Title: S.O.S.
Author: Alysia
Category: Crossover/Post Episode
Summary: Set during the end of season 2 of AOS. A what-if story. What if the S.O.S. signal that went out not only went to other SHIELD bases, but to the Avengers as well? Basically it's another Avengers discover Coulson is alive story.
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters familiar to Marvel. Also, I do have transcripts from S.O.S. Part II in here, so if it looks familiar, it isn't mine.
Author's Note: Given that a majority of my stories take place after Skye/Daisy's name change, I'm so used to writing 'Daisy.' Because of that, I've struggled remembering the transition. If you see Daisy instead of Skye by someone other than Cal or Jiaying, it is an accident, but I have tried to go back and correct it.

Looking through the glass door and the small port hole in the door to the room, Skye narrowed her gaze on Alicia. "You want to lend me a hand getting these things off? Or a face?" She was growing frustrated with situation. Her mother had managed to manipulate these people into… She watched as Alicia was attacked from behind, being knocked unconscious before the door opened. "Mack?" She asked, finding relief in his presence. If he was there, that meant the others were too. "Thank God. Who's with you?" She inquired as he let her out of her cell. Holding up her bound hands, they worked on getting her free.

"Just you and me, tremors," he denied. "Your people just took over the ship. About 100 or so prisoners. The rest are dead. Guess they're not as harmless as you say," he threw out, his resentment was obvious.

Having grown used to his vitriol in regard to anything alien, she did her best to ignore the tone of his voice. However, she still winced. "I swear, I never meant for any of this to happen," she instantly denied. Things had taken such a drastic turn in so short a time. It should have been a happy time. She'd finally found her mother after so many years of searching. They should have been bonding. Instead, her mother was going for blood.

"I…well, we need to stop them. But if you're in here, I'm guessing you figured that out already," he said, not wanting to fight with her. They needed to stick together.

"It's my mother," she said regretfully. "She's manipulating them." She hesitated momentarily. "Not all of these people are bad," Skye added, hoping to curb as much bloodshed as possible.

Once she was free from her restraints, he stepped back and shook his head. "They're using their powers to kill S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, so I don't give a damn about intentions right now," he told her honestly. He may not like violence, but if it came down to an Inhuman or a SHIELD agent, he wouldn't hesitate to take out the former. "I came here because I need your skills."

She held out her wrists. She may not have been bound any longer, but the metal manacles on her arm still bound her powers. "I can't use my powers. They locked these inhibitors on me."

"Not the skills I'm looking for. Heard you have a history of hacking into SHIELD," he said then as he retrieved a laptop from his bag.

Interested by his words, she grabbed it from him and turned it on. She couldn't do anything with it just yet, but as soon as they had the possibility…

"You ready?" He asked, making sure that she was up for traveling through the ship, unsure of who they may encounter.

"I am," she said, grabbing the extra bag from him. Placing the laptop inside of it, she followed him through the ship. Her mind, still going a mile on minute, processing everything that had happened the last forty-eight hours.

"You okay?" Mack asked quietly, the silence having been enough for him.

She shook her head in negative. "She just killed them, all of them." It was one thing to kill Raina, whom she felt deserved it for all of her duplicitous actions, it was another to kill unarmed people. People that were innocent, that were only fighting back and trying to survive powered individuals. "She didn't even think about it."

"Yeah, I thought my mom was bad when she started watching Fox News," he grunted, keeping an eye out for an Inhumans.

"And I fell for the whole act," she muttered, the tone of her voice was self-deprecating. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have been so blind? If it had been anyone else…

It was obvious that his companion was bothered by the situation they were currently in. Despite everything they'd been through the last few months and his personal feelings about her alien background, Skye was still a member of his team. "Look, you had to choose between two-this way," he said, as he directed her through the ship, hoping to make her feel better. "This way. You had to choose between two sides that both mean something. I get it. You make the best choice you can. Sometimes, it works out. Sometimes-"

"It didn't," she interrupted flatly.

"It did not," he agreed easily. "Beacon's in the sat room down to the left. Go get started. Try to hack the code and turn it off," he told her as he continued on.

He wasn't going with her? "Wait. Where are you going?"

Splitting up meant they could increase their chances of survival. "To find a power saw in case you can't."

She nodded at him. She thought about wishing him luck but thought better of it. Turning away from him, she made her way to the room he'd told her about.

"Uh, something weird is happening," Sam Wilson said, staring at the computer screen before him. It was lit up with a blinking red signal…and was that an S.O.S.? "It looks like a distress beacon," he said, frowning.

Approaching Sam from behind, Natasha Romanoff's attention fell on the screen. "Move, please," she told her new acquaintance. When he vacated the seat, she claimed it. "This is…it's SHIELD."

Her murmur drew attention from those closest to her, ranging from disbelief and skepticism.

"Why do you even have this?" She asked, her attention falling on Tony. He was the one that rebelled against working with them the most of all the Avengers. Why did he have a direct line still intact for the organization that they'd disavowed?

"I had it built when the Avengers were still working with SHIELD," the billionaire replied. "I kept this open in case Fury needed to get in touch." He stepped up behind her. "You're sure it's SHIELD?"

Natasha nodded. "I've seen plenty of distress calls. It's SHIELD."

"Where's it coming from?" Clint Barton asked as he uncrossed his arms and stepped forward from his former position.

"An air craft carrier. The Iliad."

"Do we care?" Tony asked then, noticing the frowns he'd received in response to his question. "As I remember, I wasn't the only one that had issues with SHIELD," he reminded his team members. Yes, he'd kept the line open….for Fury. Until now, it had remained inactive.

Steve exhaled a sigh. "Tony's right. And given how things played out at the Treskellion, who's to say this is even SHIELD? For all we know, this could be Hydra."

"Even if it is, don't we have a responsibility to check?" Clint countered.

"It could be a trap," Tony argued, refusing to believe otherwise.

"And there could be innocent people in trouble," Natasha countered. "If you don't want to go, fine. Clint and I can take care of it." She cast a glance at Steve. "You in?"

He considered her question. Did he want to help them? He may have had his issues with SHIELD, but so many agents lost their lives during Hydra's upheaval. If it was Hydra, shouldn't he join the fight against them? On the plus side, if it was, maybe there was different information about Bucky that they hadn't yet seen? In the end, he nodded to his female teammate.

"You guys are chasing ghosts," Tony said.

"Maybe," Natasha allowed. "But if there's a chance that one innocent person that could be spared…" She let the rest of her statement hang in silence. "This message was sent out in mass, meaning that something big is going down. I'm not just going to sit here do nothing."

"I'm in," Sam offered. He'd helped Steve and Nat the last time they specifically dealt with Hydra. He could do it again.

By the end of the conversation, Tony was firm in his denial to join the others. Aside from wanting nothing to do with SHIELD or Hydra, they still had Wanda and Vision to look after, and he didn't feel comfortable leaving them at the tower unsupervised. They may have helped them in Sokovia, but he couldn't say he trusted either of them…yet. Instead, he'd run things from the tower and keep an eye out for any further messages to pass on.

The downside to splitting up with Mack was her inability to find her way around the ship. She'd been turned around more than once, and it made it even more difficult to remain hidden from the Inhumans loyal to her mother. It wasn't that she was afraid to fight, she just didn't want to chance being captured again.

"How did you get out?

Her attention fell on the source of the voice and she hesitated. "Lincoln," she said, hoping that they'd built up enough trust for him to at least hear her out. "I-I can explain."

"Don't bother."

She shook her head in negative. "You've got this wrong very wrong," she tried to tell him. Like most of the others, he was very loyal to Jiaying. "Listen, please."

"I just found you trying to reach out to your S.H.I.E.L.D. friends. You planning the next assault?"

In the grand scheme of things, he didn't really know her, but she thought that they'd built enough of a foundation for a friendship; or at the very least, an acquaintanceship, that he wouldn't be so quick to judge her. "That attack didn't happen, Lincoln," she told him quickly. "Jiaying staged the whole thing. She murdered Gonzales, then shot herself to frame SHIELD so we'd follow her to war."

"Do you even hear how crazy that sounds? Shot herself?"

Licking her lips, she tried again. "She's already healed, hasn't she?" She planned it, knowing full well that she would heal in no time. "I'd tell you to ask Raina, she can see the future but she's not here, is she?" She hadn't wanted to believe it, but Raina had been right about everything. "She's not here because she had a vision of what happened, what's going to happen. And Jiaying couldn't risk her talking, so she cut her throat."

"Why are you doing this, trying to turn us against her?"

Again, Skye shook her head in negative. "You saw what she did with those crystals killed unarmed agents," she pointed out, reminding him of her mother's actions, something that he'd seen with his own two eyes. "Okay, think." She watched as he processed her words, his stance not as threatening as it first was. "Why would she want the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. to come here? It's not to hug it out. She wants to execute them." When he appeared ready to work with her she continued on. "We can stop this. Please, just tell me where she took the crystals."

"The fan room where the ship's air circu-" She watched the blonde fall to the ground unconscious.

"Found a saw," Mack said, feeling quite pleased.

"I was getting through to him," Skye said then.

"Right now, I'm in a 'crack heads first, ask questions later' frame of mind. Here. Hack that beacon or just cut it. I'm gonna make sure those crystals don't hurt anyone else."

Before he left, she called out for him. "Mack." When she had his attention, she breathed. "You know what happens if one breaks, near a vent, near you."

He nodded in response. "That's why they won't."

Squinting her eyes at the offered hand that slowly fell into focus, Skye reached for it. "Hey," she began, still feeling weak from fighting five versions of Alicia.

"My head still hurts," May informed her.

Bowing her head momentarily, Skye looked back at her SO. "I'm sorry," she apologized simply but sincerely. "I didn't know."

Accepting the apology, May nodded once. "You didn't know," she agreed.

Before the conversation could continue on, they were interrupted when the door opened. Both women and Lincoln prepared their stances for a fight. However, when May eased up, her companions followed suit.

"Melinda."

"Clint," the older woman responded. "What are you doing here?"

"Tony's still got a direct line to SHIELD. A distress call went out," he replied simply. "What's going on?" They'd managed to land in time to sneak on board before anyone appeared to notice the extra jet. After that, they'd split up. He and Steve went in one direction while Sam and Natasha went in another. In other circumstances, he and Nat would have teamed up together, but seeing as Steve and Sam weren't as familiar with the organization, they'd agreed to different pairs, in case they came across familiar faces.

"Long story short, humans are no longer the superior species on the planet and the bad guy is aiming for world domination," Skye replied.

"Isn't that always the case?" Clint responded with a half-smile.

Thankful for his attempt to lighten the situation, Skye returned the action.

Taking notice of four unconscious identical women, he frowned. "Powered individuals?" He asked, turning his attention towards the senior agent.

"Something like that," May answered, knowing there was no time to explain. "Stick with us and fight when we fight."

"Works for me," the archer grunted.

Steve looked at the new people, attempting to size them up. Clint obviously knew and trusted the oldest of the three. She held herself similar to the way that Nat did, and he figured the woman was, or had been, a SHIELD agent. The other two didn't have the same stance, but since they weren't fighting, he figured they were on the same side.

Dismissing the two Avengers, May looked at Skye. "We have to stop Jiaying."

Lincoln nodded and approached Daisy. "Might help if we lose these," he said, using his power against the metal bracelets on Skye's arms.

Attention from both of the Avengers fell on the blonde man as a stream of electricity flowed from his fingertips before the bracelets fell on the floor.

"That's something different," Steve muttered. He may have been enhanced, but he'd never seen a human do such a thing.

"Hurry. There will be more redheads coming," May said, knowing it was only a matter of time before the Inhuman came to and cloned herself again.

"I'll go after her," Skye volunteered, not needed to clarify who it was she was talking about. She needed to end things with her mother. She needed to be the one to see things to completion.

May frowned at her rookie. "Skye, I'll do it. I've done it before."

"No," her denial was soft but stern.

She understood Skye's desire to see things through, but she had no idea what she was getting into. Skye had grown leaps and bounds in the two years that she'd been with them, but she'd never had to do such a thing to someone she was close to. "You have to be willing to-"

"I won't hesitate," Skye said, cutting the woman off. "Whatever it takes," she confirmed. It may be a difficult situation, but she was the reason for things coming to a head. She needed to make things right. "May, I need to do this," she said after a short pause.

Having no doubt that the younger woman would do what she needed, she nodded once. "Go."

Without another word to anyone else, Skye made her way out of the room.

"Uh, should someone follow her?" Steve asked, wondering if she'd need help with whomever it was that she would be dealing with.

May shook her head. "It's a family issue," she informed him.

"Fitz, hurry the hell up!"

Until the voice was heard, they hadn't seen or heard anyone since parting from Clint and Steve. Placing a finger against her lips as she looked at her companion, Natasha made her way towards the direction of the voices.

"Yeah, I'm almost there, but I need him back in the room before-"

"Fitz, now! Hit it!"

Opening the door as quietly as possible, she stepped through the threshold. She left enough room for Sam to follow suit, but the former assassin's attention fell on a cloud of energy that surrounded an eyeless man. Next thing she knew, he was in a different spot in the room. A powered individual? Was SHIELD after him? She looked at the three people surrounding him. However, when her attention fell on the agent that she thought was dead, her heart lightened. Was that really Phil?

"I'm trapped in here."

Sam frowned. Trapped? They'd just opened the door. How was he trapped? Granted, he doubted he'd get far with three people after him.

"That's not possible. What did you do?!" He demanded in an accusatory tone of voice.

Reaching for anything he could use as a weapon, Leopold Fitz grasped a metal pole in his hands. "Science, biatch," he countered as he fell into a batting stance.

The phrase pulled her from her thoughts, and she smirked. "Three against one?" Natasha asked, drawing attention from every occupant of the room. "I thought you were better than that, Phil," she chided, hoping she sounded calmer than she felt.

Faltering slightly, Phil Coulson felt his stomach drop, even if he recovered quickly. "Yeah, well, you don't know that one," he said, forcing himself over the shock of seeing her again.

Sam watched as the weird man made an attempt to reach for the case. In response, all three men raised their weapons and attempted to keep him away from it. The man held his own against them, dodging out of the way and striking at them in response. Taking stock of the room, he realized that his upgrades weren't exactly useful in such a small room, instead, he prepared himself for close combat.

Dropping into her fighting stance, Natasha prepared herself, should the man suddenly pop up behind her. However, he seemed more preoccupied with the case. She watched as he set his sight on the young man that muttered the science bit. She'd be willing to bet that he was the weakest of the three and that the man chose him for that reason.

Fitz fell backwards, unprepared for Gordon's attack. He watched as Gordon opened the lid of the case and slipped his hand inside before Natasha was on top of the situation.

"What's in the case?" Sam inquired as he watched Natasha attack.

"Alien crystals that will more than likely kill everyone in this room," Coulson explained evenly, as if he was talking about the weather.

"That sounds…frightening…" Sam muttered. Is this the sort of thing that Steve dealt with when he was with SHIELD?

Taking advantage of the fact that Gordon was preoccupied, attempting to fight off the Black Widow, Fitz stood back up. With his arms at each side, he held the rod and watched as Gordon attempted to teleport away from his situation. A moment later, a pained noise came from over his shoulder. Turning around, he looked to see that Gordon had teleported, his body forming around the metal rod.

"'Atta boy, Turbo," Mack cheered, however, the happiness instantly drained from the room as Gordon opened his hand and a terrigen crystal fell out of it.

Coulson watched Natasha make a move to grab the item. "No! Don't touch it!" He ordered, watching as she pulled her hand back. Without thought to his safety, he jumped towards the blue artefact, his body flattening out as he gracelessly landed on the floor. Letting out the breath that he'd been holding, he stared at the item resting in his hand. When nothing immediately happened, he wondered if the GH-325 somehow made him immune to the effects of the crystal. However, just as the thought crossed his mind, his hand began to ache like never before and he watched as his fist turned black. The pain intensified as the black began to creep up his arm, not even noticing when he began screaming. When an ax came down precisely at the point it needed to, separating the black from the rest of his body, he passed out from the pain.

By the time the redhead and the rest of the Inhumans were dealt with, Steve and Clint followed May in the direction that Skye had disappeared in. An inconsolable man was grieving over a fallen form, but May's focus was on Skye, whom stood several feet away, overlooking the ocean.

Remembering how May mentioned Skye was dealing with family issues, it was obvious that the deceased was probably the family she had to deal with. Neither Avenger said anything, as they trailed behind the senior agent.

"Skye," she said, announcing her presence and placing a hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "Did you-" However, when her rookie turned and looked at her, she fell silent upon seeing the shape she was in. Skye was deathly pale, save for the dark circles under her eyes. Her lips were chapped and dark streaks were visible on her face and May couldn't help but wonder what happened to her.

Skye shook her head in negative. "I didn't have to," she said. "Cal…killed her before she could kill me," she said in a small voice.

Jiaying tried to kill her own daughter? She must have attempted to drain Skye's life force… How? How could a woman do that to her own child? "You going to be okay?"

Skye could only shrug her shoulders. "I feel like I just spent the last week partying with Motley Crue."

Clint looked her over and silently agreed. She did look like shit run over twice. What the hell was done to her?

"I suspect you were drained of just about every nutrient in your body," May replied. "I'm sure Jemma will hook you up to an IV when we get back to base." Very aware of the two men following her and since Skye was still standing, she didn't want to make a fuss over the younger woman. Turning away from her, she looked out at the water. "The crystals?"

"At the bottom of the ocean where they won't harm anyone," Daisy replied. "SHIELD is down a jet, but the situation has been averted." She watched as the older woman turned to her with a single arched eyebrow. "Remember how I made you fly through the air at Afterlife?" She asked, though no response was needed. "I did the same thing to the jet."

Clint turned a critical gaze on the younger woman. She made Melinda fly through the air? How? Mel was right up there with Natasha in regard to fighting abilities, or at least she had been before Bahrain. There weren't many people able to get one over on her. "How did you manage something like that?"

May immediately shook her head in negative. She opened her mouth to respond, but Steve raised his hand in effort to silence all of them as he turned his attention to the commlink in his ear.

"Go ahead, Nat," Steve said, falling into silence. "What? Coulson? Phil Coulson?"

"He's alive?" Clint asked, turning from Steve towards May.

"Wait, what?" Steve asked, turning away from his companions.

Her attention should have been on Cal, on Jiaying. However, whenever she so much as glimpsed in the direction of her parents, she was eaten up with guilt. It was easier when she didn't. Instead, Skye turned her attention on Steve as soon as he mentioned Coulson's name. Nibbling on her bottom lip, she glanced briefly at May before turning back to the first Avenger.

"Got it," Steve muttered through the line before he turned back towards the others. "Something's happened to Coulson," he shared, looking at the women. "They're immediately returning to the base, asked if Agent May could take care of things here."

May nodded in response.

Clint frowned. "Wait, how is he even alive?"

"It's a long story and now isn't the time to go into it," May replied sharply.

"Later then." He would be getting answers before the day was through.

"Skye, maybe you should head back with them?" May suggested, immediately dismissing the Avenger.

Shaking her head in negative, Skye tried to argue. "I'm fine."

"She's right, Daisy," Cal said, approaching the group. "If your mother held on any longer, she could have killed you."

When he raised a hand towards her face, it took everything in her not to flinch away from her father's hand. He may have helped her in the end, but he'd also been responsible for harming Trip, not to mention, countless others through the years.

Unaware of her inner struggle, Cal cupped her chin and looked more closer at her face. "If your face is anything to go by, I'd say your body was depleted of just about every vitamin imaginable," he informed her as he released it.

Skye frowned at him. "What's wrong with my face?"

"You look like death warmed over," May answered. "There's no point in arguing. You're going with Coulson back to the base."

Opening her eyes, Skye blinked several times, in effort to adjust the brightness of the lights. Considering the steady beeping she heard, she knew she was in the medical ward at the Playground.

"Welcome back."

The voice was unfamiliar, and she turned towards it, hesitating when she discovered Steve sitting next to her bed. He was the last person she expected to see sitting there. "Uh, hi," she offered lamely. "What time is it?"

Steve offered a small smile in response as he rattled off the time. "Because I don't require as much sleep and rest as the rest of you, I offered to sit in here and keep an eye on you guys so Agent Simmons could get some sleep," he explained. The prior confusion on her face was easy to discern and he quickly tackled the subject before she could inquire about his presence.

Easily accepting the explanation, Skye nodded. "How's Coulson?"

Steve looked to the unconscious man in question. "He's been out for hours. Given his current physical state, it's probably best."

Her attention fell on the bandaged appendage that was resting on Coulson's chest and winced. This was all her fault. If she'd never called for Gordon's help, Gonzalez would still be alive, Coulson would still have both hands…

"It isn't your fault."

Her gaze immediately fell on the Avenger in silent question.

"You have very expressive eyes," he offered by way of explanation. "And I can easily see the guilt." It was probably similar to the expression he had when he realized that Bucky was the Winter Soldier and all that entailed. "Coulson wouldn't want you to blame yourself."

"How could you possibly know what Coulson would want?" She asked, annoyed by both his words and her transparency. He may have been Coulson's childhood hero, but they had been far from friends.

Quickly realizing that he'd garnered her ire, he decided to tread lightly. "I worked with him before. We may not have been friends, but I'm very aware of his desire to protect others, no matter the cost."

Working her jaw, she accepted his words, knowing that he was correct in his words. "Sorry, it's been a rough couple of days," she apologized.

"Understandable," he accepted, not taking her attitude to heart.

"So, you've just been sitting here…watching us sleep?"

The enhanced man nodded. "Pretty much. Although it didn't seem quite as dirty until you said something," he offered her a smile in effort to show her that he wasn't offended by her words. "All this time…we thought he was dead, that SHIELD was dead in the water."

"That was the point," she confessed. "Though I'm surprised you guys didn't put the SHIELD thing together when Fury showed up in Sokovia with a helecarrier." Granted that was one of Coulson's side projects, but still…

He shrugged. "Didn't have time to focus on it, I guess." He'd just assumed it was something that Fury had lying around waiting for a rainy day. "Agent May had a sit-down with us once things settled down last night. You guys have been through a lot the last year."

"Some of us have had it worse than others," she admitted quietly, thinking about her own experiences, coming to a stop as she thought about Trip's death… "I feel completely horrible that all of this went down because of me." There was no way around it, she'd been the catalyst for everything. "On the other hand, if I hadn't met Gordon and called him for help, I don't know how long it would have taken me to learn to control my powers. And I finally got to meet my parents." Of course, that bit was more difficult to get over. "I lived my life wishing that they would have saved me from the orphanage or whatever foster home I was at," she shared with a frown. What the hell? What was with the word vomit? Had Simmons put her on drugs? Because she was revealing things to a man that was a practical stranger to her.

"That's normal isn't it though?" Steve asked when she paused, unaware of her thoughts. "I mean don't most orphans wish something similar?"

"I searched for them from the time I had the resources available to me. I joined a hacktivist group because I outgrew those previous resources." Not to say that there hadn't been other contributing factors to joining Rising Tide, but that had been the main driving force for her. "And everything was shattered when I first heard about the monster that my father was. I discovered things that he'd done, and I wanted no part of him."

When they'd returned to the base, he'd been the one to join Cal as the man was escorted to a holding cell. He'd heard about a few of the things that the man done through the years. However, instead of saying anything, he simply rubbed at his temple, not wanting to judge the situation. His companion appeared to need to get things off her chest and he didn't want to be responsible for her clamming up.

"And when Jiaying told me that she was my mother, I was…so overcome with emotion. She was beautiful and so seemingly wonderful and…" She trailed off, licking her lips. "But my rose-colored glasses were eventually removed. She wasn't the woman I first thought she was. She was the reason Cal turned into the monster he did. And I'm not saying that to excuse the things he's done, because in the end those actions were his choice," she rushed to add. "But if it wasn't for her, he never would have done it. She started hating humans, all humans. He turned himself into something that he thought was enough for her, but it wasn't."

"Can I ask," he began, "what happened to her?"

"She was kidnapped and experimented on by Hydra. In the end, she was dissected, and it was my father that put her back together." When he appeared confused as to how she was walking around after such a thing, Skye rushed to answer. "Her power allowed her to heal from the experience. But she was different. He'd done what he could for her in the physical sense, but she was never the same emotionally. I…even I had seen her skepticism as I spoke about SHIELD, but I thought she was against the organization, not all humans. I certainly didn't think she'd attempt to become a domestic terrorist and kill as many people as she could. My father killed her so that I wouldn't have to live with the guilt the rest of my life, knowing that I had."

Her voice had taken on a quiet tone and he could only assume that she was once again feeling guilt for the actions of another. "That's what parents do,"
he offered. When she gave him a skeptical expression, he gave her a sheepish smile. "I don't mean the killing," he clarified, "but he protected you in whatever way he needed to. He took on the consequences so you wouldn't have to. And that isn't your fault."

Letting out a large yawn, she settled back down in her hospital bed. "I'm sorry for unloading on you," Skye said then. "Maybe Jemma slipped some heavy painkillers in one of these IV bags?"

"Or maybe you just needed to talk to someone that isn't so close to the situation," he offered. He'd seen how Agent May and Agent Mackenzie were when it came to Skye's parents and the other Inhumans. He could see why she wouldn't have felt comfortable opening up to them. And if their actions were anything to go by, maybe the rest of her team felt something similar? "You should try and get some more sleep," he cautioned. "There are still a couple hours before Agent Simmons plans to return and I don't want to get in trouble for distracting you."

Closing her eyes, she smiled as she thought on her best friend. Jemma could certainly be a force to be reckoned with, especially when it came to her patients. The idea of her friend lecturing Captain America was very amusing. "Goodnight, Steve."

"Goodnight, Skye," he responded as he settled back in his chair. Crossing his arms, he looked around the room, his gaze stopping on Coulson.

Having been awakened by the murmurs of two people, Coulson opened his eyes. His arm was on fire, despite the morphine hooked up to his machine. Looking around, he realized that Skye was talking to Steve. Never once had he heard some of the things she'd confessed to the enhanced man, so rather than announcing his wakefulness, he allowed the two to continue talking uninterrupted. As soon as Steve met his gaze he nodded once at him mouthing 'thank you,' so as not to risk warning his young agent that her conversation wasn't completely private.

Steve nodded in response before mouthing 'you're welcome.' He watched as Coulson closed his eyes once again and figured that there'd be more conversations to come in the morning. As both of his companions slipped back to sleep, he was content to enjoy the silence for the time being.

End