Disclaimer in Part One.

A.N- I went with the comics for inspiration on Skye's powers and how they work. Quake is pretty bad-ass.

Chapter Seven

Skye's first few days as an Avenger flew by. There was the brunch with the girls, which had helped her start to feel like she belonged, but there were other things as well. She was starting to get to know each member of the team and she liked them all. Though there was a lot of testosterone in the building and she could definitely see why the women felt the need to band together. There were definitely a lot of impressive personalities, for sure.

She was also working on her powers. There was a steel-enforced, shock-proof workout area in the basement that they used for the Hulk and for testing super powers, and Skye had been spending most of her time down there, trying to work on her powers.

They did discover she could shake people and objects and not just the ground. Though, she found it really hard to focus her powers and she still had a problem figuring out how to turn them on and off at will.

Still, her new teammates were impressed. They had discovered that when attacked, she instinctively used her powers on her attacker and could throw off of her. Though, Skye was sure that neither Steve nor Bucky had been using his full force on her and Tony had refused to attack her in the Iron Man suit, even when Skye had argued it would be beneficial to see how her powers worked against tech. It was also incredibly hard to channel it on demand and to control just how much force she used, but she was starting to understand how her powers could be beneficial.

"You'll be handy in a fight," Bucky commented, "Between you and Hulk, we could probably level a small city."

"I'm not sure that's a good thing," Bruce said dryly, "but Bucky is right—your power will come in handy, once you learn how to tap into it properly. You'll be useful in a fight and if we can channel your power on a small scale, it has lots of practical uses."

"If I ever do." Skye said, feeling a little overwhelmed at the idea. So far she had only been able to produce a brief tremor on command, one that only lasted less than a second. If she channeled her anger, she could do more, but then she had a hard time controlling it.

"I think it's time for you to take a break." Tony suggested, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Skye nodded and leaned against him.

Bruce and Bucky tactfully left them alone.

"Your old team will be here tomorrow," Tony reminded her, "and if they see you looking so exhausted and over-whelmed, Coulson is going to shoot me."

Skye couldn't help laughing at that.

"I feel useless," she confided, "Until I can control these powers, I can't help in the field."

After San Juan, it had quickly been decided that she was no use as a field agent, because her powers were too unpredictable. It was one of the reasons, Skye had felt out of place with her old team.

"With your computer skills, you will never be useless," Tony assured her, "the day we first met, I was on my way to talk to you about the worm you had dropped on HYDRA, but we got a little side-tracked."

"Just a little." Skye admitted, she looked at him. "Do you want to talk about it now?"

Tony gave her a long admiring look. "Talking about HYDRA is not the first thing that pops into my mind when I think of things I want to do with you." He admitted.

Skye blushed. She and Tony had had a few heated encounters over the last few days, but had always called it quits before they got too carried away. Skye knew Tony was waiting for her to make the final move.

Skye wanted to. She really wanted to, but the memory of her past mistakes held her back. She had only known Tony for four days, she had known Ward for months and look how wrong she had been about him.

Skye began to shake involuntarily at the thought of Ward and how he had deceived her.

"Skye, sweetheart, what's wrong?" Tony asked as he stepped back.

Skye took a deep breath and tried to steady herself. "Unpleasant thoughts." She admitted. She let out a deep breath. "Did you want to go over the basics of that worm? It would help keep my mind focused."

Tony nodded and offered her his hand. Skye took it and let him lead her out of the safe room. She had to believe that she wasn't making a mistake this time, but she just needed a little more time to be 100% sure because she had a feeling if this one didn't work out, it would hurt more than any of the others. After all, if she couldn't even make it work with her soulmate, then it had to mean there was something wrong with her, right?

Coulson and the others arrived the next day. Both May and Coulson immediately cornered Skye, to make sure she was ok and that joining the Avengers was her decision.

"I'm settling in," she promised them, "Bruce has been helping me work on my powers and the computer system here is amazing." Besides the undeniable sexual tension between them, she and Tony had immediately bonded over their mutual tech brilliance and had actually stayed up into the wee hours of the night comparing stories and techniques. There was the pull of the soulmate connection, but Skye was starting to believe that there was more there, enough to build a legitimate connection.

After accepting her words with a quick nod, Coulson then disappeared with Tony and Steve to discuss the proposed S.H.I.E.L.D-Avengers collaboration.

Jemma and Fitz had quickly gone to check out the lab, obviously eager to see the kind of facilities that Stark had available, while Bobbi and Hunter had gone off to catch up with Clint and Natasha—apparently the two couples were old friends.

That left Skye to show May and Mack around and Mack was quickly distracted by Sam and Bucky, leaving May and Skye alone.

"I'm ok." Skye promised her former trainer. "I think this is the best place for me."

May just looked at her for a long moment, obviously trying to decide if she was lying and then nodded. "If you ever need us, you just have to ask."

Skye knew the older woman was sincere and that just because she no longer belonged with her old team, the bonds she had formed with them weren't broken.

"Excuse me Miss Skye," JARVIS said suddenly, alerting her attention.

Mas started at the sound of the voice. Skye couldn't blame her, it did take a bit of getting used to. "Yes, JARVIS?"

"Miss Simmons requires your presence in the lab." JARVIS informed her. "She says it is quite urgent."

Skye and May exchanged looks and then ran to the elevator, wondering what could possibly be wrong with Jemma?