Skye's phone rang out, startling her from her laptop. This wouldn't have been normal, if the phone in question had rung at all, in the two weeks she had owned it.
As it was, the only way someone had that number was if they had read Skye's ad in the New York Times that she had posted a week earlier, advertising her as a personal investigator in queries to do with computers. Skye quickly answered the phone in a professional tone.
'Hello, personal investigator Skye here... Would you like to meet?.. Meet me at the cafe on the corner of 5th street at 4... Of course, I'll see you soon then.'
Skye grinned, elated that she had received her client.
At quarter to 4, Skye arrived at the cafe in a smart skirt and blouse, wanting to make a good impression. She ordered a coffee and played with the sugar packets while she waited, looking up 10 minutes later as the bell on the door rang.
In came a blonde woman, in jeans and a blue shirt. She looked around the cafe, before she spotted Skye. She hurried over before asking,
'Are you Skye?'
Skye smiled and nodded, before replying,
'And you are?'
'Claire.'
'What can I do for you, Claire?'
Claire sat down opposite her, before she launched into a story about an abusive ex-husband who had stopped returning her calls for child support.
'I just don't know what to do. He moved house, and changed his number. Money's getting tight, and my job at the diner isn't enough to raise a child. I tried calling social services, but they only gave me excuses, and said if I couldn't look after my son, they would take him away. Please help me!'
Skye's heart broke as she watched the woman in front of her break down. She grabbed her hand and rubbed soothing circles onto her wrist.
'Of course, I will help. What's you're husbands name and where does he work?' She asked, pulling her laptop out.
Skye ran down the street, running from the angry shouts behind her.
She turned her head, seeing the man only 100 meters behind her. Turning around, she barely had time to acknowledge the obstacle in her path before she slammed into a slim woman.
'Shit, I'm sorry,' Skye all but shouted at her, crouching down to hastily gather the papers the woman had dropped. Each one had an eagle insignia in the top right corner. Before the woman could say anything, Skye looked behind her, before exclaiming,
'FUCK!'
She took if running down an alleyway, just as a man rushed past a crowed of tourists. Just as Skye rounded the corner, she felt a harsh grasp on her arm, dragging her against the wall.
'You little bitch! Give me my money or I swear-'
'What?,' Skye demanded, 'Are you going to hit me? Rape me? Like you did to Claire?' Skye let out a dark laugh before giving him a steel look.
'You wouldn't be the first, you dick.'
The man moved to strike her, but before the blow could strike, a hand grabbed his arm. The man swung round to face the woman Skye had just barged into, flanked by two muscled men, one a handsome black man, the other an older guy, in a smart suit and.
'I recommend you let go of her, sir, before I arrest you for assault.' Claire's ex-husband laughed before giving the woman an incredulous look. Skye didn't blame him, dressed in a cardigan and tie; the woman didn't look like she had an ounce of muscle on her.
Sighing, the woman flashed her badge at the man, also showing the eagle insignia. The man scarpered pretty quickly after that.
Skye let out a sigh of relief.
She looked at the woman in front of her, and smiled at her, before saying,
'Thanks, you really saved my ass back there; he looked ready to murder me. I'm Skye.'
'Jemma Simmons, it was my pleasure, this is Agent Coulson and Triplett.'
Skye extended her gratitude to the two men, before she moved to the alleyway entrance.
'Wait! You're bleeding; you must have grazed your back on the wall. Come with me back to the office, it's just round the corner, I'll take a look at it for you.' Now that the imminent danger was gone, Skye noticed Jemma's voice was British, the lilt of her voice refreshing to Skye, after listening to the rough accent of New Yorkers for months. Skye tried to decline, saying it was nothing.
'Don't be silly, I have medical training, it's no trouble,' Jemma insisted before dragging Skye back to the busy street, followed by Coulson and Triplett.
Skye looked around the room. It was suited more like a lab than an office, but there was a desk, and sofa, in the corner where the two men sat, discussing to themselves about the man.
Skye hissed as Jemma placed a gauze against the cut on her back.
'Sorry, I need to clean the wound.' Skye nodded, gritting her teeth, letting the pain distract her from the hand placed on her waist, ignoring how comforting it felt.
After an uncomfortable silence, Agent Coulson asked,
'Skye, if you don't mind me asking, why was that man was chasing you?'
Skye sighed, knowing the question had been coming.
'His name was Grant Ward, he was an abusive dick. My, err, friend,' not mentioning Claire as a client, she didn't exactly have a licence as a PI, 'she recently divorced him, but about a week ago, she came to me, saying he had stopped paying child support, stopped answering calls, given my skill set, she asked me to help.' Triplett was the first to ask, 'your skill set?'
Skye sighed again, not sure these people would take kindly to her activities.
'I'm a hacker. I traced calls from his work to an apartment in Brooklyn. I went to him, confronted him about the money. He shut the door in my face, so,' Skye breathed, this was the clincher, 'I hacked into his bank account, the guy was filthy rich, so, I sent $10,000 to my friends account, figured it would be enough to last till she got a better job, maybe take a few night classes.'
Jemma looked a bit divided as if unsure whether to tell her off for rule breaking, or to congratulate her after seeing the kind of person Grant Ward was. Triplett, or Trip, as he reminded her to call him, on the other hand grinned, saying,
'You go girl, he was a dick.'
Coulson had started to cause her to feel unease, though, as he sat there listening to her story, a look of contemplation on his face. After a while, he asked, 'How good a hacker are you, Skye.'
Skye grinned, before replying, 'Haven't found anything I couldn't hack yet.'
Coulson smiled, before asking, 'do you think you could try hacking us, without getting caught?'
Jemma sputtered in indignation, but Coulson silenced her with a look.
'Are you sure, aren't you some government agency or something? Who are you guys anyway?'
'Why don't you hack us and find out. Don't give me that look, Simmons; we will be here to stop her seeing anything dangerous.'
'Challenge accepted.' Skye said as she pulled her laptop from her bag. Skye set off typing in a fury, words whizzing past her on the screen. After, 2 minutes, Skye exclaimed, 'Yes! Gotcha.'
'You can't be in already! No one is that good.'
Skye snorted and rolled her eyes, 'Of course not, Jemma, I just got Wi-Fi. This isn't some crappy spy movie where the hacker says 'I'm in. after 2 seconds hacking NSA.'
Jemma blushed, mumbled something about getting a tea and hurried off.
'Did I say something?'
'Nahh Simmons is just awkward, you get used to it'
Skye grinned and continued to type.
An hour later, Skye stopped typing abruptly. Everyone glanced up at her, to see Skye, dramatically turn towards them and deadpan, 'I'm in.'
Coulson laughed, before grabbing the laptop. 'This is incredible, Stark designed the software himself. Our best CS guys couldn't get past the third encryption in double the time!
Skye laughed, seeing the usually collected man gawk from her to the laptop.
'So, how do you feel about joining shield?'