This can't be right. There's no way any of this is right. It's not possible. Everything can't just be a lie...can it? Can it all have been a charade? Some kind of twisted, sick joke? Is that even possible?

Could Rowen be that dark of a person?

Phil stared at the results in front of him, his mind still refusing to process any of it. Refusing to acknowledge any of this as the truth. For it to be the truth, Rowen would have to be almost his age and she's just...not. She's his friend, why would she lie to him about any of this? Why would she keep this from him?

Maybe she's not as much of a friend as you thought. Maybe this was all planned. The attack on the SHIELD Helicarrier, Loki stabbing you, maybe it was all intentional. Maybe she knew the whole time.

Stop. Breathe. Relax. Think.

It's like a mantra running through his head over and over. A silent reminder to remain calm, to ask questions but not jump to conclusions. He's an investigator, questions and puzzles are his game. Sighing, he picked up the DNA profiles again, hoping to make some sense of what he's seeing- to spot another conclusion than his initial one when he first saw the reports. He's starting to regret asking Simmons to run them to begin with.

"Simmons, I need you to run something for me." Phil's calm tone startled the poor scientist, causing her to jump a bit just before she nearly knocked over her work spinning to look at him. She was quick to try and straighten her appearance though, in an attempt to look like the calm, competent scientist she is.

"Yes, sir," stated Simmons, her hands fidgeting to clear some space on her work table for whatever Phil needed her to run. "What is it you need?"

Smiling a bit in an attempt to calm Simmons some (he really hadn't meant to startle or fluster her in any way), Phil gestured towards her centrifuge and computers. "Did you take Skye's DNA?"

"Yes, just earlier today," confirmed Simmons, her brow furrowing. "Was there a problem with that? It's standard procedure, though I haven't uploaded the information yet. It just finished running not long ago. I can certainly destroy the results if you'd like, though why you'd want me to do that I couldn't guess but given Skye was formerly in a bit of trouble I could see why we wouldn't want her DNA in the system. I mean, it wouldn't do for someone to come looking for her to arr-"

"Simmons," interrupted Phil, sensing the tangent that's about to start up if he doesn't interfere. "That's fine. You're following protocol. I'm not asking you to destroy anything." Watching the young scientist relax, Phil continued calmly. "I was just going to ask if you could run her DNA through the SHIELD database when you're done processing it. That's all."

Furrowing her brow, Simmons offered him a confused look. "Why is that, sir?"

"Because I just want to know if she shows up anywhere else," explained Phil with a sigh. "It's a long shot, but it's possible we might be able to find out more about Skye and where she comes from. I just don't want to tell her before I have something."

"You don't want to get her hopes up," surmised Simmons with a nod. "And you want me to keep this a secret."

"If you could," confirmed Phil. "Like I said, I don't want to get her hopes up. But we have an extensive database between the SHIELD personnel and the database of people we've detained or arrested."

"I'll run the DNA as soon as I can," agreed Simmons easily. "Though it will be hard to hide it from Fitz."

"Try," insisted Phil, not budging a bit on this matter. He didn't want what he was doing to get back to Skye. If they came up short, like he was positive they would, he didn't want to let her down. "If you have to tell him, fine, but make sure he doesn't mention it to Skye."

Simmons shot Phil a concerned look, finally stopping her fidgeting hands as she leaned forward against her lab table. "You're really worried about this."

"Yes." He has every reason to be. Letting Skye down is like kicking a puppy and he's already had to keep so much from her, he doesn't want to keep any more than he needs to. "How long until you can run the scans."

Simmons reached over, clicking a few keys on her computer without glancing up at Phil. "I just started them. They have to run the entire database but it might finish by tonight."

"Alright," sighed Phil, nodding. It would be a long wait, but it would have been longer if Skye knew he was doing this. Besides, it wasn't his life these scans would effect. "Just let me know when they finish."

"Yes, sir," confirmed Simmons with a nod. "I'll print the results for you then delete the scan too, so no one will know we ever ran it if you'd like."

Nodding once, Phil forced himself to relax as his eyes drifted to the computer. "Thank you, Simmons. If there's a problem, come find me." With that, Phil had left the lab without a second thought. After all, it's Skye's past the scans would reveal. None of this was really going to impact him outside of what it did to Skye.

Staring at the results now, Phil feels like an absolute idiot. Of course, how could he have predicted that the search would kick back his own DNA as a partial match to Skye's? A 50% match for that matter. Half Skye's DNA is his- that makes him her father. And the other half... Well, he'd had Simmons double check the other two results the system had presented.

One belongs to a long-time friend of Phil's and fellow agent, Rowen Le Fay (and long time crush but he'd be hard pressed to actually admit that one to anyone who isn't Jasper; it's both embarrassing and makes Phil feel like a dirty old man given she's nearly 20 years younger than him). The other belongs to none other than Loki, the God of Mischief, the psychopath who'd stabbed Phil in the chest with a scepter.

Suffice to say, neither of them had believed the results. But a visual confirmation confirmed that half of Skye's DNA matched none other than half of Rowen's. Notably, and perhaps most damningly, part of the match had been to the bit of Skye's DNA that isn't recognizable as human. That part, maybe a quarter of Skye's DNA and half of Rowen's, directly matched half of Loki's. It's clear as day on the screen in front of them: Skye's parents are both SHIELD, and one of them isn't completely human. It blew Phil's mind, most notably because it meant that Rowen isn't, couldn't be, nearly twenty years younger than him. Not if she has a 24 year old daughter.

Phil has to admit, shock was probably what kept him from blowing up or breaking down in the lab. It's what had gotten him through the plane and into his office without making a fool of himself- what had safely allowed him to lock himself away, out of sight of anyone else. Except now, as he's staring at the reports in front of him, he can't help the anger creeping into his mind.

Rowen, perhaps one of the few close friends he has in SHIELD, lied to him. Lied about her age, her past, her heritage. Everything.

Maybe she doesn't know. A part of his mind that doesn't want to accept her words a lies, that doesn't want to face everything it knows about her as a falsity, nearly shouts the denying statement. Maybe she hit her head and forgot. Or maybe she doesn't know Loki is her father. Half her DNA is human, maybe he put some kind of weird spell on her to make her forget everything. Gave her false memories. The man hates humans, why would he ever put up with having a half-human daughter? Maybe he tried to kill her and that's why she lied- to stay hidden.

The last thought actually has some merit. With his marked dislike of humans, it's entirely possible Rowen is on the run from her father. Being a half human, half alien-god child (would that make her a demi-god?) would be a good reason to stay hidden. Or maybe she just doesn't want to be judged. It didn't explain her lies about her age though. Phil knows he never slept with anyone younger than 20 after he turned 18, which means Rowen has to be older than the 30 years she claims to be.

Stop torturing yourself and make the call already! The rational part of his brain is right: he needs to stop delaying. It won't change the truth, no matter what that is. So, it's with heavy trepidation that he picks up his cellphone and hits Speed #2 on his private cell. One has been reserved for his best friend, one Marcus Johnson (now, Nick Fury Jr.), since he got the damn thing when they were in the Army. But Rowen has been resting at #2 for years- ever since she opened her apartment to him when he was drunkenly trying to bury a very bad op. Anyone willing to let a guy on a weekend bender crash on their couch for close to three days deserved at minimum to be on speed dial.

Pressing the phone to his ear, he silently listened to the echoing ring and prayed Rowen would pick up. They never use their private phones on SHIELD property, or at least during work hours; emergencies are the exception. But Rowen tends to dump her personal phone in a drawer until she's off work for the day; and with her that could mean six or midnight depending on what she has sitting on her desk. The ringing clicked off partway through his thoughts, drawing his attention to the phone and the woman speaking into it.

"Hello Phil." Rowen's accent floated through her voice with ease, twisting the syllables into the soft lit he craves on his worst days. Before Phil can respond though, Rowen laughs and there's the sound another person wolf-whistling. "Jas, you are an incorrigible arse! Quit it! Do not make me get the duct tape!"

Great, Jasper's there. Phil was really, really hoping to have this conversation in private. A glance towards his office door confirms he'd locked it earlier- a move he never made unless he didn't want to be disturbed for anything short of a complete emergency. And then May would just break it down.

"Phil? Phillip?" The sound of Rowen calling his name again draws Phil's attention to the call at hand. Over the speaker, he can still hear Jasper making noise in the background. He needs to get her to go somewhere private.

"I'm here, Rowen," assures Phil gently, rubbing his eyes a bit. "Where are you?"

"At home." He could hear her shuffling something around before some of the noise falls away. "Why?"

"Is Jasper there?" asks Phil, carefully keeping his anxiety in check. He knows the answer in theory, but he wants to be absolutely sure the other agent is actually there before asking her to change rooms. It sounds kind of paranoid otherwise.

"Yes, and with a bottle of bourbon in hand," assures Rowen. The exasperation in her voice is softened by the fondness he can hear. She and Jasper have history; no one is ever surprised by how much they put up with from each other. Mentally, Phil allows himself a bit of relief that it's Jasper there; he's the only male Phil doesn't feel his skin prickle over- mostly because, being gay and having actually tried to sleep with Rowen once, Jasper won't try anything. Their one attempt had been a colossal failure that they are still laughing over. "Something about celebrating? I couldn't get him to actually explain what it was all about, but I think Hill's name was thrown into the spewed jumble."

"Maybe she finally gave into his pestering," suggests Phil with his own smile. Yes, he's delaying and he knows it, but it's hard not to. He's more afraid of these answers than he was the ones concerning his resurrection.

The snort from Rowen suggests that, no, that isn't what she thought happened. "Likely, the woman either broke up with her current boyfriend or finally jumped Fury. Those two are insufferable."

"They say the same about us," argues Phil carefully. He's on dangerous ground with that comment- his attraction to Rowen is an unspoken matter that only came up once when they were very drunk. Which resulted in them drunkenly sleeping together. It wasn't exactly a friendship building exercise.

"People say a lot of things," points out Rowen calmly. Her voice is unreadable though, as it always is when any discussion of them and sexual relations is mentioned. "Now, what's going on?"

Sighing as the realization that she isn't going to offer him a further delay tactic dawns, Phil forced the next words out of his mouth. "Rowen, I need to discuss something important with you. Could you go into another room?"

"Phil?" questions Rowen, her voice worried. "What's wrong?"

"Rowen, please," begs Phil softly, his anxiety already rising. "This is important."

"And Jasper can't know?" asks Rowen, her voice dropping to something more akin to a whisper or a low murmur.

"I don't think this is a conversation he should hear," confirms Phil. "Please, if this weren't important, I wouldn't be asking this of you."

"Alright," assures Rowen with a sigh. "Give me a moment." He can hear her moving around momentarily, probably motioning something to Jasper. Then there's the click of a door being shut and her voice returns to the speaker, soft in his ear. "What's wrong, Phil? You sound distressed."

"A little," confirms Phil, trying to relax as he stares at the files in front of him again. It's impossible for him to settle though, knowing one of his closest friends is somehow related to a psychopathic god. Shifting forward, he leans one arm on his desk. "Rowen, have you ever lied to me?"

Rowen makes a slightly distressed sound, like the question startled her. "Phil, we work for an espionage agency. I'm not sure that's a safe question to ask."

"Rowen..." Exasperation colors his tone, but he can feel himself smiling a bit despite the circumstances. This part he knows; the part where they harass and tease each other, make each other laugh and relax so whatever is coming doesn't seem so bad. This time though, it won't work.

Sighing heavily, Rowen's tone drops to a familiar serious one he always associates with missions and work. "I'm sure I have, Phil. I'm level 9 specialist, I work on projects you've asked about but that I can't talk about. I must have been required to lie at some point in time."

Phil echos her sigh, eyes dropping to the files in front of him. "I meant about anything personal. Like your age."

"I thought it was against convention to ask for a woman's age," counters Rowen, the tease back in her voice. It's weaker though, weary. Unsettled. Which puts Phil further ill at ease.

Round about questions aren't working though and over the phone he can't read her well enough to know what's going through her head. Maybe he should have waited until they could talk in person, but he knows he'd chicken out if he tried. There's something about Rowen when he's around her, and even went he's not, that makes him want to just take what she says for her word. Now, he wonders if that was a mistake, another of many he'd apparently made.

Sighing, he opts to switch tactics. Everyone likes to say the direct approach is best; Rowen had even admitted she did better when people were direct with her. Round about questions are just going to draw this out unnecessarily. "I ran Skye's DNA through the SHIELD system."

Rowen makes a noise in her throat, one of understanding. "You weren't expecting the results."

"They're a little hard to expect," confirms Phil, his voice growing tense as the combination of unease and a hint of anger flashes through his system. He told her some of his darkest secrets and worst nightmares, how could she not tell him that she has a child? Holding onto that feeling makes it easier to say the next words. "Especially when the computer says I'm her father and one of my best friends is her mother."

Silence echoes through the line. Complete silence, as if the line has been disconnected. Phil actually checks the phone to make sure that hasn't happened.

Several minutes pass before she finally speaks again. Phil can hear a slight tremor in her tone, like she's facing a ghost. "Who."

Phil closes his eyes silently. Her tone is almost heartbreaking, but there's something else there too. It's disbelief and maybe just a bit of fear. Those are the tones he latches on to and uses to ground himself. They're indicators of guilt. "You. According to her DNA, you are her mother, Rowen." He pauses for a moment, needing that time to gather his voice for the next part. "And Loki is her grandfather."

He can clearly hear her bed creaking through the phone, presumably because she just fell onto it. Her voice becomes stiff and just a hint desperate; shock and surprise volleying for a place in her words. "How is this possible..."

"I wanted to ask you the same thing," replies Phil, his own voice becoming tinged with anger. It's the shock that's pissing him off. You can't have a child and forget you ever gave birth. Not without a head injury and he's pretty sure that isn't the case. They would have found something in her tests and she remembers her childhood too well. Though, maybe Loki did something to her. Could he have erased any memory of their child from his daughter's mind? Is Loki psychotic enough to do that?

"I don't understand." Rowen's voice is tense, something akin to tears in her words. "It isn't possible. She's...Phil, this must be a mistake."

"There's no mistake, Rowen," assures Phil, his shoulders tensing. It's beyond obvious that she's keeping something from him and that knowledge only makes him angrier. "She's our daughter. Which makes no sense because you're not more than thirty according to you."

"Phil..." Her wince is audible. "Please, it isn't what you think-"

"Really, Rowen? That line?" challenges Phil. His anger is nearing a boiling point, and rising steadily. She lied to him, has been for years. Everything he knows about her is a lie. "Are you seriously going to tell me that you haven't lied about your entire life? Your family? Your age? The fact that you're half god?" He spits the last bit, the words clouded with the anger he feels whenever he thinks about what Loki did to him; the hell that madman put him through.

"Full." Her whispered response, quiet and pained, is just barely audible. "I'm not half human, Phil. I'm not even slightly human."

Red floods Phil's vision as the news sinks in. That she didn't even bothering to deny it now that she's been caught at least shows she doesn't think he's stupid. But after fooling him for years, it isn't a balm anymore, just a painful reminder. "You're his kid, Rowen. You're Loki's fucking kid. Tell me, did you help him get on the Helicarrier? Tell him were the tesseract was? Did you tell him to stab me while you were at it?"

"What?" There's pain in her voice, possibly even tears, but he can't bring himself to care. She lied to him for years, and for what purpose? He just can't believe she isn't somehow involved in the New York attacks or any of the chaos Loki brought with him. She's been lying to everyone; what reason could she possibly have if this isn't some massive plot to destroy SHIELD? "Phil, what are you talking about? I had nothing to do with my father's insanity! I had barely spoken to him in the seven years I was involved with SHIELD! If I'd known my father had fallen so far, I would have tried to help him!"

"But you didn't stop him!" The anger in his voice turned his tone dark in a way it hasn't been since he was a teen. He hasn't been this angry since puberty. "You knew what he could do and you didn't help us stop him!"

"Fury didn't tell me it was Loki. I didn't know until he was brought on board the Helicarrier." Her voice fades into something cold as she speaks, toneless. Helpless. He can hear the turbulence beneath though, the faintest tremor that hints at something deeper. "I didn't know until he was on board."

"And after that?" challenges Phil. "When he was escaping? When he stabbed me? When he was attacking New York? Why didn't you step in then!"

"Because I was in shock!" Phil's never heard her snap like that before. Never heard the pain and tears in her voice the way he does now. Any trace of the cold tone from a moment ago is gone- replaced with deep pain, frustration, and something else he can't place.

For a moment, his anger fizzles out. The part of him that was mad melts away in the face of her pain. He could hear her voice hitch as she tries to bring her breathing under control; tries to stop the tears he's nearly positive are falling. It causes something inside him to ache with the instinctive need to draw her close just for a moment.

Her voice is calm again when it comes through the line, though the occasional hitch is still present and a deep, underlining pain laces her words. "I was in shock, Phil. First, my father tells me that half of my heritage was a lie, that I'm not an Aesir but a Jotunn. That my life would have been better if I'd known because I wouldn't have had to go through hell to prove myself worthy as a Tuatha de Danaan. That I could have had my father around all the time if we'd known. If my adoptive grandfather weren't a lying bastard, I could have had a normal family instead of the chaos I got instead. And then, after having part of my identity ripped away, suddenly you're dead too and all I could think about was everything falling apart. All I wanted was to bring you back. You want to know why I didn't help? Because I was curled in a shaken ball on the floor of the prison level where you were stabbed, trying to stop myself from falling into a rage that would destroy everyone who got in my way. One that would make me commit actions I would later regret." She pauses then, her breath shuttering as she draws it in. "That is why I didn't help stop my father. That is why the Avengers had to do it for me. Because I was mourning the loss of my best friend and trying to come to terms with the fact that I'd been unknowingly lied to my entire life by a grandfather I had never met!" Her voice breaks at that point and for a moment all that follows is her breathing.

Her words echo through Phil, pushing away the fiery anger that had flooded his system minutes before. Hearing her break because of him hurts in ways he didn't know were possible.

Her voice is little more than a whisper when she speaks again, pained but dry. Tearless. "The only thing that saved me was when Fury said he could bring you back."

And like that, all the rage from before returns like a flood of red. The painful memories of being brought back to life, what they put him through. Knowing Rowen, who was with him during his recovery after Tahiti, was involved just made the pain all the worse. She'd played along with it too, another lie she'd told him. Their entire relationship, professional and personal, is little more than a lie. That hurts more than even the knowledge that she'd kept their child from him.

The sound of paper crinkling draws Phil's attention downward. An image of Loki stares back at him where he's gripping the paper. Dropping it, it lands beside the picture of Rowen from the other file. Staring at the two, Phil can see the resemblance; see how she could be this crazy man's daughter. Loki is a liar and so is his daughter; what's to say she doesn't have the rest of her father's bad traits as well?

"Phil, please, answer me." Tension weaves itself through her voice, but she's no longer tearful. All signs she was ever upset have faded into nothing, leaving her sounding almost dead. It's a tone that's driven him to pull her into an embrace before simply to comfort her. Now, it just makes him ill. How many times did he fall for that trick? How many times did she fake what she was feeling to lull him into a sense of comfort?

"You lied Rowen, it's as simple as that," states Phil, his own voice cold with an anger that burns deeper than he thought possible. "You lied about who you were, tricked me into believing you were someone you weren't, and abandoned our daughter when she was born. I don't know why you did it, and I don't care. Those are the facts and the fact is that I'm going to make my first call after this to Fury, to tell him everything. He can deal with you."

He wants to slam the phone down, wants to hear the satisfying click in the hopes that it will make the words he's just spoken taste less like acid on his tongue. It's completely true; he has to tell Nick everything that she just admitted. He's not about to tell Nick about Skye, but everything else is fair game.

"Is she alright?" Rowen's whispered question catches him off guard for a moment before he makes the connection: she wants to know how Skye is. But the way she says it, like she's completely dead inside, just makes Phil angrier. She abandoned their child, then has the gall to ask if she's alright but doesn't even bother to try to sound concerned?

"She's fine," replies Phil, his voice cold. "Better than she would have been if I didn't find her."

"Phil," there's that whisper again, the one that sounds like she's in so much pain that it almost makes him want to gather her up in his arms and protect her. But he won't because all she's done is lie and who's to say this isn't all just another lie to get to the child she abandoned? "Is she safe? Does she look like us?"

His anger flares up in response, nearly drowning out her voice and everything else about her that's making Phil want to do anything but be angry with her. "That's none of your concern, Rowen. You're never going to meet her. I wouldn't put her in the position of facing the person who not only abandoned her but couldn't even bother to tell her father that he had a child. I wouldn't put her in the company of someone who's done nothing but lie to everyone about who she is. And I don't want her to know her mother is a traitor."

A growl echos through the line, more animal than human, low and fierce. "I am no traitor and I will not allow a man with so few balls that he had to deliver this news by telephone to imply as much." Anger infused her words, but it only fuels his own as she actually tries to deny the fact that she betrayed him. "Furthermore, I didn't abandon her, Phil. If you tell her such a lie, you will be no better than I."

"Really?" challenges Phil, his voice rising. "You don't call leaving your child in the middle of China where a corrupt government and an international police agency could fight over her abandonment? You don't call letting her witness massive amounts of death as an infant and not doing a damn thing about it abandoning her?"

"She would have witnessed death if she'd remained with me!" argues Rowen. "It's part of my culture! My mother is a death goddess! But that isn't even the point! I didn't know she was alive!"

"So you tried to kill her too?" snarls Phil, his free hand wrapping around the image of Rowen and crushing it into a ball. "Great, wonderful. You'll be lucky if Fury let's you live after all of this! I'll be lucky if he lets me shoot you, myself!"

"I didn't try to kill her!" snaps Rowen. "I didn't know she was alive becau-"

Phil doesn't let her finish, his anger too far gone at this point to allow any kind of rational thought to permeate his mind. His words cut her off thoroughly. "You will never see her, Rowen. I won't even allow her to know you exist. Goodbye." He forces himself to slam down the phone, more violence in the motion than necessary. It isn't because of the anger he feels towards Rowen entirely; a good part of it is the fact that if he doesn't slam down the phone, he knows he won't hang up the line. Part of him (a much bigger part than he wants to admit) wants to hear her excuses; wants to find some reason to believe and forgive her. It's the rest of him that won't. She lied to him and that's that. End of story. Whatever comes next, it's exactly what she deserves.