March 2009

Phil's heart beat a rapid staccato. He had a reputation for being one of the coolest heads SHIELD had. He'd withstood interrogations and hardly blinked at oncoming assaults. In the face of aggressive arrogance, he was a mildly raised eyebrow.

But here he was, sitting in his car in the driveway of the home he'd essentially moved into, fretting. He exhaled bracingly, having decided that he was a SHIELD agent, dammit, and not some kid asking a girl out for the first time. And so, he got out of the car and strode purposefully up the porch steps and through the front door.

Dropping his keys on the table, he called out, "I'm home!"

"In the kitchen!" Laura called back.

Phil followed the aroma down the hall, past the formal living room where the Laura kept her cello (and still practiced on occasion, which he greatly enjoyed), and into the kitchen. He spied several pots on the stove, and Laura was elbows deep in a bowl of ground beef.

"Oh! Spaghetti?" he asked as he put a hand on the small of her back and kissed her in greeting.

She leaned into the embrace. "Mhmm! And I had time to make homemade sauce today!"

"It smells delicious!" He rolled up his sleeves and started to help pack the beef and spices mixture into bite-sized meatballs. By the time they scraped the bottom of the bowl and put the tray into the oven to bake, Phil had worked up the nerve to bring up the topic he wanted to talk about.

"Can we talk?"

Laura rinsed her hands in the sink. "Sure. What's going on?"

He led her into the den and when they were settled on the couch, he took her hand in his. Absentmindedly brushing circles onto her palm with his thumb, he figured out what he wanted to say.

Phil took a breath. "I really like where we are…together. We've had really great times… and we've had some rough times." He briefly flashed back to their brief separation. "But over the years we've been able to pull through together."

He watched as she smiled softly. "And I don't know where we're going to be years from now, but I plan to stick around."

She squeezed his hand. "Me too."

He smiled back. "I wanted to check with you before I changed anything."

"Changed?" she asked.

Here goes. "I wanted to amend my personnel records and name you my next of kin."

Laura froze and Phil watched as emotions flitted across her face. He imagined that she was going over all the implications and possible scenarios where she would be needed in that capacity.

Then she smiled shakingly. "Yeah, yes! I'm… I'm in a much better head space than… you know when."

He nodded, comprehending.

She continued. "And I'm really happy that you're asking and telling me this now, rather than having me find out when you're," she shook her head, "wounded on assignment or something. Y'know, if you asked me 5 years ago if I thought I had more maturing to do, I would have laughed at you. But after that…" Phil noticed she wouldn't talk about what happened. "I matured a lot. I can do what you need me to do for that now."

Phil didn't say anything in response. Instead, he pulled her close and kissed her slowly and deeply. She leaned in closer, wrapping her arms around his neck, and he shifted his weight to press her into the couch. One of his hands slipped underneath her silk blouse and ghosted over her stomach. He drifted upward and stroked the front of her bra. She started making very enthusiastic sounds and his movements got bolder.

The timer on the stove went off.

Laura pulled away with a frustrated groan and he rested his forehead against hers. "To be continued?"

He leaned in to kiss her again.

"Phil!" She swatted him and pushed him off her good-naturedly. "You keep doing that and dinner will be ruined!"

He conceded. "Fine."

She smiled and walked into the kitchen with an extra sway in her hips.

Phil groaned.