Operation is Go
Skye is walking past the lab on her way to training one morning when she hears a noise. It’s an odd, high-pitched shrieking sort of noise, out of place on the normally quiet plane. It sounds awfully like – no, impossible. They’re 35,000 feet in the air.
There’s no way- The screeching comes again, followed by the sounds of Fitzsimmons bickering (less unusual) and she decides to investigate. She pokes her head around the door. They’re standing around the holo table examining something.
“Fitz, we can’t keep it in the lab, it’s unsanitary, and besides-“
“She’s a she, not an it, and we couldn’t have left her were she was! There’s nothing we can do about it now, we’re already in the air, we can leave it in a zoo or something when we land-“
“Do you really think Coulson won’t notice us walking off of the plane with a bloody-“
“Well, he didn’t notice us walking on the Bus with her, did he?”
“Erm... guys?”
They both start guiltily as they hear her voice. “Oh, er, hello Skye!” Simmons says brightly while Fitz leans across, blocking her view of the thing on the table, both trying (and failing) to act nonchalant. “We’re actually a bit busy at the moment, so maybe you could-“
Skye comes closer. “Did you hear- is that a monkey?”
“What? No that’s- that’s preposterous!” Fitz splutters. “A monkey on the bus? That’s ridiculous, there’s no way-“ The monkey – which is, in fact, an actual, real-life monkey – swings out from behind Fitz’s back and starts chattering again. “Oh, look, a monkey! What’s that... doing in... the...” Fitz says in a half-hearted attempt at surprise. Simmons puts her hands to her neck and sighs.
“Where did you guys get this?” Skye asks. She has no idea what type of monkey it is, but it’s kind of shaggy and has a reddish face. And it’s loud, unbelievably loud and she’s surprised the entire plane isn’t wondering what the hell is going on in the lab. (Then again, she does spend a lot of time speculating about what Fitzsimmons actually do in here. She’s half convinced they just make up science-y sounding words and watch Doctor Who when Coulson’s not looking) “And can’t you shut it up?”
They both start talking at once, tripping over each other’s sentences as usual.
“We found it in a lab at the Hub-“
“She had all these tubes sticking out of her-“
“It was half-starved, poor thing, and they had it on drugs I’d never even heard of-"
“There were others too, and they’d done things-“
“-horrible things, they were all disfigured-“
“We couldn’t leave her Skye, we just couldn’t.”
“Please don’t tell Coulson, please.” They both stop then and stare up at her with puppy-dog eyes. She wants to tell them that of course she'll help (really though, do they think that just because she's a proper agent now she'll report everything to Coulson? Please.) but the monkey has started grabbing at her long hair, still screeching, and it’s a little distracting to say the least. She manages to detangle herself and says “I won’t tell, but that won’t matter if you can’t get it to shut up. Can’t you give it some of the stuff that’s in the Night-Night guns, deadertoxin –“
“Dendrotoxin.” Simmons corrects.
“ That.” Skye is too busy trying to prise her hair from the stupid monkey’s paws again to reply properly. What the heck is so fascinating about her hair?
“We can’t give it more drugs because they might react badly with the ones that are already in its system. The only thing I’m prepared to give it right now is intravenous nutritional supplement to keep her from dying of starvation but... well, it reacted badly when I tried to put the IV in.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” Skye mutters, wincing as she pulls backwards and a large chunk of her hair is yanked out. “Look, we land in Detroit in about 4 hours. I can probably keep Coulson and May off your back until then, but-“
“Yeah, yeah, make her be quiet.” Fitz isn’t really listening to the conversation; he’s returned to staring at the monkey with a fawning look he usually reserves for Simmons. “I think we should call her Bananas, that’s a good name for a monkey.”
Skye rolls her eyes.
“We’ll put it in the med pod, it’s sound-proof.” Simmons puts in, ignoring her partner.
“Okay. I’ll come back after to training so we can discuss the extraction plan.” Simmons looks like she’s suppressing giggle as she says “Alright then.”
“Oh, Skye, can you bring some food down?” Fitz asks. “The IV stuff isn’t going to work. Some fruit will do.”
“Got it. Operation, erm-“ Skye looks at Fitz dubiously, “-Bananas is go.”
She leaves the lab and bumps into Trip in the corridor. She hasn’t really gotten used to her new training partner yet – Trip is nice, sure, and he’s a pretty good teacher too, but he's not Ward. She tries to forget, but traces of him, the person who Ward was pretending to be, lurk everywhere, and memories threaten to swallow her whichever way she turns.
“Oh hey, sorry I’m late, just went to ask Simmons about something.” She tries to sound casual, which is pretty difficult given the insanity of the situation. (Because seriously, a monkey? She’s not entirely sure whether or not she’s in Fitz’s imagination right now)
“No problem.” Trip says cheerfully. “I need to speak to Fitz actually, there’s a problem with the wiring in the conference room, I’ll be along to training in a few-“
“You can’t go in there!” Skye interrupts, panicking a little. Trip's pretty chilled, but she doesn't really know him yet, and she's unsure how he'll react.
“Why?” Trip asks, suspicious.
She blurts out the first thing that comes into her head. “Because... because Fitzsimmons are kissing in there!”