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.
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 :)
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: Coulson and May were kidnapped, and May had to get them both back to the bus so that Coulson could get emergency surgery for a bullet wound in his shoulder. May and Coulson are engaged but only Skye and Simmons know. Bobbi promised May a prank war when Bobbi lost the game of paintball.
Skye woke up, silently screaming in a pool of cold sweat. Another nightmare, she thought frustratedly as she leaned over to check her phone for the time. 4am. Great. Knowing that she would not get back to sleep, she got out of bed and headed down to the Kitchen to grab a glass of chocolate milk- It would pass some time and calm her down a little. After pouring her glass, she sat down on one of the stools, slowly sipping it in the dark.
May was still sitting in the chair next to Coulson's bed in the med-Bay but he had fallen asleep about an hour ago. She gently moved his hand, which still lay in her lap, before heading to the kitchen to get some tea.
The bus was still quiet, but the silence was disrupted by someone moving around in the kitchen. Probably Skye, she thought with a smile. When she reached the doorway, she confirmed that it was the younger agent, and she was sitting on a stool drinking chocolate milk. "What was with her and chocolate milk in the morning?" She thought fondly. Although only knowing her for a few weeks, the younger agent had wormed her way into May's heart.
Skye nearly fell off her stool, as one of the stools squeaked against the floor, to reveal May joining her in the kitchen. "I need to get used to that," muttered Skye, in reference to May's habit of sneaking up on her. May smiled slightly In response and began making herself a mug of tea. Skye was somewhat astonished that the agent appeared to hardly sleep at all yet had never been seen drinking coffee.
"Coffee is awful, Skye." May replied to Skye's unasked question. How could May even tell that she was thinking that? It was like she was telepathic. It would have been kind of scary, but May was generally quiet and kept to herself mostly, so nobody really minded.
"Now that I come to think of it, you appear to be the only person on this plane that doesn't survive off that vile stuff."
Skye grinned at that and continued to drink her glass of chocolate milk.
"How do you even get that stuff on board? It's not like its on any off the supply records and nobody even notices anything until the fridge suddenly fills up with cartons of it."
"I wouldn't dream of giving up my life-line, May. If I told you, you would have to report it to shield, which would tear down my lifeline of pop tarts, chocolate milk and Reese's. The only information that I can disclose, is that it has something to do with Fitz's fondness for twiglets," Skye stated mysteriously.
After May had finished her tea, she did some training with Skye and then, at the ridiculously early time of 5am, headed back to the kitchen where they had breakfast.
By 6 o'clock, most of the team were up and doing various tasks around the Bus. Coulson was still unable to move from the med bay without assistance, so they had all gathered in there instead of at their usual meeting point. May had called them there because they had a message from the hub, stating that they were to be off duty for the next few days, while Coulson recovered, and they had to take on a new team member because Coulson would not recover to optimum state for at least a month. May and Coulson had been uneasy about this last request because they had not cleared the new agent for their team. Yes, he was level 7, so not as High ranking as May or Coulson but that meant that he would outrank everyone except Bobbi, who was also level 7, as Hunter was level 6 and Fitzsimmons were level 5. May and Coulson had agreed that they would have liked to meet this agent before hand and get a read on him, but the orders came straight from Hill and Fury themselves, so could not really be challenged.
He was set to arrive in the afternoon, so suspense hung in the air like heavy fog as they tried to pass the time. They were all so bored, that they resorted to playing a team game of monopoly. At first May had been reluctant, but Coulson and Skye begged her, and she was really quite bored anyway, so that was how they ended up acting like kids and blaming each other for cheating, when 15 minutes from the end of the game, May placed a hotel on the most expensive square on the board.
Coulson was the first to land on this dreaded square, where he declared himself bankrupt and moved to lean against May, while giving her the 'how could you knock me out, but I still love you look'. It was a rather comical expression that looked remarkably similar a Childs pout, which would have had Melinda on the floor in fits of giggles, if there had not been other people present.
The game came to an abrupt end when Skye had spent all her money on a new property and then landed on May's square. No one was expecting it when Skye threw a mini temper-tantrum and swiped all the pieces off the board, claiming that May had cheated and stolen money from the bank (which was not true because Bobbi had been watching the bank the whole time).
"Who even put monopoly on the plane?" Bobbi asked. "I don't think I have lived through a single game of monopoly that hasn't ended with accusations of cheating and arguments."
"I'm not sure anyone has, Bobbi" Coulson replied, completely seriously.
"You're not wrong there," May agreed.
Having completely missed lunch due to their extensively long monopoly game (Everyone always underestimates the amount of time it takes to play monopoly), they decided that scrabble would be completely harmless and could not cause any arguments. They were just getting set up when a voice crackled through the comms. "Shield 616, prepare for boarding." Without realizing that May had even left the room when they heard her reply. "This is shield 616, ready for boarding."
The plain shook as a Quin jet landed on the roof of the Bus and before they new it, had departed again without even coming aboard. Just as they were beginning to question what had happened, a voice interrupted their thoughts.
"Agent Grant Ward, level 7," he introduced himself.
They were all silent for a moment while they tried to read him. Great, the average tall, muscular male specialist who acts like he owns the place were May's first thoughts before she started devising ways to get him kicked off the team.
Coulson, instead of inspecting agent Ward, was watching May's reaction, and tried to suppress a laugh as he saw these thoughts cross her face. To everyone else, she looked completely emotionless, but Coulson could read his fiancé like a book and could see the layers of complete distain for the man in front of them.
Skye was watching him with interest, hoping he would start a conversation and turn out to be a friendly companion, but she became doubtful after three whole minutes had past (she was counting) and he remained silent.
Breaking the ice between everyone, but particularly the two specialists who appeared to want to kill each other before they had even had a conversation, Coulson suggested that they go ahead and play the game of scrabble. Although this may have been perceived as a friendly gesture, he actually just wanted to test the new team members people skills and was being very wary around Grant Ward due to Melinda's reaction to him.
Coulson was very pleased when it got to Simmons's turn, and she had failed to produce a word. Skye was counting down from 60 until Simmons was eliminated and he would not be the first one out for once.
"Ta Da," she said.
They all looked at her oddly because they thought she was going to be eliminated, so she elaborated.
"Aglet," she said gesturing to the board.
"That isn't a word in our language." Ward stated.
"Our language! You mean the English language that is spoken in England."
"Aglet: a metal or plastic tube that covers the end of a shoelace." Skye read.
"She has you there ward. Its in the scrabble dictionary" Coulson said, tying not to laugh. Even May looked like she was attempting to cover up a grin at this exchange.
"She used her Brittishness against us!" Ward complained.
Phil felt Melinda's hand grip onto his tightly as she stood on the verge of giggles. Skye was already on the floor laughing and Fitzsimmons quickly joined her. The two older agents were trying to keep it together and Ward just looked slightly put out that 'aglet' was a word.
The game of scrabble had to Finnish before its completion because half the team started hysterically laughing whenever they looked at the board and saw 'aglet'.
The afternoon came to an end when May and Coulson decided to interview him privately in Coulson's office. Melinda helped him walk there because his shoulder was still quite painful to stand up with, but they got there relatively easily and then she left to get Ward.
Just as they were about to start May had to leave to set the Bus down- they had been given no destination so she flew somewhere that they could lie low for a few days. She told Coulson to start without her.
"ID?" asked Coulson. Ward handed it over. Grant Ward. Level 6. Specialist.
"Oh, that reminds me!" he said reaching into his pocket.
"Agent Phil Coulson." He said, reaching out to shake Ward's hand.
"Coulson is dead, sir."
"Welcome to level 7", said Coulson, handing Ward a new badge.
"Thank you, sir" he responded.
After a pause, he added "Is that who I think it is?"
"She's mostly just the pilot," he replied casually.
"Melinda May, the Cavalry, is just the pilot!" he exclaimed in shock.
"Don't call me that" she said firmly from behind him, he was surprised to hear a little sadness in her tone.
About an hour later, they had reached the last question of the interview.
"Grant Ward, what does SHIELD stand for."
"Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division" he rattled off like he had memorized it from a textbook. He probably had.
"And what does that mean to you?"
"That someone really wanted our initials to spell out shield," He replied jokingly.
May suppressed a laugh and Coulson gave her an exasperated look.
"Don't encourage him!"
"You can go agent Ward," May told him, trying to keep a straight face.
"Well, that went well," said Coulson sarcastically.
May just started laughing. The afternoon had definitely been the strangest one in a while and the new agent seemed to be unconsciously funny. It added to the humor that he did not do it deliberately.
"You ok Melinda?" he asked her when she hadn't stopped laughing for 4 minutes.
"Mmhmm," she responded, as she tried to stop laughing.
He lifted her off the floor but as he went to put her down in his chair, she wrapped her arms around his neck, so he sat down in the chair, with her on his lap.
"You shouldn't be carrying me with your shoulder like that you know" she mumbled into his jacket, before kissing him.
"I believe we promised them a prank war, Phil."
"Have anything in mind?"
"A few things."
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it and I'm sorry it was so late- I really lost motivation for this chapter :) I hope to have the next chapter up by Monday but please leave reviews- even just a smiley face as it will help motivate me to get the next chapter up soon.