Melinda May was silent, but deadly. She was lethal. A perfect agent, a powerful ally, and a truly terrifying enemy.

She was not a mother. She couldn't be. Staring down at the paper in her hand, at the test results that told her exactly what she had expected them to, she felt nauseous for the first time. The blood test told her all she needed to know. Se slipped out of the sterile, silent facility and made herself scarce. Being alone was all she knew sometimes. Suddenly, she was afraid she would never be alone again.

It had been roughly two months, on an op in Moscow. It was snowing, and beautiful, and she was lonely. She almost never let herself be lonely, only alone. She told herself that there was a difference. Agent Paul Garrison wasn't the standard office-issue paper cut-out. While May was cold and detached, he threw himself into everything, head over heart over heels. He wore colorful ties and told jokes, he stayed up late but rose early. He loved good wine and beautiful women, and he was good-looking in a funny kind of way, he even made her smile. No one could ever make her laugh, though he often tried.

Melinda fancied that he loved her, though the words never crossed his lips. He said he loved her taste in wine, her hair, her right hook. Never just "I love you." She wouldn't have known what to say even if he had. She told herself it was better that way. She told herself a lot of things.

But Paul was long gone, he had been buried and his grave had sprouted grass before Melinda had missed a period. Like most, he had no family. His funeral was poorly attended, just a few ex-girlfriends from SHIELD Human Resources and some friends from West Point. Melinda hadn't known what to say to any of them, so she just stood there, resisting the urge to vomit, which she attributed to the loss of a good partner and a questionable hot dog earlier in the day.

That loss seemed minimal compared to the choice before her. She didn't know what she would do, so she did what she did best. She turned away from others, to spend time alone, and think.