Space colds are no laughing matter.

It's an alien virus, originating with alien invaders who had alien biology and an alien immune system. It had killed every human it came into contact with until Simmons, and though her anti-serum helped to keep her alive, no-one knew if the virus would continue to affect Simmons and Skye at a slower pace, or if it had truly been eradicated from their bodies.

Which is why Coulson announced only a few hours after Morse and Simmons had been pulled from the ocean, that they would be stopping at the Hub during the night for refuelling, supplies, and for Simmons and Skye to be quarantined and examined.

They find this out after Jemma and Skye had already been let out of quarantine, and interacted with the whole team, which means that everyone on the Bus will have to be quarantined and cleared as well, to make sure they're not infected, or carrying the virus which could potentially infect innocent bystanders.

FitzSimmons distract themselves by cataloging samples of the virus, and their anti-serum, for inspection and analysis when they land. Coulson keeps himself in his office, grumbling about the amount of paperwork he'll have to do from this ordeal, Bobbi and Skye put their shared alcohol away after only a few mouthfuls each and The blonde stays to watch over her Soulmate as she curls up in her bed with her computer and a half finished code for what appears to be a tracer on Akela Amadors bionic eye. May flies the plane.

Bobbi takes the time to watch Skye and think; if Fitz and Simmons hadn't made an effective anti-serum Jemma would be dead by now, and Skye less than a day away from the same fate. Skye, her Soulmate, could have died alone in the holding cell. The woman in question lets out a kitten-like yawn and Bobbi blinks. Skye could have died! In the month and a half since she'd met her Soulmate, she had nearly lost her 4 times, and that was 4 too many in her opinion.

Skye eventually looks away from her computer screen, her fingers still darting across keys, "you going to watch me all night?" Her voice is soft and Bobbi knows she's exhausted, probably more emotionally than physically, but the effects are the same.

"Yes." The blonde answers simply, not yet willing to be away from her after seeing her locked alone in the holding cell, even though her own bunk is only on the other side of the wall.

"Weirdo." Skye mutters, finally pausing her code and eyeing her cautiously. "You still got that stick up your ass?" Was she still pissed about Miles Lydon? Yes. Was she unreasonably angry that Skye wouldn't even acknowledge the Bond? Definitely. Was she going to sit here and let her stupid feelings get the better of her after her Soulmates mortality was just made all too clear to her?

"No." Skye stared at her a moment longer after her answer before going back to her code with a shrug.

The brunette shuffled to side, pressing herself to the side of the bed against the wall by the window. "If you're gonna be creepy, at least get comfortable, you're make me uncomfortable just looking at you." The bed isn't built for two, but it doesn't bother either of them as Bobbi sits on the edge and kicks her feet up, her fingers unconsciously finding themselves tangling in soft brown hair and massaging Skye's scalp as she continues to code, letting out a soft hum at the feeling.


It's barely 3 in the morning when May lands on the airstrip at the Hub, and they're greeted by a team of 20 agents. They're told to leave all their belonging and to proceed directly to the med pod that had been loaded into the cargo hold next to Lola. Jemma and Leo look half asleep as they shuffle in, Coulson sighs when he's told he can't bring his paperwork and looks like he never went to sleep, May glares silently when two Sci-Tech agents try to separate FitzSimmons until they step away looking frightened, and Bobbi does let Skye out of her sight, not that it's difficult in the tiny med pod.

Once the pod is sealed and they're on their way to Medical, Bobbi looks at her team mates; Fitz and Simmons on matching flannelette pyjamas, Coulson still in his suit looking tired, May feircly protect of the little science babies and trying to hold herself together for them.

In quarantine in the Medical bay, it's not as easy to protect her team, though logically she knows she doesn't need to protect anyone in here. Simmons and Skye are immediately led to separate containment showers and given a set of sterile scrubs each before they would eventually be taken away for isolation and testing. Fitz, May, Coulson, and Bobbi were taken to a different set of showers, given their own scrubs of a different colour - to differentiate the infected and just exposed - and then to a group quarantine as they awaited blood tests and tissue samples. Bobbi couldn't even see Skye and Jemma from their quarantine into either of the younger womens' isolation chambers.

With only 7 hours left in their 24 hour quarantine, the four agents received a visitor. Well, three Agents came to see them, but Bobbi knew that was just Tori's flare for the dramatic, her need to always be flanked on either side. She thought it made her look imposing. In truth, it was a relief to see a friendly face other than her team.

"Coulson." The red streak in her hair stood out in the harsh light of Medical as she addressed their leader. "How is your team?" They'd all been provided beds, and the lights had been dimmed for a few hours so they could sleep, but none of them had slept much, if at all.

"Missing a third." Coulson replied, standing directly opposite Agent Hand with only the quarantine glass separating them, May and Bobbi flanking him much like Victoria's agents were behind her, and Fitz stand cautiously a little behind them. "How can we help you, Agent Hand,"

Hand purses her lips for a moment, eyeing them all. "A Chitauri virus has been infecting humans, and now an Agent, and left a team in quarantine in my base." No mention of Skye, but then Tori had always been against the idea of consultants, insisting that anything a consultant could do, an Agent could do better, that was what they trained them for after all. "The helmet has been logged, scrubbed, and is awaiting transport to the Sandbox. The virus has been catalogued and an effective vaccine is being developed as we speak. The serum your little scientist cooked up slowed the effects and kept your Agent alive, but they are still contagious and in danger."

Fitz inhaled sharply, the panic rising within him and he mumbled something about needing to sit down, but Bobbi didn't comprehend much. Danger. Contagious. Danger. Skye was still in danger, still infected.

Bobbi couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't function. Because Skye was still infected and they were only working on a vaccine, not that they had a vaccine. She felt like she was going to be sick. "Morse." May's voice cut through the haze just enough for her to focus on it. "Go sit with Fitz, Morse. He's needs it." Right. Go sit with Fitz and comfort him because he and Simmons were close, and sitting with Fitz under the guise of comforting him meant she could be away from the conversation as well. Because yes, Fitz and Simmons were known platonic Soulmates, and everyone knew it, but only May and Coulson knew Skye was hers.

Hand and Coulson kept talking, a report on the Bus its eradication, basic upkeep and supply information that would usually be delivered by email, or the lowest level Agent on base. Definitely not something the Director of the base would normally see to. Tori wanted something else. "The four of you should be cleared by morning, and allowed to leave. I have a sensitive two-man mission that I'll need one of your Agents for, since you'll all be on base for the foreseeable future." Tori's eyes surveyed each one of them, "briefing is at six." A turn on her heel and the clicking of her shoes on the concrete floor as she left, her flanking Agents following her dutifully.


They were woken at 3 in the morning to be let out of quarantine. Well, Bobbi hadn't been able to sleep since Skye had been zapped by Simmons, and she doubted Coulson or May slept much either with two of their own in danger, and Fitz had been tossing all night, but he'd at least gotten a couple of hours.

Briefing for Hand's mission would be in 3 hours, so she knew she should at least get an hour or two of sleep before that, but Jemma and Skye's isolation chambers were only a few rooms from their quarantine room. Simmons was sleeping in her chamber, an I.V attached to her arm, and electrodes sticking all over her to monitor her vitals. Skye was in the next room in a similar state, except she was wide awake, and noticed her through the window in her door immediately. Bobbi stepped through the fist door and stood in the sterilisation room.

"Hey." The blonde couldn't bring herself to smile.

"Hey." Skye copied, getting up from her bed and dragging the I.V pole over to the doorway. "They let you out, huh?" A flash of silver on the brunettes arm caught Bobbi's attention, but she dismissed it as something to come back to later. "Any idea when I'll be free?"

Surely they had been keeping Skye informed on her diagnosis, right? "Once they've got a vaccine and your tests come back positive."

She gulped, took a slow breath, and nodded. "Okay." Skye let out a shaky breath. "So You've been cleared, and I still need a vaccine, so I'm still infected." It was the only logical option.

"The one FitzSimmons made delayed the effects, but it's still in your system." Bobbi provided uselessly, Skye nodded again, another shaky breath rattling past her lips. "I bet you'll be cleared by the time I'm back from my mission." Because she was the only logical choice; Coulson was team leader, May was 'just the pilot', and Fitz - as much as she liked him - was a disaster in the field.

That caught Skye's attention. "You have a mission?" Her eyes had widened, she licked her lips. "When-when are you guys gonna be back?" Oh. She thought it was a team mission.

"Coulson, May and Fitz will be around, Hand said it was a two-person thing."

"Oh."

"Yeah, briefing is at six, so I guess I'll see you in a few days?" Not that Skye would be going anywhere, once she was free from the virus, she'd be in isolation for 24 hours to makes sure before she was allowed back with the team. "Anything you need? You should get some sleep."

Skye shrugged and turned away, taking a few steps towards her sterile bed. "I'd say my computer, but it'd be useless with this thing." Her hand was held up with the silver bracelet as she continued to her bed with tired steps. "Some Agent said it'd shut down any tech near me, couldn't even put the scanners on me with it going haywire." A nanny bracelet. Someone had put a nanny bracelet on Skye for no reason. They were the types of things reserved for high level criminals and cyber threats. There had been a time when the higher ups were worried they'd have to put one on Stark if he went too far. No-one wanted to label the son of one of their founders as a cyber threat to their agency. Luckily he knew his limits and was careful not to cross any unmarked lines.

"Who-" Bobbi faltered, there were only a handful of Agents on this relatively small base with the authorisation to issue one of those. "Who gave you that?" Don't say Tori, Bobbi silently pleaded.

"Stick up her ass with a red streak." Tori.


Bobbi was a force of anger as she stormed into the mission briefing half an hour early, no doubt Hand would be there early anyway, and she wasn't disappointed. "Take it off her." The blondes demanded, ignoring the underlings Tori kept around her.

"Agent Morse." Hand looked away from her tablet, looking mildly surprised. "I'm afraid I'll need a little more context than that."

Bobbi forced herself to take a calming breath. "Skye. The nanny bracelet. Take it off her." The who, the what, the demand. "She's a consultant, not a terrorist."

Hand finally gave her her full attention. "Agent Morse, you brought a hacker, a member of the Rising Tide to my base in the middle of a sensitive operation, and you expect me to trust her because Coulson picked up another stray?" A hollow laugh, everyone at S.H.I.E.L.D knew of Coulson's reputation for taking in any stray he came across and turning them into agents. "No. This is my base, and she's part of an organisation that has been known to compromise missions, for all we know, it could be her personally leaking the information, especially now that she has inside access."

Okay, technically she had admitted to leaking missions, and Coulson had picked her up because she was actively hacking S.H.I.E.L.D, and Bobbi had been making those exact same points to Coulson since the moment Skye stepped onto the bus, but... "Please, Tori." Skye was in isolation, alone, they didn't know when she'd be allowed out because they didn't know when a vaccine would be ready, and Bobbi couldn't just leave her in there alone and miserable. Not her Soulmate.

"Bobbi." Hand crossed her arms and stared her down. "Are you asking as an Agent and Supervising Officer, or is it personal?" Was this an official request, or was she there as Tori's girlfriends best friend? Was Tori the type to ignore the fact that she'd known Skye was her Soulmate for over a month and hadn't filed the paperwork? That Coulson and May hadn't filed a report either?

Bobbi searched her friends eyes for any hint of what would happen if she put the information out there. "She's my responsibility, Tori, I can handle her without the bracelet." Tori was too much of a company woman to overlook 'unfiled' paperwork.

"Then you can handle her with the bracelet, it doesn't leave her wrist until she's off my base." Agent Hand turned back to her tablet and a waiting Agent to continue talking about the mission.


Fitz was the one Hand had meant when she said she needed one of their people for the mission. Fitz and a specialist named Ward were going on a two-person find and disable mission in South Ossetia. Fitz who she'd seen arguing with a glitch in door that kept closing on him when he was taking something to Simmons' isolation chamber to give to the Englishwoman.

Ward didn't appear to happy with the revelation either.

Bobbi had wanted to argue, either she could go in Fitz's place - they needed an engineer, not a biologist - or Ward's, at least if she went Fitz she could make sure he was okay when he came back to Simmons, and she'd be doing something instead of sitting around waiting for Skye to be released. But Hand had looked stricken at the mention and denied her before she could even finish the request.

Which was why May found her an hour after the announcement, in the gym punching the shit out of a punching bag.

"Fitz is an Agent." May reminded, moving to brace the bag for her.

"Who failed the field physicals." Both him and Simmons, and now they'd been in the field a month and a half and Simmons was in isolation from an alien virus, and Fitz was going into hostile territory with no backup except Ward. "He knows less about the field than Skye, and isn't that a terrifying thought!"

May rolled her eyes, stepping away from the bag with a pointed look until Bobbi stepped back too. "Ward may be an ass, but he's a good Agent, Morse." A towel and a bottle of water were tossed her way, "trust the system, Morse, how can you teach it to the kid if you can't follow it yourself." Right. Well right now she couldn't teach Skye anything because Skye was infected by a space cold. "Put on your big girl panties, and tell Fitz he'll do great."


Jemma had promised Leo a specially made prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella sandwich with homemade pesto aioli - Fitz had raved about it for a full half hour - when she got out of isolation as a pride reward for going into the field without her.

For Fitz to receive his prized sandwich, three things needed to happen; 1, Jemma needed to come out of isolation alive; 2, Fitz needed to get through his mission alive; 3, Fitz and Ward needed an extraction plan for the mission.

Because there was no extraction plan. Hand had sent Fitz out on a one way mission.

Skye was getting another round of tests done, so Bobbi had decided to follow through on her promise to look into the younger woman's redacted file. Okay, so technically she was attempting to break into her own agency, but at least she felt like she was doing something. Except, once she got into the system using a stolen login of Tori's from a few years ago that she was honestly surprised still worked, the first files to come up were naturally the most recent mission that Tori was presiding over, including Fitz's Overkill mission in South Ossetia.

It was one thing not to let her go on the mission with Fitz, it was another to deny her very valid request to be part of the extraction team, it was an entirely other dimension of problems that there hadn't been any extraction team assigned.

Her first stop she went to check on Skye, then she went to May with her concerns, she wasn't going to tell Simmons that her partner went on a mission with no way back, then Bobbi and May went Coulson because if Coulson was on board then when Hand called them out on going against orders it would be Coulson against Hand and they were on equal Levels as opposed to May and her being underlings to the Level 8's.

"Do I want to know how you know this?" Coulson just looked resigned, as if it was only a matter of time before someone broke into S.H.I.E.L.D for classified information. Though he probably thought it would be Skye. Hell, Bobbi thought it was more likely to be Skye as well.

"Plausible deniability." May muttered with a smirk, Coulson sighed with a shake of his head.

"So you're telling me," he reached up to fix his slackened tie, getting back to business. "That we have two of our people in isolation from Space Sniffles, and now Fitz is on a one-way mission with Ward, and we don't even have a plane because ours still being quarantined." That did not sound like the make-up of a successful retrieval. "Give me some good news here."

"Who said we didn't have a plane." Thank God for May!

Not quite the giant Bus they'd been living in, but the quinnjet was more than enough for the three of them to stage an extraction. It was probably best not to ask May how she acquired a quinnjet on such short notice.


Barbara Morse was not a happy Agent.

"You sent Fitz in without an extraction plan, you put a nanny bracelet on Skye when she's in isolation; what the fuck is going on, Tori?" Bobbi was being loud, and angry, and Hand is her superior, but she doesn't care right now because They were barely on time to pick up Fitz and Ward, and Skye has been in isolation for two days without so much as an update on the search for a vaccine, and Tori is acting more shifty and untrusting than usual - which is saying something because it's Tori and Tori has never been the trusting type.

"What's going on, Morse," the words are accented by the clicking of boots on the tiled floor, "is you don't seem to understand 'mouth shut and follow orders'." Maria. Maria had come all the way to the Hub. Shit, was she getting another citation on her record? Worse, was she being transferred off the team?

"If following orders means one of my team dies, you bet your ass I'm not following orders." If it was Ward on his own she could understand, he was a solo Agent who could get himself out without an extraction plan, but not Fitz.

"You're a headache, Morse." Hill shook her head before turning to Hand. "Tell me you've got something strong to drink in your office."

Tori snorted, already turning on her heel and tossing over her shoulder; "it's like you don't even know me, Maria."

The walk to Tori's office was relatively short and entirely quiet, it added a certain feel of foreboding and suspense that Bobbi would normally appreciate. Once inside the door was locked and Maria demanded a lockdown which raised Tori's eyebrows but she complied none-the-less. Maria was a whiskey woman and she didn't speak until she'd had at least three fingers of amber liquid.

"Fitz should have had an extraction." Maria finally spoke, turning away from the bar in the corner. "You know why that team was made, Tori, Fitz should have had an extraction." She spoke rover Hand when she looked ready to protest. Why the team was made? Shit, this was bigger than Bobbi knew. "And, Morse, stop looking into that redacted file, its redacted for a reason." Because of course Maria knew that it was her trying to get back into the Level 8 system after they'd gotten back from picking up Fitz and Ward.

"That file is Skye." They'd find out eventually, better she tell them and hopefully they'll help her.

"Shit." The curse was accompanied by another three fingers of whiskey. "Fury's gonna be pissed." As opposed to his usual sunny demeanour. "He's spent years keeping that kid out of trouble, and now trouble went and picked her up off the streets. Anything else I need to know?"

Anything else like if the kid Fury - a director of freaking S.H.I.E.L.D - had apparently taken an interest in was someone's Soulmate? "Yeah." Bobbi went and poured herself a glass of whiskey as well. "She's my Soulmate." Because if Skye was important to Director Fury, then she couldn't keep it secret anymore. Fury didn't take an interest in regular orphans off the street.

"Fuck." Hill dropped into a chair and rubbed her temples.

"What exactly is so special about this kid that's got Fury hooked?" Tori was the one to ask the question, "she Fury's lovechild or something?"

Maria snorted as the three of them got comfortable, apparently it was going to be a long night, and hopefully at the end of it Bobbi would finally have some answers on why Skye didn't seem to want anything to do with the Bond. "Kid's an oh-eight-four."


Hi! Can you believe it? 2 updates in 1 week 😱