Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author Note: Part Six in the 'Declassifying' series, ie this occurs after all my previous Agents of SHIELD fic. Warning, contains polygamy. Enjoy.

CHAPTER AND VERSE

Skye reached for the SUV's door handle. She'd been sat inside the vehicle for a couple of hours, combing through some old SHIELD papers that Coulson had passed onto her – apparently they could provide information for the team's current case and, if she was reading between the lines right, the papers could also help push forward her issue of redacted parents. So far, she'd found nothing to help there, though there'd been a few clues about the fugitive that they were currently chasing down so there was that. Skye slammed the SUV's door shut with more than a little force, whatever, it was totally necessary.

God, Coulson said that he was doing what he could to help her with her parent problem but he'd definitely been distracted lately and if the Coulson-bot was getting a little hazy, then something really wasn't right. Skye crumpled up the papers in one hand, shooting an annoyed glare at the internet-proof bracelet that was still blocking her mojo. It was like losing a limb, and no, she wasn't exaggerating. How did people function before the internet? Well, she was going to let Coulson know that she'd researched old-school and that there'd only been a trickle of information, not nearly as much as she would have been able to find unchained. Surely he saw the wisdom in turning her loose for the good of the team? And for the sake of her sanity.

She was heading for the stairs when something moved suddenly and she ducked down in time to catch sight of Ward and...Simmons? Ward wasn't wearing an actual smile, but there was something lighter about his expression as his fingers grazed Simmons' elbow and she angled her face upwards in reply and woah...Ward looked almost fond as he gazed down at Simmons and then, just as weirdly, he thumbed gently at her jaw, just a quick light brush, but definitely a skin-on-skin not-just-teammates touch. Skye swallowed her shout of surprise and watched wide-eyed as Simmons laughed and said something that made Ward's lips curve upwards as he led the way into the lab.

What the fuck? Did Fitz know about this? Oh, apparently he did because there he was, walking into the lab without a flicker of surprise, babbling about a weapon recharge failure and Ward was saying something dry and cutting in response and there was a noise like, well, like something fun and fleshy was happening and Skye really had to get the SHIELD bracelet off her damn wrist so that she could hack into the lab's security feed. She was briefly tempted to sneak downstairs and take a peek in person but super-agent Ward would probably spot her in half a second and then all the fun visuals would stop and Skye would probably end up wearing two bracelets. So instead she tried to gather her totally startled and disarrayed thoughts before making for Coulson's office as quietly as possible.

Ward, and Fitz, and Simmons? That was...busy and impressive. Wow. Skye shook her head as she knocked on Coulson's door before barging right in. Sometimes the only way to get answers was to ignore both protocol and politeness. It got her glared at, but it also got her results.

Coulson was taking a cellphone call. He gestured for her to take a seat as he turned his back, like that would actually give him privacy, but Skye caught the glint of a small genuine smile on the senior agent's face. God, what was with the smiles today? First, Ward, now Coulson, something in the SHIELD agent matrix was clearly glitching. If Agent May started smiling too, then Skye was barricading herself in the hold until she could jimmy the bracelet off and work on surviving the robot apocalypse.

She got her cellphone out, so that she had something to apparently focus on while she eavesdropped. Coulson's body language was way more relaxed than usual, his free hand was shoved into his pants pocket, and his voice sounded warm and almost...casual? Like he was talking to a friend, oooh or someone who was more than a friend.

"Watch your back," Coulson turned back around as he spoke. "She'll be watching it too, so...exactly. Same here."

He hung up without a goodbye and tucked the phone away, giving Skye an expectant look. There was the Coulson that she'd come to know and respect – all business, all the time. But Skye couldn't help smiling a little after hearing that conversation, which caused Coulson to raise his eyebrows at her.

"This is the part where you tell me why you're interrupting my evening," he told her.

Skye's eyebrows waggled. "Why? Did you have plans?"

Coulson didn't look all that amused. "My plans include sleep before we start tomorrow's manhunt. There won't be time for any rest then."

"Right, because that's unusual for us. Just came by to drop some knowledge, New Zealand looks like our best bet, these papers – fun read by the way, you know how much I love pre-internet filing – all outline a few rare antiquities dealers who pointed in that direction. So it makes sense that our guy might have heard the same chatter and flown that way too."

Coulson nodded unruffled and Skye dropped the crumpled papers onto his desk, folding her arms and feeling more than a little frustrated. "Which apparently isn't the case-breaker you made it out to be. Oh and by the way, I could have told you all of that a lot sooner if I wasn't manacled."

Coulson gave her a look. "Noted. Anything else?"

Skye blew out a frustrated breath, because maybe Coulson hadn't been giving her a secret clue about her parents after all. God, there was so much paperwork to look through and it would be so much easier with internet access. Wearing the bracelet made everything feel even more out of reach.

"Skye."

Right, he'd asked her a question, and now he was looking at her with a slightly softer expression, like he could see right into her thoughts. Fitz and Simmons had probably already invented a gadget that could do that. Her face must have telegraphed something as her thoughts turned to the fantasy situation that she was almost certain was happening one deck below, because Coulson suddenly looked like he didn't want to know.

Skye asked anyway. "Are there any regulations about inter-team dating? Not me, just asking for a friend, well more than one friend actually."

Coulson probably would have snorted if he was anyone else, but he was Coulson so he just looked at her like she was transparent and giving him a headache. Skye was used to that.

"You can tell your friends that there's few regulations about inter-team relationships. Director Fury was very clear that he didn't want any 'high-school problem' paperwork coming across his desk, his exact words."

The big boss man reading about how an inter-team relationship was viewed by other team members. Yeah, that would be awkward, and weird, for everyone involved, and this was a company that regularly dealt with the alien and disturbing. Skye's brow wrinkled, did Coulson know? About Fitz, Simmons, and Ward? He seemed to know about most things that happened team-wise. Why would this be any different? And yeah, that was a creepy thought.

"Okay, so it's up to every team leader to be the high-school principal and sort out any inter-team relationship snafus? There's hazard pay for that, right?"

Coulson looked a little pained. "No. But I'll pass your suggestion on."

"Sure, and my friends will be very glad to hear that they're not in any kind of career-ending trouble and…you totally know who I'm talking about, don't you?"

Coulson's expression smoothed out into that infuriating blankness, edged by the sort of amusement that made Skye want to dig her heels in and ruin his carpet. "Probably."

Skye gave him a look and crossed her arms challengingly. "You know about the little scientist and agent ménage-a-trio."

Weirdly, Coulson didn't look remotely uncomfortable, and Skye had always pegged him as someone who preferred paperwork, collectables, and suits to anything remotely messy, sticky, and fun. Well, he did have a phone buddy…

"There's paperwork for that."

Skye slanted a disbelieving look his way. "There's paperwork for a Fitz, Simmons, and Ward threesome?"

Coulson didn't answer but his silence wasn't disagreement. Okay, so SHIELD really did have paperwork for everything, only hadn't Coulson said that Director Fury didn't want to deal with that kind of thing? Maybe that particular paperwork bypassed him, for everybody's sake.

Ward had been a little more unclenched lately; Skye had assumed that he was finally getting comfortable with the team and that the whole interacting-with-people-on-a-human-level thing was finally penetrating his robot circuits. Sure, he'd told her about his brother, and Skye was honored that she'd been the one he'd told, but it looked like he'd also found a way to unwind that didn't involve a heavy bag, a much more fun way.

"So…" Skye didn't even try to hide her huge delight and amusement, because this was awesome. "Threesomes are SHIELD-approved. Good to know."

"No, you can't see the paperwork."

Skye grinned, just how hard would Fitz blush if she asked him about his bedmates? She could ask Ward how far Fitz's blush went. Simmons, she'd maybe get a little drunk and then angle to unleash as many dirty stories as possible. Maybe Skye could use them when Ward was being worse than usual. Hey, she still didn't have the internet at her fingertips so she'd take what she could get.

"And the bracelet stays on."

Damn it. Skye got to her feet, her glance sweeping the room and its perfectly-displayed memorabilia, trying to find some sign that Coulson had secret SHIELD info that she could remove and plow through in pursuit of SHIELD threesome gossip. Maybe there was something in here about her parents too; maybe she'd see something that Coulson didn't amongst all the reams of information and reports. Just because one line of inquiry got shut down didn't mean that there was no other way through. She had SHIELD, she had the Rising Tide, she was going to get her answers.

She flashed something like a smile towards Coulson, her chin lifting challengingly. "Then don't blame me if we're hours behind the man with the map."

She couldn't resist adding, as she exited the office. "And you really need to lock this door if you don't want your phone sex interrupted."

There was the sound of something hitting the floor behind her. Skye grinned to herself; oh, she knew exactly what she'd be researching as soon as her bracelet came off.

-the end