Sometimes, the best results come when you are thrown in the deep end.
- Natalie Cook


"Okay," I said to the woman who stood not even three feet away from where I sat restrained on the plane's couch. The man who had handcuffed me was now standing to the side with his gun out and ready if I tried anything. "I was given some really powerful drugs earlier, so if you could recap your whole evil plan and enlighten me as to why I'm being held hostage, that'd be great."

Maybe this wasn't the best place in my story to start. Let's try again


13 HOURS EARLIER


"What do you mean I can't go?" I demanded looking at Simmons. "This is my first mission with you guys where I haven't gotten a bag shoved over my head. I'm not missing it because you don't want me getting a little sick."

Okay, maybe I should still explain a bit.

We were in Peru and it was Skye's and my first official mission with the team, however, I wasn't allowed off the place.

"Do you know how many incurable diseases there are in Llactapata?" Simmons asked as she put a new clean bandage on my side. The cut I had got from escaping the police car yesterday was causing me more problems than I thought it would. "There are too many variables and your injury could get infected."

"It's practically a paper cut." I argued and Simmons gave me a look. "Okay, maybe not a paper cut, but it's not a big deal. I'll be fine."

"You impaled yourself." She pointed out and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "I don't want to risk it."

"My body, my rules." I reminded her as I went to move off my bed, but Simmons held up a syringe.

"I don't want to, but I will sedate you." She threatened feebly and I scoffed. I had at least two inches on her and she looked like she had the bone density of a baby bird.

"What's going on in here?" Both Simmons and I turned our heads to see Ward standing in front of the open doorway of my bunk and I let out a sigh of relief. He would make Simmons realize how ridiculous she was being.

"Simmons is threatening to sedate me." I told him. "I'm going with you all to check out the 0-8-4 and she's trying to keep me prisoner in my own bunk."

Simmons rolled her eyes at my dramatics. "The wound in her side only required four stitches, but they're not fully healed. We all have risks of infection even with the necessary vaccines, but Lydia is three times likely to get an infection with an open wound."

Ward crossed his arms and seemed to be thinking. I just knew that he would side with me, so imagine my surprise when he said, "Simmons is right. It's too big of a risk."

"Who asked you, Ranger Rick?' Mature, I know. "I'm going." Standing up from my bed, I did my best to hide the pain from when I moved and went to leave the bunk, only to yelp when I felt a needle enter my skin. I immediately looked to see Simmons quickly removing the needle from my body, but I was stuck on where she had injected me.

"Did you just inject my ass?" I demanded weakly, but everything was slowly beginning to get fuzzy. I blinked a couple of time and everything was back to normal. I looked to Simmons with a smug expression on my face. "I guess it didn't take." Turning around, I went to take a step, only for everything to go black.


Ward quickly caught Lydia as she fell forward and looked to see that she was already out.

"What did you give her?" He asked Simmons as she moved out of the bunk so Ward could put Lydia on her bed.

"Just a heavy duty sedative." She assured him. "She'll be awake in a few hours."

"She'll be pissed." Ward pointed out and Simmons nodded.

"True." She accepted as Ward stepped out of the bunk and slid the door close. "But she'll be perfectly healthy as well."


When I woke up, I had a heart attack.

No, not an actual heart attack; I couldn't remember where I was and I was not good with small spaces. After a few moments, I finally noticed the few items of mine inside the bunk and remembered where I was and why. Then I remembered what happened before I went unconscious.

"Simmons, you are going to die." I hissed as I sat up. I went to move off of the bed, only to sit back down when I realized my legs were still kind of wobbly. Whatever Simmons gave me had been strong.

A moment or two later I was fine. After standing up and bending my legs a couple of times to make sure they wouldn't fail me again, I left the bunk...only to have a gun shoved in my face.

"What the hell?!" I yelled without thinking as I immediately threw my hands up in the air. The man holding the gun roughly grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out of the small hall. "Watch it, man hands!" Sure, he was a man, but the insult was still there.

"Well, what is this?" A females voice asked as I was shoved on the couch. I could tell by the accent that she was some Spanish ethnicity. I immediately tried to push myself up and off the couch, but had a gun cocked and pointed at me for my troubles. "You weren't trying to hide one of your agents from me, were you Coulson?"

Now we're at the point from the beginning of the story; The woman, who stood near a tied up Coulson, ordered me tied, but she left me on the couch instead of moving me. I guess she figured that we'd probably come up with a plan if we were together.

"So," I continued as the woman stared at me. "What about that evil plan of yours. I mean, if I'm going to be a hostage, I'd like to know what the end game is." The woman just let out a little laugh and shook her head before returning to Coulson. "Okay, I guess that's a no."

What trouble could Coulson and everyone else have possibly gotten into on the ground that led up to this moment? I was only out for...well, I don't really know how long I was out, but I knew it hadn't been long. The sun was still up and it hadn't exactly been dark when Simmons forcibly sedated me. It only proved how much of a danger magnet S.H.I.E.L.D. was and the armed men around me only acted as a continued reminder. 'What the hell are you doing here, Lydia?' I asked myself because, at the moment, I wasn't entirely sure of the answer.

Suddenly, I heard a loud, but muffled crash and I felt the plane shake. I looked to Coulson who looked just as confused as I felt.

The men with guns all immediately began to go and check out the sound, but the woman stopped them. Even in the bad guys, the woman was on top. "No. Eso es exactamente lo que quieren!" She warned, telling them not to go down because that's what Skye and the others wanted. I wasn't sure why she was speaking in Spanish; maybe that's the only language the gun toting gorillas knew, maybe she didn't want us to know what she was saying. Either way, I learned Spanish when I was seven and I'm pretty sure Coulson knew it too.

Unsure of what to do, I decided it was best that I stayed where I was. Mostly because I had no idea what I was supposed to do and I kind of didn't want to get shot.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. six-one-six," I heard a radio-like voice say from out of nowhere. "We have radar contact. Requesting confirmation on a change in course. Over." The woman pulled her gun out from where it had been tucked in the waist of her pants and pointed it at Coulson.

"Answer it," She demanded. "Or they all learn what a thirty-thousand foot drop feels like."

"Agent Coulson, are you there?" The voice asked. "You have course confirmation; you are clear straight to the slingshot."

I looked to Coulson, trying to figure out why he wasn't trying to figure out of this. That's when I noticed that his hands weren't exactly tied. Thinking that I should try to loosen my own ties, I began shifting as much as I could without drawing attention to myself. I, however, stopped when I noticed a small flying metal bug nearing me. I immediately recognized it as one of Fitz's little camera things that he named after the seven dwarfs. I mean, I'd never seen them in action, but I had walked in on him saying goodnight to each of them as he put them away when I went to get my stitched checked by Simmons.

I caught Coulson's eye and then nodded my head towards the flying thing that was stealthily getting closer and closer to a medium sized metal object that looked like an engine. How I had no noticed that before, I'd never know.

Coulson immediately wound his hands around the pole with the rope and I looked around for something to hold on to; he was obviously bracing himself.

"Agent Coulson?" The voice asked. "Everything alright up there? We heard you had a little dust up on the ground."

The woman pointed her gun at Coulson again. "Yeah, we're all good. It's gonna be blue skies from here on out."

I heard a low whirring sound and turned to the metal object to see some blue pulse going through it. Not knowing what else to do, I grabbed on to the seat belt that was digging into my lower back and wrapped it around my wrist a couple of times. I did it just in time too because, not even a moment later, a large blast took out a large hole in the side of the plane.

When I was seventeen years old- a few months after I ran away from foster care- I started dating this guy; he was five years older than me and super hot- not the point. Anyway, he took me to this place where they let people play around in a wind tunnel and it was the best time I had even had in my entire life.

This was nothing like that.

I let out a scream as the hole in the plane sucked out one of the gorillas closest to me and I would have been next if it weren't for the seat belt. I kicked as my body was pulled by the air, leaving me a horizontal mess as I tried to keep my grip on the seat belt.

"Lydia, don't let go!" I heard Coulson yell and- despite the immediate danger of falling out of a plane and falling thirty thousand feet to my death- I managed to have a witty comeback.

"Really?" I yelled back. "I thought I'd let go and try to swan dive into the ocean!" I scream again when I felt a hand wrap around my ankle and felt a sharp pain in my wrist as I was yanked back due to the extra weight. I looked to see that one of the gorillas had grabbed onto my ankle as he was almost pulled out of the plane. There was no way that I was going to be able to keep my grip on the seat belt with him hanging onto me and there was no way I was going to die for him.

"Get." Kick. "Off!" I kicked him again, but it didn't do much damage considering I didn't have any shoes on, but- luckily- it worked. It just didn't work fast enough.

"No, no, no!" I grabbed at the seat belt with my free hand as my other one began slipping, but it was no use. I screamed as the seat belt slipped free of my wrist and I was pulled towards the hole in the plane. I was sure that I was going to die.

Luckily, someone upstairs had a different plan.

The air was pushed out of my stomach as someone grabbed me around my waist and slammed me into the wall next to the hole.

"Ward?" I wheezed out. When had he gotten here?

"Go!" He ordered as he pushed me away just as he was tackled to the ground. Uncharacteristically, I acted fast and jumped out of the way. Ward continued to struggle with his opponent on the ground and there was no way I could leave him there.

Looking around for something I could use as a weapon, my eyes landed on a fire extinguisher that hung on the wall. Without even thinking, I crawled towards it, fighting against the wind the entire time before using it to pull myself up. Once I was, I pulled it off the wall only to be pushed down on the ground again by the wind. Thankfully, that only helped me get to Ward faster. Lifting up the fire extinguisher, I pounded it on the gorilla's back twice before Ward was able to push him off. He managed to grab onto a chair near the hole and was pulling himself back towards Ward so I threw the extinguisher at him, sending it and him out of the hole.

"Lydia!" I heard and turned to see that Ward was now gone and Skye was holding onto one of the pillars on the window box near the couch. She held out one of her hands. "I need your help!" Deciding not to question it, I grabbed onto her arm and she pulled me up.
Skye only took me a little ways before grabbing onto a red EMERGENCY box mounted on the wall and I helped her pry the top off. She immediately grabbed a yellow bag and pulled it to the floor before we crawled with it closer to the hole. It was only my certainty that Skye didn't want to die that stopped me from questioning her.

"Get the straps off!" She ordered and I did as she said without question; unbuckling the black straps that held the yellow cloth together. I was just about to ask what it was when it popped open and I was surrounded by a large yellow raft. Realizing what Skye's plan was, I ducked and let the raft fly over my head and to the hole just as Ward almost fell through. That was too close...

Looking to Skye, who looked just as tired and out of breath as I felt, I couldn't help but smile at her frizzy, messed up look. "Talk about windswept hair."


"You looked wrecked." Ward commented as I sat down on a plastic crate that was next to him. I was sure I didn't want to know what was inside.

It had taken us three hours to get to the slingshot from wherever the hell we had been over the Pacific Ocean and I was pretty sure that we were all still very tired. It had been a very hectic day- even for those of us who had been sedated through most of it.

Once we got there, mechanics had gotten started on fixing the hole in the plane and the doors to Fitz-Simmons' lab (I hadn't asked for that story yet) while the rest of us tried to wind down from what had happened. Surprisingly, it hadn't taken more than a few minutes; Fitz-Simmons were proud of themselves for getting through something like what happened, May remained as stoic as ever, Ward seemed to recover pretty quickly after almost falling through an airplane to his death, Coulson made sure that his car (Lola) was okay, Skye texted on her phone and me...well, I had to get my stitched redone by Simmon's since they had ripped, but I was feeling pretty good, all things considered.

I gave Ward an incredulous look. "I almost died." I reminded him. "Not to mention the fact that Skye and I totally saved your ass."

"We blew up a plane." I looked up to see Fitz-Simmons making their way down the spiral staircase as they chatted. Fitz held a large cooler in his hand and I wondered why we had one.

"I had a new experience," Simmons continued, oblivious to Fitz's dialog. "You had a new experience, but it was new for all of us."

"They're happy." May noted.

"Hey, c'mon guys. You do not want to miss this." Fitz warned as he and Simmon's made their way to the cargo bay ramp. It hadn't been completely lowered to the ground, so they were able to sit and dangle their feet. I looked at Ward in question, but he just shook his head before standing and making his way over to the two. Knowing I'd have a less than stellar chance getting any answers from May, I made way over too before settling down next to Simmons.

"What are we doing?" I wondered aloud as Simmons opened the cooler and tried to hand me a beer. "I'm not a big beer person." I told her. Turning back to the cooler that sat between her and Fitz, she put the beer in and dug around in the ice before producing a bottle of light pinkish liquid.

"Strawberry lemonade vodka." She said and I let out a little scoff before looking at Ward.

"Okay, since when did Fitz-Simmons become the coolest people on this plane?" I asked as I twisted the top off of the bottle.

"So, it'll take a hundred and eighty days to reach the sun." Fitz began as May and Skye finally made their way over. "Now yes, it would have been faster if they used hydrogen fueled APU's, but they're having fun."

"How many of those have you guys had?" Skye asked when Simmons handed her a beer. May sat down on my other side and Ward took a seat by Fitz.

Simmons sighed playfully. "Skye, it's important, when in the field, to unwind from time to time."

"Especially after a hard day of everyone almost dying." Fitz continued.

"And saving each other." I added and Fitz nodded in agreement.

"Which doesn't happen everyday, right?" Simmons certainly was chatty. "It's an anomaly, an irregularity, not...the norm." She trailed off when she noticed that Coulson had make his way over. He looked rough.

"Speaking of not the norm," He began. "Whose idea was it to blow a hole in the side of the plane?" Everyone got really quiet then. I couldn't even look ashamed or try to avoid his gaze because I hadn't even been apart of the plan.

"Ooh, you guys are in trouble..." I grinned. No one found me funny.

Skye felt the need to speak up. "...May said that the doors were tied to the pressurization, so I thought-"

"So we thought," Simmons interrupted. "It was the only way to release them."

"It was everyone's idea, sir." Ward insisted.

Fitz nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it was quite genius really."

I don't know what punishment or scolding they had expected, but I could tell that Coulson wasn't mad. In fact, he seemed a little proud that they worked together. "Nice work."

"All clear for blastoff." We heard a loud, voice say through some kind of megaphone. That seemed to successfully pull everyone's attention away from the conversation and back to the rocket that was about to be sent into space.

"Launching," A nasally voice began and I looked over to see Fitz holding his nose. "In three, two-" Simmons giggled, Ward shook his head good naturedly and even May looked a little amused. The rocket shot up slowly with a burst of purple flames behind his, leaving a lot of smoke in it's trail. "The trajectory will take it beyond the Lagrange point so that it doesn't hit Herschel."

"Yeah," Simmons continued. "And there hasn't been any coronal mass ejections, so it shouldn't lose telemetry."

Ward sighed. "Guys, English."

"I second that." I looked at Simmons. "I had no idea what you just said."

So, for the next half an hour, we watched the rocket go higher and higher until we could no longer see it. After that we didn't really have anything else to do; the plane was still being repaired which really limited what we can do. That's when Fitz-Simmons insisted we play a board game, which wouldn't have been such a bad idea if it were anyone else playing.

The problems started when Simmons and Ward both wanted to be the race car when Monopoly was chosen, then Coulson gave out the money wrong and Skye had to become the bank which led to me being the bank because she was sneaking money. Then, after Skye somehow got May to play, she ended up putting a hotel on each of her twelve properties which bankrupted Fitz, so he started playing with Simmons since they've "Always been a team". The icing on the cake was when Ward rolled a three, sending him to jail and he 'accidentally' knocked the board to the ground.

"I am never playing Monopoly with you people again." Skye announced as she helped me put the pieces away.

"You were the one cheating!" Fitz exclaimed, but Simmons pulled him away before he could say anymore. May had long since retreated to the plane along with Coulson and Ward shook his head in amusement at the two scientists.

"This was fun." I said once everyone was gone and Skye nodded.

"Yeah, it was." She admitted and I saw that her movements had slowed considerably. I looked up from the floor to see that she was thinking about something...hard.

"Skye?" Nothing. "Skye!" Shaking herself out of her head, she looked to me. "What was that?"

"Nothing." She claimed and I gave her a look. "Lydia, seriously, it was nothing." She repeated as she put the lid on the box. "Don't worry about it."

If anything, that made me worry more.