Filius
by Sammie

DISCLAIMER: Doesn't belong to me.

RATING: T.

SUMMARY: Military brats? There are also SHIELD brats. A son grows up. (Pairing)

A/N:
- wasn't even planning to start watching "SHIELD" - I'm not at all interested in superhero stuff in general and in Marvel specifically. I only saw "The Avengers" because it was the sole non-kid or non-R-rated thing on my flight, then fell asleep during the second part of the first viewing and the first part of the second viewing. (It was a long flight.) As for "SHIELD," I was bored one day and thought, "What the heck, Clark Gregg and Ming Na are in it."... .:sigh:. grievous mistake.

- I am well aware it wouldn't be very common to have a tot on the bus. I've tried to write it so he only travels on the bus very rarely, whenever his parents both have to go somewhere and be from home. Doubt it comes through.

- I've read a great deal of FF over the years and been involved in several different fandoms, and those have all influenced my writing. I always try to give credit where it's due, and I apologize if I've missed something.

He is born on a bus.

Not a regular bus, no. His parents aren't born travelers, so he isn't born on the back of a RV. His parents also aren't the hippie type, either (ha! His dad, a hippie?), so it's not like he was born in the back of a bus painted with flowers. No, he's born on a really cool black bus, with jet engines that aren't stationary and a big bird painted on the top of the fuselage and wings and a bar and two spiral staircases inside. He's the only one he knows who can claim to be born on a plane.

He and Mommy and Daddy live near the Hub, but every once in awhile Mommy will get called into the field, and Daddy refuses to let her go unless she goes on the bus with himself, the Cavalry, and Coulson - or with Hawkeye and the Black Widow. When Mommy and Daddy both have to leave, he tags along and normally stays on the bus or in daycare. Director Fury doesn't like him traveling to SHIELD assignments, but although the tall, big black man huffs and puffs and glares at people with his one eye, the director doesn't actually object to his going with his parents. After all, the Cavalry and Agent Coulson are on the bus.

(Uncle says that the only reason he is allowed on the bus is because Agent Coulson has always been one of Director Fury's favorites, so whatever Coulson wants, he gets.)

He meets Director Fury once, while he's with Mommy and Daddy in New York. He is happily toddling between his parents, who each have a grip on one of his hands. They enter a lobby with a big shiny floor - he likes shiny things! - and he pulls his hands free and runs forward.

He literally runs straight into Director Fury - crashes into his legs; he sits down hard and then looks up up up up to see the huge man towering over him, then points at him and his eyepatch in astonishment and gasps (rather loudly) to his parents, "Eye!" The whole lobby goes silent. Mommy's eyes go wide, and she can't speak for a whole second. Near Director Fury was a tall, skinny woman with dark brown hair who just raises an eyebrow. (He'll find out later that that's his introduction to Maria Hill, who has had multiple roles in SHIELD.) Behind both of them is a shorter man dark, spiky, messy hair and glasses, who just smirks and leans against a big column, looking amused - the owner of Stark Tower.

Director Fury looks down at him, then leans all the way down and picks him up and sets him on his feet and crouches so they are on the same level. The big adult then narrows his good eye at him, and moves even closer to him so they are eye-to-eye, and then looks at him for a full 30 seconds.

He isn't sure what to do. Every time adults put their faces this close to his, he's supposed to give them a kiss, so he obligingly follows through and gives Director Fury a big kiss on the cheek. (He doesn't like how scratchy the big man's face is.)

Daddy looks like he wishes the floor would swallow him up.

Everybody else is completely frozen in shock and horror, except Tony Stark, who can barely stand up for how hard he's laughing. Hill looks pretty amused, too. Fury just looks at him, with his one eye narrowed, and suddenly bursts into booming laughter. Mommy and Daddy look horribly embarrassed. Was he not supposed to do that? Adults...so confusing.

A week later, they're headed home from New York, hitching a ride on the bus. His mother carries him up the ramp of the cargo hold, his father towing their big suitcase and his baby bag. As they head upstairs into the main body of the plane, he sees SHIELD technicians bolting a big box to the floor of the living area. There are cabinets on the bottom and a big glass box on top. When they're done, Daddy lets him get close, picking him up so he can press his face against the glass: he sees turquoise little pebbles on the bottom of the glass box, and a little castle, and tubes. When his aunt and his uncle come up the stairs with big plastic bags, and he sees all the little, different-colored animals swimming in the water in the bags, he cheers. "Fishie!"

His middle name is Phil, after Agent Coulson, who delivered him. (And most likely indulges him more than his parents would like.)

The first time he flies on the bus, it's not long after he learned to walk stairs. Somebody has left the baby gate off the bottom of the stairwell going up from the main floor, so he carefully holds the bars and walks up the spiral staircase to the top. His parents' former boss is there working at his desk, and so he just toddles over behind the desk and pats the man's leg and holds his arms up. The man looks at him and asks sternly if his mama and his daddy know where he is but picks him up anyhow. Apparently everybody else is tearing the plane apart looking for him; when they finally arrive in the boss's office to report his absence, he is sitting on the older man's lap, eating Cheerios. He beams happily at his parents, who look torn between relief and irritation.

He's also the youngest person ever to drive Lola, if sitting on the older man's lap and going "vroom, vroom" while putting his hands on the wheel counts as "driving."

He and his siblings call Agent Coulson "Pop-pop Phil."

Pop-pop Phil doesn't like that name. "'Pop-pop' is what you call an old person," the man grouses. Still, that's what Auntie called him, and it stuck, so that became how Mommy and Daddy and everybody else call the senior agent in front of him, and he's not allowed to call the man just "Coulson," so "Pop-pop Phil" it is. And when he says everybody calls him "Pop-pop Phil," he means EVERYBODY, including some of Pop-pop's old friends - like Mr. Stark, who owns that tower and a big red suit; the man with the long, flowing yellow hair (he pulled it once!) and swings a big hammer; the nice man with the big purple arrows he's not supposed to touch, and the pretty lady who's always with him (though not as pretty as his mama!); Mr. Banner, who is really nice and gave him the stuffed dog he sleeps with. (He never understands why people laugh when he says this.)

Only Captain Steve doesn't call his parents' boss Pop-pop Phil. The big blond man came with Pop-pop and his aunts once to visit at Christmas; Mommy knew Captain Steve from before she joined Pop-pop's team and extended an invitation, since they were coming straight from a mission in Canada. (He doesn't understand why everybody laughs at Captain Steve working in Canada.) She and Daddy let Captain Steve take him outside to play in the pretty snow - he LOVES snow. The big man took out a big blue and red and white round thing with a white star on it - the best sled EVER! - and sat down on it. He got to sit on the older man's lap, and they sledded down the hill a couple times. One time they fell out of the sled into the cold white powder. (He still has photos.)

"Please? Go down 'gain?" he pleads in his baby voice as Captain Steve carries him inside.

"Not today," the big blond man offers with an easy but regretful smile as he heads up towards the house. "I believe your red nose says it's time to go home."

He pouts, but without real insistence on it. He immediately drops the scowl when he sees his pop-pop standing at the top of the patio. "Pop-pop Phil!" he exclaims in delight and reaches out for him.

Captain Steve doesn't even try to hide his laugh as he hands him over to the other man.

Pop-pop just shakes his head, but he smiles as he takes him. "Did you have fun with Captain Steve?"

"Yeah." He beams.

"Next time, Agent Coulson," deadpans Captain Steve, "when the cold isn't too hard on your arthritic joints and you feel your back can handle all the strenuous activity, you should come with us." The right side of his mouth lifts in an amused grin.

"Come with us!" he cheers, clapping his small hands together, clearly missing the point of the whole exchange.

Pop-pop narrows his eyes at Captain Steve. "You're not my favorite any more."

He's five when he manages to get into the secret base of operations of SHIELD.

Mommy and Daddy are at work at the Hub, and normally he goes to daycare, but one of his aunts is visiting for the week and offers to take charge.

She's not really his aunt. She's Mommy's good friend, and she used to travel with Mommy and Daddy lots, so it's just like she's his aunt. And he's glad - because Auntie Skye is the best aunt ever.

She's a new SHIELD agent, so while she can get into the Hub, she doesn't get to hear lots of stuff, including what Mommy and Daddy and Pop-pop Phil get to hear, because that's all classified. She doesn't mind (much). She tells him she'd rather hang out with him than be in a meeting, and he'd rather be with her than be in daycare, so he beams happily and tucks his hand into her larger one.

Auntie Skye shows him all the planes and cars in the hangar at the Hub. Then she knows him all the fun doors and the panels. They wander into the main base of operations, and his aunt points out the gigantic TV screen where there are lots of colored dots and triangles and beeping. They wander into a back room with lots of panels. She's too big to fit into the little spaces, but he can fit, and so while she doodles on her computer, he pulls the cords she tells him to pull and plugs them where she tells them to plug them in. He beams proudly when she comments about how he must've gotten his mama's brains, because he's a smart cookie. (He likes cookies.)

When they walk by operations again, the dots and circles and beeping on the big, wall-sized screen have disappeared, and everybody is watching "Wonder Pets!" instead. He's awed by it; he's never seen Linny look so big on screen before. He loves "Wonder Pets!" but it seems the adults don't, given how much all of them are yelling and running around and pointing angrily at Linny and Tuck and Ming-ming. He decides it most likely isn't the best time to ask if he can stay and watch on the big monitor, especially since Auntie Skye is walking really fast and grinning what Mommy calls the "naughty grin".

As they quickly slip away, they bump into a man with big glasses and a really interesting head. Auntie Skye apparently has met the agent before and greets him, but before she can continue the conversation, he blurts, "His head is SHINY!" because it's even shinier than Director Fury's. He likes shiny things. All Auntie Sky mutters is, "You really, REALLY inherited Mommy's brains, didn't you. Gorgeous head, my foot."

When Mommy and Daddy find out about what he and Auntie Skye did that afternoon, boy, are they mad at her. "It's bad enough you got ME hacking SHIELD!" Mommy exclaims. "You can't be getting our son involved in your bad-girl shenanigans!"

Auntie Skye winks at him.

When he's ten, his uncle teaches him how to tie a tie.

Like Auntie Skye, his uncle is not really his uncle. He's not related to Mom or Dad, but they all used to travel together before Mom and Dad got married, and now he lives nearby with his wife, so they see him all the time. Plus, he and Dad respect each other a lot - Dad doesn't always say much about his uncle, but when he does, it's always complimentary. It was his uncle who got him his stuffed monkey and his favorite stuffed toy from childhood, a gigantic teddy bear named Mishka that was four feet tall. (Daddy did not looked amused.) "Just what every house needs," Auntie Skye had said sarcastically, "a gigantic kid-sized stuffed animal."

(On the record, he just wants to say his uncle is the best EVER. When he was little, he'd sit on Mishka's lap to read his books, and he still has the huge bear in his room. Let somebody make fun of him for having stuffed toys.)

He wants to show Dad something special when the agent comes home from his mission. Dad got sent off with two of Pop-pop's friends, the red-haired lady and the guy with the purple arrows; SHIELD said they needed him specifically. Pop-pop Phil did not look at ease with it and has flown everybody to the Hub to keep an eye on the mission. Right now Mom is trying to wrangle his two younger siblings - another boy and a girl - and is on the phone consulting on a job, so he asks his uncle to teach him how to tie a tie. And his uncle is patient with his fumbles and his hands, which seem like they're all thumbs.

While he practices this new skill, his uncle tells him more stories about his parents; most of his stories come from him and from Aunt Skye, anyhow. His uncle has told him about his own first meeting with Dad - it involved a broken earpiece. His uncle tells about how their relationship wasn't great at first, especially because they kept disagreeing over what to call the "night-night" rifle and pistol - and guess whom his mama sided with? (Just as a note: they're still called the "night-night" guns.) His uncle tells how they got sent on a mission together and had to be saved by the Cavalry, and how that changed their relationship, and how they developed a grudging and even friendly rapport with each other.

His uncle also tells him how he and his dad once argued over something bad which had happened to his mother. Uncle doesn't elaborate on what happened to Mom, except that the whole thing caused both men nightmares some time afterwards, not to say Mom herself.

He has heard all his uncle's stories about the awkward courtship his parents had, as his mother can't flirt to save her life (Auntie Skye confirms this), and his dad doesn't exactly have the sunniest of dispositions (his mom has always been the more cheerful of the two, his dad the more pessimistic one). He hears all his uncle's endless retellings of uncomfortable dates and how Auntie Skye first discovered them together and blabbed the relationship to everybody ("I was a member of Rising Tide! I share information by nature!") and how Pop-pop Phil reacted. ("My office. NOW!"). He hears his uncle's stories about how protective his grandma and his grandpa are (Mommy's parents), and how they reacted when they first realized who it was their daughter was actually marrying.

He hears all his uncle's stories about his mom: how they went to school together, all the experiments they've run together, and how they managed to get on that "flying circus" together. Uncle Fitz is closer than a brother to Mom (and yes, he knows his first name is 'Leo,' but he's always been 'Fitz' to everybody).

By the time the final story's done, he's practiced tying his tie so many times that he's got it down pat. "Thanks, Uncle Fitz," he intones as he hops down off the stool. The man grins and ruffles his hair.

When he's seventeen, he gets into a big argument with his parents about his future. He stomps out - something he's never done - despite his mother's calls after him, and his father's curt reprimands. He leaves his cellphone in the family mailbox; he knows he'll get in so much trouble for that, but he wants to be alone. He heads out and doesn't go home for hours.

He's found by the Cavalry.

He calls her Auntie May. He knows her name is Melinda, and really, she's Pop-pop's age, so she's kind of beyond just 'auntie'. (Pop-pop is always irritated by this: "How come I'm 'Pop-pop' and she's 'Auntie'? Should she be 'Nana' or something?") But calling her "Auntie May" makes him feel like Spiderman, so "Auntie May" she remains.

Auntie May has always been feared. Dad bears a deep respect for her, and Mom even more so. Uncle Fitz still seems a little nervous around her, and even Auntie Skye watches her mouth around her. Pop-pop isn't afraid of Auntie May, but he always seeks her opinion.

When he was little, when no one thought he was paying attention to our understanding their conversations, he got to witness some meetings. Sometimes everybody would get into an argument, and Pop-pop Phil would try to settle it, and Auntie May - never arguing, but always watching - would roll her eyes, then look over at his highchair or his playpen or wherever he was and wink at him. He would giggle, like they shared a secret.

"Thought I'd find you here," she says neutrally as she comes up behind him.

"Mom and Dad get you after me?" he asks derisively.

"No." She doesn't bother to try to explain or to justify what she's just said.

He ponders that one. If not Mom or Dad, then...? "Pop-pop Phil?"

"He hates that name," Auntie May intones, a small smile lifting the corners of her mouth. "Except when it comes from you and your brother and your sister."

He grins and ducks his head, trying to wipe his grin off and replace it with a look of irritation. Pop-pop Phil used to bring him out here often, a place his parents don't know about. It's not a stretch to figure out that's why he's been tracked down here.

She sits down next to him. "What happened?" She doesn't mince words.

"Mom and Dad are being unreasonable again. I mean, I was close to their age when SHIELD paid for them to go to school and get degrees and stuff. All I want to do is start SHIELD training now and go to school later, but they keep harping on my age and the danger and the not knowing what I want to do and the danger and the need for maturity and the danger and the college and the danger." He rolls his eyes. "Auntie Skye didn't go to college."

"Your aunt Skye's pathway to agency should not be yours." She pauses. "Shouldn't be anybody's," she adds, and he grins at that.

They sit in silence for awhile, then he says, "I'm not really built for school. And I know that's like horror to polyglot Dad and scientist Mom, but I want to do what I want to do."

She responds with silence, and for a long time they say nothing, just stare into the distance. Finally, she speaks, and it's on a completely different topic: "Do you know about the day you were born?"

No, he doesn't. Nobody will tell him. All he knows is that Pop-pop Phil was the one handling everything and keeping everybody calm and delivered him, and he's only told that because he wanted to know why his middle name was Philip.

Beyond that, he knows nothing. Dad clams up like - well - a clam whenever it's brought up, and Mom just gets a sad look on her face. Aunt Skye and Uncle Fitz just get very quiet and look sideways at Daddy, and Pop-pop Phil just gives him a big grin that never reaches his eyes and says that it's all water under the bridge. The older man won't say anything as long as Mom and Dad won't.

"You were an unplanned pregnancy," Auntie May begins unceremoniously. "They'd been married two years. Fury was already, well, furious, about the intra-team relationship, but Coulson wanted both your parents on board the bus and went to bat for them, so the director allowed it. When your mother found out she was carrying you, I believe she was torn between shock and joy and worry. Your father, well - you know about his past."

He nods. Oh, he knows. He's named after Dad's younger brother, and it had to be his mom who told him why and about his namesake.

"I believe he didn't know how to react. But he wanted you. Four months into the pregnancy, Skye caught him looking in a boutique window at a crib and never let him hear the end of it."

He grins, despite himself.

"Your parents planned to take some time off the bus - full month before your due date. Obviously we didn't make it to then."

"I was premature?" he whispers.

"You didn't know?"

"Well, I knew I was early, just not...that early."

May breathes in deeply, turning to look out at the night sky. Here they can see the stars, the brilliance of the sky, up here on the mountain. Lights from the houses below twinkle cheerfully at them. "You were a month early," she replies. "We were headed down to our last mission before your parents were going to take some time off. An 084 in North Africa."

He looks over at her, and she seems even more distant than normal, more lost in her memories. "We hit a sandstorm trying to get in. I was trying to go around it when your aunt Skye burst in to tell me what was going on. I didn't even see all that was happening, but what I saw was bad."

| S | H | I | E | L | D |

May half-ran into the main sitting area, then stopped short at the doorway. It was a disaster: there was plastic sheeting on the carpet, spread out in a huge area. The tall, dark-haired agent was sitting on it, half-leaned back, his wife sitting between his legs. The bottom half of her body was covered in blood, visible even through the thin, blood-stained cotton sheet covering her. His pants legs had splotches on blood on them. His hands were covered in her blood, and there were streaks on her face, where he kept touching her cheek, murmuring her name, trying to keep her awake. Her head lolled listlessly on his shoulder, her skin a deathly white, and her arms hung dead at her sides. May couldn't tell if she was conscious or not.

Coulson glanced up at her, a grim look on his face, and gave a small shake of his head. She gritted her teeth and asked shortly, "Where's Skye and Fitz?"

"Down in the lab. Baby wasn't breathing, needed suction to get mucus out of his mouth." He turned back to the pile of bandages, tools, drugs, and everything on the tray in front of him. "We got to stop the bleeding."

May turned on her heel and disappeared into her room, then returned with a small bag and removed a small powder with Chinese writing on it. "It's a coagulant. Use as much as you need. I'm going to get us off the ground and closer to a hospital."

"You sure it's safe in this weather?" Coulson asked shortly, never taking his eyes off the couple in front of him.

"I don't have a choice, do I?"

| S | H | I | E | L | D |

He is sitting there, gaping, a horrified look on his face. "They never told me this!"

"I suppose your mother doesn't want to bring up bad memories for your father." She shrugs distantly. "Coulson really worried what he would do if she died. So was I. I don't believe I've ever seen him panic, but that was close."

He is frozen still, his mouth partly open as he listens, his mind awhirl. He knows how much his father relies on his mother. He might come across as the stronger one in the relationship, but it's not entirely so. She is the emotional core, the stabilizing factor; their symbiotic relationship revolves arond that. He can only imagine what his father was feeling at that moment.

She shakes her head. "By the time we got to the hospital, your father was a mess - his wife wheeled in surgery, his son into the NICU. It was a nightmare for him. Your mother spent the next two days out of it, and even a few weeks later there were complications for both of you."

| S | H | I | E | L | D |

May trotted through the hallways, ignoring the bustle of the medical personnel around her. She frowned when she reached the doorway of the right room, hearing a loud, frustrated bawling and a desperate voice, attempting to be soothing. She entered without knocking.

The younger woman looked up from where she sat on her hospital bed, her eyes bleary and filled with tears of frustration, looking bigger against her ghostly skin. Her right hand, which had an IV going into it, was gently patting the tiny form, stroking the small body from which emanated rather big screams. "He just keeps crying. They brought him to me to nurse, but he just won't," she said, her voice breaking. "But he's so hungry. I don't know what to do."

May turned on her heel, and in a minute there was a nurse being pushed into the room. "You got to nurse him," the woman barked. Frowning, the Chinese woman turned to the nurse as the latter, oblivious, kept going. "I taught you how."

"He won't take the breast. He keeps pushing it away and screaming."

"Well then, you're not doing it right."

"I don't know how to fix that!" The young mother's voice rose a notch.

The nurse suddenly grimaced, then turned to look at the black-clad woman at her side. May gave her an implacable look, and with one hand gripped firmly on her elbow - so tightly the agent's knuckles were turning white - steered her singlehandledly out of the room. Five minutes later another nurse came in, a big black woman with a booming voice. "What's the problem here?"

"Child won't nurse." May spoke her first words since arriving.

"Hm." The nurse read the chart, then nodded knowingly. She waved towards the bed. "Sit back, hon." When the woman hesitated, the nurse gave her a teacher death glare. The young agent blinked and obligingly crawled back into bed, leaning against the raised back. "Now open up your gown," she instructed even as she pull back some of the baby's clothing. May watched her, baffled; the two SHIELD agents exchange concerned looks. "You wanted me in here," the nurse boomed, with a 'don't sass me' look. May raised an eyebrow at her, and the nurse just glared right back. An amused smile crossed the older agent's face, and she nodded her assent.

The nurse harumphed, then gently handed the baby to his mother. "Just hold him. Snuggle him right here," she instructed, gently adjusting the baby so he was lying vertically against her chest, his head just several inches under her chin. "Don't worry about feeding him yet."

The baby hiccuped, but continued to cry. "He's still hungry."

"Don't worry about it," the nurse repeating, gently covering both with a warm blanket. "Just comfort him."

"But - "

"Hon, we aren't going to let him starve to death, now will we?" the nurse pointed out, a hand on her cocked hip. When that got a small smile out of the mother, the nurse pointed right at her. "See? You just hold him and let him be with his mama. This happens a lot with preemies, 'specially ones who went through as much as your boy did. We'll try nursing again in a little bit." After waving off their thanks, she announced, "I'll be back in a little bit. Soon as I deal with Warm and Fuzzy. I apologize; we've been having all kinds or problems with her." She blew out of the room like a tornado, hollering the name of the nurse who had just been in the room before her.

By now the baby's upset bawls had turned into little whimpers, and both mother and child were calmer. The older woman sat down on the side of the bed. "Thank you," the younger woman said gratefully as she cuddled her child, and May just smiled.

| S | H | I | E | L | D |

The next day, May was going down the same hallway, headed for the same room. She stopped in the doorway, then quickly stepped back so she was half-hidden by the door frame and could watch unnoticed.

The small infant lay on his mother's chest, skin on skin, a small white cap on his head, his small body cuddled in his mother's gentle hands. His father lay on the bed next to them, one arm around her as she rested her head on his shoulder, the index finger of his other hand held tightly in the grip of his young son. The new parents were completely absorbed in their son; the sight brought a tiny smile to the older agent's face.

The helpful nurse from the night before paused behind her to look over her shoulder, a big grin on her face. "Cute family," she commented to May as she quickly looked over the chart hanging by the doorway. "Charmer of a little boy." She put the folder back into the tray and headed down the hall. "Hard to believe Tall, Dark, and Ornery is his daddy!"

| S | H | I | E | L | D |

He laughs at this description, and Aunt May smiles at him. When they calm down, she says in a measured tone, "I believe the whole experience traumatized him."

"I always wondered why Mom and Dad waited seven years to have more kids," he replies.

Aunt May chuckles. "You will always be their miracle baby. You can see why they're so worried. They most likely want you to be an accountant in some small town in Idaho."

"But I'm their kid. They can't expect me to see what I see and just let it go," he argues back.

"But you're their kid," she agrees, then adds, "and so you should be patient with them."

He says nothing but now feels a little guilty about his fight with his parents.

"Your father had a terrible childhood," Auntie May continued. "He spent all of it trying to hold the sky up for his brothers. Your mother is one of the best things to ever happen to him: she gave him joy back in his life, plus she's strong enough for the both of them. For the first time he can let himself fall, because she can catch him."

Now he felt lots guilty.

She pauses, then reaches into an inside pocket of her uniform and pulls something out. She unfolds it and holds it over to him.

It's him and his parents. He's about at five months of age, given the date in the corner. He has on a green onesie, and on his head is a big white sunhat. He has his father's dark hair (barely visible under the sunhat, anyhow) and his dark eyes and his mother's nose...and her tendency to sunburn (hence the hat). He is roly poly in this photo, with little dimples in his elbows and on his knees. He has three fingers of his right hand stuffed in his mouth, just his thumb and his pinky outside, and he beams around his fingers. He's the only one looking at the photographer; although his father is carrying him with his right arm, his broad left hand splayed across the small back to keep him steady, the man's head is bowed towards his wife, who is leaning towards him, speaking and pointing, and both of them are looking at whatever it is off-camera.

"Your aunt Skye took this photo," Auntie May says quietly. "This was the first time your father agreed to go back into the field. Had gotten himself temporarily transferred to admin for half a year so he could be with your mother and with you; Victoria Hand wanted him for a specific assignment, and he agreed to it only if we were running the op. We went to pick him up."

He holds the photo, staring at it - in particular, staring at his parents. They look so young. He knows it's them, and that the baby is him, but in some ways, there's a disconnect because he doesn't remember any of it.

"You're why I do what I do," the woman next to him says, ever so softly. "So he'll come home to her, and she to him. So you'll have them. And you know as well as anybody can how unlikely that is to happen. How many funerals you've been to, in contrast to how many weddings."

He is silent.

"Go home. There is nothing - nothing," Auntie May reiterates, "worth squabbling this much over and worrying your parents like this. Go talk to them."

He nods. He hands her back the photo, which she folds and puts back into her inner pocket. He pecks her on the cheek and picks up his bicycle.

"Call me or Pop-pop Phil if you need backup," she instructs, giving him a wink, and he grins as he waves and heads off. At the bottom of the hill he looks back, but she's already disappeared.

He pedals home slowly. The sun is slowly rising - that's how long he's been gone. As he locks his bicycle in its normal spot and trudges up the walkway to the house, he can hear his dad in the dining room, on the phone: "Grant Ward. ... No, it hasn't been 24 hours since he went missing, but it's been enough hours he's been gone! Why can't you search now? ... That's PRECISELY why I'm calling you, because - "

At that moment, he hears the conversation stop, and he looks up to see his father staring at him straight the window. The man is much the same as he had been in Aunt May's photo: full head of hair, though now with some grays coming through; still muscular, but carrying just teeny bit more weight; same serious face (Auntie Skye always called it "pinched") but with a few more wrinkles around the eyes.

His father still moves with the same agile grace, though: the second the older man sees him, he hangs up the phone, starts running to the door - all with a swift smoothness untypical for a man of his age.

He hears his dad's shout: "Jemma!" And a second later the front door flings open, and he comes running out, his wife running down the stairs, the worry lines on her face quickly disappearing into relief and really making her suddenly seem years younger. A few silver streaks line the waves in her chestnut hair (he wonders with sheepish guilt if she just got them tonight), and there are a few tiny wrinkles around her eyes and her mouth, but her eyes are just the same as ever.

He gives them a look of sheepish repentance, one that his father always claims he inherited from his mother. "I'm sorry."

Both his parents grab him in a huge hug.

end