A/N: (Updated 4/4/14) WARNING: This chapter contains major spoilers for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I sincerely apologize to everyone who has already read it without being warned. It was a complete and total accident, because I actually finished this story immediately before seeing the film. Again, I apologize.
"Jemma," he repeated, willing her to look at him. She didn't want to look at him, because she knew that if she did, the tears that she was trying to hold back would spill over.
"Fitz, please," she said, forcing her voice to remain calm as she moved away from him and fiddled with the Holocom controls, exiting out of the programs they had opened. "You heard her. She was doing what she always does, acting like she bloody knows everything." Her hands curled up into fists as she finally glanced up at him. "Can you believe her? She actually thought it would be a good idea to go in there with that…thing," she finished in disgust.
Fitz moved closer to her, which she wished he wouldn't do. He was always able to see right through her.
"Jemma, are you mad?" His words cut into her, but he didn't sound angry. "Did you honestly think that I would have let her go in there?" She broke away from his intense gaze, staring at her hands. "No, this is about something else."
Jemma gave a weak laugh. "What are you talking about, Fitz?"
"You and Ellie haven't always gotten on," he said quietly, which almost made Jemma laugh again. That was an understatement. "But it's never been like…this. This is different. This isn't just some petty fear that she's…I don't know, somehow going to be better than you."
She scoffed, about to cut him off, but he pressed on. "Oh, Jemma, don't act like that hasn't been the case. You've always been jealous of her, which I'll admit I've always found to be completely irrational. I mean, she's your little sister, for God's sake. She looks up to you."
Jemma snorted. "Oh, please, Fitz, no she doesn't. You're just sticking up for her because she's got you wrapped around her little finger." She hated herself the moment the words were out of her mouth. She knew how much Fitz cared about Ellie. He loved her like his own sister. Jemma had admitted to herself a long time ago, right around the time Ellie started going to the Academy, that she was glad Ellie had another person to look out of her. One who was not so utterly incapable of being a good sibling.
Fitz sighed. "Got it all out, now, have you?"
Her vision blurred as she stared at the table. Fitz gently pulled her hand away from the Holocom and brought her into his arms. As she rested her forehead on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around him, she tried not to cry, but she was unable to stop a few tears from falling. She concentrated on Fitz's hand gently stroking her hair and tried to calm her breathing.
"She shouldn't be here, Fitz," she murmured. She felt Fitz's movements still, his hand paused on her hair, and after a moment he pulled away.
"We're heading back to the Hub now," he replied. "She won't be with us anymore."
Jemma shook her head. "That's not what I meant, Fitz." She was unused to having to explain herself to Fitz, especially about something she didn't even know how to put into words. "I meant she shouldn't be here. At S.H.I.E.L.D." Jemma felt the tears welling up in her eyes again. "She wanted to be a doctor, Fitz," she whispered. "When we were younger. Why couldn't she just go be a doctor? Why S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
"You know why, Jemma," Fitz said softly, and she saw the answer in his eyes. But it was an answer she didn't want to hear.
"Fitz, it doesn't make sense! I mean, do you even know how many times we've almost died since we've joined S.H.I.E.L.D.? In the last few months alone, I've lost count. Why on earth would-"
"Twelve." Fitz had said it so quietly, she almost hadn't heard him.
"What?" she breathed.
"Twelve," he repeated, looking her in the eyes. "That's how many times we've almost died since we joined the team."
Jemma was caught off-guard by the look of pain in his eyes, but she pressed forward. "Then how could you ever think I would be okay with Ellie being here?"
Fitz looked like he was about to place his hands on her shoulders, but he seemed to change his mind at the last second. Instead he rested one hand the Holocom next to hers and tapped his finger on the glass. "Jemma, I was nervous about her coming with us, too. But she's not going to be in the field after this. She'll get her assignment tomorrow morning and head off to SciOps or the Sandbox or wherever and never have to see the things we've seen. She'll be safe."
"And what if she isn't, Fitz? What if she decides to do the same thing we did? She's dabbling in things that we've never even heard of. Astropharmacology? Do you have any idea what kind of implications that could have for the world? God, she could develop the next generation of vaccines for all we know! Other field agents are going to notice her eventually, if they haven't already. And they'll want her on their teams."
"Jemma, she's not a little kid anymore. You've gotta let her grow up. Make her own mistakes and all that. Besides, you got out of the lab and you turned out all right."
She scoffed, looking down at her hands. "Did I?"
Fitz actually did place his hands on her shoulders this time. She glanced up to see him nodding. "Yes," he said firmly. But she wasn't quite so sure he was telling the truth. There had been times during the past few months when she had caught him staring at her with poorly disguised concern.
He released her after giving her shoulders a small squeeze and smirked. "Well, I mean, it'd probably be best if you didn't throw yourself off of any more airplanes, yeah?" She smiled a little bit. He would never let that go. "No grenades, either."
Jemma sighed. "What am I going to do, Fitz?"
He placed a finger on her elbow and gently led her out of the room. "Well, for starters, you can go and apologize."
She groaned. "I'm not so good at that."
"Believe me, I am painfully aware." She narrowed her eyes at him, but he had a smile on his face.
"She probably won't even want to talk to me. I've been such an arse to her."
"All the more reason for you to suck it up and say you're sorry." Fitz sighed. "She'll forgive you, Jem. She loves you more than you know. And I know that you love her, so..." he said, nudging her forward. "Chop chop."
Jemma rolled her eyes but hesitantly made her way over to Ward's bunk. He had been nice enough earlier to make it ready for Ellie's arrival, while Jemma had been too busy bickering with Fitz about her being there in the first place to even think about where she would sleep. Yet another reason why she wouldn't be receiving the Sister of the Year Award.
She raised her hand up to the door and took a deep breath before knocking lightly.
"Ellie? It's me. Can I talk to you?"
"She's not in there." Jemma jumped slightly and turned around to see Ward sitting at the bar, staring down at his drink. He gestured behind him toward the stairs leading to the cargo bay. "Downstairs," he said, taking another sip.
"Thanks," Jemma murmured, walking past him and carefully making her way down the steps. When she reached the bottom of the staircase, she took another deep breath before turning to enter the lab. As the doors whooshed open, she noticed Ellie standing near one of the storage drawers, staring at something in her hand.
"Ellie, I-" she began, and stopped in her tracks. "What are you doing?"
Ellie hadn't looked up when she arrived, her wide eyes fixed on the small vial in her palm. Jemma knew what it was without having to see the label. The drawer she had hidden the vial in was open in front of Ellie.
When they were growing up, and Jemma had caught Ellie sneaking another biscuit at tea or reading her diary, Ellie would always give a small gasp and clap a hand over her mouth when she'd been discovered. It was always the same reaction. Even as they grew older and Ellie's antics lessened in frequency, she always responded in the same way. It used to annoy Jemma, but she would have preferred that reaction to the one she received now.
"Jemma," Ellie said in a tone of voice that made the hairs on the back of Jemma's neck stand up. It was almost deadly. She slowly turned to face her, the expression on her face one that Jemma was unfamiliar with. She was looking at Jemma as if Jemma had been the one caught snooping in her lab. "Where did you get this?"
Jemma took a few moments to recover from her shock. She quickly walked up to Ellie and snatched the empty GH-325 vial out of her hand.
"Ellie, this is classified material," she said sharply. "It's above your clearance level. What were you doing, prying through our things like that?"
Ellie didn't back down from Jemma's angry tone. She looked scared, but Jemma didn't think it was because of her. "No, Jemma, where did you get this?"
Jemma shook her head, confused. She had no idea why Ellie would be so concerned about an empty vial of a drug that almost nobody knew about. She briefly considered telling her the truth. After all, they were still on the Bus, so she could argue to Coulson that the information was technically staying "in-house." But Ellie had been acting so weird lately that Jemma wasn't sure she could trust her with sensitive information. She knew that Ellie wouldn't fall for a flat-out lie, so Jemma tried to take a page out of her own book and weasel her way around a half-truth.
"Ellie, relax. It's just a little something Fitz and I have been-"
"No, Jemma," Ellie said, her voice rising almost hysterically. "There's only one place in the world that that exists, and it's been dest-" She stopped talking immediately, her wide eyes and pink face indicating that she had said too much.
Jemma eyed her suspiciously. "Ellie, what on earth are you going on about?"
"Nothing," Ellie replied too quickly, her voice nearly an octave higher than normal. She cleared her throat. "Er…sorry, Jemma, I-I thought it was something else. But I was mistaken. Really, forgive me." She avoided Jemma's eyes as she sped toward the lab door.
Jemma wasn't ready to let her leave without explaining herself. But she knew Ellie would expertly deflect her questions, so she said the first thing that came to mind to keep her there.
"Well, you really shouldn't be looking through things that don't belong to you, Ellie. You'll find the quickest way to get thrown out of S.H.I.E.L.D. is to interfere with the compartmentalization of information."
Ellie paused, and Jemma noticed her shoulders tense as she clenched her fists. "Jemma, why do you hate me so much?"
Jemma was glad Ellie's back was turned to her, because she knew her face would show how hurt she felt, how each word had been like a knife to her gut. She felt her airway constrict as she tried to breathe normally, but the stress of seeing Skye injured again and worrying about Fitz in enemy territory and trying to reconcile Ellie being in the field with them was almost too much for her to handle.
"I don't…hate you, Ellie," she finally managed to get out.
"Oh, really?" Ellie turned around, and Jemma saw that her eyes had tears in them. "Is that why you've been so ecstatic to have me here?" She scoffed. "I mean, I knew you didn't like me, Jemma, but you've really stepped it up a notch since I've been on board."
Jemma shook her head, forcing herself to keep her tears at bay. This entire conversation was spiraling out of her control.
"Ellie, that's absurd."
"Oh, come on, Jemma. I'm not an idiot. It's obvious you don't want me here. And you've always been less than thrilled about me joining S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Well, maybe I had a right to be, Ellie," Jemma said, her voice raised to match Ellie's intensity. Jemma hated feeling inferior in a fight, even when she knew she was wrong. Fitz called her out on it more times than she would have liked, but it was a habit she hadn't kicked yet. "All right? Maybe I've seen things that would give you nightmares. Maybe I don't want this life for you!"
Ellie looked at her incredulously. "I'm a big girl now, Jemma. I can take care of myself. Besides, it's not like I'm gonna be jumping into the field anytime soon. I'll be in the lab, safe and tucked away with the good guys."
"But that's the thing, Ellie. I'm not entirely sure S.H.I.E.L.D. are the good guys anymore." Jemma hadn't expected those words to come out of her mouth, but once she said them, she realized that it was a fear that had been eating away at her ever since that incident in Ossetia when Ward and Fitz had been stranded without an extraction plan. Everything that had happened since then (discovering the impossible and potentially unethical way Coulson had been brought back from the dead, the hidden location of a drug that had the ability to regenerate damaged blood cells, Coulson's refusal to let her send Skye's blood to HQ for further study) had slowly chipped away at Jemma's armor of trust for the system.
"Jemma, don't be ridiculous."
"I'm not, Ellie." She sighed. "Just listen to what I'm saying, will you? You'd be much better off going back to England and becoming a doctor like you've always wanted."
Ellie's eyes broke away from Jemma's as she glanced down at her hands. "Maybe that's not what I want anymore," she said quietly.
"What are you talking about?"
Ellie sighed exasperatedly. "Jemma, S.H.I.E.L.D. has given me so many more opportunities to do good in the world. I've finally found something that I'm good at, something that almost no one else can do, and I'm not just going to give that up."
"But-"
"God, Jemma, all I ever wanted was to be like you!" Ellie angrily wiped a tear that had escaped down her cheek and folded her arms.
Jemma breathed in sharply. "What?" she whispered, uncomprehending.
Ellie finally met her gaze and rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't pretend to be so shocked, Jemma. Of course I did. You were all I had growing up. You were so cool and so smart and…well, you were the oldest, so I just assumed that it was normal to have a PhD by the time you were 18 years old."
Jemma's face must have still looked shocked because Ellie sighed again. "Jemma, come on. Why do you think I chose to go to Cambridge? Why do you think I jumped at the chance to join S.H.I.E.L.D. in the first place? It was because of you!"
"Ellie…I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Y-you could have done anything you wanted. You've always been popular and smart and talented at bloody everything-"
"Jemma, are you mad?" Ellie was furious. "I've worked so hard…just to get to a fraction of where you've gotten. You know, for such a smart person, you can really be an idiot sometimes."
Jemma still didn't quite understand, but she was starting to realize that she had misjudged her sister. "Ellie, I'm sorry-" she began.
"You're sorry?" Ellie cut her off. Jemma had never seen her so upset before. "For what? For-for shutting me out when all I ever wanted was to be your friend? For letting Leo be the one to tell me that you almost died? That you willingly sacrificed yourself without even saying goodbye?"
Jemma was stunned. "That was a situation…entirely out of my control-"
"But you didn't even bother to tell me about it, did you?" Ellie shouted. Her tears were flowing freely now. "I wasn't important enough."
Jemma shook her head again, knowing that if this continued for much longer, she would start crying as well. "Ellie, that was never it. You've got it all wrong."
"That's the story of my life, isn't it, Jemma?" Ellie muttered scornfully. "I'm always getting everything wrong. Well, not to worry," she cleared her throat, wiping the tears off of her face and giving Jemma a contemptuous smile. "You won't have to deal with my ineptitude for much longer." She paused, taking a deep breath. "I've been invited to join a project, and I've decided to accept."
Jemma was thrown. "What? What are you talking about? What project?"
"It doesn't matter," Ellie replied, avoiding Jemma's eyes. "They appreciate the work that I've done. They're not going to shut me out. And I'll finally be out of your hair, so you never have to talk to me again if you like. I know how much that would please you." She turned on her heel, heading for the lab doors.
In the back of her mind, Jemma realized that she should probably say something to stop Ellie, but she was unable to do anything except stand there in stunned silence. Jemma knew how to fix biochemical problems, she knew how to fix the Holotable when it stopped working, she even knew how to fix Fitz's hair when it sometimes stood up in the back. But she didn't know how to fix this.
Ellie paused on the stairwell, her hand on the rail. She looked over at her sister. "Goodbye, Jemma," she said quietly before heading up the steps.
"So what did you think of your first mission?" Ward asked as he, Coulson, and Fitz led Ellie into the Hub.
When she had come up from the cargo hold, eyes reddened, he had tried to convince her to sleep for a little while. They had all been awake through the night, and he had told her that she didn't have to report back to Sitwell until the afternoon if she wanted. But as they landed, she had insisted upon accompanying them to deliver the 0-8-4 to Sitwell.
"Honestly, it was all a bit too exciting for my taste," Ellie replied. "Goodness, that sounds completely barmy, doesn't it? I didn't even go into the field with you all."
Ward smiled at her. "It's perfectly understandable. Sometimes it's worse to be the one that stays behind, not knowing if your team is going to come back." Her face seemed to pale, and Ward cursed himself for his lack of tact. "I'm sorry you couldn't stay with us a little longer. I promise not all missions are that stressful."
"I'm sure," she said, brightening a little. "But all the same, I think I'd quite like to stick to the lab."
"Agent Coulson." Sitwell strode toward them, shaking Coulson's hand. He pointed at the containment case in Fitz's arms. "Is this it?"
Fitz nodded, and Sitwell motioned to one of his colleagues, who took the case from Fitz and carried it off down the hallway, undoubtedly heading for a very safe and very secure destination. Ward felt his shoulders relax as the case disappeared from his view. That could have been a lot worse.
Sitwell clasped his hands together and turned to Ellie. "So. How was it?"
Ellie shook her head, looking like she was trying to find the right description. "Crazy," she said finally, but there was a smile on her face. They all laughed appreciatively.
"Well, Coulson," Sitwell said after a pause. "I think I'll take Ellie here and bring her into debriefing. Thank you for looking out for her."
"Not a problem," Coulson replied, smiling at Ellie.
Ellie turned to face Coulson, holding out her hand. "Agent Coulson, it really has been an honor. Thank you so much for putting up with me."
Coulson shook her hand, giving her a respectful nod. "It was our pleasure, Ellie. We loved having you on board. I'm sorry you couldn't stick around with us for a little while longer. Maybe once you get situated we can talk to your S.O. about joining us for another mission."
"Maybe," she responded. She smiled politely, but Ward could tell that no matter how much she liked Coulson, she probably wouldn't be itching to go on another mission anytime soon.
She turned to Ward. "Thank you, Ward, for everything. And…I'm sorry about…" She lowered her voice. "Earlier."
He shook his head and chuckled, remembering how this tiny Simmons had punched his ego in the face by pinning him to the ground. "Don't apologize. I deserved it." He looked her in the eyes. "I underestimated you."
Ellie's cheeks turned pink, and before he knew what he was doing, Ward stepped forward and gave her a brief hug.
"All right, all right, don't scare her, Ward," Fitz muttered under his breath. Ward cleared his throat and stepped back, letting Ellie say her goodbye to Fitz. Fitz sighed as Ellie wrapped her arms around him, and the rest of them tried to ignore the two as they conversed in low murmurs. Ward didn't really know what had happened after Simmons had gone downstairs to find her sister, but from what he could tell by the dark circles under Ellie's eyes, it hadn't gone well.
"You'll be careful, okay?" Fitz said as he finally pulled away.
Ellie laughed. "Oh, you mean in the big, dangerous lab I'll be working in?"
"Right you are," Fitz replied solemnly. "Science is dangerous, El. Beautiful, but dangerous."
She laughed again, but Ward could see the worry in her eyes. "You'll be careful, too, all right, Leo?"
Ward could tell Fitz wanted to make another joke, but he must have thought better of it, because he nodded. "Yeah."
Ellie smiled at him before turning to face them all. "Thank you all again. Please give Agent May my love."
Fitz snorted. "Yeah, that won't be happening, El. But we'll tell her you said goodbye."
She nervously clasped her hands in front of her as Agent Sitwell led her down a nearly empty hallway. They were in the deep recesses of the Hub, and Ellie was unsure of where he was taking her. They reached a large metal doorway, and as Sitwell placed his thumb on the print scanner, he turned to face Ellie.
"Now, you can come in, but I have to ask you to stay by the door, all right?"
She nodded. "Yes, of course, sir."
He gave her a smile before opening the door and ushering her inside.
She quietly gasped as she stepped in the doorway. They had entered an armory, but she supposed it was quite unlike many normal armories, because as she looked around, she found herself recognizing many of the items. They were Chitauri weapons.
A group of about five S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists, all wearing white lab coats with a red S.H.I.E.L.D. crest on the front left pocket, was standing in the center of the room, examining something that Ellie couldn't see. As Sitwell approached them, they parted a little and Ellie stifled another gasp.
There, in the center of the group, was Loki's scepter. A blue stone rested on the table next to it, glowing slightly. Sitwell exchanged a few words with one of the scientists, who nodded and appeared to be explaining something, gesturing towards the two objects. Sitwell talked with him for a few more minutes before briskly walking toward the exit.
When they were back in the hallway, Ellie was unable to stop herself. "So the 0-8-4 really was from Loki's scepter?"
Sitwell gave her a rueful smile, looking somewhat embarrassed. "Unfortunately, yes. We were studying its properties, trying to understand the technology behind it, but as we've discovered the hard way, its power is very seductive. We switched out our men every so often to keep them from being too heavily influenced, but we underestimated how far the object's influence actually reached. There was a small coup by some of the airport security. We lost six of our own."
"That's awful. I'm so sorry," Ellie said. She was surprised. Maybe Leo hadn't been exaggerating when he'd said being a S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist could be dangerous. Something pricked at the back of her mind. She paused before venturing forward. "Sir, if you knew what it was, why did you say it was-"
Sitwell gave a low laugh. "Ellie, I think you'll find out soon enough that sometimes it's a lot easier to say something's an 0-8-4 than to try to explain what it actually is. I needed a team to retrieve it as fast as possible, and I knew Coulson's team could handle the job. And I was right. You guys did very well."
Ellie nodded and smiled politely, but she had to admit that the whole situation didn't feel right. After all, the team hadn't known that they would meet hostiles, and Skye had been injured. But Ellie figured that she probably didn't understand everything about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s policies to make judgments.
They were now in the more populated area of the Hub, making their way into one of the mission debriefing rooms. Sitwell motioned for her to take a seat.
"Now, did you find any evidence of the GH-325?"
Ellie shook her head in amazement. "Honestly, when you mentioned it earlier, I thought it was just a precaution. I never thought in a hundred years I would find anything on Coulson's plane."
Sitwell nodded. "We suspected it was his team that took down the Guest House."
Ellie was stunned. All of her work, everything she had been trying to achieve for the last two years, was gone. She had known that, but to find out that her sister was involved? Something didn't add up.
"But sir, the vial I found…it was empty. You don't think they actually used it…on a person?"
"Yeah, actually, I do," Sitwell replied.
"That's so unlike Jemma," Ellie murmured quietly. "She should know better than to give out drugs without knowing the potential side effects."
"Well," Sitwell said, "it certainly has been a strange situation. And it's a shame all that's left of the drug is gone." He sighed and sat up straighter. "But enough about them. Let's talk about you. We're very excited that you've decided to join us here at Project Phoenix."
She tried to push away her thoughts of Jemma and mustered up a smile. "I'm really excited as well, sir. But…forgive me, it's just…well, I don't really know what my role in the project is exactly."
"All in due time," Sitwell replied as he pulled out a small stack of papers. "But first, a few housekeeping things. Before I can tell you anything, I'll need you to sign a confidentiality agreement. It's just standard procedure. You understand, of course."
She nodded. "Yes, of course."
He slid the papers in front of her and handed her a pen. Her eyes automatically traveled to the red S.H.I.E.L.D. symbol on the top of the page.
"Sir, has S.H.I.E.L.D. changed its insignia?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I couldn't help but noticing the red crest. Until recently I'd only ever seen it in black or gray."
Sitwell smiled at her. "You're quite the observant one, aren't you? That's actually not the S.H.I.E.L.D. crest. It's the symbol of Project Phoenix." She leaned forward to examine it more closely. The lines she had taken to be the eagle's wings were actually flames upon closer inspection. It wasn't an eagle at all. It was a phoenix.
"Clever," she murmured. A secret project hidden in plain sight.
"We thought so," Sitwell said proudly.
Her eyes continued to scan the page. Right below the crest was a phrase written in a foreign language.
"Von den Flammen der Vergangenheit, wir verbrannt. Aus der Asche steigen wir," she read aloud. "From the fire…no, that's not it. From the…flames…of the past, we burned. Out of the ashes, we rise."
"You speak German," Sitwell noted with a hint of surprise.
"Oh, not fluently or anything," she replied as she signed the bottom of the page. "Just enough to hold a basic conversation."
"Well, I'm impressed."
"Does it mean anything in particular, sir?" she asked, briefly glancing up as she signed the next page. "It seems to suggest resurrecting something that was once dead. Has Project Phoenix been around for a while?"
"You could say that," he replied, taking the papers away from her and stowing them in his briefcase. "Now. It must have been a long night for you. Why don't you go get some rest? We'll meet in my office later this afternoon, say…" he glanced at his watch. "Around five?"
She nodded.
"My office is on the third floor. West hallway. I'll see you at five." She stood up to leave. "And Agent Simmons? Welcome to Project Phoenix."
"Jemma, why won't you just tell me-"
"Fitz, I told you I don't want to talk about it. Just let it go."
Fitz sighed. "Did you even at least try to apologize to her?"
"Of course I did," she snapped at him. "Obviously it didn't work."
"Jemma, stop," he said, placing his hand on hers. She paused, his hand keeping her from compiling the analyses of Skye's blood. "What. Happened?"
"Fitz, she knew about the GH-325," she said quietly, looking up at him with open fear.
He shook his head. "What? How on earth would she know about that?"
"How the hell should I know? But there's only one place that drug was kept." She raised her eyebrows at him and something clicked in his head.
"The Guest House," they said in unison.
"Why would Ellie have been at the Guest House?" he asked, deep in thought.
"Does it matter? She's hiding something from us, Fitz." She paused. "From both of us." She turned back toward her tablet, and it looked like she was setting up some kind of encryption. "We have to analyze Skye's blood further. She's the only source of the GH-325 we have besides Coulson."
"Yeah, but you said yourself you've hit a wall with our resources here. And Coulson told us to keep it on the Bus."
Jemma smiled a little. "He did, yes. When I asked him. But…he might listen to Skye."
She was glad that finding Agent Sitwell's office hadn't been too difficult. It was only a few doors down the corridor coming out of the lift.
Ellie checked her watch. She was five minutes early. It was a habit of hers, showing up early. But it usually worked in her favor.
As she approached the door, she noticed that it was cracked open slightly.
"Sir? Agent Sitwell?" she asked as she knocked lightly on the door. It swung open at her touch. She ventured inside, expecting to see him already in there, but the small office was empty.
"Oh," Ellie said to herself. She glanced behind her, but the corridor was silent. Ellie figured she was already too far into the room to go back out into the hallway without running the risk of looking like she had been snooping. So instead she walked over to stand in front of Sitwell's desk and folded her arms, patiently waiting for his arrival.
As she looked around the room, her eyes fell on one of the papers sitting on Sitwell's desk. It looked fairly simple, just a memorandum of some sort, but it was the paper peeking out underneath it that caught her attention. All she could make out was the top half of a red circle. She assumed they were the papers she was to be receiving for Project Phoenix, so without thinking she slid the sheet out. As she brought the paper closer to her face, her hands froze. The symbol on the top of the page wasn't the Project Phoenix symbol. It was something entirely different.
"Why is it that I always find one of the Simmons sisters hanging out in places they shouldn't be?" Ellie jumped in surprise at hearing Sitwell's voice and spun around.
Sitwell's eyes fell on the paper in Ellie's hands. He sighed loudly and turned around, quietly closing the door behind him.
"Oh, Ellie," he said with disappointment, taking his glasses off and rubbing his eyes. "I really wish you hadn't done that. Now I can't trust you." He put his glasses back on. "It's a shame, really. You would've been such a great asset to us."
She tried to think of a way to get out of there, but Sitwell had her cornered. There were no windows in the office, and he was blocking her only pathway to the door. She was about to take her chances and try to bolt past him when he quickly withdrew a weapon and fired at her.
The last thing Ellie heard before she blacked out was the sound of the dendrotoxin hitting her chest. The last thing that flashed through her mind was the red circle at the top of the page she had been caught with. The ominous skull. The six tentacles of the Greek mythological creature. The symbol of the Nazi science division that Captain America had supposedly destroyed during World War II.
HYDRA.
Skye winced in anticipation, gingerly setting her foot on the floor and expecting the searing pain she'd felt the night before to come back. She opened her eyes in surprise when she realized that she didn't feel any aching. She pressed her foot harder onto the ground. Nothing.
She carefully stood up, walking around the bunk a little and trying not to be upset as the only pain she felt was a slight discomfort in her ankle. Her injury had been so superficial that she hadn't even needed a full day to recover. She scoffed, embarrassed with herself. She had actually needed Ward to carry her out of the mission? She was, without a doubt, the lamest S.H.I.E.L.D. agent ever.
She was about to open the door of her bunk when she noticed a small, folded sheet of paper on the floor. Her name was written in beautiful cursive letters on the front. Very intrigued, Skye picked the letter up and sat back down on the bed to read it.
Dear Skye,
I am terribly sorry that this is to be our goodbye, but I didn't want to wake you. You've gone through so much in the past few hours that I thought the least I could do for you would be to let you get your rest. I'm absolutely gutted that we didn't get to spend more time together, but I think it'd be best for everyone if I head back to the lab where I belong. One mission was quite enough for me.
You've got a really great team here, Skye. And I'm not just saying that because you're with my sister. Leo's told me about your search to find your family. I want you to know that I sincerely hope you find what you're looking for. But you should also know that there are so many people around you that care for you deeply. They can be your family if you'd like them to be.
I hope that one day we can meet again and you can tell me all of your exciting stories about being out in the field. But in the meantime, could I ask a favor of you? Could you look out for Jemma for me? She doesn't share a lot of things with me, because we're not very close, but I know she considers you to be a dear friend. (Leo looks after her, of course, and I love him for that. But sometimes he can be a bit thick, do you know what I mean?) I would be ever so grateful to you.
Thank you for making me feel welcome. I'll never forget it.
Love always,
Ellie
Skye wiped away the tear that had fallen on her cheek. Where was Ward? She would kill him for not waking her up when he said he would.
She carefully folded up the note, trying not to taint the beautiful handwriting, and placed it on her shelf. She opened the door of her bunk and nearly ran straight into Coulson.
"Skye," he said in surprise, glancing down at her foot. "You're walking."
She rolled her eyes and groaned. "I know, all right? I'm sorry I was such a wimp. But to be fair, it actually did hurt like hell last night."
He shook his head. "You're not a wimp, Skye. But I'm glad you're okay."
She noticed a flash of fear in his eyes, and remembered what had happened before she'd left the fighting. "Hey. Is everything okay? What happened with those guards? Did you find out what the 0-8-4 was?"
"The 0-8-4's been delivered. And we don't really know what the guards were up to. But, Skye, we've got more pressing matters to attend to right now." She looked at him in confusion. "I just got off the phone with Agent Garrett. Mike Peterson just attacked the safe house in Sydney."
"What?" she asked incredulously. "Do you have any idea why?"
"We must be getting closer, Skye," he responded, and even though she still saw the fear in his eyes, he was smirking. "The Clairvoyant knows we're closing in on him."
"You want to move forward with the list," she guessed.
He nodded. "Garrett and I narrowed it down to thirteen candidates. But it's gonna be tricky to investigate them, especially since the Clairvoyant always seems to be one step ahead of us."
"Actually, sir, I think I have a way around that. But…well, we'd need a few more agents."
Coulson smiled. "We're at the Hub, Skye. You can take your pick. What did you have in mind?"
The first thing she noticed when she came to was the cold. She was lying on a bare stone floor. She tried to sit up, and realized that her hands and feet were both bound. Her eyes widened in panic and she opened her mouth to cry out, only to find her voice strangled by a gag. The surprise made her cough, but because her airway was constricted by the gag, she began to choke.
A shadow fell on the stone floor in front of her, and someone knelt down to quickly remove the gag from her mouth. She coughed herself hoarse before looking up into an unfamiliar face. The man in front of her had kind eyes, and was gently patting her back. It was a little disconcerting, but it wasn't enough to keep her from trying to scream again.
"Hey, hey, hey," he said, quickly covering her mouth with his hand. "No, no, please don't scream. I have to knock you out again if you scream." Ellie was confused. He seemed to be looking at her with genuine concern, which was pretty strange, considering he was her captor. "Promise you won't scream?"
She hesitated, but figured that if she wanted to find out a way out of wherever she was, she would have to start by getting the man's hand off of her mouth. She slowly nodded, and he breathed out a sigh of relief before removing his hand. He turned around to grab a glass of water, holding it up to her lips.
"Here," he said, and despite every survival instinct telling her not to drink whatever they were giving her, she gulped the water greedily. When she had finished, he set the glass down.
"So did they tell you that you were joining the R&D Think Tank, too?" he muttered, and Ellie remembered what had happened before she'd been knocked out. Was she actually being held captive because she had accidentally stumbled upon HYDRA? What the hell had she gotten herself into?
Whoever the man in front of her was, he didn't seem like he really wanted to be there. Maybe that's the reason why Ellie thought it would be okay to talk to him.
"Project Phoenix," she croaked. "It was-"
"HYDRA," the man finished, his face showing the dread that she felt.
"But I thought HYDRA was destroyed," she whispered. "After-"
"That's what everybody thought. I guess we were wrong though. 'Cut off one head, two more will take its place.' We probably should've seen it coming."
"From the flames of the past we burned," she breathed.
"Out of the ashes, we rise," he said along with her.
He laughed softly, but it was filled with scorn. "I bet they think they're so clever."
She was about to ask him what she was doing there when she heard the sound of a commotion coming from somewhere above her head. It sounded like they were on an airplane, but Ellie wasn't so sure. A door slammed from somewhere over to the right.
"Pollack," a voice shouted in the doorway. The man in front of her turned around to face their visitor.
"What is it?"
"We've been made. Somebody's overridden our controls. It's a Code Red. Grab the girl and get to the helipad."
"But-"
"Now, Pollack!"
Pollack turned back to Ellie, a pained expression on his face. "I'm really sorry about this," he whispered, and before she could ask him what was happening, the world around her faded to black.
END OF PART ONE
TO BE CONTINUED...
A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to read this story. I apologize for the lengthy final chapter, but I really wanted it to flow right into End of the Beginning, and I wanted to finish it before seeing Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I'm not sure when I will have Part Two written, mostly because I don't know if it will happen simultaneously with CA:TWS or after Turn, Turn, Turn, but I definitely have an idea of where I want it to go.
Again, thank you. Your support has meant the world to me. :)
