Content: This story picks up where the "6 Months Later" Season 3 finale teaser left off. Things were looking pretty rough for Coulson, so this is my take on why he is not with S.H.I.E.L.D., why he is chasing Daisy, and why the rest of the team (except for Mack) is nowhere to be seen.
Disclaimer: Not Stan Lee. But he's kind enough to let me borrow his characters for a bit! Cheers Stan!
Notes: The title is taken from U2's "Ultra Violet (Light My Way)."
It was his fifty-fifth birthday and Phil Coulson was alone.
The last three months had been difficult.
Having disappeared shortly after Lincoln's death, Daisy had finally resurfaced. Just not in the way that he had hoped.
A local news station in Miami reported that a sinkhole had opened up, swallowing the mansion that was Ian Quinn's summer home with he and his staff inside. The reporter did not mention Inhuman activity, but Coulson knew it was Daisy. She was going after S.H.I.E.L.D.'s enemies, balancing the scales, in the most vindictive way possible.
The reports continued: an earthquake in Arizona destroyed a facility that housed a breakaway Hydra faction, a bank vault floor caved in the Grand Cayman's (only a few deposit boxes were cleared out, all former-Hydra accounts), a house that served as the home base for some of the Watchdogs was leveled. It was only a matter of time before Daisy Johnson got on the A.T.C.U.'s radar.
Talbot's collusion in the decision not to register Daisy as an Inhuman had been exposed and he was demoted. S.H.I.E.L.D. was officially re-sanctioned as a government agency, just before it was dissolved and assimilated into the A.T.C.U.
The primary objective of the agency became to track the Inhumans, register the individuals and monitor them to insure that they abided by the Sokovia Accords. Any Inhuman who failed to cooperate was summarily tried and sentenced to stasis, until a cure to their condition could be discovered and administered.
Several agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. quit outright.
Coulson and Mack joined the A.T.C.U.
May, Fitz and Simmons handed in their official resignations and dropped off the grid.
As far as the A.T.C.U. was concerned, it appeared as though Coulson's team had gone their separate ways. Which was exactly the point.
Once a week on Saturday, Coulson would go down to the local Starbucks, order a Grande Mocha and spend an hour reading a book or fiddling with his laptop. Right before leaving, he would stop by the men's room. After closing the door on the stall in the far right, he removed a manila envelope from his backpack, took some scotch tape and stuck the package on the back of the toilet tank. On Sunday morning, after finishing his Tall Cappuccino, Leo Fitz removed the message hidden in the bathroom, and took with him back to the new secret S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
Secret S.H.I.E.L.D. was a small operation, consisting only of Fitz, Simmons, and a dozen field agents and techs. Melinda May was the acting director of the covert agency. In the wake of the A.C.T.U.'s dismemberment of their intelligence apparatus, S.H.I.E.L.D. now existed solely to protect the civil liberties of powered individuals.
Using Coulson and Mack's intel, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team removed targeted Inhumans before they could be tagged and registered. Most were relocated and given new identities. Some stayed with the team, joining the nascent Secret Warriors Initiative.
Elena and Joey worked with the new recruits to help them control their powers and use them in the field. Having no leadership experience and their own unpredictable abilities to contend with, Elena and Joey found themselves constantly overwhelmed with the demands of their new position. The SWI was slow to get off the ground.
They needed Daisy.
Coulson shuffled down the hall to his apartment, steps getting slower as he neared the grey door.
There was nothing in his home that he was eager to get back to, no one he could celebrate with. There wasn't even anyone he could call.
Two weeks ago, S.H.I.E.L.D. had gone dark.
When he went to make the Starbucks dead drop that weekend, there was a note waiting for him on the back of the tank in Fitz's hasty scrawl.
SHIELD's been compromised. ATCU knows our location. Odyssey protocol initiated. Will contact ASAP.
They were gone.
The A.T.C.U. had deliberately kept Coulson in the dark, but he knew that the S.H.I.E.L.D. base would have been raided. If there was anyone or anything left, they would be under lock and key in an A.T.C.U. holding facility. S.H.I.E.L.D. was breaking international law by harboring, aiding and abetting persons of interest. All agents could be charged with treason. Any one of the 117 countries that had signed the Sokovia Accords would not hesitate to extradite them to the United States to stand trial, if S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were found in their borders.
Except for Mack, everyone Coulson knew and loved was a fugitive.
After a week's worth of questioning, he had been cleared of suspicion by his agency, but he could not risk contacting anyone at S.H.I.E.L.D., even if he had a number to call.
He turned the key in the lock and shoved the door open. Venetian blinds cut through the yellow tungsten glow from a street lamp, casting horizontal shadows across his living room. He slammed the door back into its sticky frame and reached for the light switch. When his hand contacted warm flesh instead of plastic, he jumped and reached for his gun.
The intruder pinned his arm behind his back and clamped a hand over his mouth. He struggled for a fraction of a second before something made him hesitate.
That smell.
It was familiar: leather and Cosmoline, and just a hint of jasmine.
May.
He turned around and faced her with wide eyes, struggling to see her in the half-light. She smiled just a fraction and released his arm, keeping one hand pressed against his mouth. With her eyes on his, she pressed a finger to her own lips.
He nodded in understanding and she pulled her hand away from his face. She walked over to his coffee table and pointed to a small tangle of wires connected to a microchip: a transmitter. God knows where she had found it in the apartment. If there was one, there were probably more.
The A.T.C.U. was listening.
He should have guessed. There was no way they would have let the former director of a rogue agency off with a simple routine interrogation. They were gathering data on him, hoping he would reveal that he still had ties to S.H.I.E.L.D.
Coulson glanced at her and frowned.
'Okay,' he mouthed. 'Get down.'
May nodded and slumped into a crouch.
They both knew that if he was being bugged, he was probably being watched as well. If they were lucky, it would be from the street rather than by a planted device. He hoped that he was still sharp enough to have noticed a camera hidden in his apartment.
He turned on a lamp and grabbed the remote. Selecting a football game at random, he turned the volume up just high enough to be obnoxious to whoever was listening in. Then he walked to the kitchen and flicked on the overhead light, not looking down as May followed on all fours.
There were no windows in the kitchen. Even if it wasn't safe to talk, they did not have to worry about being seen.
May stood up with a grimace, brushed the hair out of her eyes and leaned against the Formica counter top, as if she had stopped by for a casual chat, rather than a clandestine meeting in a country where she had been marked as a wanted criminal.
Coulson stared at her, torn between relief and exasperation.
'What are you doing here?' He asked. He hoped his disbelief would be apparent from his expression, since he could not raise his voice above a muted whisper.
'I came to get you,' she mouthed back.
His shoulders slumped and he shook his head.
'I can't go. Not yet.'
May pressed her lips in a fine line and exhaled audibly. Not taking her eyes off him, she reached into her back pocket and pulled out her phone. Selecting a notetaking application, she typed:
"Have you seen Daisy yet?"
Coulson read the note and shook his head. He held out his hand, silently asking for the phone and typed:
"Just briefly. We had to let her escape. The ATCU was monitoring us.
We can't leave without her. She'll be put in stasis when they finally catch up to her. Mack and I are the only reason she hasn't been caught already."
May read the text as his thumbs flicked over the keypad. He could hear her swallow when she read the last sentence. She knew he was right.
"When we leave, she'll be on her own," he continued. "We've got to take her with us. We've got to at least give her a choice."
She took the phone from him and looked at him hard.
'How long?' She asked silently.
Coulson considered.
'Two weeks,' he said.
May shook her head, jabbed at the phone furiously and held it up to him.
"You and Mack are in danger! The longer you stay, the more you risk being caught!"
He smirked and grabbed the phone from her.
"I'd be fine if I wasn't colluding with a fugitive in my kitchen."
May rolled her eyes, but Coulson could make out a trace of a blush rising to her cheeks. It was an unnecessary risk coming here and she knew it. She could have given him the orders for an extraction, placed it in the dead drop and he would not have had a chance to argue.
But she wanted him to argue. She did not want to leave Daisy behind any more that he did.
When she did not attempt to snatch her phone back or reply to him, he typed another message:
"Was the base evacuated in time? Did everyone get out okay?"
Her shoulders relaxed a fraction as she nodded the affirmative.
'Good,' he mouthed with a smile.
"Where is the new base?" He typed.
'Lima,' she responded.
Peru.
It was a good choice. There were a few countries in South America that had yet to sign the Accords, and Peru was one of them. The agents wouldn't have to worry about extradition there. Plus, Lima was nice, good climate, great food…
Peru had come up with them before. When was that?
The stakeout in Mexico City, he remembered, three years ago. He and May parked in an alley waiting for the ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who found Daisy as a baby.
"You'd probably go to South America," she had said, outlining an imaginary exit strategy for him, if he decided to retire. "You speak Spanish—
"Vacation Spanish," he had corrected.
"Lima most likely, what with the growing food scene…"
He looked up at her now, trying, unsuccessfully, to read something more into her stoic expression. Her mask slipped a little and he saw the glimmer of a smile in her eyes.
'Good choice,' he whispered.
'I thought you'd like it,' she replied.
He let out a long breath as reality settled in again. Whenever he left the United States with S.H.I.E.L.D., he would officially be a wanted man. It would be a long time before he would be able to set foot on his native soil without watching his back, if ever. Daisy would not last a week without him and Mack diverting the A.T.C.U. from her trail. He could not leave with seeing her. Even if it was just to say goodbye.
'Two weeks,' he repeated decisively.
'Fine,' she relented. 'Two weeks from today. Use this when you need extraction. I'll have a team at your location in ten minutes.'
She handed a GPS transponder the size of a quarter with a single button. He slipped it in his pocket with a nod.
There was nothing more that needed to be said. Every minute May stayed was another minute that her transport, wherever it was, could be located. She had to go.
But God, he did not want to be alone today of all days.
Not after everything in his life had fallen apart. He did not want to have to face the thought of fifty-five years passed and a target on his back as the only thing to show for it. Daisy was gone, S.H.I.E.L.D. was an outlawed organization, and his best friend was standing right in front of him and they couldn't even speak to each other aloud without being arrested.
He felt her hand on his arm and his head jerked up. He was drifting.
She eyed him with concern.
'You okay?'
He nodded.
She had to go.
He held up a finger, indicating that she should wait, and walked back into the living room and turned off the light. She emerged from the kitchen, safe in the semi-darkness from prying eyes.
Crossing the room to where he stood at the door, she closed her hand his own and leaned in until he could feel her breath against his ear.
"Happy birthday, Phil," she said, her voice barely a whisper.
Shit.
He knew she had not meant it to be cruel. Ironic maybe, but not cruel.
But she hadn't seen him face-to-face in months. She had no idea what kind of toll this life had taken on him. It was one thing to be against the world when you had a team at your back. It was another matter entirely to stand on your own and watch as your life was picked apart piece-by-piece.
His fingers dug into the skin of her palm as she turned to leave.
Don't go, he thought. Please.
He did not know how much of his face she could make out in the dark, but what she saw must have scared her. She released the door handle and closed the space between them. Moving slowly, as if he were a wild animal she was trying not to startle, she pulled him against her and wrapped him in her arms.
It was the first human touch he had felt in weeks.
He felt his resolve shatter.
May placed a hand on the back of his neck as he began to shake, his face pressed against her shoulder to muffle the gasps that bubbled up in his throat.
This started out as a vignette and turned into a full story. More chapters to come!