AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, this chapter was a long time in the running. Sorry about that! But now that season two has officially been released, I can safely say that this story should be fairly closely interwined with season two events, starting from the next chapter. Obviously, it will end differently, and it will be different, as Simmons and Ward are on the loose, but.. let's just say, keep an eye out for hair cuts and new characters (some of which may or may not include Lance Hunter).

CHAPTER THREE: Everything

"Why didn't they kill us?"

"Phil.."

They were sitting in Coulson's disorganised office. Not everyone. Just his trusted team, now reduced only to four. Him, May, Skye. You could count Triplett as well. Rather new to the team, but he had proved his worth and was certainly a credit to the team. Fitz, was.. well, out of action. Still in a coma. He hadn't moved an inch since they had pulled him from that hyperbaric chamber what seemed like forever ago. It made his heart constrict even just thinking about the young scientist.

"They didn't kill us, May. Why not? They want something from us."

"You don't think there's another wolf in the herd, sir?" Trip questioned, standing a fair bit away from May. He looked distressed, but then again Coulson was sure that distress summed up the whole team's emotions at that precise moment. Simmons's betrayal had rocked their disorganised world. Sweet, honest Simmons, working for their worst enemy? Unimaginable. And yet here they were. He was still half expecting to wake up from another bloodcurdling nightmare.

Coulson warily looked at May and Triplett. Skye wasn't present, off somewhere to run over some things. They knew she was safe, the whole base was on lockdown. It had been decided without discussion to give her some space. He was confident that she could handle herself. She had proved that in the last few days. "I don't know, Trip. Why don't you tell me?"

Triplett looked certain, focusing his gaze onto Coulson's. "I'm loyal to SHIELD, sir."

"SHIELD is in pieces right now." Coulson couldn't help but be wary of the charismatic young man. Garret had been a backstabbing traitor, and his trainee had turned out the same way. What was to say that Triplett wasn't the same?

"I'm loyal to this team. To the cause. Garret and Ward are traitors, but I promise you, I am not the same." The two held gazes for a long, tense moment, until finally Coulson gave a brief nod of acceptance.

"We need to interrogate the agents," Coulson said eventually, leaning back in his seat with a heavy sigh. "Sweep the place clean, search every crack. I don't care how much they complain, we need it done. The place has to be secure, because we can't.. we can't afford another betrayal."

"What about that box? The.. injection thing inside. What do we do with it?" Triplett questioned, frowning in confusion.

Coulson sighed and pressed his fingers to his temples. "I don't know. The recording said to inject it into Fitz's neck."

"We can't trust it," May stated firmly. She looked so adamant in that fact that Coulson was surprised. Didn't May have any hope for the tiny bit of good in Simmons anymore? But what she was saying did make sense. Simmons was a traitor now. No matter how much she cared for Fitz, there was still a very big chance that the injection was a trap. That couldn't risk it.

"You're right. We need someone to run it through the lab before we can even think about it," Coulson agreed. But of course, there were no available scientists now, let alone the required resources or time for anyone else to do it.

"And Ward?" May asked tightly, standing firmly beside him. She looked as normal as ever, but Coulson knew that that was how the Calvary functioned. She buried her emotions so far down that one day, they would all implode and backfire. Coulson worried for that very day, when there was nothing he could possibly do.

"There's nothing we can do about that. He's gone."

"But Simmons installed..."

"The tracker," Coulson realised, straightening up. When they had first arrested Ward and decided to keep him safe at the Playground, they had not gone cheap on the extra safety measures. Security guards, cameras, monitors, sensors, a tracker injected into his leg. Coulson was beginning to see hope, and he sure as hell wasn't going to let that hope go. He was going to cling onto it for as long as he possibly could. "Do you think they'll leave it in?"

"Who knows?" May said honestly, giving a small shrug of her shoulders.

"But it's worth trying," Triplett added, looking strangely hopeful and calm. Or at least, going by the current predicament they were in at the moment.

"We need to see if we can follow the tracker's route, get the location. Where's Skye?" The silence that followed was worrying. Very, very worrying. Coulson stiffened, and he scanned the room, fingers sweeping across his desk. Finally, he turned his head to look up at May and Triplett.

His next words were deliberate, the tension in the room thick. "Where is the injection?"

...

Skye held the box in her grasp, her hands trembling. She hated that. She didn't want her hands to shake, she didn't want to be seen as a coward. Skye wanted to be strong. She had to be strong, because there wasn't anyone else to be strong for her now, not anymore.

"Inject.. inject this into Fitz's neck. It'll help. You have my word. Hail Hydra."

She kept pressing the button over and over again, listening to the recording with gritted teeth and a strange sort of mixed hate. Simmons couldn't be Hydra. Not Simmons, not the sunny bio-chemist would could barely lie her way out of a shoe-box. First Garret, then Ward and now Simmons. It was enough. It couldn't be true.

And yet, here she was, sitting next to Fitz's motionless figure with nothing but the sound of monitors and heartwrenching recordings for her company.

She opened the box carefully, setting it on her lap as she stared at the prize in the container. It looked like any old injection, although the vial was filled with.. something. It was pale grey in colour, resembling a clear liquid, and it almost looked like slime. Skye would have cracked some joke about Halloween if she wasn't so upset, and sktracted with current, more pressing matters.

The injection was cold to the touch, and she held it up to the light warily, staring at it in cautious curiosity. Coulson had told the team not to do anything with the box, that it was too dangerous to even attempt without looking further into it. But looking at Fitz's pale face, seeing his condition.. Skye wanted nothing more than to just use the injection and hope for the best. Nothing was the same without Fitz. Everything was all too serious, and now that Simmons was gone.. she shook her head immediately, forcing her mind off of the betrayal.

It would be so easy.. Skye had broken rules before, she could easily do it again. There was no one here to stop her, after all. Coulson and the others said that the injection was probably a trap, but Skye refused to believe that. There was no way.. just because Simmons was Hydra, didn't mean she couldn't care for Fitz. Skye didn't believe that Simmons had been cold-hearted Hydra all along. She couldn't be.

Slowly, Skye stood up, placing the box on the side table and lifting the injection into her hands carefully, moving her hand up to Fitz's neck. She hadn't ever done this sort of thing before, but she knew how it worked. She'd seen enough movies. Besides, how hard could it possibly be?

"You better come back, Fitz," Skye threatened, placing her finger on the button. "Come back and make things right."

And then she pushed down, watching with anticipation as the liquid slowly drained away.

"Skye! Don't-" The storm of footsteps stopped at the door as Coulson, May and Triplett burst into the room. Skye looked up guiltily, pulling the injection out and taking a sharp step back.

There was silence for a long moment, as Coulson's gaze flickered around the room. Then, in one smooth movement, he stepped forward and ripped the utensil from her grasp. The clatter as it hit the ground seemed to echo.

"What have you done?" He was angry. So, so angry. She didn't regret it, but that didn't mean she wasn't scared.

"I used the injection," Skye answered truthfully. She caught sight of the rage in his eyes, and she took another step back.

"That was stupid, Skye! That could have been anything. Anything. This is Hydra we're talking about, they've probably filled the thing with posion. Or drugs. Or.. something. You don't know what they've done! Do you understand the consequences, Skye? You might have just killed Fitz," Coulson said, his voice low and hard.

"No," Skye retorted suddenly, shaking her head in sudden determination. "No, Fitz will be fine. Because I know that Simmons wouldn't kill Fitz. Simmons is good. She can't lie, and she's Fitz's best friend. Do you think she could have staged all that?" She was choking on her own words, but she couldn't honestly care less. "Simmons is being blackmailed. Or bribed. Or tortured. She could be struggling right now, and we're just sitting here, hating on her! She can't act, Coulson. She's not Hydra. Please."

"That's what we thought about Ward," Coulson said softly. And then suddenly Skye was crying, the tears falling freely from her eyes as she leaned against the wall for support. Surprisingly, it was May who stepped forward to comfort her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I hate Hydra," Skye shook her head at May, although she didn't push the other woman's arm away. "I hate them. They've taken everything."

"Not everything," May reminded gently. "You still have us."

Beeping started up suddenly, and the room froze. Suddenly, Triplett stepped around them swiftly, setting to work on the monitors. "Everything's accelerating," Triplett said in amazement, taking a step back. "His functions are starting back up, his.. whatever that drug was, it's working. It's a miracle. A miracle drug."

Coulson and Skye locked gazes instinctively. The term miracle drug was something that they were all too familiar with.

"He's.. he's stable," Triplett responded finally, shaking his head in what seemed like shock. "That's amazing. I think he's just sleeping now, and.."

He was cut off with abrupt coughing. But the coughing was coming from Fitz. The bed was surrounded immediately, with breaths held. Skye cleared her tear blurred eyes just in time to see familiar blue eyes blink open.

"He's awake."