Maria Hill and Melinda May One Shots

The Ultimate Sacrifice

The roof closed, just as Melinda flew the quinjet out. She gripped the joystick tighter as the jet shuddered, the tail catching on the door. Still, it continued flying. Melinda focused on the ridiculously big plane approaching and scowled. She'd need to fly right into it to stop Hydra blowing up their base. Melinda sped up the jet, going faster than she'd ever dared before.

Coulson watched in horror as a quinjet burst forward from the hangar. He knew without knowing that the pilot was Melinda. Only she would do that.

Only five minutes ago had the plane been spotted with a Hydra agent in the cockpit. SHIELD could do nothing to stop it. Fury had ordered an evacuation and all of SHIELD HQ were outside, either at home or mobbing the city centre in groups.

Coulson's team stayed together, staring up at the plane, looking like awestruck tourists.

"Where's May?" Jemma asked suddenly, breaking the silence.

Coulson turned and looked at her sadly. "Flying to her death." He looked back at the tiny quinjet and then at the massive plane. Melinda had no chance of making it out alive.

"Oh," Jemma said, her voice small.

Melinda's knuckles were white. She didn't want to die, not yet, not like this. She had always expected to die in combat or saving SHIELD. She hadn't expected a plane crash. She started humming to take her mind off the outcome and was surprised when Fury's voice crackled over the intercom.

"May, turn around right now. That's an order," he said.

Back on the ground, Fury flicked a switch. People needed to hear it. It would take their minds off when SHIELD either blew up or Melinda died.

"All due respect sir, but shut up and get out of my jet," Melinda said. "SHIELD's more important than me."

"That plane will explode over the city, Agent May," he warned.

"Not if I can help it," she replied evenly. "And besides which, it's crossing that river I always forget."

"The Hudson."

Coulson swore when he heard Melinda. Everyone stopped talking, just waiting for the next words over their phones. It looked kind of weird, about two hundred people clustered together, all with their phones at their ears.

"If you take over my jet, I will personally see to it that no one finds your body," she said. "So get away from the speaker, get the hell out of HQ and just wait like everyone else."

"You can try," Fury said.

Melinda only cursed in reply, trying to keep the joystick straight as she forced the jet to fly almost vertical. To calm herself she hummed the songs her mom used to sing to her when she was little.

Her nerves frayed as the jet shuddered but she accelerated.

"Last chance, May," Fury said, sounding concerned.

"Is that worry I hear?" Melinda teased. "Have you figured out emotions at long last?"

"I'll say yes if you come down," Fury bargained.

"Relax, Nick, I'm hardly going to die flying," Melinda said, more to reassure him than herself. "Also, get out of HQ. If you die than me flying into this plane was all a waste of time." She studied it. "It's fast. Very fast. We should model our planes on it."

"You can't seriously be admiring that plane," Fur said, disbelief coating his voice.

"It's a really good plane," Melinda protested. 

"Be that as it may-"

"If you don't shut up, I'll cut the speaker," Melinda said tightly, struggling to control the jet.