I know, I know, I've been posting literally one chapter for day (for all my stories) But I'm stuck here in a beach house, and at nights all I can do is writing... I hope you won't kill me xD
"Coulson!" screamed Skye in her ear cuff, her voice clearly stained with panic.
"Skye, calm down" he answered, surpised by her reaction. Skye, as her instructor, know how to stay cold at very hard situations, and couldn¿t think about something that would scare her enough to shout in a mission. "What happened?"
"Mayday, Mayday, Daymay... Oh, fuck this, May got shot!"
"What?!" exclaimed Coulson, forgetting completely about his previous order. "Is she okay?"
"I... I don't know" she admitted, anguished.
"I have the files" intervened Trip at that moment. "I'll go and get you and we'll get back to the base"
"Fine, hurry. Skye, chill, you need to keep her awake" said Coulson.
"Okay..."
"I'm... fine" tried to say May.
"Don't talk" he said, nervous for the evident weakness in her voice.
May was two feet away from Ske. She was still standing, yet it was obvious that that wouldn't last much longer. She was folded in half, holding hands against her wound and trying to stop the abundant blood coming out from her. Skye ran to her side, not quite sure what to say or do.
"Where...?"
"Above stomach, right side" replied the woman, breathing heavily.
"No, don't speak" she ordered. "Trip's on his way, you think you can make it to the quinjet?"
"I..."
May collapsed, losing the force that generally radiated from her person, but the young woman managed to catch her before she hit the floor. She was scared, more than she remembered being in a long time. The silence around her was truly overwhelming, all she could hear was May gasping. She suddenly remembered what Coulson had told her.
"May" she said with a pleading voice. "Please, wake up" she gently moved her shoulder. "God, please, wake up..."
May opened her eyes a little bit, just enough to get a clear picture of her.
"Skye..."
"No, shut up" Skye said, brusquely. "Don't faint again, please. Look at me, you're going to be fine"
The specialist nodded, though it was just to calm down her young ptotégé. She knew she had got one of the bad shots, she could feel a burning pain spreading through her whole body, from her wound all the way to the tips of her fingers. A wave of panic suddenly hit her, thinking that maybe it had hit something vital, and she wasn't as young as how she used to be...
No, she thought. You are not dying. Not now.
"I'm here!" Trip appeared at the door, running as fast as he could. "Skye, take this" he threw her a folder she caught in fly. "She's bleeding too much"
With that kind of ability that only the experience can give you, the young man ripped a part of his shirt and pressed it against May's stomach.
"Al right... Skye, help me to get her up" he said.
"I can walk" murmured May.
"You stay quiet!" exclaimed both Coulson and Skye through the comms.
The woman leaned on Trip's shoulder and among the three, they managed to reach the Quinjet. They held May to one of the seats, and Skye stood beside her as she helped her remove her jacket.
"We'll get to the Playground in twenty minutes" said Trip, from the cockpit. "Stay calm, both of you. And try to keep her conscious"
The young woman nodded, though he couldn't even see her.
"May... please, don't fall asleep" she whispered, taking her hand. "Please..."
May gave her hand a gentle squeeze, trying to let her see that she was not going anywhere.
"Good" she continued. "We'll be there soon. Everything's going to be fine..."
"I know" she replied. "Breath, Skye"
"Don't tell me to breath" Skye complained, somewhat hysterical. "I should tell you to breath, so you breath right now"
The other one tried to smile her. Instead of that, all she could do was coughing blood in the seat that was in front of them. The red splashed the white leather, and Skye felt a sharp pang of nausea. She usually didn't have any issues with blood, but knowing it was from May, the woman who was way more than her SO for her, she just couldn't help it.
However, something more worrying distacted her. May was pale, and when she squezzed her hand she realised it was increasingly cold.
"May... don't close your eyes" she begged, alarmed. "Please... Don't die, mom" she whispered, so no one but May could hear her.
All May could do was nodding, though she wanted to hug her, as she desperately tried to regain control of her body. She managed to stop her coughing and attempted to focus in Skye. For the very first time in so many years, she realised that she actually didn't want to die yet. She had to take care of Phil and Skye, to protect her team, and she was certainly decided not to die in front of the poor girl. Besides, at least she had to say good bye to him...
Enough, she cut off her own thoughts. You are not dying nor leaving them. You can't do that. It's just a gunshot, right? You've had those before...
"Melinda, are you alright?" asked Coulson in that moment.
With the concern painfully palpable in his voice, he wasn't talking by the comms that kept all the team in touch. He was speaking through the special channel that was exclusive for them, the one they used in some missions to keep each other updated without alarming the others.
"I'm fine, Phil" she whispered.
With a little luck, Coulson would understand that she speaking softly to avoid scaring Skye, not because she was too weak. Not that she wasn't, but he didn't need to know that.
"Two minutes" announced Trip in everyone's ear cuffs.
"God" muttered Skye. "Why these freaking planes don't have any first aid kits?"
May sighed. Actually there were some kits in the quinjet, but they were about to land and she didn't want her to feel bad. If Skye kept on stressing she would have a panic atack and she wasn't in shape to handle her. She continued pressing the piece of shirt against the wound, though it was soaked and the blood had began to run down her hand and forearm.
"Landing..." said Trip. "Hold on..."
A few seconds later they arrived at the base and the specialist noted with horror that almost everyone was waiting for them with a wheelchair and one of the doctors. She shot Coulson a death glare, but said nothing. They both knew she was in no position to argue.
Trip helped her to sit down and he and Coulon took her to where their little medical center was.
"Where...?" asked the doctor, who had followed them as everyone else.
"Above the stomach, right side" gasped May. "Thirty minutes ago"
"No previous injuries in the zone" added Coulson.
"I see you know the protocol" he commented, pursing his lips. "This way..."
The doctor made them enter an operating room, but kept the rest from going inside. Fitz went to Skye, who seemed about to collapse, and surrounded her by the shoulders with one arm. This was one of the first acts of physical contact that he had directed her in quite a while, and she could not help but feeling worse.
Meanwhile, Coulson and Trip had helped May to lie on gurney.
"Now you need to go" said the doctor. "I'll let you know as soon as I have news"
"Sir ..." Trip murmured, seeing that the director seemed reluctant to leave.
Coulson nodded. He leaned quickly over May and kissed her forehead before whispered something in her ear.
"If you die, I'll kill you"
After getting a tiny smirk from her, he went out of the room followed by Trip. He wordlessly left. As much as he could hate himself because of that, he truly felt incapable of meeting his team's looks. He couldn't even imagine the possibility of something happening to May, and the sad expression in their faces was nothing but a painful reminder of it.
"She's gonna be fine" said Fitz to Skye. The other one nodded, both as a response as to try to convice herself.
"It's true" said Lance, who hadn't said a word until then. "It's May we are talking about. She's really strong"
Still clinging to Fitz, Skye sat on a bench. Until then she had not understood the need to put them there, and doing so she felt sick.
"Do you think Coulson is fine?" Mack asked Trio in a low tone.
"I don't know, he just kissed her forehead and seemed so worried while doing so..." admitted his friend. "If something happens to her... I don't know"
"Were they...?" started Hunter, but stopped. Everyone looked at him as if he were asking the dumbest thing ever. "Sorry" he apologised, somewhat embarrassed.
"They had been together since before you were born" muttered Skye, not been able to use a louder tone. "Not in that way... They just need each other"
The small group of agents remained silent, not knowing what to do. Skye leaned her head on the shoulder of the young genius, telling herself that everything would be okay.
"Come on, Skye, she's May... She didn't look that bad, did she? She's gonna be fine... She'll probably be mad at you because you worried so much about her..."
But she couldn't stop it. She cared about May, more than she ever imagined she would. May, the woman who seemed to hate her as soon as she put a foot in the Bus. May, the one who had managed to calm down Hannah and save the team from Tobias. May, who had beat the hell out of Ian Quinn after he shot her. May, the woman who tried to stay cold to the rest of the world because she was destroyed in her inside. May, who believed in helping the others and protected her team, the people she loved so fiercely. May, who had taken a bullet for her and now was fighting for her life in that operating room...
She realised that she had been carrying her jacket the whole time, hugging it tightly to her chest to absorbe any strenght it might had left. The doctor appeared after an hour or so. His medical coat was covered in blood, and so were her hands.
"There was a complication" he said with seriousness.
"What kind of complication?" asked Skye, anticipating the others.
"It turns out the bullet perforated a part of the lung... It's a miracle she could make it here" he admitted. "It's something bad, I'm not going to lie to you. But we'll do everything in our hands to save her"
"What do we have to do?"
"You?" the man offered her a sad look, putting a kind hand on her shoulder. "You need to wait... and pray, I'm sorry"
"Thank you, doctor" said Trip.
The doctor made a move to turning around, but seemed to think it twice. He put a hand in his pocket and took out a small object from it. It was a ring. A simple, silver-made and now blood-covered ring.
"It was in her trousers" he said, handing it to Skye. "I think you should have it"
"Thanks" she whispered, feeling a knot in her throat.
Skye turned away from Fitz, and headed to the door slowly.
"Where are you going?" asked Lance, seeing that part of her was shaking violently.
"Someone needs to tell Coulson" said the girl, her voice barely audible.
"Do you want me to...?"
"No" she interrupted him and opened the door that was at the end of the corridor. "I need to do this alone"
Before getting an answer she left the room. She walked through the silent base staring at the floor, moving more by instinct and need that by her own will. She didn't know where she was going until she found herself entering the garage. And she was not alone.
"I knew you'd be here" she murmured.
Coulson said nothing, just kept staring at the dashboard of his car. He had his arms crossed over his chest so hard that seemed determined to never separate them again.
Skye bit her tongue. She shuffled over to where he was, dragging her feet and unable to meet him in the eye, then sat down in Lola next to him
"There was a complication" she said. She didn't wait for an answer and continued. "Apparently the bullet pierced the lung..."
Without being able to say anything else, she bursted out crying. The last thing she wanted was to appear weak in front of Coulson, after all she had come with the intention of supporting him, but just could not bring himself to stop.
"It's my fault" she said between each sob, trying in vain to breathe again with normality."It's my fault..."
Coulson sighed. He already felt guilty enough for both of them, but still couldn't stop himself from the instinct of conforting her.
"It's not your fault, Skye" he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's not anyone's fault"
"Yes, it is" she sobbed, burying her face in the jacket. "It's me who should had been shot"
"Why do you say that? May..." In pronouncing her name his voice broke, but the gulped and continued. For her. "She was probably distracted..."
"No, she wasn't. I was" she admitted. "I was checking the damn GPS, they shot me and she pushed me so they wouldn't hit me"
Skye continued to weep, and Coulson hugged her not saying a word. He himself had been through that before, and he knew how much it hurt believing to be responsible for the pain of someone you care about so much. He was full of fears and insecurities at the time, but he felt that it was the right thing to do, protect the young, and that that was what May would want him to do. He thought it was very typical of May what she had done, and didn't blame Skye at all. Not that it served to lighten the weight that pressing his chest, which prevented him from breathing properly.
"I don't want to lose her" she whispered. "I don't..."
"You are not going to lose her, Skye" he interrupted her. "None of us is" I couldn't, he thought for himself. "Hey, everything is going to be fine, okay? It's May... she's a fighter, and she won't leave you..."
Phil knew he was promising something quite impossible, he wasn't an idiot, and the cruel experience had taught him that she wasn't immortal. However he said it, gently stroking the girl's hair. She nodded, cleaning her tears with the back of her hand. Coulson could see once again the frightened girl he had known some time ago, the one who had never found her place. Now she had a family and even a pair of parents who loved her crazily. Maybe they were not a biological family, but that didn't matter. Skye now had a father and a mother, and Coulson could clearly see the fear in her eyes that gave her the possibility of losing May.
"She's going to be fine" he assured her. He wasn't exactly sure if he had said that to calm her or himself, maybe both, but he desperately needed to hear those words said out loud.
"She's the only mother I've ever had" Skye whispered, breatlessly.
"I know" Phil answered. "And it doesn't matter how damn proud and stubborn she is, I know she feels the same way about you"
"You really think so?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"No. I know it" he said, offering her a small smile. "Hey, do you want me to tell you something?"
"What?"
"I'm going to tell you... how I met your mother"
May had a ring in her pocket, who gave it to her? Skye is really worried about her... Please post reviews guys! I'd like to know what you think about the story, thanks for reading :)
(I don't own anything)