"It wasn't good for you?" Jemma murmured afterwards. Tonight, Jemma was particularly chatty, while Felix was content to bask in the afterglow while he stroked her hair.

"It was amazing," Felix assured her. "I'd give you a standing ovation but I'm completely blissed out."

"I tried something different, and you didn't like it," she admitted as she turned towards him. She was absolutely adorable, even with her crinkled nose of disapproval. "You're usually muchlouder."

"You were feeling playful and it was absolutely mind-blowing," he insisted. "Didn't want to wake the babies by screaming 'Hallelujah'."

Instead of believing him, she just stared at him with her Big Bambi Eyes. He couldn't confide the reason behind his less than screaming response. While one part of his lizard brain was only able to mutter, 'Omigod' repeatedly while Jemma had teased him, his rational part of brain had debated and enumerated the many reasons why he couldn't tell her, 'I think Phil's alive'. The number one reason was that the babies needed to be in the oven for another seven weeks for optimal baking time and to keep them out of NICU. Part of the game plan for keeping the kids cooking for the thirty six weeks was to keep Jemma calm and composed. This news, especially unsubstantiated, might very well push her into preterm labor.

His answer displeased her, so he added a truthful, "And honestly, I just couldn't help but think how much I wanted to reciprocate. I wish I could do more than massage your back and feet, and the occasional stolen kiss."

It was the truth, but not the complete truth.

"You'd tell me if something was wrong," she decided. "You would, so spill. What is the problem?"

The best lie always had a dollop of truth in it, Nick Fury had always insisted.

"I'm thinking about Phil. Not this way," he insisted. "But… how because of New York… How if it hadn't happen, this would be his life. I'd be alone and he'd have everything. Seems sad that a hero doesn't get the happy ending he deserves."

"Yes, it is sad," she murmured. "For both my heroes. However, if Phil was alive, you wouldn't be alone."

"I'd have the fur kids," Blake softly admitted.

"No, you'd have Phil and me. I'd force Phil to keep you prisoner until you agreed to stay."

"Is that legal?" asked Blake.

"Yes, because we'd be doing it for your own good. You'd never have to worry about being alone again, and I'd be content to sleep between you two so I could be adored." That decided, Jemma yawned. "Tell me a bedtime story. Make it a naughty one about what you'd do to me if you only could."

"I'd kiss you," he murmured.

"Seriously?"

Really, he was quite the kisser; he had been assured REPEATEDLY of that fact. No reason to sound disappointed.

"I'm … old… I need to start off slowly," he explained. "However, instead of making you listen to several hours of flirtations and foreplay, let's try fiction. Once upon a time, there was this brilliant, brave, beautiful biochemist."

"OWWWW!" He exclaimed in true pain when she poked him. "Apparently I have to remind you of the mandatory disclaimer. Characters involved in this fictitious story may or may not be based on people you may or may not know. Anyway this utterly bodacious babe… whose name is… Gemma with a G… decided she wished to have a night of fun. Good so far?"

"Lovely," she admitted even as her breathing deepened.

"She was smoking, as she has this cute little sweater and jeans outfit that she really wore quite well."

"Can't Gemma be sexy?" protested Jemma. "Sweaters aren't sexy."

"But she is, because she's the sweet sexy, not the slutty sexy, or the I'm know I'm hot sexy, but the sweet sexy," explained Felix. "So she is sexy, as her jeans hug her curves and the sweater hides enough to make men wonder."

"I hope I can wear those jeans in a few months," protested Jemma. "I hope she has a cute black leather jacket to pull the outfit all together."

"Her friend Rainbow…" which caused Jemma to giggle. "Rainbow created a rather complex computer algorithm and she decided that the best place for Gemma with a G to meet her perfect man is at …"

He paused, and Jemma with a J threatened to poke him again.

"At the dog park. She decided to buy herself a hot dog from a vendor and she strolled about the dog park, little realizing how tempting she and her hotdog were to the various dogs in the park. By that, I mean the four legged, not the two legged. To her horror, she was unexpectedly surrounded by a pack of ankle biters – a literal horde of Dachshunds that have escaped from their inexperienced dog walker and decided they want lunch. Our heroine, Gemma with a G, is quite worried. Not only about her safety, but that perhaps Rainbow has perhaps inverted the inverse in her algorithm and she is actually at the WORST place to meet the perfect man. At that very moment, he might very well be at the tea shoppe having a cuppa, and they would never ever meet."

"This is not a sexy bedtime story," snarked Jemma.

"Patience, grasshopper."

"I'll patience you," was her retort.

"Fortunately, a big goofy Staffie decided to intervene by bringing her brother and pet to the party. Through her scary, though utterly harmless, size, she scared the little ankle biters into retreating. That not enough, and she and her little brother wrapped their leashes around Gemma with a G and their pet. It's rather awkward as their pet had them on an extra-long two dog leash. Gemma found herself leaning on him, rather intimately, for a man that she's never met. "

"Is this name of the pet, Alix with an A?" Jemma prompted.

"You've heard this story before! Anyway, the hot dog was dropped during the scuffle and it was completely inedible. Being a gentleman, Alix offered to buy her a new hot dog. Our heroine says…"

"That's not the meat I'm interested in, I'm shagging you into your mattress in sheer gratitude," Jemma inserted.

"JEMMA! This isn't that type of story," he protested. "He offered to take her to the local pharmacy and buy her first aid ointment for any possible rope burns."

"Which they can't enter because he has his dogs. Instead, she takes him to her apartment, introduces him to her three small babies, and offers to have one with him in a few years."

Blake blinked.

"I think your sexiest look is when you're all befuddled," she admitted. "Makes you look human."

His mouth was moving but he wasn't able to …. Words... sentences… put together… coherently.

"I was thinking today that maybe in a few years, you and I could try for our own baby," she admitted. "Maybe, I'm being a bit too optimistic, as I may never want to have sex again after I evict the current occupants from my womb, but I think four children would be nice round number. Though I'd require medical intervention to confirm only one baby because like bloody hell am I doing multiples again."

He still wasn't able to make a coherent sentence and Jemma snuggled next to him. She fell asleep almost immediately while Felix Blake stared at the ceiling and cursed. The decision had been made, like there was any other decision? He'd send a message to 'PHIL' to meet at the dog park. He'd bring the dogs with him and… they'd know if it was Phil or not. No matter how realistic a LMD was and how many people were fooled – dogs always knew that the LMDs weren't the real deal.

Phil turned on his phone, certain that there wouldn't be any contact from Felix and to his surprise, he had a voice mail. Hesitantly, he dialed it and he heard a very familiar voice, "Dog park, six tonight." Felix had finally called, which meant Felix… FELIX…. FELIX WAS ALIVE…

Thank God, Felix was alive.

Though, which dog park?

"Kids need a run," Felix informed Jemma before he left their apartment to meet 'Phil'. "You take it easy, and you don't do anything stupid."

He wore his concealed weapon under his running jacket, just in case. Though, as his subconscious reminded him, if he was that concerned that it was a setup, he shouldn't leave Jemma. No, instead he should get the sonar and go the grave first, but… Felix Blake had no doubt that Phil Coulson's coffin was occupied. If not by Phil, then by an LMD that had gone terribly, terribly wrong. The LMD had been put in the freezer for a moment such as this when a corpse was needed, had been defrosted and stuffed into Phil's coffin. Meanwhile, his conscience was shaking its head and telling him that it was imperative to investigate.

"Promise," she assured him. "Just reading the latest in the Journal of BioChem."

"Call me if you need me," Felix requested.

For his justifiable concern, Jemma stuck her tongue at him. She was sitting on the couch, and she had her phone next to her. Her countenance was pale, paler than he liked. However, tomorrow, the weather promised to be fair, so he might be able to convince her to sit on the balcony for some Vitamin D therapy.

If there was a tomorrow with Jemma, his subconscious reminded him.

"None of your cheek," he growled.

"At least I'm converting you to proper English," she chirped which made him smile.

Phil Coulson had showered, had held a long inner debate on what he should wear and had decided that he shouldn't shave his beard. He wore a Yankees cap (Forgive him, Boston, it was imperative that he appear unlike Phil as possible) and he had put in his colored contacts that made his eyes a non-descript brown. And yes, he came armed.

He was missing chunks of his memory, but after hearing Felix's voice, hearing how flat it sounded, how detached… was it possible that Felix was part of the conspiracy? The memories of him on the table, begging for death floated to the forefront of his mind. No, no, Felix wouldn't have made him endure that crescendoing amount of agony, the pleading for death.

No, Felix would have pulled the trigger even while Phil thanked him.

He had enough time to walk to the park.

Hopefully, he had the right one.

The fur kids had picked up on his unease, as Sonya, normally placid and easygoing, literally bounded as they strode to the dog park. Nekko, customarily the pacesetter, had difficulties matching Sonya's long strides.

"Behave," he snapped at Sonya. "You're setting a bad example for your brethren."

The Staffie received the message, behaved for all of a minute before she started her ground eating pace once more.

She seemingly settled once they reached the dog park, as she was content to browse and sniff so she could send and receive her pee-mail. Nekko vainly struggled to match her output, but came up empty rather quickly. It didn't stop his noble efforts to match his big sister's pee mail outbox. The dogs held their Battle of the Bladder, Felix scanned the park for … Phil… and strange dogs when he noticed a particularly nefarious dog who had been banned earlier in the year. Didn't the Silky Terrier's owner realize that he had been banned for GOOD REASON?

Felix took a step to the left in order to confirm that it was the same dog when the fur kids decided to take a flying leap to the right. Idiots nearly dislocated his shoulder as they ran for all they were worth towards a bearded bum in a Yankees cap.

"No, no, no," Felix protested as the dogs began to leap about in literal paroxysms of doggie joy. "Sonya! Down! Down!"

The bum looked up at Felix and when their eyes met…. The bum's face showed evident relief.

"I know you," the bum… no… Phil Coulson stated. "I know you."

Going home, going home, I'm just going home.
Quiet-like, slip away- I'll be going home.
It's not far, just close by;

Going Home – Anton Dvorak-William Arms Fisher and Ken Bible