Ward hung up the phone and stared at it, thinking about how much it sucked that he was lying to her.

"Tom Brady? You hate the Patriots.", Garrett said.

Ward snapped out of his thoughts.

"The Grant Ward she knows doesn't."

"Yeah that straight version of you is something else. I don't even think Romanoff could pull that one."

"Well it wasn't without it's complications."

"Oh come on.", he scoffed, "You're not still upset about that."

"Shooting Skye was not part of the plan."

Garrett knew the conversation was about to get heated.

"Near zero contact, that was the deal going in. Though your tip about the cellist came in handy. If you had a thing for the girl you should have contacted me. I would have asked for your blessing."

"Don't play your games with me. This isn't a joke."

"You don't have to tell me. Your little candy crush was on Centipede's tail long before she was Recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. Seemed like a good person to eliminate. My bad."

"'Candy crush'? Skye and I have something real going right now."

"Listen, if the job was easy, it wouldn't-"

"Yeah, the job was to blend in. To gather intel on Coulson's revival. That's it. You said yourself that you didn't want any bloodshed."

"That was before I found out that Coulson didn't know squat. You know, you would've had an easier time if I gave the kill order week one."

"Yeah. But you didn't. Now I'm deep into a relationship that is about to head straight down a cliff."

"Look, I get it Ward. She's the whole package, cute, smart, and courageous. I don't blame you, but don't forget what the assignment was and don't forget why."

He wanted to just forget about the assignment, to run away with Skye. He was happy with her, happier than he's ever been. It wasn't a normal feeling for him. Something about it didn't sit well- the idea of living a happy, normal life. When he talked about living a normal life with her, he felt like he really wanted it. But when he thought about it on his own, he couldn't picture it, he couldn't believe it was real.

But he knew Garrett was right. Garrett was the one who pulled him out of a hell. He had to repay him.

Skye walked into Coulson's office and dropped everyone's badges on his desk.

"This wasn't easy. Simmons got choked up when we asked for hers.", she reached into her own pocket and pulled out her badge. "This was big for me. I finally felt like it was apart of something, and now… it's worthless."

He picked up the badges and opened the secret safe behind his desk.

"I was younger than you when Fury recruited me. Just out of high school. Somedays it feels like only yesterday. Other days… a lot longer."

"I heard about Fury. I'm sorry, I know you guys were friends."

"That's an understatement.", he dropped the badges into the safe, "He was my S.O. He was the first male role model since my dad died. Why do you think he's your godfather."

"What? He's my godfather?"

"Oh yeah I forgot to tell you. He was trying to teach you to call him Uncle Nick."

"Well, it's a shame I never got to meet him- again."

After she said that something beeped from inside the safe.

"Is that your badge?"

Coulson took out his badge and opened it to find a list of numbers under the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo.

"They look like coordinates."

"Coordinates to where?", Skye asked.

"I don't know yet. But there's only one person who could have sent these."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying you might get to meet you god father after all."

He bolted straight out of the door and into the cockpit.

"Melinda- get us to these coordinates."

"Phil… what is this.", he was gone before he she could finish her questions. Skye ran up behind him.

"Skye what's going on?"

"Mom… I, uh, I don't know. We were putting away the badges when his badge started beeping. And he found the coordinates and now he thinks that Fury is trying to communicate to us."

"Oh god…"

"This is good, right?"
"Um yeah. Go check on what he's up to right now. I'll meet you down there."

Skye left and she sat back down in the pilot seat. May opened the drawer under the control panel and took out an envelope.

It was marked, 'For May. From, your friend."

Fury dropped it in her locker a few weeks after Coulson died before the Battle of New York. She never had the courage to open it. And once she found out that he made it out alive she figured there was no point in opening it. But she kept it anyway. She knew she'd open it one day but she didn't know when. Suddenly she felt she had to.

May,

By now you've heard about Coulson's death. I can't imagine what this must be like for you. I know you and him broke it off a long time ago but I know you two never stopped caring about each other.

I tried to save him but I was too late. He was a hero.

Now, what you are about to read next is top secret. Besides me, Coulson was the only other S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who knew about this.

I put him in charge of a project that could potentially revive a fallen Avenger using a drug that we put together using alien blood. At first he had initial success with the regenerative properties of the guest host tissue, but after the physical recovery the subjects began to deteriorate mentally. I don't know what the exact scientific terms are, but it was bad. They started going crazy, something wasn't right. So the scientists here decided to create a machine that would go into his brain and replace any memory of the drug with a much more pleasant one. This didn't sit well with Coulson. He handed in his resignation for this project saying that it was inhumane.

I don't know if its wise, but I know that it's right. I'm going to put him through the T.A.H.I.T.I. project. People like us, we need people like him. He didn't deserve this, but if I had the slightest chance to save him, I'm gonna take it.

I hope you have the chance to read this, and when you do, call me. We have a lot to discuss.

-N. Fury

May finished reading the note and put it down. She couldn't believe it. She knew it took a lot of unorthodox techniques to bring a man back from the dead, but… alien? This was crazy. And all that those stories he's told her about his time in T.A.H.I.T.I. were fake.

He's suspected this sort of thing ever since Raina kidnapped him. And when he came back from the facility, he was shouting for them not to use the drug. He knew, he just didn't know everything.

She knew what she had to do next.

"So director Fury is alive?"

"What did he say? Does he have a plan?:

"He only sent coordinates."

May rushed down from the cockpit and straight into the briefing area.

"Phil, we need to talk.", she grabbed his arm and dragged him into her bunk.

"Melinda, what are you doing."

She closed the door and hit the sound-proof button.

"After you died, Fury dropped this in my locker.", she said as she pulled out the letter, "I couldn't gather the courage to open it. And when I found out that you were alive, I figured there was no point. But seeing as how things are going to shit right now I thought there might be something in there that could help us.", she held the letter out to him. "I want you to read it."

He sat down on her bed and put on his glasses. She watched him to see his reaction. Once he had gotten halfway down his face started to change. When he finished the letter he looked up at May.

"It was me…"

"What?"

"I was in charge of project T.A.H.I.T.I."

"Really? That's your takeaway? Not the fact that the drug that saved you and your daughter's life is alien?"

He broke eye contact with her and looked around the room.

"One second."

"What the hell-"

He ran out of the bunk into the briefing area, grabbed Skye's arm and dragged her into the bunk.

"What's going on?", Skye asked as Coulson closed the door behind them.

"Skye, the drug that we used to heal you was… alien.", May said as Coulson went over the letter again.

"Yeah, I know. Dad told me after I woke up."

Coulson stood behind May signaling Skye to stop taking, but it was too late. May turned around to talk to him.

"You knew about this and you didn't tell me?"

"Melinda it's not like that. I-I didn't know about where the drug came from until we went to the guest house."

"And even after that, you didn't tell me."

Coulson was at a loss of words. He knew May's non-expression expressions well enough to know that the one she was giving him at that moment meant that he was in a lot of trouble.

Skye picked up on it too.

"Well I'm gonna go- looks I'm done here.", Skye said as she exited the bunk.

"Melinda, I know what this looks like but-"

"No excuses, Phil. Give it to me straight."

"Ok…", he sat back down on the bed, "You saw, when I was kidnapped, how badly the the Clairvoyant wanted to know. And when we went down to the facility, men died for this secret. Fury didn't even tell me- I had to dig for it myself."

"What's your point?"

"If that many people were willing to give that many lives for a single secret, I didn't want to put you in danger."

"But you were willing to put Skye, our daughter, in danger"

"She had a right to know."

"Well so did I."

"What do you mean?"

"The two most important people in my life have this drug in their system. And according to this letter, it is highly unstable."

"But we're fine. Nothing's wrong with us."

"Not yet. And you're memory was replaced. What if you can't tell what's real and what's not. How are you gonna be able to make the right decision?"

"I'm fine. I haven't done anything that questionable, have I?"

"Well you have us on this wild goose chase-"

"'Wild goose chase'? That's what you think this is?"

"Phil, there's no proof Fury sent that to you. He's dead Phil."

"Melinda, I'm not imagining this. It's real. Don't you trust me?"

"Don't ever doubt it."

"Ok, then that's it; we're doing this.", with that he exited the bunk and went back into the briefing area.

A few hours later they landed the bus.

"Coordinates are about a 7 mile hike from here.", Coulson said as the team prepared themselves to leave the bus, "Terrain's pretty rough, even if it wasn't covered with snow."

"Agent May and I can lead a scouting party first, make sure this isn't a trap.", Trip offered.

"There's no time. In less than eight hours a NATO satellite will pass directly over us. If the Bus is here, they'll know. I've been doing this long enough to know that something's up there. But this mission, has to be your choice.", he looks around at each one individually, "A lot's changed in the last few days. I know you all have your doubts about what we've been doing, about me.", he glanced at May, "But I don't. Which is why I'm going to find whatever Fury has waiting for us… with you or without you."

He hits the button to open the cargo hold and they begin the long journey to who knows what.

Okay, for all of you Philinda lifers- don't worry. This friction going on between them wont last for long.

Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)