I do not own Agents of SHIELD.
I am on Team Son of Coul.
To Stay
Agent Melinda May adjusted the settings once more on the video camera.
And glanced up.
He was there.
Silent and still.
Barefoot on a tarp.
Scratching esoteric runes into the plaster wall of his dingy office.
Eighteen days.
Too long. It had been too long.
No one else could see it. He hid it so well.
But she could see.
The sweat he never dared let escape his pores.
The rising madness he kept firmly locked behind his eyes.
The desperation hidden away behind clean suits, neatly brushed hair, and cool-headed directives.
No one could see but her.
He was good.
She was better.
And now they were.
She the silent observer to his quiet madness.
He, scratching, scratching, so precisely, slowly scratching.
Even now he was calm and in control.
He did not babble. He did not rant.
Silent and focused.
Releasing the pent-up, all consuming desires.
Of defacing the wall of his office.
She'd insisted she stay after discovering his new hobby the first time.
He fought the idea but not too hard.
She thought perhaps it was a comfort to have someone bear witness.
Bear witness and not experience a psychological breakdown.
And so she quietly kept her watch over him.
She did not know everything about this new development that she wished to know, was determined to know.
She did know that she cared for Coulson, protected him, and watched over him.
She knew at one point he had no longer trusted her. And she couldn't tell him. And she had hated it.
She knew that no one must be allowed to intrude on or discover this, his newest artistic talent.
She knew she must figure out how to help him.
And so here she was.
Standing vigil over him.
So he did not have to subsist alone with the runes.
She recorded it for posterity and to study his process and the scratches he so carefully etched upon the wall.
Or maybe that was all just crap.
Maybe she stayed so she didn't have to worry that he would turn the blade upon himself when wall space ran low.
Maybe she recorded it so if this secrecy were revealed in the light of day, she would have proof that he had not ever once been reduced to a raving, out of control lunatic.
Maybe she stayed for all of it.
Agent Melinda May checked the settings of the video camera again.
And kept her watch over Philip Coulson.
Well, this came all out in a rush so the it would no longer chill my blood.
And the pic that goes with it is pretty powerful too, I think.
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