Set right before Season 2 but before Jemma is undercover at Hydra.
Things have been pretty stressful since the fall of SHIELD. Thankfully, Coulson had his team behind them along with a new, larger base of operations. All of the agents were hard at work, going out into the world as well as getting things ready and set up at base.
It was starting to get closer to Christmas time when things started to wind down a bit; however, everyone knew that after the holidays, activity would rise once again. They were just trying to get through this holiday season after the year they've all had.
Skye and May were discussing some things with Coulson in his office when something out the window caught Skye's attention.
"Skye, are you even listening?" Coulson chastised.
"Is that snow?" Both Coulson and May noticed the unusual excitement in Skye's voice. She walked towards the window, looking at the snow falling from the sky.
"Um, yeah," Coulson said. "It snowed quite a lot last night and it's been on and off all day."
"How did I notice?" Skye continued to smile as the snow fell.
"Well, to be fair, we are in an underground base," May said. "Coulson's office is the only room in the whole base that actually has windows."
"Can we take a snow day?" Skye asked, her eyes begging as if she was a little kid again.
Coulson raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you a little too old to be playing in the snow?"
Skye shook her head. "One, you're never too old to play in the snow. Second, I never got this growing up."
"I thought St. Agnes was in New York," May said. "Didn't it snow there?"
"The nuns never let us play in the snow," Skye explained. "I never had a foster home where it commonly snowed either. After escaping the system, I moved to Los Angeles, which we all know doesn't see snow, like, at all."
Coulson smiled for the first time in what felt like forever. He had to become a lot more strict and more closed off when Nick Fury chose him to become the new director of the entire organization. It was sweet to see Skye, who he felt was the closest he was ever gonna get to having a daughter, smile and get giddy when seeing snowfall.
"I guess we could take a fun snow day," Coulson said. "Make sure everyone dresses for the occasion."
Not long later, Coulson's main team, which consisted of him, May, Skye, Fitz, Simmons, Trip, and the new mechanic, Mack.
Skye and Trip practically skipped out to the empty area of snow. Coulson couldn't help but laugh at the childish act of his agents. It wasn't long before the two were throwing snowballs at each other. Fitz and Simmons took it slow as Fitz was still recovering from his brain injury. Coulson couldn't really put it into words, but there was definitely a rift forming between the two since the incident. Thankfully, the two seemed to be doing okay today. Mack walked close to May and Coulson, watching the other agents play.
Coulson had to admit, it was nice to actually have this break. He really did care for his agents' well-being, so he was glad they could take this much-needed break as well. An idea came to his head.
"Hey, why don't we build a snowman?"
"Aw, that's a great idea," Jemma said. "Don't you think so, Fitz?"
"Um," Fitz began. Even though he was getting better every single day, it was still difficult for Fitz to think clearly and speak fully. "I...um, I... uhhhh, yeah, I think that would be, um... nice."
Simmons gave him a supportive smile; however, there was a bit of sadness and guilt behind it that was very obvious to Coulson, even though she was trying her best to hide it.
In an instant, Trip and Skye began rolling a ball of snow for the bottom section of the snowman. The two of them laughed as Trip occasionally threw snow onto Skye. It was clear to see that the two had a great relationship that resembled a brother and sister. Coulson always loved seeing this side of Skye after finding out about her past.
The two piled snow at the bottom of the ball to steady it. Not long after, Mack brought over another ball of snow, only slightly smaller than the last, and placed it on top of the bottom one. "Does anyone have anything we can use as little buttons?" Mack asked. "Whenever my family went to the snow, my brother and I would always find something to use as buttons."
'What about these?" Simmons asked, picking up some small stones from the ground. "These seem like a good size for buttons." She walked up to the body and placed the three stones in a line going downwards.
Together, Coulson and May rolled the snowball for the head. Even though both of them were already in their fifties, they had to admit, they were actually having quite a bit of fun.
"Any fun snow memories?" Coulson asked May. "It does snow in Pennsylvania, right?"
May nodded. "The lake we lived by would always freeze over. My dad bought me my first pair of ice skates when I was three years old, and my parents took me out on the ice for the first time. It was hard at first, but soon, it became like second nature. When I was five or six, I started figure skating. It was fun even though everything hurt like hell when I fell onto the ice."
"But you always got right back up," Coulson added.
May eyed him. "Did you speak to my father recently?"
Coulson shook his head. He hadn't spoken to William May in a long while. However, he had been consulting with someone else from May's past for a while now.
Once they had a good-sized ball, Coulson picked it up and placed it on top of the body. Fitz picked up a curved twig from the ground and placed it right side up on the snowman.
"Every snowman needs a, um.. a perfect... smile." Fitz smiled at the small work he had done. It made everyone else around him smile to see him smiling after everything he has been through these past few months.
"What about these acorns from the trees as eyes?" Trip asked, picking up acorns from a nearby tree. He shoved them into the snow and smiled.
"Aw, he looks so cute," Simmons said.
"Come on, girl, you know he's having the time of his life."
Skye unwrapped the scarf that she had around her neck and placed it around the neck of the snowman. Finally, Mack added two larger sticks to the side to make arms. Finally, the team had created the perfect snowman.
"What should we name him?" Coulson asked.
"Hm..." Skye thought to herself. "Let's name him Jeff. I like Jeff. I feel like he's a Jeff."
"Well, welcome to the team, Jeff the Snowman."
Suddenly, Coulson felt something hit him in the back. He looked at his back and noticed the snow. When he looked up, he saw May, trying to avoid eye contact.
"May?" Coulson began. "You want to explain this?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
It wasn't long before Skye threw a snowball at Coulson. Soon, they were all throwing snowballs at each other. Everyone was laughing and enjoying the snow together. It was times like these that they were glad for this downtime and the time they had to spend together.
