Also, I have no idea how to hack anything and I can barely figure out how to make my screen brighter. For the technical talk, I just traded in some smaller words for bigger, technical words that mean the same thing and tried to make sure the made sense.

I do not own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

In the practice of tolerance, ones enemy is the best teacher
- The Dalai Lama

I was being followed.

Sorry, didn't mean to start off my story on such an...ominous note, but I couldn't find another place to start it. I could've started when I woke up at two AM after a meager four hours of sleep, but I doubted you wanted to read about me laying in bed for five hours before it was time for me to get up and dressed for work.

Anyway, back to the story.

It was around seven thirty and I was about a block away from my crappy apartment when I stopped to tie my shoe and I saw that three men in suits (think Men In Black, not Wolf of Wall Street) had stopped as well.

Right now is where I should probably mention that I'm a paranoid person; I have seven different locks on my front door, I sleep with the lights on, I never closed my clear shower curtains or the door to my closet and the slightest creak will wake me up in the middle of the night- hence the two AM wake up time.

I kept walking and tried not to let it bother me that those men had stopped, but that was hard to do when I saw them right behind me despite the two turns I took and the three stops. I just continued hoping that they would pass and leave me alone, but I knew that wouldn't be happening during my last spontaneous stop when I saw the outline of a gun on one of the guys ankles.

I knew they were here for me, but I was prepared.

Picking up my pace just a bit, I managed to turn a corner causing them to lose sight of me for a few seconds. As soon as I knew I was out of sight, I ran as fast as I could and rushed into the alleyway. By the time I was crawling into the very disgusting dumpster, I knew that they had already turn the corner and were wondering where I was. Only a moment later I heard them shuffling into the alley.

They lingered for a couple of minutes- never once thinking to check in the dumpster- before leaving. Like I told you earlier; I'm paranoid, so I stayed in the dumpster for also an hour before climbing out when a homeless man opened up the lid. He nearly had a heart attack when he saw me, but I made it up by giving him all the money in my pocket and wallet (a grand total of seventy four bucks and five cents) and all the contents of my purse before heading back to my apartment. I wouldn't be needing any of that anymore.

Unfortunately, after losing me on my way to work the three agents positioned themselves in front of my building so I was forced to take the fire escape all the way up to my apartment on the sixth floor and climbing in through my window.

Immediately upon entering, I went to my dresser and changed out of my uniform. It had been covered in dumpster stains, but I didn't have time to shower. After pulling my boots back on, I went to my bed and pulled out the black duffel bag from underneath and unzipped it.

Inside were several different passports and IDs each with a different name, five grand in cash and a gun with a matching clip. I told you that I had been prepared.

I was just about to put my gun back into my bag when I heard the faintest creaking noise come from the direction of my closet. Only a fraction of a second later I had shoved my clip into the gun before pointing it at the closed door of my closet.

"Come out now or I'll shoot." I threatened. I listened, but heard no movement from inside. "Don't make the mistake of thinking that I'm joking." I clicked off the saftey. "You have until the count of three; One...two-"

I stopped counting as the door to the closet opened very slowly to reveal yet another man wearing a black suit and he had his hands up. He seemed a bit familiar, but I knew that I had never seen him before. The faces of everyone who had even tracked or 'checked up' on me had blended together so now all I saw was a black suit. My mind barely registered the fact that he was older with thinning light brown hair and brown eyes, but I knew I could always remember his face if I needed to.

"Why are you here?" I asked. He didn't seem concerned that there was a gun before pointed at him. He was just...calm.

"You should really put that gun down." He said and I quirked an eyebrow.

"And you shouldn't hide in women's closets." I shot back. "Now I'm gonna ask one more time; Why are you here?"

"I just want to talk." He insisted as I made the way to the other side of my bed that was right next to the bathroom door. I didn't have a phone, land or mobile, but I did have a pair of handcuffs in the bathroom (don't ask). How I was going to get them without taking my eyes off of him I'd never know.

"I don't want to talk." I informed him. "I just want to be left alone to live my life. Why can't you people understand that?"

"You know, this conversation would be much easier to have if you put down your weapon." I scoffed.

"That's not an option."

"And that's not a request." He looked pointedly away from me and at the bathroom door. I followed his gaze to see that the door was now open and there was another suit clad man inside and pointing his weapon at me. Of course he had backup.

Knowing I had no other choice, I raised my hands up to the sides with my gun pointed at the ceiling and the bathroom agent quickly took it before cuffing my hands behind my back.

So much for being prepared.

Let me tell you a little something about an organization called S.H.I.E.L.D.

They sucked.

Oh, you thought I was going to go on and on about how they wronged me and how I wanted to take their entire organization down? Well, the first part is true, they did wrong me, but I didn't care about the organization enough to want it take down. I just wanted them to leave me alone although I knew that would never happen.

After being handcuffed in my own apartment, the agents took me to the SUV that was on and parked in front of my building. As soon I was helped inside by the younger of the two agents, he put a bag over my head.

Neither of them talked the entire car ride and neither did I. I was too busy keeping track of the turns we took, the stops- how long they lasted- and how long we drove. That was how I remembered my way home from school as a kid every time I was moved to a new foster home and it had yet to fail me.

When we did stop, I had no idea where we were- mostly because of the bag- and all I could hear were very loud engines. I assumed that they belonged to a plane because I was walked up a ramp and then taken up a set of swirling stairs before they walked me in a straight line for a bit. Finally we stopped and I stood for a moment as a door was opened and the next thing I knew I was sitting in a chair in a room with a very weird honeycomb pattern on the walls and floors.

The young agent untied me as the older one sat down across the table from me.

"Why am I here?" I asked immediately, my eyes look from the older agent to the younger one and back. "I haven't done anything wrong."

"Considering you've fallen off of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar and every trace of Sabrina Evans disappeared from DMV records, hospital records and even your spin class, I beg to differ." He replied looking down at the open file in front of him. I could see the picture of me inside back when my hair was long, wavy and a beautiful mixture of different dark browns. A box of black hair dye and the right makeup techniques did wonders. "So tell me..." He closed the file and met my eye. "What happened Sabrina?"

"Do not call me that." I snapped. "Sabrina Evans never existed."

"Sorry," He apologized although I can see he was humoring me. "You go by Lydia now, don't you?" I just stared at him. "Lydia Carlisle."

"What do you want from me?" I asked again. "Sure- yeah, I did disappear despite the fact that I was supposed to stay in that crappy little matchbox I called an apartment, but I've followed the rule S.H.I.E.L.D. gave me; I haven't touched a computer or cell phone in years." I held up my wrist, showing off the silver, metal bracelet that decorated it. "You guys made sure of that. So what else could I possible give you? I've already given up my life and my freedom- I don't have anything else to give."

The agent stared at me for a few moments in silence, just watching me as I stared back at him before he grabbed my wrist and pulled it across the table to him.

"What are you doing?" I demanded as I tried to pull my hand back.

"Deactivate." Suddenly I heard a small clicking noise and the bracelet was pulled from my wrist, leaving it bare. Was that really all that needed to be said to get that freedom sucker off my wrist?

Despite the fact that he had just freed me, I was still wary. "Why did you do that?" I asked, pulling my arm back and he gave me a smile.

"Because," He began. "S.H.I.E.L.D. stopped you from using your skills in the past, but now...now we want you to use them to help us."

"So let me get this straight." I looked from the older agent- Coulson, his name was- to the younger who was called Ward. "I find this guy for you and I never have to worry about S.H.I.E.L.D. coming after me again?"

That had been the deal they offered me after taking off my bracelet. Apparently there was some guy out there with super strength and S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to find him before anyone else did. They had given me the first video that popped up online showing him jumping from a burning building with a chick in his arms and they wanted me to find him on that. I mean, I was eighty percent sure I could do it, but I wanted to make sure I didn't get screwed over...again.

"Right." Coulson confirmed. "As long as you don't go around hacking into banks or security alarms, we should be fine." I snapped my fingers.

"Darn." I shook my head. "There goes my evening plans." Neither agent was amused. I sighed. "I've gone almost ten years without touching a computer, phone- basically anything electronic. I'm sure I can refrain myself."

Coulson nodded at Ward who then put the laptop on the table in front of me- yes, I was still in their metal beehive prison because, apparently, I couldn't be trusted not to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D.- and I cracked my fingers before getting started.

"How long is going to take?" Ward asked as I continued tapping on the keyboard and I rolled my eyes. I had only been on the computer for ten minutes and he was already starting to get antsy.

"If you're bored, you can always go and get me some coffee." I informed him as I finished the search. I had officially found the person who posted the video and I also had proof that she knew Superhoodie, but I wasn't going to tell them that until I was good and ready. I went eight years without touching a computer, they could wait half an hour for results.

Realizing that Ward hadn't left the room, I stopped typing and looked up at him. "That wasn't a suggestion, Secret Agent Man." Ward glared at me and opened his mouth to say something, but closed it when he caught Coulson's eye.

Ten minutes later (Ward was really slow) I was loudly drinking some really bad coffee with my feet up on the table. Ward glared at my the entire time, but I never broke eye contact. Annoying him was fun.

"Are you finished yet?" He gritted out. "If you don't remember, you're supposed to be finding someone; You know, actually being useful."

"Oh, Superhoodie?" I asked. "Yeah, I found him and his friend about twelve minutes ago."

"What?" Ward was practically seething now. "Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"Would you have gone to get me coffee if I did?" I asked, already knowing the answer before taking another sip while Ward physically restrained himself from attacking me. "Your brewing skills suck BT-dubs."

Ward started forward, but Coulson put a hand on his chest, clearly telling him to chill the hell out. "Where is he?" Coulson asked. "And who is his friend?"

"I never said I knew where he was." I reminded them as I lowered my feet down to the ground and placed my coffee on the table. "I said that I found him. The first video of him went up about ten minutes before any of the others so I started with that. The video had the same cryptographic signature as a few anti-S.H.I.E.L.D. posts-"

"From who?" Ward asked, suddenly more interested in that instead of hating me.

"Some chick from a group called the Rising Tide." I told him before turning back to the computer. "Catchy, right? Anyway, it wasn't that hard to hack into her phone and turn on the tracking feature for her Google account. After that, I just got her location and sent it to both your phones, but I also took a look inside her Gallery and she's got a lot of long range pictures of some guy. I don't have an ID on him yet, but I running him through every database in America."

"Even S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Coulson asked as he peaked at the screen and I shook my head.

"I got done running him through the S.H.I.E.L.D. database thirty seconds ago and you've got nothing on him." I told him. "My guess is that he's a civilian."

"Keep up the good work." Coulson looked to Ward. "Let's go."

"Wait!" I called standing up just as Ward opened the door. "What about me?"

"Get me an ID on Superhoodie and then you can go." He promised before leaving. Ward followed behind, closing the door behind him. All the while I only had one thought on my mind;

Was it weird that I felt approval when Coulson used the name I gave the hooded hero?

Coulson and Ward came back about an hour later, but they weren't alone. With them was some poor, I'm guessing woman from the body, with a bag over her head. Correctly assuming that they would want to put her in my seat, despite the fact that there was one on the other side of the table, I stood up and went to leave, but Coulson closed the door before I could.

He didn't actually want me to stay for this poor chick's interrogation...did he?

With a reluctant sigh, I settled for leaning against the wall well to the door as Ward ripped the bag off of the chick's head and shoved her into my vacant seat. That when I noticed a slight crunching sound underneath my feet. Moving it a bit, I saw a piece of old yellow paper that had been folded up and quickly picked it up while Ward and Coulson were focused on the girl. She must've dropped it, but I wasn't about to give it back to her yet.

Slipping the paper into the pocket of my shorts, I returned my attention to the agents and the girl.

She was pretty; dark brown eyes, slightly tanned skin, brown hair and a body type similar to mine- although, I could tell my boobs were bigger. A bit of info to the guys out there; boobs and ass are to chicks as dicks are to dudes.

"You guys are making a big mistake." Was the first thing she said.

"You don't look that big." Did Ward just make a joke? Good for him, I knew he wasn't completely dead inside.

"Sorry for the lack of finesse." Coulson, ever the gentleman, apologized. "Agent Ward here has had a little history with your group; The Rising Tide."

Despite the fact that she probably knew that we already knew she was Rising Tide, the girl tried to deny it. "I-I don't know what..."

"Okay," Ward said, cutting her off. Not even twenty seconds into the interrogation and he was getting restless. He should work on his patience. "There are two ways we can do this."

"Oh," Now the girl had an amused smile on her face at she looked to Ward. I didn't blame her for taking that as a joke, I would've too. "Is one them the easy way?"

"No."

"Oh." Way to kill the mood Ward.

"What's your name?" Coulson asked gently and, although I hated admitting it, I was starting the realize that Coulson wasn't a bad guy. It would've been a lot easier to hate him if he was, at least, as jerk-y as Ward, but Coulson was like a puppy who crapped in your favorite shoes; you know you should be mad, but you just can't.

"Skye." That was a lie.

Ward, obviously, knew that too. "What's your real name?"

"That can wait." Coulson insisted. "It's another name we need; a certain hero."

"Superhoodie." I couldn't help but blurt out and everyone turned to look at me.

"Oh," Skye was in a joking mood again. "It speaks. I thought you had a silent but deadly thing going for you."

"I'm gonna choose not to take offence to the fact that you just named me after a fart." Yeah, that was my brilliant comeback. "Tell them where Superhoodie is and maybe they'll let you go." Skye rolled her eyes.

"What makes you think that I know who he is?" She questioned.

"Because you have a dozen different pictures of him on your phone." I reminded her as I pushed off the wall. She looked surprised that I knew that. "Each one was taken from a distance because they're candid; not 'oh, I'm going to take a random picture of my boyfriend' candid, more 'this guy has no idea I'm following him' candid."

"How did you know that?" She asked.

"Hacker to hacker?" She nodded. "The video you uploaded of Superhoodie went up ten minutes before any other video, so I searched for posts with the same cryptographic signature and I found a bunch of your anti-S.H.I.E.L.D. posts- great stuff by the way- most of which were uploaded from your phone which I managed to hack into remotely and turn on the tracking feature on your Google account. "

"How did you hack my phone without knowing what WiFi signal it was hooked up to?" She asked and I shrugged.

"All videos have WiFi connection data info embedded way deep into its code." I told her. " Just sift through until you find it and you can pinpoint where any video was uploaded from by finding it's WiFi source."

"Why didn't I think of that?" She seemed to be speaking more to herself now, but I still answered.

"Most people don't know about it." I replied. "I didn't, I found out about it accidentally when I was trying to find my cheating asshole boyfriend-"

"Are you two done?" Ward's frustrated voice asked and I looked away from Skye and towards Ward who I gave a little glare.

Skye sniffed, no longer distracted by conversation and her face scrunched up. "What's that smell?" I completely forgot about that.

"Oh, that's me." I informed her as I crossed my arms. "Long story short; I hid in a dumpster trying to get away from Men In Black over here." Now Skye looked even more confused.

"You're not S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"Waitress. They arrested me the same way they got you." I told her. "Bag over head, hands cuffed- the who enchilada."

"Then why are you here? Questioning me?" She asked and I sighed.

"That is a super long story that I will tell you later if I ever see you again after this." I promised with a nod. That's when I realized that I wasn't leaving until we found Superhoodie and she was the only person who knew who he was. Sure, I was running his picture through DMV records, but there were millions of people in New York, who knew how long that would take. "Look," I said perching on the corner of the table next to Skye. "I will be the first to say the S.H.I.E.L.D. sucks. They basically took away my entire life and they didn't even bother to apologize." I could feel Ward and Coulson both staring at me, but I refused to look away from Skye. "But the things that they do...they do them to protect everyone."

"People fear what they don't know." I told her. "What do you think will happen to your friend when people find out who he is and what he can do?"

"He'll be a hero." Skye said immediately. "He didn't have to go into that building and save that woman, but he did, because he is a good person. He doesn't need S.H.I.E.L.D. or anyone else trying to find him and...contain him."

"That's not what they want to do." I had no idea if that was true, but I said it anyway. "They want to help him."

"How can you honestly say that to me?" Skye asked. "After they kidnapped me- after they kidnapped you! You said they ruined your life-"

"That was years ago." I informed her. "S.H.I.E.L.D., like everything else in the world, is continuously growing and changing and evolving. They're not the same organization they were fifty years ago. Maybe in the past they wanted to detain people who posed a threat, but now...now they just want to help. There are other people out there who don't; they'd rather use your friend instead of helping him become the person he's supposed to be. Even if you don't trust them-" I took her hand. "You can trust me. You know you can."

Skye nodded and pulled her hand from mine. "I do." She confirmed. "I don't know why, but I do trust you and want to believe you about everything you just said." Her eyes went to Ward who stood imposingly behind me. "It's them I can't trust."

I didn't want to, but Coulson made me leave the interrogation room and he and Ward came out only a few moments later.

Coulson gave me a pair of sweatpants and a gray sweatshirt that had S.H.I.E.L.D. on the front before giving me permission to use their bathroom to get cleaned up. At first I thought I was going to have to take a bird bath in the sink, but- for some reason- they had a shower.

I cannot explain how amazing it feels to go from smelling like a dumpster to smelling like...not dumpster. I also took the time to wash the black temporary hair dye out of my hair, leaving it varying shades of light and dark brown. It would take a few more washes with better soap to get it all out, but it was a start.

I had just left the bathroom, still drying my hair with a towel and my uniform draped over my arm when I ended up almost screaming when I realized Ward was leaning against the wall next to the door.

"Ward, what the hell are you doing?!" I demanded with a glare and he just gave me a smirk back.

"Coulson wanted to make sure you didn't try to sneak off the plane." He explained, but I kept my glare on him. "Don't worry, I didn't peak."

"Like I'm supposed to believe that." I spat out before I began to walk past him. I didn't know where I was supposedly going, but I didn't want to stop and ask him where I should go.

"How'd you do it?" Ward asked before I could turn the corner and I stopped.

"Do what?" I asked turning around to face him. He pushed off the wall and slowly made his way to me with his hands in his pockets.

"Get Skye to trust you." He elaborated. "You two talked for less than five minutes and she ended up trusting you like you were her best friend."

I shrugged. "I guess...I just know how to talk to people like her."

"Hackers?"

"Foster kids." I corrected and he seemed surprised. "When you brought Skye in, she dropped this." I dug into the pocket of my shorts where I had stashed the paper I found earlier and handed it to him. Giving me a confused look, Ward unfolded the paper before reading it.

"Clark's; 5401 Davenport Road, Bennett's; 400 Rover Hill, Wang's; 2920 Newman Square..." Shaking his head, Ward looked back at me. "I don't understand."

"Clark is the name of the family and the rest is the address." I explained. "Most foster kids make lists of the homes they been to and show them to other foster kids so they know what do expect if they go there." I stepped next to Ward so I could see the paper and pointed at one of the names. "See how the Bennett's name and address are written in green?" He nodded. "That means they were good parents. They treated their foster kids like their biological kids and they did for them what any parent would do for their own. The Clark's are colored over in red because they probably yelled a lot or something like that. Red means anger." I explained.

"How do you know all this?" Ward asked, seemingly suspicious and I rolled my eyes.

"It takes a foster kid to know a foster kid." I explained. "I have a list just like this- in fact, I think I recognize a few of these addresses." Taking the list away from Ward, I folded it up and stuffed it into the pockets of my sweatpants so I could remember to give it to Skye later.

"You can't treat Skye like a bad person then expect her to trust and listen to you." I told him as I backed up towards the corner of the hallway. "That's what people did to her up until the day she turned eighteen."

I didn't see Ward again after our talk in the hallway, but I did meet the rest of his team.

I found Coulson and three other people in a room that was in the middle of the plane. There was a large table/computer that they were all standing around. Skye stood by the door I had entered through and I figured that it was better to stay next to her. We were the only two outsiders after all.

"What's going on?" I asked and Skye looked at me.

"I told Agent Coulson Superhoodie's real name." She said and I raised an eyebrow at her as I crossed my own arms.

"I thought you didn't trust S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"Oh, I don't." She confirmed. "But I trust Coulson."

"How'd he get you to do that?"

"He shot Ward up with some magic truth serum and left me alone with him." Dang, I should've held out longer. Maybe Coulson would've done that for me.

"Glad you could join us." Coulson said as he placed a piece of plastic, an ID I figured, on the table and dozens of different things began sprouting from it. I got closer- moving away from Skye- and stopped at the end of the table. The things that had sprouted from the ID were documents of information; a birth certificate, wedding license, social security card- everything.

"Micheal Peterson." Coulson announced as the info came up and began walking around the table, coming to a stop to my right. "Factory worker. Married. One kid. Gets injured, gets laid off and the wife jumps ship." Skye decided to join the briefing and stood between me and an Asian woman who was around Skye's height but, most likely, around Coulson's age. "Good guy, bad breaks. My best guess is that someone came along and said they could make him strong again. Make him super."

"Who has the tech to do that?" The woman next to Skye asked. "And why would they want to?"

"Fitz, what do we have from the security footage?" Coulson asked as he began a stroll around the table again.

I assumed that Fitz was the only other guy in the room who stood next to a woman around Skye and my's age. Fitz tapped something on the screen and it popped up on the large one on the wall. It wasn't much, just two men; one wore a lab coat and the other was jabbing a finger at him.

"What are we seeing?" The Asian woman asked and Fitz looked at her before looking at the screen.

"Well, the...man-" He pointed at jabby finger dude. "Is angry...at the other man." Poetic.

"The data is very corrupt." The woman next to Fitz said. I know I should've been paying attention to the matter at hand, but all I could wonder was if the woman was Fitz' girlfriend. The looked good together.

"Yeah," Fitz scoffed. "Like Cold War, Russia corrupt. I- I can't sync the time code without-"

"What if you have the audio?" Skye asked suddenly and everyone looked at her. "I was running surveillance on the lab. I had my shotgun mic pointed at the window before the blast. The digital file's in my van." She gestured to Fitz. "There's too much background noise for me, but maybe you can-"

"You can clean that up, can't you?" The woman next to Fitz asked, unconsciously taking over Skye's suggestion. "Find a single point and use cross validation to-

"I can't scrub-" And that's where I tuned out. Mostly because I couldn't understand what they were mumbling back and forth to each other, but it was making a great argument that they were most likely a couple. They were so in sync.

Eventually they came to an agreement, accepting Skye's offer, but I couldn't figure out what either of them said it very fast and at the same time, but I got the gist.

"Your van's here." Coulson informed Skye. "But you were right, we couldn't decrypt the files."

I used my hand to push my hair out of my face. I knew I should've asked for a rubber-band or something. "Well, that's because the encryption is coupled to the GPS." I told him before turning to Skye. "Right?"

She nodded. "Right. Get my van back to that alley and I am back in business." Skye looked at me. "How did you know that?" She asked.

"I might've snooped a little once I hacked into your phone which was synced to your laptop." I admitted.

"Of course you did." Skye began walking- presumably to her van- before stopping and looking back at me. "C'mon. Four hands are better than two."

"Agent May will escort you." That must've been the Asian woman who began following us. "And on your way out, wake up Ward."

"You live in here?" I asked when I climbed into Skye's van and spotted the small couch against the back doors with pillows and a blanket on it.

"Yep." I shrugged. It was way better than the hovel I was living in.

Agent May stayed outside, guarding the van as Skye and I got started. She only had one computer, but a whole bunch of other equipment that I had never seen before. Then I remembered that I was just a hacker- I hacked a few illegal bank accounts and tracked down one or two deadbeat boyfriends- but Skye was a hacktivist. She lived for stealing and revealing information.

"Call Fitz." Skye ordered, tossing me her phone and I completely expected it to glitch and have the S.H.I.E.L.D. symbol show up, but then I remembered that the bracelet was gone.

"Why do you have Fitz's number?" I asked as I found it in her contacts, but Skye chose not to answer as she set everything up.

"Hello?" Fitz' accented voice answered.

"It's me." I said, having no idea if he even knew who I was. "Skye's sending over the audio files now, but they're not compressed so it might take a minute."

"Great!" Fitz exclaimed. "I'm getting it now. Tell Skye that when, uh..uh, she gets back, I'll show her my thing." I raised an eyebrow and Fitz seemed to realize what he said. "Not thing! It's, uh, it's not- I'll show her my hardware- my equipment-" But then he hung up. Poor guy.

"Hey," Skye looked back at me. "Any particular reason why Fitz wants to show you his thing?" Skye's eyes widened and her mouth opened as I snickered.

"Hurry it up." Agent May ordered and I stopped snickering, suddenly feeling like I had been scolded by a teacher. Skye looked back down at her laptop, but her eye caught mine and we both snickered again.

"That's, uh-" Skye cleared her throat as Agent May narrowed her eyes at us. "That's about it. We can go now."

"Good, let's head back." Agent May went to close the door of the van, only for someone to drop down- from out of nowhere- and tackle her to the ground. I scurried back, ramming myself against Skye as we watched, helplessly, as Agent May was grabbed by the attacker and thrown into the wall of the alley.

"Mike!" Skye exclaimed and once he turned around, I realized that the attacker was Superhoodie himself; Mike Peterson. "What are you doing?!"

"Saving you." He panted, seeing nothing wrong with his actions. "From the scary men in dark suits." I quirked an eyebrow at Skye, but she had no words. Mike's eyes turned to me and he immediately went on the offense again, seeing my S.H.I.E.L.D. sweatshirt.

Skye seemed to realize what he was thinking too. "No, Mike!" He looked at her. "She's a friend! She's not S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Good." Mike nodded. "I saved you, now you're gonna help save us."

"Us?" My question was answered when Mike reached to the side of the van, pulling a small little boy from where he had been hidden. He looked scared, but not "I Just got kidnapped" scared, more "I don't know what's happening" scared. I assumed the kid was Mike's son.

"Don't cry, 'kay?" Mike asked as he lifted his son into the van. Skye and I moved so they'd both be able to get in. "Stay strong for me, Ace. What are we?"

"We're a team." Ace answered and Mike smiled reassuringly at him.

"That's right." The smile, however, left his face when he looked back to me and Skye. "Now drive."

Mike wanted Skye to stay in the back with him since he didn't know me, so I was forced to drive. Where, you ask? Why, to Union Station, of course. Mike wanted to start a new life without anyone coming after him- hence his need for Skye. He wanted her to erase any and all trace of him and Ace and give them both new identities.

I was, currently, still in the drivers seat and trying to figure out how I had gotten into this mess. Not even seven hours ago, I was just on my way to work, trying to get on with my life and now I was a hostage/probably an accomplice. S.H.I.E.L.D. would, for sure, put that bracelet back on my wrist.

While Skye hacked away on her laptop and Mike tried to assured his son that everything would be fine, I just tried stayed as quiet as I could in the front seat of the van, but that was before I noticed the cars beginning to surround us.

From my position, I could only see the two police cars on the left side of the van and the back van that parked twenty or so feet away on the right. The door opened and I let out a sigh of relief when I saw Coulson step out and approach the van with Ward by his side.

"Mr. Peterson," Coulson called through his megaphone, but I didn't take my eyes off of him. "Good morning. We're not a threat; we're her to help, but you're in danger and we need to take you in."

"What did you do?!" Mike yelled and I turned just in time to see veins of glowing red underneath the skin of his face. What the hell was he? "You're supposed to be helping us!" Skye, wisely, said nothing.

Standing up as much as he could in the car, Mike angrily took a deep breath before using all of his inhuman strength to push the side door of Skye's van right off it's hinges.

"Skye!" I yelled when Mike jumped out of the van. She tried to make her way up to the front seat with me while Mike got his son, but he simply grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards the train station.

Fumbling, I managed to open the door and rushed towards the front door of the station, but I was stopped when two arms wrapped around my waist and lifted me off the ground.

"Get off of me!" I yelled as I thrashed about and was toted back towards the van.

"Stop!" I heard Ward's voice order. "Lydia, Stop!"

"Get the hell off of me! Skye's in there!" Ward finally lowered me to the ground and I pushed him away from me.

"I know that she is." He replied and I hated how calm he was. "Coulson and I are going in to go and get her, but you have to stay out here."

"I'm the one who got her into this mess!" I reminded him. "I'm the one who convinced her to trust you people and now she's being held hostage by some wacko with super strength!" I tried to push past him again, Ward was twice my size and built like a truck.

"Dammit, Lydia." He growled before taking me by the upper arm and pulling me away from the building and towards one of the police cars. With me fighting against him the entire time, Ward opened the door to the car and pushed me inside before closing the door and taking off towards the building.

"Wait!" I yelled as I scrambled upright and banged on the glass. "Ward!" I yelled, but he just continued running towards the station as a few officers exited with Mike's kid. "Ward, get your ass back here and let me out!" I don't know why I bothered; he had already disappeared inside the building and there's no way he'd let me out even if he had heard me. I would have to get out of her on my own.

There was nothing in the backseat of police car that I could actually use to get myself out of there, so I had no choice other than to lay on my back and kick at the window.

I knew that the glass to car doors were meant to hold, but they were only a bit harder to break and, believe it or not, this was not my first time escaping from a police car. Luckily, I was wearing my chunky heeled brown boots that were perfect for the job.

The first two kicks did nothing but send dull vibrations through my legs, but the third cracked the glass a little, the fourth put even more cracks in it and the entire glass shattered on my sixth kick.

Since my hands hadn't been cuffed behind my back like the last time I did this, I was able to get out of the car a lot more easily, but my leg slipped while I was pulling myself out and I ended up stabbing myself on a share of pointed glass that hadn't shattered out with the rest. Thankfully, my adrenaline was pumping so much that I didn't even notice.

I had no idea where Mike had taken Skye, so I had no choice, but to rely on my own instincts.

If I was running from S.H.I.E.L.D. with a hostage, the first thing I'd do is board a train and get as far away as I could, but I knew Mike wouldn't do that. I had seen those officers bringing Ace out of the train station and I immediately knew that Mike wouldn't leave without his son. The best way to look for him would be by going up as high as I could and looking down.

When I changed identities after S.H.I.E.L.D. put that bracelet on me, I had familiarized myself with any and every mode of transportation that could get me out of New York should S.H.I.E.L.D. ever come looking. I knew that there was a door that would take me up the top floor of the building which looked down over the entrances.

Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one who got the same idea; I saw an officer with a shot gun going into the doorway that would lead to the stairway which lead to the top floor. I didn't hesitate before going after him, but I kept my distance. He had already made it all the way up the stairs in a matter of moments and I was right behind him when I heard a shot fire.

Running up the steps as fast as I could, I saw the officer fire off another shot and Mike was hit- falling over the railing to the floor below. The officer turned his gun towards Skye, who lay on the floor watching with wide eyes and I made my move.

Rushing forward, I grabbed his gun and tried to push it out of Skye's direction, but the officer was a lot stronger than me. I was able to hold my own for a few pulls and tugs before the officer regained control of his weapon. Pulling his arms back, he hit me in the face with the gun.

The last thing I heard before smacking my head on the floor and passing out was Skye yelling my name.

When I woke up, I had no idea where I was.

I sat up way too fast and my head began pounding. "Ow..." I groaned and shut my eyes. The pounding began to subside, but I wasn't super eager about opening my eyes.

"I was beginning to think you weren't ever going to wake up." A familiar voice said and I opened my eyes and turned to see Skye standing just outside the room...bunk...wherever the hell I was. She was in different clothes and she seemed to be okay despite the fact that she had been with a shotgun wielding psycho the last time I saw her.

"What happened?" I asked as she came and sat on the edge of the bed I was on.

"Well," She crossed her legs. "After you heroically vandalized a cop car to come and save me, you got knocked out and May found us. She took out the guy with the gun who was trying to kill us."

"What about Mike?" I asked. " And Ace?"

"They're fine." She assured me. "S.H.I.E.L.D. took in Mike and we took Ace to live with his aunt until his dad can take him again." I raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. is planning on letting Mike go?" That didn't sound like them.

Skye shrugged. "Like you said; They're not the same organization they were fifty years ago."

"Well, if we're being completely honest, I only said that so you'd tell them where to find Mike so I could leave." I admitted and she nodded. "Speaking of leaving...why are you still here? Why haven't you jumped back into your Mystery Machine and gotten as far away as you can."

Skye looked down to where he hand was picking at the fibers of the blanket. "Coulson offered me a job." She confessed, looking back up at me to gauge my reaction. "Both of us actually. As consultants."

"Wow..." I wasn't expecting that. "What did you say?"

"I told Coulson that I would take the job...but only if you did." Wasn't expecting that either.

"What?" I asked. "Why?" She shook her head.

"I don't know." She admitted. "Coulson's great and everything but...I don't trust him. I don't think I could ever trust S.H.I.E.L.D... but you? You I trust. I don't know if it's because you're a hacker like me, or because you tried to save me, but I trust you more than anyone else on this plane."

I sighed as I pulled myself up so I could lean against the wall. That's when I felt the pain in my side and remembered stabbing myself on that piece of glass from the window. "I don't know, Skye." I told her. "S.H.I.E.L.D. and me...not exactly the best of friends."

Skye was quiet for a few moments, just looking from her hand to me before she finally asked the question she had been thinking. "What did they do to you?" She asked and I raised an eyebrow. "S.H.I.E.L.D." She specified. "You said before that they ruined your life. How?" I sighed again.

"That...that's a story for another time." I wasn't super eager on sharing. I hadn't done anything wrong, I just...I didn't want to get back into that. "You just need to know that what S.H.I.E.L.D. did is the reason I changed."

Skye furrowed her eyebrows. "Changed what?"

"Everything." I replied. "My name, my habits, my address- my hair and like you said earlier; Coulson is great, but I don't know if I can ever trust S.H.I.E.L.D. again." Skye looked down. "So, I guess I'll have to work on that."

Skye looked up. "You're staying?" I shrugged and winced when I remembered the cut on my side. I'd have to be more careful, that was the second time I forgot about it.

"Where else would I go?"

I didn't have much from my apartment that I needed to grab; just the clothes that I had, the very few sentimental items I kept and the small bag the contained everything I needed to disappear once S.H.I.E.L.D. found me, which all fit easily inside of one rolling suitcase and a backpack.

An agent had been sent with me to collect my things and after he dropped me off back air field that housed the Bus for the moment.

It didn't take me long to put away my things; The bunks each had one shelf underneath a flat screen TV that hung on the wall at the foot of the bed and a small table built into the space between the head of the bed and the wall which was only about a foot away, so I had no choice, but to but my suitcase and backpack underneath the bed.

"I see you've gotten settled in." I turned around to see Simmons standing just outside of the doorway to my bunk with a medium sized box in her arms.

"Yeah, I try to travel light." I confessed. She nodded with a smile before stepping forward and holding the box out towards me.

"Agent Coulson asked me to give you this." She said as I took it and sat it on the bed. I opened the box and inside sat a black phone on top of a laptop. I'd had to encrypt the passage myself and set up a firewall. "He said that it would be unlikely that you'd have any of your own, for some reason."

"Thanks." I gave her a smile and she gave me one back before leaving my bunk. Once she was gone, I sat down my bunk and looked around.

"Home, sweet home."