Direction
Ward stalked into the room and pointed his gun at Miles' head.
Miles barely had time to get his hands up much less say a word before Ward fired.
He hit the ground.
With a man on top of him.
"Who are you?" asked Miles.
"SHIELD," said the guy. "Just give me a sec."
He pulled the gun out of his belt and got up off the ground.
"Stay down," he said.
"Trip!" he heard Ward yell into the room. "You still playing hero?"
"Until the day I die," said Trip, ducking out from behind a pillar and taking a shot at Ward.
"You still playing secret Nazi?" Trip shot back.
Ward ducked for cover and set his eyes on the panel across the way, smiled to himself.
Time to blow this joint.
Miles began crawling on the ground towards the door.
He stopped when he saw a pair of feet and looked up.
"Hi," he said weakly, waving at May.
"Get up," she ordered.
She looked angry and like she'd been busy.
Miles pulled himself off the floor and slid past her towards the doorframe.
"You're letting me go?" he asked her.
"For now," she said with a warning, and headed towards the gunfire.
****
"You're going to have to choose," Raina said. "Skye or me."
She had just told Coulson that the whole place was rigged to explode. Which, sounded about right. What's the use of a safehouse if it's been compromised?
Coulson lowered his gun and ran to the table and began removing the wrist restraints as a second explosion shook the building.
He put the gun in his vest and gathered Skye up in his arms.
Raina swooped up the case with all the blood samples and turned back over her shoulder to look at Coulson holding Skye.
She smiled at him. A good man. She wasn't used to those.
Then she walked out the door.
Coulson turned into the corridor and saw Ward emerge from a door at the far end.
Ward stopped raised his hand, pointed the gun in it at Coulson.
He was dead in his sights. Coulson just stared back at Ward, clenched his jaw.
"You ever think about dying twice?" Ward asked, smiling. "What it means?"
Then he reflexed as a bullet hit the wall and the series of shots had him on the run.
May and Trip emerged from the door, turned to see Coulson.
"Sir?" asked Trip.
He wasn't sure if he was asking about Skye or about himself. Coulson let a breath out.
"Let's get out of here," May said.
****
Skye woke in a cool room with low lights. The crisp smell of clean sheets.
Maybe that whole thing with Miles, Raina and Ward was just a dream?
She sat up and let her eyes adjust to the light.
"You're awake."
Coulson. He was here, too. Definitely a dream.
She saw the dark outline of him come into focus. He was sitting nearby.
"Where am I?" she asked.
"On the Bus. In my room."
"Yeah?" she replied.
"I thought it would be more restful," he explained. "Away from the others."
Skye raised her eyebrows.
"Miles is alive," he added. "In case you were wondering."
So, this wasn't a dream. This was even better.
"You came after me?" she asked, tenderly.
"The team did," he said.
She closed her eyes.
"How did you find me? Was it the flash drive I left?" she started.
"In the end, Miles tipped us off," he interjected.
Skye tried to stand, felt dizzy.
"Hey," he said, getting up to steady her. "Raina took a lot of blood."
Skye nodded gently.
"I screwed up."
"Me, too," she said. "They just wanted to draw me out."
"I should've seen it coming," he said. "Should've known it was Ward."
"Let's take turns blaming ourselves," Skye said, smirking. "We can go all night."
Coulson made a face, then recovered and sat down on the edge of the bed, eased her down next to him.
"Did you learn anything?" he asked.
"Raina said my parents were monsters," she replied, looking down at her hands.
Coulson didn't say anything back, she just heard him sigh. Like he was mulling it over.
"That doesn't surprise you?" she asked, when he continued in silence.
He swallowed, turned towards her. "Not exactly."
Skye's mouth dropped open. "You mean, you knew?"
"Yes," he said.
"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, alarmed.
"About your parents?" he asked. "I should have. I'm sorry. I thought I could get more intel, clarity. Who wants to tell someone that they..." he stopped himself. "That they're a monster?"
"What else are you holding back?" she demanded.
"When we get to the Playground, I'll show you," he said. "About me. That's everything I know about you."
"Just tell me now," she said, exhausted. "I'm tired of this...waiting."
"No. I, literally, have to show you," he said.
"You let Miles go?" she asked, moving on from this...whatever this was, for now.
"Yeah," he said, "He did ask for a ride again."
"Did you give it to him?" she asked.
"No way," said Coulson. She could tell he was smiling.
"I think he's still mad at me," she said.
"He felt bad about what he did."
"I think he was just angry you joined up with SHIELD."
****
They got back to the Playground and Koenig greeted her with a big hug.
Skye thanked the team and told them about the fact that she might be a monster and there was a bit of speculation about what that might mean. Coulson reminded all of them that people had called Mike Peterson a monster, and that he certainly was not one. Koenig had started mentioning the Hulk as well, but then stopped when May gave him a look.
Skye was grateful for that.
When they went off one by one, she lingered with Coulson.
When they were alone, he went to the door and softly shut it.
Then, he pulled out a flash drive and plugged it into the display.
He watched her face as she silently took in the video of his resignation for Project: TAHITI.
It was painful.
He sat in the chair on its edge and stared down at his hands when it was done.
Skye slowly got up and stood in front of him and put her fingers under his chin.
He let her tip his face up towards her.
Her expression was very serious, but there was something soft in her eyes.
"I'm very glad you're not that person anymore," she said.
Coulson felt something release in his chest and he stood and hugged her.
It kind of surprised her. She was usually the one who gave out the hugs.
She hugged him back.
They just looked at each other for a moment. Trying to figure out where to go next.
Coulson let go of her, then held out his hand.
She took it and he lead her to the door, opened it. They walked down the hall together.
He pushed open the door to the storage room, his brow furrowed.
Usually they had a lot to say to each other. But, maybe this way was better.
He lead her into the room, past the shelves of all the weapons they'd taken back from HYDRA, to the very back of the room.
Coulson let go of her hand and flipped a switch.
The light came on and Skye gasped when she saw the writing all over the wall.
"You did this?" she finally asked.
"Yes," Coulson replied. "Actually, it was Koenig."
"What do you mean?" she asked, running her hand over the symbols.
"He approached me and told me that he'd seen me going into this room late in the evening. That he'd investigated and found...this."
"This looks like the stuff Ward picked up from Amador's eye feed," she said.
"And this," he said, walking behind a shelf and pointing to the panel from the Bus lab as Skye followed.
"Garrett did that," said Coulson. "After he was injected with the GH-325."
"And now so are you," she said. "What do you think it means?"
"I don't remember doing any of this, Skye," he said.
"Are you worried it's going to happen to me?" she asked. "Is that why you didn't tell me?"
"I've been holding back," he said. "A lot of things, I've realized. Trying to stay in control."
Now it was her turn to stay quiet. She just looked back at him, waiting to see where he was going with this.
"I want to offer you something," he said. "I should've done it right away, but, I was distracted. Buried under the weight of all of this," he said, motioning around the room.
"Our lives aren't exactly normal," she said. "Distracted is understandable."
"This is a lot," he said. "It's more than I can handle, Skye."
"That's why you have the team," she said. "No one ever asked you to rebuild it alone."
"And I am more grateful for this team than you will ever know, but I need more than that. I need you."
Skye blinked and felt the color start to rush to her cheeks.
"Is this in an official capacity of some kind?" she asked, "Or..."
"I want you to be my partner, in rebuilding SHIELD," he said, stepping close to her.
She looked up into his face, smiled.
"I accept?" she said.
"Welcome aboard, Assistant Director," Coulson said, smiling back.
He extended his hand for her to shake, and instead she threw her arms around his neck and then kissed him on the cheek. She let her hands linger for a moment in his hair. Felt his arms slip around her waist. She closed her eyes, didn't want to let go.
He turned his face towards her, then, his lips lightly dusting her mouth.
"I don't want to hide anything from you," he confessed.
"You weren't hiding it all that well," she replied, kissing him.
Coulson kissed her back for a long minute.
He stopped and stared back at her. Looking at her like she was something new. Or maybe, like he was.
"This will complicate things," he said.
"What about Co-Director?" she asked, her eyebrow arched. "Equal footing. Fewer complications."
"I like the way you think," he said, reaching for her in a rush and kissing her madly.
****
That was also the day when Fitz woke up.
The team had surrounded him in the MedBay, caught him up on everything that had happened since he'd been asleep.
"So, now that you're Co-Director," he said, looking up at Skye.
"Can I have a monkey? Just a wee one."
Skye looked over at Coulson. He just shrugged at her.
She turned to Fitz.
"Yeah."