Skye's POV
"His heart..." I stuttered, staring at Ward twitching on the ground.
"Isn't beating. He's having a heart attack," Mike said. He held up his arm cuff. "I can restart it or not. It's your choice."
I looked down at Ward. He was looking up at me.
"Skye..." he whispered.
"You think I don't want to watch him suffer?" I said.
"Not suffer, die!" Mike said. "Garrett doesn't think you're gonna let that happen."
I looked down at Ward as his gasping slowed down.
"He's a murderer," I hissed out with a glare.
"Yes, he is." Mike said looking down at Ward before turning to look at me. "Are you?"
I watched as a long breath came out of Ward and no more go in. I shifted on my feet, plagued by indecision then made an angry face, he had me.
"Okay, stop!" I cried out.
"Where do you unlock the drive?" Mike prompted.
"Bring him back!" I exclaimed.
"Where?" Mike repeated the question.
"35,000 feet. It's not based on longitude or latitude, it's altitude!" I said.
"You're lying."
"I'm not! You – I put the password in and I – I start the hack and once we reach altitude it unlocks!" I told him. I stared at Ward. He wasn't moving or breathing. He appeared dead, his eyes open and fixed. "Now bring him back!"
Mike opened his fist and the red lights on the device light again. Ward took a big gasping breath and released it in a groan. He lay there panting as Mike unlocked my handcuffs. Ward and I stared at one another briefly as Mike led me into the lab.
"Put the password in, start the hack," Mike ordered me.
*****
I stared in surprise and relief as suddenly the door of the holding cell was yanked open and I found myself staring at Coulson. I gasped and stood up quickly from the table giving him a hug, which he happily reciprocated.
"Are you okay? Did Ward hurt you?" He broke the hug pulling me back so he could look at me.
"No, I'm okay. But, the encrypted hard drive, I unlocked it for them," I told him.
"Forget that. We need to move. We got to take the cockpit." He started out of the holding cell with me right behind him.
"Wait. You came alone?" I asked, surprised.
"It's okay. I can take Ward," Coulson said.
"No, I know, but how did you get past Deathlok?" I inquired.
Coulson stopped walking, shock on his face, and he turned to me.
"Deathlok's here? On the plane?"
"Yeah. You didn't take him out?"
Coulson turned his head and through the broken glass of the Command Center we saw Mike. He quickly, and fearfully, turns to me.
"New plan – run!" He called out.
"Wait, what about you?" I exclaimed.
"Get to the cargo hold, now!" I raced off down the stairs. When I got there I noticed the ramp slowly lowering.
I unfurled my wings as Coulson entered the cargo hold.
"Grab on tight!" I called out to him as he came down the spiral staircase.
"Forget that! Get in the car!" He shouted and I retracted my wings, grabbed my backpack and hopped into Lola as Coulson hurried over as well and got behind the wheel. Mike appeared on the walkway above the cargo bay and with one big leap he was down on the floor in front of us. Coulson hit a button on Lola and guns popped out from the headlights firing at Mike. Mike ducked to avoid the bullets as Ward entered on the catwalk above the cargo hold. He fired once but also had to duck to avoid being hit.
"Get down! Get down!" Coulson cried out as Ward managed to clear the range of the guns and fired at us. Managing to hit the windshield and few times.
"Buckle up!" Coulson shouted as he put the car into reverse and backed out of The Bus quickly then the car started to fall – but we avoided the missile that Mike sent after us at least. I did my best to hold in a scream as I was ripped from the car and started floating above it. I quickly extended my wings again and used them to stabilize myself before Coulson was able to grab my hand and pull me back down into Lola.
"I told you to buckle up!" Coulson scolded as I rolled my eyes. It would have been easier for me to just fly us down.
Coulson uncovered a switch and hit it firing up the rocket boosters on Lola. However, the engines were spotty, flickering on and off between all four – none of them staying on at that same time. Coulson leaned over the side of the car looking down. Suddenly one side of the engines fired causing us to spin out of control as we both screamed. Lola righted herself as Coulson continued to flips switches.
"Must've hit the boosters!" He told me.
Now Lola was heading nose first into the ground rapidly. Just before she hit the ground Coulson tried a switch one last time. This time all four engines fired at once and we leveled out hovering a few feet above the rooftop of a building. Coulson was able to control Lola enough to land it in front of a L.A. theater of some sort as the people around stared at the sight. Lola hit the ground with a loud thump as Coulson and I sat inside shell shocked by the experience. The valet who was nearby walked over handing Coulson a ticket.
"That'll be 20 bucks."
Coulson just stared for a moment before digging into his back pocket for his wallet.
"We could have avoided all of that if you had just let me fly us down," I told him once we had gotten out of the car. He just rolled his eyes at me with a grin, though I saw him glancing forlornly at the marks on his car. Poor Lola.
*****
I was about to open the door to Coulson's hotel room when the door was flung open, knocking me to the ground.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there, here let me help you!" A voice said and the next thing I knew I was being hauled back to my feet.
I stared at the woman in front of me. I blushed as I realized how pretty she was.
"It's quite alright. Do I know you? You look familiar," I told her as I tilted my head.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me! Another one?" I heard Coulson say as he stared at us in the doorway and shook his head.
"What do you mean? Another one? Another what?" I asked him, completely confused. He just shook his head again and I turned my attention back to the gorgeous woman in front of me and raised my brows at her as I waited for the answer to my question. She grinned at me.
"Maria Hill, former agent of Shield. I was there during the battle of New York we just never got a chance to interact," she said as she shook my hand. I gasped as I felt a shock of electricity and stared at her with wide eyes as she continued to grin at me.
"Maria, come back inside, there's one last thing we need to discuss," Coulson called out as he watched us closely. "Skye, if you could give us some privacy?" He asked gently. I nodded my head and turned back around.
"It was nice to meet you, Maria," I told her before heading over to one of the pool tables and grabbing my laptop.
"I thought you didn't eat junk food?" I asked a little while later as I spotted Trip leaning against the vending machine snacking on some chips. Maria had just left though not before waving a goodbye at me and sending me a playful wink which I had of course returned. She reminded me of Natasha.
"I'm on vacation!" He said with a grin.
"Until...?" I promoted.
We heard a door open and Trip pointed over.
"Until that man tells me it's time to work," Trip said as Coulson walked up to him.
"Not tonight. Live a little," Coulson told him.
Trip laughed and stood up straight from the machine.
"In that case I'm gonna go crazy. Maybe have another bag."
He laughed as he passed by me and I watched Coulson feed some money into the machine to get something for himself.
"Never been homeless before," Coulson commented.
"It's not fun. At least we have a pool!" I told him.
He made his selection and took out his candy bar then stared at me. I stared right back.
"We'll get him," Coulson told me as he walked over.
"I know," I said as I sat up straighter as he joined me at the table. "I left them a little present when I encrypted the drive. Should help," I told him.
He laughed and looked down at his hands. He split his candy bar and held out half to me, with a smile I took it.
"Thanks." I sat back and we sit quietly for a moment eating.
"Nice night," Coulson eventually said.
*****
Author's Note - so I didn't really want to write it out I may go back in and add a small scene later down the road but basically coulson calls Maria back and explains that Skye doesn't know about her soulmates and that he doesn't know how many she has but mentions the ones that he does know of, and then he goes all papa bear and threatens to come after her if she ever hurts Skye - also he knows that Skye is Maria's soulmate cuz I'm the past Maria confides in him what her soul words are so when Skye says then he recognizes it. I'm not sure if I mentioned this yet but eventually Skye will get her scars healed and be able to see her marks but the process will also transform them from words into golden tattoos that symbolize each person. Just thought I would touch on that.