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[Oh look, Alex. Your dad is in the doorway. Clearing his throat.]

[Years and years of training and yet all it takes is that sound and she's 16 again...caught breaking curfew.] Daddy...I was...uh...

[Looking for the keys to Lola. Yeeeah about that feeling 16 again...]

[Phil is fighting his amusement, but it's in his eyes and at the corners of his lips.

Do you really think he would keep the keys to that car where anyone can find them?]

Something I can help you find, sweetheart?

[No. But she's not anyone. And she figured the desk was too obvious a place. So obvious in fact that he would assume that no one would look there, ruling it out immediately. And that made it the perfect hiding space.]

Sugar packets. All we have in the kitchen is that sweet and lo shit and after hearing Fitzsimmons list the ingredients of artificial sweetners for the millionth time, I can't...I just can't...

Not to mention they taste gross.

I know you have a secret stash. [Look at that flawless cover story, Phil. Look at it. Your baby is a super spy of the highest degree.]

[May struts in with some very familiar car keys in her hand and—

—freezes, staring at Alex. Her expression's stony and inscrutable. She's busy looking at this from both sides, running risk projections.

Question is, do either of them really have a valid explanation for this?]

[Dammit, May! That's what she was looking for.] You know...you could have given me a heads up. Or invited me along.

You know a please would have been nice before going through my things.

[Phil. Do not sneak up on her when she's snooping.] True. But it also would have killed the whole sneaky thing. Dad, may I please snoop through your desk just doesn't work...

[Her mouth's set indeterminately, torn between a frown and smile, and not too extreme about either. I won't tell if you don't is written somewhere in her non-expression.

May isn't supposed to know who Alex really is, and it's possible she still doesn't, but they can agree she's got a better than average chance of guessing. She was at Phil's wedding, and he was at hers. They both agreed to add marriage to the pile of things they don't talk about anymore, because they're the actual worst best friends.]

Tank's full.

[Did someone ask for a heads up?]

Catch. [She's tossing Lola's keys.]

Edited 2014-06-11 13:32 (UTC)

[Her secret's safe. If for no other reason than Alex would like her part in this kept a secret as well.

She often wonders if May knows. Or at least suspects. She assumes she does. And it wouldn't surprise Alex in the least. There were a few people who knew -- Fury, Hill, Barton, Romanoff...and Garrett. But then John Garrett had also been her godfather. His betrayal hurt on so many levels.]

I'll make sure to do the same. [She catches the keys easily.]

He ask you to be co-director yet?

[May specializes in private, remember? Unless she's ordered to talk, using very precise and specific terms, she's like a vault.

She nods curt acknowledgment, fully expecting Alex to cover her tracks. (And to take good care of Lola.)

The question catches May almost completely off-guard. She looks composed, sounds less sure. In her opinion, Maria's still the best person for the job, but they can't pluck her from the work she's doing without causing a political mess.]

You think he will?

[Alex will take excellent care of Lola. She has been imagining about driving that car since she first got her driver's license. And that was BEFORE she knew it could fly.]

Why wouldn't he? [She swivels in the chair, thinking. Sometimes she is still 12.] Hill's out. Skye's too new. Fitzsimmons aren't field trained. He doesn't know Tripp. And he won't...I'm out....

That leaves you.

Recent events aside, he does trust you. More than most people here.

[She falls in, feet shoulder-width apart and hands clasped behind her. The stance is almost automatic in this office and others like it. Based on appearances, May was never 12.]

Process of elimination. That's how I got all my promotions.

[Don't ever say she's got no sense of humor, because that was a joke; a morbid joke, if they examine her meaning too deeply. The more she thinks about being asked, the less it matters to her. She realizes she's going to end up doing the work, regardless.

And on that note:] Get out of the chair.

[Alex was a lot less 12 when she was in Macedonia. She did well there. Made a lot of contacts, did a lot of good. But then a few weeks ago, Clint showed up at her door telling her he was her extraction. That she had been reassigned. She almost slammed the door in his face.

Cause the last time she saw Barton? He was telling her that her father was dead.

This news was only marginally better. And she still only half believes Phil wasn't behind it. So she's been feeling a lot more 12 ever since arriving.]

What? Why? [What is her sitting there hurting, May? Hmmm? She'll vacate soon enough...considering she wants to take Lola out for a spin. But really...]

[It's not uncommon to regress a little around a parent, even for adults and highly-trained agents.

People say the last guy who asked her 'Why?' had every single one of his ribs broken with a single kick, then got trampled to death by a horse. (She doesn't know who keeps writing a horse into these stories.) She gives Alex a hard look, mostly for forcing her to use words. She's got a mix of reasons, but what she says is:]

He could walk in. [The swiveling is problem, too.] Keep spinning and you might adjust it. He'll know.

[Back when Melinda went looking through Phil's desk, she was careful not to touch the chair at all.]

[Good to know she's not alone.

Garrett most likely. You've heard the stories he tells. Completely over dramatized. She would not be surprised in the least if the horse traced back to him.

As a kid, Alex loved those stories. It was Garrett who recommended her for SHIELD in the first place. She now wonders about his motives, his talk of her 'bright future'. Did he really mean SHIELD or HYDRA?

Those were thoughts best not dwelled upon.] He could. But then you'd be in the same position I am.

[She does have a point on the swiveling.] And he'll know exactly how it got adjusted and that will point directly to me. Dammit. You know, this is why I didn't want to work with him to begin with. [Among other reasons.]

Though now I suppose it doesn't matter. Since us, along with Barton and Romanoff, are all that is left of SHIELD. [Well at least Barton. She knew Clint stood behind his former handler. She could only imagine Tasha did too.]

[Oh he's so proud of his little girl. He might be even prouder if she wasn't sneaking around his office.]

Bottom drawer of my desk. Where I hide everything else.

[Except the keys to Lola.]

[Well if he would give her a spare key, she wouldn't have to sneak. So really, you did this to you, Phil.]

Bottom drawer. Of course. Same as your office at home. [She opens the drawer and reveals the motherload -- sugar packets, candy, and is that...] You have NOT been bogarting the Nutella, Old Man...

[Dammit, Phil. Just tell her where the keys are. AFTER you explain hoarding the Nutella, of course.]

[Sneaking is part of the dad fu plus he's got twenty years of SHIELD training behind it to boot.]

Dare I ask why my daughter needs to snoop through my desk or am I better off not knowing?

If I say the latter will you let this go? [Curse your Dad Fu and hey...she's got...a few years training under her belt...like five or so. But still, it counts.]

[Not alone by a long shot. After she left Providence, May fought for control of her mom's car radio for about a hundred miles. She also got the same lecture in two languages. It wasn't more fun the second time.

It'd be a hell of a lot easier to explain why she's standing in Phil's office than why Alex is sitting behind his desk. She doesn't say so because she figures she's made her point.

There's barely a reaction, when Alex says she didn't initially want to be here. Apparently, it's not a big surprise.]

Give it more time. If I could work with anyone, anywhere, I'd choose Coulson.

[They're going to build SHIELD back up again, so that's something to look forward to. Sure, for now, they're almost all that's left of SHIELD, but the team itself isn't irrevocably stuck together. It's a choice, and May's made it. No going back, only moving forward.

Guess who's still waiting for Alex to haul butt outta that chair?]

Edited (picky edits PLURAL how'd i manage that?) 2014-06-11 21:23 (UTC)

Nope......if you need to sneak through my stuff it's serious and I want to know what is going on...right now.

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God help Phil when these two team up

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he's got no chance if they get skye in on it, too.

Poor Phil

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