"Michael Peterson... factory worker, married, one kid. Gets injured, gets laid off."
Phil says, making Skye come to a stop, turning her head towards the large screen. She had figured out he was without a job, she had not thought what the main reason was for. She should have looked into him more before she had started her recording that had lead her here.
"Wife jumps the ship. Good guy, bad breaks. Best guess is, somebody tells him they can make him strong again, make him super."
Phil continues to explain and Skye keeps her eyes on the large screen, crossing her arms in the process.
"Who has the tech to do that? And why would they want to?"
Melinda asks and Skye can think of at least ten reasons why, the battle of New York being top on that list right now. After what happened that day, people got scared, they were not ready to learn what crazy and weird things that is happening all around them on a daily basis after all.
"Fitz, what do we have from the security footage before the blast?"
Phil asks, turning his attention towards the young agents. The male one, that Skye figures is Fitz then, steps towards the table and start working on it. A new picture is being added to the large screen and Skye sees two men, one clearly angry.
"What are we seeing."
Melinda asks and Skye is asking the same question in her head.
"Well, the man is angry at the other man."
Fitz explains and Skye knows she isn't the only one looking at him with raised eyebrow.
"The data is very corrupted."
The young female agent speaks up and Fitz nods his head at this.
"Yeah, like cold war Russia corrupted."
"Yeah."
"I-I couldn't sync the timecode without –"
Fitz starts to explain and Skye turns her attention away from the large screen and looks at Fitz and his partner.
"What if you had the audio?"
She asks, stepping back slightly as all eyes turns towards her.
"I was... running surveillance on the lab. I had my shotgun mic pointed at the window before the blast. The digital file's in my van. There's to much background noise for me, but you could probably-"
She starts to explain, not fully sure what she is feeling like she needs to defend her action, only to remember that the two younger agents thinks she is simply a hacker, and Phil and Melinda doesn't recognise who is standing in front of them after she many years.
"You could clean that up, can't you? Find a sync point and use cross-field validation to find –"
The female agent asks, turning her attention towards Fitz once more who nods his head slightly.
"But I can't scrub for expression patterns when the vit-c is all-"
"Well, is there a chrominance subcarrier?"
"Yeah, attached to the back porch. Brilliant."
Seeing how the two younger agents talks to one another, it almost reminds Skye of how Natasha and Clint talks. Seeing how the two of them turns their attention at her again, Skye nearly takes a step back again.
"Um, that audio would be great. Thank you very, very much. / We will take that audio, please."
They speak at the same time, smiling big in the process.
"Your van's here, but you were right. We couldn't decrypt the files."
Phil speaks up once more and Skye turns to look at him.
"The encryption's coupled to the GPS. Get my van back to the ally, and then I'm in business."
She tells him, quite happy to return back to her van once more.
"Agent May will escort you."
Phil adds and Skye isn't sure if she is happy about this or not. Sure, it's not agent Ward, she is quite sure she would refuse if he had suggested that. But spending time with her mother figure that doesn't recognise her, well, it hurts a lot more than she wants to admit.
"And on your way out, wake up Ward."
Phil adds as his attention is turned towards Melinda and Skye freezes up for just a half second. She had hopped she wouldn't need to be close by this man again. Seeing how Melinda nods her head before walking out from the room, Skye forces herself to follow. She makes sure to keep somewhat close to May as they walk down the corridor, she does however stay outside of the interrogation room when May opens the door.
"Hey, wake up!"
She can hear May order, hearing a grunt from Ward makes her take a step back. This action makes her walk into the wall and she stands still, her right hand moving towards a charm bracelet, five charms are hanging from it. Each charm represented her little family, a drum with a spider symbol on the side for Gwen, an arrow for Clint, a spiderweb for Natasha, a gun for Maria, a book for Victoria and a computer for herself. It had been a gift from Gwen and Skye made sure to always keep it on.
Since she can't have Mushu around her wherever she goes, the bracelet has become a thing that helps keep her calm. Looking down, she realises she has grabbed hold of Natasha's charm, playing around with it. With a few deep breaths, she has reached the level of calm she needed. Feeling a pair of eyes looking at her, she lifts her attention to see that May have returned. She can see how Ward is moving towards them and Skye freezes up once more, and she grabs hold of all the charms this time around.
She knows very well that May is watching her, and her actions right now isn't the best one, but she can't find it in herself to care. Taking in a deep breath, Skye turns away from them and starts to head down the corridor they had come from, only to realise she has no idea of where to go next. May walks past her and Skye starts to follow her now, down a spiral staircase and into the hangar. Lifting her head, her eyes lands on her van and Skye smiles slightly at the sight.
To her surprise, May holds up the keys to her van. Blinking a few times, Skye takes them and heads for the driver side. Placing her hands on the steering wheel, she takes in a deep breath, feeling the familiarity of her third home. Seeing that May has taken the seat beside her, she starts the van without a problem. The thing may look old, but Clint have made sure it would run smoothly. Driving away from the bus, Skye glance towards May. She wants to strike up a conversation, to try and trigger anything that would get the woman beside her to realise who is sitting beside her.
But seeing the expressionless look on May's face, Skye knows all to well it's no use. There won't be any talk going on during this ride. She had seen that look a few times when she lived with May and she can still remember the first time she ever saw it, it had scared her quite good.
"You better change that facial expression."
She can hear Natasha tell Melinda as she hides in the hallway leading to her and Melinda's bedroom. Natasha have been watching her for the day, Melinda had been called out for work, not saying anything about where she was going or why. But she had entered the apartment looking what Mary thought was angry beyond anything she has ever seen Melinda and it scared her. Melinda didn't seem to realise she and Natasha had been sitting on the couch watching Mulan when she entered, Natasha had realised that Mary had frozen up.
So, she made sure to send Mary to her room, telling her it was time to sleep, but Mary had made sure to hide in the hallway instead. She knows it's a stupid idea, she should listen to Natasha, but she wants to at least make sure Melinda isn't mad at her.
"What's to it for you?"
She hears Melinda reply and Mary can hear the cold and emotionless tone, making her shrink down slightly. She had never heard Melinda like this, she didn't expect something like this about the woman she had grown close to in no time. She should have known things were too good to be true around here.
"I don't care, but the fact that you didn't even realise that you scared Mary when you entered, it speaks volumes."
Natasha points out and Mary just know that Natasha crosses her arms. A silence hangs over the apartment at this and Mary decides now would be as good time as any to return to her bedroom. Moving from her hiding spot, she moves silently towards her bedroom, happy that she had left the door open earlier that day. Pushing it open just a bit more, she enters her room and let's the door close behind her.
Looking around herself, Mary realises that there is nothing she can really do in the moment. It was starting to grow late in the evening, and she was tired, and her bed is looking very inviting in this moment. Changing into a set of PJs, she crawls into her bed, only to realise she have forgotten Mushu in the living room. Knowing that Melinda and Natasha are still out there arguing with one another, she decides to just stay in her bed, she can always try and grab the dragon plushie later.
Hearing movement outside of her bedroom, Mary can feel her eyes grow large when she realises who it is. Laying down on her bed quickly, she closes her eyes, hopping that Melinda is just passing by on her way to the bathroom. But as her bedroom door opens slowly, Mary pulls the blanket up higher, in a try to hide. Feeling how someone sits down on the side of her bed, she finds herself wish she wasn't there.
"Xiǎo xīngxīng."
Melinda says, her voice low and calm, the same type of tone she uses whenever she uses that little nickname for her. A nickname Mary has no idea of what it means, she has been thinking about asking for a while now but never come around to do it. When Mary doesn't answer, she can hear Melinda let out a low sigh.
"You forgot your partner in crime on the couch."
Melinda adds, taking a new approach and this makes Mary come out slightly from her hiding, opening one eye, it lands on Mushu. Without thinking, she reaches out, grabs hold of the plushie and hugs it close to her body. How something so small can make her feel safe is something Mary can't understand.
"I'm so sorry for scaring you Mary, I'm not mad at you or Natasha. Job was just a lot harder than I expected it to be and I was angry with a co-worker. I should have known to calm down before reaching home."
Melinda starts to explain, and Mary can hear how tired the woman beside her sound, moving her head so she can look at Melinda, she sees that her voice matches how she looks. A wave of sadness over seeing the other woman so tired, Mary moves slightly to the side so that Melinda will be able to join her. She had been given a bed that fit the two of them without a single problem and it has been easier to help with her nightmares this way too.
Seeing that Melinda looks down on her, she can see a hint of surprise in the older woman's eyes. Blinking a few times, Mary wonders why there is surprise in her eyes.
"Are you sure? I don't want to push you."
Melinda asks, a question that makes Mary even more confused. Coming to the conclusion that Melinda might have thought Mary would dismiss her after she scared her, Mary finds herself calming down completely. She should have known the woman beside her wouldn't do any of the things the other people she has lived with have done. Melinda is special, she is what a mother would be. With a nod of her head, Melinda gives Mary a smile before laying down beside her, Mary closing her eyes once more when she feels Melinda's finger in her hair.
Shaking herself out of the old memory, Skye force herself to concentrate on the here and now. She can only hope there will come another chance to try and talk to May, and Coulson. Talking to Coulson should probably be in a later time, or at least until she get's all the information she can get out of Maria at least. Seeing the small restaurant and the ally where she usually finds herself parking the van, she smiles.
"And we are here."
She speaks up for the first time in a while now, driving into the ally and turns of the van.