AN: Hey guys. As in every chapter, a shoutout to MegaDiary123 for being an awesome Beta. Now, this is the last chapter I have written in a while. I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up, but probably at least a few weeks from now. I'm taking a small break from writing, there are a few things in my plate that I need to take care of first. I hope you are all well and safe. I will see you when I'll see you, I guess. Until next time...

All rights go to Marvel

Skye's POV

As soon as Coulson and May came to pick us up, I knew something had happened. For starters, Ward was absent. And while it was nice to feel no sense of hostility coming off any member aboard the plane, there were more pressing matters at hand.

Coulson had already been brought up to speed, as we had a sort of 'conference call' soon after Donnie and Seth were picked up. Agent Weaver was also present, which helped a lot with the details of what happened on her end. And as such, there wasn't any debriefing needed to be done. At least not on his end.

Jemma and Fitz had gone off to bed, it was a tiring day after all, and May was in the cockpit. You know, as May does. I took out the phone that I had collected from Seth after I made sure neither he nor Donnie would try anything funny. He handed the phone over without much resistance and, in turn, I handed it over to the team leader, explaining what it was. "I was very tempted to make a call to Quinn, but I thought you might want to do the honours". At his raised eyebrow I further explained, "He sold technology to S.H.I.E.L.D. cadets, and would have gotten away with it had it not been for this whole incident. It's your call, but if you give me the word I will make it my daily purpose to track him down"

He looked satisfied with my small monologue and I took that as my cue to leave. My name being called was the reason I turned back around. "How come and you're not wondering where agent Ward is? And," he dramatically paused as he tended to do, "wouldn't you like to be here for this?", he pointed at the phone.

I immediately shook my head, answering both questions, but still decided to elaborate on each. "Honestly, it's been a long day and Ward's not my concern at the moment. And, as for the 'being here' part, I actually wanted to ask if I could borrow the command centre? I need to make a quick call to someone, but it's kinda… classified?" I internally cringed at the way that I said that.

"Are you asking me or are you telling me?" Coulson said with a small smirk plastered on his face, which made me immediately relax. He noticed that and continued. "There are a lot of weird things that happen when you're around and I've kind of come to accept them. I'll make sure no-one disturbs you" he promised.

A smile spread across my features immediately and I nodded. Whispering a soft, "Thank you," on my way out.

The moment I stepped into the room, I went to the table and activated it. Putting in my access code I locked the doors, turned off the cameras and microphones, and made the glass windows surrounding the room turn black so that no-one on the outside could have a peak.

T.A.D.A.S.H.I. was already running on the computer and was waiting for my command.

I leaned back and took a deep breath as if to brace myself. It might have been a very long day, but it was going to be an even longer night. "Call him up," I said and the U.I. did so in a matter of second.

It didn't even ring twice before he picked it up. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" He yelled on the camera, his one good eye staring at me.

I smiled sarcastically at him. "Well, I didn't think to check the time before I called to catch up with my favourite pirate". I rolled my eyes and brought my hand up to rub my forehead. The headache was already starting and we hadn't even started.

There was a noticeable absence which made me look at the screen. Nick had his eye narrowed and brows furrowed. "What happened to your arms?", he asked. I could have sworn I heard a bit of concern in his voice.

"Well…" I looked down at the said part. "Long story short, I had to walk in the middle of a crazy snow-storm, use my powers as a shield while I didn't have my gauntlets. The hail and the wind took their toll". I saw that he was about to say something and spoke before him. "And it gets better. There's now one more person in the list of people who know I am Quake, S.H.I.E.L.D. cadets managed to get their hands on very rare components, which created the hell-of-a-storm that I mentioned, and the person who supplied them is none other than Ian Quinn himself. Ian Quinn who, by the way, I am almost positive we will go after as our next mission and I'm pretty sure works for the someone behind our little side research-slash-project". I managed to get all that out in a single breath and somehow render him speechless.

I clicked my fingers in front of the screen a couple of times as he hadn't moved in a while. "Yo, Nick? You still with me?"

I was about to grab my tablet to check the connection when he moved, letting me know he was indeed still there. "Now I need to clear my fucking schedule" He grumbled and I saw him start working on his computer, probably doing just that.

"What in the hell do you have to do in the middle of the night?", I asked.

He side-looked at me before resuming his previous task. "That's for me to know and for you to try and find out". The moment he finished typing his attention was back to me. "Now, back to business, let's take it one thing at the time, okay?" I nodded, though I was pretty sure that it was a sarcastic question. "How are you?"

I honestly wasn't expecting that. The concern was now more clear in his face, his mask dropping slightly. It was a sight of Nick that not most people got to see and that I hadn't even glimpsed since I found out that Coulson was alive. To be honest, it made me pause for longer than I would have liked. "Not too bad. Thankfully Simmons was there, so she patched me up. Said that I should be fine in a couple of days if I rest" I answered.

"So, a few days at least" he chimed in, clearly knowing that I wouldn't be just resting in those two days. After a quick confirmation from my part, he thought about what we should tackle next. "Now, what was this about Ian Quinn and his connection?"

"Other than the fact that he has been connected to two S.H.I.E.L.D. cases that couldn't have been possible without someone on the inside…" I made Tee send the latest mission's documents to Nick, "he's been working with CyberTech" I concluded.

The rare components that the two cadets used to create the device? Yeah… those came from CyberTech. The same company that supplied a lot of the machines in the Centipede lab that we found in Hong Kong, as well as a few other cases that we had connected with our side project. All the information that I got from that lab would have been enough to close CyberTech for good, but…

"I thought we were keeping an eye on them," Fury said as he went over the documents.

"We still are" I answered and pulled up numerous other documents from our surveillance team who tracked their movements. "They are either being incredibly careful—"

"Or we leak" Fury finished my sentence and I nodded. "Motherfucker" he muttered under his breath. We both had been positive that the people we chose for this surveillance team were in the clear from our suspicions. But, as it turned out, we needed to re-evaluate each member.

"I already send out an order to let them know their mission is over and they're to go to the Triskelion for a debrief, with Maria" I emphasised the last part. This would be a day none of them would enjoy.

I could tell that Nick was really satisfied with that decision of mine. The small smirk he was wearing was enough of an indication. Which disappeared sooner than I expected, a more sombre expression taking its place. "If Quinn is indeed working with the same people you will be poking the bear, you know that right?"

"I do" I answered truthfully.

"We had agreed that we would observe from a distance. Let them move freely and track them, see where they lead us" he recalled our initial plan. "Why is Quinn any different?"

I thought about it for a while. "He's one man. While he is the head of a massive company, he has been working against S.H.I.E.L.D. almost openly for a long time. We have a reason to arrest him, it's too good of an opportunity to pass. If he is, indeed, working with the same people it will be a good opportunity to get our hands on someone like that. He's probably just a pawn, but a powerful one. So I don't know if he'll have any worthwhile information. But even if he doesn't, even if he's not working with them, then it will be one less person with money and evil intentions out in the world" I reasoned.

He closed his eye and took a deep breath. I could tell that he wouldn't argue any more. "Fine. But you update me every step of the way, okay?" While it was phrased as a question, it was anything but. "Now, I'm guessing this was the short version of what has happened with Quinn. I need to know everything before we start talking about anything else" he said.

I pulled up a previous mission's details. "It all started when he kidnapped Dr. Franklin Hall…"

I woke up to someone knocking on my bunk's door. I grumbled under my breath. I was too tired and I hoped there wasn't a new emergency that needed to be taken care of.

I eventually got up and moved to the door, unlocking it. As soon as it had slid open I saw Jemma outside with a plate in her hands and a smile on her face. "Morning," I said and my voice was rough. Either because of how little sleep I had gotten, or how heavy that limited sleep had been.

"Barely," she said back and passed me to get in the small bunk. "What time did you sleep?" She questioned as she cleaned my small desk before placing the plate there.

"Late" I replied and looked at the clock on my room. It was just before noon. As Jemma was preoccupied with whatever she had brought in with her, I sat heavily on my bed and crossed my legs underneath me. "What's this?" I asked after a couple of sips of water from the bottle I always had next to my bed and my voice came out clearer this time.

"Well, you didn't come out for breakfast," she started explaining, "which is very unlike you. And then May said that you were in the command centre when she got up for her Tai Chi. So, knowing you, I guessed that you were there the whole night and you were probably still sleeping. But, yeah, you've never missed breakfast and I got kind of worried and the time passed and you were still not out and I didn't know wha—"

"You made me breakfast?" I cut her off because while I found her rambling adorable it was too early for me to deal with that.

That made her pause and grab the food and handed it to me, a blush rendering her cheeks which made the whole situation even cuter. "Uhh, yeah. I thought that this was a safe choice" she said pointing at the continents of the plate.

I looked down to see the breakfast that I usually had, just the way that I had it. "Since when do you know what I have in the morning?" I asked while patting the bed next to me for her to sit and keep me company.

She did so without a second thought. She leaned a bit forward, the blush more apparent as she tugged a few strands of hair behind her ear. "And I'm good at observing what's happening around me, especially when it comes to you"

Her face couldn't possibly turn a deeper shade of red. The corners of my lips turned up easily, while a warm feeling spread through my whole core. I leaned over and pressed my lips on her cheek in a small quick kiss. "Thank you," I said. All she did was nod, not even forming words and I shook my head as I looked at the food in front of me. "So, what did I miss this morning?" I asked to make easy conversation and Jemma jumped at the opportunity.

"Oh, Fitz did the most hilarious thing" she started and her hands moved all around as she explained. As I listened to her speak I really enjoyed the feeling of content that filled me.