Maria
2nd May 2004
It had been a few months since their mission in Malta. It had been a rather rough mission as they had to act outwith SHIELD as they had no jurisdiction over there. The entire mission was kept on the down low as they went in to retrieve the package. The package turned out to be a dead body that had been pulled from a lake in a search for a missing child.
What had caught the attention of the informant was the fact that the body looked torn up and covered in bites mark, entirely too big to be any normal animal. The informant also found it suspicious the way the body was dumped in the lake, no animal would leave food lying around like that.
Test were done on the body once they reached SHIELD, the scientist working on the projected confirmed that it match the DNA of one of the old enhanced wolves. Which begged the question as to how one of the failed experiments ended up in Malta. The scientist were currently trying to gather more data to get the time of death so that they could start to create a timeline to track what the failed experiments had been up to. Whether it was before or after the attack on Maria was one of the biggest questions as the pack was still confused as to what prompted the old wolves to come back and seek revenge on Maria. It caused worry but it has been put to the back of people's minds as there has not been any other dead bodies turning up with the same pattern of damage.
Which meant that Fury wanted to push forward and start turning the next few candidates. Thankfully Maria and Natasha had already chosen to go with Melinda May, the others were still pouring over the files, trying to choose the best person to add to their pack and doing some recon around the base as all candidates had been brought to the Triskellion in preparation for this.
It had taken the others nearly a week to decide despite having access to all the candidates for this turning for over three months. It annoyed Maria endlessly that they were not prepared for this, another reason she was happy to have been put with Natasha.
"Aww, I'm glad the others lack of organisation skills makes you so happy to be with me." Natasha teased her, bumping her hip against Maria's as they walked down to the common area.
Maria rolled her "Honestly I was expecting Victoria to be a bit more prepared but she wasn't. Did she seriously think Fury was going to put it off much longer after we found that body in Malta?" she scoffed.
"You're cute when you get all worked up like this." Natasha said, grinning as she wrapped an arm around Maria's waist.
"You're very touchy feely today." Maria commented, glancing at Natasha but made no effort to actually move her arm.
Natasha shrugged in response, "since when do you complain about me being like this? Jealous that with May coming into the pack I won't love you as much?" she joked, pulling Maria tighter against her side.
"No. That would just be childish and stupid." Maria denied, a sour look coming over her face. Of course she wasn't jealous that she would have to suddenly start sharing Natasha. It wasn't like Maria had gotten used to having the woman's affection focused solely on her.
Now it was Natasha's turn to roll her eyes as she stopped the two of them in the middle of the corridor, she pressed Maria up against the wall. She looked closely at her face, watching the way Maria's face tightened around her eyes, a telltale sign that she was trying not to glare. "Whatever happens," Natasha started slowly, thinking of the right words to say to the beta. "We're still a team, a pack. I'll always make time for you, the only thing that will change is that we will now have an extra person in the pack. No doubt May will shower you in love as well." Natasha finished with smile.
Maria scowled slightly "I told you, it's a ridiculous childish notion that I would be jealous of someone else coming into the pack."
Despite Maria's insistence that she wasn't bothered by May joining their pack, she could feel Maria relax under her grip and her mind no longer felt like a storm to enter. She gave Maria another look in the eyes and saw the appreciation in them, she leaned forward and pecked Maria's lips. Maria smiled and rolled her eyes fondly before pulling Natasha back in for another kiss, wrapping her arms around Natasha's neck.
Natasha hummed as they pulled apart, she rested her head against Maria's. "That was nice."
"If you two are done being all mushy and gross, we have people waiting for us." Peggy said, announcing her presence to the two women. She was standing looking at the two of them with a raised eyebrow, her hands on her hips.
"Let's go meet our new pack member. You do the talking." Natasha said, moving away from Maria as the trio began to make their way to the common area.
"I thought we were bringing them down later?" Maria asked with a frown, "or did I just get the time wrong?"
"No, Toby and Jayden jumped the gun and brought them down here earlier than planned. Nick did not knoe the exact time we were planning on bringing them down so he had them all waiting outside the lift for them." Peggy sighed, a hint of annoyance coming through her tone.
It was putting off the whole plan, which irritated Maria again because why can't people just stick to plans? How hard is it? Toby and Jayden weren't even supposed to be getting the candidates, it was supposed to be Maria. It was suppose to help create an authoritative tone within the operation towards the new candidates and help install the idea of humans shifting into wolves much faster.
"I swear, I'm going to start making workshops for people on how to stick to plans and how to be organised. It will be mandatory and it's going to start with this lot." Maria grumbled.
"You're grouchy today." Peggy commented, looking over at Maria.
"I'm not." She replied evenly.
Natasha rolled her eyes, "Maria's jealous." she explained
Peggy hummed in response, "It's not an easy transition to go from being the only two in a pack to suddenly three. Then four, five or even six people in a pack. It will be a tough time for everyone. Good thing I'm here to keep you all in line." Peggy mused, seemingly thinking about all the scenarios that could happen. "Hopefully it will not be bad as the serum should develop that pack bond within you three, which should prevent any resentment or jealously."
"Should." Maria repeated with a raised eyebrow
Peggy sighed, "Maria, you know as well as I that a lot of things we thought were going to happen with this serum did and a lot of things we did not plan on happening, happened. Ideally it would be the best outcome if the serum works like it supposed to when expanding the packs, but thankfully I know I can trust you to be level headed enough to not let your feelings for Natasha get in the way of furthering the project." Peggy explained, neither of them missing the way Peggy used Maria's need for order and preparation as a compliment but also as a warning to keep her in line.
"Yes ma'am." Maria replied dutifully.
They finally reached the common room, Peggy muttering to them all quiet to be on their best behaviours as she swept in, causing a few people to breath in sharply.
"For someone who is meant to be in their 70's, you look awfully spry." May immediately commented, her eyes narrowed in concentration and her body tense. The appearance of Peggy had instantly put the woman on high alert.
"Hopefully in twenty years time, you too, will look awfully spry." Peggy commented, sitting down in the single armchair, signalling for Maria to take over.
Maria stood at the entrance, looking over all the new candidates, Melinda May, Kara Palamas, Lexi Sanders and Luke Hamilton. She made herself stand tall, channelling her inner commander before she began speaking; "You have all been selected as candidates for and up and coming project referred to Operation: Shadows." Maria began, watching as they all turned to her. May's face kept the calm facade, but Maria watch the way her eyes widened a bit at the sight of her.
"Never heard of it." Lexi commented, good to see she has already adopted her soon to be alpha's (Toby) attitude when it came to Maria.
"Good. If you've heard of it we would have a serious breach on our hands. This is only for the knowledge of a very select few agents and scientist." Maria continued, "this operation was started by Director Fury without the world security councils approval or knowledge and it will continue that way." Maria looked over them all, watching as they took the information in. May continued to keep her unimpressed, unfazed look on her face. "This operation involves genetic manipulation and started as a project to recreate the super solider serum. Whilst we did not quiet achieve that, we have achieved something much, much different, and in my opinion, much better as well." Maria continued ominously, waiting for Peggy's signal.
"Quit being vague Hill and just tell us." Luke drawled, trying to keep an aloof appearance, but Maria could smell the agitation off of him.
Maria hit him with one of her stares, watching as it only took him a few seconds before he started squirming. Satisfied with his response, she continued, "It will be much easier to just show you. Peggy?"
Peggy stood from the chair with ease and Maria could feel the way she was holding back a smile from her face. At the moment, SHIELD scientist were trying to figure out a way to have their clothes stretch with their bodies so that their clothes did not rip every time they shifted, unfortunately they had not quite managed to create a solution to this yet. This meant that every time they wanted to shift and not tear their clothes, they had to strip.
Peggy gave them all a mental wink as she easily dropped the dress she was wearing onto the floor, leaving her in her underwear alone. She must have thought stripping to nothing might have over done it. Maria disagreed, they were about to watch her shift into a wolf, seeing Peggy naked would have been the most normal thing about this demonstration. Maria already heard all three of the four protesting, watching as they went to cover their eyes when Peggy lunged forward, seamlessly shifting in mid air.
Maria wished she had a camera for their reactions, especially May's. Not a lot fazed May nowadays, but seeing her mentor standing there, arms hanging by her side and her mouth open in shock as she stared at the giant wolf in the middle of the room was the best thing Maria has seen in a while.
"What the fuck." May questioned, her hand reaching out as she stroked Peggy's fur before backtracking immediately.
"That." Maria started, "is the result of Operation: Shadows."
"Shit." Kara replied, walking around Peggy, taking everything in. It didn't take long after that for Peggy to shift back to her human form, Victoria quickly provided her a robe to cover herself up with.
"If you agree to join this Operation, you will go through the necessary medical procedures to become an enhanced wolf. You will under a psych evaluation, physical fitness test and once those have been approved, you will receive a series of jags containing the serum to become one of us." Maria explained.
"And what if we said no?" May asked evenly, folding her arms in front of her chest as she looked at them with a frown on her face.
Maria shrugged, "You have two options, join us or die."
May stared at her, everyone around them going deathly silent as they stared at Maria, protest in the back of their throats but unable to voice them.
"Now isn't the time to be joking around, rookie." May responded irritably, she noticed the way Maria eyes lit up as she spoke as well as how the other's seemed to roll their eyes or tried to contain their smile. It would appear there is a lot that they weren't sharing with them.
"You always told me to have a better sense of humour. 'Be more relaxed rookie. Play pranks on Coulson, rookie.'" Maria mimicked in an overly high pitched voice, taking joy in the way she was able to shock her mentor today.
"I will wake your ass at up four thirty to do squatted jumps." May threatened, moving her arms from her chest.
Maria narrowed her eyes at her old mentor, knowing that this wasn't a threat. Thankfully, Maria out ranked her. "I out rank you." She replied, sounding brave but really she was nervous. If May took the deal there was not a single doubt in Maria that May would wake her up in the morning to make her do those dreaded exercises.
May raised an eyebrow at Maria's defiance. "Who's in charge of you then?"
"What makes you think I'm not a pack leader?" Maria asked, genuinely interested, she didn't think she had given many visual cues that she was not an alpha.
"When you walked in with Carter and Romanoff. The two of them completely dominated you." May replied with a smirk, happy that she was slowly turning the tables on a very smug Maria.
Maria scowled and glared at Natasha, who had laughed at what May said.
'People can tell a mile away you're not a top.' Natasha teased Maria.
'Shut up.' came Maria's snarky response.
May triumphantly turned to Natasha, who has been silent since May had arrived, leaving Maria to talk to their new potential pack mate. "If I join this circus, do I get to boss this little shit around?" May questioned, a smirk on her face.
Maria froze, a wave of horror washing over her. "You've got to be kidding me!" She cried out, she felt the way Natasha froze momentarily, her eyes sweeping over May as a feeling of euphoria washed over the alpha. She could also feel how Peggy tensed besides Maria.
So much for nothing changing.
Natasha stood, mirroring May's smirk, "sweetheart, you can do whatever you want to her." She purred, her hand coming to rest on May's arm.
May took a step back, surprise colouring her face before it settled into a cocky smile. "This just got a lot more interesting." May purred.
Skye
October 15th 2014
Being back on the bus was an interesting experience, Skye mused to herself as she lay in her bunk. Coulson had welcomed her back with open arms and apologetic look on his face, which was later explained as he pulled her aside, with a hug, apologising for putting her in a situation where she had been hurt. It had warmed her heart to know that despite only knowing each other for such a short period of time, he cared about her well being. She had just gave him a small smile and quickly reassured him that it wasn't his fault, Skye had volunteered for the mission. It made her feel good knowing that she could help in some way, rather than sit behind her laptop unable to do anything that Simmons or Fitz could do.
Today though, today was the day that they were working on a new mission. Coulson had found her having some downtime, chilling in one of their SUV's. Skye had been desperately seeking some personal space from everyone, don't get her wrong, she loved the pack but sometimes you just needed space. He asked for help with identifying how someone managed to hack into multiple security systems. Skye had obviously oblige with his requested and was impressed with the work that she found, clearly the person doing this was no amateur.
Then it got more interesting, the person who done all the hacking ended up robbing a group of men with red masks. Apparently, there were fifty-five briefcases and somehow this person managed to find the correct one? Something didn't add up, so the team looked further into it, before Skye had the genius idea to look towards social media.
Ward and May had scoffed at the idea, and that was the first time that May had went against her. Skye had struggled to keep the hurt off her face, reminding herself that they had a part to play and that May didn't really mean to scoff at her idea like it was the most stupidest thing she had ever heard.
But even Coulson looked dubious, the only people who openly backed her idea was Simmons and Fitz; the three of them quickly scoured social media as Skye explained the situation. You don't have fifty-five groups of men, all wearing suits and red masks move through a city like Stockholm and not get any attention on facebook, instagram or youtube. Surprise, surprise, Skye was right. Sadly though, Skye was right. They had found the perpetrator one Akela Amador, Coulson's former protege. The man seemed distraught and confused as to how one of his most promising trainees is committing crimes. Skye wished she could help, but she had no idea who this women was or what she was like before hand, so she kept quiet and did as she was told until they were put in the field.
Surprisingly to no one, sending Simmons, Skye and Fitz out into the field and leaving them in a van together was not a good idea. It would have been if Fitz and Simmons did not have to pretend to not have any training, but since they had to keep it up no matter what (to help them maintain their persona) things went a little wayward.
Whilst it was fun to have their van rammed and thrown downhill, Skye was in no hurry to experience it again.
All in all, it had been a weird, but intense day. Amador turned out to have an implant in her eye, tracking her movements. Ward went under cover with herself running back up, also weird but surprisingly nice. It was fun to push Ward's buttons and find out he was ticklish, a small but insignificant bit of trivia about him that she may be able to use in the future.
Currently, she was resting in her pod with Fitz and Simmons. She was lying on her side, facing the two of them. Her hand slowly running up and down Fitz's side, watching in delight as he squirmed in the same place, each time , but did nothing to make her stop. Which was nice, because it was rather soothing to just feel the presence of another member of her pack and watching him interact with his mate.
"How insane was that today? Imagine if we never let ourselves be convince to become field agents! We would have never been able to do this , being stuck in a lab." Simmons laughed, as she pulled an unconvinced Fitz closer.
"We would be safe in our little lab, developing our gun and having fun with our friends." Fitz grumbled.
"If you had stayed in the lab, you guys would have never met me." Skye teased them, letting her fingers drop down to Fitz's stomach, tracing patterns as he shifted to lie on his back, in the middle of the two women.
"Hmm, true true...but was it reeeaally worth it?" Fitz joked, his body moving softly as he chuckled. Skye swatted him as she lay back down, resting her head on his chest. She smiled softly to herself, as for a first mission back with the team, it went alright. Minus May, but that was to be expected, apparently. Skye shrugged it off, hoping that for the future, they could create situations that would result in them being able to speak civilly without arousing suspicion.
It was probably a long shot but Skye was determined. She has experienced what May was like before Bahrain, according to Natasha, and Skye was determined to fight along the pack to bring her back to that. She understood that she wouldn't be the same, no one who went through a situation like that turned out the same, but she did not need to handle everything alone; shutting everyone out except Natasha, even then, she was still somewhat distant from her, but Skye would persevere along with everyone else and would not give up on May.
October 16th 2014
Today they were having a rest day on the ground, refuelling and catching up on any personal business that they had to do. Coulson had gave them all a small smile and quick run down of when they needed to be back by before announcing that he was leaving for the day. He wasted no time in leaving them staring at the behind of the red car named Lola.
Skye wanted to complain, she didn't exactly have any personal stuff to take care of, the only people from the pack close to her were Leo and May. Natasha was on some mission with Clint in god knows where, Sharon was still on her undercover mission. Bobbi was doing, well, Bobbi was actually just doing paper work with Izzy, in New York. Which was miles from where she was, wherever the hell she was, but her point still stands; she was miles away from everything.
Ward had rolled his eyes at her when she complained about the lack of things to do, "figure something out, princess" he said, before speeding away on his motorbike. Dickhead. Skye grumbled as she moved through the bus, trying to figure out where Leo and Jemma had sneaked off to. They better not be having sex, how dare they have a sex life when she was left here all alone, left to her own thoughts. So inconsiderate.
"Skye," came the sharp call from May, "we have somewhere to be, lets go."
Skye nodded and followed without question, easily stepping in line with May as she led them out of the small SHIELD aircraft hanger that they were using as a pit stop. May wordless pointed to a car that held both Jemma and Leo (who were looking rather bored) "Get in."
Skye gave her a small, slightly sarcastic salute as she climbed into the front seat and remained silent as May drove them away from the base. It was a long journey, May kept to herself, focusing on the road ahead as Leo and Jemma quietly talked amongst themselves, Skye ended up just focusing on her phone, scrolling aimlessly through her twitter feed and other social media sites as well as texting with Bobbi.
Bobbi-Bear: What are you doing today?
Skye: No idea, May has herded us into a car and is driving us somewhere, maybe she is going to do an advance crash course in survival?
Bobbi-Bear: lmao seems like something May would do, good luck
Skye: don't lmao me, I might die here, you should take this seriously. Your last communications with your loving mate
Bobbi-Bear: lmao
Bobbi-Bear: You're so dramatic, so much like Nat it is actually hilarious
Bobbi-bear: Maria is going to die when she see's how alike you two are
Skye: haha, you're so funny Bobbi-Bear, may your internet always be slower than dial up
Bobbi-Bear: :O how could you?! You would wish that upon your own pack mate? YOUR OWN MATE? Oh how the fates have failed me!
Skye: lmao
Bobbi-Bear: ….
Bobbi-Bear: rip
Skye: rip lmao 3
Bobbi-Bear: 3 you're lucky you are such a cutie-pie.
Skye: I don't want to be a cutie-pie, I want to be a badass, ass kickin, man slayin cutie-pie.
Bobbi-Bear: You can be whatever you want to be, my badass, ass kickin man slayin cutie-pie, lmao.
Skye: This conversation has taken a weird turn
Bobbi-Bear: agreed, any further forward on where you are going?
Skye: Deep into the woods apparently, we've been driving for an hour so far, May must be really throwing us to the wolves (LOL)
Bobbi-Bear: you are so funny. Maybe thats what it is about, you haven't shifted yet.
Skye: Huh, maybe it could be.
"It is. It will be the one of few times you will be able to shift and be actually able to move around. It is better to have your first shift somewhere you can move around and not be confined to a plane thousands of feet up in the air with no escape unless you are wanting death." May deadpanned.
Skye: You are correct and May is in a cheery mood, I'll let you know how it goes 3
Bobbi-Bear: Good luck, tell May I said hi!
"I can't believe it took you this long to figure that out Skye." Jemma said, a smirk on her face, "Why else would May take us to the woods?"
"Uh, a crash course in survival skills?" Skye questioned back, nerves creeping up her body as she realised she was about to shift for the first time. This should be fun.
"It should be!" Fitz replied cheerily, stretching his body, seemingly humming with energy.
"Fitz, Simmons, the two of you shift please, slowly. Skye pay attention to their thoughts, feelings and how the move their body. It will help you shift, as you will be able to get a literal feel of the body shifting from human to wolf." May ordered the three of them, leaning her back against a tree to have a good view of the small clearing that they were in.
The science duo just grinned at each other as they seemingly shifted into wolves in the blink of an eye, that was supposed to be slow? Skye thought sarcastically, she wasn't even ready to get into their minds. That ability was still taking a few seconds to do consciously.
"I said slowly, you two." May remarked with a frown, "let Skye get into your heads first and then shift and think about the process as well."
The two wolves bobbed their heads and shifted back with ease, leaving Skye with one burning question.
"Your clothes. They didn't tear, how?" She practically demanded, looking between the three wolves with her.
"With the help of others, we created this spray which strengthens the fabrics and allows them to be so elastic that they stretch with our bodies, thinning out but never breaking. It thins out enough that it allows the fur to push through without looking patchy. It's great when you need to shift in a hurry, you don't have to worry about your phone or keys, they will just be held tightly against your body." Simmons explained. "Don't worry, we sprayed all your clothes with it when you were injured," she added.
"Well that's a relief to know my clothes won't rip off me and you all see me butt naked." Skye replied sarcastically
"To be fair, it probably won't be long till we see you butt naked anyways." Simmons commented off handedly.
"And screaming our names." Fitz said, continuing the line of thought with a smirk thrown Simmons way, who hummed in agreement.
Skye rolled her eyes at her friends "Yeah yeah, whatever. Let's get on with the shifting!" she said impatiently.
Simmons and Fitz just nodded, a look of concentration passed over their faces in sync and that was Skye's queue to focus on them. It was interesting, to say at the least, both of them thought differently when shifting. FitzSimmons took more of a logical thinking process, thinking of both the human anatomy and a wolf's and imagining the way they would transform and merge together to make the wolf bones before focusing fully on the wolf's anatomy and Skye could see how much of a seamless transformation it was. From what Natasha had told her, most of them envision their body parts just switching over to a wolf's, rather than the in-depth thinking of FitzSimmons.
Skye liked to get a view of both ways that people think when transforming, she'd stick to FitzSimmons way for the time being, focusing full on her body, letting her eyes shut gently as she imagined a diagram of the human body and thought of the ways they would need to twist and changed to match the diagram of a wolf's body.
It was not as painless as Fitz and Simmons made it out to be, she could feel her face twist in pain as her body slowly moved it parts as need to shift. Skye tried to focus on something else as she shift, but it was not the best idea she's ever had as she felt her arm pause half way through shifting, trying to hold in a yelp of pain she quickly went back to focusing on shifting towards the form of a wolf, hoping that it would be over soon.
She felt herself fall down onto her hands and knee's, panting with effort, screwing her eyes shut as she slumped awkwardly to the ground, her legs and arms sprawled out, her head lying on its side as she stared at the bottom of May's feet. Disappointment washed over her as she realised she failed to shift on the first go, like every other member of the pack, she was already years behind everyone else in terms of experience but now she wasn't on the same starting level. She lifted her head to May, trying to find words to express how sorry she was to let her down only to be met with a face full of amusement.
"Skye, why the long face" She asked, mirth flirting through her eyes.
"Yeah Skye, why the long face" Fitz joked, chuckles barrelling past his lips as he tried to hold his laughter in.
Skye looked at them all in confusion and push herself to her feet, only to stumble back onto all fours. She grumbled softly, the attempted shift must have taken more out of her than she first thought. A wave of exhaustion flooded through her system causing her to just lie back down, rolling to onto her side as it was a much more comfortable position and looked back up pitifully at May.
"Oh, put her out of her misery." Simmons says, causing alarm within Skye. They were going to put her down?!
May snorted as she rolled her eyes, she lowered herself down in front of Skye's face and brought Skye's hand into her view.
"You managed to shift, rookie."May mumbled, her eyes roaming over Skye's fur, her fingers gently tightening around the paw before releasing it, letting it fall back to the ground.
Skye looked back up at her in confusion, she made it? She tried look around her body, looking to see what she looked like. She couldn't quiet catch the full colour of her fur, but it looked like the majority of it was a deep chestnut coloured with streaks of grey, at least, in her paws it was. She automatically turned into herself to try and look at her trail, almost yelping in glee when she saw it wagging away behind her. The urge to chase it rose within her chest but quickly ignored the urge as the pack would never let her live it down. Skye looked back at May and happily trotted towards her and bumped her head against May's stomach letting out what sounded like a happy chirp, definitely not a wolf sound, probably the human element of her brain allowed more control of her vocals than your average wolf.
Speaking of averages, she was much smaller than Maria, she knew Maria was one of the smaller, but faster, wolves in the pack but she swore she was barely half the size of her. She bumped her muzzle against May's hand, seeking attention from her and wanting the answer to her question.
May gave her a soft look, her fingers gently went through Skye's fur as she stared at her with bittersweet smile on her face, looking lost in thought. Skye whined softly at her mentor, and put more weight against May's stomach pushing her back and dropped the front of her body in an instinctual move, her back end higher up and tail wagging as she jumped forwards and backwards slightly. Skye gave the occasional bark, hoping May would take the hint. It was time for fun.
May rolled her eyes, "this is why I brought FitzSimmons, they can play with you, someone needs to keep an eye on the time."
Skye felt her face drop, disappointed that May didn't want to play but ultimately understood that the pack have been trying for years to get May back to the person she was before Bahrain and it wouldn't take a few days of Skye pestering her to get the women even feeling a slither of the person she was before. Skye moved forward slight nuzzled her head against May's stomach once more before turning towards FitzSimmons with excitement, happy the two of them were already shifted (and definitely double the size of her) and barrelled towards them, ready to burn off this excess energy she had.
Time passed quickly after that, the three young wolves ran circles around each other and helping Skye get used to the new body. It really just involved lots of running, jumping and tackling each other. It ended with May calling to them that time was up and the three of them trotted back happily towards her and Skye just fell at May's feet, rolling onto her back and stared happily up at the older women, her tongue rolling out her mouth. May gave a simple snort and push Skye back onto her feet with a nudge of her foot.
The main thing that Skye was thankful about her time away with the pack, was that it was much easier to shift back to her human body than it was to shift into a wolf. Now they were enjoying a quiet car ride back to the base, hopefully before Coulson and Ward would be back, it would be difficult to come up with an excuse as to why all four of them were out at the same time.
"Nah, we have great excuse." Fitz said, picking up on Skye's thoughts.
"Hm?" Skye quizzed, turning to look at her pack mate.
"None of us can legally drive, it's a convincing fake licence you have but you're supposed to stick to the rules now" Simmons answered for him, a grin on her face as she caught Skye's look of shook.
"Damn it, I hope you guys wouldn't notice that." Skye grumbled, slinking down in her seat.
"We'll have you sit the test soon with a qualified examiner" May said plainly, not taking her eyes of the road. "Thankfully we have a qualified examiner within the pack, so it should make things easier."
"Thank fuck" Skye replied merrily, happy that she didn't have to sit with those stoic people who just silently mark that sheet of paper, knowing full well that with every stroke they are bringing intense anxiety and panic on the driver.
"Language." Jemma admonished from the back
Skye turned to face Jemma with a grin, "yes mother"
Jemma rolled eyes her but made a pretend serious face as she wagged her finger at Skye, "such atrocious language will not be tolerated within the packs."
"Fuck." Skye replied with smirk
Fitz leaned forward to join the conversation with an equally mischievous smirk as Skye, "motherfucker" he loudly proclaimed
"Fitz!"
"Shit"
"Asshole"
"Fucking fuckity fuck fuck."
"Skye, really?"
"Dickhead"
"Son of a bitch"
"Beef curtains"
"Fitz! Really, now you are just being gross!"
"Motherfucking bastard"
All three of them whipped their heads around to face May, who was focusing on driving them safely back to the bus.
"Did May just swear?!" Skye exclaimed, excitement buzzing through her.
"If May is allowed to swear then it must be ok, she's mated to Natasha and Natasha is the alpha and if the alpha is ok with May swearing then it's totally fine for us to swear" Fitz babbled out quickly, keen to keep the fun going.
"May, how could you betray me like this?!" Jemma voiced dramatically, her hand going to forehead, pretending to feel faint.
May just smirked at Jemma through the rear mirror and threw Skye and Fitz a mental image of her winking before returning to her usual emotionless face. Her actions had Skye and Fitz in stitches, leaving Jemma confused. They explained later what happened but they were happy to let the moment drag out as long as possible.
Bobbi-Bear: I can feel the happiness rolling off you and Fitz in waves, everything go ok?
Skye: Yeah everything went perfect, best day off in a while lol
Bobbi-Bear: Glad to hear it, can't wait for you to tell me how it all went when we next see each other 3
Skye: Have any idea when that would be?
Bobbi-Bear: Sorry Skye, no idea, will have to ask Maria what her official plans are so we don't have suspicion placed upon us
Skye: Alright, sucks, see you when I see you 3
Bobbi-Bear: See you soon 3
Skye sighed, that had put a small damper on her mood. They few days she had with Bobbi were nice, but they didn't really do much alone. A lot of it was the pack and the few precious moments they had alone was Skye trying to get some information on Bobbi and who she was as a person. They may be soulmates and lot of the affection she felt was just a natural response of the developing bond, she still wanted to know more about her.
Skye often wondered what the world would be like without have your soulmates words written on your skin, how many dates would you have to go on before you found the one? What if you found the one and yet you were wrong?
Domestic violence still happened, it was rare but it did happen and no one really had an explanation for it, but it made Skye wonder if it would be more widespread if you never knew you were with the love of your life. Would people move more slowly in their relationship? Would it take people weeks, months to reach the same level of comfortableness that Skye had with Bobbi? Skye would never know, and she was glad for it. She dated a few people whilst waiting to meet Bobbi, it wasn't unusual, most people did it and most seen it as practising for your soulmate.
It still didn't feel like enough though, Skye was no where near ready to understand and appreciate the instant love Bobbi had for her, the way she treated Skye like she was worth a thousand years of torture and made sure to be accommodating for her injured and delirious mate at the time, taking it in stride that they only said a handful of words to each other yet Skye wanted to be held, she wanted the confirmation that, yes, she had met the person that would complete her, complement who she was as a person. Honestly, Skye couldn't be happier that Bobbi is her soulmate, she felt like for once the universe had dealt her some good cards. Thinking of her mate never failed to bring a smile to her face as she looked down at her phone, even if they still hadn't completed the bond and wouldn't see each other for a while, the fact that they were soulmates would not change nor would the fact that Skye would wait a million years if she had to. Bobbi was worth it.
Bobbi-Bear: The feeling is mutual, beautiful 3 I'll try to find a way to see you soon.
The text made her smile at her phone before putting it away, they were approaching the bus and thankfully they were the first back. She didn't mind lying but it would just be easier if they didn't have to. Although no doubt Coulson would ask how their day went.
Skye groaned at that thought "Coulson's gonna be nice and asked us what we did"
"Sex" came Jemma witty response.
"Har har, so funny Jemma." Skye responded, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Well, Coulson knows Jemma and I are soulmates, so yeah we were enjoying the quiet of the bus to have sex whilst you and May were out doing who knows what." Fitz chimed in innocently as he threw a wicked smirk at them.
"I hate you both"
"You love us"
"Screw you"
"No swearing!"
Skye rolled her eyes fondly, as she looked out the window, it would be easy enough to come up with an excuse, so long as he didn't check the cameras.
November 11th 2014
The last month had been rather eventful for the team. Skye was grateful for the day to relax and reflect on what happened, tomorrow they were due to arrive at The Hub. It was one of SHIELD's main buildings and it was run by none other than Victoria Hand, Jemma's alpha. Skye was still to properly meet the other packs, sure she had saw them all at the meeting but she didn't really interact with them or get a feel for them as people. At the time they were simply background characters in her very, very chaotic life.
She was looking forward to meeting the other alpha and the feelings of elation that she was getting from Leo – passed on from Jemma – never failed to bring a smile to her face. She never really thought about how lucky she was that she had both May and Leo on the plane with her. That was two people from her pack that she could count on and not to mention that whenever they made a pit stop to resupply, Maria was generally there to check up on them. It wasn't as suspicious as she was the deputy director and she could do what she wanted without question. If Hand was to do that, it would start to bring unwanted attention to them. It would be a nice occasion for Jemma and hopefully it meant that Skye, Leo and May could relax away from the team.
Skye's head was still reeling after everything that happened, she needed time to process everything. It has been a very hectic month. The downward spiral had started with the mission to china where Skye, admittedly, fucked up slightly.
It had started off as an easy enough day, she woke up and did her somewhat useful training with Ward. It was only useful because Maria had asked her to keep an eye out on him. Maria seemed suspicious for some reason but played it off as him being an unknown quantity within Coulson's team. Skye thought there was more to it than that but she shrugged it off and went with the beta's request, plus she was quite curious about the man herself. He seemed like he had a rough past and like he went through a weird phase in his teenage years but other than that he seemed ok. She had done an extra background check on him and everything turned out okay and matched the background check that Maria had done on him before putting him on this team. The only thing that didn't match up was how he got into SHIELD. The official files report that he was recruited by the the usual scouts team but Skye had one source that said he was referred by an existing SHIELD agent whilst all the other reports confirm the official records, it had made Maria frown but she simply thanked Skye for her help and refused to discuss further.
Despite the curiosity about him, Skye still hated him for making her run useless drills that weren't suited to her body/style, well according to Natasha. Skye honestly still had no clue about fighting forms, despite the crash course she was given by Natasha and Maria. She was slowly learning Ward's style but she failed to see how it wasn't useful to learn this information anyways as she could use it against someone of the same build as Ward in the future. Still annoying though.
After their usual morning routine of somewhat useless drills, they were called into a meeting to be debriefed about an upcoming mission. They had been ordered by HQ to investigate a missing person, known as Chan Ho Yin, he was put on SHIELD's radar for so called pyrokinetic abilities, which sounded like a whole lot of fun to Skye.
Then the bit where she may have messed up and not thought everything through before she acted. Skye had gotten ahead of herself as she remembered the texts from the Rising Tide – she had asked Maria and Natasha if she should continue contact with them – and her old friend/fuck buddy Miles had mentioned something about a man with abilities to manipulate fire. She had put it to the back of her mind to report to Maria when she sent her fortnightly emails about what the group was up to.
It was funny how she went from hating the establishment to practically worshipping the people running it. Though, her eyes were opened and she saw the good that SHIELD did as well as the necessary evils it committed and the toll it took on the agents to carry out such tasks. The Rising Tide made those necessary evils a lot harder than they should have to be and created the situations that called for those specialist teams within SHIELD to be deployed. Skye, feeling guilty about helping to cause some of these situations felt like this was the best way to make up to the pack after all the hassle she has inadvertently caused them in the past.
Skye, armed with the information that Miles knew something about him, went straight to him as soon as she was able to shake off Ward, which was surprisingly easy. She filed that information away for later to pass onto Maria, no doubt she'd like to re-evaluate Ward if someone like Skye can slip away from him.
Skye had turned up at the place Miles was residing in for the time being with a friendly smile on her face, she couldn't let him know about her hidden agenda, which also left her with a bit of conflict. Miles had no idea that she has found her soulmate and the last time they had seen each other they were fuck buddies (to put it bluntly) and kept each other warm at night as they waited for the day they would meet their soul mate. Skye could let him continue to think that was what she was here for as she tried to get information on Chan. The other option she could do was to be upfront and warn him about SHIELD looking into him about Chan and use scare tactics to get the information she wanted from him.
She hadn't been in his house for a couple of seconds before Fitz frantic thoughts entered her mind with echoes of the pack behind him;
"Skye! Where did you go? Coulson and May are furious! Do you have any idea how this looks?" he practically yelled at her, worry coating every inch of his thoughts.
It had made her pause, she had gotten so used to the people around her understanding what she wanted to do within seconds and why she was doing it, but obviously, she had forgotten what her actions would look like to people that weren't in her head constantly.
"Shit. Fitz, I wasn't thinking. I swear I'm not betraying you guys, I'm just trying to get information!" She thought back in a state of panic, not registering Miles pressing her up against a wall, his lips on her neck as his hands moved to remove her top.
She let herself fall victim to panic as thoughts flooded her head about how the pack would react to what she did, she really did have good intentions, she just wanted to help, make things easier for them. It seems like she just created another complicated situation. Skye desperately sought out May from the faceless voices in her head – not that she didn't care about what they were saying, she needed her mentor to understand – and focused on where she was and was surprised to see her own, half naked body staring at May being reflected from the woman's mind.
"May" she breathed out, stepping forward towards the woman only to have the barrel of a gun line up with her eyes. Skye froze in fear as she stared confused at the older wolf. She didn't understand, May had to know she wasn't turning on SHIELD, she was trying to help!
Then, with horror, she realised the fact that May wasn't alone. Ward was standing along side her with his own gun pointed at Miles. Shit. Her eyes flickered between them before she found herself blurting out the punchline of every movie ever;
"I swear this isn't what it looks like,"
and with that, Skye was locked up on the bus – with her top returned – and was left staring at Miles across the table.
"They seem to know you pretty well, anything you want to tell me, Skye?" He had sneered at her, clearly upset that she had lead SHIELD to his location.
Skye didn't even bothered to respond to him as she had been to busy trying to contact the pack. They were being silent but Skye was determined to push through and get one of them to respond. It was clear that Skye had no intentions of selling out SHILED or the pack, all she was trying to do was help and so she was extremely frustrated with the fact that no one had answered her.
She tilted her head back and breathed harshly through her nose, she wished could run her hand through her hair but they were firmly handcuffed to the table. She supposed it was a good thing as she would have already tried to breakdown the door to see her pack (secrets be damned) or punched Miles (and probably break his jaw with the punch)
'Stop ignoring me! You know I didn't mean anything bad, I was trying to help' she whined at her pack, they were being unfair with her. This entire time they have had no reason to trust her but the one time she actually goes out with her comfort zone to help and investigation, it goes tits up and they all of a sudden don't trust her? Bullshit.
Skye huffed and slouched down in her chair, continuing to ignore the man in front of her. She wondered how long it would be before May or Coulson came in to speak to her about what was going on, how they would deal with the situation. Hopefully May would be able to convince Coulson for a less sever punishment.
'May will have to stick to her cover.' Came Natasha's voice. Skye almost lunged up to look for her, before realising it was just in her head and that she was still stuck in the cage. She cast her eyes over to Miles to see if he noticed her sudden change in demeanour but he was too busy scowling at the table.
'How so?' she questioned back, her voice sounding small and unsure. She was too afraid of the pack's reaction now, they had been so silent towards her and she was positive she could feel some anger from them, or she could be making it up. She would never know.
'This May is one who doesn't want to take risks according to Coulson. According to Coulson, May is reluctantly back in the field, only to help him out and do whatever is necessary to make sure he is safe. Which, unfortunately for you, means you do not appear safe, you are an unknown factor who could cause trouble at any point' Natasha explained. 'But, we aren't mad. Well, May might be because she has to be the bad guy in this situation but we all know all you wanted to do is help. We were just trying to figure out what to do if Coulson listened to May and Ward and kicked you off the bus. Sorry sweetheart, we should have replied sooner.' Natasha finished, in a gentle, reassuring tone.
Skye's shoulder slumped in relief, the pack were just looking out for her. The anger she felt was from May having to do a difficult job of trying to oust a pack member. She needed to make it up to May big time, if she would let her. Skye was unsure how much longer the two of them sat together in silence, waiting for May and Coulson to come and tell her the bad news.
The incident with Chan ended up with him being dead and some girl wearing a flower dress seemed to be at the head of the whole thing. Coulson, May and a team of SHILED agents had found him and went to go help him as he seemed to be under the effect of extremis but refused any help given by SHIELD and left May with no choice except to terminate him. Skye had watch the way May's shoulders briefly tensed as Coulson had explained what happened, staring at Miles with a hint of steel, blaming him as he revealed to Skye that Miles had been selling the information that he was gathering.
Skye had gritted her teeth at the one, almost lunging out of the restraints, if it hadn't been for May quickly reacting and calming her through the link, Skye probably would have given away the pack secret. Instead, she slammed her hand down on the table and growl lowly at him, to low for any of the men in the room to hear. Skye understood the dangers of releasing information now, but when she was doing it for the Rising Tide it was always free, it went against everything the Rising Tide stood for to sell the information to gain profit, it meant they were no better than the people they were trying to expose.
Eventually Coulson had released the two, leaving Miles in China with no way home and a smirk on his face as he closed the bus ramp. It made Skye realise that he had a very dark side to him that only came out when he wanted it to. She made sure to stay on his good side after that incident. After releasing Miles, Coulson had taken her and May up to his office and proceeded to yell at her, ending in him demanding as to why she wanted to be caught by SHIELD, why she was still here, what did she have planned?
It made her take a pause, there was a reason as to why she caught SHIELD's attention, she wanted access to documents about her parents. Her parents, she had forgotten her search for them until that moment, too busy being caught up in the pack, dealing with the changes and the missions she was going on. It was a lot to handle.
She could feel the pack tense as she explained what she found. Maria and Peggy were confused and a little horrified when they saw the level 9 document that Skye had found about herself and how she was brought to the states. It was one that they both knew about, you didn't get to the level they got to and not read that document about the massacre and the only living thing to come out of it was a baby that, shortly after, went missing. Both of them quietly promised that they would look into it for her and not to be upset with May about the punishment that Coulson was about to give her.
Which caused a sinking feeling in Skye as she eyed the box in his hand.
"Wear this, if you want to continue in this team. If not, you can leave now and no hard feelings." He said, "It's what we call a nanny bracelet. Basically, if you touch any electronics such as a phone or a tablet, it will shut it down and show our lovely logo. You will keep this on until I feel like I can trust you." He explained further when Skye reached for the bracelet.
Skye nodded, feeling numb, hacking was her lifeline. It was the only thing that she was good at, she had nothing else going for herself. At the time, Skye didn't realise the sheer panic that rose within her as she left Coulson's office, nor did she realise how she didn't actually care about Coulson trusting her, it was all about what the pack thought. How they would react to the fact she was stuck with a stupid nanny bracelet.
Thankfully May had grabbed her by the shoulders and guided Skye to her bedroom, pushing her down on the bed and knelt down so that she was level with Skye's face. She placed a finger under her chin and lifted Skye's face up so that they were making eye contact.
"I'm sorry." Skye whispered softly, hoping to be quiet enough that no one could hear them, not that anyone should be able to anyways since they were in May's room, but it never hurt to be overly cautious. "I just wanted to be useful.." she trailed off, breaking eye contact with May. It had been too intense to maintain it with her at the time.
"It's okay. We understand." May said softly, her fingers moving to cup Skye's cheek and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.
Skye had surged forward and pulled May into her arms, pulling the older women down onto the bed and began moving her, with little protest thankfully, until Skye was comfortably lying in her arms, holding May as tight as she could, seeking the comfort that she so desperately needed from the pack.
"It's okay" May murmured, running her fingers up and down Skye's back as she broke down in the older woman's arms. The way Skye held on tightly, fist curling up in the back of May's shirt as tear streamed down pulled at May's heart. In front of her was the picture of a girl who had been forced to keep her sadness to herself, to keep the tears at bay, someone who had always pretended to be happy.
"It's ok, we've got you Skye, we've got you." She whispered, holding the girl as tightly as she could, hoping that the weight of her arms would help centre Skye.
It had been a long night for both of them as they contemplated their future on the bus and their place on it.
Shortly after the Miles Incident, they had ,what Skye now referred to as the FitzSimmons Jumping Incident.
At first, it seemed like they had an interesting mission and Skye got to see some creepy voodoo magic, which she was extremely excited about, she wanted to see some of the weird shit that only SHIELD got to see. Later, she came to regret her excitement over the case and so did Leo and Jemma.
They had been gathered around the meeting table as Coulson filled them in on the upcoming mission that involved a string of mysterious deaths.
"How mysterious are we talking here? Like unknown mass murder mysterious? Or just some weird weapon used mysterious?" Skye questioned, looking at Coulson. It had been a reasonable question to ask, but she could see May roll her eyes from where she stood and the look of amusement that went over Ward's face before he went back to being neutral.
"You'll see when we land, I don't want the science twins going in with any preconceptions about what might have happened." Coulson stated, before turning to look at FitzSimmons "I want you two to pack as much as you can for data gathering of a dead body."
"Sure but - " Fitz started
"Do you have any idea how weird it is for everyone to call us the science twins?" Simmons continued, frowning at Coulson
"Yeah 'cause we're soulmates so you're suggesting that there is some incest going on and it's -" Fitz took over
"Weird," both of them finished, scrunching their faces up at Coulson before looking at each other to confirm how weird it was.
Coulson looked between them with a perplexed look as Skye gave a small snort of humour. "Right. Ok. Science couple, get on it."
"Much better, thank you sir." Jemma said, grabbing Leo's arm and taking them away to the lab to see what would be the best equipment to take.
"Skye, you're still under technology arrest so I want you to shadow Ward and get an understanding of how we survey murder sites to gather the most information we can about the perpetrator. Understood?"
"Yes sir." Skye parroted, saluting with a smirk on her face.
"And May?" Coulson turned to face her, only to be met with an unamused raised eyebrow, "fly the plane and you be you."
May rolled her eyes again and nodded at Coulson as she stalked off to the cockpit to go do her thing. Skye had turned and grinned at Ward.
"Looks like its just you and me, buddy."
(line break)
They had arrived at the scene fully of excitement only to pause in confusion as they stared at the dead body.
A dead, floating body.
Jemma had rushed over to it, her eyes wide as she pulled on gloves to examine the body, her hands hovering a few inches before the body, twitching as she mimed some medical acts of what she needed to do to understand how this was happening. Leo followed closely behind her, his face furrowed in confusion and distrust of a floating dead body. He gently placed the case of his dwarfs on the ground, opening it up as he hummed over which one to use.
"This is utterly fascinating." Jemma gushed, her eyes glued to the body. "Never in SHIELD's history has there been an incident of a body floating after death. I wonder what is causing this..." she trailed off, stretching her hand out to touch the body.
"Simmons! Don't touch-" Coulson startled, looking worried as Simmons hand connected to the body and watching as it dropped to the ground "don't touch the dead body." He finished, staring at the body on the ground.
"Ok-ay, weird thing number two for the day. Floating dead body no longer floating after touched by a perfectly alive human." Skye said, walking around looking curiously at the scene in front of her, glancing back at Fitz. He had suppressed a jump from the shock that Simmons had gotten from touching the body.
She received a visual thumbs up from him, confirming that the two of them were alright.
"You certainly have a way with words, Skye." Simmons quipped as she bent down to review the body further, her brows furrowing softly.
After that Skye had mainly left everyone to do their thing, shadowing Ward as he had told her to do on the bus, closer than she would have with anyone else but it was fun to watch him squirm at her proximity to him. It hadn't been long until Coulson had received a notification of another freak lightning attack followed by a dead, floating body. The team slowly began to thing that it was no longer a coincidence but some force causing the deaths and, unfortunately, they were right. Skye had done some background check on all of the dead bodies and found one connection; they were all firefighters. The team done a quick visit to the fire station and found the cause of the deaths. A Chitauri helmet.
Fitz and Simmons theorised that the helmet was carrying a virus that was painless to the Chitauri but was proving deadly to humans. In the end Coulson realised that one of the other firefighters, Tony Diaz, was also infected and ordered everyone out of the building. The team had soon waiting with trepidation for Coulson to made his leave from the building, and true to his style, he waited until the very last second to make it out.
Skye had to pretend to not hear May get angry with him, as she gripped his arm and pulled him closer "I came back into the field to make sure you did not die a second time. It would be great if you could stop willingly walking to your death and remember the impact your death had on people."
Skye looked towards Fitz and Simmons, the two of them wide eyed. Clearly it had been a while since either of them had heard May get that angry with someone. Skye figured she would sneak into the cockpit later tonight when everyone was a sleep to keep May company. She was determined that no matter what May was going through, whatever happened in the past, Skye was going to be there for her. Just like May had been there for her when going through all the initial bullshit that came with becoming a wolf.
Skye did end up spending time with May. Just not in the cockpit.
Once they were back to the bus, things had gotten worse. Their initial mission was technically a success and now they were to transport the helmet to the Sandbox, to have it blasted into the sun. Except they hit a slight snag.
Simmons got infected by the virus.
Skye stopped breathing when Coulson broke the news to the team. They stood gathered in front of the locked lab, Simmons was behind the glass looking terrified, she held onto a tablet to stop her hands from shaking. She wasn't very successful as the tablet began to crack from the strength that she was using. Skye looked at May in utter panic as a million different thoughts floated through her brain as she thought about her they were biologically different from every other human on this planet. Would that cause a speed up in the process? Would it just harmlessly pass through Jemma instead? Although one look a the sweat gathering on Jemma's forehead told her otherwise – it seemed like she was coming down with the flu. Something not one the other victims had any experience of.
'Calm down Skye, we all need to take a breath and keep a calm mind. If anyone can figure out a way to cure this virus, its Jemma and Leo.' Came Maria's soothing voice.
It said a lot that it was Maria who was the first to calm her down and not May, although a quick glance at the women told a lot. Her face was unnaturally blank of emotion, her eyes looked dead as she stared at Jemma. Skye moved subtly closer to May, trying to provide her some comfort.
But nothing could have prepared her for the utter despair she felt from Fitz. The feeling of one's heart ripping in two, as though the bit of wood holding you up over a hole was suddenly pulled away leaving you falling for an indefinite time. She quickly covered her mouth to hold back the sob that escaped at the feeling, she went to grab Fitz, only to be held back by May.
"...I think it's best to leave you two alone to figure this out. Let's go upstairs everyone." Coulson finished saying. Skye had missed most of what he said, still too shocked by the situation to actually respond to what was going on.
May had guided her up the stairs and away from everyone else, she vaguely heard May quickly tell Ward that she would take care of Skye and keep her occupied. Eventually May had navigated Skye into her own room and sat her on the bed. May knelt down in front of Skye, putting a finger under her chin and tilting their faces until their eyes met.
Skye's lip trembled as she looked at May, she tried to form words to let the women know how scared she was, how utterly terrified and helpless she felt.
"I know." May murmured, leaning forward and pressing her forehead against Skye's. The two of them sat like that for a while, Skye's hand snaking to grip the front of her top, her fingers curling in tightly on the fabric, keeping May in place.
"You should get some rest, sweetheart." May continued softly, slowly guiding Skye to lie on the bed.
"You'll stay?" Skye questioned, her voice trembling as she lay down on her side.
"Of course." May promised, "Coulson has no need for us yet." She climbed into bed besides Skye and pulled the young wolf against her. "I got you." she mumbled against Skye's head, closing her eyes, keeping the pain from her voice back as she comforted the young wolf.
In the end, Skye could have strangled Coulson and Jemma, and she was sure that May shared the same sentiment. She couldn't believe that Coulson thought leave two very distraught soulmates alone was a good idea, in fact it went against SHIELD protocol.
Having one too many similar instances of one soulmate dying and trying to spare their soulmate the pain of experiencing them die by knocking them out or running away, SHIELD put in a protocol that stated that when two soulmates were in close proximity to each other and one was dying, there should always be one agent to watch over them to ensure nothing drastic happened.
Like jumping out of a plane to save your soulmate and your team.
Poor Leo did not even stand a chance, he was too focused on trying to find a solution, to find a cure for the love of his life that he didn't even notice the change in Jemma's body language. Her thoughts carefully shielded so that he would not see it coming.
Skye thought Leo's initial response to Jemma contacting the virus had been heartbreaking – nothing prepared her for this. The wolf within Leo howled in agony, a ferocious snarl and frantic attempts to do something along with his normal thoughts causing a delayed reaction to everything as he momentarily lost the knowledge of how to put on a parachute. The way he disregarded everything, ready to spill their secret within seconds to save Jemma.
The pack could not have been more lucky with the way Leo's brain seemed to entangle and confuse his thoughts.
Skye was also grateful that everyone was so preoccupied with Jemma jumping out the plane, Leo trying to jump out a plane and Ward actually jumping out the plane, no one noticed the way Skye had fallen to her knee's – eyes glazed over as she tried to fight Leo's instincts soaring through her own body, the emotions too much to contain within himself that he was passing onto the nearest pack member.
Skye remembered the way May knelt down next to her, her own eyes frantic at the thought of losing three of her pups in a single instance.
"Come on Skye, up you get. You're okay, you're just receiving too much information from Leo. It's okay, just let it wash over you, don't think about it too much. It's just like a wave, crashing against your feet, acting like it is going to cause you to fall but really it's just passing through and around you." May had whispered to her frantically, pushing for Skye to return to normal.
It had taken a few minutes and many, many soothing words but Skye finally felt like she could breath again and struggled to her feet. She flung her arms around May, holding onto her for a few seconds before letting go.
"Let's go see them." Skye had mumbled, walking towards the cargo bay, brushing off Leo's emotions and trying to pretend that she wasn't emotionally invested in them as much as she was.
Thankfully the day had ended with Simmons being safe, even with the stupid, stupid risk that she took. Skye was still angry at her and mainly on Fitz's behalf. She couldn't bring herself to look at Jemma just yet as she knew that she would scream at the woman for what she put Fitz through, but she knew that it wasn't Jemma's fault. Any one of them would have done exactly the same thing, let themselves die so that the rest of the pack could live.
"Let's get some sleep, Skye." May said quietly, lying down on the bed next to her youngest pup, "there is no point of going over everything in your head like this. This will happen constantly in this pack. Natasha and Clint go on life or death missions on a weekly basis. Maria deals with hundreds of terrorist plots and negotiations that puts her life on the line on a daily basis."
"It's too much." Skye whispered back, fear clouding her voice. "I get that we deal with dangerous situations on a daily basis, but Leo's emotions – it was so raw and painful, I didn't know what to do with them. We're put in dangerous situations but never where a soulmate is actively dying. At least not since I've joined the pack." She rambled quietly.
May sighed and pulled her closer, the young wolf was spending more and more time with her. Skye had shared her bed more times in the last few months than half the pack have in the last few years. The small wolf was slowly reawakening her wolf's instincts, those annoying instincts that came with being the alpha's mate of wanting to make sure the young were ok. She knew Natasha got them frequently and the woman had no problem smothering her pack in love when the feeling struck, but ever since Bahrain, May felt like she had lost those instincts, lost the ability to care for her pack. Yet this silly pup and her unwavering hope was bringing everything back.
She pressed her face into Skye's hair, breathing in her scent, feeling the young woman shift in her grasp and her cold nose pressing against her neck.
"You smell good." Skye mumbled.
"I know." May replied.
"I want to see Leo and Jemma." Skye continued.
"I know." May repeated, by god did she know. She wanted to find Leo and pull him close and never let go. The pup was always finding trouble since joining the bus, both him and Skye. They were like trouble magnets. May pressed a kiss to Skye's head. "We need to leave them be for tonight, tomorrow, when we are at the base resupplying we can spend some time with them away from Coulson and Ward. In a few days time we are due at The Hub, we can be us without having to pretend" May soothed.
"Tomorrow is a long time away."
"It is."