re: agents of s.h.i.e.l.d. 1x04

[busdriver]

No, I don't think we have anything to discuss.

You'd be wasting Coulson's time.

Comments

[sonofcoul]

Wasting my time with what?

[busdriver]

Conversation.

[sonofcoul]

I don't know. Out of the two of us, I think I might be the one less likely to see conversation as a waste of time.

[busdriver]

She's expecting a debriefing scene. We have words about my conduct, I retaliate by questioning yours.

Try and tell me that doesn't feel unnecessary to you.

[sonofcoul]

A bit redundant at this point, more than anything.

What happened, happened. We've both been around long enough to know the song and dance about what that was.

[busdriver]

So you agree, we have nothing to talk about.

[sonofcoul]

I agree. Just assume it happened like we both know it would and move on.

Fortunately, things ended up on the brighter side of the possible endings.

[busdriver]

[Coulson could have stopped a sentence earlier and May feels that he admitted as much. She's still looking at him like he's an obstacle to be circumvented en route to normal business, but the usual pressure isn't behind it. She can give him this one.]

If we're calling it an ending, sure. I get the sense that everyone's relieved.

[No one more than Coulson, she can't help thinking. Drawing more attention to that would circle them back to a closed subject.

In hindsight, she's not sure the others were fully prepared for the alternate possibilities. For the summary termination of a rogue asset. It doesn't make for strong team-building and it could've spooked their consultant, as though Skye's not already plenty aware of what goes on in-house.

He knows May would have done it privately and quietly, but had she succeeded — for that value of success — there's a chance it wouldn't have stayed quiet for long.]

I am, you know. Relieved.

[sonofcoul]

It's about as much of an ending as we get most days.

[It never really ends, after all. Coulson knows, and May knows, of course, that in this job you rarely get everything tied up in a nice neat little bow. You do what you can, and you continue on.

And the alternate possibilities were ones he was extremely glad did not end up playing out, as much as there was a chance that they could have. But sometimes people lived up to the hope you had in them. And he'd never discount that opportunity.]

I'm glad.

[So was he, but that went without saying.]

[busdriver]

[That's a fact — but she's a strong closer, historically speaking.]

We're going to make at least as many new enemies as new friends.

[And that's to say nothing of old friends. She wouldn't state the obvious, but here the obvious goes a long way toward explaining why things never tie up neat.

She'll leave the other line alone.]

[sonofcoul]

We'll make enemies, of course, but I don't know about it actually skewing that way. As long as we avoid, as best we can, making an enemy from someone who should have and could have been a friend, I think that on balance we'll be all right.

[busdriver]

You're the friendliest operative I know.

[How the actual shit did she make that not sound like a compliment?]

[sonofcoul]

[He completely ignores the impressively used tone.]

Thank you. I do what I can.

[busdriver]

[Maybe if she's quick about it and turns her head a little, he won't catch her small smile.]

[sonofcoul]

[He'll at least be polite enough not to mention it.]

I'm not really sure how much I have in the way of competition, though.

[busdriver]

If the worst thing I ever imply about you is that you're incomparable...

[Can he honestly hold a grudge?]

[sonofcoul]

Good point. I will definitely take it.

[Of course he can. Ask him about Loki sometime.]

[busdriver]

[Apropos of nothing (though she is hopeful Coulson won't have an answer for it, and it'll stymie communication) she rejoins:]

Skye called me Dad this morning.

[That is absolutely the role in the joke meant for her, at least until proven otherwise.]

[sonofcoul]

[It is rarely going to be that easy with him.]

Did she? Huh. That must make me Mom. Think I should invest in a frilly apron?

Or is that just being stereotypical?

[busdriver]

[He made more out of it than she would've thought possible — shocking lack of imagination on her part. He didn't miss a beat, she feels like she missed an entire page.]

Too antiquated, even for you.

[He's allowed a frilly apron if she can take up in an armchair with the finance section of the newspaper. Wanting off the back foot, she gamely ventures:]

You could bake something.

[sonofcoul]

[He actually does pause at that suggestion. Briefly.]

You obviously have never tried to eat anything I've tried to cook.

[busdriver]

I'm really only expecting you to cook for the children.

[She wouldn't try.]

[sonofcoul]

You know, I think I'll stick with takeout.

[busdriver]

That works.

[sonofcoul]

Pretty sure it's safer for everyone involved.