A parent should never bury a child...
It took a few days after the Helicarrier crashed - a few days to drag the river, check the hospitals...Nikki Coulson was MIA, presumed dead. Sammy had seen her in the lower levels a minute before impact, they'd been over the area with every scrap of tech and every ounce of man power SHIELD could scrape up looking for signs of life, and found none.

It had been a long time since Phil Coulson had been to the Helicarrier, and he didn't think it would be to try to recover his daughter's personal belongings. She had been a private woman, and the job....it had consumed her life for the last 10 years, there hadn't been anything else, Nikki had put every ounce of her time and energy into becoming a better agent - and now there was a hole in the ground with an empty coffin about to be put in it.

Stoic as usual, Phil waited in the back of the small chapel in Norfolk to greet the mourners, to robotically thank them, tell them Nikki would appreciate that they were there before the quiet service was to begin.