"Ward, May. Why don't you both go outside and get some air?" Coulson asked them. They had been in the room working for the best part of three hours helping sift through the remains.
They were holding up the best out of his team. Amber and Kain had lasted all of twelve minutes before making excuses and disappearing to get any video footage they needed. They so far hadn't returned. The remains themselves didn't seem to faze Skye too much, she had, like them, seen more peculiar things. Watching the video feedback had sent Skye running out of the room, hand covering her mouth. The smell had got to Coulson and he was forced to remove himself from the room and rub smelling salts under his nose. When he felt like he could breathe properly again, he went round and rubbed the salt under everyone's noses. Simmons ran from the room crying when she found two wedding bands and a pendant reading 'No. 1 Daughter' in a particularly large pile of ash. Fitz had turned green when he analysed the results from the Dwarves.
The item Ward had found had been packaged up and added to the collection of stuff to go back to the bus.
Ward and May put their tools down and headed for the door, quickly followed by a still green looking Skye.
They opened the doors and went out onto the street, propping themselves up on the railing separating the pavement from the road. May looked out onto the road and Ward looked back at the building. He saw Skye follow them and opened his arms out and let her into his embrace.
"That is..." May started.
"I know." Ward cut her off, words mumbled as he pressed his face into Skye's hair.
"What the hell could have caused only humans to burn but not anything else?" May continued. Ward and Skye both knew she was bothered by it. She only asks questions like this when she's bothered by something.
"I'm not sure, May. I'm really not." Ward told her confused.
May looked sideways at him and Skye lifted her head off his chest to look at him.
"What do you know?"
"While I was at Sci Acc I read this paper. It was completely theoretical at the time."
"And?" May prodded.
"It had something to do with exciting water molecules to create energy."
"Energy wouldn't cause people to burn and turn to ash."
"It might if the water were excited enough." Ward replied, turning a little green at the thought.
Hours later they had collected all of the data they needed and headed back to the bus to analyse it. Ward was seen talking on his phone, which was unusual, Skye was sat in front of him researching his theory and trying to find the paper he had read, May was reading her book, knowing that she couldn't help anyone. Kain and Amber were helping Fitz and Simmons in the lab.
They tested everything from samples of ash to the object Ward had found.
Nothing.
"Any progress?" Coulson asked, entering the room, looking at the magnification of the circular object on the holotable.
"No. There isn't a trace of accelerant anywhere." Simmons snapped at him, putting her lab glasses on the side, sitting down and rubbing her eyes.
"There isn't any trace of anything." Fitz added, trying to explain their frustration.
Ward, Skye and May came into the lab at that point.
"We have a theory." Ward announced. Everyone who hadn't heard the theory groaned. They never like Ward's theories. It usually led to trouble.
"Well, Ward has a theory; Skye has just found the research it was based on." May told them. The groan got louder.
"Go on." Coulson said with a sigh.
"I'm guessing you haven't found a trace of any accelerant or even a source of ignition."
"No, but I'm sure you will tell us your theory." Fitz said. He didn't like to be shown up by Ward, who had a Phys Acc background as opposed to himself who had a Sci Acc one.
"Hyper excited water molecules." Skye burst out, spinning her laptop round to show everyone the article Ward had read.
"I read the article when I was transferred and I recognised that object. I didn't know where from and then while I was outside I remembered where I had seen it. In that article." Ward told them, seeing the look on the scientist's faces, pointing at the screen.
"I understood the basics but the rest of it went way over my head. Maybe you two could figure it out?" He continued.
Fitz took the laptop off Skye and started to read. The rest of the team watched him as his eyes flickered over the page. HE finished reading and passed the laptop to Simmons, who did the same.
"It's a theory, but while there is no evidence of it, there isn't any to back it up either." Simmons pointed out.
She and Fitz looked at each other. They were sceptical. They had never heard of this theory, but it was their only shot.
"We'd need a theoretical physicist to help." Fitz told Coulson.
"I don't know any." He admitted.
"Oh, but we do." Simmons said, looking at Ward who was smiling.
"She's packed and waiting for us at Phys Acc."