Chapter 10
Disclaimer: I don' own anything.
Day Two
As soon as she wakes up, before she even opens her eyes Maria knows that something is wrong; and when she opens her eyes Maria's suspicions are confirmed.
"Phil, wake up." Maria says shaking Phil awake, "Come on Phil. Wake up."
"I'm sleeping." Phil finally says after a few minutes of Maria attempting to wake him up.
"Trust me you're going to want to open your eyes for this." Maria says as she sits up.
Reluctantly Phil opens his eyes and when he does he is surprised to find that instead of being in the bedroom that he and Maria feel asleep in they are in bed, on the roof. Thankfully Natasha, Clint and Melinda were kind enough to connect them to safety harnesses so that they weren't in any danger.
"How the hell did we sleep through this?" Phil asks shocked as Natasha, Clint and Melinda would have had to take them from their bed, probably put them in theirs while they transferred and secure the bed to the roof, then put them in it.
"We're both deep sleepers." Maria says in a way of explanation, less surprised than she should be to find herself on the roof.
"We're on the roof, Maria! I would expected that we would wake up at some point." Phil says, "So, think they realised things were better when they working together rather than against each other?"
"Probably." Maria says, "We should probably head down." She says.
"And plot our revenge." Phil says.
"That goes without saying." Maria says, "After you." Maria says and they both start to climb down, finding it easier than they were expecting as Natasha, Clint and Melinda were kind enough to leave them a ladder, even though Phil finds it a lot more difficult than Maria because of his hand he does manage without help.
"Did you two even sleep?" Skye asks curious as she walks over to Fitz and Mack who are currently putting the final touches on what looks like a diving board. It is about six am and because she just finished training with Bobbi she decided to go check on Fitz and Mack.
"Yeah, we got a few hours." Mack says.
"We just really wanted to get this done." Fitz explains.
"Well it look's great." Skye tells them, "Is it done?"
"Now it is." Mack says once he finishes screwing in a screw.
"Awesome, so how about we go have breakfast then come back out here and have fun." Skye suggests.
"Sounds good." Fitz says, Mack nods and the three of them head back inside to the main part of the base.
Unlike the previous morning Natasha and Melinda wake up at the same time so they end up walking out to do tai-chi together.
When they walk into the kitchen area they find both Maria and Phil wide awake drinking coffee.
"Morning." Natasha says to them.
"Bed on the room, really?" Phil asks.
"Yep." Melinda says, "We could hear your snoring, It was annoying." Melinda says, telling the truth as that was one of the reasons the other being that in their drunken minds they through it would be amusing.
"So you put us on the roof?" Maria asks.
"Yep." Natasha and Melinda say together like it's no big deal.
"You're helping us to get the bed down. I hope you realise that." Phil tells them.
"We figured." Natasha says with a shrug.
"Good. As long as that is clear." Maria tells them.
"It is." Melinda and Natasha say together as they walk outside.
When Skye, Fitz and Mack arrived at breakfast Simmons, Hunter, and Bobbi were already there.
"Is it done?" Hunter asks Mack and Fitz as they, along with Skye, sit down.
"Yep." Fitz answers.
"Great." Bobbi says with a grin, "Good job guys."
"Thanks." Fitz and Mack say as they start to grab the food they want.
"Agent Morse, Agent Skye." Billy says as he walks down the stairs from Coulson's office.
"Yes, Billy?" Skye and Bobbi ask.
"Do one of you want to explain why there is now a pool in the airplane hanger?" Billy asks curious.
"For training purposes." Bobbi says, "Skye and I were talking yesterday and we realised that Skye's water skills are low so we thought we would work on them and Fitz, Simmons, Mack and Hunter wanted to join." Bobbi says, lying completely convincingly.
"Do Coulson and May know about this?" Billy asks.
"No, but I'm sure that they won't have a problem with it." Skye says, "After all it's a skill builder."
"Okay you two can be the ones who tell them." Billy says, knowing that he doesn't want to, as he pulls files out from under his arm, "These are the reports from the Hydra mission in Mexico. They aren't finished, in fact Director Coulson and Agent's May's personal reports are the only paper work that has been done, and the council needs them by tomorrow. Seeing as how Coulson and May aren't here it's up to you two." Billy says putting several files I front of both Skye and Bobbi.
"We'll get right on them." Bobbi says.
"Good." Billy says before leaving.
"Guess our jumping competition is going to have to wait." Skye says, not looking too happy about that.
"Guess so." Hunter says with a frown.
After spending half an hour doing Tai-Chi together and sparing for another hour or so both Natasha and Melinda head back inside. When they do they see no sign of Phil and Maria.
"Guess they had breakfast without us." Natasha says when she sees the plates drying next to the sink.
"They probably knew we wouldn't eat it." Melinda says as considering they are in a 'war' at the moment Melinda, Natasha and Clint wouldn't eat something made by Phil or Maria in case they did something to it.
"Probably."
"Guess we should get started on breakfast." Melinda comments.
"You mean me." Natasha corrects, "Somehow I don't think Fury would be too happy if we burnt down his kitchen."
"I'm not that bad of a cook." Melinda tells Natasha.
"Seventeen years of knowing you tells me a very different story." Natasha says, Melinda goes to object but before she can say something they hear Clint screaming and they both go running to the bedroom they are sharing.
When they rush into the bedroom Melinda and Clint find Clint clearly just walking in from the bathroom and that he along with their bed is covered in what looks like…..
"Please say that's chocolate source." Natasha requests as there are a lot of things it could be.
"It is." Clint says, "And hundreds and thousands." He explains, "Dropped on me thanks to a bucket over the door which when opened also dropped another bucket over the bed." He explains.
"That's going to be fun to clean." Melinda says sarcastically.
"Well we did put their bed, with them in it, on the roof, this is fair retaliation." Clint admits.
"We'll get started on cleaning this, why don't you go have another shower." Natasha suggests.
"I could, or you two could help me clean up." Clint says with a suggestive look.
"Shower." Melinda and Natasha say together.
"Had to try." Clint mutters to himself as he heads back into the bathroom.
In the next room Phil and Maria are sitting side by side on the ground.
"There it is." Phil says when they hear Clint's scream.
"And that's Nat and Mel running." Maria says when they hear footsteps.
"Yep." Phil says and they drift into silence.
"So, have you noticed that this 'war' seems to be a way to avoid dealing with our issues?" Maria asks curious after a few minutes.
"I thought you didn't want to talk about it." Phil says, "I thought you said we should stop talking about what we were and getting back to it and just be what we are now." Phil comments.
"I did." Maria says, "But we're not even doing that." She points out, "We pranking, avoiding each other and drinking in silence, we're not being what we are or what we were." Maria explains.
"Huh, you're right." Phil realises, "What do you think we should do?" he asks curious.
"Not sure, yet." Maria says and the two of them once more drift into silence.
After spending several hours doing the rest of the paper work from the Mexico mission, including their own personal reports, Skye, Fitz, Simmons, Bobbi, Hunter and Mack got changed and headed out to the pool.
"So how are we going to do this?" Simmons asks once everyone is in the pool.
"Well one person could jump and the other five of us could give a score out of ten." Bobbi suggests.
"What criteria would we use?" Simmons asks.
"Does it matter?" Hunter asks, "We could just give whatever score we wanted." He says.
"But then it wouldn't be fair." Simmons argues, "We could just give anyone any score." She says.
"Simmons is right, we should come up with a criteria." Skye says.
"Okay, what you thinking?" Mack asks.
"Well splash for one." Skye says.
"Style of jump." Fitz says.
"Flips." Bobbi suggests.
"Not all of us can do flips." Simmons points out.
"Okay, good point." Bobbi admits, "How about uniqueness of jump."
"Yes, that sounds good." Simmons says and the others nod and the group of six continue to discuss how they will be judging their jumping contest.
After spending several hours cleaning Natasha, Clint and Melinda's bed and getting Phil and Maria's down from the roof, the five friends split up and have a look around the property.
While he is looking Clint gets to the small barn that is around back. He decide to go inside in the middle of the room is a large tarp covering some kind of object, when Clint lifts the tarp he can't help but grin.
"MEL, NAT, PHIL, MARIA." Clint yells, covering the object back up so that he can surprise the others.
For a few minutes Clint waits until he hears hurried footsteps and Phil, Melinda, Natasha and Maria rush all. All four of them clearly ready for a fight.
"Nothing dangerous. Don't worry." Clint assures them, realising that he should have realised what they would assume.
"Then why yell?" Maria asks.
"Because of this." Clint says completely removing the tarp to reveal three quadbikes, "We could use these to get out of here, or….."
"Or what?" Natasha asks as using them to leave seems rather tempting.
"Or we could play tag in the paddocks with them." Clint suggests.
"Okay, either idea is tempting. How do we decide?" Melinda asks.
"Vote?" Clint suggests.
"Vote." The others confirm.
"So who wants to use the quadbikes to leave?" Phil asks and no one puts their hands up, "Okay, who wants to play tag?" he asks and everyone puts their hands up as even though none of them like that they were forced there they are sure that if they leave now it may just be the end of what they have together and no one wants that, "Tag on quads it is." Phil says with a grin.
"So, now that we've figured out how we're going to judge the jumps who will go first?" Hunter asks and everyone exchanges looks.
"I'll go first." Skye says.
"Sounds good." Bobbi says, "Then about we go in age order so after you it's Jemma, then Fitz, then me, then Hunter, last Mack."
"Sounds fair." Fitz says and the others nod.
"Okay so I jump then you guys have a few minutes to each decide my overall score out of ten." Skye says.
"Yep." Simmons says as Skye climbs the ladder.
"Okay, I can do that." Skye says as she walks to the diving board and climbs it.
"Any time now, Tremors." Mack says after Skye has been standing on the top of the diving board for a few minutes.
"Leave me alone, I'm thinking about what to do." Skye tells him and for another minute Skye stands on the diving board and thinks, "Okay. Got it." Skye says before walking backwards then running as fast as she can down the diving board, jumping as high as she can and making her limbs look like a star, and landing in the water.
"So, how did I do?" Skye asks as she resurfaces and swims over to the other.
"Six." Hunter says, "Lacked originality, everyone does a star." He playfully teases and Skye just pokes her tongue out at him.
"Seven." Bobbi says as she shoves Hunter.
"Seven." Mack says.
"Seven." Simmons says.
"Eight." Fitz says.
"Thank you, thank you very much." Skye says with a grin, "Jemma you're up." Skye says as Jemma swims over to the ladder.
"So how are we going to do this?" Clint asks once they have gotten the quads out into one of the paddocks.
"I grabbed these." Maria says holding up what look to be different strips of material.
"So what we each have one and we try to grab them?" Phil asks.
"That was the theory." Maria says.
"We're an un-even number." Melinda points out.
"I'll be by myself and have two material things." Natasha offers.
"That works." Clint says, "So then me and Mel and you two." Clint says looking at Maria and Phil.
"Fine with us." Maria say and Phil nods.
Once everyone has a strip of material, Natasha has two, they all walk over to the quadbikes they are going to be using.
"Do you want to drive or steal?" Clint asks.
"Steal." Melinda requests.
"Fine by me." Clint says as he climbs on the quad.
"I'm going to put my legs around my waist so that I can have both my hands free."
"Won't be the first time." Clint comments.
"Let me know if I'm holding on too tight." Melinda requests, ignoring Clint's comment.
Across the paddock Maria and Phil arrive at their quad and when they do Maria realises that something is bothering Phil.
"Are you okay?" Maria asks
"Yeah, fine."
"Phil." Maria says disbelieving.
"You're the better choice for stealing but I can't drive a quad with one hand." Phil says, "As it is I'm going to have to use my prosthetic to steady myself and only have one arm to grab." He says.
"You probably could drive if you wanted to, I'm sure that between your prosthetic and hand you'll be fine." Maria tells Phil, "Or if you don't' want to you can use your legs to steady yourself or do what Mel's doing." She says amused when she sees her friend.
"Yeah, I'm not doing that." Phil says looking at Melinda, "But I would like to try and drive." Phil admits.
"Then try." Maria says with a supportive smile.
"Okay." Phil says and he climbs on. Hesitantly Phil starts the quad and accelerates, driving around the paddock. For the first minute or so Phil is really nervous, sure that any second he is going to lose control, but as more time passes Phil finds himself getting more confident.
"Looking good, Phil." Clint says from the quad bike that he and Melinda and are on which is now next to Phil.
"I'm doing it." Phil says happily, looking at Melinda, as she knows how much this will mean to him as he has confessed to her how he feels about all the things he hasn't been able to do and how afraid he is that he would never be able to do them.
"Yeah, you are." Melinda says with a grin.
"Race you back to Maria and Nat?" Clint asks with a smirk.
"Oh yeah." Phil says with a grin and that's exactly what they do.
"So, what does Simmons get for winning?" Hunter asks curious as the six agents climb after the pool. They finished their jumping competition and then spent several hours just swimming before deciding to get out.
"She gets to pick the first five things in our ultimate marathon." Skye says.
"Your what?" Bobbi asks confused.
"It's something Skye, Simmons and I have been talking about for a while." Fitz says, "We created a list of everything we want to watch together; so now were going to try and watch everything on that list in one go." He explains.
"Because Simmons won the jumping contest she gets to pick what the first five things we watch are." Skye adds.
"You should all join us." Simmons says as they walk into the main part of the base.
"Is Star Wars on that list?" Bobbi asks curious.
"Of course." Fitz and Simmons say together.
"Then I'm in." Bobbi tells them.
"Hunter, Mack? What about you guys?" Skye asks curious.
"Sure, I'll join." Hunter says, more interested in the company than the movies or whatever else they are going to watch.
"Same." Mack says.
"Awesome." Skye says happily, "So how about we all get cleaned up and grab stuff and meet in the common area in forty five minutes." She suggests.
"Sounds good." Bobbi says and the others nod.
"Forty five minutes it is then." Simmons says and the six agents all go in different directions.
"There both coming right towards us." Phil tells Maria not even five minutes into the game of 'tag'
"Can you dodge?" Maria asks.
"Not without causing all of us to crash." Phil says.
"Break just before they are going to go past." Maria suggests.
"Got it." Phil says and that's exactly what he does.
At the exact same time Clint, Melinda and Natasha pass Phil and Maria and as they do Phil slams on the breaks as Maria attempts to steal the strips of material of the others but Melinda, Clint and Natasha all manage to dodge and Melinda and Natasha each manage to steal Maria and Phil's.
"This should be interesting." Phil says as he turns to look at Clint, Melinda and Natasha.
"Yep." Maria confirms, "Bet's on who will crash first." Maria suggests as even though she knows that Clint, Natasha and Melinda can all handle a quadbike their competitiveness will get the better of them which will lead to them being reckless which will lead to crashes.
"Maria that's a horrible thing to say. They're our friends." Phil says.
"So… Clint and Mel." Maria says with a smirk as the two other quadbikes start to zig zag.
"Their bikes maybe, not them." Phil say as he is pretty sure that they will jump off first.
"Sounds about right." Maria comments.
For the next few minutes Phil and Maria watch as Clint and Natasha both drive the quadbikes trying to dodge each other while Melinda keeps trying to grab the material that Natasha has. For over ten minutes that happens until it becomes clear that Natasha is getting bored with that and so she purposely slows down and jumps off of her quadbike and onto Melinda and Clint's. Within a few seconds it becomes impossible for Phil and Maria to tell what is going on and a few seconds after Clint, Natasha and Melinda all tumble of the quadbike while the bike goes into the tree.
"We should go make sure they are okay." Maria suggests as even though she knows that Clint, Natasha and Melinda all have plenty of experience with falling off moving vehicles and know how to do it safely it is probably a better idea to make sure they are okay.
Phil and Maria are about half way to Clint, Natasha, and Melinda when Clint stands up proudly holding the six strips of materials and then is promptly tackled by Natasha and Melinda, which causes both Phil and Maria to burst out laughing.
"You guys okay?" Maria asks as they reach them.
"Of course." Natasha says standing up and holding all of the strips of material.
"Yep." Melinda says as she too stands up
"Speak for yourselves." Clint says as Natasha and Melinda help him up, "Is it drinking time yet?" He asks.
"Considering what you two just did to the quad's I would say so." Maria says looking at the two quadbikes which are now destroyed.
"Climb on, we'll ride back together." Phil says as they are currently several paddocks away from the house.
"Sure." Natasha says and Melinda climbs on behind Maria while Clint and Natasha sit on the back; and together the five friends drive back to the house in silence all five of them wondering what they can do next to avoid dealing with their issues.