Title: Glue
Author: snarkysweetness
Rating: R
Pairing: Philinda with Trip, Skye, & Fitz
Summary: Sometimes even the glue keeping everyone together needs some support.
Warnings: Frick-fracking and mentions of their individual scars if that sort of thing bothers you.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Notes: Melinda May is everything forever and ever amen. Also, I started this after the first episode and am a lazy piece of shit (okay really I kept squealing like a lunatic every time I tried to write mom and dad frick-fracking which is probably why I haven't done it before) so nothing after that is taken into account.

"Do I need to be worried about that?" Phil muttered as he approached Melinda from behind.

Melinda didn't turn away from the kids as she shook her head. "No, they both miss Simmons and…" she glanced to Fitz's door for a brief moment before returning her gaze to where a sleeping Trip held a sleeping Skye against his chest. "They don't have anyone but each other right now." She knew if she stepped just an inch closer she'd find Skye's face covered in dry tears and behind Trip there would be some book on the subject of Aphasia.

They both tried to help Fitz in their own way but it was hard for them to do it when they were trying to keep it together on their own.

Melinda knew letting Skye see him would hurt her and she was glad she at least had Trip to be there for her. She didn't have time tonight, not with…she closed her eyes with a sigh before turning to Phil, exhausted. "The kids miss you."

"Just the kids?"

She gave him 'the look' and led him past the bunks, not wanting to disturb the rest of their now smaller team.

Melinda was used to death but it didn't mean it got any easier to deal with. And she had been dealing with everything. Phil, the kids, running things while he traversed around the globe; she'd never had so many plates spinning at once before and somehow she'd yet to break one.

And she'd grown weary of it all.

She didn't mind keeping the kids together, they were kids; they needed her. It was easy to keep an eye on them in the field but Fitz? Knowing he spent his nights talking to someone who wasn't there? That he simply toyed with the same device in his lab getting nothing done? It broke her heart. And Skye could conceal her feelings better than most but Melinda knew how to spot the cracks and at night she would stand outside her bunk listening to her cry, knowing there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it. She missed Phil, missed Fitz, missed Simmons, and most of all she missed the man who had never really existed. Trip was trickier. He took everything in stride and gave no indication that he was suffering but how could he not be? She wished she could fix things but the best she could do was keep them alive, help them when she could, and make sure they ate and took care of themselves.

Melinda had never felt this helpless in her life, not even after Bahrain.

Because the kids were nothing compared to Phil. She knew he'd begun to see things, the way Garrett had (which only made her more worried about Skye), and it didn't help when he would disappear for weeks on end without even a phone call to keep her up to speed. They were supposed to be a team, looking out for one another, sifting through the ashes together, but lately she felt like she was on her own and she was so goddamn sick of it and now they'd two more team members and she was exhausted; it was hard enough trying to keep everyone around her together let alone keep herself intact.

She led him up the stairs into her (formerly his) office. She locked the door behind him with a sigh.

"I know what you're going to say but they knew the risks going-what are you doing?"

Melinda pulled Phil closer by his tie which she slowly undid while locking her eyes with his. "Taking a time-out," she whispered.

Phil gave her that goofy smile of his that she loved that he only reserved for her. "Like the old days?"

"Phillip? She whispered as she pulled his tie free and dropped it to the floor.

He stared down at her, mesmerized, for a long moment before answering. "Melinda?"

She slid both hands over his shoulders and up the back of his neck before tangling them in what was left of his hair. She met his eyes once more and drew him closer. "You talk too much," she scolded as she moved to the tips of her toes so she could kiss him.

Phil sighed into her mouth and stepped closer so he could take hold of her waist. "I missed you," he moaned as she deepened the kiss.

Melinda hummed affectionately in response. He'd gotten better at this, not that he hadn't always been good, because he was. The best part of completing a mission back in their youth was the time they got to spend alone after, unwinding.

She felt the tension slowly leave her body as she tugged him towards the sofa, deepening the kiss. They weren't kids anymore, there was nothing frantic or rushed about their little dance and she preferred it that way. It wasn't often that she took the time to indulge in something just for herself and when she did she wanted to enjoy it. And after being the glue keeping their little family together for so long she'd earned this.

Plus she was so fucking sick and tired of fighting this; they were always going to find their way back to one another and why not now?

Phil let out a whine when she broke their kiss and she couldn't help but smirk. He was still the same idiot boy she'd fallen in love with nearly three decades ago.

She shoved him into the couch and he landed 'with a thud'. He stared up at her like the puppy he was and reached for her needily. Melinda climbed onto his lap, shoved his suit off, and kissed him again as her fingers went for the buttons of his shirt.

Phil took hold of her wrists and pulled her hands away with a shake of his head. "Keep it on," he whispered but she ignored him and ripped his shirt open before he could stop her.

Melinda stared down at him as she ran her hands over his chest. "They're just scars," she reminded him, not caring though she knew he hated anyone seeing them. She'd never hidden her scars from him and he'd never stopped finding her beautiful because of them why should it be any different for his?

"I don't…" he closed his eyes with a sigh. "I don't like to think about it," he admitted and she moved to cup his face in her hands.

"You can't escape the past, Phil; you can only accept it and move forward. My idiot ex-husband told me that once," she whispered and he smiled.

"Must be why you left him."

Melinda's frowned. "You know that's not why." Bahrain had destroyed everything; the girl she'd once been, the life they were supposed to have, and their marriage. It was only because he'd never given up on her that their friendship had survived.

He'd always seen her scars, even the ones that lay beneath the surface and it was why she'd never stopped loving him, even when she'd let him go so he could be happy without her weighing him down.

"Melinda…"

She pressed her mouth to his to silence him. Phil moved his fingers into her hair as her lips left his and she kissed her way down his chest, gently trailing them over his scar. "You're still beautiful," she whispered, trying not to cry. She didn't want to think about that painful week when she thought he was gone. He'd died, he'd left her, and she'd been so angry because he'd promised he would never leave her and then she'd felt guilty afterwards because it was so incredibly selfish to be angry with him for dying.

Melinda moved her mouth back to his and kissed him forcefully, her cheeks now wet.

"I love you, Qiaolian," he whispered in-between kisses.

"I love you, Phillip."

She slipped his belt off and moved to her knees.

"Mel, you don't have to-"

"Stop talking so much," she warned as she freed him. He groaned as she took him into her mouth and his fingers were back in her hair, massaging her scalp.

Melinda was just finding her rhythm when she felt a sharp tug and she glared up at him, annoyed.

His cheeks were flushed and he looked half-lost in lust but he gave her a sheepish smile anyway. "I'm not twenty-five anymore, Melinda."

A smirk tugged at the corners of her lips. "That's a good thing, Phillip."

"You know what I mean," he muttered as he pulled her into his lap. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pressed her mouth to the spot on his neck that she knew left him weak in the knees. He moaned and tugged at her shirt. "Fuck, Mel."

"Hmm, get me naked and we can work on that," she teased, still trailing her lips, tongue, and teeth along his neck.

Phil grabbed her by the ass and flipped her onto her back, pinning her to the sofa.

"About time," she teased as he tugged her boots off. They were naked in record time and Melinda reached for him, needing his lips on hers once more.

He kissed her slowly, his hands trailing over every inch that he could reach. By the time his lips left hers her chest was heaving and her lips were swollen. She'd almost forgotten she could do nothing but kiss that man for hours on end.

"Hmm, yes," she moaned as he kissed a trail down the middle of her body before nestling between her thighs. This is what made Phil Coulson the best she'd ever had; he'd not only perfected the art of going down on a woman but he enjoyed it. Plus he was the only man she'd ever loved but that wasn't the point; the point was the man had a tongue capable of unraveling her to the brink of madness. She didn't even bother trying to keep it down; the kids were more than old enough to know that mom and dad had an active sex life. They'd get over it.

Melinda grabbed him by the hair and pulled his mouth to hers the moment the tremors from her orgasm faded away. "Better than the old days," Melinda whispered appreciatively.

"Want to see what else has gotten better?"

"You know it."

Melinda isn't sure how they got from the sofa to lying underneath his mother's quilt halfway across the room but she doesn't care. She hasn't smiled like this in years and she was too spent to care about moving.

"Why did we ever stop doing that?" She muttered in between catching her breath.

Phil traced circles on the inside of her palm absent-mindedly. "I don't know but we're idiots; let's do that every day."

She glanced over to find him watching her with a grin and she moved to her side and reached over to link their fingers together. "Well," she began as she leaned over to kiss his shoulder, then his cheek, then his lips. "In order to do that you'll have to actually obey the rules and not disappear for weeks on end."

"You're still upset about that?"

She gave him a 'look'. "What do you think?"

He cleared his throat and leaned in to kiss her. "Any way I can make it up to you?"

She didn't want to but she found herself smiling and pulling him closer. There was no use in staying mad when he was naked and half-way on top of her.

Melinda leaned back and ran a hand through his hair with a small smile. "I think I might have a few ways in mind…"