The sky was so beautiful tonight. The deep reds soothing Melinda as she looked out the window of the high rise safe house herself and her partner currently reported to. The Deputy Director was to be meeting them within the next half hour to pick up the 084 Melinda and Phil had just recovered. As she looked back down at the little baby wrapped in her arms it was safe to say Melinda was not expecting the small infant to be the 084 they were sent in to recover. The little girl was seemingly out cold in her arms, clutching Melinda's pinky tightly in her little fist. Melinda couldn't help the smile that played in her face, as she watched the infant sleep. The little girl had finally stopped fussing when Melinda had swaddled her tightly in a blanket and fed her, falling asleep after Melinda burped her as she rocked back and forth at the window. Melinda continued to rock gently, she would never say it out loud but Melinda loved babies. As she heard Phil approach her she could tell by the his small grin that she didn't need to say it out loud, Phil could read it all over her face.

"She's adorable" he said as reached them, placing his hand on his partners elbow, and looking down at the baby girl.

"How is a baby an 084?" Melinda's question was a quiet murmur as she stared down at the baby. Her eyes roaming over the baby girls face taking in every feature. The little scruff of dark brown hair on the top of her head to her chubby cheeks. She had a thin set of lips and Melinda knew underneath those eyelids held the biggest chocolate brown eyes she had ever seen. Melinda could guess that this little girl was definitely biracial but she was so curious to how she ended up here. In a SHIELD safe house having just been extracted from a lab in South Boston.

"What could have possibly made a baby so important?"Melinda wondered and it wasn't until she felt Phil look up at her again that she realized she said it out loud. "Phil we just got pulled off an 11 month cover op… To rescue a baby, and blow a building that had at least twenty people still in it" Her unasked question just hung in the air, she could feel Phil staring at her as she looked down at the infant. "This is no life for a baby" she whispered, stroking the baby's cheek with her index finger softly.

"Lin" Phil studied her face like a hawk as she looked up at him. She knew Phil had learned to read her quiet well, just buy looking at each other they could have an entire conversation without uttering a word. There were still some occurrences though, where Phil would whisper her name softly, asking her to please tell him what she's feeling, and he would always wait so patiently, scanning her face sharply. This seemed to be one of those times, only Melinda didn't know what she was feeling to actually tell him. She just looked down at the baby and stroked her cheek again. So many things were flooding her senses that she couldn't make heads or tails of them. What stood out the most was the overwhelming need to protect the little life in her arms. As she tried to make way headway in these strange emotions she heard a knock on the door. She felt Phil squeeze her elbow before making his way to the door, grabbing his glock off the end table before looking through the peephole on the door before swinging it open to reveal Deputy Director Nick Fury, Phil's old SO. Melinda nodded at him from her place by the window, and he turned back to Phil as the door shut, Phil giving him their mission debrief. That was one of the things about Phil that always put Melinda at ease. He did all the talking, he always had since they'd met. Melinda's gaze returned back to the infant in her arms and she found those chocolate brown eyes staring back at her. The little fist clutching her pinkie pulled tighter. The little girl didn't make a peep as Melinda continued to rock her, holding her tightly to her chest, just stared up at her with big doe eyes. Melinda stroked her cheek again with her finger and the girls eyes never wavered from her face. Melinda started to absently listen to the other two men in the room, though her eyes never left the brown ones gazing back at her.

"Our cover wasn't blown per say sir, but it remains to be seen if it would still be a viable option to send us back in" Phil was explaining to the Deputy Director. Though his voice remained steady Melinda could hear the underlying frustration in his tone, Fury must have been skirting around the answers he wanted. Melinda couldn't blame Phil though, she wanted answers for their current situation too. "Though I feel if we wait too long our return will only be met with suspicion and discovery, at this point I would say there is nothing to gain from trying to reestablish our cover, we have enough information to work with to send the proper teams in now"

"Agent May and yourself won't be returning to your cover, I'm going to need this 084 taken back to the group home, St. Agnes Orphanage. We will reinstate the program that will keep it moving through the system every four months, for its own protection, so it won't be easily found. Following the results of your extraction there should no longer be any threats, the program is just precautionary. After that I'll need you two to report to HQ complete your mission files and debrief on your cover op, take your mandatory three weeks off following a deep cover assignment, and never speak a word of this 084 to anyone" As Fury finished, Phil seemed to be at the end of his rope.

"It's not an 084 Nick! It's a damn child! A baby!"

"A baby that leveled an entire village Coulson! We don't know what it's capable of! In the wrong hands it could cause global devastation! Keeping it hidden and moving are what's best for it!" Fury seemed to pull a file out of nowhere, slamming it on the table before sliding it to Phil. To Melinda's surprise all the noise never upset the little one in her arms, those brown eyes just continued to stare up at Melinda and grip her pinky while she moved to read the file over Phil's shoulder. What was in that file wasn't pretty, this child, pulled from the wreckage, and entire town massacred. Agent Avery dead and her partner missing. It seemed like everywhere this little girl went bodies followed. The words that Phil spoke next startled Melinda, who was expecting a different response to the answers they had just been given.

"She" He said quietly. "You keep calling her an it, it's a baby girl Nick, and there's no way to prove that she's the one that caused all that damage, she was just found in the wreckage. What you're suggesting is a life no child should ever be given" His tone was so quiet but Melinda could feel the heaviness in his gaze as she watched her partner stare at their boss.

"Do you have any other ideas Coulson?" Fury quipped, clearly irritated with this agents lack of submissiveness.

Melinda answered before Phil could even find the words. Everything that she had been feeling earlier seemed crystal clear in that moment. "We'll take her" Melinda finally spoke, her voice soft and her gaze never left the brown eyes looking up at her, she smiled slightly, the index finger stroking a rosy cheek again.

"Excuse me Agent May?" The deputy regarded one of his top specialists with nothing other than stunned confusion.

"We'll take her" Melinda finally brought her gaze up to level with the one eyed deputy. "The building they were keeping her in and all the people in it were blown to pieces. Like you said there shouldn't be anyone left to look for her, and even if there is they'll think she died in that explosion too. Should the need ever arise she'll always be a blink away from SHIELD. Our three week down time will give us plenty of time to get settled with her, we've been radio silent for eleven months, with the right story it would believable for us to come back with a baby, she's clearly biracial and only a few weeks old, there would be no reason to doubt that she's ours " As Melinda finished Fury just continued to look at her with stunned disbelief. She took a second to look at her partner only to find Phil watching her intently, his questioning gaze from minutes earlier replaced with one of mutual understanding. Questions and answers were passed between the two of them in silent conversation before Phil gave her the smallest of nods. Phil felt his lip twitch up into a barely there smile as he watched Melinda with the baby girl, she just returned his gaze. He couldn't begin to figure what he was feeling, but the however bland the description may be the closest he could come up with was warm. It started in his chest and just radiated outward, he could almost laugh at how incredibly soft he and the woman holding his gaze had become, they extracted that girl mere hours ago and they both were already so attached that they couldn't fathom the thought of letting her go. Melinda finally dragged her gaze away from her partners to meet the Deputy Director's again just as he seemed to find his words. When he spoke he sounded resigned as if he knew that if Melinda suggested this there was no changing her mind, she was already one hundred percent positive.

"Agent May, this won't be just another mission, you are two of the best agents I have, hell, the best team I have, I know you two are close, most partners are, but I can't ask two agents to play house with a child for the rest of their lives. I know Coulson would follow you blindly just about anywhere May but this isn't something I could possibly ask of either of you" Fury said, finally leaning against the table, the entire conversation becoming less hostile as Phil sat on the arm of the sofa, turning to face his old SO as Melinda stood behind him. He could feel her hips still swaying softly to soothe the baby in her arms. This time it was Phil who responded to Fury's exasperated tone.

"You aren't asking sir, we're volunteering, and with all due respect sir, I sometimes believe all you see is the Agents we are instead of the people, you forget far to often that Melinda and I are married. We don't play anything when we leave SHIELD after a hard days work, it's our life, Sir and we wouldn't step into something like this so blindly. We've been talking about starting a family for while now, and that's exactly what that baby needs, a family, and we are more than willing to give it to her" Both agents watched as Fury digested everything Phil said and they watched as his expression changed. He may be the Deputy Director, but he was also their friend. Phil was already starting to be referred to a his 'one good eye'. He knew something like this would have come up eventually, he felt the same way about this as he did when Phil came to him about the two of them getting married. He knew there were things they'd have to work out after all he wouldn't break up his star team, but they would figure it out, Melinda and Phil always did. Fury just sighed, and stood up straight.

"We'll have to get all of her papers sorted, birth certificate, social security, and doctor and hospitalization files for Agent May. It would be best that the knowledge that she isn't biologically yours never leaves this room, not even your families. For her safety and yours. I'll leave it up to you two as to who within the agency knows you have a child but I suggest you keep it as small as the number of people who know you're married, but I'm sure you already know all of this. Take six weeks instead of three, get settled and take time to enjoy yourselves, you deserve it. And were going to need new covers for your files, I won't have my best agents weaknesses as easily accessible as a personnel file." Both agents nodded rapidly as he spoke. "Stop by my office tomorrow before you leave and we'll settle everything"

"Yes sir" Phil said quickly, and Fury looked between the two of them before his eyes lingered on Melinda, she was still rocking the infant gently, watching as those brown eyes began to droop again. Fury just nodded once before exiting the room, the automatic lock clicking on the door after it shut. Phil made his way over to his wife, and she drew her gaze away from the baby to look up at him as he stopped in front of her.

"This is our daughter" As he looked down at her the smile that Melinda loved so much took over his face, his eyes were sparkling. He looked back up at Melinda, his admiration for her shining clearly through his eyes.

"She is" Melinda's smile mirrored her husbands. She was completely aware that both of them were standing there smiling at each other looks fools but she couldn't bring herself to care. "What should we name her?" As Phil looked at his wife, watching her hold that little girl to her chest- their daughter Phil found himself adding a thousand more reasons to the already infinite list he had of why he loved the woman standing in front of him. As Phil looked out at the skyline again he and his wife silently watched as the reds started to turn deep violet.

"Skye" It slipped out of Phil's mouth so quickly it surprised him how natural it felt. Melinda met his gaze with a soft smile before looking back down at their new daughter.

"Skylar" Melinda's finger stroked the little girls cheek.

"Skylar Mae" Phil rebutted. "Beautiful just like her mother" His smile held so many different feelings that Melinda felt like she was drowning in them. Drowning in happiness. She chuckled at how soft they'd become.

"Skylar Mae Coulson" Melinda finished looking back down at the baby, when Phil made a soft tutting noise she looked back up at him, confused. His face had grown quite serious and his eyebrows were bunched together in a disapproving manner.

"She needs a middle name" Phil's voice changed, taking on a very feminine tone with a thick Chinese accent. "Every May woman is a Qiaolian" It would have startled Melinda how much he actually sounded like her mother had she not heard the imitation numerous times. Melinda just shook her head and looked down at her little Skylar Mae.

"Skylar Mae Qiaolian Coulson" Melinda's voice was so incredibly soft and warm Phil almost did a double take when she spoke. He couldn't resist the urge to pull her toward him, placing a kiss on the crown of her head before doing the same to his little mini Mae. "Mommy and Daddy love you so much already baby girl" Melinda couldn't stop the tear that escaped when that little baby smiled up at them.

Phil knew it was unbelievably corny, but he was pretty sure that as he listened to the soft words pouring out of his wife as she cooed to their new daughter he would never be able to top this moment. He had absolutely no idea how in the course of five hours he and Melinda could go from agents on an extraction op to two new parents but he had a feeling it had a lot to do with those big brown eyes that just seemed to engulf you when you looked into them. But as he shuffled around the safe house, packing up their things and shutting everything off to leave, he felt the overwhelming urge to take his family home. Phil paused to look up at his wife, she was still beaming at Skylar and he knew this would never be something they regret.