A/N: Hi all,

Just wanted to let you know that the information about the holotable included in this chapter is from my brief research into 'holography' – once again, sourced from Wikipedia. I am not now, nor will I ever be, an expert on holographs, so I fully apologise if what I have written is completely off the mark.

Also, the setting for this chapter is within the Providence base, and thus I have assumed that Skye has her own bunk, and that the base has a holotable. We can only hope.

Anyways, I hope you like it, and as always, I do not own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"How did you learn computer science without committing yourself to it?"

"CS comes naturally to me..."

Crap!

Skye mentally kicked herself as she entered Operations. She could've just blown everything! The only reason her secret was still safe was because there had been no one around to see what she had just (accidentally) done.

She had been down in her bunk for the bulk of the day; she had told the team that she was working on new methods for securing classified data and that it was best for her to do it alone, but really, she was avoiding them. Keeping the truth from them was killing her. And so, the best thing for her to do was to spend as much time away from them as possible – she was keeping them safe. Safe from the truth, but also safe from her.

As much as she knew she was doing the right thing, it didn't make the isolation any more bearable. So, when she had received a message to come down to the Operations Centre for a briefing she had rushed at the chance to get out of her room. Literally. And that was the problem.

She had run to Ops.

It was probably about a 5 minute walk from her bunk to the briefing room, and maybe half that when running... for a human. Or, a normal human at least. But that wasn't her. Not anymore. So, of course, she had arrived outside the door in about a minute, if that.

"Hey" Fitz greeted her.

"Hey" She replied, forcing an easy smile.

His brow furrowed slightly as he glanced at his watch, "I thought you said you were going to be in your bunk all day? I was expecting you to take longer to get here – I only just sent out the message."

Busted.

Shrugging slightly, she made a conscious effort not to let the smile slip from her face. "I was already on my way here; it was getting kind of boring all alone in my bunk."

"Oh. Perfect then" The Scotsman smiled back at her, all suspicion melting from his expression. "It looks like we might actually get to go on a mission."

Before Skye could reply the door opened and Simmons and Trip entered the room with Ward pulling up the rear. They exchanged pleasantries, with Simmons picking up the same anomaly in her timing as Fitz had. She brushed it off just as simply as she had with Fitz, and smoothly changed the subject to something else.

Simmons and Trip were easily convinced and went back to talking between themselves, clearly more interested in one another than whatever Skye was up to. Not Ward though. She watched his reaction out of the corner of her eye, he was making a face. She knew that face.

It was the one where he was almost completely expressionless, except for a single crease between his eyebrows from where he had furrowed them in concentration. She wasn't sure how, but she could tell that Ward had found some kind of hole in her story. Crap.

Leaning on the edge of the holotable, she turned her attention inward and began to focus on reigning in her heart beat. Between the run from her bunk to here, and now with the thought of Ward uncovering her secret, her pulse had started to beat uncomfortably fast in her chest; she was almost afraid that if the room suddenly went silent that the others would be able to hear it.

Needing something physical to focus on, she gripped the edges of the table behind her and tried to focus instead on the humming of the technology rather than the drumming reverberating through her chest. She needed to calm down. Breath in, breath out. Breath in, breath out. It was working. Good.

She kept her mind on her hands, the soft purring of the machine was almost comforting. The more she concentrated on it, the better it felt – like snuggling up in a blanket when it's cold, or the way a certain smell can take you back to the best memories of your life.

"Skye?"

She was pulled from her reverie by a gentle nudge at her shoulder. Blinking, she looked up to see that the hand belonged to Ward, who was also wearing a very concerned look on his face. It was then that she noticed that Coulson and May had joined them, and were mirroring Ward's worried expression. In fact, all of them were. How long had she been daydreaming?

"You feeling alright, Skye?" Coulson asked while giving her a pointed look.

"Yeah" she shrugged, keeping her tone light. "Just a bit of headache I think; I've been starting at my laptop screen too much."

This time, none of them looked convinced by her nonchalance, but mercifully they opted not to push the issue and continued on with the briefing instead. Apparently Coulson had been halfway through the mission specs when Ward had jolted her back to reality, meaning that she must have been out of it for a while. Coulson hadn't even been in the room when she'd started to zone out.

As hard as she tried to take in what Coulson was saying to them, Skye couldn't help but wish that they had left her in her daydreaming state. She had felt at peace there, finally, for the first time in weeks. Ever since that Hydra agent shot her in the leg her world had been turned upside down – even more so than usual. Every day it was getting harder; harder to keep secrets from the people she loved, and even harder to accept that she might be turning into some kind of monster. She was suffocating, she realised.

And she was tired of it. She wanted to go back to the way things were, before Hydra had attacked S.H.I.E.L.D., and before Quinn had shot her. She wanted peace. The kind of peace she had felt just moments ago.

Maybe if she focused enough, she could get it back.

Remembering what she had done before, Skye brought her hands back to their original position on the edge of the holotable and focused on her breathing.

In, and out. In, and out.

And just like that, she was back. The buzzing from the table echoed through her veins as she felt the tension starting to leave her body. It was like coming home. Safe and familiar and...

She felt a thump interfering with the soothing hum of the table. Not knowing what had caused the interruption, Skye focused on the buzzing once more, letting it fill her head, as though she was connected to it somehow.

Another thump.

Only this time, she knew that it was coming from another source. Pulling back a little, she resurfaced slightly. It was like she was at the bottom of a swimming pool, and was floating back up to the top. Not all the way though, just enough that she could make out what was happening around her. She didn't want to leave this place, whatever this place was.

From here she could see that Fitz was the one threatening her tranquillity. He was pounding his fist on the holotable. The table didn't like it. She could tell by the way the humming seemed to growl every time his fist came down on its surface.

"Stupid table!"

Though the sound came muffled to her ears, she was still able to make out what Fitz was saying.

"It's been acting up all day, and I still haven't been able to find what's wrong with it..."

Sinking back down again, away from the room and Fitz, Skye could feel the truth of his words. The humming, though peaceful, was not as strong as it should have been; like it was sick. Losing her grip on reality more and more, she delved deeper into the gentle buzzing, searching for the problem.

The words were out of her mouth before she even knew what she was saying.

"An insufficient power supply is preventing the beam of the second laser from reaching the recording medium."

SLAM.

She was yanked from her tranquillity. It was as if the humming had pushed her away – regurgitated her, almost.

Gasping, she lost her grip on the table and stumbled back from it only to be steadied by Ward.

"Skye?! Are you okay?" He sounded slightly panicked, the crease in his brow getting deeper and deeper.

"Good question" she replied, still feeling somewhat removed from the world.

"Oh my god." It was Fitz speaking this time. "Skye's right. It is the second laser, but... but how did you know that?"

The eyes of everyone in the room turned towards her, and Skye could feel her heart beat starting to pick up speed in her chest once again.

"I...I don't know" she stammered.

She really didn't. And she was terrified.