Chapter Text
“Are we there yet?”
“My answer is the same from 5 minutes ago, Skye.”
There might be about 4 hours since Phil Coulson and his daughter Skye Daisy Coulson had been on the road.
At first, she seemed rather happy to be going to her dad’s old city, getting to know more about his past and spending more time with him since she was going to college in the next year. The situation changed though after 2 hours on a completely desert road that had no reception on her phone what so ever.
“Ugh, dad!”
“Hey, it’s not my fault… you were the one that wanted to come with me, remember?” Phil said, poking his daughter just for fun.
She pretended it annoyed her but deep down, both of them knew she liked it. “Yeah, I know, but you didn’t tell me you were born in the middle of nowhere.” She laughed as she teased him. “I’m just kidding, old man… I think deep down I’m just curious to get there soon.”
“Me too.” Phil said with sigh. He kept trying to remember how everything was when he left the city. He kept thinking if the football field on his high school building was still the same. He kept trying to remember him and his friends playing baseball every afternoon until his mom would call him back home. He had good memories about the city. Mostly good memories.
“Why did you move out of there?” He was suddenly taken out of his thought by his daughter’s question.
“Huh?”
“Why did you leave, dad? I don’t think you or grandma ever told me.”
Phil thought a little about her question before attempting to reply. “I don’t know... I guess life got in the way.”
Skye shot him a glance he knew well. She hated when he gave her these vague answers. Most of the time, he was hiding something when he acted like that. “Come on… Give me a real answer.”
“This is my real answer. Life got in the way.” He looked at her this time, to see if she would accept it. She wouldn’t. “Okay! I didn’t know in what I would major in college, I just couldn’t decide at that time, so a friend of my dad’s who worked on a museum and as a teacher in a university, asked me if I wouldn’t be interested on moving there to maybe pursue a career, since I was always interested in the subject when I was in high school… And the rest is history… Pun intended” He blinked one eye at her.
“Hmm, I see… Why did you say you couldn’t decide at the time? You were always a focused man!”
“I don’t know… I really don’t know.” Skye then noticed that her dad’s last response got him quite emotional.
“Does she have a name?”
“What? Who’s she?”
“Ah, come on… Do you think I’ll believe that life got in the way of all of that? Dad, I know you… This life you talk about, must be a she…”
“Sometimes I forget how quick you get things…” Phil was failing on hiding his past.
“So, what’s her name?” She asked, jumping on the seat.
“Skye, knock it off, there’s no one.”
“Fine, you are no fun…”
It was almost noon when they arrived at the city. Phil noticed that Skye was really happy to get there, he just didn’t know if she was happy they arrived or that she would be able to get out of the car. Maybe both.
“Finally!” She squealed in her seat.
Phil laughed at his daughter. If there was something he could never deny is that Skye was always passionate about things. Since she got into his life, he was never the same man.
“I think we should go grocery shopping before we get to grandma’s house.”
“Right, so we won’t show up empty handed.”
That decided, Phil looked for a store he knew well. He and his friends used to go there all the time for the ice cream they used to sell. Good memories.
They got to the store and as always, Skye tricked her dad on getting much more stuff than they actually needed. “What if grandma doesn’t have any candy? I’ll go nuts, dad.” Phil shot her a glance, but ended up buying all of it. He admitted he had a sweet tooth as well as his daughter.
Heading out, they both had one bag in each arm, which was making it difficult to Phil to get his car keys. “Skye, can you…?” He said, landing one of the bags to her. She struggled a little, but ended up holding all of it.
Phil tucked his hand in the front pocket of his jeans and found the key. “Dad, can you go faster? It’s heavy.” Getting distracted by his daughter, Phil let the keys fall on the street. “Great.” Skye muttered under her breath.
“Hey, it was you that…” He started to reply her as he got up from picking up the keys when he caught sight of someone he thought he knew.
At the other side of the parking lot was a little Asian woman. Hair loose, workout clothes. She was putting two grocery bags in the trunk of her black sports car.
Their eyes caught each other for a brief moment when she was making her way to the drivers seat. Phil smiled at her, hoping she would notice him and remember. Sadly for him, she practically ignored, getting inside of her car and driving out of the parking lot.
“Mel…?” Phil muttered to himself after all happened. Was that woman the girl that was his best friend in high school or was he just imagining things? If it was her, why did she ignored him?
“DAD! It’s really heavy.” Skye shouted.
“What? Oh, yeah… there you go.” He said unlocking the car and letting her slide inside with the bags, putting everything in the backseat. Phil mirrored his daughter’s actions and for a moment he let himself forget about what had just happened.
“What happened to you? You drifted off for a moment.” She said pulling the seatbelt on.
“Uh, nothing.” He said, starting the car and driving off as well. Nothing. That’s what he kept repeating to himself on the way to his mother’s house. Nothing happened. Maybe she didn’t even see him. Maybe it wasn’t even her. That’s what he kept repeating to himself.