Awakening Quake
By Misha

Disclaimer in Chapter One.

A.N- I was struggling with the mission, so I finally decided to skip over it. Otherwise, I'm not sure when I would have updated. I don't love this chapter, but I do like the turn the plot is taking and for the first time in weeks, I have clear ideas for the next few chapters. Oh and for a reminder, this is AU after 2x10, so nothing about Age of Ultron or the second half of AoS season 2 effect this story.

Chapter Thirty: Mission Complete

The undercover mission went surprisingly smoothly and they got in and out without their cover being blown, but with the information they needed.

Skye used a bug that Tony had designed and had dropped it in the medical unit her first day and within 24 hours, it had infiltrated the main-frame and sent the information back to the Tower for Tony to decode.

Natasha had managed to accurately identify the HYDRA agents and managed to switch out the information that was changing hands, with back-up from May.

The women had also managed to enjoy the spa and Skye had enjoyed catching up with the members of her old team. It had been nice having the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D work side by side, though Skye doubted it would be a regular occurrence any time soon. The male members of the Avengers were a lot more stubborn than the female ones.

Still, the mission had gone well and Skye promised to send the un-decoded data to S.H.I.E.L.D that night as she parted ways with Jemma, Bobbi and May.

"You look good," Bobbi told her, "Happy."

"I am." Skye confirmed.

"I bet the handsome Captain doesn't hurt." Bobbie teased.

"No." Skye agreed. Speaking of Steve, she was looking forward to getting home and seeing him.

Jemma gave her a tight hug. "Keep in touch."

"I will." Skye promised. "And maybe you can come visit soon."

If Coulson was agreeable, Skye knew that the Avengers would be ok with it and she was sure Bucky would like to see Jemma again. There was a slight blush on her friend's face that made it clear Jemma's thoughts had wandered in the same direction.

If Bobbi or May picked up on it, they didn't ask. Instead, May gave Skye a hug. "Take care of yourself." She instructed.

"I will." Skye promised.

May just nodded and then the three women were gone.

"Is it hard to say goodbye?" Natasha asked sympathetically.

"Yes," Skye agreed, "But not as hard as I thought it would be. I thought I'd want to go with them, but… I can't wait to get home."

Somewhere along the line 'home' had become the Avengers Tower. It was still terrifying, because Skye was too used to not belonging anywhere, but she was slowly starting to get comfortable.

A part of her would always miss her old team and wish she could have stayed with them, but… The Avengers had become her team, her family.

Natasha grinned. "I have it on a good authority that we're going to be subjected to a welcome home party."

Skye rolled her eyes. "Formal dinner?"

"Pepper wouldn't give me details." Natasha told her. She turned to Maria. "Are you going to stay for the festivities?"

"No way." Maria said with a laugh. "Honestly, I don't know how you two do it. I think living with Stark would drive me crazy."

"Tony's different, but he means well." Skye said fondly. "Honestly, I think he knows that most of us… We didn't have a normal. Our upbringings weren't anything to write home about, so I think he tries to supply what we missed out on. He just does it in a crazy, over-the-top way, because, well, he's Tony."

As soon as Skye stepped into the Avengers Tower, she was in Steve's arms.

She was a little surprised, since Steve was a very private guy and pretty reserved when it came to displays of public affection. Apparently he had missed her as much as she'd missed him.

"Did you have fun?" He asked her when he released her, though he kept his arm around her.

It was just the Avengers. Pepper, Jane, Darcy and Bucky all seemed to be elsewhere, probably because they had no interest in the mission debrief.

"It was the best mission I've ever been on." Skye told him. "I want more missions like that."

"Me too." Natasha agreed. "It was glorious. Three days of pampering and no one shot at us once."

"Why do I never get to go on the missions like that?" Sam protested. "I've been here a year and I haven't once been sent to a spa."

"You get to live rent-free in a building with top-of-the line facilities." Clint pointed out.

"That's true." Sam conceded with a grin. "I guess it is a pretty cushy gig. But next time a weekend of rest and relaxation comes up, I want in."

"Did you start decoding the information?" Skye asked Tony, going back to the matter at hand.

"Yes.' He told her and then she saw him exchanging a look with Steve. "We're going to have to back-out of our deal with S.H.I.E.L.D, at least partially."

"What do you mean?" Skye asked. "We said we'd give them the un-coded data."

"We can't." Steve told her. "Not all of it. You either have to code it so they can never crack it or we have to remove it and make it look like it was never there."

"There's information on Bucky." Skye realized quietly.

"Yes." Steve confirmed.

Skye looked at him and then at Natasha and Tony and realized that the three of them had been expecting that information. Which meant they'd known all along that they couldn't go through on their deal with S.H.I.E.L.D, at least not entirely.

"You knew that we weren't going to be completely honest with S.H.I.E.L.D." She accused.

She could feel everyone's eyes on her. Steve dropped his arm from around her waist and put his hand on her shoulder instead. "We suspected that there was information on Bucky, yes," he confirmed.

"The files contain information on what HYDRA put him through, but also on their efforts to track him and down reprogram him." Tony continued. "I don't think I have to tell you why it was important for us to have that information and why we don't want S.H.I.E.L.D. having it."

Skye bit her lip. She still trusted Coulson and S.H.I.E.L.D, but did she trust them enough to risk Bucky's life?

"You could have told me." She protested. "After all, I'm supposed to be part of the team."

"That was my call," Natasha told her, "I knew May and Bobbi would be focused on you, trying to figure out what you were hiding and I figured the less you knew, the better."

"Did Maria know?" Skye asked.

Natasha shook her head. "No. Only Tony, Steve and I knew that there might be information about the Winter Solider on those files."

"This is the first I'm hearing about it too." Bruce told her, speaking up. "I knew that you girls were retrieving classified information, but that was it." He looked at Tony and Steve. "I wasn't thrilled about with working with S.H.I.E.L.D., but I'm even less happy about double-crossing them."

"We're not exactly double-crossing them," Tony protested, "We're just withholding information. Something that S.H.I.E.L.D does all too well. They're getting the information we promised, just not all of it." He looked at Skye. "What should we do? Decode the files so they can't access them or remove them all together?"

"What if we give them the cracked-data?" Skye said instead. "We take out the stuff about Bucky, but give them the rest free and clear. They won't know anything is missing and they won't have suspicious double-locked data to make them curious."

She could see the others considering her words.

"I agree with the Lady Quake," Thor told her, "It protects our friend, but it is also a peace offering to Son of Coul. I have learnt that it is not wise to alienate future allies."

"I don't have any problems with that." Steve said.

Tony shrugged. "Sure." He nodded to Skye. "Send the information to Coulson and tell him it's a bonus for being so agreeable." He grinned. "Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about tonight's party."