Had it really only been one day?
One day since Skye went head-to-fist with May's creepy evil twin when SHIELD extracted Raina from hiding. One day since Raina sat across the table on the Bus and described just what could happen in the Temple if the worthy ones brought the Diviner into it. Less than a day since a HYDRA plane docked on top of the airborne Bus and Grant fucking Wardcame walking in like he owned the place, coolly demanding Raina and Skye leave with him…and Skye had left May's side to walk out with him.
It was only this morning that their plane had landed in San Juan and Ward had escorted her into a room where her father was waiting. Just this morning that she had learned about her mother for the first time. Just today that she picked up the Obelisk and seen the terrifying confirmation. Just a few hours ago that she had raced down to the underground city after Raina and arrived just in time to be too late.
And sometime in the last few hours, an earthquake had pulled the room down around them both, leaving Skye trapped in darkness until Fitz, Simmons, and a team had unearthed her from the pile of rubble that was all that remained of the Temple.
Once she fumbled out the story of what had happened with the Obelisk and what she knew had happened to both Raina and Trip, once the initial shock and disbelief had worn off…Simmons had snapped into action. She had slapped a hazmat suit on Skye and ushered her quickly to the Bus where a makeshift quarantine was set up in the former lab area just for her.
"It would be simpler to put you in the Cage," Simmons said apologetically from behind her mask as she used duct tape to seal a plastic dropcloth to the ceiling around Skye, "but Mack's already in there…and until we know for sure that he's fully himself again, it'd be best to keep him separated from anyone else."
"Sure. Right. Of course." Skye makes herself say it as they seal the plastic to the floor around her. "What if I have to go to the bathroom?"
Simmons meets her eyes through the barrier. They both try to smile. And God, they need to laugh, but instead the following seconds feel like the suspended silence following the announcement of someone's death, where there is everything feel and nothing to say.
Distance yawns in Skye's stomach, and neither says anything else until Simmons and her team finish their job and prepare to head back to the underground city.
"I'll radio everyone else and tell them where they can find you," Simmons says as Skye strips off the hazmat suit, useless now that she's sealed off from everyone. "I'm sure everyone else wants to see that you're all right."
But Skye is in the plastic room for nearly an hour longer before anyone came by who isn't suited up in full hazmat gear. When she sees her though, Skye leaps to her feet.
"May!"
May's not the kind of person to run towards anything out of an emotion other than concern, but Skye notices the energy in her step, the tension in her arms, the visible sustained exhale. She's relieved.
As May comes closer, Skye presses her hand against the flexible plastic wall between her S.O. and herself.
"Jesus, May, what's going on out there? What happened since…yesterday? Whitehall said he ordered this plane shot from the sky. How did you get out of that? Tell me everything."
She tries not to look disappointed when May doesn't mirror the gesture and ignores all her questions, just drags over a crate and sits down on it as close to the plastic barrier as possible, laying her tablet across her knees and pressing a tiny mic against the plastic between them.
Skye sighs and sits back down, as close as she can get to May. Of course. Debrief while the memories are fresh.
When all else fails, fall back on protocol.
"I will tell you what happened, but you're up first, and I think you've got a lot more to share." May's tone is almost apologetic, but it's hidden beneath the all-business Agent persona right now.
May leans toward her, her eyes intent. "Tell me everything. Starting with when you went with Ward."
Skye breathes in once. Twice. Then leans towards the microphone, and starts her story.
The audio level lines dance on the screen of May's tablet as Skye details the last 24 hours. When she reaches the point where today started- with the worst reunion imaginable-May mercifully doesn't press into the details of feelings, but she does ask her to repeat any information that seems useful.
As Skye replays their conversation in her head, she realizes that she will be skipping over a lot.
"You're a monster,"she had said to Cal."A murderer. A trail of death wherever you go."
He had barely hesitated to respond. "Those are all true…but I didn't lose you. I didn't forget. I wasn't careless. You were stolen from me!"
"Apparently I was born in China," she says aloud to May, whose expression remains unchanged throughout the whole story. "And my mother was Chinese. My father-he said his name is Cal-he said they worked in a clinic. Apparently people liked him… he must have been a different person then. He said that people who called themselves SHIELD came and took my mother away because she had a gift that they thought was dangerous. Whitehall apparently butchered her because of it. And that's why my dad was planning to kill him once he used him to get to me."
She can't make herself watch May's reaction to that, so she stares into the nearest corner as she continues.
"When the HYDRA agents brought me face to face with Whitehall, Ward and my dad were there too. I heard Whitehall say that Ward deferred the order to shoot down the Bus, and Whitehall had to counter the order. For about thirty minutes, I had to not think about the fact that you all were possibly dead."
She skips over the part about picking up the Obelisk and seeing it turn gold in her hand, or how she used it to kill a HYDRA agent while her father stabbed another…how Whitehall had seemed so goddamn smug when he said, "I hope you're as special as your mother"…
"It wasn't much later before Ward and I were tied to chairs in a kitchen. He was screwing with TheOtherMay, asking about her face and Whitehall. She said she was loyal to him. So I'm not sure what that means for her, now that he's dead.
"Whitehall came back in as Cal was coming to, but somehow he paralyzed him while telling him that he wanted to keep him alive so that Cal could see what Whitehall did to me. Fortunately, it sounded like that was the moment the Cavalry arrived."
May flicks the plastic near Skye's ear, a seemingly automatic response. Skye jerks away and tries to shoot her a cheeky grin, but she can't seem to get her facial muscles to work.
"Ward distracted the guard while Cal got the paralyzer off and jumped him, but he didn't untie either of us before going out to find Whitehall. Ward got a knife off the soldier and cut us lose, but I got the gun when his back was turned and put four in him."
"You didn't kill him."
Skye glances up at her S.O.
May's gaze is dark, her lips pressed together. She doesn't have to open her mouth for Skye to hear the reprimand.
I taught you how to do it with one. Four is just for pain.
Skye rips her gaze away and continues, "I ran across Whitehall's body, then I found Coulson and Cal fighting-he nearly killed Coulson…he only stopped when I called him Dad. I had my gun on him and gave him one chance to walk away. He did-not sure where to...Coulson tried to stop me, but I ran off with the plan to stop the drill and make it right. Instead, I found a drill finished digging and an empty box-Raina had already gone down. So I went down to stop her.
"I ran into Mack, but he wouldn't budge-he wasn't himself…so I said I would come back as I tore off after Raina. I found her with the Obelisk in hand in the Temple. I told her we're taking it and leaving- but then the obelisk turned gold and floated from her hand onto the pedestal…and then the walls started closing up.
Skye feels her throat starting to do the same. Come on. Make it through this story once.
"Trip ran in at the last moment, just before the walls sealed. The metal of the Obelisk opened and these blue crystals grew out of it. Then there was an explosion, and we all started turning to stone. Like what the obelisk did to everyone else before. I think I screamed to Trip, and I saw him reach for his gun…"
Skye's hands knot into fists against the cold metal floor, and she presses them against her eyes, doing her best to blur the vision behind them.
"The next thing I remember was the stone falling away from my eyes-and seeing him turned to stone too. Then the earthquake started…the cave started crumbling around us…and he was crumbling too."
Skye keeps her hands dug into her eyes, falling back on her relaxing techniques until she feels her throat relax enough to speak again. When she looks up, May is staring down at her tablet. Slowly, the woman disconnects the wire from the microphone and pulls it off the barrier, staring down at her hands as she meticulously winds the wire around her fingers.
"We do have Whitehall's body, but we didn't find any trace of Ward, Agent 33, or your father in the San Juan theater. And so far, there's been no trace of Raina…or her body."
"What about Trip?" Skye hears her voice quaver and shuts her mouth again.
May's gaze is soft as she finally looks up at her. "Coulson will go meet his mother as soon as possible to tell her the news."
Skye swallows and nods, and suddenly the room around her feels very, very small.
"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" May's tone is so gentle that Skye feels too ashamed to look at her as a dozen more facts lodge in her throat.
I come from a line of people who had gifts.
My mother didn't age, and Whitehall butchered her for it.
I picked up the Obelisk and didn't die, then I killed a man with it.
My father said it was my destiny to go into that temple.
He said no one would understand me after I changed.
I said I ran into the Temple after Raina, but now I'm not sure if that's the whole truth.
I am still waiting for this buzzing inside me to stop.
She allows herself to only voice one.
"My parents named me Daisy."
Through the plastic, Skye sees an unnamable expression flit across May's face. The woman reaches up and puts her hand against the barrier between them, and Skye doesn't hesitate to put her hand against it and press back.
May's dark eyes hold her gaze as she says the worst thing, the best thing, the only words that are appropriate right now.
"You did great, Agent Skye."
And Skye can only offer the barest imitation of a smile, but they both know it's enough.