Sorry for the wait, I hope you think it was worth it!

Chapter 4

Bobbi stood in the bathroom, staring down at her hands with only the small light by the mirror to illuminate them. It was a little after 3am. Hunter was asleep in her bed on the other side of the door and she didn't want to risk waking him by turning on the main light. She held a small pair of scissors in one hand and took a deep breath to brace herself. She had to be sure her suspicions were correct before she let her fears known to Hunter. Since she realised her scar had vanished days ago, she had thought of nothing else, walking around in a stupor and withdrawing from Hunter and the rest of the team.

She tentatively took up the scissors and pressed the pointy end of one blade into her finger, just enough to break the skin. She winced slightly at the pain and watched as a small droplet of blood pooled on the tip of her index finger for a moment, but when she wiped it away the skin was unbroken. Next she pushed the blade into her palm, drawing a line from middle finger to wrist. Again, her hand bled as she cut it, but she watched in amazement as almost immediately the skin bonded together and left no trace of what she had done. She stood up and turned on the water, washing her hand and the scissors and watching the small amount of blood disappear down the drain.

She put the scissors down on the basin and looked up into the mirror. What now? She placed her hands on her belly. "What's going on baby? I hope you're ok in there. I'll figure it out, I promise."

Hunter awoke and wasn't surprised to find that Bobbi was not beside him. His outstretched arm found nothing but crumpled covers and he sighed before even opening his eyes. These past few days a change had come over her. Hunter was apprehensive about asking why for fear that she would retreat further but part of him had been waiting for this to happen. Sooner or later she would get cold feet about the future they were both hurtling towards and push him away. He realised that thought had been lurking at the back of his mind ever since she had told him she was pregnant. Hunter had hoped he'd been wrong.

It had lasted one day, their togetherness. And while Bobbi was not exactly lying to him, he could feel her withholding something important that he should know. Every night for a week, since that day, they had fallen asleep in the same bed in each others arms, and every morning Lance had woken up alone. If they were in his room, he'd sneak to Bobbi's and find her in her own bed, or if they'd been in her bed, he'd find her in the kitchen or the gym or the lab pretending that she wasn't avoiding him. Was he just being paranoid? Perhaps, but Hunter had a sixth sense when it came to his relationship with Bobbi. Something was wrong, he knew it.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed and pulled on tracksuit pants and a t-shirt. He caught sight of the clock and groaned. It was 9:30 already, he should have been up hours ago.

"Have you seen Bobbi?" he asked, bleary eyed, walking into the kitchen.

May looked up from the page she was reading over the top of her cereal. "She didn't wake you? She's gone with Coulson, Daisy and Simmons back to the office where we recovered the files." Hunter's wide-eyed expression made her put down her spoon and sit up straight. "Coulson needed a pilot, I was in a meeting with Mack."

Hunter threw his hands in the air and shook his head. Stupid. And dangerous. What was she thinking? The place where she'd been knocked unconscious and scared him half to death, the perfect place for a team excursion. "Unbelievable." Hunter thought he'd muttered that too quietly for anyone to hear but apparently not.

"She said you'd freak out." Lincoln put down his mug. "She also said you needed to stop worrying so much."

Hunter shot him a look. "Who asked you?"

"They will only be a couple of hours."

Perfect. A couple of hours for him to drive himself crazy with worry.

Lincoln shrugged at the look on Hunter's face. "Coffee?"

"No. If you need me I'll be taking my frustration with my ex-wife on a punching bag."

The punching bag took a beating. Hunter stopped, panting, and stepped away from the swinging bag. He bent forward, his hands on his knees, and tried to catch his breath. This is what she drove him to, taking out his anger on inanimate objects so he wouldn't take it out on her and say something he might regret. What was he thinking, getting himself into all this again? Except he couldn't imagine a life where Bobbi wasn't there to drive him crazy. And he didn't want to, either. He couldn't live without her and saw no reason to. It was as simple as that and his head had been a lot clearer since he had stopped trying to fight it.

He stood up straight and rammed his fist into the punching bag one more time. Just because it was an inescapable fact didn't make it easy. Hunter wiped his brow with a towel and picked up his phone. He'd calmed down, but not much. He'd probably regret this. He hit speed dial 1, it began to ring.

After Bobbi had stared at herself in the mirror she had shut off the bathroom light and crawled back into bed beside Hunter, but she couldn't get back to sleep. She had left the bed and retreated to the living room before Hunter had woken up. She wasn't proud of it, but she was doing what she always did, what she promised she wouldn't do any more. She was running away.

Bobbi Morse was not one to panic, and she now gripped the controls of the Quin Jet furiously. Furious at herself for being so weak, furious at the situation, furious at Hunter when he was there, and furious with him when he wasn't. She didn't know what she wanted and that drove her crazy. Bobbi Morse was not driven crazy easily. She was calm and cold and steady under pressure. People died if she wasn't, but right now she was failing at being the Bobbi Morse everyone expected.

Logic told her she should run to Simmons or Coulson and tell them something was wrong. She could be in real danger, her baby could be in danger, and yet here she was in a daze, unable to act. Flying a plane in a daze, another reason why she was an idiot.

She had to snap out of it.

Her phone buzzed on the dash and she looked at the display. Hunter. Obviously. She would have hung up but he'd just keep ringing until she answered so it was pointless. She leaned over and hit 'accept' and the bluetooth to her headset kicked in. Before Bobbi had opened her mouth to speak Hunter's angry voice filled her ears.

"Bobbi, what the hell are you doing?"

"Morning Hunter."

"You just left without waking me up? To go back there? I know you're avoiding me but that's just..." She heard Hunter take a deep breath, searching for the words. "I won't let you do this again. Push me away." He lowered his voice. "We're having a baby Bob, it isn't just about you or us anymore. If something is going on, if something is wrong, I have a right to know what it is."

"Hunter, listen. Now is not the time." Bobbi looked at the navigational dial, they were nearly at their destination.

"When you get back here we're going to sit down and you're going to tell me what the bloody hell is going on."

"Bye Hunter."

The minute she hung up she regretted leaving it that way. She wasn't pissed at Hunter but it sounded that way. He'd spend the next few hours at the base quietly seething over a beer or a scotch or hitting a punchbag in a rage and that was not productive for anyone. The way she was acting wasn't fair to him, she knew that. She had to get her head straight and apologise to him before she drove a wedge between them just when things were getting good.

She was scared, but she couldn't let herself be scared. She had to be prepared to deal with whatever was going to happen. Living in ignorance wasn't going to change anything, it would probably make it worse. Perhaps these few hours would be good, she could spend the time trying to figure out what the hell she was going to say to Hunter.

"Coulson" she said over her shoulder, "we're here. Preparing for descent."

It took a good 20 minutes to get from the secluded landing spot to the office building, even with advanced cloaking technology it was not easy to find somewhere to land in the middle of a city. Bobbi stormed out ahead. She didn't really want company, but hiding away wasn't really an option. She had to find out what happened to her the last time she was in that room and find an explanation for what was happening to her now. Returning here was as good a place as any to start. She realised that enlisting Daisy and Jemma's help, one being a super-scientist and the other inhuman, would get her some answers faster, but it wasn't her style. She wasn't in any doubt that there was something inhuman going on with her, even if she hadn't been encased in rock and transformed, but Bobbi had never been very good at relying on others for help. Being with Lance again and being part of Coulson's team had softened her up somewhat, when she felt threatened her automatic response was to go back to what she knew. Namely, gathering intel and scoping out a threat alone.

While she walked, she ran through everything she already knew in her head. Something had happened in that room. There had been someone or something in there with her and Daisy and Lincoln. Was is there by accident, or was it looking for something? Or was it there for another purpose? Did it succeed, or had it been scared away? Why did the room seal itself? She was sure Fitz and Simmons had come up with many possible answers, but she knew something they didn't. Whatever had happened, whatever had been released by that explosion had affected her or the baby.

Bobbi planned to tell them, she did, but something was stopping her. She realised, with a sudden jolt that stopped her in her tracks, that she didn't trust her team not to turn her into some kind of experiment. She thought back to the way they had treated Daisy after her transformation, herself included, and how no one yet fully trusted Lincoln or Joey not to be a danger. No, until she had a better understanding of what was happening Bobbi vowed to keep her cards close to her chest.

At the door to the building Bobbi stopped and waited for the others.

"Jeez , Agent Morse." Coulson stopped by her side to catch his breath. "Why the hurry?"

Bobbi mumbled an apology. When Jemma and Daisy had caught up, they went inside and ascended the stairs together. The door to the room was ajar, and Bobbi gingerly pushed it open.

She froze. A figure stood in the far corner with its back to the door and it whipped its head around at the sound of their approach. The being was tall and slender with long limbs, but its skin was bright white, and emitted a vague luminescence which made it hard for Bobbi to look at directly. There was a wide hood covering its head and two jet black eyes watched the four agents as they hovered on the threshold. Bobbi reached for her gun but before had even pulled it from the holster on her hip, the thing was a mere half metre from them.

Taken aback by the speed in which it had covered the room, Bobbi tried to turn to run, but a strange feeling washed over her and instead she took an involuntary step into the room.

"Agent Morse, pull back" Bobbi was vaguely aware of Coulson talking to her but his voice faded away. "Bobbi."

Bobbi's stomach gave a lurch and she knew instinctively that whatever it was making her disobey orders and step into likely danger was not her own doing, but the baby's. Beside her, Daisy had her arms, usually up and ready to fight, hanging passively by her sides. What the hell was going on?

She moved instinctively forwards, and was conscious of Daisy beside her doing the same. IT was as if she had no control over her movements, but was completely aware of her actions. He eyes alert, she looked around, catching sight of Coulson and Simmons looking on in bewilderment. A glance sideways to Daisy told her that the younger agent was not as self aware. Her eyes looked glazed, utterly fixated on the creature, who returned her gaze with intensity, as if studying everything about her. It reached out a bony hand when Daisy was within it's reach, and touched her on the arm. It's eyes closed. Bobbi was sure it was absorbing information from Daisy.

Fear gripped Bobbi when it opened its eyes and switched it's attention to her. The minute it released it's touch on Daisy she slumped to the floor, unconscious but breathing normally as if she had just fainted.

Bobbi took another step, so did the figure, but when it began to focus on her, a change came over its face. Bobbi realised, whether from observation or a strange kind of telepathy, that what she saw in those dark black eyes was a mix of confusion and fear. She closed her eyes and braced herself, ready for the touch of the white glowing hand, but it didn't come, and the next sound she heard was a loud crack and the being was gone.

Her limbs felt heavy and he head felt light, but she managed to stay on her feet. Coulson and Simmons were already at Daisy's side trying to rouse her.

"Our tests can wait" Coulson said, looking up a Bobbi from where he crouched on the floor, "we need to get Daisy out of here. Perhaps back at the lab we can figure out what that thing was and what just happened."

Simmons looked up at that moment and her eyes met Bobbi's. The scientist must have seen something in Bobbi's eyes for she held her gaze for a beat longer and an unspoken question passed between them.

Back at the lab, Bobbi thought. It's time to ask for help.

At the base, the jet engine's shut down. Hunter leaned on the balcony railings waiting for the team's return but hadn't expected them for at least an hour. Their early return made him apprehensive, and he hurried down the metal steps to the landing bay's floor.

The carrier door opened and Hunter readied himself for an argument. He wasn't going to let Bobbi evade his questions any longer. He folded his arms and stood stock still, intently watching the doors opening. Bobbi strode out first and clapped eyes on him when she reached the bottom of the ramp.

Hunter stepped forward to meet her. "You will talk to me Bobbi, I'm not going to let you push me away. It's too bloody important, we can't afford to..."

Bobbi silenced him with a kiss, forceful and tender at the same time. She took is hand, and when their lips parted she lay her forehead on Hunter's with a sigh.

"I'm sorry Lance" she said, her eyes closed. Hunter was taken aback by the change in her from yesterday, from this morning. Her whole body seemed deflated, resigned to a fate that Hunter didn't yet know, but he felt that whatever it was they could face if they just stuck together, and seeing Bobbi like this both gave him hope that that would happen and made him nervous, she had stopped fighting.

"What happened out there?" Hunter whispered.

Bobbi didn't reply straight away. It took a moment for her to open her eyes and pull away enough to look him in the face. "I'll tell you everything" she said, and Hunter really believed it. "But Daisy needs medical attention, help us get her off the jet."

Just like that, Bobbi was back to business. She released Hunter's hand and turned around, walking briskly back towards the plane. Hunter sighed and watched her go for a minute before jogging after her.