Before Ward even had a chance to pull himself up off the floor Coulson and May had burst into Skye's room. With wide eyes they took in a dishevelled and confused looking Skye, sitting in her bed, her eyes darting around the room as though she had just woken from some sort of terror. Perhaps more disconcerting however was the look of shock and what looked like fear on Ward's face. He was notoriously locked down and buttoned up so to see him so out of control and beyond his depth was something almost entirely foreign to them both.
"What happened?" Coulson asked no one in particular.
Skye was the first to respond since Ward was still clambering back onto his feet.
"I have no idea. When I woke up Ward was on the floor and I must have been having a nightmare or something." Skye's voice was still a little shaky as she wiped the cold sweat from her brow.
"Why were you in here, Ward." Melinda asked, trying not to jump to too many conclusions.
"She was having a nightmare." Ward explained, his vocie oddly distant. "I heard her and came in to wake her up. She looked like she was in pain so I tried to wake her by touching her arm."
"Fair enough, but how did you end up on the floor?" Coulson asked trying to peice together this weird situation.
"That's the thing. When I touched her..." Ward's voice trailed off, his throat constricting.
"This energy blew me back. I don't know what happened." Ward explained after pausing long enough to process it himself. "But it wasn't just a physical force, something else happened; something I can't explain."
"Ward I'm sorry." Skye apologised even though she wasn't entirely sure what for. "I swear nothing like this has ever happened. I don't know what's going on." Skye was bordering on hysterical, still emotionally catching up from her particularly vivid nightmare and the fact that her room was full of people, one of which she just blew clear across it.
"Whoa, slow down." Coulson said, trying to diffuse the tension. "Skye I know this might be new to you but May, Ward and I, we have encounted things out of the ordinary. Unexplainable things that you may not believe so I need you to trust us when we say we will figure this out."
Skye could only nod and wonder about the weird things they had seen. She was beginning to think S.H.I.E.L.D. was more M.I.B. than F.B.I.
"I know this is a personal question, but can you tell us what the nightmare was about?" May asked, with a kindness and empathy that would have suprised Skye if May hadn't already subverted just about every first impression she had of her.
"It might help us to figure out what happened." Coulson added softly, trying to put Skye at ease.
"I was... it was about my time in the foster system. The Brodies." Skye began, working up the courage to share one of her darkest memories. She looked up to see May and Coulson's worried looks, well familiar with the kind of things that can happen in the system. "They were good people, it's nothing like that. I was nine and I had been with them for 3 months. It was the longest I had ever stayed in one place. I was stupid enough to think it would last."
Coulson and May looked at her with empathy, put thankfully without pity, while Ward stared at her with an odd look on his face as though he was remembering his own demons.
"I thought that I was going to stay there. I even called her mom one day and about a week later, without any warning they said they were sending me back to St Agnes. It didn't make sense and all they would tell me was that it wasn't a good fit. The umm... nightmare. It was me relieving that day. I used to have that same dream all the time as a kid but I haven't in a long time."
Skye finished, exhausted and a little uncomfortable having shared one of her worst memories with people she had only known for a day.
"I think I may know why those men were after you." Ward said ominously from his post, leaning against the wall. He still looked a little winded.
"Why?" Skye, May and Coulson all asked at once which would have been a little comical if not for the circumstances.
"When I touched her, I felt it all." Ward said, pausing before elaborating. "I felt overwhelming sadness, rejection, hopleness. I didn't have any of the memories or anything, just the crushing emotion." Ward explained, he reaction suddenly making sense. "When the force hit me it was as though all those emotions hit me at the exact same time."
Ward shared a pointed look with Coulson and May as they all began to think about what that might mean while Skye was on the outside of their silent conversation feeling completely out of her depth.
"Wait so you're saying that came from me?" Skye asked, disbelief evident in her tone. "That I somehow... transferred my emotions to Ward? You guys realise this is crazy."
"Well about that..." Coulson said ironically.
"It's kind of what we specialise in, Skye." May explained.
"But nothing exactly like this before." Coulson said, his tone a mixture of awe and apprehension.
"Coulson, you might be seeing all the ways her powers might manifest but you know what I see?" Ward hissed, his brow furrowed and stress evident in his stance. "I see all they ways people like the ones who nearly took her could use her. Could you imagine? Someone who could transfer emotions or control them at will. Make the most sceptical recruit suddenly trust a cause with unwavering loyalty. As someone who just experienced it first hand, prolonged exposure could be a particularly creative and effective torture and we have no idea how far it goes."
Skye was left sitting on her bed, desperately trying to process. In a matter of a minute she suddenly had crazy powers that could be used for unspeakable evil. Of all the reasons she had imagined someone was after her, this was infinitely worse than anything her mind could conjure.
"But how did they know?" May asked. "I mean clearly she didn't even know."
"I don't know. We know nothing about her past. Where she comes from." Ward growled, pacing beside Skye's bed.
"Still here you know!" Skye shouted, recovering from her shock enough to be indignant about them discussing her as if she wasn't even in the room.
"Sorry, Skye." Ward muttered, pausing his frustrated pacing to look at her. "Are you sure you don't know anything else about your past? Nothing else you can tell us?"
"I told you everything, Ward! I've looked my entire life and I've found nothing. Why do you think I became a hacker? I have hacked every government agency and database looking for the slightest hint about my past. I've told you all I know!" Skye's shock had given way to full blown anger. It was bad enough she had to spend her entire life knowing nothing, but now she had to defend herself when he accused her of keeping things from him? There was nothing; no secrets to keep.
"Wait that's it." Ward muttered, his eyes widening as though something had suddenly occured to him.
"Coulson, she's a damn good hacker. You think it's odd that she couldn't find anything at all on her parents?" Ward words rushed together as he tried to make Coulson understand.
A little of Skye's anger ebbed away when she heard Ward's commendation of her abilites, but only a little.
"Could you enlighten us?" Skye yelled, bringing his attention back to her.
"She's an 0-8-4." Coulson whispered in realisation, staring at the petite but firey girl in front of him going toe to toe with a man few would dare challenge.
"A what?" Skye hissed. "What the hell does that mean?"
"It means, we don't know what it means." Coulson replied, his riddles making Skye increasingly agitated. "Something of unknown origin."
Skye looked to Ward, her eyes appealing to him to tell her what the hell was going on.
"It's a S.H.I.E.L.D. term. It refers to potentially dangerous objects we know almost nothing about. That's what we do... or did, Skye." Ward explained, the situation somehow making him forget all about the fact that she probably didn't have clearance to know that. "We would find them, protect them, diffuse them. Usually its a weapon, or an alien object but it can also be..."
"A person." Skye realised, still reeling about her knew and completely terrifying status.
"That's why I was ordered to come after you." Ward said, glad that something was finally making sense even if it wasn't in the least bit comforting. "Who better to send after a secret, off-book 0-8-4 than a specialist in 0-8-4 recovery."
"But that still doesn't explain my apparent crazy powers." Skye asked, trying her best understand the truckload of crazy she had just dumped on her.
"Do you remember Lorelei?" May asked.
"I'd rather not." Ward groaned, glaring at May.
"She could control a man's will, his actions." May continued.
"You think she's Asgardian?" Coulson asked, considering the possibilities.
"Wait! Asgardian?" Skye interjected incredulously. "You mean, like Thor?"
"No." Ward replied, ignoring Skye's outburst. "Sif said that Lorelei used sorcery. She learned it, practicied for centuries. This felt entirely different."
"Okay later you are telling me that story." Skye only half directed towards Ward since she knew he wasn't really listening to her anymore.
"Skye this is serious." Ward said exasperated. Apparently he had been listening to her after all. "We don't know if this is biological, if you were affected by something, or how far this goes."
"Ward's right." Coulson said. "But I know someone who can find out."
Coulson and Ward exchanged a knowing look before Ward gave him a sharp nod.
"Skye, pack your things. We leave for London in the morning." Ward said and left.
Skye could only sit in her bed watching everyone leave without any further explaination, more confused than ever.
After precisely no sleep, Skye watched the sun rise, the new light filling up the beautiful room part of her wished she could stay in forever, hiding from the real world. But as it turned out, the real world would come and find her anyway. She sat up at the sound of a knock on her door. A moment later, Ward let himself in to her room.
"We leave in half an hour, Skye." Ward said, leaning against the door.
"Okay, be there soon."
Skye quickly got out of bed and showered before tossing all her meagre possessions, including her laptop, into the small duffel bag and throwing it over her shoulder. With one last look back at the perfect room she had stayed in for far too short a time, she headed for the kitchen.
She found Ward sitting at the very same counter that had both eaten dinner at the previous night. He had a collection of papers spread out across the counter and Skye spotted her own picture among the piles. She picked up the passport, scoffing at the fake name.
"What?" Ward asked, distractedly.
"Olivia?" Skye asked in an incredulous tone. "Do I seriously look like an Olivia?"
"Do I look like a Andrew?" Ward replied dryly, holding up his own fake passport. "We are whatever we need to be to get across the border."
"Fair enough." Skye muttered, looking at the rest of the papers.
"About that…" Ward trailed off. "We need to look as inconspicuous as possible."
"Got it, head down." Skye agreed.
"Not just that." Ward said. "Couples raise far less red flags than people traveling alone."
"Touchy-feely at the border, got it." Skye just nodded and helped herself to some breakfast.
"You sure you're okay with this?" Ward asked. He needed to be sure of her before they tried to enter another country with fake passports.
"Oh please, after our little show in the bookstore yesterday it will be a piece of cake." Skye teased before digging into her cereal.
"What show?" May asked as she walked into the kitchen with Coulson following close behind.
"Nothing." Ward replied a little too quickly.
They both just ignored his odd behaviour, getting their own breakfast.
"When we get to the border, let me do the talking. I have all the papers here." Ward said holding them up. "Tickets, passports, hotel reservations, prepaid travel cards under our fake names; everything to make us look like just another American tourist couple."
"Is that everything?" Skye asked, knowing it was important that she didn't draw any unnecessary attention at the border.
"We'll discuss the finer details of our cover on the way to the airport." Ward answered, gathering his their documents and putting them in his own duffel bag.
"We'll leave in five." Coulson said, earning a questioning look from Skye.
"Coulson is going to drive us." Ward explained.
"Who exactly are we going to London to see?" Skye asked, annoyed that she hadn't been given any details but not really holding her breath.
"Scientists... the only ones we trust." Ward said. "Hopefully they can get to the bottom of this."
Three hours later the faceless voice over the loudspeaker at the airport told them boarding for their flight had started. They had already made it through Italian customs with no issues but Skye knew better than become complacent. Borders are always far stricter entering a country than leaving one, or so she had heard.
"Ready, Andy?" Skye asked, teasing Ward about his fake name as much as she could.
"After you, Liv." He threw right back at her.
"Still not as bad as Andy." Skye laughed as they both grabbed their bags and joined the haphazard line that had begun to form around the boarding gate.
Thankfully it was only a two hour flight to London. Skye didn't know if she could handle another 14 hour flight, though the fact that she had been hysterical about nearly getting killed had probably made the flight seem longer. Ward had made sure Skye new every little detail of the cover that would get them over the boarder once they touched down at Heathrow. They were Olivia Langford and Andrew Holt. Olivia was a CS student at NYU while Andrew worked in private security. "Stick to what you know." Ward had explained when he detailed their cover stories. They were travelling through Europe for their third anniversary. They had been in Florence for a week and were London bound before they finised their trip in Paris. That was their story and Skye kept replaying over and over in her head.
"Don't be too worried." Ward had reassured her as Coulson drove them to the airport. "These passports are as good as the real thing and all our reservations are real. Just remember the story and we will be fine."
They filed onto the plane and Skye couldn't help but note that it was her first on-record international flight. She shuffled down the narrow isles that almost made her miss the plane they had flown to Italy on, even with it's cold sterile walls at least their was room to move. Ward took Skye's bag and put it in the overhead locker while she sat down in her window seat, dutifully fulfilling the caring boyfriend cover. Skye tried not to notice the way his black shirt pulled up to reveal the sharp vee above his hips that not even she could ignore.
"You okay?" Ward asked, taking in the odd look on Skye's face.
"Yup." Skye answered with a fake smile, busying herself by buckling her seatbelt.
Skye took out the small phone she kept hidden in back pocket, switching it off before doing the same for the phone that still was unfortunately little more than a camera and angry-birds device.
"Little old school for a computer science specialist don't you think." Ward asked quietly, nodding to the phone that had to be at least 10 years out of date.
"It's in case I get a call from my friend in Cuba." Skye replied pointedly, reminding Ward of the virtual trip wire she had set. Skye leaned closer under the guise of whispering something in his ear, concious of the crowded cabin around them.
"No GPS. Even if they can trace the number which is very unlikely, they can only narrow the signal down to a 5 mile radius instead of a 5 metre radius." Skye explained.
"Smart." Was all Ward said before he they both pulled away from each other.
Thankfully no one took the seat beside Ward leaving the whole row to themselves. Of course, Skye quickly claimed it.
"Move over one so I can put my feet up. There's no damn legroom in these planes." Skye whined, poking at his side.
"It's only a two hour flight." Ward answered with a roll of his eyes. "Plus, I'm a full foot taller than you."
Skye almost did feel sorry for him, with his knees pressed firmly against the seat in front. Serves him right for being so damn tall.
"Do you want the seat?" Skye asked sarcastically, gleening a withering look from Ward. "Great, then move over."
Instead of arguing with her, Ward just unbuckled seat and moved to the towards the isle.
"Happy?" Ward asked sarcastically.
"Yup." Skye said, reaching foward to pull up the armrests and swinging her feet onto the seat. "Thanks honey."
Ward just rolled his eyes at her fake endearment and pulled out his book that he had shoved into the seat pocket. Skye just made herself comfortable, leaning against the window.
"How can someone so tiny take up so much space?" Ward grumbled to himself, more than Skye but she couldn't help but smile.
Skye distracted by fiddling with the in flight entertainment system before settling on a episode of some generic but passable sitcom.
Soon enough they were coming in to land at Heathrow. They both moved back to their original seats as Skye relunctantly relinquished her makeshift bed.
When the plane touched down and taxied into the gate they slowly made their way of the plane, carrying their bags. It was at this point that Ward began to worry, though his training meant that not a hint of it showed. He was about to illegally cross the border with a green civilian with unexplained powers who was being chased by god knows who. People unfamiliar with undercover work tended to overact the couple cover and that was what Ward was most afraid of.
As it turned out, he needn't have been worried. Skye could lie with the best of them as it turned out. Her body language was subtle and easy, standing close to him as though she was comfortable but nothing about it was forced. As they made their way to the customs gate, even when Skye asked which line they needed to be in, she easily touched his arm and leaned into him that she could be heard as though that kind of contact was utterly normal. If she was nervous she wasn't showing it and Ward couldn't help but be impressed. The long wait in line didn't even phase her as she looked around with a tired and bored expression like all the other travellers.
When they reached the customs officer Skye handed her passport and Ward's (or rather Andrew and Olivia's) with steady hands.
"What is the purpose of your visit?" The stern, stoic officer asked from behind the sheet of perspex.
"A holiday." Ward answered simply.
"How long do you plan on staying."
"6 days then on to Paris." Ward answered again, his tone sure and easy. Skye even smiled at the mention of Paris as though she was just another eager traveller.
"Do you have reservations and information about connecting flights?" The man asked, gesturing to the documents Ward was holding.
"Yes, hotel reservations, our flight to Paris then home to New York." Ward listed, handing over each.
The border control officer slowly took in the documents, confirming their story. He took one last look at Skye and Ward, carefully comparing them to their passport photos before putting a stamp in each and handing everthing back. With a dismissive nod, they were through.
Their few belongings all fit inside the small bags they carried so they immediately made their way to the taxi rank. Skye couldn't help a small giggle at the funny little black taxis she had only ever seen in movies.
They both filed into the back of the cab and Ward gave the driver an address. Part of Skye wanted to gloat about her awesome acting job but she held her tounge while there was cabbie listening in.
"So how exactly do you know these people we are meeting up with?" Skye asked, careful to avoid any suspicious sounding details.
"They used to work with May, Coulson and I. We were in the same team for 3 years before May and Coulson retired so they moved back here to work." Ward answered.
Skye was beginning to imagine boring, middle aged scientists who spoke in dull monotones about things Skye couldn't understand. As it turned out, she could not have been more wrong.
After a long drive through the city that Skye had longingly watched zoom by from her window, the taxi pulled up infront of a non-descript building that could have been like any other office block. Ward paid the driver and they both got out, Ward leading her up to stone steps and into a very boring looking lobby. There was not a single pice of furniture in the small foyer, only a buzzer system beside the elevator with a screen and intercom system. Ward crossed to the screen as though he had done it a million times.
"Grant Ward." He spoke clearly and Skye watched as beam of light she could only assume was a retina scan illuminated his face.
The elevator door suddenly opened and when Skye got in she noticed there were no buttons to choose the floor you wanted to go to. This was getting more and more spy-tech by the minute. Once they were inside the elevator it began curiously moving down rather than up. When the doors finally opened Skye gasped as she saw a lab so huge she could barely find the outer walls. It was all white, glass and chrome with so many large machines she couldn't begin to imagine the function on. Two scientists, completely unlike Skye was expecting, rushed towards them.
"Agent Ward, it's so good to see you." The beautiful woman of about Skye's age greeted in a proper British Accent.
"Jemma." He replied, and Skye watched on surprised when he pulled her into a sisterly hug with a smile on his face. So much for robot. When he pulled away, it was the man's turn to greet them.
"Ward, how ya doing?" He asked in an Scottish accent, with a firm thump to Ward's back which just made him roll his eyes.
"Oh, now where are our manners?" The woman Grant had called Jemma said, turning to Skye. "You must be Skye. It's so nice to meet you."
"Uhhh, hi." Skye replied, at an obvious disadvantage. They obviously knew exactly who she was while Skye didn't have a clue.
"I'm Jemma Simmons and this is Leo Fitz. I understand we are going to help you with a little mystery."