This chapter took me a little longer to write, mainly because I didn't know exactly what I wanted to write. Then I decided to write this; I won't be spending time exploring the twins, and I figured Coulson needed a dad centric chapter, just like May had (check chapter 10). So here it is: Coulson's interaction with each of his kids in different moments of their lives.

Another thing: the cover image changed. There you can see how the kids looked (and how the twins look like) when they were below the age of 10. If you are reading this story after it is completed, this image I'm talking about will be in my profile, you can check it there. (Yes, the cover image will change again, in the last chapter)

Dads make bad jokes. All dads, no exceptions.

Trip walked in the kitchen, scratching his tummy and yawning. Coulson was preparing breakfast, tie hanging loose around his neck, still untied, and May was putting Jemma in her high chair. The boy promptly took a seat, and after serving the toddler her breakfast, May pressed a kiss onto Trip's head and walked out of the kitchen to get dressed up. Even though he had only been welcomed to the Coulson's family a couple of months ago, he was already fully integrated in the family dynamics.

"Dad, I'm hungry," Trip mumbled, supporting his elbows on the table surface and propping his chin on his hands.

"Hi hungry, I'm dad."

Trip rolled his eyes and swung his legs under the table, making funny faces at his little sister. Once he finished preparing breakfast, Coulson put a glass of juice and a plate with scrambled eggs in front of Trip.

"Here you go, Hungry. Enjoy breakfast."

The boy sighed, picked his fork and started eating.

"How are the eggs?" Coulson asked whilst feeding Jemma.

Trip hummed, "Good."

"You mean eggcellent?"

"Oh God…" Trip covered his face with both hands and shook his head.

Dads do reckless things with their even more reckless kids.

Coulson was still inside the mechanic's shop, paying for the repairs done on Lola, when he heard Lance making too much noise, and the Corvette honking. Coulson didn't like anyone touching Lola, and the idea of a mechanic fixing her sent chills down his spine, but bringing Lance to pick up his precious red Corvette was even more spine-chilling. That boy was a precious soul, but he was a load of trouble; his intentions were good but they never worked out as he idealized them.

"What are you doing?" his voice came out sterner than he expected.

The boy was sitting in the driver's seat, hands were still holding the steering wheel, when he looked at his father and froze.

"Nothin'" he said, moving to the passenger's seat.

When Coulson returned, Lance had already climbed onto the backseat and fastened the seatbelt. During the ride, he could feel Lance's gaze burning a hole in his back.

Gazing at him through the interior rearview mirror, Coulson asked, "Is there something wrong?" Lance simply shook his head. "Are you upset because I shouted at you in the mechanic's shop?"

"No," he mumbled.

"Because I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout or sound mad. I just don't like people touching Lola."

"I just wanted to drive her," the boy disclosed. "Just for a bit."

Coulson didn't say anything, remaining quiet until they entered their neighborhood. He stopped the car, unfastened his seat belt and stepped out of the Corvette.

"Why are we stopping here?"

"Come on," Coulson tilted his head in the general direction of the driver's seat, "I'm letting you ride Lola."

Lance's eyes sparkled and he quickly climbed onto the driver's seat, giggling a bit manically because of the excitement. He immediately firmed his grip on the car's steering wheel and turned the key in the ignition, but obviously the engine didn't start.

"Wait a second there," Coulson chuckled, sitting at the passenger's seat. "Look at the pedals first. From left to right there's the clutch, the brake and the gas pedal. Now, the car won't start if you're not stepping on the clutch as you turn the keys in the ignition. After its working, you slowly lift your left foot and press the gas pedal with your right foot. I'll handle the gearshift. You'll step on the clutch whenever I'll say that I'm changing gear."

"Are you seriously letting me drive her?"

"Why not? You just have to drive slowly. This is a quiet neighborhood but someone can pop up out of nowhere."

"And if I can't stop and run over them?" Lance asked, concerned.

Coulson smiled, tapping the hand brake lever, "Don't worry. I've got the hand brake. Want to drive or not?"

Lance pressed his foot on the clutch and turned the key in the ignition, starting the car, "Oh yeah!"

Dads are patient.

"How did it go today?" May asked, lying down in bed, crossing one ankle over the other.

Coulson sighed, unable to wipe the silly smile off his face, "You should have seen him, May." He brushed Grant's hair off his forehead, watching sleep peacefully. "He fell asleep right after dinner, absolutely worn-out. He ran that whole field back and forth; Tom Brady was out of this world. He played with Grant for a good half an hour and joined us on the visit to The Hall. I had never seen Grant smiling so much. Or laughing for that matter."

Grant was a big enthusiastic fan of the New England Patriots, and so Coulson tried his best to give him the chance to visit the stadium. It turned out that, with Fury's help, the two of them got to visit not only the stadium and The Hall, but they'd also have the chance to meet with Tom Brady.

"Well, you did make his biggest dream become reality. For someone who never had anyone who cared about him, this meant the world to him."

"Thank you."

"For what?" May asked confused.

"For letting me do this. We both know that Grant trusts you more and that he isn't yet comfortable with me. I really hope he understands that I'm not the same person his father was."

May sighed, "He will understand. You have to give him time."

"I will give him all the time and space he needs, but I feel so useless sometimes. I'm sure he won't talk to me once we're home."

"Phil…"

"It's alright," he swallowed hard. "I'm willing to wait for him to trust me."

Bewilder without knowing what else to say to console him, May changed the subject, "You should get some sleep. You two will have a lot to visit in the city and you'll want to be energetic enough to keep up with him."

"You're right. G' night."

"'Night."

Coulson set his phone over the bedside table and stood up to go to sleep, as he had been sitting on the edge of Grant's bed. He felt the boy grabbing his hand and so he looked back. Grant was quiet, staring him with sleepy eyes.

"Go back to sleep, bud. We have a big day tomorrow."

"Thanks, dad."

Coulson leaned over to press a kiss onto Grant's hair, "You're welcome, kid." Stroking his hair, he asked, "You know I'm not like him, right?"

Grant nodded and then added, "I know. I just need –"

"A little more time, I know. One day at the time and we'll get there."

Dads raise their boys to be John Rambo.

After learning that Leo was bullied at school, Coulson's stomach flipped. He was suspended after the stun grenade incident and the executive council agreed, unanimously, that he had to be transferred to another school. Coulson didn't want any of the situations to happen again, so he was single-minded on physically training Leo so that he could evade or defend himself from bullies.

"Boys, come to the backyard, please," Coulson called from the bottom of the staircase.

May looked out the window in the kitchen and leaned against the counter, crossing her arms over her chest, waiting for her husband to walk past her.

"Have you seen it?" he asked, excited, pointing out the window.

"Your Rambo obstacle course? Yes, I did," she said unfazed.

Coulson sighed and explained, "Trip and Lance practice sports, and Grant just started taking boxing lessons. Leo doesn't do any physical activities and I…" he looked down at his feet, "I don't want him to get bullied again. A few weeks ago they broke his arm, and then what next? Another bully will crack his head open and –"

She cupped his face in her hands and pressed a kiss on his forehead, "Just put some sunscreen on them. Especially on Leo. He gets sunburns so easily."

"I thought you were you going to stop me or say I'm insane," he gave a small smile.

May shrugged and said over her shoulder before walking out the kitchen, "Boys will be boys. I'll be in the office room."

Dads are not lazy; they are selective participants.

Jemma sighed disappointed as she yet failed to put together her science project. Dad was supposed to help her put together her science project, which was an impressive scale model of the Solar System. Leo helped her with the mass and distance calculations, but after that she was on her own. Well, she did ask Coulson for help but he clearly forgot when he sat on the couch to watch a baseball game. Displeased with the situation, and noticing how much work she still had to do, Jemma did the right thing: she phoned the one person that could make Phil Coulson get to work in two seconds.

"Mom?"

"Jemma? Why are you calling?" May's voice came out strangled. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah… I mean, no."

"What happened?"

She sighed and sat at the porch steps, "Dad was supposed to help me with my science project but he's watching baseball. Didn't even notice when I passed by him to get the phone… I have so much work still left to do, mom," she wailed.

"Put him on the phone." Just as Jemma was about to get up, May barked from the other side, "Ten more laps!"

"Uh?" the girl grunted confused.

"I'm not talking with you. Get your father on the phone."

Jemma approached Coulson and tapped him on the shoulder, handing him the phone, "Mom wants to speak with you."

"Mel, is everything alright?"

"No, it's not," she was pissed. "Get your lazy ass off the couch and help Jemma with her science project."

"I'm not being lazy. Let's just be honest, she's the smartest in this house when it comes to science. For what could she possibly need my help?"

"Anything. Maybe she needs you to help her with heavy things or dangerous materials or God knows what. Or maybe she just needs her father to keep up with her promise."

Coulson swallowed hard after hearing that, "Alright, I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me." The two of them were quiet for a few seconds until May resumed, "And if I were to walk in the house right now, I think I'd find Lance and Grant wrestling in the hall, Skye climbing up the kitchen counters to get to the cookies jar, Leo jumping on the bed, Trip throwing the baseball at the wall in his bedroom and Jemma going back to her science project and potentially getting hurt."

Coulson heaved a long, deep sigh. He liked to be called out when he was doing something wrong, but he didn't like to be called out when he was being a bad father. He hated it when, for one reason or another, he could be labelled as a bad dad, but, looking after six children and doing house chores wasn't easy; sometimes he just needed a break, and he knew that his wife shared the thought.

"I'm so tired. Taking the kids to the pediatrician, doing laundry and cleaning up after their mess –"

"I know, I understand. But they don't understand that. They just want us to be there for them. You can watch the game's recap later, alright? Now, I need you to prepare something for dinner and to parent our children. Three more hours I'm home and you catch your breath."

He breathed deeply again and told her before hanging up, "Love you."

Dads know everything. And if they don't, they can make something up really quickly.

Coulson was lying face up on the couch and Skye was sprawled over his chest, head tucked his chin. The two were watching TV, Coulson hoping that Skye would fall asleep soon enough; it was far too late for her to be awake. In fact, they were the only two people who were still up.

"Dad?" Skye lifted her head and patted his chest as he was almost sleeping.

"Yeah?" he said with a husky voice, blinking his eyes in an attempt to stay awake.

"You said that ice cream truck only plays a song when they run out of ice creams."

He frowned; why was she talking about the ice cream truck now?

"It's true. Why are you asking about it now?"

She pointed to the TV screen, "'Cause they heard the ice cream truck and went to get 'ce cream."

Crap, the cartoons! Coulson blinked hard and pushed himself up, cradling Skye closer to his chest.

"Well, that's because it's different from place to place."

"They live in New York too," Skye pointed out, starting not to believe her father.

"You see, they live in downtown New York and we live in a neighborhood. In here, people buy ice creams when they see the ice cream truck passing by, but in the big city, there's so much noise and so many cars that that sometimes people don't even see the truck passing by. That's why he plays the song in the city but not here."

"Ah," Skye tilted her head, "makes sense."

Coulson sighed, relieved; she believed it.

"How about we get some sleep? Everyone's sleeping already and we should too."

"Okay," she muttered, sliding down his lap.

Dads can't say no. Especially to their little girls.

"Dad, it's getting late," Avalyn impatiently called, bouncing up and down, absolutely ecstatic.

"We still have six hours, Duracell Bunny," Coulson smiled and looked back, throwing the dish cloth over his shoulder. "Calm down."

Avalyn let out a long sigh, "There's gonna be a bunch of people in front of us and then I won't see anything."

"It's a concert, Ava-Jo," he reminded her, putting away the dishes in the cabinet. "It matters if you listen to it, not much if you see the –"

"It's One Direction, it matters!" Avalyn claimed as if it was the most important thing of her life (which, at the moment, it kind of was). "I really wanna see Liam."

"He's upstairs, sweetie," Coulson joked, storing the tableware in the cutlery tray.

"Liam Payne, dad," she was serious, and yet he was still smiling. The girl brushed her side swept bang off her forehead with her hand, "We're gonna be late," she repeated, leaving the kitchen.

Coulson had only the slightest clue of what he was getting himself into. Avalyn begged him for days on end to go to One Direction's concert. Three 'pretty please' and her best puppy dog eyes were all it took to conquer her father's soft heart. Getting the tickets was easy; Coulson knew people everywhere. All he had to do was go to the concert with her… and two other girls from her class. Upon hearing from Avalyn that her father was taking her, the mothers asked Coulson if he could take their daughters too. He said yes; what harm would two more girls make?

"Oh God," he said to himself upon realizing what he had to go through in the next eight hours.

"Something wrong?" May asked, standing right behind him, twins perched on each side of her hip. Coulson hadn't even heard her enter or the twins babbling.

He swirled on his wheels, panic spreading across his face, "Take AJ to the concert."

May smirked, putting Liam and Juliet in their high chairs, "Oh no. You said yes, now you bear with it."

Coulson swallowed a lump in his throat, listening to Avalyn singing at the top of her lungs, "And we danced all night to the best song ever. We knew every line, now I can't remember. How it goes but I know that I won't forget her. 'Cause we danced all night to the best song ever. I think it went oh, oh, oh. I think it went yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it goes!"

"I need to learn how to say 'no', don't I?"

"Yes."

Dads can't help but to laugh, even when they're not supposed to laugh.

Liam was now a pro crawler, but it took him some time to learn how to properly crawl through the whole house and force his parents to leave all doors locked.

He started by getting on his knees and rock back and forth, without knowing how to get one knee in front of the other. He simply hopped his knees forward by kicking with a foot. Noticing that this wasn't the right approach, Liam tried another stage of learning. He got on his hands and feet and fussed because he didn't understand why it didn't lead to standing upright walking. Coulson couldn't help but to chuckle, but seeing how frustrated Liam would get, he decided to crawl around for a while to show him what she should be shooting for. It only led to more laughter. He got stance right, but when he moved, he was going backwards slowly. Funny enough he giggled till his cheeks were bright red, and seemed really proud of his accomplishment.

Coulson laughed way too much when, one day after searching for a whimpering Liam, he found him stuck under the couch on all fours, butt trapped, head peeking out. The baby wasn't too concern or bothered with the fact that he was trapped under the couch. Rather, he was whimpering because he couldn't grab his toy rattle.

Now that Liam had finally perfected his crawling stance and the direction, no one could stop him. Coulson heard the clanging of pots and pans coming from the kitchen.

"What are you doing, little guy?"

Liam gave a gummy smile and hit with the pot on the floor, amused by the sound of it.

"I guess I have to put locks on the cabinet doors too, uh?" he commented to himself, tickling the boy's sides.

The baby giggled as Coulson picked him up in arms, "Alright," he continued, "let's get you in the carrier too. Dad has a lot to do around the house and I can't afford to have the dynamic duo crawling everywhere."

Obviously Liam wasn't happy with his father's decision, squirming and whining. Despite the protest, Coulson put him in the baby carrier and strapped it to his chest. Just as he was about to put Juliet in her own carrier and strap it to his back, he burst out laughing.

"You two are going to be the death of me, aren't you?" he said among chuckles.

Now it was Juliet the one trapped under the couch…

Dads know magic, full stop.

"Melinda?" Coulson asked, standing at the end of the bed, undoing his tie knot.

He chuckled quietly, seeing how his wife was working in auto-pilot mode, Juliet cradled in her arms, gently tapping her bottom so that she would fall asleep. The only thing wrong about the picture was that Juliet was waving her tiny hands in the air, playing and tugging on a few of her mother's hair locks, and May's head was hanging low, her eyes closed.

"Melinda," he whispered, now taking a seat by her side.

She woke up startled and promptly looked up.

"It's not working," he teased with a smirk, looking down at their baby girl.

"Ow," she grimaced, untangling Juliet's hand from her hair.

"Can I?" he asked, stretching his arms at her. May transferred the baby to his arms. "And Liam?" he resumed, rocking Juliet in his embrace.

"Fell asleep on his own," she said, right before yawning. She was tired and the dark circles under her eyes could prove it.

May leaned forward to straighten Juliet's small top that had rolled up her back when she was moved to her father's arms. That was when May noticed Juliet's eyelids batting slowly, and after a long, deep sigh, she closed her eyes.

"How?" May simply asked.

Coulson grinned cheekily as he got up and walked to the door to lie Juliet down in her crib, "Still got it."

Drop me a review, let me know. We're slowly approaching the end of this fanfiction...

And, remember the poll to choose a name for an Asgardian little girl? Well, check the poll results, and in the next chapter, you'll finally learn about her. Who do you think she is? Let me know.

*On a last note: the twins names are Liam Robert and Juliet Lian. Their names honor their grandparents, William and Lian May, and Robert and Julie Coulson.