Agent May was playing cards with her doctor in her living room, her rounded stomach cushioned by a soft black sweater, when Marsha brought up one subject that she hadn't expected.
"What are your Christmas plans?" Marsha asked her, eating a spoonful of one of the nutritious yogurts she recommended for May to keep in her apartment.
"Nonexistent." Melinda responded, putting down a winning card. "I don't really like holidays."
"Are you kidding? I love them." Marsha smiled, shaking her head. She put down a card that trumped May's, giving her patient a sly smile.
"You have small children, you have to love the holidays." Agent May replied, dismissively.
"I never told you about my kids." Marsha paused in a swallow of yogurt, raising her eyebrows at Melinda.
"SHIELD." May stated, simply, pointing at herself.
Marsha just continued to stare.
"Well, you're wearing a ring, which indicates that you are married, you only wear washable cotton-blend clothing and practical shoes, you wear no dangling jewelry, you are not a smoker, you are between the ages of twenty-seven and thirty-five, and you have a picture of two children in your wallet who share genetic markers that indicate that they are siblings." Agent May said, by way of explanation.
"You looked me up?" Marsha said, putting down an ace.
"Yep." May rolled her eyes. "But also my extensive training in reading body language and observant nature."
"Sure." The doctor nodded obligingly, giving May a silly smile.
"What are you planning for the holidays?" Melinda asked her.
"My husband is out of town," Marsha admitted. "As I'm sure you know, he works with the UN. He's in Islamabad, consulting on some big medical emergency. It's classified, so even I don't know what's going on."
"Too bad for the kids." Melinda said. "I'm sure they'll still love their Christmas presents."
"Oh, we're Jewish." Marsha said, placing another card down as their stalled card game resumed. "We're going to spend Hanukkah with my parents in Michigan."
"That's nice." Melinda said, not sure what to say. She wasn't one for religion. She didn't believe in a higher power, or capital-G God. She knew aliens existed, but thought that resurrection was a bit far-fetched. She doubted that if it was possible, she wouldn't know about it. If it was possible, SHIELD would know about it.
A few weeks later, Melinda watched the snow come down outside her window, looking out at the city, lit up with christmas lights and the holiday spirit in every bulb. A flurry of snow buffeted off of her window, just as a noisy knock perforated the silence of Melinda's apartment. May frowned. She wasn't expecting anyone.
May stood on the tiptoes of her swollen feet and looked out of the peephole in her door. Through the small circle, she saw two figures, heavily bundled up and covered in snow. One was small and the other, adult sized, but short. The larger figure reached into a pocket and held a piece of plastic up to the peephole, a driver's license. May rolled her eyes and swung the door open.
"You're getting more and more paranoid." Marsha told her, entering May's apartment dragging a small child behind her by one hand. Almost immediately, she unzipped her coat and removed it, and May saw why she had looked so bulky before. It wasn't entirely the warm coat, beneath it, Marsha had a baby strapped over her chest in a front-facing baby carrier.
"Please, come in." May said, her voice free of inflection but with more than a little sarcasm. She hung up Marsha's wet coat and took the coat the small child had abandoned on the floor. The little girl had frizzy blonde hair like her mother's, and she sat on the floor, determinedly removing her tiny boots. She looked up at May with giant green eyes, and gave her a huge smile.
"Hi!" The little girl said, jumping up and nearly tackling May. May, one of the best field agents in the business, was taken down by a four year old.
"Careful, Shay!" Marsha charged, placing one hand on the sleeping baby's head while attempting to reign in her daughter. "Sorry," She apologized. "Eric swears she'll be a linebacker someday." She pulled her daughter off of the somewhat horrified May, who stood and stared at the little family awkwardly.
There was an awkward silence that only the two adults participated in, with little Shay running into every room in the apartment and the baby snoring.
"Every outgoing flight was canceled, so I thought I'd bring the kids over, so you wouldn't be alone on the holidays." Marsha explained, shifting on her feet, rocking to soothe the baby.
"I don't mind being alone." May said, glancing around the mostly darkened apartment.
"I mind." Marsha replied, bluntly. "I brought cookies." She sat on the couch, and May sat beside her. Soon enough, they got to talking, and Shay calmed down enough to come over and have a cookie.
The didn't talk the whole time, and they laughed a bit, and played a few hands of cards. They had a merry time together, alone. May had a nice time, surrounded by something she didn't want for herself, but she knew made others happy, enjoying the company of the one person she trusted with her secret.