Skye awoke the next morning from a dream of Hunter's lips on hers. It was, in fact, the first dream she could remember having in months - since Hydra, maybe - that wasn't a nightmare. It felt somehow safe and free and exhilarating, all at the same time.

It made waking to reality that much more painful.

Skye stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, listening to the alarm on her laptop beep. Eventually she rolled over and hit the space bar to shut the thing up, and slumped back onto the cot, curled up in the fetal position.

She wasn't entirely sure how that had happened last night. She wasn't planning on anything like that...for heaven's sake, Hunter was Hunter, and...

The fleeting memory of his hands tangled up in her hair, his lips against her skin, sent a shiver through her.

Dammit.

Okay, so there was attraction there, fine. She supposed that, really, there always had been, despite her sarcastic quips about not understanding why women liked him. Maybe that attraction had been the source of the sarcasm. It was a great defense to keep people out, when you weren't ready to let them in yet.

Not that she had needed to keep him out, because Bobbi had come back, and suddenly their banter had dried up. Oh well. She hadn't been upset. It had been fun, but nothing she felt serious about.

Now, though - after weeks of getting to know him more deeply than she had before - after peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and movies and timely interruptions, after watching him go through betrayal and come out with his integrity intact, after catching glimpses of that place in him that longed for something to believe in...

"After a while, you stop believing that there's anybody out there with honest motives."

"Sometimes I wish I could still think that way."

"I want you to know I'm not pulling any tricks."

"We're never gonna send you away."

"You're not alone. Remember that."

Skye shut her eyes against the memories, and the emotions that came along with them. She hadn't recognized until now that her feelings toward him had come to run so deep. And a not-so-small part of her desperately wished that last night could have been the start of something real.

But in the rational thinking of morning, she could see it more clearly. They had both been emotional wrecks, in a vulnerable place in the middle of the night. It was much too close on the heels of Bobbi leaving; there was no way it was anything more for Hunter than a rebound. Plus, there was always the little detail that he risked bodily harm by getting too close to her.

It had definitely been a mistake.

Too bad her heart wasn't buying that. At all.

Skye sighed. Well, one thing she could take comfort in, and that was that his overnight shift should be finishing up any minute. He would probably sleep through the rest of it, and then she wouldn't have to see him again for at least another twenty-four hours. Plenty of time to cool down and get over it.

Knock, knock

Skye frowned, perplexed. May, maybe? She stood up, making sure she was decent, and twisted her hair up into a knot. "Come in," she called out, making her way over to the door.

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Scrape.

Of course it was him.

Skye took an unconscious step backward, her eyes darting away in an attempt to avoid locking with his. Hunter was leaning against the door frame, arms folded, his eyes still bleary and his hair a little mussed from sleeping.

God, she wanted to run her fingers through it again. Unfortunately, she was a fricking weapon of mass destruction, and she was pretty sure she wouldn't get that chance.

"Skye," he began hesitantly, standing up straighter and shifting his weight as if he felt as uncomfortable as she did.

He probably does.

"About last night..." he went on apologetically.

I know. It was a mistake.

She couldn't stand to hear him say it, so she cut him off. "I really don't want to talk about it."

"Okay." He studied her, his expression difficult to read. A hint of softness that could have been sympathy only caused Skye to stiffen up even more. "I -" He hesitated again before continuing. "I think we need to tell Simmons about it." He grimaced apologetically.

Skye blinked at him in disbelief. "Wha - Why?" she demanded, so surprised that she forgot to avoid eye contact.

He glanced away. "I know it's uncomfortable, and I'm sorry, but...what happened was...different. Not just a shock wave. I think...it might be good for her to know about it. It might help you both to figure something out." He looked back at her cautiously, with genuine concern.

Skye found herself accidentally gazing right into those dark brown eyes, and had to steel herself against the response they triggered in her body and heart.

"Fine," she conceded brusquely. "After briefing, we can tell her about it."

"Okay," Hunter replied, shifting awkwardly. Skye was too busy avoiding his eyes to notice the aching way they lingered on her face, then grazed across her collarbones, before he closed the door and locked her in.

At least Hunter had the decency to stand behind the laptop during briefing, so she could pretend he wasn't there. That made it a lot easier to focus on the results of what she'd been working on the night before.

When it was her turn, she cleared her throat. "So, I spent the evening analyzing the data from the attacks, and I found some patterns in the way they're routing their signals through different servers. I think...I'm almost at the point where I think I can nail down an algorithm, or a couple of variations, that they're using to route the signals. Then I can put together a program to analyze any new intel we receive, see if it corresponds to those same patterns. If it does -" she took a breath, seeing the optimism in Coulson's eyes. "If it does, we can be pretty sure that's a false tip, and coming from this same source."

"Good," Coulson assessed emphatically. "Will that also help us to track them down?"

Skye considered. "It could. Or even..."

"If we know it's them," May broke in, her eyes lighting up as she latched on to the same idea, "we could set up an ambush for the ambush."

Skye nodded.

Some of the tension seemed to drain out of Coulson's frame as relief softened his features. "Good work, Skye."

Skye grinned, feeling the flush of warmth that always came with his or May's approval. This morning, it helped fill the aching empty place in her chest that last night's fears and embarrassment had left.

It made it a little easier to bear when she heard Hunter pull Simmons aside after briefing and tell her that there was something he and Skye needed to talk to her about. This was not a conversation she was looking forward to.

Yep. Just as she had suspected, the awkward tension in the air was so thick that Skye was pretty sure she could get small objects to levitate.

The faint crease across Simmons' forehead as she glanced back and forth between Hunter, standing beside her in the lab, and Skye on the screen made it clear that she had picked up on the vibe and didn't quite know what to make of it.

"Does Fitz need to be here?" she inquired politely.

"No!" came the resounding response from both of them, Hunter emphatic and Skye looking almost panicked. Simmons was bewildered.

"All right then!" she said brightly, trying to diffuse the awkwardness. "What can I do for you?"

There was a long pause. Hunter glanced over at Skye, who was stubbornly avoiding his eyes. Simmons was about to try rephrasing her question when he drew a breath to speak. "We had a...an interesting manifestation of Skye's abilities overnight. I - we - thought it might be important for you to know about."

Simmons nodded, intrigued. "Certainly. Any new information could prove to be helpful." She looked back and forth between them. "So, what exactly happened?"

Hunter glanced over at Skye again, who was now stubbornly avoiding both their eyes. He turned back to Simmons and said quietly, "Why don't you cue up the surveillance footage from about 0230 this morning?"

Skye had never been so glad that surveillance footage didn't have a soundtrack. She could almost pretend Simmons wasn't watching it. That is, until the scientist softly exclaimed, "Oh!" and glanced over at Skye quickly before looking back to the secondary screen.

After few minutes, the video seemed to finish, and Simmons said carefully, "I see the context now." She paused for a moment, her brow furrowed. "Skye, were you aware of any manifestations of your abilities while this was - ah, taking place?"

"No," Skye mumbled.

"All right, then," Simmons mused, forcing a cheerful, casual demeanor. "Then, I think, Agent Hunter, I will ask about what you experienced, and then you can leave for whatever duties you may have, and Skye and I will discuss the ramifications."

Hunter nodded, looking simultaneously relieved and uneasy. He flinched a little as Simmons motioned for him to begin.

"Uh, right. Well." He cleared his throat. "When, uh - when everything...began..." He paused, then muttered quietly to himself, "Oh, bloody hell." He seemed to pull himself together. "When we first began kissing, I could feel - I don't know, it felt like a faint vibration coming off of Skye, only at the points where - we were actually touching. At first, I...chalked it up to adrenaline, but then it kept getting stronger, and...right about there -" he nodded to the screen, where apparently the footage was on loop - oh, man, was that awkward - "really unmistakeable. I...it wasn't unpleasant, so..."

"You didn't say anything," Simmons finished graciously.

Hunter nodded. He glanced over at Skye, who was still avoiding his eyes and, in fact, kind of wishing the earth would open up and swallow her chair. "But then, all of a sudden the intensity level bumped way up, and it felt a bit like bee stings everywhere."

"Everywhere everywhere, or only where you two were touching?"

"Only where we were touching," he clarified.

Great, Skye thought miserably. Now I sting people I make out with.

At the same time, she was kind of glad it hadn't been anything more serious.

Simmons looked thoughtful. "Did the sensation dissipate at the moment you ceased contact with her?"

Hunter pondered for a moment. "Uh, no - not exactly. I did pull back, you can see on the footage -" Simmons nodded - "but the stinging stopped almost immediately, even in the places where we were still...in contact."

"Hmm." Simmons drummed her fingers on the tabletop. "So perhaps it was the disruption of focus, more than the cessation of contact, that stopped the phenomenon."

"Somethin' like that, yeah," Hunter mumbled, though he had a feeling Simmons was talking more to herself than to him at this point. He watched as she picked up a tablet and began tapping away. "Is there anything else you need to know?"

She paused from her tapping, flashing a polite smile at him. "No, I think that will be all, Agent Hunter. Thank you for bringing this to my attention."

He nodded, hesitating to dart one more glance at an unresponsive Skye before slipping out the door.

Simmons continued tapping, looking up at Skye with a knowing smile. "So...are you two...?"

"No," Skye replied bluntly.

Simmons blinked at her, skeptical. "Really? Because that -" she nodded at the screen - "was very..." She trailed off meaningfully, raising her eyebrows.

"A mistake," Skye corrected her, tearing a piece of paper out of her notebook to spindle it between her fingers. "That's what that was. I was emotional, he was emotional. It never should have happened."

Simmons was quiet for a moment, studying her. Then, "Skye?" she said quietly.

"Hmm?"

"You do realize I've been scanning all the surveillance tapes, right?"

"Yeah. So?"

"So, sometimes I notice things," Simmons said lightly, returning her attention to the tablet.

"Like what?"

"Like the fact that you and Hunter seem to smile more in one another's presence than at any other time that I see you. That he seems to feel more at ease with you than he does with anyone else." Simmons paused, watching Skye's reaction, then added quietly, "Are you sure you aren't missing something that's right in front of you? Because...I know what that's like."

Skye blinked, her mind flashing back to the intimate hand-covering gesture she'd witnessed in yesterday's briefing. "Speaking of which...you and Fitz? Did I miss something?"

Okay, it was a convenient distraction from the present topic of conversation, sure; but if there was something going on between her two favorite scientists, Skye definitely wanted to be in the loop.

Simmons' lips curved into a small smile, though she didn't look quite as happy as Skye could have hoped. "We did a lot of talking while you all were gone. A lot of explaining...a lot of apologizing. We haven't gotten it all worked out, or figured out, but one thing we have decided on...and that's that we operate much better together."

"Newsflash," Skye observed gently.

Simmons nodded, her smile bittersweet. "I know. I don't...well, I do understand why I thought he'd be better off without me, but I can see now what that felt like for him, and that it was really rather foolish and impulsive of me." She tucked her hair back from her face and brushed a tear from one eye. "Things aren't the same now, and I don't know if they ever will be the way they were. But I suppose that's what we're working out together." She looked over at Skye. "In the mean time, I don't want you to miss something precious that's right in front of you."

Skye swallowed the lump in her throat, glancing upward as if she could escape the conversation. "Well, I'm not sure Hunter and I are really in the same league as you and Fitz are. We don't...share the same brain." She forced a weak laugh.

Simmons studied her piercingly, concern in her eyes. "Are you against it because you don't really want it, or because you think he doesn't?"

Skye blinked away a tear. "You heard what he said," she replied with a hint of bitterness. "Just getting close to me for a few minutes got him...bee-stung all over. I don't think it's a stretch to imagine that he's not really interested."

Simmons pressed her lips together. "Well, I wouldn't give up on it just yet." She looked at Skye thoughtfully for a moment longer, then turned back to her tablet. "But for now...let's see what we can learn from this incident."

She pulled up a few pieces of information on the tablet and began talking through it. "So, the phenomenon began at 0233, with two distinct points of increased intensity here -" she tapped the screen - "and here." She moved a couple of data points around. "Now, you were not aware of anything happening -"

"Right," Skye confirmed.

"And Dopey and Sneezy don't show any readings whatsoever, which is fascinating - and what's even more interesting is that your skin monitors don't, either. Your vitals are definitely up, especially your heart rate -"

Skye blushed.

"- but there's nothing generalized happening here..."

Skye cleared her throat, trying to regather her composure. Honestly, sometimes she was really glad that Simmons was such a science nerd; she was so absorbed in what she was analyzing that she didn't realize how mortifying this all felt for Skye.

"So, uh, what does that all mean?"

"Well." Simmons set the tablet down carefully. "It means that what we're seeing here is totally different from what we've seen before. You're not emitting generalized waves of vibrations uncontrollably throughout the room. You had no readings of vibrations at skin level, and yet Hunter said he could feel them wherever he was touching you." Simmons pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Can you think of any other occurrences like this, where your powers manifested in a way that was...different?"

Skye furrowed her brow, sifting through her memories for anything...weird. Different. Not an earthquake.

And she remembered.

"I...I think maybe I broke a mug once."

Simmons' eyes widened slightly. "Tell me about it."

Skye strained to remember the details. "I...I was in the lounge. The mug was full of coffee. It was that stupid cat mug that - that Trip got that one day." Simmons smiled weakly, nodding. "I was looking at it, and thinking about Trip - and then I closed my eyes. And then I heard a rattling sound, and it just shattered."

Simmons frowned. "What were you thinking about after you closed your eyes?"

Skye drew a ragged breath. "I was trying not to cry. Trying not to think about Trip. And I remember I could still see the mug in my mind's eye."

"So you were concentrating pretty intensely on the mug itself?"

Skye nodded.

"And what were you thinking about last night, when - all of this happened?"

Skye's cheeks were on fire - in fact, she was pretty sure the flush was spreading from her shoulders to her hairline. "I guess the answer is obvious," she mumbled.

"Do you think that's an accurate assumption?" Simmons pressed enthusiastically. "That your focus was on those points of contact between Agent Hunter and yourself, the places where he felt the vibrations?"

Skye sighed. "Yeah."

Simmons began tapping rapidly on the tablet, and Skye was left feeling a little bit bewildered. "So...what does that mean, exactly?"

"I think that it means," Simmons said seriously, "that you are capable of targeting the vibrations. And that -" she finished tapping with a flourish and turned to Skye, beaming - "might be a key to helping us better understand how you can control all of this."

Skye's jaw slackened as hope flooded through her. "Really? You think...?"

Simmons nodded, a pleased smile on her face. "First, of course," she said loftily, opening a nearby cabinet and pulling out a few glass test tubes, "we'll have to run some tests."

Skye groaned. "More blood tests?"

"Oh no," Simmons replied, an almost mischievous gleam in her eye. "I have something much more interesting in mind."

A/N: This chapter came out a bit lighter than I originally intended - but I think we all might welcome it after 2.11.

Did characterization suffer from the lighter tone, or did you feel everybody stayed true to character? Reviews are my bread and butter. :)