She nods and takes the first step -- that deep breath that is so utterly important. For other people, it might be nothing at all, but Simmons has been on unsteady ground for so long that a simple breath is what she needs. "I was an agent with S.H.I.E.L.D., plucked from the lab with my partner, Leo Fitz. We were selected by Agent May to serve with Agent Coulson," she says. "Who is very much alive."

"Unfortunately, all of our goals and achievements and aims came crashing to the ground, quite literally in mine and Fitz's case, when Hydra unearthed from whatever hole it had burrowed into. Since then, things have been..."

Now, what is the word for it? "Difficult," she selects and says with an emphatic nod.