Ivy here.

My apartment – sorry, my flat – in England was finally starting to feel like home. I only got visits from customers who wanted information from the Fortune Seller every couple weeks now. The customers who I chose to communicate with called me on the phone.

I was in the middle of cooking dinner when my cell phone rang.

I covered the lid of my pot of tomato soup and picked up the phone. "Hello."

"Fortune Seller?" asked a somewhat familiar male voice. What was his name again? Oh, yeah, right. Lance Hunter. "I have some information for you."

I glanced over at Phillip in his crib. "Yes?"

Hunter listed off several cities in America. "There are some HYDRA bases nearby these, with unusual energy signatures in the last several months." He gave me the locations.

"Thank you. Goodbye." I hung up.

In an hour, I was packed.

I picked up Phillip out of his cradle, wrapping him in a grey blanket. I could have left him with a neighbor, but didn't want him out of my sight.

I shifted him slightly and pressed a button on my watch.

A moment later, I was standing in the middle of a street, my baby son on one arm, my other holding a suitcase.

No one even gave me a second glance.

There's a wonderful thing I've discovered over the last few months. People don't notice weird stuff going on around them because they're so focused on their other surroundings. You know that video online where there's a group of basketball players, and you're too busy watching them to notice the guy in the gorilla suit walking through the middle of the group? It's like that.

"All right," I said to myself. "First off, find a place to stay. Second, find the HYDRA base."

I quickly located a hotel and set myself up in a room – my work was a very well paying one, if a bit dangerous.

I spent the rest of the day researching the first base as best I could without typing in anything that might appear suspicious in internet history.

There was, of course, nothing online. Because it would be too easy.

At seven, it had gotten dark.

A knock sounded on my door.

I glanced in the mirror, adjusting my blond wig, and walked to the door.

"Hello?" said a female voice. It sounded familiar, I couldn't place it...

"Who is it?" I asked, peering through the little hole.

"Room service."

I regonized the voice. What was Skye doing here? Of all the places to pick first... "I put the do not disturb sign up. I just arrived a few hours ago and there's really no need for cleaning. Thanks anyway." I did my best British accent that might have fooled Skye but would never have fooled anyone from Britain – it certainly hadn't while I was there. I'd tried at first but failed so miserably I'd given it up and told everyone I was Canadian.

She sighed. "I'm looking for the Fortune Seller."

Why now? "Who? I'm sorry, I don't know who you're talking about."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. thinks you do, Miss Ward."

I regretted taking on Ward's last name. It had seemed like a good idea at the time – take on the name of someone I loathed. Who'd expect me to? Now I just hated it. "S.H.I.E.L.D.? As in HYDRA? The terrorist organization? All I know about fortune tellers is that I've never met one who actually predicted something that ever happened to me." I'd never visited a fortune teller, so that was true.

Phillip started crying.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about and what's going on. I have to take care of my son."

I walked across the room to pick up Phillip.

The door banged open.

I scooped up Phillip and spun around.

Skye stood in the doorway, aiming a gun at me.

I set down Phillip. "Don't worry, Sweetie, Mommy will take care of this." I walked toward Skye. "Look, I'm sure there's been some kind of misunderstanding."

"No, I don't think so." Agent May stepped in after her.

Wow. Two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. I felt honored and slightly nervous. Skye, I could deal with. Agent May, not so much.

"Look, I don't want any trouble." I kept up the accent. "I'm not causing any. Leave me be."

"That's not the way this works," said Agent May.

How unfortunate.

I picked up Phillip. "What do you want?"

"You, with us. Now."

I decided that it would be best to do what she said. For now.

"For now" ended the second Skye put her gun back where it belonged and tried to take Phillip from me.

I rammed my knee into her stomach and used my free arm to elbow her in the face. Then I ran.

Footsteps pounded behind me.

I decided to beg Skye's forgiveness later and started screaming for help as I raced down the hallway.

Something hit me in the back.

My knees gave out and I collapsed forward.

I stared up at Skye for a moment as she took Phillip.

"His name's Phillip," I said, fighting hard to stay conscious. "Be careful with him, Skye, he's premature and kind of fragile."

And then everything went black.

I woke up in a sitting position.

It took a moment to remember what had happened.

I opened my eyes to find myself staring at yet another dear old friend.

"Hello, Director Coulson," I said. I was inside Ward's old cell. Great, just great.

"Who are you, exactly?"

I didn't answer him for a moment, instead debating whether I should go for the truth right away or not.

I decided to wait for a bit and just play along. "The Fortune Seller. I could see the future, kind of, and I was in a tough spot. I figured I'd make some money with the world's only accurate fortune telling."

"What's your name?"

Seriously. They hadn't guessed? "Where's my son?"

"Answer my question."

"Irene Ward." I probably should have picked a name with different initials from my own, but I would never have remembered to respond to my name if I hadn't picked something a bit similar.

"Any relation to a Grant Ward?"

"No." For which I am very thankful.

He studied my face for a moment. "One of my agents is keeping an eye on your son."

I had to wonder, which one had he handed Phillip off to? Skye?

"How can you see the future?"

"When I was a little kid, I was exposed to a crack in time and space, somehow. I didn't really develop the ability until a few years ago, though. I tried to contain it as best I could, until lately. Then I was pregnant with Phillip, and I needed money."

"By selling it to criminals?"

I shrugged. "I only give them the things that won't hurt anyone and will probably save a few lives in the process. As far as I'm concerned, I'm doing the world a favor and making decent money off it."

"You remind me of someone."

"Really, who?"

"Someone who had the same abilities as you."

Time to quit hiding. What was the use? "I don't think there's anyone with the same abilities as me." I reached up and gave the wig a hard tug, yanking it off my head and exposing my bright red hair. I also dropped the British accent. "Hello, again, Director Coulson. It's nice to see you again."

I've seen shocked looks on people's faces before.

Director Coulson's was one of the best yet.

He just stared. "Ivy?"

I nodded.

"You're dead."

"The reports of my death may have been slightly... overstated. Just like yours were, once upon a time."

"Who are you working for?!" he yelled.

"Myself, Director. I never meant to trick anyone. I really was dying. My friend the Doctor saved me, but he said I needed to stay off of Earth for a while."

He stared at me.

"I can prove it. The first time I met your team was in Peru. I fell out of a tree and landed directly in front of Ward. Who, by the way, I didn't know was a traitor at the time. Otherwise I would have tried to kick him on the way down or something."

Director Coulson stared at me for a moment. He got up from the chair. "Whatever kind of trick this is, it won't work."

"Ask me a question, Director. Something only I would know."

"I don't have to. If anyone is crazy enough to pull off a plot like this, they would have prepared for it. We will find out what's going on."

I decided to keep my mouth shut for once.

He left.

I stayed in my position against the wall for a moment, staring at the wall blocking my view.

My teleporter was gone – no doubt Fitz was trying to take it apart and see how it worked. I hadn't seen him before he'd recovered from his coma enough to communicate. I wished I could have, to apologize.

Something told me I'd be doing a lot of apologizing over the next few days.

The wall went clear.

Simmons walked in, glaring at me. "I need a blood sample," she said.

I extended my arm. "Hello, Agent Simmons."

She reached down and took a blood sample. "You're not Ivy. Ivy's dead."

"And you don't think the Doctor could have saved me from a stab wound, Agent Simmons?"

Her eyebrows shot up her forehead. "What?"

"I was there, I think I remember the whole thing."

"You're a clone or a robot or... something."

"Why can't I be Ivy?"

"Because she wouldn't have made us worry the way we did." She straightened up. "She wouldn't have tricked us. She would have told us."

"It was dangerous to tell you, Simmons. Long story short, I couldn't come back. How was I going to pass on the news?"

"You could have if you wanted to." She spun on her heel and left.

The wall appeared again.

They were going to kill me when they eventually figured it out... if they ever did. I wasn't sure which would be worse.

So the fact I'd always been truthful and honest with them was now working against me? That was... new.

I stood up and walked back to the chair. My head hurt but not so much that I couldn't function. I'd been through much worse.

At that moment, the wall slid away again and Skye sat in the chair opposite me.

I was getting all kinds of visitors today.

Skye stared at me for a moment. "You're not Ivy. You couldn't be Ivy."

"The first time I met you was on a bench. I was alone. You thought I had some kind of mutant ability to heal after I was shot on live TV." That incident seemed so long ago. "The first thing you said to me was 'okay, act normal'."

Skye stared at me for a moment.

"We met again in Peru, where I told you about everything."

Skye's hands shook slightly. She looked very, very angry.

"Ward used to be kept in this cell, before you released him to his brother. I'm sorry about that whole mess, by the way."

"I don't know who you are, and how you learned all those things, but I am going to find out."

"I'm sure you will, as soon as Agent Simmons comes back with proof that it's me. What will it take for you to believe me, Skye?"

She stiffened at my use of her name. "More than all of that information."

I stood up and walked to the wall.

The door above opened.

Director Coulson came down slowly, eyes locked on me.

"Your DNA matches Ivy's exactly."

Wow, I wonder why.

"Tell me something only Ivy would know."

"The first time I ever met you, I was at a choir retreat, and you'd heard that Agent Barton had turned up nearby. I had seen him. If you want further proof, there is one person who knows I'm alive. I told him, just in case of emergency. Call Edward, you remember him. Also, my friend Carmen would be able to help. She knows too. The others don't."

Director Coulson just stared at me.

"The Doctor had some kind of device that saved my life," I said. "He told me I couldn't return to Earth for a little while because all the contact with you could rip a hole in the universe. It's safe now, for a little while. I didn't tell you because I thought it was too dangerous for anyone to know, and I didn't really have any way to let you know without coming back."

Skye stared at me in shock. "How do we know it isn't a clone with her memories?"

"What do you think you're in, a comic book? You're from a... somewhat realistic TV show," I pointed out. "That's what I said to you before."

The director deactivated the wall between us. "Welcome back."