I totally had a blast writing this chapter. I mingled two of my ideas together and came up with this. I loved writing it, and I hope you love reading it too.
May and Coulson were practicing at the SHIELD's gym with Felix Blake and Jasper Sitwell. Coulson and May were the ones currently sparring; Sitwell was benched already. Phil was sweating profusely, unable to attack until an opportunity arose. He was standing behind her, so he laced his arms around her waist, ready to lift her off her feet and slam her body to the floor. Melinda smirked, and in two seconds flat she spun, tackled him, and flipped him over her shoulders, crashing him down onto the mat.
Blake shook his head in reproach and said, "You are so out of shape, Coulson."
"Two down," May said, fixing her ponytail, "who's next?"
"Shut up, Felix." Coulson grumbled between gasps as he stood up, "You're next and she'll sweep the floor with your ass too."
"And your dignity and self-respect," Sitwell put in.
"And manhood too, apparently." May teased, "Whiny babies."
Blake stood up and loosened his muscles, confident he'd be the one to defeat May. Coulson flopped down on the bench, breathing heavily, and Sitwell clapped his shoulder.
"I know," he said pitifully, vividly recalling what it was like to be thrown across the gym by such a small woman. "I know the feeling."
"I know you do," Coulson said, gulping some water. "But she's my wife and I should know better."
"Is anybody here going to make it a challenge for me?" May asked.
When Coulson and Sitwell turned their attention to the sparring, their eyes met Blake already lying breathless on the mat and May looking down at him, arching a brow, with her hands on her hips.
"Wasn't Garrett supposed to come and train with us?" Coulson asked, offering Blake his hand and pulling him of the floor.
Sitwell rolled his eyes, "Lucky him. Didn't get his ass kicked."
As soon as he was on his feet, Blake caught Coulson off guard and looped an arm around his neck. The two started sparring and so May took a seat and drank some water. Coulson and Blake's sparring took longer than all of three spars May had participated in against the men. That revealed something: either those two were too good, or awfully bad. In the eyes of May both of them were bad. After a few minutes, Coulson gave up playing nice. He pressed a foot into Blake's thigh, boosting his body up and wrapped his legs around his neck, quickly bringing him down with his weight. As they fell on the mat, Blake landed on his knees, with his head still trapped between Coulson's legs.
"Ok, this is foul play," Blake mumbled, his face reddening.
"It's Brazilian jiu-jitsu," "Coulson said while releasing his hold on Blake, "it's a martial art."
"I knew you weren't so bad," May put in, "At least last night you weren't out of shape."
"Oh please," Sitwell whined, "keep your private life private."
Sitwell and Coulson began sparring next. May's attention was diverted elsewhere once she heard her phone ringing. She frowned as she saw the caller ID - it was Mimi's house number. Even though Coulson only heard an one-sided conversation, the content of it intrigued him.
"You stay there," May said on the phone, "Your father and I are on the way."
Coulson ended up down on the mat by Sitwell who rejoiced in his victory. He got to his feet quickly, seeing his wife gathering their stuff.
"What's the matter? What happened?"
"Trip called me from Mimi's," May explained. "He's saying someone is in our house."
It took Coulson and May twenty minutes to get home, and they were as fast as they could. Upon reaching their house, May confirmed what Trip had told her over the phone: there was a strange car parked in front of their house.
"Do you need a gun?" Coulson asked, reaching for his. "I've got my backup one."
"If I needed a gun, I would have taken one."
As he was approaching the front door, wielding his gun discreetly, Coulson peered inside through the window. He saw Trip, Lance, Grant and the figure of another person in there, and put his gun back in the holster.
"They're in there."
May also looked through the window and the two rushed to the door.
"It's locked from the inside," Coulson stated, "We could pick the lock, or try the back-" May kicked the door open, "Or that."
The three kids looked back, startled. Trip was wielding his baseball bat, Grant was armed with a frying pan and Lance was holding the Taser gun he found in one of the drawers in the office room but never told his parents he had found it.
"Put everything down," Coulson ordered.
They did as they were asked and stepped back, revealing a man tied up with duct tape to a chair. Coulson and May looked at each other; no way that that idiot was the one who was breaking into their house.
Twenty minutes earlier
Trip, Lance and Grant had just left the school bus and were walking down the road on the way back home. Upon seeing a strange car parked in front of their house, and the front door slightly open, Trip guided his brothers to Mimi's house.
"Why are we going to Mimi's?" Grant asked.
"I think there's someone in our house. I'm going to call Mom and Dad."
The oldest boy asked the lady if he could use her phone and told his mother everything that he suspected was happening. Grant and Lance kept Mimi distracted so that she wouldn't listen to Trip's conversation, and so she wouldn't be concerned about anything. The three then walked out of her house and stood nearby their house. They were watching from afar, feeling nervous and scared.
"You think whoever's in there is robbing our house?" Grant asked quietly.
Lance glanced his brother sideways and asked, "Why else would someone break into our house?"
"Well," the youngest looked at Trip, "then why don't we stop him?"
"No," Trip firmly said, "Mom said she'd be here soon with Dad."
"But we are getting robbed. We have to protect our house." Grant insisted.
"If one of you tackle the bloke, I can get him in a chokehold until he's unconscious," Lance suggested.
Trip sighed, "Nobody is doing anything to anyone."
The three lapsed into silence after that. The neighborhood was still quiet; not even the breeze made a sound. And whoever was inside their house wasn't coming out.
"Do you have your Nerf gun?" the oldest let out suddenly.
"No," Grant said. Trip rolled his eyes and the boy amended, "Maybe. Why?"
"If we're going to enter the house and take him down, we have to create a distraction."
"Uh, a Nerf gun doesn't really hurt, Trip."
"If you shoot at the right place, it hurts. You shoot the guy in the eye, I tackle him, Lance does the chokehold." Trip looked at his brothers, "What do you guys say?"
Lance rolled up his sleeves, "Let's get it done."
The three walked stealthily to their house and stooped down as soon as they entered the door. The burglar was nowhere to be seen so they felt even more scared. They moved in sync, hiding behind the walls in their hunt for the man. That was when they saw him coming down from upstairs. They froze where they stood.
"Look who it is," the man spoke, approaching them, "I've been waiting for you."
Grant breathed in deeply and pointed the toy gun at the intruder. He shot at his eye like Trip had told him to. The man clamped his eye shut for a few seconds which was long enough for Trip to lunge at the man and get him on the floor. He wrapped his arms around his torso, holding his arms still and Grant put down the Nerf gun and hugged the man's legs, immobilizing him. Lance slid across the floor on his knees and stood behind the man, placing his forearm across the front of the man's neck and with the help of his free hand he compressed his neck.
"It's ugh…" the man wheezed, "just… just a joke."
It didn't take long for his body to be motionless. The three let go of the man, watching his unconscious body crash down onto the wooden floor.
"We can't leave him here," Grant said, slightly scared by the situation, "When he awakes up he'll want to kill us."
"We gotta sit him on a chair and tie him up," Trip suggested, standing up as he recovered his breath.
The younger one insisted, "He looks strong enough to break a rope."
"Duct tape," Lance chirped as the idea struck him, "he can't break free from duct tape. I'll get it."
The British boy returned a while later with a roll of silver duct tape. The three kids worked on dragging the unconscious – and now very heavy - man and sat him in a chair. They duct-taped his forearms to the chair's armrest, his legs to the chair's legs and then used the remaining duct tape to wrap around his chest. The last little bit of the adhesive was used to cover his mouth and the cardboard roll was abandoned on the floor.
"We should get something to protect ourselves, right?" Lance glanced up at his older brother, "He might be waking up soon and he'll be very pissed."
Trip nodded his head and walked to his bedroom, returning with his baseball bat. He told his brothers to go and get something for themselves too. Grant brought a frying pan from the kitchen and Lance held the Taser gun he had found in one of the drawers in the office room.
"Go lock the front and back doors," Trip ordered Grant, "If he was here to rob us, he might not be alone."
Grant ran out of the living room as fast as a bullet, locking the doors and then resumed to his position. The three boys stayed in a fighting stance, wielding their weapons of choice, waiting any moment for the man to wake up. They were fearful that they wouldn't be able to tame the man again. And Mom and Dad were taking so long. Suddenly the noise of the door being kicked him startled them. Fear spread across their faces until they saw their parents and sighed, relieved.
"Put everything down," Coulson ordered.
They did as they were asked and stepped back, revealing a man tied up with duct tape to a chair. Coulson and May looked at each other; no way that that idiot was the one who was breaking into their house. Coulson walked to his friend John Garrett and began freeing him off the duct tape.
"What're you doing?" Grant piped up, shocked.
"He's a friend of your father's," May explained, "who happens to be a something which I can't say right now."
Lance asked, "An asshole?"
"Yes, he's an asshole. And that's a word you won't be repeating again in the future unless you want me to rip out your tongue," she warned looking back as she made the way to the kitchen to put the frying pan back in its place.
"Garrett?" Coulson called, slapping his friend's face, "Garrett wake up."
"Just leave him be," the woman said, "he'll wake up soon. By the way," she looked at their children, "didn't I tell you to stay at Mimi's?"
Trip nodded and replied, "Yes, but there was a stranger at our house and we had to keep everything safe."
Coulson looked back at them and asked curiously, "How did you duct tape him and get him unconscious?"
"I shot him in the eye with my Nerf gun," Grant began explaining.
May cut his speech, "I thought I told you not to play with that thing anymore."
"It came in handy this time," he amended.
"And after Trip tackled him," Lance continued, "I did a chokehold and knocked him unconscious."
"I told you I don't want you watching wrestling," his mother reprimanded.
"It was useful this time."
She sighed deeply and ordered, "Why don't go and wait for Leo and your sisters? They must be arriving anytime now."
The three walked out the door just as Garrett was starting to regain consciousness. He blinked a couple of times to get his bearings and once his vision stabilized, he saw a fist coming at him. May punched him so hard that he fell down and his nose began dripping blood.
"What the hell did you think you were doing?" She roared, her gaze stern, "You think this was funny?"
"Fury ordered me to come here." Garrett said as he got up on his feet, pressing his hand against his nose. At that Coulson and May looked at him, demanding a lengthier explanation, "He told me to break in here, give a little scare to your kids. He said he wanted to know if you were teaching them about self-defense and other important skills."
May turned to her husband, "You better get him some ice and then show him the way to the door, or I might hurt him even more."
Coulson nodded his head, his mind already making plans for a surprise visit to the Director later that day. May walked outside, especially intrigued to know how the kids had found the Taser gun.
"Agent," a petite woman ran after Coulson as he walked at full speed in the direction of Fury's office, "Agent Coulson, you can't walk in there without Director's Fury authorization."
Coulson pretended he didn't hear the poor agent from Communications talking to him. He threw the door open without a second thought, which made Fury tear his gaze from the screen.
"I tried to stop him, Director," the agent justified.
"It's alright," Fury stood up and waved his hand, dismissing the woman, "you can go."
Coulson waited until the door behind was closed before he started, "What the hell was that this afternoon? Telling Garrett to break into our house and scare our kids?"
"I wanted to know if you and Agent May are teaching them anything useful. Turns out they're quite good, am I wrong?" Fury smirked, "They knocked Garrett unconscious and duct taped him to a chair."
"That's not the point. You pull another stunt like this, and…"
"And what Agent Coulson? Is that a threat?"
He breathed in sharply, fuming, "Or so God help me because you won't want to know the end of my sentence."
He didn't exactly know how to finish his treat, but he was sure if another opportunity would come, his brain would come up with the perfect revenge plot. Because Coulson was a nice, relaxed guy until someone would mess with his family.
Next chapter will be about Trip's back story. Skye's and Fitz's back stories are written down as well, and will soon be posted. That chapter was one of my favorite.
But, let me know about your opinions on this chapter. I need new prompts to write, so feel free to send it to me through PM or review.