CHAPTER 10

"So…" Skye said awkwardly as she and Grant stood on the balcony off of the gate room, they had stood in silence for hours and they would be heading back to Earth the next day, it was now or never. "We need to talk."

"We've been hearing each other think for the past few hours." He sounded like he was complaining and not complaining at the same time.

"We can't hide anything from each other so I think that I need to come clean to you." Skye took a deep breath; she knew that it would be hard to say what she wanted to say. "When I first joined the team, I was still working for the Rising Tide. I thought that I would be kicked off of the team within weeks and would be back in my van being tracked all over the country for the rest of my life. When those weeks turned into months I started to like being on the team and I knew that there was something about working with S.H.I.E.L.D. that I knew I would never know if I kept working with the Rising Tide.

"I was about to quit when I saw Miles again and I thought that maybe I would be able to leave with him and go back to the life I had before S.H.I.E.L.D., I thought that everything would be different and that I could avoid making any connections with you and the rest of the team. We all know what happened after that." Skye held up her tagged wrist and took a deep breath before continuing, unsure of how Grant was taking it all. "Just don't over react to the next part.

"But what you don't know is that I was looking for my parents from the start. My search finally came down to a single redacted file; a file that was redacted by a Level 10 Agent from S.H.I.E.L.D. I knew that I had to look for a way to find the original file. Coulson and May have been looking for any clues since the Miles incident but there was nothing about me in the report other than the fact that the nuns had found me asleep in a dead Agent's arms. While we were at the Academy, AC and May went to Mexico to find the last surviving Agent who was involved in taking me to the St Agness Orphanage. When they found him and managed to take him in, they managed to get him to tell them about the mission.

"A small village in the Hunan province of China and almost an entire S.H.I.E.L.D. team were killed because of the 0-8-4 they had found. Agent Avery and her partner managed to escape. I don't know the name of her partner but he was the one AC tracked down and he left before anything else could happen to him. Agent Avery brought the 0-8-4 to America and hid it."

"What's important about this 0-8-4?" Ward asked, specifically focusing on the words Skye was telling him, he knew she wanted to say it out loud and he wasn't going read her thoughts to find out.

"Before I tell you, you need to know that death follows the 0-8-4." She had a very serious and slightly panicked look on her face.

"What; was your mom Agent Avery and she died because of this 0-8-4?" Ward asked speculatively.

"No, the 0-8-4 wasn't a weapon or technology or an alien artifact. It was a baby; a baby girl. The baby was taken to the St Agness Orphanage and placed under a S.H.I.E.L.D. order that she be moved from home to home so that no one would find her." A single tear fell down Skye's cheek as she continued to tell Grant the rest of the story. "For years, the child grew up only knowing rejection and loss.

"Until she graduated, got a drivers license and a van; leaving the orphanage. She won a laptop in a bet and met a guy named Miles Lydon. He taught the 0-8-4 hot to hack and got her involved with an organization called the Rising Tide who then led to her being caught in a van in an alley where two men in dark suits threw a bag over her head and dragged her in for questioning. They later made her a member of their team and showed her more love and trust than she had ever received." Skye was crying now, tears streaming down her face. "The 0-8-4 later discovered that most of the people in her life would hate to meet an 0-8-4 that was a living breathing person so she hid it from the person who mattered the most to her, knowing that it would change everything between them.

"I'm an 0-8-4. That means no one knows where I come from or what I am capable of. I'm risking everyone's lives by still breathing."

Grant immediately captured her in a tight hug and as more tears streamed down her face. "You may be an 0-8-4 but I love you. I think that makes up for anything that could be remotely different about you because I don't care."

"Remember, death follows me. Every second you're with me could be a second closer to your death." She didn't want to be the reason he died, she wouldn't be able to bear the guilt.

"I always promised myself that I would protect you and that is what I'm going to do." Grant placed a kiss into Skye's hair. "I'm going to protect you."

…

They had fallen asleep in each other's arms that night. Coulson knew that nothing had happened because he found them lying on top of the covers with Skye's laptop on at the end of the bed looping the menu screen for Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. He shook the two awake and smiled down at them. It was so cute.

They both turned bright red as they saw Coulson standing over them. "I know, nothing happened. You were only watching a movie and you fell asleep."

Skye sighed in relief and sat up from the bed. "I'd better go get my stuff then." She smiled to Grant before she left the two older men alone in the room.

"I'm going to assume that you and Skye have talked through everything." Coulson pulled a chair and sat in front of Ward. "You can't tell anyone else about what you've heard, you could endanger everybody's lives."

"Of course not sir, Skye warned me about that." He had a very serious look on his face.

"You could also endanger your own life." Coulson didn't want anybody on his team to get hurt because he loved them all like his family.

"I know sir, but I promised myself that I would protect her and that's what I'm going to do." Ward rose from the bed and retrieved his bag and Skye's laptop.

With a thoughtful nod, Coulson left the room and left Ward to think over the implications of what he had chosen.