Previously: Skye and Wolfe are getting some rest at a Comfort Inn after the attack by Deathlok.

Chapter Seven

Skye couldn't sleep.

It wasn't that she didn't feel safe, or that the bed had a strange feel to it (which it did), or even because of the throbbing in her newly sewn hand as the numbing agent faded, she just felt anxious.

She hated being "free" and not able to contact her team. Why would they go dark when she was still lost? Did they not want her to find them? Wolfe said he didn't know their reason for undercover; he said it had been abrupt and they'd given him no information about it, most likely trying to protect the information.

It had been hours where she was lying awake. Currently she was on her side, watching the older SHIELD agent who had now seemed to take on the role of her protector sleep in the bed next to hers. Surprisingly to her, he didn't snore and actually had very light breathing for someone who was sleeping. Maybe that was a training thing; she'd like to learn it sometime if she could. Sleeping with one eye open and all that.

But for now she desperately wanted her eyes to just close.

Reasoning that she had just been asleep for three days and her body may just not be ready to let her rest again, she lifted the covers off of herself and crept towards the door of their hotel room.

After slipping her new flip-flops carefully onto each foot and making sure to grab a room key, she slid out the door.

It was a quiet night. The hotel was right off a highway exit, but not many cars were driving on it now. But there wasn't really anywhere to walk and that was actually she'd come out to do; maybe clear her head. Once she looked around she noticed a serene-looking light coming off of the pool, the peacefulness of the color almost calling her towards it.

She ended up sitting at the edge with her feet playing in the water, trying to take in how calm the night was and try to relax.

As her mind wandered, she realized she wasn't only yearning to see her team but someone she was once quite sure she wanted to see dead: Ward.

They hadn't really gotten much of a goodbye. That was fine, of course. Skye didn't really want to be associated with a traitor more than she had to.

Still, much of the hate that fueled her near-murderous thoughts had dissipated once Wolfe had told her Fitzsimmons were still alive, and therefore affirming that Ward had been telling the truth before Garrett interrupted.

It gave her somewhat of a clearer picture of why Ward did what he'd did, seeing them together. Ward was a grown man and could make decisions on his own, but they'd definitely been shaped out greatly by Garrett…

"Hello."

Skye jumped at the comment, ripping her feet out of the water like she'd been caught doing something against some sort of rules. Which, given that she didn't know if the pool had a close time, might have been true.

"Hey there," she replied to the man who had spoken. Skye was sure she didn't know this man, but his face somehow seemed familiar. He had shaggy black hair and a big build, but definitely looked older. Strangest thing about him was the black cloak or maybe blanket he had over the front of his body.

"You don't really look very prepared to swim," he observed.

Skye glanced down at her t-shirt and sweats. "Forgot my bathing suit. Dad wants to kill me," she added, remembering to keep to their father-daughter vacation cover story. "But I thought it was a nice night and decided to hang out."

"It is a nice night," he agreed, looking around lazily.

Skye awkwardly batted her fists together as the man scanned the area, starting to wonder how long this stranger wanted to keep up this small talk at 2:00 in the morning.

"Did you… come to enjoy the lovely scenery the hotel pool has to offer as well?"

"Not in the slightest. I came to talk with you," he answered casually, and Skye immediately froze up.

It wasn't that guys hadn't tried to pick up conversations with her in the middle of the night in the past, it's just that that was usually at bars, and usually not when there was an evil organization on the look out for her.

"Oh. Well, thank you, but…" she told him regretfully as she stood up, "I was just about to head out and get some shut eye; Sandman must've hit me. Nice talking with you though." She began moving for the exit, but he blocked her path. Not a good sign.

"Oh Skye, don't you remember me?" he implored, and Skye's heart did a backflip or two at the sound of her name. Not a good sign: number two.

She shook her head quickly. "No, I don't," she said firmly, trying to stand her ground. "Should I?"

"Well, I suppose we were never properly introduced. But you risked your life trying to come and rescue me! It's a shame your mission was in vain as it was an unwelcome rescue, but it was a nice gesture. I do hope your dress wasn't ruined from the jump you made."

Skye's eyes widened with shock and realization. This couldn't be him. He looked so different. He had a full head of hair and had even gotten taller! But she knew it was, because in the very features of his face she could see the man that Fitzsimmons so dearly knew they needed to get out.

"Dr. Hall?" she asked incredulously. "But you like… um, died."

"Thank you for the information," he laughed. "But no, I didn't die. I became something else, something greater."

Considering last time she saw the guy he'd been dropped into the incredibly powerful element Gravitonium, Skye sincerely hoped she wouldn't be finding out what "something greater" meant anytime soon.

"So you're here to thank me?" she asked hopefully, while desperately trying to determine how quickly she could jump the fence behind her. "It's ok to admit it, I'll take credit where credit is due."

"I suppose I could, but that wouldn't be much fun, would it?" he told her, taking a step forward, making her decide to take a few back. "And I know it's not your fault… you're just another child thrown into the SHIELD system. It's Coulson who didn't understand what we needed to do for the greater good!"

"Hey, Coulson's the greatest and the good…est man you could ever meet!" Skye defended. "Whatever he did, he did for it in everyone's best interest."

"Oh? You think he threw me into a vat of Gravitonium with my best interests in his mind?"

"Well like, the best interests of people in a whole… the greater good thing! You knew what I meant."

"It doesn't matter you meant. If your suffering will cause Agent Coulson harm, then that's good enough for me."

She watched as he dropped the strange cloak he'd had draped over his body to reveal he was actually in some sort of suit, somewhat like Deathlok's. But it was blue, and dang it showed off his new muscles. The metamorphosis was making it really hard to believe it was the same man.

"Wait-" was all Skye got out in protest before Hall waved his hand, making the world beneath her very feet feel like it had shifted in that one moment, causing her to go flying backwards.

No more than a second had passed when the feeling was back to normal, and Skye's body immediately shifted with the new center of gravity. She fell sloppily into the pool.

Skye pried open her eyes under the water, having to take a moment to orient herself and realize where the surface was before she was able to finally paddle her way to the top.

She burst the surface with a gasp. She hadn't been submerged in the water very long but it had been an unexpected trip, and her lungs hadn't had an adequate amount of air for the excursion.

When she looked up, she saw Hall bent down on one knee, almost casually observing her as she began to tread water mostly with her legs, her injured hand dangling uselessly.

"Dr. Hall, Coulson doesn't even know where I am, let alone if I'm alive," Skye exclaimed as she began to back kick towards the edge, without taking her eyes off him. "If you do this now it won't mean anything."

"I no longer go by that name, Skye. I'm Graviton, now," he told her simply, just before the felt her body increase in mass, followed by a falling sensation. She'd made sure to take a deep breath.

She was at the bottom of the pool, that much she was sure of. The confusing thing was it didn't feel like a pool anymore; it felt just like normal earth.

Other than the lack of oxygen.

Skye realized she could no longer swim, but with the increased gravity she could definitely run. She began a short sprint to the shallow end of the pool. Her foot was just about to cross the area that had a "5" painted on the wall when her entire body collapsed onto the hard concrete. He must have increased the force in that area.

She dragged herself out of the area with great difficulty, realizing she had no choice but to go back to the deep end. She looked around, desperate for anything to cling onto. She could have squealed in delight to see a rather large looking filter carved out of the side.

Her lungs burning for salvation now, she prepared to jump as high as she could in the nine foot deep "water", her hands just reaching the filter.

She clung on for dear life, as her life seemed to really hang in the balance at this moment. Her feet had little traction against the side of the pool as she tried to crawl up and she realized that she was going to have to rely completely on her arm strength to pull her body out.

"You find yourself hanging off the edge of a building twenty stories up, you're going to want to do at least one," Ward's voice rang through her head about her aversion to strength training. She was moments away from death and… he was still the thing running through her mind. At least it was a somewhat helpful thought, albeit one that made her imagine him saying "I told you so."

Skye may not have been twenty stories up at the moment, (actually she was probably beneath sea level) but, using all force she could so that her muscles were screaming, she still did her one pull-up.

The problem was she couldn't actually maneuver herself all the way over the edge of the pool. She rested her chest inside the filter box. Looking up, she came to realize it had a hole leading up to the surface with no water in it, lower than the water level of the rest of the pool. The hole wasn't enough to fit her whole body into, but as her brain screamed for oxygen, the only thing that mattered was her mouth.

Skye spun her body around in the tiny hole so that her head faced upward and she gulped in the plentiful air that touched her lips. With her body half inside the filter, legs dangling in the too-much gravity pool, and her face shoved into an even smaller hole gulping air, she must have been quite a sight.

Now what? she thought to herself.

Despite how quickly this had turned into a life or death situation, Skye still managed to catch on to what was happening. Dr. Hall, or Graviton as he now preferred, was obviously using the Gravitonium, or it was absorbed into him or whatever. She didn't stand a chance of running if he could make her fall down or maybe even float at will. Her situation actually looked hopelessly bleak. Even if she could scream, alert someone to her dilemma, what could they do?

But for a few moments Skye didn't need to make this decision, as all her brain cared about was getting as much air as she possibly could. She decided to try and lift her head into the small hole a little higher so her ears were outside of the water as well. She almost disturbed at how peaceful the night still sounded.

"That should be sufficient…" she heard Hall mutter, nearly inaudible from his stance on the other side of the pool.

Suddenly, the weightlessness that was how water should feel engulfed her once again, and her back legs began to lift towards the top of the pool. Her ears still out of the water, she listened to his footsteps as he rounded the pool to where she was.

That wasn't long enough to drown someone. That was long enough to knock someone out, put their lungs through a bit of hell, but definitely not long enough to kill a person.

She slowly pushed herself out from the filter, hoping her hunch was right, and let herself float lifelessly to the top of the pool.

Skye felt two hands grab into the back of her shirt and soon enough she was fished out of the water and set near its edge. With a shove, she was flipped over so that she was lying on her back. Skye's eyes were shut gently as she did her best to remain still while his fingers felt just beneath her nose.

After he was reassured she was breathing, she was hoisted haphazardly over the man's shoulder. Skye didn't dare open her eyes, but he didn't walk too far before she heard the soft beep of a car door unlocking.

She was placed delicately across the backseat of a car, or van, or something. She still didn't open her eyes. From the feel underneath her soaked body, she was sitting on leather.

The door shut, and Skye was trying to determine when would be the best time to jump out. Maybe she could do it inconspicuously while he was at a red light, or maybe it would be best to do it while the car was in motion, not too fast of course…

Keeping her eyes as squinted as possible, she dared to look over at the driver's seat.

Which was empty.

Her eyes rolled up to look out the windows she could see from this vantage, but he was nowhere in sight.

"Good enough for me," she mumbled, quickly getting up and wasting no time in running out of the car.

She ran away. Away from the hotel, and away from Wolfe, she realized. The amount he'd walked to get her to the car had taken her farther from her room on the third floor, and her brain decided he'd have a good chance of getting her if she tried to return. Hopefully Wolfe would be all right in the locked room. But she had no idea where Graviton had gotten to or how long he would be gone; she just knew she had to get out of there.

She began running down the street passed closed restaurants and shops, her thumb raised. She'd been a hitchhiker before and had never had too much of a problem with it. That is, as long as you don't mind some interesting characters.

It wasn't too long before she got someone to pull over. She looked down to realize that her usual weapons to getting into guys' cars were mostly covered up by her t-shirt, though maybe with the wetness that could be to her advantage. It was with some surprise she realized she might not need them when she saw it was a mini-van that was driving over to her.

Her expectations were flipped completely around when she saw the young woman in a nursing uniform staring back at her.

"Rough night?" asked the blonde through an open window.

"You have no idea," Skye confessed, sincerity seeping into her voice.

The woman smiled. "Hop in."

A/n: So do we want a chapter where Simmons and Triplett get Ace settled in on the BUS, or just skip to a team scene where it's implied that they've done that? I just realized that I've been glazing over Ace parts, but if you guys want to see him I can write it real quick.

Also, Skye's papa bear is showing up in the show even faster than I thought he would... we MAY be getting some spitfire updates from this story.