"Play it again."
"It's the same every time, sir."
"Fitz.."
Fitz tapped a few buttons and brought up the security footage from the bus.
"As I said, all internal camera feeds were erased. But the hanger's landing assist system is separate. The camera tracks movement. So after we left, everything's normal until:"
He stopped the footage to show Ward and Skye walking up the ramp, holding hands.
"Soon after, the plane takes off. But that's all we've got."
Coulson looked back at May who was staring at the screen completely confused.
"Where are they going? And Koenig?"
"Koenig must've gotten onto the plane somehow."
"There's no other way in or out."
"The blast doors and the hangar door are the only exits.", Tripp added.
"And both are undamaged.", Coulson said trying to figure everything out, "So nobody attacked the place and they weren't running away. So why?"
"Maybe Koenig got orders."
"From who? Not Fury. Is there anyone left to give orders? Aren't we just improvising at this point?"
"Fitz, it still wouldn't explain why the communication lines were cut or why they left their phones."
Coulson brought May to the side to speak in private.
"We don't know the whole story yet. Don't go jumping to conclusions.", May said.
"Too late."
"Phil.."
Tripp stood up.
"Hey. You guy's wanna share?"
"Is there a problem Agent Triplett?"
"Yeah. I got some brand new trust issues, so y'all better not be hiding something."
Trip was the new guy. He didn't know how the team worked. Fitz and Simmons completely understood.
"Tripp. We're not hiding anything. Our daughter is somewhere out there and we're just trying to figure out why."
"I get that. But you guys need to make it so that all of us are on the same damn page."
Simmons noticed the change in atmosphere.
"I'll make us some food. We have to eat."
"I'll help.", Tripp offered.
"Uh, no, I'll get it actually, you just stay here.", he said as he ran to catch up with Simmons.
Coulson walked over and sat down onto the sofa.
"Trip, do you mind fueling up the plane. I have a feeling we're gonna have to get out of here soon."
It was a legitimate task that had to be done, but both Trip and Coulson knew that it was just a way to get him alone with May. But he did it anyway.
"Phil, I can see you thinking. Tell me what you got."
"Best case, Koenig knows something we don't. Took a team, kept us in the dark for our safety."
"And the worst case scenario?"
"We've had a wolf in the herd the whole time."
May changed her expression.
"What do you me-"
She was cut off by the sound of Simmons' scream.
"It's so beautiful.", Skye said as she looked at the sunset ahead of them.
"Sure is.", he looked back at her, "But I've seen better."
She laughed at his pick up line attempt even though it pained her inside.
"Really?"
"What? It's true."
"I'm sure you say that to all the girls, Grant Ward."
He scoffed and leant closer to her.
"There's never been any 'girls'. Just you baby."
"Really? No ex girlfriends, no forgettable flings?"
"No. I was never the type to open myself up to just anyone. Not even my parents."
"But you opened up to Garrett."
"Yeah. He was good. Fooled me like that."
She sat back into the passenger cockpit seat.
'Fooled', she thought.
"What about you? I know you had a thing with that hacker guy; but who else has fallen under your oh so sexy spell."
"Not many. Before Miles I dated a Russian guy. That was fun."
He looked at her concerned.
"Am I not fun?"
"No, no, no. He had an accent. I didn't know what he was saying half the time."
"Then why was it fun?"
"The guy was jacked"
He laughed.
"Nice to know you have a type."
"You're not like any of them Grant. They were hackers. Always secrets with those hacker boys. But you? You'd never lie to me. I know that."
She was doing her best to guilt him into confessing. But he wouldn't budge.
"Good."
He stood up and reached out for her hand. Together they walked out of the cockpit and into the bunk area.
"You know, we still have a few hours until we touchdown in Los Angeles. What do you say, we… have a little fun."
No. He didn't deserve her.
"Right now?"
"Yeah. Why not?"
"What about all the other times I suggested we do it while we had down time on a mission? You weren't up for it then- why now?"
"I dunno, it's been a weird couple of days. All I've been thinking about is you.", he moved closer to her and put his hands on her waist, "All of you."
Really? Was he really trying to do this now? He didn't deserve her. She was willing to many things to make him believe she didn't know the real him. She was willing to kiss him; but to have sex with him? No.
"You're all I thought about too. Honestly, through all of the betrayal and snow hiking- the thought of reuniting with you was what kept me going."
He smiled and lent down to kiss her. She was the first to pull away.
"Grant…"
"Yeah babe?"
"Uh as much as I would love to do this… I just remembered there was a few things I have to do to prepare for the hack. It's gonna take a while."
He laughed and put his head down.
"That's fine. We'll just pick up on this later."
They headed to the lab and she started doing some random stuff that had nothing to do with the actual hack.
Coulson and May ran towards the scream.
"Simmons what's wrong."
She was shaking with tears in her eyes as she pointed toward the closet behind her.
"Eric…"
Fitz ran the corner and bent over to catch his breathe.
"You guys have to see this."
He lead Simmons, Coulson and May to the bathroom at the end of the hall where the sign Skye left was out in the open.
"Skye..", Coulson breathed.
She's playing him.
"Sir what… what the hell is happening?", Fitz asked.
"I don't know. Simmons I'm gonna need you to do an autopsy on the body. Can you do that?"
She wiped the tears from her eyes.
"Yes sir."
"Good. Fitz, go get Trip and tell him to help you get the body down from there."
He left for the hangar, leaving. Coulson and May alone in the hallway.
"Phil."
"I'm gonna kill him."
"You don't know if it was him."
"Melinda! Who else would? There's no one else here and Skye couldn't have done this. He's out there with our daughter doing who knows what."
"You're right."
"She has a plan. We need to get to her before Ward finds out what that is."
Simmons confirmed it. Ward murdered Koenig and now he was out there trying to do who knows what with Skye.
Skye and Ward walked out of the alley and onto the streets of LA. She took in a deep breath and smiled.
"Ah, fresh air."
"Fresh? The smell of piss and weed is 'fresh' to you?"
"It's East LA, Grant."
"Right.", he stopped and pointed toward and alley. "Hey… that's where we first met."
She put on her fake smile.
"Is 'met' the right word? I was thinking more like 'kidnapped'."
"You were a threat. I was doing my job."
"True. That bag smelled horrible."
"Yeah, we don't wash those."
"Ugh. Seriously?".
They continued walking. Holding hands, to maintain their cover as a regular millennial couple going out for lunch.
"I can't remember the last time I was in a restaurant."
"I know. It's been all tubes, tunnels and plane food."
"Maybe I'll get pie for dessert."
"Dessert? I was hoping we'd be done by the time I finished coffee."
They arrived at the front of the restaurant.
"Do you have any idea how long it'll take to decrypt this drive?"
"For you? I figured 10 minutes."
"Not even close. The GPS will take a hot second to calibrate but I'm working on a laptop. So even at three cycles per byte there are still terabytes of data –"
"Spare me the details. Give me the time frame."
"An hour would be a miracle."
"Coulson needs this yesterday."
"Grant, my laptop's not a time machine. That's the science."
He looked disappointed.
"I guess we're having desert.", he said opening the door to the diner.
Trip and Coulson were able to locate the plane to the diner in LA. He gathered everyone on to the quinjet and started the flight from the base to her location.
"Are you ok?", Coulson said to May who he could tell was tense as she piloted the plane.
She adjusted her neck and looked at him.
"I'm fine."
"You sure? 'Cause you're making the same face you made when I got your dad drunk on New Year's eve," he leaned forward to get a better look at her face, "Only… scarier.", he reached for her hand, "I'm worried about her too. Skye's a smart girl. Even without her SHIELD training. She'll be fine."
"I know. I'm just pissed that someone who knows what she's been through emotionally would have the guts to layer on more emotional trauma."
"He's Hydra. They don't care about other people. Only themselves."
"That's right. And that's why Ward needs to run. Because when I find him-"
"-you're gonna kick his ass.", they smiled at each other, "I'm gonna need a front row seat to that show."
Questions, comments, and suggestions are encouraged. Thanks for reading:)