Chapter Two.

Ward pulled out a map and Lily traced the drives she and Aiden had taken, the places they had stayed, and the probable direction he had gone when he went out on his own. The information taken separately wasn't conclusive, but as they drew lines and highlights and studied mileage, a clearer image began to appear.

Then Ward had to grab his laptop and did research based on what he knew. Lily found that he had once worked for SHIELD but had a falling out and then struck out on his own. She didn't question him much on this, and he didn't offer much more background than he needed to explain. But he had contacts and access to information that helped narrow down properties within their search range.

Finally, after several hours, he circled a property located miles from any highway, along a dirt road, a couple hours away from their current location. They set out immediately, just the two of them in Ward's van.

Lily had no idea why Aiden would have chosen such a remote location for his work. She knew he was secretive, but he also believed his work would change the world, so it didn't seem like there would be such a need for it to be so hidden away. Perhaps it was just his personality. After all, he had never discussed in depth what he had been working on while they had been together, and they'd been lovers.

She swallowed bitterly. She had to remind herself that she didn't really know the man at all, if he'd been willing to throw away all that they'd built for the past year. And she didn't know this Ward, either, although she'd taken it upon herself to trust him a little bit. She hoped he wouldn't betray her, either. At least allow her to get a little peace of mind and then be on her way. She just wanted to find her life again, pick up where she'd left off after she'd basically left her life behind to pursue one with Aiden.

She hoped SHIELD would leave her alone. They could pursue Aiden for themselves. He wasn't going to be her problem anymore. She just prayed they wouldn't see her as in collusion with Ward. Surely getting revenge on your ex-boyfriend didn't mean breaking laws? At least the sort of laws they would be interested in. She wasn't entirely sure what SHIELD did, but it sounded like it was all top-secret government stuff, and she had no connection to that outside of Aiden, and he hadn't told her much at all.

Ward pulled up next to a long, low white building. From the outside, it didn't look like much; just similar to the warehouses she'd seen so much of lately. There were no other vehicles parked anywhere nearby, so it was unlikely Aiden was at home, or whoever worked out of the place.

Ward approached the building cautiously, a gun held out in front of him, which made Lily nervous. She wasn't stupid, it was likely that someone like Ward would be armed, or that whoever had hidden himself away out in the middle of the high desert would have a gun, too. Ward used to be an agent, so she figured he knew what he was doing.

She held back while he peered in the dirt-caked windows. Tried the main door, and then a side door. Knocked. Then he returned to the main door, stepped back, then kicked hard. The door flew open inward, and Ward crept inside. After a minute, he popped his head back outside and waved her over.

She followed him in.

The building had more light than she would have thought, since the electricity was off and looked like it had been for a long time. Her first impression was that it was a barn - the entire left side was segmented and separated by short wood walls, like stalls. Yet the floor, expansive and dusty, was concrete. Their footsteps echoed in the empty space.

"What the hell was he doing here?" she asked, mostly to herself.

They examined each of the empty spaces, looking for anything left behind. It became clear that something once had occupied each of the stalls, because the floor was slightly less dusty in the center, as if something had been stored there and recently - although not too recently, because the floor was not entirely clear of dust - removed. The ceiling was high, so the objects could have been quite big. Or they could have been small. There was no way to tell.

"Have you ever seen anything like this?" she asked Ward. "In your time at SHIELD?"

He shook his head. "I can't even see any hookups for power here. What was he doing? Just storing things?"

"He stored a lot at our place," she said. "But it wasn't like this. I mean, it was crates and pallets. He ordered all sorts of things, metals and wires, and worked on that, although I never knew what he was building. It was nothing identifiable. He would take work with him, usually."

"Why bother transporting things all the way out here?" Ward mused. "That would have taken a lot of effort."

"He was a dedicated kind of guy," Lily said. "Well, to his work, at least."

They continued exploring the building, going down the row of stalls until they came to an office at the far end. It was as dilapidated as the rest of the building. She couldn't imagine Aiden actually keeping records, or anything important, in there, but they searched anyway. It was crammed with old wooden desks and cabinets that looked like they had been handed down through the generations. Or bought at a garage sale. Or possibly just collected from the side of the road as he drove out here for the first time. It was entirely bizarre.

They opened a file cabinet with paperwork. Neither could decipher the numbers and words; she couldn't even tell if it was measurements or dollars or some other weird system of keeping track of … whatever. It seemed to be in Aiden's handwriting, however, which was odd, because she rarely saw him write. He mainly conducted business on his phone, so to have binders and folders of written, albeit unintelligible, information was disconcerting.

None of it made any sense at all, and it added to her despondency over the whole situation. She truly hadn't known the man she had loved.

She opened a drawer filled with knick knacks and doodads. She sifted through them, hoping to recognize something. Old keys, jacks from a children's game, a whistle, a few playing cards, nuts and bolts. Perhaps it had all been in the desk when he bought it, and he hadn't ever bothered to throw it away.

Ward busied himself studying another set of documents. By the way his brow was furrowed, it looked like he might make something of it, so she left him to his intense scrutiny. She continued pawing through random junk drawers.

Then she came upon a box inside another drawer. She pulled it out, set it upon the desk, and pulled off the lid. It contained a gun.

She started. She hadn't ever seen one up close. It looked old, as old as anything else here, although her knowledge of weapons was limited, so it could have been manufactured last year, for all she knew. She reached out and touched it, startled with how cool it felt. The warehouse was fairly warm, considering it was in the middle of a desert in late spring, and the cool metal almost mesmerized her.

She reached into the box and pulled the weapon free. It was lighter than she thought it might be - she'd always thought guns were supposed to be very heavy. She flipped it over, looking at the other side, but there was no indication of anything interesting. She didn't even know what she was looking for. Aiden had never mentioned guns, so was she so surprised his name wasn't etched on it? The thought made her laugh inside.

And yet something about the weapon called to her. Her world had been upended in the past day; between SHIELD storming the warehouse, and Ward abducting her, and now she had no idea who Aiden truly was. Perhaps the gun could bring the safety and security she'd lost and now craved.
A sharp voice broke through her thoughts. "What the - ?"

A flash of movement, and then she found herself shoved hard against a tall cabinet, her wrist gripped in a vice. The sudden pain made her drop the gun.

"Was this all some sort of setup?" Ward hissed in her face. "Were you just meant to lure me here to kill me?"

"What? No! I swear, I don't know what …"

His strength was crushing, and his anger disconcerting. She tried to push him away but he leaned in harder, immobilizing her. Wary of his nascent fury, she didn't resist as he pulled out a pair of handcuffs and bound her wrists in front of her.

He yanked her out of the office, nearly dragging her as she struggled to keep up with him. He headed toward the center of the large, open room.

Terror seized her completely. Did he mean to kill her here? Shoot her in the head and leave her body to rot in dust and ruin?

"I'm sorry!" she gasped. "I wasn't going to do anything. I just found it. Please!"

He shoved her shoulders down, hard, and she collapsed to her knees.

"Stay here and don't move," he growled. And then he walked away.

She sunk down in relief, resting her forehead on her hands, relishing in the solid feeling of the floor beneath her. Her muscles shook from the shock. What had she been thinking? Of course someone like Ward would have seen her holding a gun as a threat.

Ward remained in the office, sorting through papers and exploring further cabinets. Lily rolled over onto her back to look up at the ceiling, content to let him stay there, content to remain where she was.

As she lay in the warmth and dust, her racing heart slowly calmed. She grew sleepy, watching the motes flicker down in the rays of light from windows set high. And then a shadow crossing a lower window caught her eye. She thought she heard a sound near the main door.

As she tried to sit up to see better, the door blew inward. She screamed and ducked, trying to cover her head with her hands. This time the ceiling didn't come down; instead, the room flooded with a storm of bodies, rushing in and around like a vicious wind.

SHIELD had found them.

There was vigorous shouting back and forth, a few shots rang out, and then she saw Ward tackled to the pavement just outside the office. Had they shot him? Had he shot someone? Two people dragged him toward the entrance; he didn't look hurt, and no one else was on the ground. Bloodless, then.

"Lily? Are you okay?"

Lily looked up to see Skye crouching beside her.

"I'm okay."

"Did he hurt you?" That was Jemma, who also crouched nearby.

Lily slowly pulled herself to a sitting position. Jemma seemed to want to examine her, so she let her. "He didn't hurt me, no." Jemma ran her fingers over Lily's limbs as if to assure herself she was uninjured. It made her wonder what they thought of Ward. Skye freed her wrists.

"How did you find us?" Lily asked.

"Oh, we cross-referenced descriptions of the van he used at the rest stop with locations we thought Aiden had been using." Skye looked around. "But I guess he isn't here. Have you heard from him?"

"Aiden …" Lily hesitated. The last time she'd spoken to the agents, just many long hours ago, Lily had been vigorously defending Aiden. Reluctant to cooperate with their investigation. She could only hope they'd believe what she was about to say. "Ward was able to make contact with Aiden. He was going to use me as a hostage to get Aiden to do what he wanted. But Aiden - well, he refused."

"He called Ward's bluff?"

"No. I think he believed Ward."

"Oh," Jemma said, understanding what she meant. "I'm so sorry."

"Wait, what?" Skye asked. "Your boyfriend just left you out in the cold?"

"Ward was shocked, too," Lily said. "He said he hadn't planned on actually hurting me, though. He said he used to work for SHIELD?"

"Yeah, we know him," Skye muttered.

Her tone toward Ward, Lily thought, sounded an awful lot like how Lily felt about Aiden.

"So I gave Ward what information I had, and he was able to come up with this place," Lily said. "I don't know how useful it's been, though. There's nothing here."
"Well, we have some other possible locations to check, so this may not be a total loss." Skye craned her neck to look around. "But it does seem like an odd place for Aiden to have been working."

"Nothing here seems like anything he was working on," Lily said. "Unless what he showed me was a red herring. But it's all old ledgers and handwritten notes. I can't even understand what research he could have been doing. At home, he was interested in building. But there's nothing like that here. No evidence of it, except for a big empty space where something could have been."

"And if he did bring large equipment in," Jemma added, "how would he have gotten trucks in? Our vehicles were able to make it up the road, but part of that road is in poor shape."

"Agent Simmons! Skye!" Coulson called from the doorway. "We're heading out. We're leaving a team behind for analysis. Bring Miss Nicholson."

Skye reached out and helped Lily to her feet. "So are you going to be working with us now?" Skye asked.

"To be honest," Lily said, "I just want to be left alone. But I have no loyalty to Aiden anymore, so if you have questions, I guess so."

"We can work with that," Skye said.

As they approached the doors, which had closed after Coulson's command, Lily heard shouting and a deep thrumming.

"What the hell?" Skye said as they pushed through the doors.

Jemma and Lily immediately ducked down upon sighting a new legion of armed men. Unlike the SHIELD team, they wore face masks. The dirt lot outside had become a veritable parking lot - SHIELD's SUVs surrounded the white van, and then a second regiment of vehicles haphazardly surrounded those. Behind, settling into whirling dust, a helicopter that did not sponsor SHIELD livery gleamed in the late afternoon sun.

A man emerged from the helicopter and approached Coulson. "Tell your team to stand down," he told him, loudly as the helicopter was still quieting.

"I don't know who you are, but you're interfering with a federal investigation!" Coulson shouted back.

"I'm here on behalf of Aiden Churchill, and unless you want this to turn into a bloodbath, you'll do as I say."

Lily was startled. Aiden had access to power such as this? He'd always seemed to be one man against the world. That was what had attracted her to him. What the hell was Aiden really into?

Coulson stared the man down, then glanced around him. He had to come to the same conclusion Lily did; they were outnumbered.

"Stand down," Coulson said, quieter now.

Slowly, reluctantly, his team members set their weapons down.

"Now what do you want?" Coulson asked.

"Several things," the man said, "but among them, her."

Lily's heart skipped a beat when the man pointed directly at her. One of his henchmen quickly approached and pulled her upright.

"I don't know who you are," she said. "I don't have anything to do with SHIELD."

"You are Aiden Churchill's girlfriend, are you not?" the man asked. "He wanted us to bring you to him."

"Aiden can go die in a fire," she hissed.

They began directing her toward the helicopter.

"Maybe someday," the man said, "but not today. Today Churchill is winning."

"If you get me within ten feet of that bastard, I swear I'll kill him."
The man laughed, but the masked henchman holding onto her arm increased his grip.

"He warned us you might not be happy," the man said.

Behind her, Ward's voice floated into the desert air. "Where are you taking her?"

She glanced over her shoulder. Two of Churchill's men had replaced Coulson's in surrounding Ward, although they seemed to be having trouble restraining him.

Now he decides to act chivalrous, Lily sighed inwardly.

Everything came to a point then. It wasn't just Aiden's betrayal or being manhandled or dragged across the desert in various directions or even forced to fly - the impending fear of the helicopter was just one more drop to add to the poison of the last day.

Lily snapped. Marshalling all her strength, her anger, and her frustration, she jerked backward, freeing her arm from the grip of the henchman. Then she leaned in, kneeing him as hard as she could.

Then she ran.

There weren't a great many options. Back into the building, or down the pothole-filled road. Those weren't options at all.

So she chose the desert. It wasn't the best route, but it was her best option. She picked her way as fast as she could through scrubby cactus, around patches of slippery rocky soil, hopping over clumps of boggy sand.

She knew she was being chased, so she didn't look back.

Across the desert, the sounds of shouting and fighting sailed toward her on the wind. Perhaps Coulson's team had taken her escape as the distraction they needed.

Didn't matter. She was heading into the wilderness.

And wild it became quite quickly. Clearly Aiden hadn't maintained the surrounding landscape; he'd barely maintained the road. Perhaps he'd meant it as a barrier. Running through it all became difficult; gaining a further lead, one she could sustain in order to lose her pursuer, was quickly becoming impossible. She couldn't keep up her speed forever, either.

The end for her came when a deep arroyo emerged in front of her. The sides were steep, the way down treacherous. Running alongside wasn't an option, as she'd lose too much ground. For a moment, she considered just jumping into it. She might be injured, yes, but it would certainly prevent Aiden from getting what he wanted, at least for a little while. But at heart, she feared pain, and hated herself for this weakness.

Instead she turned to face her pursuer. Fighting wasn't going to be an option, either; the element of surprise and a well-aimed kick had only gotten her where she was. She knew a second attempt wouldn't end nearly so well for her.

She crouched down, showing her hands, hoping it would forestall any violent retaliation. The man - she wished they'd not wear masks so she could tell them apart, although she doubted it was the man she had kneed - had his gun out, pointing at her, but as he approached, he relaxed and holstered it.

He gestured her ahead of him, and she complied. The walk back seemed to take longer than she would have thought; had she really run that far in that short of time? Or had it been longer than she realized?

The lot around the building was quiet as they approached, which put her on edge. As they rounded the corner of the building, something came flying around and smacked into her captor's head.

"Thanks for drawing their attention," Coulson said dryly. He dropped the tire iron he'd been holding. "We've got it all settled here now."

She looked around. All of Aiden's men were strewn around on the ground, hands bound behind them.

"The pilot's willing to turn," May said, coming to stand next to them. "He said there's another facility a few miles from here, and that's where Aiden is. By road it would take hours, but by chopper we can get there in minutes."

"Have we confirmed this?" Coulson asked.

"Skye's getting coordinates for us now."

"All right. You can fly that model?"

May just raised an eyebrow.

"Never mind. Of course you can." He looked around him. "How many can we fit in?"

"She can take seven passengers, plus the pilot."

"You, me, Skye, two tactical team members. We'll leave an extra seat for Aiden. If he has more people on hand, we can ferry." He turned to Lily. "And I want you along."

Lily started. "What? No."

"He wanted you for some purpose. It could help us negotiate with him."
"I don't want to negotiate with him."

"Skye told me what he did to you. I am sorry about that. And I know you're not crazy about flying. But there's something greater at stake."

She shook her head. "I'm done with this. If you want information, fine, I'll answer your questions. But I'm not going to be dragged along any violent expeditions."

"I'm not expecting it to get violent. And I'm not asking."

"I'm not one of your subordinates."

"I know you're not. You're an accomplice to a man who we have evidence of having terroristic intentions toward innocent civilians." He took a step toward her. "You are coming along, and it's your choice how you do."

Lily bit her lip and stared at the ground. She focused on her breathing, trying to find some sort of focus. Beneath the fear and frustration, she had a great deal of anger - at Aiden, at SHIELD, at Ward, at herself. Deeply at herself for not seeing the truth of things, and not being able to deal with it all now.

She had to find some light in the darkness. She tugged on her anger, allowing it to give her a little strength. She could work with that for now. And later, she could try to evolve it into something that would work long-term. If SHIELD ever let her go.

She looked up. "Fine," she said through gritted teeth. "You win."

"Two minutes," Coulson said. "May, get Skye to get you those coordinates."

Lily walked with Coulson to the helicopter as he called out to other members of his team. She chose to sit facing forward, in the middle, away from the doors. She wasn't quite as terrified of the helicopter as she was of planes - phobias were strange that way - but she didn't want any chance of being near a door in case it opened in the air.

May and Coulson settled up front and Skye climbed in next to her. The tactical team members took up her other side, facing each other. Lily wondered where Aiden would sit on the way back. She hoped he'd be unconscious for the ride.

They lifted off, and her fingers sought for something to hold onto. There were no armrests here. She found the long belt of the seat restraint and grasped that. It made her feel only marginally better.

The flight was indeed short. They cleared the mountains and entered another valley, and soon they were following a road that seemed as pitted and unused as the one they'd driven on earlier. Where in the world did Aiden find such places? He must truly be doing something awful if he worked this hard to keep things this secret.

May settled the chopper down gently in front of a building nearly identical to the one they'd just left. There was a familiar old battered pickup behind a boulder.

"That's Aiden's," Lily said quietly, once the roar of the chopper engines had subsided.

Coulson instructed her to remain in the chopper while the rest of them entered the building first.

"I thought you said this wasn't going to get violent," she said.

He just gave her a look. She sighed. It probably wasn't good to antagonize him.

So she waited while the five approached the building. She didn't know how they thought they might make a sneaky approach; the sound of the helicopter had to have been heard by anyone inside. Although, she realized, Aiden would have thought the chopper were his own men returning with her. He might be busy at work, content with himself, not expecting any sort of assault.

The agents coordinated, broke the door, and entered. Lily held her breath, waiting for the sounds of gunshots, but there were none. After a minute Skye appeared at the doorway and waved her in.

Lily scrambled out of the chopper. Now that the time had come, she found herself slightly eager to find out exactly what Aiden had been up to, and if he had ever been the man she had loved.

She found the team surrounding Aiden, who sat on the concrete floor, handcuffed and with a small cut on his lip.

The warehouse was similar in construct to the other; stalls just as empty, giant floor space dusty. Yet behind Aiden were various tools, laid out all over the floor. And yet she couldn't determine what he had been working on. There didn't seem to be anything, except for the tools and bits and bobs of junk. She began to wonder if he were just a little bit insane.

"My precious Lily," he said as soon as he saw her. The team made an opening so she could get closer. His face broke into a wide grin. "You came anyway."

"I did, honey," she said, and then stepped forward and slapped him across the face.

Before she could strike him again, someone - a tactical team member - grabbed her from behind in a bear hug and dragged her backward.

Coulson got into her face. "Are you done, Miss Nicholson? Do you have control of yourself?"

Lily resisted the urge to try to kick herself free. The agents weren't the villains here. Instead, she took a few deep breaths before replying, "Yes."

Coulson nodded to his agent, who released her but remained close.

Aiden's grin, if it were possible, grew even wider.

"What the hell are you into, Aiden?" Lily asked. "This has turned out to be nothing like you promised."

"Oh, but didn't I?" Aiden replied. "I told you, sweetheart, you and I were gonna change the world."

She hated herself for feeling a thrill at his voice - it was deep and resonant and his accent smooth and dreamy. He was charismatic toward everyone, but he seemed particularly charismatic toward her.

"If you're trying to change the world, why don't you tell SHIELD what it is you're working on?" she asked. "If you're not a threat to anyone, tell them."

"SHIELD has done nothing but tear the world down," Aiden said. "They're not worthy of my ambitions."

"At least tell them you're not a terrorist, then," she said. "Because they're not going to stop bothering you or me until they get an answer on that one."

"I am going to end terror, Lily," Aiden said, his voice going soft. "I did promise you that, didn't I? I'm going to make you secure, make you and the whole world safe again. Isn't that what you want? Isn't that the best thing for everyone?"

Lily felt drawn toward him, toward his voice, toward his promise. Her head grew fuzzy and the world blurred.

"You keep insisting on that, Mr. Churchill," Coulson said, "but you've yet to show any proof. Why would we believe any of what you say?"

"Some things are true whether you believe them or not." Aiden's smile was wide again, like he was enjoying an enormous private joke at their expense.

"Oh, cut the crap, Aiden," Lily snapped, her mind clear again as anger once more rose to the surface. "You're coming across like a little boy who's just having fun playing with his toys. It's becoming more likely that you've been building nothing at all."

He looked up at her slyly. "You want to make a bet on that?"

This was an old game of theirs. During long drives, wait times for movies or meals, they'd bet each other on whatever event would occur at what time. Or what color the next car around the bend would be.

Aiden often won, contrary to general probability.

"I bet that if you keep this up, no one's gonna stop me from clocking you again."

He threw his head back and laughed.

Then, slowly, his expression sobered and he looked around at everyone in the room. "Reveal," he said, projecting his voice.

"What -" Coulson began.

He broke off when something caught their attention. Behind Aiden, in the vast empty space beyond the tools, light shimmered and coruscated, air flickered then solidified. And then there was something there.

Lily frowned. What was it? A robot? A metal mannequin?

"Is that a counterpart to Stark's?" Coulson asked. All the agents had their guns drawn again.

Oh. It was an armed robot. Some sort of attack machine.

"Stark only has a handful," Aiden said, smiling. "I've got hundreds. And they're invisible!" He threw his head back again and yelled, "Join the others!"

The floor caught fire. No, that wasn't it - the robot's feet caught fire, or rather, the rockets attached to its feet caught fire.

The team skittered backward and away, uncertain what would happen next. Aiden remained in the center of the floor, turning to look at his creation with delight on his face.

The robot lifted up off the floor, gaining speed the higher it flew. And then, just before reaching the ceiling, it shimmered out of existence again.

And then it punched through the ceiling with another explosion of heat and disappeared into the sky while pieces of the roof rained down around them.

"Oops," Aiden said. "Usually they're outside before I let them fly. I should probably fix that bit of programming."

Coulson already had his phone out and was barking out orders.

"Where is it going?" May asked. "How many are operational?"

Aiden just returned her glare with a smirk.

For a moment, Lily thought May was going to finally give Aiden what was coming to him.

"There were twelve stalls or bays in the other building," Lily said. "About the same as here. They all were empty but due to the dust pattern, you could tell someone had been working on something in them."

"So we're looking at about a couple dozen, just for starters?" May asked.

Lily nodded. "He's been collecting parts for a year. Working on them for months." She cleared her throat. "I'm sorry. I had - had no idea this was what he was doing."

"We'll have time for regret later," Coulson said, returning to the group. "For now, we need to rejoin the rest of the team and head back to HQ. They're working on satellite tracking to see if we can determine where these things are going to end up."

"Aren't they invisible?"

"SHIELD has heat-tracking satellites. It's our best option now."

Lily followed the team back toward the helicopter. The tactical team members dragged Aiden between them. It seemed he couldn't decide if he wanted to keep taunting them or just enjoy reveling in what he had done.

When Lily began to climb into the back as she had done before, Coulson grabbed her arm.

"I want you in the front this time," he said. "I'll take the back."

Lily didn't have to ask why. Strangling Aiden was a definite possibility. So was trying to shove him out of the aircraft. So she climbed into the front with May and scooted over to the middle as far as she could, away from the door. Somehow, having all the controls in front of her made her fear slightly worse. She closed her eyes for the ride and despite wearing the headset, tried not to listen in as Coulson attempted to continue interrogating Aiden, who wasn't in a giving mood.

"You'll find out soon enough," was all the infuriating man would say. He also tried to draw Lily into the conversation. Lily was tempted to take off her headset so she couldn't hear him at all, but something about his words kept her listening, even though she didn't respond.

"Lily," Aiden said, ignoring Coulson's line of questioning. "You know you've been called to this, just as I have. It's your destiny to help with the revolution." There was silence while Lily just grabbed the edge of the seat, her eyes clenched shut. "Everything I've done, every decision I've made, has been done for you."

Lily hated herself heartily because part of her wanted to listen to him. It disgusted her. Was that what she had been like for the past several months? Listening to him like a lost puppy with the promise of finding a loving home? His voice, his personality, still had that pull on her. But ever since that conversation over the phone with Ward listening in - that had been when she'd started to wake up. Had he meant for that? Had he really meant to push her away, and only hours later beg for her back? What type of person did that? Was there another end game to all of this?

Lily rubbed her forehead. She was more confused than anything else. She'd never been in doubt about anything concerning Aiden up until a day ago, and now the only emotion she did feel was doubt.

There was the sound of a scuffle over the headset, then Coulson came on to say, "Sorry about that. He won't be talking again on the flight."

Luckily, the flight was short and Lily didn't have to contain her urge to reach into the back and dig out Aiden's eyes for very long.

Once back on the ground, Coulson and May directed agents in different directions, readying different cars. Most of Aiden's men were loaded into Ward's van. Lily stood uncertainly, wondering where she should go. Maybe they'd forget about her and she could just walk home and not deal with any of them ever again.

Coulson finally approached her. "Miss Nicholson, I apologize for forcing you into a confrontation with Aiden. But now I'm nearly certain you had nothing to do with his plans." He nodded toward the crowd of agents jostling into different cars. "One of our headquarters is within several hours drive of here. Once we're there, after you answer a few more questions I can arrange to have someone drive you to wherever you need to go." Lily was surprised at that statement. She also cynically wondered just how long 'a few questions' might take. "However, I think you'd be safer with SHIELD. Aiden seems oddly fixated on you, and until we know the full extent of what his plans are, I think you'd be better off with us."

"Okay," she said. "I'll think about that. To be honest, I do find his behavior really disconcerting. It's not like anything he's shown me before. He's not … he's not who I thought he was."

He nodded. "I've had to reassign my team to different cars in order to keep an eye on our special guests. I can't spare anyone else, so my best option is for you to ride with Agents Fitz and Simmons. Do you have any issue with that?"

She realized he was referring to the two British scientists, Jemma and … Fitz. She didn't know the young man's first name. "Sure," she said. "I'm not about to cause trouble, if that's what you're thinking. I just want to get all this over with."

Coulson nodded again and then gestured for her to get loaded into the car he indicated.

As she approached, she caught wind of a somewhat heated discussion the two scientists were having.

"When have you ever driven, Fitz?" Simmons asked.

"I drive all the time!"

"No, I meant in this country. They drive on the right side, you know."

"I know that, Jemma. I'm not an idiot. How hard can it be? It's mostly desert anyway."

Lily stopped hesitantly in front of them. "I'm going to die, aren't I?"

"Of course not!" Jemma said reassuringly. "Fitz is actually quite accomplished at many things. Driving a car is no big deal."

Lily wondered if it was too late to scream for help.

"Besides, Coulson said we could take our time getting back," Jemma said. "All these other proper field agents are going to be rushing each other to be first back, but we can stop to smell the roses. Or, er, the cactus flowers."

"If we could stop somewhere in a decent town to get something to eat, that'd be great," Lily said as she climbed into the backseat, bracing herself for the drive ahead.