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She stands alone on the beach, the smell of the ocean and the feel of the cool water gently brushing the backs of her ankles counteract heat of the sun on her back. Her shadow stretches over the disturbed sand, the hole beneath it invisible to anyone who didn't know where it was.
Her breathing is even and serene, but only because she is forcing it to be so. She couldn't fall apart over this. It wasn't right.
Yet her chest still tries to heave, and she wavers on her feet when a breeze rolls through and ruffles her hair. She lets out a shaky sigh, swallowing past the sudden tightness in her throat.
"You okay?"
The hand around her waist steadies her, the voice that accompanied it soothing the sob she had been fighting off.
"I'm fine. It just… it was harder to do than I thought."
"It wasn't me, though."
"He still had your face."
Phil wants to laugh at that, but decides against it when May suddenly turns and wraps her arms around his torso, her eyes still on the spot they had buried his LMD in. He couldn't blame her for being emotional. She had endured a lot in the past 24 hours.
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Robbie Reyes had appeared exactly one day ago, the portal from whatever dimension he and Ghost Rider had been inhabiting lighting up the porch outside the beach house in Tahiti.
"Are you sure about this? There's no going back afterwards."
The man he'd brought with him hesitated for a moment, then nodded affirmatively.
"He needs this more than I do."
Phil had purposely chosen not to succumb to sleep that night. He knew the end was near, and all he wanted was for his last moments on earth to be spent watching the love of his life, as she fought her own sleep and tried to map his features with her hands. But his body was exhausted and so ready to let go, that he had drifted off to sleep without even realizing it.
May spent the entire night listening to his labored breathing, and feeling her heart crack every time his heartbeat got weaker.
The sound of footsteps coming down the hall startled her, and as much as she didn't want to leave his side, she rolled out of bed and snatched the pistol from the nightstand. She waited, crouched by the side of the bed while the door creaked open.
"Gun down, Agent May. It's Reyes."
May didn't put the gun down, but she did lower it as Robbie entered the room. She moved back to Phil's side, kneeling beside the bed and checking his pulse. Much to her relief, he hadn't left earth while she was occupied.
"Don't tell me you're coming for him early."
"Despite popular belief, we're not the Grim Reaper. We don't 'guide souls to the afterlife' or whatever you believe."
"Then why are you here."
May could only stand and stare in shock when Reyes stepped aside, the spitting image of Coulson moving forward and giving her a weak smile.
"Hi, May. Wow, I look terrible."
Reyes wasted no time, explaining that this Coulson was apparently an LMD from the future, and that he and the others had somehow cracked time travel. He had gone back in time in a different timeline, snatched up the Darkhold before anyone got hurt, and used it to lure Robbie to him. When Robbie showed up, Ghost Rider had been angry that LMD Coulson had taken the book, prepared to make him suffer. But rather than beg for forgiveness or cower in fear at the flame-headed demon, LMD Coulson had asked for a favor.
"There's a me in a different timeline who deserves a second chance, and so does the woman he loves. I need your help to give them that."
A life for a life.
That was the agreement. Robbie had been unsure of what Ghost Rider would choose to do, because technically a robot didn't have a life to give in the first place. But Robbie had seen firsthand how deeply the real Coulson cared, and how much he was willing to sacrifice to save those he loved. The fact that he was choosing to go back and give up his immortality to save a dying version of himself said a lot as well.
May had had so many questions... and yet she couldn't get any of them out, especially when the real Coulson let out a wheeze-filled gasp and jerked on the bed before stilling again.
"He's running out of time."
She wanted to snap at Reyes for that. She wanted to tell him she knew that but she needed a moment to process it all, but the look in his eyes stopped her from flying off the handle.
"It boils down to one choice. Do you want him to live or not?"
---
May shuddered, her eyes welling up with tears that she kept at bay as she dug her fingers into his shirt. Coulson simply held her, doing his best to remain calm as she silently grieved the man she had both hardly known and also knew better than anyone.
Waking up that morning had been surreal for Phil. The ache in his chest was gone, his breathing back to normal, his limbs sleep-warm instead of deathly-cold. He had yawned, his lungs filling with fresh tropical air as the sun from the open window stretched across the bedsheets. Thinking it was either limbo or some sort of sick dream right before his death, he allowed himself the luxury of simply lying there for a few minutes, allowing the lazy sleepiness he felt keep him in bed. A soft groan brought him back up to almost full alertness, his attention focused on the hand on his chest, the legs intertwined with his own, and the soft breath ghosting over his skin. The black lines running over his torso were still there, but they were faded, like the ghost of what was.
His gaze had focused on the woman sleeping peacefully in his arms, all traces of fear and concern gone from her features as she dozed. It was the feel of her against him as she slowly woke a moment later, coupled with the intense warmth of pure affection spreading through him when she gave him a sleepy half-smile...it proved it wasn't a dream.
After trading a few happy tear-filled kisses, she told him how they had been given a second chance.
"He said not to waste it."
LMD Coulson had only had request. He asked to be buried out on the beach, not melted down or scrapped. He wanted to go out like a human being, because he truly felt like one. So as difficult as it had been, when they finally mustered the strength to get up, they went out behind the beach house where Ghost Rider had left LMD Phil's body. Melinda had asked him if he wanted her to bury him the night before, but he gave her a sad smile and told her to let the real Phil wake up to her.
He could wait.
They had gingerly lifted the blankets off of him beside the hole they'd dug, finding him lying peacefully, as if he were asleep instead of dead. Phil had needed a minute to process, and Melinda simply watched as he knelt down and muttered what sounded like a heartfelt thank you before standing upright again. They each took one end of the blanket he was lying on, slowly lowering the LMD's limp body into the ground.
May had set her jaw to keep the tears at bay as they laid in the hammock on the porch afterwards, reminding herself that the man she loved was right there, very much alive… and yet she still felt the dull tightness in her chest when her eyes landed on the hidden grave at the edge of the water.
"He didn't have to do that for us."
"He knew how much I love you." Phil pressed a kiss to her hair, holding her securely against his chest. "I'm sure he loved the Melinda in his timeline too. He had to know I didn't want to leave you."
"He left her."
"He was an LMD with my face. I'm sure the me who died also told the team not to make him an LMD. I don't think his Melinda would have… been okay with the fact that he was one."
May went silent at that, her forehead pressed to his chest as she allowed the sound of his heartbeat to calm her.
"Do you wanna go inside?" His voice rumbled, his hand gently caressing her spine and coaxing a sigh out of her.
"We should call Daisy."
"You want to go back to S.H.I.E.L.D?"
"Maybe one day. Not for a while." She sighed. "She'll want to know you're okay."
"I'll call her later." He kissed her hair again, smoothing the strands as he ran his fingers through them. "You think she'll believe us about Robbie?"
"At this point that's probably the only explanation she'll accept." She paused, her brow furrowing. "How did we get to the point where a demon with a flaming skull who travels through dimensions bringing a robotic version of you from a different timeline and trading his life for yours is more believable than some random miracle?"
"Since that flame-headed demon was the same one I basically signed my life away with in the first place." He shrugged, chuckling when she grunted and smacked his chest in response.
"I still haven't forgiven you for that."
"I know." He smiled, lifting her chin so he could capture her lips in a tender kiss. "I love you, Melinda."
"I love you too, Phil." She hummed. "You self-sacrificing dork."
"Let's wait to call Daisy." He grinned against her lips. "She'll want to come see for herself, and I want to make up for lost time."
"You're going to overdo everything, aren't you?" she rolled her eyes with a playfully exasperated sigh, pulling away from him.
"...I'd rather not reveal the full details of how I plan to woo you with the gravesite of my doppelganger right there."
"You just want a reason to take me inside."
"You're not wrong." He shrugged, swiftly shifting out of the hammock to lift her into his arms. She smirked, her face buried in his neck as he carried her into the house and kicked the door closed behind him.
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