Disclaimer: It ain't mine.

Note 1: Another awesome bit of art from Evieoh serves as the cover. Many, many thanks extended to her for it. ^^

Note 2: Meet one of the new POVs for the fic in this chapter. As for who it is... well, you'll need to read and find out. :p

Thanks to Riley Holden/Colormeblue for their beta-reading services. ^^

Out of the Shadows and Into the Light

By Alkeni

Chapter 2: Secrets

Mainframe Room, The Playground

August 5th, 2014

"Alright, try it now." At Fitz's words, Skye booted up the program on her laptop, which was hooked into the Playground's mainframe server. This time, it ran successfully. "Did it work?" Fitz sat up, looking over at her.

Skye nodded. "This time it did. What was the problem?"

"Looks like one of the Koenig brothers unhooked a wire last time they were in here." Fitz said. "I keep telling them to let me take care of this sort of thing, and they keep not listening."

"Well, you do have a hell of a lot on your plate. I mean, it took you a month to get the quinjet's cloaking device to work on the Bus, and you're half our entire science department all on your own." Coulson had bitched about flying coach during that time too, during his recruiting trips overseas. But Fitz had been working as quickly as he could. She didn't understand most of the technical details he'd spat out at everyone when explaining why it was so difficult, but the short version, from what she gathered, was that the Quinjet's cloak just wasn't designed for a plane the Bus's size, or for a plane designed like the Bus in general.

Fitz pointed at her, his tone indignant. "It only took me a month because May would only let me work on the Bus when she was there watching me. As if I was going to screw up the systems. I swear, she loves that plane like it's her own child or something." He clambered to his feet. "It's getting to be about lunchtime. Want to go grab something from the cafeteria to celebrate getting this sorted out?" He gestured around the room.

"Didn't you just eat a whole bowl of popcorn an hour ago?" Skye asked him with a smile – he was always eating, and yet he never seemed to gain any weight. She couldn't help but be just a tiny bit jealous. "How are you not fat, with everything you eat?"

"Genetics." Fitz said with a smile of his own. Skye rolled her eyes and closed her laptop, unhooking it from the server and carrying it under one arm as she followed Fitz out of the room.

"Genetics is cheating." Skye mock-muttered under her breath. "But at least I don't look like I'm still in High School."

Fitz turned, playing along with her banter. "I keep telling you, one day, you'll all be wrinkly old hags, and I'll still be the one with the youthful appearance, and you'll all be jealous." He broke into brief laughter, and Skye couldn't help but join in.

Dining Room, The Playground

August 5th, 2014

As usual, Fitz's sandwich was twice as large as hers. She watched him finish assembling it, putting the top slice of bread on top and then carrying his plate over to the table.

"So what have you been working on lately, then, in that deep dark lab of yours?" Skye asked as he sat down.

"The Lab is on the ground floor, Skye. In plain view of everyone and everything."

"Yeah, but I can only understand maybe... a tenth of what you do, Fitz, and only when it has to do with computers. The only person on this base who can even kind of keep up is Simmons." She looked around a moment, wondering where Simmons was. She was probably working through lunch again, some fascinating project. Keeping both Fitz and Simmons eating and sleeping regularly was nearly a full time job for everyone on the base.

"Mack can keep up with me quite a bit too, actually," Fitz said, referring to the new former S.H.I.E.L.D. mechanic that Coulson had brought in a few weeks ago. Not the same way as Simmons can, of course," the engineer clarified. "But he knows his stuff." Fitz took a few bites of his sandwich and then set it back onto the plate. "As for what I'm working on – remember what you mentioned the first day we were here?"

Skye wracked her brain, trying to remember what he could be referring to. What she remembered most about that day was Grant, in the chair, proving once and for all that he wanted to do better, be better. That underneath everything his family and Garrett had done to him, underneath everything he'd done, he was a good man. And then, of course, after that.

"Uhm...no. Can't say I do. What do you mean?"

"An ICER that could be disassembled." Fitz answered, and Skye suddenly remembered mentioning that to Fitz, referring back to that conversation by the poolside. Skye had almost forgotten about the whole thing – too much else in her life to deal with. "Just the one for Ward, since there's really no point in it, but I don't see why Ward can't have one if he wants one." Fitz paused for a moment, then shrugged. "It's been a bit harder to get right than I thought, making it so it can come apart, go back together and still work, but shouldn't take me more than a few days." He pointed a finger at her, "No telling Ward, I want it to be a surprise for him."

Skye smiled. "All right. I won't tell him." She looked out the doors to the room, expecting to see Simmons on her way here. For that matter, where was Grant? She looked back over to Fitz. "Hey, where's Simmons?"

"Coulson called her up to his office." Fitz shrugged. "She'll tell us when she's done with whatever he needed."

"Probably." Skye agreed. When Fitz gave her a 'what?' look, Skye rolled her eyes and clarified: "I don't mean Simmons isn't going to tell you if you ask, I'm just not sure she'd be allowed to. I mean, I can't be the only one who's noticed that Coulson's been keeping things close to his chest. I mean, I get that he needs to keep some stuff secret, but there's so much he's keeping a mystery."

"He's got to have a good reason." Fitz said softly. "I mean, we're being hunted by every government, not to mention Hydra's still out there. Secrets are going to be a thing, they're going to keep us from being arrested or killed."

"I know, I know." Skye waved her hand a little as she spoke, "I'm not saying keeping the secrets is a bad thing. Coulson knows what he's doing – he's a good guy, and I trust him. I just... it bothers me a little, is all. You know, less than a year ago I was trying to expose all of S.H.I.E.L.D. because Freedom of Information and all that. I'm not a big fan of secrets even if I get why they're a thing."

"No, I understand what you're saying. He is being especially secretive, compared to how he used to be, but he's probably got to. And he's got a lot on his mind. A lot of things to worry about." He shrugged. "If it ends up being secret, it'll be for a good reason."

"Yeah, I know. I know." Skye couldn't really get the passive acceptance of secrets in the agency. Okay, that really wasn't what it was. And for all she knew, Fitz and Simmons hadn't been like that at the start, but they'd been part of S.H.I.E.L.D. for years, and had time to get used to it all. And...

Well, they were different people. Still, Skye had trouble really understanding how they could just be so...cool with it. But Fitz was right. If Coulson was keeping something secret, it was probably for a good reason. If it involved you, if you needed to know, Coulson would tell you, just like he had with what he'd found out about that redacted file, tracing everything back to that village in Hunan province. Like he'd told her about the alien DNA in the drug that had saved her life.

"Anyway," Skye said, smiling. "Enough serious talk. I want to know how you pulled that prank on Hunter." The new arrivals didn't spend much time on the base since they'd gotten here, but just a few days ago, Fitz had pulled a really clever prank on Lance Hunter, and Skye had been trying to figure out how he'd done it. Still didn't have a clue, so it was time to get the information from the horse's mouth.

The Lab, the Playground

August 5th, 2014

Fitz looked up from his tablet when Simmons walked into the lab. After years of working together, Fitz just knew when Simmons was in the room, and she was now. When he saw her, he couldn't help but frown. She had that expression.

The 'I'm thinking about something very puzzling and I'm not entirely happy with the anwers that I'm getting' expression.

She'd been gone in Coulson's office a while – a lot longer than he'd expected she'd be, to be honest, and his best guess was that whatever it had been she'd been talking to the Director about, it was the reason she was bothered.

"You missed lunch." Fitz said, standing up and setting his tablet on the table. "I can go and fetch you something, if you want-"

Simmons shook her head, making her way over to her worktable. "No – I... I'm not very hungry right now. I'll eat something later." Her tone was as distracted by her expression. Now Fitz was worried – just what was it that had her this bothered?

"Jemma, you remember what we agreed back at the Academy, right?" Usually she was the one reminding him to eat, even making him food, but once in a while he had to remind her to stay on top of eating. With sleep, it was usually the other way around. Left to her own devices, Jemma could stay up all night and then some with a particularly engrossing project. And while she was rather cute when she was exhausted, in some ways, it wasn't good for her.

Speaking of food Jemma makes... for no reason in particular, Fitz thought back to South Ossetia, the mission with the Overkill device, and the 'World's Most Dangerous Sandwich' that he'd never gotten to eat, thanks to Ward. He'd really been looking forward to it too. Okay, fine, he had a point, but still! He could have just had me put it away or something!

Not that the engineer really still held it against the specialist that he'd tossed the sandwich away. Not anymore. He'd let it go pretty quickly. It was just a sandwich. Ward, for all his gruffness, was his friend.

"I remember, I remember." Jemma protested, turning around. "We agreed that we'd make sure we both took breaks from our work to eat and sleep, and I will eat. I'm just not hungry right now. I... I have a lot to think about."

"Clearly. You were in Coulson's office for hours." Once he knew what was bothering her, he could help her work through it. That's what they did – they worked through problems together.

"I wasn't in Coulson's office the whole time. I was-" Simmons frowned. "No... sorry." She looked at him apologetically, reaching up to tuck a stray hair behind her ear. "I'm not really supposed to talk about it with anyone."

I guess Skye was right on the nose. This wasn't the first time that Simmons had had to keep information classified. In their early days after the Academy, though they spent most of their time working together, one of them might be called onto a project in their fields that was classified, couldn't talk about it. Those stopped happening after a year, thankfully, when someone higher up in R&D realized that they worked better together.

And thank god they did realize that. It was a strange thing, going back to that, when one of them was working on something they couldn't talk about it.

Fitz found that, despite what he'd said to Skye not a few hours ago, he was just a little bit bothered by it. Director Coulson's got to have a good reason.

"All right." Fitz nodded, smiling a little. Yes, it bothered him just a bit, but more because it meant that whatever was bothering her, he couldn't help her with it. But classified was a thing. "You still need to eat though." He set down his tablet, "I'll go get you something."

Outside Vault D, The Playground
August 5th, 2014

Ward closed the door behind him as he walked out of the Vault. Simmons had gone up first but Ward had stayed behind for a few minutes, to collect himself just a touch. Teaching Simmons how to lie, how to do deep cover in Hydra, had reminded him of John's lessons. But more in the difference, the distinction. John had firmly believed in the power of negative reinforcement. And effective as it might have been...

How could I have not realized what that meant about John, about what he thought, how little he really cared? It was only with Skye's help that he'd been able to take that new look at everything he'd been through with John.

But it had only taken him a few minutes to push those thoughts away and get back completely to the now.

"Better hope Fitz or Skye didn't catch you to spending hours alone down there." Ward turned at the sound of the male, English-accented voice. He didn't need to see Lancer Hunter there, arms crossed in front of him, an arrogant smirk on his face, to know that it was him.

"If you're going to say something, just say it." Ward said, walking down the hall towards the training room."

Hunter followed, "I'm just saying, mate, that there's a lot of things two attractive people can get up to in a dark little room like that one, alone for hours. A suspicious man might get, well... suspicious. Or a suspicious woman."

Ward spun, grabbing Hunter by the front of his shirt and shoving him against the wall, hard. "You don't know me or you wouldn't even think to suggest what you're suggesting." The idea that he would cheat on Skye? It was completely unthinkable. Disgusting. This idiot had no idea what he was saying.

Hunter grimaced and pushed back at Ward, but the specialist didn't let up, and the mercenary held up his hands, palms outward. "All right, all right. You've made your point." Ward let go of Hunter, letting the man slide down the wall a little.

Ignoring the man, Ward resumed his course to the training room.

Skye's Bedroom, The Playground
August 5th, 2014

Skye snuggled into Grant a little, resting her head on his chest as they lay together in bed, just enjoying having him there. He was running his fingers through her hair idly and slowly, something she was also quite used to. She hadn't really had anyone do that as a thing before, but Grant really liked doing it, and she'd found that she really liked Grant doing it to.

Skye let out a soft, low breath, sighing a little as she thought back to Simmons being called up to Coulson's office – and how she apparently wasn't supposed to talk about it. Skye couldn't stop thinking about it, about the way that Coulson was having the team keep secrets from eachother. She didn't like it.

So you say, while keeping a secret about Grant, the little voice in the back of her head suggested. Skye told that voice to shut up though. The situation was completely different. Grant wasn't Hydra anymore. His past, working for Garrett... it wasn't that it didn't matter, but it didn't apply to the now. No one was at risk because of it. No one was involved in it. She'd already used some of the information Grant had given her to help, passing it off as information she'd parsed out of the dumped S.H.I.E.L.D. files, or information that they'd gotten from Cybertek's computers, things like that. With Garrett dead and his group dismantled, Grant didn't even know all that much, and what he had, he'd told her.

With Coulson playing the secret card... it involved them. It was relevant, right now. And it could put them at risk, right?

Maybe. But keeping secrets isn't always a bad thing... it can protect people too. Hell, she was keeping Grant's past a secret to protect him. But wasn't it something that the rest of the team should know? That one of their own was lying to them for months, spying on them, reporting to Garrett?

But I can't tell them. Coulson would... at the very least he'd shove Grant into a cell. Or worse. And she didn't even want to imagine what May would do. And she couldn't let that happen. Grant deserved this second chance he had.

"You're thinking deep thoughts about something." Grant observed softly.

Skye lifted her head a little, looking at Grant. "Just... thinking about secrets. How Coulson's been keeping secrets and that bothers me, but here we are keeping a pretty big secret, so can I really judge him?" She frowned. "I mean, I get why he's keeping secrets, but it bothers me – Simmons was in Coulson's office for like, hours. I just... I can't help but wonder what they were talking about." A thought occurred to her. "You know, I couldn't find you while Simmons was up there."

"I was with Simmons," Grant confirmed. He let out a breath. "I'm not supposed to talk about it. But I will tell you, if-"

Skye held up a hand. "No. Don't. Coulson has his reasons. I do trust him. I can accept that he's got good reasons." She smirked, "But if I ever stop thinking that, I expect you to spill all the secrets of his you know." She kissed him lightly, then rested her head on his chest again. "Let's talk about something else, something lighter."