Renegade Rising || Leo Fitz Book Two

Chapter TwentyEight

But her distraction hadn't worked. May was staring at something in Skye's room. "Are you...bleeding?" She asked, the question falling heavily on Skye's shoulders. "What the hell happened to you?"

The girl shakily held out her hand, exposing the bundle of cloth, shards of broken glass, and her own blood, for the others to see. She opened her mouth and tried to speak, but nothing came out. She looked over at Asia for help, the barest beginnings of a sentence stumbling out, "I...I...um, Fitz," she tried to protest, hands starting to tremble, dropping more bits of glass onto the floor.

"Fitz was a big klutz again," Asia heard his voice before she saw him, head whirling to search for his face. Leo Fitz walked quickly into the room, a tablet in his hands. "I was drawing samples in Skye's room, you know, in one of those big hazmat suits. And I just bumped right into the lamp and knocked it out. Skye was just trying to help clean up." The words tumbled out of his mouth like a river and Asia thought she might cry. But she couldn't lose her composure in front of May, or she would sense something was afoot. Asia smiled at him, stepping closer until she realized the glass was still blocking her. All she really wanted to do was throw her arms around him. "Anyways, um, I was anxious to get their results back," he explained, as he typed away at his tablet, pulling up a set of images. "Their DNA is an exact match to previous samples we had on file, for, for both of them." He held the tablet out towards Jemma for her to examine.

Jemma let out a happy sigh as she looked over the images, calm finally washing over her. Fitz was right. The DNA samples he had run were exact matches from the ones held on file. Her two friends were completely fine, and they could finally be let out of containment to be with the rest of the team. That was something the team truly needed right now, a sense of togetherness, it would chase away some of the anger, the frustration, the fear. "This is lovely news," She cheered, turning to look at Skye and Asia, handing the tablet back to Leo and clapping her hands together happily.

"Erm, yes, it's great news," Leo said, scratching back of his head nervously. "Uh, Skye, is your bunk made?" He asked suddenly, glancing over at Jemma.

"Oh, oh, of course!" Jemma tapped her forehead as if she had completely forgotten. "I'll take care of that! Make sure you have new, fresh sheets and everything. You should go get that cut wrapped and by the time you're finished, I'll be all done setting up your room. I'm sure the two of you could use some actual rest, in actual beds," she shook her head and smiled as she realized she was babbling. "Off I go then," she clapped her hands together and practically running out of the room, happiness over-boosting her adrenaline.

When she was gone, it was just the three of them. May had left to go tell Coulson the good news. Asia looked at Leo through the glass, his eyes locking onto hers as he shrugged sheepishly. "I guess we can get the two of you out of here then," he said, stepping forward and entering the keypad on both doors, the glass sliding open and a waft of fresh air hitting Asia square in the face. She sighed, happily, free from her glass prison at last.

"I'm, um, I'm going to get this taken care of," Skye said, holding up her hand, then pulling the sleeve of her grey jumper to cover her palm. "I'll see you later?" She turned to Asia, asking the question specifically to her friend, almost nervous of her response.

Asia nodded at her. "Of course. Dinner, or something," she replied, giving Skye a small smile. She understood her nerves, she felt them two. The two girls were linked now, by this incredible, wild, terrifying event they had both experienced. And in their togetherness, they were also alone. No one else would understand their change. She didn't want Skye to think she was being left alone. Skye nodded, understanding, and walked quickly out of the room, almost as if she didn't believe her freedom was real.

Asia turned and look at Leo, who stepped closer to her, brushing a strand of her brown hair out of her face. Her skin was chilled to the touch. Suddenly, she collapsed into his arm, wrapping him tightly in a hug, sobs racking her body. He held onto her, tightly, the two of them sinking to the floor as they embraced. "What did you do?" she asked, sniffling into his shoulder, pressing her head tight into the space where the soft skin of his neck met the lip of his sweater, hiding there.

"I....I deleted the footage from overnight. Anything that would have given you away is gone. I switched the blood samples out for your old ones," He explained, whispering as he ran a hand protectively up and down her back. "So you're safe. I wouldn't let anyone hurt you, Asia." His words helped stopped the tears, actual tears, from falling.

"So....the samples were different?" She asked quietly, still tucked tightly into his chest as he held onto her as if he were never going to let going. She pulled her face away from his chest and looked up at him, blinking, waiting for his answer.

He bit his lip as he looked down at her. For all the time he had known her, she had never looked so small, so frightened. He almost didn't want to tell her, for fear it could shatter her to pieces. "Very different," He said finally, nodding. "But until we can get everyone around here to calm down a little bit, I think we should keep it our secret. Especially from Jemma....the things she's been saying... I don't think you're safe around her right now."

Asia nodded, a tiny, small little nod. "She has been saying some crazy things....things like how we need to eradicate this disease Raina got in the temple...and whatever is in her, it's in me and Skye. I....I don't want anyone to know," she whispered, biting her lower lip. "I don't want her to know there's something wrong with me." Her voice started shaking at her last words, as if she were about to cry again.

Leo sighed and leaned down, pressing his lips briefly against her forehead before pulling her back into a tight hug. "Hush now. There's nothing wrong with you. You're just different now. Just different, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that." And he sat there, rocking her in his arms, until her tears stopped and her breath grew heavy. She had fallen asleep in his arms, and he didn't dare move to wake her.