Skye's POV
"Every decision you make from here on out have consequences. So be warned..." Ward said, trying to sound intimidating. "The kiddie gloves are off!" Oh, I'm so scared...not!
"G7!" I said watching as Ward slowly closed his eyes in disappointment.
"Hit."
"Yes! Ha!" I said, punching the air. "So, explain to me again what this has to do with my training?" I asked. I couldn't understand it. Hydra would never have allowed anything like this.
"It's important for every S.O. to evaluate their student's thought process," Ward explained. I gave him a look, not sure if I believed it.
"Mm-Hmm."
"And I like board games. B10," Ward added.
"Nope. This isn't thinking, this is stabbing in the dark. But, it's nice to take a break from the workouts," I commented. I had been using the fact I never slept to my advantage to do two sets of training - the dulled down version with Ward, and my own secondary one when everyone was asleep - so that I could keep me and my powers up to speed.
"Well, you deserve a break."
I gave him a surprised look. Was that a compliment?!
"I got to give Coulson credit. I would never have pegged a hacker as a good fit, but – you're picking things up pretty fast."
I gave him a pleased smile. "Did you just give me a compliment?"
"I...no, I made a comment," Ward tried to recover.
"Yeah, a kind one!" I said while he tried to shrug it off. "Did it physically hurt to do that?" I laughed as I leaned forward with a worried look. "Do you need an icepack?" I giggled as I managed to make him laugh. "Wow! A compliment and a smile!"
"Comment," Ward corrected quickly. I rolled my eyes.
"I don't want to ruin the moment, but I'm going to have to respond with...G4!"
Ward looked down at his board and what little grin was there disappeared, however, my own grin grew. Ward was wearing a pouting look as he sighed.
"Say it, Ward!" I leaned in close and wiggled my brows. "Say it!"
When he spoke, his voice was low and he mumbled; though I also noticed a roughness to his voice as his eyes gleamed at me; taking in our proximity and my words. He finally said it. "You sank my battleship."
I laughed and pumped my arms into the air in excitement.
"Yes!"
Ward bent forward and reset his board. "All right, best 2 out of 3," He said.
"I beat you," I pointed out. We argued and teased each other as we set up our boards and started another round. I was quite surprised to find that we had been getting along rather well these last few weeks.
We looked up as the beep of an alarm rang through the lounge. We slowly got up and headed to the Planning Room to learn what our latest case would be along with the rest of the team.
"Chan Ho Yin. Just a struggling street performer until a few years ago, when Mr. Chan began to exhibit moderate pyrokinetic abilities," Coulson said as he began to fill us in.
"So what gave him powers?" asked Fitz. I looked over; curious to know as well, since I had a little control over fire myself - just nothing major yet since I refused to practice it.
"It's still under investigation, but Chan did live near the decommissioned Wan Tai Nuclear Plant when it caught fire. To our knowledge, no other nearby residents have exhibited similar traits," Coulson answered.
"So how did we find out about him?" Simmons inquired.
"Informants saw him lighting torches in a street show, with his pinkie," May responded.
"Brought it to Shield's attention. We told him to keep his abilities under wraps. He's been on The Index ever since," Coulson said.
"The Index?" What the hell was that? I looked around, starting to get worried.
"It's a list Shield keeps of people and objects with powers," Simmons told me; making me freak out on the inside. Was I on the list?
"Wait! What? How many are there? Are you saying there are more people –" I exclaimed.
May was already shaking her head. "Not many," she said. I scoffed at this though.
"Well, enough to keep a list," I pointed out.
Coulson looked at me. "A short list, meant to protect them." Somehow the thought of my name getting on that list does not make me feel very safe...in fact, the opposite!
"Though in rare cases Shield has had to take action," said Ward, really not helping to calm my emotions.
"Action against objects or people?" I asked, not sure if I wanted to know the answer.
The looks I got back told me what I needed to know. I felt queasy, suddenly feeling extremely glad that I had not revealed to them yet that I had powers.
"Well that's drastic with a side of creepy. How are they monitored? Tapped phone lines, satellite surveillance, body probes in dark, unpleasant places?" I said, doing my best to block out Hydra flashbacks.
"Mr. Chan was low risk. He was assigned a case agent who checked in with him every few days," Coulson said.
May was clicking buttons on a tablet and the feed on the big monitor behind Coulson changed.
"That's how we discovered him missing," Coulson finished saying.
"Hello Agent Kwan, how are you?" May asked.
"Not as good as I could be," Agent Kwan said.
"Everyone, this is Agent Kwan, Chan Ho Yin's case agent," May explained. "What can you tell us?"
"Not much, I'm afraid. Chan is a magician, so at first I thought he'd made himself disappear."
"The file says you'd caught him violating his Index Agreement before," Coulson stated.
"On two separate occasions. Claimed we were "hampering his artistic expression"." Agent Kwan replied. "But last night, he was taken by professionals. The only thing they left behind was this scrap of aluminized material."
"So, whoever took him knew about his power," Ward said.
"Yes, and we think we know why. Over the last few days tech division discovered a crack into our data stream. It's the same cyber punks who hacked us before."
My eyes lowered down to the table for a second, having a feeling I knew what was coming next and it wasn't going to be good.
"Somehow, they got in again. It's the Rising Tide," everyone at the table looked directly at me.
"Hello?" Agent Kwan asked into the silence.
They continued to stare at me, not saying anything.
"It got real quiet," Agent Kwan continued. "You guys still there?"
"The Rising Tide is a huge organization of hacktivists from all around the world. Any of them could have done this. It wasn't me! I meant what I said to Ian Quinn the other day, I don't hack for The Rising Tide!" I told them.
"No one's saying it was," Ward said.
"But you're thinking it. I can see your faces thinking it," I exclaimed.
"We're assessing the situation," Coulson said.
"Then I'm sure you're taking into account that I have been living on a plane with you this whole time. It would be impossible for me to hack Shield!"
"Or easier. We're gonna need more than that," Coulson stated.
"Fine. Let me trace the hack and I'll prove it!" I argued.
Coulson leaned forward on his desk but Ward spoke before he could.
"I believe her, sir. And if she's telling the truth, we need to track down the person responsible," he said. I looked at him in surprise, giving him a tiny smile.
"Dig up something, and fast. The longer Mr. Chan's missing the more danger he's in," Coulson said, standing up and leaving the room. It was just me, Fitz, and Simmons now, both of who were watching me as I worked on a tablet; trying to track down the hacker.
A few hours later, Coulson walked in. "How close are we?"
"Almost there," I told him as May and Ward joined us as well.
"She's identified the remote access Trojan and the infected endpoint," Fitz informed them.
"Yeah, and is searching for a TCP to correlate the hypertext with signature information and then..." Simmons added.
"Bob's your uncle," Fitz finished for her.
"Voila!" Simmons exclaimed. I rolled my eyes at them as Coulson looked at Ward.
"You get any of that?"
"Only the uncle part," Ward replied.
"We got our origin – Austin, Texas," I told them, pulling it up on the table monitor so they could all see.
"You got a name?" I paused. I had a pretty good idea of who it was, but I wanted to talk to him myself first before Shied approached him. I owed him that much.
"Just the café our hacker worked out of, but I'm in the system. I'm going to check to see if any credit card charges from that day match up with any known hackers," I said, cringing on the inside as I withheld my suspicions. I looked down as my tablet beeped. "We got a hit." Well so much for keeping his name to myself. His picture was now plastered on the monitor.
"Miles Lydon, not Skye, that's to all our relief," Fitz said.
"You know him?" Coulson looked over at me and I tried to come up with a good response that wouldn't reveal too much.
"Every hacker in the world knows him."
"Not just the hacker world. He infiltrated the Kremlin," Simmons said.
"Yeah, the picture of, uh, Putin shirtless on horseback, that was his hack," Fitz commented as the two of them smiled and giggled.
"It was also his hack that got Chan kidnapped," Ward pointed out. I frowned. That was true. I definitely needed to talk to Miles!
"May, set a course for Austin," Coulson said as May was punching something into her tablet.
"Just did," she responded.
"What about Chan?" I asked.
"Kwan's got a Shield team on the ground. Our best bet is to chase this thing from the other end. Find Mr. Lydon, bring him in, see what he knows." Miles is so screwed when I find him! What the hell has he gotten himself into now?!
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"Just left the café where Miles logged in. Cashier said she hasn't seen him in over a week," I said into my earpiece.
"I may have eyes on him," I heard Ward say. "I've been made. Heading east on 5th street. Target is now in a sliver Jetta," Ward said.
"I got him," Coulson spoke up. A few minutes later he added, "I lost him." I ran off, pulling out my earpiece.
"You sure they're not following you?" I asked Miles as he entered his place and locked the door. I had my arms crossed as I glared at him.
"Yeah, had to pull out all the stops though," Miles said. I continued to glare at him.
"Thanks for the text. Wait, are you mad?" He asked as he walked further into the apartment. I raised my brows at him. Really? What gave you that idea?!
"Are you kidding me? I don't have much time. Who did you leak those files to?" I hissed at him.
"Wait a sec, what? "Good to see you too, Miles". I released them into the world where they belong," he said, stepping closer to me.
"They'll keep hunting you unless they have someone else to look for. And, why the hell would you hack Shield?!" I said, taking a step back.
"Because that's what we do," he told me, following me as he moved forward again.
"You could've ruined everything, you dumbass! You know how bad I am at lying! Yet, here I am, lying to my team trying to save your ass!"
"Seems like you handled it," Miles said with a smirk, continuing to step closer to me. I moved back, not comfortable with the proximity.
"I've come too far for you to –" I trailed off when I looked at Miles only to see him staring at me with a grin. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
He walked even closer to me, still smiling; not seeming to notice how uncomfortable he was making me. I glanced over my shoulder as I took yet another step back, panicking slightly as I realized I was quickly running out of room.
"Did you just call me a "dumbass"?" he tilted his head at me with a smirk.
"Stop smiling. I'm serious!" I told him.
"I'm sorry. I can't help it. I've been missing you like crazy," he said, with another step towards me.
"Seriously?" I said, surprised. I felt the wall pressing against my back as I took another step back; not liking the look he now had in his eyes. "Miles, what are you -" before I could finish my sentence, he had reached out and grabbed me; pulling me in and kissing my lips. I froze. I pushed on his chest, trying to get him to back down. "Stop, Miles. We've been over this before! We're just friends!"
He paused as he leaned back to look me up and down; eyes filled with lust, and it was then that I realized that he had alcohol on his breath. Crap! I really have the worst luck!
"You are such a tease! I think I have waited patiently for long enough! It's about time I finally get what I want!" Before I knew what was happening, he had backhanded me hard across the face. Bastard! He is so going to regret that!
But just as I was about to break his wrist, I felt my air supply getting cut off as one of his hands wrapped tightly around my throat, the force slamming my head against the wall. I barely noticed the plaster now caught in my hair; or the head-shaped hole now in the wall, as I tried to blink my starry vision away. I had not expected Miles to be this strong! Then again, I had seen plenty of people defy appearances under the influence of alcohol during my time as a bartender. I had never seen this side of Miles, though. He had been nothing but kind to me - at least I had thought.
But as I managed to break free and headed for the locked door, Miles surprised me yet again. I clapped a hand to my neck as I felt a sharp prick. As I twisted around to look at Miles, I felt the tip of the needle scrape along the side of my neck, drawing blood.
"What the hell was that?!" I exclaimed as I stumbled, already starting to feel the effects of whatever had just been injected into my bloodstream. I frowned as I felt my energy draining quickly, wondering in the back of my mind why my metabolism wasn't burning through it.
"Oh, this? Just a little concoction I mixed up a while back to help you get in the mood. You didn't give me a chance to test it out last time we talked, so let's hope I didn't make it too strong! I want you to enjoy this as much as I do!" I blinked up at Miles, his face swimming in and out of focus as I stumbled again.
He caught me before I fell to the ground and I tensed up as he slowly unbuttoned my shirt, tossing it unceremoniously to the floor as he swept me up into his arms. My head swam and my limbs felt like noodles as he carried me into his bedroom. I struggled to get up when he set me on his bed, but I flopped back down as my vision darkened. What the hell was in that syringe!
I tried to fight back as he pulled off my shoes and socks and then yanked down my pants, but my eyelids were getting heavier and heavier with each passing second and he evaded my weak attempts with ease as he clambered on top of me.
The last thing I remembered was him mumbling under his breath about making whatever he had injected me with too strong before I passed out.
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"That's where you keep that, huh?" Miles commented a few hours later as I sat up and double checked that my SD card was still tucked into my bra. I stared at him coldly and didn't answer. He had apologized profusely when we woke up; blaming alcohol and bad advice from his friends...I glared at him as I got up and picked up my pants on my way to his bathroom.
"Where's my top?" I asked him as I frowned at my reflection in the mirror. My cheek and neck were still bruised and there was a long thin red slash from where the syringe had dragged across my skin.
"You know, I could be helping you. If you send me ciphertext, I could be working on algorithms –" Miles said, sitting up as he looked at me hopefully. I shook my head, astounded by what he had said.
"Miles, shut the hell up. There is no part of me that wants anything to do with you!"
"I've already apologized like a hundred times though! Let me help you and prove how sorry I am!"
"Just saying you are sorry doesn't magically erase what you did or suddenly fix everything! Anyways, what you did to me aside, there is still a guy in trouble because of you - and I have to get back. So if you really want to help me, help me find my clothes!"
"Hey. I'm sorry, Skye. Really, I am!" He said, handing me my shoes and socks.
"I know, Miles...but what you did...there's no forgiving that...you knew how I felt and you did it anyway...I can't just forget that, as much as I want to," I said, sighing as I put my shoes on and tried not to think of all the Hydra men who had used me in a similar fashion over the years - just with a lot more violence.
"Look, I don't want to keep talking about it, I just want to get the fuck out of here! Where the hell did you put my stupid -"
I opened the door out of the bedroom to check the living room, only to find a very stony faced May standing there. She lifted up my shirt, holding it out to me.
"- top," I finished saying in a whisper.
"Get dressed," May said. I took my top; shooting a dark glance at Miles as I hurried to do up my buttons. My ears twitched as I heard the front door open and and several pairs of feet enter the apartment. I walked out to see Fitz-Simmons tinkering around on Miles' computer as Coulson stood looking at a file. May closed the door behind me as she kept an eye on Miles.
I looked over at Coulson. "I know how this looks –" I started to say; knowing that everyone was probably jumping to the conclusion that Miles and I were in cahoots together.
He cut me off by holding up one finger as he finished reading the file in his hand before turning to address me.
"How long have you two been in contact?" He asked.
"I contacted him once - earlier today..." I said.
"When you tipped off an active suspect?" Coulson stared at me with a mistrustful look in his eyes that made my heart sink. I had come to care very much about what he thought of me over the last few weeks and I knew he wasn't thinking anything nice at the moment. I hated that I cared...things were so much easier when I didn't...
"No, it's not like that. Miles and I, we met when we were both a little screwed up. Scratch that, he was a little screwed up, I was a lot. But we looked after one another. I-I thought he was my friend...That's why I warned him, not because we're working together on this, but because we are...were friends," I corrected myself as I thought about what had just happened and gritted my teeth.
Coulson had not made any movement as he stood staring at me with a stony face that would have given May a run for her money.
"I'm really sorry," I told him honestly, but his face didn't soften.
"Noted. If not you, then who is Mr. Lydon working with?"
"No one. He's an idealist, believes in freedom of information," I explained.
"That information cost a man his freedom and you sabotaged our attempts to remedy that." I looked down, feeling extremely guilty.
"No, I came here to find out what Miles knows about Chan," I said, truthfully.
"And?" Coulson prompted.
"Nothing. Miles is a dead end. He's harmless...well to anyone but me apparently..." I mumbled the last part hoping he wouldn't hear - though I think he did.
"We'll see." He started to turn away from me and I spoke faster out of desperation.
"Really, I was gonna find out everything I could to try to help!"
Coulson tensed and bit his lip, finally showing some emotion.
"I just, I felt like I couldn't tell you guys everything!"
"I know. That's why I asked May to follow you." I blinked up at him, not knowing how to respond.
"Seems that wasn't a dead end," Coulson said.
A loud crashing sound managed to make me flinch slightly as I whipped my head around to see Fitz apologizing for knocking a stack of books over. I winced and reached for my neck without realizing as it sent a sting of pain throughout my body at my rapid head movement. Why hadn't it healed yet? My guess was that something in that syringe had temporarily slowed down my healing - I just hoped that it wasn't permanent!
I slowly moved my head back to face Coulson; and Ward, who had entered while I wasn't looking, wincing again as my neck and head throbbed.
I blinked in surprise as Ward suddenly strode over to me; grabbing my chin and tilting my face up to the light.
"What the hell happened to you?" He asked, his voice filled with a mix of anger, confusion, mistrust, and worry. I squirmed under his tight grip, not liking that he was pointing out my injuries.
"N-nothing," I stammered nervously, not able to stop myself from flicking my eyes reflexively over to the head-shaped hole in the wall. Ward and Coulson followed my gaze and I saw their brows rise as they looked me over more closely and saw the handprints on my cheek and neck along with the long red streak. I continued to squirm as I felt Ward using his other hand to pick something out of my hair.
"Skye...what happened?" Coulson asked, concern showing on his face as he looked at the chunk of plaster in Ward's hand and linked it to the hole in the wall. The two of them were now looking at me up and down for any other signs of injury and I shifted uncomfortably, letting the silence fill the room and hoping that something would happen to distract them. But nothing did...
"Skye, do you really expect us to ignore the fact that you are bleeding and have bruises all over!" Ward exclaimed.
"Okay, I'm not bleeding anymore and it's only two bruises, no big deal, really, I've had way worse!" I said, trying to shrug it off and hoping they would get the message.
"Skye, stop avoiding the question! Tell us what happened," Coulson said, walking over to me and bending down to my height so that he could look me directly in the eye. I looked away, really not wanting to talk about it.
"I already tried to tell you it wasn't what it looked like but you didn't wanna hear it then, so why bother explaining now?" I said, flippantly. "You've all clearly made up your minds about me, I'm not blind, I can see the mistrust," I replied. But they wouldn't let the matter drop. "Stop looking at me like that! Miles and I just had a...a misunderstanding of sorts..." I said, getting irritated by their stares.
"What kind of misunderstanding?" Ward asked, his jaw clenched as he glanced back to the hole in the wall.
"Nothing major, he just...he was drunk that's all...forgot we were only friends - look just drop it!" I exclaimed as I jumped up off the couch. But I had moved much too fast and I stumbled slightly at the head rush I received.
Coulson guided me carefully back to the couch as I tried to ignore the pounding in my head.
"S-sorry, just a little dizzy I guess, no worries. I'm feeling better already!" I chirped. From the looks on their faces though, I could tell that neither of them believed me.
"We should get Simmons to check her over, Sir, she may have a concussion," Ward said, anxiously.
"No, no, don't do that! No need to bother her, I'm perfectly alright, see!" I argued, standing up a little too quickly again in my haste to reassure them. They watched me as I swayed on my feet. "Seriously, I'm fine! I don't have a concussion, it's just - I'm a little fuzzy from the - ya know, I'm probably just a little tired is all..." I stuttered as my eyes found the spot where the syringe lay on the floor. I cursed silently as my gaze once again betrayed me; watching as Coulson stooped down and picked up the syringe. I saw him and Ward sharing a look before Coulson strode off towards the bedroom where May was still questioning Miles.
3rd Person POV
Miles glanced up as his bedroom door opened and Coulson stormed into the room.
"Anything?" He asked May.
May looked at him and shook her head.
"I don't have to talk to you!" Miles stated, crossing his arms.
Coulson shot him a thunderous look before turning to May again.
"Take him in!" He told her, stepping forward until he was invading Miles' personal space as the man complained. "You will talk to me if you ever want to see the light of day again. One way or another, I am finding out what happened between you and Skye. Now tell me exactly what the hell you put in this syringe and don't leave any details out. I want to know how she ended up in her current state!" Miles paled as Coulson towered over him and dropped his eyes guiltily to the floor.
May glanced over at Coulson as he spoke, wondering what exactly had happened to Skye to put Coulson in such a mood. She had rarely seen him this angry. She listened as Miles stammered out the answers to Coulson's questions, carefully keeping her face blank to hide the emotions she was feeling on the inside. May still had her doubts about Coulson's decision to keep Skye onboard The Bus, but even she had to admit that she was starting to warm up to the young hacker and found herself enraged by what Miles had done.
She grabbed him roughly by his arm, pulling him up off the bed and walking him back out into the living room, doing her best to control the urge to punch the man.
"Gather all the evidence and secure the prisoner. We got what we were looking for here. We're going to Hong Kong," Coulson told his team as he entered the living room.
Fitz-Simmons began to gather their gear as Ward got up from his crouched position in front of Skye; storming over to Miles.
"Hands," he growled softly, taking out a pair of handcuffs and clamping them tightly around the man's wrists.
Ward then marched Miles towards the door, passing by Skye and Simmons in time to hear Simmons leaning over to his rookie to tell her that she had missed a button on her shirt.
He felt an intense rage surge up as he watched Skye fumble to fix her mistake. It didn't matter to him that he had once attempted to do the same thing as Miles had after he had first met Skye at "Nights" - all that mattered was the thought of another man's hands touching her the way he himself desired and his hatred towards Miles for getting to sample Skye before him.
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In-Line Comments
- wasn't sure how detailed to get with the scene between Miles and Skye so just let me know if you want me to go back in and edit it with his pov and or more detail. I figuredf I would leave it to the imagination since I plan on including similar scenes between Skye and Hydra/maybe a few other characters as the story progresses.