Hope you enjoyed the previous chapter :)
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.
4 months later Phil had persuaded Melinda not to quit the field. Melinda had recovered enough from Bahrain to leave her apartment. She was still distant from other people (except Coulson) but had started living a life that was relatively normal. A few years later she was dating Coulson and after his death, Fury assigned them a team to lead together.
Hands clasped together, Phil and Melinda stood in front of the Bus. They were both exited to have their own plane and Melinda could not wait to fly a plane of that size, as her experience was mainly flying Quinn jets. Despite this, Phil knew that she was nervous about being around other people as most of the missions she had been on since Bahrain were solo or with Phil. Melinda sat on the cargo ramp and Phil headed inside to put his bags inside. Slowly the other team members began to arrive. Phil only got more exited, but Melinda started to get nervous and more closed off. Phil grabbed her wrist as she unconsciously edged up the ramp. The anxiety slowly crept away, as Phil reminded her that they had already met the team at the interviews.
The first people to arrive were Fitz and Simmons, who arrived early because they did not trust anyone else with their lab equipment. They introduced themselves as Agents May and Coulson and then stood back, internally laughing as the two younger agents argued over the naming of something one of them referred to as the night-night gun. The next member was a girl called Bobbi morse, who May had seen training at the academy multiple times. The girl was very similar to her, which made May more relaxed around her. Then, late as always came Hunter. Neither May or Coulson particularly liked him, but he was skilled and was the condition on Bobbi coming.
They all seemed friendly during introductions but May disappeared to the cockpit shortly after she heard Fitzsimmons telling Hunter about "The Cavalry." She hated that nickname. It reminded her of Bahrain. A mission she had spent so many years trying to forget. Completely silently, Phil slipped into the seat next to her. She quickly covered up her anxiety over the situation and lied, saying she was fine. Despite hating undercover work, May was good at it, and therefore good at lying. Phil reached for her hand, but she flinched away, making him aware that she was uncomfortable with the "team" situation. He knew that she would get used to it and it would take a while for her to adjust to it, but she still worried him, and he still blamed himself for sending her in at Bahrain.
An hour later, Coulson gathered the team in front of the holo-table because Fury had sent them a mission to investigate a super soldier. They were about to leave the bus when a broadcast came in from a hacker who had got into the shield system. Instead of their previous mission they had to find and track down the hacker before they exposed any highly classified files. Fitzsimmons were able to track the hacktivist and May and Coulson went after her. She was in a van parked in an alleyway. After taking her in and interrogating her they found out that the super soldier was created using a drug called centipede serum. Since the hacker knew so much about the cases they were working on, they invited her to stay on the team and be trained as a shield agent. She accepted the offer, and now May was her S.O. During the interrogation they also found out that she came to shield to find her parents. She said that all her research led to one document. Redacted. Later, when they discussed it, Phil and Melinda agreed that they would help her.
After taking in Skye, they discovered that the exploding building was a secret lab and had exploded because the super-soldiers were unstable. Fitzsimmons were set to work creating a cure for these volatile super soldiers, while May and Bobbi tracked down Mike Peterson- the super soldier. After ending the chase at a train station. Coulson arrived and was talking him down when hunter came in and shot him. They all stood there in shock and stared up at Hunter before Fitzsimmons arrived and asked.
"Did it work?"
And they let out a sigh of relief that Hunter had shot him with an antidote, not a bullet. Hunter stood there looking offended that the team thought he would shoot an innocent. After taking Peterson to a shield facility, they returned to the Bus. Skye was annoyed when they gave her a bracelet that tracked her electronics usage and shut down any electronics that she used but she stayed and talked with Hunter and Bobbi, who were recently married. Fitzsimmons hung out in the lab, and Coulson joined May in the cockpit, where they sat mostly in silence.
May sat in the Bus kitchen sipping a large mug of green tea at 3 in the morning, when she heard the door open and Skye opening the fridge and retrieving chocolate milk. When may moved, Skye jumped and spilled chocolate milk on the carpet. As the milk soaked into the carpet, she flinched backwards and knocked her glass off the counter, which May caught. Skye, who had turned her head away when she knocked into the table, turned around confused as to why she did not hear the glass smashing against the floor. She was even more confused when May handed her the full glass of chocolate milk. May just gave her an exasperated expression as Skye continued to stare, and pulled out a stool for the younger agent, who took it, and stared at the wall in silence. May was about to ask why Skye had flinched when she finally put the pieces together. Skye had spent her whole life in the orphanage or at foster homes and displayed the same symptoms she had seen in a girl who she had worked with several years ago. Knowing that Skye would probably not want to discuss her abuse. May knew more than most, the feeling of desperation, when all you wanted was to forget something forever and everyone brought it up as soon as they met you. Skye was looking at her oddly, why hadn't May asked? It was obvious that she had notice. May, noticing her continued confusion explained:
"if you don't call me the Cavalry, I won't ask."
Sky realized, After this statement that there was more to May than she had first thought. She was not just icy and silent. She was hiding something. Masking some sort of pain. Something relating to that nickname they all gave her, "the cavalry" and a mission in a Bahrain -she had heard Coulson mention that over the phone. She was overwhelmingly curious, but May had left her pain untouched, so how could she be so insensitive as to dig into May's past. The guilt flooded through her veins because she knew that her curiosity would not give up. She wished that it would calm down, disappear but in reality, Skye would go digging, dig herself in too far and then get booted from shield, loose all hope of becoming an agent, loose her second chance. She did not want that, but she also knew that she could not help it. She resolved to finding out from Fitzsimmons, who might know something from academy rumors, and would be far to scared to even dream of telling May, whether they had information to impart or not.
She was awoken from her thoughts by May, who slid of her stool and disappeared down towards the cargo Bay. Was she mad! Workouts at 4 in the morning? After sipping the final drops of chocolate milk out of her glass, she set about cleaning the remains out of the carpet. She was confused. Why hadn't May shouted? And how had she caught the glass? Skye's vision became blurred, but she continued clean the chocolate milk out of the carpet. Her eyes we slowly closing but she had to Finnish before the rest of the team were up.
Skye awoke panicked, where was she. Her muscles ached and she smelt chocolate. Yuk. Off chocolate milk. That is when she remembered. Quickly, despite her screaming muscles, she started again with the cleaning of the rug. How could she fall asleep? She had to Finnish this quickly. She was so concentrated on scrubbing the rug that she had not noticed May's return to the stool.
"is the rug more comfortable than your bed?" her S.O. teased.
Skye turned red as she looked up towards the table. It annoyed Skye that the other agent had also been up since 3 and you could not even tell. She wore her normal completely non-emotional expression and did not team even a tiny bit tired. Skye was about to return to cleaning the rug, when May stopped her.
"Go back to bed Skye, you look like you haven't slept in days."
"I'm fin…." May cut her off.
"No, you're not, go back to bed. Now"
Skye, eventually giving up, went back to bed. As Skye was leaving the room, she bumped into Coulson. "sorry AC." she mumbled as she left the room.
"where did you send her?"
"Bed, she looked like she needed it."
Coulson pulled out a stool for himself next to May.
"Any missions com through yet?" May asked.
"Looks like we have a day off" replied Coulson.
"Where should I land the plane?"
"I think that requires a team vote."
About an hour later, all the agents were gathered Infront of the Holo-table. They had all assumed that they had been called to be briefed for a mission, so they were very surprised when they found out they had been called to discuss a location for their day off.
"Anyone have any ideas?" Coulson asked.
"Where are we at the moment?" Hunter said.
"just above California," stated May.
Fitzsimmons and Hunter voted to go all the way to Britain, but Bobbi voted to set down in California because she wanted to stock up on a drink that she called "Cactus cooler," May voted California as well because she did not want to spend her free day flying the Bus across the pacific and Skye, for no apparent reason, wanted to go to Hawaii. Coulson, as the deciding vote between Britain and California, voted California because he wanted to have the whole day off the Bus. After this was decided, May headed to the cockpit to set down the plane and the others went to collect some things to take with them on their day off.
After collecting their things, Coulson joined May in the cockpit and the rest of the team crowded the cargo bay, waiting to get off as soon as they set down. After she set down the plane, May, who met Coulson at the door, headed down to the ramp as well and opened it. They Bus was parked on a quiet beach, which was surrounded by water, and therefore invisible to anyone looking over the cliff, but this parking space did compose a slight problem. How would they get off the beach? Skye, much to the amusement of the other agents, started swimming round, fully dressed, Hunter decided to try and climb up the cliff face with Bobbi close behind him and Fitzsimmons went to the lab to try and find a tech solution. While this was going on, May who looked like she was about to collapse with laughter, led Coulson towards a concealed path, which lead directly up to their destination. Everyone, except Fitzsimmons, who were still in the lab, had met at the top. May and Coulson arrived first, then a dripping Skye, closely followed by hunter who had an enormous scratch across his sunglasses and Bobbi, complaining that she had dropped her bag. They agreed that someone was going to have to go back for Fitzsimmons, and Skye was about to swim back round when she stopped.
"How come you two are completely dry and uninjured," she questioned May and Coulson.
Coulson grinned and pulled back the large leaf that was concealing the path. Skye scowled.
"I swam all the way round, and there was a path. A path." Ranted Skye. "Why did no-one tell me?"
"You were so eager to go swimming..." Coulson joked.
Skye continued to scowl at them. Before darting quickly around Coulson and pushing him into the water. May could not help but laugh at that. He emerged from the clear ocean looking annoyed. This expression made May find it even more humorous.
"Your next," she called to May as she darted towards her S.O's legs. In one smooth motion, May picked up Skye and gently threw her into the water. She appeared even more wet than before and spluttering from a mouthful of seawater. Feeling like they were missing out. May pushed the completely unaware Bobbi and Hunter into the water, before neatly diving in herself. The water was not exactly cold, just a surprise for Bobbi and Hunter, who did not even realize that everyone else had already been pushed in. At this point, Fitz and Simmons had appeared, using one of the Bus's emergency rafts and a paddle that they had found somewhere. Completely mercilessly, the other 5 agents pulled the raft over, soaking Fitzsimmons as well.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) Please leave a review about which bits you liked and which bits you did not like. I also welcome any ideas for what you would like to see in this story. This story will be updated approximately once a week now with approximately 1000-2000 words, please let me know if you would prefer longer chapters less frequently or shorter chapters more often. Thank you for reading and please follow.