Chapter Five: Flirting With Disaster
Skye should have known better than to doubt Fitzsimmons. Bobbi had called to inform Director Coulson about the abduction ahead of time. Upon arrival at headquarters, they were told that Fitzsimmons had activated personalized trackers to alert SHIELD to their location.
Coulson had hoped that the trackers would lead them to Hydra's HQ, but they were not so lucky. One glance at the interior was enough to eliminate that possibility. Hydra had even more resources and manpower than SHIELD did. They would not be based out of a building with fewer than ten rooms and not even that many agents.
Skye had never felt the sense of drive before on a mission like that had taken over her now as she snuck into the base alongside of Hunter, Bobbi, and Trip. As a SHIELD agent, the stakes for every op were always high, but they had never before been this personal for her. Her relationship with the two scientists transcended colleagues and even friends. Fitz was like her brother and Simmons, in turn, her sister. They were as much family as Skye was ever going to have.
Not to mention Skye felt responsible for getting Fitzsimmons kidnapped in the first place. She had been the one to fall for Hydra's trap. Bobbi and Hunter had only followed her out, which is why Fitzsimmons were unprotected when Hydra struck.
Skye was going to get them back. Her blood was basically humming in her veins as the adrenaline coursed through her. No more kidding around.
Her team cleared the entrance quickly and efficiently only to be faced with nine Hydra agents.
Bobbi wasted no time to engage, twirling with her batons like she was involved in some elaborate dance. Hunter and Trip followed her lead. But Skye made a different call.
"I'm going to find Fitzsimmons," she shouted over the clamor of the battle. She had the upmost faith that Bobbi, Hunter, and Trip could kick nine Hydra agents' asses. Already one of the enemies was down. They did not need her for this, not in the way Fitzsimmons probably needed her.
Skye did not wait for a response before taking off. She sped down the main hallway before coming to a stop when the way diverged. Trusting her gut, Skye opted to go left. Soon she was even able to see what looked like an interrogation room at the end. The door was even cracked a bit. As she rushed, she moved in a way that muffled the sounds of her footsteps. She wanted the element of surprise on her side.
Too bad someone beat her to it.
The kick came out of nowhere to knock her off balance. She flew into another hallway and lost sight of the interrogation room. Skye cursed to herself as she tried to process what had just happened. Was she losing her edge? How did her assailant get the drop on her?
Before she had time to recover from the first attack, she was thrown against a wall face first. She knocked her nose painfully into it, which only served to irritate her more. Her enemy pinned her to the wall quickly and efficiently. His body- because she could feel that her foe was a man now- dwarfed over her own and was firmly pressing her into the wall to restrict her movements. The cool metal of a gun pushed against her temple. Skye felt a strange sense of déjà vu for a reason that confused her until she managed to twist her head around to look at whose body was fitted so tightly against hers.
"Zach" was staring at her with a light look of shock in his expression- as if he should be the one surprised here. Incredibly, his grip loosened upon recognizing her. Skye was not one to overlook such a gift.
She threw her elbow back to his ribs. With the angle and close proximity, Skye doubted she even managed to crack one. That being said, the incredulous look Zach was sporting made it worth it anyway. Wasting no time, Skye took advantage of his lowered guard to slam her fist in his face.
She had successfully increased the distance between them to put them on even ground again. Skye went to push the advantage, but Zach had faster reflexes than she assumed. She lifted her right foot to return the hip kick favor he so generously bestowed on her earlier, but he intercepted her movement.
Zach caught her kick in midair before she could connect with her target. He was smirking as he used her own momentum against her to throw her off balance and pin her to the wall. Again. At least she was facing forward this time.
He leaned down with that infuriating smirk on his lips to speak. "You lead with your shoulder. It projects your movements."
Skye was struck dumb at the wide range of emotions flowing through her. More than anything though, she was fuming. "Wow, thanks for your advice, but I already have a S.O," she spat with as much sarcasm as possible.
His smirk softened into something that appeared more amused than mocking. "What a relief for me," he replied carelessly, unaffected by her vitriol. "You'd be a terrible student."
Offended, Skye gaped at him. "Well, you'd be a terrible S.O. I bet, impatient and," she faltered trying to come up with a good insult, "And just not great."
He nodded at her in a way that was anything but earnest. "Guess you dodged a bullet there. Though I would say I'm being plenty patient right now."
Patient with her? What game was he playing? He was joking around as if she were not there on a mission to rescue two of the people she cared most about in the world.
"You think this is funny?" Skye began incredulously. "You abducted my best friends!"
Zach began scowling as if she was the one who was out of line here. "You know you could afford to be a little more gracious."
"Gracious, what are you even talking about? You want me to say thank you?" Skye spluttered before collecting herself. "Okay, thank you, Zach," she sneered the fake name in his face, "For kidnapping people I care about and being an all around Hydra douchebag! How was that for 'gracious'?"
Zach was calmly assessing her throughout her rant, which was even more irritating than the smirking. "I was thinking more along the lines of 'thank you for continuously sparing my life', but I should have known you'd be more creative than that."
Skye gawked at him. "Spare me? I don't need your help."
Zach was frowning now a little dubiously as if he could not believe she thought she could survive without his oh-so-great lessons and mercy. "Really? Because I'm losing track of how often I have saved you in just the last month since we met."
Distantly, Skye was aware that she should return to her mission, that she was wasting time arguing with Zach. She could feel that Zach's grip keeping her pinned was loose enough now to break free from.
The problem was she did not want to. As infuriating as he was, Skye had spent the last month wishing to know more about him. She had stayed up at night imagining if she would see him again. She had never anticipated she would after he abducted her friends, but Skye had still desired another chance encounter with her mystery man enough to take what she could get.
Then there was the other part of it. He was still invading her personal space. While his hold on her was less secure than it had been, Zach's body was still pressed firmly against her. It reminded her of the last time they met. The feel of it made her want more, but more what exactly she could not say.
She toyed with the thought of pushing herself up against him if only to see how he would react. Would his eyes darken with desire the way they had when she teased his lip after their kiss? Recalling that only filled Skye with the nearly uncontrollable yearning to attach her lips to his.
Acknowledging those thoughts, however, could go nowhere good. Skye decided to ignore them altogether in favor of getting at least some answers.
"Really? You're losing track? You may have let me go with the obelisk," Skye hissed, feeling strangely paranoid about being overheard. "But don't flatter yourself by suggesting that you 'spared' me more times than you can count."
Skye was laying it on a little thick. If she had learned anything about Zach, it was that he was closed off and as unemotional as possible. Skye had figured the only way she could get him to actually explain what was going on in his head was if she managed to piss him off enough. She wanted to goad him into an explanation. As she observed the way Zach's face twisted in frustration, Skye gave herself a mental pat on the back. Who was controlling their interactions now?
Zach huffed a little before speaking as lowly as she did, "I spared your life more than once in Seville, don't even pretend otherwise. You didn't even know I was there. And then I watched as you picked up the damn thing without a problem, something I'm still waiting on an explanation for by the way. Whitehall would just love to cut you open and discover what makes you tick, even more if he found out about the GH formula in your veins." Skye must have let her surprise show on her face because he nodded condescendingly, "Yes, I know about that, too. But Whitehall doesn't know about that because I didn't tell him." Annoyance had leaked into Zach's tone, but his face barely betrayed the feeling. Skye could only tell by the tightness around his eyes and the way his lips curled down in a repressed frown.
Skye did not know what to say. She had not been taking Zach seriously as a threat because she felt confident that he would not kill her. Now Skye felt incredibly stupid for that. It seemed Zach knew more about her than was safe. Hydra discovering her powers was one of her biggest fears since her transformation. The idea of being experimented on or brainwashed by them had haunted her nightmares. Now a Hydra agent had all the clues to put the pieces of the puzzle together. With just a whim, Zach could put her on Hydra's radar in a really bad way. Skye knew all too well what happened to people on the Index.
Zach read the realization on her face and continued mercilessly, "Whatever you're imagining, it's not even scratching the surface. You have no idea what Whitehall does to people who are… special in his opinion. He once experimented on a woman for a week taking her apart, removing her organs and parts until there was almost nothing left."
Skye had lost her ability to speak. She had known vaguely Whitehall's tendencies but to hear it described so bluntly by one of his subordinates did nothing to avail the fear of being discovered, being labeled as different.
It seemed that Zach's anger had been spent though. He no longer appeared ready to throw all the terrifying details of her potential fate in her face. He just looked tired.
"And just earlier today, you ran right into the scope of my rifle. You just carelessly darted out into the open, in my range." Zach was losing steam. His formerly restrictive grasp on Skye's hands had slipped away. He was leaning against the wall over her as if it need of support. "I didn't tell Whitehall though."
Their faces were so close. What had once been a restraining position between enemies had transformed into something more intimate. It was something that Skye refused to name. The revelations his words brought about were rushing through her and filling her with even more questions.
Only one of them escaped her lips. Skye barely whispered her next words, but she knew he heard them. "So why didn't you?"
Zach froze above her. He was completely rigid even as he swallowed convulsively. "I don't know," he replied unsurely.
Skye was at a loss at what to do. She could not trust a Hydra agent to keep her biggest secret from Hydra. That just made no sense. He may not have the full details about her powers, but he knew enough to be dangerous.
She took in his countenance. He appeared uncertain about why he even bothered to conceal her secrets in the first place. That did not make Skye feel any better. She had personally seen how easily he could transform his expression before. There was no reason to assume he was being genuine with her. She barely even knew him.
That made the fact that she wanted to trust him even harder. Skye knew what May would want her to do. Eliminate the threat. Zach had information that many SHIELD agents were not even trusted with, and he worked for Hydra. The responsible thing to do would be to cross him off like any other threat.
Skye could kill him right now. His guard was lowered- well, lower than she had ever seen it before, Skye knew this guy never fully let go. It was one of the few aspects of her mystery man that she was confident about. Skye had a knife tucked in her sleeve. If she drew it now with so little space between them, Skye was confident she could knick an artery before his superspy reflexes could stop her.
Skye bit her lip. But she really did not want to do that. Besides the strange connection she felt with Zach that was currently sending shivers up her spine, Skye could not justify killing him. He had spared her life, apparently multiple times. She wondered just hours ago why the Hydra sniper in the courtyard had not taken her out when she threw herself out in the open, and now she knew. He had let her live when there was really no reason to.
If she killed this man just because of the threat he might become for her, how would she be any different from Hydra?
That did not stop Skye from feeling like this was a betrayal to SHIELD though. Zach- or whoever he really was- was obviously a valuable asset to Hydra. Who even knew how many innocent people he killed, who even knew how many SHIELD agents he had taken out. With the knowledge that he was sniper from earlier, Skye was fully aware that Zach did not spare civilians. He critically injured two just to draw her team out.
The more Skye considered what she knew of Zach, the less she understood.
Zach did not give her time to contemplate it further. He took a deep breath that made her chest push tightly against his own firm one. That successfully derailed her thoughts of complex morality and life choices.
Zach must have felt the sparks of electricity between them as well. His eyes darkened. Skye was so close she could even see his pupils widen in desire.
"Your scientist friends are down the hall in the interrogation room," Zach spoke gruffly. He pushed off of her, and Skye felt the loss immediately. She was unable to stop the step she took towards him in response, as if she were chasing after him and the warmth that was rapidly leaving her without his body on hers. He gave no response, just walked down the hall and through a door that probably led to an exit. It was only after he departed that Skye realized she had forgotten to ask about his real name.
Skye stared after him completely frozen in place long after he was gone. Then the shouting from behind her startled her back into awareness.
"Found them!" Hunter called from inside the interrogation room. There were murmurs from within and the footsteps of Bobbi and Trip rushing to reunite with their kidnapped friends.
Skye reluctantly turned to join the group. She felt shaken up inside and could not tell if it was fear because a Hydra agent knew her secrets, relief at having saved her friends, or whatever that was that consumed her when Zach was around.
She jogged over with an excuse for her disappearance, but it died on her lips upon seeing Fitz. "Oh god, are you okay?" His fingers on one hand were swollen terribly. If Skye had to guess, they had been broken and reset. Fitz looked a little pale and pained but was valiantly trying to hide it.
He nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing to worry about."
Bobbi was releasing Simmons from her bonds while Hunter did the same with Fitz. Trip bent down by Fitz examining his hand carefully.
"They've already been set," Trip observed. He glanced up at Fitz with more than a little surprise. "Did you do this?"
Both Fitz and Simmons looked at each other before speaking convoluted gibberish loudly. Skye could not understand a word as the two spoke over each other.
"Oh, bloody hell, stop already," Hunter complained. He finally had broken the cuffs that restrained Fitz. A quick glance towards the other end of the room showed Skye that Simmons was now free as well. Seeing her friends mostly unharmed sent waves of relief through Skye. Tension she did not know was in her dissipated.
At the same time, she was even more on edge. Zach must have come out of the interrogation room. He was likely the one in charge of questioning Fitzsimmons. He must have been the one to break Fitz's fingers. The idea of anyone hurting a helpless Fitz filled Skye with righteous rage and disgust.
The problem was she could not attach those feelings with Zach. It was not as if the Hydra agent had ever pretended to be on her side, but for some reason, Skye had been classifying him that way in her mind. She could not keep doing that though. Skye was unconsciously looking at Zach playing Hydra's sniper and shooting up at courtyard full of civilians and thinking of him as her guardian angel, preventing her from being shot.
Nothing made sense, least of all Skye's conflicted thoughts. She needed to accept that Zach was not a friend, an ally or anything benign. He was a trained Hydra killer who kidnapped and tortured her friends, who shot innocents just to make a play against SHIELD. It was wrong to think of him as anything else but an enemy.
But then his face flashed in her mind of his expression when she asked why he kept her secrets from his superiors, and she doubted. He looked... lost, as if he were as much at a loss as she was about what was going on between them. Because there was some strange connection between the two of them much as Skye did not want to concede it.
"Let's get you guys out of here before anyone else comes around," said Bobbi as she helped Simmons stand. Trip did the same with Fitz.
"Did we get all the guards?" Hunter questioned.
No, Skye thought. You missed the most dangerous one. Then she realized what she had just admitted to herself. She thought "you" rather than "we". It was one thing to keep something ultimately unimportant from her team, like a chance encounter with a Hydra agent in Seville, and it was another entirely to think of herself as outside of them in regards to that agent. Disturbed by that epiphany, Skye shifted uncomfortably.
"Did you get the mission leader?" asked Simmons. She was met by three curious gazes, one knowing one, and Skye's. Skye kept her expression carefully blank, but her interest was piqued. It had to be Zach. He was way too skilled to be taking orders from the goons that Bobbi, Hunter, and Trip took down.
"Which one was he?" asked Tripplet. "We knocked out nine Hydra guards in the lobby."
"No," Fitz shook his head. "He was with us up until twenty minutes ago."
"He was definitely the leader though," Simmons added. "The other men were afraid of him."
"Describe him," Bobbi ordered.
Fitz gave the first attempt, "Umm white, male, American…"
Hunter snorted. "You just described eight of the nine guards we knocked out."
"Tall, good physique, nice bone structure," Simmons added helpfully. Fitz glanced at her petulantly when she listed the last two traits.
"White, attractive male Hydra agent," Trip commented faux-thoughtfully, "That narrows it down." The smile he gave Simmons following his comment took all the bite off of his words though.
"You had a head start in this direction, Skye," Bobbi began, "Did you see anyone?"
Skye shook her head while keeping her unwavering gaze on Bobbi. "No, but I mostly just checked the nearby rooms," Skye lied evenly. "Didn't see anyone."
Bobbi turned back towards Fitzsimmons with a light smile. "Guess we missed him."
"Was he the one that did this to you, Fitz?" Trip wondered in a low voice that gave away his protective feelings towards the scientists.
Fitz looked down at his mangled hand as if he had forgotten about it for a moment. "Uhh, no. That wasn't him." He shot a look towards Simmons that conveyed some secret message but neither said anything more.
Skye felt her breath blow out of her. She had not even realized she had been holding her it in anticipation of his answer. So Zach was not the one who had tortured Fitz, that relieved Skye more than she would like to admit. It made her feel less guilty for still harboring these weird feelings of connection with him.
"Did you get his name?" Skye asked hoping her voice did not betray her eagerness. With his name, she could probably find all sorts of information on him. Maybe she could begin to get an answer for some of her questions.
Simmons shook her head. "They just called him 'sir'."
Disappointment rushed through Skye, immediately followed by self-condemnation. Did she not just admit to herself that she needed to get over this fixation? She needed to banish all thoughts of her mystery man away, not waste her time pointlessly wondering about him.
But Skye was honest enough to admit to herself that was going to be easier said than done.
"Well, I for one have had enough of this discussion. One of Hydra got away, we'll kill him next time," Hunter shrugged. "Can we get out of here now?"
Bobbi nodded, "Let's go."
As they fled the scene, Skye could not shake the feeling of unwarranted irritation at Hunter's words. It was nothing new, SHIELD killed Hydra operatives all the time. Still the feeling did not leave Skye- and neither did the warmth she felt when thinking of Zach.
Ward practically ran from the base- or more accurately he ran from Agent Skye as fast as he could. That encounter was even more off-putting than their first. She was getting under his skin, and Ward hated it. He did not have weaknesses and he did not do distractions. That was no even getting into his revelation that he had no idea why he was so compromised that he purposely hid the special nature of SHIELD Agent Skye from Whitehall- and John.
He knew he should probably have checked on the other Hydra agents that had been with him, but he did not particularly care about them. Still Garrett would expect that he would bring them back to HQ with him, so Ward found himself waiting around the area for SHIELD to leave. Then he could go back and gather whatever remained of the Hydra team. With any luck, Kaminsky would have died in the fight.
If Grant had to credit himself with one skill that he excelled at, it would be blending in with his environment. Maria Hill once gave him an assessment that ranked his espionage abilities second only to Romanoff's, and Garrett loved to brag about Grant's seamless way of becoming whoever he needed to be for a mission. John had once gone so far as to proudly proclaim that Grant's personality was malleable based on whatever job needed to done. Grant had smiled at the compliment, pleased that Garrett was happy with him, but the words rung hollowly in his mind for some reason.
But it was using that ability now that allowed Grant to observe the SHIELD agents as they made their escape. Grant briefly toyed with the idea of tracking them back to their HQ just so he would have something to show John for this useless mission. Ultimately he decided against it. Too many variables with too little potential benefit for John and him.
It was from a distance that Grant watched the SHIELD team pile into another black SUV. He recognized Trip, Morse, and the British agent who once followed him disguised as a cowboy along with Skye and the scientists. Skye had her arm thrown around the engineer mindful of his broken hand and was giving the biochemist an adoring look. They were obviously very close.
Grant's chest tightened with an odd longing that Skye would look at him that way. That thought only managed to conjure the image of Skye as she had been only thirty minutes ago caged against the wall with him towering over her. Their bodies were so close together that when Grant breathed it sent shocks through him. She had unconsciously pressed up into him more than once during their reunion, which had tried his self-restraint.
Her eyes were almost hooded as she stared up at him. Grant had wondered what she would do if he leaned down and captured her lips with his own again. It had been those disturbing thoughts along with his epiphany that had sent him fleeing the scene.
Before she disappeared into the van, Skye eyed the area one last time as if searching for something. Her gaze fell on him and his breath hitched. She did not see him of course and her stare passed over him obliviously, but his instinctive reaction just worried Grant all the more.
There was no way this would end well.
So what's the verdict? How's the plot progressing, the characterizations, and the budding Skyeward relationship? Hope you liked it!
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