Love and a revilation.
Much to their delight, the infernal machine was still aboard, meaning they should be able to go home.
Scott sat down in the cockpit to go over the plane’s systems while the others were eating the left over pizza from two nights prior. Eventually there was a knock at the door, it was Daisy.
“Hey, I bought you a slice, you haven’t eaten yet.”
“Thanks. And..thanks for before. Saving my ass. Unlike before, I couldn’t have stopped all of them without something to throw around. Where’s Yo-Yo when you need her.”
“Now what kind of superpowered girlfriend would I be if I let that happen? Especially after you saved me yesterday.” she said, sitting down in the co-pilot’s seat
“Do you honestly mean that?” Scott asked between bites of pizza. “About us?”
“If you want it to be.” She said. “We could try it out for a while. See how it feels…”
“I thought you were playing off Skye’s line from yesterday.” He said.
“Well, I was, in a way. She is my sister, you know. Speaking of, you know I heard what you said to her last night, about me. And she told me about it while you and Fitz were trying up that groundskeeper. ‘Scott really, really likes you; you should give him a shot. He seems like an awesome guy and he’s kinda handsome”
“Oh that little…” Scott laughed. “Wait a second…”
“Ok. I added on that last bit.”
They smiled at each other, internally embracing the idea of being a couple.
“Really, how come you never said anything to me?” Daisy asked him.
“I…” Scott said “I was worried I’d lose you as a friend. You mean that much to me. Then you got your powers and became famous. I never exactly wanted to date a superhero, or a super spy... I… I just always wanted to be with that cute hacker I fell in love with. I don’t care about ‘Quake’ or “Agent Johnson”. I love YOU, Daisy…. I love you.”
She just smiled again and said “Well… I don’t know what to say, other than ‘I love you two.”
The two leaned toward each other for a kiss when another voice interrupted them.
“My God”. May was looking around the cockpit. She’d never seen something so complex.
“Ya mind?” Daisy said “We were kinda having a moment here.”
“Sorry” The older woman said “I just had to see for myself. This machine represents everything we strive for. For a world not dictated by some 100 year old crackpot who can’t let go of his past. Who’s scared of anything new. Anything that he doesn’t understand”
“You just described every old person” Daisy joked
She stood behind the two chairs, looking down at the plane’s digital and holographic cockpit displays.
“How does all this work?”
“Well,” Scott said “If you want the somewhat long version, instead of mechanical connections and dials, a cluster of computers, which on our earth are much smaller, accepts all the data inputs. You name it, and the system keeps tabs on it. One central system, the Flight management system, takes in all that information in and then can do one of two things, ether feed it to me as the pilot on these displays, or act upon it on its own within a given series of parameters, up to and including fly the plane all by itself as you saw a little while ago. Right now, I’m going over the data recorded over the past few days. That weird hunk of junk in the main cabin went off while we were flying yesterday. it gave off an EM field that caused a laundry list of system malfunctions and failures.”
Like… here” He continued, tapping on the engine status display screen. “Port turbojet is still down. Something is preventing it from restarting.”
“Well, you have three other engines.” May said.
“No, we don’t” Scott answered
This confused May “But there are four throttle levers” Pointing to the center controls.
“Yes, the middle two, the white ones, are for the standard Turbojet engines. Meanwhile, the outer two, the red ones, are for the ramjet engines. Ramjet engines rely on airspeed compression; they don’t have any moving parts. And that means without a sufficient push from both main engines, they don’t work, which means they are basically dead weight.”
He grabbed a tool kit from under his seat and went out to look at the problem, giving Daisy a quick kiss as he left. May went to follow him, but was intercepted by Dr Simmons with her wife on her arm.
“Melinda, may we have a word with you?” Simmons asked.
“Anything for my favorite expectant mother…” She said with a smile
“Good. I quit.” Simmons said with a smirk.
“You what?” May said, blindsided. “Jemma, you’ve been one of our most passionate and loyal agents. We are so close to distributing the cure.”
“I know. And you don’t need me for that. I made it, I proved it worked” patting Skye on the shoulder “and now I’m going with Skye and with our new friends.”
May looked dumbstruck
“Melinda,” She continued “I’m worthless to you in my current state and my priorities will be shifting quite soon” giving her soon to born child a light pat “My allegiance has always been with Chimera and it’s goal’s and ideals, but my loyalty” she turned to Skye “is to my wife. Where she goes, I go.”
“If that’s how you feel, then I have no reason to make you stay. Honestly, I can’t say I’m not proud of much how you’ve grown. You were so quiet and timid when I first met you. Have you discussed this with your folks?”
“Very funny…” Skye muttered before she had a realization “WAIT a second… You lying little Limey! They’re still alive, aren’t they?”
“And running a veterinary clinic outside Denver.” Simmons said with a smile.
Simmons expected Skye to explode but instead she gave her wife a hug “Oh I’m so glad to hear that.”
“So you’re not mad I made you drive 20 minutes a day so I could give intel to your sworn enemy? You know the tombstone has a radio in it right..?”
Skye looked at Simmons dead in the eyes “Baby, as of yesterday, my sworn enemies are the people who are trying to kill me and my new friends. Anyone who wants to rain on their parade is ok in my book.”
“AWE. Come here you.” Simmons said, nuzziling up against Skye.
“One question.” Skye stated “Why did your parent’s fake their deaths?”
“SSR was getting too close to discovering them. They are two of the co-founders of CHIMERA, after all.”
“Found” was all Skye could get out before she fainted.
“Probably should have kept that last bit to yourself…” May said, looking down at Skye in a heap on the floor.
Jemma and Daisy ran over to carry the unconscious woman over to the couch.
“Maybe I should save the rest for later… Much later.” Simmons said to May, with worry on her face.
“You’ll have to tell her at some point.” May whispered “If you’re right, she’s going to remember everything soon.”
“I know. I… I just want to save her the pain as long as possible. Would you like to suddenly remember the fact you’ve already died once?”