A/N: I still don't own the characters.

Chapter Two

It only took Skye fifteen minutes to come up with a decent plan. She knew that there was no way she was going to completely escape notice while she hacked her way into an active mission. All she needed was a few minutes to get the information she needed. It didn't matter to her that she was going to get caught, her only concern at the moment was making sure the guys were ok.

What was truly surprising was the fact that Simmons was on board with the whole plan. Skye thought for sure she would chicken out at the idea that they were definitely going to be caught. She was surprised to find that for the moment it seemed like the two of them could agree that getting in trouble for getting answers was more palatable than remaining in the dark.

Once they reached the farthest point that Skye could follow, they went over the plan one last time. Simmons used her biometric scan to open the secure door and Skye began talking her through the process. "Okay, you have the flash drive, go!"

Simmons started walking down the hallway and it just felt natural for Skye to keep talking to her through the comms. "The flash drive will run a decoy crawler that will use my browser history to simulate my usual online activity. So while SHIELD thinks I'm trolling reddit and facebook-"

"You'll be hacking the files for Wards and Fitz's mission." Simmons finished.

Nodding to herself Skye continued, "Now once you plug it in, I'll only have about three minutes before-"

"SHIELD catches on and stops you."

"You do realize that you keep-"

"Finishing your sentences. I know. I'm sorry." This was the way Simmons handled stressful situations, she babbled. "Oh wow, this is just a tad bit thrilling."

Skye filed Simmons admission for later use. "Well now we just to figure out a way to get the wall panel open."

"Not to worry. I made up a special something." Simmons proudly reached in her bag and found the small aerosol spray that would mimic the last handprint to open the panel and force the sensors to reopen. "It's what we do." Simmons said proudly.

Simmons always found a way to surprise Skye with her forward thinking. "Oh wow. Okay now you just need to find a USB port."

While Simmons was preoccupied trying to pull the flash drive from her bag she didn't notice a familiar agent approaching her until she heard, "Agent Simmons."

Jemma jumped back surprised. "Oh hello Mr. Agent Sitwell, sir."

"It's fine, Simmons. Just play it cool." Skye could hear the other girl beginning to panic so she tried to soothe her.

After a deep calming breath, Simmons carried on with an overly bright smile, "What bring you to this restricted hallway so late at night?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Sitwell rebutted in what sounded friendly and joking.

Simmons kept her fake smile plaster to her face and leaning slightly closer, "No, don't."

The panic that Skye had heard in her friends voice was getting worse, "Simmons, focus. Just make up an excuse and try and get him to leave."

As fast as Simmons' brain could move, it always faltered when she needed to lie on her feet. "I was just on my way to the loo." She injected a false laugh into her voice. "I could swear it was two rights and a left but is that here?"

Sitwell glanced at her and the panel behind her, suddenly becoming suspicious. "That's a wall panel. Why are you accessing it?"

"Don't spiral! Just say something." Skye urged. When Simmons remained frozen, she added, "Anything."

Simmons was frozen, staring at a superior officer, in the middle of breaking several SHIELD codes. She blurted the first thing she could think to say, "My, you certainly have a gorgeous head."

When the awkward silence continued, Simmons just carried on with her horrible attempt at flirting. "I like men that are about my height but heavier than me."

Skye smacked a hand to her head. This was the worst attempt at flirting Skye had ever heard. "Stop talking. Just stop."

Apparently, Sitwell found what Simmons had been babbling offensive because his attitude suddenly shifted from almost friendly to suspicious. "Agent Simmons do you have authorization to access that panel?"

Simmons panic was now starting to spread to Skye so she quickly whispered through the comms, "Say yes. Say you do."

The science officer froze momentarily before nodding and starting to dig through her bag. "Oh of course… Umm I certainly have it somewhere in my bag." Simmons couldn't figure out what she should do. She needed help, she whispered to Skye, "He's on to me."

"Stop talking to me! He can hear you!"

"Are you on comms with someone?!" Sitwell exclaimed at the same time before he pulled his radio out of his pocket. "This is Agent Sitwell, I need an escort-"

As she was digging through her bag pretending to look for an authorization she didn't have, Simmons' hand closed over the night night gun she had slipped in from the lab while she had been on the bus. With speed she wasn't aware she was capable of, Simmons drew the weapon and shot Sitwell in the chest. "Ahh! I'm sorry."

Skye stood frozen staring through the glass doors. "Oh my God. Oh my God."

After grabbing the unconscious agent by his ankles and dragging him out of view of a main access point, Simmons jammed the flash drive in the port and scurried out to join Skye. "Ok, I definitely shot Agent Sitwell…Good, good, good." She stopped in front of Skye panting from the surge of adrenaline. "Was that alright?"

"No, that was terrible. You are terrible at this."

Simmons wrung her hands thinking back over the last few moments. "The night night gun was there and I-"

"We need help. You need to go get May!" Skye interrupted. They didn't have time to go over how badly this had gone.

All of the color drained from Simmons face. "May?! No!"

Again, Skye grabbed her friend by the shoulders to make sure she was focused, "Listen, that flash drive will only give me a few minutes to access the mainframe to find out what happened to our boys. So just go get May! Tell her it was an accident."

As Skye sat down and began typing rapidly on the keys of the laptop, Simmons began heading off in the direction of the hangar bay muttering, "Oh, I am going to be court martialed!"

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

During this whole exchange the girls had been too focused on their objective to take note that Steve had been following them since Skye approached Coulson. As he listened to Skye lay out the plans with the scientist he now knew was Simmons, it struck him that Stark would love this girl. She had questions and she was going to do what she had to in order to get answers. Not unlike what Stark had done on the helicarrier.

Skye's plan was impressive. Well, at least the parts he could understand. She was apparently a computer genius and a stubborn one at that. I couldn't keep eyes on the whole situation without making his presence known so he stood just around a corner and listened.

It was frustrating only hearing Skye's end of the conversation. Steve kept trying to peek around the corner to get eyes on what was going on but, he needed to be careful. He had a feeling if he jumped in the situation right now Skye and Simmons would clam up which would make helping them even more difficult.

When he heard a shocked voice saying, 'Oh God.' Repeatedly he poked around the corner one more time. He watched as Simmons dragged a clearly unconscious Sitwell out of view. Steve couldn't help but smile. Something always seemed slightly off with that agent and more than once Steve had wanted to knock him out.

Watching Simmons run off to presumably get one of the specialists, Steve chose to stay and watch as Skye worked through the system. He marveled at how quickly she gained access to all the information she needed.

It wasn't hard to miss the shock and fear in her voice when she next spoke. "Oh my God. There's no extraction."

Steve's blood ran cold. Yet another SHIELD lie. The moment he turned the corner to actually speak with Skye was the same that Coulson appeared before her roughly closing the computer Skye was using and in a cold voice ask, "What did I tell you?"

She gave just as good as she got, "You told me to trust the system and the system sent Ward and Fitz in there to die."

In the silent moment between Coulson and seething Skye, Steve made his move. He moved around the corner and stood behind Skye. "Same ol' SHIELD, huh Coulson?"

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Skye jumped at the sudden sound of another person's voice from behind her. To say she was shocked that it was none other than Captain America would a wild understatement. She had seen him earlier but, she would have never imagined that he would step into the mess she had created or that he would say anything but the SHIELD motto of trust the system.

Coulson was shocked into complete stillness. There had been no contact with any of the Avengers since the fall of the Chitauri and being confronted by Steve Rogers while trying to handle his rule breaking hacker certainly complicated matters. Coulson did his best to keep his tone modulated, "It's been awhile, Captain."

Steve narrowed his eyes and glared at the man he once believed to be dead. "Well, faking your death tends to make communication difficult."

The agent had the good sense to look contrite at the thinly veiled insult. Instead of diving into that mess at the moment Coulson decided to try reasoning with his hacker, "I told you I would get you answers about your family."

The calm tone did nothing to curb Skye's anger, "That's not what I was looking for! I was trying to find out what is happening to Ward and Fitz."

"That's a classified operation-," Coulson began.

"No, it's a suicide mission!" Skye shouted in Coulson's face. "I saw it all. The troop placements, the aerial assault. Once Ward and Fitz disable that device there is going to be a huge attack on the compound. WITH NO EXTRACTION PLAN! And you hid that from us."

Hearing this made the glare Steve was tossing in Coulson's direction much worse. His voice became like chipped ice when he growled, "What?"

Skye and Coulson both glanced at him. She could see a muscle in his jaw twitching and almost feel the anger radiating from the Avengers stance. Instinctually, she went to take a slight step away from him. However, she didn't get far when she felt his warm hand ghost down her back. Steve looked down at her and she saw something shift in his eyes. The anger was still there but so was a kindness.

When Steve caught Skye shifting away from him in his peripheral vision his gut screamed in protest. He wasn't quite willing to let this girl get away from him so fast. He relaxed his aggressive position and uncrossed his arms. Reaching over to run a comforting hand down Skye's back was almost instinctual and it successfully stopped her retreat.

This exchange went unnoticed by Coulson because he was too busy trying think of a way to get out of this situation as he was glancing around realizing there were in a relatively public area and the way this conversation was heading, "Skye we can discuss this in private."

The implication that Coulson was trying to keep him out of the conversation was not lost on Steve and it only added fuel to the burning curiosity, "Oh no, I think this is a discussion I very much want to be a part of, Agent Coulson."

It was clear that Steve would not be giving an inch of leeway on the matter. Coulson sighed but tried to defend his position, "I didn't hide anything from you. You don't have the clearance to know there is no extraction."

Steve laughed darkly, "Don't you guys ever get tired of using that excuse?"

"And is that really what SHIELD is all about? Level 5s are more expendable than level 8s? Is that what I am to you, what we are to you, just another number?" Skye added her opinion to Steve's. The hurt tone of her voice causing both men to wince.

Coulson tried to move closer to Skye but she shrank back, inadvertently bringing her closer to Steve's side. Again, Steve's instincts told him she needed comfort so he gently moved his hand to rest on her the small of her back. It was meant to be simply a silent sign of support but, he felt the tingle of excitement from actually getting to touch Skye.

"If SHIELD keeps a secret from you, it's for a good reason." Coulson looked into both Steve and Skye's eyes in an attempt to convey sincerity.

It was Steve who argued back. "So SHIELD can keep all the secrets. Should we talk about what happened the last time this organization played that little game?"

Tension was multiplying exponentially between the three with every sentence. Coulson's voice became flat and cold. "She just hacked a level 8 secure server, saw operational plans that she has no context for. And if details get out about this, the whole operation could become compromised, endangering the lives of thousands. Including the lives of Agents Fitz and Ward."

Skye cut off the retort Steve was preparing to throw at Coulson, "I know. Those are two people I care about. On the plane you're always telling me think outside the box. So that exactly what I did. I went off book to watch my team's back. Because that what you taught me to do."

Steve saw a look of pride flash on Coulson's face before returning to a neutral expression. "But our team can go off book because there is a book. We have an organization to watch our backs. You claim you want to be a part of that. Do you?

Skye's answer was immediate and emphatic. "Yes."

This time she stayed relatively still when Coulson took a slight step toward her but, she did press into Steve's hand a tiny bit more. "Someday I may have to you with a secret and I'll need to count on you to keep it."

Sensing that this conversation would only go in circles if he continued to press, Coulson turned to leave. When he was a few feet away Skye called out his name and asked if she could have one more answer. "What?"

"Did you know there was no extraction plan for Fitz and Ward?"

Coulson looked down at his feet for a moment. "That's classified."

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

His mind was furiously trying to catch up on the bomb the hacker had just dropped on him. Coulson had allowed two members of his team to walk into a death trap because he failed to ensure that an extraction had been put in place. It was a rookie mistake not to back check what a strange agent had planned.

Skye had every right to be upset and distrustful. The more he considered everything she had said, the more Coulson began to agree with her assessment. Ensuring the safety of the team was more important that levels and compartmentalization. With that realization he stormed into the East Operation Center prepared to give a Hand a piece of his mind.

The agent in question approached him as soon as he came into her view, "Agent Sitwell is in the infirmary. Apparently, a member of your team rendered him unconscious."

Coulson did not appreciate having to defend his position when it should be her that offered explanations. "A simple misunderstanding, I will handle the matter internally."

"Tranquilizing an agent doesn't qualify as a misunderstanding. "

If Coulson wasn't so upset Agent Hand's cool tone may have impressed him. As it stood, hearing it only baited him further. "You're right. But being told there was an extraction plan in place when in fact there isn't… That does."

He paused to let Hand absorb the fact that her lie had been discovered. "I'm level 8. I am entitled to information regarding the welfare of my team. You should have been honest with me."

Hand gave no indication that his words had any effect, "It seems I didn't have to and what would that knowledge have changed anyway? You yourself have designed dozens of operations like this. You know how it works."

"Usually with an extraction plan." Coulson's voice rose.

"Barton, Romanoff… They never have an extraction plan-"

"They know that going in! They are trained for that. My engineer is not!" Coulson yelled.

Hand nodded, "Agent Fitz is unproven in the field and knowing may have made him lose focus or courage."

"That should have been my call, not yours."

She couldn't disagree with Coulson's words but she still felt she had made the right call, "I wasn't sure you would comply."

Coulson looked at her confused before she added, "Your team includes an electronically tagged non agent who is notorious for leaking secrets. Which reminds me, how did you come across this information again?"

When he thought about the situation from Hand's perspective he could somewhat understand what made her choose to keep the lack of extraction to herself. It didn't matter though, his team was his. "I know what the safety of a thousand men is worth. I know the importance of taking out the overkill device out of play. But I also know my men and what they are worth. The decision to go in should have been there's to make. Not yours."

The venom in Coulson's voice made Hand take an involuntary step back. "Perhaps. But you need to trust the system, Agent Coulson."

For the first time, hearing about trusting the system sounded wrong. Coulson couldn't figure out why.

A/N: Read & Review pretty please!