“Looks like Skye might end up as more than just a consultant.”
Ward points out, making Melinda look up from the work she is doing. She had forgotten the younger agent was sitting beside her.
“Despite her reservations.”
Melinda nods her head at this, there was something special about this girl. And the idea she came up with, that screamed Clint. What she learned from Coulson is that the Skye was brought up in the system and multiple foster families, something she and Clint has in common, if this is how kids with that background then S.H.I.E.L.D should be looking out.
“You know, she could turn into a solid asset. With some serious work.”
“Well, if she wants to be a field agent, she’ll need a supervising officer.”
Melinda points out, looking up to see Skye looking at the agents moving about on the plane, her phone in her hands once more.
“Someone disciplined, someone good.”
She adds, turning her head to look at Ward who stops working.
“All right. I’ll do it.”
He says after a few seconds of silence.
“Just to clarify, you were talking about me, right?”
He adds and Melinda rolls her eyes. Almost regretting that she told him this. She could do it herself, but she was done with that line of work. The last time she helped train someone, she never saw them again shortly after. And she is on the plane only as the piolet, even if it starts to feel more and more like field work.
“We blew up a plane.”
“I had a new experience.”
Hearing the voices of Fitz and Simmons, Melinda turns her attention to see the two walking down the stairs, Fitz holding on to an ice cooler.
“Eat that, Professor Vaughn.”
“You had a new experience. But it was new for all of us.”
Smiling, Melinda realises there isn’t much work that will be done now.
“They’re happy.”
She comments as she walks the two science twins heading for the open hangar. Seeing that both are holding a beer, Melinda guess there are more in the cooler.
“Hey, come on. You guys don’t want to miss this.”
Fitz tells them and Melinda was right, no more work done today. Moving from her workstation, she follows FitzSimmons that now sits down.
“So, it’ll take about 180 days to reach the sun. Now, yes, of course, it would’ve been faster if they used hydrogen fuelled APU’s, but they’re having fun.”
Fitz explains as Melinda walks up to Simmons who opens the cooler to get her a beer.
“How many of those have you guys had?”
Skye asks, a quite valid question but, something in Skye’s tone as she asks the question makes Melinda wonder if it’s a good nature question or if she is worried about something. Deciding she can think about that later, she takes a sip of the beer.
“Skye, it’s important when in the field to unwind from time to time.”
Simmons answer her, making Melinda smile. The young agent beside her is as new to the field work as Skye, but she has a very good point.
“Yeah, especially after a hard day of everyone almost dying.”
“Which doesn’t happen every day, right? It’s an anomaly. An irregularity. Not the norm.”
Melinda shakes her head slightly at this, the kids were so not ready for the field work. She can’t believe that she agreed on taking them on the team. But they are the best of the best and she needs that.
“Speaking of not the norm, whose idea was it to blow a hole in the plane?”
And that was the second question of the day, and from the corner of her eyes, Melinda can see how Skye shrinks slightly. It had after all been her idea all together.
“May said that the doors were tied to the pressurization, so I thought – “
Skye starts to explain, which somewhat surprises Melinda. She didn’t expect Skye to explain what went down herself.
“So, we thought it was the only way to release them.”
Simmons jumps into the explanation, making Melinda turn her attention towards the young agent beside her, surprised once more.
“It was everyone’s idea, sir.”
“Yeah, it was quite genius really.”
Ward and Fitz adds, Melinda can see that Phil doesn’t really believe them and she knows that he will ask her later. She just has to decide if she should tell him the truth or stick with what the younger agents just told him.
“Nice work.”
He tells them as all clear for lift off is being called out. Seeing how Fitz puts a hand over his nose and starts a count down, Melinda turns her attention towards the rocket. So much as happened in the past few days and she isn’t sure what to think about it all.
“The trajectory will take it beyond the Lagrange Points, so that it doesn’t hit Herschel.”
“Yeah, and there haven’t been any coronal mass ejections, so it shouldn’t lose telemetry.”
“Guys, English.”
Melinda smiles as she listens to the agents beside her, taking another sip from her beer. Consider what went down this day, the outcome was a much better than the one she first thought of. This wasn’t the first time she and Phil ends up in a situation like this and blowing a hole in the plane, that plan is on a list of good ideas that they have done. The fact that Natasha and Clint are the reason as to why there is a good and bad list doesn’t belong the story.
-X-X-X-X-
“Really? Really Coulson? Six days? It only took you six days to take a completely renovated piece of state-of-the-art machinery, and turn it into scrap?”
“My team acted with my authority.”
“Don’t talk to me about authority. Do you know how much this plane cost? It’s got a bar. A really nice one. Talking to me about authority. You know, I have the authority to downgrade your ass to a Winnebago.”
“I’m aware of that, sir.”
“Well, I want it fixed just like you found it. So, don’t have FitzSimmons going making modifications like a… a damn fish tank.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And the new girl… she’s a risk.”
“I know, sir.”
“You know, sir? How’s Lola?”
“She’s fine, sir. Thanks for asking.”
“Talking to me about authority.”
Melinda makes sure she scolds her face when she sees Fury walking towards her, seeing the anger in his eye she nods her head to make sure he doesn’t see the tinny one that is breaking through. How many times have she not heard that speech, almost knowing it by heart and she knows fully well that Phil does to.
“Yeah, we’re gonna have to kill the fish tank.”
She can hear Phil saying, making her roll her eyes. She should have known he was about to add a fish tank.
“Authority?”
She asks, seeing how Phil turns around and nods his head as an answer.
“Winnebago?”
Nodding his head once more, Melinda shakes her head, moving over to the broken bar. Phil joins her as they can hear footsteps coming towards them. Turning her head, she sees that Ward enters the common room, FitzSimmons walking behind him.
“Well, she won’t let me train her.”
Ward comments, his tone tells her he isn’t happy to be put down.
“Who?”
Simmons asks, moving towards the couch and sits down.
“Skye.”
“Well duh, of course she wouldn’t let you train her.”
Simmons says, making all heads turn towards her.
“Oh, come on, I can’t be the only one to see how she reacts when you are around? She shrinks back, there is fear in her eyes. She makes sure to keep you on a distance and if I’m around she makes sure to stay close to me.”
Simmons explains as she looks at everyone in the room.
“Yeah, so. Ward can be a bit scary.”
Fitz comments, making Simmons turn to look at him.
“She acts the same way when you are around her.”
She adds, turning to look at Melinda and Phil, pointing towards Fitz.
“She’s afraid of Fitz. FITZ!”
She tells them, hearing all of this. Thinking about the interactions she has seen between Skye, Fitz and Ward, Melinda starts to wounder how she could have missed this part. She is also surprised that Simmons have managed to pick up on her behaviour, then again, the biochemist has spent more time with the hacker than she has.
“Coulson is the only one out of the three that she seems somewhat alright to be around. We don’t know much about her past, but I think it’s clear to say, she has some trust issues when it comes to men.”
Simmons adds and a silence falls over the room. Turning her attention towards Phil. She can see her oldest friend is in deep through, and she is quite sure his mind is going where hers is. How could they miss something like this. Seeing that Phil turns to look at her before nodding his head towards the stairs that will lead them to either his office or the cockpit, Melinda nods her head.
“We can deal with this once everyone has a good night’s rest.”
Phil tells the team as she starts to move, Melinda following him without a word. They were silent all the way to Phil’s office and Melinda makes sure to close the door properly. Turning, she sees that Phil has placed himself behind his desk, still in deep thought. Not wanting to disturb his train of thought, Melinda takes the seat in front of his desk, waiting for Phil to start speaking.
“I should have seen it.”
He finally speaks after a few minutes of silence. And there he goes, blaming himself for all of this.
“We both should have, at least Simmons is awake. What we should be doing now is try to figure out how we will be working with this. What do we know about her past?”
“Not much, the only thing she has told me is that she grows up in the system. After the stories I have heard from Clint….”
Melinda nods her head; she knew the stories Phil is thinking about. Then there are the few things she managed to learn about Mary’s time in the system, which gave her nightmares back in the days, before Bahrain.
“I guess we should try and find out more about her past."
“Yeah, that will be easy, considering the only name we have on her is Skye and are we sure that is her real name?”
Silent falls over the room at Melinda’s last comment. Looking at Phil, she can see where his mind is going, and she rolls her eyes.
“You can’t call Natasha. She thinks you are dead.”
She tells him, only to regret it when she sees the look in his eyes.
“Fine.”
She says, pulling out her phone. She knows that if anyone will be able to find out something about someone with little information, it’s Natasha. Making the call, she leans back on the chair. But when the call ends without any answer, she lowers the phone.
“No answer, I guess she is out on a mission.”
Melinda informs him and just like that, his brain is working once more. Shaking her head, Melinda makes another call. This time she puts it on speakers.
“Melinda, what a fun surprise. I haven’t heard from you in a while.”
Maria answers the call, Phil’s attention turned to her phone before switching up to Melinda once more. Giving him a shrug as an answer, Phil smiles. If anyone can get Natasha to figure things out later, it’s Maria.
“Maria, I need a big favour.”
Phil answers the deputy director.
“Phil, now this is an even bigger surprise. Rumours has it you managed to blow up that plane of yours.”
Maria replies, making Melinda smile slightly as she sees how Phil rolls his eyes.
“It was only a whole in the side of the plane.”
“Authority?”
“The whole thing.”
“Downgraded to a Winnebago?”
“As always.”
“Okay, can the two of you stop doing that.”
Phil is rolling his eyes, making Melinda smile once more and she can hear Maria laugh at the other end of the call.
“Oh, calm down Phil. Besides, you should be used to this. How many times have you heard that speech by now?”
Maria points out, making Phil rolls his eyes once more.
“So, the help we need.”
Phil says, steering the conversation back to why Melinda called Maria in the first place.
“Once Natasha return, could you task her with trying to find out more about the hacker we picked up. The Rising tied one. We know she spent most of her childhood in the system and the only name we have is Skye. If anyone can find out more about her past and help us understand why she seems so afraid of Ward and Fitz.”
Phil starts to explain, the silence from the other end of the line makes Melinda look down. She knows that silence, it’s a silence she has heard many times before and, in this moment, she isn’t sure she likes it.
“Yeah, I can ask Natasha to look into it. But for now, I need to go. Seems like I will be getting a large stack of paperwork for the hole in your plane.”
Maria replies before ending the call. Taking her phone Melinda looks at it, debating if she should call Maria once more to ask what she is hiding from them or not.