Skye's eyelids fluttered gently open; she felt more relaxed than she had in a long while. The buzzing vibrations beneath her skin had calmed more than any amount of deep breathing exercises had been able to accomplish, and all that was left was a slight tingling on the surface of her skin. Above her there was a wood ceiling, and in her peripheral vision she could see deep red walls.

Her gaze fell down on her body and she was startled to see what looked like dozens of thin needles sticking up out of her skin, the tops reflecting, or glowing with, a pinkish-red light.

"Where am I?" she asked to the room, afraid to move in case the needles would cause her pain. "What are you doing to me?" The buzzing started to sink beneath her skin as she grew more agitated.

"Oh! Calm down, it's alright," a soothing tenor with a faint accent said from her left, overlaying the sound of footsteps hurrying near. She turned her head as far as she dared with the needles still stuck in her limbs. A young man who looked around her age was hovering next to her, a white tablet in his hands, a collection of golden-brown hairs on his head, and a long-sleeved red shirt covering up an obviously muscular body. Skye's thoughts drifted to what Jemma would say if she could see the muscles beneath the shirt before she shut those thoughts away, sticking them into the "think about later" part of her mind.

"What are you doing to me?" she asked again, her voice deeper as she forced herself to calm down. "How did I get here Where- where's Gordon?"

"Gordon brought you here, Skye," the man said, his voice gentle and unthreatening, but unlike Ward, who had talked to her as if she was a child. "You passed out because of the shock of the journey combined with your overuse of your power – a bad idea, by the way. Don't do that again. But we brought you in here and got you calmed down a bit – that's what the acupuncture is for. I'm sorry if it disturbed you at all. It's not a very common practice these days."

"Uh- It's fine," Skye said, feeling awkward. Then she realized her state of dress. "Hang on, did you change me into this? Did Gordon?"

She wasn't sure which of the options was better. She knew Gordon, sort of, but at best they were acquaintances, as they'd only had one proper conversation together. The man beside her was more of a stranger, which was still awkward, but at least he hadn't known her beforehand.

"I'll have you know I'm a registered doctor," he said, almost petulantly, before chuckling at the disgruntled look on her face. "Don't you worry. We have ladies here as well, and they're the ones who changed your clothes."

Skye let out a small sigh of relief. "But where is here?" she asked, moving as much as she dared to examine the room around her. It was oriental in design, with more of the wood and deep red she'd seen, though the room seemed to be a small hospital, with the number of medical instruments there were standing around. A few candles were lit around the outside of the room, in front of dark windows, and Skye realized it was night, wherever she was.

"Can't tell you that," the man said with a grin and a wink. "'Classified' as you SHIELD types like to put it. But I can tell you you're in Asia."

"Asia?!" Skye exclaimed, eyes widening as she felt her heart start to beat faster. The cabin Coulson had left her in was in the Eastern United States, she was sure of it. Where would the team think she went? How had they gotten- of course, Gordon's ability to teleport. "Did Gordon really teleport me all the way to Asia?"

"I think it took him three jumps, but yeah, he did," the man said casually, dragging a finger across the tablet he held. "Oh, by the way, I'm Lincoln. Lincoln Campbell. Forgot to introduce myself."

He zipped around to the other side of the table and took her right hand in his, giving it a firm but small shake, so as not to dislodge the acupuncture needles. Skye smiled despite herself. Lincoln wasn't too bad, she decided.

"So why stick me up with needles?" she asked, moving on to her next important question. "Why not just give me a massage or something – those are pretty relaxing."

He grinned at her. "Acupuncture as a treatment hasn't been proved to significantly help with stress or pain, but I've picked up a few techniques that make it much more effective – even more than a massage or meditation or the like. That buzzing you feel on the surface of your skin, that's your body balancing itself out, the excess stress and tension being pulled out into the needles placed at strategic point on your abdomen and extremities."

Skye gave him a skeptical look. "My tension is being pulled into the needles? And has been for who-knows-how-long?"

"About seven hours," Lincoln said, "And, effectively, yeah. Not scientifically, but effectively. Sorry, I can't explain it much more than that."

"I've been here for seven hours?"

"You were pretty out of it," Lincoln nodded, pressing on his tablet in a way that apparently did something to the needles as the tingling sensation she felt grew stronger in the sites where the needles were stuck beneath her skin, though it was comforting, not like the buzzing she'd felt after the Obelisk changed her. "I was hoping you were going to sleep for a while longer so I could get some rest of my own – different time zones and all that, I've been up all night – but it seems I'll just have to have an extra cup of coffee in the morning."

"Gordon said-" Skye paused, trying to figure out the best way to word her next sentence. "He said he was going to bring me to a place where there were people like me- people with powers. That-that's here?"

"I'd say this is the best place for it," Lincoln agreed, a wide smile stretching across his face.

"He said I could get help?" she said, phrasing it as a question. "That I could learn about me-my power, learn to control it, to keep from hurting people?"

"Definitely, Skye," Lincoln said, seeming to judge her anxiety as he took her hand and smoothed the back of her knuckles with his thumb. "Don't you worry. We all know what it's like to go though the Mist, through terrigenesis, and we all know what it's like to change, to become something and someone different that who we once were. We can most certainly help you figure things out."

Skye swallowed, feeling shaky, and tried to let go of the fear that was curling up inside her, waiting to be released. May had called her, telling her to run, Bobbi had tried to take her in along with an unfamiliar agent. Something had gone down at the Playground and she felt a renewed worry for her team surge up inside her.

May had said SHIELD was coming for her, but Coulson wouldn't have done anything like bringing her in – it wasn't his MO, especially after he'd set her up in the log cabin in the woods for a shorter-than-indefinite length of time. So what had May meant by "SHIELD"? Skye could only assume someone had been a mole – probably Bobbi, based on the fact she had come to take her away (Skye felt an ache settle in her gut at the thought) – and had brought in others who took over the Playground.

"When can I go?" she asked, starting to feel an antsy rush in her muscles that she knew wasn't caused by the acupuncture needles or her power. "My friends, they're in danger."

Lincoln was silent as he studied her face, and even though she felt uncomfortable she needed to know the answer. Regardless of the team's attitude toward her (she thought of Jemma and Mack) she owed them that much. They were, for all intents and purposes, her family, and she wasn't about to give that up lightly.

"I suppose, in reality, you can leave whenever you want to," he said, his eyes locked with her own. "No one's keeping you here, Skye. You're free to come and go as you please. But, practically, I'd recommend you get your powers under control before you even consider leaving. You didn't have the preparation the majority of us have had, and you aren't going to be able to help anyone until you understand how to help yourself."

"But how long are we looking at?" she pushed, shifting a little where she was lying before remembering the needles and stilling her movements. "A few days, a week, a month?"

"It's different for everyone," Lincoln said, shrugging. "Some people adapt very quickly after the changes, while other people have trouble living with what they have become for the rest of their lives. It depends on you, not on some quick-and-easy "Train Yourself to be Inhuman" program."

"Inhuman?" she asked, deciding to ignore the fact she could potentially be there for the rest of her life, unable to use her powers safely.

"That's what we call ourselves," he replied with a little laugh. "Those of us who are deemed worthy by the Diviners, who are changed after going through the Mist."

"You couldn't come up with something cooler than "Inhuman"?" Skye asked.

"It wasn't my choice, Lincoln said laughing. "It's what our ancestors called us, and the name just sort of stuck. Sorry if it's a bit disappointing."

"No problem," she said, closing her eyes and shaking her head slightly. There was silence for a few moments before she spoke again. "But how much longer do I need to have these needles in me?"

Lincoln laughed. "You should be fine – you're not feeling any pain or tension, are you?"

She shook her head. "Not at all. Does that mean you can take them out?"

"Sure thing. Just give me a moment."

He set the tablet down out of her line of vision, and pulled on a pair of rubber gloves that weren't uncommon in the hospital setting. It didn't take as long as Skye thought it would to remove all of the needles. Lincoln seemed to be well-practiced, and she hardly even felt the metal leaving her skin, though the calming vibrations on the surface of her skin disappeared as he took out each needle.

"That's it, all done," he said as he pulled off the gloves and threw them in a trash can.

Skye sat up and winced as her forearms protested, the hairline fractures that were still healing under the skin making themselves known.

"Thanks," she said, rubbing her arms gently, though the pain went away quicker than it usually did. "Do you know where my clothes are?"

Lincoln laughed. "I'm sure we can find them somewhere. We'll get you dressed and then I can show you around. I think you'll like it here, even if it's all a bit new and different."

Skye followed him to a door that seemed to lead out into a hallway and thought about Gordon's last words to her before they had teleported away – "Would you like to go home?" She still felt wary about the place, but she hoped it would become a sort-of home, just like the Bus and the Playground had become.

Feeling the same determination she remembered from the part of her life spent moving from foster home to foster home, she followed Lincoln out the door.

This is just an idea I had inspired by the promo for tonight's episode (2x16 - "Afterlife"), and the scenes with Lincoln and Skye. I must say, I'm really excited to see Lincoln's character! This is pure speculation on all fronts, so I tried to leave out any direct mention of his power, as we don't know what it is yet, and tried to keep his relationship with Skye friendly-but-neutral to give them room to simply be instead of trying to stick in either a romantic or sibling relationship just yet.

This won't be continued, I know that, but I'll always take ideas for other fics, if you have any! And go check out my Avengers/Agents of SHIELD crossover "Birds of a Feather" that is a collection of oneshots where Bobbi and Clint have a sibling-type relationship (with a bit of Clintasha and Huntingbird thrown in as well). It's updated every Tuesday before that week's episode, and I plan to continue that pattern through the end of the season at least. :)

Also (slightly shameless plug), if any of you have a tumblr and want to join in my liveblog of tonight's episode, I'm "dancer4813" on tumblr, and at 9/8 central I'll be starting a liveblog of the episode - hope to see you there!

Thanks so much for reading - please leave comments or criticisms in the review box below!

Until next time,

~Dancer