Hi! Well, this is my first fanfic here. My main language is not english so I'm sorry for my typos and grammar, please tell me if I'm making any terrible mistakes!

This story is set after season 1, but it might contain a few spoilers from season 2. I hope you'll like it!

"We have a new call from Raina, sir" said Skye in her usual spot behind the computer.

Coulson sighed.

"What does she want now? Put her on the screen, please" he said.

"That's done" answered Skye.

A second later Raina's face appeared. Behind her there was a plain white wall, nothing that could give them any clue about her hiding place. Her dress was short and dark red, full of big and beautiful golden flowers.

"Hi, agent Coulson" she said with her usual and acquiescent tone

"What do you want this time, Raina?" Was his cold answer.

"Oh, calm down, sir" she said wih a pretentious smile. "Hmm... I can see that agent May is not with you this time. That's weird, you know? I've never seen you alone. Wait, I remember that time when..."

"That's none of your business"

"I know, I know. But I just thought that the Cavalry..."

"Don't call her like that" he hissed.

Skye gave him a warning look, but he didn't seem to notice it.

"As I was about to say, this doesn't have anything to do with Hydra" she said, ignoring his interruption. "This is something... more personal, I guess. And I thought agent May would want to be with you right now"

"What are you talking about?" Asked Skye.

"That I have something that belongs to you. I borrowed it so many years ago, and it's time to return it. It's a little... accesory. I think you should have it" Raina's smile grew bigger. "I put it in the folder I gave to you the other day. Let me know when you get it"

Before Skye could stop her, the signal went down and the girl in the flower dress disappeared.

"Fuck" said Skye. "I'm sorry, it was my fault"

"Don't worry" replied Coulson. "There was no more to say"

"Any idea of what she meant with that weird accesory stuff?"

"Not at all" he confessed as he sat on the chair next to her.

"Ugh, whatever. Those lotus flowers were freaking me out"

The change in his face was fast and evident, passing from confusion and reflexion to panic in a milisecond.

"What? What did you just said?"

"Nothing. I mean, the flowers on her dress were lotus flowers, that's all" she answered, surprised by his reaction.

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yeah. The menu from my favorite chinese restaurant was full of them, why?"

Before she could finish the sentence Coulson had left the room, leaving her alone with her questions.

"Did I miss something?" she said out loud, turning off the computer.

Meanwhile Coulson had already ran into his office. As nervous as how he'd rarely felt before, he started to look for the godammned folder. He found it under a ton of papers, and opened imediately with his bare hands. Inside of it there were some files he threw to the floor. Finally, inside a little paper envelope, he saw what he was waiting for.

The object was small and delicate, slim, and the diameter would not exceed a few centimeters. He held it in his hands with disbelief, he hadn't seen it in so many years, and he didn't really expect to find it ever again. It was a pin of a faded gold color, which represented a beautiful lotus flower wrapped in a circle... If his memory wasn't wrong he had given it to May for her birthday number twenty four. It wasn't a very valuable accessory, at least when it came to money, but in it there were trapped hundreds of secrets and mysteries

In that moment everything made sense, thought Coulson, suddenly putting all the pieces together. The flowers from Raina's dress, her mysterious smile, which always made you believe that she knew something else, and the great interest she had demostrated in keeping in touch with them (besides Skye, of course)... Raina was the little girl those worshipers had kidnapped so many years ago in Bahrain. The person May had seen dying in front of her, for who she had lost everything. But if she wasn't dead... That meant that everything had been just a trick, a trap. Raina had destroyed May... And Coulson would make sure she payed a very high price for that.

The director stood up, putting the pin in his pocket. He had to tell everything to May, not just because she deserved to know what had actually happened but because he'd never forgive himself if he didn't do it. So, swallowing hard, he headed up to the room of the legendary agent, which was close to his own, with the clear idea of telling her the truth...

But, which was that "truth" he was going to tell her? Hey, May, what's up? Oh, by the way, Raina was the girl from Bahrain, she's alive... No! What had actually happened?! Had it been just a coincidence, May being there, just an inconvenient for them? Or had it all been planned since the beginning, from the specialist's intervention to the girl's fake death? There really were people capable of doing that to an innocent young woman?

Coulson knocked the door once, not bothering in trying again and entering when he didn't get an answer. May was sitting on her bed, reading something in her tablet, which put aside when she saw him coming.

"Are you alright?" She asked him after noticing the lugubrious expression in his face.

He considered lie to her, but he knew it was useless to try to hide something from May. She knew him too well.

"There is something I need to tell you" he answered, sitting next to her on the bed. "It doesn't have anything to do with me or Hydra. But it is something very serious.

"Skye...?"

"She's fine, don't worry... It's about you, Melinda. There is something I need to tell you, but I don't know how you'll react at it" Coulson took a deep breath. He hated worrying May, but he knew he had to give her a kind of warning before dropping the bomb. "I just heard about it, trust me..."

"What's going on, Phil? You are starting to scare me" said May, realising something grave had happened.

"I was with Skye at the comm room when we got a call from Raina" he started. "I took it, obviously, because I thought that maybe she had something important to say. But she didn't seem interested in Hydra or something like that, she just mentioned having something that belonged to us, something she had borrowed from you in the past, and that it was time to return. She said it was in one of the folders he gave to me the other day... Let me finish" he asked when he saw she was about to interrupt him. "I didn't understand either what she meant with that... Until Skye commented the kind of flowers from her dress. They were lotus flowers"

May didn't say anything for a while, just stayed in silence. That simple mention of the flower was enough for her to understood what was coming, and in his eyes he could see how her suspicions were confirmed. Coulson put and hand in his pocket, then opened it slowly, revealing the pin. He thought in adding the obvious, that he had found it in one of the folders, but he realised that was stupid and unnecessary, so he just kept quiet and limited to observe her face cautiously.

The woman was completely paralised. Even if she was concious about what Coulson was about to show her, the shock of watching the pin was way bigger in real life. She felt how her sight blurred and the darkness surrounded her. She noticed that the shield that normally protected her wouldn't last any longer, and she wanted to be alone when it finally crashed.

"Go" she suddenly said.

"What?" he asked.

"Leave me" she insisted. "I need to be alone"

"No" replied Phil, with a firm and decided voice. "I already made that mistake once, I'm not going to repeat it. I wont' leave you"

"I don't need you" she snapped.

She had planned her voice to sound cold and serene, as if everything that had just happened hadn't been anything but a trivial conversation about the weather, but instead of that it came out turned into a weak and barely audible whisper. Coulson wrapped her in his arms tightly, and although at first she resisted, he didn't let her go. May gave up and let herself fell on him, burying her head in his chest. She wasn't so sure about what to do or feel. It was too much information to process, so many things that would change, and she had spent most of her energy stock just by accepting the whole thing.

She felt tired, dizzy and disorientated, as if someone had made her run in circles for hours and hours. That was impossible... Raina, the little girl? The ages matched, and so did the eyes size and the curly hair. But, anyways, it didn't end to make any sense for May.

Had it all been just a sinister succession of unlucky coincidences? Or someone had planned to do that to her? It wasn't fair, she couldn't stop herself from thinking, feeling for the first time that she actually didn't deserve it.

They stayed like that for many minutes, maybe hours. Coulson didn't exactly know when or how, but at some point they had layed on the bed and now they were both there in silence, trying to find a logical and legit solution for all of that mess. May had her eyes closed, and for once in her life she let her mind fly freely, remembering everything from that day.

Screams. Gunshots. Coulson hurt in the floor, begging her to not to go in. She kissing his forehead, telling him that everything would be okay. Blood, the thick dark red liquid was everywhere. Fire. That room, where that had happened to her. When she had came out from that place, absolutely broken, and collapsed into his arms. After that day it had been a long time until she let him came any close to her again, but at the moment it seemed like the only thing that would keep her alive and sane.

"I do need you" she muttered, thinking of the last thing she had said to him

"And I need you" he said with a sweet voice, gently stroking her dark hair. "Try to sleep. Tomorrow we'll have time to figure out all this labyrinth"

We... Oh, what a wonderful and underrated word.

May nodded, trying to obey and forget everything. It was hard, practically impossible, but she knew she wouldn't get any good conclusion in that state. She focused in Phil's warm breathing over her neck, in how he held her strong but nicely in his arms and in the rhythmic beating of his heart in her ear. He was the person who mattered the most in the world for her, and she knew she was like that for him too, that had always been like that between them. She was really lucky to have him by her side, she told herself, she didn't deserve someone like him. So she just closed her eyes again, and let go...

What do you think? Too short or too long? Please post some reviews, I want to know what you think and if you want me to continue :)

I don't own any character, just the story