Here it is at long last, the first sequel to "New Life," "New Risks," the Philinda-centric four-shot. Enjoy! Reviews and votes on my poll would make my day, if you're interested! Thanks!
"Alright then," Phil said, taking a deep breath and looking around the lounge area of the bus and taking a mental tally of who was there.
Lance Hunter and Bobbi, the latter of whom was holding their fourteen-month-old son, Alec.
Fitz and Skye, each of whom was holding one of their nine-month-old twins, Ella and Brody.
Ward and Simmons, with their six-month-old daughter, Lizzie, who was in her mother's arms.
There, right beside Phil, was Melinda, sitting quietly with their own fourteen-month-old son, Shang in her lap.
And then, in the middle of it all, looking like he didn't quite know who to kill first, was former SHIELD director Nick Fury. Only, there was probably a fair chance that Fury had taken back over his position since Phil and the rest of his team had dropped off of the grid two years ago, following a bus malfunction that'd had major ramifications. The thought made Phil's heart sink, but Fury was still staring at him expectantly, waiting for answers.
"What," the man with the eye patch bit out. "Happened here?"
"Essentially?" Phil answered carefully. "Domesticity. We… made new lives for ourselves here – once we all got back on the bus, that is."
"So you haven't all been here the entire time then?"
"Oh, no, of course not; Ward and Simmons were the last ones we found, and they've only been back for a half a year."
"When did…" Fury waved dismissively at Shang, managing, "this happen?"
"Well, technically, Shang happened on the night that the others fell from the bus."
"You and Agent May never fell from the bus, then?"
"No, we were the only two left aboard, and we spent the next two years looking for the others."
"Then how exactly did you go from being two of SHIELD's very best, most driven agents to… Ward and June Cleaver?"
Phil chuckled nervously, ignoring the way that Melinda tensed exponentially at his side as he answered, "Well, you see, it's a little hard to pinpoint that moment in amongst everything that happened."
"We've already established that I've got the time, Coulson." Fury drawled, still obviously unimpressed. "Go ahead and tell me the whole story."
"Well, as you know, we were all at the exit ramp, getting ready to release Ward into the custody of his brother's people when we noticed the bus seemed to be getting a little unstable."
"The entire bus was rattling in midair," Ward drawled.
"Yes, it was, and since Melinda was in the cockpit at the time, I went to see what was going on. It was a minor malfunction and we never lost the ability to fly, but since the ramp was already open, everyone but Melinda and I fell off the bus – not that either of us knew that until we regained the bus's stability and left the cockpit."
Two years earlier
"No. No, no, no, no!" Phil cried, beginning to run around the bus as he gave into his desperation. "They're gone. How are they gone? They can't all be gone! They've got to be here! Somebody's still got to be here!"
Suddenly there was a hand on each of his shoulders, forcing him to be still, to stop, to breathe, to calm down and look into black eyes as someone spoke to him. For a long moment the words she was saying didn't even make sense, but slowly they began to filter through his panic and calm him.
May. It was Agent May who was staring at him, talking to him, demanding that he just breathe.
"Calm down, Phil. You've got to calm down and breathe; panicking helps no one right now."
He finally managed to rasp out brokenly, "The whole team…"
"I know," she said quietly.
For the first time, Phil's vision cleared of his panic enough for him to notice the glassiness in her eyes, and he managed to feel the smallest ripple of shock. Was Melinda May going to cry? The very idea terrified him as he realized just how bad this was if that was the case – and then he did the most ridiculous thing he could think of, quite without thinking about it. He pulled May to him and hugged her. She wrapped her arms around his waist and they stayed like that long enough that hugging simply became holding – the two of them standing there and just breathing together, gathering their wits and trying to process the huge loss that they'd just been dealt.
Finding his breath and managing to get his brain back in gear, Phil promised quietly against her hair, "We will find them."
The words seemed to break whatever spell had momentarily taken over the silent bus and she nodded, pulling away from him and visibly pulling herself together as she replied, back to being all business, "Of course we will."
"Can we tell what exactly happened here, beyond the fact that they all fell out?"
"Best as I can figure? That they fought not to and lost the battle… although there is one parachute missing from the rack."
"Thirty bucks says Ward's the one who managed to grab it."
May grinned sadly at the equally sad half-attempt at a joke, muttering, "Probably." Then she asked seriously, "What do we do if we aren't going to be able to figure out where they landed?"
"We look for them – anywhere we have to. Where are we anyway?"
May moved towards the tech room and Phil followed her, the bus still feeling far too ominous and silent with only the two of them on it. Once there, she punched a couple buttons – and paled at the answer that appeared on the screen. "We're right over the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness."
"That sounds inviting," Coulson deadpanned, his guts twisting even more like a pretzel than they had been before.
"It means we're currently hovering over Idaho."
"Idaho," Phil repeated, releasing a soft breath. "That sounds better. Idaho I can do."
"They can manage, too, I'm sure," May offered.
Noting the hesitancy flickering beneath the surface of her eyes and words, Coulson asked, "Are you sure?"
