AN: Hi guys! Here is chapter 9 for you! I'm so sorry for the late update. The past few weeks have been extremely hectic with midterms, finals, and a bunch of other school stuff. I finally managed to get a break this weekend so I was finally able to update. Thank you all for the amazing reviews and please, please, please continue to REVIEW!
"Wheels down in 30." Came May's voice over the intercom.
The team was preparing to meet with Luke Johnson after they had discovered his location only three hours from the orphanage.
All throughout the trip, Skye felt anger coursing through her veins. How could Luke do something like this? All she ever wanted, all any Rising Tide hacker wanted was the freedom of information. Anything and everything that she ever hacked was to find information that the people deserved to know. Luke on the other hand, he was always jealous of her. He was constantly pushing her buttons, making her look bad in front of her friends, and was always competitive when it came to hacking. He wanted to be the best. Ever since he learned that Skye could hack into Tony Stark's servers faster than he can, he's always hated her. She just never believed that he would stoop to the level of harming those close to her. She didn't want any of the team going near him if he was really as dangerous as he seems. If he was the one that caused the quake at the orphanage, then there will be hell to pay.
Grant looked over at Skye, watching, as her eyes were hard with anger. He wasn't much better himself. He could feel the rage of the Berserker staff rushing through his veins. All he wanted at the moment was to find Luke Johnson and pummel the living daylights out of him for hurting Skye. He took away the only mother figure Skye had had her entire life, just because he was jealous of her skills. Oh, Luke Johnson was in for a world of pain when Grant got his hands on him. Grant reached over and gently grasped Skye's small hand in his own, letting her know that he was there for her. Skye smiled and squeezed his hand in response.
25 minutes later, the team was buckled in as May landed the Bus. As soon as they had touched down, Skye unbuckled and made her way towards the cargo hold, wanting to get Luke as fast as she could. She felt two hands grab her arms and pull her back as she was about to go down the cargo ramp. Skye turned to find Grant and Coulson looking down at her.
"Skye, you will stay here on the Bus with Fitzsimmons. May, Ward, and I will go and retrieve Mr. Johnson." Coulson said.
"What?! No way are you leaving me behind. Coulson, Luke is completely unpredictable. He stabbed Sister McKenna and left her to die just to get back at me. Who knows what he could do to you guys. You have to let me come with you." Skye said firmly.
Coulson went to speak again, but May stopped him.
"I think Skye's right. She can go with you and Ward and I'll say here and run communications with Fitzsimmons." May said to the group. She then turned her head to the side and quietly spoke to Coulson, making sure that no one else could hear her. "She thinks it's her fault that Sister McKenna died and it will only make her feel worse if you leave her here. She needs the closure. The only way she will get that is if she sees Johnson in custody with her own two eyes." May said sternly. Coulson looked at her for a moment before nodding and making his way to the SUV where Skye and Ward were already waiting. He slid into the passenger seat and Ward pulled out of the cargo hold.
Ten minutes later, the three agents arrived at a pretty run down apartment complex. They climbed out of the car and made their way up towards Johnson's apartment. Coulson rang the doorbell and a moment later it opened, revealing the face of Luke Johnson.
As soon as Skye saw his face, she snapped. Before she knew it, she had launched herself at Luke and was hitting him wherever she could. Ward and Coulson pulled her off but not before she did some damage. Once Ward managed to calm down Skye, Coulson made his way over to Luke and roughly yanked him up. He was sporting a nice and shiny black eye, a busted lip, a bleeding nose,….and was he missing a tooth?!
"Who the hell are you?" He asked angrily, looking at the two agents before his eyes fell on Skye. "Skye…what are you doing here? And why did you punch me?" He asked stupidly.
"You bastard!" She went to punch him again but Ward tightly wrapped his arm around her waist and held her to him. "Why did you kill Sister McKenna? What did she ever do to you? It's me you hate right? Then you should have come after me! Why did you kill an innocent person who did absolutely nothing to deserve that? You stabbed her through the stomach and left her to die you monster!" Skye screamed at him, pain and anger flowing through her. She along with Grant was feeling the effects of the Berserker staff come back to life.
"What? I never killed anyone! Skye you know me! Would I ever do something like this?" Luke asked in disbelief.
"Yes you would! You've always hated the fact that I could hack better than you. You've always hated me!"
"That's different Skye! I would never kill anyone to get back at you." Luke said, trying to make Skye believe him.
"You're the only one that can do such a thing. After Sister McKenna died, there was an earthquake and in that the entire orphanage collapsed into ruins. We managed to pull out the hard drive to her computer intact and after looking through it, I found that all of the information I had stored on there about myself was gone. I locked it with an encryption that only five other people could break. You, Justin, Greg, Lacey and Jacob were the only ones that could do it. Lacey is pregnant, Jacob is dead, and Justin and Greg are too far away from here. You are the only one that can possibly do it. You attacked Sister McKenna, stabbed her when she refused to give you my information, got into her computer, took all the information there was on me, deleted it, and left, leaving Sister McKenna to die. You are a murderer." Skye said harshly, eyes hard with anger. Grant was standing next to her with his hand twitching, trying his hardest to remain professional and not beat the shit out of the guys standing in front of him.
"Are you crazy!? I never did that! I've been home all day today!" Luke cried.
"That's enough. We'll discuss this when we get back to the Bus. Mr. Luke Johnson, you're under arrest for suspected assault and murder." Coulson said, cuffing Luke's hands behind his back and dragging him out towards the car.
"What?! No I didn't kill her. Skye, please believe me! I never killed Sister McKenna! I don't even know her. Why would I kill someone I don't even know?" Luke said frantically as he was put into the car.
Grant couldn't take it any longer and pulled out his Night-Night Gun and shot him in the face, effectively shutting him up.
Coulson and Skye stared at him shocked.
"You're lucky I didn't use my hands." He said before getting in. Skye climbed in behind him and came around and placed a soft kiss on his cheek, whispering a 'thanks' before sitting back down. Ward smiled and started the car.
Back on the Bus, Johnson was unconscious in the interrogation room while everyone else was in the Command Center.
"Did you really have to shoot him with the Night-Night Gun? We could have been halfway done with the interrogation by now!" Coulson said exasperated.
"He wouldn't shut up! And the longer he's unconscious, the longer he's alive. The moment he wakes up, my fists are going to dance all over his face." Ward said seriously.
Skye bit her lip. She didn't want Grant going all Berserker staff again and accidentally kill Luke. Though she wanted to believe that Luke had indeed killed Sister McKenna with all her heart, a little tiny part of her believed him. Maybe he really didn't kill her. She was broken out of her thoughts at Coulson's voice.
"Ward for the last time, you are not interrogating him. We need him alive to find out why he did this." Coulson said, frustrated with his agent.
"Maybe that's not a bad idea." Skye said. Ward turned to her, eyes wide with confusion. "Maybe you should sit this one out. Also…" she said, turning to the rest of the group. "…maybe he's telling the truth. Maybe he really didn't kill Sister McKenna. I've known him for years. I know that he is a liar and manipulative, but I honestly think that he's telling the truth." Skye said.
Everyone looked at her in shock. Coulson was about to respond but a glare from May silenced him.
"We can discuss this tomorrow morning. It's late right now and you all should go get some rest." May said firmly, not leaving room to argue.
Skye suddenly felt the weight of the entire day catch up to her. She managed to grab the edge of the holotable to keep from falling over. She felt Grant wrap an arm around her waist and help keep her upright.
"You're right. We can't really do much now. Night." Skye said, leaving the Command Center with Grant in a tow, Fitzsimmons following them.
Once the younger agents had left, May cornered Coulson as he was about to leave.
"Do you think Johnson is telling the truth?"
Coulson sighed heavily. "Honestly…I don't know. I mean, he seems freaked out by this whole thing and Skye says that he maybe didn't do this. But with everything going on right now, I think its all catching up to her. I don't know if Johnson was the one who killed Sister McKenna, but whoever is will be put through hell for making Skye go through that pain." Coulson said firmly.
May gave a small smile and nodded before making her way out.
"Good night Phil!" she called over her smiled at that before turning off the holotable and making his way up to his bunk.
Down in the lab, Fitzsimmons stood silently together. Throughout the day, they were constantly surrounded by the rest of the team, not being able to really talk alone.
Fitz began powering down the dwarves and Simmons began turning off the computers before sitting down in a stool, sighing loudly.
"Simmons, you ok?"
"Oh Fitz, Skye is absolutely devastated. You know how she was talking about Sister McKenna. She positively adored her and now…she's gone. Oh I don't know how Skye could be dealing with this. Back at the orphanage, she wouldn't stop crying. She kept whispering for Sister McKenna to come back. I-I…" Simmons couldn't finish and burst into tears. Fitz went around to her and pulled her into his arms. He held her tightly to his chest and rubbed a hand up and down her back, trying to offer some comfort.
Soon after Simmons' soft sobs subsided, he pulled back and grasped her shoulders gently.
"Jemma, I promise you that we will do whatever it takes to make whoever did this pay. They hurt Skye, so much that it may haunt her forever. But once we get our hands on them, they will pay severely. I promise Jem. They hurt my baby sister and they will suffer for it." Fitz said, calmly yet hardly. Simmons looked up at him and nodded with a small smile, admiring the way he stood up for Skye and loving how he looked at her like a baby sister.
"You're right! We won't let them get away. I'll shoot them with the Night-Night Gun myself and use them as test subjects for new weaponry. Can you imagine having human subjects to test the new effects of the latest Night-Night Gun? I mean after we get the dose of the dendrotoxin right and ensure no permanent brain damage that it."
"Are you kidding? That would be awesome. Seeing them react to the dendrotoxin can give us a much more accurate diagnostic of the proper dose of the dendrotoxin. And as for brain damage, they deserve much more than that for putting Skye through hell and back." Fitz said, already thinking of ways to put those bastards through hell with his extensive scientific and engineering knowledge.
Simmons smiled at him, enjoying how passionate he got about certain ideas. She turned back to the machines and finished turning them off before making her way to the lab doors, Fitz following behind. The two made their way up the stairs and stopped in front of her bunk.
"Good night Fitz." Simmons said, placing a kiss on his cheek before entering her bunk.
Fitz stood outside her door for a couple minutes, touching his face where she had kissed him. Slowly he smiled and then made his way to his own bunk, a large goofy grin present on his face.
AN: I'm sorry I know this chapter is a bit shorter than the others but I promise the next one will be longer. I wanted to include a bit of Philinda and Fitzsimmons so I really hope you enjoyed those. Please don't forget to REVIEW! Reviews are my motivation. If you guys don't review, then I will not be motivated to write more. REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!