Phil Coulson was ready to get back in the field. After Tahiti he felt it was time to return to his job as a level 8 S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. His first assignment form Director Fury: assemble a team of agents with specific skill sets to investigate abnormal objects or activity throughout the world.

He read through the perimeters for this team and recruited the most qualified agents. He needed someone who could assess any biological or chemical matters and someone efficient in engineering. He didn't have to look for very long, the top two graduates of the academy last year fit perfectly. Jemma Simmons and Leopold Fitz: graduated three years early and best friends. The next type of agent needed was a specialist, to be help protect the team while in the field. Luckily, during a conversation with his friend, John Garret, he mention he was looking for one. So Garret offered his protégé, Grant Ward. Ward was was reluctant to join the team claiming that he worked better alone, but Coulson was able to get him onboard. Finally, he needed an agent to fly the plane. His first choice, Melinda May.

The two had a lot of history. But she wasn't who she used to be and he wasn't who he used to be. They both wanted it to be like the old days but that just wasn't happening. So he made her apart of the team; to give her, them, a second chance.

So there they were on the bus. Everyone was settled in and their first mission was assigned. Someone who hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D. had the same cryptographic signatures as a phone that was used to film an enhanced person jump out of a burning building. Their mission: Take in the hacker and investigate what he wants.

Ward and Coulson tracked the hack to a van behind a L.A. diner. They opened the door and found a young woman inside. Neither of them expected the hacker to look like her. Nevertheless, she was still the hacker so Ward but a bag over her head and they brought her into the interrogation room.

Ward removed the bag and sat her in front of a table.

Coulson looked at her. He saw something familiar in her face but he couldn't quite figure it out.

"What's your name?"

"Skye.", she said looking at the two agents who kidnapped her.

"What's your real name?"

'damn' she thought,' these guys are trying really hard to intimidate me'

Throughout the interrogation Skye was able to get under their skin (mostly Ward's). She argued that S.H.I.E.L.D no longer had the right to be keeping so many secrets from the public. Her reasoning made Coulson believe that Skye wasn't a bad kid, she just had trust issues. He felt the need to make her trust them. Which he was able to do.

The situation with the powered person escalated forcing Coulson to let Skye use her skills to contribute to the mission. At the end of the day the problem was solved and everyone was alive. But, Coulson wasn't just going to let Skye leave without offering her a spot on the team. It wasn't just her hacking ability that made him do it, he felt like he naturally felt that she was meant to be there.

The rest of the team had different reactions to his decision to offer her a job. Fitzsimmons were totally onboard with it. They said it was because she was really talented but really it was so that there could be someone younger than them on the bus. Ward completely disapproved. He argued that not only was she apart of an

anti-S.H.I.E.L.D organization, but her style didn't work well with his style. And May? She new exactly what he was doing.

May knocked on the door to Coulson's office.

"Sir?"

"Come in, May. And please, don't call me 'Sir'.

"Right.", she said walking towards the chair in front of his desk,"So you offered her a spot."

"Yup"

"You wanna tell me why you did that?"

"Well, her skills as a hacker give us an extra advantage. And she wasn't trained at S.H.I.E.L.D but she's smart she might be able to bring something new to the way we do things here."

"Ok but everything she's done as a hacker is to uncover our secrets. She might just be here to do exactly that."

"Yes it's definitely a possibility. But you never know."

"Ok come on Phil. I looked at her file. She was brought to an orphanage in 1989 by a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. No one knows where she came from. You think it's her don't you."

Coulson got up immediately to close the door.

"Fine. That's why I offered her the spot."

She looked him shaking her head. "I thought we agreed to stop searching. That she's gone and we should move on."

"Melinda," he said looking away and then back at her with tears in his eyes,"I tried. I really did. But how could I knowing that she might still be out there? I kept looking because I knew the threats this world faces. Why do you think I agreed to join the Avengers initiative? I wanted to save as many lives as possible because one of those lives could have been her. If I couldn't find her at least I knew she was being protected. I get why you did what you did though. It was your way of coping. But I'm not like you and sometimes I wish I was, especially in times like this. That girl downstairs may or may not be her. And I, again, am getting my hopes up knowing how it feels when I'm wrong. You two were the best things that ever happened to me and you were gone. Like a piece of me just wasn't there anymore. So I dedicated my life to putting back those pieces. I'm never gonna give up."

She listed and understood everything he said. But she was upset to hear that he thinks she doesn't feel anything. She stood up to stand right next to him behind his desk.

"Phil, I may seem like I don't feel anything anymore, but I didn't leave because of that; I left because I felt too much. Seeing you dealing with your emotions only made me worse. My natural instinct was to hide it. I didn't want to but I couldn't help myself. When I figured out that you offered her the spot I thought it was happening all over again. But I won't let it. I'm in this with you. I miss the way we were, Phil. It was foolish to give up. We were too good together."

After that sentence they looked into each other's eyes and saw the people they were 25 years ago. The emotions were coming in all at once and all of a sudden reflexes kicked in. They couldn't keep their hands off each other. The urge was just too great. As they kissed they regretted all those years they wasted being confused over their feelings.

In the morning they woke up together on Phil's bed in his office. Melinda's head was on Phil's shoulder while his arms wrapped her body. Phil woke up first. He looked at the woman in his arms and thought about everything. A few minutes later she woke up. Looking up at him smiling.

"I've missed you."

He just looked at her with a slight smile.

"What is it?"

"Nothing just - do you think it's her?"

"Yeah. I do actually."

"Really?"

"It's our Daisy, Phil. I can just feel it."