The Secret
Authors Note: So chapter 5 can you believe it, I hope you like this we are getting to a big confrontation but when I started writing this is where the story took me. I think I needed to build Skye's back story before we meet our evil Dr Hyde. There isn't much Skye/Ward in this chapter but there is slight Philinda . I will try and get the next chapter up ASAP but good action takes longer to write. As always I don't own Agents or its characters they all belong to Marvel. Thank you for all your reviews and likes they make me smile and inspire me to keep writing.
It had been a week since Grant and Skye had returned to the bus, Wards desire for vengeance had not cooled but Coulson had managed to talk him into holding off until they had more intel. Dr Hyde as the team had come to call their adversary had gone to ground after his attack on Skye but they were certain it would not be long until he tried his luck again.
Skye was healing remarkably well, in fact Simmons had informed her that she should be able to remove the cast in a few days. They young scientist although happy that her friend was healing fast was absolutely dismayed that injury should have taken months to heal not days! She could not explain it, as clever as she and Fitz were neither of them could come up with an answer it was an ordinary 9mm round that had pierced Skye's leg and as far as they were aware no-one on earth was in possession of anything that could heal a human so fast. So Simmons had insisted on numerous tests much to Skye's annoyance. It was upon examining Skye's bloods that Simmons found something very odd indeed.
Fitz had set Skye up in the lab with her laptop and a comfy chair so that she could keep herself occupied whilst she recovered. She had lasted a whole two days in her bunk, before boredom overtook her. She'd never been idle, come to think of it she'd never been ill before that she remembered anyway, so bed rest was a foreign concept to her. Despite Wards objections and insistence that she needed rest to recover Skye had managed to convince Coulson that she was much more use to the team gathering intel on her attackers than holed up in her bunk. Grant was not impressed with her but he would just have to get over it, she was not going to sit back and play damsel in distress while he rushed off on a suicide mission. If he were going to do this then she was going to make sure that he had as much info as she could get him. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Simmons pacing the lab "What's up Jemma?" she asked.
"Oh nothing really" she tried to sound nonchalant and failed.
"Jemma?" Skye was on to her.
"I don't suppose you could dig up your old medical records? They aren't on our servers since you wiped yourself from the system"
"Sure why do you need them?"
"Oh it's nothing really, some of your blood results look a tad odd and I just wanted to compare them to old tests. I'm sure it's just an anomaly but it could just be normal for you."
"There on my memory card I'll send them over" her blood being a little weird was the least of her worries right now between vengeful Ward and Dr Hyde she didn't have head space for this. She fished the memory card that carried all her personal information out of her bra, old habits die hard and sent over her medical records to Simmons tablet.
Simmons scanned the very short file "Skye have you ever seen a doctor before you were shot?"
"I don't get ill" she responded simply.
"What never?" incredulity clouded Simmons tone.
"Nope"
"So you've never been ill? Never had a cold or stomach bug?!"
"Not that I remember, guess I'm super immune" she smiled at Jemma until she took in the young Brits expression and then her face fell.
"Is that not good" she asked her voice unsure.
"Well it's highly unusual, and there is no record of you ever having any bloods or routine tests done before last week! Not even a heel stick as a baby, no vaccination. As a ward of the state I would have expected you to have had a yearly check up"
"Well St Agnes weren't really up on those things, the nuns only called a doctor if one of us was sick" Skye reasoned. "Is there something wrong with me?" she was worried now.
Jemma rearranged her face into a bright smile "No your absolutely fine, I'm sure that this is just an anomaly perhaps theirs a fault with my equipment. Let's take another sample"
Skye groaned "Not another".
"Don't be such a baby Skye it's only a needle and since you've been shot in the last week this should be nothing" her brisk business like manner had returned. She must have just been seeing things, because what she had seen had been impossible.
A few hours later when Ward had carried Skye to bed Simmons resumed pacing her lab this time with Fitz for company. "Are you sure Jemma? You've been under a lot of stress maybe it's getting to you"
"Fitz I am not wrong about this, I have checked and rechecked every sample" she snapped.
"Do you think she knows?"
"No I don't think she has a clue, She has no idea who her parents where or what happened to them. If they died when she was very young it's likely she was never told."
"Do you think Coulson knows?"
"I don't know but I have to tell him, it all makes perfect sense now" she was wringing her hands a nervous habit she'd had since her childhood.
"When?" in answer to his question Agent Coulson came into the lab.
"You needed to see me Simmons?" he shot at Jemma his tone light and friendly.
"Yes Sir, It's about Skye" she began.
"Did you find the cause of her accelerated healing?"
"I think so..."
"Well"
"This is going to sound insane but here me out; I've checked and rechecked all her bloods. Skye is a Hybrid half of her genetic code is human but the other half..." she swallowed "Is Alien"
"Are you sure about this?" his tone was serious.
"There's no doubt Sir, her elevated healing comes from her Alien side. Her fracture is almost completely healed it should have taken 6 months not 6 days!"
"Is there any possibility that our friend Dr Hyde could have done this to her? Perhaps the blood she received at the hospital was tainted with that damn Serum" he reasoned.
"No Sir, for her genetic code to be this balanced her mutation would have to come from one of her parents. Dr Hyde's Serum does not mutate cells effectively which is why the women who were given it either died or developed horrible complications, even if it did work it wouldn't cause what I'm seeing here." she was certain or she never would have brought this to Coulson.
"Have you told Skye yet?"
"No Sir"
"Don't"
"But Sir, she deserves to know she's our friend we shouldn't keep this from her" Fitz chimed in.
"We will and we have to at least for now until we are certain that your results are correct"
"But this would explain why he wants Skye; she is the only true living Hybrid that we know of. If he knows that too he could reverse engineer a successful Serum from her..."
Coulson cut her off "We will not Inform Skye or anyone else of this until we have solid proof, is that clear!" she'd only heard that tone once before when she'd jumped ship literally, to save her team mates from an alien pathogen.
"Yes Sir" the two scientists said in unison, dejected neither of them was happy with this it felt like a betrayal and they were sure Skye would see it as just that.
"I know this seems unfair but we keep secrets at S.H.I.E.L.D for a reason, it's not just Dr Hyde that will want Skye she's in more danger than either of you realise, and for now the less she knows the better" he turned to leave.
"Sir did you know about this?" Simmons voice was a whisper of disbelief.
"That's classified Jemma" and with that he headed for his office
The two shared a worried look, something was very wrong here they could feel it.
"They know don't they?" May was waiting for Coulson in his office. He sighed heavily.
"Yes they know" he sounded ten years old as he rubbed his tense forehead.
"Do you not think now may be the time to come clean, Phil" he knew she was serious she never called him Phil unless she was.
"We can't Melinda; I promised her father I'd keep her safe. If she knew the truth if we trigger her memories her abilities will surface as well. If the world knew what she was she'd be in more danger than ever"
"You know she'll never forgive you if she finds out another way, if he gets hold of her if he knows what we think he does. He will tell her, she'll see it as a betrayal" Her voice was level her face giving nothing away as always. Damn her she was always right but he couldn't his brother had removed her memories for a good reason binding her abilities in the process. There was no worse pain than knowing that someone you loved your own brother would die and there was nothing you could do about it. The only help he'd been able to offer was to get his niece to safety. So many times he'd come close to telling her the truth when she'd hugged him for relaying a very limited fact about the redacted S.H.I.E.L.D file. It was on the tip of his tongue then but the memory of her mother and fathers lifeless bodies hit him like a sledgehammer. He had bitten it back it didn't matter if she hated him for the rest of her days as long as she was safe.
"We can't" he simply said.
"Do you honestly think that Fitz and Simmons will keep this to themselves?" May didn't seem to think they could.
"For all our sakes, I hope so."
"And Ward?"
"Ward can't know, he'd never be able to keep this from her not now. Things between them have changed Melinda we can't trust his judgement on this."
"He's desperate to take out Hyde, you won't be able to hold him off much longer and if we don't back him up, he will go off book."
"I know" he rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands "I know".
"We are going to have to take Hyde out sooner rather than later, if we are right about why he wants her who knows who else he could have told. We need answers if we're going to protect her Phil."
"I know, I'll contact Fury we'll redouble our efforts to find him. We cannot allow Ward to do this alone, we have to go in with him this has to end now" May nodded.
"You know you can't hide this from her forever, she's going to find out eventually"
"I can try" he shook his head he knew she was right she was always right.
She rolled her eyes stubborn as always, this would end in tears she could feel it.
