May almost swallowed more of the lake, blinking over as she tried to regain some bearing though had to tread water to keep herself up even though each movement aggravated her side. Those injuries still there? Her throat ached as she breathed but the cool water helped sooth it. She'd have trouble speaking for a while...but that felt the least of her worries.

The few priorities she had was...where was she? And how did she get here? Let alone naked. It didn't make much sense… First things first, she would need to get out the water. Before it got to her properly. Last thing she needed to to catch a cold or pneumonia.

May began to swim towards the edge of the lake, wincing as the movement pulled on her side so it was slow going, her feet barely hitting the muddy bank under the surface when she saw what appeared to be a small family of four having a picnic not too far away. Though they hadn't noticed her yet from the lack of staring.

May stopped a moment then huffed, coughing a little. Awkward… Very awkward. Though May knew she could deal with the two adults looking at her, their two young children was a whole new thing. That was the more awkward part. Children did not need to see a woman heavily bruised and naked walk out the lake. Too many questions but she knew she couldn't stay in there much longer.

Deciding to hell with it. May began striding more up onto the bank, wrapping an arm around her breasts, her other hand over her crotch. She didn't look their way but heard one of the children laugh, pointing her out as she emerge fully from the water, thrown off a little by her weight now she was out the water but carried onto solid land pausing to only glance at the family briefly then around to find a foot path out.

However she picked up movement to see the mother of the group walk towards her. May watched the expression on the woman's face. The lines she could tell her was of annoyance but she saw the woman's expression changed a little more on closer exception.

"There are children around!" The woman hissed towards her but her eyes here on her throat now.

But she was close enough to shove what looked like their picnic blanket into her hands. May wrapped it around herself, glad now to have something to over her. Inhaling a little deeply as she tightened it around herself.

"What happened to your neck? Do you need the hospital?" The woman carried on though looked like she wanted to get back to her family.

"Ph.." She coughed shaking her head. "Phone...I need...to make a call…" She wheezed, her throat hurt to talk. The woman spared a glance to her family who were all looking at them before she tugged a phone from her pocket then held it hesitantly out. May could guess she thought she was crazy, that or didn't want to get involved with anything. Reasonable enough.

Taking the phone, May immediately began to type in a phone number, the woman walking back off to her family, throwing her some looks but May was focused. She perked up with a sigh of relief when the phone picked up.

"Hello?"

"Mo..m " May wheezed softly. She heard an soft relieved intake of breath.

"Melinda...I'm glad to hear your voice...Are you okay?" It took a slightly longer second to realize that of course the world would have heard about the attack on SHIELD by now.

"I'm...not good….I need you to….pick me up.." May said, sparing a look to the family not to far away.

"You're in Yellow Creek State Park's lake, aren't you?" There was an edge to the tone which made her frown but..

"How would….you know?...I don't know...myself.." May tried to talk harder but it strung. So she was limited. But she couldn't deny the fact her mother knew where she was and she didn't. Which meant her mother knew something she didn't

"Look, Get something to cover yourself for now, It's a long drive...you can start making your way down. I'll bring some clothes...are you hurt?" The question was ignored.

"Mom...Tell me what's going on…" May could feel her patience was wearing thing.

"When I get there. Probably in an hour or two…" May could pick up the sounds of Keys then the roar of the ignition.

"Mom!" May coughed, irritant in her tone.

"No, Melinda, Trust me, Find yourself a place to settle along the footpath. But somewhere where a car can reach. It'll give you some time to... adjust."

"That doesn't make-" The line died promptly, "...sense.." May finished quietly, looking to the screen that her mom hung up. Annoyed, May quickly deleted the call log from the phone and walk back over to the woman, tossing her phone back before walking past them all.

It was an easy track to follow, the grass she walked on got more and more neat which showed it was kept regularly. Seeing not to far ahead was the track getting wider, May decided to stop, heading over to an old bench that wasn't kept as well. It was something at the least and it gave her more cover from the main road through the park.

Lowering herself down with a hiss before sitting back. Inhaling shallowly and let her eyes closed. Her mother was right...May had no idea what had happened, not until she got those answers from her but...it had all happened so fast. SHe hadn't thought about it since...emerging from that lake...and the reasons why?

It was almost hard to even wrap her head around the fact that coulson… Her breath paused. That Coulson was prepared to use violent means to get information... The fact he killed her over it. Her mind lingered on that fact blankly for a moment before any real emotion seemed to really come through.

Coulson killed her.

He killed her in cold blood. Intentional or not, harm was intended. Did he honestly think she was still a backstabber….a traitor...again. She had tried! Tried to help. Futile...evidently. He hadn't and wouldn't forgive her. What caused his hate to be riled up so much…

Could she really risk facing him in person again? Sure, he had quicker means to kill her…But it hurt. Not just physically. He chose to believe she was a traitor. Chose to ignore their history...the academy….ops, even how Bahrain affected her….

How could she trust him now? Did he even care that he done it?

May hoped so, or at least deep down under his hate that he did. No doubt he had no idea what the hell had happened when she died. Did she disappear or was he stuck with a dead body of hers? The first seemed more hopeful and likely. If he had cares…..cared enough to regret it...that stopped him grieving over a body.

May sat deeply in thought for a long while, a few tears did escape down her cheeks as her mind got deeper in thinking. Barely hearing the SUV Pull up. Flinching and grabbing the wrist before she realised who it was.

Her mom, she remembered was not a fan of hugs or affectionate displayed but she felt her pull her into a hug. Staying motionless for a long moment before she wrapped her arms around her back, her eyes welling up again. She gasped slightly as her mom put too much pressure onto her side but though that loosened up, the gesture did provide some comfort at the least before she pulled back.

May's eyes watched her mother's face, the lines and creases of her frown as she saw the bruises around her neck. She didn't say anything but she didn't need like. Like her.

May stood up, letting her mom take the lead, though went to the back seats then the passenger side. She knew to expect the bag with clothes in and the front had clear glass and little space which was not suitable. The back was better with it's tinted windows and bigger space. She dug through the bag, pulling out some underwear, pulling them on as her mom set off. Shredding the blanket for her shirt, holding her breath tightly as she pulled it over her head.

"There's a medical kit in the bag as well." Her mother said after a moment.

May found the kit but waited till she had some pants on to open it up. She settled for the painkillers before dealing with her rib. There was a bottle of water at the bottom of the first bag, taking a swig of that and swallowed the pills down, almost coughing at the horrible sensation of even swallowing.

"Thank..you." She said after a moment, settling back into her seat. Her mother's eyes looked to her for a long moment in the mirror then away.

"You should sleep."

May shook her head. "No...you prom..ised you'd..tell me.."

"Yes, I would but you're hardly in the state to even comprehend it. Go to sleep."

"Mom."

"Melinda. You were killed and reborn in a lake. There are gonna be after effect and you won't be able to fully understand what I will tell you when you're exhausted, injured and recovering. Go. To. Sleep." Her mother's tone hardened to one she remembered all too well as a child, folding her arms and passed a dirty look, trying to ignore the fact she was exhausted. 8 hours of walking then what happened… it had left her wiped out. Even in her standards.

"F..ine." She croaked leaning back in her seat but with the pain killers kicking in, it only took a couple of minutes to drop off.

May jerked awake as she felt the car slow to a stop, her eyes flickering around on high alert before she relaxed, jumping out the car to realise she was still barefoot. But she was a her mom's house now, slamming the door behind her before walking into her house, wiping her feet on the mat and went straight to the kitchen after her mom.

"Now?" She asked, her voice sounding better than it actually was.

Sighing deeply, her mom took a seat at the small table, producing a book from the shelf off the side. May's eyes lingered on the cover, recognizing it as a photo album. Her mom opened it up, opening the pages to four pictures of her by the lakes she had...emerged from. Not a coincidence there. .

"It's...hard to even explain. Me and your father don't know...much on your condition or where it came from."

"Dad know?" Her eyebrow shot up but she should have expected that at the least. Of course he would know something was different. Them but not her. "What is it?"

"We don't know. "

May's expression didn't change from her annoyed expression.

"Melinda. Everything was fine. My pregnancy with you was normal. 9 months. I kept to an average diet and gave birth to a healthy baby girl. No complications. Simple." Her mom inhaled deeply, leaning forwards in her chair.

"But...we moved to the US when you were one. It was a hard adjustments. So on your 4th birthday...we don't expect you to remember what happened given how young you were, we went to visit the duck in the lakes to celebrate with a picnic. You liked feeding them. But...you wandered off from your father. I was coming back from the toilets. You got excited when you saw me so you ran ….but you ran straight across the road towards me…" She shook her head, closing her eyes but she inhaled deeply. "You ran into a path of a speeding jeep…."

May inhaled sharply, her eyes widening more but listened with all her attention, her eyes feeling hot and wet at hearing what she was saying.

"You flew back...I don't even know. But you were so small...fragile. How could a small little girl survive an impact like that?"

"I didn't…." May whispered.

Her mom shook her head. "It was possible you were still alive when you hit the ground...but you wouldn't have lived long. This woman reached you first...I don't even know what she looked like or what she did but she seemed just as horrified as the few families that came running to help. Then...you were gone. We couldn't find you anywhere. Your father was horrified that he let you out his sight, he was prepared to spend days...trying to find out what happened…"

Her mom wiped her eyes. "But….one night we got a call from the woman, that she found our daugher wandering next to the lake shore. No clothes on, soaking wet and covered in bruises… as if she had been hit with a car…. wanting her mom and dad. We couldn't believe it. We didn't... I didn't. Until your father decided to go and see. His guilt...he needed to know."

May swallowed with a shallow sigh, looking down at her hands. "Why...didn't you tell me?"

Her mom's eyes flicked to her face. "We didn't know if it was a one time thing….that it can only happen once… But we wanted you to have a normal life. I didn't want to tell you and you to get careless with your life. We would have told you when you were 18. I knew you had every right to know at that point but the you decided to go to SHIELD academy. I wasn't a SHIELD agent but I knew their policies on Enhanced or powered people. You found friends, but i knew if i told you, you would have told them. You'd have been listed as a powered person but how could they prove it? They'd shoot you to see for themselves. We didn't want to expose you to that, especially if it had been one time thing."

May stayed silent breathing calmly but her heart fluttered in her chest from this absurd wave of information…

"I'm..so sorry, Melinda….that we didn't tell you. But you have to believe that we didn't with best intentions.."

And she could. There was no malice in it... withholding it. It made sense...to protect her. Like she had protected Coulson. The shock of all of it...how could her parents go through it again if she willing stepped in and took a bullet to the heart for her colleagues? Knowing she'd have only one death in SHIELD before she'd be forced to a different job to stay protected from them. From experimentation… interrogation… having to live with a constant cover and lies.

Ignorance was bliss.

Silently, May stood and walked over to her mother, looking down to her for a long moment then pulled her into a hug, regardless of the pain that reawakened down her side.

"It's okay, Mom..." She whispered softly. "I forgive you…"