And no average handler is going to be able to keep them right on the edge of the line. Phil rubs his hand over his face. He really is the best option to handle the Avengers but if he can't be in the field then he's not much good as a handler. Handlers went into the field.

"It's not definitive," he says with a heavy breath. "Daily physical therapy should help but the doctors are blunt with their warnings. And I'd rather tell you myself than you hear it from the SHIELD rumor mill."

Which even with the organization in disarray was still going strong. Somehow. He knew it was only a matter of time before people speculated if he wasn't really dead after all.

"And you know I don't want to be relegated to a desk."