Phil's POV
Phil Coulson's life used to be relatively simple. Well as simple as can be when one works for a top secret goverment facility.
That all changed when he was given the mission to go undercover with The Cavalry and an 0-8-4 that just happened to be a baby.
For just over a year, he cared for the small girl. They had named her Skye. Before he could stop himself, he was thinking of Skye as his baby girl.
If that wasn't bad enough, he was slowly falling for May too.
He never thought of himself as a family man, or someones husband or father, but he couldn't imagine not being with Skye and May now. He was given a second chance and he'd be damned if he was going to waist it.
Fury was pissed when he saw Phil's and Melinda's name as parents on Skye's birth certificate.
"You do realize that this kid could blow us all up if she has a temper tantrum? There are two many variables with her and I'll be damned if I lose two of my best agents to her." Fury told them.
"Exactly, sir" Coulson replied "We can keep on eye on her so she dosen't potentially hurt herself or anyone else."
As much as Fury didn't like the situation, he couldn't deny how besotted the agents had become with the child. Forcing them apart would do more harm than good at this stage.
They bought a house in the Suburbs to raise Skye in, hoping for a reletively normal childhood for their baby.
Phil was highly against any sort of training for Skye, wanting to give her a chance of a life outside of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Melinda pointed out, that with them as her parents and her 0-8-4 status, her chances of normality were highly limited, and she needed to defend herself if anything were to happen to them or her.
So Skye was trained while she attended school. Fury looked after Skye if Melinda and himself were away on missions. It was perfect.
He was a husband and a father while doing something he loved and saving people's lives.
Skye turned twelve. And things went to shit
.
It was supposed to be a simple mission. They were just trying to recruit a gifted individual. It shouldn't have gone as bad as it did. Mayshouldn't have had to make the call.
But the call had to be made, and she made it.
Now she couldn't see her little Skye anymore, she saw the girl who wanted her pain. She saw the bullet wound, the dead body on the floor and nothing else.
As much as Phil tried, he couldn't stop the love of his life from dying inside. He couldn't stop her from leaving or filing for divorce. The thing he couldn't stop, and that he hated the most, was that he couldn't look at Skye without seeing the reason his love left.
Even though they weren't related by blood, the similarities between Skye and Melinda were immense. From their eyes, to the way they walked and talked. It was like seeing a miniture version of Melinda walk around the house.
After Melinda left, Skye smiled less, she was more serious, wondering why her mother had stopped loving her and why her father couldn't look at her without wincing.
Her sour mood made her even more like the current Melinda; the emotionally dead version.
It became far too much for Phil. As much as he hated himself for it, he spent less and less time at home, opting for long time missions, or sleeping in one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. facilities.
It started out as calling Skye every night he spent away, but he couldn't stand how sad her voice sounded. Opting for the cowards way out, he called less and less.
Deep down he knew, it would be better of he just stayed home more, but the house was so empty without Melinda and Skye only amplified it.
If Fury noticed, he didn't comment. It appeared that he, too, was keeping his distance from Skye. His reasons were unknown to him and he didn't ask.
Over the years, his visits home became less and less frequent. When he was home, he noticed his bed was slept in, with one of May's jumpers and Skyes' Captain America teddy on the bed. The pillows were always damp.
He hated himself, he truly did. He abandoned his daughter when she really needed him, and all he was doing was thinking of himself.
He continued to be selfish, by visiting less and less. He ignored his guilt by ignoring his daughter.
Up until Skye was fourteen, she would cling to him whenever he came home, never leaving his side until he left again.
That changed when she was fifteen. She had started to resent him, and they didn't speak when he came home. She openly burned whatever gifts he brought home with him, making sure he saw. Then spit on the ashes.
Melinda's jumper was in his room, the pillows no longer damp and the whole room was gathering dust.
Skye spent most of her time out of the house when Phil visited. It gave him a chance to see her room, report cards and generally punishing himself for missing out on his daughters life.
There were a few photos up of her and friends. None of her smiles reached her eyes. She was failing most of her classes and barely attended. None of that, however, was as bad as seeing the Captain America teddy, that Skye once cherished more than anything, was on the top shelf, in the corner, filthy with dust.
His daughter had given up on him. He couldn't blame her. He gave her no reason to have faith in him.
He always left Lola at the house though. He didn't realise that it was just a horrible reminder to Skye of absent father. He meant it to mean that he still cared for her. He always brought the keys with him. It was supposed to show that he would always come back
The next few times he would visit, he would always find the place a mess, empty beer cans all over the place. The place looked like it was party central 24/7.
He had no right to reprimand her. He probably destroyed all good memories of the place for her. She was just doing the same to him.
He started being the handler for Agent Barton and Romanoff. He liked that. They thought of him as a father, someone they could depend on. He wasn't going to screw it up this time. It gave him renewed hope, that maybe, just maybe, he could repair his relationship with Skye.
All that hope vanished when he found that she changed the locks on the door.
That was it. She was done with him, and he couldn't change that.
He left the keys for Lola in the mailbow. It was his apolagy for being such a shitty father. To Skye, it was his goodbye.
He stopped visiting. Nat and Clint knew something was up, but didn't push it when he wouldn't talk.
Then he was stabbed by a motherfucking God in the heart. His final thoughts were how Skye was only seventeen and he couldn't leave her. Until he remembered he left her a long time ago.
"Please" he muttered to Fury, with his dying breath, "tell her I'm sorry, take care of her."
And with those final words he died.
Fury took the words to heart, filled with his own guilt and regret for not looking out for Skye. She was family to him, but he too abandoned her.
Fury was completely unnerved when he saw Skye's reaction to Phils' death. The house was disgusting with beer and vodka cans all around the place.
Skye was indifferent to it all, ignoring everyone. Cint and Natasha had insisted on coming. Phil a father to them. Any child of his was a sibling to them and they would help her get through this, and welcome her as one of their own.
How were they to know she was over it before it happened?
They had decided to go back everyday, to clean up the house, help Skye and overall just do what Coulson would have wanted. Next day, she was gone. Since all her valuables were gone, and the door was locked from the outside, they determined she ran and it wasn't a kidnapping.
No one was more shocked than Fury to discover she had deleted herself, permanently, from S.H.I.E.L.D. system, along with her dental records, social security number and any other identifying systems Skye was on.
The girl's only seventeen, Fury thought, this wasn't the girl he knew.
No, the girl he knew was loved by both her parents. He didn't know the girl she was now.
Six months later, Coulson was awake.
His first thought; Skye.
He had to repair their relationship. Dying had put things into perspective. Even if it took the rest of his life to make it up to Skye, he would do it. She was his baby, and dammit he was gonna be a father while he still could.
Before anyone could tell him Skye was gone, and had been for half a year, he was gone.
Going directly to his house, he found it abandoned. A thick layer of dust over everything.
He reached Skye's room, saw the Captain America teddy, covered in dust. He sat on his daughters bed, with her once cherished toy that had always comforted her, as it reminded her of her father, and cried.
He cried because she was gone, because she had truly given up on him, hell she even left Lola there, cried because the love of his life left him to raise their daughter and he didn't know how to cope so he ran.
That's how Fury found him. Holding a teddy bear and red eyed.
"When we told her" Fury told him, "she didn't react at all. Just nodded and accepted it, like it was just ordinary news"
"I may as well have been dead to her" Coulson told him. And them went on to tell him of just how horrible of a person he was and how badly he needed to repair his and Skyes' relationship.
Coulson had never seen Fury as angry as he did right then.
"You, Phil Coulson, are a horrible person"
"I know."
"I understand why you did what you did, but it in no way excuses what you did. I will help you because, dammit, Skye needs help."
Fury then went on to tell Phil how she had disappeared, taken all his and Melinda's money, deleted herself from S.H.I.E.L.D.S. system and any other data base she was on.
"We've had an on going search for her ever since she left, but we've got nothing. She's good" He told Phil.
It took a year to get Phil out of his depression. He had ruined everything and there was no way to fix it.
Fury tasked him with putting together a team, to help him grieve for losing his child.
The reunion with May did not go well.
He went down to administrations and invited her to coffee.
They sat there for a while, not saying anything or looking at each other.
"I'm putting together a team" he started. "Non-combat"
She gave him a look before saying "Then you don't need me. Besides I'm not a field agent anymore"
"I know" he replied "which is why you'll just be driving the BUS"
She gave him a long hard look, then muttered a begrudging "fine"
He smiled then, some of the tension leaving his shoulders, before May asked the dredded question.
"How's Skye?" she asked, her usual confident voice reduced to a meak whisper.
"I don't know" he relpied honestly before explaining for the second time how he completely failed his child.
May was livid. There were many unpleasant words exchanged before Phil finally ended it.
"For fuck sake Melinda, you left us! Skye thought you didn't love her and I couldn't see her without seeing you. We needed you and you left. I couldn't cope, so I left. Neither of us are guilt free"
May had nothing to say to that, knowing there was a great deal of truth in the statement.
The first few days on the BUS were not easy. May and Phil were both slowly learning to trust each other again. They bonded over losing their little girl and shared the grief.
It wasn't long until May finally told him what happened in Bahrain. Phil held her as she sobbed against him. He finally understood why she left.
Things were getting better, there was still no sign of Skye anywhere, but they had each other now, which was more than they'd had in years.
It was a normal enough day on the BUS. FitzSimmons were babbling about some new science thingy while Ward listened witha stoic expression.
They were given the order to pick up a hacker, who had done multiple hacks against S.H.I.E.L.D. They sent Ward to pick whoever it was up.
There sat Phil, Ward about to rip the bag off and May watching from the security feeds.
Phil nodded and Ward took the bag off.
The girls head was dipped, long dark hair covering her face.
After a moment she looked up.
Skye. It was her.
His jaw dropped and the colour left his face.
She was laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world. She was almost hysterical.
"You have got to be kidding me" she choked out between laughs.
Phil just stared