A/N: This has basically become a book, so I'm kind of treating it as such. Some chapters may come faster than others. Please continue to be patient with me (and thank you for doing so in the past!) I want this to be good for you guys. Sometimes that means spending a lot of hours going back and rewatching old episodes, taking notes, digging through comic lore and human biology... I'm pretty serious about making this story as believable in the Marvel world as possible. Hope you understand.
"Jesus, what the hell happened? Are you all right?" Bobbi asked from the kitchen, and Coulson and Skye both looked over from where they were sitting on the couch.
"What do you mean?" Coulson asked carefully, raising his eyebrow toward Skye. They'd been sitting and discussing training and research they could do while they were here, and when they thought Simmons would open up to them again about her blood research.
"I'm glad I got some dishes while I was out, because these are goners," Bobbi commented, holding up a dinner plate that had broken in half. Skye and Coulson looked at one another again, and both of them stood and moved toward the island counter. "Most of the plates look broken, and the drinking glasses are shattered. Luckily there were only a couple of those," Bobbi informed them as she checked the rest of the cabinets.
"Oops." Skye commented; Coulson smirked, and Skye blushed. Bobbi sighed heavily.
"I'm not going to ask. But I am going to say that the two of you can clean this up, while I work on dinner." Bobbi shook her head, moving toward the stove and giving them some space to do as she asked. "Jesus," She muttered under her breath, and Skye snorted.
"Sorry," Skye apologized, "In my defense, Coulson - "
"I really don't want to know." Bobbi interrupted quickly. "As long as you didn't lose control spontaneously, and hurt yourself again, it's fine. They're just dishes, and I bought a little of everything while I was out because I didn't know if there were any in here to begin with. It's fine."
"Thank you, Bobbi," Coulson said. "Need any help with dinner?" He offered, and she relaxed and smiled at him.
"I'd love some." She gestured her head toward the sink. "There's a brush and dustpan under the sink there. Help me once you're done helping Skye, since apparently at least half of this is your fault."
Skye grinned cheekily at Coulson, stepping to the side so he could fit next to her in front of the trashed cabinet.
...
Over the next few weeks, Coulson and Bobbi worked with Skye to attempt to figure out what was causing her to use her powers, and if she could wrangle any kind of control over it. Bobbi and Skye also kept up with their SHIELD training as well, though Coulson never joined them. He preferred to run the perimeter by himself, occasionally on the hotter days going for a swim as well, which Daisy always enjoyed observing, much to the chagrin of Bobbi.
Coulson, surprisingly, didn't have any more carving episodes. Although Bobbi kept bringing up the fact that Skye had powers and he didn't, the other half of his mind was silent on the matter. They eventually revealed to Bobbi about their shared "visions", but her only response was to frown and mutter - lovingly - that they were a couple of freaks.
Her teammate's argument always fresh in her mind, regardless of how supportive some of them have been since, Skye worked hard to suppress her powers. It didn't necessarily feel right, and she imagined that was Mar-Vell in her brain sharing his displeasure, but he hadn't "spoken" actual words to her since before the transfusion.
Coulson spent a lot of time on the phone with May, most often when Bobbi and Skye were distracted either sparring or exploring the surrounding area together. Skye could always tell when he'd been talking to her, though, because his frown lines would be deeper and he would have that "Director Face" expression again. He never went into detail with them, though, only mentioned "Hydra" with a terse tone, and they knew better than to question him further on the subject.
Bobbi eventually got called back to base, but both Coulson and Skye felt fairly confident by themselves now; for nine straight days Skye hadn't caused anything more than a slight rumbling.
"Try not to tear the place apart," were Bobbi's wry parting words, knowing that they'd done their best to keep their hands off of one another while she was around. Skye laughed, and Coulson frowned a little, but they both expressed warm goodbyes as they saw her off.
That evening, while they were washing up the dishes after dinner, Skye tried to broach the Hydra subject with Coulson.
"Was she called back because of our Nazi problem?" Skye asked, catching from the corner of her eye as he pursed his lips. He answered her, though, which surprised her a little.
"Yes." She waited for him to explain further, but he didn't.
"Why all the secrecy?" Skye wondered, setting down the plate she'd been scrubbing and turning to face him. "I haven't officially been told so I'd like to know; am I no longer an Agent? Do I not have classified access anymore?"
"Skye, don't take this personally," Coulson replied shortly, eyes on the glass he was drying, "The Director has secrets for a reason."
"I thought we got rid of levels." Skye retorted, folding her arms across her chest. "And don't make this out like I'm personally offended - I don't expect to know everything you know just because we're basically alien-husband-and-wife. But if there's something going on, especially with Hyrdra, is that not a big enough problem of SHIELD's for the Agents to know?"
Coulson turned to her, mouth opening and closing for a second as he figured out what he wanted to say first.
"No, we don't have Levels anymore, and that's not what I meant to - there are things I know and decisions I have to make because I am the head of an organization that is threatening to fall apart at what little seams we've put back together." His tone started to sound a little desperate the more he spoke, and Skye relaxed her stance, realizing that whatever these conversations he'd been having with May, it was putting more stress on him than he had allowed her or Bobbi to see. He rather suddenly set the glass and towel on the counter, and reached over to turn off the water. "Come sit with me. I was going to explain everything tomorrow, but might as well tonight." He sighed, and she watched, perplexed, as he disappeared down the hallway.
She dried her hands on her jeans and went over to the couch, sitting on the edge when he returned with a laptop in hand.
"Trip and Hunter had, on a routine scouting mission, discovered a high-level Hydra research facility," Coulson began, sitting next to her and opening the laptop.
"How high-level?" Skye wondered with interest. After the Raina-and-obelisks debacle, things had gone eerily quiet on the Hydra front for a while. It was like all of the roaches had scurried back into the shadows just as quickly as they'd shown themselves.
"We're not sure exactly, but fairly high. Bakshi has been a confirmed, and frequent, sighting." Coulson replied, and she widened her eyes in surprise.
"Has he replaced Whitehall?" Skye wondered, and Coulson shook his head slowly as he brought up something on the laptop.
"I don't think so, and that's what scares me. There's someone else at play here, someone far more important in Hydra's world. I don't know who, yet. He's very good at hiding his tracks."
"Or she." Skye reasoned, and he raised his eyebrow at her.
"Or she," He agreed. "Anyhow, we weren't sure what was going on inside this facility, and none of our tech could get passed their security,"
"You haven't asked me, yet," Skye pointed out with mild surprise - it wasn't like she'd suddenly lost all of her hacking abilities. Coulson looked apologetic.
"I didn't want to over stress you," he admitted, "what with figuring out your powers, and controlling them..."
"That should be my choice to make." Skye admonished very gently, and Coulson nodded.
"Well, I'm sorry for being an overprotective alien-husband." He said, and she smiled. Moving on, Coulson explained that he, May, and Simmons decided to discretely send Simmons in undercover, as a 'disgruntled SHIELD agent'.
"What?" Skye exclaimed. "We all know how Simmons is undercover!"
"Before you start freaking out on me, trust me, she went through the ringer, training with May. Plus, she doesn't have to lie about being a SHIELD agent, which we all imagined would've been the hardest part for her. Hydra came out of SHIELD, and we already know that some SHIELD agents followed suit."
Skye relaxed, marginally.
"How is she doing? How long has she been gone? Has she figured anything out?" Skye demanded, even more questions rolling around in her head.
"I'm getting there," Coulson eased, turning the laptop slightly so Skye could see the case file that he'd opened. "We now know for a fact that Hydra managed to get their hands on more than one obelisk, and they've been testing them."
"Oh my God." Skye whispered, leaning in and covering her mouth with her hand as she read the list of names of their test subjects who had died.
"To no success, yet, but Simmons' last drop was not encouraging. She says they recently brought someone in, and suddenly the entire atmosphere of the building changed. She's worried they may have found a successful subject."
"Someone who touched the obelisk and survived?" Skye wondered. "But how? They found a Kree?"
"No, not a Kree," Coulson corrected, but hesitated. "At least, not fully Kree. Skye...you remember the TAHITI project was tested on multiple subjects before I resigned?"
"Oh my God, they found someone like you and me?" Skye gasped. "And the Kree blood kept them from turning into stone - Jesus, what if we touched it, would we survive?"
"And what does it do to those who can touch it? Does it do anything at all?" Coulson asked rhetorically, frustrated. "This is why I need to have Simmons continue her mission, and why very few people know exactly where she is or what she's doing."
"So...she's in there completely on her own." Skye realized, equally terrified and impressed. Coulson nodded stiffly, and if Skye had been paying closer attention to him she would have realized he was hiding something, but she was already thinking ahead. "Do you think there's any way I can set up a secure line so she doesn't have to do the dead drops anymore?"
"I was considering that idea," Coulson nodded, "Which was why I was going to tell you all of this tomorrow."
"Would you have hid it from me, if you didn't need the secure line?" Skye wondered, and Coulson blinked at her.
"I don't know." He admitted truthfully. "It depends on how close Simmons gets on this. The more people that know, the more likely her cover will be blown,"
"I know, Coulson, I get it." Skye picked at a loose string on the couch, and then rested her hand on his leg. "I'm sorry. I did take it personally, a little bit, and I shouldn't have. Some secrets are important, I get that."
"Trust the system?" Coulson quoted carefully, teasing her, and she rolled her eyes.
"I'm not saying I trust the system - but I trust you." She corrected, and he smiled, then leaned forward to kiss her for a long beat.
"Why don't you start working on that communication system tomorrow morning? It's getting late." Coulson suggested, and Skye nodded.
They'd changed for bed and were lying in the dark for ten or so minutes when Skye spoke again, her brain still working a mile a minute.
"What about the blood research? I mean, I know Hydra is more important, and there are definitely more lives at risk so that should be high priority - but, I mean, is anybody paying attention to your blood? How you're going to react to the transfusion?"
"You're so sure I am going to have a reaction?" Coulson asked, and she heard him turn onto his side to face her. He sounded almost sad, like he was disappointed.
"Just because you haven't yet doesn't mean you won't." Skye reasoned, rolling on her side to face him as well. "Then we could be a superhero couple."
"I don't know, I kind of like being your human sidekick," Coulson grinned, brushing her hair away from her cheek. She laughed, cuddling against him, and he wrapped his arms around her.
"I do like that picture. The superhero and the spy. I could have a cape, and you'd have your ties."
"I don't know, capes could be pretty dangerous,"
"Thought about a costume for me, have you?" Skye teased, and she felt him grow warm with embarrassment, and she laughed harder.
"Go to sleep," He grumbled, and she pressed a smiling kiss to his chin before tucking her head against his chest.