There Are Few Reasons Chapter 2: We Only Got Four Minutes, a Castle + Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Crossover fanfic

There Are Few Reasons

Disclaimer:
As always, I own nothing except for Agent Richelle Rogers and Carlyssa Matthews.

Rating:
T

Genre:
Family/Drama

Lyrics Used:
Glee Cast "4 Minutes"

We Only Got Four Minutes to Save the World

Last time, on "There Are Few Reasons"

"Agent. Ward." Richelle spat, angrily. Grant froze when he saw a murderous glare unlike any other he had ever seen in the senior agent's eyes. "Un. Hand. My. Sister!" Richelle growled, stalking across the room toward the specialist and his asset as she immediately ran into the senior agent's waiting, black-gloved arms.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Richelle demanded, as she calmed her younger half-sister in her arms as she glared daggers at the specialist.

"I don't know?" Grant offered, dumbly, puzzled as to why the younger senior agent was so angry with him. "You said we needed to talk to her, too?"

"Yes, Grant." Richelle spat, as she guided her finally calm sister into a nearby chair before returning her focus to the specialist. "'Talk'. Not 'kidnap'!" She corrected, angrily.

"I didn't kidnap her!" Ward insisted, defensively.

"The hell he didn't!" Alexis interjected, leaping to her feet only to be shoved back into her seat by her older, half-sister.

"Oh, come on, Grant!" Richelle snapped. "We all remember how you brought Skye in!" She added with a half-glare at Phil who merely shrugged. "You really expect me to believe you wouldn't do the exact same thing to Alexis?! We're a team, Ward. I know that concept's a little foreign to you, but, I really thought you were starting to get the hang of it-"

"Hey, I-" Grant interjected, whining defensively, before being cut off by the furious senior agent.

"Not done!" Richelle snapped. "Yes, I said we needed to talk to Alexis! But, you should have consulted with the rest of us, first, before going off on some half-ass tangent and bringing her in, yourself!" The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent shouted. "You should have let me handle it! Alexis knows me and trusts me! I could have made her feel safe, rather than threatened!"

"I'm also sitting right here!" Alexis interrupted, petulantly. "I'd very much appreciate it if you guys would stop talking about me like I'm not even in the room."

Richelle and Grant both had to admit that Alexis had a point. It wasn't right for them to be discussing her the way they were. Sighing lightly, Richelle lowered herself down onto the arm of the chair Alexis was sat in. "You're right, Alexis." She conceded, apologetically. "We shouldn't be arguing in front of you, like this." Looking up at Skye, the agent softened her face and voice as she addressed the young hacker. "Skye, would you be so kind as to show Alexis to the guest bunk?" She asked, deliberately avoiding the room's actual title. But, unfortunately, Skye didn't seem to be riding the same Subtle Train.

"The...guest bunk?" Skye asked, confused.

"Yes, Skye." Richelle replied, her voice tightening as she fought against the rising frustration. "You know...the bunk that we offer to guests when all the other bunks are filled? That bunk..." Finally, the agent breathed a mental sigh of relief as she watched realization dawn in the young hacker's eyes.

"Oooohhhh. Right." Skye drawled, finally catching on to what Richelle was trying to do. "The Guest Bunk." She added, playing along. "Of course." Extending her own gloved arm to the younger Castle, she added, playfully. "Ms. Castle."

Alexis knew something was going on that they weren't telling her. But, she couldn't resist a small chuckle as she took Skye's proffered arm. "Shall we?" She asked, light-hearted, as she followed the hacker to the mysterious guest bunk.

Once Alexis was safely out of earshot, Richelle rounded on Ward once again. "I mean it, Grant." She hissed, dangerously. "I know Alexis! I know how to handle her and make her feel safe! Did you know that she's already been kidnapped once, before you?! Did you know that she was held hostage in Paris in order to draw out our ex-CIA grandfather?!"

"No." Grant admitted, shamefully, as he hung his head and buried his hands in his pockets. "I didn't know that."

"No." Richelle agreed. "Ya didn't!" She growled. "But I, on the other hand, DID know that! And, I know how to make her understand that she's done absolutely nothing wrong and that we only need to ask her a few very simple questions! I know how to gain-and KEEP-her trust! I could have made this whole clusterfuck a WHOLE lot easier if you'd just let me HANDLE IT!"

"As entertaining as it is to watch mom and dad fight..." Richard injected, stepping between Richelle and Ward. "I seem to remember somebody saying that time was not on our side..." He reminded them. "Can we please get back to business?" He asked in an uncharacteristically mature manner.

Sighing, Richelle conceded "My dad's right. We need to know what Alexis knows-and if she's been infected..." Turning to Leo and Jemma "Fitzsimmons, why don't you and I go talk to her?" She suggested, before turning back to Grant. "And, you..." She stated, warningly. "Stay. The hell. Out of it!" She hissed.

"Understood." Ward replied, blandly. He'd worked with Richelle long enough to know when to listen to her and back off.

Leo and Jemma silently followed Richelle as she left the main area to join Skye and Alexis in The Cage. They, too, knew when to hold their tongues around the senior agent and that they had never seen that level of rage from Richelle. Thus, they knew better than to risk provoking her, further.

"Homy..." Alexis observed, glancing around the room that had been referred to as 'The Guest Bunk'.

Lightly crossing her arms, Skye knew she couldn't lie to someone like Alexis. At least, not under these circumstances. "Yeah..." She drawled, hesitantly. "Cards on the table...We don't really call this room 'The Guest Bunk'."

"Yeah, I kinda got that from your conversation with Richelle." Alexis replied, smirking at Skye's bewilderment. "Hey, I may not be some badass spy like you or my sister...But, I'm a hell of a lot smarter than I look. I pick up on a lot more than people give me credit for."

"Yeah, I know that feeling." Skye conceded. "And, to be perfectly honest, I'm not actually a spy, yet." She added. Noting the curious tilt of Alexis' head, she elaborated. "I'm still in training."

Before Alexis could question the matter further, there was a knock on the door before Richelle entered, followed closely by Leo and Jemma. "Hey, Alexis." Richelle greeted, smiling warmly at her sister. "Skye been treatin' you okay?"

"Oh, yeah." Skye replied, sarcastically. "It's been a regular slumber party, in here." She added, as Alexis fought desperately to hold back an amused giggle. "We were just about to braid each other's hair and dish about all the dreamiest guys we ever saw!" It was at that point that Alexis lost the fight and the giggles bubbled our of her chest. Even the stoic senior agent had to laugh at the remark.

"As much fun as it may be, to banter with Skye-and, believe me-I can speak from experience when I say that it can get hysterical..." Richelle replied, focusing on Alexis. "We really do have some serious business to discuss." She added, sobering up from her laughing spell.

"What kind of business?" Alexis asked, worriedly. "And, why am I here? Why does S.H.I.E.L.D. need to talk to me? I didn't do anything wrong!" She insisted. Watching the lack of change in Richelle's expression, she amended her statement, timidly. "Did I?"

"No, of course not." Richelle replied, warmly, trying to quell some of her sister's worries.

"Then, what the hell is he doing with that?!" Alexis demanded as she watched Leo prepping some sort of tool that she'd never seen before and was fairly certain she'd be perfectly content never to find out what it did.

"Really, Leo?!" Richelle snapped, turning to face the engineer. "You couldn't wait two seconds for me to read her in before breakin' out the creepy tech shit?!"

"S-Sorry..." Leo stammered, apologetically, as Richelle returned her attention to Alexis.

"Look, Alexis...As I said, before, you're not in any trouble." Richelle reiterated, trying to placate the young red-head. "But, we do need to talk to you about your friend, Carlyssa Matthews." She added, gently.

Pacing back and forth, anxiously, Alexis chewed her thumbnail as she processed everything she was hearing. "Carlyssa? What about her? Is she in some kind of trouble?"

"Some kind..." Leo muttered under her breath before being silenced by a death-glare from Richelle as well as a strategically placed elbow from Jemma. "Ow!" He whined, massaging his injured rib cage.

"Alexis, I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but..." Richelle began, hesitantly. "Carlyssa's dead."

"What?!" Alexis demanded, breathlessly, as she whipped around to face Richelle. "How?! What happened?!"

"Carlyssa died of an alien virus brought to this planet by the Chitauri aliens-" Richelle began, before being cut off.

"The aliens that attacked New York?!" Alexis wondered, aloud. "You mean...They brought some sort of...virus with them?!"

"Unfortunately, yes, they did." Richelle acknowledged. "Now, dad said that you had lunch with Carlyssa, yesterday."

"Yeah, and, she was totally fine!" Alexis insisted. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. There was no way Carlyssa was dead. She just couldn't be.

"That's the unfortunate part of this virus." Richelle explained, gently. "It's extremely quick and efficient in its mission. We've dealt with it, in the past, and it generally runs its course within the span of thirty-eight hours." She elaborated. "That's why Leo and Jemma are here with us, now. Leo's tool is going to be able to tell us if you've been infected with the virus, as well." Seeing the panicked look in her sister's eyes, Richelle decided to head her off at the pass. "IF you have been, it's okay. Jemma has the formula for the anti-virus which will cure the virus." She added, gently taking Alexis' hand in her own black-gloved one. "You are not going to end up like Carlyssa. I promise you that."

Seeing the determination written in her sister's warm doe eyes, Alexis felt marginally better. "Let's do it, then." She replied, finally. Without another word, Richelle backed away and motioned Leo forward.

"Okay, now-ah-this, uh, this...won't hurt a bit-completely non-invasive..." The engineer stammered, anxiously, as he powered on the machine in his hands. "Just, uh...Stand still, a moment..." He instructed nervously, as he passed the scanner up and down the length of Alexis' body while she nodded her understanding of the directions.

Pacing back and forth, across The Cage, Richelle chewed her thumbnail-perfectly mirroring the red-head's previous nervous tick-as she anxiously awaited the test results. The waiting was killing her. Meanwhile, Jemma just watched the whole scene unfold, tensely. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the machine beeped and immediately drew the attention of everyone in the room as all hearts stopped when the lasers-which had previously been green in color-turned blood red.

"What...What does that mean?!" Alexis asked, anxiously.

"It means you've been infected." Richelle deadpanned, never once taking her eyes off of the bright red lasers. Alexis, Leo, Richelle and Jemma all exchanged worried glances. Without another word, Jemma set off toward the lab to set to work on the anti-serum. Deciding he'd rather be anywhere else-in the world, at that moment-Leo silently followed the bio-chemist, leaving the two sisters alone in The Cage.

Author's Note:
So, I noticed that a couple of you followed this story and one of you even favorited it. But, I'm begging you...If you like it, PLEASE review! I live for reviews! They are the highlight of my day! The wind beneath my wings! But, remember...CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is always welcomed! Flames will be used in a bonfire to keep me warm in this Kansas Winter that I swear to GOD is colder than Frosty's ass!

~Skye Coulson