Back From the Dead Chapter 4: I Miss Her, an agents of s.h.i.e.l.d. fanfic

Back From the Dead

Disclaimer:
As always, I own nothing!

Rating:
T

Genre:
Romance/Hurt/Comfort

Pairing:
Coulsye

Lyrics Used:
Jessie J "I Miss Her"

I Miss Her

Descending the stairway to the gym, Melinda May silently watched as her old friend and boss took out his anger and frustrations on the punching bag. Losing Skye had been a devastating blow to all of them. But, they all knew that Coulson had taken it the hardest. Whether he was aware of it or not, they all knew of the senior agent's feelings toward their hacker. One could not live and work on a plane full of spies without their secrets getting out-voluntarily or otherwise. As the senior agent seemed to run out of steam, the pilot descended the rest of the stairway to join him.

"Not a word." Phil ground out as he reached for his water bottle. Knowing the pilot as well as he did, he knew there was a reason for her showing up in the gym with him, unannounced.

"Wasn't planning on it." Agent Melinda May replied, stoically, with just the very beginnings of the ghost of a smirk playing across her face. "I just came down here to inform you that we'll be landing at HQ in twenty minutes." She deadpanned. "Director Fury would like to speak with you when we arrive."

"Aw, hell..." Coulson muttered, under his breath. He knew exactly what the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted with him. "We took a major piece off the game-board." Coulson argued, pointedly. "Does it really matter how we did it?!"

"Apparently, it does..." Melinda replied, snidely, before turning to return to her cockpit, leaving the senior agent alone with his thoughts, once again. Stripping his hands, he grabbed his water bottle before ascending the stairs, returning to his bunk for a shower before they arrived at HQ.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Director Fury turned, in his chair, to face the source of the voice that had addressed him. It took everything the Director had within him to hold back the proud smile as he took in his handiwork. Admittedly, Ward and Coulson-their entire team, really-had done a lot of the heavy-lifting without even knowing it. The young, Chinese-American woman stood before him, standing tall and proud with a stoic look upon her face with her ebony hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail behind her. Taking her entire form in, the Director noted the rigid posture-feet shoulder width apart, hands folded together on the small of her back...Coulson'd be damn proud if he could see her, now...Fury decided.

"Skye..." Fury greeted, stoically, though just the slightest hint of his pride bled through into his voice as he addressed the young hacker. "I assume Agent Hill informed you of why you were in Hawaii for so long?" He asked.

"Yes, sir." Skye replied, voice firm and confident, sounding every bit the part of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent she longed to become. "She told me it was for my own protection while S.H.I.E.L.D. dealt with Ian Quinn." The young hacker replied, sounding more like a robot as she repeated the information she'd been fed to account for the time she'd actually been in her medically induced coma after her death. "They were concerned that, if Quinn had known that I survived, he might come back to finish the job."

"That's correct." Fury replied, glad to see that their hard work had paid off. "However, there has been a new development in the Ian Quin investigation which I thought should be brought to your attention." He elaborated, vaguely.

"Sir?" Skye asked, eyebrows furrowing, curiously.

"Ian Quinn is dead." Fury deadpanned, getting straight to the point as he pulled out a folder, before rising from his seat to hand the folder over to Skye. "These were taken, last night, in Quinn's suite in the Grandhotel Pupp in the Czech Republic." He elaborated as Skye examined the photos in the file.

Skye could barely conceal the knowing smirk on her face as she took in the photos before her. She knew it to be the work of her team. Though, the knowing sense of pride she felt soon gave way to a different emotion when she saw the words carved into Quinn's chest. "My teams believes me to be dead." She deduced.

"It was for your own protection." Fury explained, clinically. He never liked lying to his operatives-or, in this case-rather, the ones his operatives cared for. "The more people that knew of your survival, the more likely that word could get back to Quinn."

The discipline in Skye was slowly giving way to her anger with Fury for lying to her team. "That doesn't change the fact that we're a team." She argued, pointedly. "You had no right to lie to them!"

"Technically, we didn't." Fury pointed out. "You actually did die for all of eight seconds-"

"Forty." Skye corrected.

"The point is..." Fury added, jumping over the young hacker's correction. "You did die...We just didn't tell them that we were able to revive you." He added.

"Still doesn't make it okay..." Skye argued.

"Nevertheless..." Fury replied. "It's time for the rest of your team to be read in and, I thought you'd like to do the honors." He added, with a small smile.

"Thank you, sir." Skye replied, finally letting the smile break out across her face. This was the moment she'd been waiting for. She was finally going home.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a debriefing to get to..." Fury replied, smirking ever so slightly. "And, I do believe you have some packing to get to..." Nothing more needed to be said as the young hacker all but skipped out of the office, nearly running back to her barrack to get her things.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Phil greeted, stepping into the office with his boss, while mentally bracing himself for the tongue-lashing he knew he was in for after the Ian Quinn situation.

"You've really outdone yourself, this time, Phil..." Fury began, a distinct warning tone to his voice. "Not to mention dragging your own daughter-"

"Kary has nothing to do with this." Phil interjected, firmly. Phil Coulson had taken a lot of crap from the Director over the years. But, attacking his daughter for her actions in helping seek justice for the death of the woman he loved crossed a line. He couldn't allow Fury to go there and not come to his daughter's defense.

"Oh, I'm afraid she does, Coulson." Fury argued. "You brought her into this mess the moment you asked for her assistance." Stepping closer, Fury sneered "And, making her set a honey trap? What? Do you get off on watching your own daughter having sex-"

"Go to hell." Phil seethed. His calm, disciplined facade shattered as Fury took one look into the agent's eyes which had turned ice blue-always a clear indicator to back the fuck off.

"Don't worry, Phil." Fury assured his senior agent. "Kary's not in any trouble. Frankly, neither are you." He added, watching the tension bleed from Phil's shoulders. "But, given the number you and your team did on him, I had to keep up appearances." The director explained, the ghost of a proud smile across his face. "That was a nice touch, by the way..." He added, pointing to the gun-shot wounds in Quinn's torso.

"Permission to speak, freely, sir?" Coulson asked, carefully.

"Of course." Fury replied, sincerely.

"As good as that felt, in the moment..." Phil began, sighing heavily. "Nothing will ever give me what I truly want..."

"Which is..." Fury replied, waving his hand to prompt Phil to finish the thought.

"Her." Phil replied, simply. In that moment, there was nothing more to say. Fury knew, immediately, exactly who Phil was talking about. Oh, if only you knew...Fury thought to himself, smugly, knowing that Skye would be waiting for Phil when he returned to The Bus.

Skye physically jumped, as she began unpacking, when she heard a glass drop to the floor-shattering on impact-followed by a small scream. "Hey, Jemma..." She greeted, smiling, awkwardly. Not exactly how she planned to begin her explanations, but, hey...gotta start somewhere, right?

"You-I-we-you were-they-your funeral-" Jemma stammered as her mind completely shut down when she laid eyes on her best friend-whom she'd previously thought dead-standing in her bunk, unpacking.

Crossing the room, Skye lightly gripped the bio-chemist's arms in her hands as she took mercy on the dumbfounded scientist. "Jemma. Breathe." She ordered, relaxing marginally as she watched the bio-chemist take deep, steadying breaths.

"What are you doing, here?" Jemma replied, still trying to wrap her mind around seeing her dead best friend. "How is this even possible?!" She demanded, tears stealing from her eyes.

Seeing her dear friend tearing up at her return, Skye felt tears pricking her own eyes, as well. "Well, it's a long story..." She began, guiding the young scientist onto the sofa with her. "But, basically...I died on the operating table, for-officially, eight seconds but, I say-forty seconds...And, they managed to restart my heart and brought me back..." She explained, sounding like a student reciting information from a text book. "Then, after I spent a few weeks in the recovery ward, they sent me into hiding in Hawaii while they went after Ian Quinn." The hacker elaborated. "The reason they didn't tell you guys that I was alive was because they were worried that Ian Quinn would find out and come back to finish the job."

"But, now that Ian Quinn is dead, you're allowed to come back?" Jemma deduced. However, in her mind, she couldn't help feeling like something was amiss in the hacker's story. She just couldn't put her finger on it.

"Precisely." Skye replied, smiling warmly.

"I just have one more question..." Jemma began, curiously.

"Shoot." Skye replied, still smiling.

"How was Hawaii?!" Jemma asked, excitedly.

"It's a magical place." Skye replied with a slightly less natural smile creeping onto her face. Before the bio-chemist could dwell on it too much longer, the hacker spoke again. "Have you seen Coulson?"

"He's at HQ..." Jemma replied, simply. "Director Fury wanted to speak with him regarding Ian Quinn's death."

Smirking slightly, Skye nodded knowingly as she replied "Oh yeah...Yeah, I saw the pictures...Kinda figured you all had a hand in that..."

"Yes, well..." Jemma replied, sheepishly. "Well, technically, that was Agents Coulson, May, Ward and...well, the other Agent Coulson..."

"'The other Agent Coulson'?!" Skye asked, curiously. "Just what the hell happened, around here, while I was gone?" She demanded, shell-shocked. "Last time I checked, there was only one Agent Coulson."

"The other Agent Coulson is Coulson's daughter, Special Agent Karyleena Coulson." Jemma replied, simply. "Agent Coulson enlisted her help after Ian Quinn escaped custody. She lured him into a honey trap and then let her father and Agents Ward and May have their fun." Skye had to admit. She was truly shocked by the bio-chemist's dark smile. "Fitz and I watched from a van outside."

"Wow..." Skye replied, still shell-shocked. "I had no idea Coulson had a daughter." She reasoned. "And, just what the hell is a honey trap, anyway?" She demanded, confused.

"Well..." Jemma began. "The way Kary explained it was that she basically had a couple of drinks with him, batted her eyelashes a bit, he took her up to his suite, she let him think that she was going to have sex with him and at the last moment, tied him to the bed and let her dad and Ward and May have their fun..."

"Wow..." Skye began, cheekily. "So, it's 'Kary' now?!" She chastised.

"That's just what she told us to call her..." Jemma replied, blushing guiltily. "...you know...to avoid confusion..."

"Right..." Skye drawled, cheekily. "So...Whaddaya say we clean this up and you keep this little secret between us..." Seeing the rebuttal building in Jemma's face, Skye quickly added "Just until I have the chance to speak with Coulson and read the rest of the team in, myself." Quirking an eyebrow, she added "Besides...Don't you think that if you went around telling everybody that I'm alive, they might think you'd lost it?"

"I think I can live with that..." Jemma decided as Skye rose from her seat to grab a broom and dustpan to clean up the shattered glass.

Exhausted from the day's events, Phil Coulson wanted nothing more-when he walked back into his bunk-than a nice, hot, relaxing shower. Stepping into his bunk, he locked the door only to freeze when he heard a soft, warm, voice he'd never thought he'd hear again. "What's up, Phil?"

Keeping his back turned to the source of the voice, Phil clamped his eyes shut, tight, as he whimpered "No...No, this...This isn't real...It can't be real…" His eyes remained closed, as he spoke, in a feeble attempt to ward off the tears threatening to fall. After all that had happened, this was just something he was not prepared to face.

Skye had told herself that Phil's reaction-along with those of the rest of the team-would be difficult to handle. She just wasn't prepared for the broken shell of a man standing before her with his back turned to her. Finally unable to take the sight, any longer, she rose from her seat on the edge of his bed, and moved to stand behind him. Her hands first landed on his shoulders before ever so slowly sliding down his arms as she gradually enveloped him in her embrace, pressing her chest flush against his back.

As good as it felt to have the arms of the woman he'd loved wrapped around him, Phil knew it wasn't real. It couldn't be real. Skye was dead. He'd watched them lay her in the ground. This was just his mind's sick idea of sadistic torture. "No…" He whimpered, shakily, refusing to allow himself to become engulfed in his own misery, yet again. "This isn't real…" His resolve was waning. He knew, in his heart that he wanted this to be real. More than he'd ever wanted anything in his life, he knew he wanted-no, he needed-this to be real. And, it would be so easy to let himself believe it.

"It is…" Skye whispered, warmly, in his ear as she buried her face in the crook of his neck for a moment. In that moment, she allowed herself the opportunity to just breathe in the scent that was purely Phil Coulson. "It is real…" She reasserted. "I'm here."

Unable to stand the illusion, any longer, Phil whirled around in the young hacker's arms, so fast he nearly knocked her over. The wild panic in the senior agent's baby blue eyes was overwhelming and left Skye utterly speechless. She hadn't realized the full effect that her death had had on her mentor and the man that she secretly fallen for. Seeing the sheer, unadulterated pain in the baby blue orbs, she physically ached for the pain that the man she loved had been in. "You're dead." He muttered, shakily, as Skye watched the first tears stealing from his eyes as she gently reached up to wipe them away. "We all watched them lay you in the ground..." He argued, weakly, staring at the young woman before him, numbly.

Gently cradling Phil's face in her hands, Skye continued tenderly wiping the tears from his eyes as she forced him to look her straight in the eye as she spoke. "Technically, no." She argued, gently. "You watched them lay an empty casket in the ground." She corrected. "And, you're...not wrong...I was dead..." The hacker conceded. "For all of forty seconds." She added, smirking ever so slightly. "Well, the official record says eight...But, I was there. Trust me, it was forty."

Listening to the hacker's story, Phil couldn't deny the similarities between his and hers. In that moment, Phil Coulson knew he had never hoped and prayed so hard to be wrong, in his life. He desperately hoped that Skye hadn't been dragged through the same hell he'd been in when he'd been brought back. But, he had to put that on the back burner for the moment. Right now, he had more pressing questions. "They told us you died. They let us keep believing that up until this very moment." He argued, more confused than angry. "How?! Why did they lie?"

Dropping her hands to his chest, Skye busied herself with his lapels for a moment before she replied "To protect me."

Still confused, Phil reached up to lightly grip her arms in his hands for fear that he'd been right all along and that this was all some sort of dream or fantasy and she would disappear at any moment. "Protect you from what?" He asked, softly.

"Ian Quinn." Skye replied, simply, bringing his arms the rest of the way to wrap around her. "They were worried that if word got back to him that I was still alive, he might come back to try to finish the job." She elaborated, her voice remaining soft and warm.

"We could have protected you." Phil argued, weakly. "We would have kept you safe." He didn't know why he was arguing. God knew it wasn't Skye's decision to hide the truth from them. He guessed he just needed to say it.

"I know." Skye replied, gently. "I know you all would have moved Heaven and Earth to keep me safe." She reasserted. "I didn't even know they'd lied to you until this morning when Fury brought me into his office to tell me that Ian Quinn was dead and that I was coming back here, with you all." Smirking, mischievously, she added "I saw the pictures, by the way...Nice touches..."

"How'd you know...?" Phil asked, weakly. Though, somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew he should have known that Skye would recognize her own team's handiwork when she saw it. Plus, he really should have known she would expect them to seek revenge after one of their own had been shot-whether they'd known she'd survived or not.

"Well, first of all..." Skye began, grinning wickedly. "The words 'Murderer' and 'Coward' carved into Quinn's chest had Ward's handwriting written all over them...And the broken fingers screamed May...And, I know you had your hands all over the poetic justice of the two gunshot wounds to his chest." The young hacker deduced, proudly. "The only thing I can't work out was the gunshots on his...shall we call it his manhood?" She added, cheekily.

Despite himself and the situation, Phil had to chuckle at the last comment. "That was me, too..." He began. "And, my daughter..." He added, sheepishly.

"Yeah, Jemma told me all about Kary and her honey trap." Skye smiled, warmly. Mulling the plan over in her head, Skye replied, approvingly, "I like the way your daughter thinks." But, then, another thought occurred to her. "But, that couldn't have been easy for you...Watching Kary hit on Quinn." She added, understanding how hard it had to have been for Phil to watch Kary working Quinn.

"She's a professional." Phil replied, simply. "She knew what she was doing. I knew she could take care of herself."

"Yeah, but, still..." Skye argued. "It still can't be easy for any father to watch his daughter in any sort of sexual situation..."

"Normally, yes..." Phil conceded. "But, there extenuating circumstances at play..." He added, quirking a playful eyebrow. "Namely taking down Ian Quinn." Sighing heavily, Phil knew he had to voice the question still weighing on his mind. "Is all of this really happening, right now, Skye?" Pulling her flush against him, he buried his face in the crook of her neck before adding "I'm so scared that this is all just some sort of dream that I'm gonna wake up from far too soon..." Once again, the tears began to spill forth from his eyes as his voice quivered and trembled with emotion. "And, I'm gonna lose you, all over, again...I barely survived the first time...I don't know if I could survive a second..."

Skye couldn't stand to see Phil this broken. The tears moistening her shirt broke her heart as she clung him for dear life. Burying her own face in his shoulder, her voice was muffled as she replied, shakily. "Yes...Yes, Phil...I'm really here...Holding you..." Pulling away just far enough to look him in the eyes, Skye took his right hand in hers as she pressed his hand over her chest-just over her heart-as she continued. "And, very much alive."

Phil smiled, softly, as he felt the steady rhythm of Skye's heartbeat under his hand. Somehow, the warm, vehement tone in her voice and the sensation of her heart beating underneath his hand made it all real for the senior agent. Which left only one question unanswered. "So, then...Does this mean you're here to stay?" He asked, knowing his voice was a little more hopeful than he would have liked. But, at the moment, he was so overcome with joy and relief that he just didn't have it in him to care.

Finally, the warm smile spread the rest of the way across her face as Skye replied, simply, "Yes." Playfully nudging the senior agent, she added "You didn't really think you were gonna get rid of me, that easily, did you?"

Skye was back and here to stay. Those seven little words left Phil feeling torn. Granted, he was over the moon to have the woman he loved back in his life. But, at what cost? He was reasonably certain that Fury had done to her the same thing he'd done to him after the battle of New York. But, without concrete evidence, he decided it was best not to dwell on the negative. As long as Skye was back and she was happy, Phil knew he could live with that. "No..." Phil replied, warmly, gently stroking her upper arms with his thumbs. "No, I suppose not." He finished with a small, warm, smile.

Backing away, ever so slightly, Skye noted the momentary look of ever-so-slight panic in Phil piercing blue eyes. "Come on..." She prompted, gently. "So far, only you and Jemma know that I'm back..." She elaborated, gently tugging Phil's hand to lead him out of the room. "I think it's time we let the others in on the secret, too..." Smirking wickedly, she added "I made Jemma promise to let me tell everyone, myself, and I'm not sure how much longer she can keep that promise..."

So, it is real. Phil decided. Skye was really back and here to stay. This wasn't just some torturously sweet dream that he would wake from, far too soon. Deciding to just enjoy the moment, Phil smiled as he allowed the young hacker to lead him down to read the rest of the group in on their little secret.

Author's Note:
Okay, so, I cut it there because I felt like I was starting to ramble and if I added the rest of the group's reactions to the news of Skye's survival (or resurrection), then, the chapter would just end up being stupid long. So, I hope you all enjoy this little 9-page offering.

~Skye Coulson