NOTE: So, hey guys! Look, another chapter! Whilst I was writing this chapter, I realised that I haven't been including things that I've been wanting to in this fic by accident. So just to confirm, each wolf has enhanced abilities, such as strength and hearing. Most of the time the tone it down to appear normal. They also have enhanced ability to heal but again, they've got to appear normal so they've learned how control the healing but most of the time they use a silver paste to prevent their cuts from healing at an enhanced rate (this part has purposely not been introduced yet but I thought I'd put it here just in case)

Also, when I first started writing this fic, I was really going with the plan of how the show would change if they were wolves, which is why it's been sticking to the shows so much, especially the last two chapters. Slowly, but surely, the differences are starting to come through. But I'm sorry if you're annoyed by the basic recap of episodes!

LASTLY! (because even I got confused when writing the fic) Here are the packs so far!

Peggy (head alpha)

Natasha (alpha) - Maria (beta) - May

Victoria - Kara - Luke

Jayden - James - Jake

Tobias - William - Lexi

(honestly the other packs don't really matter much and I kinda wish I only stuck to the two packs but eh, what can you do except kill them off)

Thank you for reading and please share your thoughts in the comments about this chapter! I would love to read them

Operation: Shadows

Chapter 16

Maria

May 23rd 2004

It has been a few weeks since Maria's mini-meltdown and she was starting to feel more like herself. It took sometimes adjusting to having Melinda in the pack, but it worked. Sort of.

Maria was back to arguing with Natasha a lot but the main source of her irritation was May. May would often just smirk at her whenever Natasha listened to her over Maria. Other times May would give Maria an order, which Maria would often ignore as she was the beta, not May but Natasha would then order Maria to do it anyway.

It was frustrating, but Maria tried to not let it get to her. Peggy would often talk Maria down when she was angry to the point of harm. She tried to explain to Peggy the mess that was in her head but it was impossible and often ended with Maria punching walls again.

The constant flux of emotions, always dependant on her relationship with Natasha. It was driving her insane. The only thing Maria could think to resolve the issue was to fling herself into her work again and avoid the pack where she could.

Thankfully, work was keeping her busy. There had been an influx of cases were bodies were turning up mutilated, all in a 50 mile radius of where they put the failed subjects of Operation: Shadows. It was worrying to see but Maria couldn't figure out why they were attacking these people, there was nothing in common between these cases.

Fury said they would keep an eye on it but as there was no definitive evidence that it was the failed subjects, the pack were to leave it alone for the time being. No point in revealing them to the world too soon, he would rather keep the pack as a ghost story.

Currently, Maria was sitting in Fury's office looking through a list of agents to be the next candidates to undergo the transformation. Maria almost wanted to scowl at the candidates. She did not particularly want to have an intimate connection with any of these people and she doubted Natasha and May would either.

"Why isn't Barton on this list?" She questioned her superior.

"Now not the time. Based on what Peggy has told me about that packs dynamics, now would not be the right time to include a previous close relationship."

Maria bristled at his words. "What exactly are you implying?"

Fury regarded her carefully, "I'm not implying anything, agent. Since you were turned, you've been unstable, the only time you're seem like your usual self is at work."

Maria bared her teeth, it annoyed her to no end that Fury and Peggy were talking behind her back.

"That." Fury started, pointing to Maria's face, "is why we're talking about you. Peggy was concerned that if I tried to added anyone else to the pack too soon, it could potentially tear apart your pack."

Maria paused, before sighing, feeling slightly defeated. Fury had a point, Maria had no control over her emotions right now and was often giving into her new instincts. Adding Barton right now, the first person to really get to know the Black Widow, could potentially send Maria over the edge.

Fuck, Maria didn't even know where that edge was right now.

"You need rest." Fury commented, giving her a strange look.

"I'm rested enough."

"Then why do you look like shit?"

"Thanks, Sir." Maria replied sarcastically, standing up. She really wasn't in the mood to deal with this right now. "Hartley. She would good be a pick for my pack."

"Go see your pack, Hill. Peggy's told me enough about the bond to know that your grumpiness is a side effect of not seeing them."

"You're not usually this caring." Maria grumbled, folding her arms.

"You're not usually this whiny." Fury snarked back. "Go. That's an order. I need my Deputy Director back to normal as soon as possible to help run this shit show and so we can pick the other candidates."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Maria stood, stretching her body out. Pick the candidates had been the last task on their very, very long list of things that needed to be discussed for today. It was already 11pm and Maria knew that the best choice for her would be to just go to the den like Fury instructed.

"I want a hundred push ups for your insolence, Agent Hill." Fury called to her as she left.

"I'll have it on your desk by tomorrow morning." Maria retorted, "sir." she added cheekily.

Maria could feel Fury rolling his eye at her as she left. Maria smirked, feeling a little better after their verbal banter. She knew Fury was right, she should spend some time with the pack to get rid of these mood swings and headaches.

It didn't take long for Maria to reach her destination. She almost smiled when she saw that the corridor lights were already on, they were usually only switch on when they detected movement. The pack had it on for her.

"Hey."

Maria smiled softly when she saw Natasha appear.

"You didn't think I was going to let you walk these corridors alone, did you?"

"It's been months since the attack." Maria reminded the alpha.

"And yet," Natasha said, moving to Maria, lacing their fingers together, "you're still trembling."

Maria tried to tug her hand away from Natasha, annoyed that she read her so easily. "I'm not."

"You are and it's okay." Natasha reminded her, tightened her grip on Maria's hand. Natasha stopped them in the middle of the corridor and pushing Maria against the wall and pressing her nose against the crook of her neck. Maria paused, taken back by Natasha initiating the affection.

She brought her hand up and threaded her hand through Natasha hair, gripping gently at the base of her head. Natasha nip softly at Maria's neck, causing a small groan to fall from her lips. She pushed Natasha's head more firmly against her neck. Maria wanted something more, although she wasn't sure what.

"I missed you." Natasha mumbled, "why did you stay away so long?"

"I didn't want to get in the way of the happy couple." Maria replied evenly, removing her hand from Natasha's hair.

Natasha let out a whine, pressing herself further against Maria. "I thought we put this behind us?"

"We did. I just wanted to give you guys space."

"It's been over two weeks since you last visited. That's a ridiculous amount of time to be away from the pack." Natasha chided softly.

Maria sighed, she knew Natasha was right. "I'm sorry. You know how I can be."

Natasha lifted her head and peck Maria on the lips. "You don't have to apologise. I get you, we're connected." She teased, gently reminding Maria of a previous conversation.

"Peggy was right, you two really do enjoy having intimate moments in the corridors." May smirked from the doorway.

Maria snarled at the other woman for interrupting their moment. That ugly feeling that Maria had been trying to ignore for weeks now, reared it's ugly head. She tried so hard to push it down, pretend that she didn't feel this way. That she didn't want to just beat May to a pulp and, and bite down.

Maria shoved Natasha away from her and lunged at May. She was going to make the older agent eat her words and submit to her.

"May! Don't fight her, just submit."

Maria almost wanted to turn around and smack some sense into Natasha. She wasn't going to accept a simple submission from May, it wouldn't be genuine. Maria made a swipe for May's neck, only managing to clip her shoulder as May moved swiftly away from her.

"Did you forget who trained you?" May taunted, sweeping Maria's leg, but she easily dodge by jumping.

Maria simply snarled in reply and went back to attacking. Maria was constantly on the offensive, with May dodging with that infuriating smirk of hers. Maria was going to wipe that stupid smirk off her face. The two continued fighting for several minutes, Maria pushing May into the common area of the den. It had much more room for Maria to move around in and for her to take control of the fight.

May has already received the first couple of dosages of the serum which meant she had some enhanced strength and speed, but it was nothing compared to the strength Maria had.

"You know, if you wanted to make her submit, you're doing a poor job of it." Peggy called, watching the fight with amusement.

"You're encouraging this?" Natasha exclaimed, worry all over her face.

Peggy gave a snort. "You must not remember then."

"Remember what?"

"You did the exact same thing Maria's doing. So did Victoria, Toby and Jayden. You all tried to beat me into submission so you could be the top alpha. You all failed miserably. I guess you all must have forgotten because not a single one of you has brought it up and each of the beta's are going through the same thing."

"Wait what?"

"Kara has been fighting with Luke and James has been fighting. The only reason William hasn't been fighting with Lexi is because they are soulmates. For once, I don't believe this is a side effect of Maria's transformation, this is just the usual pack thing because you've all forgotten one thing."

"What?" Natasha asked again, trying not to show the confusion that she felt.

"You haven't marked anyone. The only reason you alpha's aren't feeling the agitation that the beta's are feeling is because you are pushing it all onto them."

"Marked." Natasha repeated softly, her fingers slowly tracing the bite mark on her neck. She felt like an idiot. It wasn't often that she forgot something so important. In the early days of the pack, they fought non-stop. Until one day it hit a boiling point and they all turned on Peggy. After they were marked a sense of peace went through them all and they stopped fighting.

Well, they stopped trying to kill each other.

"I forgot about that."

"I'm not surprised, I hit you on the head very hard. Repeatedly." Peggy laughed, watching as Maria continued to fight May. "She toying with her."

Natasha watched them as well. The smug look May had on her face at the start of the fight had been switch to a concentrated frown as sweat dripped down her face. It was interesting to see May hold up so well against an enhanced being but Natasha doubted Maria was using her strength.

Maria smirked as she finally flipped May onto her back and straddled her hips. Maria was using her enhanced strength to keep May down on the ground. May struggled underneath Maria, her hands punching Maria across the face but Maria just smirked as she let her head follow the movement.

Maria slide down so that her chest was pressed firmly against May's and pinned her hands above her head with one hand.

"Easy." Maria murmured, her eyes taking in May's face.

May snarled at her, a weak animalistic snarl. Maria smirked at her again and used her free hand to force May's neck to the side and then, without hesitation, shot forward and sunk her teeth into May's neck. A moan of pleasure went through Maria and a feeling a peace taking over her.

"There we go. Maria should be feeling better shortly, although it may be best to try and move them" Peggy said.

"I don't think Maria wants to move and despite Melinda trying to pretend she hates it, she's loving this feeling." Natasha said, finally relaxing into the couch next to Peggy.

Peggy turned to look at the alpha next to her with an amused smile and pulled the smaller woman close to her, wrapping her in a hug. "You've changed so much since S.H.I.E.L.D brought you in. Who would have thought that all it took was changing your entire DNA so that you could change into a wolf and putting a very stubborn agent in your care."

"Haha, you're so funny." Natasha said dryly "Don't let the facade fool you, I'm still the monster the Red Room made me."

"I beg to differ. When you first came to us, you had no understanding of right and wrong and everything was about completing your mission. You were convinced love was for children and you couldn't even genuinely smile. Not to mention the look of horror in your eyes whenever you thought no one was looking." Peggy explained easily.

Natasha stiffened next to the alpha. It was always difficult to think how life used to be for and how much it changed since joining S.H.I.E.L.D. For the better, she always convinced herself. Sometimes it was difficult to believe that she deserved a second chance, thankfully, Clint was always there for her during those moments. Helping her to see how many people got a second chance with S.H.I.E.L.D and the good that they have done.

Natasha's thoughts were interrupted by two bodies falling onto the couch. Melinda was lying across all three of them with her head in Maria's lap. Maria had sat down on Natasha's free side and leaned into her.

"Now who's thinking too much?" Maria teased.

Natasha rolled her eyes at Maria. "In a better mood now that you've sunk your teeth into my soulmate?"

Maria gave a shrug, "Slightly. Would feel better if you done the same to me."

"Huh."

Maria avoided eye contact with her, her face going slightly red. Melinda gave a snort from where she was lying, her fingers threading with Maria's.

"I think Maria has a biting kink." She teased her former protégé.

"And just like that she's back to her usual self." Maria grumbled.

"Oh no, I'm not letting you out my grasp anytime soon, I'm riding on an amazing high right now." May smirked, leaning up and pressing her lips to Maria's. "You're mine." She whispered quietly.

For once, Maria didn't feel pissed off at that comment.

Skye

November 20th 2014

When Skye woke up, she woke up to a pleasant sting on her neck and a warm body pressed against her back. She stretched out with a groan, trying to remember what exactly happened the previous night, but her stretch didn't quite go to plan as a low growl sounded and the stinging sensation in her neck increased.

That's when Skye suddenly remembered what happened last night. Oh god.

Skye cringe when she remembered her utter meltdown to Maria and more importantly, what she screamed at her. She had been horrible to her, shouting words without considering how Maria might take them. She definitely had to make it up to Maria for her mistake.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled to the beta behind her.

The beta just rumbled in her reply, sinking her teeth deeper into Skye's neck, her arms wrapping tighter around Skye's waist.

"I shouldn't have shouted at you, you didn't deserve that." Skye continued, not bothering to move from the beta as she apologised. "Especially when you were just trying to help me. I'll make it up to you." Skye promised.

Maria hummed softly against her neck, clearly agreeing with that promise and loosen her grip on Skye a little.

"I thought it was supposed to be me who was blissed out after being marked?" Skye teased, moving the topic away from the heavy discussion and hopefully get Maria to let go because she needed the toilet.

Maria gave another rumble from the back of her throat, sensing that Skye wanted to move and pulled her tightly against her front.

'We are due back on the bus in about an hour. She needs get ready now or she will miss her ride back to the bus.' May informed them.

'I'll take her back.' Maria grumbled, unhappy with May ruining their moment.

'No,' was May's firm reply, shocking both Skye and Maria but it caused a rather interesting reaction from Maria and by interesting, Skye really meant terrifying and painful as a loud, yet muffled, snarl tore itself from Maria and her fingers digging into Skye.

'No?' Maria questioned angrily, 'you think you get to make the decisions when I'm involved?'

"Ow, ow, ow!" Skye complained, wriggling away from Maria and the growing anger between her and May.

'Enough, both of you.' Natasha snapped. 'May, really? Provoking Maria after she marked Skye? Don't you dare feel smug Maria Hill, you know better than to rise to the aggression at a perceived challenge. Why is it that Skye was the only one to behave?'

'To be fair, I did get all my aggression out last night' Skye quipped, trying to lighten the situation.

Thankfully though, Natasha jumping in when she did caused Maria and May to calm down. Although, Skye was confused why tempers were running high in the pack, last night Skye was the one going mental and this morning, Maria, May and Natasha all acted outwith their usual cool composures.

Maria finally let go of Skye, the feeling of her teeth leaving Skye's neck cause her to squirm. What a weird sensation that had been. Maria rolled onto her back and scowled at the celling.

"Sometimes I wish we could all live out in a cottage in the woods and didn't have to deal with all the bullshit." Maria sighed, flinging an arm across her face.

"No you don't, you love SHIELD almost as much as you love Sharon and Natasha." Skye joked, moving to rest her head on Maria's chest.

"True. I just wish that we didn't have to be separated so much. I don't like how you've been away from the pack so soon after shifting. You're actually the only person to do so and it's insane how much of an effect it is having on everyone" Maria replied, sliding her fingers through Skye's hair.

Skye gave a shrug, "it is what it is." She responded. There really wasn't much more she could say to that, as much as she would have loved being with everyone, SHIELD needed them elsewhere and as Skye would not have been here if it wasn't for SHIELD, the job comes first.

Maria let out another sigh, it was clear to Skye that she was having trouble with the thought of letting Skye go again. Skye felt bad for the beta, it must be tough. More often than not, Maria is the one that organises the missions for the packs and there is always the chance that they could be seriously injured or killed by these mission and if that happened, no doubt Maria would blame herself.

The worst part of it was that Skye couldn't reassure her that they were going to be fine. SHILED 616's missions were slowly becoming more and more centred around enhanced beings, which meant that wolves were starting to lose their edge against their opponents.

"We'll be fine, we're a stubborn pack, we refuse to die." Skye said jokingly, trying to reassure Maria, her hand reaching up to pull Maria's arm away from her face. Maria scrunched up her face, but didn't make any attempt to put her arm back in place.

"Ain't that the truth. All of you, so stubborn." Maria mumbled back eventually, but it seemed to have done the trick as she sat up, pulling Skye with her.

Skye gave her a soft smile and quick peck on the lips before she got up and started getting ready for the day. There was no point in making May more annoyed than she already was, especially as Skye was the one to live with her currently, not Maria.

"I didn't do it on purpose." Maria whined from the bed as she watched Skye get ready.

Skye rolled her eyes, "I know." Skye looked at the shirt that she worse last night and the shirt that she brought to change into, she then looked up into the mirror to look at the state of her neck.

What a bloody mess. Literally.

Skye glanced back at the sheets and saw that they were stained with blood from where she had slept all night. She let out at sigh and gave Maria a pointed look, who just looked sheepish in response.

"I'll just strip the bed and leave a note." Maria said, finally getting up and grabbing her clothes.

Skye sighed again and went back to her dilemma. There wasn't enough time to go for a shower and get all the grime off herself, which meant that she will have to wash her neck with a cloth. Even after cleaning the mark, Skye could still see the deep, red bite mark that was not going to disappear anytime soon and both her tops showed the mark.

"Great." She mumbled sarcastically, how the hell was she going to hide this till it healed. She turned and gave Maria a glare. This was all her fault.

Maria, however, did not look apologetic in the slightest. Instead, she was standing there with a self-satisfied smirk on her face as she regarded Skye's neck.

"I like it, looks good on you." Maria said, her smirk unwavering.

"It's not funny, how am I meant to explain this to Ward or Coulson?" Skye asked, annoyed as she pulled on her clean shirt over her head.

Maria gave her a shrug but seemed to take pity on her and held out her own leather jacket, with had a high enough collar to cover Skye's mark. "Here wear this, it will cover my mark, though I do feel like you should flaunt it." Maria teased her as Skye grabbed the jacket.

"Yeah, I'm sure would love to hear about another woman walking around with your mark and your scent all over them." Skye joked, knowing that Sharon would join Maria within a heartbeat to cover Skye in their scent.

"Hush you. You know Sharon would do the same." Maria chided, walking closer to Skye, checking that her jacket covered her. "Plus, this jacket does look good on you and is much easier to explain that you purchased a new jacket than the big bite mark on your neck."

Skye gave a hum and a nod, agreeing with Maria. Their hotel was situated near some clothing store and Skye was complaining about needing a new jacket so it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to say that she woke up early and purchased the jacket. Well, waking up early might cause them to be suspicious, or maybe, just maybe Coulson and Ward won't care or notice.

Maria gave a snort, "they are men. They might not even comment on it."

The two woman continued to get ready for their day, Skye just giving herself a quick wipe down to make herself look presentable, promising herself that she will take a shower later in the day to get the feeling of blood off of her neck.

Maria gave a soft sigh as she checked the time, she could feel May's impatience as they finished getting ready. She wondered if Natasha had managed to sooth her mate or not before May returned to the bus. Although, Maria had no doubts that May would be nothing but professional, but, she was worried how she'd treat Skye.

Fitz and Simmons were used to May's attitude after Bahrain, but poor Skye hasn't experienced that yet. With May being "high" on the feeling of a new pack mate, especially a young one, her instincts had taken over to take care of Skye and out ruled any other feelings that she may have had. Now though, the feeling was starting to wear off and Skye was starting to experience the damage that Bahrain did and the sudden change of attitudes without the majority of the pack beside her.

It made Maria hesitant to send Skye back to the bus.

'You guys baby her too much. Natasha was just having the same thoughts.'

Maria blinked. It wasn't often that Clint interrupted her thoughts, besides, Maria thought she was hiding them from the pack.

'You were hiding them from Mel. Your worry was affecting Natasha, which is also affecting Sharon by the way. The three of you are worrying too much about something that can't be helped. This is what Mel is like now and it's something that Skye has to get used to, like the rest of us did.' Clint reminded her, his voice a little on the harsh side.

Maria looked down briefly before looking over at Skye. She knew Clint was correct. It had been a big adjustment for the pack after Bahrain. May was just gone, everything that made her May had just disappeared. She become non-responsive and when she did show some feelings, it was anger and sorrow. Unfortunately, this meant that Natasha was angry and the anger was often directed at Maria.

Maria was the only one in the pack who could handle it and she gladly accepted the anger that Natasha directed at her as it meant it wasn't direct to May or the others. Sharon, on the other hand, hated it and fought against Natasha frequently, which meant Maria and Clint were constantly separating the two.

The fighting in the pack also result in Izzy and Fitz staying with Victoria's pack more often than not. Bobbi drifted away from the, going on mission after mission. Seeing the way the soulmates and pack mates were fighting, it made her scoff at the idea of pre-destined love and married a man called Hunter.

Maria was still unsure if Hunter had a soul mark or not, but thankfully, the two argued so much and gotten a divorce a year later.

It took a while, but the pack managed to adjust to the change in dynamics and worked on mending their relationships with each other.

Maria gave out another sigh. Clint was right, this was just another hurdle that they had to overcome. Skye set off some weird, protective instincts inside of her. She blamed it on the look in Skye's eyes when they first met, she had looked so lost and scared out her mind but had tried to cover it up with bravo. Maria and Natasha also knew that she had a rough childhood from the scars on her body.

"What's up?" Skye asked, a small smile on her face.

"Nothing." Maria said, giving a stained smile back at Skye. "You should head downstairs, Coulson and May will be waiting for you before heading back to the bus." She informed the younger wolf.

Skye pouted at her, moving swiftly to Maria and placing a soft kiss on her cheek and gave her a quick hug. "Okay, I guess I'll see you soon?" She questioned.

"Of course, I'll even make sure to bring Bobbi." Maria promised, a soft smile on her face at Skye's actions. Maria shouldn't worry, Skye can look after herself and May...May wouldn't direct her anger at Skye, she wouldn't do that to the young pup.

But it didn't mean that Shield 616 weren't uncovering some concerning situations, coupled with what she and Fury are also uncovering. It did not paint a pretty picture.

Skye grinned at her. "You're the best," she tossed over her shoulder as she picked up her bag, walking to the door.

"Hey, Skye." Maria called, watching Skye stop to give her a curious look. "I'm going to send you some details I want you to look into during your spare time, okay?"

Skye gave her a cheeky one fingered salute. "Yes Ma'am," and with that, Skye left Maria standing alone in a room, worry gnawing at her chest.

'You're worrying over nothing Maria. She'll be fine.' Clint said, trying to sooth her and most likely Natasha as well. 'She'll look after herself and heck, she'll probably look after May. That kid is stubborn as fuck and won't allow May to distance herself from her.'

'That's not what I'm worried about.' Maria thought back.

'Then what are you worried about?' came several voices. Seems like the majority of the pack were curious about the situation. She could feel Sharon's worry slowly building and as much as she wanted to reassure her and tell them about her suspicions, she couldn't.

'I can't say.' Maria said and cut herself off from the pack completely, intending on avoiding Natasha as she left.

Maria had work to do.

November 26th 2014

It had been just under a week after the Berserker staff incident and the team was en-route for another mission. Skye was currently in Coulson's office as he was giving her a one on one brief regarding the mission whilst May was informing the others.

"So, this should be an interesting case. A person with telekinesis?" Skye queried, nosy buried in the tablet as she soaked in as much information regarding the case as possible.

"We haven't had a confirmed case of telekinesis before and I doubt we have one this time. Maybe this person will shake up the status quo." Coulson said, "besides, this is where we come in. We arrive at the scene, meet the person and asses the situation, check if they have a genuine power. If so, we added them to the index list. We call it the Index Asset Evaluation and Intake."

"Index Asset Evaluation and Intake?" Skye replied back in disbelief, scrunching up her face. Not a very nice way of putting it. "I'm sure that, along with the S.H.I.E.L.D vehicles and men in black suit, makes them feel right at home. You should change the name, make it the welcome wagon, a small change but makes it seem less...robotic."

Coulson gave her a wide smile. "I want you to pay close attention to this, Skye. I get the feeling that, one day, you will be really good at this stuff."

Skye mirrored his smile, an unknown feeling rising in her at his hopes for her. "Like I said, I'd change the name. Let's see what Hannah Hutchins's got in store for us."

Coulson had Skye staying in the car whilst they tried to help Hannah with her powers. Skye scowled in the back seat as they left.

"How the hell am I supposed to pay close attention to this if I can't even see how they make initial contact with a potential powered person?" Skye grumbled to herself. Despite her sulking, she was watching the scene as closely as possible. Seeing how everyone in this bible loving town easily turned on one person without any solid proof as horrifying and brought back bad memories.

Growing up around nuns had really done a number on Skye, along with the other children in the orphanage. Skye had it worse off than most, mainly due to how many foster homes she had been to. The nuns were already harsh, but become harsher on Skye to "fix" people claimed to love God, spreading the message that he loved everyone yet treating his creation so harshly? It was bullshit. They wanted to make her a better child, more obedient so that someone would adopt her.

Never happened of course.

Skye sighed, focusing on the situation again to clear her head of such thoughts. Now was not the time to dwell on the past. She watched as Hannah looked frightened out her mind and Skye could hear her begging Coulson to take her away and mumbling stuff about the Devil punishing her.

It made Skye feel bad for her. Having new powers thrusted upon you can be scary, Skye this first hand. It was often difficult to control and over-whelming, thankfully for Skye, she had Natasha and Maria minimising the impact of her new abilities. The two had already spoken to Skye about it, saying that they were going to block the majority of her new abilities, slowly releasing them to allow Skye to easily adjust to them.

It wasn't an easy task apparently, it took up a lot of concentration and energy. Since Natasha and Maria were on less mission nowadays since the Avengers, they were the ones to manage Skye's abilities and occasionally, when Natasha had to go on a mission, Izzy or Clint would take over, helping to hold them back.

Skye couldn't imagine having to deal with the full power of her abilities without any outside help and could only imagine what Hannah must be going through. Especially with an angry mob on her. Skye watched as the crowd got more and more out of control, the impact it was having on Hannah was obvious.

She looked over at her team, watching as they seemed to be at a loss. They needed to get a control over the crowd, controlling the crowd meant calming Hannah down which would decrease the chance of any accidental outburst of power – if TV shows are to be believed.

She watched as stuff started getting flung at Hannah and that's when it happened, the static cop car when hurling towards the crowd. Skye shot out the car as the situation quickly escalated, the crowd becoming rabid in their intent to hurt Hannah.

Looking at Hannah though, the absolute hysteria on her face as well as the shock and confusion, Skye wasn't sure if it was her that was causing this. Unfortunately, they couldn't be sure until they were back on the bus and ran some tests on the woman.

Skye pushed back some of the crowd, a hint of her true strength showing as some people went tumbling to the ground. Thankfully, she could play that off as having the element of surprise rather than Skye having enhanced strength.

"Back off!" She snapped at them, trying to do some crowd control. She could hear that others trying to get the police officer to lower their gun that they had levelled at Hannah. The world really wasn't ready for enhanced, despite people's positive opinions of the Avengers.

Then, May shot the woman. Skye stood stunned as she stared at the scene. May always said that she would take a gun if she needed one, did this situation really warrant that? Her face twisted as she looked up at the senior members of her team, her mouth ready to snap at them.

May however, turned to her with a glare, a glare that screamed 'don't you dare' and Skye promptly snapped her mouth shut. "Let's go."

"Was that really necessary?" Coulson questioned, he wasn't angry but rather, curious about May's decision.

"The situation was escalating. We need to take her away. Now." May commanded, holstering her gun.

It didn't take long till they were back on the bus with Hannah in their interrogation room which had been modified with a magnetic shielding, which would prevent the woman's powers from affecting everyone outside the room.

Coulson had made the decision to take Hannah to the Fridge for further testing and for her own benefit, as if she did have powers, she would need to learn to control them in a stable environment which S.H.I.E.L.D could provided.

Supposedly.

If Skye were to base it off her own experience, she wouldn't exactly call S.H.I.E.L.D stable. She was changed on a whim and has since been travelling across the world without proper time to adjust to the change and learn how to cope with her enhanced abilities. Instead, they were controlling her abilities and slowly allowing her to have access to the power that she held as a way of her learning her abilities. It was certainly one way to help learn control, but was it really the best way?

Skye gave a shrug at the orders, noticing the way May was watching her carefully as Coulson was dishing out the orders. May was probably listening into her thoughts. Skye still didn't quite have the ability to shield her thoughts from others like Bobbi and May could do and was apparently constantly broadcasting them to the pack.

Thankfully, the pack were used to it and had learn to block it out like background noise.

Whilst Coulson and May were questioning Hannah, Skye was standing in the lab with Fitz and Simmons, watching it unfold. Skye just thought it was a sad situation that Hannah ended up in.

"So sad." Skye mumbled, voicing her thoughts aloud.

Jemma hummed her agreement as she and Fitz were monitoring Hannah's vitals. "So sad and unexpectedly normal. All her vitals are well within the range of, well, of someone who is very upset."

Both Simmons and Fitz stood up in sync, sighing as they looked at the machine. "It's difficult to look for abnormalities when you don't know exactly what you are looking for." Jemma continued, frowning slightly.

"Situation probably isn't helped by the fact that May is in there with her, the woman who shot her." Skye grumbled, still upset at how May handled that.

"She doesn't know that." Fitz said, turning to look at her, a frown forming on his face as well. "Hannah had her back turned to May. Besides, it was the only logical thing to do. A car was sent crashing into the bystanders and whilst they were angry, they hadn't done anything wrong."

"Except turned their back on their friend." Skye snapped back "There was no need for the aggression that they showed. Especially that cop! He turned his weapon on her, he's supposed to protect people."

"He was." Jemma replied back quietly, wary of Skye's angry mood.

"Skye." Fitz warned, a unusually stern look on his face. "What's got you so worked up over this?"

Skye sighed and ran her hand through her hair. It was difficult to explain. It always annoyed her when people say they love God and God's creations and then turn on someone as soon as they differ from their perceived vision of God's creation. Just like those stupid nuns.

"Nothing, sorry." Skye said, giving them a small smile 'Must be a backlash of the Berserker staff.' She thought to Fitz.

He continued to stare at her for a second before nodding in understanding. The two of them turned back to their devices.

After a few moments of silence, Fitz spoke. "You know, Simmons and I were talking about it earlier. You never went to the academy." He said, a sly grin coming over his face.

Skye scowled at him half-heartedly " yeah, yeah, I never went to your stupid S.H.I.E.L.D Hogwarts. Whatever."

Jemma grinned as she turned to face Skye. "Which means..."

"You never experienced first years pranks!" Both of them exclaimed with glee.

"You know, telling me that you are going to pull a prank kind of takes away from it." Skye replied back with a roll of her eyes.

Fitz scoffed "maybe if we were amateur pranksters, but we've studied under the tutelage of Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff, notorious for breaking Director Fury's and Deputy Direct Hill's spirits. We could tell you exactly what we are going to do and you'd never see it coming!"

Skye smirked at them, "alright, give me your worst!"

The three of them walked back to the holotable and Fitz uploaded the data from the particle accelerator.

"Here we go, uploading data from the particle accelerator." Fitz said, watching the holotable create a replica.

"Hopefully we will be able to recreate the explosion and find out what caused it." Simmons explained as she and Fitz began to examine the holographic accelerator.

Skye grinned at the image in front of her, it always amazed her that they had this sort of technology available. If you could afford it, of course. Ever since joining the bus, she has been eager to try it out but there had never been an opportunity before. Reaching out slowly, she easily picked a piece off the holographic accelerator.

"So cool." She mumbled.

"No!" Fitz snapped at her, smacking her hand away from the table. "Bad Skye! No touchy. You need at least two semester of holographic engineering before you get to touch this!"

Simmons tsk-ed in the background. "Honestly Skye, touching things in our lab can be dangerous," she chided.

"Alright, alright. Jeeze, I get it. Got to go to the stupid American Hogwarts before touching your dumb machine." Skye complained, annoyed that they told her off like that. "I'll go do some actual work on my amazing, non-holographic laptop."

Skye continued to grumble as she left the science couple to their work, feeling rather put out my their actions. "Stupid FitzSimmons and their billion degrees." She continued to grumble as she went to find May and Coulson.

Skye checked the security systems to see where her superiors were and found Coulson and May in the cage with Hannah. She watched as the two of them were gently trying to coax some answers out of the woman regarding the events surrounding her.

Skye titled her head as she watched May being so gentle with this person, it wasn't very often that you saw this side of May outside the pack.

"You guys won't believe me if I told you." Hannah whimpered.

May crouched down, making sure that she was on Hannah's level and keeping eye contact, a soft look on her face "Try me."

Hannah paused before giving them a forlorn look. "I'm being punished by God. He's abandoned me for what I've done, he's no longer protecting me. This is why this is happening."

"Protecting you from what?" Coulson questioned, watching Hannah carefully for any signs of telekinesis or deceit.

"Demons, sir, I'm being haunted by demons." Hannah sobbed, looking dejected.

"Poor Hannah." Skye murmured, turning away from the interrogation and looking more into Hannah's past. It wouldn't be long till Coulson called a team meeting regarding Hannah and what they've all learned so far.

Skye was in Coulson's office after the brief team meeting. Coulson was currently on the stance that Hannah was a danger to them all, but Skye thought otherwise. Hannah's past indicated that she was an extremely empathetic person and someone who would go to extreme lengths to help others. Skye didn't believe that Hannah was capable of causing harm and that she had nothing to do with the explosion of the particle accelerator.

"Please let me go talk to her, be her friend, help her through this, sir." Skye begged.

"Can't do that, Skye. She's dangerous" Coulson dismissed.

"She's not!" Skye snapped, "she's nice, overly nice. So nice it makes me wanna barf. The woman didn't become a safety inspector because she's detail orientated, she did it because-"

"She genuinely cares." Coulson finished.

"Exactly, and someone like Hannah, someone that nice, she's devastated by what's happened. Look at her, she's spouting nonsense about God punishin-"

"People believe what they need to believe in order to justify their actions." May interjected, crossing her arms.

"Is that how you justify your shoot first policy?" Skye snapped again, annoyed with the older wolf.

'Watch your tone.' May warned her, a soft growl erupting from her throat.

"At least-" Skye started, throwing a scowl at May. "-let me fix that damage."

May took a step towards Skye, causing Coulson to tense up as he prepared for the worst. "Until we know more, she stays lock up and you stay away."

Skye went to snap back at her, but cocked her head to the side as she suddenly heard an additional person breathing. What the? 'Do you hear that.' Skye asked May.

May tensed up, her eyes glanced around the room as she tried to look for what was causing the sound. 'Yes. I don't see anyone. There's a new scent in here, can you smell it?'

'Not really, but now that you mentioned it, I can kinda smell it.' Skye replied quickly. 'Coulson looks suspicious.'

May didn't respond as she let out a verbal huff and turned towards Coulson, waiting for him to dismiss Skye's requests. Suddenly, one of Coulson's trinkets fell from the shelf. All three of them looked at the fallen objected.

'May, do you-'

"Huh." Coulson mused "I thought that was glued down."

'Skye, Fitz. Be on guard, we are not alone.' May warned. Any tension between May and Skye instantly disappeared at the new threat. The instinct to protect each other took priority.

Coulson turned to look at Skye, a small, proud smile on his face. "You're asking the right questions, but at them moment, that's all you get to do."

Skye got the feeling that she was dismissed. She pushed down the need to act out against the older agent, she was not a teenager anymore, she was an adult. With responsibilities. Responsibilities sucked.

Skye gave a grunt at the plane slammed into the ground. Despite May and Ward's best effort, the landing the had been rough. The straps to her chair had painfully dug into her chest, make it, briefly, uncomfortable to take a breath.

'You okay?' May questioned, her concern flooding through the pack bond. 'Fitz, are you and Simmons okay?'

'I'm alright, you?' Skye answered and unfastened her seat belt.

'Did the plane crash? I'm locked in a supply cupboard?' Fitz replied back, 'Simmons seems fine, I don't feel anything out of the ordinary from her.'

'I'll get Ward to go search for you once we conveniently realise you are missing.' May replied. 'Stay sharp pups, we don't know whats going on. This is unusual, even for S.H.I.E.L.D.'

"Let's go meet with the others and see what's going on." May said, taking control of the situation. Skye and Ward nodded as they followed the senior agent to meet up with Coulson and Simmons. As they were discussing their plan and Simmons giving them information that it really wasn't Hannah that was causing this, but Tobias Ford, a factory worker that died in the explosion.

Tobias claimed that he was stuck in between Earth and a place which he described as 'Hell'. It seemed that the particle accelerator that they were working on exploded and during that explosion, it caused a tear between worlds. It seemed that it was only plausible due to the recent events in Greenwich and the conversion of the nine realms. Honestly, the whole thing kinda went over Skye's head.

As Coulson was assigning roles to everyone, Simmons pretended to look around confused.

"Wait, where's Fitz?" She questioned, peeking around Skye.

"I thought he was with you?" Coulson replied back, his brow furrowing slightly.

"I thought he was with you guys." Simmons countered, panic slowly spreading across her face.

"Ward, take Simmons with you and go find Fitz. We need to know why the plane fell out of the sky and we need it back up and running as soon as possible. May, is the cage still protected?" Coulson said, taking control of the situation.

Ward and Simmons quickly left as May replied, "the majority of our power is keeping the cage powered and sealed shut. Hannah will be safe in there. The rest of the power is providing us with emergency lighting."

"See if you can get the plane up and running, I'm going to try and make contact with HQ."

"Can I go tell Hannah the somewhat good news?" Skye interrupted, looking pleadingly at Coulson.

"Good news?"

"Yeah, the fact she is not the one causing this but instead some lunatic that can dematerialise." Skye responded.

Coulson looked at May, who shrugged in response. She had more to worry about that Skye's newest fascination of making sure this woman was okay.

"Alright, go for it. Call if you need back up." Coulson instructed.

Skye gave a nod and headed to the cage to break the news to Hannah.

It wasn't long after informing Hannah that was not crazy or had suddenly developed telekinesis that May appeared. She gave Skye a rather searching look, as tho she was unsure of what to say to the girl. Skye wondered how much of her conversation with Hannah did May hear.

"Coulson needs you to go help with communication." May instructed softly, crouching down to Skye's level.

She could see the emotion swarming in Skye's eyes, the way her eyes did not quite meet her own told May a lot about the state of Skye's mind. After the berserker incident, the entire pack felt the effects of the staff with everyone becoming a bit more emotional and a bit more angry.

Fitz and Simmons were currently on a mission to prank Skye but were going about it the wrong way. Bobbi was using the angry in her interrogations that S.H.I.E.L.D currently had her doing, making even the strongest of agents feel faint. Izzy was arguing more publicly with Victoria. Clint was unable to say in work and headed home to his family and cut himself off from the pack.

Sharon was having a hard time under cover, thankfully, as she was undercover as a student doctor, she was using that as a good way to cover up the sudden need to hurt someone by breaking bones to allow them to reset. Maria and Natasha were surprisingly the only ones okay with the whole situation. That, or the two were off in their own wee world together, keeping things from the pack again.

"I'd rather stay here, if that's okay." Skye asked, all the fight and anger that she held to May had left her, leaving her feeling exhausted.

"Sorry kid, I can't let you" May mumbled. "I wasn't asking, Skye. Go to Coulson and help establish communication with HQ. That's an order."

Skye sighed but nodded her head. She stood up and made for Coulson's office. May quickly grabbed the girls arm and pulled her close. "Stay safe, pup."

Skye smiled tiredly at her before continuing her journey to Coulson's office. May sighed as she stood guard over the cage. Why can't these missions ever be simple?

Annoyance came flooding through the pack bond. 'Why does your team constantly get into the weirdest of situations?' Maria questioned.

'I'm wondering the same thing.'

Maria let out a huff of frustration. 'I can't even send back up, because we're not receiving any emergency signals from your team'

'Power out went out mid-air, we had to do an emergency landing.' Explained May, trying to sooth the beta.

'You did what?' Maria snapped

May winced, that was the wrong thing to say. The beta's anger and frustration was overpowering. Maybe Maria was not as unaffected as she thought.

'I didn't exactly plan for this to happen.' May defended.

'No of course you didn't. You just end up on these situations. I warned Fury! After everything we did, every questionable action we took to bring him back, we-' Maria cut herself off mid-rant and hid herself from the pack.

May winced at Maria's response. She understood where the beta was coming from, after everything the put Coulson through was for what? They should have convinced Coulson to retire or go back to being a handle for Strike team Delta. They could have done a number of different things than give him his own team to do under the radar missions.

May sighed once again, but focused on the mission at hand. They had to protect Hannah and figure out what they hell was going on with this Tobias Ford.

The mission was finally over. In the end, May was the one to save them from Tobias in a rather non-violent way, well once you discount the fact that Tobias tried to murder May with a wrench in order to protect Hannah. FitzSimmons were unsure exactly what happened to Tobias, only that they could find no trace of him anymore. They all silently chose to believe that he was dead rather than the alternative.

Skye left Ward after confirming that Hannah was okay and made her way to Coulson to see what he was up to after their mission. She saw him in the conference room, staring at the watch which was only one of twenty.

"Don't suppose Fitz could fix it?" Skye queried, sitting up on the holocom table.

"Nah, it's well and truly broken. But on the upside, you done well today." Coulson informed her. "I know that you've had your issues with May and I'm glad that you are questioning in the right places but you're also understanding now when to follow orders."

Skye flushed, looking at her feet. "Sometimes, she just gets on my nerves. The way she's so cold and acts like nothing matters. I don't understand." Skye replied, playing into the clueless new start opinion that Coulson held of her.

"She went through something traumatic." Coulson admitted. "We were on a mission, in Bahrain. We were... we were the Welcome Wagon, as you call it. We had reports of followers of a gifted individual and they were holding some of our guys and a civilian girl hostage. We were unsure of some many factors, I wanted to wait for back up, but we knew that we didn't have much time. May wanted to go in, so she did." Coulson walked around the table, sighing.

"May lost herself that day. I don't know what happened, or how she did it, but we managed to get all our agents out and the enemy force was crossed off. Whatever happened in there, May kept it to herself and closed everyone out." Coulson paused and looked at Skye again with his infamous small smiles.

"She used to be different. She was always quiet, but she was...warm. She pulled pranks, went off on her own and thought rules were meant to be broken. Sound familiar?"

Skye eyes widen, May pulling pranks? Skye knew that May was not always like this due to the packs fond memories of her, but they never went into detail, always just said that it was in the past and they have to accept May as she is now. "Rule breaker, huh? I don't know anyone like that on this team" Skye teased back. "Thanks for letting me know, sir. I guess I'll be more considerate in the future."

Coulson nodded at her, his smile still in place. "Right. Well, our mission is over and I believe Simmons has declared it board game night."

Skye laughed and agreed to game night. The two of them made their way to the common area to settle in for the night. Simmons greeted them warmly as they arrived, informing them that May was focusing on flying the plane due to upcoming stormy weather and Fitz was taking a nap after today's events.

"Just us four." She said pleasantly, setting up Scrabble.

"Scrabble?" Skye questioned, grinning as she leaned forward.

"Only one of the best games to keep your brain on its toes."

Skye groaned "My brain doesn't need to think anymore, it's all dead after today."

Simmons laughed as she finished setting up the board and they began their highly competitive game of scrabble. At one point, she heard someone creeping around near the bunks, she titled her head to get a better understanding of the sound.

It was May.

What the hell was she doing? Skye continued to focus on the sound of May moving, whilst trying to also focus on the game to make sure she didn't miss any cue's. It was much harder than the rest of the pack made it sound.

"Skye, you're turn." Simmons said, interrupting her train of thought.

Skye looked at the board and then looked at her letters. Damn it, nothing she could do, or could she? By the time Skye finally made a move, May was long gone from the bunks and she could no longer hear the older agent. She shrugged it off, May must have just been checking up on Fitz. It wasn't often that he went for a nap after a mission.

"There we go! Aglet." Simmons declared proudly.

"Nu-uh, that's not a word in our language!" Ward protested

"Our language, you mean the English language, first spoken in England?" Simmons teased back, looking far too proud of herself.

"I'm with Simmons on this one, it's a word. I only remember it because of that Phineas and Ferb episode which had a whole song about it" Skye laughed. That stupid song had been stuck in her head after she was given the rare treat of watching cartoons.

The sound of Fitz waking up with a groan distracted Skye from the conversation. She could hear his extreme confusion and outrage mumblings. She wondered what happened. Thankfully, it wasn't long till Fitz appear with half his face covered in cream.

"Alright, who did it?" He demanded. "The bunks should be off limits!" He turned around to face Simmons.

"Don't look at me, I didn't do it!"

Fitz turned to face Ward, "alright, well, Ward, I don't appreciate-"

Ward gave a snort, "wasn't me kid."

Coulson just stared at Fitz with an amused look on his face. Fitz spluttered at that before turning to his final option. "Okay, Skye then!"

Skye burst out laughing "Wasn't me! I've been with Coulson since the end of the mission."

"Well it was one of yous!" Fitz yelled, looking very put out with his cream covered face.

There was a paused, before they all burst out laughing. Skye now understood why May was sneaking around near Fitz's bunk. May pulled a prank again.

Maria

November 21st 2014

Maria sighed as she finally arrived in the states. Thankfully, she was already out checking their European bases when she realised 616 were in trouble, it had only take a few hours to arrive to their destination rather than the several hours it would have taken from Washington DC.

S.H.I.E.L.D 616 were running into a lot more trouble than she or Fury anticipated. Neither of them were in a hurry to put Phil in a dangerous situation after preforming a highly unethical surgery on him. It seemed that whenever he and Melinda got together, they just attracted trouble. Skye also seemed to have that same trouble magnetic.

Actually, the whole team were trouble magnets.

Maria slowly made her way up to Fury's office, taking her time to think about her latest issue. She was slowly uncovering something within S.H.I.E.L.D and she wasn't sure what. She was also unsure if Fury was aware as well. It wouldn't be the best idea to discuss this inside a S.H.I.E.L.D building, but, at least she could signal to Fury that she wanted to discuss something. It might be their best shot to discuss it in the wolf's den, considering it was a massive off the books operation.

She rapt her knuckles twice against her boss's door and awaited to be called in. It was a delicate situation and Maria wanted to be correct before she worried the others.

"Enter."

"Sir." Maria greeted as she walked into the room.

"Sit. How was your trip to Europe?" Fury asked, turning his attention away from his current project.

"Informative, sir." Maria replied, her hands rising slowly to communicate with him 'We need to speak somewhere private.' she signed to him and once again, she was extremely thankful to Clint for teaching them sign language.

Fury raised an eyebrow "Did you find what you needed? I was surprised to hear that you wanted to check out our European bases." 'Since when is my office not private?' Fury enquired, leaning back against his seat.

Maria gave a shrug. "Yes. I found some extra storage at some of the bases which would be perfect building space for another Project Insight in that region. I was also looking at implementing a new base there, one that would be similar to the Fridge. I think it would be a good idea to have some of our more delicate issues spread out rather than being in the one place." 'Since I found a potential leak' Maria replied back as though she was giving Fury a standard after-action report.

Fury glared at her when she revealed that information. "Hmmm, good. The World Security council think that having one of the new helicarriers in the European region would cut down some costs in the long run." 'Where do you want to talk?' Fury said and stood up from his desk, clearly wanting to discuss the potential leak as soon as possible.

'Wolf's den.' Maria signed back, standing up as well. "Well, I'd have to double check the numbers and the available resources that we have. We'd also have to look into the legality of it as well, I doubt many European countries would be happy with an American based organisation taking over some air space."

Fury nodded in agreement, both with moving to the wolf's area and what Maria was saying. "A discussion for another day, Hill. Go home, you've been active for 72 hours, HR is going to kill me if I keep you active any longer." He joked with her 'I'll meet you downstairs in half an hour. Don't mention this to anyone, except Peggy.'

Maria chuckled lightly "Of course, Sir. I'll write up a report and have it on your desk by the end of next week." 'Understood.'

"Make sure you do, agent. Dismissed." Fury commanded.

Maria gave him a salute as she left. "Yes, Sir."

It didn't take long for Maria to arrive at her home on the base. Thankfully it was empty as the majority of the wolves were out on missions or were stationed at other bases. Hand currently had the majority of her pack, as well as a few others, stationed at The Hub.

"Maria." Peggy said warmly, coming out from one of the rooms in the back. Peggy wasted no time with quickly moving to Maria and wrapping her up in her arms.

"Hey." Maria mumbled back, resting her head on Peggy's shoulder, wrapping her arms tightly around her waist. "You smell so good." Maria groaned, moving her head so that her nosed was pressed against the crook of Peggy's neck.

"At least I can always count on you to be affectionate and say that I smell nice." Peggy teased. Her hand moved as though to take Maria's bun out but Maria caught her hand, preventing her from doing so.

"Fury's coming down in about 20 minutes. We have to have a chat regarding S.H.I.E.L.D personal and a potential mole." Maria said and pulled herself away from Peggy with regret written all over her face.

"A mole?" Peggy questioned, her eyes narrowing.

"Yeah. Somethings aren't adding up when I've been looking into past records." Maria replied, sitting on a nearby couch.

"Why were you looking into past records in the first place?" Peggy asked, mirroring Maria's movements and sat next to her.

"Ward." Maria replied simply, glancing at Peggy.

Peggy looked at amused at the Maria's gaze, knowing fine well what was a about to happen. It didn't take Maria long before she shuffled her body and laid her head down on Peggy's lap, her legs hanging over the arm rests.

"See? You're a slut for affection." Peggy teased her again, her hand automatically going to Maria's hair again, only to huff when she remembered she wasn't allowed to remove Maria's bun. "You're making this difficult for me."

"Everyone is this pack is a slut for affection. You make it seem like a bad thing." Maria responded with a roll of her eyes. "You can play with my hair later."

Peggy huffed, unhappy at being denied something. "You come down here, to my domain and disrespect my wishes?" Peggy mocked.

Maria gave a small snort of amusement. It had been a while since she and Peggy had some time together alone, since the majority of the time, the two women were focused on making sure that S.H.I.E.L.D ran effectively. When they weren't doing that, they were spending time with the pack, which meant Maria was focused on Sharon. Whilst Sharon didn't mind Maria being overly affectionate with her aunt, she wasn't too pleased too see them doing anything more than cuddle.

Maria raised her hand to gently stroke across Peggy's jaw line, honestly, Maria had mixed feelings with the whole situation of Peggy being the alpha and the aunt of her soulmate. On one hand, like she was with Natasha, Maria wanted to please the alpha of their packs but on the other hand, Sharon found it weird to see Maria's sexual encounters with Peggy, especially if Maria was careless and she could feel the feedback from them.

"You think too much." Peggy said, breaking Maria out of her thoughts with a poke on the forehead.

"I think the appropriate amount for someone in my position." Maria replied back, swatting away Peggy's hand.

"Sure, sure." Peggy laughed.

"Are you two having fun?" Fury grumbled, appearing in the door way.

"As much fun as one can have with a potential leak." Peggy replied.

Maria almost groaned at the arrival of her boss, but sat up like a good agent so that she could inform them of the situation. Maria wasn't 100% sure whether there was a leak or not, but experience has her telling Fury anyways incase it ever goes FUBAR.

"So, are we discussing this or what?" Fury asked, making himself at home on the opposite couch.

Maria sighed and rubbed at her forehead. "I have nothing concrete as of yet, but I thought it was best to inform you of my suspicions."

Fury and Peggy both gave her a look. "What has you so spooked that you go around declaring a leak without proof?" Peggy enquired.

"I wanted to do a further background check on Ward once Skye joined the team." Maria admitted. "Skye mentioned that something seemed off about him and I originally played it off as Ward being a typical specialist. On the surface, Ward seems like your usual agent, comes from a shitty family, had a traumatic experience which changed his life and makes you think that is the reason he comes off as suspicious."

"But?" Peggy pressed.

"But, it seems he had contact with a S.H.I.E.L.D agent long before his application to the academy. I don't have the agents name, unfortunately. Looking at his records at S.H.I.E.L.D, he does his best to avoid getting into trouble and from making any connections with his fellow agents. However, the few agents he does have contact with on a semi-regular basis show a similar pattern. Broken families, traumatic events, early contact from a S.H.I.E.L.D agent during the formative teen years."

Fury leaned forward, a frown marring his face. "That's...worrying."

"Not only that," Maria continued. "This has been happening for years. I've noticed the pattern in every single level of S.H.I.E.L.D. Only a handful of agents, I'm having Skye create an algorithm to spot these common factors so that I can do a sweep for every agent."

Fury and Peggy stayed silent at Maria's admission. Maria watched her bosses take the information in. It was certainly troubling but, to someone less paranoid than them, it wouldn't seem that big of a deal. Maria came from a broken family and had several traumatic events throughout her childhood, the only thing she lacked was the early contact from a S.H.I.E.L.D agent.

Sharon, however, fit that M.O perfectly. Maria needed more information to consolidate her theory that there was a massive leak within S.H.I.E.L.D. The only one that Maria trusted to create algorithms and hack S.H.I.E.L.D undetected was Skye.

"Motherfuckers." Fury mumbled, sighing as he looked between Peggy and Maria.

Maria hummed in agreement.

"I've found...similar discrepancies with missions. I've been keeping an eye on our missions ever since you were turned, checking to see if I could find any information on the leak. I've seen some troubling missions but none of them had anything in common other than bad intel."

"You could look at the agents handling the missions, see if they match up to the botched missions." Peggy offered.

"It could be difficult to tell if those missions were botch as a result of the agents on the missions as the majority of them would have been handled by a team." Maria countered, sitting back.

"We need more information." Fury declared.

"We need more information." Maria agreed.