One Sketch At A Time

Chapter 5: Amelia

     (Amelia)

    Amelia paused. She looked in the the lab through the observation window. Fitzsimmons were in there, working together as always. It was a cute scene. Perfect for a sketch of them. She mentally memorized the idea with her 3D memory and pulled out a pencil. Something was missing. Oh no. My sketchbook. What if someone finds... The thought wasn't even finished before she was listing every possible place it could be. The book that documented her life and those she cared about.

     My bunk. No. The lab. No. I had it in the... the gym! Amelia's mind raced, worrying, panicking, afraid to lose the book that gave her a world of drawings of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents without their pain.

     She ran back to the gym. She had been there earlier that morning, maybe around an hour and a half ago. She peeked in, and to her surprise and good timing, saw Mrs. May place the book, her book, back on the bench from Amelia's meltdown that morning. She whipped back around begging her luck that May hadn't seen what was inside. Amelia knew what was inside. Sketches of Mrs. May and Mr. Coulson. Very romantic sketches.

     She heard May call her name. She had been seen. Amelia was tempted to run away and come back later, but she chose to be obedient. She shuffled her feet and looked at the floor to hide her cheeks that burned with shame. "I'm sorry for drawing you. I will rip them out if you want." She whispered.

     "Then you would hardly have much of a book left." May seemed to disapprove.

     "I'm sorry." Amelia apologized. May didn't say a thing. Amelia almost wished that May had said something, but she was afraid of what that something would be. So she chose to be the one to break the thick silence. "Please tell me you didn't look in there." She begged May with alarm.

     "At the twenty, very realistic, sketches of just Phil and I?" May asked.

     "Yes." Amelia admitted.

    "Why did you draw us?" May requested sternly.

     "Because they... well... I don't know really."

     "Yes you do. You drew us. Why?"

     "They make me happy! Okay?" Amelia shouted at her. She tried to rip the book from May's grasp. Melinda held on and judo flipped Amelia to the floor.

     "Happy?" May asked Amelia, "They make you happy?"

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     (Coulson)

     "Knock, knock A.C. Ummmm... " Daisy came into his office. He looked up at Daisy and saw her worry. "May and Amelia are arguing pretty harshly down in the gym." She finished. May is arguing? What ticked her off enough to... Amelia's book. Coulson thought. "Something about sketches making Amelia happy and embarrassing May" Daisy explained.

     "I'll go break it up." Coulson left the office and headed to the gym. Daisy following him.

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     (Amelia)

     "Yeah, they do!" Amelia yelled from the gym floor.

     "I should confiscate this until you give a proper explanation!" May threatened.

     Amelia got up. "You want the reason? You really want it?" She paused for effect. "You and Mr. Coulson love each other and neither of you will admit it! You almost avoid each other, never talking besides stuff for S.H.I.E.L.D. I may not know your life, but I know that you refuse to say anything about it! So I draw what I'm pretty sure you both want. What you know you both want." Amelia had no truthful idea were all this was coming from. But she wavered, sensing Mr. Coulson coming. She mentally felt him enter the gym. "So I draw what I want for the people that saved me from that awful foster home." She was breathless, and saw May's shock at her words harden as May put the emotionless expression back on, and look behind Amelia.

     Amelia turned around from glaring at May. Coulson stood at the back of the room, in full view of them. For the second time that day, shame filled her. What would happen to her now? She knew she was going to be in trouble. She knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. agents didn't have time to discipline mad teenage inhumans. Amelia felt like she owed a lot to them, yet had repaid them by being a brat who drew pictures of agents, trying to be a matchmaker. "You didn't hear all that, did you?" She asked Coulson with guilt.

     "I did." He answered. "May, what's going on?"

     "She said they make her 'happy.' " May answered, holding the book out to Coulson.

     "I can see why." He commented, earning a glare from May.

     It dawned on Amelia. "Wait, you've seen them to?" Amelia asked with horror. Coulson nodded. "I am so dead." She muttered.

    "May, please give her the book back. I see no problem with her drawing fantasies. Coulson commanded.

     "Fine." May thrust the sketchbook at Amelia, and glared harder at Coulson.

     "Maybe we should take some of your advice. Now Amelia, don't show your book to anyone for May's sake. Or she has my full permission to use you for marital arts practice." He said good-naturedly.

     "Yes, sir." Amelia was relived. She had got off easy.

     "May, my office later, Amelia and Daisy, keep quiet." Coulson finished, leaving the gym, May following. Amelia had forgotten that Daisy was there. "What did you draw to make her so angry? I have never in my life seen May lose it." Daisy asked.

     "Didn't you hear him? I guess it's classified now." Amelia joked.

     "Well, whatever it was, you must have really embarrassed her. May never lets down her stoic demeanor,- except around Coulson." Daisy tried to comfort Amelia.

     "Oh. But I was wondering what he meant about taking my advice." Amelia halfmindedly said.

    "Oooo! You get right to the point. You think that they need to get together too?" Daisy asked.

     Amelia grinned, hugging her book to her chest. "Totally." She agreed with Daisy.

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Thanks! I have chosen to write the beginning of the book a little more about Amelia than Philinda. I promised plenty of Philinda moments later. The next chapter is when May finally gets kidnaped, and you will understand why she was sleep deprived enough to fall asleep at the controls of the Zepher at the beginning of the book.
-nightsisterkaris