NOTES: Eternal thanks to the_wordbutler for cleaning up my words and being my sounding board for this story. This isn't the end of the series. I want to switch to Phil's POV, so I'll start a new story-"The Director"-once the show starts back up. Hopefully you'll stick around for it.

When Anna wakes the next morning, it's to the sound of Phil getting dressed. "We were supposed to have sex last night," she mumbles into her pillow.

"You mean early this morning?" he corrects. He laughs when she flips him off. "I appreciate the effort with putting on my shirt and everything. Sorry it didn't work out."

"Come back to bed. You probably haven't slept in days."

"Can't," he replies, and he at least sounds slightly remorseful when he says it. "We have to finish packing. Wheels up in two hours."

That causes Anna's brain to clear away some sleepy haze. "Who's 'we' and why do you have another mission so soon? You know that since you're in charge you can pass that off to other people, right?"

Phil sits on the foot of the bed with a sigh. "We need to talk."

"You're leaving," Anna surmises.

"Yes," he answers. "I'm sorry. Tony and I can't see eye-to-eye on things. I'm wasting time, and I need to start things over with S.H.I.E.L.D., do what I was ordered to do and rebuild. But I can't do that here."

"Where are you going?"

"Back to the base where May brought you."

"The secret base that I'm not allowed to know about?"

"That's the one," he answered as he continued neatly placing clothes in a suitcase and emptying out his drawers completely.

"How long?" Anna questioned.

"I don't know. We'll—"

"We?"

"The team and I. We're leaving in two hours. I don't know when we'll be back."

"And what about us?" she asks, and once again feels like a needy idiot for having to do so.

"I'm not going to make that call," he tells her.

She snorts as she climbs out of their bed. Something breaks inside of her, and she cannot stand to live in this relationship limbo any longer. No amount of denial can cover up the fact that this will never work between them, not in a way that will keep her sane, and she's filled with exhaustion over it. "No, because that would require to grow a pair and make a decision about our relationship." Hastily, she unbuttons his dress shirt, yanks it off her body, and throws it at his head. Childish to be sure, but also therapeutic.

"Anna," he calls after her. "Please listen to me for a second."

"So you can tell me how you're going to make some more non-decisions?" she fires back while pulling on clothes. They probably don't even match, but she can't find herself to care at the moment. "Let me explain how this conversation is going to go—and I can predict it because we've had it about a hundred times: you won't make the decision, I won't make the decision because I'm too broken and dependent on you controlling everything in my life—"

"I do not do that," Phil yells back.

Anna laughs bitterly before arguing back. "Everything in my life revolves around you. Everything." She can't help but to cross the room and step into his personal space. "I move from Portland to New York the first time to see you more. I move back because it's not enough. I have to move to San Francisco because I thought you were dead and I couldn't stand being in the city where I fell in love with you. I move back and just when my life is almost kilter again, you show up from the dead. I get fired from my job because one of your people attacked me. I move here because you've arranged for me to have a living space and a job. You control everything."

"It's not like that," he replies softly.

"It's exactly like that." She turns and moves away from him, shaking her head. "I might as well start packing, too. The only reason I'm here is because of you. And if we break up, like they'll keep me around."

"I'll make sure—"

"Don't," she orders sharply, whipping around to face him. "I cannot do this anymore. Do you understand that at all? I cannot have you meddling and controlling everything. Everyone in my life is there because of you. I haven't had a friend that's just mine in years, the secrets involved with all of this just get in the way." She slides down to the floor, the yelling sapping her of her energy to stand. "I really thought we could pull it off this time," she comments softly. "I really thought this would be the time we could make it work. But I'm an idiot for not seeing that it was just another episode of us trying to play house."

"So we're done?" Phil asks. In all this time, he hasn't moved, rooted next to his suitcase, pair of socks in his hand.

No, she thinks. Anna doesn't want to be, never wants to be. She looks up at the face she is honest-to-god in love with. The one with the kind eyes with beautiful lines around them that crinkle when he smiles. She doesn't want to be done with him, not ever. But she cannot live her life like this anymore.

"Yes," she whispers.

He nods once, no other movement in his body. They stay like that—opposite sides of the bedroom, looking at the ground and not each other—for a few minutes before he roughly clears his throat, pitches the socks in the suitcase, and zips it up. "I'll have someone come and collect my things. They can come when you're not here if that will make it easier."

She tries to ignore how hard he's trying to keep his voice from breaking. "That's fine," Anna answers.

Phil nods once more and strides to the door. He pauses with his hand on the doorknob and turns to face her. "I—" he starts, but doesn't finish. She doesn't know what's supposed to follow—am sorry or love you or something completely different—because he clamps his jaw shut and leaves.

And just like that, he's gone again.

She doesn't sob like she did when he died. She thinks back to words she can barely remember saying after he rescued her from Ward and Garrett. About how they're two pieces who keep trying to ram together to slot into place, but it doesn't line up and pieces of themselves just end up getting broken off. She feels like she's lost more of herself than she currently has. Like someone's scooped out everything that matters and left her hollow.

The tears come when Anna reminds herself that feeling like this is for the best.