Friends and Foes

"Director Coulson?" Fitz did a very good attempt to sound professional, actually. "What about Green Branches?"

Coulson didn't miss a beat; the fact that for the moment May's biological family was out of the shot helped.

"It is a branch of S.H.I.E.L.D.," he replied in an even more professional voice. "It was associated with your part of the Academy - sci and tech."

"That is correct," Fitz nodded, while utilizing the same matter of fact tone. "It was located in West Virgina - still is, rather, if you want to get technical. It was one of the more fortified and better hidden S.H.I.E.L.D. locations - not quite up to Fridge's standards, but close. It was doing primarily medical research - biological too. There were secondary sites around the world - Guest House, for example, though it was more of a supply depot, actually - but Green Branches was perhaps the most important, most main one. Agent Weaver was planning on having Jemma work there after we graduate - they don't really need engineers there, not as much as they need biochemists, for example - but Jemma had outmaneuvered her somehow, or done something, and went off to work in the field - alongside me. Yay." He paused, took a deep breath, and continued: "So why are you asking?"

"Andrew Garner seems to have contacts there," Coulson replied carefully. Something was off with Fitz - well, something was off ever since Jemma Simmons was taken, but now the 'off' part was different.

"So?" Leo frowned in thought and looked like his old self once more, however briefly. "Isn't he May's husband? I mean, isn't it normal that he is associated with some of us?"

"This is just the problem," Melinda spoke from behind Fitz, startling him, before he still was nowhere near her league. "He wasn't. He was always quite anti-S.H.I.E.L.D., always taking an effort not to be associated with the agency too closely. And now, well - but you don't know about Naomi too much, do you?"

Leo shook his head. "I know that she's your daughter - that makes her Andrew's daughter too, right?"

"Yes," Melinda nodded.

"So, is, or was your daughter a cadet too-"

"No, she's a civilian," Melinda shook her head. "After Bahrain... never mind." She stopped, obviously thinking about something. "Leo, are you ok?" she finally settled on an appropriate topic.

"No, I am not," Leo's voice actually sounded similar to Melinda's default setting, (so to speak). "Jemma is gone, my happiness is gone, and your family is in trouble. Of course I am not ok. Can't you figure it out?" He paused, realized that he had snapped at the Cavalry out of all people, and tried to back-peddle - sort of. "I didn't mean to do that?"

"Of course you didn't," Morse agreed, as she framed by the others (except for Skye), appeared from behind May. "Now, uh, director Coulson? Skye is back in regards to locating Green Branches."

"I, we already know where it is - it's part of our organization," Coulson pointed, not unreasonably.

"Yeah, and not unlike Cybertek it is self-contained," Skye popped out of the nearby office. "Fortunately, it is still detectable by satellites-"

"You hacked U.S. satellites?" Coulson stared.

"Well, they were someone's satellites," Skye admitted. "I'm not sure if they're American or not."

"It doesn't matter - ever since the deal with Christian Ward had fallen through, we're still very unpopular with the U.S. politicians," May shrugged.

"And why would you want to deal with career politicians at any rate? Please don't misunderstand me," Hudima rumbled, "but I thought that S.H.I.E.L.D. generally shyed away from dealing with non-human entities?"

"...I see that you have a very dim view of politics and politicians," Coulson said after an awkward pause. "Did you reach it on your own or did you talk to Hunter?"

"I did talk to Hunter but not about that," Hudima shrugged. "Should I have?"

"Guys, come on! Why is everyone so slow today?" Skye said grouchily.

"Sorry; it's as if the big computer that keeps us all running as computer characters should be run is being slightly on the fritz," Hunter shot back. "Anyhow, what did you discover?"

"Not what, who," Skye said, grouchily. "Ward. Keep in mind, this is few weeks old, and the footage is black-and-white and not very good - but this is the best that I could find, period. The rest of the footage is just as bad and not as interesting, except for one more piece..."

She played the footage with Ward first. The man was standing outside Green Branches' main perimeter, but clearly unbothered by anyone. His stance was tense and worried, but he is clearly unbothered all the same.

Several people, dressed as orderlies, appeared on the scene, driving (for the lack of a better term) a wheelchair with a person on it. The satellite footage was of a bad quality, but the people could see that the person in the wheelchair was in a very bad shape - forget Lindsey Lohan, this was far worse.

Ward, unexpectedly, seemed to agree. He gave the person a long stare, and then gave the orderlies a longer one. The footage wasn't very good, but the people - and there was something wrong with their general body shapes, BTW - clearly didn't enjoy being the objects of his attention and fled with as much dignity as they could have (which wasn't much). Ward turned to the person in the wheelchair, apparently muttered something (the footage didn't have any audio, to make things worse) and drove her/him away.

"That's it," Skye said apologetically to May.

"Was this Naomi before he passed her onto me? It is her - it's the same wheelchair, and it just is her, you know?"

"May," Skye began to speak, but was interrupted by Bobbi:

"Of course it is her! We checked the bloodwork, the DNA markers, everything matched - unless she has a sister, of course-"

"She doesn't," May shook her head, ruefully. "Andrew never wanted a big family, and I...well, I was undecided."

"And now you have a big family - us," Bobbi said firmly, "and as for Naomi, well...you told me about Garrett; it sounds to me as if Ward had been taking care of Garrett for years; he may not be an MD, but he knows a thing or two about taking care of people and medicine."

"Ward cannot, he cannot, he is just a monster, a killer!" Fitz sputtered. "He cannot be more, he just can't!"

"Is he your ex-boyfriend?" came the question from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s newest ally.

Fitz gave the bigger man a look. "No. He was just my friend - our friend, or so we thought. Then he chose Garrett over us. Idiot."

"Is this why you didn't kill him after you won? 'Cause he's an idiot?"

"No, we didn't kill 'cause we were the idiots," May shook her head. "We really should've either killed him or made some sort of a deal with him the first time around - instead we just kept him in legal limbo, until we tried to pass him onto his family. It didn't work, and then Bobbi got hurt-"

"Hey, keep me out of it, I got better," Bobbi said firmly. "And speaking of passing - Skye, did you see Garner too?"

"Yes," Skye muttered, her own mood gone bad, "this is much more recent - I think it was about the same time when we were experiencing the car chase, see?" she fast-forwarded the satellite footage, revealing Andrew Garner walking forwards in a brisk pace, his own mood clearly stormy.

"What's with the coat and hat? Who does he think he is? Jesse James or Al Capone?" Fitz couldn't help but ask.

"I have no idea," Melinda admitted. "Andrew had always weird tastes in culture."

"And you lived with him why?" Coulson asked, askance.

Melinda gave the director a look. So did the others, but hers was special. However, before she could say anything, the scene on the screen changed, Andrew changed: he took off his coat and hat to a nearby orderly (perhaps one of the same ones who handed Naomi to Grant) and shifted with a look of great rage on his face into Lash. And as he stood there, smoke curling from his hands, a woman approached him, roughly of May's age, but with a slightly more delicate build. She stood in front of the man turned InHuman without any fear; she gently talked to him and the man - Garner or Lash, whatever his name was - calmed down, put the head back onto his head, draped the coat over his forearm, and went inside after the woman.

"...We've seen this woman before," Coulson said simply. "She's the head of ATCU-"

"So, your husband is Lash," Skye drummed her fingers and looked for her tablet, but Bobbi was working furiously on it, (which was odd - Bobbi usually left this sort of thing to Skye). "Shouldn't, uh, Naomi have something from his side of the family?" she paused. "Ok, she already does. But-"

"Skye, you don't understand," Bobbi passed the tablet over to Coulson and May. "I know now what Garner and the ATCU, and whoever is running Green Branches now are up to. Lash - he isn't like you or Hudima, for example. He is more like captain Rogers - or Dr. Banner, to be more precise." And as the others just stared at her in surprise, Bobbi took a deep breath and continued.

TBC