"You should have told us he was coming back today" May said in a scolding tone.
"I didn't know, Melinda," he said. But he could still see the disbelief in her eyes, "I honestly didn't. I didn't know the operation had gone south until a few days ago and he didn't have a chance to make contact"
May rolled his eyes at him. Coulson might be the director now, but he could still be so reckless. Honestly, letting a known and dangerous Hydra agent inside their already compromised base. He always insisted that he thought things through, but he constantly reminded her of a certain Hacker who was known to make questionable and dangerous decisions.
As if on cue, Skye entered the lab, laptop in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. May had noticed the she had become completely reliant on caffeine since Shield's fall. May had lectured Skye about it before; how it would negatively affect her nerves and decision making, but Skye had just rolled her eyes and said "Yes, mom"
May wasn't an idiot; she knew that Skye still wasn't sleeping. As much as she had tried to cover it up, she was still shaken up over the fall of Shield. She'd lost her job and everything she believed in, not to mention her SO. Her entire world had come crashing down around her. That wasn't something you could get passed overnight. Yet she had tried and nearly run herself into the ground. No one else was perceptive enough to see it, but Skye was slowly killing herself and there was nothing May could do to stop it. She saw so much of herself in the little girl that she had resented at first. But now… Skye was the one who needed her the most. She had grown up without parents and needed some sort of maternal figure. Phil was a good father, but he lacked the ability to say no to her. May on the other hand…
"Earth to Supervising Officer Melinda May," Skye said as she waved a hand in front of May's face.
"What?" May snapped, momentarily snapped out of her internal monologue. Sometimes Skye was irritating enough that May forgot how much she loved her.
"I was asking if you knew he was coming"
"I did not" May said, as she glared at Coulson
"So our fearless leader left you out of the loop too?" She asked. May could hear the hurt under the layer of humor. Skye hated when Coulson kept secrets from her, unfortunately it was part of the job description as the director.
"Our 'fearless' leader has bigger problems to attend to, Skye" she scolded.
"One of them being the tracking device" Coulson said, trying to diffuse the situation. Sometimes they were too alike for their own good, "Any progress"
"Yeah, actually" Skye said, "I worked all night on it"
"All night?" Coulson asked, "You didn't sleep at all?"
"This was more important" Skye said as she took a sip of her coffee. Coulson seemed to buy it, but Skye knew that May knew she wouldn't have slept anyways. The lies were going to catch up with her eventually, but not today. She pulled a small chip out of her bag, "I was able to make it small enough that no one should notice it. But…"
"Why does there always have to be a but?" Coulson asked
"But" Skye continued, "I can't think of a practical way to attach it without physical contact with the subject"
"So we have make contact?" May asked
"Unfortunately" Skye grimaced.
"Just a small stumbling block" Coulson said sarcastically, "We'll wait until the others show up before we discuss this issue any further. There's something else I wanted to talk to you about, Skye"
"Please don't" she said, already guessing the topic. She had hours to think about it last night and she was less than thrilled that Ward was here. But everyone else had sucked it up and accepted it, so she should too.
"I know it doesn't seem like it sometimes, but I take all my agent's feelings into consideration before I make decisions," Coulson said, "So if it's a problem-"
"It's not, sir" Skye said quickly, "I know why you did it"
"You do?" he asked. He sounded amused. May rolled her eyes. Skye was playing him just like she always did with her personal problems. Making herself seem obedient and understanding when she was really just trying to get more info. And Coulson fell for it. Every. Damn. Time. May honestly believed if it wasn't for her, Coulson would sell Shield's secrets to every pretty girl, with big brown eyes. At least Skye normally used her powers for good.
"Traitor or not" Skye said, "We need good agents. And Ward is a good agent"
"But no one will trust him in the field" May interjected
"They will if they want to survive" Coulson countered, "Skye, can you go wake up the others? We need to start this meeting sometime today"
"Yes sir," she said, giving an exaggerated salute before leaving.
"What do you want to say?" Coulson asked turning to May.
"Nothing I haven't said before" May retorted
Coulson sighed, "I know you disapprove of this" May scoffed, but Coulson ignored it, "But Skye's right. We need more trained agents. Almost everyone useful is dead or with Hydra. You and Bobby are good, but you can't do it alone"
"We have almost the entire academy on our side"
"You expect me to send fresh graduates out into the Field?"
"Skye's a field agent and she didn't even attend the academy"
"Skye's different, May. You know that"
"She's a child, Phil" May said. Her voice bordered on yelling, "And you're sending her out there on missions she's not ready for because she's 'special'"
"Mock me all you want, May, but she is special"
"I'm not mocking you" May said, "I'm trying to make you see your own foolishness"
"I'm not-" Phil saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Skye was back with Hunter, Fitz, and Simmons in tow, "We'll continue this later" Phil whispered
"Looks like Mom and Dad are fighting" Hunter said as he took a seat next to Skye, who appeared to have poured herself a fresh cup of coffee.
"Not fighting, just discussing" Phil said.
"That-that's what my parents used to say before they got divorced," Fitz said quietly.
"We're not getting divorced, Fitz," Coulson replied.
"And we're also not married," May added quickly
The six of them sat in silence and waited for Bobby, Trip, Mack, and Ward to join them. No one was comfortable with the silence, but no one knew what to say. Skye focused on trying to keep her jittery hands under control. May constantly lectured her on her coffee intake, and Skye knew she was right. But how else was she supposed to keep herself sane? Without coffee, she'd be exhausted. But instead, she could spend her time actually making a difference here. And if she needed a pot of coffee a day, then so be it.
Skye saw Bobby walk in from the corner of her eye. Of course, the agent already looked perfect at 8 o'clock in the morning. Skye couldn't help but notice that she stood a little closer to Hunter than she had when she arrived.
"Can't we start now" Skye complained, "Almost everyone is here" Skye was slightly worried that she'd go crazy if she didn't have something to do. She rarely got the opportunity to present things on her own, but this tech was of her own creation. For once, she had the spotlight and she just wanted to show off her damn tracker.
"Patience, Skye" Jemma said soothingly. Skye gave her a reassuring smile. So Jemma had noticed how high strung she was too. And Skye thought May was the only one she couldn't fool.
"Where the hell are Mack and Tripp?" Bobby asked. She purposefully forgot to mention Ward. Bobby didn't personally know him, but she could see the damage he'd left here in his wake. But even though she hadn't spoken the name, everyone knew who the final person missing there.
"They're probably sleeping in" Jemma replied, "It is a Saturday, Sir"
"Well, Shield agents don't get weekends" May replied, "I'll go wake them"
As May walked off, Hunter said, "She's just a bundle of sunshine today"
"I wouldn't say that around her," Coulson warned
"But it might be kinda fun to watch Hunter get punched in the throat," Skye teased.
"I second that," Bobby interjected
"Why do you both get so much pleasure from my pain?" Hunter pouted.
"Ah, it's just a joke, Hunter" Skye replied, "How would I survive without my second best man having my back in the field?"
"Only second?"
"Sorry, Fitz was here first"
Skye turned to the aforementioned scientist, who had turned a dark shade of red and looked both flattered and mortified. Much to Fitz's relief, Trip and Mack walked in, silencing Hunter as he began to explain why he should be Skye's favorite.
"Found them" May said coldly, "But I didn't find Ward." Skye, Fitz, and Simmons noticeably stiffened at his name. They always did when the former agent was mentioned. The others didn't feel the sting of Ward's betrayal like Coulson's original team members, but they knew enough that it was almost always a topic of conversation to avoid.
"Let's just start then," Skye said. She tried to take any emotion out of her voice. She wanted to make it clear that Ward's presence here didn't affect. She was probably failing miserably, of course, but it was worth the effort.
Skye got up to the edge of the lab table and opened up her laptop. On it was a program that no one on this team knew about except for Coulson and Fitzsimmons. She had been secretly working on it almost since the fall of Shield. She held up the small microchip that had been resting in her back pocket.
"This," she said as she passed it around the table, "Is a tracking device."
"One she created herself," Jemma added proudly
"Yeah, I designed it, but Fitz engineered it and worked out a lot of the bugs," Skye said, then said pointedly to Hunter, "Which is why he is my favorite"
"But the program that runs it," Fitz interrupted hastily, "Was all Skye"
"You'll make me blush," Skye replied. May shot a disapproving look her way and she cleared her throat and continued as professionally as possible, "As far as I can tell, it works within the 40 mile radius I've been able to test it on. Maybe farther, but I can't tell without any further experimenting."
"I can sense a but coming" Tripp said dryly
"Unfortunately, there is one" Skye said, "While it works wonders on agents who want to be tracked, I haven't figured out a way to attach it to Hydra agents without them knowing."
"We've decided that face to face contact is the only way to attach it right now" May interjected
"I think I can figure some way around it," Skye said, "But I don't think we have the time. Not knowing certain Hydra agent's locations is a disadvantage and we need to get these operational as soon as possible."
"So we send agents in to plant the device, problem solved" Bobby said
"Not so much" Fitz argued, "It takes an um… a certain amount of, uh, finesse to secure them."
"Finesse isn't really our strong suit" Mack admitted
"So you're saying one of you three will have to be there?" May asked. She already didn't like this plan.
"Unfortunately yes," Jemma sighed, "and I think the choice is obvious." It took a moment for Skye to realize that all eyes were on her. She glanced at her program then at Coulson. She did know it worked better than anyone, and she was better in the field then Fitz or Simmons.
"We'll have to work of the specifics later" Coulson said. It was impossible for Skye to read him. He normally was alright with Skye going out in the field these days, but his opinion of her seemed to change on a daily basis. And with the work schedule she'd been keeping, May was certain to try and talk him out of this, "but first…" the words died on Coulson's lips as he spied movement out of the corner of his eye.
"What'd I miss?" Ward asked, stepping out to face his former team for the first time in months.
A.N: I know, it left off at an awkward place, but I realized that if Ie nded the chapter where I wanted to, it would be way too long. So the result is this weird ending and a shorter 3rd chapter. But all in all, I really like this chapter and the way the story is progressing so far. What do you guys think?
