AN: Hey guys! A few things today. First, a major thank you to MegaDiary123, like every time. Also, might have said in the past that this story will not just stop and I will see it until the end, but I understand that my update times this past Academic year haven't been great. And it's not fair to you guys. Let me know if you'd like me to update the summary in case I don't have time to write again with something like "Not Abandoned Just Delayed". I do apologise again for my lack of consistency. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

All rights go to Marvel

Skye's POV

We were still a few hours out of our destination and we were all doing our thing until we reached the camping site. More specifically, Coulson was getting a physical with Jemma, while Fitz was adjusting the Night-Night pistol with Ward while I was still going through files on my laptop. May, of course, was in her sanctuary.

I watched as Ward picked up the gun and pointed it sharply upfront. I was really restraining myself to not laugh at him. He then shook his head and placed it back on the table in the Lab. "Sorry, Fitz. It's close, but just not right"

Fitz, perplexed, took it back in his hands and started fidgeting with it. "Really? 'Cause agent Coulson had no problems" he thoughts out loud.

"It's an ounce too heavy" Wards words came out and I couldn't surpass my laughter any longer. He turned in my direction with a challenging look written all over his face. "Something you wanna say?"

I stared right back at him, my expression saying 'Really now?', without having to actually speak. I stood up and Fitz quickly gave me the gun. I felt it in my hands before lifting, pointing it straight at Ward. "Why do you want him to lose the ounce? Feels perfectly fine to me" I supplied as I handed the gun back to the scientist.

"Come on, Skye. You know the importance of weight. It can be the difference between success and failure. When you're on a rooftop with a 15-mile-an-hour wind, your target is 500 yards away—"

"You will have a rifle" I stopped him. "Admit it, he's done some sick work on that pistol"

He looked at me dead in the eye before scoffing. "Whatever" and with that, he left.

I went back to my computer shaking my head as Fitz starting talking to himself. "'Lose the ounce'. Good one" he paused for a second before continuing with a heavier voice, trying to sound like Ward. "I'm agent Grant Ward and I can shoot the legs off a flea from 500 yards, as long as it's not windy"

"Good one" I said in between giggling.

At that point, the door opened and Jemma walked in, clearly having finished with Coulson's physical. "So, Ward was here? Let me guess… the Night-Night pistol again?"

"Oh, oh yeah" Fitz said as he went around to stand next to her as she shorted out some documents. "And guess what… he said it was off by an ounce"

Jemma scoffed at that, the whole interactions seeming obvious to her. "Of course he did" and then she proceeded into making her own impersonation of Ward "I'm agent Grant Ward, and I could rapture your spleen with my pinky… blindfolded!"

The whole lab erupted into fits of laughter as each of us returned to what we were doing before.

We gathered Adam Cross's floating body after Jemma went to check out the exit wound on his forehead and he dropped to the floor. And so within a few hours, we were back in the Bus trying to solve yet another case.

I was in the briefing room, working on the computer in a background check on our victim and everything we could find out about him and what could have possibly caused him to die in such a way. "Good, you're here," I said as Coulson and Ward walked in. "I have the information on our guy" twisted his image so that it was facing the two of them. "Adam Cross… single, no kids, originally from Wrigley, Pennsylvania, not far from here"

"Been there" Coulson interrupted. "They have a very nice little strawberry festival in spring," he said as if it was obvious. "Occupation?"

"Phys-ed teacher at the local high school and Varsity baseball coach and troop leader and volunteer firefighter" I listed one thing after the other. "This guy makes Captain America look like 'the dude'". I internally smiled at that, having met Steve and all.

"What about a criminal record?", Ward kinda cut in abruptly, clearly still slightly upset about what happened that morning. "A restraining order, something that might give us a suspect?"

I shook my head. "Nada… not even a parking ticket. I skimmed all of his posts, anyone linked to his pages, hoping for a crazy ex or a superpowered stalker, and he's clean. There's nothing" I cleared the screen on the table from all info. "I can keep looking, we must be missing something. But I'm not sure I can find something on him that can help"

"Do what you can" Coulson supplied before heading off, probably to see if FitzSimmons had any better luck.

I resumed typing on the screen hoping that Ward would leave, but he lingered. I could tell that he was looking at me. I let out a heavy sigh, not diminishing the rate with which I was working. "Something on my face, Ward?" As he stayed quiet and didn't say anything I tried to ignore him but his silent presence was annoying me. It could be the staring or it could be the lack of sleep from the previous night, either are equally possible reasons. "Don't you have someplace you need to be? Someone else to stare at?"

That seemed to do something if the increase of the tapping of his leg on the floor was any indication. "Why did you have to defy me this morning?"

I paused at that and closed my eyes, gathering as much patience as I could. "Am I supposed not to, when you say stuff like that? You know me, I can't help myself" I resumed my work. "And we both know that that pistol was fine as it was"

"Look," he said and leaned a bit on the table. "That's not the point. I know the pistol was fine, you think I don't? But the point of it was for it to work on loosing up a bit". That made me stop and turn to him, an eyebrow lifted indicating my question. Which he took as an invitation to continue and so he did. "They think they are subtle, they're not. And you know I'm not good with… people". Well, that was an understatement. "It's my way of trying okay? After all" he cleared his throat, "I am agent Grant Ward. And I prefer to work alone" he said in an imitation of Jemma's and Fitz's impersonation of him.

I found myself smiling. "Actually that's not quite it. It's a bit more nasally than that" I couldn't help but give my input. He smiled along with me. "But I understand your point and I will try, okay? But if you start pulling my leg I won't hold back" I said as we seemed to reach an understanding.

He was about to say something but an alarm went off and, after exchanging a brief look, we both run to the cargo hold and towards the Lab. "What's going on?" I asked before we even reached the floor.

"Satellite's picking up another electrostatic event, not 20 kilometres from here," Fitz said in a hurry.

Before he even finished his sentence May and Coulson were out of the Lab and running towards one of the unidentified vehicles. "Go," I told Ward. "I'm gonna stay here with the guys and work from the computer". With a nod, he went to join the other two agents and they quickly speed out of the Bus.

We quickly directed Coulson and the others to a pretty remote farm when the electrostatic seemed to pulse and then disappear altogether. Nothing left to signal that it was ever there. By then I was going through the farm's owner information and something very interesting came up. Coulson and May were with the floating body of the owner, while Ward had gone to scan the perimeter. But when he came back and there was no indication that anyone had left the farm the team leader called me in. "Skye, we need real-time SAT surveillance on this area right now" his voice echoed in the room from the speakers linked to the comms that they had.

"Hang on," I said as I typed and looked at the picture of Adam Cross with our newest victim. I think I found something you might want to see first. Sending it over now. The guy who owns the farm's name is Frank Whalen. He's a volunteer firefighter as the same station house as Adam Cross"

Ward's voice came next. "Our two victims knew each other".

"Yup," I said as I was looking at the information in front of me, gulping as I kept on reading. "They were both correspondents when the aliens crashed New York".

"Two victims from the same firehouse found in the same weird way" Ward continued.

"We're looking either at a crazy ass coincidence or possibly for someone who holds a grudge to this team". I was looking at the SAT surveillance of the area but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was like the only people that went there recently were us. "I don't see anything showing that someone else was on the farm other than you guys. I suggest that FitzSimmons and I come to collect the body and the three of you come back here so that we can regroup?" Halfway through what I was saying I realized it sounded a little bit like an order and turned it into a question at the last minute.

"Sounds good," Coulson said and I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding.

By the time that we went to pick up the body and then came back to the Bus, the sun had already set. As soon as we drove in, the other three drove out once more to go to hopefully get to the rest of the firefighters before it was too late. The fear of an alien weapon growing larger by the minute.

"What are you looking for?" I asked Jemma as she was inspecting the forehead wound of Frank Whalen.

"A scented candle" Fitz grumbled from somewhere in the side. His distaste for dead things on the lab clear.

"Not you"

Jemma still focused on what she was doing answers quietly. "This wound… something doesn't quite make sense. Initially, I thought these were entry wounds, as if from a gunshot. But they're not… they're exit wounds"

That seemed to be enough to make Fitz forget the 'dead body' part for a bit as he closed in. "What if this weapon overloaded the brain past the threshold of its electrical capacity, causing it to discharge, like an E.M.P.?"

"You're assuming we're dealing with an external source" Jemma shook her head and then looked up to both of us. "I'm saying it was something from inside him"

At that point, I heard a notification going off and turned around to the tablet to see another electrostatic storm occurring. "Something's happening, the satellite is picking up another reading. It's coming from the firehouse" I looked up to the two scientists and immediately we turned our side of the comms on to let the others know what was going on.

May and Ward have been looking at the station house to find the weapon and soon after we called it in, May spoke up and used her phone camera for the live feed. "Coulson, I found it. It's a Chitauri helmet. FitzSimmons, are you seeing this?" And just like that the video that May was taking opened on the large screen of the lab and we all saw the alien helmet.

Looking at it, I was briefly transported back to the Battle of New York. I lost myself in the memory of the raging battle before Fitz's yell brought me back to the Bus. "Sir, you have to get out of there now! He's going to explode!" He continued to yell and looking at the screen, I realized that the firehouse was evacuated and only Coulson and the other guy that cleaned up the helmet, Tony Diaz, were left inside. The latter would die any minute now.

Coulson's voice came in through the speakers, but he was not reacting to Fitz's voice. "There's no point. He's taken his comm out" I told him and just listened to what he was saying to the other man.

"I've been where you are right now. So please believe me when I tell you you don't have to be afraid". Oh, god. Please don't make me listen to what I think he's about to say, I thought as he resumed speaking after a bit. "Your job… gets pretty dangerous, doesn't it? Mine, too. I got hurt once… pretty bad". There were long pauses after every sentence. My eyes closed shut at his words, trying very hard not to think of what had happened at the Helicarrier all those years ago. "And I… I died. Some say that is was only for 8 seconds, but I know it was more than that. I know I wasn't here anymore. I was there".

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I opened my eyes to see Jemma looking at me. She possibly thought that it was because of the mention of the Battle of New York, as she didn't know about what happened with Coulson. But she still kind of understood and at that moment I felt grateful for the fact that there were two people in this team that knew my secret.

It was morning by the time S.H.I.E.L.D. sent more people over, dressed in biohazard uniforms in order to take the Chitauri helmet from the firehouse. We were all gathered there as Fitz went over each member of the team to make sure that they were okay.

When the "all clean" was heard I released a breath. The other firefighters would all be quarantined and observed at a S.H.I.E.L.D. biohazard facility. My happiness and relief for the fact that everyone was okay lasted only so long before two other uniform-dressed people carried the helmet in a metal case out of the firehouse and onto our truck.

Just looking at Coulson was enough for him to understand my silent question. "We're flying it to the Sandbox".

Fucking great.

He turned to Jemma. "If what you suspect is true, that this is a virus, then those firefighters could be infected, and they're gonna need a cure. Find one" he told her.

Jemma audibly gulped. "Yes, sir".

One after the other started heading back to the truck so as to go to the Bus. I made a move to leave but noticed that Jemma was still lingering behind. "Hey, you coming?" I gently asked but managed to startle her nonetheless. Her only reply was a small smile and a nod before she started walking.

As soon as we went back to the Bus and took off, I went to my bunk. The fact that the Chitauri helmet was stored in the Cage, that it was in my near proximity didn't make anything better. I took my phone out of my backpack and sent a message.

- Hey, you here?

I fell back on my bed and held the phone close to my chest. The reply came almost instantly.

- Yeah. Are you okay? Did something happen? I smiled internally at the concern that those messages contained.

- We bumped into a Chitauri helmet today. And now we have to transport it.

- Sounds fun. Want me to call you?

- Can't. The team doesn't know who I am and if they heard, it would only raise questions. Plus, I'm not really supposed to talk about missions

- I think Fury would forgive you for this breach of protocols. Not that you would care even if he didn't. Oh, how right he was. Do you have any days off soon? I haven't seen you since forever and I'm sure Nat and the others would appreciate it as well :)

- I haven't heard anything. I'll let you know as soon as possible. I've messed you too, Old Guy. Have you finished with the farm yet?

- Nah, still working on it. Soon though. Hopefully, it will be ready for Christmas, but I'm not sure. That would be nice. A place for the two of them to get away from everything. And I knew that I would be welcome there anytime. After I hadn't replied for a while he sent another one. You feeling better?

- Yes, thanks a lot. I sent and then an alarm went off and my phone, being connected to the Bus' systems, alerted me it came from the Lab. Shit. I need to go. I'll let you know as soon as I know when I can visit.

And with that, I run out of my room and to the cargo hold, where Coulson was standing outside of a locked-down Lab with Jemma inside. The others soon came downstairs as well, all looking as perplexed as me.

I was looking between Jemma and Coulson, whose expression was one of almost sorrow. That's when I noticed one of the various medical equipment floating next to Jemma, then a tiny electrical current left it and it dropped back down. Just like the three other victims. Just like the things around the room Tony Diaz was in before he died.

"Jemma…"