Chapter 10
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AN: Thank you to all who have added to alerts, read, reviewed or any combination of the three. It means a lot to me.
AN2: Thank you so much to all of you incredible people who read this. This chapter is on the shorter side but I hope you like it anyway.
As soon as Director Fury un grounds the team a few days after they make breakfast together in their pyjamas they head of to their next mission. The mission is simple, get Fitz and Skye to a location so that they can hack a system and determine whether Alien artefacts are being solid out of a residence in Georgia. Despite May and Coulson's worries the mission goes off without a problem though it is clear that Coulson is very far from happy that he had to stay on plane with Simmons, while May and Ward provide security for Skye and Fitz.
As soon as they finish the mission May flies the plane out of Georgia. Once sure is sure that they are at the right altitude she switches the plane to automatic and leaves the cockpit.
"Hey May, we were just about to start Monopoly, do you want to join?" Skye asks curious from where her Ward and FitzSimmons are sitting around a table setting up the game.
"No." May says before walking up the stairs into Coulson's office. "Do you guys think Coulson's okay?" She hears Skye's worried voice ask as she does.
When May enters Coulson's office she sees him sitting on his tablet drinking a glass of scotch.
"That helping?" May ask curious.
"No." Coulson asks having not even looked up from his tablet when May enters because he already knew who it was going to be.
"Phil.." Melinda starts to say but Coulson cuts her off.
"Don't start Melinda, I don't want a pep talk." Coulson tells her, still not looking up from whatever he is doing on his tablet.
"Good, because I don't do pep talks." Melinda tells him.
"So this isn't you coming up here and telling me that to stop feeling sorry for myself that I'll be back in the field in no time, so I shouldn't mope?" Coulson asks.
"No, that's exactly what this is but it isn't a pep talk." May tells him.
"Oh really? Because it defiantly seems like it." Coulson tells her.
"Well it's not." May tells him, "Phil just because you're not in the field doesn't mean you're not needed. It was thanks to you that Ward and I were able to take care of those gauds before they could have gotten to Skye and Fitz, you did that. You protected them. No operative likes being on the sidelines, being the one watching instead of doing but if you don't take that time, if you don't watch for a while, if you go back before you are ready then that's all you'll be doing." May reminds him knowing that he knows exactly what she is saying because he once said it to her.
"Using my own speeches against me now?" Coulson asks curious finally looking up from his tablet.
"Sometimes I think you only listen to yourself so I thought I might try it." May tells him.
"I am ready Melinda, I'm healed, and I'm fine." He tells her.
"That's not what your doctors are saying." Melinda informs him.
"My doctors are idiots." Coulson says though he knows that it is the opposite.
"You really think you are ready to go back in the Field?" May asks curious.
"Yes." Coulson answers.
"Absolutely sure?" May asks curious.
"Yes." Coulson says without hesitation.
"Downstairs. Ten minutes." May tells him "Let's see if you really can put your money where your mouth is." She says leaving his office.
As soon as the four younger Agents hear the door Coulson's office open they quickly stop talking about how May and Coulson just seem to know what the other is thinking which is what the conversation has progressed to after starting with discussing whether Coulson is okay.
After May leaves Coulson's office she heads straight to her bunk where she closes the door and leaves a minute later in her workout gear. The four young people doing their best to make it look like they are not watching. A couple of minutes after May goes downstairs Coulson walks down from his office in his own work out gear and heads downstairs.
"Okay, what is going on?" Skye asks the others confused wondering if they have any idea because she doesn't.
"Sparring session would be my guess." Ward tells her.
"Coulson's still healing, how does he think getting wailed on by Agent May is going to help with that?" Fitz asks confused.
"Sparring isn't the same as being wailed on." Ward informs him. "It's about testing your skill in a real way, challenging yourself, getting someone else to point out week spots that you didn't even realise you have, pushing yourself and seeing what you can do" Ward explains.
"But is it a good idea when Coulson is still healing?" Skye asks concerned.
"It's the perfect thing to do." Ward tells her "Coulson wants back in the Field we saw that today but he can't come back until he well enough. This is a real way to test just how far he's come and how far he still need to." Ward explains to her "But don't worry, neither of them will actually get hurt, a little sore, sure, but not hurt." He explains.
"If you sure." Skye says but is still slightly worried "Is it wrong that I kinda want to go watch?" she asks the others after a few minutes of silence.
"No, it's not." Ward tells her because he is thinking the same thing as while he has spared with May quite often and seen Coulson fight he would be interested in watching them spare with each other because he is sure that because of how long they have known each other and how skilled they both are that he could learn a lot just watching.
"So what are we waiting for? Come on." Skye says standing up, Ward right behind her "Come on." Skye says pulling up Jemma who in turned pulls up Fitz.
"This is a very bad idea." Fitz says as he follow them.
"Ward, you want to go first?" Skye asks curious once they reach the closed door that leads downstairs all of them hiding behind it because none of them want to be the first to go downstairs.
"No way." He tells her "You should."
"Me? Why me?" Skye asks confused.
"It was your idea." Fitz reminds her.
"And they are your parents so they are less likely to get mad at you." Simmons adds.
"Okay, fine. Move out of the way." Skye says and she pushes open the door and walks out but instead of walking down the stairs she walks over and sits down behind the rail, with her legs hanging over the ledge, once she does she uses hand gestures to tell the others to come out.
Just as Skye sits down above Melinda knocks Coulson off his feet below, but he is quickly back on his feats and lands a blow of his own.
"We've got an audience." Coulson informs May.
"I've noticed." May responds as she blocks Coulson's punch.
While it is perfectly clear to those watching above that May is the better fighter it is also clear that this isn't the first or even the hundredth time that they have done this, there is a familiarity in the fighting style the kind of which you can only have developed after knowing someone else a very, very long time.
The more they watch the more Skye, Ward, and FitzSimmons are amazed. How well May and Coulson anticipate the others move is incredible, it's like they are each five moves ahead which causes determining who has the advantage almost impossible until one of them is on the ground.
"Okay, you've proven your point." Coulson tells May after getting knocked down again, fifteen minutes after Skye, Ward, and FitzSimmons came out to watch.
"Twenty Minute. Pretty good." May says helping him up.
"But not good enough." He responds.
"Not quite, but you're getting there." May responds walking over and grabbing two bottles of water one of which she throws at Coulson, which he catches.
"It's been a while." Coulson says taking a drink of his water.
"Yeah it has." May tells him "You're defiantly rusty though." May tells him remembering what he said months earlier.
"It was fun though." He tells her giving her a look. "Thanks." Knowing that she didn't just get them to spar to show him that he wasn't ready to go back to field work.
"Yeah it was." May responds with a small smile and returning the look. "And your welcome" she adds.
"Hi, excuse me." Skye says causing May and Coulson to break the look they were giving each other to look up at their daughter instead, "That was incredible, like seriously that was kind of the most awesome thing ever, you're both amazing, but how can you call it fun?" Skye asks her father "I wasn't keeping count but I'm pretty sure that May knocked you down way more times than you knocked her down. How was that fun?"
"It's hard to explain, it just is." Coulson tells her with a shrug.
"If you say so." Skye tells him still not understanding.
"Don't any of you have more important things that you could be doing?" May asks curious as she walks up the stairs.
"No, not really." Skye answers with a shrug and a smile, May smiles back at her daughter then heads to have a shower leaving Coulson to pack up the mats as is traditional when the spare, the person who, according to their scale that they worked out years ago, losses packs everything up.
It is another two weeks after his sparing session with May before Coulson is cleared for field work, but he is told that he still has to take it easy. During that time the team goes on another couple of mission but both are routine and there are no problems during either.
Once Coulson is cleared for fieldwork he and May have another sparing session this time without the audience, but this time they spar for almost an hour, instead of just twenty minutes.
It is the early hours of the morning a week after Coulson has been cleared for fieldwork when Jemma is woken by someone shaking her away.
"Skye?" She asks confused wondering why she is being woken up but once her eyes adjust and she actually looks at her friend her confusion goes straight to panic "Skye, you're shaking? What's wrong?" Jemma asks quickly sitting up.
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