Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

 Of all the things that Skye has had to do making the Rising Tide videos was by far the most humiliating of them all.  She was so much better than this and she could do so much more than make videos and do voice overs of the information that she was leaking.

That was another thing.

 The whole reason she was in the Rising Tide was so she could keep herself hidden and, maybe also, look up the few of the gifted to make sure they were okay. She also wanted to make sure they were hidden as well so that they wouldn’t have to go what she went through.

Skye balled her hands into fist closing her eyes for a brief second the hula girl on her dashboard shaking slightly. I will not go there she thought you are not that person anymore; you are not one of them she kept thinking to herself. Finally when she trusted herself enough she unclenched her fist and placed them back on keyboard going back to work.

Mike Peterson: The Super Man. The man who jumped out of a five story building while it was on fire carrying a woman. The man who wore a hood of all things to cover up his face, sometimes it was like they wanted to be found.

Skye took another deep breath and placed her finger over the button that uploaded, “I’m sorry.” she breathed out and clicked it.

How she supposed to keep the gifted safe when she was the one exposing them?

Skye decided that for once in her life she would do some good and warn Mike Peterson about S.H.I.E.L.D or Hydra, really whoever got there first? After all it was her fault to begin with finding him then videotaping him and then uploading it for the entire world to see.

Why was she with the Rising Tide again?

To stay hidden so no one would find her, she really thought that she had gotten that down by now.  

None the less when she found Mike in the diner she was very relieved, “Hi Mike isn’t it?” she asked him as she corned him by the counter. He gave her an odd look and she just took it as a sign to continue, “I know you’re the guy in the hood.” His eyes widen then he tried for his escape but never made it when she put her hand on his chest and pushed him back into his seat, “I have no idea what you’re talking about?” he lied.

“Look Mike you can’t lie to me so don’t even try and I’m here to warn you.”

“What could you warn me about?”

“Secret government originations that don’t like people with powers,” As he started to walk away she grabbed his arm again, “What about your son, huh, whose going to keep him safe when people are coming after you.” He didn’t say anything so she took it as a sign to keep talking, “Look,” She said, “With great power comes a ton of weird crap that you are not prepared to deal with, trust me.” She tried giving him her doe eyes to try and make him listen to her.

 “Look,” he said taking a deep breath, “thanks for the advice but I think that I’ll take my chances.”

As he got up and left the diner she would give one more push to make him take her help. She got up and ran towards him pulling him back. “I get that you don’t want my help but… if you ever do, just, go to my van, it’s the blue one two blocks from here.” He looked her in the eyes and nodded as if he was trying to that he would.

With that she went back off to her van deep in thought about what she should do about Mike Peterson. 

When she got back to her van she sat in it working on another video when she felt it. Someone was coming to her van no two someone’s; she could feel the vibrations of their footsteps and rhythm of their hearts. The sound of the two people footsteps where light as if trying not to make noise and the heart rates was slow and calm, ready for something. She couldn’t tell by the walk if the people were male or female but she did figure it out however when said person knocked on her van door.

 She only got a glimpse of him but she knows that one of them was definitely a him. She also saw that he was wearing a suit a very nice one and there are only two people who had a job profession that makes you look like an accountant.

An accountant or  S.H.I.E.L.D

By the bag that was now currently over her head she was 98.6% sure that it was an S.H.I.E.L.D agent, that or she pissed off a very skilled accountant.

Yeah, no scratch that, she was 100% positive that it was S.H.I.E.L.D.

That was the last thought she thought of before everything went black.

Surprise, they ended up taking her to an interrogation room at least she thought it was an interrogation room. It was grey and had honeycomb walls that were made out of some material she couldn’t place then the second thing she noticed was that she was handcuffed.

Great so she was handcuffed in an unknown facility, at least she had her clothes on.

She felt the vibrations around to see what kind of facility it was but was interrupted when the door opened and in came the same agent that took her. Something was familiar about him and it wasn’t because he kidnapped her he looked like someone she knew. He moved around like a cat waiting to pounce on his prey trying to intimidate her.  

He was about to say something when she cut to the chase, “Look I’m going to make this real quick I’m going to tell you everything you want to know about the Rising Tide and not because I’m afraid of you but because someone has to stop them.”

“What’s your name?”

Of all things he could have asked, “Its Skye.”

“What’s your real name?”

“It’s Skye with an E.” She said giving him a look then opened her mouth to speak but stopped when she felt the weird vibration of something turn on. She turned around and looked at the walls trying to decipher what the hell this thing was, “Where the hell are we, I’m not you headquarters am I because if I am that would be pretty stupid of you.”

“No were not in our headquarters now back to the questions.”

“Right you mean the totally stupid and irrelevant ones that have no help in taking down the Rising Tide glad to see you know how to do your job.”

His jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed at her, it reminded her of Tommy whenever he was getting pissed. “I bet you’re one of those girls that wait out Stark’s tower waiting to see him.” He said and really she was so above those girls.

Skye scoffed, “No,” another pause, “It was one time for a reason you could never even begin to understand.” It took another minute or of staring until another man came in, this one she knew because he was supposed to be dead.

Because said man was Agent Phillip James Coulson, who she had thought, died in the battle of New York. Then again she had a fair share of experience with people who are supposed to be dead that aren’t.

Hell she’s one of them.

He also came in with a giant needle thing with green serum in it, “This,” He said with a slight smirk, “Is a very highly concentrated truth serum.” Okay truth serum she could beat that. Then he did something totally unexpected.

He injected the other agent with the serum not her, well, shit she was not planning on that to happen.

“What the hell!”

“Oh I’m sorry, did that hurt?”

“No.” He stopped then gave him a look, “But you’ve lost your mind you should never do that to a member of your team...And, yes, it did hurt a little bit. But I always try to mask my pain in front of a beautiful woman because it makes me look more masculine. My god that stuff works fast!” He said finally letting out a frustrated sigh.

The whole time though he was letting out his little rant she had managed to get out of her cuffs by letting off small vibration so that the lock just breaks off. She smiled at the two and rested her chin on both her hands, “I’m guessing this your first mission together?” She said taking one of her hand and pointing at the two with a slight grin making its way onto her face. She then leaned back into her the chair and crossed her arms over her chest and let out a breathy laugh, “Well,” She said, “I’m honored really that I could your first for both of you.”

The dumb shocked looks on their faces brought her great joy and pride, “Was it something I said?” She questioned while throwing her arms in the air, “You know this might be just personal opinion here but you shouldn’t handcuff someone’s hands where you can’t see them gives them too much opportunity,” but she put up her hands in a surrender gesture, “but hey that’s just me now back to this pathetic excuse for an interrogation.”

  Coulson gave a look to Ward whose jaw had tightened even more, “Good luck Agent Ward.” With that Coulson left the room and the grin on her face left with him and her body tensed.

It’s been almost two years since she heard that last name. She knew that this wasn’t him this man looked to old and different, but, she could see the resemblance. Cheekbones that could cut glass, impossibly dark hair, and the shape of their eyes were the same even. Though Ward’s were dark brown almost amber while Tommy’s were blue she could tell they were the same. She knew without a doubt in her mind that this was Tommy’s brother, shit her day just got a hell of a lot more complicated.

It wasn’t Christian because last time she checked he was a senator, so this must have been Grant the other brother that went to jail. Apparently he had not gone to jail for a long as Tommy thought that or it he was very good at escaping.

 He pulled out the chair and sat down in it giving her a questioning look. She smirked taking off her jacket as slowly as possible and leaning over the desk so he could see her cleavage. “So Agent Ward you look nervous,” Skye cocked her head to the side, “care to elaborate why?”

“I’m calling to mind all my training.” He looked nervous with big brown puppy dog eyes trying to make it look like he was nervous of what he might say. She closed her eyes for a brief ten seconds and tuned out everything thing except for his heartbeat; she listened to how steady it was, she opened her eyes and focused on just his heartbeat waiting to feel a difference and she asked a question, “What’s your name?”

“Grant Douglas Ward.”

Truth

“How old are you.”

“Thirty-one.”

Truth

“Did you ever have a dog?”

“No.”

His heart sped up a little bit telling her that it was a lie and some point in his life he had owned a dog. It also proved to her that he was lying and wasn’t really under the truth serum and he called her pretty.

She leaned back in her chair allowing her legs to stretch out, “Look you shouldn’t take this the wrong way but I’m never going to trust you guys. It’s not just you guys seriously, I mean, I have more thumbs than I do people I trust.” He kept giving her this look as if trying to get her to break and it wasn’t even that intimidating. “Look,” She said sighing, “just ask me any question about the Rising Tide and I will gladly answer it for you.”

“Why the Rising Tide?”

“It was a good place to disappear maybe lay low for a little bit… it’s also a very good place to erase yourself from the world.”

“If you wanted to erase yourself then why make yourself known to us?”

It took her a few seconds to think of an answer, “Look by know you’re probably trying to unlock my laptop and have figured out that you can’t. I am also guessing that you are trying to figure out what the hell the centipede project has to do with Mike Peterson.”

This time he truly looked confused, “What’s the centipede project?”

Oh for the love of all things holy, “Really, project centipede, the one that’s taken regular guys and trying to turn them into a super solider.” Skye looked at the camera with an annoyed look, “Seriously billions of dollars and I beat you guys with a laptop that I won in a bet.”

Grant stood up from his chair and leaned his palms on the table, “Alright I think that this is over.” He said irritated at her as he was making his way to the door she stopped him with a question, “Have you ever killed someone before?” It surprised her by how casual it sounded coming out of her mouth.

 He had stopped in front of the door and turned around to look at her, “A few but only the bad guys, the ones that dissevered to die.”

Skye focused on his heartbeat again and it was faster than the normal steady one but it could be because he was thrown off by the question. He was looking at her a little too closely trying to figure her out so she added some humor in, “And what does your grandmother think of that?”

“Gramsy?” He said in an innocent voice.

Skye smiled, she just might actually stay.

Chapter Text

It amazed her how little SHIELD actually knew about Mike Peterson and Project Centipede, truly it did. She thought that this place was supposed to know everything about everyone, be the big brother and yet they couldn’t even figure out what Project Centipede was. She had been off the grid for two whole years and yet she still managed to figure out what Project Centipede was before them.

When they drilled her about it she told them all of what she knew which wasn’t much but still a lot more then they knew. Once they saw no point in handcuffing her and that they needed her they took her down to their lab which was in an airplane, she was right, and she meet FitzSimmons for the first time. She could tell by just looking at them that they were not field ready and that they were extremely close to each other plus they combined their own names together so they had to be a clue.

They were in the lab and Fitz introduced Simmons as a Bio-Chemist and Simmons introduced Fitz as an engineer.  Fitz held out his hand and she took it shaking it only for him to blush at her taking his hand, oh, so he was shy when it came to women Skye thought. She smiled at the blushing Fitz then let go of his hand moving over to the huge table that was giving off strong vibrations.

She touched it and instantly felt the vibrations crawl up her arms and move all throughout her body; she could already feel her muscles relax from them. Long ago this would have bothered her but now it only brought her peace she closed her eyes for a second enjoying the feeling then she opened them back up ready for whatever, “So,” She said, “what do you want me to do.”

“You, you do nothing and just stay here why we clean up this mess.” The Asian lady said she was standing in the corner with her arms crossed. She made Skye feel uneasy, like she always had to have her guard up around her. Not wanting to show fear though Skye stood up straighter and crossed her arms, “Look I might have made this mess but you guys entering the picture will only make it worse I am the only one who can clean this up.”

“How’s that?” Coulson asked moving his head to one side looking at her with curiosity; at least she hoped he was.

“Because I offered him my services I destroyed this guy’s life the least I could do was give him the opportunity to have a new one.” Skye replied and she hoped that they could hear how sincere she really was in her voice.

“So why would us entering it make it more difficult?” Coulson once again asked.

God give her the strength, “Because Agent Coulson he’s scared and all he wants is for his son to be safe. How do you think he’ll take it when you tell him that you’ll have to take his son away from him because he’s too much of a risk?”

The room was silent for five long seconds Skye swore you could cut the tension with a knife and all the tension was on her. She was ready to defend herself when a beep went off and Simmons looked down at her tablet and gasped causing everybody’s focus to go on her. Simmons turned the tablet around to show everybody what she had found, “We might not have a choice,” She said, “I got the results back and it seems that the explosions came from the man himself. If my calculations are correct then Mike Peterson does not have a lot of time left before he overheats and explodes.”

“What would be the blast radius?” Coulson said.

“Well sir, since Mike Peterson was injected with a higher and stronger dosage it would make the blast radius even larger than the last one.”

“Don’t you have anything that can save him?” Coulson asked.

“We have the Night-Night gun it’s only a prototype and needs some improvements and can only be used once but it’s better than nothing right?” Fitz said rubbing his hands together; Skye guessed that it was a nervous habit.

“Wait hold up,” Skye interrupted she didn’t want to help SHIELD but she did want to help Mike, “Mike is probably freaking out by now if you take me back to my van I can distract him long enough for you guys to build that thing then shoot him with it.”

“That’s actually not a bad idea Agent May you can go with her.” Finally something Coulson said that she could agree with excluding the Agent May part.

“Phil we can’t just take an innocent civilian out into the field.” Skye could feel the intensity of the glare that she giving to Coulson.

“If it means anything I am anything but innocent and on a technical stand point not really an American citizen.” Skye said raising her had up; it was half true she was born in China and lived there until her whole village was massacred at the ripe age of six months old. Taking into the account of how many years she spent living outside the U.S and how she was supposed to be dead it was a wonder how she even got back into America the last time.

Coulson and May both glared at her but she could tell that they thought it was a joke which she responded by shrugging with a smirk on her face, “Look you can say it’s a bad idea but it’s the only real idea that we have that has a chance of working.”

The more she looked at them the more she was starting to see that they were not going to budge, “Coulson Mike knows me and he knows that I offered him help if he desperate, which he is, he will come to me so let me go back to my van and help you guys to help Mike.”

They stood in the silence for forty-two seconds, she counted, until he finally gave his answer, “Alright you can go but May comes with you.”

“I don’t need help protecting myself.” Skye was surprised how offended she sounded.

“Against Mike Peterson yes you do.”

“How do you thing good ole’ Mike is going to feel when he sees one of you guys with me. I’ll tell you what will happen he’s going to freak out and then do something incredible stupid.”

“And how do you know that?” Agent Ward asked.

Because I worked with Hydra and a bunch of other mercenaries I know how this works. She was never going to say that though so she went with, “Have you ever seen an action movie before because let me tell you that is what will happen.”

Coulson held up his hand to silence everybody, “Skye, May is coming with you.”

It was her turn to let out a huge sigh.

Skye was back at her van waiting for Mike Peterson to show up with his kid. She had a really bad feeling that this was all going to go to shit because of Agent May just standing out there trying and failing to look natural. Skye could feel her heartbeat and it had never wavered not once since she had met her neither had her expression and Skye was starting to wonder why they put her on the welcoming wagon.

Skye looked towards her hula girl for comfort and watched as it stayed still. It was a piece of Tommy with her at all times to make sure that she was still in control of herself. He had gotten it for her as a joke but she soon found that when she was in time of intense comfort or need for reassurance that she was still free and in control.

She was shook out of her thoughts when she heard a few punches outside and then a hard thud and she knew Agent May had been knocked out. The next thing that happened was Mike opening her van door with his son right behind him looking scared shitless.

Mike pushed her up against her the other wall of her van getting very close to her face, “You said you could help me, did you mean that?”

She felt that his heartbeat was erratic and reaching the human limit, “Yes I meant it I can help you.”

“Then get to work Ace, my son, and I need new identities, passports, and I need you to wipe us clean of existence can you do that?”

“Of course I can but first you need to let me go so I can actually reach the keyboard.” She spat back at him pushing him slightly when he let her go putting some extra strength of it.

It would only take her fifteen minutes to do everything that he wanted but she was going to stretch out as long she could so she could try to talk him down. “Do you really think that this is the best idea Mike?” She asked while she was working.

“This is the only way I can make sure that my son is safe.”

“Who will make sure that he is safe from you,” she said and he looked at her, “Mike your sick you have to have noticed that or at least felt it. What will happen to your son once you finally explode; you’ll take him with you and is that honestly what you want for your son.”

“Do not tell what is best for my son!” He yelled at her getting close again and his face had glowing orange veins running up his face that’s when she had reached her breaking point with him. She would never let an innocent child die at her hands again, never again.

She took her hand and let out a slight wave that shook the whole van and pushed him into the back of the front seats. He looked up at her shocked by what he had just witnessed and Ace yelled out for his dad, “I’m not telling you what’s best for your son,” She said flatly, “I’m telling you what will happen I am telling you facts.”

Mike glared at her even more and grabbed a gun from the back of his pants pointing at her head and clicking the safety off. They stayed like that for a few moments and Skye put her hands up, “Let’s go.” He said, “This is taking too long and we need to get out of here, now move.”

Skye sighed moving slightly to the front of the van but at the last second took his head and slammed it into the side of her van. Ace let out a cry and Mike got up way faster than she was expecting and he took a hold of her by her jacket lapels and threw her out of her van through the doors and she was about to hit the wall. She sent out a strong vibration to minimize all the damage that she could so she wouldn’t hurt herself as much and was hoping that May was still unconscious.

She hit the wall with a loud crash and fell to the pavement with a thud, brick and concrete from the wall falling around her. She knew that she would have bruises later and from the tickling feeling on her forehead she guessed that she was bleeding.

Skye looked back up to see that her van door was barley holding onto the hinges and she felt the hum of the engine turned on and she let out a groan and laid her head on the ground as she felt her van drive away with Mike and his son inside it. 

Skye got herself up off the ground two minutes later and made her way over to Agent May who was still lying on the ground. Skye carefully took her foot and nudge against her arm, “Hey Agent May wake up.” She said and to her surprise the agent sprang to life like a robot. Her eyes opened wide and starred at her, “What happened to you?”

“Pissed him off, now call your team and tell them to get a move on because Mike stole my van and I want it back.”

“Wait he’s alone with his son?”

“Yeah and he has my van so let’s go.”

May carefully got up and took out a phone from her back pocket and started calling who she was guessing Coulson. Skye took this time to lean against the wall thinking of what she had just done and how the hell she was going to explain this to everybody and she even got involved in all of this again.

Thirty seconds later Agent May walked over to her eyes scanning her body, “You okay?”

Skye rubbed the back of her neck trying to work out the kinks, “Yeah I’m just probably bruised to hell.”

“Your head is bleeding you might have a concussion.”

“He stole my van.” Skye groaned even more pressing her head against the dented wall.

“You’ve already made that clear.”

“My whole life was in that van now it’s gone, driven away.”

“You’ll get it back.” May said again her voice still none changing.

Skye turned her head to look at May standing there beside her head was tilted to one side and almost thought she saw pity in her eyes. Skye let out a laugh and kicked the rubble, “Nah its fine it was only a matter of time before it came crashing down anyway.”

Nothing else was said for the five minutes that they stood for waiting for the backup and it was nice to feel the silence. The vibrations of the city all around her and she could feel all of them and it felt nice it calmed her but she was itching to use her powers at the same time to feel the earth move around her. Her silence was interrupted though by the sound of a SUV pulling up with a huge eagle symbol on the side of it.

“You know for a secret organization you sure do put your logo on everything.” Skye said jokingly pushing herself off the wall and walking over to the car door that was being held open by Ward.

“We don’t put it on everything.” Coulson snapped as he enters the driver side.

Skye was on sitting next to Ward and she looked over to him and smiled as big as she could, “You look worse for wear.” Grant said then she pushed him slightly with her shoulder, “But at least you still think I’m pretty.”

Ward smirked at her not saying anything only running a hand through his hair turning towards the window putting on his robot face on. Skye relaxed her head against the seat cushion when she couldn’t help but let out a giggle and that giggle turned into a laugh, “What’s so funny?” she heard Coulson ask from the seat. Skye didn’t even bother to open her eyes to reply, “You know I’m not usually a person who says ‘I told you so’ but I told you so.”

Nobody said anything but they didn’t have to she could feel the irritations running off of them and the feeling of being right was enough for her. The feeling of winning might have felt nice but the bruising and her head did not; long ago she had learned to numb the pain to not be affected by it anymore to not suffer anymore. But Skye wasn’t that girl anymore and she liked feeling pain sometimes, it let her know that she was still capable of feeling, which still doesn’t mean that she couldn’t heal quicker though.

Skye took a deep breath in and a deep breath out feeling the vibrations of everything around her seeing with her powers and not her eyes. Skye felt everything around her for miles and she let it calm her body down all her nerves and she could already feel the pressure on her head relieve a little bit and the aching pain in her arms was just a dull throb.  Skye might have hated her mother but there still was a few things she happy she had learned from her.

She didn’t want to fall asleep with everybody around her but the vibrations were like a lullaby to her and she gave in to them letting everything fall black.

Chapter Text

She woke up to the feeling of somebody touching her arm and immediately went tense at, her eyes opening up only to find that it was Grant shaking her awake. She grabbed his hand pulling it off of her, “I’m awake.” She mumbled.

“Good because Coulson has a lot to talk about.” He sounded pissed in Skye’s mind.

“I hope that means he is going to apologies and recognized that my plan was originally better.”

“Just shut up and get moving.”

Skye smiled at him and made her way out of the car into the plane cargo hold Grant appeared by her side guiding her into the lab where everybody was, all of them wearing a look of defeat, “So,” Skye said clapping her hands, “what’s the plan on getting my van back?”

Coulson glared at her, “We’re more concerned with Mike Peterson at the moment than your van.”

“Right well okay I can help with that.” An idea on where Mike went already in her mind.

“And how can you help us this time Skye?” Coulson asked sarcastically.

“I going to ignore that sarcasm Phil,” She shot him a smile picking up a tablet and started her search for Mike and his son, “Mike wanted to get out of the city and start over with his son and he wanted me to be the one to do it. Now the problem that he came to was that he couldn’t fly because well he wouldn’t have enough time to get to any airport in his condition. So where is the next best logical place you ask Phil Coulson?” She questioned as she pulled up the security footage of Peterson at the train station, “Why the train station of course.” She said in a fake southern accent turning the tablet around letting them all see Mike Peterson and his son.

They all turned to her surprised and she smirked at their faces if Tommy where she thought he would be laughing his ass off at their faces. Skye quickly pushed any thoughts of him away and snapped her fingers, “So what is your brilliant plan this time?” She asked.

“FitzSimmons do you have the bullet ready yet?”

“We only have the one sir you would have to get it on the first shot.” Fitz explained.

Coulson turned to Ward, “How good are you with a sniper?”

“I was the best in my class.” Ward said and Skye rolled her eyes at him mumbling, “Of course you were.” Under her breath so soft that nobody heard it. Everybody was rushing around getting everything together while Skye stood there doing nothing waiting for everybody to get their stuff together.

Feeling like she was unwanted Skye made her wandered around and found her way to the kitchen and made her way over to the sink turning it on. She took a paper towel and ran it underneath the water then lifted it up to her head wiping off all the dry blood that she could feel that was on her head and winced when she touched the cut.

When Skye was done she tossed the now pink paper towel on the counter and rolled up her selves to see the real damage of her encounter with Mike. Both of her arms had multiple bruises and the pain in the back of her head was still there and the itch she needed to scratch was not going away. Sparing one more glance around the room she put her hands on either side of the running water and let her powers out.

The water instantly went from straight to curling like circular motion and she let out a sigh of relief from the feeling that it gave her. Skye didn’t dare close her eyes but instead she looked over to her arms and saw that the bruises were already fading and all but gone and the throb in her head disappeared. She pulled her hands away and the water went back to normal and she reached up to feel that the open cut on her head was now scabbed over.

Rolling down her sleeves and throwing away the bloody paper towel made her way back down to the area where everybody was at, preparing for the whole event. They were still running around but they looked more done and ready to go so she sighed and walked over to the car sitting in it enjoying the silence for a couple of minutes while she still had it.

She wanted to punch herself in the face for doing something as stupid as showing Peterson her powers, she hadn’t something that reckless since she was twenty and even then she did it out of necessary. This situation though she didn’t need to use her powers she could have just gone with Peterson or do as he asked and helped him out but she used her powers instead.

When she used them though it felt so good like everything was under her control and she got to show someone how strong she truly was and the small part of her loved seeing fear in people’s eyes. She could let him die and her secret with it but she soon pushed that thought away when she thought of Ace and how alone he would feel.

She would make sure that Mike would be saved then she would leave, she would save Mike to save Ace and he wouldn’t be an orphan like she was before her mother. She would save Mike for Ace no other reason and then she would deal with SHIELD on her own like a big girl and clean up her mess.

If Tommy ever found any of this out she would never hear the end of it and she would have to end punching him in the face. If Tommy were here she thought none of this would have happened in the first place she tried pushing Tommy from her thoughts but the bastard kept creeping back into her mind.

The last time she had seen Tommy was two years ago when him and his girlfriend drove off into the sunset and she got into her van going the opposite direction. They still talked on the phone but all that changed six months ago when he stopped calling and texting her all together and it hurt her because he was her best friend.

He was her person. The Christina to her Meredith, the Troy to her Abed, the Turk to her J.D and for that person to stop talking just hurt more than any pain she had ever felt before.

Skye turned her head to the sound of a door opening and she saw Fitz climbing into the car, “You ready for this?” He was jittery and she could tell even without her powers that he was nervous then the door on the other side of her opened and Simmons climbed in as well her leg bouncing up and down.

Skye wanted to face palm, these two were not even field ready but she just sat there breathing slowly trying to calm herself down. They were so innocent and still had hoped in their eyes she wanted that stayed there for as long as possible the world needed more people like them. Ward climbed in the back with a duffel bag over his shoulder while Coulson and May were in the front looking very un-happy. Coulson started the car and engine came to life along and soon they were backing out of the Bus and onto the L.A highway probably breaking most speed laws as Skye looked out the window she said what they were all thinking, “What happens if this doesn’t work?”

“It will work.” Coulson snapped but she could tell from his vibration that even he doubted it.

“Look I don’t doubt the Science Twins or T-1000 back there,” she said nodding her head in each of their general direction, “but, I mean, what happens if this doesn’t work? You do have a backup plan right?”

“Yeah we got one.” He said harshly and his eyes met Ward’s from the back in the review mirror.

That single action gave Skye all the information she needed to know. If the plan didn’t work they were planning on killing Mike before he even got the chance to explode, it wasn’t ideal but if it came to it she wouldn’t stop them. Then that brought up another thought, “So say it does work then what happens?” she asked, “You’ve got some guy walking along the streets with the same Jesus juice that they shot up Steve Rogers with in World War two.”

“We’ll cross that bridge if we get there.” Coulson replied and by the tone in his voice Skye got the hint that he wanted her to shut up. Skye held her hands up in surrender and went back to staring at the roads of L.A passing her by when she got a look of herself in the window.

Since living in a van did not give her the proper tools to maintain ideal hygiene conditions she thought that she probably looked a little gross. That was not the case though because she looked beautiful and Skye hated it, her hair was long and flowing, skin was flawless where there wasn’t bruises, her make-up was all but gone from her face and she still glowing.

Ever since she went through the Mist all those years ago she did not only get powers and healed faster than others but she apparently also gained the ability to never look disgusting again. Nothing changed about her physically she just somehow got this glow to her that made her more beautiful; it wasn’t just her though, same thing happened to Tommy. Nothing changed about him physically, except for the powers; he just somehow got more handsome.

Even when she spent her time as a princess it was horrible, people always looking at her like she was the best damn thing that ever existed. Her mother laughed when she asked if there some way to make it go away and her adopted sister, Cecily, smiled at her and said, “If anybody ever gives you a wrong look you can come to me and I’ll take care of it.” From there on out she knew that her sister loved her and Skye loved her right back.

Skye shook her head pushing all thoughts of her mother and sister away; she took her hands and pushed backed her hair to see the cut on her forehead from earlier was already healing. There was a bruise around it but instead of being back and blue it was yellow and green looking like it was a couple days old instead of hours old. She softly touched the scabbed over cut and she twitched slightly when she felt a shot of pang go through her forehead and the action caused Simmons to look over at her, “I can look at that if you want?” Simmons voice filed the silent car.

Skye pulled her hair over the cut and turned to smile at the British woman, “No it’s fine just a small cut that’s all.”

“You should still let me at least look at it.”

“I’m fine Jemma really you don’t have to worry yourself over it.” Skye used her real name to try and get her to drop the topic.

It worked like a charm because she dropped the topic and went back to looking ahead Skye then leaned forward a little bit so that she was in between Coulson and May, “So I really want to know if we are going to considered getting my van back just so I can get stuff out of it?”

“Will you shut up about your stupid van for one second we have other things to worry about?” Coulson told her in a raised voice and Skye backed off with a huff of annoyance and leaned back against her seat. A couple of minutes later they arrived at their destination and Coulson over dramatically slammed on the breaks and they all lurched forward the seat belt locking up.

Skye opened her door rushing out of the car and allowing Fitz to make his way out of the car with his gear. She looked at the train station and listened for Mike Peterson’s heartbeat and his vibrations and she sucked in a breath when she found it. It was so fast and anger was just oozing off of him that she could feel it from where she stood.

Everybody was out of the car and Coulson was barking orders, “Ward go up top and try to get a good vantage point, May and I will go in and try to find Peterson, FitzSimmons you’ll go and get civilians out.”

Skye whipped her head around at the sound of her name not being mentioned and smiled this was her chance to get away to escape SHIELD this was her shot and she was not going to miss it.  She inched back a little more away from the team and when they all had their heads turned she sprinted as fast as she could away from them.

She didn’t check to see if they had started chasing after her she didn’t risk slowing down to check behind her she just ran. She ran about four blocks until she reached an alleyway she felt was safe enough to hide and quickly ran into it placing her against the wall letting the shadows covering her. She risked a glanced over the wall to that nobody had followed her and she smiled, she was free.

She let out a small breathy laugh and turned her head in the other direction and her mouth dropped opened, “You’ve got to be kidding me?” she said to herself as she saw her van sitting at the end of the alleyway. She practically skipped over to her van and didn’t even care at the sight of the door hanging off the hinges she happily enter the van running her hands over the interior of it sitting down in the driver seat.

Skye smiled at the hula girl on the dash and she grabbed it holding it fondly remembering all the memories behind it. The smile though quickly turned into a frown as the feeling of guilt hit her; she wanted to help Mike out and now there was a very good chance that he was going to die because of her.

She had down some horrible things in her past and now she was given a chance to make up for those with working with SHIELD even though she didn’t even like the origination she could still help people. She found Tommy’s brother, something Tommy always wanted, and a way to make sure that she or Tommy would never pop on any radar.

 Skye let out a huff of frustration and placed the hula girl back on the dashboard turning the ignition key on, “Son of a bitch,” she said to herself, “I’m going back.” With that she drove out of the alleyway and towards the train station.

When she got to the train station she noticed that all of them where nowhere to be seen and she had guessed that they all were in the train station waiting to see what Mike would do. First thought, she needed to know if Mike was even still alive and that they hadn’t taken him out yet at least the lethal way. She quickly felt for his heartbeat, it wasn’t hard to find, and she started to worry because if she didn’t intervene soon that was going to be nothing left of Mike Peterson. So she did she knew how to do, she used her powers to slow down his heart. Clenching her fist hard she willed his heart to slow down to a semi regular speed to at least give her more time.

While keeping her fist clenched Skye ran as fast as she could towards the entrance and practically bursting through the door when she arrived there. The sight inside was something she hadn’t really seen before and that’s saying a lot for her. Everybody was surrounding Mike with him in the middle of the circle and Coulson was the one closet to him trying calm him down with Ace by his side but the attempt didn’t seem to be working.

Mike though was a whole other sight to witness he was sweating and clutching his chest, probably from her, and orange veins were all over him now and Skye knew that he didn’t really have that much time left. Skye moved forward, but still stayed behind Coulson, and made her way right into Mike’s line of sight making sure that he could see her and that’s when their eyes met each other’s. He stared at her as she tightened her hand making her knuckles turn white while forcing him to his knees crying out in pain as he gripped his chest staring back at her with fear in his eyes.

Skye walked forward making her way past Coulson, who was protesting her every movement, and unclenched her fist and Mike let out a loud gasp breathing heavily and she made her way over to him putting out her hand to help him up. He accepted the hand but quickly turned her around into a choke hold and she couldn’t fight back without everybody seeing her, “Mike stop.” She said with force.

“What the hell are you?”  He whispered harshly into her ear.

Skye didn’t reply but brought her hands up to try and loosen Mike’s grip on her and when she sent painfully vibrations into his arms he did loosen it up a little bit. “Mike!” She heard Coulson yell and she turned her attention towards him, “Let her go she’s just trying to help.”

“You sent her didn’t you, trying to help take me down, well it won’t work!”

“He doesn’t know.” Skye said through his choke hold and Mike stopped choking her all together.

He spun her around and gave her a look, “What?”

She quickly scanned the celling looking for Ward and found him looking through the scope trying to line up a good shot and she looked directly at him and she hoped that he was looking at her. Skye moved her body ever so slightly towards Ward’s direction more and she put her hands behind her back with five fingers open. “None of them now I just meant them today.” She said and had four fingers behind her back now, “But from what I could tell these people truly do want to help you Mike.” Three fingers now and she hoped that Ward got the idea, “But you have to get better first for them to help you.” Two fingers now, “What about my son?” He asked

“He’ll be fine they’ll take good care of him.” One finger now and she took a deep breath waiting from him to say something.

“He’ll be safe?” He questioned looking at her with sane eyes for the first time and the orange veins were now on his face glowing bright, now or never.

“Yes.” She replied and made a fist ducking right away and a shot was heard there was no explosion so she was guessing that Grant had made the shot. When she opened her eyes and stood up she saw Mike lying on the ground with a huge bullet sticking out of his forehead and blue veins instead of orange and Skye listened for a heartbeat and smiled when she felt a normal human one.

She heard a cry and look to see that Ace was running towards his dad and she quickly caught him before he could see him, “Hey Ace look at me you dad is fine he’s just resting that’s all.”

“So he’ll wake up?”

“Yeah he will and when he does he’ll be all better.”

“Promise?”

“I promise I really promise okay but first I need you to keep a secret for me okay.”

“What is it?”

She kneeled down to his level and put soothing hands on his shoulders, “I need you to never tell anybody about what you saw in the van to anybody.”

“You mean about you being a superhero like my dad?” He smiled and flinched on the inside but on the outside she just smiled like he was, “Yeah, and you see no one can know my secret or else really bad people, super villains, will come after me and you don’t want that do you?”

He shook his head no and Skye let out a small chuckle, “Good kid now do you have any family you can stay with?”

“My aunt, I can stay with her until my dad gets better and then I’ll be with him because we’re a team.”

Skye nodded her head and smiled sadly at him and stood up walking towards Coulson with her hand on the back of Ace. She waved goodbye when he went off with the other SHIELD agents and Coulson was no longer glaring at her but was smirking at her and from his vibrations he felt pride directed towards her.

“We thought you took off?” He said a smile on his face and in his voice.

Skye turned towards him and brought up her car keys waving them in front of his face, “Had to find my van first.” There was silence and she knew that he was looking for more of an explanation, “Look working with other people isn’t really my thing and I’m not a fan of SHILED and how you handle things,” He glared at her, “but if there is a chance that I get to help people than maybe I can suck it up and work with you guys.”

“Well we do need a computer expert on our team and there is an extra bunk on the Bus.”

“The what?” She asked confused having no idea what he was talking about

“The plane that’s what we call it, the Bus.”

Skye gave him and half smile and crossed her arms over her chest leaning on her right foot more than the other, “That’s a stupid name for it.”

They both laughed and made their way back to the SUV were everybody was waiting for them.

“Take good care of her and no joyrides alright.” She said giving her keys to the SHIELD agent that was planning on taking her van away from her. She had already cleaned it out taking everything she need out of it and locked down all her computers making sure that no one else could get into them but her. She took her box of belongs and made her way into the Bus making her way up to the empty bunk that was open. She placed the box down on the bed and the first thing she placed on the window seal was her little girl smiling softly at it.

She was torn away from it when she heard a throat clearing and she turned her head to see FitzSimmons in front of her, “Well it seems that we’ll be bunk neighbors,” Fitz said and she raised her eyebrow at him and he blushed, “Not that that’s a bad thing or anything I just it’s really nice to meet you.”

“And were both really glad that you decided to join the team because it was going to be a little awkward with all the specialists around here.” She said rubbing her hands together, “And I have a feeling that we’re going to really good friends… well me, you, and Fitz because we kind come as a package deal.”

Skye smiled cutting Simmons off, “Simmons I get and I like both of you, you both seem,” She struggled trying to find the right word, “Good.”

The both smiled and where off probably going back to the lab and her thoughts went back to Ace and she knew what she had to do.

Skye stayed in the car as she watched Ace make his way inside of his aunt’s house. Coulson made his way back to the car and was smiling, “It looks like everything turned out for the best.”

“If you call separating a father and son successful all while putting Mike on a list for gifted up to make sure he doesn’t do anything.” She argued.

“They’re both alive.” He said gently.

“But not together.” She added and both sat there staring down each other but it was interrupted by his phone ringing. He quickly answered it saying a few things and hung up turning to look at her, “What’s wrong?” She questioned.

“There’s a 0-8-4 down in Brazil.” He said smirking at her like he had the best joke ever.

“What’s a 0-8-4?” She asked even though she already knew what it was.

“An object of unknown origin kind of like you.”

Skye scoffed and turned to face him complete, “I’m not an object of unknown origin Coulson I know exactly where I come from.” He raised his eyebrows at her, “Anyway what was the last 0-8-4?”

“A hammer in New Mexico.” He grinned to himself as if it was a little inside joke. 

Skye smiled and then felt a strange vibration and then next thing she knew she was being lifted off the ground and she looked over the side of the car to see that it was actually flying. She turned back to Coulson with pure shock written all over her face, “Oh yeah.” He said, “She flies too.”

Chapter Text

“Kill the target already Johnson—”

“Daisy, please, listen to me you have to snap out of it—”

 “PLEASE DON’T KILL MY SON! PLEASE TAKE ME NOT HIM—”

“You’re a monster how can you even live with yourself and what you do—”

“Sweetheart I’m your mother I will always love you.”

Skye woke with a gasp from her nightmare, all the different memories flashing back to her and she closed her eyes rubbing her temple with her fingers. All of them, of different events, all just as horrible as she remembered them to be she placed a hand to her heart and felt it racing, she took a couple calming breaths trying to calm herself down.

She needed to do something, anything, just to forget the horrible memories for a just a couple more hours, even minutes would do her just fine. Skye glanced over to her phone to see what time it was and practically wanted to scream when she saw that it was five o’clock; it had been a while since she slept in and it was touch and go while she lived in her van but it seems that it wasn’t going to come back.

Sighing she pushed away the covers and made her way outside of her bunk and down to the training area she saw earlier with a punching bag, it was at least something she could do. Not even bothering to wrap her knuckles she began punching the bag, she started off easy with the basic punches but then she moved on to more complicated moves. The more she punched and kicked the harder they became and faster she was moving and the more the memories were washing away, the more she could focus on her punching and her kicking, the more that she was forgetting.

Living in her van did not stop her from keeping up with her skill set or her work out routines. No in fact it actually helped since she would deal with horrible pervy guys on a regular bases and it wasn’t that hard to find an old gym to break into at night. It helped release all the her frustrations and it helped with the nightmares and the memories as well; but sometimes it they got so bad she had to get out to her special place and unleash her powers onto the world. The one time her nightmares had gotten so bad that she actually caused an small earthquake in L.A, course it was blamed on the San Andreas fault and not her, thank god for that.

She didn’t stop. Not until she looked down at her hands and saw that they were bleeding slightly her and she realized that she needed a shower from how sweaty she had actually gotten. Sighing she looked to the clock and saw that it was six and that people would probably be getting up by now if they weren’t already up. Making her way up to her bunk and grabbing some clothes she made her way into the bathroom and turned the hot water all the way up. This was not something that she would have ever thought to do, shower on a plane with a bunch of other people she was working with and who she no doubted hated the organization she was working with.

After taking a shower and relishing the feeling of the hot water on her skin she stepped out of the shower and made her way over to the mirror, wiping off the steam on the mirror. Drying herself off Skye looked at her naked body and swallowed thickly when her hand made her way over to the large scar under her right breast.

She should have more scars but they healed and left her body after some time and some magic but this was the one scar that stayed with her and for some reason she was okay with that. It was the one scar that she would never be able to forget; the ultimate act of betrayal from two people that she loved. Her mother ordered her murder but it was Tommy who followed through with it, it was him who stabbed her that night and pushed her over the cliff into the waters below.

She forgave him, she understood that he had no control, and she could never hate him it was too damn exhausting.

A knock on the door shook her from her thoughts and Skye quickly wrapped the towel around her grabbing her clothes and opening up the door slightly only showing her head. Skye wrapped the towel around herself tighter when she saw Ward standing in front of the door his arms crossed a scowl on his face. She smiled up at him, “Can I help you?” She asked with a fake sweetness to her voice.

“How long are you going to be you’ve been in there for almost forty-five minutes?”

“I’m almost done I just need to get dressed and then I’ll be out in a couple of minutes.” She was shutting the door when his foot came in the way and she opened it back up pointing her head back out, “Is there something that I can help you with?” She asked sarcastically.

“This mission that we’re going on, it’s important; it’s dangerous I need to know that you’re ready for it.”

Skye scrunched her face up and smirked a little bit, “Yeah, Ward can we have this conversation when I’m not naked in front of you.”

She thought for a second that she saw him blush and he looked flustered and she could tell from his vibrations that he was embarrassed, “Alright,” She said quickly, “well I’m going to close the door now.”

“Right, uh, that’s a really good idea.” She barley hear what he said from how fast he had turned around and said walking away his feet not even making a noise. Skye let out a slight chuckle and closed the door his, awkwardness was cute and made her smile a little bit, quickly putting her fresh clothes on Skye made her way back to her bunk. She grabbed her phone checking to see if she had any new messages or any missed calls from Tommy like she’s been doing for the past six months.

When she didn’t see anything she pushed every thought of him away from herself and decided to put herself full throttle into this mission. Taking her laptop from the top of her bed she started researching everything she could about Brazil and what was happening there in the past year and then some. Bringing up different articles all said that there was a rebellion going on in some parts where the rebels were hostile over their territory and wanted to take down the government, which she had to give them props for trying

After reading up on some of the history Skye decided that she would change her focus to the team that she was currently staying with. First she looked up Agent May and she groaned when she looked at her first name; it was fucking Melinda May from Bahrain, the woman her mother told her all about. How the little girl couldn’t handle her power and was killing everybody and how Agent May came in ultimately ending the little girl’s life. Her mother hated Melinda but Skye understood her and why she did it, she was taking out a bigger threat, she choose one over one hundred.

She looked up FitzSimmons she found out that both were twenty-seven, two years older than her, but there was really nothing that notable about them other than they had zero field experience and that the two were two of the youngest people to graduate from the academy. That and that they never leave each other side and they had the same S.O who they both loved dearly.

Next was Ward and boy was she going to have a field day with this, she looked up his file and she had to admit she was pretty impressed with it but it was also off putting. He had the best marks since Romanoff and was the top of his class in everything, joined the academy when he was twenty-one, which confused her slightly, but she passed over that. Everything about seemed to be top notch and Skye couldn’t find anything wrong with him, even his psych evaluation was perfect.

He was like the perfect agent and if Skye had learned anything it’s that the perfect agent has the most to hide.

Skye went back and looked at his records a second time, it said he joined when he was twenty-one but she knew for a fact that the prison riot that he was in happened when he was sixteen. So that’s five years unaccounted for and it made her wonder what happened to him in those five years, and what it made him into today.

There was a knock on her door that made her shut her laptop down and call out, “Yeah,” she asked cautiously,

“Skye, its Fitz, were going to be meeting in the main meeting room to talk about the mission and go over all the details.” He said nervously and when she opened up her door she saw fidgeting and Skye had to smile at how adorable he was when he was nervous. Skye but a hand on his shoulder and she could feel how tense he was so she sent small calming vibrations all throughout his body she could visibly see him relax a little more, “Are you okay Fitz?” She asked.

He smiled and waved her off, “Yeah I’m fine, just a little nervous, but really the more that I think about it the better I feel.”

“Well I’m glad to hear that.” She smiled at her own words and took her hands off his shoulder letting him lead the way to the place where everybody else is at.

When she got there everybody was huddle around the table and looking at a huge T.V with information about the mission on it. Coulson swiped the something on a tablet and news reports came up, “Alright everybody I want you all to be careful on this mission to retrieve the 0-8-4, there is a group of rebels out there and they are going to take down any government agent they see.” He swiped again and there was a picture of a square pyramid on there, which Skye assumed was the location of the 0-8-4.

“FitzSimmons and Skye I want you three to go inside the temple and retrieve the object if it’s safe enough for transport. May and Ward I want you both outside looking for any possible threats while I will be dealing with locals and their police force.” Coulson continued

May raised an eyebrow, “Phil you know that I’m only the pilot.”

“I know it’s just in case.” He agreed but she could tell that he wanted her there in case anything went wrong.

Nobody having any problems with anything that Coulson said everybody started to scatter off getting stuff they needed for the mission. Ward, however, came over to her with a pamphlet in his hand handing it out to her, “What am I supposed to do with this?” Skye asked.

“It’s everything you need to know about the Bus.” His voice was like steel and didn’t have a hint of humor in it.

Skye eyes widened when she realized that he was being serious and looked over the pamphlet, “Wow you guys made a pamphlet for this thing?”

“Of course we did.” He said it like it was the most obvious thing to do.

Skye waved the pamphlet in the air, “Alright I’ll get right on it, I guess.”

Skye had just finished reading that stupid pamphlet for the fourth time when May voice over the incomes that they were starting to land and that they should strap in. She made her way out of her bunk and into base area where all the cars were placed, she was the last one there everybody had already strapped in. She sat herself beside Fitz and remained calmed and collected hoping that it would help calm down the nervous and skittish FitzSimmons who were both trying their best to hide how scared they actually were.

It was almost like this was their first mission ever and in fact thinking about it, it would actually make a lot of sense. Turing her head over to face hem both she asked the question that was on her mind, “Wait is this your first field mission?”

Fitz looked baffled and Simmons let out a little guilty laugh, “What, no, don’t ridiculous,” she said, “You were our first mission.”

“Well glad I could be you guys first, tell me was I everything you hoped for?”

Fitz blushed and started to stutter a while Simmons did get the memo, “Oh it was beyond great and I’m so glad that I got to share the experience with Fitz.”

Skye nudge the now completely red Fitz, “You hear that Fitz she was glad that you got to pop that cherry together.” She laughed at how red Fitz’s face had gotten and how innocent Simmons was being the whole innuendo.

“Alright that’s enough stop embarrassing the poor guy.” Ward said from the other side of the room and Skye turned her attention towards him, “Oh come on I’m only trying to lighten the mood and help them relax, learn to live a little Robot.”

He only rolled his eyes at her and she gave him a flirtatious smile in response, could you blame her he was hot.

She would have said something in response but the rumbling of the plane and shaking of it tore her from her thought telling they had landed.

Chapter Text

The ride to the temple was unnaturally peacefully and it made Skye feel uneasy. FitzSimmons was chatting about science stuff that she couldn’t keep up with, Coulson smiling in the front, May and Ward were silent like usual.  All in all the whole situation should have made feel great instead it only made her feel wary of the whole thing, like the calm before the storm, it made her on even higher alert now that they were going into rebel territory.

The road was bumpy and not a part of was smooth and the terrain was trees and bushes, perfect for hiding. She could tell that it was hot and humid outside, something that she wasn’t really used too; most of her missions that she went on were based in cold areas. It’s not like she had a choice though what missions she went on, she got the assignment, she got the job done not matter what, she returned and repeated the cycle.

If she messed up a mission the man she worked with would break a few ribs then chain her up on a wall and leave her there for days, it still boggles her mind on how she didn’t realize how brainwashed she was. She was loyal to him though up until the brainwashing was practically undone by Henley and her Amazon people, well after that, she laughed to herself, the man got what he deserved and he could never hurt anybody ever again.

In a way though he got what he wanted, he made her into a perfect killing machine, even to this day she wished that she could stop that part of her that enjoyed it. That’s why he didn’t kill her in the first place is because she got out and killed two guards with a spoon that she had sharpen to a point then stabbed them in the throat.

She remembers it, walking into that room, after two weeks of being stuck in a cell and still suffering from the knife wound that Tommy gave her only five weeks before hand. Suffering from the torture that had happened to her in those two weeks and she walked into that room covered in both her old blood and the new blood from the guards seeing that smug bastards face smiling and slow clapping his hands.

Skye clenched her fists and shoved the memory down even farther into the back of her head and chanting those same words, you are in control, you are in control, you are in control. It was like a mantra she had created to let herself remember that she was in control of her body and her mind, it was nobody else’s.

The car had finally stopped she all but flew out of it her feet hitting the ground and she instantly felt something off in the area. She looked up to see that they were in front of them temple and off energy was coming from there and what was ever in there could do some serious damage. It was calling to her and she wanted to go into the temple and just touch, but every part of her instinct told her not to give in to the feeling. Instead she checked the surroundings for any extra heartbeats that were not supposed to be there, she opened her hands up walking forward slowly. She didn’t feel any other heartbeats in the surrounding areas but doesn’t mean that that could change at any time.

Everybody else had made it out of the car and she felt someone come up beside her, “You look a little off.” Coulson observed and she looked at him scrunching up his nose.

“This whole place feels off.” She mumbled both of them walking forward towards the temple.

“How so?” His voice was intrigued at what she said.

“We rolled into this place without any problems from the rebels, somethings off.” She concluded.

“Maybe we just got lucky?” He stopped them both from walking forward anymore and he smiled at her trying lift her mood from his vibrations he truly believes that it was luck.

“Or they’re waiting.” She said flatly.

He starred at her tilting his head to the side, “Are you always this pessimistic?”

“No this is me on a good day.” Her voice had a hint of a laugh to it.

“What about a bad day?” He questioned her curiosity in his voice.

She starred at him, “Lock me in a room and run.” She said seriously but then felt and from his vibrations he was worrying about what that meant and that was the last thing she wanted. She put on a fake smile and a fake laugh, “I’m just kidding, but if I do have a bad day I will let you know.”

She patted him on the shoulder and jogged to catch up with FitzSimmons who was heading into the temple with a bag slung over his shoulder. She caught up to them and both were still talking science babble that she didn’t understand what so ever, “Guys, what are you talking about?” She asked them as they walked into the temple entrance the pull became stronger.

“We were just talking about how my little DWARVES are going to tell us exactly what the 0-8-4 is.” Fitz turned his head slightly over his shoulder to tell her.

Skye shook her head at the words coming out of his mouth, “I’m sorry your what?”

They had made it to the 0-8-4 and suffice to say it was easy to see what the object of unknown origin was. It was literally sticking out of the wall glowing a bright blue and the vibration come off of it was strong and it was almost as if it was…alive.

Fitz took off the bag on his shoulder and opened it to reveal tiny little robots along with one big remote control. He pressed a button on the remote control and the tiny robots sprang to life, “These are the DWARVES I made them myself and they should tell us exactly what this is.” He smiled and looked like a boy playing his favorite video game while stuck at grandma’s house.

“He’s quite proud of them.” Simmons added.

“I can tell.”

They stood there in silence just letting the buzz of DWARVES filling it when she felt someone was looking at her. She looked over her shoulder to see that Simmons was staring at her, “Is there something on my face Simmons?”

Simmons blushed from being caught but smiled, “No, actually, it’s just that cut on your head it’s not there anymore.”

Skye’s hand went straight to her forehead where the small cut from Mike Peterson used to be, she had used her powers this morning while in the shower and the cut had healed up with barley a scar left. She let out a small sigh, “Yeah I guess it wasn’t as deep as I originally thought, mostly like a little cut.”

“Yeah but when I saw it last was scabbed over with a bruise now there is nothing there and it’s barley even been two days since then.”

Skye shrugged her shoulders trying to end the topic of the conversation, “Like I said wasn’t as deep as I thought it was.”

Simmons looked as if she was about to say something when Fitz heart speed up he let out a squeal of joy, “Guys come take a look at this,” Both girls rushed over to his side, “I was going over the reading and look what I found, well the DWARVES, well you know what I mean.” He said pointing to the numbers on his tablet.

“That’s impossible these reading say that the device is from 1945 but this temple has to be a least thousand.”

“More like three thousand years ago.” Skye added as she put her hand on wall feeling the rock beneath her as if it was speaking to her, just from touching it she could tell how old it was.

FitzSimmons looked up at her, “Well were in northern Brazil and the Mayans lived her over four thousand years ago.” She said quickly to cover up her slip both the science twins looked surprised, “What,” Skye questioned, “I know things.”

“Right well going along with the technology this is saying that this was here since 1945, I mean this goes along with technology that Hydra had.” Simmons said looking at the tablet amazed.

“Or maybe it was here from the beginning and is only making itself known.” Responded Skye as she said like was telling a ghost story. She was about to say something else when something felt off with the ground outside like rumbling and movement of something large. She turned her head and made her way to the entrance of the cave looking out at the bush she scanned them as she listened for extra heartbeats and her breath hitched.

The rebels had arrived and from what she could tell they were armed.

She wanted to warn Ward and May but how would she explain to them how she knew her best bet was to get FitzSimmons moving. She ran back to where they were, still happily looking at the data, and she smiled at them, “Hey guys just a thought maybe we should rap this up because the longer were out here the more we’re sitting ducks to the rebels.”

Simmons waved a hand at her, “We’re fine if anything went wrong Ward and May will come for us.”

Fitz looked up at her with a bitch face expression, “Science can’t be rushed plus this is the first time I’m seeing reading like this, it’s like its own living entity.”

“No Isotope matches it.” Simmons added.

She wanted to him them in the head so hard so they would listen to her about the real danger. Since SHIELD had conditioned them to feel safe wherever specialist where she was going to have a hard time with them. Listening to May and Ward’s heartbeats showed her no change and that they have yet to notice the rebels as well, this was becoming a bad situation and it was soon going to become a train wreck.

Skye was starting to get angsty, FitzSimmons weren’t moving and May and Ward had yet to notice that there were rebels outside. So she did the only sensible thing she thought she could to get everybody away from this place in a timely manner.

She started an earthquake.

It wasn’t a big earthquake, but big enough to cause FitzSimmons to freak out and look around the temple trying to find the source of the earthquake. Skye backed up into the wall putting her hands on the rock wall making it shake even harder and the feeling of euphoria was coming quickly at the feeling of her letting her powers.

“What’s happening?” Simmons yelled and Skye was pulled back and she grabbed Simmons arm trying to get her out of the temple, “Come on it’s an earthquake we have to go.” She yelled back at Simmons.

“But we haven’t even gotten to see if the device is stable or not.” Fitz screamed at her.

Skye sighed and grabbed the device yanking it out of the wall placing it into the bag, “Well its stable, now let’s go before we all get crushed to death.”

Skye would never allow that to happen but still she had to keep the façade up and roll with. They went outside and were greeted by the sight of Ward and May shooting at the rebels hiding in the bushes who had opened fire at them.

Skye moved her hand slightly making the ground shake harder around them causing some of them to fall over and letting have time to run towards the car. She ran with the FitzSimmons behind her and bag slung over her shoulder running as fast as she could back to the car but she slowed down to make sure that FitzSimmons would go in front of her.

They were struggling though and Skye saw Fitz was having a tougher time keeping up panting more than he should. That’s when she saw it though a rebel had come out of the bushes screaming aiming a shot directly for Fitz; she shoved him forward making sure he was out of the way of the bullet’s path. The bullet whizzed past her and she felt the familiar pain of a bullet grazing her skin, it hit her right deltoid, the arm that she carrying the bag on.

She had to stop the earthquake though to concentrate on running and dodging bullets and making sure that FitzSimmons was okay. She shoved the pain and the stopped earthquake into the back of her mind and kept running for the car. When she got halfway there the bullets were raining all around them and she was very tempted to use her powers to push them away but she was caught off guard when she saw the Ward was behind her, almost as if he was shielding her from most of the bullets. Wait, no, he was shielding her from the bullets and she almost stopped in her tracks because she was confused as to why he would do that.

He caught up to her and the both made a final dash to the SUV that Coulson had waiting for them. The back hatch had been open and they both dove into the car and Ward immediately shut the back hatch looking at everybody to see if they were all still there. Skye glanced at her injury and was glad that she wore red you couldn’t even see the wound, she took off the bag throwing onto the ground sighing and turned around to see that the rebels had cars.

She looked at the cars and concentrated on the ground beneath them closing her fist and she saw the first pothole form the tire on their jeep getting caught in it. They were still shooting and one of the bullets went through the back windshield then the next thing she knew she was being pushed over and Grant Ward was on top of her shielding her, yet again. She looked at him with confusion, “Stay down.” He whispered in her ear.

“That is the first thing that’s you’ve said that I agree with.” She practically said while laughing.

“What the hell were you thinking back there with the 0-8-4?” he whispered yelled at her.

“Well in case you didn’t notice there was an earthquake happening and I didn’t want to be crushed so I took a risk and grabbed the thing then ran.” She fired back at him.

He glared at her and she met his eyes glaring right back at him not giving in to his slightly intimidating look. They go over another bump that causes Ward to roll off of her, “Everybody okay back there?” Coulson yelled and swerving and speeding there was a collection of ‘yeahs’ and ‘okays’ followed by one noise of agreement.

“We should be in the clear now, turns out the head of the local police used to be a friend of mine.” Coulson shouted back to them. Skye face palmed, this should be good she thought meeting new law enforcement is just what she needed and not to face the fact that they were probably not very happy with how they took some from them. The law enforcement may not agree with the rebels but everybody hates when you take something from them, even if you didn’t like it in the first place, god she hopes they don’t back stab them.

The first thing Skye did when she got back was slap a band aid on her bullet wound, literally. The bleeding had stopped; she cleaned up the dried blood, pulled up her sleeve and slapped a big old band aid on it. It was deep enough though that it would need stitches and she would have to do sometime during the dead of night so no one could see her.

She wished she could use her powers to heal it but she can’t, small cuts and bruises, hell even a concussion she can use her powers in small burst and they heal almost instantly. Something like this though would require days and small burst wouldn’t due she would have to do something bigger than just letting water spiral, so the band aid would have to do. She places everything at the bottom of the trash so if anybody would come in they would notice anything at in trash unless they dug through it. After disposing of everything she makes her way past some of the guards from Coulson’s ‘Friend’, who was totally an old flame of his, to the common area where she found Ward sitting in one of the chairs.

She sighs leaning against the doorway and looked at him studying his features, he really didn’t look anything like Tommy but he sure as hell looked like his mother and his sister. Although she had only seen them once at Tommy’s funeral in disguises with Tommy, she could tell that Grant definitely took after his mother and if Rose wasn’t seven years younger than Grant they would be able to pass as twins.

Skye wonders for a moment if Grant ever thinks about his younger siblings, if he ever takes a moment to wonder about them, if he still misses them, like they miss him. She remembers the nights that Tommy would just go on and on about Grant and Rose, in return she would talk about Cecily, about how her and her sister would get into crazy situations. She remembers over hearing an argument at Tommy’s wake between Rose and her mother. It was about how much she misses her brothers and was left with a monster and that the wrong brothers died about how alone she felt now that the only people that cared were gone.

Skye was caught off guard by Grant’s eyes meeting hers, shit, he caught her staring at him and when his eyes didn’t let go of hers she had a weird feeling in her stomach almost like butterflies fluttering around. She looked down breaking the connection and shoving the butterflies into a box and putting a heavy lock on it passing the feeling off as embarrassment.

She pushed herself off of the doorway and sat down on the table in front of Ward his face looked emotionless but the vibrations coming off of him were telling a very different story. She poured herself and drink and briefly looked at the two men sitting at the other side of the room with a drink next to them and reading a local newspaper. Bringing her eyes back to Ward she smiled at him, “Look,” She said, “I know we didn’t start off on the right foot but I do actually want that to change.”

He snorted into his drink, “Oh really?” He questioned.

“Yeah believe it or not I don’t actually want you to die.”

“Well that’s good to know.”

She smiled slightly and looked down and his side to see that he had blood on the side of his shirt. He had gotten shot, well it looked like a graze, but still he was shot, “Holy shit,” She whispered and leaned for to get a better look at it, “did you get that when you were shielding me.”

He swatted her hand away, “Don’t worry about it it’s only a graze.”

Skye leaned back frustrated and spared another glace of to the men sitting on the other side of the room, no drink had been taken and they were still reading the same article, “You know my biggest problem with SHIELD and people like you is, shit like this taking bullets for people you don’t even know. Being the good guy never got anybody anywhere except six feet in the ground.”

“That’s not true.” He shot back.

“Really, well, just ask Coulson,” She huffed and he glared, “I’m just saying that nobody got anywhere by being the ‘good’ guy.”

“Either way it’s our job.”

“Did you ever take a second to think that the people you’re saving are just going to go back out into the world and almost get themselves killed again so you just have to go back and save them again.”

He takes another sip of his drink answering her question for her, he agrees with her but he just doesn’t want to say it. 

“Look, let’s get this clear,” She says, “I am not the anyway shape or form supporting the Rising Tide I was only with them because I was using them and well I mostly got what I wanted from them. The way they saw the world though, through this idealistic bullshit lens, I understood it, they wanted to make the world a better place, they wanted to play hero. That’s what the Rising Tide is about.” She leaned in closer to him as if she was telling him a secret and he leaned closer to her.

“Okay.” He still looked confused.

“Usually one person doesn’t have the solution. But a hundred people with one percent of the solution, that’ll get it done. I have to give it to them, seeing it happen, it’s rare and it’s beautiful, just pieces to solving a puzzle.”

“You and I must see the world differently is all.”

“Like I said that’s not how I see the world, to me there is no good or bad, black and white, just morons and survivors.”

“That’s a shitty way to see the world.” He observed.

“That’s the realistic way.” She smiled and winked at him.

Skye took another sip of her drink and glanced over to the men sitting across the room again and they still hadn’t taken a drink and they were still on the same page of the news. They were waiting for orders and planning an attack and Skye would need a way out which meant that she would need the keys to the handcuffs that they had. She picked up her drink and spared a glance towards Ward, “And I Grant Ward, am no moron.”

She acted drunk and made her way over to the other stumbling to put on an added affect. When she arrived over there they both looked at her with disdain and annoyance, “Heeyyyy guys how’s it going,” she slurred, “Oh it that the crossword, let me see.” She reached over and spilled his un-nursed drink on the table spilling it all over his lap and her landing in his lap. She quickly grabbed the keys off from his belt while the man was yelling, she guessed, horrible profanities at her, she then felt strong arms pull her off of the man, she knew it was Ward, and when she was pulled off she quickly dropped the keys in her right boot.

“Ahh man I am so sorry about that.” She slurred again.

“Skye let’s go downstairs and check on FitzSimmons.” Ward said realizing what was about to happen.

The two men drew their guns and pointed it at them, Skye keeping up with her drunken act put her hands in a surrendering pose, and while Grant did the same knowing he was out numbered. Then spun her around and put handcuffs on her doing the same with Grant, though she expected the he wasn’t as felt up as she was.

On their way down to wherever they were taking them Skye counted the guards, she had ten in total but she knew there had to be more somewhere. They threw both Skye and Ward against the door of the Bus; Skye landed on her bad arm and clenched her teeth from letting out any noise. When she heard the guard leave she looked up to see that both May and FitzSimmons where captured as well, FitzSimmons where afraid and May just looked purely pissed off even when she was unconscious. Skye made her way over, more liked rolled, and sat herself next to May and Simmons, “So, quick question,” Skye said leaning over to Simmons, “How did that relationship end between Coulson and his lady friend?”

“I don’t know nor do I care.” She replied.

Skye nodded her head and leaned over to her again, “Another quick question how many guards did you count because I got ten on my way down here.”

Simmons gave her a strong side eye then answered, “I wasn’t really paying attention at the time.”

Skye gave her a quick thanks believing her and turned her attention to May who still had not woken up, “She the Calvary.” Ward said and she heard both FitzSimmons Calvary Skye wasn’t surprised she knew who this person was and for how much she didn’t like her she respected her. She probably hated that name because she was reminded of what she had to do, if someone reminded Skye of the time she killed a child she would hate the name too. Skye turned her head towards Ward, “I know who she is.” She stated.

“How?”

Because my mother told me about her she thought but would never say that in front of them instead she simply said, “I may have hypothetically hacked into all of your files.”

“You can’t do that Skye.” Simmons scolded her and Skye just rolled her eyes.

Everybody continued to sit silence and Skye tried to get the handcuff keys out of her boot. She lifted her leg up and tried to jingle them out but they were really stuck down there from all the walking they did to get down to where they were, so she put her leg down and tried of thinking of another way.

“It’s my fault that we’re down here.” Fitz said guilt lacing her voice and Skye sighed.

“Fitz don’t think like that.” Jemma said trying to calm him down, “If anything it’s my fault that we are all down here.”

“No it’s mine fault that we are down here I was suppose to protect all of you.” Ward concluded

“Will you all just shut up,” Skye yelled at all of them, “It’s none of our faults, it’s the chick upstairs who gave orders to put us here faults so stop sulking and think of a plan that will get us out of this situation.”

She scooted forward then turned herself around so her legs were facing the wall ignoring everybody else and letting them just get back to rambling on and on about how horrible of a situation this was. She got herself as close as she could to the wall and lifted her right leg up placing it on the wall and dragging it down to try and get the keys out, it didn’t work so she tried again.

May had woken up and was sitting there staring ahead not talking to anybody and from her vibrations she was angry and she wanted to hurt someone bad. “Fitz I’m sure if we all come together that we can find a solution, like, pieces to solving a puzzle, right Skye?” Ward asked her but she didn’t reply, instead she brought her other leg up and was trying to take off her boot.

“What the hell are you doing?” She heard Fitz’s accent ask her.

“Yeah well that’s great and all Ward but this time around,” Skye grunted pulling the boot off and letting it land on the floor. She grabbed the keys from inside it and was able to undo the handcuffs letting her wrist free and holding the keys, “I actually do have the solution to all your problems.”

She tossed the keys to May, who she smirked at her, and graciously took the keys unlocking her own handcuffs. “So that explains the whole drunk act, but I don’t understand why you took them in the first place.” Ward asked.

“Well in my experience with the law,” She said getting up and pulling her boot back on, “When one guy hasn’t taken a drink in over five whole minutes and is still reading Marmaduke in all that time something is probably up.”

May handed her the keys, she silently thanked her then made her way around the training area, probably to take out the other guys, then she tossed the keys to Ward, “And like I said Ward I’m not a moron.”

He got up off the ground and handed the keys off to Fitz who looked grateful but also looked at her with a look of understanding, “You’ve been in this situation before haven’t you.”

Skye shrugged trying to be nonchalant about it, “Let’s just say Fitz, this isn’t my first rodeo with escaping law enforcement and handcuffs.”

He was about to say something else when they heard a couple of grunts then thuds and a couple of seconds late May came back a small smile of pleasure on her face, “Guards are taken care off.”

“Good Fitz and I will go check on the 0-8-4 and see if there is anything else that we can do.” Simmons said and both of the Science Twins quickly left making their way to the lab.

“I have an idea on how we can get take back The Bus.” Ward said making his way to the lab

“And I’m sure that he’s going to need help with that plan.” Skye said to no one but herself.

Skye smiled and made her way up to the lab and she still ignored the pain in her right arm. She made her way up the lab behind Ward all of them gathering by the hologram table, “So what’s the plan Turbo?”

Getting everything that they needed and getting everything into place was a lot easier than it should be she wasn’t going to complain though, they needed easy right know. They had been tethered together and Fitz was using his DWARF Sneezy to hook it up to the 0-8-4 and as soon as he pressed a button the whole place rumbled and started to plummet. He had blown a hole inside of the plane and it was Skye and Ward’s turn both making their way up into the common room and it was time for some action.

It was hard to stay grounded when there was a gaping hole in the side of the plane but she was able to make her over to another solider and knock him to the ground with her good shoulder. She looked over to see that Coulson was fighting with Camilla and Ward was taking on another two soldiers and he looked like he needed help.

She was making her way over to him when the plane moved to the side a little more causing Skye to slip and fall and that her and Ward’s line was coming lose. The turn had given Ward the upper hand but he looked towards her and saw that she was holding on to dear life to the one couch but she saw one soldier sneak up behind Ward knocking him down.

She shouted out his name and was able to make her way over to the life raft that was by the hole. She pushed against the wind currents and triggered the life boat to inflate saving Ward and leveling out the plane causing it everybody to land hard on the ground. Skye made her way over to Ward and held out her hand to Ward, “Looks like that pamphlet did help after all.” She laughed.

Ward looked at her like she was crazy but quickly turned his attention back to the guards and started tying them up. Skye turned her attention to Coulson who had also managed to cuff Camilla, “So where are we heading?” She asked him.

“The Slingshot it’s where take all weapons and unknowns.”

“Why did you guys name everything after school items?”

He took a second to think about then shrugged, “I guess to make it sound less suspicious.”

Skye rolled her eyes and made checked the heartbeats of FitzSimmons to make sure that they were alright and let out a sigh of relief when heard them returning to normal. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and saw Ward standing beside her so she turned her body to make sure that she was facing them.

“Thanks for saving my life.” He said.

She smiled at him and put a hand on his shoulder letting calming vibration wash over him, “See I told you I didn’t want you to die.” Instead of his heartbeat calming though she felt it speed up a little bit but nothing of his face changed emotion. She sighed and slid her hand off his shoulder gently letting her fingers linger and turned around going to talk to FitzSimmons.

As the rocket was shooting off into the sky she couldn’t help but notice the sunset. It was beautiful all the different colors coming together to make on huge sight. Jemma was talking and then someone was calling out her name, “Skye,” Fitz had said.

“What?” Skye asked softly turning her head slightly towards them.

“I asked what you think of when you see the sunset.”

It took her a couple of seconds to think of something until she finally answered, “another day that I’m still alive.” She said in a flat voice. She knew that they were looking at her and in truth she did think that but she also thought of her home. She thought of Afterlife and her home how the sunsets were beautiful, Tommy and her sister stood beside her a smile still on his face that wasn’t faked and everything felt at peace. That was a lie though it was all a big illusion and she shouldn’t think about the past and what became of it.

When she looked at the sunset it reminded her that she was still on Earth breathing and alive, not living, but alive.

Then her phone vibrated and alerting her that she got a text and her breath hitched when she saw who it was from.

WE NEED TO TALK- TOMMY

Things just got a lot more complicated on her part.

Chapter Text

It was well past midnight when Skye made her way down to the lab to stitch up the bullet wound on her arm. She had found a needle, thread, and some anti bacteria wipes in the room she pulled up a chair and sat herself down and pulled up her sleeve up and looking at the injury. It was bad at all, just a slight graze, Skye let out a deep breath and plunged the needle into her arm pulling the needle through her skin. She let out a hiss at the sting going through her skin but kept breathing through and kept pulling the needle through her skin.

This helped her take her mind off of Tommy for a moment and how the hell she was going to be able to sneak off the plane to try and see him. She could tell the team the truth and say that she was going to go visit a friend that she had not seen in a while but that might bring up more questions that she wanted. Since the plan was being fixed she could always just take a cab into the city and if they question her when got back she could always lie and say that she just needed some space. Skye was pulled out of her thoughts though when the needle pulling through hurt a little more than the last two.

As she was a fourth of the way done she heard three knocks on the doorway and she turned her head to see Ward standing there confusion and shock written on his face. “What are you doing?” He questioned her as he made his way over to her.

“I was just finishing this up.” She said casually as though it was nothing but she knew he could hear the strain in her voice.

He came over to her grabbing another chair and sat down next to her, “You don’t have to—”

“Just shut up and let me.” He snapped at her grabbing the needle from her and she just sighed too tired to argue any further with him. He slowly pulled the needle through her skin and she look to see that he was making the stitches closer together, “You don’t have to make it look pretty I don’t mind if it scars.” She said.

“Why didn’t you tell anybody about this?” His voice was steel and she looked away from him and instead looked forward.

“I thought we had more problems going on than me being grazed by a bullet.”

“You should have told someone.” He scolded her.

She scoffed, “Oh just like how you were going to tell someone about you bullet wound.”

“I’m supposed to get bullet wound it’s—”

She cut him off, “So help me god if you say ‘part of the job’ I will serious consider slapping you.”

He chuckled a bit and she swore she saw half a smile on his face, “I was going to say that I’m used to it.”

“Who says that I’m not?” She laughed looking at him and her eyes met his and the stupid butterflies came up again causing her to look away. They sat there in comfortable silence until he cleared his throat,

“Why were you staring at me earlier today?” He asked and she groaned.

“I was not staring I was think about something else and my eyes just happened to land on you while I was thinking.”

“You were staring.”

She tried getting up out of the chair put Ward put his on her shoulder pushing her back down into the chair. She let out a noise of protest but Ward shushed her and she leaned back in the chair waiting for him to finish up the stitches, when he was down he tied up the final not stitch neatly and leaned back in his chair, “Do me a favor and please see Simmons when these need taken out.”

“I know how to take stitches out, I’ve done it before.” She protested.

“Yeah but Simmons can do it better.” He countered.

“How she’s not even a real doctor she’s a Biochemist?”

He sighed and gave her a pointed look and rubbed his hand over his head and through his hair and she noticed how cute he looked with his hair all other the place. It was movements like that that reminded her of Tommy, he may not have Tommy’s looks but he does have some of his mannerisms and she bet if he acted more human he would act more like Tommy.

She was caught off guard by the sound of Ward’s voice, “You’re staring again.”

Skye shook her head and rotated her chair so she was facing him directly, “I got caught up in my thoughts,” She smiled at him and started opening up more packages of bandages and got more stitches, “now take off your shirt.”

He gave her an incredulous look and she smiled at it, “Well you got grazed to and you might as well do it while you’re here.” She stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“I’m not going to let you stitch me up.” He said standing up and she stood up with him as well, she put her hands on chest and pushed him back down into the chair lightly, “Oh yes you are.” She said in a kind yet demanding voice.

This time when he stared at her she was ready for it and did her best to convey that he wasn’t going to win this round. He sighed and took off his shirt, she smiled at the small success and she leaned forward wiping his wound with a wipe and she took her left hand placing it right above the graze were she let a calming vibration run through him. She took the needle and started going to work, “So,” she asked, “what’s your favorite snack?”

“Why are you asking me that?” He grunted and she let another round of calming vibrations and she felt his muscles loosen up a little bit.

“I’m asking you so I can distract you.”

He waited for a moment before answering, “Pretzel snacks, what about you?”

Skye shrugged and pulled the thread threw his skin and he winced, “It’s between chocolate covered popcorn and watermelon sour patch kids.”

“Those sound horrible for you.”

Skye laughed and looked up at him with a smile on her face, “They might be but they are very delicious.”

They carried on like that for at least ten more minutes, just talking about random things to distract from the needle and thread being pulled threw his skin. Every time he winced she would send a calming vibration through his body calming him down and making his muscles relax and trying to get him to feel more comfortable.  Then she would throw another question at him and if he wouldn’t answer she would just throw a random fact at him, like how she told him that a female bunny can get pregnant just one minute after giving birth. He had cringed at that fact and she smiled when he cringed because it made him look more human, less robotic, more like Tommy in a way.

Turning her thoughts towards Tommy and how their meeting was going to go down, she had no idea what was going to happen and she hated that. She didn’t know if he was mad at her or not, she didn’t know if something had happened between him and Henley, or if something bad just happened to him all over again and he had relapsed and started drinking again.

Taking her thought away from Tommy for just a second she finished up the last stitch and tied it off neatly pulling back to admire her work. She smiled at it, they didn’t look to bad and she doubted that it would scar horrible in fact it was so great that the worst it would leave would be a tiny little scar. The same can’t be said for her though, if she was lucky enough and got to use her powers enough the scar would turn into a small tiny white line.

After she pulled back he looked down to see her handy work and he shook his head in respect, “Not bad.” He said.

She took his shirt in her hands and threw it at him, he was putting it back on when she scoffed, “Not bad, I’d say that I’m pretty good when I’m not doing it on myself,” He chuckled at her and shifted uncomfortably adjusting the shirt, “You should really go to Simmons though to get those out because I’m not as good as taking them out as I am putting them back in.” She said mimicking his words from earlier.

He gave her a half smile and she thought that this was the best time to bring up the subject of leaving, “So,” She dragged out the word, “how do I get back into the city, I mean do I call a cab or walk or do I have to steal Coulson’s impossible car?”

His smile went away and his gazed turn more suspicious, “Why do you want to go back into the city?”

“Look I know that I was living in a van but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have contacts, I have loose ends to tie up in the city and the sooner I can do that the better.”

“Will those loose ends have any possible chance of putting this team in danger?”

She thought about Tommy for a moment and his track record with royally fucking things up, “it’s more of a thirty percent chance of danger for you guys and seventy percent chance for me, don’t worry though I’m very good at cleaning up the messes.”

Grant sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “You’re going to have to take this up with Coulson.”

Skye smiled, “So that’s a yes.”

She got Coulson to say yes the next day and she didn’t even have to try that hard, all she did was bring out her doe eyes, look like Bambi for a couple of seconds and then bam she was good. Coulson had told her that she would have to take a cab from the airport that they were staying at in L.A to wherever she had to go and that he wanted her back by midnight or something like that. She scoffed at the idea because A.) She was not a teenager and B.) She wasn’t apart of SHIELD and he can’t tell her what she can and cannot do.

She did agree though to his terms only because she wanted to see Tommy badly and she would do whatever Coulson wanted just so she could see him again and ask him how he was doing to see why he had stopped calling her.

Skye pulled up her phone and saw she got another text from Tommy this time it was an address to a local bar in L.A and it brought her back to the fear of before of Tommy relapsing. She hoped that he was still sober they had worked so hard together to overcome both of their problems and for him to go back to the way he was would be like her going back to the way she was, it was bad on both ends.

She called the cab and had to wait twenty minutes before it even arrived then once she got in it she was silent the whole way to the bar, looking out the window and seeing the flashing lights of L.A pass by her. She was thankful that the cabby wasn’t chatty, in fact he was quite the opposite, he didn’t even try to engage in any conversation with her, maybe he had been able to tell that she was on edge and didn’t want to talk to anybody. Finally after another long fifteen minutes the cabby had pulled up a block away from the local bar that they were meeting at and she handed the man the minutes quickly getting out of the car and running down to the entrance of the bar.

After bursting through the doors looking in every direction that she could she saw him and when she did she stopped in her tracks. He looked so tired, his hair was going to all different directions, he had scruff across his jaw more than his usually five o’clock shadow, his permanent smile was still there but his eyes told her that he was sad. He was wearing a navy blue t-shirt and a worn out black leather jacket that had seen way to many days along with a pair of jeans that also were not looking to well.

She made her way over to him and when he caught sight of her he stood up immediately and waited until she made her way over to him; they both stopped and looked at each other, for Skye it was really looking up since he was a good seven inches taller than her, and they hugged each other.

Really though she jumped and he grabbed her crushing his body to her body not wanting to let go, she closed her eyes and smiled, she had her friend back. “Why didn’t you call?” She whispered to him and he hugged her closer, “We’ll talk about that later I promise.”

They let go of each other and sat down at the table he was sitting at, she looked around the table to see if he had any alcohol on the table, “I’m still sober, this is a Shirley Temple.” Tommy said lifting up his drink, “I haven’t taken a sip of alcohol since the last time we talked to each other.”

“I’m glad you’re sticking with your sobriety.” She said

“Yeah three years and still kicking, I’m not going to lie though the last six months have been tempting,” He looked down then cleared his throat, “enough about that let’s talk about you, what have you been up to.”

She smiled and told him everything about the Rising Tide and everybody she had met, both laughed about how ridiculous Miles Lydon was and his antics at trying to get into Skye’s pants were. She started talking about SHIELD and he was surprised that she had teamed up with them and her face fell a little bit when he asked about the team. She looked up at him looking him in the eyes, “I actually wanted to mention this Tommy your brother works for SHIELD.”

He scrunches his face up, “Oh you mean Grant, yeah, I’ve known about him and SHIELD for years now,” He took a sip of his drink, “why are you mentioning him?”

Skye let out a noise of disbelief, “Why didn’t you tell me this before, I thought you said you never found him?”

He shrugged, “It never seems to come up and I don’t know where he is I just known about him, now back to why you were mentioning him.” He took another sip of drink and looked at her as if wait for her to speak.

She shook her head let out a short breath, “Yeah well, okay then, I guess I should have made that more clear, I’m on the team with your brother.”

He leaned back on the booth in surprise, “Well then,” he crossed his arms his leather jacket crinkling, “that I didn’t see coming, at all.”

They sat there in comfortable silence for five minutes but then Tommy had to break it, “I need your help with something and it has to with Henley.”

She nodded for him to continue and he took a huge sigh, “Henley was taken by someone and I need you to help me with another side project.”

Skye gasped, “Who took Henley?”

“I don’t know but I will find out in the meantime though I’ve been dealing with another problem. A lot of homeless kids in New York have been going missing and are being turned into Inhumans, not in the good way.”

Skye understood what he was saying; someone was turning kids, more like forcing them, into Inhumans or a more deluded type of Inhuman. Her mother had done it to Daniel Whitehall but that was against her will and since her mother was Immortal Whitehall got an extended life span. Tommy had done it to, to a girl named Keira Davis who he had taken under his wing and was dying at the time.

She remembers watching the young seventeen year old girl three years ago dying and practically lifeless in Tommy’s arms. She remembers Tommy’s crying out her name pleading with her to stay alive, and she remembers Tommy cutting his arm and pouring his blood into her mouth, she remembers the next four days in which the pumped the girl full of Tommy’s blood. She remembers how pale he looked and how Henley and she held their breaths waiting for the girl to wake up and she opened her eyes they all let out a sigh of relief.

Keira had Tommy’s powers but they were more diluted; she could see in the dark and could shadow travel to a certain extant along with heightened sense and the above average strength and speed of a human. Skye sometimes hated Tommy’s powers because there was an array of them, one seemed to lead to another, but his main power was the power over the darkness and shadows. Though sometimes he could levitate things he also, like her, had enhanced speed and strength though that had to do more with the training that both of them had and less with them being Inhuman.

Skye sighed though helping him out would be difficult with having SHIELD around and the fact that she was still mad at him for not calling and asking for her help.

“Tommy,” She said,” I don’t know if I can do that with SHIELD around and at the fact that I’m still very mad at you.”

“Then I call BFV’s.” He declared and she groaned.

“You can’t call the BFV’s because you broke yours!” Skye yelled back at him and rubbed his head and ran a hand through his hair, the action made her think back to how Grant also did that as well.

He put a soft smile on his face and held out his hand towards her, “Then let’s renew our best friend vowels because I don’t want to live in a word were I call for you and you won’t be there.”

She looked at him and from the vibrations she could tell that he wants to do this but she didn’t need her powers to tell her that. She always knew what he wanted to do because they have the same thoughts and she wants that again. Sticking out her hand she grasps his, “Alright let’s do this.” She said.

Tommy started, “I Thomas Andrew Ward take you Skye as my best friend in the entire world. I promise to be there for you whenever you call me for help, I promise to be the person you call whenever you need help to hide a dead body. I promise to judge with you and be the person who beats up someone whenever they break your heart then buy you a shit ton of candy. I promise to give you harsh and honest judgement only when you ask for it and need it. Above all I promise to stand with you, be with you, and protect you until out last dying breaths.”

Skye gripped his wrist hard and repeated the words, “I Skye take you Thomas Andrew Ward as my best friend in the entire world. I promise to be there for you whenever you call me for help, I promise to be the person you call whenever you need help to hide a dead body. I promise to judge with you and be the person who beats up someone whenever they break your heart then buy you a shit ton of candy. I promise to give you harsh and honest judgement only when you ask for it and need it. Above all I promise to stand with you, be with you, and protect you until out last dying breaths.”

Both let go of each other hands and looked at each other smiling Skye’s heart felt like it found a little piece of itself again. She loved him with all her heart and she knew that he loved her too and that nothing, not even them trying to murder each other, could break their friendship.

That’s what it was though an unbreakable friendship. She remembers in Afterlife when people started to talk about her and Tommy, about how much time they were spending together, it even got to the point to which Cecily straight up asked her if her and Tommy were having sex . The very thought of that had caused Skye to laugh in Cecily’s face, “Cece,” She gasped between breaths of her laughing fit, “We’re not having sex, he just my best friend.” Cecily had scrunched up her nose and slowly walked out of her room more confused than before.

Tommy was better at describing it, when Henley had questioned their relationship status and the bond that the two shared he simply smiled, “Skye is my platonic soul mate,” He said to her, “I love her deeply but I’m not in love with her, a girl and a boy being best friends without fucking each other or falling in love with each other shocking I know.” He said the last part with sarcasm and Henley glared at him probably gathering her will power not to slap the shit out of him.

She was brought out of her thoughts by Tommy snapping his fingers in front of her face, “Hey, Skye, you still with me?”

“Yeah I’m fine… I just why can’t you ask Davis to help you out with this, it’s not like I can shadow travel around and find these kids.”

“About that, I haven’t exactly talked to Keira since I faked my death.” He said slowly and Skye gave him the best death glare that she could manage and he shrunk back in his seat more.

“Why haven’t you talked to the poor girl?”

“Look,” He said holding his hands up as if he was surrendering, “I have my reason, anyway can’t you just pass on the message to her whenever you get the chance while I’m out looking for leads on Henley.”

Skye sighed and Tommy looked at her with a hopeful look in his eyes, “Fine I’ll talk to Davis when I get the chance but only if you talk to her once all this is over.”

“Deal.” He said putting out his hand and she took it in hers shaking it he let go of it though and leaned on the table on his elbows, “Now,” He said, “tell me more about my brother and this team you’re with.”

She had told him everything that she could have and then they moved on to different topics, by the time that they were done talking the bartender was calling for last calls and they took that as their cue to leave. They had walked out the door and started walking down the sidewalk to see if they could find a cab for Skye to take back to the airport but stopped once they both realized that one of them can teleport. They walked to the nearest alleyway and stepped into the darkest part of it, “Alright,” He whispered to her as she wrapped her arms around his torso, “You know what to do.” Skye held her breath and let the shadows take over her.

The next thing she knew she was opening her eyes and letting her breath go her senses coming back to her all at once. She looked around and saw that he had taken her into one of the bathrooms of the airport, she looked over at him and he grinned sheepishly shrugging his shoulders. She let go of him and they both exited the bathroom together not caring who saw, Skye looked at her phone and saw that it was way past midnight and that Coulson was going through a little hissy fit because of it.

He walked her as close as possible to The Bus as possible before he had to stop because of security and the risk of being seen by the Team. They both stopped and looked at each other, “Call me if you need anything,” He said to her, “I mean it…call me if you need help or just somebody to talk to.”

“Same goes for you,” She replied, “I don’t want you to what you did last time and not talk to me, call me is you need any help and I’ll see what I can do.”

He nodded his head and they both hugged each other again and he kissed the top of her head before pulling back and finding the nearest shadow that he could. He stopped right before entering the dark corner and turned around waving goodbye to her with a sad smile on his face; Skye raised her hand and waved back returning the smile because both of them knew. They both knew that they wouldn’t be able to see each other more; both knew that something bad was going to happen, they could feel it, both knew that at some point in the future the lives that had built were coming to an end.

And it broke both their hearts.

Chapter Text

Skye had woken up from another nightmare and groaned looking at her phone, five thirty again; she had woken up at the same time each night with the same nightmares haunting her. It had been two weeks since Tommy and her had talked and all that time nothing noteworthy had happened other than the fact that she had actually started some sort of a routine on the Bus.

Have some nightmares, wake up, work out until her knuckles would bloody, take a shower, and talk to FitzSimmons get to know them. She had also gone to Simmons and asked her if she could take the stiches out which resulted in the brit yelling at her and scolding her, after a while though she was able to get her to calm down and take the stiches out.

 Her and Ward had exchanged less than ten sentences since the last time they had talked to each other that night but that didn’t stop her from watching his movements and his mannerisms. She watched him run a hand through his hair when he was frustrated and she was quickly learning his tells when he was lying and it was easy. The more robotic he was the more he was lying it was something that all specialist had a problem with when lying to her; she had learn it from her days as a mercenary. She learned that a true way to tell a lie was to sell the emotion that went with it, to sell the absolute hell out of it, and to go with it till the very end.

She learned that people fall more for the emotions than they do with the robotic act. That you had to give them what they want for them to let you go, sure she had let people died and felt horrible about it later, but she was able to get out of the situation and escape. Lying had become a survival necessary for her and it became second nature to her because if she learned anything about the truth it’s that it’s either boring or terrible and caused great pain.

She pushed the sheets off of her body and made her way down to the training area ready to punch the bag until her knuckles were bloody. When she got there though she was caught by surprise to see that Ward was standing down there too his arms crossed and he was leaning against the wall looking like he was waiting for something, it took her all of a second to realize that that something was her.

So she must have not been the only one studying the other person, she doesn’t know whether or not she should be flattered by that.

“Ah Ward,” She said making her way down the staircase, “what are you doing down here?”

“Seeing what you’ve been sneaking out of your bunk to do.” He said watching her every movement.

“Well sorry to disappoint but I don’t do much other than work out a little bit and I’m not sneaking.”

He raised his eyebrows at her, “You woke up early to work out?”

“No,” She replied sharply, “I woke up early and working out is the only thing that…” She trailed off not finishing the sentence not wanting to tell him that she barley sleeps during the night and that this was the only way she could get sleep. She looked at him and saw that he wanted to ask her more and she waited for him to ask her the questions but he didn’t and in that moment she was very grateful for him.

“So how did business in the city work out?” He asked causally as he walked over to her standing beside the punching bag.

Skye made her way over to the punching bag and put her hands on her hips, “Why do you want to know?”

“Just want to make sure that none of your problems becomes our problems.”

Skye swallowed and moved over to the punching bad and put her hands in position, “Yeah, it’s done; you guys won’t have to worry about it.” She took a few punches to the bag but not at her usually intensity just enough force that she would have learned in a self-defense class.

She continued to punch the bag for three minutes and thirteen seconds, she counted, and she knew that he was watching her. He was watching every part of her body and for some reason that knowledge made the butterflies come back and she accidently punched the bag harder trying to get suppress the feeling.

She saw movement from the corner of her eye and Ward disappeared from her eyesight and the next thing she knew she was being grabbed from behind someone holding her arms down and bringing them close to their chest. She knew that it was Ward, she could tell, but she couldn’t help when instinct kicked in and the urge to fight overcame her.

She stomped on his foot and elbowed him on the side where she had put stitches on, his arms releasing her and she turned around kicking him on the chest causing him to lose balance and fall to the ground. She sat on top of him putting all her weight on his chest and she made a finger gun and placed it to his head and whispered, “Bang.”

He was panting and looked confused at what had just happened, “What?” he huffed out.

“I said ‘bang’,” She replied waving her finger in front of his eyes, “I shot you with a gun and now you’re dead.”

“I’m not dead?” He said more as a question trying to sit up but she put her hands on his chest pushing him back onto the ground and leaning down over him her hair fanning around his head, their faces close.

“Yes you are, when someone says bang and they have a finger gun on you then you are dead, those are the rules.” She moved off of him and stood up placing a hand out to help him back up and he reluctantly took the hand pushing him off the ground and brushed off his pants. He stood up and gave her a look, tilting his head to the side.

“Where did you learn how to do that?” He asked her and she knew that she was going to regret having kicked him.

“I’m a fairly attractive girl who lived in a van on the streets so I took some self-defense classes.”

He stared at her for a second and shook his head accepting her lie, “Well you must have been paying attention.”

“I always pay attention Ward,” She said tapping her index finger to her head, “to everything.”

He shook his head, “As much as I doubt that, your form wasn’t bad but it could use some work I could train you if you want?”

She was a little insulted by the fact that he said her form wasn’t bad, because, it didn’t need work. She thought for a moment though, did she really want to get closer to the team and let them become liabilities.

Skye didn’t really know how long she was going to stay with the team, she hadn’t plan on staying let alone wanting to stay, every friend that she ever come to have has always left her in some way. She didn’t know if she wanted to deal with that again, because she knew one way or another that this team was going to hurt her or betray her, everyone does in the end when she’s involved or maybe it was the other way around and she didn’t want to hurt them or betray them. Getting close to them would mean she had to reveal things to them in order to become their friends, for them to trust her and she doesn’t know how they would handle that.

Taking a deep breath Skye looked over at Ward and smiled softly at him, “As much as the offer is tempting,” She said, “I think I’ll take my chances.”

“How are you supposed to become a field agent with no training?” He said and she stood up straighter crossing her arms over her chest.

“You think I want to become a SHIELD agent? You think that that’s why I joined this team?” She questioned him and he didn’t reply she continued, “I didn’t join this team to become a field agent let’s just clear that up right off the bat. I joined this team because it enables me to use your resources for my personal gain along with helping people out who don’t want SHIELD’s help.”

“Yeah, because everyone will want help from you instead of a government agency who can provide way more help to them.” He said sarcastically but she could read between the lines she knew what he meant when he said that they wouldn’t want help from her.

She chose to ignore the comment and walked over to the punching bad and punched it even harder than the last couple of times and she felt the skin break on her knuckles, “You don’t think I don’t know how horrible of a person I am for doing the things that I’ve done because I do, I am very aware of that fact.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Yeah well it’s what you said.” She said sharply punching the bag again and he stopped her from doing it again by grabbing her wrist. She let him pull her wrist back from the bag and he took a look at her hand looking at her bloody knuckles, “Look I didn’t mean to sound like a dick but what I meant was we can offer people protection you can’t.”

Butterflies started swarming in her stomach and she quickly pulled her hand away from him, “Who says that I can’t?”

“Not like we can.”

He had her there; she could offer protection just not the kind of protection that people might want. People want to feel safe and well the people she knew weren’t exactly the type of people that you would send on a welcome wagon.

“That still doesn’t mean that people wouldn’t want my help.”

“I never said that they wouldn’t either.” He said and she swallowed thickly.

“Can we maybe drop this conversation because I feel like it’s going to end in a fight and I don’t really want to fight you.” She replied and he smiled at her the both of them working out silently together until they couldn’t anymore.             

After eating her breakfast and taking a shower she decided to explore the plane a little more and see if there were any places that she could use as hiding places if need be. She hadn’t take the time to actually find out what was beyond the lab because she didn’t honestly care that much but since Tommy decided to come back into the picture she needed to find a place to talk to him.

She made her way through the door that reside beside the lab and walked along the hallway that never seemed to end. It amazed her how this was still a plane; she wondered how much gas and energy it took to run this thing and how much money they had to put into it just to keep it running? She placed a hand on the wall using her powers to try and find the room closest to the engine room; she wanted to be close to something loud something where the vibration could lull her to sleep.

That was something that she had always done since getting her powers; when the world became too much she would toon all the voices out and listen to their vibrations letting them lull her to sleep. When she was staying with Tommy sometimes she would listen to his heartbeat when she was too scared to go to sleep and wake up finding out it was all a dream. She would lay beside him on his bed with him and just focus on him making her heartbeat match up with his letting it calm her down to the point where she wasn’t scared of falling asleep.

The vibrations of the engine where getting stronger and stronger and soon enough she had come upon the door that she figure was closest to the engine without actually staying in the engine room. She opened the door and gave a small smile, it was a small room barley big enough to fit two people, and it was perfect and everything she could have asked for. Unlike other people Skye had come to love small spaces it help gain focus on what she was going to do it helped keep her mind in the right place and not let it wander.

She was brought out of focus when her cellphone buzzed letting her know that she had gotten a text and she grabbed it from her back pocket and looked at who had texted her. It was from Coulson, who she had given her number to two weeks ago after she came back late from her meet up with Tommy, and she was coming to regret it.

Where the hell are you? It read.

Skye sighed and put her phone back into her pocket making her way down the hallways and too the room she had dubbed as the ‘Conference Room’ which was next to the living room with glass windows and a huge monitor in it along with a tablet/table.  Coulson tapped on the table and it lit turning on and Skye could feel it humming to life and she wanted to so much to reach out and touched it, letting the feeling move all throughout her. She restrained herself from doing it though, she knew that it would look weird to the others if she just stood there and started placing her hands all over the table.

Coulson took a few swipes and brought up a picture of an old man and she heard FitzSimmons gasp at the picture of the old man, they knew who he was and from the emotion in the gasp she had to guess they knew this man somehow.

That made Skye even wearier because she had the feeling that the reason his face was up on the video monitor was not a good one.

“That’s Doctor Franklin Hall.” Simmons said her voice quivering a little bit.

Coulson nodded at her statement, “Yes, and we’ve word that he’s missing and the last person to see him alive is.” He took a few swipes and that’s when Skye sucked in her breath and finished Coulson’s sentence for him, “Ian Quinn.” Skye breathed out.

“So you know him?” Coulson asked her and all eyes were on her.

“I know of him he’s popular in the Rising Tide.”

Coulson went back to explaining the situation and when he brought up the party Skye got an idea she remembered Miles texting her about a party that Quin was hosting and she pulled up her phone and smiled when she knew what she had to do. Coulson was bringing up the issue that SHIELD couldn’t legally enter the party but that’s when Skye budded in, “Just send me in.” She stated while looking at her phone trying to find what she was looking for.

“We can’t send an untrained civilian in there.”

Skye let out a sound of annoyance and brought up what she was looking for, the invitation to the party that Quinn was holding she just hacked her way into his party. She brought it up and looked up at the Team before her, “Look the way I see it you guys can’t get in legally and plus you don’t have an invitation like I do.”

“Wait you have an invitation?”

“Actually I just hacked my way into getting one but yeah now I have a way into the party.” She said holding up the phone and showing everybody the invitation that displayed itself on her screen.

“How are you so good at that?” Coulson asked her after she had gotten the invitation to the Quinn’s party.

Skye was still looking at her phone and started to tap imaginary keys on it, trying to look busy and for once she told the absolute truth, “Let’s just say that I learned it from a friend of a very good friend.”  She was thinking about her sister’s boyfriend Chuck who was a technopathy and when Skye became interested in computers he taught her everything that she knew when it came to technology.

 He was one of the people who she truly liked and when she looked at Cecily and Chuck it made her inner girly girl, which was shoved way down in her, heart flutter. The way that they looked at each other was the way that people always wanted to be looked at by their significant other and when she felt their heartbeats she knew that it was true. Nobody expected it, a princess with a dry sense of humor and was very social fell in love with a man who was five years older than her who was awkward and shy as hell, but when you saw them it just made you want to have the same thing as them.

Skye knew that she would never be able to have that though, have someone look at her like that, she had destroyed that dream long ago and she knew that nobody would fall in love with a monster like her. The missions though that was what she was good at, being able to help others out where they needed it she could do that, she would focus on that instead of focusing on the family that she once had, she couldn’t think about them no matter how much she missed them.

She cleared her throat and nodded at everybody in the room, “Now if you excuse me I have to go get ready for a party.”

Chapter Text

She had a pink dress. Why the hell did she have a pink dress? Skye can’t even remember buying it let alone ever planning to wear it, it was a dress and it looked nice though so it would have to do. Skye sighed while smoothing out none existent wrinkles on the dress and looked in the bathroom mirror to see the final product.

She wanted to punch the mirror, she looked perfect.

She had actually done something with her hair and curled it slightly and put minimum make-up on her face and once again she was beautiful but this time she couldn’t let it get to her and she was going to have to use this to her advantage. Opening up the bathroom door she made her way down to the lab where everybody was waiting on her and had some stuff that they wanted to give to her to help with the mission.

As she walked through the door everyone turned and looked at her and she had to restrain herself from clenching her fist in nervousness. May’s and Ward’s faces were neutral Simmons and Coulson were smiling and Fitz was straight up staring at her with his jaw practically on the floor and his eyes glued to her boobs.

“Woah,” Fitz stuttered, “you have really nice boobs—I mean assets you have really nice assets!” He was frantically trying to cover up his mistake. Simmons let out a little gasp and stomped on Fitz’s foot causes him to yelp in pain.

“What he means to say is that you look very nice Skye.” Simmons gushed smiling at her and gesturing to her whole body.

She cleared her throat, “I’m sure that’s what he meant but either way thank you Fitz, for, at least trying to give me a complement.”

 At that everybody seemed to snap out of their trance turning their attention back to each other and she walked closer to them making sure that she was a part of the situation. They were talking about the rescue mission and Skye honestly tuned most of it out and only half listened when her name was mentioned. She got the gist of it though, go in, be a distraction to Quinn while they break in and get the doctor, and get out it was simple really, at least on her part. She hoped that this didn’t turn into another situation where someone was once friends with them and they turned to the dark side because someone pissed them off or because they were offered more money.

She’s had enough of those and it’s hardly even been a month with them.

Someone had cleared their throat and Skye looked up to see everybody looking at her expectantly and she realized that they were waiting for her reply to the whole plan, “Yeah everything sounds great, I actually semi agree with this plan.”

Coulson nodded his head in agreement and seemed pleased that he wasn’t going to have to fight with her on the plan, “Alright sounds good.”

They all nodded and dispersed to their respectful places and once again Skye felt slightly out of place; these people all knew each other and all had something in common with each other she was the outsider, like Coulson said she was the unknown variable. She was trying a little bit with FitzSimmons because she saw how easy they were towards and trusting they were towards her, it was ill placed, but it still counted.

She was about to walk out of the lab when Fitz’s stopped her by calling out her name, “Skye wait,” He said and she turned putting on a friendly mask, “I have something for you.” He opened his right hand showing her a small silver container and she took it from his hand opening it up to see that it was just blush. It was off though there were small vibrations coming from it like it was a piece of technology instead of a small container of blush, she shut the lid and felt around the lid a little more looking at it curiously.

“Fitz,” She asked him looking away from the blush compact, “what is this?”

“When you enter Quinn’s office it will have protections all around it and we won’t be able to here what’s happening through the comm and access his computers so this device will help us connect through the protections and implant a virus allowing Ward and Coulson to get through the barriers that he has have set up.” He explained opening up the blush again and he pressed a button on the side then a light showed up on the mirror blinking red for a few seconds till it turned a solid green.

“You have to keep him preoccupied until it turns green and I also made sure that the blush would match the color of your skin tone.”

“Fitz,” She muttered and he looked up at her smiling slightly, “you’re a genius.”

He turned slightly red and his smile grew even wider which made her feel good, putting a smile on his face made her feel like a better person. “And Skye about that comment earlier,” He was about to finish when she cut him off,

“Fitz it’s okay I’ve heard worse from others.”

“No it’s not that… I mean you do look beautiful, I just, I want us to be friends and I can see how hard you’re trying with us here, I mean, you talk to Simmons and I each morning.” Before she could even protest he held up his finger to let him continue, “I know you don’t like it so don’t try to convince me otherwise and I don’t blame you for not liking it sometimes I get sick of my own voice,” He sighed and she could tell that he was trying to get himself back on track, “what I’m meaning to say is that I know that you’re trying but you don’t have to try so hard.”

She smiled; it was a real smile, one that she had not showed in a while, “Thanks Fitz that actually means a lot to me.”

“Like I said I really want us to be friends.”

“Don’t worry we will be.”

They both smiled at each other and she left the lab leaving him to do whatever Fitz does and for her to go call Tommy and tell him that she was going on a mission.

After telling Tommy she was going on a mission and convincing him that he didn’t need to intervene and come to the party and that he should focus on finding Henley. She decided to just try and relax and little bit by sitting on the couch in the living room and drink some wine that she found under the bar in the plane. She sat there and pulled off one of the necklaces that she had been wearing and started running her thumb across it, it was her mother’s engagement ring, it had no special powers to it nor was it flashy but it was the only thing left of mother before she became a sociopathic bitch. Her mother had given it to her when she had first gone through the Mist to help with her control over her powers and since it was the first thing she had gotten it from her actual mother she loved it with all her heart and it helped with the control.

She flipped it over to look inside the ring and smiled when she saw the engraving; Till the End of Time. She might have hated her mother but there was no denying how much she had loved her father, she never really talked about him but the few stories she did from her always made her heart warm.

Though her father wasn’t any better than her mother and was more psychotic and a lot less subtle than her mother at least she knew that her father loved her. He had very morbid and horrible ways of showing it but at least he would never do anything intentionally to hurt her and in the few times that she had talked to him the only thing he would bring up was how beautiful she was. He also talked about how much he loved her mother but Skye did not have the heart to tell him that she was alive because she didn’t think he would want the memories of her ruined.

Skye’s mother had once been a good kind hearted person but she died twenty-five years ago.

The ring meant so much too her and she held onto it even when she was working for Coleman, Lucifer, The Devil, whatever the hell that man wanted to be called this was the one thing that she never allowed him to take away from her. Although the ring fueled her anger and rage for all that time and made her trained harder; it made her want to be the best and never let anybody hurt her ever again but it was also a reminder of what she couldn’t become.

“You shouldn’t be drinking before a mission.” A voice said and it snapped her out of her thoughts and she clasped her hand shut hiding the ring from whoever was entering the room; it was Ward and he was coming around the couch to sit on the armchair. She scoffed and drank the rest her wine and placed the glass down on the coffee table, “Trust me I have an alcohol tolerance that battles a Russian.” Which was true, she had to chug at least two bottle of wine before she even got tipsy then she would wake up in the mornings with no hangover.

“Tolerance or not you still shouldn’t do it.”

“Hmm, well I think about taking that into consideration.”

It was silent for a second before he spoke again, “What’s in your hand?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Looked pretty important to be nothing.” He observed and she raised an eyebrow at him.

“I never said that it was important to me only that it meant nothing to you.”

He gave her a look and she wanted to smile at it the half smile look suited him well. Rolling the ring in her hand she thought back to something Henley told her and Tommy something about talking and opening up to people about your problems. Maybe she should try it with Grant after all they were practically two sides of the same coin but which side she landed on she didn’t really know at this point, but glancing at him and seeing the way that he was looking at her, like she was human and not a monster she decided against it.

“Looks like we’ll be landing soon so I’m going to go get ready and then strap in I’ll see you down there.”

He looked confused but accepted it, “Alright see you down there.”

Getting in the Quinn’s party was way easier than she thought it would be. Once she flashed them her invitation they didn’t even bother checking their list for her all she did was smile at the guards they practically carried her into the party, she guessed her inhuman looks helped no pun intended.

She made her way through the crowd and grabbed herself a glass of champagne sipping on it lightly trying to blend in although maybe the hot pink dress the hugged her curves wasn’t the best look to go with. Everybody she saw was dressed in dark semi-formal clothes and this dress was semi-formal but the color was sure as hell wasn’t, well at least it will be easier for Ian Quinn find her better with the dress. She wove her way in and out of the crowd and she could hear The Team bicker over the comm mostly though it was just FitzSimmons talking back and forth over their shared worries for their mentor; Skye found it cute though, the way they worried about their mentor who taught them everything, the way they worried about each other.

Scanning around the crowds more she finally was able to spot Ian Quinn and boy did he fit the bill for somebody you shouldn’t trust. He was good looking, she gave him that, dressed him in an expensive suit with a charming smile across his face he almost reminded her or Christian Ward in a way.

 She drank the rest the Champaign that she had been holding and made her way over to Quinn putting on her best flirty smile and pulled down her dress a little bit showing off her cleavage a bit more. “Guys I’ve found Quinn so be ready.”

“Skye your goal was to get into his office.” May said

“Yeah don’t worry about that I am.” She quickly ranted before stopping right in front of Quinn smiling sweetly. He was talking to two other men but as soon as he turned his head and caught sight of her she knew that she had him hooked.

His eyes narrowed at her as he was taking in the whole sight of her and his smile grew even bigger and Skye could feel the vibrations of want coming off of him. He excused himself from the conversation he was having with the other men and pointed a finger at her, “You must be the one who hacked her way into an invitation because certainly would have remembered meeting you before.”

Skye gave off a small chuckle, “Guilty as charged, but I wanted to properly introduce myself to you Mr. Quinn, I’m Skye or maybe you know me by my hacker name StormySkys17.”

He smile got even wider and he was starting to remind her of a Cheshire cat, “Now that’s a name I am familiar with and I must say that I am a big fan of your work.”

“Oh well whatever I can do to help the people.”

“Well since I have you here I was thinking about giving you a job, we can talk about the details inside.”

“That would be lovely.”

He walked wrapped an arm around her lower back and was guiding her through the masses of people into the house and Skye had to give it to him, it was a pretty impressive house. He lead her through an array of hallways and each time a door was open Skye would try to peek inside seeing if she could find the doctor or anything to help her get out of this sooner. She did notice though that security was tight and that if she was caught that might become a bigger problem than she would like for her and SHIELD.

Finally after a dozen hallways and staircase later they had made it to his office and she had to give him credit the place did look nice.

Quinn walked around her letting his hand linger on her lower back and the feeling made her want to gag. He walked around the desk and smiled at her while she made her way over to the couch in the room sitting down and crossed her legs leaning back and smiling seductively at him, “So what details do you want to discuss with me Mr. Quinn?” She asked while pulling out the device that Fitz had given her opening up and pretending to touch up her make up.

“Please call me Ian,” he said and started sorting through papers on his desks, “and I wanted to offer you a job.”

She paused what she was doing and looked up at him, “You want me to do a job for you?”

“No I want you to work with me.”

She felt a buzzing vibration and saw that the device had worked and the light was green, Skye smirked, “Sorry,” she said with false sympathy, “I work alone.”

“Well I’m sure that we can think of something.”

He walked over to her and sat down right beside her spreading his arms out and letting one of his hands resting beside her one shoulder. He leaned forward a little bit putting on a charming smile, “You know Skye I’ve seen some of the stuff that you can do and it impressive and I can help you achieve more.”

“Oh, well, believe me when I say that I’ve already achieved what I’ve wanted.”

Quinn was about to something more when his phone rang and Skye knew that this was the end of the ruse. He excused himself and walked over to one of the corners talking hurriedly into the phone and sounding angrier as he continued, after ten more seconds all talking stopped and he closed his phone turning around looking at her.

“So you always work alone?” He asked her but she knew that he had figured it out.

Skye stood up from the couch and tossed the device onto the table, “Depends on how much the pay is.” Then she smashed it before Quinn even had the chance to get it, she didn’t want him figure out how the device worked plus the damage had already been done.

Just as she had done that two men burst through the door with guns on her and really it was nothing to her she had taken out more at once before. She ran over to one of them and elbowed him in the stomach making him crouch and drop his gun. The other guy charged for her but she was able to side step him and she took the back of his head slamming it down into Quinn’s desk knocking him out. The other guy had gotten back but pointing the gun at her but she but she quickly took his arm and twisting it at a certain angle were she knew that it would break and she punched him in the nose breaking it as well as knocking him out.

She took the gun from the man with a broken arm and aimed it at Ian Quinn who had a look of panic across his face but it soon was replaces by a pleading smile, “Come on Skye,” He said lifting his hands up in a gesture that looked like he wanted to give her a hug, “Do you really think you have what it takes to pull the trigger?”

Skye paused for a second, “Yep.” She said popping the ‘p’.

She pulled the trigger without a second thought, shooting him in the leg knowing that it wouldn’t do too much damage but enough to cripple him for a couple of months.  He let out a scream and started screaming for guards and she could feel the guards rushing up towards the office and she had to make a quick escape.

The door wasn’t an option but the balcony certainly was.

She threw open the doors and rushed out on to the balcony climbing on top of the railing and looked down to see that there was water below. Thank God she thought she could gave made the jump without water but that meant that she would have to use her powers and she was not ready to go down that road with Coulson and the team.

She took a deep breath and jumped as soon as she heard the door open and for two seconds she was falling through the air, the gun still clenched in her hand and for a moment it felt like she was dreaming until she felt cold water waking up her entire body. She made her way up to the surface and let out a large breath from the shock of the cold but she quickly shoved that feeling down and knew that she had to continue her way of finding a way out without letting Quinn know that they were looking for the doctor.

Skye made her way to the edge of the pool and pulled herself out and started running in the direction of the party to make sure that she would be hidden in the crowd and try not to draw attention from being soaking wet or holding the gun. As she was halfway through the party something had caught her attention and she turned her head to see the Ward was standing on the outside of the group.

Skye looked over her shoulder and saw that two more guards were running over to her and they were gaining up on her quickly. In a quick decision she made her way over to Ward and when he saw her, his brow furrowed at the sight of her wet form and gun in hand she thinks that he’s more confused at her wet body, at least she hopes it’s that. He went into Robot mode though when he caught sight of the two guards coming after her he quickly pulled her behind him and had his ICER up. She wasn’t having that so she came out from behind him and quickly drew up the gun and pointed it at the guards. When they came running at them Ward took both of them out before she ever had a chance, “Come on,” he said grabbing her hand, “just follow my orders.” The both of them started running off towards the exit of the party running trying to escape the guards.

Both FitzSimmons had busied themselves with work so they didn’t have to deal with the fallout of their mentor going bad and dying in the same day. Skye wanted to say something but she could tell that this was a topic she should let them deal with on their own, she didn’t know them that well to start talking with them about it.

Skye didn’t want to say anything to anyone but this was two for two with SHIELD allies turning out to be their enemies. Then again like she had learned, allies are only enemies who have decided to not kill you yet, yeah there was a reason she didn’t have many friends and the ones she did have had at least tried to kill her once, she hopes FitzSimmons will break that cycle. Standing up and brushing off her sweatpants Skye made her way out of her little supplies closet and started making her way back to her bunk for some much needed hacking, she would sleep but she was having a hard time with that lately.

When she reached the living area she saw that Ward was sitting at the bar nursing a glass of scotch. She quietly made her way over to him, “What are you drinking for?” She asked him and she saw his whole body seize up for a second allowing her to know that she had caught by surprise.

“Hall’s dead.”

“So him dying is what has you down?”

“No it was how he just threw away everything for more power.”

Skye shrugged her shoulders and joined him at the bar, “Not the way I see it.”

“And what way is that?”

He went in for another drink and before he could take a sip from it Skye had stolen it from his hands drinking the rest of it for herself, “Curiosity,” She replied, “The way I see it the poor bastard was just being human,” He looked at her oddly and she filled up the glass again taking a swig of it, “and, well, we all know that you can’t cure humanity.”

You couldn’t cure it she thought but you can lose it.

Chapter Text

Flashback

September 8, 2003

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

7:45 am

He finally made it, Senior Year, after everything the feeling of almost being free of this stupid place made him want to push even harder to get out and make his already high GPA of 3.8 even higher. He walked down the hallways and was glad to find them only slightly filled, he always liked coming early to school so he could get some breakfast and maybe fine tune his homework up a little bit. Since this was the first day of school though it would be used for gaining his strength and his mentality up to go to class and not bang his head against the wall.

He thought about talking to some people he knew but decided against it, this was his last year here and then he would never see anybody ever again. He had friends or more really people he hung out with because he didn’t want it to look like he was totally alone in the world, when in fact he was. He didn’t have best friend or a person he considered family who wasn’t by blood, he never lucked out or found that one person. Even when he was sitting in the cafeteria with people he always felt so alone, so when that feeling came he just smiled and laughed and told jokes like the little smartass he knew he was.

Speaking of the cafeteria he thought making his way over to the snack bar to pay for an apple Thomas Ward looked around trying to find his special spot in the back corner and found that the place he usually sat at was occupied. He had to do a double take because he’s never seen anybody else sit in that seat but him, and it’s not like he has friends that sit in that seat, everybody he knows, knows not to sit in his very special seat.

He rushed his way over to his spot and noticed that the back of the head had long dark brown hair and looked slightly wavy and he realized that it was a girl who was occupying his spot. He was taken aback for a moment before rushing over to the table and sitting down in the spot across from the girl, “You’re in my spot.” He said to her as he plopped his backpack down on the table.

“Does it look like I care?” She asked not even looking up from the textbook she was reading out of.

“I don’t know how can I tell if your face is stuck in a book?”

She let out a huge over dramatic sigh and lifted her head up so he can see her face, “See this face,” She said motioning to her deadpan face, “This is my I don’t care face, and learning that you can understand that I don’t care if I took your spot.”

Tommy cross his arms over his chest, “I’m not leaving.”

“Neither am I.”

“Well okay then I guess both of us will just have to stay here.”

“Fine by me.” She said and went back to reading her textbook and Tommy took this time to study her features. She was pretty he’ll give her that; bronze skin, big brown does eyes, soft features that made her look younger than she probably was, and long dark brown hair that went to her mid back. Her clothes were hand me downs and she didn’t look like she was trying all that hard in the makeup department, but he could commend her on that he didn’t like girls who caked their faces in makeup. Don’t get him wrong he didn’t care if girls wore makeup he thought that they all looked good with or without it but some girls seemed to have forgotten that there is a fine line between beauty and clown try-outs, his sister learned that over the summer.

Random girl let up another sigh and closed her textbook, which was a German textbook, and looked at him, “Alright I can’t concentrate when I can practically hear your thoughts so speak.”

He then noticed that she talked with a slight New York accent and clicked in his head why she seemed to not know that it was his spot, “You’re new here aren’t you.” He asked her pointing a finger at her.

“Yeah I’ve been here for all of ten minutes and I already want to kick myself out.”

“Already tried that, doesn’t work, especially if you’re a rich kid who parents are very influential people.”

“Thank god I don’t have any then.” She replied coldly her arms crossed on the table.

He stopped for a moment and leaned back into his seat sighing and putting his hands over his face, “Shit,” He mumbled into his hands, “I’m an asshole.”

“Wow it’s taken you this long to figure that out?”

Tommy peeked through his fingers and stared at the girl, “No,” he responded though his voice was muffled, “I already knew that but you didn’t and I now I feel bad.”

He peeked once again to see her facial expression and he was surprised to see that she was smiling and something inside of him lit up at the fact that he had done that. He removed his hands from his face and picked up the apple that he had planned on eating and took a big dramatic bight out of it, “So,” he said while chewing, “What’s the German text book for?”

She let out another sigh but this time he could tell that she wasn’t being serious with it and that she enjoyed the fact he was still there. She closed the book with a loud thud and placed her elbows on the table, “I’m supposed to be in German one but somehow they messed up schedule and now I’m in German two and it’s too late to change it, so I am studying as much as I can so I don’t make a total fool out of myself.”

He nodded his head while having a while frowning, “That does sound like a legitimate reason to be studying on the first day of school, still though I would never be doing it.”

“Easy for you to say you’re a senior and on top of that a rich pretty white boy.”

He leaned forward and winked, “So you think I’m pretty.”

“That was not the point.” She let out a huff of frustration and Tommy smiled even more; he liked this girl, he really liked this girl. He decided that he was going to help her by joining her class in German two plus he would get to know her better she seemed just as alone as Tommy was and for some reason that didn’t sit well with him. Plus he known this girl for all ten minutes and he was already an asshole to her so he had to make up for that and he felt somewhere deep down that he could be this girl’s friend. He leaned forward on his elbows and forcefully shut her book which leads her to let out a sound of protest but he just took the book from her and shoved it to the side.

“Alright,” he said grabbing her hands like they were praying together, “You need to chill the fuck out it’s the first day of school I highly doubt there will be a pop quiz.”

“I don’t care you asshole I at least want to be prepared.” She argued ripping her hands out of his and lunging for the book.

He caught her though and she gave him a death glare that could rival his mother, “Okay… I feel like we got off to a horrible start so let’s start over,” he let go of her hands, “Hi I’m Thomas Ward but please call me Tommy  a senior in high school and you would be.” He finished gesturing to her.

The girl let out a sigh rolling her eyes and leaned gave a look of defeat, “It’s… it’s Mary Sue Poots.”

Tommy’s eyes widened and he leaned back in his chair letting a long whistle, “That name,” he chuckled, “that has to be about the worst name that I have ever heard in my entire life.”

She glared at him again and leaned over the table to slap him on his arm, “It’s not like I choose the name the nuns in orphanage back in New York picked it for me.”

Tommy laughed and put his hands up in surrender, “Hey I’m just stating the facts here.”

She rolled her eyes at him but he could see the hint of a smile on her face, “Don’t worry though,” he said leaning forward, “I’m sure by the time your my age we’ll have a better name for you.”

“How old are you anyway?” She asked

“Eighteen, how about you Mary Sue Poots how old are you?”

“Fifteen.”

Tommy shook his head she was fifteen and yet more mature than any of the other people that were in this school so he did the only thing that he could think of, “You wanna have lunch with me?”

Mary’s head shot up in shock and gave him a baffled look as if he was supposedly joking with her so he gave her the most charming smile that he could, “I’m not joking Poots I wanna have lunch with you.”

She then let out a series of different noises that weren’t entirely human sounding and sounded more like a strangled cat. After that went on for what seemed like forever but was actually forty-five seconds she stopped herself then calmed herself down and slammed her hands against the table, “Sure I’ll have lunch with you.”

“Great see you then.” He winked at her and left running to the counselor to switch to German.

The bell had just rung and Tommy was making his way out of the school when he spotted her leaning against the brick wall of the school looking do utterly defeated. He sighed and made his way over to Mary Sue Poots putting a charming smile on his face planning on making this girl smile at least once today. She must have caught sight of him because when she looked in his direction she let out a huge sigh whether it was one of relief of annoyance he couldn’t tell, he wasn’t that good at reading people. He put his elbow above his head and leaned against the wall with her looking at her with the most charming smile that he could, “Hey Poots what’s with the long face.”

She looked done at her phone with frustration, “The person that was suppose to pick me up bailed and I have no idea what bus to take so I’m assuming that I’m going to miss it.”

“Solid reason but how about this, for giving me one smile I will give you a ride home.”

She looked at him incredulously, “I’ve known you for like a day and you’re already offering me a ride home.”

“That is what friends are for.” He said like it was the most obvious thing in the world and to him it actually was. This was knew to him liking a person and wanting to help them and wanting to hang out with them because he enjoys their company so helping Mary Sue Poots seemed like a natural thing to do.

He looked at her with his puppy dog eyes and shined his baby blue eyes and him pouting his lip a little bit and put his hands up like he was praying, “Just let me give you a ride home or if not that we can go hang out or whatever.”

“Are you asking me out on a date?”

“Didn’t I just say ‘that’s what friends are for’ where the hell did you get the impression that I wanted to go out with you?”

“Because you asked to go get coffee isn’t that something that boys do when they try and ask you out?”

Tommy burrowed his eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest, “Look I don’t know what they did up in New York but down here in Boston when someone wants to get coffee with you it usually means they want to get coffee with you.”

Mary shook her head side to side like she was considering it then put on the biggest, cheesiest, fakest grin that she could, “Alright I’ll go with you but you have to promise me that you won’t murder me by the end of the night.”

Tommy let out a huge sigh as if someone just took the best thing away from him and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, “Damnit Poots you had to go and suck the fun out of everything; now come on let’s go before we hit major traffic.”

He took her hand and together they ran to his old beat up 1980 Station Wagon where it laid looking like it was going to break down at any moment. When he turned to Mary he saw that she had a look of surprise on her face. He smirked as she made her way over to the passenger side of the car, “What,” He asked, “Not what you were expecting?”

She let out a light laugh as she got into the car and looked at him, “No not what I was expecting at all.”

Yeah Tommy thought this was gonna be a good year.

Present Day

Location: Somewhere in Mexico

Walking through the streets of a very small village in Mexico was not something that was high up on Tommy’s to do list but it was for a good cause; finding Henley was his top priority now. It frustrated him to know end that he was here Henley and him were supposed to be together and happy and some other random rom com shit. No though that’s not going to happen because apparently the world fucking hates him so here he is looking for Julian Cortez in the middle of some random ass town in the middle of Mexico.

Julian Cortez was not his biggest fan nor was Tommy Julian’s biggest fan but right now Julian was the closets lead he had to finding Henley and he’ll take it. Although both men had lived together in Afterlife neither of them had grown to like each other, though that how it usually went for the royal army if you become one in Afterlife odds are you would end up hating everybody you worked with.

He would use his F.B.I and criminal resources but he supposed to be dead so that wasn’t an option.

He walked past the array of shops and final came upon the one he was looking for; he passed all the souvenir shops and the tattoo parlors when he finally came upon the one shop he was looking for that he knew would house Julian. It was the goddamn strip club tastefully named The Landing Strip and it took him all he had inside of him not face palm himself because, if he was being honest with himself, this was going to be one the of the dumbest decisions he will ever make and he’s made a lot.

Walking into the club he was greeted with the smells of sex, blood, and booze not that he was really expecting anything better. He looked around the main area trying to find the Latino’s familiar face but it was becoming difficult with all the strobe lights and the hordes of horny men throwing money at the topless dancers on stage. Tommy directed his attention over to the bar where he finally spotted the man he was looking for and Tommy couldn’t but smile a little bit; tall, strong, handsome Julian who could manipulate the laws of gravity was now a bartender in a shit strip club in the middle of Nowhere, Mexico.

He felt a little good about it.

Swaggering his way over to the man Tommy sat down on one of the open bar stools and titled his head to the side when Julian turned around and asked him for a drink. He stopped short though of asking what he wanted to drink when he saw his face Julian gave him his best bitch face and said, “Aren’t you supposed to be dead or something?”

“Supposed is the key word in that sentence but I’m not and I need your help with something.”

“No.” Was his answer and he turned to walk away but Tommy stopped by practically throwing himself over the bar and chanting, “Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait… don’t go I’m desperate for your help.” He said so quickly that he’s pretty sure that Julian barley registered it. Julian stopped where he was and let out a huge sigh his shoulders sagging along with it and turned around in annoyance and made his way back to Tommy.

“What do you want?”

“I need your help to find me some leads on my missing girlfriend.”

Julian glared at him and started cleaning off a glass shrugging his shoulders, “And why should I care?”

“Because she’s innocent?” he trailed off not sounding convincing.

That common made Julian scoff, “Please anybody who hangs out with you is certainly not innocent.”

Tommy had opened his mouth to reply but nothing was coming out because he had made a good point basically everybody he knew at this point was a terrible person and was not innocent in any way, shape, or form. “That,” Tommy said pointing a finger at him, “is a really good point, but not the one we are talking about. Look I don’t need you to go off a find her for me just get me a lead that I can follow and I’ll do the rest of the work and leave you to… make cocktails in a shady strip club.”

That comment was not the best thing to say because the next thing he knew Julian had grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket and pulled him closer, “You think I want to be here with these perros, no I want to be back in Afterlife with my sister as we protect the Inhuman people but after what happened that is never going to happen ever again.”  

He had a point he and his twin sister Luciana had been some of the best soldiers Afterlife had ever seen; he can manipulate the laws of gravity while sister can manipulate the laws of physics. It ended though when Tommy had “killed” Princess Daisy and when people found out that it was him they called for his head, literally. Julian believed in his innocents though, even if the two never got along Julian saw how much he cared for the princess and knew that Tommy could never be reasonable for something like that with his own doing.

So Tommy fled and with him and bunch of other people who believed that Queen had had her daughter killed.

“And that will always be my biggest regret.” It wasn’t a lie.

Julian let him go and Tommy quickly sat back in his seat waiting to seat what Julian was going to say. It felt like hours to him but it was only a couple of seconds before Julian finally said something else, “Fine,” he spat out making a face that looked like he was in the worse pain imaginable, “I’ll help you but you need to give me time the people I’m going to ask are hard to find.”

“Fine, but just call me whenever you have what you need.” Tommy didn’t know if he had time on his side but this was his best and only shot and he wasn’t going to waste it.

Chapter Text

Skye was sitting on her bed letting her legs stretched out and semi paying attention to the Harry Potter movie that was playing the background while she tossed a ball in the air with her powers letting it twirl around. She loved moments like these when she was all by herself and could just freely use her powers for whatever reason she wanted too, even if it was to toss a ball in the air, it just felt right and since she didn’t have much free time anymore her having free time to use her powers was a gift.

The ball was in floating in midair when she felt her phone vibrate under her pillow, losing concentration the ball fell into her lap and she groaned quickly grabbing her phone answering it to see who made her lose her concentration.

“Hello?” She snapped.

“Woah sorry did I call at a bad time?” It was Tommy; of course it was Tommy who called her.

“No it’s just that I barely have any free time in here and the San Andres Fault needs to move or else there is going to be another Chile incident.” She was referring to the time when she had caused an 8.8 earthquake in Chile after she had come out of her brainwashing and she was very pissed to say the least. She felt bad afterwards; poor Chile didn’t do anything to her that’s just where Tommy had first taken her when she needed to release her powers.

“Really it’s that bad?”

“No but it’s just with all these people around I have to be extra careful you know how it is.”

“Yeah I do, anyway you want me to meet you at your next stop and maybe we can do something to help you.”

Skye sighed and criss crossed her legs, “Tommy I told you, you need to focus on finding Henley.”

“Yeah but you also need me too Skye and I’m placing you second to my missing girlfriend who I’m guessing is not going anywhere any time soon. You need me and I promised you that I would be there if you ever needed me so I ask again do you want me to come over and help you?”

She let out a sigh, “You know I do but it’s just too risky with everybody around and Coulson’s already breathing down my neck.”

“What about my brother?” His voice had changed a little and if she was there she bet she would feel the nervous vibrations coming off of him.

“He thinks somethings up with me but he wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t.”

She heard him sigh over the phone, “Yeah that sounds like Grant.”

They didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds until she finally said something that was still taboo to him, “Tommy you said that your brother was arrested when he was fifteen two months shy of sixteen.”

Then line was silent until she heard a slight intake of breath, “Yeah what about it?”

“Because I hacked into his file and he didn’t join the academy until he was twenty-one so that’s about five years unaccounted for.”

She heard the crackling of the phone as if he was in an area with bad reception, “Skye I have to go I’m in an area with like one cell tower within a hundred mile radius and I’m about to kick some nasty people’s ass.”

“Yeah but—,” she was about to say more about how he was deflecting and how he was the one that called her but he cut her off with the sound of gun fire.

“Look Skye I would love to talk but I really gotta go talk to you soon alright love you, bye.” Then the call ended.

She took the phone down from her ear and looked at baffled, “Alright love you too you asshole.” She said to the phone but mostly to herself. Seeing that there was no point in staying in her bunk she opened the door and made her way into the kitchenette area to grab a snack or maybe find Fitz so that she could talk to him. When she entered the kitchenette she was surprised though not to have found Fitz but it was Ward standing there making a sandwich but best of all his back was turned to her.

Skye made her way over to Ward as quiet as she could, which was very quiet, and she went to try and scare him or at least startle him a little bit. Making her way around the island she moved over to him more to the point where she was practically breathing down his neck, well if she could reach his neck he was tall after all, and she smirked she had him exactly where she wanted him.

“So, what are you cooking up there Rachel Ray?”

He didn’t flinch but he did tense up for just a second before he relaxed his shoulders a little bit and made her smile knowing that she could startle him like that. He didn’t turn around though he just continues standing there making whatever he was making, “So am I going to have to guess or are you going to tell me.” She asked, and he still didn’t say anything.

Skye made her way to his side and looked down at the counter to see what he was making, it was a sandwich, “If you’re a specialist then how come you didn’t hear me coming up behind you?” Now she had his attention and she allowed herself a little smirk of victory.

“Usually I don’t have to keep my guard up in the place that I’m living.” He said taking the sandwich and moving it over to the small table they had and sitting down in one of the chairs, she sat opposite of him. She put one elbow on the table and rested her chin on the palm of her hand looking at him curiously. She smiled as he started to eat his sandwich and before he took a bite he cricked his eyebrow looking at her, “Can I help you with something?”

She shrugged her shoulders, “Nope, I’m good.”

He continued to eat his sandwich and she continued to stare at him she felt his vibrations and she could tell that he was growing uncomfortable so she thought that she would lighten the mood more, “Have you ever lived with anybody before because I’m getting the feeling that you never really have.”

He stopped mid bite and put the sandwich back on the plate, “Why are you asking so many questions?”

“Well I find when you’re working with a team, you kind of have to get to know the team that you are working with.”

“Alright then what do you want to know then?”

“Well we can play a game,” she suggested taking her elbows off the table and placing the across her chest, “You tell me two truths and one lie and I have to guess which one is which.”

He seemed to think about it then smirked and leaned back in his chair, sandwich long forgotten, “Alright I accept this challenge.”

She raised an eyebrow and bit the bottom of her lip trying to hide the smile that was fighting its way onto her face. Skye couldn’t hide it though and it made its way onto her face along with the feeling of butterflies in her stomach, which she still didn’t acknowledge, and she couldn’t help but like the feeling of them just sitting there playing games like two normal people. Skye took a deep breath and focused all her energy on Ward’s heartbeat so she could beat his ass in this game.

Ward reclined in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest, “Alright, here we go, I have three other siblings, two girls one boy, I lived in Boston, and I went to the academy at twenty-one.”

She smirks and let out a slight huff, she didn’t even need to use her powers she already knew the answer to all of them. Acting like she was deep in thought though Skye nodded her head back in forth trying to look like she was thinking about his answers.

Leaning forward on her elbows, “Okay, so you actually did live in Boston and from what I read in your file you did attend the academy at twenty-one, so you are lying about the siblings,” he opened his mouth to say something, “Let me guess two brothers, one older and one younger, and a younger sister.”

His eyes narrowed slightly at her and she could see that his jaw clenched and she knew that maybe it wasn’t the best thing to say that about his family. She would risk it though come up with some half truth to tell him so he wouldn’t find out the truth just yet.

“How did you know that?” He asked and his whiskey eyes staring straight threw her.

“I told you I read−” she started to stay but was cut off.

“Not that bullshit about reading my file because my family was never in my file.”

She let out a loud sigh, “You just seem like a middle child to me you know, someone who helps everybody but is always trying to prove his worth to someone that is older than him.”

“And you would know what that looks like?”

“Not exactly I mean I was the youngest.”

Both closed their mouths and started looking at each other; Skye with panic in her eyes and Ward with confusion in his. She hadn’t meant to reveal that to him but it just sorts of slipped out of her mouth before she could have caught it. Ward looked like he wanted to say something and he even opened his mouth but both were saved by Coulson who cleared his throat and they both snapped their heads over to his direction.

Coulson was standing there with his hands behind his back and a small smile on his face, “I’m calling a meeting in five.” He left humming a little toon and Skye couldn’t help but be a little wigged out but the whole interaction.

The again she didn’t trust Phil Coulson that much since he came back from the dead, she couldn’t tell what it was but something was just off about him, like something was missing inside of him. She wanted to try and believe that he was just trying to be good but then he would do something that was make her think that he wasn’t all that there.

“Alright I guess we have a meeting to go too.” She said getting out of the seat and Ward followed her.

“We are not done talking about this.” He said as they walked over to the conference room.

Skye bumped him with her shoulder, “Why do I have the feeling that isn’t going to be the last time that I hear that.”

Ward gave her a side glance to her, “Because it’s probably true.”

Skye chuckled and that’s when she heard a completely new noise causing her to look over and see Ward was chuckling with her. He didn’t notice that she was staring at him but when she turned her head forward again she didn’t try to stop the smile that made its way onto her face.

Walking into the Conference room a new vibration; instead of the calming vibrations that was around her and Ward a new vibration had come through, one of business and hurry. Coulson and May were on one side of the table while FitzSimmons and her and Ward where all on the other side.

“We,” Coulson said while pulling up a picture, “have a new case.”

The picture was one of a man’s cut off hand with a handcuff on it and that of a briefcase that was supposed to on, what she guessed, the man’s hand.

“The briefcase contained a lot of times and someone stole them,” he said sliding more pictures across the screen, “here is the thing, the briefcases were randomly assigned and nobody saw anything.”

Skye crossed her arms over her chest, “Maybe they had abilities.” She said that with the upmost confidence. The way Coulson and May looked at her though made her feel like they couldn’t even believe that she had said that.

“What,” she said putting her hands up like she was surrendering, “Maybe they can see the future, wow, that would be so cool,” the whole team gave her a look, “horrible but cool.”

“There is no such thing as the ability to see the future.” Coulson said.

Skye scrunched her face up and put one of her hands out gesturing wildly, “Are you kidding! A guy who literally turns into a green monster, two gods from outer space, and a whole battle that happened in New York with aliens but you guys can’t believe that someone might be able to see the future.” She shouted causing both to squirm, well, it was more of which Coulson than it was May.

“We’re getting off track here.” May comments and Skye wants to disagree with her but from the looks she was getting from everybody else she dropped the topic and let them move on.

“I want all of you guys to try and to find any other attacks that have been like this and see if we can find a pattern.”

Skye was about to give some witty comment when her phone started ringing; it wasn’t just a normal ringtone it was Taylor Swift’s We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together that told her Tommy was calling. The ringtone made Skye cringe as the whole team was giving her odd looks except for Fitz who seemed to quite enjoy the song; she quickly pulled out her phone and quickly hit the deny button on her phone before the song could get any further.

She made a mental note to change the ringtone later or until Taylor drop a new album, for some reason Tommy had become obsessed with Taylor Swift music and even went as far as go to one of her concerts.

Skye opened her mouth to say something when her phone went off again and this time she groaned and angrily picked up the phone, “Can’t talk now call me back later.” She then hung up and put her phone on vibrate placing it on the table hoping that it would be the last time that he called her right now.

Course that the was her first mistake because when Tommy wanted to talk, he wanted to talk.

No more than twenty seconds after she had placed the phone down on the table it had started blowing up with text messages. It was beep after beep and alert after alert finally not being able to take it anymore she reached down to look at what he was texting her and she literally wanted to throw her phone when she saw that they were just black text messages. She gave a pleading look to the team and gave a silent question and by the look on Coulson’s face she was guessing that he gave her permission to call Tommy back. She walked out of the room and down the stairs into the lab where she knew that she would at least have some privacy, and when she got there she called him back immediately.

He picked up after three rings, “Well it’s about damn time.” Was what she was greeted with.

Skye said with a little venom in her voice, “Alright you have my attention what is it that you want.”

“You’re mad at me, aren’t you?” he asked, “try and use the word jackass if I’m right.”

“Jackass.” She replied not only as an answer to his question but also because he was acting like one.

“Wow you didn’t even try on that one,” He said softly then continued, “I have got some news for you; I went down to Mexico and met up with, and you’ll never guess, but I’m going to tell you anyway…. Julian Cortez.” He said loudly and bashfully like he had just won the biggest prize ever and Skye’s eye widen at the statement.

“What?!” She exclaimed and quickly shut her mouth up again hoping that no one heard that.

“Yeah, so turns out he still hates me but is willing enough to help me find Henley and he gave me a lead.”

“A lead,” she exclaimed happily, “Tommy this is great we might actually not be going into this blind.”

She heard him take a big sigh and she knew that she had said something that he didn’t like, “Yeah that’s great,” his voice was devoid of all emotion, “How about you tell me what’s going on right now in your situation and maybe I can help you out with something.”

“Alright,” she thought about what she was going to say, “Uhh… we have this case a pair of diamonds went missing and nobody knows how it happened.” She went on to tell him all the details that she received about the case and she filled him in on his many, many questions that he had about the case.

In the end though he just let out his usual joke when he didn’t have a clue about what was going on, “Hey maybe the guy just had x-ray vision you know, I mean after all the shit we’ve seen I wouldn’t even be surprised at this point.”

Skye knew that he meant it as a joke but it made her stand up straighter, something she did when she realized something, and she started thinking that Tommy wasn’t that far off. She must have spaced out because she heard a whistling sound and she shook her head putting the phone back to her ear, “Tommy you’re going to have to call me back.”

“What but I just called you?!”

“Yeah, you did, but remember I’m living on a plane with a bunch of secret agents on of which is your brother.”

“Well can’t argue with that, alright I’ll call you back later tonight or something like that, hey maybe we can even plan a night out.”

She smiled at the thought of it, “That sounds wonderful.”

“Alright love you, I’ll make it happen just tell me when you have a day off and I’ll shadow travel over to you.”

Skye faced palmed, “We have got to find a better word for that because every time you say that I think of Percy Jackson.”

He scoffed, “As you should!”

“Alright, alright if we keep this up we are never going to hang up so this is me saying goodbye.”

“Well I already said my goodbye so, yeah, see you later.”

She heard the other end of the line go dead and she took the phone away from her ear and looked at the call time and 15:47 flashed brightly across the screen making Skye’s eyes widened and she quickly made her way upstairs back to the team so she could give them her−Tommy’s idea.

She ran into the room, “It’s x-ray vision.” She stated and everybody stared at her.

“What?” Coulson asked confused by her sudden statement.

Skye walked into the room throwing her arms up, “The person whole stole the diamonds, they have x-ray vision.”

They all looked doubtful at her and she brought up the photos from the scene looking through them trying to find a connection, “Think about it, this person could see in the dark through a briefcase guys this isn’t far off.” She scrolled through the photos again and she kept seeing the same woman in the background in all the photos.

“Hey Coulson,” she caught his attention and blew up the clearest photo that she could of the woman, “Does she look familiar to you?”

His eyes go wide, “That’s Akela Amadora.”

She looked over to Ward for clarification on it and he looked her in the eyes then looked back over to Coulson, “Sir,” he said, “She’s supposed to be dead.”

Skye looked back and forth between Coulson and Ward, “I’m confused who is this chick?”

Coulson looked pained, “She used to be my protégé.”

Another bites the dust, she thought.

Chapter Text

SHIELD now, officially, has one of the worst track records when it comes to people who are supposed to be allies but end up being enemies instead in her book. That’s saying something to considering the people that she knew and how much time she spent with her life on the line and how much time people spent trying to kill her. This was ridiculous in her mind and she had made it a mental note not to believe any of them when they say that they had a friend or mentor Skye would immediately think that they were going to betray them.

Skye was going to make a statement probably something profound and insensitive but something stopped her. It was the heartbroken look on Coulson’s face that stopped her and the vibrations coming off him that caused her to stopped; Coulson cared about this person and to her that was new to her. A mentor caring about the protégé was new to her, she wasn’t used to it, so Skye dropped her head and walked out of the room letting Coulson have his peace and to come to terms with what had become of his protégé.

She made her way over to her bunk and opened the door then closing it and she sat on her bed looking at the grey door in front of her. There was something calming about looking at the boring color of the door, something about it just made her focus in on what she’s supposed to be doing and what the mission was. Skye took a deep breath, something was wrong and she couldn’t help but feel like something was about to change and it was going to start with Akela Amadora, and Skye didn’t want to be a part of it but she knew she was going to be.

There was a knock at her door and it caused her to jump, “Come in.” she said softly and she looked up to see Ward sliding open the door. She didn’t know why he was here or why he wanted to come see her but his presence was not unwelcomed. He stood there with his arms crossed over his chest his one hip lying against the doorway and he looked down at her as she looked up at him.

“So,” he said, “youngest child then.” She could tell that he was nervous and was trying to break the ice.

She rolled her eyes, “You’re horrible when it comes to bringing up information in a casual tone,” she told him and she scooted over her bed so that he could would at least have some sort of room to sit down. She also gestured him to come closer and hesitantly he sat down, “also is it just me or is every person that was supposed to be a SHEILD allies betrayed us?

“They’re not all the same, some have just been, out of contact with people for a while.”

“She already made up her mind.” she told him and they both looked at each other; she could tell that he wanted to say more but all he did was look forward again, “She’s been out for a while Ward and from what I’m seeing she already made up her mind on what side she chose and I don’t think that Coulson will realize that.”

“I know.”

Her head shot up looking at him with confusion and he smirked at her, “I’m not an idiot Skye I see how this is probably going to end but if their anything I know about Coulson and his reputation it’s that he doesn’t like to give up.”

“And you admire that?” She asked him incredulously.

“No…” He said slowly and he looked as if he wanted to say something more but he it was as if words were failing him and nothing was coming out. He stayed silent but she could tell that something was off about him, his heartrate was rising and anxiety was running all throughout his body. He knew something else and he wasn’t saying anything about it; if she had to guess she would bet everything she had on something major happening in the five years unaccounted for.

So, she said the only thing that came to her mind, “What are you hiding?” 

“What?” it was the first time he had ever heard his voice like a whisper.

“Don’t play that card with me you’re a specialist Ward you’re always hiding something but I can tell that you’re hiding something from Coulson,” she emphasized his name, “I rather not be involved with SHIELD drama but whatever your end game is just make sure that I don’t end up on the wrong side of it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He defended himself and she let it at that.

“Look I am the last person to judge someone on making bad decisions and I get that people have secrets but I am trying really hard not to get into anymore shit than I’m already in so just don’t screw me over in the end.” Her was quiet and tense; she saw his hand next to hers, taking a leap of faith she put her hand on top of his and she entwined their fingers together, “That being said I wouldn’t be against helping you or talking to you.”

He looked down at their entwined fingers and looked in her eyes, “What do you mean?”

“You need someone who you can actually talk too and understand you and as much as I adore FitzSimmons I can only take so much before I fall asleep.” She smiled at him and bit her lip a little bit when she saw that there was a hint of a smile on his face when he looked down at their hands.

She didn’t want to push him to far so both sat in a comfortable silence and she took another chance by laying her head on his shoulder and for a moment he tensed up before relaxing into it and she took the moment she listening to his heartbeat, letting it relax her, and for one moment she let the damn butterflies win letting them roam free. Skye sighed and decided to answer the question he first asked her when walked in, “Her name is Cecily.” She said and his head turned towards her in surprise.

“What?”

“You asked if I was the youngest and my answer is yes, I am; her name is Cecily and she’s three years older than me.”

He sat still for a minute processing the information and she hoped that he would start talking soon, “I just,” he started, “I just never pictured you with a family.”

“Yeah well I don’t like talking about them just like I’m guessing you don’t like talking about yours.”

“It was never a good subject with me.”

“Well I guess that’s one thing that we have in common.”

“Yeah I guess it is.”

It took her a moment to realize what was happening and it made her heartrate spike when she realized it. She had feelings for Grant Ward, Grant Douglas Ward, Tommy’s older brother, and for a moment she let herself think that he had feelings for her as well and it made her panic. Sparing a glance back towards her hula girl she saw that she was shaking a little bit and Skye had to remind herself to calm down before something else happened.

Skye stood up startling Ward from the comfortable silence and she held out a hand to help him up even though he didn’t need it, “Come on the team’s probably waiting and I need to find Agent Amadora.”

“Don’t you me ‘we’.” He questioned her with a raised eyebrow.

Skye scoffed, “Please you guys would be so lost without me but when I find her I’m handing it off to you guys and well you can take of it from there.”

She motioned for Ward to grab her hand but refused and she rolled her eyes and started walking out the door but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. Ward spun her around and put a hand on her shoulder and brought her close, he leaned down to her ear and she could feel his breath on her, “Just because we’re ‘friends’,” he put quotation marks around the word friend, “doesn’t mean I still trust you.”

She let out a sly smile and leaned back against the door letting her head rest against it letting her eyes meet with his, “Well,” she stated, “I can work with that.”

“We should have packed snacks.”

“I really need to use the bathroom.”

“Jemma, do you think that there might be something to eat in here? I’m about to chew the leather off these seats.”

Skye groaned letting her head fall against the table and put her arms over her ears trying to drown out the constant questioning of Fitz. Jemma was nice and indulged him but she was more of a quiet person when it came to nervous situations; Fitz on the other hand was the complete opposite, constantly asking questions and making comments that serves no real purpose.

They had found, well really, she had found out were ex-agent Amadora was going and they had tracked her down. Now Ward, May, and Coulson were all out looking for her and tracking her down while she was put in the SUV with FitzSimmons. These were the times that she could go without the giggly and silly FitzSimmons, these were the times that she wanted to be by herself so she could work professionally and get the job done.

Then again getting the job done meant killing someone in her book and she had feeling Coulson wouldn’t approve of that.

Lifting her head up from the table she put a hand to her ear and pressed down on the comm link in her ear, “Can one of you guys stop by a grocery store on your way back because some of us are getting hungry.”

“Skye, you should only use this line if there is an emergency or if you have information on how to find Agent Amadora.” Ward replied and she rolled her eyes.

“This is an emergency, Fitz is hungry and won’t shut up about it which is making me move my focus to how annoying he is being hence taking my attention from what I need to be doing which is finding Miss Terminator.”

“Tell him to just hang on, where almost done here.”

Skye perked up when she saw an unknown camera feed coming from somewhere close and when Skye hacked into it she was even more surprised to find that it was a first-person camera feed; she was looking through someone else’s eyes and soon she realizes that this must be Agent Amadora’s eyes.

“Hey Skye do you think that you could ask Ward if I’m allowed to go to the bathroom.” Fitz commented and Skye shushed him. Putting a finger to her ear she called Ward, “Hey guys I got something here.”

“What is it?” Ward asked her and she could have sworn she heard concern in his voice.

“I found something, it looks like Amadora is filming everything.”

As Skye looked at the feed she started seeing places that looked familiar to her when they arrived and drove to the spot that they were now. Then she saw something that made her blood run cold; she saw herself looking at her laptop inside the car while FitzSimmons were talking to each other while Amadora was getting into a car. Skye slowly turned over to Fitz and looked at him with wide eyes and in a calming voice she said, “FitzSimmons I need you to get out of the car.”

“What, why? I know were somewhat annoying but I can’t see why−” Fitz started rambling and she cut him off.

“Just get out of the car now.”

He spared a glance to the laptop and he must have seen what was on the screen because the next minute his face turned to fear and he grabbed Simmons hand dragging both of them out of the van. Skye shut the laptop and quickly gathered her things and pressed a finger to her ear, “You guys don’t need to look for Amadora anymore.”

“Why?” Coulson was the one who asked.

“Because she found us.”

Skye didn’t hear what he had to say next because the next thing she knew the car was being rammed into, she knew that was too late and Amadora had T-boned the car. Skye went flying and bouncing all around the car, honestly, she had no idea that a person could bounce so much inside a car. She used her powers to make sure that she wouldn’t get to hurt but that didn’t stop all the items still left in the car being flown around and some hitting her. After what felt like forever the car had stopped moving and Skye tried her best to make her world stop spinning as well because right now she couldn’t even tell whether right was right or if right was down. After slowly rolling on to her back Skye closer her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths; which was the wrong this to do because her ribs screamed in protest, but being one to never listen to her body she looked around to see the damage.

Opening her eyes, she saw the everything was upside down and that the car had rolled onto its roof, which would make this a little more difficult of her part. Sighing Skye rolled onto her stomach and suppressed the groan that made its way up her throat; making her way to the destroyed windshield she let out a little burst of power that shattered the windshield and lessened the pain in her side a little bit.

Skye crawled out of the car and didn’t even wince when some of the glass shards cut up her body. Stumbling onto her feet she climbed the slight hill as fast as she could, making her way back to FitzSimmons’ she sighed in relief when she saw them standing there unharmed.

“Are you guys okay?” She breathed out.

Simmons eyes were wet and looked at her like she was crazy, “Are we okay? I should be asking you that I mean Skye you just got T-boned by a car.”

Skye placed a hand onto her ribs and smiled fondly at the two, “Oh this,” she said gesturing to herself, “this is nothing I’m fine.”

“You shouldn’t be joking.” Simmons scolded her.

“I’m not.” Skye said seriously.

Just as their conversation ended Coulson, May, and Ward showed up all quickly climbing out of the car and running over to them. “Is everyone okay?” Coulson asked and they all nodded their heads in agreement, “What happened?”

Skye then told him everything that had happened; everything from finding the camera feed to Skye getting T-boned by Amadora and her climbing out of the now probably totaled car. Coulson then proceeded to scold her about not getting out of the van fast enough but praised her for being able to get FitzSimmons to safety.

“Is she still in the car?” May asked and Skye had nearly forgotten that the woman was there.

“I doubt it she probably bolted while I was getting myself out of the car, but if it makes up for it I can now track and see what movements she’s making.”

May smirked and Coulson smiled happy that they finally got results, “Alright let’s all head back to the Bus and Skye I want Simmons to check you out once we’re back there.”

Skye mock saluted him, “Aye, Aye captain.”

Most the team left to gather in the vehicle except for Ward who stayed behind, “Are you actually alright?”

She looked at her and smiled sadly, “No,” she said walking closer to him and putting a hand her ribs and rubbing it slightly, “but then again I haven’t been alright in a while but right now I’m fine.” As they were walking back to the other car the Coulson, May, and Ward had taken she felt a small hand brush the small of her back and she looked to see that Ward had put his hand there.

Her heart skipped a beat.

Now was not the time to think about that she thought to herself but then she looked down to see that the hand on her lower back was there to support her in case she wanted to take a fall, which was going to happen, or if needed any help. It was a completely harmless, totally, platonic hand. Right? Shit.

She closed her eyes for a brief second before opening them again and reminding herself that it didn’t matter that his hand was at the small over back; the only thing that mattered was that there was a rouge agent who was on the run and just tried to injure her and Skye would be lying if she said she wasn’t a little bit pissed off about it.

“You sure that you’re okay?” Ward asked her again.

She looked up at him a smiled, “Yeah I’m fine just a little sore.” Both knew that she was lying through her teeth but neither said anything about and instead made their way up to the others.

All the others were jammed into the car Skye sighed and clenched her teeth as she gripped the side handle and lifted herself into the car. Ward followed suit and soon everybody was left with little to no space in between them and as they drove Skye let her head fall back and enjoy the silence that was in the car.

‘Course that only last about five minutes until Taylor Swift started blaring from her phone.

She let out a groan and lifted her butt to get the phone out from her back pocket and stared at in amazement for a second at how it had survived with no damage. She hit the accept button and put the phone up to her ear, “You are a chatty bastard today.” She said into it causing the team to give her strange looks.

“Well that’s one way to greet your best friend.”

“Yeah well I just got T-boned by a car so I’m not exactly in a pleasant mode.”

“Oh, shit, seriously did you block it? Did you use your powers to stop like that time in Vegas when−”

“Yeah, Andy, buddy,” She was using his undercover name, “I was hit by the car while I was in a car that was then hit by another car and I thought we agreed never to bring up Vegas again.”

“Oh,” he sounded disappointed, “That’s a little anti-climactic and you are the one who said you never wanted to remember Vegas, I was quite proud of it.” 

Skye scoffed letting Vegas go, “I’m sorry that me getting hit by a car is not thrilling enough for you.”

“Whatever,” he grumbled, “Anyway the reason that I called instead of waiting is because I need you to talk to Davis soon about the inhuman kids and by that, I mean like within the week also I’m gonna send you an email about the missing kids.”

“Yeah,” she stretched out the word and look at the team around her, “that might be a little hard to do right now.”

“Why would that be hard?” Skye could just imagine him moving his hands out in front of him like he always did when he was confused. She could also see the scrunched up face he would always make when something just would make sense to him.

“Because I’m not in the country,” She said quickly and before he even got a chance to talk over her she got ahead of him, “Oh, look a tunnel I…. Think…. I’m……Can’t hear…. bad reception.”

“Skye I know you’re faking it.”

“…hard to hear…. bye.” she then ended the call and let out a large sigh of relief, as much as she loved him talking to him was sometimes exhausting a took a lot out of her. She looked to her left to see Fitz giving her the oddest expression ever, “What?” she said shrugging her shoulders.

“What I would give to hear the other end of that conversation.” He said

Skye rolled her eyes and motioned to his lap, “Hey give me my laptop?”

“Why?”

“Just give it to me.” She said quickly waving her hands in a circular motion to try and get him to hurry up. He nodded and moved his body so that he could get the laptop bag from his shoulder and handed it over to her. She carefully removed her laptop from the bag and brought it up to her lips and kissed it, she was so glad that it had survived if not she would really have to hate winning another laptop. She wasn’t going to be in New York anytime soon but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t at least try to help Tommy out with the inhuman problem in New York homeless kids.

Opening it up and unlocking it she pulled up her internet browser and quickly pulled open her email and saw the on un-open email that was from Tommy. She quickly tapped on it and opened it and smiled when she read the email.

Hey there Daisy Dukes found this to help you.

She clicked on the link and it brought up an article about missing homeless kids in New York she was going skim it and read the whole thing later but that was shot down when she heard a voice over her shoulder, “What is that about?”

She quickly shut the laptop and turned over to Ward, “Nothing just a little side project.”

“One that has to do with missing kids in New York?”

“I’m just looking into something for a friend, it’s not that major.” She said hoping that words rung true because the last thing she wanted was out of control Inhuman made teenagers running around. The few that Tommy had told her about were already in control and were going off grid but Skye knew that could change at the drop of a hat.

Skye thought that Ward was going to keep asking her questions about it but he shrugged, “Okay.”

“Really that’s it?” she asked him and he smirked at her.

“As long as your main focus is on us than I don’t care what you do in your free time.”

She listened to his heartbeat and it went up telling her that he was lying Skye smirked at him and wiggled her finger at his face, “You little liar you.”

Skye was on her laptop again but this time it was for a different reason, this time she was looking through the eyes of Agent Amadora. As soon as they got back to the Bus she opened the camera feed back up and the team all came to watch what the Agent was doing and if Skye was being honest she was boring as hell.

She had yet to pick a place for more than twenty minutes and honestly Skye was getting bored at just watching her doing nothing but moving around. She was also getting a little irritated because her side was beginning to hurt a lot more than it had at first and it was starting to get hard to watch the constant moving screen. Her head had fallen into her hands but she quickly woke herself up again, “You should probably go take a nap.” She took a deep breath in and looked over to see Ward leaning against the door staring at her.

“I’m fine it’s just that Amadora has done nothing interesting for the past three hours.”

He walked over to her and sat in the chair next to her, “I can take over for a little while you’ve had a pretty tough day.”

She smirked and turned her head in his direction, “I’ve had worse.” She stated and he looks towards her with concern.

“That doesn’t make me feel better.”

“I didn’t realize you had emotions I thought that you were just a robot.”

“Oh, I do have emotions but as a specialist I have to,”

She cut him off, “Let me guess you have to shove them down because caring compromises you.”

“You heard that before?”

Yeah, she heard it multiple times from the orphanage, from her mother, from Lucifer, from anybody she had come across. Accept for Tommy who had finally made her open up and let all the feelings out, “Yeah I’ve heard that before.”

In her experience keeping in the emotions never worked in the long run because once they start leaking a hurricane follows next or an emotional breakdown, “You know,” she mumbled, “In my experience holding them in never works you have to let them out some time.”

“Or what?” He asked.

“Or you break,” She sighed and looked back to the computer, “and take everything down with you.”

His jaw tensed up and he looked away for a second before looking back at the computer screen, “You think we should save her?”

“Honestly?”

He nodded his head.

“If it were up to me we would already be moving on to the next case and not wasting our time on this hopeless one.” She took off her jacket and put her attention back on the camera feed in front of her, “But I guess that’s not up to me.”

She tried to focus on the video in front of her but she could feel Ward’s eyes on her and it was making her stomach do flips knowing that all his attention was on her. Trying to take her focus off that she moved her neck side to side and stretched out her arms trying to loosen up her muscles a little bit giving her something to do. After she did that though she could still feel his eyes on her and she couldn’t help but to feel a little bit anxious.

Had she done something overly suspicious that would make him think she’s different. She shouldn’t have used her powers as much as she could they would start to notice that earthquakes started randomly around her. Skye looked over to see the soda can that she had been drinking from started to shake and she took a deep breath trying to calm herself down and she watched as it stopped shaking.

“Well,” she said standing up quickly, “I’m going to take a nap mind watching over this for me?”

He stood up with her, “Yeah I’ll take over for a bit you can go take it easy for a little bit.”

She nodded her head at his, “Thanks.”

She started forward when Ward grabbed onto her arm and spun her around pulling her close to his body so close that she practically against his chest one of his arms wrapping around her lower back giving her chills. He grabbed the arm that had been shot and slid his hand up to the spot that she had been shot and rubbed the thin white line where there was supposed to be a scar with his thumb, “You didn’t scar?”

She shrugged, “Guess you were better doctor than you thought.”

He looked her in the eyes raising his eyebrows and she saw the beginning of a smirk of his face, “Yeah guess I was.” He said in a soft voice.

He gently released her arm and slid his arm that was on her lower back, back to his side. She glanced at him for a moment longer before turning around and silently making her way back upstairs to her bunk where she could lie down and get some quiet.

That whole exchanged was weird but she couldn’t help but still feel the lingering touch of his hand brushing up the side of her arm and the way that their bodies fit so nicely together. She shook her head trying to rid herself of those thoughts; this was Tommy’s brother had no way and hell could she risk thinking about him that way.

Figuring out that napping wasn’t going to work she pulled out her phone and looked up the article that Tommy had sent her. It was one of those articles that no one would take one second glance at in the newsstand because it had something outrages at in the Headliners. She scrolled through the article but Skye could see why Tommy had sent it to her, it was taking about homeless kids being abducted by aliens and coming back with special abilities.

Well they weren’t wrong.

She though briefly about it then made a decision and pulled up her contact list and making her way all the way down to the ‘K’ section.

To Keira

Will be in New York soon before I’m there do you think that you could try and check this out for me?

Skye

Skye hit the send button and she watched as waited a couple of seconds before she saw that the message was sent. She knew that Keira wouldn’t get back to her for a while, that was just the type of person she was, Skye remembered the one time she had texted her to get coffee on her way back from school and six weeks later Keira had finally texted back saying that she was busy.

Her eyes burning, Skye closed her eyes and tried to even out her breathing clearing her mind of everything and tried to force herself to sleep. It was working a little bit, she could feel herself drifting off enough that would get her energy up and to take away some pain from her injuries.

Chapter Text

She woke up about forty-five minutes later with a knocking on her door. Her eyes opened quickly and she forced herself to keep laying down grabbing the pillow she buried her head into it and groaned into it. Skye heard the knocking on the door again and she ran a hand threw her hair trying to make herself look presentable to whoever was at the door, “Come in.” she said and the door opened.

 She looked up to see that Coulson was at the door and she wanted to roll her eyes and his stupid nice smile, “What do you want?” she asked.

“We found Amadora May’s on her way to meet her now.”

“Does Amadora know that?” she asked him and he chuckled a little bit.

“No, but I’m sure that she will be pleased to see an old friend.”

Skye took that as sarcasm because there was no way anyone could be happy to see May, sometimes she wondered why Coulson had put her on the welcome wagon along with Ward; both weren’t particularly warm or fuzzy, “So you even here some of the shit that comes out of your mouth?” she asked and he frown at her.

“Well,” he said taking a step into her bunk, “I also came by because Simmons told me that you are refusing to get checked out by her.”

Skye sat up stretching out her limbs like a cat, “I told her I’m fine and it’s not like I’m in any pain.”

“You were hit by a car.” He stated.

She sighed glaring at him, “Thanks for reminding me.”

He gave her another sweet smile and that’s when Skye got that feeling in her bones that something was off about Coulson. It wasn’t like he did anything alarming to her and maybe that’s the reasons he was feeling like that because he had done nothing wrong. All she was used too were people betraying her left and right doing things there way because it was always going to be that way and to have someone who just wanted to help people without a second motive was just odd.

He sighed closing the door behind him and moving closer to her sitting on her bed, Skye scooted a little more to her pillow allowing more room for him to sit.

“I know,” he said gently, “that you don’t know us very well and that you probably don’t want to seem weak in front of us but don’t put your health in front of that.”

She raised her eyebrows, “Coulson it’s nothing like that I actually am just really fine, seriously, I am barley in any pain.” She twisted her abdomen to make a point even though she was a little sore there.

He nodded his head towards her, “Well I didn’t want it to come to this but you forced my hand Skye.” He got up and then made his way towards the door, “I am here by banning you from coming out of your room unless you get a checkup by Simmons.”

“You can’t do that?!” She shouted.

He walked out of her room, “But I can.” Then he shut the door and she heard the click of the lock on the door. Jumping out of bed she made her way over to the door and tried the handle to see that he had locked it and sure enough he had. She brought one of her hands up to the door and started pounding on it, “Coulson let me out!” she yelled but there was no reply and she concentrated on trying to find his heartbeat and grew angry when she heard it standing right outside her door as if waiting for her.

She backed up and stared at the door scoffing at it, “This is bullshit.” She said to herself and looked around to see if she could get out any other way. She spotted the small gaps that were in between the two adjoining bunks but she shot down the idea because there was no way in hell she was going to squeeze her body through that small gap. So, next best thing she was going to have to sit and wait for Fitz to come back to his bunk so she could get him to let her out but then she figured that he probably wanted her to get checked out too so she just sat there on her bed.

“Alright,” she called out, “I’ll let her check to see if anything is wrong.”

A few seconds later the door was opening and Coulson’s stupid smug smile greeted her, “Glad we could agree.”

Shoving her past Coulson, she quickly made her way back downstairs to Simmons who was sitting in her chair looking as if she was waiting patiently for her. Stopping at the doorway she glared at Simmons, “Did you conspire with him.” She asked roughly.

Simmons looked at if she was going to lie to her but instead bailed last second and her cheeks reddened, “I’m sorry,” she said quickly, “It’s just that the car crash looked pretty bad and I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t seriously hurt.”

“Simmons if I was seriously I think we would have known by now.”

Simmons eyebrows crinkled, “Would you be offended if I say no?”

Skye smirks and chuckles softly, “So I’ll take that as a no.” she said as a statement.

Simmons beamed at her then got to work bring out multiple tools and different kinds of paper and Skye couldn’t help but to be reminded of the doctor’s office she always visited in her past when she was working with Lucifer. Every time she came back from a mission and had gotten more seriously injured he would take her to a doctor and let him fix her up, she would then have one day resting period, and then it was back to work like usual.

Like most people she knew he was dead now.

Once Simmons had finished getting everything that she needed she started going to work trying to see if Skye would be deemed okay, which Skye knew she was. Simmons made her recite different sentences and numbers to see if she had a concussion, she didn’t, then Simmons had tried getting her to lift her shirt to see if she had any broken or fractured ribs and that’s when Skye but a stop to it.

“Alright, Jemma, I think that’s enough if something was wrong with me you would have found it by now.”

“Skye I just want to see how bad your abdomen area is.”

“It’s bruised to hell that’s how it is,” Skye said jumping off the med bay table, “Now if you excuse me I’m going upstairs to yell at Coulson.” She was storming off when Simmons put her arms on her shoulder.

“Wait, please just let me look at your arms and clean them up because I know that you were cut up by the glass.”

Skye let out a huge sigh a rolled up her sleeve to show the now barley there scratches she had gotten from the glass, “See they’re just cat scratches they don’t even need anything.” Which was true they had healed faster than she was expecting but she was going to complain about it. Simmons on the other hand looked completely confused and flustered at the sight of her almost injury free arm.

“I could have sworn I saw cuts on your arms.” She said mostly to herself than to Skye.

“Guess I just got lucky.”

“Extremely.” She said pulling Skye’s arms looking closer at them and brushed her fingers on one of the longer cuts. Skye let her do it for a little bit but then slowly pulled her arm back from Jemma letting her arm fall to her side; both looked at each other for a moment, “Extremely lucky.” Jemma whispered.

“Guess so.” Skye stated backing up slightly and the feeling of uneasiness washing over her. She liked Jemma she truly did, but, it was times like this where she had to remind herself that she was still a scientist and that people like her loved to cut open people like her; that was something that she did not want to happen to her anytime soon.

Taking a deep breath in Skye turned her body slightly outward and pointed to the door way, “Well I going to tell Coulson that you cleared me.”

Jemma nodded slowly, “Okay, but Skye take it easy.” She told her with a soft voice and Skye nodded her head both in thanks and understanding. As soon as she was out the door though Skye walked as fast as she could past the med bay, lab, and then finally up the stairs to get away from the young scientist.

Rogue Agent Amadora was not what she was expecting, then again, she was lying unconscious on a lab table so Skye’s not that quick to judge. She was sitting in a chair splitting her focus between the agent and the camera feed that was now on her laptop; she saw the agents chest steadily rise and fall breathing in and out while an eye patch lay over the eye that was just put on by Simmons to make sure that the feed wouldn't be picked up again by the eye.

 She wouldn't normally volunteer to watch a prisoner but since she had a little bit of a grudge to pick with her Skye was the first person to raise her hand when they said someone had to watch over her. Skye wasn't going to lie, she wanted to punch the rogue agent in the face but she had a feeling that if she did that then Coulson wouldn't be to happy with her.

The woman stirred and this caused Skye to get out of her chair moving to the woman who finally seemed to be waking up. Skye stood right beside the woman and smirked, she didn't look intimidating at all in fact she looked like she could be squashed with just on touch. Sighing Skye slapped the woman's face hoping she would wake up quicker, “Hey,” she called out as she slapped the Amadora's cheek, “It's time to wake up.”

She let out an intelligible sound.

Skye slapped a little bit harder, “Hey I'm not dicking around wake the hell up.”

Finally Amadora's eye opened looking at Skye with surprise and from the vibrations coming off of her she could tell that Amadora was nervous as hell. Skye smirked turned into a toothy grin, “Do you remember me?” she asked titling her head to the side and Amadora shook her head.

Skye tsked, “That's a shame I would have liked the person who hit me with a car to at least know my name.” 

“I'm sorry about that, I was just trying to keep you guys away.” Her voice was cracked and was weaker than how she looked.

“Well you did the exact opposite,” she motioned to the table that she lied on, “Did you honestly think that Coulson would just give up on you?”

“I was hoping.” she replied honestly.

Skye let out a long over-dramatic sigh, “So was I.”

Amadora looked away in shame and Skye rolled her eyes at the antics of this woman, “I am sorry about hitting you with the car.”

Skye took her hand and waved it as if she was brushing it off, “You aren't the first person to do it,” she paused, “but you are the first person to be alive after the fact so that's a first.” She said happily and left the rogue agent with wide eyes as she made her way upstairs to tell the others that she was awake.

Of course, she found Ward in sitting area, “Hey new friend.” she said happily while sitting down by his side. He looked at her confused for a moment before rolling his eyes and going back to the book he was reading. “So,” she said, “guess who just woke up?”

He put the book down at that, “You didn't say anything to her, did you?”

Skye waved him off, “Nothing that would hurt her too much.”

He glared at her but she knew that he didn't really mean it, “Skye you were supposed to-”

She cut him off, “I know what I was supposed to do.”

The stared each other down before Ward finally gave up and went back to reading his book. It surprised Skye that he didn't immediately go to Coulson or someone else, maybe he wanted to make her wait a little bit longer too. She wasn't going to complain about it.

She closed her eyes and let herself sink into the couch brushing a hand through her hair in the process. Skye was enjoying the silence and for a moment she thought that she was somewhere else and that Tommy, Henley, Cecily, and maybe Grant was there with all of and her; they were all having the time of their lives not having to care about a single thing in the entire world.

“Why were you looking at a bogus article about missing children in New York?” She heard Ward ask and she opened her eyes to see that he was still reading his book but his head had moved in her direction slightly.

She thought of a quick lie, “Oh,” she said, “It's this thing that me and my friend do, he sends weird articles to me and I send weird photos to him. We both like the X-Flies and Men in Black so we just send each other weird shit when we get the chance.” It was a decent lie, not her best, but would work for now, honestly the biggest lie in there was that they liked the X-Flies Skye was indifferent about it but Tommy disliked a lot even though must thought he would love it.

Not him though. Tommy loved white trash television like Maury or Dance Moms, basically anything on TLC or Lifetime.

“He?” Ward asked in confusion.

She didn't want to talk about Tommy to Ward now was not the time and she was not ready for something like that anytime soon. There were to many things that could go wrong with that entire scenario in her head and she could think of ten different ways that could go wrong and that was just off the top of her head.

“What's your favorite movie?” She asked instead and he looked up from his book, he knew that she was deflecting.

“I don't really watch movies.” He said entertaining her idea of not going in the direction of her best friend and his brother.

“What kind of person doesn't watch movies?”

“The kind that doesn't really have the time to watch movies.” He said sarcastically and she rolled her eyes.

How in the world was this Tommy's brother?

Skye then got an idea and took the book that was in Ward's hand, which he made a noise of protest, and she chucked it across the room. Catching him off guard she put a hand on his chest and was able to pin him down to the couch while she was on top of him. To someone walking in it could have looked a little bit sexual but to her it wasn't like that, well okay it was a little bit, but to her it was taking him by surprise. She was surprised however when he put his hands on her hips and tried to steady himself since the couch was barley big enough to hold them both laying down.

“After this whole thing is done with you and I are going to sit down and watch a movie.”

“And you needed to do this just to tell me that?” He asked sounding out of breath.

She shrugged and let her hair fall into his face a little bit, “I had to get your attention somehow and you weren't listening to me.”

“Do you do this to all your friends?”

She thought for a moment, “No you would be the first.” She then sat up and then leaned back on his thighs looking around a little bit to see if someone was there and when she saw that the cost was clear to make sure that no one was going to catch her in this position. She carefully moved herself off Ward and jumped over the couch she deiced that she was going to go tell Coulson that Amadora was awake and she was ready to talk.

“Where are you going?” Ward asked confused as to what just happened and he almost sounded a little bit disappointed that she was now off him.

“Going to tell Coulson that Amadora is awake I think she's waited long enough don't you?”

He looked like he wanted to say something else but didn't and got up following her to Coulson's office both of them not speaking a single word to each other the whole way there. She rocked back and forth on the heels on her feet and finally brought one of her hands up and knocked on the door.

After what felt like forever the door was open with a worried looking Coulson standing on the other side waiting to hear the news about Amadora, “She's awake.” Skye said robotic like.

“Thank you, Skye, for letting me know.”

Skye waved her hand like it was no big deal, “No problem A.C.,” she paused for a moment, “Although I do have one question for you?”

“What is it?” he sounded exhausted.

“So, do you know if we are ever going to be in the New York Area anytime soon just a little thought.”

“Not that I can think of but I'm sure that we can have something arranged.” He closed the door then walked past him on the way down to the lab where Amadora was being held.

Having the feeling that someone was looking at her she looked over to see that Ward was staring at her, “What?” She asked.

“I thought you said that you didn't have anything in New York.”

“I never said that Ward, I think you might be imagining things which is actually concerning for you. Maybe your core processor is finally breaking down and it's causing you to think more like a human.”

“I'm not a robot.”

“Could've fooled me T-1000.”

She left him behind after and decided to go into her special spot on the plane because she needed some alone time after all of this. Plus, she had an idea in her head and if her and Tommy could pull this off then weird late night poorly timed phones calls would be a thing of the past.

Stealthy avoiding the lab as much as she could Skye turned the several hallways and doors she needed to find the place that she was looking for. Opening the door, she instantly felt better now that she was alone and in a small confined space with only her thoughts and powers that accompany her, in this small space she could feel the entire world and made her feel powerful.

Pulling out her phone she pressed speed dial one and Tommy picked up on the fourth ring, “Hello?” he sounded like he had just woken up from a nap.

“I have an idea on how we can talk face to face without it looking suspicions.” She spoke and she could tell that he was perking his head up at that.

“What do you have in mind?”

“You can shadow travel to a person with just their name, right? Well why not try that with me I'm sure that if you can concentrate really hard than you're going to appear right in front of me.”

 He sighed and he sounded so exhausted with just that one sighs so Skye decided to say the one thing she knew she had to say, “Look we don’t have to try this right now because from the sound of that sigh I can tell that you’re really tired, so we’ll try this out later kay?” she ended it with a question.

Tommy just let out a muffle of a noise that just vaguely sounded like an a ‘okay’. He must have over worked himself with his powers today, that was the downside to the powers the more powerful you become the more it takes out of you, especially when you use it for long amounts of time. She remembers the one time that she was creating a rip in the universe, she still doesn’t get how that happened but it did, and she ended up with a bloody nose and passed out for three days straight. Closing her eye Skye let the hum of the engine calm her down all her burdens and worries washed away for a couple of seconds and she truly felt weightless.

These glasses were going to be the death of Grant Ward or the single greatest idea that Skye has ever had in her entire lifetime. Whatever reason that had possessed him to take up Agent Amadora’s mission was starting to come and bite him in the ass, Skye was in the backseat purposely typing on the keyboard as hard as she could to annoy him.

Both were trying to buy time for Simmons so she could get the bomb out of Amadora’s eye and try to make it look like everything was fine but if there was one thing that Skye knew about plans is that they always end up going to shit in the end. Finally finishing the last touches of the glasses stopped typing laying her computer to the side and she found herself directly behind Ward so that the glasses would catch her and she could turn them on.

“Alright,” she said pressing the buttons, “I’ve got the feed hooked up onto my laptop so everything that you see I see and I’ll be able to help you and you know how to switch from normal to x-ray right.”

“Yeah I,” He stopped short when she brushed her fingers against his neck and he practically flew out of his seat. She sat frozen in her seat not knowing what to do or what she was seeing brushing her fingers against his neck again he seized up and placed his neck against his shoulder to make sure she couldn’t do it again, “Can you not do that?”

“Oh my god is super spy ticklish.” She said trying to hold in a laugh it was funny that this Ward could probably undergo torcher but tickling his neck was his ultimate kryptonite.

“I’m not ticklish I just don’t like it when people touch my neck.”

“Are you seriously trying to fight me on this?” She asked leaning forward and little bit but he held out an arm to make sure that she would stay back.

“The glasses remember,” he stated and Skye back up to her seat slowly, “You can’t be seen or else this whole thing will go to shit and Amadora will die.”

“And what a shame that would be.” She said under her breath and their eyes met in the rearview mirror he was careful enough to make sure that the glasses would catch her eyes. Taking one last long breath Ward opened the car door and made his way through the crowds of people and into the building. Skye watched every second of it she didn’t once dare take her eyes off the computer screen.

All was going fine until one big problem came up and almost put the whole mission in jeopardy. He was looking at the security guard from a good couple feet away when the directions popped up on the glasses.

The directions read: SEDUCE HIM.

Those two worlds almost made Skye burst out laughing, they didn’t really take into account that Agent Amadora was female and Ward was obviously not.

“What do I do?” He asked almost panicked

“Do what it says you’re going to have to bromance him.”

“What does that even mean.”

“It means that you have to find something in common with him.”

He tried. He really did try. He failed horribly. So when you can’t romance someone into giving you what you want Ward did the next best thing that, in Skye’s mind, to do he punched him so hard that he fell unconscious and Ward took the guards key card away from him. After that it was just a bunch of running and Skye could barely tell what was happening and what wasn’t because of how fast he was moving and how many people he was dodging.

It was five minutes later when they finally found what Amadora was looking for and couldn’t help what she said next, “Holy shit.” It was Inhuman writing on the wall and she recognized what they were looking for. She could hear Ward asking her what was wrong but nothing mattered at that moment because to her that was her entire world crashing down around her. People knew of Inhuman writing which meant they weren’t far away from finding out about Inhuman people.

Skye was so out of focus that she almost didn’t see the letters on the computer screen pop up.

MISSION COMPLETE.

It was over, the mission was to try and find the writing on the wall, and it killed Skye to know that. That changed though when alarms started blaring and gunfire started happening Ward took off running making the mistake of catching his reflection in the mirror. That’s when Skye got the feeling that Ward just thought FUCK IT and jumped out a window and for the first-time Skye saw a little bit of Tommy in him.

Skye shut the laptop and made her way into the driver seat putting the car into drive and pulling up closer so Ward didn’t have to run as much. When she saw him coming closer to her she unlocked the back door and he threw it open throwing his whole body into the car. He barely had anytime to shut the door before she hit the gas pedal and sent both of them flying through the streets trying to get a safe distance away from everything.

After driving around in circles and multiple streets Skye finally felt like it was safe enough to pull over and let them both catch their breaths. Ward was laying down in the back holding on to one of the seats trying to make sure that he retained his balance, the glasses were thrown off his face and moved into the back somewhere.

Both were breathing heavily and they looked at each other before Skye let out a breathy laugh she couldn’t help it the feeling of adrenaline flowing threw her veins being aware of all the vibrations around her and all though Ward didn’t join her she saw the hint of a smile on his face.

“You okay.” She asked and this time he did let out a bark of a laugh.

“’Mm fine.” He said moving himself up to sit in the passenger seat.

Silence was the next thing that entered the air neither wanted to speak because they feared what the other would say. Skye knew he wanted to ask her about why she freaked out when she saw the writing on the wall, she could feel it, and she didn’t need the vibrations to tell her that. She didn’t want him to ask though because that meant really coming to terms with it.

Just as he was opening his mouth to confirm one of her worst fears they were both cut off, “Ward Skye this is Coulson Amadora’s alright you two can come back now.”

Skye tuned on the radio and was happy for the silence and tried to ignore the look the Ward was giving her.

Her little cubby closet hideaway was being to suspicious and she didn’t want the others finding out about so she stayed in the back of the car. She had texted Tommy earlier telling him about what she had saw in the building even sending him a picture of what Ward saw and he had yet to reply to her and every passing moment was making her more and more anxious.

 It was calming though when she had put her headphones on and started listening to Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire auto book because honestly you can never read Harry Potter too many times. All would have been bliss if it wasn’t for the fact that someone had opened the car door and made their self at home right next to her; she didn’t have to turn to see who it was.

She looked over at him and sighed stopping the auto book and pulling out her headphones, “What?” she asked harshly.

“I was just thinking that it’s nice in her quiet, peaceful.” He said looking ahead sounding almost fatherly and took all her strength not to roll her eyes.

“Yeah that kind of why I choose to sit in here so I don’t have to listen to anybody and be alone.” She added an emphasis on the alone part but he chose to ignore it.

“You know I think it’s important to have a quiet place to stay and rest.”

“Alright can you stop with subtext and just tell me straight up what you want to ask me because I am not in the mood for this right know.”

He looked a little taken aback by the comment and almost sad, “There is no ulterior motive Skye I really do think it’s important to have a place like this.”

“Well so do I.”

Both stopped talking and looking at him he wasn’t moving so she slowly put her headphones back in and tried not to enjoy the feeling of someone else sitting next to her.

“I think you’re bluffing.” She heard Fitz say through the comm link and she knew that was her cue to use the glasses but she couldn’t but give a little fair warning to the guy.

“Fitz, you do realize that not only will I see his cards but I’ll see everything else.”

“I said that I think you’re bluffing.” He said it louder and with more power and she sighed.

“Fitz, it means I won’t just see him naked I’ll see you naked.”

She then heard something drop the chair scuffle and a quick, “I have to go.” From Fitz before he took the comm link out of his ear.

Skye let out a slight chuckle and took the glasses off exiting her bunk and making her way to the table where Ward and Fitz were both playing poker. Ward didn’t even ask her what was happening when she pulled Fitz’s chair out and sat in it, picking up his cards and seeing what type of hand he had.

“He tried to cheat didn’t he.” He said more as a fact than a question

“Yup.” She replied moving some of the cards around.

“And you’re not going to try to?” he questioned her.

She smirked still looking at her cards, “Ward I don’t need x-ray vision to beat you at poker.”

“Okay then.”

So the game continued for three more rounds and Skye beat him in every single one of them, of course this pissed Ward off to no end but she didn’t care pissing him off was becoming her new favorite pass time. It was in the middle of their fourth game when their comfortable small talk and friendly banter was ruined all by one single text on her phone.

It was the reply from Tommy that she had been regretting, she knew what was coming but something about this time around felt different. It felt permanent. The phone buzzed on the table and she had picked it up reading the text.

It’s about Puerto Rico-Tommy

It was those four words that made her almost drop her phone. She hadn’t been able to read the markings because she didn’t have time without anybody around her, plus Tommy was always better at reading the language than she was. She knew that it would be near impossible for them to find out that the markings on the wall was a map to San Juan, Puerto Rico but still a small fear blossomed threw her entire body.

As soon as she was able to shove down the fear of someone figuring out the writing on the wall a new one came about. Some knew about Inhumans and they were looking for the temples.

Chapter Text

Flashback

Date: January 21, 2008

Location: Washington, D.C.

If there was one thing that Henley Ballis knew she was good at, it was kicking the absolute shit out of people. She had been trained from a young age to be a warrior, an Amazon, women who fought in great battles and tried to keep peace on Earth from humans to aliens. She was young for an Amazon only, twenty-one, but she was top of her ranks and ever Queen Chrysa herself had told her how strong she was.

There were times though when training wasn't enough and she wanted more, she craved the feeling of what it meant to fight and she wasn't the type to wait around. So she would leave the compound and go off the island and into the world to find fights of her own, she would compete in the underground fighting rings and she knew that if the Queen leaned of this she would never be able to leave the island unless given permission to do so. That was half the fun though, the thought of almost getting caught just gave her an adrenaline rush.

Even as she was waiting for next fight she could practically feel her blood move through her veins. She could feel the people around her stare at her and wonder what the hell she was doing there; she didn't care though all she wanted to do was get in the ring and fight to feel alive for one more time during the night.

Henley was pulled back when she heard the roar of the crowed and quickly got the last glimpse of the fighter before her fall to the ground, his face covered in blood and sweat. She saw him crawl over to the nearest exit his opponent, a tall man that could rival an ox with tattoos littering his body along with other people's blood, was pulling him back and knelt down to the ground repeatedly punching the man in the face to the point where Henley could no longer tell what his face looked like. She knew that no one would help the man, if they did they would just dump his body outside of the nearest hospital.

Tearing her eyes away from the fight she knew was already over she looked around the ring trying to find something else to look at. The ring itself was nothing glamorous, built on concrete floor the wall blocking the fighters from falling out was just a wall of people packed together half-drunk half-blood thirsty wanting more. Looking around at the people they all looked like they were people down on their luck and looking for a place to make some money. Their clothes so worn and dirty that you could almost tell that they had not been washed in days, they all smelled of stale beer or a pack of cheap cigarettes.

In the midst of all the chaos she found one person who was so clam and composed chaos stopped all around him.

He was dressed far too well for someone to be one of the usual in a dark suit that fitted him so nicely she thought that it was made for him specifically and had to cost more than someone's rent. He was young and stood tall, around six foot two, with black hair and shining blue eyes and permanent smile on his face. He wasn't bulky like the man she was about to face, no, he was more lean than muscular and he was looking at the fight with up most disinterest. The oddest thing about him though was the fact that no one was bothering him like the he had his own world around him and he was the commander of it all.

The horn sounded and that alerted that the fight was now officially over but Henley knew that it was over long before the horn had blared. She watched as two men dressed in black dragged the heavily beaten man off, cracking her knuckles and her neck she took a deep breath and headed into the ring. Her opponent was still on his high from the previous win that when he turned around and took one look at her he laughed in her face spit landing on her face.

The announcer turned towards her cautiously asking her if she was ready she took off the jacket she was wearing and nodded. He turned the other man he gave him a toothy smile, the blood from the previous man still on his face, and nodded letting out a scream before turning it into a laugh and started pacing his end of the ring.

When the horn blared all the screaming of other people went away and her focused zeroed in on the ox like man in front of her trying to find immediate weaknesses. One thing she witness from the previous match was that the man who fought him before had done some damage and the man before her was slightly favoring his left side to his right side.

Let him attack me first she thought and she didn't have to wait long before the beast of the man in front of her let out a roar a charged forward towards her. She managed to side step him in time and avoided the sloppy punch he threw her way before he ran into the wall of people and when he looked at back at her he looked very displeased with her.

"Come fight me little girl!" He screamed at her as the row of people he had knocked through closed the gap again.

She formed two fist and put them up in front of her not saying anything to him silently waiting for him to come after her again. When he charged at her again she did not move in fact she stayed in her place and when he got close enough she punched him right the chest sending him flying backwards towards the other end of the ring and all looked up in shock at her. It took a couple of seconds for him to come back up again but when he did Henley swore she had never seen a human look so red before. He came for her again forgetting the charging method and moved straight towards the punching method trying to hit her whenever he could.

Instead of going for her face like he had been for the past couple of punches he went for her stomach hitting her so hard that it caused her to stumble back. Black spots danced around her eyes and she saw the man coming closer to her, faster than she originally thought he was. Unable to put her hands up in time the man hit her face and she went tumbling down to the ground the air in her lungs kicked out of her. She felt blood falling from her nose and she spit onto the floor also seeing that there was blood there as well but she wasn't about to lose this fight.

As she looked back up Henley couldn't help but look at the mysterious man in the dark suit. His blue eyes were no entirely focused on her and his smile had now turned into a smirk and she it made her blood boil. He was smiling at the fact that she was losing. Letting out a warrior yell she jumped up from her place on the floor and roundhouse kicked her opponent and he stumbled back falling over in the process; taking advantage of the moment Henley moved over to her opponent on the ground and kicked him once in his side the other in his face to make sure he stayed down.

Her blood still pumping from her fight she took the unconscious man and threw him across the room to where the man in the dark suit was standing and when she glared at him he seemed to let out what looked like a laugh.

It was a quiet couple of seconds before the horn blared and the crowd went crazy. The announcer made his way over to her declaring her victorious while thrusting her arm up into the air but the whole time she never dared to take her blue-green eyes off the man in the suit.

He tilted his head to her then made his way out of the building while the people from around her rushed over to her. They marveled at her asked her what type of work out programmed she used, they all were chanting her name, well her stage name which was Diana Prince, as if she was a god and not someone who served them and did whatever she was told to do.

Having enough of the people and getting the feeling in her gut that she should go home to the island she made her way out of the underground basement in the abandon building and into the dark alleyway. It wasn't the worst alleyway she had seen in her life time but it certainly wasn't the worst; it was filled with left over smoke from where the homeless people would have lit there fires and there where at least two dumpsters that she could see. She had seen it before, a dozen times at least, but tonight something was off about it tonight.

"Some fighting you did in there." Came a smooth voice and she jerked her head over to see that the man in the suit was standing a couple feet away from her leaning on the wall the shadows around him creeping closer to him.

"I've been doing it for a while." She responded trying to sound casual.

"Yeah but the fighting you did in there it was almost as if you weren't even, ah what's the word…" he thought for a couple of seconds, "Human."

She gave a sharp intake of breath, "Well considering that reaction I'm guessing I'm right," he said with the utmost of confidence and kicking himself off the wall making his way towards her, "So what is it Inhuman, Asgardian, or is it…"

She cut him off, "Amazon." She said full of pride.

He smirked at her and for some reason her heart speed up, "Now that's interesting, I've never had the pleasure of meeting an Amazon before. I thought you guys, sorry, gals where isolationist who liked staying on their little island?"

"Well we have to get out sometimes." She replied and laughed, "So what are you."

"I'm Inhuman but that's beside the point now what I want to know is your name."

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." She said and she swore she could have seen his eyes light up.

He held his hand out to her and she cautiously took it almost jumping at the sheer amount of adrenaline that went through her body when she shook it, "The names Thomas Ward," he said letting go of her hand and winking at her, "But everybody calls me Tommy."

"Henley," she replied, "My name is Henley Ballis."

"So Henley," he asks trying out her name, "What brings you to underground fight clubbing?"

"I told you already I just had to get out but what about you what brings you here?"

He rolls on the back of his heels and contorts his face like a child just got caught doing something they weren't supposed to be doing. "I'm just," he holds his arms up and gestures to the abandoned building, "building an empire I guess you could say."

Henley couldn't help but smile, "What's that supposed to mean?"

He walked closer to her and bopped her on the nose and she scrunch it up, "Can I tell you a secret Henley." He said seriously.

"I don't see why not." She replied.

He leaned forward and bent down so that his mouth was right next to her ear, "I'm looking for someone whose supposed to be dead and I was hoping that maybe someone here had seen her."

"So you're building an empire to find a dead girl?"

He pulled back and she could see the pain in his eyes, "Wouldn't you do the same for a fellow Amazon?"

"If I knew that she was dead then I would just leave it at that."

"She's not dead!" he yelled at her and she saw rage in his eyes but he quickly pulled it back, "She's not dead she's just…gone." He tried to find the right words, "Believe me when I say that I know she isn't dead because I can feel it but I just don't know where she is, it's not like it used to be." He the last part mostly to himself and Henley stared at him with fascination.

"This girl you're looking for is she also Inhuman?"

He gave her a curios look, "Depends on whose asking?"

She let out a irritated sigh, "Me."

He gave her a half smile, "Then, yeah, she is."

She stepped forward so she was now in his, what people would call, his personal bubble, "Then I can help you look for her." She said. She could help him after all it was an Amazon's job to help the people of Earth and if that meant helping an Inhuman that she couldn't just let that go, she wouldn't be holding up to the oath.

"You would do that?" He asked his voice almost having a slight laugh to it.

"I have to do it I made an oath," she talked to him like he was child, "But if this girl is a threat to the people of Earth then I have to take her out."

"Then let's hope it doesn't come to that." Tommy said grimly and Henley for once agreed with him.

Present Day

Location: Unknown

Henley hated time, it was cruel, it was unforgiving, and overall it was really fucking boring. She had been in her cell for too many, what was it again, months now and she was really about to give up here and slam her fist against the wall until something broke. She had no mirror in her cell but she knew for fact that she looked, smelled, and felt disgusting; her hair was longer and was now almost clumping together every time that she ran her fingers through her hair she cringed when she felt how oily it had become. Her body was covered in bloody, sweat, and dirt and only collecting more since the queen had yet to give her a new set of clothes, or a shower, or a window for that matter.

She wanted to know how much long she would have to stay in this hell hole before someone came to get her. Although a small part of her that was only growing stronger felt as if she knew that no one was coming for her, that no one would come and try to find her. Henley thought that maybe Tommy would come to look for her but there would be no way for him to find her if even she didn't know where she was.

Henley had a hunch though a really big hunch.

She remembered the times after having sex with Tommy they would stay there in each other's arms and he would tell her all about Afterlife and the life that he and Daisy, no wait, Skye had lived there. She had never seen it Tommy wasn't exactly the most descriptive when it came to places but for some reason she had feeling that this is where she was, at least, in the prison portion of it which Henley couldn't remember if he had mentioned it.

She had not seen anybody since she had been taken here, even when they had abducted her she had not seen them once, and when they give her meals it's just through the slot in the door. If her hunch was right though then she knew who had taken her and why and she was so screwed if she was right.

Henley really hoped that she was wrong. She really, really, did.

Though being as the universe seemed to hate her and everybody she had ever come to love it turns out that she was right. After six months of being imprisoned of being kept alone almost to the brink of insanity there was a knock on the door and Henley couldn't help but stare at the door with the up most confusion. Who the fuck knocks on a prisoner's door?

She swallowed and tried to ignore the dryness of her mouth and opened up her mouth, "Come in?" she asked and tried to ignore how scratchy her voice had become and how incredibly weak it sounded. The door opened to show a beautiful woman wearing an equally beautiful gown, her head was held high and her hands were clasped in front of her, the smile on her face seemed genuine; the only thing that set everything off was the horrible scars that seemed to mark her body.

In that moment Henley knew that this was Jiaying, The Queen of Afterlife, The Bane of Tommy's existence, and the worst of them all Skye's mother.

She walked into her jail sail and started inspecting it like she was trying to find something wrong with it or she was just trying to see what Henley had done to it.

From what Tommy had told her about Jiaying it was that she never took mercy on people but she only gave the illusion that she did, so it made her wonder what she was still doing here, alive. "Why am I still alive?" she asked. Not 'Why am I still here' or 'Why me' just 'Why am I still alive', it was like she wanted to get herself killed.

"You've been in here six months," she turned around and stared at her with familiarly brown eyes Skye's eyes she thought to herself, "you haven't broken once, I admire that so I'm here to make a deal."

"Sounds a bit devilish don't you think?" Henley spat out and Jiaying spared her a unimpressed glance.

"You can rot in here or serve me up above as a servant in the palace."

The statement took her breath away she had never once thought that this was where the conversation was going. She couldn't lie to herself she wanted to see the outside again she wanted to feel the sun on her face and most of all she wanted to smell the fresh air, but she would be betraying Tommy and that hurt most of all. She had been here six months and he stilled hadn't come for her yet and each day that passed by a little piece of her stopped believing that he would ever come for her.

"I'll do it." She whispered.

It wasn't good enough though, "I want to hear you say it louder." Jiaying stated and the sentence was making her heart break.

Forcing herself not to cry in front of the monster that stood before her Henley stared at her with complete anger and rage, "I said I'll do it." Each word was with even more hate then the next.

The Queen smiled at her, "Someone will come for you tomorrow and help you clean up." Then she left closing the door.

The for the first time in six months Henley cried letting the tears fall freely down her face not ever bothering to wipe the spit and snot that was now on her face, she was ignoring the fact that she could hardly breath.

She had finally realized it. Henley had broke.

Chapter Text

Another gust of air blew through the small hole in the wall with metal bars on it that was called a window and she wrapped her arms around herself shivering some more. She had been in the cell for seven days, thirteen hours, and eleven minutes; she counted it was the only thing left that she could do. She still wore the same shirt as the day her best friend and mother betrayed her, the once over-sized gray shirt was now turning a tie-dye colors of red and brown from all the blood, sweat, and dirt that it had gathered. Her legs were becoming accustomed to the coldness of the cell and was covered in just as much dirt as her upper body.

She let her hand wonder over to the knife wound two inches below her right breast, it was minor knife wound but the pain behind it was more than just physical. It still ached and she knew that it would scar but she was almost happy that it would. It would stay as a reminder to never trust anybody again, never to let anybody in and that all people will betray you in the end to get what they want.

For some reason the main who locked her up also made sure that her knife wound was stitched up properly and made sure she wasn’t going to die from infection. She had been lucky that the small village she came upon was kind enough to give her medicine to make sure that that didn’t happen and they tried to stitch up her wound the best that they could.

There were footsteps and Daisy pressed herself against the wall trying to hide her now very thin frame in the shadows. She was tempted to pull her eyes away from the man she knew would come; he would open the cell door, come in, and set the bowel on the ground in front of her it was the only meal she got and the only time she saw another human being. He never uttered a word and she had come to the realization that he would never answer any of her question so she had stopped speaking.

 Daisy called him Egghead, his head was shaped like an egg and his brown hair looked like it was glued down very poorly and his skin was white but it looked so white that she thought that maybe he had never seen the sun before. She wasn’t exactly sure how old he was but if she had to guess she would say at least mid-thirties from his build and the slight aging in his features. He wore all black with combat boots and a gun the was holster at his hip, oh how many times she had caught a glimpse of that gun.

She would use her powers to get out but it was only a reminder of the life that she came from.

Egghead came into her cell walking slowly over to her and kneeled to her level placing the wooden spoon and bowel of mush in front of her. She waited for him to get up and leave but instead of doing what she expected him to do Egghead leaned forward and pushed a piece of her hair behind her ear and she wanted to recoil at his touch but instead chose to look at him with the most disgust she could.

“You know most people wouldn’t have last this long let alone pretty ones,” He had an accent if she had to guess it was Swedish, “But it seems that he has taking a liking to you.” 

His hand went towards her cheek and he grasped it forcing her to look him in the eyes, “Who is he?” she asked and he let out what Daisy would call an ‘Evil chuckle’. He flashed her his bleached white teeth and patted her on the cheek that he had gripped.

“The Devil himself.”

Skye’s eye shot open and she was almost put up her hand to let her eyes adjust to the light of the room. “Did you sleep in here last night?” A voice asked and she looked up to that it was Ward who had asked the question, he looked confused at seeing in her.

 It took her a few minutes to remember where she was and why she had slept in the car instead of in her bunk. She tried so hard to fall asleep last night but the bed was just too soft and she wasn’t used to it yet, her body wasn’t used to it yet so she had sneaked out her bunk and made her way to SUV and slept in the back of it.

She glanced up at Ward then to her pajama clad body, “Obviously.” She stated while stretching her arms out over her head. She almost didn’t notice his eyes flicking down to the area where her shirt had ridden up from the movement. Almost. She smiled to herself and leaned over grabbing his hand and looked at the time that displayed on his watch.

9:45am she read a let out a noise of shocked, “Holy shit I slept in.”

“Yeah, I know, I came down here earlier thinking you would be here but you weren’t so I thought that you were still sleeping then it was past nine-thirty and you still weren’t up. I got concerned so I went to Coulson and he told me to look for you in the car and here I am.” He gestured to where he was standing.

“Here you are.” She said and got out of the back of the car making her way to stand beside Ward. She stood there a couple of seconds before rolling her neck trying to get the kinks out her neck and her shoulders.

She put a hand to try to massage the one knot in her shoulder but was stopped by Ward’s hand on top of the hers, “Here let me.” He said and she slowly let her hand away allowing Ward to take control. She would have thought that his hands would be rough but there anything but that, instead he was gentle and didn’t push too hard. She closed her eyes and let her head fall forward a little bit while he continued to massage her shoulder and when he was done minutes later she almost groaned at the loss of his hands.

She turned around and smiled at him, “Thanks for that, I guess it’s one of the downsides of sleeping in the back of a car.”

The sides of his mouth twitched up, “Why were you sleeping in the back of the car again?”

Swallowing her fear from the nightmare she had before he opened the truck she put on a fake smile, “Have you ever played battleship before.” She questioned him.

He looked disappointed that she hadn’t answered the question and for some reason she almost felt bad about it. Almost.

“Yeah, I have, it actually helps trainees and rookies with battle strategies.”

They both started walking towards the stairs that would lead to the upstairs, “Have you ever played a game or read a book for, oh, I don’t know the hell of it?” She waved her hands in the air and shrugged while doing it.

As they walked up the stairs he looked like he was actually trying to find an answer to the question. Once they had reached the top of the stairs he had still not answered the question and she looked over to him, “Woah I didn’t mean to, like, break your coding or whatever.” She said in concern.

He waved it off as they passed the kitchenette and into the lounging area, “No it’s not that I was just actually just trying to remember a time when I did something for myself.”

“Well,” she said stretching out the word, “Didn’t you join SHIELD for yourself?” She asked trying to figure something out about him.

He thought for a second, “No not really, I mean I joined SHIELD because I wanted to but also someone saved my life and I felt like joining SHIELD was paying them back.”

She stopped in front of her bunk and turned to him, “So you joined SHIELD because you felt like you owed a debt? I hate to break it to you Ward but when you owe someone something then it’s not on your own free will.”

Skye opened the door and closed it behind her not looking at his face.

“Every decision you have from here on out has consequences so be warned…the kitty gloves are off.” Ward said seriously and Skye just looked at him with a straight face, she knew where he had placed all off his battleships.

“G7.” She said.

He looked so annoyed that it almost caused her to laugh but instead she let out a slight yes. She placed the piece in its proper slot than continued placed her hand on the table trying to find the next spot, “So,” She said to make conversation, “explain to me again what this has to do with training.”

“Well,” he said leaning back in his seat gesturing towards the board game, “It’s important for every S.O. to evaluate their students thought process.”

“Hmmm.” She said picking up a pretzel and eating it but she leaned forward and looked at him expectantly.

“And I like board games.” He said it so quickly that she had almost not caught it, “B10.”

“Nope,” she said reaching for another snack, “This isn’t thinking this is stabbing in the dark but it’s nice to take a break from working out in the morning once in a while.”

“You deserve a break, I mean I have to give Coulson credit, I wouldn’t have pegged an ex Rising Tide hacker as a good fit but…you pick things up pretty fast.”

She leaned back a smiled in disbelief, “Did you just give me a compliment?”

He looked flustered, “I-no made a comment.”

“A kind one. Did it physically hurt to do that?” She leaned forward and with all seriousness asked, “Do you need an ice pack?”

He let out a real laugh and a smile a Skye couldn’t help but feel butterflies in her stomach, “Woah! A compliment and a smile,” She gushed then went back to being serious, “I hate to ruin the moment, but I’m going to have to respond with- G4.”

The smile that she had put on his face had completely vanished when he had glanced down at his board. He hadn’t even move to put the peg in before she was already leaning forward again, “Say it Ward, say it.”

“You sunk my battleship.”

“Yes! I beat you again.”

“I still think you’re cheating,” he protested, “best two out of three.”

She could feel other heartbeats in the room with them and she quickly caught a glance of Coulson and May off in the corner whispering about something and it made her heart jump. They were looking at her and Ward so odds are they were talking about her most likely since she was the outsider on the Team, but that still didn’t make her feel any better. She had to made a fist with one of her hands to make herself calm again, she didn’t like it when people talked about her, she looked down at her hand to see that her finger nails had left indents on her hand and that she had almost broken skin.

“I’m not cheating you just really suck at this game.” She said cleaning up her pieces.

She feels the vibrations of a phone buzz and she looks down at hers only to see that it hasn’t gone off yet. Skye looks to Ward but he hasn’t reached for his phone so she looks to the only other people in the room and she sees that both Coulson and May are looking at their phone. As if sensing her staring at her Coulson and May both gave her a look as if to tell her to follow them and she could tell that it wasn’t a request.

Standing up she straightened out the shirt that she had and look to Ward who had also notice the look that both the elder agents have given them. He stood up with her and soon he was standing by her side waiting for her to move, “I got a bad feeling about this day.”

He turned to look at her as she started following May and Coulson, “What gives you that impression?”

She shrugs, “It’s just a feeling.”

She quickens her pace after that and quickly catches up with the older agents who had now made their way into the conference room with FitzSimmons, who were off to the side chatting, and a man that was on the screen with a cleanup crew in the background of him.

When they all find their places, Coulson introduces the man on the screen, “Everybody this is Agent Kwan.”

They all nod or give their respectable hello’s.

“Thanks Coulson, anyway I’m here to tell you that before someone took Chan someone had hacked into our data stream.

All went silence, so much so, that Agent Kwan had asked why had everybody had gone quiet and Skye looked up to see that everybody was looking at her. She let out a huff annoyance and looked around at all the staring eyes at her, “Oh come on,” she said, “You can’t honestly think that it was me?”

She looked at FitzSimmons and they had a guilty look on their faces telling her that they did in fact believe that it was her. She turned her head to Ward and he just shrugged like he was going with what everybody else was saying while May and Coulson, who had cut off the stream to Agent Kwan, just had stern looks on their faces.

Skye almost wanted to laugh because of how ridiculous the whole notion was.

She held her hands up in surrender, “Alright, look, I’ll trace the hack back to its original place and then I can show all of you guys that it wasn’t me.” She didn’t walk out the room, no, she practically stomped out of the room because they didn’t believe her when she said that she didn’t hack anything. Skye didn’t understand why this was bothering her so much that they didn’t believe her when she said that she hadn’t hacked SHIELD. Hell, she wouldn’t believe her either. Maybe it was the way that FitzSimmons had looked at her, like she didn’t know any better, or maybe it was the look May gave her like she wasn’t expecting anything less from her.

She shouldn’t be effected by this, she was the one that told them from the beginning not to trust her yet here she was feeling almost, hurt, that they didn’t believe her. Trying the shake the feeling off she focused all of her work onto finding out who had hacked the system she moved her fingers as fast as she could.

After a while she thought she would never find this person but Skye was never one to give up and finally after a good twenty minutes she found the place where it was done. It was a café in Austin, Texas and when she found it Skye had to stop for a moment and think because there was only one person she knew that could do this in Texas and that was Miles.

She hated Miles.

Letting out a large sigh and forcefully shutting her laptop and rubber two fingers against her temple trying to sooth the headache that was now threatening to come on. Moving the computer to the side she swung her legs over the side and took her time getting up debating whether or not she would tell everybody else about this. On one hand she could tell the team about everything that had to do with Miles and risk him not telling them anything and get away or she could tell them nothing and risk being caught going to Miles and trying to get the information on her own.

Skye knew that if she went on her own then they all had a better chance of getting information considering the massive crush that Miles had on her. If she did go on her own without telling anybody though that meant that she risked the barley formed trust the she had just formed with everybody on The Bus. She groaned to herself and let out a noise of frustration and made up her mind, trust can be rebuilt this information wouldn’t be there forever.

Her mind was made up; she would tell them about Miles but she wouldn’t tell them everything.

Opening her bunk door she made her way into the conference room where Coulson was still standing working on something with him tablet. She slowly made her way over to him and leaned against the table, “So, I traced the hack back to a café in Austin, Texas.”

Coulson looked up from his tablet, “Alright that’s good I call everybody else back and you can tell us what you found,” He then saw the look on her face, “What’s with the face?”

She sighed and smiled sadly, “It’s nothing just that I have a… off feeling about this whole thing.”

He put the tablet down and looked at her with concern, “What’s wrong?”

She struggled to find words, “It’s just, doesn’t this whole thing feel a little… planned to you, like someone wanted this to happen?” she asked rubbing the back of her neck with her hand.

He tilted his head to the side as if he was really thinking about everything that was happening, “I guess it  could seem that way but let’s see what you found first before you turn into a conspiracy theorist.”

She let out a small laugh and pointed a finger at him, “Hey, me being slightly paranoid is what has kept me alive all this time.”

Skye moved back to where she originally was while the rest of the team started slowly entering the room and she was preparing the information on a tablet that was given to her. She looked at Miles’s photo for a couple of seconds before putting it on the monitor and taking a deep sigh, “His name is Miles Lydon, he sets up his main base is Austin, Texas which is where he did the hack,” she said as a matter of factly, “He was the one the originally let me into the Rising Tide and let me tell you that what I know of him this is out of character.”

“How so?” Coulson asked.

“He usually the one to play practically jokes on people with his hacks but this one is different, someone’s life is actually in danger here.”

“Are you saying that he didn’t do it?” It was May the talked this time and she almost gasp at hearing her talk.

“Oh−don’t get me wrong this was defiantly his doing, I’m just saying that this is a little…odd for him.” She hated doing this, she almost sounded like she was trying to defend him.

“You sound like you have a personal relationship with him.” Ward shot in and she rolled her eyes at the very idea.

“I mean he’s always trying to get me to have sex with him but, unfortunately for him, I actually have standards.”  She replied back looking down at her tablet and pretending to press a few more buttons. She already knew that when she looked back that they would be staring at her and sure enough when she did all their eyes were directed and her.

“Look in my opinion, you guys shouldn’t go after him, we have a lot to lose if you don’t catch him.” She said.

“Well we don’t have a choice Skye.” Coulson stress her name and she knew that there was no getting out of this one. She knew that she was going to have to go behind their backs but for a moment she hoped that maybe she could have gotten them to change their minds and maybe there wouldn’t be that small sliver of guilt inside her for betraying them.

Then again, she did warn them that she would do this eventually.

Skye was running as fast as she could to get to Miles apartment in time before he decided to freak and get the hell out of dodge. She knew that she was working with a limited time frame since they had landed down and found Miles, Ward had started tailing him, he was made, and when Skye heard over the comm that he was running she took off too.

She was pushing people out of her way ignoring their cries of protest when she finally saw that she was coming up on Miles’s apartment building. Skye slowed down and tried pulling at the door and was very frustrated when she found out that it was locked, taking a quick glance over her shoulders to see if anyone was paying attention she let out a blast of vibrations and busted the lock. She let out a quick cry of victory and sprinted up towards the apartment that she hoped would still house Miles and the information that she was looking for.

When she found his door she wondered for a second if she should really bother with knocking but finding the idea ridiculous and just opened the door. When she walked passed the door she found Miles there, he smiled at her and she smiled back, Skye was no fool she knew that he was into her but she was never going to be into him.

 When he approached her, and started talking about everything and at the end of his speech he started leaning in as if she was supposed to kiss him. That’s when she took her shot and she kicked his leg out from under him and punched him in the face knocking him unconscious then she riffled through his drawers before finding some duct tape and wrapping him in it.

“Well looks like you’re having fun.” Skye froze at his voice and she turned around to see Tommy standing there with a smirk on his face.

“Why are you here Tommy?” She said flatly, annoyed that he was even here and that he had sneaked up on her.

“I came looking for information remembered this guy isn’t half bad, seems that you thought that thing too.”

“Tommy if you wanted information you could have just come to me about it.”

“Yeah but this is information that you don’t exactly want SHIELD to find out about.”

Skye nodded her head in understanding but was still pissed he didn’t talk to her about it. Tommy let out a huge sigh and started towards the kitchen, “Well, I going to raid his kitchen while you do whatever you need to, want anything?”

“No, I’m fine.”

He smiled and winked at her and she lifted her middle finger and smiled back.

Looking around the apartment she found nothing but when she got to the computer that’s when she hit gold she started downloading everything she could onto a single USB drive.

“You know for some guy who’s supposed to hide information he sure as hell sucks at it.” Skye had yelled back to Tommy.

“Yeah well the kind of information that I wanted wasn’t exactly going to be found via computer.” Tommy had walked back into the living room with a can of whip cream which he was spraying into his mouth. He then sat down on the couch putting his feet up on the coffee table Skye sighed and went over to him sitting down next to him placing her head on the side of his shoulder, “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Do you ever remember when you were innocent.” He asked and she let out a loud snort.

“We were never innocent,” She pointed out poking his stomach, “especially you and your dirty mind.”

He chuckled, “That’s not what I mean,” he said moving his arm around her shoulder, “I meant, do you remember a time when almost everybody we know didn’t want to kill us?”

She moved to look at him more closely, “Tommy I don’t know if you remember but even we tried to kill each other so we’re not exactly… great in the people pleasing department.”

He made a noise of agreement and the two sat there for a while in silence, it was their thing, and it was almost ironic because Tommy never seemed to shut up. Skye looked over at the content that was downloading onto the USB drive and she noticed that it was almost done, sighing, she got up and went over to it clicking on everything she needed too to make sure that she all the information that she needed.

Skye looked back over at Tommy and noticed that he was looking through all of Miles’s pockets on his persons.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I trying to look for something usefully but all this guy seems to have on him is lint.” He said shaking his hand trying to shake off what she was guessing lint.

“You know not everybody is a dead slash ex-FBI agent turned internationally wanted criminal only to be.” She said sarcastically.

He glared at her but she could the beginnings of a smile while he got up and walked towards her, “Believe me Skye when I say that I know I am a special breed and a wake every day knowing that nobody else will be as brilliant and cunning as me.” He said tapping the side of his head.

“Humble too.” She muttered

He chuckled and elbowed her in the ribs, “I know it’s one of my more defining characteristics.” He started moving into the bedroom she was about to follow him, hoping to find something more there.

She was about to making her way into the bedroom when she noticed something was off with one of the ceiling tiles. Quickly removing it and grabbing a chair she lifted herself into the ceiling and found another USB drive but this one almost made her stop breathing.

It was one of her hard drives that she had created; everything about Mary Sue Poots was on that hard drive. How in the hell had Miles gotten his hands on it?

She quickly took the hard drive stuffing it into her bra and jumped down from the chair making her way over to Miles, slapping his face to wake him up. He came back and looked up at her with fear etches into every inch of his face but she didn’t care she needed answers, “Where did you get the flash drive that was in the ceiling?” She asked pointing to ceiling as she just was ripping off the duct tape.

His whole body was shaking, “I don’t know some guy just gave it to me said to keep it hidden.”

Skye punched him in his gut and he doubled over coughing, she wasn’t done yet though, she pulled him back up, “who was the guy?’

“I don’t know.” It was a lie he knew who it was so she punched him in his face.

“You’re only going to more hurt if you keep lying to me Miles!”

“Alright, alright, he called himself Calvin Zabo, he just gave it to me and said that I should hide it, but I didn’t look at the file I swear.” It was a lie.

She couldn’t help what happened next it was like she had blacked out, the feeling of cold and numbness returned to her the world and all she wanted to do was take out the threat, she lost control. It reminded her of her days with the man who called himself Lucifer, she knew he wasn’t the devil, but sometimes even she had doubted it. She remembers his cold dark blue eyes looking at her, handing her a knife his arm overlapping hers and whispering in her ear, “The best thing about being in control Johnson,” he brought out a prisoner, “is when you get to lose it.” All she heard for hours after that was the screams of the prisoner in that room.

Skye was brought out of her haze when someone put a hand on her shoulder and Skye instantly went into her fighting mode and she punched whoever pulled on her shoulder hard. Once she felt them move she jumped up off the floor and saw someone getting up and she went to go punch them again.

The person blocked it but Skye kneed them in the gut and pushed them so they went over the couch and fell to the floor. She jumped over the couch to see the person lying on the floor was and when she saw Tommy pulling back his head and getting up from the ground she almost she stopped short and looked over to see what she had done.

Skye looked over to Miles and she went ridged from what she saw, he was lying there on the floor his face was bloody and looked badly beaten. The only hope she got was from his heartbeat telling her that he was still living but it didn’t change the fact that she was going to kill him if Tommy hadn’t stopped her. Looking down at herself she saw that her shirt was covered in his blood and her knuckles were scraped and blooded, a combination of both their blood.

Everything was becoming blurry, there was a ringing in her ears, and what the hell was with her breathing. She had to get out of there, she threw off her shirt and ran into the bathroom turning the faucet on and splashing the cold water onto her face trying to shock herself back into reality and out of the nightmare she was entering again. She closed her eyes not wishing to see the water run red with his blood and hers, she didn’t want to see the evidence of the most she had become. Her hands where shaking and she needed to do something and without thinking she let out a blast Miles entire dresser was flown back against the wall breaking and causing a dent in the wall.

She tried taking a few deep calming breaths and tried to stop the light tremor to her hands that beginning to take place. She placed her hands back on the sink and watched it crack under her grasp, she took another deep breath and looked in the mirror to see that Tommy was looking at her with concern.

Skye took another shaky breath and looked at him through the mirror, “Is it bad?” she asked disgusted at how her voice sounded so robotic.

“He’ll be bruised to hell and really sore when he finally comes back but other than that he’s fine.”

They waited there for a moment she could feel the question that he wanted to ask, “Just ask it already.”

He sighed and ran a hand over his stubble, “I thought that you had a handle on this.”

Skye hit the sink, hearing it break more, and turned around angrily, “I thought I did too” She snapped at him and instead of him looking at her in the eyes his had roamed down to the area of her scar and she had to stop from covering it up. He looked so taken aback by it that she swore she could see the beginning of tears formed in his eyes; it was the ultimate reminder of his betrayal to her.

“I hate that scar.” He said his voice was had a slight tremor to it.

She snorted, “Yeah well I’m not exactly fond of it either.” She snapped at him and instantly regretted it, “Look I’m sorry I just…I’ve had a bad feeling about this whole day and it seems that it’s coming full circle.”

Tommy looked hesitant and first but finally took a step further to her, “Look, I get it, I do I still get nightmares sometimes and every day I get reminded of the horrible things that I’ve done.”

“Yeah, well, at least you can remember everything thing you’ve done.”

It was true there were some gaps in her memory, not a lot, but enough to make her wonder why she would be one place and wake up the next. She knows that she shouldn’t want to know what had happened during those gaps but considering the horrible things she could remember she didn’t even want to guess what she had done.

She looked at Tommy and he looked guilty about something before covering his face again with his usual half smiling mask, “What?” she asked.

“Look Miles isn’t waking up soon and there isn’t anything better here so I think I’m going to head out, you good here alone?”

She nodded her head and he walked out the room and she looked back to see the true damage of the sink and groaned when she saw the state that it was in. She owed him a new sink that was the least that she could do, she would do it when she had a time. Skye looked down to see that she was still shirtless quickly took the towel that was hanging off the rake she dabbed it on her face wiping the remaining water from her face and threw it into the sink frustrated.

Skye walked towards the door, carefully avoiding the destroyed dresser, and made her way to the door opening it and was not expecting to see May on the other side of the door holding her shirt. Her first reaction should probably have been taking the shirt out of May’s hands instead she crossed her arms over her chest effectively hiding the scar.

They both were staring at each other and both not breaking eye contact until Skye finally grabbed the shirt out of May’s hand. May turned around, taking the hint she followed, and put her shirt back on and followed her into the living room sitting down on the couch and let her gaze wander over to the still unconscious Miles. She knew that he was close to waking up and she was worried what would happen when he did, what he would say, and what he wouldn’t say.

She saw may’s gaze wonder over to Miles in the corner and in a second flat she had her gun trained on Skye.

 “Look May I know this looks bad but I broke in here to get some information that’s it I swear I never met to have anything happen here.” Skye said not even flinching that there was a gun to her temple.

“Who the hell are you?” She said putting the gun closer to her.

“Nobody May, that’s the truth, I am nobody.”

May looked at her for a second before asking the question she had been dreading, “Did you do that to him.” She say motioning over to Miles

“Does it matter?” Skye asked titling her head to the side her voice wavered a bit.

May was about to say something but was interrupted when the rest of the team came in. Ward had the gun pointed around the room while Fitzsimmons was the in the background looking around the apartment and Coulson was standing in front of all of them looking at her and May with a confusion as he saw the state of the two of them.

Before the team could say anything Miles started to wake up and when he started to become more aware of his surroundings he started to groan trying to move slightly. He looked around terrified especially looking at Skye and started speaking but it was all muffled out by his fat lip, she could imagine though that it was about her.

That’s when it all came back to her. Doing this for Hydra, for Lucifer, being on missions and taking out who was ever in her way no matter what the cost. In that moment, she felt like Agent Johnson again, and it scared her shitless and thinking of being that person again brought up a memory.

Lucifer was training her hard and if she hesitated she would get her ass handed to her until she got it right. Sometimes she still wondered how this was better than when he was torturing her then she remembers that he showed what she could truly do.

It had almost been ten months but she could tell the differences it was becoming more and harder to find any fat on her and her short hair did make her look older, in her mid-twenties, and not her actual age of eighteen. The killing people wasn’t bad, not as much as she thought it would be she doesn’t really feel anything she just thought of them as paper.

In some weird way, she had come to respect him even if his nickname was the Devil but Hydra had not earned her respect not yet. That changed though when it came to the one mission it was a little boy who was inhuman just like her. She at the top of the building with a sniper waiting for her orders in her earpiece. The young boy’s mother was screaming at them for them to spare her son and to take her instead but no mercy was found there. He walked out of the broken-down building with the boy and shoved him down to the ground the boy looked around and his eyes locked with a young man then the man just exploded.

“Agent Johnson take the shot.” He said to her.

She did almost immediately but something in her made her hesitate for only three seconds, she counted, before she pulled the trigger putting a bullet through the young boy’s head. The sounds of the mother screaming was becoming too  much for her and she was about to end her too when another gunshot rand out and she looked through the scope to see that Lucifer had done himself.

It was later when she met him down by the building she was on and he put a hand around her neck pushing her against the wall, her head colliding against the wall full force. She saw stars for only a moment before her eyes came back into focus and they landed with cold blue eyes of his. “What the hell was that Johnson?”

“What are you talking about I took the shot.” She said her voice stone cold.

“But you hesitated and I can’t have my prodigy hesitating.” He punched her in her ribs knowing full well that one of them were cracked, “Don’t ever hesitate ever again do you understand me, because when you give someone the power to kill you they will not hesitate to take it. Now I’m asking again Do. You. Understand. Me?”

“Yes, sir I understand it won’t happen again.”

“Good.” He said letting her drop the ground, “Now get up and clean yourself up because you look like shit.” She watched him walk off and as he did she vowed to herself that she would never hesitate ever again.

She was brought out of her little flashback by Coulson saying her name and she turned her head to see that everybody was staring at her. She shook her head and looked at the Team, “Sorry what were you saying?”

“We wanted to know why you were here.”

“I’ll tell you back on the Bus.” She started walking off trying to shake the memory away but as she was passing Coulson he grabbed her arm and she tensed up straightening her back like a solider. Whenever Lucifer grabbed her arm like that it usually meant that she had a very important mission and that if she failed there would be major consequences.

“Skye, you’re not going back to the Bus without cuffs.”

She brushed off Coulson’s hand and glared at him, “I broke into his apartment and took some information that could be useful to you guys, I’m so sorry for trying to help out on the mission.” 

“Then why did you have to lie?” He had sympathy in his voice and Skye had just about had enough of it.

“Because it’s what I do,” She snapped at him, “and you should just accept that by now.” it was quiet but they got the message that she was quite serious about not telling them what they wanted to know. She would meet them half way and she held out her hands Ward walking towards her putting on her and put his robotic mask back on.

She knew that this was going to be a bad day.

Chapter Text

She was in the interrogation room, handcuffed to the table, sitting across from Miles in what she could say was the most awkward silence of her life. They were both sitting there waiting for something to happen for at least ten minutes now and she was coming to the conclusion that maybe they were taking their time a reason. Skye tapped her fingers on the table and let out a little whistle trying to avoid Miles's glare that he was sending her way.

"Can you stop doing that." He grumbled. The swelling in his face had gone down a little bit and after they cleaned up the blood she was clearly able to see the bruises that were starting to form on his face.

Skye quickly stopped tapping her fingers and faced Miles, "I'm just trying to pass the time before they come in here for whatever you did."

He scoffed then flinched from the pain, "Well maybe I would have cooperated better if someone hadn't broken my face!"

Skye rolled her eyes, "Oh, please your just bruised stop whining about it."

Then there was more awkward silences and Skye would rather go up against her mother than be in this room with Miles. They sat there in the position they had started in; Miles glaring at her and Skye looking anywhere but his eyes and for a second, just maybe a second, Skye thought that the only good thing to come out of this was that Miles probably didn't want to sleep with her anymore.

"So why did you go after SHIELD?" Skye finally asked after not being able to handle the silence anymore.

He gave her a look that Skye dubbed the 'bitch really' look, "Are you seriously asking me that? The girl who solely went after SHIELD alone is asking me why I went after them?"

"Well you don't have to be a dick about it." She mumbled.

"Skye you've seen what they do. They think that they're entitled to everything, that people don't deserve to know the truth, all I did was give the people what they deserve." He meant what he was saying and Skye didn't need to use her powers to tell that.

"You're not Edward Snowden Miles! SHIELD is hiding these people for good reason." She yelled back and he looked offend.

"Are you seriously defending them?"

If she wasn't in handcuffs she would be pulling her hair out right about now, "I'm not defending them, all I'm saying is that…" she paused, "is that did you ever think that maybe the reason why they're hiding them is because, maybe, they're hiding them to protect them."

He opened his mouth to say something but all that came out was a noise of disbelief and then finally his face became something of anger, "You can't tell me that after seeing what was in that flash drive what they are doing is protecting people."

That made Skye jump and lunge across the table but her hand was caught and she saw Miles recoil back. She didn't want to break the cuffs so instead she calmed herself down a little bit and pointed her finger at him, "Miles, if you're smart, then you would never mention the flash drive again. Do you understand me?"

"Why is that, why should I act like anything on that flash drive didn't happen?" He asked trying to cross his arms forgetting that he was also handcuffed then moved his arms back to their original positions.

She broke the cuff that was holding her to the table and grabbed Miles by the shirt collar and brought her voice down to a whisper, "Because Miles people would do anything to get their hands on the flash drive and when I say anything I mean that they wouldn't give two shits about killing some hacker from Texas to get it."

He gulped but she wasn't down yet, "I know that SHIELD has done terrible things and I get that, I do, but that doesn't you should be creating anarchy for people who don't want it."

"But everything you do has chaos to it, I mean, I've seen your videos Skye."

She rolled her eyes, "All that chaos, Miles, that you see is chaos that I can control. Now do we have an understanding about the flash drive?"

He gave her his best confused look, "What flash drive?"

She smirked a little bit, "Atta boy." She let go of his shirt and he slowly slinked down back into his chair while she did the same thing and put her feet up on the table now have to enter the realm of awkward silence again.

Skye listened for other heartbeats and she found that Miles was racing a, pun not intended, mile per minute while on the other side of the glass there where two other steady heartbeats both, she recognized, as Coulson and May.

She was brought out of her listening in when Miles cleared his throat, "So has anyone ever told you that you're really hot when you're threatening people?"

Skye threw her head back rubbed her fingers to her temple while staring up at the ceiling, "Oh my god." She whispered to herself and didn't reply back afraid that if she did he would only take as a lead on. Just send anyone she thought hell I'll take my mother at this point. On cue Simmons came busting through the door and Skye looked up at the ceiling as if she was saying thank you to whatever entity was up there.

"We got some evidence that we thought both of you wanted to hear." Simmons looked like she was trying her best to sound professional but was holding back at yelling at her but the look of disappointment she saw on her face didn't pass her. She walked out of the room and Skye guessed that the time for being alone was over and that they were finally coming to interrogate them.

Moments later Ward walked through the door and she knew that he was pissed at her she didn't need any vibration off of him.

He had, what Skye had dubbed, the Ward Siblings Angry face, all Ward Siblings had it, and she had seen all of them at least once. It was when they clenched their jaws, titled their head up in the air a little bit, and side eyed the hell out of the person they were angry at. Personality wise it could be different because she highly doubts that Grant would turn into a sarcastic little shit like Tommy does; from what she had seen at the wake and from Tommy updates Rose was clever when she got mad and came up with the most colorful insults and then became passive aggressive after she was done insulting the person. Christian, she wasn't too familiar with but from what she could tell he got a little more physical when he was angry at someone and if it was in public he would be cold and silent, at least that's what she had heard, so Skye was starting to wonder what Grant would be like.

"So," Ward said taking files out of a folder laying them down in front of her, "turns out that Miles has been making a series of deposits adding up to one million dollars after the leak."

Skye picked up the paper already knowing it was true but looked at it anyway. She groaned and gave Miles an incredulous look, "Where did the money come from?"

Both men turned and looked at her weirdly, "You sold out for one million dollars I'd love to see what you say when your freedoms involved." She said seriously like she was the one doing the interrogation.

"Like you wouldn't have done the same thing." He spat at her.

She smirked and dropped her voice a little bit, "Wanna bet one million on it."

He glared at her and gave out a final huff, "It was from Project Centipede, I thought that it was an Eco-research lab. Look I didn't know that money was dirty I thought that it was harmless!" he shouted the last part and both Skye and Ward looked at each other.

Ward turned around and started walking out the door and into the hallway so she quickly got up to follow him but turned around at the last second pointing at finger at Miles, "You're really fucking stupid I hope you know that." Then continued to follow Ward.

She caught up with him and when he heard her footsteps he turned around glaring at her, "You should be inside the interrogation room nobody gave you permission to leave." He said robotically.

She put her hands on her hips, "I gave myself permission."

"Go back to the interrogation room." He said getting closer to her.

Being defiant she stepped closer to him and if they were the same height their noses would be touching, "Look I get that you're pissed at me, that all of you are pissed at me, but we still have a problem here and you know that I can help fix it. So how about when you go back to the other tell them to take the blinders off and look at the bigger picture." She said in a low voice that was boarding on threating.

He looked down at her and stayed silent for a couple of seconds before opening his mouth, "I said go back to the interrogation room."

She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest while backing away from him, "And while you're at it tell them to stop being whiny bitches about me lying to them." She yelled back at him angrily while she walked back to the last place that she wanted to be on this ship. Skye came back into the room with Miles looking up at her confused as to why she probably came back.

She sat down in the chair and let out a loud and then a few seconds later so did Miles and for a moment they were both in the same boat.

Until he opened his fucking mouth, "So can I just ask why did you join the Rising Tide?"

"Honestly," She asked and he nodded his head, "I needed to use your guy's resources."

"For what?"

"My own selfish reasons."

"Well that's a shitty thing to do." He said and she looked at him like he was crazy.

"You do realize that you just sold out an innocent man, who will probably die, for a million dollars right if anyone did any shitty thing in this room it's you." She said flatly trying to covey that she didn't want to talk but when Miles opened his mouth again he obviously didn't get the hint so instead Skye was going to turn it around on him. "So," she asked, "Who told about project Centipede anyway, I mean it took me months to figure it out."

Miles scratched the back of his head and scrunched up his face a bit looking like he was trying to find out what to say, "I don't really know she never said her name but she had dark curly hair, dark skin, always had sun glasses on."

"Well Miles I think you describe basically anyone who lives in Austin."

He glared at her, "There was one weird thing about her though."

"And what's that?" she asked with a fake sweet voice.

"She always wore these super nice expensive flower dresses."

That made her entire body seize and all that flashed through her mind were images of Raina and her father always talking. Raina and her always bickering over the locations of some of the temples where you could activate the terragenesis mist but in the end the two girls became frenemies. They didn't hate each other but they didn't come to like each other either, a mutual respect is what happened and in the end, they both ended up liking insulting each more that complimenting each other.

If Raina was here then she why they had taken the gifted and that meant that SHIELD didn't have much time before it was too late. She jumped up from her chair and ignored Miles's questions of where she was going and made her way down a series of hallways and turns trying to find the rest of the team.

Skye ran into the conference room but felt her stomach drop when she didn't see anyone there so she used her powers to find that Coulson was downstairs in the bay area and she felt her heartrate pick up when the plane landed. Sprinting down the cargo bay area she found Coulson there with May standing beside him looking ready to go into the field.

"Coulson!" she shouted and he turned around looking stunned and she ran forward, "You can go in there."

"Why not?" He questioned her and she gave him a concerned look.

"Because," she said pointing towards the outside, "If you go in there you might not be able to come back."

"We have to this Skye, we have to save him." He said back and groaned with frustration so she tried to reason with the only person on the plane she thought had some sanity left.

She turned to May, "You asked me who I was and I said nobody…that was a lie," She couldn't tell what May was thinking but she went on anyway, "Well here's the first honest and only honest answer I am probably going to give you guys." She took a deep breath, "I am a terrible person and I have been the cause of a lot of people's pain and suffering, I've sent people to their deaths before and didn't even spare a thought afterwards." She said pointing to herself and she tried to keep the tears from coming out but the emotion was there, "I can't change that, what's done is done, and I will live with all of that for the rest of my life, but, if to go in there I can promise you that none of it will end well for anyone. Whether it's today, tomorrow, a couple of months, or maybe even a year I can tell you that nothing will be the same if you go in there, so please don't go in there." She was begging by this point and looking at the two hoping for the response.

The cargo bay door opened and Coulson smiled sadly at her and her heart dropped, "I'm sorry." He turned around and started jogging off the Bus. She looked over at May who looked like she understood what she was saying but then slowly turned around following Coulson out the door and all Skye wanted to do was follow them and she almost did. Almost. Until arms wrapped around her stopping her from going any further and tried half hazard to keep out of them but the grip was too strong and she didn't want to use her powers.

"Just let them do their job Skye," she heard Ward whispering in her ear, "They know what they're doing they'll come back."

She leaned back against him and bit her lip, "And when they come back then we'll all have targets on our backs." She turned around and faced him, "You can hate me all I want later but believe when I say that the last thing I want is you or anyone else on this team dead." She spat out and she felt his hands let go of her and she took this chance to run to the nearest computer that she could find.

It ended up being in the lab with FitzSimmons.

Skye rushed to it, ignoring FitzSimmons, and opened it with haste and quickly hacked into the security footage of the building they were in and her heart sped up at the sight of Scorch lighting up the place with his hands. She kept switching the feeds trying to see if there was anything else that she could do and stopped when she finally found something useful.

It was a lab full of computers and she was good with computers, great even, and all she needed to do was shut them down. That was where the hard part came in though; she couldn't shut down all the computers from where she was, she was going to have do it on site.

Before looking up she did one more thing and she almost regretted doing it as soon as she did. Flipping through the feed one more time her eyes caught on some movement and she paused it footage zooming in on it. There stood Raina with her curly black hair, kitten heels, and a flower dress, all Skye could do was stare at her and think about all the decent moments they had together.

She hated Rania but she also brought her, her father and for that she owes her the world.

Shutting the laptop Skye looked up at FitzSimmons, who looked scared, and then she turned her eyes to Ward who looked at her expectantly.

"Look I get that you guys don't exactly trust me right now but May and Coulson are going to get their asses handed to them in their if I don't help out." She said.

"And how are you going to that." Ward said curiously tilting his head to the side and his arms crossed over his chest.

"I can shut down all the computers but I can't do it from in here I need to be on site."

Fitz let's a loud huff of disbelief, "You mean to tell me that you need to go in there," he said pointing to the burning building, "The building with a man who can shoot bloody fire out of his hands!" He yelled at her and Simmons put a hand on his shoulder and he visibly relaxed at her touch, something about the two being together brought joy to her heart.

"I think was Fitz is trying to say is that Coulson and May are already in there and we don't won't to risk anyone else." Simmons said softly

"No what I'm trying to say is that it's a horrible idea." Fitz replied back.

Ward held his hands up signaling everybody to talk, "I think we're getting off trach here."

"You're right," Skye snapped and he looked at her surprised, "We're wasting time debating this," all their faces fell at her saying this, "I'm going in there with or without your help; look I know how to do this without any help but that's doesn't mean I don't want it, I'm just so tired of doing everything alone." She said the last part as she was at the entrance to the lab about to step out and she gave them three seconds to respond and when she didn't she stepped out.

"Wait," she heard Fitz's voice call out and she turned around with a happiness in her eyes he stepped forward and gave her an earpiece, "You're going to need someone to walk you through the halls."

"Thank you, Fitz."

"Friends have each other backs." He nodded at her.

Ward stepped forward, "I'll go with you in case you run into anybody."

Nodding her head both Skye and Ward made their way out of the plane and into the fire below.

The building was breaking all around her, she could feel it crumbling, and she tried her best to ignoring the feeling or doom that creeping up on her. The fire that the gifted had caused was picking more and more fuel, it was so bad that she was almost to the point where she needed to use her shirt as a filter. The fire was getting was almost to the point that if it wasn't stopped soon then the whole building would go up in flames.

"Make a left up ahead!" Fitz shouted in her ear and she almost winced at how loud he was. Running faster she was about to make the turn when she saw that four men stood in her way and she put out her arms stopping Ward from making the turn. She quickly turned her comm off and made sure that FitzSimmons wasn't going to hear what was about to happen, she felt like it would ruin the relationship that was trying to rebuild with them.

He looked at her confused and she motion she the corner where he stealthy held out his head and whipped it around just as fast. Skye held four fingers up and he shook his head in agreement then got out his gun but she put her hands on the gun forcing him to put in back down. Skye was taught to use guns as a last resort if and when the environment around you and your fists has let you down.

That day had yet to come and she highly doubt that it would be today.

Looking around quickly she notice a broken off water pipe laying on the ground and she smiled running over to it and picking it up. She motioned for Ward to stay where he was and the next thing she knew she was running off to take on six men on her own with only a water pipe.

The first one wasn't hard, she had caught him off guard, and smacked the pipe as hard as she could against his head and she felt his skull crack. She didn't give the rest of them any time to react because before they knew it she had already grabbed the second man and quickly broke his arm then as he screamed out in pain she slammed his head against the wall.

The other two stood there in shock but recovered quickly before putting their guns up and pointing it at her. They weren't carrying assault rifles and she was thankful for that instead all they had on them were glocks and when she moved forward both had started firing away. She was able to dodge a few by moving out of the way and she threw the pipe that she had in her hand at one of the men and it hit him square in the chest and he fell back instantly.

Skye ran up to the remaining man and tried punching him in the face but was blocked by his arm and he in returned try punching her in the gut. She was quicker though and grabbed his hand and let a burst of power run through his hand and as he screamed out in pain she could feel all the bones in his hand break. He knelt down in pain and she kneed him in the face and then he fell backwards and for a moment she didn't care that most of them weren't going to live.

She turned around when she heard a familiar clicking sound and saw that the one man that had been hit with the pipe in the chest and woken up and was firing an empty gun at here. "Really?" she said and walked over to the man and grabbed his empty gun before hitting him in the face with it effectively knocking him out.

Skye then stood up a looked at all the unconscious men around her and she smiled, she still got it, even after all this time. The she heard another noise and turned around only to see that Ward was staring at the men too but she couldn't tell what the facial expression was, it was too hard for her to read at the moment.

"So, some self-defense class you must have had." He said motioning to the bodies around her.

"Yeah, it really taught me a lot." She almost stuttered her voice going up a pitch.

"Obviously."

She let out a laugh breath and put a finger to her ear putting her comm back on, "Fitz," she breathed out, "Where to next?"

"Bloody hell what happened I thought that something had happened." She heard Fitz ramble off.

"Everything fine Fitz we just hit a little snag but it's taken care of so can you tell us where we have to go next."

She heard some typing and she was tapping her foot on the ground adrenaline running through her veins. Skye gave Ward a look but was confused to see that he was looking around at the men around him an expression on curiosity on his face.

"It looks like that you both just have to go down the hall and then take a right then there should be a door that leads to the room with the main computers."

She nodded her head and then motioned for Ward to follow her then they both ran down the passage avoiding the debris and fire around them finally making it into the main server room. She practically slid into the room and kneeled down and started working as quickly as she could, tapping at the keys with such severity that she thought they were going to fly off. Ward was standing behind her with his gun in his hand being the look out at the door and she had just found the code to shut down all the computers when she saw something on the security monitor.

It was Raina jogging slightly away from something and trying to get into the elevator pressing the button so hard that she thought Raina was going to push it into the wall. Shutting down the computers would shut down the power for a few minutes leaving Raina completely defenseless and much as she despised the bitch she still cared for her in a weird twisted way.

Turning off all the computers she saw all of the lab go into darkness the glow from the emergency lights were her only sources of light. She looked over at Ward, who turned to look at her at the same time, and she nodded her head signaling that the task was done and it was time for them to get the hell out of dodge. She got up from her position grabbing Ward's hand into hers and started running in the direction from where they came from, ignoring all the wreckage that were falling in their way. The flames that had built up were becoming almost unbearable and Skye covered half her face from all the smoke that was getting in their way.

Ward had done the same thing and his grip on her hand had become stronger like he didn't want to let her go and in all honesty, she didn't want him too, not now, she wanted him to hold on for forever. After the last couple of hallways and turns they found the door they had come through and she had not smiled so widely in a while when they had found it. Bursting through the door and breathing in oxygen like she had been deprived of it for years and she let herself let out a laugh she looks over at Ward she saw that he had just a big of grin on his face.

She looked back to the building through and her smile fell and all traces of her laugh where now gone. Raina was still in the building she was sure of it and Skye looked at the now falling structure she felt guilty for leaving her in there; Raina had once saved her life, now she was going to return the favor and they would be even once and for all.

Looking over at Ward and making sure he was still distracted she took off running back into the building and ignored Ward's shout of protest. Once she was in the building she jammed the door shut and made sure that Ward wouldn't be able to get back into it and follow her, the last thing she wanted was Tommy getting angry at her for killing her brother.

Plus she really didn't want him to die.

Putting her shirt back over face she closed her eyes and tracked down Raina's heartbeat and let that be her guide. It was almost like she was looking through radar and she didn't need lights to find where Raina was at only the woman's heartbeat alone. Her feet felt like they were barley touching the ground and when she thought something was going to land in front of her she would use her powers and blast it back. She could see all the different corners she was turning and the hallways she had weaved her way around, her legs starting to burn from the stairs that she had climbed.

When Skye was a corner away from reaching Raina she opened her eyes again and immediately regretted it as they started to water. She pushed her way to where Raina was and say her standing by the elevator banging on it with fear in her voice as she yelled at it to open and for a moment Skye didn't see her as evil she saw her as desperate.

Running towards her she called out her name, "Raina!"

Said woman turned around shocked to see her, "Daisy?" she questioned and took a cautious step towards her, "I think all the smoke went to my head if I'm seeing you."

Skye cracked a half smile, "No, Raina, it's really me I saw you on the security footage and I came to get you out."

"I don't understand I thought you were dead." Her eyes widen and she sounded breathless.

"Yeah, I faked that," Skye said quickly, "But that doesn't matter because right now we need to get out of here and somewhere where SHIELD won't be able to find you."

Skye grabbed Raina's hand and tried pulling her away from the elevator but was pulled back by Raina, "How do you know that SHIELD is here?" Rania questioned her.

"Because I brought them here." Skye said guilty.

Raina let go of her hand and stepped back putting her hands on her head, "Figures that whenever I get closer to finding one of the way to change that you come and try and ruin it."

Skye recoiled at looked at her with disappointment, "That's what this is about!" She yelled and move closer towards Raina, "You wanted to find another way to become Inhuman!"

Raina glared at her with anger in her eyes along with fresh tears, "What else was I supposed to do? You wouldn't tell me where any of the temples where; all you did was sit there in your self-pity party while your father and I were working on the next step in human evolution."

Skye ignored the mentioned of her father and grabbed Raina's hand again coming dangerously close to her face, "I didn't tell you because I was protecting you," She let her emotion show for once, "Raina I'm telling you that going through the Mist it changes you in ways you can't even begin to imagine." She yelled at her and the red from the flames and lights made her skin pop.

"I know that Daisy but I ready for this I've been wanting this for so long and it's not fair that somebody like you got this when I've waited my whole life for it."

Skye shook her head, "It doesn't just change you physically it changes your mindset, your emotions, you think that I hate powers but you're wrong I hate what I feel whenever I use them. I hate that every time I use them to hurt someone or destroy something it's the biggest high that I will ever be able to get in my entire life."

"I want that too, Daisy." Raina said wistfully and Skye could tell that she was telling the truth.

Skye thought for a moment letting go of her wrist and looked into her eyes and listened to her heart and she felt the want to was coming off of her whenever she mentioned the Mist and Skye knew what she had to do to get her to go with her.

Swallowing at lump in her throat Skye softened her gaze at Raina, "When we get out of here I'll tell you where one of the Temples are," Raina face morphed into one of a child on their birthday, "but you have to promise me that I will never see you again after this."

Raina smirked, "I think that's manageable."

Skye turned to her before they were about to start running, "And by the way it's not Daisy, it's Skye now."

Raina shrugged her shoulders, "Whatever you say, but I still like Daisy better."

Skye rolled her eyes then started running down the hallway Raina a few strides behind her because of her height and her wardrobe constrictions. Skye felt a rumble though out the building and pulled Raina down close as she saw some of the building collapse in front of them blocking their only exit out. She would blast threw it but that would risk the entire building to collapse on top of them.

Alright plan two Skye thought and she looked over to Raina, "Any windows on this floor?"

Raina's eye narrowed, "Yeah, why?"

Skye looked guilty before standing up, "Because it just became our only way out."

Raina groaned and stood up next to her before grabbing her hand and guiding them into an office like room with wall sized windows. Skye wasted no time and sent out a blast shattering the glass and looked behind her to see that fire was gaining on them and that they didn't have much time before it reached them.

Running to the window she saw how high up they were and for a second Skye was really glad that she wasn't afraid of heights. Raina on the other hand had paled considerably and back away from the window with fear etched into every feature of her face.

Skye turned towards the frightened woman, "Raina I'm gonna need you to trust me when I say I will not let go of you."

"You can't expect me to jump out of this window, do you?!" She screeched pointing to the shattered window.

"Yes, I do, because if we don't we will both die from the fire and the building collapsing on top of us."

Raina walked took her place beside Skye, "I can't believe I'm doing this."

"On three okay." Skye said

Raina looked down at the pavement below then quickly closed her eyes, "On three." She mumbled.

Skye grabbed Raina's hand, "One, two." Before she gets to three she had pushed both of them out of the window and listened to Raina's scream. Skye put one of her hands towards the ground letting out her powers slowing down both her hand Raina, who was now clinging around her neck. Free of the other hand she points both towards the ground and she was able to slow them down enough that when they hit the pavement Skye only fell due to the extra weight of Raina on her front.

Raina was beside her on her knees dry heaving onto the ground and Skye groaned slowly making her way onto her feet. Skye put her hand on her knees and took a deep breath in and looked towards Raina who was looking back at her and both the girls started laughing hysterically.

"Remind never to do that again." Raina said going over to her and holding out a hand to her, which Skye gratefully excepted.

"It gets better the second time around." She muttered and Raina scoffed.

"Now, I believe you owe me something."

"Deals a deal," Skye said and straighten her back, "The temple that turned Tommy and I it's in San Juan, Puerto Rico underneath some mansion."

Raina nodded her head as if she was trying to make sense of the information and started walking away when she turned back and looked at her sadly, "I really do like Daisy better." Then she turned around and made her way into the darkness of the night hopefully disappearing for a long time, but Skye had a feeling that she would be seeing her again.

Looking at the burning building Skye put out one of her hands and concentrated on the building willing it to crumble beneath her hand. Once it started collapsing once and for all Skye turned around and she could feel the heat from behind her and when she heard the crash that it made she could help but smile and make her way happily towards the Bus.

Skye walked up onto the cargo bay and say that everybody was there looking worried or arguing with each other. She smiled and held out her hands gesturing to everybody, "What are you all looking so worried about."

Simmons rushed to her with tears in her eyes and hugged her which made her pause for a second, "I thought that something terrible happened to you when your comm went down." Simmons whispered into her ear.

Skye squeezed her tight, "I'm fine Simmons, it takes a lot to hurt me."

Simmons let go of her and wiped the tears away from her eyes. Fitz was next and took and labored breathed when he hugged her and squeezed her so tight that she almost stopped breathing but was saved when he pulled back.

"You're covered in soot." He observed.

"Yeah, I, ah, was kind of trapped there for a little bit but was able to get out in time."

"That doesn't make me feel any better." He walked back over to where Simmons was and Skye noticed that the two of them were now holding each other's hands and she couldn't help but love the feeling she got whenever she saw them together.

Skye saw Coulson and May standing over by the car and Coulson looked so relieved to see her she walked over to him, "Looks like you got out alive."

"What you did was extremely reckless." He said to her.

Skye smiled.

"But I'm so glad that you did it." He moved towards her and hugged her and Skye stopped there for a couple of seconds not understanding what was happening and not knowing what to do. She gave in though and hugged him back enjoying the feeling she got whenever he hugged her, it felt like her father was hugging her again.

She pulled back and looked over to May, "Aren't you going to scold me?" Skye asked.

May shrugged her shoulders, "I would but it turns out you were right and what you did saved our lives in there."

"Is that supposed to be a 'you're welcome'?" She asked.

"Don't over reach it." May said coldly and turned around to start talking to Coulson.

Skye looked around and saw that Ward was standing off the side his body leaning against the wall looking tried. He was covered head to toe in soot, sweat, and what looking like blood in that moment Skye thought he was the most attractive man she had ever seen in her entire life. Butterflies were swarming in her stomach and making their way into her heart making it skip a beat and her breath stuttered.

She slowly walked over to him and he looked up at her and she saw anger in his eyes, "You shouldn't have done that."

"Look I get running back into the building was a terrible−" She was stopped though by him pushing himself off the wall and gabbing her arm and pulling her closer to him.

"I'm not mad that you went back into the burning, half collapsed building, I'm mad that you did it without me."

She was going to say some witty comeback but she couldn't bring herself to do it because for the first time she wasn't looking at him like he was Tommy's older brother, she was looking at him like a guy she cared for. "What was I going to do," she said, "I wasn't going to risk your life."

"I told you before that it's my job." He said harshly.

"Not when I'm involved." She said quickly and he let go of her arm and the two stared at each other before Skye broke and turned around from him, "I'm gonna go shower off you can hop in after me."

He nodded and she walked away.

After she had gotten out of the shower and dressed May had come to her bunk and told her that she and Coulson wanted to meet with her in his office to talk about 'stuff' as May had put it. Skye knew what they wanted, they wanted to know why she had run back into the building for, they probably also wanted to know what she meant when she said that she would always lie to them. It dawned upon her that it was time to tell them some half -truths to get them off her back for a little bit before she could come up with some better lies than the truth.

Coming out of her bunk she saw that Ward was all cleaned up and sitting at the bar nursing a drink she took a deep breath and made her way over to him. She leaned against the bar, "I'm about to go talk to Coulson and May I thought that maybe you would want to come with me."

He sipped his drink and side eyed her, "I'm off duty." He muttered into his drink and she had to admit it hurt a little bit.

She made a small fist and slammed it on the table and turned to him, "You may not realize it now, Grant, but your life actually means a lot to so many people," she spat out and leaned closer to him, "Including me so excuse me if I'm going to try everything that I can to keep you alive because if you're gone…then hell will be raised." She turned away from him and started making her way towards Coulson's office. It was true, though, what she said, if he died then the amount of hell Tommy would raise in the wake of his death would be so catastrophic and she was afraid to admit that she wouldn't be that fare behind him.

Arriving at the door to Coulson's office she knocked three times and waited for someone to answer the door. She heard footsteps threw the door and two seconds later the knob had turned and the door opened to see Coulson smiling down at her and she knew that she was in trouble.

"Skye please come in," He gestured towards his office and she walked in to see so much Captain America memorable on the wall, "I'm glad you came down."

"I didn't realize I had choice." She said while sitting down into one of the chairs in front of the desk. Coulson made his way into his chair on his side of his desk and Skye looked to the side to see that May was standing in the corner with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Oh you didn't, I just meant that I'm glad you came down right away." His smile stayed on his face but she could tell that it was fake.

"Stop bullshitting Coulson what do you want to know?" she asked bluntly and the smile fell from his face and his face turned somber.

"I think you know." He said softly.

Skye sighed and reached into her bra taking out the tiny flash drive placing it onto Coulson's desk; he looked down on it with confusion, "What is this?"

"It's a flash drive on everything SHIELD has on Mary Sue Poots." She said coldly putting on her mask.

"Who's Mary Sue Poots?"

She looked at the flash drive and she was so tempted to say that it was her but really it wasn't her, Mary had died a long time ago in an underground city in Puerto Rico along with her best friend, "A dead girl," She finally answered, "All she ever wanted was to find out where she came from I thought the least I could do for her was try and make sure her search wasn't in vain, this is all I got from it I did my part now I'm done."

"Was she a friend of yours?" Coulson asked her and Skye stared at the flash drive like it was a person for a second like she could still see herself there.

"She wasn't a friend but she wasn't an enemy either, she was just Mary Sue Poots."

"What do you want me to do with it?" He said picking it up and examining it.

"Destroy it; I've seen what's on there and let me tell you it's not pretty."

"And what if I don't destroy it what if I look into it." He said calmly and placed the USB on his desk again Skye's eyes following it.

Skye shrugged nonchalantly but screaming on the inside, "Then you'll be looking into a dead girl and the worst that SHIELD has to offer."

They both looked at each other and Skye knew that it was a stale mate neither one of the room where going to budge. She couldn't stop him from looking into and he wouldn't be able to stop her from not helping him out in it, even if he didn't look into it it's not that he would find anything useful she wiped every picture of her as Mary Sue Poots in existent. What she didn't want him finding out about the village though, it might lead them to her father or worse, her mother. That was a tree that she did not want to even attempt to climb because she knew that who tried to climb it, always fell and almost ended up dead.

Moments later Coulson pulled out a black bracelet and motioned for Skye to hold out her wrist and she did so with extreme caution. Coulson put the bracelet on her and she heard it clasp shut locking into place and she immediately hated the feeling of it on her wrist, “What is this?” She asked.

“This is a tracker and it will monitor every call, text, email that you receive or send and you internet use as well as track your location at all times.” He explained.

Skye heart rate picked up and she looked at him incredulously, “You can’t do this I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You said it yourself Skye you lie, it’s in your nature, and I’m afraid that right now we can’t risk you turning against us.”

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“I hope so but until we believe that you have to wear this.”

She sat back in the chair trying to control her breath, communicating with Tommy would become impossible and she wouldn’t even be able to look what he had asked her to do. With the thing on her wrist she would become useless essentially technology wise and the thought scared but most of all it made her feel like a prisoner. She looked over to Coulson’s Steve Rogers bobble head and saw it begin to shake closing her eyes and counting to three she looked back up to Coulson, “You’re making a huge mistake.”

“Maybe,” he shrugged, “But for now it’s a precaution.”

Skye knew that it was going to be a really, really bad day.

Chapter Text

Keira Davis was sitting at Josie's bar on her birthday trying to drink her mind into oblivion. It wasn't like she didn't want to be here celebrating it, she liked this place and some of the people that also drank here, the hot blind lawyer and his weird twitchy sidekick were nice to her and they knew had to play a mean game of pool.

She had always celebrated her birthday with Tommy but after he just dropped off the face of the Earth nothing was the same anymore. He wasn't dead she knew that much but she has no idea where he is or what condition he's in all that she know is that his heart is still in fact beating.

She wasn't exactly dressed up she let her long blonde hair fell over her blue eyes. She was about to ask for another drink when a hand shot out and grabbed it, "You know if you keep drinking like that it might become a problem."

"That's the point." She replied to the female voice that sounded very familiar and she turned her head slightly to see a face she hadn't seen in years, "Squeaks."

The young girl rolled her eyes and sat next to her, "So, you do recognize me well all I can say is that I am a very relived." Squeaks said as she plopped down next to her but Kiera saw that her feet were still dangling and didn't even reach the floor, then again neither did hers.

"What do you want?" Kiera asked furrowing her brow and taking a sip of her drink glancing at the young girl out of corner of her eye.

"I heard that you need help." Squeaks looked smug and she hated how to girl's eye narrowed and the half smile on her face showed that she knew exactly what she was doing, sometimes she hated how well she taught the kid.

Her body had stiffened and she tried not to show the anxiety that was raking threw her body at the thought of Squeaks doing something dangerous. Squeaks knew she had been asking question around town and had even gone as far as using slight persuasion on some troubled newsstand salesmen.

"Since when does a thirteen-year-old want to help someone like me with something like this."

"Seventeen," She said through a clenched jaw and her she made a fist.

Keira waved her drink in the air before taking a sip of it, "You all look the same to me."

That wasn't true. Squeaks held a special place in her heart and she would always find her in any crowd but she did look different from the last time had she seen her.

Her hair was much longer than the last time and her clothing got an upgrade, she was wearing a black leather jacket and purple shirt and her pants were a worn pair of jeans. She stared at her brown eyes and saw that they were still the same they still looked haunted still filled with abandonment, like they had never seen hope before. Keira grinned knowing that Squeaks had never changed one bit, she was still the same person she was when they first met. "So, Squeaks, the question still remains. Why. Do. You. Want. To. Help. Me?"

Squeaks slammed her hands down on the bar counter causing some of the bar patrons to look over for a second before going back to what they were doing before. "Because," She squeaked out, "you're the only person who actually gave a damn about me, gave a roof over my head, food in my stomach, and came to all my science fairs at school."

Keira smirked and took another sip of her drink, "Alright I'll tell you…" She leaned closer and Squeaks followed suit, "Skye, an old friend of mine, she asked me to look into something, something about missing homeless kids. You see she thinks that they're being turned into Inhumans like you and me," she said pointing to the both of them, "So know anything about it?"

"Ivanna Cortez could be back." Squeaks said and Keira scrunched up her face.

"Who the fuck is Ivanna Cortez?"

Squeaks made a gesture for her to be a little quieter, "Not here, we have to go to another place, some place private."

"Well that might be a little difficult to do considering there might be a man running around Hell's Kitchen beating the shit out of people so you're going to have to be more specific with a quiet place." She finished the last of her whiskey and signaled the bartender to top her off, which to her joy he did, "Is there something else I should know?"

"Yeah, Ivanna Cortez was the one who turned me when I was twelve."

Both of them sat there in silence for what seemed like a very long time until finally Davis said what Squeaks wanted her to say, "What to go back to my place and get shit-faced drunk?"

"I thought you would never ask."

Keira smiled and downed the rest of her drink throwing an arm around Squeaks who tried moving away from her, "Also if we're working together I want you to call me Samantha or Sam instead of Squeaks." She said her nickname with such disgust that it made Keira laugh.

"That is so not happening Squeaks."

One bottle of whiskey and Vodka later Davis was dancing around the room with her shirt and pants off leaving her in her bra and boxer panties. The song "I Didn't Mean It" by The Belle Brigade playing and a glass of whiskey in hand Squeaks was dancing along with her though her clothes were still very much on though the jacket had come off along with her shoes. Keira set her drink down and grabbed Squeaks' arms "Come dance with me you sexy monster!" She yelled over the music. Squeaks laughed at her but didn't protest and the started dancing together, "Sometimes, Squeaks, I wished you weren't straight and that I didn't have a girlfriend because then I would totally be jumping your bones."

"I thought you liked guys?"

"Sweetheart they're no guys and girl for me there is only prey." Keira smirked and started moving her hips more and threw her hands up in the air. Squeaks started dancing as well finally letting lose and letting the worries going away.

The thing about Squeaks when she got drunk was that her powers went super sensitive and she could feel everything and it felt so good to feel everything so when her phone started going off she could feel all the emotions around, even those of nature, and she was also very big talker when she was drunk. So, she all but ran to her phone and fell on the couch while doing so and Keira must have seen because she started to giggle and she couldn't help but join her. Finally getting to her senses again Squeaks picked up the phone a laugh still present in her voice, "Hello this is Squeaks what problem do I need to fix?"

"Uh, hi, this is Skye who is this?" the voice questioned and Squeaks looked down at the phone.

"Shit sorry I'm so drunk I didn't realize that it wasn't my phone," she looked over at Kiera who was dancing, "Hey Hobbit someone is on the phone for you."

Kiera stopping swaying her hips to beat and looked over at her and waved the young girl away before taking another drink, "Who the fuck is it?" Kiera screamed.

"Some chick named Skye."

Kiera looked stunned for a minute before tripping over herself trying and ran over to her grabbing the phone and but it to her ear, "Hey Skye," she slurred out breathlessly, "What's up."

"Put it on speaker." Squeaks whispered and Kiera batted her away, "Kiera put it on speaker."

The blonde rolled her eyes and put the phone on speaker, "- I have an opportunity to come see you and I was wondering if you make a hard copy of all the info you get."

Both girls looked at each other, "Uhh, why?" Kiera asked.

"Because I got royally fucked, SHIELD addition."

Kiera let out a snort and her and Squeaks shared a look with each other, "Actually I could give you some of the information right now."

"No!" she yelled, "Don't do that every phone call I make is being monitored."

"Alright then so I guess I'll get all that I can and then give it to you."

Skye sighed, "Yeah and try not hurt anybody or cause any property damage."

Kiera winced at the statement and she could feel Squeaks side eye her. Kiera waved off Skye like she was actually there, "Consider it done." Then she took the phone and hit the end call button. She was never one to do goodbyes when she was sober let alone when she was drunk; looking at the phone she tossed it aside and turned towards the young girl.

"Hey Squeaks?" She slurred while propping her elbow up and laying her head on her hand.

"Yes?" Squeaks replied copying her position and giggled a little.

Kiera gave a little half smile and pushed a piece of her hair back behind her ears, "I care about you, you know that right?"

She saw Squeaks blush, "I wouldn't be here if I didn't know that." Then she let out a yawn that sounded like more of a squeak and Kiera chuckled, "I'm gonna feel this in the morning aren't I?"

"Yep," Kiera replied, "so let's at least get you somewhere comfortable."

Kiera slowly got up and brushed her hands on her exposed thighs she leant out her hands for Squeaks to take and the young girl took it in a dramatic fashion. Kiera used all her strength and pulled the girl off the ground and watched as she swayed a little bit. Taking pity on her she grabbed Squeaks and put her over her shoulder, Squeaks head landing just above her ass and she couldn't help but laugh at the squeak that she had let out when Kiera did so.

Kiera walked the young girl back to her only bedroom and laid her down on her queen-sized bed. She grabbed a fleece blanket from the side and gently put it over the girl whose eyes were struggling to keep open with every passing second. Kiera smiled then walked back into her living room turning off the music and grabbing her discarded clothing from around the room, annoyed that her buzz was already wearing off.

That was one of the shitty things about becoming Inhuman, it seemed that it took a lot of alcohol to get you drunk for only a short amount of time. Kiera grabbed her phone and hit number two on her speed dial and put it up to her ear hoping that she would pick up at this time of night.

After a pain staking four rings she finally heard the voice that she was dying to hear, "Hello?" The voice was confused.

"What are you doing for the next three hours?" Kiera asked bluntly.

"Well I was working on this article for the magazine but if you have something better in mind then maybe I can reconsider."

"Cheeky," She Kiera paused, "I like it."

"Aren't we supposed to be on a break?"

"That doesn't mean we still can't have sex."

"Why Miss Davis you never sugar coat anything do you?"

"Why Miss Newmont the only thing that I would sugar coat is you." Kiera smiled, "I'll be there in a couple of minutes."

She head Alessandra laugh in the background and Kiera's heart fluttered.

Keira Davis was not one to miss out on any opportunity to have sex with her very beautiful, hot, and amazing on again off again girlfriend. She used the shadows to travel to Alessandra apartment; the complete opposite of hers that was all the way in uptown New York.

Kiera knocked on the door and a minute later the door opened for her to see her there, her skin looked like dark chocolate, her hair was down and looked perfectly curled and…damn did she just wanted to push her down on the floor and kiss the living day lights out of her. Alessandra's face was filled with amusements as she saw Kiera leaning against the door post, "Hey lover," Keira said, "can I come in?"

"Babe I'm honest surprised that you actually came here?" she said then looked out the door, "And how did you get here so quickly."

Kiera waved her off and entered the uptown apartment while taking off her jacket in the process, "Why do you always ask so many questions, Sandra?"

Alessandra shut the door and slowly walked over to her wrapping one of her arms around her waist, pulling her closer, and the other around the back of her neck bring her lips closer to hers, "Maybe because I've seen some pretty weird stuff happen to you."

Keira smiled and kissed Sandra slowly letting her hands wander to the lose fabric on the ratty sweatshirt that she was wearing and pushed one of the sleeve to the side. Hearing her girlfriend's breaths becoming more ragged Kiera pulled back and took the tank top that she had been wearing off, throwing it to the side. Sandra pulled her back and began to quickly pepper her face with kisses while she was backed her up and the next thing Kiera knew her knees had hit the edge of the couch and she went tumbling over with Sandra landing on top of her.

Sandra started kissing down Kiera's neck and she gasped running a hand threw her hair, "Are you sure that you don't want to go to your bedroom, it's literally twenty steps that way." Kiera motioned with her head in the direction of the bedroom.

Alessandra looked up at her as she made her to the valley of her breast with an elegant eye roll only to grab the edge of Kiera's jeans with her hands and pulled on them slightly. To Kiera that was a signal to shut up but she couldn't help, she always talk at the worst of times, "I'm just saying if you wanted a more comfortable night sleep after were done than maybe−" she was cut off by Sandra's finger on her lips.

She kissed her way back up to Kiera's lips slowly and straddled her, "Babe, I'm gonna need you to shut now we're about to have amazing sex and kind of self-sabotaging yourself," She said and pulled back removing the sweatshirt that she was wearing and Kiera stared at her naked chest, "plus we'll get there eventually."

Kiera sat up and grabbed Alessandra by her lower back with one hand pulling them closer to together and finally flipping them over. Kiera bent down and started kissing the side of her jaw then she made a trail down her neck and her heart did a flip when she heard the little moan come from the woman beneath her. Alessandra's hand started running threw her hair while the other went to her bra clasp trying to undo but stopped when she couldn't get it. Letting out a little laugh Kiera gave one small little kiss on the girl's lips before pulling back and undoing it herself and throwing it off to the side probably to join her shirt and jacket somewhere in the room.

"You're a good girlfriend I hope you know that," Kiera said kissing the side of her mouth, "Putting up with all my unexplained shit."

"I try my best." She breathed out.

"That's more than I can ask for." Kiera replied the fused their lips together once more.

Keira had orders from Tommy so she had promise to see them out, but then she had gotten bored, and well a newly emancipated seventeen-year-old in a new city wasn't going to stay still. The move from D.C. to Hell's Kitchen was definitely somewhat of a big change but then again she had a lot of new changes in her life. Like her getting the freedom from her drug addicted mother and her terrible life, aside from Tommy, in D.C., there was also her finally coming to terms with her sexuality and full embracing it, and, oh, also the fact that she wasn't really human anymore.

Yeah, that was definitely the biggest one in her book.

Kiera had snuck out of her tiny, even by New York standards and made her way around the city using her powers. She had wondered around for a bit but finally settled for the abandoned warehouse district part of New York where it seemed a lot of homeless kids hung out.

The first place she went was an old abandon fabric factory that she knew for a fact homeless kids stayed there, she had seen a few of them run off in the general direction of this place sometimes. She walked in whistling Hey Jude and she started looking around taking everything in for what it was worth.

Then she heard a soft cry and saw a girl who couldn't be any more than twelve with warm brown hair, caramel eyes, and sun kissed skin. She was dressed in an over sized black shirt and a pair of ripped jeans that were not ripped intentionally; she knew this kid, she had seen her a couple of times around stealing from small stores and doing her homework sometimes on the streets, probably trying her to get into a decent high school.

She was sitting there with her hands over her ears rocking back and forth repeating the words, "Just make it stop."

Keira squatted down and put a hand on her shoulder and the girl flinched letting out a little squeak and tried to get away from her, "Hey Sam isn't it," Keira asked softly and the girl nodded her head, "I know what you're probably going through and I can help."

The girl stopped rocking and put her hands by her side, "You really mean that." She said as a fact not a question, "I can feel it you really mean it."

"Yeah, I mean I didn't have a picture-perfect life either, hell I just got here."

Sam looked up tears streaming down her face and she tried to her best to wipe them away, "That's not what I mean," She sniffled a bit then sneezed which honestly sounded more like a squeak to Kiera than a sneeze, "I meant that I can actually feel what you can feel."

Kiera pulled back from the girl, "What do you mean?" She asked and all she could think about was how there was some else like her, someone who was younger than her that was like her.

"A few weeks ago this woman came to me, she said that she could make my life better, give it more purpose. I couldn't help but say yes I mean I felt like I was dying the next thing I know I'm waking up in a bed a feel every one's emotions with in a ten forty-foot radius, so I ran." She let out a sniffle and Kiera felt uncomfortable, she didn't know exactly how to comfort the poor crying girl, "She said that my life would be better but all this is is hell." Sam said and ran her hands threw her dirty hair.

Kiera thought for a moment before making a rash decision and held stood up holding out her hand, "Come with me, I've got a place you can stay."

"Why help me?" She squeaked out.

Kiera scoffed, "Because Squeaks," She nicknamed her, "I'm a fucking idiot."

Kiera woke up from her realistic dream in a soft bed to the piercing shriek of her ringtone blaring in the background. She squinted her eyes at the blinding light that was coming in through the window and looked over to the nightstand for her phone but found that it was there. She sat up on her elbows and looked around for it trying to focus in on the noise and looked amused when she saw it laying on top of her discarded jeans in the living room. Quickly grabbing a shirt from the ground and putting her underwear back on Kiera tip toed her way over to the pair of jeans and picked up the phone answering it quickly when she saw that it was Squeaks who was calling her.

"Hello?" She whispered.

"Where the hell are you?!" Squeaks yelled into the phone and Kiera almost recoiled.

"I got caught up last night after you passed out."

"For ten hours?" She could hear the suspicion coming from the young girl

"Yeah I was doing some pretty hard work." Kiera mumbled.

"Well I was calling to let you know that I think I might know how to get in contact with Ivanna Cortez."

Kiera held the phone closer to her ear then looked back in the bedroom to make sure that Alessandra was still sleeping. Once satisfied that her girlfriend was still sleeping Kiera carefully made her way into the bathroom.

"What do you mean you might know how to get in contact with Ivanna Cortez?"

"Well you see Ivanna wasn't the one who found she was only the one who changed me, there was this woman, Edith Cook she was the one who took me to Ivanna."

"So you still think she's in the New York area? After all this time." Kiera asked uncertain if this would work.

"I didn't know her long but one thing was for sure Edith had a thing for routine and she would never break, not even once, so I would bet everything I have that she' still in New York."

"Then I guess were going after Edith Cook." Kiera said plain and simple.

After all Kiera Davis was never one to back down from a challenge.

Chapter Text

“God he’s so annoying always walking around like some big tough agent, who does he thinks he is he’s all ‘Oh I’m Agent Ward and this gun is point five pounds off’ it’s my gun I think I would now how to design it.” Fitz ranted doing his best impression of Ward that he could and Skye couldn’t help but smirk from where she was seated.

She had been reading an article about the missing children that she was able to get online and some police reports on the children. She had been trying to find some common factor that all the kids had other than the fact that they were homeless but so far she was coming up short and it was starting to irritate her.

“Well in his defense his muscles are, well, very defined,” She heard Simmons comment and Skye looked up from her computer with a raised eyebrow causing the brit to blush, “Besides that’s not how he talks, it’s more like,” she put her hands on her hips and leaned forward a little bit, “‘I’m Agent Ward and I can stop a fly with just my pinky’”. She held up her pinky to emphasis the point and Skye laughed at the Simmons trying to do Ward’s voice and how bad it was. All three stopped and after a long pause all three started to laugh at how horrendous their impressions were of Ward and Skye for a moment became envious at how well her and FitzSimmons could just click without a care in the world.

Skye must have been making a face because the next thing she knew Fitz became concerned, “Skye, what’s wrong?”

She shook her head, “Nothing it’s just, I have this friend, and he and I, we’ve known each other forever and I can’t help but think how much we would love to be you two.” She knows mentioning Tommy was a big risk but it was one she willing to take, she needed this.

“What do you mean?” Simmons asked her smile turning into a slight frown.

Skye turned off her tablet and ran a hand threw her hair, "Do you ever feel sometimes, Jemma, that the universe is telling you not to be with one person but after everything the universe puts in your way you still go and be with that person because you choose to be with them.”

FitzSimmons looked at each then looked back at her with a suspicious look on their faces, “Not really, no?” Fitz comment and Skye sighed putting her hand over her face. She knew she shouldn’t have said anything.

“It’s just… I envy you and Fitz because you two can just click without any problem there isn’t something that’s in your way. There isn’t some great cosmic force that is trying to tear you two apart, or, some evil agency that would kill the two of you on sight, you two can literally always be together and never have to hide that fact.” She ended her rant and saw that both of FitzSimmons eyes had widened at the look on her face.

Skye sighed and grabbed her computer making her way out of the lab more frustrated with herself then them, “Just forget I said anything that’s what most people do anyway.” She mumbled as she walked out the door making her way up the steps and to her luck ran into Ward.

“Watch were you’re going.” He mumbled and Skye rolled her eyes at him.

“I’m not in the mood to deal with childish bullshit right now.” She shoved him in the shoulder when she walked past him. Hard. The fact that he went stumbling a little bit almost brought a smile to her face but what she wanted right now was to be left alone in the comfort of her bunk and smiled when she caught sight of it.

When she was about to open the door however Coulson voice called her name, “Skye!” He yelled from across the room and she thought that he was just waiting until she was in that spot to call her name, “Can you come into my office for a bit I have a few questions for you.”

That was never a good sign.

Throwing her head down in defeat Skye opened the door to her bunk throwing her computer on the bed and made her way over to Coulson never once picking her head up. Feeling all of his vibration she could tell that he wasn’t made at her rather that he was curious at something and she to all the star above that it wasn’t Mary Sue Poots he wanted to talk about. He walked both of them to his office and when he opened his door he silently gestured for her to enter with the wave of his hand and she did so.

“Well I’m getting a sense of Déjà vu here.” She wondered out loud as she was sitting down in the chair.

She heard him chuckle as he closed the door, “Well I actually did want to ask you some questions about your recent call logs and search.” He answered coming around his desk and sitting in his chair. Skye had the feeling of young teen that got caught and she was now sitting across from the principle.

“What about them?” She leaned back and crossed her legs putting her resting her arms on both the arms rests to look casual.

“Well I’ve been monitoring them and it seems that you’ve been having some interesting calls and searches lately.” He brought out a folder and she guessed that all her calls were in there and for a second she pitied him because he had to read everything that Kiera had said to her and Kiera Davis had quite the mouth on her. “It seems most of your calls have been to a,” He looked down at the paper and traced a name with his finger, “A Kiera Davis located in Hell’s Kitchen, New York and most of your recent search history has been about homeless teenagers being abducted.” He said and looked up at her with a smile and she forced a smile back. “Now what’s that about?” he asked.

She swallowed a witty retort and gripped the armrest so hard she thought she would break them, “Do you know that one in every four homeless teens under the age of eighteen are kidnapped and sold into sex slavery or human trafficking?” She said and Coulson looked face became that of a robot, “While you choose to battle aliens and the Avengers protect the Earth from not so nice things I choose to protect the people who never had a chance, the kids who the universe turned its back on, the kids made to things they never wanted to do or become.” She stopped for a moment to let her lie sink in, it was a good lie and she hopped that he bought it for now, “Just because no one wanted them doesn’t mean they’re not important.”

“You sound passionate about the cause.” He suggested.

She shrugged her shoulders, now was the time to really drive home everything, “I should know I was one of them.”

He opened his mouth like he was going to say something but couldn’t find the words to form the sentence. “I lived in China with my mother and sister for a while and I’m not going to lie I know everyone calls their mothers and bitch from time to time but mine really takes the cake.”

“You ran away.” He said but she could tell he wasn’t certain.

“It was more or less she kicked me out.”

He stopped for a second and closed the file, “You told me, before going into the burn building, that you’ve sent people to their deaths.” He leaned forward on the desk and she shifted in her seat a little bit, “what did you mean by that?”

“People aren’t as forgiving as you think Coulson they’re not as merciful as you,” she said letting go of the arms rest in fear of breaking them with her powers, “When you take a young girl and throw her into the pits of Hell what do you expect to happen? Do you expect the girl to break into a million pieces wishing her life would end or do you expect her to survive?” He was watching her with suspicious eyes and she smiled and little bit like she knew something he didn’t, “What if I told you that she did neither. What if I told you that the Devil met the girl and saw something inside of her that made him curious so he took her in, gave her clean clothes, taught her valuable lessons about the world, and gave her the feeling of never being helpless again. Unfortunately the girl was so tired from what had already been done to her that she hadn’t realized what the Devil had done to her, what he made her do, what he had made her into.” Skye stopped wondering whether or not she should finish the story it was already becoming too close to the truth and it was becoming too personal.

“What did he make her into?” He asked quietly.

Skye leaned forward picking up a bobble head of Captain America and she watched it shake for a little bit thinking about her own hula girl that was sitting on the window. What had she’d becoming with Lucifer? A monster, yes of course, but was she always like that or was she made into that and just stayed that way; a weapon, a slave, a killer those were all things that he made her into but she was a monster for liking what she had become, for liking the fear in people’s eyes whenever they saw her.

She had always been a monster it just took meeting the Devil for her to realize it.

Skye placed the bobble head back on Coulson’s desk and smile at doing so, “Something she had always been.” Was her reply to his question and he seemed satisfied for it but of course she had to add something humorous to throw him off a little, “Of course it’s just a story after all and, well, we all know that stories are just fiction.”

Coulson stared at her for a moment, “Were landing in Pennsylvania shortly and I want you shadowing Ward.” He looked like he wanted to say something completely different but had decided against it.

“Why?” She asked annoyed rolling her eyes at the comment.

“Because every time we have let you on your own you’ve run off.”

“I’ve the bracelet thing on unless you want to take it off.” She dangled her wrist in front of him and he just glared.

“Bracelet stays on and you are shadowing Ward.” He ordered and she sighed.

Skye leaned back in her chair again, “I don’t think he likes me right now.” She said.

“He’s already been made aware.” Coulson smiled.

Skye was beginning to think that he had ulterior motives with her and Ward but that could just be her paranoia kicking in and making her suspicious of everything. All that she was sure of was that Ward was going to be hard working with and she was going to make his life a living hell because of it.

Ward wasn’t talking to her and it was bugging the absolute hell out of her as he stomped ahead in the woods of Pennsylvania. Skye wanted him to talk to her, to play games with her, and overall, she just wanted Ward to be around her so that she could have someone to talk to. It had been absolute hell with the bracelet on, she was able to get in a call to Kiera about the missing children and told her to just print everything out and give it to her when they would see each other again. Tommy was the worst, Skye had sent him a text saying, ‘Bugs Life’ which meant that she was being monitored and that communication was going to be low to nonexistent.  

She was currently walking through the woods with FitzSimmons who were bickering and she couldn’t help but feel envious of their relationship. It was so easy for them to be friends and go to the movies without anybody trying to kill them, she wished it was like that with her and Tommy, she misses the normalcy of their friendship sometimes.

Something was different though with FitzSimmons relationship than hers with Tommy’s, it was in the way that they shared secret looks with each other the way they get all flustered around each other whenever they give each other compliments.

Tommy was never in love Skye and vice versa but the more she looked at FitzSimmons the more she saw that they were in love with each other but neither knew what to do about it. She honestly kind of loved the fact that they loved each because she wanted them to be together, she could see how well they would fit together and thought of FitzSimmons being a couple brought a smile to her face.

Skye looked around for FitzSimmons but couldn’t find them and she wasn’t paying attention to where she was walking and bumped into something solid that was in front of her. She turned her attention to that and saw that it was the back of a certain special agent who was talking to her at the time because he was mad that she didn’t put him in a life or death situation.

“Watch where you’re going.” He grunted.

“Coulson said that I was supposed to shadow you from now on.” Skye said annoyingly, it was true he did ask her to do that once he saw that Ward wasn’t talking to her and she grudgingly agreed to do so.

“Yeah, he said shadowing not smothering.” He replied condescendingly.

Skye rolled her eyes bumping his shoulder as she passed him and made her way to the rest of the team who were standing around a crime. She almost had to do a double take at what she saw; it was a man floating in mid-air and the sight of it made her stop and put her hands on her hip a confused look on her face, “Well…” she struggled to find words at what she was seeing, “That’s a new one.” She said to no one in particular.

“I know, tell me about it.” She heard a very familiar voice say and she whipped her head to the side to see Tommy standing there in a park ranger uniform grinning like a Cheshire cat.

She did do a double take at the sight of him then did a quick glance over her shoulder to see if anyone was looking at her and was mad when she saw that there were to many people in sight who would get suspicious at some random girl who slapped a park ranger.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked quietly slowly walking towards the body.

“Well seeing as you texted me Bug’s Life I thought I would come and get the full story on what’s happening, plus I wanted to see my best friend, is there really any harm in that?” he said while holding his hands out and shrugging his shoulders.

“Ah yes, there is so harm in that your brother,” she motioned to Grant with her head who was standing off to the side with May, “Is here and how no idea that I know you.”

He scoffed, “Oh please I’m wearing a disguise nobody will recognize me.” He leaned in closer to and she was half tempted to slap him in the face.

She took one glance at his ‘disguise’ and rolled her eyes, “Tommy a very fake blond wig and a park ranger uniform is not a disguise−in fact where did you even get that uniform.”

He smiled with all his teeth and the straightened his back pointing to the badge, “Oh, well, good ole Officer McPetey might be taking quite the nap right now.”

“And the wig?” she asked pointing to the fake blond wig.

He shrugged his shoulders, “Party City.”

“How were you ever an internationally wanted spy?” she wondered more to herself than him really.

She knew that he was going to give a witty retort than and he had even opened his mouth to do so but was stopped by Coulson shouting out to Skye, “Skye! Do you have an information about the victim?”

Tommy winked at her, “Showtime.” Then he straightened his ranger jacket and started to walk closer to the teams and pointed to the floating man, “Oh that there is Adam Cross, good guy, so much so that he could give Captain America a run for his money.”

Skye didn’t even hide the fact that she was staring at Tommy in disbelief, for some reason he had decided to use a Minnesota accent, and it sounded so fake, stereotypical fake.

She shouldn’t be surprised though he’s always been bad at accents for example when Skye was still new to Boston Tommy had always made fun of her New Yorker accent. She never thought she had one, but apparently she did, and Tommy would always poke fun at it the she would retaliate with the worst Boston accent she could do.

She wished he would have gone for the New York accent.

 “Who are you?” Coulson asked and Tommy gave him an award-winning smile.

“I’m Park Ranger McPetey sir, I mostly take care of the ‘unique’ cases here in these woods.” Tommy tipped his hat off to Coulson and Skye wanted to punch him then and there but decided against it.

Coulson didn’t look impressed, “Uh huh and is this the first time you’re seeing this out in these woods.” He asked.

Tommy shrugged walking forward and Skye had no idea what else to do but follow him, “You’d be surprised what you would find in the woods all sorts of bad things happen here you know. I’ve never seen a floating dead man though, that’s a new one,” he said that took out his phone and started to move towards the body, “Mind if I take a picture my buddies back home are never going to believe this.”

Coulson looked confused as to whether or not he should be offended and Skye grabbed the back of Tommy’s collar pulling him back causing him to stumble. “Well,” Skye said, “Ranger McPetey I think we all appreciated your help but I think it’s time to go now.”

He smirked at her, “I hate to disagree with such a beautiful woman but I think I’m going to stay right here.”

She rolled her eyes then let go of Tommy, “Fine,” She smoothed out imaginary lines on her jeans, “let’s go take a look at the floating body.”

Skye looked to the side to see Tommy shot a wink to Coulson and kept very close to her which might be a mistake because right now it was looking like they knew each other or that Park Ranger McPetey really wanted to get into her pants. She knew that he was being flirty with her to annoy the hell out of her because then people would get the impression that they were together when in fact they weren’t. She never honestly understood why people thought they were together all the time other than the fact that Tommy flirted with her, but that was just Tommy, he literally flirted with anything, once a tree when he was drunk.

The pair of best friends walked over to the body as close as they could without interrupting FitzSimmons work, “God that’s has to be one hell of a way to go.” Tommy muttered.

Skye snorted but also smiled, “Yeah being found by your scout camp while being dead midair certainly isn’t something you see every day.”

She saw him smirk and then elbowed her a little bit, “I’m just saying considering the way we ‘died’,” He put air quotes around the words, “Kind of makes us look like chumps.”

“Yeah well I’m sure that Scout Master Cross doesn’t harbor any life changing secrets, in fact I bet the worst thing about this guy is that he has a foot fetish.” She said and Tommy lifted an eyebrow at her then took another quick glance at the body.

“BDSM.” He said and she looked at him confused, “If he’s into any fetishes it would BDSM, not that I’m judging I mean Henley and I have tried somethings,” Skye didn’t allow him to finish because she put her index finger to his mouth.

“First, I don’t need to hear about you and Henley’s sex life more than I’ve already have and second how the hell would you know if it was BDSM.”

Tommy scrunched his face up and almost looked half offended and half confused at what she had said, “Skye I don’t know if you remember but I went to Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburg and got my master’s degree in applied physics and a bachelor degree in psychology.”

She had actually forgotten about that which was honestly a little funny because she spent a year with him in Pittsburg, it was when she had first decided to leave the foster system and run away. Tommy had been taking online classes for two summers in a row and then he piled on a bunch of course load when he actually went to school so much so he was able to graduate early then go back for more on top of training in Afterlife. Thinking back to it Skye should have realized then that Tommy’s coping mechanism for stress is just to adding more stress to his life.

“Oh, woah, yeah I remember now.” She said and he looked proud of himself but then his smile shifted to a frown when he looked over at Adam Cross still floating midair.

She looked over at his line of sight and now realized what he was seeing; Adam Cross’s body was beginning to glow blue and from the looks of it her and Tommy were the only ones noticing.  She could feel the vibration coming off the body and it was almost screaming with something that she had felt before but only for a brief moment in time and that was during the Chitauri Invasion.

Fitz’s was still standing around the body with something she guessed was reading off the body and Simmons had gloves put gloves on and looked to be talking to Coulson about something. She looked to her right and saw that May was standing there with her hands on her hips keeping a watchful eye on everything. She jogged slight over to May and was hovering right above her shoulder, “Do you see the blue haze or is it just me?” Skye asked.

May turned around slightly, “What are you talking about?”

“The blue haze coming off of that guy you don’t see it?” She asked and Ward, who was standing close by, had heard what she had said.

“Skye there isn’t any blue haze.” He said and Skye took one more glance up at Adam Cross’s, she definitely saw a blue haze. Looking back to Tommy his face was now even more concerned he had started moving closer to her and gave her a look that was telling her to move away from the body.

Skye didn’t listen though instead she walked closer to Simmons who was approaching the body, “Simmons,” She called out, “I don’t think you should touch that.”

Simmons turned around and smiled, “You don’t need to worry Skye, I’ll be fine.” The she turned back around and went closer to the body causing Skye to take another step forward.

Fitz who had been on his tablet finally furrowed his brows in confusion, “What the bloody hell?” He said out loud and then looked up to the body.

Simmons was about to touch it the body, “I think I see something, it’s almost like a blue mist.”

Skye took another step forward and tried yell out Simmons name but it was too late Jemma had already touch the body and a blue pulse went out causing Simmons to yelp in surprise and the body of Adam cross to the ground. Coulson rushed over to her and she started waving him and everybody else off, “I’m fine.” She heard Simmons say.

Skye hadn’t rushed to her aid, in fact she had stayed behind, Tommy had made his way over to her and was standing shoulder to shoulder with her looking at Simmons with pity. She knew what he wanted to say and she wanted to say a lot of things as well but she couldn’t not right now, “It was Raina.”

“What?” He asked looking down at her tearing his eyes away from Simmons

“You asked me why I texted you Bug’s Life. I saved Raina and lied about a lot things so they decided that I was too big of a risk and put a bracelet on me that monitors everything I do technology wise.”

He closed his eyes for a moment and let out a humorless chuckle, “How many times have I told you that she isn’t worth saving.”

“I don’t know,” She said softly and stared at him and for a second it felt like just the two of them, “How many times have I said the same thing about myself and yet you still come and save me even when I didn’t deserve it.”

He smiled at her then he put a hand on her shoulder and she smiled back at him, “I know that I’m not the biggest fan of SHIELD and you aren’t either but these people Skye,” He motioned to the team with his head and she looked at them with a small smile on her face, “There good people, there not like the people we know and I think it’s time you start trusting them.”

“How can I trust them when I barely trust myself?” She asked looking back at him and staring into his bright blue eyes.

His eyes were sad, like they had been the last time she saw him, everything about him lit up whenever he wanted it to except his eyes, “I love you Skye, I always will, but sooner or later we have to start trusting other people other than us. We’ve always relied on each other for reinforce of our actions because we trust each other and we trust each other because we wanted too. I know you want to do the same thing with them you’re just too afraid of what’s going to happen when you do and I can tell you right now they’re still gonna be the same people.”

Skye smiled and took a risk in hugging him going as far as to going on her tippy toes and wrapping her arms around his neck snuggling his face into the crease of his shoulder, “When did you start making so much sense?” She asked.

He laughed, “I think I narrowed it down to going to rehab and faking my death sometime in between there.”

She laughed and let go him lowering herself back to the ground and both of them felt like teenagers again and she was able to feel what he was feeling again. It was something that they were able to do back when they were younger right after they had come out of the Mist, they knew what each other were feeling and could tell where the other person was at all times. It changed, though, after he had stabbed her there was nothing and she couldn’t feel him anymore it felt like an eternal emptiness inside of her that neither of them could get back.

“I’ll see you later Dukes and try staying out of trouble.” He said putting his hands in his pockets.

“I could say the same for you but then we both know that you won’t listen.” She said and he laughed putting everything he had into it. He took one last glance at the team and she looked with him noticing now that Grant was staring at the two of them and Tommy smiled brightened when he saw him looking their way.

Tommy tipped his hat to her then started walking away and Skye smirked turning around and made her way over to Grant who had a sour look on his face. She stopped right beside him and looked at him, “You looked pretty cozy with the Park Ranger over there.” He said and Skye couldn’t help but notice the hint of jealousy in his voice.

She smirked, “Well he is my type after all.”

Ward turned to her, “And what’s your type.”

She licked her lips and looked him in the eyes, “Tall, dark hair, wears a suit well, has a badge.” She drawled out the word badge and she almost laughed when she saw him look straight ahead and gulp. Instead of staying by his side she walked over to Simmons to see if she was okay but she couldn’t help but feel like Ward was going to start talking to her again.

Skye was sitting with Fitz in the lab on her laptop trying to find out anything she could about Adam Cross and she put out an alert for any other flying dead bodied. It was just the two of them, Simmons went into the back trying to look for something, “So serious question here, and be honest with me,” she said, “how long have you been in love with Simmons for?”

Whatever Fitz was holding her dropped it and looked over at her shocked and she smiled at his reaction. His heart had speed up and she could feel, even without her powers, the anxiety coming off of him from the simple question that she had just asked.

“I’m not…why would you even…I don’t know what you think but I’m not in love with Simmons.” He sputtered out and she smiled.

“That reaction says different,” she pointed out and his cheeks turned red, “It’s okay if you’re in love with her, I won’t say anything.”

“But I’m not in love with her! She’s just my friend, my best friend, that I’ve known since I was fifteen when our professor paired us together for a project. Sure she might know my favorite animal and I’ve introduced her to my entire family and she’s memorize how to make my favorite sandwich but that doesn’t mean that I’m in love with her.”

Skye lifted an eyebrow, “When’s the last a girlfriend that lasted more than three months?”

He opened his mouth to answer but then closed it and lifted his hand in the air and started counting with his fingers. Fitz grew frustrated and jabbed a finger in her direction, “Four years ago!” he shouted.

She nodded then asked, “And why did that relationship end?” tilting her head to the side.

He thought back to it and put his hands on his hips, “Well I took her to this restaurant to meet Simmons and after that date she broke up with me and never told me why.”

She didn’t say anything and only made a noise that made seem like she had just made her point to him and he blushed ever more. Skye watched as a look of realization made its way onto Fitz’s face and his breathing started to become even more labored with what she could guess was the realization that he was, in fact, in love with Jemma Simmons.

Skye smiled at Jemma when she made her way back into the lab and Fitz was still lost in his own thought, “Hey Simmons.” She said enthusiastically and Simmons smiled back at her while Fitz jumped and tried to take in his surrounding again by picking up what he had dropped but fumbling with it.

“Hey, Skye I think that Coulson and Ward are looking for you up in the conference room.” She said while smiling and walking over to stand beside Fitz again.

Skye got up from her seat taking her laptop with her and started walking towards the door when Fitz shouted out her name, “Skye, wait!”

She turned around and looked at him, “Don’t worry Fitz I’ll be right back I’m sure Simmons can keep you company.”

Simmons turned and looked at Fitz with a look of confusion then shared the same look with Skye, she must have let it go, though, because the next thing she knew she went back to work dismissing the hole action. Skye winked at Fitz and walked out of the lab making her to the conference room with her laptop in hand and smile on her face; she really wanted FitzSimmons together but she wasn’t going to push it, well not a lot at least.

When she walked into the lab she found that Coulson and Ward where leaning against the table both looking at something and Skye went to the opposite side of the table putting her laptop on the table with a loud thud. Both men looked up from what they were looking at and looked at her with a expectantly stare and she smiled sweetly at them by opening up the laptop and looked at the information that she had gotten from her search of Adam Cross.

“Well Park Ranger McPetey was right. This guy was as good as Captain America and it seems that nobody would want to hurt him…” She trailed off and clicked on a few tabs looking into his personal flies then gasped when she saw something, “Oh. My. God.”

“What, what is it?” Coulson asked.

Skye started giggling setting her laptop down and leaned against the table going through all the pictures, “He was into BDSM and was sub by the looks of it.” The pictures were quite detailed and graphic but she had seen worse and heard worse thanks to Tommy and Henley who always went at it with each other.

Ward cleared his throat and glared at her she stood up and threw her hand in the air, “What? I’m not kink shaming or anything it’s just I thought it would have been a foot fetish if anything.”

“Alright Skye that’s enough I don’t need to know about the man’s sex life all I need to know is that whether or not someone would want to hurt him.” Coulson said pinching the bridge of his nose and she chuckled a little bit at that. Ward scrunched his face up but she could tell that he was uncomfortable with what she was saying but both waved it off.

“Well then the I have nothing.” She said bluntly.

Both of them looked at each other and then Coulson looked tired and sighed to himself. He looked at a loss for words and for the first time he looked really tired and worried about something while Ward was looking just as defeated.

Just when Skye was about say something to lighten the mood Simmons walked in with a smile on her face that did brighten up the whole room. Fitz trailer behind her and when his eyes caught hers he quickly looked away trying to look anywhere but her and she could see the beginning of a blush crept on his cheeks.

Simmons walked over to the monitor and tapped a few buttons so that screen lit up with whatever was showing on the tablet she was holding, “I figured out what killed our Scout Master!” She said happily.

“Simmons I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone sound so happy about a man being dying before.” Skye mentioned with a hint of a laugh in her voice. No one was paying attention though and she would have thought no one heard her comment if it wasn’t for Ward’s half glare but quickly looked back to the screen.

“His brain was fried.” Simmons said.

“What does that mean?” Coulson asked furrowing his eyebrows.

“No, Coulson, I don’t think you understand his brain was literally fried by something twice as powerful as a lightning bolt. I mean I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire lifetime and quite honestly it’s impressive.”

Skye thought about what could possibly have done anything like that and all every possibility was worse than the last one. There was one thing about the blue haze that worried her though, she had seen it once, in a Hydra warehouse before, and she was pretty sure that it came from the Chitauri Invasion and that people had experimented of it trying to make weapons out of it. She couldn’t be sure though, it wasn’t like the scientist told her, it would only quick fleeting glances around her then she would leave because she had gotten another assignment.

“Now something like that gives off a huge pulse so if we search for another electrical pulse then we’ll be able to find wherever this thing is.”

Not even five seconds after she had said it an alert was given off all of the looked at each other before racing off to their respective places and Skye couldn’t help but feel like the look Tommy gave Simmons was one not of pity for Jemma but one for her. 

Chapter Text

Coulson was driving so fast towards the barn that Skye thought he was going to just drive right through the barn's door. He didn't though instead he slammed on the brakes and Skye was thankful that she was wearing a seatbelt or else her head would be eating the back of Coulson's seat and would be sore for a couple of hours. She unbuckled the seatbelt as fast as she could and ran out of the car and ran up to the barn doors to see if there was anything that would give her hope that she was wrong about what she thought the cause of all this was.

She couldn't make it through the doors because in the middle of the barn, suspended in midair, was another man who a burn mark on his face and a similar blue haze around him. Skye knew that she was probably the only one that could see the blue haze but to her, it was the ultimate sign that Simmons was in trouble and that they needed to work quickly to help her.

She spotted Coulson who had been examining the body as closely as he could, "The first victim had the same mark on his face."

He turned to her and she couldn't stop staring at the body in the air, "You think they knew each other?" She asked.

"Could be, we won't know until you check."

Skye nodded and turned her back on the floating body in the air and she couldn't help the feeling of her stomach dropping, she knew something like this would happen, no matter where she went death followed her. There was a time when she and death had become one and she embraced it, all of it, wherever she went death would follow her with chaos and destruction not too far behind. Frowning she made her way back into the SUV and waited patiently for Coulson to come back into the car with her and she didn't have to wait very long.

Coulson took a deep sigh when he entered the car and looked out the window with a blank expression and Skye couldn't help but stare at him. He reminded her of her father whenever he was having one of his bad days and he would just stare at the mountainside through the windows, "I know that look." Skye said and Coulson turned his head her way, "My father used to get it on one of his bad days, I remember him just sitting at the window and looking out at the mountainside. He wouldn't talk to anybody, he wouldn't eat, all he would do is think about every failure he had in the world."

"You don't really talk about your parents." He observed.

Skye smiled sadly, "There's a reason for that Coulson."

He turned his head back to the road starting the car silently and she was grateful for it. As everyone piled back into the car they started making their way to the Bus and Skye looked out the window smiling at the forestry and colors. She had almost forgotten that they were other seasons and that a place could look this…Alive; Lucifer always had this way about him, he could suck the entire life out of a room but then somehow he was still so charming and charismatic and Skye didn't get it. He had a nice smile and he wasn't bad looking but something about him just made you want to stay with him and when he told you something you couldn't help but agree with him. She thought for some time that maybe he also had powers but then she realized that not every person who is extremely good at something has powers some are just naturally gifted.

After about ten minutes they finally came back to the Bus and everyone started to get out of the car except for Skye and Coulson. They both stayed behind after everyone else had left the car and went to work on something.

"You can always talk to me you know," Coulson said and she took her head away from the window and stared at him. She hadn't really heard what he said if he had said anything. "I said that you could talk to me anytime you like…about anything...even your parents."

"Okay, let me stop you right there," She interrupted his speech and gestured between the two of them, "This is going to happen."

"What's not going to happen?"

"This weird pseud father-daughter relationship you're going for it's not going to happen."

"I wasn't trying to make it happen, Skye, I was just trying to tell you that if you wanted to talk about something then you could come to me about it."

Skye didn't respond instead she just made a noise of content and opened the passenger side door, getting out of the car as fast as she could be making her way up to her room to see if she could find out anything more about the two men and see if they have any sort of connection.

It wasn't hard going through all the documents, flies, or reports both men were what she would call upstanding citizens and looked like both of them were never involved in anything bad. Then she saw something stick out then the rest of the flies; it was a picture of both men in firefighting uniform and Skye quickly got an idea. Typing as fast as she could she brought up all the reports of the men to see where they could have been in the same place at the same time and her breath hitched when she saw the results.

"They were in the Battle of New York." She whispered to herself in shock and then sat up looking shocked at the computer screen, "They were in the Battle of New York!" she half yelled then practically broke her door down while she ran to find Coulson and was relieved when she saw that he was just in the conference room.

She probably looked out of breath when she was stumbled into the room and when Coulson saw her face the color drained from his face, "What's wrong."

"The connection, they were both firefighters in the Battle of New York." She said breathlessly.

A look of realizations come to his face, "If they were both in the Battle of New York than that means that the same person could be killing them."

Skye scrunched her face up when Coulson had said 'person' not a thing and he noticed, "What?" he asked dread in his voice. Skye took a deep breath and walked towards him slowly and made sure that no one was looking or could overhear because she knew what she about to say would cause panic, especially for FitzSimmons.

"I've read up on some stuff about the Chitauri weapons and armor, now, some people took them as prizes or sold them on the black market as weapons."

"You think this is a Chitauri weapon?" He whispered.

"It's a thought." She said uncertainly.

Just as Coulson opened his mouth to speak but there were two knocks at the doorway and they both turned around to see a smiling Simmons, "Knock, Knock," She looked between the two, "Oh am I interrupting something? She asked.

"Oh no." "Not really." They both said at the same time and both of them glared at each other.

"Well then on that note I'll be happy to let you know that I have found that the mark on each of the victim's foreheads matches." She turned the screen around and they both leaned forward to see matching marks, "I believe that they were killing by the same person or thing." Jemma smiled proudly at her results but her smile turned into a frown when she saw Coulson and Skye share a look with each other.

They had rounded up the rest of the firefighters and told them what had happened to their friends to the firefighter it was to inform them what had happened, to the Team it was to see who was acting weird and to find out who had the helmet. All the men had looked sadden and Skye was happy about that because it showed that they truly cared for their friends and did feel bad that they had died but she noticed that one of the heartbeats had started to beat a little faster than normal. She looked over to a man who looked to be in his late thirties or early forties he had tan skin and looked to be sweating in otherwise chilly weather. She spared a glance towards Coulson and noticed that he too was looking at the man then she knew that this was their guy.

Coulson ordered everyone out of the house and it caused gave Skye the perfect moment to talk to Ward while they had time.

"When it's not one thing it's always the other." She said walking slowly towards him and he looked over his shoulder briefly letting her know that he was going to acknowledge her existence.

"Well it's never a dull job I'll give you that." He said to her as she stopped and stood next to him.

Skye smirked and gave Ward a fake surprise face, "Oh," she said, "So you're acknowledging that I exist again?"

He let out a slight huff and turned to her, "I wasn't acting like you didn't." He said annoyingly.

She smiled then moved her head to the one side, "No you just refused to look and or talk to me because I lied to all of you."

"Well if you would tell me just a little bit of the truth about yourself than maybe I would have a better time at trusting you." He spat out.

Skye opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out because what he said was true. She really hadn't told them all that much about herself all that they knew was that she lied and knew how to fight people in more than a self-defense way.

"Alright," She sighed out, "What do you want to know?"

He looked at her shocked, "What?"

"I'm giving you one chance to ask me anything that you want to know and I will answer it truthfully."

He looked at her for a second and she thought it was because he was wondering whether or not to believe her but then she realized he was looking at her because he was wondering what to ask her. Her heart sped up a little bit when he continued staring at her and she could help but feel like he was staring straight past everything.

"Alright I got it I know what I want to ask."

"Then, by all means, ask away." She motioned for him to do so.

He was about to ask when a huge blast like the one from the forest came and everybody's attention went towards the house. Skye and Ward both shared a look before they went off running into the house where the firefighters and Coulson still was. They ran into the house to see Coulson standing there with a grim look on his face and Skye tried to find the heartbeat of the man that he had talked to but she couldn't find it and she knew that he was dead.

Ward didn't though he looked at Coulson with a worry and confusion in his features, "Where's the other guy?" He asked.

Coulson frowned, "I couldn't save and he was okay with that." He motioned to the backroom where Skye was guessing the man laid dead, "I have to call this in get the other quarantined and make sure they're all okay."

"What was it?" Skye asked crossing her arms over her chest and tilting her head to the side.

"It was a Chitauri helmet, they had gotten it in the Battle of New York as a souvenir." He answered her and Skye rolled her eyes.

She didn't understand the whole idea of trophies after battles. She was always taught to keep everything clean and make sure that nobody could ever link you to the scene of crime and or fight. It also made packing even harder because then you would have to stuff everything into bags and as she was reminded all the time you always have to light on your feet. The biggest lesson she learned though was that they held sentimental value and in her line of work that can never, sentimental got you killed, it got others killed.

Sentiment means death.

"So where are you taking the helmet, I mean, it obviously can't stay out in the open."

Coulson looked over to Ward and she got the feeling that he was going to tell her instead since Coulson had more work to do. She turned on her heels and both her and Ward faced each other both waiting for the other to speak. It was this silence that made her finally realize their height difference and she wanted to groan because he was so much taller than she was it must have been men of the Ward family trait. Skye didn't hate the fact that she was short, if anything she was average, no it was the fact that people would always look down at her like she was beneath them. Little did they know that she was an actual princess and could probably rip their hearts out with very little effort on her part.

"One of us has to go first," She said, "so should I go first or you go first?" Skye pointed her index finger between the two of them.

"Remember the Slingshot?" he asked her, "The place where we threw the Alien tech into space."

"Yeah, kind of hard to forget that."

"Well we have sights all over the world, my best guess, something like this will probably go to the Sandbox."

Skye furrowed her brow in confusion, "The Sandbox? Who the hell names these things?" She asked not really to Ward but just in general. His only response was to shrug his shoulders and roll her eyes at the statement. It was a valid question in her mind though she high doubts someone names Nick Fucking Fury would name facilities so childishly.

Ward turned and started walking back towards one of the cars and he motioned with his head for her to follow him and she did so. She started walking beside him and did her best to keep her legs in tandem with him, she didn't know he would find that endearing or annoying, either way, she was doing it. She spared a quick glance over at him and she saw that he had taken a quick glance at her and she noticed a small smile grow on his face, "You still have a question to ask me." Skye said bumping into him.

He spared a glance over at her, "Consider it a rain check." He said with smirking afterward.

"You should do that more." She commented while keeping her pace the same as his.

"Do what more?" he asked.

"Smile more, it makes you look a lot more attractive." She said her face completely deadpanned and she couldn't help but smirk when she saw that his pace had faltered and he stop walking altogether while she just went further. Her heart skipped a few beats the butterflies were all over the place in her stomach at the feeling of him being shell-shocked by her comments. It was just harmless flirting right? The only reason she had any interest in him or any feelings for him is that he was good looking right? Right? She was so screwed.

"SHIELD agents are dicks." She said to Fitz who had come to her room and promptly started freaking out over his newly realized feeling for Simmons. Fitz gave her a horrified look as she said her comment, "What?" she asked shrugging her shoulders, "It's true."

He hugged one of her pillows closer to him as one of his legs dangled over the edge, "After all of that, everything that I just told you, that's all you can say?" his voice cracking as he slightly yelled at her.

She leaned closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder, "What do you want me to say, Fitz, I'm horrible at relationships, especially romantic ones. I mean the last boyfriend I had went up in flames, literally, and even if that didn't happen we had a very toxic relationship."

"Okay but you at least loved your last boyfriend, right?" He asked looking hopeful.

"Well, I wouldn't call what J.T. and I had loving so no." She said he looked defeated.

"I don't know what to do Skye and I'm really freaking out here and I would like it if you would be my friend right now and try helping me out." He said clutching the pillow in panic and Skye let out a small soothing vibration to him and she could feel his muscles relaxing. He slumped forward and groaned into the pillow that was in his hands letting out, what Skye thought, was a cross between a sob and sigh.

"Fitz," She said softly, "I think that the best thing to do right now would be to do nothing."

He lifted his head up, "What?" he asked sounding like a small child.

She struggled to find the words for this, "You love Simmons right?" He nodded his head, "Okay I'm pretty sure that Simmons loves you as well, and in the same way, but I don't think that she knows it yet. And you confessing could make her freak out and not want to be friends with you anymore, so for now, my advice would be to do nothing."

He opened his mouth to say something but he was cut off by a knocking at her door and Fitz let out a little yelp throwing the pillow into her face. She closed her eyes and opened them again slowly glaring at Fitz who was looking very apologetic, "Come in." she said in a monotone voice.

The door opened to reveal Ward standing there with a sour look on his face, "Coulson is requesting us he said that it was urgent."

Skye patted Fitz on the arm and he got up quickly trying to make it look smooth, "Well if he insists." Then he walked out of her buck trying to make it look like he hadn't just screamed like a little girl. It didn't work though and instead made him look awkward walking away.

She turned her gaze back to Ward who was glaring at her, "What?" She innocently.

"What were you two doing?" He crossed his arms and leaned against her doorway.

She waved him off, "Oh don't worry it wasn't like we were planning anything nefarious, we were just talking."

"You mean gossiping." He said lifting his eyebrow.

Skye shrugged her shoulders getting up off the bed, "I guess if you wanted to put it that way."

"Whatever it is, I don't want it interfering with the missions."

Skye huffed and was a little offended by what he was implying towards her causing her to stand up and threw her hands out in anger. Ward had turned her back on her and he had started walking off when she called him out, "Can you pick a mode other than dick because this is really getting old!"

He stopped and turned around to look at her, "Excuse me?" He questioned.

She walked towards him, "You heard me, I'm so sick and tired of you being a dick to everybody when we, all of us might I just add, have been nothing but nice to you."

"You think complaining about me and doing horrible impressions of me behind my back, betraying the team and leaving me out of missions, is being nice to me?" He said with a low voice coming dangerously close to her.

"Okay look I'll admit, I'm a bit of a bitch, but considering the people in my family, you are lucky that I'm the nice one. FitzSimmons though, they do those impressions because you've given them nothing else to go on."

"They don't need anything else to go on." He said and she rolled her eyes.

"You know, you keep giving me this whole speech how I betrayed the team but it seems that I'm more a part of this team than you are."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

Skye got closer to him and put a finger on his chest, "It means that you have to start making an effort." She back away and started walking towards the man conference where Coulson said that he had wanted them. When she arrived Ward was only a few steps behind her and Coulson noticed them walking in together and started giving them a confused look before shaking it off.

Then a grave look had appeared on his face and Skye instantly hated it, "We have a problem." Coulson said.

"What, what is it?" Fitz asked and she could feel the worry coming off of the man.

"The helmet it seems that the way the disease is spread it was through the shock the helmet gave and the only person who was exposed to the shock was…" He trailed off unable to finish but he didn't have to since Fitz did it for him.

"Jemma." He whispered in horror.

The look on Coulson's face confirmed his answer and the sinking feeling that Skye had in her stomach had finally come full circle. Ward moved forward and for the first time she saw worry in his eyes for Simmons, "They're working on a cure aren't they?" he asked.

Coulson nodded his head, "Well the only person who can work on the cure is… Simmons."

Alright, Skye thought, that's a little messed up. She looked over to say something to Fitz and their eyes meet before she nodded and he bolted off down the stairs probably to keep his sick friend company. Coulson moved forward to go after him but Skye was able to push him back, "Don't so that, let him figure it out."

"His best friend is dying and you think that the best place for him is right beside her?"

"It's the only place that he should be because if Simmons is going to find the cure she's going to need Fitz by her side." She said in a low voice and turned around to look at May and Ward, "That goes for the both of you no one talks to them unless this plane is going down."

"You're not my boss," May said.

Skye rolled her eyes, "Yes well excuse me if I don't exactly like your track record."

May narrowed her eyes, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Skye turned around to look at her fully, "What were their names again, Eva and Katya?" She asked even though she already knew the answer. Skye may have thought that what May did was justified and she did what she had to but that didn't mean that she still liked it. This was a woman who wasn't showing any emotion what so ever, even Skye still showed some after all the people she killed and she wanted to see if May still had it in her.

Coulson turned to her shocked but May, oh May, she could tell from the vibration coming off of her that she was pissed. Skye smirked as she saw May walk towards her eyes full of anger and rage. When she was face to face with her she spoke, "That was never in the file."

Skye did a half shrug, "It didn't need to be, I may be a high school dropout May but I'm not stupid. I wouldn't work with anybody that I didn't know everything about."

May tilted her head to the side, "And yet, we still know nothing about you."

"Good point, you don't, but that's your own damn fault if SHIELD had any real competency I would be in cuffs right now and not having this conversation."

"If you were-" May started but Skye cut her off.

"Oh no I get it, I would do the same thing. Actually," her head went to the side, "I think I have but it still doesn't change the fact that you did it and nothing ever will." Skye smiled at her and turned her back on May walking out of the room and was low-key hoping that May would kill her in her sleep.

She walked over to the bar and crouched down under the bar to see if they had any German drinks. That was the one thing that she did full hardily miss about staying in Germany, the booze was amazing. Moving the bottles around she let out a huff of annoyance when she could find anything to her liking and finally settled on a bottle of vodka, Russian was good enough.

Taking the bottle and uncapping it she poured a little into a scotch glass and downed it enjoying the burn that it left in her mouth. She saw the side of her eye that Ward was walking up to her and she poured herself another glass and drank it as he leaned against the bar looking at her.

"What?" She asked about to take another drink and he grabbed it out of her hand.

She let out a noise of protest, "I used to drink this stuff when I was undercover in Russia."

Skye let out a scoff, "And how long was that for?"

"Fifteen months." He said and she looked impressed.

"Must have been tough." She said wishing that she had her drink back.

"Some training I had to go through. Physical and mental it was tough but I got through it."

They stood there again in silence and she could feel that his heart was beating quickly but from what she didn't know. "Which leads me to my one question."

She leaned against her back against the plane and was thankful for the cold of the metal because it cooled down her hot skin. "And what question is that?"

"Who do you work for?

Skye sucked in her breath, she should have known that this was coming. "Rephrase."

"Alright, who did you work for?"

She took a deep sigh and motioned for him to give her drink back he gave her a look and she motioned again. Ward sighed and finally gave him giving her drink back to her she drank what was left in it and then she drank it.

Gulping it back she slammed the glass down on the table, "You can't tell anybody what I'm about to tell you."

"You have my word." He whispered seriously and she took another deep breath.

"I didn't work for anybody, I worked with people they paid me and I got the job done."

"You were a mercenary." He said as a fact and she nodded, "Why are you here now then?"

"It's not what you think." She said quickly, "Me being here is on my own terms, not anybody else's."

"How does someone like you become a mercenary?" He asked and she looked at him with an unexpected look.

It shouldn't be a tough question to answer but for some reason, she was finding it incredibly hard too. She opened her mouth to answer and instead of letting out a long, very expertly worded answer, all she could say was, "I made a deal with the Devil himself." She spat out.

"The Devil huh?" He questioned.

Skye shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, "Yeah, turns out he isn't as fair as his contracts make him out to be."

"Really how so?" He asked and she held up a finger to him.

"I only gave you one question and you already used it. You get no more until I feel like it is necessary."

"You can't just say something that cryptic and expect me to believe it." He exclaimed.

"Ironic coming from a SHIELD agent." She said humorously.

She looked at him and saw that he was smiling and she couldn't help but like the way he smiled. She liked that she had done that to him, that she was the cause of his smiling. "Seriously though you can't expect me to believe that you met the Devil and made a deal with him." He said laughingly but it caused Skye to frown.

He must of notices because his face turned to a look of concern and guilt for making her feel bad. She reached out and his vibrations were the same. Fiddling with the glass in hand Skye traced the rim of it with her index finger. "I know he wasn't really the devil Grant." She said, "But some days it didn't feel like that. Somedays I was actually in Hell."

"What are you talking about?"

She looked around to see if she could spot Coulson and May and cursed to herself when they were still in the Conference room in the clear line of sight. Trying not to gain attention to herself she moved from outside the bar and grabbed Grant's hand slowly walking him over to his buck. She motioned for him to open the door and he did. As soon as he did that Skye pushed him inside forcing him to land on his bed and quickly stepped into the room shutting and locking the door behind her.

Grant leaned up on his elbows and gave her an irritated look, "What the hell was that for?" He asked.

She shushed him, "You really want to know what I'm talking about?" She asked him.

He nodded his head.

"Well here goes nothing," Skye mumbled as she started to slowly unbutton her shirt that she was wearing.

Grant's eyes widen, "Uhh…Skye what are you doing?" He asked his voice shaking and she could feel how fast his heartbeat was. His eyes were flicking between her face and her, now, almost unbutton shirt.

She rolled her eyes and shed the shirt off and his expression changed almost instantly. His eyes caught sight of the scar that was on her abdomen and it was almost funny how it was his very brother who had done it. He reached his hand up to touch it but stopped himself before he could so and she almost wanted him to run his hands over her.

"Who did this to you?" he asked and she could tell he was angry.

She shook her head and put her shirt back on and started buttoning it back up, "It doesn't matter who did it to me." Lie, it did matter, it had always mattered to her, "What matters is that after it happened I felt helpless, weak, like I lost control over my whole life. I don't like feeling like that Ward."

"Neither do I."

"You said you didn't believe in the Devil, well neither did I, not until he showed me."

"Showed you what?"

"Showed what it felt like to never feel helpless ever again, to never feel weak again." She finished and looked at her with curious eyes and she could tell that he wanted to ask her something else.

"What about being in control."

She looked away and finished buttoning up her shirt, "What you have to understand, Grant, is that the time I spent with him wasn't always under my own free will."

"And the time you were?" He asked and Skye turned towards the door trying to hide tears that were threatening to spill.

She wiped them quickly from her face and opened the door, "Our friend is dying," she said, "and I feel like I can't-do a damn thing about it."

She heard Grant get up and put a hand on her shoulder and for the first time, it was him calming her down. "Look," he said, "I hate feeling helpless but somethings are just out of our control."

Skye clenched her fist and tried to stop the shaking from happening. She could feel it in the pit of her stomach, the little bees, they had started buzzing more and she wanted to unleash her powers on anything that was in her way. She needed something to ground her and closing the door again she shut her eyes taking a deep breath before turning around and faced Ward again. There was a slight smile on his face and she couldn't help but like the feeling she got whenever he smiled at her. Her heart was pounding and she knew that she didn't do anything soon her powers would do something and everything would be ruined.

"Not everything," Skye whispered and put her hands around Ward's neck pulling his lips slowly towards her and she hesitated for a moment. She was giving him a chance to back away and for a moment she thought he was going to. That thought was thrown out the window though when one his hands went to her waist and pulled her closer to him their lips finally meeting and Skye closed her eyes enjoying the feeling of his lips on her.

She would think that Grant would be rushed and harsh when he kissed but he wasn't. Their kiss was slow and with each kiss, they grew more confident with each other and the kiss grew stronger. Skye hands left Grant's neck and moved their way up into his hair letting her fingers tangling them in his hair. Grant had backed her up to the door and he pulled back looking at her in a way she had never seen anybody look at her before. He studied her face before putting his hand on the small of her back and bringing her in again this time surer of what he was doing and what he wanted.

Skye wanted to stay like this forever, the bees in her stomach had started to calm down and she felt happy in the first time since forever. Then she remembers though that this was Tommy's brother and that caused her to pull back panting slightly and she started to freak out on the inside slightly. Her eyes widen at what she had just done and more so how much she had liked it. She was kissing Grant, she was kissing Tommy's brother, the brother that he liked. She pushed Ward back slightly and she hated the look of hurt that flashed over his face, "I'm sorry," She said breathlessly, "I shouldn't have- it doesn't matter- I'm just going to…" She trailed off and turned around to embarrassed to face with him, "I'm going to check on FitzSimmons and see if they need anything."

Skye sat in her closet with her knees up to her chest and her head between them trying to calm herself down. This day was ending up being even more shitty than the day she beat the living hell out of Miles and it wasn't even over yet. She had only calmed down for a little bit before everything had hit her fully about everything she had done. It was causing her to hyperventilate and she was now trying her best to stop before something bad was going to happen.

She had checked on FitzSimmons and was shocked to find that Fitz was in the lab and a part of her wanted to run to the lab and help them out. Skye wanted to yell at Fitz put she saw the desperate look in his eyes and she thought that if it had been Tommy in there she would have done the same thing. So, not being able to go back upstairs and face Ward she decided to go back to her closet to collect her thoughts. Which was turning out to be one of her worse decisions that she had made while on the Bus and being with the whole team.

Her powers wanted to be let out and there was nothing that could be done about that. She grabbed her phone with shaking hands and called Tommy on her speed dial. It rang six times and after that, it went to his voicemail and she screamed getting up and throwing her phone against the wall. She didn't want to direct her powers inward towards herself but the more she looked at the situation the more it was coming to that. Skye tried to calm herself down by taking deep breaths but it wasn't working and she could feel the bees starting to sting and her heart rate was speeding up.

Letting out a breath and knowing what she had to do Skye rolled up her sleeves to her shirt and closed her eyes directing her powers inward. She could feel everything and had to bite her lip from yelling out all the bones and blood vessels fracturing and rupturing in her arms.

Then the plane lurched forward and the alarms sounded off letting her know that someone had opened the main hatch. A sinking feeling was in her stomach when she searches the plane quickly for Simmons heartbeat and started to panic when she felt how fast it was beating. Ignoring the pain in her arms Skye threw open the door and sprinted down the many hallways making her way to the lab.

Her eyes widen when she saw that Simmons was standing at the edge of the open hatch ready to jump. She turned around quickly just to see Fitz lying unconscious on the ground and Skye's head whipped around once she realized what had happened. Simmons didn't find a cure so now she was trying to eliminate the problem altogether.

Skye took a step forward and Jemma took a step back, "I'm sorry." Jemma screamed the jumped off the plane and Skye screamed out her name.

Fearing for her friends lives she rushed inside the lab to where Fitz laid she put her hands on his chest letting a quick vibration run through his body causing him to wake up gasping. He looked around for his friend but when his eyes met her he knew that she had done something horrible. Fitz's eye landed on one of the test rats, "It's alive." He said. "it worked the cure worked."

"Fitz what are you talking about." She asked through labored breaths.

"The cure she made it worked it just needed some time." He bolted upwards and ran out of the lab and into the cargo hold. He looked around for a moment before his eyes met with the parachute and Skye instantly knew where this was going. "Fitz's no you can't you don't know what to do."

He was struggling to put on the parachute, "She's all I have Skye and need to get this serum to her before she dies."

"But, Fitz, listen to me you don't know how to work this thing, I mean, how many planes have you jumped out of?"

He gulped and was about to answer when someone beat him to it, "She's right you know." Ward said and both of them turned towards the sound of his voice. He was standing on the edge of the staircase with worried Coulson behind him. He started walking towards them, "I know how to do these things Fitz let me help you." He reached out his hand and she was thankful that Fitz started to undo everything and handed the parachute over to Ward.

It had only taken Ward a matter of seconds to put the parachute on and when he was done took one final look at Skye before diving down. It was some of the longest seconds of her life but she finally heard the crackle of a walkie-talkie minutes later, "I got to her in time." She heard Grant's voice say.

The whole team let out a sigh of relief and shook his head before making his way back presumably to find the two agents.

Coulson had started to read out the riot act towards Ward and Simmons but stopped once he saw the two look at him tiredly. Both were huddled in blankets, well more Simmons because the blankets didn't honestly fit Ward, and the two of them smiled at the older man.

"Look what I'm trying to say, is that both of you are crazy," Coulson said and the two agents looked confused, "but I'm glad that the both of you are still alive." Jemma smiled at that and sipped her tea.

"Well make that two because I don't think that May likes me very much," Skye exclaimed and ran over to Jemma giving the older brit a hug. Simmons leaned into her slight and Skye made sure to send the girl calming vibrations.

"Well after that exciting day I think I'm going to bed," Jemma announced setting down her cup of tea.

Fitz rushed over to help her, "I'll help you."

Simmons smiled and him which caused Fitz to blush slightly and smile back, "Thank you, Fitz." She said and Skye's heart melted at the sight before her.

Coulson also gave her a wave goodnight and she returned it trying not wince and the feeling of her still sore arms. Then all that was left was her and Ward in the same room together, one standing and dry while the other was sitting and soaking wet. "I'm sorry about before." She told him.

"You don't have to apologize, I shouldn't have." He stopped and looked to the side his eyes not meeting hers.

"I don't regret doing it, please know that." She said his turned towards her again while she crossed her arms, "It's just I'm not good with relationships Grant, and I tend to do things before I actually think them through, it's just part of who I am."

"What are you trying to say?" He asked finally looking back at her.

"What I'm trying to say is that… the people that I have been with or cared for, don't usually tend to stick around."

They stared at each other for a couple of moments before the silence became too unbearable for Skye and she had to walk out. Just as she reached for the door she heard Grant's voice, "I wouldn't do that to you, Skye, you're worth sticking around for."

This time Skye let the tears fall freely.

Chapter Text

Daisy was sleeping but something was shaking her awake. Her eyes remained shut for she was determined to sleep on the night before her coronation as the new queen. Daisy was shocked as everyone else to learn that her mother had made the decision to step down and let her youngest daughter take her place. She knew that it was a big deal and she had only turned eighteen about a week ago, it so much at one time.

She wanted it though, she wanted it bad.

There was so much that Daisy had wanted to change, opening up the gates for more people was one them. Letting more people go through the Mist was another thing that she wanted to change and a smile came upon her face. She had always thought that Cecily was better fit but since she wasn’t true born it had to be her, of course she would keep her sister as her Adviser.

Feeling someone shake her again Daisy finally opened her eyes and saw the bright smile of her best friend Tommy Ward. Daisy smiled at him even though he had disturbed her sleep, “What do you want Tommy?” She asked him.

His eye shined with something that she had never seen before in her best friends eyes, “Come one Daisy Dukes I have to show you something.” He motioned for her to follow him and she eyed him carefully. Something was wrong with her best friend she could already tell. His voice was different and his eyes seemed more dull and unhappy which was unusually for Tommy to even look sad.

As they exited her room she saw two guards on duty. It was Luciana Cortez and Valentine King who were on duty and from then she knew something had to be wrong.

Luciana gave her a tight smile that seemed to fake and she shared a look with Valentine who just smirk. “Why are you two here?” Daisy asked accusingly her eyes roaming to the multiple daggers attached the girl. She also noticed the gun that laid upon her hip she glanced over to Valentine to see that he too had a gun.

Luciana tilted her head to the side, “Just making sure that nothing happens to the Queen-To-Be.”

“Your mother only wanted the best of the best for you.” Valentine added.

Daisy gravitated towards Tommy more hoping that she could disappear into his shadow. The smiles of both guards were stuck to her mind permanently and she couldn’t get those looks out of her head. She didn’t trust those two they were always trying to gain more power for themselves and rarely wanted to actually help other people.

Trusting her best friend though she sped up her pace and tugged on the ends of the long grey shirt that she was wearing. The palace was asleep and it looked like Daisy and Tommy where the only ones up at the time. He took her hand and squeezed it trying to reassure her both nothing would make the pit in the middle of her stomach go away.

He lead her through a series of hallways and finally out of the palace passing the main courtyard and gardens on their way. He finally stopped in front of the cliff where the waterfall started and she caught him looking at the moon. The she saw a tear slip from his blue eyes, “Tommy what’s wrong?” she asked him.

He closed his eyes and she saw more tears running down his face. He slowly reached into his jacket and pulled out a knife and she swore her heart stopped. “I have to do this Daisy.”

Daisy started to panic while backing up but stopped when she lost her footing a little bit over the edge, “No you really don’t Tommy, please you’re my best friend.”

“She won’t give me another choice.” He pleaded as he took another step towards her and the rushing of the waterfall became clearer to her.

“Who Tommy, who is making you do this?” She shouted as her friend but didn’t fight back. Even now when he was about to hurt her she could never hurt him.

“Who do you think Daisy?!” He yelled back and her heart broke.

Her mother had done this to her. The one person in the world she thought would love her forever was now trying to get the person Daisy would love forever to kill her.

“Tommy don’t do this, please whatever hold she has over you fight it, I’m your best friend please.” Daisy sobbed but the look in Tommy’s eye said it all. He wasn’t going to change his mind. She was about to say something else when she felt a sharp pain right under her first rib and as soon as it was there it was gone.

Tommy stepped back and she felt the spot where the pain was and lifted her hand back up to see blood there. She stumbled back and tried to stop herself but she felt another push and she knew that it was Tommy’s powers and she soon fell off the cliff landing in the waters below.

Skye cleared the tears off her face after remembering that night and was staring up at her ceiling recalling the words that Grant had said to her.

“You’re worth sticking around for.” It kept repeating over and over in her head and she couldn’t help but feel like he truly meant those words.

No one had ever said something like that to her before, even Tommy had left at one point. He, of course, always came back but he never once promised her that he would stay. Grant was the first person that she had romantic feelings for that had ever said that to her and it made her stomach flip in a good way.

Not being able to take it anymore she got up from her bed and opened the door as quietly as she could. Everyone had finally fallen asleep after the whole ‘Jemma jumping out of a plane thing’ and Skye didn’t want to wake anybody else up but she needed to know something.

Tip toeing her way across the room she made it to the bunk that she was looking for and knocked lightly. It took only a few seconds but the door finally opened to reveal and tired looking Grant with an extreme case of bed head. “Can I come in?” She asked and he looked up and down her body and that was when Skye realized that she was only wearing a long ‘I Survived New York’ t-shirt that barely made it past her upper thighs.

She saw him swallow thickly then he opened up his door and rubbed his face, “Sure.” He replied and his voice was raspy.

Skye entered slowly and she sat down on the bed as Ward had shut the door. He then took in the sight of her and sat down next to her. “What are you doing here Skye?”

She opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out because what she wanted to say just sounded so…odd. Finally mustering up enough courage she finally said it, “Can I just stay with you tonight?” She asked and his eyes widen slightly and she could hear his heartrate begin to rise, “Not like that,” She added, “I just… I keep having nightmares and I just want them to stop for only one night.”

“And you think that staying with me would help that?” he questioned.

She nodded her head and he took a deep sigh, “Alright but it’s going to be pretty hard fitting two people in this bed, I mean I can barely fit in it.” He said.

She shrugged her shoulders and Grant climbed back into bed under the covers and motioned for her to join him. She crawled over to him and placed her head over his right pectoral while her one hand laid over his heart. Skye knew that he was slightly uncomfortable with this and she sent out calming vibrations through his body and seconds later his one arm came to rest hesitantly on her back.

There they were lying on the bed and Skye got the feeling that both of them weren’t going to get much sleep. She felt his head move around and he took his free arm and gently picked up the arm that had been laying over his heart. “Skye what happened to your arm?” he asked and Skye swore silently in her head.

She had forgotten to heal the injuries she had inflicted on herself earlier. The little burst had helped heal the fractured bones but it had taken up so much energy that she had forgotten about the bruises completely.

“I fell earlier today, must have been harder than I expected.” She lied.

“All around your arm?” He questioned again.”

Skye sighed, “Look I came here to sleep not play twenty questions. So can you please just shut up and close your eyes.”

He gently placed her hand back down and moved back to his original position. He must have grown more comfortable though because all the sudden he had started lightly stroking her back. Skye closed her eyes and sighed in pleasured. His fingers lightly grazing her back was calming and on top of it all his heart beat had slowed down and was starting to act as a nice background noise. She could feel herself drifting off into sleep.

“Skye?” Grant whispered.

“Mmmpphh?” She replied not even opening her mouth.

“Would you do it again?” He asked.

This time she did open her mouth, “Do what again?” She asked as she lifted herself up onto her elbows looking at him fully. He looked almost nervous and although there were in the dark Skye would bet that Grant was mildly blushing. Even without her hand on his heart she could tell that whatever he was about to say was putting him on edge.

“Would you ever kiss me again?” He finished his thought and it was more out of curiosity than anything. She didn’t real show any emotion because she was always taught that when you did people could use it against you. And people had. The few times she did show a liking to someone they had either died or tried to kill her. Most of them died though, at her hands, or Lucifer’s.

Of course she would kiss him again but it was Tommy that always made her hesitate. Thinking of him while kissing his brother felt like some kind of betrayal to her best friend. Wasn’t there a code against that? Like you couldn’t kiss your best friends brother? Skye’s almost certain she heard a song about that somewhere. Tommy wasn’t here though and it wasn’t like Grant was going to tell him. So, putting all her decision making aside Skye did what she always did best.

Act on her impulsions.

Quickly moving her way up his body Skye positioned herself so she was straddling Grant’s hips and her eyes meeting his. Skye waited for a moment to see if he would do anything to stop her but she was starting to think that he would never try and stop her.

The first time that they kissed Skye was slow and hesitant the second is what she expected to happen the first time. She crushed her lips to his and he responded instantly not ever hesitating in kissing her back. He placed his hands over her hips lightly grazing over her lower back and the action caused her to jerk forward and gasp. It also caused his to groan and her guess it wasn’t because it hurt and from the feeling of it, it didn’t hurt him at all.

He sat up more so he had better access to her mouth and he pulled her closer making the gap between their bodies disappear. Skye wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself up, she thought that the action would have been hot but it ended up making Grant fall back and Skye fall forward on top of him.

They stayed silent for a minute before Skye started chuckling from how funny it must have looked. A few moments later she heard Grant chuckling as well and she looked up at him and smiled. “To answer your question, it’s a yes.” She said.

The hand that had been on her back slid up a little bit pulling her shirt with it, “Good, because I wasn’t sure if I was getting a clear answer or not.”

Skye smiled and leaned down again to kiss him. It was lighter this time and she could feel his arms wrap around the lower half of her body making sure she was kept it place. It didn’t feel like lust, it just felt for a moment like they were two young people having a nice time kissing each other. He ran his fingers up and down her back causing her to shiver. She didn’t mind it though it was a good shiver one that you want to feel again.

Then they heard the sound of a door shutting and it was like someone had poured cold water all over them. Grant unwrapped his arms from Skye and she moved to fix her shirt in case they decided to look for Grant. Skye had moved to the back of Grant and her face was now looking out the window while Grant threw the covers over her body and most of his.

There was some more shuffling outside until another door opened and shut again. Skye let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding and kicked the covers off her body. She turned over and to look at Grant who had a speechless look on his face.

“Maybe we should…just…wait a little bit?” he whispered to her.

Skye shook her head and started to move, “I think that maybe I should just go.” She said quickly but Grant grabbed her by her arm and stopped her.

“Skye, you don’t have to go, we don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to.”

Skye let out a growl of frustration and leaned towards him, “That’s my problem Grant, I want to, I want to so badly but we can’t not now with everyone around us.”

“So, we just sleep?” He asked.

She nodded her head, “We just sleep.”

She woke up because Grant was trying to maneuver his way around her. Skye groaned and rubbed the sleep away from her eyes, “What time is it?”

“About five forty-five.” Grant stated and he looked guilty while looking at her, “I tried my best not to wake you up.”

Skye stretched her arms and slowly made it out of bed, “It’s fine I needed to get up anyway.” She cracked her neck and back, “You still up for training?” She asked.

He did his best to look natural but Skye could tell he was becoming flustered, “Yeah, I mean if you still want to do. I just thought because of last night you wouldn’t want to…” He trailed off.

“Train with you because my womanly urges would be too much and I wouldn’t be able to help myself as your sweaty body is next to mine.” She said in a low voice standing up and coming closer to him.

“Well that’s not exactly what I meant.” He stated.

She smirked at him, “Ward,” She said, “I don’t care what type of feelings we have towards each other when it comes to training I will always beat you. Always.”

“Is that a bet?” he asked amused obviously by her statement.

“I don’t make bets Ward, only promises.” She said smiling at him.

He smiled as well and it made her smile even more even showing some teeth. She let out a light laugh and Grant leaned down to kiss her lightly on the lips. Skye tried remembering the feeling of his lips on her forever and once she was sure that she couldn’t ever forget it she pulled away.

“I’m still kicking your ass.”

“Yeah didn’t really think that would work.” He said mostly to himself.

Opening the door Skye made sure that no one else was out in front and quickly made her way into her own bunk. She smiled to herself as she opened the door and was looking forward to hanging out with Grant alone after last night. Looking at her bunk she thought it would be empty but she was wrong as she looked at the smirking face of Thomas Andrew Ward who was reading People! Magazine with Prince Harry on the cover.  

Skye always prided herself on never really reacting to anything anymore but this really took her by surprise.

She had stopped dead in her tracts and widen her eyes letting out a loud yelp at seeing her best friend. Tommy crossed his legs and looked up to briefly acknowledge her then went back to his magazine, “You know,” he said, “I never got the big deal over Prince Harry I mean I don’t even find him that good looking.” He motioned to the cover of the magazine that was plastered with the Royal Prince’s face and something about his love life.

Skye just stared at Tommy before throwing her arms out, “What are you doing here!” She yelled.

Tommy put the magazine down and motioned for her to keep it down, “Close the door too we don’t want people to see me now do we.”

Skye quickly did as he said and shut the door behind her then turned back to her friend, “I’ll ask one more time. What the hell are you doing here?”

He shrugged his shoulders, “You called me remember?” he asked.

Skye walked towards him, “Like more than twelve hours ago when I needed you.”

“Okay well there was a slight delay but I’m here now.” He said and motioned for her to sit. She sat down next to him, “Now tell me what do you need.”

“Well,” Skye said tilting her head to the side, “I was going to ask to shadow travel me somewhere so I could let out some much-needed steam but I kind of already took care of that.” She put her arms out for Tommy to see. He gently took her arms in his hands and pushed the sleeves up to see the bruises that were still there. She saw Tommy gulping and she could already tell that he felt guilty.

“Shit, I’m sorry Skye. I got caught up last night with this useless lead and I came as soon as I heard the message.” He said putting her arms down gently.

“Really?” She asked not believing him when he said he came as soon as he heard.

“Alright so I might have gotten food first and taken a slight nap but as soon as I could go I did.” He replied pointing a finger at her.

Skye shrugged her shoulders and stood up walking over to the small drawer that she had that housed all her clothes. Pulling out a pair of yoga pants she started to put them on and looked over at Tommy, “Tommy don’t worry about it I have it under control.”

“You always say that.” He pointed out.

“Well that’s because I’m always right.” She said while pulling out a tank top and changing into it.

Tommy snorted and stood up looking down at her bed and seeing how made up it was, “Where were you?” He asked.

Skye turned around slowly and saw him looking at her bed then look back to her, “What do you mean?” She asked innocently.

“When I came here this morning you weren’t here, in fact you bed doesn’t look slept in at all.” He said putting his hand on it and feeling for the body that should have been there. Skye tried to look confused as possible and try to think of a convincing lie to tell her best friend. She certainly wasn’t going to tell him that she spent the night with his brother while the day before she had kissed him.

“I, ahh, slept in the car last night, the bed is too comfortable for me.”

Tommy look unconvinced for a moment then shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t care anymore, “Oh well not like you haven’t slept in worse places.” He said smiling up at her and she returned the smile.

The two looked at each other and in that moment Skye knew that Tommy knew something was up. She could feel it in her bones that he knew something was wrong with her, more than her not sleeping in her bed. The bond that they had once was vanished but it was moment likes these were she doubted that it was truly gone. Where they could look at each other and they instantly knew what was wrong with each other or could feel what the other was feeling.

Brushing off the feeling though she turned to Tommy, “Well you should probably get going before anyone sees or hears you.” She said.

She swore she say Tommy look a little bit disappointed, “Right, I’ll just be going then.” He said motioning to the dark corner of her room. She moved over giving him more room and he squeezed into and she had to squint to make out his nearly invisible form in the dark corner.

“Oh and Skye,” He said as he was about to disappear.

“What?” She asked.

He looked like he wanted to say something but stopped himself from saying it, “I’ll see you later.” He said.

Skye smiled at her friend, “Of course.”

Then he disappeared into the shadows and Skye shut the door to her bunk making her way into the training room where Ward was already there. He looked up at her a smiled and her heart fluttered at the expression on his face, “You ready to train?” Ward asked her.

Putting Tommy into the back of her mind Skye smiled back, “I hope you’re ready to be beat.” She answered him and they both laughed at her comment.

It was her turn to have some fun.

Chapter Text

"What the hell is the Hub?" Skye asked Ward who was changing out of his tact gear and into his regular clothes.

He turned around and looked at her as he was putting on a new shirt, "It's another secret location but I guess you could call it our main headquarters."

"it sounds like a frat house." She commented and he playfully glared at her.

They had just gotten back from a mission when Coulson had informed the Team that they would be going to the Hub. FitzSimmons seemed to be over the moon about while the three Specialist seemed indifferent. Skye was just plain confused about the whole thing. So, she had snuck back into Ward's bunk trying to pry answers out of him.

It had also been two weeks since she had seen Tommy and she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong when he showed up. Skye thought at first that maybe he had figured out she was lying about the car and was with his brother but another part of her thought it was something more. The way he looked overall concerned her. He looked desperate and she knew that when Tommy was desperate he made stupid decisions without consulting anybody.

It concerned her greatly and she wanted nothing to do but call him.

"Skye are you alright?" She heard Ward asked.

Skye looked up at him and put on a fake smile to try and convince him, "Yeah I'm fine just overthinking something, hopefully." She said.

"You want to talk about it?" He asked again and she shook her head.

That was another thing Skye did know what her and Ward was and it was starting to become a problem. Sometimes when they kiss in private it was only for a few moments and it would be very chaste and sweet. There were other times though that it wasn't short and sweet rather hot and heavy in need of some air. In some moments they stayed together in silence and for her, at least, she wonders what they were. Then came one night, two days ago, when Grant had finally asked her what they were, she had been avoiding the answer ever since.

Skye couldn't bring herself to say that she cared because she did care. She cared too much. It was becoming a problem.

"No, I don't, talking isn't going to help me fix this." She mumbled to herself and she stared down at her still healing arms. It was taking longer than it usually did and she didn't know why. Whenever she did it to herself it took a long time but this was getting ridiculous.

Grant must have caught her looking at her arms because the next thing she knew he was sitting next to her taking one of them in his hands. "Do they still hurt?" He asked concerned. Skye was starting to think that he didn't exactly buy the lie about her falling.

"They should be healed by now." She said to herself looking at them more closely.

Grant gave out a light scoff, "These things take time Skye, give your body a chance to heal itself."

Skye scoffed right back and pulled her arms back into herself, "If you knew my past you wouldn't have even said that to me."

Grant let out a deep sigh, "Well then why don't you tell me?" He asked a little bit irritated.

"Because you wouldn't believe me if I told you." She told him seriously and he smiled sadly at her while cupping her cheek and pulling her closer to his face.

"Try me." He whispered.

"Don't make it sound like a challenge." She said playfully but all he did was continue to stare at her.

A small part of her wanted to tell him but she knew that would only be putting herself and him in more danger. She smiled at him and grabbed a hold of his chin bringing him closer and gently kissing him. She looked at the look in his eyes and it almost left her breathless, no one had looked at her like that before.

"Maybe one day, when all of this is over, and it's just you and me I'll tell you."

He smiled and leaned forward pushing some hair behind her ear, "Whatever it is, I won't run away."

"Oh, you say that now just wait."

"It's not like you're an alien from outer space, right?" He said jokingly and Skye swore her heart stopped.

Her eyes widened and her heart was beating so fast that she couldn't feel it any longer. She knew he meant it as a joke but it got her thinking about what he would actually say if he found out the truth.

So instead of showing her actual fear she just let out a painfully fake laugh, "Yeah, can you imagine that? Me, an alien. From outer space!" Okay, so that came a lot worse than she was thinking and sounded so much more natural in her head. She had said things at gunpoint that sounded more real than that.

He looked confused for a moment then nodded his head, "Okay, well I got to go so I'll see you later?"

"Yeah," She shrugged her shoulders comically, "Where else would I be, Outer Space!" She said a little too loudly. Then she started to laugh, which sounded so comically fake that she was ashamed it even came out her mouth.

Grant let out an uncomfortable chuckle, "Yeah, okay, well I'm gonna go now, Coulson wants me in on a briefing." He gave her a quick kiss on the corner of her mouth then practically ran out of the room from how weird she was acting.

Skye let out a deep sigh of how bad she had acted and slapped her hands on her thighs. Then she got up from her place on the bed and opened the door making her way out of Ward's bunk. She hadn't gotten the answers she truly wanted but the location of where she was going was close enough. As she finished closing the door she turned around and was immediately greeted with the sight of Fitz.

He was standing there, frozen, with his finger pointing at her, "Uhhh," He said looking like he was trying to find out what words to say. He closed his mouth then opened it again, "What were you doing in there." He finally said and put his hands on his hips.

Skye shrugged and moved forward walking towards the bar with Fitz following her, "I was trying to get information on where we were going."

He shrugged his shoulders telling her that he believed her, "So, friend, want to tell me any secrets today? I am in the gossiping mood."

Skye smirked, "You can't do this with Simmons?"

He looked guilty at her question, "Well, you see, I would but she's busy and you're not and…" He trialed.

"And you want to talk about your undying love for her." She finished his sentence for him.

Fitz looked like he wanted to argue with her but then realized that it is what he had wanted to talk about. "Not how I would have worded it but yes."

Skye poured herself some bourbon and put her elbows on the table, "So, what about her do you want to talk about?"

He leaned on the table also and took a deep sigh and ran his hands over his face, "I need advice about how to get out of the friendzone and into the boyfriend zone."

Skye stared at her friend then downed her drink slamming the glass down on the bar making him jump. She tried to figure out if he was being serious or not, and after he continued to wait for her answer she realized he was serious.

"Umm, Fitz, the thing is… I'm not exactly the best person to ask for this kind of advice."

Fitz held up his index at her and pointed it at her, "See I thought about that and well that might be true it's not like I could to anybody else. Ward has no clue about to handle emotional relationships, Coulson and May don't care, and well I can't with Jemma for obvious reasons."

"Fitz, you want my honest opinion."

"Yes!" He shouted and turned around to make sure no one had heard him.

"Be honest with her and tell her how you feel, she feels the same way about you trust me I know." Skye said and walked out from the bar planning on going to her special spot.

"How do you know?" She heard Fitz ask and it caused her to turn around."

"What do you mean?"

"Well you keep saying that you know, but, how? Did she tell you or is it some weird girl intuition?"

Skye swallowed and look into Fitz's eyes. She hadn't expected him to ask her that question. This is one of those situations where she hadn't been kept track of what she was saying and let something slip. It wasn't going to be hard to lie her way out of this one but it made her think about the next time she let something slip. What if its something worse than this, what if it was her powers that slip next time.

"Fitz, just believe me when I say somethings are just obvious to tell."

"Still," He said narrowing his eyes, "It's strange."

They stared at each for a second and she could tell that Fitz was starting to figure out something. Like he was catching on to every odd occurrence that happened around her.

"Strange things happen every day." Skye replied.

"They do but with you, it's more of a daily occurrence." He said.

Skye needed off this plane right now.

The Hub wasn't what she was expecting in that, it looked like a giant shopping mall. Skye has been to many different HQ's before along with bases but none of them ever looked this cleaned or organized. Everything was either pure or silver and that stupid bird was everywhere she looked.

"Not what you were expecting?" She heard Coulson ask as he saw her look around.

"It's ahh…" She tried to find the right words to describe it, "Very clean I'll give you that."

"First time every being in something like this?" he asked her.

Skye frowned and did a little three-sixty getting a good at the place, "Not really," She said putting her hands into her pockets. Coulson looked at confused and she looked back at him with a smile on her face, "I mean, I've been to mall complexes before."

"Oh, har har har I get it everything is a little bit…" He trailed off motioning to everything around him.

"Much?" She finished for him.

"Sure, let's go with that."

The continued walking and Skye had drifted to the back of their grouping wanting to walk a little slower than the group. The place really did look a mall. She could have also sworn that she had passed a coffee shop a few minutes ago. It wasn't the headquarters that got her though, it was the people that were walking in it. They all had on the same dull clothing and Skye looked down at her own clothes to see that she was the only one who had been wearing color.

Then another thought came to mind. One that scared her.

As a mercenary Skye was known not to leave any survivors but that didn't mean some didn't slip through the cracks. It would only take one person to sort of recognize her and it would game over for her and everything that took her a long time to build. Shaking her head Skye tried to rid the thoughts from her mind and think happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts.

Until she was pulled by her wrist and let out a yelp of surprise by the sensation. "What the hell?" She said to anyone and she looked up to see Coulson with a guilty look on his face.

"Sorry, I forget to tell you. That bracelet makes it impossible to enter any of these places without permission or one of these." He said holding up his badge.

"Well then can you let me through?"

"I'm afraid that's for SHEILD agents only Miss Skye." Said another female's voice and by the sound of it she sounded strict. Skye sighed and tried turning her head the best she could to see the woman standing behind her. Skye spotted a woman in her late thirties wearing a power suit with red streaks at the bottom of her brown hair. Her glasses were too big for her face in her opinion and she could tell without the bitch face.

"And who are you?" Skye asked annoyed.

The woman lifted a penciled in eyebrow at her, "I'm Agent Victoria Hand the person in charge of the Agent Ward and Agent Fitz's mission." Hand said it like it was supposed to mean something to Skye but nothing was popping up. She had never heard of her before.

"Okay, and is that supposed to mean anything me?" Skye asked rudely.

She saw Hand's jaw tighten and Skye smirked knowing that she was already getting on this woman's nerves. This woman gave off the nerves of steel routine but Skye was going to give her until the end of the day before she broke.

"Funny." Hand said dryly, "Coming from the girl who's stuck to a wall."

"A minor setback" Skye spat back, "but once I get out I assure you I will only cause minor unconvinced for SHIELD."

"Why you little pest." Hand said walking forward and glaring at her.

Skye would have paid attention to the angry bitch in front of her but instead, she noticed another woman who had crept up on Victoria Hand. Unlike Hand she looked kind and like she was waiting to prove Hand wrong. She was defiantly younger than Hand, more like late twenties, early thirties. She had black hair that was tied into a low bun and blue eyes shined with a playfulness finally she was in the signature SHIELD catsuit. Skye did recognize her.

Assistant Director Maria Hill.

"Excuse me Agent Hand?" Maria said, "But I need to talk to Miss Skye for a moment." She said pointing to her. Skye's eyes widen, that's wasn't good, if Maria Hill knew, then Fury probably had her entire backstory at this point.

"What can I do you for Agent Hill?"

"Director Fury and I have a few questions for Skye and how she came into possession of some information." Maria responded.

Skye's heart rate spiked. It was a lie, she was lying about the reason that Fury had wanted to see her. She had been too reckless and now she was going to be in prison for a long long time. All because she was too careless and cleaning up her tract of her messes.

"Maria are you sure that has to happen now?" Coulson asked not even masking his concern for her.

Hill smiled sadly, "Coulson I understand your concern but Skye will be in very capable hands and I promise we will return her in one piece.

That thought made Skye's fake smile turn into a real frown, "Has anyone ever been returned not in one piece?" She asked with concern, it wasn't fake, she was actually afraid she would not make it back into one piece.

Maria laughed, "We don't talk Jeff." She smirked and Skye could tell she was trying to make light of the situation.

"Okay well, then, can you let me down?" Skye asked using her free hand to gesture to her hand that was still stuck to the wall.

"Of course," She said turning to Hand, "Victoria will you do the honors?" She asked but it seemed more like a command.

Victoria sputtered before taking one last look at Hill. Hill raised an eyebrow and Hand marched over towards Skye with a scowl on her face. Skye was smiling the entire time that Hand was getting her down and when the bracelet was finally released she tuned towards her, "Thanks bo." She said.

"I will have you in real cuffs one day." Hand whispered to her.

"Been there done that, kind of my kink." She whispered back and walked her way over to where Hill was standing.

She made her way over to Maria Hill who still had a smile on her face. Once Skye had made her way next to her she waved goodbye to the team and the two women had started walking away in another direction. "Where are we going?" Skye asked thinking that she was about to be taken to an interrogation room.

"Fury's office, he wants to meet you." Maria said a little bit of giddiness in her voice.

"You make it sound like he's a fan of me?"

Maria spared a side glance at her and smirked, "We've done some research on you Skye." She said cryptically, "Fury likes it when Stark gets messed with."

Skye groaned. She had pranked Tony Stark all those years ago so she could win that stupid laptop in a bet. It wasn't like it was impossible, JARVIS had a few weak spots and when she switched around some of the voice commands. Chaos ensued.

"I didn't think SHIELD recorded that stuff."

Maria chuckled, "When you get to see Tony Stark sprayed in the face with his sink you watch it," She paused, "Every day."

Skye chuckled with her but she still couldn't fight the feeling of uneasiness that followed her all the way through the Hub. She tried noting any worthy features but found that she couldn't find any and she wondered if that was the purpose. The whole place looked exactly the same from all angles and the color scheme was still white and grey with a pop of blue from some of the gadgets.

Skye had spaced out all the time that they had been walking and when Maria stopped Skye had almost run into her. She stopped to see that they had arrived at a door that seemed to be made of a thick metal. Maria walked over to a keypad and typed in a number combination along with putting her eye against it telling Skye that it was a rental scanner. A few seconds later the door opened Maria walked in motioning to Skye that she should follow as well. Taking one last breath Skye walked forward and looked saw that Fury was sitting in his chair reading a file while eating an apple at the same time.

He looked up with his one good eye and nodded to Maria who nodded back and walked out of the room the door slamming shut on her way out. Skye straightened her back and stood there waiting for him to say something. The only sounds for a while were the crunch of the apple and the sounds of the clock ticking on the wall behind her.

She looked around the room to see if there was any way of escaping. She looked around for any noticeable weapons but there was none that she could see. Then she shook her head she was thinking about possibly harming/killing the Director of SHIELD. If she did that then she would have more to worry about than just Nick Fury.

"You can sit." Fury said breaking the silence.

It startled her but she carefully walked forward taking a seat in on the chairs in front of his desk. She looked more closely at his desk and noticed that he too, had a Captain America bobblehead, "Wow," She said, "Nice Captain America bobblehead. Where did you get it?" She asked.

"It was a gift." He replied curtly and then the room was plunged into silence again.

It was then Skye realized that he might have been trying to make her as uncomfortable as possible. She was an unknown possible threat and for all, she knew he had nothing on her. He was an intimidating man when speaking, but he was even scarier when he was silent. She was starting to think that maybe it was the eye patch. She looked at him up and down, yeah it was the eye patch.

Fury took one more bite of his apple and then shut the file and she noticed that it was not a very big one. He took a deep sigh and then held up the manila envelope, "Do you know what this is?" He asked while stilling chewing his apple.

"No?" She asked not knowing she was supposed to know something.

"This is your new file, Skye."

She tried to look confused but one the inside she was freaking out, "My new one?" She asked.

Fury glared at her, "Don't play stupid with me Johnson I know who you are."

She knew she should be freaking out but when he said her last name she felt almost…calm. Someone in SHIELD knew who she was and she was allowed to be herself for a short amount of time. Even if it was the director that could throw her into jail at a moment notice. She felt like he wouldn't though like he had something else in mind. So, Skye let out a humorless laugh and laid back trying to calm herself down. She paused for a moment and smirked, "Funny, you know when someone usually says that to me I have a gun to my head."

Fury smirked, "I bet." He leaned over at opened up a drawer he brought out a huge three-inch binder. He slammed it down on the table and she looked up lazily at him.

"What that's supposed to be?" she asked sounding like she was bored.

"Your other file." He said nonchalantly.

She leaned forward and picked up the binder and flipped it open. The first page told her all she needed to know.

Name: Daisy Johnson

Alias: Quake, The Devil's Right Hand, Mary Sue Poots…

It went on and on but she closed the binder and stared up at him, "This isn't half bad you almost have everything on me."

"Almost everything." He said stroking his goatee.

Skye snorted, "I still have some of my secrets Fury." Then she leaned back in her chair and let out a huff of air, "Why are you showing me this?"

Fury took another bite of his apple and then looked at it as he chewed. He turned it around examining it like it was a science project. Then he swallowed and put it on the table and Skye could help but look at the half-eaten yellow apple. One, because who the hell eats yellow apples still? And two, she was sure Fury was reaching for a metaphor here.

"You could have killed everyone on Coulson's team by now but you haven't." He said clasping his hands together.

"Was that supposed some form of a compliment?" She asked sarcastically glaring at him slightly.

"No." He answered, "But it shows me that you're not that person in the binder anymore, you're trying to change." He slid the small file of 'Skye' closer to her and she slowly leaned forward picking it up with great care. She stared down at it and opened it to see that it was only one page with a more recent picture of her and only her name. Then she saw what he was giving her. Fury was letting her wipe the ledger clean and let her start anew. He was wrong though, a small part of her was still Agent Johnson and as much as she like lying to herself she will always be Daisy Johnson.

She snapped the file back shut and slid it back over to Fury, "What do you want me to do?" She asked her voice soft.

"I've come to believe that people can't truly change Skye but…" He trailed off as he leaned forward and turned the Captain America bobble head around, "Every once in a while, someone convinces me otherwise."

"So that's what you want me to do?" She asked again her voice stronger than what it had been.

Fury smirked and nodded his head, "Do what only a handful of people have been able to do Skye. Prove me wrong."

Well, Fury did know how to give one hell of a pep talk. Skye felt more driven to do good than she had in the past. It made her think that maybe there was hope for her after all and that she didn't always have to be a terrible person. She knew that the things she had done it the past couldn't be forgiven but maybe she could one day forgive herself for what she had done. And she would start with helping the people closest to her. She would start with Tommy.

Skye nodded giving Fury his answer, "I'll try my best, sir, but there is one thing that I want to ask you."

He shrugged, "Alright, tell me."

"A girl named Henley Ballis, I was wondering if you had any files on her."

He looked surprised by her question but leaned forward and starting to type in something to his computer. A few moments later he stopped typing a looked back at her, "It seems that there was a Henley Ballis seen less than two weeks ago."

Skye shot forward, "Where?" She asked loudly and she could have sworn she made the room quiver.

Fury tilted his head to the side, "It says here that she was last spotted with an unknown male and female in Perth, Australia." He turned the monitor around and was shocked to see that Henley was with Luciana Cortez and Valentine King. Not only that but she saw the look in Henley's eyes, it was the same look that she had with all her time she spent with Lucifer. Merciless and unforgiving.

"Do you think that I could get a copy of this?"

"What importance does she have to you?" he asked suspiciously.

"She's a friend…of a friend." He didn't look convinced, "You saw people I was associated with, right?" He nodded his head, "Well one of them was Andrew Shaw and he cared for Henley very much."

Fury paused for a moment then let out a chuckle, "You should have just started with Andrew Shaw."

Skye gave him a bewildered look, "You know Andrew Shaw?"

"Yeah, who do you think his resource from SHIELD was. I wanted to hate him, really I did, but the bastard is too charismatic."

"What do you mean resource from SHIELD?" She asked confused Tommy had never told her that he had worked with SHIELD before.

"You don't remember do you?" Fury asked cautiously.

"Remember what?" Skye asked and she had a feeling that she was going to regret asking that.

"It was a while ago but Shaw practically begged me to help you." Fury's face turned to pity, "We have a program here that's able to alter memories."

"He used it on me?" She asked her voice had changed from confident to sad. Her friend had lied to her and he had taken away memories.

"He tried but it didn't work out like we thought it did, instead of altering memories it took some of them away."

Her missing time. All the times when she couldn't remember what she had done it had been because of Tommy. She was mad but most of all she was upset that he thought he had to lie to her about it. Swallowing her emotions, she reached out her hand, "Can I have that information on Henley to go."

Fury nodded and proceeded to put it all on a flash drive and slowly handed it to her. She grasped it tightly and stood up shoving it into her back pocket. She quickly walked towards the door wanting to get out of the office as fast as she could. Fury opened the door and just as she was about to leave he said, "Agent Simmons is down in the gym, said she wanted to run some test, if you need any help to look for her I can have Hill-"

"I can find her on my own." She grunted out cutting him off.

Then she walked out of the office her nails so hard into her hands that they had started to draw blood.

Chapter Text

When Skye found the gym, she was immediately rushed by Simmons saying and asking her how she was.

“What did Fury want?” Simmons asked.

Skye waved her hand like nothing had happened it was no big deal, “He didn’t want anything just wanted to get to know me.”

Simmons was ringing her hands together, “Skye, Fury doesn’t just talk to people.”

Skye grabbed Simmons hands, “Jemma. Don’t worry about it I’m fine and Fury just wanted to know where I stand.”

Jemma nodded her head in understanding and turned around to see other agents working out. She bit her lower lip, “I was wondering, since I have everyone’s else’s physicals, if you would just do one now?”

 Skye didn’t expect her to ask to do a physical. She accepted of course because she’s a good friend but also, she honestly had nothing better to do. So, when Simmons had asked for her to show her, her fighting technique she was all for it. But she needed someone to spar with and that is how she came to meet Agent Antione Triplett. He was in the corner and Skye had no idea how to approach him so she went up to him and asked in the bluntest tone, “Hey dude do you mind if I beat the shit out of you.”

He gave her an odd look but in the end smiled, “Sure but we would have to make it fast my S.O is going to be here pretty soon.”

Skye waved her hand in the air, “Don’t worry this won’t take more than five minutes at most.” She wasn’t trying to sound cocky it just came out that way. She could tell that he didn’t really think that she would beat him to ground but that was her favorite part of proving people wrong because she knew she could already do it.

So, five minutes later rolled around and Tripp was in fact on the ground panting her foot on his chest and smile on her face, “Hey, man, just be glad you caught me on a good day.”

“Hate to see you on a great day.”

“Oh, you would be in the ICU.” She said smiling handing out a hand to him offering to pull him up. He looked at her for a second before taking the hand and smiling again. He didn’t let go of her hand right away instead he started shaking her hand, “Hi I’m Agent Antoine Tripplet but call me Trip everybody does.”

“My name’s Skye and thanks for letting me wound your pride.”

“No problem, but I have to ask who the hell was your S.O?”

“Oh, I’m not an agent just a computer consultant.” She said with a small grin on her face when his jaw dropped.

“No kidding.”

Skye laughed at the tone of his voice and crossed her arms over her chest, “Yep, I’m just tech support.”

He was just about to say something else when a voice from behind him caught him off guard, “Hey son, who’s the girl you’re talking with?” A man came up behind Trip and but his arm on his shoulder. He had a receding hairline and was a little bit on the fuller side when it came to a body type. He was wearing a black turtleneck sweater with dark grey cargo pants and black boots. He also had one of the most charming smiles the Skye had ever seen and he looked so familiar to her. The man held out his hand, “Hi John Garrett nice to meet you.” He held out his hand.

“Skye nice to meet you and you must be Trip’s S.O sorry to keep him waiting my friend just needed to see a few things.”

“Like what a 101 in how to kick someone’s ass.” Trip said with a smile but holding his ribs from where she had kicked him.

“I don’t know,” She said, “Simmons kept rambling things off in science babble and I just said yes and here we are.”

“Seriously though why are you not an agent?” He asked.

“Many reason Trip but alas those reasons are secrets and I think you should go change so you don’t keep your S.O. here waiting.” She said patting him on the back he smiled at her and then started to head off the locker room. She turned back and found Garrett looking at her analyzing her trying to see if she was a threat, “You’re the one of Coulson’s team aren’t you.” Garrett said. His eyes roamed her body up and downed and she felt like she had to cover herself up from him just looking at her.

“How did you know that?” She asked tilting her head to the side.

“Grant, I was his S.O. back in the day after he came out of the academy but I have to ask if you took him down in five minutes or less then why not work as an agent.” He said confusion lacing his voice.

“I don’t really see how that’s any of your business.” She said suspiciously.

“But you’re working for us.” John said and she smiled at him and gave a little laugh at his confused face.

“Am I though?” She answered and left that with that going back to Garrett, “Plus, no offense, SHIELD doesn’t know anything until it reveals itself right in front of them…” She trailed off and started thinking back to what Lucifer said to her.

She was punching the bag when she heard the door open she knew that it was him from his heartbeat and from the light steps that he always took. She never stopped as he walked over to her looking at her, “Can I help you with something?”

“Yes, actually, you can I need you to go and take care of this.” He said handing her another mission this one looked easy it was going to be a simple assassination but then she saw who it was, “Isn’t this guy a huge funder for the company that provides Hydra with stuff?” She asked as she read it more and more, “I mean I can do it its simple really but why would be killing someone who provides help for Hydra.”

“I shouldn’t have to give you a reason to do what your tasked with Agent Johnson just so as your told and don’t ask questions.”

“What about SHIELD it says here that this guy is already on their radar if I take him out then that might lead them onto Hydra’s trail I mean I thought we didn’t want the good guys on our trail.”

He let out a sigh and looked at her for a moment his blue eyes looking over her, “I’m only telling you this once and I hope you can remember it SHIELD and HYDRA there one in the same the only difference is that Hydra doesn’t deny that what they’re doing isn’t good. SHIELD all they do is lie and kill for the service of more liars and more killers but they say they’re doing it for the greater good. SHIELD is a good idea but that’s all it is an idea, now shower and suit up and get the job done.” He said leaving her with only more confusion on her mind.

She wanted believe that SHIELD was more than that. That they could be the good guys. Johnson knew that it wasn’t supposed to matter to her but SHIELD had always been a part of her life. Even if it wasn’t for the better she saw what they had tried to do. They meant the best but somehow, they always achieved the worst.

Johnson punched the bag extra hard her power accidently coming through causing the bag to fly across the room. The sweat was dripping down her face her short black hair was semi pulled back. She looked down at her hands and saw that they were bleeding. Her hands looked different from the last time she had truly looked at them. They were ruff and cracked with cuts all up and down her hands from all the times she had punched someone. From all the times she had pulled that trigger and became numb to the world.

 Taking a deep sigh, she took the bottom of her shirt and wiped her forehead with it. She stretched a little bit more and headed back towards her room. These days, she didn’t care about SHIELD or Hydra, she just wanted to survive.

She was brought back to John calling her name and she looked at him, “I’m sorry I interrupted my own train of thought.” She said looking at him trying to shake thoughts of the past. Lucifer believer that everyone was terrible. He believed that SHIELD and Hydra was one and the same. It got her thinking that maybe this ‘Clairvoyant’ they had been dealing with thought along the same lines. She turned back to Garrett he was a SHIELD agent a high ranking one bound to know something, “Garrett, right?” She asked again and he nodded his head, “Are you sure that we’ve never seen each other before?”

Garrett shook his head, “Can’t say that I have. I’m pretty sure that I would remember someone like you.”

Skye shook her head, “I guess you just have one of those faces.”

Skye had seen him before, she knows for a fact that she did.

His smiled faltered for a second and his heart rate sped up. It was awkward silence and she looked over to Trip who had just shrugged his shoulders. Jemma was just writing something down trying to avoid the tension that had been rising between the two people. To ease everyone’s nerves Skye cracked a smile, “Well it was nice meeting the both of you.”

Trip smiled and put his hands out, “Yeah you too. Hey maybe even one day we’ll see each other again.”

Skye faked laughed, “Yeah maybe.”

She then turned her attention towards Garrett, “I’m sure I’ll figure out where I’ve seen you before soon.”

He shrugged, “I doubt it but you can try.”

TIMELAp TimeLap

“I don’t have a good feeling about the boy’s mission.” Simmons said while they had been sitting down at a table. Simmons had been going over Skye’s physical’s results. Skye had been twirling the USB drive Fury gave her and thought about looking at it.

“Well, I never have a good feeling about SHIELD’s missions so welcome to my world.”

“Don’t you find it weird that they didn’t tell us anything about the mission?”

Skye stopped twirling the USB drive and set it down then gave Simmons a look. Of all times Jemma had grown curious of SHIELD, she just had to choose the main headquarters for it? Literally, on any other day Skye would have loved to help but this was just stupid to think that they could successfully get away with anything.

“Simmons,” Skye started, “I love that you’re questioning SHIELD, but, you couldn’t have picked the worst place to do it.”

“I’m not questioning I’m just saying that I have a bad feeling about it.” She finished. They both went back to being quiet and doing work when Skye glance over at her friend to see how annoyed she was. Simmons furrowed her brow while reading Skye’s physical and after a few seconds slammed her hands on the table. This caused Skye to look over at her friend and sit up properly.

“Skye ask me about something, I need to be distracted.” Jemma asked.

“Alright.” Skye said without hesitation, “How did my physical turn out?”

Simmons smiled and looked down at the paper, “Well, everything about you seems to be normal. Your heart rate seemed to be a little higher than average but everything else is fine.”

“Great.” She said then thought about her time of the month. She hadn’t been on any when she was living in her van. Now was a good time to think about getting it though for two reasons. Reason one it would be nice to have and they wouldn’t always have to stop for tampons. Reason two, if her relationship with Ward was to go farther then she would want protection. Buying condoms would be a little too obvious, so this was the perfect substitute. “Hey, Simmons?” She asked.

“Yes, Skye?”

“Do you think that you could put me on the birth control shot?”

Simmons bobbed her head side to side and skimmed through her physical papers once more. “I don’t see why not.”

Skye smiled, “Great.”

Simmons smirked, “Is that the only thing that you can say?”

Skye rolled her eyes, “What else would you want me to say?”

Simmons shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know something different.”

“Alright. Umm… how about, oh I know, fantastic!” She exclaimed with jazz hands.

Simmons glared at her. Skye was proud of herself, she had made a Doctor Who references to a British person. She could finally check that off her bucket list. She felt her friend’s heartbeat and she could tell that she was worried about Fitz. In fact, it was the same feeling that Fitz had gotten when Simmons had jumped out of the plane. Skye smirked to herself and had to stop herself from squealing with joy. She wanted FitzSimmons to really become FitzSimmons.

Finally, after her friend's laps of silence she broke, “I want to find out what’s happening with the boys!” She yelled.

Skye smiled, “So, hypothetically, say we broke into SHIELD. How would you do it?” She asked.

“Well, we would need to break into the mainframe and you would have to hack in to see what the mission is.”

Skye furrowed her eyebrows and lifted her wrist up, “But I have this?”

“Then I would have to do it and we both know that I’m rubbish when it comes to hacking.”

“Right, so that means we can’t do it.” Skye said.

“Of course.”

There was a pregnant pause. Then both Simmons and Skye’s eyes met and the both of them jumped up at the same time from their seats. Since Skye didn’t really know where they were going she was following Simmons lead. They twisted through multiple hallways and went down some stairs then went up a flight. Waved to a few people and then all of the sudden when Simmons walked through one door Skye was pulled to the side by her wrist.

Skye cleared her throat and Simmons turned around, “I think we’re here.” Skye said motioning to her cuff with her head. Simmons let out a soft noise and walked back over to where Skye was situated.

“I don’t know how to do this.” Simmons said in a panic which caused them to get a few stares from people passing them. Skye had to shush her and motion for her to calm down with the hand that she still had.

It was true. Simmons had no idea had to hack. Skye was pretty much useless from where she was and if they didn’t act soon someone would start to question them. She tries to think about what they should do. Coming up with different scenarios in her head and seeing how they played out with all of them. In each one it all involved someone getting shot or Fury coming down and immediately arresting her. She hated all of them. Then she rid her thoughts of all the possible way that this could go wrong and thought about how Tommy would do this. In times of need and over thinking she would always revert to Tommy Logic.

Tommy Logic is what she called when Tommy did something that made no sense and shouldn’t work but somehow did. It was first used when he was eighteen and they were partnered up for a project in German class. They had both waited until the last minutes to really do anything which was the wrong thing to do. So, when it was the night before the project was due Tommy came up with the brilliant idea of just talking about potatoes. The whole idea was just stupid and Skye thought that if they were going to fail people would damn sure remember them for it. So, she went along with it and they talked about potatoes in German class. There was even discussion about the French fries the school served them and how they needed salt. Skye had fully expected to see a 15/30 on her paper or even less than that. She was fully surprised though when she saw that they got a hundred percent on it. Not only that but the teacher had decided to give them extra credit for speaking in complete German during portions of the presentations.

She also witnessed the use of Tommy Logic whenever he was on the run from the F.B.I. None of his plans should have worked but somehow, by the grace of God, they did. She didn’t have enough fingers and toes combined with the number of times Tommy should have been caught and prosecuted.

Clearing everything from her mind she started to think like Tommy. If she could give Simmons one of her USB drives and have her plug it in to the main system. Then she would be able to hack her way in and be able to get the information that they both wanted. All Skye needed to do was get the USB close enough then Simmons wouldn’t truly have to do any hacking. All she would be doing is plugging in something, waiting a couple of minutes, then taking it out.

Skye smiled and looked at Simmons, “I have a plan.”

Fitz was not having a good time bonding with Ward on their mission. To start off Ward had a contact to get them across the border. Then that guy turned out to be dead. Which lead them to be captured and almost executed. They were saved by the lights going out and Fitz had, of course, saved them with his quick thinking.

They finally made it across the border only to be faced with patrol officers who tried chasing them. Ward had been heroic and taken care of the officers but that lead them to where they are now. Which is hiding, in an underground tunnel, with dogs chasing after them. To say the least, Fitz was not having the best of days. The only thing could cheer him up was the sandwich that Simmons had made him with great care. He smiled while he took it out of his backpack and started unwrapping it, waiting to enjoy the sweet bliss of the sandwich.

Ward looked over at Fitz with wide eyes, “Fitz, what is that?”

Fitz held up the sandwich a little more, “Jemma made me a sandwich in case I got hungry.”

Ward took a big gulp and gently motioned to the sandwich in his hands, “Can I?” He asked.

Fitz nodded his head and passed the sandwich over to Ward. He smiled as he watched his almost-friend examine sandwich with great care. Then all of Fitz’s friendship feelings went out the window when Ward chucked his sandwich away from them. He turned to the specialist with anger clear on his face, “What the hell?”

“The dogs would have found us with that thing if they had caught its scent.”

“You could have just told me that.”

The lapsed into uncomfortable silence and it was times like these that Fitz doubted Ward could ever truly bond with people. He was a specialist and they were only good a doing one thing, taking care of a problem. Not very many of the specialist were likable people and if they were there was something that always counteracted that. When he had met Ward, he didn’t think that he would be any different but then there were small moments when he would think differently. Many of them involved Skye being present. In fact, he was pretty sure that Skye was there for all of the few rare moments he had seen Ward smile.

It would make sense. Fitz didn’t know how she did it but Skye was absolutely infectious to be around. Her smile was bright and her jokes always seemed to hit just the right note. He wasn’t stupid of course he knew she was hiding something. He knew because she always somehow went out her way to hide from them. He also noticed the strange bruises on her arms that came from nowhere and looked to off for any person to cause them. It was also her refusal of any bloodwork whatsoever and practically broke a pen she had been holding when Simmons asked her. That and her mysterious gut feelings whenever it came to Jemma’s feelings about him.

So, yeah, Fitz noticed a lot of odd things about Skye but he thought that was just her character.

He knew a person who was running from something when he saw one. He wasn’t, by all means, an expert but Fitz knew what a bad home life looked like and if he had to guess Skye’s was less than ideal. So, he put all the weird stuff into a small box in his mind and just let her live her life like she wanted to.

He enjoyed her company, he liked how she listened and tried to help him. He liked gossiping with her. It gave him hope that he could have other friends other than Simmons. Then he started thinking about Ward and it made him frown. So, he did the only natural thing he could do when put in a stressful and tension-filled situation.

He started to babble, “I once knew a dog that lived till twenty-one human years.” He started, “Wasn’t even my dog but it would always make its way into my mothers’ yard. It was a German Shepard mix. I don’t know what the other half was? It must have been immortal because the stupid thing never seemed to decline in health. Twenty-one in human years is what? Ninety-seven if we're going off of one human year equals seven dog years.”

“Fitz.” Ward grumbled with his eyes closed and arms crossed over his chest.

“Yes?”

“Can you please just…” he paused trying to find the right words, “shut up.” He said in a tone that would be addressing a younger sibling.

Fitz nodded his head and leaned against the wall hoping the dogs would soon give up and they would be out of here. So, he and Ward sat there, for what felt like hours and he tense every time he heard the sounds of dogs barking. He noticed that Ward twitched to his side every time he heard them as well, reaching for his Night Night Gun.

Yes, he still calls it that. He refuses to call it an ICER.

It was nerve-racking and Fitz so badly wanted to chat. To babble and try to ease the tension that seemed to never stop coming off of Ward. It was in these couple of minutes that seemed to drag on that Fitz started thinking about Ward’s family. He never mentioned having any but the way that he talked to seemed like he had some sort of younger siblings. Skye never truly mentioned her family either only snippets from overheard conversations. From what he understood she had a terrible mother and a sister who she constantly thought about. He blushed at the last thought, she only mentioned her sister at night and something he could hear her muttering through the walls of the bunks.

Soon the barking of the dogs could no longer be heard and Fitz took a sigh of relief. He took it back though when the crunching of boots was heard only moments later. He started shaking and Ward out a hand on his arm to stop him from shaking any further. He saw Ward reach for his gun and silently take it out pointing it at the entry way. As they waited for a rock was thrown and a few seconds later a body jumped down. Ward went into instantly attack mode but the stranger held up his hands in peace.

He was wearing a black hood that seemed to obscure the upper half of his face. He carried what looked like two swords on his back and a dagger that hung in a holster on his thigh. Fitz couldn’t tell his exact height but he had to guess that it was over six foot. By the way, the hood clung to him he could tell that he was well built. Maybe not as muscular as Ward but more than Fitz ever had.

“I’m here to help you.” The stranger said, it was unnaturally deep and Fitz could tell he was using a voice modulator.

“Prove it.” Ward demanded not lowering the gun.

“I took care of the dogs.” He said holding up a can of chili flakes, “I also haven’t killed you yet.”

Ward lowered his gun slowly, “Still not convinced.” He said but the demanding voice had faded.

“I can offer you a way to the compound.”

Fitz looked over to Ward and Ward looked back at him. They were both desperate and there was something finally coming to them on a silver platter.

“Are you with SHIELD?” Fitz asked stepping forward next to Ward.

The stranger gave out a laugh that sounded unnatural with the voice modulator. If he didn’t have one on him Fitz might have thought that his laugh was actually nice. It sounded like the kind of laugh that you use whenever your friend makes an outrages claim.

“Not exactly.” The stranger replied after his laughing fit, “Just…owing some favors for a friend.”

Fitz turned to Ward and lowered his gun. He believed the stranger even if his weapon and fashion choices were odd. They needed a way in and this guy would be helping them do it whether they wanted it or not.

“Great,” The stranger said enthusiastically, “Now that that’s all out of the way, let’s get a move on. Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is on at nine tonight and I don’t have a DVR so I can’t afford to miss it.”

Both Fitz and Ward looked at each other with the exact same thought.

Who was this guy?

Hood Guy, as Fitz was calling him now. Was officially one of the strangest people he had ever meet in his life. This was coming from someone who spent years at a SHIELD academy made for strange people with brilliant minds. Hood Guy though, he took it all to another level.

First, he noticed the car that he was driving was a type of military vehicle and he had a feeling that it wasn’t taken by asking nicely. When the climbed into the car all conversations had died out a tension-filled silence taking the place. Hood Guy must not have liked the silence because ten minutes into the drive he reached for the stereo and started to play music.

Fitz had expected something along the lines of Grateful Dead or Metallica to blare. Instead Taylor Swift’s song You Belong With Me started blaring and Fitz glance over to Ward to see his jaw tighten. Hood Guy started bobbing his head side to side and tapping his fingers to the beat. He turned his head to look at them, “I hope you guys don’t mind Taylor Swift.”

It was an odd sentence to hear coming from a man that had a threatening black hood with dual swords strapped to his back. Fitz could almost hear the smile coming from the man but he was too weary of the man and shook his head.

“Not at all, she’s quite talented.” He said making sure he would agree with the man.

Hood Guy nodded his head to as if to show Fitz that he was agreeing with him. The car went into silence again and Fitz eyed Ward he seemed like maybe taking the ride was no longer worth it. He was guessing that maybe he wasn’t as big as a fan of Taylor Swift as the Hood Guy was. Fitz never thought that he would see someone planning someone else’s death but he was starting to think that he witnessing it here.

“So, what do we call you?” Fitz asked.

Hood Guy leaned forward and turned the volume down, “What was that?”

“What’s your name? I mean you wear a hood so you obviously have a codename for something.”

Hood Guy rubbed the back of his head with one his hands like he was embarrassed about something. “Yeah,” He said, “I don’t really have one but you’re welcome to come up with one if you want to.”

“How about SwiftyFan100.” Ward said. It didn’t take a genius to know that it was meant as an insult.

Hood Guy chuckled, “I would but unfortunately that was already taken by someone.”

“Or maybe Try-Hard, Dumbass?” Ward suggested and Fitz was half tempted to elbow Ward.

Hood Guy remained silent and for a moment Fitz thought that his feelings were actually hurt. That was proven wrong however when he leaned forward and turned the radio volume up again. Instead, the song wasn’t the same and rather her song Mean.

Fitz didn’t need to turn his head to know that Ward was glaring at the man.

The rest of the rid took another half an hour that was filled with idle small chat (Hood Guy and Fitz), glares (Ward), and Taylor Swift. A lot of Taylor Swift. There was so much of it that Fitz that when they finally stopped and turned the radio off he could still hear her voice. Hood Guy put the car and parked and looked over at them.

“Alright,” He said, “This is where the two of you play the most important game of Hide n’ Go Seek of your lives.”

He hopped out of the car and walked towards the back. Fitz took that as a cue to follow him so he exited out the driver side door and followed him. Hood Guy had climbed into the pickup portion of it and he was moving around different sized boxes to the back. Once he spotted them he took a pair of blankets and threw them at them. Fitz barely caught it while Ward had no trouble with the item. He stared at it with confusion.

“What the bloody hell is this?” Fitz asked still looking at the blanket.

Hood Guy turned around, “The only way you two can get in there without bullets flying is by sneaking in. So, you two are going to hide back here behind a tone of boxes and blankets.”

“Don’t the check your inventory?” Ward asked.

Hood Guy stood up straighter, “Don’t worry about that.” Was all he said and Fitz couldn’t help but shiver at the ominous tone that he had.

Fitz was able to get a better look at Hood Guy more clearly and he noticed that the pants that he had been wearing were usually worn by a specialist. He had seen a pair very similar before on Ward and the hood that he was wearing seemed to be made out of leather. At least he thought it was leather but something about it was off.

Sighing Fitz clutched his blanket closer to him and climbed into the back of the truck Ward soon following. He walked over the back of the truck behind the boxes and crouched. He thought that the position wouldn’t have been to bad if it weren’t for Ward and all his muscles taking up all the room.

Hood Guy jumped off the back and closed the back of the truck and Fitz winced at the sound. It was a couple of minutes of driving and all of it was filled with tense silence. Then the truck stopped and Fitz could hear faint voices speaking in another language. He had practically been holding his breath for the duration of their stop and he only let it go when the truck had started moving again.

It had worked. The not very well thought out plan that shouldn’t have worked. Worked.

A couple more minutes of driving and the truck stopped again. The slamming of a door told him that Hood Guy had gotten out of the car and was making his way over to them. His hypothesis was proven correct when seconds later the back of the truck was opened up.

Fitz tore the blanket off of his and got out of the truck with Ward by his side. The three men circled together, “Alright, I’ll help you as much as I can but once your little extraction team comes I’m gonzo.” Hood Guy said.

“How did you get us past security?” Ward asked.

Hood Guy scoffed, “I will never understand you SHIELD agents and asking the wrong questions and the wrong time.” He then turned to Fitz, “You think you’re good with doing what you need to do?”

“Yeah should be simple enough.” He said and then looked towards the ground, “Minus all the armed guards and people wanting to kill me.” He mumbled more to himself.

Hood Guy but a hand on his shoulder, “Leave the armed guards to me and Grinch over here,” He motioned to Ward with his head, “You just worry about getting what needs to be done, done.”

They all nodded their heads and within the next five seconds guns were cocked and swords were unsheathed then they were off.

All of them were running down the hallways with Hood Guy and Ward taking the lead while was behind. They hadn’t run into many guards, only three at most, which Hood Guy just knocked all of them unconscious. He had used the end of his sword to do so and if Fitz had not been in a life or death situation he would have clapped.

Once he spotted the device that he needed to disable then panic that was building in chest realized a little bit. He started to get to work with all the wires and trying to disabling it as he continued working on it he started seeing a problem. Then panic that left his chest now came back like an atom bomb. He had managed to take apart the device but disabling was going to take more time than he had. He forced his hands not to shake but there was still a slight tremble to them as he continued to work.

“Fitz!” he heard Ward yell, “The extraction plan was a bust we’ve got to go now!”

“I need more time!” He yelled back angrily.

“Then hurry it up!” Ward snapped.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Fitz snapped back, “Would you like to try and disable this device.” He was meant with silence from Ward’s end, “That’s what I thought.” He mumbled to himself.

Fitz took a deep breath and closed his eyes briefly. He would give himself ten minutes. He could work with then minutes. Opening his eyes and focusing on the device in his lap he forced his fingers to move faster than they ever had before. The next few minutes were like a blur and time didn’t really exist for him.

He was interrupted by Ward and Hood Guy walking in. Something about their walk was making Fitz nervous, “Let’s go now.”

“I’m not done yet.” Fitz said calmly hyper-focusing on the device in his lap as he crossed another two wires.

“Fitz let’s go!”

“I said I’m not done yet!” He yelled back glaring at the older agent, “I’m not leaving, not until we finish this mission.”

Ward straighten his back and Fitz watched as his jaw tightened. He spared a glance over to Hood Guy and saw him cross his arms and nod his head. It wasn’t a pose of anger or annoyance but it looked like Hood Guy respected his choice for staying. He turned his focus back to the device in his lap and within the few minutes of them standing there he had finally disabled it. He held up his fist in victory.

Then the alarms started blaring.

Fitz stood up in a panic clutching the device to his chest closely, “What the hell is that?”

Hood Guy twirled his swords in his hands, “The device must have triggered some kind of alarm.” He looked over to Ward, “You ready to fight your way out of this?”

Ward cocked his gun and pointed it at the doorway, “Let’s do this.” He said.

Next thing Fitz knew guards started swarming the room that they were in and it was almost hard to keep track of who was where. Fitz looked at Hood Guy who was fighting two guys at once with his swords and some impressive martial arts moves. Ward was in the middle of punching one guy down and he had shot another.

One of the guards had caught sight of him and Fitz gulped backing up slowly hoping that maybe he could hide from him. He ran into another room away from the fighting and hid behind something that looked strangely like a boiler. Clutching the device close to his chest he was hoping that his hiding skills were enough. A few footsteps later he got his answer. They weren’t.

The guard grabbed him and tossed him to the ground knocking the wind out of Fitz. He laid on the ground gasping his one hand grasping his ribs. He prepared his body for another blow or to be shot but it never came. Instead he heard the clanging of metal against metal and he looked up shocked to see one of Hood Guy’s swords blocking the gun. Hood Guy let go of his one sword and elbowed the man in the stomach causing him to stumble back and drop the gun. The next couple of moments were just a whirlwind of punches and kicks. Fitz could tell that Hood Guy was getting tired and so could the guard because the next time he punched it caused him to stumbled back and fall to the ground.

He recovered quickly, only taking a few seconds, before getting back up. They continued fighting but Fitz’s attention wasn’t on them anymore it was on the dagger that had fallen out of Hood Guy’s holster. He slowly crawled his way over to it and picked it up examining it. The dagger was about twelve inches in length and didn’t feel all that heavy. The blade was silver and so well cleaned that he could see his own reflection in it. It was skinny and the tip was so sharp that he could practically feel the cut without touching it. The hilt was black with two silver wings on the side to place your fingers underneath and a strange gold marking and the bottom of the hilt. As Fitz looked at it he couldn’t help but feel like it was an old dagger. Even if it looked new and well-kept something about just screamed ancient to him.

Fitz heard a grunt of pain and looked up while clutching the dagger in his hands. Hood Guy was now cornered by the guard both of his swords on the ground just out of his reach. It was in this moment that Fitz reaches deep inside of him and pulled some courage into his hand that was holding the dagger. He stood up and slowly crept up behind the armed guard who had started monologue. Fitz didn’t know exactly where to stab but his hand started acting on its own and it stabbed him in the lower back. The armed guard crumpled in pain while Fitz just stared at the dagger with blood on it.

The blood was dark red in color and it was dripping off the dagger creating a small puddle on the ground. He stared at the blade and saw something in the reflection of the blade. He brought it closer to his face and was almost dropped the dagger in shock from what he saw. Instead of seeing just a blood covered blade he saw instead the moment of him stabbing the guard.

Fitz almost dropped the knife but made sure to keep a steady hand on it.

He then looked down at the armed guard who was withering in pain. He had never caused someone so much pain before. He didn’t know if he liked the feeling of his heart fluttering and his stomach practically rolling over.

“Thanks for that.” Said a new voice and he looked over to see that it was Hood Guy had said it. Except his hood had fallen down and Fitz could see what the man truly looked like.

He was young, couldn’t be older than thirty. His hair was dark like Ward’s and he had sharp features and a jawline that could cut glass. Something that Fitz had always wished for. He seemed to be smiling but he couldn’t tell because it seemed likes this man never stopped smiling. It also didn’t escape his attention that this man was extremely good looking.  His good looks aren’t what caught him off guard though it was his eyes. He had bright vivid blue eyes that seemed to shine and express all of his emotions in one. Under his eyes though there were dark half moon circles that told Fitz this man hadn’t slept in a while.

“Guess that’s what I get for not sleeping for three days straight.” Hood Guy said then walked over to the guard and kicked him in the face knocking him out completely.

Fitz looked over to Hood Guy who was smiling at him and looked down at the hand that was holding the dagger. He realized that the man must want it back and held it out for him to take away. He took the knife from him and wiped the blood off of it with the sleeve of his jacket. He threw it up in the air and caught it effortlessly. Hood Guy only titled his head to the side and let out a light huff of amusement and handed him back the dagger, “Keep it.” He said. “Looks better on you anyway.”

“I couldn’t.” he started.

Hood Guy held up his hand cutting him off, “Take it Fitz, I don’t need it anymore.” He put his hood back up and grabbed his two swords from the ground, “besides I think it likes you better than me.”

And with that, he ran off into another room disappearing without a trace. He held the dagger for a few moments before hiding it in the waistband of his jeans. A few moments later Ward came running into the room with a smile on his face. On any other day he might have been worried to see a smile on the specialist face but right now it came as a relief.

“The Calvary has arrived.” Was all he said and Fitz smiled.

Their team had come to save them.

Rescuing Fitz and Ward was meant with little to no resistance. Sure, Hand was in their way but that only took one rather impressive speech from Coulson to fix that. There was also another big speech given to her and Simmons after the consequences of shooting a superior officer. Skye waved it off, of course, Sitwell was fine and the only thing damaged was his ego. In other words, Jemma enjoyed shooting him a little too much and Skye had to pry the gun out of her hands when she came back.

Once they had gone and gotten Ward and Fitz with the Bus everything seemed to be honkey dory. Ward and Fitz completed the mission and there wasn’t a scrape on the both of them. Although Fitz was looking a little off and jumpy she waved it off as post-mission nerves. Skye felt like she needed to be a good friend and talk to him.

She found him in his room. Skye walked up to the door and knocked on it lightly. She heard him scuffling around like he was tiding up his room or putting something away. He opened up the door, slightly out of breath, and leaning up against it like he didn’t want her to come in.

“Skye, hey, how are you?” He said a little breathless.

“Well I came up here to ask you the exact same question.”

“Oh me,” he gestured to himself, “I’m fine completely fine just making sure everything is still fine.”

“Okay.” Skye said getting a hint that Fitz didn’t really want her there, “You should go see Simmons, she has some pretty interesting things to tell you.”

“Really?” He asked his head perking up and coming out of his room completely.

Skye chuckled, “Yeah, I bet you’re going to love what she has to say.”

With those words he slammed his door shut and went sprinting off towards Simmons. She was tempted to go inside his bunk and see what he was hiding but she went against it. Fitz was her friend and she had to trust him. If he was hiding anything it had to be with a good reason and she trusted him enough not put the team in immediate danger.

She also knew that she had to talk to Grant about their feelings for each other. It was something that they had been putting off for too long. Well, actually it was her putting it off but that feeling was still all the same. They needed to talk about what they were before something happened and somehow the world spilt in half or the sky opened up and started raining Asgardians.

Sighing she started making her way down to the room where she knew Grant would be.  She found him in the armory doing inventory. She knocked on the door to make her presence known and he turned around smiling slightly when he saw her and she smiled right back at him. She walked closer to him and the butterflies had started up again and this time she couldn’t hold them back and a small part of her didn’t want to hold them back, scratch that a very large part of her didn’t want to hold them back.

Skye was a person who never acted on actions before thinking it through, maybe she did in her younger years, but not anymore, she always thought about something before she did it. Grant might be the opposite of that; he relies on his actions to help him get his thinking across to others, to let them know what he’s thinking.

When she reached, him she smiled up at him and punched him lightly on the arm, “You scared me there for a second, I thought I was going to have to find another specialist.”

His heartbeat sped up and he chuckled lightly, “I’m not that easy to get rid of Skye.”

Skye swallowed and put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it, “I really am happy that you’re not dead.” Her voice was thick and she moved her hand to the back of his neck.

The next thing she knew was that he was leaning in and she was too, their lips met seconds later. One of his hands came up and cupped her cheek and she opened her mouth letting their tongues battle for dominance as she pressed her body even closer to him. Her other hand had ended up in his hair while his was down at her waist pulling her closer not wanting to stop, they wanted to stay there, they wanted to keep going, for the world outside not exists.

The pulled apart, breathing heavily, when they heard May over the speaker saying that they were going to be taking off and that they had the strap in. The both looked at each other, both wanting to say something, neither of them did though, neither knew how to, instead they both looked each other in the eyes, “We should talk about this.” He breathed out.

“Later.” She replied pulling him in for one more kiss.

Talking could wait.

Chapter Text

Tommy adjusted his black leather jacket. He had put it on after discarding the black leather hood and hiding his swords in the storage unit below. He would go back for them later but for now, he hoped they were safe. Letting out a long breath he opened the door to his old run-down apartment. When the door opened a rush of nostalgia took over him and he smiled at the feeling of it. He could still see it now his overweight corgi, Rigsby, running around begging for more peanut butter. A young Kiera laying down on his couch eating all his food and sugary drinks. The papers spewed everywhere from late work nights.

This apartment had held so much for him and he missed it. This was his home where his family would be with him. His family that he chose. He walked over to the wooden table and lightly brushed a hand across it. He sat down in his chair and wiped the dust off of it smiling as he gazed at it. He could almost see it now. Tommy would be at the end of the table Henley on his left while Kiera was on his right Squeaks, Kiera's friend, sitting next to her as they laughed about jokes. His old F.B.I. partner, Uriah Tessler would be sitting next to Henley and they talked about different fighting techniques and him.

And at the end of the table would be Skye smiling with him as they locked eyes.

They had built their little-broken family together. Even if they didn't all get along they still cared for each other. The old shitty apartment in Washington D.C. was their attempt at normalcy. It didn't last long but it was nice while it had lasted. Tommy imagined a life here. He could see himself marrying Henley and having children with her. Skye would be the cool Aunt and Kiera being the godmother Tessler being the godfather. Rigsby strolling through the apartment hunting for food because he finally decided that his dog needed a diet.

It was their chance at living a long happy life.

Now, he didn't even know if he would make through to the next week let alone his lifetime. He gave his chance at normalcy up so he and Skye could finally have closure. After he went on the run and saved Skye he saw how much she needed him. So, he stayed by her side while the worked on clearing his name. It worked, they had done it, but Skye was not Skye. All the time they had spent clearing his name he never questioned how she was. She buried herself in the work to avoid the pain like he did with a bottle. When he came back from rehab and looked at her he finally saw how broken she was and how she never smiled anymore. It had pained him to see his best friend slowly try to kill herself but it hurt even harder when she actually tried it.

They had found the bastard who had done everything to her. Lucifer, she had called him, and they found out his real name was Richard Coleman. He was ex-navy seal who just happened to like killing for money over doing the right thing. He told everyone where they were going and then he had taken her to his current location in Austria so she could get the closure she wanted. It was going to be simple. Plant a few explosives then get to a safe distance and watch the world burn.

Only it hadn't gone that way.

Skye had locked the door with Lucifer in it. Tommy tried punching and kicking the door down but Skye had jammed it with her powers. So, he used the shadows to get him into the room. He saw her end the life of the man who had taken everything from her. He watched as his best friend squeezed the life out of the older man with tears in her eyes.

He yelled and pleaded with her telling her that if they didn't leave then they were going to die too. When she looked back at him, it clicked in his head, she wasn't planning on coming out alive. When she had brought up the idea of finding him he thought that meant she just wanted revenge and kill him. Tommy thought that it would bring her closure that she needed. He never thought that the closure she wanted would be killing herself to forget. He realized that he brought his best friend to her death again.

If there was one thing Tommy had promised himself after finding out Skye was alive. It's that he would never let her die alone again. So, he stayed with her. She tried to get him to back out but there was no budging for him. He watched her die once by his hands he couldn't do it again. They walked over to the window and sat down watching the sunset over the snowy Austrian mountains. The sky was changing colors from a blue to warm oranges, pinks, and purples. It was an explosion of color across the sky and it took his breath away to see it happen.

It was beautiful and sad all at once. When the explosion finally went off they felt the building rumble and Tommy looked over at Skye to see if she had changed her mind. What he saw though made him almost cry. For the first time in what was probably years, he saw his friend smile as she watched the sky erupt into color as the building was collapsing beneath them.

"You shouldn't have stayed." She had said.

"No one deserves to die alone, Daisy." He responded.

"Skye." She responded. "In these final moments, I want my name to be Skye."

"Skye." He tested out the name, "I think that name fits you perfectly."

He put his hand over hers and watched as the sun finally dipped below the mountains. Debris was falling everywhere but she didn't care. This is what she wanted and he wanted to give it to her it was the last thing that he could give her. He sat there as the building tumbled and thought about his family. Both the one he chose and his blood family. He thought about how his little sister would miss him terribly, how Kiera would practically kill him for doing something so stupid. Uriah would bury the emotion and made sure how it would never see the light of day. His mother might shed one tear but he could never tell with her. Henley would…she could…she would move on from him one day to someone that truly deserves her.

Tommy squeezed Skye's hand and she squeezed back. Everything had come full circle. They had become Inhuman together, now they would die together. Fate couldn't have designed it better itself. He smiled to himself. Could they really have once been that young? Running around like nothing had ever mattered. Like they could live carefree life with nothing trying to kill them.

He then started to frown. This didn't have the be the end for both of them. This could be the beginning of a new life for them. Agent Ward and Andrew Shaw would die with Agent Johnson and Daisy by his side. Tommy and Skye could survive this though. They could escape and create the life that they wanted all this time.

As a piece of the building nearly landed on top of them Tommy let go of Skye. She looked at him confused but all he could do was give her a sad looked. He took her shadow and willed it to sleep. He watched as his friend's eyes slid shut as she slumped over into his arms. He wrapped his body around hers and shadow traveled them out of the building.

So, he went to the one person that had owed him a favor still.

Nick Fury was not entirely happy when he showed up at his home with a half-dead girl. Especially that had been known to kill SHIELD agents. He got him to agree to use the machine that was only to use in case someone important died. They called it TAHITI program. It was supposed to alter the memories and give you new ones. Similar to how Cecily used her powers.

It went wrong, because of course it did, and instead of new happy memories she forgot some of the bad ones. She forgot how much she had hated herself and how much she had wanted to die. She forgot that she had wanted to stay and die. Instead, Tommy had told her that he had a plan of faking their deaths. She went along with it and didn't question it. Once she asked what her name should be he told her Skye.

And so, their new lives began. He never told her how much she wanted to die for fear that she would once again try it. In fear that the new bond that had begun forming between them would be cut again.

Tommy sighed and placed his elbows on the table running a hand through his hair.

That was the one silver lining. The bond that he once has with Skye had was slowing returning and it felt like the empty space on the one side of his heart was slowing healing itself. He had felt something was wrong right in the middle of lunch. He knew it wasn't himself and that it was Skye who was feeling the intense emotion of dread. So, he transported himself over to where she was and made himself hidden the shadows. As soon as heard about the mission he knew that it was going to be a bust.

Tommy had periodically checked on Grant throughout the years and he had seen him be a fine agent. A great one even. The one thing that always stood out to him, however, was that he was a terrible team player. As a child Grant's people skills were terrible as an adult they're just shit. He could never learn how to work with others well and Fitz was going to be a great challenge for his brother.

So, he followed them, lost them after the explosion, then found them again. It felt weird seeing him that up close. It had been almost fifteen years since he had last seen him. Since the night of the fire. It was a shock to see him so grown up. To see him fight and use a gun with expertise that rivaled him. When they fought together side by side he felt immense joy.

Then he noticed that Fitz was nowhere to be seen. Then he had to go rescue him from whatever hell he created for himself. The guard had gotten the jump on him because he was tried and had already battled ten other guys. What he hadn't expected was to see the scrawny science engineer holding his dagger as the guard crumpled over.

That took him by surprise.

It was a dagger that he had found in Afterlife armory. They said it was old, created by an original Inhuman, and that it had abilities of its own. They told him that the blade could go up against a well-made Asgardian sword and win. He didn't believe them at the time but he still had kept the knife because it felt natural to hold. As he continued to use it though he started to realize that they weren't joking when he said it had abilities.

One late night when he was out on a mission he stabbed a man with the dagger for interrogation and asked him a question. The thought was the man would never speak but as soon as Tommy asked the question the man started singing like a canary. When they had asked him why he started talking the man had no reply.

But Tommy had figured it out. The blade still had the man's blood on it. When he wiped the blade off the man slumped over and let out a deep breath. They came back the next day to ask him more questions but he did not reply.

If the blade had someone's blood on it, it would compel them to tell the truth. He also learned that the dagger practically had a mind of its own. Someone had once told him that it was almost like Thor's hammer. If the dagger saw that you had a true heart then you were worthy to wield it. If it saw that you were going down a dark path then it would become a useless dagger with no magical powers.

The daggers magic had stopped working for him the minute he stabbed his best friend with it. He kept it anyway because he didn't want anyone else to get their hands on it. But when he saw Fitz gripping the dagger and staring at it strangely he knew that it had found it's new home. Still took him by surprise but in the couple hours, he knew Fitz he thought he was an alright person. He still thought that it was stupid Fury had put Fitz in that position though. He was comically undertrained with just about anything that had to do with fighting.

Tommy heard a small creek tearing him from his thoughts as he lifted his head to look around the apartment. Everything still seemed to in its place the papers still spilled all over the floor. The Twilight blanket was still on his couch. The only thing that was out of place was the Director of SHIELD standing by his window.

"Why did you want to meet?" Tommy asked.

Fury turned around focused in on Tommy, "Mr. Shaw, I could have asked you the same thing when you interrupted a mission today."

"I didn't interrupt it I saved it." He shot back, "One of your brilliant agents thought that it was a smart idea to have no extraction plan for two people who aren't familiar in the field together."

"Agent Hand has been notified that what she did was wrong."

"It wasn't wrong it was stupid." He offered and walked over to the Director to face him head on, "I don't know how you expect loyalty when you don't ever offer it to your own agents."

Fury leaned in closer, so close that their noses could touch. He squinted his one good eye and glared at him. Tommy could tell that Fury was mad but so was he. The bastard had risked his brother's life and nearly gotten him killed in the process. If it hadn't been for the sinking feeling that Skye got he would have never known about any of it.

His brother could have died because of SHIELD's incompetence.

"And why? Pray and tell, do you care so much about this particular mission?" Fury asked leaning his head back trying to read him. Tommy eyed him carefully after all this time had Fury never truly figured out who he was. He couldn't tell if this was reverse psychology or if Fury was truly that clueless about his true identity.

"Have you honestly not figured it out yet?" Tommy asked confused.

Fury's eyebrow shot up in confusion and interest, "Figure what out?" he asked.

"Oh, come on Fury I know I'm good but am I really that good?" He asked and then he saw true confusion cross Fury's face. The director truly didn't know who he was and that thought made him laugh. He was the leader of an agency whose job was to practically know everything about everything. And he couldn't even figure out who he actually was. He didn't know if he should be flattered, insulted, or worried.

"You really don't know do you?" He concluded, "Some director you are." He said.

"I suggest you not insult my skills again Mr. Shaw." Fury warned him in a threatening tone.

"And I suggest that you might want to start changing your ways, Nick." He said changing the subject by using his first name.

"Why is that?" He questioned him his voice lowering.

"Because," He spat out, "When you leave people to die it leaves a sour taste in their mouth."

"My agents know what they signed up for when they joined the organization."

"Did they? I mean, yeah, saving the world sounds fun and all but then realize something. You learn that you can save the world and make a difference, but no one will know your name. You can't tell anyone what you do because of security. And if you die then no one will remember your name." Tommy said leaning against the window to let the glass cool him down, "What's the point of making a difference if no one will remember you?"

"You think my agents have a problem?" Fury asked him putting his hands behind his back.

Tommy smirked, "No, I think that they haven't realized that they have a problem with it yet. You can still fix it before someone else comes along and promises them something they can't refuse."

"Like what?"

Another clap of thunder was heard and the rain started pouring down into the streets. People on the sidewalk were scurrying and running trying to find shelter. Tommy stared at them run away, all of them but one. A homeless man was sitting down on a bench with a carboard sign lifting up. He could no longer read what it said because it had become so smudged but he guessed it was something sad. Tommy thought about what this man was one what he had done to land himself there. He thought about the Inhuman children being made. How no one was truly thinking about them.

He answered Fury while still looking at the man, "Like remembering their name."

There was a lapse of silence where neither of them said anything. Tommy just continued to stare at the homeless man. He thought that maybe after this meter was over he would bring him into the apartment and lent him stay a couple of nights. Give him some money, it wasn't like he was going to run out anytime soon. He felt bad for a man that he didn't even know and he didn't understand why.

Wait. That's not true. He knew why.

He had seen that look in too many people before. The look of defeat and hopelessness. In his line of work, it was all he ever saw anymore. If for one moment he could take that look away then it would all be worth it. Tommy heard Fury clear his throat and he turned his head to see that the older man was still looking at him.

Fury looked like he wanted to say something that was newsworthy. Tommy narrowed his eyes at him, "Why are you still here?" He asked making the annoyed tone in his voice clear.

"Why did you never tell Johnson that you wiped some of her memories?"

Tommy kicked himself off the wall and crossed his arms over his chest, "It was need to know information."

"And she didn't need to know?" Fury offered.

Tommy rolled his eyes, "Why are you asking me this now?"

Fury smirked and turned around slowly walking towards the door. Tommy knew what this move was, he was trying to make a dramatic exit. He was almost insulted since that was his move whenever he came into or was leaving a room. As Fury opened the door he turned back and chuckled softly, "Maybe you should have considered telling her before she found out." He then nodded his head in goodbye and shut the door.

Tommy looked confused but then he realized what the weight of his words meant. Skye had found out that he had taken away some of her memories. Which meant that she either remembered everything and the procedure was wearing off. Or something worse. Fury had told her about it which meant she knew that people knew about it before her. Tommy gulped and let his arms fall to his sides another clap of thunder filling the silence area around him.

Skye was going to kill him.

She was going to kill them. No, she was going to throw them in the dungeon then torture them and then kill them. The stupid, arrogant, narcissistic, knife-wielding guards who thought the owned the world.

Cecily heels clicked down the hallway as she moved with anger. No one told her about the unauthorized missions that had been taking place. Their guards only had one job, keep the Inhumans safe, and it seemed they struggled with even that concept. She had been trying so hard to keep the peace for the last five years. It seems, though, that peace did not want to be kept and everyone just wanted to fight each other. Her mother wasn't helping either, in fact, her mother seemed to be egging it on like she wanted to war within Afterlife.

To top it all off Arcadia wanted a truce with them, her mother did not. Turns out that beef that started in the seventies with Ivanna Cortez never truly went away. Even though her mother had said she didn't hate Ivanna at all, even made her the godmother to her child. It still seemed that her mother not only wanted to rid the world of Ivanna Cortez but ruin everything that she had built. Cecily felt like downing a handful of Xanax by just how much anxiety she got from thinking about the whole thing.

It wasn't like she was the queen. She had power being a princess but nobody truly took seriously when it mattered. Her job was to use her powers when necessary or convenient on people or she was meant to shut up and look pretty.

As she spotted the guards' headquarters she walked up to the two newbies who were in front of it. She stepped in front of them and glared at the both of them. They instantly straightened their backs and stared straight ahead.

"Will one of you two idiots tell me where Ms. Cortez and Mr. King are."

Both men remained silent and she rolled her eyes at them, "No, well that's too bad." She watched as the men gulped and she pushed forward through the doors to see the guards were lazily lying around. When they saw that she had entered all guards stood up and saluted her, all except two.

Luciana Cortez and Valentine King where sitting in their chairs playing a game of what looked to be like go fish. The two guards didn't even bother to look up as she cleared her throat and the stupid smug look on their faces made her want to punch something. She walked over to them and watched them play their game. It was at least thirty seconds before Valentine was the first to speak, "To what do we owe the pleasure of your presence today, Princess?" He asked shuffling around his cards. A scoff was heard and she whipped her head over to see Luciana smirking.

Cecily balled her one hand into a fist, "Why am I getting reports of the two of you going out on unauthorized missions with a prisoner of war?"

Luciana chuckled, "Oh, you mean Little Miss Wonder Woman?" She asked looking at her cards thoughtfully and moving a few around, "We were just taking her out for a test drive, to see what she could really do." She looked up at Valentine, "Got any two's?" She asked.

"Go fish." He responded.

She frowned and picked up a card from the pile.

Cecily had to swallow her frustration, "And you Valentine? You've been uncharacteristically quiet about the whole thing." She asked tilting her head to side and tried to smile but it was more fake than true.

Valentine huffed, "Look sweetheart." He said putting his cards down and leaned over towards her, "we're just following orders. If you got a problem with the missions then take that up with your mother." He turned towards Luciana, "Four's?"

"Fuck You, Val." Luciana said while she handed over a pair of fours and he smiled at her while she rolled her eyes.

"And the Amazon? Henley Ballis?" Cecily asked.

Lucian rolled her eyes again, "Got any five's?" She asked and he shook his head no. Luciana went to reach for the pile when Cecily slammed her hand down on the pile. It caused all the others guards in the room to jump except for Luciana and Val who looked at each other unimpressed.

"I asked you both a question and I expect you to answer it." Cecily command.

Luciana put the cards down and leaned back in her chair placing her feet in the air, "You want to truth Princess?" She asked and all Cecily did was raise her eyebrows waiting for the girl to tell her something. "We heard the Amazonia bitch used to be with Thomas Ward before he offed himself, like a dumbass, in a fiery explosion. Val and I were just curious what the girl could do so we asked Carter to do some gentle persuasion for us."

"You brainwashed her."

"Temporally of course." Luciana added, "We just wanted to see what she could do before the Queen decides what to do with her."

"Well she is a risk." She told the both of them, "The both of you need to be more careful or else we will be found out."

"Don't worry Princess," Luciana said sliding out a card from under Cecily's hand, "We'll be extra careful next time."

Cecily quirked an eyebrow, "So, now there's a next time?" She huffed, "I thought the two of you just said you were just taking her for a test drive." She put the last two words into quotation with her fingers.

"Test drive means that we see whether or not we like her." Val said, "We liked what she could do so we might have mentioned it to the queen." He finished with shrugging his shoulders.

"My mother would never risk the safety of the people." Cecily spat out.

Cecily heard Luciana chuckle and Val narrowed his eyes at her, "Is that what you think, Princess?" He asked and she nodded her head and he smiled, "Then you don't really know your mother at all."

Cecily shifted in her seat, she knew that this was not a battle she could win. Course she knew her mother would risk the safety of people. What she truly wanted to say is that her mother would never risk her own safety. Luciana and Val were her mother's lapdogs and whatever she says will go directly back to her mother. She had to be careful for over two years now. She was afraid that maybe her mother might try to kill her the same way she tried with her sister all those years ago. Her mother had already taken so much from her. Chuck, her fiancé, her sister, and now she was trying to take away the power she had within Afterlife. Her mother won't take this away from her though, she had worked to hard on this. Cecily was too good for this.

Smiling to herself Cecily stood up from her chair, "Well thank you on this enlightening conversation." She said politely. Before she could leave she flipped the table overlooking at the two guards who had managed to piss her off the most. "Whoops," She said, "It seems that you have a mess to clean up now."

She smiled at them widely and turned around walking away from them. As she exited the guards' room her pace quickened and almost turning into a light jog. Cecily was heading back to her room where she could finally be alone and have some peace and quiet. When she saw her door, she let out a sigh of relief and threw open the door. She slammed it shut and rested her head against the door the cool feeling calming her down.

The tension was rising in Afterlife and Cecily knew that she couldn't keep the peace for long. It was a miracle that It was still together. She was surprised that she hadn't heard anything about a rebellion or overthrowing her mother. Yet. She knew that it was only matter of time. Cecily dreads for that day to come because she didn't know what side she would choose.

The side of her mother, the woman who raised her. Or the side of the people, the common good.

She told herself that she would always choose the people no matter what. The more she tried looking at it Cecily didn't know if she could bring herself to kill her own mother. She was well aware of all the horrible things she had done but it was still different. It was easy to think about doing it but a whole other thing entirely when it came to it.

Daisy would know what to do. She somehow always knew what the right thing to do was. Her little sister might have been the rebellious one, but she was also the more cunning of the two. Always getting out of trouble. Never truly trusted anybody unless it was her or Ward. But she didn't turn her back on the people when they needed her.

Her mother trying to kill her was the one thing Cecily would never forgive her for.

She was just three when her sister was born. Cecily can't remember much but she remembers how much she loved her sister. It didn't matter to her that she was adopted, and Daisy was not. Her parents showed just as much love as they did her sister. When the SHIELD agents came and took her sister away from her while she hid Cecily blamed herself for years. Then when she was nineteen her baby sister came back to her. Only she wasn't a baby anymore. She had grown up. And it broke Cecily's heart that she wasn't there to see any of it happen.

Three knocks on her door brought her out of her pity party. "Yes?" She asked.

"Miss," A feminine voice called out, "Your mother wishes to see you."

Breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth Cecily plastered on a fake smile. Daisy's face still in her head. Swinging open the door she smiled at the young lady. "Let's go then." She said.

Everyone told her that the devil was a man. Well, they were wrong. The devil isn't a man it's a woman. And it's her mother.

Chapter Text

They still hadn’t talked yet.  She was going to talk to him but instead found herself in his bunk straddling him. His shirt had come off somewhere between him kissing her neck and her weaving her hands into his hair. It was his fault truly. If he hadn’t looked at her like that then she wouldn’t have been tempted to kiss him. By the sounds, he was making he wasn’t protesting this course of action either. His hands were creeping up the sides of her shirt. Instead of stopping Skye pulled back and took the shirt off completely and went back to kissing him.

He found a particularly sweet spot on her neck and she gasped pulling herself closer to him, he chuckled and made his way back up to her lips kissing her slowly and sweetly. He flipped them over and he was laying her on the bed hovering above and she realized her mistake, he had her trapped.

“So,” He said looking at her, “we’re going to talk now.”

She raised an eyebrow at him running her hands up his chest, “Are we now?”

“Yes, Skye, we are we have to talk about this.”

Skye sighed and looked down at the two-shirtless torso, “What’s there to talk about when we can have much more fun.”

“We have to figure out what this is; we have to figure out what we want this to be.”

Skye kissed the side of his mouth, “I thought that it was obvious what this was.”

“Is it?”

“Unless you don’t want this to be a relationship then I can l always pretend that it isn’t what it is.”

He cut her off by kissing her and she wrapped her arms around his shoulder blades and tried pulling him back when he pulled back, “No, I want this to be a relationship, I do, it’s just…” He trailed off and Skye sighed.

“Please tell me that this is not about our age difference because it’s only a six-year difference.”

“No,” he paused and thought for a moment looking back down on her confused, “Wait you’re twenty-five?” She nodded her head and then he shook his like he had gotten off track, “Anyway, no, it’s not that it’s about my job, about being a specialist, and what I have to do,” He sighed, and she ran a hand over his cheek, “what I’m trying to say is that I’m not good at relationships.”

Skye couldn’t help it she furrowed her brow and shoved Grant off her causing both to sit up. “And you think I am?” She said accusingly.

“No, I didn’t say that. I’m just saying that I’m don’t exactly know where your bar is for a…boyfriend.” He said the last word with uncertainty.

She laughed in disbelief and then bushed a strand of her hair back. Smiling to herself she looked up at Grant, “Are you planning on killing me anytime soon?” She asked.

“No.” He responded but sounded confused.

“Do you plan on setting me up and taking money from me if I receive it?”

“No.” He said again looking even more confused than the last time.

“And do you think, sometime soon, that you will ever try to set me on fire?” She finally asked.

“What kind of past relationships did you have?” He questioned her.

She glared at him and swatted his shoulder, “Just answer the question.” She demanded.

He put his arms out in an ‘are you kidding me’ motion, “Obviously not.” He said annoyed by her questioning.

Skye shrugged her shoulders then cupped his face, “You pass my bar.” She said before pulling him in for another kiss.

He grabbed her waist and pulled her in close kissing her back. He then pulled back reluctantly and an irritated looked passed her face as he did so. “Seriously, what kind of relationships did you have?” He asked.

Skye rolled her eyes and kiss him lightly on the corner of his mouth, “Bad ones. Now stop talking and more kissing.”

He gave her another quick peck and gave her another look that told her something was wrong. She placed her hands on his shoulders and dragged them down his arms. She could tell from his vibration that something was bothering him.

She quirked an eyebrow at him, “Okay, tell me what is the matter?”

“It’s nothing about you.” He said quickly, “I’m just thinking about my last mission with Fitz.”

Skye rested her head against his chest. She knew that something had happened but neither Fitz or Grant had told her what had happened. Grant was more confused about the mission, but Fitz almost seemed like a different person. He was more jumpy than usual. Every time she came to greet him by his bunk he would never open the door fully. Like, he was hiding something from everyone. Skye wanted to find out what had happened, but she didn’t know had to ask them.

“What about it?” She asked curiously.

“Well, it was going poorly but then something odd happened.” He said thinking for a moment, “We were hiding out in a cave when someone came and helped us out.”

“What did he look like?” She asked a light smile on her face.

“I never got a look at his face, but he wore a black leather hood with dual swords for weapons instead of guns.” Then the corner of his lip twitched up, “The weird thing about it…is that when I was fighting with him I thought I felt something familiar about him.”

The smile that was on her face fell as soon as she heard that description. Tommy was the one to have rescued them…but why? Skye hadn’t told him anything about the mission because she knew that he would do something stupid about it. So, he must have been watching her from a distance and that made her pissed. Not only was he lying to her about her memories, but he was also spying on her now. She understood that Grant was his brother but he was supposed to be dead to the world.

“I’m sure that it was nothing.”

“No, it was something more than that.” He insisted. “When I was younger and my brother, Tommy, and I we would play a lot. We did everything together along with my little sister Rose. Whenever I played with them I got this feeling in the pit of my stomach. Like a feeling of immense joy. And when I was fighting with that man, I felt the same feeling.”

Skye cleared her throat, “Grant you can’t base everything on a feeling.” She said.

“I know that Skye, it’s just…” he trailed off and looked distant. “A couple years back I was about to end an eighteen-month undercover mission in Russia. I was walking down the street when I ran into someone. As it turned out it was my sister. I hadn’t seen her in over thirteen years. The last time I had seen her she was just a little girl. When I was looking at her again she was an adult.” He paused for a moment and she could tell that just remembering her was painful, “I never really liked my family all that much. But, Tommy and Rose were different. We always had this bond that was more than just a usual sibling bond. I loved them with everything I had. Sometimes I just… I hate the fact that I had never gotten to see them grow up.” He shook his head, “Anyway, she told me that Tommy had died in an explosion. My little brother, the one I always tried to protect, was dead and I didn’t even get to say goodbye. I couldn’t even get to go to his funeral.”

“Grant,” Skye said sympathetically, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s just, fighting with that man. It made me feel like for a second my brother was back.”

Skye looked down guilt pulling at the bottom of her stomach. It was times like this that she wished she could tell him everything. Everything about herself and the truth about his brother. How he was not truly lost. That he was alive and semi-happy trying to build a better life for himself. But it also made her think of herself. It made her think of Cecily and how she would give anything to spend one more day with her. Just to have her sister by her side. For one last time.

He turned to her again, “I’m sure it was just nothing right?” he asked her.

Looking at him sadly she smiled and kissed his cheek, “Yeah, probably that, just nothing.”

She pulled back and was fully ready to leave the room. It felt like a nice place to leave it. But, he pulled her back into a searing kiss causing her to land on her back with a yelp. She heard him chuckle as she regained her breath and started kissing him back. She wove her fingers back into his hair. His mouth moved from her lips down over her jaw and to the junction of her neck. She pressed him closer and tried to keep control of her breathing.

Grant’s hand slowly made its way down to her upper thigh. Her breath hitched when he hiked it up pulling them closer together. Her leg was now wrapped around his waist and it took a lot of her to not roll them over. She wanted to do more. She wanted to do more than just make out like teenagers in a cramped bunk.

There was a bit of turbulence. Skye was afraid that she had caused it but quickly shot the thought down. Grant held onto her tight as they rocked and she sighed heavily looking at him, “We need an actual bed.”

“I’m working on it.” He grumbled rolling off of her and rubbing his lower back.

“Where do you think we’re heading next?” She asked while pulling on her shirt.

“I think it has something to do with Thor.” Grant answered her doing the same as her.

Great, Skye thought, more aliens.

Skye had decided that she now, really, didn’t like Asgardians. She had already had a bad taste for them simply because Asgardians hate Inhumans. That, and the fact that they never seemed to clean up after themselves. She knew that there was a lot wrong with Inhumans but at least they had the decency to clean up their messes.

Skye sighed as she picked up a piece of the broken building and placed it in her plastic bin. This is not what she signed up for when she deiced to work with SHIELD. She was not part of the cleanup crew. This was made for the people who knew how to properly clean this stuff up. For all, she knew the piece she had just thrown into the bin could have been a weapon. Or a bomb. Or just one very sharp piece of metal.

“Is it just me or shouldn’t Thor have a cleanup crew for this.” Fitz said annoyed as he threw another piece of rubble to the side.

“I second that.” Skye said pointing towards Fitz. She was sick of being the cleanup crew.

Skye leaned around and saw that Simmons phone was ringing but she kept canceling the call. Simmons was dodging a call and she wondered who it was. Fitz was grumbling with the cleanup. Grant just looked annoyed to be here. May was stoic as usual while Coulson looked like he was just as annoyed with it as Fitz was.

“I know.” Coulson said, “I mean, they have a God of Thunder, a God of Mischief, why not have a God of Cleanup?” he grumbled. “Thor never seems to stick around long enough to clean up the mess. It’s like as soon as the problem is gone he swings his hammer and he just flies away.”

Skye snorted, “As much as I love hating on Asgardians. Thor is a god, staying behind and cleaning up isn’t really their thing.”

“He is hot though.” She heard May say and Skye turned to her shock that she had spoken.

“Yes, his arms are quite big.” Simmons said.

Skye looked over at Fitz who had scoffed and Skye shrugged, “Yeah, he’s good-looking, but he’s not my type.”

“Oh really?” Simmons said coming over to her, “And why is that? Aren’t you at least curious about Asgardians and their ways.”

Skye shook her head. No. She wasn’t, she was done with Asgardians. She had learned all she needed from them. The only one that she had met was Lady Sif and was because she was trying to kill her. They had talked it out, made a few promises to each other and that was that. In all that time though she had learned all that she needed to know about them.

Which was this: Asgardians were Assholes. Loki being the raining champion, from what Sif told her Odin was a close second. Thor was a sweetheart but sometimes didn’t get personal feelings. The only ones that were low on the list were Lady Frigga and Sif herself. Although Skye was starting to think that Sif might have been a little biased when explaining everybody to her.

Throwing a piece of metal into her bin she looked back over to Simmons, “Let’s just say I think I’ve had my fill of Asgardians.”

Fitz then picked his full bin up and walked over to her, “But you never met one?” He said.

“Are you sure about that?” She asked back. She smirked and lifted one of her eyebrows. He looked surprised when she started laughing at the look on his face.

He frowned at her laugh, “You’re messing with me, aren’t you?” He asked.

Skye shook her head and tucked her bin over her one arm while taking Fitz’s from him. She tucked the other bin under her other arm and smiled at the man, “I’ll keep you in suspense.”

She then felt the temperature drop in the room. The light in the room being sucked away. A bad feeling had started in the pit of her stomach something that would happen before a fight. Skye turned back to Fitz to see that he wasn’t moving. She waved a hand in front of his place but he didn’t even blink. It was then she realized that he was frozen into place. Looking around the room she found that everyone else was in the same predicament as Fitz. Everyone except for her.

Balling her hands into a fist she was preparing for a fight. Hearing light footsteps she in the opposite direction. Whipping around she put her hands up preparing to use her powers on the person but stopped at the last moment. She glared at him putting her hands down slowly. She was tempted to blast him but thought that it wouldn’t be fair to him.

“What are you doing here Tommy?” She asked harshly.

He looked worse for wear. The bags under his eyes had grown. His hair looked like he hadn’t taken a shower in a few days. The clothes on his body had dirt, dust, and splatters of blood on them. In all honesty, he looked exhausted, like he had just run a marathon. The only thing that seemed to be fine was the stupid leather jacket that he always wore.

“I came to talk.” He said and she could tell that he was between pissed and sorry. She glared at him and he held his hand out, “And apologize.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Tommy.” She said faking ignorance.

She saw Tommy’s face morph into a scowl, “Oh, cut the bullshit Skye I know that Fury told you about the memory wipe.”

“Well, at least he did tell me.” She said, “A complete stranger told me the truth rather than my best friend.”

“I was only trying to protect you, DAISY!” He yelled and Skye was taken aback. “And you weren’t exactly in the right mindset to make any choice.”

Then she was angry. Why the hell did he always think that she needed saving? She wasn’t some damsel in distress. She could save herself if she wanted too. Sometimes she thought that Tommy created situations for himself so he could just be the hero. He took her choice away from her.

Tears brimming in her eyes Skye reached into her back pocket and threw the USB at him, “It wasn’t your choice to make.” She forced out her voice quivering slightly. She sniffed and gestured to everyone around her, “Now undo whatever you did to my team.” She said.

“I used their shadows to freeze them. They won’t remember any of this.”

“Well thank god for that.” She snipped sarcastically.

“Skye…” He tried saying but she cut him off.

“Tommy, I love you. You know I do but please just give me some space.” She pleaded with him.

He nodded his head and waved his arm. Tommy disappeared just as everyone had unfrozen and she was taken by surprise by the large bang on the ground. Still mad at her friend she leaned over and started picking up the content again.

“Are you alright Skye?” Fitz asked noticing the change in her behavior.

Skye quickly wiped her eyes before standing up with her bins, “I’m fine Fitz just all this dust is making my eyes water.”

He nodded his head unconvinced at her excuse, “I could ask Simmons for some allergy medication for you.” He offered.

“No I’m fine Fitz, truly, I am.” Skye said trying to convince herself that she was fine.

That everything was going to be fine.

Skye was happy when they got a call about another case in Norway. Her encounter with Tommy left her in a sour mode for the rest of the cleanup. When the Coulson got the call that something big had happened in Norway. They were all happy to leave the rest of the clean up to the others. The team raced towards The Bus and within thirty minutes they were in the sky heading towards the location.

While FitzSimmons had buried themselves in the lab. May driving The Bus. Ward was checking the weapons. Coulson, she assumed was in his office. Skye had found herself in the living room lying on the couch. She pressed her hands to her forehead trying to rid herself of an oncoming headache.

“You looked stressed.” She heard Coulson say and she groaned.

“I am stressed.” Skye said, “I am always stressed. I think the last time I was relaxed I was, I don’t know, fifteen?” She guessed.

Coulson gave a slight laugh and she opened her eyes to see him motioning her to move her legs. She groaned and moved to a sitting position in doing so.

“What’s wrong?” Coulson asked sitting down next to her.

“Nothing’s wrong?”

“That’s a lie,” he said as a fact, “Ever since when left you’ve been acting strange.” He paused, “Well stranger than usual.”

She looked at him sadly, “Nothing’s wrong Coulson. I just…I just need to get some unwanted anger out that’s all.”

“And why is that?”

Skye let out a tsk noise, “Always with the questions Coulson.” She said jokingly.

“It is a valid question. Whenever I see you, you always seem so sad. Like, you have the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

Skye was silent for a moment. She had never thought about it like that. She was always trying to destroy the world not save it. Now, here she was doing the exact opposite of what she had done so many years ago. Did it feel better? Maybe. Was it more stressful? Hell yes. Was it easier? No. Was it worth it? Yeah, it was.

They say it takes years to build an empire. But, it only takes one day to burn it to the ground.

“You know,” She said finally, “There’s a story my mother always used to tell me.”

Coulson lifted his eyebrow as if telling her to go on.

“It's about a young princess who learned to love a world that hated her.” She started, “You see the young girl was born to a King and Queen. She was loved by both her parents very much. The people of the kingdom loved the little girl very much too. But, you see Coulson, this little baby girl was gifted. An even though she was only a couple months old the King and Queen could tell their little girl would be powerful. One day though outsiders learned that the baby girl was gifted and so, they ambushed at night time when they knew everyone would be their most vulnerable. They killed the Queen and kidnapped the baby girl. And in their absence, the King lost his sanity and went off looking for his daughter.

“In all this time the baby girl had grown up in an orphanage. She was unloved and unwanted. Once she was of a certain age the girl left and traveled the world looking for her parents. The people of the different kingdoms never gave her a second look. Finally, when enough was enough and she could not take all the hate anymore the girl came upon a wishing well. As her tears hit the water a figure emerged from the deep.” She was no longer looking at Coulson but rather going back into her memories. “He was a handsome man that told her he could give her three wishes. And so, the girl first wished for the ability to change the world because of all the horror she had seen in it. And, so the man gave her the gift of moving the Earth and the ground around her. Her second wish was to find her parents. And so he granted it. The next thing she knew she was in a room with her father and mother. But they were not the parents she had hoped for.

“You see when the man granted her the wish he brought her mother back from the dead. Enraged that the outsiders had killed her and taken her daughter away from her the Queen was no longer kind and gentle. She was harsh and cruel. Caring for nobody but herself and even came to hate her daughter for bringing her back. Her father was driven to madness by hunting down all those responsible for his daughters’ disappearance. And for his wife’s death. Consumed by the grief of how all her wishes had only ended up creating more horror and injustice to the world. The princess returned to the well to make her final wish. Want to take any guesses on what that was?” She asked Coulson.

He was looking at her with intrigue. Like he was trying to find out what the underlying theme of the story was. It was, of course, a brief and very exaggerated story of her life with a few tweaks here and there. But, the story and the ending would remain the same. Coulson shrugged, “Three more wishes?” He guessed.

Skye lifted her eyebrow impressed at his pop culture joke, “Not quite.” She said and continued the story, “The young princess asked the man in the well rid the world of all those who had commented injustice to her. The man did as she wished. A few moments later both the girl and the man fell to ground chocking on their last breaths. The man died with a shocked look on his face while the girl died with a smile. You see Coulson. The girl had come to figure out that the man was responsible for her kidnapping. She knew by wishing death to all the people who caused injustice to her she would be killing herself. For she had caused the most pain to herself.”

Coulson stroked his chin, “I still don’t see how she saved the world?” He asked.

Skye waggled a finger at him, “Because she knew that her wishes had hurt the world. Her mother wreaking havoc on innocent people. Her father killing all those people. Her gifts destroying the world.”

“So, she died so the world could live in peace?” He asked.

“Yep, the world was never going to live if she stayed in it. Because, Coulson, like they say true evil can only come from within.”

“And where did you hear that?” He questioned her.

Skye snorted, “Me.” But she rolled her eyes, “Do you see what I’m saying with the story Coulson?”

“Honestly?”

“Yes, honestly.”

“I think you’re subtly trying to tell me that even though you try to do good in the world you’re not a good person.”

Skye smiled slyly, “Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner.” She narrowed her eyes at the older man, “Just because I do these things Coulson doesn’t mean I’m doing them from the bottom of my heart. You should keep that in mind when it comes to everyone. No one ever does something because they’re a good person. There is always a motive. Always.”

“You really think that about the world?” He asked.

She swallowed and looked him in his blue eyes, “I’ve only ever been sure about two things in this world Coulson.” She then held up her index finger, “One, is that if you try hard enough you can lick butter off your elbow.” She held up her middle finger, “And two, people always want something, Coulson. It’s human nature.”

Coulson turned away and they stayed like that for the rest of the trip. Looking out the window.

Skye walked around the Norwegian woods while looking on her phone. She was trying to look for information on where to find the couple. As she scrolled through the tablet trying to look for news reports. All she could find out was that the couple who went missing were involved in some anarchist group. There was also something about a staff that gave you anger management problems.

Hearing a twig snap Skye quickly looked up to see who was around her. She was far away from the rest of the team. They all had separate jobs to do and Skye got a bad feeling whenever she was over there. Glancing around cautiously one more time Skye looked back down to her tablet more aware of her surrounding now.

She shook her head trying to get all of the negative thoughts out of her head. She didn’t need this right now. All she wanted was to focus on the mission and find out what she could from these people. Unfortunately for her, she spoke German not Norwegian. So, asking the locals was a bust.

Hearing another twig snap Skye whirred around her fist in the air ready to strike. She stopped from striking however when she came face to face with a person she never thought she would see again. Dropping the tablet from shock Skye staggered back up against the tree the person taking her breath away.

“Mom?” She breathed out. It had been years since she had seen the woman last. She never thought she would see her again. The very sight of her brought tears to her eyes and she noticed that it was becoming harder to breathe.

The woman who looked no older than thirty-five smiled at her kindly. Her hands were clasped in front of her as if she had been waiting a while. Everything around them seemed to be frozen. The air felt like it was no longer moving and the world had turned grey. The leaves that had been falling were now slowed down.

Her mother moved slowly towards her and Skye couldn’t help but stay frozen in fear. This was not the mother she remembered. Her mother had scars this one was blemish free. She still had kindness in her eyes. The world around them was grey and she was the color of it. Her mother put a hand on her cheek and smiled. Skye smiled back and leaned into her mothers’ hand.

Her mothers’ hand traveled down to her throat and she looked at her mother oddly. Her mother brushed her long hair over her shoulder and Skye followed it. She looked over her shoulder to see that she no longer in the woods of Norway. But rather, she was back in Afterlife on the cliffside. She was back home. Turning back Skye had true fear in her eyes. But she never had the chance to express her fears. Her mother had grabbed her by the throat and started to squeeze. She could feel the life drain out of her. Skye had put her hands on her mother but her powers were not working against her. She fell to her knees defenseless as her mother smiled at her dying form.

It was almost her worst fear come to life.

That’s when it clicked in her head and her eyes flew open, “I know what you’re doing.” She chocked out. Her mother squeezed harder, “But this isn’t my worst fear.” She said. Before her, the shape of her mother changed. She grew in height the hand around her neck was no longer dainty but masculine. Long brown hair changed to short black hair. Her mother’s stone-cold face was replaced by Tommy’s horrified one.

“This is.” She rasped out. And she watched as he tore his hand away from her neck like it was fire. She gasped and breathed in all the air she could. The area to back to the woods she was in and the world was no longer grey. Time had moved back to how it was. As she continued coughing Skye looked up to see that Tommy was no longer in front of her. She chuckled which turned back into a cough.

They were each other’s greatest fears.

 “SKYE!” She heard her name being called out. She forced herself to look other to see that Fitz was running over to her. She groaned and grabbed the tree that was beside her and used it to try and prop herself up to her feet. Tommy’s fear inducement took a lot out of a person. She wheezed and grabbed her heart which was hurt for someone reason. She felt terrible dread and guilt for some reason and she couldn’t find out why. Then she felt the taste of salt in her mouth and touched her cheeks to see that she had been crying.

“Skye are you okay?” Fitz asked while reaching his hand out to comfort her. Getting a flashback to her worst nightmare Skye recoiled from it.

“I’m fine.” She said breathing heavily, “I’m fine just…allergies.” She said motioning to the forest around them. While pressing a hand against her chest trying to get her heart to calm down.

“Skye, allergies don’t make you lose all color in your face and give you an expression of sheer shock.”

“He uses fear not shock.” She corrected him quickly. She realized her mistake as soon as she said it. It had slipped out of her mouth. Tommy power had made her extremely groggy and there was a fog in her head. But, she could tell that she shouldn’t have said that.

“Skye?” Fitz said slowly, “Who is He?” Concern was written all over him. His body was now on high alert preparing for a fight.

Skye’s arms were itching. She needed to use her powers or else something would happen. Resisting the urge to not use her powers was becoming harder in her weakened state. Sweat was collecting on her forehead and she had started to feel light headed.

“Skye?” Fitz said her name again but she was not focusing on him.

Skye knew what Tommy was doing. She understood now what he was trying to show her. Tommy was never one to express his true and neither was she. He was trying to show her that even though they loved each other greatly. They both shared the same fear of each other. Talk about a bond that lasts a lifetime. She feared that he would try to kill her again. He was afraid that he would be the one to kill her. Skye remembers Tommy unknowingly telling her that she was his deepest regret. It made her heart sink. He wanted to show her that he was afraid of losing her again. All at once the memories that had slowly lost were creeping back into her mind. Sitting in Austria watching the sunset. The building collapsing.

All Skye could think of was one thing. My choice. My choice. My choice. She repeated it over and over again in her mind.

That’s why he didn’t tell her about the memory wipe. She had wanted to die. She had made him sit there and almost watch her die again. Groaning Skye pushed herself off the tree and wobbled a little bit away from Fitz, near a clearing. Her mind was fogging up. Her judgment was being impaired. She couldn’t tell if Fitz was actually real anymore. Had he always been there? Spreading her arms out she tilted her head up and shouted, “Alright I get it!” She put her arms down by her side, “I get what you were trying to do.”

The world was spinning and her stomach was turning. Her eyes began to droop and everything was going fuzzy. Her mouth felt dry and her brain was foggy. Her arms were burning with how much power was beneath them. She never had the best reaction to his power. They never figured out why. She was like Harry Potter and he was a Dementor. It was never this bad though. It was only ever a little headache and some vomit. Never this. 

“Skye.” Fitz cried out in concern, “Who are you talking to?”

Skye turned to him in anger and instantly regretted it her head was spinning so much. She managed to stumble over to Fitz, “Like you don’t fucking know.” She slurred, “I bet you’re not even real. So, you can tell him that I get it. I fucked up. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t fuck up either. He should have respected my decision that night.” Fitz barely moved from his spot. She barely had any energy left to move her arms. She felt the tears starting to fall and she pointed a finger at fake Fitz, “I wanted to die that night.” She said her voice heavy, “It was the one choice that I fucking had left. The one thing I could do that would save a whole lot of people. Justice would finally be served.” She inched closer to the fake Fitz face, “But he took that away from. Just like he took everything else.”

Fitz grabbed her arms gently and felt her wrist. His face went from confusion to concern, “Skye your pulse is racing.” He then looked at her face and put one of his hands on the edge of her right eye, “And your pupils are dilated.”

She was trying to listen. To hang on. But soon his voice just filtered out into a ringing noise. The itch in her arms was unbearable. The bees that had started to hum in her stomach were now trying to burst out of her. She knew that he was saying something to her. That much she could make out.

It was all too much. Skye couldn’t hang on anymore. Her heart was going so fast that it was probably impossible to see on a monitor. Her breathing was becoming erratic. Skye collapsed to the ground and looked ahead. Her eyes widen in fear again as she realized what was happening and she pulled away from Fitz, fake or not, in fear of hurting him. She opened her mouth to say something, to tell him to run, hide, anything. But all that came was a scream.

She slammed her arms on the ground as she screamed. She only stopped screaming when she saw the earth shake before her. Creating a crater where her hands had hit the ground. She forced it to move and shake. She watched as the earth started to spilt open in a line. It was causing some of the trees around them to come crashing to the ground. She heard some of the unknown agents cry out “Earthquake!” She felt all their panicked heartbeats. She felt the vibrations of their feet hitting the ground as they started running. She heard shout out to each other trying to get out of the way as the ground violently shook.

She felt the vibration of something. Whatever it was, it radiated pure rage. It was buried deep in the ground somewhere far off, but she could feel it. It’s what had to be fueling this reaction she had to Tommy’s power. It had mistaken her fear of rage. It had been using it against her.

She screamed again, this time in anger at herself, and saw the crack in the earth grow. The feeling of majorly using her powers for the first time in a while was calming her down. The crack had not been big at first. It would be easy to maneuver around. She had forced to grow with the second scream. It was so big that you would need one of the trees to get across it.

Skye heard the sound of a knife being taken out. She got up to her feet and turned around to see that Fitz was holding the dagger that gave her, her scar so long ago. He had it held up to her with shaking hands. He had fear written in his eyes as he stared at her with tears in his eyes. His heartbeat had sped up and she could see his chest rise and fall rapidly.

As soon as she saw him everything went quiet. The screams didn’t matter nor the falling trees. Only her and Fitz. She had hurt him. Even worse she had made him scared of her. And her heart sunk at the feeling of it. She looked around and took in the damage she had done. More trees had fallen and the crack in the earth looked like an entrance to Hell. She saw other agents and officers help pull some people from the ground that had fallen. She had hurt all of them.

She just created a new fear for herself.

Turning back to Fitz she frowned, “I’m sorry.” Her voice cracked from how soar it was, “I didn’t mean… I don’t usually…” She couldn’t find the right words to say to him. She watched as he slowly lowered the dagger. She looked down at her arms to see that they were fine. Not a bruise on them. The itching feeling was gone. She watched as Fitz put the dagger into the back of his jeans. “Fitz,” she tried to speak again, “I can explain.”

“Don’t.” He said quietly, “Don’t say anything we’ll talk about this later. But for now, just leave it be and don’t say anything.”

“Shouldn’t I be telling you that?” She joked with him.

“Skye.” he pleaded with her and she could tell he was struggling with this, “Just please.”

She swallowed harshly. The spit burned as it went down her throat. She really wanted some water. She really wanted a lot of things right now. One of them was to get out of this forest, better yet the country. She wanted to get rid of this stupid staff as soon as they can. It that was the rage she felt from just it’s vibrations she can’t imagine what she could feel if she touched it.

“SKYE! LEO!” Came Jemma’s worried cry. They both looked at each other and nodded their heads. Neither of them would say anything. Not even to Simmons.

Simmons rushed over to them and jumped up throwing her arms around both of them. She squeezed them tightly and Skye winced slightly. Skye looked behind her to see that Coulson, Ward, and May had all run up behind her. After what felt like an eternity Simmons finally pulled back and look at the two of them with tears in her eye.

“Thank goodness you two are okay!” She exclaimed wiping her tears lightly. “When everything stopped shaking I was afraid you two got hurt.”

Both Fitz and Skye exchanged glances with each other. Trying to figure out who would explain what. Seeing that it was her mess Skye broke her eye contact with Fitz and turned back to the other three. “We’re fine it just caught us by surprise is all.” She hoped it sounded convincing enough. She spared a glance back over to Fitz who was now staring at the crater she had created on the ground.

“And you Fitz, are you alright?” Simmons asked. But Fitz was not listening he was staring intently at the large hole and Skye would give anything to know what he was thinking. She knew that he wasn’t going to give her up yet. But, she also didn’t want to lose his friendship either.

“Leo!” Simmons exclaimed causing his head to snap up in her direction.

“What?” He asked confused.

“I asked if you were alright?”

“Fine, yeah, I’m fine.” He said a little too quickly and reassuringly. His face was turned a slight shade of red and he rubbed the back of his head. Skye had to stop herself from groaning. His tells were obvious and she just knows that the other three picked up on it.

Simmons backed up confused by both of their behaviors and looked to Coulson with concern. Coulson, who also had a look of concern, eyed the two. “Did you guys find anything?” Skye blurted out trying to defuse the situation.

Simmons was taken aback by her abruptness but quickly recovered, “Umm, yes, well we did. There was a staff in the tree, it was of Asgardian making.” Simmons rubbed her hands together, “What about you Skye? Did you find anything.”

Skye nodded, “A few things actually. The couple, their names are Petra and Jakob. They’ve been linked to some riots and an anti-Norse group.” She bent down and picked up the tablet that was now cracked and probably useless. “Looks like their not too big of fans of foreigners from outer space.”

May sighed, “None of us really are at this point.” She said and Skye bit her lip looking down to the ground. That was never a good sign. Tell the people who lock up aliens that you’re a type of alien.

“We should get out of here.” Fitz suggested and she could feel his eye burning into the side of her head, “Before any aftershocks come.”

“Are you sure you two are okay?” Ward asked and she snapped her head up to look at him, “You’re acting different and we heard someone scream.”

The two looked at each other. She looked at Fitz with watery eyes, this was the time that he could tell the team about her. He could give her up and be done with it. It would probably for the best she was bad for them anyway. Deciding that she should come clean and tell them Skye tore her gaze from Fitz and opened her mouth. Except for the voice that answered them was not her own.

“We’re fine, really.” Fitz said and she turned to him in surprise, “The earthquake just took us by surprise. All of us.” He put an emphasis on the word all. Skye could see where he was going with this and nodded her head along with him.

“Yeah.” She agreed quietly then cleared her throat, “I was taken aback by the whole thing. A tree almost knocked me over by Fitz was able to save me in time. That’s why you probably heard me scream.”

“Are you sure you two are okay?” Coulson asked them again.

Skye tried smiling, “Couldn’t be better.” She breathed out.

That was her biggest lie of the day. 

Chapter Text

Skye and Fitz sat silently in the car with just Grant separating them. She could feel the teams’ eyes glance at them from time to time both for the most part they were all silent. They said nothing and Skye stared blankly at the ground while Fitz looked out the window both deeply lost in their thoughts. Skye, for the most part, was freaking out. She tried to keep it from showing on her face but on the inside, she was a mess.

Fitz was her friend but for the most part, she could have just ruined their entire friendship. She would have to explain everything to him. Her powers, her past, her true parentage, the history of that stupid dagger. Just the thought of her started making her hyperventilate.

She felt a strong hand lay over hers and she looked up to see Ward smiling softly at her. Bless this mans’ heart. He was trying his best to comfort her and to some degree it did work but until she talked to Fitz nothing would be alright. Her heart had not stopped beating since they got into the car.

Skye had gotten rid of the itch but now her powers were in hyperdrive mode. She could feel everything the cars, the people, mountains. The one thing that she was most afraid of was feeling the burning hot rage. It was raw and she wanted to destroy everything when she felt its’ power. There was a part of her that wanted to search for it again. But, it was overshadowed by the part of that was too afraid to feel something like that again.

Skye felt the car stop moving and she looked up to see that they had arrived back on the plane. She didn’t move to get out though. She sat in her spot unmoving even after Ward had asked her if she was okay. She hadn’t responded and instead continued to stare down at her shoes. Maybe she was still in shock from unleashing her powers and Tommy’s powers.

Everyone else had gotten out of the car. Except for Fitz who had climbed back in after letting Ward out of the car. They sat in silence and Skye was almost tempted to pull her jacket over her face to hide from the world. The tension in the car was so thick that not even a knife could cut through it.

“I used to think I understood the world and how it worked. It was always so simple. That it was all just science.” She heard Fitz say and she looked over at him. He was staring at the back of the passenger seat looking utterly shocked and confused. His skin was paler than usual and his ever-present innocents were no longer there. She could tell that he was on the verge of a breakdown. His voice was weak whenever he talked like he was unsure of what he was saying.

Skye watched as he took a deep sigh, “At SHEILD they taught us to think the impossible. Because if you think the impossible then it’s not impossible anymore.” He let out something between a laugh a sob and she watched as a tear slid down his face, “Guess I wasn’t thinking big enough.”

“Fitz.” Skye said swallowing her fear and his head turned to look at her. Her voice had cracked since it was still recovering from her crying and screaming, “What you saw…” She started trying to come up with a good explanation, “It’s complicated.”

“Then uncomplicate it.” He snapped at her. “Because I need know why I just saw one of best friends cause a bloody earthquake!” he yelled at her with tears in his eyes. She could see how upset he truly was.

“I’m…” She started and took a deep breath closing her eyes trying to force the tears back in, “I’m not human, Fitz.”

There was a long pause and she heard him sniff, “Then what are you?” he asked.

Skye squeezed her eyes even tighter, “They call us Inhuman.” She said, “They’re an ancient race of superior humans that’s been on Earth since the early stages of humanity. They were created by the Kree as soldiers in their war but they rebelled. They formed small civilizations and have been living somewhat peacefully on Earth ever since.”

“Still, doesn’t explain to me how you can do all that.”

Skye let out a long sigh and unclasped her hands turning towards Fitz follow, “My mother’s an Inhuman while my father is human. When I was younger my powers were dormant, like all Inhuman powers, but that changed when I was sixteen.”

“What? So, did you just wake up on your sixteenth birthday and all the sudden you could cause earthquakes?”

“No.” She answered harshly, “Look there is a lot of complicated history with me. The basics of it are: I was in San Juan when it happened and I’ve had my powers ever since…” She paused not knowing what to say.

A look of realization came upon Fitz’s face and she just knew that he had figured it out. She could see the gears turning in his head as the connections added up. “Nine years ago.” He started, “A massive earthquake devastated San Juan, Puerto Rico. It baffled scientist as to what the cause was, finally, they just said it was a freak accident of nature.” He finished.

“Thirteen people died in that quake and over two hundred injured. Fifty of those people now have life-long injuries.” She added on. “One of the casualties was a sixteen-year-old girl named Mary Sue Poots. She was last seen entering an old mansion but her body was never found.”

“So, that’s your real name then? Mary?”

Skye smiled slightly and shook her head, “No, that’s not my real name it’s just the name the people at the orphanage gave me.”

“But you said your parents?”

“I didn’t meet my mother until I was sixteen and my father at, like, nineteen.”

“Oh.” Was all he said.

Skye shrugged innocently, “Like I said, complicated.” She looked up at met Fitz’s blue eyes. She didn’t see any malice in them. Nor hatred or rage. Instead, she saw understanding and sympathy. Swallowing she smiled slightly, “So, where do we go from here?” She asked, “Are you going to tell the others.”

He sighed his whole-body deflating, “I’m not going to lie. This past couple of weeks have been difficult and my whole world is kind of blowing up in front of me but…” He stopped and put a hand on her shoulder, “You’re still my friend and I saw the way you looked after you stopped the earthquake. So, no, I’m not going to tell the others but I should add that you should tell that at some point.”

“Maybe one day I will.” She chuckled, “And by the way…I’m glad that it was you who found out. I couldn’t ask for a better person.”

“Not ever Ward?” He asked a knowing smirk on his face. Fitz wagged his eyebrows causing Skye to become flustered. She started sputtering and she could feel the heat come to her cheeks. Finally sighing she put her head towards the ground.

“How did you know?” She asked.

Fitz laughed slightly and Skye realized she liked hearing him laugh. It grounded her and was able to lift her spirits. “Pick one. You always come out of his room. The way he looks at you like the sun shines out your arse. Or, the fact that on the car ride back here he never once took his eyes off you. I mean I know I’m bad when it comes to Simmons, but, I’m a scientist, not a specialist. What’s his excuse!” He yelled jokingly.

And Skye laughed. She laughed until her sides hurt. She felt Fitz join her and she looked up to see that a bright smile was on his face his cheeks red from laughing and crying. When she felt his vibrations from his body it was only loving and appreciation Skye gave him an equal smile back, “Yeah,” She admitted, “We’re going to have to work on that.”

Skye leaned forward and rested a hand against his cheek, “You know Fitz you might not be gifted,” She stated, “But when it comes to friendship, you have all the power in the world.”

She watched as his eyes lit up, “Thanks, Skye, that actually means more than you will ever know.”

She shrugged her shoulders. Then she looked out of the car to see that Coulson on the balcony motioning for them to come out. She looked over to Fitz who had been staring at her as well, “Well, I guess that’s our cue.” She said wiping her face as best she could. Trying to make it look like she had not been crying. Fitz had been doing the same and he nudges her shoulder.

“Let’s face the world, Quake.”

Skye smirked. She was never going to escape that horrid nickname.

When Coulson had suggested that they go to Spain to find a man named Elliot Randolph she knew they were in for it. She could feel all their eyes on her and Fitz as they now barely interacted. There were questions, of course, she and Fitz came lied effortlessly to the team. Telling them that they just had to go over somethings before getting out of the car.

Whether the team had believed her was a different story. She could see that Simmons was struggling to buy it but she understood in the end. Ward was just narrowing his eyes at the two, on guard, but he let it go. Coulson was just happy the both of them were safe. It was May who was the problem.

From the beginning, she could tell that May didn’t trust Skye. That trust had not grown, in fact, she was pretty sure it had only gone backward. She didn’t want her mistakes affecting Fitz so she decided that she would confront May in the cockpit. While she was flying the plane to the location in Spain. Which was now twenty minutes away she looked at her phone again.

Skye could feel in the pit of her stomach how much of a bad idea this was. But, it was a bad idea that needed to be done. The two women had barely talked to each other in all the time that Skye had been on with them. Which was a couple of months, and all the times they had spoken nothing good had come from it? Maybe, she held an internal hated for her because of what she did to the little girl all those years ago. She understood why she had done what she did but the more Skye thought about she wondered why she didn’t give her a chance.

She had killed a little boy once, gifted, and it almost killed her on the inside. That was when she truly stopped caring about anything and anyone. That was when she was on tipping off the edge and almost plunged down to the point of no return. If she had a chance, Skye would go back and change everything. She would give the boy a chance even if it meant that she would be hurt in the end. Fuck the greater good, just start doing what you want to do.

Taking a deep breathe Skye knocked on the door three times and entered. May was sitting in the pilot’s seat as still as a robot. Skye joking said to Ward that he was a robot and that he needed to be turned on and off sometimes. But, as she looked at May she was starting to think that she was the one who was the robot. The woman was completely stiff and Skye’s neck ached from just looking at her.

“What are you doing here?” May asked and her voice was just as robotic as ever.

Skye straightened her back and made her to the co-pilot's seat, “I want to talk.”

May quirked an eyebrow, which as much emotion she had ever seen from her, “Really? That’s surprising.” She said and Skye caught the sarcasm, “I always thought that you never stopped talking.”

Skye sighed and leaned back in the chair watching the sky. “I think we got off to a rough start.” She said.

May let out a breath of air that could be considered a snort, “You could say that again.”

“I just want to let you know that you can believe me when I say I have nothing but the best interest for this team.”

She could feel the judgment coming from May as she said those words. It was true she didn’t want them to get hurt in any way. Which, to her, was their best interest.

“How did you know about Bahrain?” She asked.

Skye sucked in her breathe she should have known that this question was going to pop up sooner or later. The information that she had told May wasn’t something of common knowledge. The only reason she had known was that her mother had told her so long ago. She had only held onto that information because she never wanted to be caught in that situation. Only figures that a couple years later she was in that exact situation and she did the same thing that May did.

Skye thought about lying to her. Telling her some bullshit excuse. But she went against it. She needed to tell a truth in order to gain some sort of trust from her, “My mother told me the story.” She finally said after a moment of silence, “She knew the woman and the little girl. She always told me the story when I was about to go to bed. To remind me that not all power is great, that not everyone can handle it.” Then she rolled her head back and snorted, “Ironic coming from her but the message was there.”

She glances over to May and for a moment she thought she saw the other woman smirk. “You and your mother never really got along I take it?” She asked.

Skye shrugged, “We did when I was younger,” She said not lying. Skye assuming that baby her got along with her mother, “but it changed when I grew up. We just got more distant from each other and in the end…she just wanted me to leave. So, I did. It was hard my village wasn’t exactly near any big city I had to walk for days before I found another village to take me in.”

“Village?” May asked curiously.

“Yeah.” Skye said simply turning to look at her, “I’m from China, I thought you guys knew that. I’ve only said like half a dozen times. It’s the reason I don’t have a passport, I’m technically not even a legal U.S. Citizen.”

“But, you don’t have an accent.” May noted.

“It’s…complicated.” Skye finished. She was getting the feeling that ‘it’s complicated’ was going to be her catchphrase from now on. She didn’t need to get into her whole life details only the basics. She didn’t really need to explain the whole orphanage thing or even the first half of her life.

“It always is, isn’t it?” May said her eyes never wavering from the sky, “Nothing is ever simple.”

“Simple is boring.” Skye said quoting Tommy. He was said that to her whenever life was getting to her the most. He tried to keep her spirits up by telling her that life being complicated was way more fun than being simple.

“Simple is relaxing.” May finally said.

Skye made a noise of agreement. She wasn’t going to argue there.

The man the Coulson knew was named Elliot Randolph. Who, apparently, resided in Spain for some reason. They all entered the university together. Coulson and May taking up the front, FitzSimmons in the middle, and her and Ward in the back. She looked around at the different architecture trying to distract herself. Her heart was racing from the fact that she had done all that damage back in Norway. The pure rage that she had felt back in the forest had scared her along with the fear of Tommy it had just been too much. The rage was something that she had not felt in a long time.

Not even when she killed Lucifer.

There were only two real times she had felt a rage like that in her life. The first time was a couple of weeks after Tommy had stabbed her. Her rage was not directed at Tommy fully but in most part, it was directed at her mother. The one person that she was supposed to trust it the whole world betrayed her. The second time was mostly directed at someone she had worked with.

She had been with Lucifer for a while. Mostly understood what he stood for and tolerated most of the people who they worked for. Except for Axel Karlsson or Egghead as she had named him when she first saw him. Skye had hated that man with a burning passion. The snide comments he made under his breath. The blatant sexist remarks that he made to her whenever she worked out. The not so subtle racism that he would throw at her every so often. It didn’t bother her that he was a killer, because she was one too, no she hated just because he was a shit human being. At least Lucifer had the decency to pretend to be a nice person. Sure, he looked out for himself all the time and had no shred of mercy in his bones. But, at least he was a charming sociopath.

It was the one day that they had come back from a mission. It had hit her harder than usual because there were a few snags. It ended up being successful but at the cost of three days of sleep and half of her sanity. Axel, though, seemed to have all the energy in the word and was doing what he did best. Running that damn mouth of his.

“Hey, Johnson!” He had called. She had stopped from where she was walked and slumped her shoulders.

“Yes, Karlsson?” She grunted out. She had spared a glance up to see that Lucifer had been standing there watching the both of them carefully. He had been putting his stuff in the small locker that was supplied to them. She never truly understood if liked Karlsson or not. He wasn’t that great of a shot, his attitude was shit, and his lying was mediocre at best.

“Oh come one now.” He said, “There’s no need for that tone. All I was going to ask is if recognized some of the escorts back there.” The escorts had been Asian and she could tell that not one of them had been from China. She didn’t know if Axel was just this racist of he truly didn’t know what he was saying.

But it didn’t matter to her anymore. Clenching her fist and restraining herself from using her powers she forced herself to breathe. She had looked to Lucifer against only to see now looking on with mild interest to what she would do. Axel was not her friend. He had no use for her and some of the snags that had happened during the mission were because of him. She didn’t care if he was her teammate.

Lifting her head up she had made her decision. Clenching her fist tighter she walked back over to where he was standing and punched him in the face. Then it had all went dark and she let something primal take over. She only remembers a glimpse of it. Flashes of red and the sound of gurgling but when she fully came back from that state of rage she was covered in blood.

She was straddling Axel his shirt clenched in her had while her other one was curled into a fist. She looked down on his fact and had realized that it was past the point of recognition. She used her powers for a moment and could not find his heartbeat. It was then she understood that she had beaten him to death. She couldn’t feel anything at that time. It was all just numb to her. She could feel his blood on her face as it ran down her face.

She knew that she shouldn’t like the feeling of the blood on her body. There was something about it though that just made her feel powerful. Ever since she had stopped using her powers her anger had increased. The lines between what was right and was wrong to her were becoming blurred and she that soon it would disappear completely. The terrible part about that is she hadn’t cared. That she welcomed it. To finally be free of something that was damning as emotion. To finally be the Devil.

The sound of footsteps was heard and she looked up to see that Lucifer had walked towards her. He reached into his pocket and handed her a piece of cloth his eyes never leaving hers. She didn’t know how he would respond to her killing one of his men. She had thought that he would hurt her and kill her too. To her surprise though he had held out his hand.

She had excepted it and he had helped her to her feet. They stood there for what felt like hours and stared at the dead body. The silence was broken finally by Lucifer, “Clean up this mess.” He said to her as if she had just spilled milk.

“Sir, I.” She tried saying but he held up a hand which silenced her at once.

“Don’t.” He said simply, “Someone needed to get rid of him anyway.”

“But he was on your team for years?” She said like it had mattered to him.

“And now he’s dead.”

“I don’t understand. Shouldn’t you feel something?” She asked but she had said it more to herself than Lucifer. She could feel a collection of tears fill up in her eyes. She hadn’t understood why she was crying at the time. It was only later did she truly figure it out.

Her statement caused Lucifer to turn towards her and raise an eyebrow. “Do you feel something Johnson?” He had asked her.

She shook her head not being able to bring herself to say the word.

He nodded his head at her. “Good.” He said bluntly and started to turn around planning on walking away. But he had stopped himself as if he wanted to turn around and give her some parting words. She watched him, waited for him, but he never said anything. Instead, he shook his head and moved on.

It was then she should had realized how their relationship was going to end. A girl who cared too much versus a man who felt nothing at all. It was doomed from the beginning.

A squeeze on her hand brought her back and she looked down to see that it was Ward who had squeezed it. She looked up at him and squeezed it back smiling sadly. “Are you okay?” He asked while pulling her closer to him.

Skye shook her head waving the emotions off, “I’m fine.” She said trying to convince him, “Just a lot happened today. But, I promise that I’m fine.”

She could tell if he did truly believe her. Hell, she wouldn’t believe her either considering the day that they were having. His eyes stared into hers and in that moment, she wanted to scream. She wanted to yell at him and tell him that nothing was okay. That the whole world around them was crumbling down because of her. That she was having a really hard time with everything and that she just needed him and only him.

Instead, she let go of his hand as soon as she saw Fitz looking back to them. He eyed their hands and smirked a little bit. She sent a smile vibration to his feet and she chuckled when she saw struggling not to trip. He glared at her to which she shrugged her shoulders innocently. When he turned back around her focus went to the dagger that was currently being held in the back of his jeans.

She wondered why Tommy had given that dagger to Fitz. To someone with almost no experience with fighting. To someone with such a kind heart and soul. Someone who was innocent to the war around them who was not corrupted by evil yet. Skye saw the way he held the knife though, the way he gripped the hilt with white knuckles. Like he didn’t want to use it but would if he the situation called for it. It was then that Skye thought that Fitz may be more ruthless than she thought.

Skye thought about what would happen if someone was to threaten Simmons. What length would Fitz go to make sure that she would be safe? She hadn’t seen him in action but if his actions I the woods tell her anything it’s that he wouldn’t be afraid to use it if he had too. It was hard to see another friend of hers’ with the same dagger that gave her her scar. Especially someone like Fitz. Someone she saw as a true friend that would never hurt her. Someone she couldn’t see hurting anybody.

 Although he would need training with it. The dagger could only take you so far with skill. It would only guide you in desperate times of need after then you were on your own. She was starting to think that she needs to start some late training lessons with Fitz. She put it in the back of her head reminding her that she would need to talk to him about it.

This was becoming all one big mess.

After what felt like ages the team was finally able to reach the professors' office. Skye had to admit the professor looked exactly how she imagined any history professor to look. He was old, that much was obvious, she would guess mid-fifties. His hair was a mix of blonde and grey with a receding hairline. The texture of his hair seemed to be that of fuzz. She could see the age lines in his face Skye thought that he might have been attractive when he was younger. He wore a suit that looked to be cheap and not expensive in the least. The last thing that Skye noticed was his eyes. They were a clear crystal blue and when she looked at them she felt the need to run.

It was the type of feeling that you would just get when you meet someone for the first time. A feeling in your gut that ran all the way to your heart. The feeling that told you that you weren’t going to like this person no matter what. Before you even met the person or heard them speak you just knew that the two of you would never get along. That was the feeling that she got when she looked at the Professor Elliot.

His office had papers were thrown everywhere and the books that occupied just about every corner of the room. Skye wondered how he had time to read any of this when he was teaching and writing. Skye could barely read a book after she had reached the age of eighteen. Not that she hated books, she liked them, but she just became too busy.

“Coulson!” Randolph said in surprise, “I’m glad you came. The information that you sent me was very interesting.”

Coulson gave him warm smile, “That’s good. But I was hoping that you could tell me if you have an idea what this could be?” Coulson asked and he seemed to have a hint of desperation in the tone of his voice.

“Of course.” Randolph said then grabbed multiple papers and started walking out the door, “Follow me if you please, I do have class in ten minutes.”

They all nodded and began to follow the professor. Skye was listening to what they were saying until she got a feeling in her chest. It was a pull that she hadn’t felt in a while one that had made her stumble and hang against the wall. She was beginning to get dizzy and Skye had to clutch the nearest doorframe to catch herself. A feeling of intense emotion waved over her. A feeling regret and sadness hit her like a wave. It was affecting her so much that tears had started collecting in the corners of her eyes.

The Team had noticed what was happening and looked at her concerned. “Skye?” Coulson asked turning to face her. His face was etched with worry but it was becoming harder to see because her vision was going. “Are you okay?” He asked.

Skye let out an unintelligible noise and started walking but almost fell down. She would have if had not been for Ward that caught her. His arms were under her armpits and her head rested against his chest. She moved her head to look past Ward’s chest to see everyone’s faces but she couldn’t see them. In fact, she wasn’t even in the same building before.

She was somewhere different. It looked to be a light and empty house that seemed to have been newly done. A mansion really if she was going to name it something. It looked like it had never been touched but as she looked down she saw a slight crack in the ground. Skye looked down to see that her hands were not her hands. What she was seeing was not through her own eyes but the eyes of someone else. She knew who that someone was.

Thomas Andrew Ward was revisiting the place where it had all begun. The mansion they had toured all those years ago in San Juan. The place where the both of them had receiver their powers and became who they needed to be. Tommy moved forward and she took the opportunity to reach his hand out like it was her own and feel the wall. It was freshly painted. But as she looked at it the old memories came back in.

“I’m sorry.” Tommy said, “What I did was out of line.”

“I don’t care about the fear thing.” She said to him. It wasn’t with his mouth or his voice but she knew he could hear him. “What I care about is that you lied to me because you thought you were protecting me. Next time something happens like that, do me a favor, and let me handle it.”

Then like a rubber band she was snapped back. Her vision was back and she was back in the hall with everyone surrounding her. She was lying on the ground with everyone hovering over her with worry on their faces. It was honestly a bit suffocating. Lifting her hand into the air she tried waving everyone off, “Can you guys back it up?” She asked. “All you around me is a little suffocating.”

“Skye.” Coulson said sternly, “What the hell just happened?”

“It was a migraine.” She lied smoothly, “I guess I hit my harder than I thought when the earthquake happened early.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” He asked again as Ward helped her up.

“Super duper AC.” She smiled hoping that they would stop worrying.

But as she caught the professors face she saw something flash in his eyes. It almost looked like a flash of familiarity and that made her feel on edge. What about that would make him look at her like that. Tearing her eyes away from she leaned into Ward’s side as he helped carry her.

Skye wasn’t going to lie. She wasn’t expecting that. Tommy and her had been able to do it quite a lot when they were younger. Both had no idea where the talent and or bond came from but they used it whenever they could. After he had stabbed her though, the bond seemed to have vanished leaving a small missing place in her heart. It seemed though, that the bond was now back and fully formed although she was not ready for it.

The bond was difficult to explain. They could feel each other’s emotions when they were intense enough. If they wanted to then they could even see through each other’s eyes but not quite. When it happened, it wasn’t like they took full control of the other person. It was like they merged and became one person. Their minds in sync with each other and able to tell what the other one wanted to do. Whose ever body they were in they could both move together in sync and harmony. They didn’t understand why they could do it. The origins of the bond where unknown but when they were fighting in battle it became pretty handy.

After her fall it had changed. The bond they shared was no longer there. They couldn’t feel each other and to Skye, it was some of the only pain she felt. The one person who knew what she was feeling and what she was going through was no longer there. It felt odd at first like she had been ripped into two pieces. But after a while, after she had numbed herself to the pain she was okay with it, it felt good to know that no one could get into her mind.

“Hey.” She heard Ward whisper to her and she looked up at him. He had a true concern in his eyes, “Are you actually okay?”

“Grant I haven’t been okay in a very long time.”

Skye thinks that might have been the only time she was actually honest with him.

She wasn’t going to lie. Skye hadn’t fully listened to what the professor had said about the staff so after a quick recap with Fitz Skye’s anxiety went through the roof. A staff crafted by an Asgardian that induces pure rage from the wielder. She was no genius by any means but that has to be about the stupidest invention of all time. Skye understood that Asgardians were very…war heavy to say the least, but this? This was just ridiculous; whose idea was it to even create something so unstable.

It also made Skye think about what triggered her powers. If that stuff could do that by just her feeling its presence. She didn’t even want to imagine what it might do to her if she had to pick it up. One lesson that was useful that she had learned from her youth came from a young blind boy named Matt. Skye, or Mary she should say, got mad quite often. The boy Matt was a few years older than her and been blinded and orphaned. They made friends would never truly talk about anything just enjoy each other’s   company.

It wasn’t until one day when she started throwing a fit did Matt teach her an important lesson. Anger was useful when fighting but rage was not. Anger was equivalent to passion and could be used but rage, rage was an unstoppable wildfire. It could not be controlled and only violence, chaos, and destruction came from rage. She kept that saying with her even to this day and tried not to use rage. Only her anger was a bit it hard to manage considering everything. It was challenging to only use certain emotions when you literally could feel everything around you.

Which lead her to look for the staff. She, of course, wanted to find it like everybody else, just for different reasons. Skye wanted to get rid of the staff while SHIELD just wanted to give it a new home. From what Fitz told her the warrior who wielding the staff broke it up into three pieces, Petra and Jakob already finding one. The team was trying hard to locate the other piece but as she looked at them scrambling Skye knew what she had to do. The Professor had suggested some place in Canada but Skye just knew that it was wrong. If the staff was in Canada that she wouldn’t have been able to feel it’s power. It was still on the European continent. So, she convinced Coulson to just keep them in Spain for the time being just to see if the paganist show up again.

She had found a piece of the staff once before she could do it again. Skye would just have to be extra careful this time. Rubbing her hands, she caught Fitz’s eye who was working the conference room with Jemma and Coulson. He must have noticed the look on her face because he quickly excused himself from the room and made his way over to her in the living area. She was seated on the couch and she could already feel her heart gaining speed.

Fitz quickly sat down and eyed her, “I know a look like that. Why are you looking like that?”

Skye took a quick gulp and made sure that no one was looking at them, “Because I know how to find another piece of the staff.”

“That great!” He shouted and she shot a glare at him. He looked sheepish for a moment then his face fell realizing that she had not done it. “Skye, if you know how to find another piece of the staff then why haven’t you?”

“Because the last time I found it I caused a giant earthquake in the middle of a forest in Norway.”

A look of panic crossed his face but it changed to curiosity, “Do you think…that maybe you could try again…without causing a, you know…” He started shaking his hands like was an alcoholic without his vice for a couple of days.

Skye glared at him then sighed. He was just trying to help and the idea wasn’t a bad one. Looking back to the team and seeing them so flustered she closed her eyes then made up her mind. She would try for them. She knew what she was looking for at least this time around and hopefully wouldn’t tap into its power.

“I can try.” She then stood up and he followed her motion, “But I have to be somewhere quiet. Like the back of the car or something if I want to do this without tapping into its power.”

Fitz nodded his head, “I’ll keep then distracted for as long as I can. I think May is in the cockpit and Ward is checking to see if we have enough supplies.”

“Good. Keep it that way and if anyone asks just say I’m having a little me time.”

Fitz gave her two thumbs up, you got it.”

Both nodded at each and then was off to their places. Skye rushed down the staircase and made her way into the backseat on the black SUV. It was nice a big enough that she wouldn’t have to worry about space. The lighting was perfect and dim so she would have bright lights attracting her attention away from what she needed to do.

Settling in nicely into the back of the car Skye closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She allowed her powers to take over her vision for her. She opened up the barrier and let all of the vibrations come flooding it. When she had first done it she was overwhelmed but now it was relaxing to feel the world around her. She could feel the different buildings and the footsteps of people walking around the streets of Spain. The mountains, the trees, the rivers, she could feel everything. As she made her way around Spain she came across that familiar pull of rage. It was somewhere near here, she could feel that much, as she broadens her powers more she tried to make out the exact location. It was somewhere underground, near a lot of rocks and rubble.

Skye tried to imagine where this place was. She imagined herself there trying to look for this piece of the staff. Finally, she was able to make out the location of where it was and she smiled to herself. It was somewhere in a church not far from where they were parked, talk about luck. About to pull herself out Skye took one more nudge at the staff just to see a peak. The rage coming off of it was pulsating and loud. It was like a buzzing noise inside her head that was unpleasant and the more she stayed on it the louder it became.

Knowing she should pull away Skye opened her eyes with a gasp. She looked around the car and could tell that nobody had disturbed her in her time looking for the staff. She smiled and opened the car door then ran back up the stairs. She made sure to grab her tablet to make it look like she had found it on their and made her way into the conference room.

“I found it!” She exclaimed loudly to now everyone minus her in the conference room, “It’s in a church not too far from here.”

“How did you find it?” Coulson asked.

Skye shrugged, “I just got lucky, but we better hurry, my guess is that the other people have already got a good idea on where the staff is. If we want to get there we have to get there fast.”

Coulson nodded his head in agreement, “Alright once we get there I want you and Ward to go looking for this thing.”

Skye nodded her head, “Alright let’s do this then.”

"I don’t like this.” Julian told him as they sat in the car watching the two people squabble with each other.

Tommy scoffed, “You don’t like anything. Now can you translate or not?” He asked passing him a poem in Spanish.

“You do realize that Mexican Spanish is different from Spain Spanish right?”

Tommy put his binoculars down and looked over to Julian who was looking at him with a raised eyebrow. He wouldn’t have asked him if he hadn’t thought that it wasn’t important but after watching Skye’s reaction he thought that he owed. So, he traveled all the way back to the strip club that Julian worked, picked his ass up, and brought him all the way to Spain. It wasn’t actually hard to convince Julian to stay, Tommy could tell that he missed some action. That wasn’t girls showing their boobs or some old man’s erection.

The one downside to all this plan of his. They hated each other and it seemed that Julian was such a little nitpicker when it came to certain items. The car had to be parked this way, no Tommy I have to exactly two Splenda sugars and four creams. Alright, Tommy thought have fun getting diabetes.

“Can you or can you not translate it?” He asked slowly trying his best to keep his calm.

Julian shrugged his shoulders, “I mean yes. The basic words at least.”

“THEN DO IT!” He yelled and went back to starring the office of Professor Elliot Randolph.

The old man didn’t really do much other than sit in his office fretting. Over what he wasn’t exactly sure, but that’s what stalking was for. The old man was going through a book that looked, well, extremely old even by Bible standards. The layers of dust on the thing would give an asthmatic a panic attack. He seemed to be looking fondly at the thing. Like he was staring at an old high school yearbook or something like that.

“Hey, Ward, what the hell did you drag me into?” Julian asked as he rearranged the paper in his lap.

Tommy stopped looking at the Professor and turned to look at Julian confused, “What do you mean? I snagged it from the Professors office after he handed it to SHIELD.” He told him

Another thing about getting Julian on this mission. He told them that they were trying to SHIELD and also failed to mention that Skye, or Daisy to him, was still alive. He thought that it was best to keep that tidbit a secret for now.

“Well, it’s a weird poem.” He then took the first page and started reciting the lines, “See this here, it’s talking about how The Warrior that was part of an army campaign fell in love with Earth. Instead of returning home he decided to stay but he had a staff called the Berserker Staff. It granted the user incredible strength but also uncontrollable rage with it.” He then got another page and began it again, “Then something about not wanting it to fall into evil hands The Warrior cut the staff into three pieces.” He then squinted and shook his head, “I don’t understand all of this because it’s in Old Norse.” He scanned the paper farther down then smirked, “There we are. It says the three pieces came be found in ‘a tree, east of the river son overhead’ and ‘A place close to God’. Like that helps us.” Julian mumbled to himself.

Tommy stared at his Vegas keychain for a while. Old Norse? Why the hell would some professor having something in Old Norse. Then something clicked in the back of his brain. Skye had met Lady Sif a while back and went on a drinking binge with her in Vegas. Which, actually, was quite funny because they two had tried killing each other. Tommy tried to help but was caught up in doing a favor for an old friend and somehow ended at a strip club dancing on the pole.

That whole trip had been a fucking nightmare. And this was the second time they had been to Vegas, the first time he didn’t want to think about. He laughed every single time that he did because poor Henley was a terrible loser. They needed to get a grip in this city.

He just remembers finding Skye and Lady Sif at the local IHop eating pancakes and laughing. It was weird to watch. Skye was covered in dust and blood with a big shiner on the side of her face. She had different clothes from the last time he had seen her. Instead of her normally black color palate clothing she now had on a bright red shirt that too large for her reading Vegas Baby! In bright yellow print on the back. Her pants clashed with a shirt in that they were bright blue pajama pants with TARDIS’s splashed all over them.

Lady Sif, on the other hand, was still in her Asgardian clothing. Metal breastplate and all her sword swinging causally by her side. She was leaning back against the booth with her arm slung over the top of the booth looking so causally human. They seemed so engrossed in their conversation that Tommy felt bad for interrupting them. He then noticed that the waitress walked up to them and gave them another plate of what looked like more pancakes with no indifference to the two women’s clothing. Tommy thought that the woman must have seen some shit in her lifetime to not be fazed by them.

He let them be. He thought that if the two women could have breakfast together then maybe they wouldn’t kill each other. When Skye came back a couple hours later she told him that they had come to an understanding. She said that Lady Sif was actually pretty cool and told her all the gossip that happened on Asgard.

Then it clicked in his head. He quickly turned back to look at the Professor who was now gone, “Oh shit.” He said quickly.

“What?” Julian said uninterested.

Tommy gulped, “That Professor we’re stalking, I think that he might be Asgardian.” He said.

The papers Julian had been holding instantly dropped but his hands remain stilled. His whole body didn’t move for an entire thirty seconds. “Do you mean to tell me…” He started off slowly, “That the guy we’ve been stalking for the past two hours. Is actually part of an alien race that hates us ever since our creation.”

“Well, you’re saying it not me.” He pointed out.

“Dude. Really?”

Tommy held his hands up in surrender, “Just pointing it out. Making an assumption here I’m guessing that The Warrior in the text is actually that guy.”

“Why?”

“Because, Julian. The Professor is no longer in his office which means that he probably left. The last time that I saw him he was looking in a book that was older than the Bible probably. Before that, he had been talking with SHIELD agents. There are two reason’s someone runs after talking to someone. One they’re afraid. Or two…” He started saying.

“Or they know something.” Julian finished for him while staring at him.

Tommy then reached over to the glove compartment and took out a gun. Giving Julian a toothy grin he cocked the gun, “Ready to go break several laws.”

Julian grabbed his backpack from the ground pulling over his one shoulder his hand already on the door handle. “About time.”

Tommy laughed and opened the door hiding his gun in the back of his pants. This trip might not be as terrible as he thought it would be.

It hadn’t taken them long to find the staff. Once Ward and Skye were dropped off in the church Skye’s stomach instantly rolled over. She could feel the power of the staff from where she was. The rage was coursing through the ground and she had to clench her fist to make sure she was fine. Skye couldn’t use her powers here she just knew that if she did she would accidentally tap into the staff’s rage. Then a whole other disaster would take place.

She wasn’t going to lie. A small part of her did want to hold the staff and by small she meant microscopic. It was the same part of her that caused her to black out and beat the ever living shit out of someone. Skye always thought about what caused her to go into full rage mode like that. At first, she thought that it was just her powers. But the more time she spent with Lucifer then less than that thought became true. She then chocked it up to some defect in her Inhuman DNA. They were supposed to be warriors, after all, so maybe so things don’t really leave genetics after all.

Ward was by her side a just his presence was calming her down. Even though he himself was also slightly panicking. Skye, noticing the change in his attitude grabbed his hand a squeezed it lightly. He stopped walking and looked down at their conjoined hands then he looked at her face. She smiled at him making sure that he would feel okay, “It’s fine.” She said to him and to herself, “We’re gonna find this thing.”

He frowned back at her, “I know, that’s why I’m worried.”

There was a scutter of other footsteps and Grant dropped her hand instantly. He went running off in the direction of the footsteps and Skye stood there shocked not knowing what to do. Was he worried about finding the staff? She wondered if he worried because of what would happen if given to the wrong person. Or what would happen if given to the right person.

A slight scream took her out of her thoughts and Skye raced forward only thinking of Grant. It didn’t take her long to find out where he was. She found in him in the room with the Professor and the staff. He was laying on the ground and looked to be it considerable pain. She rushed over to him, making sure to avoid the staff, and touched him gently on the arm.

He flinched at her chest. Looking the most afraid that she had even seen him in the entire time of knowing him. “Hey, it’s me.” She said trying to soothe him. He looked at her as if he was trying to recognize her. Skye then leaned in and rested her forehead against his. She ran a hand through his hair and trailed the hand down to his heart. It was racing like she had never felt it before like it was trying to burst through his chest. Fearing for him Skye sent a calming vibration throughout his body and then kissed him. “It’s okay.” She said pulling back and looking him in the eyes, which were now wet, “I’m here.”

Grant held onto her like she was his only crutch left in this world. And at this moment she might actually think that that was true. They held each other for a few moments before Skye turned her head to see that the Professor was still knocked out. She figured that they would need to get him custody as possible.

Skye managed to pull herself from Grant’s grasp and reached for her phone. She quickly dialed Coulson’s numbed hoping he would pick up on the first try. To her relief he did, “Coulson!” Skye said quickly, “We need help. Grant touched the staff and somethings wrong with also Professor Elliot Randolph here.”

She then snapped then ended the phone call and wrapped her arms around Grant. She was able to help him to his feet but she can tell that he was struggling. She wrapped his arm around her shoulder and let him lean into her. It was a time like this that she enjoyed her extra strength. Grants’ sweaty head then rolled over onto his shoulder.

“What about him?” He said slowly and she assumed that he was talking about the Professor.

Skye started walking forward taking him with her, “They get him later and the staff too let’s just focus on you first.”

“No, Skye, he held the staff.” Ward said protesting and managed to get out of her grasp. He stumbled to the war and put a hand to his temple. He looked to be in pain again and Skye could feel anger swell in her heart. Walking back over to the Randolph she kneeled down and slapped his face. Hard.

The man woke up instantly and was confused by looking at her face, “Jiaying? Is that you, old friend?” He said in a mumbled confusion. Skye’s hands that were on his collar had loosened. She started breathing and looked at the a with a new confusion. How did he know he mother’s name? And he said the name with such compassion of that of seeing an old friend again. Wait? He had said old friend, meaning that her mother had known this man. Possible before she turned into a Psychopathic Mega Bitch.

“How do you know that name?” She whispered her voice teetering on a whimper. Her mothers’ name should not have this much power over her.

He stared up at her with hooded eyes. He was still dazed and confused but he smiled at her. He pushed a lock of Skye’s long hair back and put a hand on the side of her cheek, “I’ve missed you, old friend.” He said again then promptly shut his eyes falling into unconscious once more.

Skye let him go and then back away from him like he was made of acid. He had known her mother and they had been friends. Thinking of anyone that could have been friends with her mother was almost an impossible thought. To think of her as kind and caring as someone who was not manipulative or evil just seemed wrong and unnatural. Skye sat on the ground with her palms on the ground staring at the man for what felt like ages.

She could feel everything around her. The ground her, Ward, Randolph, but the loudest thing in the room was the staff. It was screaming and crying out with the stupid buzzing noise. But as annoying as it was Skye was tempted to pick it up. She knew that if she did bad things would happen but the itch to do so was growing strong. Skye was starting to think that this is what Frodo felt like whenever he was going to Mordor with the Ring.

She then heard the sound of more footsteps and she knew that it was the rest of the team arriving. Skye just couldn’t bring herself to look away from the man laying on the ground. She had just known that she was going to not like him.

As Coulson and May escorted them out of the church Skye still had the same expression on her face. Everyone’s voices were just fuzzy and muffled, not important to her. The world seemed to move in slow motion as they walked back to the car. As she sat in the car Skye wrapped her arms around her middle and tried to calm herself down.

Someone knew her mother before she had turned bad. She knew that her mother had used to travel a lot and had been kind. But to Skye, it was just such a foreign idea to her. That her mother had a life before she was born. That she was someone before she became the monster that she was today. In that she guessed her and her mother was similar.

Both turned into monsters bad horrific events in their lives. Only her mother had decided to cling onto the past while Skye chose to move on from it. She would never forget her past but she knew that she could do right by her future. Although she guessed that might be hard for her mother considering she was practically immortal.

It was a time like this that she craved her sisters’ warm touch. Cecily’s hugs were the best, they had always felt like home. Cecily was the only good thing that her mother had ever given to her.

“Holy shit I think this book is actually from 963 CE.” Tommy exclaimed as he riffled through the Professors library.

“If it is then you should put it down before you break it.”

“I’m not going to break it.”

“Famous last words.” He heard Julian mumbled. Then another page flip as he looked through the book on the desk. Tommy then walked over to the drawer and opened it not expecting anything and he was right. There were only a few items but one thing he thought that didn’t belong there was a little thumb tack. He reached down thinking that the little guy didn’t belong there was surprised to find that the entire bottom drawer actually came out. “You, sneaky bastard,” Tommy whispered then reached down and grabbed the content of the false bottom.

It was an old piece of paper that seemed to have about three different layers of dust on it. He unraveled it and blew the dust off it. Once he saw what the paper contained he smiled and called to Julian, “Hey Jules, you might want to come and see this?”

“Why?” Julian snapped back.

“Because I think I just found a map of all three locations of the Berserker Staff.”

The slamming of a book was heard and then Julian was by his side in an instant staring intently at the map. “Holy shit.” He said.

As Grant sat on the table in the lab she knew that something was wrong with. Simmons was going through the motions of what any doctor would do. As she kept looking though she couldn’t find anything wrong with him. Which made her do more test but as she was finishing up Skye could tell that Grant’s problem was not physical it was emotional. She could tell from the way he was gripping the table and how snippy he was being with snippy.

Simmons had finally reached the end of all her test and sighed, “Well, I can’t find anything medically wrong with you. Physically you’re fine, other than your heart rate being a little high everything else is fine. So, I would suggest to take it easy just in case more symptoms arrive.” Ward rolled his eye but nodded.

He started taking off the electrodes from his bare chest and reach for his shirt putting it back no. Skye watched as Skye left the room to probably tell Coulson about the results. She leaned back and was staring at him intently. He caught her staring and narrowed his eyes, “What?” He snapped.

Skye met his eyes and crinkled his face, “Simmons was never going to find anything Physically wrong with you.” Skye said.

“And how do you know that?” He asked sarcastically.

Not enjoying the tone made a face of annoyance, “because whatever happening to you isn’t physical it’s internal.” She said thinking back to when she felt the energy from the staff. How it made her start an earthquake because she couldn’t take the feeling of the rage.

Ward jumped down from the table and scoffed, “Whatever, why don’t you just run to Fitz. I’m sure you’ll tell all about it.”

Slight anger raised in Skye, “Hey, I’m just trying to help you and what does Fitz have to do with this?”

“It seems that whenever you have a problem you go to him. You tell him more stuff about yourself then you tell me!” he shouted.

Skye kicked off from the counter she had been leaning on. Walking forward she came to Grant closer, “Are you jealous of Fitz?” She asked.

Grant raised one of his eyebrows, “Should I be?” He asked.

Their bodies were close to each other. Too close. They need to be in separate rooms. But as she watched his chest rise and fall she met his eyes and within seconds their lips had collided.

This kiss was different from any of the other ones he had given her. In the way that it was rough and not gently. Teeth were clashing and they probably looked like they were sucking each other’s faces off. IT was sexy or hot, it was rough and needing. Grant had gripped her waist and picked her swiftly placing her on the table that he had been sitting on. They were at the same height now and she felt pull her closer to the edge as her hips lined with his now. Her hands were running through his hair making a mess of it while his hands were underneath her shirt slowly climbing her bareback. She let out a gasp when his lips moved from hers to her jaw and then her neck.

She pulled him in closer and enjoyed the feeling of his mouth on her neck. She knew that it was the staff that was making him do this. She could feel all the anger pulsating through his body trying to find a place to release. That place just happened to be her. Quickly giving caution to the wind Skye pushed him back a bit and unbuttoned her tip in record time. Then she grabbed him by the neck and kissed him again. She tried to slow it down and help him to control his heart rate but the rage must have been too overpowering.

He gripped her waist and leaned forward forcing her to lie back on the table a bit. Skye took his shirt and discarded it. Grant left her neck in favor of her clavicle but he didn’t spend a lot of time there because he soon moved to the valley of her breast. His hands moving down from the small of her back and roamed slowly up and down her ribs. The finally found their place at her hips bring her closer to him. He was leaned over her completely now and Skye had to admit it wasn’t the most comfortable position. She really didn’t care about that right now.

Her nails found his back and she dug them into it when he bit her right under her ribcage. She knew that it would bruise there later and that he did it on purpose. Both of their breathing was being heavy and erratic. He continued to kiss her chest and his other hand that wasn’t by her hip had found its way right under her right breast. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of his hands on her body, it had been since she felt this good.

A moment later his hand slipped under her bra and she moaned lightly. He kissed his back up her chest and his lips connected with hers’ again. She rolled her hips against his hips and she felt him take a deep intake of breath into her mouth. He kissed her harder and started massaging her one breast. A warm feeling was beginning to pull in her lower belly and she was starting to feel something grow hard against her thigh.

Snapping her eyes open she gasped in shock. This was not how they were going to have sex for the first time. In the middle of a very opened window lab on the top of a steel table. She also sure that Simmons would kill her if she found out. Sitting up while still kissing him Skye pulled back slowly and grabbed the hand that was underneath her bra. His actions stopped and he pulled back opening his eyes and looking at her.

Skye started shaking her head. “We are not doing this here.” She said.

Grant, to his credit, stop and removed himself from her completely. He stared at her and realized what he was doing. His eyes widen at what was happening like he had no control over his action and stared at her in horror. “Skye…” he started to say but she stopped him by putting her hand up.

“Don’t.” She said then started buttoning her shirt again. “I shouldn’t have done that in the first. I knew you were in pain and I just wanted you to not be in pain.”

“If it makes you feel better. I not in pain anymore although I think I would take that over what I’m feeling now.”

Fighting the urge to blush Skye hopped off the table and handed him his shirt. “How about you tell me what’s making you so angry.”

Grant put on his shirt then took a deep sigh, “It all started with my brother Christian.”

Chapter Text

There was something wrong with Randolph that much she knew. She stared at him through the video feed and waited for him to do something. Skye was sitting on the couch with her tablet waiting for something to happen. After Grant had told her the story of how his older brother made him throw Tommy into a well. Skye was starting to think that Tommy's family was even more fucked up than hers'. Your parent trying to kill you was one thing. But, your older brother making your other brother throw you down and well and enjoying it was a whole other level.

She knew that there was abuse in Tommy's family and that Christian was the brunt of it. He told her that he would make Grant do all the things to him. He never told her about the well though, actually, the more she about it the more she realized he never went into detail about any of it. She can understand why he wouldn't, why anyone would want to relive that trauma it beyond her.

From what Tommy had told her the family structure was broken down like so: Robert Ward stood at the top. A senator that had severe control issues and probably a drinking problem. He was tall with brown, now greying, hair. While Grant and Rose had inherited their looks from their mother it was clear that Tommy was his fathers' son. The shared the same face structure and blue eyes as each other. The same permanent smile but while Tommy's was warm Robert's always looked cruel. The man radiated power in pictures and seem to be charismatic.

Next was Melody Ward. The True Pants Wearer of the family as Tommy had told her. While his father, Tommy had said, was the face of the family his mother ran it all. She was silent and calculating and took in every threat in a room. Never showed her emotions at any given time unless it was in front of a camera. Dressed to impress constantly in mostly solid bold colors never seen in a pattern. Her black hair was always prim and proper. No known family since she was raised in foster care. Had all her children taught Russian since birth, except Christian, and made sure they would all excel in school. Instead of letting them watch old Disney movies she would make them read instead or learn a new skill. Grant had taken more language classes, Tommy took Physics, and Mellie forced Rose into Ballet. Tommy had also told her that she one hell of a shot with a gun at the range.

Christian, Grant, and Tommy all shared one similar title as The Older Brother. Though all were different too the public they were just known as the three brothers. Christian was cruel, so much like his father, and followed the same career path. Grant, well, was always made out to be the troublemaker even though he was the farthest thing from it. If anything, he was too loyal to a fault which wasn't always a good thing. Tommy was the true troublemaker. The impulsiveness and reckless attitude that he always had were exhausting. Skye's was honestly surprised when she learned that his parents didn't try putting him on medication right away.

Rose was the last in the family. The baby sister and the little girl who could do no wrong. Always in the background in every picture never truly in the limelight. Had the perfect outfits, great grades, and never was once involved in a scandal. What Tommy had told her was that she knew when to keep quiet. He told her that he and Grant would always protect her from Christian to make sure that he never hurt her. Once he had left the house Tommy had breathed a little easier. She was short in height, black hair, brown eyes, so much like her mother. Except she was kind, she was nice and truly cared about people, Tommy said it was because she always looked up to Captain America as a kid. And into adulthood. Skye only semi remembered the young girl running around as Captain America for Halloween. Although she shouldn't say, a young girl because Rose was only one year younger than herself.

Skye sighed. The whole family was just one big mess.

After Grant had told her the story he stared at her like she was going to accuse him of lying. Instead, she hugged him, which surprised him, and told him that she believed him. Because if anyone was going to believe crazy family abuse it was her. After she told him that he squeezed her tighter and tried not to let her go.

A tap on her shoulder brought her out of her zone. She dropped the tablet and turned around ready to scream at whoever startled her. Instead, she turned around to see that it Coulson with an expression that read 'Got You' all over it. She didn't know why he thought that he had caught her doing something bad, all cameras were free to hack.

"What's up AC?" She asked innocently. Turning off the tablet and placing it on the couch.

Coulson raised his eyebrow at her, "He's requesting to see, and I quote, 'The woman who knocked me out' any reason that would be?"

She shrugged her shoulders but on the inside, a bubble of nervousness started building. He didn't think that she was her mother, did he? Because if that was so then she was screwed beyond belief. Her secret wouldn't be secret for long and she could kiss freedom goodbye. She would have to start saying hello to a cell and the Index.

"Do you want me to talk to him?"

"I don't think he's going to talk if you don't."

Taking a deep calming breath Skye stood and plastered on a fake smile. "Let's go."

The walk to the interrogation was terrible and she felt like running. It wasn't even fear that was getting her it was her nerves. Her anxiety that this was all about to go to shit. She also didn't want to hear about what her mother was like when she was kind and actually normal. People trying to convince her that she was a good person. Keyword was. Skye's sure that her mother did a lot of good things in the past but that doesn't make up for what she's doing now. Now she was no longer kind, she didn't care about her people, not ever her own daughter. All she cared about was herself and her power.

They arrived at the door and Coulson knocked on the door three times. He then opened it and the moment her eyes met Randolph's she knew that he knew about her. Even if he didn't know about her existence he knew that she was her daughter. Like everyone had always said, she was her mother's daughter in looks. Although not identical it was too similar to be anything else. IT was also it the way she carried herself, but most of all it was the eyes. The same doe-brown eyes that came from her mother.

Randolph's eyes widen and he opened his mouth slightly in shock. He looked like he wanted to say something but was in too much shock to even say something. Skye pushed the bubble of nervousness down and walked over to the chair opposite of him. It was funny that she was on the other side of the table a couple months ago.

They waited in silence for moments just staring at each other. Breaking first Skye cleared her throat ready to say something. He beat her to it just as she was opening her mouth to say something, "I'm sorry for staring but has anyone ever told you, you have old eyes."

"Why did you want to talk to me?" She asked trying to change subject course.

Randolph smiled, "You reminded me of someone I once knew."

Moving her head slightly Skye could feel the heartbeats of everyone behind the glass. It was Coulson, May, and Ward. Great, the three people that she didn't need listening to any of this. Skye frowned and formed a fist under the table, "Well, sorry to disappoint you but I'm not her, whoever she was."

"Of course, you aren't." Randolph insisted, "But the resemblance is uncanny."

"Are you going to talk about the staff or not. If not then I'm going to leave." She then made the motion to stand up but he was able to stop her with his words. It had been so long since someone could stop with just a few simple words. That made her stand with shock, anger, resentment, longing.

"You're just like her you know." He said casually smiling softly and Skye sat back down slowly listening to him. No one had said that to her before, not even her father who had always said she was more like him. "I've never met you before but I can see her shine through. The posture, the looks, the way you speak, it's all her."

Clenching her jaw Skye glared at him, "Like I said before I'm not whoever you might think I am." She said in a low voice.

"Of course not." He said sadly. "But when I first saw you it was like seeing my old friend again one more time."

Annoyed by where the topic was heading Skye changed it, "If your friend where here would you tell her where the rest of the staff was?" She asked.

"No." His heartbeat skipped.

"You're lying." She said simply, "I know you know, so just tell me."

"I'll tell you the truth when you tell me the truth." He stated then leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

Biting her lip and clenching her fist Skye took a leap. This was her day of honesty and truth telling might as well go big or go home. "I don't know what you're talking about." She said simply and started smiling, "But let me tell you something that I am sure of. I am going to make sure that I get what I want. No one is going to stop me from getting it. I don't care how many people I have to hurt, maim, or even kill to get it." She then leaned in slightly, "And what I want…is that staff."

Randolph smirked looking down at her clenching fist, "my friend had many talents. I wonder, what other talents you might have."

"Many." She said deadpanned, "Now where's the staff before I start shooting you."

He was about to speak but the door opened and there was Ward with Coulson. "Skye out. Ward, your turn to take a stab at him." Ward nodded his head and Skye stood up to join Coulson.

He closed the door and turned towards her. "What was that about?" he asked.

"I guess I reminded him of someone. Poor guy, can't think of too many people who would want a friend like me" She said jokingly.

"Skye this isn't a joke." He said. Then he took a deep breath and Skye could see his true leak through, "You told me that that's your past won't affect your time with us. It wouldn't affect this team."

"It won't." Skye said, "Besides I was only trying to play to his emotions Coulson." She wasn't technically lying to him. Her mother did think that she was dead. Hopefully.

"Skye…about what you said, about getting what you want, is that true?"

Skye looked at Coulson up and down then frowned, "I told you Coulson." She said, "I'm not a good person."

There was a crash and the sound of metal dropping. Skye crinkled her eyebrow and opened up the door to see that Randolph hadn't gotten out of his cuffs. He was also holding a knife in his hand, which was bent, and let it drop to the table.

"You were right." Ward said with a bitch face looking at the smiling professor, "He's Asgardian."

"Shit." Skye said clearly and all eyes turned towards her. Randolph then waved at her and winked. This day was just getting worse and worse.

"Fitz." Simmons called out to her partner. He had been in the lab more the past couple of weeks. She noticed, of course, she noticed, she always noticed when he changed something. Ever since he had come back from his mission with Ward something had changed. He told her the basics of everything but he was hiding something from. He was always a terrible liar with her. Then everything with Skye today made her even more concerned. Which lead her to where she was now.

About to confront him. If he would only take out those stupid headphones and put down the screwdriver. "Fitz!" She yelled this time. He jumped and took out his headphones turning around from his seat on the workbench. He had dropped whatever he was working on and put his hands in his lap.

"Yeah, what's up Simmons?" He asked.

"What's up?" She asked incredulously, "Fitz you've been acting completely different for the past couple of weeks. You won't tell what's wrong and you always tell me what's wrong. Instead, you're going to Skye."

Simmons wasn't going to lie. She was a little jealous of how much time Skye was spending with Fitz. For so long it had been just them and nobody else. The more times they spent on this team the more he was pulling away from him and she hated it. She liked Skye and thought that it was nothing more than Fitz getting more friends. But, he always came to her with his problems. He always came to her when he wanted to watch movies and do science with.

It was odd having someone else come in and disrupt the dynamic. He was the one person that she had always turned to no matter what had happened. The one person in her life that she could count on to never leave her. Seeing go to someone else just made her heart constrict a little bit.

"Jemma." He said her name softly and she almost shuttered. She always loved how he said her name. He stood and walked over to her grabbing her hands. He enclosed his hands around hers and she looked him in the eyes. Her heart started fluttering and she thought for a moment she was weightless, "The world is…expanding." He said trying to find the right words.

"And you and I are stuck in a bubble in this expanding world." He said, "Skye she…she's seen the edge of the expanding world, been over it a few times I think."

"I'm not understanding?" Jemma said confused by what Fitz was saying.

Fitz sighed, "We used to think that Earth was a big planet full of impossible things." She saw him gulp, "Turns out we were wrong. It's small. Very small and it's full of possible things." He said. "And that's not bad!" He said quickly, "Not bad at all. In fact, it's what we signed up for but…" he trailed off, "but sometimes it's just…sometimes it's better to leave things as impossibilities rather than solve them." He said. She could tell that he wasn't satisfied with the wording but he looked like utterly confused as to what to say next.

She still wasn't understanding what he was saying but she knew it had to do with Skye. Jemma knew that there was something that she was missing. A puzzle piece that would fit all of the confusion together. But Fitz's words just confused her more. The world was smaller than we thought. What the bloody hell did that mean?

"Fitz whatever it is, whatever bothering you, you can tell me." She told him honestly. Shaking their hands together.

Fitz looked at her, and for a brief moment, she thought he gazed at her lips, but turned back to her eyes. He sighed and took his hands from hers, "Simmons…" He trailed off again. He looked likes he wanted to say something but he stopped himself from doing so. He shook his head then left the lab whatever he was working left abandoned at the station.

Her inner scientist took over and she quickly walked over to his station. She tilted her head to the side and tried to decipher what he was trying to build. It looked like a holster of some sort but it wasn't for a gun or something like that. Instead, it was long in shape and came to a point in the end almost taking the shape of a long knife. Raising her eyebrow, she tried to figure out why Fitz would be making something like this.

There was something different about him, in the way he looked at things now, Simmons noticed. The look in his eyes told her that he seemed lost and she hated seeing him look that way. She just wanted to help him in whatever way that she could because that's what partners do. They help each other out. If they don't help each other out.

Then where does that leave them?

Reading the map, Tommy realized, was a lot harder than they thought. It came with so many problems that he was half tempted just rip the thing to shreds and wing it with finding the last pieces. It was Julian that had stopped him doing it and by stopping he meant ripping the map from his hands and putting it in his backpack.

"This would easier if we could just talk to the guy." Tommy said as he took another right. At this point, they were just traveling in circles.

"And risk dying…Yeah, I don't think so. Besides, there has to something on the map that can help us out." Julian quipped back while hitting his backpack again.

Groaning in frustration Tommy pulled into the nearest fast food lot and put the car into park. He then looked over to Julian who looked just as defeated as him. This wasn't going as planned, if they wanted to beat SHIELD then they needed to be better then SHIELD. Considering they had some of the best hackers and trackers on hand their odds of losing are high.

"Julian, we need a new game plan." Tommy said.

"Obviously." Julian said, "But, Tommy, reading this map is damn near impossible. Going to SHIELD is out of the question. The only other thing that I can think of is asking the stupid people that are going after it in the first place."

Tommy was about to argue actually doing it but Julian gave him a look that told him no. Bringing a hand to his face Tommy ran it down his face. There was something that they could do. They had to do something. They were not this incompetent that they couldn't even figure this out. He was an ex F.B.I agent for goodness sakes, this shouldn't be hard for him!

This would be easier if he could just contact Skye but he had a feeling that leaving her alone was a good idea right now. She would be able to hack the information that they needed and then some. What they needed right now was either someone who could read Old Norse. Or someone with IT abilities and hopefully good judgment. They didn't have any so they were stuck with just themselves. Which shouldn't be bad but considering how long it had been for them since the field. It might not have been the best idea to rush into this. That's when he got an idea. They didn't have to join the paganist but they could at least take out some of them. He knew for a fact that somewhere still in Spain and fighting them shouldn't have been that hard.

"What if instead of asking the Paganist we gently persuade and few to talk?" Tommy suggested.

"Depends." Julian said as if he was entertaining the idea, "By gentle persuasion do you mean talking to them or punching them?"

"Punching them obviously." He said like it was the most obvious thing ever, "No one high on Asgardian Rage Juice would ever listen to us."

Julian made a motion with his arm as if telling Tommy to go, "Good point, let's go. I have another shift at five."

Tommy cringed. He didn't want to think about that trip back. He practically had to puke every time he entered that dirty place. Tommy had seen plenty of dirty places in his lifetime but that place really took the number one spot.

Putting the car in reverse Tommy backed up and soon they were on the road again. They were both silent but for different reasons. Tommy was coming up with a plan on how to the information from the others while Julian was thinking about missing this.

He missed being able to go out on a mission. To do good in the world and see new places. He wanted to go home more than anything but he couldn't stand a liar for a Queen. He was putting up with Tommy because he was a means to the end. That may be, after all the bad he's done, he could do some good in the world. He could make up for everything that he did. Maybe the all the Means did justify the End. The more time that Julian spent with him the most he was realizing that Tommy didn't understand the damage he had done all those years ago. He didn't just kill the princess that was beloved by most. He also pissed the rebels because they had planned on overthrowing the thrown and using Daisy as a replacement. He took away the life and jobs of a lot of people.

When people had gotten the news that he had died. Julian was pretty sure that there was a party that lasted a straight week. Which wasn't hard to understand why but still, he was friends with some of those people. He was under the influence of a very manipulative person. He had to do something that none of them could probably do. He had to stand up to Jiaying.

Thomas Ward as a lot of things in the world but a coward was not one of them. He reckless, selfish, impulse damnit. But, he tried his best to do the right thing for his friends. For that Julian gave him credit because he would do anything for his family.

Noticing that Tommy was slowing down again Julian looked out the window to see their location. It wasn't hard finding out where the paganist where hiding. They didn't exactly hide it. It had taken them only twenty minutes to find the hideout or base. Which was an abandoned building because of course, they were unoriginal.

"This is it?" Julian asked unimpressed.

"Yep." Tommy said quickly the unbuckled his seat built. "Now come on I want to make this quick."

Quickly following the younger man Julian took off his seatbelt and grabbed his gun. They both walked up to the door each taking a side. Tommy counted till three and the both of them busted open the door to the shock of many people.

Tommy took his gun and fired a shot into the air, "Alright!" He yelled and Julian pointed his gun at some of the more threatening looking people. "Listen up Motherfuckers!" He said to them pointing his gun at the crowd, "We're all gonna have a little chat."

"Wait." Skye said holding up her hands trying to understand what she just heard was correct. "This whole thing was made up because he was…horny for some French girl?"

"Yeah." Coulson said nodding his head with a look of shame. She was guessing that he was ashamed for the Asgardian in the other room. He hadn't left the room since his time on the plane and he seemed to be getting on everyone's nerves. Those were Asgardians for ya, annoyed everyone even if you hadn't interacted with them yet.

Letting out a long sigh she looked at the people around her, "Well?" She asked waving her hand in the air, "What else did he say?"

"Then he said he hid the staff because he didn't want it falling into the wrong hands. That why he hid it then he said to let it be because the paganist will eventually die down."

"Did you tell him that they have one part of the staff while we have to the other?" Skye asked.

"We did." Coulson said.

"He didn't care about that either." Ward interrupted him. "After Coulson had threatened him he told us that the last piece is in a church in Ireland."

"Great." Skye said, "Just great. Just what we need, another church to go and probably destroy."

There was silence in the room. Skye could feel her anger and frustration spike at the situation that was in front of her. She grabbed the end of the table leaning onto her hands and grimaced trying to control her heart rate. She closed her eyes and tried taking a few deep breathes. This is not how she wanted this day to end. This was not how she wanted any of this to go but it seemed that no matter how many times she tried to intervene. Fate was going to have its way. "Is there anything else that we should know?" Skye asked, her eyes still shut.

"No." May had answered, "That was all he said. If we're in luck then maybe we can beat the Paganists to the church."

Skye chuckled, "Yeah, luckily."

The room was silent and things were beginning to tune out again. The piece of the staff that was aboard the plane was affecting her. She could feel the rage pulsating and the more she denied the more it called to her. It was almost like it wanted her to pick it up and tear the world apart. She gripped the table harder and swore that she could almost hear it crack. There was the sound of shuffling and she knew that the rest of the team was leaving the room. Once the sound was gone she took another breath and tried to control the anger that was threatening to boil over.

"What's wrong?" She heard Ward ask.

Skye opened her eyes panting and turned her head towards him. He was standing there leaning against the doorway watching her. She had to make the anger go away so how to make herself distracted. Determined Skye let go of the table and power walked over to Grant grabbing him forcefully by the wrist. She dragged him across the living room and practically threw him into her room although there was very little resistance on his end.

He fell down onto her bed and shut her door. Barely giving him any time to react she climbed on top of him and kissed him. Hard. So hard that she was pretty sure she just bruised both their lips. Grant sat up instantly pulled her body closer to his. His hand wandering all over her back one of them slipping underneath her shirt.

The more she kissed him the more the feeling of anger washed away. It left her body and was replaced with another feeling. Something much better than anger, a feeling that was taking her breath away. She sat up more so that she was a couple of inches higher than Grant. She pulled back and both of them opened their eyes looking at each other.

Skye was panting and took one of her hands running through her hair. It all landed on one side and she just stayed like that staring at Grant. Both were breathing heavily and she took her other hand and cupped his cheek with it. She ran her thumb over his lips and the feeling that left her breathless took over her again. She leaned down and their lips collided once again.

This was slower than when she had kissed him last. Instead of the anger and rage fueling the heat in the room it was passion. She reached down and unbuttoned her top like she had down so just a little less than an hour ago. When her she let her top fall from her shoulders and onto the bed she pressed herself against him more. Thinking that he was wearing too many clothes Skye tugged on the bottom of his shirt and seconds later it was discarded.

He then flipped them over and Skye had to keep herself from letting out a noise. He kissed her lips once more before moving to her jaw. Then it was her neck and he slowly made his way down until he was again at her clavicle. His one hand was down around her waist while the other was tracing the scar right below her breast. She shivered as his thumb traced it and as his mouth moved on from her clavicle down to the valley of her breasts.

Skye was trying her best to keep herself from moaning but his mouth kissing down her rib cage was not helping. His hand didn't slip underneath her bra this time instead he just kneaded it while he placed wet kisses around her bellybutton. Wanting his lips on her again she grabbed him by his hair and sat up pulling him up with her. He got the message and he kissed her lips again and this time she did let out a little breathy moan.

The fluttering feeling that was in her stomach was starting to quickly turn into something else. Something that was boiling in her stomach and it was starting to get hotter with each kiss he gave her. Grant, then all the sudden, pulled away from her. She almost took used her arms that were wrapped around his neck to pull him back down.

"Not that I'm enjoying this." He said like it physically pained him to stop himself, "But, what's wrong. I saw the way you looked in there. Something's bothering you."

"Yeah, something is bothering me, it's the fact that you stopped kissing me and we still have clothes on."

He smirked a little bit but she didn't miss the way his eyes darkened. "Skye." He said her name again, "What's wrong?"

"It doesn't matter." She insisted and trailed a hand down his chest, "Now if you're done talking you might actually get to see me naked."

He chuckled and leaned in. She thought that he was going to kiss her but instead he went over to her ear, "As much I would love to see you with all your clothes off right now." He whispered, "We can't. Not with everyone still one the Bus. Because when we have sex I intend on making you scream out my name as you cum over and over again." He then kissed her under the ear and Skye gulped.

Well, if that didn't make her even more hot and bothered she doesn't know what will.

He pulled away from her and sat up grabbing his shirt from the floor. She looked at him while he was putting his shirt back on. He grabbed for his shoes when she finally felt what he was feeling. The rage from the staff was still there but something else was overtaking it. Something that was being projected towards her directly. It was strong, that much she could tell, and it only grew every time that he looked at her. It was a feeling that she only saw in other people.

Shocked by the revelation she leaned over to him and grabbed his jaw forcing him to look at her. She brushed a piece of hair that had fallen into his face back. She licked her lips and searched his eyes to see if she could find something. She could see in his eyes that he enjoyed being with her and not just because she wanted to have sex with him. He enjoyed being in her company and talking to her he just being with her, "Be careful, Grant." She said and kissed him lightly, "I would hate to see you die. I've come to care for you too much."

He smirked and rested his forehead against hers, "Poor me."

"I mean it. I know you think you might be fine but it won't take much to trigger that rage."

"Skye." He said slowly, "I'll be fine out there. It's not like this will last forever."

She looked at him and nodded her head, "Okay." She said giving in. "If you think you'll be okay then I believe you."

It was true. She did believe him. She just hoped that he believed himself too.

"Are these people fucking mermaids?" Julian questioned as they ran down the roads to get to the church. "It took us forever just to find the one piece and we had the actual map. They've hopped, like, three countries in the span of a couple of hours."

"Take a right!" Tommy yelled and both men sprinted towards the right. They sprinted along the as best as they could with all the weight they had carried.

After the fight in the warehouse, which had lasted a bit longer than planned. The two men had gotten the information that they wanted. The last piece to where the staff was being hidden. Which ended up being in a church in Ireland. Tommy was mad because he would have to shadow travel there and they would be able to take the car. Which meant that they would have to go at it on foot, meaning they were probably going to be the last people to the party.

Tommy never liked being the last person to the party. He was always one of the first people at a party or the host himself. Being late to party meant that you didn't care or you really didn't want to be there in the first place. Being early to a party meant that you wanted to be there and you could make conversation with the host and kiss up to them hoping they would give you the good stuff.

Although this wasn't an actual party. It was battle between Paganists, SHIELD, an Asgardian, and two Inhumans over a staff that made you angry. This was shaping up to be one of the weirdest days of the year so far. That was counting the time he had to go to the Maple festival in Canada because a client wanted him to steal the secret recipe.

"Left!" He shouted and he and Julian took the left sprinting down the final street. They could both see the church in sight and he had to give it to the Catholics. They knew how to build one hell of a church. What he wasn't so happy about was the cars parked outside the doors telling him that SHIELD was already here and he was assuming that the Paganist also where as well.

As they got closer to the church they heard grunting and the familiar sound of fighting. Looking over to Julian both men nodded and grabbed their guns from their places around their pants. They stood on the side of the door for a few seconds before a scream and a crash was heard. To him that was the signal that they needed to intervene and Tommy kicked opened the door his gun held high. Julian was next to him in the same exact position.

Although the sight in front of him almost made him lower his gun.

To the back, he could see his brother on the ground in pain next to an older looking Asian woman. He wanted to run to Grant immediately but he had to remind himself that his brother hadn't seen him in over fifteen years. He probably wouldn't even recognize him at this point in time. What was happening in the middle of the room was what made him almost drop his gun completely.

Skye was standing there hovering over a woman and she was ready to kill the girl. The girl was cowering and looked utterly defeated and Tommy guessed that Skye had done a number of her. He heard an intake of breath and he looked beside him to see that Julian was starting to realize that Skye, Daisy, was the girl. That she was still alive.

He saw Skye raise the staff and as it glowed a brilliant blue he knew that she was about to kill the girl. It was the look in her eyes that gave it away. The rage and anger in his chest that he knew was coming from Skye was telling him everything that he needed to know.

On instinct, he used his powers and propelled her backward. He watched her fly to the opposite end of the wall. She looked to him in shock but then the shock quickly turned to rage. She slammed the ground and recovered quickly twirling the staff around expertly in her hands. Tommy put his gun away and walked to the middle of the room ready for Skye to make her move. He had a feeling that she needed to get this out of her system.

She let out a cry and ran towards him the staff raised. He was able to quickly dodge her attack but she twirled the staff around and hit the back of his leg. The action caused him to fall to the ground and he glared at his friend but he told himself he would not fight her back. She walked around him and was about to hit him in the face with the staff when he stopped it with hand.

Then his world went black for a second. Next, he felt anger and rage that he had almost never felt before in his lifetime. He saw himself almost drowning in the well while Christian laughed and Grant looked on helplessly. He saw himself trying to kill Skye with his dagger. He saw his sister looking so sad when she realized that he was not going to come home. He the face of Henley right before she had left when they had a huge fight.

All the times that he had ever felt so much anger was coming back up. His vision finally returned and he shared the same look as Skye. Only he still wasn't going to fight her. Because even though many people had caused him so much pain. He was the biggest contributor to all the pain. If only he had stood up to Christian more. If only he had stopped himself from trying to kill Skye. If he had stopped himself from doing something so stupid. He was the one that caused himself all the pain in his life.

"Stop!" He yelled and threw the staff to the side of the room. He could hear it skid across the wooden flooring. She looked down at him and he saw her face change from anger to shock then confusion. "It's okay, Skye." He said getting up and moving closer to her, "It's just in your head." He said but his voice shook a little bit.

She lowered the staff only slightly, "What are you doing here?" She asked. Then she looked over to Julian, "Jules?" She said amazed that he was probably here.

"Hey." He greeted her, "It's nice to see you alive again." His gun was still trained on her.

She looked between the two of them. "I…" She started to say but got choked up, "I didn't want anyone to get hurt."

"I know you didn't." Tommy said softly while putting his hand on her shoulder. He tried comforting her by rubbing her shoulder slightly but she was starting to see that damage that she had done. He knew that his friend was entering her bad place and he was trying his best to pull her out of it. "I know that you're feeling a lot right now, Skye. But I need you to hold on for a little longer."

He was able to get closer to her. The closer he got to her the limper her arm got, "Come on my friend." He said to her in German, "You have to hold on."

She looked down at the broken body of the young girl that she was about to kill and dropped the staff instantly. She brought her hand up to her mouth and let out a dry sob. Tommy closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her trying to calm her down. She had buried her head into his shoulder and started to cry. He rubbed her back and kept telling her that it was alright, that it was fine, that it wasn't her fault. But he had a feeling that his friend was not believing a signal word of it.

"I saw him." She mumbled into his shirt, "I saw him, Tommy. I saw Lucifer and I just couldn't control myself. It was like I wanted to kill him all over again. Like everything in my path was him and I had to rid the world of him."

"He's dead Skye you know that."

"I know." She said quietly. "But he's still in here." She said motioning to her head.

He looked around the room and saw that her team was starting to get their bearings back. They were looking at them with an odd expression and Tommy hated the way their eyes were on him. Hated the feeling of their gazes he just couldn't help but wonder what the hell had happened.

It had started off with a bang. Well, actually, more like a stab. They had been too late and the paganist had beaten them to the church. The had two full parts of the staff and they used those two parts to stab Randolph in the chest with it. From then on it was chaos and a game of hot potato with the staff. While Coulson and FitzSimmons had taken the Asgardian to try and help him Skye, May, and Ward all stayed behind to fight.

They had managed to grab the piece that had been carrying and the finally had the full completed staff. Skye couldn't really tell you what happened because to get it was all just a blur of fighting different people. Her attention was only shifted when she saw the Grant had taken control of the staff and she could tell that he was struggling with it. She could tell that fighting with it was foreign to him. That having extra strength was throwing him off.

Somehow one of the Paganists, a man, had knocked Ward back and took the staff from him. He then proceeded to battle with May. Skye had turned to the woman she was fighting and kicked her shins with some extra force. She fell to the ground screaming in pain and Skye took the chance to use her powers to break some of the bones in the girl's arms. Just to make sure that the girl didn't get any idea's about picking up the staff.

Then she heard the sound of skidding again. Skye turned around and saw that the staff had been thrown to the corner. She looked at it and started breathing heavily. It was still calling to her, the rage and anger, it was stronger than ever before. She could see that Ward was starting to crawl for it again hoping to gain some control back. As she looked to May she could see that the woman was planning on picking it up. She wouldn't allow her though. This was the one time that Skye was going to pity Melinda May and spare her some pain. Running to the staff at full she didn't even think twice before she picked it up.

Skye was holding the staff, she could've let May hold it but she didn't want her to go through that so now here she is holding the staff and it was glowing blue like it had never glow before. The thing was though she didn't feel anything really that new, no memories came up, and it was like she had complete control over the thing. Her powers though had another story they wanted to be let out, the itch that needed to scratch had come back with a vengeance and she needed to do something about it. Skye looked down at the staff and instead of seeing it glow red she saw it glow blue, which was when she made up her mind, fuck these people she's going to show these humans what they shouldn't take for granted.

She looked around the room and she felt like she was with Lucifer again. Seeing everything from his perspective again. The world was a cruel place and the only way to survive it was to be just as cruel. She could feel him now, leaning over her shoulder and whispering in her ear what to do. His voice was just barely there but she could feel his breath up against her ear. The anger and rage she felt whenever he told her to just let all control go was back. And she wanted nothing more than to just destroy the world and make it feel her wraith.

She took the staff swirling it around a bit to get a good feel for it and then she made her way over to the first person. The girl was in the middle of the aisles and she had a look of surprise on her face before masking it with rage charging her, her fist held up by her face looking ready for a fight. Skye was able to dodge it easily and when the girl came back around it try and hit her again Skye took the staff slamming it into the girl's stomach sending her flying back against the wall.

She could feel every heartbeat in the room and there was someone else running up behind her trying and failing to get the jump on her. She turned around catching his wrist before he could hit her and she put a little pressure on it and sent her powers through his body and she could feel so many bones breaking underneath her touch. The man, boy really, kneeled and let out a cry of pain and she smiled leaning towards him whispering in his ear, "Do you know what the best thing about being in control is," she put a little more pressure on his wrist, "No? I'll tell you, it's when you're able to lose control and still come out on top." She finished her sentence by snapping his wrist, breaking it. She swore that her voice had changed into Lucifer's whenever she said that.

She looked down at the boy and knew that there was one more person that she had to deal with and this girl looked pissed. Skye dropped the staff because she wanted to show everybody there that she could win this fight without any extra help and she wanted people to remember it. The girl came to her and knew how to fight a little more than the last one, her hands were at least in the right position, and she didn't let out a cry of rage.

Skye blocked all of the punches the girl had thrown at her and then that's when it hit her, the feeling of rage. It was not aimed at the others, not towards her mother, not towards her father, no, the blame was aimed towards herself and it that moment she felt like she was fighting herself, and that's how she knew how to end this all. Skye lifted her leg and kicked the other girl into the stomach letting her fly back breaking all the pews in her way and she saw the girl lying there looking beat.

The room had turned quiet and Skye made her way over slowly to the girl lying on the ground bleeding from different places. She crouched beside the girl and put her hand under her chin lifting it up making sure that the girl's eyes were on hers, "You're human," she whispered to her, "not gods you should cherish that." She finished and slammed the girls head into the ground making sure that she would stay down and stand walking back over to where the staff lay and picking back up staring at it in fascination.

There was another hit to her arm and Skye turned around to see the girl who she battled earlier was back up again. She had broken the girl's wrist so Skye didn't understand what she was planning on accomplishing. She smirked and hit the girl lightly with the staff causing her to crash down into some of the pews. As she walked over to her she noticed that the girl had a look of pure terror on her face and Skye enjoyed it. She enjoyed the look of terror.

Then she was weightless being flown back onto the other side of the room. She was able to recover quickly. She met the man in the middle and fought him but when she was fighting him she felt wrong. Like she was supposed to be doing this but Lucifer whispering in her ear telling her to go is what kept her going. Then he grabbed the staff as well and he shouted at her.

A familiar shout that she had heard so many times before. A voice that was pulling her back to reality. She felt the staff leave her hands and with-it Lucifer was gone as well. No longer whispering in her ear. She looked down at the man only to see that it was Tommy who she had been fighting the entire time. Tommy who she wanted to hurt so badly and Skye thought she was going to be sick.

Looking around her she noticed the damaged that she caused. She knew that Tommy was talking to her and she responded but she honestly felt like she was on autopilot. It wasn't until she let her friend go that truly felt like she was in control of herself again. That she could understand what was happening. She looked to Tommy. He had somehow talked her off a ledge again and it this moment she forgave him.

"You shouldn't be here." She finally said then turned her gaze to Julian, "Both of you. You both need to leave."

"We came here for the staff." Julian said, "We came to get rid of it. It's not safe. Not even in SHIELD's custody."

She looked at the both of them and didn't know what to say. She had no words to tell them because she knew that they were both right. Something like this didn't belong in SHIELD, it didn't even belong on Earth.

"Who are you two?" She heard May ask. Skye turned around and saw the woman stare at them suspiciously.

Tommy cleared his throat, "I'm only here to help out." He said, "My associate and I just want to get rid of the staff."

"We can take care of that." May said crossing her arms over her chest.

"Can you?" Tommy question. Skye looked up to see that others were watching them closely. Even the Professor who she thought was dead.

Skye then turned around and saw that Grant was starting to move and get up. Turning back to her friend she put a hand on his chest, "Just go." She told him and pushed him lightly. He looked at her worriedly. "I'll handle it. Trust me, but considering that you two aren't even supposed to exist, you need to go."

Letting out a huff Tommy turned towards Julian who nodded his head letting her now that she was right. She looked at Tommy and gave him a look and she hoped that he could tell what she was thinking/feeling through the bond. Come for the staff later, she thought, your cover is more important than the stupid thing.

He nodded his head and looked towards the others. His gaze caught on Fitz and he smiled slightly then winked at him. The next thing she knew Tommy and Julian were off to lord know where to do God knows what.

She took a deep breath trying to calm herself then walked over to Grant who had just managed to get to his feet. She helped him stand when he started to wavering and he didn't even try to resist. He fully leaned into her grateful for the help. Together, the both of them limped over to where Coulson and others were.

He smiled at them, "How about a night off?" He asked them, "I'll book us rooms at the nearest hotel."

Skye smiled and she heard Grant chuckle from beside her. That was something that she could live with.

Coulson found Elliot sitting on a bench across from the parking lot observing something in front of him. he looked over to see that Elliot was looking at his team. Or one team member to be specific. Coulson's eyes narrowed as he caught the Asgardian smiling fondly as Skye lugged to big duffle bags in her arms. Coulson sometimes wondered how strong she actually was.

Sitting down next to the man Coulson smiled warmly, "Ready to go home?" He said.

"She's just like her mother." Elliot said which caused Coulson to be confused at who he was talking about, "Although, I guess, in some ways, they couldn't be any more different."

"Who are you talking about?" he asked.

"Skye." He said simply, "Although I waver a guess that is not her given name."

"You know Skye's mother." Coulson asked his eyes widening.

Smiling softly, he continued looking at the space in which she had occupied, "Oh, yes, I had taught her some time ago. She had a certain knack for history as you could say. I even considered her a good friend at one point." He then chuckled to himself like he had just made the best joke in the whole world. "But, sadly she never followed a career in history opting for becoming a healer or sorts instead." His smile turned into a frown, "It was such a shame. She had such talent and knowledge."

"You speak of her like she's dead." Coulson observed

"No, but from what I've heard it may not be too off."

"What do you mean."

"Time," Elliot paused and took a deep sigh, "time was not her friend. Some of us don't become wiser the longer we live. Just bigger fools." He smiled again when he saw Skye come out of the hotel Ward not too far behind her. "But Skye," He said wistfully with a large smile on his face, "She's going to do great things. I just hope when the time comes that she realizes how strong she really is."

"What are you talking about." Coulson asked.

Slapping his knees Elliot stood up brushing off his pants as he did so. "Well, I do believe it's time to take my leave. Oh, and make sure that staff doesn't get into the wrong hands, will you? I don't think I can handle any more humans getting their hands on it."

"Wait!" He yelled, "Aren't you going back to Asgard?"

Rudolf laughed, "My dear friend I cannot go back to that place. It is not my home any longer, besides I have plenty of friends down here." He gestured to the world around him.

"But wouldn't you rather want to be with your people?"

This time the Asgardian did truly laugh, "it never ceases to amaze me how truly narcissistic you humans are."

"What do you mean?"

"In all of Earth, do you truly think you are the only ones to have discovered it?" It was possed as a question but Coulson got the meaning behind it. They weren't alone on Earth.

Elliot then started to laugh even more at the look on Coulson's face. He had never really thought about it. That Earth already had another alien life on it other than what they know about. Sure, there was the occasional gifted person but they weren't aliens they came from Earth. To think that more than just one humanoid species on Earth was actually scary and mind-opening at the same time. He wondered that if this fact was true then how many people had he talked to happened to be an alien. Did any of them work in SHIELD? What about the coffee lady that he went to so often? Could she be an alien?

Coulson rubbed his head. A throbbing sensation in the back had started to form from the days' events. His job was starting to feel like Men In Black more and more each day. As he looked back to Elliot he saw that the man was no longer standing there. All he was looking at now was just empty space. Coulson let out a huff.

The world was starting to feel smaller and smaller every day.

Skye had found Grant at the bar drinking, "Drinking your rage away works but it's only temporary till it comes back." She said he looks at her while she sits down next to him at the bar.

He takes another sip of his drink, scotch, she's guessing, "How would you know?"

"Because it's what I tried to do after a certain event."

"What event?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

Skye took a deep sigh and looked at him wondering if she should tell him the truth fuck it she thought, "Grant I know how you feel, trust me on that, because I do, I know you must feel like a monster but you aren't."

"How did you do it have so much control over it."

"Because I didn't." She admitted, "That person that you saw fighting back there. She wasn't in control at all. In fact, she letting everything out all of the rage and anger. She didn't care who she hurt just as long as she hurt someone." She felt herself leaning into him just a little bit and soon his hand was on hers, "And I deserve to live with that the rest of my life." She told him finally and she was close very close and, "I know you don't want to talk about it but drinking isn't going to help all it's going to do is lead to very stupid mistakes."

"Skye there's a reason that I don't want to talk about it." He breathed out the last part and turned away from her. She almost felt hurt but the rejection but she could understand that he was still upset.

"If you want to talk to me." She said, "You can."

"I don't want some shoulder to cry on."

"That's not what I'm offering." She said harshly, "All I know is that keeping all of this in only leads to two roads. Alcoholism or a mental breakdown and let me tell you none of those options are fun."

"Like you had a mental breakdown?" he scoffed.

That one actually stung, "Actually yeah I did." She snapped at him, "It was after I shot a little boy in the head. While his mother screamed at me and begged to spare him and all I did was shoot the kid in the end. I watched as the life drained out of his eyes and it was first that I realized the monster I had become." She could feel the collection of tears on the side of her eyes and she wiped them away. "But you know what the worst part is. My breakdown, it didn't happen until after I left the mercenary work. I didn't realize that what I did was wrong until it too late. And when I had that breakdown I tried to kill myself. The only thing that stopped was my friend knocking me unconscious and dragging me out of the building."

He didn't even turn to look at her she could see him looking down at the counter in shame, "So, yeah, if you want to talk then make sure you leave your Asshole attitude at the door."

She got off the bar leaving him there. She needed to do something else.

She had been sitting in her hotel room on her bed not knowing what to do. This whole day had turned out to be one big cluster fuck. She hadn't expected Julian to show up and the fact that he did shock her into oblivion. All Skye wanted to do was take a nice, hot, long shower and let her troubles melt away with the water. In fact, she had even gotten into the fluffy robe that the hotel gave them but there was something holding her back. There was something keeping her on the bed that made her not want to get into the shower.

Skye just sat there on the bed looking at the horrible carpeting.

A knock was able to bring her out of her thoughts and she snapped her head up looking at the door. She wasn't expecting anybody but the distraction was not unwelcomed. Although she had put the Do Not Disturb sign on, so they were a little rude. Tightening the strap around her waist a little tighter Skye got up from the bed and walked over to the door. She thought about using her powers about seeing who it was but thought against it. She had used her powers a little too much today and for one night she wanted to be normal.

She unlocked the door and opened it to see that Grant was standing there. She looked down to see a half drank a bottle of whiskey and she opened the door more to allow him access to the room. He nodded and as soon as he was in the room Skye shut the door. She watched as Grant had made himself on one of the seats in her room. She wondered for a moment why he didn't choose the bed, it was the more comfortable choice.

He let the bottle drop to the ground and he leaned back in the chair closing his eyes tightly. She wrapped her arms around her middle and walked over to him sitting on the edge of the bed closest to him. "What's wrong?" She asked him softly.

He groaned, "These flashes of my memories aren't going away. They're making me on edge and I didn't know where else to go."

"So, you came here?" She asked.

"You told me that if I wanted to talk that I can talk." He said then opened his eyes and looked at her a slight smirk on his face, "Whenever I'm with you, you just make the world a little bit more bearable for me."

Skye smiled and stood up holding out her hand to him. He looked at her confused and she shook her hand, "Come on just take it." She said.

Giving her his hand, he raised his eyebrows at her, "What are you doing?" He asked as she pulled him up from the chair. Skye didn't answer him at first. Instead, she pushed him onto the bed and motioned for him to put his head on the pillow. He did so while still keeping the confused look on his face although that changed when she climbed into the bed and straddled him. His eyes widen again and she smirked at the expression.

"Skye?" He said her name as a question.

She shushed him by kissing him. She cupped the side of his jaw with her one hand while the other one was working its way down to the clasp of his jeans. He had put his one hand on the back of her head and pulled her closer while the other one was trailing up and down her thigh. She pulled back and started kissing down his neck.

Deciding that he too many clothes on Skye pulled back and started tugging on the end of his shirt. The motion forced him to sit up and he pulled off his shirt and Skye stared down at his torso. She was really starting to appreciate the morning workouts. "Well," She said loosening the robe slowly, "If all you can do is think about bad memories why not make some new ones?" She ended the sentence by shrugging off her the robe and throwing to the side.

She was now naked and the look on his face was priceless. He sat up instantly and pulled her in closer kissing her with so much passion that it left her breathless. Grant flipped them over and she let out a noise of surprise but quickly turned into a noise of pleasure as he kissed down her neck. He didn't stay at her neck for very long because he clearly had other places he wanted to kiss. He kissed her clavicle and then he kissed down her sternum. He slowed down once he reached the valley of her breast. He took his time, she'll give him that. His one hand grabbed her other breast while his mouth had been occupying the other one. She moaned when he started to suck on her nipple and she arched her back at the feeling of it.

The way Grant had positioned himself caused him to put his knee in between her thighs. She grinned on him while he worked her up. She wanted to make this last for the both of them and when he moved his mouth to the other breast she could help but let out a loud noise of pleasure. He released her nipple with a pop and looked up at her with a smug expression.

"Hey," She panted defending herself, "It's not like I can make a lot of noise on the Bus. If this is my only time to scream and moan as loud as I want then I'm taking it."

He smirked, "If that's the case." He said and moved lower down her body slowly kissing her as he did. When he reached her pubic bone, she smirked. They were finally able to have the time and privacy that they deserved. It wouldn't have to be in a cramped cabin or on top of steel table.

Then just like that, his mouth was on her opening and she let out a gasp. He used his whole mouth to kiss her with. When his tongue enters her, she had to stop herself from bucking up instead she used her hands and wove them into his hair. She groaned then heard him chuckle, she was going to say something witty about the cockiness. Considering the things, he was doing to her though she was going to let this slide for once.

He slid her one leg off his shoulder and on instinct, she arched her back up. The motion caused for his face to be brought closer to her. Skye let go out his hair and grabbed onto the comforter gripping it harder as he started sucking her clit. She was so close to the edge she could feel it, she was almost there all he needed to do was…Skye let out a gasp as Grant added a finger into her.

Her mouth opened in a silent scream as she was taken over the edge. The coil in her lower belly had come undone. She let out slow pants as she rode her high and she unclenched her hands as Grant continued to slow down his movements as she was coming down from her high. She let her head fall against the pillow and enjoyed the feeling of euphoria coming from her climax. It had been a while since she had had sex. She had never had an orgasm like that before and that was just from his mouth.

Skye felt Grant start to kiss back up her body and soon he was hovering over her. She grabbed the sides of his face with both her hands and kissed her hard. She could taste herself on his lips and but she didn't mind. All she wanted to do was kiss him and have him on her for as long as both of them could.

When she pulled back she was still out of breath, "I have to say, it was certainly worth the wait." He chuckled and kissed her again. Skye ran her hands over his torso and down the planes of the chest to where his beltloop was. She pulled back from the kiss and looked down to his pants, "Although I'm starting to wonder why I'm fully naked and you're still half dressed."

Unbuckling his belt and a quick pace Skye had managed to get rid of it. She felt his hands stop her though as he pulled them back. He kissed her one more time before sitting up and undoing his pants himself. She leaned back and watched as he slowly removed his pants and underwear at the same time discarding them over the bed.

Skye raised her eyebrow at his impressive length. "I can work with that." She said cheekily.

He rolled his eyes at her and the both of them moved to under the covers. A few moments later Skye found that Grant was again on top of her. Their bare chest together, his erection rubbing against her, and when their eyes met she couldn't help but giggle.

Grant frowned, "What?" He asked.

"It noting…" She said, "It's just I can't believe that we can actually have sex and not worry about someone hearing us."

His frown then turned into a smile. Grant leaned in and kissed her, she opened her mouth and let his tongue in. His one hand clasped with hers at the side of her head while the other was snaking down to her opening. When he entered two fingers she gasped and bucked her hips up and he groaned when she felt that rubbed against his erection.

The coil was wrapped again in her lower stomach and she pulled back looking at him oddly, "Not that I'm complaining but… I really want you inside me now."

He smirked, "Just making sure you're ready enough." He then looked to the side tabled a frowned, "I'm guessing you don't have a condom."

"Oh, believe me," She said playfully, "It's all good down there and I'm on the pill so we're good."

He smiled and went back to kissing her. As he moved his kissing from her lips to her jaw she felt him place the tip of his shaft at her entrance. Once he kissed her neck Grant entered her completely and she moaned loudly at the feeling of him inside of her. He was stayed still for a moment giving her a moment to adjust to his length. Once he kissed the junction of her neck he moved back out and then thrust back into her.

He kept the rhythm slow at first. Maddening slow, but it felt so good. He hit all the right places and their bodies fit together like puzzle pieces. When his lips found hers again she raked her hands down his back her nails scratching against the skin. Her feet found the small of his back and she used them to push him in farther.

His hand then grasped her hip and pulled her closer creating a new angle. The new angle caused her to moan out his name several times. That must have turned him on more because as soon as she started calling out his name his thrust picked up in speed. The new speed was ever better than the one before and she could feel the coil in her belly getting tighter and tighter waiting to come undone.

The kisses were becoming sloppier and he alternated between her nipple and her lips. She was starting to pick that maybe he was more of a boob man. She could care less at this moment though because he was making her feel amazing. Moving her hands up to his neck Skye did something that she had never done before while having sex.

She used her powers on Grant. While he thrust into her and she called out his name she sent out vibrations all throughout his body. She heard him take in intake in a breath and then he gave her a bruising kiss on her lips. His thrust became harder and more focused and the hand that had been resting to the side of her head now took her hands and pinned them above her head.

"Grant." She panted out and a few seconds later her hips were meeting his as she finally reached her climax. He let go of her hands and she wrapped herself around him enjoying the feeling that he was bringing her once more. A few moments after she had cum she felt his thrust become harder and he held her hips closer to him. Then he let out a moan and kissed her as his movements stilled and he came inside her.

They stayed like that for a moment. Just holding each other and catching their breaths. Then she felt him slip out of her and she was already missing the feeling of him inside of her. He laid down beside her his chest moving up and down rapidly while Skye was doing the same. He put his hand behind his head and stared up at the ceiling. Skye smiled at him and rolled over to him laying her head on his chest and looking up at his face.

She saw Grant smile. "You tired?" He asked.

Skye smirked and made her way on top of him so that she was now laying on him their faces closer together. "Not even close." She said a with a wicked smirk on her face.

Then their lips met again. A sign of any sleep not seen for miles.

Chapter Text

Skye woke up lying on someone's chest. She smiled and snuggled into the chest as his finger has been stroking her like a cat. She could feel Grant's steady heart and she enjoyed the natural heat that came from his chest.

He must have noticed that she woke up because he had stopped stroking her back, "Don't stop." She said lightly and he chuckled before starting his motions again. She moved closer to him and put her ear to his chest and listened to his heartbeat, it was strong and steady and at peace.

He kissed her hair, "We have to get up soon." He told her.

She picked her head up and lifted herself up and kissed him on the lips lightly, "Soon, but not right now."

They both chuckled for a brief second before she kissed him again and he put a hand into her hair brushing it out with his fingers, "I'm sorry about last night I'm not usually that…" He trailed off but she finished the sentence for him.

"Usually not that rough?" She asks him with a slight laugh in her voice and she kissed the underside of his jaw, "Don't worry I liked it."

"You did?" He asked her and she nodded.

Skye wiggled out from his grasp, much to his dismay, and she straddled him aligning her hips with his. With her moving the bed sheet had fallen off her exposing herself again to him and she grinned when she saw that his eyes moved downward. "In fact," she said trailing her hands up and down the planes of his chest, "I really, really, liked it." She rocked her hips lightly making him groan and she could feel him get hard beneath her.

He sat up making it so that both of their chests were touching and started kissing her his right hand was sliding down her side and it found its way to her scar on her side. He broke the kiss when he realized what his hand had found and looked down at it for a second before meeting her eyes. "Skye," He began to ask but she soon cut him off with her own sentence,

"It's better for the both of us if you just don't ask." She said with a straight face but her tone was pleading.

He looked at a loss for words, "When did it happen?"

"When I was seventeen, I had put my trust in the wrong person and this was a repercussion of that."

"Skye…"

"Just please don't." It almost sounded painful coming out of her mouth and she had looked down at her lap instead of his face.

Grant looked at her before brushing a loose piece of her hair back and tilting her chin up so that she was looking at him now. He leaned in close and kissed her and Skye practically melted into the kiss taking her arms and wrapping them around his neck making their chest even closer.

He surprised her by flipping them over and laying her down on the bed, "I want to know about you." He said his lips hovering right about hers.

She smiled sadly at him and took one of her hands and cupping his cheek with it, "And what do you want to know about me…other than my name because it's obvious that I'm not telling you that."

He rolled his eyes at her, "Let's just start with the basics."

"Well, I was born in China, moved to the U.S. for a couple years moved back to China. Then, after that, it was kind of a whirlwind…since I was, you know, a mercenary and all."

"How did you become involved in that?" He asked curiously.

"Not voluntary that's for sure. At first, I did because I was angry and I had no place to go but then I stayed with him because he taught me things that no one had before. Wasn't until later did I realize the bastard brainwashed me."

"What?" He said.

Skye nodded her head and sat up. "Yeah, that's how it happens, you don't see it until the damage is already done." She said and he looked at her intently now, "Usually happens when someone is young, they're the best to go after, easier to manipulate. The best are young people after going through a traumatic experience and their vulnerability. Then this person comes in, their charismatic, they take you in giving you a place to stay. Save you in a sense. That's when they start to mold you, use the 'I saved you now you save me' method. Kids don't realize that it's happening to them, to them it's sticking with the person that showed them a shred of attention when they needed it."

"The guy that taught me everything I know. I would've done anything for him if he asked me to. And I did for a while because I thought I had too because he 'saved' me. I was so full of anger and resentment that I didn't see what was happening to me, what he was creating from me." She then trailed her hand down to her scar, "It wasn't until I saw the person who gave this to me that I realized what was happening to me."

"But, he did save you, didn't he?"

Skye shook her head, "He taught me to survive. That his way was the only way and that isn't saving someone, Grant. It's enslaving someone by making them think they are the only salvation."

She watched as Grant's eyes flicker away from hers his mouth turning into a frown. Hoping that she hadn't upset him Skye grabbed his face and kissed him firmly on the mouth. "Hey?" She asked, "Let's switch topics, what else do you want to know?"

"What's your favorite color?"

Skye laughed, "Purple, I like purple. What about you?"

He nodded his head from side to side, "I like blue. Any type of blue."

Sighing Skye bit her lip and stared into his eyes. It was only for a few seconds until their lips met again and she could tell that talking was now over. She smiled as she wove her arms around his neck the night's previous activities about to start again.

Location: Central Park New York, New York

Two Weeks After Thor Left

"I could be having sex with my girlfriend right now," Kiera said to herself. "Instead I'm sitting in a park with a teenager."

"I think I found the pattern." Squeaks told her as she walked over to the bench that she was lounging on. She had ignored the comment that Kiera had just made and tried to pull her attention to something else.

Kiera was laying back on the bench her elbows hanging over the back. Her sunglasses were on and she took in the sun that rarely seemed to come out anymore. They had been following Edith for weeks now and they still couldn't find out what her routine was. She seemed to change it almost every day. Anytime they close to the pattern she would switch it up and they would have to start all over. It was frustrating the hell out of both her and Squeaks.

Tipping her head up she turned to face the younger girl, "Here's an idea." Kiera said. "Why don't we just confront the bitch?" She asked.

Squeaks huffed and put a strand of loose hair behind her ear, "If we do that then she could catch on and go running to Ivanna. If Edith goes running to Ivanna then all this work that's we're doing would be for nothing."

"Why?" She asked throwing her hands up, "I mean, that's the end point, isn't it. See this Ivanna Cortez chick."

Squeaks pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep sigh, "Yes, but we need Edith's help with that. Ivanna is not as kind as you might think."

Shrugging her shoulders Kiera looked up at the sky with her eyes closed, "So, the bitch has a bit of temperament problem? What leader of a secret organization doesn't at this point. Plus, the whole Thor thing just happened two weeks ago, I seriously doubt we are the worst of their problems."

"Kiera can you please just listen to me, just this once."

Groaning Kiera sat up and tilted her head to the side looking at Squeaks. "Alright." She said sighing dramatically, "Give it to me, what's this pattern."

Giving her a look that was practically a thank you Squeaks looked down at her notebook. "Well." She said, "We know from this that Edith takes a different root each day that she goes to work. She switches it up each day so that she never takes the same route once a week. Once she's in work there's a bunch of security that we can't get past so we can't take her there." She bit the top of her pen then smiled and circled something on the paper, "But each day at one- thirty she goes to the Starbucks around the corner and orders herself a French vanilla latte." She threw the notebook onto Kiera's lap, "That's when we take her. At the Starbucks."

"And she'll never see it coming because it's in public. She'll automatically think she's safe."

Squeaks nodded her head. "Exactly. She'll never even know that we'll be getting her."

"Alright so, when do you want to put this plan into place?"

"Well," Squeaks said, "We have exactly twenty minutes before she hits the Starbucks. Do you think we could be ready in that amount of time?"

Kiera smirked and took her sunglasses off raising her eyebrow at the young girl. "Only one way to find out."

She reached her hand out and Squeaks took it reluctantly. It was harder to travel in the shadows during the daylight. That much was true. All the people and sunlight like made it much harder than it needed to be. But, with the shade coming from the trees and it is close to lunch-time nearly nobody was in the park area that they were. The only exception came from the small playground that was across from them but she didn't worry too much about kids. It wasn't like anyone was actually going to take them seriously. Kiera found it funny that even when aliens fall from the sky people still refuse to believe in people with powers.

Kiera called the shadows around them and smiled when she felt the familiar coldness from them. She could hear the little shutter of breath come from Squeaks beside her. She almost laughed when the poor girl squeezed her hand tighter. Darkness always made more people afraid no matter what you were doing.

She thought about the Starbucks that Squeaks had told her about. She could see it come to life in her mind. The alleyway beside it was forming itself in front of her. Different people walking past it without a second thought. It was a hazing image at first almost like looking through water. It was always like this when she hadn't been to the place she was traveling to before. Tommy could go anywhere he wanted by just thinking about it. She had to be there before even traveling or at least have an idea of where she was going. As she concentrated more the image became more crisp and clear. It was no longer like looking through water but rather glass. All she had to do was step out and the glass would break. She would be there in the alleyway with Squeaks by her side.

Taking the hand that was held in a death grip by Squeaks. She forced the clenched the hand into a fist forcing the shadows away. Telling them that they had done their job and she felt them retreat from her. She knew exactly when they were all gone because Squeaks let out a gasp and clung to the alleyway wall. She could hear the dry heaves coming from the girl. Kiera sighed and rubbed the girl's back gently.

"I hate it when we do that. It always makes me so sick, I don't understand how you can take it."

Kiera shrugged her shoulders, "You get used to it after a while. First time I ever did it I practically got lost in the shadows. Freaked me out really badly, Tommy had to come and rescue me before it was too late."

She saw Squeaks shoulders stiffen and the young girl stood up slowly giving her an odd look. "You can get lost in there?" She asked in disbelief.

Kiera nodded her head, "Yeah, obviously, it's a whole other plane of existence. And like with any traveling you always have a chance of getting lost. I've never really fully traveled the plane that much, only use it for things like this but I know Tommy seen a little bit of it. He said that it wasn't that different from this plane just a lot colder and grayscale."

"Wait." Squeaks said putting her hands up, "You're telling me that we just used another plan of existence to travel to a Starbucks?"

"Yep." Kiera replied simply then turn toward the opening of the alleyway, "Come on let's get a table before Edith shows up. I don't want to stand here all day looking like a creeper."

"You don't look like a creeper, you look like a drunk." Squeaks snarked.

Kiera smiled and lightly punched the teen in the shoulder, "Well, that's a bit of an improvement."

She heard Squeaks chuckle and the two walked side by side towards the exit of the alleyway. They had looked both ways before exiting just to make sure that no one was watching them. Satisfied that they were alright the two girls then turned the corner. They joined the crowd of people for about one minute before opening up the door to the Starbucks.

The Starbucks was also crowded. It was mostly filled with younger people around Kiera's age with the exception of a few businessmen. The line for the front counter was a little long and Kiera turned towards Squeaks, "Go get a table towards the back I'll get us some drinks."

"I don't want anything."

"Well, you're in a Starbucks you're getting something." Kiera snapped.

Squeaks huffed and deflated her shoulders accepting defeat. Kiera watched as the small teen made her way through the maze of tables and booths. The girl had thankfully followed her advice and picked a small table that was more towards the back. It was had a clear view of the front door but was also in a dark corner near the bathrooms. It wasn't the best spot but then again, they were in a Starbucks.

Deciding that it was good enough Kiera turned her attention towards the line and started tapping her foot out of boredom. She was never known to have patience but it was never bad unit she was seventeen. When she was made Inhuman one of the traits she inherited from Tommy with his impatientness. It was a bitch to work with whenever she was waiting in line for anything. Especially theme parks, those were the worst for her.

Kiera was then pushed forward a bit. She would have bumped into the person in front of her if it hadn't been for her reflexes stopping herself. She turned around angrily to yell at the person who had pushed her forward. "What the hell, dude?" She asked the man who was standing behind her.

He was old. Probably around his late forties, fifty at most, she guessed. He was brown hair that seemed to be balding and bright blue eyes with wrinkles around them. He was wearing a pair of think rimmed square glasses and a white button-up paired with the ugliest sweater vest she had ever seen. The man seemed to smile at her apologetically. Like he was sorry for bumping into because it happened all the time.

"I'm sorry." The man said, "I didn't see where I was going." He then lifted up his phone to show her that why he was distracted.

"Clearly." Kiera said plainly then turned around rolling her eyes at the man. The person in front of her moved forward and Kiera was able to take a slight step closer to the counter.

"My name's Phil, by the way." The old man said randomly. It almost sounded like he wanted to talk and get to know her. Which she wasn't in the mood for a talkative old man who wanted to get to know her while waiting in line for Starbucks. She had stuff to do, a girl to kidnap, and a girlfriend to have sex with. She could hear the old man open his mouth and Kiera turned around.

"Look, I have a lot of shit to do today. But one of those things is to make friends with a random stranger in line at a Starbucks. So, if you could please just shut the hell up and not talk while I wait to order some ridiculously overpriced coffee. That would be just great, so, thanks." Kiera finished her little rant by turning back around and smiled when she saw that she was up next.

The barista smiled at her asking her for her order. "Yeah," she said rummaging in her coat for some money, "Can I have a medium black coffee and a white chocolate mocha latte."

"Name?" The barista asked with the sharpie in hand.

Kiera thought about the man behind her. She could almost feel him leaning forward trying to overhear her name. There was something off about him, something that wasn't quite right and it wasn't just the sweater.

"Pippin." She said to and the barista stared up at her for a moment before writing the name down while shaking her head.

Kiera had gone with her middle name. Yes, her middle name was Pippin, because apparently her mother just wanted to make her life hard even before she popped out of her womb. So, she named her after a fucking hobbit from The Lord of The Rings.

Kiera rolled her eyes at the girl and made her way over to Squeaks. She was sitting down and nervously shaking her leg up and down. Kiera was almost feeling nervous just by looking at the poor girl. Sighing she sat down beside the teenager and rested her hand on her leg trying to calm her down. Squeaks stilled and gave her an odd look.

"Will you cool it, Squeaks?" She asked the girl, "Even you're giving me anxiety."

"I'm sorry." She whispered and looked down at her hands, "I just can't help it. It's been years since I've been anywhere near people who associate with Ivanna."

Kiera looked down and grabbed the young teens hand squeezing it lightly. It was the only thing that she could do to give her reassurance. "Pippin!" Her order was then called out and Kiera stood back up to get it. Walking back over to the counter she gave a brief smile to the barista thanking them quietly and grasped her beverages.

She turned around fully expecting a clear path to the booth but wanted to scream when she saw that the man from earlier was there. Phil was standing there in front of her with that stupid smile on his face. It was the smile that she would get from people when they wanted something from her.

"Pippin?" He asked curiously.

Kiera smiled falsely, "What can I say my mom was a big Tolkien fan. Now if you don't mind I would like to get back to my seat."

She tried to move past him but he blocked her and Kiera backed up glaring at him, "Let me threw." She said in a deathly calm voice. Her eyes roamed over to Squeaks who was now watching with fear in her eyes. She brought her nails up to her mouth and seemed to have started chewing on them.

"Kiera?" She heard a soft name ask and she looked over in horror to see Alessandra standing there. Her dark eyes crinkled with worry. She looked beautiful standing there in the daylight, Kiera noted, her dark skin seemed to be glowing even when she was worried. Kiera pushed that to the back of her mind though because she had just said her name.

So, now Phil knew her name. Her name. That wasn't good. That wasn't good at all.

She was about to answer him when the ringing of the bell above the door went off distracting her. She looked up to see something even worse. Edith Cook had just arrived at the Starbucks and Kiera wanted to run. Someone random creepy dude, her girlfriend, and the person she is about to kidnap all walk in a Starbucks. This had to be some cosmic joke.

Edith was short, like her, with long brown hair that seemed to be soft. Her face was angular and seemed to stuck in a state of bitchiness. It seemed that Edith Cook suffered from Resting Bitch Face. Her face was a steel blue that was teetering on grey. If Kiera wasn't already taken she would have tried her hand at Edith. She was dressed in a simple light pink top that clung to her body nicely. Her pants black and seemed to be professional with a small belt looping around them.

Kiera needed to act quickly. This was probably they're only chance to get Edith and then it would be gone. Glancing back over to Squeaks their gazes met. They didn't need to tell each other anything because both knew what each other was thinking. Squeaks was shaking her head vigorously telling her not to do what she was about to do. Her dark brown hair flying back and forth over her shoulders. Her brown eyes wet with tears.

Kiera then looked back over to Edith who was looking at her. Their eyes met and Edith seemed to seize up. She stumbled back slightly not sure what to do. For a moment everything was still in the Starbucks. Phil was still in front of her but he was almost invisible compared to what she was thinking about her plan. She could tell though, that Edith knew what she was thinking. No reaction happened like that without some knowledge about what was about to happen.

Then a second later Edith was off running.

Kiera dropped the drinks on the floor pushing Phil to the side and ran after Edith. Ignoring the protest of everyone around her she only focused on Edith. Ignoring the look of shock, confusion, and betrayal coming from Alessandra Kiera ran. Her feet slammed against the pavement as she followed the woman through the crowded streets of New York. It was a little hard keeping track of the girl but once she saw her turn into an alleyway Kiera had known that she had won.

She reached out towards the shadows around her. She called them forward and made a wrap around Edith's leg. She commanded them to pull her back and when Kiera rounded the corner to see that Edith was laying on the ground struggling with the shadows around them Kiera smirked.

"Edith Cook," Kiera said walking towards the girl and held out her hand. She was on her pack propping herself on her elbows. "I think it's about time we met." Edith eyed her hand cautiously but she accepted it. Kiera smiled at her flipping some of her hair over her shoulder, "The name's Kiera Davis and I think you have something that I want."

Marcella Jamerson loved winning. It had started when she was young. As she grew older the urge to win only grew stronger. At first, her parents thought that she was just overly competitive. They were wrong, Marcella wasn't competitive. Being competitive would mean that there was a chance of her loss and she didn't lose. When she had entered her twenties and finished college she had noticed things about the world. She noticed that people were gullible and very easily tricked. She learned that if you were a woman and batted your eyes men would do anything for you. Most all, her twenties taught her that she had a knack for illegal activities.

It had started as something so innocent. Just helping her roommate with breaking into a classroom to steal some answers. They had succeeded and the teacher never found out that it had happened. Her roommate had told some of her friends. Then it had just grown from there. More and more people were coming to her for favors. It came to a point where she started demanding a small fee for her favors. She thought that she was done for when she requested that. The next day though she was pleasantly surprised to find that a line had formed outside her dorm room with multiple students clutching dollar bills.

As soon as the teachers and Dean had gotten wind of the operation they tried finding out who she was. So, Marcella told everyone to start calling her Mr. Jones. They did, they did everything that she asked them to do. The idiots didn't even know how truly gullible they were. Her days as Mr. Jones lasted all of her college careers. It varied about what she did. Sometimes it was alcohol then it was drugs or the stealing of something. When she graduated she was halfway through paying her student debts off.

She thought that once college was over her days as Mr. Jones were too. Oh, how wrong she had been.

Marcella could not pull herself away from the life of crime. So, she did the only thing that she could do. She started a criminal empire. It was a leap but she loved the feeling of knowing everyone's secrets, to her that was winning. Sure, money was good to have but leverage and knowledge were better.

Her empire kept expanding slowly throughout her twenties and thirties. As more chaos has started happening in the world the more people would come flocking to her. A few government officials had come to her for a favor or to. They rewarded her generously with both money and unknowingly to them, with secrets. She wasn't an idiot at all. She made sure that only the right people knew her name. The last thing that she wanted was the F.B.I coming knocking on her door. She kept quiet and let her empire grow.

By the time she was forty, she was international. There wasn't an organization out there that she didn't have her fingers in. She had headquarters. She was a billionaire with money to spare. Had beautiful homes in lovely secluded places. Most of all she was winning all thanks to her monarchy of Mr. Jones. She couldn't even remember the last time someone had called her by her real name. It had to of been ten years at least.

Different people had been employed by her. She had to do it, they were good for business. Most of them had been mercenaries with all brawn and no brains. They enjoyed what they were doing for the money and that was that. Mr. Jones could live with that, it wasn't her job to care, it was her job to make sure that she got what her client wanted.

She learned many secrets. She used them every day she used them to her advantage. She learned of people with abilities, that could do things that no one else could. She had even come across them in her time. Met a few and they impressed her but they were still cargo to her. They were all challenges to her. No one ever could compare to her.

That all changed when she met Thomas Andrew Ward.

He was tall and handsome when she had first seen him. With the leather jacket and five o'clock shadow across his face. A jawline that ran for days along with jeans that were just a little too tight for him, not that she was complaining though.

He had walked into the bar motive clear on his face. He wanted something and Mr. Jones wanted him. So, she called him over, ordered his drink, and they talked. He was looking for someone, someone very important to him. She had apparently taken something from him that he wanted back but she knew that look in his eyes. Thomas Ward had loved the girl, whoever she was, and wanted her back. She told him that she would help with his search but in return, he would have to help her. He would have to work with her whenever she needed him.

She watched as the young man clenched and unclenched his face. Mr. Jones smirked and took a sip of her scotch as she watched the desperation fill his face. She knew that he was going to accept. They always did. And when she watched him agree to her terms she was filled with joy. There was just something about him that told her he was strong. That he was someone that you would want on your side.

It took months to find the girl that he was talking about. She moved around quickly and always kept a low profile. She hadn't told Tommy that though. She wanted to keep him under her finger as long as she could. He was useful to her. An agent of the F.B.I who was more than willing to give up information to her. It made her wonder how loyal he was to them in the first place. When she had first asked for information he hadn't even hesitated like most do. It was like it wasn't his first time working for someone like her.

She liked him. She saw potential within him. So, she gave him some tips and eventually she even gave him some power over her empire. He worked well with it, knew how to handle the work and get the information. He had started dressing nicer, although she could still smell the alcohol on his breath, and even shaved a couple of times.

Eventually, after nine months, she gave Tommy her findings. He took them with great haste and ripped open every folder. He never once told her what the girl had taken from him. It almost made her more curious to find the girl for herself and ask her a few questions. It wasn't every day that someone had come along and made her best worker turn to Jell-O.

When he ran off to find her it was last time she had ever seen him. Two days later she watched as Tommy was branded a traitor to the United States but instead of Thomas Ward, his name was Andrew Shaw. As that year progressed she heard the whispers of a new player in town. He was ruthless and scary. He could evoke fear in a person just but looking at them. Mr. Jones knew that it was Thomas who was the new player. She wasn't an idiot, she was just mad that he would leave and become a rival like that. It meant that the possibility of losing had entered her playing field again. Then she heard the news that he had died in an explosion and was happy.

Her competitor was out of the field and dead for good. She could go back to being number one and not having to worry about rivals. Everything was fine. Until two weeks ago. When she had gotten a notification from one her contacts in Ireland about some staff. There were pictures and when she stared at the one her heart dropped. Thomas was standing there still very much alive.

She had freaked out. Flipping over her very expensive glass table and throwing the photos against the ground. She tore her room apart bit by bit as the knowledge of Thomas returning was creeping back into her head. He and the damn girl had come back and loss was now a possibility again.

Which lead her to where she was now. Seated in her chair surrounded by other people of other criminal organizations. None were as big and as successful as hers, and they all knew that. Most were mafias and leaders of certain groups of mercenaries. One thing was glaringly obvious to her though, all of them were men. The all looked old and ugly, none of them looked like they gave a damn about self-hygiene. Most of all though, they all looked like bad guys. One was different. He was clean-shaven and had a decent suit. She wondered who he worked for.

Placing her elbows Mr. Jones batted her blue eyes and smiled her bright red lips at the men around her. "Gentlemen." She said sweetly and tucked her hands under her chin, "I have a job proposition for you." All of them leaned forward to listen more closely to what she had to say and the action almost made her laugh.

She would have her revenge. She would make sure that Thomas Ward was never a problem again. She would make sure that she would be the winner. She always won.

Henley gripped the edge of the sink as she closed her eyes trying to ease an oncoming headache. They had been happening for weeks and nothing she did was helping them. To make matters worse her memory was starting to get a little fuzzy. She was starting to forget things or how she had gotten to a certain place.

Groaning she placed her hands under the freezing water and splashed it across her face. She gasped as the water came into contact with her face. It had woken her up and cleared her mind for only a moment. That moment was all she needed though, to get her bearings, to remember who she was.

"One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish." Henley said whispering to herself as she slammed her eyes shut. She kept repeating the rhyme under her breath. Those words were the only thing that was keeping her from losing herself completely. It was silly, she knew, but when she was younger it was what her caretakers had read to her as a little girl. The only rhyme that she had been able to memorize. Whenever she had become scared of panic she would repeat the rhyme over and over again in her head. It seemed that now she was doing it every day. When the fog would clear from her head and she looked down to see that she was covered in blood that was not hers. Holding weapons that did not belong to her and felt wrong in her hands.

The same two guards would pick her up and then took her to a room with a big red door. She could never remember what was behind the red door. All that she knew was that every time she went behind the door and fog went over her mind and bad things happened. She was trying to stay strong like how she was taught, but she didn't know how much longer it would be until she would lose her mind.

Slamming her fist against the bathroom mirror Henley watched it crack. She felt the glass cut her skin and watched as her blood dripped down the drain. She wanted to feel the pain, it was the only way that she knew she was still sane. That she was still here and that she was still herself. Her reflection in the mirror was starting to resemble what she was on the inside. The dark half moon circles under eyes that never used to be there before she came here. Her long brown hair had lost its volume and shine, now only looking dull and lifeless. Her once tan skin had no been reduced to a sickly pale color that made her look constantly ill. Her bright vivid blue-green eyes were becoming more and more void every day that she stayed here. She almost couldn't believe that this is what she looked like? As she stared at the cracked mirror she tried resembling what she once looked like. When was the last time she had looked healthy? The last time that she had looked like herself? It had almost felt like years.

It was becoming harder and harder each day to endure Afterlife. She knew that it was paradise to some but to her, it was a prison. The place always seemed to be perfect, too perfect. Whenever she looked around at the people all she saw was the fake smiles on their faces. They all looked at her like she was the weird one and not them. They only time the façade was lifted was when the guards came back from duty. The only time that Henley was given an outside glimpse at the real world and not this Hell.

Hearing a knock on the door of the small bedroom she stayed in, Henley swore to herself. She took a clean washcloth from the rack that hung on the wall and wrapped it around her hand. She let out a deep before answering the door. She looked down to see what she was wearing then shrugged her shoulders, the grey t-shirt and black yoga pants would have to do.

Opening up the door she was shocked to see that Cecily Johnson was there. She had heard Skye talk on multiple occasions about her sister. How she was so pretty with her long blonde hair that looked like pure sunshine. Her crystal blue eyes that honestly reminded Henley of the sky on a clear sunny day. Her skin was pale though, the type of pale that never seemed to tan or burn. If she had black hair Henley would have to start calling her Snow White.

"Can I help you, your majesty?" She asked trying not the let the venom slip from her voice.

Cecily lifted her nose up into the air. To make the illusion that she was looking down at the Amazon, "I need your help."

Henley could stop herself from rolling her eyes, "Why don't you just do what your little guards do?"

Cecily narrowed her eyes and her lips became a thin line, "Because unlike them I like when people work for me willingly." She then walked into her room uninvited and glared at her, "Now will you shut and listen to me or shall come back at another time?"

Sighing Henley closed her door and sat down on her bed looking up at the princess. "What do you want from me?"

"Information."

"You're going to have be a little more specific Princess, I can't read minds."

"It's about Thomas."

"What about him?" Henley asked trying to keep her voice leveled. She knew that everyone here thought that he was dead. It was the reason they had taken her in the first place because she had once been involved with him. She didn't dare mention that he was still alive. That they were about to elope when she was taken. Her heart still constricted in pain every time she thought about it. How he must have thought that she left him. She was on her way to meet him when they had ambushed her and taken her by surprise.

"Is he still alive?" Cecily asked. Her voice was thick with emotion. Something that Henley wasn't used to hearing whenever people talked about Tommy. But all Henley did was continue to stare at Cecily, "I know you don't trust me. I don't blame you. But I need to know if Tommy is still alive."

She was still silent refusing to answer her.

"You aren't the only one who lost someone to my mother."

Henley's head shot up and she looked at the woman with shock. She could see that Cecily was serious about what she had just said. She could see that there was pain behind her eyes. That her mother had taken something from her.

Henley stood up and grabbed Cecily's hand, her pale skin clashing with sickly one. They stood there for several silent moments just looking at each other. Then she opened her mouth, "He's alive."

"Was gagging her really necessary?" Squeaks asked her as they stared at Edith. She was tied up with rope and currently sitting in Kiera's bathroom. Edith was glaring at the both of them Kiera tilted her head to the side and gave out a large dramatic sigh.

"She tried to bite me." Kiera said.

"Well, in her defense we were in the middle of kidnapping her." Kiera then gave the teenager a short glare and she holds up her hands in defense, "Just stating the obvious."

There was muffle sound and both girls looked towards Edith who was trying to say something. Neither could understand the girl though since the balled-up sock was lodge in her mouth. Kiera then scrunched her nose up, "We wouldn't have kidnapped her if she had just come with us willingly."

There was a muffled protest that came from Edith causing both girls to look at her. Edith was sporting the bitch faces of all bitch faces. Her blue eyes were sporting murder and Kiera had a feeling that if she let her go now that both her and Squeaks would be dead.

"If I take the sock out of your mouth will you promise not to yell?" Kiera asked.

Edith let out a muffled sound that sounded vaguely like a yes to her. Leaning forward took the sock out of Edith's mouth and the woman's blue eyes found hers. She glared at her then at the sock that was in her hand. Kiera threw the sock over her shoulder than crossed both her arms over her chest, "Well?" she asked, "What do you want to say?"

"First, when was the last time you washed that sock?" she asked with disgust in her voice, "Second, do you two know how stupid it was to kidnap me? Especially outside of a Starbucks?"

Kiera shrugged her shoulders, "No cops have shown up yet?"

Squeaks cringed, "Let's not knock on wood just yet."

Edith's attention then went to hers, "Samantha St. Clair?" She asked in disbelief, "You're behind this too?"

"We need your help with something." Squeaks said.

"Help?" Edith spat out.

Kiera put a hand in front of Squeaks stopping her from moving forward, "Input. We needed your input on something." Kiera said, "You see I have a source that's telling me your boss, leader, whatever the hell she is, is turning kids. Now, I don't know about you? But, to me, that sounds a lot like someone building an army."

Kiera narrowed her eyes at Edith. She didn't think that the girl was bad but she was taking kids and giving them something that they probably never wanted. Even if they did consent to something like that it was probably because they felt like they had nowhere else to go or they were dying. It was how it went down for Kiera; three shots to the stomach and then fours days later she was waking up in a bed that was not hers. With abilities that were not hers, in clothes that were not hers, surrounded by people she didn't know. She loved Tommy to the moon and back but there was always a little resentment for him not letting her die. If someone was doing that to kids even younger than she was then Kiera didn't know if she could hold back.

Edith then swallowed and her eyes darted away looking at the floor. "I know what you're thinking."

Kiera snorted, "I doubt that."

"No, literally, I know what're you're thinking. I'm Inhuman, fully, my power allows me to read minds it's I figured you out so quickly back at Starbucks." Edith then looked up at Kiera regretfully, "And you are right about one thing. Ivanna, she is building an army."

That caused her back to straighten and she looked to Squeaks to see if she had heard the same thing that she had. Seeing the look on the young teen's face was all the clarification that she needed. Turning back to look at Edith she furrowed her brow, "Why would she build an army. Last I heard the treaty with Afterlife still stands." Squeaks muttered causing Kiera to lift an eyebrow.

Edith snorted, "You obviously have never been around Jiaying then." She then rolled her eyes and slouched, "That treaty means shit. It was only made because too many people were catching on to her little crusade. The only thing that's keeping her from actually attacking is her daughter. Ivanna's just making sure that when she does attack we have the forces."

"With a bunch of innocent kids." Kiera asked harshly, "They don't know what they're actually getting into."

"It's better than what they had." Edith spat back, "Besides, Ivanna does actually care about these kids. When the time comes to fight she chose the ones who are old enough too."

"So that leaves the elephant in the room." Kiera said and Edith raised an eyebrow, "Are you going to help us or not?"

"Help with what?" Edith said carefully.

"Stopping a war." Kiera sighed and crouched down undoing Edith's bounds. She then leaned back on her feet and cocked her head to the side, "And we need Ivanna Cortez's help to do it."

Chapter Text

Skye sat down on the bed watching the news with an intense look of concentration. It was a debate about whether or not gifted people should stay hidden or reveal themselves. Skye couldn't help the knot that had formed in her stomach as she watched it. She wasn't an idiot to everything around her when it came to the outside world. She knew that more people were getting scared as the more gifted individual came out into the light. Even as good as Captain America was he didn't stand for a whole populist of people. She had met her fair share of people that wanted nothing more than to use her and her abilities. Just because Captain American was good didn't mean they all were. Some of them had to survive and do things they didn't want to do.

Not all gifted people were going to be as privileged as him.

She watched as the TV angle changed so that more people could be shown. It was a table with three other people on it and Skye knew that this was a panel. Her eyes widen though when she reached the end of the table. Her throat almost closed on her and she had to turn the volume up just to make sure what she was seeing was right.

"And at the end of the panel, we are welcoming Ms. Marcella Jamerson who is head of an organization that deals with these matters, isn't that right Miss Jamerson."

Skye watched as Mr. Jones turned her head towards the camera and looked directly into it. She tilted her head and winked on her bright blue eyes at it while her bright red lips curled into a smile. "That's right." She said.

"Miss Jamerson runs a company that deals heavily with the involvement of gifted individuals and how to protect yourself from them." The news anchor went on but Skye was no longer paying attention.

The remote fell out of her hands and Skye jumped to her feet staring at the TV. "This isn't happening." Skye said to herself, "This isn't possible." She clenched her fist and ignored the slight shaking that came from the dresser to her side.

She then heard the shower shut off and Skye willed the shaking to stop. To calm herself down and only a few seconds later did she hear the bathroom door open. She heard Grant come up behind her and wrap an arm around her waist pulling her back into his chest. He then nuzzled his nose into her neck and placed light kisses there. Her eyes didn't close and she could enjoy the feeling of his lips on her neck because of the television in front of her.

"What are you watching?" He asked as he took notice of the news.

"They're having a debate of gifted people. Whether or not they should reveal themselves." She said her voice only slightly wavering. She heard Grant snort and she placed her hand over the one that had placed itself on her waist. "Do you think they should?" She asked moving her head to the side.

She felt his lips move away from her neck. Skye then cautiously moved around and looked him in the eye. His eyes met hers and he almost looked guilty causing her heart to drop. "You think that they should."

"It would make people feel safer." He argued lightly.

Skye moved back and grabbed her hands together, "And what about them?"

"Skye, it's not our problem." He said confused and Skye took a deep breath clutching her hands even tighter. She should tell him. She could tell him right now and give him a chance to back out.

She looked away from him and stared at the face of Mr. Jones, "But, it can be." She said thinking of her mother and of Lucifer. She looked back at him with an icy glare, "And if it does become our problem then it's an all-out civil war."

The ringing of their phones broke the tension. Both leaned forward and grabbed their phones and read the messages. It was Coulson telling them that they had another case and that it was time to go back to the Bus. They looked at each other and Skye was the first one to break the eye contact. She looked over at the other side of the room where her jeans laid. Quickly making it over she picked them up and started walking into the bathroom, "I'll get changed. You should as well." She said quickly.

"Skye…" He started but then trailed off. He shook his head and grabbed his pants from the floor, "I need my shirt back." He gestured to the shirt she was wearing and Skye looked down. She was wearing one of his buttons up shirts that seemed to reach the tops of her thighs. Her cheeks heating up she quickly tore the shirt from her body and threw it at Grant.

"Here." She said then slammed the door and made her way over to the mirror.

She knew that they would disagree on somethings but when it came to gifted people it made her think. Skye knew that she couldn't keep her powers hidden from Grant forever but she wanted this, whatever it was, the thing to last with him. She worried that if she ever told him the truth about her powers then he would leave. Or worse than leaving he would turn her in and she would have to be on the run again. He didn't seem like that type of person but when someone lies to you, you can end up doing things you never thought you would do. She could attest to that.

Sighing she made her way over to the shower and turned it on. She hoped that the warm water would be able to calm her down. She wanted a good fifteen minutes to forget everything that was going on and just relax. Stepping into the shower her muscles instantly relaxed and she tried taking her mind off of everything that was happening.

Skye pushed everything to the back of her mind. Mr. Jones, Tommy, Grant, SHIELD, Kiera. Everyone and everything was gone for fifteen minutes and she just felt relaxed. As the shower started to end through the thoughts of Mr. Jones came back. Skye wondered what the hell she was doing on TV, from what Tommy had told her she always stayed underground and mostly hush.

After her shower was over she got out and wrapped the fluffy white robe around her body. She tried not looking in the mirror at herself. She was too afraid of what she looked like that she could only imagine that it wasn't pretty. Brushing her hair quickly Skye let out a slight sigh knowing that her clothes were still outside in the bedroom. She felt for Grant's heartbeat and was momentarily happy that he wasn't there to watch her have a breakdown.

Throwing open the bathroom door she allowed herself the brief moment to bring her walls down. Letting the anger course through her she held her hand out towards the bedside table and let out a blast of energy. She watched as it exploded in a pile of wood and white pages from a bible that was laying in there.

"Well, what did that poor bedside table ever do to you?" She heard a familiar voice ask from behind her. Turning around she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Tommy who was smirking while raising his one eyebrow.

"It was the only thing that I can afford to destroy." She spat at him then gestured her head over to the TV, "Did you watch CNN this morning?"

"I try my best to avoid the news, Skye."

Rolling her eyes Skye bent down and picked up the remote. She pointed it at the TV and turned it on hoping that the panel would still be there. As if someone had heard her prayer the panel was still on and she sat down on the edge of the bed. Tommy opened his mouth to say something but Skye shushed him just as Mr. Jones pop up on TV. She looked at him to see his reaction and what she saw didn't make her feel any better. His smirk was now gone and the light behind his eyes seemed to have dimmed considerably. He sat down next to her on the bed looking shell-shocked, it could have been a trick of the light but Skye swore she saw tears pooling in his eyes.

"She's calling me out." Tommy said his voice strained, "That's what she's doing, I know it, she's calling me out. This is the only way she knows how to get to me."

Skye looked down at her feet, "Doesn't help that more and more people are concerned by the all the gifted people coming out. Makes them feel even more powerless than they already are."

The room was silent until Tommy stood up from the bed and yelled, "GODDAMNIT!" The lamp that was on the other bedside table crashed into the wall. He started pacing back and forth running a hand through his black hair messing it up even more. Skye could feel the waves of anger and fear coming off of Tommy and Skye stood up putting her hands out in front of her.

"Calm down, Tommy." She said laying a hand on his shoulder trying to pushing calming vibrations into him.

He then turned to her and this time it wasn't a trick of the light he had been crying. The tears sliding down his cheeks were evidence of that. She watched as his lip wobbled and seconds later he enveloped her in a hug. He squished her closer, ignoring the fact that she was naked underneath her towel, and placed his head into the crook of her neck crying.

There were very few little times that Tommy had ever truly broken down in front of her. One time had been when he found her again after her fall from the cliff. The other time was when he finally decided to go to rehab for his alcoholism, and finally when they said goodbye to each other at his funeral. When he had cried then, it was out of joy and slight sadness that they wouldn't see each other as much. But now, as he cried it was because everything they had built in the past two years was falling apart. The lives that they tried running away from was now pulling them back.

"Why can't we just be happy?" He mumbled into her neck and Skye did shed a tear at that. She had wondered the same thing for a while. Why couldn't they just be normal or live happy lives now? They had sacrificed so much for a lot of people and now it seemed like the world was asking more of them.

"I don't know." She said honestly then pulled back and held his face in her hands, "But whatever this bitch wants we aren't going to give it to her. She is not going to take this away from us because we have come too far to be taken down by her."

He laughed lightly and gave her a soft smile. It was then that his eyes took in the room around him and her appearance. His back straightened up and his eyes narrowed as he saw the rumpled bed sheets and her clothes tossed to various places in the room. Skye was never prude but considering that her best friend was about to find her she was sleeping with his brother did make her blush a little bit. It was almost comical watching him. She could see the confusion on his face and then once he looked at the towel wrapped around her body it was like a lightbulb went off.

He let go of Skye and took a few steps back and placing a hand on his forehead. "Oh my god." He said slowly then looked around the room once more. His eyes then met hers and she looked down sheepishly, "But he's my brother!" He yelled pointing a finger at her as his eyes widen then crinkled in disgust, "Ewww!" He said like he was a five-year-old.

"Oh, come on Tommy." She said crossing her arms over her chest and leaning on her one foot, "We're both adults."

"BUT HE'S MY BROTHER!"

Skye nodded her head, "Yes and he's very talented too." Skye said smirking as she watched Tommy squirm.

She watched as Tommy visible cringed, "Ewww. Okay, I didn't need to know that."

"Oh, would you stop acting like this is the end of the world!" She yelled at him. "Yes, Grant and I have sex. Very hot, mind-blowing, amazing sex. But, that doesn't mean it changes anything about our friendship."

"It changes everything about our friendship. My best friend is sleeping with my older brother. I don't want to think about them having sex."

"No one is asking you to think about it!" She shouted back throwing her hands up in the air.

Contorting his face Tommy took a deep breath and looked as if he was trying to calm himself down. "I am going to leave before I say or do anything I regret. When I come back we are going to talk about this. Okay?"

Skye shrugged her shoulders, "Fine." She said the thought about how she had to leave, "Wait!" She called out and she watched him turn around in annoyance, "I have to leave so, I won't be here in an hour. So, just call me and when you're talking use your alias."

"This entire situation is so messed up." Tommy muttered.

"No, it really isn't. Just think of all the times I heard you and Henley having sex, you think I wanted to hear that?"

"No, I didn't think that. But, here's the difference, you and Henley are not related. Grant and I are."

"Will you just get over yourself!" Skye yelled at him, "This, in no way, affects what we're doing or why we are doing it! So, when you call me I better not hear any of your bitching about the fact that Grant and I are banging each other. The only thing that I want to hear come out of your mouth is solutions to the Mr. Jones problem and how the hell we are going to deal with that."

Tommy then physically cringed again and Skye had half the mind to punch him in the face. He held his hands up in surrender and made his way over to the darkest part of them. Skye watched as he melted away into the shadows with a large sigh. This was going to be a long day, she could tell.

Skye was right. It was going to be long, long day. As she stared at the profile of one Hannah Hutchins she knew that she was going to come at a divide with Coulson. It was just in her nature to try and protect people with powers. So, that's how she came into this situation as she and Coulson were currently having a stare down the whole team watching them.

"Skye telekinesis is practically unheard of on the Index, we need this girl's information."

"I'm not going to tell unless you promise me not to put this girl on the Index if she's even gifted," Skye said shrugging her shoulders and making her lines.

"I hardly think you have any place to negotiate." May said causing Skye to look over at her, "Considering you still haven't given any real explanation for what happened in the Church in Ireland."

Skye rolled her eyes, "I told you I wasn't expecting them to show up. They must have been after the same thing that we were."

"And as to why they knew you?" May asked again this time crossing her arms over her chest. Skye's pretty sure this is the most emotion she's ever seen coming from this woman.

"I know a lot of people, it's not uncommon for me to cross paths with other people who do not so great things." Skye explained trying to keep it as close to the truth as she possibly could. She just hoped that if she repeated it enough times they would begin to believe her. She didn't need everyone on board to believe her just the majority of them.

"He knew your mother." Coulson said causing her to be caught off guard. Skye turned to him in confusion and widened her eyes. "Elliot, he said he knew your mother."

Skye could feel the rest of the team's eyes on her. She gulped while gripping the edge of the table, even after all these years her mother was still a sore subject for her to talk about. "Well," She finally managed to get out with a slight laugh to herself, "I don't envy him that's for sure."

"Did you know?" Coulson asked.

"Know what?"

"That he knew your mother?"

Skye tightened her hands on the table and forced herself to take deep breathes. She was trying to will herself not to be affected by the topic of her mother. In all her time she had spent with Tommy and Lucifer she had never uttered more than a few words on her feelings towards her mother. She hated her, of course, she did, but never for the reason that any of them thought. She hated her mother because she still loved her. Her mother had opened up a world to her that she would have never seen on her own. Taught her that her powers were not to be feared but to be loved and explored.

She hated her mother because, after all this time, Skye still somehow loved her.

It's why she had tried so hard not to be found again. Tommy had once asked her if she could kill her own mother. She had told him yes without hesitation and she had meant it but that didn't mean she wanted to do it. Skye didn't want to be found because she never wanted to be put in the position where she could kill her mother. Skye didn't want to kill her but she knew that given the chance, she would. And that killed her inside to know that. Because, even after all this time hating her mother, some part of her still loved her. Some part of her was still Daisy Louise Johnson who loved her family with all her heart. Some part of her just couldn't let the love for her mother go.

"I didn't know." Skye finally said. She stood up straighter and her hand immediately went to the necklace that carried her mother's ring on it. She gripped it tight and started rolling it around in her hand, "My mother didn't tell me a lot of things growing up." She said last part softly, barely even a whisper.

The tone in the room had shifted to awkward and Skye just wanted it to go away. To break the silence and make them stop questioning her. It wasn't their business to know about her personal life. She was her on a strictly professional basis. Except for the whole sleeping with Grant part, that wasn't professional that was just personal.

Thinking that they should probably go back to the case Skye peered down at her tablet. "If she is gifted?" Skye asked handing over the tablet and staring at it sadly, "Don't make her feel worse than she already does. With everything that's happening, on the news and summits, she probably already feels terrible. She doesn't need another thing to add to her list."

"What's going on in the news?" A new voice asked and Skye turned her head slightly to see that it was Simmons who had asked the question. Her face had turned from a look of curiosity to one of concern. Her arms that where by her side now wrapped around her torso.

Skye scoffed, "Nothing new." She then turned around and left the meeting room with a haste. Her breathing was becoming more labored and she just wanted to get away from it all. She just wanted the image of her mother out of her head. She didn't want to think about her. About how she still loved her about how, after all this time, a small part of her still wanted to go home.

Walking down the stairs and past the lab, Skye wanted to find her little supplies closest and calm herself down. It was the only thing that she knew how to do any more on this stupid, cramped plane. She clenched her jaw and made her fist by her side willing herself that she would not take a step further. Sooner, or later, she would have to face her problems and she had to stop running to her closest every time something went bad.

Noticing the punching bag still hanging there from Ward's workouts Skye walked up to it and did what she did best. She punched the ever-living shit out of the thing. There was nothing coordinated or orderly about how she was punching the bag. It was chaos and destruction. It was releasing too much energy that had been there for too long. The world around her seemed to fade away as she punched the bag with more and more force. It wasn't until the bag was spilled open after a small burst of her powers was released did she stop.

Breathing heavily with sweat dripping down her face Skye watched as the sand drained from the bag. She looked down at her hands to see them slightly bruised and cracked, although they were quickly healing from her burst of power.

"Can you teach me that?" She heard Fitz's voice ask and she looked up to see him standing at the top of the staircase. He was leaning over the railing watching her with interest and curiosity.

"Teach you what?" She asked while taking the bottom of her shirt and quickly wiping her forehead with it. Fitz kicked himself off of the railing and started walking down the staircase to come to her.

"How to fight like that. I don't want to be completely useless every time I go out into the field."

Skye snorted, "Even if you could be totally useless in the field, that dagger that you have wouldn't let you. It's got this shitty thing was it really tries it's best to keep its owner alive." She mumbled the last part really then smiled up at Fitz.

"Wait you know how this works?" He said quickly as he jogged over to her.

Skye lifted an eyebrow and quirked the side of her lip, "Yeah that dagger and I have history." Then she shrugged her shoulders and leaned against the punching bag.

"Can you tell me about it? I feel like I have almost all the pieces in front of me it's just…" He trailed off.

Skye was able to finish for him, "…It's just the lines aren't connecting quite yet?" She asked staring at Fitz expectantly. Fitz looked up at her shocked and shook his head, "Happens to people who aren't like me. That dagger Fitz, I don't know if you've noticed, but it's not normal."

"Obviously." He said deadpanned, "It's like whenever my life is in dagger the thing bloody takes over me. It's like I'm not in control anymore and my body moves on its own accord."

"That's because it is." She said and sighed looking up at the staircase. She knew that no one was there but she didn't want to risk anyone walking in on them and then asking questions. Mostly May or Coulson, she didn't need them sticking their noses where it didn't belong. Gesturing her head to the side, Skye and Fitz made their way into the lab where it was safer. Skye knew that there were cameras in here but they didn't have audio.

When she felt like it was safe again Skye opened her mouth and started talking, "That dagger came from a friend of mine but, he originally got it from my home. The dagger is special Fitz, more than you can ever imagine and the fact that it chose you is extremely rare."

"Wow, that's one hell of a self-esteem booster." He said sarcastically.

Skye jumped onto one of the counters and sat down making herself comfortable. Fitz made his way around to her and leaned against the lab table. He crossed his arms over his chest while she put her arms on her knees.

Taking a deep sigh, she started the story of the dagger and he listened. He listened to powers the daggered had, how it protected its owner. That when the dagger finds the owner unworthy it would stop working. She didn't go into great detail about Tommy because she thought that it would be unproductive. Really, Skye had gone over the main points so he could get the gist of it all.

"I still want to learn how to fight."

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. There was no way to talk him out of this, "Okay, fine." She said giving in, "But, if you learn then you learn my way, not that SHIELD shit that Ward does."

"Okay." He said.

"Alright."

They had reached an understanding that much was clear to Skye. She had no real intention of teaching Fitz how to fight like she fought. She would never put someone through what she had been through however that didn't mean she wouldn't teach him. Fitz was right when he said that he needed to be at least prepared when going into the field. Her teaching him how to fight would be a just in case or the last ditch, if you will.

Suddenly her train of thought was cut off but the sound of Taylor Swift's voice. Her phone was ringing and she hopped down from the counter. Reaching into her back pocket she picked it up and placed the phone to her ears already knowing the earful she was about to get. "Hello?" She asked unamused resisting the urge to immediately roll her eyes.

"So, do we have time to talk now?" Tommy asked in an annoyed voice.

Skye let out a dramatic sigh, "That depends on what you want to talk about. If it's about my sex life then you can fuck right off. If it's about the actual problem at hand then, by all means, continue about what you were going to say." Skye ignored Fitz's raised eyebrow and motioned to him that she was going to leave. He waved at her basically telling her that it was fine and she smiled at him giving him a quick thumb's up in thanks.

"That depends on your definition of a problem."

"You know what I'm talking about." Skye said slowly as she ascended the stairs, "This is a real problem…Andrew. If we don't take care of this then we have a bigger problem on our hands."

Tommy scoffed, "Oh please, Skye I watched the news segment it was nothing more than America's usually bouts of racism." She knew that tone of voice. It was the tone of voice that he tried to use to wave off something that actually concerned/scared him.

"Andrew." She said seriously into the phone as she entered the living room. It was bare and no one seemed to be in it. Skye wondered where everyone nee Fitz had gone off to. She didn't understand how so many people could get lost in such close quarters. "I know that blowing stuff off is a form of your coping mechanisms but listen to me. She was calling you out on national television, imagine what she would do behind closed doors."

"I don't have to because I already know, Skye. She wants me out of the picture because she thinks that I'm her biggest competition. She's doing this because she's pissed that I left her and was no longer under her control, so now she's trying to destroy my life."

"Why can't you just tell her that you're not in that business anymore." She asked. There was a pause on the other end. She thought the lined had gone dead and she could have sworn she heard an intake of breath. Skye then groaned to herself and slapped the palm of her hand against her forehead. "Tell me you're not."

"I can't." He confirmed with guilt lacing his voice.

"I thought the whole point of us faking our death was so we could go into hiding and create fresh starts for ourselves."

"Okay, well, that's was half the point really only, like, forty percent of the plan. The other sixty percent was just making sure we got out of there alive. Now, I just happen to use my connection more than I should."

"FORTY PERCENT OF THE PLAN!" She screamed into the phone while sitting down on the couch.

If Tommy where in front of her she could imagine him holding a finger up to her and trying to calm her down. "Okay, look, my main focus at the time was making sure you wouldn't die. So, I told a little white lie that's not going to kill us is it?"

"No, Andrew, it's not going to kill it's going to make our lives a living hell. You have to go back into her circle of friends and there's a possibility that I have to take the mantle of the Devil up…again!"

"You're not going to have to take the mantle up. I told that was just a onetime thing so stop being over dramatic." He told her in a calm voice. She was anything but calm their lives were about to be ruined again and he thought that it wasn't a big deal. That this could turn out okay if they just ignored it.

"I'm not being overdramatic. She went public Andrew, you know what that means right? It means that she has leverage over you, she could go to the public with your real name. She's creating fear and chaos in people so she can control them. If she sells you off to the public they kill you before she even get's the chance…Wow, no wonder you two met each other.

"Yeah, it's a mystery." He said sarcastically over the phone. "Anyway, I got a plan and I need your help with it."

"Oh, I can't wait to hear this." She mumbled then sighed admitting defeat, "Alright get one with it. What's the plan?"

"On Friday of the second of the month, she hosts these huge gala's. Every rich person and who's who is invited. Only that's aren't parties like everyone thinks they are, their auctions a black market of sorts for rich people with some weird fetishes."

"I don't like where you're going with this."

"Hear me out. I can get in and out without being noticed, however, I need someone to distract her."

"And I would be the distraction?" She asked, "Why me?"

"Because you said it yourself, you're the Devil now Skye and no one works harder or makes more deals than the Devil." There was humor in his voice but Skye could tell that Tommy was being serious, "There's also the fact that you're the only thing she never figured out. The only reason I ever went to her is that I needed to find you. Except, I kept it low-key about why I needed to find you. She probably still thinks you have something of mine. If she meets you then her attention is kept while I sneak in and steal some high illegal files."

There were a million ways that this plan could go wrong and then some. As she thought it through though she couldn't help the tugging feeling in her gut as she thought about going on a mission. It had been a while since it was just her and Tommy. This would be a mission between the two of them and no SHIELD. A small smile tugged at her lips and she huffed, "Alright, you broke me, I'm in, but we're going to need help even if you say we don't. I'll call Kiera and let her now, text me or email me the plans or at least the outline and I'll do the rest."

"Thank you!" He said in a sing-song voice. "You are the best friend in the entire world. And you know what, after all, this is over we should all go on a trip together. You, me, Henley, and my brother."

Skye chuckled and bit her lower lip, "That would require telling your brother that you aren't dead." There was a pregnant pause, "Speaking of Henley how's the hunt for her going?"

There was a deep sigh from the other end of the phone. Skye could visualize Tommy's shoulders visibly deflating. His permanent smile receding just a tad while the light in his bright blue eyes dulls just a bit. There was an ache in her chest and Skye so badly wanted to see her best friend and not having the presence of fear of death looming over them. To just stay and talk or hang out and act like total teenagers like they once were.

"It's going." Was his final reply and she could tell that it wasn't good news, "She's getting smarter with her movements. She'll show up one place and then immediately disappear before I can get a trace. Whoever took her is being smart about it."

A sinking feeling arrived in her gut and for some reason, she knew that Tommy had gotten the same one. They both knew that neither one of them wanted to believe, Tommy more so, but it was easier for Skye to see the signs. With Luciana and Valentine, it was all adding up now and they just didn't want to believe it.

"Andrew, Henley was seen with Luciana and Valentine. Now, she shows up in different places all over the world and disappears like that? On top of it, all SHIELD has information about Puerto Rico. The more I look at this the more it seems like none of this is happening on purpose."

"You think it's your mother?" He asked.

"Or my father. When I beat up Miles a couple months back he said that Calvin Zabo was the one who gave him the hard drive. One thing is for sure it's that someone doesn't want to hide anymore and they're getting pretty antsy about it."

"Skye if this comes out, if it really is her, then…"

"Then it's an all-out war and we landed right in the middle of it."

"Well." He said laughing slightly over the phone, "You can't say we didn't try."

"Well, we didn't exactly not not try either."

There was a tap on her shoulder and Skye whirled around to see Coulson standing there. He had a slight smirk on his face. Something that she had never seen on him before and she didn't know if she liked it or not. His suit wasn't rumpled and Skye cursed herself for not being more observant she hoped that he hadn't been listening for long. Then again it wouldn't truly matter considering he could just take a look at what she had just said through her bracelet. Skye looked at this with great distaste, she really needed to work on getting that thing off.

"Hey, ahh, something just popped up and I have to go."

"What! No! We were just getting to the good part."

"Andrew!" She hissed into the phone.

"Alright, calm down Miss Daisy Dukes. I'll email everything you need and then you work out the rest. By the way, the next party is in two weeks."

She bobbed her "Two weeks, oaky, got it." She then snapped the phone shut not even giving him the chance to say goodbye. Which in all honesty, they were both terrible about goodbyes and they would probably just sat there in silence until somebody talked.

Skye then stood up and looked at Coulson. His demeanor didn't scream that she was in trouble, he looked more curious than anything. There was a file in his arms and there was something in his eyes that was telling her that something good might actually happen.

Gesturing out his arm he motioned for Skye to follow him. She didn't even question it finding that would have probably been in bad taste. He was being polite and nice to her and she thought about what Fury had told her. He wanted her to prove him wrong, to show him that she was changing for the better and Skye was starting to think that maybe she had to actually put some effort into that. Keeping her eyes focused ahead she and Coulson walked slowly until they had reached their office door. Skye put her hand over the bracelet that laid over her one wrist. She hoped that maybe he would take it off but as she looked at the files on his desk she was starting to think that it wasn't the case.

Coulson didn't need to tell her to sit down. She already knew what he wanted her to do and she casual sat down in the chair in front of his desk. He made his way into his bigger chair and he sat down with his hands clasped out in front of him. Coulson had placed the file down in front of him and she just knew that no good things came with files.

Coulson cleared his throat and adjusted the paper on his desk, "I paid a visit to your friend Kiera Davis."

Skye wanted to scream and shout. Her insides twisted with fear and she made sure to grip the side of the chair. The bees inside her stomach were making their presence known and she made sure to not forget their presence. "How did that turn out for you?" She asked. If she knew Kiera then she was guessing nothing good had happened.

"Well, it seems that Miss Davis has quite the talent of disappearing when she wants to. I went to talk to her but it seems that she got preoccupied with someone else and took off running. I was about to chase after her when I noticed that I young girl was looking quite frightened. So, instead I talked to her and it turns out she's a friend of Ms. Davis's." Coulson pulled out a picture of a dirty looking girl with long brown hair and brown eyes that resembled a puppy.

Skye didn't recognize her but she didn't need to, to guess who it was. "Never seen her before."

Coulson quirked an eyebrow and pursed his lips and opened the file up, "Her name is Samantha St. Clair and she has an interesting background that is for sure. Foster system by age six, homeless by age ten, currently seventeen. Has scored a near perfect on her SAT's is on the honor roll and was president of the science club until she stepped down."

"That's great and all but what does this have to do with me?"

"She was with Kiera when all of this happened. Before she was about to run away I was able to catch her and well, we had a little chat. In this time that we talked she told me some interesting things about Kiera…and you."

"What did she say?" Skye said her voice only rising a little bit. Kiera only talked about Samantha in passing but from what she was told the girl was kind. She was loyal and sweet and Kiera absolutely adored her. Skye couldn't tell though what the girl would say about her.

"That you and Kiera had been friends for a while, in fact, you've been friends with Kiera ever since she was a teenager. Which got me wondering why you were friends with some random teenager and I looked." He then moved to another file, "Born Kiera Pippin Davis to a Ms. Renetta Anne Davis, Father is unknown…" He trailed off and flipped through the final few pages, "Ahh, here we are. When Kiera was sixteen she was shot two times, causing her to go into a coma. The doctors said that she wasn't supposed to wake up, in fact, they gave her a one and a million chance. A few days later they were very surprised to see that she had woken up. Not only had she woken up but her vital were near perfect as were her reflexes."

Skye crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Coulson. She wanted to see where this was going if she wasn't careful she might reveal something that she didn't want to. "I still don't see what this has to do with me."

Coulson put his finger on the paper and looked up at her with a bright smile, "I was getting to that." He then looked back down to where his finger was on the paper, "The last two visitors before Kiera woke up, unfortunately, I was only able to see eyewitness testimony because the cameras had malfunctioned that night. The witness said that she remembers seeing three people going into the room; One man and two women, early to mid-twenties."

She was caught. He had gotten her. He knew that she was there that night but he didn't know what she had done. She guessed what he probably thought, that she had done something to Kiera to keep her alive. When, in reality, she was just the watchdog while Tommy had snuck out of the hospital with her.

"She saved our lives." Skye finally said, "Got caught in the crossfire because of us. We weren't going to let her die because she was just doing what was right."

"What did you do to her? What could you have possibly done that made her turn around like that? I mean, I've never seen anything like it before." He asked.

"I can't tell you. But, what I can tell you is that where she is now is a vast improvement from where she was. Now will you stop prying into my private life or shall I tell everyone that Big Brother is spying one them once more?"

"I'm just making sure that my team stays safe, Skye."

"And I told you that I would never put this team in danger."

"Well, your actions are proven otherwise."

"Because those are accidents!" She finally yelled while standing up from her chair, "I can't change my views to fit yours, Coulson! Sometimes bad things just happen to me, it's literally always happened to me since birth! It's not like I go out of my way to call someone and say 'hey can you please ruin my day today. Oh, and Greg can you make sure to hurt Coulson's team just a tad bit more.'" She said in a funny voice trying to imitate a man, "Sometimes things like these happen and when they do I just react. It just so happens that every now and again I run into some people that I used to know."

There was a ringing of a phone and Coulson picked up his office phone putting it to his ear. He didn't say anything but only nodded his head yes. The one-sided conversation only lasted about thirty seconds once it was over he hung the phone back up. He looked back up at her his eyes no longer caring or sweet, "That was May, she said we're twenty minutes out from Batesville."

"I'll go get ready then." She said with no emotion in her voice. The bees were stirring in her more now. They wanted out and Skye could feel everything around, she was hypersensitive to all the vibration. Not giving Coulson the time to reply to her Skye walked out of his office and slammed the door. Just as she did so there was beep on her phone and she looked down to see that Tommy had sent the information to her.

No matter what, she was still going to help Tommy. SHIELD be damned.

Jemma Simmons liked to think that she knew enough about the universe to understand how it works. Then she met Fitz and he turned the whole universe upside down and she saw the world from a new perspective. They had fallen into a rhythm and she liked it, it was routine of sorts and Simmons loved it. She got used to her and thinking back now that's was probably where her biggest problem lied.

Joining the Coulson's team was something new and threw a huge dent in their rhythm. Fitz seemed to be talking to her less and hanging out with Skye more. Not that she minded, she like the woman a little intimidating, but she liked her none the less. But, it seemed the more the two hung out the more that Fitz changed and she didn't know how to feel about that.

Then Skye brought up something about the news. Now, Simmons never claimed to be ignorant, but she doesn't have the time to keep up with everything in the world. It was when they had brought up the possibility of someone having telekinesis that Simmons started to think. At first, she had shut the idea down almost immediately. It was impossible for someone to have powers like that! No one could move objects with their minds if so, science would have already proven it by now. Even as she and Fitz had gone through Staticorp she still thought that it was impossible. A joke even.

Then again, aliens were not supposed to exist either, yet they did. Gods and demigods were not supposed to exist and yet they did. A man shouldn't be able to survive a radiation blast and turn into a giant green monster every time he gets mad and yet… Those were all supposed to be impossibilities in the world and yet they all existed. All myths or legends, tales of fiction, but they existed? Jemma had relied on logic and science for practically her entire life never thinking that maybe there was something out there that couldn't be explained with both.

Then she had confronted Fitz about why he was acting so differently and he said confused her at the time. He told her that, "Sometimes it's better to leave things as impossibilities." She had no idea what the bloody hell that meant at first. She knew Fitz to always be curious and tried to find new ways to make things, so him saying that was so out of character.

But as they were arriving at the woman's house, Hannah she remembers, Simmons thought that maybe? That maybe someone with telekinetic abilities wasn't too impossible after all. The world was getting harder to live in, she was sure of that. As more gifted individuals came out of the light and their powers showed Simmons didn't think that their treatment was all that bad. Look at how everyone treated the Avengers, most of them have powers and world bloody loved them.

Rolling up to Hannah's house though, changed Simmons's mind. People with signs protesting and demanding for the young woman's arrest. Calling her a murder and someone who deserves to rot in jail. Jemma couldn't help but notice that even kids were partaking in the activity, teenagers in the back-throwing objects at her house. The sight caused her to frown, why would someone do something like this? It brought no real productivity to anything and it seems to do more harm than peace. The cops were there but they seemed to not truly enjoy holding the people back. It almost looked like they wanted to let the people loose on this poor woman.

"You alright, Simmons?" Skye asked her. Simmons turned around and nodded her head at her. Her frown, however, did not leave her face.

"I'm fine." She stuttered out, "I just wasn't expecting this, I just don't understand why they're doing this."

Skye gave her look. Something that told Jemma that she was pitying her or feeling bad for her, "You will one day." Skye said regretfully while looking past her at the protesters, "And when you do…" She paused, "…I just hope you know what you're doing." Skye finished and looked at her again. The statement made Jemma pause for a moment. She was expecting something quick and witty to come from her not something that was brutally honest. Maybe that's why Fitz had taken such a liking to Skye because she was honest, in SHIELD honesty was rare and when found it was like a breath of fresh air.

"Officer isn't there anything you can do to get these people to disperse?" She heard Coulson ask as he climbed the stairs.

The officer shrugged and held onto his belt buckle, "Been trying to but it's a free country."

"Arrest them." Skye said and Simmons looked at her in shock. The number of times that Skye said something with so little care baffled her mind. Jemma would guess that Skye was to the point where she just didn't care anymore.

The officer moved and shot her a look even opened his mouth to say something but Skye beat him to it. "They are clearly harassing this woman and from what I can tell they are stepping onto her property line. Now I have no idea what type of person this lady is but I'm guessing she didn't give them permission to be here. So, arrest them."

"Not helping." Coulson said to her pointing a finger at her. She just shrugged her shoulder like she didn't care and turned around to lean on one of the pillars outside the house.

"Miss Hutchens, I'm Agent Coulson…" Jemma almost tuned him out as she failed to realize the woman in front of her. She was young and pretty but she looked incredible said and tried. Her blue eyes bloodshot and watery with all the tears. Her hair looked to be dirty as if she hadn't washed it in days while she had her arms wrapped around herself.

"You've come to lock me up?" Hannah asked.

"To talk." Ward responded and Simmons was surprised by how sincere he had sounded.

"Well, what good will that do?" She asked looking off into the distance her voice thick with sadness.

Just then an egg was thrown at the house nearly hitting Hannah in the face. All of them moved out of the way and Jemma watched as Skye kicked herself off of the pillar, "Hey, Blue Blood!" Skye shouted at the officer then pointed to Hannah, "Protect and Serve, Dumbass."

"We don't want you here, anymore!" A man shouted from the crowd. Jemma looked over at Skye who looked to be having none of it. It seems that Jemma might finally witness Skye's limit, which was odd considering other people they had dealt with.

"Officers, get those people back." Ward demanded as he pointed to the angry crowned. The policeman trying their best to try and contain them.

There was a screech of tires and Jemma looked to see that a police car was speeding towards the man who had yelled at her. Coulson sprinted off of the porch and was able to push the man out of the way. The car piled into the white picket fence running all the way back into the backyard. Skye had turned back and stared at the woman. Her stare was anything accusatory if anything her look was one of someone who had just encountered a problem on the SAT's that they didn't understand.

"It's her!" Screeched another woman, "That freak just tried to kill us!"

"Quiet!" Skye yelled at the woman. There was a click and Jemma looked over to see that the officer who Skye had yelled at was now pointing a gun at Hannah's head.

"Hey, easy officer, put the gun down." Ward said with his hands out in front of him.

"Leave me alone." Hannah cried as she backed away from the armed man.

"Miss Hutchins, please calm down no one is going to hurt you."

"Please, it isn't me." She sobbed again her arms up in surrender.

Coulson was about to say something else but was stopped when Hannah fell to the ground. Jemma looked behind her to see that May had shot her and sedated her. She was standing there her face still stone cold no emotion passing her. Skye who had been yelling at other people was now silent and glaring at May. There was an unknown tension between the two that made her terribly uncomfortable. Every time they were in a room together Jemma got this feeling that two wanted to slit each other's throats.

"What the hell, May?" Skye asked throwing her arms out.

"Time to go." May said putting down her gun.

"So much for the welcome wagon." Coulson said while looking at May and the destruction around them.

Jemma caught a glimpse of Skye throwing another glare at May. If the older woman had noticed she had not said anything about it, or really, showed any emotion about it. The team all quickly worked to get Hannah into the car and out of danger. If she was being honest and the situation was not so dire, she would have laughed at the sight of Coulson and Ward lifting Hannah's body into the car.

It took them a while but they eventually got there. Coulson had called everyone and was telling them to get into the car. Simmons couldn't help but look at the chaos around her. Had she always been so oblivious to situations like this? Was this really the world they lived in now where people hated others for the sole factor that they were different.

"You okay?" She heard a voice ask as a hand came to rest on her shoulders. Jemma jumped but smiled when she saw that it was just Skye.

"I'm fine." She said, "It just…makes me wonder is all. How much we actually know about the world we live in."

Skye smirked but there was something about it that was off, "Seven billion people on this planet alone Jemma Simmons." She said then raised an eyebrow, "If you think we're the only ones then you're out of your damn mind."

Jemma swallowed as they walked to the car, "So, you don't think we're alone on this planet. That it's possible for people to have powers?" she asked

Skye then laughed, a pure laugh, that came deep from within her stomach. There was something about it though that made the hairs on the ends of her arms stand up. Like, she was missing out on a joke about something. To her, the statement was not all that funny and she couldn't understand what was so funny about it. Instead of replying to her comment Skye instead continued walking away while shaking her head in laughter. Leaving a very confused Jemma Simmons behind.

Simmons then took one look up at the sky and couldn't help but feel incredibly small.

Skye was laying down on the floor. Her eyes were closed and her hands were clasped over her stomach. Taking big breaths in and out she tried relaxing, letting her body loosen up and feeling the vibrations of the world around her. Slowly the forms of her surrounding were taking shape behind her closed eyes.

First, was the outline of the plane then came the surrounding furniture and finally, the heartbeats of everyone. She could see the outlines of their bodies take shape but nothing was more noticeable than their hearts. Skye could see all of them, how they looked, how fast they were beating, their blood pumping through their veins and arteries. She could see it all and it gave her a thrill.

She was able to see that Hannah Hutchins was now curled up into a ball and crying her eyes out. Skye knew from the first time that she saw her that she was not Inhuman. She didn't have a different vibration that someone with powers usually had. Yet, she witnessed a car move on its own that seemed to stem from Hannah which made her confused. She didn't like being confused, being confused meant that she might make a mistake. And her mistakes usually ended up being pretty big ones that weren't good for anyone.

Familiar footsteps and vibration called her back to where she was. Someone was walking up to her and she knew exactly who that someone was. Grant was slowly walking up to her, his footsteps light as if he was trying to sneak up on her. She had to hold in a snort, he would have to do better than that. He stopped right by her head and Skye didn't even move a muscle, "Yes, Ward?" She asked not even bothering to open her eyes.

"How didn't you know that it was me?" Was the first thing that he asked.

She smirked with her eyes still closed. "By the sound of your footsteps." She said humorously, "Now, what can I do you for?"

"Can we talk?" He asked and she didn't need her powers to tell that he was nervous about it.

Skye opened her eyes and did her best to blink away the blinding light. It took her eyes a few seconds to readjust before she was able to see normally again. She stared up at Ward's face and saw that he didn't even try to hide the nervousness.

"Sure." She said simply hopping up. Ward reached out his hand and she gratefully excepted it. There was feeling that she got whenever he touched her now. A certain, at the risk of sounding cliché, zing or zap to it. A feeling that caused her the butterflies in her stomach to go ballistic. It was as if someone had taken her sixteen-year-old self and turned her up to one hundred.

Ward gently took her hand and lead her past FitzSimmons lab. He took her into the storage area and soon he was walking her on the path that leads to her little alcove. Her heart was hammering every time they had taken a step closer. Coulson had already figured her out about Kiera and that something happened there. What if she wasn't careful enough this morning? What if Ward had figured out that she had powers too and now he was going to blow the whistle. Something tells her that maybe he wouldn't be as understanding as Fitz was.

Finally, they had reached their destination, a place that wasn't her storage closet but was near it. It was only a tiny bit bigger than her place and seemed to have more shelves. As Skye entered the room and saw Ward shut the door she looked at him nervously, "What do you want to talk about?" She asked trying to keep her voice calm.

"About this morning." He said, "When I said that thing about people with powers…" He then trailed off and looked at her, "Skye, do you know someone with powers?" He asked.

Skye sucked in her breath. Fury's words came to mind about being a better person. Tommy's words about finally trusting other people came to mind. Every part of her body was telling her not to say anything. All except her heart, the one thing that she never acted on. "When you've done the work I've done, Grant. You see a lot of things in this world. Some can be explained others that can't." She then sighed and ran and hand through her hair, "At the end of the day you just have to stop questioning it and do what's right. But, then sometimes what's right…" She said trailing off.

"Is wrong." He finished for her and she looked up at him in surprise. "Working for SHIELD I've learned that the line blurs a lot. I've learned that sometimes we're not always the good guys."

Skye smiled softly, "I've learned that there are no good guys, just people who lie and people who don't deny what they are."

Grant chuckled and came over to stand beside her. He grabbed her hand and together both of them slid down the wall. "Was it hard for you?" He asked, "To become a mercenary."

Skye thought for a moment then shook her head, "No, not really. The killing got easier the more that time passed. The man I worked for, he made it easy, I guess in a way it was his form of caring."

"I thought you said he brainwashed you?"

Skye nodded her head confirming the words that came out of his mouth, "He did." She said, "But, it still doesn't change the fact that a part of him still wanted me." She said and she watched as his expression and changed, "Not like that." She added quickly, "I meant to say that he wanted me to become his legacy. That I would be the one to hold up the mantle after he was gone. That was the one thing about him, he never once questioned the fact that he was going to die. Never tried to stop it."

She then watched as Grant frowned and looked down at their interlocked hands, "If you still worked for him… Would you have done it? Taken up the mantel?"

"Yes." Skye said immediately not doubting what her actions would have been, "I would have watched the world burn." She confessed.

It was a few more moments and she could hear Grant's heart speed up a little bit, "Would you still watch the world burn."

She frowned but then looked him in the eyes. She wasn't going to lie to Grant anymore. If he was going to ask her a question when she was going, to tell the truth. "I don't know." She confessed, "But I don't want the opportunity to find out."

Skye brought her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on top of them. "I'm sorry." She breathed out, "for freaking out this morning. I'm still adjusting to civilian life and I forget that it's not my problem anymore."

"You don't have to apologize." Grant said while shaking his head, "You just want people to be safe."

"No, I just want them to live." She corrected him, "To have the opportunity that…" She trailed off unable to finish the sentence. There was another lapse of silence and Skye closed her eyes thinking about everything. She bobbed her head up and down trying to think of ways that all of this could go wrong, her mind taking her to dark places.

"What's your middle name?" Grant asked her and she looked over at him in confusion.

"What?" She asked.

"You said you wouldn't tell me your real first name. Well, what's your middle name?"

Skye smiled at the obvious attempt to make her feel better, "Louise." She said while smirking at the cringing name. She had no idea what her parents were thinking when they had chosen that for a middle name.

Grant had tried to keep a straight face but struggled and Skye rolled her eyes, "Go ahead, you can laugh, it's stupid I know."

He let out a chuckle and hugged her knees tighter to her chest trying to keep her own laughter at bay. After they had both laughed Skye gently laid her head against his shoulder and started to relax. This was something that she could get used to. This was something that she liked and wanted to spend the rest of her days doing.

This is what she wanted to get used to.

Grant let out a deep sigh and Skye didn't have it in her to look up at his face. She knew what she would see if she did. A look of disappointment, no longer Grant but rather Ward, and Skye didn't know which one he liked better.

Those thoughts drove her to May. The woman who she knew was out to get her most simply for the fact that she existed. The two had come to an understanding, which was don't come near my business and I won't come near yours. Yet, as more people from her past kept popping up she was finding it more difficult to keep May out of her business.

She wanted to like the woman. After her mother had said so many things about she thought that maybe she could do the opposite. Like, her simply because her mother didn't but as time was passing that was proving to be wrong. As May did more things Skye was starting to see the frustration that her mother had with SHIELD and that scared her.

"Can I ask you another question?" Grant asked and she lifted her head to look at him.

Raising an eyebrow, she shrugged, "Sure."

"What you said, back in Ireland, about almost killing yourself. Was that true?"

She had to use all her strength not to look away from him. It was true, it was very very true. She might not have the full memories back yet but she knew what had happened. She knew what had driven her over the edge to want to kill herself.

"Yeah." She said quietly, "It was true."

She then felt Grant take his hand and cupped her cheeks. He gently moved her jaw so that she was facing him and Skye could feel tears well up in her eyes. Slowly and unsure Grant leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips and Skye closed her eyes trying to stay in the moment forever. The kiss was light, their lips had barely touched, but the fluttering in her stomach was off the charts.

"What was that for?" She asked after he had pulled away.

He smiled her and tucked a piece of her loose hair behind her ear, "For being you." He said the leaned forward and kissed her again.

"And that one?" She asked with a light laugh in her voice.

Grant chuckled, "Because I wanted to."

Coulson stood observing the woman with his hands behind his back. She was still sleeping, still knocked out from when May shot her. He wondered if she would be mad at them waking up then again, she hadn't even seen May shoot her so maybe they got lucky. This case was confusing him more by the minute. The more time he actually spent looking at the world around the more details he had never picked up on before. It was the little things that always mattered and now he was seeing how true that was now more than ever. When he had met Hannah Hutchins, he didn't think that she was gifted. She didn't have any physical features and didn't look to be the type of person that would. Then again, he's been surprised before.

Speaking with Samantha St. Clair had been enlightening but it had taught him one thing. The girl lied through her teeth and barely budge when questioned. She wasn't very good at lying but she wasn't going to tell the truth. Kiera Davis was even more curious. When he asked Fury for the file over video chat, the man laughed and wished him good luck. When he skimmed through the pages everything about it just baffled him.

Then he saw it.

So, he ran with it. He too, lied through his teeth to get Skye to tell some sort of truth. This caused him to learn some interesting things about Skye. The first being, she was in contact with unregistered gifted individuals. The second being, she was trying to adjust to normal life. When she had said that every one of the run-ins had been an accident he believed her. When she said she hadn't known about Elliot he believed her. When she had said that she couldn't tell him, Coulson didn't believe her.

He had a feeling that maybe she could tell them she just didn't want to. She had always been very selective about her information since the beginning. He had thought it was because she hated Big Brother but the more he interacted with her. The more it seemed that Skye was just scared they wouldn't except her. It was like as soon as they found out about something they would run for the hills and never look back. She had told them the one time that she had done some pretty horrible things. Things that could not be forgiven so lightly. Coulson thought that she had been talking about the videos she had posted with the Rising Tide. The more he learned about her the more he doubted that.

"Stop." May said suddenly and Coulson nearly jumped

"Stop what?" He asked while slight humor in his voice as he watched her.

"You're thinking loudly and it's distracting me."

"I'll just try to think more quietly then." He said and went back to looking at the young woman.

He then let out a deep sighed and he saw May narrow her eyes out of the corner of his eye. He knew that he was annoying her at this point. But, what was he supposed to do? So far, they had no plan on how they were going to get Hannah talking. The only way that May ever came up with good plans is when she was most annoyed with him.

He sighed again and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Do we even have a plan?" Coulson asked.

May just shrugged her shoulders, "Wait until she wakes up, then we go in and gain her trust. It's simple really."

Coulson snorted, "Yeah, I thought the same thing with Skye and look at how that's turning out." He said offhandedly.

"That's because you're trying too hard." May said and turned to face him, "People like her won't open up to you just because you smile at them. I've seen the way she is, the way she acts, Phil that girl's been trained not to tell anyone anything. I'd be willing to bet a lot of money to even say she'll go the grave with some of her secrets."

Coulson furrowed his brow, "You think she's working against us still?"

May simple shrugged her shoulders, "I'm just saying we don't have all the facts and the ones we do have aren't very favorable."

"How so?" He asked curiously.

"She has immense skill when it comes to fighting. Has lied to us on several occasions, has multiple outside contacts. Everything about it is a walking disaster waiting to happen, it's like where she goes destruction and chaos aren't too far behind."

The words triggered something in his head. He had looked up Mary Sue Poots and was very disappointed to only find one miserably fine one her. He thought that even SHIELD would have more but as he looked it seemed that only Skye had the one file. Coulson looked into all the agents on the mission and it was something about what May had said that made him think. One of the surviving agents, who had died, later on, said that it hadn't been worth it. That all the death and destruction because the baby wasn't worth it. That they should never have stepped foot into the village at all. Two months later he was found dead.

Coulson was about to respond when the groaning of Hannah woke him up. He gazes shifted towards her and Phil sighed, "Well," He said, "Let's hope I have better luck with her then with Skye."

"At least Skye can't throw you across the room." May snarked in her deadpanned delivery.

Coulson then stopped and cocked his head to the side as he paused from walking out the door. "Yeah," He said uncertainly, "Thank goodness for that."

Chapter Text

Skye scrolled through her tablet to find anything of interest on Hannah. The problem was, this girl was boring with a capital 'B' and had nothing on her. Not ever a parking ticket. The girl was as clean as you get so she had a problem thinking that she could commit mass murder. Letting out a deep sigh of frustration Skye pushed the tablet away from her. She rested her cheek on her hand and turned her attention to the figure standing in front of her.

Grant was making some sort of sandwich and Skye wasn't going to lie. She was enjoying the view and smirked as she stared at his butt. "What do you think May's problem is with me?" She asked while still staring at his butt.

"Could be a lot of things." He said as he began to cut up to the sandwich. "You could just be nicer to her." He said offhandedly.

Skye then narrowed her eyes, "I think she just needs to get laid. Maybe that will finally take the stick out of her ass. I mean it worked for you didn't it?" She asked.

Grant dropped the knife he had been holding and turned around to look at her with wide brown eyes. Her mouth was open like a fish and he stared at her like she had two heads. "What?" She asked.

Grant brought his plate over and laid it in front of her, "One; you can't just say that about people, especially May. Two; I thought we were keeping our relationship a secret."

Skye shrugged her shoulders, "There's no one around to hear me. FitzSimmons is in the Lab, Coulson in his office and May is flying the plane." She then nodded to the plant, "Unless you're counting the plant?" Skye then grabbed one half of the sandwich and began to eat it. She playfully smiled at Grant and made it her priority to smack her lips as loud as she could to annoy him.

"You are a child." He said and rolled his eyes taking the other half of the sandwich.

She smirked and bopped his nose, "You don't even know the half of it. Although I'm not as bad as my friend, Tommy, he's the childish one." Skye then went to take another bight but then froze. It had just slipped out of her mouth so naturally and she wasn't even paying attention to what she had been saying. She watched Grant carefully as carefully bit into his sandwich digesting her words.

Grant looked down and scrunched his face up, "Why don't you talk about your family?" He finally asked. "You can talk about being a mercenary, killing people like it's nothing. Like it was nothing. But, when it comes to your family or friends you barely utter a word."

Skye looked away and took her hands away from the tablet. How could she answer him when she could barely answer it herself? She was barely honest with herself so how could she do it with him. Taking a deep breath in and out Skye grabbed onto her mothers' necklace. "I don't know." She said softly, "I guess a part of me is afraid that I'll go back to them. That if I think about them for too long then I'll start to remember how much I love them." She then forced herself to look at him, "it's hard. Loving someone and hating them at the same time. Get's exhausting after a while when you've been doing it for as long as I have."

Skye then stopped and thought about the words she just said. She looked back down at her tablet and scrolled the information. She didn't stop scrolling until she came upon the information that she was looking for. Hannah had been deemed responsible for an explosion in the lab which could cause a lot of self-hate. Especially for someone as good as Hannah Hutchins, who on paper looks to have done no real wrong. Sure, people had died on her shift but sometimes mistakes happened but not to the degree that it had happened to Hannah. She had lost just about everything good in her life but had done nothing wrong. As Skye looked at the reports from the factory it looked like Hannah had done everything as she usually had done it. There were no mistakes from her inspection, so how did the factory blow up? As Picard from Star Trek had once put it, "Sometimes you can make no mistakes and still lose."

"What?" Grant said and Skye looked up not realizing that she had just said it out loud.

"It's a quote from Star Trek. And it got me thinking, what if Hannah didn't make a mistake that night?"

Grant took another bite of his sandwich, "You mean the night of the explosion?"

"Yeah, what if she hadn't made a mistake but instead life had just happened."

"Still not understanding what you're saying here?"

"What is something had just happened that was out of her control?" Skye suggested, "Grant, I've been looking at her files for a while now. There is nothing on here that suggest she could be the person we all think she is." Skye then slid off her chair and tapped her finger on the ground trying to come up with a place. "I need to talk to her." She finally said and grabbed her tablet.

Looking at Grant she smiled and winked goodbye to him. He rolled his eyes continuing to eat his sandwich. Skye was glad that he had dropped the subject of Tommy but she knew that it wasn't completely over. She knew that sooner or later she was going to have to tell him about Tommy. That she was going to have to tell Grant about a lot of thing about herself.

Pushing all those thoughts to the back of her head she quickly found Coulson and May. They were together in his office and she's not going to lie. Seeing them there together was a little intimating for her. Her heart sped a little faster looking at them afraid of what could possibly happen between the three of them. Skye knew that Coulson wouldn't kill her and May wouldn't, well Skye likes to think that May wouldn't kill her. At this point, she had no real idea where May stands with her. She knows that it can't be good considering all the times she had pissed her off.

Blinking she looked back to the two people she was thinking about. Both looked taken by surprise by her sudden burst into the room. Clearing her throat, she straightened her posture and made her way into the room. Lifting up her tablet showing them that she found something, well the lack thereof.

"Yes?" Coulson asked putting his pen down that he had been writing with.

Skye swallowed, "I couldn't find anything of Hannah." She said, "This girl is as mundane as it gets. From, what I found there is nothing abnormal about her. In fact, her life was actually boring."

"Maybe you missed something?" May said.

Skye was about to retort but bit her tongue thinking of what Grant had said. Maybe if she showed a little kindness and humanity than May would treat her better. Doing her best not to glare at the older woman Skye looked towards her, "I didn't miss anything believe me." She grunted out, "I think that maybe, Hannah just had a bad day."

"A bad day?" Coulson said in disbelief, "Skye spilling coffee on your tie is a bad day. Having an entire factory blow up and killing multiple people is a little more than just a bad day."

"I know." Skye sighed, "It's…I don't think that this girl is who we think she is." She then pulled up the files on her tablet, "I mean the only time that someone complained about her was when…" She trailed off noticing something she hadn't before. All three complaints had been done by the same person and all were filed for Hannah's department. Skye checked Hannah's reports to find that it seemed the only problems that were found were under one person.

"Skye?" Coulson asked.

Skye blinked up at him and shook her head. She handed over the tablet, "Sorry, it's just, the only complaints that Hannah ever got where under one person's name." She then showed him the picture, "Tobias Ford."

"Can we find him?"

"Not unless you know how to bring someone back from the dead." Skye said, "He was one of the people to die in the explosion." Coulson then went still and Skye could hear his heart speed up. She looked to May to see her have the same reaction. Then two elder agents looked at each other with a knowing stare and Skye felt terribly out of the loop. "You two know something don't you?" She said.

Coulson sighed, "Hannah said that what was happening wasn't because of her. She said that there was someone else on the Bus."

"Like a ghost?" Skye asked. That would be new to her, she had never tried to fight a ghost before.

"Let's go with that," May answered then walked over to where Skye was sitting. All three looked at each other. "Whatever this thing is, it's here now."

"Yeah, and it seems to be angry as all hell." Skye scoffed, "If we can figure out what's making it angry then maybe we can calm it down."

"I don't think it's can be that easy," Coulson said.

He would have said more but was cut off by the ear-piercing scream that could only come from one person. All three people stopped for a moment and a second later all three were rushing out the door and down the stairs. It was a mess and Skye wasn't going to lie she was surprised that they had managed not trip over each other. She guessed though that whenever Simmons was involved all bets were kind of off the table. You could hurt them all you want but when it came to FitzSimmons then someone was going to have to pay because of it.

They found Simmons looking ashen and shaking with fear. She was huddled against the wall of the lab looking at the now smashed holotable with shock and disbelief. Her attention then came to them and her mouth started opening and closing like a fish desperate for water. She then picked herself and looked over to Coulson. "She wasn't lying." Simmons said. "It wasn't her. There was someone-something else here." She then took a deep breath and looked down at the ground, "We're not alone." She whispered quietly. Although, Skye got the impression that she wasn't just talking about the ghost anymore.

Then all of the sudden the plane started rumbling. A second later Skye could feel the plane start to drop out of the sky. She fell to the floor with everyone else and she quickly realized that there was no power on the plane anymore. They were freefalling through the sky. Putting her hand down to the ground she tried to feel out for the engine but couldn't find it's source anywhere. The hum was gone and she crinkled her eyebrow. The engine was not only completely off but cut from its power source meaning there was no way they could turn the plane back on.

Minutes later May had been able to land the plane safely. They had all gathered back down in the lab ready to start the hunt for the ghost. Or as they now had figured it out, Tobias Ford. Only there was one problem and it seems that Simmons was the first one to figure it out.

They had all been around the broken holotable ready to talk when Simmons blurted out, "Where's Fitz?" She asked. When she looked at them with an answer and found that they didn't know as well Skye could see the panic starting to form, "Where's Fitz?" She asked again.

Skye shrugged her shoulders, "I thought he was with you." She said.

Simmons then shook her head, "No, I told him to go get some supplies. But, that was almost an hour ago he should be back by now."

"I'll help you look for him." Grant said coming up to meet her. He had been standing on her right Skye was almost ashamed to say that she didn't notice him at first. Not, because he was her boyfriend but because she knew that she was more perceptive than that. Wow, saying the word boyfriend was really weird to her. It was almost juvenile in a way but it was still true.

Coulson had nodded his head and Grant moved over to go with Simmons. Which left her alone in the room with Coulson and she could feel the tension build up again. Skye looked over at him and shifted her weight from one leg to the other. "Let me talk to her." Skye said, "Maybe I can help."

"I already tried that."

"Yeah, but you did it as an agent, not a friend."

Coulson raised an eyebrow at her, "You can be friendly?" He said in fake shock.

She rolled her eyes and huffed, "Of course I can be friendly. I've been friendly with FitzSimmons the entire time I've been on this plane. I've been friendly with Ward for the majority of my time here."

"But, you haven't been friendly with me or May." He then tilted his head to the side, "Especially, May."

Skye sighed and turn her heads towards him, "It's just…" She trailed off trying not to think of her mother, "Every time that I see her she reminds me of someone I used to know."

"Your mother?" He guessed and Skye nodded hesitantly.

"My mother…" She started and Coulson walked a bit closer to her, "She was a complicated woman and sometimes she was difficult to be around. Other times it was like you couldn't get enough of her and sometimes I just didn't know if she was acting or not. I could never tell if she was being real with me or putting up a front." Skye shook her head, "May, doesn't fully remind me of my mother, not in the way you would think. She just reminds me of the reason that my mother is the way that she is." Skye then sighed deeply, "It doesn't matter now anyway. Not like it ever mattered in the first place."

"Why not?" Coulson asked hesitantly.

Skye could feel her stomach drop. Certain emotions that she never wanted to feel were coming to light again. Emotions she had shoved far down into the depths of her soul and heart were coming back to haunt her. She could feel her eyes begin to water. "My mother was a kind person." She said her voice only wavering slightly as she was unable to look at Coulson, "Someone who believed in kindness and second chances." Skye forced herself to turn around and look at him. So, he could see the emotion in her eyes. "But, there are some things in this world, Coulson, that just can't be forgiven. To experience something so horrible that it changes you. Unfortunately, my mother was one of those people to experiences that."

Skye then made her way to the door leaving a silent Coulson in her wake. She had reached for the handle of the door when his voice stopped her. "What about you?" He asked.

She turned around to give him a confused look, "What?" She asked.

"What about you? Have you experienced anything that is unforgivable?"

Skye thought for a moment. "Yes," She said finally, "But, none were inflicted upon me. Everything that I've done I've deserved, for the most part."

"Do you really believe that?"

Skye shrugged her shoulders, "There's nothing else really to believe." This time she did leave him before he could ask her another question.

She was going to ask Hannah some much-needed questions. Simmons said that they were not alone on the Bus. That Hannah had been right but Skye was honestly confused by that little confession. What did she even mean they weren't alone on the Bus? Shaking her head she walked up the stairs and passed the living room and into the hallway that leads to the interrogation room.

If Skye was being honest with herself. She felt as if she was in the middle of a horror movie. With the emergency lights still flickering. The long narrow hallway seemed to be the perfect place to get murdered by someone. Still, Skye walked down the hallway and made her way to the door lightly knocking on it. She heard scuffling and some sniffling then a weak voice came through the door.

"Hello?" Hannah asked.

"Hannah?" Skye said sounding sincere, "My name's Skye, I was at your house earlier, I come as a friend."

"Go away." She pleaded, "Please, I'll just hurt you."

Skye smiled even though Hannah couldn't see it, "No, you won't, trust me on that."

She heard a thump and then something slowly falling to the ground. Scared that something had happened Skye used her powers to feel for the girl. Her worries washed away when she felt that she had only crouched down onto the floor. Skye, needing to talk to the girl, slid down as well and entered the same position as her.

"Hannah," She said, "Please, talk to me."

"It's all my fault." She heard the woman sob, "It's all my fault that they're all dead."

Skye paused for a second, "It was a mistake, Hannah, those things happen. You're still a good person."

"You think so?"

"Yeah," Skye said honestly, "In fact, I would say that you're better than most."

There was a pause of silence. Then she heard more shuffling and the lock on the door had clicked open. Skye stopped leaning on the door and turned around to see it open. Then in front of her was a rough looking Hannah Hutchins. Her hair was a rat's nest while her mascara had started to run from all the crying she had been doing. Her cheeks did not fare any better as they were now blotchy while her eyes were bloodshot.

Hannah sniffed and rubbed her runny nose on her sleeve, "How can I still be a good person when I killed all those people?"

Skye frowned and stared at the girl trying to give her a reassuring look. "You didn't kill those people, Hannah. Killing all those people meant that you wanted it to happen. Did you want all those people to die?" She shook her head no, "Then you didn't kill them." Hannah still didn't look convinced and Skye sighed and reached out, putting a hand on the girls' shoulder, "Hannah," She gave another sigh, "I've done terrible things in my life. Things that I'm not proud of and then there are the things that I am proud of. But, the thing is all the mistakes that I've made all the terrible things that have happened to me. I wouldn't change them for the world."

"Why?" She asked with the curiosity of a young child.

Skye gave her a sad smile and squeezed her shoulder, "Because everything that has happened to me. All the bad, terrible, and ugly. Has to lead me here to this moment in time. A place in my life was I'm semi-stable and somewhat happy with my life. I'm at a place now where I can see a future. Hannah, sometimes we have to let the bad things happen in order to get to a good place."

Hannah swallowed and wiped her eyes. She narrowed her eyes a bit at her but Skye was guessing that was just due to the running make-up. "Do you believe in God?" She asked.

"No." Skye said softly, "I don't."

"I do." She said softly the brought her knees up to her chest hugging herself tightly, "And I think he's punishing me for what I've done."

Skye frowned and moved inside of the room to sit beside Hannah. At that moment she didn't care about whatever was on the plane. She didn't care about the possibility of people around her that could overhear. All she wanted to do was make this decent woman feel better about her life because she deserved it.

"I grew up in an orphanage for the first fifteen years of my life." Skye said and Hannah turned her attention towards her. "It was based in New York and they loved to just shove religion down our throats. St. Mary's it was called." Skye chuckled, "I didn't have many friends there and the nuns didn't exactly love me either." Skye then paused and cleared her throat trying to get rid of the small amount of fear she had. "But, I did have this one friend there. His name was Matt Murdock, he was older than me and blind but most importantly he told me something I'll never forget. He told me that even though people will do horrible things, it doesn't mean that we should punish them. That, in the end, God will forgive us because that's what he is. God is love."

Skye saw from the corner of her eye that Hannah's lip twitched. So, she bumped her shoulder a little bit giving her a friendly nudge, "There are bad people in this world, Hannah. Hell, monsters even and I've come close to them but you…" She trailed off giving her a soft look, "You aren't one of them. You were just in the wrong place and wrong time."

"But, everything that keeps happening…" Hannah trailed off.

"Is all some childish bullshit." Skye said, not thinking anything of it.

A knock on the door caused both of them to jump and Skye turned around to see May. Skye got up instantly and looked at the older trying to figure out how much she had heard. If she had heard anything she didn't give anything away. All she did was stare at Skye then down at Hannah. "I'll take guard." She told her. "Coulson's in his office. Go see what he needs help with."

In any normal given situation, Skye would have rebutted. She would have said that May didn't have to tell her what to do. Given the situation and the strange feeling in her gut that maybe she should listen to May. Skye didn't question the woman's motives, she just nodded her head and ran off until she got to Coulson's office.

The said man was just standing there looking like a mess. He was sifting through so many papers that Skye wondered where he even kept them all. He was nervous and fidgety and she didn't need her powers to tell her that.

She knocked on the door alerting him that she was there. He whipped his head up and stared at her. His brow was creased and whatever he had been previously doing was put to the side. Laying down the papers he straightened his back and stared her in confusion. "Skye?" He asked. "What are you doing here?"

"May said that you would be here. I got the hint that maybe you needed help with something."

Coulson snorted, which was a noise that she was surprised to hear from him. "Unless you know anybody who can hunt a ghost, then no, I've got nothing for you." He then went back to his papers.

Skye made a noise that made look back up at her. She shrugged her shoulders, "His thing isn't a ghost, it's more or less shadows and darkness."

Coulson slouched his shoulders, "How many gifted people do you know?"

Skye tried giving him an innocent look, "Hey, I only find out about their gifts after I befriend them." She then walked closer to him and leaned against the desk. She slammed her hand down on the papers he was sorting through. The action made him stop his movements and look up at her, "I've been meaning to ask you something."

"What's that?"

Skye took a deep sigh, "It's about, May." She said then bit her lip, "I don't think she likes me very much."

"Well, you did practically spill one of her darkest secrets to the entire teams." He said reminding her of when she brought up Bahrain. Coulson the put his hands on his hips, "Which reminds me, how do you know about that."

"I hacked the files." Skye lied hoping that he would buy it.

He didn't. "That's impossible. The files never talked about the little girl or her mother by name but you did." He told her then pointed a finger at her, "So, I'm going to ask again and this time I want the truth. How did you know about Bahrain?"

Skye did her best to keep her heart rate down. She could tell the bees in her stomach that her powers wanted releasing. That she was coming to close, to what Tommy dubbed, the Danger Zone. It was when her anxiety or fear had become too much for her. Causing her heart rate to go up thus making her powers act out. Considering she was in a closed off space with Coulson, she can only assume that this was going to go poorly.

"My mother." Skye said weakly while clenching her fist, "She's the one that told me about, May and Bahrain. She's the one that told me about all of it."

Coulson's brow crinkled, "How did she know?"

Skye shook her head, "People always underestimated her." Skye said thickly her eyes were becoming wet and she felt as though it was getting harder to breathe. "They thought that she was crazy to help people who were too sick to heal. That there was no point in going after a lost cause, but yet, my mother still went forward. She still went after the lost causes and even came to guide a few, but not all listened to her." Skye then looked away from Coulson and instead decided to look out the window instead, "She warned Eva about what would happen to her daughter. Gave her every warning in the book but the stupid woman didn't listen. And because she didn't listen her daughter suffered because of it." She scoffed, "All she wanted was her daughter to be like her and in the end, I guess they did turn out the same way. Dead."

"Skye?" Coulson asked. "Your mother…is she…what's your relationship with her?"

Skye turned back to him. She fidgeting with the end of her sleeve. She could tell him or she could not. Honestly, the latter sounded much more appealing. Closing her eyes and thinking about what Tommy said about trust. About what Fury told her and being a new person. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes again looking at Coulson. "My mother is…is…is hard to explain." The words were becoming stuck in her throat. "Let's just say that hating someone is harder than you would expect."

Coulson had opened his mouth to say something but was stopped by the clicking of the door. Both him and Skye rushed to it. Coulson grabbed the doorknob and began jiggling it hoping to open it but nothing was happening. The door was locked and it was only her and Coulson stuck in this room while everyone else was on their own.

"We have to get out of here." Coulson said hastily while trying to break the door down. "This door won't budge."

The bees in her stomach made themselves known Skye swallowed hard. She could feel her powers just lying right beneath her skin. They were waiting for a moment to be let loose and they were choosing that moment to be now. She took a deep breath and turned towards Coulson; either she was going to show the truth or make another way out of here.

Coulson ditched trying to open the door and made for his desk. He scrambled through multiple items on his desk. His papers had gone flying everywhere and Skye could see the collection of junk begin to accumulate on his desk. They didn't have time for a plan, they needed action. Skye needed action.

As if time had slowed down for her. Skye took her right arm and lifted it up into the air holding her hand out to the door. She focused all her energy in that one hand and pushed on the door. She let out a breath she had been holding in. When she saw the door blast open from the force of her powers. She then smiled as she felt the usual dose of adrenalin run through her. The power in her veins that was demanding more.

The room was silent, she noticed, as she lowered her arm. "Skye?" A weak voice said and she turned around to see a very shocked looking Coulson. Skye's face fell as she took in the expression on Coulson's face. He looked heartbroken, shocked, and sad almost all at the same time.

"I'm sorry." Skye said, "But this is the only way." She out of the room and used her powers to quickly find the others.

They were outside of the plane. Somewhere in a barn, Skye was guessing. Skye pushed her legs as fast as they could go. She didn't know if Coulson was still behind her and at this point, she didn't care if he was. The only thing that mattered at this point was making sure that everyone else was still safe. That she could still save them even if she didn't have enough time.

When she finally burst open the barn Skye was met with the sight of a hysterical Hannah being clutched in the arms of Ford. Skye couldn't exactly tell what he was but he certainly wasn't human any longer. He was almost like a lingering shadow or a piece of something that could never leave just yet. May was talking to him but the words that she was speaking were not reaching Skye's ears. She was just focusing in on Ford himself. There was something about him that just made her confused as to what he was. But, as she watched Ford's grip on Hannah loosen and slowly drift out of existents and the rest of the team burst in, something else happened.

The hair on the back of her neck stood up. Vibrations that had not been there before were there now. Vibrations that she had hoped to never feel again, heartbeats that she had hoped were forever gone. They brought back feelings of fear and panic and out of instinct she reached out to Tommy.

Skye searched deep within herself to call for Tommy. To hope that he would be able to feel her cry for help. That, maybe, their bond wasn't as broken as she originally thought it was. She closed her eyes and reached for him. Wherever he was, she called out to him, using every ounce of emotion that she had asked for him to come. When she opened her eyes again Skye felt the temperature drop in the room. She noticed that the already dim lit barn had gotten darker. She felt the brush of a hand trying to grasp hers and she turned her head to the side to see him there. He wasn't smiling, his eyes were still lifeless, and like her he was afraid.

She could feel the rest of the team's gazes on them. But there was something more dangerous about to walk in. Something both her and Tommy had been dreading about since they had faked their deaths. Skye watched as the fog rolled away from the barn doors to see three figures walking forward. It took her breath away. She felt Tommy tighten up next to her as his breathing became labored

Luciana, Valentine, and Henley looked more intimidating that she had ever seen them before.

Luciana with her piercing glare directed at them. Valentine with his killer smile. Then Henley, poor Henley, with the empty look in her eye. A look that told Skye that she was not all there, that her mind was no longer her own no matter how hard she fought.

All five of them stood still and the world did not move.

Then Valentine opened his mouth, "You just can't learn to stay dead can you, Thomas Ward?" He asked.

Tommy released her hand and all Hell broke loose.

Chapter Text

At that moment the world had gone still. Everything around him had stood still, him and Skye, Val and Luciana, and his brother. Then, as quickly as the moment had started it had ended. Tommy focused in on the two guards in front of him. He narrowed his vision and clenched his fist; commanding the shadows around him, to close in. He was angry, he was tired, but most of all he was scared. Everything he had built in the past two years was crumbling down around him. That one sentence Val had said just destroy, practically, a lifetime of work.

Tommy tightened his jaw and willed the shadows to surround him and Skye. Then, in an act out of pure rage, he thrust his hands forward. The shadows obeyed his command and shot towards Luciana and Val. They ensnared them, wrapping around them like ropes. He watched as they turned stiff, struggling against the constricting bonds of the shadows. He then moved his hands to the side of his body and commanded the shadows to bring Luciana and Val to their knees.

They did so with much resistance and, both letting out grunts of pain as they landed. He could feel his anger consuming him. Tommy knew that he should stop. There was something there, a part of him, that didn't want to. A part that he was ashamed to admit was winning out, a part of him that was bigger than he let on. He had spent the better part of the last two years of his life running away from that part of him. Maybe he couldn't though, maybe this was who he was always supposed to be. He and Skye had tried so hard to run from that part of themselves. The part that took pleasure in hurting others and those around them. The part that was never truly human but something more. He was taught at Afterlife that the Inhuman race was made to be ruthless warriors. Soldiers in a war for the Kree. Killing machines with no thoughts or emotions. A disposable army with gifts. He had always laughed it off but as he watched Val and Luciana he could help but think.

He watched them wither in pain. He could see their faces start to lose color as the shadows slowly drained them of life. He thought that maybe that primal part of him, the ancient soldier part, was as gone as he thought it was. That a part of him reverted to that stage whenever he overused his powers or when the emotions were too much. Maybe, deep down, all Inhumans still held that primal killing instinct.

Tommy would have kept going. He would have watched the life to continue to drain out of Luciana and Val. He would of if it wasn't for the hand that Skye put on his shoulder. He unclenched his fist from his side and looked ahead at the trio. The only person on the other side that was still standing was Henley. She was standing still brown hair pulled back into a braid unlike it usually freestyle. Her blue-green eyes staring at him with confusion and recognition. The last time he had seen her she looked happy and healthy. Now, she just looked unwell and lost.

He took a step forward towards her reaching out a hand as he did so. Henley instantly took a step back trying to gain some distance from him. He looked down to her side to see that one of her hands was reaching for something. A weapon he guessed. It was the only thing that made sense at a time like this. Tommy could feel his eyes well up as he saw the fear in her eyes. Fear that he had caused her.

The fear that Luciana and Val had planted there.

Tommy turned his attention back to them. He used his slight power of telekinesis to push them back. It didn't work though because he was too slow. Luciana had taken the push and redirected it towards him and Skye. He could already tell that it was more powerful than the one he had sent them. Fueled with more rage and anger as her wild brown eyes glaring at them.

Skye had jumped in front of him and put a force field. Something that slightly surprised him due to the fact that he didn't know she could even do that. Tommy also had a feeling that Skye hadn't even known that she could do that. The force field had blocked the attack but caused them to be pushed slightly back. Tommy heard a light gasp and he looked to the side to see that Skye was struggling to keep the force field up. He thought that it just surrounded him and Skye but as he looked over he saw that she was covering everyone but the trio. Including her time.

The attacks then began right after the other. Each one just as brutal as the next and each on causing more and more strain on Skye. She then turned her head towards him, well actually, it was more like her looking over him. She craned her neck to see that the team still standing there looking well in shock at what was happening. Skye then turned towards him and hardened her gaze. Tommy gave her a silent question and she nodded her head.

"Go!" She shouted while scrunching her face in pain from another attack, "I'll hold them off. Just keep them safe."

Tommy nodded his head and had to pull himself from his state of shock. This was not a time to be afraid. This was not the time to freak out. This was a time of action. He left the safe confines of Skye's side and sprinted towards the team. He reached out his arms and grabbed Coulson's shoulder while the other one grabbed onto a sobbing blonde's. Quickly shouting out, "Hold your breath!" As he plunged them all into the shadows. He really hopes that they held their breath. If they didn't then they were about to get the shock of their life. Well, more so then they already had. He has a feeling that some of these people have already had enough of a shock to last a lifetime.

Feeling the shadows wrapping around them, creating a safety blanket. He thought of the first place that these people would want to go. So, he imagined the stupid, unreasonably, big plane that they always stayed on. He had found it once without any help, hopefully, he could find it again. He wove his way through the different areas of darkness and shadows. Different areas manifesting themselves before him. It wasn't until he pictured himself standing out in front of the plane did an image finally start to take place. He waited until the image was clear enough before stepping through the shadows again taking everyone with him.

When everyone's bodies had reformed again he all heard a collective gasp for air. He rolled his eyes, guess they didn't take his advice after all. He turned around to see that most of them were hunched over. Grasping at their sides of their throats like they had just come up for water after almost drowning. The only person who was not in this position was Fitz, who was just hugging himself looking unsure of what to do.

Tommy gave them a couple seconds to gather themselves. He watched them as their reality came crashing down on them. It wasn't until everyone's eyes were on him did he say something. He smiled guiltily at them and he tried to calm his racing heart. He's never had to deal with his secret with this many people before. Letting out a huff of a laugh Tommy raised an eyebrow, "I'm guessing none of you held your breath?" He asked.

Judging by the death glares that were being sent his way. That obviously had not been the thing to say. He then noticed the hysterical blonde who still seemed to be crying. Guessing that she was not apart of the team. Tommy took hold of her shadow and willed it to stop crying and go to sleep. A few seconds later the woman collapsed to the floor, with Coulson barely catching her in time. The said man who caught her glared at him, "What did you do to her?" He demanded.

He held up a finger to reply but stopped as soon as he felt a stabbing pain in his chest. Tommy put a hand to his heart and looked off to the side. Even though he couldn't see her Tommy knew that Skye was growing tired and needed his help.

He quickly turned back to the team, "Stay." He told them as if they were dogs, "Don't move, whatever you do, just don't fucking get off this plane." Tommy was about to run back into the shadows he only stopped because of his name being yelled.

Tommy turned around to see that Grant had called out his name. He saw as Grant took him in and Tommy nodded his head as if answers his silent question. Then there was something else in his eyes, "Don't move." He said again, "Just don't move and don't look back no matter what you hear."

"Is everything alright?" Fitz asked and Tommy turned towards him.

Tommy gulped and tried to hold back his emotions. How could he tell him something was going to be alright when it obviously wasn't? How could he tell his brother, who he had not seen in years, that he was probably never going to see him again after this? That this might be the last interaction they would ever have together.

Tommy then met Fitz's faze. "Just stay here."

The balls on this man. Two years, two years, that's how long this fucker takes to call her back. Two years to confirm what she already knew. Thomas Ward was alive. This was common knowledge people who knew Tommy. The only person who had confirmed information was Skye. Now, Skye would never confirm to her that Tommy was still alive. But, judging by how Skye was still alive and not totally depressed or on a rampage. Kiera figured out fairly quickly that Tommy was still alive and kicking. It was also the fact that they were somehow connected. That she could still feel apart of herself tied with Tommy.

So, Kiera waited…and waited…and kept fucking waiting for the bastard to come back. For him to call her and ask for her help. Except, he never did. In two years he had never called her. No birthday card, no text, no call. Nothing. Nothing that even told her that he was alright. However, that changed as of two minutes ago.

She could feel Tommy calling out for her. It was like a nagging voice in the back of her head. A pull in her gut that told her to go towards him, towards Tommy. It was something that she tried to fight. But, the feeling was too strong to fight and her desire to help him out was still too strong. Even if he had upset her and pissed her off Kiera still cared for him. He had given her a new life even when she never asked for one. She owed him this much.

Kiera dashed over to her closet and threw open the door, lunging for the trunk in the back. It had been a while since she had last used her Bo staff. Once she took a hold of it though, it was like every memory had come back. Her muscles still remembered how to use it. Her hands were still familiar with the form of steel staff. It was like nothing had changed.

She heard a door slam open and Kiera turned her head towards the sound. She swore slightly under her breath when she heard the telltale signs of Squeaks coming back home. Getting up she walked out of her bedroom and back into the living room to see the young teenager reading a book on the couch. Squeaks looked up and immediately knew something was wrong. Whether it was her powers or by just knowing her, Kiera didn't know.

"What's wrong?" She asked putting down the book.

"Tommy needs my help." Kiera said ignoring the slightly shocked look coming from Squeaks, "And I'm going to help him."

Squeaks got to her feet, "Let me come with you!" she shouted.

"No, you could get hurt."

Squeaks only rolled her eyes, "I may not know how to fight but I'm not completely useless in one, you know."

Kiera let out a sigh of frustration and then defeat, "Alright," She motioned for Squeaks to come over, "Get over here."

The girl let out a happy squeak and grabbed onto her shoulder. She could feel the jitteriness coming off of her. She was ready for a fight, but Kiera was pretty sure that she wasn't ready to be in a fight. Kiera shook her head and cleared her mind. She focused only on the tugging sensation that wanted her to be brought close to Tommy. She focused on him, she visualized his face, his smile, his clothes, his laugh. Every detail that she could remember about him she thought about.

Here's the thing. Kiera was never good with long distance shadow-traveling. But, she was even worse by blindly throwing herself into the shadows. While not knowing where they were going to spit her out at. As she was immersed deeper and deeper into the shadows she could begin seeing multiple images taking shape in front of her. Different places that she was not familiar with, the sound of cars and people walking.

Then it was there. His stupid voice, it was guiding her through the shadows and towards him. As she honed in on that voice the image became clearer. She could see his body take shape, then his surroundings, and finally the whole scene came to life. She could see where he was, some sort of bar, the people he was with.

Sensing the urgency, her and Squeaks rushed through the solid enough shadow and into the real world again. The air became warmer and less icy. Although from the people that were now around her. She wouldn't be surprised if that changed any second now.

Kiera looked over to Squeaks to see her reaction. She had been smiling when they entered the shadows but now she was frowning. Her smile feel, her skin had paled considerable, and she looked to be shaken to her core. Although Kiera couldn't blame her, it wasn't every day that you deal with people that what you dead constantly.

Kiera looked at everyone trying to figure out her best strategy. She looked over to see Tommy fighting off and very sickly-looking Henley. Then there was Skye, who was trying her best to defend herself against two very lethal looking people that looked severely pissed off. Tommy must have sensed her arrival because as he blocked another attack from Henley he turned towards her. "Inhumans! Bad! Help!" He yelled then took a kick in the gut from Henley.

Kiera debated running to him but from the looks of it Skye had the worse of the two. She was starting to look a little worn down and tired. Tightening her grip on the staff Kiera ran forward was able to slam her staff against the head of the man. He didn't even let out a cry of pain as he falls to the ground like a limp noodle. Skye turned to her with surprise but also with a grateful look in her eye.

However, that was not the end of it. Because the woman who had been with the man now looked even more pissed off. And this time it was being directed towards her. Now, Kiera was no biologist but even she knew that this woman was stronger than her. Both with her physical and powers wise. This woman was born an Inhuman, Kiera was just made one.

"Oh, great," The woman spat out, "Just what I need another experiment."

Kiera scoffed. How original was she? Raising an eyebrow Kiera brought her staff into defensive mode while she made her way around to Skye's side. "Is that the best insult you could do?" Kiera asked, "Because I thought you could do a little better than that."

"I could but I thought I would give you some satisfaction before I kill you." She said as she brought out a very sharp looking knife.

Kiera gulped and twirled her staff, "I've been told I'm very hard to kill."

The woman 'tsked', "Funny, I've had only three people say that to me. Two of them are now dead."

"Enough with the mocking, Luciana," Skye said moving forward a bit with her hands formed into fists by her side. "It's not too late to go." She said giving her an out, "If you to leave and forget about all of this then you still can."

Luciana let out a dark laugh, "You don't get it, do you?" She asked mockingly, "I want nothing more than to leave you two behind. But, it seems that you both have picked up a bad habit of not staying dead when you're supposed to. We were so close to the end goal all those years ago before you ruined it, Princess." Luciana said.

Kiera put her guard down a little bit. She looked at Skye with a confused look, only to be met with a very tense looking Skye. She could see the anger coursing through her, her jaw locked tight, her eyes hard, while her back was straight. Skye was very, very, mad about whatever the hell Luciana just said.

"Your end goal was insanity," Skye said smoothly.

Luciana gave her an incredulous look, "Insanity? That's what you call peace?"

"It wasn't peace, Luciana, it was madness."

Luciana shook her head unbelievingly, "I had to sacrifice so much to get me to this point. My mother all but hates me, my brother can't even bear to look at my face without disgust. But, I would give all of it up again and even then some. If it meant that we would no longer have to live in the shadows or in fear. That we would no longer be seen as abominations but as Gods instead."

Skye shook her head sadly, "We are not Gods, Luciana."

Luciana seemed to agree with that statement, "No, we are not." She agreed honestly then her expression hardens, "But we are not humans either." Then in anger, she thrust her hands out. An invisible force caused both her and Skye to be flung back against the back of the wall. Her staff was flung out of her hands and clattered to the ground as she tumbled across the dirt floor. Kiera looked over to see that Skye must have taken most of the damage. Her nose was bleeding and she now had several cuts on her face along with what she assumed was going to be a black eye in a day or two.

Luciana then stalked towards them with a look of determination. Her hand reached out again and the same invisible force lifted her five feet into the air. It was like someone was holding her up in the air by her neck. They were crushing her windpipe and it was becoming harder and harder for her to breath. She tried to reach out for her staff but that same invisible force was making it impossible to move her body.

"NO!" A voice yelled out and Kiera almost wanted to flinch. She had forgotten about Squeaks being there. She must have been hiding in the corner the entire time to wait the fight out. Luciana noticed the voice and let Kiera go, dropping her to the ground like a rag doll. She immediately started coughing, forcing the air back into her lungs.

She wanted to get up but everything in her was hurting too much. She, like Skye, was to hurt to do anything. She was going to be forced to watch one of her best friends die. She thought about yelling out to Tommy but he too was losing. Kiera could see how much he didn't want to hurt Henley. How he was holding back and letting her beat the shit out of him.

Kiera heard a shuffling noise next to her and saw that Skye had gotten up to her feet. She was still swaying a bit but there was a look of determination there. She watched as she planted her feet firmly and the ground. Skye put her hand out to her side offering Kiera some help getting up. Gratefully taking it, Kiera stumbled to her feet. "What are you going to do?" She asked.

Skye narrowed her eyes and cracked her knuckles, "Buy her some time."

Then, in a flash, Skye took her fist and slammed it against the ground. The impact was so strong and so big that the shockwave knocked all of them off their feet. Kiera was flung back into the wall. Tommy and Henley towards the barn doors, while Luciana was flung forward through the barn wall. Squeaks, by some luck, had only landed in a big stack of hay.

Whatever Skye had did rendered her senses useless. There was a ringing in her ear and she was pretty sure that she was suffering from Vertigo now. Her limbs felt like jelly and her vision was spotty making it hard to make out what was happening. She barely made out what was happening to her. The sensation of being pulled onto her feet. Someone had clasped their hands on her shoulder and she was too weak to pull them off.

When her vision partially returned she could make out Skye's face. Although, with the ringing still in her ear she had no idea what the woman was saying. It was too muffled and broken, but whatever the words she was saying, she knew that they were important. Kiera could tell that she was mouthing the same thing over and over again. But, only one word she could make out.

"Go!" Skye seemed to be shouting.

Kiera nodded her head incoherently and half jogged over to where Squeaks was laying. She was in pain, that much Kiera could tell about herself. Her side was on fire, he limbs felt like jelly, and she was pretty sure her brain was mush at this point. She somehow made it over to Squeaks though, she barely managed to lift the girl up and sling one of her arms around her shoulder. Squeaks groaned, or, at least she was pretty sure that she groaned. The ringing in her ear was still happening and everything still sounded muffled.

It took all of her strength to hobble off out of the barn. As soon as she was out the barn door she could feel the ground shake beneath her and she knew that it was Skye. Knowing that she had to hurry Kiera tugged Squeaks closer and began to power walk. Although her side was protesting her every move she pushed through the pain. She told herself to just keep going and then it would be over. That they would be safe and Tommy and Skye would have figured it out and they could all go back.

Kiera walked until she saw something in the distance. Something that she had only ever heard described to her. Something she knew to be the plane of the people Skye worked with. She could see that the back of the plane was open and Kiera grunted as she made her way closer to it. She pulled Squeaks along, her feet dragging along the mud, and she felt the girl's head fall into her shoulder.

"Almost there." She whispered to herself. Limping a few more steps she came to edge of the plane.

A gunshot rang through the air and all Kiera felt was a pain in her side. She let out a gasp and dropped Squeaks to the ground. Putting a hand to her side she saw that blood was now seeping through her shirt. Turning around to the sound of the shot she saw Luciana standing there. She was battered and bruised, blood covering her face and neck, but most of all she looked murderous.

In a panic, Kiera took a hold of Squeaks and dragged her up the plane. She didn't care about what the others might say she was only looking out for the kid. She didn't care about herself at this point, she had done her job and now it was over. Kiera watched in terror as Luciana made her way closer to them, gunshots still ringing out. Well, if there was one thing on her side, it was the fact that Luciana was a terrible shot.

Kiera laid Squeaks gently down behind some boxes. Then she managed to climb to her feet with her hand clutching her side the entire time. She walked out of her hiding space and over to what she hoped was a door button. She pressed it harshly, leaving a bloody handprint in her wake, and smiled when she saw the door beginning to close on Luciana.

She could see the pure rage enter the Inhuman's face as the door began to close on her. She unleashed the rest of her clip on her but none of them hit her. When the door finally closed and Kiera could no longer hear the sounds of gunshots, she slumped to the ground in relief. She ran a hand through her hair not caring if she got blood in it and then she laughed. This whole situation was messed up.

Kiera heard the sound of movement and looked up to see a ground of people staring down at her. Only one she was able to recognize. Putting her hand in the air and waving it at him Kiera smiled, "Phil Coulson!" She slurred happily, "I think I'd like to talk now." The man just stared at her blankly and Kiera squirmed, "I would get up but, as you can see, I'm a little preoccupied at the moment."

The man in front of her was familiar. There was a pull in her chest that told her to go to him. A feeling that made her want to run into his arms and never let go. She stared down at his unconscious form and brought her sword up to swing. Only she couldn't. There was something that was stopping her from completing the action of killing this man.

She didn't understand. Why couldn't she kill him? Why was her lip wobbling when she thought about hurting him? Or tears coming out of her eyes when she tried to think of a world without him?

You love him. A voice said in the back of her mind; one that sounded much like her own. You love him with everything you have.

"Ballis!" A gruff voice yelled and she looked up to see Luciana running back to her. Irritation was clearly written on the woman's face. "Grab, Val, we're leaving."

"But…" Henley started to say but Luciana cut her off.

"Forget about them." She said motioning to both unconscious forms of Skye and Tommy. "We have bigger problems to worry about."

Henley nodded her head then walked over to Val. She was not gentle when grabbing him. She threw him over her shoulder like it was nothing and walked back to Luciana. Said girl was holding a button in her hand and pressed it. Moments later a flash of blue light surrounded them and they were back in Afterlife. Greeted by the face of Gordon and Cecily.

"Thank you, Gordon." Cecily said kindly while never taking her eyes off of the trio, "I think I would like to talk to them privately now."

Gordon nodded his head and then exited the room leaving them alone with the princess.

Henley dropped Val to the ground and immediately seized up. Cecily was looking at her with kind eyes but she knew the princess. She knew how the princess could look into her mind, see her past, all her memories. She knew what Cecily was capable of. People often miss took her kindness as weakness. However, they could not have been more wrong.

Although Henley had only known her a few short weeks. She knew this of the princess: Cecily Johnson was ruthless. She only cared about three things in her entire life. Her sister, her fiancé, and the peace kept between the people. If anything were to threaten those three things then Cecily would raise Hell in order to protect them. She would harbor no compassion to those who threaten the three things she cares about. She would torture them, invade their minds if it meant keeping them safe.

Just like now.

Henley could see it in the princess's eyes. She was going to do something to them. Her cold blue eyes were calculating as she took a few steps forward. Her heels clicking along the floor as she did so. It was the only sound that entered the room.

Looking over to Luciana, she saw that the woman held her head high. Like the words Cecily was about to speak would not affect her. That nothing she could do would harm her or hurt her. Henley knew differently though. Luciana was devastated on the inside, it was rare that she would fuck up this badly on a mission. The girl always strives to be the best and when she isn't the best, she tries a little harder and people get hurt.

Cecily tilted her head to the side as she looked down at Valentine, "So," She said calmly, "The mission was unsuccessful, I take it?" She asked but she already knew the answer.

Luciana clenched her jaw tight. Henley wondered how she hadn't broken it by now, "It wasn't" She grunted out, "You were right though, Thomas Ward is alive."

Cecily let out a small huff of laughter and the edge of her lips perked up, "I thought as much."

"He was there along with your sister." Luciana said and rose an eyebrow, "Along with two others, both seemed to be apart of my mother experiments."

Cecily's smile didn't fall but she could tell that her eyes did. She tried her best to not show any emotion but Henley saw right past her. There was something about the news of her sister being alive along with Luciana's mother that was setting her off on the inside.

"I suppose I should go report this to your mother now," Luciana said then cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes. "Unless, of course, you don't want me to." She suggested, "because you already knew that your sister was alive."

"Don't be ridiculous," Cecily said with a little too much force in her voice. She came forward towards them more. Henley wasn't going to lie, in this moment, she was terrified as to what the princess was about to do to her, "If I had any knowledge of my sister being alive I would have told my mother."

"Of course, my Princess," Luciana said with a tight smile. She bowed her head and said to walk off.

Cecily then turned around and quickly grabbed the girl's arm. She watched as their eyes met and Luciana's brown ones glazed over. The got a look of someone who had just been heavily drugged and was not going to remember anything. She watched as Cecily concentrated hard on the woman, squeezing her arm tight. Then, a few seconds later, she released her and Luciana shook her head.

"It's a shame that we couldn't find anything in that barn," Luciana said. Henley widened her eyes. She had done it, she had actually done it. She changed Luciana's memories and by the way, she was eyeing Valentine, Henley was sure that he was next.

"Maybe next time," Cecily said sweetly and waved her goodbye. Luciana rolled her eyes and exited the room. Making Henley the only conscious person in the room.

This time, when Cecily smiled, it looked real and genuine. She wasn't forcing it. The princess took a careful step forward and gently grabbed her hand. Henley looked down at her in confusion. What the hell was she doing? Why was she being so kind to her? She watched as Cecily reached her hand up and cupped her cheek, "I'm sorry." She whispered to Henley. "For what they've done to you."

"They haven't done anything," Henley replied while shaking her head. She didn't want to tell her why she couldn't complete the mission. Why she hadn't been able to kill Thomas Ward. How every fiber of her being was resisting the order except for her mind.

"But, they have." Cecily offered and then took her thumb brushing it across her forehead, "And you deserve to remember." She then brought her thumb back to the middle of her forehead and pressed hard.

Henley let out a cry of pain and fell to her knees. Flashes across her mind, it was like someone had opened the floodgates to her memories. She saw everything, from her time on the Island, to fighting in the ring, to Tommy. She watched as she slowly fell in love with him. She saw how she had seen him at his low and at his high. Letting out a sob Henley remembered everything about Thomas Ward. She put a hand over her mouth as she became disgusted with herself.

Warm arms then wrapped around her, trying to give her reassuring words, "I almost killed him." Henley said, "I almost forgot about him."

"You could never," Cecily said to her as she stroked Henley's hair. "No matter how much they take away from you Henley. You can never forget how much you love him. That's the tricky thing about people. I can alter memories as much as I want but I can never change someone's heart, sometimes the heart just knows more than the mind."

"How will he ever forgive me?" She asked.

Cecily shook her head, "There's nothing to forgive." She said simply, "Now, all you must do, is find your way back to him. Just as he is trying to find a way back to you."

Henley remained silent after this. She ley Cecily continue to stroke her hair as she thought about the statement. How was she supposed to find her way back to him when she couldn't even remember him?

Two weeks later…

Location: Juneau, Alaska

Skye took a deep breath in and let the cold air fill her lungs. This was the type of weather that she was used too. It was cold out today and as she looked out the window at the sky she saw that it was already forming dark storm clouds. They had been calling for a major thunderstorm but Skye couldn't but think the storm reflected her. It had been two weeks since her fight with Luciana, Val, and Henley. Two weeks since she had last seen anybody on the team. Two weeks since her and Tommy had taken off and gone into hiding again.

They hadn't defeated Luciana and Val parse more of which the two just couldn't find them. As soon as Tommy and Skye recovered from the barn collapsing they had scrambled to find the Inhumans. Only they had disappeared into the night along with Henley. Out of fear for the team and herself she and Tommy thought that it was best to go into hiding. So, they had traveled to one of their safe houses where they where currently staying.

Knowing that their new lives had been shot to hell, Tommy and Skye created a plan. They were going to go back to their old lives one more time. They were going to take care of Mr. Jones once and for all and then they were done. They were retiring and never going back. They had been planning for weeks and in five days they were finally going to enact it.

Skye grabbed her wrist still trying to find normalcy without the bracelet on. It hadn't taken long to get it off. Just one little blast to it and the thing broke in half falling to the ground in pieces. Rubbering her hands together Skye reached to her side and threw another log into the fireplace. She pulled the blanket that was around her shoulders tighter and placed her hands in front of the growing fire.

Tommy was out getting supplies. He said that he wouldn't be back until tomorrow and Skye was left to her own advice. He told her to not do anything stupid so, she didn't, she did something completely stupid. It had been eating her up inside and she just needed to see him or at least hear his voice again. In all honesty, she didn't even know if he had gotten her message.

Skye heard the twisting of a doorknob and her head shot over to that direction. Climbing to her feet she tensed up and made her hands into a fist at her side. She had been using her powers more and more ever since that battle. She watched as the person on the other side of the door jiggled the knob a few more times before it finally came free. Then slowly the door opened and Skye went slack a smile coming on to her face.

"Grant…"

Chapter Text

Grant wanted to think that his day had started out well enough. He had woken up with his girlfriend sleeping peacefully in his arms. He knew that she was still sleeping and that it might have been a little bit creepy. But, he stayed there for just a little bit, watching her expression as she slept. She looked peaceful and content and dare he say happy. He couldn’t help but felt pride when he realized that he was the one that made her happy. Then once he had gotten out of the shower everything had changed. Skye had done a one-eighty and looked downright terrified of something.

He should have known from their conversation that something was off. He was an agent, he was supposed to know these kinds of things. He was the person that was supposed to catch onto to them. Grant had made an exception for her though, because, well, he didn’t want to say it out loud but he loved her. He was ridiculously in love with her. He had only known her for less than six months and he was already in love with her.

There were little things about her that were off. Like, how she was almost always on guard. How, she never really mentioned the past, sans the little tib-bits that he had been able to coax out of her. It wasn’t until the afternoon; however, did he really know that something was off.

“Tommy, he’s the childish one…” Skye had said that named and immediately looked like a deer in the headlights.

He didn’t say anything about it, but, her eyes gave her away. She didn’t want to mention that name around him. Normally, Grant would of pass this off as her having a friend who just happened to share the same name as his brother. After all, Thomas/Tommy was a fairly common name, but by how she acted he knew that there was something more to it.

She wouldn’t have acted like that unless she knew him.

Grant had tossed it to the back of his mind. His brother was dead. Had been for two years now, there was no way that he was alive. The explosion had happened and Tommy died in that building because he was too dumb to not play hero. As he thought about it more though and as the day drew on Grant started to put the pieces together. From, everything Skye had even told him about herself and her past. It all started to make a little more sense. For the first time in two years, Grant had hope that his brother was still alive.

Then, in the barn, his hope became real. He watched as Tommy materialized out of the shadows next to Skye. He watched as Skye took his brother’s hand into hers holding onto it for dear life. He felt a twinge of jealousy as they both leaned into each other for comfort. Then, he watched as his brother and his girlfriend both use powers.

He hadn’t been expecting that.

Grant should have seen this coming. He should have seen his girlfriend having powers coming. The signs were all there. There had been so many signs but he shrugged them off like it had been nothing. He thought that she had just been through a lot and was still getting used to everyday normal life. After he witnessed the barn though, it had all started clicking together in his head. Everything that she had ever mentioned to him was starting to come together. If he was being honest here, the most amazing part of all of this is how little he actually cared.

He thought that he would have cared or be angry or be something at least. He thought that he would have been shocked. At the end of the day, though, he was neither. Because everything about her having powers and being friends with Tommy just made sense. It fit together like the final puzzle piece that he needed.

Grant sighed and dragged a tried hand down his face thinking about everything. He wanted desperately to go to bed. But, the feeling of going back upstairs to where Skye wasn’t just made him want to avoid it more. He couldn't help but think about his brother and Skye. How they had just left them behind like it was nothing because some random ass girl told them too. He didn’t care how well they could take care of each other. He still wanted them both safe no matter what.

He had spent the majority of his childhood making sure that Tommy was safe. The other half was spent in a constant state of Hell and wondering who he was. Then he met Skye and everything changed for him. From the moment that he saw her smile at him, he knew that he was a goner. He wanted nothing more than to make sure that she was okay. For the first time in his adult life, he had found a person who he could see a future with. In the dead of night, when Skye was asleep, he would imagine them together in a house by the ocean. A little boy or girl with her eyes and his hair would be running around with Skye chasing them.

A very big part of wanted that future but another part of him knew that it wouldn’t be possible. Not with everything he was doing with John. Not with how much he owed him. John would never let him get that far. Grant was pretty sure that he would have to fake his own death to leave John. That or kill him and he could never do that. Not after all this time.

“You know, brooding isn’t good for you.” A new voice said to him. Grant turned around from his seat to see the girl from earlier leaning against the door.

“My brother and my…and Skye are out there alone. They could be hurt or worse…” He trailed off again.

The girl scoffed and rolled her eyes at him. She then hobbled forward and took a seat across from him, “I know your brother, Ward and I know Skye. They’re going to be fine and trust me when I say you would have only been a distraction for the both of them.”

Grant glared at her, “Who are you again?”

The girl smirked and held out her hand which was still red from her blood, “Kiera Davis.” She introduced herself, “Skye’s told me something about you.”

“Yeah, well she told me nothing about you.”

Kiera shrugged her shoulders like it was no big deal, “Doesn’t surprise me; I’m not exactly the girl you take home to meet the family.”

Grant swallowed a retort and glared at the girl in front of him, “Are they coming back?” He asked her.

He watched as Kiera’s eyes softened. Her blue eyes flicked down and she rubbed her one arm like she was unsure of her answer. Finally, she shook her head and looked back at him, “They always come back.” She told him, “But when they’ll come back is a whole other question. One that can’t answer because I honestly don’t know the answer to it.”

“So, what do we do in the meantime? Do I sit here and wonder if they’re still alive or not? Do start twiddling my thumbs hoping that they’re okay?” He yelled at her.

Kiera straightened her back, “Hey, there’s no need to yell at me. I’m the one trying to help you out here.” She then looked conflicted about something. Grant could see it in her eyes, she wanted to tell him something. Kiera had even opened her mouth to do it but she reframed herself from saying anything further. She shook her head and at the last moment she pulled herself back and took a deep sigh. Brushing a frustrated hand through her hair she gave him a defeated gaze, “I’m going to go check on Sque-I mean Sam.” She said correcting herself, “I am going to go check on, Sam. To see if she’s okay.”

Grant nodded his head, “She’s far better off than you.” He commented gesturing to the gunshot.

Kiera raised an eyebrow at him, “This isn’t the first time I’ve been shot.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

Again, she shrugged her shoulders, “I’m not a very surprising person. I actually have a very simple routine.”

“Which is?” He questioned.

He watched as Kiera’s face darkened, “Stay alive and just take it day by day I guess.” She then looked down at the ground, “People like me don’t last long in this world.”

“Why is that?”

“There’s only so many times a person can cheat Death before it finally finds you.” She then gulped and wiped her eyes, “I just have a feeling that I’ve run out of hiding places.”

“And what about, Tommy.” He asked softly, afraid of the answer.

Kiera shook her head and gave a dark chuckle, “You don’t have to fear death when you’ve already experienced it.”

Time flew by for him. As the minutes turned into hours and the hours days, Grant just felt lost. There was something eating up inside of him and he couldn’t place it. He avoided the rest of the team the best he could. When they did ask him anything he would just give a simple one worded answer or a grunt in return.

After the conversation with Kiera he barely even acknowledges her presence once. How was he supposed to look at her and not see the person who told them to leave? Who told him to leave the two of the most important people in his entire life behind like it was nothing. To ask him to get over it like it was nothing. The other girl, Sam, he was pretty sure didn’t go out of her way to try and speak to him. They kept their distances from each other and Grant was okay with that.

What he wasn’t okay with was not knowing where Skye and Tommy where. They had tried tracking Skye’s bracelet but she had found a way to take it off. They had found it in the middle of a dark alleyway smashed to pieces. He wanted to punch a wall when he saw it because it made them one less step away from finding them. To know where they had gone.

So, Grant did what he was good at doing. He started trying to find them. It was hard to start because he really didn’t know where to start. He took Skye’s laptop and began his search for them. He started by searching the folders on her computer but there was nothing. Trying not to be crestfallen about that he again searched again. He searched for all the names that Skye had ever mentioned.

That’s when he found something. It was on the fourth day of his search that he found something. He remembered a while back Skye had mentioned someone to him in passing. It had been when it was just her and him lying together enjoying each other’s company. Talking about the past that they would never go back too. Finally, she had said something, she had told him a name, “Andrew Shaw.” She said and then smiled and leaned in giving him a small peck on his lips, “He’s someone that you either would have loved or hated.”

When googled that name his was surprised to see all the articles that popped up. All of them talking about a rogue F.B.I. agent who shot his  Director. Then about a year later it turned out that he had died and had died a hero instead of a traitor to the country. Some were conspiracies others were just plain biased so he tried his best to find one that was just simple. It’s when he stumbled upon an interview with Andrew’s then partner.

An Interview With Uriah Tessler

Story by: Alice Jennings

It’s been one month since Andrew Shaw was reportedly killed and ten months since he shot Director Ganzas. Since then we have all been dealing with the same questions. Are we safe? Is he really dead? Why did Shaw kill one of the most beloved F.B.I directors of all time? Well, recently I had enough of the questions and went to demand so answers. This is how I found my way to Uriah Tessler, the old partner of Andrew Shaw.

It had taken some convincing but finally, he agreed to meet with me. I let him chose a location and we ended up at an old YMCA rec room. The place was public but when I arrived there it seemed to be like a ghost town. I had gotten there twenty minutes in fear that if I did not get there on time then I would be late. However, it seemed that Uriah had the same idea. He was seated in an old plastic chair looking out the glass window. In the background were a few teenagers playing foosball while other teens were playing on their iPad. Uriah was the odd one out and as I approached him I noted that so was I. We both looked like people that did not belong in a place like this. The only thing that surprised me the most about Uriah was the fat dog that was lounging next to him. It was a corgi, with white fur and dark patches, it’s tongue was sticking out and panting like just sitting was too much of a daunting task for it.

I would not be honest with you if I said that I was not afraid. This man could kill me and here I was about to ask him about all his dirty laundry. To ask him about someone that he might have considered a friend or even more. I do not consider myself brave nor someone who fights for justice, I am someone who just wants answers. I am someone who just wants the truth.

Gaining my strength, I walk up to Uriah and pull up another plastic chair. I turn it towards him and smile as I sit down it in my pen and notebook in hand. It only took one look at him to know that I had overdressed for the occasion. I was in my best dress while he, on the other hand, was wearing an old worn out sweatshirt and sweatpants. His shoes looked to be several years old patched together with duct tape. While his clothing seemed to be covered in dog hair and stains. The only thing that made him look presentable was the smile that he returned to me.

I had to come to this interview prepared. I had even packed my questions into my bag in case I got lost. But, as I looked at him and that obese dog, all of my questions went out the window. I found myself unable to answer them. We sat there in silence for a little bit, just letting the world go on around us. The teens making noise in the background while an old T.V. on the wall played Adventure Time. We were two people, both in our thirties, who were both completely out of our element. So, abandoning my cards, I went with the first questions that came to my mind.

I had asked him why this place? Why did he choose a YMCA out of all places? He simply shrugged and told me that it Bugby, the dog, had weight loss sessions here. He thought that he would just be productive and kill two birds with one stone. I looked at the dog again and as it tilted its head at me I had to hold back from saying that maybe he needed a refund.

After that, we had fallen into a comfortable rhythm. I would ask some fluff question and he would answer. After about ten minutes of that, however, I could tell that he was growing bored with these questions. I told him that I wanted to ask him about Andrew and that was what he was anticipating. Gathering up my courage and taking a deep breath, I asked the question.

“Do you know why he did it?”

Uriah had sighed and rubbed a tired hand over his face. He was a motion that told me he had been asked this question a million times before. I could tell that this question was not new to him. I cannot think about how many times his superiors had asked him this question. Other reporters as well constantly swarming him. Finally, after many silent moments, he responded.

“Shaw…Andrew was the type of person that was always going to do what he wanted to do. The man had a lot of demons that he carried with him.  Even back at the Quantico, he had trouble taking orders. When it came a time though? He was damn good at his job, gifted even.”

I grew confused by this statement, “Does that mean you agree with what he did? With shooting the Director?”

Uriah gave me a meaningful look and shrugged, “Like I said orders or not he was going to shoot the guy…but if I knew Andrew the way I think I do, then he had a reason to do it.”

“And what do you think about his death?” I ask him.

His face grows sullen and I could tell that the question was painful for him. He tightens his hands around the leash for the dog and rubs the back of his neck. He then starts to nod his head slowly, “I think that Andrew Shaw is dead.” He says slowly. By the way, he says it though it sounds like he wants to say something more. Like, the identity of Andrew Shaw is dead but the man himself is not.

“You don’t sound too sure about that,” I say calling him out of his statement.

He chuckles a bit then lifts an eyebrow at me, “Yeah, I guess I should work on that.” Then he looks at his watch and frowns. “I have to go; did you get everything you needed?”

I nodded. I didn’t get answers but I have a feeling that this was the closest that I was ever going to get.

The killing of Director Ganzas came as a shock to all of us. Even more so when it came from the inside. From there Andrew Shaw had become one of the most internationally wanted criminals. For months we searched for him and at last, we found him, but this time he was dead. Died in an explosion in Austria along with two other notorious mercenaries. Not much is known as to what happened that night but we, the public, do know three things about Shaw.

One: Andrew Shaw killed Director Ganzas.

Two: He was extremely talented and well-liked among his peers.

Three: His body was never found in the rubble of the broken building.

It was only assumed that he died because of security footage that was pulled. There was no trace of him leaving the building so authorities assumed that his body was just lost to the mountains. We may never know why he shot the Director. But, we can know for sure that he had his reason.

Article published November 15, 2011.

Grant scrolled down and looked at the picture they had published for Andrew Shaw. His heart almost immediately stopped beating. Because there, in all four pictures, was Tommy. His smiling face with the black hair and blue eyes. He was almost the same man that he had seen only a few days ago just slightly less rugged and a few fewer age lines.

His brother had made a whole new identity for himself. Had gotten into the F.BI. and excelled there only for him to betray the organization and country? Then, somehow, fake his death a mere ten months later? Grant wasn’t going to lie a little part of him, the big brother in him, was kind of proud of him. Tommy was well accomplished by his earlier twenties while Grant had been stuck in the woods with a dog. At least he had done better than him.

“You’re not going to find them with that.” A voice said behind him.

Grant quickly shut the laptop and turned to see a smirking Kiera leering over his shoulder. She had her arms crossed over her chest and hair tossed to the side. It was obvious to him that she had been there for a while. “What do you mean?” He asked.

She rolled her eyes dramatically and came around to the other side of the coach. Then sat down next to him in the process. She yanked the laptop from his hands and started it up again pulling up the article page. “Tessler, you’re not going to find anything with this interview.”

“You know him?” he asked.

Kiera scoffed, “Of course I know him. I was friends with Tommy down in D.C. we lived next to each other. Tessler would come over from time to time.” She then started typing stuff in, “Tommy never really told him anything…well, about who he really was, that is. He made sure to just keep it vague enough so that he wouldn’t go asking any questions.” She deleted something and typed in something else. A look of concentration coming onto her face. A few keystrokes later she grinned, “Look, we aren’t going to find out where Tommy and Skye are now. But, I think we can predict where they’re going to be.” She then smirked as she turned the computer around.

Grant tilted his head in confusion. He had no idea what he was looking at. It just looked like a gala for rich people. “I don’t understand? Why would they go to this?”

Kiera looked annoyed, “Look at the name of the host you numbnuts.”

Grant then looked down to the fine print, “Marcella Jamerson?” He then remembered Skye’s reaction to the news that day, “Isn’t she the person that’s big on Gifted and Mutant control.”

Kiera nodded her head, “She is…and she is also a very big underground crime lord. The very same one that trained Tommy.” Grants eyes widen and Kiera took amusement in that, “To make a long story short, your brother is incredibly talented at doing illegal shit. Marcella or ‘Mr. Jones’ just help him make his mark a little bigger in the world. However, the two had a falling out and now Marcella hates Tommy to her core and vis versa.”

“So, they’re going to this party to get revenge on her.”

Kiera shook her head, “No, Tommy isn’t the type to give a shit about revenge. I think he and Skye are going to this party to finally put an end to it. To put an end to their criminal pasts once and for all, however, that might be.”

“They’re going to kill her?” He asked with a monotone voice, he didn’t really an answer her expression gave it away.

“Probably.” Kiera admitted then shook her head as if she thought of something, “Sometimes, with people like Mr. Jones, you just can’t take chances.”

Grant was silent. He knew that feeling, he knew it all too well. “How do we get into the party?” He finally asked. If Tommy and Skye were going to do this then at least they wouldn’t do it alone.

“Skye already has an automatic invite for…reasons.” She said cryptically, “Tommy will just sneak in. We, on the other hand, would need an invite and they are only given out exclusively to rich snobs and corrupt Politian’s.”

Grant’s head perked up at that. He knew someone that could give him the tickets. Just even thinking about it though made his heart beat widely. It had been years since he had received that phone number. He had told himself that he would never use it, that he should just throw it out or rip it up. As soon as he would come close to doing it though, he would stop. He couldn’t find it in himself to rip up that piece of paper. So, he kept it with him. Told himself that he was ever that desperate he would call.

He was now very desperate.

Taking out his phone and his wallet Grant took out the slip of very old paper and dialed the number. He closed his eyes as the phone rang and a part of him was praying that she wouldn’t pick up. His prayers were short lived however when after the fourth ring the other end picked up.

“Hello?” Her voice said. A voice that he hadn’t heard in almost sixteen years although it was one he regularly dreamed about.

Grant sighed and slumped his shoulders. Pinching the bridge of his nose while he did so, “Mom?” He said uncertainly, “I need your help.”

Mellie Ward stood in her study at her mansion looking out the window at the snowy sky of Massachusetts her left hand rubbing her right wrist were a circular scar lay. It was times like these that reminded her of her childhood in Russia and of her sister. She tried pushing the memory away but sometimes her old life liked to make itself known even though she had done so much to rebrand herself.

You are no longer Aleksandra Voronkonva you are Mellie Ward, wife to Robert Ward the mother of Grant, Thomas, and Rose Ward. She kept repeating this in her head and she found herself mouthing the words but soon she realized that thinking of her two sons only made it worse. She had been trained since she was four years old not to cry or show real emotion but whenever she thought about her first son Grant tears formed in her eyes.

Grant was her baby, her first child that she birthed, he was everything that she wanted and she had broken him. She knew that Christian had abused both of her sons she saw the signs but she knew that if she did something about it things would only get worse for Grant and Thomas. Christian was not her son though not biologically hers anyway, no. There was one time she did witness it Christian was threatening to beat Thomas and Grant stepped in front of his younger brother to take the beating instead.

Tommy was her little Jokester. With his constant smile and ever glowing blue eyes. Everyone had said that Tommy looked had his father’s eyes. In truth, he did look more like Robert then her, but his eyes were Elena’s. The same blue that she had stared at every night for sixteen years. She would know those eyes anywhere. Her personality was almost directly like her. Afraid of failing, constantly having to excel and be better than everyone. The constant need to protect his little sister.

Which brought her to Rose. Her sweet, little Rose that looked almost exactly like her. Her only daughter and her pride and joy. Her daughter was the only one she had promised herself she would not damage, she would not break. She would protect her no matter what. She would not let her daughter go through the same sufferings she had growing up. Looking at her daughter she saw her younger self when she was still afraid. Afraid of what they might do to her. Rose would never have to suffer that, she had Grant and Tommy and her.

And when she saw Grant take the beating for his little siblings her heart ached.

It reminded her so much of when her older sister Elena had taken the beating for her back in the days of the Red Room training. How her sister, two years older than her, sat there in the room her golden blonde hair in double braids and blue eyes sparkling with determination. How she with her dark brown hair and dark brown eyes stood in the back and when it came time to fight she was always so afraid of failing.

Mellie thought about her sister how she would be around fifty-five now possible still working for the Red Room. She couldn’t help but think she would still be working for them to if she had not left if her sister had not helped her.

She had escaped when she was eighteen and found her way to America and two years later she was married to Robert and pregnant with Grant. Christian was already three years old by the time she and Robert had gotten married and he was too young to remember his real mother so he had always thought that she was his real mother. She wasn’t even sure if she even loved Christian at this point. She never had the connection that she did with Grant or any of her children, maybe that’s why he always beat her children up.

He probably also got it from his father.

Mellie Ward was not afraid of her husband, dear God no, she would never be afraid of him that she had been afraid for Grant’s life. That’s why she had pleaded for Christian to trial Grant as a minor, not as an adult but there was no changing the young demon spawns mind. She had rushed to the prison and told her young son to call her if he ever needs her help. She knew that Grant would make it out of this. He was her son after all.

When she heard that he escaped she couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride swell in her. Though Robert and she did cover up his escape with a lie and said that he died in a prison raid she only went along with that so no one would go looking for Grant.

Years later she was contacted by someone named Natasha Romanoff. The redhead had found her, telling her that she too had escaped the Red Room. Natasha had wanted to meet her and apparently, it hadn’t taken long for the redhead to find her. Her heart had jumped for a moment, unsure that she hadn’t covered her tracks enough. She had quickly squashed away the thoughts though, it had been over forty years if someone hadn’t come to kill her by now, then no one would.

Natasha had mentioned to her about a young boy, with the same last name as her. He too had dark brown hair and brown eyes with the same square jaw. It took her a total of five seconds to figure out that she was talking about Grant. Her son, her baby boy, her firstborn, was involved in SHIELD. A secret government organization that was started during the forties. She could have laughed; her damn family was cursed.

So, she waited for a call, in hopes that maybe her son would finally use the number she had given him all those years ago. After so many long years she had given up hope that he was going to call her. Until two hours ago. When her phone rang and she looked to see an unknown number pop up. She would typically ignore them but this one gave her a feeling to answer.

Then she heard his voice and she could have cried.

It was short and simple, lasting no more than two minutes but it was all she needed. She had already lost one son. She was not going to lose her other one. Ever again.

Here’s the thing. Grant would have done all of this on his own, really, he would have. Then when Kiera offered her help he thought that, yeah, she would be useful to have around. Fitz getting involved, that was just by pure accident.

Kiera and he were planning on how to get past some of the security when Fitz just happened to be walking by. He must have the hearing of a bat because as soon as he heard the word mission, he dashed forward and fully immersed himself in the conversation. It got to the point where Grant decided that he had no other choice but to let Fitz come. Which lead them to here. All three of them huddled in the back of the car to make sure nobody else walks in on them.

“So, from what I can tell, the cybersecurity on this place is top notch,” Fitz said as he swiped his hand across the tablet that Skye had been using.

Grant sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Can you get passed it?” He asked.

Fitz scoffed and looked offended, “No, I can’t get past it I’m not a genius…” He said then mumbled under his breath, “or Skye.” He then tapped his fingers along the tablet a few more times, “But, I’m also not completely stupid. I can’t get passed any of this or loop the footage but I can move the cameras.” He declared.

“That’s great.” Kiera exclaimed her face lighting up.

Fitz then frowned, “I supposed it is but we would need a dry run through of the place. So, I can know how much I need to move the cameras.”

Kiera’s face then fell and she shook her head, “That’s not so great.”

“No, it’s not.” Fitz said and looked up at them. He shifted his position and threw the tablet to the side. He took his hands and cupped his face with it screaming into them. Although it was muffled due to his hands. Grant lifted an eyebrow, he had never seen Fitz this frustrated before. “We need more help with this. We need to take this to Simmons and Coulson, hell, even May!” He exclaimed.

Grant pointed a finger at him, “We can’t do that. We do that then this turns into a whole SHIELD mission. We cannot have this turn into a whole SHIELD mission, we do that they found out about…” He trailed off unable to end the sentence.

“Or they find out about Skye.” Kiera finishes for him, “Or Tommy, or me and Squeaks for that matter. If they found out about any of us then all of this is fucked.” Kiera then leaned back against the car door and he watched as her face fell. She turned towards him and gave him a pleading look, “They can’t find out about Inhumans.” She said, “If they do then only bad things will happen. I’m already trying to prevent a civil war between them. Adding in SHIELD would be like adding gasoline to the fire.”

“Civil war?” Both Grant and Fitz said at the same time. They both gave each other a quick look before turning back to Kiera. She nodded her head and started to pick at her nails.

“There are two main…civilizations?” She said unsurely as to what to call them, “There is Afterlife. That’s the place where Tommy and Skye spent most of their time. Then there’s Arcadia, a place that’s a little more accepting of who they take in.”

“Where are they? Maybe if we can find them we can get their help.” Fitz suggested.

 Kiera shook her head vigorously. Making x motioning with her arms, “No, nope, bad idea, that’s the worst one in the book.” She said, “Adding any of them into the mix is asking for this thing to hit the fan…and that is the last thing we want. Plus, I actually don’t know where they are, most people don’t. They are well hidden. I’m not even sure if they’re even on Earth.”

Grant pitched the bridge of his nose, “So, what do we do?”

Kiera bit her lip, “Simple answer, we find Skye and Tommy.”

“I thought you said that was impossible?” Grant asked.

Kiera gave him a sly smirk, “Guess you’ve never dealt with the impossible before.”

Ever since Skye had left with Tommy. Grant had not been sleeping in his own room. Every night when he got ready for bed he would sneak into Skye’s bunk. He would just lie there until his eyes couldn’t stay open anymore and fall asleep. He wanted to believe that if he stayed there long enough he would somehow find a key to finding Skye. That maybe there was something in her room that would bring him one step closer to her and Tommy. Most of all though, he missed her.

He missed the feel of her body wrapped around his. He missed how she would always lay her head on his chest. He missed running his fingers through her hair, her smile, eyes, everything about her he missed. It felt like a gaping hole in his heart and left him with an uneasy feeling in his stomach.

Sighing he turned to the right and stared out the window. He reached out with his hand and flicked the bobblehead that she had always had. She never explained to him what it meant to her but he knew that it meant a lot. He watched as the plastic figure shook from his action and he closed his eyes trying to force himself to sleep. It was not something that ever came easily to him before Skye. Now that she’s gone he practically doesn’t even know what it is. Closing his eyes, he tries to think of things that would make him go to sleep. Counting sheep, going backward from one hundred. Grant was almost successful at dozing off if it hadn’t been for a buzzing noise. His eyes snapped opened and he shot up from the bed. He knew that it was his phone going off but he didn’t know who. No one would ever contact him this late. Everyone that had his number was already on the bus and all asleep.

Everyone but Skye.

He lunged forward and turned out the pockets of the discarded pants on the floor. Once the phone fell out of his pants and onto his lap. He quickly opened it to see what was set off his phone and he actually smiled when he saw it. She had texted him and by the looks of it, they were coordinates to somewhere. He wouldn’t have to look for Skye any longer because she wanted him to come to her. She missed him as much as he was missing her. This was his chance and he wasn’t going to miss it. Now, all he needed to do was convince Coulson to set the plane down. Preferably somewhere within the general area or at least a two-hour drive from there. If not? Then he would ask Kiera and see what she could do. If she refused? Then he would just steal one of the cars and make a run for it. Odds are they wouldn’t find him. He didn’t want to take that chance though.

His fingers traced the keyboard wondering if he should text back. If he should let her know that he was coming regardless of anything. Then he thought about how she was with Tommy. How she and Tommy were out there together. When he saw them holding hands it told him all they needed to know. It told him that they knew each other, that they trusted each other. It wasn’t hard to see that. It told him that she had known him for years while he only months. Or maybe she had been lying and she did know about him for longer than that. Maybe she did know him and this was all part of one big plan.

Turning the phone off he placed on the dresser and laid back down. There were too many what if’s and maybe’s in this situation. If Garrett could see him now then he knew he would be reeled out. If only.

He found Coulson sulking in his office. He only needed to knock on the door twice before the older man came and opened it. He could tell that everything was affecting him by the way his shoulders laid. Like, he had the entire world to please and he wasn’t doing to well of a job at it.

“I have an idea,” Grant said firmly. Coulson gave him a brief look, silently telling him to go forward. Grant sighed and pushed through the door. He hadn’t meant for it to come off as rude but as he bumped Coulson’s shoulder he could tell that the older man was irritated. It was moments like that, that forced him to think that he was going to have to leave them. He was going to have to betray them eventually and any friendships he had to build up would come crashing down. It made him worry about how Skye would react to it. Although, he was hoping that her past would make her think about it.

He wasn’t with Hydra. He didn’t believe in any of that. He just needed to help John.

“What’s the idea?” Coulson asked bringing him out of his mind.

Ward shook the file that he had in his hand, “I’ve been thinking that maybe we’re going about this all wrong.” Coulson raised his eyebrow telling him to go forward causing Ward to sigh, “I went digging through Skye’s files. Everything that she had on her laptop and found some things that could help us.” He then laid down the file that had everything to do with Marcella Jamerson, “I think we’re going after the wrong people.” Ward finally said.

“How so?” Coulson asked while leaning back in his chair.

“All this time SHIELD has been going after gifted people. Collecting them and doing damage control…but, what if we were wrong?” Grant asked and then leaned forward, “What if, instead of going after the monsters, we go after the people that created them?”

Grant watched as Coulson's eye’s narrowed at him. He frowned and swiveled in his chair a little bit while staring at him. Finally, Coulson opened his mouth, “We already do that, Ward. We go after the bad guys and throw them in prison.”

Grant smirked in annoyance and let out a slight huff. He adjusted himself in his seat ready to explain this to Coulson. “No, what we do is go after the product of the bad guys and displace them. What I’m talking about is ending it. Forever.”

Coulson stopped and glared at him, “You suggest that we kill them?” He asked in disbelief.

“Sometimes, Coulson, people can’t be saved. That can’t have redemption because they don’t want it. They are happy with who they are.” He said honestly.

“Are you saying that SHIELD shouldn’t go after the gifted people?” 

“I’m saying that maybe what we’re doing is a short-term solution rather than long term.”

It was just pure silence after that. Coulson seemed to be deep in thought about something. He was stroking his chin as if he had hair there. His eyes narrowing slightly and gained a spaced outlook to his face. Like, he wasn’t paying attention to anything in front of him. After about five minutes of this Coulson finally gave a sign that he was about to talk.

“Is this about, Skye?” He asked giving him a curious look, “I know you and she were close.”

“Were?” Grant questions, “You talking about her like she isn’t alive?”

“You’re assuming that she’s coming back?” 

“She’s scared!” Grant snapped slamming his hand onto the table. Coulson gave him a look of surprise and shock. Tightening his hand into a fist he closed his eyes for a moment telling himself to calm down. “She scared of what we might think of her. If we can just show her that we don’t care then maybe she will come back.”

“And what about your brother?” Coulson asked him, a slight tone of accusation underlying everything. “Where does he fit in with all of this?”

Grant swallowed harshly. Tommy had always been a soft spot for him. When he heard of his death, Grant had hit a low point. He did a lot of stuff that he wasn’t too proud of. It was Rose who had told him while he was undercover in Russia. They had meant by chance and she chased him down six blocks until he finally caved and let her catch him. He had brought her to a safe spot to talk and they did, along with some screaming. It was towards the end had she finally let the cat out of the bag and shouted at him that Tommy had died.

When he heard those words a part of Grant had died as well. The little brother he had spent so long trying to protect was dead. Died at the age of twenty-six. He hadn’t been able to even make it out of his twenties yet. It had broken him and after Rose left he went into a rage.

“I thought he was dead,” Grant said truthfully. “For two years I thought that he was dead and now he’s not.” Grant took a deep breath, “Whatever he wants to do next is up to him.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I don’t know.” He said truthfully, “But, what I do know is what we can do to help them. There’s a party that this Marcella Jamerson is throwing. I know for a fact that they’re going to be there.”

“You want to help them?”

“To show them that it’s okay to come back, that we aren’t mad. Now, I already have the tickets settled, I just need to know if I’m going to do this with SHIELD or against them.”  

Coulson crinkled his brow and gave him a look of confusion, “You would go against direct orders?”

Grant didn’t even hesitate, “Yes.” He answered truthfully. He thought that it was obvious at this point. That he would do anything if it meant benefitting himself or John at this point. If Coulson would take the time of day to realize that then maybe he would be able to see it. Maybe he would be able to see that he wasn’t loyal to SHIELD after all. That this was all just a play for the end game. Why couldn’t he just see that? Why could any of them just take a step back and see it all?

He then thought about what Skye had told him all those weeks ago. About how she got her scare and about becoming a mercenary. She had never wanted to do it willingly but she had no choice. It was either that or dying and she chose to survive. She had wanted to survive even if it meant becoming something that she did not want to become. Skye went into it not knowing if she was going to be the same person while coming out. It made him think about John and the choice he gave them all those years ago.

Grant made the conscious decision to leave with John. He had spent five years in the wilderness without anybody other than John. He did it because John had asked him to. He did it because he had rescued him from prison. But…Grant had never taken a moment to honestly think about it. Did he really stay because he wanted to or because John had asked him to? John had taught him so much and he was thankful for that. But, Grant had never gotten to have a moment to make his own choices. Everything he did was because of John.

Skye was his first decision he made for himself. John had told him to get close to Melinda May because she would be the biggest threat. He had fully intended on following out those orders but then she came into the picture. She made him laugh and smile, something he had not done in a while. For the first time, he found someone who just got it. Who understood that sometimes there are no good choices. That sometimes you do bad things and it doesn’t always have to make you a bad person.

He told her about his past and she didn’t even flinch. She told him that it was okay. That family is complicated. She told him about her mother. About how, even though she did horrible things to her, she still loved her. Because how could you not? It was like that way with him and John. He had done many terrible things to him but after everything, he stood could remember the good moments.

 The night of the Berserker Staff something had changed. Skye had told him that she had once tried to commit suicide because she could cope with it anymore. She thought she wasn’t strong enough and Grant wanted to tell her how wrong she was. How she was the strongest person he had ever met and that his worst fear was losing her.

It had started out differently. At first, he saw Tommy in the well with Christian smirking evilly beside him but then it changed. When he kissed Skye under the influence of the staff he realized how much he cared for her and he knew he was in for it. Every time he closed his eyes he saw something bad happening to her. He saw a faceless man stabbing her, creating the scar on her side. He felt fury towards that person and unbelievable heartbreak. He couldn’t lose her.

“I’m leaving tonight.” He told Coulson after several moments of silence. “Fitz and Kiera are coming with me. You can try and stop us but you won’t succeed.” He told him. Then took another deep breath, “I should be back in a few days. A week at most.”

He stood up from the chair and went to leave. His hand was already on the door handle when Coulson called out to him, “Ward if you do this. I could have your badge for it.”

It was a bluff. He knew it. Grant didn’t even turn around to face him when he answered, “I can live without it.” He said simply, “Can you?” He asked the rhetorical question. It was true SHIELD had been his life for a long time. He could live without it though, he could learn to live without the badge and the missions. He had other options out there. He wasn’t sure Coulson could say the same.

One thing was for sure. Grant had driven a wedge between the two of them. There was now something there that could never be forgotten. A part of him, a part that was small but growing stronger, was thankful for that.

Grant walked towards the table with much hesitation. This was something that he had never wanted to do. All those years ago when he had received the letter, well no, note really. He had sworn to himself that he would never come to use it. He would never come to a moment when he needed it. Except that was a time when his younger brother was dead. His girlfriend was human and they weren’t best friends who apparently had a big underground criminal past.

Oh, how times have changed.

He held his breath as their eyes met. He watched as she straightened her back while a small look of joy crossed her face. Grant clenched his teeth. This was not something that he was looking forward too. This was not something that he wanted people to find out about, especially the team. It was bad enough the Kiera already knew. He didn’t need the whole team questioning him on why he went to his mother. It would only bring up more questions of his past and his family. Then again, he never really got what he wanted did he?

Finally arriving at the table, he watched as she stood up suddenly. She looked uncomfortable and nervous, unaware of what to do next. Grant could honestly say that he had never seen her this nervous before. She was never one to become nervous and he had only seen her this nervous two times before in his life. It was odd seeing her like this. It was almost like this, seeing her struggle to emote what she wanted too. Grant almost laughed, now he knew where he got it from.

“You didn’t have to get up.” He said quickly in a matter-of-fact way.

She nodded her head as if agreeing with him, “I know.” She said quietly. She then sat down slowly and watched him as he did the same. She was watching his every movement as if taking it in and trying to memorize it. Like, she was trying to commit it to memory.

He watched her with narrowed eyes, “You came.” He said.

She nodded, licking her lips slightly, “I did.” She confirmed, “Although, I have to say I was surprised when you called.” She then smiled softly at him. Making his stomach drop to the ground, “Nonetheless happy though.”

Grant had to bite back a retort, “Do you have them…the tickets?” He asked.

“Yes.” She said quickly and reached into her bag. Moments later she pulled out an envelope that he knew to contain the tickets that he needed. “Just like you asked.”

“Good.”

He took them from her hands and opened it to make sure that they were there. When he counted them twice he could still feel her eyes on him. He looked up and saw that she was staring at him with a concerned gaze. “What?” He finally asked.

He watched as she rubbed the scar along her wrist. It was something that he had always known his mother to have. He never once asked where it came from. He always thought that it came from some childhood memory or trauma. Looking at it now though, the agent that he is, he what made scars like that. He had seen others with that type of scaring before. He knew how much time it took for something to as scared as her wrist like that.

She had always looked down at it in shame. Always touched it when she was sad or upset or any kind of negative emotion. It was her cradled and her tick. The thing she would always go to as if trying to remember something. “Grant.” She finally said, “These people, they are not good people.  I just want to make sure you know what you’re doing.”

“I do.” He spat out, “It isn’t like I haven’t done this before.”

Her smile fell and she looked to the ground, “I know you hate me.” She confessed and Grant wanted to say otherwise. He didn’t hate her, he loved her, but he also resented her. He couldn’t forgive her for everything that she had just let happen when he was a child. He stayed silent though. Hating her though, that was too much for him, he didn't think he could ever hate her, “but, Grant watched as he lip wobbled and her eyes began to water, “I already lost one son. Please, don’t make me lose another.”

That statement shocked him. His mother was never one to express herself yet her she was. Being a concerned mother asking him to be careful. To know what he was going and to make sure that he didn’t die. Grant could feel his heart skip a beat at the thought.

“Your brother had a lot of secrets, secrets he took to the grave.” She took a deep breath trying to stabilize herself. She then looked back up at him and he saw the love in her brown eyes. The same eyes that they shared, “I just want to make sure that you’re safe.”

He had to restrain himself from correcting her. From saying that Tommy was alive and that he was fine. That he needed to get the tickets from her to help him out. There were a lot of things that he had to restrain himself from saying.

Sighing deeply, he looked to his mother and reached across the table gently grabbing her hand. “Mom.” He said softly, “I know what I’m doing.”

“I know.” She said while smiling sadly. She then chuckled, “I know you don’t want to admit it. But, you are so much more like me that you think.”

“I bet.” He said humorously. Then he felt a slight squeeze and he looked down to see that she was grasping his hand. She didn’t want to let go of him just yet. She wasn’t ready for him to leave, he realized. Grant could feel his heart plummet. Had she always been this way towards him? Had she always been this caring or was it the loss of Tommy that egged it on? “Why are you doing this?” He asked.

She gulped, “Because you’re my son.” She said plainly. She then picked up her drink and took a sip out of it. “But, I’m guessing that’s not what you wanted to know.” Grant nodded his head and his mother leaned forward. She squeezed his one hand tighter while her other one wrapped around his face. “You are my son.” She repeated, “You, Tommy, Rose. You are my children. Now, I know that I was never the best mother growing up. But, I will love you and your siblings to the day that I die.”

“But, Christian…” He began.

His mother cut him off, “Is your fathers’ son.” She said venomously, “But you, you are mine. If you ever need anything all you will ever have to do it ask.”

Grant swallowed harshly and took his hand away from hers. That was new information. She had never said those words to him before. But, the way she had mentioned Christian like he wasn’t even hers…Then it clicked in his head. He turned to his mother and was about to ask her but by the expression on her face. He was right. Christian was only his half-brother.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He said breaking the tension. He then looked down at his watch as for something to do, “I have to go.” He said.

He watched as his mother’s face fell. The time was too short for her and she wanted more. “Of course.” She said, “I wouldn’t want to keep you from anything.”

“Thank you.” Grant said again as he stood up from the table, “For helping me.”

“Like I said, all you need to do is ask.”

She was in Alaska. That’s where the coordinates had taken him. He didn’t know how long she had been there for only that it was where she was now. He had a whole speech made up in his head about what he was going to say. It was going to be something along the lines of, “Come back, we’re okay.” To, “Let me help you.”

As he looked at the place she was staying at though something inside sparked. A thought in his head blossomed and couldn’t help but feel like maybe he could just leave. Maybe he could leave all of SHIELD behind and they could run together. They could find someplace off the grid and settle down. Get married and have a few kids. It was a pipe dream, he knew that, but it was his dream known the less.

Fitz and Kiera were waiting in the hotel. He told them to wait until he got back. That they shouldn’t move and if they couldn’t convince Skye and Tommy. Then they would still move on with the plan regardless. Marcella Jamerson was obviously a problem that they needed to take care of. He surprised with how understanding all of them were of it. Fitz especially. He thought he would be the one to complain the most but, he was the most agreeing. There was something in him that Grant admired. He had a ruthlessness to him. Something that, if properly trained, could become something more.

Kiera was the opposite. She had skill, that much was obvious, but it needed to be honed in. While Fitz was lacking in physically he made up for in spirit. While Kiera had the physical aspects of everything down, it was obvious that she struggled with something internally. There was something in her mind or emotions that she had not dealt with yet. Both could be equally powerful as the next if they put the effort into it.

Shaking his head. Grant opened the door to the house in the woods. It creaked open the most wood does. Then he saw her standing there. She looked even more beautiful than the last time he had seen her. With her hair down and curling around her waist and a blanket thrown over her shoulders. He could tell that she had been crying. That she had been deep in thought by the redness of her eyes. When she looked at him though, her eyes lit up and she smiled.

She looked in disbelief that he had come. He almost wanted to cry because did she really think that he would come? That he would try to move Heaven and Earth to try and find her. To get her to come back. She looked breathless as he was. Then she said his name.

“Grant.” She had breathed out and his heart melted.

He shut the door behind him and leaned back against it. He took her in and smiled, “Did you miss me?” He asked.

She smiled and ran forward jumping into his arms. Legs wrapping around his waist while her arms went around his neck. Her lips met his and he smiled into the kiss. He found her and he wasn’t letting her go this time.

Never again.

Chapter Text

She hadn't even thought about the aftermath of her actions. She was done thinking for the day. She was done thinking for a lifetime. For the first time in a while, Skye had acted, upon what she wanted. She didn't even give him time to react. Half the reason being she was afraid of what he was going to say, the other half just craved him.

Skye felt Grant's hands tighten around her thighs. The actions bringing her closer to him and she let out a light moan. She was going to give him the chance to talk. She was going to distract him and then they could talk later. Because talking meant she would have to reveal everything to him. Talking meant that he was probably going to leave. He was going to leave and never look back. So, she was just enjoying the moment she had with him now.

Suddenly, Grant moved from the door and walked them over to the couch. He hadn't laid her down gently. It wasn't a toss either. He more or less just plopped her down onto the couch and then preceded to smash his lips against hers.

Feeling a burning sensation building although out her body. Skye's hands went down to the hem of his shirt and forcefully dragged it up. He pulled back for a few seconds to lift the shirt over his head. In those few seconds, Skye had done the same and removed her shirt from her body. Their eyes met for a second and she swore she stopped breathing. He was looking at her like she going to blink away from existence at any moment. Like, she was something rare to be seen and he was trying to memorize every part of her body.

Gently lying himself down onto her. Grant put one of his legs between her thighs and kissed the corner of her mouth. Then her jaw, and slowly he kissed his way down her neck. He took his time with kissing her. Making sure that she felt everything, and did she, Skye could only let out heavy pants as he continued on his path. Once, he had gotten to the junction of her neck she thought that he would continue downwards. Instead, he started kissing her shoulder and she felt his other hand snake up and move the bra strap to the side. Gasping, Skye grabbed onto the back of his neck and pulled him closer. The fire that had been spreading although out her body was now getting stronger. She moved her hips slightly trying to gain more friction. Skye could feel Grant smirk as she shivered at the touch of his hands' ghost along her back.

She had been so focused on her needs that she barely realized he had unclasped her bra. She almost had to roll her eyes in annoyance. She didn't, however, due to the fact that his lips were currently going back to her breasts. His eyes then met hers and she bit her lip as she watched him slowly shed her bra from her body. Her nipples had already stiffened to peaks due to the coldness of the air. She watched with hooded eyes as Grant took a hand and fondled her one breast while his mouth descended on the other.

This time, she did groan, she threw her head back and enjoyed the feeling on his mouth. She enjoyed the feeling of his hand. She enjoyed the feeling of his leg between her thighs. She wanted more but at the same time, she wanted to make this last. To her knowledge, this was possibly the last time they were ever going to be together. She didn't want to rush anything.

Needing to grab onto something. Skye's eyes had woven their way into his hair and she lazily played with it while he sucked on her nipple. She knew that this was barely enough for her, that she needed more, but the build-up was nice and slow. She could feel her panties dampen as he continued with his slow ministrations. Finally, with a pop, Grant had released her nipple and left hot open mouth kisses down her body.

He came to the waistline of her sweatpants. Instinctively, Skye lifted her hips up and she let out a long breath when Grant removed them. Of course, he didn't take just her pants, he took her panties along with them. She watched as he threw them off to the side with a lustful gaze in his eyes. She closed her eyes waiting for the feeling of his mouth on her. Except, it never came.

Instead, she felt Grant lean down and kiss her gently. His one hand had cupper her cheek while the other lightly grazed the outside of her thigh. Grant then kissed the side of her lips and then she felt a kiss right below her ear. "Open your eyes." He whispered to her and Skye obeyed letting them flutter open. He then pulled back and started looking down upon her. She felt the hand at her thigh move closer to where she wanted him most. He began trailing up and down her inner thigh.

"I want you to watch, how good I make you feel." He said to her.

Then he slipped a finger into her and she moaned in pleasure. Now, this was closer to what she wanted. The feeling of him inside of her. Although, it wasn't the exact part she wanted, it would do for now. She met his eyes as he continued to pump his finger in and out of her. Then, without warning, he entered another and her body jerked. Her hips lifted upwards briefly to meet his rhythm. In the heat of the moment, she finally saw that he still bore his jeans. Rude.

Quickly getting up to her knees, while still allowing him access. Skye began to kiss his neck while she undid the clasp of his jeans. As she did that, his speed picked up and it took her everything to not lay back down. As she slowly undid the zipper, Grant pushed her back down to the couch, removing his fingers and replacing them with his tongue.

He took her legs hooking them over his shoulders and buried himself between her thighs. She threw her head back in pleasure. Weaving her hands into his hair and pulling him slightly closer as she felt his tongue circle her clit. She could feel the fire that had been built up in her body wanting a release. His fingers had brought her to the edge. She just needed him to go a little bit longer in order for her to reach her climax. To gain the release that she had been craving. For now, she just enjoyed the feeling in his mouth on her. The feeling of his tongue diving into her and how she felt whenever he took her clit and sucked on it. If she was being honest, she could spend an entire day just like this. With Grant being buried in between her thighs as she watched him. She could see the pleasure that he got from it as well as her. It was like the more sounds she made, the more movements she made, he got more turned on.

In a move that took her by surprise, Grant angled her hips upward and added a finger. It was this move that caused her to reach her climax. It took her slightly by surprise, but, most of all she felt relief. In those few moments after her orgasm, she felt bliss. She let go of his hair and let her arms go limp by her side.

Grant, for his part, was letting her ride it out. He had taken his finger out was now alternating between kissing her inner thigh and kissing her outer lips. Want to feel more of him she unhooked her legs from his shoulders and straddled him. The shift was a little awkward at first but after she had found her placement with was defiantly worth it. She could feel the bulge against his jeans and just to torture him a little bit. She started moving her hips back and forth, rubbing against him, and Grant threw his head back, moaning. His hand had found their way onto her waist and smirked when she felt him grip onto her a little tighter. He was trying to stay in control but from the looks of it. He was doing a very poor job and she knew just what he needed.

Moving to the side only slightly. Skye took his jeans and pulled them off of him smoothly. She smiled when she saw the bulge against his boxer briefs. Just like he had with her, Skye crawled her way to in between his legs. She rubbed the top of his thighs, then slowly took the waistband of his underwear. Dragging them down his legs as slowly as she could. She heard Grant chuckle a bit and she looked up and quirked her eyebrow.

"What?" She asked innocently as she tossed the underwear to the side.

Grant shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. Then placing it behind his head as he watched her movements, "Nothing." He said then smirked, "Just… enjoying the view."

Skye then took his hardening member into her hands and began to stroke him. Her movements were slow and torturous. As she took her time with him never once building up the speed she knew that he wanted. After a few minutes, she watched as Grant closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the pillows. Smirking a bit to herself Skye thought that this was the perfect time to take advantage of his let down guard.

While still stroking him softly with her hand. She lifted herself up and positioned herself right above him. Then slowly sank down onto him letting him enter her fully. Skye moaned and placed her hands on his chest while Grant, taken by surprise, instantly put his hands around her hips. He allowed her to create her own rhythm and she sighed in pleasure as she rode him.

She had started out slow, wanting it to last as long as possible. The position allowed for him to hit her in all the right places. The only problem that she was running into was the feeling of the bees in her stomach. She knew that it wasn't because of her building pleasure in her body, that was a different feeling. Her powers wanted to be released and she had no idea what to do. They could not have picked a worse time. She then winced as she stopped her motions and Grant looked up at her confused. He sat up and brought her body closer to his.

"Skye," He asked panting as he wiped some sweat from his forehead, "What's wrong?"

Skye took a few seconds to gather her breath before resting her head against his chest, "I just…" She trailed off. How could she possibly explain to him that before she could orgasm again, she needed to release her powers somehow? Screw it, she thought to herself as she smashed her lips to Grant's again. She could always repair the house later. Closing her eyes momentarily she decided to take complete control of the situation.

She pressed a hand onto his chest, forcing him down onto the couch. Then, without much warning, she began to ride him again. Instead of doing circle motions this time, she began going up and down. Letting him pull out and enter her again. Skye then began to pick up the pace, and Grant reached a hand up and started palming one of her breasts.

Then, with his other hand, he pulled her closer to him and she cried out in pleasure as he hit her sweet spot. Skye gripped the side of the couch hard as she felt a rumble go through the house. They both stopped and she looked at him. He was giving her a look of surprise but also one of pride, "Was that?" He asked slowly looking at her with slightly widened eyes and a slight smirk on his face.

Skye blinked as she brushed some hair out of her face, "Yeah." She answered slowly, slightly embarrassed by it happening. Even now she knew it was a possibility she never thought that it would actually happen during sex. Skye then watched as Grant smirked and gripped her waist tight, thrusting into her again.

He hit her g-spot again and she cried out. He then began a slow and steady pace, making sure to pull out all the way and then thrusting back into her. He continued the pace for a couple of minutes before it became too much for her. She needed more, she wanted more. Moving more quickly Skye could tell her that her climax was coming. She wasn't the only one who knew, though. Because the room around them became to shake. The harder that Grant slammed into her the more the room shook.

Finally, with one hard thrust, Skye came and she swore she saw stars. As she came a small burst of power came through her hands. Grant, then moved them quickly, so that he was on top and he began to thrust harder. Still sensitive from her last orgasm she could help but feel more pleasure. Grant then kissed her roughly, "Whatever you're doing." He said with a harsh pant as he quickened the pace, "Keep doing it."

Half dazed, Skye let her hands wander down his torso as she let another small burst of power through. Grant then slammed into again and she moaned, the beginning of another orgasm building up. Grant then placed a thumb on her clit and began to rub it. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back. With the pressure almost becoming too much and about to release. Skye, let out one last burst of power and she felt herself cum again. This time she was able to climax with Grant as he moaned in her neck while peppering it with kisses.

Coming down from their highs, Grant stayed on top of her. Kissing her neck while he moved both his arms to the side of her head. He then kissed his way back to her mouth and she smiled as she looked at him. She then kissed him deeply and letting their tongues meet as they just enjoyed the feeling of each other.

Finally, he pulled out of her and collapsed to the side. The position almost caused her to fall off the couch but she didn't mind. She closed her eyes in joy as Grant pulled her closer allowing them to spoon. She let out a little content sigh as he slowly kissed her shoulder.

She would allow herself this bliss before the storm came rolling in.

Mr. Jones looked at her event planner with disdain. The woman was walking around like a chicken with its head cut off. Normally, she would have just done everything herself, but, this party was different. This party was just a cover-up for the true event of the night. An alibi if you will. And, unfortunately, she needed an actual event planner to make it look legitimate.

The woman had been bossing around the set-up crew for the past twenty minutes. She had been yelling at them about the flower arrangements. Mr. Jones had to use all her willpower not to take out her gun and shoot the bitch in the head. She had actually paid money for this woman? At this point, she was pretty sure a monkey could do a better job than her.

Putting aside her violent tendencies. She had to remind herself of the grand plan. What hosting this whole party was about. The other parties that she had hosted had been all closed events. Only invite people that knew the true natures of the parties. This one was different. She was inviting people who didn't know the true nature of them. Along with the ones who. The part that she was happiest about was the RSVP she had been waiting almost five years for.

She had a hand in every organization in the western hemisphere. But, there was a person that she could never get her hands on. One person who worked separately from everyone else. One person that was so secretive that she hadn't even seen their face. She had only exchanged letters with them. That was The Devil. She didn't have a name only that moniker. Some people said that his name was actually Lucifer. Mr. Jones didn't know if she actually believed that but, hey, she named herself Mr. Jones. So, there wasn't really room to talk.

She had always sent out an invite to the man or woman. They would always reply saying that they couldn't nor were they interested. Then the replies had stopped coming altogether. She feared the worst. Thinking that maybe they Devil had finally met their match. Then she caught wind that the Devil had been killed by his right hand. His apprentice, if you will, the one person he loved beyond all. They knew of her. A young girl, barely even into her twenties, and she had killed him. She had disappeared after his death making many believe she was dead along with her boss. Although, there were some who didn't think that. Who believed she went into hiding to gather her strength.

She, herself, thought that the theory was ridiculous but here she was. Only about two days away from the party with the Devil on the list. She was interested in the girl she had heard so much about. From what she could gather. She was almost worst than her predecessor. She was cruel and unfeeling. She could make any many shakes in his boots. She showed little mercy and when she did she would only use it against you. It was exactly the type of person that she wanted to know. That she wanted to have as an ally.

When she had received the letter in the mail telling her that the Devil was coming. Mr. Jones swore she had turned into a little girl waiting for a new toy for half a second. This is what she had waited for, for so long. Having her on the list would make everyone fear her and no one would object to her. With her, on the list, Thomas Ward would no longer be a problem.

Now, all she had to do was wait.

There was a tapping of heels that caused her to turn around. There, standing in front of her, was someone she had only seen a handful of times. She was starting to wonder just how many flowers dresses this woman could truly wear. It was like she went out of her way to find them or have them made for her. In her honest opinion, she thought they looked ridiculous. Not at all the type of message, you would want to send to potential enemies or allies.

"Raina!" She exclaimed with false happiness. She walked over the younger woman and leaned in giving two pecks on the cheeks. "What are you doing here?"

Raina gave her that sly smile. She hated that smile. It meant that Rania had information that she didn't. It meant that she was wanting to negotiate. "I have something that might be of interest to you."

Mr. Jones cocked an eyebrow, "Don't you always." She said cheekily.

Raina then pulled out her phone and showed her a video. "Oh." She said genuinely surprised, "That is something of interest." She then took the phone from the younger woman and stared at the video in wonderment. "How much?" She asked.

"I wanted to wait and see until the night of the party." Raina said taking the phone back, "If you want it then you have to buy it."

She gave Raina a dark look but all the girl did is smile. The girl then tutted at her and she had to do everything in her power not to roll her eyes. Why did this girl think that she had more power in her home?

"Is there something else you want to tell me?" She asked Rania.

"Actually, yes, there is." She then leaned in a little closer to her, "I have a source who tells me that SHIELD might be making itself known at your party."

That caused her heart just to jump a little bit. Straightening her back and tilting her head upwards she made it look like she was glancing down at Raina. "How would you know this?"

She merely shrugged her shoulders, "Sources." She gave her a wink, "If I were you, I would watch your back very carefully."

"Is that a threat?"

"Merely an observation. You know empires only last for so long Mr. Jones. Yours will come to an end."

Glaring at the girl she grabbed Rania from the small of her back and pulled her closer. Taking out the small sharp knife that was always in a pocket she pressed it gently in her skin. Not enough to truly do any damage or puncture her skin. But, enough to grave it.

She then leaned down towards her ear and whispered, "Ever speak like that again and I will make you hurt." She felt Raina tense up. She pulled back to see slight panic on the girls' face, "Understand me?"

She nodded her head and Mr. Jones smiled. "Good, now run along. I wouldn't want to keep you from anything."

She watched as Rania gulped and turned around. Walking briskly away from her as if the door could come fast enough.

Skye smiled at the figure lying in front of her. She reached out an arm and brushed the hair out of his face. She watched as he began to smile and she leaned forward to kiss the side of his mouth. Grant chuckled and wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her on top of him. Skye laughed while she straddles his hips. Brushing her hair out of the way she leaned down and kissed him on the lips. It was gentle at first but as the continued kissing, it became something more.

His hands moved from her hair down her back and to her hips. Rolling her hips forward, she let out a light gasp as she felt Grant growing hard beneath her. "You know," She panted out while moving forward to kiss right below his ear, "Maybe we should actually move to the bedroom this time."

Grant let out a breathy chuckle, "Why do that when we're so comfortable here?" He said while motioning to the living room. They hadn't been able to make it as far as the couch. They had just fallen down onto the floor in front of the fireplace. It was only after they were both done had Skye managed to find a blanket to drape over their bodies.

She rolled her hips against his, "Because maybe on an actual bed we might be able to have more fun."

"We had so much fun down here."

Skye made a noise of agreement and kissed him slowly pulling back slightly, "That's true, but we are also going to regret it in a couple of hours." She kissed him lightly again, "Plus, there is the fact that your brother might walk in on us."

That had done it. He pulled back completely and let his head drop to the floor. "Yep," he mumbled, "Moment gone."

Skye rolled her eyes moving off of Grant and onto her side. She took the one blanket and wrapped it around her covering her chest. They hadn't gotten to talking about his brother, or her powers, or the teams. Really, they hadn't gotten too much talking at all ever since he had arrived at the safe house. She knew that she had a point though. Tommy was bound to come within the next couple of hours and by then, she would at least like to have Grant prepared. He hadn't brought anything up which meant one of two things. The first: he didn't want to talk about and he was going to act as nothing happened. The second: he wanted to talk about it but he was too afraid too because he didn't know what would happen afterward.

Both options to her were equally as bad.

Sighing, Skye reached over and grabbed her discarded clothes from the ground. She looked over her shoulder after she had put on her shirt. She saw Grant getting up onto his elbows and staring at her oddly. "What are you doing?" He asked.

She finished putting her clothes back on and got up to her feet, "We need to talk." She said simply, "And we can't do that when both of us is naked."

He lifted an eyebrow, "How about one?" He asked cheekily.

Snorting she walks over to where his shirt is. Rolling it into a ball she throws it at him playfully, "Put your shirt on." She said again, "And after we talk then maybe we can think about moving this to the bedroom."

He frowned and reluctantly put his clothes back on. She watched as he leaned over and grabbed his pants from the side. Sliding them back on with ease and standing up to buckling them again. She knew that once they were all clothed they had to talk about this. There was no way that they couldn't not talk about it. They had been dancing around the subject for long enough. It was time to come clean and explain everything.

They had not talked about it for too long. There was a lot of things that needed to be said and she was just dreading to talk about them. She hadn't really talked about this with anyone else other than Tommy. Tommy was the only other person that knew pain like her. She didn't need to tell him her pain because he already knew it.

Skye silently moved to the kitchen and sat at the table. She stared at her the empty wooden bowl on the table awkwardly until Grant joined her. She could feel his eyes on her as he pulled out the chair slowly. Letting the legs scrap against the wooden floor and then taking his time to sit down onto it. It was like they didn't just have sex on the floor less than three hours ago. Her heart was pounding as she caught his eyes.

"What is this place?" Grant asked gesturing to the house around them.

Skye swallowed. She cleared her throat then tucked a piece of loose hair beyond her ear. "It's one of your brothers' safe houses." She said with a slight shake to her voice, "We haven't used it in years. Hence…" She trailed off and looked around to the still dusty housing. The only real place they had cleaned up was the living room and bedroom. Skye didn't know whether or not to tell Grant that she and Tommy were sharing a room. They still felt like they had to share the same room as each other.

"He has other places?"

Skye nodded her head widening her eyes a little bit. She bit her lip and sucked on it, "A lot of places…" She trailed off. Grant gave her a confused looked and she answered it with a guilty smile, "We made a lot of money." She confessed.

There was another pregnant pause. "So," Grant started and Skye glance up at him, "What exactly is…happening here?" He asked trying to find the right words.

"Well," Skye started, "That depends on what you're asking about. If it's about the powers then, that's a long story. If it's about Tommy and I, that's also a long story. If it's about Marcella Jones then it's…"

"A long story." Grant finished for her.

She smiled and shook her head, "Actually, I was gonna say that that one is the least complicated story of them all." Skye then sighed and ran a hand through her hair, "We're going to end this Grant. Once and for all."

"You plan on killing her." He said without missing a beat. It wasn't posed as a question more of a state than anything.

Skye nodded her head, "If it comes to it. We have no other choice. We tried other options and they didn't work out. We're backed into a corner Grant." She then leaned forward laying her elbows on the table, "I'm not saying this will solve all our problems." She then grabbed his hand that had been lying on the table. "But, it will solve a lot."

Nodding his head, Grant squeezed her hand. "I believe you." He said and her heart lightened but then he pulled back. Making a stone drop in her stomach, "But, you lied about a lot of things."

"Not everything." She said quickly. "Only the part about my past. Everything else I told you, that was the truth."

Grant then looked down and wasn't able to meet her eyes. She could tell from his heartbeat that he didn't want to talk. Or, he didn't want to talk about this topic in particular. Gulping she took a deep breath and said the sentence she had been dreading out loud, "Besides, how would you have reacted if I told you I wasn't human."

He looked up with a surprised expression. Skye then felt her heart rate spike and the bees in her stomach panic. The room around them shook a little until she closed her eyes and told herself to relax. The look on his face told her everything. He didn't know that she wasn't human. He had just thought she had powers.

She could feel tears beginning to leak from her eyes, "You didn't know." She said softly.

"No." He said honestly, "I mean I know the word Inhuman was thrown around, but, I thought that was just…" He trailed off unable to come up with a word for it.

"I know, it's not very original but it's what they call us." She then smirked, "Better than being called gods." Her face then darkened as she looked down at her hands, "or the Destroyer of Worlds."

He then cleared his throat and Skye wiped the darkened look off her face. She smiled back up at him, "Those can't be the only questions you have though."

"They're not." He clarified, "It's just…Tommy, how can he be, like you, when I'm…like me." He said gesturing to himself.

Skye shrugged her shoulders, "The Inhuman gene is weird. It can skip multiple generations before showing up again. But, Grant, you have to know that your brother was never fully human. He was always Inhuman, the gene was just, dormant before it was triggered."

"Does that mean that I'm like him…" He trailed off confused and almost nervous about the answer.

Skye shook her head vigorously, "No It's nearly impossible for more than one sibling to have the gene."

It went silent again and Skye bit on the bottom of her lip. She liked being honest with him but words could only go so far. She could tell that he was still confused about somethings. There was only so much she could explain to him before an example had to be shown. It was half the reason that she had chosen the place that she did. There was no one this deep into the Alaskan woods. There was a lake on the one side of the house. Then across from that a trail of small mountains that still had snow on them from the winter.

Standing up Skye reached out her hand and gestured for Grant to take it. "Come on." She said with a soft smile on her face. "It's about time that I show you something."

He a little confusion he took her hand gently and stood up. She pulled him along and exited through the French doors in the kitchen that lead into the backyard. She leads him to the edge of the water and stared out at the mountainside. Taking a deep breath in and closing her eyes, she could feel the vibration of the mountain. It was like the loudest thing there. The bees in her stomach awakening and she could tell that they were excited.

"My powers, they're a little difficult to explain," Skye said and she could feel Grant's gaze turn towards hers. "But, is basic terms, I can feel the vibrations of the universe. Everything around me, it's like a constant buzz." She then smirked and held up her hand towards the mountain. Then slowly turned it around forcing the mountain to shake, "And sometimes I can manipulate the vibrations."

She turned to look at Grant. He wasn't smiling or frowning. He was just looking at her with pure awe. She swallowed thickly, ignoring the feeling of her heart practically melting because of his face. Skye lowered her arm and smiled at him. "I bet you never saw this coming." She said half-jokingly, "Having an alien as a girlfriend."

He smiled and stepped towards her. Cupping her face with his hand as he leaned down and kissed her softly, "You're amazing." He said quietly, then lifted an eyebrow as he kissed her again, "And for an alien, you are absolutely gorgeous."

"Can you promise me something?" She asked and her voice was barely a whisper. She heard him inhale a breath of air. She knew that she shouldn't be panicking. She was though, what she was about to ask was a lot.

"What?" He asked looking back into her eyes.

"Can you promise me that we'll never lie to each other. Even if that something is really bad. Because, Grant, I'm so tired of lying."

He stood there just looking at her. A flash of panic crossed over his eyes. His tongue flickered out of his mouth as he swiped it across his lips. She knew that she shouldn't think much into it. He only hesitated for a moment. He was a spy, after all, keeping secrets is kind of what they do.

Finally, she got her answer, "Okay." He said sounding still a little too unsure of himself. Then he leaned forward and kissed her briefly on the lips, "Okay, yeah, I'll never lie to you."

Skye laughed and brought her arms around his neck. She pulled him in again and killed her full jumping up a little because he refused to bend down. Then a noise of disgust was heard and they both pulled apart. Skye looked over to see that Tommy was leaning against the door his face looking purely annoyed.

"While I understand that the both of you are a couple." He said annoyingly, "I would appreciate it if you two didn't have to constantly suck each other faces off."

Grant's eyes widen as he took in the presences of his brother. She felt his arms leave hers and she watched nervously for his reaction. She could feel that his heart was racing, as was Tommy's, and the two stared at each other for eternity.

"Tommy." Grant finally said looking at him.

Tommy shifted in his spot and rubbed the back of his neck. He looked up at Grant with an expression of relief and guilt. "Hey, brother." He said putting his hands into the pockets of his jeans, "It seems to me that we have a lot to talk about."

Fitz sighed as he picked up his pen and let it drop onto the desk. He watched as it fell onto the desk with a dull thunk. His eyes lazily looked at the object before picking the pen back up and repeating the action. He had been doing this for the past hour out of sheer boredom. When Ward had told him that the mission might take a week he thought that it would be filled with action and adventure. Not, waiting in a hotel room with a twenty-something-year-old alcoholic. Who was pretty engrossed in painting her toenails a bright red color.

Giving up on boredom he slammed his head against the desk letting out a large groan. When he planned on coming on this mission. He thought that there would be action and adventure. A constant feeling of adrenaline and excitement. Instead, he got waiting and pure boredom while he waited for Ward to get back. The only good part about waiting in the hotel room is that Kiera seemed to be having a worse time than him.

He looked to the blonde girl. Her one leg was stretched out in front of her and the other was pulled close to her body. He watched as she narrowed her blue eyes at her little toe and stuck her tongue out in a face of concentration. It was odd to see her do something so normal and young. The entire time that Fitz had gotten to know Kiera he would think that she was older. He knew that she was twenty-one but the way she acted was a lot more mature. It was a little moment like this though that told him that she was still young. She still had her whole life in front of her yet she acted like it was over.

He was almost thirty and he still had no idea where his life was going.

"What?" Kiera's voice asked filling the silence in the room.

Fitz shook his head confused as to why she was asking him something. Had she said something in the time that he wasn't thinking about her. Had he said something out loud and now she curious as to what he was talking about?

"I bed your pardon?" He asked.

Kiera rolled her eyes dramatically at him and shifted her position on the bed. She was now sitting with both legs over the mattress as she faced him. She cocked her head to the side and gave him a stern look. "Your staring at me." She said like it was obvious. Maybe it had been, maybe he hadn't been as subtle as he thought he was being.

"I was just thinking." He said defending himself.

Kiera then smirked, "While staring at me?" She questioned again then shook her head, "Sorry, Scotsman but…I'm already spoken for."

That took Fitz for a spin. He turned around completely in his chair and leaned closer. "You mean someone actually puts up with you."

Kiera shrugged her shoulders, "Hard to believe, I know." She then took in a deep breath, then let it out as she wistfully looked off into the distance. "But, sometimes, hard things are worth it." She then smiled and gave him a look which made him uncomfortable, "Speaking of which. What's up with you and Brit?"

Fitz tried to ignore the heat traveling to his cheeks and began to sputter. "I, we're not, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Come on, Fitz, you have the hots for your lab partner. You don't have to hide it from me."

He sighed in defeat. There wasn't any point in hiding it from her, "It doesn't matter anyway. I highly doubt that she'll ever feel that same way about me."

"Well, she won't if you keep putting yourself down like that." Kiera then got off the bed and made her way over to him. She plopped herself on the desk and let her small legs dangle. She swung them back and forth and Fitz tried to ignore that closeness of them. If there was another thing that he had learned about Kiera. It was that she had no sense of personal space and or shame. The girl would literally do anything and not care.

"I don't want to talk about it." He said finally. That was true. He didn't want to talk about his personal feelings with a person who he barely knew.

Kiera scoffed, "Fine, be that way." She then huffed and leaned her hands back against the desk. Fitz furrowed his eyebrow confused as to what she was doing. She made no sign that she was moving and Fitz wondered if maybe he should move. But, then again, he was the one who was sitting here in the first place. She was the one that had come over to him. He wasn't going to move because she was taking over his place.

Kiera then clicked her tongue and let out a dramatic sigh, "This is going to be a long week isn't it?" She asked.

Fitz picked up his discarded pen and began his motions from earlier, "Yep." He said emotionlessly, "The bloody longest."

Kiera then turned her body towards his more, "You know there is one thing we could do." She suggested mischievously. He then saw as her eyes wandered over to where his duffle bag was. Somehow, he just knew what she was referring to. He could feel it in his bones. She hadn't even mentioned it by name but he could tell that it was calling to him.

"No." He said firmly.

Kiera scoffed while rolling her eyes, "Oh, come on, you need to learn sometime. And what better teacher than someone who knows how to work the dagger."

Fitz then narrowed his eyes, "I thought it only worked for one person at a time."

"Yeah, but, still doesn't mean I can't practice with it." She then hopped down from the desk and began going through his stuff.

Fitz had stood up to stop her but stopped once he saw the dagger in her hand. A feeling of possessiveness washed over him. He wanted to pry it from her hands and cling in close to him. He wanted to feel the heaviness of the metal. The roughness of the leather in his hands. Most of all he wanted to know how to wield it.

Breathing out, Fitz walked over to snatched the knife from her hands. He ignored the smirk of triumph that came from her. As, he gripped the handle tight, "Alright, I'm in."

Kiera then conjured another dagger from the shadows. Something that caught him off guard. Just how many things could she do with her powers? In only the brief moments that they had talked to each other. She had mentioned that her powers were much more diluted than that of Thomas Ward. He almost shuttered to think about how powerful he must be then. He watched as she twirled it around and smirked, "You ready?" She asked mockingly while cocking her head to the side

He narrowed his eyes at her and grinned playfully, "Bring it."

The world was barely moving and Skye could cut the tension that rising with a knife. She looked to Grant, to see that he was still not moving. His eye roaming everywhere, taking in the appearance of his brother. Then, like someone had snapped their fingers, Grant was moving forward. It happened all so fast that Skye barely had enough time to react.

Grant had moved towards Tommy and pulled back his fist and punched him in the face. Tommy cried out and fell to the ground. He held the right side of his face in his hand and looked up at his brother in shock and bewilderment.

"Grant!" He yelled from the ground, "What the hell?!"

Anger flashed through his eyes and Grant pointed a finger at him, "That's for lying to me and making me think that you were dead." He said. Grant then offered his hand out and Tommy took it, all though with much hesitance. A few seconds later, he was pulling Tommy into a hug and she watched as her best friends met her eyes in a panic. His body was stiff and she could tell that he had no idea how to respond. So, he just stood there awkwardly while Grant was hugging him.

Skye made a motion for him to return the hug. Tommy rolled his eyes and patted Grant on the back. After a few more awkward moments Grant finally pulled back and grasped his shoulder. "That's for being alive?" Tommy guessed.

She heard Grant chuckled, "That and among other things."

Skye then cleared her throat, "Well, as much as I would like to see this marvelous reunion continue. We have worked to do and a villain to kill."

Tommy pointed a finger at her, "Speaking of that, I got your party outfit from the dry cleaners."

"That's great." Skye said sarcastically, "The one thing that we never had to worry about is the one thing that we have."

Tommy shrugged his shoulders as he made his way back into the house, "At least it's a start."

The three of them made it back into the house and huddled around the table. Even though it had only been a couple of minutes since they had been in there. It seemed that Tommy was already able to mess up the table completely. A mess of papers was spread out and Skye was pretty sure that blueprints laid underneath there somewhere.

"Alright, so, since Grant is here. I think that it's time we get everything out on the table."

Skye pointed at the mess, "I think you've already done that."

Tommy gave her a soft glare, "Funny, but, not what I meant." He then sighed and dramatically pulled out one of the chairs. He then sat down and clasped his hands together as if he was waiting for her and Grant. Giving each other a quick glance Grant and Skye sat down at the same time and looked towards Tommy. There was a pregnant pause before Tommy sighed and looked towards his brother.

"So?" He asked, "Where should we begin?"

"Probably the beginning," Grant said and Tommy nodded.

"Okay well, short version. I met Skye when I was in high school we became bff's. Then I went to college she followed me. Then we went on a trip together got kidnapped and became Inhumans. After then we meant Skye's real mother and she helped control our powers. After, I'm going to say, about two years some shit went down. Skye's mother orders me to kill her and I tired. Although, I was unsuccessful as you can clearly see," He said motioning to her. Grant opened his mouth to say something but Tommy stopped him by raising a finger. "Not done. After that, I joined the F.B.I and became one of their best agents. Except, I had a slight drinking problem, by that, I mean I was a really bad alcoholic. Then I kind of, accidentally, became a criminal mastermind. Shot the Director of the F.B.I. Escaped, nationwide manhunt. Found Skye again, she tried to kill me this time. She got kidnapped, I rescued her, we made up. We faked our deaths and now we are here." He then looked over to her, "Did I miss anything?"

Skye's eyes widened. Yeah, he had missed a lot. Like, maybe even a full year's worth. Then again, a lot had happened in their time together. Guessing that he didn't want to spend all day explaining it. Tommy just went with the shortest version that he could muster up. Although, it was not a bad one. It still left a lot of holes open. Holes, that Skye expected, she was going to have to fill later on. So, instead of telling him so. She just nodded her head and gave him a thumbs up. "You got the gist of it."

Skye then looked over to Grant who looked shell-shocked. His eyes were wide and his brow was crinkled in confusion. She could see that he was trying to take in all the information that he could. She was probably guessing that the processing part was the hardest of it all. Because, truthfully, he was just told eight years of backstory in the span of three minutes.

Feeling bad for him. Skye reached down and squeezed the hand that laid on his thigh. He blinked a couple of times then glanced down. Slowly, she felt as his hands curled around her and squeezed it back. He then started rubbing his thumb over her hand as if the action was pulling him back and grounding him.

"We know that it's a lot to take in." Tommy said as he leaned forward and looked at his brother, "But, right now, the past isn't what we need to focus on. Right now, we have to make sure that Skye and I are going to even have a future."

Grant then glance at the two of them, "So, what are the two of you going to do exactly?"

"Well, to put it simply, we're going to correct a wrong." Tommy said laying his hands out in front of him. "Once we do that we're leaving for good, right?" He asked looking over to Skye who was nodding her head vigorously.

"Right." She said confirming his words.

Grant narrowed his eyes at the both of them, "And how do you plan on doing that, exactly?"

"Well," Tommy said a bit of nervousness to his voice, "It should be simple…in theory."

"In theory?"

"Yeah," He said sucking in a breath, "All we should have to do is get into the party and take down her system. From there we just get her into a room alone and, let me take care of the mess." He said the last part in a very serious tone. Like, he was claiming Mr. Jones to be one of his responsibilities. Like, she was a mess he had to clean up and him alone. "If all goes well, then Skye and I will be home free by the end of the week."

Grant was silent and looked to be deep in thought. Skye noticed that his heart had started to beat faster and she could tell he was becoming more nervous. Concerned, she leaned towards him more and squeezed his hand. "Grant?" She asked, "What's wrong."

Grant then turned his head and looked at her, "What happens after all of this." He asked with a slight waver in his voice. "You keep saying that once your free, you'll be fine, but what does that mean?" He asked them. "You both exposed yourself to SHIELD, to other forces, if you think that they'll just let you go…" He then trailed off and Skye could see some wetness beginning to appear behind his eyes.

Tommy then looked down in guilt, "I hadn't really expected on you coming to find us, Grant." He then sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Letting his elbow drop to the table and laying a cheek into his hand, "As much as I love you being here, you complicate things." His gaze then turned to hers, "A lot of things."

Skye swallowed and glared back. Yes, it did complicate some things but it wasn't like they had faced worse. Grant would keep their secret for them. He had already left SHIELD and Coulson's team to help them. It wasn't like it was the end of the world. They could have a happy outcome, they just had to work a little bit harder for it. Then Tommy gave her a look and she instantly knew what it meant. Feeling shocked and hurt, she stood up from her chair, "No." She said in a deadly calm voice.

Tommy then leaned back into his casually going over her body, "I'm not saying I like it any better than you."

"Then don't do it!" She yelled as she cut him off, "We've come this far, Tommy. We're almost to the finish line. Why do this, why even think about it."

"Because I don't think it's the right time." He admitted in defeat, "There are still so many things that can go wrong."

Skye rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, "There will always be things that go wrong, but that, that is never a right answer." She then glared at him, "I should know, you never gave me the choice." She could see that her words were like venom to him. Then, in anger, she huffed and stomped off into her bedroom in anger.

He wanted to change their memories. Make them think that they never saw anything about them. Or, at the very least, make the details a little fuzzy. He was afraid of what would happen so he wanted to make Grant forget. That's what she knew. Tommy didn't really care about the others it was only Grant. His brother. His brother who he would protect no matter what, even if it meant making him forget.

She would never allow it. Skye finally felt happy with someone and she wouldn't let Tommy take that away from her. She knew that she and Grant still needed to work on some things but she saw a future with him. A happy one. One where they could all be together and act like a family. Dare, she says it, she saw herself becoming a little more optimistic when she was with Grant. He brought out a side of her she hadn't seen in almost a lifetime. He made her want to act like a teenage girl experiencing love for the first time.

There was a knock on the door and Skye sighed. She had already known who it was. She quickly muffled a short, "Come in." And the door opened for her to see Tommy. She glared at him as he was walking in.

"Why are you so against the idea?" HE asked as he sat down on the end of the bed.

Skye rolled her eyes in annoyance, "Because it's unnecessary."

Tommy raised an eyebrow, "Unnecessary?" He asked, "Skye we have about five different people that want us dead. How is keeping my brother with us going to benefit us? I've tried most of my adult life to keep him safe."

"He can handle himself." She said leaning over to push him slightly, "Plus, weren't you the one telling me that I had to start trusting them. That maybe I should let them in. Well, guess what, I did. Now, you want to make them forget?"

"Yeah, well, that was before I knew you were sleeping with my brother." He said defensively, "Plus it would only be temporary. You know how much I suck with mind tricks. That was always Cecily's thing, not mine."

"We are not doing it," Skye said clearly. It wasn't a suggestion, it was an order.

Tommy sighed in defeat and Skye smiled. She knew that she had won. He wasn't going to do it because it meant too much to her. Although, she wanted to ask why he was so eager. Why that was the first thought that he had jumped to. That was for another day perhaps. Another battle. They would just take it one day at a time now.

If was only after another lapse of silence did he say something, "We can't tell him anything, you know that right?" He asked looking at her and she frowned in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

Tommy then gave her a look, "Come on, Skye, don't mess with me. You know we can't tell Grant anything. This whole plan was only ever going to end one way. With him in the picture now, there are too many ways this could go wrong."

"So, you want me to just lie to him?"

"No, I'm asking you to just not tell him anything. I have a feeling they're going to be there regardless of what we do. Let's just make sure that we can minimize the damage."

She took some time to think it through. What he was saying was true and rational. They had a plan before he came here. They were going to following it through and then leave. She would come back to the Team. Tommy would start up his search for rescuing Henley again. That was what they had come up with. They both knew that maybe one part wasn't going to work out. But, on both ends, it had always started with taking out Mr. Jones alone. They alone had the skill set to do it and they alone were the only ones who knew how to take her out.

"Fine." She agreed reluctantly, "I won't say anything."

Chapter Text

Location: The Bus

If Sam had parents. She would guess that this is what it would feel like to be chewed out by them. The two adults in front of her were staring at her disapprovingly. Which, in her defense, she had no idea what Kiera had been planning. It wasn't her fault that half of their team decided to go a-wall and go after Skye. Really, she had just been sleeping the entire time that it had happened.

The whole time she had been on The Bus was awkward and weird. On one hand, she was excited to see all the inventions that SHIELD had made. On the other hand, she hadn't liked all the questioning that was thrown her way. To top it all off, Edith had gotten back to her saying that Ivanna walked to talk. Which was huge for two reasons. One: Ivanna rarely talked to anyone unless she wanted to talk. Two: It meant that something was about to happen.

Ivanna was a caring woman. She was calculating. She knew that extant of her powers and how truly powerful that actually made her. In all her time living in Arcadia, she had only seen Ivanna three times. Once when she had first woken up. The second time when she was being told that she had some important business to attended too. The third was when Sam had finally gotten the courage to leave. It was a well-known fact that you shouldn't take Ivanna for granted. After all, she had given her a second chance at life. Powers that made her stronger than she ever could have been.

But, she hadn't wanted that life. She was young and dying, sure, but she enjoyed being human. She enjoyed having her own emotions to herself. Now, she was stuck with everyone else's emotions. Sometimes, it was hard to tell what she was feeling and what someone else was feeling.

As she stared back at the two agents. She was really starting to wish that she had never left New York. "I don't know anything." She says for the millionth time.

Coulson sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. May, on the other hand, looked unimpressed.

"We don't believe you." She said while glaring at her slightly or maybe that's just how she looked?

"Sorry?" Sam answered unsure of what to say. This wasn't something that happened every day.

"Sam, we want to help you, really, we do. But, in order to do that, you have to tell us everything." Coulson said giving her a pleading look.

Sam looked back guiltily, "I want to help." She said truthfully, "But, I don't know anything. Kiera didn't tell me anything about going after Skye."

She watched as the older man's shoulders deflated. "Can you at least tell us what she is?"

Sam moved in her seat and started twiddling her thumbs. It wasn't like she couldn't. There was no code of secrecy. IT was just a general spoken rule that you never told anyone about your Inhuman status. The less exposer the better, was what she was told. That was a role that she was perfectly okay with obeying. Looking at Coulson, he looked so desperate for answers. He looked so lost and she couldn't help but feel the exhaustion role off of him.

"It's hard to explain."

"Then simplify it," May told her harshly.

Sam bit her tongue. How was there any way to simplify it? She didn't even understand what had happened to her some of the time. It wasn't until Kiera sat her down years later and explained it all. Even now, she still struggled with it.

"I would…but, I don't even understand it all the time. I mean I was so young when all of this happened to me." She explained while gesturing to her whole body, "I mean, in simple terms, it's basically like going through puberty again." She exclaimed and held up two fingers, "Do you know how much that sucks?! I had to go through puberty twice. Twice! It's bad enough that I got my period when I was eleven and homeless. Then some woman basically killed me and changed my whole genetic code."

Sam watched as Coulson's eyes comically widen as she had continued her rant. Though, she couldn't tell if it was from talking about her period or her whole genetic code being altered. May then took a deep breath and looked as if she was trying to Zen herself. Glancing at Sam, May pinched the bridge of her nose and showed the most emotion that she had the entire time that Sam had known her.

"What about Thomas Ward? Can you tell us anything about him?"

Sam shrugged, "I only know the basics stuff. He's like Skye, had a really shitty childhood, and got out the first chance he got. He's been friends with Skye since, like, the beginning of time. He was an agent in the F.B.I for a while. Then, I guess, he killed one of the directors and became an internationally wanted criminal. Until he was able to fake both his and Skye's death."

Coulson's mouth had opened and if the situation wasn't serious, Sam would have laughed. He then looked over to May in question. Both of them having a silent conversation with their eyes. They both nodded their heads and turned back to her. Coulson then gave her a small smile while getting up slowly, "We'll be right back."

"Okay?" She said unaware of what she was supposed to say. It wasn't like she expected them to really go anywhere. They were still in the sky and it wasn't like she could go anywhere. Well, she was pretty sure she couldn't go anywhere. Sam wasn't particularly found to test out that theory.

Sam was then left in the cold metal room by herself. Her leg was tapping up and down furiously with anxiety. If it hadn't been for her then they would have never been in this mess in the first place. She was supposed to be back in New York right now talking over a plan with Edith. Edith, who had worked her ass off and called in so many favors to get her a meeting with Ivanna. She was surprised that the young woman had not been blowing up her phone yet. Which that did not give her bright and shiny feelings because that could mean two things.

Either, somehow, Edith had figured out that they were in trouble. Or, and this was the part she was hoping wasn't true. Things had gotten worse on her end and something bad had happened to her. Those were the two only possible explanation she could think of. Now, that wasn't saying those were the only two possibilities. Those were just he only two that had made sense to her at that moment in time. Ivanna could have fallen back on the deal and Edith could be paying the price for it. There were some many things that could have gone wrong that Sam just wanted to cry. She couldn't understand how Kiera dealt with this all the time. The thought, or even the action, of something going wrong or not her way was panic-inducing. She lived an unsafe life, she was aware of that, but she still wanted to have some normalcy. Still, have some control over her life that was practically taken from her all those years ago.

There was a knock on the door and Sam swiveled her head to see that Jemma was standing there. She had a hard look set on her face. Her cheeks looked flushed and her eyes red like she had been crying. Sam could see that she carrying something in her hands. It was a stack of files.

"Can I help you?" Sam ask and almost cringed. That sentence had come out a little harsher than she had intended.

Jemma narrowed her eyes and strode forward quickly taking the seat where Coulson had been seated. "I want to know where they are." She said in a threating tone. "It's almost been a week and I'm done with the stupid Q&A." Simmons then leaned forward, "I want to know where Fitz is and I know you know something."

Sam then sighed letting her shoulders fall. She was right, she did know something. Well, it wasn't actually information on anything. More like just a hunch or a feeling. She just had an idea. Sucking in her breath through her teeth, she met Jemma's hazel eyes.

"I think I might have an idea." She said and Jemma perked up. Sam had only returned it with a grim expression, "And you're really not going to like it."

"And you're really not going to like it."

Coulson stood opposite of the two-way glass staring at the girl. He had no idea what to do with her. His mouth was set in a firm line. He had thought that he knew everything about his team. He thought that they had all bonded. Then Skye went ahead and did something he didn't see coming from her. Phil wasn't an idiot. He knew she had a dark past with a lot of secrets. She was open about that. But, when she lifted her hand and blasted the door down. It really took him for a spin.

It also didn't shock him as much as he thought it would. If anything, it made things a littler clearer about her. It explained why she could see things that the team couldn't. Why she always had these little feelings that never made sense to Coulson. It also made pulled together why she had so much distrust in SHIELD. Skye wasn't on the Index and had made it clear multiple times that she hated it. That it put people with gifts or powers at risk. That those people should just be left alone and not messed with. Here he had thought she was just a bleeding heart, but, in reality, she was just talking about herself.

Something that truly shocked him. Agent Grant Ward and Fitz going rogue.

Fitz he could see. He and Skye were close and they seemed to be good friends along with being trusting of each other. Ward, though, Ward confused him to no utter end. It was like seeing the Pope at a strip club. As in, something that you just wouldn't see or expect from such a person.

Coulson wasn't going to pretend to know about Ward's past or personal life. He honestly just assumed that Ward didn't have one. They way he was so dedicated to the agency. No one got as far as he did in as short as time as he did with a personal life. He thought that, if anything, Ward would be the last person to want to go after Skye. Coulson had honestly tried thinking of ways he was going to convince him to help. Why they needed Skye on the team, because let's be honest here, they really needed Skye on the team. He wasn't even sure how they had managed to function this long without her?

Oh, wait, they hadn't. It's was almost going on two weeks with no Skye and half his team was gone.

Then when Coulson had threatened to take away his badge. Ward had basically given told him to do it. He didn't even hesitate to answer when told about the possibility. Coulson had to admire him for that. He was willing to give up his entire life for people he cared about. Although, as Coulson came to think about it, they were some questionable people. Which lead him to his final thought.

Thomas Andrew Ward.

The man, in the short time he interacted with him, was almost a complete opposite of his Ward. He looked charming and charismatic. He had bright blue eyes with wind swept black hair and stubble. His clothes were that of something out on an Indiana Jones movie. Something that he would probably never see Ward in. After they had left Thomas and Skye behind and he had time to process everything. Coulson went straight to work and immediately started doing his research on Thomas Ward.

Except, the only thing to come up was his death certificate.

Frustration had almost consumed Coulson that entire week. It had gotten to the point where he was just going to take his laptop and chuck it against the wall. Because that seemed more productive than anything they had been doing. It was only when he over heard Davis girl and Ward talking about an Andrew Shaw did he even find anything. Then, after reaching out to a few contacts, Coulson was finally able to come up with something.

Thomas Ward had quiet the criminal track record. When he read the charges against him his jaw had hit the floor. Because, holy shit, that list was long and to an extent, impressive. It was only after his conversation with Ward did he realize something of importance. The name Mr. Jones kept popping up in Thomas' file. Something about being a traitor to the country and seeing secrets. Ruthless in his methods of acquiring information. Incredibly hard to find and no one had a clue on what he looked like. Then Ward had dropped the bomb on him that Mr. Jones was, in fact, Ms. Marcella Jamerson.

She was clever, he gave her that.

After Ward had left his office. Coulson had immediately opened his laptop and did a Google search for her. He had been seeing the news and knew that she was everywhere. You couldn't walk past any T.V. without seeing her face on it. It was after only a few articles that he found something troubling and useful. According to her official website; Marcella Jamerson had invested money into several companies and projects. One of them being Project Centipede. Coulson had almost yelled in joy. They had finally found a lead to Project Centipede. They had finally found their one up. This information could make them one step ahead. Marcella Jamerson's party was just the key to all of it. If he could just get her alone and maybe talk to her about it. Then he could get some more information about it. Then they could take the fight to Project Centipede.

So, while Ward had created his own plan. Coulson, in the process, had also formed another one.

The hard part was convincing May to go off book and keep the mission between them. Because, if he was being honest here, he would actually like it if Fury didn't know how much he truly fucked up. Fury had trusted him with its team, a first of its kind, Coulson would like to see that he isn't the one to fuck it up.

"You're still thinking loudly I see," May said as she walked into the room. Coulson jumped and turned around to glare at her slightly. He knew that she was an agent, but, did she have to do that all the time?

Coulson then hmphed while May her place by his side. They watched the two young ladies conversing in front of them. The two-way mirror enabling them to see them but the two girls not being able to see them. "Don't say it." He told May as he watched the two.

"I wasn't going to say anything."

"No, but you were thinking it." Coulson said then looked over to May, "I know that you were thinking it. I can see it all over your face."

May gave him a side-eye, "This is how I normally look."

Phil snorted then turned to her narrowing his eyes slightly, "How come you aren't more surprised about this?" He asked while crossing his arms over his chest, "I thought you would be the first person to respond to this."

May merely shrugged her shoulders as if he wasn't a big deal, "It wasn't like she lied to us." She commented, "She told us that she wasn't a trustworthy person, Phil. This is what untrustworthy people do." She was silent and turned towards the two girls, "I just wasn't expecting everything else."

Coulson understood. She hadn't been expecting the powers and all the other people. That had taken them both by surprise. "You would think that after all this time we would have gotten used to it." He mumbled.

"I don't think I ever could." May's voice was soft and distant like she was remembering something, "Even after all my time working for SHIELD, it still surprises me."

"You remember Carol Danvers?" He asked her and then he saw May smirk, telling him that she did indeed remember her. "I thought that she would be the only one, then Thor came, and then New York happened. Then I took that trip to Tahiti and I thought that place was supposed to clear my head. Ever since I got back though, it just feels even more muddled."

"Ironic, considering you keep saying it's a magical place," May asked.

Coulson frowned as his trip became more and more unclear, "It's starting to lose its appeal." He then sighed, "Anyway, I just, it got me thinking about, all of this."

"The point, Phil?" May asked getting slightly annoyed.

Coulson paused for a moment then opened his mouth, "It just makes you think," he finally said thinking back to the Professors words, "About how alone we truly are on Earth. That maybe they're closer than we think."

May paused for a moment and turned to him slightly. She was silent as she stared at him. He had no idea what she was thinking. He had lost that ability long ago, but, Coulson got the feeling that whatever she was thinking wasn't good. She just stared at him like she was keeping a big secret. She wanted to say something, well a lot of things, that much he could tell. However, she was never going to say it. Not anymore. That wasn't who she was.

Instead of saying anything. May tapped on the glass and slowly started walking out of the room. Only glancing back to say something, "You can't save them all, Phil." May then walked out of the room and Coulson looked down at his shoes.

He didn't want to save them all. He just wanted them all to live.

"Well, I have to give it to her. She really knows how to throw a party." Tommy mumbled from just outside the property of the house. Skye could only nod her head in agreement. The house itself was huge and she had never seen anything like it in person before. The only time she got close to a mansion of this size was when she had watched an episode of Keeping Up with The Kardashians. Sure, she had been in a few mansions before, but nothing to the size of this one.

"Bloody hell, it's like she brought the Great Gatsby to life," Fitz said to her right.

Skye had almost jumped. She had forgotten that they made him tag along on this little trip. Which, she wasn't going to lie, she was a little proud of. When Tommy and she had told Grant that they weren't going to tell him any of their plans. He got upset and then mad. So, it was then bargained that he was still going to at least bug the house. He at first offered Kiera, but both Tommy and Skye knew that was a bad idea. So, then Grant offered himself but, again, Skye and Tommy refused. There was too high a risk that someone might recognize him. Then entered Fitz.

He was perfect. No one had ever seen him before. He would be able to easily blend into the face of a crowd. If anything would go wrong then all he would have to do is scream and one of them would show up. It wasn't the most ideal plan but it was better than nothing.

Skye took a deep breath and turned around so her back was facing the massive house. "Right, so, we got this all figured out?"

"Yes," Fitz said right away.

She then turned to Tommy and lifted a sculpted eyebrow. He rolled his eyes and waved his hands in the air. "Yeah, yeah, whatever, I got it figured out. Don't be seen or heard. Don't do anything stupid just get in there and wait for the signal."

"Exactly." She told him while pointing her finger, "I don't want any fuck ups tonight. We make this clean alright?"

"Alright," Tommy grumbled and then opened up the car door for her.

The plan to get in was simple. She had Fitz would ride in together, they would stay and then mingle a bit. When Mr. Jones would call for the meeting Skye would follower her while Fitz stayed behind and started bugging the house. When the moment was right she would call Tommy in and then they would take care of this once and for all. They would finally get rid of their old lives and start anew. She just didn't know where yet.

The ride to the mansion was tense. Mostly, due to the fact that she was pretty sure that Fitz was giving her anxiety by just the feeling of his heartbeat. She knew that he was nervous and he honestly had every right to be. He was going into a building filled with people that would kill him without a second thought. Skye was used to this, she was used to people wanting to kill her without a second thought, Tommy even more so. Fitz…not so much, he was already a spooked rabbit, all he needed was just one little jump that would scare him. It was the main reason they had not given him a gun. The last thing they needed was a scared Fitz and a loaded gun.

As the car pulled to a stop she looked over at Fitz and gave him a reassuring nod. She watched as he took and a deep breath, fixed his tie and opened the car door. Skye waited until he shut the door before she herself got out. She waited a couple of seconds before Fitz came over and linked his arm through with hers.

When his arms touched hers, she could feel all of his emotions. It was almost too much for her and to calm both herself and him down. She pushed calming vibrations through him, she could feel him stiffen a little bit. However, as they walked up the stairs she could feel him loosen up and the expression on his face changed. He no longer looked scared but rather ready, like he was meant to be here and Skye couldn't help but smile. She was a little proud of the fact that Fitz was doing this, that he was taking more risks and becoming more confident in himself.

Letting her dress fall back to the ground as she and Fitz arrived at the front door. The man in the front of the door looked them over, his eyes narrowing slightly at the sight of both of them. "Invitations?" he asked.

Skye smiled softly, "I'm on the list."

The man lifted an eyebrow, "Name?" He asked with slight annoyance to his voice.

"Just tell her the Devil is here to make a deal."

It was funny to watch the man seize up. His eyes had widened and everything about his demeanor completely changed. Skye could feel the fear starting to come off of him in waves. Putting away the list he gestured to the door with a shaky hand, "Right this way, ma'am."

Skye nodded her head in thanks as did Fitz. Then the two of them gaze a quick glance at each other and walked through the doors with their heads held high. As they were walking through the lobby Fitz leaned into her a whispered, "You have quite the reputation." He observed.

Skye shrugged her shoulders, "Well, let's just say that it's there for good reason."

It was almost like walking into a whole other world. The mansion was wonderfully decorated with different lighting and decorations. People were dressed to their best with the women wearing elegant dresses and men wearing the best of suits. You could tell by just looking at them that these people were rich. That they were practically made of money and that they enjoyed being here, however, there were some that did not fit. There were the people that were dressed well but something was off about their body language. Like they were waiting for something and the party was just a means to an end.

As they walked forward and towards the grand staircase. She could feel Fitz clutching onto her arm for dear life. She squeezed his hand back in order to give him support and she heard him take a deep breath. He was trying to calm himself down and keep the façade up, not giving away their true intentions.

Lucifer had been smart when it came to the meetings. Most of them were just through other people or anonymous mail. She would sometime see their faces and they would never see theirs on the rare occasion that they had to show their faces. Lucifer made sure that the people would never forget their face. That they remember the power they held and why they were called the Devil for a reason.

When she entered the room, all conversations quieted. She could feel all the eyes in the room on her. All the rich people looking at her, judging her. The narrowing of their eyes as they wondered who she was. They didn't know who she was, all they knew was that she was important. Lifting her chin high into the air Skye made sure that the people knew she was powerful. She had straightened her back and set her lips into a firm line. Tommy was not by her side, but she could still feel his presence. It's the way that the air changed. The way the shadows moved farther away from their hosts and towards a certain point in the room. Tommy was close, probably, sticking close to the darkest corners to stay hidden from everyone. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Flexing her fingers and keeping her nose in the air. Skye lifted her dress slightly and began her descent of the staircase. The staircase itself was grand and her heels were the only sound filling the room and they clicked against the floor. When she was halfway down the staircase, the whispers began. She could see the people lean into each other. Cupping their mouths and whispering into each other's ears, about who she was, and what she might be doing here. This is what Skye wanted. All eyes on her, giving Tommy the distraction that he needed.

When she reached the bottom of the staircase, she was greeted by the woman they had been waiting for. Mr. Jones was dressed to perfection and looked like she could rule the world. Unlike the other women in the room, including herself, Mr. Jones was wearing a pantsuit. It was black with a plunging neck line and hugged her body in a flattering way. It was obvious that the pantsuit had been tailored specifically for her. It showed off her money, but more importantly, it showed off her power. The woman was just oozing the power that she wore. It was like Mr. Jones was making sure that her outfit matched her rank. Skye could see why Tommy was drawn to her but also hated her at the same time.

Skye watched as Mr. Jones' ruby stained lips curled into a bright smile. If Skye didn't know any better, she would say that the older woman was genuinely happy to see her there. The older woman walked forward and extended her arms as if she was greeting her with a hug. Skye stood in shock as Mr. Jones grabbed her shoulders and kissed both of her cheeks and did the same action with Fitz.

"I'm so glad you came." She said happily as she pulled away from Fitz. "Once I got your RSVP, I just knew that this party was going to be memorable."

"I would hope so," Skye replied, "I wouldn't have shown up if it was going to be anything less."

Mr. Jones looked slightly taken aback and blinked her grey-blue eyes a couple of times. She recovered quickly though, covering it up with a fake laugh. "Funny." She noted then linked their arms together forcing her and Fitz apart. Mr. Jones then began guiding them through the crown and Skye spared a glance to Fitz telling him to follow. "Who knew, the Devil had a sense of humor."

Skye gave her a side eye, "One has to have one when barring the mantel." She said in a posh voice. She then huffed out a laugh when looking at Mr. Jones. "Plus, it helps when getting creative with punishments and missions."

"Of course," Mr. Jones agreed with her. They then stopped in the middle of the dance floor with Mr. Jones turning to her. The older woman then narrowed her eyes slightly while giving her a questioning look. "Although," She said, "I have to wonder. Why now? You've always had an invite to my events. Why come now of all the times?"

Skye could hear what she was implying. She was trying to figure out what her ulterior motives were as to why she came. "You have something that I want." Skye told her truthfully while their eyes met, "Something that I've been looking for, for a while now."

"How did you know?" She questioned.

Skye smiled, "Word travels fast when you're in Hell." Skye then gripped Mr. Jones' arm tight and leaned in closer. Making sure that she was the only one about to hear what she said, "Deals are made and people start to talk."

Once she pulled back, she saw that Marcella's lips had puckered. She hadn't liked being challenged or threatened. The once happy look that she had on her face was gone. "You've been out for a while." She said threateningly, "You really think that you still hold that power?"

Skye lifted an eyebrow at her, "Yes." She said like it was an obvious fact and maybe she was being a little bias. But, considering some of the people reactions when she walked through the door, she would say that she still had the power. Even after two years underground and killing her Mentor people still believed in her. They still feared her and what she could possibly do.

Skye then smiled as she picked up a flute of Champaign from a passing waiter. She started Mr. Jones down as she tossed the alcohol back. The bubbly drink burning her throat a little bit. She didn't need to answer Mr. Jones. The older woman already knew the answer. Of course, she still held the power, Skye wouldn't be here otherwise. Mr. Jones loved power and Skye had a lot of it. She may have been out of commission for a while but her effect on people was still the same. Her very title made people shake and cower with fear. She was a legend while Mr. Jones was still just a human with money in her pockets and a silver tongue that followed.

A throat then cleared and Skye looked over to see that Fitz was looking between the two women with worry. Skye then gave him a reassuring smile and held out her hand nodding her slightly giving him the cue that he should take it. Fitz took it with only slight hesitation and Skye brought him forward looping her arm through his and holding on tightly.

"This is an associate of mine." Skye said as she squeezed him tightly, "Miles Lydon. He deals with some of the technical aspects for me."

Fitz held out his hand, "Pleasure to meet you." He said in an American accent. Something that took Skye a little off guard, but she was sure not show it.

Marcella smiled and shook his hand lightly, "Please, the pleasure is all mine." She then looked at the both of them, "Now, is it safe to assume that both of you will be joining me for the…special event of tonight."

"Of course." Skye said immediately, "I told you that you have something that I want. I don't plan on letting anyone else taking it." She then smiled and Marcella smiled back at her. In another life, there was a possibility that she and Skye would be friends. Skye could see it now, the moments they would share together. The amount of power they could have over the entire world just from the two of them.

However, Skye was not that person anymore and the only thing that would bring her happiness was her death. There was a pinch of guilt in Skye considering that Marcella had never done anything to her, only Tommy. That Skye was never the subject of any hurt towards Skye, in fact, it seemed the Marcella looked up to her in a way. She admired Skye and for that, she did feel guilty.

Noticing the tension building between the two women. Fitz clapped his hands gaining the attention of both of them. "Well, I don't know about you but I think a little mingling would be nice for both of us." He said as he put an arm around her waist squeezing it tightly.

Skye blinked and gave Fitz a dazzling smile, "Of course," She said chuckling at his comment. She then gave Mr. Jones one last look, "I guess we will be seeing each other very soon." She said to her.

Mr. Jones narrowed her eyes slightly, "Yes, the main party will take place in about an hour. Please, be ready by then."

"We will," Skye replied then she gripped onto Fitz's arm tightly while dragging him forward.

It might not have been the best conversation but at least they weren't dead. As far as she could tell Mr. Jones hadn't expected anything as to why they were actually there and that was enough for her. All they needed to do now was wait for the main event and everything would be fine. Well, not fine but better than usual at least.

Yeah, it was going to be fine.

"Oh shite," Fitz mumbled as he stopped dead in his tracks. Skye then gave him a worried look but then all she had to do was follow his line of sight. Standing there, only a few feet away, was Coulson with Simmons on his arm. Their caught each other's gazes and then their eyes locked. Then to make matters worse Simmons started walking towards them a fire in her eyes.

Shit was right.

Skye was almost sure that somehow Simmons had made time slow down. She watched as the Brit made her way towards them. Her walking was a bit off since she wasn't used to heels, but, that was beside the point. Skye had to give it to Simmons though, she somehow still looked intimidating in a poufy light pink ball gown. She noticed that her hair was pulled back in an elegant bun and there were light touches of make-up on her face. Skye almost smiled at how beautiful she looked.

Looking over to Fitz she watched as a range of emotions crossed his face. First was fear, then panic, but they finally ended on one she was becoming familiar with. In his bright blue eyes was the emotion of pure and utter love. She could literally see his breath being taken away as he watched Simmons stalking over to them. Smiling Skye elbowed him slightly, "You might want to shut your mouth before you trap any flies."

Fitz blinked a couple of times in confusion before sealing his lips together. He straightened his back just as Simmons had arrived before them. Skye was going, to be honest here, she had no idea was Jemma Simmons was going to do. She had no idea whether or not she was going to make a scene or slap Fitz, yell, or hell even just stares at them angrily.

Well, the moment of truth. Skye thought to herself as Simmons finally planted herself in front of them.

The woman crossed her arms over her chest and looked at them expectantly, "Do you know how long you've been gone?" She asked Fitz looked directly at him with a fierce glare. Fitz only shook his head unable or too afraid to answer the question. Simmons then huffed, "You've been gone exactly nine days, fourteen hours, and twenty-three seconds." She then took a step closer to him and with her heels they were roughly the same height now, "That's nine days, fourteen hours, and twenty-three seconds that I had no idea where you were." Simmons lip then quivered, "Of not knowing what was happening to you. If you were okay or not." Skye then saw a tear slip out of her eye, "That was nine days, fourteen hours, and twenty-three seconds of not having you by my side."

Fitz then gulped and his eyes began to become misty, "I'm sorry." He said thickly, "But, Jemma, I had to do this."

Jemma's heartbroken face quickly changed to one of anger, "I don't bloody care that you did it!" She yelled with a raised voice and Skye could see some odd stares coming their way. Knowing that she should intervene Skye stepped forward and lightly grabbed Simmons by her arm. However, the Brit was determined not to be deterred from her rant. Simmons viciously ripped her arm out of Skye's grasp and shot her a venomous glare. She didn't say anything but she didn't need to for Skye to understand what she was saying.

Jemma then took a deep breath and collected herself as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm not mad that you left," Simmons said again she then let her arms fall down to her sides, "What I'm mad about is that you didn't think that I wouldn't have come with you." Her anger had faded and a crestfallen expression graced her face.

Taking notice of the slight glances from the people around them. Skye knew that it was only a matter of time before people someone caught on. "Simmons," She said in a harsh whisper, "Let's talk about this in a room that isn't more public."

Simmons scrunched her face up in displeasure but agreed with her. Taking a fistful of her skirt she walked over to where Coulson was, grabbed him by the arm, and dragged him away into another room. Following her lead, but with more grace, Skye also took Fitz by the arm and started walking over to where Simmons has placed herself. Skye made sure to glance over her shoulders and make sure that no one was watching. More importantly, she wanted to make sure that Mr. Jones wasn't watching.

Satisfied when she saw that the older woman was preoccupied with someone else. She looked engrossed in the conversation but Skye could tell that it was just a front. She wanted to be somewhere else, away from the person that she was talking to. She could tell by her cold blue eyes that seemed to be silently murdering the person in her head.

Tearing her gaze off from her Skye and Fitz quickly walked into another room that seemed to be an office of some type. Coulson had been waiting for them and shut the door as soon as both of them had entered. He then continued to glare at them as he locked it and Skye wondered how long he had been waiting to do this for.

Taking a deep breath Coulson gave them both a pointed look, "Do you have an idea how many laws you've broken by being here?"

Skye shrugged her shoulders, "I'm guessing it's a lot." She said with a slight chuckle although judging by their faces. None of them were finding this amusing in the least.

"Yeah, it's a lot." He then turned his gaze towards Fitz who looked guilty, "And you Agent Fitz, you do realize that doing this could cost you your badge. You could lose everything by just being here."

Fitz swallowed and adjusted his tie and stood up straighter, "I understood that my actions will have consequences." He said with a slight tremor to his voice, "But Sir, if I may, I could not in good conscious let them do this alone."

"So you leave with Agent Ward and an unstable gifted individual? For what? Do you even know what their end plan is?" He asked in disbelief.

Fitz nodded his head, "Sir, I'm not here for whatever reason they are. I'm here to gather intelligence for secret criminal organizations. Whatever Skye and Tommy have planned I'm not a part of it."

"It's true." Skye budded in to defend Fitz. They hadn't told Fitz the whole plan but she's pretty sure that he had already figured it out by now.

Coulson then pitched the bridge of his nose and Skye looked to Simmons. The woman looked betrayed and unsure of herself at the same time. Betrayed because of Fitz but unsure because the points that he had made were not bad ones. She watched as conflicting emotions ran across her eyes and finally when their eyes met, she asked a question, "Were you ever going to tell us, about what you are?" She asked, "Or, were you just planning on lying the entire time?"

"I didn't think that I was going to stay as long as I had." Skye answered truthfully, "But if you want an honest answer, then it would be a yes. I was planning on keeping who and what I am a secret for as long as I could."

They had been plunged into silence after that. Skye didn't know how to come back from that answer. It had been the truth for both of the answers. She was unsure of how long she had meant to stay with them. Then when she decided that she was staying with them she told herself that she would never show her powers. Then she had broken that rule and everything went to shit because of it. Because of her.

"Alright." Coulson snapped and all eyes turned to him, "The only reason that we are going to help. The only reason that I am not turning you into SHIELD is that Marcella Jamerson has ties with the Centipede project. If we can find out some new information here then maybe we can get over this roadblock that we've hit with them."

"Centipede project?" Skye said in confusion, "Why would Mr. Jones want anything with them…unless," She then trailed off and began to think. A few pieces of the puzzle had finally come together and she remembers the look that Marcella had given her when they had been talking. The giant grin she had gotten on her face when they talked about the "special" event. It was then that Skye got a sinking feeling in her gut and she looked over to Coulson.

There would only be one reason that the Centipede project would be anywhere near Mr. Jones. There was only one person that Skye could think of that had any reason to be near Mr. Jones. The Girl In the Flower Dress as Coulson liked to call her. "Raina," Skye said softly to herself. She would be the only reason that Mr. Jones would know about Centipede. Mr. Jones only wanted power, she could care less about human evolution.

"What?" Coulson asked.

"Raina, the girl in the flower dress, she's the only reason that Marcella would associate herself with them."

"Why would she hear then?"

Skye clenched her hands into a fist, "I don't know!" She yelled and stopped herself from running her hands through her hair. "Raina must have promised something to Mr. Jones and in return, Mr. Jones would give something to her."

"Do you have any idea what that might be?" Coulson asked.

Skye opened her mouth to answer but quickly shut it. She didn't have any idea on what it could be. There was no telling what Marcella Jamerson wanted and what she had promised Raina. Whatever it was, Skye knew that it wasn't good. The lights in the office started flickering and Skye gave them all a look, "It's time for the main event to start." She said quietly, "We better hurry, wouldn't want to be late."

"Main event?" Coulson asked throwing his arms out, "What main event?"

Skye gave him a sympathetic smile, "Didn't anyone tell you? This is an auction for the criminal underground."

When the lights flickered all the people had been there for the auction were gathered into a small room. From there they had been led down a secret doorway and multiple stairs before being seated around a large round table that reminded her very much of the Arthurian tale. It was large and over twenty people sat around it including her and Fitz. Simmons and Coulson had to be left behind do to the fact that they did not have the 'proper' invite.

As she sat down, she looked to Fitz and gave him the signal to start bugging. Ever so carefully she watched as she took a small device no larger than a quarter. He placed it underneath the table and Skye let out a sigh of relief to know that, that part of the mission was at least done. She now just had to hope that the device would stay there.

The lights flickered again Skye looked across from her seat to see that only two places were missing. One she guessed was for Mr. Jones, the other she had no clue about. There was then the sound of heels and Skye stared forward and watched as Mr. Jones emerged from the darkness with a sinister smirk. Then a second figure came out and stood beside her and she felt Fitz seize up. Skye had to stop herself from following his actions.

Because standing next to Mr. Jones was Rania and she too held a gentle smile.

"Everyone," Marcella began as she clapped her hands, "I'm so glad that you have come. I can tell you that the collection we have this evening is particularly interesting." She then moved forward and pulled out her chair, which was bigger than everyone else's, and sat down. Rania then immediately followed her and once she sat down her eyes met hers.

They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. While Raina had that smirk on her face Skye's was blank. Although, the look in her eyes was a different story because behind her brown eyes was blinding fury and rage. It took everything in her to not stop the other woman's heart right there. They both refused to look away. It wasn't until Mr. Jones had pulled Rania away that their gazes broke.

From there it was white noise, it could have been hours and a mere twenty minutes. All she could focus on was the fact that Rania was here. That she went back on her word even though she had given her exactly what she wanted. She knew that they were never on good terms but this seemed low even for her standards.

She felt a sharp elbow to her side and Skye gaze flickered over to Fitz. He titled his head and silently asked her if she was okay. She nodded her head giving him the answer that they both needed. She was already getting the feeling that this wasn't going to turn out as she wanted. The last thing she needed was for Fitz to start panicking and drop the façade that he had been able to keep up.

"And now ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to say that one of these last items is a particular interest to me." She then motioned for the guards to bring it forward and Skye watched as the two men dragged something, no, someone out. He was dressed in rags and his hair was falling past his ears while something seemed to be wrapped around his neck. There was something familiar to him, something that Skye could have sworn she felt before.

"He's one the best techno geeks out there and is able to hack into anything." Mr. Jones then stood and Skye noticed the button in her hand. She clicked it and the man feels to his knees crying out in pain, "With the right motivation of course."

The man then looked up and his eyes wondered until they locked onto hers. Once she saw his eyes Skye gasped because she knew who he was. She felt her heart begin to beat faster, the bees in her stomach becoming angry at what she was seeing before her. There was also pity though, pity at seeing what had become of him. Because kneeling on the ground with their gazes locked was Chuck, Cecily's fiancé.

She could feel the breath being taken from her. Her eyes beginning to water as she looked at the broken form of her friend. The man that had taught her everything about computers, her mentor. The man that made her sister so happy and light. The man that was so nice and kind, who could never harm a single soul. The man that was in front of her.

"I'll take him." She blurted out and all the eyes on the room landed on her. She even swore she saw a ghost of a thankful smile appear on Chuck's face. Skye then gave Mr. Jones a harsh glare, "I don't care about your price, I'll match it."

"So, The Devil does speak." Mr. Jones said in a curious tone.

Everyone that had been seated at the table froze in their place. Both Skye and Mr. Jones noticed this. Just by saying her name the people became even more afraid of her. They would dare challenge her, not when she was in the room at least, not when she laid claim to something. Making sure to give everyone a hard look she made sure that they got the point not to cross her.

"Anyone else wants to challenge me?" She asked and no one spoke none of them even meeting her gaze. She then looked back to Mr. Jones, "Then I guessed it's settled, he's mine."

Marcella chuckled and tossed her the clicker and Skye caught it without hesitation, "He's all yours." She then shooed the two men away, "Clean him up a little bit, he's starting to smell like shit." She mumbled to them.

Mr. Jones then turned back to them and placed the biggest smile on her face. She truly looked like a kid on Christmas, "And now for the crème de le crème." She gestured theatrically to the dark corridor, "Ladies and gentlemen, criminals from all walks of life, I give you something that you won't be able to resists." Then another two men brought two people forward, "I give you Agent Phil Coulson and Jemma Simmons."

The two looked ruffled and as if they had been in a fight. Simmons had a look of fear on her face with tears streaming down her cheeks. Coulson was trying to look calm and putting somewhat of a fight up but she could that fear was there also.

Skye's eyes shot to Rania's and she had that smirk on her face. That all-knowing smirk. This is what the trade was. SHIELD agents for something that Rania wanted.

Her minding going back to Fitz she placed a hand on his leg to stop him from lunging forward. "Don't." She whispered quietly to him, "Let me handle this."

"But, Skye…" He whispered back furiously, "It's Jemma and Coulson."

"I know, just let me handle this."

A few people had started to bid but it was Rania who had outspoken all of them. It was Raina who Mr. Jones only seemed to hear, "I'll give you however much you want for the man," She then looked at Simmons who judging eyes and shrugged her shoulders, "The girl I don't care for."

"I'll take her and the man too." Skye cut it and again all eyes were on her.

Mr. Jones raised a questioning eyebrow, "Three tonight?" She asked curiously.

Skye narrowed her eyes, "Is there a limit that I don't know about?" She spat out.

Mr. Jones laughed, "No, of course not, I'm just surprised by your choices, that's all."

"Well, then, I'm glad I can still be unpredictable then."

Marcella then held up her finger to stop her, "However there is one slight problem." She then gestured to Raina, "Since Rania made it clear she is willing to pay whatever she wants for Phil and this is a first come first serves basis. It seems that your bid for him…" She sucked in a breath, "Is useless. However, the girl is still yours."

"I want them both." She told her, no, demanded her.

"Well, then you should have been faster." She said to her in a condescending tone, "You get the girl and that's it. Maybe next time you'll be a little faster." Looking around at the other people she gave them her brilliant smile, "I believe that's all for tonight. I hope you all enjoy your purchases." The men started pulling away from both Coulson and Simmons in opposite directions with both of them struggling against the restraints.

Mr. Jones turned around and Skye knew that this was her only chance. Skye puckered her lips and let out the whistle that gave Tommy the signal letting him know it was time. Skye watched as Mr. Jones froze at the noise and tilted her head like she was trying to figure something out. Only she couldn't have figured it out because that's when the shots started flying out.

The first two had hit the men who were holding both Simmons and Coulson. The shots hit home and both the men hit the floor dead. Then the room grew dark and all she could hear were the shots coming out across the room. When Tommy finally pulled back the shadows, she looked around her to see that all around her were dead bodies. The only people left standing were her, Fitzsimmons, and Mr. Jones.

No Coulson. Skye looked around everywhere for him but she couldn't find him. Shaking her head, she figured that he might have been able to escape.

Tommy then walked up behind Mr. Jones and pointed the gun at her head. Skye moved out from her chair and moved right beside him. Marcella then turned around slowly and held her hands up in surrender, rather mockingly. She smirked when she saw who it was, "Thomas Ward, my greatest mistake." She then tsked, "My how good is it to see you back."

"You don't seem to be surprised that I'm alive," Tommy said with a low voice.

Marcella lifted an eyebrow, "You're not subtle." She refuted, "truly it is quite extraordinary how bad you are at it."

Tommy cocked the gun and placed it against her head, "I'm done Marcella, this is my last play."

"Calling check mate?" She asked him with a quizzed look and not an ounce of fear. She then rolled her eyes, "Well, then I supposed I should call my last move." She then reached into her pocket and pulled out another button. She clicked the button and Simmons, who was off to the side, went screaming to the ground. She was clawing at her neck that seemed to have nothing around it.

Fitz, who had been in the back, rushed towards her and began cradling her. Simmons grabbed Fitz by the lapels and held onto him for dear life.

"Where's Coulson?" Skye asked as she stilled had yet to see the man.

Marcella laughed, "I'm sure Raina has him long gone by now since Thomas here gave her the perfect opportunity to slip away."

"What?"

"Oh, you see, I was informed that SHEILD would be coming to this event. And, well, let's be honest here Phil Coulson isn't exactly the most unrecognizable people there is. So, when I spotted him and girl, I knew that I had to have extra caution towards them. Being the genius that I am I had little electroshock transmitters implanted in her. Oh, and guess what, I'm the only one who knows how to get them out without killing her. I am also the only one who knows where Rania is keeping your precious Phil Coulson." She then looked Tommy dead in the eyes, "Are you truly willing to risk their lives just for some petty revenge plan?" She asked him mockingly.

Tommy and Skye glanced over to Simmons who had a hand wrapped around her throat. Skye thought back to what Fury told her. That she had a chance at a new life, a new life where she could do some good. If they killed Marcella then there was a good chance that Simmons could die and Skye didn't like that. "Please…" Fitz begged as he hugged Jemma closer, "Don't."

Skye then began to reach for Tommy, "Maybe we should just wait…"

"You should really listen to your friends, Thomas," Marcella said turning back to face them.

Tommy then cocked the gun, "I was never good at doing what I was told." He said in a low menacing voice and then pulled the trigger. The sound of the gunshot was deafening and Skye watched in practically slow motion as Marcella fell to the ground with a bullet in her head. Once she fell to the floor blood started pulling around her and her blue eyes stared blankly up at the celling.

There was a beat of silence and Simmons was the first to break it. "You made the right choice." She said in a small voice and pulled herself away from Fitz. Slowly, with the help of Fitz, she was able to make it to her feet. "I'm glad that you killed her."

Tommy nodded his head, "I know."

Skye then heard shuffling and looking over Tommy's shoulder she saw a pair of feet sticking out. Walking forward in a slow careful pace she made it to the curtain. Reaching out with her hand she grabbed the thick velvet material and quickly pulled it to the side like a band-aid.

There, shivering behind the curtain, was Chuck and her heart nearly leaped. She had almost forgotten about him but here he was, looking scared for his life. Reaching out slowly she lifted his chin up forcing his eyes to meet hers. It looked like that the people had merely given him new clothes to wear and shaved his face.

"Chuck?"

His lip wobbled and he lunged forward pulled her into a fierce hug. She could feel tears on her shoulder from where his face was buried. He hugged her so tight that she was finding it hard to breathe, "You have no idea how good it is to see you." He mumbled into her neck. She hugged him back and let the tears fall because her friend was back.

Although Chuck might be back. Coulson was now missing and the only lead the had was now dead.

Chapter Text

They had all agreed that driving back was the best option for them. They had been able to leave the party without a problem. Though Skye did find it funny that no one glanced at them even though they all looked a mess. Tommy with the blood-stained grey button shirt, Simmons with her ruined make-up and hair along with ripped clothes, Fitz with holes on his knees from where he had knelt, and Skye with a mussed hair and bloodstained also. Hell, even Chuck with his hobo look hadn’t even gained the attention of anyone. She thought that someone would have said something to them but no one did. They had been too invested with the party to even noticed anything wrong with them.

Tommy was the one to drive while Skye sat in the passenger seat. On the drive back, no one seemed to say anything. They had somehow done what they set out to do but also massively fucked up at the same time. It confused her greatly at how she took her eyes off of Coulson for only a moment and now he was gone. Rania had been able to get him and sneak him away for God only knows what. Skye had been the cause of that. She had told Fury that she wanted to be a better person and in her doing so she probably cost him one of his best agents.

Then there was May, oh God May, she didn’t even want to think about what her reaction might be. All the training in the world plus her powers wouldn’t help her against the wrath of Melinda May. For once in her life, Skye had no idea what she was going to next. As she glanced over to Tommy and saw how concentrated he was on driving, she had a feeling that he didn’t have any idea either as well.

She just wanted to get back to the hotel that they had set up at, take a nice long shower, and wash the night away. Then at the thought of the hotel, she remembered who was there and she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Shit.” She mumbled to herself. Kiera and Grant must have overheard everything and they had yet to check back in with them. Both of them were probably worried sick as to what was happening with them.

Tommy spared her a look, “What?” He asked trying to figure out the cause of her annoyance.

Skye rubbed her temples, “I completely forgot that Grant and Kiera were listening in during everything.” She let out a large sigh, “They must be worried sick.”

“I think my brother has a little more faith in us than that,” Tommy said quietly and checked the rearview mirror. Skye also turned around and saw that FitzSimmons had dozed off and were sleeping in each other’s arms. Chuck, on the other hand, was leaning against the window and staring out at the passing scenery.

She had been impulsive when saving him and had no idea what she was going to do with him. At the time, all she knew was that she had to save him because it’s what Cecily would have wanted. She would have wanted her to save him even if it meant risking everything because he was family to her. And the family was important no matter what. Fuck, she sounded so hypocritical.

Skye turned back to Tommy and gave him a worried look, “What about FitzSimmons?” She asked.

Tommy shrugged again, “I don’t know.” He admitted, “For now I would just like to focus on getting back to the hotel. After we settle down and get our heads on straight then we can think of a plan from there.”

Skye nodded her head in agreement automatically. She didn’t even know if she agreed with the plan, hell, she didn’t even know what she was doing right now. Everything had gone so wrong and sideways that she wasn’t even sure where she was going at this point. They had a plan to go to the hotel and then what? SHIELD was now a major factor in what they do next because of Coulson. The man was now missing and he wouldn’t have been if he hadn’t come to that damn party.

If he hadn’t come looking for her.

In a way, it was sweet that he had come looking for her. At the same though, it was possibly the dumbest move that he could have done. He had one the most recognizable faces out there and to show up to a party where a bunch of criminals was going to be. It was possibly the worst decision that he could have made at the time. He wanted to have his team back, she could get that, but why couldn’t he just had waited one more day.

“Don’t do that.” Tommy said and she glances at him.

“Don’t do what?” She asked sarcastically. She wasn’t doing anything right now if anything she was doing the opposite of something.

“Blame yourself,” He told her as his eyes were still focused on the road ahead, “What Coulson did was on his own free will. He’s the one that made the decision to come and get you, not you. You told him to stay away and he didn’t listen.”

“Still,” She whispered and sank down into her seat a little more, “It still feels like it’s my fault.”

She watched as Tommy sighed in defeat and focused back on the road. No more words were said after their conversation. They just let the silence of the night fill the space in the car.

When they got back to the hotel the moon had reached its highest point in the sky. The stars were glittering and if it hadn’t been for the nights' events Skye would have thought that it was beautiful. Tommy had pulled into a spare space and they sat there for a few seconds before deciding to wake up FitzSimmons. The two had gone through a lot it one night and Skye didn’t want to wake them from what looked like a peaceful slumber. Shaking her head, she had moved her gaze over towards Chuck who was still glancing outside the window. He hadn’t moved from his place or said a single word since they had entered the car. Maybe he was still processing everything?

Tommy cleared his throat and Skye turned towards him, “I’m going to go fill Kiera and Grant in. You good to deal with them?” He whispered and gestured to the back with his head.

Skye nodded and blinked her eyes a couple of times, “Yeah,” She said thickly then cleared her throat, “Yeah, I’m good to handle them.” She said and narrowed her eyes at him. She could see a slight panic in his blue eyes. The way his Adam’s apple was bobbing up and down and by the way, he was searching the area. “Are you good?” She asked him.

“What?” He answered defensively turning to her in shock.

“Are you good? To talk to your brother and Kiera. Alone?”

Tommy rolled his eyes and put on his defensive smile, “I’ll be fine, Skye.” He then puckered his lips and shook his head letting out a humorless chuckle. “Everything is fine.” He said finally.

Tommy opened the door and Skye watched as his body disappeared into the darkness. Making him practically invisible to an untrained eye. Skye narrowed her eyes at his form; he said he was fine but no one knew Tommy like her. He wasn’t fine, he hadn’t been for a while, his mental health had been in decline every since Henley was taken. This whole mission, Skye had a sinking feeling, was not because he wanted everything to end. He was doing this because he was starting to crack at the edges and if he didn’t pull back soon…

Well, Skye’s not sure she would be able to bring him back this time.

Tommy stared at the door in front of him twirling the room card in his hand. He knew that he would have to enter the room eventually. He just wasn’t exactly sure how he would explain the whole situation to Kiera or his brother. Sighing he finally gathered enough courage to slide the card into the slot and unlock the room. When he saw that button flash green, he pushed open the door and saw that the lights had been turned out.

To any other person, they would probably turn the lights on so they could see. But Tommy could already see in the dark so he hadn’t bothered. He walked forward and took off his jacket throwing it to the side counter. He rubbed his neck and looked to the side to see that his brother was hiding in a corner with a gun in hand.

Tommy turn towards him and flung his arms out in confusion, “What the fuck are you doing?” He asked and commanded the shadows to turn on the lights. Grant squinted from the sudden burst of light and lowered his gun. “Why are you standing in the corner like a creep?”

Grant glared at him, “We heard what happened from the bug but got cut off when the shots started to fire. We didn’t know what happened or who would be coming through the door.”

Tommy opened his mouth to reply but looked around for the missing person. “Where the hell is Kiera?”

Grant gave a look of confusion, “I don’t know. She did that weird shadow thing and that’s the last I saw of her.”

Tommy groaned and put the palm of his hand to his forehead, “I swear if she gets lost again in there…” he mumbled to himself. Tommy had stopped counting the number of times Kiera hid the shadows and got lost. He tried to teach her several times of how to stay focused but somehow, she still managed to lose track of where she was.

If on cue he saw a figure manifest itself out of the corner of his eye. He turned and watched as Kiera turned into solid form again, her arms crossed over her chest. “I don’t get lost anymore.” She said in an offense. Tommy only shook his head, he was too tired for any form of argument with her right now.

“Kiera, I need you to go back to Melinda May and tell her that we’ll be back by tomorrow.”

“What?” Grant said and stepped forward, “So, that’s it? You killed her?”

“Yeah,” He admitted and he saw something in Grant’s eyes that he couldn’t place. It was something that he had never seen before in someone. It wasn’t pity but it wasn’t a disappointment either. Taking a deep breath in Tommy readied himself to share the news of Coulson. “Not without its complications though.”

Grant’s face fell and Kiera frowned, “What happened?” Grant asked.

“You said you heard everything up until the gunshots, right?” Grant nodded and Tommy continued, “Well, after that I and Marcella got into a little bit of a pissing match. During this time our favorite flower wearing dress girl was able to sneak Coulson away.”

“You lost Coulson?!” Grant yelled.

Tommy flinched and put his hands up trying to calm his brother down, “Losing Coulson implies that I wanted him to come in the first place.”

“Tommy!” Kiera growled and he sighed in frustration.

He was trying to explain to them what happened but it wasn’t working. There was no way that he could explain all of this without making it sound like his fault. Which, in a way, it was his fault that Coulson was taken. If he hadn’t killed Marcella maybe he would still be there. He had to do this though, why couldn’t people see that? This wasn’t a revenge plot; that implies that he actually cared for Marcella, which he never did. He was doing this to protect everybody, there would be no threats to the people he loved if he just got rid of them all.

“Alright, just, shut up!” He shouted and the temperature in the room dropped. The shadows seemed to move closer to him and the inhabitants of the room had a quick feeling of fear rush through them. “Look, here is what we know,” Tommy said in a serious voice, half trying to calm himself down, “Coulson was taken by Raina and is now in the wind. It’s not the best place to be but it’s not the worst either, at least we know who took him.”

“What about the others?” Kiera asked as she bit her lip, her blue eyes flashing with concern.

“Everyone is fine.” He said although he didn’t quite believe it himself, “Kiera, please, can you just go tell May to wait till morning for us.”

Kiera looked between him and Grant and together they held a silent conversation. He was asking her to give him time alone with Grant. This was something that they needed. To have a conversation without anyone else in the room with them. To have no moderator.

“Alright,” She said with a sigh her shoulders sagging, “I’ll go tell her.” He then watched for a second time that night her body melt into the shadows.

He then turned back towards Grant and their eyes met. It was odd because Tommy had always been the little brother. Now, he was pretty sure that he was a good inch or two taller than Grant. Although his older brother had more bulk that he did, which he guesses is better in some ways.

Tommy walked over to mini fridge area and grabbed a bottle of water from it. Uncapping it, he drank all the water in less than three gulps. He then unbuttoned his bloody shirt and fell into the chair by the bed in exhaustion. He looked over to Grant who had been watching all his movements and their gazes met. Something about the air changed and Tommy couldn’t place it, he couldn’t place a lot of things when it came to his brother.

“Who’s the other guy?” Grant asked and Tommy raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

Grant sat down on the edge of the bed closest to him, “There was another guy, before Coulson and Simmons, Skye bought him,” Grant then gulped, “She sounded desperate to get him.”

Tommy smiled at his brother. It was obvious from the tone of his voice that Grant was jealous and it caused him to chuckle, “That, my dear brother, was Charles Howell, better known as Chuck.” Grant then stared at him wanting more. Tommy clasped his hands together and put them behind his head, “But that’s not what you wanted to know is it.” He asked mockingly as he wiggled his eyebrows, “You want to know who he is too, Skye?” Tommy stared at his brother in awe, “You really are in love with her aren’t you.”

His brother almost looks ashamed of the very thought of being in love. He waits a moment before swallowing a hard lump and nodding his head. Tommy then took pity on his brother and decided to put him out of his misery.

Rolling his eyes, he licked his lips and told him the truth, “He was Cecily’s fiancé back in the day.”

“Skye’s sister?” He asked.

Tommy nodded slightly surprised that Skye had even mentioned her to him. “Yeah,” He confirmed, “They were supposed to get married way back when. Well, at least they were still together while I was still there. Something big must have happened because Chuck wasn’t exactly the kind of guy to willing go into human trafficking.”

 “So, what? Skye bought him because she felt bad?”

Tommy shrugged, “Or because she felt like she owed it to her sister.” He then narrowed his eyes at him, “I mean I would have done the same for you or even Rose.”

Grant’s eye snapped at the mention of their sister. He could tell that there was longing there. A type of pain that only he would ever know from not being able to watch their sister grow up. Feeling his mouth going dry Tommy used his powers to make another bottle of water appear in his hands. This time he sipped at it slowly. “She misses you all the time, you know.” Tommy said as he put the cap to his water back on. He kicked off his feet and placed them on top of the bed next to Grant.

“I ran into her a few years back.” He confessed, “She’s actually the one that actually told me about you.”

Tommy smirked, Rose probably gave him hell. If there was one good thing about his childhood it was Rose taking after him more than anyone would want. After Grant was taken away Rose could no longer be his shadow. In her grief and desperation for a role model Rose had made the terrible decision to become his new shadow. Anything that he did Rose would copy, which put his parents into a fit over a lot of things. Once she had grown into her own personality his influence faded away but sometimes, when she was angry, his influence would shine through.

Smiling with his teeth he lightly kicked Grant’s thigh with his foot, “She must have torn your head off.” He said proudly and handed him the water bottle as if it were a bottle of Jack.

Grant smiled fondly and greatly took the water bottle, “Chased me six blocks in the middle of a Russian winter before I let her catch me.”

“Let me guess; she started screaming at you, probably hit you a few times, and did then did a one-eighty and hugged you.”

Grant open the water and drank from it. He huffed out a laugh as he swallowed the water, “Pretty much,” He confirmed while nodding his head, “Maybe not in that exact order but all three of those things did happen.”

“Yep,” Tommy said elongating the word, “That seems like the type of reaction she would have.” He then squinted his eyes and thought back to something that Skye had mentioned some time ago. She had told him that he had joined SHEILD when he was twenty-one. Only he had escaped the prison when he was sixteen. He had five years when he was on his own and even after he joined SHIELD, he never came back to them. Not ever once, he never tried to contact them. “Can I ask you something?” He finally said while trying to find a way on how to word the sentence.

Grant shrugged and raised his eyebrow, “Nothing’s stopped you before.” He pointed out.

Tommy’s gaze turned serious, “This is more of a personal question.”

Grant looked up at him with narrow eyes. Tommy could see the growing suspicion behind them. Even when they were kids Grant was never great with his emotions. “Alright,” He agreed reluctantly and Tommy saw that he shifted only slightly. He was nervous about what he was going to ask him and Tommy didn’t know whether that was good or bad.

Tommy’s blue eyes then met his Grant’s brown ones. “You didn’t join SHIELD until you were twenty-one,” He then leaned forward, “So, my question is: Where the hell were you for five years?”

Grant stiffened and his whole demeanor changed. He was no longer his brother Grant but rather Agent Ward. His gaze hardened as he looked to Tommy, “You’re right, that is personal.”

Tommy shrugged his shoulders, “All that time to yourself I’m just wondering what you did with it.”

“It’s a long story.” Grant said deflecting the question.

“My schedule’s clear,” Tommy rebutted, “It’s not like we have anywhere to go.”

Grant had opened his mouth to say something else when a knock came to the door. His hand immediately when to his gun but Tommy held up a hand telling him to stop. “It’s just Skye,” He said and soon, with a wave of his hand, the door opened.

Skye was standing there, blood still on her clothes, a somber expression on her face. As she looked up and saw that both Grant and he were talking, she smiled. He watched as everything about her brightened just by the look on her face.

She stepped into the room and threw her arms around Grant hugging him tightly. Grant, startled at first, hugged her back and put his head in the crook of her neck. Feeling like he was intruding on a moment, Tommy let out a deep sigh and stood up.

“Alright, well, I’m off,” He said and stretched his body out.

Skye pulled back slightly from Grant and looked at him shocked, “Where are you going?”

Tommy just rolled his eyes, “I’m only going to the other room, there’s no need to worry,” he said while waving his hand in the air, “I’m gonna go talk to Chuck and see what I can find out.”

Skye's face fell and he could tell that she was disappointed that he was leaving. Never the less she nodded her head in understanding. “Okay,” She said in a soft voice, “Be genteel with him he’s been through a lot.”

Tommy nodded his head, “I will be,” He reassured her. He then saluted them both and started walking out the door, “I’ll see you both later.” That was his goodbye.  He had never been too good at those, always so hard to find the right words to say to the person.

He then walked out of the room and shut the door leaving them be. He then glared at the door across from him. Sighing deeply, he pushed open the door to someone he once called a friend. He had work to do.

Jemma was sitting on the bed still in the dress she had been wearing at the party. She had slept most of the way here, now she was fully awake and alert. It was like everything that happened in the room she was aware of. Any sound that was made, any movement that came from above she would jump at the sound of it.

She had been so stupid thinking that she could handle a field mission like this. May had offered to go and she should have accepted to stay back on the plane. But she wanted to be the one to Fitz first, she wanted to be the one to find him first. Be the first to talk to him, to demand an explanation, be the one to hug him first. She just wanted him back so badly and in her selfish desire, she demanded that she be the one to go with Coulson. Seeing as they had no other option May and Coulson had agreed to it.

In the span on one night, she had found Fitz, had been taken hostage, had an electric shocking device planted in her neck and lost Coulson. Truly she had been busing during the evening, but as she looked at Fitz who was messing with something, she thought that some of it had been worth it. That getting Fitz back and being able to see his face had been worth the electric shock that had coursed through her body. It had been worth the great deal of pain that she went through.

Groaning in pain, Jemma took a hand a rubbed the side of her neck that was sore. Whatever device was in there was small but packed one hell of a punch. She could still feel the ejection sigh from where they implanted it. The side of her neck was swollen and she could tell that a bruise would form there later. She was sure that many bruises would form on her body in the coming night, she hadn’t been exactly handled carefully.

Feeling like she needed some more comfort, Jemma shook off her heels and took out the multiple pins that had kept her hair up. Letting out a sigh of relief she dragged a hand through her hair letting it uncurl a little bit. She knew that she must have looked like a mess but right now she didn’t care, all she wanted to do was just something.

She was too awake to sleep but felt like she could barely move. She needed something to anchor her down. She just needed to do something that would take her mind off of everything that had happened tonight. Just something to distract her from all the pain, blood, and bodies.

“Jemma,” Fitz’s voice startled her and she jumped slightly. She looked up to see him holding a washcloth and white robe. Something that she’s guessing he was able to find in the bathroom courtesy of the hotel. “I thought that you might want to wash up, you know, get some of the…blood off of you.”

Jemma shook her head numbly, that did seem like a good idea. She got up from her position on the bed and made her way over to Fitz. As she was about to grab the items from his hands she looked at his face nearly breaking down into tears. This was the second time that she had ever seen that look on his face before. The first being after Ward had been able to save her from her ‘Dive of Death’ as she now likes to call it. She had been sitting in her bunk when Fitz came and offered to watch a movie with her to make her feel better. She had accepted without a second thought, thinking that he was just trying to cheer her up. Halfway through the movie, their hands had clasped and she looked over at his face and saw an expression she had never seen from him. She could see how relieved he looked that she was here. That just being beside him was making him happier than ever and her heart fluttered because of it.

Seeing that expression now and running on high emotions she did something she never thought she would ever do. Jemma grabbed Fitz by his tie and practically ambushed his lips with hers. He stood there for a moment, shocked by her actions before he grabbed her waist and pulled her closer. Jemma pushed him back and against the wall roughly. It was anything but romantic. Their teeth were clashing, hands everywhere, and both of their tongues were battling for dominance.

But she didn’t care because it was just making her forget. The more she kissed him the more she was forgetting about the pain. The more she was forgetting about the mistakes that she had made this night. The more she was forgetting about everything and just focusing on him, no, them. Because kissing him just felt right and she wondered what had taken her so damn long to do it.

Before she could undo the first button of his shirt, Fitz pulled back. He was looking at her with his curious blue eyes. He searched her face and his expression fell after a moment, not wanting to waste more time Jemma tried to kiss him again. He stopped her by pushing her back and acted like the action was nearly burning him.

“We can’t,” He said breathlessly.

Jemma looked at him questioningly, “Why not?” She asked, “No one is going to stop us.”

Fitz swallowed hard and put his hands firmly on her shoulders, “Because this isn’t you,” He said sadly, “It isn’t real if it’s not you.”

Jemma took a step back from him with tears coming to her eyes, “Of course this is me!” She yelled defensively, “It’s not like someone’s taken over my body.”

Fitz held up his hands to calm her down, “That not what I meant,” He said and took a calming breath, “I meant that you aren’t doing this because you mean it. You’re doing this because you want to forget everything about tonight.”

She opened her mouth to say something back but nothing came out. There was nothing to say back to that because that’s exactly what she wanted. Feeling her cheeks heat up in embarrassment she grabbed the robe and washcloth from the floor and entered the bathroom. She slammed the door leaving a startled Fitz in her wake.

Looking at herself in the mirror she felt disgusted in herself. Feeling the tears coming out of her eyes she ripped the dress from her body and kicked a few times when it landed on the floor. She started the shower, turning it all the way to the left, and waited for it to heat up.

When she entered the shower, she welcomed the pain of the scolding water on her back. It was nothing compared to what she was feeling inside of her. Knowing that the sound of the shower would cover up the sounds of her sobs. She finally let the tears spill fully out of her eyes along with horrid sobs that came with it. Jemma leaned her head against the cool tile of the shower and let the water wash away the rest of her pain.

Kiera sat across from Squeaks both sharing an equally blank look. She had arrived only a few moments ago and told Sam what had happened. She was holding off on telling May because she feared what her reaction might be. The last thing that she wanted was a scary badass agent chasing her around because they lost Coulson. She was using lost as a relatively loose term because in reality he was kidnapped but it sounds better when you say you lost him. Lost implies that you could get him back and that he isn’t gone forever. Which Coulson wasn’t, she hoped at least.

Squeaks shifted her position on the couch and put her hand beneath her thighs. Something she would do when she became very nervous. Her brown eyes were focusing in on the glass of water that sat on the table in front of her. She had a worried expression on her face and Kiera wasn’t going to blame her, she was equally as terrified on the inside.

“So,” Squeaks asked in a small confused voice, “What do we do now?” She then lifted her head up and stared at Kiera for an answer.

The best answer that Kiera could give her was just another blank look. Problem was, Kiera didn’t exactly have any answers. She was just as lost as Squeaks was and had no idea what they were going to do next. Truth is, Kiera didn’t want to be a part of this, Tommy had given her another job and she would see that through. Beyond that was asking too much of her. She didn’t care for SHIELD and she didn’t want to have anything to do with them.

Squeaks suddenly stood up and began to pace. She tucked her hands underneath her armpits and began to think out loud. “We have to tell May,” she said while shaking her head slightly, “I mean we just have too.”

“I know,” Kiera answered unemotionally. She was pretty sure that she had used up all her emotion for the time being. The entire past two weeks had been too much emotional work for her. Everything was just building up inside of her like a dam and she felt like she was going to burst.

Squeaks stopped and pivoted toward her. Her brown eyes glaring at her slightly, “Then what are you waiting for?” She asked throwing her arms out, “Why haven’t you told her yet?”

Kiera rubbed her temples trying to think of something to say. She was scared of May but it was more than that. If she told May then that meant they would want her to get involved and she just didn’t want that. She didn’t want any government agency in her life anymore.

Sighing deeply Kiera got to her feet and made her way over to the bar. She needed a drink, that much she could handle. Grabbing the nearest bottle of alcohol and glass she made sure to pour herself one hefty drink. She tossed it enjoying the burning sensation that it gave as it made its way down her throat. She then poured herself another glass and looked at Squeaks, who was now giving her a concerned look.

“Kiera,” the way she said her name so softly almost made her want to scream. This girl cared too much for her. She was a terrible influence and didn’t deserve the kindness and blind loyalty that Squeaks always gave to her. “What are you going to do?” She asked her as she came to the opposite side of the bar.

Kiera could feel her lips trembling, the tears threatening to come out. She squeezed her eyes shut trying to hold them back but this seemed to only make them come out. She gripped the table and took a deep breath trying to calm herself.

It didn’t work.

“I don’t know,” She finally answered in a trembling voice. She shook her head and could feel the wet spots forming on her cheeks were her tears were falling. “I don’t know,” She repeated herself.

She took a sip from the glass and wiped her face dry with the end of her sleeve. She then sniffled and gave Squeaks a sad smile. “I never wanted this, you know,” She said to Squeaks and the girl looked at her thoughtfully, “I was seventeen when I was turned. I had been kidnapped as leverage against Tommy and, to make a long story short, it went south and I got shot.” Kiera had to resister the urge to put her hand on her side where the bullets laid. She cleared her throat and looked down at the glass swirling the amber liquid inside, “It was bad like really fucking bad,” She said and barked out a laugh, “It’s funny though because I can barely remember the pain. All I can remember is laying there, on the cold ground, and thinking ‘let this be it, let me be done’ and I closed my eyes. The next time I woke up I was in the most pain I had ever been in in my entire life.” Kiera wiped her nose and finished off her drink, “And when I realized what Tommy had done to me…” Kiera trailed off and was unable to finish her sentence.

“You felt betrayed,” Squeaks voiced, her eyes telling Kiera that she understood the feeling.

Kiera poured another drink and leaned against the table. She nodded her head and sipped from the glass. As she put the glass to her lips she pulled back only slightly to speak, “I felt like someone had punched me right in the gut and heart,” She then took a drink and set the glass back down focusing on it instead of the younger girl.

Squeaks was silent for a moment before opening her mouth to reply, “I didn’t want it either, you know,” she spoke softly her voice only wavering slightly, “Ivanna, when she found me, I was young, homeless, and dying in an alleyway from the cold. She gave me a choice to become like her and the way she described it was like paradise. But, if I had known then what would happen to me, I rather would have chosen to die.”

“Yeah,” Kiera agreed in a small voice, “Me too.”

Biting her lip and trying to wipe her face clean, Kiera made herself look as presentable as she could. She took in a deep breath and stood up tall as she stretched her back, “Well,” She said as she exhaled, “I think it’s time I told May the truth.”

Squeaks gave her a sympathetic look, “Make sure she doesn’t kill you,” she asked nicely, “Because I don’t have any place else to live.”

Kiera chuckled softly, “Glad to see where your priorities lie.” She mumbled humorously as she made her way around the bar.

Squeaks shrugged her shoulders as Kiera wrapped an arm around them, “Hey, it’s not like we all have to worry about secret government agencies. Some of us are just trying to make it to adulthood.”

Kiera squeezed her friend tight, “Don’t worry Squeaks, I’ll get you there.”

Tommy stood there staring at Chuck as the broken man looked out the window. Well, he was more of leaning against the window then looking out of it. It looked as if he had been in that position for some time. If Tommy had to guess, he would say that Chuck hadn’t moved ever since Skye had brought him into the room.

Sighing deeply, Tommy made his way over to the desk and sat down at the chair. Chuck had had enough time to think, now they needed to talk. He needed to know where he had been and how he came to be a captive.

“I thought you were dead,” Came Chuck’s weak voice and Tommy looked up to see that the man had turned around. His brown hair was long and shaggy, his bangs getting in the way of his genteel brown eyes. “At least that’s what they told us.”

Tommy sighed in defeat, “Yeah, I’ve been getting a lot of that lately,” He said and leaned back into the chair, “Still here.” He gestured his arms out widely before settling them in his lap.

Chuck looked at him up and down, “I wish you were dead,” He said without any emotion like it was a fact to him. “I’ve wished for a while now that you were really dead.”

Tommy wasn’t offended at all. He kept his face indifferent, “Been getting that for a while too.” He mumbled and gestured for the other man to sit down. Chuck look hesitant but after a brief moment of considering it, he made his way over to the edge of the bed.

He sat down on the very edge of the bed and Tommy was surprised that he wasn’t falling. His hands were clasped in his lap and he could tell they were clenched. Chuck was staring at his bare feet unable to meet Tommy’s eyes. He could only guess why and the very thought of it made Tommy look down in shame.

Letting a moment of silence run between them, Tommy thought it was best to break it, “How did you become captive to Mr. Jones?” He asked as if it was an interrogation. He knew that maybe he should be a little kinder to him but he wasn’t a patient guy.

Chuck looked up at him, “Does it matter?”

Tommy raised his eyebrow, “Not really, but I am curious,” He then leaned forward, “I mean you’re one the smartest people I know. I just find it odd that someone like you would ever let themselves be captured.”

“It wasn’t by choice,” He snapped his eyes finally meeting his, “I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people.”

Tommy tilted his head from side to side, “Alright, I’ll buy into that, but I have another question for you,” Tommy then suck in a breath and watched the man closely. This question was either going to shut him down or get him very mad, “Why happened that made you leave Cecily. I mean, to my knowledge, you two were madly in love.”

Chuck was silently before he burst into a fit of laughter. That reaction was not what he had been expecting and it made him wary. He knew that Chuck had probably gone through some serious trauma that messed with his psyche. But, laughing like the Joker at the question of your fiancé was disconcerting, to say the least.

“Well,” Tommy said shocked, “That wasn’t the reaction I had been expecting.” He then leaned forward a bit, “I take it that it didn’t end well.”

Chuck snorted and rolled his eyes, “There wasn’t even an end to it,” He mumbled then turned towards Tommy more, “Her mother forced me to leave.”

“Why? I thought she loved you?”

Chuck widened his eyes and gestured to himself, “Yeah, so did I!” He yelled but quickly restrained himself, “Then one day she just flipped on me. Came to my room demanding that I leave and never come back. That I should leave Cecily behind so she could find someone deserving of her.” Chuck’s face then fell as he remembered her face. “I didn’t want to leave but she threatened to hurt Cecily if I didn’t so, I left.” He then frowned, “I didn’t even say goodbye to her.”

“I’m sure she still loves you,” Tommy said trying to lighten his mood. Although it was a lie, he was pretty sure that Cecily hated him or, at least, was very heartbroken because of him. He hoped that Chuck would believe him because the last thing that any of them needed was a heartbroken Chuck. Tommy cleared his throat and Chuck looked up at him, “How long ago was this?”

Chuck shrugged his shoulders, “About four years ago.” He answered him which gave Tommy more of a timeline in his head. Four years was still a long time but he still didn’t want to push him too far just yet.

“You ever think about going back?” Tommy asked him.

“All the time,” He said somberly, “I wish I could go back for her but I know she wouldn’t leave with me.” He then wiped a stray tear from his face, “She would stay because of the people.” He then began twirling his thumbs and gave a soft smile, “She always did the right thing.”

“Yeah,” Tommy said uncertainly thinking about to all the things that Cecily had done to him. “She always had a way with people that’s for sure.”

There was a pregnant pause, “So,” Chuck said as he rubbed his hands together nervously, “Daisy’s alive, that’s good.”

“It’s Skye now,” Tommy corrected him and Chuck looked confused, “ She goes by Skye now.”

“Oh,” He said softly, “Well Skye’s a nice name,” There was another beat of silence, “She looks happy.”

“Yeah, looks like it doesn’t it?” He asked and raised a brow at Chuck, “You do realize that she hasn’t always been like this, right? She was miserable and in a really bad place for a long time, Chuck.”

Chuck sighed and ran his hands over his face, “I figured,” he then slumped forward and rested his elbows on his knees, “You ever going to tell me what really happened that night?”

“No,” Tommy replied truthfully. No one needed to know what happened that night except him and Skye.

Chuck nodded his head and accepted his defeat, “So, what happens now?”

Tommy sucked in a breath, “That’s the part I’m stumped on, Charles.”

When they arrived back to The Bus May was already waiting for them. She was in front of the lab with her hands on her hips, glaring at them. Her lips were pulled thin and Skye could tell that she was very mad. They did lose Coulson after all, someone who was very important to not only May but also SHIELD.

“What happened?” She asked slowly as they made it out of the car. Her gaze was fixed solely on Skye before flickering to FitzSimmons and Grant.

“We ran into a minor speed bump,” Tommy said as he made his way out of the car with Chuck right behind him.

“A minor speed bump,” She repeated his words incredulously, “A top agent has been kidnapped by a person who has ties with terrorist organizations and you call it a minor speed bump?”

Tommy shrugged his shoulders and made his way forward, “Well, they didn’t kill him so, yeah, a minor speed bump.”

May glared at him and then turned her gaze towards Chuck, “And who is that?”

“Oh, that’s Chuck,” Tommy said causally and pointed to him, “He’s a friend.”

May closed her eyes and started to do some deep breathing, “I meant to say, what is he doing here?”

“I don’t know, what are any of us truly here? Are we just a speck in someone else’s big plan or are we just here to please some higher power?”

Skye could tell that May was about to kill Tommy so she stepped forward and put an arm to Tommy’s chest pushing him back slightly, “What Tommy is trying to say is that he’s only here until we can find him a safe place to stay. He’s not here with any ulterior motives, he’s here because he has nowhere else to go.”

“Is that true Agent Ward?” May asked as her hard gaze landed on him.

Grant stiffened up and nodded his head slightly, “Yes, it’s true, he won’t do us any harm.”

“Good,” May replied, “But I want him out of here in two days.”

“Two days?” Fitz questions, finally coming forward, with his brow furrowed, “What happens in two days?”

“You guys didn’t honestly think that I wouldn’t report this to SHIELD, did you?” She asked all of them and they all began to squirm, “As of two hours ago our entire team is under investigation and I’ve been asked to report back to headquarters.”

The room was plunged into silence and Skye wasn’t sure how to react. She knew that Coulson being taken would have consequences. She just didn’t think that it would be happening this fast; it was like when one problem was solved another seemed to take its place.

“Did you tell them everything?” Skye finally asked and she could feel everyone’s eyes land on her. “Did you tell them how he was kidnapped?”

Skye saw May’s expression soften only slightly, something that almost startled her. In all her time on the Bus she had never once seen May look this genuine towards her. She had always been suspicious or on edge with her like she was a constant threat. Now, May was acting like she was part of the team rather than a threat. Like she was feeling bad for what happened and this was her giving sympathy to Skye.

“No,” She replied and Skye looked over to Tommy for a brief second. She could see that his shoulders deflated only slightly, “All I told them was that a mission had gone wrong and that Coulson had been taken.” She then looked around at all of them, “So, that gives you exactly two days to figure out what you’re going to say to them.”

Everyone looked to her in shock.

May then took a step forward, letting her arms fall down by her sides. This was the first time that Skye was ever seeing May look half vulnerable or helpless. “Because there is no way in hell that we can tell them the truth.”

Tommy then smirked and Skye saw something light up in his eyes, “Lying to a bunch of government agents about a kidnapping,” He said and tilted his head to the side, “Why, Agent May, I believe you’re talking my language now.”

“Is two days enough time?” She asked him inclining her head forward, “To create a solid alibi for all of you?”

Tommy shrugged his shoulders, “It’s not ideal and I’ll have to call in a few favors, but I can work with it,” He then grabbed onto Chuck and began pulling him forward, “But first, let me deal with our little stowaway.” They then went up the stairs and disappeared behind the doors. Skye had no idea what he was going to do with Chuck. She just hoped that whatever it was, it wasn’t too hard on him and that he would be happy and safe.

“The rest of you should probably get some rest,” May said gesturing to all of them. FitzSimmons nodded and both went up the stairs. Something was different about them, Skye noted, they weren’t as close as they were last night. It almost seems like they were trying to avoid touching each other or even glancing at each other. She wonders what might have happened last night between the two of them, and hopes that whatever it was, it wasn’t serious.

May then let out a deep sigh, “Ward, I need to talk to Skye alone,”

Grant opened his mouth to protest but Skye put a hand on his bicep silently telling to not talk back. “It’s okay,” She reassured him, “I’ll be fine.”

He looked at her for a moment, his eyes searching hers, and Skye nodded her head. This was something that she knew she needed to do. This conversation with May was long overdue and Skye was surprised that it had taken this long to happen.

“I’ll be upstairs if you need anything,” He told her and she smiled at him letting him now that she was going to be okay.

Skye assumed that she was going to be okay but there was no way that May would flat out kill her right now. She wouldn’t go through all that, lying to SHIELD, to just kill or harm her, would she? Skye was remembering the story that her mother told her about Melinda May and it was enough to put her on edge.

As soon as Grant was out of her sight, Skye turned to look at May, “Why didn’t you tell SHIELD the truth about what happened?” She asked casually.

“I know what it feels like to have a mission go sideways, as you’re probably aware of,” May said softly, “And I know what they’ll do to you and Ward,” Skye scrunched her face and May rolled her eyes, “Cocky Ward.” She clarified and Skye smiled when she realized she was talking about Tommy. “I don’t agree with what either of you did but I can understand it…” Both their eyes then met, “I can understand the feeling of wanting to make up for past mistakes. To be redeemed in some sort of way, whether it be in the eyes of others or yourself.”

“So, this your way of redeeming yourself?” Skye asked, “A way to make up for the losses in Bahrain.”

May looked away for a second like she was remembering what happened. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to make up those losses.” She told her truthfully, “But if this is a way, I can make sure that no one else has to get hurt then I’ll take it. Kiera and that girl Sam, they have all of their lives ahead of them, the last thing they need is someone ruining it for them.”

 “And what about me,” Skye asked taking a step closer, “What about Tommy and Chuck? What are you going to tell SHIELD about us?”

May shrugged her shoulders, “I never saw anything,” She told her, sounding oblivious, “As far as I’m concerned you and Tommy just got caught in the middle.”

Skye raised an eyebrow and smirked, “You don’t think SHIELD’s going to ask questions about us?”

“I’m sure they will,” May said with certainty and then tilted her head to the side, “But like I said, I never saw anything.” She then came closer to Skye and Skye felt her heart beat a little faster. She stood up straighter and became on edge. She didn’t believe that May was actually going to hurt her, it was just a reflex at this point.

“I don’t trust you, I’ve made that abundantly clear,” May told her in a low voice. “But I don’t hate you, Skye. One day I think you’ll tell us the truth, about everything, and when that day comes…” She trailed off and placed a hand on her shoulder, “I’ll be there, to listen, and not to judge.”

Skye sucked in a breath, “If you knew the things, I did… you wouldn’t be saying that.”

May’s eye grew softer, “I looked into the file about Mary Sue Poots,” she told her and Skye’s eyes shot up, “You were right, it was pretty bad. So, as a SHIELD agent, I don’t think I have any right to judge what you’ve done.”

Skye bit her lip and nodded her head for a couple of seconds, “One day,” She finally said while swallowing her emotions, “One day.” She repeated but more for herself.

May nodded, “One day,”

Grant’s head was still in the hotel room, thinking about the conversation he had with his brother. His brother was curious about where he spent his time. Something that he wasn’t too surprised about, he admits, it was a little head scratching as to why he joined so late. Of course, he couldn’t tell him the truth, well, at least right now he couldn’t. Maybe one day, after he’s saved John, he would be able to explain everything to Tommy. For now, he’s settled with labeling that part of his life as ‘Unspeakable’ because he truly didn’t want to remember most of it.

The part that worried him about that, is that if Tommy was curious then so was Skye. The two seemed to be on the same page about everything all the time. Something that he wasn’t proud to admit, Grant was jealous of. He knew that everything was strictly platonic between them, but still, Grant wanted to be that person that Skye went to in her time of need. That person that she could talk to when she feeling unsure of something. He just wanted to be Skye’s person. But he also understood that Tommy and Skye had known each other for much longer and had also been through a lot together. He respected that and that’s why he wasn’t going to say anything.

His thoughts then started trailing off towards his sister. He didn’t even know where she was at this point and he was ashamed of that. He understood that once he joined SHIELD, he would practically become dead to his family. But for so many years he had already thought that he was already dead to his family that it wasn’t the big of a deal. Then he ran into Rose and everything changed. He saw the look of hurt, joy, and love flash across her face and they spoke for the first time.

He was ashamed to admit that he forgot about his little sister. The shadow that always seemed to follow him around. His little sister that always dressed up as Captain America every Halloween, much to his parent displeasure. His little sister that would sleep in his bed whenever the fights between his parents got too loud. He can still remember lying there with his hands covering her ears as his parents fought in the background. Grant had forgotten how his sister might have felt.

He could call her, it wouldn’t be hard to find her number. He could call her and tell her that he might be about to lose his job. That he would no longer be a part of SHIELD and he could freely talk to her. Or he could just talk to her, see how she was doing. Ask if she was enjoying her life, her job, ask her if she had any plans for her birthday that was coming up in a month.

Pulling out his phone and using SHIELD’s resources he was able to find his sister’s phone number. He had it pulled up on his phone and he stared at it for what felt like hours. He was able to face life-threatening situations and guns to his face. But when it came to his sister, he was finding it hard to find the courage to call her.

He heard laughing and looked over to see that Skye was laughing at something that Tommy had just said with Chuck off to the side smiling shyly. Her smile was bright and he could see the tension that had built up in the last few days leave her body. Tommy had told him that Chuck had been important to Skye because he was important to Sky’s sister. Then Grant thought about how it wasn’t fair to Rose. Skye couldn’t see her sister because if she did, she might actually get hurt or killed. Grant couldn’t talk to Rose because he was a coward, because he wasn’t strong enough.

Rose didn’t deserve that. She didn’t deserve to think that one brother was dead while the other was just gone. She didn’t deserve to be stuck with Christian and his parents. She deserved at least one person in her life who truly cared for her.

Gathering all of his strength, Grant hit the dial button on his phone and put it up to his ear. The phone rang five times and he thought that maybe she wasn’t going to pick up. That maybe she was one of those people who hung up one very unknown number. But his thoughts turned around when the ringing ended and he heard a voice on the other end of the phone.

“Hello?” His sister asked clearly unsure of who was on the other end, “Hello?”

His mind was going blank and he couldn’t think of what to say. How do you start talking to a sister whose last interaction you had with was a brief conversation in Russian? You don’t is the answer apparently.

“Look, if this is another telemarketer, I’m just going to block your number,” She said annoyed.

Grant started to panic, “Don’t,” He said into the phone he heard his sister suck in breath over the phone, “Don’t hang up, Rose, it’s me, it’s Grant.”

There was a brief, “Yeah, I figured that out from the sound of your voice,” She sassed then paused, “Why the hell are you calling me, Grant?” She asked sincerely, “Are you in trouble?”

“No,” he answered her, “I’m not in trouble I just…really wanted to hear your voice.”

“Grant, what’s going on?” Rose sounded scared over the phone and he hated that he had done that to her, “You’re starting to worry me. I can help with whatever’s wrong, say the word and I’ll book the first flight back to America.”

“No, don’t do that, it’s probably better that you’re out of the country.” He then let out a deep sigh, “I did something stupid,” He told her and tried to sound strong, “And I need you to do me a favor, Rose.”

“Anything,” His said without hesitation. He smiled, she was always so eager to help him with anything when they were kids.

“I need you to be safe, Rosie, I pissed off some very powerful people. It doesn’t take much to find out that you’re my sister.” He then sighed, “I just need you to be careful, okay, you’re some of the only family that I have left. And I can’t…” He could even finish the thought. He had a lot of fears but his little sister being hurt of dying was amongst the worst.

“Okay,” Rose said a little breathlessly, “Yeah, okay, I’ll be safe.” She repeated his words into the phone. Then there was a pause, “Hey, Grant,” She asked him and he could tell that she was crying, “Will I ever see you again?”

Grant could feel tears collecting at the corners of his eyes. Could he ever see her again? Maybe, after he was done helping John. Would he ever see her again? That was what he was concerned about. “I hope so,” he said to her truthfully, “I really hope so.”

The sun was beating down hard in the ruins of Mycenae, an archaeological site that was about thirty miles north of Corinth, Greece. No clouds were in sight and only the trees at the bottom of the hill 50 meters down could provide shade.

 A girl no more than twenty-four years old was kneeling on the ground inside the excavation site lightly dusting off something with her brush. It was something that she had never seen before, well everything here was something she had never seen before. But this was different this object that she was dusting off. It was almost as if, like, it was calling to her to pick it up. She dusted it off more it found that it had strange symbols on it filled with lines that crossed over each other with circles here and there. She was able to dig up the whole and she had, to be honest, it looked like the cornucopia from the hunger games. It was metal or something that looked like that and when she was about to touch it, it glowed.

She moved back, something that was over 1,000 years old should not glow and yet it did. She was about to call her supervisor when something in the pit of her stomach told her not to. The girl didn’t know why she followed that instinct but she did she took more dirt and covered the object back up as if it didn’t exist. She placed an X on the ground marking that nothing was there. Something about it just didn’t seem right she almost felt the exact same when her father said he was going to run for Senator again.

She looked so much like her mother everybody always said that. With her black hair and brown eyes and jawline that cut glass. The only thing she did get from her father was her attitude which was as stubborn as a mule. Her height was a whopping 5’3 but that didn’t stop her from the thrill-seeking adrenaline rush personalities. Almost everybody in her family was into politics her father, brother, and her mother was an event planner who was always away on trips. It surprises her sometimes how long she actually lasted in her family.

It was the whole reason to become an archaeologist to travel the world and get away from the family.

She knew the truth she always has, the truth about her other brothers. Her family acts as if they never even existed but she remembers them from her younger days. She goes to their rooms sometimes in the very few rare moments she decides to go back to that house. Both rooms haven’t been touched since they both left, dust fills the rooms, one was neat almost military like the other messy filled with old eighties and nineties music.

She pushes the thoughts away and stands back up and walk back down to the bottom of the hill wanting to get some water. She buys the water and sits down on a rock looking at the beautiful view of the mountains of Greece and all of the olive fields. She leans back a little takes a sip of the water letting it cool her down and closing her eyes for a just a few moments trying to recollect her thoughts. “Hey Rosie,” she heard her name being called by a voice and she opened her eyes, “find anything interesting where you were?”

“No just more rocks but I’m holding out for something,” Rose replied to one of her teammates, Richie, who was one of her supervisors for the trip. He always called her Rosie and she absolutely hated it, but she knew that if she let him keep going she would get the more interesting dig sights.

“Well, I’m glad I actually caught ya in time, because there are a couple of people down at the bottom wanting to talk to you.”

Rose frowned, she was halfway across the world. The only people that could possibly want to talk to her were either dead or back in New Jersey. Wiping off the excess water from her mouth she tilted her head to the side and looked at Richie questioningly, “Did they say who they were?” She asked and made sure not to seem too suspicious.

Richie looked thoughtful for a moment, “No,” He finally said while shaking his head and putting his hands on his hips, “They didn’t but they looked pretty important to me. All they said was that they needed to talk to you, something about your brother.”

Rose rolled her eyes, of course, Christian would annoy her all the way out here, “They came a long way to get some information about Christian.” She said while waving her hand through the air. She then turned around to make her way back to her spot when Richie stopped her.

“No, they said it was about your other brother, oh who was it again…” Richie said like he was struggling to remember, “Ah, Greg, no that wasn’t it, Gus, no that wasn’t it either…”

“Grant,” Rose whispered as she turned to face Richie again.  

Richie clapped his hand and pointed at her looking victorious, “That was it, they said it had something to do about your brother, Grant.” He then furrowed his brow, “How come you never mentioned you had another brother?”

Rose had stopped listening to Richie. She had already started sprinting down the hill to find the people that knew of her brother. Her heart was racing and she feared what the new could possibly be. Had Grant finally died in a mission and they were here to give her the news? Was he know mortally wounded and she was the only one on his emergency contact list? All these thoughts were racing through her head and none were positive. The phone call from the other day didn’t help either. He had sounded so desperate on the phone.

Slightly out of breath from running down the hill, Rose easily spotted the people Richie was talking about. They stood out amongst the Grecian people not only because of their skin but also their clothes. There were two men; One seemed to be around Grant’s age, he had dark skin and was dressed in tactical gear that clung to his body in ways Rose could easily appreciate. The other man was the one who stood out more. He was older, probably her father’s age, with balding brown hair and pale sickly-looking skin. He wasn’t as built as the other man or as tall, in fact, he was the opposite, his belly seemed to be protruding through the black turtle neck he was wearing.

They both looked out of place but the Tall Dark and Handsome seemed to be the only one who looked uncomfortable. Beer Belly Man seemed to be smiling and perfectly happy with where he was, uncaring of the people staring at them. Although, she could see his eyes roaming around, trying to look for something.

Swallowing her fear and dusting off her clothes the best she could. Rose tried to make herself look presentable to the people she was about to meet. These people were either going to give her devastating news or really devastating news. Either way, Rose wasn’t preparing for a particularly good outcome.

Rose waved her one arm in the air, catching the attention of the two men. “Hello!” She yelled at them as she made her way over to them. Once she was in front of them Rose held out her hand, “Hi, I’m Rose, and I was told that you have news about my brother.”

The two men stared at her in shock for a moment. Although Beer Belly man seemed more elated and happier than Tall Dark and Handsome, who just looked stunned and confused. Beer Belly Man was the one to recover first. He blinked his eyes a couple of times and shook her hand, “Hey, the name is John Garrett and this is Agent Antione Triplett,” He said motioning to Tall Dark and Handsome, “Now has anyone ever told you that you look almost exactly like your brother?”

Rose laughed nervously, yes, when she was younger that’s all anyone ever said. “When I was younger, yes,” She answered politely and let go of his hand. “Now, what’s this about my brother?”

John Garrett’s smile fell slightly, “Well, it seems your brother has gone a little rogue at the moment,” He said to her as if that was supposed to mean anything. “And we were wondering if he’s had any contact with you?”

She thought back to the time in Russia. About what her brother had said about the people he worked for. How he instructed her never to speak of the conversation to anyone again. Then the other day when Grant had called her. He sounded emotional and worried, asking her to be safe and to be careful about who she talks to. Rose looked John in eye and thought that he was the type of man her brother was warning her about. “No,” She said, “He hasn’t had any contact with me. In fact, the last time I saw my brother was fifteen years ago when they dragged him off into a police car.”

John gave her a tight smile that told her he knew she was lying. He gave her a dark chuckle and wiggled his finger at her, “You’re good, Kid, I like you,” His face then grew more serious, “But seriously, be real with us, we need to know if your brother has contacted you.”

Rose glared at the man. She didn’t like this John Garrett, her gut was telling her not to trust him, and her gut was never wrong. Crossing her arms over her chest Rose tightened her lips, “Listen Old Man,” She snapped, “I know your old age might have gotten to you and your hearing probably isn’t what it used to be. So, I’ll repeat myself one more time,” She then said the words more slowly, “I have not…seen my brother…in years.” She then smiled at him, “Was that slow enough for you?”

Garrett smiled like he was impressed by the insult but she could see that in his eyes, he was mad. It was something she picked up on in all her time living with her parent. She was an expert now at telling when someone was mad at her. “Funny,” Garrett said he then took something out of his pocket and handed it to her. Rose looked down and saw that it was a business card, “I know you don’t believe this, but I do care about your brother. I just want to make sure that he comes back safely, so if you hear anything, make sure that you give me a call.”

Rose gave him a fake smile, “Will do,” She lied.

As soon as she turned around and started walking away from them, she ripped the card into pieces. When she could no longer rip it up anymore, and the card resembled white confetti, Rose threw the pieces to the ground. Yeah, John Garrett gave her the creeps and she would never give her brother up to someone like that.

Chapter Text

“So, today is the big today!” Tommy exclaimed enthusiastically to everyone loudly as he rubbed his hands together, “We all got our stories straight?”

The team, plus Chuck, were standing in a half circle around the conference room table, did not share Tommy’s enthusiasm. They either looked sick to their stomachs or tired beyond belief. They had spent the last two hours coming up with a backstory and calling in a bunch of favors. The number of things they had to do to cover their asses was pilling up by the second.

“Yep,” Simmons replied as she rubbed her eyes tiredly. She leaned against the table and ran a hand through her hair. Skye felt for the woman, she practically looked half dead with the purple half circles under her eyes. Her skin was pale and sickly looking, making the bruising on the side of the neck even more noticeable.

“All good here,” Fitz said not even glancing up from his tablet. He had spent the entire two days trying to rearrange the audio they had gotten from the bug. Which meant that he had spent the entire time covering up Skye and Tommy’s identities.

“Pretend to hate you and kick you off the Bus, covered,” May said in her usual position by the table. She was the only one that wasn’t looking tired. In fact, she was the only one who was looking alive which was kind of funny. Since May was usually the one that always seemed like a robot.

“I called in a few favors,” Grant said to them with his arms crossed across his chest, “Mike Peterson has agreed to help us.”

“Mike?” Skye asked him, “He agreed to this?”

Grant turned his body slightly and shrugged, “Said he owed Coulson for giving him a new life,”

“That’s good,” May said nodding to Grant, “Peterson may have some inside knowledge about the Centipede project and how they operate.”

Chuck then raised his hand and Tommy pointed at him, “Yes, Chuck, what is your question?”

“So, we’re just going to hope that SHIELD doesn’t look into this more?” He asked, “I mean, this plan is leaving a lot up to chance.”

Tommy waved him off, “Yeah, well, it’s not like we had a lot of time,” He then clapped his hands together, “Any more questions?” The room was silent as everyone stared at him, “Alright them, if that’s it then I suggest you all get ready because I’m pretty sure this monster of a plane lands in twenty minutes.”

Then, like a football team, they broke off into groups. Tommy taking Chuck, FitzSimmons leaving to go to their lab, and May for the cockpit. Which left just her and Grant standing there in the conference room both waiting for one of them to make the first move.

“I don’t like this,” Grant finally said and Skye frowned, “The last time you left nothing good came from it.”

Skye shrugged and playfully hit his shoulder, “I don’t know,” She whispered suggestively, “I think some good things came from it.”

She saw his lips quirk up and she smiled. She still remembered that night and how amazing she had felt. Skye wanted so desperately to be left alone with Grant again. To be able to use her powers like that again, but she knew those moments would be few and rare. Hell, just being able to touch each other was going to become hard with everyone around.

“I just don’t like how you’re constantly leaving,” He mumbled and grabbed his tablet leaving the room.

Skye followed him to his bunk. She came in without asking for permission, she shut the door and frowned at him. Grant sat on his bed, tossing the tablet to the side, and she watched as a conflicting expression cemented on his face.

“Hey,” She asked brushing her hand again his cheek, forcing him to look up at her, “What’s wrong?”

He shrugged her hand off, “It’s nothing,” He mumbled.

Skye raised a brow, “Well, obviously it’s something.”

He looked conflicted like he was at war with himself. There was something going on inside his head and Skye wished she could see. She wished she could hear his thoughts and see what was bothering him so much. She just wanted to make him happy, to make him feel better, but there was something holding him back from doing so.

“Remember how we said we would be honest with each other?” Skye asked as she sat down next to him on the bed.

Grant shook his head, “I remember,” He replied and looked over to her, “What about it?”

“Grant, I think it’s time that you were honest with me.” Skye then took a deep breath and they looked each other in the eyes, “What’s really going on because I know that something is bothering you. You can’t hide it from me.” She then rested a hand upon her heart, “I can tell when you’re lying to me.”

Grant grabbed the hand that was resting on his chest and laced his fingers with hers. “There’s something that I need to tell you,” He said in a whisper he then looked to her with pleading eyes, “And I need you to not be mad.”

Cecily was sitting at her desk going over files when there was a knock at her door. She stopped writing and slowly set down her pen. There was a common rule that no one was to disturb her when she was doing her work. Looking up her door with confusion and slight interest she called out to whoever was on the other side, “Come in.”

The door creaked open and she’s pretty sure her heart stopped beating. Her mother was standing in the doorway, her body casting a shadow onto the ground. She was smiling, from what Cecily could tell, but she was always smiling nowadays.

“Mother,” She said not trying to hide her surprise at seeing her mother, “What are you doing here?”

Her mother walked forward and chuckled as she raised an eyebrow, “What, can I not visit my daughter?”

“No, it’s not that,” Cecily recovered quickly, “I just wasn’t expecting to see you here, you usually never visit.”

Her smile then fell and she closed the door softly. She then walked over to the chair from across her desk and sat down, crossing her legs like she was a proper lady. Cecily could tell that something had gone wrong, she had that look on her face. The look that she always gave Cecily before delivering bad news, “What happened?” Cecily asked and her mother looked up at her with a sad smile.

Her mother was silent and looked to be contemplating was she was about to say. It was a face that she rarely saw on her mother. For as long as she could remember her mother had always been so sure of almost every decision that she made. The only times that she ever made slight hesitation towards a decision, something bad happened.

“There have been reports,” Her mother started slowly, “That Thomas Ward is alive.”

Cecily felt a lump form in her throat. This was it. This was the moment that her mother outed her. She would throw her out of Afterlife or perhaps have her killed like her sister. She had been careful, though, she had told no one about her conversations with Henley. Or about her search for Thomas, no matter how much she disliked him.

Guilt washed over her like a wave. She couldn’t help but feel like she had betrayed her mother somehow. Well, maybe she had, by trying to make sure no one found out about Thomas and his status of living. She just knew that if Thomas was alive then so was her sister. Because those two did everything together and Cecily would bet all her money that they “died” together.

Clearing her throat, Cecily smiled at her mother, “How can you be sure?” She asked, playing innocent and naïve.

Her mother’s eyes narrowed only slightly, “The source is trusted,” she gazed at her up at down and Cecily believed that this was the moment. The next thing her mother would say is that she was the one who hid him from anyone. Except, that’s not at all what she said instead she said, “I know how troubling this news might be for you.”

She blinked a couple of times, taken aback by the sentence, “What?” She asked.

Her mother smiled softly, “The pain of knowing that the man who killed your sister is still alive,” She started, “I can only imagine how you must feel.”

“Right,” Cecily said sounding not entirely sure of herself, “How was he spotted again?”

Her mother looked confused, “He was spotted at a party a few days ago,” She quickly and paused, “You’re taking this all rather well?”

Cecily pursed her lips. How was she going to explain this to her mother? How was she going to explain the sudden attitude shift she had towards a man she once thought she would hate forever? To her knowledge, her mother didn’t know that she knew the trust of her sister. So, in her mother’s eyes, Cecily should hate the very sentence that Thomas Ward is alive.

With her chin wobbling, and tears collecting, Cecily did her best to smile. “Well, he was rather good at escaping death,” She said with a hint of humor, “Why should I be surprised?”

Her mother smiled and got up from her chair. She came over to her and wrapped her arms around her, and Cecily lurched forward burying her head in her mother’s neck. She cried a few tears but it was not for the reason her mother thought. She cried because with Thomas being alive, it meant that she would no longer be able to hide her knowledge. Sooner or later she would have to confront her mother, something she told herself she could do. But now, being in her arms, she was coming to the realization that it might be harder than she thought.

Her mother started gently rubbing her back as if she was a child, “He’s brought so much pain to this family,” She whispered as she placed her chin on top of her head, “And I will make sure that he brings no more.”

Cecily pulled back and rubbed her eyes, “What?” She asked, her voice scratchy.

Her mother placed her hands on her shoulders, “He already took one daughter from the last thing I want is him causing you pain. Once we catch him, and we will, I am going to kill him for all of his crimes.” They were silent and Cecily didn’t know what to say to that. What do you say to that? Sure, she disliked Thomas Ward but she still didn’t want him dead.

Her sister would hate her.

Fortunately, she didn’t need to say anything. Her mother had stood up from her crouching position and straightened out her shirt. “I’ll leave you alone for now, please call me if you need anything.” Cecily nodded and watched as her mother left the room.

She waited a few seconds before lunging for the phone.

Cecily dialed the last known number that she had for Thomas and waited. The ringing leads to a voicemail and she cursed before hanging up the phone. Leaving a voicemail would be too risky, “Oh Thomas what the hell did you do?” She asked herself. If Tommy would not answer then there was only one person that she could turn too. Cecily was running out of options for people to trust in Afterlife. Grabbing the phone again she called the one person her mother hated more than Daniel Whitehall.

“Aunt Ivana,” She whispered after she heard the other side pickup, “I need your help.”

Tommy rested against the wall as the waited for SHIELD to board the plane. All of them were in the main living area, waiting for what was to come. The tension in the room was almost visible and Tommy was hating every second of it.

“What’s taking them so long?” Chuck asked nervously.

“Probably waiting for the all clear to make sure we won’t kill them,” Ward said from his place on the couch, “We did go rogue after all.”

“Well can they hurry because waiting this long is giving me anxiety,” Chuck rubbed his hands together and Tommy felt bad for him. Once they were able to get him out of SHIELD’s hands Tommy was going to find a good place for him to stay. Perhaps he would have to call up Julian again, him and Chuck had always gotten along well enough.

There was the clomping of boots and all of their attention went to the doorway. Seconds later a woman with red streaks in her hair and behind her was a team in full tact gear. Tommy was slightly flattered that SHIELD was going all out for them. He was also slightly insulted that they thought they would be stupid enough to go up against SHIELD.

He heard Skye swear under her breath and he looked to her in concern. Skye was glaring daggers at the woman and her fists were clenched tightly. Well, that told him that those two had history, that was even confirmed more when the woman smirked at Skye.

“Well, I always knew that you were nothing but trouble,” The woman snarked as she stalked closer to Skye, “If only Coulson would have listened to me, then maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“Hand,” May said from her spot, “Our priority is finding Coulson not antagonizing Skye.”

Hand, weird name, looked towards May, “I thought you would have been on my side May, with Coulson being gone and all.”

“I am,” May responded coldly, “I want her off the plane as much as you, but there are more important things to do,” She took a step forward and Hand took a step back, “There are more important things to worry about.”

Hand glared at May and the two were in the middle of a standoff until her eyes reached him and Chuck. Her lips then turned into a sickening smirk, “So,” She sneered, “These two must be the stowaways that you found.”

Tommy didn’t react because he knew that that’s what Hand wanted. That she wanted him to give her an excuse to use her gun on him. Tommy wasn’t an idiot and he wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction, he had dealt with enough people like her in his life. He knew the rule and regulation, hell probably even made a few, he was a professional at this.

“They’re leaving,” May said before either Tommy, Skye, or Chuck could get a word in. “They’re both leaving along with Skye.”

Victoria studied him for a few minutes before nodding her head approvingly, “Good,” She said as she glared at the both of them, “Now, I assume you have all of your things packed?” They all nodded their heads, “Good, well, we’ll have our agents escort you off the property.”

They grabbed their bags, Skye still had left some stuff in her bunk and were escorted off the plane. There were five men in tact suits with guns holstered on their thighs surrounding them. One bad move and he knew that there was a good chance one of them would have a bullet inside them. Skye was still calm, her head was held high and he could tell that she was fighting a smirk. Chuck, on the other hand, looked nervous as hell. He was fidgeting and looking around at the agents with scared glances wondering if they would do something to him.

Knowing that he needed to do something, Tommy grabbed the back of Chuck’s borrowed jacket and yanked it tight. The action caused him to straighten his back and look ahead, “Calm down,” He mumbled sternly into his ear, “Just a couple more feet and then we’re home free.”

But he could tell that a couple more feet for Chuck were like running a marathon. He could see the man’s brown eyes glazing over. A look of panic and horror gracing his face, it looked that made Tommy’s heart pound faster. It was a look that he knew all too well and wished he could always forget but knows he never will. Chuck was reliving something that had happened to him, the fear was evident on his face and him being there probably wasn’t helping him get over it.

“Just a little bit longer,” He told Chuck again but the man was breathing heavily. Tommy didn’t want to but he would use his powers if he had too. He could get away from the SHIELD agents no problem but he didn’t know what Skye reaction would be like. It was either help him out or make sure that the SHIELD agents got out of there with no bumps or bruises.

As if God gave them a blessing, they had reached the gated area. The metal fence slid open and all three of them were roughly shoved to the other side. Tommy bit his tongue and he glanced over to see that Skye was clenching her fists. Both of them were holding back and he could see annoyance starting to build in her eyes.

“Hey, girl,” One of the guards yelled and Skye turned around glaring at the man. The agent then tossed her a set of keys and she caught them easily. “I took care of it for you.” He said like he had fulfilled a promise or something.

Skye smirked as she fondled the keys in her hand, “Thanks,” She offered him a kind expression and a small tip of the head. She then turned back to them and waved the keys in front of their faces, “At least we aren’t without a car.” She mumbled and took a look at Chuck.

Her face fell as she saw the man begin to shiver. He was holding himself and looked to be a few moments away from falling to the ground and getting into the fetal position. He was rocking himself back and forth on the balls of his feet. His mouth was moving but no words were coming out.

“We need to get him out of here,” Tommy whispered as he wrapped an arm around Chuck supporting him. “He’s not going to last much longer.” He started walking forward practically dragging Chuck along with him.

Skye kept pace with them both, “I can see my van, once we get there then we can deal with him.”

They moved as quickly as they could through the parking area. The van was in their line of sight and the closer they got to it the worse Chuck became. Not being able to take it anymore, Skye ran ahead and unlocked the back doors to her van. She motioned for him to hurry up and Tommy scoped Chuck into his arms bridal style and carried him the rest of the way. When he was at the doors of the van, he laid Chuck down onto the ground and quickly climbed in himself. Skye shut the doors and they both watched as Chuck began to convulse.

“Shit!” Skye exclaimed as she tossed him onto his side. Tommy moved across her and tried to hold Chuck steady as he body shook. He watched as his friends’ eyes rolled into the back of his head and sweat began to form all over his body. “What the hell is happening?” Skye asked looking to him, “He was fine just a couple minutes ago.”

“I don’t know,” Tommy grumbled and tried looking over Chuck’s body to see if anything was wrong with him. He had just thought that maybe he was suffering from PTSD and was going to have a panic attack but obviously it was something more. Then with a drop a dime he stopped moving and Tommy pushed him onto his back. “Look,” He said motioning to his neck were blue lines were visible, “Something’s there.”

A look of apprehension crossed Skye’s face, “That’s the same place that Simmons was injected with that device,” She said worriedly and a look of question crossed her eyes, “You don’t think it was from that do you?”

“I don’t know,” He said again he was starting to think that maybe it should become his new catchphrase. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “Let’s get out of here and to a safe place, from there we can wait for the team to contact us.”

Skye had driven them out of the city, past the tall skyscrapers and bustling traffic. She had driven them into the Palm Desert. She didn’t have to drive them all the way out there, but she needed to release some energy. The desert was the first place she could think of that wouldn’t be affected that much by her powers. It was secluded and she knew that it was a place where no one would check for them. Chuck was still unconscious in the back of the van with Tommy by his side.

Skye looked at him every few minutes through the rearview mirror. It was the seventh time that she had done it, Tommy had finally let her eyes. They held a silent conversation together and seconds later he joined her at the front of the van. She gripped the steering wheel tighter as he sat down in the passenger seat. “He’s getting better,” Tommy mumbled as he put his feet onto the dashboard.

Skye smirked and playfully smacked his legs down. Tommy rolled his eyes but she knew that he didn’t care that much. “Once he wakes up, we can talk about that more,” She said and pressed her foot in the accelerated a little harder, making the car speed up. “But for now, let’s just let him rest he’s been through a lot.”

“Well, while we’re on the topic of bringing up problems, Cecily called me,” He tried to say casually.

Skye hit the breaks hard as he said those words to her. She was launched forward by the sheer force of it and was only caught by her seatbelt. She gripped the wheel tight and stared out into the desert, a feeling of anger washing over her. There was ringing in her ears and it was so loud that it was tuning out the sound of Tommy’s voice.

Without warning, Skye unbuckled herself and walked off to the side of the road. She looked angrily out into the desert, breathing heavily, in silence. Then, letting out a mighty scream, she brought her hands out in front of her, unleashing her power out onto the desert. She watched as the ground began to shake, small crack forming in it. Rocks began to loosen and fall from the sides of the mountains and it still wasn’t enough for her.

Focusing in on one of the mountains she brought her hands together like she was pulling something apart. As her hands grew apart in the greater distance so did the mountain in front of her. It was splitting down the middle, the sound echoing in the emptiness of the desert. With a mighty cry, Skye snapped her hands apart, letting them fall to her sides, and along with them, the shaking stopped.

There was a loud cracking noise and she watched as the mountain stopped shaking. Rocks began falling and from its’ sides and she saw the large crack that now laid in the middle of the mountain. It was a clean break, there were no jagged edges, it looked to be cut cleanly in half. And there was a small satisfying feel she got from knowing that she did that. Skye was breathing heavily and stared at the now destroyed mountain. She heard the crunch of boots coming up behind her and she knew that it was Tommy. It wasn’t like it could be anyone else, Tommy was the only one who was with her that was conscious. For all, she knew Chuck was still in the back of the van passed out.

He stood beside her, staring out at the destroyed mountain as well. She didn’t look at him, she wasn’t ready to quite yet. So, they stood there in the desert doing nothing but looking at the mountain that she had just destroyed with her powers.

Tommy then yelled, surprising her, just as she had moments ago. He threw his hands into the air and she watched as the sky above them darkened. The rocks around them levitated into the air and when Tommy thrust his arms forward, the rocks followed. The zoomed towards the ruined mountain with lightning speed. The crashed into the side of the mountain causing a puff of sand to manifest and obstructing their view of the mountain for only a few moments.

A bubble of laughter burst through her. She lifted her hands up once again and caused the mountain to shake once more. She didn’t stop until a piece of the edge of the mountain broke off only then did she look over to Tommy. He was smiling, actually smiling, for the first time it what seemed like ages. They shared a knowing look and together they raised their arms and unleashed their powers onto the mountain.

They laughed like children playing on a playground. Together they tore the mountain apart piece by piece, rock by rock. They did not stop until there was nothing left by rubble in the sand and the tall mountain that once stood was no more. It was a rare moment that they were both able to use their powers for fun. When they could just enjoy who they were and didn’t have to hide or act like someone they weren’t. It was a rare moment when they could become the kids that they never were.

In the silent moments after their destruction of the mountain, Skye turned towards her friends. “What did she say?” She asked in a small voice, “My sister, what did she say?”

Tommy clenched his fists together, “She didn’t say anything, not even a voicemail, just called.”

Skye shook her head and pointed at him, “She wouldn’t have called you unless it was an emergency,” Taking a few steps forward she now faced to face with him, “What did you do?”

Tommy narrowed his eyes, “If I didn’t know any better, I would say that you’re accusing me of something, Skye,” He said in a slightly offended tone.

Skye sighed and closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. She hadn’t meant for it to come out like that but she understands how it could sound like that. Tommy had a reputation of always messing something up and although she loved him, she always had her doubts.

“Tommy, it’s just a question,” She said calmly, “I’m just trying to figure this out.” She said frustrated and ran a hand through her hair. The ground around them began rumbling again as she began to pace, thinking of different ways to handle the situation.

Tommy though his arms into the air, “So am I! I have no idea why she would even call me, hell I don’t even know how she got my phone number.” Skye noticed that the temperature around them had dropped. The once bright sky was now being clouded by shadows, she could feel her heart beating quickly as fear surrounded her.

She was about to say something about it when she heard the back door of her van open followed by a thump and a groan. They both turned to her van and saw that Chuck was lying on the ground, shakily trying to get back onto his feet.

“CHUCK!” They screamed at the same time and ran over to him to help him back to his feet.

Chuck gripped his head in pain and groaned. He blinked his eyes a few times to adjust to the light and too looked around to try and get a grip of his surroundings. He looked at them questioningly and frowned, “Where the hell did you guys take me?” He asked.

Skye shook her head, “Somewhere safe,” She replied quickly, “But Chuck can you tell me what the hell happened?”

Chuck frowned and rubbed his neck guilty, “Yeah, I guess I should have told you guys about that,” He said to them, much to their confusion.

Skye and Tommy shared a look, “Mention what?” Tommy asked for both of them.

“The thing that they put in my neck, it was their way of controlling me, it goes off every time my heart rate passes a certain point,” He explained to them. Noticing their faces, he elaborated more, “It was their way of keeping me in check. If my heart rate went past a certain point or was elevated, they would think I was up to something. Stupid I know, but regardless every time that my heart goes over 120 beats, this thing shocks my system and I just…” He trailed off and recreated the shaking motion of his body.

Skye looked at him with sympathy. To have something like that in your body and to know that you couldn’t get your heart over a certain range. Then if you did you would be sent into convulsions and suffer seizers, she just couldn’t imagine.

“Is there any way to get it out?” Tommy asked softly.

Chuck shrugged his shoulders like it was nothing. The motion reminded her of someone who had just given up hope. They saw no other way out and decided that they were going to live with this for the rest of their life. It was something that she had never thought she would see in a person like Chuck; a person who was so kind and loving. Who would help anyone even if you hadn’t asked, a person who didn’t deserve something like this?

Then again, none of them had deserved what happened to them, fate just had to play a different hand for them.

The three of them went silent, unsure of what else to say. There were no real words to that could properly respond to that. Skye and Tommy were well versed to know that there was probably no way to get the device out. It didn't matter of how to get it out now, only a matter of how they could manage it. To them there was no hope, hope was a commodity that they rarely got to see anymore.

“Wait, the thing in your neck, Simmons has it as well,” Skye said and she watched as pity washed over his face.

“I talked to her about it, alone, she didn’t want anyone to worry about it,” He sucked in a breath, “Make sure she’s safe,” He asked them like he was asking them to watch over an old friend, “She seems like a good person. I would hate to have that turn into something else.”

“We will,” Skye said in confidence, “We’ll keep them all safe.”

He smiled and they were left in silence for a moment, “So,” Chuck said, breaking the silence first, “Where are you two shipping me off to now.”

Tommy smirked and laid a hand on Chuck’s shoulder, “You remember Julian Cortez?” Tommy asked jokingly.

Chuck’s face burst into a grin and soon it was a smile. He started chuckling and seconds later they were all laughing. What they were laughing, Skye wasn’t entirely sure, it could be a combination of things but, right now, it felt good to laugh. It had felt good to let out her powers, it had felt good to laugh with people she cared about. It felt good being together again.

But she couldn’t shake the feeling that they were missing someone.

After their little breakdown in the desert, Skye had driven them back into the city. She had chosen a small diner, something that wouldn’t have too many people. A place where they could meet up with Julian and not have everything go to shit.

They had chosen a booth in the back. Skye and Tommy sat next to each other while Chuck was across from them. He was looking much better than he had been two hours ago. The color of his skin was returning and he seemed to be smiling more. Once he was able to get into a safe environment, Skye just knew that he was going to get better. She just hoped that wherever Julian took him he would be safe and he would just be able to relax. That was just the type of person Chuck was; he wasn’t high strung, he was just always so chill and relaxed.

A waitress came over and asked them what they wanted. Tommy had ordered a lemonade, Skye had only asked for water, and Chuck had practically ordered everything off the menu. Okay, well, that was an overexaggerating, but he did order a lot. So much so, that Skye wondered where he was going to put it all. It wasn’t exactly like he was a big guy that needed a bunch of food to survive. Actually, she’s pretty sure that she saw him eat only a bag of sour patch kids for two days as his only food source.

“So, what time is Julian coming?” Chuck asked as he scarfed down a bite of the pancake he had ordered.

Tommy shrugged and glanced down at his wrist even though he wasn’t wearing a watch. “I don’t know,” He said honestly, “I just kind of gave him a general location and a time and he said, and I quote, ‘I’ll get there when I get there’. So, really, we could be here until closing.”

Chuck nodded his head and took another bite, “That sounds like Julian,” He noted and then nodded towards her, “So, what’s the plan after I’m gone?”

Skye frowned and thought for a moment. The plan was to find Coulson after they had traded Chuck off, but Skye had no idea how long that would take. It could be day, weeks, hell even months before they’re able to find him again. “Find Coulson, I guess, and after that…” She shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know.”

Chucked took a napkin and wiped his face, clearing off all the syrup and pancake that was left. “So, SHIELD, really, you’re staying with them?”

“I don’t see why not,” Skye said casually, “It’s not like my other options are any better.”

Chuck then diverted his gaze towards Tommy, “And you,” He asked inclining his head towards him, “What do you think about all of this?”

Tommy shifted uncomfortably next to her and Skye knew that wasn’t a good sign. She knew that meant that he was going to say something she might not agree with. That he might do something she might not approve of. Then again, they never really asked permission from each other, they just did whatever they wanted too and apologize later.

“With Mr. Jones gone, there are a lot of things that I have to clean up,” He said and then took a drink from his cup, “Plus, I need to focus on getting Henley back.”

Chuck bit his lip and sucked in a breath, “Have you ever, maybe, considered that she won’t be coming back?” Chuck asked.

The temperature in the room lowered and Skye swears she could see her breath in front of her. Frost was starting to form of the windows and the light from outside was no longer coming in. It seemed that all light from the room had vanished and Skye could feel her heart racing. A feeling of fear was overcoming her, and she breathing was becoming more difficult. Skye looked at Tommy to see his care-free expression had changed. It was stoic now, his blue eyes hard, and his face mimicked that of stature. She could feel the anger and rage coming off of him at the very suggestion of Henley not coming back.

They all of a sudden, like it never happened, the room snapped back to normal. The feeling of fear left her and the lights had returned to normal. Tommy smiled again, although it did not seem real, and tilted his head to the side, “She’s coming back,” he said confidently, “She will.” This time it seemed like he said it to just convince himself. Chuck nodded quickly and Skye could see that he was still afraid of what just happened

The bell above the door rang and the three of them turned their heads to see Julian walking through the door. He whispered something to the waitress and she nodded her head pointing to in the direction of their booth. Julian nodded his head in thanks and then proceeded to walk over to them, a look of annoyance in his gaze. Although Skye is starting to wonder if that was just always there, she doesn’t think she’s ever seen him without one.

 “Well, well, well,” Julian said as he sat down next to Chuck, taking a piece of bacon as he did so, “It looks like the famous duo is back together again.”

“Hey, Julian,” Skye said kindly and smiled at his tone.

Julian looked at her and gave her a real smile, “Hey, Daisy,”

“Hi, Julian,” Tommy offered up expecting the same response only he didn’t get it.

Julian turned towards Tommy and looked him up and down with disgust, “Ward,” He snarled, “I see that you’re not dead still.”

“Aww, come on Jules, I thought we were past the death wishing phase?” Tommy replied sarcastically.

Julian rolled his deep brown eyes, eye so similar to his twin, “I don’t think we can ever get past that phase,” He then took another piece of bacon and turned towards Chuck, “Well, Chuck I would usually say that you’re looking good, but quite honestly you look like an extra on The Walking Dead.”

Chuck smiled and shrugged as if to say ‘that’s fair. “I feel like it,” he mumbled with his mouth still full of food. Julian then stole another piece of bacon from Chuck, who did nothing to stop him. Although Chuck looked very annoyed that he kept stealing his food.

“So,” Chuck said and swallowed his food, “What happens now. Are you and I going to go on a vacation now?”

Julian rolled his eyes, “I wish,” He mumbled, “No, now you and I head back to my shitty apartment and wait for these two to give the all clear.”

Chuck frowned he looked to her and Tommy. Tommy nodded his head, “That’s not exactly how I would put it, but he has a point. You need to lay low for a little bit while me and Skye figure thing out.”

Chuck quirked an eyebrow at them, “And how long will that take?”

Skye grimaced and shared a knowing look with Tommy, “We don’t know,” She admitted, “But what we do know is that Julian will keep you safe,” She then glanced up at him, “Right?”

Julian scoffed, “Of course I’ll keep him safe,” He said offended. He waved the waitress over and grabbed a wad of cash out of his wallet. “Hey, can you get all of this to go me and him have a deadline to meet.” The waitress looked annoyed at his condescending tone but did as he asked.

Chuck then began scarfing down as much food as he could before the to-go boxes arrived. Once they did arrive and Chuck packed up all the extra food, Julian paid for all of his food. Which was unnecessary but Skye nor Tommy was going to complain.

Julian threw a tip on the table and motioned for Chuck to follow him. “Well, it was nice seeing you Daisy,” He said smiling at her then turned towards Tommy and frowned, “Still wish you were dead but, hey when have I ever gotten what I wanted?” he regarded sarcastically. Julian then grabbed Chuck by his arm and hauled him to his feet, “Well, Charles, it’s just going to be you and me from now on.”

The two walked out the diner and Skye smiled as she saw Chuck finally catch his break.

“Any luck on finding Coulson yet?” Tommy asked for the third time in the last ten minutes.

Skye paused her typing for a moment and stared up at him, “Not since the last time you asked me,” She paused and resumed her typing, “Two minutes ago.” She mumbled quickly and she heard Tommy snort.

The past three hours they had been sitting in their booth in the diner doing their best to try and find Coulson. Skye had gotten out her laptop and started searching every site and organization she could for Coulson. Nothing had popped up, but Skye had only just begun and she was still waiting for the call from the team to come in.

Which was something they were both Tommy and she was becoming nervous about? Not one of the team members had called them yet. Skye was wondering what was happening and it was killing her not knowing what was happening. She knew that they would have to wait awhile but still her heart started beating every time she got a notification alert on her phone. She would look down and hope to see that it was Grant or at least someone from the team. Instead, it was another stupid Twitter notification.

“You know we could do this ourselves,” Tommy said as he took a sip from his drink.

Skye paused in her typing. She closed the lid of her laptop and placed her elbows on the table, narrowing her eyes at her friend, “Why are you so focused to do everything without them?” She asked curiously.

Tommy shrugged, “I’m not, I just think we have a lot of cards in our hands and we have to play them smart,” He told her, “Messing with SHIELD is not exactly something we can come back from.”

Skye sat silent and watched her friend closely to see if he was an imposter. Tommy had never been this careful before and she wonders what brought this on now? What could have changed so much that now Tommy was completely redoing his way of doing things? “Who are you and what have you done with my friend?”

Tommy smiled but Skye could see the sadness behind it. He shrugged his shoulders and leaned forward on the table, copying her moves. “I don’t know,” He said softly, “I just feel like it’s time to grow up and move on.”

“You actually mean that?” Skye asked him hopefully, “Because you’ve said that before and it didn’t last.”

Tommy nodded his head, “No, I mean it this time,” He then raised his brow and looked deep in thought, “I mean, I’m almost in my thirties, I’ve spent almost half my life either on the run or being the bad guy. And now, I’m just tired and want to retire to a farm or some stupid shit like that,” He then looked towards her, “Haven’t you thought about that?” 

“No,” Skye answered truthfully. She hadn’t thought about it because she was too scared too. If she thought about it then she was afraid that it would be taken away from her. That a future that she might want would no longer be hers because the universe just really hates her. She then smiled and tried to lift up her friend’s spirits, “But I think I could.” She said grabbing onto his hands and holding them in hers.

There was another ding and Skye sighed, almost placing her head upon the table. If it was another stupid Twitter notification she was going to scream. With the pace of a snail, Skye slid her phone over to her to see what the notification was now. However, once she saw what it was, she instantly perked up and scrambled to open her laptop again.

Tommy, who noted her knew rushed enthusiasm gave her a questioning look, “What? What is it? What did you find?”

Skye answered as she furiously typed away trying to pull up the program, “There was a hit in facial recognition.” She told him; her gaze solely focused on the computer screen. She was staring at a blurry image of what looked to be Raina’s face. However, she couldn’t be sure because the quality of it was so low.

Tommy frowned, “On Coulson?”

Skye shook her head, “No, on Raina,” She told him and her fingers moved so fast that she was pretty sure they were blurring together. It was a short video taken from a store’s security camera from. She couldn’t buy the face if it was Raina but by the looks of the silk flower dress, she was wearing. It was probably her; how many people wear those types of dresses anyway?

She looked to see where it was taken from and frowned once she saw it. Tommy noticed it and frowned as well, “What?” He asked, “What is it?”

“She’s coming out of a corporate building,” She then looked to Tommy confused, “Why would Raina of all people need to go to a bank?”

“What’s the name of the company?” Skye hit a few keys and then showed Tommy the paused video. He scrunched his eyes as they scanned the paused screen. “Wait, can you zoom in more?” She did so and he leaned in more. He then grinned and looked up at her, “I know this bank.”

“What? How?”

“Back in the F.B.I, they were under investigation for dodging some taxes,” he then leaned back, “No arrest was made, but I remember one guy that was kept on the list. I’m pretty sure that he still works there too.”

Skye lifted an eyebrow, “You think that’s who she was seeing?”

Tommy shrugged innocently, “Wouldn’t hurt to check,” He then looked at her phone, “I mean, unless you want to wait for SHIELD?”

Skye bit the inside of her lip and weighed her options. She could wait for SHIELD and not get into any more trouble than she already is. But every moment they waited was a moment that they wasted trying to find Coulson. At this point, Raina could have him anywhere and they would always be one step behind. They had a lead though, one that wouldn’t require too much hassle to check in. If anything, they’ll just knock the guy out and she’ll hack the computer.

Skye then made up her mind. “Let’s do this.”

Here’s the thing she loved most about Tommy’s powers. They were super convenient when it came to sneaking into a building. While her powers were good for breaking down a building, they were good for getting into one unnoticed. When he was younger, Tommy would have to be at a place to be able to use the shadows to travel to it. Then as he got older and his powers grew, all he needed was just a picture of the place. Now, at the age of twenty-eight, he was able to just think of a place or the name of a person and he could arrive there.

It really cut down on travel cost.

So, when Skye opened her eyes and found herself in the back corner of a fancy bathroom. She knew that Tommy had been able to sneak them into the building. She was guessing that he chose the bathroom because it was the safest place. No one was going to be there and if they were, they could just wait it out until they leave.

Tommy let go of her and she stumbled forward, her legs still a little weak from the traveling. She felt pins and needles all up and down her legs and grabbed onto the sink for stability. “Do you think we’re on the right floor?” She asked him.

Tommy cocked his head to the side, “I’m not sure,” he looked confused and placed a hand against the wall, “There’s too much interference.” He then looked to her, “You want to give it a try?”

Skye shrugged; it wouldn’t hurt. She closed her eyes a listened to the vibrations of the building and all of the people in it. She reached out with her powers and tried to place the one specific heartbeat that she was looking for. There were so many in the building that it was hard to place just one. She opened her eyes and shook her head in frustration, “There’s too many people,” She grunted out, “It’s hard to focus on just one.”

Tommy nodded his head knowingly, “Then searching it is,” He told her and helped her balance on her feet, “Let’s just hope no one notices how out of place we look before we get there.”

Skye then looked up and down at their appearances. He was right, they looked like they didn’t belong, “This will be quick.” She offered to try to convince him and herself then smiled at him, which he returned happily and nodded in agreement with her.

Famous last words.

She opened the door and their heads peaked out checking to see how clear it was. Satisfied that there was no one there, both of them quickly exited the bathroom.  The hallway looked to be narrow and empty, with colorless walls surrounding it. At the end of the hallway, looked to be an elevator and Skye wondered if that was a good idea.

She then took a look around her. There were cubicles surrounding them but all seemed to be empty. In fact, the entire room seemed to be vacated. Skye stopped walking and put a hand up to stop Tommy as well. “What,” He asked, “What is it?”

Skye gestured to the room around them, “Doesn’t this place look a little dead to you?”

Tommy took a glance around and shrugged his shoulders, “Everyone on this floor probably went home,”

“It’s only three o’clock,” Skye pointed out.

Tommy rolled his eyes, “Maybe their boss was being nice? Employee skip day? Hell, I don’t know Skye, let’s just find this guy.”

Skye got a gut feeling telling her that they shouldn’t go any further. That they should hang around and investigate the reason for so little people. But, Tommy also had a point, there really was no time for this and all they wanted to do was get some information about Rania. Shaking her head and going against her gut, Skye followed Tommy and together they walked towards the elevator.

“You have any idea what floor this guy is on?” She asked him.

Tommy pressed a button and the door closed, “It has to be this one,” He told her, “I can feel him, his fear and then this,” He made an odd motion with his hands, “darkness surrounding him. I think something is weighing on him.”

“Con man with a conscious, who would have guessed?” She snarked.

Tommy snorted, “Yeah, I wouldn’t go that far, the guy is still an asshole.”

The waited in silence and moments later the elevator bell rung. The doors opened to reveal another hallway, but these walls were not bare. They held paintings and Skye could make out a few plants here or there, giving color and life to it. At the end of the hallway was a desk and the hint of a couch peeking out from the wall. Sat at the desk was a woman, she was young, and she was dressed to impress. Glancing at each other and sighing in sync, Tommy and Skye walked down the hallway with determination.

The woman at the desk glanced up at them and frowned. Skye knew what she was probably thinking. Two very dirty looking people are here and looked quite mad. Tommy leaned his body against the desk and gave the receptionist his best fake smile, “Hey,” He glanced at the nameplate, “Brittany. Mind doing us a favor and letting us talk to Mr. Rathman?”

Brittany, to her credit, tried her best not to looked flustered. “I’m sorry,” She stuttered, “But he doesn’t have any appointments right now.”

“Tell him we’re friends,” He insisted.

“Really, I would, but you see, Mr. Rathman is a very busy man.”

Skye placed hands down on the desk, “Tell him we’re friends of Raina,” Brittany’s eyes fluttered and she gulped. Grabbing the phone she pressed a number and talked quietly into it, the entire time neither Tommy or Skye’s has left her.

Shakily she put the phone down, “Mr. Rathman will see you,”

Tommy smiled and as did Skye, “Thanks,” They both said in unison and together they walked into the office. Hoping to find some information about Coulson’s location and what they wanted with him.

Simmons cracked her neck for the third time that day. It was becoming stiff from how much time she was spending looking into the microscope. Truly, the work she was doing held no real importance, she was trying to her best to avoid Fitz. Things had become awkward between them ever since that night in the hotel. Coulson’s disappearance had been helping with keeping them both busy and distracted, but as Skye and Tommy were now helping, it seemed that burden has lessened.

She knew that she was eventually going to have to talk to him. Maybe. Actually, now that she thought about it, the most logical thing to do might be not to talk about it. After all they still had to find Coulson and they couldn’t risk emotions getting in the way. On top of that, the stupid blood electric shock device was still in her neck. And after what Charles had told her, she didn’t want to get to upset about anything, or too excited for it either.

Because she can think of a few activities that can raise her heart rate.

Shaking her head, she tried to focus back on the useless task that she had given herself. Agent Hand had not left yet and it was causing all of them, though mostly Ward, much distress. Simmons had to give the woman credit; she was very perceptive. She does wonders if perhaps their performances weren’t believable enough? That maybe she had been able to see through one of them and now they were never going to leave. She just hopes Skye and Thomas are having an easier time than them.

There was a knock on the lab door and Simmons called them to come in. She just assumed it was either Hand or one of her lackey’s to see if she was hiding something.

“Hey,” Fitz’s voice filled the silence of the lab. Oh, how she was now longing for Hand. “Can we talk?” He asked while Simmons forced herself to just stare at the specimen beneath her.

She shut her eyes hard. Squeezing them, hoping that no tears would come out. She took in a few calming breaths telling herself that she was okay. That she could do this, because this was Fitz, she could talk to Fitz, like she always has.

Except she couldn’t. She could still feel his hands trailing up her body. His lips were somehow rough and soft at the same time. The rush she got when he slammed her up against the wall, fusing their mouths together. She couldn’t ever think about him again without thinking of that. But she would endure.

“Sure,” She said, her voice only wavering a little bit, and she swiveled around to face him. “What do you want to talk about?”

His face said it all. His blue eyes gazed at her longingly with a hint of sadness. His hands were clasped together in front of him, twirling his thumbs, something he always did when nervous. She could see now that Fitz was starting to fill out more. A hint of muscle could be seen under his button shirt and Simmons wondered where it came from. She always wonders how she could not have noticed it before.

“I think you know,” He told her knowingly, “I want to talk about what happened, in the hotel room.”

“What’s there to talk about?” She asked with a hint of anger crossing her arms over her chest, “You made your feelings clear.”

His eyes widened in panic at the statement and moved forward. Simmons swallowed the lump in her throat and felt her cheeks burning. “No, what I said, I didn’t mean it like that,” He argued and ran a hand through his hair, “I just meant to say that; I want to be with you, but I want to be with you when you’re you.”

Simmons raised an eyebrow, “And I wasn’t me the other night?” She asked hotly, “Was I an alien or an imposter?” She took a step towards him, their bodies closer together, “What wasn’t real about me the other night Fitz?”

He looked away for a second then back to her. She could see the tears collecting in his eyes, already threatening to spill. “Would you have kissed me, still, if you hadn’t almost died?” He asked. His voice was soft and full of so much emotion that it made her heart leap. “If it was someone else in that room, would you have kissed them instead?”

There was a pregnant pause as she thought about it. If it had been someone else in the room would she have kissed them? Perhaps, but she wouldn’t have felt the way she did like when she was with Fitz when she did it. When she kissed him, she realized how perfect he was, how much they were made for each other. She had never believed in soulmates, but now, staring at Fitz, she would entertain the idea.

“Maybe,” She finally told him and his face feel, a stray tear falling out. Simmons lifted a hand up and wiped it away, cupping his cheek while doing so, “But it would have meant nothing with them. With you it meant everything. When I kissed you, I realized how much I’m in love with you, I realized that I don’t want anyone else, I just want you.” She leaned in closer to him, making it so that their lips matched up, “Because when I kissed you, I realized that there would be no one else but you,”

Their lips ghosted each other, not full touching, but not fully away from the other either. She closed her eyes, ready to lean in when the alarm blared. The two of them sprang apart from each other and noticed someone coming down into the room.

It was Ward and he looked pissed.

“What’s happening?” She asked.

“It’s Tommy and Skye,” He growled, “We got a tip of where they are and Hand wants to go after them.”

Chapter Text

“Well, that was easier than I anticipated,” Tommy commented as he tilted his head to the side and stared at the man in front of him. He frowned and leaned in for a closer inspection, “I really thought he would have put up more of a fight.” The man in question was currently squirming around in the chair they had tied him to. Trying to scream through the duct tape they had placed over his mouth.

“You sound disappointed,” Skye told him as she too tilted her head to the sigh, inspecting the man like a piece of abstract art. She noticed movement out of the corner of her eye and saw that Tommy was lifting up his phone. She heard the telltale click of the camera going off and chuckled, “Did you just take a photo of him?”

Tommy held the phone away from his face more, inspecting the image he had just taken, “Yup,” He then clicked on something and mumbled, “And save. Well, that’s my new background for the next six months.”

Skye rolled her eyes, “Child,” She mumbled to him and walked forward while uncrossing her arms. She leaned down and looked the frightened man in the eyes, “Look,” She told him, “We don’t want to hurt you but we need to know what Raina was doing here.”

His breathing was hard and Skye could see that he was trying his best not to panic. Mr. Rathman looked at them widely, like he didn’t believe that they were not going to hurt him. Which, in his full defense, they didn’t make the best first impression by duct-taping him to his chair. He mumbled something through the duct tape and Tommy was the one to pull it back.

“Owe,” he muttered and then looked at the two fearfully, “Look, whatever that Rania chick told you, she’s lying.” He stuttered out.

Tommy got down to his level and stared into his eyes, while his head tilted to the side. She watched in fascination as Mr. Rathman’s eyes widen in fear. His whole body started shaking and his lip was wobbling, yet he could tear his eyes away from Tommy.

Tommy smirked and placed a hand on his shoulder, causing Mr. Rathman to jump, “You’re afraid of her,” Tommy said simply, “You’re afraid of what she can do.”

Mr. Rathman nodded his head weakly, “She’s crazy man,” he whimpered out, “The shit she wants the people she knows.”

Tommy nodded his head in understanding. “Do you want to know how to conquer those fears?” He asked him and the frightened man nodded his head vigorously, “You confront them. So, in order to do that I need to know what Rania wanted from you.”

He looked to be fighting Tommy’s influence but Skye could already tell he wasn’t strong enough. His forehead was sweating and he scrunched his face up in pain. He started squirming and Tommy grabbed him by the shoulders forcing him to look at him, “Tell me,” He demanded.

Rathman gave in, “She needed to transfer money to another account,” He murmured, “She moving cargo, important cargo, and needed more money for it.”

Tommy looked up at her and the two friends shared a look, “That has to be Coulson,” Skye said and Tommy agreed. He then looked back to Rathman and stood up, towering over the smaller man. He lifted his hand, curling it into a fist, and punched Rathman in the face. The single punch had rendered the man unconscious and Skye huffed in annoyance. “I still needed to ask him some questions.”

Tommy shrugged his shoulders, “Sorry,” He said unapologetically.

Skye groaned, “I’m going to have to hack the records now,” She muttered to herself and move to the computer, “Which means that we have to spend more time here.”

She started furiously typing away on the computer, not at all surprised that it was easy to hack into, and tried finding the files. Her entire focus was on finding the file that contained the information about Rania. She just wanted to get Coulson back, if she got Coulson back then she could explain everything and half of her problems wouldn’t exist.

Though it begs the question as to why Rania wanted Coulson in the first place. Sure, he was a high-ranking SHIELD agent but Raina never cared about that stuff. She was about evolution and how to make herself Inhuman, not about spies, secrets, and information. She had never cared about that, not even working with her father. There had to be something about Coulson that was peaking Rania’s interests. That was causing her to kidnap someone who was very important to Nick Fury and the Avengers.

“Hey Skye,” Tommy called from his place by the window, “It looks like we got company.”

Her eyes shot to his, “What!?” She nearly shouted and got from her seat, rushing over to the window. She looked down and could see that SHEILD was outside, readying themselves to go in. “I’m not done yet.”

“Want me to hold them off?” Tommy suggested.

“No,” She told him firmly, “We’re just going to have to wait till the very last second and then book it out of here.” She then ran back to the computer and forced her fingers to type even faster than before. She just needed a place, one place, and then they were good to go. Unfortunately, it seemed that Mr. Rathman had a lot of clients and that meant a lot of files to go through.

By the time she had gotten down to the R’s, SHIELD was already halfway up the building. She scrolled through all the names until she saw the first S. When there was no mention of Rania’s name, she started to panic. “Where are you?” She muttered to herself and went back to the top again.

She was halfway through the C’s when she saw something that caught her eye. It wasn’t a name on the list but a title. “The Clairvoyant,” She mumbled and clicked on the name. It brought up a list of financials and then a list of different locations.

“Skye!” Tommy called again this time more urgent.

“I’m almost done,” She called back not taking her eyes off the screen. She stumbled a bit as she took out her phone and held it up to the computer screen. She quickly took a picture of all the locations as she heard the sound of a door bursting open and large heavy footsteps from outside.

“I’m done!” She called out.

Tommy didn’t even hesitate. As soon as the words left her mouth, he ran over to her, shadows collecting around him, and dove for her. He leaped over the desk and wrapped his arms around her, pushing her back, as the door busted open revealing Mike Peterson leading a group of SHIELD agents.

Skye hardly got the chance to understand what was happening to her. She and Tommy were falling to the ground but her back never seemed to hit the ground. Instead, she was greeted with the sense of falling, a never-ending fall, with emptiness all around her. It was dark, so dark, and there was a menacing chill that was creeping up her spine. Her arms that were wrapped around Tommy suddenly became numb and limp. She felt so tired and Skye closed her eyes letting her arms fall and letting go of Tommy.

She could hear him cry out for her but it was muffled. It was like she was underwater and instead of water surrounding her it was darkness. She had never felt this way before, never felt so tired and hopeless. Never felt so cold and incomplete; she had never felt this empty inside.

When her eyes opened again she had stopped falling. There was darkness all around her except for the shining lights of what looked like a Diner in front of her. There were no cars parked in front of the diner and the lights itself seemed to be flickering. The neon green sign reading Manny’s Diner, and Skye could see that there was movement inside.

She walked forward slowly, unsure of what was on the inside. She tried to feel out the vibrations but cocked her head to the side when she felt nothing. There were no heartbeats yet Skye could clearly see that there was activity going on inside the diner. Coming up to the door, Skye placed her hand on the door handle and pulled it open.

The atmosphere changed once she entered the place. It was no longer cold and dark but rather warm and inviting. There were people milling about talking, drinking, eating. It was like they didn’t realize that they were nowhere. That there was nothing but this diner; it was like they didn’t care at all.

A kind woman came up to her, she was wearing a typical sixties pink diner dress, a smiled at her. “Just take a seat anywhere you like, hun,” She said while chewing a piece of gum.

Skye furrowed her brow and looked around for a place to sit. All the booths seemed to be empty except for one that was in the back. She stiffened. She knew the back of that head. She had seen it for years, killed for that head, she almost died for that head. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Skye walked towards the booth and sat down across the other occupant.

“Hey Johnson,” Lucifer smiled at her and took a sip from his mug, “It’s been a while.”

Tommy crashed to the ground and proceeded to cough until tears came out of his eyes. He had no idea where he was, where he had landed. All he knew was that one moment he was holding onto Skye and the next she was falling from his grasp. He tried grasping for her but by the time he yelled out her name she had already disappeared into the darkness surrounding them.

He had never seen anything happen like that before. He had never seen the darkness consume someone like that before. It wrapped around her in tendrils and pulled her back, enveloping her in a shroud of pure and utter darkness. Then, as he fought back, the darkness started attacking him. It was like he was suddenly an enemy for trying to take his friend back. He didn’t understand, that had never happened before.

Tommy leaned against the wall for support and tried to pull himself up. He was weak, his body was weak, everything about him hurt. It had never felt this bad before and he didn’t understand why he hated not understanding why.

Opening his eyes he tried to take in the scenery around him. He was on top of a building, that much was obvious, and as he looked at the skyline it seemed that he was in New York. Why of all places would he have transported himself to New York? He had spent little time there and the time that he had spent there was not exactly times he wanted to revisit. Pulling himself to his feet, he let his body rest against the brick wall that housed a door. He reached for the doorknob and was about to open it when a voice stopped him.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” A voice told him. It was light and feminine, but he could tell that there was something behind it that sounded knowing. He turned around to see a woman standing there. Her skin was pale, her head free of any hair, and she wore robes that were a bright fluorescent yellow. The woman smiled at him, her blue eyes lighting up.

“Why?” Tommy asked her, “Am I going to die or something.”

The woman chuckled, “No,” She replied calmly, “I just had the floors waxed, it’s quite slippery in there.”

Tommy forced his tired body off the wall and walked closer to the woman. He narrowed his eyes at her, trying to figure her out. She had been here the whole time, had seen him land, and she wasn’t fazed about it. The way she was standing, it was almost like she was expecting him to be here.

“Where am I?” He asked.

The woman caulked her head to the side, “You’re in New York,” She answered simply, “Though I’m getting the feeling that’s not the answer you wanted.” The woman walked closer to him, so close that if she reached out with her arm, she could touch him. “Your friend is lost Thomas Ward, I’m afraid the only person that can get her back is herself.”

Tommy’s entire body stiffened and he glared at her, “How do you know about Skye?” He asked menacing, his hands curling into a fist by his sides.

“I’ve known about her and you for a while now,” She placed her hands behind her back, “Your stories and truly remarkable.”

“Stories,” Tommy said incredulously. He watched as the woman walked away from his and started making her way over to a tree. She picked up a pair of clippers and began trimming it, acting as if she hadn’t just said something ominous. Tommy was baffled by this action and walked over to her, “Hey,” He snapped at her, “You can’t just say something like that and walk away.”

He reached out to try and touch her shoulder but the woman was quicker than that. She turned around with a speed that Tommy had never seen before. She thrust a hand out and hit him in the chest, knocking his body back, but not him. He felt something release and detach from his body, like a rubber band being pulled out before it’s snapped back. He looked down to see that his body was still falling but yet somehow, he was still standing.

“Who are you,” He demanded.

The woman quirked an eyebrow, “I am the Ancient One, Master of the Mystical Arts,” She said and began walking again, this time he was being pulled with her, “I protect the world from mystical threats. Threats, it seems, that are increasingly more and more as you and your friend meddle in affairs that are not yours.”

Tommy swallowed, “Skye,” He croaked, “You said she was lost, how do I get her back.”

“You can’t,” The Ancient One said sternly, “Only she, herself, can find her way out.”

He shook his head, “That can’t be,” He insisted, “I’ve been controlling this for years, there has to be a way that I can save her.”

The Ancient One chuckled, “Controlling?” She said as if it were a question, she then shook her head like a teacher would scold a toddler, “My boy you haven’t been controlling anything, merely harnessing its power. The only reason it does not work now is that you do not want it to work.”

“What do you mean?” He asked his interest peaked this time. “I’ve had these powers for years; I would think I know about them a little more than you do.”

The Ancient One huffed and swirled her hands around. Orange lights began showing up around her hands. Then created a picture all around them as if they were holograms. The images were the place in which he always traveled through different people that he had encountered. “Why are you showing me this.” He asked.

“Haven’t you ever wondered where your powers come from?” She asked, “How they came to be?”

“I know how they came to be,” He snarked, “I was shot in the chest in San Juan, a diviner went off, and then I became Inhuman.”

The Ancient One smiled and placed a hand upon his cheek, “I’m afraid you’ve been told wrong,” She said and with a swirl of her hand, the images changed again, “There is a reason, Thomas Ward, that you have the powers that you do. It was no accident what happened to you that day, underground.”

Tommy narrowed his eyes, “What are you talking about?”

“The diviner is not what brought you back from the dead Thomas Ward, though it did help, it was your friend who did. In her pain and sorrow, with the fear of living without you, Daisy was able to bring you back. But not without its consequence,” She frowned at him, “When she brought you back, something came with you.”

“I don’t understand,” He said quietly.

The Ancient One sighed, “The reason that you lived, that reason you’re here standing now alive, is because when your friend brought you back, she created an opening.”

“An opening?”

“A small one, a tiny crack in the Universe, and from that portal something escaped and made a home inside you.” She then smiled again, a real smile, and Tommy felt even more confused, “A part of the Darkforce lives inside you.”

He couldn’t help it; from everything that he was feeling he snort. That name sounded so ridiculous, “Well,” He said sarcastically, “That name doesn’t sound totally ominous or evil at all.”

“Very few have been able to bear witness to the Darkforce Dimension. Those who have did not live very long after to tell the tale. I say you should consider yourself a very lucky man Thomas Ward.”

Tommy shook his head, “Luck is not a word that I would use to describe this,”

The Ancient One looked saddened, “You’ve been told your whole life that darkness creates darkness and that fear will only breed fear. What if I were to tell you that that is wrong. That in darkness light can be created and that sometimes fear can create hope.”

“I would say that you have a very optimistic outlook on life,”

“On the contrary, I’m a bit of a pessimist,” She retorted and tilted her head to the side, “What you have is a gift Thomas, not a curse,”

“I know that,” He yelled at her. He had heard that saying so many times when he was in Afterlife. That what he could do what not a curse, that it was a gift to be cherished.

“Then start acting like it,” The Ancient One scolded him loudly, “You say that your life has only been filled with misery and death, but you are wrong. You found love and loyalty and friendship in the face of uncertainty. You have done bad deeds but those deeds do not define you, your enemies and allies they do not define you, only you can define you,” She stopped and Tommy meet her gaze, “I know you are afraid of your future and that is why you spend so much of your time in the past.  But Thomas, it is time to move on.”

He was silent for a minute. Even though he was not in his body he felt his heart flutter at her words. Never had someone actually spoken them out loud before, not even himself. They were only thoughts and if he spoke them, he was afraid they would come true. He was too afraid that he would let everyone down and that he would fail.

“What if I fail?” He asked her, his voice thick with emotion.

The Ancient One merely shrugged and smiled at him, “What if,” She replied back to him, “That is the glory of the unknown, I look forward to finding out.” She then looked over to where his body was. Still falling, inches away from hitting the ground, and he wondered for a second that if he fell, would he still feel it even if he was outside his body. The Ancient One twirled her hands and like a rubber band smacking back, his conscious was snapped back into his body.

It was disorienting, having your mind placed back into your body, would not recommend. Every was fuzzy and his head was pounding. It was one of the worst headaches of his entire life. Everything was spinning around him and he could barely lift an arm into the air. The Ancient One could have at least warned him about vertigo before forcing him back into his body. He groaned as his body fell to the ground and he had to blink a few times before looking up and seeing the Ancient One smirking down at him.

“I believe you have somewhere to be,” She said cheekily looking down on him.

“Skye,” He started as he got up again, his friend was in trouble and he wanted to help her.

“Will be fine if she is every bit the person, I believe her to be,” The Ancient One finished for him, “Have faith in your friend Thomas Ward, she will find her way out.”

He had faith in his friend, he had faith in her friends, and he had faith in his brother. It was about time that he held faith in himself. Clutching his hands into a fist he narrowed his eyes and felt something well up inside of him. It was time that he stopped losing and it was time that he started winning. He was going to find Coulson and he was going to bring him back.

“What do mean they disappeared?” May asked as she stood in her normal pose. Legs spread apart, back straight as a pin, and arms crossed over her chest.

Ward rolled his eyes, annoyed that he had to explain the situation again. He had just come back from the briefing with Hand. Fitz had not been able to hear a lot of it but what he was aware of was the yelling that came from Agent Hand. Even from down in the lab, where he was, he could still clearly hear her yelling at the agents and cursing them out. If it was on any other given day he may have laughed, but today his friends were in trouble and he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Ward sighed, “When the tact team opened up the door, they said that Tommy and Skye just disappeared into the shadows.”

May squinted her eyes, “Are they sure that’s what they saw?” She questioned him, even after all this time May was still skeptical about gifted individuals.

“Yeah, it’s what they saw, they had cameras on the side of their helmets. They recorded the whole thing from start to finish.”

May moved her arms and rubbed the side of her temple with both of her hands. She began pacing back and forth looking like she was formulating a plan. “Do you have an idea where your brother, or even Skye, could have went?”

Ward frowned and shrugged his shoulders, “They could be anywhere,” He said defeated, “There’s no telling where they went.”

As if on cue, there was the sound coming from the corner. The temperature in the room had dropped and all the shadows collected into one corner. They watched with wide eyes as Tommy came running out of the darkness, a hardened look in his eyes. There was a tired look about him, Fitz noted, that made it seem like he had not sleep in days. That even though he hadn’t even been gone a full twenty-four hours, he looked to have been up for three days.

“Tommy?” Grant said taking a step closer to him, “What the hell are you doing here? It’s not safe for you to be here right now.” He then looked around and noticed that he was alone, “And where’s Skye?”

There was a pained look in his eyes and Tommy clenched his jaw, “I’m here to find Coulson, I’m done with this little spitting match with SHEILD,” He then paused and looked directly towards Grant, “As for Skye, well, I don’t know. We got separated in…” He trailed off and shook his head, “Where she is, I can’t reach her, she’ll have to find her own way out.”

“What does that mean,” It was Jemma who had asked it this time. She had practically silent since she had heard the news of Skye and Tommy. It was the first time that Jemma seemed genuinely concerned for Skye since finding out about her powers. They had not talked about it a lot but Fitz knew that Jemma had felt hurt by Skye’s lying.

It was hard to truly warp your feelings around, he thought. When he had first found out, he had felt a whole spectrum of feelings at once. Anger, betrayal, fear, aww, wonderment, bafflement, and a slew of other feelings that he could hardly describe with words. Skye was his friend and yet there she was lying to them about a huge part of herself. He could understand why she didn’t tell them, after all, they were natural enemies of each other. However, he just thought that they were good enough friends that she would have told them the truth.

It makes sense now, looking back, her having powers. The earthquake that had happened when they retrieved the 0-8-4. The way she was able to find her way around places without even knowing the layout beforehand. When Fitz had witnessed her using her powers, it had all made sense to him, the last puzzle piece coming into place. It had opened up a whole new world to him, a world that was scary but filled with possibilities waiting to be explored.

Tommy’s voice is what brought him back to Earth, “I can’t explain it now,” He insinuated. He then reached out his hand and looked at them with pleading eyes, “Come with me and together we can find Coulson.”

“But Hand,” Fitz started but Tommy had cut him off.

“We’re never going to find Coulson if we keep squabbling like children,” He snapped, “I’m done playing these games. Either we work together or not at all?”

There was a lapse of silence as the Team looked around at each other. They all gave each other questioning glances wondering who was going to be the first. Fitz thought that Ward would have been the first one to take Tommy’s hand. But as he looked at the older gentleman, he saw that there was hesitation behind his eyes. There was something holding each of them back and none of them would move forward without one of the others going first.

Screw it, he thought and Fitz went forward and placed himself beside Tommy. The others looked at him for an explanation, “He’s right, SHIELD doesn’t know anything about these guys but we do. We are the only people who can find Coulson.”

Jemma then stepped forward and looked him in the eyes, “I’m in,” She said and walked over to be beside him.

A moment later May stepped forward, “This has already gone on long enough, it’s time we get my friend back,” She said sternly and made her way to the other side of Tommy.

All that was left was Ward. He looked conflicted and Fitz could tell that he was struggling with something on the inside. Like he wanted to go with his brother but there was something holding him back, there was something that was weighing him down.

“Grant?” Tommy asked in a small hopeful voice.

Ward took a deep breath, “They’ll come after us,” He told them, “They could take our badges for this.”

“They could,” May confirmed and his eyes snapped to hers. “But we’re a team, Ward, and no man get’s left behind, no matter what.”

Something sparked in Ward’s eyes, a flash a fear and surprise. Fitz narrowed his eyes and wondered what the older agent was thinking about. However, he didn’t get much time to think before Ward reached out his hand and grasped his brothers’. “Let’s save Coulson,” He said to Tommy but Fitz knew he was speaking to everyone, “Let’s do the right thing,” Tommy smirked and Ward returned it. They had the same smirk, Fitz noticed, they shared a few similarities but that smirk was the exact same.

Fitz then felt a coldness crawling up his back. The room around them becoming darker with each passing second. Something was wrapped around him and it took everything in him not scream and call out. He had only felt this feeling once before, but too many things had been happening for him to realize what was actually happening to him. It was an odd feeling, not unpleasant, but not a good feeling either. It felt like the climb up on a roller-coaster, and when the darkness complete enveloped him and he could no longer see was the drop. His stomach rolled and he felt like he was free falling through the air, he was weightless, surrounded by darkness and silence.

When the light returned to his eyes, he could see that they were no longer on the Bus. Rather it looked like they were in a living room. Turning around slightly, Fitz could tell that this was an apartment by how small and compacted every room was. A rather messy room, by the looks of it, with papers flown everywhere. Files that seemed to be stacked on each other creating pillars where they were placed. Empty containers of take-out laid on the floor and Fitz wrinkled his nose at that, this place was in need of some serious cleaning.

There was a loud bark and Fitz turned around to see a very plump dog running towards Tommy. He watched as Tommy smiled and kneeled down, running his hands all along with the small dog, who was currently licking his face. “Oh, my baby!” Tommy squealed and the corgi flopped over while Tommy began rubbing its belly, “I’ve missed you too, sweetie.”

“Tommy,” Ward said while giving his brother an odd look, “What are you doing?”

Tommy picked up the dog and cradled it as if it where a newborn baby, “This is my baby girl, Bugby, I’ve missed you so much, my sweet little girl.” The dog began licking his face and Tommy did not make a move to stop it.

“Where is this place?” May asked as she looked around inspecting the apartment.

Tommy shrugged his shoulders as he also did a three-sixty of the place, “This the apartment of my old F.B.I partners place. I know for a fact that he has some information that could help us but it looks like he isn’t here right now.”

“Wait, you mean Uriah Tessler?” Ward asked looking confused, “The one that gave the interview.”

Tommy rolled his eyes, “That stupid interview,” he muttered, “I almost called him up for that but decided against it. But, yes, that same Uriah Tessler.”

“Are you sure he’s willing to help us,” May asked as she inspected the collection of files on the table.

Tommy smirked, “He’ll help,” he reassured them all.

Fitz got the feeling that Tommy knew something that they didn’t.

After the initial shock of seeing her old dead mentor/torturer wore off. Skye had finally come to her senses and reached for the knife on the table. It was a butter knife, probably wouldn’t do much damage, but she would try her hardest to make sure that it did. However, before the tip of the knife could even reach his eye, Lucifer’s hand shot out with lightning speed and caught her hand. Stopping her from any further attack, she was stuck there, looking into his cold grey eyes.

His expression had not changed. He had not even flinched when she had lunged for him, his smirk was still plastered on his face. His eyebrow merely twitched upwards as if questioning as if she had just really tried to kill him or not. Skye pushed harder, but her arm would not budge, “How are you alive?” She grunted out angrily.

“If you want to get technical, I’m not,” He replied casually, as if a knife was not to his face, “Though I’m not quite alive either.”

Skye let the knife drop to the table, the clattering of steel hitting would creating a large echo, and she slumped back down into the booth’s chair. “What does that mean?” She asked while crossing her arms over her chest.

“It means what it means, Kid,” He said while moving his had in a rolling motion, “Can we move on from the technicalities and into the more important business.”

“Such as,”

“You,” He responded and made a point to gesture to her with his index finger. 

Skye rolled her eyes and made a movement to get up. Suddenly, the entire diner went still and quiet. All of the patrons that occupied the space had stooped moving and talking. Instead, their full attention was now on her. She looked around to see that all eyes were on her, glaring and menacing, looking at her as if she kicked a puppy. The looked ready to pounce if given the command. Skye turned towards Lucifer, “What is this?” She asked with fear creeping into her voice.

“I told you, Kid, we have some stuff to talk about, now sit down,”

She did as she was told, sitting down immediately. A part of her was still commanded by the sound of his voice. Another part of her hated the part of her, the part that still listened to him even after everything he had done to her. Skye noticed that as soon as she sat down all of the patrons in the diner returned to normal. Their stares looking away from her as they returned to the activities they had been doing beforehand.

Lucifer began laughing, “What’s so funny?” She snapped at him.

“You thinking you can just walk out of this place,” He explained to her then leaned forward, “If it were that simple, don’t you think I would have tried it already?”

“Where are we? The last thing I remember is traveling with Tommy,” She trailed off, thinking about how she fell.

“You’re stuck, Kid, that’s where you are. Stuck in a prison with only one way in and one way out,”

“So how did you end up in this prison then? I thought I had killed you all those years ago,” She asked mockingly. She can still remember the gun to his head, the building crashing around them, she was sure that he had died, that she had killed him. Yet, here he was, in front of her looking the same as he did on that day.

Lucifer only smiled at her, “You thought you did, and you were nearly there, but that boy of yours did something. Trapped me in here for,” He scoffed, “Lord knows how long.”

“Then how am I here,” She demanded. Tommy and she had been merely shadow traveling. He hadn’t been trying to trap her. She fell on her on accord, her hands slipping from his, falling down into the deep black abyss.

“You’re here because you’re lost, at war with yourself, etc, etc…” He rolled his eyes, “The truth is, Kid, you don’t know who you are or who you want to be.” He then sucked in a breath, “And unfortunately, that’s the only way to get out of here.”

Skye narrowed her eyes at him, looked over him carefully. Something was off about him, he would have never been this understanding towards her. He would have never been this helpful towards her, not even in his death. This man was too nice, too understanding, too sympathetic towards her, and even though he wore the face of Lucifer, it was not him. He was not the man that she had remembered at all, “You’re not Lucifer are you?” She asked him softly, looking at him up and down.

He shrugged, “I am,” He said but there was a mischievous glint behind his eyes, “But I’m also not. That man you knew long ago is dead.”

“Yet here you are,”

“Yet here I am,” He mimicked her words. He then reclined in his seat, letting his shoulders slouch and arms crossing lazily over his chest. “You believe in soul mates, Kid?”

The question had taken her back, not having expected it at all, especially coming from the man in front of her. Skye took a moment and thought about it, “I believe in the concept of it, yes, but actual soul mates? No.”

“You should,” Lucifer said while smirking, “considering you have one.”

“What!” She exclaimed in disbelief, her heart practically stopping at the statement.

Lucifer laughed at her face, “You really think that you and Thomas Ward met by pure accident? That the two of you just happen to meet and just,” He snapped his fingers together, “Click?”

Skye shook her head, “Look, I love Tommy and he loves me, just not in that way,”

Lucifer scoffed, “Everyone has this idea that this notion, that soul mates are romantic,” He slammed his hands against the table causing her to jump a little, “Newsflash, they aren’t, they are the Universe’s way of saying that you and this person were meant to be together. Whether that be romantic or platonic is up to the people.”

“But-,” She started but Lucifer cut her off again.

“Haven’t you ever wondered why your relationship with Tommy is so close? How you two seem to always be able to find each other, even if you’re a world away? How you’re so connected? How you managed to bring him back to life?”

Skye held a finger up, “I didn’t bring him back to life, I just made it so that his heart kept beating until the transformation was complete,” She argued and Lucifer merely raised an eyebrow at her.

“You and I both know that isn’t what happened. You brought him back because the thought of living in a world without him was too much to bear.”

Skye was silent, unable to deny anything that he had just said because it was true. She had been heartbroken when she saw Tommy shot. Inconsolable as she saw him lying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood. Sobbing as she cradled his paled, nearly grey, body wishing that he would just hold on, hold on long enough for help to come. Except, help had never come for them and it was just him and her, in an underground temple never to be discovered by anyone.

“You would tare the Universe apart if it meant saving him,” Lucifer told her finally, “And he would do the same for you.”

Seeing his face in old photos was an odd feeling to describe. When he looked at them, it looked he could barely recognize himself. He looked the same but at the same time, he looked so different. His hair and clothing style was all the same but there was just something about him that was so…off. Now, Tommy will be the first to admit that he was not in the best mental state at that time in his life, but still, it was weird actually seeing it. It was weird seeing the person he was and then looking in the mirror to see the person he was now.

He liked to think that he had gone through some major changes. That he had changed for the better after everything was said and done. But, the things he had done were never going away, he would never be able to erase them from his past. A part of him didn’t want to erase them from his past, a part of him wanted to frame it so that he can be reminded of it.

“You looked good,” His brothers’ voice came from beside him and Tommy held back a flinch.

Tommy looked to see where Grant was pointing to see the picture he had been staring at. “I wasn’t,” Tommy replied and elaborated more when Grant gave him a confused look. “Good, I wasn’t doing well back then.” He sucked in a breath, “Man, I was so fucked up, mental and physically,”

“Well, it doesn’t show,” Grant pointed out.

Tommy frowned, “Sometimes I wish it had,” He confessed, “If I had known back then what would have happened, maybe I could have made some better decisions.” He then shook his head and looked towards his brother, “But I guess that’s over now so why even worry about it?”

Grant looked away for a split second then back to him. He looked like he wanted to say something to him, ask him something, but was debating with himself about it. “Tommy,” Grant said cautiously, “I need to tell you something.”

Tommy furrowed his brow, “By the tone of your voice I’m assuming this is something important,” Grant nodded his head and Tommy sighed, “Well, then, tell me.”

“It’s about SHIELD,” He whispered and glanced over his shoulder to make sure the others were still occupied, “It’s not what you think it is.”

“What are you talking about?” He asked.

Grant pulled him in closer, “You have to understand, when I first joined, I had nothing. I felt like I was nothing. SHEILD gave me a job, a purpose, and I was good at what I did. But…” he trailed off.

“But it wasn’t always liked that?” Tommy guesses for him.

Grant looked guilty, “No, hell it didn’t even start out that way, the only reason I joined SHIELD is because of a man named John Garrett,” Grant explained, “He trained me, and for five years he was practically the only human contact I had and when he told me to join, I did.”

“Where is this going Grant,”

Grant didn’t seem to hear his question as he just continued with his story, “I owed my life to him, to John, because without him I would still be rotting in a cell. But, over the past couple of months, I’m starting to see that maybe I don’t owe him, that may be what we’re doing is wrong.”

“And what exactly are you doing?”

Grant looked sad and disappointed in himself, “Helping Hydra,” He finally said and Tommy widened his eyes, “I don’t actually believe in anything Hydra says, it’s just John needed their help and I need to help John.”

Tommy shook his head, taking a step back from his brother, “Why are you telling me this,” He whispered angrily, “Why now of all times?”

“I thought you would understand,” He said while shaking his head, “I thought maybe you and Skye could help me. Because once I’m done saving John, I’m leaving, I’m leaving and never coming back.”

Tommy thought about it for a moment. Could he do it? Could he help out the people that had always been enemies to him for the sake of his brother? Could he help out an organization that had hunted Skye down for many years? Could he, could he?

“I have to think about it, Grant,” He said finally, his emotions creeping into his voice, “So much is happening and I don’t need another problem added to my plate.”

His brother nodded his head in understanding, but Tommy could tell that there were lingering nerves there. That his brother thought to tell him was not the right thing to do, that maybe he thought he was going to snitch on him. Just as his brother began walking off, they all heard the sound of keys turning and locks opening. Their gazes all shot to the front door where Tommy says Uriah walking in a frown on his face.

When Uriah first saw that Tommy was alive, the first thing he said was, “Why couldn’t you have just actually been dead?” and, to be fair, it was a bit of a bad decision on Tommy’s end not to tell Uriah that he was alive. Really the only extent that Uriah knew was that he wasn’t the best of people and that his best friend killed people for money. So, yeah, come to think of it he was really lucky that Uriah didn’t rat him out.

After he had said that, cursed him out a couple of times, Tommy was finally able to tell Uriah what was happening. He had told him everything, excluding the parts about Skye because those two never did get along, and Tommy watched him carefully as he took everything in. His expression wasn’t readable, unlike what it used to be a couple of years ago. He had gotten better at hiding his emotions and it wasn’t helping the building anxiety that Tommy was feeling.

“So,” He said after he finished telling him everything, “Will you help us?”

Uriah glanced around at the people around him. Then his gaze looked towards the dog he was currently cradling, and finally, it was to him. “I’ll help you,” He said and Tommy breathed a sigh of relief, “If you tell me why you killed the director.”

Tommy sucked in a breath, that was always going to be the wedge in their friendship. It wasn’t the alcoholism, it wasn’t his powers or even his best friend who killed people for money. No, it was always going to be him killing the director of the F.B.I all those years ago. “He was a bad guy, Uriah,”

Uriah rolled his eyes, “And so are you,” He scoffed, “We’re all bad people but I want to know what it was he did that made him so bad.”

Tommy bit the inside of his cheek and thought about what to say for a moment. He thought about lying to him. Because if he told Uriah the truth then there was a big possibility that he would help them out. Truth be told, Tommy wasn’t proud of what he did that day, he would do it again and again if he had too. And maybe that was bad, maybe it was bad the things he was willing to do for the people that he cared about.

He had shot the director because he was going to hurt Skye. It was simple as that and at the same time, it wasn’t. Because he had found out that he wasn’t who he said he was, he found out that he had a whole other name. He had found out that he was working with Mr. Jones while he was working with the F.B.I at the same time. All of those things didn’t matter to him, the only reason that did was that he was planning on hurting Skye. And in his book, that was the worst offense possible.

“Truth be told, he wasn’t that bad of a guy,” Tommy said finally, “In fact, he was a pretty decent man.”

“Then why kill him?”

Tommy stared harshly at his old friend, and when he saw the brown eyes he knew what he was going to do. “Because if I didn’t, he would have killed someone I cared about, he would have exposed everything I had worked so hard to build,” Tommy paused, “I shot him because I was the bad guy.”

There was silence after that, not even his dog was making any noise. Uriah’s jaw clenched together and he could tell that everyone else in the room was waiting in suspense to see what would happen. They needed this information because without it they would not be able to find Coulson easily. They didn’t have much time left and Tommy didn’t want to add Coulson to the list of names of the people that died because of him.

“Was it because of the girl,” He asked, “Was it because of that girl you were always so desperate to find.”

Tommy nodded his head, “Yeah, it was,”

Suddenly, Uriah got up from where he was sitting and walked over to one of his desks. He pulled it open and pulled out the biggest files that Tommy had ever seen. The folder itself was busting at the seams, half torn and only being held together by a rubber band. Uriah searched through it and came to a certain piece of paper. He pulled it out and marched back over to where he was sitting, handing him the paper he had pulled out.

“What is this?” Tommy asked as he gingerly took the paper from Uriah.

“A list of places that Mr. Rathman is known to use,” He said gruffly, “Take before I change my mind.”

“Why help me, after everything I just said?”

Uriah looked at him up and down, “You were my friend once Ward, maybe I wasn’t to you but you were to me, I know what you’re capable of,” He then shrugged, “And there are worse bad guys out there other than you.”

Tommy stared down at the file in his hands and held it gratefully, “Thank you,” He said and stood help, “Thank you.”

Uriah’s eye twitched, “Don’t thank me, just go get your guy and leave me the hell alone,” Tommy smirked and held out his arms for the team to grab onto him. As he was letting the shadows take over him Tommy could hear Uriah calling out to him, “And leave the dog alone!”

Skye had stormed out of the diner after what Lucifer had said to her. She knew that what he was saying was right, but it just hurts to hear it coming from him of all people. It hurt because he was the one person she never thought would tell the truth to her. She had always thought he would lie to her, but hearing that, hearing everything he said. She wonders now if anything he said to her while alive was true?

“What are you doing, Kid?” She heard Lucifer ask from behind her.

Skye turned to glare at him, “Trying to get away from you, from this place,” She gestured largely to the vast emptiness around them. “I don’t even know how I supposed to get out of this place.”

Lucifer sighed, “I told you, kid, you gotta find yourself,”

“Yeah, but what does that mean!” She snapped at him, “I know who I am!”

Lucifer raised an eyebrow, “Do you, then?” He said impressed and crossed his arms over his chest, “Well then, tell me.”

Skye opened her mouth to reply but she found that no words would come out. She struggled to find the right words that could describe who she was. As she struggled to find the words, Skye could feel that tears were starting to collect in the corner of her eyes. “I don’t know who I am,” She said in realization, “I don’t know who I want to be.”

Lucifer looked sadly satisfied with her answer. He smiled and walked forward towards something that she had not seen before. It was a house, a simple house, with a red door and Lucifer was walking towards it. Skye didn’t know why but she felt compelled to follow him as he opened the door to the house.

The inside of the house was far too neat to be any normal house. Nothing looked touched or lived in, not even a photo on the wall. The only thing that was out of place was the vase of flowers on the dining room table. A vase that was full of daisies, all dead except for one.

“What is this place,” She asked in horror as she stared at the flowers.

“It’s your doorway out, Kid,” Lucifer said to her. His hand gently touching her shoulder, “It’s the only way you can get out of here.”

“What do I need to do?” She asked turning towards him, practically wrapping herself in his embrace.

Lucifer took both his hands and cupped her cheeks, forcing her to look at him. He brought his face incredible close to hers, so close she could feel his breath on her face, and stared. “Stop denying who you are, Daisy,” he said her real name and she gasped, “Stop pretending, stop acting like a child whose mother told her no, and start acting like a leader.” He growled, “You were born to lead and now it’s time that you accept that. No more running and no more hiding, you have to learn to accept all of you, the good, the bad, and all of the ugly.”

Skye bit her lip, “I can’t,” She sobbed, “I can’t accept it.”

Lucifer brushed a piece of her hair back, “You don’t get that choice. There are people out there who need you. Your people need you, they need someone who will lead them to greatness, not war.”

“All I’ve ever brought is war and destruction,” She hissed at him, tears streaming down her face, “How will I be any different?”

“Because you know mercy,” He told her, “Because despite everything that happened, everything I put you through, you still show kindness. You still show people that there is hope and that not everything is lost.”

Skye closed her eyes and moved away from Lucifer. She took a deep breath, forced herself to stop crying, and opened her eyes again. She stared at the sole white daisy in the vase that was still alive. She started moving towards it slowly and reached out her hand touching it lightly.

She was going home.