I'm still comparing your past (To my future)
Pippin was straight-up the most adorable dog May had ever seen. Small and black and white and fluffy, with a tail which wagged a hundred miles a minute at the sight of new people come to visit him.
Ward, amusingly, fell to pieces when confronted with this, and immediately started cooing at it and stroking it while May and Coulson looked on, trying to suppress their laughter at the big, tough-guy specialist completely incapacitated by a cute dog.
Lucy was obviously still on bed rest, so May was tasked with collecting some of her clothes and other essentials.
Her bedroom was big, and full of photo frames, art supplies, jewellery and other knick-knacks. She put some of the most practical and comfortable clothes in a bag, as well as a nice dress and a few pairs of shoes. She was surprised by the number of dragons in there- they adorned every surface in various forms- and she made sure to retrieve Lucy's phone, a few well-thumbed fantasy novels, and her laptop, which was connected to a high-end graphics tablet. She assumed that the dragon-themed hand-drawn artwork was hers, too, and there was even a hoodie with a design which matched her distinctive style.
Interesting. A bookworm artist who did Taekwondo. Usually the sporty types weren't intellectual as well, but Lucy seemed smart. Good grades, with books on her shelf in French and Chinese as well as English.
Languages were a good skill for an agent.
"May, a word?" Coulson asked discreetly, gently pulling her aside.
"What is it, Phil?" she feigned ignorance, already knowing what her all-too-perceptive Soulmate was going to say.
"Why did you say you'd train her?"
Honestly, she didn't really know. "I- She's lost so much. Look at the pictures- she and her parents were obviously close. She needed a reason to keep going."
Coulson nodded, understanding. "You thought it might break her."
"No." That wasn't it. The opposite, in fact.
"Then what?"
She hesitated, trying to find the words. "Do you remember what you told me about Skye? After you told her she was an 0-8-4 and about what happened in the Hunan province?"
He frowned, remembering that day, the awful feeling of his platonic soulmate's devastation pulsing through the bond, and the incredible spark of hope which followed it. "It was something which could have destroyed her faith in humanity-"
"-But she ended up restoring a little piece of yours."
"You thought this might be her Bahrain."
"But it wasn't. She pushed through and immediately wanted to move forward, to stop it from repeating. I wouldn't have responded like that. I don't think I know anyone who would. It's... surprising."
Coulson nodded thoughtfully. "She is resilient. And she already has some martial arts training." He watched her face closely. "Do you think she'd make a good agent?"
"I think she's a fighter, and very loyal. She wants to protect. That's what S.H.I.E.L.D's all about."
"I trust your judgement. And honestly, I like her. I think she'd fit in with the team."
May smirked. "Fitzsimmons were saying we needed a mascot," she remarked drily, gesturing to the dog.
Coulson laughed. "I'll talk to Fury. I'm pretty sure he won't object, not with you vouching for her."
May nodded and walked away.
On the Bus...
It was the first time Simmons had come into the Medbay while Lucy was awake, and, Simmons being Simmons, she had already made it awkward.
"Hi! I'm Dr Jemma Simmons. It's really nice to meet you!" She backtracked quickly, stammering, "N-not that I think what happened to you was nice or anything, I mean-"
Lucy huffed a quiet laugh, ignoring the pain in her ribs as she did so. "Don't worry, I get it. It's nice to meet you too, Dr Simmons."
"Oh, call me Jemma," she waved off cheerily. "Or Simmons, people call me both."
"Going by your surname, cool." Lucy complimented, hoping to put her more at ease.
"It's because of my Soulmate, Leo Fitz. He hates his first name, and when people started calling us Fitzsimmons I got stuck with it."
"Cute couple name," Lucy grinned.
Simmons smiled in response. "Hey, have you found your Soulmate yet?" she asked curiously.
Lucy shook her head. "Not yet. Still searching." She rolled up her sleeves, showing the biochemist the words permanently inked onto both wrists. Her right wrist- the platonic one- read 小龙 in elegant and precise calligraphy, whereas the left wrist- the romantic one, the closest to the heart- read Ninja in a playful scrawl, obviously written by a woman. Both were brown, meaning her Soulmates' eyes were both brown, and would turn gold the first time they called her by the name on her skin.
"The Chinese means 'little dragon'," she explained.
"Oh, that's lovely!" Simmons sighed. She showed Lucy her left wrist, where '[insert cute nickname, I haven't thought of one yet]' shone golden.
"Awww," Lucy cooed. "That's adorable!" She liked Simmons- she seemed sweet.
"I'm guessing Agent Coulson told you my name?"
"I did, actually." Skye said, appearing in the doorway. "Hi."
She raised her eyebrows, smiling. "And am I allowed to know your name, or is that classified?"
"I'm Skye." Lucy picked up on the lack of a last name, but didn't mention it.
"Good to meet you."
Skye turned to Simmons. "Fitz needs you in the lab. Some problem with the Night-Night gun, he said."
"We are not calling it that!" Simmons grumbled, flashing the girl in the bed a bright smile before she left. Lucy waved back.
"So, how are you feeling? When I dropped in yesterday you looked pretty rough." Skye asked sympathetically.
She shrugged with her good shoulder. "Eh, I'm okay. Think Simmons has got me high enough on pain drugs that I can't feel a thing. Better than being in a coma."
She paused a moment. "How's Master Peters?"
"The woman with dark hair?"
"Yeah."
"She's okay. Nasty concussion, pretty shaken up, but she'll be fine. Isn't she your Taekwondo instructor?"
"How do you know that?" Lucy asked, surprised and a little unnerved.
Skye wiggled her fingers like a magician, eyes filled with mischief. "The internet knows everything, Lucy. There was a picture up on Facebook from when you got your black belt a few years back." Her face softened. "I'm sorry about your parents. They seemed like decent folks."
"Do you have any leads on the attackers' whereabouts?" Lucy asked, not willing to breach the subject of her grief just yet.
"Not yet. I'm still looking, though."
"Thanks for coming by. I hate hospital beds." Skye groaned melodramatically.
"Ugh, I know! I've only been out of here a few weeks myself. Jemma's one of my best friends, but 'Dr. Simmons' can be a nightmare."
"What happened? Am I allowed to know?" The other girl's expression darkened.
"I was shot. Twice, in the stomach."
"Fun!" Lucy replied sarcastically, breaking the tension slightly.
"Yeah, quite."
"Hey, Skye..."
"What's up?"
"What's Agent May like? Have you ever trained with her?" Skye thought for a moment.
"Well, Ward's my S.O, so he's responsible for training me. May's... A bit of a mystery, to be honest. Something happened, a few years back, and she left the field for Administration."
"Ugh, paperwork." Lucy mock-shuddered, and Skye laughed.
"Not my choice of career either. Anyway, she came back into the field because Coulson asked her to, and she flies the Bus. She can be stern and a little scary- lots of stern looks- and she seems like a total robot most of the time, but I swear she once played the 'shaving cream under pillow' prank on Fitz."
"You're kidding."
Skye shook her head. "No, AC- Coulson- said apparently she used to prank him all the time at the Academy."
"Did you go to the Academy? Simmons mentioned it earlier."
"Nah, I'm a stray. I'm a hacker- S.H.I.E.L.D found me after I hacked into one of their servers. I was working for the Rising Tide at the time, living in a van."
"A 'Hacktivist', then?" Skye nodded, somewhat proudly.
"That's why Coulson took me on. I'm training to be a field agent now."
"Have you seen Agent May in the field?"
"Yup," she replied, popping the 'p'. "She's a total badass."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that she can take out a whole room of armed mercenaries single-handedly, without breaking a sweat, and without a gun."
"You're serious?" Lucy asked, a little awestruck.
"There's a reason why they call her 'the Cavalry'," Fitz said in his broad Scottish accent, slightly out of breath at the door.
"Don't call her that." Skye snapped.
"Sorry, Skye." he apologised sheepishly.
"S'fine, but you know May hates it." she replied, giving him a smile.
"Hi, I'm Fitz, by the way," The frazzled Scot said, noticing Lucy in the bed, before turning to his teammate. "Skye, do you know where the fire extinguisher is?"
"There's one in the hanger," She replied with a fondly exasperated eye roll. "What did you set fire to this time?"
"Hey, it's not my fault Simmons didn't set the distilling pipes up properly! She's the biochemist!" Fitz defended, rushing off.
The two girls watched him leave, equally amused looks on their faces.
"May's gonna kill them if they damaged the Bus."
"I thought Coulson was the boss?"
"Well yeah, but have you met those two? Coulson's like the cool dad, where May's like the 'no phone, 7:30 curfew' kind of mom. She even has the 'mom face' down. She'd be the one to tell them off, for sure."
Lucy had to stifle her giggles at that. "All right," she admitted, "I can imagine that. Coulson'd be the kind of person where he's 'disappointed', which is much worse than him being angry."
"Uh-huh, although May's the 'silent anger' type, and you never know when the lecture'll come."
"My mum was like that. She'd be disappointed too, though. It was better with Dad- he'd shout for a bit, then it'd usually be over." Lucy's smile faded a little.
"Hey," Skye said brightly, trying to distract her. "Why'd you want to know about May, anyway?"
"She said she'd train me to fight,"
"Don't you already have a black belt?"
"Fighting's different from martial arts. I know a lot of techniques, and about 15 different patterns; I can do floorwork, and score points in sparring, but I don't know a lot about translating it into a real combat situation. That's what she said she'll show me."
"She must like you, then. May wouldn't waste her time otherwise."
Lucy nodded. "I won't let her down."