It is a terrifying thing. A viscerally familiar thing. Like walking into an emergency room where you'd once been treated for a gunshot wound. The walls are the same washed out beige, the air smells like warm bleached linens with the sharp tang of blood. Except the hospital is a government building and the linens are coffee and printer toner. There is still the smell of blood. And ambition. And the creeping knowledge that something, anything, is teetering on the precipice of disaster. The soles of her shoes snap against the concrete floors. There is the gentle ding of an elevator, the clattering of keys on a keyboard, a far-off laugh of an inside joke that makes sense only in the context of these walls.

She does not want to be here.

She has to be here.

"Agent Drew. It's good to see you again."

SPYRAL is not something she'd ever imagined being in this world. It feels like SHIELD and Hydra. It feels like every shadow organization and secret mission she'd ever tripped over her feet into. It doesn't belong in this world that she's come to associate with healing and lost people. SPYRAL seems too organized. Too covert. She finds herself wondering if this is some machination from someone in her home world. There is no hesitation in this building. No second thought, just forward motion.

The man in front of her is now quite familiar. From the time he escorted her to the Presidio to the time she accepted their offer, he has been with her. His blue eyes are menacingly clear of signs of lack of sleep. His fingernails are short and clean. His tie is straight with a beveled gold tie clip holding it neatly in place. Where there had been adversity, there is now smug authority. Jessica has seen all forms of this man and she knows that her reservations and eagerness alike will be met with stony indifference. Because this is a job now. Her job.

Jessica takes her seat at the mahogany table and runs her fingers over the sleeves of her suit. Her suit. The one she chose for herself. The suit she has missed so much. It has come back to her now, in a time when even her skin feels too big for her. The agent does not allow her much time to reacquaint herself with this old friend. He's already explaining the expectations of the job, the secrecy of the job. The mission of the job. It's predictable and uncomfortable, but she's agreed because Julianne needed her to agree. Gerry needed her to agree.

Lawyers help so much. Jailtime, a career, custody, the need for a bigger home. It's all feeling a bit like swimming upstream in heavy boots. SPYRAL takes all of that confusion away. It makes assurances. Jessica signed the contract for this gig with a straight face and a long sigh. Because assurances at the expense of a little dignity wasn't exactly unfamiliar territory.

"To make sure you understand the nature of your job, we've assigned you to these people. Check in with them. Check in with us. We need them on our side."

Jessica reads through the names, all of them familiar, some of them friends. She keeps a straight face because this is the job. This is always the job. She doesn't want to be here. She has to be here.

"We have faith in you, Agent Drew. This is who you are meant to be."

Jessica gasps as cream flows over the rim of her plastic Starbucks cup, flooding the counter underneath it and soaking a few errant packets of sugar. Shaking her hand, she pulls a handful of paper napkins from the dispenser and mops up her mess, gratefully taking the wet rag a barista hands her. Her mind is still caught in her premonition. That was the funny thing about visions. Once you've had it, there is no other explanation. Gathering up her coffee and Jules' bag, she pushes her way out of the coffee shop and out to her car. Not for the first time in her life, Jessica feels isolated. Because who can she tell if she's going to betray them all anyway?