Chapter 1.5
...As it turned out, the budget cuts mentioned by Bobbi involved not only food resources per se, but also plenty of secondary S.H.I.E.L.D. equipment, such as the one used in the kitchen: the stove that Bobbi had designed to make soup upon decisively refused to work. But Bobbi wouldn't be Bobbi if she didn't have a plan B.
"Say, big guy," she said with an ingratiating smile to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new ally, "would you like to help out? For old times' sake?"
"No, Bobbi, no trips down the memory lane, not now," the latter rumbled softly. "Your man is already unhappy, I see. Now, what does the recipy call for?"
Bobbi looked over her shoulder at Lance, who seemed less unhappy and more angry (much angrier than when Skye and May had left him and the other man in the car) at her, and folded by telling Hudima just what did the recipy call for on this occassion. The big gifted nodded. His hands lit up and he began to patiently cook the soup for the team's dinner for tonight.
Silence stretched, as no one, not even Mack, (who was busy with the ribs in the oven), or Fitz (who was helping Skye with the salad - it wasn't his turn for kitchen duty, but he decided to volunteer all the same), wanted to break it, apparently. Skye, who never liked silence anyways, (she may've been trained by May, but some things were always going different between the two of them), decided to break it.
"So, Lance, what are we missing here?" she asked, pointing at the ex-mercenary's (ex?) wife and the new arrival. "Who's Mason?"
"My son," Bobbi answered instead with ice that would impress even Melinda May. "Lance's son too, or so I thought."
"Excuse me?" Skye blinked. "Lance is a pretty unforgetable guy. He is either there or he isn't."
"You don't get it," Lance Hunter didn't sound much like himself either, not at the moment. "Bobbi had a son - but not from me, or by me, or whatever the term is. For a while I thought that it was Grant Ward's actually - but he isn't the father either."
"You're the mother of Ward's son?!" Skye's eyes bulged in her sockets. "And you didn't tell us?"
"You're not listening," Hunter said with disgust. "Ward isn't Mason's father; I don't know who it is, but apparently while she was telling me that Mason is Ward's, she was telling the others that Mason is actually mine. He is neither." He sat down, visibly deflated.
"Oh," Fitz's genuis intellect helped him to come through first this time around too. "That's different, I guess. So who is the father?"
"Does it matter?" the big gifted rumbled, startling the small Scottsman. "A marriage is like a painting on the wall - it is either there or not. If you love her, you'll make it work, a stepson or not. If not - then not. Don't drag the boy into this."
Lance gave the bigger man a glare. "Well aren't you philosophical."
"I tried to have relationships before - they didn't work. It was my fault - my old man was multitalented, but not when it came to women," Hudima shrugged. "Besides, don't try to drag me into this mess: she married you, she loves you - not me."
Lance looked askance. "That's what I used to think too. Now, I wonder if she just wants a father for her child. She's a she-demon, you know?"
"Yes, and I'm a genetic throwback," Hudima shrugged. "My alien DNA comes from aliens called the Skrulls. Here on Earth they were known as the Rakshasa or green demons. They fought blue-skinned gods - the Kree. My point-"
"Wait, what?" Skye couldn't help but ask. "Did you say Kree? Some of the aliens we encountered are called the Kree."
"Ok, and?" Hudima shrugged. "Most people in Li Shi are descended from the Skrulls and the Kree. The two alien races are closely related, but would rather interact with humans than with each other." He paused. "Of course, your mother's lineage - going for the last 1000 years or so - just may be from some other alien race, while your father is your father." He paused and looked askance at Skye. "I didn't have to deal with Cal much, and I don't exactly like him, but if Garner goes after him...he is your father. Did you think about that?"
Skye blanched and opened her mouth to admit that no, she did not, when Mack spoke for the first time since the whole mess with May's family began.
"Well, we actually do have several agents observing Cal, keeping tabs on him - discreetly," the Afro-American man rumbled. "But thank you for asking. The ribs are ready."
There was a pause, as everyone looked at Mackenzie. "Are you ok?" Fitz asked quietly the older man.
"No, I mean yes, I mean - she and Phil, they're together, aren't they?" the latter replied, clearly unhappy himself.
There was a pause as the others blinked at this sudden change in topic. "You love May, don't you?" Skye asked softly her friend (and video-game partner).
"I don't know," Mack shook his head. "I like the idea of children, you know? I just...can't have any."
"My old man had the same problem for the last few years of his life. It broke him," Hudima agreed.
"I feel his pain," Mack shrugged. "But what can you do?"
"He can try to revitalize your cells," Bobbi replied instead. "He isn't just a walking bonfire, you know? It isn't exactly fire, you know? It's more like energy that manifests visibly as fire...it's an alien biology thing, you know?"
"No," Mack said flatly. "How it works?"
Hudima groaned. One of his fingers lit up with a flame...only it wasn't a flame per se, more of a warm light that made Skye feel tingly for one...
"What did I miss?" Melinda spoke suddenly, startling everyone - hence the reaction that followed...
"Mack cannot have kids," Hunter said.
"Morse only married Hunter so that her boy would have a father," Mack snapped back.
"Hudima here is an alien throwback of some sort," Morse deflected.
"Chuju over there is like a Jedi - her powers come from her mind, the embodiment of pure willpower," Hudima shrugged, extinguishing his flame.
"Uh, Fitz over there, next to you, needs a hug?" Skye suggested.
May blinked, muttered something under her breath about being out of the loop for just an hour and gave Fitz a hug. "Thanks for helping Bobbi with Naomi," she said quietly.
"Don't mention it," Fitz replied equally quietly. "We're never getting Jemma back, are we? I was working on burrowed time all this time - sorry for repetition - and now it ran out. The team - S.H.I.E.L.D. - needs my help."
"Fitz, we'll help you get Jemma back," Skye said softly, but Fitz refused to be consoled.
"Skye, thanks, but let's be honest here - we got our next big case to deal with here, so Jemma will have to go onto the back burner, metaphorically speaking... What are we dealing with here, BTW?"
"Leo, did Jemma ever talk to you about the Green Branches research facility?" Melinda asked gently.
Leo blinked and grew noticeably more thoughtful than before. (Before he had been only morose instead.) "You know something? I've heard of this place. Shall we go and speak to director Coulson?"
Melinda nodded in agreement.
TBC