Ah, finally, you asked and you shall receive! :) I have finished writing the one-shot containing the missing scenes between episodes 1x14 and 1x15. I have to say, rewatching T.R.A.C.K.S. really made me choke up :'(. Nonetheless, I enjoyed writing this so I hope you enjoy reading it! :D


ONE-SHOT #6: Aftermath of Getting Shot by Quinn and Receiving the GH-325 Serum

SUMMARY: After season 1 episode 14, when Skye wakes up from the coma after getting shot by Quinn


RECAP:

Ward: "Can someone tell me what we just saw?"

Trip: "Girl's a fighter. What was that stuff you just gave her?"

Simmons: "I don't know. All I know is that it worked."

Trip: "You're a real miracle worker."


The first thing Skye noticed when she came to was the fuzziness of everything. She couldn't remember much, only that she wasn't awake and she hadn't been for a good amount of time. She wanted to open her eyes and see where she was but her eyelids felt like they'd been taped shut with some sort of monstrously strong duck tape. Nothing on her body really hurt, but nothing felt good either. It was just...numb.

She started to focus on her breathing, since that seemed to be the only thing she was in control of at the moment. Breathe in, she told herself. She tried to suck in air but it just felt too...weird.

Something was in the way of her nasal passage. Something was...oh God, what was it? She miraculously found herself able to use her hand enough to pull it toward her nose and tug at whatever was in the way of her precious air.

"Hey, hey, Skye, you need that," came someone's soft voice. She could tell it was kind and paternal but couldn't pinpoint exactly who she was listening to. Gentle hands took her hands in their own and pulled them back down to rest on her lap. She didn't fight this person because she had a feeling she could trust him...that he cared about her.

Skye felt those same hands gently stroking her forehead and hair, and it felt very good. It felt like...Mrs. Brady. That one foster mom who talked her through a nightmare. Skye had been having a bad dream her first night at the Brady's house and was tossing and turning in the little bed, ripping her sheets off and sweating all over her nightgown. She had been dreaming about finding her real parents and they turned out to be absolute monsters. It scared the poor little girl out of her mind but before she could dive into terror, she felt gentle hands pull her into an embrace. They stroked her head just like this man was now. It calmed her and made her remember that no matter what, people will still care about you. They always will, even if you don't want them to.

God, did she wish she didn't have to leave that family.

Skye relaxed a little upon knowing someone was there for her. She let herself slip back into the void.


Phil was only a tad bit alarmed when Skye began to stir. Quickly, he compartmentalized and told himself that it was a good thing she was awaking. He had to be there for her when she awoke and here he was.

The girl had reached up and tried to pull the nasal oxygen cannula out of her nose, but he made sure to gently stop her. She seemed in distress for only a moment until he started to stroke her head. That seemed to calm her down a lot.

He was a bit disappointed when she fell back asleep, but by the same token, he was glad she was getting some rest.

After a while of just staring at her sweet, innocent, sleeping face as he rubbed her head, Coulson was interrupted by Simmons entering the med pod. She was carrying a number of supplies, most of which he didn't recognize. He stood to give the doctor some space, stepping away from Skye.

"How was she?" the biochemist asked as she checked Skye's monitors and made sure her cannula was in place.

"I think she woke up," Coulson replied, resting his hand on the rails of the bed.

Jemma raised her eyebrows and took her attention off Skye to look at her superior agent. "Sir?"

Phil looked down at Skye's sleeping form. "She didn't say anything but she tried to take her oxygen tube out. I was able to calm her down and she fell right back asleep."

Simmons heaved a sigh of relief, putting a hand to her own chest. "She's looking good. It's a miracle she- " Her voice broke and she sighed to compose herself. "I'm very glad the drug worked."

She looked down at Skye again and dropped her hands to her sides.

After a few moments of silence, Jemma looked back at Coulson: "Sir, you should go get some rest. You've been up with her all night, and more. I can watch her."

Coulson didn't want to leave Skye's side. In the past few months, she'd become the main thing he cared about. She was smart, she was kind, and dammit, she had a good sense of humor. She was the life of the team, its lungs, its heart and part of its brain. She meant more to him than the world and he never wanted to leave her side until he knew she was going to be okay.

As if she could read his mind, Simmons said, "She's going to be okay, sir. She's healing at an exponential rate. You don't need to worry."

"But I want to be here when she wakes up." He was in a trance; he couldn't take his eyes off her.

Simmons swallowed and nodded. "I completely understand that, sir, but it might be a good while. She'll survive without you here, I promise."

Phil wouldn't have given in had he not been so tired. His eyelids felt oh so heavy and yeah, his pullout bed sounded very appealing at the moment.

"Fine. But wake me up when she does," he ordered, patting Skye's hand one last time before leaving the pod.


It was the pain that woke her up this time. She managed to open her eyes and immediately regretted it. Everything was so white and bright and it overwhelmed her. She slammed her eyes closed again. She scrunched her face up in pain and tried to find exactly where it was coming from. She was too confused and heavily-drugged to understand what was going on, so all she could think to do was move around as much as possible. She shifted her weight on the bed left and right, not caring how much pain it caused her. She was stuck somewhere and just sitting still caused her pain, so why sit still?

Someone must've heard her whimpering in pain because she heard footsteps fast approaching her bed. She tried to punch whoever it was, thinking he or she was trying to hurt her. But of course she was too weak to do any damage and she felt someone trying to calm her but failing. Then there was yelling and opening of doors and more footsteps and then a pinch in her arm and then...nothing.


The second time Skye came to was by far the scariest, both for her and poor Fitz who'd been on watch duty. It was nearly an entire day after her first wake-up, and Simmons had gotten so tired even she had gone to bed. May was flying the plane, Ward was busying himself with who knows what, Phil was in his office all the time, so that left Fitz.

He had been reading up on some new engineering articles when suddenly he heard soft whimpering. Being the bit of a spazz he was, he lost control of his hands and tossed the journal onto the floor, its pages sprawling out across the tile. He started to panic and stood from the chair, running toward Skye and desperately trying to think of what to do.

She was writhing on the bed, moving too much for someone in her condition, and he tried to stop her. He was too panicked to accomplish much; all he did was hold down her shoulders but she continued to move around in a delirious, confused state. Not knowing what else to do, he started to shout.

"SIMMONS! I NEED HELP IN HERE!"

He was relieved when the biochemist came running into the med pod, racing toward the bed and visually taking in the situation.

"What happened?!" she asked frantically, eyeing the small bloodspot that was forming on the front of Skye's hospital gown, right in her stomach area.

Fitz hadn't noticed this and his eyes widened when he followed Jemma's gaze to the bloodstain. "I- she- I don't know- "

"She needs a sedative," Jemma said, grabbing a syringe and a bottle. After injecting it into Skye's arm, the girl stopped moving and calmed down.

Both scientists heaved a sigh of relief.

"I hate to put her to sleep again," Jemma observed as she started to undo the front of Skye's gown to access her bandages. They obviously needed changing and she wasn't sure if Skye had ripped her stitches or not. "But obviously she was in pain and confused. I'll make sure to give her more morphine."

Fitz blushed a bit and decided to busy himself with picking up his engineering journal. Jemma continued changing Skye's bandage. "Ugh. She ripped a stitch or two," she observed. She held her hand out. "Suture kit?"

Fitz nodded, reaching onto the counter and grabbing said kit. He handed it to Jemma and she slid some gloves on, preparing to do the minor procedure.

Fitz furrowed his brow as she got started, trying not to look at the blood too much (it made him a bit queasy). "Shouldn't she be healing quicker than this?"

Simmons sighed, skillfully tying off a suture. "Not necessarily. The drug healed her internal organs miraculously well, but her skin might take some time. It might cause her some pain but she'll be fine."

Fitz scratched his head as Simmons finished her stitches, disinfecting Skye's scars and gently placing new bandages on them. "Is she, uh, was that normal for her to panic like that?"

Jemma nodded, trashing her gloves. "Quite. She was probably in pain and too confused, so she panicked. Next time, she should be more lucid. She might still be scared, but she probably won't lash out like this."

Fitz nodded, biting his lip. "Good." He deeply cared about Skye, it was just overwhelming for him to see her in so much pain and suffering. He felt half-responsible for her getting shot. He should've gone in with her or not let her go in at all...

Simmons grabbed a few things from the cabinet. "I've got her from here. I'm going to clean and freshen her up a bit. You're off the hook for a while." She smiled reassuringly at her friend.

Fitz returned a shaky smile and nodded. "O-Okay. Thanks, Simmons."

"Of course, Fitz. And just page me next time instead of yelling."

"Yeah, sorry about that. Got a bit panicky." Both chuckled as he left the pod.


When Skye found herself awaking this time, she remembered everything. Her mind ran through everything that had happened to lead her to this bed and her heart started to race.

She went into that villa and saw Mike and then Quinn and then...

And then he shot her.

Memories of the pain flooded her mind and she found herself grabbing for her stomach. She found thick bandages there instead of her own blood and she should've felt relieved, but she couldn't stop herself from freaking out a bit. She opened her eyes in slits. The bright lights flooded her eyes. How long had she been asleep? What had she missed? Could she still walk? Was she okay?

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see who it belonged to. She knitted her eyebrows when she saw it was Simmons. The doctor was smiling warmly at her, her expression laced with relief.

"How are you feeling, Skye?" she asked.

Skye opened her mouth to say something but started to cough violently. Her throat felt too dry to produce any sound. The coughing made her stomach ache and she desperately wanted for it to stop.

Before she could freak out too much, a straw was brought to her lips. Thankful, she sipped the water and let it go down her throat and into her stomach.

Ouch. It didn't feel good to have anything in her stomach just yet.

But she stopped coughing and let out a breath of relief. She turned back to a guilty Simmons.

"Sorry. Shouldn't have asked you to speak yet," the other girl whispered to her. She stroked Skye's hair. Why was everyone doing that these days?

She heard the pod door slide open and directed her attention to it. Fitz and Coulson came rushing in.

"Skye! You're awake!" Coulson said happily, rushing to her side, a huge smile on his face. He patted her arm. "I'm so glad you're alright."

Skye tried to return the smile but was a bit too tired.

"Sorry for attacking you, Fitz," Skye whispered hoarsely to the smaller man in the room after a moment.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm fine and you didn't know any better," Fitz assured her.

Skye nodded, noticing again the cannula in her nose. She pulled it out, her hands functioning a lot better than they did before.

"Skye- " Jemma scolded.

"Please. I want to breathe on my own," she whispered.

Simmons sighed and nodded. "Alright, I suppose."

"I guess we'll leave you to it," Coulson said to Jemma. The woman nodded and Phil put his arm around Fitz, leading the young man out of the room.

After a few silent minutes, Skye spoke: "What happened, Simmons?"

Jemma bit her lip, unsure of what to say. "What matters is that you're okay."

"How did you save me- "

"They found a drug and it worked."

Skye didn't like how vague Jemma was being with this. It angered her. She could handle this, yet Simmons was treating her like a child.

Jemma sighed. "Look, you just woke up. Give yourself some time to recover before we discuss everything."

Skye tried to respond but before she could she felt a tiny pinch on the inside of her elbow. She scowled at Simmons. The sneaky girl had started to draw her blood without her knowing.

"Geez, a warning might've been nice," Skye mumbled, her voice beginning to get a bit less raspy.

Simmons ignored her comment and continued working. When she was done, she tossed the blood vial into her lab coat pocket and started to make her way to the pod door. "If there's anything I can do to make you more comfortable, page me."

Skye nodded, her midsection beginning to ache again. "Yep. Thanks."

Satisfied, Jemma half-smiled and left the pod to test the blood samples.


Despite feeling a bit groggy, Skye found enjoyment in watching some mindless movies on her laptop. She had somehow convinced Ward to bring the little computer into her pod. Though she was mad he wasn't going to let her hack anything, she was glad to have some entertainment for once.

While she was watching one of the movies, she started to feel pain where her wound was. No, not the subtle pain she was always feeling; this was worse.

She tried to just wait it out, but it started to get unbearable. She closed her laptop and slid it onto a table next to her bed, closing her eyes and taking some deep breaths. Nothing was seeming to help and as much as she hated to show her weakness, she had to page Simmons.

"What is it?" came the scientist's panicked voice from the other end.

Skye fiddled with the buttons on the pager. "Jemma, I..."

"Skye."

She winced, gripping her midsection. "It hurts. I don't know- "

"I'm on my way," she interrupted. Before Skye could say anything else, she turned off her mic.

When Simmons entered the pod she ran straight to Skye's side, abruptly lifting the covers off her and searching her for any injuries.

"I'm fine, Jemma, I was just hoping you had more meds- "

Simmons sucked in a breath of relief when she saw nothing was wrong with Skye's wound. "Okay, of course, Skye. Let me, um, let me get that for you..."

After injecting some more morphine into Skye's IV bag, the girl began to feel a lot better. She fell asleep before she could think about anything else.


"Hey, Skye, how are you?" came a familiar voice. Skye opened her heavy eyes to see May standing over her. She was surprised; Melinda May didn't seem like the nurse type. She also wondered why May had obliged to auto-pilot; that wasn't something she did as often as you'd think.

"Uh..." Skye began, taking a sip of water and biting her lip at the minor ache it caused in her gut. The aching was less, but it wasn't nonexistent. No, not nonexistent at all. "I'm okay."

May smiled. Wow. That was rare. "Good to hear it." She knitted her eyebrows. "Is the pain better?"

Skye nodded, biting her lip. "Yep." She sounded a bit exasperated. "How long have I been sleeping?"

She shrugged. "A few hours, give or take." May looked down at the pile of clothing in her hands. "I brought you some of your own pajamas, if you'd be more comfortable..."

Skye nodded, taking the clothes from the older woman. "Thank you, May."

"Of course." May turned to leave but realized quickly that Skye needed her help. She turned around to see the girl looking self-consciously at the floor. May understood why she looked so embarrassed; Skye didn't want to seem weak. "Do you need help with that?" she asked gently.

Skye was humiliated. Agent Melinda May, a specialist, the Cavalry, was asking if she needed help getting dressed. She felt like a stupid three-year-old. She looked up to May but right now she was at her most vulnerable in front of her and that drove her crazy.

May locked eyes with Skye. "Hey. I'm here to help."

Swallowing, Skye nodded and slowly sat up so May could take the hospital gown off of her. The older woman was surprisingly gentle; it seemed she'd done something like this before. "Hands up," May instructed. Skye obeyed, lifting them as well as she could without causing extra pain, and May delicately slid her pajama shirt over her head. Skye lowered her arms as May very gently pulled the hem of the shirt over her stomach bandage. The older woman tossed her used hospital gown into the laundry bin in the corner of the room and by the time she returned to the bed, Skye had already managed to get her pajama bottoms on by herself.

May smiled, folding her hands. "Are you getting hungry?"

Skye sighed as May gently pulled her covers back over her legs. "I mean, I can't really tell..."

"Okay. Simmons wanted me to give you some broth. Says it will help get your strength back."

Skye swallowed, not looking forward to that burning feeling in her stomach. If drinking water was as bad as it was, she couldn't imagine what hot chicken broth would do.

"So, you up for it?" May asked.

Skye sighed but nodded. "I guess." She was really just bored and hoped that eating might give her something at least somewhat entertaining to do. She didn't want to watch any movies on her laptop anymore for fear that her stomach would start hurting again. She now associated movies with her pain.

After a few minutes, May returned to the pod with a cup of soup, a few napkins, and a spoon. She set them on the bed tray and slid the tray to be in front of Skye.

"May, thank you, but I've got it from here. I can feed myself," Skye insisted.

May knitted her eyebrows. "You sure?"

Skye nodded, already embarrassed. She just wanted May to leave. As annoyingly overprotective as Jemma could get, she was actually trying to impress Melinda. She valued May's opinion about herself a lot more than Simmons's.

Skye nodded, taking the spoon with a bit of a weak hand and dipping it in the soup.

May sighed. "Alright. Page Simmons if you need anything."

Skye nodded again as May left. When she put the spoon in her mouth and swallowed the broth, it wasn't as bad as she was expecting. It was only minorly worse than drinking water. And dang, it did taste good. She never imagined that plain chicken broth could be this...flavorful.

When she was done, she slid the bed tray to the side, out of her way. Yawning, she laid back and folded her hands over her chest, staring at the ceiling. She contemplated falling asleep again but decided she'd slept so much in the past few days that she wasn't all that tired anymore.

Now that she had some peace and quiet, her mind started to go in the direction of Quinn again. The blossoming and shocking pain of the first shot. The worse pain of the second...

Quinn lowering her to the floor then leaving her to die.

What if she had died? Would she have preferred it? Would she have been better off?

Here she was, lying in a medical pod on a SHIELD plane recovering from two holes in her stomach. She had survived the impossible. A few months ago, she'd been a naive hacker living out of her van and trying to hack into different organizations, just to get the word out to the world. And now she'd taken two in the gut for one of those organizations.

But the only reason she was in this situation in the first place was because of her poor judgment. She'd gone in there alone, unaware, and virtually defenseless.

She'd been stupid. It was her fault she got shot; there was no denying it.

And yet her team had moved heaven and earth to save her. How could she mean so much to them? She'd never meant this much to anyone before, not even Mrs. Brady.

Not anyone.

Except for her team.

There was Fitz. He had befriended Skye and found himself caring about her like a sister. It must have been horrible for him to think she was dead.

And there was May. Sure, she might've been all tough love and stern, but she'd gone out of her way to help investigate Skye's past. She was strong and she was wise; a woman of few words but of many sentiments. She was a huge role model to Skye. She knew May must've been in agony when she thought Skye was going to die.

There was Simmons. She cared about Skye so much that she cried multiple times when she was dying or coding. She and Skye had gotten so close in the past few months that they felt like sisters. Neither girl could imagine her life without the other one.

Then there was Ward. He was her SO. He felt responsible for her getting shot. He cared about her and was responsible for her life; he must've felt so guilty and remorseful when he saw her in that basement.

Coulson loved her like a daughter; there was no denying it. He gave her hugs after difficult missions and was always there to reassure her every step of the way. He truly cared about her and she knew he'd never want her to die. It must have been excruciatingly painful for him to find her on the floor of that basement, bleeding out gallons of blood. It must have been awful for him to be told she wouldn't live.

Skye felt so guilty for ever thinking it was a good idea to go in there alone. She was never going to be found defenseless like that again. She needed to learn to be strong and fight her own fight; she couldn't be poor, helpless Skye anymore. There was no way.

But despite all of this, she had survived. Her team cared about her so much they risked their lives to cure her. That had to mean something. They loved her; she knew that.

She had a family. Skye, the orphan, the foster kid, the lone hacker, had a family. A real one. One that would stick. She'd never, ever had something like that in her life.

Skye smiled to herself as she turned onto her side, looking out the window of her med pod. She saw May and Coulson outside, talking over something. When Coulson noticed Skye was looking, he turned to her and smiled and waved. A moment later when May had left, he opened the pod and walked toward her.

"Hey, how are you?" he asked her, grabbing her dirty dishes.

Skye smiled at him. "I'm good."

"You feeling better?"

She nodded, still smiling. "A lot."

Phil set the bowl back down, cupping her cheek and planting a gentle kiss on her forehead. "I'm so happy you're alive," he whispered.

Skye continued to smile as he leaned back, picking the dishes up again. "Me, too," she told him.

And it was true. She had purpose. She had meaning.

She had a family.


Aww I hope you all liked this! This was super, super hard to write and it took me a while but I'm so glad I finally finished it! Please suggest what missing scene you'd like to see next! Thanks! :)