Chapter 15
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After only two rings the person that Tony is calling answers and Directory Fury appears on the screen, "Stark? What are you playing at? Why are you calling?" He asks.
"I'm calling because the six people in the world, not counting Skye, that you are closes to are falling apart and the only one who can help them is you." Tony tells Fury.
"What are you talking about?" Fury asks confused.
"Blake and Sitwell are dead. Blake killed them both in front of Coulson, Melinda, Natasha, Clint, Hill and Garrett, they were working with Quinn, Nick. All of them see you as a father and right now they need you, they are falling apart and you're the only one who can help them." Tony tells him, "We're in New York, you need to get your ass here." Tony orders being the only person stupid or brave enough, depending on your thinking who would do that, then before Fury can have a chance to say something he hangs up the call.
"You really care about them don't you?" Simmons says from the door way.
"Yeah I do." Tony admits, "There isn't a whole lot of people I can say that about." He admits walking over to her, "Until Fury gets here the most important thing is keeping Skye distracted she shouldn't see her family like how they are at the moment." He tells Simmons.
"Fitz and I started Doctor Who with her yesterday afternoon, she seemed to like it. We'll do it again." Simmons response.
"While that is a good idea, I think it would be better to get Skye away from here for a little while, after all we don't know what Fury will have to do to snap them out of what they are doing at the moment" He points out.
"What are you thinking?" Simmons asks.
"I'll call Pepper and fill her in on what' going on, I think taking Skye to the tower for a little while would be a good idea." Tony explains.
"Yeah, I think it would be." Simmons tells him.
"Good, I'll call Pepper you talk to Skye." Tony says and Simmons exits the command centre.
"Hey Skye, how would you like to go see Aunt Pepper, Uncle Steve and Uncle Bruce?" Simmons asks her sister as she walks over and stands next to her.
"Can I?" Skye asks excitedly as it feels like to her that it has been forever since she has seen them.
"Yep." Simmons response, "Go get changed once you've finished eating." She tells her.
"I'm already finished." Skye says getting up and running to her bunk.
"What's going on?" Ward asks.
"Tony called Director Fury basically demanded that he get here, both of us think it would be a good idea for Skye not to be here when he does because we don't know how they will react." Simmons explains.
"Good idea." Fitz comments.
"Pepper, Steve and Bruce are waiting for you." Tony says walking out from the command centre.
"Guess we better get changed." Simmons comments and the three agents head to their respective bunks.
Over an hour later Fitz, Ward, Simmons and Skye have left and Tony is sitting on the couch waiting for Fury to arrive.
"What the hell do you think you were playing at Stark?" Fury asks walking into the room, "Who do you think you are ordering me to do something." He says angrily.
"You're not the only one who cares about the people above us, I do too." Tony says walking over to the director, "They are in a bad place, and I can't help them, but you can." He tells Fury, "From what I understand they have been drinking since Blake and Sitwell died and they haven't eaten and I doubt they have slept." He tells Fury who without a word to Tony goes upstairs. As he does Tony hopes that he'll be able to snap them out of what they are doing because if he can't then no one will be able to.
When Skye, Fitz, Simmons and Ward arrive at the tower Pepper, Steve, and Bruce are waiting for them. As soon as Skye sees them she runs to Pepper and gives her a hug,
"I've missed you Aunt Pepper." Skye tells her.
"I've missed you too." Pepper tells her returning the hug and then Skye hugs both Steve and Bruce telling them that she has missed them too.
"We've got Tony's video game set up, do you want to play?" Bruce asks Skye.
"Yes." Skye says excitedly.
"Come on." Bruce says and Skye happily follows him.
"What's going on?" Steve asks the others.
"I don't know." Ward answers, "I'm betting you know more than me at the moment." He says and he, Simmons, Pepper, Steve, and Fitz follow Bruce and Skye into the tower.
The second that Fury steps into Couslon's office he sees why Stark called him and he knows that it was the right decision. Maria and Garrett are sitting next to each other Maria with her feet on Garrett. Melinda and Natasha are both sitting against the opposite wall next, away from everyone but each other who they are sitting close to, both looking more emotionless than usual while Clint and Coulson are just sitting against the table right across the from the door, in what is the best vantage position to protect everyone else in the room if they need to. There are empty glasses, empty bottles and full glasses all over the room and, Fury has never seen his six best agents looking so defeated.
"Coulson report." Fury orders and they all look up at him with veering degrees of surprise.
"Blake and Sitwell are dead, they were working with Quinn, but they aren't the only ones. We're drinking." Coulson explains and it's the tone in which he answers which makes Fury realises that they are worse off than he feared, which considering how good of friends Blake and Sitwell were and the fact that six of the most un trusting people that he knows trusted them greatly, he isn't as surprised as he should be.
"Okay that's enough." Fury says taking the full bottles of scotch and the glasses away from all of the agents, "You are all better than this. Blake and Sitwell' betrayal hurts, but we've got more important things to do than you all wallowing in self-pity. You said that Blake and Sitwell weren't the only ones working with Quinn?" Fury asks Coulson.
"Blake said they weren't, but he didn't know who else was because they were only minions." Maria answers.
"Then we have to find Quinn, that's what matters, use your angry at Blake and Sitwell to do that." Fury orders, "We've got more information now, first things first, think of what Blake and Sitwell had which could have been the reason Quinn used them." Fury instructs knowing that even as drunk as the six are likely to be they can still figure things out.
"Us." Clint says.
"Explain." Fury requests.
"It would make sense if the Clairvoyant would want to keep an eye on Melinda and Phil after he took Skye in case they found her, and we don't trust, neither do you Sir." He says looking at Fury, "So it would make sense if the Mole is someone in SHIELD that we don't interact with much or someone you don't trust quite as much as you trust us and trusted Blake and Sitwell." Clint explains.
"Did Sitwell and Blake even know about Skye?" Maria asks.
"No, we never told them." Coulson answers.
"Doesn't mean they didn't know." Garrett points out and Melinda and Natasha stand up.
"Where are you going?" Fury asks the pair.
"Downstairs, you guys can continue to talk theory, we're going to do something." Melinda tells him and she and Natasha exit the room.
"Is that a good idea with how much they've been drinking?" Maria can't help but ask worried about her friends as they are the two people who trust the least and therefore who will be feeling the most betrayed.
"It's Mels and Nat, they'll be fine." Clint reminds her.
"Will they?" Garrett asks sceptical.
"Eventually." Coulson answers.
"Lets work on everything that we know the Clairvoyant or Quinn could know and what Sitwell and Blake could have told them and what would have had to come from the mole." Fury tells the others.
"Yes Sir." Clint says standing up and pulling up Coulson resulting in both of them swaying and almost falling down as they do.
"Coffee first." Coulson says and they others nod and head down to the kitchen, Fury knowing that getting them to focus on who the mole is, is only a temporary solution but at least it will help for now.
Down in the cargo bay Melinda and Natasha have put down the mats and are sparing, putting all their anger and hurt into fighting each other. As it is not the first time that they have spared after drinking their skill level is only slightly below what their skill normally would be.
After Coffee Coulson, Fury, Tony, Garrett, Clint and Maria are sitting around the holo table going through everything they have on the Mole and everything they have learnt from Blake and Sitwell trying to see if they can find a connection to a mole as even though they might not have known who they were working for, the mole would definitely have known about them.
"First things first, do we think that the Mole would be higher or lower ranked that Sitwell and Blake, In SHIELD?" Tony asks.
"Higher." Everyone answers.
"But lower also makes sense." Coulson adds, "The Mole could need someone with higher security clearance to find out things that he or she couldn't." He explains.
"Look give me all the parameters of what you know about the Mole for sure and I'll design a program to narrow the list down a lot and then we can investigate each of them." Tony tells the others who nods, "It might take a little while." He tells them.
"Make it as fast as you can." Maria requests and Tony nods.
"This can't go any further than this room and May and Romanoff. We don't know who we can trust." Fury tells the others.
"Yes Sir." Coulson, Clint, Maria, Tony, and Garrett respond.
"You have the rest of the day to get yourselves together, Hill, Garrett I want you both back at base first thing tomorrow, and I'll have a mission for the rest of you then too." Fury says before exiting the room.
"You called Fury." Clint says to Tony surprised.
"I had to do something." Tony responds.
"Thank you." Clint tells him.
"Anytime." Tony responds.
"I'm going to go see if Melinda and Natasha are still beating the crap out of each other." Maria informs the others.
"Take them water." Coulson requests.
"Yep." Maria says as she exits the room.
At the Tower, Skye is playing a game on the PlayStation against Fitz, Ward and Steve while Pepper and Simmons watch. Skye is losing to both Fitz and Ward who are both trying very hard to beat another though she is beating Steve who is very confused about what he is supposed to be doing.
"I'm beating you Uncle Steve." Skye informs her Uncle.
"Yeah, I know." Steve tells her as he once again runs his Mario cart of the road.
"Here let me help." Skye says putting down her own controller to help Steve, "You hold down this button and stares like this." Skye demonstrates and then hands the controller back to Steve, "See." She says to him.
"Yeah, I do. Thanks." Steve tells her and they continue to play their game.
"Uncle Steve." Skye says quietly to her Uncle, "Are Mom and Dad okay?" she asks worried.
"I'm not sure." Steve answers truthfully, "But I know that Nicky has gone to see them so if they aren't okay, they will be soon." Steve assures his niece.
"Promise?"
"Promise." Steve response.
When Maria goes down to the cargo bay she just sits on the pile of mats that Melinda and Natasha aren't using and watches her friends.
"You want to tap in?" Melinda asks as she does a cartwheel to dodge Natasha's attack.
"Nope, I'm good watching." Maria responds. "For now at least." She adds as she knows that before too long she will end up joining in.
"Let us know when." Natasha requests.
"Will do." Maria responds.
For more than ten minutes Maria watches her friends, "Okay I'm joining." She says standing up.
"Tag team or one on one?" Melinda asks Natasha.
"Tag team, I'll start." Natasha responds and both Melinda and Maria nod and they start using a technique they developed a long time ago where both Melinda and Maria are attacking Natasha and she is attempting to block attacks from both of them.
"Me." Melinda says ten minutes later and it changes so both Maria and Natasha are attacking her and she's defending.
"Switch." Maria says ten minutes later and Natasha and Melinda attack her.
"Time." Natasha says ten minutes later and all three of them stop fighting as when they are fighting like that they don't go for more than ten minutes on one person.
"Here." Melinda says grabbing the water that Maria brought down and throwing the bottles at her friends who are sitting on the mats. Once she has gotten the bottles Melinda walks over and sits down too.
"You okay there?" Natasha asks Maria amused.
"Yeah, I'm good." Maria responds, "I had forgotten how hard it was keeping up with you too." She tells her friends.
"For what it's worth you're not rusty." Melinda tells her friend.
"Yeah I am, and you know it." Maria tells her.
"Have we ever lied to you about your skill?" Natasha asks, "You did good Maria, accept the compliment."
"Accepting compliments aren't in my nature, you should know you two taught me that." Maria tells her friends.
"Yeah, guess we did." Melinda responds.
"Aw look, there having a moment." Garrett says from above where he is standing with Tony, Coulson and Clint.
"Shut up Garrett." Melinda, Maria and Natasha respond.
"He's got a point you know, that was quite touching." Tony jokes, "You three bonding, it was sweet." He says.
"And the award for stupid goes to..." Clint mutters to himself as Melina, Natasha and Maria get up and run upstairs, seeing what they are doing Garrett and Tony run in the opposite direction.
"I would have thought they would both know better by now." Coulson says to Clint.
"Same." Clint response, "Come on we better make sure no blood is spilt." He says and he and Coulson follow the others.
When they enter the main part of the plane they find Tony tied between two of the chairs.
"Where's Garrett?" Clint asks a hint of concern clear.
"Over here." Garrett says from where he is hanging from the outside of the stairs that lead upstairs, "I forgot how fast they can be when they are working together." He comments.
"How, how do you forget that?" Clint asks "It should be a survival skill." He tells them.
"Where are they?" Coulson asks.
"Cockpit." Tony answers, "You going to help us?" he asks.
"And risk getting strung up ourselves, no way." Clint tells him.
"They'll untie you eventually, they always do." Coulson tells them, "Food?" he asks Clint.
"Sounds good." Clint respond and the pair head to the kitchen.
"Are you two really going to eat why we hang here?" Tony asks.
"It wouldn't be the first time." Garrett informs him.
"And this isn't the first time you've seriously pissed off Melinda, Maria and Natasha, you should know better by now." Coulson tells Garrett.
"You piss them off almost daily." Garrett reminds them.
"Yeah but we know not to cross the line." Clint points out, "Well most the time." He adds and he and Coulson get started on making food.
At the tower the group have moved from playing video games to playing board games when the phone rings and Pepper answers it.
"Hello."
"Hey Pepper." Coulson response.
"Hey Phil, what's going on?" Pepper asks.
"Things are better here and I'm working on food if you want to come down." Coulson tells her.
"Sounds good, we'll be there in about half an hour." Pepper tells him.
"See you soon." Coulson says before hanging up.
"It's your turn." Clint tells Coulson once he hangs up with Pepper.
"I know." Coulson says with a sigh and he heads to the cockpit.
"Skye you ready to go home?" Pepper asks her niece after hanging up with Coulson.
"Really?" Skye asks.
"Yep, that was your Dad, he and your Mom and your Aunts and Uncles have finished their work and are waiting." Pepper tells her niece.
"Yay." Skye says happily, "Are you coming home for a while?" Skye asks curious
"We are actually." Pepper tells her giving Steve and Bruce a look that tells them that they are.
"Can we finish our game fist?" Skye ask interested.
"I think we've got time for that." Pepper tells her and they continue their game of go fish.
Forty five minutes after Coulson's phone call to Pepper, Pepper, Steve, Skye, Bruce, Fitz, Simmons and Ward arrive back at the plane where they find the others waiting in the main area of the plane showing no sign that Tony and Garrett have recently been tied up or that they have spent most of the last twenty four hours drinking.
When Skye sees her parents she runs up to them and gives them both a hug.
"What no hug for your favourite Uncle?" Clint asks when Skye finishes hugging her parents.
"тетя Наташа first, then you." Skye tells her Uncle to everyone else's amusement, Natasha's especially.
"Oh I see how it is." Clint tells her pending to look insulted.
"You're awesome too Uncle Clint, тетя Наташа is just better." Skye says hugging her Uncle.
"Gee thanks Kid." Clint tells his niece sarcastically.
"You're welcome Uncle Clint." Skye says with a grin.
"Let's eat." Coulson says and everyone heads to the table but a second later Skye pulls on Clint's arm so he bends down.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to be mean, I love you and тетя Наташа the same." Skye tells her Uncle, "Don't hate me."
"It's okay Kid. I forgive you." Clint tells his niece, "And I could never hate you." He adds.
"Yay." Skye says happily and they walk over to the table.
As they eat Coulson, Melinda, Natasha, Maria, Clint and Garrett do their best to act like nothing is bothering them though the Avengers are able to tell with ease that something is but they don't question them.
After they eat they put on a movie then after the movie it is time for people to go. Coulson, Melinda, Natasha and Clint say goodbye to their friends who are feeling just as hurt and betrayed as they are with promises on both ends to keep in touch and up to date on what's going on.
"I'm a call away if you need anything, I mean that." Tony tells Coulson as he's saying goodbye.
"Thanks Tony, and thanks for calling Fury." Coulson tells him and Tony nods in response and he, Pepper, Steve and Bruce leave.
"I'll let you know as soon as I get any results on the program." Tony says quietly to Coulson before he does.
"What now?" Clint asks Coulson and Melinda as they walk back towards their best friends.
"We've got a conversation to have with our daughter." Melinda tells him.
"We'll be upstairs when you're done." Natasha tells them knowing what they have to do.
Coulson nods in response, "Don't drink all my scotch." He requests.
"I think we drunk most of it last night" Clint comments as he and Natasha go upstairs and Melinda and Coulson go to Skye's bunk.
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