How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You

10| Christmas With The Coulsons Pt.2

August went by in a flash. Phil moved the unopened envelope from the coffee table to rest under a mountain of files on his desk. May continued to talk to Andrew about her feelings. Daisy grew.

Soon enough, it was nearing the end of October. Phil had pulled some strings with Fury, who was still on location, and had gotten the past few months off and wouldn't start going on operations until the next year.

"I need my partner," May had complained one night as they sat on the couch, keeping an eye on Daisy's baby monitor while they chatted. "I can't go on the field without you."

"I'm sure you'll find a way," Phil said amusedly. "I'm not a combat agent anyway. I'll just drag you down."

"You're not bad with a gun," May protested. "You can kick someone or hit someone if need be."

"I feel like you're just bored with your desk job," he teased.

"I am, thank you for noticing," she grumbled. "Because I'm a combat operative, not a desk jockey. I'll do desk duty when I can't move my legs. When I can go on the field, I want to go on the field."

"No one's stopping you, Lin."

May kicked him. "You are! At least once."

"Who's going to take care of Daisy?" Phil glanced at the door to his bedroom, which was closed so they could talk without fear of being heard. "I'm her- her-"

"-Dad-"

"- Thank you-" Phil was still having some trouble with that- "now. I can't just drop her off at a daycare and go on a mission." He scooted closer to May, pushing her foot off the couch to avoid confrontation as he gazed at her imploringly. "Please, Lin? It's just until Christmas. We can take her to my mom's and your parents if you want. I'm sure Mom will be happy to have a baby in the house again. Just hold out for the holidays and we can go on as many ops as we want."

May frowned lightly, but the corners of her mouth tugged upwards when Daisy woke up and started smiling into the camera. She didn't fuss or cry. She just smiled, like she was trying to help Phil's case.

"Fine," May relented. "But we better have a good first mission. Otherwise, all this waiting would be for nothing."

So that December, they first brought Daisy to Julie, who had cooed over her for hours at a time while Phil cooked and May supervised.

"Are you sure you're okay with looking after her for a little while?" Phil asked worriedly from the kitchen. "If worse comes to worse, we can get an undergrad to do it for a couple extra bucks. I know a couple."

"I can keep her if you have one of those long missions, then," Julie conceded. "Who's the student?"

May tore a bit of a dinner roll off the bun and handed it over to Daisy. "Katherine Shane," she supplied helpfully, watching the girl stuff it into her mouth. "She's doing an internship at the Triskelion next year, like we did when we were juniors."

"Will that interfere with her job?" Julie asked, concerned.

"Not if we request her first," Phil said from the counter. "As new agents, we have to show her the ropes anyway, and most interns are assigned to a pair of agents to shadow or do grunt work for, just like new agents are assigned to older agents and older agents are assigned teams and teams are assigned to senior agents. Sometimes, you end up with a big disaster family if you're together long enough."

"And you want Daisy to be taken care of by a disaster family?"

Phil accepted the half-torn dinner roll May offered him. "No, just the intern." He ate a piece as he idly stirred the sauce. "She's a good kid. I was with Agent Gamble when he picked her."