Chapter Text
He doesn’t know where it went so wrong. One minute he’s having a calm conversation with the potential inhuman they’ve been sent to assess for the index. Then next, he’s being pinned to a wall with a knife through his shoulder. He can’t even ice this guy, since his icer had been flung across the room. This is usually the time that backup would show up but unfortunately for him, the comms are down and backup is not close enough to help. He really wishes May was here right now to save his ass like she always does but it looks like he is on his own for this one.
With his adrenaline pumping, he tries to ignore the shooting pain in his shoulder and get free of the inhuman’s hold. Managing wiggle free from the other man’s grasp he lands a solid blow to the man’s face. This didn’t even seem to faze the inhuman.
‘Huh looks like that’s not going to work’ he thought to himself. Then he remembers something May did once in an old mission of theirs. But before he can go through with it, the inhuman lunges at him managing to punch him clean in the face. He stumbles back in pain and tries to analyse the situation he’s found himself in. Noticing a wooden chair laying on the ground beside him, a plan starts to come together. It was clear to him that he needed a distraction. So, he grabbed the chair and swung it with all his strength at the inhuman’s head. The chair breaks into pieces like it’s been thrown into concrete. But it serves the purpose Coulson wanted it too.
Whilst the inhuman is distracted, Coulson decides it’s now or never. He raises his right hand up to his shoulder where the handle of the knife is sticking out. Attempting to psych himself up breathing in and out, he grabs the handle of the knife and pulls it out of his shoulder. Blood starts soaking through his white shirt, the pain only gets stronger. But at least he now had a weapon to defend himself with, so he could reach his icer.
Coulson pushes through the pain and runs to the inhuman, but it seems the guy knew what he was planning to do. The inhuman grabbed his wrist and ripped the knife out of his hand. Pushing the inhuman away from him he tries to lunge at him from another angle. Again, the inhuman had the upper hand and came at him with the knife managing to cut him across the stomach. Falling back on the wall in pain, he realised that he was pretty close to his icer. He could end this fight.
Picking himself up once again and stumbling towards his icer the inhuman lands another blow to his face. Coulson falls to the ground his vision becoming fuzzy and finding it hard to focus on the inhuman. He reaches around for his icer, fortunately for him the inhumans blow to his head had knocked him in the direction his icer was in. ‘Now if only I could find it!’ he thought to himself.
He stumbles to his feet once again and looks around for his icer. But then feels this sharp pain across his back, the inhuman slashed his back with the knife. He flings himself round to face the inhuman and is punched in the ribs, causing him to fall backwards onto the floor.
The inhuman then kneels on the floor above him and aims the knife straight at his face. With one hand frantically reaching around for the gun, it seems like everything is moving in slow motion. The knife is getting closer and closer to his face and he still hasn’t found his icer.
Just before the knife reaches him, Coulson puts his arm up to protect his face and the knife makes contact with his arm. Cutting straight through the fabric of his shirt and making its way through his skin. He finally feels the coldness of his icer. Grasping it desperately in his hand, whilst in immeasurable amounts of pain, he squeezes the trigger three times point blank at the inhuman on top of him. A heavy weight falls on his chest as the inhuman is rendered unconscious.
He pushes the inhuman off of him, puts his icer back in his holster and walks to the table where their conversation began. Perching himself on the chair which holds his suit jacket on the back, he assesses his injuries. The most concerning of them all being the deep knife wounds to his shoulder and left forearm. The other wounds to his stomach and back seem to be minor cuts. As well as the possible bruised ribs. Obvious signs of the struggle being the white shirt he was wearing, now stained red with blood in certain places. As well as the visible cuts and swelling on his face from being punched multiple times.
Getting up from his chair he makes his way over to the inhuman, securing his wrists with handcuffs. “Not such a big man now are ya?” he chuckled to himself.
Just then his comms crackled in his ear, “is everything okay sir, seems the comms went down?” Skye’s voice appeared.
“well… let’s just say the inhuman was more hostile then we originally thought but I handled it!” he said sarcastically into his comms. “I would appreciate some assistance in getting him back to the bus, you know where I am.” With that comment he walked back over to the table, grabbed his suit jacket and put it on. The movement caused pain to radiate from the wound on his back, but he didn’t want the team to see those injuries. They’d want to help him and as far as he’s concerned there is only one person who he wants to help him now. And he’d have to wait until he got back to the playground for her help.
While he was waiting for Skye and Hunter to come and help him, he looked around the room. There was visible signs of his fight with the inhuman. The damaged chair and some other damage to picture frames and small items across the room. But they’d know the minute they looked at his face anyway. Minutes later Skye and Hunter came through the door of the inhumans apartment. He stood buttoning up his suit jacket, hiding his other injuries further.
“Wow Coulson looks like things didn’t go too well! Not the easy mission we planned for huh?” Hunter joked, and went over to the unconscious man on the floor. Coulson just glanced in his direction giving the Brit a stern look.
Skye came over to Coulson concerned about the injuries to his face. “you alright?”
He just looked at her and smiled “yeah nothing I can’t handle, thanks though”. He was surprised they didn’t realise he was more hurt than he had let on, he was in a lot of pain. But he ignored the pain and helped them get the inhuman back to the bus.
Once the inhuman was restrained in the interrogation room, he briefed the team and gave the order to the pilot to take them back to the playground. Radioing to the base to have agents there to take the inhuman to the holding rooms once they landed. Afterwards, he retired to his small office on the plane. Plopping carefully on his office chair, mindful of his back, he pulled his phone out of his pocket.
Finally, he could talk to the one person who had been on his mind since the mission went sideways. He sent a short message to May – Hey, need your help with something when I get back to base. Meet me in the med bay? Don’t worry everything is fine – and then closed his phone. Releasing a big sigh, he opened his desk draw and took some painkillers. At least with those in his system he could focus on writing the report for how the hell this mission went sideways so quickly!
Moments later his phone buzzed, he smiled already knowing who it was. It was a message from May – Hey yourself, I’ll be waiting for you when you get back – he smiled again. He is really glad he can count on her to help him when he really has no one else. Truth be told, he’s always been able to count on her for anything and everything since they first became friends at the academy. He thinks about that all the time, wondering to himself if she feels the same way he does. Wondering how different things could be now if they’d taken a different path in their friendship all those years ago. But ultimately those thoughts get pushed to the back of his mind like they always do. He shakes his head as he tells himself, ‘she’s your best friend! She’s always been your best friend, nothing else. You cannot jeopardise such a long friendship just because of what if’s and one-sided feelings. She can never know how you truly feel, it wouldn’t be fair to her.’
Distracting himself from his thoughts he gets back to his paperwork, he’ll see her soon enough. And he can’t help it when another small smile spreads across his face. He is really looking forward to seeing her, but he’s not looking forward to the disapproving look and scolding he’s going to receive when he gets back to the base due to his current condition.