Supply and Demand
"Who left the front door open?"
"Melinda," he said, overly friendly, handling a stapler as he turned to face her.
May had been watching Blake unpack his box of office odds and ends into the cubicle from a safe distance.
Skye walked past them and grinned. "Agent Blake," she said, welcoming. "Oh, have you seen Agent Koenig about your lanyard yet?" She exchanged a look with May. "He's really excited about onboarding," she explained, a strange expression passing over her. "So, just try to be patient with him."
"Agent Skye," said Blake eyeing her, then muttering, "At least someone around here is friendly."
Skye caught May's eyes briefly to watch them roll as she turned and left in the opposite direction.
"So, you landing here for awhile?" she asked.
"Looks so."
"What brought that on?" May asked skeptically.
"Heard the coffee's good," he said, putting the stapler down on the desk.
"It's fantastic," said May, turning away and walking off.
Blake smirked and put his automated pencil sharpener on the desk, looked for the nearest plug.
****
"Blake is a wild card," May said sternly, looking over at Coulson. "His last recommendation almost got us killed."
They were in his office and Skye was sitting in one of the chairs in front of the desk, pretending to work on her holopad while they argued. In the past, she would've just walked out when she felt the tension building, but not these days. Skye stayed put.
It was a bit distracting, she'd have to adjust to the fact that someone else had moved into that more personal hemisphere. And just a continuation of something that had started some time ago, only now, not hidden.
"Blake was suspicious because Fury asked him to be."
"Is that what Blake told you?" May replied to Coulson. "Fury? I called Maria," May began, "She said that Blake wandered off the farm and that Fury was worried about having to reign him back in."
"Good for Hill," shot back Coulson, crossing his arms.
May just shook her head at him. He was being stubborn now. Still touchy about Maria going over to Stark Industries and leaving him with this.
"When Fury said he didn't trust anyone, that included Maria," he said, his tone slightly elevated. "It included everyone."
Skye raised her eyebrows. This was going about as well as expected. Critical mass had been hit, thankfully.
May wasn't sure what to say in reply or where he was going with this.
"May, Fury didn't just ask Blake to keep his eyes open, he asked him to infiltrate HYDRA."
"What?" May said, narrowing her eyes. That, was unexpected.
Skye swung around her holopad to May, handed it to her.
May took it, slowly began reviewing it.
"One of the things in the Toolbox," she said, "were these files. Files on every top secret, paranoid, wild hair project that Nick Fury had going. Everything he compartmentalized."
May blinked a few times, looked down at the reams of information on the holopad.
"This is..."
"Overwhelming," Skye said to her.
May looked over at Coulson.
"We need him," he said.
****
"What is the difference between an egg and a rock?" asked Koenig, thrilled. Just thrilled.
A new recruit.
"Time," answered Blake.
Koenig stared back at him. Weird. Cool.
"You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand, there is a box. What is in...that box?" asked Koenig.
"January 1981 issue of Playboy," Blake began. "Mint. Then, a set of magnets capable of..."
Koenig snickered. "Wait. Really, dude?"
"John and Yoko interview," he shrugged. "Plus, Stephen King wrote a story for it. Sheesh."
"Uh huh," Koenig deadpanned. Then continued.
"It has everything I need," said Blake, sniffing dismissively.
"SHIELD no longer exists. It has been labelled a terrorist organization. So, why are you here?"
"Because HYDRA still exists," said Blake. "And HYDRA must be stopped."
"Cool," said Koenig, powering down the chair. "Let's get them."
He moved over to unstrap Blake. Blake barely moved, just watched all of his gestures, the speed of his movements, tics.
"What are you? A robot?" he asked.
"I'm recommending you for full psych analysis," said Koenig, upbeat, walking around and tapping his holodesk.
"Of course you are," Blake said, looking away. "You enjoy herding people, right? Always moving them back into the pen."
"You are a sheep and not a wolf, I hope," said Koenig, warning, finishing his report on the desk.
"Just too dumb to turn back," said Blake, walking out of the room.
****
"Hey, kid," Blake said to Skye. "You know where we keep the supplies?"
"Um," Skye said, frowning, "First things first, I have a name..."
"Sorry," Blake said raising his hand. "Habit. We just called all the 20-somethings kid back at HQ."
"You got your lanyard," Skye said, looking at the card hanging from his neck. "Congrats."
"Supplies?" he asked again. Too chipper.
"Sure," Skye said slowly. "Anyway, the room is down the hall, all the way at the end, take a right, first door on your left."
Blake started to turn away, then turned back to her.
"You seem slightly normal," Blake said. "Why is that?"
"Maybe because I didn't spend my entire life working for SHIELD?" she answered sweetly, glancing down at her holopad. Coulson wanted her. She tapped the
notice.
"You mean HYDRA, too," he said. "Wasn't just SHIELD that whole time."
"Right," Skye said. "Look, this is a great group of people. You just have to get to know us."
"Coulson tell you everything?" he asked.
Right to the point.
"Pretty much," she said. "We're going to have a game night later."
"Game night?"
"My idea." She smiled, obviously impressed with herself. "Monopoly."
Blake's eye twitched.
"Monopoly was based the philosophy of Henry George, until 1935 when Charles Darrow subverted its premise and subsequently it has been used to teach generations that it's fun to be robber barons. Did you know that?"
Skye's eyebrow was up.
"Huh. No. But we definitely need better games," she started walking away. "Don't bring that up at game night!" she suggested, wagging a finger back at him.
"And we should definitely talk."
Cute kid. Better watch himself around her. Coulson's eyes and ears, and who knows what else. And way too normal.
Just not possible in their world.
****
"Coulson thinks Fury knew that HYDRA had infiltrated SHIELD for some time."
She was sitting in the open cargo door of the Bus, beer in hand.
They both were. The had run into each other here, hoping to escape game night.
Blake was drinking a cup of coffee. Again.
May wondered how many he'd had today. Every time she had seen him there was a mug in his hand.
"He's right. He had me lifting the corners of the mat, so to speak, peeking underneath. It made it hard to keep friends, I'll tell you that much."
"And what did you find?" she asked.
"These guys, they were more than just a rogue science division. They're into a lot of weird stuff. And when I say weird, I mean uh...," he glanced over at her, looked a little rattled. "Nevermind. But I was always two steps behind them."
"Now we know why," she said.
"But they made sure to let me know that they knew I was there."
"What do you mean?"
"Leaving behind little totems. Bits of info. Just toying with me, making me have to dig even deeper, look at stranger and stranger things in order to follow their trail."
He swallowed. "You can't erase what you've seen, you know. Once it's already in your head."
May nodded.
"Did they put anyone on you?" she asked.
"You mean to watch me, like they did with you and Ward?"
He watched her face twitch. Huh. So, okay. That was real personal, then.
"The more time I spent away from HQ, the more I saw Sitwell, now that you mention it. So yeah, probably him. Never liked Sitwell."
"When you asked me what sign I was," May began. "Was that some kind of test?"
"What are you talking about?" asked Blake.
May looked at him sideways. "When we went to the hospital looking for the Clairvoyant," she said. "I thought you were hitting on me."
"Did you," he said, the beginnings of smile tugging at his face.
May took a sip of her beer, looked at him over the bottle.
"Yeah. Zodiac. Coulson's going to let me keep chasing that. Terrorist group. They like to use code names that are star signs."
"Sounds like it ought to keep you busy, then," May said, stretching, getting to her feet.
"Yes. And I was hitting on you. Sometimes I get my wires crossed."
He smiled at her briefly, let his face fall back to neutral.
"I'm not your speed, Blake," she said.
"To be determined," he answered.
"You're starting to sound optimistic," she said, walking down the cargo door to the hangar.
"Don't forget to turn the lights off," she threw back.
The mug had reached bottom. It was time for another pour. He had lots of work to do. Lots of folders to start. His next move would be to get his office switched to the supply room, but he'd wait a little before pressing that.
But, the coffee here was fantastic.