Previously: After finding Fitz miraculously healed the first thing he did was kiss Simmons right on the lips. When the two finally talked about it, she told him she wasn't too sure about a relationship and he got a bit upset, walking off in a bit of a tantrum.

Wolfe has been captured by the team after holding Skye prisoner and having people attack her, as we now wait for him to wake up in the interrogation room.

Chapter Thirteen

Coulson stared with crossed arms and observant eyes at the feed to the interrogation room. Inside held one ex-agent. Phil quietly scoffed; he supposed in actuality they were all ex-agents. But this one had abandoned the promise they swore, the vow that they would protect the innocent from threats. And that's what an agent was to Phil Coulson. Instead, this man was a threat.

And Coulson hated him.

Skye had recounted her story, the team leader trying to be indifferent but understanding through every word of it. She had been obviously trying very hard to not let her emotions overcome her again and she did an exceptional job.

Had Coulson known earlier she'd been running on such little sleep, he would never have thought to ask her to debrief before getting some. But now he knew it was for the best to at least get some of her story out, making sure she left out the smaller details until after she rested.

Wolfe had been dragging Skye around the country, apparently setting up ways for her to be attacked. And Skye told him Wolfe claimed he never wanted them to kill her.

So the question was: why?

He was already inside the Playground, already on the inner loop with the team. If he'd brought Skye back to Coulson right away, he would have still been able to be with her and make a relationship with her. The only difference was she would have been protected.

And the question rang through Coulson's mind again: why?

As the man stirred, Coulson realized he was finally going to get some answers.

He turned to exit the room, running into the second-least trusted person on his BUS at the moment.

"Want me to do the interrogating, sir?" asked Ward.

Coulson shook his head, a fair amount of disbelief in the gesture. He was already in a sour mood just by having to look at the man whom felt the need to torment Skye, his claimed-to-be daughter, and running into a possible time bomb that Coulson himself was allowing to be here wasn't helping.

"You do realize you're not a member of this team, right? That can never be. You're just a consultant for useful information or needed actions."

"To be frank, sir, no one is an official member of this team. Officially, you don't exist," said Ward brazenly, but raised his hands in surrender when he must have seen Coulson's pissed off look. "But I was honestly just trying to offer my assistance. See if you needed help."

"Well the answer is no," Coulson told him firmly and stepped passed the ex-agent. But he paused. Without turning around, he continued, "Ward."

"Yes, sir?"

"If he proves… un-cooperative, there is a minute chance your assistance will be needed. Assuming May's tactics don't work."

If May got a hold of Wolfe, Coulson was pretty sure he would talk. She, like everyone else, had come to care for their resident hacker and May had even beaten the living daylights out of Ian Quinn when he'd shot Skye. But Melinda could sometimes get ahead of herself. And if Coulson was being honest, Ward had certain finesse in getting people to talk. Perhaps being able to read them, maybe coming from so much practice in learning to control his own character.

"Of course," said Ward, a little too eagerly. Either to get his hands on someone in general or to get payback for what Wolfe had done to Skye, Coulson didn't know.

The senior agent walked to the door the interrogation room, hand on the handle.

"Want some back up?" asked May.

Coulson sighed. "Look, I got this," he said a little snappily, but May didn't react to his small outburst.

"I'll watch from the comms room then."

He watched her walk off, just before pushing open the Cage door.

"Coulson," greeted Wolfe cheerily. "Good to see you, sir."

"Wish I could say the feeling was mutual," Coulson told him as he sat down. Wolfe's smiled never left his face, but he did morph some of it into a pout.

"No comment on how I'm not dead?" asked Wolfe.

"To be honest, I'm more interested in some other things. We could start with what the hell you thought you were doing with my agent."

Wolfe chuckled. "Well, I'm going to be frank here, Coulson. She may be your agent, but she's my daughter."

Coulson snorted, his lip turning up to a grin. "She said you'd say that. I'm not so sure."

"Trust me, it's the truth," Wolfe gestured to himself, the handcuffs keeping his motion limited to the table. "I just wanted to bond with her a little before bringing her back."

"Bonding time included getting her attacked?" asked Coulson, and Wolfe shrugged.

"What better way to quickly trust someone then to save them from certain death?" He sighed. "Unfortunately, she seemed to be able to handle herself. They were supposed to make her fear for her life to the point of hopelessness, knock her out and bring her to me, where I could recount a story of how I rescued her."

"Wow. You would be a really great dad," said Coulson in mock awe, though some real awe found it's way through at the sheer amount of insanity this man seemed to be sporting. "Who doesn't want their kid to get that feeling of life-threatening danger every once in a while?"

Probably a little too snarky for normal interrogation tactics, but Coulson was having a hard time listening to this guy. It was difficult to believe that only a little while ago he believed him to be a highly revered and trusted agent.

"Actually I suppose it's fortunate she was able to overcome them, isn't it?" Wolfe continued as if he didn't hear the other man. "Means my baby girl is strong. She's clever too." He chuckled, as if at a memory. "But as you may suspect, not all of that is attributed to our family genes… some is due to our species."

Coulson tried to keep the curiosity that raged behind his eyes from showing. "Sounds like you're insinuating that you're not human."

He laughed, shaking his head. "Of course I'm saying that! You know that! Skye's no more an object of unknown origin to me than you are to your own mother."

"So what species is this you so proudly call yourself apart of?"

Wolfe tilted his head, his smirk changing suddenly. As though Coulson had just asked something mischievous. "Oh, I can't tell you that Agent Coulson. That wouldn't be fair. Don't you think she has the right to know what she is before you do?"

"I promise to let her know as soon as she wakes up," suggested Coulson.

"If you think I'm not going to tell her myself, heh, well, you'd be mistaken."

He's making sure he gets to talk to her, Coulson thought, the suggestion making him want to lock this man up and get Skye as far away as Coulson could. But she wanted to speak with him near as badly, and Coulson knew in the end it was inevitable, especially if he was telling the truth about her lineage.

Wolfe's smile suddenly disappeared, despite how it had seemed to be permanently etched on his face. His mood grew somber. "I really do want to thank you for taking care of her. She looks up to you Agent Coulson. All she wanted was to see you when I was with her. I would thank SHIELD too, but without them I could have brought her home long ago."

"They were protecting her from you," declared Coulson. "All those years ago in China. You do realize a whole village doesn't exist because of you, right? There must have been a reason."

Wolfe sighed, an air of true regret to it. "There is. You see my daughter is very special, and not just because she isn't human. She's special where I'm from as well. I won't delve into details without her presence, but it's why having her trust is so important to me."

Coulson raised his eyebrows. "That's a little unfortunate for you, because I don't think she's going to put one ounce of trust in you ever again."

"You'd be surprised, Agent Coulson," Wolfe told him, leaning back comfortably in his chair, despite the pulling of the handcuffs. He looked down. "I left my family for twenty-five years to find what remains of the rest of it, and I know now that she's been looking for me for just as long. A situation like that…" The man looked up with melancholy. "She may be open to more then you realize."

"Wolfe's awake," said Fitz, walking into the lab. "Coulson's talking to him now."

"Ah, good," Simmons said in a distracted tone as she typed an equation into her computer. "And Skye's been asleep for a few hours already, so she shouldn't miss much."

"You think it will take that long for Coulson to interrogate him?"

"I'm not sure. But even with Skye's lack of rest I doubt she'll be able to stay asleep for very long, nerves being as they are."

Simmons placed the vial in her hand carefully into a reader.

"Is that the DNA test, then?" asked Fitz. "How long will it take?"

"Actually, had the results been conclusive, it would have been done already."

"What does that mean?"

Fitz' voice was harsh. Every question he asked, every comment he made, slammed down onto Jemma's ears as though they were made of lead. They didn't seem to hold any real curiosity, though she was sure it must have been there or why would he bother asking?

But she wasn't sure if this new tone was due to her refusal of him while they were at the Ohio fairgrounds, or just another one of his new personality traits since he'd woken up. Because of this, she decidedly was not bringing it up.

"It means that they hold the similarities you are meant to hold to be kin, but at the same time… Wolfe's is strange. Almost like it keeps morphing back and forth. Of course, if he truly were an alien then this would make sense. But if he were Skye's father, wouldn't that mean the same thing should happen with her blood? Hers quite resembles human blood. Though, perhaps this is because she's spent her entire life on earth, or maybe being born here somehow changed the substance. There are literally infinite possibilities when talking about something we've never studied, let alone not having a controlled test subject."

Simmons said all this while moving around vials, her gloved hands carefully taking the two samples to different tests and recording what she made of them. When Jemma looked up, Fitz was staring at her with his hands on his hips, expectantly.

"So," Simmons continued, "given the information, it means that Wolfe probably is her actual father. Even with the variables, there are too many similarities for them to just be two completely random people. Of course with our limited knowledge on the matter, that could also mean they are just the same species and not actually related."

"Either way, that makes Skye a real alien…" said Fitz. "What kind do you reckon?"

"Well, I honestly don't know much about intergalactic breeds but to be honest, I still want to just think of Skye as Skye. God, I can't even imagine how we're going to tell her…"

"Maybe she's Asgardian!" said Fitz excitedly, ignoring Jemma's sentiment. "Maybe Wolfe knows Thor!"

"Oh, come now Fitz. I think the Asgardian we met would have been able to tell when he saw her. Also, Skye is a bit physically inferior to be of that species."

"Right, yeah. Skye's not very strong."

Simmons wanted to point out that Skye was at least stronger than Fitz according to an arm wrestling contest they'd had a few months back, but she hadn't been in the mood for reminiscing lately.

Fitz began to kick his feet nervously, reminding Simmons of a very pre-recovery version of him. "So, Jemma… I know things have been cold between us lately," he started.

Simmons hadn't known when exactly this conversation would happen and she knew she wouldn't be the one to bring it up, but it wasn't unexpected. Her response was cool and collected as she continued on with her work.

"That's because you said you were 'done with me,' if you recall correctly."

"Right… well, I kind of forgot that we basically work side by side every day."

Simmons scoffed. "Is that it then?" She turned to face him. "Not 'I'm sorry,' just that you forgot we have to work near each other?"

"No, no!" he protested. "I am sorry. That was… immature of me. I guess with everything going on I haven't been feeling too well and I took it out on you, Jemma."

"Well… I accept your apology," she told him, only somewhat warmly.

"But have you had a chance to think about it?" he asked timidly.

Simmons mouth gaped. She knew exactly what he was talking about, but couldn't believe he'd had the gall to voice it. "Are you being serious?"

"Well, yeah," he admitted.

"No. I can honestly say I have not thought about it. I've thought about how rude you were that night and how we have been acting only remotely normal since then, but I can say for certain I've not thought about the romantic implications-"

And then his lips were on her, startling Simmons with a kiss for the second time in her life. Though this time she wasn't flooded with relief, more like stunned with shock. That was probably the only way he managed to stay on her lips for so long.

She pulled back. "What on earth do you think you're doing?"

"I'm sorry!" he answered frantically. "I just thought that's what you reacted best to. Actions, not talking."

Simmons stood there, mouth open and her head shaking minutely. She was about to respond, quite heatedly, when they heard a blood-curdling scream come from upstairs.

Correction: screams.

"Skye!" they shouted simultaneously, recognizing the voice.

Current troubles forgotten, both the scientists ran up the stairs and to the bunks where they knew Skye to be sleeping at the moment and where her current screams seemed to be resonating.

By the time they turned into the hallway they could only hear whimpering, and the repeated sounds of someone saying "shh." Nearer the room, they heard quiet pleas.

"Help, please…" Skye's quiet, desperate voice rang from the room in near incoherent mumbles.

"Shh. Skye, you're ok. Don't shout."

Simmons heart sped up when she heard the voice of who was in the room with her, running as fast as she could go until she was in the doorway and only stopped to look at the scene. Fitz came in just beside her.

Ward looked up at them, his face clearly in shock as he loomed over the bed, hunched in a way that reminded her of a gargoyle. When Simmons looked at his hands she saw them clearly being used to pin Skye to the bed by her arms. Her friend's eyes were clenched shut as she was sobbing.

That is until she screamed bloody murder again, thrashing and using all her might against the man holding her down.

"Do-on't!" Skye shouted. "Please, stop!"

Without another thought, Simmons ran forward with some sort of a mangled battle cry and stabbed a syringe directly into Ward's back.

A/n: Sorry if the last chap was a bit boring, I like this one a bit better. Tell me what you guys like and don't so I know what more to focus on!

I'll post again on Monday or if you reeeally want to see what happens next I may do it sooner ;)