Previously: The team realized that using Skye's phone, they had a way to contact Deathlok and tell him that Ace is safe.
Deathlok is currently with Graviton, as the two are hanging out at a motel with Wolfe as he holds Skye prisoner. Wolfe then dropped a bit of a bomb on Skye:
"And I know this... because I'm your father."
Chapter Ten
Skye laughed. She couldn't help it. Skye laughed and laughed and laughed, her chuckles lined with disbelief at what this man was telling her. If all he'd done was lie to her why should she start believing him now, when it was something so absurd?
Wolfe stared at her, pursing his lips in a pitied grimace, nodding as if he expected this reaction but hoped for something different.
"I'm sorry," she said, catching her breath for a moment, "does that make me Luke or Leia? I mean, I know the whole," she puffed up her chest and lowered her voice, "'I am your father' thing was to Luke, but Leia's the girl, so I dunno."
Skye shrugged, beginning to laugh again the moment she finished her quip. Her panic at the situation was perhaps finally catching up to her. Wolfe seemed at a loss of what to say, his mouth gaping open with sincere surprise when his phone began to ring.
"Saved by the bell," she chuckled, before going broke into her hysterics again.
"I'll give you a moment to process that," Wolfe said as he stood up to receive the call.
Skye let a few more guffaws run passed her lips before managing to calm herself down; she wanted to hear as much of this phone conversation as possible.
"I know, Skye turned off the service," Wolfe said into the device. "Why haven't you been in contact with Deathlok?"
As soon as Wolfe had said his name, Mike seemed to be over at the bed.
"You ok?" he asked in a whisper.
Skye looked up at him. He was still staring ahead, mechanical eye and all, but clearly talking to her.
"What?"
He continued. "Are you hurt? Are you able to run?"
Skye shook her head, brow furrowed in confusion. "Uh, no to the first, yes to second."
"Good. Get ready," he told her, discreetly grabbing onto the chain her hand was cuffed with.
"But Deathlok is here now!" Wolfe shouted, and turning around to see Mike at the bed, with Skye, the cuff in his hand, whispered, "Oh hell."
Just before it broke loose.
With one forceful tug from Deathlok's grip the handcuff broke free from the bed post, and he didn't waste any time in pushing Skye over to the other side of the bed and over the edge. Wolfe already had out his ICER and was firing it in their direction as Skye took cover.
She heard a grunt from Wolfe and a body dropping to the ground. Though she couldn't see, she hoped that what she heard was exactly what happened.
But suddenly she couldn't feel the ground anymore, nothing but air beneath her feet as she gently began to rise up off the ground.
Once her line of sight passed the cover of the bed she could see Mike hanging in the air as well. He was firing shot after shot at Graviton, but he kept deflecting them with the wave of his hand, the other one obviously being used to lift them up.
She was kept in the air, but Deathlok was thrown violently onto the ground.
"Mike!" she shouted desperately. He was screaming.
Skye looked up with horror at Graviton. A wide smile was etched across his face and Skye knew he was enjoying his job too much. She heard few cracking and snapping sounds, causing Skye to sincerely hope they weren't bones breaking.
"Stop, please!" she screamed. "Stop hurting him!"
And Graviton did stop. He stopped everything, but not because he wanted to. Skye fell to the floor once again, but this time when her glossy eyes looked up she was flooded with relief at who had come bursting through the door.
Her team.
Coulson, May, Triplett, and Ward, to be exact.
Wait, Ward?
She shook the thought away as it retreated into some deep recess of her mind, though she was positive it was one she was going to revisit.
The four of them came in toting some sort of strange weaponry, like big guns, but it seemed as though nothing was coming out. They surrounded the gravity altering man with them and he seemed frozen on the spot.
"Skye, get Peterson and move!" Coulson shouted.
She galvanized into action, running to help Mike up. He seemed ok. He was on his two feet without using her for support at all and suddenly begun leading the charge as he directed her out of the hotel room.
She stopped at the doorway. "What about you guys?"
"We'll meet you out there, just go!" shouted Coulson, and Skye could see Fitzsimmons beckoning to her from a van outside.
The relief. The relief that was bursting through Skye at this moment topped everything else: pain, sadness, fear, surprise, adrenaline… there was not one emotion that could compare to her team showing up to rescue her and seeing every single one of them in one piece.
Skye ran to the Short Bus, embracing Simmons automatically.
"Oh my god, I missed you," Skye mumbled against her, before turning to do the same with Fitz.
"We missed you too, Skye," Simmons told her, overwhelming relief and sincerity in her voice. "Are you hurt? Oh your hand! Do you need me to look at it?"
Despite the question, Simmons had already taken and began looking over Skye's bandaged hand, possibly about to unwrap the thing while they were sitting in the van. Skye pulled it gently away from the concerned scientist.
"Nope, that's definitely fine right now. I'm interested in you guys! What happened in Florida? Garrett's dead?"
"Yep, he's dead," Fitz informed her. "Don't worry we'll get you caught up. I missed stuff too while I was away."
"Yes!" Skye exclaimed. "How are you back? Are you ok?"
"Look, Skye," Simmons began in a pleasant but firm tone, "I understand you must have so many questions and I can't even begin to imagine how you're feeling at the moment, but right now we really need to-"
"Hey, I'm focused. Mission, got it," Skye said quickly, only too thrilled to be back with these people. "What's going on? Can they kill Graviton with that stuff?"
"Graviton?" asked Fitz.
"She means Dr. Hall, obviously," said Simmons.
"I know what she means, Simmons. It was just an expression of shock at the name."
Skye was beaming. She probably shouldn't have been, considering her team was in that hotel still with a couple crazy people (one super-powered) but she couldn't help it. Fitzsimmon's were bantering, right in front of her!
"Alright, Fitz. No need to be so snippy!" said Simmons, almost sounding actually angry. "Skye, to answer your question: no. The guns are neutralizing the electrons in the air around him, therefore not giving him any electricity to power his… well, powers. But that takes a lot of force as they're basically splitting apart atoms without causing a nuclear blast, which honestly, is quite remarkable!"
Skye was nodding enthusiastically at the explanation, and Simmons seemed to realize that throughout all her words she hadn't actually answered the question. Maybe she was distracted by Skye not interrupting her to say, "English, please" as usual, but she was so thrilled to be listening to Simmons' voice she didn't dare stop her. The scientist cleared her throat, and continued.
"Therefore, the charge on the weaponry is going to run out soon. He should be stunned for a few minutes but considering we have no way to subdue him for a long period of time we have no way to hold him, so once that happens-"
A body being slumped into car made Simmons jump, effectively stopping her spiel.
Skye stared at Wolfe, unconscious on the floor of the van, until her eyes trailed upwards to see Deathlok's determined face in front of them.
He stepped over the body carefully, followed by Triplett.
And Ward.
Skye moved over to make room for the agents as May got into the driver's seat and Coulson the passenger's.
"Drive!" shouted Coulson.
"I am," responded May.
"Well, we're not moving!" he pointed out frantically.
Suddenly the car burst forward, causing everyone in the cramped space to shift. There were some groans and general sounds of discomfort.
"This is worse than the mini-van…" mumbled Trip.
"Aw, I missed a trip in a mini-van?" moaned Skye. "Dang, what else happened while I was gone?"
"A lot," May stated, eyes still on the road.
Coulson turned around, a smile bright on his face to which Skye happily returned. God, it was so good to see everyone. She already had a plan of action to hug each member of her team, even May.
Maybe not Ward.
But definitely, without a doubt, the older man smiling back at her that was the only father figure she'd ever known.
"Glad to have you back, Agent Skye."
"Soooo, what all have I missed?" asked Skye, her eagerness seeping into her voice and face as easily as if she were an excited puppy. "Don't even try to deny going to Disney World, I saw that. Can't believe you took a group vacation without me!"
"That was in no way a vacation!" protested Simmons. "It was a mission and a fairly terrifying one, at that. Though, if you'd been there as we were hoping, we could have perhaps stayed and made it one…"
"Oh, well sorry my kidnapping got in the way of your 'time on holiday,'" Skye said in a mimicked accent of Simmons'.
When Simmons looked upset about possibly offending her friend, Skye nudged the scientist's shoulder playfully to further prove she was joking. It was nice to hear them giggling.
"Speaking of that," Triplett started with a grunt, as he was hauling Wolfe up to get some handcuffs on him, "I think it's maybe you who should be filling us in."
"Yeah!" agreed Fitz. "Where have you been all this time? I mean, Deathlok- er, uh, Mike told us he was ordered to attack you once but he didn't really know much else."
Coulson watched as Skye's glow of relief and happiness faded and he didn't miss her glance to both Wolfe and Ward, who had been silent as he sat as far as he could from everyone else.
Honestly, Coulson was surprised she hadn't brought up the latter already. Seeing the Hydra agent had to have been an unexpected, and if Coulson had to guess, unwanted sight for Skye.
Ward had been a tactical decision. They needed four people to wield the guns and after such a close call with the two scientists, no one was eager to put them that close to the action just yet. Ward had proven himself enough, giving helpful information about Skye's whereabouts and in taking down Garrett, that he'd seemed like the best option.
If Skye was avoiding bringing up such an obvious point then she must have not have been ready to talk quite yet. She'd have to tell them her story at some point but Coulson could at least delay the inevitable.
"Skye can be debriefed when she gets back to the BUS," Coulson told them with an air of authority. When he turned back to look at her, she flashed him a grateful smile, mouthing, "Thank you."
Skye turned her gaze to Peterson. "You helped them get me out," she observed, her jolly demeanor turned sour from bringing up current experiences. "Does that mean Ace is ok?"
"Yes. He's waiting on your plane," Peterson said stoically.
"That's amazing, I can't wait to see him!" she told him with a grin, though he didn't return it. He wouldn't even look at her, actually. She looked down to play with her nails nervously. "I'm sorry I stabbed you with a windshield wiper."
Fitz' eyes immediately widened with surprise at the comment as he opened his mouth to say something, but Simmons nudged him with a small "shh." Strangely, he seemed automatically angered by the comment.
That reminded Coulson: something was definitely off with the two of them.
When Skye voiced her apology, Mike immediately looked up at her.
"And I can never express how sorry I am for what I've done to you. Hopefully, I can work to make up for it in the future."
"You don't… you don't have to make up for any…" Skye faltered, obviously at a loss of what to say.
He was a murderer. It was under duress that he was forced to do these things, but to say that Mike Peterson had nothing to make up for was most likely a lie.
"Fitzsimmons, tell Skye about the horse," said May.
Their faces immediately lit up, causing nearly everyone in the van to crack a smile.
"Oh my god, Skye, her name was Brisha and she was just the most beautiful animal you'd ever see!"
"I'm saving up to buy her."
"Oh Fitz, you barely knew her."
"I fed her an apple and we bonded!"
And as Fitzsimmons rambled on the tension in the van turned light. Despite whatever troubles, unanswered questions, and doubted loyalties or guiltiness currently hounding them, at that moment they were grinning.
A/n: Would you look at that rarity, a fluffy ending! ... Don't get used to it. Like really, really don't.
You guys are asking for Ward and I'm trrryyying. I shoved him into a chapter where he had no business being today, but I think you should get some skyeward sorta soon :) Plus, you do get a little Ward POV next chapter.