Prompt - Don't leave me.

Skye was in near panic state when the quinjet finally touched down. Bobbi was flying the jet, since May was currently laying on the floor bleeding from two bullet wounds, one in her shoulder and the other in her upper arm. The bullet to the upper arm had gone straight through and out the other side but the shoulder had a bullet imbedded somewhere in one of May's muscles. At least that's what Bobbi had said when she had accessed May before getting the jet off the ground. Hunter was also injured laying across the seats with a haphazard bandage on his right leg. He was sipping from a bottle of whiskey to try and dull the pain. Skye was kneeling next to May holding a towel tightly to the wounds to try to stench the flow of blood. May had been conscious at first, as Bobbi carried her to the quinjet, but her eyes had quickly become unfocused and she had passed out even before Bobbi had set her on the floor of the jet. Skye had helped a limping Hunter get to the quinjet. They were only about fifty minutes away from base, this mission had been in Atlanta. They had gone in on a routine intel operation, but it had quickly gone South and as Hunter said over and over, they were lucky to be alive.

Skye kept up the pressure against May's wounds. Bobbi soon rejoined her, having set the jet on auto pilot and set the coordinates back to base. Bobbi grabbed two more towels from supplies and knelt on May's other side.

"Skye those are blood soaked. We need to apply new ones. On two pull them away and I'll put these on. One, Two."

Skye did as Bobbi instructed and pulled the blood-soaked towels away. She stared at them and started shaking. "It's too much blood. She's losing too much blood Bobbi."

Bobbi, putting pressure on May's wounds, immediately noted the young agent's near hysteria. She had to not let her go there. Somehow. "Hey Skye. It's May. She's as tough as anyone. Can you go wet a cloth with a water bottle and wipe her face please."

Skye nodded. "I'm on it."

Bobbi watched as Skye did what she said and very carefully applied the washcloth to May's face wiping gently.

"Hunter, how you doing?"

"Bullet's still in there, love. But it's not bad. Fish out the bullet and I'll be fit as a fiddle. I don't feel too much pain anymore."

Bobbi noted the whiskey bottle in his hand. "You probably had enough of that then. The bullet couldn't have hit anything major then. Is there any way you can get over here and help me?"

Hunter saluted her and slide to the floor and crawled over to them.

"Skye grab that towel and give it to Hunter. Rip that for me Hunter."

He did as she asked.

"Skye hold this towel here in place. I'm gonna use that new towel to wrap tightly around May's arm. When I say go make the towel and lift her arm for me, okay?"

Skye nodded. Bobbi wrapped the towel around May's arm as tight as she could. She motioned for Hunter to hold the towel over May's shoulder. "Press down as tight as you can. Skye press again here on the arm. I'm gonna get back to the cockpit. Need to land this thing in a few minutes."

Bobbi went back to the cockpit and radioed the Playground asking for two med teams to be at the ready when they landed. She glanced back at the women laying there and whispered quietly to no one. 'Come on May, hang in there.'.

Ten minutes later they landed, the ramp door opened, and Jemma rushed in with two gurneys and a two med teams. She quickly assessed the situation and barked out orders. Skye kept holding the towel to May's shoulder as two techs lifted May onto a gurney. One of the techs tried to pull Skye away and Skye glared at him as she said no. Loudly. The two patients were wheeled down the ramp and out of the hanger into Med Bay. Jemma lead the way for May into one of the rooms and Skye went in with them. She finally backed away from the gurney as they lifted May onto a examination bed. But she stayed in the room. Jemma did a quick exam and called for an immediate blood transfusion. Jemma finally noticed Skye in the room and walked to her.

"Skye you don't want to see this. I have to get the bullet out of her shoulder and might need to operate on her arm. Besides, you need to get cleaned up and someone needs to check you over. Come on." She gently led her friend to the door.

"Jem. I'm okay. The blood on me, it's May's. She stepped in front of me and got shot. Pushed me out of the way. I should have been the one to get shot, not her."

"Well we all know she wasn't gonna let that happen. It's not your fault. It's what she does."

Skye turned to her friend. "Jem she's gonna ne okay right? Please tell me she's gonna be okay?"

"I'll do my best. We all will. But you need to let us do our job, okay. I'll come get you when she's in recovery. Go. Clean up. Grab a drink."

Skye nodded as she moved out of the room and the door closed behind her. She stood for a minute just staring at the door, lost. Strong hands encircled her and brought her in for a hug. She clung to Fitz and sobbed.

Fitz was sitting on her bed when Skye came back from her shower. She had changed into a pair of sweatpants and an oversized T shirt and fuzzy socks. She walked over and sat on the bed next to him. He offered her a water which she took and started sipping.

"No word yet?"

"Not yet. Come on, we can go wait down there." He got up and offered his hand. She let him pull her up and they walked back to Med Bay.

A little over an hour later Jemma found them. She then led them both to May's room.

"It's a good thing we give blood for ourselves when it's slow around here. May had plenty on reserve and there is nothing better for recovery from blood loss than one's own blood. We got the bullet out of her shoulder and I sewed up a few smaller arteries on her arm which is why she lost so much blood. Good news that the bullet passed through her arm and didn't do a lot of damage to her brachialis muscle. It should heal and with a bit of therapy she should regain most, if not all of her elbow function back. The bullet in her shoulder was embedded in her teres minor muscle and didn't break the scapula but did bruise it pretty good. She was really lucky. She will be in bit of pain though for a few days. I have her on morphine, so she won't wake up for a while. When she does, she will probably be pretty out of it, and will drift in and out of consciousness. I'll lower the dosage probably tomorrow."

Skye nodded as she made her way to the chair by May's bed. "I'm gonna stay here."

Jemma nodded. "Yes, I figured you would."

"Hey Skye, I'll check in to see if you need anything in a few hours. Maybe try to get a little sleep, yeah?"

Skye nodded at him and gave him a weak smile. She took a small sip of the water bottle she had brought with, and then turned here attention to focus on the sleeping woman in the bed. Fitz and Jemma left the room.

Skye dozed on and off for the next couple of hours. Finally pulling her legs under her making a pillow out of the extra blanket at the foot of May's bed, she curled into a ball and fell asleep. She awoke with a start, thinking she had heard someone calling her name. Someone had thrown a blanket over her, most likely Jemma. She turned her head to look over at May and saw two dark eyes staring back at her. Skye blinked a few times, watching her S.O.'s face which broke into a smile. A big smile. Skye's eyes widened.

"Hi." May's voice was light and cheerful. "I called your name a couple times. You looked so peaceful though and were deep in sleep. So I just watched your face for a while."

Skye gulped. Yeah that wasn't creepy or anything. In fact, May was still smiling at her and looked – younger. Maybe softer too. Skye gave her a smile back.

May looked around the room a little and then her eyes focused back on Skye. "Am I sick?"

Skye nodded. "You were shot. Don't you remember?"

May looked pensive for a bit and then spoke again. "Nope. Who shot me?"

"Hydra bastards. It was an ambush. Bad intel. We barely all made it out. Bobbi carried you and I helped Hunter. He was shot too."

May looked at Skye a bit confused. As though it was too much information at once. "Were you shot?"

"No May. You pushed me out of the way. That's why you were shot."

"Oh. I saved you?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry, May."

The words puzzled May as she raised her eyebrows at Skye. "Huh?"

"It's my fault you got shot. If I was only quicker and..."

"Skye?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you call me May?"

"Huh? It's your name." Skye looked at confused.

"My name's Melinda."

"Yeah but everyone calls you May. Even Coulson."

"Sometimes he calls me Melinda and I call him Phil."

"Okay."

"You can call me Melinda."

"Um – okay?"

"Yeah okay. I like you Skye. You're a sweet kid."

Skye's jaw dropped. Oh, oh wait. She was on meds. Morphine. Ah no wonder. Skye decided to play along figuring May would not remember. "I like you too- Melinda."

May gave her a huge smile and patted the bed with her good arm. When Skye didn't respond. She whined. "Come on. Come here and sit by me."

Skye gave her pensive glance and got up and tentatively sat on the edge of the hospital bed. May grabbed her hand. "Is Phil here?"

"Skye shook her head. "No he's out recruiting. He's due back in a couple of days,"

"Didja tell him I was shot?"

"Pretty sure Bobbi did."

"I like Bobbi too."

Skye grinned. May was super nice and smiley on morphine. It was cute.

"I like Fitz and Jemma too."

Skye nodded.

"Hunter's a goober."

Skye laughed. "Sometimes yeah."

May nodded. "You are a good student Skye. A good agent."

"I like this May. She's very complimentary."

"Melinda. Call me Melinda."

"Okay Melinda."

"I'm tired."

"Yeah you should sleep." Skye went to get of the bed and Melinda grabbed her hand and held tightly.

"You are special Skye. If I had a kid, I'd want her to be just like you."

Well shit. Skye didn't know what to say. She adored this woman. She respected the hell out of her, and frankly May was the only older woman who had ever treated her as important. As worthy of her time. She'd always though of her as the mother figure she never had. But May was on morphine and Skye needed to shut this conversation down.

"You need to sleep May-Me- Melinda. So you can get better, Let your body heal. I'll be right here in that chair if you need anything."

"I need you to stay. Stay here with me."

"Um Melinda I really should ..."

"Don't leave me."

Well if that didn't cut into her soul. Skye looked at Melinda's imploring face and her resolve melted away. "Okay. I'm not going anywhere."

Melinda smiled and pulled Skye down closer. "Stay here and sleep Skye. You need rest too."

Skye nodded and laid down next to Melinda as Melinda pulled her in closer. "I like cuddles with those I love."

Skye swallowed. This was going to be awkward as hell in the morning when May's high morphine levels lowered, but for now – this was – well she could at least pretend – this was her family. She'd probably end up doing a couple hundred pushups down the road and a threat of silence. But it'll be so worth it. "I love you too Melinda."

She was rewarded with a tightening of May's hand around her bicep.

Phil had gotten word that Melinda had been shot. He flew back to base getting there at around four in the morning. He went right to Med Bay and entered Melinda's room. The scene in front of him stopped him short as a huge smile grew over his face. He got out his phone and took a bunch of pics. He'd tease the crap out of his girlfriend for being such a cuddle softie later. He wanted the evidence. Yeah, she was probably on morphine., but he knew that all that did was take away inhibitions and allow you to relax. It just exaggerated who you really are. And underneath that exterior Melinda fought so hard to show her as a hardened no nonsense agent, was a caring, fuzzy and soft mama bear.