A/N: Just a brief one-shot I did at 2 AM, concerning my favorite engineer and my penchant for dropping characters into awful situations. Enjoy.

He was shaking; he could feel it, a minor tremor in every nerve and bone in his body. Logically, he knew it was a physiological response to current circumstances, and try as he did, he couldn't stop it.

It's just shock, he told himself, and not even the fatal kind. It didn't make him feel any better.

He sat as still as he could, not daring to do much more than breathe. Distressed tears slipped down his cheeks, stinging the cuts on his face and lip, until they finally dropped to wet his shirt.

The distant sounds of impending visitors reached his ears, and desperately, he allowed himself to hope that it was finally, finally, someone coming to help. Banging, yelling—it didn't sound like HYDRA. It sounded like a troop of very pissed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

Please please pleasepleaseplease.It was more than a chant; it was a prayer he repeated with every cell in his body.

Finally, a feminine voice leaked through the door as the knob began to rattle.

"Please be in here, please be in here."

He squeezed his eyes shut in happiness. Oh thank God. He'd recognize that voice anywhere.

The door swung open with the combined force of frustration and a solid kick, and Skye burst in, wielding a large gun he imagined could do quite a bit of damage. Her expression of relieved triumph fell off her face seconds after her eyes landed on him.

"Oh shit," she blurted, her weapon falling down to bump her knee. Behind her, Mack echoed the sentiment, and then added his own.

There wasn't much else to say as they took in the sight before them: Leo Fitz, tied to a chair with tape over his mouth, tears on his face, and a time bomb strapped to his chest.

'Oh shit' summed it up quite perfectly.

Hello, dear followers, or whoever happens to read this.

Sorry for my absence (and I swear I haven't abandoned Burn the House Down), but I've been busy with college and working on my own novels. Hopefully, I'll be posting more often before life gets hectic again, and I swear, I'll try my best to keep it up after I return to school.

Drop a comment or a favorite if you like, check out my other works, and follow me for more.

~RowWithAChipNPin (formerly NagiKokuyo)