Disclaimer: I do not own Skye, Phil Coulson, Melinda May, Grant Ward, or FitzSimmons. I only own the variation I have created off of this very popular idea.
I firstly must thank Neeeeeal who, as the author of Turn Back Time, has done such a very interesting and lovely job on their story I wanted to give my attempt of it a go.
However, because I cannot find B.J. Britt's wiki page or his age, I'm going with Ward. But that's not the only reason. It's because with the Hydra plot, I see no room or logical way for this story to make sense. So... It's AUish. Ward isn't hydra. Yay! Because I really did love Ward.
Warning, MAY include Avengers. I upped the rating for my own comfort.
To the kids, the inside of the house looked as magical as the front. Immediately after the door opened, the ankle biters had scattered, Grant running after Leo who made a mad dash for the bathroom. Jemma disappeared around the corner, while Skye immediately ran into the room to the right of the front door, the living room. Skye smiled, jumping on the couch with a laugh, while the sounds of protests echoed through the house. Coulson and May looked at one another, before running after the kids. Jemma had managed to climb onto the counter looking through the cupboards for snacks. Before either of them could take a step towards Jemma they heard Leo and Grant from the bathroom.
"Oh boy," Coulson says hurrying to the bathroom, while May went to catch Jemma before she had a chance to fall.
Coulson walked in to see the toilet covered on the ground, Leo standing on the closed toilet seat while Grant held him around the waist restraining him. Obviously, Leo wanted to explore how a toilet worked, but Grant had quickly stopped him before he could touch anything.
"Whoa..." He says, lifting Leo into his arms and placed him on the ground, "We don't wanna go playing in there Leo." Coulson lifted the lid and placed it back. He then led the two out of the bathroom and into the living room. He quickly grabbed Skye while she was jumping and sitting her down with a chuckle. May entered not a moment later with Jemma in her arms.
"Ok, huddle up," Coulson says, the kids all leaning forward to listen as a smile crept onto his face, "Ok, now including mine and mommy's room, there are three bedrooms in the house. Which means everyone's gonna have to share, Grant and Leo get a room, and Jemma and Skye get a room ok?"
He got four nods, so he continued, "Come on, lets go check out the bedrooms."
Coulson led the kids upstairs, leaving May downstairs to call Hill quickly. Coulson showed them each room, going all with the door despite not knowing where any of these bedrooms were. He showed them the bathroom and the master bedroom with interest, letting the kids poke their heads in to explore.
The first kid bedroom they entered had two beds, one bed pressed up long ways against the wall, parallel to the door and pressed up to the right wall. The second bed was pressed up against the left wall, perpendicular to the door wall. On the opposite side of the room was the window, letting in clear early afternoon light in. It had one of those cushion bench things in front of it, allowing people to lay there and stare out the window all day. The carpet was a light blue, and the walls were covered in a wallpaper with thing pastel colored lines.
"This is the girls room" Coulson says, Jemma and Skye running into the room and grabbed for a twin bed. Both had identical pastel purple floral designed bedsheets with white wooden bed frames. Jemma took the bed parallel to the door, while Skye took the second bed, jumping on top of it with a smile. Coulson opened the bedroom door slightly diagonally across from the girls room.
It was about equal size to the girls room, with dark green carpet and dark pale green wallpaper with darker green animal silhouettes. The twin beds were at the far side of the room, with dark brown wooden frames and blue plaid bed sheets. They were perpendicular to the wall, with a medium length low table under the window and between the beds. Leo and Grant ran over to the beds, Leo taking the left bed and Grant taking the right one.
"These are ours?" Leo asked.
"Yep," Coulson says, looking up to see May entering the hallway. She looked between the two room, studying them quickly.
"I'm running out to get a late lunch for everyone, since Jemma was hungry earlier. What does everyone want?"
The kids were silent, causing Mel and Phil to worry, were the kids taken off guard by the privilege to choose? They looked at each other concerned. But then Skye and Jemma walked over to Mel.
"Can we get chicken nuggets?" Skye asked, watching Mel in amazement. It dawned onto Coulson that they and never heard such a long sentence leave May's mouth and smiled.
"Yeah? Can we please get chicken nuggets Mel?" Grant asked, Leo nodding. May looked at the kids and nods.
"Ok," May says, "Don't trash the house while I'm gone."
"No promises!" Coulson joking called towards her leaving form before turning to the kids with a smile.
It was six thirty when everyone had finished their dinner of pizza. Ordering pizza, Leo and Jemma were rather amazed by the circular, saucy convection. Grant and Skye had looked at it like it was a gift from the heavens. But in the end, Skye and Leo had pizza sauce all over their little faces, Jemma had gotten stains on her shirt and pants, and Grant had spilled his soda all over his pants. They were a little worse for wears and in desperate need need for a bath.
However, at 6:45 when the idea was proposed, all children under the age of seven had suddenly become scarce. Coulson sighed, having sent Grant upstairs to take a shower while May went searching for the little rug rats. Coulson had luckily stolen a few pairs of hospital scrubs from the Hub and left the clothes on the sink for Grant.
Unfortunately for May and Coulson, whenever they set one child down, they would run off the moment they turned their back. At 7:00, with both girls screaming and throwing fits, May forcibly gave Skye and Jemma a bath. Both girl protested at first, but then Jemma started to calm down. While May spent most of the time holding Skye down and trying to scrub her down with a bar of soap, Jemma washed herself with the soap. While Jemma was a perfect Angel when it came to washing her hair, Skye was a fighter, constantly getting shampoo in her eyes. Jemma was out of the tub after fifteen minutes, while Skye continued her fight. She screamed, splash and threatened to jam the soap down her throat. May, furious and long done with Skye's attitude had pulled her from the tub, as clean as she was gonna get with her constant fighting. She drained the water, leaving the bathroom for Coulson and Leo, and dragged the two girls to their bedroom.
"Ow ow OW!" Skye screeched, moving to slap and hit May as she ran the comb through the child's untamable knotted hair.
"Skye! Sit still!" May says, grabbing the young girl before she could run off and delay the inevitable. She took her legs, and wrapped them around the small girls waist to trap her. But that didn't stop her from trying to pry them off and hit May.
"LET GO!" Skye screamed, "STOP I'M DONE!"
May held her down, unaware of Jemma beginning to cry and crawl into a tiny ball on her bed. May held Skye dragging the comb through a nasty knot through her hair. She had chosen to do Jemma first, because Jemma had been more or less a perfect little obedient Angel and didn't throw a tantrum during this. Skye on the other hand, was the devils monster.
"STOP!" Skye screeched at the top of her lungs, "GRANT!"
"Hold still," Skye shook her head, Grant running in right as Skye screamed in pain.
"IT HURTS!" Skye screamed with tears in her eyes. Grant ran over to try and get to Skye but May looked at Grant, with a cold look. He stopped in his tracks, as May finished the last of the knot. Just as she let Skye go, the child ran into Grants arms crying her head off.
"Whats with all the screaming?" Coulson asked as he entered the room, Leo following close behind.
"Trying to comb Skye's hair out" May says. She blinked, looking around to see Grant staring at May, shielding Skye with his body while Leo scurried on up the bed to hug and cradle Jemma. The older woman blinked, seeing reflections of fear and hurt in their eyes. Feeling a small pain in her heart, May hurried out of the room, and into the master bedroom.
Coulson watched her go and kneeled down to Grant's height, "I'll be right back ok? Keep an eye on everything."
Coulson then left the girls room, entering the master bedroom. Sitting on the far side of the bed, May was hunched over. She was sitting cross legged, hair draping her face as she took deep breathes. Coulson quietly closed the door, making his way next to her and gently held her shoulders in an embrace.
"Mel? Mel, are you ok?" He asks. He felt her shake slightly, but not as a sign of crying. It was a sign to show that she was listening and turning to look at him. His hands slowly slid to hold her arms. Even without the skin tight SHIELD sanctioned suit he could feel the muscles under his calloused fingers.
"Why do kids have to be so difficult Phil?" May asked, not meeting his eyes.
"Mel, it's going to get better. I promise," Coulson says, "We just gotta get use to this, change our habits and readjust."
"What if it doesn't? I don't know how to be a mother, how can I pretend to be a loving mother?" She asks. Coulson rubbed her arms, looking at her. These past two months had done a number on them both, Coulson had developed a short temper and May's cold demeanor had started to chip and crack. They had been leaning into each other for comfort. So now, it wasn't exactly odd for Melinda May to emotionally break down a bit like this, atleast it wasn't for Coulson.
"We'll do this together. When life throws you a curve ball you just gotta roll with it Mel. We're gonna do this together ok? Just like the old days right?"
May nods, "Just like the old days."
I'm sorry for the long chapter, and I'm sorry if I'm focusing a lot more on this than my other stories. But I want to get to the light hearted stuff, because I think I unintentionally made this a bit heavy but I'm rolling with it. And, I had to add this Melinda and Phil moment. I know it seems a bit out of character for May to be acting like this, but do you expect her to be keeping a calm composure after what happened with Skye and the kids looking at her like that? May has a heart!
And thank you for all the follows guys, I feel like I'm going over my head with how popular this is getting.