Chapter 1: The Mystery
February 1, 1989, America 7.30 a.m.
Amelia Handhawk walked up to her friends' house and knocked on the front door. The three of them went to the S.H.I.E.L.D academy together. Amelia looked down at the baby in her arms, who looked up at her and smiled. After around thirty seconds, her friend Melinda May opened the door, and her husband Phil Coulson stood behind her.
May's eyes went to the baby in her friend's arms. "Whose baby is that?" May asked not taking her eyes off the baby. The baby looked a lot like her own daughter Melody except for a few major differences. Melody's face was slightly rounder, her slightly smaller brown eyes were lighter and she had slightly curly black hair. Whereas this baby's hair was dark brown and chocolate brown eyes. The baby noticed May and cooed at her. May smiled.
"That's why I'm here," Amelia answered, "according to our DNA tests S.H.I.E.L.D ran, she's yours." May and Coulson looked at each other with shocked expressions and back at the baby.
"Ours?" they asked in unison confused. Amelia nodded after handing the baby to May, she said her goodbyes to her friends and left for her next mission.
A couple of hours later they were sitting on their coach. May was still holding the new baby while Coulson held baby Melody. "What should we name her?" May asked after they had a lengthy discussion of where the baby had come from. The baby cooed as May rocked her back and forth in her arms.
"How about Ava Crystal?" Coulson asked after a moment of thought.
"Ava Crystal Coulson, I like it," May said smiling down at the baby in her arms. The baby cooed.
March 24, 1989, China 10.30pm
May, Coulson, and their two eight-month-old daughters were on a trip to China and were sleeping in a hotel for the night when May and Coulson were wakened up by a loud crash. May raced over to the cradle which had tipped over, while Coulson turned on the lights. When the lights came on, they saw that not only was the window open, but Ava and Melody were gone. May noticed a strange spider on her arm and tried to shake it off. The spider bit her and everything went black.
30 years later
Zephyr 3 had just arrived and May and Coulson were waiting for their surrogate daughter Daisy. "Melinda! Phil!" a woman behind them called. May and Coulson turned around and stared at the woman whom they did not recognize.
"Who are you and how do you know our names?" May demanded to know.
"You don't remember me?" the woman asked shocked. "I'm Amelia Handhawk and I delivered your daughter." "We were in the same stealth class." "I was at your wedding on January 15, 1988
"For one thing Miss Handhawk, for your information we are not married and we did not have a daughter together," Coulson replied confused.
"And we never took a stealth class," May added as Daisy came up behind them.
"What's going on?" Daisy asked making Coulson whirl around not having heard her approach.
"Daisy!" Coulson greeted hugging Daisy.
"Hey A.C," Daisy said hugging Coulson back.
"Daisy, this is Amelia Handhawk who claims to have been at the wedding we never had and to have delivered the daughter we never had," Coulson told Daisy.
"Then how do you explain this?" Amelia asked, pulling two pictures out of her pocket, and handing them to May and Coulson. One of them was of their supposed wedding and the other was of May and Coulson each holding a baby girl in one arm and holding each other's hands with the other.
"The photos could have been altered," May pointed out.
"Okay then if you don't believe me, then what were you doing may I ask on January 15, 1988?" Amelia asked annoyed.
"I… don't remember," May said looking at Coulson.
"I don't remember either," Coulson reviled.
"Maybe Fitz-Simmons has a device that could help you remember," Daisy suggested looking at the pictures. May and Coulson shared a glance.
"It's worth a try," Coulson answered for himself and May.
"Great, I'll give Fitz-Simmons a call," Daisy said grinning as she ran off to call her friends almost running into Sousa.
"Where's she going in such a hurry?" Sousa asked barely dodging a collision with his girlfriend.
"To call Fitz-Simmons, we have a mystery," Coulson replied.
"About what?" Sousa asked out of curiosity.
"Neither of us remembers what we were doing on January 15, 1988," May answered as she turned around and walked down the hallway.
Two days later, England, Fitz-Simmons house, 11:30 am, Monday
"Hey, Jem," Daisy greeted her friend when Jemma opened the door. The two hugged.
"Shall we get started?" Jemma asked May and Coulson as she led them and Daisy through the hallway to their living room where Fitz was finishing setting up their new memory retrieval device.
"I've decided to spare you the details of how our device works, but I guaranty that it is 100% safer than the theta-wave devices we've used in the past," Fitz told his friends as they entered the room.
"Put these on," Jemma told May and Coulson handing them helmets and gesturing with her hand for them to sit down.
As soon as they were seated and had put the helmets on, which were wired to the device which had tons of flashing buttons, Jemma flipped a large lever on the side of the device. "It could take a while to work," Jemma warned her friends.
"What's this?" Daisy asked picking up a toy cockapoo wearing what looked to be a superhero costume.
"Oh, that's Ayla's favorite pup from a tv show she watches called Paw patrol," Jemma explained.
"What's her name? Daisy asked, "Maybe I could get her a stuffed one for her birthday if she doesn't already have one." Daisy explained.
"She doesn't have one but she wants one, her name's Skye," Jemma replied with a grin on her face. "There's no way I'm forgetting that," Daisy said smiling.
"Yeah, but it does get a little confusing, I've already called her by your name more than once," Jemma said and they both laughed.
Five minutes later the machine started to beep, and Jemma flip the switch again. May and Coulson appeared to have been sitting there silently letting the machine do its job but in reality, they were worrying. Even though they had been assured that it was safe, they were still worried that it was still not safe and were worried about how it might affect them. Taking off their helmets, May and Coulson looked at each other shocked. "We do have daughters and we are married," Was all Coulson could say.
"WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, you have ACTUAL DAUGHTERS?!" Jemma asked shocked. "HOW IN THE WORLD COULD YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!" Jemma exclaimed.
"We were bit by mechanical spiders right before they were kidnaped," May explained. Both May and Coulson were upset and it was clear that Daisy did not know what to think because she had not said a word.
"Are they twins?" "What were their names?" Jemma asked.
"No, they aren't twins, but we think they were born about some time." "Their names are Ava Crystal and Melody April," Coulson answered with a sad look in his eyes.
"We need to find them," May said firmly as she got up and went out the door.
"I think it's time to get the team back together for one last mission," Coulson said as he got up and followed May out with Daisy at his heel "Meet us at HQ in two days if you're in," Coulson told Fitz-Simmons.
"We wouldn't miss it for the world," Jemma called to her former boss as their friends left, wondering where in the world the two missing girls could be.