"Show Some Respect"

Phil paced back and forth. May watched him from the doorway, only her eyes moving – barely at that – like he was the ball at a fast-paced tennis match.

"This is not good," he said. "I wasn't expecting…"

"You knew they would have to be told sometime. You promised Sif you would tell Thor yourself."

"It's too soon!" May arched an eyebrow, and Phil grumbled something.

"When were you planning to tell them?" she asked.

"…Eventually—"

"And how?"

He opened and closed his mouth wordlessly. "I… I don't know. It's not like I'm in a position to plan ahead. You know what my setting has been for months: find catastrophe, fix catastrophe with some half-assed spur-of-the-moment plan, move onto the next catastrophe. If I had the opportunity to do something, I would've done it by now!"

"Instead they found out because you decided to join Twitter."

Phil slumped into his desk chair. May didn't budge from her spot.

"I had too much coffee last night," he said. "I guess I should arrange a time with the Avengers, now the cat's out of the bag." She didn't say anything. "Let them decide the time and place. Get the kids ready in advance." She stayed silent. "Maybe also take along my file so they can see what happened. At least I'm not going to lose my mind again anytime soon."

"Who'd notice the difference?" May muttered, turning and leaving the room now that her job as sounding board was done.

The Avengers made a lot of noise when they arrived. With Thor, he couldn't help it; he was born loud. Tony always had to make a flashy entrance. But on this occasion, Natasha and Clint were the most vocal, especially Clint, telling off Phil for keep them in the dark for so long. Even when he showed them photos from the surgery as well as his medical records, he was still on the receiving end of a lot of anger for several minutes.

"Since it's too late for you to consider accepting an apology, I'll save my breath," he murmured, eyes cast downwards. "Please come this way. You should meet the team, in case anything happens to… to us." 'To me', he'd probably meant to say. That didn't temper Steve's own feelings of betrayal.

"Cut the guy some slack," Sam said from beside Steve. "Sounds like he went through a hell of a time being dragged back to life. Not everyone gets to consent to being a science experiment."

"He—"

"And look at the way you're all behaving!" He indicated the rest of the Avengers as they followed Coulson. "Like the guy's committed murder or something. Can you blame him for not wanting to be at the end of all this vitriol? Shit, I don't know how many people would have the balls to face you all like that."

"Doesn't make me feel any better, Sam."

The group of people Coulson led them to made Steve wonder whether this really was all the manpower at the new director's disposal. He'd heard about the things the team had done, and found it hard to believe that this small collection of misfits could do it.

Admittedly, Steve was part of a small group of misfits, but they were nearly all enhanced in some way. He glared suspiciously, walking beside Clint as they moved down the line, with Sam trailing behind.

"This is Melinda May," Coulson said, gesturing to an Asian woman with a stony expression on her face. "You know Agents Barton and Romanov."

"What's up, Cavalry?" Clint said.

"Did he seriously just call her that?" the tallest guy said. He stared down at the curly-haired man beside him. "Turbo, did he—"

"Don't call me that," May said to Clint through clenched teeth.

"She's a legend," Clint told Steve. "I heard this one time—"

"Give the lady a break," Steve said, poking Clint hard. The archer smacked his hand away and rubbed his side. Steve smiled apologetically at May, who seemed less tense since he spoke. "I'm sure you can handle yourself, but that was inappropriate, and I'm sure he's sorry."

Steve didn't notice any real change in her expression, but Coulson must have done.

"What is it, May? It's… wait." His eyes widened, and he looked from her to Steve, who frowned.

"What?" he said. "Did I offend—"

"No one's ever called me a lady before," May said. Steve's breath caught.

"What did you say?" he whispered.

"Whatever's written on you somewhere, I'm guessing," she said, holding out a hand. Steve took it, and kissed the back without thinking. Her eyes shone in silent laughter, and his stomach swooped.

"Wow, I'm feelin' real lucky now," he said, squeezing her hand gently. Just because she was a SHIELD legend didn't mean that he couldn't hurt her if he didn't mind his strength. "I promise, Clint won't insult you again if he doesn't wanna face the consequences." He gave Clint a warning look out of the corner of his eye. "I'm sure he hasn't forgotten the prank war between us yet."

Clint turned pale while the other Avengers sniggered. "Okay, I take it all back. I'll never say that word again. Nope. It's completely forgotten. What word? Agent May has no nickname. Nah-uh. I'm gonna go over here now."

"What'd you do to Barton?" May asked. Steve gave her a look of innocence.

"Nothing," he said. "That he wasn't asking for, anyway."

"I never thought I'd have a soulmate like you," she said. "I think you're exactly right for me."

"I sure hope so, ma'am."

"Call me Melinda."

"I'll call you whatever you like when we're alone," Steve said, running a finger along her pulse point. Her eyelids flickered briefly.

"Meet me in the cockpit in ten minutes," she said.

"Ten?"

"Yes."

He shrugged. "Ten it is."

She flashed him a small smile, and then sauntered out of the room. He stared shamelessly at her until she was out of sight, and then grinned giddily at Sam, who looked amused.

"She's my soulmate," Steve said. He couldn't help feeling a little awed. Ten minutes was gonna go slowly, that's for sure.

"Yeah, got that, buddy," Sam said, nudging him. He turned his head to speak to Coulson. "We'll try not to steal her."

Steve was confused by the look of surprise on Coulson's face.

"Well, thank God for that," the director eventually said. "I thought it was referring to my car."

"Your car?" Steve said. Sam was staring at Coulson, open-mouthed.

"Her name is Lola."

"You?" Sam said. "Well, shit. That explains why the mark went grey for almost a week. Confused the hell out of me." He grinned. "Remind me to thank Fury next time I see him."

"Wait, what?" Steve said as Sam threw his arm around Coulson and began to steer him out of the room. The young woman called Jemma began to giggle hysterically, and she covered her mouth.

"Oh my God!" she squeaked. "They're soulmates. Those are Coulson's words!"

"You realise what that means, don't you?" Skye said. They all looked at her. "Both May and Coulson are out the way. That means takeout, booze, and drinking games. Hey, Captain America." She jerked her thumb towards the doorway. "Better start moving. Heh." She chuckled. "Gives new meaning to 'cockpit'."

Blushing, Steve left the room quickly, still reeling about the fact that he and Sam both found their soulmates a few minutes apart, and that they were now inextricably linked to the New SHIELD team.

Not how he was expecting the day to go.

"You're early," Melinda said, relaxing back in her pilot's seat. Steve ducked his head as he entered the room and shut the door.

"It's the only occasion where I would come early," he said. Her eyes widened minutely, and then her smile turned sly.

"If the theories about super soldier stamina are true, I'm looking forward to finding that out first-hand," she said.

I almost wrote Phil/Sam in 'Defrosting', but decided that it was cluttering up the story, what with the other pairings appearing. So I added it to this instead.

Oh, please don't hate me for the previous chapter! I felt terrible about it, but it was written, and I like exploring the different possibilities of soulmarks, including them fading when a relationship fails, to be replaced by another. I'll write something nicer with Fury, I promise.

Please review!