Chapter 3

Everyone was relaxing on the Bus after they got out of the strike zone for the Fitz and Ward's mission. Coulson made dinner while May put the Bus on autopilot. Fitz-Simmons were down in the lab. Simmons was insisting on giving Fitz a thorough medical examination. Ward was punching the bag again down in the cargo bay and Skye was camped out in the command center.

Once everyone was seated around the table no one wanted to start a conversation. Fitz-Simmons were being remarkably being silent and not arguing. Ward is a robot, he doesn't like to converse. May is silent ninety nine percent of the time. Skye had brought her laptop and in between bites was typing something on to it. Coulson was still feeling guilty over yelling at Skye when she was right all along.

"Hey May." Skye said after taking another bite of pasta.

May looked up from her food and looked at Skye. Her universal 'what?' look on her face.

"Was any damage done to the plane during the extraction that would be big enough for Fury to get angry?" Skye asked.

"No. We were in and out quickly no time for any big damage and the hull is built to prevent bullets from penetrating." May said before turning back to her food.

"Hmmm. That's good." Skye said absentmindedly while once again typing at her laptop.

"Why do you ask?" Coulson asked curious.

"I have to finish this report and send it to Pirate. I also told him that I would make sure no extensive damage was done to the plane. I really don't want him to be angry when he calls later." Skye said while typing again.

Everyone turned and stared at Skye in confusion.

"Pirate?" Coulson asked.

"Yeah, Director Fury. You know our boss with the eyepatch. Only has one eye. So Pirate." Skye said as if they should have been able to guess.

Everyone at the table just stared at Skye in shock.

"Do you have a death wish? You shouldn't call the Director that ever." Fitz said looking at her as if she was suicidal.

"Not that I know of, but I did join this plane. It's a wonder none of us have died yet." Skye wondered about completely going away from the main topic of the conversation.

"Skye, you shouldn't talk about the most feared man in SHIELD like that." Ward said speaking to her for the first time since he got back onto the plane.

"Skye, you really shouldn't. Fury is known for his dislike of those. He doesn't even let his most trusted people do that." Coulson said worried about Skye and her habit for getting into trouble for saying by speaking without thinking first.

"It's cool. Before we left to rescue Ward and Fitz, he had Maria drag me over to a meeting with him. He said it was okay. Although only I'm the one who's allowed to do that." Skye had a wistful look across her face. Everyone was just still staring at Skye in shock. "Anyway, I have to send this report in then I will be in the command center. I will have video call going soon, so if you need anything knock first please." She said while leaving the table.

Once the door to the command center was closed and they were sure that Skye couldn't hear them, everyone turned and stared at Coulson.

"Umm, sir?" Ward started. "What happened at the Hub while Fitz and I were away?"

"I honestly have no idea. May, Simmons do you know what happened at the Hub?" Coulson asked turning towards the two. Fitz and Ward also turned and looked at the two.

May just stared at Coulson and shrugged her shoulders. Then went back to eating.

"Ok then. Simmons, what about you?" Coulson turned to her.

"Sorry sir, but I have no idea."

"Well, why don't you explain everything that happened at the Hub." Ward suggested.

"Well after I plugged in the flash drive that would allow her to hack into the main frame. She told me to go get May because I had used the Night-Night gun to shoot Agent Sitwell. Then some time later she was back at the Bus and we were getting ready to come and get Fitz and Ward." Simmons explained vaguely.

"So during the time between Simmons helping her hack into Shield and turning up at the bus. No one else from the team saw her. So we have no idea what she did." Ward said summing up everything they know.

"Well, no. I did see her quickly while she was just finishing hacking into SHIELD. Though I have no idea how long that took to do. So she could've only had ten minutes before meeting up with you May and Simmons. It would have taken her a while to hack into SHIELD." Coulson figured as the likely explanation.

"That is true. No matter how good of a hacker Skye is, the SHIELD security system is one of the best in the world. It would have taken her a while to hack in." Ward said.

"Nope." Simmons interjected with.

"What do you mean?" Fitz asked.

"The planning of the hack had to be well timed because she was only going to have three minutes to get in and get the information." Simmons said.

"That's impossible. It would have taken her much longer. It took Tony Stark hours to hack in and he also had a physical connection to the SHIELD mainframe." Coulson said. The minute he finished everyone turned and stared at him. "What?"

"Physical Connection? Sorry to say this sir, but you are not exactly the most technological savvy person on this plane." Fitz said seeming very uncomfortable.

"Thank you for that Fitz. If you must know Stark told me that after he hacked into Shield. The only part I understood was the physical connection part." Coulson admitted. "Besides I am much better with technology than Ward."

"That is untrue." Ward said.

"What's untrue?" Skye asked appearing from nowhere.

"That I am worse with technology than Agent Coulson." Ward said to her.

"Oh that is completely true. Though even if AC is only slightly better than you, I wouldn't want you two anywhere near the various machines. I would still like to be able to use them when you are done." Skye said while standing at the table.

"Thank you for that Skye. Now, what are you doing out here? I thought you said you were barricading yourself in the Command Center." Coulson asked her.

"I am but I sent off the report on an encrypted hardline and was thirsty so I came out to get something to drink." Skye said as she walked over to the fridge. Once she grabbed a soda, Skye went back into the Command Center.

"So, back to the original topic. If I caught her just as she was finishing up the hack then she had a lot of time to meet with anyone in the base and take a lap around it." Coulson said.

"Which begs the next question are we sure that she even met with the Director and Deputy Director?" Ward asks. "It could just be her lying again like before and she could be contacting the Rising Tide." Ward said not wanting to believe his new rookie was in good with his boss's.

"Skye wouldn't contact the Rising Tide anymore." May said surprising everyone.

"You say that like you trust her despite her betraying us." Ward said while looking at May.

"Any doubt I had about Skye was gone after the Hub." May said while still eating.

"Anyways, we still have no idea what happened at the Hub." Simmons said.

"Pretty much." Fitz answered.

The Avengers were still waiting in Fury's office at the Hub. They were all waiting anxiously for the report from Skye to make sure she was all right.

"One question." Tony began. Once he had everyone's attention, tony started once again, "I understand why Red is so anxious, what with being her soulmate and all, but why are the rest of us also so worried? We barely met the girl, let alone talked to her."

Everyone just turned and stared at Tony not knowing what to say.

"I guess she is just that kind of person that you just want to automatically follow." Bruce said as he cleaned his glasses.

"Plus, if she is Tasha's soulmate that makes her my little sister by default." Clint said as he sat down at the table.

"So, Fury how come I haven't been able to find anything on any other database or even the internet?" Tony asked after looking at the results that came up.

"I told you she is a hacker; she deleted herself from the interweb."

"Why, though?" Natasha asked.

"I don't know and neither does Coulson. Whenever he asks about her past she doesn't say anything, just dodges the question." Maria answered.

"So that probably means her past is something bad." Steve guessed.

"Probably, the only thing we know definitively is that she was in foster care for all of her childhood. She says she dropped out of high school but her knowledge at some points suggests otherwise." Maria said.

"Well, when Red finally tells her that they are soulmates; maybe she can get some answers about her past." Tony suggested.

"Natasha when you were intimate with her did you notice anything on her body that could give us some clues?" Fury asked.

"Well at the time I was kind of busy, but now that you mention it she had a lot of scars on her body. Some of them looked like stab wounds, a couple gunshot wounds as well what looked like someone dragging a knife across her skin." Natasha said.

"I thought you said you weren't paying attention." Tony said.

"I wasn't thinking about it at the time but I did notice them because that is what I am trained to do." Natasha responded back.

"So, Natasha do you think you will be able to get her to tell you something about her past?" Fury asked.

"Not at first." Natasha said.

"Why not? You can make grown men cry in five minutes, it shouldn't be that hard to get this information from her." Tony said.

"I can, Tony. But you have to understand I never thought that I would find my soulmate and I want to do this right. That would mean not prying into her obviously messed up past. It wouldn't be good for me or my sex life if she is mad at me because I looked too much into her past and she wasn't ready for anyone to know and I told Fury who put it into her file." Natasha said with a stern voice.

"Fine, Natasha. You can ask her about her past and you don't have to tell me unless she wants you to. Okay?" Fury asked.

Instead of answering Natasha just nodded her head.

BEEP, BEEP.

Fury's laptop went of and he went over to check it. Seeing that it was the report from Skye he opened it up and started reading it. Once he was done and was satisfied that nothing happened to seriously damage the plane, Fury sent the request to open up a video chat.

"Okay that was the report from Skye. Everyone is back on the plane safe and sound, minimal damage to the plane itself. No one is hurt either." Fury informed everyone in the room. "I just sent out the request for the video chat on the plane."

The message showed on the screen that they were waiting for someone to pick up on the other side. Suddenly, the message picked up, but it wasn't Skye it was Coulson.

"Coulson, where is Skye? She was supposed to have video conference at this time." Fury said to Coulson.

"Sorry sir. Skye was in here working, until something happened and she ran out." Coulson admitted with a slight smile.

"What happened, Agent Coulson?" Maria asked.

"Well, since she is new to SHIELD Fitz and Simmons decided to start the pranking. What they didn't count on her getting them back. Apparently she is pretty smart and had made a very elaborate prank to get them back." Coulson explained.

"That doesn't explain where she is now, Coulson." Fury said.

"Well…" Coulson started.

"SKYE, GET BACK HERE."

"I'D RATHER NOT."

All of a sudden everyone on Fury's end saw her run past the windows on the far side then she disappeared from view once again.

"Will she be done anytime soon?" Maria asked.

"Yeah give it a couple minutes. Since its Fitz he will tire out pretty quickly. If it was Ward it would take a little while." Coulson said.

"Does this happen often, Coulson?" Tony asked.

"Yes Stark, yes it does." Coulson replied with a smile.

Suddenly Skye ran into the Command Center and started typing stuff into the command console.

"Skye, what are you doing?" Coulson asked.

"I lost Fitz when I ran thru the lab, didn't think Ward's training would come in handy so soon, anyways he will be back to the chase in a couple of seconds." Skye said. Looking up quickly, Skye glanced around the plane real quickly. "See there he is.

Coulson and everyone turned to look. Tony had managed to use the connection to get access to some parts of the plane. Some meaning the one camera in the Command Center. The sight greeted the Avenger and everyone else was Fitz covered in foam.

"Come on, come on." Skye started chanting. Everyone was just listening to her chanting. All of a sudden she yelled, "Got it", just as Fitz saw her and started running at the command center. They all saw how just before he was able to get to the command center the doors slammed shut. Everyone heard and saw Fitz slam into the door. Everyone cringed in sympathy. Skye burst out laughing.

"Skye, I will get you back for this." Fitz said in his scottish accent and went to go take a shower.

"Skye, how did you do that?" Coulson asked. Tony turned the camera so that it was pointing at Skye.

"Sorry AC, but you are going to have to be more specific." Skye said.

"Let's start with the prank." Coulson suggested.

"Oh that was easy, I just used a design for a prank I made when I was in high school. Then I set it up so that when he had to go get some components for one of his new designs when he opened the door he would get a face full of foam." Skye explained with a shrug and a laugh.

"Now the door." Coulson suggested.

"That was easy. After our first mission where I was on the plane, I saw that we might need another way to make sure that only we had access to our command center. So with May's permission I set this up one night a few weeks ago." Skye explained.

"Is this the only way to close and lock the doors?"

"No I set up a few panels the next night when I couldn't sleep. The report is on your desk. All you need to do is hand out each person's access code and that will keep a record and no one else but you and I will know anyone else's. Except for maybe May, she scares me sometimes." Skye explained.

"Skye are you okay with staying up that much?" Fury asked from over the video feed.

"Yeah. It's just that during that week when I was younger something bad happened and it still gives me nightmares. So no matter what happens I can't sleep during that time. Don't worry its past and I can sleep again." Skye explained in a nonchalant voice.

"Skye, what happened during that time?" Coulson asked in a stern voice.

"Coulson, no matter how many times you ask I will not talk about that ever again." Skye said.

"Will you at least tell us more about your life?" Maria asked over the feed.

Skye looked away and noticed May standing outside the Command Center. Sighing, she hit a few buttons and let her into the room and then relocked the door. Once the door was locked May did her usual 'ask a question without actually making a face' thing and got the answer from Coulson.

"Skye was just explaining how she rigged most of the bus to be able to lock down the Command Center if we get taken over again." May just nodded. Then raised another eyebrow. Taking the hint Coulson also answered again. "We were just asking Skye about her past and from the sigh it sounds like she is going to tell us."

"Yeah, here's how this is going to work. You can ask a question if I feel or want to answer I will if I don't then I won't. Capisce?" Skye said. Everyone just nodded.

"Did you drop out of high school?" Maria asked. Everyone turned and stared at her. "What? I thought I would give her an easy question before everyone starts asking more personal questions."

"No I did not." Skye answered. Everyone raised an eyebrow at that.

"You told Fitz-Simmons that you dropped out." Coulson replied.

"Yeah, well I was tired and they were going on and on and no matter what my PHD's say I really didn't feel like listening to them." Skye responded with giving more information than necessary.

"How many PHD's do you have?" Tony asked his eyes practically sparkling with the joy of finding out that information.

"Seven." Skye answered. That caused everyone to raise their eyebrows in surprise. They all know that Skye is twenty five years old and not even Tony had that many at that age.

"What fields are they in and how did you manage to get that many at such a young age?" Tony once again asked.

"Math, Combinatorics, Physics, Biochemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, mechanical and electrical. As for your other question, I met the professor after the first time I was kidnapped." Skye was talking to herself trying to remember back that far. The moment she mentioned her being kidnapped and was so nonchalant about it everyone was raising their eyebrow in surprise. Their faces were going to hurt after this meeting ended. "So that means I started college when I was six. That's how I got all my PHD's." Skye said.

"Why were you kidnapped when you were six?" Steve asked.

"I was a genius child with an IQ of, well 195 now, and was in the foster system. It wasn't that hard for someone to kidnap me." Skye explained.

"Should we even bother asking why they kidnapped you?" Fury asked.

"Nope. I won't tell you." Skye said.

"How about, have you been kidnapped more than that one time?" Bruce asked.

"Including the time Coulson and Ward, and then Mike. That would make a total of eight if we count those as two separate ones. Huh never realized it had gotten so high." Skye said with a thoughtful expression.

Everyone was just looking at her with shocked expressions. No one should be that nonchalant about being kidnapped.

"Skye, do those play into the scars on your body?" Natasha asked walking forward more.

When Skye heard the question her body immediately tensed up. Everyone was automatically on high alert. Only Coulson and May could see the way Skye's eyes glazed over for a few minutes. "Yes they do." Skye said her voice still tense.

"How did they happen?" Natasha asked softly. Skye didn't want to answer necessarily but the moment she looked into Natasha's eyes she felt something profound but didn't really understand what it was, just that she felt safe with Natasha. In a soft voice Skye answered, "Torture." Everyone was pissed they didn't expect that answer.

"Skye, do you want to try hacking into Stark international?" Tony asked.

"Sure, but I don't know how happy you will be when I crack into it in an hour and a half." Skye said working on it the moment he stopped talking.

"That's not possible. My security system is more advanced than SHIELD's." Tony said incredulous.

"Well we will see then." Skye had a mischievous smile when she said that. Everyone was just smiling at the fact that Tony was able to make her smile so easily after she had told one of the most painful memories of her past to them.

"While she does that. Coulson, Melinda we have to talk about a few things." Fury said over the feed.

While Fury, Maria, Coulson, and May talked about SHIELD related missions, everyone else either wasn't paying attention or doing something else waiting for the hour and a half deadline to see if Skye could actually do it.

"Got it!" Skye exclaimed an Hour and a half later.

"Damn it, she's in." Tony said looking through his file's watching Skye go through them.

"Well Tony I think you just got bested by a girl half your age. And she made the deadline." Clint said with a laugh.

"Shut it Katniss. Come work for me at Stark International, I could give you anything you need." Tony asked in earnest.

"Stark! What did I say about trying to steal my agents?" Fury asked or more like demanded.

"I appreciate the offer but I am happy where I am right now." Skye said while laughing.

Turning around Fury was waiting for Skye to calm down to make her an offer.

"Skye I have an assignment for you." Fury said. The moment he stopped everyone turned and stared at him. Skye automatically stopped laughing and looked at him with a wary expression.

"What is it?" Skye asked.

"Since you have managed to point out that we have flaws in our own firewalls. Also since you made fun of Starks as well I want you to redo SHIELD's firewalls." Fury said.

"Are you sure you want to trust an ex-Rising Tide hacker?" Skye asked still wary.

"Tell me something honestly." Fury looked directly into Skye's eyes. Once Skye nodded, Fury asked her the question, "Did you willingly join the Rising Tide?" Everyone turned and looked at Skye.

"No, I was kidnapped again. Spent at least two months in an underground base. When I wouldn't hack into where they wanted me to The Rising Tide payed a hundred thousand to buy me from them. Then Miles came into the picture he thought if he showed me some attention then I would do whatever they wanted he didn't plan on me using the hacks into SHIELD to try to get you guys to come help me. That's why those hacks didn't give away vital information that could cost a lot of lives now." Skye said with a defeated tone.

"If that's true then why did you help Miles when we were going after him?" Coulson asked.

"The guy might be a good hacker, but he sucks compared to me. The only reason he was able to give away that information was because he stole the program I made to hack into SHIELD and passed it off as his own. So I went there to try to find out who else he sold it to. I just wasn't able to fully tell you why." Skye explained.

"What are you talking about?" Maria asked.

"Fury, do you trust everyone who is linked into this video conference right now?" Skye asked.

After a couple moments of contemplation Fury nodded his head.

"Well when I was with the Rising Tide I noticed something. The people there were good hacker's but like I said they weren't noticeably great. Due to that I was wondering how they were able to pay the amount to … buy me for lack of a better word. Anyways, I did some digging when they weren't paying enough attention. Found that they were a link off from another organization. A much larger organization. Though I hit a dead end. I suppose when they bought the world's number one hacker they tried to keep the electronic trail to a minimum so that I wouldn't be able to detect it. Though the first time I was hacking into SHIELD I noticed some discrepancies in certain files. Before I had this bracelet on and I had more access to the SHIELD mainframe I was able to discern that you more than likely have several moles for this organization in SHIELD. Who they are I don't know or how many but they are there. I am certain." Skye explained.

"I believe everything you say and we will start looking into this quietly. Although why do you only want to tell us? Do you not trust the rest of your team?" Fury asked.

"No, Fitz-Simmons could never go against SHIELD. However, I was looking into Ward's background and a few things didn't add up. Plus since he has started being my SO he is training me but not the way that would most be effective for a woman to fight. Not that he thinks I understand that. It's like he wants to seem that he is making progress but without making enough to make sure I remain as little as a threat as possible. Plus I have a weird feeling around him sometimes. And it's not just because he is a robot." Skye explained.

"Well, Ward is one of the best but we will take that into consideration I mean he has done a lot for this team." Coulson started but was interrupted by Skye. "The first task of undercover work is to gain the trust of the enemy. Even I know that and I'm not a SHIELD agent." Coulson just gave her a look, "Anyways we will keep an eye on Ward whatever is happening we want to be ahead of it. To keep up appearances you will keep the bracelet on and when around the others it will work the way it is supposed to. If we get a mission that I can send Ward out alone at that time we can tell Fitz-Simmons about our suspicions."

"Just be careful with telling Simmons." At Coulson's raised eyebrow Skye elaborated, "I did that little hack job at the Hub today and all Simmons needed to do was a little lying and she managed to down spiral and shoot a superior officer. Which is big no-no even if he is creepy."

"Alright then, now that we have these suspicions out of the way we will start looking into them. Agent May I want you to take over as Skye's SO instead of Ward. If you don't have a problem with that." May shook her head indicating her head that she didn't. Which had Skye raising her eyebrow in shock. "Now then, back to the matter at hand. When you are able, Coulson we will use your office for this assignment. The mission details are that I want you to enhance SHIELD's firewalls. So far you are the only person able to break through the firewall but I don't want there to be a repeat. Do you agree?" Fury asked.

"Yeah, sure. It should be fun." Skye agreed.

"Good. Your credentials and security level will now be level nine so that you can enhance the files. Do not take liberties with this." Fury said.

"Yes, sir." Skye said.

"Now if all the business is taken care of I would like to end this conference now."

"Wait Fury. I would like to speak to Skye privately." Natasha asked. Fury just nodded his head. While the Avengers were leaving Fury's office, Skye set about disabling the door to let May and Coulson out and then relocked them for privacy.

"So … what did you want to talk about?" Skye asked nervously.

"It's about this afternoon. After you -" Natasha started.

"If you want to forget about it and pretend it never happened we could do that. I don't want that to happen because I thought we both felt something but if you want to that's fine and I'm rambling. Ok i will stop that now." Skye said.

"No, what I was going to say was that after you left Clint dropped in, quite literally, and apparently when he was coming to check up on me after our last mission he heard us. So when you were gone he started talking to me while I was trying to find my shirt, not exactly sure how you got the shirt to fly so far but you did, and he noticed that I had a soulmate tattoo on my back." Natasha said.

Skye didn't know what to say. "So you're saying, I'm your …"

"Soulmate yes. It was your name and all." Natasha said.

"Who knows?"

"Seriously? That's the first question you ask." Natasha says.

"You just told me I'm your soulmate. You are an assassin with probably a lot of enemies and I like not dying. Plus depending on who knows before I did I might be very pissed off." Skye retorts.

"Fine. The only people who know before you did were the rest of the Avenger and Fury and Hill because Clint can't keep his big mouth shut. Besides, I do have a lot of enemies. Which means that whenever you have time off you will be staying at Avenger's tower. Your first break we will move some of your stuff there." Natasha said.

"Whoa wait, when was this decided?" Skye said feeling slightly overwhelmed.

"Well, whenever a member of the team finds their soulmate, it means they automatically move into the building, for protection as well as close enough for when we don't have missions." Natasha explained.

"Fine, but I don't have much stuff." Skye said.

"Why don't you have much stuff?" Natasha asked.

"I lived in my van. You learn to travel light. Everything that is important to me is hidden." Skye explained.

"Ok then when you get back we can talk Tony into helping us move your stuff." Natasha said.

The two just kind of awkwardly stood there for a few moments.

"So … thanks for telling me. Now I'm going to go get ready for bed and try to process this um … hope to talk to you soon. Yeah, bye." Skye said while cringing at the horrible flow of words.

"Bye, Skye. Goodnight."

They both signed off at the same time. Skye was not sure how to take the news that she just found out. Quickly turning all the equipment off and moving her stuff into an encrypted hard drive she moved to get ready for some sleep. She knows that May gets up at four to practice her Tai Chi.

Natasha had shut down the computer when everyone came back into the room.

"So you told her?" Steve asked. Natasha nodded yes. "How did she take it?"

"Surprised and a little overwhelmed it seemed like. Though that could be because I basically told her we were destined to be together forever and then told her that she is basically moving into the tower." Natasha explained feeling a little overwhelmed herself.

"You told her all that on a video feed?" Tony asked.

"Yeah."

"Natasha you can't just come out and say all that at once no wonder she felt overwhelmed. From what Coulson has told me she used to live in a van. She once mentioned how her bunk on the bus was bigger than her van." Maria said.

"Well sorry, but I'm not use to relationships. You can't exactly have a very good relationship because of all the lying and time away." Natasha said.

"Now that we got all the domestic things out of the way. All of you get out of my office and go do whatever it is you do." Fury said with a dismissive hand.

Everyone exited the office and went towards their separate ways.

I originally said this was going to only change a few things but I changed my mind. Now this is going to move through a few different motions but the episodes from the series are also going to be in there as well. Hope you enjoyed. Now have a great day, night, evening.