AN: Good afternoon! A big thank you to MegaDiary123 for sticking with me all this time, and a welcome to all new readers. I hope you enjoy this chapter, I will see you next week with a much needed confrontation :)

All rights go to Marvel

May's POV

After Phil came in the cockpit to talk with HQ and apologised for making me see combat he left. I didn't say anything to him, didn't have anything to tell him really. I had specifically requested and was promised that all I had to do was drive the Bus. So, yeah, I might have been quite upset with him, but who would blame me? Despite how good of a friend he was, sometimes he overstepped his boundaries and today was not an exception to that.

Normally I would have just put the autopilot on and go to keep an eye on our 'guests'. Coulson seemed to trust them, trust them enough to let them on-board, but I did not. I could still pick up some conversation from the audio system of the Bus, but that was the best I could do. As we were heading North, going from Peru to the Slingshot, we entered restricted airspace and we had to follow specific flight paths because of International regulations. That was how I would spend my night.

From the audio system I caught a conversation between Ward and Skye.

Skye…

That girl had been a mystery since I saw her again. She seemed to have been full of secrets and there were more than one occurrence where something happened around her which had me wonder. She had said that if I needed anything all I had to do was find her, huh? Well there was something that I needed, answers.

I checked my earpiece and found that she still had hers on. "Cockpit" I simply linked our coms and told her. When she stopped talking but I didn't hear any movement from her part to do as I said, I continued. "I am not going to repeat myself"

That seemed to do the trick, as she all but wrapped up the conversation she had with Ward and headed here. Soon there was a knock and I heard the faint noise of the door swooping open. "Lock it" I said and she hurried to do just that as she stepped in.

She placed herself on the co-pilot's seat and waited.

And when I didn't say anything she waited some more.

Until eventually she couldn't stand the silence anymore and after her eyes darted from my face to the sky in front of us and back a handful of times she spoke. "What is going on May?" Her voice was quiet, as if she didn't want to startle me and her tone carried the same affection like when she spoke to me in her van.

There were a few things that I could think about which Skye had to answer for. And I was not the confrontation type, keeping my thoughts to myself especially after… Bahrain. But there were just too much that happened and despite what many people thought, I cared.

Skye appeared out of thin air, and I guess I was trying to find the same girl that I knew all those years ago. Only for her to be replaced by the Skye that was sitting next to me and who I had got a glimpse of suffering despite the mask that she usually wore on her face. I knew that expression of hers, the internal struggle. It was like looking at a mirror. And still, she didn't push people away like I did, what she did was something more harmful to herself. She pushed the feelings away, locking them to put up a strong front for others. And despite not having seen her for so long, the memories of the little girl that we raised played in the back of my mind.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" I asked her, and she seemed startled that I even said anything. She looked at me with a confusing expression on her face as she tried to understand what I was talking about. I shot her a look from the corner of my eyes before focusing back to the black sky ahead. "You know that Phil's office is right next to the cockpit" I said. Didn't ask, just said.

She seemed to grasp what I was talking about. "Phil" she repeated and the way she pronounced the name seemed almost as if she had just heard a joke. "Right. Is this about me telling you he doesn't remember me, or is it because of the other day?" She asked in return, quick to understand both layers of my question.

I let the silence speak for me.

"Sorry" she said and I spared a glance at her to see her look me in the eyes. "I guess I am just not used to you not taking that much" she rubbed the back of her neck in awkwardness. "I guess I will have to do the talking then, huh? Well, I can't really talk about them, either of them" She laid her head back on the seat and looked out of the window, lost in thought. "The first I don't know myself, yet. I intend to find out though. And the second… it's classified"

There we went again with the Clearance Levels. I still couldn't believe how she was a higher Level than me. And given the arrangement that I had with director Fury, so that I would keep an eye on Coulson and how he was after what happened in New York, I couldn't see how something related to Phil was classified to me. I guessed that I had to ask the man in person when I saw him.

"What about what happened in Union Station?", my voice filled the room once more.

"What about it?"

"I was there when you got shot. There was nothing between the bullet and you, so there is something you are not telling us. Wanna tell me what that is or will I have to dig to find out?"

"It's classified" she said and her voice had a final tone which I hadn't heard from her before. I could still pick up the sincerity in her words when she said, "I'm sorry Ma–"

Her word was cut short and I turned to look at her as she gazed at the door. "Skye?" I asked as I started feeling lightweight.

She got up and took one step towards the door before her knees buckled and she collapsed to the floor. I would have gotten up to see what was wrong if my vision didn't go swimming, dizziness taking over right before I blacked out.

Skye's POV

I started waking up to Fitz talking. Then came Jemma's voice, and I only managed to get the last part of her sentence as she said "…you weren't ready"

Then came Ward's voice. "This was my job to make sure…"

Oh, I get it now. They are blaming themselves, was my first coherent thought as I properly woke up. My grunt as I tried to sit up was enough to make the three of them stop and turn to look at me.

"Hey, Skye" Jemma was the first one to address me. "How's the shoulder?"

"Sore" I said as I finally managed to properly lift my upper body from the floor. My hands were zipped behind my back, the sling disregarded on the floor. "If it was anyone's fault it's mine. I could sense that something was off, but by the time I figured what was happening it was too late. If I had been faster May could have helped out" I said.

"Sensed?" Ward asked.

"Probably like you figured something was wrong, picked up signs here and there" I lied. True, I had my reservations about the Peruvians, but it was mostly my vibrational radar that picked up the commotion in the main room as well as the person who stood outside the cockpit and probably filled the room with a gas that knocked us out.

"Agent May? No" Fitz said with certainty. "No, no. She was transferred from Administration"

I laughed at that. "If only you knew" I told him and when all three of them looked at me as if I had grown a second head I had to somehow explain. "I have worked with her on a mission before" it was not a complete lie.

Both scientists turned to look at Ward, trying to get a verification for what I just said. "You've heard of the Cavalry"

They both eye-rolled at him before Fitz started. "Yeah… well everyone from the Academy talks about a story–" he stopped short when realisation kicked in.

"She is the Calvary!" They both said in synch.

"I told you never to call me that" May's voice interrupted them and we all turned to look at her as she came to.

This was twice that I head May being called with the specific nickname, and both times the people who called her that got shut down. Now, I didn't know exactly what it meant and I didn't have a dead wish, so I wasn't going to ask. Ask her that is. But something in the back of my head told me that this had something to do with the change in May, from how I remembered her and how she was now. I could always ask Natasha… but that would be prying on her personal business and I knew she wouldn't appreciate it. Maybe in time she would tell me? Or at least I hoped so.

I had zoned out, and May's voice brought me back to the present. "You two geniuses have nothing?"

Ah, we must be thinking of ideas as to how to escape and take back the Bus. Fitz almost seemed offended at the question being directed at them. "Yeah, but it is hard to concentrate under these intense situations". As I said before, that boy was way over his head.

"Hey, don't freeze out" came Ward's unexpected input. "Take a breath" he even took one deep himself trying to make the scientist imitate him. "You don't have to think of the whole solution, just part of it. Right?" He looked over the science twins at me with a smile and a similar expression marked my face.

"Yeah… pieces solving a puzzle" I said looking at the team. "So, what do we know so far?" I asked. We had to start from somewhere.

"Well this is the worst idea we have heard so far" Jemma was fast to dismiss what we had just planned out.

"It's the only solid idea we've had so far" I whispered-yelled at her, so as not to be heard by the goon that was not keeping a very good eye on us. "It could definitely work" I tried to reason.

Again to my surprise, Ward came to my support. "Reyes is gonna kill us the moment we land, regardless, blaming it on the rebels. At least this way we have a fighting chance, I will take it. What's first?"

Well, one of us had to get free, deal with the soldier and then free the others. A situation that Natasha had well trained me for. "Wanna do the honours?" I asked, looking at May since I guess that the same thought passed our minds. "I would but my shoulder wouldn't help a lot with the climbing, now, would it?"

"What are you talking about?" Jemma said. "We are all tied to the cargo door, so unless we–" her sentence was cut short from a cracking sound.

"What the hell was that?" Fitz was startled and his voice came out really high pitched, looking in our direction where the sound was generated from.

I heard Ward huff from the other end as he shook his head. "Her wrist"

From that moment on and until we had to actually go in the main room everything worked out perfectly. May took out the guy who was overmatching us, then broke inside the lab, from where Fitz used his D.W.A.R.F.s through the vents to activate the 0-8-4 which, based on FitzSimmons, would blast a ray of pure energy and create a hole to the plane for the doors to open.

Yup, as the scientist himself had said, "This is the moment we regret" and with the press of a button the door was unlocked as the cabin's pressure dropped. "We will take the soldiers, you guys secure the 0-8-4" Ward said and the two of us went to deal with the Peruvians in the main room while May headed to take back her cockpit.

Ward jumped over a sofa and attacked one guy as I rounded the same furniture to deal with another.

I landed a kick at his knee and made him drop in one leg, which was quickly followed by a push towards the sofa's cushions. I found the seatbelts that we strapped in during the take-off and wrapped them around both of the man's hands, securing him in place before punching him in the face and knocking him out. Enemy or not, we didn't want them flying off the giant hole in the side of the plane.

I heard a noise and looked up, only to see that Jemma had managed to get the 0-8-4 in her hands and was yelling at Fitz to pull her back. This was when a fourth member of the Peruvian Military appeared and moved towards FitzSimmons.

This was a wrong move buddy, no-one would touch them if I had anything to say about it.

I run up to him, run being an understatement as it looked more like stumbling because of the plane's violent shaking, grabbed him from his collar and threw him on the ground. I was just about to knock him out when something flew in my face and blocked the view.

I took it, whatever that was, off my face and inspected it. It turned out that it was the Bus' pamphlet which gave me a great idea as to how to close the hole, at least temporarily.

Before I had the chance to do anything though, my legs were kicked out from underneath me and the man that I had previously thrown to the ground climbed on top of me, his hands making their way to my neck. I didn't have time for this, so I grabbed his wrists before his fingers wrapped around my respiratory path and I brought my knee hard on his balls. He produced a very pleasing high-pitched grunt as he fell on the side, doubling over. I stood up and kicked him in the head just for good measures as I started heading where the inflating life-boats were stored.

I released the boat which took form and glued itself on the hole in the wall, because of the atmospheres pressure, stopping Ward from flying off the plane.

After that everyone dropped on the floor as the wind stopped dancing like crazy.

"I read the safety pamphlet" I told Ward as I was helping him up.

He huffed at that, "You might be the first one"

We all gathered around the broken bar. "The 0-8-4 is stable and secure, but we need to reach the Slingshot as soon as possible" Fitz informed us as he took a sip from his S.H.I.E.L.D. water bottle.

"May's on the stick and I am sure we will get there in no time" Coulson said and then proceeded to look around. His eyes fell to the life boat stuck on the side of the Bus and he shook his head. "No other way in, huh? And I was starting to warm up to this place.

Just as Coulson had promised, it was less than a couple of hours when we reached the Slingshot. Reyes and the rest of her squad was taken by the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that were sent to our location as soon as the HQ learned about what went down on the ride there.

I watched from the open cargo door as the men and women, with black bags in their heads, were led to unmarked vehicles which then parted, going a different direction each. I smiled and turned back to find Coulson looking over Lola and brushing off some dust off her trunk. "Not a scratch" he lifted his head and smiled at me.

"No, I didn't know what I would do if she had any" he replied looking down at his beauty.

"Well maybe not the car, but the plane's totalled. Think the director will pay for the repairs? From what I gathered you had this plane only for a few days before everything went to hell"

I smirked at him and just as he was about to reply people started heading down from the stairs, bringing commotion with them. I looked up and saw the rest of the team coming down. Jemma had a beer I her hand and Fitz was carrying a portable fridge which I was sure contained another handful of them. "We blew up a plane! Take that professor Ron!" The young scientist screamed as he followed Jemma to the, now half open, cargo door.

My heart warmed at the relaxed state that everyone was in as they took a seat, their legs hanging just above the ground. "How many of those did you have?"

Jemma just turned to look at me, laughing her heart out. She extended a beer bottle at me and patted the space next to her. "Sk-Skye, it's important to unwind from time to time" she said with her English accent being more apparent because of the drink she obviously already had.

"Yeah, yeah" Fitz was fast to agree. "Especially after a hard day with everyone almost dying"

I accepted the drink and took a long sip from it before Jemma continued. "Which doesn't happen every day, right? It's an anomaly — not the norm"

"Speaking of 'not the norm'" Coulson's voice stopped me before I sat next to my friend as I turned around to face him, catching up on the seriousness in his voice. "Whose idea was it to blow a hole in the plane?" He asked and looked at us.

I glanced around as everyone had gone quiet at the question. "May said that the doors were tied to the pressurisation, so I thought–" I started to explain only for Jemma to jump in.

"So we thought, it was the one way to release them" she smiled up on me, before looking at the team leader.

"It was everyone's idea sir" Ward was fast to add at the same time Fitz provided a, "Yes, quite genius actually"

My gazed travelled back to Coulson whose serious demeanour broke and he nodded at us, clearly happy from our reply. "Nice work" he said and then moved to stand closer to the edge of the cargo hold and looked in the distance.

I felt a small tug on my trousers and looked down to see Jemma pocking at my leg, looking up at me. Her head nodded to the empty seat next to her and I didn't need words as I sat down next to her, beer in one hand as the other made its way around Jemma's shoulders, rubbing her bicep. Jemma's arm, in return, wrapped around my back as she laid her head on my shoulder.

All clear for liftoff" a voice was heard from speakers and from the corner of my eye I saw Fitz sit straighter.

"Oh, oh! Here we go!" He closed his nose, making his voice sound weird, "Launching in 3… 2…" and the rocket with the 0-8-4 lifted off the ground and started its trip to space, just as the sun was starting to rise. What a beautiful way to start the day. "The trajectory will take it beyond the Lagrange point so it doesn't hit the Herschel" Fitz inquired after a moment of silence.

I noticed Jemma stir on my shoulder and knew she was about to speak. "And there haven't been any coronal mass ejections, so it shouldn't lose telemetry" she said as if it was obvious.

"Guys. English" Ward said for the millionth time that day, but it sounded different this time. Not filled with the frustration that it had been the last handful of times.

As we watched the rocket fly off to the stars, my mind traveled back to the events of the day, that was how a thought was formed. "Fitz, I heard you say something about monkeys to Jemma while you were in Peru, right?"

He looked at me confused. "Yeah…?"

"Well, we cannot possible get a monkey on the bus, it would be a disaster" I said in a matter-of-fact way looking ahead to the horizon. The others turned to look at me as well, wondering what my endgame was (pun intended). "And we obviously can't get anything like a dog or something similar, but maybe a pet would be nice, wouldn't it? We would take turns to take care of it, it would be like a bonding session"

Jemma retreated from my shoulder, her brows knitted in confusion. "What are you saying?"

"I mean, well, the Bus is basically getting fixed again so why not add something that will be ours?" I lifted my gaze to look at the others. "Like a fish tank?"

I could clearly see Fitz's eyes growing large just as everyone turned their attention to Coulson. He was practically sending mental waves of "please, please, please' to him with the way that he was staring. The smile that grew on Coulson's face was all the answer that we needed and Fitz made a squealing noise. I was sure that Fitz would give me a bear hug for the thought later on when we were alone.

Our little bubble was interrupted by the sound of car tires as an unmarked vehicle parked a few meters ahead of us. And out of the vehicle the Director walked out, as if owning the place with his dark cape dancing from the slight breeze that filled the air.

We all stood up, looking as his figure closed in on us. The ramp we were sitting on suddenly lowered and we touched the ground. The beer that I was holding was now long forgotten on the metal floor and my hands were folded at my chest.

He looked at us, FitzSimmons averted their gaze but I stood my ground and his gaze lingered for a few more seconds on me before moving back at Coulson.

The two of them disappeared upstairs without exchanging as much as a word. The rest of us stayed down there hushed conversation happening mainly between the scientists and, to my surprise, between May and Ward. True, it was in a limited manner but there was still some conversation happening and May was actually talking.

Despite how much I wanted to laugh with Jemma, the mask in my face was unmoving. And I knew that Jemma was throwing sideway glances in my direction, but I couldn't be bothered by that right now. I could also feel May taking in the change in my demeanour as she examined my face.

Jemma broke off from where she was with Fitz and placed a hand on my back. "Are you okay?", she whispered. She knew me long enough to know better than to ask loudly and make a scene.

Without missing a beat from where the question was formed, the door at the top of the spiral staircase opened and Coulson came through. "Skye, the Director would like to have a word with you in my office"

Everyone's attention turned to me. I brushed Jemma's hand off me and walked upstairs without even the hint of a reassuring smile to her. I just passed by Coulson who was still looking at me and headed to the office. I didn't knock, just walked in, locked the door behind me as I did so.

"Skye" Fury was sitting on Coulson's office. "I got your message"

I stared at him, as I finally got the audience that I had requested. "Joseph"