’t the same person now, with the drugs, drinking, and partying, so Sam wouldn’t be surprised if this was about Brady. On the other hand, this could be about Dean or Dad. There were a number of ways a hunter could get on the radar of the feds. The other option was that the man wasn’t a fed at all, and was simply lost and just so happened to be in front of his door. Sam chuckled darkly in his head. When did it ever turn out to be that last option?
“Samuel Winchester?” The man asked, blowing the most pleasant option out of the water in a blandly polite voice.
“That’s me,” Sam said, stepping towards his door cautiously. “And you are?”
“Agent Phil Coulson, with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time?”
“Yeah, sure, come on in,” Sam said, unlocking his dorm room and opening the door, gesturing Phil in. Phil stepped around him with a nod, and Sam held in a sigh of relief that he had a single this year and didn’t have to subject Agent Coulson to Brady’s craziness. “What can I do for you, sir?”
“My organization has been watching you for a very long time, Mr. Winchester,” Coulson said, standing in the middle of the room. “We know what your family does, what you used to do.” When Sam stiffened and started reaching for his pocket, Coulson calmly said “I wouldn’t advise going for the knife in your jeans, Mr. Winchester. Or any of the other weapons hidden around your room. I just want to talk.”
“You know what I’ve done and you just want to talk?” Sam said, moving his hand away from his pocket and sitting down on the edge of his bed. “Do you really work for the government? I’ve never heard of your organization before. It’s quite the mouthful, you know.”
“We’re working on that,” Coulson said. “And we’re a lesser-known branch, much more covert. We deal with problems that are more removed from the public eye, much like you and your family. I’m here to offer you a job. We’ve been encountering more and more problems caused by the paranormal that interfere with our missions. We’d like you to help us take care of the problems we’re having now, and any problems that may arise in the future.”
Sam considered for a moment. “Why go to me? I got out, I’m supposed to be done.”
“We’ve been tracking your family since you left, but we’ve been watching you much. You’re flourishing here at college, but for all you say you’re out and done all the supernatural problems in the Palo Alto area disappear very quickly. Some of them are taken care of by other hunters, especially your brother, but a significant portion are taken care of by you. That doesn’t sound like out or done to me.”
Sam found he couldn’t argue, and this job certainly sounded intriguing. As much as he enjoyed Stanford, as much as he wanted to be a lawyer, he could acknowledge that he’d been craving excitement for a long time. That’s why he’d gone on the few hunts he noticed crop up in the area. “So what would a position with your shadowy organization entail, Agent Coulson?”
“You will work primarily in our headquarters. In the beginning you will be training for field agent status, but with your previous lifestyle, you should be able to test out of a significant portion of training due to your proficiency with weapons and in hand-to-hand combat. Once you’ve officially become a field agent you will be in charge of any paranormal threat we may come across in the process of our missions, and you will also be sent out on basic missions that will be similar to the hunts you did with your family. You would be in charge of picking a team of up to three others to accompany you on these missions. That part is non-negotiable, you will not take any of these types of missions alone.”
“I’ve done solo hunts before,” Sam protests.
“We rarely allow solo missions, there is always at least a handler along for backup with even the most experienced operatives. Again, this is non-negotiable.”
“So what are the constraints that come with working in a shadowy government organization that no one knows about? I’m sure there’s got to be some downside to getting paid to be a hunter,” Sam said with a sarcastic grin.
“You can’t tell anyone what you do for a living. Many agents live on the base. Nothing about your job can be revealed to anyone who isn’t a member of the organization, including your family.”
Sam snorted. “Didn’t you notice? I was disowned when I left.”
Agent Coulson continued as if there hadn’t been any interruption. “You could, technically, continue going to school if you wished, but working for us is a full-time job. And we’re looking to recruit you right now. Not in two years, not when you finish law school, right now. You would leave Stanford, and you wouldn’t be able to tell people where you were going, other than the fact that you were offered a job and you accepted it. You wouldn’t be able to tell them where you were going. You could stay in contact if you wanted, but you wouldn’t be able to tell people what you were doing.”
Sam thought of Jess, and Brady, and all the friends he’d made at Stanford. He thought about everything he’d done since he arrived in Palo Alto. Then he thought about how it felt, the first time he saved someone’s life. And he couldn’t lie to himself; he was curious about this shadowy organization, the kind of work he could do for them, the kinds of people he could meet. He’d always felt a little out of place at Stanford, with all the secrets he’d been keeping from his friends. He doesn’t think of Dean, doesn’t think of Dad; they threw him out, and he didn’t care what they would make of the decision he was about to make.
Sam took a deep breath and smiled at the agent standing in the middle of his room. “I’m in. Where do I sign?”