Before You Go

Betrayal Is Always Unexpected

The Quinjet landed in the hanger with a harsh grinding of landing gear.

Fitz watched from the edge of the loading bay with anticipation. After all the months it had taken, his efforts had finally paid off. Or, at least, most of them.

The ramp lowered with a hum, allowing tired yet triumphant agents to trickle out. Fitz spotted Bobbi and Hunter amongst the throng, a few scrapes on their cheeks but otherwise no worse for the wear. Both had beaming grins.

Fitz jogged over to the crowd, pushing lightly through with a few mumbled apologies. Eventually the concrete of the hanger floor gave way to the metal of the Quinjet ramp.

And there she was, hair longer than he remembered, but still her. Skye grinned at him, hobbling on a pair of crutches with Lincoln by her side. A long red stripe cut across her cheekbone, but she appeared otherwise unharmed.

Fitz ran, pulling her into a tight embrace. "Bloody hell, Skye! 'Re you alright?"

The Inhuman laughed. "I'm good, Fitzy. Just a bit banged up from the escape," she gave his arm a squeeze as she pulled back.

Her eyes were alight with something akin to relief, but the emotion concealed something deeper. Darker. She seemed . . . Shaken.

But who am I to judge?  Fitz mused, watching the girl he'd come to think of as a little sister. The whole base was shaken. Perhaps the strongest Inhuman in SHIELD's recruitment had been snatched and held deep within HYDRA's clutches for months with no word. It had been a miracle to find her, let alone pull her out.

Fitz mentally shook himself, offering Skye another small smile. "I'll bet. Anything with Hunter in charge had to be a bit shaky."

The merc cast a glare in his direction from the other side of the hanger.

"Ears like a hawk, that one," he sighed under his breath. "Well, I'll leave you to it," he nodded at Lincoln. "I'm sure you have a lot to catch up on,"

Skye nodded tightly, watching him go.

__

Three days came and passed with no major events, save for a lab tech accidentally igniting a computer. How he did it, Fitz still wasn't sure.

The contact from Jemma had dwindled down to virtually nothing after his package containing her diaries had been delivered a week or so ago. Her letters - because she still wasn't completely caught up on texting and other more modern forms of communication - had been sparse to begin with. He could only hope that sending those books hadn't been a mistake.

Fitz sighed heavily, brushing sweat from his forehead with a grease cloth. It wasn't a good thing to let his mind wander while working. It had already cost him two cuts from the pliers he grasped. He shifted back into a lying position, allowing him better access to the circuitry of what he'd been able to recronstruct of the memory machine.

It had been all but ripped apart in the escape, just a mass of wires and scrap material. The thing still wasn't even functional. If it ever would be was beyond him.

His watch bleeped some time later. Fitz sat up, banging his head in the process. A grunt escaped him as he checked the alert.

Report to main office, effective immediately. - DC

Fitz frowned. The message had been sent on the encrypted line that was only to be used in case of mainframe sabotage. Something was wrong.

Well, more screwed than usual, anyway.

__

Jemma winced, relaxing further on the sofa to ease the birth weight. To be completely honest, aside from the jacked up hormones and aches and pains, being pregnant hadn't been all too bad. But in the past week or so the baby had been moving around much more than Jemma found even reasonably necessary, leading to more bladder and back issues.