Coulson ran down the hall, bumping in all agents who got in his way. When he finally arrived at the command center and saw that everyone inside, including Daisy, had froze, he felt little hair on his neck standing up.
''What happened there?" he asked, but his throat was so tight that he did it with great difficulty, almost not recognizing his own voice.
The girl swallowed, looking down. ''It was a trap, Coulson. The bomb went off. Everything collapsed. Our people were in."
She was saying something else, but her words stopped reaching him for a moment. His brain was at working hard, but it couldn't analyze what had just happened.
It couldn't be true. It just couldn't.
''When was the last time she contacted you?" he asked, coming over to the computer where Daisy was sitting. She looked at him with her big eyes, which now seemed completely empty.
''We lost contact with everyone in the building when the bomb..."
''The explosion may have caused radio interference."
''Coulson..."
''Or she just dropped her phone, when she was running away."
He was uttering words like a rifle, but he didn't really know who he was trying to convince. Somewhere deep down inside he knew how little the chance that May had survived was if she had been inside the building during the explosion.
Daisy reached for his hand and squeezed it hard, trying to comfort him and herself, too.
''I'm so, so sorry," she said softly and bit her lip to hold back her tears.
Coulson, however, was barely noticing her presence. He couldn't focus on anything other than newer images of Melinda's body lying somewhere under the rubble that his imagination was showing him.
''That's impossible," he whispered, completly numb. ''I lost her."
They both fell silent. They stood still, and the silence was broken only by the noise in the phone, in which they could hear May's voice just a few moments ago.
It was supposed to be an easy mission, so that's why he had send her alone in the company of several agents. Come in, take what belonged to them and leave. They had both completed hundreds of such missions before. And yet, all at once, Coulson's world collapsed with the building. And he could do absolutely nothing to prevent it.
Daisy and Phil jumped in place when the phone suddenly made a noise. Daisy opened her eyes hopefully and grabbed the cell phone in her hands.
''Hello?" she spoke. ''Can anyone hear me? Hello?"
Coulson could almost hear his own heart beating as he was olding his breath in his lungs and waiting for an answer from the other side.
And then, it finally came. They heard a voice they were afraid of never hearing again.
''Hello? Daisy?"
The girl breathed a sigh of relief, and Phil leaned forward and buried his face in his hands. A huge smile appeared on his face. She survived. She was alive.
''May," Daisy spoke into the phone again. ''Where are you? Is everything alright?"
''The bomb went off, they suprised us," Melinda answered. Her voice was quiet, but steady. ''Everything went down. I managed to escape at the last moment, but the explosion threw me away for a few meters and I hit my head."
''Are you hurt?"
''I think I twisted my ankle, while falling. But otherwise I'm alright."
Phil took the phone from Daisy and clenched his fingers on it as if his life was depending on it.
''Melinda?" he said. His voice was trembling from too many emotions.
''Phil?"
''God, I was so worried about you. Stay where you are and don't move, you propably hit your head pretty bad. We're sending agents, help is on the way."
''Okay, I'll be waiting."
''Everyting's gonna be alright, I promise. I love you."
''I love you, too."
This time, when she hung up, he was calm.