For Want Of A Nail

A collaborative fic authored by ozhawk and LadyWinterlight (posted on both accountson ).

This premise came about following a conversation between Ozhawk and Oricke, a reader of hers on who's a big RumSkye fan. She wanted a fic where Skye doesn't believe she's Rumlow's soulmate and he has to convince her of it.

Only in order to make that work, the meeting would have to happen very early in Season 1 of Agents of SHIELD. And, of course, changing something so early on would affect EVERYTHING from that point forward.

One day, Ozhawk and I were chatting about fics and she brought this idea to me, asking if I would be interested in collaborating with her on it. The very concept of changing the details of series, movies, etc is really much too large an undertaking for any one person. I certainly wouldn't have tried it on my own either. But together… the daunting project began to seem possible.

So far, we are 60,000 words and 20 chapters in, and we've just about arrived at the beginning events of Season 2. We do plan to cover the whole of Season 2, and Age of Ultron, and more after that, so you can see this is going to be a looooong fic. The intention is to post twice a week at the moment, at least until we know where the story is going to end. Living in drastically separated time zones and dealing with real lives and families means we can't write every day and we don't want to commit to a posting schedule we can't maintain.

It has been a VERY long time since I wrote collaborative fic, and I hadn't realized just how much I missed it. I have had (and continue to have) a blast working with Ozhawk on this, and we've fallen into a great rhythm of trading ideas and viewpoints, working out the tiny details of what changes would affect other things down the line. I don't think either of us could have done it alone, but "A man can achieve great things when he realizes he's part of something bigger."

Chapter 1

The events of this chapter occur in the time gaps immediately following the end of Season 1, Episode 1 (Pilot) and Episode 2 (0-8-4).

Skye sat in the lab with FitzSimmons as the latter two documented the formula they'd created to temporarily stabilize Mike's Centipede reaction. She listened to the tech-babble and tried to look interested. Other than Coulson, these two seemed the friendliest of this team and she figured she might as well at least try to interact.

Being the new kid in school always sucked.

At least she and Simmons had one thing in common; unlike the rest of the team, they each had a soulmark. There'd been a box on the form she'd had to fill in to be employed as a consultant for SHIELD, and Jemma had noticed when Skye ticked it, and immediately remarked that she had a soulmark too. Skye had never met anyone else who had one, let alone who had found their opposite. Hopefully they could at least commiserate over so-called destiny, once Simmons was done with her report.

Pulling out her phone, Skye browsed through a couple of message boards while she waited. Nothing Rising Tide related, just a couple of places she liked to lurk about. Sometimes people posted the strange things that happened, and she was curious if anything had popped up about Mike. It was going to be a long flight to Peru.

Or - possibly not all that long. How fast was this plane even going, anyway? She shook the thought off. Time enough to investigate that later.

"Hey, Skye," Jemma nudged her arm lightly, and she looked up to see the other girl smiling at her shyly. "We're done here. You want to come get something to eat? We might as well eat now, we'll be landing in a couple of hours."

"Sure," she shrugged amiably and followed Jemma up to the plane's surprisingly well-equipped kitchen, watched as Jemma efficiently made sandwiches.

"Don't eat too heavy. Don't want anyone drowsy on the mission," Agent Ward warned, walking past. Skye suppressed the urge to roll her eyes only because he was staring at her.

"Robot," she muttered to Jemma once he was out of earshot. Jemma giggled.

"He is a bit. Here," she passed over a plate. "So," she said rather excitedly, "what does the name on your soulmark say? Where is it? Is it somewhere embarrassing? Mine's on my chest, not too low down, but, well…" she brushed the upper curve of her breast. "I don't flaunt it, you know. His names is James. Which is nice, don't you think, James and Jemma?"

Skye smiled. "That's kind of cute. But you haven't met him?"

Jemma shook her head. "And it's quite a common name. Unfortunately. I think I've met nearly every SHIELD agent called James, anyway. And I checked the SHIELD databases, but never found any James with a registered soulmark of a Jemma…"

"Maybe I could hack a few more databases for you," Skye mused thoughtfully.

"Oh, well, maybe you shouldn't," Jemma demurred. "I wouldn't want that kind of trouble just for me."

Skye grinned. "Okay. How about if the next time I'm hacking other databases, I just take a look on the side for you? If I'm already into something Coulson knows about, it can't hurt to check for one little extra thing, right?"

"Um, well, no, I suppose it can't hurt too much," Jemma agreed reluctantly. "It's not that I don't want to know, because I do, but..."

"Oh, don't worry," Skye said, backtracking a bit. It wouldn't be smart to push too hard too soon. "I won't get you into trouble over it. Mine's on my lower back, just above the waistband of my jeans, so not too embarrassing," she went on, answering some of Jemma's earlier questions.

"Oh, that's not so bad," Jemma brightened when the conversation moved back to less illegal - or at least against regulation - topics.

"No, it's not. But I don't like to flash it around, either. Brock is a pretty unusual name, but names can be faked or changed and so I'd really rather not let people see it before I know who they are."

Jemma nodded her understanding. "Well, I could check the SHIELD database for you if you'd like. See if anyone comes up with a soulmark name of Skye."

"If you want, I suppose that would be okay," Skye agreed with a shrug. "Can't hurt; if nothing else, it rules out running into my soulmate at a SHIELD base somewhere."

"Or you could learn who to look for," Jemma argued brightly. "Think positively, Skye."

"I just don't want to get my hopes up," Skye answered quietly. "It hurts too much to be disappointed."

"Oh, Skye," Jemma breathed, her expression sympathetic. "It'll get better. Soulmarks are rare; if you have one, you'll almost certainly meet him someday. It's been theorized that more people would have them if the circumstances were right to bring people together. There are in theory more people with them now that we have global travel, though we've also only been tracking them for a limited time so it hasn't really been proven yet."

"It's okay, Simmons," Skye broke in gently. "I get it. I'll try to think positive, okay? Maybe we will meet someday."

"So shall I search the database after lunch?" Jemma asked brightly.

"No time," Ward said dourly, walking back in the other direction, now loaded up with weapons. "Need to get ready for the mission, have a briefing."

"Party pooper," Skye muttered under her breath. Jemma started giggling again and the two shared a conspiratorial smile.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

After Peru, everything was so crazy both Skye and Jemma almost forgot about the conversation. The Bus was sitting on the runway at the Slingshot, the final repairs being completed, when Jemma suddenly said;

"That's right, I was going to check the SHIELD database to see if we could identify your soulmate!"

"You have a soulmark?" Fitz, the only other person in the lab with them, lifted his head with an interested expression.

"Yes. But it occurred to me, Jemma, that there's no point in you running a search. Skye's not my birth name. I don't know what my real birth name is, if I was even given one. The nuns named me Mary-Sue, but…" Skye shrugged. "I wasn't a newborn when I was taken there."

"Oh," Jemma sagged a little with disappointment. "What a shame. So even if we found someone called Brock with a soulmark, we'd have no way of knowing if he was your soulmate? I suppose the only way you would know, then, is to show him and see if he could identify his writing."

"I s'pose," Skye shrugged again. "Good think Brock's not all that common a name, hmm, or I'd be flashing my mark at a lot of guys!"

Both Jemma and Fitz started laughing at that.

They'd just calmed when Coulson came down the stairs and into the lab, pausing just inside the doorway. "Stow your projects for now," he told them. "We've got a new mission; we'll be leaving as soon as repairs are finished. We'll brief as soon as we're in the air."

"Yes, sir," FitzSimmons answered in unison.

"Where are we going?" Skye asked curiously.

Coulson gave her a tight smile, his expression strained. "I'll tell you when everyone's together at the briefing."

"Briefing?" May asked as she strode up the ramp.

"Once we're in the air," Coulson deterred her. "How long until repairs are complete?"

"About ten minutes," May replied.

"Okay. I want us off the ground as soon as possible. Coordinates are already in the cockpit."

May nodded acceptance and moved straight to the stairs. FitzSimmons began clearing away their projects for takeoff. Coulson gave Skye another small smile. "If you see Ward on his way in, let him know about the briefing as well."

"Will do," Skye agreed. She moved out of the lab and sat on the steps, waiting for Ward's return.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Once the all-clear was given and May was able to engage the autopilot, the team met in the command center. Skye stood beside Jemma and the two exchanged a glance as they waited for Coulson to begin speaking.

"We've been given orders to retrieve a STRIKE team," Coulson began, his manner businesslike, but Skye noted some tension around his eyes. "Their plane developed mechanical complications and they're going to go down over hostile territory. We're the only unit near enough to get to them before that happens."

"So what's the problem?" Ward asked.

"This STRIKE team has Captain America with them," Coulson said grimly. "Since I'm still under orders to keep off the Avengers' radar, he can't know that I'm on board." His attention turned to May. "For the duration of their time here, I will be the one flying the plane. May will be nominally in command of the team; the STRIKE Team leader, Agent Rumlow, will be aware of the full situation. But he is also under orders to obey security clearance protocols."

"So," Ward summarised, "while they're on board, Agent May is in command and your name is not to be mentioned, is that correct, sir?"

"That's correct," Coulson nodded to Ward.

"I didn't know you could fly the Bus, sir," Fitz said in surprise.

Coulson smiled tightly. "There's a lot of things you don't know about me, Agent Fitz. I won't pretend to be Agent May's equal as a pilot, but I'm quite capable. As far as you are all concerned, if anyone should ask, the pilot is Agent Colin Phillips and he's the solitary type. Clear?"

They all nodded in agreement, and Coulson left to head for his office - to hide his Captain America memorabilia, Skye guessed. She couldn't help but speak up. "Excuse me? Nobody addressed the really important point here. Captain America is coming on board? Will we get to meet him?"

"Cosplaying fangirl," Ward muttered grimly under his breath. May gave him one of her Looks, and he pursed his lips.

"Yes, Skye, you'll get to meet him," May said with a slight sigh. "They'll be on board for a good six hours before we'll be able to drop them off. Can I ask you three to prepare some food? There's eight STRIKE team members plus the Captain, they'll be hungry."

"Of course, Agent May!" Jemma was on her feet at once. "I've heard all about Captain Rogers' enhanced metabolism, I'll make sure there's plenty of food. I wonder - do you think it would be very presumptuous if I asked him some questions? Purely scientific, obviously…"

There was a blush on the English scientist's pale cheeks that Skye was fairly sure had nothing to do with science. She wasn't going to point it out, though. Her face was still red after Ward's fangirl crack.

The title of this fic comes from the old rhyme. The following version is attributed to Benjamin Franklin, but the gist of the rhyme has been about since the Middle Ages at least.

"For want of a nail the shoe was lost,

For want of a shoe the horse was lost,

For want of a horse the rider was lost,

For want of a rider the battle was lost,

For want of a battle the kingdom was lost,

And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail."

TV Tropes says the following about it:

The For Want of a Nail trope as used in popular culture. A story in which one small change has a ripple effect, resulting in massive changes.

Which is exactly what we're getting at here. The changes start out small and subtle but are going to get bigger as we get deeper into the story. Hang on tight, it's gonna be a bumpy ride...