Anna wakes some time later. The little clock on the nightstand tells her it's just after five, but she doesn't know if that means in the morning or evening. Not that it would matter, since she doesn't know what time zone she's in, either.
Her good hand reaches out across the mattress only to find it empty. "Over here," Phil calls out. She rolls over to find him sitting at a table and reading something on a tablet. He's in a black S.H.I.E.L.D. t-shirt, boxers, and glasses, and stubble is obvious on his face. If Anna is honest, this is her favorite outfit of his because it means he's hers for the moment. He stands and walks over the bed, sitting on the edge of the mattress.
"How long was I asleep?" Anna asks.
"Ten hours," Phil says. "Do you remember waking up?"
It takes a second, but then she recalls him showing her the test result on his phone. Her left hand moves for one of his. "You okay with that?"
"Yeah," he answers quietly with a small nod. "I told you I'd be fine no matter what happens."
"Saying that and feeling that are two very different things, Phil."
He hangs his head at that. "It would've been nice," he admits, "but I don't think either of us is in a place to be as good of a parent as we'd want to be." They sit quietly for a moment before he sets his jaw into his iI've just made a decision/i face, stands, and pulls on a pair of sweatpants. "I know we need to talk about things, but there's something you need to see before that can happen."
Anna's stomach starts to twist at the invitation, but she can see the line of tension in his shoulders and gets out of the bed anyway. What she really wants right now is a hot shower and some toothpaste. She doesn't want to think about how long she's been in the same clothes. But Phil's willing to walk around the base in his pajamas, so it means something serious is happening and she'll just have to wait to get cleaned up.
Silently, he guides her to a room that's far off from where most of the activity in the base seems to be happening. The single light in the empty space shines on the far wall, and it takes Anna's eyes a second to adjust before she realizes what she's looking at. The large wall is covered in a series of lines and shapes. She supposes there's a pattern to the giant etching, but she can't make sense of it. "What is this?"
"What I do when I can't sleep." Phil answers.
"What does it mean?"
He shrugs, his lips rolling into a tight line. "I don't know. I've just had a couple of nights where I'm overcome with the need to do this, even though I don't know what 'it' is. But my hand knows how to move. It's like there's something in me that I just need to get out, but I don't have a clue what it is."
Anna tries to be okay with that answer. There have been plenty of times in the middle of the night where a melody was so persistent in her head that she had to climb out from under the covers to play it. She tries to liken that to the wall she's standing in front of, but it's a challenge. "Does this have something to do with how they brought you back?"
Phil nods. "I think so. Garrett was given something similar to the drug that saved me and Skye, and he marked up a door in lines and circles that look like this."
"Have you showed this to Skye?"
"No," Phil says, his voice quivering ever so slightly. "You're the first."
Anna chews on that information for a moment while taking in how he's shuffling his weight back and forth on his feet ever so slightly. "Okay, here's what's going to happen. You're going to tell Melinda or Skye what's happening, preferably both. You're going to let Jemma scan your brain for signs of… I don't even know, but you let her do it."
"Okay," Phil agrees with a nod, his eyes staring at anything but her.
He looks lost. So much so that it breaks her heart. It's her turn to gather him up in her arms and whisper reassurances. "It's going to be okay."
"I feel like I'm losing my mind," he confesses into her hair, and she just squeezes him tighter.
"Then I'll welcome you into the club of crazy people. We can have matching jackets and a secret handshake."
He huffs a laugh before pulling away. "My boss told me when he gave me this position that I should rebuild things slowly, do it right. I want to do that with us, too, but I understand if you don't want to after seeing all of this."
It would be a lie if she said the wall carving behind her doesn't scare the shit out of her. It does. But she supposes there are worse ways the alien whatever in him could manifest itself. "So no scaring the shit out of me in stairwells to announce that you're not actually dead?" she offers.
"No hiding the fact that you might be pregnant until Melinda drags your ass to me."
"No saying you're going to quit, because we both know that's not going to happen," Anna challenges.
The corner of his mouth quirks up into a faint grin. "Should I find a pen and paper to start making a list?"
"Or you could just carve it into the wall," Anna shoots back. Instantly, what little humor on his face falls away, and she feels like shit. "Hey," she says as she rests a hand on his cheek, "We'll figure this out."