Trust Me (Phil Coulson Love Story)

Knight In Grey Suit

      Charlotte sat in the passenger’s seat next to a SHIELD agent who was driving her home. She stared out the window as the car went by the familiar sights of the city she had lived in for years. Her mind swirled with memories of the past and plans for the future.
        The sight of a small café sent her back to the day she first met Phil. She had been on the run from her ex-boyfriend for seven months now and she was tired of always running, always being scared that he would find her and drag her back. 
        She was walking down a sidewalk in New York City when he caught up with her. A couple of his hired guns had spotted her the day before and managed to corner her in an alley behind a dumpster. 
        “You have caused a lot of trouble for the boss missy.” The taller of the two men stalked toward Charlotte, a terrifying smile upon his face. Charlotte tried her hardest to stand tall and not appear scared, but the terror coursing through her was visible in her eyes. The man grinned as he stepped up to her, less than two feet away. 
        Before she knew what was happening, he backhanded her so hard her head was slammed into the brick wall behind her. Pain blossomed across her head and her vision blurred. A fist plowed into her stomach, knocking her breath away from her. 
        “He won’t be happy if you bring me back in poor condition. He will have your heads on a pike in his front lawn.” She gasped when her breath returned. She could feel blood mixing into her hair from the back of her head. Her mind was racing so fast that she couldn’t catch hold of one single thought. 
        The second man chuckled and the sound sent ice cold chills up Charlotte’s spine and she tensed up in fear. The second man looked into her eyes as though trying to look into her soul. 
        “That is where you are wrong.” The man said as he shared a grin with his companion. “He told us to make sure we were the last people to see you alive.” 
        The words hit Charlotte like a ton of bricks. He didn’t want her back. He wanted her dead! Her eyes widened as the first man’s hand descended and Charlotte reacted. She ducked under his arm and swung her bag, aiming for the back of his head, but she forgot about the second man. 
        Something cracked her across the back of the head and she bit back the second half of her scream as her body hit the cold hard ground. Her vision swam and her hearing dimmed. 
        The two men leaned over her body, their faces writhed in horrifying grins that promised pain to come. Charlotte knew that she was going to die. She was scared, but she knew there was nothing else she could do except accept the end of her life graciously. 
        A large hand reached down towards her, but it was suddenly knocked away as the first man was sent sprawling further down the alley. A man in a black suit stood in his place. He had a kind face that was, at the moment, set in a hard mask of concentration. The second man came at him, but was slammed into the edge of the dumpster and dropped to the ground, knocked out cold. 
        The man looked down at her and she dimly heard him say that she was safe now, but she needed to stay awake a little longer. The first man swung at him and missed. After receiving a blow to his head, he dropped to the ground as well. 
        Charlotte’s vision was growing darker as the man knelt down next to her on the ground. His hands were gentle as he examined her to see how bad she was hurt. She gasped in pain as he found the large cut on the back of her head. She tried to move away from him, but he wasn’t having any of that. 
        “No,” he murmured softly to her, catching her eye, “Don’t move. Just lie still” Charlotte looked up at him, her eyes wide with fear as he pulled his hand away and reached for his jacket. If he noticed her expression, he never let on. He took off the jacket to his suit and wadded it up. He lifted her head a bit and pressed the jacket to the back of her head, trying to stop the bleeding the best he could. 
        Charlotte bit her lip as pain blossomed in her head like a bomb going off. The alley and the man swirled into nothing and soon there was nothing but blessed darkness. 
        Charlotte now smiled at what should have been a terrible memory of her past. It held no such fear for her now. That was the first time she ever saw Phil. She had woken up in a nearby hospital the next day with seven stiches in the back of her head. The doctors and nurses said she had been brought in by ambulance and no one had been there when she was found.
        After a couple days she was released from the hospital. She was surprised to find that her hospital stay had been covered by an anonymous donor, who insisted that she receive the best care possible.
        Charlotte went back to the small apartment she had been staying in for the last few weeks and spent the day resting. She tried to distract her mind with the online school she was enrolled in, but she couldn’t get the man in the suit out of her mind. He stayed there like a host that wouldn’t leave. His face had been kind and his eyes had a look that suggested he was a worldly man who knew a great many secrets. His hands had been soft and gentle, yet Charlotte could feel the strength that he had. He was a man she would never forget.