Chapter Text
Skye paced in the hold of the SHIELD quinjet resting in the Tunisian desert, twisting the rings on her right hand. Dumont and Perry sat near the door of the cockpit, playing a card game as they waited for their team to return.
“They should be here by now, shouldn’t they?” she asked. “I mean, when they last reported in they said they were on the way out.”
Dumont grunted. “It was an estimate, Skye. Cool your jets.”
“I’d rather fire them up and get out of here, thanks,” she snarked back. She saw Perry rolling his eyes at them and turned her back, shading her eyes as she looked out the open hatch across the bright desert sands. Something shimmered on the horizon, and she squinted to try and get a better look. It could just be a mirage… or…
“Here they come!” she cried. Dumont and Perry gathered their things and they all watched the incoming jeep as it screeched to a halt beside the jet. Garrett climbed out of the driver seat and came around to the passenger side as Trip unfolded from the back along with a man with a black bag over his head and his hands cuffed behind his back. She was about to run over and ask how everyone was when Garrett helped Monroe out of the front passenger seat. Monroe looked gray and was leaning heavily on Garrett’s shoulder, his hand pressed hard against left shoulder. She froze while Dumont and Perry rushed forward. Perry grasped Monroe’s other side to help stabilize him.
“Take the prisoner, Ed,” Garrett barked, jerking his head in the direction of the other pair. “Trip, get us up in the air.”
As everyone rearranged to get into the Quinjet, Skye backed against the wall to stay out of the way. She saw an opportunity to move in and grabbed an emergency blanket from the kit stowed near the hatch. She sat next to where Monroe was strapped into a jumpseat and helped spread it over him. He looked over and gave her a weak smile in thanks. The engines roared and she strapped herself in just before the sensation of being jerked away from the earth threw her back in her seat. She shouted over the noise, “What happened?”
“Get away wasn’t as clean as we thought,” Monroe answered, barely audible. “I caught a bullet laying down cover, but I’ll be fine.” He grimaced, and Skye helped him hold the bandage to his shoulder. “It’s not that bad.”
She rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Is it some specialist rule that you guys have to ignore pain?” No one heard her, though, which was probably a good thing. Soon the engines quieted as they shifted into horizontal flight, and she could call to the guys across the hold sitting with the prisoner. “So what are we doing with him now?”
“Taking him to the Hub,” Perry answered. “Dan can get treatment, and we can get everything we need from this guy.” He kicked at the guy’s shin.
“The hub?” Skye asked. “What’s the hub?”
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Re-entering the Bus, Ward shook his head when Fitz ran ahead to start packing up a bag, mumbling to himself as he went. “Oh, yeah, this is gonna be great.”
May looked at him with a hint of sympathy. “Just try to stay out of trouble and you’ll be fine.”
“I don’t think I’m the one you need to be warning about trouble.” He tipped his head toward the lab where his teammate was piling gadgets onto the holotable. “Hey, Fitz! We’re only taking what we can carry.”
“Right! Right.” Fitz placed his hands on his hips and turned to the side. “I guess the dwarves would be a bit much.”
Ward rolled his eyes and climbed the stairs to the upper deck. His own bag, tucked under his bunk, was already pre-packed; he just needed to check the gear and the weapons. He also wanted to go back over the files again, particularly the schematics of the facility they were breaking into. It was going to be tight, making it to the extraction point after setting off the beacon; they couldn’t afford to take a wrong turn. And something about this mission just set his teeth on edge. He wanted to pass it off as annoyance at babysitting Fitz - there was a reason agents had to be certified to go into the field. And he couldn’t identify anything wrong in the briefing packet spread out on his bed - everything seemed covered, and they were provided with anything they could need. Still…
Coulson’s knock on the open door frame interrupted his third review of the materials. “I just wanted to see if you need anything.”
“No, sir.” Ward lifted his pack. “Got everything I need right here, all I need now is Fitz.”
“I know he wouldn’t be your first choice of a partner in the field.”
“I don’t choose the missions, sir. I just get them done.”
Coulson stepped inside the bunk area and closed the door. Ward shifted on his bunk, uncomfortable with the close quarters. “He’s going to need you to take care of him out there. Fitz is brilliant, but -“
“He’s not exactly cut out for the field. I know.” Ward nodded. “I promise I’ll get him through the mission and back home.”
“Good,” Coulson gave him a tight smile, then left the bunk area. “You’ve got an hour before departure,” he called over his shoulder.
Ward shook his head and looked back down at the files. There wasn’t anything there he hadn’t already gone over at least three times; and no plan survived the field anyway. He closed up the folder and set it aside, then pulled out his phone. He’d be leaving it here on the Bus, they weren’t taking any comms equipment with them on this one. So he pulled up the SMS app and typed out a quick message to Skye for Garrett. Going dark 48 hours.
The response was almost instantaneous. Call me when you get back?
Absolutely. He chuckled at the winking text face she sent back, then turned off the phone and set it in the bedside drawer. Ward needed to go and make sure his mission partner wasn’t trying to carry more than his own body weight in equipment.
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The Hub was amazing. Skye knew she was gawking like a tourist, but she couldn’t help it. Somehow she’d never quite realized SHIELD was so big. Sure, they’d been to the office in Atlanta several times, and she’d been to the LA field office. But while those were more like regular office buildings, this was a super sci-fi base of operations, with its own aircraft hangers, engineering centers, hospital wing, even its own mini shopping mall. Everything shone with chrome and glass, some of which she could see through to banks of monitors and laboratories, others covered with translucent film to hide those inside.
Perry had left her in a corridor with a coffee bar and gift shop while the rest of the team split off - Monroe had been hurried off to the hospital wing almost as soon as they touched down, Garrett and Trip escorted their prisoner somewhere - a prison cell, maybe, or an interrogation room - and Perry returned to the hanger to handle the paperwork for the jet. Skye had no idea where Dumont disappeared to, though she wouldn’t be surprised if he’d slithered into the sewers or something. So Skye ordered herself a latte and split her time waiting between people-watching and browsing the gift shop full of novelty items emblazoned with the SHIELD stylized eagle. For a clandestine operation, they sure did like flashing around their logo.
“Those glow in the dark keychains are a lot of fun at parties.”
Skye jumped at Trip’s voice so close behind her shoulder, and she playfully shoved at him as she spun around. “Would have thought it would spoil the cloak and dagger effect,” she snarked back.
He just grinned at her. “C’mon, girl, a spy’s gotta come out of the shadows once in a while.” He motioned over his shoulder with his thumb. “Garrett’s waiting outside. Said he has something for you to work on while we’re questioning our guy about Quinn.”
Skye gave the cashier a cheery wave on their way out, prompting Garrett to roll his eyes at her though he chose not to comment. “Need you to pull up some records to back up whatever we get from this guy.” He motioned for them to follow and started walking them down the corridor. “We’ll get you set up in a computer lab.”
“What kind of records?”
“Mostly transactional records, and I want you to go back through the communications records that tipped us to this guy in the first place. See if you can find anything that’ll give us some leverage.” He swiped his card against a keypad, then held out his hand to Skye. “Here, I’ll program your card to let you through here.”
“Thanks.” Skye lifted the lanyard over her head and handed it to him with the card dangling from the end. “Wouldn’t want to end up locked in someplace.”
“Just don’t go wandering too far, or that’ll be exactly what happens.” Skye and Trip followed Garrett though another hallway, this one full of agents hurrying from one place to the next, most of them with their noses buried in a file or fingers tapping on a handheld tablet. Garrett greeted several of them with hearty hellos, nearly all followed up by a momentary pause as he asked about the person’s family, or how they healed up after some past mission, or if they still had “that damned dog.” It gave off the impression that he was friends with everyone they came across. Inwardly, Skye stored that information away to think about later - it was yet another weird puzzle piece that didn’t really seem to fit her early impressions of the man.
“Here we go,” Garrett announced, stopping at an open door. “Trip, you head on back and make sure they’ve got our equipment ready to go. I’m just going to make sure Skye gets started here.”
“Yes, sir,” Trip responded, spinning around almost smartly as he departed. He melted seamlessly into the crowd.
“C’mon, there’s a terminal in the back you can use.” Skye followed him around several large lab countertops to a semi-secluded computer station in the back corner. “Lab’s not scheduled to be used tonight, so you should have some privacy. Now, I need those files we were talking about, but there are a few other things, too.” He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and slid it to her on the desktop. “Access code is X3173; it’ll give you access to the Level 8 files.”
Skye scanned over the list. “Some of these could take a while to track down without the specific filenames. Can some of this wait until morning?”
“Don’t know when we’ll get done here and move on, so it’s gotta be done now.” Garrett leaned in a little closer, sharing confidentially, “That code’ll also give you access to the redacted files index.” She looked up from the list in surprise, her heart lodged in her throat. “I’m sure you can think of a few things to look up there.” She nodded, then jumped a bit as he clapped a hand on her shoulder. “Just make sure you get your work done first, then you can do your own research. Good luck.”
He left the room whistling a jaunty little tune, but Skye ignored him as she booted up the terminal. She read through the list again - it was long, and there were definitely some vague requests, but a few of them had specific identifiers. Like “B-C-Y307604 - Death and Recovery Report, Coulson.” And she could be running searches for some of the others in the background, speeding up the process.
Whatever it took, it was worth it. Because she was finally going to get a look at what was really in her file.