Skye woke up to find Coulson seated next to her bed. He had a black eye and a nasty bruise on one cheek, as well as a few gashes. "Hey." He said softly when he saw her open her eyes. "How are you feeling?"

Skye sat up blearily, one arm tangled in the pyjamas that she hadn't bothered to change into. "Better." She really did. "More... better." She said, voice slightly croaky.

He nodded. "Good. We were all worried about you."

Skye glanced away momentarily. "May explained?"

Coulson nodded. "She told us that you've developed some kind of power. Fitzsimmons think that you can control seismic waves, create and direct them at will."

Skye rubbed her eyes. "Okay."

He put one hand on her arm. "It's okay to be scared."

She looked at him, brown eyes tired but questioning. "Are you scared?"

Coulson nodded. "A little." He admitted. "I don't really have much experience in controlling earthquakes."

Skye huffed a laugh. "You worked with the Hulk."

He smiled. "I can call him if you want. He could teach you some yoga."

"I don't think May would be too happy with someone else taking over my training." Skye said, but she was grinning ever so slightly.

"We'll work this out." Coulson said, cementing it. "As a team."

Skye smiled, tears shining in her eyes. "I know." How could she have thought that they would leave her? Her team was her family, more so than any other family she had ever had. "And sorry in advance for whatever stuff I break."

"I've worked with the Hulk, remember? And Tony Stark."

"One day you're gonna have to introduce me."

"Never."

Skye pouted and stretched, sitting up straighter. "It's quiet." She noted. "Where is everyone?"

"Inside. We're back at the Playground."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "Really? How long was I out?"

"Almost fifteen hours."

Skye balked. "Seriously?"

Coulson shrugged. "When you don't sleep for almost three days, it's gonna happen."

"I guess. The others okay?"

He nodded. "Mostly asleep right now. Not sure if Hunter and Bobbi are actually sleeping though. Mac woke up a couple of hours ago, he's in the infirmary."

Skye stopped herself just short of asking after Tripp. It wasn't that she had forgotten. It was just reflex to check on her friends.

Coulson must have noticed something on her face. "It wasn't your fault."

Skye looked down, tears welling up. "I know. But it doesn't bring him back."

"I know." His voice was soft. "We're going to have a memorial ceremony. Probably next week. I need to contact his family."

"Oh God." Skye covered her face with her hands. "Tripp's family." It was just a reaffirmation that he was gone. For good. He wasn't going to smile again or obsess over the Koenigs. He wasn't going to do everything possible to make their crap food taste a little better, or spar with her.

In a few years she might forget all that. She might forget who he was and just remember Tripp as another agent who had died. Not one of the special few who could make May smile, and Fitz talk, not a member of their weird little family.

Just another body.

"We'll get through this." Coulson said, but Skye was legitimately wondering whether she wanted to.

Instead of thinking about it, she let him wrap his arms around her and cried into his shoulder. The mission was over, they were back at the Playground. And Antoine Triplett was dead. It was real. "What are we gonna do?"

Coulson held her close. "Make it worth it."

For some reason that made her feel a little better.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

The next few weeks passed in a blur, but somehow seemed to take forever. The memorial ceremony for Tripp was beautiful, and a plaque was placed on the wall in his memory, next to similar ones for Agent Hartley and Idaho.

Fitz and Simmons reactions upon seeing Skye for the first time after finding out about her new power made her want to cry again. But in a good way.

They had almost immediately wanted to take blood tests and hook her up to an MRI, and could they please talk to Director Coulson about getting a CAT scanner, on loan of course, to try to measure Skye's powers that way? Not for the first time Skye wondered how she could have ever thought that they would leave her.

Her control still wasn't great. Everyone knew that something was going on, but only Fitzsimmons, Coulson and May knew what it was. Sometimes the quakes were confined to whatever room Skye was in, like in morning training, or too small to notice, unless paying attention.

Enough had been big enough to warrant questioning though. May had passed some off as thunder, which worked well since they were underground and, if caused by nightmares, it was difficult to tell if it was raining outside.

Skye knew that she was improving. Hell, if May was happy then that meant she was a freaking savant. It still wasn't enough for her though. She wanted to stop losing control now. Every time a tremor shook the base, no matter how small, Skye wondered if anyone was going to get hurt again. Which would sometimes make it even worse.

Her frustration bled over into her training with May. "I don't want to hurt anyone."

"You haven't yet." May said calmly, her arms following the practised movement of her tai chi.

Skye was moving the same way. "But I could." Despite the nature of their conversation, Skye was relaxed and, for the most part, calm.

May couldn't deny that. She had been helping Skye as best she could with this, and she was doing very well suppressing her new power.

Skye called it control, but May could see that it wasn't that. Maybe it was easier for Skye to lie, or maybe she didn't know the difference. She was tempted to sit Skye down and make her watch 'Frozen' on loop until she got it.

May could often see her younger self in Skye. The mischief, the stubbornness, the loyalty, the hotheadedness. If she was going to draw that kind of comparison, then this was Skye's Bahrain. And she wasn't going to let this break Skye like it had broken her. She sighed. "I'll call someone this afternoon who can help you." She said, not letting her emotions show in her voice. "He's a neuroscientist who worked with a lot of gifteds before SHIELD fell. His name's Andrew Garner."

Skye frowned, continuing her movements. Something was off in the way May said it. "You sure he's SHIELD?"

May nodded and offered no more on the topic. Skye, though curious, knew enough not to ask further. "A shrink?"

"Among other things, yes."

"You sure that's a good idea?" She asked, "I mean, powers or not, I'm kind of a head doctor's worst nightmare."

May smiled ever so slightly. "You don't know any psychologists. They daydream about our kind of issues." She needed to remind Skye that she wasn't alone. That she wasn't the only one who was a bit messed up.

The form ended and they both dropped their arms. Skye snorted. "Oh my God, I can totally see you in therapy. You'd scare some poor doctor to death." May rolled her eyes. "I mean, you'd just sit there and-" Skye put on her best 'May face', blank and unimpressed.

May swallowed a grin. She didn't want Skye to know how right she was. She had only seen a psychologist once, after Bahrain, and even then it was only because Fury had insisted. It went as well as could be expected. May hated letting people in now, back then it was just impossible. Especially with a complete stranger.

"And they'd ask something personal and get death glared, then spend the rest of the time frozen in fear."

May rolled her eyes but said nothing.

Skye grinned. "See, you didn't say anything, that means I'm right."

She raised an eyebrow.

"I'm right a lot."

May rubbed her eyes with one hand, but she was smiling. She was calling Andrew to help Skye, and Skye had somehow made her feel better about it.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

"May's calling a shrink for me to talk to."

Coulson nodded, looking thoughtfully at his cup of coffee. "Do you think it'll help?"

They were in his office. Coulson was taking an afternoon break and wanted Skye to update him on how she was going. "I don't know." Skye admitted, "But May thinks so, and I trust her."

"Good." He said. "You're doing well Skye, you can hold yourself back. The next step will be being able to use it."

The walls shook heavily, though Skye was gratified to know that it was only the room. She didn't say anything. The rattling shelf items showed her thoughts on that idea.

Coulson sighed. "I know you're scared." He said, "But you won't be able to control this properly until you can let go of that fear, and accept these powers for what they are."

"I don't know if I can accept this." Skye said, ashamed. "I could kill everyone in this base by accident."

He shrugged, leaning back in his desk chair. "So could Simmons. She breaks the wrong vial in the lab and we could all be goners. Anyone in this base could accidentally reveal our location somehow, Hydra would be here in hours and we'd all be dead." When Skye looked down, he said, "You're not as different as you think."

"I just... I wish I could stop. I really do. If I could get rid of these stupid powers then I would."

"You can't though. They're a part of you now, and trying to hold it all in isn't going to work. It's okay to need help." Coulson took a sip of his coffee, Skye mirroring him. "You know, Audrey told me once that most of any orchestra is in therapy, or on beta blockers."

Skye had to double take. "Heart medication? Why?"

"Nerves. It calms them down. Some use those, some go to therapy, there are a million solutions. These are professionals at the top of their field Skye, and they use anything they can, because every single night before they go on stage, they're terrified."

"You think I should be drugged?" The thought disgusted her.

"No! God no, Skye, I just think you need to accept any help that's given." Coulson took a deep breath. "You've never seen a psychologist before, right?"

Skye nodded.

"I know you want to control this, but you need to let this person help you. It's the problem everyone has when they see a shrink, talking to them. I don't want you to lose this opportunity because you're proud, and don't want to let people in."

Skye absorbed the words, turning them over in her mind. "So you're saying that I'm like May?"

Coulson grinned. "You said it, not me."

Skye smiled. She looked up to May, a lot. Being compared to her was nice. "You're good with this shrink coming in then?"

Coulson nodded. "Of course."

"Okay, good. May's already called this Andrew guy, so it'd be kind of hard to- what?" Coulson had choked on his coffee.

"Andrew?!" He said incredulously. "Andrew Garner?"

Skye frowned. "Uh, yeah, I think that was his name." Not sure if she wanted to know, "Why?"

Coulson gaped at her for a moment. Honestly, it felt like his brain had stopped. May had called Andrew? For Skye? A softness took over his features and he sighed softly. "She really loves you."

Skye balked. "Oh my God, what? Does this guy have fees through the roof or something?"

"Or something."

"Is he an axe murderer?"

"Not quite."

Skye groaned, "Just tell me will you? I hate guessing games."

Coulson paused. He wasn't sure if May would want Skye to know, but she would find out eventually. He took a deep breath. "Andrew Garner is May's ex-husband."

"What?!" The windows shook and a book fell off the shelf. "I didn't- she never- she was married?!"

He nodded. "For a while, yeah. They separated not long after Bahrain. She'd changed, she said, and they'd been having problems before that. They haven't spoken in years."

Skye frowned. "She just called him."

"Yeah."

She buried her face in her hands. "Why?"

"He's good. Very good, one of the best. He'll be able to help you, and for her it's worth it."

Skye groaned. "Why does she always do this? I swear to God, if we were stranded in the Arctic she'd set herself on fire so we could all keep warm."

"Well that's a colourful metaphor." But Coulson couldn't deny it's validity.

She crossed her arms and scowled. "I'm gonna do something." She said firmly.

Okay, that came across as a little terrifying. "Sorry?" If it wasn't May that they were talking about, Coulson would have been afraid.

Skye sighed. "May's been... amazing, with everything. Pun not intended by the way. I just wanna do something for her, you know?"

Phil nodded. He knew. He liked to do little things for his old partner, but he never mentioned it, just as she never mentioned the things she did for him. He just made sure they always had her favourite kind of tea. That the next book in the series of whatever she was reading was on hand when she completed it. That there was a sturdy lock on her door for when she needed alone time, but also a peep hole so she could see if she wanted to let someone in. "That sounds like a good idea."

Skye grinned, pleased. "Cool." She stood, collecting their empty cups. "I'll think of something. See you later." Just as she reached the door her eyes widened and she smiled. "Got it."

Coulson smiled too. "Good idea?"

"Yep."

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

When Melinda May entered the kitchen almost two hours later, it looked like a bomb had gone off. A cookie and cupcake bomb.

"What are you doing?" She asked as Skye pulled yet another tray of cookies from the oven.

Skye turned, smile wide and innocent. "Nothing." She said, tray of warm cookies in her hands. "Cookie?" She held them out.

May looked from Skye to the cookies and back again. "You talked to Coulson then." Because Skye clearly wasn't doing 'nothing', and she was one of the few people who knew that May had a pretty massive sweet tooth. She still took a cookie. They were chocolate chip after all.

Skye took one herself, put the tray down and sat on one of the tall stools. "You didn't have to do that you know."

"I know." May said, taking a seat as well. "But I wanted to. He's one of the best, he's not Hydra, and he's trustworthy."

It was not lost on Skye that May refused to refer to Andrew by name. "Still."

May turned the cookie over in her hands. "I don't want my feelings to get in the way of you getting help." She sighed, "You do need help Skye, and I'm not equipt to give it right now."

Skye said nothing, she just looked at her SO with wide eyes, even though she refused to look at her.

May took a bite of the cookie and raised her eyebrows, impressed. "This is good."

Skye grinned. "Thanks." She lowered her voice. "I made some with raisins that we can leave out to traumatise Hunter with."

May grinned too, evilly. "Perfect." She finished the rest of the cookie in one bite.

"Oh hey, and I made cupcakes." Skye indicated to where they were lined up on the bench, each iced, with the words 'Property of May' written in icing. "You're the best SO ever." She mumbled.

So that she didn't let on how touched she was, May said, "Well it's good to know I'm better than Ward."

Skye nabbed another cookie. "Hey, he's in second place!" She said, "I mean, he has a very symmetrical face." She laughed, and was pretty sure she heard May laugh too. Happiness felt different with her powers. It had more sense of control. She could feel the vibrations, but felt no fear that they would escape.

It was the first time Skye had felt happy enough to set off her powers.

It was the first time that she really believed that everything was going to be okay.