It took a minute for Grant to realize that the banging from the workshop had stopped. He grinned to himself. It looked like his mechanic had finished with the making noise portion of his days activities. Don't be too eager, he told himself. He'll need to tidy up and you'll get under foot. He left it but after a quarter of an hour he couldn't resist the temptation anymore. He was halfway up the stairs when he heard Skye and his blood ran cold.

"WARD!" she was screaming his name and he started taking the stairs three at a time. He followed her voice to the lab. What he saw was a punch in the gut and he hit the glass doors only to rebound violently.

"They're bullet-proof," Skye gasped when he pulled out his gun "If you shoot they'll set off every alarm in this place." She was leant over Jemma with fingers on the other woman's throat.

"Hack in," he snapped "Hack in now, Skye. Past the overrides. Get me in there." He took her place at Jemma's side a tiny part of his tension easing when he felt her pulse throb strongly against his fingertips. He could still see Leo, though, draped out over the table with his clothes torn and his face and wrists bloody. He couldn't see Ebony. It had to have been Ebony who did this but he couldn't see him.

"I've got it," Skye's voice was triumphant and afraid as he barged into the room, gun up, searching for Ebony. He almost fired when he caught movement but stopped himself when he saw that it was one of Leo's toys. Blue light flashed and he realised that he'd passed a test of some kind. It was then that he saw Ebony crumpled behind the table. He stooped for a pulse and when he found one he seriously considered shooting the man. It was with regret that he strapped him up in SHEILD issue handcuffs and left him alive on the floor. Threats neutralized, he turned to where Skye was pulling the remains of Leo's clothes around him. There were tears in her eyes and fear bubbled up inside him. The hands that reached for the engineer's throat weren't quite steady. The beat of the other man's heart was enough to have him coughing gruffly to hide the relief that had his throat closing.

"I see you have things under control." He looked up and Coulson was standing in the doorway, gun drawn, tie crooked. May was kneeling beside Jemma who was starting to come around.

"We need a med team," he said tersely. He was bothered by the torn state of Leo's shirt so he pulled his jacket of and draped it over the younger man.

"On its way," Coulson said. "We had one follow us as soon as we realised that Ebony was gone. He had friends. God knows how but they were part of the team that picked him up. The good news is that Director Fury is going to have his hands full dealing with this. Ebony was in far too deep, he was a level seven. He never should have got that far with those tendencies." Grant nodded but he wasn't really listening. He was focused on the rise and fall that indicated Leo was breathing. He hated having to leave him on the hard surface but he was afraid of what damage he might do if he moved him.

The medical team was as prompt as Coulson had promised and Grant was elbowed unceremoniously out of the way for them to work. He wanted to ride with them to the base but he could see there was no room so he settled for riding in the back of the SUV alongside Skye who was uncharacteristically quiet.

"They'll be ok," he said softly but he wasn't sure if he was reassuring himself or her. She gave him a watery smile.

"Of course they will," she murmured "They're tough. Look what Fitz did to Ebony. I had no idea his robots could knock a man out like that. Makes em pretty useful, huh."

"Yeah," he nodded "I guess Ebony wasn't expecting him to be able to fight back."

"He was wrong," Coulson said from the passenger seat "He was wrong about a lot of things when it came to Leo Fitz and now he'll pay for what he's done. It's not just Leo. On our preliminary findings alone we believe that Ebony has preyed on other members of our organisation. Even in an institution like SHEILD there are people who can be taken advantage of, have their fears played upon. Ebony is going away for a long time. He'll never see daylight as a free man again." Coulson sounded grimly satisfied with that fact.

"I can live with that," Skye said and her she smiled fiercely when Grant looked her way. He could live with it too, he supposed, although there was always going to be part of him that regretted not shooting Ebony where he lay. That's what makes us the good guys, he reminded himself. We're better than that.