Coulson Squared

Naiveté

Note at the end of the chapter this time.

"This could have been a traumatic experience for Dr. Hall. He may not be the same when you find him," Phil warned the two of you over the comms. "(Y/N) will talk him down. We don't want your personality to set him on edge, Ward."

"Great time for humor, sir," he replied blandly. "My people skills are the least of our problems if Skye can't get us in."

With one last tug, your raft was safely on the beach, tucked behind a rock.

"You still don't have any faith in her," you called Ward out. "How do you expect to be able to bond with her in a way that helps you to train her if you refuse to believe that she can do anything?"

"She's gotta earn my trust, too," he replied stiffly.

"That's not what being a teacher is about. You know that, right?" you asked seriously. "In a teaching situation, you have to trust your student for them to trust you. If they break your trust, then that's that, but you can't start out without a little blind trust."

"You suggest that I trust someone who could betray us at any moment?" He glared at you as you walked up the path to Quinn's property.

You returned a glare with equal force. "No, I suggest that you trust your student."

He said nothing, just sighed and shook his head as if he were dealing with an unreasonable toddler.

You kept your anger at his ineptitude down and instead promised yourself that you'd kick his butt sparring later. "When I was in middle school, I had a lot of trouble with math," you stated.

"You're not special."

"Oh, you're certainly not wrong. I hated math, just like every kid across the world is conditioned to. Something kind of miraculous happened in high school, though. I suddenly got really good at math, and I was pretty stoked honestly. The numbers and letters and Greek alphabet started making sense out of nowhere."

"Lucky you."

"Do you know why I got so good at math?"

"If it's not crucial to our success here, I don't think it really matters, does it?"

"It may not be crucial to the success of this mission, but it will be in any future missions where you have to put your trust in Skye."

"You talk like there will be future missions."

"Yes, because I trust her to do her part!" you exclaimed angrily. "Math started making sense because I wanted it to make sense. I couldn't learn it until I wanted to, get it? You won't be able to trust her until you want to."

"I do want to trust her!"

"No, you don't."

"Oh, well, excuse me, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, but trust doesn't come so easily to all of us."

"Just like math."

He didn't have a response, but that may have partially been because you rounded a corner on the trail to see a bright yellow warning sign. In an English translation below the warning in Maltese, the sign read, "Do not cross / Lethal radiation."

Eyeing the sign and the seemingly clear trail ahead of you, you picked up a handful of dirt and tossed it forward. With a buzzing noise straight out of a video game, the laser grid glowed bright yellow and ate the destroyed the dirt. You and Ward exchanged a concerned glance.

"Next patrol any minute now," he said.

"Skye's offline," May reported urgently. "Repeat, we've lost audio and vitals."