"Are you sure, Phil?" May asked Coulson as she sat perched on the edge of his desk in his office at The Playground.
Phil Coulson sat on his large black leather chair, breathing deeply with a look of contemplation, his lips set to a thin line as his jaw clenched and released slightly.
May paused waiting for an answer, he was about to make a big decision and the ramifications for some members of the team were inevitable, he needed time to make sure he wasn't doing this for selfish reasons.
Phil took another deep breath and shifted his position in his chair from laid back to leaning forward, with his elbows on his desk. Melinda could see he now wore a mask of resolution, which replaced his earlier expression of indecision.
"I'm sure May, I'll at least pose the question. She doesn't have to agree if she doesn't want to." Coulson responded, as he looked her in the eyes, he could see her features soften as she nodded her head gently, which he took to being her silent and unflinching agreement to his plan.
Coulson pushed a button on his desk, "Billy, find Skye and ask her to come to my office, please."
"Yes, sir." Billy said over the intercom.
May slid off the desk and walked around it to take a seat opposite Coulson and waited with bated breath to see what will happen over the next few minutes.
They didn't have to wait long before there was a polite knock at the door.
"Come in." Phil said, he could tell from the blurred silhouette that Skye was on the other side of the threshold.
Skye peeked her head around the door seeing May and Coulson, "You wanted to see me, sir?"
"Yes, please come in Skye."
Skye picked up on the strange vibe in the room immediately and felt edgy as she took a seat in the chair beside her S.O. Melinda May. 'I must've done something wrong…what have I done?' These were the same thoughts that plagued her when she was growing up in the, so-called, care-system. The foster families and nuns at St Agnes would always find an excuse to yell at her or tell her off, like she was never good enough. Skye prayed that the same wasn't about to happen today. She felt like she was in the Principles office and she'd been caught flooding the toilets, except the Principal was someone she'd consider her father. He wasn't of course, her real father was a monster and she wanted nothing to do with him. This was the first place she'd considered a real home with people she seriously thought of as her family. She couldn't be happier especially as it was Thanksgiving tomorrow.
May glanced at Skye, she could sense how nervous Skye was, "Don't worry Skye, you haven't done anything wrong."
Skye just nodded silently as she turned her attention back to Coulson.
"Skye, we didn't mean to worry you, but we've called you in the office for an important matter and I would like you to give it your full consideration before you answer. You don't even need to answer today—" Phil said quickly, his nerves were showing and he knew it.
"Phil, give her the letter. Let Skye read it herself." May interjected.
Phil Coulson sighed as he passed Skye an opened inconspicuous brown envelope and nodded for her to open it, she didn't know what to think as she pried open the envelope, 'What could they possibly need to show me?' she thought to herself as pulled the contents out. She unfolded the expensive government headed paper and started reading.
Skye didn't quite understand what she was reading, it made references to people she didn't know. The only parts she understood were her name, Skye, not Mary-Sue Poots, littered in the letter and the official governmental stationery and seal. "Sorry, I don't follow, what is this?"
"They're adoption papers." May said plainly.
"Excuse me? Who are these people," Skye gasped in shock as she tried to find the names, "Steve and May Thompson? I've never heard of them!"
"You wouldn't have, not yet anyway. They don't exist." Coulson answered, though he could sense he was creating more questions than answers.
"Well, do you wanna fill me in?" Skye looked between Coulson and May, trying to get a read on what was going on. May hid her emotions well, to well for Skye to read her at all, but Coulson on the other hand had a bit more difficulty keeping it all from playing across his face.
"Like I said, you don't have to agree to this if you don't want to, but May and I would like to adopt you. Not so much in a child sense, but legally, to say if anything happened to one of us," Phil looked pointedly at May, then continued, "or if S.H.I.E.L.D went down for whatever reason, you'd be looked after." He could see he was loosing her a bit here. "Look, I know you're an adult in your 20's but you can take this however you like, this will be a commitment made by May and I to you." Phil paused as he leant further forward on his desk toward May and Skye. "We know that you don't have any family apart from that monster. Look, I consider you one of my own and I know May does too."
With that little revelation, Skye's head spun to look at May in shock. She knew that May was starting to respect Skye for how much she'd progressed as a field agent, but this was completely unexpected.
"Every word of that is true, Skye." May nodded.
Skye was still in shock; she didn't know what to think, so she decided to probe further. "You say these identities don't exist yet?"
"No, they will only be created if you are happy to proceed. They're sole purpose is as a vehicle for us to adopt you legally."
"I still don't get how 2 fake ID's can legally adopt me…." Skye liked the idea of their plan, but she needed to see if it could hold water before she invested her heart into it.
"You wiped our real identities last year, we couldn't legally adopt you under our real names, even if we wanted to. To the world, Phillip Coulson is dead." May responded.
"Oh yeah, forgot about that…!"
"So what May and I thought was, if you wanted to, you could set up these ID's with your hacking-voodoo and we can sort out the official documents."
Now Skye was thoroughly confused, "Wait, wait, wait! How is it you can get the official papers, but still need me to hack the system?"
"Because my mother is useless with technology." May replied with a wry smile.
Coulson thought this might be the best time to explain a little more, "May's mother used to work for the C.I.A, she can get her hands on blank Birth certificates, blank Marriage certificates, blank Passports, but she can't hack the system."
"Coulson and I have created the identities, my mother can get us the documents and you can put it into action, but only if that's what you want." May said as she placed her hand on Skye's knee. She'd been observing Skye closely and could see her knee trembling with the potent restless energy of emotion and confusion.
"So…! Real family effort, huh?" Skye asked wistfully. Coulson and May snorted nervously, trying not to show how much they were waiting her answer. "Hey, I just noticed that your ID's are married…! So what, are you guys gonna run off and get married if I agree?" Skye was of course teasing, though it didn't mean she didn't want to know the answer. Everyone on in The Playground who saw or heard how Coulson and May interacted with each other knew there was some connection between the two of them, a strong and powerful bond of trust, loyalty, and she'd go as far as to say, love.
"We can't do that, Skye." May said, her hand still on Skye's knee, looking toward Coulson.
"It's Ok," Skye said as she tried to backtrack. "I understand, it was stupid of me to ask really—!"
"You didn't let her finish," Phil said as a small smile graced his lips, "We can't do that because we're already married."
'What?!' Skye thought. 'How could that be so shocking and so obvious at the same time?' She put her hand to her mouth as she grinned, looking at the married couple. No matter how much she thought they acted like a married couple, she hadn't expected this. There was always a level of intimacy between them, sure, but they didn't kiss, hold hands, hug or call each other sickeningly adorable names in public, thankfully!
"Yeah right, you guys married?"
"We married years ago, before Bahr— um, you know." Skye looked at May with sympathy, she knew that May struggled with thoughts of past events in Bahrain everyday, what ever happened to her must've been terrible.
"We went though a rough patch," Phil said looking longingly at May, "We separated but we didn't go ahead with a divorce, no matter how much Melinda tried to push me away."
"Gosh guys, I'm so sorry." Skye was really sorry that her throw away comments brought up long buried emotions, but she was also desperate to know more. How could she possibly be part of a family who had a history no one dare talk about? If she was going to do this, she wanted them to lay their cards on the table. "Look, if I'm gonna do this, and I don't know if I will yet, but if I do, I would like to know what happened in Bahrain?"
Phil and Melinda looked at each other, eyes wide in shock. They couldn't believe that Skye admitted she's considering their proposal and flatly asked them about their shared past in Bahrain.
"Well," Coulson started, "It's as I said before, May had gone in and rescued a load of our Agents, who were being held by the followers of a gifted individual—"
May cut Coulson off as she continued the story, "He was a manic. I went in alone to avoid detection, but I was captured. They tortured me…" May looked to Coulson for silent support, she could see he was reliving it all as much as she was, "After days of torture, I somehow had the strength to escape. I became a monster; I destroyed everyone and everything in my way. I freed the other agents, but a part of me died back there."
Skye remembered Coulson telling her that part when that ghost-guy attacked the Bus last year.
May took a deep breath and continued, "I miscarried in there. The pain and the trauma of the torture made me miscarry and I didn't even know I was pregnant. If I did, I would never have gone in there…!"
Skye heard May's voice weaken and break, she was sure May was lost in her thoughts of the past and the pain. 'No wonder she never wants to be called The Cavalry and be reminded of that place! May had been tortured, lost her baby and her marriage had started to fall apart, it was devastation on an epic scale.' Skye thought to herself.
Skye leapt from her chair beside May, knelt down and wrapped the older woman in a tight hug, both of their faces buried in each other's neck.
Phil couldn't sit back any more; he got up from behind his desk and knelt the other side of Melinda and embraced both women, as May couldn't hold back the tears any more, Phil pulled Melinda towards him some more and kissed the top of her head. He was the only person who knew the demons she wrestled every minute of the day.
Of course he was plagued with the same thoughts; would their child have been a boy or a girl, whom would they have taken after, would they have been an only child, thinking of certain milestones in their child's life, such as first day of school, college, 18th and 21st birthdays. Time doesn't heal all wounds, but he knew no matter how much pain he was in, the sense of loss was greater for May.
Skye remained in the loving embrace of the two people she already considered her parents, she'd even call them 'Mom and Dad' at times, she'd be proud call these two her parents. It would be a dream come true, it was at that moment she came to her decision. "I'll do it."
Phil pulled out of the embrace slightly to look at Skye, "Are you sure, Skye? I don't want you to rush into this on the spur of the moment."
"Never been so sure about anything in my life."
May looked at Skye, she'd cried tears of grief earlier, over the loss of her child. Her eyes now shed tears of joy, not just in Skye's decision to join their family but the resolution and pride in her voice to do so. After Bahrain, May thought she was a bad wife, a negligent mother and a poor Agent. It took many years for May's paradigm shift, where she came to accept some of the events that happened to her weren't her fault, so she could start to move on with her life, but to do that her whole persona had to change as a coping mechanism. It worked but it also took its toll. May would never be the same person again, but now she didn't need to be. At this moment in time, she had her family and she never imagined she could ever be this happy again.
"This will be the first time I've had a real family at Thanksgiving!" Skye exclaimed. She was ecstatic and she couldn't wait to get started. "If I do it now, we can be a family in time for Thanksgiving!"
Skye gave her new parents a big hug before she stood up and nearly ran out the door.
Phil and Melinda looked at each other; he wiped the tears from her eyes as he planted delicate kisses over her face. "Well, that went better than expected…!"
~~Fin~~