"...home is where all your attempts to escape cease." -N. Mahfouz This is the story of the woman named Melinda May, before, during, and after she had a title in front of her name or a nickname that followed it. Character study-covers pre-canon to season 2 finale, leading towards May's reason for leaving. Originally published 8/2015 on ao3 (meaning non-canon for any s3 backstory)

Skye has been through a lot, but May has never left her to face it alone. And Skye never has to say a word. Missing May/Skye moments from season 2. Skye doesn't have the best track record of being loved. May doesn't have the best track record of loving. This is the behind-the-scenes where two broken people do their best to love one another in the ways they know they can.

Melinda May has been collecting intel dead drops from an undercover SHIELD agent for weeks. It's not until there's a bomb, an armed assault, and a getaway chase that the two come face to face for the first time, and she learns just why SHIELD put a twenty-year-old in the field.

After the events of s02e13, May knows what's coming and knows Skye can't be anywhere near it. The reasons are simple. That doesn't mean Skye will see it that way though. "I know how this works. Foster parents never go anywhere-it's the kids that do the leaving." [Doors-verse, and it will make no sense if you haven't read it]

After the events in What They Become, the team is still putting the pieces together. Skye is isolated from all of them yet still has to do the same. And, of course, May's not going to let her do it alone. [This does take place in my Doors-verse, meaning these two already have a close and complex relationship. Events from those stories are referenced in later chapters.] *Rtng chnged

[Or, Four Times Agent May Came Through Skye's Door Without Asking, and One Time Skye Went Through Hers] Agent Melinda May has a simple, easily defined relationship with most people. Skye, however, is not one of them. Missing Skye&May scenes explored here.

It's a relationship that defies categorization, always caught somewhere in the between. Extended version/ companion to my fic Saltwater; everything from Superman's perspective.

"The cure for anything is always saltwater: sweat, tears, or the sea." -Unknown One-shot: my theory on what it might take to move an Amazon warrior to tears and who would be there to help her through it.

This story is a response to the drinking fic challenge on the SMWW FanArchive. The chapters alternate between the two characters' points of view and the story is a result of my contemplation of what it would take to finally get these two together.