A/N: Thank you for your patience between chapters. Life has been more than a little hectic of late.

Chapter 12

The trio managed to get a few hours' sleep before the plane landed in New York. May's call for everyone to strap in for landing woke Steve and Bucky, and they managed to rouse Skye by the time the plane was on the ground. They quickly got dressed, deciding they could shower when they got back to the Tower. Bucky packed up Skye's computer equipment while Steve and Skye swiftly stripped the bed and changed the sheets. Skye paused to dump the linens in the laundry machine and started it running. Someone would have to move the load to the dryer, but that wouldn't be her problem.

May, Mack, and a sleepy looking Fitz met them at the top of the cargo ramp. Fitz pulled Skye in for a hug while Steve and Bucky shook hands with May and Mack. "It was nice working with you all," Steve said politely.

"It's good to know we can work together," May agreed. "We'll be in touch about the data."

Skye pulled gently away from Fitz and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "You can always email or Skype me," she told the engineer gently. "And I meant it when I said you could visit. Bring Jemma and Mack, if you want. There's plenty of room."

"It's bloody Stark Tower. Of course there's room," Fitz answered cheerfully. "Don't be a stranger, Skye. I miss you."

"I miss you too, Fitz. I'll do my best, okay?" Skye pulled gently away and smiled at him. She turned to Mack and was pleasantly surprised to see him holding out a hand to her. She shook it with a tentative smile. "Take care, Mack."

"You too, Skye," Mack answered, polite but distant. Still, it was better than nothing so Skye didn't complain. She just nodded and turned to May, noticing Mack and Fitz return to the lab in the meantime.

"It was good working with you again, May," Skye said awkwardly. She wasn't good at goodbyes, and May wasn't the touchy-feely sort.

"You too. I'm glad you're finding your place, though," May said softly, ignoring the presence of the two super soldiers standing on the ramp.

Skye nodded. "Yeah. Me too. Say hi to AC for me, please? And… and maybe Simmons, if you think she'd want to know."

May's expression softened for a moment and she nodded. "I will." She reached out and brushed a strand of hair out of Skye's eyes. "Be happy, Skye." Skye smiled, accepting the gesture of affection for what it was. She brushed May's hand with her fingertips, restraining herself from the energetic hug she might have given Coulson or Tripp. With one last smile and nod, Skye walked down the ramp and joined her soulmates in the early morning sunlight.

On her way back to the cockpit, May heard the soft hum of the machine in the laundry room. She smiled to herself and silently promised Skye that she'd finish the clean-up. As they'd agreed, Coulson didn't need to know.

Though if Skye weren't involved, Phil would probably be thrilled to know that Captain America had slept in his bed…

"So, breakfast and then run?" Steve asked Bucky as they took the elevator up to the 91st floor.

"Sure," Bucky agreed. They both chuckled as Skye yawned.

"Hey, you two might be fine on four hours of sleep. But after breakfast, I am going back to bed."

"We figured, doll," Bucky smirked. "As long as you eat first, you can sleep the rest of the day if you like."

Skye rolled her eyes but nodded. "I just might," she quipped back as they stepped out of the elevator. "Some of us are merely empowered, after all."

"Empowered as opposed to what?" Tony asked, looking up at them from the table. He cradled a mug of coffee in his hands as he watched the trio – looking a little worn, but uninjured – head for the counter to collect breakfast. They all loaded up their plates, even Skye, and settled at the table before answering.

"As opposed to being super-human like them," Skye tilted her head towards her soulmates as she answered Tony.

"Ahh, right. Some of us are only human, after all," Tony agreed; his eyes widened when he saw Skye pause. "What? It's true, isn't it?"

"Well, yes, it's true that some of our group are human," Skye answered evasively. She watched Tony's eyes narrow and sighed. "But I'm not. At best, I'm half-human. I don't think anyone has fully worked out the details of that one yet."

"Really?" Bruce spoke up from the far end of the table. "I thought your scans read as human."

"I think they still do, but no one has checked deeper in a while. Not since Puerto Rico." Skye shrugged. "I'm pretty sure I still have a normal blood type and that kind of thing. My mother was human to the best of my knowledge."

"Do we need to do some more complete testing, Skye?" Bruce asked gently. "Just in case you're ever hurt?"

Skye focused on eating for a bit before answering. "I don't want to be a guinea pig," she answered finally. "But I wouldn't want you to be completely caught blind if something should happen. So yeah, I guess we can. I'll send a message to Coulson and ask him to send over my medical file and give Simmons permission to discuss it with you if needed."

"I promise, you won't be a guinea pig. If you can stop by the labs today or tomorrow, I can take some blood samples and do most of the testing without you needing to be present."

Skye nodded. "I think I can handle that." She paused to yawn. "After I get some more sleep, I'll stop in."

"Late night?" Bruce asked.

"Op ended around midnight, local time, so about three am here," Tony answered, since he was already done eating.

Bruce glanced at his watch, noting that it was just after ten. "And you're even up?" he asked Tony sceptically.

Tony smirked. "Pepper's a wonderful motivation when we have a meeting. But I might catch a few extra z's after lunch."

Bruce snorted but didn't comment further. He just watched quietly, sipping his tea, as the others finished their meals.

"Well, I'm for more sleep," Skye said as she picked up her dishes. She returned them to the kitchen staff. "You boys enjoy your run," she added as she paused behind her soulmates. She kissed the top of Steve's head, then Bucky's, and then headed for the elevators. "My apartment, please, JARVIS," she said when the doors closed.

Skye let herself into her apartment with a sigh. She realized that her laptop and tablet were probably still upstairs, since Bucky had refused to let her carry them again. But at the moment she was too tired to care.

Her first stop was the shower. She dropped her mission attire in the laundry basket and spent a long time just enjoying the luxury of being able to stand under the hot spray for as long as she chose. When she caught herself drifting off she decided she'd better finish up and get out.

She emerged into her bedroom wrapped up in a large, fluffy towel. Yawning, she pulled out an oversized sleep shirt and a pair of underwear. As she slid them on, she realized that she rather liked sleeping in Bucky's t-shirts. Or Steve's. She wondered if they'd let her borrow a couple as regular nightwear.

Somehow, she didn't think they'd say no.

She made sure her phone was on the nightstand beside her as she climbed under the covers. Between that and JARVIS, she ought to be reachable. Speaking of JARVIS…

"Hey JARVIS?"

"Yes, Miss Skye?"

"If either of my soulmates wants to come check on me, they have permission. But I'd rather not be woken unless it's important."

"Certainly, Miss Skye. Rest well."

"Thank you." Skye chuckled to herself, noting that only Tony would create an AI with more courtesy in its British tones than Tony ever showed to anyone himself.

When she woke, hours later, Skye felt refreshed. She was a little surprised that she'd been allowed to sleep for so long. Despite her instructions to JARVIS, she had honestly expected that something would cause her to be woken up. Still, it was nice to feel fully rested for a change. She hadn't used her powers for more than twenty four hours, and the control such usage – for training or otherwise – took a lot of her energy.

If a full day off left her feeling this kind of good, she might have to start taking a day off once a week or something.

"Any updates, JARVIS?" she asked the omnipresent AI as she got dressed into something clean. Jeans, cami and zip-up hoodie seemed like a good idea to her.

"Nothing yet, Miss Skye, though I have continued your process of flagging particular files for follow-up by relevant parties."

"Sounds great. Thank you."

"Happy to be of service, Miss Skye."

Skye made her way back up to the common area in search of a snack. She knew it was only a few hours until dinner, but she had missed lunch and was hungry. She needed her laptop anyway, and the paper files they'd grabbed were probably still in her bag. In a very short time, she was curled up in an armchair. Her laptop perched on the arm of the chair, her tablet on the table in front of her, and paper files in her lap. In her free hand she held an apple. A plate beside her tablet held cheese and crackers.

Damn. Steve's healthy eating habits were rubbing off on her.

She purposely chose not to remember all the times Ward had scolded her for eating junk.

Skye threw herself into resuming her data searches and checking the results of her mining programs. She ate while she worked, absently chewing and swallowing until she ran out. Then she pushed the plate aside, nothing remaining on it but the apple core, and filled up the space with paper from the files.

It quickly became obvious that she was going to have to consult Bruce and possibly Simmons with these files. They were very clinical notes of test results… but even without understanding the notes, Skye knew that the test subjects were people. The very detached, studious nature of the results was terrifying.

Much the way Whitehall had been terrifying, staring right into her face and telling her that discovery required experimentation. As if she were some sort of superior lab rat.

Skye shivered and returned the documents to the folders they'd come from. She'd take them to Bruce; she had promised to go see him anyway. She grabbed a bottle of water before heading to the elevators, knowing she'd need the hydration if he were going to take blood from her.

"Med labs, please," she told JARVIS as the elevator doors closed.

Just a few minutes later she knocked on the door to Bruce's lab before walking in. The door was unlocked and JARVIS hadn't warned her away, so she assumed it was safe.

"Oh, Skye. Come in," Bruce said with a smile. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, I am." She smiled back as she walked further into the lab. "Sorry I took so long; I stopped for something to eat and got caught up in my work. I actually found some things I need you to take a look at and that reminded me to come down anyway," she said, a little sheepishly.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Some of the notes look like medical experiment records. But why don't we do this blood thing first?" She set the folders down on the table, but was more interested in getting her stuff out of the way.

"Of course. Eating before a blood draw is usually not a bad thing anyway," Bruce agreed. He led Skye over to a chair at the end of a long counter, where she could rest her arm while he worked. It didn't take long for him to obtain the samples he would need for further tests. "There," he said, pressing a sterile cotton against her skin to stop the bleeding. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"No," Skye agreed with a small smile. "You have an even lighter touch with that thing than Simmons. Thank you."

"Not a problem." Bruce took a few minutes to clean up his equipment and store Skye's blood properly.

"I feel I should probably give you a warning before we look at those files," Skye said when he was done. Her expression was blank, except for her eyes which showed her apprehension.

"Alright?" Bruce looked at her expectantly, keeping calm.

"These tests… I'm pretty sure they were being performed on actual people," she said softly. "It makes those results rather terrifying, because whoever was doing them clearly doesn't give a damn about anyone else. Or, at least not about their 'subjects'…"

Bruce took a deep breath and nodded. "I understand. I'll take a look, and if it starts to be a problem for me we'll pass along our progress to someone else. Sound good?"

Skye nodded. "Yeah, sounds good. Simmons should be able to help too, but we'll have to scan the files to send to her."

"We'll have JARVIS scan them and our notes when we have to stop." They began to spread out the contents of the files across Bruce's worktable. Bruce grabbed a notebook while Skye brought up a notepad on her tablet.

"JARVIS, can you make notes while we discuss and save them to my tablet, please?" Skye asked.

"Of course, Miss Skye. Would my assistance be helpful to your analysis?"

Skye just looked at Bruce and shrugged. Bruce smiled. "Scan the documents for chemical formulae, JARVIS, and see if you can match to any known drugs or other compounds. If you can't, extrapolate possible uses based on chemical components."

Skye blinked; she would never have thought of that. "Guess that's why I'm the hacker and not the doctor," she joked. Bruce chuckled and the two settled down to work.

TBC...