Jemma knocked on the door of the bathroom she knew Skye was in, but she didn't receive a response.
"Skye?" Jemma pressed her ear against the door to see if she could hear her inside.
"I'm fine!" Skye called out. Jemma knew she was lying because of the distress lining her voice.
"Unlock the door, Skye." Jemma sighed when the door failed to open after she jiggled the knob. As soon as Jemma heard the lock click out of place she pushed through the door, ignoring her girlfriend's privacy, just as Skye rushed back to the toilet and started vomiting.
"Hey, you're ok." Jemma whispered as she held Skye's hair behind her and held one of Skye's clammy hands.
"Has this been happening since you woke up from the coma?" Jemma asked once she was finished. Skye nodded and sat down on the cool tile beside Jemma.
"It's probably the head injury, if you rest like you're supposed to instead of working out like you did last night, it should go away." Jemma told her with a pointed look.
"Hey, you know you enjoyed that." Skye said, teasing Jemma. It was incredible how Skye could be cheerful even when she was throwing up. She was hoping the bubbly version of Skye was finally coming back for good.
"Skye! Why would you immediately assume-" Jemma started to counter, but Skye raised her eyebrows in question.
"Ok, fine. Just a little bit." Jemma said to humor her. Skye cracked a smile and Jemma knew her job here was complete.
"Now let's get you up and to that meeting." Jemma told her as they both got to their feet and exited the bathroom.
"We have a couple important things to discuss. Unfortunately, all of them have to do with you." Coulson started, nodding towards Skye. Skye looked behind her as if there was someone else Coulson could possibly be nodding at and Jemma struggled to maintain a serious posture. Their shoulders were brushing against each other and no one failed to notice it. Fitz gave Jemma a teasing smile before Coulson got on with what he was going to say.
"First, we need to figure out what to do with SHIELD." Coulson said. Skye was confused, she didn't seem to be getting the memo. How did everyone else know what he was talking about when she didn't?
Coulson noticed her expression and elaborated, more for her sake than the team.
"You know we've been in the air as much as possible recently, and it's not just so that Centipede can't find us. SHIELD knows we've confiscated a weapon and they want us to take it to the sandbox." Coulson explained. Then Skye realized why this was about her. She swallowed a lump in her throat as she began to understand. She was the weapon, the one SHIELD wanted to lock up in the sandbox to never see the light of day again.
"Do- do they know it's me?" Skye asked.
"Not yet, but I don't know what to tell them yet and they're getting impatient." Coulson said. "That's what we're discussing."
"What if... What if Fitzsimmons can make a fake weapon?" Skye suggested. Jemma knew Skye was stuttering again because she was worried, so she gently ran her fingers along Skye's arm discretely under the table, the one that they always stood around when they were discussing missions.
"That's actually a decent idea." Fitz spoke up.
"What if that doesn't work?" Ward asked skeptically.
"Then we'll go from there." Coulson answered him.
"Even if it doesn't work, we're not letting anyone get their hands on Skye, bad-guys or good-guys." May said in defense of the girl she had grown protective of. Skye smiled at her appreciatively and May almost smiled in return. Almost.
"Fitzsimmons, as weird as this sounds, make a centipede-worthy weapon that SHIELD will believe had the power to delete their files, we know they've already had that brief panic. They know it happened and they know we know how." Coulson ordered. Fitz and Jemma tried to begin to collaborate, but a look from Coulson shut them up.
"The next thing on the long list of things we have to worry about is centipede itself." Coulson began. "We, May and I, fear that centipede may not be an organization on its own."
"What are you saying?" Fitz asked for clarification.
"Centipede may only be a branch of the tree we're trying to cut down here." Coulson told the team. "And other than Ashley, we don't even have a lead." Coulson stated, forgetting that Skye was present at one of their meetings in over eight months.
Everyone glared at him for his slip-up except for Skye, who had a hurt look on her face.
Jemma tried to grasp Skye's hand to give her moral support, but Skye tugged it away, leaving Jemma's hand hovering in the air.
"Ashley is here?" She asked. The slur in her voice was barely detectable, but it was present. No one answered her, they all knew she was terribly angry with them for not sharing this important fact.
"I want to see her." Skye stated, looking at each of them to make sure no one contradicted her.
"I don't think that's such a good idea." Of course Ward was the one to try and stop her, Skye thought. He was so controlling, even more so when it came to her, and she was tired of it.
Skye pressed her palms against the tabletop and leaned forward to emphasize the point she was about to make.
"Look. I know you guys can only see Ashley as the enemy, but I have a less limited view from my standpoint. I definitely don't consider her a friend any more, but she was my best friend for six months, longer than I knew any of you before this all started. I lived with a good person for six months, she's not just a bad-guy to me." Skye lectured her team, her voice seeming to get more and more frustrated every word she spoke. "So I'm going to see her." Skye finished strongly, not leaving the topic open for discussion.
Everyone was impressed, not only by her speech's content, but by its delivery. Skye hadn't stuttered, started a sentence over, or messed up a single word. Jemma was absolutely amazed. She'd never seen someone recover from brain damage so quickly, and she guessed it had to do with the computer in her head. Both her and Fitz silently guessed that she could somehow reprogram herself, which was in itself a miracle.
"Do you want me to come?" Jemma asked Skye softly, knowing Skye enough to know that she was terrified.
At this point, the entire team could tell something was going on between Jemma and Skye and they all figured it out pretty quickly when Skye leaned in and pressed her lips against Jemma's for a soft kiss.
"Not this time. I have to do this alone." Skye told her individually. May and Coulson glanced at each other. Everything made sense now.
"And no cameras." Skye ordered her superior confidently as she walked out of the room.
"Skye?" Jemma called out when she was halfway down the hall, causing her to stop and turn her head.
"Be careful." She told her. Skye nodded and continued the start of what would only last a few minutes, but would be a long journey.
When she unlocked the door to the cell, Skye took a deep breath. She was scared to see her former friend. She was also afraid that when she saw Ashley's face she would either break down or try to break her. Skye was so mad, but she couldn't help but still care for the person she lived with for half of a year.
Skye took the plunge and entered the room. Her breath hitched in her throat when she saw Ashley's bloody face that was undoubtedly the work of May. She deserves it, she deserves it, Skye had to convince herself. When Ashley looked up and noticed that her visitor was Skye, her face lit up, but then faded quickly. Skye wished she knew for sure whether somehow, in her own twisted way, Ashley thought she was protecting Skye by keeping her in the centipede project.
"Cat." Ashley sighed.