Wow. I did not expect such a responce to this. All my other stories just got their butts kicked by a chapter with less than 1000 words. Thank you for reading and being interested in the idea!
Special thanks to BlueEyedBrigadier, Twisha, Sammy, Qweb, Jelsemium, LarielRomeniel, The Founder, Doc Lee, ililkehats2, and JeDormir for reviewing! And to BlueEyedBrigadier who made me want to expand on something.
They had left the "bus" at an airfield two days ago; they didn't want to risk bringing it too close to their destination. Risk SHIELD figuring out where they were going. And wasn't that just a kick; they were hiding from SHIELD. Not officially. Officially they were going off the radar for a week following some leads.
Giving it more thought, Coulson had offered the others an out, before they got too deep into this very personal mission. He wasn't surprised when they had all refused to leave; but he was grateful.
After they had arrived at the hotel, Skye offered to get a hold of some contacts in the Rising Tide, for help, but Coulson vehemently refused, not wanting what they did know to get out when they still didn't have the full picture. Skye hadn't liked that and had went off about brainwashing and rights of the government before storming off. Ward had followed to keep her out of trouble.
Coulson didn't fault her. Out of their entire team, Skye probably cared the most about… everything. She had such passion for everything she believed in and, he didn't know when, but somewhere along the way she had begun to believe in Coulson. When she had confronted him, he could see the hurt she had tried so hard to hide. If Coulson had lied about something so trivial where was the truth in anything he said? Thankfully that wasn't the case. He didn't know if he would have been able to repair that.
Fitz and Simmons were crowded around a laptop in the back of the hotel room. They had sent the "seven dwarves" out to map out the facility defences and hopefully hook a tap into their system, giving Skye an in.
Coulson stood at the window, arms crossed, staring out through the sun curtains. Hill knew. If Hill knew, then so did Fury. What were they hiding? What could they possibly be hiding from him? He shook his head. It wasn't just hiding. They were lying, covering it up, messing with his memories. He couldn't think about that for long without his thought beginning to spiral down.
Skye and Ward returned, Skye much more subdued, and they quietly joined Fitz and Simmons in the back as May walked up beside Coulson and mirrored his folded arms.
"Why Travis McGee?" She waited until he looked at her to continue. "Why plagiarize published works when they could have just made up something from scratch?"
"I own all of them. First editions," he said with raise brows.
May's mouth quirked. "Of course."
"I must have reread them a dozen times over the years."
"You didn't think it was strange you were quoting them as your own thoughts?"
Coulson rubbed his hand over his face. "No. No I didn't. And all of this tells me they really did their homework. This wasn't simple hypnotic suggestion. Look hard enough and you can see through those. They used my books, I already had memories of reading them, holding them, to fill in the sensory gaps. They didn't overload the memories with too much, making me feel bored so that I would be ready to get to work. Gave me words I was comfortable with, that I knew, words that wouldn't feel strange for me to say."
"'It's a magical place'?" May asked, in disbelief.
Coulson shrugged.
"I guess if you say it with your dry humor it works for sarcastic."
Coulson huffed a small laugh.
A comfortable silence stretched out between them as May's close proximity help calm his nerves.
Voices raised in the back, talking about sneezing, but May couldn't tell if they meant Sneezy or Dopey or …
May smiled wide. "You picked one hell of a team, Phil," she commended, earning her a smile. She turned to him. "And we've got your back."
Coulson nodded, his face impassive. Only the slightest jutting of his chin conveyed his emotions. Anyone else who even noticed would see anger, maybe annoyance. But May saw worry, possibly even fear in the twitch; something she had to go back years in her memories to remember seeing on him.
"We'll figure this out, Phil." May reassured, while mentally hoping she was right.
This won't be a terribly long story; maybe four or five more chapters. Just depends on where inspiration and reviews take me. So, I guess it could be more.
