Music
An Agents of SHIELD fanfic by Aisling Yinyr Ngaio

"Seriously, guys, I swear I heard it through her headset! That tiny strain of-"

"That's bollocks, that is. No way would she ever-"

"Yes, you really must think for a moment who you're talking about. This is-"

Skye gave an offended little hmph and plowed on, "Guys, have any of you been in the cockpit with Agent May? No, but I have. And I'm telling you, that's music I heard from her headset!"

Next to her, FitzSimmons still looked at her disbelievingly. It was a painful-headache-and-a-half to imagine that the Cavalry, the stoic, disciplined, strict Agent Melinda May would be caught dead playing her own music during work with her headset. But Skye was not imagining things; she only wish she were.

Fitz swung his cereal spoon around while replying dubiously, "Well did you get a good listen in? I mean it could be anything, really. Maybe cue music from news stations? There must be a very good explanation for… whatever it was."

Simmons, always quick to agree, nodded while taking a sip of her morning Earl Grey, and said, "Yeah, or maybe it was just some background noise on whatever it was HQ is sending her. Agent May wouldn't… not recreational music."

"Well, what will it take for you two to believe me? I know I'm not insa-" The young hacker's frustration suddenly smoothed out as a calculating look spread over her features. "Hmm…" she lapsed into thoughtful silence. It took a while for her companions to catch on, but when they did, their eyes went wide with fear and they started spluttering in horror.

"No, that's crazy! You're not really going to ask about her extracurricular music?"

"You're not going to steal her iPod, are you? Does she even have one? No wait, the point is, you're not, right?"

Choosing to ignore the first part of Simmons' terrified question, Skye soothed the duo by explaining, "No, I don't think there's an iPod involved, or anything. Looks like her headset's connected straight into the flight system, so…" she grinned mischievously. "I'm going to hack into that."

Two mouths dropped open simultaneously. Fitz recovered first, "Are you mental? Do you know what Agent May would do to us if she found out? Because you've still got the bracelet on you, Skye! Or has that completely slipped your mind?"

Simmons huddled into herself, her tea utterly forgotten, and shivered like she was trying to ward off a cold. "No, no, no, no. I did not escape court-marshalling to get a reprimand over something that isn't life-threatening. I just… I can't! D'you know what my dad would say?"

"Oh relax, will you guys? I'm not going to change the plane's course or do any stupid stuff with the console. Just a quick peek at what's playing into the headset of our secretive, if… deadly, pilot." Skye was in parts excited and slightly wary, but if May hadn't done anything to her in the past few cockpit visits, it wasn't like she was going to murder her for something insignificant, right? "Just long enough to convince you two geniuses that I'm right about this."

At this jab at their intelligence, the two scientists began looking exceptionally torn: on the one hand, completely convinced that there was no way in any reality that the legendary Cavalry would be listening to music with her piloting equipment - they've heard the stories after all, and they knew way more about the pilot than their "freshman" teammate; on the other hand… the consequences if they were caught… it was the Cavalry for crying out loud! Skye, sensing their weakening arguments, got up really close to the pair of them, and said in a loud stage whisper, "Ten bucks each says I'm right."

"Are you sure this is gonna work?" Simmons' plaintive question sounded for the fifth time ever since they'd accepted the bet. Let it never be said that FitzSimmons couldn't put their money where their mouths were, even if she was still a little nervous that they might get found out despite Skye's reassurances.

Skye herself was tapping away rapidly on the spare tablet unit assigned to her - hacking into the flight system was more challenging than she thought - but she finally uttered a cry of triumph before Fitz could ask his partner to "calm down, for heaven's sake, we're gonna win this thing", and connected into the sound system. Suddenly all three of them heard a very loud, very catchy song blaring out with "-rodeo romeo, a cowboy god from head to toe; wanna make you mine better get in line; 5-6-7-8!"

"HAH! I WIN, I WIN! I knew it!" Skye couldn't help but gloat over her teammates while dancing around the conference room to the music for a bit before holding out her palms for her winnings. Simmons had started giggling madly as the song played and was jiggling to the tune, almost succeeding in ignoring Skye until the other woman poked her insistently to get her attention. Fitz only groaned and reluctantly paid up while Skye, having gotten both her winnings, mused aloud, "Oh wow, no wonder that strain sounded so familiar. We used to do Physical Ed to that song ages ago, back in elementary school! I can't believe May has it on her playlist."

"I can't believe she listens to dance music, for goodness sake! Never betting against you again, Skye, honestly!" Fitz warbled at his loss of both money and pride. The song sounded really juvenile, though the tune was really catchy, so maybe he couldn't really fault Agent May for liking it, if she really did. Somewhere nearby, Skye somehow ended up trying to teach the steps she'd learned back in her day to Simmons, who was frankly doing more laughing than actual dancing, and Skye soon abandoned her attempts and just flailed joyfully around in wild abandon to the familiar song.

They were, in fact, so blissfully unaware in their absorbing discovery that it took an extremely annoyed Ward stepping into the conference room and yelling over the music, "Any reason why I'm hearing this down in the cargo hold? I lost my workout rhythm and I can't concentrate with this blaring into my eardrums!" for them to lose all colour in their faces and realise Skye's mistake right as Coulson was coming down his stairs, wearing an extremely unamused look and stared daggers at Skye, who winced.

Oh shoot, I did not blast this shit over the damn Bus' PA system, did I? Crap!

All hopes of May not learning of the little hack were dashed when Skye visited the cockpit that evening; May said only one word, "winnings" and held out her hand. Cringing, Skye meekly handed over the notes, knowing by the look on May's face that this was only the beginning.

- Finis -