The first thing she's aware of when she wakes up is the distinct tingling sensation all over her skin. It's different from the tingling she gets with her abilities. This one is vastly different and she's not quite sure how she feels about it. She's not wearing a single stitch of clothing, save for the two pieces of fabric that are wrapped around her chest and her lower body, leaving a small scrap of skin on her stomach visible. Her eyes are immediately drawn to the small needles sticking up all over her skin, and her brows furrow together tightly in confusion.

She looks around and takes everything in, despite the slight blur to her vision still. This isn't the cabin, this isn't the bed in the cabin or her bed back at the Playground. It's not even the bed at Rose's place. This is somewhere completely different, somewhere she knows she's never been before.

"Hey."

She follows the voice to see Gordon standing in front of her and it all comes rushing back, everything that happened at the cabin. She has no idea if those agents are dead or if she injured them accidentally. But will they even see it as an accident?

"Everything's gonna be okay. You're safe now."

"Gordon, where am I? Where's Grant?"

"Grant's in another room getting the same treatment as you. This is the place I told you two about. You called for me. Do you remember?"

"How long have we been here?" she asks instead, casting another glance around the unfamiliar room.

"Two days."

"T—two—I need to—I need to go. They need me. Something bad has happened." She tries to sit up but finds herself physically incapable of doing so. She fights back the tears. "Why can't I move? What are you doing to me?"

"We're healing you," another voice joins the mix as the door closes. She follows the voice to find a young blond man entering the room. "Leaving now wouldn't exactly be—" He chuckles as he moves to the computer monitor next to her bed. "Have you ever made microwave popcorn? Leave it in too long, and it's charcoal. Take it out too soon, and it's a bag of kernels." He looks over at her and shakes his head. "That might be the worst analogy ever. Gordo, help me out here."

"You are on your own with this one." Gordon looks at her and smiles. "I have to go now. You're in very good hands. He's smarter than he looks."

"How do you know that?" the other man questions.

Gordon simply gives an amused smile before leaving her alone with the unnamed blonde man. She lies her head back down on the pillow, her mind racing with thoughts of Grant, hoping that he's doing okay with whatever is going on. And Max. She hopes the puppy isn't too scared. She glances down when another sharp prick moves through her skin and her eyes catch sight of her stretch marks and she thinks of her son. Rose is probably worried since they haven't called her in two days, or at least texted her to let them know that they're still doing okay.

"He's been by your side since the moment you got here. Well, yours and the guy you came with."

"Who are you?" she asks, frustrated with not knowing everything that's happening.

He looks up at her. "Sorry. I thought—I'm Lincoln, your transitioner. Right. I keep forgetting you're new to this." He moves closer to her bed, a tablet in his hands, and continues speaking, eventually grabbing a chair and sitting down to explain.

She listens as he explains what's happening to her, why she's in bed with needles sticking out of her skin, that they would've preferred to start the whole process so much earlier.

"How long?" she cuts him off. "How long?" she repeats when he just gives her a questioning look instead of responding. "When can I go?"

"You got places to be, people to see?"

"I'm worried about my friends," she tells him. She doesn't mention her son, though. She doesn't know this man, doesn't know if she can trust him. She knows they haven't actually talked about it, but she's pretty sure Grant doesn't want anyone here knowing about their son either. "I think they're in danger."

"You're the one that's in danger, Skye," he tells her as if he's trying to drill it into her brain like it's something that should just be common knowledge to her. But it isn't. "Remember? You and the man that came in with you, you're being hunted."

She shakes her head as she looks up at the ceiling, tears starting to form in her eyes but she forces them back. She refuses to believe that SHIELD is actually hunting her. Coulson wouldn't let that happen, he wouldn't let her be hunted down like an animal. Right? He sent her and Grant to the cabin so that they would be safe. Didn't he?

"Could I—could you leave, please?" she asks after a moment, avoiding eye contact with Lincoln.

She keeps her eyes away from him, listening to the sound of his feet as he walks back toward the door of the room that she's in.

Once the door closes, she lets her tears fall down her cheeks, the weight of everything that's happened over the last few days starting to crash down on her. She doesn't know how much more she can take.

.

.

.

A tentative knock at the door pulls Skye's attention away from the mirror in front of her. She'd finally been cleared to get up and out of the bed, finding the clothes she'd come with washed and folded neatly in one corner of the room. She took her time getting dressed, unsure if she actually wanted to venture out and see the place she was brought to. All she really wants is to see her son and hold him close and snuggle up with him in bed. That's what she wants most.

Moving to the door, she pulls it open and lets out a breath of relief when she sees Grant standing on the other side. She doesn't hesitate in throwing herself into his arms, his own wrapping around her as they hug tightly.

"You're okay," she breathes out, pressing her face into the fabric of his shirt.

He nods against her, burying his face a little more in her hair. "Yeah. I was in the room next door. They had all these pins stuck in me."

She pulls back just enough to look at him. "Me too. Did you have that Lincoln guy helping you?"

"Him and Gordon. Are you doing okay?"

She shrugs. "I guess so. I'm just worried about Rose and Adian. I know they're not in any kind of danger, but Rose is probably really worried about us. And Adian is still so young, he's probably confused about why we're not there."

"As soon as we can find a phone we're going to call her and check in on Adian. I promise." His hands are on her shoulders, keeping her steady on her feet. All they want to do is get back to a semi-normal life with their son. "I'm worried about him too," he tells her. "But as soon as we can, we're going to get out of here and we're going to go see him."

She nods slowly. "Okay. I just...this is so much to deal with."

"I know. But you're not alone. You've got me here, we'll get through it together."

She gives him a soft smile and goes to reply when there's a soft rapping on the doorframe to the room they're in. She looks over Grant's shoulder to see Lincoln standing in the doorway, a tablet in his hands and the tiniest hint of a smile on his face.

"How are you guys feeling?" he asks, stepping into the room.

Skye sighs, retracting herself from Grant's arms but staying close to him. "Kind of normal."

"Same."

"Normal's good," Lincoln tells them, his eyes flitting between the two of them for a moment. "We flushed your lymphatic and circulatory systems, so you guys are going to be weak for a few days but…"

"We need to get a message to our friends," she tells him. They do need to contact their friends at SHIELD, but her first priority is calling Rose and checking in on her son. Then she'll worry about everyone else.

"Gordon's the only one who can make contact with the outside world," Lincoln tells her and her heart deflates. Out of the corner of her eyes, she can see Grant frowning deeply at the news too. "We can talk to him when he gets back."

She nods, disappointed. "Right." She glances around the room, really taking it all in. "So, where exactly are we?"

"No one really knows," Lincoln says, quickly moving toward a large set of wooden doors off to the side. "Uh, the official name is Chinese, I think—Lai Shi—doesn't exactly translate." He pushes the doors open and she instinctively walks toward them, reaching out to grab Grant's hand and pull him along behind her.

"Wow," she says as she breathes out once she sees the view of the mountains in the distance and the wide expanse below them.

"So we just call it 'Afterlife'."