In my DNA there lies all the answers.

May turned to look at Phil and what she saw made her heart stop, she was looking directly at a fully replicated copy of herself.

"Phil, move now!" Coulson looked over his shoulder and saw the cause for concern, but what was more concerning is that the replication hadn't moved. Not a muscle, it just stood there as though it was awaiting instructions before it would move, May grabbed the staff with her hand and immediately the copy walked towards her.

Phil went to stand in front of May but the copy rammed him out of the way and knocked him to his knees, May took a fighting stance and readied herself but nothing happened.

"What are you?"

"I follow the staff."

"What?"

"I follow the staff." That is the only thing that the May-copy seemed to know but one thing's for sure, it had something to do with the staff.

Why hadn't it reacted with May? People had died, and currently something had happened to Skye and yet here she stood… She set off immediately the copy was in hot pursuit running through the corridors, like the waves on hell were on her tail, but the overwhelming need was to get to Skye.

She burst through the door, wood crashing against the concrete walls and not once thinking that she could've set off the alarms, if not for that fact that she had disabled them earlier, that could have been costly.

She saw Jemma hunched over Skye's unconscious body and immediately she dropped to her knees and grabbed Skye, leaving a stunned Jemma Simmons in her wake, but she couldn't find it in herself to give a damn.

Coulson and Fitz stormed through doors to witness the scene before them; there was Jemma and the May-copy stood hovering over the real May who had an unconscious Skye in her arms.

"Please don't leave baby girl, I was meant to protect you. Please don't leave baby girl, I was meant to protect you." May whispered repeatedly.

Phil knew that if anyone else went to touch her right now she would tear their hand off, but he put a hand on her shoulder and whispered.

"Come on Melinda. We need to take her home. Let ME look after you for a change, we need to see what is wrong with Skye and what damage has been done. Please love, let me help you."

May looked at him her eyes wide; emotion written across her but bowed her head in defeat.

Along came Fitz and Jemma as they transported Skye back to the Bus with Phil driving with purpose but delicacy. Once they were back, Jemma immediately put Skye on life support taking five vials of her blood to immediately start testing for the problem but more importantly a cure.

May could do nothing but look in and feel the inexplicable feeling of fear and grief grip her fast beating heart but why? These feelings could be suppressed before but now they are outrunning her usual control, but first she needs to go and find out how the hell this staff replicated her entire being.

She turned around and walked straight into the Phil Coulson's solid form, he grabbed hold of her, looked into her eyes and pulled her straight into a bone-crushing hug. He could feel her drawing from his strength and he would give it to her a thousand times and more, but for now he was just going to hold her until she told him what she needed.

She looked up at him; those brown Bambi eyes held a world of hurt and Phil wished with all his heart that he could take that pain away. He cupped her face, pecked her lips.

"What's wrong? What are you not telling me love?" He whispered.

She looked at him, her hands rubbing small circles at the bottom of his back and said, "I don't know, but I do know Skye is somehow part of me. I know it sound ludicrous, but I have the overwhelming feeling to protect, care and love her above all the others. I don't know why but I can tell when she is hurting, scared or lonely, but there's no reason for this. When she first came onto this Bus, I had no idea of her existence, yet I feel like I have known her forever. Does that sound stupid?"

Phil looked at her an understanding smile written across his face and knew that something would lead them to the right answers. He took her hand in his wrapped his arm around her shoulders as they walked down to the lab in search of some much needed answers.

Just before they got to the doors, Phil pushed May against the wall and kissed her with all the love and devotion that he had stored up inside of him, it wasn't a kiss for sex, desperation or anything else, just a loving kiss that was meant to convey how much he loved everything about Melinda May.

She moaned and grazed his neck with her fingernails that sent a pleasurable pulse down his spine causing him to lurch his hips forward in search of that heavenly goal.

"Behave woman, I was only trying to tell you how much I love you. Now I also want to tell you something else but that will have to wait." He nipped her lips with affection and they carried on to the lab, Phil now slightly more uncomfortable than her.

As the doors parted they see Fitz and Simmons hard at work, Fitz has taken the staff careful apart and Simmons is inspecting the May-copy. Since they were attacked and May let go of the staff Phil has been watching her with the eagle eye, but nothing has happened thus far and the carbon copy of May hadn't moved either. It seems as though who ever was creating copies of her only got so far and hadn't quite worked out the personality aspect of it, I mean come on, you can get someone to look like Melinda May, but personality wise there will always only ever be one Melinda May.

"It seems that the staff has a complete copy of your DNA encompassed in its material, someone has deliberately built this staff to steal power but also create stronger copies of you. Each time it does, the next copy is stronger than the last ultimately creating an army of well…. You!"

May looked stunned and couldn't fathom how she hadn't realised that someone had stolen her DNA but at least they have the staff now for it to be destroyed, or at least she hoped that S.H.I.E.L.D. would destroy it.

"But how has this affected Skye? There has to be a link somewhere because the second that I touched the staff was when we heard you scream and now she isn't waking up? No one has shot her, touched her, or been near her and yet she is unconscious, because of me!" May looked at Phil, desperation written across her face and he grabbed her hugging her close, neither caring nor caring that the others were in the room.

Phil looked at her directly in the eyes, "Now you listen to me, Skye is one of ours, I will not let anything happen to her and I will do everything that I can to make things right. You hear me?"

She nodded but he could see that the tears were just about to fall anyway.

"Eh, not wanting to interrupt, but May could I please have some of your blood, hair and skin samples please. I want to compare you, to the staff and to Skye because there has to be some sort of link and the most obvious answer is genetics. Do you think that you're in anyway related to her?" Jemma said that last part with trepidation and a tremor in her voice fearing that she would unleash the wrath of Melinda May, but much to her surprise she simply sat on the bench, looked at Phil and waited for Jemma to take what she needed.

Now they had some clue as to what was going on, they might be able to use the staff to reverse what it had done, but the first challenge is working out what it had done.

They knew that Simmons and Fitz had a long day ahead of them and knew they would only get in the way, so they left the lab to go and check on things more importantly on Skye.

Phil tugged on her hand and was guiding her towards his office, when they walked through the door a meal had already been prepared.

May whipped around to look at him, "Phil, how can you think this would be romantic at this time? Are you for real?"

Phil guided her by the hand and sat her down, "Melinda, we have done all we can right now, let FitzSimmons do their stuff. You've not eaten since before we went on the mission and yes I checked. Now eat, before I tie you to the chair and force you."

"Under any other circumstances I would invite that." She smirked at him.

Breaking the tension they continued to eat until FitzSimmons summoned them, both praying in silent thoughts that an answer would lie in something as complicated as May's DNA.