While Andrew treated Skye, Coulson took a team to investigate a break in at a federal mental facility. It wouldn't be a big deal, except SHIELD ran the basement, which housed criminally insane people on the gifted index.
May stayed behind with Skye, Andrew, and Ellis. When she got a phone call from Coulson saying Skye's father was the man who broke out a person on the index, she didn't hesitate. Andrew and Skye were in the middle of a session and she didn't want to disrupt, she didn't even find time to get anyone to watch Ellis. Everyone was busy, so she took him with her. Andrew and Skye wouldn't be leaving the plane, if anything happened, she could lock all three of them in the cage to keep them safe.
"Where we going, Mommy?" Ellis asked as he settled into the co-pilot seat.
"Just don't touch anything." She said as she buckled him in and handed him a book to look at.
She strapped herself in and began to take off. She knew Andrew would be coming to ask her what the hell was happening.
Only a minute after take off, he burst into the cock pit.
"I was going to tell you." She said before he could speak.
"After we had already taken off?" He demanded.
"You were in session, I didn't want to interrupt. Coulson needs backup." She offered up.
She got the plane in the air and on auto pilot before grabbing Ellis to take him to the lounge to watch a movie.
"Melinda, that not talking thing you do, not okay when we were married but defintely not okay now." Andrew followed her, annoying the crap out of her.
"Not okay is Skye's lunatic father leading Coulson into a trap!" May jabbed a finger at her ex. "You and Skye, stay in the cage."
"Yeah that's not gonna happen." Skye appeared.
"This is not a negotiation, Skye." May warned.
"Coulson needs backup." The girl argued.
"And he'll have it!" May argued back.
"Look, this involves my father and for better or worse, I matter to him."
"I'm with May," Andrew chimed in, "this is an emotional powder keg you shouldn't be anywhere near."
"I can control it." Skye said.
"You don't know that." May was beyond frustrated.
"I do, because those windows aren't shattered and this plane isn't falling into a million pieces." Skye gestured around herself.
"Having contact with your father is a bad idea." Andrew said firmly, "What if you can't control it?"
"Then I'll ice myself!" Skye raised her voice. "Look, you're putting me on the index. How about we let my dad know?"
May and Andrew shared a look, Skye had a point. She didn't have to get involved too much if they were there.
Once they landed, Andrew agreed to stay with Ellis unless he was absolutely needed. May could handle it and Skye would run straight back to the plane when told.
"Mommy, don't go." Ellis fussed.
"It'll be okay. Me and Skye are just going to get Coulson and Bobbi. Don't you want me to get them?" May said gently.
Ellis nodded and walked away, but not before May could grab him and kiss his chubby cheek, making him smile.
She got into mission mode and her and Skye left the plane.
When they arrived on the football field Cal was hosting his crazy circus on, they could hear him talking about Skye. May gave Skye a sympathetic look before grabbing her arm and aiming an icer at her neck.
"You talkjng about her?" May demanded.
"No no no, what did they do to you Daisy?" Cal asked.
"We put her on the index. Now we decide, contain her or put her down."
"May!" Coulson sounded astonished.
"No I can't lose you again!" Cal was visibly shaken.
"Talk to me not her!" May told him.
"You have no idea what they really are, they raised you, brainwashed you." Cal said sadly. "But you won't kill her."
He knew they wouldn't, he knew they cared for her too, he just didn't like it. But he would use it against them.
Before anyone knew what happened, Cal was gone. A man appeared in a flash of blue and took him.
"End this now!" One of Cal's minions yelled.
The fight ensued, the enhanced criminals against Coulson, May, and Bobbi. May shoved Skye in the direction of the plane and told her to run back to it.
But Skye didn't, she his out of sight to make sure they didn't need backup. The crew her dad had put together consisted of a genius, a man who could induce catatonia with his voice, a man with enhanced strength, and a woman with razors permenantly attached to her fingers.
May took on the man with strength and Bobbi went after the woman. The man with the enhanced voice was taken care of. Coulson ran for the evil genius.
Watching all of this unfold stirred Skye's emotions, this was because of her.
The ground began to shake, Coulson was the first to look up at her. May knocked out the mobster and realized Skye hadn't left like she asked.
"Dammit Skye!" She made a run for the girl.
But Skye managed to control it, she surpressed it and thought she had a handle on herself. That was until she looked down and saw the discoloration creeping up her arms and felt the pain.
The last thing she saw before she collapsed was Coulson and May running for her as fast as they could.
When she woke up, Jemma was sitting on the bed next to her. May and Andrew stood a few feet away and asked how she felt. Jemma explained that she had almost a hundred hairline fractures up and down her arms. She wasn't suppressing her powers, she was directing them inward. Once Andrew finished explaining to her, he made his way out. He was ready to go home.
"So you're reccomending Skye be removed from active duty?" May followed him out of the bus.
"I'm recommending she leave SHIELD altogether." Andrew said. "So that boy..."
"I've heard it all, Andrew." May huffed.
"He's taken to you well. Being a mother, it looks good on you." Andrew said genuinely.
May smiled back just a little. "So there's no way we can get you to stay? Skye needs you."
"You all can get along without me. Goodbye, Melinda." He climbed into a car that took him out of the base and to his home.
Back in Coulson's office, they stared at Skye's index file on the screen and she told him Andrew's reccomendation.
"But why take her out altogether? She can get a handle on it." Coulson insisted.
"I'm not sure she can. I'm her SO, and I'm telling you, I have no idea how to handle her. Skye doesn't know herself anymore." May said sadly.
"This isn't Bahrain. We know what we're dealing with." Coulson reminded her.
May sighed and walked out. She found Ellis sitting in the hallway playing with the dinosaur he had been bothering her about.
"Were you waiting for me?" May said to get his attention.
"Yes, Mommy." He answered with a smile. "I miss you."
"I miss you too, I'm sorry I've been busy." She picked him up and began to walk with him.
"Coulson need you." The little boy pointed out.
"No, he just wanted my help." May said more to herself.
"He love you like me." Ellis said.
May carried him to the lounge where she heard that Mack was back. Coulson was going to be taking Skye to a classified location so she asked Fitz to look after the boy for just a minute. Hunter still hadn't reported in, and Bobbi wasn't around. That left Mack to answer her questions.
"Mack!" She said as she walked up the cargo hold of the bus. "You want to tell me what's going on?"
She grilled him about Hunter, if he'd seen Bobbi. The more he talked, the more she knew he wasn't telling the truth. He was up to something, all three of them were. As soon as Coulson got back, she would be having a discussion with him.
But it would have to wait. Talbot called and reported that the nano mask someone used to impersonate him and Agent May was in play. Agent 33 broke Bakshi out of a secure military prison, with the help of none other than Grant Ward.
They both agreed to stay in contact and Coulson hung up.
"Do you ever feel like you mishandled something important?" He asked May.
This didn't have to do with Ward and 33's prison break, she knew that. He was struggling with his decision concerning Skye.
"You made the right call." She told him.
Coulson sighed.
"So do you believe Mack?" He asked her.
"Nope." May answered firmly.
"Me either. He's got something up his sleeve." Coulson concurred.
They agreed that they would find out one way or another what was going on. Before long, they had a plan in motion. May put Ellis safely in the cage on the bus with Fitz, our of harm's way in case this went badly. Skye was out of the equation, which was good. This couldn't go too horribly.
Coulson allowed Mack to peek under Lola's hood, using the man's excitement to take his guard down. May watched Coulson's office closely.
Just as she suspected, Bobbi had another agenda when she reported back in and said Hunter was nowhere to be found. May still wasn't sure if Hunter was a part of this or if they took him out of the picture.
Bobbi was in Coulson's office, using her baton to get into his desk and take Fury's tool box.
"I told Coulson there was no way, I hate being wrong." May growled and aimed a gun at the woman, making herself known.
"I can explain. It's not what it looks like." Bobbi held her hands up.
"You know," May stepped forward, "the last person who betrayed me, I broke his larynx."
Bobbi considered her options for a moment and crashed through a nearby window. Her and May began to fight over possession of the tool box.
"I didn't want this." Bobbi gasped before pushing something hidden in her shirt.
It was some sort of EMP, a means for her and Mack to escape, which they did. Two rogue spies were loose on the base.
May ran to the bus and brought Fitz and Ellis back into the center of the base.
"Stay with me, I want to keep an eye on you." She told the little boy.
"What happen?" He asked.
"Just a little problem. We'll handle it." She assured him.
"I'll get to work on the electrical." Fitz said before going to fix the base.
Not long after that, it was discovered that Mack and Bobbi disabled the quinjet and the bus, leaving them with very few options.
May took Ellis to the locker room to search both of their things. Something there would be a clue.
And she found it, a gas mask hidden behind the back of Bobbi's locker.
"They're not trying to get out." May realized.
Without hesitation, she seized Ellis and ran for an opening in the wall, where they would hide and wait out whatever gas was coming.
"Playing hide and seek?" Ellis asked with a giggle.
"Yes, Ellis. And you have to be quiet or they'll find us." May shushed him.
She watched as the dendrotoxin leaked in and knocked everyone out. So Bobbi and Mack didn't want them dead, at least not yet.
Someone blew a damn hole in the wall and invaded the base. It turned out to be agents who called themselves the real SHIELD. What they had against Coulson and the operation here, she had no idea. But she followed them in the shadows to find out.
She was horrified to hear they knew about Skye and where she was hiding. There was no way in hell they would get their hands on her.
She made a run for the bus, and climbed aboard swiftly and silently, contacting Skye.
"May!" The girl answered. "What's going on? I've been trying to call but no one answers."
"Skye you need to get out of there." May warned.
"What? What's happening?" Skye was confused.
"Listen to me. There's a panel on the southwest corner of the perimeter, get to it, disable the laser grid, and run." May hastily explained.
"May, what-?"
"You can do this Skye, I believe in you. But you need to run, they're coming for you."
"Who?"
"SHIELD!"
As soon as May said that, the line was cut. Her next move was to help Coulson escape. She slipped back into the wall and took Ellis by the hand to get close to his office.
She waited for the right moment, when Gonzales was alone with Coulson with only a few agents around. She emerged from the wall and took them all out. She hated doing it with Ellis watching, but it was only an icer.
"Nice entrance." Coulson commented.
"Mommy." Ellis pouted.
"It's okay." She touched his cheek before handing Coulson a brief case.
"This should get you by for a few days." Then she opened the wall to a hidden elevator. "There's no SHIELD without you."
Coulson tried to protest but she shoved him in, trying to get him out.
"They know about Skye, Phil. Find her." She said before closing the wall again, sending him down. The panic in her voice was evident.
As soon as the door was closed, Agent Weaver walked in. She noticed the small boy hiding behind May's leg and looked up at May.
"Agent May?" She simply said.
Due to her hostile actions, May was locked up. She was separated from Ellis, which neither of them were happy about. But May held it together. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction of her reaction, they would hold it over her head.
Besides, Jemma promised to look after him.
"That boy, he keeps crying for you. Want to elaborate on that?" Gonzales asked her from the other side of the invisible barrier.
"He has no family, Hydra killed his father, and is hunting him. We just keep him safe here." May made it sound like he was only here for the time being.
"He's more than just a guest." Gonzales pointed out. He was trying to push May's buttons. "He would be better if we turned him over to the system."
"What don't you understand about Hydra wanting him?" May placed her hands on her hips.
"Hydra was after Agent Skye too, and we kept her safe. I think it best we place him in a foster home."
"He stays, he's safe here." May was struggling to keep it under control.
"I'm not so sure, I'm making this call. He leaves tomorrow."
"You will NOT take my son from me!" May stepped dangerously close to the barrier.
"So he's your son." Gonzales confirmed.
"I'm all he has and if you send him away I will hunt you down and anyone who has anything to do with it." May threatened.
"I believe you. Now let's talk about Coulson. Help us find him and we can help your boy stay put."
He couldn't be serious, using Ellis as a bargaining chip to get May to betray Coulson.
"You're going to pay for this." May promised.
"I have no doubt, but we need to find Coulson. And Skye."
That really touched a nerve with May, Coulson was already in danger, but to threaten Ellis and Skye, he was making his way higher up her shit list, right under Grant Ward.
"You won't touch her."
"Agent May, do you remember Bahrain? You of all people should know what a powered person can do." Gonzales used her most traumatic experience as a last resort.
May kept her neutral pissed off look, not giving anything away.
"Bring me my son."