Author's Note: So another chapter and more on May's brother! All chapters now should be about 2000 words and there should be updates every fortnight.

Snapped into action by his voice she helps him into her apartment where she settles him lying down on the kitchen island.

"Take off your shirt," she orders as she goes to the bathroom to fetch her medical kit.

By the time she returns his shirt is off and he's lying perfectly still on the dark granite countertop of her kitchen.

"Looks like it when straight through," she says as she examines the wound more closely, a bullet hole with blood oozing from it.

"Can you stitch it?" He asks through gritted teeth as she sterilises it, pain lancing through his side.

"We'll see," she mutters under her breath as she grabs the needle and thread.

He holds still as he sews the wound shut. His jaw is tight with pain and she can hear him grinding his teeth together through it as he fights to stay still for her. Afterwards she deals with his other wounds, a slash across his forearm and another on his chest. There also appears to be several large bruises forming across his torso and another on his cheek. Returning to the bathroom she picks up a washcloth and gently wipes down his arms and torso, by the time she has finished and tidied up the medical kit and returned everything to the bathroom he's passed out on top of her kitchen counter likely due to a combination of exhaustion and pain. Sighing to herself and shaking her head, she grabs a spare pillow placing it under his head and throwing a light blanket over him. Leaving on a lamp in case he wakes, she heads to her room ready to turn in for the night.

He can hear the sound of a shower running as he surfaces to consciousness. The bed doesn't feel very comfortable and his side is hurting. Wincing, he rises into a sitting position with his arms braced either side of him as his head spins making him dizzy for a moment. Trying to control his breathing to help with the pain, he breathes in deeply, holding his breath for a few moments before releasing it slowly. Taking in his surroundings he realises that he isn't on a bed at all. It's a granite countertop and he can now see clearly that he's in a kitchen. The apartment is familiar and suddenly understanding dawns on him as last night's memories come flooding back to him.

"How are you feeling," his sister asked appearing from a doorway, hair damp from her shower.

"Like shit," he said with a grimace to which she nodded in understanding.

"So you gonna tell me what happened?" She asked nonchalantly pouring him a glass of water.

Accepting the glass and taking a couple of careful sips, he took a moment before answering her question.

"I was getting intel for a client, there were a few more guards on duty than I expected and one of them got lucky."

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he let out a sigh.

"You were careless," she said taking a sip of her own water.

They remain in silence for a few moments before he decides to speak up.

"Have you seen mum recently?" She pulled a look at him and he let out a laugh. "Yeah, me too." She allowed him a small smile as they bond over their common tension with their mother. Neither of them choosing to join the CIA had always been a regular source of conflict between them and their mother. She chose SHIELD, he chose to work privately.

"You still working for the highest bidder?" she asked placing her glass down on the counter behind her as she leant against it.

Rolling his eyes at her question he gave her a mock glare. Some of his clients in the past had been a little unsavoury and he knew she didn't approve of all his career decisions sometimes.

"I choose who I work for and which jobs I want to take on."

"Right," she smirked at him.

On one too many occasions, she'd had to save his ass because of his not so well thought out career decisions.

"So when's the meet?" She asked him.

He looked at her carefully for a moment, how did she know?

"The USB in your pocket," she offered him reading his thoughts. "I gathered that's what your client wants."

Nodding his head in confirmation he then looked at her sharply.

"You searched me?!" He said somewhat accusingly.

Smirking at him she rolled her eyes.

"My little brother shows up on my doorstep with a bullet wound through his side and bleeds all over my kitchen countertop. I think I have the right to search his pockets to find out what the hell happened."

He lets out a huff and appears to be in a bit of a sulk, well, as much of a sulk as a guy in his late thirties can be.

"So when's the meet?" She asked again as he looked at her grumpily. "Hayden," she says his name warningly. She used to do that when they were kids too and he was about to do something he shouldn't.

"Tomorrow," he finally admitted with a scowl on his face.

"I don't think you should go," she stated in a voice that said her statement was really more of an order.

"I have to," he argued as he attempted to swing his legs over the side of the counter on to the ground. Pain shot through his side and he would have doubled over if it didn't hurt to move.

"You're in a lot of pain," she reasoned. "If things go bad, you won't make it out."

"I'll be fine," he grunted, shuffling towards the edge of the counter.

"No," she stepped forward placing a hand on his shoulder to still him. "I'm not letting you go."

"The deal is I get them the intel and they-"

"I didn't say they wouldn't get the intel," she interrupted as he looked at her with a frown.

"But if I don't go-"

"I'll go," she stated with her mouth set in a determined line. "Tell me when and where and I'll do the meet for you."

Looking over her face with searching eyes he let out a breath before giving her the details. He felt a small twinge of guilt inside for dumping all his crap down on his sister. He hadn't seen her in ages and then when he finally does she has to go and tidy up his mess for him. Disappointment and frustration at himself fill him up and he's kicking himself for being such a careless idiot. She's looking at him and he knows she's reading his mind right now. She used to do it all the time when they were kids and sometimes it was really cool and handy, but most of the time it was a little intimidating and annoying because she often knew things before he even did.

"You're doing it again," he said calling her out on it.

Shrugging at him coolly with a smirk tugging at her lips she couldn't deny what she had been doing.

"Old habits die hard," she offered with only a slightly apologetic smile.

"Sorry for showing up like I did," he apologised after a moment. "I would have called ahead but…"

She snorted at his apology but he could tell that she'd already forgiven him. Rummaging through the cupboard she pulled out a couple of crackers and handed them to him.

"Eat," she instructed at his unimpressed look. "I'm not giving you a full meal so you can throw it up later."

Grumbling about poor hospitality and a half star review, he munched on the cracker as she went about the kitchen throwing assorted fruits and vegetables into a blender.

"Didn't even get a bed," he grumbled into his cracker sulking a bit like a small child.

"I let you bleed all over my kitchen counter. I'm not letting you bleed all over my lounge too," she responded throwing him a look.

"You still drink those awful things you call smoothies?" he asked with a disgusted look, wrinkling his nose up at her drink.

"They're not awful, and they're good for you," she answered taking a sip and rolling her eyes at his look of repulsion. "You're going to have to grow up at some point."

Scoffing at her he shook his head.

"Men," she muttered under her breath.

He was a man in his thirties and sometimes he still acted like a child. Exhibit A, right now. Sometimes it was annoying, other times it was rather amusing. Right now he was providing a new source of entertainment for her, it had been so long since she'd last seen him and she'd missed her little brother believe it or not.

"How did you know I was home?" She questioned as he finished his cracker.

"Dad," he replied to which she nodded her head.

Should have known she told herself. Their father had been the first and the only one in their family that she'd contacted after leaving SHIELD. He'd questioned her about her decision as any parent would, but otherwise he had accepted it. She'd still yet to tell her mother but she was trying to hold off for as long as possible. The 'I told you so' that would surely come from her mother was something that she was not eager to hear. Ironically however, her brother Hayden was the one member of the family that she couldn't get a hold of, her mother she was simply 'holding off'.

"You gonna tell me why you left SHIELD?" he asked with a curious look on his face.

Breathing deeply she stared at him for a moment with an impassive expression.

"I needed to do something for me," she says with a shrug.

He looks at her, head tilted to the side in a way that she knows he is trying to read more into her words.

"Don't worry about me," she smirked gesturing towards his wound. "You've got enough to deal with."

"Yeah, but you're my sister, of course I'm going to worry about you," he said seriously looking at her with concern written in his eyes.

She offered him a small smile, touched by his concern for her. When they were kids they'd always been close, but since they grew up and chose different if slightly conflicting careers, they'd lost that closeness that they'd had before. Only now, when he was suddenly back in her world did she realise how much she had actually missed this adorable idiot of hers. Some siblings may fight and hate each other like cats and dogs, but she and Hayden weren't like that. Sure they'd had the occasional fight like any regular brother and sister, but they'd had a special sort of relationship. Even as adults now, with both of them having had careers in unreliable and dangerous fields where you sometimes didn't know who to trust, they both knew that no matter what they could always rely on each other. She can remember a time or two when he'd provided her with some very important intel that had saved an agent's life. Nobody however knew that they were related. Using an alias her brother worked from the shadows in the grey area of arguments. It would be more than frowned upon if it was discovered that the son of the CIA's Director took on political hits, not to mention the danger that it would put the rest of his family under. Making sure that his family remained safe was always his priority. Something that he and his sister shared it seemed. Now that she's not working for SHIELD anymore though, maybe they can spend a little more time together. If they can get their schedules to work and he can make sure that he doesn't get killed out in the field, then it would be a great idea.

A/N

So this will set the ball rolling a bit and hopefully open up a bag full of fun for me to play with. This going to be amazing and I am so excited to write this so hang in there, Philinda chapters will be coming eventually. Please leave a comment and let me know what you thought and if you have any ideas that you'd like to share. I love hearing from you guys so please comment. Comments are like ice creams on a hot summer's day, so please leave me a comment, make my summer day awesome :)