Ch. 2
I've given them lots of chances to come clean. I didn't think they would keep to the company line for so long, look me straight in my face while lying to me. I'm not naive about S.H.I.E.L.D.; I've spent months investigating it. I found the mission report from 23 years ago featuring Agents May and Coulson, deep undercover for several months. After that, Agent May took "personal leave" for six months. Agents May and Coulson didn't have a single mission together for another 23 years until Agent Coulson assembled his "dream team".
The dates match up too perfectly. I look at her and I wonder what she would have been like as a real mother, not this scowling warden that barks orders. Would she have tucked me in at night? Would she have read me stories and kissed my hurts all better? Maybe she would have taught me to kick butt on the playground, devastating the bullies that used to encircle me and taunt me, throwing insults and punches at me.
I look at him and it's easy to imagine him as my father. I could see him cheering at soccer games and driving us to vacations up in the mountains at a cabin by a lake. Would he have taught me fishing? Would he have taught me how to drive a car? Lola would have been a sweet ride when I was 16.
Instead, I smile blandly at them both, killing myself, looking for clues. Did they pause a bit too long while looking at each other? Did their fingers brush by each other a fraction of a second longer than they should have?
I'm running out of time. Sooner or later, S.H.I.E.L.D. will bounce me from this plane. Sooner or later, a commanding officer will ask one too many questions about a team member who isn't officially a recruit. They'll wonder why someone with no formal training, someone with no official standing, someone wearing a restraining order on their wrist, is doing on this plane. And there will be no satisfactory answer.
I feel the clock ticking. I feel the pressure mounting. Soon, I'll be gone and I'll never know what might have been.
Author's Note- I intended this as a one-shot drabble, but I got some very, very sweet reviews asking me to continue it, so I did. I hope you liked it.