A/N: I realized a few things needed to happen before the action could go down, and this chapter subsequently became very long...so it's going down in this chapter AND in the next. Enjoy! :)

-0400-

The alarm on her laptop went off, and a jolt of adrenaline rippled through Skye as she awoke and remembered.

This was the day.

The buy was set for 1645 in an abandoned warehouse just outside of Boston. They'd be moving into position four hours early, to make sure they had plenty of time to get the jump on whoever was trying to get the jump on them. And then it would be a waiting game.

Skye didn't usually get nervous in the lead-up to field operations, but this one felt different, and she wasn't really sure why. Maybe it was because Hunter was going into the field for a potentially dangerous mission, for the first time since they'd become...them.

But Skye had a feeling it was more than that. Something about this mission felt big, as if somehow she knew that they were embarking on something they wouldn't be able to turn back from. Maybe it was just her lingering paranoia that all these attacks, which had started right after San Juan, had something to do with her. It was irrational, and probably inaccurate. But she couldn't shake the sense that things were going to be different after today.

-0800-

"Okay," Coulson said decisively. "Let's go over the plan again. 1200 -" He looked at May.

"We land in the field three blocks from the warehouse," she supplied.

He nodded, glancing at Hunter.

"Martin, Ramirez, and I set up surveillance cameras before joining May and Fitz inside the warehouse to be in position by 1245."

Coulson nodded again, turning to Skye.

"I run comms while watching everything and giving you guys the play-by-play. I notify everyone immediately as soon as our second party is on site."

Coulson turned to Fitz.

"At which point I'll activate the Golden Retrievers so we can get more information about what and whom we're dealing with before the others go in. I'll stay back to operate them during the action, but I have a sidearm just in case."

Coulson turned to May.

"And we'll wait for your orders from the Command Center before we engage," she finished.

"We're clear," Coulson approved. "Koenig, we've got gas masks and ear protection ready to go?"

"Absolutely, sir."

Coulson inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. "All right. We don't know who we're dealing with, and from what we've seen so far, we could be looking at the possibility of gifted individuals on their team. Be smart, stay safe, and let's keep in communication. Wheels up at 1100. See you then."

-0906-

"Okay, girl," Simmons said feistily from the laptop screen, sounding as if she were channeling a little of Trip's memory. "I know you're leaving in a couple of hours, but I get you for the next 30 minutes. Now, I've seen you practicing on your own. Show me what you can do."

Skye grinned, thankful for the distraction from the nerves she couldn't seem to shake. "With pleasure." With a flourish, she scooped four empty water bottles out of the recycle bin, set them up on the table, then stood as far away from them as possible, backed up against the wall of the Cage. Dramatically, she lifted a hand and gestured toward the first bottle, which shivered and fell over, rolling off the edge of the table to bounce off the floor with a hollow thud.

Simmons looked impressed, and Skye beamed. She went down the row, pointing to each bottle in turn and reveling in the way they responded to her efforts.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

"That is very impressive," Simmons began, but Skye cut her short.

"That's not all," she said with a smirk. "Watch this." She placed a test tube in the MOWSE, pressed the button to activate the barrier, closed her eyes, and concentrated on the tube, a smile stretching across her face as the glass began to ring out a clear tone without shattering.

Simmons' lips parted in surprise. "How did you figure that one out?"

"It was Fitz's idea to try to find the resonant frequencies for the test tubes. It took a lot of practice." Skye made an apologetic face. "I, uh - I may have had Hunter sneak more tubes out of the lab after I accidentally broke the first few...dozen."

"Well, we've got plenty of them, and I honestly can't think of a better use," Simmons said emphatically. "Anything more?"

Skye grinned. "Yeah. Two more." Okay. This next one was kind of fun. She peered closely at the laptop screen for a minute, then took a deep breath before extending her powers toward her target.

In the lab, a small metal tool on the counter behind Simmons began to rattle around. Simmons literally started, her eyes going wide as she looked from the tool to Skye on the computer screen. "Are you -?" she asked in disbelief. "How are you -?"

Skye grinned, feeling a thrill of excitement rise up inside her. "Hunter and I figured that one out yesterday," she explained. "So far, I know I can move things at least as far away as the next block. We haven't tried anything farther yet."

"Do you have to be looking at what you're targeting?" Simmons replied, staring at the still-rattling implement in utter fascination.

Skye shook her head. "Once I know where it is, I just have to focus on it, and it works. I can close my eyes, turn away from the screen, whatever. It still works."

Simmons was tapping away on the tablet now. "This is...amazing, really," she marveled, looking back up at Skye. "I don't know if you've thought about this...but your abilities could have a number of possible practical applications."

Skye nodded slowly. She'd been thinking about that lately, too, but she was having a hard time coming up with many ideas for practical applications. "I've been using it to knock water bottles into the recycle bin when they land between the rim of the bin and the wall," she mused. "Other than that and breaking glass or creating musical pitches, I'm not sure what it's good for. Landscaping?" she quipped.

Simmons scrunched up her brow thoughtfully. "Well, I suppose we'll think of more as we discover more about what you're capable of," she said softly. "Now, you said there was something else?"

"Yeah." Skye took a deep breath, calming down the butterflies in her stomach. This was the one she most wanted Simmons, Keeper of the Keys to the Cage, to see. She shut her eyes and activated her powers, generating a healthy vibration throughout the room. "You reading that?" she verified.

"Definitely," Simmons replied.

Skye settled into the sensation, feeling the buzz in her mind harmonize with the adrenaline coursing through her veins. Slowly, she ratcheted up the intensity of the vibrations until the room was a cacophony of rattles. Then abruptly, she flipped the internal switch she'd discovered, and everything fell silent.

She opened her eyes cautiously to see Jemma gazing at her, brown eyes brimful of hope.

"Oh, Skye," she almost whispered. "You're really getting it."

Tears sprang to Skye's eyes. "I am, aren't I? You really think?" she asked with quiet hopefulness, and Simmons nodded confidently.

"You really are. I think...after today's mission, I want to start you back on the electroshock tests, to see if you can reliably keep a lid on your response under stressful or surprising stimulus. If that goes well...I want to start getting you out of there. At least during waking hours."

Simmons' words breathed a jolt of new life into the wilting optimism in Skye's heart, and with it, new impatience.

"How long will the electroshock testing take?" she prodded.

"A few days at least," Simmons replied matter-of-factly, again tapping away on the tablet. At Skye's heavy sigh, she smiled reassuringly. "We're nearly there, Skye. It won't be long now. Try to be patient."

Skye groaned. "I'll try. But Simmons - there are showers out there."

"That's not the only appeal of life outside the Cage though, I trust, hmm?" Simmons asked coyly, arching an eyebrow.

Skye blushed, catching her meaning. "There are at least two million reasons to want out of here," she deflected. "Showers, sanity, something besides these riveting gray walls to look at...being out there with you guys instead of feeling like I'm some kind of freak who has to be locked away. Eventually getting back in the field so I'm not completely useless." She sighed with frustration, and Simmons' face softened in sympathy.

"It's been really hard, hasn't it?" the scientist said quietly. "We miss you, and I can imagine it's much worse for you. Sometimes I forget how difficult it must be, being in there for so long. But you must know," she continued earnestly, "that none of us think of you as a freak. You're just Skye, you're one of us, facing challenges. Brilliantly, I might add," she emphasized. "And you're not useless. Look at how we need you for the op this afternoon. We have enough field agents now, with Martin and Ramirez. Your running the support side is very useful!"

Skye looked up, lightly brushing away a tear. She mustered a brave face. "Thanks, Jem."

Simmons smiled.

The blush crept back across Skye's face, and with it, a mischievous grin. "Okay, I might also be looking forward to some actual alone time with a certain person, sans surveillance cameras."

Simmons barely hid her knowing smirk.

-1015-

45 minutes before takeoff, Skye was working on her surveillance setup for the op when a quiet knock on the door interrupted her. She smiled when Hunter came in.

"Hey," she greeted him.

"Hey there," he replied with an answering smile, closing the door behind him and surveying the tech strewn all over her table. "Hacking the NSA?"

"Working on my devious plan to catch Coulson and May in a romantic entanglement," she only half-joked. (That plan really had been simmering on the back burner of her brain for a while. She'd had a lot of extra down time, those first weeks in the Cage.)

Hunter's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Is that something I should be watching for?"

Skye grinned. "I have suspicions, though they could be totally baseless. If you ever see anything, let me know."

Hunter grinned back, coming over to where she was working to stand behind her. He was all suited up and ready to go, and Skye realized with a flush of happiness that he had come early just to snatch some time with her.

His hands came to her shoulders, gently kneading, and Skye felt him drop a kiss on the top of her head.

"This is okay?" he asked quietly.

She nodded. "I'm getting better, you know. I can turn them off when I want to."

"I know," he replied, a touch of pride in his voice. "I just don't want to have to go through that thing again where you won't talk to me and I don't know why." She could tell that he was grinning.

Skye closed her eyes and smiled, relaxing into his touch, which was calming her down even as it sent tingles through her body. It was crazy how everything about him, everything about them together, felt simultaneously both comforting and exhilarating.

As her guard came down, worries she'd been suppressing flooded in, and she sighed. Hunter tilted his head, picking up on her change in mood. "What is it?"

She glanced up at him, hesitating, then let the words slip out quietly. "What if I can't ever get back in the field?"

"What do you mean?" he prompted, working his fingers up into the tight muscles at the base of her skull that were always angry from too much time spent staring at a computer screen.

That physical release of her aching muscles triggered a corresponding emotional release, and Skye was surprised to find tears coming to her eyes. "What if I never get enough control to be safe out there? Or how will we even know for sure that I have? I..." She trailed off, almost afraid to articulate the worries, as if doing so would make them more real.

"Go on," Hunter encouraged. "Talk it out." In truth, he needed this conversation as much as she did. Skye's self-disclosure was fulfilling a deep craving for connection that, between impermanence and guardedness, he'd rarely experienced in the last few years.

Skye sniffed, her lips pressing together. "I thought I had figured out who I was going to be, you know?" she said quietly. "After trying to figure it out for so long. I was a SHIELD field agent. I finally found a place where I fit. And now..." She took a deep, shuddery breath, then almost whispered, "I don't know who I'll be if I'm not that."

Hunter's hands stroked down her neck, then stilled briefly on her shoulders before giving her a gentle squeeze. He pulled the other chair over and sat across from her, his knees touching hers.

"So," he began jocularly, meeting her gaze, "do you need me to be the strong, silent type right now? Or would you like to tap into my vast reservoir of wisdom?"

Skye let out a little, watery laugh. "Go ahead."

He smiled, taking one of her hands in his. He searched her eyes for a moment, as if making sure she really wanted to hear, then spoke quietly. "To begin with, love, 'SHIELD field agent' is a job title, not an identity."

Skye blinked, her jaw working.

"D'you remember when we had that conversation, and I told you that SHIELD isn't a life, it's just a job?" he went on, and Skye nodded, a little surprised that he remembered it, too. "Now," he qualified, "I'm beginning to see that it can be a job and a family and a cause, and I know that, for you, it's all of those."

"Yeah," Skye said softly.

"But it doesn't get to determine who you are. You'd still be you, even if you sat behind a computer for the rest of your life. Even if you left SHIELD. I'm not saying you should," he was quick to clarify. "I have to admit I've become a bit attached to this place, and I don't like the idea of you going anywhere. But you've got to figure out who you are apart from what you're doing."

Skye nodded slowly.

"I know it's not easy," he acknowledged, "especially with everything that's happened." He lifted a gentle hand to her cheek, tracing along her cheekbone with his thumb, and Skye closed her eyes, leaning into his touch. "What you're dealing with is big. You've gone through something crazy, and with that is gonna come some reshuffling of how you understand yourself. It's a lot to work through, and I don't know that it's gonna be simple. But you," he emphasized, and she opened her eyes to meet his, "you're a remarkable woman, and you will be, no matter what happens. No matter what you end up doing."

Skye covered his hand on her cheek with her own, searching his eyes intently.

"I can tell you what I see in you," Hunter said firmly, "but how you see yourself is something you're gonna have to work through. And once you do, you're going to come out the stronger for it."

Skye took a deep breath, closing her eyes, then exhaled slowly. "Thank you," she whispered, opening her eyes to look at him. Hunter smiled affectionately, brushing her hair back from her face, and leaned in to press a kiss to her temple.

"Any time," he replied, just as an alarm on his watch started to beep. He grimaced apologetically. "Everyone's going to start showing up in a few minutes," he explained. "I'd best duck out."

"And I should probably finish this setup," Skye agreed, unenthusiastic but resigned. She stood up to walk him to the door, reaching out to twine her fingers with his.

"You know, you're kind of hot in tac gear," she observed mischievously.

Hunter bobbed his eyebrows. "Only in tac gear?" he pressed teasingly, nudging her.

Skye shrugged noncommittally. She stifled a laugh at his faux-injured reaction, which quickly morphed into a cocky grin.

"Hmm," he mused, backing her up against the wall. "Guess I've got some convincing to do."

She grinned as his lips met hers. The kiss was definitely convincing - as if Skye needed it - but too brief, and she felt her mood sobering again as Hunter pulled back, the little twinge of anxiety she'd felt that morning creeping back in. "Be careful out there, okay?" she said, searching his brown eyes, which always seemed lighter and clearer up close. She brought a hand to his cheek, stroking his face gently. "Come back to me," she added softly.

"Always," he promised, his eyes serious, then corrected himself. "I'll always be careful. Hopefully I'll always come back."

"I'd be kind of messed up if you didn't," she admitted.

He flashed a grin, trying to lighten the mood. "Well, we can't have that, so I guess that means I have to come back!" He bent in to brush his lips to her forehead, then hesitated for a moment, holding her gaze, as if he wanted to say something more but thought better of it. "I'll see you in a few hours."

-1240-

"Cameras are in position," Hunter reported over the comms. "We're moving into the warehouse to join up with May and Fitz."

From the Command Center, Coulson checked in. "Skye, how's that working for you?"

"Beautifully," she mumbled, tapping away at the keyboard. "Nice job, guys. I've got great visuals."

"I've always thought so," Hunter replied flippantly, and Skye grinned. Trust him to find a way to flirt with her that the others, listening over the comms, would just write off as Hunter being his usual cheeky self.

"Okay, team," Coulson filled them in. "Looks like we beat them to it. Now it's a waiting game."

"Did anybody bring a deck of cards?" Ramirez asked.

-1430-

The lock on the Cage beeped open, and Coulson came in with a sandwich and a bottle of water for Skye. He was wearing a suit as usual, but had his jacket off and his shirtsleeves rolled up. "At least halfway there," he filled her in, as if she weren't watching the numbers change on the clock out of sheer boredom. "How you holding up?"

Skye shrugged. "This is the part of the job I hate," she grumbled, accepting the proffered sandwich. "Of course, I'd rather be out there, in the warehouse."

Coulson nodded. "Simmons tells me you're working toward that pretty steadily?"

Skye nodded, with a smile that was more confident than she felt. "I think I'm starting to get it. After we, uh...figured out that I can target things, it really helped me start to understand how to get control." Added to her misgivings about her eventual fitness for field ops, Skye felt a twinge of uneasiness. Coulson knew they'd figured out the targeting thing, but he didn't know how. And while, most of the time, Skye didn't think about the fact that she was now keeping a secret from him, when they were face-to-face like this and she was having to be evasive, it sunk in. She didn't like the uncomfortable distance it put between them, even if Coulson wasn't aware of it. She almost told him about Hunter, before reminding herself that now, in the middle of an op, really wasn't a good time.

"Good," Coulson said, looking at her keenly, as though he realized something was up. He caught on to at least part of what she was thinking. "You won't be stuck here doing surveillance forever. We'll get you back out there."

But Skye frowned. "How will you know that I'm even safe to put in a high-pressure situation?"

A flicker of uncertainty crossed Coulson's face. "We'll figure it out," he assured her. "We'll take it one step at a time."

Skye wished he sounded more convincing. Or convinced.

-1550-

"Are you an object?" Hunter asked.

"No," Ramirez replied. "One."

"A person?" came Fitz's voice.

"Yep. Two."

"Tony Ramirez," Martin put in dryly.

"Nope. Three."

Skye tapped her fingers on the tabletop, keeping her eyes moving from screen to screen quickly as they threatened to glaze over. "Are you famous?"

"Yes. Four."

"An...actor?" Hunter guessed.

"Nope. Five."

"Historical figure?" hazarded Skye.

"Negative. Six."

There was a pause, and Skye yawned. Coulson had warned her that stakeouts could be a little like water torture, and she was beginning to think that was an apt description. She was grateful that the team had moved on from cards to Twenty Questions (something in which she could actually participate), but she could only handle so many rounds without losing her mind, and this was already round 9.

The ennui was compounded by the anticipation. Any minute now, she knew, the boredom would explode into tense, heart-thumping activity. After hours of waiting, Skye's firmly compartmentalized nerves were starting to eat away at the walls of their compartment.

"An Avenger?" Fitz tried thoughtfully.

"Ohhh, bingo," Ramirez replied, sounding disappointed. "Seven."

"Are you human?" That was Hunter.

"Yeah. Eight."

May, who hadn't participated in the game at all so far, chipped in ironically. "Are you a textbook narcissist?"

Ramirez sighed. "Definitely."

"Tony Stark!" Skye and Fitz crowed in unison.

"You go ahead, Fitz," Skye offered. She'd already had three turns. Apparently, she was good at this game.

"Okay," Fitz replied. While he was thinking, Skye sighed, scrolling quickly through her video feeds again.

"Anything, Skye?" Coulson asked from the Command Center.

"Zilch."

"Ready," came the engineer's Scottish brogue.

"Are you an object?" Hunter asked.

"Yes. One."

"Do you have a power source?" came Ramirez' voice.

"Yes. Two."

"Did Fitz invent you?" Skye asked with a wicked grin.

"I'm not the textbook narcissist, Skye. No. Three."

Ramirez started throwing out technical questions about the object's power source, but Skye had stopped listening, because now, something was happening on her screen. A nondescript beige van turned off the road into the parking lot next to the north entrance of the warehouse.

"Guys?" Skye interrupted the game quietly. "We've got activity in the north parking lot. A van just pulled in."

"Are they staying?" Coulson asked, his voice suddenly tense.

Skye watched as the van pulled up to the loading dock, and a tall man got out of the passenger seat.

"It looks like they're staying," Skye reported. "The passenger is going over to the loading bay door...and opening it." She mirrored the image over to the Command Center for Coulson to see.

"About 6'1". Sunglasses," the Director observed thoughtfully. "I wonder if this is our mysterious character from Lubbock."

There was silence over the comms as the tall man got back into the van, and the vehicle pulled into the building.

"They're inside," Coulson informed the field team. "North loading bay. Fitz, let's get the Retrievers up and surveilling."

"Copy that, sir."

"Skye, keep an eye on the perimeter."

"Copy that."

"Okay, team," Coulson said, his voice charged with anticipation. "Buckle up. It's go time."

A/N: I love follows and favorites and reviews! You all are the best! :)