A/N: Hey, so finally updating this fic! Sorry it's taken so long! This is pretty much one long scene about Skye looking for Ward, and it'll continue into the next chapter as well. :)
A huge thank you to LisaMichelle25 for being the beta for this story!
Thank you to three guests and patty cake rocks for your reviews! :3
DISCLAIMER: I only own the storyline.
Steam wafted out of the pristine white mug on the table. Picking it up, Skye blew on the surface to cool it, and cautiously took a sip of the hot drink. She moaned as the familiar feeling of warmth melted through her, still focusing on the screen of her laptop on the table in front of her. Her eyes flicked from side to side as she systematically decoded the encrypted message in her head. Reaching the end of the sentence, she picked up the pen and paper in her lap and wrote down the message in plain English.
Commander at Guest House with one of two patients.
Okay. That made no sense. Skye creased her brows together and peered more intently at the screen. Again, she went over the translation. It read exactly the same.
"What the hell?" she muttered, utterly confused. She couldn't go to anyone about this, unfortunately, as she was doing this on the sly. The 'Guest House' was destroyed. And who the hell are the patients? Deciding to add some context, Skye scrolled down the page, translating the next few lines of code. Hydra had been using this style for a while, and haven't as yet caught onto the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. knew about their communications via the white noise. This was something the entire team at The Playground were begrudgingly grateful to Ward for. He had tipped them off about the use of it, and hadn't told Whitehall that S.H.I.E.L.D. knew. Decrypting the last passage of the paragraph, Skye wrote down her findings.
Patient 2 has broken out preceding retaliation to punish Patient 1. All agents on high alert for the woman with the large scar. Guards required to replace those the Commander fired. Commander placed request to find S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Skye for Patient 1's cooperation.
Skye couldn't breathe. Hydra wanted her to make someone comply. And who was the woman with the large scar? Skye's gaze drifted to the mug of coffee and she immediately took another sip. Ow. Still scalding.
Placing the mug back on the table, Skye leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, breathing deeply. Opening them again, she changed her angle.
"Okay, so…Hydra has two prisoners." She spoke aloud, but kept her voice quiet so she wasn't taken by surprise should one of her team members show up. "Patient implies testing, of a sort. Or a play on 'Guest House'. Somewhere remote? Underground? Probably both, it's Hydra." Massaging her temple, she read over the texts again. "Woman with scar…high alert?" she said, confused. "High value target. Oh." Skye sat up straighter and her eyes widened. "Agent 33. Her compliance died with Whitehall…who was she with?" Lost in thought, Skye tapped the pen on the pad of paper by force of habit. "I relate to their compliance, but how? Unless…" her breath hitched and her voice dropped to a whisper. "Ward's alive."
Several moments went by where Skye just sat slumped in her seat, her chest heaving with sobs while the shock of what Ward was going through sank in. Her hands were trembling, and as soon as she noticed this, Skye hurriedly focused on keeping her powers in check.
"Okay…okay…focus. Ward's alive. He's alive." She took in a shuddering breath, slow and deep. Her sobs quietened and Skye closed her eyes to concentrate on calming herself. The next thing to happen didn't help.
"Skye?" a male voice from several feet behind her made Skye jump. She already knew who is was just from the accent, but she twisted her upper body around to face him.
"Hi, Fitz. You scared me." She let out a little laugh as an attempt to show that she was fine, but the Scot wasn't buying it.
"Why…why are you crying?" he asked, not moving from where he was standing.
"Are?" Skye brought a hand to her face and felt a tear slide onto her fingers. "Oh. That."
"That?" Fitz started coming closer now. "Did May and Coulson make you do this?" he questioned a little angrily when he saw the complicated algorithm on her laptop screen.
"No! This is…" Skye internally debated, and made up her mind when she looked at Fitz's face. "I was looking for Ward."
"He's alive?" Fitz breathed, shocked. Fresh tears swept down Skye's cheeks as she nodded.
"I'm afraid he won't be for long."
"If he can survive you shooting him four times, then I'm pretty sure he can survive whatever Hydra's throwing his way." Fitz muttered, his voice flat. Skye looked at him in disbelief, then shoved the pad in his face. "What's this?"
"The translation. Read it."
Warily, Fitz dropped his gaze to the paper in his hands and read aloud the first line. "Commander at Guest House with one of two patients. 'Guest House'?" he looked back at Skye, confusion and terror in his eyes. "They're not finding a way to…bring Hydra agents back to life, are they?"
"I doubt it, Fitz. Their leaders are more careful now, and they won't waste anything like that on common agents." Skye said, shaking her head.
"Right. But what about the 'patients' part?" He asked, worried. Skye's reply to that was to grimace, so he continued reading. "Patient 2 has broken out preceding retaliation to punish Patient 1. That's definitely not medical."
"They're going to need medical." Skye muttered under breath.
"All agents on high alert for the woman with the large scar." Fitz continued without hearing her. "Who?"
"Agent 33. May fried the nanomask to her face, remember?" Skye was now looking at the floor, willing herself to keep her powers in check.
"Oh, right. But what does this have to do with Ward?"
"Last sentence." Skye replied with exasperation, rubbing her forehead. This was all emotionally draining.
"Uhh, Guards required to replace those Commander fired. That one's obvious enough. Commander placed request to find S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Skye for Patient 1's cooperation." Fitz looked back at her. "You think they're talking about Ward?"
"Why else would they go through so much trouble to capture me if it's not to force Ward into doing what they want?" Skye nearly shrieked. "Back in the theatre in San Juan, Ward didn't attack any of the agents or Whitehall because I had guns to my head! If they even threaten to do worse, he'd do anything." Her chest felt so constricted from the effort of keeping it steady. Tears poured down her face as she gazed up at Fitz imploringly.
Fitz wanted to say things to calm Skye down, but his anger towards Ward won out. "Then why don't they use the Faustus Method if they want him to be loyal?"
"Agent 33, probably. Her loyalty broke when Whitehall died. Why wouldn't Ward's when his handler dies?"
The gravity of the situation finally dawned on Fitz. His eyes widened in horror. "They want to break him." He said quietly. Skye nodded, her bottom lip trembling. Deciding he was going to help, Fitz pulled out the chair next to Skye and pulled her into a hug. Winding her arms around his torso, she sobbed into his shoulder.
Glancing around, Fitz was surprised that nothing was shaking. It's probably the knowledge of support that helps more than anything. He squeezed her a little more tightly. Once Skye had calmed down enough to wipe her tears away without worry that there would be more, Fitz broached the subject again.
"How are we going to find him?"
Skye gaped at him in shock. "You…you want to help find him?"
Fitz shrugged. "As long as they have him, they're going to be looking for you. That or they…kill him. And either way, it's bad for you."
"Right." Skye nodded, trying to reorganise her thoughts. "Right. Backtracing."
"You're sure you'll be able to do that?" Fitz asked, brows pinched in concern.
"Yeah. Hydra don't yet know that we've got their ear, so they're not gonna bother hiding where their orders come from, right?" Skye sounded confident at the beginning, but looked to Fitz as that dwindled.
"Right. Yeah, that makes sense." Fitz nodded. "How long is it gonna take?"
"A few minutes to find the original call. Then maybe another few to pinpoint the location. Go make a cup of tea while I get it done, kay?" Skye seemed much more chirpy as she had something that she could do to help as she tapped away rapidly on the keyboard, various screens popping up as access point after access point let her through.
"Kay." Fitz barely made this word coherent as his mouth was hanging open slightly in awe at her skill.
"Fitz." Skye's voice snapped him back to reality. "Go make some tea. I've got this."
Fitz smoothly stood up, but the effect was hampered by the fact that their legs had become intertwined while they were hugging and he tripped and nearly fell face first. Skye felt the tug by her feet and looked over to find Fitz sprawled on the floor. She sniggered, and when Fitz turned his head to give her a dirty look, it turned into a full-blown laugh.
"Doing push ups, Fitz?" someone asked from the doorway. Skye flicked her head around to see Bobbi paused in the gap, her lips spread into a wide grin. Skye sent one back, nodding, her eyes equally mischievous. Laughing broadly, Bobbi continued on her way, the delighted sounds echoing down the hall. Shaking her head, Skye went back to tracing the orders and Fitz got to his feet, grumbling under his breath.
"Don't grouch at us, Fitz. We didn't make you fall." She said without glancing up from the screen.
"Technically," Fitz corrected. "You did. What with your legs tangled up with mine and such."
"Och, technicalities." Skye mimicked in a poor impersonation of his accent. She snickered at her own pathetic performance.
"That is an awful accent." Fitz turned around to point an accusing finger at her. "Stick to your American one, it's much better."
"Yada yada yada…" Skye continued just to annoy him. "Got the line." She reverted back to her normal voice as her expression went back to one of absolute seriousness.
Fitz rushed back to stand beside her. "And the location?"
"Give it a couple of minutes! I'm running it now. Get back to your tea." Skye shooed him away and typed more components into the scanner. Satisfied that it wouldn't be long, she leaned back in her chair, and immediately her thoughts went dark. "Fitz." She said in a timid voice. "I'm scared." She looked up to where he was standing, gazing at her with a sorrowful expression.
"Scared that he's not going to be where you trace that?"
Skye's eyes widened in despair. I didn't think of that! "Scared that he's going to be gone. In either sense of the word."
Not knowing what else to do, Fitz walked back over to the woman, pulled her up out of her seat and hugged her. "As long as they don't know that you found him, they're not gonna move him. Okay?"
Skye nodded against his shoulder. "Okay." A beeping from the laptop drew them apart and Skye jumped into her seat, bringing up the results. "Found him! Remote ranch house in North Western Kansas. Satellite shows some security. I can only see a few men."
"Probably to make the armed forces doubt that's Hydra." Fitz pointed out. "Can you dig in? There might be cameras."
"Yeah, I think so." Skye pressed a few buttons on the keyboard and she found a wireless link streaming directly from the building. "There's a wireless outlet, so I should be in…now."
"Why is it wireless?" he raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Streaming to other Hydra leaders, I suppose. Ward's a high value target." Skye replied absentmindedly, finally locating the catalogue of recordings that she was after. "Okay, so…how long do you think Ward's been their captive?"
"Dunno. Why don't you look for the…latest, and rewind until he's dragged in the door?" Skye nodded in agreement and quickly jumped to the end of the recording, which was still going on. Rewinding at top speed didn't hide the atrocities that both Ward and Agent 33 were subjected to, causing both Skye and Fitz to pale in horror. "There!" Fitz pointed out as the grainy images of Ward being brought in, slumped over someone's shoulder, whizzed past. "Go back!"
"I'm going back! Jeez, chill." Skye snapped at him, as she fast forwarded the images, more slowly than before. "There." She unconsciously started chewing on her thumbnail, her foot bouncing her leg quickly.
"They just look unconscious there." Fitz observed quietly. He flicked his gaze to Skye. "Skye relax. This was only a day or so ago. They wouldn't have killed him in that time." His hand found its way onto her back, rubbing soothing circles in an effort to get her to relax. He was concerned that it wouldn't work for long.
A/N: Yes, Skye and Fitz will be seeing all that happens to Ward, and some of what happens to Agent 33 (she's not Kara yet).
I wanna know what you all think! Reviews, please, my lovely readers! :)