Skye woke up on a cot in the Cage.
She sat up with a jerk, her head swimming and her body beginning to tremble uncontrollably as she remembered why she was there and what had been happening before she knocked herself out. The earthquake - the lab - the crashing, the explosion...
The plastic table and chair set up in the room were beginning to rattle already from the vibrations she was putting off. At least, with her in the Cage, everyone outside should be safe.
Everyone who was left.
Oh, God. Simmons.
A soft knock on the door interrupted her frenzied thoughts. "Skye?" She heard Hunter's voice, muffled, courteous. "Are you all right?"
She sprang over to the door, trying to open it before she realized it was locked. "Hunter!" she cried desperately. "Is everyone okay? Is Simmons - is Simmons okay?"
"She's going to be fine," his voice came back at her through the door, reassuring. "Nothing a little field medicine and rest can't fix. She took a good hit to the head, and she was out for a little while, but the bleeding made it look worse than it really was. She's taking it easy for now, and she should be back on her feet in a few days."
Skye heaved a shuddering sigh and slumped against the door, her body tingling with relief. "Thank God," she murmured. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath before another thought sent a chill shivering up her spine. "Was anyone else injured?"
Hunter seemed to hesitate. "Cuts and bruises. A few people out in the hangar had broken bones, with all the equipment flying around," he admitted. "One burn that was pretty nasty but should heal up okay."
Skye struggled to assimilate the information, overcome by a choking sense of guilt.
Hunter's voice intruded on her inner turmoil. "Is there anything you need?"
Skye blinked, bewildered. The thought of her own needs hadn't yet crossed her mind. She did a quick personal inventory. She wasn't hungry; she doubted she could eat even if she tried. But she was practically dying of thirst.
"Maybe some water?" she ventured.
"Be right back with it," he answered briskly. A few minutes later, she heard the beeping of the code being entered, followed by the scraping sound of the lock disengaging, and Hunter appeared in the doorway with a plastic cup of water. "Room service," he quipped with a weak grin. "Can't remember when any of us last had that." He handed the cup to her, then grimaced. "I can't stay," he said apologetically.
"I know," Skye replied quietly, accepting the water. Their eyes met for a moment, Hunter's heavy with sympathy, before he shut the door again and entered the code to re-arm the lock.
"I'm sorry I have to lock you in." His tone was regretful. "It's not that they think you'd deliberately do anything to hurt anyone, but..." He trailed off.
"I know," Skye replied, trying to keep her voice steady. "I get it." She took a sip of the water. The feel of the cool liquid on her parched tongue almost made her dizzy.
"Coulson should be coming shortly," Hunter added. "He wanted to know when you'd woken up."
"How long was I out for?" she asked, a little dazed. It felt like it had been longer than the couple of hours the ICER usually lasted.
"About six hours," Hunter replied quietly. "After we saw the ICER worked to stop the quake, Fitz gave you an extra dose of dendrotoxin to last until we could get things figured out a bit."
They'd had to sedate her after all. Like a wild animal who had to be put down so it didn't harm its handlers.
It's no use thinking that way, Skye. They did what had to be done.
But she could think it without bitterness. It was true. She was like a wild animal, out of control. An unpredictable, unconsciously destructive force.
Thank God someone had thought to make the Cage out of vibranium. It was like they'd designed it for her.
Skye turned and leaned back against the door, sliding down until she was sitting on the floor. She heard a shuffling on the other side of the door and realized that Hunter was still out there. "Are we still at the Party House?" she asked weakly.
"No." Hunter's reply was hesitant. "We're back at the Playground." He paused for a beat. "We had to evacuate the Party House due to structural concerns."
"Some party," Skye muttered. A horrifying thought struck her. "The surrounding area?" she asked anxiously. "How bad was the damage?"
"No fatalities," he began, and Skye's breath caught in a relieved sob. "A few flattened houses nearby. Some injuries. It was a pretty remote area, and the quake seemed more localized than the others."
A tear trailed down Skye's face, and the damn table started rattling again.
Mercilessly, she tamped down her inner flood of emotions, feeling a perverse kind of satisfaction as her heart hardened and the table stopped shaking. She fished for something to distract herself, to keep her tumultuous feelings at bay. "How did you know to come check on me?" she asked.
"I was on watch. I saw you wake up," Hunter replied in an indecipherable tone.
Skye glanced up at the camera, only then realizing that its light was on. She didn't know why she should be disturbed by the knowledge that they were surveilling her. Of course they would be. That's what SHIELD always did with people who manifested unknown powers.
She'd just never been one of them.
She hadn't been on this side of that camera since her transgression with Miles, what felt like a lifetime ago. Even though part of her knew it probably shouldn't, her disgrace felt deeper this time.
Last year, her impulsivity had led her to tip off an active suspect. This time, her lack of control had compromised the lives of her entire team - of an entire region.
Last year, she'd still been a simple human girl, naively searching for the parents she'd never known.
Now, she didn't know what she was. Or what she was capable of.
Skye heard a shuffle out in the hallway and the beeping of the code being entered, and then the door was opening against her back. She stood up to allow it to swing open all the way, and Coulson stepped into the Cage. "Thank you, Hunter," Coulson said. "I'll take it from here."
Hunter nodded and walked off.
Coulson closed the door behind him and turned to Skye, studying her with eyes full of compassion.
She was wary, her fingers twitching at her sides. "Should you be in here?"
Coulson's expression was serious. "Probably not. But I figured I owed you some face time after what happened back there."
Skye swallowed hard and avoided his gaze, her eyes darting around the blank walls of the Cage.
Coulson's tone was gentle. "How are you holding up?"
"Not well." Her voice cracked.
"That's understandable." He seemed much more composed than he had been six hours ago. "This kind of thing is usually a shock."
Skye suddenly bristled, her nerves shot. "This kind of thing? You mean, discovering you're not entirely human and then being transformed in some bizarre alien fog ritual that suddenly leaves you unable to control the seismic waves you're putting out that endanger everyone you care about?"
Coulson winced, and Skye's face twisted remorsefully. "I'm sorry," she said, very quietly.
"Let's sit down." He gestured toward the chair, but Skye chose to plop down onto the edge of the cot. Coulson sat in the chair instead.
"You've had about six hours longer to get used to the idea than I have," Skye said heavily.
Coulson nodded.
She lifted her eyes to meet his, and he could see that she was still utterly at a loss. "What are we going to do?"
Coulson took a deep breath and answered steadily. "We're going to take it one day at a time. We're going to have you stay in here, for now, until we know more about what we're dealing with."
Skye nodded. She knew that was really the only option.
"I've put Fitz to work ruggedizing your laptop, so we can run a hard line and you'll be able to communicate with everyone via video. You'll also be able to continue working from in here. We're going to need you. I have Bobbi following up on your leads from São Luis, but I want your eyes on it. Field missions are going to be a no-go for now, but we can continue to have you working the back end. Just like when someone is injured."
Skye nodded, her lips tight. It was just like that. Only not like that at all.
"We'll have someone assigned to you 24 hours a day - if you need anything, just wave."
"What, like a potty break?"
"About that..." Coulson grimaced.
Skye's face went blank. "Oh."
He held her gaze steadily. "For the time being, we really can't risk having you leave this room. For any reason."
Skye nodded slowly. "Right, so...privacy, out the window?"
Coulson shook his head. "We'll set something up. I want you under surveillance, for your own safety as well as so that we can continue to gather information. But I'm sure we can figure out a way to salvage your privacy."
"Good, because I don't know how I would feel about Fitz or Hunter watching me answer nature's call."
"I don't think that will be necessary." He paused, studying her with discerning eyes, and when he spoke, his voice was gentle, understanding. "Skye."
She hiccupped, trying to swallow the bewildered sobs that were pent up in her chest. Talking through the logistics had, for a moment, distracted her from the reality of what was happening here. But only for a moment.
"What's happening to me?" she asked quietly.
"I'm not entirely sure," Coulson admitted. He swallowed hard and was thankful that Skye didn't notice. He kept his voice steady. "I know your thoughts have gone catastrophic and you're assuming this is a permanent change, but I'd like to avoid drawing conclusions until we have more information. There are a lot of strange things that can happen in the wake of exposure to alien tech."
"Okay. How do you propose getting more information?"
"I've spoken to Simmons briefly. When she's recovered -"
Skye broke in, anxious. "Hunter said she was going to be okay?"
"She will be," Coulson assured her. "She isn't yet." Skye nodded slowly. "But when she is, with your permission, I would like for her to run some tests on you. Figure out exactly what's going on here. We did a general physical after San Juan, but..."
"That's fine."
"I don't know exactly what she's going to want, but it will probably include monitoring your vitals, having the DWARFs in here to measure vibrations -"
"That's fine."
"- so we can figure out what's causing this and whether it's something temporary...or not."
Skye just held his gaze. "What am I going to do if it isn't?"
"Then we're going to do what SHIELD has always done best - we're going to help you learn to control it."
Her reply was a whisper. "And what if I can't?"
Coulson's lips tightened. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
She blinked at him, wary and terrified, and bit her lip to hold in the irrational, angry things she wanted to say. Half her brain knew it was ridiculous to get angry at Coulson. The other half knew she wasn't really angry with him at all, but it felt safer to take out her anger on him than on anyone else.
Coulson stood up and came to sit beside her on the cot. He folded his hands in his lap, then said quietly, "We're going to figure this out, Skye. You're not going to be stuck in here forever. This is a temporary solution."
He lifted one arm to wrap it around her in a reassuring hug, and Skye turned, burying her face in his shoulder. She wished she could share his confidence that things were going to work out.
Coulson held the hug until Skye pulled back. "It's a little after midnight," he informed her gently. "Fitz will be working through the night to have your laptop ready in the morning, but I'm afraid there won't be much for you to do until then. It's probably best for you to get some rest while you can." Skye sighed heavily before nodding. "Is there anything you need?"
"My sweats?" she asked hesitantly. "If someone packed up my stuff before we left the Party House?" Coulson nodded. "And maybe a sticky note to cover the camera lens while I change?"
Coulson smiled a little with relief at her dry humor. "I had May pack up your things before we left," he replied. "I'll have her bring your bag in for you." He paused before asking, looking as if he wished he didn't have to, "Is it just clothing?"
Skye understood. "If she grabbed everything, there will be a couple of knickknacks in there that could become projectiles. I'll have May take them back out."
Coulson nodded, frowning apologetically. "That's probably a good idea." He made what he hoped was reassuring eye contact with Skye for a moment. "Hang in there. We're going to work this out."
She nodded.
Coulson left, re-arming the lock behind him.
A few minutes later, May came with Skye's bag. She knocked before opening the door and stepped into the Cage, taking a moment to assess Skye with perceptive eyes before giving her a quick, unexpected hug. "Skye," she said without prologue, her tone firm but compassionate, "you can't blame yourself for anything that's happened. If there were anything you could have done to prevent it, we all know you would have."
"Okay," Skye replied. She sounded unconvinced, even to herself, and she knew she wasn't fooling May. But her supervising officer, after pressing her lips together for a moment, let the matter drop.
"Here are your things," May said gently, holding out the black duffle to Skye. A little gleam of mischief twinkled in her eye as she added, "I think I got everything."
Skye unzipped the bag and pulled, from the very top, her pillow. "How did you-?"
May smirked. "It's an unusually nice pillow. And I seem to remember you doing Fitz's laundry for a couple of weeks after we first moved in. I wouldn't want that to go to waste."
A smile came over Skye's face in spite of herself. "Thanks, May."
May nodded, an affectionate warmth filling her eyes as she watched her young protégée unpack. Skye carefully stacked her clothes next to her cot, replaced the few knickknacks in the bag, and handed it to May, who traded her for a single orange sticky note.
"Get some rest," May said softly before turning to leave. "I'll be back early."
"Okay," Skye replied as the door closed, shutting her in. The reassurance that she would see May in the morning helped calm her nerves and assuage her loneliness just enough to get her moving. She stuck the sticky note over the camera lens and changed into her sweats before removing it. She started to crumple it, but thought better of it and stuck it on the wall below the camera, for future use.
Skye lay down on the cot, bunching up her pillow in her arms. She buried her face in it and breathed in the familiar scent deeply, clinging to the little bit of comfort it offered. At least one thing in life was normal.
The rattling that accompanied her to sleep, however, as a few tears slipped out to dampen her pillow, was anything but comforting.
A/N: I very nearly succumbed to a vicious combination of insecurity and writer's block this week (probably compounded by the flu - this is really not my winter thus far), and so I have to share a special thanks to those whose words of encouragement came at just the right moments to motivate me to get this chapter to you: Nascent Narrator, who is my frequent beta'er and encourager; partickler, Cakepop, and tractus. solitarius, whose reviews all came through literally at the moment I was deciding that I should never write anything ever again (I can be so dramatic sometimes); and everyone who has newly followed and favorited this story in the last three days. Thank you so much for the encouragement! It really makes a world of difference. This chapter is dedicated to you. :)
Now that I am no longer feverish and hopefully past my writer's block, I fully intend to jump back onto the twice-weekly-updates schedule. Watch for the next update in the next few days!