Thank you for all the amazing reviews and alerts. You guys rock. You're so generous with your praises.

And thank you for being patient with me :)

Respond to your concern: There's unlikely to be any spoiler of season2 in my story. But if somehow I borrow some background info from season 2 canon, I'll try to warn you at the beginning of that chapter.


Coulson lifted his eyes from newspaper and saw Melinda wandering into the living room, chocolate bar attached to one of her hands.

"Thank you." she said almost sheepishly when she noticed him gazing.

"My pleasure." he was playing cool, which itself wasn't cool at all considering he had more than 20 years of experience under his belt. He deliberately took some time to clear his throat and changed the subject, "I saw you two playing Go on papers. Clever."

"It was Gobang, not Go." May said, sitting down next to him on the sofa, while he neatly folded the newspaper and put it on the tea table. "Would have wasted too much eraser to play Go."

"Gobang, as in Wu-zi Qi?" Coulson asked, vaguely recalling the exotic term he was taught in another lifetime.

A surprised smile hovered over her lips. "You remember." she said, soft glint dancing in her brown orbs.

"Of course I remember." he felt hotness to the cheeks, "Have one more game with me?"

"Sure."

=x=

While May was busy drawing a new Go board, Coulson sneaked up on the chocolate left on the tea table and cracked a large piece off. May looked up at the sound and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Sharing is caring." he smiled lamely, intimidated for no good reason.

"You hate dark chocolate." she stared at his face, suspicious.

"Decided that I love it." responding nonchalantly, he munched on his chocolate and let his mouth filled with the melted liquid.

"You almost threw up the first time."

"I was young back then." he added punningly, "Didn't know what's right for me."

"And now you know?" her voice was low and hesitated.

"Now I know." he said firmly. He looked into her eyes on purpose, and found her staring shrank under his scrutinization. She pressed her lips together and resumed drawing.

Apologetic for causing her uncomfortableness, Coulson switched into a playful tone, "Think I can beat you in 50 today?"

"Haha, only in your dream." May didn't look up, but Coulson was relieved to hear the brightness back in her voice.


May noticed how distracted Mary appeared to be during their training session. Every move she made was only half way to May's standard and she did them all with a grumpy face. Mary had also ignored her repeated warning, which was really the last straw that breaks the camel's back.

May wasn't quite sure what was the proper boundary here. On one hand she felt the obligation to be lenient with the girl, who - she kept telling herself in mind - was not a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent after all; on the other hand, she refused to be a pushover.

"Stop. What's worse than doing nothing at all is doing it wrong. Muscle memory is hard to change." she said in an extremely calm voice - most of her rookies would pee in their pants hearing that - and sternly looked at the girl, "Do it again from the beginning."

The girl stopped and looked back at her; her thin little jaw clenched but her eyes flashed in grievance. May didn't budge; she gestured, urging the girl to start moving.

Suddenly the girl snapped. "You suck!" she stamped her foot, her face flushing.

"Mary Sue Poo-" May started disapprovingly, but she kept her emotion well-controled. She had promised herself that under no circumstances would she lose it in front of an innocent girl, never again.

"Don't call me that!" the girl screamed and kicked hard, sending one of the cushions flying in the air.

" - that's not the kind of language we use here. " May raised her eyebrow at the unexpected outburst, but went on finishing her sentence like nothing happened.

The girl stiffened up all the same. She peeked at her fearfully, as if just recognizing what she had done. Her short tantrum vanished as fast as it appeared. It was clear half of her body was prepared to run, while the other half seemed to be too stiffed to do so.

May's glare softened. She was familiar with fear herself and could recognize it when somebody was feeling trapped in fear and has nobody to turn to. The girl wasn't making a fuss; something must be wrong.

The truth was, May was clueless about what was going on, and even more clueless about how to react. Therefore, she just went after her instincts. "Take a deep breath and sit down." With an authoritative but kind tone, She gave the girl a mild look and sat down to rearrange the cushions, giving her space to handle herself.

Moments later she felt the girl gingerly sitting down where she had stood. "I'm sorry." the girl mumbled shakily.

May looked at the girl who still refused to look at her, and asked gently, "What's wrong?"

The girl curled to herself a little. It was such a pitiful sight.

May sighed, "You can tell me anything. I won't be mad. Do you at least trust me on that?"

The girl looked up at her and nodded hesitantly. May rewarded her with an encouraging smile.

"Tummy hurts." the girl sniffed meekly.

Reproaching herself internally for neglecting to rule out that possibility first, May rushed into running diagnoses in her head. "Anything hit your belly? did you eat anything?" she asked. Little kids had stomach issue all the time; no need to panic. Right?

The answer was barely audible, "I...I ate candy after breakfast."

"How many?"

"All."

It was such a relief to hear that the cause could be as simple as that; May let her shoulders slacked, "You should have told me."

She wasn't reprimanding but the girl apparently took it otherwise. "Sorry." she sounded contrite and on verge of tears.

May just pretended her stomach wasn't wrenched in regret. She should have checked out things like this before starting the class. "May I have a look at it?" she asked tentatively, unwilling to cause another tantrum.

The girl bit down her lip, too timid to say no. May rubbed to warm up her hands, approached the wary kid and laid her hand on her belly.

The girl tensed up at her touch; May chagrined to herself. She knew it was not uncommon for foster children to feel alienated from human touch, but god knows how she herself could relate to that. She also knew from experiences that words only add to the humiliation she had at her own reaction, and nothing could be said or done to help until she grabbed a hold of herself.

"I'll try to be gentle. But tell me when it hurts."She instructed; simple clear instruction soothed her, and she hoped it do the same thing to the girl.

May pressed at several spots of her belly to assess the cause of pain, like what her mother usually did when she was a kid.

The girl winced but endured the poking quietly - she was a really tough little thing.

All the vital organs seemed fine, May finally decided it was probably just the gas. She smoothed out the front of the girl's shirt and sat back opposite to her, "You should have told me you wasn't feeling well."

"I shouldn't eat the candies." the girl seized the rim of her shirt.

"No you shouldn't. You made a mistake, but that doesn't mean you deserve to get hurt."

The girl looked at her uncertainly. May could practically read "that's not what I was told" out of that pair of brown lustrous eyes.

"You come to me when you're not feeling well." May simply reinforced the message. It would be too much trying to immediately reverse what had been installed in this girl by her upbringing - sin, punishment, whatever it might be. And May wasn't feel like a qualified person to address the issue - despite all the rationale, she still couldn't free herself from the idea of her own punishment.

"But whining is bad." the girl chewed on her lips, unsure whether it was acceptable to talk back.

May sighed, how many times she herself was fed the same idea throughout her life? "Telling me is not whining. I'm your mentor. Have to know about it so that training doesn't hurt your health." she paused, thought it over for a moment and carried on, "And whining is not bad. It's just you haven't grown up yet." She wasn't saying whining was good - she would probably still pay very little respect to any whiny agents - but the girl was young and needed an outlet without feeling shame about it. Hell, didn't they all need that.

The girl stared at her with wide puzzled eyes. May briefly wondered how much she could really grasp or even remember.

May sighed again; she needed to clear her mind. She patted on the cushion. "Now you sit tight and wait for me." she said, "I have some tricks that can help."

=x=

Hot herb tea was brewed and cushions were made into a nice seat, with the girl settled in it while May showed her how to massage her stomach strategically. The girl had calmed down vastly and claimed that she felt better.

"So you don't like your name." May started. She had wanted to talk about that too, knowing from experience how hurtful an unpleasant name could be as a trigger.

"Would you like it if it was yours?" the girl asked slyly; May was glad she sounded more like her usual self.

"No." She answered honestly.

"Dah." the girl shrugged. "I wonder why they picked this name for me. I couldn't be bad that much as a baby, could I?" She lifted her face with uncertainty.

May was seriously in the mood of kicking some ass now. "You were never bad; that's not who you are." she patted the girl's knees assuringly, "The people who named you, they probably just randomly picked name from a name book. Remember, there were a lot of babies to name. It's definitely not because of you."

"I still think they did it on purpose so that big kids can call me Poop." the girl crumpled up her face in disgust and mumbled defeatedly. "Even my foster parents make fun of it. Their voice were really weird when they called me Mary Sue." she fidgeted and picked at her thumb nail. "I know it's dumb, but I didn't pick my name."

Seriously, what kind of parents make fun of the name of a kid?

There was a whole bunch of speeches about "name is just a code and doesn't define who one really is", but May decided against it because it sounded hypocritical at the moment, when the girl was real upset about her name.

Both of May's hands were on the girl's shoulders so she could looked at her face. "It is those people who are dumb. They are mean. They have no right to do that. Your name, it's not a mistake." The girl was avoiding eye contact and May didn't push, "However, it's okay that you happen to not like it, that you think it sounds less cool than others' names. Just like I think your shirt is prettier than mine today." The girl smiled a little at the last sentence; May continued, "If it really bothers you, you can give yourself a new one. It's your name. You make the ultimate decision."

The girl shook her head, "It's a joke. I'm only six. Nobody will take it seriously."

"I will." May said, which made the girl finally look at her, "Listen. It might take a while for everyone else to acknowledge it, yes, but it won't be a joke. If you give yourself a name, I'll call you by it, Coulson will call you by it, and one day all the people that care about your feeling will call you by it, too."

There was sparks bouncing in the girl's orbs and May knew she was persuaded. "You decide who you wanna be and that includes your name, you know what I mean?" the girl nodded, and then shook her head. May smiled at her bewildered face, "And whatever other people call you, that doesn't change who you really are." Again the girl nodded dutifully. "Sounds good?" May asked.

"Ummm."

"Let's have a try now, 'kay? You have anything in mind?"

The girl shook her head.

"Do you want any suggestion from umm, let's say - a name book?"

The girl shook her head again.

"Fair enough. Then what can be a good start? Maybe you can name yourself after your favorite people or things."

"I can?" The girl seemed surprised. She frowned, pondering over the advice, and slowly she said, "Can I use yours? What's your name?"

May felt herself blushing. Was the girl suggesting that she was her favorite person? "Melinda." she answered shortly.

"It's pretty." the girl commented politely. But she didn't look thrilled. It was almost comical to watch the girl trying to hide her inner thoughts.

Luckily May went to her rescue. "You don't have to take it." May said kindly, "It would be too confusing for Coulson anyway, if there are two Melinda in the house."

The girl giggled at Coulson's expense and seemed relieved. She mumbled something like "don't want a name start with M" quickly; May let it go. It felt like the idea of self-naming finally sank in and the girl had started to truly enjoying it.

May watched the girl contemplated in her usual adult-like seriousness for a moment and shrieked in happiness. "I know," she smiled the largest smile of that morning and clapped her hands, "how about 'sky'?"


TBC

*Wu-zi qi, as you can see, is Mandarin. Even though Ming-na obviously speaks better Cantonese than Mandarin (therefore so does May in my headcanon), since I don't, I'll let my Melinda refer to things in Mandarin version.

Dear all, I usually don't stop in the middle of a scene, but since this is the big revelation you've been waiting for so long...Okay the real reason is I wanna keep each chapter at a reasonable length. But who would say no to a cliffhanger, right? Anyway I hope you enjoy how I deal with this issue. Remember it's just a beginning...

Babbling Discussion regarding this chapter :

I hope my description of Skye's little tantrum seems reasonable, because really I have no experience to make a reference to... And there might be a little too much preaching in this chapter? Those are what came to my mind when I tried to understand May's character, what I believe she tried to tell herself but couldn't because she was used to being who she had been. Those idea may not even make a lot of sense, so hope it doesn't bore you.

Right now it's 3am on a school day, I'm crazy...

Thanks for reading and please leave your opinion.