I really appreciate that you are taking the time to read this, so I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. I'm sorry this is so late, my schedule is getting a bit busier, but I will still try and update weekly although future chapters might also be a bit late.
Please leave reviews, with either positives or feedback and I will answer any questions here. Any ideas for the next chapter or recommendations for other fics are also welcome :) Thank you if you have reviewed!
For the purposes of this fic, Coulson knows about his death and May is level 8(so there are no secrets between them). I will also not be completely following the show-I might skip episodes and characters.
Disclaimer -I do not own Agents of Shield but I love it very much and have watched it multiple times.
Recap: The team go to May's house in Alaska, and May goes ice skating, when she returns, she climbs back through the window, only to be knocked unconscious with a 'flash of blue light.'
Earlier on
Coulson headed up to their room, after seeing Melinda go up earlier but when he reached it, there was no sign of her, so he assumed that she was on one of the higher floors, that he had not visited yet. Sitting on the couch, he started flicking through channels on the TV. Thinking about the day, he realized it had been the strangest one in a while, and that included hunting down 084's in Peru, and having his plane hijacked. He had this feeling that Melinda had taken a large chunk of her life and cut everyone out of it. He realized that she knew almost everything about his past, but the most he knew about hers was that she had joined SHIELD at twelve after her parents were killed. Then she suddenly reveals that she owned five multimillion-dollar mansions on top of the small flat that he had thought she lived in, and it started to feel like he hardly knew her.
As he got up to go and find her, he heard noises outside his window. He managed to make out a person climbing over the balcony, and he grabbed his icer and shot them. When the person collapsed on the balcony floor, he realized his mistake.
"No. I'm so sorry Melinda," he whispered, as he realized who he'd just iced. Carefully picking her up, he put her on the bed and brushed her hair out of her face. Putting her bag next to the dresser, he sat back down and continued to flick through channels on the TV.
It was getting quite late when he heard her wake from her icer-induced sleep. Getting up from the couch, he turned round to find himself at gunpoint.
"What the hell Phil!"
"I'm sorry."
"You shot me!"
"Put the gun down, Mel."
"Who do you work for? Hydra? Centipede? US government?"
"Calm down Mel. I didn't mean to shoot you. I just thought you…"
"Quiet," she snapped at him. Harshly pulling him towards her, she cuffed him to the bed, before heading to get changed out of her Skating dress. Once more in the bedroom, she uncuffed him and pointed the gun to his head. "Move."
"Linda..."
"Please," she said, a hint of pain audible in her voice.
Walking down multiple sets of stairs, they came to an elevator, which they entered.
"This level is restricted, please give your access code or proceed to level negative five," the elevator said in a robotic voice.
"Melinda Q May, Access code Alpha 078634."
They then walked down a corridor, which Phil thought looked scarily like a SHIELD base, and turned into a small room. It contained two chairs, a normal one and a taller one, with handcuffs and wires attached to it. Strapping him into the chair, she sat down in front of a desk made up of two large screens and brought them to life by placing her finger on the scanner.
"What is your full name?"
"Melinda, this is ridiculous."
"Answer the question."
"Phillip. J. Coulson."
"Are you loyal to SHIELD?"
"Always."
"Why are you here?"
"We are taking a team vacation, and you asked me to come!"
"Why did you shoot me?"
Having finished their movie, the team were sitting on the couch, in a large lounge on the second floor that Hunter discovered, they were gradually heading upstairs, to bed. Although Natasha noticed the absence of her two friends, she figured that they were just in their room, so ignored their absence. Popcorn littered the floor, and the movie credits continued to play, due to fact that someone had lost the remote- probably down the side of the couch.
"I thought you were breaking into the house. I had already fired the gun when I realized it was you. Why were you climbing through the window?"
"Old habits. I'm sorry," she said, releasing him.
"What's with all this."
"After my parents…I couldn't let that happen again."
"Mel, what's going on," he asked, pulling her into his arms.
"I'm sorry, I owe you an explanation."
"Yes, but is this like a secret base in your basement."
"Not exactly, ill explain when we get upstairs."
"And why do you have non-SHIELD issue guns hidden in your room."
"Again, Ill explain when we get upstairs. If anyone hears this, it could be potentially dangerous."
"Is there something big you're not telling me."
"Yes, starting with the fact that Melinda May is not my full name."
"What?"
"Its my public name, the one everyone knows me by, in my family, we are generally given two names for safety reasons."
"Who is your family that makes a name so dangerous?"
After reaching a room on the fourth floor, they both sat down on a small sofa.
"It would probably be easiest to start with my parents' names. My mother was Lian May, deputy head of the CIA- which partially explains the basement."
"Partially?"
"My dad was…"
"Miss May! Have you forgotten everything?" Anna interrupted loudly.
"Anna, this is my house and my family!"
"Tell him the facts but leave names out of it. Names would not only put you in danger, but your brother as well!"
"Yes Anna."
"You have a brother."
"Yeah. I'm sorry, I."
"Its ok if you can't tell me Linda."
"But I want to. I hate keeping this secret!"
"Then tell me what you can," he said gently.
"1984, November Arizona. That was where we lived. Me, my parents, and my brother. My brother, who was 2 years older than me was staying at his friend's house. I was upstairs in my room when I heard shooting coming from downstairs. As my mother had trained me how to shoot incase of an emergency, I grabbed one of the guns hidden around the house and went downstairs, to find a man standing over my parents' bodies. I shot at him, but he got away, has never been found. I…"
"Melinda, stop. You don't need to do this to yourself all at once," he said as he watch steady tears waterfall down her face.
"I'm sorry lied to you. Our whole relationship is built on lies and I completely understand if you never want to see me again, Phil."
"If I don't know because of your safety, then I don't care how long I remain ignorant. I love you, Melinda and that will never change. I will never stop loving you."
"I love you so much," she responded, kissing him.
A few hours later, Melinda's internal alarm woke her, and she carefully slid out from under Phil's arm, trying, unsuccessfully not to wake him. After getting dressed, she headed back into the bedroom to grab her skates.
"What are you doing Mel," he said, sleepily.
"Skating with Tasha, you want to come?"
"Its 5 am you mad woman!"
"If you hadn't noticed, that's my usual wake-up time," she smiled, fondly.
"It's the holidays!"
"If you change your mind, take the path round the back, into the woods."
"Morning Tasha," she greeted as she reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Hi Mel."
"Ready to go?"
"Oh, hi Skye."
"Oh, sorry, I forgot to tell you that training was off today. Tasha and I are going skating if you want to come, or you can access the gym at level negative four."
"I'll come, If that's ok."
"Of course, there are spare skates in the boot room."
Quickly getting Skye a pair of white boots from the cupboard, they headed out to the lake, where they sat down in the snow and laced up their boots.
"I haven't really done that much ice-skating before- I've been once or twice but I'm not very good.
"No problem, Ill go through the basics and then just do what you're comfortable with."
While Skye was lacing up her boots, Melinda headed onto the ice.
"Are you two coming?"
"You know the first ten minutes is always spend watching you and feeling our self-esteem plummet as we realize that we are attempting to skate with a world champion."
"I'm not a world champion Tash!"
"The records say differently."
"What records?"
"Melinda May junior gold medalist 1984."
"That doesn't count."
"Why not?"
"I wasn't legally allowed to enter."
"So, you faked your age?"
"Only by three years!"
"And what stopped you from waiting?"
"If I'd waited, I would never have got to do it!"
"Are you going to skate or are you just going to stand there arguing with me?"
"Get on the ice, you two."
After both agents failed to budge, Melinda skated over a pulled Natasha onto the ice, gradually speeding up, and then suddenly letting go, sending Natasha out of the way and leaving Melinda space to complete an advanced jump.
"Mel, we talked about this."
"I also remember a deal. You come onto the ice, and I won't do that," she smirked.
After a bit of messing around, Melinda talked Skye through the basics, and she was able to skate round on her own fairly quickly, she then took her coat off, skated into the center of the lake and started to perform jumps. Skye and Natasha skated to the edge of the lake and sat down to watch.
"Does she know that you two are just watching her?"
"Not yet."
Putting on a pair of black skates, he skated out onto the ice.
"Linda."
"So, have you come to join us?"
"I didn't, but we can skate for fifteen and then we can talk."
"Can AC skate as well as May? Skye asked quietly.
"I don't think so, but Mel's taught him quite a lot."
"How did May get so good?"
"I don't know. The only things any of us actually now about her past is that she Joined SHIELD at the age of twelve when her parents died, and that she won the junior world figure skating championships when she was 11."
"Huh. So, she's just as much of a mystery to you?"
"So, what did you come out here to talk about?"
"Fury called, said we had to bring Clint, Nat and the team to Avengers Tower."
"Did he say why?"
"No."
"And he couldn't send anyone else?"
"He said it had to be us."
"So much for our Vacation," she said, taking both his hands and skating backwards, pulling him to the edge of the ice.
"We've been called out to avengers tower," she told Skye and Tasha, as she walked past.
Heading to their room, they packed their things, and knocked on everyone's doors, notifying them of the change in plans, before heading down to the bus.
When they reached the bus, they met Ward on the ramp, after training and showering.
"We have been called to Avenger's tower, meet back here in an hour," Coulson informed him.
"By the way, nice hair Ward," May deadpanned.
"Ward was completely confused by this comment, making her realize that he had no idea that his hair was bright pink."
"Was that you?" Phil asked laughing once Ward had left.
"I'm going to be completely honest with you, I forgot I did that."
"So, were visiting the Avengers with a pink-haired specialist?"
"It's permanent dye."
"Isn't that a bit harsh Mel?"
"He's annoying, and if you tell, ill do yours purple," she grinned.
"I wouldn't dream of it."
Thankyou for reading. Reviews mean so much to me, so please take a minute to type something in that comment box! And this chapter is actually on time :) Yay!