Last Resort

“Shouldn’t the lights have come back on?” Mack asked.

He, May, Daisy and Simmons stood in the grassy field, holding their breath, listening for any signs of life from the darkened compound.

“Give it a second…” Simmons answered.

At her word, a low hum echoed from below them as the generators rumbled back to life. Seconds later, a sickly glow of fluorescence spilled onto the field from the facility’s open door.

The four agents exchanged anxious looks.

“Come on, we’ve waited long enough,” May announced. “Let’s get our team back.”

***

Although she did not expect to meet with any resistance in the reactor room where she had last seen Coulson, May rounded the corner with a sharp pivot, ICER at the ready. The bright light in the chamber nearly blinded her and she had to squint against the harsh glare.

Once her eyes had adjusted, she realized that she was alone.

There was no one in the room except for herself.

“No,” she whispered.

Simmons said he would be here! She said he would be transported back to the last place she had seen him!

She lowered her weapon and slumped against the wall.

All the anticipation, the planning, breaking her promise to keep the damn book hidden-- it was all for nothing.

“I’m sorry,” she moaned. “Phil, I’m so sorry.”

From the far side of the room, a faint groan answered her, so hushed she might have imagined it.

May’s head jerked up and she leapt to her feet, following the noise across the chamber. When she reached the end of the antiquated control panel, she saw him.

Phil Coulson.

He was laying on his side with his knees pressed into his chest, his back against the panel. His eyes were clamped shut and his clothes were soaked through with sweat.

But he was here. And he was alive.

“Phil?” she whispered quietly, kneeling beside him.

“Mmm,” he answered. “Lights. It’s bright… too bright.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll take care of it.”

She ran to the far wall and switched off every light she could find. The reactor was the only remaining source of illumination in the room.

May sprinted back to where she left him and crouched down again. She touched a hand to his head. He was cold. Too cold.

God, what had he been through?

“Phil?” She asked again. “Are you okay?”

With a quick motion that made her jump, he grabbed at her hand as she moved to pull it away. His cold fingers wrapped around her palm. He pressed it to his cheek, warm skin against his frozen flesh. She felt the corner of his mouth turn up under her fingers, even as his eyes remained closed.

“May,” he whispered.

“Yeah, Phil,” she said. “It’s me.”

He squeezed her hand so hard, her bones ached from the pressure. But she didn’t flinch.

“I knew you’d find me,” he said.

May could only smile in reply.

***

Within the hour, Daisy, Mack, Simmons and May had managed to haul Fitz, Robbie and Coulson onto the quinjet.

Fitz seemed to be in the worst shape of the three. Mack had to carry him on to the jet. Once on board, he refused to put the young scientist down. So the craft lifted with Fitz lying across Mack’s legs and his head in Simmons’s lap. If he was embarrassed with the amount of attention he was receiving, he wasn’t showing it. He fell asleep with a grin, holding both of Simmons’s hands in his.

After Coulson had gently extracted himself from Daisy’s tight embrace, she contented herself with chatting with Robbie. When Coulson made his way up to the cockpit, he couldn’t help but smile as he listened to her try to pump the poor mechanic for every detail she could about the so-called “Dark Dimension.”

May’s posture stiffened as he sat down next to her.

“How are you feeling?” She asked, not taking her eyes from the instrument panel.

Coulson sighed.

“That’s a loaded question,” he said finally. “I feel… different.”

She nodded, declining to comment.

“We’ll make sure that you all get a full work-up at the base,” she assured him. “Simmons has the medical crew on stand-by.”

“How long were we gone, May?”

“Three weeks.”

He let out a long breath.

“Did it seem longer?” She asked.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I don’t think time existed where we were. It was just… darkness.”

May nodded. She knew that much. She had heard the stories.

“How did you know we weren’t dead?” He asked.

“I didn’t,” she said simply.

She knew what was coming. He was going to thank her for not giving up on them. She had to stop him before he got carried away.

“There’s something you need to know,” she said. “About the way we brought you back. I know you said it was important to keep it hidden, but the only way we could think of to reverse the experiment was to use—

“The Darkhold,” he finished for her. “I know.”

He met her sharp look with a shrug of resignation.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” he said. “Simmons replicated the experiment that Eli Morrow used to put us in that place, he got that knowledge from the Darkhold…It was the only way.”

“I put her in danger when I let her read it,” May disparaged.

Coulson glanced over his shoulder to where Simmons sat combing Fitz’s hair with a free hand and chatting with Robbie and Daisy.

“She looks okay to me,” he said.

“You said you trusted me to take care of it, and I—

“I did,” he interrupted. “And I do. I trusted you to use your best judgement. And you judged that it was worth the risk.”

May swallowed.

“My judgment may have been compromised,” she admitted.

“You had to make a tough call, Melinda,” he said. “If the situation were reversed. I would have done the same thing.”

She gave a soft snort and searched him appraisingly.

Coulson was broken, beaten, and yet still standing, in a manner-of-speaking. She wondered if Robbie and Fitz would have made it out of the darkness without him. What had he said or done that had kept them going?

He always looked after his own, with no regard to personal safety or consequence. It was why they all needed him.

It was why she loved him.

“Yeah, you would have,” she murmured at last.

“Is the book safe now?” He asked.

“It’s hidden,” May confirmed.

“Good,” he said. “We have to make sure that it stays that way. I’ve seen the kind of dark power that that book controls. Nothing good will happen if it falls into the wrong hands.”

***

Washington, DC

The next morning, Dr. Holden Radcliffe tripped over a parcel left on his doorstep on his way to get the mail. The box was heavy and rattled his kitchen table when he managed to haul it inside and set it down.

A white sliver of a note peeked out from between the creases in the brown paper. He wrested it from the folds of the hastily-wrapped package and tore into the envelope. The handwriting on the letter was so slanted that it was nearly indecipherable, as if whoever had written it had been forced to compose the note in a hurry.

“Dr. Radcliffe,

This parcel contains a book unparalleled in value. I believe it may contain several answers that you and I have been searching for re: biotech development, et al.

The provenance of this manuscript is uncertain and we must use the utmost caution when using it.

Do not mention that you have this book to anyone, especially anyone associated with SHIELD! Do not open it until I can arrive. I will try to sneak away at the earliest opportunity.

I will explain more when I see you.

Sincerely,

Jemma Simmons.”