Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“You are not seriously trying to throw biological maturity at me right now, are you?”

“I think he is.”

Nick turned to shoot a quick glare at Phil before addressing the issue at hand. “You’re 17. No matter how good your training is, there’s a little bit of your brain that will not process danger in reasonable ways. Today you proved that!”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“You jumped off a roof.”

“Barton does it all the time.”

“Barton’s an idiot!”

“What Nick is trying to say Daisy, is that we…” Phil pushed off the wall, putting his hand on Nick’s shoulder for a moment. It seemed to calm him down or give him the room to breathe but Phil was the one that continued the speech. “We understand what we do is important. World saving. Worth risking everything for. You know we get that.”

She barely resisted rolling her eyes. “But?”

“But,” Phil rubbed at the back of his neck before letting out a long suffering sigh. “A couple of MGH drug runners aren’t worth doing a header off the pavement for.”

“So what? I’m supposed to just let them get away?”

“No.” Nick took a couple steps forward. “Of course not. But clearly we need to hammer it home that your life is not worth low level bullshit. It’s not worth high level bullshit either.”

“I am the Director of SHIELD.” It sounded ever so slightly childish and she knew it. It verged on screaming ‘you’re not the boss of me’ but she was less willing to admit that even to herself.

“All the more reason to let us keep you safe.”

She crossed her arms and huffed softly. “Fine. Planning on sending me to my room next?”

“No, we’re going to get dinner.”

“And debrief about those dealers.”

“Wow,” she did roll her eyes that time. “You guys are the best dads ever.” She stared toward the entrance to medical—absolutely not limping. Directors of SHIELD did not limp—and only heard half of the conversation behind her.

“You know she gets that attitude from you.”

Chapter Text

“You have got to stop sneaking in here.” Phil sighed heavily and dropped himself down onto the couch in the corner of his brand new—or new-ish anyway; they had been at the Playground for a while—office and stared at the man sitting at his desk. “I mean, I know you’re doing the whole ‘I don’t exist’ routine but, Jesus, Nick you could call first.”

Nick chuckled and got up, moving toward the couch. “Somebody’s got to keep you on your toes.”

“I think Skye’s got that job down to a science.”

He sat down next to Phil and shook his head. “Glad I was wrong about that one.”

“Me too.” Phil let a small smile creep across his face. “So, is this business or pleasure?”

“Forget what day it is?”

“Probably.” Phil’s eyebrow rose and he waited for Nick to continue. “What am I missing here?”

Nick shook his head, reached into his pocket and leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to Phil’s lips. “Happy birthday, dumbass.”

“Oh.” Phil blushed a little and let out of a soft laugh. “Right. That.”

“Yeah.” Nick’s smile got a little warmer as he pressed the small box into Phil’s hand. “Saw those in an auction house in Prague. Thought of you.”

Phil’s eyebrow climbed a little higher. They’d never been much for gift giving, accept on big occasions. He supposed that a 50th birthday counted as a big occasion but given that he’d forgotten all about it, he was having a hard time placing that kind of importance on it. Phil opened the box and his jaw dropped. “They’re…” He couldn’t find the words for what he was looking at. The silver setting of the cufflinks set off the rings of ruby and diamond chips and the star sapphire in the middle was the crowning touch. Even he was willing to admit that the actual shield of Captain America never looked quite that good.

“They’re you.” Nick chuckled softly.

Phil looked up and shook his head. “This is too much.”

“No, it’s really not.” Nick kissed him again, slowly and far more tenderly than he ever used to kiss him. Phil wasn’t sure he wanted to look that hard at the why behind that and he was 100% sure Nick didn’t either. “Figured once things are up and running around here, I’d take you out somewhere you could show those off.”

“You asking me out on a date, boss?” Phil grinned.

“I owe you a couple nice dinners at this point, don’t you think?”

“Probably.” Phil kissed him again, pulling him closer. “Do I get a birthday wish?”

“As many as you want.”

“Stay the night. And buy me breakfast in the morning.”

Nick smiled and kissed him deeply. “You gonna wear the cufflinks to breakfast?”

“I just might.”

“Then you’ve got yourself a deal.”

Chapter Text

Granted the hotel commissary was not well stocked. At all. In fact, if he’d just come down for a snack and a drink, he’d be hard pressed to find something he liked. But this… this was pushing it.

Phil was biting back a laugh. He couldn’t hear it but he knew. “Shut up.”

“It’s kind of fitting…”

“God, no.”

“It’s that or nothing…”

“Shut up or I’ll make you wait til we get back to HQ.”

The smile faded and Phil Coulson, Agent of SHIELD pouted a little. “Fine. If you’re that bothered by it I can wait.”

Nick sighed and pulled him in for a very quick, very discreet kiss. “I don’t want to wait. Just… no jokes about this shit.”

“Hey, I won’t even be thinking about Shield blue by the time we get up to the room if we play this right.” Phil grinned and risked another quick kiss.

Nick shook his head and smacked Phil’s ass. “Go see if you can find some lube.”

“Sir, yes, sir.” He smirked and went looking through the shelves on the other side of the partition. “Oh Jesus…”

Nick grabbed a pack of the unfortunately named condoms and came around the corner. “Do I want to know?”

“Only if you’ll get a laugh out of ‘love liquid’.”

He did. Probably a little louder than he should have. “Let’s just get this stuff and go.”

“Sweet talker.”

“You love it.”

Phil smirked and tossed the small bottle to him. “With love liquid and shield protecting us? You know it.”

Chapter Text

“What the hell is that?” It wasn’t what he thought he’d be saying as he came in the door that evening but Phil learned a long time ago to expect the unexpected.

Nick looked up at him and his eyebrow rose. “It’s a skink.”

“Excuse me?”

“A skink. A lizard.”

“And why are you holding it exactly?” Phil ran through a list of potential reasons Nick Fury was sitting in their kitchen with a lizard and none of them seemed remotely good. He was really hoping the lizard was and always had been a lizard and it wasn’t Barton or Romanoff or one of the other Avengers. It wouldn’t surprise him exactly, but he really hoped that wasn’t the case.

“He’s Teresa’s.” Nick shook his head. “I still don’t know how I got roped into it but she’s out of town for the weekend and apparently this little guy needs attention.”

“So we’re… lizard sitting for your assistant?”

“Pretty much.”

Phil shook his head and sat down beside Nick. He didn’t have a whole lot of experience with pets that weren’t dogs or cats but it couldn’t be too hard. “Does he have a name?”

“Of course.”

“And it would be?”

He sighed again, shifting the lizard in his hand. “Colonel Mustard.”

Phil barely kept the laugh back as he stood and pressed a kiss to Nick’s temple. “So do I have to salute both of you then?”

“Shut up, Phil.”

“Love you too.”

Chapter Text

The explosion was… well, not small. Not small enough, in fact to shake their windows and have both of them on their feet and pulling on whatever clothes were closest before their brains had completely woken up. If he was honest about it, getting armed and out the door seemed far more important than looking at whatever clothes he was pulling on.

He probably wouldn’t have noticed at all if, after the containment team showed up and the group of mercenaries were hauled off—they were calling each other by snake names of all the fucking ridiculous things to do—the lead agent hadn’t kept looking down at his stomach. He looked down himself, wondering if he was bleeding or needed a medic when he noticed.

This was not his t-shirt.

This was an old, worn out, soft as hell to cuddle up to Captain America t-shirt.

Well, shit.

He managed to resist the urge to tug the shirt down to meet the top of his pants, but just barely. It was futile anyway. He had five inches on Phil and the shirt fit him snuggly… or it had. It might be a little stretched out after this.

He glanced over at the man in question and couldn’t quite stop himself from smiling. He might be wearing what basically constituted a mid-drift but Phil had grabbed the wrong pants and seemed very conscious of his need to hold them up. When Phil met his eye, he did a double take and smiled. Nick turned back to the—now blushing a little bit—agent in front of him. “You’ve got this under control, right Agent?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You don’t need any more from me or Agent Coulson?”

“No, sir.”

“Good.” He walked away without another word and put a hand on Phil’s shoulder. “Agent, I need you to accompany me upstairs.”

Phil’s professional face didn’t slip but that twinkle in his eye was hard to miss. “Of course, sir. I think a debrief is in order.”

They were half way to their front door when Nick felt it was safe to smack his ass playfully. “Smart ass.”

“I can’t believe you stretched out my t-shirt.”

“I can’t believe you beat the shit out of a bunch of mercs while holding your pants up.”

“Your pants. That’s the problem.”

“Mhmm. I think we need a nightlight. Just in case something like this happens again.”

“That might not be a bad idea.”

“Or one of us could just turn on the light.”

“Stop being logical. It’s 3am. That’s too early for logic from you.”

Nick shook his head and opened the door to their apartment, shifting to kiss Phil’s temple. “Come on. I’ll help you out of my pants.”

“I thought I was supposed to get in them.”

“How’s that working out for you?”

“Shut up.”

Chapter Text

“Oh God…” the word dragged out long and low and more wrecked than she’d ever heard him. And, unless things in the wide world of sexy noises had changed considerably since her last visit, it sounded like AC was getting off on something.

Now, she knew, of course, that he’d just had a meeting with the man formerly known as Director Fury and Skye couldn’t help but smirk at the idea that the impeccable Agent—okay, Director now but still!—Coulson was jerking off after such an important meeting.
Maybe she’d have to ask May if he had a crush on his former boss or something.

She was absolutely ready to turn around and do just that—and leave AC to his personal alone time—when another voice filtered through the mostly closed door. She nearly dropped the files in her hands. Suddenly, requisitions for the kitchen didn’t seem that important.

“Come on, Phil.” There was a chuckle in that voice that Skye never would have guessed existed. “You can do better than that.”

She barely caught the muffled, needy ‘fuck’ that left Coulson. “Nick, please…” he moaned; louder than he probably intended, not that she thought he or Fury were aware that she was listening but still. “Please just fuck me!”

“Is that all you want?” There was something low and dark and far too damn sexy in Fury’s voice in that moment. If she gave it more thought, she’d probably never stop blushing.

“No… fuck, no…” Coulson nearly whined and gasped as Fury did something or Coulson shifted or whatever happened that must have felt pretty amazing to make him make those noises. “I want you to finger me until I come. I want to get down on my knees and suck your cock. I want—“

Skye quickly and quietly closed the door the rest of the way and hurried back down the hall. She didn’t need to know anything else about her boss’s sex life. If only she hadn’t run directly into May as she turned the corner. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” The word came out too fast and too high. “Um… Coulson’s… busy. So…”

“Okay.” May took the files and Skye thought she caught a glimpse of a twinkle in her eye. “You aren’t the first one, you know.”

“What?”

“Did you see anything or just hear the pre-game warm up?”

“Oh my god…” She was sure her face was never going to go back to a normal color and she’d never live this day down.

Melinda shook her head and watched Skye flee for her life. She marched down the hall, pushed Phil’s office door open and slapped the files down on his desk before he and Nick had even registered her presence. “Seriously? In Twenty years you think you two could learn some kind of subtlety.” She shook her head again and walked out, making sure the door was completely closed behind her.

Some things just never changed.

Chapter Text

“Just shut up and take my hand.”

In any other situation, Nick would have looked at him like he was nuts but there really weren’t any options left. Whatever the guy they were fighting was—and it sure as shit wasn’t human—he could sense them, track them, maybe read their minds. The rest of the strike team was gone and whatever it was, it was fucking terrifying and nothing they’d been trained to deal with even by SHIELD.

But Nick took Cheese’s hand anyway. He looked nervous but something about it all didn’t sit right. It wasn’t the telepathic whatever that was chasing them that was making him twitchy and Nick knew it. He couldn’t tell how but he knew. “Cheese…”

He took a deep breath and shook his head. “Just… quiet and do not let go, okay?”

Before Nick could answer him, the thing was standing over them, looking around like they weren’t right in front of him. As he moved away, Nick heard Phil breathe out slowly and pull him to his feet, lacing their fingers together. He motioned with his free hand toward the last remaining SHIELD SUV. One more quick motion told him to be as quiet as possible.

The monster didn’t even blink back at them.

Once they were in the SUV, Cheese wouldn’t let go. “Just… let me drive.”

“I’ve heard that before.”

Cheese looked at him, a little wide eyed. “We’re not going to just let this go, are we?”

“What do you think?”

“Okay.” He let out a deep breath and started the engine.

To his credit, the telepath monster guy chased the vehicle until the sniper in the helicopter that HQ sent there way shot him down.

Something told him through the debriefs to leave the miracle of not being spotted out of the story.

Cheese looked worried when he saw him again, like he’d been ratted out maybe. Nick sighed and put his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Come on. I’ll buy you dinner.”

The pizza was half gone before Cheese said anything. “So…”

“Mutation?” Nick wiped his hands on a napkin and leaned forward.

Cheese nodded. “I don’t really… it doesn’t come up often.”

“I thought you were just lucky…” Nick shook his head a little. “That raid in Khost… the sniper in Marrakesh…”

“I… I don’t know what to say.”

“What’s it called?” Nick found himself reaching out, taking Cheese’s hand. “Look, I’m not going to call down the wrath of god on you or something. You don’t want people to know, I won’t say shit. I just want to get what’s going on here.”

“You and me both.” He took a long drink from his beer and frowned. “Okay, I don’t know what the official name for any of it is. I didn’t go to some special mutant school or anything. I just… can’t be tracked. Scent, telepathy, visually if I concentrate.”

“And what happened today?”

“I can kind of… project it, I guess. I wasn’t sure it was going to work. I’ve never really tired it on another person…”

“Okay.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah. That’s it.”

“You’re not going to write up a freak report for Hill on me?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want her putting you out there as SHIELD’s new human eraser.”

“Oh.”

“And thank you.”

“For what?”

“Saving my life. Trusting me with this.” He didn’t pull his hand away. It probably should have felt odd. They didn’t really do any kind of public display of anything really. He wasn’t even really sure if the post-mission sex was just that or something else. He was happy with a friends with benefits deal if that was what Phil wanted. But it felt important not to pull away and he wasn’t sure what he was going to feel when and if Phil pulled his hand away first. He wasn’t looking forward to it but he was pretty sure it was going to happen any second. Most likely right after he said the words that were bubbling up into his mouth at that very moment. “For not pulling away from me when I do stupid shit like this in public?”

Before Cheese could say anything, Nick got up and slid into the bench seat next to him; never lifting his hand off of Phil’s even after he pressed a soft, tentative kiss to his lips. “Nick…”

“It doesn’t change anything.”

“Really?”

“Would I make out with you in public if it did?”

“No.” His smile slowly grew into a soft laugh.

Nick couldn’t help but smile back. “Then yeah, Cheese. Really.”

Chapter Text

His stomach dropped. He knew this wasn’t exactly an ideal situation and the SWORD law teams weren’t really helping but…

“What?”

“We could get an annulment.” Nick didn’t look at him when he said it again. He shuffled whatever paperwork SWORD had sent him on their accidental union via an interesting social quirk of a species Phil wasn’t even sure he was pronouncing properly half the time that nobody had thought to inform them of ahead of time.

Frankly he had enjoyed watching Brand tear a strip off her research department more than anything else but once again he found himself swearing up, down and sideways that he was never doing any more of this diplomatic shit ever again.

Nick had put voice to that before they’d touched down to earth again. Right after Brand told them that legally, the marriage was legitimate. On Earth and everywhere else. If that was unexpected, Nick’s current line of thinking had left him free falling. This was too much to take in at once. He was sure of it.

But there was really only one thing to say. “Okay. If that’s what you want to do.”

That got Nick’s full attention for a second before he slumped in his seat and looked down at one of the drawers in his desk. When he spoke again, it was more to himself than to Phil. “Son of a bitch…”

“I’m sure legal can fast track the paperwork.” Phil spoke without really putting any meaning to the words. It was more to get that disappointed look off Nick’s face. He didn’t want to say those words. He wasn’t to say fuck it and tell the man that after fifteen years together, being married officially was not a terrible thing. In fact, he’d be pretty happy to stay that way but it didn’t really look like Nick was thinking along the same lines at all. “We can just… put it behind us.”

“Is that what you want?”

That stopped the train of thought Phil was having in its tracks. “What?”

“Phil…” Nick sighed again and scrubbed a hand over his face.

That brought him fully out of Agent mode and he shrugged, rubbing at the back of his neck. “I… It’s not ideal. I’ll give you that.”

“Is that what you want though?”

“This isn’t the worst thing that’s ever happened to us on a mission.” He smiled tentatively. “I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet.”

“No. Probably not.” He sighed again before he bent down, opening a drawer and taking something out of it. He stared at whatever it was for a minute before tossing it at Phil. “Fuckers beat me to it…”

Phil looked down at the small box. His hands shook just a little as he opened it up. He thought he knew what would be in there but at that point, he was so thrown off his game, he didn’t want to put any bets on anything.

The ring was simple. Burnished with a single stone set deep in the metal. He looked up again, his mouth open as if he was trying to say something intelligent and failing miserably. “Nick…”

“So like I was trying to say, we could get an annulment and do this properly or we can stay married and just have the party here… it’s up to you.”

Phil shook his head for a second. “You should probably have led with the doing it properly part.”

“Yeah, that occurred to me when you started looking like you were going to pass out.”

“Asshole.”

“Sorry.”

“And let’s just skip the annulment part.”

“So you’re going to put the ring on then?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

Chapter Text

It could have been worse. If anybody on that particular mission got that, it was Phil. He and Nick had seen more than their fair share of worse in their days together and while there was a smoking pile of rubble where an isolated warehouse had been a few hours ago, nobody had been seriously hurt, they caught the bad guys and extraction and clean up teams were on their way.

Aside from the slight ringing in his ears, things had gone pretty well, all in all.

Nick was pacing in a small rut near what used to be the front entrance to the warehouse, shouting orders through a beat up comm system to the extraction team about what supplies and how many medics they’d need. The gash on his head was still slowly seeping blood. Phil had already patched the small wounds of the rest of the team and his own when he grabbed the comm unit from Nick.

“Base? Did you get all that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And you have our coordinates?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. We’ll see you when you get here.”

“Coulson, what the fu-“

“Nick, sit down.” Phil grabbed his shoulder and pushed him down on a relatively flat bit of rubble. He sighed and lowered his voice as he dug through the med kit. “Let me look after you.”

Nick’s eye narrowed on him for a minute. Phil could actually see the ‘I don’t need looking after’ arguments forming before Nick’s frown darkened and he looked away. “Fine.” Phil shook his head and dug out the supplies. Nick flinched, probably more from the cold than the pain as he painted the fancy new answer to superglue onto the wound and wiped the blood away. Nick muttered more to himself than Phil. “Don’t care what they say, that shit stings.”

“Shut up or I’ll break out the needle and thread like in the old days.”

“Kinky.”

“Pervert.”

“Yup.” He let his eye close for a second as Phil put the gauze over the cut. He wasn’t entirely sure he heard right when Nick spoke again. “Thanks.”

“Anytime, Boss.”

Chapter Text

Things were not coming in to focus the way they should. His head was killing him and he wasn’t quite aware enough yet to remember why. He did find, however that he could groan and movement seemed to be soliciting that response in big ways.

He blinked a couple times before focusing on the face that was suddenly hovering over him. “You awake?”

“Kinda.” Phil tried to nod but decided against it as whatever space they were in spun wildly. He tried to focus again on the face. “Nick…”

He smiled down at Phil. “Bet you feel like shit right now.”

“We should get married.”

He heard a laugh—well, not quite a laugh but a snort of amusement anyway—from nearby. It was a familiar sound. Melinda, it seemed was amused by the suggestion. “Sure, Phil. We’ll swing by Vegas on the way home, okay?”

“I’m serious.” He closed his eyes against the spinning and sighed.

Nick chuckled softly above him. “Yeah, serious like a head injury.”

“I love you.”

“I know.”

“And Mel.”

“She knows. I know too. And don’t let the kids hear you calling her that or she’ll make you really hurt.”

“I wanna marry you guys.” Phil opened his eyes just in time to see Nick shake his head.

“Jesus…”

Melinda appeared over his shoulder a moment later. “Okay, Phil.”

“I mean really!”

She smiled. “We know.” She patted Nick’s shoulder and Phil let his eyes close again, content in the knowledge that they knew his feelings on the matter. As he started to drift off, he heard Melinda’s voice. “They must have knocked all the sense out of him.”

Nick’s chuckled followed again. “Yeah, but he’s cute when he’s concussed.”

“We’re not stopping in Vegas.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Chapter Text

Nick couldn't stop the smile that crossed his face as Phil came trudging out of the bathroom, fully dressed and looking just a little resigned. "It's a good cover."

"Mm." He looked down at the sleeves of his suit jacket and sighed heavily. "I know. None threatening. Pencil pusher. Exactly the person anyone at SI will dismiss off hand. I know. That's the point."

Nick moved in behind him as he stood in front of the mirror, Nick's hand smoothed out the shoulders of the ill-fitting suit. "Maybe not everybody. You are kind of cute like this. All sweet and innocent."

Phil glared at him in the mirror but there was a twinkle in his eyes that said he was mildly amused. "Shut up."

"Potts could eat this version of you alive." Nick smirked back at the glare.

Phil rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Careful. This version of me might just take her up on that."

"You wouldn't last a week."

"Probably not."

"And then I'd have to put this adorable little version of you back together."

"How would that go, exactly?" Phil couldn't hide that tiny little smirk from Nick.

"Good food." Nick nuzzled his neck for a moment. "Holding you while you cry." He chuckled and Phil huffed softly. "Maybe a new suit that actually fits your skinny ass."

"You like my skinny ass."

"I like it better in a suit that actually fits it."

"Funny, I thought you liked it out of the suits."

"Ha. Ha." Nick smiled against Phil's temple before pressing a kiss to it. "Could always give you head in the changing room if that'd make you feel better."

"I would not say no to that."

"Didn't think so." He turned Phil around and kissed him softly before stepping back and slipping back into work mode. "They're going to dodge and weave away from these meetings. You know that."

Phil nodded and straightened his tie. "Yes, sir. How long should I let that slide?"

"Get a read on the situation. Potts is the easiest way in."

"Yes sir."

Nick smiled and reached forward, setting Phil's tie just slightly off center. "There. Perfectly non-threatening."

The man rolled his eyes. "Even in this context that's not a compliment."

"I know." Nick sighed and shook his head. "As you were Agent Coulson."

"Thank you, sir."

Chapter Text

Phil wasn’t entirely sure why he was reading a report on a mission he had nothing to do with. The raid on the AIM base was pretty standard stuff, thought they’d recovered some biological samples that AIM certainly should not have had, he wasn’t entirely sure why Nick had called him into his office.

Or why Nick left him a note on top of the files and wasn’t actually present himself.

He was frowning at the bio-tech part of the files which were so far beyond anything he’d picked up that he wasn’t entirely sure what he was reading when the door opened behind him. “Sir… is this saying what—“ A soft sound that Phil knew he could not have possibly heard came from the doorway. It all clicked into place a second later as he turned around. “Nick…”

“Phil.”

“Who’s baby is that?”

Nick sighed and kicked the door shut behind himself. Phil had expected to see his SO, future director of SHIELD, if the rumors were right but the look he got was far more the guy he’d kind of accidentally started sleeping with about a year earlier. That look wasn’t one a person got from their boss. “Thought you’d be through the file by the time I got back here.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Do you want me to tell you or do you want to read the rest of the file?”

Phil looked at him for a moment, then down at the tiny bundle of soft pink blankets in his arms. “Oh God, just tell me.”

“AIM somehow got ahold of DNA samples of some high level SHIELD agents.”

“I read that part.”

“Well, did you get to the part where they played around with what they had?”

“No but…”

“There were three infants that the team picked up. Medical has cleared them. There’s nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Except…”

‘Well, except that genetically two out of three of them have parents of the same sex.”

“So this…”

“Is our kid, yeah.”

“I need to sit down.”

“You are sitting down.”

“Okay then I need to lay down…” He looked up at Nick again. “So… what’s the play? What’s SHIELD doing about this?”

“They’re letting the people involved make the call.” Nick looked down at the bundle again—Phil was absolutely not going to think of it as a baby. No way. That wouldn’t lead anywhere good—and sighed. “May and Hand already decided to let SHIELD find a good home for one of them.”

“Nick…”

“I know.” He sighed again and sat down in the chair behind the desk. Phil caught a glimpse of a tiny hand reaching up. “This is crazy.”

“We don’t exactly live a child friendly life…”

“No, we don’t.”

“We’d have to make sure one of us was home all the time… that’d be a logistical nightmare.”

“Yes, it would.”

Phil was half way around the desk before he’d realized he’d moved but he let his momentum carry him around to stand just behind Nick. Big blue eyes blinked up at him and tiny hands reached up. He shouldn’t have moved. He shouldn’t have reached down and he shouldn’t have smiled when she grasped his finger. “Nick…”

“I know. She’s....” He chuckled and shook his head, seemingly at a loss for the right words to describe the baby. “You want to hold her?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not going to want to let her go, you know?”

“I know.” He smiled again as Nick stood and set the baby girl in his arms. “I guess that’s the decision then.”

“Nick smiled down at the baby and nodded. “Yeah. I kind of figured you’d agree with me once you saw her.”

“Sneaky bastard.”

Nick chuckled and the baby gurgled for a moment. “Don’t swear in front of the baby.”

Chapter Text

This was absolutely not happening. This was unacceptable. Nick groaned and pulled the covers over his head to block out the light from the window. He was not getting sick. The Director of fucking SHIELD did not get laid low by a flu bug. No way. No how. It was not happening.

He tried to sit up—if he could pull that off, he could stand and get to work—but his body refused to listen to him.

“You look like shit, Boss.” Phil was standing at the end of the bed, looking more than a little concerned as he buttoned the cuffs on his shirt. “You okay?”

“Fucking fantastic.” It would have been more convincing if he hadn’t damn near swooned and fallen back onto his pillow a second later.

He blinked up at Phil as he appeared in Nick’s line of sight, putting a hand on his forehead. “Oh yeah, you’re in great shape.” He sighed. “I’m calling Hill. You’re not going anywhere.”

“The hell you are.”

“Go back to sleep before you keel over.” Phil frowned at him and pulled out his phone.

He was going to argue. He had it all mapped out too. But again, his body seemed more willing to agree with Phil than he was. He vaguely heard words like ‘flu’ and was pretty sure he heard Phil say something about staying home with him. He would have given him royal shit for that if he’d been anywhere near fully conscious. As it was, sleep took over without his consent.

When he woke up again, Phil was sitting on the bed, back to the headboard, going over reports. “Go to work.”

“No. If I do that, you’ll get it in your head to get up and do something stupid.” Phil looked down at him, glasses sliding down his nose just a little. “I’m good right here.”

He tried to argue again, tried to tell Phil he actually didn’t feel like getting up at all. Tried to promise that he’d behave himself and get some rest. He didn’t get there though. All he managed was a weak groan and pulling the covers up as the chills started again. He got out a far more petulant “’m fine,” than he intended though.

“Here.” He felt the cool press of glass against his cheek. A moment later he had the glass in his hand, thankful that Phil had thought ahead and wasn’t going to make him dry swallow anything. “Take your medicine, you baby.”

He glared at Phil but took the pills. He curled up again and not so patiently waited for the meds to kick in. If he smiled a little when Phil leaned over and kissed his temple, well… the secret was safe. Besides, nobody would really believe that the Director of SHIELD could be laid low by the flu. That was just unbelievable.

Chapter Text

The sad little sound from behind him only made Nick sigh and look up toward the sky. What god had he pissed off to deserve this? “You have no one to blame but yourself.”

A slightly angrier sound came that time before Nick turned around and came face to face with a pouty little kitten. “Phil, for fuck’s sake! You know better than to touch alien tech before you figure out what it does!”

The kitten drooped a little and mewed softly. It was as close to an apology as he was going to get from Phil at this point. He sighed again and put his hand down in front of Phil. A moment later, he had an arm full of Coulson-kitten. That only lasted a few seconds before Phil managed to climb up onto his shoulder, rubbing softly against his cheek. “Yeah, yeah. I know. You’re sorry.” Nick reached up and scratched behind Phil’s ear. “You better hope Thor can sweet talk the Birjans into helping you out.”

The tiny little head-butt that got him made Nick laugh in spite of himself. “You are pretty cute like this though.”

The meow went back to being sad and Nick scratched behind his ear again. “Okay. I’ll stop with the cute stuff.” He pressed a kiss to the top of Phil’s head. “They’ll help and you’ll be back to your usually version of cute any day now.”

The next meow, he was sure could be translated into I’m not cute. I’m manly as hell.

“Okay, Phil. Whatever you say.”

Chapter Text

Nervous wasn’t the word for the feeling. He was a SHIELD agent, after all. He didn’t get nervous. Especially not about regular, every day, normal life things. He absolutely was not rubbing sweaty palms on his pant leg.

And Phil noticed what he was absolutely not doing before they got to the door. He slid his hand into Nick’s and shook his head. “It’s going to be okay. She’ll love you.”

“Yeah, sure she will.” Nick listed all the possible reasons this dinner could go terribly wrong in his head. The woman had raised Phil so she couldn’t be that horrible but who knew what he’d actually face when that door opened.

Phil pulled him closer as they got to the front step of the small house. “I know what you’re thinking.”

“Do you now?”

“You’re thinking she’s going to think you corrupted me or something.”

“The thought did cross my mind.”

“She won’t. You want to know why?” Phil raised an eyebrow at him. “Because I’ve been telling her about you for years, dumbass. She’s the one that finally told me to get my act together and tell you how I felt about you so if anything, she’ll be thrilled to see you.”

Nick smiled and pulled Phil in for a kiss. “Years, huh?”

“I had a crush.”

“Me too.”

“Good thing I listen to my mother then, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I should thank her.”

“Yes you should.” Phil grinned up at him and kissed him again before knocking on the door.

The absolutely not nervous feeling came back as they stood there waiting. When the door opened, a woman just a few years older than him and Phil was standing there looking less than impressed. “Oh Christ, Kate, don’t be a—“

“Is this him?”

“No, this is a hobo I picked up on the way home and dressed like him. Of course it is!” Phil rolled his eyes.

The woman eyed him for a few minutes and Nick, even after much SHIELD training had to fight not to squirm a little. “What exactly are your intentions with my baby brother?”

“Katherine stop being intimidating and let them in the house for god’s sake!” The second voice came from the direction of what Nick was guessing was the kitchen.

Phil’s sister relented and stepped aside, letting them in. “Well?”

“Well,” Nick squared his shoulders. “I’ve been your brother’s friend for a long time, we’ve been through a lot and I’m not going anywhere.”

“You want him to propose right here, Kate? Would that make you happy?”

“Yes.”

“Ignore her.” Phil rolled his eyes again and Kate smiled. “This is payback for me telling her college boyfriend that he had to make an honest woman of her.”

“You didn’t.” Nick smirked and shook his head. Of course he did. Kate nodded and some of the tension lifted. A moment later the woman who had to be Phil’s mom came around the corner, wiping her hands on a dish towel. Nick smiled and nodded. “Mrs. Coulson. Thanks for having me.”

She waved all three of them further into the house with a tired smile. “I’m glad you could make it. It’s nice to finally meet you.” She laughed softly and motioned them toward the dining room. “I was starting to think Phillip made you up.” She winked at him and hurried back into the kitchen. “Dinner’s just about ready!”

Nick remembered the lessons his own mother had taught him and responded without really thinking. “Anything I can help with?”

Mrs. Coulson’s head appeared around the corner. “That’s sweet of you, dear but just take a seat.” She gave Phil a look. “Keep this one. I like him.”

“Yeah, me too.” Phil kicked Nick under the table and smiled. “I told you you didn’t need to worry.”

Nick smiled and took Phil’s hand in his for a moment before Kate joined them. “So," she settled in and raised an eyebrow at him. Apparently that look was genetic. "When’s the wedding?”

Nick laughed. “As soon as it’s legal, we’ll let you know.”

She watched him again before she nodded. “Good answer.”

Chapter Text

The thing that threw him off more than anything was not having Phil there. He knew when the promotions started that he'd have to leave the field and he'd gotten used to running back end--still hated it with a passion, but gotten used to it--but when they finally stuck him behind a desk, it felt off. Wrong. And the only thing he could put his finger on about it was that Phil wasn't there.

He’d get used to that too, of course, but he didn’t have to like it.

He was in the middle of mulling that over on his way back to his brand new, boring ass, bland office—absolutely needed to do something about that—from a meeting with Director Carter about who in Ops would be best suited to running missions rather than carrying them out. As he rounded the corner and entered the office, he got the vague sense that somebody had been there.

After a quick check for anything that might explode, he found a post it note on the seat of his chair. There was nothing about it that could tip off anyone as to who left it there. The perpetrator had even gone through the trouble of typing the note up. But Nick smiled at it as he read it.

Love you. Miss you. I’m bring home deep dish. Don’t argue with me about it. It’s better than the New York crap.

He chuckled and shook his head, tucking the note in his pocket. The pizza argument between a kid from Chicago and a kid from New York was never going to stop. He’d accepted that and he’d swallow some weird ass pizza for a night if it made Phil happy.

~~~

They found ways that nobody would cotton onto, ways nobody else could see. Even things they could see but wouldn’t read as particularly interesting or intimate as the years went on. Post it notes evolved into coded emails. Nobody else would interpret messages from Agent Coulson to Director Fury about teams making it to extraction points with no major injuries as the reassurances they were. Everyone would see mission briefings instead of I’m okay. We got out. I’m not hurt. which was how it had to be.

The more tech SHIELD used, the harder—and easier—it got to be covert. Everything was recorded. Everything was visible past a certain level. But Nick slapping a Level 10 clearance on certain projects didn’t look that suspect. It made sense.
And for a while, it worked. It worked so well that they stopped using the code as much as they used to.

It worked, until Phil left Project TAHITI. Nick understood. He’d seen it coming. He knew how it had played on Phil to oversee what they were trying to do. But the last level ten message wasn’t the resignation.

I love you. I’m coming home.

Nick smiled at the screen. He could risk one more before that line went dead.

I love you too. I’ll make you dinner when you get here.

The screen blinked a moment later.

Pizza?

Nick laughed. He couldn’t quite hold it in.

Okay. He shook his head, and kept typing. But none of that deep dish crap.

Killjoy.

Nick couldn’t stop the smirk that crossed his face as the feed went dead. Some things, it seemed, never changed.

Chapter Text

He should have been there. He knew that was an impossibility at this point. He knew there were a million other things he had to deal with that had nothing to do with his old team or his we’re-over-forty-and-we’ve-been-sleeping-together-forever-and-the-Netherlands-just-legalized-same-sex-marriage husband. But that didn’t stop his mind from turning over how if they’d had one more man on the ground, or if they’d had more tech support or…

“Sir? There’s a call…” The nurse looked sympathetic at least.

He looked at Melinda for a moment before lifting his eye to the nurse who was shifting nervously. “Don’t suppose you’ve got the time to hold them off for me?”

“No, sir. I don’t think I do.”

“It’s okay, Nick. I’ll stay.”

“I should be here. I wasn’t—“

“Go. We’ll be safe.”

He shook his head. “I’m not worried about that.”

“Yes you are.”

“Okay I’m not just worried about that.”

Melinda stood, moving around the hospital bed and putting her hand on his shoulder. It felt strangely demonstrative—something none of them usually were in public—and he couldn’t fight the urge to reach up and take her hand. “He’ll understand.”

“He shouldn’t have to.”

“The sooner you go, the sooner you can be back.”

He nodded, squeezing her hand and Phil’s before getting to his feet. “I’ll be back. Soon.”

He shouldn’t have had to spend the next five hours arguing with the council. He shouldn’t have had to justify any of the things they were questioning and if they had one ounce of human understanding or compassion, the entire conversation could have waited. Hell, if they had their heads half way out of their asses, this could have waited.

Normally he would have voiced that concern to Pierce but it seemed like the man had his own agenda to push. “They want to talk to you. Specifically.”

“They can wait.”

“Nick, this is a matter of national security.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“They won’t negotiate with anyone else.”

“I’m hearing every word, Alex.”

“We need you here.”

He sighed and nodded. “Three hours. You have me for three more hours. If they’re not cooperating by then, they won’t cooperate after.”

Turned out, they didn’t want to negotiate at all. They just wanted a shot at a high ranking SHIELD agent. If they’d tried earlier on, Nick might have had a little patience about it. But three hours and ten minutes in means they’d wasted time he could have spent where he really needed to be. “Sir, we need to debrief you.”

“No.”

Nick saw a second of fear in the agent’s eyes. “Sir…”

“No, you talk to every agent in the room, Secretary Pierce and the captured terrorists and then you come to me.”

“Yes, sir.”

It took him another hour of dodging admin questions and requisition requests and finally, Hill took pity on him. “Go. I’ve got it.”

“Thank you.”

If anybody saw him run back toward medical, nobody dared to question it. He stopped at the nurses station before going to Phil’s room. “I’m not here.”

The head nurse smiled and nodded. “Understood. There’s been no change in Agent Coulson. Agent May is still there.”

“Of course she is.” He nodded a thanks to the woman and went to the room in question.

May was sitting beside the bed, book in hand. Her voice filled the space as she read the book they always read to each other when something bad happened. She said it made it easier to pass the time. He said that when he was out of it, it became a touch stone—like lucid dreaming—and helped him come back. Phil said he just liked listening to the two of them read something they wouldn’t be reading if he wasn’t pretending to be unconscious.

He stood in the doorway, listening to her for a few minutes. “Going on was not altogether easy. They had packs to carry and the bushes and brambles were reluctant to let them through. They were cut off from the wind by the ridge behind, and the air was still and stuffy.”

“Still in the Shire?” Nick finally stepped into the room, pulling a chair up next to Melinda and pressing a quick kiss to her cheek.

A tired smile crossed her face. “Wouldn’t want to hit the old forest without you.”

He looked at the pages over her shoulder and sighed. “Finish the chapter. I’ll start on the next one.”

She nodded, sparing a moment to look at Phil to see if he had stirred at all. “Phil, even if you’re awake, we’ll keep reading.”

He didn’t move.

“It was worth a shot.” Nick smiled again and closed his eye, listening as she continued to read. Hopefully, they’d get to Bree before he had to leave again.

Chapter Text

Phil heard the drawer close before he managed to get fully in the room. “Who called you? Melinda?”

“No.”

He moved further in, seeing Nick sitting behind his desk with a look on his face that to anyone else would be blank. To Phil, it told him how much shit he was in and how deep it was going to get. “Nick…”

“Your protégé called me. Hacked May’s phone to do it too. I don’t know if she called every number she didn’t recognize or figured out what S. Johnson meant, but either way, she’s worried about you.”

“I’m fine.” And he was, really. For the most part. He had it all under control. He and May. There was no reason to worry Nick about it all. At least that was what he kept telling Melinda after every episode and after his hand started shaking. He was fine. It was becoming a mantra. “How long are you here?”

“As long as you need me.”

“Nick…”

He was interrupted by the clatter of a desk drawer full of paperclips on the desk. “Phil, talk to me.”

“It’s not as bad as it looks, that’s…” His shoulders sagged as Nick came around the desk and stood in front of him. “It’s…” he swallowed hard. “We can handle it.”

“I know you can.” Nick’s hands rested on his shoulders before Phil leaned in and let the man who had been his partner for so long just hold him. “I’ll look for a way.”

“We’re doing that already.”

“I know.”

“I’ll… it’ll be okay.”

“I’m not going anywhere until you actually believe that.”

Phil looked up at him. For one brief second, he considered lashing out, blaming Nick for all of this but that wouldn’t get them anywhere. “Okay.” He brought his arms up and wrapped them around Nick’s waist, just letting some of the pressure and tension go, if only for a moment. “Okay.”