Twenty Years and Counting:

An Agent Coulson Fluff

By Powdered Doughnuts

Prologue

"C'mon, Cracker Jack!" Special Agent Phil Coulson had faced down terrorists and monsters, but he still quailed in the face of his wife's fury. He winced as he heard random drawers slam open and closed.

"Oh don't you 'Cracker Jack' me!" she yelled through the bathroom door. Phil tried jiggling the bathroom door's handle again, only to have it open suddenly. He stepped back quickly as his wife huffed past him.

"Jackie-!"

"An entire year of planning- gone! Twenty year anniversary to Paris, kaput!" She was carrying a basket of laundry. Until that moment, Agent Coulson had never realized that it was even possible to fold clothes "aggressively". Nevertheless, he felt sorry for his socks and underwear as Jackie savagely bent them in two and shoved them in the appropriate drawers.

"Once again, your job is calling you away. Once again, its all last minute." Jackie was so angry that her hands curled up into the shirt she was folding, wadding it into a wrinkled mess. "Once again, we have to cancel plans that we've made months in advance for your stupid job! It's just- Erghh!" She underscored her frustration by throwing the shirt across the room. "I am trying to be understanding Phillip, really I am. But its getting harder and harder to do it." She walked to the bed and sprawled across it to glare at the ceiling. Phil bent down to pick up the shirt.

"I'm sorry Jackie. If there was another way I'd take it, but I can't." He sat on the bed beside her. "There are some...issues in California that they need me to deal with."

"I still don't see how an IRS agent gets called out as much as you do." Jackie said in a defeated tone.

Phil froze minutely. He wasn't exactly an IRS agent. He worked for the government, but it was a whole other branch entirely. That was something he wanted to make sure his wife and family never found out about, it was safer for everyone that way.

"I guess I'm just that good at my job."

"Yeah," Jackie sat up, "I know you are."

Phil hated seeing the look of utter defeat on his wife's face.

"Hey we can do something else," he said nudging her with his shoulder. "And I will take you to Paris! I promise...just, not next week."

"Mmm... I guess we can just go to a dinner and a movie," Jackie said airily.

Phil bit his tongue. He was about to make that very suggestion, but the tone of his wife's voice warned him that he ought to try a little harder.

"Nah. We always do that, how about we go out to Georgetown for the night? The 1789 restaurant sound good to you?"

Jackie rose her eyebrow.

"The 1789? Really? We haven't been there since you asked me to marry you."

"Yeah, its our 20th wedding anniversary. It's kind of fitting to go back to it. A full circle kind of thing don't you think?" He kissed her forehead and was relieved when he saw a mischievous smile blossom on her face. Jackie snuggled into his side.

"You're just trying to butter me up."

"Is it working?" Phil asked.

Jackie threw all of her weight against him sending him back against the bed.

"You're getting there."

"Oh, what could I do to build some momentum?" he asked, sliding one of his hands up along her side. His palm cupped her breast and squeezed it through her shirt.

Jackie moaned in appreciation. "You're getting warmer."

Using his free hand, Phil pulled his wife forward. He held her body flush against his own as he sampled her lips, gently at first, but with growing urgency as their bodies responded to the flare of passion. It was his turn to growl with pleasure as Jackie put both of her hands on his hips and bucked against the nascent bulge of his arousal.

"Jack..." he breathed into her hair. His fingers slipped underneath her sweater and started fumbling with the clasp of her bra. "Where are the kids?" he asked in a ragged tone.

"Youth group," she panted back. "Sarah is dropping them off at seven."

"Two hours," Phil responded. "I guess that means we'll have to hurry..."

Jackie gave his ass a teasing squeeze and then squealed as he shifted their positions by rolling her onto her back. He peeled her sweater off of her body and bent to sample her breasts- and then froze at the sound of his phone chirping to announce a message.

"Ignore it!" Jackie pleaded, trying to hold him in place- but it wasn't any use. The mood was automatically shattered. Phil released her without a second thought and grabbed for the phone. His entire attention was focused on work .

His eyes scanned the words on the screen and frowned. He clicked off the message, slipped the device back into his pocket and reached for his jacket.

"You're going?" Jackie said- it was more of a statement than a question.

"I'm sorry, Jackie. The director needs to see me. It's urgent."

"The director," she repeated in a dead tone that Phil didn't even seem to notice. She wondered if she completely believed that all of this was really about "work". For the last two years, Phil had been dropping everything to disappear from the house for hours- and sometimes days- at a time.

"I'll be back soon, honey," he said, seemingly oblivious to her displeasure. He popped a kiss on the center of her forehead. "Give the kids a kiss for me if I'm not back to tuck them in bed."

Phil paused just long enough to look in the mirror and straighten his tie. Then, without another word, he left the room.

Jackie remained on the bed, sweater askew, bra unfastened, staring up at the ceiling fan until she heard Phil's Acura roar to life and speed away. As soon as the sound had faded, she grabbed one of the pillows, put it over her mouth, and then screamed.

She didn't know how much more of this she could stand. Who would have guessed twenty years ago that Phil would turn out to be the flake?


A/N: "But Agent Coulson is single!" you say.

Au contraire! Check out our bio for a link to canonical proof that Phil is hitched!

Please drop us a note if you like it :D If you hate it- move along...this is pure, unapologetic Coulson fluff- because Phil is a hottie and we couldn't find a story where he hooked up with a woman (I know many of you love slash, and that's fine...but not our thing).