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“Cupcake?”

The single word, accompanied by the voice that said it and the delicious smell of chocolate, had Skye snapping her head up as though her life depended on that fast reaction.

“Yes, please!” she said with a grin. Grant chuckled and handed it to her. He finished making them this morning, and Skye had been so impatient for one, she’d eaten the first one almost straight out of the oven. It was a few hours on, though, and this cupcake was cooled to an appropriate temperature.

Pulling out the chair next to her at the tiny dining table, Grant took a look at what her laptop screen displayed. “What are you working on?”

“You know how we had that Hydra trouble a while back?” Skye replied after a moment, partly because she had all but stuffed the cupcake into her mouth, and partly because she was hesitant about giving him this answer.

“Yeah…” Grant’s expression fell as her recalled the horrific scene in his grandmother’s house.

“Well, I’m hacking into and wiping the Hydra database of anything they might find useful. Which is…probably all of it.”

“You’re clearing the entire database of a worldwide organisation?” Grant couldn’t believe his ears. He knew she was good, the best even. But that good?

“Yep.” She turned to face him with a look of mischievous innocence. “What, you don’t think I can?”

Grant shook his head almost absent-mindedly. “I seen the stuff you do with café WiFi in your van, but destroying Hydra’s intel from a laptop?”

Skye let out a dramatic sigh. “Do you remember how I got the Cybertek info without breaking into their headquarters?”

“Should I…?”

“At the Cuba barbershop where Garrett had his super-secret underground lair, you left behind a computer system.”

He looked at her sideways. “That was hidden.”

She shrugged. “Secret doors are kind of Coulson’s thing.”

“I thought that was old stuff.” He said with a confused face.

Skye waved a hand in dismissal. “Anyway, I had planted a Trojan horse on the hard drive that you kidnapped me for, and all I needed to do was wake it up. Found the HQ in minutes.” She beamed with pride at her own genius, and Grant couldn’t blame her; he felt the same.

He sat back in his chair. “Huh.” was all he seemed to be able to say. Another thought occurred to him. “But what does this have to do with what you’re doing?”

“Because,” she stressed the word, evidently frustrated that he wasn’t catching on. “The Trojan horse is still imbedded in Hydra’s systems. A way to keep track of what it’s doing, I suppose, but I can use it without alerting them.”

“That’s brilliant.” Grant said with a grin. “So, what, you ping the signal off the satellites they use?”

“Uh huh.” Skye nodded. “You see, last night got me thinking.” She stopped talking to give Grant a flat stare. He’d sat up straight in his seat and was exaggerating how much he was paying attention. “Grant.” He relaxed back into his previous position with a grin. “You know you need to work on your sense of humour, right?”

He shrugged.

Shaking her head, she continued. “We didn’t get much intel from the base, so I was considering other ways in which we could help S.H.I.E.L.D. without putting our lives at risk, other people’s lives at risk and generally not destroying property.”

“But that part’s so much fun!” he mock-whined. He sobered up at her look. “Gotta stop looking on the dark side all the time, Rookie.”

“Whatever.” She muttered. “So I thought of using an old device of mine to hack my way into their records. I’ll leave a secure copy for S.H.I.E.L.D. to find, don’t worry.” She turned the laptop screen around so the Grant could look at it with more ease and sat back, stretching her arms above her head. A pain spiked through her abdomen and she winced, her hands jumping down to cover her stomach. Grant noticed immediately and reached out a hand in concern.

“You alright?”

Skye let out a breath, and cursing internally when it came out shaky. “Yeah.” She smiled at him. “Just a muscle that aches a bit.”

Grant didn’t look entirely convinced, but accepted her excuse. At least, for now. “Well, since it looks like we won’t be bothered by Hydra for a while, how about we go somewhere. Out of the country.”

“What did you have in mind?” Skye was glad for the change in subject, but intended to check out whatever was causing the sharp pain in her lower torso.

He shrugged with a pout that nearly made Skye laugh out loud, she saw that expression on him so rarely. “Last I heard, your dad was still alive.” When Skye stiffened, he hurriedly continued. “I think you should give him a chance, Skye.”

“He’s a monster.” She whispered, wrapping her arms around herself.

“You thought the same of me at some point. Yes, he’s volatile, but I’ll be right there with you. You won’t be alone with him this time.” He reassured her and slowly, her tight grip of her body lessened.

“Do you know where he is?”

“Hunan Province.”

Skye looked up in surprise.

“We got along in San Juan. He helped me out after you shot me, and we stayed in touch.”

Skye’s mouth hung open a little bit in shock, but that subsided as she thought over what he had said. “You sympathised.”

He nodded. “He lost everything, then lost himself. I told him about what I’d done and how much I’d screwed things up, and he encouraged me to fight for you, at the very least.”

It took Skye a few moments to answer. “Well, I’m glad you listened.” She said in a quiet voice. Grant just smiled, silently agreeing.

“May!” Fitz yelled out, racing through the corridors of The Playground. “HEY, MAY!”

“What, Fitz?” May’s faint voice called back, sounding a little echoic. The scientist followed it until he found her in the training room, sparring with Bobbi.

“We’ve…we’ve got more.” He stuttered out, bending over with his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. Both women, locked in a struggle, stopped and looked over at him. Glancing at each other they broke apart and approached the man.

“Skye and Ward found more information?” Bobbi asked incredulously. “If Skye could snag intel from bases as rapidly as that, why weren’t we doing it before?”

“Coulson preferred having her trained as a field agent, her hacking skills put aside unless directly needed for the mission.” May answered her, wiping a towel across her sweaty forehead. “It made sense at the time. And being paired up with Ward has likely helped her. Location of bases–”

“General security details, I got it.” Bobbi nodded. She turned back to Fitz, who had regained his breath. Mostly. “How much this time?”

“Ahh…from the base they just blew up a couple of days ago, not as much as usual.” His foot tapped anxiously.

“But?” May prompted.

“But Skye’s just sent us over the entire database.”

There was silence for a moment. Then both May and Bobbi bombarded him with questions.

“Database?”

“Of who? Hydra?”

“How did she do that?”

“How much information is on that?”

Fitz held up his hands desperately, completely overwhelmed by their outburst. “Whoa, whoa! One at a time, jeez!” They quieted, looking amused, and he filled them in. “It’s Hydra’s database, from what she said, and she did it was through the Trojan horse that she embedded into Cybertek’s systems while bouncing the signal off the satellites Hydra uses. And it’s a lot.”

“’Lot’ is a very vague term, Fitz.” Bobbi urged.

“…You’ll have to see for yourself.” Fitz was out the door before either one of them could question him on it.

Pain erupted in Skye’s belly, forcing her to sit upright as her body instinctively clenched. “Ah!” she breathed out, her agony unmistakeable in her voice. Checking that Grant was still asleep, she slipped out of bed as gently as she could manage and made her way to the bathroom. Collapsing on the floor, she breathed slowly and deeply through the pain, and leaned against the wall by the toilet. It was then that she noticed the spots of blood trailing the bathroom floor, and the panic that set in halted her breathing for some terrifying moments. No, no, no, no. How could I…? She sat on the bathroom tiles for a while, struggling to make sense of what was happening through the agony that racked her insides. I’m not cut, I would know…and the pain’s inside me…how?!?

“Ugh, when this dies away, I’m definitely having a cupcake.” She muttered to herself. Then she froze. “Shit!”

It all made sense now. The extra food she’d been eating without packing on the pounds, the cupcakes she so desperately craved at half past three in the morning, the extra horny bouts that took over her, the embarrassment of S.H.I.E.L.D. finding out some of the details of her and Grant’s sex life, being angry over trivial things, being more tired than usual.

“I’m miscarrying.” She whispered. The tears began to well up and fall down her face, her sudden despair at the loss of something before she’d even known she’d had it a huge weight upon her consciousness. She didn’t even notice that Grant was awake and had found her before he was holding her face, speaking words that she couldn’t understand.