Chapter 30
AN: Thank you so much for the support. I really hope you like this chapter.
When Melinda opens her eyes a few hours later, she realizes that for the first time in years she is no longer filling the void she has become so familiar with, but rather she is feeling happiness, and love. Turning her head Melinda realizes that Phil is awake, and the two of them are in each other's arms, which means it's his emotions she is feeling.
"Morning," Phil says, smiling down at her.
"Morning," Melinda responds. "What time is it?" Melinda asks.
"Early, but you've still got a little while before you usually do Tai-Chi," Phil says, showing just how well he knows Melinda.
"Good to know," Melinda admits. "Guess we can lay her a little longer," Melinda admits, and as she does she feels a particular strong hint of emotion from Phil, which she can't help but react to.
"Are you okay? Something wrong?" Phil asks, and once more Melinda is hit by strong serge of emotion, and so she decides it's time to finally fill Phil in on her abilities.
"The Kree created Inhumans by altering human DNA, these alterations were passed down to decedents and can be activated through a process called Terrigenesis," Melinda informs Phil, and she feels his confusion. "Terrigenesis leads to the development of abilities and at times, metamorphosis," Melinda explains, and a few things fall into place for Phil. "I left DC four years ago because I accidently went through Terrigenesis and needed time to adjust," Melinda explains.
"You have abilities?" Phil asks, and Melinda nods. "Does Daisy?" Phil asks.
"No, she hasn't been through Terrigenesis, but if she were to go through the process in the future, she would develop abilities," Melinda explains.
"What can you do?" Phil asks curious, and Melinda can feel that while he is shocked, he also feeling that what Melinda is saying makes sense, and that he is glad to know.
"I can feel emotions," Melinda explains. "Right now, I can feel how happy you are, how shocked, how you think everything I'm saying makes sense, how glad to know you are, and how much you love me," Melinda admits, and Phil realizes that she got every single emotion he is feeling. "When I am not touching someone, unless they are feeling a particular strong emotion and I'm close, I have no emotions of my own," Melinda admits. "At least not in the most conventional sense. I feel a void, but I know what I should be feeling, what I would use to feel, like I know I love you, I just can't feel it in the same way," Melinda reveals, having an easy time admitting what she is feeling about Phil because she can feel his love for her.
"So, your reaction before, was because of how strong my emotions was?" Phil ask and Melinda nods. "Does it hurt?" Phil asks, as he really doesn't want to do that to Melinda.
"No, it can be overwhelming at times, and if I'm feeling someone's pain then that can hurt, but the reason I spent so long away was to learn how to get used to my abilities and the effects it has on me," Melinda admits. "I can handle them now, it's just difficult sometimes when someone is feeling a lot or if too many people are too close; it's part of the reason why I left the field," Melinda admits.
"Good to know," Phil says, as he tries to digest everything, and once he does he leans down and kisses Melinda. "Is that too much?" Phil asks, once they break apart.
"No, it's perfect," Melinda responds. "We should probably get up," Melinda realizes, and Phil glances over at the clock.
"Yeah, we should," Phil realizes, as he knows that they both have work to do.
"Good thing you have a spare suit here," Melinda comments. Due to the fact that Phil stays at Melinda's a lot he has spare clothes there.
"Yeah," Phil confirms as Melinda sits up.
"I'm gonna have a shower," Melinda says, before standing up. "Wanna join?" Melinda asks, looking back at Phil, before heading to her bathroom, and without hesitation Phil follows.
A while later Melinda and Phil have shared a shower, Melinda has gotten to do a little bit of Tai-Chi and Phil has made breakfast. Just as Phil finishes eating Daisy's bedroom door opens and she walks out full dressed.
"I thought I smelt real food," Daisy notes. "When did you get here Cols?" Daisy asks curious.
"Last night, I needed to talk to your Mom, ended up staying over," Phil explains.
"Cool," Daisy says, as she always likes it when Phil stays over as they have incredible breakfasts, and the three of them have an incredible breakfast together, Daisy not even realizing the change that has occurred between her parents.
January 26th 2012
Three weeks have passed since Melinda and Phil kissed, and because Phil has been away on SHIELD business the two of them haven't had a any more time together as Phil has been away from DC.
It's early evening and while Daisy is in her room doing her homework Melinda is in the living room reading files. As she reads a file there is a knock on the door and as she isn't expecting anyone Melinda gets up and heads to the door.
Opening the door Melinda sees Phil standing on the other side.
"Since when don't you use your key?" Melinda asks, knowing that if she could she would be surprised.
"I wasn't sure if that would be okay, considering what happened," Phil admits, actually looking nervous.
"Phil, you've been using, and had, your key since I brought this place, it's more than okay," Melinda says, as she gestures for Phil to come in, and as he does he places a gentle kiss on Melinda's cheek, allowing her to feel how glad Phil is to see her.
"Good to know," Phil admits, as they head over to the living room, and as they do Daisy's door opens.
"Cols," Daisy says happily as she hurries over and hugs him. "I've missed you," Daisy admits.
"Missed you too," Phil responds as he returns the hug.
"I would love to talk about everything you've been doing, but I've got an assignment to finish, bye," Daisy says, before hurrying back into her room.
"She okay?" Phil asks Melinda curious.
"She's nervous, but also excited, she's got her assignment handled," Melinda admits as she walks over to the couch.
"You can feel all that?" Phil asks curious, as he walks over to the couch.
"I can feel everything," Melinda admits, as Phil sits down.
"So, this process, Terrigeneisis, it gave you abilities, took away your emotions because of that, anything else?" Phil asks curious as even though he has had three weeks to digest everything he still has a lot of questions which is not surprising considering everything.
"My DNA's changed. I was raised to believe that going through Terrigenesis is like a thousand years of evolution taking place in an instant, but like you know I'm not a scientist, so it's probably more complicated than that," Melinda explains. "And I only lost my ability to feel because it is apart of my gift, part of my design," Melinda explains. "It's just like how Gordon lost his eyes when he went through the mist," Melinda explains, knowing it's safe to say Gordon without worrying about him teleporting as he will sense Phil.
"What can Gordon do?" Phil asks curious, having questions about 'the mist' but figuring they'll get answered eventually.
"Teleport," Melinda answers.
"That's cool," Phil says, and Melinda knows that if she could she would be amused by the look on Phil's face. "What about Kora?" Phil asks curious.
"Energy manipulation, she can focus it into blasts, use it to power entire buildings, and some other things," Melinda explains. "My mother doesn't age, not in the traditional sense, and can heal herself from a lot of types of injuries," Melinda explains, as that is logically Phil's next question.
"And she leads your people?" Phil asks, wondering if that makes May like royalty among the Inhumans.
"Yeah," Melinda confirms. "For a very long time,"
"And she banished you when you joined SHIELD?" Phil asks, wanting to understand.
"She doesn't trust SHIELD, she has her reasons for that, which actually include Hydra, it was her way of protecting our people," Melinda explains.
"That's not right, you're her daughter, she should have known you would never hurt your people," Phil reveals, focusing on that rather than the other things May says as he feels like May's mother should have known Melinda better.
"I have," Melinda reveals, and Phil is confused.
"May?" Phil asks concerned, as even void of emotion there seems to be something different about Melinda.
"Eva was an Inhuman, and…. And that little girl was too," Melinda reveals, and just because she can't feel the guilt about what happened in Bahrain doesn't mean Melinda wants to talk about it.
"It's okay, you don't have to talk about it," Phil says, reaching out and putting his hand on Melinda's leg as he wants her to feel what he is feeling, feel that she doesn't have to talk about this with him, feel his love and support.
"Thank you," Melinda says. "Did you make a decision about project Tahiti?" Melinda asks.
"I resigned, told Fury to shut it down, didn't mention anything about getting rid of the host," Phil explains.
"Thank you," Melinda once more says. "Phil, I can feel that there is something you want to ask, but are nervous about doing so," Melinda admits, as while she doesn't usually like using her abilities to do something like that Phil is feeling a particular strong emotions.
"Right," Phil says, moving his hand away. "Does your abilities mean you can beat any lie detector?" Phil asks curious.
"Yep," Melinda confirms.
"Handy," Phil admits. "I was wondering, what are we now?" Phil asks curious. "I mean I love you, and you love me, and we're actually not denying that anymore, so are we… together?" Phil asks curious.
"We better be," Melinda responds, and Phil grins.
"Good," Phil says, with a grin. "Which brings me to my next question, Daisy, are we going to tell her?" Phil asks curious.
"She's going to be over the moon," Melinda realizes, knowing that.
"That puts even more pressure on us," Phil admits. "I know you don't want to lie to her, and neither do I, but I'm just not sure if telling her right now is the best idea," Phil admits.
"Then how about we wait, give it a few months and see how it goes," Melinda suggests.
"That sounds like a good idea to me," Phil responds, and the two of them drift into silence as they sit together, both of them knowing that they want things between them to succeed so don't want the added pressure of dealing with Daisy's expectations.
February 14th 2012
Almost three weeks have passed since Melinda and Phil got together, and ever since Phil has spent basically every night at the May apartment. As Melinda and Phil have been making it seem like Phil has been sleeping on the couch Daisy is none the wiser about what is going on because Phil has always spent a lot of time at the May apartment.
As she has gotten rather used to waking up feeling Phil's emotions Melinda finds it rather strange to wake up feeling the familiar void. Knowing she would be wondering what is going on if she could Melinda gets up, gets changed into her work out gear, and walks into the living room.
Walking into the living room Melinda sees Phil in the kitchen, clearly making breakfast.
"You got up earlier than normal," Melinda notes as she walks towards the bench.
"I wanted to make something special," Phil admits, as he has purposely made Melinda's favorite breakfast.
"You didn't have to do that," Melinda informs Phil.
"It's Valentines' day," Phil says, like it should be obvious. "It's important to me," Phil says, reaching out and putting his hand on Melinda's arm so that she can feel how he feels about this. In the past three weeks Phil has taken to having Melinda feel what he is feeling when he wants her to understand something important, it has become a way for them to communicate on an either deeper level.
"I thought you might feel like that," Melinda admits. "Which is why I arranged for both of us to have the morning off; I thought after we dropped Daisy at school we could take Lola for a drive, have lunch somewhere," Melinda explains.
"I'd love that," Phil says, with a gentle smile. "I also got you a present," Phil says, as he picks up something and puts a small wrapped gift on the bench. "I know you don't like presents, but I wanted to get you this," Phil admits, and Melinda takes the gift and opens it, revealing silver heart necklace, with a daisy carved on the front and in the center of the daisy is a small blue sapphire, Turing it around Melinda says that 'always got your back' is carved on the back.
"It's beautiful," Melinda says, if she could feel she would be feeling beyond amazed and touched.
"You told me that Terrigen was blue, I thought it was fitting," Phil explains, not worrying about Melinda's reaction as he understands how Melinda's abilities work.
"It's perfect," Melinda says, and she takes it out the box. "Help me put it on?" Melinda asks.
"Of course," Phil says, and he does just that, and thanks to how long the chain is Melinda will be able to hide it underneath her shirt, or if she was still in the field, below her tactical suit. Once Melinda has the necklace on the two of them kiss, and after kissing Melinda begins Tai-Chi while Phil continues breakfast.
About forty minutes later Daisy has woken up and she is so glad about the incredible breakfast that she doesn't question why Phil has made such a spectacular breakfast on a weekday.
March 13th 2012
Four weeks have passed since Valentine's day and in that time, Phil has spent a lot of time with Melinda and Daisy but has also had a few missions. As Bobbi has just gotten back from a long mission, she, Melinda, Phil, Daisy, and Mack are having a family night together.
"Hunters going to be sad he missed this," Bobbi admits, as she looks around at her family.
"Where is he?" Daisy asks curious.
"I'm not exactly sure, he had work, said he couldn't get back," Bobbi explains, having gotten rather used to their being secrets between her and Hunter, though usually she is the one with the secrets.
"That's annoying," Daisy comments.
"He'll be glad to here that," Bobbi says, and Mack rolls his eyes.
"Food's ready," Phil says as he, and Melinda have been putting all the take out they ordered onto the table having gone with take out as Phil didn't have enough time to cook.
"Smells amazing," Mack comments as he, Daisy and Bobbi walk over to the table.
"Really does," Daisy confirms, as everyone sits down.
"It's nice to be home," Bobbi admits, as she looks around at her family.
"Here here," Phil says, and they all start to eat. As they eat Bobbi can't help but notice that something seems different between Melinda and Phil. She notices that looks seem to be lingering longer, and when they hand food to each other there are lingering touches, she also noticed the Melinda is wearing a necklace as she can see the chain but not the pendant, which is something Melinda has never worn before.
"It's about damn time," Bobbi mutters to herself.
"Did you say something Bobbi?" Melinda asks her daughter.
"No," Bobbi says, with a slight grin, but because she isn't right next to Bobbi Melinda can't feel her emotion, and the group all continue to eat.
April 10 2012
Four weeks have passed since Bobbi returned from her mission and realized that something is going on between Melinda and Phil, but because she respects them both she hasn't outright questioned them.
Even though it is a school night Daisy is sleeping over at Bobbi's as Bobbi suggested it, because she wanted to give Melinda and Phil a night alone, and she assured Melinda that Daisy would do her homework and get to school on time.
Not realizing that it was exactly Bobbi's intention Melinda and Phil are having a date night together in Melinda's apartment. Having already eaten dinner Melinda and Phil are cuddling on Melinda's couch, both well aware that no one at SHIELD would ever believe that The Cavalry would act like this.
"What was it like growing up surrounded by powered people?" Phil asks curious, as while Melinda has answered a lot of his questions he still has many more.
"I didn't know it was unusual," Melinda admits. "As long as I can remember I was taught the history of my people, our customs, once I was old enough why I had never left Afterlife, and how to fight. It's just the way my life was," Melinda admits.
"You must have been so shocked when you left," Phil realizes, not being able to imagine how seventeen-year-old Melinda handled the 'real' world after spending her entire life at Afterlife.
"Gordon took me to New York when I left, to say I was overwhelmed and shocked was an understatement," Melinda admits.
"Do you miss Afterlife?" Phil asks curious.
"Everyday," Melinda answers, without hesitation. "but I don't deserve to go back," Melinda reveals.
"May…" Phil starts to say, and Melinda can feel how much he doesn't agree with that.
"Phil, I may not be able to feel the guilt, but I know that I should feel it," Melinda explains. "I've spent my life doing what I could to protect my people, and I betrayed them, killed two of us. I deserve to never be with my people again," Melinda explains, and even after understanding how Melinda's abilities work Phil is still a little thrown about there being no emotion in Melinda's voice when she is talking about something that should be painful for her.
"What was Afterlife like?" Phil asks curious.
"Beautiful, surrounded by mountains, a field of Daisies. There was a gazebo that was probably my favorite place, arches, it's always been like a combination of ancient and modern," Melinda admits, and because he knows Melinda so well Phil knows that if she could feel it there would be fondness in Melinda's voice.
"Sounds incredible," Phil admits.
"It was," Melinda admits. "I want Daisy to one day see it for herself, learn about our heritage in the best place possible, meet her grandmother," Melinda informs Phil.
"You really want that?" Phil asks, feeling a little surprised by that.
"Yes," Melinda confirms. "Just because I can never go home doesn't mean I want Daisy to be kept from her heritage," Melinda explains, Phil kisses her head, and the two of them drift into silence as they continue to cuddle together on the couch. After Melinda's latest reveals Phil knows, if he could, he would take Melinda Afterlife as it's clearly something she desperately wants.