Chapter Text
3 Days Pre-Insight Launch
“Guys I think we’ve been hacked,” Colby called over the background noise of the bullpen, “check the alerts. I mean, this has to be some sort of joke, right?”
Don looked at his own computer and saw a new APB - “Steve Rogers - alias ‘Captain America’”. The picture, with the familiar face and the unmistakeable circular shield said it wasn’t some unfortunate coincidence of naming.
He could hear Nikki gasp “no way!”, as he walked across to bullpen to find Matt. There was a funny twist in his gut that was telling him to keep Charlie and Amita as far away from this as possible. When he circled back past Colby’s desk to ask him to check with David, he could hear them on the phone, already talking.
“Yeah, seriously… shit. Take care man. Yeah, you too.” Colby said before he hung up and looked at Don, “David says the APB’s legit. But, something must be going on right? Right?”
10 Minutes Post-Insight Launch
Harvey was pointing a gun at him. The name of an organization that had died out in 1945 was flashing on his computer screen and a guy he’d worked a bank robbery with two days ago was aiming a gun at his face. And that wasn’t possible. It just -
Whatever else Harvey was, he was sloppy. Don grabbed him and forced him onto the floor, and then the shooting started.
One of the other technicians would have shot Matt if Nikki hadn’t shot him in the leg first.
He heard Colby call for SWAT, but SWAT didn’t show, and he didn’t know if they were busy with their own problems, or just no longer interested in what the FBI had to say.
Don finished securing Harvey as best he could, and rolled sideways into the cover of his desk and pulled out his phone, fumbling with the speed-dial, “Charlie? Charlie?”
“Don? What’s going - Theres’ - on the news,” Charlie’s voice wasn’t entirely audible over the noise, and Don prayed that it was all on his end of the line.
“Charlie, stay indoors. Tell everyone you can.” Don yelled into the phone, hoping the signal was still getting through and then hung up and got back up to return fire.
45 Minutes Post-Insight Launch
“Charlie, Charlie -“ the bullpen was in an uproar and Don was still having to yell into the phone
“Don, what the hell is going on outside -“
“Charlie, I need you to stay at school. Just keep everyone you can where they are, and tell Dad to stay home, don’t ask questions, I’ll tell you later, I’m coming as soon as I can,”
“Don what is going on?”
“Charlie!”
“I promise.”
Don hung up the phone and went back to work.
2 Hours Post-Insight Launch
Liz touched Don’s shoulder to get his attention and asked, “has anyone heard from David?”
The bottom dropped straight out of Don’s stomach, “I - I don’t know, I was -“.
Liz patted his should again to cut him off, cupped her other hand around her mouth and yelled, “has anyone heard from David?”
Don winced, and leant away from her voice, but Colby bellowed back, “he’s fine! He’s okay! He says he’ll call back when he can.”
Don’s stomach returned to its position and then plummeted again, and he fumbled for his own phone, “Robin?”
Robin picked up on the third ring, “Don? Don are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good, where are you right now?” Don asked.
“I’m at work - and I - there was - there - its hard to explain -“
“Hydra, I know, just - are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I mean, I think I’m fine. I was coming back from lunch, and Donaldson was aiming a gun at my assistant and I didn’t know what to do and my gun was in my desk and - and I - I hit him with a legal textbook. I’ve got him now.” Robin’s voice came out in a breathy gasp, not her usual voice at all.
“Its okay,” Don said, and made sure his voice was perfectly level, “you did great, I’m going to come over there right now and help you out. Just hold things down ’til I get there. Its all okay.”
He hung up the phone and let himself sink into a chair and rest his head on the heels of his hands. Just for a moment, before Ian Edgerton, looking livid and dragging two handcuffed men Don vaguely recognized as junior agents behind him, and interrupted him.
“What the hell is going on Eppes?” He growled, “can I not deliver one single fugitive here anymore without being attacked by squid nazi’s from the 1940’s?”
“Nice to see you too Ian,” said Liz, “glad you’re okay.”
Don shook himself and stood back up, “we’ve set up a holding cell for the - um, squid nazi’s. And then take Nikki and start checking the rest of the building. Liz, get Colby, you can start in the basement, Ian and Nikki will work down. I need to get to the DA’s office and I need to get to Cal-Sci. I really - I need to go.”
Liz nodded silently as he walked out the door because it would look bad if he ran.
7 Hours Post-Insight Launch
Cal-Sci wasn’t bullet-riddled like the FBI bullpen, but the signs of recent chaos - papers on the ground, empty lecture halls with projectors still glowing, and students buzzing around in erratic little clusters - were everywhere.
Charlie, it turned out, had heard all his instructions, and even listened to them, which Don would normally have considered a sign of the impending apocalypse, except that the apocalypse didn’t seem so much impending as having already started. Don found him in his office, along with Amita, Larry and a flock of graduate students. Don recognized two of Charlie’s and spindly dark-haired young man he thought might be from Larry’s lab, but couldn’t place the fourth. Amita’s new student was weeping into her shoulder. Amita patting her back and making shushing sounds, but she looked only slightly more composed herself.
Don gave them all the once over for obvious injuries, and asked, “Charlie, do you know where Dad is?”
Charlie blinked for a moment, then shook himself and nodded, “I - yeah, yes, he’s at home. I told him to - I told him you said to stay put.”
Don tipped back against the wall and sighed with relief, “Okay. Okay, that’s good. That is - good. Good.”
“Don, have you seen all this,” Charlie asked, holding out his laptop, “there’s been a huge - a really serious -“
“Everything from SHIELD is on the Internet,” Don cut in, “I know. I don’t know why, how, what we’re going about it or if we even need to do anything about it. But it sure is there.”
“I can go through this,” Charlie said, sounding a bit less shaky, once he had a problem to focus on, “I can start data mining - I’ll, throw something together for a super computer run, we can -“
Don waved a hand frantically in Charlie’s face to cut him off.
“Stop,” he said, “just, put it on pause for, like, a minute, or, an hour, or three or something. Get everyone home. I think the streets are safe now, just, stay away from anyone who looks like they work for the government. We need to clean up first, and then we can figure out - whatever it is that we need to figure out.”
“Right,” said Charlie, “right. Right. I can - I can do that.” He pushed himself off his desk.”
Amita’s student, who’s name Don would probably have remembered under better circumstances finally looked up, dabbing her eyes on the corner of her hijab and leaving blots on the pale blue fabric, “I don’t want to leave,” she said.
Amita put her arms around her and gave her a little squeeze, “you can stay at our place tonight,” she said.
“We can just, round up anyone who’s stuck by themselves,” said Charlie, because he always had to try and fix every single problem at the same time.
But at least that hadn’t changed.
24 Hours Post-Insight Launch
No one went home.
The phones hadn’t stopped ringing. They couldn’t interrogate anyone because the interrogation rooms had been turned into makeshift holding cells. The actual holding cells were full. So were LAPDs, and the DEA’s and the ATF’s, the Marshals’, the State Police’s. The prison system was in total disarray. If someone robbed a bank today, Don thought absently, they were going to have to just let them go because there was just nowhere to put them. The NSA were so busy with the sudden internal security crisis to handle anything else. No one had heard from Langley. SHIELD was essentially an active risk. Someone needed to check the non-law enforcement civil service, but Don couldn’t find anyone to do it.
72 Hours Post-Insight Launch
Don found Colby sitting on the floor in the locker room.
“You doing okay,” he asked.
“I’m not - less okay than anyone else - probably,” said Colby.
“Good answer.”
“Look man, I joined the army straight out of college. I went from there to the FBI. My Dad was in the army. And my Grandpa. Serving my country, has just been, you know, what you do. This, right now, does not feel like my country? And I’m not even Jewish, so I have no idea how you’re still on your feet and keeping everyone organized,” Colby told the bench he was sitting across from.
Don hopped over the bench and joined him on the floor, “I am - I don’t know - I am not even there yet. Don’t get me wrong, that’s in the queue somewhere, but my brain is still back working on being issued a APB for Captain America. Who incidentally, no one can find. Just in case you weren’t aware.”
“Dude, that was like, four days ago now, keep up,” Colby said, and laughed.
Then Don started up and they both just sat there for a minute, giggling. That had been going around recently. Nervous laughter.
“Alright, cut it out,” said Don, when he’d caught his breath and Colby was still catching his, “Robin swears she’s not going to let me go home until we’ve processed everyone, so I need everyone processing.”
“You’d think the narrowly avoided coup d’etat would mean we’d get a break from the paperwork. Or is she just mad she didn’t get to arrest anyone herself?”
“No, she says that ‘the only way to win against people who think the law doesn’t apply to them is by doing it fully within the law’ or, it was something like that,” said Don.
Colby stood up, and held out a hand to pull Don up, “see, who need Captain America, we’ve got Robin for the speeches and the justice. And you to keep everyone from napping in the locker room.”