Men of SHIELD week. It's probably going to be continued as the 5&1 prompt of 5 times Coulson almost told Skye she was his daughter and one time he did. Title comes from the necklace Skye's wearing in the pilot. Let me know what you think.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, except Tessa's name, but not her character because Marvel already pointed her out (but left her nameless).
Sunday: Old Fashioned
Phil Coulson
On his Birthday:
He liked old-fashioned things, something that was no secret. Old fashioned watches, old-fashioned comic books, old-fashioned knickknacks. Each piece held some sort of sentimental value to it.
So it was no surprise what people would give him for his birthday. There was a vintage Captain America comic from Maria, a set of Captain America trading cards from Fury, a cake from the team, a bottle of vintage whiskey from May, and the oddest of the lot, an old locket that looked more like a family heirloom than the kind of thing you give as a gift. He different, recognizing it immediately. It was from the cellist he'd been dating before he'd died, Theresa Siegal.
A knock came from the other side of the closed door and he jumped, hiding the locket as Skye walked in without waiting for an answer. "Hey AC, happy birthday."
"You said that earlier."
"Yeah, but FitzSimmons are breaking out Pin the Tail on the Donkey and if you can hide from your own birthday party in here, why can't I?" He chuckled at her logic. In his distraction, he failed to notice the locket slide onto the desk with a small clink. But Skye did. "Oh! Pretty!" She snatched it from where it had fallen, picking it up. "It's so old-fashioned looking." She struggled with the clasp for a second, but opened it to see a picture of a dark-haired woman and a baby in one side and a lighter haired woman on the other. She frowned and he looked at her.
"What is it?"
"Where did you get this?" He looked at her, confused.
"It was a present." She pulled a necklace out from under the hem of her shirt, old-fashioned, like the one opened in her hands, popping it open. He glanced at the pictures, a perfect match. Her hand came over her mouth and her posture reminded him of when he told her what he had found of the redacted file.
"Why is it the same?" Her voice sounded stunned, breaking slightly at the end. He look the locket in her hands back, looking at the images, but he shook his head.
"I don't know." He gave her a weak smile, undoing the clasp on it. "Why don't you hold on to it for now?" She nodded and allowed him to snap it shut around her neck. As she left, he sighed. He knew exactly what game Tessa was playing. The locket was her kind of way of saying that she knew he was alive and well and with his daughter, her niece. He'd be damned if he let her get the last word.