Fits and Jumpstarts

"Every decision you make from here on out had consequences," Ward said. Skye felt he was just trying to delay the inevitable. "So be warned… the kiddie gloves are off."

"G7." Skye said without hesitation.

"Hit." Ward muttered, sending Skye into a quiet mini victory.

"So, explain to me again what this has to do with my training." Skye said, grabbing a pretzel.

"It's important for every S.O. to evaluate their students thought process." Ward continued when Skye gave her 'I don't believe you" stare, "And I like board games. B10."

"Miss." Skye said, "This isn't thinking. This is stabbing in the dark. But it's nice to take a break from the workouts."

"Well. You deserve a break." Ward said. Skye gave him a mixed look of amusement and disbelief. "I got to give Coulson credit," Ward continued as Skye remained silent, "I would have never pegged an ex-Rising Tide hacker as a good fit, but… you're picking things up pretty fast."

Skye's look now also included a bit of ego. although, hanging around Stark so long, who wouldn't get some ego. "Did you just give me a compliment?"

"I- No. I made a comment." Ward stated.

"A kind one." Skye said, "Did it physically hurt to do that? Do you need an ice pack?" Skye said, then continued when Ward started laughing, "Wow. A complement and a smile."

"Comment." Ward said with emphasis. He seemed to be trying to keep his composure.

"I don't want to ruin the moment, but I'm gonna have to respond with… G4." Skye watched as his face fell, "Come on, Ward. Say it."

"You sunk my battleship." Ward said with an air of defeat. Skye did a mini celebration. Then he said, "Alright, best two out of three."

"I beat you." Skye stated.

"Best two out of three." Ward said.

"I just won. Best out of nothing." Skye argued

"Come on, two out of three." Ward tried again.

"No, no way. I won, just accept it." Skye said, grabbing another pretzel.

"Look, best two out of three, so I can have a more comprehensive view of your thought process." Ward stated.

"Didn't you comprehend it enough when you just lost."

Their quarrel was interrupted when Coulson called them into the briefing room.

"Chan Ho Yin," Coulson started after everyone got settled around the computer table, "Just a struggling street performer until a few years ago when Mr. Chan began to exhibit moderate pyrokinetic abilities."

"So what gave him powers?" Fitz asked.

"It's still under investigation." Coulson said, "But Chan did live near the decommissioned Wan Tai nuclear plant when it caught fire. To our knowledge, no other nearby residents have exhibited similar traits."

"So how did we find out about him?" Simmons asked.

"Informant saw him lighting torches in a street show… with his pinkie." May explained.

"Brought it to Shield's attention." Coulson continued, "We told him to keep his abilities under wraps. He's been on the Index ever since."

"The Index?" Skye piped up.

"It's a list Shield keeps of people and objects with powers." Simmons explained.

"How many are there?" Skye asked.

"Not many." May answered.

"Well, enough to keep a list." Skye pointed out. She made a mental reminder to look for this list in the backup fold from the helicarrier.

"A short list, meant to protect them."

"Though, in rare cases, Shield has had to take action." Ward said.

"Action against objects or people?" Skye asked, a little scared of the answer. When nobody responded, "Well, that's a little drastic with a side of creepy. How are they monitored? Tapped phone, satellite surveillance," Skye was getting a little annoyed with their stubborn silence, so she decided to go a little on the horror movie side of things, "Body probes in dark, unpleasant places?"

"Body probes?" Fitz scoffed while Simmons shivered a bit, "Now, thats ridiculous. Shield doesn't do that. We don't do that. Do we?"

"You don't sound too sure." Skye pointed out.

"The methods vary." Coulson stated. "Mr. Chan was low-risk. He was assigned a case agent who checked in with him every few days. That's how we discovered him missing."

May had pulled up a video and started talking to the other people in Cantonese. Skye was able to recognize a few words. Freshman year in high school she became friends with a foreign exchange student, and learned some basic phrases from her. Along with a few curse words.

"Everyone, this is Agent Kwan, Chan Ho's case agent." May said as Fitzsimmons and Skye waved hello's. "What can you tell us?" May asked.

"Not much, I'm afraid." Agent Kwan said through the video, "Chan is a magician, so at first, I thought he made himself disappeared."

"The file says you'd caught him violating his Index agreement before." Coulson stated.

"On two separate occasions. Claimed we were 'Hampering his artistic expression.' But late last night, he was taken by professionals. The only thing they left behind was this scrap of aluminized material." Agent Kwan held up an evidence bag.

"Fireproof clothing," Simmons stated.

"So whoever took him knew about his power." Ward inquired.

"Yes, and we think we know why." Agent Kwan said, "Over the last few days,Tech division discovered a crack into our data stream. It's the same cyber punks who hacked us before." Skye silently cursed the Rising Tide, "Somehow, they got in again. It's the Rising Tide."

Skye watched as the team's heads turn to her, with a lot of suspicion, while ignoring Agent Kwan on the video. Coulson was the first to take charge, Having May end the video call before signaling for her and Ward to follow him into his office.

"The Rising Tide is a huge organization of hacktivists from all around the world. Any of them could have done this." Skye began to explain as soon as Coulson was sitting down in his chair. Skye felt like she was back at the orphanage, with the nuns accusing glares on her before she could even explain her side of the story. "It wasn't me."

"No one's saying it was you." Ward said from her left.

"But you're thinking it." Skye said, "I can see your faces thinking it."

"We're assessing the situation." Coulson said calmly.

"Then I'm sure you're taking into account that I have been living on a plan with you this whole time. It would be impossible for me to hack Shield." Skye said quickly.

"Or easier." Coulson stated, "We're gonna need more that that."

"Fine. Let me trace the hack, and I'll prove it." Skye stated.

"I believe her, Sir." Skye heard Ward say from her left, "And if she's telling the truth, we need to track down the person responsible."

Saying 'if she's telling the truth' is not a sign you believe me Ward. Skye thought.

"Dig up something," Coulson said, standing up, "And fast. The longer Mr. Chan's missing, the more danger he's in."

Ward led Skye back into the briefing room. Skye started working on the tablet and computer table to identify the hacker. She noted that Fitzsimmons was watching over her work, so she had to be careful to not give her quicker hacking style away. She decided to go with the slower, albeit easier root.

"How close are we?" Coulson asked as he walked into the room.

"Almost there." Skye said. She only slightly listened to Fitzsimmons trying to explain her work to the other half of the team, and their response. "We got our origin," She announced, "Austin, Texas."

"You got a name?" Coulson asked.

"Just the Café our hacker worked out of for the moment," Skye said, taking a breath, "Here we go. Got a hit." Skye pulled up the driver's licence onto the big screen.

"Miles Lydon, not Skye." Fitz said to her right, "That's to all out relief."

"You know him?" Coulson asked.

"First, every hacker in the world knows him." Skye began, "I-."

"Not just the hacker world. He infiltrated the Kremlin." Simmons interrupted.

"Yeah, the picture of, uh, Putin shirtless on horseback- that was his hack." Fitz commented.

"It was also his hack that got Chan kidnapped." Ward stated.

"May, set a course for Austin." Coulson said.

"Just did." May replied.

"What about Chan?" Skye said, still slightly annoyed at being cut off, but also relived.

"Kwan's got a Shield team on the ground." Coulson stated, "Our best bet is to chase this thing from the other end. Find Mr. Lydon. Bring him in. See what he knows." Everybody walked their separate ways to get ready.

Skye had and idea. It was half thought out and quite risky, but a plan's a plan. Even if it was a shoddy plan at best, it's still better than most of Tony's plans. At least, that's what Skye tells herself. She was mostly hoping it would work out like it did for Tony. She just needed a small amount of time to figure out what he was planing, and then lead the team to him. It should work, in theory. Skye knew Miles would remain silent if the team just grabbed him, she needed to throw him out of the loop for a bit. Grabbing a jacket out of her bunk, Skye headed to the cargo hold.

"Thanks for having my back there earlier." Skye said when she saw Ward checking over his gun.

"Find anything else on this guy?" Ward asked, referencing Miles.

"Not really. Address on his licence was bogus, turned out to be a condemned building." Skye said, "Hackers like him tend to stay off the grid."

"Aren't you glad you traded in that kind of life?" Ward asked.

"Yeah… though living on a plane is about as off the grid as you can get." Skye pointed out.

Ward cocked his gun, while Skye glanced at Coulson and May looking down on them. Skye could see them talk for a short bit, before Coulson headed back into the bus while May headed down the stairs. Skye notices the way May glanced at her. It was so quick, Skye thought she imagined it for a second. But she remembered that more than once has a team member nearly caught her on the phone with Tony or Pepper and once, Rhodey. Ward and Simmons were the only two that haven't come across her calls. Though, Skye's positive Fitz would have told Simmons. Maybe this slight distrust would help her.

"Just left the café where Miles logged in." Skye said into her earpiece, "Cashier says she hasn't seen him in over a week."

"I may have eyes on him." Skye heard Ward over the earpiece. Working quickly, Skye sent Miles a cipher-text. "I've been made." Skye heard, followed by a message of a meetup location. "Heading east on 5th street." Skye let their voices continue to filter from the earpiece, but headed to the location that Miles sent. She was already planning on what she would say to Miles.

Walking into his room, Skye looked around. She saw a small setup. It one used for finding and storing information. She plugged in a flash drive, small and unnoticeable, and set it up to start downloading information to her computer. Skye knows that all information the Rising Tide gathers for use it sent through here. Skye covered it up with some papers that Miles had haphazardly thrown onto his desk. She then heard the door opening. She ducked behind the wall closest to the door. Seeing it was only Miles, she moved out from behind the wall as his back was turned.

"Are you sure they're not following you?" Skye asked.

"Yeah. Had to pull out all the stops, though." Miles joked, Skye knowing he meant it literally. "Thanks for the text. Wait, are you mad?"

"Are you kidding?" Skye asked, "I don't have much time. Who did you leak those files to?"

"Wait a second. What? 'Good to see you, too, Miles.' I released them into the world, where they belong."

"They'll keep hunting you unless they have someone else to look for. And, why the hell would you hack Shield?"

"Because that's what we do."

"Not when I'm on the inside. You could have ruined everything, you imbecile."

"You seemed like you handled it." Miles said.

"Only because I had to. I wouldn't have if you hadn't pulled that stunt." Skye snapped. "Stop getting me off track."

"Off track?" Miles inquired, "That's funny, because I'm pretty sure you are the one that always sends anyone you talk to off track."

"That's it." Skye said, pulling out her phone from her back pocket, while grabbing her drive so Miles wouldn't see it, before heading to the door.

"What are you doing?" Miles asked.

"I'm gonna leave, and tell the team I found your location." Skye said as she reached the door.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Miles said.

"Nope," Skye muttered. Looking quickly at the map, she saw that May was just outside the door. Now, more than ever, was she happy she kept gps tags on their phones. Unlocking the multitude of locks, Skye opened the door, revealing a stone faced May to Miles, while hiding behind the door.

"You sit." May ordered Miles as she stepped into the room, closing the door and turning to Skye, "You too."

Skye sat on the couch while Miles sat in his desk chair. May called Coulson over the comms then handcuffed Miles. It was only five minutes before the team arrived. By that time May moved Miles into the other room.

"I know how this looks-" Skye began only to be interrupted by Coulson putting a finger up.

"How long have you to been in contact?" Coulson asked.

"I contacted once the day I joined to tell him I was out and once earlier today." Skye replied.

"When you tipped off an active suspect?" Coulson asked.

"I tipped him off because I knew he would give me his location. I was hoping I could find out something." Skye said, looking at Coulson's face. "I'm really sorry."

"Noted." Coulson said, making it really impersonal, "If not you, then who is Mr. Lydon working with?"

"Probably no one. He's an idealist, believes in freedom of information." Skye said.

"That information cost a man his freedom, and you sabotaged our attempts to remedy that." Coulson stated.

"I already told you, I came here to find out what Miles knows about Chan." Skye said.

"And?"

"He didn't tell me anything. It was a dead end. I was going to give you his location. I was gonna try to find out everything I could to try to help you guys."

"Really?" Coulson asked, "Then why not let us in on the plan?"

"I just- I felt like I couldn't tell you guys everything."

"I know. That why I had May follow you. Seems like that wasn't a dead end." Coulson said before walking off.

Skye was left there to mull over her thoughts. She could see Ward purposefully looking away from Skye while Fitzsimmons glanced over at her every once in a while. It was only a few moments before Coulson came out of the other room, followed by May and Miles.

"Gather all the evidence and secure the prisoners." Coulson said. Skye was really glad she grabbed her flash drive, "We got what we were looking for here. We're going to Hong Kong."

"I'm so sorry, Ward," Skye said as he came over to Skye, sense she was a prisoner now. She had a feeling she would be apologizing a lot now.

"Hands," Ward commanded. Skye put her hands out so that he could cuff them. "Now get up."

The trip back to the plane was a silent one. The walk onto the plane was also silent. It wasn't until after both Skye and Miles were placed in the cage, and after the plane had taken off, and after Skye stared at miles angrily for a while that Miles finally decided to fill up the silence.

"So, I guess due process isn't really Shield protocol." Miles grunted.

"They don't have time for it." Skye replied icily.

"Whoa, are you defending them?" Miles asked, "These people are denying our basic rights."

"This isn't about us. They're trying to save someone's life."

"Listen to yourself. That's what they always say to justify invading privacy, Skye. These people stand for everything we despise- secrets, censorship-"

"Enough with the manifesto, Miles." Skye shouted.

"We can't let them get away with it. Manning, Snowden, Aaron Swartz. These are modern day revolutionaries."

"This had nothing to do with that. You leaked information that cost a man his freedom. That's what this is about."

"The information is out there now, Skye. I cannot be held accountable for what people do with the information."

"Of course you can. It's called responsibility. You did something that caused a man to be captured."

"Why? Why did I even let you into the Rising Tide?"

"There you go again, I can't even get a straight answer from you."

"You'll get a straight answer from me when I get-" Miles began before he was cut off by the door opening. Ward walked in with some papers in his hands.

"I'm going to give you a chance." Ward said, "Do you want to tell her, or should I?"

"I don't have to listen to you-" Miles began before Ward cut him off.

"There goes your chance. Your boyfriend here-"

"He's not my boyfriend," Skye said.

"Made a few deposits," Ward continued. Looking slightly annoyed that Skye interrupted him, "In the days following the leak. All said… it's about a million dollars."

"What? Did you sell information?" Skye asked, "Miles? Yes or No."

"Yes, but-"

Skye cut him off, "What happened to freedom of information. What the hell were you thinking?!"

"It was a million dollars." Mile said, thinking that would explain everything," A million dollars. It would change my life. And that woman was harmless, I looked into it."

"No one with good intentions pays that kind of money for information. Did you ever think about that?" Skye snapped.

"Of course I did. I would-"

"Who is the woman you referred to?"Ward asked.

"A fan of the Rising Tide." Miles responded, "Some rich girl in a flower dress. She knew about me, said I had a gift. She thought people like us deserved more."

"Oh, you deserve more." Skye snarked.

"She pointed me to a Chinese Shield feed. Wanted me to crack it." Miles continued.

"You thought that was harmless?" Ward asked.

"I checked the data stream. It didn't seem like anything you and I hadn't already put out there, Skye. And I traced the account where the money came from to make sure it wasn't some evil corporation. It was just an eco-research lab."

"And you know all the evil corporations?" Skye muttered.

"Ecological research?" Ward asked.

"Yeah, insects," Miles said, "Some study with centipedes." Skye paled, and looked at Ward as Ward looked back. She knew this wasn't good. "What's more harmless than that?"

Ward walked out of the cage, presumably to talk to Coulson. It was a while before Miles had the courage to speak up again.

"I'm sorry. I honestly didn't know."

"Why should I believe you. Democratization of knowledge. 'The truth will set you free.' The truth sure as hell came out." Skye ranted.

"I believe in all those things. I just don't know why they have to go hand in hand with barely scraping by. Come on, Skye. You lived in you van for the last few years."

"Because I wanted to. I'm sure if I didn't I could have found a new place to live."

"How. Going back to that old job of your. The one you only talk about in passing. I could've funded us for years. What's wrong with that?"

"I'll tell you what's wrong with that. An innocent guy might die. For money."

"You know I'd never intentionally hurt anyone. I'm just trying to get my life together. At least you know what you're looking for. Me? I don't have that."

After that, they fell into a heavy silence. Skye thinks that that seems to be a habit for them. Ward bursted in later without warning.

"Coulson's in trouble." He said, grabbing his keys to unlock Skye and Miles and bring them into the briefing room.

Skye got to work right away on finding anyway she could help. She even brought Jarvis in to help with the problem. It was a risk, but Skye felt it was worth it if she could get them out safely.

"The entire facility's been locked down." Simmons said nervously.

"Are you sure about this?" Fitz asked Ward.

"No." Ward said.

"This is pretty cool." Miles whispered in Skye's ear. It took all her restraint not to kick him in the shin.

"The alarm's disconnected the system from all exterior servers." Skye stated.

"Can you fix it or not?" Ward asked.

"Yes, but you've got to get me on-site."

"No way." Miles said while Ward said, "Not a chance."

"You're a hacker, Skye, not seal team six." Miles said.

"No. But he is." Skye gestured to Ward.

Moving quickly Skye hurried after Ward as they bolted to the facility. Ward got them in the building quick enough, and talking guards down along his way. At one point he said something over the comms while he was fighting a guy. It wasn't long before he found the computer room. Skye bolted to the nearest computer and started to hack the system.

"How long is this-" Ward began before Skye interrupted him, saying "Done."

Skye and Ward meet up with Coulson and May in the hallway just before they got to the doors. Coulson lead them out of the building, Skye running as fast as she could to keep up. They all stopped and turned around to watch the explosion shoot out of the roof.

"Skye manages to extract some files from the building's mainframe." Skye heard Ward say to her right, "It's not much, but it could get us a fix on Centipede."

"Maybe." Coulson said.

"You can't save someone from themselves, sir." Ward said.

"You can if you get to them early enough." Coulson stated, glancing at Skye.

Skye felt an overwhelming amount of guilt flood her. She turned her head away from his disappointed glare. That guilt followed her all the way back to the bus. Skye stood in the cargo as she watched what Coulson was going to do with Miles. She sent Tony a quick text on their way back, happy she hide her Stark Phone in her bunk and that she was able to grab it. They text was a basic 'I'm fine but I may not be able to contact you for a while' so that Tony wouldn't get curious and/or worried about her lack of contacting and hack into Shield.

"You've got two choices. Takes what's in this box, or we put you in a slightly bigger one." Coulson said to Miles.

"You want to give me a hint?" Miles said rhetorically. After an annoyed glare from Coulson, he opened the box. "What's it do?

"Whatever we tell it to do." Coulson said, "I'd try to avoid any unlawful activity, and I think you'll find it hard to use electronic devices for a while. You can go now."

"Cool, but we're still in Hong Kong."

"Yep." Coulson said.

"I live in Austin, Texas." Miles stated.

"I know. Oh, and agent Kwan's family thanks you for the anonymous donation." Coulson turned around, saying "My office," to Skye as he headed up the spiral stairs.

"So, you plan to stay?" Miles asked.

"If they let me." Skye said.

"You've changed." Miles said.

"I haven't changed. You've just never knew the real me." Skye stated, turning to head to Coulson's office.

"So, I'm going to Coulson's office now." Skye stated when she say Ward drinking with May, "Figured you'd wanna be there. Being my S.O. and all."

"I'm off the clock." Ward said coldly.

"Right. Okay, then." Skye mumbled, turning to head to Coulson's office. She couldn't help but feel that this would turn out like most of her foster family's. Skye walked into the room, and sat down in a chair.

"I didn't want anything to-" Skye began.

"Stop lying." Coulson said. Skye froze. "Since the moment you stepped foot on this plane, you've been lying to my face, to all of us."

"I haven't-" Skye tried to explain, only to be cut off again.

"You're lying now." Coulson said, "I stood up for you to my team down there. And some of us started to believe in you, risked our lives for you."

"I-" Skye tried.

"Why are you here?!" Coulson shouted, "You've been keeping something from us. This whole time. And it wasn't just a boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend," Skye murmured.

"You have a secret, Skye, and one chance to come out with it. That's now, or I'm done with you." Coulson finished his ultimatum.

Skye could feel tears forming in her eye's as Coulson continued to talk. She took in a shaky breath, deciding if she should let him in, and how much she should tell him. She reached into her bra and brought out a drive. It was the one that contained her history.

"What is this?" Coulson inquired.

"It's everything I have." Skye said.

"On us?" He asked.

"On me." Skye replied, "That's why I learned to crack systems, why I joined the Rising Tide. To find any details I could about my parents." Coulson plugged the drive in, putting the information on the screen in his office. "There's nothing. No records. There's no trace of them. My lifelong search has led to a single document. Redacted."

"By Shield." Coulson stated.

"No matter what you do, I'll never stop looking." Skye said, her voice cracking.

"You might not like what you find." Coulson said.

"It can't be worse than what I've imagined." Skye stated.

"Maybe I can help." Coulson suggested.

Skye felt so relieved in that moment. Of course it hiccuped when he handed her a box. Coulson walked out when she grabbed the box. Skye opened it up, and put the metal bracelet on her wrist.

Hello.

Sorry this is so late. I had a bit of trouble writing this chapter. Rewrote it many times. Took it down many tracks. Finally settled for this one. Also had many ideas for other fics bouncing around my head and they wouldn't go away until I typed them down. And, I got a summer job because my mother threated me with house work and I felt I should make money if I have to work anyway. But I plan on using most of my free time to spent on writing.

If you have any suggestions for this story or possible other stories, fell free to leave me a comment or pm me. Also, if you see any mistakes in my writing, I would like to know.

The title "Fits and Jumpstarts" is from Jurassic World soundtrack.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter.