September 30th 2014

Skye

Natasha had waited along side her as May came to collect her with a tense face. The two women smile at each other but kept their hands to themselves as there was agents around. Maria had simply warned May in person about the dangers, again, before walking off.

Probably to go yell at some level 1 agents, Skye assumed. Maria said that they were all idiots and needed to be sent back to the academy.

Skye greeted everyone on the plane with a large smile, pulling Simmons and Fitz into a tight hug and awkwardly greeting Ward. She felt that if her introduction to Shield had been different, and if she had stayed on the plane for those to weeks, bonding with the team during the missions, then she might have had a thing for Ward.

Of course all that would have disappeared anyways when she met her soulmate.

Coulson greeted her with a grim smile as he lead them all to the console to give her a full update on the mission.

Now, she was sitting in taxi, after flying for a few hours on a commercial flight to Malta. Skye had to try and make her cover as believable as possible. Flying commercial was nowhere near as fun or luxurious as flying on the bus, but she endured and focused on the mission for the entire time, running her cover over and over in her head.

The ride in the taxi to Quinn's mansion had been nerve wrecking, she watched as the more fancier cars with chauffeurs followed along side her dingy taxi all the way to Quinn's house. At least her dress was nice and she could go in with confidence that she was one of the best looking girls there and the best hacker.

Little things to help build up her confidence for the mission.

She couldn't help but think that Natasha and Maria would be scolding her for being nervous, yelling at her to not be, that they have given her enough training to take on a small undercover mission. That she was in their pack and their pack don't fail at this sort of thing.

"No, I think I would be saying how you are really brave for doing this mission with the little training that you have received, even if it was from me, it's only been two weeks worth of combat and slight undercover training. That you don't have to worry if you fail at this mission, you can only learn from your mistake and keep improving." Natasha said, barging into her head.

Skye sighed, tilting her head to the window, still trying to work out how this whole thing worked and how to reply to Natasha. She was grateful for her words, she was not exactly sure if it helped her confidence or made her more nervous.

"Just think, I'll hear it. I'm going to be keeping an eye on you in your mission. Helping you out when I can. I have every confidence that you can pull this off yourself, but I'm here just in case any unforeseen circumstances happen." Natasha replied

Well, she supposed that made things much easier, for communication and for the mission. Plus it did fill her with confidence. Natasha believed in her that she could handle it, and if not, Natasha would help her out. Using that, Skye managed to pull herself together to be the best undercover Skye she could be.

With that, Skye left the taxi, and started walking into the party. She smiled and mingled with the guest, listening attentively as both Natasha and hear team spoke to her, telling her information about each person she talked to. Skye smirked to herself, she was great at this whole mingling and gathering information, which led her straight to Ian Quinn himself.

She used her usual sweet and innocent smile as she slid easily into the group that Quinn was talking to. Quinn was talking about internet security, probably trying to reassure his clients that whatever he was up to was secure for them to dispatch information for him over it.

That's when she decided to be smart.

"I'd hate to interrupt, but that sounds like the most easiest system to break into for any experienced hacker. Heck, even an amateur hacker could probably access your systems." Skye drawled, slowing the group to a halt with her words as Quinn turned to face her.

"And who would you be?" he questioned

"Skye, hacker for the Rising Tide." she introduced, holding her hand out, a confident smile on her face as she regarded him.

Quinn's face light up with delight, ah so he did remember her and how she got her invitation "you're Skye! It's a pleasure to meet you, although I do have to say, I did not imagine you like this. I guess you are full of surprises." He said gleefully.

'Skye, what are you doing? Be careful.' Natasha thought to her, her concern floating through the bond they shared.

'Trust me.' Skye thought back, slowly pushing her to the back of her head for the time being.

"I generally surprise most people. They don't expect me to look this young, or gorgeous, if I am honest." She threw in, hopefully with a little bit of flirtation. "If you'd like, we can go inside before this party start and I can test your systems. From what you've described, it would only take ten minutes or so for me to hack it." She added teasingly, watching as Quinn's clients looked between the two and started murmuring softly, doubt filling their mind.

Quinn's face twitched, as though he was fighting to keep a scowl off of his face. "I can assure you all that my systems are one of the most secure systems in the world. You have nothing to fear." he soothed his clients.

Skye grinned, well that would be easy to exploit. "Well, Mr. Quinn, if you think it is safe then why don't you let me have a go at it? Your...friends, can keep tabs on the sight and if I'm not in in ten minutes or less, we can deem your site safe." Skye challenged, hoping that he would take the bait and lead her into the house and straight to a good access point.

"I like that idea, Mr. Quinn, like you said, it's the most secure system in the world, so surely you wouldn't mind demonstrating that to us the now. You seemed confident in the girls abilities as a hacker to invite her to this. So let her see if she can hack it." an old man said, looking rebelliously into Quinn's eyes.

Quinn quietly regarded everyone before nodding. "Alright, in twenty minutes, if this hacker has not made a change to my site, you will know it is secure."

"There we go, good boy. We'll be seeing you in about half an hour then, Quinn. I look forward to the same old website and your speech today." The same old man said, grinning at Quinn as he and the rest of the group left.

Quinn turned and glared at Skye and grabbed her by her elbow and dragged her into he his mini mansion. Skye tried to stop the rising panic as he dragged her, trying to convince herself that this was all part of the plan. She needed to get in the house to find an access point to find Franklin. Fitz had said that the best place for an access point would no doubt be in his office, and well, if Skye could pull this off, she will be in his office soon.

As soon as they were in the house, Quinn spun her around and slammed her into the wall. His forearm pressed harshly against her throat.

"Who are you and what do you want?" He hissed at her

Skye pushed down the urge to scream, rasping out "Freedom."

Clearly her answered took Quinn by surprise as his eyes widened and loosened his arm against her throat. She took advantage of his momentary distraction and manoeuvred out of his gip, grabbing the pen and paper that was next to her and quickly scribbled;

"Shield is listening."

Quinn raised an eyebrow at her and she pulled out her earpiece and dropped it in a glass of water.

"They could watch me from the outside, but inside I'm safe. Sorry I had to embarrass you in front of your clients but I needed a way in here without them suspecting what I was doing. They are monitoring my every move. They sent me in here because they can't operate in Malta." She quickly explained, letting a little bit of the truth out to solidify her lie. Just like Natasha told her.

"Let's go to my office." Quinn said after a moment of silence, leading her to his office without any hassle.

This was too easy, surely it was a set up, but she just had to keep believing that Quinn believed her and was leading her to an access point in whilst he thought he was freeing her.

"Shield have a nasty habit of bringing in the best hackers and using every dirty trick in the book to keep them with them. You should consider yourself lucky that you got this opportunity to escape. You know that they will most likely kill you next time they see you." Quinn said, as he opened up his office doors.

It revealed a large open space filled with some light software and heavy muscle. Skye eyed up the security guards with caution. There was at least five of them but Skye hasn't proven her abilities in the field yet so she wasn't sure if her training was any use.

'Keep calm, you're doing great. Your plan is brilliant, you have a good instinct for this, just keep calm.' Natasha instructed calmly, but Skye could still tell that she was tense. She could tell that everyone in the pack was tense now. It was like a thousand nerves in a distant part of her brain were standing over the edge, occasionally a few would wobble before stabilising, and that was the most nerve wrecking part of this mission.

"So you want your freedom, huh? Well, freedom comes at a high cost. You'll need to get me information on Shield." Quinn said, turning his back to Skye, giving her the opportunity to pull out the make up scanner for the access point and fighting to keep the smile off her face as it lit up green. She closed it and leaned casually against chest drawers, placing it subtly down and praying that it would blend in with all the stuff that Quinn already had there.

"Freedom comes at a high cost, imprisonment comes at high cost. Everything comes at a high cost, Quinn. It's just the matter of the price and you're willingness to commit." Skye shrugged, walking around the room, scanning for exit points. So far her best bet was just jumping from the balcony. She could hear the small gentle waves that the pool was making, letting her know she had a soft landing which would prevent her having to explain about landing on concrete and not having much injuries.

"Well, Skye, how far are you prepared to go to get your freedom?" Quinn questioned, coming face to face with her. She could see that the guards were tensing and their heart rate rising. One was even getting a boner. O-kay then.

Well at least she didn't have to pretend that Quinn believed her, clearly he realised this was a set up, or that she was about to try and scam him out of something. Hopefully the latter.

"What's your price." Skye said bluntly "I'm not hear to play games Quinn, you know who I am, you know what I am capable of. Do you not think I have some loyal friends in the Rising Tide who let me know when a multi-billionaire comes snooping around?"

All of Quinn's false pretences fell as he regarded cooly. "Despite all the warnings, I still under estimated you. You see, you are...how to put this, terrifying to people like me. You are a hacker and you have nothing to lose. Literally nothing. It's quite unusual, most of you hackers are secret rich kids or you have some family members or close friends that they care about. Something that people like me can exploit to ensure loyalty. So, I guess what I'm trying to say Skye, is I'm going to make you need something that I have to ensure loyalty to me, and that is my price and like you said, you are willing to pay for it." Quinn explained and turned to her, the sound of a gun clicking as he pointed it at her.

Skye sucked in a breath as she looked down the barrel of the gun. Don't panic, don't panic. You have enhanced healing. It will only hurt for a day or two.

'Skye, deep breaths. You can handle this. Stall him, we don't have access yet to put down the shields. He seems like the type of guy to talk about his masterplan. Keep stalling, as soon as you try to flee, he will realise this is a set up.' Natasha warned, she managed to keep her voice calm and her emotions in check.

May and the others were not having such luck.

It was like the whole pack was in her head, everyone yelling and throwing out suggestions.

'Everyone shut up! You're freaking her out, she needs to focus. Everyone get out' Natasha commanded and then there was silence as Skye continued to stare down at the gun in shock.

"You seem shocked." Quinn said, a hint of amusement in his tone, "this wouldn't have been so hard to grant your...freedom, if you were easy to manipulate. God knows Shield has many baby agents, that are easy enough to influence. They are so ambitious, always wanting to show me what they can build." he scoffed.

"What...How is you shooting me going to make me need you?" Skye questioned, trying to stay calm.

"Well, you see Skye, it's quite easy. This is a one of a kind gun and make it very difficult to repair. It spreads through your body-"

He pulled the trigger as Skye jumped out the way. The bullet entered her hip and a searing pain went through. Skye landed on the floor with a cry of pain, not even bothering to hold back the tears, or hold back how much pain she was in. She curled around her wound as Quinn stood over her.

"Like so, making it very difficult to pull out the bullet fragments. It's silver mixed with a components the repeals the magnets used to pull bullets out. Which means handing picking half melted silver inside your flesh, prevent the wound from closing which leads to a lot of complications, and even death. So Skye, what does it feel like to be free?" Quinn said, pushing the gun under her chin, forcing her head up to make eye contact. He smirked at her.

"Thats a good gi-" Skye struck him mid sentence, relying on all the knowledge that Maria and Natasha passed onto her on how to keep fighting even though you are in pain. How to keep fighting for your life. She pushed herself onto her feet, pushed away the pain and struggled to the balcony.

"I wish you hadn't done that Skye, and here I thought you were going to be such a good girl for me. I guess are you going to go now, my little Skye?" Quinn said, almost cooing.

Skye felt disgusted. She whimpered and struck out once more and jumped from the balcony. How? She's sure Simmons will probably tell her when she's chewing her out on the plane but for now, she had to focus on pulling herself out and running to the pickup point.

Never in her life had she wanted to just give up and let someone win their sick game.

'Don't give up.'

That was a new voice, but she listened to it.

'That's it. Keep going. Push through the pain.'

She's not that far from her pick up point, she can smell the bus. She can smell May.

'Just follow the scent. Follow it home. You're almost there.'

The women had a lovely voice. Skye was still trying to figure it out who it was. She can rule out Natasha, Melinda, Maria, Sharon. Obviously it wasn't Fitz or Clint. That left Izzy or Bobbi. That was hard to decipher since she's never met either of the women.

'You'll know when you come back to base. Just get to the bus. Get to the bus Skye and we can help you. You need to get to the bus, baby.'

Baby. She liked that. It was like a warm feeling spreading through her body, giving her the extra energy that she needed.

"SKYE!"

"May!" Skye called back desperately, stumbling closer to the women.

May came running towards her and quickly swept her up in her arms. Skye buried her head straight against Melinda's neck.

"May it hurts so much."

"I know sweetheart, I know." She mumbled back, holding her tighter. "Simmons."

Skye felt herself being place down on a table, it was cold, but it was nice against her burning hip. She clung to May when she tried to pull away. Skye was in pain and they were trying to leave her? Not acceptable. She needed the comfort, and after spending two weeks with the affectionate mother-hens, Skye wasn't going to be shy about what she wanted or needed when it came to comfort.

"Hey sweetheart, I need to let you go so Simmons can get started on that hip of yours. I'll be in the room for as long as Simmons lets me. She's very possessive of her lab, but she's going to take great care of you until we get back to base. " Melinda soothed, easing herself away from Skye. "There we go, good girl."

"Don't...don't call me that" Skye mumbled.

"Okay." May said easily, backing further and further away "I'll be here when you wake up Skye."

'So will I. I'm so happy you made it baby. Rest, Simmons is great doctor and will dope you up on morphine you won't even remember the alphabet. We'll all be there when you wake up.'

"Does Maria ever get pissy that the alphabet isn't called the betabet?" Skye mumbled, the drugs hitting her hard, letting everything fade into a foggy haze.

September 31st2014 1:20am

SKYE

Skye woke up to voice talking softly, the lights were dim and she felt very heavy, but safe. So that was a good sign. Her sense were slowly coming back to her, bit by bit. Which she was very grateful for her body doing that, or was it the meds? Either way she was happy. Skye grumbled softly and turned her head, feeling slightly uncomfortable.

"She's awake."

It was that women.

"She's been awake for five minutes Bobbi, she's only just getting her senses back due to the drugs." Ah, so it was drugs that were dulling her senses.

"I know, but she's awake, Nat." Bobbi whined.

'She sounded cute. Stupidly cute voice. Bet she's blonde.' Skye thought sleepily 'I wonder what she looks like.'

"She is blonde, kinda cute, not as cute as me or you." Natasha said teasingly "If you open your eyes sweetheart, you can see what she looks like."

"Looks don't count 'Tasha, it's personality." Skye mumbled back, turning herself as much as she could, opening her eyes to look at Natasha.

Natasha was smiling softly at "hey sweetheart, it was about time you decided to join us." She leaned forward easily and kissed her forehead softly

"Where's May...she promised." Skye whined, all thoughts of Bobbi left her as she thought back to the promise the women made her. She wasn't sure if she could handle Melinda breaking that promise.

"Right here sweetheart, you're sense are very dull right now, bet you couldn't even smell me." May soothed, her fingers running easily through Skye's hair from her back. Skye looked backwards and smiled happily at May.

"You kept it."She mumbled

"Of course. I don't break promises, Skye." Melinda promised, mimicking her own mate and kissing Skye softly on the forehead. "Now that you are awake, it's my turn for the food run. I'll be back in a while, but everyone else is here and I mean everyone, including Sharon."

"Sharon's here? Because I got shot?" Skye questioned.

Melinda nodded "because you got shot, everyone came here. None of us have ever encounter a bullet like before and it's having some different side effects that we've never thought of. I'll let Nat and Peggy explain sweetheart." Melinda finished with a silent goodbye as she left the room.

Skye stopped herself from whining, simply turning back to Natasha and a tall blonde that was standing in the dark.

"Sorry tall blonde and cute, I didn't see you standing there in the dark like a mockingbird." Skye said, pushing herself up (and causing Natasha to let out a strangled noise).

"Mockingbird? I think you mean a bat? Think the drugs are still in your system rockstar." The voice teased, coming out of the shadows and standing over her with an over confident smirk "And rockstar, I've been waiting a long time to hear those words."

"Sorry, the word mockingbird has been running around my head for months now... I guess I know why" Skye said quietly a small smile on her face as she glanced up drowsily at the women. "You're tall and am horizontal."

Bobbi exchanged a look with Natasha, who shrugged "Simmons gave her a higher dose than usual. I've got to admit, she is hilarious. Now, go on, be with your soulmate. I'm just supervising to make sure everything stays PG whilst Skye is recovering."

Bobbi rolled her eyes and crouched down besides Skye "This better?" she questioned.

Skye shook her head. No that was not better. She couldn't think of the words she needed, her brain felt foggy from the drugs, so she decided to repeat herself and hope Bobbi understands her. They are soulmates, surely they can do some weird communicating mental link to figure it out?

"You're tall and I'm horizontal." She repeated to Bobbi, Skye watched as the confusion rolled across Bobbi's face and sat there. Only momentarily.

"Oh! You mean you're lying down and I'm not? I can lie down if you want?" Bobbi questioned, trying to make sure she understood Skye.

"Watch out for her hip." Natasha called, watching them closely. "I know you don't need reminded, but Bobbi, just...go slow."

"I can hear you, you know." Skye called

"I know. Might as well give the shovel talk to Bobbi now and then give you the shovel talk later when you are better." Natasha replied lazily, curling up in her chair as she watched Bobbi carefully move around Skye to lie down beside her.

"Are you okay with being touch by me?" Bobbi asked softly, leaning close to Skye.

Skye nodded "Duh, pack and soulmate. Thats like all I want you to do – hold me. I'm sleepy" she replied, her tone holding a hint of a whine to it.

"Okay, just double checking because consent and all that. Is this okay?" Bobbi asked as she pulled herself close to Skye, an arm lightly draped across her sides, well away from her sore hip.

"Perfect." Skye mumbled, her eyes closing "is this okay for you? You don't have to do this cause I'm ill and bleedy."

"This is perfect." Bobbi replied, resting her head on the pillow and pulled Skye underneath her chin, enclosing the women with her whole body.

It wasn't long till Skye feel back asleep, wrapped in Bobbi's arm, feeling as the world has just aligned itself just for her.