Hey all! I was reminded by the midseason premiere of AoS that as much as I like Agent Carter, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is truly where my heart is. I've also been doing a lot of thinking on whether I would try one of those fish oil pills myself...if I knew S.H.I.E.L.D., the Secret Warriors, and Daisy were there to help me through it I would consider it, but it would still be a hard decision to make. What about all of you?
Fort San Cristóbal
The stairs into the bottom floor of the sentry tower were cracked and uneven, but it didn't stop her or Coulson from hurrying down them from their last check-in with May. Neither did the damp air and stench of wet rock and rotten fish that only seemed to increase as they went downwards. When they finally reached the bottom, Coulson wasted no time. "How's it coming?" he demanded. Fitz and Simmons startled, scrambling from their crouched positions while Mack just nodded in greeting, eying the pit in front of him apprehensively.
"We are ready to deploy, sir," Fitz ducked his head, tapping away at his tablet.
"The dwarves are transmitting?" Coulson asked, bending down to examine them in their storage case. It was glowing blue—what that meant, Bobbi didn't know, but she supposed it was a good thing.
"All three signals are strong," Simmons said with a nervous smile, peeking over Fitz's shoulder.
"All right, then," the director nodded. Bobbi went to stand by Mack. "Activate them."
Fitz's brow furrowed in concentration. "Activating. Sneezy, Sleepy, and Doc…" The tiny little machines whirred in their case before lifting off. They hovered together in triangle formation a few feet high in the air before falling into a line and descending one by one into the shaft, mini flashlights illuminating small cones of darkness. "Heigh-ho, heigh-ho," he murmured, then looked up at Coulson.
"Off to work they go."
"We'll be depending entirely on the data the dwarves send us," Simmons said. Just as they all moved to look at it, Fitz's tablet started to beep. The three feeds from the dwarves went black.
"What just happened?" Coulson asked.
"The tablet's still working," Fitz replied with a frown, kneeling down to peer into the shaft. Bobbi looked downwards as well. Either the dwarves were too far down to see their light anymore, or they were no longer emitting any. "Looks like they just went out."
They all looked at each other with identical concerned expressions before Bobbi took charge. She turned away from the pit and crossed over to where FitzSimmons had dropped their equipment, pulling out two light rods. Tossing one to Coulson, who caught it easily, she twisted the top of her own and shook it to mix the fluids. She released it over the top of the shaft, watching as it plummeted downwards. Coulson's followed.
"Well, that didn't help," Simmons commented from where she knelt near the edge of the pit. "Still can't see a bloody thing."
"Guess I'll have to be going down there, then," Mack rumbled, standing up to his full height.
"Sure, I'll, uh, help you get the gear on," Fitz mumbled, standing back up and setting the tablet aside to pull a sturdy cable and a harness from one of the bags. Bobbi set up the mechanism with which they could pull him back up without looking like they were playing a game of tug-of-war with gravity as Mack looped the rope around himself and clipped it to his harness. She threaded it through the machine, then looked at him.
"You're sure?" she asked.
"Eyeballing it, it looks at least one hundred feet," Fitz added.
"That's all right," Mack said to both of them as he cocked his gun. Bobbi hadn't even known he'd been carrying one. "I'm not scared of heights." He glanced downwards. "The dark, however..."
"Just get those dwarfs back online. Otherwise, we're blind down there," Coulson told him.
"Well, sir, it might not just be the dwarves," Fitz murmured. "Could be all electronics."
"Let's hope it's not," Coulson replied.
"Being lowered on a rope is one thing. Walking around down there is another," Mack muttered. Bobbi nodded in agreement.
"Here, let me do that," Fitz said to her, and she moved out of his way so he could fiddle with the pulley. Mack knelt by the edge of the shaft and she joined him.
"Three pulls on the cable means 'help,' got it?" Coulson asked after receiving a nod from Fitz.
"Yes, sir," Mack acknowledged. He shifted slightly, getting nearer to the edge without being in danger of falling over it.
"Good luck," she said softly.
He nodded his thanks. "Let me down easy, turbo."
"Please be careful," Fitz muttered before releasing the rope to go through the machine at a steady, controlled rate. With one last glance at all of them, Mack pushed himself forward and over the pit. Her hands reached out to help stabilize him, preventing him from swinging too far in their direction with the momentum of his push. No matter how stable Simmons claimed the walls were, it would probably be better for all of them if they remained untouched.
Holding onto the rope, her good friend descended into the pit. They all waited, silent, as his figure grew smaller and disappeared into the darkness below.
"How long do you think it'll take to reach the floor?" Coulson asked once their teammate was no longer visible.
"Cable's running at, uh, thirty centimeters a second, so..." Fitz mumbled.
"About two minutes fifty seconds from when he went down," Bobbi supplied. Coulson, Fitz, and Simmons all gave her surprised looks. "What? Just because I'm not in the lab anymore doesn't mean I've forgotten how to do basic math," she defended herself.
Simmons smiled. "Kicking arse and doing the maths. Didn't anyone ever tell you you can't have it all, Bobbi?"
"Pretty sure it was one of the guys whose ass I kicked," she replied easily.
"Shh," Coulson said, and they fell silent again. "Did you hear that?"
They listened. "No," Bobbi shook her head. Coulson motioned for them all to be still. "Wait, yes," Bobbi said, eyes flashing with recognition.
"Mack," Fitz nodded. He leaned further over the pit. "OKAY!"
"You all should get your ears checked," Coulson glanced at them with the slightest hint of amusement. "A man fifteen years your senior should not have heard what you—" He broke off as the cable stretching down into the blackness gave a giant jerk to the side and low-throated screams followed it as the rope continued to jerk from side to side.
Fear-induced adrenaline surged through Bobbi's chest, electrifying her fingers and toes though there was nothing she could do except launch herself at the device capable of pulling him up, of getting him back to safety, with Fitz scrambling out of her way. She activated it with fumbling fingers, watching as the cable snapped completely taut and began to spiral back into the reel at an infuriatingly slow pace.
"Get him up now!" Coulson ordered.
"I'm trying! It's at max power!"
"He's struggling on the line!" Fitz told them, as if they all couldn't see the cable jerking around as it sped upward.
"Before the dwarfs went down, they scanned for signs of life. All readings were negative," Simmons cried helplessly.
"Wait! Wait, wait, wait! I can see him! He's coming up!" Fitz announced, leaning down closer.
"Hang on!" Coulson called to Mack. She couldn't see him from her vantage point a few feet away from the pit's edge, but she trusted her team. She had to.
Another few seconds and Mack's body—Mack, why was she already thinking like that?—surged out of the pit, stopping abruptly as the top of the cable hit the pulley above their heads. Coulson's and Simmons's hands were on him immediately, pulling him down—"Get the harness off him!"—and to her horror it looked like he was seizing, body spamming uncontrollably as he hung there.
She was kneeling next to him as soon as his back was lowered to the floor, touching his arms, his chest, trying to figure out what was wrong with him. "Hey, talk to me, Mack!" His body gave a particularly nasty spasm; she could see the whites of his eyes. "Mack!" His screams of pain and the rushing of her own blood in her ears drowned almost everything else out. Coulson's voice drifted around in the background, but she couldn't make out what he was saying, nor did she particularly care if it wasn't a solution.
He flipped over under her hands as if the very floor burned him, curling into the fetal position with a growled word coming deep from within his throat.
"Mack! What did you say?" Coulson demanded. "I can't hear you!"
Her friend pushed himself up into a kneeling position, and for a moment Bobbi believed he was coming back to himself. For a moment she believed she would get him back.
Mack's eyes flushed red. "Ruuunnnnn!" he uttered, harsh and guttural. Bobbi's eyes widened in the second before he swung a clenched fist at Coulson, hitting the director squarely in the chest and knocking him into the opposite wall. A wall ten feet away. It was a feat a strength she knew no S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, even the hulking Mack, was capable of.
"Mack!" she screamed. He turned to her, slow, lumbering, and then moving very, very fast. She flew to the wall, trying to talk him down the whole way. "Snap out of it, Mack!" He swung a fist like it was a sledgehammer at her and she ducked, unwilling to hit him. Pieces of wall rained down on her head as his fist obliterated it. "I don't want to hurt you!" she insisted. He picked up one of the wooden crates they had brought with them and smashed it where her head had been just a moment before. It shattered, chips of wood spraying everywhere. He swung at her again and the knowledge that yes, she would have to fight one of her best friends settled in the pit of her stomach. She launched a swift jab at his jaw, a weak spot she knew from their sparring sessions due to a biking injury when he was young.
Mack didn't even blink. She hit him again the in the same place, harder, and she felt brittle bone break underneath her fingers, but he still didn't stop coming. Ducking under his legs on the next blow, she came up behind him and dimly realized in the back of her mind that with Coulson's status unknown, she was the only fighter here. She was the only one distracting him from Fitz and Simmons.
Bobbi reached for the staves at her back only to remember they were in her go-bag, across the chamber and on the side she had just vacated with her last move. Shit. He swung at her again and she kicked him, once between the legs—no response—and once on his right knee, causing it to buckle beneath him. She vaulted over his back and grabbed her staves.
"Fitz, ICER!" Coulson was up again, looking worse for wear with Simmons, evidently having revived him, standing next to him. The young engineer fumbled for the gun in one of their bags and Bobbi didn't have time to look anymore as Mack came at her again, catching her wrist in midair. She smacked him across the abdomen with the other stave, fighting for her wrist back with a hit across his. It was released but only for a moment under her flurry of attacks until his large hands closed around both of them, crossing her arms and immobilizing them against her stomach with inhuman strength.
An ICER cocked from behind him and was thrown to Coulson as Bobbi struggled not to be crushed. There was the sound of two rounds being explosively released, and the side of Mack's face lit up blue as the dendrotoxin laced up his body. His muscles stiffened, faltering.
Then it disappeared.
He came at her, sweeping her up with one move. His fingers wrapped around her neck. The staves clattered to the floor as her feet left it, twitching uncontrollably against his giant body as every cell in her body screamed for her to do everything she could to be released. Her fingers scrabbled at his as the back of her head scraped against the rocky wall of the chamber. "Mack... it's me," she gasped. The giant's grip only tightened.
Out of nowhere Coulson came up from behind him with one of her staves in his hand, pulling it backwards against his neck. She dropped to the floor, only vaguely aware of sensations below her pounding head anymore. Bobbi lay there, stunned, with only the feeling of utter despair making her drag herself to her feet again. Somehow Simmons was dangling over the edge of the pit with Coulson holding onto her leg for dear life and Fitz was holding a gun on Mack, a real gun.
"Shoot him, Fitz!" Coulson commanded, both arms stretched as far as they could go to hold onto the young biochemist.
"This isn't an ICER; these are real bullets," Fitz muttered. Bobbi grabbed her staves from the ground.
"Damn it, Fitz, shoot!" Just as the scientist raised the gun—and shut his eyes—she launched herself up onto the back of the monster that had replaced her best friend, pressing the ends of the staves into his neck and letting them light up with vibrant arcs of electricity. The smell of singed flesh stung her nose but she didn't care, pressing them in harder.
Mack's legs gave out and he tumbled forward, Bobbi barely regaining her footing as she hit the ground. His body tumbled into the pit just as Coulson whipped Simmons up and out of it, sending the two of them sprawling in a heap across the floor.
"No!" Bobbi screamed, staring after him. Mack disappeared into the blackness.
"Figure out how to seal that tunnel!" Coulson commanded.
She looked up at him, an unbidden film of water covering her eyes as she did so, staring between the director and where Mack's body had gone. "What?! What about Mack?!"
"That wasn't Mack."
Bobbi stared at him helplessly. "But he's in there, somewhere. We have to help him."
"We'll do our best," Coulson said firmly, looking at her with a hardness rarely found in his blue-gray eyes. "But for now, he's lost. We need to regroup, and we need to check in with May. Are we understood, Agent Morse?" Bobbi understood that this was her one chance to pull herself together before she was sidelined for being too close to this.
"Yes, sir," she nodded, shutting her emotions down. "Sorry, sir."
He gave her a quick nod of understanding before turning to FitzSimmons, who were just staring horrorstruck at the pit, though Fitz's hand was covering Jemma's and his other rested lightly on her shoulder—Bobbi doubted they even noticed. "Fitz. Simmons." Coulson's voice, softer now, woke them from their shock-induced stupor. "Pack our things and start thinking about a way to end this, once and for all. Bobbi, help them carry it all up to the surface. I'll meet you there." He looked at each of them. "And make sure to keep a good two-foot radius from the shaft's edge."
"We'll make it five feet, sir," Simmons murmured.
"Sounds good," the director told her before climbing the stairs up and out of their sight.
Once they had everything in its cases and slung over their shoulders again, the three of them headed up the steep stairs to the sunlight visible above. Simmons nearly paled at the sight of the hundreds of steps they had to climb carrying the equipment, but she dutifully started up them. Fitz followed, muttering something that sounded like equations under his breath as if he was already starting to work through the problem Coulson had set before them—how to seal the tunnel, how to trap Mack down there, how to blow up both him and the alien city. How to kill her best friend.
No. She couldn't think like that. Mack was possessed, or gone, or dead—and they didn't know which. Either way, Isabelle's godfather wasn't the same man who had stood by her side at that hospital four years before. Oh God, how was she going to tell Isabelle?
When the three of them had reached the surface, Coulson was nowhere to be found, so they headed out of Fort of San Cristóbal. He was waiting for them just outside with a grim expression. The director held up his phone. "Had to go outside to find signal."
"More bad news, sir?" Simmons asked, her face scrunched up with worry.
"HYDRA has Skye."
"WHAT?" Fitz exploded.
"May's on her way here with the Bus," Coulson continued in that same soft tone. A large taxi pulled up next to them, and he gestured to it. "Put your stuff in the trunk and get in the car. We'll go back to the Quinjet to wait for her."
"But...but how…"
"Fitz," Coulson said. "That's all I know."
They rode back to the outskirts of San Juan in silence, then lugged their stuff the rest of the way. It wasn't as bad as the stairs and Bobbi was almost grateful for the weight on her back and the case suspended between her and Coulson because it gave her mind something to focus on besides Mack. When they finally reached the Quinjet, Fitz and Simmons collapsed into chairs and Bobbi went immediately to sit in the cockpit, tuck her legs up to her chest, and stared out the window.
After a few minutes there was a knock on the frame of the interior doors though she had made no move to close them. "You okay?" Simmons asked kindly when she looked up.
"Yeah, I just…" Bobbi shook her head, unable to put into words what she was feeling for the biochemist.
"You're bleeding!" Simmons exclaimed.
"I am?" Bobbi asked, but not before Simmons's hand was under her chin, twisting her head to the side so she could examine it.
"Or you were," she corrected herself, probing the back of Bobbi's head. "It's dried now."
"Must have been the cave wall," she replied. "It was rough. My head scraped against it. But I'm fine—didn't even notice."
"Still, let me get the med kit," Simmons said, exiting the cockpit. She returned with a bottle of alcohol and a few sterile bandage pads. Bobbi sat still as Simmons cleaned the wound and then patted it dry. Then she left her alone again until May arrived.
Bobbi tried to resist fidgeting as Coulson and May finished debriefing each other. "So Whitehall has both of them," Coulson summed up, standing on one side of the digital conference table in the Bus. "Raina and Skye. Thanks to Ward."
"And the city has Mack," May nodded. "It's not a good situation, Coulson."
"No kidding."
"Now might be a good time to pull out your old Howling Commando stuff again," May said, looking at Agent Triplett.
"What are you thinking?" Coulson asked.
"Detonators," May replied.
Trip grinned, nodding. "I got ya covered."
"I'm sorry, I need to go talk to Hunter," Bobbi interrupted, turning to Coulson. "When you figure out a plan, sir, I'm all in."
Coulson nodded. "You're dismissed." She walked out of the room without looking back, unable to stand there a minute longer. Somehow she found herself in the Bus's garage, staring listlessly through the glass doors of the lab, at the bright red paint of Lola, and then the various bits of machinery scattered all over the floor from the Bus's escape from HYDRA. Her hand found its way into her pocket, caressing the smooth screen of her phone with her thumb before pulling it out and dialing. Bobbi brought it to her face.
"Bob?" Hunter greeted her, voice coming through slightly crackly. "It's good to hear from you. How's the mission going?"
"It's...Hunter, it's Mack," she choked out. "He…"
"What happened?" her ex-husband asked in a hushed tone. "Is he okay? Is he dead?"
"No," she shook her head. "Maybe. I don't know. The city, it...took him. Possessed him."
"God, Bob, I'm so sorry," Hunter breathed. "Where is he now? Do you have him, at least?"
She bit her lip hard enough to taste blood. "No, he's still down there. He's still down there, Lance, and I don't know what I should do—I don't think there's anything I can do. And I just keep thinking about him and what if..what if the worst happens and what we're going to tell Isabelle and how we're going to explain this to her and now Skye's gone too, and—"
"Skye?" Hunter asked. "But she was with May."
"Ward," Bobbi said in answer. "Working with Whitehall. And I know getting the two of them back won't even be our top priority because HYDRA has Raina and the Obelisk now, and…" She stopped, dangerously close to breaking. "Lance, I'm so scared."
"I wish I could hug you right now, Bob," he whispered. "We can come back. Drive out to Des Moines, take a commercial flight—we can be back in six hours if you say the word."
"You know you can't," Bobbi replied miserably. "We can't...disturb..." The sound of laughter coming across the line faintly made her voice fade away. "Not until we have to."
"It'll be okay, Bob," Hunter assured her. "It'll work out somehow. And if the worst happens, we'll deal with it together. You're not alone." His words were calming, orienting, if altogether too optimistic.
"We have to get him back—them both back," Bobbi murmured. "I have to."
"Mack's my friend too," Hunter told her quietly. "So is Skye. Bring them back if you can...but don't die out there, Bob. For both of us."
"I won't," she promised. "You don't need to worry about me doing something stupid. I've got more to live for than I ever have before—and I'm not about to drop the ball now." She paused, trying for light. "Besides, it's usually you doing the stupid stuff."
"True," Hunter said. "Still, I may have rubbed off on you. Accidentally."
"I've been resisting picking it up from you for years," she told him, a small smile tugging on the corners of her lips. "Tell Isabelle I love her and give her a hug for me, okay?"
"You don't want to talk to her yourself?" Hunter asked.
"She would hear the wrongness in my voice," Bobbi said softly. "I couldn't face that. Not right now. I couldn't upset her before...before we have to." He was silent on the other end. She couldn't tell if he disagreed with her decision or not, but either way he'd accepted it. "...Bye, Hunter."
"Bye, Bob." She stopped, waiting, unwilling to take the phone away from her ear and end her one connection to him. After almost a minute of still hearing the soft rustling sound of his breath flowing in and out, she couldn't resist asking anymore no matter how much she just wanted to stand here listening to him and never go outside this garage again. "Aren't you going to hang up?"
"I was waiting for you."
Another smile tugging at her lips, but a sadder one this time. "Thanks." She waited another long few seconds before pulling the phone away and pressing her thumb firmly against the red 'End Call' button.
She looked up to see Coulson standing in the doorway to the lab. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop," he told her.
"It's fine," she replied, shoving her phone into her back pocket. "What do you need?"
"You to suit up. We have a location on HYDRA, and as soon as FitzSimmons finish arguing over a way to walk in the tunnels without experiencing the same disturbing effects as Mack, we'll move on them."
"So we're planting the charges and rescuing Skye at the same time?" Bobbi asked. "We'll be spread thin."
Coulson nodded. "But it's the best we can do. Even if we used all our resources to blow up the alien city before anything else, it's still only a three-person job. There are only three hazmat suits. If on the other hand we go after the Obelisk to get it out of HYDRA's hands…"
"Rescuing Skye along the way just makes sense," Bobbi nodded. "Especially if she's with her father."
"That's what Ward promised."
"I hate him."
Coulson gave her a wry smile. "Welcome to the club. As for our shaky numbers, we do have the Mockingbird."
"And the Cavalry," Bobbi added.
"I told you never to call me that," May appeared on the small platform above them. "Coulson, you're needed."
The director nodded. "And I'm not shabby myself. Fury made me an honorary Avenger, remember." He started up the stairs, then disappeared into the main cabin of the plane.
"You should call her," May said from above.
"Call who?"
"As someone who grew up with a mother whose life was one mission and then the next, trust me-a call is everything." May let her words hang in the air a moment, then turned and left.
After a moment's indecision Bobbi pulled out her phone. It rang only one time before Hunter picked up. "Is something wrong, Bob?" he asked concernedly before she could even open her mouth to speak. "Did something else happen?"
"No on both counts," she replied quietly. "I changed my mind. Can you put Isabelle on please?"
There was genuine happiness in Hunter's voice as he replied. "Yeah, Bob. Hold on a sec."
She waited, hearing sounds of rustling and shouts in the background, and laughter—a lot of laughter.
"Mommy?"
"Hey, Isabelle," she greeted her as warmly as she could muster.
"Mommy!" Isabelle replied back excitedly. "Did you know tomorrow is Lila's birthday?"
"I did," Bobbi smiled. "You'll have to wish her a happy birthday for me tomorrow, then."
"Okay," her daughter agreed readily. "Lila says Clint's planning a surprise party for her but he won't tell me what it is."
"Then it wouldn't be a surprise."
Isabelle sounded cutely offended. "I can keep a secret! Surprise parties are the good kind of secrets, so they're okay, right, Mommy?"
"I suppose," she laughed weakly. "Just keep pestering Clint. He's really a pushover at heart."
"What's a pushover?" Isabelle wanted to know.
"Someone who can't resist the charms of cute little girls," Bobbi teased. "But be good, okay?"
"Are you coming back for the party?" Isabelle asked.
"Probably not," Bobbi answered truthfully. "But I'll try to be back sometime soon after that."
"Try hard," Isabelle told her. "Really hard."
"You got it." Bobbi smiled despite the pang of sadness rippling through her. "I love you, Isabelle."
"I love you too, Mommy."
I would love to discuss the premiere and/or the next episode with any of you btw!