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Chapter Text

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Skye woke up with a groan. Everything hurt. Her head was pounding and she couldn’t breathe properly. Groaning she sat up and tried to remember what happened. Last she could remember was leaving the bus with everyone apart from Fitzsimmons. They had needed to stock up but the science duo were in the middle of an experiment. As they were on a Shield facility Coulson said it was safe to leave them on their own so they had headed out. That was the last thing she could remember.

Glancing around she didn’t recognise where she was but it felt oddly familiar. While looking around she spotted the rest of the group. Ward was already sitting up and crawling towards her. May and Coulson were looking around confusedly.

Ward reached out and cupped her face,

“You OK?”

“Yeah. Does this feel familiar to you?”

He just looked at her sharply. That would be a yes then.

Coulson moved over to them after helping May stand, asked,

“Do you know where we are?”

“No but it feels familiar.” She replied.
She looked at what they were wearing the boys were in leather trousers, shirts and a waistcoat with cowboy boots. The girls were in dresses with corsets that were extremely low cut, yet their skirts reached to the floor.

Glancing at Ward she saw he had come to the same conclusion as she had. Crap. This was not going to be fun. Plus they were going to have to explain everything from the last time. They were going to be in so much trouble.

“What is it?” Questioned May, noticing the looks between Skye and Ward.

“Of course we would be sent to an place where I have to wear a corset again! I hate this thing!”

“Skye focus!”

“We are in the machine. Our minds have taken over somebody else’s body.”

“You mean we are in a virtual reality? That was what Jemma said the machine did.”

“Yeah about that.”

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It had taken Skye and Ward a little while to explain about how they had been sent back into the past the last time they were in the machine. Ward wasn’t sure that they had convinced the other two, especially as they couldn’t tell them the main evidence that they had got somebody else pregnant. However, the older two had appeared to accept it for now. As they had told the story they had begun to head towards to the small settlement that was visible from where they had woken up.

It was a bunch of wooden buildings with lots of cabins and horses outside. Looking around Ward recognised the type of buildings and guessed what era they had been sent back to. It was exactly like the westerns his grandfather had liked to watch. They were in the wild Wild West. He felt like he was in back to the future 3. He loved that film, not that he would ever admit it to any of the team. He wasn’t sure he was ever going to look at it the same way again.

Following an instinct that he wasn’t sure was his he led the rest of the team to a building that appeared to be a bar. Entering they soon discovered that May owned and ran the place and was married to Coulson, the town’s sheriff. Skye was their daughter, helping out in the bar and was married to Ward. He was the deputy sheriff. They all lived in rooms above the bar.

Meeting in the common room they met to discuss the situation. It was quickly agreed that they had to pretend to be these people otherwise they would raise suspicion. Skye and Ward quickly agreed that it would be fine with them they had managed last time. Neither of them would look at each other, fearing that it would betray their thoughts. Since coming out of the machine, every night one of them would sneak into the other’s room. They had got used to being close together. Now they would have to pretend or get up early to avoid detection by the team.

Fortunately both Skye and May both had experience in bar work. Ward agreed with Coulson that being sheriff couldn’t be too much different to what they did back in the present. Now that was a weird thing to say. No one could remember what had happened after leaving the bus. It seemed that someone had got the drop on all of them, which was extremely strange. Very few people could sneak up on May.

Coulson then went on to give them some background on the era they were in and what would be expected of them.

“Sir if I may ask how do you know all this?” He inquired.

“When I was the handler for Hawkeye he once had to go undercover in an area that still lived like this. I gathered all the information for him on the lifestyle. I’m still proud of that. He fit in so well he got asked to take part in a music video that was filming in the area.”

“You mean that…?” exclaimed Skye.

“Yeah. He still hasn’t lived that down.” Coulson laughed.

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Ward had quickly come to the conclusion that this time he was going to end up fighting somebody. He had been watching Skye serve in the bar most of the night, while he sat with Coulson watching. The entire night he had to watch other guys flirt with Skye and it was testing his patience. When somebody grabbed her and pulled her onto his lap it was the last straw.

Marching over to the guy he grabbed him by the shirt hauling him up. Holding him close to his face he asked,

“Do you mind? That is my wife you are mishandling.” If he kept to the cover story then maybe he could stay out of trouble with Coulson. At the look on the man’s face he thought it was going to descend into a fight but this friend grabbed his arm and spoke to him,

“I wouldn’t. That’s the deputy. He has yet to loose a fight.”

Hearing that the man immediately backed down. Apparently the guy who Ward had taken over had quite the reputation. Hopefully that would safe him some trouble. At least this time he wasn’t going to have to fight with some unknown weapon. He had a gun and could use his fists.

Hopefully this time would be easier to deal with than the last time they were in the machine.

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After closing the bar, everyone had headed to bed. Although their rooms weren’t next to each other they were still close enough to hear most of what was happening in the other rooms. This was a fact Ward had to keep reminding himself as he looked at his beautiful rookie. Having removed her dress with some relief she was now wearing one of his shirts to bed. As he was so much taller than her it reached down to her thighs, however when she reached up it rode up revealing she wasn’t wearing anything underneath it. And she kept reaching up a lot. He was now convinced she was doing it deliberately. All he wanted to do was run his hands up her legs but he knew where it would lead. They definitely couldn’t do that, Coulson and May would definitely hear.

Grinning at him when she caught him looking, she faced him before stretching one more time before climbing into bed. Leaning towards him she pressed a kiss to his lips before whispering,

“I’m sure at some point we can both slip away and get some alone time. In fact I’m looking forward to it.”

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Chapter Text

The next morning after the boys had left Skye dressed and headed down to help May in the bar. It needed restocking and cleaning from the night before. Which would be fine if she was able to move properly. She used to like corsets but now having worn them for longer periods of time she never wanted to wear one ever again. She saw May beckon her over to her and stood while she fussed around her dress. May quickly changed the ribbon on the corset and adjusted Skye’s skirt. She now could move without being hindered.

“Thank you. Where did you learn to do that?”

“I had a varied past with Shield. One of my missions involved wearing a dress like this, but I had to also be able to fight in the dress. So I quickly found a way to adapt it.”

Skye looked at the woman in awe, was there anything she couldn’t do?

As she was tidying up the bar she came across a jacket that clearly had been forgotten. It looked no different to any of the other jackets she had seen the men wearing here. There was nothing distinctive about it so she simply placed it behind the counter. If they wanted it back they would just have to ask for it.

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“So how are you?” Ward was surprised by the question from Coulson. They were both walking towards the jailhouse to see what work there was to do and to try and get acclimatised to this reality. Seeing his confusion, Coulson elaborated,

“I know this has to be difficult for both you and Skye.”

“Yeah. Fortunately Skye has taken it fairly well. Hopefully Fitzsimmons will figure out we have disappeared and we will get out soon. It’s a bit easy now that we actually know what is happening.”

“I can imagine.”

They had arrived at the jailhouse finding a simple building. It consisted of a single room containing two desks filled with paper and a railed cell at the other side of the room. Heading towards a desk Ward quickly realised that he recognised the desk. Apparently this time he retained some of the memories of the body he currently had control of. That was going to get strange. It was bad enough knowing you had taken over somebody else’s body, but having some of their memories was worse. He felt like he was violating them. He hoped they found whoever had created the machine. He had some interesting idea for when they capture them.

Breaking away from his dark thought he started sorting through the paper on his desk. There was nothing that was urgent or appeared to need anything doing to it. Glancing up to see how Coulson was doing he saw his boss was staring out of the window looking at something to the back of the jail. Seeing Ward looking at him, Coulson indicated he should follow him and headed outside. At the back of the jail there were a series of targets set up at different distances. They had clearly been well used as they had a lot of holes in them. Turning to his boss with a grin,

“Shall we do a bit of target practise sir?”

“I think that might be a good idea, Ward. We wouldn’t want to have problems as we are not used to the guns.”

Both agents had training with different types of guns, including the old types they currently had. Shield liked their agents to be trained for anything. Ward had at first thought they were being paranoid but having now been in different situations and sent back in time twice he was beginning to reconsider that thought. When he got back he might make a request to Shield to include more training. Horse riding and jousting suddenly had become more important skills. Not that the gun he was using now was particularly hard to use, it wasn’t that much different from his normal gun. Not to fire anyway. It was a six shot revolver. The only different was that you had to reload by hand instead of inserting another magazine. It was a while since he had shot one of these but he quickly found his rhythm and could once again reload it quickly. Both agents had a great time practising, quickly making bets of who could make the best shot and who could hit the furthest target. It was a relaxing way to spend the morning even though they were still stuck in a weird situation.

A noise behind them caused them both to turn. Stood beside the jail was a woman, clearly out of breath from running.

“Sheriff. Someone has stolen our horses.”

Glancing at Coulson he quickly left him to get more information from the woman, while he prepared their horses. Just as he had finished saddling the horses Coulson came around the corner. Mounting the horse he called over to Ward,

“Four men on two horses. Carrying guns. Heading towards the outskirts of the town. Lets try and keep them alive if possible.”

Nodding his agreement he follow Coulson at a gallop to catch the thieves. How he was supposed to take them alive when they had guns he wasn’t sure. He had a feeling he was going to do something he would regret later, or would cause Skye to yell at him, or both. He was quickly able to pick out the thieves; the dust clouds created by the horses gave it away. They were able to gain on them, nearly being level with them, before the thieves saw that anyone was chasing them. He saw one of them turn around and notice him, grabbing his gun. Ward had time to duck as the thief fired toward him. Drawing level with the thieves he launched himself from his horse, tackling them both from the horse. One guy had knocked himself out with the fall, the other Ward quickly dealt with, dealing a swift punch to the head. Turning to see how Coulson was doing he found him with the other two thieves in hand, point his gun at both.

“Seriously Ward? A flying tackle?”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

He knew he was going to pay for it later. He could already feel the bruises forming on his ribs where he had landed. Oh well at least they had caught the thieves and got the horses back. He wondered how much he was going to get yelled at by Skye when she found out what he had done.
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Skye was run off her feet in the bar. Apparently most of the town came into the bar in their lunch breaks, meaning that the bar was packed. It didn’t help that everyone had appeared all at once. Something had happened in the town apparently and it had caused much excitement. She hadn’t time to find out what had occurred properly as she was running around serving people. All she knew was it was something to do with horses and a spectacular leap. Somebody showing off probably.

There was a great commotion as one of the members of the town entered. Shushing the crowd he began to speak.

“As you probably have already heard earlier my horses were stolen. Thankfully they have been returned due to the Sheriff and his deputy. I wanted to say thanks to the good people who looked after my wife during the incident. Also when you see him please pass on my thanks to the deputy. I’m sure you have all heard versions of what happened. I can confirm that he did indeed take a leap from a galloping horse to stop the thieves escaping. So hopefully you can join me tonight in saying thanks to them and commending our deputy on his skills on a horse. Not many men could make a leap from a horse like that.”

It took Skye a minute to remember that Coulson and Ward were the Sheriff and deputy. Hang on Ward was the deputy. He was the one who had done the stupid leap from the horse. Of course it would be him.

“I’m going to kill him!” She muttered.

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Chapter Text

“I heard your day was boring,” May deadpanned as she continued serving behind the bar. Coulson was sat on a bar stool nursing a beer. May had heard the story at lunchtime but wanted to hear what actually happened from Coulson.

“Yeah. Ward decided he had a death wish and tackled someone off a horse while two people were shooting at him.”

“He does remember that if he dies in here he dies in real life?”

“Yeah, I think so. I don’t think being in this environment is good for him. He seems to be acting differently. He normally takes risks but nothing like that. Has Skye been acting normally?”

“You mean apart from wanting to kill Ward after she heard what happened? She seems normal but we’ve both been busy here: I haven’t really had time to talk to her much.”

“Maybe we should keep an eye on them. I know it was tough the last time they were in here. It’s bound to be difficult. Also I know they didn’t tell us everything that happened the last time.”

“I know. Maybe we should talk to them later on, once the bar is closed.”

“Good idea. Plus we may be able to stop Skye killing Ward for a little while then.”

Coulson watched as May moved away to continue serving customers. Being the only bar in the town it was constantly busy and with only May and Skye to serve they were kept extremely busy. He knew that they were only stepping into the people’s lives, hopefully for only a short period of time, but he wondered if he could do anything to help them. This was no life for anyone; the women were constantly rushed off their feet being hassled by drunken men. May was hassled less being behind the bar, plus her demeanour stopped most guys. However, Skye had it worse as she was walking around the punters. She was trying to pick up glasses and serve people sat at tables away from the bar. She was constantly squeezed as she wandered around and one guy even slapped her. He was about to go to her aid when she turned around and smacked him in the face. Judging by the amount of blood pouring from it, it looked like she had broken his nose. Looks like Ward had taught her well. Catching her eye he grinned with pride at her. He was proud at how she was developing; her and Ward made a good paring.

“I may end up committing murder before we leave here,” muttered Ward, sitting beside Coulson.

Seeing him sit down May poured him a shot of vodka before giving him a beer.

“I take it you saw what just happened with Skye. You should be proud she just broke that guys nose.”

“I know and I am proud. I know she can take care of herself. But she shouldn’t have to deal with that, people should just keep their hands to themselves. I know things were different in these times but there is no need to harass people.”

Coulson looked at the specialist carefully. It was clear how much it was annoying him and how he wished he could do something to change the situation. It made him wonder exactly what had occurred the last time they were in the machine.
“Did something like this happen last time?” He questioned, knowing Ward would know what he was talking about but not give anything away to anybody who was listening.

“Not exactly: it wasn’t as bad. People weren’t invading her personal space. But women were considered inferior. There was a heat wave while we were there, the men could wear looser clothing and were relatively comfortable, whereas the women were expected to still wear long dresses that were close fitting. One woman passed out due to the heat. How was that fair?” Ward commented bitterly.

Coulson was startled at Ward’s feelings on the subject. It was clearly something that had bothered him. He had considered how being out of place would have affected the pair but never the circumstances of the time period. It was clear that being in the machine had a bigger effect on Ward than he had let on or Coulson had realised. They definitely needed to have another conversation. They had no idea how long they were going to be stuck here for so they needed to ensure all of the team was mentally stable. Or as best they could be in this situation.

“I actually have an idea that may help with this situation.” Coulson commented.

Ward waved a hand, indicating for him to continue.

“I was thinking how rushed the ladies are. Also, we will ultimately get out of here, but the people whose lives we are living will still live like this. It’s a hard life for them but I think we can help them. It will give us some help initially but help them in the long run. I was thinking of hiring another server for the bar and a guy to help tidy and make sure there is no trouble.”

“You want to hire a bouncer, before bouncers have been invented?”

“Well it would make a difference. It may stop the men harassing Skye. Plus I don’t know if you have noticed a lot of men are out of work currently. So they come in here and drink instead. By doing that not only do we help out the ladies we can also help out the town. I was thinking about getting more people to help in the Sheriff’s office as well.”

“That’s a good idea. I know it’s possible to change things in this time period as we did the last time. It would be good to help people here. It feels wrong taking over people. They don’t remember what happened while we control them and I feel that in some way that’s our fault.”

How had they changed the past the last time they were in the machine? If Skye and Ward had managed to change something last time it explained how they knew that they were actually being sent back into the past. Though why they hadn’t told them after they had got out of the machine Coulson didn’t know. It was something they could talk about later.

“Anyway we can mention it to the ladies later. I wanted to catch up after the bar closes anyway. We can bring up the idea then.” Coulson explained.

“Ok. I’m going to go and see what food we have. They’ll be hungry when they have finished. I’ll go and make something for them to eat.”

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Ward stood in the kitchen stirring the pot of beans and chicken. It was a simple dish but filling. He hoped it would be comforting after working all day. Hearing the clattering of shoes on the stairs he grabbed dishes and began ladling out the dish.

“Smells good.” Smiled Skye tiredly.

She looked tired as she threw what ever she was carrying down to one side and slumped in a chair.

“I’m so ready for food.” She commented.

Ward smiled as he finished dishing up the food giving her a large portion. Silence descended as they all tucked in. It was nice to just sit all together not having to worry about saying something wrong or something that would be out of place in this era. They talked about random things, just enjoying each other’s company. Once done Coulson brought up the topic he and Ward had discussed earlier. As expected Skye and May both agreed it was a good plan.

“Well we were also wondering how you were both doing?” Continued Coulson.

“Fine.” Replied Skye quickly.

Ward couldn’t reply as easily. He had been thinking about something since earlier on.

“I think this time I have memories of the person I’ve taken over.” He blurted out before he could change his mind. Seeing the puzzled looks on the other’s faces he continued.

“It’s a bit like déjà vu. I knew where this place was and my desk at the office felt like mine, though I know I never seen it before. It wasn’t like this last time.”

“I’ve felt small things but I thought it was just me.” Skye interjected.

“I haven’t felt anything,” mentioned Coulson. Seeing May shake her head he continued,
“maybe it’s something to do with you having been in the machine before?”

“Maybe.” Replied Ward. It would explain it but he didn’t think it was the answer. Something felt different this time. Glancing at Skye he saw she was fiddling with what she had brought up from the bar. Seeing his look she spoke.

“Somebody left it behind in the bar. I brought it up here out of the way until someone claims it. Its just there is something in the pocket. I was hoping it would tell us whose it is.”

She pulled out a piece of paper before staring at it.

“Skye? Skye what is it?”

She held up the paper so they could all see it. On it was written a series of words that at first didn’t make sense. But on a second glance Ward realised he recognised them. But that was impossible. It couldn’t be here. There was no way it could be in this era. On the paper was written a web address.

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Chapter Text

Ward looked around the room in surprise. There was a queue of men lining up near Coulson’s desk and out of the door. Peering out of the window he saw that the queue went well out into the street. It appeared Coulson was right about the people in need of a job in the town. They had only announced that they were interviewing for jobs an hour earlier but already they had lots of people wanting the job. Apparently things were worse in the town than he had realised. Maybe they could make a difference while they were here. They had agreed that he and Coulson would interview people for the jobs of bouncer and sheriff’s assistant while the girls interviewed for helpers behind the bar. They needed two people for each job, as that was all the finances would stretch to. They had only expected a few people to turn up as both jobs were long hours for rubbish pay but apparently people were desperate. They were going to have to let a lot of people down. On the upside, they would have plenty of opportunity to look for the guy who had left the jacket. It seemed like the perfect chance to do some investigation.

Moving to stand beside Coulson, he bent down and whispered:

“How do you want to do this? We have to narrow this down some how.”

“I know. Talk to everyone quickly about which job and their skills. Then we can narrow it down.”

Ward nodded then moved over to his desk and beckoned over the first guy. It was going to be a long morning.

Three hours later and they had finally got through all the people waiting. Very few people had the skills needed to become the Sheriff’s assistant, whereas there were many people who could do the job as a bouncer. Ward had joined Coulson to compile the lists and decide whom they were going to interview for the jobs. They quickly agreed that nobody had the skills for the assistant so they couldn’t pick two people. They decided on an apprentice type scheme so they could evaluate the skills of the applicants. It was probably a better way to do it than just an interview, as they would be expected to shoot and ride horses, which wasn’t very easy to evaluate those skills in an interview. They quickly selected 10 people who had potential and informed them to show up tomorrow morning. It was going to be a mix between on-the-job training and tests. It would run for as long as needed but there would be two jobs at the end of it. Everyone would get a small wage while this was on-going. It seemed the fairest system.

As for the bouncer job they had quickly been able to whittle it down to twenty people who they were now going to interview. Too many of those who had come to interview for the job had been too quick to start a fight. They didn’t want people who would jump into a fight as it would damage the bar and it was what they were trying to avoid. They wanted somebody who would try to diffuse the situation first and only fight as a last resort. Now they were going to interview these people to try and pick two people for the ladies to see. It was important for them to be seen by the ladies as they were going to have to work closely with whoever was picked. Neither of them had found anything that indicated who the jacket belonged to, but they had a plan to find out more information.

They quickly went through the interviews asking general questions about what they would do in certain situations. They also tested their situational awareness by asking about the jacket that they had hidden in the room. Unfortunately nobody knew whom the jacket belonged to. It was something that they would have to look further into. Maybe they could do it as a task for the apprentices.

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Skye looked around the room and tried not to laugh. Quite a few people had turned up for the interview for the bar jobs so they had decided the easiest way to reduce numbers was to carry out some tests. It was a good job they had decided to do this, as some of the women had no chance of working in the bar. The first group of people couldn’t carry the tray for drinks and some of them kept tripping over the chairs. Skye caught the look on May’s face and had to bury her head in her arms to keep her laughter hidden. It wasn’t fair to laugh at these people but it was hard not to. She had just overheard some of the women taking orders from May as an example of what they would have to do if they got the job. So many people had messed this up and some of the answers were fantastic. It was like playing pass the message, like in the game the orders were getting changed completely. Some of the orders had been completely changed some much so they no longer resembled a drink, just random words. Skye wasn’t sure what they were thinking as what they said clearly did not resemble anything like a drink.

May looked totally fed up with everything. Skye couldn’t blame her: it was a shambles. Very few people were going to be able to work in a bar, but they were so earnest. It was going to be hard to let them down. Having gently let down those who were initially unsuccessful they moved on to attempting to pour drinks behind the bar. Half an hour later they had two women who could actually pour drinks and take orders. However, before that both Skye and May had ended up covered in beer when one woman had accidently knocked over the beer keg. May only ended up with the bottom of her dress wet but as Skye had been bending down she had ended up covered from head to toe. Thankfully she had only had to drip for a little while as they had nearly finished with the interviews. Having agreed to see the women tomorrow May began to tidy up the mess from the beer while Skye headed upstairs.

She was hoping that Ward and Coulson had found out something about the jacket. None of the women had known anybody who had lost a jacket. She wished she knew what was going on. Finding that web address had shaken her more than she had admitted to the others. She had begun to feel like she had the last time she was in the machine. It felt like there was somebody laughing at them. Knowing that they had been targeted and put back in the machine was bad enough, but knowing there was somebody else in here with them, somebody that was likely in the machine with them was just too much. She hadn’t thought about it much before, as last night they had all been too tired and this morning too busy with interviews. It felt like somebody was laughing at them.

Skye sung down to the floor and hugged her knees to her chest and began to sob. She thought she was going to be able to deal with being back in the machine but this had just brought back all the fears from last time.

That was how Ward found her. He quickly moved to her side and pulled her against his chest. Stroking her hair he asked:

“What happened?”

“It’s just that web address. Knowing somebody else is in here with us, it makes me feel like they are watching and laughing at us.”

“Hey, we don’t know that they are an enemy. They could be in the same situation as us. We need to find them so we can find out what is going on.”

“I’m scared Grant. I hate being in here, knowing we could change things without knowing it. I just want to go home.”

“I know. I feel exactly the same. I’m sure May and Coulson do too. But we will get out of this. We did the last time and we will again. Besides do you really think either Coulson, May or I would let anything happen to you? You are like a daughter to both of them and they will both protect you, and you know I would do anything to keep you safe.”

Skye leant up and gently kissed him.

“Can you stay for a little bit?”

“Of course. Anything you need.”

He pulled Skye closer to his chest and began stroking her hair in a soothing manner again. Skye felt herself relax against him, feeling safe with him.

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“Simmons, have you seen Coulson?” asked Fitz has he re-entered the lab.

“No, not for a while.” She replied looking up at him.

“I’ve checked all over the bus, he isn’t here. Neither are Skye, May or Ward.”

“That’s strange. The last time I saw them they were heading out for supplies. But I was busy trying to improve the dendrotoxin in the ICERs so I haven’t been paying much attention.”

“Jemma that was 12 hours ago. It’s now 4 in the morning.”

“Oh. I wonder where they are? Maybe we should try tracking their phones.”

“Good idea.”

Fitz followed Jemma over to the holotable and brought up the GPS on the teams phones. None of them were online. Both of them looked at each other remember the last time this had happened.

“Did you manage to…”

“Yes, Fitz!”

Jemma took control of the system and brought up the tracker feed that they had planted on all the members of the team after Skye and Ward had been kidnapped and placed in the machine. They wanted to be able to find everybody even if their mobiles were taken from them. It showed that they were all together in a warehouse.

“We should go and look for them.”

“We aren’t combat trained Fitz.”

“We can just send in the DWARFs.”

“Ok, but we need to leave a message for someone first.”

Jemma quickly typed on the table sending an email to the local Shield base, informing them what they were doing and why they were doing it. While she did that Fitz gathered up the things they needed to go after the team.

“Ready?” She asked.

“Ready. Let’s go find our team.”

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Chapter Text

Skye woke when the light broke into the room. She never thought how much she needed blackout curtains until she was faced with sleeping without them. With the late nights in the bar and then the bright light in the morning she was running low on sleep. At least she didn’t have to get up early for training here. Her SO had kindly decided that it would cause too much of a scene in this era. Which was why he was currently sleeping beside her. It was so annoying that he could sleep through the light. She considered waking him but thought that would be mean. Moving slightly she cuddled into him, hoping that if she buried her face in his chest she could block out the light and go back to sleep. Even if she couldn’t get back to sleep she was snuggled against his chest, his bare chest, which she couldn’t complain about.

His arms wrapped around, her bringing her closer to him and making her smile. It still surprised her that her SO was such a cuddler. He wasn’t with anybody else but her, which was nice. It was something that was just for them. Something that the team didn’t know about that was just theirs.

“What’s up?” He muttered sleepily.

“Just the light. It doesn’t matter go back to sleep.”

“Come here.” He said moving onto his back and pulling her closer into his side. He pressed gentle kisses in her hair and rubbed his hand down her bare back in a soothing manner. He laughed as she pulled the covers up over her head to try and block out the light. His hand was drawing patterns that were hypnotising, slowly sending her back to sleep.

She may have been able to fall back asleep if it wasn’t for the knocking on the door. The knocking that caused Skye to be instantly awake and spring away from Ward. She quickly moved to the other side of the bed while Ward grabbed a shirt from the floor and threw it on. Skye huddled down in the bed and pulled the covers up so that only her head was sticking out. That way, whoever came through the door, May or Coulson, wouldn’t be able to tell she was naked. Ward was fine as long he didn’t get out of bed. It didn’t really seem like the best time to have a discussion on how their relationship was no longer just rookie-SO.

“Come in.” Called Ward quietly.

Skye decided her best action was to pretend to be asleep: then nobody could make her get out of bed. Plus, everyone knew how she liked to sleep. She heard the door creaked open and recognised Coulson’s voice when he spoke.

“Sorry for waking you, but we need to head out to the office soon. We’re getting an early start with the trainees.”

“Sure. I’ll just get ready then meet you downstairs.”

Skye heard the door close and then felt a pair of arms lift her from the bed.

“Grant!” She gasped, trying not to speak too loudly or Coulson and May would hear her. Smiling at her, he pressed kisses against her lips.

“Not that I’m complaining, but you better get dressed. If you take too long Coulson will come back for you.”

“Don’t want him to find out about us?”

“Eventually. But I want to tell him myself. Plus I like you alive!”

He didn’t respond but just placed another kiss on her lips before getting out of the bed. Skye watched as he gathered his clothes. She probably should stare, but he was pretty much naked and was hot. She could just lie and stare at him for hours.

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Ward was glad they had decided to test some of the apprentices’ skills. They were terrible and needed a lot of training. They had started with gun skills, as that needed the most practice to be good at. Good at the moment was defined by being able to hit a target. It wasn’t necessarily the target that they were aiming at but at least they had hit one of them. It was a good job there was nothing behind the targets otherwise it would have been full of holes. Skye was a better shot than the men and she still had issues between the magazine release and the safety. He thought he had it tough when he tried to teach her, but he thinks training the men may just break him. Glancing at Coulson you could see he was already regretting his decision to take on the men. If they let them loose on the town like this they were going to become a laughing stock. It was going to be a long day.

Ward and Coulson split the men into two groups, deciding it would be easier to teach them in smaller groups as they could then focus on the individual. Coulson took his group off to go and practice riding skills while Ward concentrated on teaching his group how to shoot. Once in the smaller group it was possible to see a difference as the men began to improve. At least all of them could now hit a target and most of the time it was the one they were aiming at.

They were just about to break and swap with Coulson’s group when Skye came along and provided a distraction. She was once again wearing a dress with a corset and long skirt. This one however had a low cut neckline, showing more than she would normally show. It certainly had all the men beside him staring. Noticing him she smiled at lifted the basket she was carrying.

“Hey, babe. I brought you some lunch.”

He bent down and kissed her in thanks. He could here the mumbling from the guys at the realisation that she was his. If Coulson caught them he would just explain that he was acting how a husband would when seeing his wife. Besides, Coulson had been kissing Skye on the head as a father would, so he should act the way a husband would.

‘Yeah, it wasn’t just because you wanted to kiss her.’ Thought Ward.

“Thanks.”

“Well I knew you didn’t get breakfast. Plus, I wanted to see you.”

“Is everything alright?”

“Yeah. I just missed you.”

He smiled and gently brushed a lock of hair off from her face. If he was honest he missed her too. He was beginning to get used to having her around a lot. That scared him slightly. He didn’t know what would happen while they were in the machine. The thought of not having her near terrified him.

********************************************

After spending lunch with Ward and Coulson listening to their stories of training, Skye headed back to the bar. May had given her lunch off, as she wanted their first new girl, Daisy, to get a feel of what it was like serving at the bar on her own. Lunchtime was quieter than the evening, so it was the best time for her to find her feet.

Arriving back Skye saw that the bar was pretty empty and May was showing Daisy how things were organised behind the bar. Still there was the jacket that had stumped them. They had brought it back down to the bar to show people, hoping somebody would recognise it. Unfortunately, so far nobody had recognised it. Noticing it again Daisy pointed to it.

“I asked my mum about the jacket ‘cause you were interested in it. She knows most of the people in the town; she’s a seamstress. She said it might be Charlie’s. He only comes into the bar once a week and doesn’t really interact with anyone. Could be why nobody recognises it?”

“Thank you, Daisy. Do you know where he lives?” Asked May

“Sure. It’s the other end of town.”

May looked at Skye. They both knew that if it was Charlie’s jacket they could be closer to getting some more answers. They might find out what was happening here. Moving away from Daisy after getting the location of Charlie’s house, both women agreed to tell the men when they got back and then go and visit him. They knew that they would want them to stay behind, but both women agreed that they want to be there when the boys went asking for information.

It was a long afternoon waiting for the boys to finish so they could tell them what they had found out. Once they had arrived they quickly told them the information. As predicted both argued that the women should stay while they went to get information. May cut the argument short by threatening to knock both men out before taking Skye to get information if they attempted to leave them behind. Skye concealed a smile at Coulson quickly agreeing with May. Although he was the leader of the team, he very often conceded to May’s point of view. Once that was settled they decided to go investigate the area once the bar was closed. May and Skye couldn’t leave the bar unattended, plus at that time there would be less people around to see what they were up to.

Skye was nervous about what they were going to do, but glad that they were finally going to find out some information. Even if it was a dead end it was a start. It was good to be doing something useful.

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They had arrived at the warehouse where their teammates were supposed to be. It was located on the outskirts of New York. The area was filled with warehouses, and this one didn’t stand out. Fitz quickly sent the DWARFs into the warehouse to see what they found. It took them five minutes to map out the entire warehouse. There were only 4 life signs in there, which matched up with the team’s trackers. Fitzsimmons both agreed that the area was safe as there was clearly nobody else in the warehouse. They found a way into the warehouse by prying open a door. Entering they found most of the warehouse empty. Nothing was in there; it was just a big empty room. At the other end Sleepy was hovering outside another room, indicating that there was something in there. Looking at the tablet Fitz quickly saw that the team should be in that room.

‘Why would they be in there?’ he thought.

Glancing at Jemma he quickly placed himself in front her as he moved to open the door. They didn’t know what they would find when they opened the door. If he was in front of her and something went wrong it might give her enough time to escape and get help. Taking a deep breath he reached for the door.

***********************************************

Chapter Text

The door opened surprisingly easily, revealing a fairly dark room. The only light came from a soft glow in deeper in the room. Fumbling along the wall Fitz eventually found what felt like a light switch and pressed it. The sudden light might him blink rapidly. He could feel Jemma’s hand pressed into his back, reminding him that he was not alone. She was leaning round him trying to see into the room. As his eyes adjusted to the light he could make out where the glow had originally been coming from. It wasn’t possible to see what was causing the glow from before as screens were blocking it. Cloth screens surrounded an area within the room, with the rest of the room being bare.

Slowly Fitz moved into the room, weary in case there were any traps. He wished that Ward were with him. He would be able to notice any dangers that were in their way. He knew he had to head towards the sectioned area, it was the only place the team could be, the only place they would get answers.

Ushering Jemma back he gingerly moved the screen out of the way.

“Fitz?” questioned Jemma, noticing his suddenly ridged posture.

Instead of answering he moved to one side so she could she what he was looking at. It was almost the same as last time when Skye and Ward had gone missing. They, Coulson and May were lying on a raised platform that had symbols on it that were giving off the glow. They all looked peaceful and relaxed. Unlike last time there was nothing surrounding the machine that would help to turn it off.

“We need to get them out Fitz.”

“I know. Can you remember how to turn it off?”

“I think so.”

He watched as she headed past their team to the other side of the room. He knew from last time that there should be some sort of control panel somewhere in the room. As the rest of the room was bare it had to be on the other side, the one part of the room they couldn’t see properly.

Coming to stand beside her, he noticed something that was a little bit different from last time.

“That wasn’t there last time.”

Jemma was pointing out the box above the control panel that he had noticed just before. There were no distinguishing marks on it however it seemed to be part of the machine as when Jemma activated the control panel clanking noises could be heard from inside it. The panel Jemma had been using began to flash causing Fitz to pull her back from it. Before either of them could react the box they had noticed opened releasing a gas into the air.

Fitz glanced in horror at Jemma, but found he could barely make her out. The entire room was spinning. Jemma suddenly collapsed in front of him. He wanted to do something but it was getting hard to breathe.

‘Help’ he thought before hitting the ground unconscious.

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They had decided the easiest way was to just go and knock on the house and talk to whoever answered. But just as they were about to head down to the house somebody left and could clearly be seen moving away from them. As they had found out that Charlie lived alone, it was quickly decided that they would enter the house and have a look around. It was reasoned that they could find out as much information as they could if they talked to Charlie. Plus if he did have something to do with the machine this wouldn’t raise his suspicions.

As they didn’t know how long he would leave the house for they quickly moved down to the house. May quickly opened the door and they all slipped inside. Skye was left to keep a look out for Charlie coming back while the others searched the place. It only took 10 minutes, as the place was fairly empty, only contain a few seat, table and a bed. The only thing of interest that could be found was a stack of papers. They quickly moved them to the table and sorted through them.

“Anything of interest?” Questioned Skye from where she was still stood looking out of the window.

“Not really.” Muttered Ward. “Hang on.”

Skye turned to seem him pull a smaller piece of paper out of the pile.

“Well he definitely has something to do with the future.” Ward commented after reading the paper. He passed it to Coulson to look at while he continued explaining to Skye and May.

“It’s only something small but it contains an email address. I think it’s for a company, just by the paper. It looks like a business card only larger and has the same name as that web address you found Skye.”

“Does it give you any more information?”

“Not really. It looks like they are waiting for more information in relation to experiment from what I can tell.”

“Very good Agent Ward.”

Ward spun towards the new voice, grabbing his gun from where it hung in its holster.

“Oh don’t bother with that. It won’t do you any good anyway.”

The voice came from the back of the house where they had entered. Ward watched as a small man moved into the candlelight. He couldn’t be certain but he guessed the man stood before him was Charlie.

“How do you know my name?”

“Oh that is easy I’ve been watching you. I have to say you have coped so much better with the machine this time. You even managed to find some affects I would never have guessed at. Retaining some of your host’s memories is fantastic. I dropped you further out this time and yet you found you way home perfectly fine.”

“You put us in here?”

“Yes. You handled it so well the last time, plus I needed to test another time period. Your colleagues were just added bonuses.”

“You….”

A cheeping coming from somewhere on the man cut off Ward f. Holding up a hand at Ward he pulled out a device that looked a lot like a telephone and glanced at the screen. The grin that covered his face had Ward worried. Something was happening

“So sorry. I ignored you there. How rude of me. Unfortunately I’m going to have to be rude again and leave you. But don’t worry I’ll leave a replacement for you, well two really. I think you know them. And because I’m a kind person I’ll even treat you to a new place.”

With that he vanished.

“Did he just?” Ward looked at the rest of the team bewilderedly.

“Yep.” Replied Skye moving closer to Ward.

She hadn’t liked the sound of the last part. As she moved towards him the floor felt like it was tipping, almost like she was on a ship. It was taking all her concentration to keep up right. Something was wrong!

“Grant!” She gasped as the world suddenly went black.

She could hear movement around her as the others rushed to her side. Her eyes were open but all she could see was darkness. She could hear Coulson and Ward calling her name. They seemed to be getting fainter and fainter. No matter how hard she tried to reach for them she could find them. Then suddenly it all went dark.

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