A/N: Inspired by a preview still from the upcoming episode.

And with this, I am done! No more post-2x18/2x19-speculation drabbles, I promise.


Grant's so distracted by Skye that he almost misses it.

She's been ranting at him pretty much non-stop since the mission started, and the four of them getting locked in this lab has only made it worse. He's not sure whether to be happy or annoyed; her constant harangue is beyond irritating, but the fact that it grates on him is proof of what he's suspected for a while now.

He really is over her.

This time last year, he's pretty sure he would've been incredibly attracted to her right now. He's always found her anger beautiful—there's so much passion in Skye, so much everything, and he used to find it compelling.

Now he mostly wishes she would shut up. It's a good sign.

The point is, he's distracted. By his relief at really being over her and her ranting itself.

"Not to mention your second kidnapping of me, which—in case you didn't know—led directly to pretty much every horrible thing that's happened to me since San Juan," she's griping as she readjusts her tac vest.

He's about to point out that he actually has no idea what's happened to her since San Juan—Coulson was deliberately silent on the topic of Skye—when he suddenly realizes just how quiet the other side of the room is.

Simmons has been going through the lab's computers, reading through the available data on the experiments HYDRA is running on Gifteds, and she hasn't been quiet about it. Not to say that she's been loud, just that she's kept up a running narration under her breath—probably because she's so used to talking to Fitz while she works that she just can't help it.

But the narration has stopped, and it only takes a single glance across the room to figure out why.

Bakshi's left the corner he's been lingering in and is standing beside Simmons. She's frozen in place, holding on to the lab counter, fingers digging in like it's the only thing keeping her on her feet. And he's talking.

Grant's too far away to actually hear Bakshi, but his lip-reading works just fine, and he makes out the phrase what is best is you comply without any trouble.

Oh, fuck.

He promised Kara that she could kill Bakshi once they were done with him, so he doesn't kill the guy. He does, however, shoot him in the knee. Bakshi collapses with a shout, and Simmons gasps in a deep breath and stumbles away from him.

"What the fuck—" Skye starts, grabbing Grant's arm.

"Oh, no," Simmons says. "Oh—oh no. That's—he was—"

She's on the verge of hyperventilating, and while it's not surprising, it's also not helpful. He holsters his gun, shakes off Skye's hold, and crosses the room to grip Simmons by the shoulders.

"Simmons," he says. "Calm down."

He'd like to tell her to take a deep breath, but since that's the first sentence in the activation phrase, it would probably only upset her even more.

"Don't tell me to calm down," she snaps, voice high and hysterical. "He was trying to activate me! And it was working!" Her breathing is coming in quick gasps as she becomes increasingly panicked. "Which means, in case you don't realize, that I've been brainwashed! But I don't remember it—and what else don't I remember? Who knows what might have happened that I've forgot? I could have—"

He doesn't know what makes him do it. Reflex, maybe? Kara spent a lot of time in the immediate aftermath of San Juan working herself up like this—going in spirals from what had happened to what might have happened to what should have happened, and so on—and he, recovering as he was from multiple gunshot wounds, was kind of limited in options for dealing with it.

There was one foolproof way to stop her, though, and it saw a lot of use.

So it's probably just habit that has him kissing Simmons.

As for what has her kissing him back…well. That, he's gonna have to give some thought.