Hand tremoring, Jane shut the motel door. The night sky was still above her, reminding her that the events of the day had gone by at such speed; this was an anomaly considering the rate at which her life had been passing for the past months.
Within a course of forty minutes, Jane had rescued wounded Darcy and Nick Fury. Healing had become Jane's new expertise with her recently acquired skills and it helped her fix up the damage Hydra had caused. Darcy was shot and under mortal conditions would have been facing mortal consequences but now she was free from those limitations. Fury, however, would have to take a longer time off. Jane tried to find comfort in the fact that both the director and her best friend were alive and breathing.
But her heart still felt a murmuring sadness from the scary situation. What would have Jane done if something happened to Darcy? What if they did this, as mortals? Lives would have been lost, and there were. Remembering the broken pieces SHIELD was left in, Jane began to quietly cry. She began to miss a life where her worries were limited to Darcy and the stars. And even the life with her love, Loki, by her side made more sense than this one. Cruelty wasn't something Jane could tolerate on her own, even as the glorified immortal she had become. Her body may have gotten stronger, but her heart was as empathetic as before. It pained her, the loss of lives, the possibility of losing Darcy, and most importantly, the vacancy in heart Loki's absence had caused.
After a while, the lights inside the window flickered, alerting Jane that Darcy had finally awoken. She chastised herself for crying; deciding that she would now do whatever she could, for the sake of Darcy and for the sake of SHIELD. As far she knew there were innocent people in danger and there was no way Jane would let HYDRA kill more people. Now with her gifts, Jane was invincible and she would do anything in her power to make sure HYDRA never got what they wanted.
"What now?"
That question hung in the air for what felt like hours before Coulson could reply, "I don't know."
Fury had given them no instruction for the drive and as far as Coulson knew, it could have been worthless. The drive was heavily protected, enough that Coulson knew better than to ask Skye to crack the information.
"So SHIELD no longer exists?" Skye asked, as stunned as everyone else. With her affiliation with the Rising Tide, SHIELD had been her common enemy for the past year of her life. To have it end this way was…
"This is…so….anticlimactic," was all she could come up with.
Ward gave her an angry look. "Is that why you joined, to observe a freak show? I'm sorry you're disappointed that the party's over. Maybe you should go look for a new organization to destroy."
"Hey, my intention was never destroy SHIELD! That's not what the Rising Tide is about…," Skye began her defensive rant.
Simmons threw her hands up in exasperation. "Now's not the time for this, Skye. To an extent, Ward is right. You have to determine where you're loyalties lie. If Rising Tide means this much to you, it's probably better, and safer for you to go back."
Skye blinked at the group. Fitz was angrily drawing on a piece of paper and moving around shifting equipment to set up for packing. Ward was silently fuming in a corner while Coulson sat in the middle looking like a lost puppy. May and Simmons were watching Fitz zoom in and out of the lounge as he began a pile of stuff as if the world was about to collapse.
Looking around made her question everything. Skye didn't know what she wanted anymore. Yes, the Rising Tide was a passion of hers but the only reason she joined was to find her family. That agenda hadn't changed. But the situation had. Was this where she wanted to be?
She slipped into her van on the Bus. It felt like home. But it wasn't. Skye had never had a home. She then went to her assigned bunker. It was a closet sized make-shift bedroom. All Skye had in there was a box of clothes, a bobble-head from her van, and her blanket in addition to the ones that came with her bed. She sat on it, trying to think and stop twitching. She lay down and began thinking about everything at once. What was one to do when everything they were a part of seemed to end? She had joined the Rising Tide because of her ex-boyfriend, Miles, who turned out to be a selfish cheat who told her one thing and did something else. Skye had no family and the girls at the orphanage had always been quick to alienate her, casting her away because of her uncanny abilities with technology most of girls had no access too. And now SHIELD, which had been an experience for her, just ended so soon. When was she ever going to get the chance to belong somewhere?
The train of thought ended when Skye heard yelling from the lounge.
Fitz had eventually lost it and was flinging things around. In hindsight, watching the usually anti-violence engineer fling his gadgets at the field agents in the room would be amusing, but currently, it revealed to Skye the pain the rest of the team was in. SHIELD had been in her life as a buffer but for the others, it was all they believed in.
And now it was gone.
Watching the screaming, crying, and reprimanding, Skye suddenly knew what she wanted.
She ran forwards to the raging Fitz and wrapped her arms around him in a bear hug. She encompassed him in her arms and Fitz slumped forward, tears streaming down his face. Simmons joined their hug, crying her heart out. The field agents looked on, now somber than ever, taking in the loss.
"It's okay, it's okay," Skye comforted Fitzsimmons, allowing them to sob on her shoulder. Fitz shook his head furiously.
"No it's not okay," he said, lips quivering.
Simmons sadly sighed, holding onto Skye's hand tightly.
"I know but SHIELD may not exist in official terms, but guys we can still rebuild SHIELD," Skye suggested.
Everyone quieted down.
"What's the idea Skye?" May finally intervened, curious.
Skye tucked her hair. "Um, well, even though HQ and all that is shut down, it doesn't mean we have to. We can still do the work we were doing before, saving people and stuff. It's not over if we keep it going. I mean in its core, SHIELD agenda to help protect the innocent is worth continuing, even if we do it through minor funding and less flashy badges. We still have the skills and each other. We can do this, guys, we can try."
"We?" Coulson quoted.
Skye looked him in the eye.
"I've made my decision. My loyalties lie with SHIELD, at least this new version anyway. Yes I didn't agree with your methods before but I want to be a part of something this. I want to help people. If you keep helping people, I'll stay on your side," Skye vowed.
Coulson suddenly got up. It was as if all the melancholy fell off his shoulder.
"That's all I needed to hear," he nodded, his old self again. The shift was abrupt and the team watched stunned as Coulson went into his office to make some more calls.
Ward excused himself to cook something for the team. Skye quickly offered to help, earning an appreciative nod from the specialist. May returned to pilot the plane; they had been hiding in a clear field in the middle of nowhere with the help of the cloaking technology Fitz had set up.
Fitzsimmons stayed in the lounge, together in silence.
"So…we're rebuilding SHIELD? Are we really going to this?" Fitz sniffled.
Jemma beamed at him, "Of course Fitz. We'll get through this. Together," she promised.
"I need to make a call."
"No, you don't."
"Yes I do."
"No. You don't," Jane persisted.
Fury huffed. "Damn woman, why can't you see that I am capable of talking to another person?"
"The stress on you mind will not help you get any better. Just forget about work and focus on healing," Jane explained.
Fury looked at her as if she was crazy.
"Is she out of her mind?" he asked Darcy.
Darcy handed him her own cell phone, ignoring Jane's protests.
"Who are you calling?" Darcy asked after Jane left the room. Fury was practically paralyzed from the waist down, plus had four broken ribs and a badly burnt arm.
"None of your business."
"I can help you," Darcy offered.
"Thank you. This is still isn't any of your business," Fury told her, squinting at the phone screen.
"You know the person's number?"
"I can't call who I need to; otherwise HYDRA'll track them down. I need a secured line, you got one?"
Darcy blinked. "What were you expecting me to say when you asked that question?"
"Point taken," Fury nodded, "Don't suppose madam 'go-back-to-sleep' can get me one?"
"I can ask Jane. She'll probably refuse you know. She doesn't want you thinking about anything stressful."
"I know. But right now there are people in danger. Think she'll understand that?"
Darcy nodded and left.
Meanwhile, Fury opened up Darcy's email, sending an email to Agent Jemma Simmons.
"These are coordinates," Coulson said, confused.
"Yes, I got them this morning in my email from Agent Lewis," Jemma explained.
"Lewis? That's impossible."
"Unless it's not," May gave Coulson a pointed look.
"You-you think this is a trap?"
"I can't tell you. But it doesn't have to be Agent Lewis who sent that."
"It could be HYDRA," Coulson thought out loud.
"Or it could be the Director. You did say sir that Director Fury would reveal some information," Simmons pointed out.
"Ask Skye if she can track down the location from which this email was sent. I need to know who sent these," Coulson told Simmons who scurried out of his office.
"Are you sure that's the best idea? Shouldn't we be hiding while HYDRA looks for us?" May asked.
"Then we'll be hiding forever. We can't do that May. If this is Fury's way of helping us, I need to make sure he's okay. If it's HYDRA, I need to make sure we don't go there."
"And if it's Darcy Lewis?"
"Then we find out what she wants."
A/N: Thank you, JigokuShoujosRevenge for commenting and also widening my vocabulary there. Thank you everyone for reading, means a lot. If you enjoy it, please stay tuned and as always if you have any questions, comments or concerns, even if it's like "hey I have no idea what's happening" message me or leave a review and I will clarify it for you.
Have a lovely day/night wherever you are :)